Veteran's Day Prayer

This is an excerpt from my blog posting and a column published in the Sky Hi News in May 2015,  My prayer is relevant today as we face a potential devastating nuclear war in Korea. The text of the poem that inspired the day of remembrance, In Flander's Fields: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm

Veterans Day names and celebrations differ from country to country. Originally called Armistice Day, it is to celebrate on the day the combatants signed the end World War I. Most countries (except France and Belgium) the holiday name.  The United Kingdom and Canada in 1931 adopted the name  Remembrance Day, while the United States chose All Veterans Day (later shortened to 'Veterans Day')  in 1938 and later extended it to  honor military veterans of all conflicts. When I was a child in Oklahoma in the 1950s we still referred to it as Armistice Day. I remember wearing a crepe paper poppy on that day to remind us of the end of World War I and those that died in it.

 I have often found myself on British Commonwealth territory in November. Artificial poppies, red with a distinctive black middle, are worn in remembrance of the fallen in the poppy covered Flanders Fields in Belgium inspired by a poem by John McCrae. Poppies are sold as fund raisers to provide charity to veterans of all wars. I always bought a poppy to remind me that our close allies in the British Commonwealth suffered even more than us in World War I.

In remembering my relatives and ancestors who fought on our behalf, I do have a special prayer. It contains thanks for their service but I also pray that the leaders who will send them to battle in the future have the wisdom to avoid putting them in harms way in vain and first seek other options to settle conflicts. War should only be a defensive action against an attack on us and our allies. To launch wars as a preemptive strike should never be in our country’s traditions.

A version of this appeared in the Sky Hi Daily News Friday May 22, 2015

A fellow Rotarian asked if I had ever heard this version of Waltzing Matilda which became a war protest song in the 70's.  I thought I had heard most of the folk songs of that era, but this one I had not, or if I did, I forgot it.  On Poppy Day, as I called veteran's day, and also celebrated it in UK territories, I thought this was a reminder of the horrors of war, not only horrible to those who died, but the horrors of  the wounded warriors who returned home.  Thank goodness we no longer practice trench warfare, and modern medicine saves so many who otherwise would have been corpses, the return of them home is equally devastating, new protheses technology not withstanding, and especially those with PTSD. 

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm

The Freedom Caucus is becoming an oxymoron.

Revised November 12, 2017
 Version of this published as a column in the Sky Hi News, November 15, 2015 p 7  www.skyhidailynews.com

"Keeping up  with the Mueller investigation  will risk a coup d'etat"  could be taken as   an implied  threat  by  hard core members of  the  Congressional Freedom Caucus even though it is couched in terms of an outcome  if  Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller continues his investigation  into Donald Trump's administration. http://www.newsweek.com/us-risks-coup-if-mueller-investigation-continues-say-republicans-706421

Have they lost their minds? What they are saying is frightening. Within our democratic form a government, impeachment is the method of regime change.  By definition, a coup d'etat is" the sudden attempt by a small group of people to take over the government usually through violence." (Merriam-Webster) .A coup , a  non democratic power takeover, destroys any pretext of freedom and begins a chain of counter coups, economy killing instability, and civil war. Including the word "freedom"  in their caucus name itself is  an oxymoron, the opposite of what they say they stand for.

The Freedom Caucus' reasoning is  they believe Special Prosecutor  Robert Mueller is getting revenge  against Pres. Trump for the firing of Mueller's  friend,  fired FBI director  James Comey. Per chief advocate Rep. Matt Gaetz  of Florida that Mueller as former FBI director failed to prosecute Hillary Clinton on the Uranium One deal where the right wing alleged there was bribery that involved Russian investments.  Therefore, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest, they say. There is no evidence that Mueller is investigating Clinton as part of the Russian probe. It remains a conspiracy theory since even the accusers have presented no evidence Clinton intervened  on behalf of the State Department in the issue to pressure the other eight agencies who also reviewed and  approved the deal.  That these theories and suspicions are a  cause for dismissal will not fly, given the overwhelming accolades  of his competence and independence that followed Mueller's appointment. Firing for cause means that there is incompetence or abuse of power that is provable.  Suspecting political motivations do not count as a cause. The problem for the Freedom Caucus  is that Mueller's competence has been so  credibly demonstrated in his  meticulous and detailed  indictments, he  has now become  a serious  threat to their hero, Donald Trump.

 These Freedom Caucus members  are divorced from reality  for even suggesting a coup could happen.  A coup  by whom? Some  volunteer militia out there? Alt right activists waiving torches?  By the generals  in the administration like White House Chief of Staff, John F Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and National Security Adviser  H.R.McMaster,   men  well educated in political science whose oath  of office includes a duty to democracy and the Constitution? 

The founders of our country and the Constitution warned us about such kinds of threats to democracy.  .That is  why they provided the impeachment process in the Constitution, the alternative to coups, armed insurrections,  and revolution to determine the legitimate  ruler. Impeachment is the more  likely outcome of the Russian connection investigation if Trump were to fire Mueller, his ultimate act of obstruction of justice. The GOP dominated  House of Representatives would never begin the  impeachment process. Flipping it blue to impeach Trump  would at minimum become  the dominating 2018 campaign issue.

 These members of  the  Freedom Caucus  must have slept through  history classes,  much less civics. History of the past hundred years  is littered with failed states with countries who trashed their democratic institutions.  A lesson from history:  a warning that without citizen support, democracy is  damned. Most dictators and autocrats from banana republics to large industrialized  countries gained power by popular vote, flaunting laws established in their governing documents, including  Hitler, who was elected to office.  Once gaining power in the voting booth, they set about ignoring or  eating alive any constraints on their power. It is happening now in Russia, Turkey, elsewhere.    Those who care about our Constitution and rule of law need to start speaking out loudly.

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From history and current events, we can see what we could repeat. As the French Revolution unfolded, even the inventor of the guillotine eventually  fell to its blade as the revolution got out of control. Coups blow   back even on their instigators.  What goes around has a way of coming around. The next half century of the 1800's resulted in Napoleon's reign  and restoration of monarchy.  Because of our newly minted Constitution, America did not fall into that trap. 
Fareed Zakaria outlines how that is happening within our memories and now. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-saudi-crown-princes-power-grab-follows-a-strongmans-playbook/2017/11/09/167d35fe-c593-11e7-84bc-5e285c7f4512_story.html

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So what is  wrong with a military coup and rule by the military that motivated our founders to set up safeguards against military coups? Military rule is hard on both sides of a conflict and destabilizing. Our founders  realized that and put civilians with power over  the military. 

Janet Schaw, a Scot visiting her brother , likely an English loyalist in Wilmington  North Carolina, in 1775, wrote of her time in the colonies:"At present the martial law stands thus: An officer or committeeman enters a plantation with his posse. The alternative is proposed. Agree to join us [Whigs] and your persons and properties are safe . . . if you refuse, we are directly to cut up your corn, shoot your pigs, burn your houses, … and perhaps tar and feather yourself. Not to choose the first requires more courage than they are possessed"  http://mentalfloss.com/article/60917/8-complaints-real-colonists-had-about-british-rule

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/09/a-republican-congressman-is-calling-for-robert-mueller-to-be-fired/


http://www.newsweek.com/us-risks-coup-if-mueller-investigation-continues-say-republicans-706421

Health care a top concern in key elections Nov. 2017.

Nov. 28: Nov. 28, update CBO Score: The new score includes the impact of removing the individual mandate from Obamacare. It verifies that premiums would rise so much, 4 million could not afford health insurance by 2019 and 13 million by end of bill. Also, the middle class cuts go away and hurts them.

https://secondnexus.com/news/report-new-cbo-score-senate-tax-reform-plan/

The CBO report, released Sunday, estimates that lower-income groups would foot a bigger bill from tax cuts than previously expected. In 2019, all income groups under $30,000 would have a bigger burden under the bill, the CBO projected.

In 2027, that would extend to all income groups under $75,000, as individual tax reductions expire.

The change largely stems from the bill effectively getting rid of the Obamacare provision requiring most Americans to have health insurance or p...

Revised Nov 12, 2017

Update Nov.15, 2017: Repeal of individual mandate in Obamacare attached  is to tax reform bill in Senate. How did this end up as a tax issue? Calling the penalty on those who do not have health insurance a tax. A rose is a rose but this one stinks. The budget and deficit implications also fit into the tax reform bill because it would reduce government expenses by $338 billion. Leading advocate and voice  Sen. James
Lankford  (R-OK)on MSNBC today called this penalty  a tax on the poor who could not afford to pay the premiums.  Oklahoma already has one of the  worst uninsured rate in the US.second only to Texas. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/visualizations/2017/comm/hi-uninsured-map-4.jpg
Oklahoma refused to expand Medicaid. If they had, 84,000 would would have access to health insurance. 

https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid/
https://www.healthreformvotes.org/congress/412464
CBO score on eliminating the individual mandate would leave 4 million uninsured by 2019, 13 million by 2027 nationwide.  https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53300 and would increase premiums in the individual market by 10% in most years over the next decade .

Those who think GOP's inability to govern is why they lost elections November 7  are barking up the wrong tree. .While cultural and racial issues certainly were factors, , issues were important.. It is not just the GOP has failed to pass legislation, it is the kind of legislation they tried to pass. Voters  are paying attention to issues and how they impact their family finances.

Analyzing various polls, CNBC concluded about the Virginia governor's race ""More than twice as many people said Gillespie's support of Obamacare repeal made it less likely they would vote for him than said his support would make it likely he would win their vote." GOP Candidate  Ed Gillespie lost by 9%.  

The irony of health care being such a factor in key November races is that GOP's attempt to repeal Obamacare gave free advertising of the benefits of Obamacare. Voters who had been suckered in by GOP messages of the evils of Obamacare suddenly realized they almost lost something important to their economic well-being.. Not only did this awakening  figure into the elections, enrollment in Obamacare has surged, breaking records.

 Failure to pass legislation may be frustrating for Trump's core supporters., but the problem was what  harm their legislation would have done to everyone else. It was the GOP's desire to take away Obamacare benefits and health insurance affordability and their opposition to expanding Obamacare's Medicaid in certain states besides Virginia..  In Maine , an initiative to expand Medicaid under Obamacare  to cover more people was overwhelmingly approved..  

What could also be emerging is public realization of the paltry crumbs of tax relief thrown to the middle class in order to give enormous tax relief to the wealthy.  The tax reform issue will have center stage in the coming weeks as it is debated in both houses of Congress  and public awareness will increase. In spite of doubling the standard deduction,  as the bills stand now, 9% of tax filers with income between $48,600 to $86,400 per year will get a tax hike next year.   31% of the middle class will see a tax increase by 2027 while the rich will enjoy their huge tax relief forever. Popular itemized deductions are on the GOP chopping block  from real estate taxes, student loan interest and employer provided tuition reimbursement, state and local income taxes, and high medical bills. 

.This may help point to way to the Democrats finding themselves in 2018. Democrats have been coasting on Trump's unpopularity, but they need a positive message as well.   If Democrats focus on pocket book issues and the   harm GOP legislative initiatives are doing to kitchen table issues, they may be able to find a theme that could flip  Congress blue  in the 2018 midterms.  Pocket book issues are a great unifying theme in these cultural divisive times.  They cross racial, gender, and geographical lines. That is the lesson Democrats should learn from November 7.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/americans-show-support-obamacare-despite-110012524.html

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/08/gop-tax-bill-student-loan-interest-deduction/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/08/health-care-played-big-role-in-democratic-win-in-virginia-poll.html

 https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/08/562707799/maine-approves-medicaid-expansion-referendums-in-new-york-ohio-fail

https://www.yahoo.com/news/maine-governor-not-expand-medicaid-ignore-voters-175102675.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/apos-list-historic-victories-democrats-053904771.html

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/07/democrats-virginia-new-jersey-election-results-244674

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/20/politics/health-care-poll-abandon-repeal-replace/index.html

Preliminary exit poll results: How different groups of Virginians are voting

See how different groups are voting in the Virginia governor’s race between Ralph Northam, Ed Gillespie and Cliff Hyra

WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Other shoes to drop? The possible Russian connections are page turners.

Add December 11, 2017 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/how-russia-played-trump-for-a-fool

Other shoes to drop?  So many connections have been reported in the press which may or may not be true.  . Some of this could show up later in Mueller indictments.. . Fasten your seat belts. The rocky ride is just beginning.   Connecting the dots: http://www.msnbc.com/…/new-commerce-secretary-at-nexus-of-l… And where is Mike Flynn? Did he flip? Deal? with the Mueller investigation? https://www.gq.com/story/mike-flynn-junior-in-mueller-investigation-schreckinger  Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' role as largest shareholder in Cyprus bank?  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/23/wilbur-ross-russian-deal-bank-of-cyprus-donald-trump-commerce-secretary      This saga is a page turner.

Big German Bank, Key to Trump’s Finances, Faces New Scrutiny

Regulators are reviewing loans from Deutsche Bank, which is also expecting to have to share information with the authorities investigating campaign ties to Russia.

NYTIMES.COM