The 21st Century "Fireside Chat": Governor Andy Beshear's Podcast

There are very few people in America who are old enough to remember the last episode, or any other, of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famous Fire Side Chat which took place from 1933 until the final one in June of 1944. During the Great Depression and most of World War II, the Fireside Chats provided a link by radio, the most technologically advanced media of the time, beween the President of The United States and the American people. They allowed FDR to exert a persona of firm, steady, calm, unswerving leadership to the country during the most incredibly dangerous period of his presidency. Today, Aemrica is in just as critically dangerous a time and the White House is occupied by the most dangerous human on earth anyone could ever imagine allowing to be anywhere near even the most lowly position of power, TRAITOR Trump. We are in desperate need of a person and a media event which can provide the same kind of persona of firm, steady, calm, unswerving leadership to a country in the most dangerous times we have seen since Pearl Harbor was bombed and our participation in World War II began. Our political times today are just as much days which "will live in infamy" as those during President Roosevelt's terms. Our nation is just as endangered now as then and the danger is centered inside the White House, inside the deranged mind of the person who works on a daily basis to destroy America and American Democracy, TRAITOR Trump. But we have a leader in America who is qualified to lead the country, committed to doing anything within his power to provide that calm, steady, effective leadership to take us out of the danger zone which is daily being perpetuated by the Criminal Syndicate which poses as a "cabinet" inside the White House. That person is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and he is already providing the country with a form of media which can be the 21st century equivalent of FDR's Fireside Chats. That person is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and the media from which can do the trick, if only enough Americans watch it each week is Andy Beshear's Podcast which is available on all forms of internet based communication. I prefer to watch the podcast on Youtube and it can be found at this link. The podcast can also be found at its internet website at this link. The podcast is roughly 50 minutes each week and broken into several regular segments, most of which appear each week with a few exceptions. The primary portion of the podcast is an interview of roughly 25 minutes with a major American political leader, corporate executive, or other important poublic figure. Such guests on the podcast have included Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and others from both poltics and business. Other segments of the podcast include "In My Kentucky Accent" in which Governor Beshear discusses some important political issue of that particular week in his customary honest, ethical, probing, and straight forward manner. He pulls no punches, tells the truth as he sees it, doesn't seek to protect himself from all possible criticism, and says exactly what needs to be said in every instance. Another regular segment is a conversation with two of the governor's closest friends, John McConnell and Jonathan Rabinowitz. McConnell is a Kentucky insurance agency owner. Rabinowitz is an attorney and sports agent who is a managing partner for the national law firm Morgan and Morgan. Both are successful, intelligent, politically astute men who have long standing friendships with Governor Beshear, and are obviously well trusted friends. Once in a while some member of the governor's family, wife Brittany, children Will and Lila,will appear in a more casual family oriented brief appearance. The two children often educate their three elders on the slang of their peers in high school.

If you want to see Aemrica become the country is once was, an actual democracy, a safe place for any member of any special interest group to live and work, a country which is respected by the rest of the world, and a bastion of constitutional freedomes, Andy Beshear is the best person to assume the presidency and lead us out of the deliberate destruction in which we now find ourselves and our country. Watch the podcast, share it with your family and friends, and begin to work to support Andy Beshear as the best possible person to lead America out of the horrible disaster in which we find ourselves.

The Sad State Of Both Education And Politics In America And Appalachia Today

  An Update To Two Earlier Blog Posts

In two other blog posts from the last few days, I wrote about my decision to buy and publicly wear a baseball cap with the caption "Jack Smith Making America Great Again".  I had written about the fact that I had worn it to several businesses on this past Friday, February 9, 2024, and had not had a single person speak to me about the baseball cap either to thank me for wearing it or attempt to convince me that I was an idiot and had made a terrible mistake to support the work of Jack Smith, the Special Prosecutor who will, if there is a God in Heaven, send TRAITOR Trump to the federal penitentiary for the rest of his slimy, treasonous life.  I also wrote another blog post yesterday, February 10, 2024, about the absolutely dangerous and destructive Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the Kentucky state legislature and, in particular, a pending Kentucky State Senate bill (Senate Bill #4) which is intended to stop Kentucky school teachers from using their unused sick days to add to their service time upon retirement which has been a standing benefit provided to Kentucky teachers and other state employees for many years.  This is an absolutely asinine bill which will further exacerbate the state's ability to hire and retain competent teachers especially in light of the fact that their pay and benefit structure is already well below those of most other states.  In that particular post about the state legislature, I had also provided a link to the Kentucky State Senate Regular Session Record website from the Kentucky State Legislative Research Commision which provides complete information about every pending piece of legislation during the session.  I sincerely hope  that every concerned citizen of Kentucky or anyone else with a vested interest in the state will choose to visit and study that website, use it to inform and refine your beliefs and opinions about pending actions of the legislature, and then choose to speak out about, propagate, and vigorously defend those beliefs and opinions.  

 

Now, I am betting that most of my regular readers are wondering what all this writing about Kentucky Senate Bill #4 and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the state legislature has to do with wearing a baseball cap supporting the incredible work of Jack Smith and his investigative and prosecutorial team.  This is the story of that connection.  Yesterday, Saturday, February 10, 2024, I went as I usually do to my local Saturday hangout where I customarily eat lunch and spend time with two friends, one of which owns the hangout and the other who is a lifelong friend of that owner and my friend from several years.  It is also pertinent that the owner is a local business person with two businesses in the this county and has served almost twenty years in two separate terms on the county Board of Education.  I had spent probably an hour talking with my two friends when the owner's liberal son-in-law came downstairs from where he had been working without my knowledge.  This liberal son-in-law is also a friend of mine and we love to talk politics and other topics when we have the time together.  I called him over to show him my baseball cap which he appreciated greatly and we had a good laugh about it.  His father-in-law, the long term Board of Education member, then asked me, seriously, "Who is Jack Smith?" I told him, "the Special Prosecutor" and he never said a word further.  It is now pertinent for me to say that a Facebook friend of mine who is a retired college English professor had mentioned to me earlier that the reason I had not had anyone ask me about the baseball cap was because the people who customarily support TRAITOR Trump can't read.  I now have to admit that this friend was correct.  

My Board of Education member friend and I then continued our conversation in which I asked him what  he thought about Kentucky Senate Bill #4 and the fact that the majority in the state legislature was attempting to take away the right of Kentucky teachers to use their unused sick days to extend their time of service upon retirement.  To my surprise he said that the bill is a good idea and gave me a rambling justification that "when people retire the Boards of Education where they worked have to pay for that sick time at their current rate of pay instead of the rate of pay they were earning at the time they earned the sick time".  I asked what he thought about the probability that the bill, if it becomes law, will make it more difficult to hire and retain teachers in Kentucky.  He said,"Yes, it might but it's a good idea to pass that bill."  I was, to say the least, surprised if not shocked to hear that from a sitting Board of Education member in a county where I personally know that at least one teacher has been hired in the last year or two who did not have an education degree and all her prior work  history had been in a variety of public sales positions. Hence, she was hired under a special provision in the law which allows people with unrelated degrees and experience to be hired as teachers because of a hardship waiver if qualified teachers are not applying for the available jobs  I have no idea if it is relevant that the teacher to which I am referring is related to a member of my friend's extended family. But it is very relevant that he has a great niece who is a teacher and has chosen to work in another county located about two hours from this county where most of her close relativee live.  The county in which she works is one of the best counties in the state in terms of teacher pay and benefits.

But the most relevant aspect of all this for me is that I know a member of the local Board of Education who had no idea who Jack Smith is until I told him and is not concerned that every teacher in this state stands to lose a great deal of accumulated sick time, and therefore time of service which will lower their retirement pay when it has been a long standing aspect of employment in education in Kentucky.  And you can bet your sweet ass that if the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the Kentucky State Legislature get away with taking that sick time feature of retirement away from teachers, their next move will be to take it away from every other employee of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  If Kentucky teachers don't Stand Up, Speak Up, and Speak Out strongly in their entire numbers against this legislation it will become law at a time when the current lieutenant governor is a former educator and she and the governor have fought tooth and nail for their entire time in office to try to force the legislature to give teachers a sizeable raise which would make them more equitably paid in comparison to their peers in other states. And, due to the veto proof majorities in both houses of the legislature any veto from the governor can only be a public statement of disagreement with the bill.  In fact, every state employee, both current and retired needs to be fighting to defend the teachers of Kentucky in this effort to stop this asinine bill from becoming law. If every state employee stood up with the teachers and expressed their intent to vote against any legislator who votes in support of this bill, it would never pass into law.  We should all be fighting to make Kentucky teachers the best paid and best compensated via other benefits in the nation.  When teachers are given excellent pay and benefits in this state, better qualified and more dedicated persons will strive to become teachers and to fulfill their careers until retirement.  Better teachers produce better educated citizens and those citizens produce better lifetime output than lesser educated citizens.  If we want a great state, we must hire and retain great teachers and pay them what they are worth in every other state in the nation.

The Right Wing Radical Repugnican Clown Car In Kentucky

 

I took a drive to Frankfort town.

I had to see what was going down.

I took the exit off the interstate,

Drove right up to the Capitol gate,

Circled on around the square, 

Had to see what was there.

I saw a car in front of a body shop,

Twelve colors of paint from bottom to top,

Red, brown, yellow, and a sickly green,

Strangest car I'd ever seen,

A big elephant sitting on the hood,

A body man working to make it look good.

He had a big R painted in my view.

I wondered what he intended to do.

I circled back to park at the shop

That car was just too funny, I had to stop.

I said, "Hey, feller, that looks like work,

That old car's got a lot of quirks,

The tires are worn, two are flat,

What can you do with a car like that?"  

He grinned and said, "I reckon you're right.

But I got offered money just last night.

All I have to do is paint it several colors

And I'll make ten thousand dollars."  

I asked about the rust and all them dents,

That car wasn't worth more than ten cents.

The body man said, "I'll just cover that up,

Get the motor running like a turpentined pup.

This car's got a job all through twenty three,

All over the state this car will be.

It'll run from the Big Muddy to the Tug.

Selling a scam like bad likker in a pretty jug."

I asked, "What do  you mean?  What are you saying?"  

"This car is their hope Republicans are praying,

It's their campaign car is what they're saying.

They've already got a dozen takers,

Idiots, criminals, scammers, fakers, 

They'll climb in and ignore the weather.

They're planning to ride a dozen together.

There's a half dozen men waiting to ride,

And one or two women are climbing inside.

They want to turn this state around.

They want to drive it into the ground.

They've already put sales tax on everything.

Cut taxes on the rich and got them to sing.

Put all them bills on all the poor

And they've got plans to do a lot more.

They say they'll kill all the good jobs,

Quit feeding people corn and give them cobs, 

Hide all their good tricks under the law

And make this the worst state you ever saw.

There's Mike Harmon the Auditor of Public Accounts

Who knows to what he might amount.

There's even a man named David Cooper

He wants you to believe he's a super dooper.

He can't say what he might do

But he's really trying to fool me and you.

Eric Deters used to practice law

Until he was arrested over what witnesses saw

When he chased his nephew around the town,

The boy says he's lucky he never was found.

 Alan Keck is mayor in pretty small town

But says he's the answer to keeping Kentuckians down

He wants the front seat in this clown car

Says prior mistakes are never a bar

To being the governor of this great state

He'll fix it all and won't be late.

Ryan Quarles wants to drive the car

All over the state both near and far.

He says he's a farmer with a big education

Says Harvard won't ever hurt his reputation. 

Robbie Smith is a teacher without much of a plan

But he swears he's a qualified man, 

Says he just wants a term of one year

Then run again to allay all our fear,

Wants to change a whole lot of things

But seems to have lost the list that he brings."

The body man said "these candidates keep talking

But in this car they might be walking.

If I get it painted and I get it sold

The tale it will tell will always be told

About how Kentucky was bought and sold.

There's even a couple of women who want to drive

And swear all the state will arrive alive.

There's Savanna Maddox from Scott County

Who says she can win without paying a bounty

For votes from people who are willing to sell

In order to see Kentucky become living hell.

Ooops! Maddox admitted she was wrong.

Kentucky can't be bought for a song.

Her short campaign didn't go well.

She couldn't turn Kentucky into living hell.

But the question now is did she sell

Out to someone with money who could spell?  

She announced her campaign on June 6

On December 20 she admitted she didn't know enough tricks.

Six & a half months was way too long

For such a campaign which was always wrong.

Daniel Cameron who fights daily against good

Swears he is the candidate Kentucky should

Put to driving the state into the ground

As if enough evidence hasn't been found

To send him home after four years

Of driving all sane Kentuckians to tears

With losing law suits against every good work

He says anything positive he'll always shirk.  

But the strangest candidate of all

The one who would answer any outrageous call

Is the one whose record proves most daft

The former ambassador Kelly Knight Craft

Who worked for two years daily to do naught

For the man Putin and Russia bought

Because her husband spent coal money 

To get a do nothing job for his honey.

The body man laughed and said "that's all

If nobody else tries to answer the call

To be governor of Kentucky after next fall.

But they say Bevin, you remember old Matt,

Is tired of staying at home getting fat

On money from pardons for all takers,

Rapists, murderers, thieves and fakers.

Matt might jump in the race

And give all the others a bitter taste

When he reminds the voters what you get when you do

What the Republicans want you to.

But this clown car will be full in old 23

With the worst crowd of clowns 

The state could ever see."

But then he smiled and said over his grin,

"It won't matter to me who wins.

I'm leaving the state when I finish this car.

I'm going away just about as far

As it is possible for me to travel

Before this clown car blows up and scatters gravel

In the face of every voter dumb enough to do

What the Republicans want them to do."

I shook my head and dried a tear, 

And left old Frankfort with a lot of fear

Of what could happen in the next election

If the common sense of voters takes a defection

And leaves us all out of our senses

Following this clown car without defenses, 

Listening to liars, fakers, and shills

Trying to ruin Kentucky with horrible deals.  

So vote with caution in the upcoming year

Remember the man who calms all your fear

Stick with the man whose been proven just dandy

Vote Straight Democratic! Vote For Andy!  

Roger D. Hicks, December 18, 2022. 

America, We Must Turn This Into Democratic Votes!

For nearly two weeks, we have seen some of the largest and generally most peaceful protests all over America in support of what I consider to be basic human rights for all members of American society including, African Americans, LGBTQI people, immigrants, and all minority groups in general.  We have seen several police officers charged with serious crimes up to and including murder involving blatant abuses of power in incidents which generally involved African America subjects but two officers have been charged with second degree assault in an incident involving their pushing and seriously injuring a 75 year old white man. We have also seen the current TREAONOUS occupant of the White House order potentially lethal force to be used against peaceful demonstrators so that he could use a church for a photo op without permission from  and against the wishes of the bishop who oversees it.  We have also seen TRAITOR Trump call for the use of active duty military against American citizens which, to my knowledge, has not been done since the Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County West Virginia in 1921.  We have also seen the White House ringed with two miles of heavy duty, high wall fencing and razor wire.  In response to all these incidents, we have also seen nearly every city in America, no matter the size, staging peaceful protests in support of human rights and in response to the increasingly more tyrannical outbursts of TRAITOR Trump when he wasn't hiding in the concrete bunker below the White House.  There have even been demonstrations in tiny towns in some of the most conservative states in America.  All of this is great and has been productive of criminal charges against a few rogue police officers; some cities have seriously changed police policies regarding handling arrests and confrontations with citizens; several police chiefs and police forces have interacted very peacefully and positively with demonstrators;  and many public officials have spoken out against inhumane treatment of citizens by police officers. 

But all of this will have been in vain if the end result is anything less than a massive increase in voter registrations for the Democratic party, and unless those registrations are translated into votes in November 2020 which result in the winning of both the White House and Senate for Democrats.  Every demonstration in America should also be utilized as a point of entry to register as many Democratic voters as possible.  Every demonstration should have a designated group of people who are assisting unregistered citizens to register as Democrats and that group of people should also use the demonstrations to educated those unregistered citizens about the entire electoral process.  Every church and civic organization in America should also be working to register Democratic voters.  Every registered Democrat should we working individually to register as many voters as possible.  We should be holding events directed at teenagers to register them as soon as possible as Democrats and educating them about the electoral process.  We must win the White House, the US Senate, and as many governorships and other offices as possible in the next election and every other  election to follow.  Only if we have political control of both the White House and the state houses from sea to shining sea can we ensure that the progress which has been made in the last two weeks.  As an example, in Kentucky we were able to elect Andy Beshear to the governor's office in 2019 and yet allowed the rest of the statewide ticket with the exception of the lieutenant governor  to be won by Republicans.  That is unforgivable and has saddled Governor Beshear with an attorney general and a secretary of state who have both worked consistently to resist progress, disenfranchise voters, and impede progress in all areas of living in the state.  We cannot allow that to happen to Joe Biden when we elect him.  We cannot allow that to happen in another state house in America.  We must register every voter we can and we must ensure that they vote in all future elections for the entire Democratic ticket.  If we do not, everything that has happened for progress in the past two weeks will have been for naught. 

“Why, this far into the twenty-first century, are we once again talking about Fascism?  One reason, frankly, is Donald Trump.  If we think of Fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab.”  Madeleine Albright, “Fascism A Warning”, p. 5-6. 

A Tale Of Two Press Conferences And The Corona Virus!

Every day between 5pm and 7pm, two press conferences are televised in Kentucky.  One of those press conferences is also televised nationwide and that is a damn shame!  In Kentucky, at 5pm on every major television station in the state we see press conference by our Governor Andy Beshear.  It usually lasts for about an hour and is a shining example of what a press conference by an elected official working in a crisis should be.

Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky

Governor Beshear is professional, strong, well informed, honest, accurate, compassionate, and everything a people in crisis should expect and receive from a leader at one of the worst times in the history of the state and nation.  This press conference has been taking place on a daily basis for about two weeks since Kentucky developed its first cases of Corona Virus in Jefferson and Fayette counties, the two truly urban counties in the state.  At the time these press conferences began, we had two cases in the state as I recall.  Today, March 28, 2020, we have roughly 300 cases statewide in at least 45 of the 120 counties.  The virus is spreading rapidly and randomly across the state just as it is across the nation.  Citizens are hoarding food, avoiding social contact, living in irrational fear, and doing both many good things and an equal number of ignorant, misinformed, and irrational things.   But Andy Beshear and his team of staff walk into the capitol press room each day cool, calm, collected, prepared with facts and information which is needed by every citizen of the state.  He begins the conferences these days with an affirmation and actually asks the audience to repeat it with him: "We Will Get Through This!  We Will Get Through This Together!"  Andy Beshear is everything a leader should be.  He has assembled the best team of the most talented people that the state can offer.  They deliver facts in a calm, supportive, professional, ethical manner and every citizen of Kentucky is better because of it.  

At about the time Andy Beshear's press conference is ending, the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House based on his TREASON with Russia also begins a daily press conference which is everything the press conferences of Governor Beshear's are not.  This TRAITOR is ignorant, uninformed, divisive, abrasive, uneducated, unintelligent, dishonest, amoral, and without one iota of compassion as he has always been.  He spits, sputters, foments greater fears among the populace because of his thousands of flaws, lies, and deceptions.  He does anything he can to avoid taking the appropriate blame for having, on a daily basis, increased the danger to every citizen of this country.  He blames others.  He lies repeatedly.  He attacks the press, the governors of many states, and at times even the victims of the Corona Virus.  He is an idiot, a pathological liar, an international and a domestic terrorist, and the personification of evil in the world.  He refuses to heed the advice of communicable disease, national security, health care, and government experts.  He uses the one actual professional on his team, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as a shield and a scapegoat.  He is a waste of time to every American who watches him and further endangers the lives of every resident of the United States and the world.  His rants have progressed to the point that the three major television networks usually cut away from his "press conferences" at or near 6:30pm and go on the air with the national news just as they did in the days when the Corona Virus was unknown in the world.  The television networks and their reporters recognize this TRAITOR for exactly what he is and this is as close to nothing as a living, breathing human can sink.  America is in the worst health care disaster since the polio epidemic of the early twentieth century and we have no leader at the top.  Instead we are saddled with a TRAITOR who does not care one iota bout the country or its citizens.  What do you as a citizen in what used to be the greatest democracy in the world going to do about this?  

Thank God For Governors Like Andy Beshear!

 As the Corona Virus crisis deepens, cases and deaths increase, and the economy becomes steadily worse, many people all over the country and the world are panicking and becoming more and more bizarre in their actions both in public and private.  A man in Nelson County Kentucky has tested positive for the corona virus, refused to self quarantine, and

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear--Photo by Twitter.com

Governor Andy Beshear has been forced to place deputy sheriffs outside the man's house to keep him from infecting the general public.  Now the man denies he was ever tested for the virus and has approached several media outlets to make claims that he does not have the virus and is being held against his will.  So the natural question becomes 'whom do you believe'?  I believe Governor Andy Beshear and the health care workers and sheriff's deputies in Nelson County Kentucky and so should you.  I watch Governor Beshear's daily press conferences about the corona virus on most days.  I am consistently impressed with his calm, professional, ethical, and compassionate attitude every minute of every press conference. I can assure you that, in the middle of the worst health care crisis in this country since the polio outbreak of the early twentieth century, he has more things on his mind than having police officers holding an innocent idiot against his will.  

Most of the news outlets which have run stories from this man and his wife are marginal in their professionalism and veracity.  The Washington Post did run a story one day ago, on March 17, 2020, with the headline "Don’t want to self-quarantine? The sheriff could send armed guards to your house."  I must insist that the headline is a bit garish for the usual professional standards of the Washington post.  But the story states in the second paragraph that "He recently checked himself out of a University of Louisville hospital against his doctors’ advice and told the local health department he would not comply with an order to isolate himself from others."  You can bet your butt that the newspaper which has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes knows how to verify any statement made by any reporter in any story and would not make such a statement as a lead paragraph in a story if it had not been substantiated by the governor's office, the hospital, and the Nelson county health department.  Andy Beshear has already served one term as the attorney general of Kentucky and his law degree is from the University of Virginia which is one of the best law schools in the country other than those in the Ivy League.  He did not take this step lightly and he did not take this step without justification.  People like the man in question are willing to endanger their family, friends, and neighbors simply because they are ignorant, uncaring, and anti-social to the core.  At this time, when the great majority of Americans are doing their duty and staying at home to protect the rest of the human race, idiots like this are a major part of the reason the Corona Virus is spreading like wildfire all across the country. We should also remember that any person who has tested positive can transmit the virus whether or not they are showing symptoms.  I do not know the particular circumstances of another case nearly as well as I know those of the Nelson County case but a family in New Jersey has had three deaths, six other members hospitalized, and five of those in critical condition, with pending tests for nineteen others in the family.  Their story is a clear indication of just how dangerous it is for an infected person like the man in Nelson County to traipse lightly through an unsuspecting community.  If you or any other member of your family is infected, whether or not they are showing symptoms, insist that they remain in isolation for whatever period the local authorities require which is generally two weeks to be followed with two negative Corona Virus tests taken at least twenty-four hours apart.  Do your part!  Obey the standards established by the Centers For Disease Control to the letter!  Do not become an uncaring carrier whose actions contribute to the infections and deaths of other innocent victims!  And join me in thanking Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear for doing an excellent job in a horrible time!  #TeamKentucky  #togetherKY