A Free and Independent Press
On February 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite changed history. Cronkite was a household name by that time. During the 40s, 50s and 60s, he covered everything from Second World War to the Olympics. Cronkite gained the trust of the American people by telling the truth.
As the host of the CBS Evening News, Cronkite told the American people that the war in Vietnam had no military solution. This frank honest assessment did not please the political and military leaders in the United States. The Founding Fathers crafted the First Amendment for just such a moment. Voters needed the truth.
In 1968 they heard competing versions of reality. President Lyndon Johnson and his generals had promised the public that victory was within sight. Privately, however, the Pentagon reached the opposite conclusion. The generals knew Cronkite reported the reality on the ground in Vietnam.
Cronkite’s editorial put LBJ between a rock and a hard place. Democrats on his left wanted a quick exit from Vietnam, while Republicans on his right demand a more violent war. Secretly, the President opened negotiations with Hanoi and reached a peace deal.
Ricard Nixon, the 1968 Republican nominee for President, caught wind of the peace plan and reached out to the communists in North Vietnam. He promised them a better deal if they prolonged the war until after the election. North Vietnam accepted his offer, keeping the war issue alive for the election.
Nixon won the election and reopened peace talks. Unfortunately, he accomplished nothing. North Vietnam held the better hand and the American public was tired of troops dying with no end in sight. The press continued to dig for the truth and stumbled onto a whole new can of worms.
On October 10, 1972 Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward published an explosive article in the Washington Post. The title read “FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats.” Like Cronkite, Bernstein and Woodward told voters the truth.
“FBI agents have established that the Watergate bugging incident stemmed from a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage conducted on behalf of President Nixon’s re-election and directed by officials of the White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President.”
At first, Nixon successfully lied to the public and won reelection. Investigation after investigation, however, revealed more crimes. On August 7, 1974 Republican senators told Nixon that he needed to resign to avoid removal from office. The next day, the President stepped aside.
Cronkite, Bernstein and Woodward proved that our Founding Fathers got it right. An independent press is essential to a democracy. Conservative politicians, however, walked away with a different lesson.
Conservative politicians needed a dishonest press to win elections and weld power. In 1996 Rupert Murdoch hired a Republican political operative, Roger Ailes, to run Fox News. Fox News attacks the truth.
Pierced Themselves With Many Griefs
I think it is safe to say that the modern conservative movement prides itself as the defender of Judaeo-Christian values. Like the Sadducees and the Pharisees in the Gospels they love public displays of religion. Every year professional conservatives stir up fake controversies like the “War on Christmas.”
For well over ten years, conservative politicians paraded their religion in front of television cameras. One of their favorite tricks was to publicly profess their identity by displaying the Ten Commandments. Some like Judge Roy Moore of Alabama used tax dollars to carve an idol of the Commandments.
These politicians wanted to declare their own righteousness in the public square. The conservative media played along. Talking heads praised these unconstitutional government employees and disparaged any critics.
These modern “Sadducees and Pharisees” were not really interested in taking care of the least of us. No, they wanted to use the Ten Commandments as stones to throw at others. The assessment might sound harsh but let’s look at one commandment in particular: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Deuteronomy 5: 20).
This commandment is repeated and expanded in Exodus: “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.” (Exodus 23:1-3)
Should conservatives, who promote the commandments as the bedrock of Western Civilization, have difficulty understanding that bearing false witness is a sin? Should conservatives have a hard time understanding “that being a malicious witness” is a sin?
I ask these questions because Fox News owner, Rupert Murdock, swore under oath that his employees lied to viewers. In November and December of 2020 Fox News lied about the Presidential election results.
We know about these intentional lies because Fox News damaged a private business: Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion makes voters machines and Fox News hosted malicious witnesses, who falsely testified that the machines stole votes from Donald Trump.
Fox News executives allowed the malicious witnesses because they didn’t want to alienate their viewers. Viewers generate ratings. Ratings generate profits. At the least these revelations should embarrass Fox News and the conservative movement.
Conservatives might have avoided this hypocrisy if they had lived the Ten Commandments, instead of parading in front of them. They should have also read Timothy: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Keep the Vultures off Social Security and Medicare
Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Liberals showed you who they are by creating and defending Social Security and Medicare. Conservatives showed you who they were by opposing and undermining Social Security and Medicare.
In 1935 Franklin Delano Roosevelt championed Social Security during the Great Depression. Americans saw with their own eyes how Wall Street failed to protect their investments. In October 1929 the Stock Market had crashed and sucked the liquid capital (money) out of banks and investment accounts. Millions of Americans had no Plan B. They lost their jobs, their businesses and their life savings.
FDR followed a practical Christianity. He wasn’t concerned with dogmas, creeds and sexual orientation. He wanted to improve the quality of life for his neighbor, arguing, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
Yes, FDR was a progressive. FDR wanted to protect the weak from the strong. In America that meant protecting American workers from Wall Street vultures. Those vultures have no problem feeding off the pensions and life savings of Americans just to squeeze out another dime of profit.
The President knew that America could not be strong if seniors starved and suffered. Conservatives, however, cried about the costs. They cried about the destruction of the market. They cried about creeping socialism.
It was not until 1964 that a new generation of conservatives attacked Social Security openly again. Barry Goldwater led the charge. He argued in favor of small government. Goldwater wanted to privatize Social Security, shrinking the federal government, saving money and letting Wall Street take care of retirement.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson from Texas did not shrink from the challenge to American prosperity. Like FDR, LBJ was a progressive. He wanted to improve Social Security, not destroy it. LBJ championed adding a healthcare component to it.
When LBJ won the election of 1964 he launched the Great Society program and added Medicare to the Social Security program. Once again, conservatives cried about the costs. They cried about the destruction of the market. They cried about creeping socialism. They bemoaned these entitlements that you fund with every paycheck.
Nearly fifty years later conservatives are crying again. Senator Mike Lee of Utah wants to rip Medicare and Social Security out by the root. Do you agree? Do you want conservative politicians to let Wall Street gamble with retirement and healthcare benefits? I’m with Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
How Much is $3 Million Worth?
What could you do with $3.3 million? In Texas the median house selling price is $350,000. The state funding for each student in public schools is $5,100. I think $3.3 million is a lot of money. Ken Paxton apparently doesn’t since it isn’t his money – it’s ours.
Ken Paxton is the Texas Attorney General. In 2015 federal law enforcement officials charge him with securities fraud. If convicted, he could be in prison for the rest of his life.
If I were him, I would have avoided even the appearance of illegality. Why invite more scrutiny before settling the federal charges?
Paxton, however, didn’t avoid trouble. In fact Paxton just agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle another fraud case. The second case opened in October 2020. Four attorneys working in the Texas AG office blew the whistle on him, accusing him of bribery and abuse of office.
Paxton responded by firing them, but the complaint encourage the FBI to open a second federal investigation. Anyone working in a government office knows an employer can’t fire a whistleblower.
Shocking no one, the whistleblower sued Paxton for wrongful termination. They did what we want our fellow citizens to do. The whistleblowers reported credible crimes committed by government employees. Paxton intentionally broke whistleblower protection laws.
The Texas Tribune report last week that Paxton has just agreed to pay the whistleblower $3.3 million. Paxton wants the illegal termination case to go away. Paxton wants you and me to pay for the case to go away.
Paxton has no authority spend $3.3 million dollars. He needs legislative approval. Paxton needs Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to put the settlement before the Senate. Paxton needs Texas Greg Abbott to sign the funding bill and write the check.
Paxton is a walking example of waste, fraud and abuse of tax payer dollars. One paragraph in the Texas Tribune shows the depth of the crimes.
What could you do with $3.3 million? What will the Republics in Austin do with our $3.3 million? Will Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton use it for schools and roads? Will they use it to cover up multiple crimes? What do you want your State Senator and Representative to do?
A More Perfect Union
It shouldn’t surprise you that some reporters, talk show hosts and columnists are lazy. They find a meme and then plug in a detail. The meme today is the phrase “Washington is broken.”
This phrase allows the speaker to avoid taking responsibility for a judgment or prediction. It opens the door to the related meme, blaming “both sides.” These memes are lazy and counterproductive.
Imagine working for a boss who indiscriminately blamed all of the workers for low productivity and a hostile work environment. Would you prefer a boss who objectively measures productivity and weeded out the bad apples? Or would you prefer a boss who fired the good with the bad?
Under the constitution, We, the People of the United States, are the boss. Not me. Not you. We. We have the responsibility to be a good boss. We need to identify low productivity representatives and punish uncivilized behavior.
The State of Union Address gives us an opportunity to do an annual performance review. President Joe Biden delivered facts about the progress of the economy, American leadership overseas and future budget priorities. Republicans rudely interrupted him and denied reality.
For example, according to Forbes, the Biden-Harris Administration “apprehended 1.998 million people at the U.S.-Mexico border from October to August.” This was an all-time record. This fact flies in the face of a big Republican lie.
The U.S.-Mexico border is more secure. It is not “open.” Unlike Donald Trump, however, President Biden is not abusing migrants. Biden is not separating children from their families. Our President is following the law.
Job creation has been another area of success. President Biden reported that his administration “created, with the help of many people in this room, 12 million new jobs — more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.” This pattern of Democratic policies creating more jobs has been consistent since the Great Depression.
President Biden and the Democratic Congress also helped veterans of Iraq of Afghanistan. According to the Military Times, “Millions of veterans are now eligible for expanded health care access and disability benefits related to burn pit smoke and other toxic exposures.” A Democratic President, a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate got this job done.
Overseas, the President has performed well too. He ended the “forever war” in Afghanistan. Biden ordered the execution of Ayman al-Zawahiri, a mastermind behind 9-11. In Europe President Biden leads an international coalition against Russian tyranny in Ukraine.
Washington is not broken. Republicans are broken. They are blinded by their hatred of liberals. Their hatred has created a paranoid delusional mentality. As a boss, I’ll reward success, not crazy lies.
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
1) Bake a spaghetti squash. I use a skewer to poke for holes in each end and then microwave it on the fresh vegetable setting. This makes it easier to cut in have before baking in the oven. If you are careful you could skip this step and just split it down the middle. I spay both halves with “butter flavored” spray and season with Tony Chachere’s. Bake upside down for 1 hour and 350. Flip and bake 20 mins to roast squash. Set aside and cool. Once its cool, you can “fluff” the spaghetti with a fork.
2) Prepare a “red sauce.” I use a simply sauce. Sweat onions, celery and bell pepper using olive oil (2 table spoons?). Once translucent, I add butter and garlic to quickly roast. Add 1 can of diced tomatoes and 1 can of tomato sauce. Often the diced tomatoes are season with basil. Season to taste with Tony’s and Italian seasoning. Stew until flavors blend.
3) Fry chicken. We usually use boneless chicken breast, but Jackie couldn’t find any. She bought boneless leg quarters this time. Cut into bit sized pieces (nuggets?). Lightly season flour. Quickly fry in about a 1/4 inch of oil until golden.
4) Assemble. Stuff fried chick into “fluffed” squash. Cover with sauce. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake at 375 until top is brown. Keep an eye on it to prevent burning. It should take about 10-15 minutes.
Split and Serve 🙂
There Is No Freedom Without Public Education
The authors of the Texas Constitution supported public education. They wrote: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”
Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton are, however, falling in lock step behind Washington Republicans. This radical group of politicians has been angry ever since the Presidency of George Hebert Walker Bush. Bush The Elder reached a compromise with Democrats to reverse the Ronald Reagan’s deficits and debt.
This compromise was so hated by radical Republicans that George W. Bush renounced his own father to gain power. “W”, who was wrong about almost everything during his presidency, adopted the mean spirited politics of Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich cast Democrats as anti-American socialists out to destroy America. It was Gingrich, however, that wanted to starve American institutions on the vine. He knew Americans loved socialist programs like Social Security, Medicare, the Veterans’ health care system and Public Education.
Gingrich championed tax cuts for millionaire and billionaires. This decline in tax revenue would starve essential service of funds, forcing cuts. Once the programs broke, Gingrich planned on turning them over to Wall Street bankers to make a profit.
Luckily, Democrats fought back. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama raised taxes on the wealthiest earners and cut taxes for working families. These progressive tax reforms solidified Social Security, Medicare and the Veterans’ health care system at the federal level. There is still a long way to go, but these programs are better off today than under the Gingrich scheme.
In Texas liberals are having a harder time resisting the urge to privatize public services. The most vulnerable among us are suffering.
For example, Child Protective Services should watch out for children in foster care. Chronic under funding threatens their ability to protect and serve Texas orphans. The Texas Tribune reported that a Federal Judge “admonished the state for not making children aware of their rights and for not taking adequate action over reports of abuse.”
Abbot and Patrick want to follow this failed model for Public Schools. They want to defund public schools by giving our taxes to religious and for-profit schools. Abbott and Patrick see Texas Public Education as a beast that must be starved.
This reckless attitude is in direct violation of the Texas Constitution. If the January 6 attack on American democracy taught us anything, it should be that Republicans have no respect for the rule of law or the constitution. They are conservatives who destroy—Destructocons.
One of These Things
As a child, and as a parent, I’ve watched enough Sesame Street to have its images and songs drilled into my head. One of the most useful is the categorization song: “one of these things is not like the other.” It prompts a child to do a quick compare and contrast.
Comparing and contrasting is essential to every aspect of adult life. My dad had a particular mechanical skill. He could listen to engines and do a quick compare and contrast. He knew which engines sounded normal and knew which sounds indicated a problem.
As adults we want all of our skilled experts to be good at determining which “one of these things is not like the other.” We pay doctors to do it. We pay cooks to do it. We pay hair stylists to do it. We pay our pilots to do it.
Imagine if you went to a dentist and every solution was to pull teeth. Are my teeth dirty? Pull them. Do I have a cavity? Pull it. Would you trust such a dentist? Or, would you trust a person who could properly identify a problem and develop a competent solution?
Based on court documents, we know that Donald Trump intentionally took classified and top secret documents from the White House. When American voters fired him and evicted him from the White House, the National Archives told him what property to leave behind.
Donald didn’t follow the law. After Donald moved to Mar-a-Lago, the National Archives noticed the items were missing and asked for their return. In sworn statements to a Federal Court, Donald promised that he did not have the items.
Someone at Mar-a-Lago knew the truth and reported the crime. A Federal judge then gave the FBI a search warrant to investigate a crime. The search produced 40 boxes of stolen documents.
Now, imagine if you rented a hotel room for the night. When you left, you not only took a bath towel, but you also took the sheets, the clock and the television. Would these items legally belong to you?
Imagine, you then get a call from the hotel. The hotel tells you which items went missing from the room and asks for the return of the items. After you deny procession of the items, the police find them in your home.
On the other hand, what if you returned home from a trip and noticed a hotel towel in your bag? You think back, remembering throwing the towel into your dirty cloths’ pile. You decide to call the hotel, tell them about the mistake and return the item.
Are these two hotel stories the same? Are they different? Would the hotel and the police treat these scenarios the same? I bet you can tell that “one of these things is not like the other.” It really doesn’t take an expert. If a child can, I’ll bet an adult can.
Keep Your Nose
Old sayings are a good way to remind us not to do stupid things. For example, I’ve often heard, “Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.” This phrase warns us against acts of self-harm. We often act out of anger and end up hurting ourselves.
For the last sixty years conservative politicians and media have cultivated anger to motivate their voters. The United States as a whole has moved in a progressive direction, improving the lives of most Americans.
The New Deal provided workers with jobs and unemployment insurance. The Civil Rights Movement provided women and minorities protections from abusive relationships. Public Schools and universities created equal opportunities. Federal programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid improved the quality of life for American Seniors.
Conservatives have three lines of attack on this progress. Government programs make people lazy. Government programs reward bad people. Government programs are too costly.
Unsurprisingly, these attacks have done little to hurt seniors directly. Seniors vote regularly to protect themselves. They are not going to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Unfortunately, the conservative fear tactics have divided and conquered other voting groups. Those divisions have generated enough to roll back some of the progress in Civil and Voting Rights as well as public universities.
The Hollywood actor who played the role of a conservative politician, Ronald Reagan, helped advance his career by attacking college students. He exploited the stereotype of student using drugs, having sex and protesting the Vietnam War. These attacks eventually paid off as both the federal government and states cut funding for college education.
The result was predictable. Wealthy families continued to pay for the children’s education. Middle and working-class families struggle to keep up, contributing to the student loan crisis today.
This experience should be a cautionary tale. In Texas conservative politicians like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick are following in Reagan’s footsteps. They, however, have moved beyond higher education and are demonizing public education.
Abbot and Patrick make up scary stories about the LBGTQ and minorities communities to sell a school voucher program. Vouchers would funnel money out of public schools to private schools. Like cuts to higher education funding, middle and working class families would be left holding the bills.
America has a beautiful inclusive face. Our democracy may have been an ugly duckling but it is progressing into a beautiful swan. Conservatives want us to hate our nose. We shouldn’t cut it off to spite our face.
Eat Real Food
One of the best parts of my job as a historian is reading. Because I work at a small teaching university rather than a large research university, I take a broad approach to my continuing education.
This morning I read a fascinating genetic study about prehistoric dog domestication. It showed that there are five major dog families and they probably all descended from a common series of events that converted wild animals to “man’s best friend.”
I like these kinds of studies because my personal interests with my professional life intertwine. Personally, dogs certainly made my life richer. Professionally, it is interesting to learn how humans started to transform the natural environment to suite their own needs.
I’m also reading a book about food and the nutrition industry. For my friends and followers on Facebook, it’s not hard to figure out that I have two hobbies: food and public policy. Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto brings together both.
My love of food began at home and expanded through travel. My mother and both grandmothers cooked for us. Mom cooked nearly every day, and my Maw Maws cooked family meals on weekends. My dad and the other men in my family restricted their cooking to BBQs and seafood boils.
When I was in High School my Momma told me that I needed to learn how to cook. She said, “They don’t make women like that anymore.” I did learn to cook, but Momma was wrong. My talented wife Jackie is a wonderful cook, and we’ve spent many hours in the kitchen together.
This practical experience made Pollan’s In Defense of Food easy to understand. He argues that Western eating habits are making us sicker. Too many of us eat processed “nutrition” instead of real food. Americans will pop a vitamin C pill but never eat an orange.
Additives and preservatives have put local producers out of business. We no longer buy fresh food from a local market or cook what is seasonally available. No, we digest products made to sit on the shelf and stuffed with high fructose corn syrup.
The reasons for this shift from food to nutrition are a complex mix of corporate greed, science, politics and home economics. As industrial foods became cheaper they also lost their nutritional value. To make up for the loss supplement and healthcare industries developed.
Pollan recommends eating, and enjoying, more real food. Unfortunately, eating real, nutritious food cost more money than processed food. Cooking also takes time. Many parents today don’t have the time to cook at home.
We could make this situation better. We could reintroduce Home Economics in High School for boys and girls. We could raise the minimum wage to make real food more affordable. We can build communities that don’t require long commute times to work. We just need to prioritize people over profits.