“I read that your company sent out a Tweet disrespecting Kyle Rittenhouse, the young man who shot three rioters in self defense in Kenosha, WI.

“Due to your company’s hateful and arrogant stupidity, I will no longer be visiting your websites, or buying any of your products.”

Physicsguy, I know the reps will not see my e-mail. They have staff who tabulate the opinions as pro and con an issue. Telephone calls are the same. Call and say you are opposed to the reconciliation bill because of whatever points you want to make. They tabulate the opinions. When a lot of voters are registering opinions, they begin to take notice. Just as they took notice of the recent election outcomes. Yes, they may not believe in your point of view, but if they want to be re-elected they have to watch public opinion.

All Congress members ask if you want a reply to your e-mail. I sometimes ask for a reply. I know it’s probably written by a staffer, but at least it requires someone to respond to what I have proffered – their arguments against mine. My Congresswoman, Susan Del Bene (or a staffer), blasted me for wanting a secure southern border. She accused me of having no compassion for “refugees.” 🙁 It became an argument with no winner. But at least she knows there is a citizen out there who doesn’t agree with her policies.

It appears that our reps are getting some strong dissenting opinions because it is now standard for them to have a boiler plate warning that it’s against the law to threaten a member of Congress. 🙂

I agree that town halls are good places to confront them, if you can. And I did that one time years ago. It didn’t go well. The crowd was pro Rick Larsen. I got booed and talked over. He was not made uncomfortable.

Too many people are cynical, IMO. If the e-mails and calls are running high against certain policies, they will take notice. In the case of Manchin and Sinema, when an out of state voter takes the time to contact them, it should make an impression. If thousands or hundreds of thousands do, it really shows where public opinion is . At least that’s how democracy is supposed to work. I’m still trying to do my part.

Another wonderful thing about the Gibbs (in addition to their charm and humor and attractiveness) is that their enormous musical gifts were complementary. Their voices blended perfectly, but that was just the beginning. They also had different musical strengths, and for example Maurice (who had a great voice but not as distinctive a voice for lead singing as both of his brothers) was a tremendous instrumentalist at bass and keyboards and contributed a lot on then end of it. They also were synergistic in their songwriting abilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNg7arOQoVA

In a way I agree, but I think any letter writing to any congress critter is a complete waste of time. If anything, an aide MIGHT quickly look over the letter, input your address into a program that generates a generic response, and that’s the end of it.

A better, and more direct way, is to attend any townhall meeting the critter may have. At least there’s an opportunity to confront the critter face to face and maybe make them a bit uncomfortable. I think we are long past the point where any of them pay any attention to any correspondence. Just being my cynical self.

Life isn’t fair. When the musical genes were passed out, I didn’t get any. Can’t carry a tune, don’t have much rhythm, can’t dance. Just not fair. 🙂

Inflation: I sent this to all my l Congressional representatives an Senators Sinema and Manchin.

“Dear Senator Cantwell,
Energy prices ae rising because the administration is purposely keeping the industry from drilling, producing, and moving products over pipelines. Modern society floats on a sea of energy. . When the supplies go down, the prices of most everything rise.

I live on a fixed income. The prices of all my essentials are increasing – food, heat, electricity, fuel for my car, groceries, clothing, anything transported into the stores, and even medical costs. Throw in the supply chain problems and we have a deeply embedded inflation problem.

This is a bread and butter issue that I urge you to address immediately.

First, do not pass the reconciliation bill, which, with its massive spending, will be like throwing gasoline on the fires of inflation.
Second, work to get our U.S. and Canadian oil and gas fields back to producing enough to make us energy independent once again. It can be done, but will require the legislature to pass energy friendly laws.

Our nation’s fiscal and energy security are depending on you to act. The Biden administration is failing us.”

D.C needs to hear from citizens. Nothing will be done if we remain silent.

Vax mandate is DEAD.

Yet as bad as inflation can be, any significant and sustained rise in interest rates to combat it might cause the global financial system to implode. When will higher interest rates lead to America’s debt obligations increasing to the point where devaluing the dollar is the only way out?

About the only silver lining is the amusement from watching people who make six and even seven figure salaries learning they’re not nearly as rich as they think they are.

Mike