Concentrate on the CAMPS!

The Twitterverse was shocked and appalled and even aghast at the comments by Freshman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (better known as @AOC) this past week.  She dared to called a "place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard" a concentration camp. Egads. How can someone be so careless as to use the correct terminology? 

Thankfully, America's Conservative voices are focusing on the very real travesty of what we call these concentration camps and ignore the inhumane conditions that we are subjecting the children that we have ripped from their parents.  That 6-year old migrant kid must be so happy that the GOP doesn't considerate a concentration camp. He'll be proud that they are focusing their righteous anger on a Freshman Congresswoman, who happens to be definitionally right according to, you know, experts.  

Surwe she never mentioned Nazi concentration camps, but they certainly had the most famous camps. Except, the United States had concentration camps during World War II for Japanese Americans -camps that people living today were forced into, including George Takei, the actor of Star Trek fame. But sure, most Americans only know about the Nazi camps. While the Nazis had more than 60 concentration camps, only about a dozen camps would be the well-known “death camps” like Auschwitz. While Anne Frank did die in a concentration camp, she died from Typhus in the disgusting conditions. 

It’s easier for Republicans to fight about the semantics of Concentration Camps than to defend the horrific policies of this administration. They are keeping children, forcibly orphaned by the US government, held in dog cages to sleep on the floor with no hygiene. Eight year olds are forced to care for sick two year olds. Children are dying in US custody for our neglect. Children are being tortured in US custody, enduring life long effects. One child, now two years old, was taken at from his mother at 4 months old and still has not learned how to walk or talk. He and many others will be permanently scarred by the treatment of this administration. 

And some people are making a profit off of this. These are for-profit concentration camps. Charging over $700 per day, to deny toothbrushes, soap, and beds to children.  And let’s remember that the vast majority off these are the children of parents that fled their home to come to the US to seek asylum. Seeking asylum is a completely legal thing to do. It is not a crime to apply for asylum, and this is how we treat them. But they crossed the border illegally, you say.  Well, most come to ports of entry to turn themselves in so they can ask for asylum. But even if they do cross illegally, that crime is a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor! We treat felons on death row better than childlren that crossed an imaginary line in the desert. 

This humanitarian crisis at the border is entirely the fault of this Republican administration. It is a cruel policy instituted purely for cruelty’s sake. It speaks of the mismanagement inherent in the chaos of Trump’s White House - he recently purged all the top officials at DHS, and another seems of have quit today. Its another manufactured crisis for the political views. These concentration camps will do nothing to actually address immigration. They don’t address crime or drug trafficking. It is nothing but about being cruel.

Pride Month - A Celebration of Freedom

“That’s gay!” or “That sucks” or “I love you, man. No Homo!” Kids use these phrases continuously in middle and high schools across the country, forcing many of their friends to hide who they really are from the world, even from themselves. When these teenagers do come out, they get insults, bullying, and even attacked for just being different. Just last week, two women were beaten and robbed on a London bus for being lesbians. A few years ago, a gunman killed 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub, a gay bar in Orlando. Matthew Shepard was beaten and murdered for being gay. There is a clear and obvious line from innocuous phrases of adolescent homophobia to the violence that has routinely followed the gay community for decades, sorry, centuries.

That’s why we have a PRIDE MONTH. That’s why we have rainbow flags. So we can let people know that IT'S OKAY for them to be themselves. Gay pride isn’t anti-straight, but about living with the freedom to love yourself and love who you want to love. AND IN A NATION BUILD ON FREEDOM AND LIBERTY, WHAT COULD BE MORE AMERICAN THAN THAT!?!?!

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190611013402-cody-barlow-pride-truck-large-169.jpg

An American War in Iraq/n

Watch carefully as the Trump Administration manufactures the justification for War with Iran. They have been pushing for this for a while, spurred on by John Bolton. First they pulled out of the “Iran Deal” agreed to by Iran, the US and several European countries to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran complied, and is currently in compliance, with the plan that limits the cylinders for enriching uranium and allowing inspectors access to all sites.

But we pulled out and unilaterally reinstated the sanctions that we relieved to bring them into compliance. We have named the Revolutionary Guard to a terrorist watchlist - a move against the recommendation of the Pentagon and every diplomat trying to prevent escalation. Then yesterday we jumped to blame Iran for explosions on a Japanese oil tanker - presenting no evidence and before any investigation could be done. At the same time, we started a list of Iranian provocations which clearly includes events for which other groups have taken credit for - like a Taliban bombing in Afghanistan or an ISIS bomb in Iraq.

It is clear that those that brought us the war in Iraq failed to learn any lessons as those same people provoke a new battle. But I think Americans have. We can all agree that war is sometimes a necessary evil. But the reasons must be real, must be based on actual evidence, and not on the whim of a chicken-hawk administration.

https://i.imgur.com/AASnrET.jpg

Easily Offended

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/64301074_3374728399204781_7955976395245486080_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_oc=AQmJecR-uGkYio0Rvm-PUlEAPBlx9aUi2ptbHDIudsvnxfJfca-it03aqPdmXHZoo3yPsN9xc7Ygh3sbb6bRSEZX&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=526688c7fea373e7eb4e24092c6e3bbc&oe=5DC4329C

Republicans Again Choose Partisanship Over Patriotism

This week the Republican Party block a bill to require campaigns to report cases foreign interference. This is after the President openly admitted he would accept foreign government information on political opponents if offered - which to be clear is illegal and commonly called collusion.

Here's what the President said,

“It’s not an interference, they have information. I think I’d take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI. If I thought there was something wrong.” 

That “if” is doing a lot of work for him. What does it mean as wrong? Would he call the FBI only if the info was of criminal activity, but what about just problematic for the candidate? Does it matter if the information is true or false, it’s a foreign government attempting to interfere with the election - false info can be just as devastating as true info? No matter what you tell the FBI what is happening here. You don’t even entertain the meeting. He says he’ll take the meeting and then decide if it should go to the FBI. Accepting anything from a foreign government for your campaign is wrong and illegal.  His hand-picked FBI Director said that you call the FBI and Trump's response was that the FBI Director is wrong.

https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/07/070717_g20-1499455940.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&fit=crop&w=1440&h=720

The Mueller report clearly explains that the only reason Don Jr wasn’t charged with accepting foreign assistance was that they could prove he knew it was against the law. Not that he didn’t do it, not that it wasn’t wrong, but that he could prove he was aware what he was doing was wrong at the time. The FBI warned the Trump campaign of Russia’s plans in August and they still never told them about the meetings in June. Well, that ship has sailed. We are all aware that that is illegal now and the President, defender of our Constitution and federal laws, admitted that he would accept that illegal help.

In addition to block the No Collusion Act (not the real name), the Republican Majority Leader of the Senate continues to block every bill to improve election security. The only thing the Republicans and Democrats agree about in the Mueller Report is that Russia was and is probing and even penetrating our election software. Every state was attacked and a few times they got in. They did the same in 2018 and will do so again in 2020, but Republicans do nothing. It’s almost like they never actually cared about the sanctity of the ballot box.

The words of Trump and the actions of the Republicans in Congress are inviting Russia and any other country that wants to to attack America and interfere in our elections. They should be ashamed of themselves.

McDonald's Profits vs Wages

McDonalds profits about $8.5 BILLION a year. And McDonald's employees cost the federal government and tax payers over $1.2 billion as half of fast food employees live off of Food Stamps, Welfare, and Medicare.

The Golden Arches could achieve a$15 minimum wage by raising the price of Big Mac a mere 68¢, or not. Keeping prices the same, they could double the bottom salary and still net $5 BILLION a year in profits.

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/files/2014/05/mcmoney-1024x682.jpg

The Profits > People mantra of the last 30 years is to blame. The corporate overlords see that as a loss of $3 billion and not as an investment in the human employees they depend on a a boost to the national economy in the area that hasn’t felt as much from the economic recovery.

--From Business Insider - 

Or, McDonald's Could Double Wages For Employees, Not Raise Price Of Big Macs, And Just Make Less Money ...

GOP Representative Reads and Comprehends Mueller Report

A Republican congressman - Justin Amash of Michigan - actually read the Mueller Report and drew his own conclusions. We might not agree on many topics, but somethings are more important. Some ideals are greater than party politics, like the ideal that no man is above the law. Every thing a President does serves as precedent for the next President. You think this President is above the law, then so will the next one and he or she might be affiliated with a different party.

https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftimedotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2019%2F05%2Fjustin-amash-trump.jpg&w=800&c=sc&poi=face&q=85

Privately, Congressional Republicans admit that the President obstructed justice. They don't say so publicly for fear of a tweet. That is pure cowardice - to know what is right, but to ignore it for fear. Only in the Republican party do you become ostracized for telling the truth, for seeing the facts as they are, and saying so publicly.

You can't obstruct justice without an underlying crime? Yes you can and happens often. More so, there we definitely underlying crimes - which resulted in the indictments of multiple Russian officers and companies, and the guilty pleas of the President's Director of National Intelligence, Trump's Deputy Campaign Chairman, and the pleas and verdicts against Trump's Campaign Chairman. So yes. There were underlying crimes. The obstruction didn't work? Doesn't matter. Attempted obstruction is still obstruction. That the President impotently cries for people to do things and they don't do it is another area for concern.

Trump Gets Tariffs Wrong Again and We All Pay More

https://www.latimes.com/resizer/SJ_Gp0yOnjNKvxxfbzg0_WLhD30=/800x0/www.trbimg.com/img-5ce81148/turbine/la-1558712638-e82gp7yf7i-snap-image

"[E]conomists and other experts who have done the math, and found that the tariffs Trump has imposed on imports from China cost American consumers $68.8 BILLION last year, though some of that spending got funneled back to some domestic producers in the form of higher prices (which their customers, of course, paid)." [Trump’s $16-billion farm bailout means you’re paying for his tariff war twice]

TARIFFS ARE TAXES PAID BY AMERICANS, not China. On top of these new taxes we are paying because he doesn't understand how this works, the farmers needed a $12BILLION emergency bailout last year and now a $16BILLION bailout this year.

Soybean farmers have been hit the hardest with mountains of product unable to sell. And China has switched to importing soybeans from Brazil, which means that the American farmers are unlikely to regain the market when this stupid tariff war ends. In other effects, Whirlpool has increased the prices on washing machines and 40,000 beer industry workers have lost their jobs.

Abuse of Power, Again...

Abuse of Power - Plain and simple. The President repeatedly misuses his position for corrupt purposes. His attempt to block a merger between Time Warner and AT&T had nothing to do with anti-trust policy, but because Time Warner owns CNN. In another instance, Trump berated his Postmaster General to arbitrarily raise the mailing rates on Amazon packages for no reason other than Amazon is owned by Bezos who also owns the Washington Post. This "Businessman-President" actively attacking businesses purely for spite, for connected entities exercising the First Amendment Right of a Free Press. This is not acceptable. This is not normal. It is an embarrassment that too many people support this buffoon who clearly has no redeeming qualities to hold the position that he holds.

BTW Nixon had an enemies list for which he too attempted to use the levers of government to attack. It was Article II in the Articles of Impeachment - "repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposes of these agencies."

History Doesn't Repeat, But It Often Rhymes

https://newrepublic.com/article/143014/trump-new-nixon-historians-cant-agree

In 1973, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency on the Watergate scandal. Members of Nixon's campaign hired CIA operatives to break into the Democratic offices in the Watergate Hotel to steal campaign information and improve his chances of re-election. The burglars were paid by the Committee to Re-Elect the President. The investigation revealed the conduct of the President's aides and friends - partially by the testimony of one of the members involved. The President was not connected to the original crime but participated in an extensive cover-up that involved abusing the power of his office for the corrupt purpose of obstructing an investigation into his associates (also tax fraud).

Remember the truism, "History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes". Special Counsel Robert Mueller (and the press) have already uncovered multiple instances of members of the Trump Campaign meeting and coordinating with members of the Russian Government and Russian Intelligence. Those campaign members repeated lied about those interactions until the truth came out. Three high-level campaign staff met with Russian operatives in Trump Tower, close associate Roger Stone communicated with Russian Intelligence and Wikileaks to disseminate stole campaign information, and the candidate himself asked for Russian help on national TV while campaigning (Russia if you are listening...). This is the original crime greater than or equal to the break-in at the Watergate Hotel.

Next comes the cover-up. As the investigations gained steam, the President asked the FBI director to lay-off of his friend and Director of National Intelligence who blatantly and willfully lied about his contacts with Russia. Then the President fired that FBI director admitting on national TV and to the Russian Ambassadors in the Oval Office that he did so because of the Russian Investigation. The President would proceed to berate his Attorney General for nothing other than recusing himself on matters related to Russia and later firing him to install an acting Attorney General with no qualifications other than his TV appearances attacking the Russian Investigation. On multiple occasions, the President has attempted to fire the Special Counsel only to be saved from himself by his staff. He has however, fired the investigators including the FBI director, the entire top level administration of the FBI and the attorney general. And finally, he routinely attempts to intimidate the witnesses against him.

The President has openly and brazenly attempted to obstruct the investigation into his campaign's numerous connections to the Russian government and into his own actions. This is the story that will be told in the history books next to the story of Watergate. Even in 1973, Richard Nixon enjoyed popular support throughout the investigation until his voice was discovered on tape participating in the cover-up. Now, the President abuses his power in plain site. His voice is on video tape participating in the cover-up and even the original crime.

This is a long and complex story, difficult to follow even if you are paying attention even worse if you only watch Fox News. But what side of history do you wish to be on? The side that protects the Rule of Law and believes that no-one is above the law, including the President? Do you believe the President has unlimited power, like a modern American King, or did we design a Constitution to prevent these abuses of power that no-one should be trusted to maintain? For one final thought, imagine the shoe on the other foot. 
It's not a hard choice. Trust me, I don't want Mike Pence to become President either, but to protect the Rule of Law and our American Institutions, he should be President as soon as possible. He will do similar damage to consumer protects, civil rights and continue to actively strip Americans of access to health care. But he will be less embarrassing on the world stage. He won't bow to the Russian President, cozy up with the murderous Saudi Prince, or make the same mistakes the a North Korean dictator. He's a bland Gerald Ford, but he is what America needs to break this fever. Sooner rather than later.

The President Rambles Incoherently on ... Climate Change

These are not the words of an intelligent person. These are the ramblings from the class presentation of the D-student that thinks he’s smarter than the rest of the class, including the teacher but he never studied the topic for the speech because he could just wing it (source: I was a teacher). 

If you actually take the time to learn about the climate and the massive amount of evidence that it is indeed changing and that we, humans are the cause, then you can and will understand climate change. No one can actually look at the empirical data and come to a different conclusion. The deniers depend on buzzwords and confusion to to keep you ignorant. Learn, ask questions and maybe we can still do some good. Be good stewards of the Earth. 


Factual Corrections to the President's Ramblings- 

• We cleaned our air and water with science based regulations (also addressed the hole in the ozone layer). 
• Trash in the ocean is an unrelated but actually important topic. 
• The ten hottest years in record have all been in the like last 12 years. 
• The universe will probably die a heat death in a few billion years, but again it is completely unrelated to the topic at hand. 
• People do not actually take the forest floor, but the droughts affecting California are most likely caused by climate change (also most forest management in California is run by the Federal government, of which he is the boss, or private companies).

Experts vs Dumbasses - Who Should We Listen Too?

One of my new favorite tweets. Should we listen to people speaking out of their butts OR should we listen to people that actually know some stuff? I think its a pretty easy choice!

But to be serious. The people that don't "believe" in climate change are always people that don't understand climate change. They really don't.  It's the same with evolution. People that don't "believe" it, have no real understanding of the concept.  It may work slowly, but the best antidote to climate change denial is education. Sharing the facts, explaining the impact on our environment AND our economy AND our national security.  It's a big deal that we are doing very little about. That can only change by electing legislatures that will actually listen and understand expert testimony.

The Trump Administration hides from Climate Change Report

The US government has come to the conclusion that there is "no convincing alternative explanation" for climate change other than "human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases." This echos the statements of every climate scientist on the planet (97%).  The second volume was released today, as the Trump administration attempts to bury this news in Black Friday shopping, hoping that you won't notice.

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/180804095014-03-file-climate-change-medium-plus-169.jpg

The latest volume paints not only a devastating picture for the planet that your children will have to grow up in, but also the lasting damage to the US economy. Billions of dollars will be lost each year, the Southeast US (that's us in NC) will lose 500,000,000 hours of labor due to intense heat - look at the lost productivity from two massive hurricanes just this year.  Farmers facing extreme temperatures, droughts with flash floods will struggle to produce corn and soybeans.  Heat exhaustion can affect dairy production and red tides will affect fishing economies.

We can expect extreme changes to our health care as well.  Warmer temperatures means more mosquitos and ticks - Zika, West Nile. Kids will allergies and asthma will suffer more exacerbations.  The Department of Defense recognizes the risk to national security posed by Climate Change even if the Republican party continues to bury its collective head in the sand.  

The GOP's ignorance of climate change will hurt America - hurt our environment, hurt our economy, hurt our children and hurt our security. Glossing over a well-researched report seems par for the course.  The Republican party will never actually help America or Americans, it will only help its donors.

Capitalism vs Socialism

This meme passed through my Facebook feed before disappearing into the deep abyss. Rather than search for my friends post destroy it on there, I figured I could just answer more broadly here. The question posed, “if capitalism is evil and socialism good why isn’t the migrant caravan headed to Venezuela?” As it asked for a liberal to answer, I shall give it my best shot. 

Capitalism is the best economic system that we have, providing great incentives for effort, ingenuity, and innovation. But we must acknowledge that pure capitalism can seem pretty evil. It can abuse the employees and dupe unsuspecting customers. That is why we have regulations. We regulate restaurants to prevent them from serving dirty food from unsanitary kitchens.  The customer has little view of the back of the store and without those regulations hundreds of people could become sick and die before finding the source.  We regulate polluters ability to destroy the local environment as the consumers have the little ability to make an educated choice about a company's environmental impact. We also prevent monopolies from hijacking the market without competition, forcing out potential rivals, driving up prices and driving down wages. Every Walmart appears to be a shrine to capitalism, which has driven out local mom-and-pop stores and continues to pay criminally low wages as workers must rely on welfare and food stamps.  If Walmart paid their employees a living wage, we could probably cut those budget items in half.  So while capitalism provides the opportunity to growth and new ideas, we must admit that there needs to be constraints.

If you disagree with the previous paragraph, think about the following question: Have you ever felt screwed over by a company as a customer or as an employee? That is why we need regulations.

Likewise, socialism has both good and bad. Generally, dictators use the language of populism to obtain power, hiding their fascist tendencies behind a veil of socialist agendas. If you immediately express your contempt for socialism, I have some more questions for you to consider.  Do you respect firefighters and police officers? We can agree that they are a social good, paid for by tax dollars instead of dues. Are you expecting to receive Social security and Medicare? Also examples of successful socialist programs. You pay taxes through out your life and receive the benefit later on. Those are all socialist programs even if you don't want to believe it. 

The meme that I saw [all memes really], lacks the subtlety of modern life. To simply say that capitalism or socialism is always good or always bad misses the nuance. The people that share this picture on Facebook always point to Venezuela and conveniently forget the balance of capitalism and socialism that we have here in the United States.  It's the balance between these two economic systems which has made America great, propelling us to being the world's great superpower.

Not a Single Republican Position is Based on Reality

Trump's Long, Long History of Disrespecting the Military

McRaven's OpEd Against Trump

The Cost of America's Moral Leadership - AKA Saudi Payments to Trump

A Legislative Agenda for 2019

Fiction vs Reality

The West Wing, Season 3, Episode 3 - Ways and Means

The subpoenas are handed out in the hearing over Bartlet's concealment of his multiple sclerosis. The special prosecutor, Clement Rollins (Pryor), appears to be both fair and responsible, but C.J. believes the White House will be better served in the public eye if investigated by a partisan agent. She therefore decides—against the strong objections of White House counsel Oliver Babish—to present Rollins as an ally of the administration, thereby forcing Congress to take control over the investigation. --from Wikipedia

The idea was that the Special Prosecutor was too well respected and expected to do a good job, that sending the investigation to the House would turn a legitimate fact-finding investigation into an all out partisan brawl which could be defeated. Sounds eerily familiar to what happening now.