For Want of the PRICE

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https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-citizens-united-00108082

How many aspects of our daily lives are directly impacted by just a handful of billionaires? And I’m not talking about the services or products they provide, it’s their Pet Projects… their Hobbies. Whatever happened to collecting STAMPS?

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https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-hitler-paintings-nazi-memorabilia-1234711860/

They’re obviously smart, they went to Ivy League schools. They’re obviously successful, if MONEY is your yardstick…

So, they should already KNOW.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/opinion/harlan-crow-clarence-thomas-gifts-collections.html

Consolidation spells disaster for their bottom line. Rigging the system to benefit themselves, creates the precedent for them to suffer the SAME at the hands of someone else.

History shows us… the pendulum swings TRUE. Take heed Mr. Crow, it’s only a matter of TIME. And when it does come, it’s not just your interests that will be destroyed.

Manipulating legislatures, corruptly influencing Judicial Institutions, elevating Elected Officials in order to SILENCE competition… the short-term gains realized will not outweigh the long-term consequences of those actions.

Eventually… that system will turn on YOU. Your empire, no matter how much it is WORTH… will become their empire. For the good of their CAUSE. When there are no guardrails, that cause is subject to change… without notice.

… 

To be generous, as a bow to polite society, it seems to me that these Titans of Industry are simply IGNORANT of our history… an oversight. They are older than I am, maybe they didn’t waste as many HOURS as I did watching History Channel documentaries late into the night. Maybe they just don’t understand what it is they are doing.

Or maybe… they do. Maybe they know exactly what they’re doing… because they believe they know what’s best.

My daughter keeps reminding me that we live in a capitalist society… and I am grateful that we do. Our Constitutional Democracy has provided fertile ground for the development of every major scientific advancement of the 20th Century.

From the airplane to the Moon Landing… from agricultural dominance to Artificial Intelligence… down to the very device that allows my words to be shared with the rest of the world. But…

Do we really want Halliburton building our SCHOOLS?

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/17/russia-trade-halliburton-equipment-export-us-oil

Do we really want Amazon running our PRISONS?

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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/30/alexa-factory-whistleblower-i-was-tortured-and-jailed-now-amazon-should-apologise

Do we really want Equifax to be in charge of ensuring EQUALITY?

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-breach-exposes-data-for-143-million-consumers/

I say… NO.

-JC

Reach. Throw. Row. Then GO.

It’s not as if there weren’t RIOTS in the streets or something… like it was so hard to decipher what the Will of the MAJORITY was in 2020.

People were in the streets demanding CHANGE.

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https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/866472832/violence-escalates-as-protests-over-george-floyd-death-continue
 

Philando Castile. Eric Garner. George Floyd. The Minneapolis Police Department. The Louisville Police Department. Atlanta. KC. New York… and what did we get?

Bridges and Roads.

Hot damn! While our Democracy succumbs to the ROT and CORRUPTION… at least the TRAINS will run on-time.

But that’s what he was selling from his basement back in 2020- A Return to Normalcy. Well… we got it. Nothing says ‘Back to Normal’ like politicians catering to the DONORS, instead of working for the VOTERS.

I’d say we’re all in agreement on that.

How much more PROOF do we need? Seventy-six percent of these United States have now RATIFIED the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, yet President Biden and his Administration fight against its publication. ONE MAN stands opposed to 76%… how is that defending democracy?

Night after night we see more examples of why we must end qualified immunity, and why we must hold Law Enforcement Officers accountable for abuses of power. Yet President Biden couldn’t rally enough support for it in the Senate… and this time it wasn’t because of the filibuster.

He couldn’t even get his own party to fall in line.

And it’s not just about falling in line. It’s about defending one’s CORE VALUES. What makes you who you ARE. The core identity of the Republican Party may have shifted drastically to the RIGHT, but the core identity of the Democratic Party has now shifted to the RIGHT as well.

The Republican Party fights to take rights away from women… from minorities… from LGBTQ individuals… the Democratic Party is supposed to be the party that champions PROTECTING the rights of those individuals. More rights for more people.

Elected Officials who stand opposed to EQUALITY stand opposed to the platform of the Democratic Party… those Elected Officials are not Democrats.

Yet Joe Manchin still holds a Committee Chair in the United States Senate.

So, how does that CHANGE? We VOTE. We rally behind the CAUSE… the Core Principles we hold SACRED. We raise the flag and hoist the sails, celebrating who we are and the causes for which we STAND… knowing that our efforts will be victorious at the end of the day.

IMG_5774IMG_5775https://nypost.com/2022/09/12/kamala-harris-lies-about-the-secure-border/ 

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https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/570128-father-of-marine-killed-in-kabul-blast-says-meeting-with-biden/ 

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https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/15/a-fist-bump-at-the-palace-biden-squares-off-with-mbs-00046106 

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https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/26/europe/ukraine-zelensky-evacuation-intl/index.html 

Back in MY day, every member of the Democratic Party would be fired UP to go out and vote AGAINST an incumbent who’s overseen failures like these.

In 2024… these are the accomplishments of the Leader of the Democratic Party.

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I attended the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington last weekend. When I first heard its announcement back in February, I decided I wouldn’t go. I have no desire to go to a Joe Biden rally, and I knew that’s what it would end up being. Dr. Martin Luther King III’s rebranding of it as a “continuation” of his father’s dream changed my mind.

I felt I had to attend. To show my support alongside thousands of others… Strength in numbers. That’s how we bring about CHANGE.

Of all the people I spoke with that day, one woman’s offhand comment stands out most in my mind-

I came here today to hear something HISTORIC.’

Of all the reasons I traveled to D.C. that day… that one wasn’t on my list. After hearing her say that I started questioning why I was there. Why didn’t I have those same expectations? Every possibility of that happening did exist…

The White House did send a high-level representative to speak on behalf of the President and Vice President… the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives was there, as was Jim Clyburn and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz…

The opportunity was there… yet, I was not as disappointed as she was.

Eagle Scout

When someone is drowning, you must assess the situation carefully BEFORE taking action, in order to avoid causing unnecessary loss of life.

If they are a short distance away, you should first try reaching out your HAND or a long POLE and attempt to pull them to safety. If they are too far out, you should try throwing them a LIFE PRESERVER or a long ROPE. If these options are unsuccessful, you try to find a boat and ROW out to them and bring them to shore.

Only after all these have failed… only as an option of last resort should you ever try swimming out to save someone from drowning. As they are fighting to stay above the surface… fighting for their very survival… they will grab and push themselves UP onto anything that comes within their reach. In order to save their own life…

That includes anyone trying to save them.

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https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/ 

Democratic Party… DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE?

If you want to make a CHANGE, now is the time to do so… not in the fall of 2024.

I can see it. The VOTERS can see it. We ALL want you to be successful… in this moment we NEED you to be successful. But we can only offer you our assistance… it’s up to YOU, to decide if you will accept our HELP.

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https://www.axios.com/2023/04/17/poll-americans-independent-republican-democrat 

That window of opportunity will soon be closing… and no one wants to get pulled under by a drowning man.

-JC

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https://www.clintonherald.com/region/march-on-washington/image_b0cdcda8-f561-543e-8109-2cc07dedbb58.html