Quibbles and Bits, Heads and Fireworks Exploding Edition...

The last week has seen so many morsels, it's like manna from the Almighty.   Here's just a sampling...

>> Marriage equality: Persistence is always a necessity when it comes to issues related to civil rights.  But when one thinks about it, this issue has taken a comparably short time, from a historical perspective, to resolve.   The time span between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts was 100 years - a span that included the specter of Jim Crow.    It took almost 150 years for women to achieve full suffrage, between the passage of the American Constitution in the 1780s and 1920.   The period between the Stonewall Riots and last Friday was 46 years.   This is not in any way to minimize the progress made - indeed, like those other struggles, a heavy price was paid by those who fought, in terms of blood, sweat, tears, spit, epithets, discrimination, and other forms of treating those different as "others".   

What the SCOTUS did last Friday was merely to recognize a right that always should have been considered inalienable in the first place - something that Justice Kennedy alluded to in his majority opinion.     I won't even go into "Justice" Scalia's screed of a dissent - if you have the time to read through his quasi-legalistic BS on this issue, be my guest.    As for me, well - life is getting too short to feed bigotry like that.   I'm moving on.

>>Obamacare:  I haven't read through the opinions on this one.   But I think it's disingenuous to say that politics played absolutely no role whatsoever in the SCOTUS ruling.   The justices were going to be damned by whatever side they sided against, so for them, it was "pick your poison".    That they chose to side with the insurance policy holders - you and me - was a relief, and a victory.    This does not, however, completely resolve the issue.   What will resolve it, once and for all, is SINGLE PAYER.   A baseline level of care guaranteed to all purely by virtue of being a citizen, with the "extras" being picked up by the private insurers.    No one should have to go bankrupt in this country over something they have no control over, such as a catastrophic illness or injury.   That's the next step.  

>>The TPP/TPA/TAA:   What more proof that the Congress doesn't listen to you?   All of the phone calls and lobbying against these sordid bills seemed to have no effect, whatsoever.   This is why we get disillusioned with the political process, which in turn, depresses turnout on Election Day.   This, of course, inspires happy dances on the part of Repub Fat Cats.   

But now is not the time to sit at home.    It's time to PRIMARY some of these turncoat turkeys, such as McCaskill, Feinstein, Wyden on the Senate side, and Bera and others in the House.   Get people in there that will listen to YOU, and not Big Money.  

 

Not Down With TPP…Now You Know Me

     Last week, the House of Representatives gave President Obama the half-loaf that he and Third Wayers alike always advocate you and I fight for.   It came in the form of "NO" votes on the TAA (the displacement assistance portion of the Transpacific Partnership debacle), but "YES" on the TPA (the “fast track” negotiation authorization portion). 

     Just what was President Obama thinking?   The TPP agreement, while made available to the Congress but only under very strict security (no discussion of details under penalty of criminal indictment, no notes taken into the room, no recording devices, nothing), and is being kept secret from the public – save for our transparency savior Wikileaks!  Did he actually think that he would be able to get TPP/TPA/TAA passed without a hitch just by saying “trust me”?    I’ve fought for the workingman every day for my entire presidency, he says.   But don’t they all say that?  This is the most “progressive” trade deal negotiated yet, he also says.   So HOW is it that way?  Where are the specifics?   And why the big, hard sell (harder than for the Public Option, that’s for DAMNED sure!), and why the secrecy surrounding it, and why NOW?

More after the break…