Biased Political Survey In The KY Governor's Race

 About an hour ago, roughly 5pm today May 31, 2023, I received a call for what was described as a political "survey" directed toward the Kentucky general election this year.  After the first qualifying questions such as "Are you registered to vote in KY?" and "Are you registered as a Democrat or a Republican?", I quickly realized that this particular "survey" was not an ethical, unbiased, empirical survey but was using numerous inflammatory statements which were being posed as questions but actually being only followed by the question "Does this make you more or less likely to vote for Andy Beshear?" All those negative prefatory statements were intended to create negative opinions of Andy Beshear and many of them were outright lies. I absolutely hate this kind of fake campaigning which is disguised as a survey since the typical poorly educated respondent is not very often skilled enough to understand that they are totally biased and goal directed instead of being intended to elicit and document accurate responses in order to compile legitimate statistical data without the survey administrator having done anything to create bias either intentionally or accidentally. They are not statistical instruments. They are campaign tools.  I immediately began to respond to all these inflammatory "questions" with the response that "This is a biased survey intended to create negative opinions of Governor Beshear by using outright lies about him and are doubtless being paid for by some Right Wing Radical Repugnican organization."  To the callers credit, she managed to get through the "survey" and at the end I left her somewhat unable to respond by saying "Now, if you consider yourself to be a decent human being, go out and get yourself an honest job."  She literally didn't know what to say.

These kinds of fake "surveys" are frequently used by candidates who know they are significantly behind in whatever actual legitimate polling they have access to and are far more often used by Right Wing Radical Repugnican candidates than by Democrats.  They are one of the worst aspects of modern election campaigning and are never used by honest, ethical candidates or political consulting companies.  They are based on lies.  They are intended to change the voters' opinions, not to gain knowledge of the voters' opinions.  They have absolutely no merit or value in a truly democratic election since their objective is to change an election from being democratic and honest to one that is undemocratic and dishonest.  They are not used by candidates who want to win on their own virtues.  In fact, they are generally used by candidates who have little or no political virtues and that is definitely the case in this election.  This poll was being used in support of Daniel Cameron who has supported a great deal of legislation intended to destroy individual constitutional rights in Kentucky.  They are truly the mark of an unqualified, unethical, and unworthy candidate at a time when Kentucky has the best governor in America, Andy Beshear, and that governor is holding a roughly 60% approval rating across all voter blocks.  Every voter in Kentucky should do the same thing I did if they receive one of these "survey" calls and confront the "survey" and the caller by calling them exactly what they are, dishonest and based on lies.  

Reflections On Reading "Accordion Crimes" by E. Annie Proulx

E. Annie Proulx, or Annie Proulx as she is sometimes known, is one of America's best known and most successful authors.  She is the author of the short story on which the movie "Broke Back Mountain" was based and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for her novel "The Shipping News" in 1994.  This is actually the third of her works which I have read and yet I have not yet written about any of them on this blog which is an unjustifiable error.  At times, she is a wonderful writer and her prose can flow smoothly, interestingly, and in a manner which consistently draws the reader deeper into her works.  But, in my opinion, at times her work falls measurably short of her best.  I like this book as much or better than either of her others which I have read.  But I have to admit that I enjoyed the earlier reads enough to go back for another dip in this one. Perhaps part of that higher level of pleasure on my part comes from the fact that, as a child in grade school in Knott County Kentucky, I was exposed on a monthly basis to live gospel accordion music from Alma Heibert, of the two "Bible Women" who were allowed to visit each small, rural grade school in the county on a monthly basis as a part of their missionary work with Camp Nathaniel in the county.  As always when I mention my experience with these two women and that fact that missionaries were allowed to visit public schools in the county, I am morally and ethically bound to state that the fact that they were allowed to do so in public schools was a clear cut violation of the Separation of Church and State and never should have been allowed to happen. But, yes, I do have fond memories of having known those women and of accordion music.  

The main character in this novel is not a person but an accordion, hand made by a native of an Italian native who emigrated to the United State with the instrument he had made and eventually sold it.  The human characters come and go in the novel as the accordion passes from hand to hand, being used by members of different ethnicities to play the particular music of each culture as the instrument passes along its life.  The accordion is variously owned and played by Mexican Americans, African Americans, Polish Americans, Irish Americans, and other members of other cultures. Along the way during the story, Proulx weaves in a great deal of historical and musical information about accordions, their instrumental relatives, and many of the cultures which are historically connected to accordion music.  along the way, the instrument is loved, played, admired, and sometimes abandoned much as a human character might have been.  It is an interesting and unique method of constructing a novel and, I believe, is some of Proulx's best work.  In my opinion, the language and written structure of the novel is more skillful than that in either "The Shipping News" or "That Old Ace In The Hole" both of which I have also read and will, perhaps, also write about on this blog.  The accordion becomes a living, breathing character in the book.  It is more than just a musical instrument.  It is a delivery vehicle which deposits musical and cultural history at the reader's doorstep. It becomes the glue which brings all the other characters, cultures, and histories together.  And those histories are both documentations of cultures and of people, families, and individual and shared lives.  It is a book well worth reading, especially if the reader is not familiar with the work of Proulx it is a fine place to begin a relationship with the author and her work. 

Things In Kentucky Politics Which Make Me Puke!

 1) In Kentucky, registered Repugnicans now outnumber Democrats.  

2) All statewide elected officials in Kentucky other than the governor and lieutenant governor are Right Wing Radical Repugnicans. 

3) In Kentucky, we simultaneously have the best governor in America and one of the 3 or 4 worst state legislatures in America. 

4) In the past 8 to 10 years in Kentucky, we have seen more repressive, regressive, and repulsive laws passed than we had in the previous 231 years of our statehood.

5) In the last 6 presidential elections in Kentucky, the state has voted for the Right Wing Radical Repugnican in each of those elections.  In 13 of the last 15 presidential elections, Kentucky has voted for the Right Wing Radical Repugnican.  Bill Clinton is the last Democratic presidential candidate who won Kentucky.   

6) In Kentucky, 5 of our 6 congress members are Right Wing Radical Repugnicans and so are both of our US Senators.  

7) The Right Wing Radical Repugnican state legislature has been allowed to gerrymander congressional districts to the point that no reasonable, well qualified Democrat can be expected to win over even the worst Right Wing Radical Repugnican such as Thomas Massie.  The maps of the congressional districts in Kentucky make districts 1 and 4 appear as if they were laid out by a drunk. 

8) In Kentucky, most elections have voter turnouts of less than 50% of registered voters year after year.  

9) The current Secretary of State in Kentucky has promoted numerous laws intended to bring about extensive voter suppression with little or no public opposition from most of the groups the suppression is intended to harm such as minorities, the poor, the poorly educated, the elderly, the young, the medically fragile, and other at risk groups. 

Tyranny by Snyder: Chapter 1

 Tyranny by Snyder

"Professing" and "Practicing": Two Very Different Words

 

In American politics today and over the last 8 to 12 years, one of the most influential groups has been those who describe themselves as "Christians" or "Conservative Christians".  Yet, very rarely do any of these people describe themselves as "Practicing Christians".  And therein lies a very serious problem of religious, moral, ethical, and political dichotomy, or more bluntly, political hypocrisy.  The problem is rooted in the very basic moral, ethical, religious, and political difference between the two words "Practicing" and "Professing" as they are or can be applied to religion, theology, politics, morals, and ethics.  The Oxford Language website defines "Practicing" in this manner: "actively pursuing or engaged in a particular profession, occupation, or way of life". Their second definition of the word is this: observing the teaching and rules of a particular religion. The same Oxford Languages website defines "Professing" in this manner: claim that one has (a quality or feeling), especially when this is not the case.  Their second definition of the word "Practicing" is this:

affirm one's faith in or allegiance to (a religion or set of beliefs)".  The difference between those two definitions is at the heart of the many societal problems which are being created in America today by those self-described "Christians" or "Conservative Christians" and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican politicians they have assisted in rising to power at all levels of elected offices in America.  Most of them, if not all, are simply "Professing Christians", if they profess any beliefs at all other than their belief in the abolition of most individual constitutional rights, and they are not remotely "Practicing Christians".  Anyone, anytime, anywhere can profess to be or support anything without any attempt to practice the core tenets of whatever it is they profess.  I have written in the past on this blog about these people and the core differences between what they claim to be compared to what they actually are based on their daily efforts to destroy the US Constitution and the country which is based on that constitution.  

These people under discussion are working on a daily basis to create laws which force the government to intervene in citizens lives in areas which have clearly been forbidden to the government by the Bill of Rights and hundreds of previously approved laws based on that Bill of Rights.  They support book banning, voter suppression, governmental control of the medical decisions of citizens which have clearly been forbidden to the government for more than 200 years.  And, what they never would admit, is that based on their egregious invasions into personal rights, they are indirectly, and sometimes directly, supporting the total destruction of representative democracy in America.  They are simply using the Bible and the churches of the nation, (or at least those churches which allow them to) to abolish the concept enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  They are more than willing to completely and falsely deny the fact that no citizen can be happy, at liberty, or free to live a live based on individual rights when these people are daily working to destroy, abolish, and forever eliminate the right of those citizens to make their own decisions in their daily lives. They are brazenly denying the basic constitutional concept of Separation of Church and State.  They are literally willing to steal and abrogate anyone's freedoms whose beliefs do not support their own totalitarian beliefs.  They are the greatest danger to the perpetuation of democracy in America today. 

"On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century" by Timothy Snyder--Reflections On A Book And Current Events

This little masterpiece is a book every American should read as soon as possible and take everything it says seriously to heart.  Timothy Snyder is one of the best non-fiction authors, researchers, and history professors working in America today.  He is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University, one of the most prolific authors of non-fiction in the country, and, arguably, the most important expert on the Holocaust alive today.  I have previously written about Snyder's masterpiece "Black Earth: The Holocaust As History and Warning" which I consider to be the best book I have ever read about the Holocaust.  I had read the book in discussion today several months ago and never got around to writing about it on this blog when I have actually always intended to try to write about each of the twenty chapters.  Each of those chapters is a lesson which every American should strive to learn and to live by.  

Although this book never mentions the TRAITOR Donald Trump by name, he and his many crimes are the primary motivation for the book.  The fact that it doesn't mention him by name is my primary beef with the book.   I believe we should always call a spade a spade, a shovel a shovel, and a TRAITOR just that, a TRAITOR.  And that is what brings us to current events. As I said in a brief post last night, I firmly believe that history will prove that March 30, 2023, will come to be remembered as one of the most important days in American History, the day when the process began to hold TRAITOR Trump legally responsible for his many crimes against the people and the government of the United States.  The New York indictments are only the beginning of that legal process.  The New York case and each of the other state and federal indictments into the the crimes of TRAITOR Trump must be carried out to their full logical and legal culminations and those culminations must result in his conviction, sentencing, and imprisonment for the many crimes he has committed at least since June 16, 2015, the day he made the asinine assumption  that he was fit to be the leader of the free world.  

This little book by Timothy Snyder provides a perfectly rational and logical blueprint for the country and each of its citizens to work diligently for all time to prevent the possibility that such a criminal and TRAITOR can ever again manage to be placed in a TREASONOUSLY obtained position of power in this country.  Chapter One, entitled "Do Not Obey In Advance" carries a warning rooted both in the Holocaust and rise of the Nazi party in Germany and in the proliferation of TRAITOR TRUMP and his cult.  The two movements are nearly identical in their lust for undeserved power and their willingness to destroy the countries in which they arose. The willingness of his cult of followers to "obey in advance" led to the insurrection and domestic terrorism of January 6th. The opening sentence in the book states that "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given."  That sentence is absolutely true and also absolutely true of how Adolph Hitler rose to power and was nearly able to destroy the world. It is also true in a slightly less universal way of how the TRAITOR  Trump rose to power. His cult of followers freely followed him and his lies.  The US justice system initially ignored the many obvious signs that foreign meddling in the 2016 election led to the razor thin leads the votes showed in Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania and that system freely allowed him to be installed in the White House despite those signs of vast criminal activity in the electoral process.  The Right Wing Radical Repugnicans nationwide freely allowed him to escape not one but two clearly justified impeachments.  And for eight years, a majority of the people of the United States have freely allowed him to escape criminal prosecution.  Those times ended on the day TRAITOR Trump was indicted in New York. Further indictments will come in the other cases. No longer must the people of the United States "freely" allow this TRAITOR to escape punishment. However, in America a majority of those who voted in both the 2016 and 2020 elections knew him for what he was, voted against him, fought him and his TREASONOUS ambitions diligently and tirelessly during the entire time he was able to live illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia and Vladimir Putin's ability to steal an American election in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.  Without that diligent and tireless resistance, this country would have become another example of just how easy it is for a would be despot to seize power, overcome a resistant populace, and destroy a country.  

Timothy Snyder's little masterpiece of a book contains 19 other statements on which each chapter is based which are just as accurate about the rise of tyranny in susceptible populaces and destroy the nations in which they arise.  Buy "On Tyranny..." by Timothy Snyder!  Read and memorize all of its 126 incredibly important pages!  Live by the truths contained in those pages!  Do not stop fighting tirelessly to demand and ensure that TRAITOR Trump is held responsible for all his crimes against this country and its people!  Do not relax about the danger he presents until he dies in the federal prison cell which he has so richly deserved for his entire adult life!  

 

March 30, 2023, A Great Day In American History--A TRAITOR Has His First Indictment-More To Come

Today, March 30, 2023, will go down in history as one of the greatest days in the history of the USA.  The worst TRAITOR in the history of the world has been indicted, finally.  Yes, this is a relatively minor indictment for one of the lesser of his many crimes.  No, this first indictment is not for his TREASON which should have been the first, last, and only indictment which ever had to be brought against TRAITOR Trump.  But the legal process has begun to prove once and for all that no one is above the law in the United States of America, especially if that person is a TRAITOR and an enemy of the state.  And what is truly sad is that this day was ever necessary.  This career criminal, sex offender, pathological liar, domestic and international terrorist, and ultimately a TRAITOR should have been indicted, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned as much as fifty years ago for his thousands of business based crimes, or his sex crimes and the country would never have had to suffer all we have and will continue to suffer because the TRAITOR was allowed to live illegally in the White House for four years after committing TREASON with Russia.  Today, is a great day in America and will come to be known as one of the greatest days in the entire history of the country.