Pat McCrory

A Dozen Republican Governors Are The Most Horrendous In Memory!

It is amazing how so many people seem to believe that the federal government cannot be trusted, and that the true level of competence is state government–legislatures and governors, when the evidence is that, despite the many problems of the federal government, the state governments in many states is absolutely horrendous.

Both parties have their issues in state governments, but it is Republican governors which are particularly wretched as witness the following governors who have set records for the most incompetent and inhumane leadership:

Michigan–Rick Snyder, who has created a major health crisis in Flint, where the water system is totally lead polluted, and is responsible for the poisoning of many infants and young children, who will suffer effects for the rest of their lives.  For this, Snyder should be removed from office, and should be indicted and convicted and sentenced to life in prison, as effectively, he has destroyed thousands of young lives, through his decision to save money by forcing Flint to use polluted water systems.

Maine–Paul LePage, who has been totally off the wall in his rhetoric, and has displayed racism and other indications of insensitivity on a regular basis for the past five years, and faces a likely move toward impeachment and removal from office.

Kansas–Sam Brownback, who has totally bankrupted his state, and has cut education and health care coverage to dangerous levels  that undermine the state, all to cut taxes for the wealthy, and is a great example of a fake religiously devout leader.

Texas–Greg Abbott, who wants to take Texas back to the Civil War, calling for a constitutional amendment to forbid the federal government from having any influence or power over the states, arguing states rights will better protect the nation.

Florida—Rick Scott, who has refused to accept climate change as having an effect, even though his state is already seeing great evidence of the damage that the Sunshine state faces in the next 20-40 years, and also has done everything possible to undermine the lives of the poor in the state.

Wisconsin–Scott Walker, who has engaged in policies to undermine public workers and to destroy the reputation of the state as one of the most advanced states in the nation, and has also engaged in widespread political corruption on a massive scale.

North Carolina–Pat McCrory, who has managed to turn a progressive Southern state into one of the most backward, regressive states in America, one influenced by the corruption and move for dominance by the Koch Brothers in so many areas  of public policy.

Oklahoma–Mary Fallin, one of the most heartless and nasty state leaders, ignoring the growing number of earthquakes caused by the fracking industry, and totally committed to capital punishment even if there are no appropriate drugs to use for execution.

Louisiana–Bobby Jindal, who lost his Presidential ambitions, but set a record as a totally destructive and  heartless governor toward the poor of his state, and destroyed the public education system of New Orleans entirely.

Indiana–Mike Pence, who has caused a major health crisis over AIDS, by his refusal to address the issue of drug abuse, and has shown unwillingness to deal with the needs of those at the bottom of the economic system.

Arizona—Doug Ducey, who has shown total lack of competence or concern for the large number of Latinos in his state, and has shown evidence of corruption on a level that makes one wish former governor Jan Brewer was still in office, as bad as she actually was.

Kentucky—Matt Bevin, with no government experience, and a Tea Party activist, wishing to destroy the ObamaCare Medicaid system of his state, which was a model for the nation, but now is on the chopping block.

 

Senate Races Tight, But Two Democratic Women Senators Could Be Key To Keeping Democratic Party Majority In Upper Chamber!

It is clear that the battle for the US Senate is a real combat zone, but two Democratic women Senators, one in New England, and one in the upper South, could be the key to keeping the Democratic Party majority in the upper chamber!

In New Hampshire, we have Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who has been the first woman to serve as Governor for two terms, followed by one term in the US Senate. She has a solid record, and New Hampshire, as the only state to have both Senators being female, along with the Governor, and both Congressional seats, and all Democrats, except for Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte, bodes well for Shaheen.

Her opponent is former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who took over Ted Kennedy’s seat, and then lost it to Elizabeth Warren in 2012. Brown had defeated Attorney General Martha Coakley, and he now has the distinction of being the only person to run for the Senate three times, and have women as his opponents each time!

Brown is seen as making the election close, but it seems highly unlikely that as a Massachusetts resident who only has a vacation home in New Hampshire, and is therefore seen as a “carpetbagger”, will be able to convince voters to kick out a popular leader who has been in the top government offices of Governor and Senator for a total now of 14 years. And it has been made clear that despite his assertion that he is a “bipartisan” Senator, ultimately he will support the Republican agenda, and undermine the last two years of Barack Obama’s Presidency. Also, it is rumored that he wants to use the Senate seat to run for President in 2016, while Shaheen has shown her total loyalty to her state!

The other seat which seems likely to remain Democratic is North Carolina, where Senator Kay Hagan faces a tough contest against North Carolina Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, who is extremely right wing in his record, and has set North Carolina backward in health care and education with the assistance of Governor Pat McCrory, who turned much more right wing than he indicated when he ran for and won the Governorship two years ago!

Kay Hagan is ahead in most polls, and it seems a good bet that she, and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, will keep these Senate seats “blue”, and help to keep the Democrats in control of the US Senate in 2015-2016!

War On The Liberal Arts In Florida, Texas, North Carolina: The Promotion Of Dumbness!

The right wing Republican Governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have declared war on public funding of the liberal arts at the state university level in their states!

Considering that poverty is very high in these states, and educational attainment is lower than in the Northeast, Midwest, and Western states, it is clear that the Republican Party in these Southern states wants to keep people dumb, and prevent the promotion of skills that are essential for a good productive life–like reading, writing, analyzing, and simply THINKING!

A person who gains a college education with little or no exposure to the liberal arts is a person denied basic knowledge and appreciation of the great contributions of mankind over the millenniums!

To say that no one needs to major in anthropology, or literature, or history, or classics, etc is to declare war on intellectual pursuits, and it is clear that we have many people coming out of college ready for the technical and business worlds who have no basic communicative skills, but are simply robots who cannot read, write, analyze or think clearly!

And to say that different fields of knowledge are unworthy is to declare war on the whole point of education, to make people better human beings, not just train them for a field of work that might, very likely, disappear over the course of a work life!

To gain intellectual skills is to gain vision, gain a sense of humanity and compassion, and to have a quality life, not one only judged and based on materialism and greed!

These governors—Rick Scott, Rick Perry (and his likely successor, Greg Abbott), and Pat McCrory–prefer stupidity and ignorance, as that makes it easier for them to pursue their right wing goals to undermine the future of their states, among the lowest in achievement, and bound to get worse with this kind of damaging attack on the liberal arts! They are only out to promote the top one to two percent, and want a work force that is unable to compete in a way to advance and, actually, challenge the establishment elite!

Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it! We still need anthropologists, historians, poets, playwrights, artists, musicians, and others in the liberal arts, as part of a humane society, and no student should be denied the opportunity to major in any of these or other liberal arts fields, and they are often better educated than those who come out of colleges with no exposure to the liberal arts!

There is a need for a strong reaction to this detrimental attack on basic human knowledge by the scholarly community!

Town Hall Meetings, Senator Tom Coburn Et Al, And Pandering To The Mob Mentality!

Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who this author has very little respect for, including regarding him as one of the worst Senators in American history, actually was starting to make me think that maybe I had misjudged him. He had begun to sound rational and reasonable on issues that he discussed on MORNING JOE on MSNBC, and I have always thought that his fellow Senator James Inhofe, who denies climate change, was far worse.

But lo and behold, Coburn has gone off the deep end, lost all credibility he had gained in my eyes, as a result of pandering to a mob mentality at a Town Hall meeting in Oklahoma, and this is not the only Republican to have done so this month!

Coburn is now claiming that Barack Obama, who has been very nice to him, and had meetings with him, is “perilously close” to meeting the standards for impeachment! And other Republicans are saying that they think they have the votes to impeach Obama, and one wishes that he could author the bill to impeach Obama, as if this is a laughing matter, a light matter, an action that if taken is no big deal, when it is INDEED a big deal!

The problem is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO BASIS for impeachment, as Republican strategist Nicole Wallace, who worked for John McCain in his 2008 Presidential campaign, has clearly stated, and any rational Republican, with the number diminishing, KNOWS this to be a fact!

These town halls are becoming an example of democracy gone amuck, where racists, nutcakes, whackos, lunatics, show up and demonstrate the worst elements of ignorant people thinking they know what should be done in government. And disturbingly, it is often women who spew forth hatred and venom and poison unbecoming a decent lady, let alone gentlemen!

Where is this going to stop? When are we going to have Republicans recognize that appealing to the ignorant mob rule is dangerous, and that responsible political leaders must take a stand against such craziness, even if, by so doing, they lose their coveted seats, which should not matter more than doing what is right and moral?

And if Colin Powell, the esteemed former General in the Persian Gulf War, and Secretary of State, can, rightfully, condemn the North Carolina Voter ID law as counterproductive and outrageous, and right in front of North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who signed the despicable legislation, just one of the many discriminatory Republican laws on voting rights, it is time for decent Republican voters who are dismayed by what has happened to their party, to make clear that they are abandoning any Republican such as Tom Coburn who speaks and talks in a reckless, irresponsible manner about our President and our government!

Do the Republicans look to promote anarchy and chaos, and follow the lead of demagogues Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and their ilk?

If so, they should be denounced and repudiated by all sane Americans!

The North Carolina Nightmare: Republican Dominance For First Time In A Century!

North Carolina has long had the image of being a modern, forward looking state, one of the most advanced in the old Confederacy, despite the fact that Jesse Helms was one of its Senators for three decades.

It actually had signs of having escaped the Confederate mentality, and had pride for its Research Triangle—Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham, and its top rated universities, including, but not only the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Duke University.

But now North Carolina has been hijacked by a right wing Republican Party, and is being systematically destroyed as a state of change and positive images, looking more like Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, all of which it had far surpassed in every way possible, but now all lost by the lack of understanding of its voters as to what they were doing in electing a Republican legislature and Governor.

So just in the year 2014, eight months so far, the North Carolina Republican government has done the following:

Massive tax cuts and cuts in business regulations, which will make the state poorer and more subject to corruption
Stricter regulation of abortion clinics
The end of teacher tenure
Refusal to expand Medicaid
Dramatic cut in unemployment benefits
Making the death penalty easier to apply
Allowing concealed guns in bar and restaurants
Strict Voter ID requirements, including prohibition of same day registration and cutting early voting

These are the results of the Republican Party gaining control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time in a century, along with electing a Republican governor, Pat McCrory.

So North Carolina goes to the Right, and those who are not upper class will suffer in the process, and North Carolina moves backward to the 19th century mentality of the Confederacy!