2018 Political Lessons

This past year has been an interesting one in the political realm.  On our local level, Kansas City finally passed approval for a new airport terminal.  This is a LONG overdue need.

The state of Missouri passed the Clean Missouri initiative.  This is a win for all citizens of the state.  It requires more records be made public, eliminates most lobbying gifts and requires a waiting period of 2 years after people leave the legislature before they can become lobbyists.  It also asks non-partisan experts to draw legislative district maps.  Good for Missouri citizens in attempting to clean up our political house.

On the national level, what can I say?  It started out as chaotic mess and ended up the same way.  I'm not sure that much meaningful legislation got passed.  There were constant scandals within the administration.  From the various Russian interference indictments (Flynn, Manafort, Cohen, Gates, etc) to a large number of scandals within the president's cabinet and white house staff (Pruitt, Zinke, Porter, Ross, Omarosa) to the grossly mismanaged child separation policy at the border it was just crazy chaos.  The result?  The Democrats taking back the house by their largest winning margin since Watergate.  

Another other lesson that I learned this year is that President Trump's twitter account is nothing but noise.  I dutifully tried to read and keep up with his comments in 2017.  I gave up this year.  There is very little meaningful knowledge to be gained.  Responsible leaders should not govern by social media and maybe the public is also agreeing with this sentiment.  Legislating and policy making is serious business and throwing up verbal vomit on twitter is meaningless.    

So, I'm hopeful that 2019 will bring progress and Congress will get more things done to help people.  More new faces (with more women being elected) is a great step forward.  We need work done on healthcare, infrastructure, and reducing the national debt and budget deficit.  The tax give aways to the rich resulting in massive stock buybacks have not helped us average citizens and now the stock market is hurting any retirement savings that people have invested.  Governing needs to get serious again.  Let's move the country forward.


  

Reading Resolutions

Listed below are the books that I read this year.  This year I was going to attempt the autobiography of former President Ulysses S. Grant but that one was simply more than I could take on.  It is still however on my list to read in the future.  If you are interested in U.S. presidential history, check out the blog of my sister. She is on a quest to read a book about each president.  She took on Grant and prevailed and gave a good summary of a biography by Ron Chernow. http://warpedpresidential.blogspot.com/

For Christmas I received a Kindle which I'm excited to use. It should make my reading easier when I'm away from home.  My patient daughter showed me how to use the Kindle to check out e-books from the library.  It is so easy.  If you haven't figured out how to download e-books or audio books I recommend it as a new years resolution!  

My favorites this year were actually 2 non-fiction books.  "Victoria the Queen" by Julia Baird was excellent and if you're a fan of the show on PBS it makes an excellent way to increase your historical knowledge.  "Calypso" by David Sedaris was also an enjoyable book.  His humorous essays are such a delight and always easy to read.


1.  The Crossing by Michael Connelly
2.  Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
3.  Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird
4.  The Quantum Spy by David Ignatius
5.  Personal History by Katharine Graham
6.  Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr.
7.  The Practice House by Laura McNeal
8.  Jerry Lee Lewis, His Own Story by Rick Bragg
9.  Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
10. Nothing is Forgotten by Peter Golden
11. The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney
12. Calypso by David Sedaris
13. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
14. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
15. The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson
16. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
17. The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo
18. The Outsiders by Stephen King
  
Several neighbors and I are attempting to get a book club going.  Hopefully we will have enough people to keep it up and it's been enjoyable being able to discuss a book with others.  If you are interested in a book club, talk to your local library.  They can probably help.  

As usual I will continue to advocate for everyone to read for both pleasure and to increase knowledge of current events.  Please be sure to consume well sourced, fact based news.  As for fiction, read what you enjoy!