(https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/impeaching-trump-won-t-fix-crisis-america-desperately-needs-political-ncna867046)
". . . Those still working in Washington and in Trump’s Cabinet have hard choices to make. Each person has to weigh their commitment to the country against the damage that will come to them. I believe that working for Donald Trump, especially closely, damages everybody. And all of us have to decide individually: How much stain can I tolerate in service to my country? . . . Trump may not change completely, but there is opportunity for change at the margins. And that's something that all of us can try and help accomplish. He’s a smart person. He's deeply self-interested, and as he comes to understand that you can't do whatever you want as president of the United States, hopefully he also learns there are things the Republicans will not tolerate. And if Republicans do believe that values matter, it's time for them to stand up and put an ethical fence around him in a way that will protect the country. . ."
(from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-twitter-habit-isn-t-very-presidential-george-washington-ncna847746)
". . . In a letter John Adams wrote to Benjamin Rush, Adams famously observed that our first president had “the gift of silence.” Washington knew when to keep quiet — which was most of the time — and was able to make the things that he did say far more consequential. . . A year before George Washington was elected president, his nephew won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. The future president had suggestions for how his younger relative should conduct himself in the state legislature: "Rise but seldom — let this be on important matters — and then make yourself thoroughly acquainted with the subject," Washington wrote. . . "Never be agitated by more than a decent warmth, & offer your sentiments with modest diffidence — opinions thus given, are listened to with more attention than when delivered in a dictatorial stile". . . When George Washington broke his customary silence, he offered good advice — and he did it in concise sentences that would easily fit into one or two tweets. . . "
(from John Adams, by David McCullough)
". . . Adams's only known response to the news of (Benjamin) Franklin's demise was in a letter to (Benjamin) Rush in which he lamented the lies history would tell of "our revolution." "The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's eletrical rod smote the earth and out sprung General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod and thence forward these two conducted all the policy, negotiation, legislation, and war.". . . "
(from John Adams by David McCullough)
". . . Having attended several of the President's levees, Abigail could attest that the "court" of the Washingtons was as crowded, the company as brilliantly dressed as at St. James's, with the difference that here she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Her "station" at levees, she explained to Mary, was to the right of Mrs. Washington - though this Mary must keep to herself, "as all distinction you know is unpopular." If someone mistakenly stood in her place, the President never failed to see the situation corrected without anyone being offended. He "has so happy a faculty of appearing to accommodate and yet carrying his point that is he was not really one of the best intentioned me in the world, he might be a very dangerous one. . . "
It's time for everybody to write to their representatives in Washington DC to encourage initiation of:
Amendment XXV
Section 4. to the U.S. Constitution
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
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If you think your voice doesn't matter, or if you think (and I've heard a multitude of rationalizations) that this cannot be done, then of course, nothing will be done. I know Congress has a majority of Republicans, but let us NOT generalize. We all agree that generalization is not applicable to races, colors, creeds, national original, profession, sex or tribe in this, the year 2017. Rest assured that there are members of the Republican party or or rational, reasonable people. Further, if your rationalization originates from places other than the political makeup of Congress, remember that if we do not try to do what is right, and refrain from making even the slightest effort to stop this nonsense, we will in the end, receive exactly what we deserve.
(http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-david-horsey-message-to-red-state-trump-voters-i-want-my-country-back-20161114-story.html)
". . . Yes, congratulations. At the same moment you elected a billionaire who claimed he would drain the special interest "swamp" in Washington, D.C., you kept in power insiders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of the biggest snakes in the swamp, plus all the other Republicans in Congress who have fought to keep the mighty flow of corporate dollars streaming in. . . You think you have struck a blow against the "elites" on the coasts who look down on "real Americans" in the heartland. . ."
(from http://www.capitalbop.com/musician-profile-andrew-white-keeper-of-the-trane-is-a-living-legend-unknown-to-many/) ". . . Andrew White began his career as the leader of an innovative quintet on one of the world’s top jazz labels, then went on to record with McCoy Tyner and Weather Report and toured with Stevie Wonder. . . White hasn’t been as celebrated as certain other D.C. musicians is his refusal to compromise with the music industry. In an age when so-called DIY music production and promotion were unheard of, he founded his own label, Andrew’s Music. From there, he recorded, produced, pressed and disseminated his own records – more than 40 in all. He also used the label as a vehicle for publishing his writing, which has ranged from essays and “treatises” on music and life to adult fiction to an 850-plus-page autobiography. . . With the possible exception of Sun Ra’s El Saturn label, Andrew’s Music is the longest-lasting self-run, self-produced jazz record label in the world. . . “All of my records are still in print,” he mentioned, pulling out several shrink-wrapped LPs available for me to purchase. “If you’re interested, I also have copies of my autobiography for sale. Everything is in there, at least everything up till now.” . . . As I flipped through the impossibly thick autobiography, it quickly became apparent that this aging man had done it all, seen it all – most of which he had meticulously documented in the tome titled Everybody Loves The Sugar. Sitting down with me to discuss some important moments in his life, White pinpointed his freshman year in college as the beginning of his long career in music and the arts. . . Born in D.C. but raised in Nashville, Tenn., “I came back to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University, where my father had gone to school,” White told me. “Within six months, I was already involved on the jazz scene – and I wasn’t but 18 years old.” With an intense interest in music, he majored in music theory with a minor in Oboe. But the music program at Howard in 1960 was vastly different from how it stands today. “Back then, there were no jazz musicians there,” White recalled. “This was before the Jazz Studies program had started. There were students interested in classical music and music theory, but it was primarily an educational institution.” . . ."
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://realprogress.online/2016/03/24/clinton-using-dirty-tactics-trick-washington-voters/)
". . . Denise Gibbs, a Washington resident who supports Bernie Sanders, posted on Facebook that she had received a letter from Hillary Clinton, informing her where and when she can caucus. However, that information was inaccurate. The caucus location on the letter was not her caucus location. The letter also stated to arrive just 30 minutes (early), which led Denise to speculate that, “she wants me to do that, so I would not have enough time to get to my correct caucus location before the doors closed.”. . . "
(from http://www.anonews.co/hillary-clintons-election-fraud-exposed/)
". . . Hillary’s plan to steal Arizona was remarkably simple: Suppress voting on election day, and rely on her large lead with early voters to secure a win. It was a perfectly executed heist. Here’s how she did it: Drastically reduce the number of polling locations to make voting nearly impossible
For starters, polling places were almost non-existent . . ."
(from http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hillarys_corporate_democrats_taking_down_bernie_sanders_2016013)
". . .Bernie Sanders, however, does present a moral risk for the corrupt Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee, which are already turning on one of their own leading candidates. His years in politics so cleanly contrasts with the sordid, scandalized, cashing-in behavior of the Clintons. . . If and when Bernie Sanders is brought down by the very party he is championing, the millions of Bernie supporters, especially young voters, will have to consider breaking off into a new political party that will make American history. That means dissolving the dictatorial two-party duopoly and its ruinous, unpatriotic, democracy-destroying corporate paymasters. . ."
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.npr.org/2016/03/27/472056754/despite-the-math-bernie-sanders-has-already-won)
". . .Bernie Sanders scored huge-margin victories Saturday in the caucuses in Washington State, Hawaii and Alaska. . . Sanders won with 82 percent in Alaska, 70 percent in Hawaii and 72 percent in Washington. That Washington margin was even bigger than the Sanders campaign expected — and significant, because there are 101 delegates up for grabs there. . . AP has not yet allocated all the delegates out of Washington State. More will be tallied in his column over the next several weeks, as the state party releases margins by congressional district. But if Sanders' share holds, when all's said and done, he could net more than 60 delegates out of Saturday. . .That's impressive and would cut into Clinton's pledged-delegate lead significantly, by 20 percent. . .It doesn't change the math much, but that might not even be the point. Sanders has a narrow path (laid out below in detail), but he is going to win in lots of places over the next two months in similarly sweeping fashion. Regardless of what happens, when people look back on this 2016 Democratic primary, Sanders won't be dismissed as a gadfly or fringe candidate, as he was treated at the beginning of this campaign. He has already had a major impact on the Democratic Party, on Hillary Clinton and how they talk about the issues he's cared about most for the last 40 years — income inequality, regulation of Wall Street banks and power and influence in politics. . ."
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-deweydefeats-story-story.html)
". . . presidential candidate, Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York was not a glad-hander, not a flesh-presser. . . But on Nov. 2, Election Day, an overwhelming sense of inevitability hung about the Republican nominee. The polls and the pundits left no room for doubt: Dewey was going to defeat President Harry S. Truman. And the Tribune would be the first to report it. . . Arguably the most famous headline in the newspaper's 150-year history, DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN is every publisher's nightmare on every election night. Like most newspapers, the Tribune, which had dismissed him on its editorial page as a "nincompoop," was lulled into a false sense of security by polls that repeatedly predicted a Dewey victory. Critically important, though, was a printers' strike, which forced the paper to go to press hours before it normally would. As the first-edition deadline approached, managing editor J. Loy "Pat" Maloney had to make the headline call, although many East Coast tallies were not yet in. Maloney banked on the track record of Arthur Sears Henning, the paper's longtime Washington correspondent. Henning said Dewey. Henning was rarely wrong. Besides, Life magazine had just carried a big photo of Dewey with the caption "The next President of the United States.". . . The ink was hardly dry on 150,000 copies of the paper when radio bulletins reported that the race was surprisingly close. The headline was changed to DEMOCRATS MAKE SWEEP OF STATE OFFICES for the second edition. . . The Tribune blamed the pollsters for its mistake. . . He had as low an opinion of the Tribune as it did of him. Truman held the paper up, and photographers preserved the moment for history. . . "
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.alternet.org/story/140137/american_amnesia%3A_we_forget_our_atrocities_almost_as_soon_as_we_commit_them)
". . . Why else send prisoners where they would be beyond the reach of the law -- a place, incidentally, that Washington is using in violation of a treaty forced on Cuba at the point of a gun?. . . torture has been routinely practiced from the early days of the conquest of the national territory, and continued to be used as the imperial ventures of the "infant empire" -- as George Washington called the new republic. . . torture was the least of the many crimes of aggression, terror, subversion, and economic strangulation that have darkened U.S. history, much as in the case of other great powers. . . "
But don't worry, Donald Trump's rantings, Kate Winslet's birthday and the 'adventures' of Real Housewives will soon divert our attention and . . . life goes on . . .
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/house-judiciary-approves-bill-ending-bulk-nsa-data-collection/130970)
". . . The House Judiciary Committee on a voice vote has unanimously approved the USA Freedom Act (H.R. 3361). The bill would end bulk data collection by the National Security Agency, as well as boost transparency and reporting requirements for targeted data requests, require more specificity in those requests, and minimize retention and dissemination of nonpublic data.
The compromise version hashed out over the past weekend was said to be a compromise between Judiciary chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.). The bill was sponsored by Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).
The White House has taken some steps to reign in NSA data collection, but not enough for critics, including a host of groups planning a day of activism June 5, the anniversary of the first story about NSA surveillance, based on info from leaker Edward Snowden.
At the bill's markup Wednesday, the recurring theme was that the legislation would end bulk data collection that had been conducted, but shouldn't have been, under The PATRIOT Act.
An amendment was defeated that could have led to private companies having to retain customer data longer than they currently do. . ."
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
(from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB40001424052702303519404579352551767664072?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB40001424052702303519404579352551767664072.html by James Piereson)
""Income inequality" has emerged as the issue du jour in U.S. politics, threatening to displace the unpopular health-care law and the slow-growing economy this election year. Speeches and columns now routinely attack the banks or "the undeserving rich" and call on Washington to do something to redistribute income from the "super rich" to the poor and middle class. Democrats from President Obama to the new mayor of New York City are leading the charge on behalf of the "99%."
This crusade is based on three questionable claims. One is that the wealthy are mostly Wall Street bankers benefiting from rising stock and real estate prices, or executives who pay themselves extravagant salaries. Another claim is that such people unfairly benefit from a system that taxes capital gains at half the highest marginal rate paid by those who earn salaries and wages. Then there is the assertion that the "super rich" have abundant funds that can be taxed to improve the living standards of everyone else.
All of these claims are false. By promoting them, the president and his supporters may hope to distract attention from ObamaCare and the economy. Yet they are igniting hopes they can't possibly fulfill. . ."
(from http://scalar.usc.edu/works/growing-apart-a-political-history-of-american-inequality/index)
" . . . This shared prosperity of the postwar years was no accident or lucky combination of circumstances. A "rising tide" of robust economic growth does not necessarily lift all boats. Political struggle and policy choices determine whose boats rise. The inequality of the 20th century's early years actually began closing before economic growth took off in the 1940s, as a consequence of the political response to the Great Depression. . . "
(from me. . . )
Mr. Piereson seems content with making the sole point that wealth inequality is basically untrue because the 1% of the population holding the majority of wealth does not consist exclusively of bankers and Wall Street wizards but includes sports, movie, rock and roll and other 'entertainment' types in addition to 'business' executives who draw salaries. And this point alone contents Mr. Piereson that there is no inequality of wealth (with no mention of course about caring for the less fortunate) and that ". . . At a time of slow economic growth, mounting government debt, a stalemated politics and the impending retirement of the "baby boomers," the attacks on the "one percent" look more and more like a diversion from America's real problems."
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