Politics – Page 16 – South of Town: Notes and Scenes from Texas' Upper Gulf Coast

Breaking the Senate Republican Shutdown; Letter-Writing Time

This is my morning letter to Senators Cornyn and Cruz. I sent them identical letters since my needs from them are the same and their powers to address them are the same.

January 10, 2019

Senator Cruz:

Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats are offering a way to break the government shutdown deadlock. This is no longer the “Trump shutdown.” It now belongs to Sen. McConnell and the senate Republicans. You can break this deadlock and you must.

Please vote as the senate did earlier to fund government services and override the president’s veto if necessary.

In my waking hours last night, I thought a lot about a book by Senator John F. Kennedy that I read in high school: Profiles in Courage. Regrettably, I am not seeing much of it from senate Republicans in confronting this broken, foolish and unpatriotic presidency. Please, show some of the courage that is part of your proud senate tradition and vote to fund government services, override the president’s veto and then keep your supermajority together to provide the check on executive authority that is your constitutional duty to provide.

Young Texans will someday read the history of your service to America. You are writing it now. You will not want it to be the story of a Senator who wouldn’t use his constitutional power to help guide the nation in smarter, more humane ways. It is not your privilege; it is your duty.

Sincerely,

Here are their addresses in case you are moved to drop a loving note of your own:

Senator John Cornyn, United States Senate, 517 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20510

Senator Ted Cruz, United States Senate, 404 Russell, Washington, DC 20510

I went to some trouble to make mine a personal reflection of my own position hoping that it wouldn’t be simply stacked and weighed along with all the emails and robo-responses from special interest sites and PACs. So, you please do the same. Do your own work and be respectful – even if it hurts a little.

A Prayer at Christmas

We offer our thanks today for the gift of a story of a baby born in Bethlehem whose own offering of grace and love has sustained us for centuries and given us hope and strength to overcome murderous dictators and those who have brokered power through violence.

We give thanks for our own free press and reporters like Nicholas Kristof who recently forced us to look see the image of Abrar Ibrahim whose starvation in Yemen at the hands of powerful men, able to give her the needs of life but use her instead as a pawn in struggles for power. The image of a 12 year old girl who weighs 28 pounds on a planet of plenty gives us no room for excusing ourselves. And, in her misery, she represents millions of suffering children and adults. Continue reading “A Prayer at Christmas”

Beto O’Rourke comments on the holiday shutdown and the motives behind it

The government of the greatest country the world has ever known, the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet: closed until further notice.

This shutdown – hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans working without pay during the holidays, basic government functions no longer available to the taxpayers who fund them – didn’t have to happen. The Senate passed a compromise government funding bill two days ago, 100–0. The men and women who can’t agree on what to name a post office were able to unite and unanimously agree on how to fund the entire government.

But maybe it was intended to happen. Continue reading “Beto O’Rourke comments on the holiday shutdown and the motives behind it”

The Press and the Prez

I watched the latter stages of the White House press briefing yesterday. The one some call the leader of the free world appeared in person. He behaved in all the disgusting ways you have come to expect. He is full of hate for everyone except, of course, himself.

The performance for the press corps was much more alarming than it was informative. And, yes, performance is the correct word. I left the experience with renewed disdain for His Worshipfulness. (Thank you Han Solo for allowing me to borrow the appellation and its load of irony.)

I always find it interesting to read The Guardian for a slightly different view than I get in American media. Their writers are often confounded by their spinoff ally that poses as the very model of the modern major democracy. More Americans should read this discussion of the structural elements of our system of representation. I’m not sure that most people really understand how grossly un-representative our system is.

But back to yesterday’s press conference with the president. A Guardian writer reminded me that the American press is like a bag of candy for a demagogue. They have a symbiotic relationship in which a president with no manners co-exists perfectly with a press with no cojones. The Brits see it clearly. Today’s piece in The Guardian by Suzanne Moore makes the case for a press corps walkout. What they were able to deliver to their readers and viewers as their work product yesterday was all reality show and it had little to do with the work of a democratic government. Trump was the star and they were the foil.

Ignore him and let’s get on with the business of governing America. There are taxes to collect, schools, bridges and hospitals to build, people to be educated, a nation to be protected from other countries’ dictators, and, of course, the golden door must remain open and managed for the welfare of both the current citizens and those who seeking asylum. He doesn’t seem interested in any of that business. But I am. And you should be, too.

Thank You, Beto

Mimi Swartz in the New York Times gives some needed perspective to the millions of downhearted Texas Democrats. The country needed his fresh outlook on the job of politicians. It really is a noble profession when practiced with honor and the goal of representing the best interests of the people.

Beto, who almost never wears a coat it seems, had some long coattails in Texas’s urban areas. His candidacy and hard work helped flip several house seats while he was losing his own — a gift to the republic.

And Ed Emmett. Who would have ever guessed that one?

Somebody Stole My Beto Sign

It’s election day in Texas. And true to form, some nighttime stalker from the new Republican Party stole my Beto sign. But I have a printer at home. It’s not quite the same but I was able to keep the distinctive black and white theme, although in smaller letters.

Just for fun, I put a little note inside congratulating the thief for coming back to steal my Beto sign a second time and noting that I was capturing it on my security cam.

Of course I wasn’t making a video. But I keep hearing that we are in a post-truth era. That’s my contribution.

I am writing at 4:42 pm. you still have 2 hours and 17 minutes to vote in Texas.