Year End 2012

Has it been a good year for the greatest nation on earth? Well, maybe for Wall Street. Maybe not for many of the rest of us. We are ending our year with some big problems in the USA. I am more interested in ongoing big problems than in listing the top news stories of the year, although problems and news about them are related.

The economy. It’s about the unequal distribution of wealth, real estate still in trouble, meaningful jobs in short supply, and the role of government in taxation priorities. The US has the greatest income inequality in the world; one to two percent of Americans receive at least a quarter of the income generated. Money buys political power.  Corporate CEOs have huge salaries while the have-nots are struggling and the middle class is disappearing. Wall Street seems to being doing well even though we are in what is called the Great Recession. Greed wins.

The government could establish some policies that would help the majority of our people if it had the will to do it. It isn’t socialism; it’s good practice to love one’s neighbor at the policy level.

The medical scene. It’s not health care; it’s medical procedures. I think it is atrocious that people’s medical service is delivered for profit. We have a system that is dominated by drug companies and insurance companies, and both are enriched by operating for profit. It’s profit first, addressing disease  second, at whatever prices they set. Government policy has cooperated with them. The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is part of that system rather than being a reform of it. Chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease are costing huge amounts of money. High-tech procedures are very expensive and reportedly over-used, although they can be life savers. Many doctors prescribe drugs when natural solutions can be used. Drug companies encourage and advertise this. Why? They exist for profit. Natural remedies don’t make profits. Insurance companies decide what to cover and what to refuse. Their rates for coverage are becoming unaffordable, whether they are paid for by government, employers or individual payers.

Government had the opportunity to turn this around with the Affordable Care Act but didn’t do it. Medicare is forbidden by law to negotiate drug costs. Medicare pays huge medical expenses even when they are unjustified. We can have better health with lower costs. Our medical system costs more than that of any other nation on earth and we are nowhere near the top in outcomes.

Violence. Ours is a violent society. We have been hearing about mass shootings recently in addition to individual murders. A black teenager was shot in Florida, and his killer’s defense was a legal Stand Your Ground law. Many children were shot in an elementary school in Connecticut very recently. The National Rifle Association suggested that teachers in schools be armed. The conversation goes on and on about whether to ban assault weapons. The second amendment to the constitution is interpreted to justify individual people having guns. As I remember it, the second amendment existed originally for protection of Americans against the British army, as a guarantee for a militia. I don’t know of anyone who needs an assault weapon to shoot a deer. I don’t know of anyone who needs an assault weapon for anything except a gun collection or mass murder.  I believe that our government should regulate weapons in this country. Deer hunting, yes. Mass murder, no.

Education. I believe that universal education is a public good. I’m not sure everyone does.  I am seeing a movement that produces two tiers, private schools for people who can afford them and public schools for everyone else. Many school systems in our large cities are reportedly falling behind in achievement. Business has gotten behind school improvements, apparently using business models. Teachers’ unions are being criticized. Charter schools are proposed, although their track record is not universally wonderful.  As long as this dialog continues and the proponents of changes do not have constructive dialog together, and if education continues to be underfunded in many places, good education is not likely to happen. For example, why do we have to have charter schools with only non-union, lower paid teachers? Here in Madison we have some non-traditional schools (not charter schools) within the district. My granddaughter attended one and was able to graduate.

The cost for a college degree has become prohibitive; if our government is in favor of higher education, it should fund it at the level it did fifty years ago when my tuition at the University of Wisconsin was ninety-five dollars per semester. The high cost of a university education is crippling people with debt.

I do not think it was in the best interest of students of any age for our governor to cut education in Wisconsin by 2.5 million dollars. Any model of education should be adequate for the whole population. New ideas, yes. Egalitarian funding, too, yes.

War. What is the good of war unless we are genuinely attacked? Our nation has been on the empire track for quite a number of years. The Bush administration pushed pre-emptive war after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. Bush wasn’t the first to promote pre-emptive war; we did it to the Native Americans as part of expansion of our nation in its early years. We love being an empire. It has been reported that the US spends more on our military establishment than all other nations combined. We have no reason that I know of to have military bases in many countries in the world, and we are fighting an ongoing war in Afghanistan for no reason that I know of other than the so-called terrorist threat. It has been reported that the US is not well liked for its arrogant military action. Our military budget is huge. We don’t need this. I would like to have our military actions and killing end.

Maybe we would be the greatest nation on earth if we would stop imposing ourselves on everyone else. I think we need to have the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu as our generals. Save the military money; give it to the struggling economy at home.

The environment.  Corporate interests are killing our planet.  Now we are fracking. It takes large amounts of water and imported sand to produce natural gas to fire our insatiable appetite for power, heat, transportation, and the economy in general. That is one example. We blow up mountains to harvest coal. We have a transportation system that encourages the automobile with its pollution, while some countries continue to use mass transit and fewer cars. In the USA, it’s profit first, good environmental practices second.

Related to our misuse of our resources is climate change. Are we surprised at our weather extremes? Do we notice that the ice cap in Greenland is shrinking? Is it too late? Conservation is needed. Regulation is needed.

And the news…  I think the three biggest news stories of the year were the presidential election, hurricane Sandy, and the recall elections in Wisconsin.  The two deaths that I cared about were in the arts: Maurice Sendak, writer/illustrator of children’s books, and Dave Brubeck, great jazz musician.

Infidelity

High profile spousal infidelity has been in the news a lot lately. Right now it centers on New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. A short time ago the focus was former Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger. Before them we heard about others, including Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Virginia former Governor Mark Sanford, Prince Charles, President Bill Clinton, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, President John F. Kennedy (not publicized at the time), President Franklin D. Roosevelt (less publicized and a long time ago), and many more. They all had wives.

Publicly most of the men offered apologies. Privately they had to deal with the damage to their marriages. Their wives responded in a variety of ways. Some stayed married. Some didn't. But does a public apology mend a relationship?

Whenever a famous unfaithful husband is exposed publicly, I feel the pain that I assume their wives feel and felt after being betrayed in their relationships. I feel it because it hits me close to home. It happened to me, too, a long time ago. We are a large sisterhood.

Do those men excuse themselves by saying their sexual activities were their wives' fault, or they did things that technically were not sexual intercourse? Are their public apologies designed as attempts to retain their celebrity or power status? Is it all about narcissism?

Now that we have prostitutes (for Eliot Spitzer), oral sex (for Bill Clinton), subsequent death of spouse (for John Edwards), cybersex (for Rep. Weiner), phone sex (for many others), we are aware of the many ways for vulnerable men in high positions to take risks that can lead to their public destruction and the permanent changes to their most intimate relationships.

One televised image that stays with me is of Hillary Clinton, then First Lady, walking near, not with, her husband after his famous speech in which he acknowledged that he had sinned. Her body language said to me that Bill would have to deal with this episode in their lives himself.

Don't these men think about the pain they cause by thinking with a body part other than their brains? Do they think women are playthings to be used? Does power entitle them? Will they ever "get" it?

Wisconsin Politics

This is unbelievable in the history of Wisconsin. But it happened.

At 1:00 this (Friday) morning, the Wisconsin Assembly abruptly passed a controversial budget repair bill in a 17-second vote. Not everyone had time to vote. It caught many Democrats off guard as it came at the end of sixty hours of debate and ten days of citizen protests inside and outside the Capitol building. The next step is for it to go to a vote in the state Senate.

I am very troubled about this, as are thousands of Wisconsin residents. This will not benefit the people of Wisconsin. It will benefit the rich and powerful. It is no wonder that thousands of people have protested at the Capitol for ten days, including seventy thousand in one day alone, and many have been sleeping at the Capitol in their protests. We aren't even all talking about the same thing. Trust in government and among legislators is gone. Bipartanship doesn't seem to exist.

Several scenarios have been playing here. Governor Scott Walker has repeatedly said publicly that this bill is designed to cut the budget in order to address a significant budget shortfall.  Democrats in the legislature have pointed out that the real issue is the governor's desire to get rid of collective bargaining benefits for public workers and break the unions. The public employee unions have agreed to the proposed financial changes but will not concede about collective bargaining. The third scenario appears to be Governor Walker's political goals for himself, independent of any budget situation. This became evident in the broadcast of a prank phone conversation between Walker and an out of state blogger who said he was David Koch, a billionaire supporter of Walker.

In the phone conversation with "Koch", Walker showed that his primary allegiance was to Koch and the agenda of several conservative governors, which is to bust the public employee unions. Walker said he had considered planting troublemakers in the crowds of peaceful protesters but didn't do it because it might damage him politically. Walker and "Koch" agreed that they had a "vested interest" in the pasage of the budget repair bill. You bet they do. As I understand it, the bill gives Walker the right to sell Wisconsin power companies to anyone at any price without having to consult the elected members of the legislature. It seems that Koch is a major player in the power industry. Payback? Hmmm. In addition, Walker revealed his strategy of trying to trick the state senators into being out of the room during a recess and then taking a vote without them present, in the belief that once a quorum was present, business could be conducted even if a quorum was not there. This way the vote would pass. Is this legal? I am not an attorney. Is it ethical? Hardly. Is it like the vote that happened in the Assembly at 1:00 this morning? Yes.

That's not all I'm bothered about. This bill, if passed in the Senate, will give control of Wisconsin's Medicaid and Senior Care programs to Walker and one of his appointees. Here is Wisconsin's own death panel. It is likely that thousands of vulnerable people will lose access to medical services if this happens, in order to save money.  That's not all.  Public education funding will be greatly reduced and many teachers laid off. Layoff notices have already started to be issued in the state. Wisconsin transit systems will lose their federal aid because in order to get it, they must go through collective bargaining. A Madison bus driver told me that this would mean that several of the state's small transit systems would have to close. Again, this is a blow to vulnerable people who depend on buses.

I don't know when our state government has been this polarized. This dysfunctional group of leaders needs to go to counseling. As events have unfolded, the triple scenario of issues has played out.  For ten days, thousands of people have demonstrated at the Capitol, the vast majority in opposition to the bill. Walker supporters have said that these were out of state people who were brought in. Not so. When I was there, most were Wisconsin people in support of teachers, UW employees, nurses, and police and fire department people whom Walker exempted from the collective bargaining prohibition (who supported him in his election campaign), and others with union signs.

In the beginning, Walker did not have a budget crisis. According to reports, when he took office, he put through the Republican controlled legislature provisions that gave a large amount of money to business interests. In this way he created a budget shortfall and then used it to move along his agenda. This happened after he gave back federal funds to run a railroad line through Wisconsin.

After he proclaimed the budget crisis and presented his budget repair bill on a Friday (Fridays are good for not being noticed by people due to the weekend), apparently in hopes of passing it before the public would know what had happened, the State Senate tried to convene and discovered that fourteen state senators were not there, so the Senate could not do any fiscal business. They sent police to find the senators, which seemed heavy handed, and came up empty. We soon learned that the senators left the state in order to slow down the bill and allow discussion. This was a peaceful form of protesting about the way the governor was doing business. They said he would not discuss the bill with them. He was quoted in the media as saying that he would talk to them but would not change his mind. We don't know when they will return. They say they will return when Walker is willing to have real discussion.

As time went on, the Senators stayed in Illinois and were seen on national television. National television came to Madison when John Nichols of the Capital Times and The Nation magazine brought Ed Schultz of MSNBC's The Ed Show here for two days of local coverage. I was there. Other media began to notice.

The Senate was unable to pass the bill due to the absent senators, but the Assembly was in session. A long public hearing occurred, rallies went on inside and outside the Capitol. They debated for about sixty hours, mostly without sleeping. Republicans saw the large number of Democratic amendments as a way to stall and defeated most of them. Then debate was stopped and the vote taken abruptly. It passed. A significant number of representatives did not have time to vote in the seventeen second time period.

Even if the Republicans succeed in passing this legislation in the Senate, and the regular budget bill that will come up in a few days, I think that for the Republicans it will be like winning the battle and losing the war. It will be a sad state of affairs if the moneyed interests pull the strings of government to advance their interests. The middle class is disappearing, and this is one part of the drama. The war could be won when these people try to be re-elected.

Robert Reich, economist and member of Bill Clinton's administration, pointed out on television and elsewhere that the way out of state and national budget woes is not to reduce government services, and not to give tax breaks to the rich and put more tax burdens and deprivations on the middle and lower classes. It is to expect the rich to pay their share and thus put more money into the economy via increased spending by the ordinary people who would be taxed less. If they don't have jobs, they can't contribute to the economy.

Thanks to Rep. Tammy Baldwin and former Sen. Russ Feingold for supporting the people. Thanks to Facebook for being there as a means of communication for many people. I hope Governor Walker has a few sleepless nights over this travesty. Thanks to Ed Schultz of MSNBC and Air America for his ongoing support. Thanks to John Nichols for bringing MSNBC here to tell the world. Not many thanks to Pres. Obama, who has said almost nothing in support of the Wisconsin people. He promised in his 2008 campaign to be with people when their rights could be taken away. He turned out to be a false messiah. I think the native Americans were right. They said that government couldn't be trusted.

Medical Insurance Overhaul

Here is what my congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin, says about the proposed "health care" (i.e. medical insurance) bill. Note that she doesn't say when these things will be in effect, if passed. She also doesn't point out that the clause about pre-existing conditions currently is applicable to children and not adults, as I have heard. However bad the bill is, it has some good parts. I heard one legislator call it a quarter of a loaf. I think she should and will vote yes.

Tammy's thoughts, from her newsletter, start:

After decades of unfulfilled hopes, and a year of intense study and debate, the House plans to vote on a health care reform bill on Sunday.
Health care for all is the issue that brought me into public service. As long as I've been your Member of Congress, I've been working to answer your call to reform our health care system.

What this health debate boils down to is one, simple question: Whose side are you on?
Are we going to improve the lives of Wisconsinites and all Americans; or are we going to improve the bottom line of the insurance industry?

My answer is clear: I stand firmly on your side.

I stand with all of you who have struggled to afford your health care premiums, and copays. I stand with all of you who have been denied insurance coverage, or dropped in your time of need. I stand with all of you who have had to declare personal bankruptcy because of the medical bills from a serious illness, and all of you who face this possibility. The health reform bill that I support addresses all those problems and then some. It’s not perfect, and it's not all I wanted it to be....but it is a good start.

I am eager to pass this measure that will help us move forward and put our families and our economy on safer, healthier ground.

Sincerely,
Tammy BaldwinYour Member of Congress

As we prepare to vote on health care reform, I highlighted specifically how the reform measure will benefit the people I represent in the Second Congressional District (South Central Wisconsin). Under this reform measure:

539,000 people in South Central Wisconsin will see improvements in their current health care coverage;

7,400 with pre-existing conditions will be able to obtain coverage;

Up to 162,000 families will get tax credits and other assistance to help make health insurance more affordable;

Up to 16,800 small businesses will get tax credits and other assistance to help make health insurance more affordable for their employees;

97,000 Medicare beneficiaries will see better care and pay less for prescription drugs because the Medicare Part D donut hole will be closed;

68,000 young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ health insurance policy until their 26th birthday;

13,500 uninsured people will have access to health care coverage;

1,100 families won’t have to file for bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs;

6 community health centers in South Central Wisconsin will receive millions of dollars in new funding to care for thousands of new patients.

Under the bill, if you like the insurance you have now, you may keep it and it will improve. The insurance reforms will prohibit annual and lifetime limits, eliminate retroactive cancellation of insurance policies for individuals who become ill while insured, ban coverage denials for pre-existing conditions, and reduce the cost of preventive care.

Equally important, the health care reform bill will cut the nation’s deficit by $138 billion in the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second ten years – the largest deficit reduction measure in 17 years.

The Politician, by Andrew Young

The Politician is a fascinating tell-all book that hit the best seller list immediately. Young tells of his strong desire to work with and for John Edwards for about a decade in the hoped-for ascent to the White House. Young was Edwards' most trusted aide and did what was needed for the Edwards campaigns for senate and President. It is a well written story of the seductive side of John Edwards and the enabling character of Andrew Young. It also is about dishonesty by the Edwardses and the pain of disillusionment for Young as he participated in the cover-up of Edwards' adulterous relationship with Rielle Hunter.

Young describes the close relationship he had with John and Elizabeth Edwards in their home and on campaign locations. As Edwards gradually exhibits what Young calls a sense of entitlement, narcissism and self-centeredness, Young shows his poor judgment in crossing employee boundaries to assist the Edwardses in many personal tasks. Young tells most of the story by letting events unfold into a novel-like tale. His commentary about events goes through the book and is more pronounced in later pages of the book as he reflects about the things he and his family lived through in service to Edwards.

John Edwards seems like a tragic character whose flaws overshadow his powerful charisma and talent. Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter is described as self centered and demanding. Elizabeth Edwards is shown first as a loving person who said Andrew was family, and later when the stress of terminal cancer and attempts to believe her husband's lies get the best of her, a nasty shrew.

In this book we see the clandestine romance of John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. We see Rielle Hunter spend the later part of her pregnancy in hiding with the Edwards family. We see Edwards denying the relationship and his child born to Hunter. We see Edwards denying paternity. We see Young's and his wife's difficulties in dealing with Hunter and Mrs. Edwards.

I don't often read tell-all books, but this one is a winner. It is eye opening for people who supported the Edwards campaign promises and then saw his fall. I, too, was excited by his campaign message.

It may be noted that at the end of the book, Young had possession of the Edwards/Rielle sex tape that has made the news, and John Edwards had not yet admitted that he was the father of Rielle's child. I believe that Edwards confessed paternity as the book became available to the public.

Christmas Wish List 2009

This is my Christmas wish list. I mean Christmas, not the euphemistic "holiday" that seem to be in vogue. The Freedom From Religion Foundation may be in Madison, but it isn't in my heart.

I would like to enjoy peace on earth somewhere besides on a greeting card. That means that President Obama should end our two wars and bring home all the people involved in them, including the military, private contractors and Blackwater. It means that the various factions in the world should stop arguing and fighting. I believe that peace is not achieved by war. Peace is a condition in which national and self actualization are possible because people are working freely for the good of all. Cessation of military violence is not the definition of peace. Women and various minorities should be greated with respect.

I would like to see the recession end and world economies flourish. In the US, I would like to see everyone have an adequate income. Corporations should bring manufacturing jobs home, and people in India should not be the people to tell us how to run our home technologies when Americans can do it. Financial institutions should operate in the public interest. I understand that these ideas are not the backbone of capitalism, but I believe that capitalism should not be ruling American decision making.

I would like to see in the US a medical care delivery system that benefits people. It should be available to everyone affordably, and it should deliver quality care to all effectively and efficiently. The system should recognize that Standard of Care might not be the only way to provide the best outcomes. The people in our national government should vote in favor of this, whether it is government or privatly operated.

Related to this, I would like to see our pharmaceutical companies operate in the public interest. It is ok to operate at a profit, but not necessarily for a profit. Drugs that do harm along with good, and drugs that do more harm than good, should be advertised as such, truthfully, if advertised at all. Drugs should be affordable. Doctors should spend enough time with patients to understand their situations and, when possible, give lifestyle advice along with advice on pharmaceutical solutions. We need to have unbiased medical studies. There seems to be a lot of deception in the name of profit.

I would like to see compassion and truth in food systems. Our food producers should provide food that is nutritious and not packed with harmful chemicals. Unhealthful foods abound, and their advertising recommends eating them; this needs to be turned around. News stories repeatedly tell us that junk food makes people fat and sick. It makes sense to be locavores, to eat food that is grown nearby, or at least in the United States. In many stores, people do not know where food comes from because labels do not tell them. Factory farms need to treat animals humanely and fed them their natural diet rather than compensating by filling them with antibiotics after the factory diet makes them sick. Those antibiotics in meat and dairy products are passed on to people.

I would like to see less environmental damage so that our descendants can enjoy our beautiful earth. We can learn to live without oil (with some help from science), and we can reduce pollution. Our standard of living should not destroy the earth.

I would like to see fluoride removed from American water supplies. I have read and believe that fluoride interferes with thyroid function. There is plenty of fluoride in toothpaste and some mouthwashes. We don't need to dose the whole population.

I think that all this is more than Santa Claus can handle.

Politics of Medical Care

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/article_e3c4aa9f-0976-524e-b0c9-4676f0630094.html

The senate has a long way to go to get a reasonable "health" care bill. Feingold is right. This isn't about health, and sort of is about medical care, and mostly is about profits continuing for the insurance companies.

George McGovern on health care reform

This newspaper article by former Sen. George McGovern is very good. Needless to say, I agree with it. McGovern favors Medicare for all. He points out that the idea is having trouble with congress because the powerful insurance lobby is "too powerful to resist."
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/guest/article_255d23c6-a2f2-11de-bcb1-001cc4c03286.html

In my opinion, as long as insurance companies call the shots, universal access to medical care is not likely to happen.

Health Care

It isn't health care any more. It's medical insurance.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090817/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare.

I agree with a quote from this story: "Leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of healthcare is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief." --Rep. Anthony Weiner, Democrat, New York.

This isn't change we can believe in.

Political Feeding Frenzy

The most amazing but not surprising feeding frenzy is now going on about Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina. He disappeared to Argentina to continue an affair with a woman there who is not his wife. The media people appear to be thrilled and can’t stop talking about it.

Harry Smith commented this morning on television, “Ho hum.” I agree with him.

I make two points here: (1) The ongoing news reporting about some very personal aspects of his indiscretion is being overdone, possibly at the expense of some other important news; (2) politicians have personal lives in addition to political lives, and in the US they seem to get intertwined, but I say let’s let them get on with their political lives.

I never heard of Sanford before yesterday, and I don’t care if he is a Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian. I have some sympathy for his wife after seeing the text of his romantic emails to the other woman. Maybe he should have remembered that email can be read by the world. Unfortunately, last night Keith Olbermann on MSNBC appeared to thoroughly enjoy showing this email peep show to the world. That was bad taste.

An interesting interpretation of the news about Sanford and others is in this morning’s Yahoo News. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_philandering_politicians_analysis

Here is what the article pointed out after naming plenty of political names (quoted from the article):

"There's also a clue in the kind of people drawn to politics.
These are men who love themselves deeply, need to be recognized and relish approval. These are men who adore getting praise and who often are surrounded by swarms of sycophants. These are men who, in some cases, need to exercise power and sometimes can become drunk from it. These are men who think the rules don't apply to them and who think they're untouchable.
As leaders, these are also the type of men who are likely to break promises, manipulate and cut corners. They probably are big risk-takers. And they're prone to thinking of themselves first."

So what else is news in the world of politics besides sex? Let’s get on with it.