A Post Election Commentary

Okay; the elections are over. Bravo and congratulations to the Republicans for running one of the first coherent strategies in their history. For Democrats, you deserved the whipping put on you, especially those incumbent representatives who suffer from a lack of integrity. These are the cowards who chose to tuck their tales and run away from the president into the darkness of political incoherence. The Republican strategy of nationalizing the election by making the election about the president and his policies; the Democratic losers, instead of capitalizing on the accomplishments of the president, chose to run and hide from them. That Floriduh reelected Rick Scott, the Medical Health insurance fraud, and Georgia elected Perdue, who bragged about shipping jobs offshore speaks volumes about the importance of so-called "morality, truth, and integrity as those values that they (Republicans) have claimed Democrats lack. So, now, like the Republicans, after a gigantic electoral ass-whipping, will slink off into a corner and lament and debate the failures associated with this election failure. For Democrats, you have 2 years to realize that you cannot continue to ignore the Latino population, the Colorado elections speaks volumes about the Udall candidacy and its lack of sensitivity to Latino interests. What does this loss say about the Southern states that are seriously populated with black voters? It is time that political leadership, both Republican and Democratic open their eyes to the demographic changes underway, i.e. the darkening of America and that you embrace this reality and practice the inclusivity that you brag about because the longer you resist the changes the more difficult the changes are going to be. Democrats and the President dropped the ball especially where Latinos and the immigration issue is concerned. Even now, Latino leadership is warning the President about the importance of the immigration issue is to their community. And insofar as the black vote is concerned, the message to them was muddled at best. Combined, Latino and African American absence from the polls make up the greater proportion of the 2/3 electorate that just did not find it in their best interests to go to the polls. Finally, for the victorious Republicans, you now have the levers, and you will now have to act between now and 2016; you can no longer blame POTUS for this, that and the other. I look forward to hearing Boehner and McConnell's commentaries on the next two years.

Ebola, Ignorance and the Failure of American Federalism

Ignorance prevails. Not just where "misconceptions about Ebola" are concerned. But, once again, this disease demonstrates; 1) the failure of U.S. federalism and, 2) public ignorance of U.S. federalism. As is typical of our federal system, it is ready made for finger pointing. Notice how the GOP is quick to lay the blame for the mishandling of the Ebola thing on the Federal administration and POTUS. But as the knuckle draggers are wont to ask, "where in the Constitution does it say anything about such responsibility." Where is the knuckle draggers promotion of State's rights, i.e., return to federalism where there are 50 states, each with its direct control over such institutions and policies as medical and educational systems and, you wonder why they are failing. Yes, folks, the flagrant mishandling of the initial case of Ebola, in this country, must be laid at the feet of the State of Texas and its preparation, or the lack thereof, to handle this problem. The reports by nurses working in the Texas hospital are deplorable but, the failure is conveniently (for political/electoral purposes) laid at the feet of POTUS. And as if, this is not enough, the President is charged with failure and mishandling things in West Africa. Again, "where in the Constitution....."

It is a sad state of affairs especially when watching so-called Congressional hearings where, what should be inquiry into problems associated with the failure at the Texas hospital and possible readiness conditions (etc.) it turned into nothing political theatrics, "gotcha" and the need to find the head of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) be offered up on a silver platter. And, as is typical, and consistent with the pervasive ignorance of who and what the CDC can do, and does in the current Ebola situation. FYI, the CDC, like many executive agencies, does not have the authority to order state health agencies to do this or that. All they can do is make recommendations that the states may or may not take. For those of you who are looking for something and/or someone to blame for not being ready to handle a case of Ebola, take the time to check on your local hospitals and controlling state health and medical agencies for readiness to manage a possible case of Ebola. Wake up America, "Rome is burning" while your pervasive ignorance fans the flames.

And now, in the wake of demands that POTUS appoint a "Czar" to handle "Ebola" in America. And, after some consideration, (allegations of foot dragging by some) POTUS has appointed an "Ebola Czar" and before POTUS could make his choice of Czar, America immediately demonstrated its continual state of ignorance. "This man does not ....... he has an agenda........ why did he not appoint a medical person......?" Well once again, the person appointed is a competent manager. It is a manager that is needed to lend coherence to the mess that is federalism. He is going to have to sort out and assign, if given such authority, federal and state responsibilities for managing the incipient health/medical crises. The point here is simply that, a good manager and organizer is what is necessary to meet the current need. One may of may not need be a medical professional. A medical professional(s) need be the right/left arms of the Czar.

Race and Representative Paul Ryan

"We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with."
These are the remarks of House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R Wisconsin). Defending himself and the above remarks, Ryan states:

"This has nothing to do whatsoever with race. It was a long talk and he asked about the culture and I just went off of that. This has nothing to do whatsoever with race. It never even occurred to me. This has nothing to do with race whatsoever. This isn’t a race based comment it’s a breakdown of families, it’s rural poverty in rural areas, and talking about where poverty exists — there are no jobs and we have a breakdown of the family.  This has nothing to do with race."

Then there is rancher Clivan Bundy (an authority on the "Negro") who asserts:
 “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the 'Negro,'” ... “[B]ecause they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children; they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
Bundy" remarks demonstrate pure and simple ignorance that is often associated with a dumb white farmer (excuse me, rancher) who grew up under the misguided assumption of "white superiority" which is the definition for the white "racist" who is of the "culture" of white racists who may or ay not know that he is one in the same.
Poor Ryan tries to walk back from his incendiary race centered remarks. In his case, we have the ignorant, but educated, prejudiced white political elite who sets about disgracing himself by the use of what might be termed, "implicative language."  This clown's thinly veiled  reference to African Americans, in particular, and people of color in general is intended to excuse direct reference to both populations that are "imprisoned" within the urban environments of America's run-down, economically depressed, crime-ridden urban centers. Now, unless one has been residing under a rock at the bottom of one of the oceans, he/she is fully aware that urbana America is populated by Americans of African descent and other people of color.

What makes Ryan's referencing and indictments of the "culture" so maddening is that he tries to give validity to his race baited comments by citing the studies of one Charles Murray. Murray can be truly classified as a "racist" of the first magnitude. He is one of a group of eugenists who crawl into the light every generation of so to to scholarly research designed to empirically prove the superiority of Caucasians and their brains over that of persons of the Negroid race. Murray's study entitled "The Bell Curve" upon publication was received with general disgust. Among the academic community, Murray's work was soundly castigated and denounced as invalid due to faulty methodology. This speaks volumes about Mr. Ryan who grabbed the first academic work he found in an effort to validate his claim that there is a problem of "culture" in the center cities of America.

And finally, there is the Donald Sterling, National Basketball scandal. What more can be said in response to questions about racism in America. The truth is, and should be understood, that race, racism and racial prejudice is just as much a part of America as is mom, baseball, and apple pie.