Gratitude list for 2015:
Daughter Marie is expecting and due at the end of June with our first grandchild!
Joan and I celebrated our 38th anniversary this August. What a blessing to have her in my life.
Joan and I and daughter Jeanette had a wonderful vacation to Canada, including Montreal, Niagara Falls and Quebec this summer.
We are blessed with dear siblings, including my sisters Sue, Gina and Toni and Joan's sisters Carol and Paula.
We have terrific in-laws too: Marie's husband Robert, Robert's parents Marcia and John, Carol's husband Paul and Paul's dad Hal.
I completed my sixteenth year at College of the Sequoias, a good place to work, with colleagues and students I enjoy. This was my 33rd year as a full-time educator, counting my 17 years at Cucamonga Middle School.
I published my first book this year, Liberally Speaking. I've had a lot of fun having book appearances, signings and discussions.
Though we both have been presented with some new dietary limitations, Joan and I continue to enjoy good health.
I am really enjoying my new car, a Subaru Forester.
It was great to see the LGBT community win marriage equality this year.
It's been very gratifying to see the economic recovery gather momentum this year, with real progress on jobs, the unemployment rate and the lowest gas prices in years.
I am grateful a climate accord was reached in Paris this month. It wasn't as much as is needed but it's the first serious, truly global step in the right direction.
I'm grateful to have been able to play more golf this year and make more friends on the course.
The invention of Facebook has made it easier to keep up better with friends and relatives.
I'm grateful to have made it through another year!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Obama Adminstration Achievements in 2015
Despite opposition from and dysfunction in the Republican-controlled congress, 2015 has been another year of remarkable achievements for the Obama administration. On the economic front, the past 12 months have seen the creation of 2,637,00 jobs, and the all-time record of consecutive positive job creation months is now up to 69. A moderate growth rate of 2.1% combined with a low 0.5% inflation rate has yielded a healthy net growth rate of 1.6% over inflation. The United States is now the largest oil producer in the world, while at the same time renewable energy production continues to break records with each passing day and fuel economy continues to grow. The result is a 27% reduction in oil imports and a huge price savings for the American consumer at the pump. Here's a list of the highlights of accomplishments in 2015.
April 16: New Medicare reimbursement formula rewards doctors for health outcomes instead of just for performing services.
April 16: Medicare Access and CHIP (Children's Health) Reauthorization Act signed.
June 30: Overtime pay threshold for hourly workers improved from $23,660 through $50,440.
July 14: US and Cuba reopen embassies after 54 years.
July 16: US and six major powers reach agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program and accept inspections in exchange for sanctions relief.
August 4: Each state required to reduce its carbon emissions to set targets by 2030.
August 18: First openly transgender employee hired by the White House.
September 3: Discrimination against transgender people in health or medical insurance is banned.
September 7: Employees of federal contractors must be offered at least 7 days of paid sick leave per year.
September 18: First openly gay American nominated for Secretary of the Army.
October 6: Sentences reduced and adapted for 6,000 people serving excessive punishment for nonviolent crimes.
October 22: 70 ISIS hostages rescued in Iraq by US Special Forces.
November 6: Keystone Oil Pipeline rejected for not serving the interests of the United States.
December 3: All military positions become open to females.
December 10: Every Student Succeeds Act signed.
April 16: New Medicare reimbursement formula rewards doctors for health outcomes instead of just for performing services.
April 16: Medicare Access and CHIP (Children's Health) Reauthorization Act signed.
June 30: Overtime pay threshold for hourly workers improved from $23,660 through $50,440.
July 14: US and Cuba reopen embassies after 54 years.
July 16: US and six major powers reach agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program and accept inspections in exchange for sanctions relief.
August 4: Each state required to reduce its carbon emissions to set targets by 2030.
August 18: First openly transgender employee hired by the White House.
September 3: Discrimination against transgender people in health or medical insurance is banned.
September 7: Employees of federal contractors must be offered at least 7 days of paid sick leave per year.
September 18: First openly gay American nominated for Secretary of the Army.
October 6: Sentences reduced and adapted for 6,000 people serving excessive punishment for nonviolent crimes.
October 22: 70 ISIS hostages rescued in Iraq by US Special Forces.
November 6: Keystone Oil Pipeline rejected for not serving the interests of the United States.
December 3: All military positions become open to females.
December 10: Every Student Succeeds Act signed.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
The Real Donald Trump
There's been a lot going on the past few days. The terrorist attack in San Bernardino and the international climate change agreement reached in Paris are big news, and legitimately so. But I think it's time to directly address the phenomenon that is the candidacy of Donald Trump. I have commented on him before in these pages, but not with the directness and bluntness I feel is now necessarily called for.
Trump is a classic demagogue. His popularity is the encapsulation of every angry, mean-spirited, bigoted, xenophobic, violent, ill-informed, racist element in the Republican Party. The principal driving force of his support is fear, and he plays on it as adroitly as Segovia ever strummed the classical guitar. Trump's slogan may be "Make America Great Again" but his message is never about building up America or encouraging the greatness of its people. His stump speech instead begins with about half an hour of bombastic blather about how great Trump is, followed by another half hour of naming scapegoats and tearing them down. This began on day one of his campaign, when he announced that immigrants from Mexico were "rapists, murderers and thieves." He has spoken approvingly of the Japanese internment of World War II and "Operation Wetback," which rounded up Mexican-Americans, many of them natural born citizens, and expelled them. He has also demeaned women, Vietnam veterans, blacks and Muslims. His misogynistic insults against Megyn Kelly and Carly Fiorina were followed by assertions that a black protester manhandled at one of his rallies "should have been roughed up." John McCain, who was tortured for his country for years as a POW in North Vietnam was a "loser" for letting himself be captured.
Trump has concocted a story that American Muslims celebrated the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11. He says people who are entering the U.S. should be asked their religion and barred entrance if they are Muslim, and that Muslim citizens should be "registered" and have to wear identifying labels like the Jews of Nazi Europe. For months he kept the "birther" controversy boiling about President Obama's citizenship. Whether Mexican, woman, black or Muslim, the recurring theme is that people who are different are scary and must be delegitimized and eliminated. Trump's references to his opponents in the race are similarly pitched to the basest level of personal invective. They are "stupid," "losers," "psychos," "weak," "ugly," and "dumb," to name a few of the dizzying succession of schoolyard taunts he hurls at those with the temerity to run against him.
Based on the large number of contradictory statements he has made over the past many years in the public eye, it is impossible to tell whether he actually believes any of these things. I tend to think he probably does not. Rather, I think he knows exactly what he's doing: appealing to the fear, bigotry and desire for an authoritarian leader he knows is rampant in the Republican base with the design of riding that to the nomination and perhaps the White House. The Republican establishment is in a panic about Trump's popularity and his chances of garnering the nomination, but they have only themselves to blame. For years they have fed these fears in the base through their statements and their media outlets. They have succeeded in whipping their adherents into a frenzy of fear and hate. They have finally run up against a sharp and unscrupulous publicity hound who understands what has been created and knows how to take advantage of it. Instead of appealing to these dark intimations obliquely like 'respectable' Republicans do, Trump goes ahead and directly plays to them right out loud, and the haters love him for his 'honesty.' Not only the GOP establishment, but the whole nation now reaps the whirlwind.
Trump is a classic demagogue. His popularity is the encapsulation of every angry, mean-spirited, bigoted, xenophobic, violent, ill-informed, racist element in the Republican Party. The principal driving force of his support is fear, and he plays on it as adroitly as Segovia ever strummed the classical guitar. Trump's slogan may be "Make America Great Again" but his message is never about building up America or encouraging the greatness of its people. His stump speech instead begins with about half an hour of bombastic blather about how great Trump is, followed by another half hour of naming scapegoats and tearing them down. This began on day one of his campaign, when he announced that immigrants from Mexico were "rapists, murderers and thieves." He has spoken approvingly of the Japanese internment of World War II and "Operation Wetback," which rounded up Mexican-Americans, many of them natural born citizens, and expelled them. He has also demeaned women, Vietnam veterans, blacks and Muslims. His misogynistic insults against Megyn Kelly and Carly Fiorina were followed by assertions that a black protester manhandled at one of his rallies "should have been roughed up." John McCain, who was tortured for his country for years as a POW in North Vietnam was a "loser" for letting himself be captured.
Trump has concocted a story that American Muslims celebrated the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11. He says people who are entering the U.S. should be asked their religion and barred entrance if they are Muslim, and that Muslim citizens should be "registered" and have to wear identifying labels like the Jews of Nazi Europe. For months he kept the "birther" controversy boiling about President Obama's citizenship. Whether Mexican, woman, black or Muslim, the recurring theme is that people who are different are scary and must be delegitimized and eliminated. Trump's references to his opponents in the race are similarly pitched to the basest level of personal invective. They are "stupid," "losers," "psychos," "weak," "ugly," and "dumb," to name a few of the dizzying succession of schoolyard taunts he hurls at those with the temerity to run against him.
Based on the large number of contradictory statements he has made over the past many years in the public eye, it is impossible to tell whether he actually believes any of these things. I tend to think he probably does not. Rather, I think he knows exactly what he's doing: appealing to the fear, bigotry and desire for an authoritarian leader he knows is rampant in the Republican base with the design of riding that to the nomination and perhaps the White House. The Republican establishment is in a panic about Trump's popularity and his chances of garnering the nomination, but they have only themselves to blame. For years they have fed these fears in the base through their statements and their media outlets. They have succeeded in whipping their adherents into a frenzy of fear and hate. They have finally run up against a sharp and unscrupulous publicity hound who understands what has been created and knows how to take advantage of it. Instead of appealing to these dark intimations obliquely like 'respectable' Republicans do, Trump goes ahead and directly plays to them right out loud, and the haters love him for his 'honesty.' Not only the GOP establishment, but the whole nation now reaps the whirlwind.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Obama Address on Terrorism
I watched President Obama's Oval Office "Address on Terrorism" Sunday night. His remarks were occasioned by recent events. ISIS or ISIS-inspired terrorists have put themselves squarely in the public's consciousness as a result of the highly organized internationally directed attack in Paris and then the seemingly independently undertaken attack in San Bernardino, California. The President showed the gravity of the matter by speaking to the public from the Oval Office for only the third time in his presidency.
He tried to strike a balance between respecting the seriousness of the threat, reassuring the American people that all reasonable steps are being taken, and making an appeal to remember our values. Mr. Obama stated that "ISIS and any other organization that threatens Americans must and will be destroyed." He pledged that the ongoing campaign would be "strong and smart, resilient and ruthless." But he also made a plea that anger over terrorism not turn into intolerance against the Muslim religion and Muslim Americans as a whole.
The actions highlighted were a continuation of what is already being done, including stepped-up air attacks and special forces raids in Iraq and Syria, training of more Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian forces, cutting off terrorist funding sources, enlisting more Muslim authorities to counter ISIS propaganda about the true nature of Muslim teachings, and pursuing diplomatic efforts to expand the growing coalition and a cease-fire in Syria that would allow all parties to focus on eliminating ISIS. These are all the same strategies every Republican and Democratic presidential candidate except two are already advocating. The two exceptions are Lindsay Graham, who wants to invade with American ground troops and Donald Trump, who is advocating fascist tactics like "registering all American Muslims," "going after the families" of terrorists and preventing any Muslim from entering the United States.
President Obama asked for congressional help on four items. He wants an official authorization of the use of military force, legislation mandating tighter screening for those entering the US without a Visa, a law making it illegal to sell a gun to anyone on a terrorist watch list, and a law making it harder for people to buy "high-powered assault rifles." The second and third of these requests might conceivably be passed, but the first and fourth have no chance in a majority Republican congress. Republicans overwhelmingly support the kinds of military action the President is taking, but they have heretofore avoided taking such a vote, likely afraid that if things go sideways they might be held partially to blame. It's easier and politically safer to criticize and shout louder for "stronger measures" without being specific about what those ought to be.
As always, Obama is focused on practicality. If it's not particularly glamorous to caution that this is going to take resolve and patience, the fact is that it will. There is a great deal of difference between running for president and being President. That's certainly been on display in the past week.
He tried to strike a balance between respecting the seriousness of the threat, reassuring the American people that all reasonable steps are being taken, and making an appeal to remember our values. Mr. Obama stated that "ISIS and any other organization that threatens Americans must and will be destroyed." He pledged that the ongoing campaign would be "strong and smart, resilient and ruthless." But he also made a plea that anger over terrorism not turn into intolerance against the Muslim religion and Muslim Americans as a whole.
The actions highlighted were a continuation of what is already being done, including stepped-up air attacks and special forces raids in Iraq and Syria, training of more Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian forces, cutting off terrorist funding sources, enlisting more Muslim authorities to counter ISIS propaganda about the true nature of Muslim teachings, and pursuing diplomatic efforts to expand the growing coalition and a cease-fire in Syria that would allow all parties to focus on eliminating ISIS. These are all the same strategies every Republican and Democratic presidential candidate except two are already advocating. The two exceptions are Lindsay Graham, who wants to invade with American ground troops and Donald Trump, who is advocating fascist tactics like "registering all American Muslims," "going after the families" of terrorists and preventing any Muslim from entering the United States.
President Obama asked for congressional help on four items. He wants an official authorization of the use of military force, legislation mandating tighter screening for those entering the US without a Visa, a law making it illegal to sell a gun to anyone on a terrorist watch list, and a law making it harder for people to buy "high-powered assault rifles." The second and third of these requests might conceivably be passed, but the first and fourth have no chance in a majority Republican congress. Republicans overwhelmingly support the kinds of military action the President is taking, but they have heretofore avoided taking such a vote, likely afraid that if things go sideways they might be held partially to blame. It's easier and politically safer to criticize and shout louder for "stronger measures" without being specific about what those ought to be.
As always, Obama is focused on practicality. If it's not particularly glamorous to caution that this is going to take resolve and patience, the fact is that it will. There is a great deal of difference between running for president and being President. That's certainly been on display in the past week.
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