Ken's Comments

A friend posted a meme on Facebook titled "Trickle Down Economics" and it offers the following facts.  $2.3 trillion was spent in stimulus this year That's $23,000 per working age adult (assuming 100 million such adults) The meme goes on to say but "you got 1,200 per person & big companies got the rest." The meme wraps up by showing President Trump's signature, clearly intending to hold him responsible for this atrocity. I did something I rarely do on Facebook.  I posted a reply to something political.  Here is a version of my answer. In 2008 when 10 million Americans* were losing their homes, how many people got a check in any amount?  No one.  Who did get checks in the bailout packages?  AIG, Wall Street financiers, and the big banks - all of whom were involved in causing the economic meltdown. Contrast that with what happened this year, 2020.  What happened to the average American: Every American with incomes below a certai...

At least that's what many in the media will have you believe - that the most dangerous thing to do to our children is to send them to school this Fall. The fear is hitting social media too.  There was a meme on Facebook, allegedly quoting US Education Secretary DeVos, who appeared on all the Sunday morning talk shows last weekend, as saying 0.02% of kids might be at risk of dying due to Coronavirus if schools re-open.  The posting suggested that would be over 14,000 kids. That's scary. A single child's death is tragic.  14,000 even more so.  However, I'd like to suggest there is another side to this issue. It is estimated there are 22 million or 30 million children* for whom school meals are the only nutritious meals of the day.  If 0.02% of those kids die of starvation, that would be 440,000 children (if we use the lower figure).  I don't know if that is a correct calculation but you have to come up with a much smaller percentage to go from 440,000 k...

I am not a fan of the organization that goes by the name "Black Lives Matter" but I am in complete agreement with the concept that Black Lives Matter.  There are three events in recent months that should be rallying points for all people to come together and recognize it is time to not just protest but offer ideas on how to do more to end the inequality that still exists in America. The events I refer to are: The killing of Ahmaud Arbery - in Georgia a young man killed for no apparent reason while he was jogging and then the local police and local DA find no reason to charge the perpetrators The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis  Learning of the higher impact of the Coronavirus on black communities All Americans, regardless of color, deserve to be viewed as individuals and not by skin color, religion, or any other grouping.  All Americans deserve the same opportunity, the same treatment and respect, the same justice.  Unfortunately, the three events I ...

It was an opportunity to unite the nation to do something positive, to bring people together to fight racial discrimination and injustice in the policy and criminal justice system.  And it's been lost. In February, Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by Gregory and Travis McMichael and a local district attorney said there was not sufficient evidence to charge those two with a crime.  A tragedy and a total disgrace.  Thankfully, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in and the two men have been charged. Last week, George Floyd was killed by a police officer who refused to take his knee of Mr. Floyd's neck for an extended period of time and while ignoring Mr. Floyd's pleas that he could not breathe.  Another tragedy and total disgrace. These two cases point out that, sadly, there still remains injustice towards black Americans in the police and the justice system. These two cases could have united Americans to come together to fight this, to demand chang...

I rarely post political thoughts on Facebook.  It's a nice way to keep in touch with family.  I like to see the stuff they post.  I leave politics for this blog.  If they want to see my thoughts, they can come here. But today, my nephew said something and it demanded a response.  I responded both to his comment and then posted my views on all the violence.  I am reposting it here because this is where these views normally belong and some of the people who read this may not be on Facebook.  This is what I said: I reject the idea that violence solves problems.  Jackie Robinson started dramatic change in American not by fighting back on the baseball field.  He started change by turning the other cheek and using his talents to show people they were wrong. Martin Luther King, Jr. continued that process not by fighting back when Alabama police turned hoses and dogs loose on him and his marchers, but by maintaining peaceful protest.  Rev...

President Trump on Friday announced religions are essential business and that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued guidelines on how to open religious buildings safely for worship.  The President then said he would overrule any State that does not treat religions as essential. Then the fireworks began. In the press conference, the members of the press present peppered the Press Secretary with questions about how religious institutions can open safely and why does the President think he has the authority to overrule State Governments.  At least one MSNBC commentator opined that naming religious institutions as essential is a violation of the separation of Church and State. That the media raised any objection is a measure of how the press reacts in a knee jerk fashion, without any thought, to simply disagree with everything President Trump says. Let's consider these points. The first point - how can churches, synagogues and mosques open safely - was ridiculous....

Put aside the argument of whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) should or should not drop charges against General Michael Flynn and let's look at how we got here and why his treatment is the norm not the exception. For those who point out General Flynn pleaded guilty (twice according to some reports) that was not his original position.  He was originally fighting these charges and relented to a plea bargain when a) he was bankrupted by the legal fees and, especially, b) when the FBI started investigating his son.  General Flynn agreed to a plea deal and to assist the prosecutors in return for them dropping the investigation of his son.  Sounds like pretty dirty pool doesn't it?  Well, it is and it's not unusual. When I was practicing law in the 1990's, seminars I attended that covered federal investigations laid out some key facts.  The Feds are like any other people or organization.  People want to advance and you advance with wins.  An investig...