Don't Blame Us, We Just Live Here

Last night, there was a candidate's forum at Johns Island Library.  The two incumbents, Tim Scott and Mark Sanford, refused the invitation to appear.  That left candidate for US Senate, Thomas Dixon, and candidate for House of Representatives, Dimitry Cherny.

Republican incumbents have a lot of power in this state.  We may be hearing a lot of trash talk about Hillary not meeting the press, but here in SC, republicans in office won't do anything that will shake up their cushy offices.  Take questions from the people?  Debate their opponents?  Actually allow us to hold them accountable, like for the worst Congress ever?

And they get a lot of help in staying in the shadows.

SCETV has refused to hold debates this season, claiming that the seats are not hotly enough contested.  Gee, that's an odd spin on democracy, isn't it?  Don't give the opposing party coverage and then claim it was because not enough people were interested.  Well, the "compromise" SCETV reached after receiving petitions with nearly 1,000 signatures, was that the Democrats could choose to appear on the weekly Palmetto Scene.  Some concession, right?

So folks like Sanford and Scott can go on making public appearances in the name of their offices, on the public dime, and with as much media coverage as they like.  Good luck getting any of the local TV stations to mention upcoming events, or past events, that involve a Democratic challenger.

What's to do?  For one, the SC Democratic Party, should not be acting like what it got for its candidates is a compromise.  It is merely a bone tossed to 1,000 hungry dogs.

Jim Clyburn is running for re-election.  We all know Jim Clyburn.  He has indeed in his long tenure done great things for the state and the nation.  But he has become fairly complacent.  It is unlikely that he will return an email, but his staff has become my de facto pen pal, sending me annoying emails that begin by addressing me by my first name, as though we are indeed buddies.  If they don't outright begin by asking for money, they ask stupid questions like:  "Hillary or Trump?" as a ruse for then asking for money.

We need Clyburn to get the hell out here and start stumping for our candidates.  We need his staff to alert the news media that he will be here with insert terrific candidate's name here.  He may like being a honcho in the House, but we need for him to have some good Democrats in there with him.

And the sad thing is that this year is about as close as we are going to get.  People are fed up by an obstructive Congress, but they don't know why.  They don't know that Tim Scott talks about how he is going to help us all and then votes against a living wage, extending unemployment, raising social security, making health care accessible.  Mark Sanford is the weasel who never actually takes a stand that isn't convoluted (He doesn't like the outrageous things Donald Trump has said, but he will vote for him if he shows his tax return.).  He shows up for public meetings and pretends that he supports whatever will be good for the community, and then goes back to Washington and votes for lowering taxes and cutting needed government services.

I talk about Thomas Dixon and Dimitri Cherny because I know them both.  They have put their hearts and souls into this campaign, into letting people know who they are and what they stand for.  They have done this in spite of a pathetic lack of media interest, lukewarm commitment from the state party, and absolutely no help from the most powerful South Carolina Democrat in Congress.

So when I get those dumb emails from Clyburn's staff, that sound like they want to know my opinion about something absolutely self-evident, I have begun leaving comments about what is relevant to me.  Yesterday I answered "yes" to Hillary over Trump, and then added under comments, "Jim Clyburn will win re-election.  He needs to come to SC and campaign for the other good candidates who are trying to be heard (insert your favorite candidate's name here)."

Or go ahead and call his office, or write, or start a petition.

I have also left a post on the SCETV Facebook page, which is tricky and a bit less satisfying than you might think.  First of all, it isn't easy to find the right SCETV page, so make sure you go to "South Carolina ETV."  When you leave a post it will go on the right hand side of the page.  I don't know if this means nobody at SCETV will bother reading it, but I did note that the comment just before mine was also expressing disappointment that SCETV was not providing the stage for debates.  Anyway, I also went to "message" and copied the same post onto it.  I believe somebody there does read those.

So please go to Facebook and post and message to South Carolina ETV.

And then there is the institution of the library.  Once was a time when Charleston County Public Library did an excellent job of providing not just every book written by quacks like Glen Beck, but also those written by more moderate and progressive authors.  We once had a world-class non-fiction collection.  These days, though, after more than a decade of cutbacks and more cutbacks,  bad decisions are being made about ordering, too few important books, too few copies if any.  And this has been extremely evident through this presidential election.

Donald Trump has "written" over a dozen books, and CCPL appears to carry nearly all of them.  They also purchased a bunch of anti-Hillary garbage, with titles like "Crisis of Character," "Clinton Cash," and "Unlikeable."  But as well-reviewed books about Donald Trump come out, despite requests for purchase, those books have not yet been ordered.  Granted, in these parts there will be more people craving lies about Hillary than the truth about Trump.  But even so, as with SCETV, to refuse to make available important information about a candidate this year is truly an abuse of power.

Here are the Trump books:

Gilded Rage by Alexander Zaitchick
Trump Revealed by Marc Fisher & Michael Kranish

(To be fair, they did get in The Making of Donald Trump by the amazing David Cay Johnston.)

I know we are all busy.  We may not have time to read all these books.  But there are people out there who will read them if they are there.  So please help by calling your library and asking them to purchase those two books.  I made a purchase request on 8/31, and the election is speeding towards us.  Help me get these books to the people of Charleston.

Information.  That's what it is all about.  You can't blame us for stupid voting if we don't have it.

Trashing Hillary

It worked with John Kerry.  Remember him, the decorated Vietnam War veteran who was trashed in '04 by the creepily named "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?"  They ran ads and had a best selling book:

They even dusted it off and ran with it again when President Obama nominated Kerry for Secretary of State.

It worked so well in 2004, with Kerry being all naive and honorable, and too slow to fight back, that it was inevitable that Trump's minions would hurry up and turn over those rocks to find someone who would do the same to Hillary.

It wasn't hard to find one.  Gary Byrne has cooked up an instant best seller full of lies and innuendo called "Crisis of Character."  He is a former uniformed Secret Service agent, and has been spouting this nonsense since the Bill Clinton years.  His book has most recently been promoted by -- no surprise -- Donald Trump, during his campaign rallies.  And, sadly, it is currently No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.  Erroneously, I must add, in the non-fiction category.

The book has been trashed -- I mean, fact-checked -- by David Brock of Media Matters, who has been fighting the good fight ever since he jumped ship on the republican dirty tricks gang.  Gail Collins' review in the New York Times is an entertaining read, and serves the same purpose.  Basically, Byrne, based on his rank with the Secret Service, could not have been anywhere near where he claims to have seen incidents with both Bill and Hillary.  His claims have been debunked by none other than the Association of Former Agents of the U.S. Secret Service.  In fact, Byrne even contradicts his own testimony regarding tissues and towels.

Unfortunately, every right wing-nut who has been jerking off to Donald Trump's witticisms for the past year has run out to get a copy of the book.  And I can't tell you how much I hate to say this:  Charleston County Public Library (which took several months and repeated requests to get Michael D'Antonio's well reviewed Trump biography, Never Enough, and has still not purchased Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next) has 62 holds on its nine copies of the book.

You will be hearing whackos spewing the old lies and rumors as though they themselves witnessed it.  Don't waste your time reading the book, life is way too short, but do read one of the reviews and articles that debunk this piece of garbage, so you can defend yourself from the onslaught.  My guess is that Hillary and her team are already all over it.     

The Ironic Cherry Reads...

$2.00 a Day:

Living on Almost Nothing in America

by Kathryn J. Edin & H. Luke Shaefer

This is the kind of fraud that occurs among our poor:

* Selling food stamps (@ 50 cents on the dollar) to get the electricity turned on

* Trading sexual "favors" in order to buy food

* Selling a child's social security number to be claimed on someone else's taxes when you have been unemployed in order to pay the rent.

These are some of the ways people survive when they live on $2 (or less) a day.  And yes, that happens in this country, more so since Bill Clinton's heralded welfare reform, which was supposed to be tied to work opportunity.  Alas, all those jobs and training programs failed to materialize, but the small cash subsidies for the poor disappeared as well.

It has become so hard to receive TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which replaced welfare) that many aren't aware that it is available, and many others that are eligible stop trying to apply.  The essence of this failure is that the money goes to the states, as well as the discretion to use the federal funds, often cutting the amount that should be going to the poor.

But they are out there.  Children who sleep in cars or are subject to family or non-family member's sexual abuse in order to have a roof over their heads.  Women who cannot keep a low-wage job because there are no safeguards when she takes a sick day for herself or a child and gets fired.  School failure.  Hunger.  Suicide.

Our legislators have closed their eyes to this national tragedy, preferring to believe that the welfare reforms of the 90's have ridden us of all those welfare cheats and given jobs to any who want to work.

Over the past year the working poor have found their voices.  The absurdity of working full time and not being able to afford housing, living on SNAP benefits while working for the largest and wealthiest corporations, going to work sick, being sent home when business is slow, all those have led to the point where workers will take the risk of organizing and striking.

But that is not the point of this book.  While we see the minimum wage slowly rise, those with no cash at all continue to live a Dickensian nightmare.

I am happy to say that the Charleston County Library has several copies of this book on its shelves, as well as in electronic format.  It's a small but powerful book, and I urge you to read it.