Amos's River of Justice

Tag: Jeff Flake

  • Atta Boy Republicans

    Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing is the cherry atop Congress’s infernal sundae. We the people don’t dare ask what’s inside those lumpy scoops of ice cream and that oily chocolate sauce, but there is no doubt that the cherry is the most loathsome part of it.

    Unfortunately, no one in Congress will bat an eye at my analysis. Anything I might say will roll off their backs just as long as they’re getting what they want. And if they are somehow forced to respond they’ll just look demurely at the floor like Jeff Flake, who recently pulled out all the stops with his long-suffering, hang-dog look. Hey, it’s the best he could do at short notice. He thought he could escape into the elevator but when the door failed to block his constituents he was forced to listen to their outrage. Still, that is a small price to pay for the freedom to ignore voters’ demands while living on a government salary. Now he claims to be in favor of an FBI investigation but I’m not holding my breath. The Republicans probably hope an investigation will improve their chances in the midterm election, but the Kavanaugh appointment will go through just the same.

    Flake reminds me of my black Lab. She has a trick of acting like she wants to go outside, and then half-way to the door she gets a sly look on her face and goes back to her kennel. She does this because I taught her to expect a biscuit when she goes to her kennel. To state the obvious, Flake’s pre-vote soul-searching is the fake-out and his vote is the kennel.

  • The Town Hall as Battleground

    The political process is important and necessary but we’re long past the point where anything worthwhile can be said about this election. All that’s left to us is bad theater played by bad actors. At some point you have to let it go–just tell the truth about it and move on. In Thursday’s town hall the lead actor would be Senator Jeff Flake. However I think the cast also includes grandstanding members of the opposition and the bloodthirsty media whose job it is to make a partisan mountain out of every molehill.

    It’s been reported that Senator Flake bravely withstood a drubbing by a liberal audience, which sort of discounts the audience’s responses in my opinion.  However, it must also be said that Senator Flake gave as good as he got, both during the meeting and in the interminable years leading up to it. After postponing this inevitable confrontation with his cuckolded constituents as long as he possibly could, he arrived at the arena armed only with his trusty list of non-answers and his famous smile. It’s not surprising that this smile was perceived by said long-suffering constituents as disrespectful rather than jovial. As one man explained when it was finally his turn at the mic, everything of importance has already been said, so he commented instead that the senator seemed to be smiling an awfully lot.  All things considered, serious self-reflection would be more appropriate.

    Of course, serious self-reflection had no part in Mr. Flake’s battle plan on Thursday. His sole purpose seemed to be sticking to his guns regardless of what the bad people did to him, and stick to his guns he did. Some in the media counted the public’s outrage a victory of some kind. I have a different take on it. If Jeff Flake’s goal was to deliver a lesson in futility to the unruly masses, the evening was a smashing success–for him.

    I’m not denying that the masses were gloriously unruly. I’m just saying the Senator was going through the motions. He was there because of the petition that was signed by his constituents.  He’s still the same guy who spent his career ignoring their wishes. So naturally the smiling delivery of his all too familiar non-answers worked like a knife in the heart and the people responded by the only means at their disposal—howls, cat-calls and chants. None of it had any effect on the good senator however, who often ended his responses by stating, “I disagree,” which is patently absurd coming from a representative of said masses.

    Somewhere in the middle of this standoff things got really…interesting. A young girl stepped up and delivered her line with the timing of a vaudeville straight man, “I’m a sixteen-year-old girl of color and you’re a white man of privilege,” or something to that effect, at which point I suddenly lost my concentration.  I can’t quote her exactly—find a clip of it on the web. But the gist of her comment was, Jeff Flake is a powerful bully who ignores the needs of the underprivileged. Unfortunately for her this turned out to be a perfect setup, because it allowed the senator to wryly muse about being the middle child of eleven children, implying that he grew up in a poor family.

    An awed silence fell over the crowd as scenes from The Grapes of Wrath flashed before our eyes. We were so stunned it didn’t occur to us that eleven children is not a natural disaster like an earthquake or the weather; nor is it a national disaster, like a depression. Last but not least, being born into a poor family with eleven children is not even a social handicap–not in Mormon country. Dang! This guy is good!

    I left feeling sorry for the town component of this town hall. I still do, even after learning about the Democratic establishment’s email instructing people to ‘put Jeff Flake in their grill’. That pretty much describes what happened but this was no victory for the people. Jeff Flake and the Democratic establishment got what they wanted—the continuation of the status quo–but the people who continue to languish under the policies of Senator Flake and his cronies, got zip. I’m sorry Senator, but that is the very definition of privilege.

  • Arizona Town Hall Tonight

    Senator Jeff Flake has scheduled a town hall Thursday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. PT. According to the email sent out by his office, which includes a code of conduct, the venue seats 1,750 people. This town hall is bound to go a little differently than his telephone town hall in March. These are my notes from the last town hall. There were no responses to his answers so I assume the callers were no longer on the line.

    1. He was asked about Arizona’s plans for public land. He said land trades were common in the past and that they were only talking about 6,000 acres of BLM land out of 137,000.
    2. On immigration, he said policy should be based on national security, not nationality.
    3. On the environment, he began by saying that he loves the outdoors. However he thinks we need common-sense regulations and that Arizona is being penalized for dust storms that have nothing to do with development or human activity.
    4. When asked how he could vote for Betsy DeVos, he said “Elections have consequences,” and the president deserves his cabinet. After all, he said, he confirmed Obama’s Attorney General even though she was unqualified.
    5. On the concern that a border wall will split a reservation in Tucson, he said that is one of the complexities about the wall that people don’t understand.
    6. When asked why he didn’t hold a town hall the previous week, he said that he had to stay in Washington because of the nomination process.
    7. One caller asked how he could say he cares about veterans when bills that would restore military retirement pay don’t get a hearing. He said he thought they had already made the situation better. He added that Senator McCain is concerned about the problem and is still working on it.
    8. When asked how he was going to pay for infrastructure spending he agreed that more spending is necessary, but that we have to be fiscally responsible. He would support lowering corporate taxes. This would bring all the corporate money parked overseas flowing back to the United States.
    9. Another caller was concerned about the possibility of turning Social Security over to Wall Street. He replied that the current program will be bankrupt unless it is reformed. The Republican legislation won’t affect retired or near retired people, and it will tag benefits to prices, not wages. However the retirement age will continue to increase.
    10. He is against a special committee to investigate Trump’s Russia ties.
    11. To another question about the wall, he said 750 miles of it has been funded since 2013; that the terrain won’t allow the wall to be built everywhere; and that in many areas the water shed flows north, not south. (It’s not clear if he thinks the border should be left open in those areas.) He said we also need more interior enforcement.
    12. On the proposed increase in defense spending, he said he’ll support McCain. We need to spend more, budget better, and pay people properly so that the economy continues to grow.
    13. He’s against a border tax. He thinks it would not be good for either side.
    14. Social Security should not decide who’s mentally fit to have a gun.
    15. One caller said he hoped Republican healthcare reform would keep the rule on preexisting conditions. Flake said Obama Care is not sustainable and he praised Ryan’s plan.
    16. Responding to a call about School Choice, he said he advocates choice. Competition makes schools better and state control is better than federal control.
    17. Senator Flake assured another caller that Gorsuch is not pro-corporate and that he will follow the law. Then he praised him for being an Originalist. He thought Gorsuch would probably be confirmed in early April.
    18. A caller said we should not privatize the VA. Flake answered that he doesn’t think that’s where we’re going. He said seniors can pay for private care and be reimbursed later.
    19. In response to the idea of increasing taxes for the wealthy to remedy the national debt, Flake said we need economic growth. He thought we could accomplish that with a proper tax and regulatory environment. Instead of increasing taxes for the wealthy we should reform entitlements. They are the drivers of debt and deficits. He pointed to the stock market, which he said is responding to what has been done so far. (The stock market has nothing to do with economic growth.)

    Tonight’s in-person town hall is Flake’s response to a petition circulated by Change.org, which got 5,886 signatures. Although the petition requested a central location in Phoenix, the meeting will take place at the Mesa Convention Center in the East Valley. (I believe this area is predominantly Mormon). And although the petitioners asked for at least two hours, Flake scheduled one and a half hours.

    The location is 201 N. Center Street, Mesa, Arizona. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Parking and lines at the door are not allowed before that time. Seating is first-come, first-served.

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