If the candidates were your family, here's who they would be . . . Drink up

If the current flock of candidates were family members, here’s who’d they’d be . . . (Fortunately, I don’t have any family like this, but I just know you do.) Gather ‘round the table for a family feast.

Donald Trump is that loud obnoxious uncle who arrives at parties 15 minutes late, wants a Scotch and soda, but only if you have J&B. “Four cubes,.”

Bernie Sanders always arrives early, asks for a sherry and then sits on the couch telling your kids stories of his wild days at Berkley, “When everyone was a hippie.”

Cousin Jeb Bush quietly sits in that corner chair talking to your college-age kid and encouraging him to study business because, “That’s where it is today. Not like when I was a kid and political science was the thing.” He’s a professor now at a small liberal arts college nestled in the hills of upstate New York.

Hillary Clinton is the aunt who never got married, never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend and you used to wonder why, until one day a couple of Thanksgivings ago she laid into your Dad for “Caring more about your old dog when you got married in 1976 than you cared about me.” She holds a grudge and is scary, so now you guess why you never met a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Nephew Marco Rubio sips his Cosmo and brags about how he just “told off” the local selectman at a local planning and zoning hearing for complaining about a company he consulted with for wanted to building a plant in wetlands. He’s kind of the snot-nose kid who was always whining through junior high and then wondered in college why none of “his old buddies” invited him to join a frat house.

Uncle Ted Cruz says he wishes he fought in Iraq, but had to take a deferment because he had allergies. “But if I was there I sure would have set those Iraqi bastards straight.” He later served two years as a clerk for a judge and decided he’d go to law school “because then that would set the stage for my political career and look good on my resume.” “I’ll take a rye on the rocks.”

Poor aunt Carla Fiorina lost her husband 20 years ago and hasn’t forgiven him for that.

Then there’s Martin O'Malley, the friendly uncle who lets the party swirl around him, talking to your Dad and others quietly as the cocktail hour goes on, touching base with each guest and asking them how they’re doing without too much talk about himself. His second wife is 20 years younger than he is, so you figure he says all the right things.

I guess most every family has a Chris Christie . . . a boisterous first cousin who wants you to know exactly what he’s doing this week and why it’s very important. He runs an auto reclamation business and “has never let anyone get away with giving him any crap. I let them know just how stupid they are.”

You’re not sure, but you think your wife’s cousin Ben Carson may have taken a few too many drugs while in college. He’s very quiet, but makes sure to tell you the movie Predator was actually a documentary based on a book he wrote about the hottest summer ever in South America.

Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul are brothers (your Mom's second cousins) who always sit at a side table drinking Merlot while they complain nobody pays any attention to them.

Your wife's uncle John Kasich wears a slightly rumpled grey jacket over a crisply pressed white Oxford tucked into well-worn jeans and seems happy drinking gin and tonics any time of year (“Could I have a little extra lime, please?”), though you have had a single malt or two with him over the years. He loves any part of the turkey that's left after everyone else has called out white or dark meat, bathes his mashed potatoes in gravy and lives near his old neighborhood in a multi-million-dollar house he had built after he sold his tech company 10 years ago. He never brags and spends every Sunday morning at a local soup kitchen feeding those who never had a tech company or live in expensive houses.

Jim Gilmore is your Dad’s half-brother, runs a construction business and can’t figure out why there are any government regulations at all. “Damn government does nothing but screw everything up.” He doesn’t know any gay people but doesn’t like them, and your Dad threw him out of the July 4 party last year because he started ranting about gay marriage. They still don’t talk much.

It sure is a gathering when they’re all here . . . Wives, husbands, kids and a bunch of friends. Mom always calls it a free-for-all, and I guess that’s pretty accurate. Personally, I love the gatherings, but I do try to spend a bit more time making sure we have plenty of booze before they all arrive . . .

My Politics: Where I stand, and 9 ways the current crop of politicians has lost me

I’m a 60-year-old white guy, former Wall Street vice president, one-time small business owner who grew up in a Republican household, raised by strong parents, including a father who ran a major corporation and a mother who gave up her professional life to raise two kids. I've voted for both Republicans and Democrats since I was 18 years old.

If there was ever a guy the Republicans should target, it’s me. But they’ve missed by a mile. I fear that a segment of the Republican Party is, in many ways, becoming dangerous as we head to the primaries. The world is changing and the dinosaurs are long gone, except in the GOP. 

The Democrats remain pretty much uninspiring as well, moving in and out of mediocre policies that seem more designed to pander to their base as much as the Republicans are pandering to theirs. The Democrats, though, have failed to fire up their base the same way Trump and Cruz have roiled theirs.

By nature, politicians lack courage, and nobody seems especially courageous here . . . just either loud or rather bland.

Here are 9 Thoughts . . .

First, I considerate myself a moderate, that dying breed of voter who feels comfortable in the middle of the road advocating lower government spending while also managing to think government does have a valuable role in America, even if politicians can’t manage to get out of their own way. I think one of the primary goals of government should be to "do no harm," so I support programs that protect people, water, air and our land.

Second, I do believe that politicians pander to the wealthy, have created and endorse an unfair tax system, are heavily influenced by money and lobbyists and often oblivious to the real-life issues facing millions of Americans. I do not believe we should move towards a “Robin Hood” tax structure where we take from the rich, but rather a tax system that honors, supports and lifts the middle class without penalizing people for their growth, success and financial well-being. That may mean tax breaks for education, increased retirement programs, better mandated health care programs and an investment tax system that favors long-term investment over short term trading (including a shift in how hedge fund companies are taxed).

Third, I think companies need to be penalized if they move operations overseas, and rewarded if they keep operations (and jobs) here. Companies are using mergers to move headquarters overseas to avoid U.S. taxes. Offer a limited time tax amnesty to bring tax money back here before eliminating offshore loopholes, then close the loopholes. Reward companies for building new plants here. 

Mandate that companies fully fund their pensions and retirement programs, eliminating those liabilities and better protecting older workers. Lower the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent (from 35 percent), but change write-off rules so companies can’t avoid paying any taxes.

Fourth, I fully support term limits for all federally elected politicians. What’s reasonable? Maybe 3 Senate terms (12 years potentially) and 5 terms for members of the House (10 years). In many cases corporations have mandatory retirement (usually at age 65) for their executives . . . Time to clear the hanger’s on out of Congress. It has been said that anyone spending more than 10 years in any given job has stayed too long. I agree.

Fifth, we need to reduce the money influence on politicians and shine a much brighter light on their contributors and the contributors to PACs (Political Action Committees) and Super PACs. We should know who gives what to whom . . . There should be no curtain hiding campaign financing or shielding contributors. Shine the light. I want to know who pours millions of dollars into political campaigns.

Sixth, I completely and unwaveringly support marriage equality. I have friends and family who are gay, and why on earth would I deny them the same rights and privileges I enjoy? Further, I believe we need to make sure all people have the same rights here . . . access to housing, medical care, non-discriminatory laws and regulations, etc.  If we continue to generate laws that purposely discriminate against certain groups of people, then that’s shame on us. (And shows our narrow-mindedness and belief that we will never be discriminated against. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes for once.)

Seventh, I do believe there is a war on women . . . both in the job marketplace and with women’s health care. Just look at the facts . . . continued failure to mandate equal pay for equal work to start, as well as the continued assault on Planned Parenthood. 

Why? I am offended that some old white guy in Washington can tell my daughters what to do with their bodies. Politicians’ never-ending attempts to put themselves between a woman and her doctor, including trying to mandate invasive fetal monitors . . . requiring patients to watch videos before considering an abortion, the closing of clinics and the constant attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, which would leave millions of people, mostly women, without access to affordable care. We need to move past these issues, and certainly older white mostly male Republicans need to move way off this issue.

Eighth, I simply don't understand why anyone would vote for fewer laws overseeing the safety of our water and air. I favor strong environmental protections, and point to the current crisis in Flint, Michigan, as a warning shot to ever bigger environmental issues. The fact that politicians changed the city water supply source, which in turn led to the lead exposure and poisoning of thousands of residents merely because they wanted to save money, and never tested the supply, is, one could reasonable argue, criminal. We have similar issues with pollution of our ground water supply in fracking areas and around mining regions. People have the right to demand their politicians keep them safe, and that includes making sure their air and water is safe. Politicians need to put their people first, before business interests that oil their political aspirations. Clean air, water and food supply.

Ninth, (and last for the time being), let’s not forget that politics is a contact sport and we need to make sure we’re part of the game. Write, talk, debate, use your brain and make sure you’re supporting someone not shouting the loudest, but who best aligns with your political beliefs. Don’t fall for easy answers and social media rants and “news,” but learn, follow, be critical and demand better.

So far, so disappointing.

Some of the Republican candidates make Barry Goldwater and George Wallace look like raging liberals, and while I might be able to warm to a couple of them, I choke on the right turn needed to make it through the bloody GOP primary gauntlet. The party is in trouble. They’ve lowered their own bar very low. These are not the "conservatives" of days past. These are fake conservatives more than willing to throw aside the Constitution while they pretend to embrace it . . . fake "conservatives" who shout a lot but offer little thought and insight. Too bad.

While Hillary Clinton is an option, her sense of entitlement, measured campaigning and inability to handle her email/server issues may overshadow her middle-of-the-road policy positions. She carries huge negative numbers. Barry Sanders is probably the only candidate, whether you agree with him on anything or not, who has steered the same course for years and years, seldom wavering in his positions and not speaking to impress and score points (though that’s always the goal when you need votes), but rather to spread his “every man” mantra. Might be interesting.

It’s “only” January, but the primaries and caucuses start soon . . . Virtually every pundit in the world thought Trump would implode well before now . . . They thought that it would happen in July . . . then August . . . It’s January and he’s not only still in the race, he’s well ahead of his competition. He hasn't said one thing that sounds like a policy, and people actually believe him when he says Mexico will pay for his wall across the southern border.

Wow.

Pizza . . . great party food and a crusty food delivery system

Pizza is the ultimate party food.

Oh sure, if you’re having a fancy pants party it may not do . . . better a more upscale spread, but a bunch pf friends over for  game, and pizza’s perfect. Now the thing is . . . what kind of pizza?

In college, we used to spend some time at The Depot, a re-purposed train station outside Oneonta where they served a great pan pizza, cut into square pieces with a pretty thin crust. Like most college towns, there were plenty of pizza places, though bars were the dominant business in town, so many you couldn’t walk a few steps without passing a couple of them.

Chain pizza joints like Pizza Hut and Dominos make the choice easy, though maybe not the best option when compared to the local joints. Let’s say they are the middle of the road pizza places. Pizza Hut does manage some pretty good wings. I’ve never had Papa’s or Caesar’s. With pizza, delivery is important and though Pizza Hut here doesn’t deliver, they do have a drive-through, so that works if you’re on the go. Dominos just opened a place here (they used to have a place in a different mini strip mall) and they deliver. I like that.

There are a couple of good local places in town, Ramunto’s, Out of the Ordinary, and Tremont Pizza. All have good pies, and Ramunto’s has one of my favorites, a chicken, broccoli, bacon pizza with caramelized onions and a Ranch sauce. It’s a go-to [izza order if Becky visits. (Her regular go-to is feta  . . . anything feta . . . and pepperoni.)  Tremont has a solid pie that I ordered for a group when I was at Valley Regional rehabbing. A few pies and patients and some staff gathered for a little get together. I liked that. As I said, party food. Tremont delivers in town, but not out where I am. Out of the Ordinary does deliver (and quickly) . . . pizza and a pretty full non-pizza-place menu.

My usual pick is a pie with pepperoni, onion and mushrooms. That’s pretty easy for most places and tough to screw up. As I said, Ramunto’s and their new Ramunto’s Fast Fire are both pretty good at showcasing specialty pizzas. A bit pricey, but good. One friend likes the old Hawaiian pizza option from a number of places with chicken and pineapple . . . Barbecue chicken pizza can also be pretty good depending in the barbecue sauce

When I lived in Greenwich, we’d often order a large Sicilian pie with pepperoni and extra cheese from Glenville Pizza. Great thick crust and perfectly cooked every time. It was an eat-in, pick-up place, and parking on the little strip of severely sloped pavement off the road was a bit hairy at times, but that pizza sure was worth it.

Pizza crust has become a big thing over the years. Apparently it’s not enough just to make good dough and crust, but now chains are packing their crusts with cheese or meat, lathering it with garlic oil or sprinkling it with oil and coarse salt. Thick, thin, really thing or hand-tossed pan pizzas are the norm now. They all have appeal depending on my mood, but more often than not, I end up ordering a thin crust . . . more topping stuff and less crust stuff . . .

Yep, no doubt about it, pizza’s a cheap fix even on an important date, or watching a game or filling the house with friends. Take your pick . . . There seems to be no limit to the options.

Here’s why you skinny people need us big people

I’m fat, and you skinny people need me.

I am the yin to your yang, your large human foil.

You need us because we make you feel better about yourselves. While many of us are insecure about our size, that helps us see things that you don’t. You need us because with one or two of us in your clique, we offer a visual and obvious physical difference to your perceived healthiness and physique.

That’s good, because even though your often narcissistic social media postings and activities offer an outwardly strong and confident self-view, we large people know better. We know that you are often insecure as well, and use those bold photos and posts to cover that, like the form-fitting spandex with which you encase your body.

You should be proud of your body. We live in a visual world, where our first look sets the gauges for our future interactions with that person, so your svelteness gives us a good first look. Your frailties and flaws take a bit longer to notice.

Ours are easy to see . . . We look around nervously when we enter a restaurant to see where we can fit, make sure there’s enough space between the table and seating in a booth, or glancing at the chairs to make sure they are sturdy enough to hold us without giving up the ghost, straining glued joints and dowels to the breaking point.

Some of us are actually happy and understand that being overweight is not a disease in and of itself, but a long series of maybe not-so-good choices we made. You, of course, don’t get that, because your egos don’t allow you to see that for many there’s a life-long struggle to harness our inner thinner person . . . We eat too much, often eat the wrong things, don’t exercise enough and hope we can get into our summer clothes when we change wardrobes with the season. Winter’s not so bad because we can throw on layers of large, bulky shirts, sweaters and coats.

There you are in your little too-short-shorts and advanced, high-tech fabric tank top, a touch too willing to take a selfie before you hit the beach, or track, or bike or gym. We often take photos of food.

But there is a sameness to us. While we’re a bit more aware of the world around us and better understand the many struggles people face, we both have emotional ups and downs, ebbs and flows. We may show it more, and you may turn away and not want anyone to see you flinch, though some of you have little understanding of human difficulties, since you feel you have none or have overcome those you did have.

You should be proud of that.

We’re proud, too . . . sometimes even about our weight. We may have lost a ton, but are still big, large, obese or fat, but we feel good giving away bags of too-big clothes, and even better when we find a couple of pairs of jeans in the closet that are a foot bigger at the waist than the ones we now wear. Those are little battles . . . and ones we sometimes fight over and over, which is why we have our “now” clothes, our “thin” clothes and our “fat” clothes.

It’s funny you don’t like watching “Biggest Loser” since here are a bunch of big folks trying hard to be thinner and more fit folks. It would seem there’s no pleasing you. After all, “Survivor,” “The Amazing Race” and others are filled with handsome, fit people. So even when big people work hard to get fit and do what you brag about doing, you get upset because you think fat people are getting praised for doing stuff you do every day. Get over it. They are on a journey. You’re free to go on your own journey so people can criticize you. It’s easy to be critical, harder to take the time and look beyond the obvious.

Of course we’re smart, focused and thoughtful, and that’s why we understand why you need us. We’re the fat girl in the group of skinny girls, the fat guy in the group of skinny guys. We’ll argue that showing skinny models to sell clothes is dumb because most women don’t fall into that size 0 to 2, that selling us 2 airplane seats is great because then we don’t have to hear your bitching or see your frightened glances as you check your seat assignment to make sure you’re not next to us.

That’s OK. We’re used to be fat-shamed on Facebook or some other social media outlet, even though that drives some of us to kill ourselves because it cuts so deeply. We may not always be comfortable with our shells, but many of us become comfortable with who we are. We should be a bit thinner and more fit, of course, and we should eat better and exercise more than we do. You can inspire us at times and can offer us guidance and inspiration, but drop the condescending, sympathetic counselling tone first. Understand the struggle.

So often it's not that your skinny or braggingly fit, but that you take on a condescending when you talk to us. We're not beneath you . . . though we are to some of you. Stop trying to counsel us.

I’d rather applaud some size 16 single mother in her sweats struggle to jog those last few hundred yards than some righteous bitch flashing her fake boobs in a sports bra at the local 5k starting line. That mom is on a journey.

Suicide . . . We need to better understand and commit more resources to mental health

You ever think about killing yourself?

Some of us have, and yet we are still here, which got me to wondering why reasonably “normal” people kill themselves. I understand mental disorders are often a major influence, and I am certainly no expert on any of this, but it always has mystified me, in a way, how people can think things are so bleak that they decide to end their lives.

We read every day about people shooting other people . . . but there’s really a suicide epidemic in the U.S., where some 43,000 people kill themselves every year. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S, with a suicide reported every 12 minutes. Over the past 10 years (to 2014), the rate of suicide has increased to 12.9 per 100,000 people in the U.S. (CDC)

In researching and talking to people about suicide, it seems clear that sometimes people just can’t see a way out of their trouble, or they feel their lives are over after a breakup and can’t see a future without their former love, or they’re bullied and shamed and can no longer take the abuse. Social media has brought issues of shaming and bullying into the homes and schools of millions of kids across the country . . . a relentless 24-hour stream of online hate and vitriol. (Reading about a young women who killed herself also prompted me to write this.) Seniors, especially white men, are far more likely to commit suicide than any other group . . . White men 85 and older have a suicide rate that is six times that of the overall national rate.

Interestingly, more than four times as many men (on average) as women die by suicide; but women attempt suicide more often during their lives than do men, and women report higher rates of depression. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in people age 15 to 24. (CDC)

In talking with suicide hotline people, a rise in drug use has added to the issues that make people feel trapped and unable to escape their situation. In talking to friends and family, that feeling of being “trapped” was seen as a major reason the people they knew killed themselves . . . Many of us have friends or family who killed themselves. That feeling of being trapped came up again and again in conversations.

For me, my first passing thought came when I was in the midst of a divorce, and believed that my failure in what was supposed to be the most important thing in my life was a complete personal disaster and the end of a life I/we had planned. That overwhelmed me. It would have been so easy to simply drive into a bridge abutment. For some people, those feelings never go away, they just can’t see past now . . .

I know I’m oversimplifying it all, (and not deeply addressing the many causes of suicide), but sometimes we just can’t see what’s going on with other people . . . A kid feeling trapped at home by his parents . . . or a young girl struggling with her self-image and being bullied because she’s a bit “different” from some other kids . . .The texts and postings never stop, whether she’s at home or out or in school, relentlessly driving her to the point where she feels there’s no escape . . . An older person depressed that their health is failing . . . A young girl struggling with an eating disorder wrestles with her body image, slips into depression and kills herself. While the light has better illuminated disorders like bulimia, now better addressing the underlying issues than a decade ago, we need to continue to look for the root causes of disorders like bulimia.

Some people with attention deficit disorders kill themselves in what experts call "impulsive" suicides . . . an apparent spur of the moment decision, adding to the difficulties in prevention.

I find myself troubled when I don’t have a neat conclusion as to why someone takes his or her own life . . . Why did a former co-worker of mine step off a train platform in front of a speeding train? Or why did a relative I remember as a great little kid take his Dad’s gun, go into the bathroom and blow his brains out when he was a teenager?

We’ve come a long way towards better understand some issues, depression among them, and yet we are still shocked when this happens simply because we didn’t see our friends or family members as being depressed. Years ago nobody talked about the burden many vets face when they return home. Now we better understand post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and have started to make sure we are counseling and intervening with vets and others to help them see a way back to a more normal life.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristina-kaufmann/collateral-damage_b_8701522.html

It’s estimated that 30 to 35 percent of the 2.7 million soldiers who have served since 9/11 (2001) are dealing with some form of stress disorder, brain injury or drug abuse and the impact on not only them, but their families is devastating. Some experts think it's higher than that. (HuffPost)

What we do know is we don’t know enough . . . We need to pay attention, be there always for our children and friends. I know that people who kill themselves often don’t understand that they are surrounded by people who love them and would do anything to stop their plunge into suicide if only they had the chance.

Our world is filled with people who struggle . . . Soldiers, kids, the elderly, your neighbor . . . We need to make sure they know we are there if they need us. Sit and listen carefully. Some of us may have gotten depressed or down, but were able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Others just can’t. Little signs can be cause for concern and we need to better understand those. 

We need to dedicate more resources, locally and nationally, private and governmental, to helping those people and showing them that they are living a life well worth living.

We'd best wise up or we'll end up with an unqualified idiot in the White House

When did we get so dumb?

Why do we applaud when a political candidate ridicules a potential opponent for taking a bathroom break? Why do we cheer when a politician says he’d stop Muslims from entering the country? Why is it OK for politicians to rail against the persecution of one religious group and not the persecution of another? What good does it do to advocate the elimination of a health care system with no idea of how to replace it?

Oh . . . and on and on.

We’re dumb and lazy.

We cheer those things now that help soothe our fear, and often visceral hate for not only the current President, but also those who may be different than us. A black President, who has, despite proving to be a pretty moderate head of state, continues to draw the ire of Republicans on the right, often simply because of the color of his skin. No? Then please explain to me what policies, specifically, he favored that you oppose. Not in a rhetorical sense . . . but factually. In reality, and out of the political campaign disorder.

Many people aren’t happy with the Affordable Care Act, of course, in part because some saw their premiums go up and their coverage change. Yep, some premiums went up (as they always do with insurance), and some coverage changed. One of the biggest changes was that no longer could insurance companies drop a person because they get sick or prevent them from getting insurance because of pre-existing conditions. The ACA has enabled more than 8 million people to get insurance coverage, pulling most of them out of expensive emergency room visits. The program is far from perfect and should be nipped and tucked to broaden its base, trim costs and encourage not only more people to enter the system, but also encourage states and insurance companies to expand health care options and providers.

For those fundamentally opposed to any sort of national health care program, I’d remind them that Medicare is a single-payer program, and the one upon which most private insurance companies base their coverage. By taking down obstructionist regulations (like preventing coverage from one state to another or trying to limit expansion of the health care exchanges), the health care system will evolve into one that will offer better overall coverage to more people. We have had the most expensive health care system in the world but fall way down the list in overall care, (37th) well behind countries like Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and others, according to the World Health Organization.

It would be a mistake to tear apart a system without offering something better, and we need to look around the world and see what works elsewhere, not just assume we do everything better than everyone else . . . since that’s obviously not the case.

So let the facts speak . . .

We love politicians who say we have become weak, or an embarrassment around the world. That’s rhetoric. Tell me how. Then tell me what you’d do to make it better.

Specifically, not some “Well, we’d get the best managers in the world. I know how to get things done.” That’s not a policy or position. That’s fluff, designed to appeal to our dumbness. Offering no information or insight, just words meant to soothe us.

Moderation is hard to find amongst the GOP candidates this year . . . Banning Muslims (while apparently ignoring the Muslims serving in our military or other Muslim citizens), claims that Islam is not protected under the First Amendment, promises to ignore Supreme Court rulings that he (Huckabee) feels aren’t in keeping with God’s laws, carpet bombing Syrian cities to destroy ISIS, anti-science positions that include spreading anti-vaccine myths, opposing abortion without any exceptions, or returning to a gold standard that would be impossible in today’s worldwide financial markets, offer tax plans that give breaks to the wealthy and corporations but offer little consideration to the middle class, oppose equal pay for women or raising the minimum wage, and seem to have nothing to say about the nation’s growing economic inequalities.

So they make up fights where there really are no fights. Scream anti-government rants without any factual backing, and focus on addressing emotional or perceived problems rather than real ones.

But we’re dumb, so we don’t bother to scrape away at the claims and look a bit deeper. Politicians, particularly Donald Trump, has tapped into angry white America. While so-called conservatives don’t like any budget compromises, they ignore the past when Republicans controlled all three branches of government and raised the budget, deficit and overall national debt.

But now it’s blame, blame, blame.

Who will be blame when Obama’s out of office? Hillary if she wins? Sure, even though she’s a pretty mainstream politician, offering standard lines on Democratic issues and little in the way of off-the-path ideas. Bernie certainly has been consistent over the years, but will his “free college,” or tax plans draw much fire from opponents? Bernie the non-establishment candidate in a Democratic Party filled with establishment candidates, and Trump is a non-establishment candidate in a Republican Party filled with a cluster of non-establishment candidate who this far have been carving up the establishment.

In August, we wrote . . .

“Don’t shake your head, Trump is headed to the White House.”

“Fear of The Donald is tempering news coverage, and he's driving the Republican campaign bus.

 So we have Donald Trump, in part the result of a weak party struggling to find its voice, despite being dealt favorable hand after favorable hand. He rises out of a huge field that was said to be broad and strong. Trump, the polished chrome hotel guy, stands head and shoulders above the pack. He is outdistancing the herd by tons. He’s killing his rivals, whether you think he’s a serious candidate or not . . . he’s headed for primary win after primary win, according to the current polls.”

So we’ve stayed pretty dumb, soaking up the stupid rhetoric and ignoring issues that are important to all of us, like health care, jobs, the economy, taxes and a changing military.

I hope we can get back on track. Trump may be leading the Republican polling, but we’ll see how he does when the caucuses and primaries start. Will we stay dumb through the whole process, or will we start to demand more from our candidates . . . more of what makes a leader worthy of leading America? Right now we’re embracing candidates who are neither worthy of representing their once great party nor of leading this great nation. 

An open letter to my shameful NH House of Representatives

This post is a little different . . . But unfortunately it's my reaction to a political back and forth here in New Hampshire that got too personal, which seems to happen way too often in today's political arenas. We elect these people to represent us, not stand up and talk about a female colleague's breasts.

The link to one of the articles, one of my Facebook comments, and my letter to the Speaker of the New Hampshire State House of Representative follows. I haven't written a snail-mail letter to a public official in some time, but this kind of behavior by our public officials (not just in my state but across the country), has reached a new low . . . or several new lows. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-hampshire-house-nipples-breastfeeding_568437bce4b0b958f65b19d6

On Facebook, I commented in this earlier . . . It's clear we need umpires in politics today who will put idiots like this in a penalty box when then say incredibly stupid things like . . . 'No disrespect but your nipple would be the last one I would want to see' to a NH female state representative colleague . . . or . . . 'If it's a woman's natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that,' NH State Rep. Josh Moore wrote, 'than you should have no problem with a mans inclantion [sic] to stare at it and grab it. After all... It's ALL relative and natural, right?'

Where the hell do these idiots come from? Do they not have wives, female friends and daughters? They should be publicly humiliated by having to stand in a public square and repeat . . . "Women are people, too, and they deserve to be respected." for 3 days . . . My mind is exploding thinking about how someone who claims to represent the people in this state could say something so ignorant.”

January 1, 2016

Speaker Shawn N. Jasper

New Hampshire State House of Representatives

107 North Main Street, Concord, NH 03301

Dear Mr. Jasper

I am appalled, embarrassed and angry at the recent comments made by Rep. Josh Moore and Rep. Al Baldasaro regarding women and would strongly recommend they be reprimanded and sanctioned by the House.

Their comments regarding Rep. Amanda Bouldin were sexist, abusive, ignorant and completely out of place in the public forum that at least presumes to represent the people of New Hampshire. There is no excuse for such comments and no excuse for their ignorance and Neanderthal-like attitude towards not only Rep. Bouldin, but all women.

The fact that they feel they said nothing wrong, is further evidence of their ignorance.

As the father of two adult daughters, how can I tell them we live in a world where they are treated as equals to any man when two of my State Representatives obviously don’t agree with that? How can I tell my grandsons that it isn’t OK for them to bully and speak badly to girls when my State Representatives do that? How can I encourage young people to be fair and open minded when my State Representatives aren’t? When my State Representative bring shame upon the entire political process by standing up in public and shouting down a colleague simply because she is female, how do you expect your constituents to respect you and what you do?

It’s no wonder politicians are viewed as immoral hacks focused more on their own narrow political interests than those of all the people they represent.

I encourage all members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives (and Senate) to take a step into the modern world and eliminate this kind of misogynistic attitude among our elected officials. These two men should be reprimanded, sanctioned and publicly apologize for their words.

It’s well past time when this type of behavior is acceptable.

I hope my State Representatives can move into 2016 with a better attitude and a less childish stance on issues that should be important to us all.

We’ll be watching.

Steve Brophy