Revolving Door

            Ever wonder why the candidate who has raised the most money, has the biggest war chest, is considered to be a front runner for being elected? Despite SCOTUS Citizens United ruling that money speaks, it still remains that money doesn’t do the voting. Or does it? “The Licking County Commissioners approved on Thursday an Alternate Energy Zone for a 512-acre Harrison Township site proposed for a 108-megawatt solar field.” (Licking County Commissioners OK Alternate Energy Zone for solar field; more on horizon Kent Mallett, Newark Advocate 4-25-21). No end to where the public revenue of this project will be distributed in this reporting. Similar articles outlining new corporate investment surrounding Newark usually travel down the road of tax credits, abatements, etc. with no promises of who will get what (“some risk involved”). Why not this one? Could it be that taking credit for “real” market forces at work (Amazon, Google and others need the electricity) rather than the contrived “subsidized” pie-in-the-sky creations is being usurped by GOP county commissioners who otherwise treat climate change/global warming as a preferred whipping boy? But Analysis digresses. Of course we are all familiar with the “revolving door” complaint when it comes to national administration, also state as well as local. How often is it the case that someone appointed to lead a regulatory body, or department has previously been salaried as part of what that body or department manages or administrates (what George W. Bush referred to as its “customers”)? And then, with a new administration (or just time passing), the same gov’t administrators go to work in the private sector for those they previously regulated. But what about elected officials, representatives of the people? Recent news was that central Ohio US Representative Steve Stivers has opted out of running for re-election, as well as seeking a senate run to replace Rob Portman. Stivers has agreed to a leadership role with the state’s Chamber of Commerce that salaries him at twice what he is making now. Just reward for services rendered? We’ve seen this movie before. Several years ago US Rep Pat Tiberi opted not to run and assumed a leadership position with the Ohio Business Roundtable. The similarities are uncanny. Both white men had accumulated vast war chests for whatever position they would run for. Both opted to “double down” on their earnings rather than continue to “represent” the fine people of their district. Both no longer “fight” for their constituents’ values. Why should they? After all, they’ve made it to the top of the public service leadership ladder where they can now be more “quietly effective.” The unmentionable underwear in all this is, of course, where did all the accumulated war chest donations come from? Hint: the very lobbying groups who lured them away to higher salaried positions represent these folks; you know, the people who contrive all the tax credits, abatements, etc. for the sake of “job creation.” Analysis will let Cardi B, who btw nailed it, have the last word: “this is why people gotta vote, elect better people cause you got these dumb asses representing states.”

Pat Tiberi – We Hardly Knew Ya

Less than two weeks after his recent email contact with his constituents Ohio’s 12^th Congressional District’s representative opted to go the way of John Boehner (another Ohio Congressional representative and former Speaker of the House). The Advocate (Pat Tiberi to resign from Congress for Ohio Business Roundtable post Deirdre Shesgreen and Jessie Balmert, 10-19-17) reports: “Rep. Pat Tiberi said Thursday he will give up his House seat and take a job as president of the Ohio Business Roundtable — a surprise decision for the 16-year congressional veteran.” The last mass emailing (10-7-17) was entitled Why I’m Fighting For Tax Reform. Notable: “Right now, my colleagues and I on the House Ways and Means Committee are hard at work translating this framework into legislation—and we are working through this robust process with you in mind. This isn’t about the 1 percent. It is about the middle-class families who sit down at their kitchen table every night and try to figure out how to stretch that last dollar. It is about the entrepreneurs who are looking to open their doors and invest in their employees and communities with new jobs and higher wages. It is about the kids who hope to save enough from their first high school job so they can go to college. And, it is about people like my parents who are looking for a fair shot at the American Dream. Everyone deserves the certainty and confidence they need to get ahead. That is what we can achieve with pro-growth tax reform.” Analysis finds this to be pretty sincere. Indeed, it was followed by “Sincerely yours…” Analysis says we could use some context here. Let’s look at the numbers. Tiberi has over 6 million dollars banked on his re election campaign (which unfortunately he cannot personally utilize). In 2016 his opponent received only approx. 35% of the vote. Analysis finds this indicates real job security. But wait, there’s more! As a US Representative he earned about $175K plus perks and bennies. The retiring head of the Ohio Business Roundtable had a salary (before benefits and perks) of approx. $650K. The new head (Congressman Pat) is projected to make more like $800+K. Unlike the gold in his re election treasure chest, Tiberi will be free to access any of this. “This isn’t about the 1 percent.” But now both he and it are. Prior to that (9-1-17) Pat sent out another mass mailing entitled Tax Reform. Notable: “I spent the August work period in the 12th District listening to and talking with Ohio families, workers and job creators about what reform will mean for them. As we work to put pen to paper, I will be keeping their priorities in mind so that we achieve reforms that help people like you save more of your hard earned dollars.” This was accompanied by various social media and other links chronicling this. Pat preferred scripted pre screened and scheduled office receptions, social media, and telephone conference town hall meetings to actual, impromptu ad lib “listening and talking”. The August 19, 2017 mailing entitled Tomorrow On In Focus highlighted “Tomorrow, I’ll be on “In Focus with Mike Kallmeyer” on the Spectrum Networks to discuss drug trafficking and my bill, the STOP Act, which will close a dangerous loophole in the U.S. postal system that drug dealers are utilizing to ship deadly drugs like fentanyl into our communities.  The STOP Act has the potential to save lives, keep our police officers safe, reduce the strain on emergency responders, and prevent overdoses. Tune in on Sunday and watch a preview on my Facebook page to learn more about how and why I’m fighting for this bill to become law.” Analysis found Tiberi’s 8-31-17 guest appearance at Newark’s Fed Up rally to be in keeping with “Tune in on Sunday and watch a preview on my Facebook page to learn more about how and why I’m fighting for this bill to become law.” Analysis finds it a stretch that in his Fed Up presentation, Tiberi wasn’t already cognizant he would announce departure in less than two months. In July (7-19-17) it was A Simpler Way To File Your Taxes which ended with an inter active link “>>Complete this survey & share your thoughts<<”. Analysis suspects this displaced virtual presence may permit one to sincerely say, “with you in mind,” Pat Tiberi – we hardly knew ya!

What We Have Learned

The sports news usually runs a headline like “What we have learned after week two of the NFL (or NBA, etc.).” Analysis finds news of the last few weeks to be fast and furious, and all over the map. Indeed, much news focuses on one “event” while ongoing events simply are elided. So what have we learned in the last couple of weeks of news? One thing for sure is that Americans have learned that news coverage is a professional activity. No, not the high esteem for journalistic excellence that used to sell print productions, but at least that hurricanes and what they leave behind are not “fake news.” This implies that those reporting it are not a fake news service. All of which enabled not only Rand Paul but the AP to run a headline story like “Trump hits GOP foes of health bill, Sen. Paul calls it fake” (9-22-17). We have learned that Newark’s Jay Hottinger will speak at a FED UP! rally while sponsoring stand your ground legislation and House Representative Pat Tiberi will speak at the same rally while legislating to get rid of Medicaid (where’s the fake in all this?).  We have learned that even though (factually) over 40% of residential housing in Newark is non-owner occupant, the city council of Newark would prefer that those persons owning “real” property do the governing, whether they reside in Newark or are even flesh and blood people with a birthday (Special tax coming for downtown Newark after Newark City Council approval, The Advocate, Maria DeVito, 9-21-17). We’ve learned that local, state or national, we prefer our administrators to be wealthy.  We’ve learned that if the administration’s cabinet is made up of billionaire’s appointed on the sole qualification of being determined to undermine that office, well, it actually happens (be it with Devos, Sessions, Price, Perry, etc.). A curious thing we’ve been learning but continue to deny is the importance of branding. Anything of Obama origin is quickly dismissed, replaced by the self-same policy or directive only now with the apprentice president’s specific logo on it (like the apprentice president’s Houston visit ball caps). DACA, Korea, Syria, health care all roll on with the self same administration, only a different brand name. We’ve learned categorically that this is because there is no “plan”. There is no plan for DACA (limbo was never imagined as a “plan”), there is no plan for the Syrian imbroglio (still the same US involvement as before the change of administration), no plan to confront, contain or reduce rising healthcare costs (let alone create greater inclusion), no plan to deal with the Korean peninsula (unless one defines playground name calling as a strategy). And now, on a near nightly basis we are learning about pop culture’s definitive version of the Viet Nam War (The Vietnam War: A film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick – PBS). What we haven’t learned, yet, is that there is no definitive version of history – something the recent brouhaha over confederate monuments reinforces (that they were manufactured and installed for historically different reasons at historically different times). Much of what is now revelatory in Novick’s and Burns’s flick, was contemporary news at the time it happened. Then it wasn’t labeled “fake”, but rather dismissed as irrelevant or outright denied. What we have learned is that current climate change denial, racism in America denial, income gap disparity denial, health care denial, all parallel the historic denials of the Ike through tricky Dick era that the Burns Novick film covers. After all, isn’t that what we have learned?

What Do You Think About Filing Your Taxes On A Postcard?

Ohio’s 12^th congressional district is shaped like a bass ackward Nike swoosh logo. It includes all of Licking county, though relies heavily on the overwhelmingly north of Columbus conservative counties like Delaware and Marion (just to keep the swoosh from tipping over). It’s forever your representative is career politician, Republican Pat Tiberi. His upcoming re-election war chest totals 6.3 million dollars. Given the recent special election for house representative in Georgia, this might be considered prudent by many. After all, it is all about winning, isn’t it? Mr. Tiberi has been known to reach out to his constituents in his own quite unique and inimitable style. Opting out of his regular telephone conference call “town halls’, he recently chose instead the rather more intimate online survey. The survey (“A Simpler Way to File Your Taxes”) is meant to address the “problem” of current tax filing with all its silly deductions and calculations of income. The solution? “A simpler code that lowers rates for all income levels and eliminates the maze of special interest tax breaks will mean a simpler way to file—like with the postcard example below.” Pictured is a sample post card. On the first line is “wage and compensation income.” Line two is “add ½ of investment income.” Etc. Those surveyed are asked what they think of such an obvious simple solution to an otherwise “taxing” problem. Of course, the voluminous tax code, located elsewhere, will list the definitions of terms like “wage,” “compensation,” and “investment income.” Given that most of the members of our apprentice president’s family and cabinet are multi-millionaires, if not billionaires, their taxable “earnings” would be based on a pittance of what their yearly income is. Not only that, some have offered to receive only a dollar a year in “wages and compensation” for their service to their country. Also, all those individuals, and sole proprietor businesses that have opted for “articles of incorporation” so that their income can be listed as return on investment would show little to no compensation from their work as head of the company/household. It is glaringly obvious that, right out of the box, congressman Tiberi’s “Simple, Fair “Postcard” Tax Filing” gives a 50% tax break to the wealthy while requiring wage and salaried workers to pay full fare. No half off for the vast majority making America great through their daily and hourly labor.

Why Donald Trump Needs People To Be Poor

In his inimitable, deeply personal manner Newark’s US Representative, Pat Tiberi, emailed his constituents a survey. “What are your priorities to create jobs? Your priorities are my priorities. Your thoughts are important to me.” followed by the GOP house menu. The survey presents the appearance of propriety as the party is now the government, no need to bother. The party itself is now evolving with the “old” guard (McCain, Kasich, etc.) and the new populist/nationalists, again, presenting the appearance of being irreconcilable. Trump came in forming a weird coalition of uber wealth (his cabinet is the richest ever) and those who appear to have not so much (really?). Those who appear to have not so much either find their modicum of success to be a plateau or are without success altogether. Each triumphs the Trump presidency for a different reason. All the statistics from the “Occupy” days haven’t disappeared and the ubers’ wealth is superfluous, i.e. it is not generating more wealth. The not so’s find their overcapacity to work is, in an odd way, superfluous, i.e. that there either is not better compensation for their work, or the expenditure of greater work effort will not greatly improve their economic position. Recent developments in the automotive sector may help shed some light on this. The last couple of years have shown continuous and steady sales of various automotive products. In spite of this, Ford sacked its CEO and is restructuring for change. GM is pondering splitting its stock like airline seating – first class and coach. According to classic capitalist theory, nothing is awry. An investor purchases a scrap of paper and yearly the company selling the paper pays out a dividend. Where’s the hitch? What is destabilizing the auto companies is that the value of the piece of paper hasn’t gone up. In short, the superfluous wealth tied up with this “investment” is not promising a large enough return. Put crassly, the money needs to make more money. In today’s global economics, the auto industry is akin to the stationary industry of 50 years ago. Making an envelope is not all that complicated. Though there once was a steady demand for paper envelopes, nothing would make the producer’s stock price rise dramatically, as the competition was equally adept at producing envelopes. Imagining Ford and GM to be making envelopes brings us back to the weird coalition that supports Donald Trump. The ubers demand a greater return on their wealth. The not so’s would like a greater return on their participation in this enterprise. Unlike colonial imperialist times, no new market or supplier will magically manifest itself in today’s global economics. Everyone, everywhere has access to a mobile device which will tell them what something on Ebay can be gotten for. So the classic “buy cheap, sell dear” model is well worn. Other approaches are available that will make America great again and cause stock value to rise (saving jobs but not necessarily creating them). Early on in their schooling children are taught the Disneyland version – discover something everyone wants and you’ll be a star. This is John Kasich’s methodology in dealing with the drug epidemic in Ohio through research funding. Another approach is by making what is public private, and vice versa. The health care debate swirls around this interpretation, and now the Trump presidency is calling for it with appeals to make America’s infrastructure great (and private)  again. But the tried and true (historical) approach to increasing the value of what you already have is to make sure others ain’t got it. Exclusivity is priceless. This technique increases the value of superfluous wealth without the risk of needing to expend it, creating something new, or tying it up in mundane, long term low yielding envelope company stock. The likewise tried and true method of making people poor (making sure other’s ain’t got it) is through creating an other, someone who is predetermined to be without. The without can be anything from job skill capacity, place of residence, genetic background, right language or learning, etc. This is the glue that bonds the coalition of uber wealth and those who appear to have not so much. Each are looking to enhance the value of what they have, at the expense of some other. Neither are very happy with what envelope sales generate. Analysis concludes by reminding the reader that “creating an other, someone who is predetermined to be without” is the classic definition and function of racism.

Tiberi’s Teleconference Town Hall

Place or space, this is a topic of discussion for many academics and those inclined to the abstract. That discussion itself forms a space (where the topic is discussed). You remember “Space, the final frontier”, in Star Trek, where each week a different topic was broached? And who could forget “MySpace”? The ancient Scandinavians, as well as other northern Europeans, had what they called a “Ding” (thing). The “Ding” was a gathering place where people all came together to decide what is of concern to the group, needed to be named and treated as such, and what is not (in today’s language, what is an issue and what is not, and what to call it – “Leak”, “Alternative Facts”, Trumpcare”, etc.). An etymological vestige of this can be found with a word like “fireplace.” Think giant rock concert without a band or stage (among the rocks!). The naming and deciding were determined at a place, though the gathering as well as the place was referred to as a “Ding”. Independence Hall is a place where representatives of various American colonialists came together and formed a “Ding” that determined what mattered and what didn’t, and what to call it (since this was pre memory chip, they even put down some of what they named in writing, the better to remember the thing). So is a town hall a place? Is a town hall meeting a “Ding”? Ohio’s 12^th congressional district representative obviously doesn’t think so. He equates town hall with robo calls by the NRA, boiler room “charitable” solicitations by Bears In The Air, and all the other myriad of menu driven, voice interactive phone and internet connected device conversations (real or imagined). Even the health care providers have gotten in on it, calling their policy holders to remind them they haven’t been getting sick enough! Analysis can almost imagine a late night stand up doing a monologue of Representative Tiberi reclining in his Lazy Boy, eating wings and quaffing a cold one, barefoot in his Crocs while wearing a bath robe (with a monogrammed T just like the president’s), watching old Chuck Norris movies with the sound turned down while conducting one of his teleconference town halls and reaching for a napkin to wipe the zesty ranch dribble; multi tasking at its finest! And why not? After all, communication devices provide a space for folks to comment or vent, located no place. Pre-screening is de rigueur for max constituent convenience and legislative efficiency, all of which can be easily programmed! Analysis likens Representative Tiberi to a long haul truck driver who is constantly on the phone with his wife and kids to stay in touch whenever he can. Ask him and he will tell you that this insures a wonderful relation with his family (as long as he stays on the road away from home). But he loves and cares and provides for the wife and kids! It’s just better for everyone that he not find himself in that place called “home.”

 

Babe

This week Analysis witnessed a scene straight out of the movie Babe. US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, surrounded by his party flock of senate cronies, bleated out to his party’s presidential candidate “No biting. No more biting!” A more telling sign of the times was US Speaker of the House (and ditto party member) Paul Ryan’s passionate disavowal of the very same party presidential candidate’s doubled down public statements. Analysis couldn’t help but note that even after the righteously indignant disavowal, Paul Ryan went on to say he still endorses his party’s candidate and will vote for him. His presidency is in the best interest of the Republican agenda and priorities. Does this bounty of disavowals (after endless apology) indicate a new Jim Crow era where the openly apparent perception of trauma is immediately disavowed and hushed-up without debate or conversation? Analysis finds this to be evidence of a culture of silence meant to enforce party discipline of closing ranks in order to maintain a fabricated history of events necessary for an ideological agenda and aspirations. On a local level Analysis has already witnessed (and noted, posts Ted Cruz Joke 3-18-16 and Super Hero Welcome 4-3-16) this with County Commissioner Tim Bubb’s “I have no idea. For Pat Tiberi, it’s not just a Licking County question, it’s a United States question. I’m not going to be critical of Pat.” after being told to hush-up with regard to the diminishing funding of Licking County Job and Family Services. We are currently witnessing this disavowal of trauma with its culture of silence to ensure a discipline of membership inclusion and continuity. The growing public need coupled with the under funding of Job and Family Services is an open wound. It is disavowed as a dereliction of Licking County responsibility. The culture of silence is enforced by referring to it as a “problem of funding” in order to promote the ideological agenda and aspirations of “business first” in the form of tax breaks, credits and abatements. This maintains a fabricated history of scarcity and diminished public assistance programs not being affected by an economics of austerity. Such a constructed history links Job and Family Services’ response to public need with social entitlement and privilege while maintaining the discipline of silence over the actual entitlement and privilege programs of business tax breaks, credits, abatements and public/private “job creation” incentives. Jim Crow? “Know the feeling, Babe.”

Ring That Bell

On 4-24-16 CBS 60 Minutes ran an exposé entitled “Dialing For Dollars” with Norah O’Donnell. “The American public has a low opinion of Congress. Only 14 percent think it’s doing a good job. But Congress has excelled in one way. Raising money. Members of Congress raised more than a billion dollars for their 2014 election. And they never stop. Nearly every day, they spend hours on the phone asking supporters and even total strangers for campaign donations — hours spent away from the jobs they were elected to do. The pressure on candidates to raise money has ratcheted up since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010.” “By law, members of Congress cannot make fundraising calls from their offices. So both parties have set up “call centers” just a few blocks away. This is where the Republicans have theirs.” O’Donnell quotes Republican former Florida congressman and current GOP Senate primary candidate David Jolly: “It is a cult-like boiler room on Capitol Hill where sitting members of Congress, frankly I believe, are compromising the dignity of the office they hold by sitting in these sweatshop phone booths calling people asking them for money. And their only goal is to get $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 out of the person on the other end of the line.” How exactly does that work? Jolly: “We sat behind closed doors at one of the party headquarter back rooms in front of a white board where the equation was drawn out. You have six months until the election. Break that down to having to raise $2 million in the next six months. And your job, new member of Congress, is to raise $18,000 a day. Your first responsibility is to make sure you hit $18,000 a day.” Rick Nolan, Democrat Minnesota congressman, is quoted as saying: “Well, both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars.” New York Democrat congressman Steve Israel concurred: “I’d have to put in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, at most, two hours a day into fundraising. And that’s the way it went until 2010, when Citizens United was enacted. At that point, everything changed. And I had to increase that to two, three, sometimes four hours a day, depending on what was happening in the schedule.” Today, The Newark Advocate headlined that Licking County’s own congressional representative Pat “Tiberi eyes Senate bid in 2018” (Deirdre Shesgreen, Gannett Ohio, 2-27-16). “Earlier this month, the congressman’s campaign sent out a news release touting his fundraising prowess. The missive noted that Tiberi had more money in the bank than Ted Strickland, the former Ohio governor and Democrat running against Portman. Tiberi, who has a safe Republican congressional district, closed the first quarter of 2016 with nearly $4 million on hand, compared to Strickland’s $1.2 million.” Analysis finds this to be a sure sign of a hard worker. “Norah O’Donnell: You’re saying members of Congress are becoming like telemarketers? Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, 30 hours a week, that’s a lot of telemarketing. Probably more than most telemarketers do.” Pat Tiberi, hardest working telemarketer central Ohio has sent to Washington. Ring that bell!

Where’s The Crime In All This?

In 2015 Steve Smith, a Newark native, was arrested for receiving a package delivered by an imposter FedEx delivery driver (an undercover police officer). The package, which remained unopened, contained cocaine. On 2-11-16 Mr. Smith was convicted of possession and trafficking, and sentenced to 11 years in prison. There had been no undercover “buy” or exchange, no gunplay or violence. 3-28-16 DEA.gov reports “Ohio Men Plead Guilty to Selling “Blue Drop” Heroin Mixed with Fentanyl that Resulted in Death”. One of the active and admitted Marion Ohio dealers faces 16 years in prison for one count of drug trafficking that resulted in death, the other 9 (less than Mr. Smith). Recently Harpers Magazine reran a 22 year old archive of an interview by John Ehrlichman with writer Dan Baum during which the former Nixon policy chief admitted the War On Drugs was a fabricated contrivance intended to suppress the newly empowered black vote (“”You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.””). Analysis notes that the amount of time elapsed from when Civil Rights and Voting Rights were guaranteed and Ehrlichman’s tenure with President Nixon was about the same as what has elapsed since the financial meltdown at the end of the George W. Bush presidency and today. Just as “too big to fail” banks today are not only much larger, but subprime is back and greatly expanded to include car/boat/RV loans as well as credit line extensions. Within 10 years of Civil Rights passage, racism reaffirmed itself under a different form, the War On Drugs. Suppression of voting rights under the guise of criminal laws or economic regulations have only increased in the ensuing years. Convoluted voter ID requirements are implemented to cut down on the statistically negligibly occurring crime of voter fraud. Polling times and places have been realigned/consolidated in the name of fiscal austerity. Analysis recently witnessed Katrina-like images of voters lined up waiting for hours into the late night in the Arizona primary. Like Ohio, Arizona diminished polling times and places to save tax payer expense (please, don’t speak of early voting by mail, etc. since who was actually still running became apparent only days before the primary itself. Those who voted early by mail, etc. for candidates no longer running essentially threw away their vote, that is, didn’t vote at all). Deeply committed to such austere measures is Newark’s U.S. Congressional Representative Pat Tiberi who defends his vote against funding ongoing children’s services in a recent Advocate Editorial page guest column (3-27-16). Licking County Jobs and Family Services relies on this source to provide needed (and often court mandated) assistance for non-voting native residents – the children of Newark and Licking County. Tiberi states “Instead of funding a patchwork of untested programs, we have a responsibility now to ensure that hard working Americans’ tax dollars go toward programs that deliver results and change lives.” (Analysis notes Tiberi’s reliance on taxing American workers, and not various tax abated and credited corporations. A digression for another time). As Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb blurted out when informed of Tiberi’s legislating “It’s just a (federal) line item, a drop in the bucket, but we would all feel it very painfully, and the children would feel it.” (The Advocate, County lobbies feds to keep Children Services funding, Kent Mallett, 3-17-16) yet it does regulate, it does make law determining what is allowed and what is to be a crime. Newark’s own McGruff might feign agreement with the CDC that America is in the throes of an epidemic disease of narcotics use and addiction while speaking at the Newark Think Tank on Poverty’s February meeting. Newark Police Chief Barry Connell’s empathy certainly doesn’t prevent him from taking a bite out of crime — sicking his dog on a suspected drugged perpetrator (The Advocate, Police: Dog bite during traffic stop was OK, Bethany Bruner, 3-9-16). Ike, the dog, is only another weapon in the arsenal of the War On Drugs. In a guest column that appeared next to Tiberi’s in the 3-27-16 Advocate, David Greene describes one of the casualties in this war, Steve Smith. Greene decries the injustice perpetrated by the lack of due process but not the law itself. Is the criminal the one who transgressed the law? Or is it those who abuse democracy and their elected office by legislating restrictions and laws meant to suppress and disenfranchise? Where’s the crime in all this?

Ted Cruz Joke

What’s the difference between Ohio Governor John Kasich and Ted Cruz? U.S. Representative Pat Tiberi and Ted Cruz? Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb and Ted Cruz? Give up? Kent Mallett may be of some assistance on this one. The online Newark Advocate of 3-17-16 has him reporting “County lobbies feds to keep Children Services funding”. Ohio Governor John Kasich economized by shorting Licking County Jobs and Family Services and never including them in the state’s economic comeback he constantly crows about on the campaign trail. “During the recession, in 2008-09, the county lost about $200,000 in state funds, which could be used to match federal funds, Fisher [John Fisher, director Licking County Jobs and Family Services] said. None of those funds have ever been replaced by the state, he said, despite repeated requests.” Now the area’s U.S. Congressman is following the presidential wannabe’s lead by doing ditto. “Fisher told the commissioners the proposed bill before the House Ways and Means Committee would take away more than $400,000 the county agency uses each year to pay staff to investigate reports of abuse and neglect, mostly against children, but also against older residents. Fisher discovered later in the day that the committee had already voted to eliminate the funds, moving the bill onto the full House leadership, which will evaluate it. U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, a member of the committee, voted with the majority in a 20-16 vote.” Commissioner Tim Bubb, all in a tizzy over losing County revenue and perhaps being asked to fund some service that benefits county residents instead of economizing (cutting back as he did with county wide public transit), feigned leadership by rushing downstairs to voice his displeasure with the representative’s representative (“The commissioners suggested walking down to the building’s first floor, where a representative from Tiberi’s office had office hours.”). “Commissioner Tim Bubb told Stefanov [Joe Stefanov, representative Tiberi’s representative]: “In Licking County, Mr. Fisher has nowhere to go other than back to the county general fund. It’s just a (federal) line item, a drop in the bucket, but we would all feel it very painfully, and the children would feel it.”” In a separate article on the same day (Commissioners’ approval completes MPW abatement saga, 3-17-16) Mallett reports on the commissioner’s emulation of the governor’s continuous economizing. He is quoted as saying how happy everyone should be, especially the children of Lakewood Schools, to take a funding cut in order to boost the bottom line of a private corporation doing business in Ohio (“”They’ve all gotten to know each other better,” Bubb said. “Even though it was a little awkward, the way it played out, the end result is the right thing happened and the relationships have improved greatly.” MPW leaders toured the schools and school officials visited the industrial cleaning and water purification company just south of U.S. 40 and west of Hebron. “They’ll probably be a better community for it, with possibly MPW doing more with Lakewood,” Bubb said. “It’s all good, I think.””). Ted Cruz’s position is that government’s role is to get out of the way of churches and private enterprise so that they can do what they do best, provide service and make money; at most be included as part of a public private partnership (with the emphasis on “private”). Are Lakewood schools to look forward and rely on charitable contributions dangled down on strings when MPW is pleased and sees fit to do so? Will Licking County Children’s Services be replaced by evangelical outreach, charity in the name of the Lord? What is the difference between Cruz and Kasich, Tiberi and Bubb? We turn to Mallett again. As he reported the previous day (Port Authority plans $31 million in capital projects, 3-16-16), the public private partnership of the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority has decided to demolish the building housing the Heath City Rec Center, another service offered to Licking County’s residents and children hitting the chopping block. “”We’re not dying to tear it down, but we need to be prudent,” Platt [Port Authority President and CEO Rick Platt] said. “We’re not in the rec center business, as a port authority. You either plan to invest or remove the building. We’re not going to make any investment in the rec center. It’s not producing revenue. Without some outside source, we need to prepare for it not being usable anymore.”” The joke is the children of Licking County need to “take a shower and get a job” (former presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich) and begin “producing revenue” instead of playing. The funny thing is this joke has no end, and no punch line.