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Pollution Politics

If Bill de Blasio quits a presidential race that nobody knew he was in, does his dropping out count as news? It’s not like there will be one less person on the debate stage, because he missed this month’s event due to no poll numbers.

So we move on.

If this week’s news didn’t raise the usual alarms about four more years of Donald Trump, then I don’t know what will. Climate change denial, suing California because it had the audacity to vote against him and run a surplus on liberal policies and economics, a whistle-blower’s complaint about the president seeming to withhold aid to Ukraine because that country’s president didn’t investigate Joe Biden and/or his son.

Seems to be part of the playbook.

Perhaps I’m especially naive, but I can’t understand why anyone would want to allow more industries to pollute the air and water. The automobile industry is even against the rollbacks on gas mileage that the president wants to implement. The coal industry is all but dead. Companies can look forward to massive lawsuits and significant responses on social media if they try to foul the country. Yet, the president plows on for no greater reason than to undo President Obama’s policies not because they are bad policies, but because they are Obama’s. In the end, history will not reward the polluter. And once Trump is out of office, the final push to cleaner fuels, air and water, will benefit the country.

The young people who protested this past Friday represent the future in more ways than just political. I hope they will vote in numbers that compare with the people who showed up to protest, although if the past is any guide, it will take them a few years to get into the ballot box. In the meantime, governments around the country and the world will have to contend with the new climate realities: wetter storms, warmer days, less colder days, (which will lead to more insects), floods and erosion. And these negatives will outweigh any positives that might come from warming, such as longer growing seasons and new crops in new latitudes. We will need new leaders who will make the difficult choices and count on our neighbors to do the right things.

We won’t get this leadership from the crew that’s presently in Washington. They want policies that will make things worse. Democrats will need to continue to press for the new ideas that will hold companies accountable and set reasonable standards for pollution and emissions. This should clearly be the main focus of the next Democratic debate.

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Debating the Future

Fourteen million people can’t be wrong. That’s how many people watched Thursday’s Democratic Presidential debate. This live TV thing might have some legs after all.

It was interesting to see all of those candidates on one stage, and the moderators were good about making sure that everyone had enough time to answer questions. It’s certainly time to winnow down the field even more, but the rules is the rules and as long as Andrew Yang gets his two percent, he’ll be in the mix.

I still think that seriously entertaining the demise of the private health insurance industry is folly and will harm any Democratic nominee more than help them, but at least they are discussing it seriously. Much has been written about president Trump’s abilities in debates and his baked-in advantage among Midwestern whites, but in a one-on-one debate about health care, he’s got…nothing. Any of the Democrats should be able to pummel him about trying to take health care away from people with pre-existing conditions and for having not a clue about how to solve the problem despite his rantings about announcing a plan after the election. Real people care about this issue because it’s something we live with on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps the Democratic nominee can agree on a public option as a start, with a goal of Medicare for all down the road.

The debate was notable for what it didn’t do: Anoint Joe Biden as the undisputed front-runner. I would have thought that he and his advisers would have come up with some one-liners or retorts more catchy than something about record players. Biden’s brain seemed to be two blocks ahead of his mouth at times and he had difficulty clarifying many of his points. At other times, it was difficult to follow his logic. Elizabeth Warren, by contrast, was assured and specific, and she spoke clearly. Amy Klobuchar also had some terrific points and I believe she would make a fine nominee, but the party is not moving in her direction. And Kamala Harris seemed a bit hesitant at times, speaking in a monotone with an inflection that clouded her positions. She’s still in the top tier, but next month is her last chance to seize the day.

As long as Democrats are talking about issues that motivated people to vote for them in 2018, then they have a chance to win.

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The Democratic Wind is Shifting

Maybe not Joe.

The Democratic presidential field has narrowed to a one-day debate later this month, and that will do wonders for the candidates who will take the stage. We will finally see Biden, Warren, Harris, Sanders and the rest question each other and put their best policy faces on display.

But the winds have shifted a bit since the midsummer debates and although Joe Biden leads most polls, Elizabeth Warren has the heart of a significant percentage of the Democratic Party.

Biden has been running on his ability to defeat the president, and he is leading most head-to-head polls, but the question remains whether he can put together some policy proposals that will gain headlines and minds. Warren has a policy proposal for every issue and she is connecting with more crowds the more she speaks and campaigns. The question surrounding her, though, at least as posed by the punditry, is whether she can win because she’s being too specific, too left wing, or too female.

It’s telling that in the era of the sharpie debate we are skeptical about a candidate because she is too focused on policy. As if the president actually has any. Or anything other than a racial slur against her, age jokes about Biden and accusations of socialism against anyone else who sees that we should not be encouraging the use of fossil fuels, allowing more air pollution, or giving corporations the ability to police their own industries. I’m thinking that appealing to the majority of the voting population, you know, the ones that didn’t vote for Donald Trump, who will want a cleaner, safer, more forward-thinking United States for their children is a smart campaign strategy.

And know this: if the economy declines further or enters into a recession before the election, then Elizabeth Warren immediately becomes the front-runner. She’s talking about reigning in big banks and giving people with mortgages and bills the power to demand and win concessions from the people who run the economy. Two of Barack Obama’s great weaknesses were that he didn’t run against the banks and provide enough bailout money for homeowners who lost everything while the financiers and CEO made billions. And still do. I’m thinking that Warren won’t repeat those mistakes.

Joe Biden might regain his footing. One of the other candidates might break out during the debates. It’s still early, but it’s getting later quickly. All of the Democrats need to keep their eyes on the issues and not get distracted by Mr. Sharpie. Make the argument that addresses health care, child care, education, and housing. We have a president who is supported by a minority of voters, Never forget that.

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The New School Year

cute elementary schoolboy with classmates in classroom

Oh, the power of education.

An entire regime is afraid of students learning about how to implement, live, and protect democracy. It is fearful of teachers and students and, most of all, ideas that dare to invite debate, disagreement and division.

Welcome to the new school year.

Most of the country is already back at school and we here in the northeast will follow them next week. Time, though, has not changed the issues that face teachers as we return to our classrooms. We are still confronted with a funding crisis that does not seem to be ebbing. Safety, standardized testing, technology in the classroom, inequalities based on race, class, and ability levels, teacher salaries, bullying, and class size continue to be compelling challenges to our system of education. It is incumbent upon all educators to keep the public informed about these issue and how we intend to address them, but we also need to make sure the public knows how they can help us with our task.

Gone are some of the attacks on teachers that were part of the political discussion under governors such as Chris Christie, and now teachers in states where pay is abysmal, unions are illegal, and educators’ responsibilities grow exponentially are becoming more politically active and are flexing their collective muscles. As the economy improves and people are finding work, questions about teacher pay and benefits seem to have moderated. It’s nice not to be an enemy.

But the challenges remain. Schools are not quite as welcoming as they used to be as a response to concerns over safety. Money is always an issue. And students come to school in ever more fragile states, whether from hunger, anxiety, classified learning disabilities, and depression. They also have been the recipients of a curriculum that seems to favor skills and well-being at the expense of facts, subject matter and intellectual debate.

As always, our job as educators is to ensure that this generation of children gets as thorough and interesting and relevant an education as we can provide given our resources, and to ask that the pool of resources expand to meet our tasks.

May you have a terrific year.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Enemies

Sometimes the best strategy is to do nothing at all. President Trump hasn’t learned that lesson, and it’s going to cost him and us.

The president is ordering (ordering!) Americans to stop buying from China and for our companies to leave the Chinese market and build products in other countries or the United States. And he’s ordered (ordered!) package carriers to search all packages for drugs. Not only is this farcical from a political angle, it makes little economic sense. China does need to follow trade rules and stop pirating intellectual property, but clearly, and it was clear years ago, that getting into a trade war with them was not going to change their behavior. President Xi is just as much of a nationalist dictator as Trump would like to be, but Xi really can unilaterally make demands that President Trump cannot, so ordering citizens and companies via Twitter is just another sign that the president doesn’t really know how our system of government works.

Economically, the Chinese market is far too big and powerful for the United States to ignore or abandon, and I think the president knows that, though I can’t be too sure about what he actually knows. Further, the way to force China to change is through sustained economic pressure, but since the president withdrew us from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was designed to do just that, well…here we are. Yes, the TPP did need a review and updating, but now we got…nothing except another example of the president misreading his own power and ignorance of what the economic numbers really mean.

But of course the president could follow his own advice and just say, “fine” to the Chinese action. After all, that’s what he called for the Danish Prime Minister to say, rather that to paint his absurd plan to buy Greenland as “absurd.” Because most sober-minded people saw it as an absurd gambit to buy a huge swath of land for its oil at a time when we should not be investing heavily in resources that are fossil-based.

My take is that he was insulted, and maybe embarrassed because a powerful woman, and a white woman at that!, dismissed his perceived manhood by calling his proposal what it was. But since he can’t call for her to be jailed or sent back to the place where she came from, he had to throw an international hissy fit and cancel his visit. And after what he’s called fellow Americans, such as calling Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell an “enemy,” who have opposed him for good reasons, and people in his own cabinet, his saying that nobody talks to Americans like that is just too laughable to be taken as anything but the  disconnected rantings of someone who doesn’t read his own words.

And as a disloyal Jewish-American who votes Democratic and believes that peace will only return to the Middle East if Palestinian demands are taken seriously, I am beyond incensed that this president can rake the killing field and give oxygen to the most noxious anti-Semitic language and images for his own political gain. Bad people will take bad actions because of this. It’s happened before; it will happen again.

Reality shows thrive on the chaos of what could happen next. Real reality needs order and trust and unity. The president is doing real and sustained damage to the country by undercutting our allies, labeling our citizens as threats, and making pronouncements that make little sense in any context.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Eric Garner’s Killer Now Fired from NYPD

NBC News reports that Daniel Pantaleo, the New York City police officer seen on video using a chokehold during Eric Garner’s deadly arrest five years ago, sparking mass protests, was fired by the department, the police commissioner said Monday.

An administrative judge this month recommended that Pantaleo be terminated over the July 17, 2014, confrontation as Garner was being arrested on Staten Island for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

Pantaleo, who has been with the NYPD since 2006, was suspended as soon as that departmental verdict was reached, in keeping with long-standing practice when there is a recommendation for firing. The 13-year veteran had been on desk duty as his case made its way through legal and administrative circles.

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Police Detained Black Man for “Suspiciously” Looking at a White Woman – Video

The post appeared on Facebook.

Devin Myers just escaped being a statistic of the worst kind. He is one of the lucky ones to escaped being shot to death by police.

The black 20 year old man in Royal Oaks Michigan was on his way to a restaurant when a white woman called the police on him because “he looked at her suspiciously.” Police arrived and questioned the young man for over 20 minutes for committing the apparent crime of looking at someone… while being black that is.

Kimiko Adolph posted the video on Facebook, and explained; “This young man is stopped because a Caucasian lady said that he looked at her suspiciously and he has been pulled over walking going to eat by two police officers for suspicion of being black.”

Watch the video below

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We’re the New Jews

Welcome to the club.

And there’s more to come.

This is all being driven by the sworn enemies of functioning democracy: Fear, suspicion, accusations of being an “other” or anti-whatever the fear-mongers want to define as their normal, anxiety, and loss of a way of life.

Immigration might be behind much of the problem, but there’s more. We are two or three generations removed from the horrors of World War Two and worlds removed from the Great War of a hundred years ago. People forget, then the new students never learn, or don’t learn well enough of the dangers that led to those catastrophes. Nationalism. Imperialism. Militarism. Shifting alliances with weak or no oversight.

We are living is similar, but also vastly different times. Nationalism is rising and many countries have drawn sharp lines between who is acceptable and who is not. International tensions are rising because leaders like Xi, Kim, Duterte, Orban, Modi, Putin and Trump are feeding the fear and the uncertainty rather than trying to find common ground and common solutions.

I would be surprised if the Congress votes on, and passes, meaningful gun legislation that would require background checks and taking guns away from those who are deemed dangerous to themselves or society. I hope it happens, but we’ve all seen this before. There’s a great outrage, then the defenders of unlimited gun rights turn to their favorite causes; metal illness and video games.

I’ve read the posts on social media and they make sense. Why is it that the vast majority of mass shootings are done by white males? Don’t video games affect other ethnic groups. If so, why aren’t they as affected as whites? If not, what the heck is wrong with white males? And why aren’t we looking at the mental health of suspected foreign terrorists? Why just throw them is Guantanamo if the real problem is much deeper than that they simply hate America?

And, of course, there’s the old standby: None of the proposed legislation would have prevented whatever massacre has just occurred. So let’s do nothing. That’s the trick.

Meanwhile, Hispanics are feeling targeted, and with good reason. The president’s rhetoric since he started his campaign has labeled them as everything negative, from dealing drugs to joining gangs to fomenting crime to taking our jobs to marrying our women. He can’t escape that and he certainly can’t deny that his words have created an atmosphere that allows and encourages those people who can’t process the nuances to take action.

This is what happens when politically correct speech is stripped away. People can say what they truly believe and, unfortunately, we’ve realized that there are a whole lot of racists out there who’ve been holding their words. In a way, it’s good to know who they are. In a worse way, it’s terrible to know that they are our neighbors, our friends, and our elected leaders.

If you want this to change, then the change begins with us. Speak out. March. Post. Get involved with a community group. Vote. For different people.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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The Message That Wins

I didn’t watch any of the Democratic debates this past week, preferring not to be pandered, lied or appealed to in electronic form. I do read the electronic versions of newspapers and periodicals, but I mostly skip the videos. Spare me the TV moments. I want substance. But that’s hard to come by these days.

Yes, that Triceratops skull was mine.

So as the President’s security helicopters fly over my house (he’s in NJ this weekend), I am reminded that he really needs to be defeated in 2020. The problem so far is that the Democrats need to solidify their message so it attracts the widest possible public support.

As much as I like what Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are saying about how to narrow the wealth gap and that the ability to pay should not determine whether you are able to get a quality education or health care that cares for your health, I think that their ideas are akin to what many reactionary Republicans were running on in 1980. They appeal to the farther reaches of the party, but will take time before they become popular and palatable ideas for mainstream audiences.

Please do not get me wrong. The idea that reactionary Republicans were running on in the 1980’s on on, were noxious, odoriferous, racist, pro-corporate, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, pro-fossil fuel and are now, you got it, mainstream in the party. It took a good long while for many people to come around to the idea that corporate taxes should be slashed and that unions should be deligitimized.

And that’s where we are with the most radical of the Democrats’ ideas. Perhaps in ten years we will have fully funded college tuition, a health care system where people can get effective care at a low cost, an orderly, humane immigration system, and climate policy that promotes clean energy, but right now I would say that those are aspirational policies, not ones that will get a Democrat elected.

The more moderate voters Democrats need to keep or pry away from the GOP are not all in on scrapping the health coverage they get at work or paying significantly higher taxes in return for tuition guarantees, nor do they agree that people should be able to cross the border without penalties.

What I would suggest is that the Democrats start answering every question by questioning the president’s actions on the issues because the president’s actions are unpopular and so is he. Talk about pollution that will result from burning more oil, his denial of climate change, the tariffs that we (not the Chinese) will be paying for in higher prices, his coddling of dictators, and the extent he and his advisers went to legitimize Russian influence in our democracy. Talk about decency and equality and the rank racism that infects every corner of his administration. Provide a stark contrast.

At this point, I think that Joe Biden is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump. Democrats might be weighing his performance in the two debates, but most other people aren’t paying attention yet, so he still has time to refine his message and his performance. If he proves otherwise, I will reassess my position.

Never forget that Donald Trump was elected as a minority candidate by the slimmest of margins, and he’s done more to alienate than to unite. Most people do not agree with him.

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This Ain’t Populism

Language is indeed the first casualty of war. Or social movements.

Take Populism. Please. When people feel that elites and government operatives are disregarding their concerns, they will turn to politicians who promise to restore the power rightfully to them. It sounds so romantic and democratic and in some cases can right the wrongs and re-balance the power structure in society. Populism as it’s being practiced now, though, is getting frightening.

In Brazil, populism is being used as an excuse to cut down more of the Amazon rain forest in the name of economic growth and jobs. In Poland, it’s being used as an excuse to demonize the LGBTQ community and to paint them as unpatriotic and a danger to the morals of society. In England, Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister on a platform that will result in that country leaving the European Union, whether there is a deal with the resat of Europe or not. There are more examples, with Hungary, the Philippines, and India being the more relevant. In every case, the people have elected, or given their consent to, governments that are far more nationalistic, restrictive, phobic, and strident than we’ve seen since World War II.

President Trump continues to call himself a populist and a nationalist, but his appeal is narrow and much of his message clashes with the reality of what’s happening in the country. The economy is producing jobs, but he’s had to bail out the farmers to the tune of $16 billion in order to safeguard them from destructive tariffs that are severely hurting their trade with China. But corporations are gaining more powers by the month as his administration peels back regulations that served to protect ordinary Americans from pollution, faulty products, predatory lenders, health care protections, and safety protocols.

As in other countries, though, the president has sided not with the majority of the people, but with the narrow group that elected him, labeling anyone who opposes him as less than patriotic and a danger to society. He seems to believe that demonizing groups who have traditionally had less power in this country will bolster his credentials as the champion of real America… whatever that is. And of course, he’s said that if you don’t agree with his vision of the country, then you should leave. Or go to Baltimore.

What I would really like to see is the president proposing some solutions. How can we fix the problems that plague both rural and urban areas of our country? More specifically, what happened with this great infrastructure initiative that the president was supposed to propose, fund, and lead? Last I heard, he met with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for five minutes, then bounded out of the Oval Office and began complaining about the two of them.

This is an issue that has appeal across party and geographical lines, but there is no leadership from the federal government. We need upgrades to airports, highways, trains and bridges that would put more people to work and would increase productivity because people would be able to get to their jobs more efficiently and with reduced delays. Perhaps other countries would invest further if they knew we were investing in ourselves. The president should be leading this, but he is not.

Democrats should take up this issue, along with health care, as the leading issues in the campaign. Every candidate needs to be talking about these every day and reminding the country that the White House is not doing anything to help. Drop the impeachment talk. Stop being baited so easily every time the president decides he wants to play the race card. Turn the discussion around: Ask the president what he’s doing to solve the problem. Remind the country about what he’s not done. Perhaps I’m more naive than most, but I can’t help but think that his attacks on Americans who are minorities or women will backfire with the majority of American voters.

In the end, this election will turn on whether people believe that their lives are better than they were before the election in 2016. That’s the case that Democrats need to make. I’m not saying that they should ignore the noxious things the president says about his opponents or offenses he might have committed. Just don’t let them define the campaign. Keep the focus on the issues that a majority of people care about.

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No Steps Forward, Four Steps Back

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

It struck me that telling people with whom you don’t agree to leave the country is both one of the most anti-American and, well, American phrases we have in our political lexicon.

It also struck me that here we have a president who bathes in conspiracy theories, was elected on a platform that pointed out how terrible everything was in the country under Presidents Obama and Bush, and made an inauguration speech that talked about carnage in the cities, but nobody told him to go back to…wherever.

Because telling someone to leave the United States is also the last refuge of those who have trouble with the idea that we actually live in a representative democracy, and that it’s a messy form of government. That you have to tolerate offensive speech. That as a leader, you must be responsible for your actions and the actions other take in response to your leadership. Telling someone to leave is intellectually lazy because then you don’t have to engage that person in a debate or take ownership of your ideas in a discussion or an argument.

What truly bothers me the most, though, is the number of people who think that asking someone to leave the country because they criticize it, is a legitimate response. It is not. And as I’ve said before, I don’t hear the president asking white Democrats or undocumented people from Russia, Poland or any other European country to leave.

In the end, though, Democrats have to rise above this and not get into a fight on the president’s terms. He’s not going to run for reelection on issues that might make this country better. He’s going to fight the small fight against people, not for ideas. Democrats have to run on how they are going to make this country better, and how most people’s lives will become more productive, less stressful, and more focused on improving ourselves, our environment, and our culture.

Remember that 54% of the voters in 2016 voted against Donald Trump. They need to be reminded why. And those who voted for him but see him for the divider he is must be reminded why they should vote for a Democrat in 2020. That’s the goal. The only goal.

Lose sight of it at your peril.

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The Raids on Common Sense

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested alleged immigration violators at Fresh Mark, Salem, June 19, 2018. Image courtesy ICE ICE / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

When all you have is fear, then that’s how you live.

The president has set today as the day I.C.E. raids on undocumented immigrants begin. As policy, this is terrible. As an expression of a governing philosophy, it is unconscionable. But it makes sense when you consider that the president sees no difference between undocumented people and those from immigrant families who serve in Congress. They are both threats, illegitimate, the “other.”

I will not go as far as some of the Democrats running for president and say that crossing the border should be decriminalized, or even say that undocumented immigrants who cross the border and don’t abide by the laws or skip their hearings or commit crimes should be allowed to stay in this country. After all, Barack Obama’s administration deported more people than any other president in our history. What I am saying is that we need laws and procedures to make sure that people who have contributed to this country are treated with some respect, and that their children, whether they are citizens or not, be given every opportunity to stay in the United States rather than to be sent back to a country that is dysfunctional and/or dangerous.

The key, though, is to reform the immigration system. It is interesting to note that the most hostile, anti-immigrant, xenophobic president we’ve had in a long time is the one who presides over a border that is in chaos. In large part that’s because he is all talk and precious little action, and he has no idea how to garner the public and political support he needs from all segments of the country in order to get Congress to act. This is obviously a shortcoming that spans all issues, but since this is the one that got him elected, you would think Trump would work more assiduously on it. He seems to think that executive orders and heated racist rhetoric will solve the problem.

It’s made it worse.

Therefore, the raids. When in doubt, use the power of the militia. That’s the manner in which Trump is run the country as president. It’s made us more rigid, more divided, less compassionate, and decidedly not great.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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