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Thursday, Dec. 5

Old Friends meet

The Old Friends and Bright Beginnings Luncheon will start at 11:30 a.m. at Dearborn Hills United Methodist Church, Bright. Ben and Garry Price will present Christmas tunes, playing the dulcimer and other musical instruments. For reservations, call the church by Monday, Dec. 2, at 1-812-637-3993. $10 donation.

Saturday, Dec. 7

Christmas parade

Harrison Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting Ceremony starts at 4 p.m. Parade line-up at 5 p.m. Parade begins at the Harrison Community Center; 6 p.m. - family friendly activities in The District include free pictures with Santa, cookies and hot chocolate, live nativity, live entertainment, food trucks and downtown shopping.

7:15 pm - tree lighting ceremony.

Breakfast with Santa

St. Johns P.T.C. presents Breakfast With Santa at St. John the Baptist cafeteria. There will be 2 seatings at 9 9 a.m. and 11a.m. The cost is $5 per person, and includes letters to Santa, face painting, Christmas crafts, and cookie decorating. You will be able to take your childs picture with Santa so please bring your cameras. The menu includes pancakes, sausage, and beverages. Reserve your seat by Tuesday, Dec. 10. Email amferg77@gmail.com, and you will receive a response with a flier that you will be able to send to St. John School with your money. Put Attn: Breakfast with Santa/Angela Hayes.

Saturday, Dec.14

Dolly and Me

Xi Eta Iota is hosting a Dolly and Me Tea Party from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 115 S. Vine Street in Harrison. The event, sponsored by FCN Bank, features lunch and the chance to win the 2019 American Girl Doll and other raffle items. Each child also receives a porcelain teacup and saucer, and there is also the opportunity for a picture with Santa. The cost is $15 per child and $10 per adult. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 513-845-4151, emailing midgedole@aol.com, or by visiting FCN Bank and asking for Debbie. Proceeds will be used to sponsor a needy family during the holidays and for Xi Eta Iotas high school scholarship.

Ongoing

Church offers financial course

Legacy Christian Church, 207 N. Vine St, is hosting the leading personal money management course, Financial Peace University. The nine-week course teaches you how to pay off debt, develop a budget, save money, plan for a kids college or your retirement, plus build wealth. More than 5 million people have used Dave Ramseys principles to transform their finances and their lives. The course starts on Monday, Sept. 30, and will last for nine consecutive Mondays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. For course info, cost and registration, email Tom Kendrick at tkpro1951@gmail.com.

Amazing quilters

Amazing Grace Quilters,

9961 New Haven Road, lower level, meet Monday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call 513-202-0688.

Fiddlers fest

The Old Time Fiddlers group meets the first Sunday monthly from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Harrison VFW Post 7570, 9160 Lawrenceburg Road.

Guests are encouraged to bring acoustic instruments to play, or come just to enjoy. Refreshments are included. For more information, contact Rose Ballard at 513-526-8512.

Line dancing

Yeager Benson American Legion Post 199 offers line dancing lessons from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Doors open at 10 am. Cost is $3 per person and is open to the public. Come on out to learn some new dances and get a little Saturday morning exercise. Hope to see you there.

Wellness meeting

The Harrison Wellness Coalition meets the second Friday of the month at noon at The Coffee Peddlar in downtown Harrison. The coalition aims to educate and empower all members of the community to lead healthier lives. For more information, email harrisonwellnesscoalition@gmail.com.

Family Council

The family council meetings are the third Thursday of each month from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Harrison Civic Center, 9940 New Haven Road, Harrison. The purpose of our family council meeting is to provide a structure for families to discuss and take actions related to improving the care, well-being, and happiness of all residents of Shawneespring. For more information, email beverlykroeger@gmail.com.

Bingo

Bingo at the American Legion Post 199, located at 10700 Campbell Road, every Thursday. Doors open at 6 p.m., Bingo games start at 7:15 pm. Come and play Bingo and help support veterans and the community.

Sit-down meal

Bountiful Hearts serves a free hot sit-down meal four times monthly from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

First Saturday: First Presbyterian Church, 115 Vine St. Also personal care pantry; 513-367-4301.

Second Saturday: Harrison Avenue Baptist Church, 1125 Harrison Ave.

Third Saturday: Harrison Church of the Nazarene, 249 Sunset Ave. Also food and clothing pantry; 513-316-5860.

Fourth Saturday: St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 509 Harrison Ave. Also St. Vincent de Paul food pantry, 513-367-9086, ext 303.

Originally posted here:
AROUND TOWN - The Harrison Press

From the beginning, there were good reasons for progressive leftists not to trust that Elizabeth Warren was on their side. For one thing, she had spent much of her career as a Republican, and only recently become a champion of progressive causes. Warren worked at Harvard Law School training generations of elite corporate lawyers; did legal work for big corporations accused of wrongdoing; collected donations from billionaires; held secret meetings with investment bankers and major Democratic party donors; and stood up and applauded when Donald Trump vowed that America would never become a socialist country. Even at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, her most prominent initiative on behalf of ordinary borrowers, Warren brought in former Wall Street bankers, tasking financial foxes with guarding the henhouse.

Yet Warrens campaign debuted with a populist note. She chose to make her kick-off speech in Lawrence, Massachusetts, site of the famous 1912 Bread and Roses textile industry strike, and she explicitly invoked the spirit of organized labor in her campaign announcement. Warren unveiled a series of ambitious social policy plans designed to please leftists, and some of us praised her promises to levy new taxes on wealth, expand childcare and give workers new power within their companies. In debates, the more centrist candidates accused both Warren and Sanders of being too radical. Warren memorably snapped back at those who ran for president to tell the country that change was impossible.

Its been difficult for progressives to know what to make of Warren. Shes been antagonizing the super-rich, but some of them also seem fond of her, perhaps because they recognize that her regulatory proposals are actually a modest and pragmatic way of staving off a populist revolution. She has long been attacked for supporting Medicare for All, but she has also been troublingly vague about the details in ways that left single-payer proponents unsure whether she was with them or against them. (Harry Reid, having been Warrens colleague in the Senate, said she would probably ditch single-payer when she was actually in office, in favor of something more pragmatic.)

But lately, Warren has finally begun to make her true feelings clear, and progressives no longer need to wonder whether shes with us or not. Shes not. Warren released a Medicare for All plan that called it a long-term plan, which leftwing political analyst Ben Studebaker pointed out is code to rich people for this is all pretend.

A few weeks later, Warren confirmed that while in theory she supported single-payer healthcare, it would not be one of her primary initiatives, and she would initially push for a more moderate proposal similar to those advocated by Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg. Political analysts quickly saw Warrens statement for what it was: an admission that she did not really intend to pass single-payer at all. Doug Henwood noted that Barclays bank put out an analysis assuring Wall Street that Warrens plan to put off Medicare for All until late in the first term decreases the likelihood that this plan comes to fruition. So much for big structural change.

Then theres foreign policy. Warren has never been particularly progressive on foreign policy, or even shown much interest in it at all. She has defended US military aid to Israel, and infamously, when Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians including children playing on the beach, Warren spoke up for Israels right to defend itself.

Recently Warren has given progressives even more cause for alarm. Instead of condemning an obvious rightwing coup in Bolivia (as Bernie Sanders did), and denouncing the seizure of power by Christian theocrats, Warren gave a tepid statement that recognized the legitimacy of the countrys new interim leadership. On Venezuela, Warrens statements were even worse; she recently told Pod Save America that she believes the US should recognize the leader of the opposition as the legitimate president, and should maintain the sanctions that economist Jeffrey Sachs has said are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuelas economy and thereby lead to regime change. Sachs has called sanctions a fruitless, heartless, illegal and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people, yet Warren says she sides with Trump on the matter.

This is not trivial. Foreign policy is one of the most important parts of a presidents role. A president who is not a progressive in their dealings with the rest of the world is not a progressive at all. US policy has the potential to destroy lives and undermine popular movements, or to save lives and support those movements. It is critical to have a president who will take on human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia and Israel, and who will stand up for authentic democracy around the world. Nobody on the left can support someone who casually supports the Trump administrations crippling sanctions, who excuses the wanton killing of Palestinians, and who declines to call a military coup a military coup.

It is helpful, at least, that we can now see more clearly the distinction between Warren and Sanders. She is not just a more wonkish and pragmatic advocate of the same politics. The politics themselves are very different. Sanders quickly denounced the Bolivian coup as a coup, and stuck to his assessment. He promised that Medicare for All would be a top priority, introduced in his first week. Sanders is far from a perfect candidate, but Warren has made it clear that she is no radical, that she accepts much of the Washington consensus that Sanders has devoted his career to disrupting and questioning.

Because candidates will typically try to tell voters whatever they think we want to hear, it is useful when they take actions that show us where they really stand and how we can expect them to act in office. Questions about the sincerity of Warrens progressivism are rapidly being answered by her public statements. Shes telling us shes not one of us, and we should believe her.

The rest is here:
Progressives, trust your gut: Elizabeth Warren is not one of us - The Guardian

Regardless of the timeline, the move could illustrate what City Hall might look like over the next few years, according to SF State's McDaniel.

"I think you'll continue to see things like that," he said, especially when it comes to measures on issues like mental health, health care and housing.

Another example of emerging political dynamics, McDaniel said, came after supervisors unanimously passed legislation that aims to create more housing funding for the city's middle to low-income workers.

Breed didn't veto or sign the legislation, which was introduced by Haney. Rather, she returned it unsigned, allowing the measure to become law but not without expressing her reservations.

In a letter to the board, Breed said she does support generating cash for affordable housing, but she voiced frustration over the particular measure, saying it wasn't financially feasible and that it could hurt small businesses, among other issues.

"I remain concerned that this legislation, while well intended, will not produce the revenue it promises for affordable housing," Breed wrote, arguing that the measure's $400 million funding promise was misleading.

For Haney, it was clear that the mayor was trying to send a message.

"It's a little unclear to me what the point of it was, at this stage, when it is going to become law," he said. "It certainly raises questions as to whether she's going to be able to be independent from some of the bigger developers and different forces in the city to be able to work with us when we challenge the status quo."

Of course, both the progressive faction and Breed's wing have more upcoming elections to consider as they navigate changing power dynamics.

In November 2020, six seats on the Board of Supervisors will be open, which could be an opportunity for progressives to further isolate the mayor. It could also be an opportunity for Breed to regain allies. Four years later, the mayor will be up for re-election once again.

How things turn out could come down to two things: Whether Breed will be able to use internal rifts within the progressive block that inevitably come along with a growing majority to her advantage, and whether progressives can pin Breed between a rock and hard place by passing pieces of legislation that, as McDaniel puts it, "make her oppose things that are popular in the city as a whole," like more affordable housing and police reform.

View original post here:
After SF Progressives Win Big, a Shift in Dynamics at City Hall - KQED

When news broke that Donald Trump had decided to hold the 2020 G7 summit at one of his Florida resorts, meaning payments from foreign visitors would go to his private benefit, even some Republicans long accustomed to the Presidents casual lawlessness reacted with alarm, ultimately forcing him into a rare retreat. But U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, thought Trumps plan was praiseworthy.

It may seem careless politically, he allowed, but on the other hand, theres tremendous integrity in his boldness and his transparency.

Wow. Thats taking brown-nosing to a whole new level. If Trump followed through on his musings about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, Cramer would no doubt laud him for not trying to hide his murderous instincts, as a common criminal might. (One of Trumps personal lawyers actually argued in court that the President could not be arrested or even investigated should he in fact commit a Fifth Avenue murder.)

Similiarly, when Trump likened the impeachment proceedings against him to a lynching, much of the nation was taken aback. Could he really be so callous and ignorant as to use such an analogy, given the horrific role of lynching in our nations past?

Not only could but should, opined U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. This is a lynching, in every sense, Graham asserted. This is un-American. He said lynching involves people who are out to get somebody for no good reason and who take the law in their own hands.

Actually, lynching involves extra-judicial mob killingoften involving hanging people by their necks until they diewhich between 1882 and 1968 happened at least 4,743 times, mostly to people of African descent. But Graham, who once correctly identified Trump as a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot, has become a shameless, groveling apologist for the President, like much of his party.

Republicans keep lowering the bar for Trump and he keeps crashing into it, splintering it to shreds.

Thats one of the truly tragic things about Donald Trumphow he diminishes the people around him, by bringing them down to his tawdry level. Some Republicans, including Senators Cramer and Graham, will likely never rise from the muck, although Graham did briefly rouse from his moral coma to dissent from Trumps sudden and reckless decision to invite slaughter on the Kurds in Syria, to the delight of the despots the President kowtows to in Turkey and Russia.

Congressional Republicans keep lowering the bar for Trump, in terms of what constitutes acceptable presidential conduct, and he keeps crashing into it, splintering it to shreds.

George Will, the conservative pundit, laments in a recent column that aside from some rhetorical bleats, Republicans are acquiescing as Trump makes public display of his gross and comprehensive incompetence. He argues that if Trump continues to get away with insisting that the Constitutions impeachment provisions are unconstitutional, the instrument of impeachment will be rendered useless as a check on all future Presidents.

There may also be a political price to pay, as Will notes in issuing a warning that to Democrats surely sounds like a dream: If Congressional Republicans continue their genuflections at Trumps altar, the appropriate 2020 outcome will be a Republican thrashing so severelosing the House, the Senate, and the electoral votes of, say, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, and even Texasthat even this party of slow-learning careerists might notice the hazards of tethering their careers to a downward-spiraling scofflaw.

That conservatives like Will are at the forefront of opposition to Trump creates opportunities for alliances that were once unthinkable. MSNBC commentator Charlie Sykes, a conservative from Wisconsin, says in an interview for this editorial that Trumps unfitness has the potential to unite the citizenry.

I would like to think theres a coalition of the decent out there who are just horrified by watching Donald Trump, by watching what hes doing, but also what hes doing to us, Sykes says. I would love to see the emergence of a coalition that would set aside ideological differences, at least temporarily, to deal with the current emergency.

Sykes, a longtime Wisconsin radio talk show host, is now editor-at-large of The Bulwark, a conservative website dedicated to preserving Americas democratic norms, values, and institutions. He believes Trump poses an existential threat to a lot of the democratic norms that we have right now, and I do think those cross party and ideological lines.

To this end, Sykes argues, progressives ought to be willing to make common cause with Republicans and conservatives who are willing to break with Trump. Thats not a surrender of principle. It doesnt mean that we dont disagree about things, but it means that at this particular moment in time, its more important to be allies than to dwell on what we disagree about. We can go back to debating the tax rates later, but if we want to get past this moment in history, theres going to have to be this alliance that recognizes the unique emergency that the country faces.

Its an intriguing possibility. While Trumps impeachment now appears certain, it will result in his removal from office only if twenty Republican Senators join Democrats in voting for it. This is unlikely, given the devotion that most Republicans have shown thus far, but its not impossible.

The impeachment inquiry has churned up massive new evidence of Trumps shocking and illegal conduct, as career civil servants reveal the extent to which he has sought to use the power of the presidency to his personal political advantage.

William Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, described how Trump explicitly tied the release of Congressionally approved military aid to Ukraines willingness to dig up dirt on his political rivalsprecisely the quid pro quo that Trump has insisted did not occur. Others followed, sometimes defying White House orders not to testify, at great risk to themselves and their careers. Meanwhile, the Presidents allies, to their eternal discredit, have rushed to provide cover for the President, with Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, demanding that the whistleblower who got the ball rolling be exposed and punished.

As Sykes frames it, the question for Republicans is how much more pure humiliation they are willing to take.

What Republicans right now have to be asking is: Do they really want to support five more years of this? Were talking about five more years of Donald Trump as the commander-in-chief. Five more years of defending and enabling Donald Trump, particularly as he becomes more and more untethered, more and more unhinged, more and more contemptuous of the truth and of the law.

There can be little doubt that Republicans are driven largely by political self-interest, as are many Democrats. But that means some of them might still be persuaded to abandon Trump. Sykes, while immensely disappointed at the degree to which [Republicans] have rationalized and enabled Donald Trump, has not given up hope that they will turn against him. If a few Republicans do so, a few more will likely follow.

And progressives can be a part of this, as long as they can get beyond blaming their fellow citizens for having the bad judgment to support Trump and instead encourage them to honestly ask: Do you really want to be part of this anymore?

The answer, for a broad and growing swath of the American public, is no.

No, we do not want a President who constantly embarrasses us on the global stage.

No, we do not want a foul-mouthed bigot to be Americas face to the world.

No, we are not OK with separating children from their families and locking them in cages.

No, we dont want a President who doesnt know the name of his own Defense Secretary, refers to members of his party as Rupublicans, and thinks Colorado is on the Mexican border.

No, we will not normalize Donald Trump, his ignorance, his crudeness, his impulsiveness, his meanness of spirit, his contempt for the very notion of Constitutional checks and balances, his open corruption and gross incompetence.

Yet Republican politicians will never abandon Trump as long as they perceive that this will cost them politically. As of midautumn, nine in ten Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents opposed impeachment. But that may change.

To secure the deserved ouster of this President, we need to win over a critical mass of ordinary Trump supporters. That may happen just from the open Congressional debate over impeachment and the weight of daily mounting evidence as to the Presidents criminality.

To date, the Presidents every response to the possibility of impeachment underscores its necessity. He has set out to obstruct the process, even ordering public officials to refuse to testify about his misbehavior. It is getting clearer that anyone who stands with him stands in opposition to the rule of law.

In the end, there will be some Republicans who will support impeachmentperhaps not enough to oust Trump from office but enough to more plausibly put the lie to the notion that the push for impeachment is a Democratic plot. There will be more defections of principled conservatives and constituencies that realize, however belatedly, that Trump has been conning them. And the majority of Americans who oppose this President will continue to grow.

What a delightful irony it would be if, in the end, this most determinedly divisive of Presidents ended up bringing the people of this country together.

View original post here:
Comment: Join Together to Dump Trump - Progressive.org

As Californias 2020 primary election nears, congressional districts across the state face major changes

One of the most significant is the 53rd Congressional District in San Diego. For the past 19 years, the seat has been held by Democratic Rep. Susan Davis, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Administration.

Originally from Texas, Caballero said in an interview that his father was involved in drug dealing and money laundering.

A crowd of other candidates also want the job, including the presumptive front runner, San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, and Sara Jacobs, a former aide to Hillary Clinton.

In September, Davis announced she would not seek reelection.

Jose Caballero, a military veteran, Bernie Sanders supporter and political consultant who describes himself as a progressive Democrat, is running for the seat. Davis said that her decision was driven by a desire to live and work at home in San Diego, although Caballero contends that her retirement came as a result of intensifying pressure from her primary challengers and from unhappy constituents. Caballero had announced his intention to run before Daviss announcement.

A crowd of other candidates also want the job, including the presumptive front runner, San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, and Sara Jacobs, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and a scholar in residence at the University of San Diego.

But Caballero deserves a look and his story is unusual.

Originally from Texas, Caballero said in an interview that his father was involved in drug dealing and money laundering. The activities prompted his mother to leave Texas with Jose and his sister.

[The club] brought the Bernie (Sanders) people into the room to create an intersection between the establishment and the Bernie progressives. Jose Caballero.

The family moved to the town of Mineral Wells in California, where they lived with grandparents in a one-bedroom apartment. As a teenager, Caballero joined the Navy and spent six years stationed on an aircraft carrier. Though he says that he originally joined the military out of patriotism, it was his experiences in the service that would push him towards his present politics.

Caballero describes watching planes take off from the carrier, and then later seeing footage of those same planes dropping bombs in Afghanistan, which caused him to question why he was taking part.

After his military service, Caballero moved to San Diego, where he studied political science at San Diego State University. He became active in local politics and in 2015 he founded the San Diego Progressive Democratic Club, which he said developed significant political clout in the county.

[The club] brought the Bernie (Sanders) people into the room to create an intersection between the establishment and the Bernie progressives, Caballero said.

The other Democratic candidates include Gomez, who has been endorsed by the state Democratic Party.

In 2016, Caballero made first attempt for public office with an unsuccessful run for the San Diego City Council. He served on the San Diego County Democratic Central Committee and as a delegate for the California Democratic Party.

For the past three years, Caballero has run a political consulting firm that works with labor unions and groups espousing tenants rights, animal rights and veterans rights.

Caballero says he decided to run for the 53rd CD because Davis was a seat-warmer and largely ineffective, contending that Davis has authored only two bills that were passed during her time in office. Additionally, he called her willingness to back legislation promoting military spending and offshore drilling as only doing what was politically advantageous at the time.

She was no longer where her district wanted her to be he says. Because she never had a legitimate challenger for the twenty years shes been in office, people didnt take the time to ask Who is this? Why are we voting for her every time.

Caballero isnt alone in seeking the seat: Currently, there are nine other candidates competing in the Democratic primary, according to the state elections officer. They include Jacobs and Gomez, who has been endorsed by the state Democratic Party.

I am a progressive veteran for peace. Most diehard progressives or democratic socialists are not veterans. Jose Caballero

Caballero acknowledges that he has an uphill fight, but notes that nearly one in two voters in the district voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016, which works to Caballeros advantage.Caballero supports Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and cancelling student debt all positions taken by Sanders.

Additionally, Caballero thinks his own background as a veteran could be the key to reaching more moderate voters.

I am an interesting flavor of progressive. I am a progressive veteran for peace. Most diehard progressives or democratic socialists are not veterans. They were, I guess, woke enough to not join the military industrial complex, he says.

In fact, his relationship to military service has become one of the defining features of Caballeros campaign. It is the impetus for what is essentially his flagship policy proposal the Heros Promise.

The Heros Promise is a proposal for what Caballero calls a military veteran Bill of Rights, with the intention of mitigating veteran suicide. It centers around reforming the military and providing a support system for both enlisted soldiers and veterans.

Under the proposed policy, active duty soldiers would first be granted meal and sleep time protection, an improvement that Caballero sees as basic but still necessary. The fact of the matter that our military soldiers are sleep deprivedand not getting all their mealscan cause massive vulnerabilities of [their] mental health and your morale, he says.

Additionally, the Heros Promise aims to ensure that service members would be able to file a grievance outside of the chain of command, and would have access to adequate mental health resources.

We need to protect mental health services Jose explains. As a reactor operator if I went and saw a therapist and said Hey Im not feeling great and they diagnosed me with depression, I lose my job. I lose my ability to serve as a reactor operator, which takes three and a half years to do. So a lot of people just sit quietly in depression for years and years at a time just so they can keep their head down and not have to suffer the consequence of being sad.

He also said that over 95% of our veterans are coming out with some form of PTSD. He said boot camp is a place where PTSD is administered.

People are yelling at you people are screaming at you, people are calling you a piece of garbage, and a lot of these young kids have never had anybody tell them those things before, he said, and because of that, that is a traumatic experience that they will live with for the rest of their lives.

More:
'Progressive veteran' faces uphill fight in 53rd CD - Capitol Weekly