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Showing posts from January, 2019

Legislative Targets for 2019

OK... are you listening Congress? Here's what we need to do: 1. Let's stop calling indigenous people "Native Americans" and start calling them "Americans". The rest of us will be called "Immigrant Americans". 2. Let's pass a constitutional amendment that no branch of the government can purposely "shut down the government" just to get their way. 3. Let's establish consequences for elected officials lying to the public -- I think public flogging would be appropriate, followed, perhaps, by tar and feathering. 4. Let's pass a law that once and for all requires congressional districts to be drawn without regard to political advantage to one party or another. We should call this "The Respect for Votes Act". 5. We need public financing of national campaigns or, at very least, full disclosure of  contributions... and, also, the repeal of "Citizens United". 6. We need new Voting Rights Legislation to repair ...

Compartments - Music and Politics

I'm pretty sure that anyone who knows me personally has little doubt where I stand in the political queue... somewhere between the box office and the parking lot. If you stand on the north side of the line and face Mexico, then I'm not far from my car, as long as the box office is on the Pacific Ocean. Just testing your analytic geometry skills. However, if you know me only from my musical performance, then my philosophy is, hopefully, nebulous at worst, opaque at best. This is no accident. It's not for lack commitment. I started my political involvement by handing out campaign literature for Bobby Kennedy, poll watching for Eugene McCarthy, continuing through manning the phone bank for Obama. In between, many letters and phone calls to senators and representatives on both the state and federal level. I haven't done marching and demonstrating -- I'm just not a joiner. When I'm on stage, I have one aim -- to entertain. Which is not to say that I compromise ...