#553 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #10 – Enlisting the Middle Class (Proles) to kill itself.

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I’m very near 72 years of age. The people of my and my parents generation created the Middle Class, and have been huge beneficiaries of it, in endless ways, from Medicare to the GI Bill to Unions, and on an on and on. For the younger generation, as Joni Mitchell’s popular song goes, they may not “know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone….”
Still, the “Army” to destroy the Middle Class we enjoyed seems to have been recruited from the same older generation. I see this in endless hateful, destructive and dishonest “forwards” from people I know from my generation and older.
I review and respond to the “forwards” I get. The vast majority are lies, pure and simple, from manipulation of photographs to manipulation of data. So little “truth” comes around, including TV ads, talk radio and the like, that only the foolish will believe any of it.
These days I think a great deal of a book published in England in 1949 entitled “1984” by George Orwell. It is a famous book, and everyone should read it again, especially those who send those forwards. Orwell’s model apparently was the post-WWII Soviet Union of Stalin, with elements of Hitler’s Germany.
It is pretty clear to me, these days, that unfettered American Capitalism would like to achieve the same objective – easily manipulated, passive and compliant Proles – that 1984s “Big Brother” did by using the same methods.
We are todays Proles.

The book, 1984, first came into my life when the actual year 1984 was far in the future and television was in its infancy and still a novelty.
Computers and ease of editing of images and text was unknown at the time I first read 1984.
But 1984 was about all of these things. “Telescreens” were everywhere, broadcasting what Orwell called the “two minute hate” frequently and at any time. These also doubled as surveillance cameras, recording every persons every move.
Nobody, nothing, was safe from Big Brother.
There was even a new language: “Newspeak”:
“WAR IS PEACE”
“FREEDOM IS SLAVERY”
“IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.
Big Brother thrived because of cultivated fear of an unseen enemy he could describe, far away. This enemy was one to be feared and hated, and Big Brother was the only savior.
In my opinion, 1984 has become the playbook for contemporary Right Wing politics in this country of ours. The book simply reflects the exploitable weaknesses of humanity, and those don’t change.
I think of this 1984 every time I see the latest insulting and lie-filled “forward”; or see some example where information is manipulated so that some imagined “failure” of the President (or Democrats, or Unions…) is manufactured.
Indeed, since President Obama has been inaugurated, the mission of his enemies has been to make him fail by any means necessary, and then shamelessly lie about why the failure occurred. Similarly, my “class” – liberal, Union, is similarly characterized. Newspeak 2012: “Failure is Success”.
In 1984s world, the citizenry (Proles) was dominated and completely controlled and settled into a life of happy mediocrity: the housewife happily hung out the wash to dry; entertainment was getting drunk on cheap gin in the neighborhood saloon.
Nobody trusted anybody. The Two Minute Hate and “Big Brother is watching you” were very effective.
The main character, Winston, took a stab at breaking out of the mold, and for awhile seemed to be succeeding.
It is useful to remember the ending scene of 1984. Winston is personally confronted by his greatest fear. He surrenders to the fear. He “sees the light”.
The book ends with these words: “He loved Big Brother”.
POSTNOTE: Orwell died in 1950 only 46 years of age and only a year after publication of 1984. He ends his book with Big Brother still in complete control.
Is it so simple in the real world…? Well, we can read history. A long succession of “Big Brothers” learned their omnipotence was not permanent. Many of them ended up dead, and not of natural causes.
What is our fate as a nation? We American Proles will decide, beginning in November, 2012 by how we vote, or whether we vote at all.
We choose if we succeed or fail as a society.
Directly related: here and here.

#552 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #9. Climate Change

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A year ago today I was at a resort in suburban Albuquerque NM. It was a nice spring day, and I walked down to the Rio Grande River and saw this tree which was winning the race to be first to leaf out for 2011.

April 10, 2011 Bernalillo NM on bank of Rio Grande

Today, exactly one year later, I went to my favorite little park in my suburban St. Paul MN community, and took a photo of a typical tree from roughly the same perspective as I did a year ago.

Woodbury MN April 10, 2012

If anything, the Minnesota tree is further along this April 10 than its New Mexico neighbor ten degrees of Latitude (roughly 700 miles) to the south was exactly a year ago. The tree in Woodbury MN seems, among its peers, to be about average in leaf development this April 10; last years New Mexico tree was far ahead of its neighbors, which is why it attracted my attention back then.
What is going on?
I’m not a fool. There are many variables that might possibly lead to the unusual “twinning” of two trees of different species far distant from each other. There are differences in weather, day to day. Etc. Etc. Etc.
For certain, however, March, 2012, was an exceptionally warm month. Odd and often unusually severe weather, from droughts to storms, seem more frequent, and more and more certainly linked to human behavior. (UPDATE: Yahoo News had this about March, 2012, on April 15.)
There is something else going and on, and except for those mired in fantasy or with a particular vested interest in maintaining a particular illusion that climate is not changing, and that humanity has nothing to do with it, the debate is over: we humans in the industrialized world have had a great deal to do with the changes we are seeing, and while we don’t know the precise consequences for each of us where we live, there are definitely consequences and they are likely not going to be pleasant.
It was seven years ago this summer that we saw Al Gore make a powerful presentation in St. Paul on what he called the “Inconvenient Truth” of Climate Change. And a year later, we saw his powerful film on the topic. (It can now be easily accessed everywhere.)
An Inconvenient Truth has survived vicious criticism over the years: About a year ago I heard a well known climate scientist say he’d give An Inconvenient Truth 90% for accuracy – a very high grade in anyone’s league, especially when it comes to complex science.
Listen. Learn. Close down the denial mechanism.
Humanity – especially the developed industrialized world – is doing ourselves in and it bodes ill for the future of succeeding generations, perhaps even our own generation.
Check in once in awhile at the website of a new organization called Science Debate.
A while ago I asked a good friend who’s passionate about this subject to recommend a single website he thought would be a good portal for ongoing information. Here’s what he recommended.
But whether these sources, or any one of many others, get engaged and do your part to stop the denial.
As farmers have known forever, weather and climate are bigger than we are.
We are fools to make them even larger factors in our future than they would naturally be.
UPDATE APRIL 11, 2012:
from Lee Dechert, St. Paul: Within the climate science community, Skeptical Science is regarded as the best up-to-date source for a basic understanding of climate science, and for countering misinformation and disinformation on that science. Al Gore is a good example. Last year Minnesota Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen and his GOP committee members rejected and ridiculed Prof. John Abraham’s expert testimony that opposed rescinding a state law that limits emissions from coal-fired power plants and prohibits construction of new plants. I e-mailed a complaint to him; he replied in part by ridiculing Al Gore; I responded in part by saying there are people who also deny the holocaust. His co-authored bill was based on an ALEC “model bill” and was one of the environmental roll-back bills vetoed by DFL Gov. Mark Dayton. The GOP, with its Tea Party backers, is the only major political party on our planet that has officially denied the reality of human-induced global warming and is opposing public and private efforts to reverse it and adapt to its climate change impacts. The International Energy Agency has warned that some impacts will soon be irreversible.

#551 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #8. The un-Civil Political War of 2012.

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The main front-page headline of today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune is pretty clear “election 2012 Ad blitz targeting Obama is on its way”*.
Karl Rove and Company is baaaacckkkk, big-time. They were preparing for the Main Event, and here they are.
There are no surprises in the article (click on the headline to see the entire article). There will be hundreds of millions of dollars spent with a single objective: to smear and thus help defeat President Obama and Democrats in November. It is coordinated and it will be vicious beyond any previous precedent. Big, big money will be funding this stuff for the next six months. Buyer beware.

“Obama” is really used as the symbol of people like me: “liberal”, “Democrat”, “union”…they and words like them are all “hate words”. (In a few days I’ll be writing about that business of “hate words”. Stay tuned. The subtext will be “Using the Middle Class to kill the Middle Class”.)
Nothing we’ll see in the barrage of ads (and “forwards”) will be any surprise to me. There is no intention at conveying “truth” in any sense of that word. These “ads” will doubtless include those barrage of “forwards” that I get most every day. (I always look at these forwards, since I want to see how the “truth” is destroyed.) I’ve written about this before, most recently March 24, 2012. It is so rare to receive a forward that on balance is “true”.
I also look at the truly vicious stuff that comes from the “Tea Party” internet structure. I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess.
As for me, I happen to be a retired Teacher Union representative who’s a very moderate liberal Democrat who has a great deal of respect for President Obama, (though I supported Hillary Clinton until she conceded the nomination in 2008.) My best prominent political friend was a former Republican Governor of Minnesota. I’m reasonably well informed person on politics, and reasonably active in the local level of the political conversation.
If you are at all interested in my perspectives, check in once in awhile and simply put the words Election 2012 in the search box. You’ll find anything I’ve been writing about the topic (there have been 7 preceding items.)
If you aren’t interested, fine. Not so fine if you believe the ad barrage, as you will be lied to, constantly, from the comfort of your easy chair. If you are unsure what to believe, reluctantly I would say, believe nothing when it comes to political argument. There is truth out there, but it won’t come from the “forwards” or the ads.
More on this topic in the next few days.
Note: June 27, 2011, I did a directly related post to this one. It is here. I note that in that smear campaign, $20 million was said to be involved. In the one now beginning, the amount will be over $200 million, and national, and this is months before the big and vicious onslaught in the fall.
Caveat Emptor.
* – I’ve subscribed to the Minneapolis Star Tribune for many years. In the most recent years it would likely be most accurately described as moderate conservative Republican in orientation.
UPDATE APRIL 11, 2012
1. From Willard Shapira, Roseville MN: The election of 2012 is nothing less than a no-holds-barred battle for control of America now and the foreseeable future. Civility is out the window; anything goes when the stakes are this high.
2. One of this mornings e-mails was a “forward” from a valued long-time friend, with this question: “Is this true?”
The text, much in very large print, all capitals and screaming color, was
“Shocking News from ABC’s Diane Sawyer”
“Biggest travesty of all times…
The entire e-mail, along with the video, follows my response:
“I appreciate your asking.
I looked at the piece, and I checked Snopes, Nothing about Chinese building American bridges there, possibly because this is a brand new piece.
Here is what I noticed:
1) This is probably a brand new piece of propaganda, and it very likely is a ‘cut and paste’ job using ABC footage and website. It says right under the video that it was aired in September, 2011, six months ago, and the video itself probably used footage even older. But surrounding the video is current news. For someone like you or I it would be almost impossible to discern the “truth” of this apparently very real piece of film. It is probably gross misuse of ABC’s rights, but ABC won’t pursue – too hard. And you can’t attribute this “forward” to anyone specific (typical of such forwards).
2) The piece emphasizes three STATE projects, California, New York and Alaska, but its clear intent is to blame OBAMA and put him and GOVERNMENT in cahoots with CHINA (see the second sentence.)
3) There is something unstated here: these are very big business contracts. As you know, “states” as entities don’t build anything. They let contracts to profit-making concerns who are constrained only by state and federal law. Business (and we consumers) do a LOT of shopping in China.
If one were to dig at all, one would find this to be far, far more complicated. If something surfaces on Snopes, I’ll let you know.
That you would have received this on Monday doesn’t surprise me at all, actually.
Here is what I wrote on Monday on my blog post (you’ve been reading the post I refer to).
After sending my response, I thought about this some more, and added this:
I think about this kind of stuff, quite a lot, actually, and it occurred to me after sending my response that I had left out perhaps the most important piece of data: in my state, and at the national level, and probably in most states, the real ‘driver’ of public policy for the current Republican party is Big Business. One of the main mantras I hear all the time is “get government off our back”, in terms of regulations, such as fair wages, who we can buy from, etc., etc. So, with the bridge example, the prime contractors go where they can get “whatever” cheapest…but continue to blame “government” for the problems.
Prove me wrong on this one. I think it will be difficult to do so, since, as I say, I hear it all the time.”
The “forward” continued.
Diane Sawyer reporting on U.S. bridge projects going to the Chines….NOT Americans.
The bridges are right here in the U.S. and yet Obama has approved for Chinese contractors to come in and do the work. What about jobs for Americans???
Watch this video. It doesn’t take long to view.
This one should be tough for the supoorters of the current regime to swallow…AND it comes from ABC NEWS.
U.S.A. Bridges andRoads Being Built by Chinese Firms. Shokcing to say the least! This video is a jaw-dropper that will make you sick. (It was also shocking that ABC was actually reporting this story.)
The lead-in with Obama promising jobs in the U.S. by improving our infrastructure is so typical of all his promises! Our tax dollars are at work – for CHINA!!!
I pray all the unemployed see this and cast their votes accordingly in 2012!
Click here: U.S Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms Video – ABC News
PLEASE pass on to everyone.

#549 – Dick Bernard: Part Two. The slow but certain suicide of Capitalism

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I’m not an enemy of Capitalism. From my earliest years some deference was paid to the person who lived in the biggest house in town; who occupied a position of status or rank; the most “successful” relative…. Right or wrong, they were thought to be deserving of being a bit better off.
Today, Capitalism funds my retirement pension (unless its most ruthless advocates achieve a goal of destroying my Union which provides the funding to assure my private pension solvency.)
I also have no apprehensions about Socialism. Indeed, without very strong elements of Socialism in the American economy, Capitalism would die, and Capitalism knows it, but doesn’t have the common sense to know when to quit bludgeoning the middle class and government, which are largely creatures of Socialist largesse – public schools, health and the like.
Examples to debate are endless. The Bible quote in last Sunday’s Passion (see it here) was a most interesting one, cutting the apparent Capitalist of the day considerable slack in how she spent her money.
Oh, if it were so simple.
If I were to pick an exemplar of unfettered Capitalism it would be desperately impoverished Haiti, once the jewel of the French Empire. You can find many examples of extreme wealth there; elite families benefit by friendly laws and have destroyed competition. As one gets richer and richer and richer, defeating a potential competitor is easy.
Poor as it is, I’ve heard post-earthquake Haiti described as a “goldmine”. So, somebody has a monopoly on cement; someone else on school uniforms, etc., etc., etc. And the wealthy in Haiti can enjoy their lifestyle wherever in the world they wish, while the overwhelming vast majority of the people subsist. It is a society of, by and for Capitalism; and in the last 100-200 years it is largely of the American variety. Its cruel circumstances were imported from France and the U.S., largely.

In our own U.S., the Capitalist impulse towards self-destruction is harder to see than in Haiti, but nonetheless it is apparent. We are killing ourselves.
The accelerating imbalance in wealth in America (and elsewhere) is apparent to anyone who cares to look. Last Sunday, 60 Minutes had a segment on burgeoning art markets for the super wealthy.
The wealthy have far more than enough. But, it seems, the more they have the more they want.
A friend of mine, a retired corporate manager and no friend of government or taxes, described this dynamic a few days ago, without intending to do so.
He and his wife spend February and March at one of those Florida Gulf Coast condominium complexes, and they had just returned home.
We were chatting, and the topic got around to where they stay each year.
They rent: $5,000 a month. Two bedroom, 9th floor, Gulf side.
We chatted: The owners of their condo have three or four homes. The 19 floors of their condo has over 100 units; only 6 are year round residents. The condo they rent cost $1.3 million when purchased a few years ago, and probably on a good day would now sell for $600,000. Monthly Association fees are $891, and my friend guessed that the place is rented perhaps four months a year. Most of the year it is empty. There are additional costs for upkeep. There are numerous other similar buildings in this community….
One can gather how a conversation about government, taxes, liberals, unions, etc., would go at dinner in one of the restaurants in this wealthy ghetto. Likely the owners pick as their legal residence the state which has the lowest taxes, and extract every entitlement that they can.
Yes, we have always had the better off, and mostly they were accepted and respected.
But like the semblance of balance necessary to keep a tub of clothes on spin cycle from ruining the wash machine, the obsession with more and more wealth – escalating inequity – is ruining everyone, including the very wealthy.
The wealthy are already a victim of their own greed – imprisoned by their own wealth – but its all they know. The rest of us will just tag along as their (and by extension, our) self-destruct mission continues…unless we decide to do something about it in our still free elections.
Happy Easter.
(Part one is here.)
UPDATE April 4:
John Borgen: Yes, we are a country of the corporations by the corporations for the corporations. Making profit is our holy grail. So many believe they will strike it rich, win the lottery, inherit the big bucks. Consumerism is our religion. Our citizens are drunk on TV, sports, video games, alcohol, drugs, sugar, gossip, blame, selfishness, American elitism.
Ah, the rugged individual! The entrepreneur who cashes in. Only in America!
I heard on the radio,according to the Gallop organization, the top three happiest countries are Denmark, Norway and Finland. The USA
is # 11.

#548 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #7. Talking Politics. The DFL Senate District 53 Convention

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If you aren’t normally involved in politics, or even if you are, you might be interested in this recap of last weekends local district political convention.

We have a societal, essentially tribal, inclination to label and judge “broad brush”. Therefore, rather than talking face to face, we label: Iran, collectively, is evil; or, or or….
And “Politicians”. Back in early January a well known activist wrote me a letter framing the issue, without intending to do so: “Politics is the art of the possible and involves compromise. That is the job of politicians and I respect that. The job of [my movement] is to focus on [our] issue….” In other words (my opinion) we can’t and won’t compromise….
When you go to a local political convention as I did Saturday, you know that labels are unfair and inaccurate.
In my case, to be “Democrat” does not mean to be alike. If one or the other party has been taken over by fringe ideologies, that simply means that others let it happen. If the left wing (which in my opinion is very similar to the right wing) feels deserted by the Democrats it is because it doesn’t show up, or its positions are considered too extreme and it refuses to negotiate.
In Minnesota the formal process began with the caucuses in February.
Someone on Saturday said that similarly relatively small numbers of Republicans and Democrats attended their respective precinct caucuses in February.
I don’t know the Republican process; I know that all are welcome at the Democrat (DFL) caucus. Some would call this openness a liability; I consider it a strength. And if you came to the caucus you were at step one of the process* in the DFL party. You could propose and argue resolutions, you could stand for delegate to the Senate District Convention, and from there have the opportunity to be a delegate to the Congressional and then State Conventions.
In my caucus and convention, everyone who wanted to become a delegate had the opportunity.
So, we delegates gathered in Maplewood on March 31 to organize a new Senate District 53. The credentials report showed 119 of us, which was about 70% of those had agreed to be delegates. Vested in us was the power of the convention to endorse candidates for office, as well as deal with the over 90 resolutions forwarded from the precinct caucuses. Volunteer committees gathered several weeks before the convention to plan for March 31.
Beginning at 9 a.m. we dealt with all of the things that are important in such Conventions.
We heard a number of speeches from candidates or their representatives, some ‘circuit riding’ from one convention to the next. I always have great respect and admiration for those, including those who do not prevail, who put themselves on the line vying for these offices. Being a candidate is very hard work.
We heard from our candidates: two of the three positions were contested. We chose our candidates to support for State Senate and State House of Representatives. All three are women. These fine committed potential public servants are: Susan Kent, Ann Marie Metzger and JoAnn Ward.
We were all getting tired, and we still had to pick delegates to the Congressional District Convention, and deal with the resolutions.
We had no contest for delegate positions. Everyone who wanted to go on had the opportunity, either as delegate or alternate. There is an affirmative action rule requiring that there be equal numbers of men and women, and we met that criteria.
Then came the Resolutions.
At the Convention pre-meeting, we had winnowed down the initial 90 resolutions to 33 (many were essentially identical). The Convention could have approved and advanced all resolutions, but 7 were challenged by delegates for assorted reasons.
There was reasoned, and reasonable, and brief, debate on all of the questioned resolutions. When we adjourned at nearly 4:30, 4 of the resolutions had been removed, one through a tie vote. One was very significantly revised, then passed.
29 Resolutions go on to the 4th Congressional District Convention later this month.
By participating, you learn that politics is not evil, but good. That reasoned debate among reasonable people comes to reasonable results.
And most important, that political decision making goes to those who show up and participate, including through voting….

(click to enlarge photo)

Ann Marie Metzger seeks nomination as District 53B candidate March 31, 2012


* – “A” in the triangle is what this commentary is about: “we, the people”. We have all the power. We ARE politics.
“B” is what all the big media and important pundit chatter is about. But without “A” there is no “B”.
A daily summary of “B” which I find very useful is Just Above Sunset. The April 1 post, “Engineering a Better America” is a very useful read.
For the other commentaries on Election 2012 just enter those words in the search box above.

#544 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #5. Health Insurance responsibility for all?

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UPDATE March 29, 2012: If you are interested in the ‘national health care’ issue, “My favorite blogger” (see below) has perhaps 10,000 words of summary about the three day circus surrounding the Supreme Court earlier this week (A normal newspaper column is perhaps 600-700 words. My comments below are about 500 words). I’d appreciate your reading my comments, and if you read nothing else, note the first and last full paragraphs of the final (March 28) post of Just Above Sunset. Here are the links: March 26, March 27, March 28. These will take awhile, but are worth the time, and Just Above Sunset is worth subscribing to (it is free, one per day).
My 500 words: If you looked at the subject line and have read this far, you’re interested in and literate on the debate which has culminated in oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
My favorite blogger, Just Above Sunset, summarizes at considerable length the views on issues of the day, and his morning post late yesterday, “The Supreme Court Disaster”, as the day before and (probably) tomorrow, will cover all manner of definitive speculation about everything related to the case. Everything said by anyone may be meaningful, or, as easily, meaningless. We don’t know.
But the issue is of huge importance, regardless of the ultimate ruling, and I decided to weigh in with the following comment on this piece of text nearing the end of the March 27 Just Above Sunset post: “But Paul Waldman points out something far more absurd, that Americans want something for nothing.”
So true, so very, very true. We Americans generally have one priority: ME, NOW. Makes no difference our ideology: ME, NOW. We’re used to demanding our way, or no way. I’M RIGHT. YOU’RE WRONG.
My wife and I are senior citizens, with accumulating seniority on Medicare. We both have pensions and we’re on Social Security. We live modestly, but don’t have to live frugally. We’re in reasonably good health. We’re the very fortunate ones in this society.
Today (March 28) we visited the tax man. We itemize: in the medical box is $12,705.66 in premiums and out of pocket expenses for a great assortment of insurances and expenses which we feel are necessary, including Long Term Care. Even Medicare has a premium, automatically deducted from our Social Security. It isn’t “free”….
We have no complaints.
I frequently think back to another day, back in 1963, when I got out of the Army and began teaching school. My new wife had also just begun teaching. We were just beginning our life together. She was pregnant with our first child.
I was back home for less than a month when she began to feel sick. She went to the doctor, and had to quit teaching. It was a steady downhill slide from there. She died of kidney disease two years later, only 22.
We had no hospital insurance. Group insurance was unusual in 1963.
Individual insurance was available. Like today’s kids, we couldn’t imagine ever needing insurance at our young age. By the time we did, it was too late. (Most likely, then as now, my wife would have been un-insurable due to her pre-existing conditions we didn’t realize existed.)
We were saved by public charity (several public and religious hospitals), and later I was saved from bankruptcy by public welfare, and embraced by a caring community.
The hell we went through long ago – our son just turned 48 – created my attitude forever. A caring society matters far more than the “free” individual.
But concepts like insurance for all are abstract concepts for our “me, now” generation. We are an immensely wealthy society (even with the laments about unemployment), and we have difficulty imagining that the others, and the future, matters.
Those wishing for the defeat of “Obamacare” might be careful what they wish for.
(I prefer it be called more accurately “Obamacares”.)
Dick and Barbara Bernard March 1965. Barbara died four months later. We were sponsors at a Baptism of our friends first child.
Photo is of Dick and Barbara Bernard in early March, 1965. Barbara died four months later. She was very ill. We were sponsors at a Baptism of our friends first child.
For access to other Election 2012 posts, simply enter the words election 2012 in the search box and dates/titles of other items will appear.

#543 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #4. "The Vote is the most powerful instrument; the most powerful nonviolent tool in a democratic society." Cong. John Lewis

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Sunday night, March 25, we tuned in on the new PBS series entitled “Finding Your Roots”, where historian Henry Louis Gates explores roots with prominent citizens. We watched the episode featuring political leaders Newark NJ Mayor Cory Booker and GA Cong. John Lewis, and at approximately the 42 minute mark of the program, Lewis made the quote which is the subject line of this post. (You can watch the program on-line. It’s about 50 minutes.)
In its complete context, the John Lewis segment in particular is truly extraordinary. We tend to take rights, like the right to vote, for granted, until we lose them.
Just days earlier, (March 20 and 23) an initiative I would call the “Kiffmeyer Suppression of Voters Rights Amendment” passed both houses of the Minnesota Legislature, strictly on party line votes. Once the versions are reconciled, and a final version passed, we voters will have to deal with a proposed constitutional amendment in November. It bypasses the Governor, who likely would have vetoed similar legislation since there was no bi-partisan agreement). The seemingly innocuous amendment has huge negative implications for possibly hundreds of thousands of totally legal voters, who have voted for years in past Minnesota elections.
The actual legislation is really very simple to read. Click here, then simply type in HF 2738 in the box, mark “both” and enter. All information is readily available. What’s lost in the few words is the negative implications for future voters if the initiative passes in November.
Rep Mary Kiffmeyer, carrying the Bill, is a state legislator and former MN secretary of state, but more importantly she is representing powerful outside special interests that have an interest in diminishing the rights of certain legal voters.
I’ve been interested in an old e-mail (August, 2010) which is a fundraising letter in which Mary Kiffmeyer is given prominent billing as “Former Secretary of State”…”who serves on our [organizations] Board”. (See end of this post for more on this.)
The same letter notes the names of seven apparently highly prominent founding contributors: Stanley Hubbard, George Anderson, Rudy Boschwitz, Martin Kellogg, John Kinkead, Dale Zoerb and David Frauenshuh). Their organization proposes to “require PHOTO ID in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth”. Its real dream seems to be to dominate Minnesota Government for the long term by making it more difficult for ordinary citizens to vote.
There is time between now and November to become very aware of the implications of this proposed constitutional amendment, if in fact it passes and goes on the ballot.
Real people – you and I – are the only antidote to this ill-considered attempt to gain a permanent political advantage in our state.
We need to know the facts, and let others know.
Do take time to watch the program mentioned in the first paragraph. You can watch on-line. Cong. Lewis walked the walk with Dr. Martin Luther King and others in the 1950s and 1960s to restore the right to vote gained after the Civil War, then soon thereafter wrested away for nearly the next 100 years. He and his colleagues paid the price for all of us.
END NOTE:
The letter referred to above is accessible at the end of this paragraph. I have redacted only specific contact information – if someone is interested they can search this out themselves. The fundraising memo is full of difficult to impossible to verify innuendo (“numerous states” et al) and targeting (“St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth”). I am most interested in the “140 of 480″ referenced. At the groups website there are 107 candidates listed who signed the pledge. Many of these were elected. Here’s the letter: Voter 18 Aug 2010003 Most likely Rep Kiffmeyer is a silent partner in this group at this point in time, but definitely connected.
(This is #4 in a series of posts relating to the 2012 election. For access to the others, previous and future, simply enter the words Election 2012 in the search box. The dates and topic of each post will come up.)

#541 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #3. A blizzard of insanity: the internet Lie machine.

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The ‘ink’ had not even dried on Election 2012 #1 when in came a “forward”, containing a piece of video purportedly proving that President Obama was born in Kenya. There he was, on videotape, President Obama himself, saying he was Kenyan at a public meeting with real people who looked like normal white people. They were his words. His voice.
The forward-er was someone I only very recently had heard from via e-mail. Except for Christmas cards, we really weren’t in touch. The correspondent said in that earlier e-mail that the President lies, without evidence. Well, apparently here in this forwarded video, was the evidence….
It was easy to dispatch this one, as it is most all of the internet lies circulating constantly. As we all know from watching those cute TV ads of babies talking like businessmen, the insurance companies talking duck and gecko, etc, experts can cut and paste both video and sound, and mix them masterfully, and this they had done with the so-called President Obama video. But many people don’t seem to grasp the obvious with the political stuff: that their hates and fears are being manipulated and massaged by liars who are, in turn, accusing the hated other of lying. So it goes. Lies work. All one can do is respond.
Computers and the internet are marvelous – and dangerous – things. They’re dangerous in the hands of the small Army, largely older people like me, who share the garbage I’ve come to call “forwards”.
This seems a good time to dust off and send the following, which was gathering dust in the ‘draft’ bin of my computer, and which I’d dealt with on-line a few weeks ago. The inquiring e-mail came from a good friend in London, England, who’d gotten a “forward” from his wife’s grandfather in the U.S. Here is what I said about this topic, then:
“My usual source for checking stuff like this is www.snopes.com.
[Yours] is the first international version of passing on the big lie(s) that I’ve seen.
Snopes had nothing I could find on either of these – perhaps I keyed in the wrong search words, or perhaps this is so completely outrageous as to not be worth the time.
My guess: the data is made up, a very, very common strategy. It is extremely time-consuming to validate/refute “data” like what [was forwarded]. The beginning premise is that the reader hates Obama (or liberals, or socialists) and will buy anything that verifies his/her point of view.
I actually don’t mind getting this kind of stuff (I call it “forwards”), and when I do I make it a point of responding.
Things I look for:
1. Is there some kind of reasonably plausible source of origin (who originated the e-mail in the very beginning of its travels)? The answer is always “no”.
2. These things live on by being passed from (usually) one senior citizen (like me) to another…. They’re usually from men, but they sometimes come from women too.
3. Is there some kind of reasonably safe link to check the data? For instance the websites for [the purported source of information, in this case], IBD [International Business Daily] or WHO [World Health Organization]. The answer is always “no”.
4. Does snopes have anything to say about it? Often they do. I would guess that well over 90% of the stuff that is out there is either false or so massacre’d (misleading) that it may as well be false.
5. The right wing has taken to trying to discredit snopes as being a left-wing tool, and if you want an interesting take, go to a competing fact checker, www.truthorfiction.com, and type snopes in the search box. I happen to know that the person who founded truthorfiction is a minister in southern California. I know that because a number of years ago I heard him interviewed on a Christian radio station I happened across when on the road. He and I actually shared a couple of e-mails back then. His debunking does not change the senders mind. They’ll believe whatever they want to believe. Sometimes the “data” will include a supposed link to Snopes, proving it is correct. They really don’t expect people to go to Snopes, after all, they’ve already made up their mind, and the link itself may not be valid (or if you go there, Snopes says it is false.) But you have to go there, and few do.
6. I do think that it is worthwhile (even if it seems a waste of time) to challenge the one who forwards the item, and if I’m lucky enough to have an open cc list, I’ll respond to them, too. Every now and then somebody will write that they were glad I spoke up. Other silent ones get this garbage as well. But the human tendency is to start believing the unbelievable if it is repeated often enough, and that is a conscious and deliberate strategy.
I’m actually glad you sent this on, and I’ll pass it on the group for their information. And if anyone in the group wants to add to my list above, please do. Feel free to send my item to your relative if you wish.”
“Election 2012” posts will appear periodically between now and November. Simply enter Election 2012 in the search box, and you’ll see where the others are located.
The Video and response links referred to in first two paragraphs: video; here’s the truth: here and here. (Truth or Fiction’s opinion of the video is here.)

#540 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #2 Looking in on Voter ID

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More important information on this issue in MN: Our Voices Count MN, and League of Women Voters of MN.
Election 2012 #1 is here.
Through the day, today, from a number of sources, I heard a request to show up at the state Capitol on the Voter ID Constitutional Amendment proposal, possibly reaching a vote on the House floor this evening. (The Senate vote on this matter will follow soon. You still have an opportunity to take a position on this matter.)
We decided to make an appearance today. I infrequently go to these events, but this issue is a particularly compelling one.
There is a deliberate effort being made to disenfranchise certain people in Minnesota and thus suppress their vote. I have learned a lot about this issue – likely more than most people – and I am very concerned.
I wrote a note at the Capitol to be delivered to my local Representative on the floor of the House essentially saying that my wife and I had plenty of ID and a long-time address in our town. The issue is not about us.
The issue is, however, about making it more difficult for certain people to exercise their franchise, and that bothers me, a lot.
There were relatively few at the Capitol this afternoon, but I gathered that massive numbers was not the objective. There were no speakers – at least not while we were there. There was no vocal demonstration. The police and security had nothing to worry about.
I had a brief conversation with a couple of individuals representing organizations:

Steve Larson of Arc of Minnesota, and Michelle Gray of Brain Injury Association, March 20, 2012


Both Steve Larson (Arc of Minnesota) and Michelle Gray of Brain Injury Association of MN well represented their respective organizations advocacy for individuals who in one way or another need assistance, including when it comes time to defend their constitutional rights, such as the right to vote.
An action oriented handout was distributed to us by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. It is here: Facts on Voter ID001
There’s still time to contact your Senator.
Do it now.

March 20, 2012 outside the House Chambers at the State Capitol


UPDATE March 22: a pertinent commentary on the issue is here.

#538 – Dick Bernard: Election 2012 #1 "The Road We've Traveled"

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For subsequent posts on the topic of the upcoming election: simply enter Election 2012 in search box. Election 2012 #2 is here.
This morning I watched the new 17-minute video recently released by the President Obama Reelection Campaign. It is here.
Whatever your preconception of the President (I have huge respect for him and what he’s accomplished against overwhelming odds), I’d encourage to watch the entire video, and share it. The person who forwarded the video to me, a retired person from a large corporation, said this about the video: “Every American should see this video. Please share it.”

Minneapolis MN Feb 2, 2008, photo by Dick Bernard


Minneapolis, February 2, 2008 photo by Dick Bernard


Of course, being American politics, not every one will be enthusiastic about this video. From even before the President was inaugurated, Rush Limbaugh has been on record “I hope he fails”, as has the leadership of the Republicans in U.S. Congress and Senate and Governorships and state Houses and Senates, and, of course, Fox News and right-wing talk radio. It hasn’t worked, though it’s been a powerful and constant drum-beat. So be it.
Nonetheless you owe it to yourself to watch the video, and ask yourself if we’re better (or worse) off now than four years ago, when our national House of Cards was collapsing around us. It was a terrifying time, coming to a head in September, 2008, right BEFORE the 2008 election.
I’m formally, on this blog, a “moderate, pragmatic, Democrat”. That’s how I tagged myself when I opened for business here three years ago. I’m comfortable with the label. It means I get confronted, from time to time, from both poles of the political spectrum (who in many ways seem like “peas in a pod” (albeit with diametrically opposed points of view on issues).
I’ll post from time to time on this topic at this space, perhaps once every week or two. Just enter the words “Election 2012” in the search box.
If today is your last visit, consider printing out a one page document I first generated in April 9, 2009, just weeks into the Obama presidency; and added a small revision August 12, 2011. It is a helpful base for assessing who’s been responsible for what, since. Here it is: Congress 1977-2011001
It is a given that we despise Politics and Politicians, and many despise Government itself.
What is essential to note, in my opinion, is that we ARE all of these things: politics, politicians and government itself.
If we despise them, we need to take a look at ourselves, not someone else.
UPDATE March 18:
Judy Berglund: The Obama tape [linked in this post] is excellent.
Bob Barkley: This will continue your Obama support level.
Bruce Fisher and Corky Marinkovich have also added comments at the comments section of this blog.
From Harriette Ternipsede, an album of photos from Peter Souza
From Jacob Grippen, A sign of the times, by a deaf student who met the President March 14, 2012.