I tried to watch or listen to the State of the Union. I didn’t have much success because I kept yelling at the television.
I borrowed this post from Andrew Tobias, who writes a blog almost every night. I hope he won’t mind. I give him credit. You might want to sign up for his blog. He is great on every subject except charter schools.
Listen To A Structural Forensicist
Have you seen Amy Patrick’s viral Facebook post? “Let’s have border security, by all means,” she says, “but let’s be smart about it. [The wall] is not smart. It’s not effective. It’s NOT cheap. The returns will be diminishing as technology advances. This is a ridiculous idea that will never be successfully executed and, as such, would be a monumental waste of money.”
To wit:
I’m a licensed structural and civil engineer with a MS in structural engineering from the top program in the nation and over a decade of experience on high-performance projects, and particularly of cleaning up design disasters where the factors weren’t properly accounted for, and I’m an adjunct professor of structural analysis and design at UH-Downtown. I have previously been deposed as an expert witness in matters regarding proper construction of walls and the various factors associated therein, and my testimony has passed Daubert.
Am I a wall expert? I am. I am literally a court-accepted expert on walls.
Structurally and civil engineering-wise, the border wall is not a feasible project. Trump did not hire engineers to design the thing. He solicited bids from contractors, not engineers. This means it’s not been designed by professionals. It’s a disaster of numerous types waiting to happen.
What disasters?
Off the top of my head…
1) It will mess with our ability to drain land in flash flooding. Anything impeding the ability of water to get where it needs to go (doesn’t matter if there are holes in the wall or whatever) is going to dramatically increase the risk of flooding.
2) Messes with all kind of stuff ecologically. For all other projects, we have to do an Environmental Site Assessment, which is arduous. They’re either planning to circumvent all this, or they haven’t accounted for it yet, because that’s part of the design process, and this thing hasn’t been designed.
3) The prototypes they came up with are nearly impossible to build or don’t actually do the job. This article explains more.
And so on.
The estimates provided for the cost are arrived at unreasonably. You can look for yourself at the two-year-old estimate that you see everyone citing.
It does not account for rework, complexities beyond the prototype design, factors to prevent flood and environmental hazard creation, engineering redesign… It’s going to be higher than $50bn. The contractors will hit the government with near CONSTANT change orders. “Cost overrun” will be the name of the game. It will not be completed in Trump’s lifetime.
I’m a structural forensicist, which means I’m called in when things go wrong. This is a project that WILL go wrong. When projects go wrong, the original estimates are just *obliterated*. And when that happens, good luck getting it fixed, because there aren’t that many forensicists out there to right the ship, particularly not that are willing to work on a border wall project— a large quotient of us are immigrants, and besides, we can’t afford to bid on jobs that are this political. We’re small firms, and we’re already busy, and we don’t gamble our reputations on political footballs. So you’d end up with a revolving door of contractors making a giant, uncoordinated muddle of things, and it’d generally be a mess. Good money after bad. The GAO agrees with me.
And it won’t be effective. I could, right now, purchase a 32 foot extension ladder and weld a cheap custom saddle for the top of the proposed wall so that I can get over it. I don’t know who they talked to about the wall design and its efficacy, but it sure as heck wasn’t anybody with any engineering imagination.
Another thing: we are not far from the day where inexpensive drones will be able to pick up and carry someone. This will happen in the next ten years, and it’s folly to think that the coyotes who ferry people over the border won’t purchase or create them. They’re low enough, quiet enough, and small enough to quickly zip people over any wall we could build undetected with our current monitoring setup.
Let’s have border security, by all means, but let’s be smart about it. This is not smart. It’s not effective. It’s NOT cheap. The returns will be diminishing as technology advances, too. This is a ridiculous idea that will never be successfully executed and, as such, would be a monumental waste of money.
I wonder if the Chinese used structural forensicists when building the Great Wall or if the 70 other nations around the world have had such experts building their border barriers. Suggest he contact the White House with his suggestions and concerns.. This needs to have been done when Regan was president.
And your point is…
And the Great Wall was a “success” in that it did NOTHING to keep the Mongols out.
DUH, right: good to have a forensic engr’s opinion, but savvy voters already get that Trump’s promise to “build a wall” is an ideological metaphor intending to stoke fear & hatred, to get himself elected. The only reality behind it is his rudimentary grasp of construction projects, influenced by his predilection for the mobster-dominated ready-mix concrete of his heyday. I welcome his obstinate refusal to negotiate on this expensive, pie-in-the-sky proposed project, because it incentivizes the Congress– whose duty it is to appropriate taxpayer funds– to claw back their role as check/ balance on the executive branch, & call for hearings: let’s hear from border patrol as to what they need, & from folks like the poster as to sensible implementation.
State of the Union Fact Check: What Trump Got Right and Wrong
Immigration
“The border city of El Paso, Tex., used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the entire country, and considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of the safest cities in our country.”
This is false.
El Paso was never one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, and crime has been declining in cities across the country — not just El Paso — for reasons that have nothing to do with border fencing. In 2008, before border barriers had been completed in El Paso, the city had the second-lowest violent crime rate among more than 20 similarly sized cities. In 2010, after the fencing went up, it held that place.
“San Diego used to have the most illegal border crossings in our country. In response, a strong security wall was put in place. This powerful barrier almost completely ended illegal crossings.”
This is misleading.
Border apprehensions decreased by 91 percent in the San Diego sector between the 1994 fiscal year, right after the original border fencing was completed, to the 2018 fiscal year. But, according to the Congressional Research Service, that fence alone “did not have a discernible impact” on the number of immigrants crossing the border into the United States illegally.
“As we speak, large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States.”
This is exaggerated.
At the end of January, a new caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America was headed north, and some of the travelers said they intended to try to cross into the United States. But many in the caravan have said they plan to remain in Mexico, thanks in part to policies put in place by the new Mexican government. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made it easier for Central Americans to get visas and work in Mexico. President Trump’s warnings of an imminent invasion from new caravans is overstated.
I couldn’t watch Trump. I knew he would be full of lies. Here is what he said about the effectiveness of his wall.
…………………….
State of the Union Fact Check: What Trump Got Right and Wrong
Immigration
“The border city of El Paso, Tex., used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the entire country, and considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of the safest cities in our country.”
This is false.
El Paso was never one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, and crime has been declining in cities across the country — not just El Paso — for reasons that have nothing to do with border fencing. In 2008, before border barriers had been completed in El Paso, the city had the second-lowest violent crime rate among more than 20 similarly sized cities. In 2010, after the fencing went up, it held that place.
“San Diego used to have the most illegal border crossings in our country. In response, a strong security wall was put in place. This powerful barrier almost completely ended illegal crossings.”
This is misleading.
Border apprehensions decreased by 91 percent in the San Diego sector between the 1994 fiscal year, right after the original border fencing was completed, to the 2018 fiscal year. But, according to the Congressional Research Service, that fence alone “did not have a discernible impact” on the number of immigrants crossing the border into the United States illegally.
“As we speak, large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States.”
This is exaggerated.
At the end of January, a new caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America was headed north, and some of the travelers said they intended to try to cross into the United States. But many in the caravan have said they plan to remain in Mexico, thanks in part to policies put in place by the new Mexican government. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made it easier for Central Americans to get visas and work in Mexico. President Trump’s warnings of an imminent invasion from new caravans is overstated.
If Trump wanted to stop the flow of drugs, he would build a wall around Purdue Pharmaceuticals in Connecticut.
This comes from NPR:
There wasn’t any progress on avoiding another shutdown
The president spent a good chunk of the speech on immigration. He argued in favor of a wall: “Simply put, walls work, and walls save lives.”
And he did not seem like someone ready to negotiate on a wall or border-security funding to avoid a shutdown.
“My administration has sent to Congress a common sense proposal to end the crisis on the Southern border,” Trump said. “It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling and plans for a new physical barrier or wall to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry. In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall, but the proper wall never got built. I will get it built.”
Diane, I posted two articles that started out, “State of the Union Fact Check: What Trump Got Right and Wrong
Immigration”
The first one totally disappeared so I tried again. Now I see that both are in moderation. Please leave one in moderation or delete it. I didn’t mean for it to appear twice. [It’s good but not that good.]
California must not agree that The Wall is necessary for the survival of the United States.
………………………………………………
California Attorney General Vows To Sue If Trump Uses Emergency Powers To Build Wall
February 5, 201911:28 PM ET
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says he plans to sue the Trump administration the moment the president declares a national emergency to free up funds for a border wall.
Becerra was responding in Spanish to President Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress. But he released his response before Trump even delivered the first words of his remarks, anticipating a speech in which the president doubled down on his demand for the construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The idea of declaring a state of emergency on the border that does not exist, to justify robbing funds that belong to the victims of fires, floods and hurricanes, to pay for the wall is not only immoral, it is illegal,” Becerra said in Spanish, alluding to reports that Trump may tap into disaster relief funds to construct the wall.
The president did not mention using emergency powers to build the wall in his speech, but has suggested to reporters that he might consider using those powers if Congress doesn’t agree to authorize its funding in a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Declaring a national emergency would allow the president to divert funding set aside for other purposes for the wall…
Trump’s 2019 State of the Union Address: A Closer Look
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Published on Feb 6, 2019
Seth takes a closer look at President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address in which he attacked the investigations of his presidency and repeated his demand for a border wall.
Fact-checking Trump’s State of the Union address…CNN
Claim: “The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security and financial well-being of all Americans.”
Trump said the southern border is “lawless,” while making the case for sending an additional 3,750 troops to the border. Here’s what we know about the nature of crime around the border region as well as the presence of law enforcement and military there.
There were 19,555 Border Patrol agents assigned to patrol the nation’s borders in fiscal year 2018. It was the first year that had a net staffing gain in five years.
The majority of Border Patrol agents are assigned to the southern border.
Those Border Patrol agents apprehended 396,579 immigrants crossing the border illegally in 2018, which was down from a peak in of 1,643,679 arrests in nineteen years ago. Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents seized tens of thousands of pounds of illegal drugs at the border in the past years.
Studies and officials have also found that the US side of the border is relatively safe compared to other US cities.
“Violent crime rates have remained the same or dropped in many border cities” in the last five years prior to 2016, for which data is available, found an analysis by the Texas Tribune.
For example, “border communities like Laredo, El Paso, Edinburg and Brownsville all saw fewer than 400 crimes for every 100,000 residents,” according to the 2016 report.
“You’ve got to understand, we’re a border city so we have a lot of local law enforcement,” said Webb County Jail commander Ponce Treviño told the Tribune.
Former Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner David Aguilar said in 2015 that “border communities are safer than the interior locations of each of the border states. Violent crime is lesser along the border than it is in the interior,” reported the Huffington Post….
Claim: “I want people to come into our country, in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.”
This is at odds with what’s been the administration’s stance on legal immigration. Trump has both sought to cut legal immigration and has made it more difficult for asylum seekers…
Check out this story on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/politics/fact-check-trump-state-of-the-union/index.html
President Coulter has spoken. Will Trump listen?
…………………………..
“This was the lamest, sappiest, most intentionally tear-jerking SOTU ever. Please fire your speechwriter, @RealDonaldTrump,” wrote Coulter on Twitter. She went on the call the address “lame, Oprah, sappy stuff” and said she was “too tired to watch his whole speech.”
Coulter appeared to be irritated that Trump didn’t dedicate enough time to the border wall, saying: “45 minutes in, we got 30 seconds on the wall. He better be breaking ground tomorrow.”
and Trump, enjoying the spanking, will seek out her approval as he methodically works to negate each and every moment of goodwill
That was not a state of the union address. It was a campaign speech. Trump hates the idea that anyone knows more about construction and contracting than he does.
That was the best State of the Union EVER because I got to watch Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez scowl at the president several times. I would have paid for that.
And there were a couple of good moments in the speech, too. One was Trump saying every child in America deserves school choice and the entire Democratic side of the aisle reacting with silence and stillness instead of applause, as well as a camera shot of Betsy the Grizzly Hunter smirking to remind everyone she is the face of school privatization.
A first-rate posting.
Trump’s Wall is like the gimmicks served up by the corporate education reform crowd: the less those in charge know about something, the more expert they consider themselves when it comes to mandating solutions.
And, of course, the more $ucce$$ the better…for themselves and their cronies…
😎
“Yelling at the television” is for sure the greatest pastime of the Trump Presidency.
The camera on CNN occasionally picked up Bernie Sanders with his face in his hands. I thought, OMG, that’s me.
Time to Start Using the “S” Word: A response to the SOTU
As Trumpty Dumpty made clear in his State of the Disunion speech last night, the primary boogeyman of the right in the US, going into the 2020 election, will be Socialism. Evil Socialism, which is somehow the opposite of freedom.
Let me be clear about this: Denmark and Finland are not the Soviet Union under Stalin or Germany under Hitler. Social Democracy is not National Socialism or State Socialism. Anyone who can’t see the difference is totally dense.
We live in a world in which 26 individuals have more wealth than the bottom 3.8 BILLION people do–more than the bottom HALF of the world’s population. Since 1973, in the United States, productivity has increased by 146.3 percent, while wages have increased by 14.7 percent. So, a 131.6 percent increase in value produced by workers has gone ENTIRELY to a tiny ownership class. We are seeing the development of what I call the New Feudal Order, with impoverished masses and a few wealthy barons on top. Vast numbers of Americans go without proper healthcare and dental care, and average per capita healthcare costs in this country are TWICE what costs are in the 36 OECD member countries, most of which have universal, single payer systems and far better health outcomes. In the US now, 26 percent of children live below the poverty level. In other words, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, millions of children go to bed hungry and have parents who can’t afford children’s books or eyeglasses.
Social Democrats believe that government exists to serve ALL the people–to work toward the safety and well-being of all–not just a few wealthy individuals at the top. Social Democracy is a middle, civilized way between state and oligarchical absolutisms.
When you hear rapacious billionaires like Don the Con talk about how Socialism is the opposite of freedom, ask yourself, “Freedom for whom? For the one percent who control most of the wealth and income?” Here’s the thing: in no sense are markets from which most people are excluded “free.” Imagine an island on which there are 100 people and one dentist, but only one of these 100 people owns all the coconut trees and can afford the dentist’s services. In what rational sense is the dental market on that island “free” if ninety-nine percent can’t participate in it? Sure, it’s free to anyone who has the money, but MOST PEOPLE DON’T. Under that totally “free market” system, those ninety-nine people are “free” to have their teeth rot out of their mouths when they get older. That’s the totally “free market” for you.
Social Democrats support private ownership and private business combined with reasonable progressive taxation and safety net systems that provide basic services like healthcare and defense and free public schools. Is that Socialism? Well, yes, it is. It’s time the left in the US owned that. But so are Social Security and Medicare and the Defense Department and an employee stock ownership plan. These are all government or government-enabled services that benefit everyone equally. Democratic Socialists understand that the wealthy become wealthy, in part, on the backs of other people and that they have an obligation to pay it forward to everyone else. They understand that government exists to serve the needs and aspirations of ALL the people. They understand that investments in services for all the people are investments in a better future for all.
This SOTU should be renamed The State of Delusion.
Yep. The poor Man/Baby is scared. GOOD!
………………………………….
‘He’s got something to hide’: Senate minority leader taunts ‘scared’ Trump for urging Congress to stop investigations
One of the strangest and most ominous moments of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address was when, in an apparent warning shot at the newly divided Congress, the president implied that lawmakers would have to choose between investigating him and passing legislation.
“An economic miracle is taking place in the United States — and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations,” said Trump. “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way!”
In conversation with CNN’s John Berman on “New Day,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed back hard.
“One of the functions of the Congress, the Article I section of government from the days of the founding fathers, was oversight of the executive branch,” said Schumer. “And the president says, ‘If you investigate me, I’m not gonna make progress.’ That’s doing what he did with the shutdown, holding the American people hostage.”
“You know what I think it shows, John?” said Schumer. “He’s scared. He’s got something to hide, because if he had nothing to hide, he’d just shrug his shoulders and let these investigations go forward. He’s afraid of them.”…
https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/hes-got-something-to-hide-senate-minority-leader-taunts-scared-trump-for-urging-congress-to-stop-investigations/#.XFr6jUsiRd0.gmail
Donald Trump flew to Moscow in 1987 aboard a KGB-operated airline for an all-expenses-paid trip at the invitation of the Russian ambassador to the United States. You know, just like any other ordinary American citizen not being recruited by Soviet intelligence. I’m sure this happens to you all the time. Am I right?
How willfully ignorant do you have to be not to find this stuff deeply disturbing? It’s like looking at Dresden during the bombing and saying, “What fire?”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842
State of the Union? What state of the Union? I said this last year. The only way to not do serious damage to your mental health is to just use the NYTimes Fact checker/ instant commentary. Not that Papers don’t carry their own biases but like in elections, it is a binary choice. Anybody who at this point is subjecting themselves to listening to the bloviating slob live is in serious need of mental health assistance.
The sadder part is that last night 70 something percent of viewers thought it was a good speech. Is that because of too much testing or too little. Hopefully, the media will educate them today.
Thank you, Diane, for this post.
This stuck out for me: “Another thing: we are not far from the day where inexpensive drones will be able to pick up and carry someone. This will happen in the next ten years, and it’s folly to think that the coyotes who ferry people over the border won’t purchase or create them. They’re low enough, quiet enough, and small enough to quickly zip people over any wall we could build undetected with our current monitoring setup.”
Bet that dump has made a “deal” with some company and he is banking on the people of this country to be stupid enough to believe him. I am sure dump is planning on his kickback.
My abiding question is still: What happened to those children separated from their parents? Child and Human Trafficking? I put nothing pass this horrid dump administration.
Ana María Archila: Brett K’s Presence at SOTU Represented Failure of U.S. Democracy
..there was K sitting there representing the failure of democracy, the inability of politicians, especially men in power, to really allow themselves to listen to the stories of the women they represent,
…ANA MARÍA ARCHILA: President Trump has been using immigrants as a scapegoat from the beginning of his campaign, from day one. It is a playbook that has worked for him, because he knows that in the psyche of this country, you can appeal to fear and to a sense of lack of safety to justify the most horrible policies, whether it was slavery, Jim Crow and now his anti-immigrant policies. There is a through line. And there has always—the use of the threat of criminal behavior and especially the use of the threat of danger to the women has been central to kind of racist policymaking in this country. And he’s appealing to that.
I was not at all surprised that he spent so much time talking about the caravan and again spewing lies, when, in reality, there is in fact a crisis. There is a crisis that he has created… There is a crisis because people who have been in this country for decades, people with TPS, people with other immigration statuses, that Trump has put in danger and has ended, essentially, are now having to imagine having to confront the possibility that they will be— —sent back to a country that is no longer their home.
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/6/ana_maria_archila_brett_kavanaughs_presence
Hope is coming!!!
…………………
…a Ways and Means oversight subcommittee will hold its first hearing on Thursday to start building a public rationale to pursue Mr. Trump’s tax returns.
An obscure provision in the federal tax code gives the chairman of the committee unilateral powers to request from the Treasury Department tax information on any filer, including the president.
Democrats view obtaining Mr. Trump’s returns — which he has refused to release, defying modern political norms — as necessary for their broader inquiries into potential conflicts of interest between his role as president and his business operations, as well as accusations of money laundering that may have involved Russian oligarchs or other financial crimes, including those being pursued by the Intelligence Committee.
the most fundamental reason why Trump’s wall/fence must not be built is because, just as “Make America Great Again” is code for “Make America White Again”, a wall/fence is understood as a symbol for racial segregation and white supremacy.
After all the turmoil, I just heard a real leader speak. Listen to Father Boyle and see that there is goodness in people. I much prefer this type of thinking to the Trump version of hatred and fear. Imagine Trump inferring on immigrants ‘there is no us and them, just us.”
………………………………….
One Of The Most Inspirational Speeches From Gangsters | Father Gregory Boyle | Goalcast
I was taught everything of value by gang members.…”and you stand with the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. And you stand with those whose dignity has been denied. And you stand with those whose burdens are more than they can bare. And you stand with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless, make those voices heard. ”
Father Gregory Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries and his work has had a positive impact on the lives of many different people. He shares with us the story of Mario and what he learned from him. It would take a lot of courage to stand in front of a large audience and share what Mario did so I hope it makes you stop and think about what is important in your life.
Father Gregory Boyle’s work as the founder of Homeboy Industries has greatly impacted the lives of so many. His hilarious and inspiring story reminds us all that there is no us and them, just us.
Thank you for that lovely vid!
Father Boyle’s alma mater is Gonzaga University which is Jesuit like Rex Sinquefield’s St. Louis University, Prof.Walter Block’s Loyola University in New Orleans and Georgetown University that received money from Walton heirs and CityFund to, IMO, blur the lines between charter schools and public schools (Prof. Robert Bies’ EML program).
There are none more “voiceless” than those who are denied the right to vote for their school boards.
N
H
This was posted from the WH. Trump wants us to choose ‘greatness’. I will. “Lock him up.” I want to know who wrote this BS.
………………………….
1600 Daily
The White House • February 6, 2019
‘I ask you to choose greatness’
Last night, President Donald J. Trump previewed the next chapter of his presidency.
“The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or a Democrat agenda,” the President told Congress as he opened his second State of the Union address. “It’s the agenda of the American people.” What unites most of our citizens isn’t political party—it’s complete awe and frustration at Washington’s decades of dysfunction.
Americans watching at home agreed. Three-quarters of them approved of the President’s speech, according to a CBS News poll conducted last night. Even more revealing, a full 82 percent of independents endorsed President Trump’s message.
That makes the choice clear for our leaders in Congress and across government: Voters will reward results over resistance. Compromise can rebuild trust in a broken system. Pointless destruction and gridlock won’t—and both come with a steep political price.
Choosing greatness is a vision that can break decades of political stalemate. It’s an agenda that all Americans, Republican or Democrat, can get behind:
A booming economy can continue to lift up all working people.
Congress should champion a safe, legal immigration system.
We can invest in real infrastructure that leaves no community behind.
New trade deals will ensure that no country exploits our workers.
Washington must rein in the outrageous price of prescription drugs.
America will rebuild its military while ending the cycle of endless wars.
We must support working parents and protect the gift of life.
From criminal justice reform to opioids, let’s embrace bipartisan success.
Both parties can be guided by a shared vision of American greatness.
The Chinese New Year, Year of the Pig started on Feb. 5, 2019. I subscribe to Inkstone that comes from Hong Kong and learned this:
“People born in the Year of the Dog are loyal, empathetic and responsible – but they are worriers and prone to stubbornness.
Famous Dog: Donald Trump (And also Melania)”
I get the worry part, especially since the walls are closing in, and agree to his stubbornness. HA on empathetic and responsible.
[I am a Monkey.]
“The Monkey is a curious, smart person who is great at making friends. At times, they can be fickle and competitive.
Famous Monkey: Kim Kardashian”
Democrats, where are you? This is an abomination on the world. Just what is needed, more guns and no way to trace where they went. $$$ for gun manufactures is all that matters. The $30 million the NRA put into Trump’s campaign is paying off big time.
……………….
New Trump Rules Would Make Gun Makers’ Overseas Sales Easier
New Trump administration rules will make it easier for U.S. gun makers to export some of their products, including semi-automatic weapons, flamethrowers, and some types of grenades, NBC News reports. The new rules, which are set to come into effect within a month, mean gun makers will no longer need licenses from the State Department to sell dozens of types of deadly weapons to overseas markets, including the AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle that’s been used in some of America’s worst mass shootings. Sellers will only need a no-fee license from the Commerce Department, which has a less-strict licensing process and a smaller global footprint. The move is expected to make it more difficult to track where the weapons are going after they’re sold and sent abroad. The State Department sent out the final version of the rules Monday, and they’ll take effect 30 days later unless Congress attempts to block them.
Read it at NBC News
I like Thom Hartmann’s comment. We do want ‘restraint on the billionaires’ behavior”. Mnuchin is out of touch. Trump always picks the best. [sarcasm]
……………………………….
Thom’s blog
Americans Want Socialism – Trump Says No!
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says, “We’re not going back to socialism… We don’t believe in a centralized planned economy where the government puts restraints on” the billionaires’ behavior.
But Americans want more socialism. They want Social Security stabilized and expanded. They want a national health care system that heals people instead of just producing billionaires in the insurance industry. They want banks that support local communities rather than ripping off their clients. They want their food and water to be safe for their children. They want schools that are world-class quality, and want their kids to get a college education without being crippled for life by debt. They want mass transportation that’s fast, efficient, and inexpensive to use. They want an air transportation system that’s safe and reasonably priced.
Donald Trump and his rich buddies like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin want none of these things. The major funder of the GOP, both at the federal and the state level, is the Koch network. And when David Koch ran for VP in 1980, he openly proclaimed that he wanted to end Social Security, privatize Medicare, shutter our public schools, sell off our roads and rivers and rails to the highest bidder to turn into toll roads and profit centers, and end regulations that protect us all from pollution coming from Koch Industries smokestacks.
-Thom
42% of Americans say Trump had no collusion with the Russians and 37% believe Mueller’s investigation is an effort to discredit Trump’s presidency. Fox is doing a great job.
9 in 10 want a full public report. May the truth finally catch up with the true teflon president. A whole lifetime of crimes must be brought out. [Fox blabs about how socialism will turn us into a country like Venezuela. I say a dictator will will do the job.]
………………………………..
CNN Poll: Almost everyone wants a public report on Mueller’s findings
WASHINGTON (CNN)Nearly nine in 10 Americans say Robert Mueller’s investigators should produce a full, public report on their findings, a sentiment that crosses party lines, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
And nearly half of Americans think Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to help get Trump elected (48%), while 42% say there was no collusion…
There is no such partisan agreement on the question of collusion: 87% of Democrats say Trump’s campaign did collude with the Russian government, 88% of Republicans say it did not. Independents are about evenly divided: 42% say yes, 44% no.
Views on the investigation itself, the President’s handling of it and Mueller’s handling of it, are largely the same as they were in December.
Most disapprove of the way Trump is handling the investigation (56% disapprove, 32% approve), while Mueller’s ratings tilt narrowly positive (44% approve, 41% disapprove, 15% have no opinion). And about six in 10 say they think the investigation is a serious matter that should be fully investigated, while 37% call it an effort to discredit Trump’s presidency…
Check out this story on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/politics/cnn-poll-russia-mueller-report-release/index.html
“First of all, I don’t know Putin, have no business whatsoever with Russia, have nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Kinston, North Carolina, on Oct. 26, 2016.
Oh how I wish Trump would go to prison, along with his corrupt family, Pence and people in his administration.
…………………………………..
Nogales Orders Federal Officials To Remove Hideous, ‘Inhuman’ Razor Wire On Border
The City Council of Nogales, Arizona, has voted unanimously on a resolution ordering Trump administration officials to rip out new “lethal” razor wire coiled on a border fence along the downtown shopping district.
Such wire is “only found in a war, prison or battle setting” and is highly inappropriate for an urban area, states the resolution the council passed Wednesday. The bristling concertina wire is now attached to the fence from top to bottom….
If federal officials refuse to comply, Garino said the city is prepared to go to court….
A statement from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said that its priority is “safety and security,” but it did not address the danger of the concertina wire to local people and pets. A representative said there are no plans to remove the wire, according to the Sentinel…
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nogales-lethal-concertina-wire-resolution-trump_us_5c5cbf97e4b03afe8d65e521
Breathing dirty air is required of all people.
……………………………
Under Trump, EPA inspections fall to a 10-year low, half the number conducted in 2010
The sharp drop in inspections comes despite EPA claims that inspections are “an integral part” of making sure companies comply with environmental laws.
Other enforcement activities also fell, according to agency data. Civil cases EPA started and completed in 2018 hit a 10-year low, and the $69 million in civil penalties it leveled represents the lowest in nearly a quarter-century.
It really disturbs me that people are saying that any government help for people is spreading socialism. [Remember, “Government is the problem!’]
Fox is spreading the fear of the US becoming like Venezuela if it tries to tax the wealthy or enact any ‘socialist’ ideas like Medicare for All. I guess we are supposed to forget that many teachers are working 2-3 jobs to survive. Millions don’t have any health insurance and we have the most expensive system in the world due to the great ‘free-market economy’. The deficit is swelling and our infrastructure is being neglected. Most people have service jobs that don’t pay much. Regular salaries haven’t risen in decades but….
As one of my Fox friends wrote: “I would disagree with taxing the rich …We have a good tax system and we certainly do not want to move toward socialism,…Look at Venezuela and failed socialism as a real life example.”
…………………………………………………
The US media chorus supporting a US overthrow of the Venezuelan government has for years pointed to the country’s economic crisis as a justification for regime change, while whitewashing the ways in which the US has strangled the Venezuelan economy.
Sister Eugenia Russian, president of Fundalatin, a Venezuelan human rights NGO that was established in 1978 and has special consultative status at the UN, told the Independent (1/26/19):
In contact with the popular communities, we consider that one of the fundamental causes of the economic crisis in the country is the effect [of] the unilateral coercive sanctions that are applied in the economy, especially by the government of the United States…
Link: https://fair.org/home/us-media-ignore-and-applaud-economic-war-on-venezuela/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email
“I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is.” Trump is proving to not understand N. Korea. Kim is a brutal dictator who won’t let Western communication into the country and kills anyone who says anything against him. Don’t even say there is a lack of food when you are starving or comment that you don’t like his hair style. It is then possible your whole extended family will be put in a prison for life and starve.
There is no way N. Korea can become an economic powerhouse as long as it remains the hermit kingdom. Kim wants totally control and will not give up his nuclear weapons because it is the only defense he has against his fear of Western imperialism. Look at what happened to Saddam Hussein who didn’t have any weapons.
………………………………………
“He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me,” Trump tweets of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
President Trump on Friday touted plans for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, predicting that the isolated nation could see an economic boost under Kim.
“North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse,” Trump declared on Twitter.
“He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. North Korea will become a different kind of Rocket – an Economic one!” he added.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/asia-pacific/429230-trump-touts-kim-summit-north-korea-will-become-economic
I’m trying to figure out what is happening in Venezuela mainly because two Fox watching friends have declared that Venezuela is a socialist country and if we support things like Medicare for All we will end up like Venezuela. I have read that the US sanctions are causing people to starve. Maduro was the elected leader of the country. There are three levels of currency exchange prompting the growth of corruption. The military is supporting Maduro. Some say the US supports the opposition because of corporate domination of political decisions. This has happened regularly in Central and S. America in the past. Oil is the main source of money for the country. Sanctions of oil are bringing further hardships. Is this being mentioned in R wing media? The far right position of the Bolsonaro administration in Brazil has not been met with US opposition. He is considered to be the Trump of S. America.
I would like comments from people who know more about this than I do. Trump has said all options are off the table…meaning he might start a war.
………………………………………….
A Military Coup in Venezuela? Not Without the Military’s Support
Published on
Tuesday, February 05, 2019
by Nacla
U.S. policy toward Venezuela, especially during the Trump administration, has been contradictory, precipitating strategic errors by the Venezuelan opposition. Their main error has been to openly consider taking power through non-electoral means….
In mid-July 2018, the Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on U.S. nationals doing business with the Venezuelan government—an act of improvisation. The moment the U.S. shifted its sanctions from targeting officials to targeting businesses with ties to Venezuela, the Venezuelan government’s discourse was able to double-down on its theory of an economic embargo and blame the U.S. government for causing the economic crisis. This analysis weakens the argument that Maduro was incapable of handling the situation and helped the government promote unity among their followers and the Armed Forces against a common foe….
Since Maduro’s second term began on January 10, the United States has reverted to sanctioning officials and Venezuelans associated with the government, all of them already identified and some imprisoned abroad. It appears that these decisions are veiled forms of pressure to appease radical right-wing sectors in the United States… On Friday, the United States announced that it would step up its economic actions against the Venezuelan government by imposing sanctions on the state oil company…
Link: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/05/military-coup-venezuela-not-without-militarys-support?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email
Telesur (stylised as teleSUR) is a Venezuela-based, multi-state funded, Latin American terrestrial and satellite television network headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela. It is sponsored primarily by the government of Venezuela, but also with additional funding by the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Bolivia. It was launched in 2005, under the government of Hugo Chavez, with the aim of being “a Latin socialist answer to CNN”.
Abby Martin: Hands Off Venezuela
TeleSUR English
Published on Feb 4, 2019
We need your voice to speak up against another U.S. war for oil.
With Abby Martin from The EmpireFiles
“Rep. Tulsi Gabbard says, ‘The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future.’ Rep. Ilhan Omar says, ‘We cannot hand pick leaders for other countries on behalf of multinational corporate interests.’ Sen. Bernie Sanders notes, ‘We must learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups.'”