LAST MEETING 2012

photo credit

Here is an update on the last meeting of 2012:

We had a great event on Thursday. After receiving several messages from people who were not going to be able to make it to the event. I thought that because of the holidays, we would only have a couple of people show up. However, it turned out to be a nice size group. Some brought chips and dip, along with the popcorn and drinks (from our Republican friend)... we all had an enjoyable evening. The movies were good and the comments and the conversations were outstanding. A couple of members talked about two organizations that we should look at and support. (1) FreeCommunityHelpers.com  (2) SavetheManatee.org. Both organizations look to be excellent causes that we should be willing to support. I recommend everyone take a few minutes and check them out. We talked about our web-site, with our new local tab. This is for our members who have small business (approved by the board), so that we can support one another when we need such services. Also talked of our election for the board in January and our need for a secretary to replace Susan, whom said that she can not continue this coming year. We have one person interested, but needs to check her schedule before confirming her name for the position.

Again, it was a great social, net-working, educational and enjoyable event. This is our purpose, to grow and spread the Progressive influences throughout our community.

Reminder that our events will now be on the last Tuesday of every month. Next meeting will be January 29th, 2013 at 6:15 pm. Please come early, and socialize as we are setting up at 6:00pm. We do need to start at 6:15pm because we need to be finished and out by 8:00pm. 

Thanks to all supporting Progressives that make our organization possible.

A good New Years Resolution, to help take back our country for our children and future.

All the best to everyone in the New Year and hope to see you at our January Event.

Your president,

John Debus

MEETING REMINDER

Hi Everyone

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and are enjoying the Holidays. Just a reminder of our monthly 'Event' this Thursday. So I hope to see everyone come out and tell your friends about your Holidays. Introduce yourself to some new people and make them feel welcome.  Also hope to have some time before and after to discuss some of the recent news/events that has everyone talking. We want this to be a social, net working and educational Event. As always, looking for future Event ideas, so bring your suggestions.

Come relax, enjoy the movies and discussion. Drinks and popcorn will be available.

6:15 pm on 27 December 2012 at the clubhouse in The Lakes at the Savannahs, 1800 S. Dovetail Dr. Ft. Pierce, Fl. 34982.

Looking forward to seeing everyone,

John

Antonin Scalia Defends Poor Thinking Skills

by Greg Wilson

photo credit

1)"It isn't a living document," Scalia said. "It's dead, dead, dead, dead." Yet, he supports corporate personhood. Important dates for giving life to corporations: 1803, 1819, 1876 (for details click here). Notice all dates are after the signing of the constitution. Therefore he supports a living Constitution, which is liberal, except it is liberal for the transnational corporations. So, reviewing Scalia's record, he is liberal, and believes in a living Constitution, which means he is deceiving a particular group of people who believe in states rights. The Koch brothers do not believe in state rights and Scalia does not support the anti-Federalists perspective. 

2) Scalia said, " That interpreting laws requires adherence to the words used and to their meanings at the time they were written." Then how can he favor federal government dismissing the anti-Federalist position? You must not only consider words but also ideas. What did he say to the incoming Republican Congressional House members in 2010? Read the Federalist papers! He did not say, read the Constitution, which balanced federal power (centralized power) and state power (more local power, self determination by local communities). I think he has replaced the anti-Federalist position with the book, Business As A System of Power", written in 1943 by Robert A. Brady

3) "There's nothing in there about abortion. It's up to the citizens. ... The same with the death penalty." Then how can he over-turn congressional legislation created by the people's representatives when the people have spoken. He favors judicial review established in 1803 after the signing of the Constitution. Further evidence he practices a living Constitution.

4) "If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?" I find him a fraud and particularly reprehensible in comparing a state of being homosexual with murder – a criminal act. "If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder?" This is two different categories and represents sloppy thinking. If you have ill-moral feelings toward that which exists, a tree, a river, a heterosexual, a homosexual, women, men, a mountain, a butterfly, then you need to get into therapy and free yourself from displacing feelings from unresolved childhood negative experiences. I say this out of care: if you have negative feelings for what exists, it is projection, and your attachment to that inner knot, that inner twisting of your spirit needs care to be liberated. It is time, you can be freed.

FreddieVee Weighs in on Fiscal Cliff

FreddieVee is quite an active contributor to the Huffington Post. Here is his most recent response to: Obama Tax Plan Cut-Off Closer to $300,000: Analysis

“Why won't they tell us the truth about what they are fighting about on the tax side of the Fiscal Cliff?

photo credit

The real problem is that the owners of the huge yet so-called small businesses contribute millions of Dollars to the GOP. Koch Industries makes a huge enough profit that the combined net worth of the Koch brothers increased by $12 billion (after taxes) last year, which means that even if they spent nothing on themselves for the whole year, that they made over $18 billion in profit. If the rates stay the same, but personal deductions are eliminated, people who make their money by working, for example a NBA player who makes $20 million would pay more, probably as much more as if their 35% top rate went to 39.6% as the Democrats want, but Koch Industries which files as a small business and uses the same forms as a private individual would not have their deductions changed because any money spent to bring in revenue would still be a business deduction. For example, even if home mortgage interest and home property taxes cease to be personal deductions, the mortgage interest on a factory and the property taxes on that factory will still be a deduction.

So the reason the GOP wants the rates to stay down, but will agree to eliminate deductions is the small business owners who donate Millions would remain whole while human tax-payers would pay more.

FreddieVee

In an aside, Freddie adds: And one more thing, When the GOP talks of "Cutting spending", they mean cutting spending on people, not on the spending their donors spend protecting their seats in Congress.

To read more of Freddie's posts, follow this link.

SERIOUS HUMOR

And this from our president, John Debus:

Dear Red States:

We're ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics and we've decided we're leaving.

We in New York intend to form our own country and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the rest of the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of the new country of The Enlightened States of America (E.S.A).

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

A HURRICANE CAN'T STOP US

TCPA held its third meeting last night. With the off-shore approach of Hurricane Sandy, the weather may have been gloomy, but the rain couldn’t dampen our spirits and the wind couldn’t extinguish our hope – that we can be a force for positive change.

            We talked about Alec, the American Legislative Exchange Council that is a conglomerate of large companies. These companies write sample laws they would like enacted and which legislative members submit as their own. Since July, when Alec came into public view, 29 corporations have left the conglomerate (including: Coca Cola, Pepsi, BCBS, Amazon, P&G, Dell, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). We would like to pressure Publix to do the same.

            We watched the short movie Unequal Justice: The Relentless Rise of the One Percent Courts, which was about the push to repeal the Supreme Court’s ruling on ‘Citizen’s United’. Corporations exist for one reason and that is to make a profit. They are using this profit to buy elections. They have no mortality and no morals. Corporations are not people. Corporate money is not free speech. To learn more, visit the Move to Amend website and sign their petition.

            Hope to see you at the next meeting, which is the fourth Thursday of November. 

WELCOME

Welcome to the blog of the Treasure Coast Progressive Alliance – we’re glad you stopped by. We could sure use your help and support. We are a group of concerned citizens dissatisfied with the current state of our government, which seems to be run by those with money, for the benefit of those with money. When corporate profit is the government’s primary motivation, the well-being of citizens and the planet are forsaken. We want to turn this around, get government working for us. To this end, we support “Move to Amend” which aims to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations are people—and can spend limitless amounts on political campaigns. We seek to get money out of politics—to limit the influence of lobbyists, and promote campaign finance reform. We believe that when the government is working in the best interests of its people, then it will make the right choices and enact policies to assist the poor, sick, and disenfranchised; that it will recognize and protect the natural world in which we live. Corporations may have money, but people have numbers: we are many. But we need you. The future of this country and this planet need you. We need your voice demanding change. Just a few hours a month is all it will take to make a difference. Please join us.