It has been another exciting week along this the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66. One historic date that passed nearly unnoticed was the 228th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution which was Thursday, September 17th. I realize I refer to the Constitution often as so many topics I write about somehow relate to…
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Honoring the generators of all wealth
History tends to be cyclical. It is true that the more things change the more they stay the same. Of the issues which confronted the nation’s working people one hundred years ago, many still are relevant despite the many times the World has turned over since. One hundred years ago the fight for the rights…
Continue ReadingThe legacy of absolute victory
It was on this day seventy years ago aboard the Seventh Fleet flag ship USS Missouri (BB-63) at anchor in Tokyo Bay that the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific Theater, General Douglas MacArthur, directed the diplomatic representatives of the Empire of Japan to sign the official instrument of surrender. This event marked the…
Continue Reading$15 an hour toward income equality
For all the bluster and over-the-top campaign rhetoric choking the cable news and radio talk shows this past week, one national organization took a huge step to seriously offer a means to rectify the national crisis of income inequality. Yes, the Democratic Party passed an amendment to its platform calling for a $15 an hour…
Continue ReadingThe everlasting specter of Fat Man
Seventy years ago on this day the second of two atomic bombs was dropped on Japan, this one on the city of Nagasaki. The sad irony of targeting Nagasaki was that it contained the highest population of Christians per capita in all of Asia outside of the Philippines. In all fairness to Major Sweeney, the pilot of…
Continue ReadingWelcome registered Independents!
An election is a numbers game. That was the issue on which debate was postponed on May 30th when time expired on the Oklahoma Democratic Party Convention. The ODP reconvened its convention yesterday, July 25th at the Oklahoma City Community College Student Union. Yours truly was an official delegate from Tulsa County. It was a beautiful Saturday to…
Continue ReadingThe Theocratic Republic of Oklahoma?!?
Fallout has been raining down from the June 30th Oklahoma Supreme Court decision banning the Ten Commandments monument from the grounds of the State Capitol building in Oklahoma City. It seems Governor Mary Fallin and a few members of the state legislature aligned with her are not happy about not getting their way. The Governor insisted…
Continue ReadingA massive political tectonic plate shift
It has been a rough couple of weeks to be a conservative Republican in America. As I sit here writing this my thoughts drift back to what happened in Gettysburg, PA 152 years ago this very afternoon. Members of the GOP, especially the Evangelical wing of the party, must feel like Confederate survivors of Pickett’s Charge. As one rebel…
Continue ReadingFarewell to toxic symbolism
It has been a very historic week in America in terms of commemorating notable events, landmark decisions handed down by the highest court in the land and executive orders issued by some southern state governors to remove archaic incendiary emblems from their purview. I myself could feel the tectonic shift of public opinion when the Supreme Court…
Continue ReadingA gutted budget, lofty platitudes and good stuff, too!
Will Rogers once waxed philosophical on the subject of the Congressional budget: “The budget is like a mythical bean bag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, then reaches in and tries to pull real ones out.” Oh Will, you have no idea how creative the legislature of your beloved home state has become in paying its bills. Earlier…
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