When The 'The Shoe' Doesn't Fit

The release in April by The Ohio State University of its top earners, 13 of whom pull in more than $1 million per year, will impress many who see seven-figure salaries and figure a big, nationally recognized public university like OSU is doing what it has to to compete for top talent.

At the same time salaries for public employees like head football and basketball coaches dwarf that of OSU's actual president by millions, the average student debt for OSU graduates is approximately $27,336 after four years, a tidy sum that puts the pressure on those graduates to find jobs to pay it all back while also affording a life outside their parent's basements. The burden of student loans, which by law cannot be refinanced at lower interest rates, prevents these newly minted graduates from participating as good consumers by buying cars or homes because they don't have the disposable cash.

Data released by OSU shows how misplaced the university's priorities have come to be: head football coach Urban Meyer rakes in $4.61 million in salary and bonus pay. Urban is followed by men's basketball coach, Thad Matta, at $3.39 million. OSU President Michael Drake, by contrast, earns a paltry $1.04 million, which includes a $204,000 bonus. In the mightiest of all departments at OSU, athletics, Director Gene Smith won't have to worry where his next meal is coming from with a yearly income draw of $1.98 million.

Student athletes, the ones who win the big games and whose performance nets hundreds of millions into Scarlet and Green coffers, are unpaid. Paying them like any university employee would be the right thing to do in light of what they do to further the brand and create revenue, but the long-standing taboo that shrouds amateur athletes remains strong, even though coaches' salaries is a point of commercial pride for their respective universities.

Ohio remains above average in college costs, as college boards raise tuition whenever the legislature lets them. Gov. John Kasich, aided by his fiscal conservatives in Ohio's GOP-led General Assembly, stemmed cut back on funding public colleges, which only motivates trustees to mind the gap by raising fees and tuition when they can.

And since Gov. Kasich can't produce enough jobs, even with his so-called friendly attitude toward business, the ones he does take credit for are jobs that mostly pay minimum wage, guaranteeing those job holders need to find other incomes sources to make ends meet each month. Ohio's lame-duck CEO has consistently under performed the national job creation average for over 50 straights months, so while it sounds impressive when he says he's overseen the creation of 460,000 jobs, some of them came on the heels of former Gov. Ted Strickland leaving office, while the rest have trickled over the last six years.

Ohio ranks in the bottom half of states in job creation, according to the W.P Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, a well respected national analyst of how well states perform in economics.

It's no wonder that Ohio suffers from a so-called "brain drain" as students get their K-12 education here, then move to states where good-paying jobs are being created, like California, a favorite whipping boy for Kasich who mocks it as a "whackadoodle" state, which under Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and a Democratic legislature has turned into a leading job creator. In other categories, like green energy jobs, the Golden State is truly golden compared to Ohio that once had the nation's most advanced energy portfolio but squandered it as Gov. Kasich called for a reset.

John Kasich has bemoaned the fact that Ohio has plenty of jobs but is wanting in applicants with the right skill set to fill them. As Dean Baker at the Economic Policy Institute argues, those jobs would be filled if wages offered were higher. Who wants to work for low pay when they have skills that should command higher wages? But wages are not rising, having been essentially stagnant for 30 years. If skilled workers are in demand, they would be seeing it in their paychecks, but that's not happening. So Gov. Kasich's claim that more training is needed is politically artful but bogus.

Instead of standing up to the wasteful spending of tens of billions of dollars in for-profit charter schools that mostly perform below the worse public schools, Mr. Kasich should look to Ohio's future, if it's an educated workforce he wants. He should change course 180 degrees and renew funding to Ohio's still unconstitutional system of public education, including boosting funding for public colleges and universities.

Instead of paying outrageous sums to individuals who have as many hours in their day as anyone else, and who are now leasing out assets for decades in exchange for a fistful of dollars now—sold in part to help boost student scholarships—to offset the funding Camp Kasich isn't giving them, Ohio lawmakers should go back to what made Ohio great in the first place: public funding for important core public needs like a quality education and functional infrastructure. But that's unlikely as Ohio's 69th governor has more important spending priorities like funding income tax cuts for the wealthiest, a manifestation of his ideology to wean groups and individuals off pubic assistance. But after decades of demonizing government as spendthrifts and bureaucrats dismissive of local needs, the emphasis remains to allow private sector corporations to rob workers of high payer. With profits at record levels and tax rates at record low levels, returning value to shareholders is the best and highest use of after expense profits for governors like Mr. Kasich who want to work "at the speed of business." The cost of labor is to be minimized like any other business expense.

Speaking in Columbus Thursday, urban soothsayer Richard Florida, author of "The Creative Class," told an audience at the Mershon Auditorium at Ohio State University that ""I think we need to understand that we as a society are not going to function well if we don't pay people a living wage," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Who wouldn't want to make a million or more per year of income? The question should be, when will austerity politicians wise up to the fact that their plans to create a livable society has failed miserably? The downhill slide started with President Ronald Reagan, who famously said government isn't the solution, it's the problem. Tax shifting that creates more income inequality may result in big pay for university honchos, but it only pounds another nail into the coffin of workers who wonder if they'll have a job tomorrow, and what it will pay when compared to the cost of a robot working 24/7 forever, without need of shelter, food, healthcare or retirement income.

If 1,000 people were stopped on the street at random and asked to give their first thought about The Ohio State University, the odds are better than great that they would mention the glorious history over time for the men of the scarlet and gray. The stadium where the men's football team plays home games, built in the 1920's with an eye to the future, has been dubbed "The Shoe" since it resemblance a horseshoe. It seats more than 100,000 clamoring fans who pay big bucks to watch the current coach lead his team to victory, and maybe even a national championship.

Maybe thinking outside "The Shoe" for a change is what's needed in light of the pay scale at OSU? And maybe, just maybe, this shoe shouldn't fit anymore. With concussions on the rise, can anyone imagine a day when men's football is divorced from university academics? In other countries, soccer teams are run like clubs. When students go to Oxford or Cambridge or any other great world university outside America, they don't go there because these institutions of higher learning have a great sports team.

Isn't the education, stupid, that should count, not whether OSU beat Michigan this year or not.

Will 'Trumpcare' Bring Back Bake Sales To Pay For Health Care?

President Donald Trump finally got his first big legislative win recently, when by one vote extra House Republicans passed what is now labeled Trumpcare, a bill so bad that it had no hearings, was never "scored" by the Congressional Budget Office, and few GOP backers could say they actually plowed through its 1,800 pages of legalese that will shock many voters who voted for The Donald thinking he was their Messiah.

On HBO last Friday, political comedian Bill Maher mused that California's law permitting medical marijuana could be the only treatment Sunshine State residents will have access to, if and when the badly botched bill House Speaker Paul Ryan's Majority Caucus voted for ever becomes law, which could be a pipe dream now that Senate Republicans say they'll start from scratch to craft their own version.

Bringing Back Bake Sales?

At the end of each of the major news networks' evening news programs is a segment on people doing good things or overcoming hurdles so high they were once thought insurmountable. The names of these human interest story segments range from Inspiring America to America Strong to On The Road. Before President Barack Obama's signature health law, The Patient Protection and Affordability Act, became law in early 2010, it wasn't uncommon for local or national news programs to feature bake sales as one way parents at their wits end thought of paying for someones costly procedure to keep them alive.

With Trumpcare on the march, is it premature to ask whether the era of the bake sales as a viable alternative to the affordable health care provided by the ACA has returned. Brownies, cookies and cakes baked by loving moms and dads to come up with the cash it costs in America to treat severe illness brings many a tear to many eyes who think its so inspiring that people come together to purchase sugary treats in order to pay the bills for treatments and procedures that in America cost far more than they do anywhere else around the world. where holding a bake sale would be considered a preposterous alternative to universal, single-payer health care.

If people can't afford the cost of health insurance, they shouldn't be entitled to it, is the thinking by many social and fiscal conservatives who believe when it comes to whether health care in America it's a privilege not a basic right. Most advanced countries have already decided it's a right, and built their health care system around that conclusion. American exceptionalism is exceptional in that it sometimes ignores the wisdom of the world as it meanders down a long and winding path that leads more of than not to heartache and despair for many who haven't feathered their nest as thoroughly as Donald Trump and his close cohorts have.

Bake Sales In Ohio?

In Ohio, the perfect storm delivered by Trumpcare will leave 900,000 Buckeyes at risk of losing coverage under the newly-passed House Republican healthcare plan. Another 200,000, the number of Ohioans currently receiving care for opioid addictions, could also lose coverage. Equally discouraging is a list of 90 pre-existing conditions that will leave many hurting, now that states can opt out of requiring for-profit health insurers from covering them.

On the right side of history and morality, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said these pre-existing offer insurance companies 90 reasons to discriminate by denying coverage or making it so costly as to be unaffordable. According to Sen. Brown, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates roughly 28 percent of non-elderly Ohioans had pre-existing conditions covered under the Affordable Care Act in 2015.

"That's over 1.9 million people in Ohio alone who stand to see their premiums soar because of conditions for which they desperately need care," Brown said in prepared remarks following the passage of Trumpcare in the House.

In another call for sanity, The Center for Community Solutions has analyzed Trumpcare and determined that Ohio could lose $16 billion to $22 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next six years if the bill in its present form becomes law.

What hope there is for a better ending to the tale Trump and Ryan bragged about last week, that puts 26 million in harms way, relies on a sensible Senate trashing Trumpcare and starting over with one that keeps and improves on the ACA, as a growing majority of Americans now want to do. Should Trumpcare become law in any form that resembles Trumpcare today, the hope is that the warning issued by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last week, that voting for this bad bill will become a tattoo on Republican foreheads that "glows in the dark" in 2018 and 2020 comes true.

Democrats have lost so many legislative seats and governors chairs over the last eight years that it seems a dream that they can come back from the dead. But with Trumpcare as flawed as it it, the golden opportunity to right the ship of state so that bake sales don't return as a way to pay for keeping people healthy and alive is an open door Democrats need to walk through, if they can.

Can Republicans whose cold-hearted thoughtlessness on what ails the nation stands naked for all to see actually be turned out in sufficient numbers in two years that they lose control of the House and Senate in two years? Does a similar fate await the current occupant of the White House in 2020? Republicans have produced a poorly baked plan. Democrats must rebake it so the era of bake sales become a thing of the past.

Kasich Escapes 'Un-Mahered' To End Book Tour Junket

Ohio Governor John Kasich ended his national book tour with a guest appearance on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

In Los Angeles to promote his book "Two Paths: Divided or United?" the governor, who last year got his "ass kicked" as show host Bill Maher described the beating he took after losing 49 GOP primaries and caucuses, turned in his best performance to date on why he's upset with both political parties, and why his voice on a variety of issues will continue to be heard even after he departs office in about 18 months.

Mr. Kasich's latest book was released in New York April 25, and since then he's been a guest on numerous political talk shows. Bill Maher is well known for his uncompromising criticism of Republicans, and so-called liberal Democrats like the "Bernie of bust" crew who didn't vote last year for Hillary Clinton, who beat their hero, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an avowed Democratic Socialist.

"Liberals, who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary cause she was the lesser of two evils, quite a bit lesser, wouldn’t you say now?" Maher tweeted out.

By the end of the opening segment featuring Kasich, Bill Maher was actually applauded Kasich for his well-worn statements about why he wants to re-define Republicanism around his own issues and history, then urging him on to take on President Trump again in 2020.

One of America's leading proponents of legalizing marijuana for recreation use, Maher joked early on that "Good thing California has Medical Marijuana, cause when the Republicans get rid of Heath Care that’s the only treatment you’re going to have." He put Ohio's term-limited, lame-duck governor on the ropes early by trying to compliment him for being for medical marijuana, which voters approved last year that is still a far cry from legalization by other states like Colorado , Maine and Washington. Gov. Kasich did his best to void saying "yes" when asked if he supported it, pivoting immediately to his preferred narrative about opioid deaths and children using drugs, and how marijuana plays a roll, minor as it is, in this crisis where Ohio leads the nation in deaths per day with about eight.

Asked by Maher to choose between whether health care was a right or a product, Mr. Kasich, who has won attention by defending Medicaid expansion even though he would fundamentally repeal and replace Obamacare, said he thought it was a right, but again went into rhetorical overdrive to explain why people shouldn't be allowed to lose health care coverage, even though most of the moderate Republicans he has talked to walked the plank on Friday to vote for Trumpcare, the White House's alternative to Obamacare that would toss as many as 26 million people off affordable health care rolls.

John Kasich has garnered the kind of national media attention from the promotion of the new book that he wanted to get last year, when he said he was like an "Uganda swimmer" in the Olympics whose best lane was the outside lane. Mr. Kasich does his best to criticize President Trump, including the president's negative and divisive tone.

While Gov. Kasich likes to say he doesn't plan to run for public office again, his on the road stops keep his hopes alive. Never say never, he says, adding that if duty calls, he might get back in the game, something he said he didn't think he would do after exiting politics for Lehman Brothers and the Fox News Channel back in 2000.

Bill Maher was way too accommodating to the governor, whose job approval rating has plummeted to 42 percent in the last Gravis Marketing poll. Gov. Kasich had a chance to be an independent candidate last year, but said the time wasn't right. The right time for Mr. Kasich may never come again once he wanders off the political radar screen for the political graveyard or another chance to be a talking head on TV.

Flawed Ohio Poll Raises Red Flags

A new poll focused on Ohio, performed by Gravis Marketing, shows red flags flying for some of Ohio's biggest political personalities. The nonpartisan research firm, whose polling performance in the past has been criticized for inaccuracy, surveyed 1,352 registered voters across Ohio, with respondents leaning Republican versus Democrat 686 to 558, respectively.

Even though Gravis has come under fire by some as "the worst poll in America," what it showed about Gov. John Kasich, Senator Sherrod Brown and others may be dismissed by some, given the level of trust many invested last year in two of the nation's best pollsters, Nate Silver and Charles Wang, who despite their earned reputations of excellence, were wildly off when it came to their predictions that Hillary Clinton would be elected president.

Kasich Crumbles

When the question was asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of Governor John Kasich’s job performance?" Ohio's traveling national chaplain and book salesman didn't fare well. Kasich's numbers were very bad in light of the poll leaning Republicans. Only 42 percent said they approve of his the great reformer's job performance, compared to 35 who disapproved and another 23 percent who are uncertain. Mr. Kasich has long enjoyed media repeating the narrative that he's a popular, moderate governor, when in reality he's underwater with his own party, and based on the bills he's signed into law that hurt women, turn a blind eye to billions wasted on poor performing for-profit charter schools and the theft of billions in local government and school funds, he's not even moderate.

Even hometown Republicans rained on Kasich's parade. Third Base Politics reported on Kasich's fall from grace this way: "It appears that his approval rating has taken a huge hit as a result of his weeks-long
2020 presidential campaign book tour out of state, combined with his insufferable preaching about how he was the only reasonable alternative to Trump."

Brown Down

When a similar question was asked about Senator Sherrod Brown, who is running for a third term next year, his job performance approval came in at 32 percent, with 36 percent disapproving and 32 percent uncertain. Sen. Brown is expected to face Josh Mandel, Ohio's term-limited state treasurer who many believe will eventually become the Republican nominee. Brown beat Mandel in 2012 to win a second term in Washington. In that match up, Mandel edges past Brown 45 percent to 42 percent with 13 percent uncertain. When the match up is Brown versus Congressman Pat Tiberi, Brown edges out the nine-term congressman 43 percent to 41 percent.

A figure the Ohio Democratic Party might want to digest with some Maalox is the 39 percent who plan to vote in the primary next year. Republicans can smile as 53 percent of their base said they will vote in the 2018 primary.

Based on Democrats who have declared their candidacy for the open governor's seat in 2018, 67 percent of respondents are uncertain if their choices are Betty Sutton [13%], Joe Schiavoni [12%] or Connie Pillich [8%].

On the Republican ledger, 40 percent are uncertain in a four-person field of Mike DeWine [31%], Jon Husted [14%], Jim Renacci [6%] and Mary Taylor [10%].

This poll by Gravis Marketing may have oversampled Republicans versus Democrats, a legitimate criticism some have pointed out, but it shows that races for senator and governor next year won't be a runaway for any candidate in the primaries or in the general election that follows. Digest it with a grain of salt as flawed as it is, but make no mistake, red flags are flying high for some if circumstances don't dramatically change between now and then.

Kasich Sleeps As Hedge Fund Fees Gobble Up Pension Fund Bucks

It's a story that's been buried so deep for so long by Ohio media that the hedge fund burglars at the heart of milking and bilking Ohio's retirement pension funds can operate in the shadows without fear of the sun shining on them.

The degree of in-plain-sight theft of state pension funds going to hedgefund investment adviser fees is off the charts. But for reporting by Plunderbund and a former statehouse reporter who has no fear of taking on Ohio Gov. John Kasich and state lawmakers for their help in siphoning off mountains of money that should be going to retirees but are instead going to high-paid brokers who deliver poor results, media has largely been blind to the robbery taking place for all to see.

Bilking The Pension Cow

John Damschroder, a Fremont resident who worked in Gov. George Voinovich’s administration and now writes about business and economic development in Sandusky County, has been the thought leader of the robbery of pension fund bucks that grew and come to full bloom under the nose of Ohio's now term-limited CEO. Before John Kasich was elected governor in 2010, he had worked for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street for six years, during which time he was a central figure in case of his employer losing about $400 million in bad investments that happened because he was a door-opener or rainmaker, as the industry calls former lawmakers who turn to lobbying.

In one of his opinion pieces about how off-kilter pension fund investing has been since Mr. Kasich took the state reigns, Damschroder notes the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio announced plans to cut its investment return assumptions from the 7.75 percent annual projection currently used. The teachers, he said, now join the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System and the Ohio School Employees Retirement System in trimming a half percent from investment return assumptions. 

"The combined holdings of these Ohio public pension funds is $170 billion, so the half-percent adjustment means the state acknowledges an $850 million additional annual increase to the unfunded liability of the retirement systems."

Pushing back on the crafted narrative that people living longer lives is the underlying problem with contributions and disbursements over time, research by Damschroder shows that Ohio has become the largest source of alternative investment funding, a fact, he says, that "has made Wall Street wizards rich on annual fees that totaled $734 million last year alone." Based on his reporting at the News-Messenger in Fremont, STRS and OPERS both earned less than 1 percent last year and ended the year with less money than they started with. "To compound the irresponsibility, leadership of both retirement systems wrote to this newspaper professing financial strength, while these sub-par results were known to them but still unknown to us."

Last fall Plunderbund also sounded the siren on what hedge fund managers are doing to bilk pension funds. A month later, Christopher Mabe, a Corrections Sergeant at the Lorain Correctional Institution and President of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, was recently elected to fill one of four seats on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System. 

In a statement on his role on the OPERS board, Mr. Mabe said, "Rest assured, as a 25-year employee with the Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Correction, I will fight night and day to protect our pensions so that you, me and the generations that follow us, can retire with dignity and security, too! Thank you for having the faith in me to be your voice."

Ohio’s retirement investment expenses are exponentially larger than either of the options that were once the standards proscribed by state law, Damschroder from Fremont wrote. "The bitter irony to this story is that self-described conservatives presided over the change in law that opened the door to reckless retirement investing and who acted upon the power to plunge into illiquid high cost investments despite the lesson from the BWC Coingate fiasco."

Damschroder's concern is simple, something conservatives, especially Republican conservatives should know after decades of preaching about government excess. "The current silence on this true state government outrage is as shocking and as troubling as the blunders that caused the problem and denials when the issue is raised," he wrote, adding, "It’s as if Ohio pensioners, media and voters no longer expect basic competence and candor from state government. If that doesn’t change, this is just the start of our problems in Ohio."

Kasich's High Note

Gov. Kasich is taking bows for expanding Medicaid, a federal-state program for the poor that he would limit access to if he had his way. Because he's one of the handful of Republican governor who opted to take billions from Washington when most other Republican governors said no, Mr. Kasich is enjoying the plaudits of Democrats for being principled. None of these Democrats so far have taken him to the woodshed on his turning a blind eye to the rapacious methods used by Wall Street bankers to hoodwink state pension funds, at the expense of state pension retirees.

If Gov. Kasich was a real conservative out to ferret out wasteful government spending, he could mount an attack on hedge fund managers and their exorbitant fees that produce lower returns than traditional investments, and on the tens of billions he's spent in failing for-profit schools. He could end his legacy on a high note instead of the low note he's destined to leave office with.

-->

Are Bumblebees Smarter Than Democrats?

For news of the weird fans, here's an oddball headline about what small brains can do that has political overtones for large-brained animals: Are Bumblebees Smarter Than Democrats?

Observable history tells us that Hillary Clinton lost the presidential race last year because tens of thousands of Democrats, especially in three key states—Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—turned out to vote but decided not to vote for the Democratic nominee for president.

Had they voted for Mrs. Clinton when they were at the polls voting for other offices, she would be president now, not Republican-in-name-only Donald John Trump, who upended all former traditional notions of political science.

So it begs the question, if so-called Democrats didn't know enough to vote for their party's nominee last year, especially in light of who Donald Trump showed himself to be from 2015 until Election Day, why should they be expected to vote for any Democratic nominee for any office, great or small, in any future election?

Buzz This

Meanwhile, in bumblebee world, an insect with a very tiny brain has learned how to push a ball to the center of a platform in order to retrieve a sugary treat, the New York Times reports. Bumblebees can do what Democrats seem unable to do to retrieve their sugary treat. We are told, based on this experiment, that scientists better understand the complex workings of insect brains.

As the NYT notes, "The new research finding is one more reason that scientists who study insects, of all sorts, would like to point out that just because a brain is small, doesn’t mean it is simple."

For whomever becomes the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, February, 25, with expectations of herding Democrats and those who identify with Democratic principles and values to vote for their candidate when they have a chance, if bumblebees are more trainable than Democratic base voters, the future of the Democrat beehive won't be full of sugary treats like winning Congress or the White House.

Will news about intelligence in bee world create a buzz about what big-brained mammals can do in people world?
-->

OpEdiTude: Finding His Real Purpose In Life

"My purpose is to serve the Lord," Gov. John Kasich repeated yet again this week, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. "My purpose is to try to live a life a little bigger than myself."

Jesus Christ, John, you're not running for National Chaplin, so give the God thing a rest already. You had a chance early in life to serve the Lord, but you ditched Him for a long career in politics that's made you very rich and a legend in your own mind.

If at the ripe old age of 64 you still don't know what your purpose in life is, who's fault is that? Here's a start: Your purpose for the last two years of your final 4-year term as state leader is to not screw things up any more than you already have, which has been a lot so far, as only God and those who pay close attention know.

Your Master didn't want you to be elected president, so you can erase that big one purpose from your chalk board of bigger than life purposes. And for obvious reasons The Lord didn't want you to join the Trump Administration, so erase that one, too.

Is your real purpose to fade into history sitting on your back porch waiting for the Lord to send you a sign about what to do after 2018, when your two terms as Governor of Ohio ends? Not likely since your ego has always been a little bigger than yourself.

Is your real purpose to go back into the media world, the industry that lost all credibility this year because it couldn't tell the difference between fake and real news? Roger Ailes, your former aggressively horny but now disgraced employer, is gone at Fox News, but you can probably nab yourself another lucrative post-public-service, know-nothing spot being the petulant adolescent you've earned a well-deserved reputation for from those left running the most unfair and unbalanced network in the world.

Is your real purpose to go back to being a salesman on Wall Street, like you were at Lehman Brothers, where as a rainmaker you expected doors to open so your team members could milk and bilk taxpayers, as you helped make possible with Ohio's retirement systems that lost bigly from bad deals you helped match make? Now that you've tasted the sweet fruit of CEO world for almost eight years, it's unappetizing to go back to being just an employee for someone else more powerful who gives you orders and expects to carry them out.

Is your real purpose in life to continue your Quixotic quest for a federal balanced budget amendment? You'll be off the taxpayers dime, so you'll travel without a cadre of state funded police protection and have to foot the bill for expenses along the way. You didn't have much money in your presidential run, and that's when you were governor, so it's not likely the flood gates of funding will open for you when you're out of office, operating on a smile and a shoeshine like Willy Loman.

Is your real purpose in life to finagle moving Michael Drake out of the president's office at your Alma mater, OSU, so you can take it over, making some real money again in the process, moving your team from state to OSU, marketing the university with tentacles around the world and delivering a homily to each graduating class of 10,000 or more? Word is that, while you will have appointed most of the members of OSU's board of trustees, they aren't keen on you being president.

Is your real purpose in life to write yet another book that cunningly associates you with people who have done wonderful things? You've stood for something your entire political life, but what you've stood for other than making life difficult for everyone but yourself has escaped most of us.

Is your real purpose in life to lay a plan for your return in 2020, when you'll be as old as Hillary Clinton was this year, mostly out of sight and mind, with President Trump ready to obliterate anyone who dares think they can topple the Great Donald? Good luck with floating your presidential prospects in four years.

Is your real purpose in life to actual run a business, something you talk about but have never done yourself? Be a reak CEO again, but of your own profit-making business, not some grifter's think-tank or policy institute that survives on rich people's money to continue ideas and programs that benefit the few while leaving the many with loaves of bread and fish. Jesus took a few fish and loaves of bread and multiplied them for the hungry masses. Your political ideology always wants to reduce food for the hungry so they get weaned off of being too dependent on government handouts when they need help the most.

Is your real purpose in life to take on Josh Mandel, and maybe your former driver, Pat Tiberi, in the Republican primary in 2018 to see who survives to then take on Sherrod Brown for Senator? Mandel, the former Marine who spent $40 million to take out Brown in a losing campaign in 2012, will cut your heart out without wincing once. If you choose that purpose in life and survive, Sherrod Brown won't be Ted Strickland. You'll have your eight years of bad governance to defend, and Brown won't let you do to him what Strickland let happen in 2010 and this year.

Is your real purpose in life to to give back to schools and local governments the billions you stole from them in your first terrible budget? That would be a good start in confessing your sins as governor. Remember, not stealing is one of the Ten Commandments.

Is your real purpose in life to stop closing abortion clinics for women who need them? In case you missed it, Pope Francis just said that anyone, even a woman who's had an abortion or a doctor who helped her, can be forgiven by God if they are truly repentant.

Maybe your real purpose in life should be to confess all your sins to your Master, then beg for forgiveness and grace. There's hope for you after all, but you just have to ask for it.

You asking for forgiveness would truly be living a life a little bigger than yourself.

OpEdiTude: An op-ed with attitude, meant strictly to reflect the opinion of the author.

OpEditude: Clinton's 'Careless' Email Record Versus Illegal Actions By GOP Presidents

It's hard to recall any Republicans saying a discouraging word at the time about President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's federal crimes of lying about information they had about Iraq's involvement in the 911 attacks, and ginning up information they didn't have, that opened the door to war on Iraq. 

It's hard to recall those media reports of Republicans taking the Bush White House and Administration to task because there weren't any. Like a wagon train under attack, Republicans formed a circle around the Bush administration's criminal actions to take America into a war of political convenience against a nation that wasn't involved in the attacks carried out on September 11, 2001 in New York city. President Bush the Junior, our 43rd Commander-in-Chief, has cost this nation trillions in taxpayer funds so far with more to come since soldiers are still stuck there due to the deal George W. Bush cut with new Iraq leaders who wouldn't give immunity to actions committed by American Soldiers. Obama inherited Bush's exit agreement, and has done the best he can with a bad hand.

Not learning from former Republicans' illegal and costly mistakes, Republicans and their all-but crowned presidential nominee, Donald Trump, are raring to go to gin up another costly war, this time the pretext is defeat ISIS. Saddan Hussein was a brutal dictators, as most dictators throughout history have been, but he kept tight control on his Shiite citizens, who now control Iraq courtesy of Bush totally misunderstanding that religious sects don't really care about democracy. They don't hate us for our liberty and rules of law, as Republican neocons would have us believe. The west has been playing in their religious sandbox for decades, and Bush letting the furies of hell lose was the opportunity Shiites saw to persecute Sunnis. Catholics and Protestants warred against each other for centuries, and Shiites and Sunnis have been at it since the death of Mohammed in 632 A.D. Little has changed since.

Thousands of dead American soldiers and tens of thousands more who returned home wounded or maimed by a senseless war that in another era might have seen the powers behind such a ruthless agenda go to jail or meet their maker, is America's reward for allowing brazen rulers like George Bush and Dick Cheney to go unchallenged and unjailed.

With the news that FBI Director James Comey did not recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton's "careless" misuse of state department emails, which contained various levels of classified information, Republicans have hyperventilated that the Clinton's, this time Hillary, skirted laws again that have ensnared other lesser officials.

Discouraging as it may sound to Republicans, who despite one exhaustive report after another that cleared her of any legitimate crimes allegedly committed, this report from Director Comey again found Mrs. Clinton was not out to sabotage America as Trumpian Republicans accuse her of doing. Hillary Clinton's arrogance and carelessness maybe character flaws, but they are not federal crimes.

Shame: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, The Iraq War

Republicans have yet to apologize, let alone atone for George W. Bush's terrible, awful years in the White House. He left the nation with soaring job losses and an economic meltdown that nearly created a second Great Recession. But for a Democratic president who enjoyed a Democratic Congress for his first two years, GOP officials' austerity budgeting and misdirected tax programs would have paved the path to true economic devastation had they been the path pursued instead of the one approved by a Democratic congress that enabled President Obama to staunch the bleeding from dramatic job losses.

The stimulus package President Barack Obama proposed, that all Republicans obstructed at every turn and voted against, saved millions more jobs being lost by stabilizing state budgets, and saving an auto industry that Republicans like venture capitalist Mitt Romney, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Rob Portman, the Buckeye State's junior senator in Washington, would to a man have let disappear. Following their led would have caused economic hardships across the nation, and especially in auto parts-supply chain intense Ohio, that would have taken down America, then the world, in a spectacularly irresponsible way to gruesome to even contemplate. America is still paying the price for George Bush's war in Iraq 13 years later.

Shame: Dick Cheney, Energy Meeting Minutes, Karl Rove, Missing WH Emails

In today's digital era full of emails, Hillary Clinton using a private email server is not unique, given so many others, including top Republicans in former administrations, have done the same. Republicans were suspiciously silent when Vice President Cheney fought to keep records of his secret meetings with energy industry leaders at the White House from prying public eyes. When George W. Bush did leave the White House, tens of thousands of emails on a separate email system set up by White House officials, including Bush kingmaker Karl Rove, went missing. The GOP establishment wasn't at all concerned then on what they did, so why are they now so intent on seeing Hillary Clinton wearing government -issue pinstripes?

Shame: Richard M. Nixon, Watergate, Gerald R Ford

Republicans today should reflect but won't on the full pardon Richard M. Nixon received in 1974 from his then vice president, Gerald R. Ford. President Ford took the oath of office when President Nixon resigned his office as roads from the Watergate Hotel break-in two years earlier in 1972, which Mr. Nixon knew about even though he said he didn't, led directly into his Oval Office redoubt. For the good of the country, President Ford issued a full pardon for all offenses President Nixon committed against the United States so his illegal criminal actions could pass into history books. Mr. Ford justified this decision claiming that a long, drawn-out trial would only have further polarized the public.

Democrats could have turned Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon for violating the constitution into a national crisis. But they didn't. President Nixon's abuses did open the Pandora's Box of government distrust that haunts us to this day. After World War II, government was an asset, not an enemy as many today see it.

Shame: Ronald Reagan, Iran-Contra

Then there was the Great Communicator's administration in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan blatantly violated American law when he lied directly to the American public in a TV appearance about trading arms for hostages in what became known as the Iran-Contra affair. It was all true, as the nation learned later, but Republicans revere Ronald Reagan as a political saint to this day when he clearly wasn't. Democrats complained at the time, but The Gipper served out his term in Washington instead of a federal jail cell.

And how can Casper Weinberger, Reagan's secretary of defense, be forgotten? He participated in the transfer of United States Hawk and TOW missiles to Iran during the Iran–Contra affair. As history and Wikipedia tells us, Prosecutors brought an additional indictment against Weinberge four days before the 1992 presidential election that cited a Weinberger diary entry contradicting a claim made by President George H.W. Bush. Republicans claimed that it contributed to Bill Clinton beating President Bush. Weinberger dodged a bullet when a judge threw out the indictment on technical grounds. 

"Before he [Weinberger] could be tried on the original charges, he received a pardon from President George H. W. Bush, who was Reagan's vice president during the scandal, on December 24, 1992.

Careless: Hillary Clinton, Emails

If Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted for her email faux pas, as Republicans want and Donald Trump would do if elected president, appointing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to do the hunbting, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be dragged into federal court like Germans were dragged to Nuremberg to stand trial to answer for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Bush, Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condolezza Rice all intentional created catastrophic conditions that to this day still plague America, her allies and the world.

OpEditude: Clinton's 'Careless' Email Record Versus Illegal Actions By GOP Presidents

It's hard to recall any Republicans saying a discouraging word at the time about President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's federal crimes of lying about information they had about Iraq's involvement in the 911 attacks, and ginning up information they didn't have, that opened the door to war on Iraq. 

It's hard to recall those media reports of Republicans taking the Bush White House and Administration to task because there weren't any. Like a wagon train under attack, Republicans formed a circle around the Bush administration's criminal actions to take America into a war of political convenience against a nation that wasn't involved in the attacks carried out on September 11, 2001 in New York city. President Bush the Junior, our 43rd Commander-in-Chief, has cost this nation trillions in taxpayer funds so far with more to come since soldiers are still stuck there due to the deal George W. Bush cut with new Iraq leaders who wouldn't give immunity to actions committed by American Soldiers. Obama inherited Bush's exit agreement, and has done the best he can with a bad hand.

Not learning from former Republicans' illegal and costly mistakes, Republicans and their all-but crowned presidential nominee, Donald Trump, are raring to go to gin up another costly war, this time the pretext is defeat ISIS. Saddan Hussein was a brutal dictators, as most dictators throughout history have been, but he kept tight control on his Shiite citizens, who now control Iraq courtesy of Bush totally misunderstanding that religious sects don't really care about democracy. They don't hate us for our liberty and rules of law, as Republican neocons would have us believe. The west has been playing in their religious sandbox for decades, and Bush letting the furies of hell lose was the opportunity Shiites saw to persecute Sunnis. Catholics and Protestants warred against each other for centuries, and Shiites and Sunnis have been at it since the death of Mohammed in 632 A.D. Little has changed since.

Thousands of dead American soldiers and tens of thousands more who returned home wounded or maimed by a senseless war that in another era might have seen the powers behind such a ruthless agenda go to jail or meet their maker, is America's reward for allowing brazen rulers like George Bush and Dick Cheney to go unchallenged and unjailed.

With the news that FBI Director James Comey did not recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton's "careless" misuse of state department emails, which contained various levels of classified information, Republicans have hyperventilated that the Clinton's, this time Hillary, skirted laws again that have ensnared other lesser officials.

Discouraging as it may sound to Republicans, who despite one exhaustive report after another that cleared her of any legitimate crimes allegedly committed, this report from Director Comey again found Mrs. Clinton was not out to sabotage America as Trumpian Republicans accuse her of doing. Hillary Clinton's arrogance and carelessness maybe character flaws, but they are not federal crimes.

Shame: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, The Iraq War

Republicans have yet to apologize, let alone atone for George W. Bush's terrible, awful years in the White House. He left the nation with soaring job losses and an economic meltdown that nearly created a second Great Recession. But for a Democratic president who enjoyed a Democratic Congress for his first two years, GOP officials' austerity budgeting and misdirected tax programs would have paved the path to true economic devastation had they been the path pursued instead of the one approved by a Democratic congress that enabled President Obama to staunch the bleeding from dramatic job losses.

The stimulus package President Barack Obama proposed, that all Republicans obstructed at every turn and voted against, saved millions more jobs being lost by stabilizing state budgets, and saving an auto industry that Republicans like venture capitalist Mitt Romney, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Rob Portman, the Buckeye State's junior senator in Washington, would to a man have let disappear. Following their led would have caused economic hardships across the nation, and especially in auto parts-supply chain intense Ohio, that would have taken down America, then the world, in a spectacularly irresponsible way to gruesome to even contemplate. America is still paying the price for George Bush's war in Iraq 13 years later.

Shame: Dick Cheney, Energy Meeting Minutes, Karl Rove, Missing WH Emails

In today's digital era full of emails, Hillary Clinton using a private email server is not unique, given so many others, including top Republicans in former administrations, have done the same. Republicans were suspiciously silent when Vice President Cheney fought to keep records of his secret meetings with energy industry leaders at the White House from prying public eyes. When George W. Bush did leave the White House, tens of thousands of emails on a separate email system set up by White House officials, including Bush kingmaker Karl Rove, went missing. The GOP establishment wasn't at all concerned then on what they did, so why are they now so intent on seeing Hillary Clinton wearing government -issue pinstripes?

Shame: Richard M. Nixon, Watergate, Gerald R Ford

Republicans today should reflect but won't on the full pardon Richard M. Nixon received in 1974 from his then vice president, Gerald R. Ford. President Ford took the oath of office when President Nixon resigned his office as roads from the Watergate Hotel break-in two years earlier in 1972, which Mr. Nixon knew about even though he said he didn't, led directly into his Oval Office redoubt. For the good of the country, President Ford issued a full pardon for all offenses President Nixon committed against the United States so his illegal criminal actions could pass into history books. Mr. Ford justified this decision claiming that a long, drawn-out trial would only have further polarized the public.

Democrats could have turned Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon for violating the constitution into a national crisis. But they didn't. President Nixon's abuses did open the Pandora's Box of government distrust that haunts us to this day. After World War II, government was an asset, not an enemy as many today see it.

Shame: Ronald Reagan, Iran-Contra

Then there was the Great Communicator's administration in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan blatantly violated American law when he lied directly to the American public in a TV appearance about trading arms for hostages in what became known as the Iran-Contra affair. It was all true, as the nation learned later, but Republicans revere Ronald Reagan as a political saint to this day when he clearly wasn't. Democrats complained at the time, but The Gipper served out his term in Washington instead of a federal jail cell.

And how can Casper Weinberger, Reagan's secretary of defense, be forgotten? He participated in the transfer of United States Hawk and TOW missiles to Iran during the Iran–Contra affair. As history and Wikipedia tells us, Prosecutors brought an additional indictment against Weinberge four days before the 1992 presidential election that cited a Weinberger diary entry contradicting a claim made by President George H.W. Bush. Republicans claimed that it contributed to Bill Clinton beating President Bush. Weinberger dodged a bullet when a judge threw out the indictment on technical grounds. 

"Before he [Weinberger] could be tried on the original charges, he received a pardon from President George H. W. Bush, who was Reagan's vice president during the scandal, on December 24, 1992.

Careless: Hillary Clinton, Emails

If Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted for her email faux pas, as Republicans want and Donald Trump would do if elected president, appointing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to do the hunbting, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be dragged into federal court like Germans were dragged to Nuremberg to stand trial to answer for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Bush, Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condolezza Rice all intentional created catastrophic conditions that to this day still plague America, her allies and the world.

OpEditude: Clinton's 'Careless' Email Record Versus Illegal Actions By GOP Presidents

It's hard to recall any Republicans saying a discouraging word at the time about President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's federal crimes of lying about information they had about Iraq's involvement in the 911 attacks, and ginning up information they didn't have, that opened the door to war on Iraq. 

It's hard to recall those media reports of Republicans taking the Bush White House and Administration to task because there weren't any. Like a wagon train under attack, Republicans formed a circle around the Bush administration's criminal actions to take America into a war of political convenience against a nation that wasn't involved in the attacks carried out on September 11, 2001 in New York city. President Bush the Junior, our 43rd Commander-in-Chief, has cost this nation trillions in taxpayer funds so far with more to come since soldiers are still stuck there due to the deal George W. Bush cut with new Iraq leaders who wouldn't give immunity to actions committed by American Soldiers. Obama inherited Bush's exit agreement, and has done the best he can with a bad hand.

Not learning from former Republicans' illegal and costly mistakes, Republicans and their all-but crowned presidential nominee, Donald Trump, are raring to go to gin up another costly war, this time the pretext is defeat ISIS. Saddan Hussein was a brutal dictators, as most dictators throughout history have been, but he kept tight control on his Shiite citizens, who now control Iraq courtesy of Bush totally misunderstanding that religious sects don't really care about democracy. They don't hate us for our liberty and rules of law, as Republican neocons would have us believe. The west has been playing in their religious sandbox for decades, and Bush letting the furies of hell lose was the opportunity Shiites saw to persecute Sunnis. Catholics and Protestants warred against each other for centuries, and Shiites and Sunnis have been at it since the death of Mohammed in 632 A.D. Little has changed since.

Thousands of dead American soldiers and tens of thousands more who returned home wounded or maimed by a senseless war that in another era might have seen the powers behind such a ruthless agenda go to jail or meet their maker, is America's reward for allowing brazen rulers like George Bush and Dick Cheney to go unchallenged and unjailed.

With the news that FBI Director James Comey did not recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton's "careless" misuse of state department emails, which contained various levels of classified information, Republicans have hyperventilated that the Clinton's, this time Hillary, skirted laws again that have ensnared other lesser officials.

Discouraging as it may sound to Republicans, who despite one exhaustive report after another that cleared her of any legitimate crimes allegedly committed, this report from Director Comey again found Mrs. Clinton was not out to sabotage America as Trumpian Republicans accuse her of doing. Hillary Clinton's arrogance and carelessness maybe character flaws, but they are not federal crimes.

Shame: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, The Iraq War

Republicans have yet to apologize, let alone atone for George W. Bush's terrible, awful years in the White House. He left the nation with soaring job losses and an economic meltdown that nearly created a second Great Recession. But for a Democratic president who enjoyed a Democratic Congress for his first two years, GOP officials' austerity budgeting and misdirected tax programs would have paved the path to true economic devastation had they been the path pursued instead of the one approved by a Democratic congress that enabled President Obama to staunch the bleeding from dramatic job losses.

The stimulus package President Barack Obama proposed, that all Republicans obstructed at every turn and voted against, saved millions more jobs being lost by stabilizing state budgets, and saving an auto industry that Republicans like venture capitalist Mitt Romney, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Rob Portman, the Buckeye State's junior senator in Washington, would to a man have let disappear. Following their led would have caused economic hardships across the nation, and especially in auto parts-supply chain intense Ohio, that would have taken down America, then the world, in a spectacularly irresponsible way to gruesome to even contemplate. America is still paying the price for George Bush's war in Iraq 13 years later.

Shame: Dick Cheney, Energy Meeting Minutes, Karl Rove, Missing WH Emails

In today's digital era full of emails, Hillary Clinton using a private email server is not unique, given so many others, including top Republicans in former administrations, have done the same. Republicans were suspiciously silent when Vice President Cheney fought to keep records of his secret meetings with energy industry leaders at the White House from prying public eyes. When George W. Bush did leave the White House, tens of thousands of emails on a separate email system set up by White House officials, including Bush kingmaker Karl Rove, went missing. The GOP establishment wasn't at all concerned then on what they did, so why are they now so intent on seeing Hillary Clinton wearing government -issue pinstripes?

Shame: Richard M. Nixon, Watergate, Gerald R Ford

Republicans today should reflect but won't on the full pardon Richard M. Nixon received in 1974 from his then vice president, Gerald R. Ford. President Ford took the oath of office when President Nixon resigned his office as roads from the Watergate Hotel break-in two years earlier in 1972, which Mr. Nixon knew about even though he said he didn't, led directly into his Oval Office redoubt. For the good of the country, President Ford issued a full pardon for all offenses President Nixon committed against the United States so his illegal criminal actions could pass into history books. Mr. Ford justified this decision claiming that a long, drawn-out trial would only have further polarized the public.

Democrats could have turned Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon for violating the constitution into a national crisis. But they didn't. President Nixon's abuses did open the Pandora's Box of government distrust that haunts us to this day. After World War II, government was an asset, not an enemy as many today see it.

Shame: Ronald Reagan, Iran-Contra

Then there was the Great Communicator's administration in the 1980s. Ronald Reagan blatantly violated American law when he lied directly to the American public in a TV appearance about trading arms for hostages in what became known as the Iran-Contra affair. It was all true, as the nation learned later, but Republicans revere Ronald Reagan as a political saint to this day when he clearly wasn't. Democrats complained at the time, but The Gipper served out his term in Washington instead of a federal jail cell.

And how can Casper Weinberger, Reagan's secretary of defense, be forgotten? He participated in the transfer of United States Hawk and TOW missiles to Iran during the Iran–Contra affair. As history and Wikipedia tells us, Prosecutors brought an additional indictment against Weinberge four days before the 1992 presidential election that cited a Weinberger diary entry contradicting a claim made by President George H.W. Bush. Republicans claimed that it contributed to Bill Clinton beating President Bush. Weinberger dodged a bullet when a judge threw out the indictment on technical grounds. 

"Before he [Weinberger] could be tried on the original charges, he received a pardon from President George H. W. Bush, who was Reagan's vice president during the scandal, on December 24, 1992.

Careless: Hillary Clinton, Emails

If Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted for her email faux pas, as Republicans want and Donald Trump would do if elected president, appointing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to do the hunbting, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be dragged into federal court like Germans were dragged to Nuremberg to stand trial to answer for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Bush, Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condolezza Rice all intentional created catastrophic conditions that to this day still plague America, her allies and the world.

Ted Strickland Talks About His Senate Race with Rob Portman

Futuristic departure lounge might be just what the doctor ordered

For fans of the movie "Soylent Green" that features a futuristic world that's hot and crowded, the departure lounge Edward G. Robinson visits to end it all could be a good idea if society would just admit that committing suicide isn't the taboo it's been made out to be over time.

Actor Edward G. Robinson
plays Levi in Soylent Green

"Death has always been scary," Ronni Bennett writes on "Time Goes By," her popular outlet for thoughts on aging that has a world-wide following. "For centuries, humans have tried to mitigate that fear with ghost stories, with goblins and skeleton costumes on Halloween and the popularity of vampires in books and film, all of which have in common the possibility of some form of continued consciousness of self after death."

Bennett, who just turned 75 and lives in Oregon even though she left her heart in her beloved New York City after years of working there in the media industry, notes that the taboo against death talk has begun to loosen. She says it's connected, in part, "with the realization that for the foreseeable future there are going to be a whole lot more old people, in relation to the entire population, than has ever been seen on earth."

That means growing numbers who are concerned with and want to know more about how to control their deaths, Bennett said in a recent post that includes some help from one of her friends. Not too long ago, I sent her my view on the inevitable:

"Maybe a smart, fashionable, modern-day departure lounge equipped with all the amenities, including lawyers and accountants to put one's affairs in final order before takeoff, would be the right recipe for anyone who might want to walk into one one day and feel comfortable saying adios. 

"The first one could be located in the middle of a western state desert, so it wouldn't be convenient to get to for anyone who wasn't determined to get there. Of course, if lines start forming, other locations could be considered."

I also sent a YouTube clip to her from the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green that features a scene where Levi, played by Edward G Robinsin, who died shortly after he filmed the scene, enjoys a tranquil, comfortable exit. I have watched it many times, and now think it's not gruesome at all but actually something that just might work if given a chance.

The movie became notorious for its shocking end plot twist. You can read about it at Wikipedia if you want. I sent the clip to her, and she included it in a post on the subject of a "good death." 

"John and I had been emailing about death with dignity laws when he included a link to this Soylent Green clip titled, “Levi Goes Home,” in which Edward G. Robinson (in his last film role) goes, as John explained in his email, “to the futuristic service center that caters to people ready to say goodbye.”

Bennett reveals the emergence of Death cafes, which now commonly attract people to neighborly discussions of dying without too much flinching from anyone, she writes. "My favorite mortician, Caitlin Doughty, not only keeps a popular blog titled The Order of the Good Death which demystifies all deathly things, her Ask A Mortician videos on YouTube are as much a hoot as informative," Bennett informs us..

A student of all things aging and age related, Ms. Bennett said it came to mind a few days ago when The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry in its April issue released a study titled Defining a Good Death (Successful Dying). She reports on the study, a review of 36 previous studies that includes patients, family members and healthcare provider stakeholders.  

Eleven core themes of good death were identified by the researchers: • preferences for a specific dying process, • pain-free status, • religiosity/spirituality, • emotional well-being, • life completion, • treatment preferences, • dignity, • family, • quality of life, • relationship with the health care provider, • other

Bennett tells us that one kind of control is physician-assisted suicide. Four states currently allow what is also called “death with dignity” under very strict rules and California, later this year, is likely to join Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana with such a law, she says.

"Many people oppose this kind of legal suicide as a slippery slope that can lead to pressure on people, the old in particular, I suppose, to hurry along their journey to whatever comes next," she notes.

Bennett says she welcomes death with dignity laws and thinks the rules are too strict. "But the idea that anyone would suggest that a person end his/her life to save the government some money is disgusting and dangerous," she says in rebuttal to a reader who reported on some thinking that was a good reason to end it all for the wrong reason. 

-->

The Little Blockbuster Case On Kasich Dirty Tricks That Won't Go Away

Plaintiff attorneys representing the Libertarian Party of Ohio [LPO] and its candidate for governor in 2014 just won't give up. Their case that exposes what Gov. John Kasich and his political friends and allies will do behind the scenes to assure him a win by eliminating his competition has another life to live, this time in an appeal filed Monday with the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Tenth Appellate District.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Lincoln
Room at the Ohio Statehouse

Plaintiff attorneys Mark Brown and Mark G. Kafantaris filed the appeal after it was dismissed by out-going Republican Franklin County Administrative Judge Patrick Sheeran, who ruled in March that the Ohio Elections Commission made the correct decision when it voted 5-2 in May of 2015 to not investigate coordinated activities between Mr. Kasich's campaign staff, the Ohio Republican Party and a long-time friend and political operative to derail LPO's candidate for governor, Charlie Earl. At the time, Camp Kasich thought Earl popular enough that he could drain enough votes away from Gov. Kasich and make the election with the Democratic candidate closer than Camp Kasich wanted it to be.

The Walking Dead Of Court Cases

According to the court document outlining the reasons for an appeal, LPO's team of lawyers argued that Judge Sheeran erred in his decision to dismiss the case. "The Common Pleas Court erred in concluding that the Commission's record 'absolutely refuted' the possibility that the full Commission's dismissal might have been on the merits," Plaintiff attorneys wrote.

101 Refresher on Kasich Dirty Tricks Squad

In a short refresher course, the filing says the case to dump Earl from the 2014 ballot, which with the help of Ohio's Secretary of State was successful, starts with the 2014 gubernatorial election in Ohio, when LPO had on January 7, 2014 won back its right to participate in Ohio's elections. That presence, the argument goes, threatened "Kasich's hegemony in Ohio. Not because its candidate, Charlie Earl, would win the election; but because Earl threatened to siphon votes away from Kasich's campaign."

When Mr. Earl qualified for the ballot, the filing says, "Kasich's campaign became concerned that Earl could draw votes away from Kasich in the general election. Earl had to be stopped."

Gov. John Kasich's dirty tricks squad went to work, but it's task wasn't easy. "As the record makes clear in this case, it cost almost $600,000. For legal and political reasons, the Kasich Campaign went to great lengths to distance itself from Earl's removal. It constructed a 'secret client,' Terry Casey, to take care of the needed financial transactions. It was Casey, a secret operative, who hired the lawyers (the Zeiger firm or "ZTL") to remove Earl. Casey hired the Zeiger firm; Casey received the bills from the Zeiger firm; Casey agreed to insure that the bills -- which came to $600,000 -- were paid," the filing says. Mr. Casey has been a friend of John Kasich's going back to Mr. Kasich's first run for office in the late 1970s. When Kasich became governor in 2011, one of his first appoints was to install Mr. Casey to headsup the state's powerful personnel review board. Casey has argued he was a "self starter" and did not take direction from anyone from Kasich's team.

"Political espionage is a nasty business. When allowed to prosper in the shadows, it grows. It infects. Soon, the political process is consumed by this cancer. Only public disclosure and strident enforcement can prevent it," Brown and Kafantaris argue in the brief.

This State's campaign finance laws must be enforced, the appeal says. "This case is about enforcing Ohio's plain and understandable campaign finance laws. It is about preventing political espionage like that perpetrated by the Kasich Campaign."

Gov. Kasich, who is running for president for the second time in 16 years, and who finds himself one of three Republican candidates still in the 2016 race for GOP nominee, has not had to explain the findings of fact presented by LPO in this case. Mr. Kasich's reliable refrain is that he's above politics and only wants to bring people together. His record, from his early days to today, show that claim to be false on nearly all accounts.

As he struggles to remain relevant as voters in one state after another not choosing him but Donald Trump or Ted Cruz instead, Ohio's term-limited governor has managed to avoid any serious scrutiny from state or national media, who are more interested in his town hall meeting song playlist or his faux pas of eating pizza with a fork in New York City. Mr. Kasich has lots of scandals on his watch waiting to be delved into, and his underhanded tactic to take down a potential challenger that smacks of Nixonian era dirty tricks appears to have little interest among social media reporters who appear too lazy to look into the case let alone even mention it.