Nicholas Kristof Poses a Great Question---and Indicts Our Own Home State of Missouri and the Nation

Today's op/ed piece in the New York Times from Nicholas Kristof poses a great question.

What if There Were No George Floyd Video?

A great, even important question.

We wouldn't be trying to, at long, long last, heal these racist, racial wounds in the nation.  

George Floyd's death should never have taken place, of course.  At least we are finally, finally addressing these problems, these issues, this issue of race in America.

But by way of asking this question and addressing these issues, Mr. Kristof also makes a great and important point---and indicts our own state of Missouri, too. He states:

There is no video to show that a black boy born today in Washington, D.C., Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi or a number of other states has a shorter life expectancy than a boy born in Bangladesh or India.

Get that.

To repeat, a black boy born in these states, including our own home state of Missouri, has a shorter life span expectancy than that of a boy born in Bangladesh or India.

That is obscene.

It's also racism. It's one of the many results of racism in our nation.

We have got to do better.

And we've got to do better quickly. 

Now would be good.

Additional links:

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It

Aug. 30, 2014

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 2

Sept. 6, 2014

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 3

Oct. 11, 2014

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 4

Nov. 15, 2014

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 5

Nov. 29, 2014

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 6

April 2, 2016

Opinion | Nicholas Kristof: When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 7

Oct. 1, 2016

This President Is Hitting the Fan

After President Trump's apparent orders to use tear gas on peaceful protesters at the White House yesterday so he could get a photo opportunity for himself, of himself, holding a Bible in front of a church, the stuff is hitting the fan, so to speak. Herewith, just a few quotes and articles on it all.

Just some of the headlines from the last 24 hours.

This is what started it all, really.

Peaceful Protesters Were Gassed Outside The White House So Trump Could Get A Photo Op At A Church

It went on from there.

Trump has turned America into a pitiful pariah

Trump likes to conflate strength with leadership, but he exhibits neither

'I wish you the best': US military adviser resigns after Trump's controversial photo op at church

James N. Miller Resigns Defense Science Board Saying Defense Secretary Lied

Different members of the clergy all came out resoundingly against the President's actions, at least, if not also this President himself.

‘I find it baffling and reprehensible’: Catholic archbishop of Washington slams Trump’s visit to John Paul II shrine

Episcopal bishop on President Trump: ‘Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence’

Meanwhile, a  quote. Note the source.

“This is an awful man, waving a book he hasn’t read, in front of a church he doesn’t attend, invoking laws he doesn’t understand, against fellow Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, to protect power he gained via accepting foreign interference, exploiting fear and anger he loves to stoke, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish inanity.” 

-- Robert Hendrickson, Rector at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona.

Another minister in Washington said this but I can't find his name, unfortunately.

"You had a Bible in your hand. It's clear you don't have it in your heart."

This is the disturbing, possibly frightening aspect of the Trump administration and its handling of national issues.

CIA veterans who monitored crackdowns abroad see troubling parallels in Trump’s handling of protests

This is encouraging, some encouragement, because we need it, both because of the source--Republicans--and that it ran on Fox.

‘End Trump’s American carnage’: 

New ad from anti-Trump Republicans airs on Fox News

Even ancient, Right Wing nutjob Pat Robertson thinks this President was and is wrong here. That's how bad.

Televangelist Pat Robertson blasts Trump for his protest response

More encouragement. Actual Republicans--gasp--speaking up against this man in the White House.

GOP senators offer rare rebuke 

of Trump on church visit 

And this next is the reason I believe Americans will not re-elect this President come November.

With the US plunging into chaos and one-in-four American workers out of a job, 

Trump lacks a clear plan to revive the economy

In the middle of the worst, most killing, international pandemic in over 100 years.

Stunning.

A meme on social media said it best yesterday:

"Helluva job, Donnie. 

You're managed to bring back the 1918 pandemic, 1929 Depression and 1968 race riots all at the same time."

God help us all.

As I've said before, God help us all.

Quote of the Day -- Timely, Protest, Riot Version

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."

--Benjamin Franklin

An Unfortunate, Sad But Ultimately Necessary and Even Proud Day

Yes sir and ma'am, I think today is all that--an unfortunate, necessary, sad but ultimately proud day for our nation, for us all. We are voting to impeach the President of our United States today, on two counts--one for abuse of power and the 2nd for obstruction of Congress.

Herein, simplified, are the reasons and evidence:

• This President, Donald J Trump, asked the leader of a foreign nation to investigate a private American citizen and a citizen who just happened to be the son of his foremost political rival in the current campaign for the election for his very office.
• The President took it further, however, and people from his own administration testified it was clear he and understood that he, President Trump, proposed to and was, in fact, withholding approximately 400 million dollars in Congressionally approved aid to Ukraine in their effort to wrest away from the Soviet Union.
• Once this was all brought to light and the House of Representatives wanted to investigate these widespread and assumed allegations, the President blocked his own staff from his administration from responding to and answering subpoenas the House sent down.

Mr. Trump has insisted all along that the call of July 25 this year, wherein he and the leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke was a "perfect call" and that he is completely innocent. In spite of that innocence, he blocked all from his administration from responding to those Congressional subpoenas.

If he is, in fact, so very innocent, why, then block these people's testimonies?

And when it comes to these current proceedings, the heck of it is, the impeachment hearings today on these two issues don't even begin to touch on the also-impeachable offence of this President virtually shattering the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, the Emoluments Clause, in his taking not just money but large amounts of it from foreign nations, no less, from his hotels in Washington, DC, Florida and elsewhere.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the right and true and just and correct thing is happening today.

Our own House of Representatives is voting to impeach Republican Party President Donald J Trump. And for only the third time in our nation's history.

As it ought.

God help and save the United States of America.

May justice be done.

I'm personally proud our nation includes a process wherein even the highest in the land are held accountable. That people in his own political party supporting him, because they don't want to lose political power in Washington and the nation, will go down in history as having been on the wrong side of justice and right and good and that very history.

This isn't about Democrats trying to undo the election of November 2016, not in any way.

None of us can be above the law.

One More Thing to be Thankful for This Year

Money Is Crushing Our Nation

I think we Americans love the fact that we are supposed to be the wealthiest nation on the planet, in the world. A "nation among nations" I think we believe ourselves. Partly in what is--or was supposed to be--our "democracy" or "Democracy" and then, too, in our success, our money, our wealth. I think it's a pretty widespread and common thought and assumption.

Ironically, though, we've come to a time where, in at least several ways, our money is crushing us. It's crushing the people and so, the nation. I'll give examples.

First, there is our healthcare. The evidence:

• We are the only nation that ties health and healthcare to profit and profits
• Ours is the most expensive in the world
• Our citizens, lots of them, go bankrupt, due to healthcare costs and expenses
• We are the only Western, industrialized nation whose citizens do go bankrupt due to healthcare costs and expenses
• More of our citizens go bankrupt due to these healthcare costs than any other reason or source of expense
• Some, far too many, of our citizens die, actually die because they can't afford healthcare

Second, next, is higher education--colleges and university study. We did and do the same with it we did with healthcare. That is, we've made it outrageously expensive, just because we don't limit corporations over-arching need and goal to make money above all costs, students and citizens be damned.

The U.S. Leads The World In Tuition Fees

Then there's what we call defense, military defense of the nation. No one even remotely comes close to what we spend on bombs and tanks and bases around the world. It's crushing us.

The Military Imbalance: How The U.S. Outspends The World

Meanwhile, our schools and roads and highways and sewage treatment and all we need the nation over, goes wanting so we, the people go wanting. And let's all keep in mind, it was military spending the world over that bankrupted the now-former USSR. We learn nothing. (And under the "We Learn Nothing" file, look at Vietnam and Afghanistan as just two perfect example).

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we let business ruin us, ruin the nation--we legalized bribery of our government representatives, most specifically in Congress, in the nation's Capitol.

Jimmy Carter Calls US Campaign Finance Ruling "Legalized Bribery"

And this is the result.

Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy

We have to take our nation back. We have to take it back from the money, back from the big money, back from the corporations and already-wealthy. We have to take it back, honestly, from the Republicans and their political party.

And it's got to come from us, people.

Has Anyone Noticed This Republican Party President Is Dismantling Our Government?

The title here is not hyperbole.

First, Mr. Trump sets out to move--break up, weaken--the Department of Agriculture by moving it out of Washington, to here in the heartland, to Kansas City and then, last week, he gets started breaking up, moving the Bureau of Land Management to a legitimately small town in Colorado, Grand Junction.

And sure, I recognize this could be good for the Kansas City metropolitan area, adding to our rented space and population, some growth, but consider the ramifications.

The people with experience at these jobs in the USDA don't want to sell their homes and go to some new area they've likely never been. Who would? Who can blame them?

These USDA employees face a stark choice: Move to Kansas City or be fired

And according to the Washington Post, it doesn't just effect the USDA, either.

Relocation could seriously disrupt the work of two agencies

The Agriculture Department is offering employees a rare choice: accept a forced transfer to a post 1,000 miles away or be fired.

The Trump administration’s plan to move two agencies from the District to the Kansas City area includes a document with two blank boxes on it, sent to employees on June 13. Check one, it instructs: Accept the transfer by July 15 or “be separated by adverse action procedures.”

That means getting fired, with an opportunity to appeal the dismissal through what could be an expensive process. Getting fired could also make it more difficult to find another federal job in an area where the government dominates...
Of the 547 employees the department wants to move for the two agencies combined, 253 are with the Economic Research Service, 77 percent of its 329-person workforce. An additional 294 are with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, 93 percent of its 315-person staff. News of the move prompted a surge of support for the union. Employees at the National Institute voted 137-2 to join AFGE two weeks ago. Last month’s vote at the economic service was 138-4.
And it's not going to save us, the US, money, either, folks.

But the USDA estimate of nearly $300 million in savings over 15 years is way off, according to an analysis by the Milwaukee-based Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Instead, it would cost taxpayers between $83 and $182 million, the analysis found. The USDA underestimated the true cost in part because it did not account for “the lost value of research from staffers who resign or retire rather than move,” the association reported.

Divide and conquer, folks. It's what he's doing.

And breaking up the USDA, weakening it, is just the first blow against regulating industry.

Bureau Of Land Management Moves Headquarters To Grand Junction, Colo.

This has at least two effects on the agency and its work.

..as excited as Grand Junction is, many people outside this high desert city are deeply skeptical of the move. The Public Lands Foundation, made up of mostly former BLM employees, opposes it, saying it will likely gut the agency as many of its workers won't want to move. And Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona sees another worry. Moving to Colorado means the BLM will be that much closer to the oil and gas industry.

It makes it easier for the special interests to have access without a lot of accountability and light somewhere else than here in D.C. And I think that works to their advantage.

This fits in perfectly Mr. Trump's work and attempts to both weaken government and assist business.

Trump Push For 'Energy Dominance' Boosts Drilling On Public Land

83 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under Trump

As air pollution increases in US cities, the Trump administration is weakening clean air regulations

Then, as if all this, above, weren't enough bad news, there's yet more this week from The Orange Man in the White House. Check this out for mind blowing:

Nuclear commission considers fewer plant inspections

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission thinks it's a good idea to have FEWER inspections of nuclear power plants.

You read that right, folks--fewer inspections and less oversigh of nuclear power plants.

This is not good for clean air, folks. This is not good for the people, you and me.

It's fantastic for big business.

Links:

Democrats running out of options to stop Trump from moving two USDA offices

Moving USDA research agencies is part of Trump’s war on science and statistics

USDA research agencies will move to Kansas City region despite opposition

USDA division votes to unionize as employees protest planned relocation

100 Huge Years Ago Today--Celebrating Progress, Working for More

First, the good news.

19th Amendment Guaranteeing Women the Right to Vote was Passed 100 Years Ago Today

Yes sir, 100 years ago today, June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment, giving women of the United States the right to vote was passed. Great as that was, it's sad it had to take that long but at least they got it done.

Now the bad news.

Women still aren't equal. No way are they equal, as we know. Check out just some of the facts.

Women Still Don’t Make as Much Money as Men

And then there are Neanderthals out there in the world, still spewing this ugliness, inequity and nonsense like this. I found this today, accidentally, in a search.

Why Women Don’t Deserve Equal Pay

And this:

Why women don’t need to earn the same as men

And this, from, of course, a Republican:

GOP Lawmaker Says Women Don't Deserve Equal Pay

The entire Republican Party, supporting the already-wealthy and corporations, of course, not the people, have voted down equal pay for women and repeatedly. The following was from 2008.

Senate GOP blocks Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Bill

This was from 2012.

Senate Republicans Block Pay Equity Bill

This was 2014:

Senate Republicans Block Bill on Equal Pay

Senate Republicans reject equal pay bill

This took place this year.

187 Republicans Vote Against Bill to Close the Gender Wage Gap

Also this year. Not only are Republicans against women being paid fairly, justly and equally with men, they're also against keeping women safer.

House Republicans, at NRA's Urging, Vote Against Violence Against Women Act

So sure, let's celebrate this 100 year old breakthrough, sure, definitely.

But let's work to get more of them, needed ones, soon as possible.

It reminds me of the protest sign for women I saw some time ago.

Missouri's Sad State of Infrastructure

I've written about Missouri's sad state of infrastructure here before. Our roads and streets and bridges, not just here in Kansas City but statewide.

It seems clear, with Republican-led government, on the state or national level, either one, we--read: they--just don't want to fund the basics like education or, again, infrastructure. Millions and billions for perpetual war in foreign countries but far too little for our own nation.

So along comes this study:

Bridge safety: It'll take More Than 80 Years to Repair the 47,000 Structurally Deficient Bridges in America, Report Finds

Check out these statistics from the article:

More than 47,000 bridges in the United States are in crucial need of repairs, says the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, or ARTBA. The group, which advocates for investment in transportation infrastructure, analyzes data from the Federal Highway Administration and releases an annual Deficient Bridge report.

This year's report, released Monday and based on 2018 data, found:

• There are 616,087 bridges in America
• Of those, 47,052 (nearly 8%) are "structurally deficient" and need urgent repairs
• 235,020 bridges (38%) need some sort of repair
• Americans cross structurally deficient bridges 178 million times a day, including such landmarks as the Brooklyn Bridge and the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge over the San Francisco Bay
• The average age of a structurally deficient bridge is 62 years

Now, check out our own state of Missouri’s ranking in all this.

The states with the highest number of compromised bridges are:

Iowa (4,675)
Pennsylvania (3,770)
Oklahoma (2,540)
Illinois (2,273)
Missouri (2,116)

We're one of the worst, one of the top 5 states with bridges in poor repair in the nation.

Meanwhile, this is our current status:

“President Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to upgrade America's crumbling infrastructure. Even though some Democratic leaders have expressed a willingness to work with him on a plan, little progress has been made on the issue.”

We need to demand more, much more from our legislators, in Jefferson City and Washington, both.

We've been in Afghanistan, either blowing things up or building schools for 18 years.

Even Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has pointed this out.

Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma Says the US Wasted Trillions On Warfare Instead of Investing In Infrastructure

What part of that makes sense?

Let's get back to taking care of the important things.

At home.

We can't be strong over there if we're weak over here.

Links:

Falling apart: America's neglected infrastructure - CBS News

Why do Republicans really oppose infrastructure spending?

Before Trump, I Had Hope

It's true. Before Donald Trump became President, which even now pains me to say, I believed in America. I believed in people. I believed in progress.

Now?

Now that Donald Trump not only became President but has been so for 2 years, all that is gone.

I no longer believe in the arc of progress through history. I no longer believe in the progress of humankind. I no longer see or believe in progress as being inevitable and/or natural. I don't assume it any longer.

It's the same with racism in our nation.



I used to see it as something deeply stupid that used to exist and occur in our society. I used to see it as something we would and were naturally working away from, having learned our collective lessons.

No longer.


Again, with this President---a member and now leader of the Republican Party it needs to be repeatedly pointed out--racism has not just reared its ugly head but come out very publicly, repeatedly and demonstrably.

I thought we'd all learned that lesson. I thought we knew better. I thought we were weaning ourselves of that outrageous ignorance.

Climate change?

This President doesn't believe in it. So naturally, we don't need our government or the governments of the world to do anything about it. Forget the science. Forget the scientific studies. Forget the facts and truth. Full, polluting speed ahead.

Then there's the safety nets we already decided on as a nation that this President is rolling back.

78 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump

Trump EPA acts to roll back control on climate-changing coal

This broke this week.

Trump Administration Wants To Roll Back Mercury Emissions

I was against Ronald Reagan becoming President and his tenure in the office bears me out. I was vindicated by what he did, in more ways than one. This was the biggest one.

Iran-Contra: Reagan's Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Power

Then there was Dubya'.

Yes, naturally, I was against George W. Bush becoming President.

I know, shocking, right?

And it was more, far more than just because he was a Republican. He proved me correct, too.

How Clinton Surplus Became A $6T Deficit

The Iraq War: Bush’s Biggest Blunder

George W Bush, Starter of Two Wars

George W. Bush didn't just lie about the Iraq War

But Reagan and Dubya' both became President and we lived through it and I knew we would.

But Trump? Donald J. Trump as President?

In these fast two years with him in the White House, I see so many ways not just our nation but the world has gone and is going backward, already. It has made all kinds of things that were previously considered impossible, possible.

I do see some glimmers of hope. They are only brief and glimmers but there are some promising things out there. Here's one.

More Republicans Now Think Donald Trump Is ‘Unfit to Be President of the United States,’ Watergate Reporter Claims   When even Republicans come out publicly denouncing him in any way, it gives me hope. Of course, there have been Republicans and Right Wingers publicly writing against and yes, denouncing him, for some time--columnist George Will, now-deceased Charles Krauthammer, both, among them.

While I've lost hope, I am still of the opinion we have to fight ignorance and stupidity and short-sightedness and greed. We can't give in completely. We have to work, however and whenever and wherever we can to better things, both for others and ourselves. Always.

We have to persevere.

Links:

Confronting the Cost of Trump's Corruption

Here's A Running List Of President Trump's Lies

Trump lies. And lies. And lies.

Trump’s lies corrode democracy

Retired four-star general warns White House applicants against working for ‘immoral’ Donald Trump

A year of unprecedented deception

(Scathing) Quotes of the Day on Donald Trump -- From a Long Time Republican

Fantastic, spot on writing today on this President and what he's doing to us, all of us, the Presidency and nation from the New York Times.

The Full-Spectrum Corruption 

of Donald Trump

Just a few---of the best--quotes.

First up, just the byline alone:

Everyone and everything he touches rots.

Going on from there.

A party that once spoke with urgency and apparent conviction about the importance of ethical leadership — fidelity, honesty, honor, decency, good manners, setting a good example — has hitched its wagon to the most thoroughly and comprehensively corrupt individual who has ever been elected president. Some of the men who have been elected president have been unscrupulous in certain areas — infidelity, lying, dirty tricks, financial misdeeds — but we’ve never before had the full-spectrum corruption we see in the life of Donald Trump...

...the moral indictment against Mr. Trump is obvious and overwhelming. Corruption has been evident in Mr. Trump’s private and public life, in how he has treated his wives, in his business dealings and scams, in his pathological lying and cruelty, in his bullying and shamelessness, in his conspiracy-mongering and appeals to the darkest impulses of Americans. (Senator Bob Corker, a Republican, refers to the president’s race-based comments as a “base stimulator.”) Mr. Trump’s corruptions are ingrained, the result of a lifetime of habits. It was delusional to think he would change for the better once he became president...

In any case, the Republican Party’s as-yet unbreakable attachment to Mr. Trump is coming at quite a cost. There is the rank hypocrisy, the squandered ability to venerate public character or criticize Democrats who lack it, and the damage to the white Evangelical movement, which has for the most part enthusiastically rallied to Mr. Trump and as a result has been largely discredited. There is also likely to be an electoral price to pay in November.

But the greatest damage is being done to our civic culture and our politics. Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are right now the chief emblem of corruption and cynicism in American political life, of an ethic of might makes right. Dehumanizing others is fashionable and truth is relative. (“Truth isn’t truth,” in the infamous words of Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.) They are stripping politics of its high purpose and nobility....

A warning to my Republican friends: The worst is yet to come. Thanks to the work of Robert Mueller — a distinguished public servant, not the leader of a “group of Angry Democrat Thugs” — we are going to discover deeper and deeper layers to Mr. Trump’s corruption. When we do, I expect Mr. Trump will unravel further as he feels more cornered, more desperate, more enraged; his behavior will become ever more erratic, disordered and crazed.

And the source.

By Peter Wehner
Mr. Wehner served in the previous three Republican administrations and is a contributing opinion writer.