A Royal Pa(l)in,

 

Donald Trump, aka the Donald, had his turn at playing politics. “Will he, or won’t he?” was the question on every lip, or at least the lips of the politicos, and no one, it seemed, knew the answer, or would own up to having the answer, at any rate.

What the Donald was doing was what he does best, he was getting his name mentioned prominently by the news media, and the question that wanted answering was “Will the Donald run for President?” My, how well that worked for the Donald and for the news media. By feigning ignorance, the talking heads could get an audience each night as they discussed the pros and cons of a possible Trump presidency.

Well, not every talking head was out for a bigger audience by pretending he didn’t know which way the Donald would go. Lawrence O’Donnell, of MSNBC’s The Last Word flat out predicted that his fellow employee (they both work for NBC) would never run for President. One reason he gave was the Donald could not stay with his show “The Celebrity Apprentice” if he was a presidential candidate, and O’Donnell was sure that the Donald had already committed to another season when all the talk was about a possible run at the White House.

Turns out, of course, that O’Donnell was right about the Donald, but just when you thought it was safe to return to the land of the talking heads, we have, lo and behold, another well-known celebrity politician who is toying with a run for the Presidency. That would be Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate from 2008 and TLC reality star; the one person who, it can be argued, is as much responsible for the Obama presidency as anyone.

Yes, once again, the question of the day is on the lips of every politico, “Will she, or won’t she?” And again, no one seems to know, or to be able to anticipate the answer. Well, except for our hero, Lawrence O’Donnell, who has dubbed Palin “the new Trump”. And far from being sympathetic with his fellow talking heads, O’Donnell has expressed amazement that the political press has “learned absolutely nothing" from having recently been Trumped by the Donald.

So why doesn’t O’Donnell think that Sarah is serious about making a dash towards 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Put simply, O’Donnell thinks Sarah, too, is more interested in staying in the national spotlight than any serious attempt at the White House.

And what has staying in the national spotlight done for Sarah? Well, let’s just say that she’s now making more (one estimate is $12 million a year) than she did as Governor of Alaska. You remember, the job she left because that kitchen was simply too hot? Yes, her political opponents were simply insatiable when it came to coming after her. So Sarah threw in the towel, because being Governor of a state whose total population was estimate to be some 700,000 in 2009, or less than 10 % of New York City’s population, is just too much trouble.

We cannot imagine, though, that Sarah is looking for a love fest when and if she does make a real run as a presidential candidate. But then she should know. After all, she has had few kind words for Obama.

Waiting for the other shoes to drop

The Upper Big Branch mine disaster took place on April 5, 2010.  On this date, 29 miners lost their lives in the worst mining accident since 1970.  For its part, from the very beginning, Massey officials cautioned that we didn’t know the cause of the explosions so we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions. 

Unfortunately, on April 27, 2010, MSHA released a report in which it stated “blasts of this magnitude have involved propagation from coal dust”, then noted that “explosions from these sources can be prevented.”

In plainer English, it would seem that MSHA thought Massey management could have been at fault.  In other words, if the ventilation plans for this mine had been followed, and if the coal dust had not been allowed to accumulate, there might not have been any bad news to report on April 5, 2010.

Massey had its spin doctors working at about the same time, though.  It has always denied that coal dust played any part in the explosions that ripped apart the Upper Big Branch mines.  The first explanation offered up was there was a sudden massive release of methane from a crack in the floor of the mines near the working face.  When this proved to be untenable, the next explanation offered up by Massey was that there was a sudden unforeseeable inundation of natural gas and methane and that this was the cause of the explosion, and again, coal dust played no part in it.

Well, you can speculate all day on the cause of things, but until you conduct an investigation into them, they will remain just that, speculations.  To find the answers, there have been at least three teams investigating this disaster.  One is the federal effort led by MSHA, another one by a team appointed by then WV Governor Joe Manchin, and a third one by the company in charge of Upper Big Branch, Massey.

Of course we all know that the first report on the cause of the explosions has already been released by the group appointed by Gov. Manchin, and it does not contain any good news for Massey.  In fact, it validates what MSHA said in its preliminary report to President Obama, that this was the result of “the combustion of accumulations of methane, combined with combustible coal dust mixed with air.”

Worse still for Massey, this report addresses the explanation that methane and natural gas were the sole cause of the explosions.  If, as Massey maintains, “one million cubic feet of methane had been suddenly released at the tailgate of the longwall”, this would have produced “a five million cubic foot flame going across the face and throughout the tailgate entries in both directions.”  Evidence this team collected does not support this theory, this report says.

So what does this team think happened?  In their words, this was caused by “an explosion that gained strength and size as it traveled from the longwall tailgate, fueled by coal dust along the way.”

Well, there are at least two more reports to come.  Not that MSHA’s report offers any hope, but in the third one, to be released by Massey, they may at least validate themselves, even if they started with a conclusion and then went looking in vain for evidence to support it.

Election Day, aka No Independents Day

Way back when, lawmakers in Kentucky got all excited because they felt they had come up with a way to get more people to vote come Election Day. They reasoned there were too many durned elections, so they proposed to hold elections on even-numbered years only. That way, the electorate wouldn’t tire themselves out by voting so often.

Well, not all odd-numbered years would be void of elections; just every other odd-numbered year. Otherwise, the electorate might emulate Rodney Dangerfield’s dog. It took the late comedian two years to teach his dog to sit and then he forgot how to stand.

Take away all the odd-year elections and the electorate might forget about Election Day altogether. So on the odd-numbered year before presidential elections, we vote for state-wide offices; but otherwise, no odd-year elections in Kentucky.

So how has that worked out for us? From here it doesn’t appear to have achieved its goal of getting more of the electorate out on Election Day. Despite that one one-year break every four years, people are still staying away from the polls in droves.

It would seem our voters are like the ex-leper from Monty Python’s film “The Life of Brian”. This leper was cleansed by Jesus, but then complained that since he could no longer beg for alms, he now had no trade, whereupon Jesus was said to have told him “There’s just no pleasing some people!”

Okay, so we know what is used to pave the road to h-e-double hockey sticks, don’t we? Yep, good intentions. What was forgotten in the rush to get more people out is why more people don’t vote in the opening act in our election years. Part A is the primary election, where the successful candidate will represent one of the two major parties in the General Election.

But in Kentucky, you have to register as either a Democrat or a Republican. No Independents need apply. No, you cannot vote in a Primary Election. Don’t forget to pay your taxes, though. The Commonwealth of Kentucky will use part of that to pay the tab so the two major parties can set their slate for November.

That hardly seems fair, now does it? The Commonwealth of Kentucky will use the Independent voters’ tax money but then disenfranchise them in half of the elections. So how are Independent voters supposed to work up any enthusiasm for any candidates when they have no say as to who that candidate will be? It’s like trying to work up fervor for a date whom you’ve never seen and about whom you know nothing. That doesn’t always work so well, either.

I sometimes get the impression that neither the Democrats nor Republicans are all that anxious to see this scenario changed anytime soon. Why would they? They have it made in the shade. If only those who bother to register one way or the other can vote in the primaries, that’s that many fewer voters the candidate need to see to get elected.

Once again, I call on the Commonwealth of Kentucky to open its Primary Elections up to all voters. The only info the Commonwealth needs is the voters address and precinct. Those voters can then decide in which party’s primary they will vote when they cast their ballot in May.

Taxing ourselves

Being a prognosticator can be a difficult task. The job does require you to foretell the future, after all, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Heck, sometimes it’s really easy.

Take the question of raising taxes: I can get that one right one hundred percent of the time. So when Judge Rutherford proposed a county occupational tax, I threw caution to the wind and immediately predicted it would never pass.

Okay, so it hasn’t come up for a vote yet. That doesn’t matter. It will need a majority of magistrates to vote in favor of the bill, and no sane office holder who will have to go back to the voters at election time is ever gonna tell those same voters beforehand that their tax bills are going to go up. I foresee lots of no votes from this crowd.

Not that they have been alone in what I predict will be solid opposition to this idea. The Chamber of Commerce has already voiced concern about the job-killing effects of this proposed levy. And the group has been joined by Monk Sanders, who objects to more taxes on the working class, who, in his opinion (and I concur) are already being killed by high electric rates and gasoline prices.

One letter-to the-editor writer opposed the new tax by saying that once government has a source of new revenue; it will immediately spend more, not less. This may very well be true, but there is also a side to this argument that hasn’t been explored by the new tax’s detractors, and that is how the very citizens portrayed as victims of big government run amok are sometimes responsible for unnecessary costs themselves.

Monk Sanders suggested cutting waste as an alternative to any new taxation. One example of wasteful spending he cited was for what he called the “dog hotel”. Nice phrasing, by the way. Put that way, it does sound like a ridiculous way to spend tax money.

Except that the only reason the county needs an animal shelter-the more proper name-is that irresponsible animal owners, aka tax payers-allow their animals to run and breed freely, thereby insuring a ready supply of neighborhood pests, no matter what neighborhood you live in. And when they get tired of that animal, just load it up like a piece of trash and set it off in a strange neighborhood, and voila, problem solved, right?

Except that they just dropped their problem off on someone else. Not to worry though, because they’ll probably get a similar surprise package from another animal owner who has had the same idea.

And when I say the animals are dropped off like a piece of trash, I mean exactly what I said, because trash is still being freely distributed along the county’s roadways by unconcerned citizens who are more concerned with keeping their vehicles clean.

That’s the way trash was handled until Gov. Patton got the Solid Waste Ordinance passed; throw the trash into the creek and send it via inland waterways to someone else’s property.

So let me say to those who see themselves as potential victims here, maybe, just maybe, if you take responsibility for some of your actions, that by itself could save enough money to keep those new taxes at bay.

Some Notable Changes

From the beginning of his candidacy for President until as recently as last week, there has been a group known as the “birthers” who have insisted that President Obama was born in Kenya, despite having seen what Hawaii calls his certificate of live birth.

What lent credence to their theory was the version provided by Obama. Hawaii has two versions of this certificate, the original and a shortened version provided as proof of birth. You have to ask for the long version and show extenuating circumstances before the state will provide it.

Obama did just that and last week provided, in essence, the same information the birthers refused to accept until the long version made its appearance. And for the first time in his presidency, no one can now deny that President Obama is as American as apple pie and constitutionally qualified to serve as President.

Another rumor subscribed to by essentially the same crowd said that the President was a secret Muslim and that it was his intent to destroy the U. S. from within. Even Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, proclaimed that Obama was a Muslim because his father was a Muslim, and apparently Obama had no choice in the matter because the son is what the father was.

Graham did acknowledge that the President had renounced the prophet Mohammed and was a Christian now. That’s what he (Obama) said, Graham graciously proclaimed, and I’ll take him at his word, echoing the exact sentiments of several prominent GOP politicians, including Kentucky’s senior U. S. Senator, Mitch McConnell.

You have to wonder how this rumor will stand up now that the country, under Obama’s direction, has managed to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, the man whose name these same people “confused” with the President’s at times. Speaking of the mission, Obama told the nation that he had ordered the director of the CIA to make finding bin Laden its top priority.

Not that every prominent Republican politician has followed these lines of thinking, however. One notable exception to this is a man by the name of David Frumm. Frumm is a former economic speech writer for President George W. Bush. He is as conservative as anyone in the GOP, but he has openly disagreed with those who have attempted to paint President Obama with these broad brushes.

In his blog called the Frumm Forum, Frumm questions how what he calls “poisonous and not very subtly racist allegation(s)” manage to get such a serious hold on the conservative movement. And that is his answer, that it is racism, pure and simple. For example, once Obama produced an acceptable certificate, Donald Trump began questioning his educational qualifications, despite the fact the President Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and was editor of the law review.

This is, according to Frumm, an “implied message about who counts and who does not count as a ‘real American.’” Frumm recalls the words of Sen. John McCain, AZ, on election night who spoke about the racial hatred the nation had left behind with the election of Obama, and finishes with a warning that continuing in this vein endangers the future of the party by alienating those voters it must win in order to survive.