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Monthly Archives: March 2015


A little item from Martin:

Oh where, oh where have our legislators gone?

 

Abel Oldsworth, my reticent friend, noted that Congress with its 3 day work week, is now beginning a two-week spring recess.  Most of these Congressional members are millionaires, but during this break, many of them will be traveling abroad on lobbyist paid fact-finding junkets replete with VIP hotels and tours.  They will “refresh themselves” through being coddled and coached about proposed legislation benefiting their business clientel.

Likely none will journey to investigate places they have had hearings on and ranted most about:  Benghazi, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, refugee camps, Ebola treatment centers, and VA hospitals.

Abel has concluded that these part time Congressional members need a work revitalization program. Members should mandate a weekly volunteering day. They would work alongside some “decently behaving” citizens and enjoy “propitious moments” of doing good deeds.  They could experience a “peculiar warmth and enlargement” of their souls.

The assignment sources are numerous:  literacy centers, food banks, senior centers, police ride along, tax preparation, meals on wheels, clothing donation sites, schools and libraries, prisons, VA hospitals, union halls, welfare home visits, scout projects.

And so it goes

Members of Congress find it impossible to legislate

When unappeased voting blocs prefer to agitate.

Perhaps a mandated day of volunteering

Could make them more endearing,

Doing the good deeds that voters understand and appreciate.

 

Martin Egelston

Battle Creek Enquirer

March 28, 2015

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On Wisconsin!


White House

Campaign 2016

Technology

Secret $1.5 million donation from Wisconsin billionaire uncovered in Scott Walker dark-money probe

Michael Isikoff

Chief Investigative Correspondent

‎March‎ ‎23‎, ‎2015

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP)

John Menard Jr. is widely known as the richest man in Wisconsin. A tough-minded, staunchly conservative 75-year-old billionaire, he owns a highly profitable chain of hardware stores throughout the Midwest. He’s also famously publicity-shy — rarely speaking in public or giving interviews.

So a little more than three years ago, when Menard wanted to back Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and help advance his pro-business agenda — he found the perfect way to do so without attracting any attention: He wrote more than $1.5 million in checks to a pro-Walker political advocacy group that pledged to keep its donors secret, three sources directly familiar with the transactions told Yahoo News.

Menard’s previously unreported six-figure contributions to the Wisconsin Club for Growth — a group that spent heavily to defend Walker during a bitter 2012 recall election — seem to have paid off for the businessman and his company. In the past two years, Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs, according to state records.

And in his five years in office, Walker’s appointees have sharply scaled back enforcement actions by the state Department of Natural Resources — a top Menard priority. The agency had repeatedly clashed with Menard and his company under previous governors over citations for violating state environmental laws and had levied a $1.7 million fine against Menard personally, as well as his company, for illegally dumping hazardous wastes.


Secret $1.5 million donation from Wisconsin billionaire uncovered in Scott Walker dark-money probe

“This, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with the dark-money world we live in,” said Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based based nonprofit group that tracks the influence of money in politics. “Here’s somebody who obviously has issues before the state, and he’s able to make a backdoor contribution that nobody ever sees. My sense is [political] insiders know about these contributions. It’s only the public that has no idea.” Menard did not respond to email and phone requests from Yahoo News for comment about his contributions. (His company’s spokesman, Jeff Abbott, said he was not authorized to speak for the company’s owner and could not respond, either.)

Laurel Patrick, Walker’s press secretary, strongly denied that the governor had provided any special favors for Menard and said Walker was “not involved” in the decision to award his firm tax credits, which were approved by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for expansions of existing facilities in order to create jobs. (She also noted that Menard’s firm had been awarded $1.5 million in tax credits in 2006 under Democratic Gov. James Doyle. State records show these were reduced to $1 million when the company failed to meet its full job-creation requirements.)

Patrick declined, however, to respond to any questions about the Menard contributions. Citing a “pending legal” investigation into Wisconsin Club for Growth fundraising that will be argued next month before the state Supreme Court, AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker’s political organization, Our American Revival, said she also could not answer any questions about the Menard donations, including whether the governor had solicited them, was aware of them or had ever discussed state business with Menard.

Asked about the Menard donations, David Rivkin, a lawyer for the Wisconsin Club for Growth, said he could not discuss any contributors to the group but added in an email: “Wisconsin Club for Growth has never advocated on behalf of any specific individuals or corporations. Rather, it has vigorously advocated on behalf of issues and causes that are consistent with its philosophy of limited government, free markets and individual liberty.” Still, the funds from Menard — and other hefty secret donations to nonprofit groups closely aligned with Walker — could loom larger as the Wisconsin governor emerges as a top-tier candidate for the Republican presidential nomination

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Where Do We Go From Here?


How can we trust the upcoming Congress? During the last 6 years the rift between Congress and  POTUS has grown larger. It is naïve to think that this divide is not about power and who has it. Hypothetically the two major parties have the best interests of the people and our country yet we see the long term representatives  espousing the same rhetoric  to their constituents with a twist. Unfortunately it is human nature to align one self with some one who looks like you, has the same general (supposedly)  life desires. What this means is that except for people who recognize and embrace the differences in other people, our long termers are no more than “Bernie Madoff” in  politics. They have  perfected the knack of  promising enough to stay in office and enhancing their own  futures rather than taking care of the people who elected them time after time. This mid term election has shown that desperation leads ambitious people to do whatever it takes. It is not a far stretch to think that in close company the President has been labeled with the “N” word to forward an agenda. The new Congress still has to put up or shut up but be assured that any failure on the part of the House and Senate will be redirected to what ever the President has done or not done. We can already see the media campaign in the  press releases and talks from the two top Dupublicans but  onus is on them to produce results. The keystone pipeline is a sore spot and all of the information on it has never been revealed, the only information out is how many jobs will  created, no matter what the potential risk of  damage to the route of the pipeline. This pipeline will be delivering Canadian oil to the Gulf of Mexico for processing and shipment out of the country.

It is easy to present partial information and appeal to the  jobs situation but remember who has been in office during the fiscal troubles  of the past 15 years and did nothing to stave off the problems. To top it all, the Prime minister of Israel used  our Congress to further his own ambitions and he did in true Dupublican fashion and they willingly  (possibly unwittingly) allowed it because his speech was  without the normal courteous  notification to our President and the State department . The Leader of the House is now journeying to Israel (why?). Here at home the candidates are jockeying for position to run for President  but to no good end. We must understand that our political process is flawed and can only be repaired by the voters. Our task is simply to gather as much information as possible on the candidates and ignore 90% of what is aired in the media. Keep in mind that these candidates are spending millions to gain offices that do not pay millions which makes one wonder what the real reason for the campaigning?

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Which Is It?


The Israeli Prime minister and the Dupublican house Speaker appear to be in lock step against the President of the United States. While the President and several other countries are attempting to put together a peaceful solution on Iran’s nuclear situation these two are coalescing for no other reason than to scuttle the negotiations. I believe neither of then has a clue as to the damage they are doing. Their actions only spurs the resolve of the hardliners in Iran and their terrorist allies (Issel, Boka Haram and others). It is odd that Israel is so against a Palestinian state when they had to fight for theirs. There are terrorists in every country in the world some less violent but they are still terror driven groups. These two have formed a coalition that is doomed to failure whatever their goal is. Their actions could have long and possibly disastrous consequences for all of us. The Dupublican party as  I see them have the sole objective of reducing the neediest of us to abject poverty by any means possible while invoking what they say we want (or their constituents) but underneath are the huge money people who want their agendas to be in play with no regard for the people who buy their products or use their services. Our current Congress is shortsighted yet have convinced their followers and themselves that they can and are doing a better job. Which is it- serving the people or themselves?

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Code of Ethics As Related to Congress


Many companies have stated Codes of ethics which all employees have to read, sign or acknowledge. These codes of ethics are legal documents designed to protect the companies assets and intellectual properties. This is a normal business action and on the surface is benign. In real-time these are more like “swords of Damocles”. Many times the very advocates are the worst offenders however this all looks good on paper and many times a way to get rid of  employees who are for various and assorted reasons less desirable. Ethics being more of a moral nature as opposed to a business one would appear to be something that cannot be ascribed to in writing but rather a personal state of being for  each individual. These “codes of Ethics” are usually written by corporate legal teams and administered by the HR departments neither of which may have no real idea of what the various segments or departments actually do. This little glitch in knowledge can lead to grave errors in judgment and could conceivably  create a legal situation costing thousand or millions in legal fees and damage to company’s reputation. Essentially a code of ethics is something created by folks whose ethics and motives are suspected as a normal occurrence. To cite a recent example: The controversy over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s e mails. The Dupublican Congress is spending more time and effort on issues related to the future Presidential election than doing the daily business they led their constituents to believe they would do. The now anti populist Congress is going down a path that leads to our country being in  permanent gridlock with the big money backers pulling the strings. It is unfortunate that the people who voted them in could not foresee the events taking place at this time. The Dupublicans attack on their opponents by race, gender and any other means keeps the curtain closed on their real intentions. The recent letter to Iran has done more harm than good and added more fuel to a smoldering fire which could have a wider impact than just the United States. The radicals need no other reasons to hate non-Muslims all over the world yet our Congress has added another. Then the invitation to a Radical Israeli politician without the State departments knowledge until it was announced is another annoyance with potential long range problems and another boost to the radicals cause. These 2 items alone have worldwide impacts on our allies. Can we talk about  codes of Ethics? All of this to win an election and make changes that will impact most Americans to a point of  devastation of their families and many companies. Our main resource against this  threat (yes threat) is to vote them out and deny them the office of president and remove as many as possible from office. We, the American voters are the first line of defense against them.

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We Allowed It.


The larger world outside of the United States is in turmoil, every country large and small is making headlines of some sort. We have the health epidemics in many areas, small wars and incursions in the Eurasian areas. We have the popular uprisings in several countries around the globe. All of these issues point to the progressing world we live in. Meanwhile our gang of 500 plus have factions who are attempting to influence politics outside the U.S. by writing letters to countries involved in critical negotiations and inviting high profile  political speakers without notifying our state department. These 2 actions alone seem to show their disrespect for the President of the Unites States and the American people  (who they purport to represent ). It is unfortunate that our Current Congress has no other purpose than their own personal gratification which history will show as massive ego and ineptitude. The overall Congress (a name I mistakenly attributed as the name for a troupe of Baboons (what an insult to the Baboons) has several factions whose sole purpose is to overturn the ACA and put the middle class in a lower position and the lower class in yet a lower class. We have the Supreme court (almost solidly pro Dupublican) which has effectively overturned the voting rights act and created a 1960’s feel to the country. Our current sitting Congress are no more than a group of men obsessed with power and  beholding to them selves. The factions therein who we voted in have now shown their true colors and those colors run! The bottom line here is our Congress had an opportunity to act as legislators but decided that acting in a covert and many times overt racial manner have brought the office down to a criminal level.

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martin1


My friend Martin again has offered a point that needs to be made Why would we trust any candidate or incumbent whose staffers spend more time looking for dirt on the opposition than offering the real agenda of their “boss”. These elections have come to be more of a mud slinging, name calling & yes Racially biased contest.

Presidential Candidates in Search of Scandals

Abel Oldsworth, my reticent friend, is intrigued by the presidential candidates’ staffs searching for scandals in the lives of opposing candidates.  They want to uncover indiscretions such as excessive partying, skirt chasing philandering, drinking and snorting bouts, and general twisting of the Ten Commandments to show these office seekers are unfit to govern.

A strange penitent aura comes over candidates. They write books aimed at describing their political views, but they begin them with confessional prefaces acknowledging their errant ways.  They rhetorically ask, “How could I have done such things?”  They answer: “It was youthful immaturity. I am no better than others.  But they make me a man of varied accomplishments.  This is the truth.”  And so it goes:

God knows that I have been a man of sin

Cheating and lying where the goal was to win.

These deeds cause embarrassment

Subjecting me to opponent merriment,

But watch for the peccadilloes listings on them.

Martin Egelston

 

Battle Creek

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M. Brown & E. Garner


Is it about time we looked at this situations seriously? Some police groups are concerned about their supposed lack of support by their municipalities however have they really looked at what the effect of their actions are? did you make mistakes? Were mistakes made by the now victims? If we were to put aside our learned biases and perceived knowledge, what would be the outcome? I know from personal experience that it s easy to fall into the rut of common knowledge about many things and people. Where we all need to be is on the same or even similar  planes of thought and realities. Many or most of us have met and worked with people who are different in many ways but we consider them friends and colleagues. We probably do not consider  their religious, personal or other leanings and proclivities to be an advantage or deterrent to our relationship with them but we will look at people we do not know and judge them out of hand. This is called bias, prejudice or bigotry. It is unfortunate that too many of us  never look at how we interact with all other people and make an attempt to do better if we need to. The real issue is our “leaders” in the political arena have for the past 10 to 15 years used bigotry as wedge and  coercive agent to gain elective advantages. It is unfortunate that some of us haven’t realized that your fellow Americans are not the problem-the problem is with the people we have elected. Their focus is and always has been remaining in office and maintaining the power with that office. Our collective objective as voters needs to be holding the elected officials accountable and not be persuaded by  half truths, racial or ethnic  slurs that many of us have heard time after time. America is a multiracial, multi-ethnic  and  ultimately humane country that is (in spite of what is in the media) aspired to by other countries. To continue being who we are, our changes need to be in our government.

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Lets Look At Facts


 The now majority party in Congress has set us on a path of grinding poverty for the poorest of Americans and almost sure denigration of the upper to middle class. The 1 week funding of DHS (National security) is another step in their commitment to their masters (not the American People whom they are so fond of citing). These Dupublicans now have the ability to do something right but have began to follow the path of ineptitude and dragging the country along with them. I am sure that their actions do not represent the will and needs of the “American People”. I have listened to and read many editorials and opinions by many people from ordinary folks to political pundits and very few of us fully grasp the impact this Congress will have for years to come. I suggest that if all or any of us ignore  what is said and look at the actions, we will quickly understand that we are the government and we have allowed these politicians to pull the political wool over our eyes. The two party system is useless and it is time we as voters abandoned it and find our own voices with non party or apart candidates yet  be  prepared to remove them when necessary. Voting as independent as possible which then becomes “term limits”!

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