I would love to see the democratic presidential candidates address John Kasich's tenure as Ohio managing director of Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2008. This is something the campaigns may know about, but concerned democrats may want to communicate to the campaigns about--especially Bernie Sanders--this is right up his wheel house.
500 Million Dollar Demolition of Pension Funds
John Kasich Gorillas in the Mist
"That is a far cry from Governor Kasich working as a managing director for Lehman's Ohio office where he was pitching pension investments to state funds from 2000-2008, right up to the peak of the Recession. Lehman's collapse eventually cost Ohio's pensions nearly $500 million."
John Kasich also thinks Kim Davis should issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples (that will surely help him in the GOP primaries)—the same John Kasich who’s budget threatens to deny funding to rape crisis centers who offer abortion counseling to incest or rape victims. Kasich and Rape Crisis Centers
Kasich and republicans agreed to remove the anti-rape crisis center provision from the bill to get democratic support for passage. Then in a display of deceit, did not remove the anti-rape crisis center provision from the bill. They then accused the democrats of knowingly voting for the legislation.
John Kasich could have vetoed the legislation and sent it back for changes but he didn't, he signed it into law. Kasich can get away with this kind of despicable politics when the media does not do its job, and you have a large majority in the Ohio state legislature.
You can't hide your legislative record under the bright lights of a presidential general election, when the whole country is focused-- including the national media. Kasich has gotten away with not being vetted properly. The best people to interview about John Kasich are the very Ohio politicians who know him best--and will bring his sleazy legislative and business chickens home to roost.
Kasich won't say he opposes abortion in cases of incest and rape--but he seems to have found a slick way to design a play that is part of the same Republican Party anti-abortion playbook--and specifically his teammates Scott Walker and Marco Rubio.
"Choosing between the life of a pregnant woman and her fetus is a "false choice"--Scott Walker
"I think both of those instances [rape and incest] are horrifying, and fortunately, they’re extremely rare. It happens, and any time it happens, it’s horrifying, it’s a tragedy. But I personally and honestly and deeply believe that all human life is worthy of protection, irrespective of the circumstances in which that human life was created. I personally believe that you do not correct one tragedy with another" --Marco Rubio.
John Kasich is anti-abortion and cites the bible a lot when he talks policy; and Kim Davis also likes to cite the bible, as her justification for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Someone should tell Kim Davis and the Republican Party that America was not founded for the purpose of using religion to discriminate against others. If you believe in a religion and it helps you in your life that is a good thing. However do not use your belief in a religion to discriminate or judge another person.
The founding fathers departed Great Britain for various reasons—one specifically was to get away from religious persecution. The founding fathers wanted to worship any religion they wanted; or not worship any religion at all--but most importantly they did not want to have government officials and religious leaders using their belief in a religion to dictate how people should live their lives.
Most of America’s founding fathers believed in Christianity—several of the major founding fathers did not. America’s 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson the author of the “Declaration of Independence” was very open about his views on religion. Jefferson on Religion
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State"--Thomas Jefferson
Most of America's founding fathers supported the institution of slavery; one who did not was Thomas Paine who vehemently opposed and advocated against it, to great personal peril (that's another diary). Thomas Paine is the founding father who is credited with authoring the pamphlets that ignited the American Revolution and French Revolution (where he spent time in jail).
Paine was viewed as the philosophical voice of the American Revolution--and the literary and philosophical equivalent to the military genius of America’s first president George Washington. Thomas Paine was also very open about his views on religion being used to oppress people.—he wrote a book later in life called the “Age of Reason” that was a best seller in Europe and America.
"I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
"I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine."-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794), thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, The Writer's Rights (2002) p. 31
I wonder if Thomas Jefferson were alive today--would freedom loving republicans elect the founding father (who authored the “Declaration of Independence”) President of the United States.
Then we have the "Treaty of Tripoli"-- I wonder what people like Kim Davis and republicans who use their religion to discriminate and judge others, feel about America's founding fathers including a paragraph in a treaty affirming that America was not founded on Christianity.
The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816: Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli November 4, 1796, Algiers January 3, 1797, ratified by the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797 and signed into law by President John Adams on June 10.1797.
The first treaty entered into by America with the Ottoman Empire (today Libya) after it’s founding—that specifically stated in Article 11 of the treaty, that America was not founded on the Christian religion.
ARTICLE 11.
"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
The Christian paragraph was controversial when it was negotiated and In later years that phrase about Christianity was removed when the treaty was renegotiated. However what is significant and telling is "The Treaty of Tripoli" was negotiated and drafted at the end of America's first president's tenure in office, George Washington--and signed into law in the first few months of the presidency of America's second president, John Adams--and was voted into law by many of the elected officials in the U.S. Senate who participated in or were born during the American Revolution.
Treaty of Trioplihttp://avalon.law.yale.edu/...
I wonder if America's second president John Adams could have gotten this original version of "The Treaty of Tripoli" through today's republican controlled U.S. Senate.
Elected officials like Kim Davis should not be allowed to use their religion to deny any American citizen service. If she can't understand the meaning of the 1st Amendment to the U.S.Constitution and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution--and wants to show contempt for the laws of the United States of America, then let her stay in jail where her divorced three times, hypocritical, bigoted, homophobic and contemptuous rotting soul belongs.