Election Patience is a Virtue

 The 2020 Election is over. Well sort of. Judges ordering the Head of the Postal Service to report to court wanting to know why ballots were not sent. Trump wanting the Supreme Court to intervene meanwhile in Pennsylvania votes won't be counted till four days after election day. Yes patience is a virtue especially in this election. THIS ELECTION IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE IT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORST HEALTH PANDEMIC NOT SEEN SINCE A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.  So we had most of the population participating with mail in ballots or ballots sent directly to ballot boxes that has never been done before in history. It takes time to count all those ballots. Trump is that petulant child with no patience to do things efficiently or accurately. He wants it all his way or the highway. 

If he was a educated person he should learn from history where there were other elections that took long times to determine the winner. In the 19th century before the telegraph was invented  elections would take days for word to even spread that someone had won. In 1876 there was a conflict election with Hayes and Tildon that took over three months to resolve ballot problems until it was finally decided that Rutherford Hayes would be President. Many of us remember the year 2000 when George W. Bush was declared the winner of that election by vote of the Supreme Court. Time will determine our next President not drama. Our democracy depends on our collective votes. 

Election Day. Damn Right VOTE

           It is great to support your candidate of choice but it is NOT fine to clog up highways and intimidate citizens in full dictator intimidation style with weapons, flags and running other candidates off the public roadways.     That is precisely what Trump suggested and his supporters did. The FBI took action and investigated the domestic terrorists on our streets and Trump ordered the FBI NOT to investigate. The head of the Justice Department Bill Barr is agreeing to the do nothing policy of voter intimidation. For this reason EVERYONE MUST VOTE TODAY TO PRESERVE OUR AMERICAN FREEDOMS OVER DICTATORSHIP BULLYING.  

This election may well be the most important election in your lifetime no matter what your age is because the corruption has entered our highest rule of law in America the Justice Department that is supposed to be independent of any political party affiliations. Bill Barr is clearly a Trump puppet. He must be removed and with the election of Joe Biden he will be removed. So get out and voter for Joe Biden. 

Barr has suppressed the Mueller Report that could have gotten rid of Trump years ago for his crimes. He suggested a lighter sentence for the crimes of long time Trump influencer Roger Stone who lied about everything in court.  He dropped the charges against convicted felon Trump appointed Security Advisor Michael Flynn who was dealing with dictators and even pled guilty in court. He removed an attorney from our government offices who was investigating Trump's criminal associates. Sued Bolton to stop him from releasing the contents of his book. Barr even used the United States government to replace Trump as the defendant in a lawsuit where a woman accused Trump of rape so Trump wouldn't testify at all or be charged with a crime. 

Vote because our government should work for us and not work for political protections in their very own boy's club of corruption. Save America Today.

Happy Halloween

 Halloween! It is the one day of the year when kids are allowed to break the rules and adults have a reason to act and dress stupid. Kids can talk to strangers and try to get away with eating as much candy as they can. Well not this year. It is really spooky. We can really die from doing that. Men can dress like women but not be transgender or gay. Labels are not put on anyone and for once no religion is being offended by having fun on this day. For once we are not being abused by some religious persecution but we like to be creeped out anyway so the scary of Halloween is very present today. Some doctors are even saying that being scared can actually be good for you.

There are haunted houses everywhere and even haunted fields where people flock to today. There are also scientists from the University of Pittsburgh studying fear. Why are we drawn to scary movies like Poltergeist or zombie films like Night of the Living Dead? Do we really want to feel discomfort or be shocked? Do you feel wonderful after you leave that haunted house? Yes, because you survived that ugly lunatic with the bloody knife in his hand without a scratch. So you smile and feel good again.   Greg Siegle, PhD a Psychiatric Doctor    from the University of   Pittsburgh, School of Medicine is studying the effects of scary things on your brain and he says your head could actually get warmer from fear.

The National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend $7 Billion dollars this year on Halloween dresses like evil clown or Donald Trump masks along with all kinds of other decorations and costumes. In the dark and in a uncertain situation you will experience fear and your palms will sweat and your heart rate will rise. Almost as euphoric as sex but certainly not that.  Margee Kerr just wrote a book about fear called Scream. When we scream we are alerting others and trying to protect ourselves by startling our attacker. Our face becomes contorted as we scream to alert the attacker that we can be ugly too.  It is all an amazing immediate response created without much advance thought.

We could even look scared while being on our couch watching The Walking Dead. Fear is a result of the disruption of our prediction systems. When something happens that isn’t supposed to happen, we get fearful. Clowns can be deceitful. Clowns are supposed to make us happy but if we detect something unpredictable with their eyes or stare or grin that all of a sudden goes from being silly to evil, our fears kick in. It is a lot of work on our brains and bodies all this fear.  Halloween can be exhausting. Ghosts are scary because it brings in thoughts about our unknown mortality. We can’t control our mortality. We have no control of the dark. Anything can attack us without our knowledge.

Yet there is a part of us that wishes to discover and to challenge ourselves. Can we survive? Face it! Your life is too boring and structured. Halloween   is the one day where it is ok to be unpredictable and take chances and that is a good thing. All our traditional worries go out the window on Halloween. Today we get to worry about all sorts of other challenges.   A Haunted House can be so bad that the stresses of our real lives suddenly don’t appear to be so stressful. So do something good for your health, get the crap scared out of you! Happy Halloween!

Different rules for the same game.

 We all vote in the same election then why different voting rules and regulations in each state? Why does a political party get to control the rules and ultimately try to manipulate the deadlines in their favor? This year the Texas Governor limited the election drop boxes to one per county. Texas is big and in one heavily Democratic county that means one ballot box for 4.7 million people. That is clearly a voter suppression plan and it doesn't stop there.

In 36 states including  Georgia voters are expected to show photo identification. Why not all states? In Pennsylvania and Wisconsin they are fighting to restrict mail in votes. In Mississippi absentee ballots must be stamped and signed by a Notary Public. Is this a coordinated effort to stop folks from bothering to vote? Is this how career politicians keep their jobs for decades? Is voter suppression just part of the game or is it inherently evil?

Is the best way to prevent voter fraud to prevent voting? We need national rules that apply to all in all states just like we can play Scrabble and Monopoly with the same rules in all states even if the game board looks a little bit different. And make it easier to vote. We bank, trade stocks purchase stuff all on our phone on secure sites why not phone in our votes? We all have our social security number to insure our identity even give every citizen their own bar code for backup personal identity with individual passwords. Make this Republic for all of us easier to be good active citizens in our destiny. 

Republicans Have Packed The Courts

 The  Republican dominated Senate voted in their Nomination of Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana to be yet another in a series of Republican dominated Senate Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court. Well, United States used to mean a united representation of Democrats and Republicans hired to our Supreme Court for a balance of opinions there too. Not any more. Politics have taken over Justice. 

She is a Constitutional Law Scholar. Was appointed to the Circuit Court just three years ago by Trump and most jarring is the fact that she HAS NEVER ARGUED A CASE BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT EVER IN HER CAREER AND WITH THIS LACK OF ANY EXPERIENCE THE REPUBLICANS THINK SHE IS PERFECT FOR A LIFETIME APPOINTMENT TO BE ON OUR HIGHEST COURT. IT IS A SAD DAY FOR AMERICA.

It is also particularly odd that she was on the White House grounds with President Trump where she as an independent member of the highest court is now seen with a Impeached President just days before a election where he is seeking support from everywhere amid all his scandals and failures during his Administration. 

We all know that the Republicans have been packing the Supreme Court for decades. Trump hired well over 200 judges to the lower courts and just put three justices of his choosing to the Supreme Court. Where is the balance of power? There isn't any. The Democrats need to do the unpacking of the Supreme Court so there is a balance in judgement. Right now the Supreme Court does NOT represent the values of America. Now it reflects a minority, a one sided representation of the values of Americas. Our Supreme Court should represent the balance of justice with one swing vote. The scales of justice represent that with lady liberty holding the balance up. She wears a blind fold so she will not be swayed in her unbiased un seeing view. 

So if the unpacking of the court means to include 13 Justices, so be it and it will be the same reflection as we have in the Federal Appeals Courts.

He Dropped the Mask

 Today in 2020 we have arrived at 220,220 dead Americans on our soil due to the Trump Deadly Disease. He gets to own the Covid Virus because he falsely claims that people who wear masks get Coronavirus. We have know since January that this is a airborne virus, highly contagious and lethal. We have a recommendation since April that all Americans should wear masks. Trump has consistently undercut it and urges his fans not to wear masks. He should be charged with Crimes Against Humanity for his negligence to serve and protect us all.

He told the public that he would not wear a mask in the Oval Office. He said that he didn't need to wear a mask because he was tested everyday and that is a lie.  He prevented the United States Postal Service to send every American masks that would have saved tens of thousands of lives.  The Centers for Disease Control wanted to send masks to be provided on all modes of public  transportation in the United States. The White House blocked that. Why did Trump take the complete wrong side of this issue? This inaction, this do nothing policy needlessly cost hundreds of thousands of lives that didn't have to die? 

Americans should be angry that simple protocols still aren't being taken to protect our lives. We spend most of our budget on weapons to protect us daily on weapons of war. A mask is the best weapon we have to protect us in the war on disease that has entered our shores 7 months ago. A mask costs 15 cents to produce yet it can save a life. We have Trump in his carelessness contracted the Virus . Was given $100,000 worth of drugs that no one else has access to over a 4 day period. Instead of being the poster boy for safety mask wearing he arrogantly in all his Dictatorship grandeur proudly took off his mask on our White House balcony. For that reason alone. Trump must be removed and thrown in jail.

 

Trump unites Republicans to Vote for Biden

 Never before in American history have we seen such Republican support for a Democratic candidate for President as we now see in support for Biden. There are at lease 450 prominent Republicans who were leaders of their party over decades now offering unconditional support for the other party candidate Joe Biden. In the last few weeks we have seen two former Chairmen of the Republican Party George Steele and Marc Racicot endorse Biden. Five former Republican Senators endorse Biden and 24 former Republican Members of Congress endorse Biden. Eight former Republican Governors endorse Biden. And hundreds of Republican others in government like CIA Directors, Cabinet Secretaries, Ambassadors even Cindy McCain will vote for The Democrat for President. 

There are 129 National Security officials endorsing Biden for President.  Hundreds of George W. Bush alumni in addition to the Lincoln Project. This isn't normal but yet again these are not normal times. Trump's very own hand picked administrators refuse to endorse him ever again. Rex Tillerson explained that Trump doesn't like to read and tries to do illegal things. Former Trump White House Chief of Staff said that Trump is the most flawed person he's ever met. His own appointees warned us about the dangers of Trump. Veteran administrators like Bolton, General Mattis and John Kelly. 

They all observed that Trump was not interested in doing the job of governing. Trump is pre-occupied with profit making willing to betray the ideals of democracy and the rule of law in order to cozy up to dictators and sell weapons. If you look in all of American history you can't find this many officials against the re-election of the President they served. We must all remember that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Do something. Vote Biden too. 

Protecting our Democracy Act

 Will there be a peaceful transfer of power if our Impeached President loses this election? If he was a normal respectful person of this nation he would peacefully accept any result but we are talking about Trump who has done nothing but to arouse disunity and chaos in America for the past four years. After Watergate in the Nixon years all sorts of protections to avoid abuse were put in place but with the abuses of power Trump has displayed more protections must be put in place to protect our Constitution from the abusive power of an authoritarian President. 

There are institutional breakdowns that must be protected like the abuses of the pardon power, there must be allowed the enforcement of Congressional subpoenas, protect whistleblowers, protect inspector generals, to allow the enforcement of the Emoluments Clause. A President should not outweigh the status of limitations. We shouldn't expect the Republicans in power now to support this but if Biden wins, who ever is left in the Republican Senate would support this since they wouldn't want to give more rights to a Democratic President. It is a shame that our every wish in government is along party lines and not for general fairness in representation of the American people.

Who would ever imagine that democracy would be in peril in our lifetime in America since this country was built on the premise of a revolution of freedom from authoritarian powers from British and French Kings in Europe and beyond. But here we are with President Trump who values the friendships and the policies of Dictators worldwide over Democratic Countries. There is a world wide rise to Autocracy. We have Putin in Russia, totalitarianism in China. In Egypt, in Turkey with Erdogan, in Venezuela Medoras and in North Korea leaders there for life in constant corrupt elections.  

Our recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in 2012 "I would not look to the United States Constitution in drafting a Constitution in 2012." Canada and South Africa both have a better Constitution because it was written more recently. Our Second Amendment with it's right to bear arms is woefully outdated in that it was written at a time when America did not have a fully established military presence police or 17 protective Federal Agencies that have the ability to protect every American far better than some idiot who purchased a weapon on the internet without the proper psychological testing for mental stability, sharp shooting training or physical ability to know how to clean and store weapons safely. We need better protections to protect Americans from the so called protectors. 

Italian -American Heritage Columbus Day

Today Americans celebrate Columbus Day to remind us of the spirit of Christopher Columbus’s 1492 expedition to America. We celebrate the contributions of Italian Americans and all immigrants who contribute to the greatness of America bringing with them their unique traditions, cuisine and values. It has always been the diversity of America that has always made America great. By now there are third generation Italians living in America many who don’t speak Italian anymore but even if they don’t practice the language they will never forget how to enjoy cook and produce great Italian food, products and maintain the hard working ethics of their poor immigrant grandparents who worked hard, educated themselves and now prosper in our great economy here in America.

Who doesn’t like all things Italian from the exotic great cars like Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo to the practical Fiat? Who doesn’t want to get into one of those cars wearing Donatella Versace, Miuccia Prada, Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli or Salvatore Ferragamo? And then who doesn’t want to eat fine Italian food by Giada De Laurentis, Rocco Di Spirito or even Hector Boyardee yeah the guy who put pasta in a can. Okay maybe not the can pasta guy. Now back to my great Italian evening. And dine with fine Italian wine from Sardinia, Sicily, Abruzzo and Tuscany? Who doesn’t want to view the great paintings and sculptures by Michelangelo, Picasso and Botticelli? And then there are the great opera singers like Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti, Andres Bocelli and Cecilia Bartoli. If you want softer music there are the greats like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Jon Bob Jovi, Madonna and Lady Gaga.   Italy  is only about the size of Florida but it is packed with greatness enjoyed by people all over the world and here in America who embraces the Italian culture with open arms.

Before the Covid Virus took over America we had a parade that went straight down 5th Avenue. Over 100 marching groups performed and 25 parade floats participated in the festivities as well as stage performances. Present were the famous Cuomo Family who have dedicated generations to New York political life. Father Mario the past and son Andrew the present Governor, Journalist Chris Cuomo, Doctor Margaret Cuomo who instituted AP Italian in schools. We have the Gabelli  Funds investment group. The Grand Marshal was Guy Chiarello from the Columbus Citizen Foundation who has donated over $3 million to scholarships for 750 students. Dean Donna Rapaccioli head of the Gabelli Business School at Fordham University from the Bronx who works near the famous Arthur Avenue where anyone can sample the great cold cuts and pastries from Italy.

All ethnic groups are the foundation of America and what they all have in common is that they came to America and learned the language, and came here for one reason and that was to become American. They arrived looking up at the Statue of Liberty and arrived at Ellis Island and from there they became the fabric of this country. All immigrants make this country great.

October Surprise

 There is a name for events that take place late in Presidential campaigns. It is known as the October Surprise and this election year has been nothing but surprises daily in the reality show saga Trump has turned the American government into. The most recent is the revelation that Trump has gotten the Covid-19 deadly disease that has killed over 209,000 Americans. It is tragic in that he knew and showed NO leadership in containing the spread of the disease for 7 months now. His constant self-promotion rallies are simply super spreader events of disease. American Presidents take oaths when sworn into the job to protect and serve this country. He has done neither of the two. 

October surprises come in planned events and others came in literally surprises that did influence the outcomes of elections. The financial markets collapsed in 2008. In 1980 a October surprise happened when Regan was running against President Carter. On November 4, 1979 there were 52 Americans that were being held hostage in Iran. On the Sunday before the Tuesday of that election negotiations collapsed thus helping Regan to a victory in that Presidential election. Americans were convinced to try someone new in order to get the hostages back. So is this surprise telling Americans to try someone new to combat this Covid crisis?

There was a President to benefit from a last minute turn of events before an election. When the Army won a battle in Atlanta in late September, it probably saved Lincoln's second term as President. It built enthusiasm in the North and there was hope that the Civil War would end. 

Four years ago Hillary was winning the election by a landslide in 2016, till the October surprise came from our Director of the FBI Jim Comey saying just 11 days before the election that he was investigating Hillary's e-mails for misconduct. Many feel that revelation ruined the election of the most qualified person to be President in America who would have had the honor to be the first woman President on the 100th Anniversary of the right to a woman to vote. After years of investigations it was finally determined that she had committed NO WRONGDOING. That October surprise ruined her election.

Another October Surprise that year was the revealing of the Access Hollywood tape in 2005 of Trump saying that he can grab women by the pussy and get away with it. This year we have the New York Times revelations that Trump has not paid taxes in 10 years. This year we have the Bob Woodard tapes of Trump saying he knew all about the deadly virus seven months ago but chose not to protect the American people because he didn't want to create a panic. Will Impeached Trump be able to escape his October Surprises too and still emerge triumphant again? 

Let it be known the Joe Biden has never had any October Surprises in his long career serving this country well being a Senator since age 30. As Vice-President he was known for negotiating with Congress, managed the economic recovery and was the skeptic on Afghanistan. Vice President Pence has only led the task force combatting Corona Virus and he has done a poor job with 209,000 dead and counting with even most of the staff at the White House now infected with the deadly disease too. 

Ruth is gone but how are the others?

Our Supreme Court lifetime appointments are made by the Political Presidents at the time of need.  Our head Senator Republican Mitch  decided that Obama should wait for his appointment but quickly appointed two of Trump's choices . Now with the sad death of Ruth will they wait till the election is over to appoint another Justice to the Supreme Court? If it is any consolation, we already have a history in rulings that even Trump's appointments have some ethics, morals and integrity despite Dictator Donald's wishes for everyone to do as he pleases. The lifetime appointment of educated Justices can make a difference.

The Supreme Court has done a lot to recover from Disastrous Donald and have made decisions not based on politics but on solid debate and judgement. Trump's appointments Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have both voted against Trump's wishes in the tax returns case. Chief Justice John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch voted in the Title 7 Case about whether or not LGBT workers are protected in the workplace with discrimination laws. Chief Justice Roberts joined the four appointees by Democratic Presidents to strike down the  DACA Program that Trump tried to pass to send them back to countries they have never known.  Chief Justice Roberts famously cast votes to save Obamacare. So even if Trump  succeeds in making another appointment before the election, there is hope that an educated justice will do the right thing in decision making despite the political pressures. 

It would be completely inappropriate for Trump to nominate a successor to Ruth so soon but he is the epitome of inappropriateness all the time. Never forget that in 2016 the Republicans didn't even give Obama's chosen appointment Merrick Garland a hearing after many months of waiting. The Democrats are completely in the right to want an increase in Justices to the Supreme Court to create balances in representation of this country. Time should be taken to hire someone worthy of our highest court. If yet another conservative is appointed there will be eight of them that could ruin voting rights, abortion rights and civil rights if the wrong prejudicial person is appointed as Trump is. We need someone to expand rights and not restrict rights to our people. 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at 87 years old. She graduated number one in her law school class at Columbia University's School of Law in 1959 but was unable to get a job as a Supreme Court clerkship  because she was a woman despite being highly recommended for the job. She became a law professor. President Carter appointed her to be a Federal Judge. In 1993 President Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court making her the second woman Justice ever in America. She also found the time to be the wife of her law school classmate and the mother of two children.  Since then she has fought and won for women's rights in the workplace. She was consistently as one of the high court's moderate to liberal members believing that "We the People" in the Constitution meant all the people of this country and not just wealthy men. 

Never Forget 911

 Today is another year where the horror of September 11 creeps into our memory. Yes, thousands of people died that day and now hundreds of first responders are dying from cancers and catastrophic illnesses related to all the pollutants they took into their bodies trying desperately looking for survivors that dreadful day years ago we call 911 now. Over 8,000 people have died over the past 19 years from 911 related cancers. Since then have things gotten better for Americans? We have been at war with terrorists in the Middle East now for 19 continuous years and Trump has sent more soldiers there too. Terrorism is still a global problem with random acts of violence still being performed on innocent civilians just doing ordinary life things. We still live on the edge and must be ever so thankful each day that we survived life in general and was able to live just another day.

We had a horrible President then with George Bush as our leader and now we have a horrible leader with Donald Trump as our President. How can things get better? At least Trump is under a crusade to make America safer with his quest to deport Muslims and Mexicans but his methods are crude and are banning a large population of peaceful good Muslims and Mexicans in America. Trump got elected because he entertained everyone with his insults of the other candidates like it was a continuous Roast. Then it was revealed that he was involved with Russian intervention into our election process, his business dealings seem to only benefit himself and he lies a lot. He also had a very dangerous and jaded close advisor, Steve Bannon now a arrested criminal.

With Bannon the public finally sees the kind of terrible influence he has had over Trump and his decision making for this country.  Former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon and CEO of Trumps Campaign was a master manipulator over him. The American people knew nothing about him. We know he was the CEO of Breitbart News, a place that supports Alt-Right views and he ran the website in his home.  Now Nazism is on the rise and out in the open. Our World War II Veterans are turning over in their graves realizing they sacrificed their lives then to stop the rise of NAZI beliefs. Now we all have to deal with that again with the constant worry over terrorism.  He says things like “If you don’t agree with Trump you need to be held accountable for your actions.” Is that a threat forcing loyalty? Trump recently told his followers that if he gets Impeached it is the voters fault. Well he is Impeached but not removed by his Republican Senate.   Does he know that we live in a democratic society where free speech and elections are the rule and all views are considered? Bannon never was on a political campaign before but yet he was elevated to being the head of Trump’s Campaign for Election. Now many of Trump's inner circle during the election are convicted felons facing jail time. 

Bannon blames Trump's lack of popularity on the Republican Party that Trump is part of. The failure of them to devise a better plan than Obamacare is the Republican Party’s fault because they had 9 years to figure it out. Trump never came up with a plan of his own. He likes to pass the blame and fire people. On the DACA situation Bannon says, “As their work permits expire the workers should self-deport.” This is the kind of insanity that is fueling the thoughts of our current President. These kids have no path to citizenship, no path to a Green Card and amnesty is non-negotiable. Then should we refund them all the taxes they paid from their jobs? None of these things are going to happen. All of these ideas is just disturbing to the American principles and thoughts. America was the place where people could come, contribute to the economy. It was the definition of immigration before this mad man Bannon was influencing Trump.

Bannon says that America was built from their citizens. We were not all immediately citizens. Most of us came from other countries and many were not born here. There are many non-citizens who contribute much to our economy and who do not commit criminal acts yet they are treated like criminals. Thankfully the people of America rise over ridiculous policies being pushed upon us by crazy people like Steve Bannon and we rise to the occasion as we did to help each other during 911 and as seen during the unconditional help all races and monetary classes rose to help and care for each other during the hurricanes. America is made of good people despite bad leaders. Yes we need to reflect, morn and be proud of America every September 11 because that horrific day brought all people in America together as one country in solidarity for our beliefs to protect us all.

Criminals should be Arrested not Elected

The Benghazi tragedy was thrown out there by Trumpsters as if it was a personal murder done by Hillary. The terrorist act in 2012 was an attack on four brave Americans including our Ambassador who was killed. There was eight Congressional Committees that investigated every aspect and not one of them found that Hillary had done anything wrong. The dishonest distraction must be stopped since Trump has turned his back on many tragedies and did not under go any investigations for his crimes as President. 

Three American service members were killed in a terrorist act in the last year on American soil on the Military Base in Pensacola by Saudi trainees who had been inspired by Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is a transnational extremist Salafist militant organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abdullah Azzam. This happened on Donald Trump's watch. There hasn't been a single investigation. Not one process of accountability or even outrage. WHY SINCE HE IS A IMPEACHED PRESIDENT?

Four American Sergeants were killed in West Africa in a ambush who asked for troop backup as they were being surrounded by Al-Qaeda on DONALD TRUMP'S WATCH. No investigation and no outrage from the Republican Senate. No accountability.

Same thing happened in East Africa where Al-Qaeda attacked United States Military Bases under Donald Trump's watch. The only thing Trump has been successful is at deflecting and distracting from his crimes most notably the killing of 200,000 Americans from untamed deadly disease on our soil. Fifty million Americans are out of work. Our kids can not go back safely to school with 70,000 of them infected in the past two weeks from going back to school with the Trump Virus. All Americans are feeling that tragic pain now more than the loss from the Benghazi attack. 

 

It is Labor Day, a day that America thinks of as   the end of summer. It is also the day we give tribute to all the hard laborers that work all year long at their grueling jobs. One of our most famous worker is America’s most experienced Astronaut. 

This year has been a very sad laborious task of workers having to carry 183,000 dead bodies to their graves due to our very own uncontrollable disease not squashed by Trump at all.  That was a laborious task .This year many had to volunteer to hand out food to folks in long lines. Laborers still work hard to reconvene restaurants so we can eat safely apart. Teachers now have to be trained to conduct their laborious classes on computer screens now.  I hope they can take today off from work today but I doubt it. Nothing stops a motivated good worker.

Why do we all work anyway? We work because we love. It is even a greater reward for our labors if we can work doing a task that we love to do. We love people and want to create the best lives we possibly can afford to do for the people we love. Some are high maintenance and need to buy a lot of stuff to keep themselves happy so they need skills that can earn lots of money for themselves. Others don’t need much in terms of materialistic things. They just need a roof to sleep under and a few meals a day. We all work for happiness and sometimes taking that day off is all the happiness we need. Some will get paid time and a half if they work today at some retail store pushing their Labor Day sales. The extra money they earn today will bring them happiness. So, Labor Day must really mean a form of happiness.

Maybe you are tired of working hard at your jobs or now are at an age when people have to slow down, their bodies can’t do it all anymore. Today you can sit back and try to figure out how much money you estimate you will need for retirement. How many years would that money last you? How long will I even live? We need to plan for income that will last all of our retirement and maybe bit of money for investments or an inheritance for those we love after death too. I guess I have to go back to work to get all that but not today. It is Labor Day and I will have some time to reflect on all my labors so far. Enjoy!

Time for Women?

 In a few months can it finally be a time for a woman in America's leadership? Women ARE educated experienced qualified spokespersons for our population but still not represented in government with the highest of positions. This year we have another opportunity to make that change with a woman for vice-president. We lost a big opportunity in not electing Hillary especially since she could have been President for the 100th year Anniversary of the right for women to vote. She and Bill could have balanced the budget again and wouldn't have allowed disease and death to cover our entire nation still. As a health care attorney she is the best to get us through this deadly epidemic. Now we have Harris a law and order attorney running for Vice-President who could easily get us through the chaos of strife with protestors and gun wielding citizens clashing on our streets. She could calm men down easily with her education and experience. But will we elect her or let another great woman slide through the voting fingers of this nation and not be utilized?

It took a very long time in the right for women to vote coming. Why must it take a long time of women leadership too? One hundred years ago the 19thAmendment was ratified to give women the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held one of the first equal rights Conventions in New York in 1848. It wasn't till 1920 that women had to endure countless protests to get enough states to agree to the women's vote. Just like the Black Livers Matter protest movement we have now, women then marched, protested, gotten arrested  and lobbied Congress for their right to vote. There was a mother who told her politician son to be a good boy and vote for the amendment. He listened to Mom. The Suffrage Amendment was ratified in Tennessee to make it the 36th state needed so that almost 27,000,000 women got to vote in the Presidential election that year. 

Moms tell your sons to vote for Harris. On August 26,1920 the Susan B. Anthony 19th Amendment became the law of the land. It was a 80 year old struggle then. Must we have another 80 year old struggle to elect a woman to our highest of Presidential Office? We are there now and must do it now.  The women who fought for the right to vote were dead by the time the struggle was over. We need a woman to be elected now in our lifetimes too. Black women went through the most struggles even after the Amendment was ratified. They endured poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation and violence. They have been struggling through to 1965 when the Voting Act was ratified. We have a woman of color in the wings right now to be Vice-President. Make it happen for the black women of history.

It is time for no racism and sexism in politics.  

The FDA ORDER EMERGENCY AUTHORIZATION for use of Convalescent Plasma

Our Trump Frankenstein wanta be scientist is now abusing his emergency powers to push blood transfusions on half dead Covid patients instead of imposing national mandates on mask usage and social distancing and tracing that we all know is the solution at the time.  All of Trump's solutions are not working since we now are approaching 177,000 dead Americans. Most folks don't even know what is Convalescent Plasma. 

It is created from the blood of recovered patients. Transfused into seriously ill patients. Yes the antibody-rich plasma may help fight off infection but it was used to treat MERS, SARS, the flu and Ebola. Covid is none of those diseases Trumpie! We really DO NOT KNOW YET if this treatment is good for fighting Covid . So STOP TRUMPIE abusing your power to force government treatments on unproven remedies like your FEMA Hydro pills, drinking bleach and investments on pill production in Kodak. 

He is basing this authorization based on a August 12 posting of treatment before peer review publication based on the first 35,000 patients that went under this treatment with expanded access. Yes it was done under the watch of great scientists and was done if you got the plasma earlier rather than later in your death bed diagnosis. If you got higher doses of it earlier you did better. It does look promising but it is not ready for widespread use. There are folks who died from this treatment to simply bad transfusion reactions. This uncertainty of various treatments MUST STOP. We need the gold standards from clinical trials and nothing less before we have a unhinged ignorant President pushing his magic potions as we all continue to die. 

Trump needs to look at the NIH treatment guidelines, the Infectious Disease Society of America guidelines and the IDSA treatment guidelines of which NONE OF THEM have changed  their guidelines that Trump still refuses to listen to. They all say they do not have enough proof for or against covalescent plasma treatments. DUMP TRUMP. He is too high maintenance.

How to Abuse Presidential Power

The power of a President is enormous.  Trump has managed to even bypass Congressional approvals for all the Bills he signs constantly. They call it those Presidency Emergency Action Documents. So in turn he creates chaos and in just three years has declared seven National Emergencies. No other President has ever used this little known way to avoid our Constitution. Most of our Presidents were lawyers who learned our laws and Constitution and respected our founding father's intentions. Not this guy. He values the total Dictatorships of Communist countries leaders and surely wants to be just like them including being President for life. 

These secret powers originated in the Eisenhower years in order to protect America from a Cuban Soviet attack. The Bills are not even offered up to Congressional approvals because they are immediately labeled Classified and hidden somewhere. Trump has many Classified documents that no one gets to see. It is unbelievable Presidential privacy when you consider that even the most highly classified military and intelligence operations have to be reported to at least eight members of Congress. When you have a evil President who abuses this secret power he can also impose martial law if he chooses to. That is the use of direct military control over normal civil functions. He has used this power to impose troops abusing peaceful protestors and now threatens to use it again at voting places. 

In a declaration of a National Emergency he can authorize the apprehension and detention of certain persons. This is right out of a Dictatorship's playbook and he can do it by just signing a proclamation as Trump does often. He declared fake emergencies against Muslims , the wall and wants to try to delay the election over some contrived emergency. Is this why he allows Covid to be spread everywhere? Why he is closing and defunding the postal service?  The Department of Justice periodically reviews these Presidency Emergency Action Documents but with Barr, Trump has the guy in charge in his wheel house allowing him to do just about anything he wants despite that he is supposed to be the  independent  highest law man in the country. 

Our founding fathers created the Presidency so that we had someone in this country to act quickly but they never imagined that America would vote in someone who has never governed anything in his life with no knowledge of the Constitution who does not take any advice from advisors who appoints to every important job other friends and family also totally unequipped to govern fairly. We want a President to respond to attacks, hurricanes and forest fires quickly but we don't want a President to impose habeas corpus, the imprisonment of citizens at his choosing in illegal confinement. These Presidential decisions should GO PUBLIC AND NOT BE CONFIDENTIAL. Every citizen has the right to know what the hell is going on. Will Trump extend his power to even suspend our Constitution? He MUST be voted OUT.

What Happens When?

 The Bush/Gore Presidential election took a month to decide the winner. Trump is vowing confusion in this election with Russian dressing on the side in interference again too. His postal service stunt is his latest corruption abuse of Presidential powers to benefit him after we have had 240 years of no interference in our postal service valued by 90% of all Americans. Trump even boldly proposes delaying the election despite a Federal Law saying you can't do that. Many of our Presidents including Hillary have Law degrees and know the law and would never suggest such an abuse of power. 

There is a status that Congress passed that if there is not any winner produced in a state, then it is permissible for the State Legislature to nominate a winner. That can be disturbing in swing states such as battleground states controlled by Republican Legislatures like Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Some of these states have Democrat Governors so their decision can rule.  Article 3 of the United States Constitution says, "Whenever any State has had an election...and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct." This time it will occur on January 6th when the new Congress is there to decide which electors to consider. There is every reason to believe that the new Congress will be in Democratic hands. 

It is an elaborate procedure in every state to resolve disputes. All of the efforts that Trump is making to delay the election is false since the date of the election is set at November 3rd. So now he is tampering with the postal service to eliminate the on time mailings of sent in ballots. He is trying to instill chaos into our election as he has done with our health, wealth and now the safety of our children in schools. Bottom line at noon on January 20th if there has not been a new President elected, Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House of Representatives becomes President of the United States. Anyone who dares to dispute her Presidency including Bill Barr will be risking becoming a convicted felon because at that point the Trump appointees would no longer have their powers either since his time in office is over. 

To Vote or Not to be able to vote

You probably know who you want to vote for by now that we are less than 100 days to the big election. With every major event already cancelled in America due to disease everywhere, Trumpie wants to postpone the election even though in his ignorance he doesn't even know that he can't just wave his sharpie on a document and make that happen too but how can we vote safely?

America has 5 states that conduct elections entirely by mail. That sounds safe. They are Washington State, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Hawaii. Trump likes to say with no proof at all that voting by mail is fraudulent meanwhile in the last election that he won, 25% of all ballots were votes sent in by mail. He is already taking steps to ruin the American Postal Service since he fired the Postmaster General and hired a supporter who gave him $2 million dollars to his campaign. This guy already put in place procedures described as cost cutting efforts . Translation slowing down services and delivery at a time with this disease we should expect more of everything to be done by mail and not in person anywhere. 

So the rest of America needs to get serious now in order to have voting by mail be a good transition than voting in person. The states need to develop tracking systems so voters can see where their ballots are in the delivery stream, and find ways to review signatures and count ballots that reduce the number of rejected ballots. 

Just follow Colorado'[s lead who has been voting by mail since 2014 with no problems. Voting by mail should be considered as important as wearing a mask that also saves lives. As Colorado switched to vote-by-mail, it implemented the first intelligent ballot tracking program. Election officials use an intelligent mail bar code that is specific to that voter's envelope. It allows the voter to track the ballot at every step of the process similar to how you track a package only better because you have your very own personal bar code.

This is 2020. These are not complicated systems. You register to vote. Receive your very own mail in ballot. Return it either in the mail or a Ballot Drop Box and even vote in person with your bar coded ballot. Trump is trying to use his pandemic virus to suppress the vote. Instead our circumstances now should be increasing voter participation because voting by mail or ballot box is easier and more efficient. 

Congress passed $400 million dollars in Election Funding and they should be enforcing the States to implement this system NOW. DO WE HAVE TO PUT ON OUR PROTEST SHOES FOR THIS ISSUE TOO? UGH

The Trump Tragedy for Us All

A mysterious new virus appeared in Wuhan China reported on news shows in January that jumped species from bats to humans. The threat was real and it was immediately known as serious throughout the world but not to Trump. Soon entire cities in China were under a complete lock down to avoid the spread. Our CDC scientists knew the seriousness of the matter and Trump ignored their warnings. Trump was completely naive to realize that it was only a matter of time before it spread to America. If Hillary was President she would have acted immediately since she is a lawyer who spent 8 years as Secretary of State looking at international concerns, is a healthcare lawyer as a career and was First Lady in the White House and knew all aspects of American leadership. Trump never governed anything in his life. 

January 15 a man landed at the Seattle Airport from China with the virus. He was sent home and told to quarantine meanwhile he was in contact with many at the airport and in the neighborhood.

January 22 Trump attended the World Economic Forum and ignored the warnings from overseas leaders as he often does. In reality our former Presidents had been careful of health epidemics going back to President Bush. In 2005 he kept the Bird Flu and Szars away and even got Congress to approve $7 billion dollars in pandemic preparedness. 

In 2009 Obama had to deal with the Swine Flu almost immediately after he took office and he kept it under control. 

In 2014 Ebola emerges just 5 years later and Biden and Obama get to it immediately and take no chances. This is why we need Biden and even Hillary back again. They built a permanent structure at the White House that was a Prevention Pandemic Office that kept Ebola away from America. Trump disbanded CDC workers world wide and closed the office at the White House and used the funds on his stupid wall.

In 2017 Trump fires everyone with more turnover than ever seen in any other administration in history. The new guys know nothing and do nothing.  

In 2018 Trump's third National Security Advisor John Bolton decides to do away with the section of the National Security Council that strictly deals with pandemics. THERE IS NO ONE ANYWHERE DEALING WITH THE PANDEMIC ON OUR SHORES. 

IN FEBRUARY tRUMP ATTEMPS TO CONTROL THE VIRUS BY BANNING TRAVEL TO AMERICA with no preparedness of testing folks rushing to airports to get back home from infected Europe. NO TESTING. NO MASK REQUIREMENTS. NO SOCIAL DISTANCING. The spread is quick and deadly in New York. The country now has over 150,000 dead bodies. 

WE NEED BUSH, HILLARY OBAMA AND BIDEN BACK AGAIN TO SAVE OUR LIVES NOW.