tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56968254334002170402024-03-13T23:42:43.556-05:00* * * Starhooks * * *Celebrity gossip , videos , trailers , movie news , what's happening around the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3070125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-87261852653914209652020-02-20T18:39:00.000-06:002020-02-20T18:39:01.176-06:00<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdaOk8DjjfzrSVX44tVmRp7nAxkxnQA0DQd1hKty8TfdC0ifdz6A_TrQzA0CXGV67nYz2FneNWC0WImZx6YNKaux3xOwXZlyd_GiHsib7uMSznclEVe1hIcVedbeQS4pcoAmoUPJBkgc/s1600/seuss2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="1128" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdaOk8DjjfzrSVX44tVmRp7nAxkxnQA0DQd1hKty8TfdC0ifdz6A_TrQzA0CXGV67nYz2FneNWC0WImZx6YNKaux3xOwXZlyd_GiHsib7uMSznclEVe1hIcVedbeQS4pcoAmoUPJBkgc/s640/seuss2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-large;"><strong>YOU are gone from my sight but never from my heart. <span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-large;"><strong>Rather than mourn your absence, I will be grateful for the friendship that we shared for more than eleven years. It meant the world to me. </strong></span></strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-large;"><strong> Wherever you are, may you be surrounded by love and beauty.</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-large;"><strong> Adieu, </strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-large;">Your friend for life</span></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-75953765547771203872019-12-23T14:24:00.001-06:002019-12-23T14:24:58.172-06:00<span style="color: #351c75; font-size: medium;">Where are you my friends??? Please contact me. Please!</span> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-43253151843849470752019-12-13T00:15:00.001-06:002019-12-13T00:15:08.599-06:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<a data-cthref="/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiO4tO1_LHmAhUDZc0KHZuzB1oQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmerrychristmasmemes.com%2Fmerry-christmas-images%2F&psig=AOvVaw2pk0dVP-gps29pykeyVJs8&ust=1576299985175673" data-ved="2ahUKEwiO4tO1_LHmAhUDZc0KHZuzB1oQjRx6BAgBEAQ" href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiO4tO1_LHmAhUDZc0KHZuzB1oQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmerrychristmasmemes.com%2Fmerry-christmas-images%2F&psig=AOvVaw2pk0dVP-gps29pykeyVJs8&ust=1576299985175673" id="irc_mil" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;focus:irc.rl;irc.il;" style="border-image: none; border: 0px currentColor;" target="_blank"><img alt="Image result for animated merry christmas images" height="640" id="irc_mi" src="https://i0.wp.com/merrychristmasmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/merry-christmas-animated-images.gif?resize=517%2C539&ssl=1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="613" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-23856077668766832272019-11-25T23:28:00.000-06:002019-11-25T23:28:04.761-06:00Words to ponder<div class="clearfix _42ef">
<div class="rfloat _ohf" style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="See the source image" data-bm="5" height="320" src="https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/57/21/1036105225-dalai-lama-humanity-surprise-1024x512.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<div class="j_1nsi8ewun-">
<div class="_6a _5u5j _6b">
<h5 class="_7tae _14f3 _14f5 _5pbw _5vra" data-ft="{"tn":"C"}" id="js_51b">
<span class="fwn fcg"><span class="fwb fcg" data-ft="{"tn":"k"}"><a data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard-referer="ARSoxc9-ev2aUJtse2vWiU0YRv4-gCdxcrlBe0yIjrJ18Q4pC5ZD0Orb9rrUSwnL-WA" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=339188887615&extragetparams=%7B%22__tn__%22%3A%22%2CdkC-R-R%22%2C%22eid%22%3A%22ARBRVyfSDjxgW91bUVShOdJa4HJsQaGzqxJxN1JRR7veNPo2vzDifuTHRCehmuG0K_yQ90MVsOyOd5lX%22%2C%22hc_ref%22%3A%22ARSoxc9-ev2aUJtse2vWiU0YRv4-gCdxcrlBe0yIjrJ18Q4pC5ZD0Orb9rrUSwnL-WA%22%2C%22fref%22%3A%22nf%22%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARBRVyfSDjxgW91bUVShOdJa4HJsQaGzqxJxN1JRR7veNPo2vzDifuTHRCehmuG0K_yQ90MVsOyOd5lX&hc_ref=ARSoxc9-ev2aUJtse2vWiU0YRv4-gCdxcrlBe0yIjrJ18Q4pC5ZD0Orb9rrUSwnL-WA&fref=nf&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDIbfpBtc-WtpU0wfAs0WhC-MFlooNfKviu3x6hPh5f0TmzMuuNIJJIKxOgvZiLgrLr-rplZpy5EjJqX-Ps03-SjMgYhfUcmsrFda7N3SOXq-7T5padYW2fNMqvaELXNiNJd58H6yoOgraN6mE2KMpBrz2O_wJ2qklyq22cfg1xQ2xRhZOnRZASCgp0vkpoImsswqIAZzWoV5fG5exFAQccwrXHNGBg1rTgoK0RmIorkeCE-7kEJi2ZvBIhAYYLe3jCM0Y74EdOLZLWvjd5wlEB9SwV40Rx48Dvlg-BWetHb_v419dpiDsHp0NHZZdDa0NSrvpGAzs3g2LnjebzUQJLqekz99WPwrRrroaTKM8tgg"><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Dalai Lama<span aria-hidden="true" class="_6spk" role="presentation">· </span></em></span><a aria-label="Public" class="uiStreamPrivacy inlineBlock fbStreamPrivacy fbPrivacyAudienceIndicator _5pcq" data-hover="tooltip" data-tooltip-content="Public" href="https://www.facebook.com/#" role="button"></a></a></span></span></h5>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="_5pbx userContent _3ds9 _3576" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-testid="post_message" id="js_51d">
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>When I ask small children what they hope for when they grow up, they often tell me what job they want - how they want to become pilots, doctors, nurses or teachers. Perhaps because it is so self-evident, very few reply simply that they want to be happy. But isn't it true, however differently we may express it, as living beings what we all have in common is a wish, at the very core of our hearts, to be happy. Therefore it’s worth looking at how happiness can be brought about.</em></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-73370607248301691712019-10-09T20:05:00.000-05:002019-10-09T20:09:18.029-05:00Costume fun<div id="google_ads_iframe_/21287525/gl_primary-under-title_0__container__" style="border-image: none; border: 0pt currentColor;">
</div>
<section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="primary-ad-widget iscrollpoh" id="primary-over-header-1">
Halloween isn’t just a spooky holiday filled with ghost, goblins, and ghouls. It’s also a big moneymaker. CNBC estimated in September 2017 that $9.1 billion would be spent on Halloween. Of that total, $3.4 billion would be shelled out for costumes. The average consumer will spend $86.13 on their costume and honestly, it will probably be duplicated by at least a few of their friends.</div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="inner-entry-content cf">
If you want to be unique, you might want to take a closer look at the holiday’s most inventive and completely-homemade costumes. <b>….</b><br />
<strong></strong> </div>
</section><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Official costume of a dubious chef</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><source media="(max-width: 481px)" srcset="//www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Ratatouille-Halloween-Costume-16161.jpg?width=480"></source><img alt="" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Ratatouille-Halloween-Costume-16161.jpg" title="Ratatouille-Halloween-Costume-16161.jpg" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Anglerfish from the extreme depths of the ocean</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"></span></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture><img alt="" height="427" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Anglerfish-30419.jpg" title="Anglerfish-30419.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>This guy’s costume was easy to create too. He simply blew up a stock photo, cut out the guy’s head, and attached the photo to his body.</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture><img alt="" height="536" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Stock-Photo-Halloween-Costume-51962.jpg" title="Stock-Photo-Halloween-Costume-51962.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture></picture> </div>
<div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Amazon Prime meets Optimus Prime.</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><img alt="" height="384" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/optimusprime-amazon-11911.jpg" title="optimusprime-amazon-11911.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: left;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: left;">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Oogie Boogie Has Never Looked So Adorable</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><img alt="" height="640" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Oogie-Boogie-46373.jpg" title="Oogie-Boogie-46373.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: left;">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Jellyfish</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><img alt="" height="583" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Bio-Luminescent-Jellyfish-26239.jpg" title="Bio-Luminescent-Jellyfish-26239.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: left;">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Smart phone on fire</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: left;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><img alt="" height="384" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/galaxys-costume-20022.jpg" title="galaxys-costume-20022.jpg" width="640" /></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture></picture> </div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Baby president</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><section class="entry-content copy-font"><div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><img alt="halloween-costume-ideas-president" height="640" src="https://www.giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/halloween-costume-ideas-president-58955.jpg" title="halloween-costume-ideas-president" width="640" /></picture></div>
<div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong></strong></span></picture> </div>
<div class="picture-container no-md-img cf" style="text-align: center;">
<picture><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Happy Halloween!!</strong></span></picture></div>
</section><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-69692834307117880802019-09-11T22:01:00.004-05:002019-09-11T22:54:28.156-05:00Bahamas two weeks later<div align="center">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pJRLGiydKGw" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<h1 class="entry-title" style="text-align: left;">
Search teams scour Bahamas wreckage<span style="color: #e82222;"><!-- image --> <!-- content --></span></h1>
<div class="td-post-content" style="text-align: left;">
At least 50 people have died as a result of Hurricane Dorian, a number that is expected to rise as search operations continue.Two weeks after the category five storm devastated parts of the island chain, thousands have been left without homes and essentials such as water and electricity.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AgxlL40ibUc" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="color: #073763;">Hurricane Dorian caused the most destruction in the Bahamas. According to the Associated Press, when Dorian struck the Bahamas it was as a Category 5 hurricane with 295 kilometre per hour winds and obliterated thousands of homes.</span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">An estimated 50 people have been confirmed dead, but thousands have been reported as missing on </span><a href="https://dorianpeoplesearch.com/missing-persons-list/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span style="color: #073763;">DorianPeopleSearch.com</span></a><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">,</span> a website where loved ones can enter names of individuals who remain unaccounted for. Aerial footage over the islands shows enormous wreckage. Crews are anticipated to be scouring through the debris for weeks.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;">Although the official death toll stands at 50 according to a statement by the Royal Bahamas Police Force, aid workers and some residents are reporting significantly higher numbers of bodies than what the official government figures currently suggest. </span><br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">Observers on the ground estimated the final death count could be as high as 3,000 in just two neighborhoods on the Abaco Islands.</span> </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full" height="387" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" src="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas6.jpeg" srcset="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas6.jpeg 1200w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas6-300x182.jpeg 300w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas6-768x465.jpeg 768w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas6-1024x620.jpeg 1024w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas6-640x387.jpeg 640w" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Canadian firefighters arrive to assist local authorities to search for victims, living or dead and distribute much needed supplies of water and food</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full" height="430" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" src="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas1.jpeg" srcset="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas1.jpeg 1200w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas1-300x202.jpeg 300w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas1-768x516.jpeg 768w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas1-1024x689.jpeg 1024w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_Penticton-bahamas1-640x430.jpeg 640w" width="640" /> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Canadian firefighters bring cadaver dogs to search the wreckage</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full" height="426" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" src="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21710651.jpg" srcset="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21710651.jpg 1200w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21710651-300x200.jpg 300w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21710651-768x512.jpg 768w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21710651-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21710651-640x427.jpg 640w" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Marsh Harbour Bahamas - Stray dog searches for food</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full" height="424" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" src="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21715947.jpg" srcset="https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21715947.jpg 1200w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21715947-300x199.jpg 300w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21715947-768x509.jpg 768w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21715947-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https://2rcjb24cbz0o2q658b64vmrj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/18469241_web1_21715947-640x424.jpg 640w" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Marsh Harbour area destruction</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-49129231064606442652019-09-05T12:46:00.001-05:002019-09-05T12:47:22.046-05:00Another brilliant Trump solution<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="media-image" height="444" src="https://images.theweek.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2_bramhall_0.jpg?itok=SfwVDTZe" typeof="foaf:Image" width="640" /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-29082032319547483132019-08-25T23:32:00.002-05:002019-08-25T23:33:27.571-05:00First look in the mirror, Mr. President, to quell America’s deadly violence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zOARtzWuA-wPXCoeFV21VKxkBwnAfYaaOXgnj-gKWQxE1npoLi7hu9ImsFTq0sq8NjdJ4xV-9-YmBGkC_MsGqok5qI5mEZv3WxUI7rv031kXYwaUjHyLDscw65KuxJD0nNOn2L8iVdA/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zOARtzWuA-wPXCoeFV21VKxkBwnAfYaaOXgnj-gKWQxE1npoLi7hu9ImsFTq0sq8NjdJ4xV-9-YmBGkC_MsGqok5qI5mEZv3WxUI7rv031kXYwaUjHyLDscw65KuxJD0nNOn2L8iVdA/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tbW5OsZEsoX_s-ikFiufEimLW12Qy5zc4Q0BhHACnHuX92HYyabyR2_sP9kSIzXc0TFoDynFF0u8F_fU3v6ceCCbp9uDA4p4Rshry6atbuMld5qHokCzTUo3q_b_rBZnO1qiC6q6bHE/s1600/0.0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="920" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3tbW5OsZEsoX_s-ikFiufEimLW12Qy5zc4Q0BhHACnHuX92HYyabyR2_sP9kSIzXc0TFoDynFF0u8F_fU3v6ceCCbp9uDA4p4Rshry6atbuMld5qHokCzTUo3q_b_rBZnO1qiC6q6bHE/s640/0.0.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Three of the Walmart workers, Melisa Gonzalez, Jesus Romero and Raven Ramos, who helped people to escape during a mass shooting occurred on Saturday, get emotional during a vigil at Ponder Park in honor to the victims in El Paso on Sunday, August 4, 2019. Lola Gomez/American-Statesman.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump must lead the way with action in the passage of tough, meaningful gun control and an immediate ban on military-style weapons.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The horrifying and heartbreaking news of the domestic terrorist attacks in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in less than 24 hours over the weekend reached me while I was in Poland, a country haunted by the deadly power of politically irresponsible and racist rhetoric.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Columnists</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>I was participating in a series of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau death factory near Krakow, where in one night the Nazis killed more than 4,000 Roma and Sinti men, women and children, classified and persecuted by the Nazis as “Gypsies,” aliens, undocumented and other.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The motivation of the young white killer in Dayton is unclear.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>But in El Paso, a 21-year-old white man apparently posted to social media a hate-filled, anti-immigrant rant before driving nine hours and 600 miles from the Dallas area to a Walmart, where you can see Mexico from the parking lot, to kill as many brown-skinned people as possible .</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Wielding a semiautomatic, military-style rife — a weapon of mass destruction — the Texas shooter killed 20 people and wounded dozens more in a matter of minutes. The death toll in the El Paso shooting now stands at 22.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The scourge of homegrown racial terrorism is not new.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Since the birth of the Klan during Reconstruction, to the White Citizen’s councils of the ‘60s to Timothy McVeigh’s slaughter of 168 people, including 19 children, in Oklahoma City, the radical and racist right has used guns and bombs to intimidate and spread fear.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>President Donald Trump said many of the right things at the White House Monday morning in condemning the shootings, racism, bigotry and white supremacy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Better late than never. Now he must do the right thing. He can start by looking at the man in the mirror. He must end his use of racially charged (often racist) rhetoric and tweets for political gain. It is divisive, dangerous and diversionary.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>I think he is better than that. I know the country is.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The president should also clean the swamp inside his administration.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>During his campaign and in the White House — the people’s house — Trump has surrounded himself with racial ideologues, including his immigrant-bashing speech writer Stephen Miller, a close college friend of Richard Spencer, who, along with former KKK leader and Trump endorser, David Duke, were organizers of the demonstrations in Charlottesville where hundreds of neo-Nazis marched through the streets, chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Racism is a pathology. It is unscientific. It is immoral. It is a sickness. It is deadly.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The ideology of white supremacy is spewing hate, anti-immigrant and racially polarizing rhetoric. It is cannon fodder for these mass killings. These are not killings of passion, but political killings. Calling the shooters mentally ill is dismissing their plan of action, their ideology of supremacy and hate.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>They are at war. They know what they’re doing and why.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>We have a gun crisis, a hate crisis and a leadership crisis.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump must use his bully pulpit for something more than bullying. He must lead the way with action, not just words, in the passage of tough, meaningful gun control and an immediate ban on the military-style weapons used by both killers in El Paso and Dayton.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He must demand his fellow Republicans do the same. The House has passed gun legislation that would likely reduce such mass killings in the future, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to bring it before the Senate for a vote.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Mr. President, start twisting arms. These political acts of domestic terrorism are an attempt to undercut our democracy. The combination of well-armed white nationalists and white supremacists, and a multiracial democracy, cannot co-exist.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The president must take a moral stand for humanity and curb his ugly rhetoric.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>His FBI must clamp down on right-wing, white nationalist groups inspiring and committing these acts of violence. He must join the American people who are demanding sensible gun safety measures.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Prayers and condolences are not enough.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>We need action. We need gun control. We need the political will and moral leadership to stop the violence, save the children — and the country.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Glad you are back Jesse .</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The PIC's</i></b></span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-1672719904218239802019-08-12T00:49:00.000-05:002019-08-12T00:54:25.927-05:00Life and Death of Jeffrey Epstein <div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="395" src="https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GettyImages-700334384-e1565457197445-1200x741.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<img height="334" src="https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2019/07/trump-epstein-wide.jpg?resize=865,452" width="640" /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a data-cthref="/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiSvcPay_zjAhUaX80KHbuMCo8QjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fjenvanlaar%2F2019%2F07%2F06%2Fjeffrey-epstein-reportedly-arrested-federal-sex-trafficking-charges%2F&psig=AOvVaw2haTijFtbgztkuyoRmOgeX&ust=1565673553412512" data-ved="2ahUKEwiSvcPay_zjAhUaX80KHbuMCo8QjRx6BAgBEAQ" href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiSvcPay_zjAhUaX80KHbuMCo8QjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fjenvanlaar%2F2019%2F07%2F06%2Fjeffrey-epstein-reportedly-arrested-federal-sex-trafficking-charges%2F&psig=AOvVaw2haTijFtbgztkuyoRmOgeX&ust=1565673553412512" id="irc_mil" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;focus:irc.rl;irc.il;" style="border-image: none; border: 0px currentColor;" target="_blank"><img alt="Image result for image of jeffrey epstein" data-iml="1565587162643" height="342" id="irc_mi" src="https://www.redstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/jeffrey-epstein-620x332.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--5Fc8ctDc--/18j4rc2vv9au5png.png" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="240" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/43ff52512b79f0c2686be94bb625afc7ff0c7aea/0_175_2995_1797/master/2995.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8d6834b25976e737135b95b099559614" width="400" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
A changed and aged Epstein during incarceration</div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
</div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jeffry Epstein is dead by his own hand and the conspiracy theories abound. Of course they should be thoroughly investigated, even though they are all more fiction than fact. The system or someone in it is responsible for leaving a suicidal man unsupervised and should step forward and own it.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
<span style="font-size: large;">Will anyone truly mourn Epstein's death??</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://img.insideedition.com/1749985693001/201907/1749985693001_6057612191001_6057612790001-vs.jpg?pubId=1749985693001" height="360" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">One of Epstein's accusers</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="400" src="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/08/10/TELEMMGLPICT000203167298_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqFBZpRibEF375-u2uiyaraLRm4rMQCil4StBstFvg3ys.jpeg?imwidth=450" width="640" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">some of Epstein's victims</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
</div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
<span style="font-size: large;">The more we learn, the more Jeffrey Epstein resembles an evil comic book character for the developmentally arrested, pseudo intellectual — the charming-but-lurid mastermind with a plot to take over the world by impregnating scores of women on a remote desert estate.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
<span style="font-size: large;"> The New York Times reported that the financier/convicted sex offender/philanthropist — and accused sex trafficker — was also a “transhumanist” who had big plans for humankind. Epstein apparently told one scientist that he hoped to seed the human race with his own DNA by impregnating 20 women at a time at his New Mexico ranch, named “Zorro.”</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="1">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="3">
<span style="font-size: large;">Transhumanism is the theory that the human population can be enhanced through technologies such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering. Or eugenics by any other name. Epstein seems to have believed that he was that rare breed that ought to be replicated.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="4">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="4">
<span style="font-size: large;">The carriers of Epstein’s apparently rarefied spermatozoa wouldn’t be the younger, underage sexual partners he allegedly preferred. Instead, according to the Times’s reporting, his maternal incubators would be adult women whose intellectual qualifications would have been established through academic achievement.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="4">
</div>
<div data-elm-loc="4" style="text-align: center;">
<a data-cthref="/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiFpozKzPzjAhXUaM0KHUvvBV0QjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.com.au%2Fworld%2Fnorth-america%2Fdonald-trump-seen-partying-with-paedophile-jeffrey-epstein-despite-saying-he-was-not-a-fan-of-his%2Fnews-story%2Fca84de2a9d1164df518622eb01f25e08&psig=AOvVaw2haTijFtbgztkuyoRmOgeX&ust=1565673553412512" data-ved="2ahUKEwiFpozKzPzjAhXUaM0KHUvvBV0QjRx6BAgBEAQ" href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiFpozKzPzjAhXUaM0KHUvvBV0QjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.com.au%2Fworld%2Fnorth-america%2Fdonald-trump-seen-partying-with-paedophile-jeffrey-epstein-despite-saying-he-was-not-a-fan-of-his%2Fnews-story%2Fca84de2a9d1164df518622eb01f25e08&psig=AOvVaw2haTijFtbgztkuyoRmOgeX&ust=1565673553412512" id="irc_mil" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;focus:irc.rl;irc.il;" style="border-image: none; border: 0px currentColor;" target="_blank"><img alt="Image result for image of jeffrey epstein" data-iml="1565587162643" height="337" id="irc_mi" src="https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/66d66086eb168a5795a180ac175d7150?width=650" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="449" /></a></div>
<div data-elm-loc="4" style="text-align: center;">
Trump parties at Epstein's Manhattan manse</div>
<div data-elm-loc="4">
</div>
<div data-elm-loc="4">
<span style="font-size: large;">For dinners he hosted at his Manhattan manse, Epstein often invited scientists as well as a sampling of attractive, accomplished women. Some of the scientists theorized that the women were being vetted as potential candidates for Epstein’s very special black book, according to the Times.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="12">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="12">
<span style="font-size: large;">The male invitees weren’t your run-of-the-mill scientists but some of the most renowned, innovative minds in research and academia. Among them was Steven Pinker , the Harvard cognitive psychologist and popular science author, who seems to have seen through Epstein, calling him an “intellectual impostor.” Pinker told the Times that Epstein would abruptly shift topics and make juvenile remarks. To the layman’s eye, such behavior suggests a purposeful deflection when the topic at hand is reaching a point beyond the speaker’s comfort range or intellectual capacity.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="12">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="9">
<span style="font-size: large;">Others on Epstein’s guest lists apparently were seduced by his charm and intellect, as well as his wealth, which he reportedly dangled as bait for funding-starved researchers. He was generous, often donating to a variety of interests and causes, including the Clinton Foundation. But he wasn’t convinced that helping the starving masses was productive in the right sense, arguing that providing food and health care to the poor would only heighten the risk of overpopulation.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="9">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="10">
<span style="font-size: large;">Pinker, who said he was present when Epstein floated this idea at a gathering at Harvard, which was dissented, arguing that the evidence points to the contrary. Gods don’t like to be contradicted, and Pinker was thereafter told he’d been “voted off the island” and banished from future gatherings.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="11">
<span style="font-size: large;">Speaking of which, Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean — which he dubbed “Little St. Jeff’s” — is of renewed interest thanks to an NBC News report. Apparently, a blue-and-white-striped, block-shaped building on it bears no resemblance to the octagonally shaped design that had been approved to be a music hall, according to permit records.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="11">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="12">
<span style="font-size: large;">What the structure does resemble, however, is a pharaoh’s headdress. Might this have been intended as a mausoleum for Epstein’s remains? That is, other than his head and penis, which he reportedly wished to have frozen. Also a fan of cryogenics, believing that frozen human parts and bodies could be resurrected in the future, Epstein was no ordinary bloke. Indeed, he is a perversely tragic figure.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="12">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="13">
<span style="font-size: large;">Burdened with lewd and improbable fantasies and the means to explore them, it seems that Epstein became lost in his own fable. Wandering the skies in his private jet, enamored of his own mind and image, he forgot that he was merely mortal and may have flown too close to the sun. Confined to a jail cell (with further punishment to come) — and removed from his luxurious kingdom, his freedom and the company of luminaries who swelled his ego with admiration — his suffering must have been unbearable, although richly deserved. The logical explanation for his extreme reaction to his situation is that he could no longer tolerate what his life had sunk to and did not have the courage to face an even worse future.</span></div>
<div data-elm-loc="14">
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-40814049730324421142019-08-06T21:23:00.003-05:002019-08-06T21:23:51.845-05:00Nailed it !<div align="center">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8dMgEwQYdog" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-29250294224241749362019-06-27T19:59:00.001-05:002019-06-28T23:39:26.665-05:00Two women say E Jean Carroll told them about Trump alleged sexual assault<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="See the source image" height="400" src="https://i1.wp.com/dedipic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/trump_nonono.gif?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1" width="400" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I did not rape that woman</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I've never even met her</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="story-body__introduction">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Two women have publicly said columnist E. Jean Carroll confided in them after Donald Trump allegedly raped her in the 1990s. Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach at the time disagreed on whether Ms Carroll should call the police, the New York Times newspaper reports.</em></strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>President Trump denies the allegation, saying Ms Carroll is "totally lying" and "she's not my type". </em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Ms Carroll, 75, is the 16th woman to accuse Mr Trump of sexual misconduct. Mr Trump, 73, has rejected all allegations against him.</em></strong></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong><em></em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Ms Martin, a TV news anchor in 1975-95, and Ms Birnbach, a writer, spoke publicly for the first time about the alleged sexual assault on the New York Times podcast The Daily.</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Ms Carroll, the Elle columnist, said in the same podcast she had called Ms Birnbach straight after the alleged assault, telling her that Mr Trump had forced himself on her.</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Ms Birnbach responded by saying she thought it was rape, urging Ms Carroll to call the police.</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>"Let's go to the police. I'll take you to the police" Ms Birnbach said, but added that her friend refused.</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Ms Carroll described what had happened between her and Mr Trump as a "fight", not "a crime".</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>She also told the podcast she felt that she had encouraged Mr Trump's behaviour. Asked whether she felt responsibility for what happened, she said: "One hundred percent."</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong><em>Ms Carroll said two or three days later she also told Ms Martin about the alleged assault.</em></strong></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump" class="js-image-replace" data-highest-encountered-width="660" height="360" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1C72/production/_107528270_carrollandtrumptop2.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>E. Jean Carroll said it happened at a Bergdorf Goodman store in New York's Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996, when the pair bumped into each other while shopping. The former Apprentice star and real estate magnate allegedly asked her for advice when buying lingerie for another woman and jokingly asked her to model it for him.</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>In the changing rooms, she said Mr Trump lunged at her, pinned her against a wall and forced himself on her. Ms Carroll, whose "Ask E. Jean" advice column has appeared in Elle magazine since 1993, claims she managed to push him off after a "colossal struggle".</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>Ms Carroll made the allegations for the first time in the New York magazine last Friday. She said she would consider pressing charges against the president.</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong></strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>Speaking to The Hill on Monday, Mr Trump staunchly dismissed the allegations due to appear in Ms Carroll's forthcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal. He denied even knowing Ms Carroll despite being pictured with her in New York magazine alongside details of her allegations.</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>"She is - it's just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that," he said.</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>It was his third denial since Ms Carroll went public, with Mr Trump previously accusing her of "trying to sell a new book" and "peddling fake news". </strong></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>In 2016, Mr Trump made similar remarks about another accuser, Jessica Leeds, who alleges he groped her on an aeroplane in the 1980s.</strong></em></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><em><strong>Addressing crowds at a rally, Mr Trump said "she would not be my first choice". Doesn't he realize that a sexist remark like that only makes him appear more guilty?? My opinion? … He's guilty as hell.</strong></em></span><br />
<strong><em><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial;"></span></em></strong><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Donald Trump GIF - DonaldTrump GIFs" height="400" src="https://media1.tenor.com/images/3243f0b5e0403b4386abb6c97ae05a6f/tenor.gif?itemid=14029914" style="background-color: #3f3f3f; max-width: 833px;" width="400" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>As usual, he gets away with it without consequences</strong></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-61620817951665216032019-05-08T00:00:00.000-05:002019-05-08T00:02:40.260-05:00President Trump’s insatiable appetite for regime change<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK5Cp9vCu-VSOBfV-_XOOvzNKs8ajCjkEok1pD2Yv0mJuBMZBplaI5dR34R6-KVe_12bPsk5Mh13MsliKwHtBv0yk-GcXO3tgVW8MksN7YbAFoqayIgB3AhY-aYZM9vE9DZluIre5Komk/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK5Cp9vCu-VSOBfV-_XOOvzNKs8ajCjkEok1pD2Yv0mJuBMZBplaI5dR34R6-KVe_12bPsk5Mh13MsliKwHtBv0yk-GcXO3tgVW8MksN7YbAFoqayIgB3AhY-aYZM9vE9DZluIre5Komk/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-z2UvL71XusUYdiBpGgFX6AmUb48gccxA_VwWXlvLIRbGiUaGPY6snFjPJAtwYxUXQTUdERewKjOb5RzwBARZpC6InWw9Qtnqd9T9e9rMn9-_Y6RyrragUBaEqoUqZOxv8u584exIMO0/s1600/0-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="763" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-z2UvL71XusUYdiBpGgFX6AmUb48gccxA_VwWXlvLIRbGiUaGPY6snFjPJAtwYxUXQTUdERewKjOb5RzwBARZpC6InWw9Qtnqd9T9e9rMn9-_Y6RyrragUBaEqoUqZOxv8u584exIMO0/s640/0-10.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>White House National Security Advisor John Bolton talks to reporters about the security and political turmoil in Venezuela and called for a peaceful transition to a government controlled by acting President Juan Guaido, outside of the White House West Wing on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 05/06/2019</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Push is coming to shove in Venezuela.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>President Donald Trump has decided that the government of President Nicolás Maduro must go.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Senior officials — led by John Bolton, Trump’s super-hawk national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, stained by his cover-up and lies about death squads in El Salvador and contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s — boast publicly about their plots for regime change.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>They have recognized an obscure right-wing Venezuelan politician — Juan Guaido — as head of state. They’ve tightened sanctions again and again, adding directly to the dire suffering of the Venezuelan people.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>They’ve encouraged the military to revolt. And when the failure of Guaido’s latest coup attempt embarrassed them last week, they’ve threatened direct military intervention.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>“All options are on the table,” Trump repeats.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Trump has a “full range of options” when it comes to next moves against the Venezuelan government, claiming that Trump doesn’t need congressional authorization to act.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>John Bolton announced that the “Monroe Doctrine is alive and well. It’s our hemisphere.” He noted that he wasn’t prepared to apply Teddy Roosevelt’s corollary that asserted the U.S. power to intervene unilaterally anywhere in the hemisphere “yet.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In fact, military intervention in Venezuela would be blatantly illegal under both international law and the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution gives Congress the right to declare war, something that the right-wing justices who claim to be guided by the text somehow ignore.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The entire system of international law constructed in the wake of World War II by the United States is based upon non-intervention and state sovereignty. Even the so-called right to protect — the right to intervene to avoid a human rights catastrophe — requires approval by the Security Council. Unilateral action violates the law.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The Trump administration’s insatiable appetite for regime change is more than a crime, it is a blunder.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>For decades, the U.S. claimed to be the “indispensable nation” because we would enforce a “rules-based” world order fairly. Now Trump and his band of armchair warriors are turning the U.S into a lawless rogue nation, following in the errant footsteps of their predecessors.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Recent forays into regime change — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Honduras, Syria — have all ended in disaster, ruinous not only for the people of the country but also for U.S. lives and treasure as well.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Venezuela poses no threat to the U.S. It is a bitterly divided country, politically, racially and economically. The U.S. was party to a failed coup attempt against Hugo Chavez in 2002.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Maduro’s misrule, the falling price of oil, U.S. sanctions have all combined to crater the Venezuelan economy, spreading misery with millions deciding to leave. Bolton recklessly boasts about U.S. plans to help rebuild the economy once Maduro is gone — “planning for what we call the day after.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>No doubt, Trump will want the U.S. or U.S. companies to “take the oil,” as he claims we should have done in Iraq. This folly is likely to put us in the middle of a civil war that will only add to the humanitarian disaster in Venezuela.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Surely, we should have learned from Libya that a bad state is not nearly as bad as a failed state.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Instead of Teddy Roosevelt and the days of gunboat diplomacy, the U.S. should be following the prudent advice of Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>FDR outlined principles for good hemispheric relations, including respect for the integrity of other states; self-restraint and acceptance of the equal rights of neighbors, non- intervention in the domestic affairs of neighbors, and settlement of disputes by negotiation, not force.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Venezuela is a sovereign nation and a neighbor. Maduro is supported by Russia, China and Cuba.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>So what?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>We don’t believe that Russia has the right to overthrow the governments of Ukraine or Georgia simply because we support their governments. We should be acting to alleviate the humanitarian crisis afflicting the Venezuelan people, not add to it. No matter how hateful we think Maduro is, it is up to the Venezuelan people to decide who will govern them.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The last thing we should do is attempt to dictate — particularly through threat or use of force — who will rule a land of nearly 30 million people.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now is the time for Congress to act, to pass a resolution to prevent U.S. military action in Venezuela.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>If Trump and his bellicose henchmen have their way, we will surely regret it.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-63557246507819788452019-05-06T18:27:00.005-05:002019-05-06T18:27:50.962-05:00GOP, not Russia, is greater threat to free elections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA7MHOhY5pj9vGLiI3l5HS1mPs_DAHZhKzri8N-qOJFmSwIFl6_65-TJ7HpflwIHmOs46rd7EfO0E4Gm19WxI8fwcAjJ6a1FHqc6LaVZA5CfyAJar51LI5Lo2-okjLm6pPbNpV37OjCsY/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA7MHOhY5pj9vGLiI3l5HS1mPs_DAHZhKzri8N-qOJFmSwIFl6_65-TJ7HpflwIHmOs46rd7EfO0E4Gm19WxI8fwcAjJ6a1FHqc6LaVZA5CfyAJar51LI5Lo2-okjLm6pPbNpV37OjCsY/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjVf7gUIsQn-kEjnoq4E6-_A-FrgK7tji63jqmF8I4ikfB2YJ67cEvp52n3-lVLRrRbpWT8bA5q3-jjaG9XLmSZ4IGNHdRlQbLOgFCHTLaRmbG-Krbhvr0pW1oXA2glcGP-us_fdCMrY/s1600/voting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="763" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjVf7gUIsQn-kEjnoq4E6-_A-FrgK7tji63jqmF8I4ikfB2YJ67cEvp52n3-lVLRrRbpWT8bA5q3-jjaG9XLmSZ4IGNHdRlQbLOgFCHTLaRmbG-Krbhvr0pW1oXA2glcGP-us_fdCMrY/s640/voting.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>In Wisconsin, Jesse Jackson writes, voter suppression laws have been passed by a conservative Republican legislature despite the fact that there is no evidence of voter fraud to justify them. Karie Angell Luc~for Sun-Times Media</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> By Jesse Jackson 4/29/2019</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>We all have heard about WikiLeaks and Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has once more put that on the front pages. Too often lost in the furor, however, is the far more damaging TrikiLeaks — the tricks and laws used to suppress the vote by partisans, largely Republicans here at home.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>After the Supreme Court’s right-wing gang of five gutted key sections of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby v. Holder, Republican-controlled states immediately ramped up efforts to create obstacles for voting, particularly for people of color. They mandated specific forms of state ID, made it harder for students to vote, eliminated same-day registration, reduced early voting days, closed polling booths in African American neighborhoods leading to long delays, purged voters from the rolls, perfected partisan gerrymandering and more. In some cases, as in North Carolina, their discriminatory intent was so public that the laws were overturned in federal court, but in most places, the new barriers were in place in 2016.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>EDITORIAL</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Did it make a difference? Voting rights expert Ari Berman says, “absolutely.” Overall 14 states had new restrictions in place, passed since the Shelby decision. Look at Wisconsin. Trump won by 22,000 votes. In Wisconsin, 300,000 African American voters didn’t have the newly required strict photo ID. Black voter turnout in Milwaukee declined by 51,000 votes from 2012, while as Lawyers Committee President Kristen Clarke noted, voter turnout rates were depressed across the state.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now we’re headed into 2020. Republican bastions like Texas, Tennessee and Arizona witnessed surges of Democratic support in 2018. Not surprisingly, they are launching new efforts to suppress the vote. In Texas, the secretary of state announced a plan to purge 95,000 people from the voter rolls because they weren’t citizens. Independent research then demonstrated that in Harris County, which includes Houston, 60 percent of the 30,000 people on the list had received citizenship long ago. Some of the supposed research was 25 years old. Once more citizens had to go to court to try to stop the suppression.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In Texas, state lawmakers are also moving to add criminal penalties for people who improperly fill out voter registration forms, an effort to intimidate nonprofit groups that work to register people to vote. In Arizona, Republicans are making it harder to cast an early ballot. In Tennessee, GOP lawmakers are pushing legislation to fine voter registration groups that submit incomplete forms, even by mistake, up to $10,000. Tequila Johnson, co-founder of the Equity Alliance that focuses on registering people of color, called them out: “We have never seen a bill like this on the floor, until we dared to register 86,000 black and brown people to vote. This screams racism.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Much, much more attention should be paid to this battle. Happily, the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives has made voting rights a priority. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, has launched an investigation of voter suppression in Georgia in 2018, where the victor, Brian Kemp, oversaw the election as secretary state. And, as Cummings detailed, 1.4 million people were purged from the voting rolls from 2012 to 2016, 53,000 — 80 percent of them people of color — had their registrations put on hold; 214 polling places were shuttered, contributing to lines of more than four hours in heavily black precincts.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Meredith — Providing you the best up to date trending videos</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Some states, happily, are moving to make voting easier and more accessible. Florida citizens passed a historic referendum restoring the right to vote for felons who have paid their debt to society. (Now, Republicans in the legislature are trying to undermine that initiative). Automatic Voting Registration laws have passed in several states. More states are providing longer times for early voting, adding voting booths to reduce long lines and more. Cases to rollback partisan gerrymandering have been successful in federal courts — and now are headed to the Supreme Court. The Brennan Center reports that bills that expand voting rights have seen some movement in 35 states, while those restricting rights have moved in 10 states.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>What’s clear is that interference with our elections and with the right to vote will come far more from the efforts of domestic politicians than it will come from whatever mischief the Russians plan. It is revealing that the Trump White House has little to say about Russians. It is even more telling that the Justice Department is absent without leave in the fight against voter suppression at home. The right to vote — the most basic right of a democracy — is still contested in too many states — and must be fought, state by state, by citizens of conscience.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-29395570256009987322019-05-03T23:32:00.001-05:002019-05-03T23:32:37.438-05:00My Sweet Lovely Friend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0D4XbvhayB-O8hfb-9rKMZdNb8IVBDYbIiaFqVjiSbgtMFmrLId9rnl7O8d6g_OTDZXrii0rQwtsLioqzi2FmKu6lyOJYk_62mEiltzhKLcRb5Wy4JOrwIWi0pH9piM7fbACSb9v9vk/s1600/3555321gyna4ehzha.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="793" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0D4XbvhayB-O8hfb-9rKMZdNb8IVBDYbIiaFqVjiSbgtMFmrLId9rnl7O8d6g_OTDZXrii0rQwtsLioqzi2FmKu6lyOJYk_62mEiltzhKLcRb5Wy4JOrwIWi0pH9piM7fbACSb9v9vk/s640/3555321gyna4ehzha.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Howdy Sweetie,</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Dear Shadow of 'Genie',</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>No thanks needed ... that's what friends do .I was so happy to know you were up and around and out in the sunshine . Now you take your time and stop being in such a rush . I will enjoy our chat ... we take our chats slow at the beginning ...</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The Knights will write you something on WAG ... Charles / Charlene want to write you , Sha told them to email it and they will put it in the secret place , I hear Gil /Harvey will welcome you back also ... Harvey was just dancing around , Helen , his daughter asked what was wrong with him , Jonny told her Harvey was happy because their aunt Jeannie was back on her feet and she was going to tell him how to introduce himself as the Roving Reporter .</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>I will definitely lay into him now we haven't been posting much we wanted you see all the posts Hahahahaha!!! You have a birthday post on WB.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Love Witchy </i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-86588487838353471302019-05-02T22:45:00.000-05:002019-05-02T22:45:02.009-05:00<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="See the source image" src="https://i.123g.us/c/thank_friendship/card/329814.gif" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dear Witchy</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Thank you for being such a patient friend. It feels good to be up and around and out in the sunshine. I will pick up where I left off so long ago. I have so missed hanging around the blogs and trading comments with you. I will set up a chat with you</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I do hope you are well and full of your usual pep and energy. I see you are still giving Trump hell. That's my girl. See you soon</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Love Shadow</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-78694434682896671382019-04-08T21:00:00.003-05:002019-04-08T21:00:55.945-05:00The politics behind Donald Trump’s empty threats on Mexico border<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7QhE4vXmclUDI5xeOglqKQ1ew8oGpvDl2EST_c2pni9KOwSeUEZh_7mjyX4XPHkANwQtzfZnzoYPvrc72OxZ3G6LKZyuMUsEPhw4jo5Ypfczvjq8WnkT2eJVXqBd4mtknhazMTdlLbU/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7QhE4vXmclUDI5xeOglqKQ1ew8oGpvDl2EST_c2pni9KOwSeUEZh_7mjyX4XPHkANwQtzfZnzoYPvrc72OxZ3G6LKZyuMUsEPhw4jo5Ypfczvjq8WnkT2eJVXqBd4mtknhazMTdlLbU/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqybRvjl_OB4uKF2vnHCdqADwI-edHas4MuDy-j9NNL6q-z7zV4CTuOGu4Pk9vAJf3D3xRkNGJmgEGYCrmk5647zE75FQeDLtL8aIt1xYwwaSb1ipyL5hN9fMNLYZDsyu054ctZi77J4/s1600/afp_1ff0jd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="763" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqybRvjl_OB4uKF2vnHCdqADwI-edHas4MuDy-j9NNL6q-z7zV4CTuOGu4Pk9vAJf3D3xRkNGJmgEGYCrmk5647zE75FQeDLtL8aIt1xYwwaSb1ipyL5hN9fMNLYZDsyu054ctZi77J4/s640/afp_1ff0jd.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>President Donald Trump tours the border wall between the United States and Mexico in Calexico, California, April 5, 2019. | Photo by Saul Loeb | AFP/Getty Images</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 04/08/2019 </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> Donald Trump’s flailing on immigration and the Mexican border continue to spiral into chaos. First, he threatened to close the border with Mexico. One week later, he walked that back. He declares a national emergency about the “invasion” of people seeking asylum from Central American countries, and then says he’s stopped all aid to those countries, which can only worsen the conditions that cause people to leave. He says he’s already building a wall. That isn’t true. He torpedoes bipartisan measures that might begin to make things better.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It’s increasingly clear Trump wants a crisis that he can use politically, not a solution that can ease human suffering.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Two weeks ago, Trump’s threat was clear: “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug [sic] our Southern Border,” he tweeted, “I will be CLOSING…the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.” His aides said he was deadly serious. Trump’s leading mouthpiece, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, told ABC News that it would take “something dramatic” to stop him from doing it.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Less than a week later, Trump reversed himself. He suddenly praised Mexico as being “very nice,” claiming that Mexico had changed its policy toward the asylum seekers, which a befuddled Mexican government quickly denied. He retreated by issuing new bluster: “We’re going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don’t stop, or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars. And if that doesn’t work, we’re going to close the border. You know I will do it. I don’t play games,” Trump warned, playing games with his threats.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>What was the “something dramatic” that convinced the president to take back his threat? He was mugged by reality.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Closing our 2,000-mile border with Mexico would be an economic catastrophe, a moral blight, inconceivably inane and literally impossible. A combined 15 million people live along the border. Some $1.7 billion of two-way trade and hundreds of thousands of legal travelers cross the border each day. Mexico is the second-largest market for U.S.-made products (Canada is first). It is our third-largest trading partner (after Canada and China). It is the fourth-largest supplier of foreign crude oil to the United States. It is the top destination for U.S. travelers.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump lives in a universe that he shares only with rabid Fox News commentators, but, in this case, he was forcibly reminded of reality by Republican business leaders and by the conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which warned that closing the border would “inflict severe economic harm on American families.” Even Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who usually wags his tail at whatever the president tweets, warned of “potentially catastrophic economic damage.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump’s threats are just posturing, but his policy is a chaotic calamity. He declares a national emergency to claim money for his wall (largely from the military) against the will of the bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress. He rails about the import of drugs, ignoring the reality that virtually all of the hard drugs come in through legal ports of entry that his “wall” won’t address. He describes the rising number of people seeking asylum as “an invasion,” scorning both international and U.S. law and basic morals, then directs his State Department to cut off $450 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which will surely worsen the conditions that are driving people to seek asylum. He traveled to the California border to celebrate the building of a new section of his promised border wall, when no new building had taken place, only a routine upgrade of old fencing.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He cut off protections for the Dreamers, young people who have grown up in the U.S., and torpedoed the bipartisan agreement that would have protected them and added to border security after he said he’d sign it. He scaled back protections for asylum seekers, helping to create the backlog at the border. Then his administration cruelly separated parents and children at the border, creating a shameful human horror that continues to this day.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Clearly Trump wants an issue to run on politically, not a solution to a humanitarian tragedy. Steve Bannon, Trump’s 2016 campaign strategist, argued that as long as the debate is over immigrants, Trump benefits. Trump uses attacks on immigrants as the centerpiece of his white nationalist appeal. His railing about the crimes of Latin American gang members is simply the updated version of the Willie Horton ad that George Bush used against Mike Dukakis.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>So don’t worry about Trump closing the border. Even his administration won’t be that self-destructive. And don’t expect him to make progress with the humanitarian crisis at the border. Trump is fanning the flames, not putting out the fires.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>A sensible border policy and humane and effective immigration reform will have to wait for the next president.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-9374425936787882522019-04-02T20:13:00.004-05:002019-04-02T20:14:46.654-05:00Donald Trump’s big lie about health care<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfyYlVQcm1qEQThPMU9ffgGyr6B2CNlCOuVV1u-M-g2t7OM4xEiWSSgP84TEl2wTAJBesHx793S7n7-PYFm29NlpitSq6-qT9dw6YWzBka62FTEykdNwpQAYAboKaUanuvfp5TmntZ3I/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfyYlVQcm1qEQThPMU9ffgGyr6B2CNlCOuVV1u-M-g2t7OM4xEiWSSgP84TEl2wTAJBesHx793S7n7-PYFm29NlpitSq6-qT9dw6YWzBka62FTEykdNwpQAYAboKaUanuvfp5TmntZ3I/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXwZIL84t3CNt77-VS43qRt1pFQ7NgVDb9N8s6RL3WCkDHHKRatl2DdQPCtayB-Bq85_tILRqHc_Fk2UMFQGugSuJUrNgokH3w4rOLDUfaZSsxuzEXT2CJPYNyyj2_jsDNBFO0lSLkbc/s1600/afp_wb7ck_73496597.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="763" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXwZIL84t3CNt77-VS43qRt1pFQ7NgVDb9N8s6RL3WCkDHHKRatl2DdQPCtayB-Bq85_tILRqHc_Fk2UMFQGugSuJUrNgokH3w4rOLDUfaZSsxuzEXT2CJPYNyyj2_jsDNBFO0lSLkbc/s640/afp_wb7ck_73496597.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>During a February 2017 demonstration in Los Angeles, people protest Trump administration policies that they say threaten the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, | David McNew / Getty Images</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 4 / 2 /19</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> Donald Trump’s madcap presidency is now seeking to strip 20 million Americans of their health care coverage. He has instructed the Justice Department to join the lawsuit seeking to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He then proclaimed that Republicans would offer a far better alternative, tweeting they’ll become the “Party of Great Health Care.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Only there is no plan. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, wants nothing to do with trying to develop one. Confusion reigns. This grotesque misrule might be funny were it not putting millions of people at risk.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump has taken his animus against all things Obama to new heights in his obsessive drive to repeal or disembowel the Affordable Care Act. After the Republican Senate rejected repeal — feeding Trump’s disdain for Sen. John McCain, who cast the determining vote — Trump’s administration has sought to undermine the act administratively.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Seven million fewer people now have health care coverage since Trump was elected. Now he hopes to have the courts repeal the act. That would end the expansion of Medicaid, which covers more than 10 million low-wage workers and their families. It would repeal the requirement that insurance companies cover those with pre-existing conditions — putting anyone who is ill now covered under the act at risk.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It would repeal the provision allowing the young to be covered under their parents plan to age 26. Once more, insurance companies would be free to enforce lifetime limits on coverage, putting the most vulnerable at risk.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump adds insult to this injury by proclaiming the big lie: that Republicans have or will have a plan that will cover more and be less expensive. But there is no plan. Trump aides say it will be developed in the Senate. McConnell, who rules Senate Republicans with a tight fist, says, “I look forward to seeing what the president is proposing and what he can work out with the speaker.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>When asked if the two committees tasked with overseeing health care would come up with a plan, Sen. Charles Grassley responded tersely with a “no.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Scrambling to put a cover on his barefaced lie, Trump announced that Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, would join with a couple of other senators to come up with a “spectacular” plan.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>This is like naming Al Capone to design the tax code. In the 1990s, Scott was the CEO of Columbia/HCA. He resigned in 1997, the same year the FBI announced an investigation of the company for massive Medicare fraud. In the end, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to systematic fraud — featuring false billing of Medicare on a breathtaking scale. The company pled guilty to 14 corporate felonies and paid out some $1.7 billion in criminal fines and penalties in what the Justice Department called the “largest health care fraud case in U.S. history.” No doubt, if Scott were to come with a plan, it would be “spectacular” for the money guys, and savage for those in need of care.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>On health care, Trump’s lies are dangerous to life. The U.S. is the only advanced industrial country that does not provide universal health care as a right. We are paying almost twice per capita as other countries with worse health care results. U.S. life expectancy has declined for three years, in part because of the opioid crisis, in part because of the absence of adequate health care. Meanwhile, the insurance companies and the drug companies and the private hospital complexes rake in fortunes.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>What should be done is clear. The U.S. government should negotiate with drug companies to force lower prices for prescription drugs. Medicare should be strengthened and then extended to cover more people in stages. Cover those up to 30 and those 55 and over in the first stage. And then over years, perfect and extend the program to cover all. Pay for it by requiring the rich and the corporations pay their fair share of taxes. We’d end up paying less and getting better coverage.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>That rational solution runs into the strongest of entrenched interests — the drug companies and the insurance companies and their legions of lobbyists. They are prepared to spend billions to protect their profits. They buy ads to scare the hell out of people, pay for politicians, and blanket congress with lobbyists. Now they have Trump fronting for them. It will take an aroused public to overcome that resistance.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump believes that if you tell a big lie over and over and over again, pretty soon people will begin to believe. His political debut was the big lie about Obama’s birth certificate. He’s done the same with his racist rants on immigrants and the border wall. Now he plans the same big lie technique on health care: slandering what is, claiming to have a better plan when there is no plan, posturing as a champion of the people when he’s defending big money interests.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The real deal is clear: the rich get a tax cut; the poor get a health care cut. The rich are living longer in splendor. The poor are dying earlier in distress. The only thing “spectacular” about the Trump health care lie is his audacity to believe that he can sell it.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-59289836372412219882019-03-26T23:08:00.003-05:002019-03-26T23:08:22.707-05:00Imposing a modern-day version of a poll tax is a new low<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLpmefI1RvZzjWPXH5ZVQh2g4t0zG0ds5fDkvGQoyCPjkuI7XgHUyzFW-nl2C2iNH7Uk2XUVYhZf7gZxbfOZIb_IuB3oEQS6nqfTneShG8ee3XXMw9b8xTCUyGmPVELqkcBeWpNk2-Ks/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLpmefI1RvZzjWPXH5ZVQh2g4t0zG0ds5fDkvGQoyCPjkuI7XgHUyzFW-nl2C2iNH7Uk2XUVYhZf7gZxbfOZIb_IuB3oEQS6nqfTneShG8ee3XXMw9b8xTCUyGmPVELqkcBeWpNk2-Ks/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvjLjaF9HFm8wq3tANiB4FTz1K2VFbX1tnFOtv4jSDHHj2uXxKl_CAeGbf3NC9TPHBLjQ3yHLyhG2BjlhpyZPIjfuDTGwgkcXYBiKrQ6QwG4SkPGbixGZBmD9jmLbnen-8Is7dSvcPmk/s1600/20180325msjja-e1553548967954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="763" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvjLjaF9HFm8wq3tANiB4FTz1K2VFbX1tnFOtv4jSDHHj2uXxKl_CAeGbf3NC9TPHBLjQ3yHLyhG2BjlhpyZPIjfuDTGwgkcXYBiKrQ6QwG4SkPGbixGZBmD9jmLbnen-8Is7dSvcPmk/s640/20180325msjja-e1553548967954.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i> By Jesse Jackson 03/25/2019</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> Until 2018, Florida — the state vital to the presidential victories of George Bush and Donald Trump — deprived one in 10 voters, and two in 10 African-Americans, of the right to vote with a constitutional provision banning felons from voting, even after they had fulfilled their sentences.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Many with nonviolent drug felonies, enforced by a systematically biased criminal justice system, are kept from the polls. The discriminatory effect and intent of this exclusion is obvious.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In a stunning act of decency in 2018, Floridians voted overwhelmingly to amend their constitution and restore the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions “after they complete all terms of their sentence, including parole or probation.” According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the “Voting Restoration Amendment” would “grant most of the 1.7 million convicted felons the right to vote and help select their leaders for local, state and federal offices.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Voting rights activists drew up plans to help contact and register them, with the charismatic young leader, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum committed to leading the effort.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now Republicans in the state legislature are moving to frustrate the will of citizens, adding a new burden to exclude voters, a new form of one of the most loathsome Jim Crow tactics — the poll tax. Republicans in a House committee have voted — contrary to the intent and the text of the referendum passed by voters — to exclude from voting those who haven’t paid their fines (even including those on a court-approved payment plan). Fines are imposed not by judges as part of the sentence, but by administrative clerks. They do not block any other voters from voting. If Republicans have their way — and they have a majority in the legislature — they will likely use these fines to block a substantial portion of African-Americans from voting. Despite the will of its people, Florida Republicans want to impose a racially biased poll tax to strip citizens of the right to vote — and to tilt elections in their favor.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Beginning in the 1890s, the poll tax was central to enforcing segregation in the South. Most of the laws had a “grandfather clause” that exempted those whose parents or grandparents had the right to vote prior to the Civil War. In 1964, this foul measure was outlawed for federal elections in the 24th Amendment to the Constitution. In 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional even in state elections. So states like Florida found other tricks and traps to limit the vote. Now, after the citizens of Florida have thrown out felony exclusion, Republicans threaten to impose a new Jim Crow poll tax.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>There is no justification — except partisan zealotry built upon race-based politics. Republicans, from Trump on down, have chosen to make themselves the party of racial division. African-Americans, not surprisingly, tend to vote overwhelmingly against them. So Republicans use various tricks to suppress the African-American vote — gerrymandering, restrictive voter ID laws, cuts in early voter hours and opposition to same-day voter registration — all to make it harder for the poor and minorities to vote.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>But imposing the modern-day version of a poll tax is a new low.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>If Republicans do succeed in passing this injustice, it will be challenged in the courts or in another referendum. But none of this should be necessary. The real question is to the Republican congressional majority in Florida: Have you no decency? Are you so blinded by partisan self-interest that you would maliciously deprive a million Floridians of the right to vote? Are you so arrogant as to ignore the 65 percent of the voters who voted to erase this injustice from Florida’s constitution? Have you no shame?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-43806314685802872222019-03-18T20:08:00.004-05:002019-03-18T20:08:23.306-05:00Everyone must condemn Trump’s sly encouragement of lawless violence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjInCu9sG0SvV4ZOmJ2QE2o0w5t7pCMW8ylHbT-_b2NESn7ibB0LOT1UTAKLvRUEzwdykcsfINSSS0qaHM48fok0-eoHIpJdLWvADQlcH1_HF5aXAI_lYrB6BUDehNHO47YY5vni-OPewA/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjInCu9sG0SvV4ZOmJ2QE2o0w5t7pCMW8ylHbT-_b2NESn7ibB0LOT1UTAKLvRUEzwdykcsfINSSS0qaHM48fok0-eoHIpJdLWvADQlcH1_HF5aXAI_lYrB6BUDehNHO47YY5vni-OPewA/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrKPo_uwoNNxl-0d94jz3TDWeUVyjNnoVnG6z_koqwj-4URmaVsqYkx_Wf5LyGPfmwjXaIALSGNrGsiEdU-6-u87nU0DSyl9sBFoZxjYKqFgGL7Nn_XqtzSuZGpcgEybqI_bjhWRmA84/s1600/afp_1es3i4-e1552933244770.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="763" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrKPo_uwoNNxl-0d94jz3TDWeUVyjNnoVnG6z_koqwj-4URmaVsqYkx_Wf5LyGPfmwjXaIALSGNrGsiEdU-6-u87nU0DSyl9sBFoZxjYKqFgGL7Nn_XqtzSuZGpcgEybqI_bjhWRmA84/s640/afp_1es3i4-e1552933244770.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>President Donald Trump stands accused of fanning the flames of racism, religious intolerance and vigilante violence. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 3/18/19</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> Racism is not natural. Babies — black, brown, white — explore the world and each other with wonder, not hate. Racism has to be taught. It is learned behavior. To assume that a person is inherently superior or inferior to another based upon race is unnatural and ungodly. Racism is used for political manipulation and economic exploitation. In a land founded on the belief that all men are created equal, slavery could not be justified without a racism that depicted slaves as sub-human.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>These basic truths need restating in this terrible time. Across the world, we see the rise of racism, anti-Semitism and islamophobia, and its violent expression. Parishioners in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, are gunned down; worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue are attacked and killed. Now the murders in the mosques in New Zealand. Christians, Jews and Muslims must now stand as one and resist the rise of hate, and the hate-filled propaganda that feeds it.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In this, Donald Trump can no longer duck responsibility. When an American president speaks, the world listens. When Barack Obama was elected, it sent hope across the world. Blacks were elected to parliaments for the first time across Europe. Some hoped a new era of peace and reconciliation might begin.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Yet his election incited a harsh reaction as well, a new trafficking in hate, fear and violence. Donald Trump used his celebrity to claim that Obama was illegitimate, literally un-American. He had relished spreading racial fears before. When five young men were falsely arrested in New York City, Trump took out newspaper ads calling for the death penalty, inciting fear of young African-American males. When DNA testing proved their innocence, Trump simply denied the truth. His campaign for president was stained by his race-bait politics: slurring immigrants as rapists and murderers, promising to ban Muslims, denouncing a judge of Mexican descent, born in Indiana, as too biased to rule on the case involving students defrauded by Trump University.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>As president, Trump has used his position to continue to foster hatred and racial division: the Muslim ban, the “wall” and the continued slander of immigrants, African nations as “s–thole countries.” In Charlottesville, he equated Nazis marching through the streets with tiki torches, chanting “Jews will not replace us,” with those protesting Nazism and racism; “good people,” he said, on “both sides.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He’s also fanned the flames of violence. He told his followers at a campaign rally in 2016 that if they beat up a young protester, he’d pay their legal fees. He talked about “Second Amendment people” — gun owners presumably — taking care of liberal judges or of Hillary Clinton, if she appointed them. He encouraged police officers to rough up suspects.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now, as he appears more and more unhinged, he did an interview with the right-wing Breitbart news in which he suggested that his people “play it tougher,” intimating that if he didn’t get his way, brown shirt violence might follow: “I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The American president is fanning the flames of racism, religious intolerance and vigilante violence. Denial — “He doesn’t mean it,” “It’s just his way of talking,” “Just New York bluster” — is simply not credible. We can argue about whether Trump is a racist or an anti-Semite or a wannabe caudillo. But there is no question about the hatred he is stoking here and across the world.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now is the time for citizens of conscience to act. Church and community leaders, responsible mothers and fathers, pundits and editorialists, scholars and celebrities, those who ride in limousines and those who take the early bus — all now have the responsibility to speak out against racism, to condemn the spread of hate, the sly encouragement of lawless violence. When our president acts irresponsibly to divide us, citizens must act responsibly to bring us together. Our freedoms — of speech, of assembly, of religion — can save us from misrule, but only if we exercise them.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-90096457415776942202019-03-11T20:44:00.003-05:002019-03-12T21:59:09.108-05:00To help Venezuela, the U.S. must use diplomacy, not a military coup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiC0D4_Au4tmH-KoI-FjKVdLwx7FpvBF5ziY86DdK9t590E5r7TfzvmQ3N1vADM3-6BLkQcmg-HymJsQo77izHnstn3LqoIEWSENN__VEtMLyWMx1JHG8apv_KxgmcTneU6ykAGI2tMUU/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiC0D4_Au4tmH-KoI-FjKVdLwx7FpvBF5ziY86DdK9t590E5r7TfzvmQ3N1vADM3-6BLkQcmg-HymJsQo77izHnstn3LqoIEWSENN__VEtMLyWMx1JHG8apv_KxgmcTneU6ykAGI2tMUU/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 03/11/2019</i></b></span><br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>The United States is pushing for an overthrow of the government of Venezuela. The Trump administration has denounced Nicolas Maduro as a “dictator,” dismissing the 2018 election, which the opposition boycotted. Instead of a good neighbor policy or a policy of non-intervention, the Trump administration has set out intentionally to overthrow the regime.</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Long before Trump, the United States was a bitter opponent of the Hugo Chavez regime. The fact that Chavez was wildly popular and freely elected made no difference. He represented a revolution that embraced Fidel Castro’s Cuba and implemented plans to redistribute wealth and empower the poor. In 2002, when the Venezuelan military moved to overthrow Chavez, an official in the Bush administration reportedly met with the coup leaders. The coup attempt was frustrated, however, when Venezuelans rose up in mass against the plotters.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now with Chavez gone, the current president Nicolas Maduro unpopular, the economy a mess — in significant degree because the price of oil is near record lows — the Trump administration is apparently orchestrating another attempt.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It has continued to ratchet up pressure. It has imposed brutal sanctions on Venezuela, making a bad situation far worse, all the while blaming the government for the misery. Trump has openly threatened a “military option” for Venezuela. His bellicose national security adviser, John Bolton, boasted that “The troika of tyranny in this hemisphere — Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — has finally met its match.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The New York Times reported that Trump administration officials met with Venezuelan military officers who were considering a coup attempt.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Then, Juan Guaido, an obscure politician from a right-wing party, declared himself interim president, claiming that he had that right as head of the National Assembly. The U.S. immediately recognized Guaido, and right-wing governments across the region did the same.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump then named Elliott Abrams, infamous for committing perjury before Congress over the Iran-Contra fiasco, and for championing vicious military and paramilitary repression across Central America, as special envoy for Venezuela. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) pumped up demands for intervention, growing so rabid that he tweeted a gruesome picture of the murder of Libya’s Qaddafi as a prediction of Maduro’s fate.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Bolton admitted that he was “in conversation with major American [oil] companies now,” stating that “it would make a difference if we could have American companies produce the oil in Venezuela. We both have a lot at stake here.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now Venezuela has been hit with a power blackout, taking out electricity, phone service and internet. In Forbes Magazine, an expert details how easily this could be done by the U.S. in a cyber first-strike.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The U.S. has a long and shameful history of intervention in this hemisphere, too often aligning itself with rapacious elites and the military against the vast majority. In the ’50s, the CIA overthrew a popularly elected government in Guatemala. After the Cuban revolution, the U.S. launched an invasion, terrorist attacks, economic sabotage and boycott, and assassination attempts to get rid of Castro. In 1973, the U.S. embraced the brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when he led the overthrow of the popularly elected government of Salvador Allende. As recent as 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the overthrow of the elected government of Honduras, a disaster that has resulted in bands of desperate Hondurans seeking refuge in this country.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now Trump and his bellicose advisers seem intent on adding another chapter to this shameful history. There is another way. Instead of starving the Venezuelans into submission, we should be engaging with them. Instead of seeking to control their oil, we should recognize their national sovereignty. Instead of fanning coup attempts, we should be leading international negotiations to seek a diplomatic settlement that might lead to new elections.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Nicolas Maduro is far from blameless, but no one nominated the United States to decide who should govern Venezuela. Fomenting regime change — by a soft coup, by economic sabotage, by fostering a military revolt — is likely to lead to more violence and more suffering.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>It is time for Congress to step up — to investigate exactly what the Trump administration is doing overtly and covertly, and to call for a return to diplomacy before it is too late.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-68851476426428962322019-03-04T17:33:00.003-06:002019-03-04T17:33:27.855-06:00Selma, the birthplace of modern democracy in America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigM8FGv2mkVoGGT0btGOI4sWJ-rx3gzil5FdvGYKsSbAKdXVjkSuzc_6ZBVcqXvmcE_iPoengpA6oXr6eeH_1M1u1KdgGJ-Nu92hX131zL-fyCQGY-6p03bkB84CH1fOlYN5jP22pZMds/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigM8FGv2mkVoGGT0btGOI4sWJ-rx3gzil5FdvGYKsSbAKdXVjkSuzc_6ZBVcqXvmcE_iPoengpA6oXr6eeH_1M1u1KdgGJ-Nu92hX131zL-fyCQGY-6p03bkB84CH1fOlYN5jP22pZMds/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2AkxtJ0tyvU72kopDAXEpdq6SK0a0tRNp-7l3sTe3Zbknm_py6rUlFsgLGh6j3Rtjeh3mmm0finBfX7-P00whtfgwUFvsK1FWVgoiSPjsX-MJOgQIUCNFGraRHT_0Sr6VYAk3uUbDU0/s1600/selma-bridge-crossing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="763" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2AkxtJ0tyvU72kopDAXEpdq6SK0a0tRNp-7l3sTe3Zbknm_py6rUlFsgLGh6j3Rtjeh3mmm0finBfX7-P00whtfgwUFvsK1FWVgoiSPjsX-MJOgQIUCNFGraRHT_0Sr6VYAk3uUbDU0/s640/selma-bridge-crossing.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>A crowd forms to take photos of the marchers before they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge Sunday, March 3, 2019, during the Bloody Sunday commemoration in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett)</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 03/04/2019, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> This past weekend, political leaders from across the country gathered in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate “Bloody Sunday,” the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where peaceful demonstrators, attempting to cross the bridge, were violently driven back by Alabama State Troopers, Dallas County Sheriff’s deputies and a horse-mounted posse wielding billy clubs and water hoses to savage the crowd.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The horrors played on TV sets across the country generated a national outrage that provided the final impetus for passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In many ways, Selma is the birthplace of modern democracy in America, helping to secure the right to vote for African Americans and the young, and for providing the foundation for future battles for equality, including the equal rights of women.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>When former Alabama Gov. George Wallace was ill late in his life, I joined him for prayer. I asked him why he unleashed the troopers on the demonstrators in 1965. He said, “I did them a favor.”</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Wallace argued that the mob would have been much worse on the peaceful marchers. He never even considered that he might have used the troopers to protect them from the mob. That was a mentality that, as Dr. Martin Luther King taught, could only be challenged by nonviolent protest that demonstrated our humanity while demanding our rights.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In the commemorative ceremonies this year, presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker, as well as Sen. Sherrod Brown and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were joined by many legislators and political leaders. They sensibly called on participants to rise up again to challenge the revival of systematic efforts to suppress the vote and to push back against the outrageous Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder. This decision gutted enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and opened the floodgates to a wave of discriminatory state laws meant to keep people of color from exercising their right to vote.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>There are laws that now require new forms of ID, voting districts have been gerrymandered and voter rolls purged. Laws now limit early voting and polling places have been closed or move without notice, and much, much more. The brave marchers in 1965 did their part for democracy, now it is up to us to defend it and extend it.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>At the same time, while Selma is the birthplace of modern democracy, it is in danger of becoming a prop. Selma is the ninth poorest small town in America and 40 percent of its residents live in poverty. It exemplifies the rural and small-town America that has been left out of the recovery.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Democrats tend to see rural America as Trump country. Trump appealed to rural voters by stoking their fears and turning them against each other, but he has come up with no plan to help them. Trump offers only hate, not hope.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The new Democratic majority in the House is in many ways the fruit of the sacrifices made at Selma and elsewhere. Democrats should see Selma and rural America as both an obligation and an opportunity. What’s needed is a comprehensive rural reconstruction plan, a modern version of what Franklin D. Roosevelt did when he built the Tennessee Valley Authority and modernized the Department of Agriculture, which literally electrified rural America.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Today, the Department of Agriculture has the authority and the capacity to invest in water and sewage systems, modernize utilities, provide broadband to underserved communities, offer zero interest loans to community centers and subsidize affordable housing. What we need is a plan and a budget to get this done. House Democrats should make this a priority.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Let’s honor those who sacrificed so much by repealing voter suppression laws. But let us also make Selma the birthplace of a new economic justice in rural America. Selma should be more than a symbol of past struggles; it must also become a beacon for a new hope.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-12996784171239382192019-03-01T20:15:00.003-06:002019-03-01T20:15:39.448-06:00Biden praises Trump for 'walking away' from N. Korea summit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rY7BWOJPXAc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rY7BWOJPXAc?feature=player_embedded" width="600"></iframe></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Business Insider SARAH GRAY Mar 1st 2019 </i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Former Vice President Joe Biden said he thought President Donald Trump was right to walk away from the second summit with North Korea.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"The president did the right thing by walking away," Biden said while visiting the University of Nebraska at Omaha on Thursday, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>But Biden, who is said to be considering a 2020 presidential run, also slammed the president's approach to diplomacy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Diplomacy matters; preparation matters," he continued. "The president treats everything like it's a real-estate deal."</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump was right to walk away from his second summit with North Korea. But Biden had sharp words for the president's brand of diplomacy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Biden was speaking at the first Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on Thursday, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. He was in conversation with Hagel, a former Republican senator who was a secretary of defense during the Obama administration.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The two longtime Senate colleagues discussed the role of US leadership in global affairs.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"American leadership and engagement in the world is essential," Biden said, according to the Journal Star. "If the US fails to lead, who will take our place?"</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Biden also commented on the second US-North Korea summit, which broke down on Thursday in Vietnam without an agreement between Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, over what sanctions would be lifted for what degree of North Korea's denuclearization.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Read more: Trump's second North Korea meeting 'clearly is a failure' as Kim Jong Un walks away with dangerous nuclear arsenal intact</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The former vice president said that "hard, hard, hard and consistent diplomacy" was required for tough negotiations but added that "the president did the right thing by walking away."</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"But diplomacy matters; preparation matters," he continued. "The president treats everything like it's a real-estate deal."</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He characterized the first summit between Trump and Kim, last year in Singapore, where the two signed a four-point agreement calling for peace on the Korean peninsula and the denuclearization of North Korea, as a "great gift" to Kim.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"He was legitimized," Biden said, according to the Journal Star. "This guy is a thug."</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Biden, who is said to be contemplating a presidential run in 2020, has recently been making stops at universities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Nebraska.</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-53336394764970615402019-02-25T20:15:00.003-06:002019-02-25T20:15:45.696-06:00Our democracy depends on a free and fair vote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQs-LRjCTTVjutumXa_GPAhyZ915pGDFdAudaO2mu3EmQpcgIjNxGmia1R_NExZs5NsgmxpBAG1xG1G5jmQoBOpyZ3uPPvhyyJ5-btNlYhOwo-UkhbEbmwlOtLRyy0DCNYnydRqJkbxk/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQs-LRjCTTVjutumXa_GPAhyZ915pGDFdAudaO2mu3EmQpcgIjNxGmia1R_NExZs5NsgmxpBAG1xG1G5jmQoBOpyZ3uPPvhyyJ5-btNlYhOwo-UkhbEbmwlOtLRyy0DCNYnydRqJkbxk/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFgmEcr0pgLbyRXrGZem5yiYHgTCIShPeTbCnUYtemp__vpipe5TgjRDzzINEj1pP_CKno8dil2pCHbtgxcG2n7-SKuHxP4U0vUekXV-7dg4ZlLPD_2NDgSqEjdjtO0YWhyULpgvM4UfU/s1600/election-2018-north-carolina-e1550791467647.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="763" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFgmEcr0pgLbyRXrGZem5yiYHgTCIShPeTbCnUYtemp__vpipe5TgjRDzzINEj1pP_CKno8dil2pCHbtgxcG2n7-SKuHxP4U0vUekXV-7dg4ZlLPD_2NDgSqEjdjtO0YWhyULpgvM4UfU/s640/election-2018-north-carolina-e1550791467647.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 5-0 in favor of a do-over in the mostly rural 9th Congressional District but did not immediately set a date. | AP</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 02/25/2019, </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In North Carolina, the State Board of Elections has thrown out the election results in its 9th congressional district for fraudulent activity — probably the first time in U.S. history this has happened.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The fraud was committed by a campaign, not by voters, and by a Republican, not a Democrat.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>For years, Republicans have campaigned for voting restrictions claiming, as Donald Trump has repeatedly, that voter fraud is widespread. In fact, it’s not ineligible voters distorted election results, but rather the fraudulent efforts of an embattled Republican Party to rig the rules that has led to election irregularities.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The fraud in North Carolina’s 9th District — harvesting absentee ballots to pump up the Republican candidate’s votes — was blatant and illegal.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>What’s undermining fair and free elections across the United States are laws and practices that are too often legal, designed to make voting more difficult for minorities and the poor, and to ensure that big money interests — the wealthy, corporations — speak louder.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Republicans have passed voter ID laws requiring voters to have a government-issued photo ID, which many minorities, students and the poor are less likely to have.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>They have drawn districts — gerrymandering — to pack Democratic constituents in one district, allowing Republicans to have a better shot at winning two or three. Right-wing judges have ruled that corporations and the rich can give unlimited contributions — without disclosure — to dark money political operations. They combine these with a range of tricks and traps — purging voter lists, making voter registration difficult, shutting down polling places for bogus reasons in minority areas, causing long lines and confusion, disenfranchising felons who have paid their debt to society but are still turned away from the ballot box, and more.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Wisconsin under former Governor Scott Walker provided the model, courtesy of big money contributions from the billionaire Koch brothers and their network. In 2012, Barack Obama won Wisconsin by a margin of 7 percent. Democrats running for the state legislature won over 51 percent of the vote. But Republicans won 60 of 99 seats in the statehouse. At the national level, in 2012, Obama’s re-election year, Democrats won 1.4 million more votes across the country than Republicans in House races, yet the GOP won 33 more seats.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Voter suppression laws spread after Barack Obama stunned the country by winning a majority of the vote and the presidency in 2008. This isn’t an accident. Republicans, limited by race-baiting political strategies, have turned into a whites-only party anchored in the South, while the country has grown increasingly diverse. Voter suppression — as we saw most recently in the rule-rigging and egregious purging of the rolls in the Georgia governor’s race — is the weapon of a minority party intent on sustaining its power.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In 2016, these tactics surely helped elect Donald Trump. As Ari Berman has reported, an MIT study estimated that there were more than 1 million votes lost because eligible voters didn’t have the right ID or encountered long lines or couldn’t register. Trump won the election by a combined total of 78,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>In 2018, though, even the rigged rules couldn’t save Republicans. Voters gave Democrats a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. It took the highest turnout — over 50 percent — in a nonpresidential election in over a century. Democrats won by the highest margin — 53.4 percent to 44.8 percent — ever recorded, and won 41 seats, the largest number since 1974.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The first order of business of the new Democratic House majority is H.R.1, the For the People Act of 2019, which contains sweeping election reform. H.R.1 would crack down on gerrymandering and reduce the influence of big money in congressional races. It would require dark money operations to disclose their donors and provide a federal matching program for small donations. It would institute nationwide automatic voter registration, Election Day registration, two weeks of early voting and limit purges of the voting rolls. It would also restore voting rights to ex-felons who have served their sentences.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking of H.R.1, immediately announced, “That’s not going to go anywhere.” Until Democrats win a majority of the Senate and take back the White House, election reform will have to be fought at the state and local level.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Politics shouldn’t be a game of beanbag toss. Our democracy depends upon protecting the right to vote and on ensuring that elections are as free and as fair as we can make them. It is a sad testament to how twisted Donald Trump’s Republican Party has become that it has made election reform a partisan issue and voter suppression central to its platform.</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-46333972003207781982019-02-18T23:43:00.003-06:002019-02-18T23:45:25.792-06:00Trump’s fake national emergency moves America closer to an autocracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0AY0donYZpwKBaxnL5D9i7GPwckUt2SomDfONI8pFLMCHXkL2r_13dmykeYSoROMNYib_n4yEBKosg82MWLKzDILhP_9ZjA7clcy-5wHk8d6BLWv8JCS-ynax-7WG0Y1-P2ZN6W8Lw44/s1600/SunTimesHeader.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="960" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0AY0donYZpwKBaxnL5D9i7GPwckUt2SomDfONI8pFLMCHXkL2r_13dmykeYSoROMNYib_n4yEBKosg82MWLKzDILhP_9ZjA7clcy-5wHk8d6BLWv8JCS-ynax-7WG0Y1-P2ZN6W8Lw44/s640/SunTimesHeader.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx19Yx-RzFJ801Fu7bTgn0hoAV1a2hKDH8HHQRDM-UvESaKuGSafsaVAJAoDYSovWCKQNRyHgOf1imvn8vN3xhwls7r21woppWGaQcRauV7kpbW7_TNAYjGYs85svurrJiioMllQRWOSE/s1600/thu.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="480" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx19Yx-RzFJ801Fu7bTgn0hoAV1a2hKDH8HHQRDM-UvESaKuGSafsaVAJAoDYSovWCKQNRyHgOf1imvn8vN3xhwls7r21woppWGaQcRauV7kpbW7_TNAYjGYs85svurrJiioMllQRWOSE/s640/thu.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dz43h8fUQq2ED25ATXZJOBWE-pSitIeGyLaaMFbs0sKJAZPUEXsEkKg7GG1JQ6SF4j0g9EXU_1zfV4P_njzqkp1CbquRUjoY-7DJfTkRCcxtXipwMvcKuvGo9ph8RDJoYNtSQl4mfyU/s1600/hit.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dz43h8fUQq2ED25ATXZJOBWE-pSitIeGyLaaMFbs0sKJAZPUEXsEkKg7GG1JQ6SF4j0g9EXU_1zfV4P_njzqkp1CbquRUjoY-7DJfTkRCcxtXipwMvcKuvGo9ph8RDJoYNtSQl4mfyU/s640/hit.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Do you like or agree with the mad racist traitor that sold America out ???</i></b></span><br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern border, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in Washington. | AP Photo/ Evan Vucci</i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>By Jesse Jackson 02/18/2019 </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency in order to fund his border wall triggers a crisis for our Constitution and our democracy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>This is no longer about the shameless lies, exaggerations and slanders that the president has trotted out to justify his silly campaign promise to build a wall (that he promised Mexico would pay for). It’s no longer about wasting billions of dollars, of shutting down much of the government for weeks or squandering the time and attention of the Congress and the American people for an inane campaign promise.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>OPINION</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump now poses a fundamental challenge to our democracy: Does Congress have the essential power of the purse that the Constitution gave it, or can a president at his whim declare a national emergency and spend what he wants on what he wills? This is the line between a constitutional republic and a presidential autocracy. Trump’s petulant response to not getting the money he wants now puts that question before the Congress and the courts.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>This is no exaggeration. Trump wants money for the wall. Congress — both the Republican Senate and the Democratic House — voted not to give him as much as he demanded. So the president declares a national emergency and uses money appropriated by the Congress for other purposes to fund his wall.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Only there is no national emergency. Congress and presidents have been debating and legislating about our immigration policy and about border security for years. Contrary to the president’s hysterical lies, arrests for illegal entry have declined. With the economy near full employment, there is no economic crisis sparked by undocumented workers. Contrary to the president’s claims, the wall won’t stem the flow of illegal drugs into America, the vast bulk of which come through legal ports of entry.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Even the president in his news conference admitted that he didn’t need the money; he just wanted to build the wall faster. All we have is a normal dispute between a president and a Congress about spending priorities.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Trump is saying that since he can’t get what he wants, he’ll simply do it on his own. That effectively erases the congressional power of the purse — a foundation of a constitutional republic. If Trump’s decision is upheld by the Congress and the courts, a chilling precedent will be set.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Most Americans agree with the Congress and don’t support wasting money on the wall. Declaring a national emergency to build it is even more unpopular. When the White House invokes eminent domain to take over hundreds of miles of privately owned land on the border, public opposition will grow. But what will stand in the way of a willful president?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, passed by Congress after Watergate to curb presidential abuse of national emergency declarations, the Congress can reject the president’s declaration. The House — with its Democratic majority — will surely vote to reject. Republicans in the Senate will then have 15 days to decide whether they are prepared to back Trump or stand up for our republic against the president, his Fox TV allies and the right-wing echo machine.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>If the Senate rolls over, or the president vetoes the rejection, the issue will end up in federal courts, many packed with right-wing activist judges appointed by Trump.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Right-wing judges are normally skeptical of exaggerated claims of executive power, worried that they will be used by liberal presidents to expand the public sphere. But increasingly, these judges have put partisanship over constitutional precedent and their own judicial philosophy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Most recently, for example, in Trump v. Hawaii, the right-wing gang of five on the Supreme Court voted — in a 5-4 decision — to overrule the lower courts and to uphold the president’s Muslim travel ban, emphasizing the need to show “deference” to presidential authority in matters of immigration and national security.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>If the Senate folds and the courts roll over, we will be well on our way to an elected autocracy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Many people treated Trump’s posturing over the wall as a diversion, a low-rent, off-color vaudeville act used to rouse his audiences. The racial and ethnic slurs that he spread always made it more poisonous than that. Now his declaration of a national emergency has turned it into a direct assault on our democracy.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Now we will see who stands with the Constitution, and who does not.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Jesse Jackson</i></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5696825433400217040.post-87967438896288510182019-02-17T23:04:00.004-06:002019-02-17T23:04:54.908-06:00***NOTE ON WAG***Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0