It’s Time to Clean Up Missouri Politics: About the CLEAN MISSOURI Ballot Initiative

Today I had the privilege of attending an informational meeting regarding the CLEAN MISSOURI ballot initiative. The organization will be finished collecting signatures in a few weeks, and is on target to having the initiative on the Missouri statewide ballot this coming November. Who could possibly be against a Ballot Proposition that will read exactly like this:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: ● change process and criteria for redrawing state legislative districts during reapportionment; ● change limits on campaign contributions that candidates for state legislature can accept from individuals or entities; ● establish a limit on gifts that state legislators, and their employees, can accept from paid lobbyists; ● prohibit state legislators, and their employees, from serving as paid lobbyists for a period of time; ● prohibit political fundraising by candidates for or members of the state legislature on State property; and ● require legislative records and proceedings to be open to the public? State governmental entities estimate annual operating costs may increase by $189,000. Local governmental entities report no fiscal impact.
Here is the Policy Summary. Here is the actual text being proposed for the Missouri Constitution. Here is the website for Clean Missouri. If you would like to get involved in this effort, contact Campaign Director Sean Soendker Nicholson at sean@cleanmissouri.org.

Continue ReadingIt’s Time to Clean Up Missouri Politics: About the CLEAN MISSOURI Ballot Initiative

New Harvard Business School Study: U.S. Federal Government Is Increasingly Good at Being Bad

Here's how a new Harvard Business School study sums up our Federal Government:

America’s political system was long the envy of the world. It advanced the public interest and gave rise to a grand history of policy innovations that fostered both economic and social progress. Today, however, our political system has become the major barrier to solving nearly every important challenge our nation needs to address. . . In areas such as public education, health and wellness, personal safety, water and sanitation, environmental quality, and tolerance and inclusion, among others, U.S. progress has stalled or gone in reverse. In these areas, where America was often a pioneer and leader, the U.S. has fallen well down the list compared to other advanced countries.
The study concluded that the political system is not actually failing. It is working, but its function is different than the one taught in high school textbooks:
Most people think of politics as its own unique public institution governed by impartial laws dating back to the founders. Not so. Politics is, in fact, an industry—most of whose key players are private, gain-seeking organizations. The industry competes, just like other industries, to grow and accumulate resources and influence for itself. The key players work to advance their self-interests, not necessarily the public interest. It’s important to recognize that much of what constitutes today’s political system has no basis in the Constitution. As our system evolved, the parties—and a larger political industrial complex that surrounds them—established and optimized a set of rules and practices that enhanced their power and diminished our democracy.
The title to the study is: "WHY COMPETITION IN THE POLITICS INDUSTRY IS FAILING AMERICA Here is the full study.

Continue ReadingNew Harvard Business School Study: U.S. Federal Government Is Increasingly Good at Being Bad

Insanity in every corner in these times of needless war

We have reached unprecedented levels of dysfunction on both the political right and the political left. I agree with each of these conclusions by Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept:

1. New wars will always strengthen Trump: as they do for every leader. 2. Democrats’ jingoistic rhetoric has left them no ability – or desire – to oppose Trump’s wars. 3. In wartime, US television instantly converts into state media. 4. Trump’s bombing is illegal, but presidents are now omnipotent. 5. How can those who view Trump as an Inept Fascist now trust him to wage war? 6. Like all good conspiracy theories, no evidence can kill the Kremlin-controls-Trump tale. 7. The fraud of humanitarianism works every time for (and on) American elites. 8. Support for Trump’s Bombing Shows Two Toxic U.S. Conceits: “Do Something” and “Look Strong” 9. Obama’s refusal to bomb Assad hovers over everything. 10. None of this disproves, obviously, that Hillary Clinton was also a dangerous hawk.

Continue ReadingInsanity in every corner in these times of needless war

In Light of the GOP’s new Health Care Proposal, it’s Time to Rename the GOP as the “Social Darwinist Party.”

In light of the GOP's "solution" to the "problem" of Obamacare, it's time to simply and clearly declare that the GOP has become (and should be renamed) the "Social Darwinist Party." Addressing the cries of the Super Rich ("I want even more money") is no solution at all to the medical crises many of us face. I realize and recognize the frustration of the GOP that people who are lazy and/or who repeatedly make bad decisions resulting in being poor should not be able to mooch off the rest of us. But what about those who have worked hard and have been laid off by downsizing, and now earn $10/hour? What about people who are doing their best after being raised by dysfunctional families and/or "taught" at dysfunctional schools? Should they really be told that health care is totally out of their reach? I'm lucky that I am a 60 year old man who can afford to pay the market rate of $900/month for a $6,000 deductible ("Bronze") health care policy with Anthem for me and my teenage daughter. It was the best deal I could find this year. But there are good hearted hard-working people who are paid minimum wage, meaning that they gross about $1,500 a month for full time work. After Social Security taxes, if they were to pay $900/month for health insurance (and then all the co-pays and deductible) they would have NOTHING left on which to live. NOTHING. The GOP solution, I assume, is to have these people (many of whom voted for Trump) begging for health care at hospital doors, with many of them eventually dying in the streets. Is the GOP then going offer block grants to cities to help clean up the bodies of sick and dying people on the sides of streets? Obamacare was an flawed attempt to balance the many competing interests at play. But it was an attempt. It was far better than the GOP proposal, which is essentially, "If you can't come up with a LOT more money than minimum wage will pay you, then into society's scrap heap you go!" We can do better than Obamacare. We can do a LOT better than the current GOP proposal. It's time for single payor, a solution used by almost every other industrialized country.

Continue ReadingIn Light of the GOP’s new Health Care Proposal, it’s Time to Rename the GOP as the “Social Darwinist Party.”