Alternate Realities

It’s that time of year – when it’s time for our state representatives to file bills for 2018. At this larval stage, they’re called LSRs, or Legislative Service Requests. A legislator has an idea for a bill, and so they come up with a title and may begin drafting it, before turning it over to Legislative Services where the intent and language will be fleshed out. Some will be withdrawn by the sponsors. Some will make it all the way to being on the House docket in 2018. Right now, the fledgling LSRs are titles only, and available for viewing on the NH General Court website. There are currently 685 LSRs proposed by House members. Sixteen have already been withdrawn.

In preparation for this column, I took a quick, unscientific poll, asking people for their top 3-5 issues that badly need to be addressed in New Hampshire. The number one concern was health care (includes dental, mental health, and addiction), followed by a broad based tax (property tax relief), affordable housing, funding higher education/supporting public education, infrastructure, livable wages, and climate change/the environment. Other high ranking concerns: ending voter suppression, childcare, gerrymandering, legalizing marijuana, public transportation, and protecting water. 

This was not a scientific poll, but it’s likely that most voters in our state have some of the same concerns. Worried about health care? Representatives Josh Moore and Jeanine Notter are sponsoring a resolution to affirm the state’s religious heritage and constitutional right to practice religion and fee speech. Desperate for property tax relief?  Jeanine Notter and Victoria Sullivan are sponsoring an LSR, “relative to information regarding abortion.” That’ll help you hang on to your house.

Concerned about the lack of housing? This very newspaper has pages of help wanted ads and about a column and a half of rentals. If affordable housing is one of your issues, you’ll be glad to hear that Rep. Dave Testerman has an LSR that would include “sexual reassignment” under the definition of child abuse. Worried about our failing roads, bridges, sewer, and water systems? Rep. Dan Itse wants your driver’s license or non-driver ID to include your citizenship status.

Is the cost of higher education and the loss of young people worrying you? Rep. Brian Stone would like to establish the University System of NH as a political subdivision of the state. Because putting the legislature, a place of science denial, where at least 40 representatives don’t know how to use email, in charge of the university system is a brilliant idea.

Worried about low wages and income inequality? Rep. Dan Itse is sponsoring a resolution calling for the pardon of Jerry DeLemus who was convicted for his role in the armed standoff at the Bundy Ranch, where he was “protecting” Cliven Bundy who owed the government over a million dollars in grazing fees.

You get the idea. The issues that are most concerning to NH residents are not reflected in the 2018 LSRs. Rather than deal with the real problems facing our state; the Republican majority is throwing a Tea Party. They know, of course, that this is may be their last chance to do the kind of social engineering that the basest of their base drools over. They have a Republican governor for the first time in decades, and Trump acolyte Chris Sununu is their best chance at passing some of this dreck.

Abortion, gender reassignment (three LSRs so far), eligibility for public assistance, coercive abortions, voter ID, domicile (seriously – more of this?) …. none of these are issues that even came up in my survey. There is an LSR proposed by Rep. Steve Smith to eliminate the commission that studies the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board. One can see why that would be a priority.

There are LSRs that do deal with pressing issues. Rep. Renny Cushing is sponsoring a bill to require the secure psychiatric unit at the state hospital to be accredited as a psychiatric hospital. As it is now, we put people who have committed no crimes behind bars at the state prison because we don’t have a secure psychiatric unit in a hospital anywhere, and we’re too cheap to build one.  

Rep. Mindi Messmer is sponsoring an LSR aimed at protecting our water from PFOAS, and remediating the Coakely Landfill in Greenland – a superfund waste site. Rep. Travis Bennett is sponsoring an LSR establishing a committee to study the fiscal impacts of repairing or replacing our water supply systems, aka our crumbling infrastructure. None of these are likely to go anywhere in the coming session.

The entire point of our foolishly large, volunteer legislature is to provide real, accessible representation. Because they are unpaid, we get the rich, the retired, and the crazy.

They’re having a tea party at the legislature in 2018. Let’s hope it will be the last.

This was published as an op-ed in the September 29  edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper 

Updates on the Delusional

Last week, the NH House had a marathon 2-day voting session that dealt with 500 bills. The sessions began at 9 am. On Thursday (day 2) afternoon the Sergeant–at-Arms was instructed to lock everyone in, in order to keep a quorum. The House sessions are live-streamed, so I was able to watch some of the evening sessions. A stranger to NH would never have realized that NH has serious infrastructure problems, including 300+ bridges on the red list for structural impairments. They would never have known that our tax system is a disaster, causing young people to flee our state, because they can’t afford to buy houses – and old people to flee the state, because they can’t afford to keep their houses. That stranger would have thought that guns and abortion were the most pressing issues in our state.

There were a dozen abortion related bills. Not one of them was written by anyone with even a scrid of medical competency, but all were written by men. These are men who bray about the “nanny state” when it comes to their own lives. Nanny state good for women. By far, the most disturbing speaker was Rep. Warren Groen from Rochester. Readers may recall Groen from the red tailed hawk incident last year. He was the one who felt compelled to give 4^th graders visiting the legislature a lesson in abortion from the House floor. Listening to him describe abortion, even with flat affect, it seemed that for him, this is a near pornographic turn on. It was disturbing.

As we know, the NH Republican party has been hijacked by a roiling mix of Tea Partiers, Free Staters, and John Birchers. The results of this takeover are increasingly obvious, as we see in the events of the last two weeks. State Representative Kyle Tasker, a Republican from Nottingham, was arrested recently for trying to solicit sex from a 14 year old over the internet. The 14 year old proved to be a cop. Tasker sent her texts to set up a meeting while he was at a committee hearing. He served on the Child and Family Law committee. His house was full of drugs and guns, and he was armed when he went to meet up with the 14 year old. Would he have forced himself on her at gunpoint? We will never know. Most of his colleagues in the legislature were appalled by his actions, but Rep. Max Abramson, a Free Stater from Seabrook has repeatedly insisted that Tasker was set up. One wonders how the voters in Abramson’s district feel about his public defense of a 30 year old man trying to arrange sex with a 14 year old. Before he could be expelled, Tasker resigned. There were plenty of warning signs that he was a loose cannon, but they were ignored, and now everyone claims horrified surprise.

Next, Jerry DeLemus, (former GOP candidate for “Constitutional Sheriff”) from Rochester, was arrested by the feds for his role in the Bundy ranch debacle.  It seems the feds didn’t take kindly to a bunch of armed yahoos pointing their weapons at law enforcement, and finally decided to prosecute. There is much bleating from his supporters about “federal land grabs.” Cliven Bundy is a moocher who wasn’t paying the extraordinarily low grazing fees he is assessed for allowing his cattle to graze on public lands. That was the issue and it had nothing to do with land grabs, or Jerry DeLemus, for that matter. He seized the opportunity to ride out to the Bundy ranch with his sniper rifle, which he stopped to have sighted along the way. We are now expected to believe he was there as a “peacemaker.” There are 9 federal charges against DeLemus, who also went out to the Bundy occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Sanctuary in Oregon. Where there are guns and cameras, there is Jerry DeLemus. His wife, Susan, is a state representative, who recently was in the news for referring to Pope Francis as “the anti-Christ.” Rochester.

Republican State Representative Don Leeman of Rochester (where else?) moved out of the ward that elected him to the legislature, in December. He went back to the House in January and told no one. On February 9, he voted in the NH primary – in his old district – the one he didn’t live in any more. That was noticed. An inquiry began. The House Legislative Administration committee found that he didn’t live in his district any longer; therefore he wasn’t qualified to be a representative any longer. Leeman sauntered in with a note from his new landlord, saying he was moving back into the district he’d vacated months earlier, and Speaker Jasper allowed him to stay. This is the very same Republican Party that continually howls about voter fraud. Yet (as we’ve seen before) when one of their own commits it they get whiplash looking the other way. The Union Leader congratulated Leeman on keeping his seat. The NH Republican Party has forfeited the right to ever say another word about voter fraud in this state.

There are signs of an attempt by residents of some towns to stem the tide of reactionary politics. The towns of Rollinsford, Bow, and Dunbarton all voted against eliminating town meeting in favor of SB2. Rollinsford and Dunbarton both voted against a tax cap. Dunbarton voted to hire a part time clerk. Last year they eliminated the position, and everyone in town got a hard lesson in the reality that there’s a lot more to the job of the town clerk than motor vehicle registrations. My favorite town meeting story this year comes from Dunbarton, where a state legislator was running unopposed for the position of town moderator. The town had a candidate’s night on the Saturday before town meeting. The candidate appeared with his sidearm attached. A voter asked if he’d be moderating with a gun, and he said he always wears it. The people in attendance decided they did not want a moderator at the podium with a gun, so they drafted another candidate, and launched a write-in campaign. The write-in candidate won. JR Hoell lost while running unopposed.

As for what’s going on nationally – President Trump is certainly what we deserve, though I don’t think we’re going to like it very much.

published as an op-ed in the March 18 issue of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Kyle Tasker: Age of Consent Activist

Liberty Activist! 

Tea Party Activist! 

Constitutional Activist! 

Anyone care to speculate what any of these media sources would be saying about a person of color arrested for pointing guns at federal agents? WMUR was very kindly even doing turnout for his court hearing.

Compare and contrast with the way State Representative Kyle Tasker is being treated by NH media:

If Jerry DeLemus is being called a "liberty activist" by the NH media, shouldn't they be calling Kyle Tasker an "age of consent activist?" 

Susan DeLemus: I've Never Been Involved in Politics

CNN aired a segment today where they spoke with some NH Trump supporters. 



This woman has a bit of a meltdown about the president - he gets on her teevee and LIES! She's never been involved in politics! 

Never involved,  except when Ted Cruz named DeLemus and her husband to his NH leadership team back in May. Did she ditch Ted for Trump? Did they break up? 




OOPS

This woman is NH State Representative Susan DeLemus. She's serving her second (nonconsecutive) term in the NH House. 

Representative DeLemus distinguished herself during her first term, by causing a scene at a ballot hearing. DeLemus is a birther, and not afraid to say so. 




It was also reported on in The Atlantic.  

Susan DeLemus isn't the only infamous member of her family. Husband Jerry DeLemus was head of security at Cliven (welfare moocher) Bundy's Ranch debacle. In fact, it was Jerry who sent spree killers Jerad and Amanda Miller on their way. Refused admission to Bundyville, they went to Las Vegas and killed 2 cops and a bystander. Here's Jerry trying to weasel out of any responsibility

Here's Jerry, complaining about Scott Brown "trompling" on the Constitution. It seems former US Senator Scott Brown is a trompler.  This calm, level-headed individual was running for Sheriff in Strafford County. He's an Oath Keeper, a 9/12'er, a Tea Partier, and a proponent of the Constitutional Sheriff's movement. 

Back in June, Jerry announced that he wanted to hold a "Draw Mohammed" contest, as reported here by the Southern Poverty Law Center.


CNN should be embarrassed. Even the most cursory google search would have turned up most of this. Now they're being mocked - and deservedly so. 



[Note: she may have been trying to say The Donald has never been involved in politics, she's so incoherent, it's hard to know. One thing is for sure, either way she meant it - she's lying!]

Jerry DeLemus: Calm, Level-Headed Candidate for Sheriff

This is Jerry DeLemus:





Jerry's running for Sheriff in Strafford County. He's just the kind of calm, level headed individual you'd want to have running the Sheriff's department. 

He was Cliven (welfare rancher) Bundy's security guy during the Big Bundy Ranch Faceoff. In fact, Jerry's the guy who sent Jerad and Amanda Miller away from the ranch. They went on to Las Vegas and killed 2 cops and a civilian. Jerry's one of Glenn Beck's 912 acolytes, and has a group in Rochester. He's also an Oath Keeper, and a proponent of the Constitutional Sheriff's movement. 

As you can see in the video, Jerry's a big fan of the Second Amendment. 

He sure doesn't like Scott Brown. He hates Obamacare too. 

Those of you who have been wondering what the GOP plan for health care is? MOAR GUNZ. That way when you get sick, you can just shoot yourself. 

h/t James Pindell

You Break It, You Own It

An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. They migrate and settle.

A refugee is forced out of their country to escape violence, persecution, war, or natural disaster.

These words mean very different things. Since the flood of child refugees knocking on the US door began, the word “immigrant” is being used instead of the proper term, which would be refugee. It’s often preceded by the word “illegal.” The average age of these children is eleven.

The same people who are desperate to force white women to serve as involuntary incubators because they venerate “life” so much are the same crew who are now shrieking and name calling about these children. Apparently the lives of imaginary white fetuses are far more important than the lives of brown children fleeing violence, traffickers, and rape.

The reporting on this topic is dreadful. The response is dreadful. The commentary from the far right fringe is dreadful. What these children have experienced already is worse than anything the US xenophobes could possibly say.

Last week I spoke with Jen Smyers of Church World Service. CWS is a group of religious denominations that came together to help refugees after World War II. This is their mission. Jen told stories about the violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – the countries these children are fleeing. They aren’t leaving their families by choice. Their families are sending them away in order to save their lives. Their families have been targeted for violence, and the governments of their countries are either unable or unwilling to protect them. The average age of these children is 11.

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. Since the military coup in 2009 the violence has gotten worse. The coup was brought about by military forces that trained at the School of the Americas in Georgia, where we’ve been training the future despots and dictators for Latin America since 1946. The US supported the 2009 coup, and we continue to send military aid to Honduras, even though they’re murdering and terrorizing their citizens. In the 1980’s in Guatemala, the US financed counterinsurgency campaigns with forces trained at the School of the Americas. Ronald Reagan supported the regime of Rios Montt, claiming he got a “bum rap” for his massacres of indigenous populations. Reagan also interfered in the civil war in El Salvador, providing exorbitant military aid to the nationalists, who used death squads to make people disappear. When Salvadorans attempted to flee to the US, we sent them back. Many of them were never seen again.

In short, we helped create this mess. Remember what Colin Powell told President Bush about Iraq, “you break it, you buy it?” We’ve never applied that standard to US interference in Central America. Now we have angry white people yelling at buses full of children in California. We have Rick Perry sending the Texas National Guard to the border. That should be a big help in dealing with traumatized children. And in NH, we recently had a group of yahoos on a highway overpass in Rochester, bellowing about illegal aliens.

They were headed up by Jerry DeLemus of Rochester, who most recently covered himself with glory out at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada, where he defended the fraudulent claims of Cliven Bundy, welfare rancher. It was Jerry DeLemus who sent Jared and Amanda Miller away from the Bundy Ranch. After leaving, they headed for Las Vegas, where they killed 2 police officers and a civilian. DeLemus said he sensed something wrong with them, but naturally he didn’t bother to report that to law enforcement, seein’ as how he and the boys had their guns trained on the legal authorities.

DeLemus claims to be a Christian, and his wife wears a cross large enough to ward off even the most persistent vampires. Susan DeLemus distinguished herself while serving in the legislature by bellowing at an assistant AG during a ballot law hearing on whether Obama should be on the NH ballot. Mrs. DeLemus is a birther and one assumes that so is Mr. DeLemus. They’re both opposed to a woman’s right to medical privacy and bodily autonomy. Yet, there he was, on an overpass with Billy Baer, who most recently achieved renown for engineering his own “on camera” arrest over a book his daughter was reading at school. The daughter was at this protest. Apparently she was too delicate a flower to learn about date rape, but hardy enough for white supremacy.

Jason Margolis, writing about this for PRI, mentioned a protestor named Desiree Tumas. She believes that the gubmint is secretly bringing in “illegals” to the US and placing them in NH. The far right fringe thinks that Obama is bringing the children here to vote Democrat. The average age of the children is 11. Tumas also bemoaned the idea of bringing in children when “we can’t take care of the homeless people we have.” The rest of the year homeless folks are filthy moochers, but suddenly, Ms. Tumas and her ilk are feeling all warm and fuzzy toward them. I’m certain that warmth has a very short half-life.

The most disturbing aspect of the PRI story was the quote from a 12 year old that has already assimilated the lessons she has been taught. She told the reporter that these children (many younger than she is) should be sent back because otherwise little boys and girls in NH will be kidnapped or killed because of “the illegals.” The average age of these children is 11.

These people aren’t brave enough to call themselves white supremacists. Just as well. They have no reason to feel superior. Teaching intolerance, cruelty, and hatred for children is unfathomable.

In NY Harbor, the Statue of Liberty hangs her head in shame. 

© sbruce 2014

Published as a biweekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Immigrant is not the same as Refugee

1. im·mi·grant

   ˈimigrənt/

   noun

   1. a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

      synonyms:

      newcomer, settler, migrant, emigrant; More

      • BIOLOGY

        an animal or plant living or growing in a region to which it has migrated.

   

   Choose languageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitianHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalayMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianNepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSwahiliSwedishTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu

   

ref·u·gee

ˌrefyo͝oˈjē,ˈrefyo͝oˌjē/

noun

1. a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

   "tens of thousands of refugees fled their homes"

   synonyms:

   émigré, fugitive, exile, displaced person, asylum seeker;

1. 
   

One of these things is not like the other. It seems our friends at  Fosters  need to get out their dictionaries:

More than 25 protestors stood on an overpass off Exit 15 of the Spaulding Turnpike Friday morning to make a stand against illegal immigration.

“The goal is to make the American people aware that there are people opposed to illegal immigration,” said event organizer Jerry DeLemus during the protest. “And also let our government know.”


The children who are appearing at our border are refugees. They are coming from Central America where they are fleeing violence and unimaginable horror. It's typical of the fringe right that they're unable to distinguish the difference. It's also unsurprising that they're disinterested. Jerry calls himself a Christian. He opposes a woman's right to bodily autonomy and medical privacy. But when it comes to brown kids, all that concern for LIFE goes right out the window. 

Ole Billy Baer who attempted to make a big name for himself a few months ago was at this protest with the daughter he was trying so desperately to protect from learning about date rape. He apparently has no problem exposing her to racism, bigotry, and ignorance:

Baer said the blame for the illegal immigration problem lies with the president.

“The Obama administration has basically not enforced immigration law,” said Baer.

“We're becoming a lawless society functioning with a lawless government.”

These guys sit around watching wingnut conspiracy videos all day. What they don't do is bother to find any credible information:

Since taking the oath of office, Obama has deported immigrants at a faster rate than any other president in US history, nearly a record 2 million people. On a typical day, there are over 30,000 immigrants imprisoned in the world’s largest immigration detention system. Most deportees never see an attorney or have a hearing before a judge before they are expelled from the country. 

Oops. Of course DeLemus and Baer couldn't ever applaud Obama, because they're both birthers. Even though the Black Guy in the White House is deporting more people than the last White Guy did, they'd never be able to acknowledge it. 

Both of these guys would force white women to serve as involuntary incubators, in the name of LIFE - because imaginary LIFE always trumps all. The inconvenience of brown refugee children fleeing countries devastated by US foreign policy in Central America is a different matter entirely. Their lives are of no consequence. 

It's Sunday. Somewhere both of these hypocrites are praising Jesus. 


History and background of US conduct in Central America.