The government we deserve

 

With the polls closed in the northeast Hillary is most likely going to be the Democratic party’s nominee to run against, most likely, Donald Trump.  I for one can’t imagine a scenario worse for our country than what will be the 2016 general election.

The republicans are going to nominate a complete and total clown. He is a racist, a xenophobe, and has absolutely zero policy specific plan to better this country. If, somehow, Cleveland Ohio survives the riots that will ensue if this ass hat isn’t nominated and someone else is nominated I don’t believe the republican party has waiting in the wings anyone that will be any better on policy than Trump, and he has no policy. The worst case on the republican side is that Kasich, who is currently beating Hillary in the national poles, is handed the nomination. This is a man that has defunded Planned Parenthood in Ohio and is just slightly right of Hillary. Ted Cruz, who claims to be a constitutionalist, believes his religion trumps your rights when it comes to homosexuality, trans-gender, and even being an atheist.

On the Democratic side the choice is an establishment corporate shill that has been bought and paid for by wall street banks and other big money donors. She is not going to help save our environment by banning fracking, she is not going to fight for healthcare as a right, she will not fight to overturn citizens united, she is not going to help our children get better educations without being in debt that they can never get out from under, she will increase our presence in the middle east needlessly putting more of our troops in harm’s way and continuing the quagmire we are currently in, she will side solely with Israel rather than looking for a fair 2 state deal that is needed to bring peace to the region.

Maybe we deserve Trump! If the general public is stupid enough to vote for this man, maybe we deserve it. Maybe we deserve a man that will build a wall and spend billions trying to deport millions of hard working immigrants.  Maybe we deserve a candidate that will alienate an entire religion across the world with his ban on them coming into our country regardless of the fact there are millions of Muslims in this country that share our concerns about extremists. Maybe we deserve to be forced back to the segregation of the 50’s and 60’s. Maybe we deserve a president that will bring back the torture of innocent detainees and the murder of the innocent families of terrorists. Or maybe we deserve the incremental change from the big bank bought candidate the Democrats are offering us.

We allow our votes to be ignored. We allow millions in the state of New York to not be heard and not allowed to vote. We allow the poll times to be changed, the polling places to be moved, the voter rolls to be purged, a person’s affiliation to one party to be officially changed without  that persons permission or knowledge, we allow the number of polling places to be cut in half even when we know there is most likely going to be a record turn out and then blame the people for coming out to vote. We have allowed the corporate media to run this campaign. We have a congress with a 4% approval rating and yet when it comes time to vote we will most likely keep the same people in office we don’t think are doing a good job. But if one guy making minimum wage at McDonalds screws up your fatty burger you want him fired and use his mistake to prove $15 an hour is too much for a livable minimum wage. We have spent the last couple of months arguing over where people take a piss!

I want a person to vote for that has earned MY vote not the vote of the 1%. I know I and hundreds of thousands if not millions are not going to get the government we want, but just maybe we are going to get the government we deserve because we didn’t speak up and speak out.

Added a store front to the website, I know right now I'm talking to my self but will look back at this and laugh someday. buy now

If you listen to people like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Fox News, or even the Mississippi state legislation the white Christian male is, and has been for years, under attack. Really? Mississippi just passed a law allowing discrimination of gay or transgender people. Their reasoning? Religion! They claim that your right to equal protection under the law is trumped by their belief and their religion. If a gay man walks into a store to purchase a product the owner of the store or his employee can refuse to provide any service or product to him because being gay is against the store owners religious beliefs.

 Let’s set aside the fact that the same book they use to justify their belief that being gay is a sin also teaches snakes talk, a staff can be transformed into a snake, a 900-year-old man and his family collected 2 of each animal on the planet put them on a boat for 40 days and nights, and a virgin gave birth.

How does this new law differ from segregation in the 50’s and 60’s? When a black man walked into that same store and the owner or employee saw blacks as savages or sub-human and refused service? It’s not, it’s the same principle. The 14^th amendment makes it perfectly clear that all citizens are protected equally under the law and frankly I for one am saddened that it has taken until 2015 and 2016 to acknowledge that simple fact when it comes to any minority.

The constitution is there for all Americans not just the people that hold the power.

Because of North Carolina’s recent law allowing discrimination against the gay and transgender communities, again on the basis of religious freedom, Bruce Springstein has cancelled his concert series in the state. Hulu has not only moved production of it’s new pilot Crushed out of the state they have now moved it out of the country to Canada. Fox and A&E have said they will not bring productions into the state. A large number of CEO’s from varying companies have written a letter to Governor McCrory of North Carolina:

 Dear Governor McCrory,

We write with concerns about legislation you signed into law last week, HB 2, which has overturned protections for LGBT people and sanctioned discrimination across North Carolina. Put simply, HB 2 is not a bill that reflects the values of our companies, of our country, or even the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians.

We are disappointed in your decision to sign this discriminatory legislation into law. The business community, by and large, has consistently communicated to lawmakers at every level that such laws are bad for our employees and bad for business. This is not a direction in which states move when they are seeking to provide successful, thriving hubs for business and economic development. We believe that HB 2 will make it far more challenging for businesses across the state to recruit and retain the nation’s best and brightest workers and attract the most talented students from across the nation. It will also diminish the state’s draw as a destination for tourism, new businesses, and economic activity.

Discrimination is wrong and we believe it has no place in North Carolina or anywhere in our country. As companies that pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming to all, we strongly urge you and the leadership of North Carolina’s legislature to repeal this law in the upcoming legislative session.

Sincerely,

Karen Appleton, Senior Vice President, Box

Brandee Barker, Cofounder, The Pramana Collective

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce

Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.

Michael Birch, Founder, Blab

Ed Black, President and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association

Nathan Blecharczyk, Cofounder and CTO, Airbnb

Steven R. Boal, CEO, Quotient Technology Inc.

Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker

Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO, McKinney

Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.

Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb

Ron Conway, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel

Tim Cook, CEO, Apple

Dean Debnam, Chairman and CEO, Workplace Options

Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter

David Ebersman, Cofounder and CEO, Lyra Health

Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners

Joe Gebbia, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb

Jason Goldberg, CEO, Pepo

Alan King, President and COO, Workplace Options

Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps

Mitchell Gold, co-founder and chair-man, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

John H. Graham IV, President and CEO, American Society of Association Executives

Logan Green, CEO, Lyft

Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator

David Hassell, CEO, 15Five

Charles H. Hill III, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources, Pfizer Inc.

Reid Hoffman, Chairman, LinkedIn

Robert Hohman, Cofounder & CEO, Glassdoor

Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox

Chad Hurley, Cofounder, YouTube

Dave Imre, Partner and CEO, IMRE

Dev Ittycheria, President & CEO, MongoDB

Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective

Cecily Joseph, VP Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer, Symantec Corporation

David Karp, Founder and CEO, Tumblr

Travis Katz, Founder and CEO, Gogobot

Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel     

Joshua Kushner, Managing Partner, Thrive Capital

Max Levchin, CEO, Affirm

Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson

Shan-lyn Ma, CEO, Zola

Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo

Melody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat

Douglas Merrill, CEO, Zestfinance

Dyke Messinger, President and CEO, Power Curbers Inc.

Hari Nair, Vice President and General Manager, Orbitz.com & CheapTickets.com

Michael Natenshon, CEO, Marine Layer

Alexi G. Nazem, Cofounder and CEO, Nomad Health

Laurie J. Olson, EVP, Strategy, Portfolio and Commercial Operations, Pfizer Inc.

Bob Page, Founder and CEO, Replacements, Ltd.

Michelle Peluso, Strategic Advisor and former CEO, Gilt

Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google

Mark Pincus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Zynga

Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone

Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree

Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia

Stan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners

John Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation

Virginia M. Rometty, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation

Dan Rosensweig, CEO, Chegg

Kevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Alleycorp

Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital

Julie Samuels, President, Engine

George A. Scangos, PhD, CEO, Biogen

Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal

Adam Shankman, Director and Producer

Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Technology Association

David A. Shaywitz, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, DNAnexus

Ben Silbermann, CEO, Pinterest

Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft

Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International

David Spector, Cofounder, ThirdLove

Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp

Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip

Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA

David Tisch, Managing Partner, BoxGroup

Nirav Tolia, Cofounder and CEO, Nextdoor

Kevin A. Trapani, President and CEO, The Redwood Groups

Ken Wasch, President, Software & Information Industry Association

Bob & Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook

The same type of outrage is being shared for the law in Mississippi, Paypal has pulled out of a new building project denying the state jobs and income.

Mississippi religious money well spent?

Has the new law in Mississippi been money well spent? The new law in question is Religious Liberty Accommodations Act that basically makes it legal for persons of religion to discriminate against gay or trans-gender individuals, claiming their religion disagrees with the gay or trans-gender lifestyle.  On the face of it the legislation started to make sure people were using the bathroom “god” intended them to. A session of the state congress was dedicated to this bill and then law. The governor spent time lobbying for and signing into law this discriminatory bill. What is going on in the state of Mississippi that may have been just a bit more important.

 In an article by Mississippi State University the state of Mississippi leads the nation in death from coronary heart disease and stroke at even greater rates than the nation, and has a higher rate of obesity than the majority of the nation. According to multiple articles Mississippi ranks number 2 in the country in deaths by guns. Mississippi’s unemployment rate is a full point and a half higher than the national average and some counties are double the national average.

 These are a few of the problems the government of Mississippi could have been working on. They could have been reaching out to industry to locate in the state, they could have been working on travel and tourism to the state, they could have been working on a way to turn around their slow growing economy. They could have been working towards making the state more inviting for fortune 500 companies, and building a technology base for new companies to invest in the state. Instead they were wasting their time voting on a bill, that is set to become law July 1^st, and violates the first and 14th amendments of the constitution. It was more important to protect their belief in god and to force that belief on anyone that steps foot in their state then it was to make it a better place, not only for people that may visit or want to start a new business there but for those that live in the state and don’t happen to share the same religious view of the governor and his ilk.

Mississippi has had a history of bigotry so I guess this shouldn’t actually be all that surprising.

Money in politics and its excuse

Since Bernie Sanders has come on the scene as a presidential candidate the issue of money in politics has been pushed to the forefront. While the problem has been ongoing in our system for decades, this campaign and protests like democracy spring are highlighting it and asking for a fix to the broken system. Citizens united may well have been the death nail for a fair and balanced representation of all of us over the corporate interests that can donate millions of dollars to a candidate or political party to sway their opinion or policy.

Bernie had a choice when he decided to run, start a super pac to fund his campaign or rely on donations from everyday Americans. He chose the latter. Hillary and all the republican candidates on the other hand chose to accept money from corporate donors and super pacs. Hillary’s claim and defense for this is that President Obama did the same.  And claims that there is no evidence she has ever changed her policy in response to her donors.

In my opinion, I believe the “he did it so why can’t I? “excuse is childish and something I would expect from a third grader. Going with that excuse does nothing to change the corrupt system. And if you read President Obama’s book “The audacity of hope” you see he realizes the issue with this system and the actual influence it can have on even the strongest politician.

 “Few lobbyists proffer an explicit quid pro quo to elected officials. Their influence comes from having more access than the average voter, having better information, and more staying power when it comes to promoting an obscure provision in the tax code that means billions for their clients.

For most politicians, money is not about maintaining status and power. It is about scaring off challengers and fighting off the fear. Money cannot guarantee a victory, but without money, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose.

When I decided to run for the Senate, I found myself spending time with people of means. As a rule, they were smart, interesting people, expecting nothing more than a hearing of their opinions in exchange for their checks. But they reflected, almost uniformly, the perspectives of their class.

I became more like the wealthy donors I met, in the sense that I spent more time above the fray, outside the world of hardship of the people that I had entered public life to serve.”

 Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.109-115 Oct 1, 2006

As you can see from this quote, even Barack Obama admits that you don’t necessarily change a policy in direct correlation to the money donated to you, your policy changes over time because of the company you keep. Hillary you didn’t flip on an issue after a donation, well accept for the bankruptcy bill you lobbied against as first lady then lobbied for and passed after elected to congress that benefitted wall street banks, you changed what you are willing to do for us the common folks because you spend time with the 1% instead of the majority of us here in the 99%. But then again after seeing your tax returns you are in a percentage the rest of us can only dream to be in.

At Work

Flew around the shop the other day, nothing exciting. The weather is nice so my choices are ride the motorcycle for a while, fly the drone, or clean up the yard. Unfortunately I think its going to be cleaning the yard, after the race of course.

The sun is out!!! May actually get out and fly later. will post pics if I do.


Did you see that Bernie rally in New York?
#feel the Bern

Another shit day weather wise here in Northeast Ohio. I am loving all the fall out from the anti gay laws in North Carolina and Mississippi. When will the religious right understand their view is not the only view out there?

My first ever blog post. At this point no one knows I or this blog exist. I hope to change that. If you read this and agree or disagree with my opinion, lets talk!