"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Archive for the ‘– Did they REALLY say that?’ Category
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 25, 2020
Recalling that even a broken clock is correct twice daily:
“Standing in this same place a third of a century ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear. He could say in surveying the nation!s troubles: “They concern, thank God, only material things.”
“Our crisis today is in reverse.
“We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.
“We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them.
“To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
“And to find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
“When we listen to “the better angels of our nature,” we find that they
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 25, 2020
The Supreme Court, and the legal profession in general, are steeped in tradition – perhaps even more so than the United States Senate.
If you’ve ever heard any of the oral arguments before the nation’s highest court, you’ve likely heard the opening remark, “Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.”
However, if you’ve never heard an oral argument, you’re fortunate to be living in this age, because oral arguments in the nation’s highest court are recorded and archived for posterity sake. Audio recordings of the arguments may be found Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 24, 2020
What the police did in Louisville, KY is CRIMINAL, and INEXCUSABLE.
PERIOD.
That her murderers/killers were NOT indicted is a indictment itself upon the INJUSTICE system in that town.
This is where vigilante justice comes in handy begins to enter the picture.
Right-Wing Extremists and GOPers are doing it (look at Wisconsin), and now, turn about’s fair play.
They’re permanently marked men – with the “mark of Cain.”
But unlike Cain, look for them to be Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, September 23, 2020
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
That oxymoronic statement is likely more moronic than oxy. And yet, we as human beings are capable of change. Change is the only constant. Sometimes, we change for the better, while at others, the worse. But change we must. Again, change is the only constant.
Change implies that a state of being exists in which either progress or regress is possible. (I have opined on that subject previously.) There is no such thing a genuine stasis. Even within the human body, stasis ulcers, also known as venous stasis ulcers, bought about by blood “pooling” – typically in the lower extremities – causes a deterioration in the character and quality of the surrounding flesh. Venous stasis ulcers develop because of venous valve malfunction, and accompanying high return pressure, and occur typically in the feet, ankles, and lower legs. In turn, swelling occurs in the extremity. If you’ve ever wondered why blood only goes in one direction, it’s because of one-way valves in the veins. When the valves malfunction, the return pressure is transmitted AWAY from the heart (venous blood circulates returning TOWARD the heart, in order to be re-oxygenated by passage through the lungs).
But again, let one thing break down, and the entire surrounding environment starts deteriorating. (I would say “goes to hell,” but some might say that’s “unprofessional.”)
Point being, is that condition itself demonstrates that change occurs, and that not all change is good.
On the other hand, positive change yields positive results, and positive change is possible.
What you’re about to read may shock you.
It did me.
For whatever reason, I long had the impression that Lincoln had always been a proponent of racial equality.
That’s not true.
However, he changed.
Exactly how, and when that change began to occur is largely unknown, but his changing opinions about slavery reflected the development of his thought on racial equity. And for that, he became a target, literally, of Southerners who sought his assassination for that reason.
They did mange to succeed in killing him following Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox, in Washington, D.C. at Ford’s Theatre, through John Wilkes Booth who throughout the Civil War was a Confederate spy.
“While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor ofRead the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, September 22, 2020
The sorts of problems described in the story linked below could be resolved very simply by Congress, which has the authority to regulate election law, but has chosen to abdicate the responsibility, failed to exercise that right, and allowed chaos and pandemonium to ensue by allowing at least 50 different laws, rules, regulations, and more.
By establishing a National Standard Election and Uniform Voting Law which would cover ALL aspects of voting, from registration, to identification, to hours of operation and places of polls, to dates, times, and types of voting methods used, ALL those questions and more would be settled, and uniform nationwide, from state to state, and sea to shining sea.
From Maine to Minnesota, Mississippi to Maryland, Michigan to Arizona, and from Florida to Washington, Georgia to Oregon, and California to Texas to the Carolinas, and all points in between — ONE LAW to govern them all.
We would then begin to have a truly UNITED STATES!
2020 Election Faces Unprecedented Amount Of Litigation
Hundreds of lawsuits are already swirling around mail-in voting as campaigns, parties and outside groups try to sort issues both basic and technical — questions such as:
“Dog whistle is a type of strategy of communication that sends a message that the general population will take a certain meaning from, but a certain group that is “in the know” will take away the secret, intended message. Often involves code words.
“Republicans say they want to make civil rights for gays a state issue, which is really just a dog whistle strategy for saying that they will refuse to grant equal rights on a federal level.”
Trump To White Minnesota Audience:
“You Have Good Genes.”
by Christopher Wilson – Senior Writer, Yahoo News
September 21, 2020
It’s called a “dog whistle,” a word or phrase in a speech that is unobjectionable on the surface but conveys a coded message to partisans, by analogy to high-pitched sounds that are audible to dogs but not to people. Richard Nixon leaned on it heavily during his 1968 presidential campaign, referencing “law and order” and a “war on drugs,” further codifying racial appeals from Barry Goldwater for “states’ rights” and “freedom of association.” Ronald Reagan took it to another level in 1976, demonizing a “welfare queen” who fraudulently collected $150,000 in government benefits, a barely concealed appeal to the race and class resentments of White voters toward Blacks.
Ed. NOTE: Reagan’s demagogic demonization of an ostensibly Black woman as a “welfare queen” is a highly-popularized modern-day Republican myth. Linda Taylor, a Tennessee-born White Chicago-area resident, was given the miscreant moniker by the Chicago Tribune in October 1974, which also focused upon her personal possessions – jewelry, furs, and a Cadillac – though the real story of her behavior was much worse, and more complicated than a relatively minor case of simple welfare fraud. In 2013, Josh Levin, Editorial Director for Slate, wrote an extensively detailed report of the real-life character who Reagan mythologized on his campaign trail, exclusively in an effort to capitalize upon the “shock and awe” factor to gain voter support for his candidacy. Reagan’s use of exaggeration as a raconteur was renown, and in a January 1976 campaign rally, as any good story-teller would, he embellished that character by claiming, “In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record. She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.” While much has been written about Reagan’s well-known penchant for demagoguery, little of what he claimed was true, though he made significant political hay with it by portraying one isolated problem as a wholesale representation of systemic organizational failure, which he later used to justify reducing spending on social welfare programs. While Taylor did go to prison for committing about $8000 in welfare fraud (the 2020 value of which would be about $36,500), she was more memorable for her theft-claim and bigamy scams, which frauds were discovered only years later, along with probable murder and kidnapping for which she was never indicted. Levin wrote, “For Linda Taylor, people were consumable goods, objects to cultivate, manipulate, and discard. For Ronald Reagan, Taylor was a tool to convince voters that the government was in crisis.”
By that standard, President Trump’s riff about the “good genes” found among the people of Minnesota — an 80 percent white state — wasn’t a dog whistle. It was a train whistle, folding in Trump’s long-held belief that some people, himself especially, are simply born with superior traits to others.
“You have good genes, you know that, right?” Trump said during his Saturday rally in front of a nearly all-white crowd in Bemidji. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”
The racehorse theory is the belief that some humans have a better genetic endowment than others, and by breeding two superior people you end up with superior offspring. The belief in eugenics, the pseudoscience of trimming out “inferior” bloodlines to increase the quality of the gene pool, is part of a long, racist history in America, from forced sterilizations to research funded by the Carnegie Institution, among other wealthy foundations. Earlier this month, charges surfaced that a doctor at an ICE facility was performing unwanted and likely unnecessary hysterectomies on detained immigrant women, which would prevent them from having more children.
“It’s not just eugenics in theory, but it’s eugenics in practice,” said Steve Silberman, a historian whose Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, September 20, 2020
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is a hypocrite, and a liar… just like his narcissistic miscreant misleader, Donald “DJ” Trump, aka POS45.
In comments lasting about 6 minutes on March 10, 2016, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham said in pertinent part,
“I want you to use my words against me:
If there’s a Republican president in 2016,
and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term,
you can say ‘Lindsey Graham said,
‘Let’s let the next President,
whoever it might be,
make that nomination,”
and you could use my words against me,
and you’d be absolutely right.”
– South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to the Senate Judiciary Committee March, 10, 2016
On Wednesday, October 3, 2018 in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic, at The Atlantic Festival in Washington, D.C., Graham said in pertinent part that,
Here’s an excerpt of the pertinent part of that interview which has become part of an ad exposing Graham’s lying hypocrisy, and opposing his re-election.
Things are different now, and that instead, he will support the President’s nominee.
Here’s a recent Tweet published by him Saturday, 19 September 2020 of him attempting to explain away his twice former promises and position to adhere to his promise of not promoting a SCOTUS nominee during an election season.
As to my view of filling a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, I’d encourage you to review these most recent statements.
And that’s but one reason why the GOP will lose the Senate, gain the White House, and strengthen their hold on the House of Representatives.
Sen. Graham’s challenge: Fill a court seat and save his own
By Meg Kinnard
Sunday, 20 September 2020
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Few members of the Republican Party have taken a political journey as long as Lindsey Graham’s, from ridiculing Donald Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” to becoming one of the president’s fiercest defenders in Congress, as well as a regular golf partner.
Graham has long been known to have flexible politics, and that has served him well in South Carolina for decades. But this November may be his toughest test yet as he seeks reelection and explains to voters how, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he will push for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee on the president’s aggressive timetable, when the senator was so clearly — even defiantly — opposed to that approach as recently as two years ago, even demanding that he be called out for hypocrisy if he switched.
He switched.
“The rules have changed as far as I’m concerned,” Graham said Saturday.
It falls to Graham, as committee chairman, to vet Trump’s pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, September 20, 2020
“I want you to use my words against me:
If there’s a Republican president in 2016,
and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term,
you can say ‘Lindsey Graham said,
‘Let’s let the next President,
whoever it might be,
make that nomination,”
and you could use my words against me,
and you’d be absolutely right.”
– South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to the Senate Judiciary Committee March, 10, 2016
BACKGROUND: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had earlier died unexpectedly during his sleep while on a hunting trip in Texas on February 3, 2016, thus creating an opening on the nation’s highest court. Within an hour of the national notice of Justice Scalia’s death, Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) had issued a statement to the effect that he would not grant any consideration (floor vote) to any nominee from President Barack Obama.
In that speech, Biden argued that then-President George H.W. Bush should wait until after the November General Election to put forth any nominee to any potential Supreme Court vacancy which might arise during the summer, or if not, should establish a precedent, and nominate a moderate whom would be acceptable to the then-Democrat-controlled Senate.
Republicans later began to refer to that concept as the “Biden rule,” though Biden reiterated that he had always thought that the President and Congress should “work together to overcome partisan differences” when considering judicial nominees.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, (R)
Linked above from C-SPAN are South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s full remarks (approximately 6 minutes) to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 10, 2016 on the matter of consideration of SCOTUS nominees in an election year.
In his remarks, he noted that he had voted FOR Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor NOT because he agreed with them ideologically, but because he thought they were qualified.
In those same remarks, he also warned also of an increasing tendency of the Senate toward rancor, like in the House of Representatives, and of ideological partisanship accompanying judicial nominees, some of which COULD in the FUTURE be significantly detrimental to the nation because of a nominee’s unfitness for the bench, and an ideological unwillingness of the controlling party to compromise, or for an unwillingness of dissenting members in the controlling party to vote against an unqualified candidate put forth by the controlling party.
C-SPAN VIDEO DESCRIPTION: The Senate Judiciary Committee held a business meeting on whether to hold a hearing on a Supreme Court justice nomination to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Read the rest of this entry »
The so-called “McConnell Rule,” which was actually no rule at all, but a political ploy by the Republican Senate Majority Leader from Kentucky, should be considered.
After all, turn about it fair play, and paybacks are hell.
But, before we continue in detail, NPR, which first reported the story of Justice Ginsburg’s death, wrote this:
“Just days before her death,
as her strength waned,
Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera:
“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Justice Ginsburg was referring to comments that McConnell made following the unexpected death of SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia, while on a hunting trip in Texas on February 13, 2016.
And I mean to refer specifically to those comments.
Scalia’s body wasn’t even proverbially cold yet, and preparations for disposition of his mortal remains, and burial hadn’t even begun to be made, and the noxious Senator from Kentucky was already shooting off his mouth. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo of the Chickamauga Battlefield from the Mathew Brady Photographs series, The Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 – 20, 1863, National Achives; https://catalog.archives.gov/id/524418 Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee defeated forces from the Union’s Army of the Cumberland under Major General William Rosecrans in the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia on September 19-20, 1863. However, Rosecrans’ forces were able to slip away to Chattanooga, and later relieved by forces under Ulysses S. Grant.
Worse than the Battle of Chickamauga, with 34,000 casualties in the Civil War in 1863.
And even much worse than the Battle of Gettysburg, with 51,000 casualties in 3 days of fighting.
And the Iraq War, with only 4576 deaths is but a mere pittance.
And the War in Afghanistan, where 2216 lives were lost, is exceedingly eclipsed.
• FIVE major Civil War Battles
• A Notorious World War II war crime
• Two modern wars
ALL COMBINED, it’s only 191,792.
And Trump has beat ’em all.
That’s because he always does the most in everything he’s ever done – so he says.
196,103.
That’s the cumulative total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the United States, as reported by Johns Hopkins University, as of 1023, Wednesday, 16 September 2020 .
3000.
That’s the number of people who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers, and the Pentagon.
6436.76% more have died under Trump’s watch,
than under Bush’s.
And only 16,832 more to go before we eclipse the total deaths in World War I (116,516), Vietnam War (58,209), and Korean War (36,574) combined – 211,299.
Here’s another number:
197,544.
The TOTAL number of casualties – deaths, injuries, POWs, MIAs – from the Top Ten Major Civil War Battles of:
Gettyburg Chickamauga Spotsylvania Courthouse Shiloh Stones River Antietam First Battle of Bull Run Second Battle of Bull Run Fredricksburg Cold Harbor
196,103 is today’s Trump Death Count – Wednesday, 16 September 2020,
as of the 1023 update.
Only 1441 to go.
The next macabre marker for the Trump virus is Civil War Battlefield Deaths – 204,100.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Not to worry.
It’s just another episode of the Trump Surreality Show.
You haven’t missed anything.
“We say enough to our conflict, after years of not fighting each other, finally we’ll bring calm to Dubai’s surrounding areas,” the Netanyahu character sarcastically begins.
The opening line derided the fact that the so-called “peace deal” was in fact between two countries who had never been at war.
“Unlike Begin, I didn’t compromise on anything,” the Israeli figure continues, referring to former Prime Minister Menachem Begin signing a peace treaty with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1979.
If you really want to know what people think about their politics, and (mis)leaders, look at their humor.
So, here’s what Israelis think about the not-really-a-peace deal the Carnival Barker in Chief manipulated today.
SIOUX FALLS, SD – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus. OSHA proposed a penalty of $13,494, the maximum allowed by law.
Agency: Occupational Safety & Health Administration Date: September 10, 2020 Release Number: 20-1684-NAT
With a paltry, even laughable, mere $13,494 on the line, it’s not even a good slap on the wrist. They make that in a fraction of a second of business operations.
Remember: Smithfield Foods has NOT BEEN an American company since selling out to the Chinese in 2013. Good old fashioned Corporate American Wall $treet greed sold out America and Smithfield to China.
Wan Long, RIGHT, Chairman and CEO of WH Group, formerly called Shuanghui International, shakes hands with Charles Larry Pope, President and CEO of Smithfield Foods, at a press conference of WH Group in Hong Kong, China, 14 April 2014. Two subsidiaries of Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development Co have gained access to the Russian market, after its parent company — WH Group Ltd, the world’s largest pork producer— acquired US pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc and bought a stake in Campofrio Food Group SA of Spain, the largest pan-European packaged meat products company, last year. The two Heilongjiang-based companies — Wangkui Shuanghui Beidahuang Food Co and Heilongjiang Baoquanling Shuanghui Food Industry Co — got the official nod after their production facilities and products were examined and assessed by officials from Russia’s meat products watchdog, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, in August, Shuanghui Development said on its website. To widen its import market for meat, the Russian government agreed to import meat products from five Chinese suppliers by the end of August, indicating the nation has taken a flexible strategy to balance the supply and demand relationship, while the US and its European allies are trying to squeeze the country’s trade space in the world market.
And the corporate masters are STILL selling out the people. Just read their laughable response later down. They’re actually protesting the poor token of a penalty.
Seriously. They are!
Even the right-tilting tabloid New York Daily News owned by Rupert Murdoch, has written about the fractional pittance which has been assessed upon the corporation by the OSHA.
By Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, September 12, 2020 at 10:12 PM
And Congress has the power to act. However, with Moscow Mitch misleading the Senate, there’ll nothing be done about anything the House sends to that traitorous rich bastard.
WH Group, formerly known as Shuanghui International, bought the venerable American company known for their hams since its 1936 inception in Smithfield, Virginia, for $4.7 billion in 2013. In fact, it was the region’s Native Americans who taught the Paleface settlers to the area the unique curing process they’d created well over 500 years ago, and which increased in popularity as time went on.
More than anything, it looks like the Loser in Chief is in cahoots with the Chinese.
I mean, after all, if he’s as big and bad on them as he claims to be, this fine would be 100x time amount to start with.
Yes, that’d be USD$1,349,400.
It’s HIGH TIME for a 75/25 rule of law!
Simply put, it goes like this:
75% of any businesses’ ownership MUST be American to enjoy a 25% corporate tax rate.
Presently, the Federal Corporate Tax Tate is set at 21%. Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the so-called “Trump tax cuts” which, true to course, benefited only the wealthy), the tax rate was 35%. I have little doubt that the law will be repealed, thus increasing the corporate tax rate.
There MUST be a punishment exacted, and penalty paid for corporations which despitefully exploit their domestic American existence!
What’s more, Congress could, and should, also enact a 60/40 rule of law, which, again, simply stated, is that for companies which are employee-owned, they must be at least 60% owned by employees – either direct, indirect (trust), or hybrid – in order to enjoy certain additional tax benefits not available to other corporate-owned businesses. By so doing, it would encourage employee ownership of businesses.
Corporate alienation and isolation from the day-to-day lives of their employees and the Average American is highly problematic, and such a rule would go a long way toward readjusting in a positive manner the lopsided and skewed income and wealth gap in the United States.
“Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), one of the most conservative members of Congress, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of the most liberal, have both introduced sweeping proposals to broaden employee ownership in the U.S. That surprising fact testifies to just how practical—and urgent—this idea is.”
Mr. Rosen also pointed to 2019 research by Rutgers University which found in part, that “employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) enable families to significantly increase their assets, shrinking—though not eliminating—gender and racial wealth gaps,” and wrote that “ESOP companies helped employees gain a better understanding not just of corporate financial issues—most ESOPs have some form of open book management—but also personal financial planning. Many companies offered employees an increased voice in how their work was organized, providing a level of personal agency lacking in most jobs.”
OSHA fines Smithfield Foods $13,494 for not protecting South Dakota workers from COVID-19, faces backlash from company and workers – Agweek
Written By: Jeremy Fugleberg
Sep 10th 2020 – 1pm.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Smithfield Foods $13,494 for failing to protect employees at its Sioux Falls meatpacking plant from exposure to COVID-19, OSHA announced Thursday, Sept. 10, and both the company and the union that represents plant works are objecting to the decision.
The workplace safety agency said the Smithfield fine was the maximum allowed by law for the single violation it found at the plant, which for a time was one of the largest COVID-19 hotspots in the nation. OSHA cited the company for one violation of failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that can cause death or serious harm.
A COVID-19 outbreak at the plant in March and April sickened 1,294 employees and killed four, OSHA said. It also sickened hundreds of family members and other close contacts to workers.
“Employers must quickly implement appropriate measures to protect their workers’ safety and health,” OSHA Sioux Falls Area Director Sheila Stanley said in a news release. “Employers must meet their obligations and take the necessary actions to prevent the spread of coronavirus at their worksite.”
The OSHA fine is “wholly without merit” and Smithfield Foods will contest it, said Keira Lombardo, the Virginia-based company’s executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance. Read the rest of this entry »
Many people have used the word “fascist” to describe Donald Trump over the past few years. I was not one of them—until Monday night, when Trump openly defended and endorsed violence by his supporters.
First, Trump shockingly defended his 17-year-old supporter Kyle Rittenhouse, who drove across state lines into Wisconsin where he illegally carried a weapon in the streets of Kenosha and then shot and killed two people. (Criminal charges filed against Rittenhouse include first-degree intentional homicide and illegal possession of a deadly weapon.)
Then Trump backed his supporters who on Saturday descended in a caravan of cars on Portland, Oregon, where they were seen shooting projectiles such as paintballs and pepper spray at people in the street. Trump defended this criminal conduct as a “peaceful protest,” arguing that “paint is not bullets.” In reality, shooting people with paintballs is a crime—we all know that. It could blind a person or worse. Yet Trump defends it because the people engaged in this violence were on Team Trump.
We have now entered a new reality in America where Trump, like fascists before, is embracing violence to remain in power. Let’s be clear about what fascism is. As Madeleine Albright explained while discussing her 2018 book, Fascism: A Warning,
“Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power.”
She added that “what differentiates fascism from other ideological movements is the use of violence and anger to achieve political ends.” Hammering that point home, Albright back in early 2019 used a line that sums up Trump today:
“Fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power.”
While Trump has embraced other methods used by fascists before—such as pitting Americans against one another to incite anger—that has been Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 11, 2020
“American 11: We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you’ll be okay. We are returning to the airport.”
The controller only heard something unintelligible; he did not hear the specific words “we have some planes.” The next transmission came seconds later:
“American 11: Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you’ll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet.”
–– excerpt from The 9/11 Commission Report
Nineteen years ago today, the United States and the world was devastated when 19 al Qaeda-backed male terrorists, at the behest and guidance of their leader Osama bin Ladin (who was later killed during the Obama administration May 2, 2011 in a raid upon his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan shortly after 0100 local time), in a coordinated effort, hijacked and deliberately flew 4 passenger jet airliners into the World Trade Center’s towers 1 and 2, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while a fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Over 3000 people were directly killed that day in those events, over 25,000 were injured, with scores of others suffering long-term health injuries, many of which have been fatal.
The weather that Tuesday morning couldn’t have been more perfect. Skies were clear up and down the entire Eastern United States and seaboard, from Maine to Mississippi – visibility was unlimited, as pilots would say – not a cloud in the sky. And then, at 0845 Eastern Time Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 10, 2020
Do you ever read a headline, and then desperately wade through the gobbledygook mumbo-jumbo to find the gem, or answer to the question posed very near the end of the article?
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 10, 2020
History is sometimes unimaginably ugly.
Especially when it concerns slavery.
By reading this, perhaps you can gain a greater understanding of how this abusive practice was effectively translated into vigilantism, and lynch mobs.
Perhaps as well, it’s easy to see the roots of the modern practice of “stop and frisk” which was used widely in New York City, most notably under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, then a Republican, and other such stops and detainments simply because of the individual’s skin color, or ethnicity.
Beginning in 1757 Georgia’s colonial assembly required white landowners and residents to serve as slave patrols.
Asserting that slave insurrections must be prevented, the legislature stipulated in “An Act for Establishing and Regulating of Patrols” that groups “not exceeding seven” would work in districts twelve miles square. The statute, modeled on South Carolina’s earlier patrol law, ordered white adults to ride the roads at night, stopping all slaves they encountered and making them prove that they were engaged in lawful activities. Patrollers required slaves to produce a pass, which stated their owner’s name as well as where and when they were allowed to be away from the plantation and for how long. Patrols operated in Georgia until slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War (1861-65).
A Georgia statute ordered White adults to ride the roads at night, stopping all slaves they encountered and making them prove that they were engaged in lawful activities. Patrollers required slaves to produce a pass, which stated their owner’s name as well as where and when they were allowed to be away from the plantation and for how long. From The Underground Railroad, by William Still
Whites could hire substitutes to patrol for them; absentees were fined. Much of the burden of patrol duty fell to non-slaveholders, who often resented what they sometimes saw as service to the planter class. The Chatham County grand jury complained in the mid-1790s about the difficulty it faced in enforcing the patrol requirement. By the early nineteenth century it became necessary to pay people to perform what had been voluntary unpaid service. In 1819 Savannah‘s city watch received one dollar for every evening they served and shared in any reward for the forced return of fugitive slaves.
To disperse any nighttime meetings, patrollers visited places where slaves often gathered. Owners feared such gatherings allowed slaves to trade stolen goods for liquor and other forbidden items.
River patrols were organized in Savannah and Augusta to combat “midnight depredations” and to
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, September 7, 2020
The year 2020 has been one of black swans, to be certain.
Some would say 2016 was the precursor, when Hillary won the Popular Vote, and Trump was elected.
Who saw it coming, eh?
Certainly not the pollsters.
One man did, however, and since 1984 he has CORRECTLY predicted every Presidential Election’s outcome… including Trump’s impeachment.
More on that in a moment.
But just so we’ll understand one another, the term “black swan” in this and other such contexts (not necessarily politically related, however), is the moniker given to events that are outside the context of normalcy, or the normally-expected, are exceedingly rare, difficult to predict, may often have severe consequences, and in hindsight, often have broad acceptance that the event(s) in question were characterized as obvious.
In fact, I would suggest that many who supported the Current White House Occupant now, and then, would also consider him a “black swan” president.
His promises were fairly straight-forward (though neither drastic, nor sweeping, and have been done previously):
First: I am going to re-institute a 5-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government for 5 years after they leave government service. I am going to ask Congress to pass this ban into law so that it cannot be lifted by executive order.
Second: I am going to ask Congress to institute its own 5-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and their staffs.
Third: I am going to expand the definition of lobbyist so we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists.
Fourth: I am going to issue a lifetime ban against senior executive branch officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
Fifth: I am going to ask Congress to pass a campaign finance reform that prevents registered foreign lobbyists from raising money in American elections.
Not only will we end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation.
The promise is one thing. However… the reality is much different.
Consider these ACTUAL EVENTS of his administration which call into question the veracity of his claims, and the integrity of his administration:
• His former-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Scott Pruitt, was living in super-cheap housing courtesy of the wife of a man who was lobbying the EPA, and the administrator Scott Pruitt.
• Trump opened the door for 281 lobbyists to work for his administration in his first three years. Former lobbyists now run four agencies, including the departments of Defense and Energy.
• A former coal lobbyist was put in charge of regulating air pollution.
• Trump fired the State Department Inspector General at the request of the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, because the IG was investigating how Pompeo used staff from the Department of State to run personal errands for him, such as picking up takeout food orders, and the family dry cleaning.
• Pompeo spoke at the Republican National Convention, live from Jerusalem, while on a taxpayer-funded trip.
• The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security used the White House to stage a naturalization ceremony starring the president, which became a video segment for the GOP convention.
• Trump’s White House Press Office recently announced they have compiled a “very large dossier” on Washington Post writer David Fahrenthold, after he reported that “taxpayers have paid Trump’s businesses more than $900,000 since he took office.” (Remember Nixon’s “Enemies List”?)
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, September 7, 2020
Food Fraud: How Do You Know What You Buy Is What It’s Labeled As Being?
What is it, how often, and where does it occur?
Who does it?
What’s being done about it?
Sure, you may pooh-pooh the thought, the idea, the notion, that someone, anyone (people) could be defrauded in food purchases.
And quite frankly, the reason why, is that YOU TAKE IT FOR GRANTED.
Yes, 99.99% of ALL PEOPLE in the United States TAKE FOR GRANTED THAT THEIR FOOD IS WHAT IT IS LABELED TO BE.
Milk, for example, comes from a mammal, such as a cow, or goat – NOT a plant, NOT a nut (almond) – a MAMMAL.
Horse, or donkey milk isn’t a popular item in the States. And I don’t think that I’ve ever seen, or heard of camel’s milk anywhere stateside.
But, there is NO SUCH THING as “almond milk.” It’s actually a HIGHLY PROCESSED, chemically-produced, made-in-a-chemical-laboratory concoction that’s a poor wanna-be ALMOND JUICE, or some other disgusting kind of slurry of crushed almonds that couldn’t make the cut for edible snacks.
If you want REAL FOOD, only buy REAL FOOD.
Same thing goes for the gobbledygook parading as “turkey bacon.” There’s NO SUCH THING. BACON COMES FROM THE PORK BELLY – NOT GROUND-UP, HIGHLY PROCESSED TURKEY MEAT.
“early 14c., “meat from the back and sides of a hog” (originally either fresh or cured, but especially cured), from Old French bacon, from Proto-Germanic *bakkon “back meat” (source also of Old High German bahho, Old Dutch baken “bacon”). Slang phrase bring home the bacon first recorded 1908; bacon formerly being the staple meat of the working class and the rural population (in Shakespeare bacon is a derisive term for “a rustic”).”
Chicken, beef, pork… same thing. Not only is it by law, USDA inspected to be free from diseases or defects, and for cleanliness and sanitary conditions of slaughter and preparation, it’s the world’s HIGHEST quality for those reasons.
And, believe it, or else, in some nations – such as China, or India – food is REGULARLY adulterated (contaminated and mixed with) non-food items such as cellulose (paper/wood pulp), then sold to unsuspecting consumers. And, it’s NOT illegal.
Adulterated, and purposely mislabeled food is NOT a problem with a limited scope, or occurrence, and sadly, in recent years, with the proliferation and increase in global trade, it has increased in volume, and incidents, at home, and abroad.
The United States’ food safety and health laws have historically prevented such abusive, deceptive practices from occurring. It doesn’t mean, however, that it never occurs. I have written about this subject previously.
And yet, mostly-Republican administrations (including this one) have attemptedto cut back on Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, September 5, 2020
GOP candidate wanna-be for the Presidential nomination, Donald Trump at Ames, Iowa Family Leadership Summit, Saturday, July 18, 2015.
At this point, that’s the only question remaining.
America, what further evidence do you need in order to kick Liar in Chief, Asshole in Chief, POS45 Donald John Trump to the curb?
Why in the hell did you ever elect such a low-life scumbag in the first place?!?
Seriously.
Why?
Whose lies did you believe – his, or Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s?
Or both?
Recently (Friday, September 4, 2020), Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic, quoted at least 4 separate unnamed military sources who were present in 2018 when Trump, as POTUS said of his decision not to attend a memorial ceremony in Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018,
“Why should I go to that cemetery?
It’s filled with losers.”
Read Jeff Goldberg’s article in The Atlantic. How could anyone support Trump? pic.twitter.com/xqfnklmCBq
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 4, 2020
Well… they did it!
Russian coronavirus vaccine – A coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia shows safety, nad causes an antibody response in small human trials, according to research published in Lancet Friday, September 4, 2020.
They have developed TWO different versions of the vaccine.
Here are pertinent excerpts from the research published in The Lancet, the world’s leading, and among the oldest, scientific and medical journal.
“We developed a heterologous COVID-19 vaccine consisting of two components, a recombinant adenovirus type 26 (rAd26) vector and a recombinant adenovirus type 5 (rAd5) vector, both carrying the gene for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein (rAd26-S and rAd5-S). We aimed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of two formulations (frozen and lyophilised) of this vaccine.”
“In conclusion, these data collectively show that the heterologous vaccine based on rAd26-S and rAd5-S is safe, well tolerated, and does not cause serious adverse events in healthy adult volunteers. The vaccine is highly immunogenic and induces strong humoral and cellular immune responses in 100% of healthy adult volunteers, with antibody titres in vaccinated participants higher than those in convalescent plasma. Unprecedented measures have been taken to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in Russia. Based on our own experience in developing vaccines against Ebola virus disease and MERS, the COVID-19 vaccine has been developed in a short time. Preclinical and clinical studies have been done, which has made it possible to provisionally approve the vaccine under the current Read the rest of this entry »
It’s good to occasionally get a check up on oneself, or to perform – as much as possible – a self-checkup, or as some call it, “a check-up from the neck up.”
Today, the Congressional Budget Office released a report entitled “The Outlook for Major Federal Trust Funds: 2020 to 2030.”
Yet, it’s not as if we didn’t know it was coming… sooner, or later.
Kind of like the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’d been warned for years about the very real, and distinct possibilities of an outbreak of disease, and this POS45 President and his henchmen administration unwisely decided to heed bad advice given to them (most likely, issued at his heavy-handed, micromanaging god-like “expert-in-all-things” direction) and dismantled the offices and organizations, and their budgets, that were designed specifically to effectively mange such problems.
Remember: Unlike the novel coronavirus pademic, the SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19, Ebola was NOT a problem in this nation, nor in the world at large, and its outbreak was contained to the immediate area precisely because of the wise actions of the previous administration. That’d be the Obama administration, in case you’ve developed amnesia, early-onset Alzheimer’s, or old-age dementia in the last 4 years… take your pick.
Just imagine if the coronavirus had been Ebola.
On second thought, don’t.
Be thankful it’s not worse… though it will likely get worse before it gets better.
The CBO report first methodically laid out an explanation about Federal Trust Funds, and then, began to discuss them one-by-one.
Fortunately, the report is easy to read, and to understand.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Jerry Falwell, Jr. in the Bahamas July 2019, Instagram post
If “the farmer and the cowman should be friends,” then the pornographer and the preacher should be too.
Turns out, they did become friends.
By now, if you’ve not heard the name Jerry Falwell, some might wonder what cave in Tora Bora you’ve been hiding in for the last 40 years, or so.
And, if you enjoy any late-night teevee humorists – such as Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Samantha Bee, Bill Maher, etc., Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O’Brien are ancient history – you should continue reading.
And if you don’t, you should STILL continue reading.
Why?
Freedom.
Because you do like it that way, don’t you?
Publisher Larry Flynt with the parody ad mocking Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr., which initiated Falwell’s lawsuit against the magazine Hustler, and Flynt, its publisher. The case wound its way to the Supreme Court, and enjoyed a rare unanimous decision in Flynt’s favor.
First, some background:
There are now three men who’ve been named Jerry Falwell:
1.) The Reverend Jerry Falwell, Sr. (1933-2007)
2.) Jerry Falwell, Jr., (b.1962) an attorney/real estate developer who is the first born, and son of Jerry Falwell
3.) Jerry “Trey” Falwell, III (b.), the first born and son of Jerry Falwell, Jr.
It’s all your fault.
The Reverend started it all.
He started Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
He started the now-long-defunct religious political action group called the “Moral Majority.”
And, he started Liberty University.
He handed the keys of Liberty University to Jerry, Jr., while he handed the keys of the Thomas Road Baptist Church to son Jonathan.
The parody/satire ad in Hustler magazine that started it all. The parody is clearly marked as such at the center bottom, and is listed in the contents section as parody/satire, and states “not to be taken seriously.”
Good ol’ country boys
Like Falwell, Larry Flynt was good Southern boy, having been born in the hills and hollers of Eastern Kentucky in Lakeville, Magoffin County, while Falwell was born in Lynchburg, Virginia – about 216 miles from each other as the crow flies… or a 6+/- hours drive not-so directly East-West from each other. There’s hills and hollers throughout the area, you know. They happen to be called the Appalachians, for short. It’s hard to have a straight road in those mountainous areas.
Like Father, Not Like Son
Part of the greater underlying irony of the matter involving the Rev. Falwell, Sr., is that Read the rest of this entry »
As an experienced political analyst, Mr. Singleton’s bona fides are impressive, and includes addressing Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, contributing to several broadcast and news media outlets including The New York Times, C-SPAN, The Washington Post, CNBC, The Hill, CNN, MSNBC, and The Washington Times magazine, among others.
Mr. Singleton, who was born in Louisiana, spent his formative years in Dallas, Texas, earned his Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in Political Science, and before that, the Associate in Arts & Science from Southern New Hampshire University.
Having spent time with the organization Lauren’s Kids, a south Florida-based non-profit which works to eradicate sexual abuse through educating adults and school-age children, he later worked as a Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, August 24, 2020
Well, well, well…
Since 2012 America’s Evangelical Protestant religious power couple, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his wife Becki, have been sexually playing with the pool boy, with whom they later partnered in business – as well as monkey business.
In the parlance of sexual play, watching while another man has sex with your wife/partner, is called “cuckolding.”
Frankly, this event – in, and of itself – is no big deal, per se, and is certainly nothing new. By that, I mean that everybody involved was in agreement, and as Evangelicals often flout, there’s power in agreement. And frankly, no one was harmed, and everyone agreed to it. Furthermore, no criminal or civil laws were broken.
What was broken, however, was Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s trust with the private religious university he led, the general public, his followers, and those within his religious circle.
In common parlance, that’s called betrayal, and hypocrisy.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a claim likely to intensify the controversy surrounding one of the most influential figures in the American Christian conservative movement, a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell’s wife and the evangelical leader.
Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki Falwell while working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in March 2012. Starting that month and continuing into 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.
Granda showed Reuters emails, text messages and other evidence that he says demonstrate the sexual nature of his relationship with the couple, who have been married since 1987. “Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda said in an interview. Now 29, he described the liaisons as frequent – “multiple times per year” – and said the encounters took place at hotels in Miami and New York, and at the Falwells’ home in Virginia.
His friendship with the Falwells eventually soured, Granda told Reuters, in part because he wanted to dissolve his ties with the couple and fell into a business dispute with them.
Giancarlo Granda, who was befriended by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr and his wife Rebecca while he was working as a pool attendant at a luxury Miami Beach hotel and was later backed by them in a business venture involving a youth hostel, poses for a portrait in Washington, U.S., August 10, 2020. To match Special Report USA-FALWELL/RELATIONSHIP REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Granda first emerged as a figure in the Falwells’ circle two years ago, when BuzzFeed News reported that the couple had befriended Granda and gone into business with him, buying a Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, August 24, 2020
A friend seeking my opinion had sent to me an anonymous post which I rather suspect is “making the rounds” on social media, which most likely is FaceBook. The following is my reply.
NOTE TO THE READER: For ease of reading, and for convenience sake, the anonymous author’s remarks are found in red, and my response is found [emboldened in black within brackets].
—//—
I did not write this but it’s exactly what i’ve been questioning. This is what i want answers too. We need to push “leaders” to give answers and make decisions that make sense long term. When does quality of life out weights the risk of a disease you have a 99.97% of getting?
Thank you to whoever wrote this.
******
What is the end game with the ‘rona? Anyone? 🦠
[NOTE: The basis for the practical entirely of the argument made in the author’s “rant” is hopelessness, helplessness, quitting in exasperation, and not even trying.]
What is the magic formula that is going to allow us to sound the “all clear?” [There is NO “magic formula.”]Is it zero cases? For a while, the goal was to simply “flatten the curve,” but now that we are disconnecting utilities for gatherings in California, setting up check points in New York, and recommending goggles (what’s next?), it seems as if there is, in fact, no end game. And, truthfully, the only way that we will see numbers drop is if we cease testing and stop reporting. [That is a blatantly asinine, and ignorant remark. It’s like telling people if we stop testing for pregnancies, and counting births, the population will decline.]Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands have shown up to be tested, registered, left due to long waits, and still come up positive when they received their results.🤷🏼♀️[That remark suggests that tests are fabricated then falsified – that the results are fraudulent – and that a wholesale deceptive criminal enterprise exists throughout the entire testing chain, everywhere in all locations nationwide.]
This young girl in Bangladesh was infected with smallpox in 1973. Freedom from smallpox was declared in Bangladesh in December, 1977 when a WHO International Commission officially certified that smallpox had been eradicated from that country.
Is it a vaccine💉? It took 25 years for a chicken pox vaccine to be developed.[It seems as if the writer is beginning to understand the complexity and magnitude of the problem of vaccine development. The first varicella zoster vaccine was tested in Japan in 1974, and approved by the Japanese government in 1986 – a span of 12 years. The FDA approved a varicella vaccine in 1995, and in 1996 the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to formally approve the vaccine for widespread use.] The smallpox inoculation was discovered in 1776 [Dr. Edward Jenner, MD, developed the first smallpox vaccine (using cowpox) in 1796.] and the last known natural case was in 1977.[SEE EXTENDED COMMENTS FOLLOWING THIS PARAGRAPH]We have a flu vaccine that is only 40 to 60% effective (that’s generous- the last two years it was more like 20-25%)[Influenza vaccines are developed in advance of the annual “flu season” using statistical inferences (prediction), and from 2004/2005 to 2018/2019 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates have ranged on average from 10% to 60%. For the 2018/2019 season, the overall VE rate was 29%.], less than half of the US population chooses to get one[The remark presumes that all people would get an influenza vaccine if they could – however, many cannot, typically either for reasons of lack of access, availability, or cost. In the Armed Services, vaccines are mandatory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to estimate flu vaccination coverage for the U.S. population of adults aged ≥18 years during the 2017–18 flu season. Flu vaccination coverage among adults was 37.1%, a decrease of 6.2 percentage points from the previous flu season.], and roughly 20,000 Americans still die annually due to flu or flu complications.[From 2010/2011 through 2018/2019 influenza-related deaths have ranged from 12,000 to 61,000. The 2017/2018 year saw 61,000 influenza-related deaths, while the 2018/2019 year saw 34,157.] [EXTENDED COMMENTS: In late 1975, Rahima Banu, a three-year-old girl from Bangladesh, was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major and the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, August 23, 2020
Remember: It’ll “miraculously disappear” when the weather gets warmer, and “we totally have it under control.”
Of course, none of this is real.
It’s all just “fake news,” folks.
Nothing to see here.
Move along.
And what if, and when, it mutates?
When folks get COVID-19 -and- the seasonal influenza?
Because IT WILL HAPPEN.
There’s not just a HIGH likelihood that it will.
IT WILL HAPPEN.
Then what?
Remember ebola?
What if SARS-CoV, aka coronavirus or COVID-19, had been Ebola?
We and the world would’ve REALLY been fucked.
Given that the Current White House Occupant POS45 obliterated and practically eliminated the entire organizational infrastructure for biological terrorism and other biothreats to national security, it could happen.
It’s poised and ready to happen.
NOTE:
On July 20, 2017 Reuters reported that White House Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert told the annual Aspen Security Forum that “We have not had as a country a comprehensive bio-defense strategy ever. It’s high time we had a bio-defense strategy,” and noted that retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer was contributing to the development of the strategy as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats, National Security Council, and served in office April 2017 – May 8, 2018.
Tom Bossert, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism January 20, 2017 – April 10, 2018
Bossert noted that the Bush and Obama administrations took steps to address biological threats to National Security after Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, August 20, 2020
Oh!
The irony!😂
During his speech, a common housefly first circled around his mouth, landed briefly on his upper lip, and then landed on Mike Bloomberg’s RIGHT eyebrow as he spoke!😜 (viewer’s LEFT)
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, August 20, 2020
“Ambushed” is how Alabama’s GOP Attorney General Steve Marshall characterized the Department of Justice’s findings of the State of Alabama’s Department of Corrections unconstitutionally inhumane treatment of prisoners.
That came from the weakling former District Attorney whom corrupt GOP former Governor Bentley appointed February 2017 to avoid prosecution.
But perhaps Marshall is correct – that he was ambushed – and for that reason is so utterly inept and incompetent that Read the rest of this entry »
“That’s the problem. See, the thing is, they don’t believe in governance. They don’t believe in governance, and that requires some acts of government to do that.”
Until such time as the GOP figures out that Donald “DJ” Trump has been BAD for America, and BAD for the Republican party, they’ll drop his sorry carcass like a hot potato. He’ll be anathema, a practical political pariah to them.
But, the damage has already been done.
Time to move along.
Progress.
Something alien to the GOP.
Eliminating agencies, and cutting taxes can only go so far.
Under their plan, soon enough, there’d be no government, and no money to run it.
We’re a nation of 330,000,000 people… and growing daily.
We have SIGNIFICANT, unaddressed needs in this nation that require diligent attention, and bravery to remedy. Cutting taxes won’t cut it. Eliminating laws, policies, and agencies is contrary to the very premise of the increased needs that accompany increased population.
The GOP just doesn’t get it.
US voters can replace a party that knows how to fight with one that knows how to govern
The division between Republicans and Democrats is no longer between left and right but between different core competences.
As America heads into its quadrennial circus of nominating conventions (this year’s even more surreal because of the pandemic), it’s important to understand the real difference between America’s two political parties at this point in history.
Instead of “left” versus “right”, think of two different core competences.
Robert Reich served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, was Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997, and was a member of President Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. As well, since 2006, he has been the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at University of California Berkeley, was formerly Professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
The Democratic party is basically a governing party, organized around developing and implementing public policies. The Republican party has become an attack party, organized around developing and implementing political vitriol. Democrats legislate. Republicans fulminate.
In theory, politics requires both capacities – to govern, but also to fight to attain and retain power. The dysfunction today is that Republicans can’t govern and Democrats can’t fight.
Donald Trump is the culmination of a half-century of Republican belligerence. Richard Nixon’s “dirty tricks” were followed by Republican operative Lee Atwater’s smear tactics, Newt Gingrich’s take-no-prisoners reign as House speaker, the “Swift-boating” of John Kerry, and the Republicans’ increasingly blatant uses of racism and xenophobia to build an overwhelmingly white, rural base.
Atwater, trained in the southern swamp of the modern Republican party, once noted: “Republicans in the south could not win elections by talking about issues. You had to make the case that the other guy, the other candidate, is a bad guy.” Over time, the GOP’s core competence came to be vilification.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, August 16, 2020
“You know, the first Republican President once said, ‘While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no Administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.’
“If Mr. Lincoln could see what’s happened the last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. But, with the virtues that are our legacy as a free people and with the vigilance that sustains liberty, we still have time to use our renewed compact to overcome the injuries that have been done to America these past three-and-a half years.”
Thought to be the last beardless portrait of Lincoln, this photo was made August 13, 1860 in Springfield, IL by Preston Butler, “for the portrait painter, John Henry Brown, noted for his miniatures in ivory. … ‘There are so many hard lines in his face,’ wrote Brown in his diary, ‘that it becomes a mask to the inner man. His true character only shines out when in an animated conversation, or when telling an amusing tale. … He is said to be a homely man; I do not think so.'”
Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) served two terms as President of the United States 1981-1989
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, August 15, 2020
Here’s another argument for the jus soli case for citizenship, versus the jus sanguinis.
Just in the case you may not be aware of the two terms’ meaning, they are Latin literally interpreted as “law of soil,” and “law of blood,” more commonly referred to as “by soil,” and “by blood,” respectively, and refers to the principle of citizenship being obtained from the location of one’s birth, and of citizenship obtained through ancestry of one’s parents’ citizenship.
Here’s a simple explanation to further clarify:
• Under the principle of jus soli, one who is born in San Francisco, California is a citizen of that city, state, and of the United States.
• Under the principle of jus sanguinis, one who is born in San Francisco to parents of Indian and Jamaican extraction is Indian and Jamaican.
Once again, jus soli refers to “the principle that a person’s nationality at birth is determined by the place of birth,” while jus sanguinis refers to “the principle that a person’s nationality at birth is the same as that of his natural parents.”
Historically, jus sanguinis came from Roman law, whereas jus soli came from English common law.
Before proceeding further, some background is helpful for greater understanding.
Kamala Harris with her Jamaican grandmother Miss Chrishy in Browns Town Jamaica
The jus soli system, sometimes also referred to as the “birthright citizenship” system, is common in developed nations that desire to increase the number of their own citizens (population).
A few nations that use jus soli are:
• Argentina
• Barbados
• Brazil
• Canada
• Colombia
• Jamaica
• Mexico
• Pakistan
• Peru
• United States
• Uruguay
Several European nations follow the principle of jus sanguinis, which generally means that citizenship is conferred by birth, and is obtained from a parent who is already a citizen of, or naturalized in that nation. The principle of jus sanguinis is contrary to jus soli because, according to the principle, the mere fact that a person is born in a nation does not, in and of itself, confer citizenship.
Some European nations that use jus sanguinis are:
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland
• Luxembourg
• Portugal
• Romania
• Spain
• United Kingdom
Some nations have a blend of the two – soli, and sanguinis – although one is typically predominate.
If a nation adheres to the “jus sanguinis” or right of blood system, the child inherits a parent’s citizenship. So, for example, if your father and mother were each from a different jus sanguinis nation and you were born in a jus soli jurisdiction, you would be able to claim citizenship in three countries.
And, as is often the case, there are exceptions to whatever rule a nation follows because of treaties with other nations, including, for example, the determination of citizenship of children born to foreign diplomats, who are recognized as being citizens of the country that sent their parents there, as is done in the United States.
As well, people born on a foreign flagship or airliner are entitled to claim citizenship in the country under whose flag the vessel was registered.
The 14th Amendment, Section 1 states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, August 14, 2020
Apparently, it ~has~ come to this sorry state of affairs in our nation.
After Donald the Trump’s ravages, America will DEFINITELY need to be made great again.
Perhaps more than anything, this matter points to the need for the Federal government to step in and establish an across-the-board 50-state Uniform Voting Standard law so that there are NO inconsistencies whatsoever.
Presently, there are a plethora of voting laws nationwide, some even varying within the state, as evidenced by this sentence in the news item: “Ohio offers 28 days of early, in-person voting. Traditional, in-person voting also will be available on Election Day.”
“Early voting is one of two ways in which a registered voter of Tennessee may vote before the actual election day. The second way for a registered voter to vote early is called by-mail voting.
“The early voting period typically begins twenty (20) days before an election and ends five (5) days before an election. The exception is for the Presidential Preference Primary, when early voting ends seven (7) days before the election.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, August 13, 2020
This is about the 2nd, or 3rd time POTUS has stated that he is specifically denying funding for the Constitutionally-mandated United States Postal Service in order to delay the tallying of ballots sent through the USPS.
This is blatantly – as he has so stated this time, and others – an attempt to thwart the will of The People by interfering with the election.
Furthermore, it would make perfectly good, and logical sense for the USPS to have the money they need to resolve any problems, just as much as it would for states and municipalities to have the money they need in the matter of balloting.
Frankly, it’s nonsensical to assert that a problem exists and to refuse to provide the resources, financial, or otherwise, necessary to remedy the problem.
Trump calls in on Maria Bartiromo’s “Maria in the Morning” show on Fox Business News
Thursday, 13 August 2020
Trump: Coronavirus stimulus negotiations sticking point is mail-in voting
Aug. 13, 2020 – 40:46 – President Trump speaks exclusively to FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo in a wide-ranging interview on Kamala Harris, what the economy will do if Joe Biden wins the presidential election, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, August 13, 2020
Charlotta Bass (right) Progressive Party VP candidate, and Progressive Party Presidential candidate Vincent Hallinan, 1952
You’ve come a long way, baby.
Kudos to Kamala Harris on being selected by former Vice President Joe Biden to be his, and the Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential candidate. Truly, it’s a momentous moment in time.
But Senator Harris isn’t the first Black woman to have ever been a Vice Presidential pick.
Los Angeles newspaper owner and political activist Charlotta Bass (1874-1969) was.
She began her career as a conservative Republican, but by the 1940s, however, she had made a singificant political transition.
And in 1948 she supported Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace in his unsuccessful bid for the Presidency.
Four years later, she was nominated to be the Vice Presidential nominee on the Progressive Party ticket.
She was the first African American woman to carry a political party’s nomination for the second highest office in the land.
Her acceptance speech to be the Progressive Party’s VP candidate was given at the Chicago convention of the Progressive Party on Sunday, March 30, 1952, and appears below.
I stand before you with great pride.
This is a historic moment in American political life.
Historic for myself, for my people, for all women.
For the first time in the history of this nation a political party has chosen a Negro woman for the second highest office in the land.
It is a great honor to be chosen as a pioneer. And a great responsibility. But I am strengthened by thousands on thousands of pioneers who stand by my side and look over my shoulder—those who have led the fight for freedom—those who led the fight for women’s rights—those who have been in the front line fighting for peace and justice and equality everywhere. How they must rejoice in this great understanding which here joins the cause of peace and freedom.
These pioneers, the living and the dead, men and women, black and white, give me strength and a new sense of dedication.
I shall tell you how I come to stand here. I am a Negro woman. My people came before the Mayflower. I am more concerned with what is happening to my people in my country than in pouring out money to rebuild a decadent Europe for a new war. We have lived through two wars and seen their promises turn to bitter ashes. Two Negroes were the first Americans to be decorated for bravery in France in World War I, that war that was fought to make the world safe for democracy. But when it ended, we discovered we were making Africa safe for exploitation by the very European powers whose freedom and soil we had defended. And that war was barely over when a Negro soldier, returning to his home in Georgia, was lynched almost before he could take off his uniform. That war was scarcely over before my people were stoned and shot and beaten in a dozen northern cities. The guns were hardly silenced before a reign of terror was unloosed against every minority that fought for a better life.
And then we fought another war. You know Dorie Miller, the spud peeler who came out of his galley to fight while white officers slept at Pearl Harbor. And I think of Robert Brooks, another “first Negro”, and of my own nephew. We fought a war to end fascism whose germ is German race superiority and the oppression of other peoples. A Negro soldier returned from that war—he was not even allowed to take off his uniform before he was lynched for daring to exercise his constitutional right to vote in a Democratic primary.
Yes, we fought to end Hitlerism. But less than 7 years after the end of that war, I find men who lead my government paying out my money and your money to support the rebirth of Hitlerism in Germany to make it a willing partner in another war. We thought to destroy Hitlerism—but its germ took root right here. I look about me, at my own people—at all colored peoples all over the world. I see the men who lead my government supporting oppression of the colored peoples of the earth who today reach out for the independence this nation achieved in 1776.
Yes, it is my government that supports the segregation by violence practiced by a Malan in South Africa, sends guns to maintain a bloody French rule in Indo-China, gives money to help the Dutch repress Indonesia, props up Churchill’s rule in the Middle East and over the colored peoples of Africa and Malaya. This week Churchill’s general in Malaya terrorized a whole village for refusing to act as spies for the British, charging these Malyan and Chinese villagers who enjoyed no rights and no privileges—and I quote him literally—“for failing to shoulder the responsibility of citizenship.” But neither the Malayan people—nor the African people who demonstrate on April 6—will take this terror lying down. They are fighting back.
Shall my people support a new war to create new oppressions? We want peace and we shall have freedom. We support the movement for freedom of all peoples everywhere—in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East, and above all, here in our own country. And we will not be silenced by the rope, the gun, the lynch mob or the lynch judge. We will not be stopped by the reign of terror let loose against all who speak for peace and freedom and share of the world’s goods, a reign of terror the like of which this nation has never seen.
Postcard with a photograph of a young Charlotta Bass, c.1901-1910. The photograph may have been taken in Providence, Rhode Island, where Bass (then Charlotta Spears) lived with an older brother and worked at the Providence Watchman, an African-American newspaper. From the Charlotta Bass / California Eagle Photograph Collection, 1880-1986, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, CA.
For 40 years I have been a working editor and publisher of the oldest Negro newspaper in the least. During those 40 years I stood Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, August 10, 2020
Hey, I’m ALL FOR THAT IDEA!
But… you’re gonna’ have to open up the purse WIDELY — V – E – R – Y — W – I – D – E – L – Y — for it to even begin to work.
And there’s a wee bit of GOOD NEWS!!
Yes, there’s a very bright spot in this matter, and it is this:
“We can actually fund the additional unemployment benefits, for example, or additional support to small businesses from our own domestic resources. That is much, much better than having to borrow it from abroad. So this recession is very unique in how we’ve shut down part of the economy because it’s also generating savings that can support the workers who are most affected. I know it’s complicated, but this is a unique moment when the traditional concerns about government deficits, debt to GDP, do not apply.“
But part of, if not the exclusive problem, with Trump’s response is that it’s misguided (as in “uncentered, and lacks focus”), and has no cohesive unifying action, or standard. There’s no clear guidance on what to do, who does what, when, how, to what extent, or anything… literally.
Have you seen them in YOUR state, or neighborhood? Have you read, or heard of anything they’re doing in your state or community?
I didn’t think so.
How has the Red Cross been involved?
That I’m aware, that I’ve heard of, or read, they haven’t been asked.
Same thing as FEMA – have you seen them in YOUR state, or neighborhood?
I didn’t think so.
U.S. Border Patrol, in conjunction with the Coast Guard… could’ve been swabbing nasal passages and mouths of every person crossing and along our nation’s borders, and coasts.
Nope.
Didn’t happen.
Same thing for our National Guard – EVERY SINGLE UNIT NATIONWIDE could’ve been Federalized and activated, and swabbing nasal passages and mouths of every person in every town across America. Manpower for the 50 states’ National Guard – Army and Air Force – stands at approximately 444,600.
They could’ve shipped out millions of testing kits, and hundreds of thousands of laboratory analysis machines to hospitals and clinics nationwide.
POTUS could’ve Federalized (mobilized/activated) the U.S. Public Health Service and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and established a 50-State testing response, and contact tracing system.
Nope, didn’t happen.
“Anemic,” and “practically non-existent” is how I’d describe the FAILED Federal Response.
Numerous individuals have repeatedly asked the POTUS to invoke the National Emergency Powers Act, and he delayed response until March 13.
“The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping.
You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”
Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari visits “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” at Fox Business Network Studios on October 11, 2019. Kashkari is calling for a return to mandated lockdowns in every state for up to six weeks in an effort to save both lives and the economy in response to COVID-19. Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Well, it was under her husband’s administration that private prisons popped up like mushrooms after a spring shower, which were then just as quickly populated with Blacks and Hispanics courtesy of his “Three Strikes” law – a law he championed which mandated a life sentence for anyone convicted of a violent crime after two prior convictions for any crime, including drug crimes – many of whom had been arrested on low-level, nonviolent drug charges – most typically as marijuana possession.
Mass incarceration was a Clinton concept.
He later admitted it was a bad idea and said, “I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, August 7, 2020
Be very wary of an attorney who says these type things about his client:
“Will is young and is learning some hard lessons. But he’s a very convicted man. He’s very convicted in his faith and he’s very convicted in his character. He’s very convicted in his heritage. And Will’s not a person who’s going to shy away from the tough questions to satisfy folks. And that upsets a lot of people. And I understand that. Especially in these times.
“But Will’s not going to admit to something he didn’t do. And he’s not going to step down from a position that he was elected to that he’s trying to do a good job at just because someone has pointed the finger and tried to make him out to be a bad guy. He’s a fighter. I’d be surprised if he resigns.”
Learning hard lessons…
Convicted – 4 times!…
Heritage – especially if you’re aligned with a White Supremacist group…
Resigns…
When your own attorney uses those words in response to the charges, you gotta’ KNOW that it prolly won’t go well.
So already, things don’t look good for Will Dismukes.
A since-deleted Facebook social media post by Will Dismukes, a White Republican member of the Alabama State House of Representatives, State House District 88, who was at the time, also a Baptist pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Prattville. Dismukes resigned after 3 days of outcry following discovery of this since-deleted social media post. “Fort Dixie” is the Selma, Alabama, home of Patricia Godwin, a woman with deep ties to the neo-Confederate cause and organized hate.
Geraldo Rivera told President Trump during an interview Thursday that Asian friends of say the term “China virus” has “a racial overtone.”
Geraldo Rivera
Rivera, speaking to the president on hisWTAM radio showout of Cleveland, asked Trump about his repeated use of “China virus” to refer to the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.
“I have some Asian friends who say, you know, that it’s not very polite, that they worry that it has a racial overtone,” Rivera said.
Because frankly, it’s practically too late for any of that.
That is to say, it’s too late for any effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by limiting travel, or immigration.
We’ve had our opportunity, and like many other opportunities, it was handed to us on a proverbial silver platter.
Now, we’ve the POTUS and his minions have squandered it.
Consider that as much as President Trump blows his own horn on the matter (as he does on almost everything, which according to him, he’s the best, the smartest, the greatest, the _insert_your_superlative_of_choice_here_ on anything and everything), claiming that his actions to limit its spread to the United States by limiting travelers from certain nations were effective, and helped prevent further spread of the infection, in light of what has happened in the days since as we all watched in horror at what unfolded.
They were not!
On January 22, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, POTUS was asked by CNBC Squawk Box host Joe Kernan if he was worried about a pandemic. Here’s the pertinent exchange.
JOE KERNEN: It was a couple of years ago. Before we get started– with- we’re going talk about the economy and a lot of other things–the CDC– has identified a case of coronavirus– in Washington state. The Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you– have you been briefed by the CDC? And–
PRESIDENT TRUMP:I have, and–
JOE KERNEN: –are there worries about a pandemic at this point?
In a secret intelligence report prepared (yet denied) by the Army’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) located on Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland, which was based upon analysis of wire and computer intercepts, and satellite images, concerns that Read the rest of this entry »
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, succeeded Rick Scott, also a Republican
While acknowledging the state’s Unemployment Compensation system was previously aged 40 or 50 years, and therefore, by some means, inefficient, it was revamped in the last 5, or 6 years during the administration of then-Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican.
While he didn’t explicitly blame the former Governor, he left little room for speculation that Rick Scott had a hand in frustrating a system for claimants and claims upon the state’s UC system.
An earlier news item published 28 May 2020 by ABC News affiliate WFTS-TV ch28 in Tampa, identified that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Howard Stern, 2016
Quit now, while you’re ahead.
Sometimes, life comes to us unannounced, but not unexpectedly. At other times, we’re stupefied by what occurs… even though, perhaps, we shouldn’t be.
Our friends – the ones who tell us things we don’t often want to hear, such as telling us “NO!”, are the very ones to whom we often ought be listening.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, July 30, 2020
The Trump Flu, which was caused by the Trump administration’s President’s careless and reckless disregard of science, has now killed well over 150,000 people in the United States.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, July 30, 2020
Herman Cain, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO & GOP presidential candidate, has died from COVID-19.
So in memory of him, let’s pause from our pizzas for a moment to remember and reflect upon what he said shortly before he died — “famous last words,” if you will.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, July 28, 2020
“It is one thing to honor one’s Southern heritage; however, it is completely another issue to specifically commemorate the leader of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable actions and atrocities toward African-Americans.”
Alabama GOP Chair Terry Lathan (RIGHT, in red) with Donald Trump (LEFT)
Terry Lathan is correct – “it is completely another issue to specifically commemorate the leader of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable actions and atrocities toward African-Americans.”
But…
Can you smell the hypocrisy cooking?
By officially celebrating as holidays the birthdays of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, the State of Alabama “specifically commemorates the leader[s] of an organization with an indisputable history of unconscionable acts and atrocities toward African-Americans.”
That Madam Chairman Lathan specifically ignores the proverbial “elephant in the room” of racism, strains at the gnat of Will Dismukes, and swallows the camel of state-sponsored endorsement of the institution of slavery is the entire point. Will Dismukes is a gnat on the derriere of the ALGOP. Lathan is its mouthpiece.
Slavery, racism, and discrimination are Alabama’s heritage – a genuine homemade Southern mess. It’s tough to erase history, so they don’t even try. Instead, they embrace it as a lost sheep, welcoming it back into the Confederate fold.
Officially acknowledging Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis is the ULTIMATE act of hypocrisy, and the demonstration of Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, July 26, 2020
The removal of statuary commemorating or honoring men (typically) who were complicit in slavery has been a question in the public dialogue for many weeks and months.
Some ask, “What about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?”
“What to do with all those statues?”
Both those men, notable for their role as founders of our nation, were slave owners.
The answer is a fairly easy one (or so I think), though it’s not one typically considered by the boogymen who raise the invented evil spectre of the so-called “cancel culture,” which is evidenced by their whipping up their non-thinking audience into a foaming-at-the-mouth froth.
A friend asked:
“Just that of something If the democrats want to get rid of all things slavery and racist, then should not the democrat party go away they start the KKK, Jim Crowe laws. What are your thoughts?” [sic]
Here’s my reply.
You raise an interesting question, one which exemplifies the complexity of the matter.
I think it’s important to reiterate that statuary of subjects about which public opinion has changed, and which has been, or considering being removed, should either be Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, July 25, 2020
Richmond Correctional Center, Alexandria, LA is owned by LaSalle Corrections, headquartered in Ruston, located directly SOUTH
Actions by employees of LaSalle Corrections – a Louisiana-headquartered private prison company with operations in Texas, Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, and extensively in the Pelican State, which runs the Richwood Correctional Center (RCC) in Alexandria in the northern part of Louisiana – have spread COVID-19, and very likely other diseases to other individuals within the company, community, state, nationally, and internationally.
Located at 180 Pine Bayou Circle, Richwood, Louisiana 71202, (ICE facility website) RCC is a medium-security, 1129-bed capacity facility leased to the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The immigration detention center is also COVID-ravaged, and employees’ actions have likely created new diseases, and spread others – including Tuberculosis, and COVID-19 – because employees there regularly:
Specifically, the state is concerned that they might lose a seat in reapportionment – along with the Federal dollars that accompany it – because of concern that other states might increase their apportionment of the 435 Members of the House of Representatives.
Now, if you think about it, that’s ironic, if not outright hypocritical, because Alabama is a significant recipient of government largess, aka “tax dollars” more so, than they send in. In other words, Alabama is a welfare recipient state. And welfare is something anathema to GOPers.
But it’s not as if Alabama hasn’t been shortchanged before. The “Alabama Paradox,” which interestingly – and, again ironically – is the inversely proportional phenomenon in which a state’s population increases, yet Congressional representation decreases, which was first discovered in 1880 by C. W. Seaton, Chief Clerk of the United States Census Bureau, who calculated apportionments for all House sizes between 275 and 350, and discovered that Alabama would get 8 seats with a House size of 299, but only 7 with a House size of 300. The same phenomenon was discovered to exist with new states admitted to the union (such as with Colorado in 1900), and generally refers to an apportionment scenario in which increasing the number of Representatives would decrease at least one state’s number of representatives in the House.
Mathematically, of course, it’s impossible to have a perfectly equal representation, which was proven in 1983 by two mathematicians, Michel Balinski and Peyton Young, who discovered that any method of apportionment which does not violate the quota rule – being that the number of seats to be allocated should be between the upper or lower roundings of its fractional proportional share – will result in paradoxes whenever there are three or more states. Earlier, in 1980, the Balinski–Young theorem proved that if an apportionment method satisfies the quota rule, it must fail to satisfy some apportionment paradox.
But, determining methods to apportion is getting much too complex, and practically misses the entire point, which is that the Constitution plainly states that ALL people should be counted, and Alabama is claiming that all people should NOT be counted, alleging that illegal aliens constitute an inordinate number of people in the nation.
Again, Alabama has been down that path before with their HB56 law written by Kris Kobach when he was Kansas Secretary of State, which sought to exclude people from legal rights (freedom of movement, etc.) and long-standing protections, based upon their immigration status, which was typically determined by looking at skin color, or surname, and little else. Federal courts have since struck down most of the law.
The wording in the recent Alabama & Mo Brooks v Census Bureau suit states that “plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that the Residence Rule is unconstitutional because an apportionment of members of the House of Representatives and Electoral College votes among the states based on population figures which include illegal aliens would violate § 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, Article I, § 2’s requirement of an “actual Enumeration” of the population of the United States, and Article II, § 1 of the United States Constitution.”
The suit seeks remedy through a rather perverse – and un-Constitutional – means, making accusation that illegal aliens (aka undocumented immigrants, otherwise known as people who are here in violation of immigration law, such as Canadians, who illegally overstayed their visas, which research showed are far more abundant than Hispanics, or Mexicans, and in 2016-17 accounted for at least 93,000 – more than any other nation), and that such contravention is anathema to the purpose of the Census, which states that all people shall be counted, making no differentiation among citizens, and non-citizens… at least none that we now know of – except for the Indian thing (“excluding Indians not taxed”)… and the Three-Fifths Compromise and the 13th Amendment, which still allows slavery, albeit “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
Most recently, on July 21, 2020, the White House wrote a “Memorandum for the Secretary of Commerce” which was entitled “Memorandum on Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census,” and acknowledged in part that, “The Constitution does not specifically define which persons must be included in the apportionment base.” That’s interesting, because as they continue down the rabbit hole of their illogic, they conclude with the President having the final say in the Census by writing “The President, by law, makes the final determination regarding the “whole number of persons in each State,” which determines the number of Representatives to be apportioned to each State, and transmits these determinations and accompanying census data to the Congress (2 U.S.C. 2a(a)).”
However, the law which they quote 2 U.S.C. 2a(a) states in pertinent part, that “the President shall transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State…” not that the President shall make any changes, or additions.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson IV told embassy staff in 2018 that his friend, President Trump, asked him to help get the British Open golf tournament held at one of the Trump family’s golf resorts in Scotland.
U.S. Embassy staff have separately complained that Johnson made racist and sexist comments on the job.
The State Department’s Inspector General has been looking at these claims as part of a routine review of the embassy, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry was first reported by theNew York TimesandCNN.
Lewis Lukens, the embassy’s former second-in-command, confirmed in a text to NPR that Johnson told him about the president’s request.
“I advised him that doing so would violate federal ethics rules and be generally inappropriate,” Lukens wrote.
But Johnson apparently went ahead and raised the matter with David Mundell, then secretary of state for Scotland, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
When Will Hillary Go Away?
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, August 9, 2020
Hillary Clinton continues to show her ass, and her most recent inane comment via Twitter (“Either Tim Kaine and I had a very vivid shared hallucination four years ago or Maureen had too much pot brownie before writing her column again.“) about Maureen Dowd’s column just proves how classless that conniving, subterranean racist, political wanna-be is. She might as well have called her a “racially disparaging term beginning with the letter ’N’ and ending with the letter ‘R’.”
Why?
Well, it was under her husband’s administration that private prisons popped up like mushrooms after a spring shower, which were then just as quickly populated with Blacks and Hispanics courtesy of his “Three Strikes” law – a law he championed which mandated a life sentence for anyone convicted of a violent crime after two prior convictions for any crime, including drug crimes – many of whom had been arrested on low-level, nonviolent drug charges – most typically as marijuana possession.
Mass incarceration was a Clinton concept.
He later admitted it was a bad idea and said, “I signed a bill that made the problem worse and I want to admit it.”
Brother Bill also was the architect behind the idea to “end welfare as we have come to know it,” which was formerly a robust social safety net.
So yeah… my opinion of them both is lower’n a snake’s belly.
Of course, there’s been “bad blood” between Dowd and Hillary for quite some time.
The Daily Mail wrote that “In 2014 Dowd wrote a series of articles about Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in - Did they REALLY say that?, - Lost In Space: TOTALLY Discombobulated, - Read 'em and weep: The Daily News | Tagged: cannabis, Clinton, commentary, Hillary Clinton, HRC, marijuana, Maueen Dowd, Monica Lewinsky, news, NYT, OpEd, politics, racism, scandal, Tweet, weed, Willie Nelson | Leave a Comment »