The Election So Far Part 2

 We all know what happened last week. I still find it unbelievable that people are so delusional about who Donald Trump really is. I've seen videos of people, who after overrunning the Capitol, are told they won't be able to get on a plane to go home. Then they lose their job. "They called me a terrorist, and they're ruining my life," one said. Well, yeah. You are a terrorist, and you messed up your own life. It's clear now that people thought they could do whatever they wanted because they are White. I'll just put that out there. I don't see any other explanation. 

I'm listening to NPR news, and they said Vice President Pence won't invoke the twenty-fifth amendment. That's not a surprise. He and other Republicans want Trump to go away next week, but with a minimum of drama. That's not how it works. If Congress can get rid of him before January 20, I'm fine with that. 

I've never been a fan of the Republican Party, not since Spiro Agnew in 1968 dissed college students at a rally I attended when I was a college student. There are people who have been kind to me and to Joe who are Republicans, and I haven't "unfriended" them because we have a history, but I will keep a distance from them unless they beg me for forgiveness and agree to change. In Judaism, it's called t'shuva, or repentance. 

In West Virginia, two of the three congresspeople (not mine, amazingly) voted not to certify all the election results. They need to go. And our Governor, a "great friend" of the President, pooh-poohs the whole thing, and isn't worried about reports that people are going to attack all fifty state capitals. Our Attorney General, Patrick Morrisey, signed on to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's failed lawsuit to overturn the election. He may also have helped pay for robocalls to Republicans to come to Washington. Today, the state NAACP called for Morrisey's impeachment, because he questioned the election only in cities with large Black communities, notably Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee. I'm all for it. 

And then, when the terrorists attacked Congress, everyone was herded into a safe room, several hundred people in a small space. Many of the Republicans were not wearing masks, and refused to put on masks when asked. Now, several Democratic lawmakers have become ill with covid-19. Those Republicans should go to jail. 

Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe because I never watched his television show, or because I think macho swagger is phony and unimpressive, I don't understand how anyone can follow this grifter as if he were some kind of god. In Judaism, this is called idolatry, and it's a big sin. 

It doesn't help when big corporations say they won't give money to Republican election campaigns. So why were they donating to these campaigns in the first place? Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, has resigned, saying "This is not who we are." Our Republican Senator, Shelley Moore Capito said the same thing. They have both finally spoken out in the last week of the Trump administration. Despite the nice clothes, immaculate hair and good jewelry, this is who they are. They think being polite and well-dressed separates them from the scruffy people at the Capitol, but no, they are not better or different from those people. 

I wish I could be here in fifty years, to see how history treats this. I hope we still have a democracy then, but I have my doubts. My hope now is that the Republican Party implodes, and that lots of people go to jail. 

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.

The State of The Union

I enjoyed President Obama's speech this week. He seemed relaxed and in good humor. I've never agreed with everything he has tried to do, but for the most part, I still believe in him.

In his speech, he talked about how The Affordable Care Act has brought health care to many who did not have it before. He also said "We've got to make it easier to vote, not harder." And "We have to reduce the influence of money in politics, so that a handful of families or hidden interests can't bankroll our elections." While the Democrats applauded this line, the Republicans sat on their hands. I guess the "hidden interests" and "handful of families" are the people who run the Republican Party.

I love that he said "...we secured the freedom in every state to marry the person we love." I've been with my Joe for ten years now, and we have been married for more than seven. I know it's hard for people to accept that two men or two women can be married, but we are, and Republican candidates for president who would annul our marriage are only mean and hateful. Religious arguments do not trump my freedom.

Our junior Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and our Congressional representative, David McKinley, have voted time and again to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and expressed disappointment at the Supreme Court decision forcing West Virginia to recognize our marriage. They have fought the EPA on clean air, supposedly because of the potential loss of coal mining jobs, but they have allowed mining companies to get out of pension and health care obligations for retired miners. It seems they care about the coal mine owners, not the actual workers. Local politicians like to deny climate change. Scientists, even here in West Virginia, have noted changes in the plant and animal life in our state with alarm.

The Republicans from our district in the State Legislature promised to provide jobs and fix the roads. In the current legislative session, which just started yesterday, they have already proposed bills to limit abortions, to repeal prevailing wage and make West Virginia a "Right to Work" state. They say the last two will mean more jobs in West Virginia. The truth is it will line the pockets of corporate CEOs at the expense of workers, and will ultimately hurt the state's economy.

Last session, our local Republicans proposed charter schools, asked for a US Constitutional Convention to ban same-gender marriages, introduced a voter ID bill, and passed a bill to ease safety regulations in coal mines. None of these will fix the roads or provide jobs.

That's what made me sad about the President's speech. He is compassionate and progressive, wanting to really do something good for average Americans. I only get fear and loathing from the Republicans.

My candidacy for West Virginia State Legislature is a long shot. It would be great if I could bring some of President Obama's leadership to West Virginia, to defend his legacy in a state where he is often vilified, to conquer fear of the future. I want to respect West Virginia's legacy, but I want to move our state forward.

Coal, The Iran Deal, and The Republican Debate

Part One: Coal

There was an opinion piece yesterday, August 5, in The Gazette-Mail, Charleston's daily newspaper from Kevin Crutchfield, CEO of Alpha Natural Resources, a coal-mining company, crying about how the bankrupt company can't be sold to a company in Kentucky unless it stops paying pensions and providing health insurance to retirees. According to Chris Regan's blog (homeyesterday.com), in a post from August 3, Crutchfield received a two million dollar bonus this year, and six million total in 2011 and 2012.

Meanwhile, President Obama came out this week with new guidelines for carbon pollution to combat global warming, air pollution and the high incidence of asthma, particularly among young people who live near coal-burning facilities.

According to our local politicians, particularly our Republican Congressman David McKinley and our newly-elected Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, but also our Democratic Senator Joe Manchin III, Obama is the villain. The health of people in the United States, and particularly in West Virginia, comes second to the lining the pockets of coal company executives. Meanwhile the bankrupt companies want to back out of their contracts to provide for retirees, and want to sell out their union workforce to non-union companies. This year, they convinced our Republican-dominated legislature to ease safety regulations for the mines.

Educated people and anyone wanting a chance for a real life have been leaving West Virginia for decades. Whole neighborhoods in northwest Baltimore, near where I grew up, were inhabited by "hillbillies," as we called them in our ignorance when I was a teen. In the 2010 census, forty of our fifty-five counties had lost population over the previous ten years. And yet coal millionaires ask for tax cuts and buy Republican officeholders (and many Democrats) to make sure the health of the planet, and the well-being of workers and their communities are not considered. Everything is the fault of Obama and the EPA.

President Obama has offered to help retrain workers and bring new industry to the coalfields. He has been so demonized here that no one will listen. When we came here in 2012, there were signs everywhere that said "Stop Obama's War On Coal." I understand fear of change and economic insecurity. I wish someone could reach out to people who are pro-coal - and I see lots of "Friend of Coal" decals on cars- and explain to them how they are being used, in a way they might understand. Once in a while I see a sticker that says "Friend of Coal Miners," and I think that is something that needs to be emphasized.

Part Two: The Iran Deal

There has been a split in the Jewish community about the Iran deal. Again, Obama is blamed by many traditional Jewish organizations, and certainly by Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel, of caving in to Iran and not stopping a deal. Of course, the deal is not just the United States and Iran, but includes Britain, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia and China. People opposed to the deal want the United States to take unilateral action, maybe even to go to war against the regime in Iran. President Obama warned that these are the same people who pushed for war in Iraq.

I get that Iran has a terrible government. But I also understand that the United States does not, at this time, have the power to effectively engage Iran in war, even if we wanted to. Our allies in Europe would not support us. It is time to acknowledge that we must work with other countries, our allies particularly, but even Iran. Killing off a bunch of people we think are different from us is an American tradition, going back to Colonial days, but I've known people from Iran- yes, mostly Jews who fled, but others, too- and I don't see them as different from us. As we approach the anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, I know that war should be absolutely off the table. Is everything 100% verifiable in this treaty? I don't know. But I have to trust that a consortium of nations came up with a workable deal.

Part Three: The Republican Debate

So the Republicans are debating tonight. We don't have a television, but if we did, I wouldn't watch Fox. Not one Republican of the Top Ten has had anything positive to say about the rights of LGBT people or is in favor of my marriage. That alone is reason enough to not watch them. As far as threatening to shut down the government for funding Planned Parenthood, they should be tried for treason.

I cleaned up my political act for my spouse, Rabbi Joe, when he was applying for pulpit positions in 2012. He doesn't take a public stand on political issues, although some wish he would. He and I don't agree about everything political. If you look at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, you will find that my positions follow those of our religious movement. I'm less diplomatic in my verbiage.