Sunday, January 31, 2016

A Personal Observation: I Think in Terms of the Common Good; I Upped the Anti Years Ago Expanding Globally &; I Upped it Again Recently Connecting the Dots W/POTUS...


I've Always Voted for the Common Good; I Upped the Anti years ago and expanded it to the Globe and; I've Upped it Again Recently in Connecting those Dots!

And, on the eve of the kick-off of the 2016 nomination process for President of the United States in Iowa tomorrow, today's Blog is a bit of sharing of my meditation on a new and hopeful Era in the context of global change with strong roots in our shared American and Democratic values – which I believe needs to be led by Hillary Clinton!

Based on years of personal experience and research, my pathway to what I believe to be the most important election of my lifetime has been quite a simple progression:

A deep connection to the vision of the Founding Fathers and Mothers expressed in the Constitution of the United States in the context of the health and the welfare of the nation to be realized in the health and welfare of her people via the imperfect process developed to elicit and to protect the value of the “we,” inherent in these United States as we always strive for perfection &

A deep connection to the vision of the United Nations in the aforementioned context, of taking the vision of our Founding Fathers and Mothers via former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to a global level, &

A deep connection to the vision of President Obama in the context of bringing such a lofty two-part vision shared by many to fruition.

Frankly, I do not understand otherwise.

 I do not understand why we don't want to acknowledge we have had our revolution and we are working on perfecting our union.

I do not understand why we don't want to acknowledge our history of progress.

I do not understand why we don't want to acknowledge we have a good system and systems are only as good as the people who run them and we are in charge of who runs ours.

I do not understand why we don't want to acknowledge we have left the 20th Century and we are living in the 21st Century and the clock will not stop ticking.

I do not understand why we don't want to acknowledge that peace and prosperity are, with a high probability, to be found by becoming leading players in an inter-connected world while role modeling and codifying the Common Good for more people.

Call me naive but I am not of the mind that the United States can be positioned for success in the 21st Century based on hate of any others rooted in, to name a few, color, class, religion, etc., etc., etc., and we have to listen and we have to hear who's espousing it and we have to vote against it.

Hint: It is not Hillary ...

For the record, most of the ground work has been done (20th C.) and for purposes of this piece I am going to  leap right over the absolutely amazing work of President Obama (21st C.) to the only questions on my mind at the moment -- why don't we know that and why aren't we working on that and why do we think the haters and/or the ignorant might to do it?

^ President Obama at the pulpit of the 21st Century at the United Nations. (Photo courtesy of The Telegraph, 2012.)

Let me leave you a few links to explore so you might be able to more quickly view the 2016 election through a 21 Century lens:

More on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Right can be found here (Photo courtesy of The Wise Eleanor)

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS


On October 24, 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations came into being as an intergovernmental organization, with the purpose of saving future generations from the devastation of international conflict.

The Charter of the United Nations established six principal bodies, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and in relation to human rights, an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The UN Charter empowered ECOSOC to establish “commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights….” One of these was the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, saw to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration was drafted by representatives of all regions of the world and encompassed all legal traditions. Formally adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, it is the most universal human rights document in existence, delineating the thirty fundamental rights that form the basis for a democratic society.

Following this historic act, the Assembly called upon all Member Countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”

Today, the Declaration is a living document that has been accepted as a contract between a government and its people throughout the world. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the most translated document in the world. ...

Some of my favorite fun places to find information:

The White House website: Just search President Obama Speaks at the United Nations to get started here

The State Dept. website: Just search Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review 2010 and then 2015 to get started here

The U.N.: I usually just search for President Obama or Ambassador Power here to get a start on finding up with that United States is up to on a global level here 


Thank you for reading!



G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/
where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! You can also follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )








Sunday, January 24, 2016

Why I Am Supporting Hillary Clinton (Very Briefly!); An Action You Can Take Today; and a Small Ask From Me...



There are dozens of reasons I could give you explaining why I am supporting Hillary Clinton and there is even more information out there I could cite to back up my reasons for supporting her but, let me keep it as simple and as brief and as basic as I can: 

She knows “It Takes A Village” (per the title of her 1996 book of that name) … Twenty years ago, I read her meaning to be that the Common Good is critical to the health and the welfare of the nation and it is through that lens that she sees the world, analyzes it and creates policies for it from whichever office she occupies at any moment in time and, based on my observations and my research her core belief has not changed. That matters to me ~ love of the root of my well-established country juxtaposed with the understanding that perfecting it is a never-ending job was instilled in me throughout a solid public school system that supported not only our constitutionally based government but also our roles as citizens who were/are in charge of it.

The truth is, we don't need a revolution, we've been there and we've done that. We need 21st leadership capable of keeping the best and leaving the rest, historically, with an ability to envision where we are going and how we are going to get there, while repairing damage done whenever and wherever and for whatever reason. That starts with Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States (and with electing down ticket Democrats to do The People's business under a 2016 Democratic Platform, as well)!




Here's the full quote of the 1996 excerpt I edited for the above Meme:

For Bill and me, there has been no experience more challenging, more rewarding, and more humbling than raising our daughter.
And we have learned that to raise a happy, healthy and hopeful child, it takes a family, it takes teachers, it takes clergy, it takes business people, it takes community leaders, it takes those who protect our health and safety, it takes all of us.
Yes, it takes a village.
And it takes a president. It takes a president who believes not only in the potential of his own child, but of all children - who believes not only in the strength of his own family, but of the American family, who believes not only in the promise of each of us as individuals, but in our promise together as a nation. It takes a president who not only holds these beliefs but acts on them. It takes Bill Clinton.
Sometimes, late at night, when I see Chelsea doing her homework, or watching TV, or talking to a friend on the phone, I think to myself, her life and the lives of millions of boys and girls will be better because of what all of us are doing together. They will face fewer obstacles and more possibilities. That is something we should all be proud of, and that is what this election is all about.
Thank you very much.

Here are links to more information on her thinking re her book, "It Takes A Village":

One:

The text of 1996 “Remarks made by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago...:” from which the quote was excerpted can be found here

Two:

An introduction to Hillary Clinton's book, “It Takes A Village,” can be found at the same link here

Both pieces are courtesy of Happiness on Line here

Three:

A discussion about Hillary Clinton's book, “It Takes A Village” on C-Span can be found here


Now, Here's a simple suggested action, but very helpful action, you can take today on behalf of Hillary ~ scheduling and/or sharing live some Tweets and Posts leading up to the CNN forum she is participating in tomorrow night (Sept. 25, 2016) (Even if you can only do a few/please RSVP and let Hillary know you are out there and working in the virtual world for her!:



TODAY – MON, JAN 25, 2016, 10:00PM

Virtual ‪#‎ImWithHer‬ January 25th Iowa Forum Evening!

Hillary will be participating in a town hall on Monday in Des Moines, Iowa -- one week before the Iowa caucuses. Moderated by CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, the town hall will air from 9-11 p.m. EST. It is being hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party and Drake University.

Dr. Andy McGuire, chair of the IA Democratic Party said: "We are honored to partner with CNN on their town hall with our three fantastic Democratic candidates. With this event airing just 1 week before the 1st-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, it's an incredible opportunity for Iowans to see our candidates detail their plans to move our country forward & their vision for Iowa & the nation.”

It is a great opportunity to support Hillary from your favorite device by scheduling Tweets and Posts that speak to the truth about here and/or by live Tweeting and/or Posting those Tweets and Posts!

Hit the link for more information on my Hillary Events Page here! TY!!!


Of course, President Obama has not endorsed anyone for the 2016 Democratic Nomination and he probably will not but ~ it most certainly is a plus  that he thinks she would be an excellent President! My question to you is:

* Why are you supporting Hillary Clinton?

I'd love to know. Please share in the comments section! TY!!!


Thank you for reading!



G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/
where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! You can also follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )














Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Grievance ~ Some Young Adults don't get Respect Deserved for Work Done Around Media & Politics!

You can check out President Obama's 1st 360 degree photograph here!

As noted, I am a fan of a few YouTubers.  Granted, I am usually only checking out YouTubers who have been selected to interview the President of the United States so I am checking out the best of the best but, as also  noted, they deserve more attention and respect than they get outside of their YouTube world. 

Clearly, they bring new faces to the table but they also bring a refreshing approach to media based on their own experiences, to date, and they ask questions that say more to me about them than about the President (all good!). Although, I do get to learn much more about the President than I do on main stream media because neither question nor answer is all mixed up with the typical ratings competition and biases to which I've become accustomed!

This is who the YouTubers are:

Ingrid Nilsen!


Destin Sandlin!


sWooZie!


You can find the entire interview and more here! Trust me, you will not be disappointed by either the YouTubers or the President!


I'll leave you with one great question (by Sandlin) and answer by President Obama to give you an idea of what you are in for!

President Obama on "Obamium"

Destin Sandlin: "I asked Reddit what I should ask you. You have the top 'ask me anything' of all time, so you’re very familiar with Reddit. So one question that came up is, if there was an element named after you, Obamium...what would you want the physical properties [to be]?"

President Obama: "That’s interesting. Well, I would want it to be stable....I would want it to be a catalyst, but one that didn’t get too hot or too cold....and hopefully it would be one that was useful to humanity, that we could actually use, and wasn’t just some shiny object that somebody liked."


Thank you for reading!


G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/
where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! You can also follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )




Sunday, January 17, 2016

Favorite Anti-GOP Shareables! Remembering Who the Real Threat is on this Dem. Debate Day. & it's Not Hillary!

^^^ Most of my day today is being spent working to support Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic Nomination for President with a positive focus on her but ~ I do think we need to be reminded and to remind, just a bit, as to who the GOP is so here's a snippet of a translator for you to have on hand as the haters respond to the Democratic Debate this evening (9 p.m. EST on NBC!) and below you will find a few of my favorite GOP Facebook posts from Hillary and friends worth sharing while we wait for the clock to strike 9! 

You can share this meme on Twitter here 

(As happens sometimes, I do not know who the fabulous creator of the meme is so if anyone has that information please drop it into the comments section so I can give proper credit. TY!)


FYI: This is a working Blog! because, it seems to me, Democrats need to be reminded who the real threat to the United States is and it is not my candidate: Hillary.

 Please use the direct links provided and share and remind others of who the real threat is AND some of what the GOP stands for.

For your own information, my personal habit is to save favorites on my Desktop during the week for later sharing. I create a GOP memes folder and drop them into the folder and when I have a block of about 15 minutes of time I share them all directly from that folder to my preferred social medium platforms.

 ( * Today I am providing, primarily, direct Facebook links on which you can click and share with your friends. To share on other platforms, etc. you’ll have to do the annoying thing and download and save and re-post... ) 

Take the Best; Leave the Rest. But push the truth about the GOP war on us!

TY!



^^^ The GOP may neglect to mention their near destruction of our economy but Hillary has not forgotten!

 You can share this meme on Facebook here


^^^ The GOP is extreme/it's not just Trump! Or as I like to say GOP is GOP is GOP!!!

Click here to see this brief video and to share on Facebook


^^^ Hillary: “We have faced challenges before and chosen resolve over fear. These Republicans seem resolved to create fear."

Click here to see this brief video and to share on Facebook


^^^ The GOP is out of touch when it comes to LGBT rights/or anything that doesn't look and act like them, for that matter.

Click here to see this brief video and to share on Facebook


^^^ The GOP is out-of-touch!

Click here to see this brief video and to share on Facebook


^^^ There's nothing else I need to say!

Click here to see this article and to share on Facebook


^^^ (The writer): “ … I've been on TV for a long time, and in campaigns even longer. And I've faced bigotry firsthand in my work with civil rights leaders. But hate speech of this kind, and among this many candidates? I haven't come across anything quite like this. ...”  
Click here to see this article and to share on Facebook


 ^^^ 8 Tweets from the future that show what's really at stake if GOP wins!

Click here to see this article and to share on Facebook


Thank you for reading!


G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/
where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! You can also follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )






Sunday, January 10, 2016

A Dysfunctional Proposition, Media as 'the first rough draft of history' Leaves Consumers of Truth on their Own

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history. Philip Graham, publisher, The Washington Post" (Frankly, it is all I ever really needed to know to understand how important a healthy media is and how damaging an unhealthy media is.)


Summary: There is much that can be said about journalism but my goal here is to briefly point out one example of journalism that misleads and how the average reader can quite easily and very quickly test the veracity of an article and make an informed decision as to how much time, energy and consideration he or she wants put into said article. 



Based on my observation and my experience,
 "not operating properly" works here.

 Typically, as I read, the primary question I have is: Is it true?



Our conversation today actually began with a fairly recent discussion I had with a friend about the article we are going to critique today. She posted it in a shared group and, I confess, the bipartisan word caught my attention. After reading it, I concluded the writer and the editor did a great job of 1. Presenting the piece in a very reputable magazine (Atlantic) 2. Not labeling the message (News? Slanted? Opinion?), leaving readers with a false impression that any bipartisanship was happening in the piece itself and 3. Using a very timely, feel good buzzword under the photograph in the post (the cutline) that is not so prominently displayed in the body of the article: Bi-partisanship!

I strongly encourage reading the piece: "How to Fix America's Infrastructure/What if Republicans agreed to pay for major projects in exchange for Democrats agreeing to cut red tape?" so the excerpts I choose to note and to comment on will make sense to you but, of course, that's up to you. 

I am going to proceed in the fashion in which I act out this process every single day because it merely becomes repetitive, otherwise, so if any questions linger, please feel free to leave them in the comments section and I will be happy to try to answer them for you.

This is what I saw posted on a social media platform. As noted earlier, the bipartisan word caught my attention -- it's so rarely true and I know that.

This is what I saw when I opened the actual article ~ no cutline with the bipartisan word in it.

At this point in time I was suspicious at the use and the non-use of the bipartisan word but I'd still like to see bipartisanship in the maintenance of the country so I decided to scan through and look for clues that will tell me if this piece is a fair and balanced piece based on facts? Opinions? Persuasive arguments? Any work brought to the level of production via media needs to have standards and if not I close it and move on.

Here we go, some favorite highlights:

(A & bold = article excerpt; Italic print = my comment):



A: "Fixing America’s decrepit infrastructure shouldn’t be controversial—it enhances competitiveness, creates jobs, and helps the environment. … After years of dithering, Washington is finally showing a little life for the task." 

Is it Washington that “is finally showing a little life for the task.”? Names need to be named or I am left wondering what is being avoided and why. And, for the record, a district really can't take any action -- people take action.


A: "But these two failures—meager funding and endless process—may actually point the way to a potential grand bargain that could transform the U.S. economy: In exchange for Democrats getting rid of nearly endless red tape, Republicans would agree to raise taxes to modernize America’s infrastructure." 

It is beginning to sound more partisan to me right now. Bad Democrats and their red tape and if they just mind good Republicans will raise taxes to get the job done ??? 


(Honestly, I would be done right now due to bait and switch with the bipartisan word; due to the sloppy naming of "Washington" as the culprit and; due to the subtle accusation that Democrats and their red tape are culprits in conjunction with Washington but because I wanted to have a discussion with my friend about this piece I kept reading.)


A: "Because tolls and other user charges, where applied, rarely cover all the capital costs, the federal government often must subsidize public works if the United States wants modern interstate transportation, water, and power systems. As a matter of party ideology, however, Republicans have steadfastly refused to raise the gas tax and other taxes needed to fund infrastructure. This line in the sand was drawn in the 1990s because of the Republican conviction, widely shared by the public, that government is wasteful."

Republicans are of the mind that government is wasteful and their thinking is widely shared by the public ??? Is that true ??? I can not know because they do not give me any sources to back it up. Again, I am left wondering what is being avoided and why.



Now the piece begins to get into the red tape issue which for the writer seems to primarily revolve around environmental protections processes.
And for the first time, gives the information that the writer is connected to the group that can fix the whole thing.


A: All of this process is expensive. The nonpartisan group Common Good (which I chair) recently published a report on bureaucratic delays...


So now I am going to check out Common Good because who they are will determine if I will finish this piece and or consider their thinking.

Let me keep this simple, okay?

I will not be considering their thinking.

I am of the mind that the article, alone, defies the claim of non-partisanship.


Just a snippet of the author's organization's recommendations sounds like the organization is working really hard to not only streamline a process but to cut The People out of the process if they take too long to decide. 

For example, and I except heavily from here, they say: "Duplication re environmental review is contrary to the public interest and should be avoided. The Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality shall coordinate with states to eliminate the need for such review. Nor should any state or jurisdiction delay approval of projects of interstate or national significance. For interstate projects, the Chief Permitting Officer shall be authorized to grant final permits if state and local permits are delayed more than six months past issuance of federal permits.  For interstate projects, in the event that the coordination specified does not achieve a final determination on review and permitting under any applicable state, local, or tribal law by the respective state, local, or tribal agency within 6 months of the issuance of a final Federal permit, the lead agency, in consultation with the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall be authorized to make a determination regarding any outstanding environmental review and authorizations."

What? That reads to me like ~ get The People out of the way of the development process, which I do not believe to be a bipartisan point of view.


And, last but not least, I don't know everyone in the GOP world but I do check names on organization staff lists boards and when I see former senators Newt Gingrich and Alan Simpson, as I did for Common Good , after reading what reads to me as a GOP inspired piece, I'm done with them! 

Truth in media matters to me and, often times, I am annoyingly purist about it because I do hold messengers of news/information to a high standard and if they don’t meet those standards the truth of their work is suspect – most notably, standards established by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

 Some of my favorites are: 


Aside from being the 1st draft of history, as noted above, I expect journalists to believe “public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.” 

I expect journalists to seek the truth and to provide fair, accurate and comprehensible accounts of that truth. (And, for me, that means if you don’t have the truth don’t report.) 

I expect journalists to source their information (and that would be from more than one source, thank you very much). 

I expect journalists to identify sources and to grant anonymity sparingly. (Speaks for itself.) 

I also expect journalists to disclose conflicts of interest. 

Having said all of that I, of course, know such standards are not being met by many in this country which brings us back to the original point ~ it's up to the consumer to confirm if he or she has been given the truth or not...



Thank you for reading!



G., aka Partisan Democrat

( Please follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/
where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! You can also follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )










Thursday, January 7, 2016

The Grievance: GOP Nullification of President Obama Translates into Get His Back Tonight #StopGunViolence


I am going to leave you with some prepping material and an ask for tonight:

One:

President Obama's 2013 gun sense plan here

Two:

A January 4th CNN preview of the January 7th Town Hall of sorts here

Three:

Practically all of the information you could want on the President's January 5th announcement of his executive orders to continue on the pathway gun sense in America here

And, of course, you can always find more information at the White House website here

Please check out #StopGunViolence on most any social media platform you favor tonight and I suspect you will find a way to share the President's message on gun sense!



 Thank You!


Later …



G., aka Partisan Democrat



Thank you for reading!


( You can follow me at http://gkmtnblogs.blogspot.com/
where you can sign up for an e-mail notification when GKMTNblogs posts! 
And, you can check me out @ www.Twitter.com/GKMTNtwits ! )