Civil Discourse Now

Where the far left and far right overlap for fun and enlightenment

All Blog Posts (1,865)

Abernathy's debate challenge & St Francis University: STFU

Gosh golly - when candidate A in a party’s primary challenges to debate any of the other candidates in that primary, and one of those other candidates (me) accepts the challenge, one should (reasonably) infer A will reply to my acceptance.

Kent Abernathy - one of my opponents in the June 2 GOP primary for U.S. House in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District (INCD5) - issued such a challenge. I accepted. I have received no reply. There are several possible reasons: his stands on…

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Added by Mark Small on April 2, 2020 at 8:49pm — No Comments

I accept Kent Abernathy's challenge to debate!

One of my opponents in the June 2 GOP primary for U.S. House in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District (INCD5), is Kent Abernathy, who apparently issued a challenge to any candidate who wants to debate him.

I accept that challenge - and we can debate via Skype or Zoom or one of those devices. If any other candidate accepts the challenge, I don’t believe it would be much of a “debate.” Implicit in the notion of a debate is a clash on issues.

The other candidates for the GOP nomination…

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Added by Mark Small on March 31, 2020 at 8:02am — No Comments

"Cease & desist letter" from trump = negation of free speech

The re-election campaign for trump has issued a cease and desist letter to stop a TV ad that uses trump’s own words to illustrate how trump has bungled the COVID-19 pandemic by downplaying its seriousness.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market...” 250 U.S. at 630. trump speaks of, yet mocks, “truth” and is ignorant of the marketplace.

The First Amendment’s protection of free…

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Added by Mark Small on March 26, 2020 at 3:29pm — No Comments

Ineptitude of trump means more people will die

Devotion to ignorance in the face of fact - scientific or other - marks the current administration. trump lied yesterday when he said no one could have anticipated this pandemic. In fact the Obama administration HAD anticipated it.

And trump then dismantled the framework that had been established to address a pandemic, going so far as to eliminate the job of the person who - this is “on point” - monitored health crises in China.

I cannot be so cynical as to suggest voters who…

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Added by Mark Small on March 25, 2020 at 6:50am — 1 Comment

Reject the failed policies of this GOP leadership

Anti-science, anti-humanity and absorption with absurd ideas rejected long ago - these forces coalesced in this administration and Indiana’s primary elections have been kicked back to June 2. This administration bungled the COVID-19 crisis.

IF: you live in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District (INCD5), your vote can make a difference. ALL of the other candidates for the GOP nomination advocate the same failed policies of the past three years. trump has told States should find supplies…

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Added by Mark Small on March 22, 2020 at 3:07pm — No Comments

Do the math: crossovers + others = I can win.

Indiana will hold its primary elections May 5 - unless our system is dead, and w/Cap’n Clueless at the helm, that is a possibility. IF: you live in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District (INCD5), your vote can make a difference.

Indiana’s primaries: quasi-open. A registered voter may request the ballot of either major party and vote. A voter overcomes challenge as a “real” R or D if s/he says s/he voted for a majority of the party’s nominees in the last election or promises to vote for a…

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Added by Mark Small on March 20, 2020 at 8:16am — No Comments

My reply to the hate group NumbersUSA

I have received communications from various groups since I am a candidate for U.S. House. This is my reply to one such group.

To: Greg Sorbon, NumbersUSA

I received your e-mail and surveys in regard to immigration. I cannot thank you for your inquiries. However, I shall reply. Numbers USA has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

After review of NumbersUSA’s policy positions and history, I agree with that assessment. John Tanton played 3-card Monte…

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Added by Mark Small on March 18, 2020 at 8:16pm — No Comments

GOP candidates who support trump are irresponsible

We face an economic depression, something few today have lived through, caused by this administration’s bungling of the pandemic. We now face 20 percent unemployment. How fitting that trump was ignorant of Nero fiddling as Rome burned.

trump, in varied turns, denied COVID-19 was a threat; said we had very few cases; we had cases but his actions would head off crisis; there might be a crisis, but it will be very short; the crisis will last a couple of months.

trump: blew off how…

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Added by Mark Small on March 18, 2020 at 7:03am — 1 Comment

We need to study gun violence as a health issue.

The past few days the parking lot of a gun store/shooting range I pass going to the post office has been full. On-line and on the news, lines outside gun stores have been long. We have a pandemic - guns aren’t effective against viruses. What’s the deal?

The Second Amendment states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Guns don’t solve, but create, problems.

The Court has…

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Added by Mark Small on March 17, 2020 at 7:33am — No Comments

Tonight's GOP town hall for candidates in INCD5. Fun?:

Tonight at 7 p.m. IndianaTownHalls.org will live stream a gathering of 14 of the candidates for the Republican nomination for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. Each of the 14 provided a biography, limited to 200 words. I am one of the 14.

Given the request for a “biography,” the limit of 200 words and no direction to give statements on issues, one can understand why some candidates give little or no indication of their stands on issues. I shall try to summarize candidate positions…

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Added by Mark Small on March 16, 2020 at 7:53am — 1 Comment

Other GOP candidates mistake trump for Jesus - I'm anti-dt.

A “conservative” is a person who believes in traditional values. Neither the leadership of today’s Republican Party - a/k/a GOP - nor any of my 15 opponents in the May 5 GOP primary for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District is conservative.

Both GOP leadership and my opponents confuse the current occupant of the Oval Office - I refer to him by lower-case initials; I’d just as soon write “Voldemort” but don’t want to malign Death Eaters - with Jesus.

dt is hardly a Christian (but…

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Added by Mark Small on March 15, 2020 at 7:40am — No Comments

If you support "original intent" then you have to be pro-choice (like me)

Several cards postcards, with different return addresses but identical in font and text have arrived in the mail, since I am a candidate in the GOP primary for United States House of Representatives in Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District.

In relevant part they state: “All elected officials have a solemn responsibility to defend the Sanctity of Life and protect the unborn. That’s why I urge you to pledge 100% support for the Sanctity of Life on the Candidate Survey you recently…

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Added by Mark Small on March 8, 2020 at 1:36pm — 2 Comments

STOP welfare for the rich - i.e., subsidies for professional sports

People never complain about “welfare” for the rich. When we toss money at the rich, it is invested overseas and only makes the rich more reliant on that pipeline of money. One such area of welfare is professional sports.

Each major professional sports league constitutes an oligopoly: “Control or domination of a market by a few large sellers, creating high prices and low output similar to those found in a monopoly.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 10th ed., 2014, p. 1260.

In 1922, the…

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Added by Mark Small on March 6, 2020 at 3:29pm — No Comments

In Indiana's May 5 primary I do not seek the votes of bigots & racists

Attention! Voters in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District who never have voted in a primary or general election; who requested a Republican (“GOP”) ballot in previous primaries; or have requested a Democratic Party ballot in past primaries elections - I speak to you!

A registered voter can request a primary ballot of either party in early voting or at the polls on May 5. I run as a Republican because for too long progressives have sat back as stupidity, ignorance & hatred in the…

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Added by Mark Small on March 6, 2020 at 7:19am — No Comments

TIFs: fiscal cancer that only Federal legislation can excise.

Cancer a boring topic? Not people who have it. We all face a fiscal cancer that Federal legislation should ban. TIFs - Tax Increment Financing Districts - were created in California in the 1950s to develop urban wastelands.

TIFs arose from the notion that where the free market could not lure development, government bonds could be issued to spur that development. TIFs are a variation of the old con game of “blue sky”: & the bait works.

TIFs: a line is drawn around an area to be…

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Added by Mark Small on March 1, 2020 at 7:31pm — No Comments

I cannot attend today's GOP Howard County breakfast: GOP is not conservative

To: Mike Karickhoff, Howard County Republican Party

I cannot attend this morning’s Howard County Republican Party breakfast/candidate forum for GOP candidates for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. There are several matters in the program as announced I find anti-GOP, anti-conservative, counter to The Constitution, and unacceptable.

First, at 8:40 there is to be “Prayer, Pledge, Sponsor recognition.” This is a secular society with people of many faiths and many beliefs about our…

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Added by Mark Small on February 29, 2020 at 7:54am — No Comments

Outrageous: vaccine only to those who can afford it

Alex Azar, II, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, asked if the administration could guarantee corona virus vaccine would be affordable to all: “I’m saying we would want to work to make it affordable but we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest ... price controls don’t get us there.”

This is “free market” theory whipped into an absurd warp drive: only those who can afford a vaccine will have access to it. Even if HHS or dt or whomever pulls back…

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Added by Mark Small on February 28, 2020 at 6:57am — No Comments

KKK: unite in calling it a hate organization.

KKK: 1920, D.C. Stephenson moved to Indiana, ran for Congress as a Democrat, lost, then joined the KKK. “He was an eloquent speaker, with a powerful personality and great magnetism.” He was assigned to organize KKK. Leibowitz, “My Indiana,” 1964, pp. 192-93.

KKK “principally backed Republicans (because they were generally in control)” but found support in both parties; at its peak, nearly 500,000 Hoosiers belonged to the KKK. Stephenson bragged he delivered KKK (winning) votes in the…

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Added by Mark Small on February 25, 2020 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

Fiscally prudent suggestions for health care system

When I was a kid, I heard a trucking company owner talk about how he started, and in the early days learned to improve, his business. One of the most important things he did was to follow competitors’ trucks to see what they did differently.

Years later, as a law clerk, I was in Las Vegas for a pre-trial conference on a case. Afterward, still in a three-piece suit, I was in the sports book at Bally’s. The floor boss came up to me and wanted to know where I was from.

Turned out only…

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Added by Mark Small on February 25, 2020 at 6:53am — No Comments

If Rev Beckwith understands debate as little as he understands American history and the Constitution, it's natural he hasn't responded to my call for a debate..

Rev Micah Beckwith, one of my opponents n the May 5 GOP primary for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, has shot several videos while driving around. One such video, dated October 24, 2019, after he decided to run, is titled “The Church’s role in politics.”

In that video he claims that those who say there is a wall of separation between church and State just don’t know our history. He quotes Thomas Jefferson a couple of times for the notion that “the church” provides the morality…

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Added by Mark Small on February 24, 2020 at 9:30am — No Comments

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