Mallard Fillmore and Why My "Red Is Up."

It's hard enough to read Morgantown's Dominion-Post these days, now that they have added Michelle Malkin as a columnist, in addition to Cal Thomas, both flame-throwing fascists, calling themselves "conservatives." They also run Bruce Tinsley's "Mallard Fillmore" on their editorial page every day. It just "gets my red up" as my new hero, Trae Crowder, likes to say. Last week, I had enough of Tinsley and wrote a letter to the paper. They haven't published it yet, and I was going to wait until Sunday to see if they found room. They usually do publish my letters, eventually.

There was a letter today from Pastor Terry Hagedorn, of Calvary Baptist Church in Reedsville, West Virginia. Reedsville is located fifteen miles southeast of Morgantown, in Preston County. It had a population of 593 as of 2010, and is 98.5% white according to the census. Pastor Hagedorn's letter is about the football player who won't stand for the Star-Spangled Banner.. He claims racism is in the past. He would know, living in a virtually all-white community in a rural area.

I'm so angry about what goes on politically, especially here in West Virginia, but nationally as well. I protested last week at Mylan Pharmaceuticals' factory a few blocks from our house,After lobbying to have Epi-Pens in all the schools, they raised the price from under $100 for a pack of two to $600. The CEO raised her own pay from five million to sixteen million. I also marched with WVU's Black Students' Union and NAACP  to protest targeting of African-American males by some policemen.

Yesterday, both the Morgantown and Charleston newspapers ran a two-page ad from the CEO of Dominion Gas about why workers were locked out in a labor dispute. The dispute is because the company, highly profitable, wants to eliminate retirement and pension benefits for new hires.

The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce invited the Democratic and Republican candidates for Governor to their annual conference. The Chamber has previously lauded the Republicans in our state for cutting business taxes, eliminating prevailing wage, and implementing "right-to-work" which means no one has to pay union dues, even though the union is still obligated to represent all workers. This is the kind of thing Republicans like, but our Democratic candidate, Jim Justice, attended this conference and said he is with the Chamber of Commerce. And our Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Doug Reynolds, voted for a "religious freedom" bill in the Legislature this year, which would have allowed discrimination against LGBT people. He also voted for a twenty-week abortion ban, which passed, and wants to continue to defy Federal guidelines allowing transgender people to use the restroom that fits their identity. He introduced a bill in the Legislature to demand that West Virginia colleges and universities allow concealed weapons on campus. Justice and Reynolds are the Democrats. The Republicans are worse.

Back to Mallard Fillmore. In last Thursday's cartoon, August 31, Tinsley shows Hillary Clinton saying "...And if you think being gay is a crime... or that women are chattel... or that Jews are vermin... Donald Trump is such a bigot... (new balloon) ... that he doesn't want you to come to his country.!" There is a pic of Trump.

Here's my response:

"Bruce Tinsley, in his cartoon "Mallard Fillmore," is often offensive. His cartoon published Wednesday, August 31, hits a new low. As a Jew, a gay man, and the son and brother of women, I feel compelled to speak about this. Although Tinsley does not explicitly say it is Muslims Trump plans to keep out of the United States, the meaning is obvious from the context and from Trump's own statements.

The Republican Party has never been any kind of friend to gay people. At the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines last November,Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal, all contenders for the Republican nomination for President, appeared with Kevin Swanson, a pastor who has called for the death penalty for gay people. just not yet, but when America embraces the "one true religion." It's not Muslims I'm afraid of. Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, claim they will overturn same-gender marriage.. They have opposed every kind of law proposed to give LGBT people equal rights in employment and housing.

Locally, Republican legislators have supported "Religious freedom" bills that allow discrimination against LGBT people for allegedly religious reasons. It is not the Islamic community that has asked for these laws. The Dominion-Post often publishes hate-filled letters aimed at LGBT people, sometimes signed "Pastor."

Jewish journalists who have covered the Trump campaign have been bombarded with anti-Jewish memes and threatened with death by Trump supporters. Trump's comments to and about women have been ugly and stupid.

I have attended interfaith meetings which have included Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders. One of these, called to support resettling Syrian refugees in the United States, attracted several hundred people, of many religious faiths, right here in Morgantown. After the shootings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the Islamic Association of West Virginia issued a statement in support of the gay community,

Maybe your newspaper hasn't noticed, but there is a large Islamic community here in Morgantown, and to allow someone to smear that entire community is despicable. As the only local daily paper in town, you should know better. "


I ran for office to change the political culture of West Virginia. Between Donald Trump's wide-support here, the greed-based oil, gas and pharmaceutical industries located here, and the Chamber of Commerce that they support, and a Democratic Party that lost control of the state by not standing for anything substantive, and whose leadership continues to block progressives from power, I'm not sure their is hope for this state.


It may be hopeless, but I support Charlotte Pritt and Michael Sharley of The Mountain Party for Governor and Attorney General respectively in the upcoming election. And I will continue to protest greed-based corporations in favor of workers and the environment. And yes, I support Colin Kaepernick's right to protest by not standing for "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The Election and What I'm Doing About It

This is one of those election years where no one really knows what will happen. The "Brexit" vote in England went against all predictions. Politicians there borrowed from Donald Trump's playbook here: bash immigrants, "The Elite" and prey on the legitimate fears of working class Caucasians that they are being left out of this so-called "recovery." They have a point, except that immigrants, gays, and women having abortions are clearly not the problem.

I have never voted for a Republican, and I don't plan to start now. In my campaign for West Virginia Delegate, I aligned myself with the Bernie Sanders people. This was not political calculation on my part (although Sanders won in every county in West Virginia). I am thrilled that a candidate came up who was willing to talk about economic inequality, breaking up the big banks, and being inclusive of everyone in our country. Although Sanders is not traditionally religious, he embraces core Jewish values, whether he knows it or not.

I don't believe Hillary Clinton is a crook or even a bad person. She would have been a great candidate in 2000 or 2004. She lost to a brash outsider in 2008, and I believe she deserves to lose now. Only the system is rigged in her favor. Sanders pointed out in an interview in Rolling Stone that despite winning in every county in West Virginia, six of our eight superdelegates are pledged to Clinton.

Things are worse than that in West Virginia. Our Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin, did not appear at the state's Democratic convention, except at a lunch he sponsored in honor of the Democratic Party's West Virginia chair, Belinda Biafore. There was an election for a new state chair, and Chris Regan, a hero to progressives in this state, was defeated for the position of state chair. Still, we passed a progressive platform from the floor of the convention. I'm sure the platform will be ignored. That's how things roll here.

There's hostility in this state  from Democrats toward their anointed leaders. Jim Justice, a coal mogul, Republican until last year, and the wealthiest person in West Virginia, has not taken positions on most issues. Our Attorney General candidate, Doug Reynolds, has an anti-gay, anti-choice and pro-gun voting record. Ugh. And Hillary Clinton's record of being the Senator from Wall Street has not helped her with working people here.

I've been fending off people on Facebook who post horrible anti-Clinton stuff. Not Republicans, because I have "unfollowed" them, but Democrats. At this point, I'm hoping for a convention miracle that will give Bernie the nomination, or at least that the platform will accept his ideas, for what that's worth. Still, if Clinton gets the nomination, I will support her.

On the Republican side, there is shock and outrage every time Trump opens his mouth. Republican stalwarts are abandoning ship for fear they will be tarred with his legacy and shamed forever. To me, the Republican Party has pandered to racists and gay-haters for decades. Trump only says what they've been thinking all along, only with his Outer Borough lack of manners and WASP "tastefulness." They deserve him.

This year, we will have to eat shit (to put it delicately) and vote for the Democrats. For the future, I would hope progressives and unionists will form a new, more open party, pro-union, pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-diversity, and pro-environment. We can start by electing local leaders who can reach everyone , uniting anti-corporate, pro-worker, inclusive people of good will to overturn the status quo in West Virginia and in the United States. We have our work cut out for us.

Caution: Partisan Political Rant

I suppose I ran for office because I couldn't stand the lies, bigotry and stupidity we were getting from our elected officials in West Virginia. I was told I didn't "understand" West Virginia. During the campaign, I met a group of old (my age) hippies, brainy college professors, and the smarter class of college students and recent grads, most either from here or who have resided here for decades. Not knowing many people in town, not having the strength to go door-to-door, not advertising on the radio or in the newspaper, I still got twenty-five percent of the Democratic votes in our primary. The final tab was 3,971 for me. People, even those who warned me against running, now say I should consider running again in two years. I might.

Many people in West Virginia have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. West Virginians For Affordable Health Care points out that "more than two dozen hospitals saved $265 million" by treating people who now have health insurance. Before the ACA, the hospitals had to write this money off as a loss. And yet our Republican Junior Senator, Shelley Moore Capito, has voted a few dozen times to repeal the ACA.  Why? Our recent "non-partisan" election for a state Supreme Court justice was won by Beth Walker, with half a million dollars in ads from the Republican Governor's Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. For some reason, our nation's largest private healthcare provider supports Republicans. Los Angeles School District pays for my Medicare supplement and for Joe's insurance through Blue Cross. We don't have a choice, living outside of California, unless we lay out quite a bit of money for other insurance. I'm thinking about it.

Chris Regan, Vice Chair of West Virginia's Democratic Party, has a blog called "Home Yesterday" (www.homeyesterday.com) In an April 13 post, he wonders how Peabody Coal, following in the steps of other coal companies, has declared bankruptcy, gotten out of its pension and health care obligations, and given their CEO, who already makes ten million dollars annual salary, a bonus of several more million. He calls it "the looting of West Virginia."

Meanwhile, our state Attorney General, Patrick Morrisey, is fighting the Obama administration''s attempts to shield gender non-conforming and trans students from being forced to use a bathroom not appropriate to their appearance or identity. He and many so-called religious conservatives are up in arms, not about bathrooms, apparently, but the fact that there are trans students at schools.

What is the relationship between coal bankruptcies, the Affordable Health Care Act ( Obamacare) and trans people in the bathroom? This: Theft is against the Bible. A CEO, receiving millions of dollars for his work, who takes away pensions and health insurance from people who have worked- worked hard and at great risk in the case of coal miners- and gives himself and other executives millions more in bonuses, is a thief. He should be in prison. Where is the outrage among religious conservatives about this? And why are people not outraged that healthcare is considered a privilege for those who can afford it, and not a right for everyone? The ACA was a compromise to let everyone buy insurance.

The outrage is in the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The important difference is that Trump is a phony and Sanders is the real deal. The outrage is why the favorite of the Republican elite, Jeb Bush, couldn't get traction, and why Hillary Clinton, despite her traditional liberal credentials, is having such a hard time winning the Democratic nomination. Trump says he will put coal miners back to work (at lower pay and with no benefits, no doubt, if he can even do that). Sanders will try to limit executive compensation, find new work for miners and protect workers' benefits. The anti-Bernie people say "He can't do it." Maybe, but no one else will even try.

Here in West Virginia, there is no state budget for July 1. By law, the budget must be balanced. Governor Tomblin called the legislature back into session this week. As of Thursday morning, they have done nothing. Most of our Republicans have signed Grover Norquist's "No New Taxes" pledge.
Meanwhile, the coal moguls, including Bob Murray, who doesn't live in West Virginia, are demanding a cut in the coal severance tax. He and another coal mogul, the lately jailed Don Blankenship, are supporters of many of our Republican delegates. One might be tempted to say that our Congressperson David McKinley, is a whole owned subsidiary of the coal companies.

Meanwhile, the state is bleeding money and population. We will likely lose a congressman in the next census due to the state's declining population. Even in our temple, we will lose four families this summer. The state has a scholarship for in-state students, called "Promise." With no guarantee that these scholarships will be available in the fall, our smartest students are making plans to go elsewhere. Most will not be back.

My own life now is good. Joe and I have friends here. We are both popular teachers  at Life-Long Learning, all our students  over fifty and most past seventy.. Joe's current six-week class was oversubscribed and people had to get on a waiting list. We like it here. "Going back" is not an option. Still, should Tree of Life close, or get tired of Rabbi Joe, should we find ourselves victims of discrimination, we have the option of leaving. What happens a generation from now should not be our problem, but I, like Bernie Sanders, eight years my senior, want the world and West Virginia to be a more just, equitable and free place.  I'll be out working for Mike Manypenny for Congress and Doug Reynolds for Attorney General this year, attending West Virginia's Democratic Convention in Charleston in a few weeks as a Sanders vote, and supporting my fellow Democrats for Delegate and State Senator. I'm not done yet.