Democratic campaign framework for 2018

In less than an hour, Democrats can have their campaign strategy outlined right here.

Cubres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

I am posting this because it's one of the best railroad videos I've ever seen. And the music is incredible.

Blake Farenthold is a lying propagandist

As many of my friends know, I continually wage an internal war between my wish to be thoughtful and civil in my discourse and to be vulgar and nasty, the latter tactic meant to convey the disrespect toward my target. Of course, many disagree with the bad-mannered approach, saying that it’s counterproductive.

But is it?

What to do with confederate monuments

An open letter to John Cornyn, Ted Cruz and Blake Farenthold

I am a constituent. If you don’t understand that I am one of the thousands who can and will vote against you, then you aren’t reading the tea leaves very well. Of course, as that special brand of right-wing Republican, you stand for nothing I cherish. You stand against kindness, decency, equality, freedom, democracy and Christianity. Mac Thornberry did the same for me when I lived in the Texas Panhandle.

And open letter to NFL management and team owners

Only a hermit could have avoided the news coverage avalanche of the war of words between the

Donald Trump and the personnel in the NFL. And on Monday, the war has continued, dominating more important issues — except that Trump’s behavior is the most important issue of the day.

The war started with a right-wing based rally in Alabama tweet demanding that players who protested (by taking a knee or sitting) during the National Anthem be fired. As the Washington Post reported, “After making a thinly veiled allusion to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sparked a national debate by taking a knee before August 2016 preseason games to protest police violence against minorities, Trump called on NFL coaches to get the ‘son of a bitch’ players off the field if they continued to kneel. The president repeated his call with no less intensity on Twitter on Saturday and Sunday morning.”

Debating Freestanding ERs

The Amarillo Globe-News did a story on freestanding ERs and it has generated a lot of discussion on the AGN's Facebook page. I posted a response to it, and the CEO of ERNow responded. I parsed his response, but the AGN wouldn't let me post it. Here is is in total.

Sorry, but the elephants in the room are the public policy and the ethical issues. No amount of PR spin is going to change the following:

• If the patient is dealing with a true medical emergency or massive trauma, the freestanding ERs are an intermediate step that can delay care in an inpatient setting; or, if less severe by requiring subsequent inpatient care, would subject the patient and/or patient’s family to additional and unnecessary cost.

• Freestanding ERs are an egregious duplication of capital and other resources. Freestanding ERs not only compete for patients and staff, contributing to increased costs across the board. By reducing patient volume at each facility, the fixed overhead costs are spread over a smaller base, raising overall facility and community costs. Competition for personnel can contribute to staffing shortages as there may not be enough skilled clinical staff to serve all the ERs.

• By taking patient volume away from the hospital ERs, the freestanding facilities undercut the hospitals’ revenue and therefore hurt the ability to reinvest in their facilities. The implications reducing hospitals’ ability to fund improvements should be clear.

• The argument that competition is good for patient outcomes and as an economic paradigm in medical care reflects a misunderstanding of health economics and clinical guidelines. Despite what some politicians and others would have you believe, the health care industry is not a classic, free market/supply-demand economic model. Anyone who has studied Econ 101 should be able to understand this. As for patient outcomes, the basic paradigm being undercut is that more volumes means more repetitions and better skill sets. That’s why, as one example, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has guidelines for patient volume for maintaining OB units in hospitals. This model of repetition applies to any skill set, but in medicine, it can have life or death implications.

• The assertion that the wait times at the hospital ERs are long for true emergencies needs to be backed with evidence with independently obtained data to have credibility. There is little doubt that the clearly non-urgent cases may have longer wait times, but that’s the purpose of triage. That people can only get care for anything in an ER speaks volumes about the failure of public policy in health care.

• In many communities, freestanding ERs are neither clear in differentiating themselves from urgent care centers (which CMS and other insurers recognize) nor forthcoming about the insurance coverages if one uses the freestanding ER.

In short, health care is degraded by using a business model instead of a charitable health care model.

Gerad Troutman

Gerad Troutman I love healthcare economics (have an MBA from WTAMU) and healthcare policy questions (leaving DC now after meeting with DHHS, would love to consider serving our community in Austin someday). I'll try to respond to each of your points, and I like your points and believe you make good ones.

[Maybe if I had a theatre, music or ag degree from WT, I’d brag. And MBA, not so much from any school and especially from WT.]

By this accord, [What accord?] all hospitals should close down aside from those who have Level 1 Trauma centers (which doesn't exist in Amarillo), top level Stroke Centers, etc. There is misinformation by the public that all hospitals can automatically handle everything.

[Please show me how you concluded I implied this about hospitals. Because, I never said anything of the sort. The misinformed public is the result of the kind of spin and propaganda coming from those not interest in a rational health care system. In short, the above sentences are a red herring.]

That is simply not the case and most every healthcare facility has a limitation at some point. At ER Now we have transferred dozens of patients to Lubbock (our local hospitals couldn't handle their final needs) and even some to Dallas. We provided the same life saving Emergency Care that any local hospital based ER would have, but we did it quick all the time, and always by a residency trained, board certified Emergency Physician.

[First, it would be rational to base your assertion on data, or at least back it up with examples. But you overlook that if the patient needs the inpatient that Northwest Texas Healthcare System or Baptist St. Anthony's Health System can provide, an ambulance trip from your facility to these hospitals is an extra cost. The hospital here don’t charge patients for wheeling them from the ER to the ICU, cath lab or elsewhere.

Second, you overlook that the local hospitals have triage and that a patient presenting with signs and symptoms of an emergent nature; or, arriving by ambulance from the field, will be handled quickly and properly. Since you’re asserting otherwise, can you provide unbiased evidence that FEC’s handle these crises faster?

Yes, come cases, after stabilization, might be better handled elsewhere. Lubbock has a burn center, for example, and would be a clear case of an appropriate transfer. But what magic does an FEC provide in this case?

Finally, it’s all well and good you have boarded ER docs. But in making your case as you did, you’re implying the hospitals don’t have properly qualified physicians. Credentials committees, in my experience, don’t take their responsibilities lightly. You’re making a serious charge.]

I disagree with adding costs to inpatient needs, and actually globally, I believe FECs decrease those costs.

[Part of this makes no sense. It’s nice to “believe” FEC’s decrease system costs. But, can you reasonably demonstrate it? Further, with Medicare, Medicaid and some other private insurers disallowing your fees, the costs fall hard on the patient. Go to ABC7 Amarillo’s website for a story last year on this very issue.]

We send patients straight to inpatient beds, ICUs, surgical suites, cath labs. We have an opportunity to spend more time with patients, and can often avoid admissions if not truly warranted. [I addressed some of this above, but, again, you’re asserting something you haven’t backed up. Unwarranted admissions at hospitals? What percentage of patients does that really apply to?]

If hospital based ERs largely were sitting around empty, without waits, I would agree with you. Fact is, many/most have waits and even have times when they have EMS diversion.

[As I noted above, the triaging moves true cases in very quickly. I’ve seen it done. You’re conflating uninsured, poor or otherwise disadvantaged people with non-emergent problems with the role of the ER in theory. And conflating the lack of primary care resources with true emergency care. I hate to say it, but you’re being disingenuous. Further, those EMS diversions are rare and generally occur when inpatient beds are full. Hospital are not going to divert a true emergency case (e.g., an acute MI) because they can hold the patient in a post-op area after treatment. FECs offer nothing better.]

Competition for staff can increase salaries, which one may argue is not good for the healthcare economics but is good for our countries economics. So which do we balance? We created over 50 FTEs in our community (mostly licensed jobs) and created a large property tax base for our community. These things help our community grow.

[I am not sure you understand some of these economic issues. At least you seem to understand that staff competition’s raising salaries isn’t a “good” thing for health care economics. It creates inflationary pressure on the whole system. I don’t see how it’s good for our “countries” (sic) economics when, as with the oil boom, the bubble will burst. Those FTEs you claim to “create”: from where did those people come? Other facilities? That’s not job creation. Fresh out of school? How does that match your argument for experience? As for creating a “large property tax base,” the tax base is already here. That’s the meaning of the term. If you say you contributed largely to the tax base, I’d ask you how large?]

Many hospitals are private, for profit, and all in our community are. What about the ability for the FEC to reinvest, grew, perhaps expand to other communities? I have issue when we think it's bad for the FEC but is ok for the hospital. Both of these facilities provided needed services to communities.

[I’d like to suggest you look at the history of health care in the United States. You were born in 1980, according to the Texas Medical Board website. That was at the height of the Great Society’s programs to rationalize health care in a good way. PL 89-239 launched a huge research imitative to combat heart disease, cancer and stroke. PL 89-249 established community health planning, which sought to eliminate unneeded duplication of facilities and other irrational practices. Two years later, Ronald Reagan and the Republicans came along and dismantled these programs, based on their notion that the “free market” would allocate health care resources more efficiently. The GOP continues to visit that fraud on us today.]

I agree to a point that volume helps skill, but I would say to you there is a limit to human proficiency. I have seen literally thousands of patients with 'chest pain' in my short career. I think my clinical acumen changes little if I see 5 patients with CP this month of 50. Procedurally, I have done hundred to thousand of intubations (breathing machine) and readily have backup plans for an accepted failed intubation (there is an accepted rate). I think performing multiple hour long surgical cases is a very different compassion to the life saving procedures and clinical acumen we obtain in Emergency Medicine.

[I can’t and won’t make a judgment of clinical skills. I just subscribe to the notion that reps builds any skill in any field.]

So how do you define non-emergent? I would agree to you that hospital ERs generally do a great job as the sickest of the sick on getting those patients right back and stabilized. The issue are those abdominal pains that ended up being a heart attack, or an impending ruptured aorta (large blood vessel) that had normal vitals, or mild mind confusion that ended up being a stroke. These are all also time sensitive emergencies and these are missed everyday due to long wait times.

[First, by writing, “I would agree to (sic) you that hospital ERs generally do a great job as (sic) the sickest of the sick on getting those patients right back and stabilized,” but it strikes me as a contradiction to your main arguments above. Further, again, the implications of your assertion about those missed diagnoses is troubling — essentially saying that hospitals are missing cases due to wait times. I think you need to back that up with data and compare it to missed diagnoses in other clinical settings. Is it more or less?]

I like to think there are not bad actors out there, but I acknowledge there is always that possibility, just like there are hospitals that have been convicted of fraud. I think the vast majority of FECs want their communities to know they are a real ER and we should be visited for the same reasons you'd go to a hospital based ER, expect you will get more personalized, immediate care in a FEC. We have been purposeful in our advertising and used ER in our name and Emergency is printed multiple times outside.

[I guess your key argument is we’re more touchy feely and you won’t wait long if you think you’re really sick and you’re not. And if you’re really emergent, we’ll be nice and stabilize you and you’ll go to the hospital anyway.]

  

There are issues with a purely charitable healthcare model when we think about advancement in medicine. [Please tell me what they are.] There can also be issues with for profit healthcare models (which many hospitals are becoming, and those in our community already are). Profit ability is what provides for innovation and drives people to do it bigger, better, faster, and cheaper than the guy down the street.

[This is (I am sorry) breathtakingly ignorant. This is complete misunderstanding of the difference between excess of revenue over expenses and profit when looking at non-profit vs for-profit hospitals. Read Herbert Klarman’s “The Economics of Health,” please.

Thank you for the comments and I always enjoy seeing different perspectives. I believe we are a value add to healthcare and that ER Now has become an important piece of Emergency Care in the Texas Panhandle. FECs on the Texas coast filled a huge void during Harvey and are continuing to do so.

[Harvey is a “this is not a drill” disaster and everybody is pitching in on the Gulf Coast. I know. I live there now. FECs aren’t special in this.]

Because of the importance of this topic, I have responded in detail so as to continue this discussion. My responses are in brackets and in Word are in red.

Behold the face of ignorance, hate and hypocrisy

Behold, my friends. This is the face of ugly. No, this isn’t an aesthetic judgment. This is the visage of ugly from the inside. This is a face of Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, one of the radicalized

Republican leaders in the state.

This is the face of ignorance. It is the face of a man who won’t understand zoology, biology, medicine and the other sciences that bring us our well-being. This is the face of the man who would rather promote foster fossil fuels over sustainable, clean wind and solar energy, denying the science of global warming. This is the man who would rather let women die from a pregnancy gone wrong than her and her doctor use science to save lives. This is the man who refuses to understand that sexual preference and gender identity are based in neuroscience, not religious doctrine. This is the face of a man, despite is legal training from a fine school, believes that Christian doctrine overrides the United States and Texas constitutions.

This is the face of hate and intolerance. This is face of the man who would let the pollution from fossil fuels wreak havoc on people’s health and our climate because he doesn’t care for people, only the corporations. This is the face of a man who will not shed a tear for the tragedy of a lost child. Or for the mother and child born with disability; or poverty; or illness. This is the face of the man who, in denying science, treats people with different gender identities or preferences as non-humans.

This is the face of hypocrisy. This is the face of the man who posts Bible verses and religious doctrine on his social media pages, but who rejects the very message of the deity he claims to revere as a savior. This is the face of a man who was crippled in an accident and won a big settlement then backed measures to deny others the same benefits he got from the legal system. This is the face of a man who wants to get even with the trees for his injury. This is the face of a man who claims to back small government but continues to expand its reach into our private lives.

This is the face of a radicalized right wing in American politics — and the hand that shows his ^th occupant as the president of the United States. Look at that curled thumb and forefinger, an imitation of the same gesture the Liar-in-Chief Oval Office narcissistic psychopath makes to sell his ignorance and hate.

loyalty to Donald Putin Bannon, the 45

Remember these faces in 2018 and 2020.

What is the GOP end game?

I’ve been thinking about that on and off for years and since the election, more so.

I don’t understand what the Republicans have to gain with their agenda. All I see is the dystopian future of science fiction novels. If you look at the broad sweep of American history in the 20^th

Century, the oligarch class has resented the rest of the population since the success of the trustbusters.

The resurgence of the Moral Majority and Republicans has been ongoing since Watergate. They have played the long game and are close to winning. I don’t know what it will take to stop them, given how they have outflanked the progressive and, especially, the Democratic Party:

And the staffs are complicit, too

To: The staff of Republican legislators

CC: The staff member who takes this off the fax machine

From: George Schwarz, constituent and one of the many people whose taxes pay your salary

Subject: Upholding the United States Constitution

 

First, to the staffer who takes this off the fax, I implore you to read this and then pass it on to other staff members. Maybe someone higher in the food chain of your office will show it to your penultimate boss, the office holder/politician.

Of course, the ultimate bosses are the voters. I am sorry to have to remind all of you of that fact because your boss, and the majority of the Republican bosses, have forgotten that. But you knew that didn’t you?

So, here’s a question for all of you, but especially who work for Cruz, Cornyn, Thornberry and Farenthold. Do you understand how they are violating their oath of office under the Constitution? No, they are not required under the Constitution to vote a certain way to uphold their oaths of office. But, under the Constitution, we have a righto petition the government for the redress of our grievances. Disabling our ability to give input by all but shutting down phones, fax machines and ignoring emails; and, by sending out form letters that are totally nonresponsive to issues[1], the politicians you work for are obstructing the citizens’ right to use the First Amendment.

Confronting the right-wing Texas governor's hate and hypocrisy

March 22, 2017

Greg Abbott

State Capitol Bldg.

1100 Congress, Room 2S.1

Austin, TX 78701

FAX 1(512)463-1849

Mr. Abbott:

One of the difficult things to do in addressing the Republican leadership of Texas is to keep a civil tone. The Republican resistance to other views is startling. So many of you have become intolerant of anyone else. You and your allies are very close to becoming a Christian Taliban.

Here are some things you need to know:

·A large number of Texans don’t support the faux Christian views you and your cohorts claim are Christ’s message. We see the message far differently. It’s a message of love, tolerance, care, compassion and acceptance. It’s not the judgmental hate you wrap in the false flag gospel, the cross and the American flag.

·The Republicans retain political control of Texas through treacherous dishonesty. The gerrymandering coupled with the straight party line voting is just the tip of the iceberg. The dishonesty extends to lying and propaganda, disinformation and participating in the dumbing down of voters by undercutting the public schools in this fine state. It is not only a threat to the Founders’ spirit of democracy, but it is a threat to our country’s national security. What could be more treasonous?

Is the AISD board racist? Looks like it

Sometimes Amarillo’s culture simply disappoints me more than I can imagine. I rarely use the Amarillo Globe-News as a source, but the coverage of the Amarillo Independent School District’s board meeting Monday evening pointed to a key problem in this community: self-satisfied racism.

The account prompted the observation from me on Facebook. “Congrats to the Amarillo Independent School District's board of racists. You have spent millions, literally, on athletics but when a respected member of the minority community asks for an independent study on diversity, you won't even discuss it.

An act of patriotism

Perhaps, just before 45's speech, one of the greatest acts of patriotism could come from deep within the IRS. Maybe some brave and patriotic soul will somehow make 45's tax returns public. It wouldn't be the first time an act of civil disobedience would benefit the republic.

Thornberry, you can run but you can't hide

Mac,

It’s clear that our hard-earned tax money is not only paying for you to hide in your district offices but these dollars are also paying for the tech support to hide from your constituents online. It’s clear that you’re even a bigger coward than Louie Gohmert. The thing is, Mac, you can’t fool some of us. You see, it’s isn’t hard to figure out what you’re doing.

 

Here is a screenshot of your Facebook page when I access it in an incognito window in Chrome. But, as soon as I log into Facebook, it’s clear your tech support people have figured out how to block me. As you lawyers like to say, “Res ipsa loquitur.” I can only conclude that you want to suppress dissent just like the other fascists in the 45/Bannon administration; and that you’re so thin-skinned that you and your staff are bigger snowflakes than we knew. Or, that those of us with different views haven’t made large enough campaign contributions to gain access to you.

Where's Mac?

Since Mac Thornberry, our employee, is being insubordinate by not meeting with people in a town hall, here is some information on that might help people find him so they can bring concerns directly to him.

Thornberry’s home address in the district, according to Vote TX, is: 4300 County Road 7A, Clarendon, TX 79226. According to Google maps, it’s here. According to the same website, his phone number is: (806) 371-8183, which isn’t associated with his Amarillo office number on his website.

An Open Letter to Mac Thornberry

Here we are at the start of another one of your many Congressional recesses. Another instance of returning to the district when you should be in Washington working for your constituents.

But, of course, Mac, you haven’t done that since your election in 1994. Remember, that’s when you ran under the Newt Gingrich banner of “Contract with America?” One of the contractual terms was term limits. You violated that clause and then justified it with lawyerly excuses about the nature of that pledge, forgetting that the spirit and intent of a contract is equally important.

So, you’ve “represented” the 13^thCongressional District of Texas under a deception from the start.

Congrats to Cornyn and his staff

John Cornyn, the senior so-called senator who continues to lie when he says he represents Texans, is famous for those automated replies to emails and letters. I doubt the big bribers, uh, campaign

contributors, get the back-of-the-hand treatment. And, like so many of those arrogant public officials, not only is the disconnect between the content of the reply and the issue pretty clear, but the timeliness of the response is well after the matter is determined. Those things aren’t surprising for someone whose nose is you-know-where with the corporatists and the mentally ill 45, a/k/a/ Twittler.

The choice of Betsey DeVos as Secretary of Education is based on the goal of destroying the United States’ public school system. So 45’s choice of a major bribe mistress of the GOP is a perfect reflection his, Steve Bannon’s and their corporatist allies’ disgraceful agenda. Also, like so many Republicans, Cornpone wanted to hide from the #resist! people who, unlike him, care about the nation’s children. I was one of those who tried to get Cornhole to represent those who can‘t afford to bribe him.

Adios ABC7 Amarillo

I had a great run at ABC7 Amarillo and want to publicly thank former News Director Ryan Hazelwood for trusting me to help with the station’s investigative reporting team.

I also want to publicly thank Niccole Caan and Kendra Hall for accepting my role working with them. Those two young women reflect the best in journalism and I wish them future success. They are part of a robust newsroom that Hazelwood put together. The incoming news director will have a great staff with which to work.

As for me, I turned in my key card Thursday. I’ll miss going into the station. I guess I am now fully retired. Now, it’s onto South Texas.

An open letter to Cornyn, Cruz, McConnell & Pence

I have posted this to their webmail, have post cards ready to mail and posted on Facebook. This is a

new low, even for Republicans.

You are one sleazy piece of shit. May God damn you. And your POS friends.

  You have my name. I want to know how much you charge for me to influence your vote or even listen to me and other people whom you pretend to represent instead of the corporatist fuckers whose tits you suckle at.

  Now, let me add this: Normally I would be civil and respectful and would be concerned that my vulgar language would be ineffective because you and your treasonous staff would blow me off as nuts. But I am not nuts and my vulgarity is calculated. I desire to visit on you a message in the most offensive way. You never have earned or deserved my respect and with this latest betrayal deserve less than respect. You deserve disdain. By all that is holy, I will do anything I can to damage your political career and come election time for you, I will bust my ass to get people to vote against you.

The mindset of the fascists

Some of us often wonder about the minds of the right-wingers who support Cheato-in-Chief Trump/Bannon and his Fascist/Neo-Nazi accomplices in their treason. Well, I’m no skull jockey, but I have some former Facebook friends who are Trumpettes who will not open their eyes or their minds. They are either incapable of decoding the language of propaganda; or, if they can decode the language, they support the goals that the fascists would achieve.
Normally, I wouldn’t call people out like this, but as I’ve said before, this is war — it is a fight to the sanctity of American ideals and the United States Constitution. And, the Republicans, with the exception of a very view, are either fully supporting the Nazi takeover or complicit in it by their silence. They refuse to learn from history and by so doing, put the safety of everybody at risk.
So, here is the Facebook thread started by the wife of an Amarillo city councilman. Take a read and then understand with whom and with what we are dealing if we want to RESIST! and understand what an uphill fight it is. On the other hand, let’s also take heart that the majority of voters don’t support the Nazi regime and as the Fascists’ agenda becomes clear, a vast majority realize what a horrible mistake this election was.



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Lissa May Merriman I don't get it, either. Can they not Google the definition of 'illegal'??
Like · Reply · 2 · 7 hrs

Monte Miller And to call his Executive Order a "Muslim Ban" Seriously?
Like · Reply · 1 · 6 hrs

Leslie E. Reese Yes he did say it. http://www.salon.com/.../get_them_the_hell_out_of_our.../


“Get them the hell out of our country”: Donald Trump calls for mass deportation…
SALON.COM|BY SCOTT ERIC KAUFMAN
Like · Reply · 5 hrs

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Lissa May Merriman That is not in the Executive Order. Muslims are not banned. Only specific countries.
Like · Reply · 3 · 5 hrs

Leslie E. Reese Except for Syrian Christian refugees...
Like · Reply · 3 hrs

Lissa May Merriman Poor Snowflake.
Like · Reply · 3 hrs

George Schwarz Lissa, Snowflake is offensive beyond the max. It was the Germans' nickname for the ashes that floated from the smokestacks from the murder and burning of Jews and others. It's even worse than the N-work. While you crossed the line a while ago, this one is disgusting.
Like · Reply · 2 hrs

Lissa May Merriman George, I've been called racist and sexist. I've been told I am selfish and hate people. I blow it off because I'm not an overly sensitive pussy. If 'Snowflake' offends you, you'll just have to deal with it. Newsflash: Words only hurt if you let them. Are you as offended by the violent riots - all started by the 'tolerant' left?
Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr · Edited

George Schwarz The rioters were paid operative from Breitbart. I just cannot believe that would be your attitude about a word that offensive. It really does define youi, you know, not me.
Like · Reply · 1 hr

Lissa May Merriman Sticks and stones needs to make a BIG comeback. And, I haven't heard any of the good Liberals denouncing that behavior. I find violence offensive. People who fall apart over words need safe spaces and therapy.
Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr

Lissa May Merriman People who don't want to be referred to as 'Snowflakes' should grow a pair and stop melting down at every perceived slight.
Like · Reply · 1 hr

George Schwarz This isn't about me being sensitive. It's about you being courteous and respectful of other people. It's similar to asking someone to take off their shoes so as not to trakc dirt in the house and you refusing to do so.
Like · Reply · 1 hr

Lissa May Merriman No, it's about Liberals bullying people to think and act like you do. I see 'Snowflakes' as delicate little souls that melt over everything they dislike. That is most people's definition. And, even if it was not most people's definition, if you are offended, you can ignore it or delete it or comment on it in a typically self righteous way (as you have), but that's all. That's it. Go be huffy all you want. I know who I am, I'm proud of who I am and your 'Victim Mentality' gasping means nothing. Like I said, time to bring back sticks and stones because, astoundingly, words will never hurt you.... Unless you are a delicate snowflake looking to melt.
Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr

Leslie E. Reese Lissa May Merriman You're not overly sensitive, you are insufficiently sensitive to the impact poorly or cruelly chosen words have and how much they interfere with actual exchanges of ideas. You might be surprised that some people who currently don't bother reading or thinking about your postings might change that response if you measured your words more carefully. Try it- what do you have to lose? (That was your leader's appeal to black voters, remember?)
Like · Reply · 12 mins

Lissa May Merriman Wonder why you wail at words you deem 'inappropriate', instead of shrugging and moving on. I keep repeating 'Sticks and Stones'. That needs to be taught in school again. Enough with the 'I'm offended!' Crybabies.
Like · Reply · 1 min
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Now they want to do something

All of a sudden we're getting these Facebook posts from democratic politicians asking for our help, and of course a contribution, to push back on the Trump / Putin Administration.

Where were they and the Democratic party leadership when we needed them?

Where was the Democratic party leadership when we knew that Bernie Sanders could play a major role in beating Trump?

Where was the Democratic party leadership when it was clear the Hillary Clinton had been so damaged by the Republican propaganda machine that we knew she couldn't win?

Where was the Democratic party leadership when it might have convinced Hillary Clinton to choose Bernie Sanders as a running mate?

Despite being an independent, Sanders was loyal to the Democratic party after the primaries, despite the screwing that he got from the Democratic party leadership. I'm not saying that people pushing back against Trump and Putin aren't doing the right things, but where is our payoff for being loyal?

Let's bring it to his doorstep

Reports floating aroundthe Web indicate that Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas who is owned by the right wing racist interests, has made it difficult for his own constituents to contact his office. To be clear, I have not confirmed these reports; and, I think that blocking citizen contact violates his oath of office to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

So, just in case those reports are true, I have posted two local Houstonaddresses where people who want to either send mail or protest in front of his properties can rally. Of course, Cruz isn’t there, but that’s OK. We send a message that he can run but he can’t hide from the people who pay his salary and benefits — excluding, of course, the legal bribes.

CRUZ HEIDI S & RAFAEL E
3208 ELLA LEE LN
HOUSTON TX 77019

or

3333 ALLEN PKY # 1906
HOUSTON TX 77019

If anyone can find the Washingtonaddress for John Cornyn, the other conspirator against the good people of the U.S., I will be glad to post it, as well as his Texas home address, which I couldn’t find.

Olbermann: Trump is crazy and must resign

Watch this video on The Scene.

Supporting action against Trump

Dave the AGN dolt strikes again

This is an entire paragraph from Dave Henry’s little column in the Saturday Amarillo Globe-News:

Liberal Logic: I saw video Friday afternoon of criminals breaking windows at a Starbucks — one has to assume as some form of asinine protest of Donald Trump. These vandals may have been under the impression they were taking out their frustrations on “the man” — a symbol of capitalism and GOP success. Problem is, Starbucks ownership leans to the left. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, endorsed Hillary Clinton in September. Facts and reality do not matter to some so-called “progressives.”

I want to point something out. Henry wrote “… one has to assume …” as though it is a key fact and the basis for which he deduces that rioters were attacking a Starbucks. No one is going to defend the rioting. But, can anyone defend Henry?

Hey, Dave, you dolt, one doesn’t have to assume anything about their motivation. Now do you know what impression they were under? Did you talk to the criminals? Or was your little spew based on divine inspiration? Didn’t think so.

How fitting that I can paraphrase you: Facts and reality do not matter to Dave Henry and Republicans.

And so it begins. Is it too late?

As millions of women marched nationwide the day after the coronation of the most corrupt, racist, misogynistic fascist president since Richard Nixon by a failed electoral system, Donald TrumPutin

and his cabal have begun their destruction of America.

Hours after the end of the swearing-in, TrumPutin’s first executive action was to roll back a provision for homeowners that will cost lower and middle-class borrowers billions of dollars a year. These animals have scrubbed progressive pages from the White House website. News reports tell us that Canadians coming to participate in the women’s march of been stopped at the border. The animals in TrumPutin’s herd ordered National Park Service to stop tweeting until further notice after showing the crowds at the inauguration were lower than President Biff Tannen claimed.

Why no one had a clue that this would happen prior to the election is no mystery. Republican operatives teamed with Russians, led by Vladimir Putin, to undermine the United States election and tilt it in favor of the Cheeto in Chief. The thug GOP has said little. Surprisingly Lindsey Graham was only one of the few Republicans in the Senate to voice much concern. The country’s intelligence community’s various agencies continue to investigate. Maybe we will learn the extent of damage to the election process; maybe we’ll even learn that the Republicans and Russians teamed up to actually hack the voting machines. The issue about machine hacks has come up before — in some cases implicating one of the device makers.

But here are two important points to all this:

First, we must hope the millions of women marching across the world Saturday are the tip of the resistance iceberg. The reproductive rights and other women’s issue are crucially important. After all, the Republicans still can’t tell us why they are so interested in inserting the government into women’s genitals when they claim to wish government off our backs. And, as a man, if have to also ask why they aren’t as interested in all our johnsons. Equally important to all the issues to which the marches Saturday called attention, the nation must understand that the war on women, while real, is a distraction for the main agenda.

And that main agenda? Fascism. Our country’s situation isn’t just about TrumPutin. It’s about an entire gang that includes the Koch Brothers, Rush Limbaugh, Rex Tillerson; the whores of Goldman Sachs seeking to be in the new cabinet; the losers like Rick Perry and Betsey DeVos; and the right-wing echo chamber who want to turn over the country to the New Robber Barons. TrumPutin is not really in charge. I don’t know who is, but whomever it is has been plotting this for years. Why has there been a militarization of our civil law enforcement? Why are the corporatists and the public officials aligned with them waging war on the Native Americans over an oil pipeline? Why are we seeing increased attacks on the First Amendment? Why are Muslims, the disabled and  immigrants being scapegoated? Why is TrumPutin continually gaslighting Americans?

Many warned about these issues during the election, but it was already too late. It is still too late to make America America again?

With more propaganda, no bottom to the Globe-News barrel

Once again, the Amarillo Globe-News spews Republican propaganda, this time about health care and the Affordable Care Act. Leading the charge is the Globe-News’ Dave Henry, poster boy for

misinformation, disinformation and fake news. This time Henry’s column for Mondaymorning shills for Mac Thornberry, the Panhandle’s representative in the party of Putin. Calling his section in his column “A Healthy Alternative,” Henry quotes Thornberry’s Facebook page, “This week, the House and Senate passed budget resolutions that are the critical first steps to repealing and replacing Obamacare. This effort is at the top of our agenda, and we intend to make sure that it is done right. Americans deserve health care that is affordable, patient focused, and that saves the benefits that they have paid into.”

After 16 years of using Karl Rove’s propagandistic language of calling Social Security and Medicare “entitlements,” an apparatchik for the Trump/Putin administration now concedes that people having been using their own money to pay premiums. But the backbencher marionette Thornberry does his own regurgitating of the GOP talking points. With eight years under its belt of carping about replacing the ACA, no one in the party of Putin has proposed another plan. Thornberry goes along with the propagandizing because he, like the rest of his ilk, don’t really care about the people who need heath care. Hell, they don’t care about anyone in need or poor.

What makes Thornberry and the rest of the Republicans premeditated murderers is that they know, and we know, people won’t be able to afford diagnosis and treatment and then they will die. Yes, die. Adding to the disgusting stupidity, these miscreants are going to cut off the money to the insurance industry, BigPharma, medical equipment manufacturers and health care providers. Wait till that splatters against the fan. And who will be hurt the most by all this? The Trump/Putin supporter.

There is more, of course. Henry then contributes in his typical ignorant and uninformed way, maintaining the dishonorable tradition of the Globe-News building as a fact-free zone. It’s no surprise, but Henry makes two statements he can’t back up with systematic data. First, the assertion that the ACA is a failure and has not delivered on PRESIDENT Barack Obama promises.

Obamacare has been a failure, and has not delivered the promises made by Barack Obama.

 

If Henry had bothered, he could have asked Google to find this set of links. Suffice it to say, double-digit millions of people now have health insurance. And since the Democrats needed to make concessions to the insurance industry to pass the ACA, it’s not really the president breaking promises. It’s the very corporatists with whom Henry and his kind are allied that have broken the promises by setting up networks and excluding some providers. The real statement the president should have made is, “If you have your own providers, you can keep them if the insurance company lets you.”

As for his last statement (below), it is at least six years past time for an alternative. The former Republican Party’s 2012 standard bearer, Mitt Romney, led the health insurance reform in Massachusetts when he was the governor of the Bay State — the GOP governor. It was, in part, a model for the ACA. In fact, if the Trump/Putin party want a conservative alternative to “Obamacare,” they can have RomenyCare.

And, note something else important and part of the M.O. for the Globe-News, Henry and the current Trump Party as well as those Republicans who put party and agenda above country. As part of the standard propaganda ploy, they refer to “a federal failure in taking over health care.” RomneyCare and the ACA were no such thing. They were insurance reform. Those programs set up protections from insurance companies. Neither program took over health care nor imposed specific practices on health care providers. As it has been for years, insurers have done that.

It is time for an alternative, and we are anticipating what Republicans will do to improve on what has been a federal failure in taking over health care.

As we can tell from what happened under cover of night — what an insult to our form of government — the party of treason has no alternative and there is nothing to anticipate but illness, death and a weakening of our people. And as the younger generations Americans raise children in this upcoming dystopia, our national security will suffer as we try to staff our military with weaker personnel.

One can only wonder what the supporters of this right-wing takeover of our government have to gain and why they brush off cruelty and embrace regression. Is it greed? Or is it perversion? And why do the Republicans, the Amarillo Globe-News, which posts a daily Bible verse and wraps itself in the banner Christianity, act so un-Christian?

The Globe-News: from deplorable to pathetic

I almost had to call an ambulance this evening. Really. You see, I just read Robert Stein’s Amarillo Globe-News story, “Mayor wants to know who leaked information,” posted to the one of the news pages on the third-rate media outlet’s website. I had trouble breathing; I just couldn’t catch my breath from laughing.

As if Globe-News editorials weren’t bad enough, replete with poor writing and facts harder to find than a diamond in a Florida swamp, we now get an article that starts editorializing in the first sentence. Then, it goes on to whine in chorus with Paul Harpole, our Trumpian mayor, about a leak from a City Council executive session. Harpole’s panties are all in a wad because ABC7 Amarillo had a scoop from a confidential source on the council choosing a new city manager.

Harpole, who is of that Amarillo-type paternalistic ilk who think they know better than the citizenry which is mostly beneath them, is in high dudgeon about ABC7 Amarillo having information before Hiz Honor could control it as the hero of the staged news conference. In the past, that TV station has popped stories that angered Harpole: KVII broke a story about United Way a few years ago that set Harpole on a course of undercutting ABC7 Amarillo whenever he could. He usually passed news tidbits to the Globe-News when he got wind that the TV station was nosing around. It’s fair to say that the Globe-News has been one of Harpole’s useful idiots.

But what ABC7 Amarillo did on this story, and others, was in the finest traditions of American journalism. Think the Pentagon Papers. Or Watergate. Confidential sources are part of the lifeblood of reporting and if it were not for people willing to leak information, the United States and Amarillo would be the worse for it. How ironic that this dust-up about something secretive has to do with Texas’ inferior Open Meeting Act.

Of the 25 years I’ve been a journalist, I’ve lived in Amarillo almost 14 years and I’ve never seen a community so culturally ignorant about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The understanding of what a free press is to society lives only in lip service to the denizens of public and large private institutions here. And as for the separation of church and state? I guess cinching the Bible belt tightly around “church” and “state” to keep them together is part of the problem.

So, let me throw a little shade at the Globe-News on this attempt at newswriting.

“Amarillo City Council members are once again showing their dysfunctional and, perhaps, petty sides.” — What place is it of a news page to label “City Council members” dysfunctional? And which members, if it’s going in the lede — that is, the first paragraph? In whose judgment, too, is behavior petty? Seems to me that bringing transparency to the most important post on the city payroll is what should be done. Folks, this is about control, and we all know that.

Then, the story goes on: “On Thursday, the sole finalist for Amarillo’s city manager position and details surrounding his hiring were leaked to local media following a Tuesday afternoon executive session of the council, a headhunter and the city attorney.” — Actually, the leak wasn’t to local “media” because “media” is plural. The information was leaked to only one outlet. The sentence more accurately should have read, “On Thursday, the sole finalist for Amarillo’s city manager position and details surrounding his hiring were leaked to one of the local TV stations while the rest of the media stood around with their pants down. This followed a Tuesday afternoon executive session of the council, a headhunter and the city attorney.”

When the Globe-News quoted Harpole thus: “It was apparent to me pretty quickly that someone on the council had breached executive session,” it showed Hiz Honor has a firm grasp of the obvious.

I wonder if the Globe-News had scooped a story if it would have written the word “sources” in quotes like this story did. All I could think of was Dr. Evil and his air quotes. Excuse me, I have to stop a minute to catch my breath again.

I am going to give a pass on some of the other material to get to this: “Harpole stopped short of saying Friday that Councilman Randy Burkett leaked confidential information to a local television station, but said he certainly released information that shouldn’t have been made public to the Amarillo Globe-News, which published a story with on-the-record sources.”

Oh, for God sakes, how did Harpole “stop short” if the Globe-News named Burkett?” Why not publish the whole quote?

Now, Robert and your editors, please don’t break your arms patting yourselves on the back. You don’t deserve it. You all are just upset that ABC7 Amarillo has a better news team than you do. And, having worked at the Globe-News for as long as my ethics could stand it, I know about the policy about anonymous and confidential sources. It’s too stringent and it’s gutless and it deprives Amarillo of real news.

Here are the next two paragraphs:

Burkett told the Globe-News that the council would give Miller a non-voting seat on the board of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp.

“He does not have the right to release info like that. He also does not have the right to unilaterally make decisions on behalf of the council. That’s wrong, and it shouldn’t be tolerated,” Harpole said. “While there is not a lot we can do about it, I think the public should know (Burkett) is willing to breach executive session over and over and over again.”

I wish I could have been there to see Ole Harpy get red in the face with that one. The way I see it, if a councilor doesn’t like the way the mayor is handling things, and clearly Burkett doesn’t, there isn’t any reason for him to remain silent. After all, the past commissions and councils walked in lock-step and look where it got us. Downtown Amarillo Inc., Wallace Bajjali, the Local Government Corp. and millions in tax money wasted.

“It does, however, present the city with possible issues of civil liability, violation of the council’s own policy and procedures as well as breach of the public trust.” — This is one of those sentences that begs for attribution because, given we know this story is slanted, we need to know if the city attorney said it or if Stein is just dropping in an opinion.

“Harpole and Burkett said they asked and that a local television station refused to reveal its source of information to them.” And “The Globe-News attempted to reach KVII news leadership multiple times Friday and Saturday, but calls, social media messaging and email were not returned.” — Excuse me. Had to catch my breath again.

Why in the world would a news outlet tell anyone? When The Amarillo Independent came across confidential information from the Amarillo Police Department a few years ago, the department’s Internal Affairs officer called to ask where we got it. The Indy didn’t give up the information and no good and decent media outlet would. If the Globe-News had that kind of information, it wouldn’t give up the source either — which would be the exception to the ethical and decent label.

Also, what’s up with this cute little tactic of alternately writing “a local television station” and then “KVII” when everyone knows from earlier I the story that it’s ABC7 Amarillo. Calling councilors petty and then being this petty about a TV station?

Sometimes, readers will see an editorial note at the end of a story. Maybe if material not reported directly is worked into the story, you’d see a note such as, “The Associate Press Contributed to this story.”

In this case, Stein’s story should have the editorial note, “Paul Harpole contributed to this story because the Globe-News agree to be his mouthpiece.