Waste Virginia. Open for Business.

I'd only heard of Teach for America, but didn't know anything about them. But as soon as I heard the WV legislature was writing a bill just for them, I  knew it had to be bad.

Can we have cider too? I like cider.

Clouds. Climate change is because of clouds!

Thurmond, a town of FIVE, recently passed an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against LGBTs. This sent our WV legislators into a tailspin right into the closet.

i just wanted to enjoy this rare sunny winter day.

Daily Kos wrote me an email and asked me if I’ve ever changed my mind about a  candidate. I had to think about that. And I realized, that in my 40 years of voting, no, I have not. When I was a teenager, my family was all about Eugene McCarthy and spent evenings stuffing envelopes. Later, I supported Bill Clinton from the very beginning. I was a loyal supporter of Ralph Nader in 2000, not an easy task. Then I supported Kerry, and then it was Obama. I wasn’t always wildly enthusiastic about my candidate, but once I decided, I stayed committed, my level of commitment commensurate with my enthusiasm. That is, if I loved someone, I volunteered for them, talked to my friends about them, etc. If I didn’t, not so much (ie, John Kerry. I liked the guy, just wasn’t crazy about him like I was about Obama.) I am crazy about Bernie. I’m currently phone banking, working as a telephone monitor, and organizing sign waves and debate parties. I will be fairly devastated if Hillary walks away with the nomination, mostly because I don’t really think she deserves it. She’s gotten where she is on the coattails of her husband, and her flip-flopping is enough to make me dizzy. I don’t admire her tactics. Because of all the money she’s taken from the banks and other corporate entities, I can’t trust her to make good decisions. And then there’s the email thing. Anyone who’s ever worked for the government, no matter what their grade, knows you never use personal email for work correspondence, especially when shuttling around work files. It shows poor judgment and possible laziness. Bernie has worked long and hard, and has been consistent with his opinions and causes. I love that he’s for single payer, and the way he’s brought the idea of income inequality out of the shadows. I admire that he walks the walk and not just talk the talk. Rather than accept millions in speaking fees from industries, he does things like donate proceeds from his books to charity. He’s the Real Deal. If Hillary takes the nomination, I will vote for her begrudgingly. But you won’t see me waving Hillary signs on Main St.

People prejudiced against anyone because they’re from a different background make me physically ill. Ever since I was a child listening to my dad rail about the "Negro" (as they were called then) children being killed in the South during the civil rights era of the mid-60’s, I feel sick when I experience this kind of ignorance. People around here still think nothing of calling African Americans “the colored” and worse. I do realize that some of their prejudice is simple ignorance and fear of the unknown and the different. Living in West Virginia, I’ve met people who have never been outside the state. In our medical practice, patients get upset if we send them to a specialist who speaks with an accent because they’re so unused to hearing anything but an American accent. It’s just too much for them. There are pockets of West Virginia where all you see are white people. In fact, according to one study, Tucker County in West Virginia is the least diverse in the nation, with a 100% white, non-Latino population. But is there really any excuse for being ignorant in this day and age? We have TV, movies, the internet, music -- many many ways to connect to people of different cultures and beliefs — if we want to.

The recent suspicion that refugees and migrants might be terrorists, or come over here and sponge all our wonderful entitlements, is rooted in this ignorance and augmented by the hateful puke spewed by Infowars, Fox "News," Sean Hannity and their like. In reality (something those folks know too little about), this threat is  magnified out of proportion from the minuscule chance that a Syrian refugee, some of whom have walked more miles than certain West Virginians travel in their whole lifetime, might come over here and put some American out of job….Or that a terrorist will disguise him or herself as a Syrian refugee and come here to wreak havoc. Remember, most of the terrorist attacks on American soil were committed by WHITE AMERICAN MEN.

This is not a bill that will attract smart people to our state, or keep our young people here once they’ve finished college. Given a choice of working for $19 an hour with few benefits or working for $24.25 an hour with good benefits is a no-brainer. We'll see our good workers fleeing the state for better paying jobs. And think about this: Do you want your car fixed by someone making $19 an hour or $25 an hour? I want the better paid worker, because, honestly, they'll work harder because they know they're respected and valued. Do you want someone taking care of your mother who has good health benefits, or someone who has to scrape together the money for a doctor's visit? I want the happy, healthy worker taking care of mom.

So. Our legislative priorities here in West By God Virginia so far have been 1) pay people less, in fact, pay them as little as possible (Repealing the Prevailing Wage) 2) break up whatever power the unions have left (“Right to Work”) 3) Give any wingnut an excuse to do something, or not do something, in the name of the Lord. (WV Freedom of Conscience Protection Act). In fact, the first two bills were vetoed by Governor Tomblin, only to be overturned by the bullies in the WV legislature.

Good going, guys. You just keep it up.

Ask Wisconsin, which has lost 10,000 jobs since implementing “Right To Work” just a year ago. As far as repealing the prevailing wage, I’m wondering why any talented, hard working person would stay in, much less move to, a state where wages are already low, and not at least be guaranteed a fair wage? The argument that West Virginia’s cost of living is lower than surrounding states is bogus. We have the 47^th lowest wages in the nation, but we are in the top 20 when it comes to cost of living.

And why on earth would a major or emerging company want to come here once West Virginia is lumped in with all the other states that have legislated their bigotry? Sorry folks, but that attitude is just not identified with intelligence out there in the world that you are supposedly trying to attract to our state! Well, we can only hope our voters will “remember in November.” They have in other states. For example, in Indiana, which passed such a law recently, 75% of all likely voters think that the law has hurt their state’s economy; and the governor’s popularity has sunk by 20 points. The state has had to spend $2 million to repair the state’s image.

So, Charleston. What’s next? A voter ID bill? That’s great for jobs, too!

I have to confess, lately instead of day-dreaming about Bernie winning, I allow myself to day-dream about moving to Vancouver. Start a whole new chapter in our lives. Maybe see how medicine really works up there, at least until this madness is over. It might give Matt some interesting perspective for a new book, who knows. But not everyone has that option, so is that fair? I believe Donald Trump will win. He’ll make sure of it, the guy’s a thug! And he gives validation to every mean redneck (I happen to also know nice rednecks too) out there to do whatever the hell he/she wants. Carry a gun into school. Make fun of the Jewish girl in your class and make all the other kids do it, too. Mean girl Extreme.

If they want to accuse us “libtards” of being extreme, it’s nothing they don’t do in their wild-eyed descriptions of Socialist. As they drive their RVs on the public highway to the state park to camp. Whatever.

And now this shitstorm of a legislative session here in dear old West Virginia. Hatin’ on the gays. Making it ever harder for our girls and women to get a safe, legal abortion. You know what both those things have in common? They’re both about sex. What is it about the mostly Southern states that they’ve all wasted time on these useless, ludicrous, issues? Especially considering so many of them are having other huge problems. Like us, threatened with yet another assault on the budget that will lay off 350 professors at state-owned colleges and universities, give $71.5 million less to schools — forcing layoffs…. don’t make me go on. It’s so depressing. 

A Remember in November rally is convening on the last day of this sad, sad legislative session. March 12. Come to Charleston. Spread the word, because I can’t find anything else about it except the Facebook page. I’m sure we will as time gets closer. 

I’ve got to read this tutorial to position these maps but I so tired….

I just don't understand this....

Is it the superdelegates? Or just an unimaginative assumption? Why can Cruz potentially overcome Trump, and Sanders can’t overcome Clinton? I’m actually getting a complex about this, and I don’t get complexes. I’ve started getting personally offended when on the news, discussing the race between either Cruz or Trump, it’s always them running against HILLARY. Always HILLARY. Never a possibility that it might be Bernie. I minded John Kasich the least of all the Republican candidates until he said “Bernie Sanders will not be the Democratic candidate.” It would serve them all right if he wins! In bibiWorld, I would make Chris Matthews, Jonathan Capehart, the entire nasty editorial board of the Washington Post, and the NY Daily News watch every known clip of Bernie-denial, over and over again. And then they’d peel me grapes while I soaked in the hot tub. But that’s another story.

I admit I’m pretty much a Bernie wench. I’ll be really sad if he’s not nominated. I really think he is the Gandhi of our time and place. I’ve admired him for a long time, clear back from the time of his tenure as the wildly popular mayor of Burlington. I found this article about that time of his life, a reminder that this is, indeed, a man who can form coalitions, face down the nay-sayers and get things done. 

I’m really excited to see how he does here in West Virginia on May 10. People are not too fond of the Clintons here for one reason or another, but probably mostly due to Hillary’s insistence on riding Obama’s environmental coattails. I suppose most of the “not affiliated” will probably vote in the Republican primary. So Bernie might actually stand a chance here, who knows. 

Stay tuned!

During the weekend of June 10-11, over 900 county delegates to the WV Democratic Convention met in Charleston. We were ready to try answering our party’s call for unity. On Saturday, after sitting through 2 hours of speech after speech, some amazing, some disgusting (which we walked out on), we met to vote on amendments to the WV Democratic platform. I had been impressed by all the college students and young professionals who had written many of the amendments, which ranged from ending mountain top removal to eliminating Super PACS. The energy in the room was positive and productive. We moved fairly smoothly through the first hour of the meeting.

We were seated by county, and as I looked around, I noticed that whole counties’ seats were empty. Of course, three hours in, we were all starving-no food was available at all anywhere in the convention center, all day. As the platform meeting stretched to 2:00, I noticed that, for hunger and whatever other reason, many of the delegates had left for good. The fact that we almost didn’t have enough of a quorum to complete the platform became apparent; conveniently, perhaps, just as we got ready to start discussing removing superdelegates! So there was a quorum call, and everyone scrambled to find anybody loitering, taking a long smoke, stuck in a bathroom, to come back to the hall. When I asked my fellow delegate Gayle Rancer what she thought of all of this she said 

when we needed a quorum we reached out to and chased down delegates, who were happy to return. The Executive Committee chose to remain uninvolved in steering the platform and resolutions. That's not leadership. The chairwoman chose to be uninvolved in the process and did not witness the hours' long work hammering out this platform, and, is again showing a lack of real leadership by dismissing and belittling the work of these energized, passionate and dedicated young bloods to the party.

We were finally able to continue, and so we did, energetically and cooperatively, for almost another 3 hours. In the end, the amendments mostly passed enthusiastically and with little debate from either Clinton or Sanders supporters; even a resolution asking Debbie Wasserman Schultz  to resign was passed without a single “nay.” We were proud that we were all able to come together to deliver this exciting new platform to our fellow Democrats.

Despite all their talk of “unity,” however, I’m not sure that this is the type of unity that our Democratic party wants. It turned out that while we were downstairs, starving and almost lacking a quorum, 75 or so of the Executive Committee was having a Joe Manchin-sponsored luncheon upstairs…and unseating our boy wonder, Vice Chairman Chris Regan. In the aftermath of passing the country’s most progressive party platform, the chairwoman of the WV Democratic Party was quoted as calling the Wasserman-Schultz resolution a “slap in the face,” ignoring the fact that Clinton supporters had voted for it as well. She even asserted that the platform would make it difficult for candidates to win elections, among other unflattering comments. The platform passed, almost unanimously; isn’t that something to be proud of? Instead, she made it sound as though the amendments had been written by little children who didn’t know what they were doing. Please.. don’t tell me about unity. I held it in when a Hillary mean girl came by, screaming at me that we should all leave, that Bernie was negative energy. (everybody else was very nice).

If the establishment Democrats aren’t going to listen to our young people, the party will die. If you don’t want to progress, you don’t want to participate, let’s give those empty seats iin the hall to the next generation.. They want progress. We want progress. Progress requires Progressiveness. Let’s be progressive.

Reposted from Facebook. I’ll edit this later and put in links. 

I’m going to make it my personal mission to dispel some of the *real* fake news that squirms its way around the internet. I don’t want to embarrass anyone or “out” people who post things that turn out to be wrong. I just want people to question things, and learn facts before forming an opinion. I’ve been guilty myself of posting what turned out to be bogus news, and was grateful when someone pointed it out.  

Especially during this pandemic, misinformation is killing people - literally. We’re hearing more and more stories now of people who had chosen to ignore social distancing and mask wearing dying of COVID - which is truly tragic.  

For this first post, I’m going to present the facts first. Then you can read the original post and decide. If you like it, you are welcome to copy and paste! And feel free to forward me any posts that seem bogus-y.

1)   Will it be a federal law that everyone must get the COVID vaccine when it’s available?
Maybe! But right now, vaccine requirements are regulated by states, not the Federal government. Each state may decide to make immunizations optional in the case of an inability to tolerate the vaccine, religion or other belief.

2) Was Dr Fauci ever a CEO of Moderna, one of the pharmaceutical companies developing a vaccine?
Despite extensive internet searching, I could find no association between Dr Fauci and Moderna. Checking the Wikipedia listing under the company's Leadership and History sections, I could find no mention of his name. Was he a secret CEO? Is that a thing? If there’s a source that verifies that’s true, I would love to see it.

3) Were Bill Gates and Dr Fauci roommates at Cornell University?
Bill Gates went to Harvard, and left after his sophomore year, in 1975. Dr Fauci went to the College of the Holy Cross, graduating with his BA in 1962, going on to graduate from Cornell Medical School in 1966. So, um, no.

4)  Did Moderna start in Germany under the Nazis? No. Moderna was founded in 2010 in Cambridge, MA.

5) Was Moderna one of the spin-off companies formed after the Allies seized the Nazi pharmaceutical company IG Farben?
No, it was not. If you’re concerned about these things, Bayer is one of those companies, along with BASF, Hoechts, Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron, Agfa, and Chemische Fabrick Vorm.

6)Is George Soros a Nazi?
No, he is not. In fact, he was  born in Budapest in 1930, so he was too young to have anything to do with Nazis. In fact, he spent much of his childhood hiding from Nazis. His family was Jewish. So, no.

7)Is George Soros associated with Moderna?
The only thing I could find even close to that was one of his top holdings, a company called Modalez, but it’s in the food/confectionary industry. Again, I would love to see a source to that information.

8)Is Jeffrey Epstein “the primary stockholder” of Moderna? No. The top ten stockholders of Moderna: Lorence Kim, Stephen Hoge, Timothy Springer , Stephane Bancel and  Robert Langer
In fact, the administration official in charge of the vaccine effort, Moncef Slaoui, is a venture capitalist and a former longtime executive at GlaxoSmithKline. Most recently, he sat on the board of Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass.

Here is the original post
The vaccine that is coming...
As many of you heard Moderna is in stage 3 of their vaccine testing. If all goes well it'll become federal law to get the vaccine. Here's something many of you don't know, guess who the first CEO of Moderna was? A Cornell graduate by the name of Anthony Fauci, who was a roommate with none other than Bill Gates. Are you paying attention? It was at Cornell that Bill Gates designed the RFID (Radio-frequency identification) and patened it under US2006257852. Are you awake yet? Now let's really go down the rabbit hole. Moderna was a pharmaceutical company that started in Germany under the name IG Farben. IG Farben is infamous for it's mass production of Zyklon-B, the primary gas used to kill millions during the Holocaust. After Germany fell, IG Farben was dissolved and its assets sold off by a Nazi turned American by the name of, you guessed it, George Soros. Soros rebranded the company as Moderna. And who was the primary stockholder of Moderna until his death? Jeffrey Epstein. His role in Moderna is where he made his fortune and established his connections. Let that sink in.
Wake up people! You are being conditioned and controlled. Please copy and paste this, I did!