This is Trump’s America, a dystopian shooting gallery where we are now the targets. Yesterday’s mass shooting was in Texas where a simple traffic stop escalated into a John Wick movie. The shooter had a assault rifle and led police on a ten mile chase through Odessa, Texas before being killed near a movie theater. The killer sprayed shots indiscriminately on civilians as he ran from the police, killing seven and wounding 21. Included in the injured was a 17 month-old infant in a car seat who was hit in the mouth, knocking her teeth out.
This video was shot by someone who was in the line of fire, sobbing in fear as the shots rang out.
What this woman experienced is coming to your town next.
Who’s responsible for this mass shooting surge? To me, the culprits are glaringly obvious.
President Trump, who has promoted racial division and hatred in his speeches and tweets.
The NRA, who have resisted any form of legislation on guns.
Republicans, who have been bought off by the NRA and look the other way in the face of Trump’s hate-mongering because he got them a tax cut for the rich.
Fox New,s who have promoted hate and conspiracy theories on television for forty years.
All the idiots in red MAGA hats cheering Trump’s raging hatred.
There is only one way to change our violent country – one party rule. Vote the Republicans out, from dog catcher to President. Vote them all out. Ditch the Senate filibuster rule, thus restoring true democracy to our government. First order of business, outlaw all assault rifles, with no exceptions or grandfathering.
Lija Greenseid, of St. Paul, Mn, has a 13 year-old daughter who has Type 1 diabetes. The cost of her life-saving insulin supplies in St. Paul is $12,400.
Lija drives four hours north into Canada to buy the same insulin supplies; the Canadian price is $1265. (Source:).
Is this profit or is this theft? It’s pretty obvious to me that this is outright theft.
First, is the Canadian insulin being sold at a loss? Not a chance in hell. No drug company would be able to operate at a loss for very long. Also, the United States is the only place in the world where this drug is being sold at such a astronomical price.
How does Big Pharma get away with this? Herds of stampeding lobbyists have bought off Congress and the Government so to keep drug prices high in the United States. These lobbyists even managed to force Medicare to refrain from even negotiating a more favorable price for essential drugs. Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted at a recent hearing that one insulin drug was being manufactured for $3.00 and sold for $300.
People are now dying because of this. What happens if you can’t make it to Canada? What happens if you’re unemployed or just barely making by on a meager salary?
This is immoral on so many grounds. First, it is theft. The average profit for American corporations is 7.9% this year. A drug company selling a $3 dose of insulin for $300 is making a 99% profit. It’s not a fair profit, rather it’s an outright theft.
Second, it’s exploitation of the vulnerable. You just know that the Pharma executives must have laughed when one of them said “their lives depend on this stuff, we can charge whatever we like; what are they gonna do?”
Capitalism is not in our Constitution. Somehow we find ourselves now stuck with it. It’s a financial system consisting of a zero-sum game that gets worse every year. Now people are dying from it. I keep remembering that jolting line from Titanic movie. Rose says: “Cal, half the people on this ship are going to die!” Cal replies: “Not the better half, I’m sure.”
The problem is, here in America, that even the lesser half can buy guns. It would behoove us to fix these things now before all this descends into violence.
They say that the secret to life is to “Find Your Passion.” That is, find something you love to do and throw yourself into it. That’s good advice, of course, but hard to implement in real life since family responsibilities and just surviving in this zero-sum world usually get in the way.
My oldest grandson, Michael Delano, wasn’t happy in regular High School. Fortunately, his mother (my daughter Liz) and school officials got Michael transferred to a NY State trade school where he’s studying recording engineering. This curriculum also includes recording your own music.
Michael found his passion: he’s a rapidly improving songwriter, a excellent guitar player, and a passionate singer (especially when he sings the blues). He wowed everybody this year by winning the 2019 Buffalo Music Hall of Fame Yellen Foundation Songwriting Scholarship Competition.
I’ve tried to chip in by providing him with professional-quality guitars, such as the Martin D-35E Retro acoustic guitar he plays for most gigs. This instrument has piezo acoustic sensors under the bridge and a signal processor that lets Michael plug into the venue’s sound system. This means that he doesn’t have to keep the guitar close to a microphone.
I went home to Grand Island, New York, last weekend to sell my home. On Sunday, I had the pleasure to watch my grandson perform at a nearby park. It’s an iPhone video, a little shaky, but it has all four songs. Maybe you’ll agree with me, this young man has a lot of talent.
Dr. Janette DeFelice is a 21st century Renaissance woman. She has an MD degree, a Masters in Humanities, A Bachelor’s in Political Science, and for a while was a professional ballet dancer. Now a mother of 9-year-old twins, she has directed her creative energies towards writing. I’ve been one of her loyal Twitter followers.
Her first novel, “Delia Rising – A Ballet in Three Acts” is a tour de force into the world of ballet dancers. It’s about the stage door mothers that get them there and the predators that beleaguer them when they arrive at the dance company. While she sprinkles in a lot of ballet jargon, do what I did – assume she’s talking about some twirling. The underlying theme of the book is the mistakes we make in our lives and our compulsion to try to steer our children away from them.
I wrote her a nice five-star review on Amazon. Looks like she appreciated it.
You can buy her novel from Amazon (Paperback or Kindle) here:
One of the most gut wrenching stories about the El Paso gun violence last Saturday was the death of Andre and Jordan Anchondo, who were killed shielding their 2 month-old baby, Paul, from the gunfire. Paul survived, but had two broken fingers. He was treated in hospital and released to Andre’s brother, Tito.
The Washington Post reported that both Andre and Jordan Anchondo and Tito Anchondo are Republicans and Trump supporters. As I said in my last blog post, everybody is a target now. The Anchondos were in Walmart buying school supplies. The gunman didn’t ask anybody’s political affiliations, he was there to shoot Mexican invaders.
The New York Times reported that Trump was incensed by press coverage of his Dayton visit. With Trump flying to El Paso, the advance staff at the University Medical Center of El Paso had a problem. None of the six shooting victims still being treated would agree to meet with Trump. The desperate advance staff brought in one victim who had been treated and released; that person was willing to meet with Trump. They also invited Tito Anchondo and his sister to bring in baby Paul.
The Washington Post stated that Tito Anchondo was very happy with the Trumps and felt “consoled” by the meeting. Then they posed for this now-famous photograph.
What’s my take on this? The photo is clearly bad optics. The Trumps don’t look particularly empathetic in this pose. The backstory indicates that the Trumps were kind to Tito Anchondo.
Trump has screeched “Mexican invaders” 29 times in his rallies and speeches. Now the nuts with assault weapons have come out of the woodwork to act on his scapegoating. The problem is that we are all now targets. The sad case of the Anchondos is a heartbreaking example of today’s new reality.
This is the face of death during the Trump Administration. His name is Patrick Crusius, 21 years-old, and he’s using a consumer version of the AK-47 assault rifle to kill 20 people in El Paso, Texas yesterday (and wound 26).
Just before he started his rampage, he published a manifesto online saying that he was doing this to stop illegal immigration from our southern border diluting our Causasian gene pool, or words to that effect. Where did he get such ideas?
Here’s President Trump, at a typical MAGA hate fest rally in northern Florida.
In the video, Trump is complaining that he can’t use guns to stop the asylum seekers arriving at our southern border. Somebody in the crowd shouts “Shoot Them,” and Trump laughs at the comment.
There’s more, of course. Last night, another shooter armed with an assault weapon, high-caliber magazines, and body armor opened fire at a bar in Dayton, Ohio. Fortunately, there were Dayton cops on the scene and they killed him in one minute. Still, the killer was able to wax 9 people and injure 26 (in one minute). We don’t know his motivation, but Trump has weaponized the crazies among us.
This is now on him, President Trump. Keep preaching hate and stupid people will believe you. The worst of them will march into a gun store, and purchase an assault rifle and ammo. They’ll drive to a shopping mall, big box store, movie theater, or entertainment district and start shooting.
All of you that voted for this monster to get a tax cut, put it to the liberals, maintain white supremacy, stop abortions, or whatever, you share in Trump’s guilt. Remember that the next time you go out for donuts – you’re now a target!
Around and around it goes, this time a crazed nutter named DeWayne Craddock entered the Municipal Building in Virginia Beach where he worked and killed twelve people before the police shot him dead. Three people are still in critical condition as I write this.
What can be done? We live now in a hate-filled, violence-prone country. You have to wonder these days if it’s safe to take your kids to a movie, go to work, or even worship in a church. There’s only one solution, ban all private ownership of guns.
Oh, but there’s a Second Amendment, you say? Let’s have a look at the Second Amendment.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Now we need to consider the term “well regulated militia.” In the 17th century, the thirteen original states each had a citizen militia. That is, if an emergency arose, such as an Indian attack, or an armed uprising by some town that didn’t want to pay taxes, the State’s Governor could call up the citizen militia to deal with the crisis. These citizens brought their own muskets and pistols. There probably were a few cannons stored somewhere, if needed. That’s how we won the Revolutionary War, each state contributed some of its citizen militia to join the Continental Army commanded by George Washington.
Look at the situation today. There are no citizen militias anymore, they have all been replaced by National Guards. Each state has one. If there’s a natural disaster, the Governor calls them up to deal with it. If there’s a riot in one of the cities, they show up to restore order. In my state of Florida, there are 9,600 soldiers and airmen trained and available for a call-up. They used to train one weekend a month, plus two weeks a year. Now, with all our stupid wars all over the world, they’re likely to serve two years out of a six-year stint. There are many National Guard bases all over Florida, three are in my area, Tampa – St. Petersburg. The bases have all their gear, rifles, handguns, vehicles and aircraft.
Here’s the thing. There is no need for a citizen militia anymore, we have replaced all those with National Guards. The Second Amendment is no longer applicable.
I believe private ownership of guns should be banned. It’s the only way to stop the ever-increasing violence. Hunters can rent their rifles from the local game warden, returning them when done. Target practice could be done at a local gun range, where the guns are borrowed and returned. Farmers who need to shoot vermin endangering their livestock can get a licensed gun for that purpose.
Only 30% of the population of the United States owns a gun, yet there are 393 million of them. The Virginia Beach shooter, DeWayne Craddock, apparently owned multiple guns.
If you watch Fox News, vote Republican, or pride yourself being a right-winger, your answer to the rising violence is “more guns.” That’s exactly what the NRA and gun manufacturers want. It’s like pouring gasoline on a raging fire, it only makes it worse.
It’s time to ban private ownership of guns, make it a felony to possess one.
I read the Meuller Report starting last Sunday. It took me 2 ½ days to complete (400 pages). Most of it is very readable, but there are 20 pages near the end that is law clerk research material where every 5th word is followed by a citation of some obscure precedent supporting the chain of thought. In any case, I got the gist of this voluminous legal document. The report is in two sections: The Russian Election Tampering and the Obstruction of Justice.
The Russians
This part, called Volume 1, is also in two parts. The first part is the very successful effort by Russian Intelligence, in cahoots with various Russian oligarchs, to tilt the election to Trump (apparently Putin didn’t like Hillary). This was done by clever and extensive use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stoke racial animosity and hatred of “liberals” (you know, the ones that brought you the five-day work week, Social Security, and Medicare). Using polling data supplied by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates (both convicted) and given to Konstantin Kilimnik (a Manafort employee thought by the FBI to be tied to Russian Intelligence), the Russians managed to flip 5 states where a mere 75,000 votes flipped the Electorial College to Trump. The investigation detail on the Russian effort is chilling to read, mainly because a quick solution to the problem is not obvious.
As an example, the Russians inserted into Facebook, a post that was widely shared (by some friends of mine too) claiming that Bernie Sanders was “cheated.” This is nonsense, Bernie Sanders was in every caucus and primary and was still outvoted by Hillary Clinton. Sadly, many Bernie voters stayed home, or voted for the Green Party candidate (Jill Stein) – which also helped tip the election to Trump.
The second part of Volume 1 is the effort to determine if anyone from the Trump campaign “conspired” with the Russians to rig the election. Meuller, in the first page of the report, explained that there is no legal term “collusion” in the law, but the proper legal term is “conspiracy.” He explained that he had to prove that both parties entered into an agreement to conspire and cooperate together. The event studied the most was the June 9th, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr, Paul Manafort, Jerod Kushner, and an entourage of Russians who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. It looks to me like Meuller tried mightily to get Manafort to flip and rat on Trump, but he refused and has been convicted and jailed (Pardon in five, four, three…). So while the silo of circumstantial evidence suggests that the Russians infiltrated the Trump campaign, President Trump got to skate away from danger here.
Obstruction of Justice
Volume 2 of the Meuller Report addresses “obstruction of Justice” by President Donald Trump and his White House staff. In this case, specifically about the firing of FBI Director James Comey and the pressure applied to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “unrecuse” himself and end the Meuller investigation. Meuller really pulled the President’s pants down on this one (and you don’t want to see that, according to Stormy Daniels).
Trump’s problem here is exacerbated by his hysterical tweets, which are repeated by Meuller constantly. Another problem is that Trump’s first lawyer (Ty Cobb) decided to cooperate with the investigation and make the White House staff available to the Meuller team. They sang like birds, and under oath too.
Don McGahn, White House Attorney
This fellow, White House Attorney Don McGahn, is also an honest man in a den of liars. He kept copious notes on what went on, something that Trump complained about. Unfortunately for Trump, McGahn told investigators that Trump repeatedly demanded that he fire Meuller and end the investigation, something that McGahn advised was illegal. Still, Trump persisted and McGahn refused to execute the order, stalling Trump whenever he asked. McGahn spilled it all to the Meuller team. He resigned his White House job last fall.
Since there’s a Justice Department regulation that a sitting President can’t be indicted, Meuller provided all the sorry details of the number of times Trump attempted to obstruct justice (not carried out by his staff) and essentially punted the ball to Congress. It looks like the Democrats will “investigate” this all the way to the next election. I don’t think they will impeach Trump; it might be better to needle him constantly.
Why am I so against Trump? This man is dangerous. The Meuller Report shows over and over that he won’t listen to advice from people with experience. He thinks that everything can be solved by his deal-making prowess. Why do you think Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (former President of Exon Oil) called Trump “a fucking moron” after a White House meeting. He said this because it’s true!
Just yesterday, Trump suggested that the United States will penalize with tariffs any country that buys oil from the Iranians (China, for example). The Iranians replied that they will close the Straits of Hormuz if we do this. Can the Iranians do this?
Of course, they can. The Strait of Hormuz is just 21 miles wide at it’s most narrow point and the Iranians have lots of cruise missiles (some Chinese and some home-grown). Twenty percent of the world’s oil goes through the Strait; a stoppage will cause a real economic shock to the entire world. Just sinking one tanker with a small boat attack or a cruise missile will cause insurance rates to skyrocket. Do we really want to fight the Iranians? This is one country that will fight back ferociously. Our army is tired after 12 years of continuous war. We can’t do this to our soldiers.
After reading the Meuller report, I fear for our country.
Today’s news is replete with reports that some staff members of Special Counsel Robert’s Meuller’s team are very unhappy with Attorney General William Barr’s “Summary” of the delivered report; that the full report is actually damaging to President Donald Trump. Is anyone really surprised by this? The fix was always in.
First, Trump appointed lifelong racist Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Sessions, in an unusual display of legal decency, accepted the advice of Justice Department Ethics Advisors to recuse himself from the Meuller Investigation. They must have told him that a person who worked for the Trump campaign cannot oversee an investigation of it. Sessions, enduring continuous public castigation from Trump, lasted for 21 months before being fired in November 2017.
Trump, looking for someone to protect him from Meuller, selected Matthew Whitaker to be acting Attorney General. Derided on Twitter as Acting Attorney General “Meatball,” Whitaker made a fool of himself appearing before Congress. All of his dodgy past came to light. He once represented a patent scam firm that claimed it had solved “time travel.” While Whitaker might have provided some intelligence to the White House, he was either unable or afraid to help Trump.
Now Trump was desperate, knowing that Meuller had damaging information on him and his grifter family. He needed a real Attorney General who would protect him, be his new Roy Cohn. Up steps William Barr, a former Attorney General in the George H. W. Bush Administration. A staunch Conservative, Barr had the experience as former Attorney General as well as other Justice Departments jobs. He had also sent an unsolicited memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein saying effectively that a President can’t obstruct justice. Finding that out, Trump must have said: “THAT’S MY GUY.”
Obviously, Barr pressured Meuller to complete the report quickly and deliver it to him. Barr then produced, in a couple of days, a four-page summary reporting that nothing prosecutable was found concerning the Trump campaign being in cahoots with the Russians and that Meuller chose not to prosecute Trump on obstruction of justice. Meuller had noted that he was not exonerating the President either.
Of course, carnival barker Trump immediately boasted that he was completely exonerated of everything and began a week-long victory lap, with all Republicans joining in, demanding apologies from the vile Democrats.
Previously, Trump stated in TV interviews that he was OK with releasing the full Meuller Report. Today, he reversed course and claimed that releasing the Mueller Report unredacted would be a “disgrace.” Now we all can settle back in our comfy chairs and watch the unfolding “Battle of the Potomac” as Democrats attempt to get the unredacted Mueller Report by subpoena and court action, and the Justice Department throws every roadblock they can.
Can Trump win this battle? Sure, he has been packing the courts with conservative stooges, especially his two Supreme Court selections (one’s a stooge and the other is an attempted rapist – they both owe him).
The only way to rid ourselves of Trump is the 2020 election. With all the Republican gerrymandering and intentional vote suppression, I still think he can win. In any case, it will take decades to repair the damage Trump has done to our democracy.
I’ve felt for years that greed is the prime reason our country is careening towards never-ending corruption. While President Trump is today’s reference design for greed and corruption, greed is pervasive in our society, especially among the rich and privileged.
Today we have the astounding case of actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin who are accused of participating in an elaborate scam to get their undeserving children into prestigious schools such as Yale, Stanford, and USC, even though the kids are dumber than bricks.
Who are these women, you ask?
Lori Loughlin (54) is primarily known for the ABC series “Full House” and its NetFlix comeback “Fuller House.” She’s also a fixture on the Hallmark Channel with many series and Christmas movies in her resume.
Felicity Huffman (56) is a respected actress with a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination to her credit. She is best known for her role in ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” which ran for 180 episodes.
How did this scam work?
From the New York Times:
“At the center of the sweeping financial crime and fraud case was William Singer, the founder of a college preparatory business called the Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key.
The authorities said Mr. Singer used The Key and its nonprofit arm, Key Worldwide Foundation, which is based in Newport Beach, Calif., to help students cheat on their standardized tests, and to pay bribes to the coaches who could get them into college with fake athletic credentials.
Mr. Singer used The Key as a front, allowing parents to funnel money into an account without having to pay any federal taxes.
Parents paid Mr. Singer about $25 million from 2011 until February 2019 to bribe coaches and university administrators to designate their children as recruited athletes, which effectively ensured their admission, according to the indictment.
Mr. Singer appeared in federal court in Boston on Tuesday afternoon and pleaded guilty to counts of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of justice.“
In the case of Lori Loughlin, they paid “The Key” to bribe the USC rowing coach $500,000 to take their daughters as rowing athletes even though neither has rowed anything. One daughter’s name is Olivia Jade Giannulli and she’s sort of a YouTube “influencer” with 2 million followers. Here’s a YouTube video from this entitled numbskull, saying essentially that she’s not interested in college, just the parties and game day celebrations.
Oh look, Olivia Jade deleted her YouTube video – sorry about that.
The charges look air-tight as William Singer pleaded guilty and helped prosecutors nab the rich parents using FBI-recorded phone calls. Their husbands, actor William Macy (Huffman) and Mossimo Giannulli (Loughlin) were not charged (yet). They should both lawyer up.
These ladies are in real trouble. They paid a half a million dollars to a charity that they both knew was a scam to bribe the colleges or cheat on the SAT tests. That’s income tax evasion.
Donald Trump is sure as hell not going to pardon them, they were both vocal Hillary Clinton supporters.
James P Lynch Books 