Tag Archives: politics

Family separation under the Trump administration – a timeline | Southern Poverty Law Center

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Under the El Paso program, begun in mid-2017, adults who crossed the border without permission – a misdemeanor for a first-time offender – were detained and criminally charged. No exceptions were made for parents arriving with young children. The children were taken from them, and parents were unable to track or reunite with their children because the government failed to create a system to facilitate reunification. By late 2017, the government was separating families along the length of the U.S.-Mexico border, including families arriving through official ports of entry.

On May 7, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had implemented a “zero tolerance” policy, dictating that all migrants who cross the border without permission, including those seeking asylum, be referred to the DOJ for prosecution. Undocumented asylum seekers were imprisoned, and any accompanying children under the age of 18 were handed over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which shipped them miles away from their parents and scattered them among 100 Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters and other care arrangements across the country. Hundreds of these children, including infants and toddlers, were under the age of 5.

Prior to the Trump administration, families were generally paroled into the country to await their immigration cases or detained together.

via Family separation under the Trump administration – a timeline | Southern Poverty Law Center

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Protesters Rally in D.C. for City’s Largest Demonstration | Time

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(WASHINGTON) — Thousands of protesters streamed into the nation’s capital Saturday for what was expected to be the city’s largest demonstration yet against police brutality while George Floyd was remembered in his North Carolina hometown, where hundreds of mourners lined up to pay their respects.

Military vehicles and officers in fatigues closed off much of downtown Washington to traffic ahead of the planned march, which authorities estimated would attract up to 200,000 people outraged by Floyd’s death 12 days ago at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Large protests also took place across the U.S. and in major cities overseas, including London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney, Australia.

via Protesters Rally in D.C. for City’s Largest Demonstration | Time

How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic – HISTORY (How much of this sounds current for Donald Trump & the state of Government today?)

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How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic
Augustus told Romans he was the only one who could save Rome. And they believed him.

Imagine a world in which political norms have broken down. Senators use bad faith arguments to block the government from getting anything done. An autocrat rigs elections and gives himself complete control over the government. Even stranger, many voters subscribe to the autocrat’s personality cult and agree that he should have absolute control.

Welcome to Rome in the first century B.C.E. The republic that had existed for over 400 years had finally hit a crisis it couldn’t overcome. Rome itself wouldn’t fall, but during this period it lost its republic forever.

The man who played the biggest role in disrupting Rome’s republic was Augustus Caesar, who made himself the first emperor of Rome in 27 B.C.E. By that point, the republic’s political norms had been breaking down for about a century, and Augustus was in a position to take advantage of that.

Before that century, “there had been a really long period where the republic functioned,” says Edward J. Watts, author of the new book Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny. Political norms were heeded; and when the government ran into a new problem, it would amend itself to keep working. For over 300 years, the republic operated this way. There was no political violence, land theft or capital punishment, because those went against the political norms Rome had established.

Then, in 133 B.C.E., Rome experienced its first political murder in the history of the republic. Senators were angry that Tiberius Gracchus, an elected official who had tried to redistribute land to the poor, was seeking a second term as tribune of the plebs. During a fight that broke out between Tiberius’s followers and opponents, senators beat him to death with wooden chairs and helped murder nearly 300 of his followers.

via How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic – HISTORY

Ret. Admiral McRaven: America Is Under Attack From President Trump, Destroying Republic From Within 

Muddy Waters, (no, not the musician) Drain the Swamp!

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As the powers that be continue in the Swamp that is Washington D.C. I couldn’t help but think how they continue to make the politics of today a muddy slime filled pit of corruption!

Two years of the Mueller investigation that found President Trump not guilty of conspiracy but could not clear him on obstruction of justice! Link to wikipedia site

So after all the time and money spent attorney General Barr spins the report to protect Donald Trump. As they move forward with an Impeachment inquiry and it is becoming more clear he will probably soon be out of office at which time he could likely face indictment for the crimes committed and discovered under the Mueller Report, Attorney General Barr and his cohorts opened up MORE investigations into the INVESTIGATORS, is this in the hopes of finding something wrong with the first investigation done by Mueller in the HOPE TO KEEP DONALD TRUMP OUT OF JAIL? 

Excerpt From the Financial Times: “Should Americans accept that Mr Trump is joking? Only at great risk. No other US president has faced the prospect of being re-elected or going to jail.”

 

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Census asks too many questions – it’s just supposed to determine our population size | Fox News

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This mess is yet another example of personal liberty versus government power. On one side is the right to privacy in the home, expressly guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, and the right to silence, expressly guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and by implication in the First Amendment. On the other side is an avaricious government that wants to know all it can about persons in America – whether constitutional or not.

Could a future Commerce Department ask how many guns are kept in the house or who living there goes to Mass on Sunday or if any resident has had an abortion? How much longer will a free people permit these intrusions? How much longer will we be a free people?

via Judge Andrew Napolitano: Census asks too many questions – it’s just supposed to determine our population size | Fox News

William Barr – Wikipedia

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Barr has been publicly critical of the Mueller investigation. In 2017, he faulted Mueller for hiring prosecutors who have contributed to Democratic politicians, saying his team should have had more “balance,” and characterized the obstruction of justice investigation as “asinine” and that it was “taking on the look of an entirely political operation to overthrow the president.”[57][58] In June 2018, Barr sent an unsolicited 20-page memo to deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein arguing that the Special Counsel’s approach to potential obstruction of justice by Trump was “fatally misconceived” and that, based on his knowledge, Trump’s actions were within his presidential authority.[59] The day after the existence of the memo became known, Rosenstein said “our decisions are informed by our knowledge of the actual facts of the case, which Mr. Barr didn’t have.”[60] In a letter to Senator Lindsey Graham on January 14, 2019, Barr disclosed he had sent the memo to, and discussed it with, several White House and Trump attorneys.[61]

On January 14, 2019, a day before Barr’s hearings for Attorney General, Barr sent written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the eventual final Mueller report, saying “[i]t is very important that the public and Congress be informed of the results of the special counsel’s work … For that reason, my goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.”[62][63]

via William Barr – Wikipedia

American Farmers Are in Crisis so is the economy really doing as well as Trump says?

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These are not isolated stories. As early as February 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicted a decline in net farm income to its lowest level since 2002 (adjusted for inflation), with median farm income projected at negative $1,316. For well over a year, worries about a new farm crisis have rippled across rural America. The very term is synonymous with the 1980s, when the bottom dropped out of the agricultural economy, sending thousands of farms into foreclosure and shuttering businesses.

Grain and dairy farmers were beginning to see a repeat of the ‘80s as their prices dropped this spring — and then President Trump started a trade war. Retaliatory agricultural tariffs have kicked this new farm crisis into high gear. The president is offering $12 billion in farm aid to ease the pain, but neither those payments nor the farm bill being hammered out in Congress will substantially change the outlook for farm country. Ever since federal farm policy told farmers to “get big or get out” in the ‘70s, the push toward consolidation has created decades of slow-burning crisis for many farmers. The problem has some rural residents re-envisioning rural policy from the ground up.

via American Farmers Are in Crisis – Eater

Trump’s NAFTA “deal” with Mexico is a win for Canada — Quartz

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Any changes to NAFTA deal require Canada’s approval, as foreign minister Chrystia Freeland’s office pointed out. Freeland, who is traveling to Washington DC tomorrow (Aug. 28) to continue negotiations, “will only sign a new NAFTA that is good for Canada and good for the middle class,” her office said. “Canada’s signature is required,” for any renegotiation, it noted.

via Trump’s NAFTA “deal” with Mexico is a win for Canada — Quartz

The American Presidency 2017

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January 29, 2017

Here we are nine days since Donald J. Trump was inaugurated to the office of United States President. As a Canadian that has lived through the Presidencies encompassing Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W.Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald J.Trump, who’s Presidency I hope to live through, I don’t mind telling you I am afraid, very afraid!

Growing up in the 50’s and early 60’s I remember the threat of nuclear annihilation, public school drills with air raid sirens, rushing to the basement in the school, duck and cover under the desk. The cold war at its peak!

The missiles of October and the assassination of a truly great President in 1963 when I was 11 years old, were probably my wake up call to pay attention.

We have spent the last few years going through a time of much change, the space race, the computer revolution and with that a reduction in the world of manufacturing in North America. It would be simple to blame it on “foreign powers” but they are not to blame; take a look right here on the home front (North America) where through greed and the pursuit of profits the 1% have lost sight of how our countries have been built, on the backs of the “working man/woman” blue-collar workers, the middle class.

In a short term of seven days this new demagogue  has alienated Mexico, put travel bans on Muslims, discriminated against religions under the Office of President, and claims it all to be “In the name of making America Great Again!”

The WHITE HOUSE President Donald J. Trump:

Sourced from the White House:“Finally, in pursuing a foreign policy based on American interests, we will embrace diplomacy. The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies, that we are always happy when old enemies become friends, and when old friends become allies.

The world will be more peaceful and more prosperous with a stronger and more respected America.

Sourced The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):

To claim “I am going to make America Great Again” by the way the phrase “make America Great Again” is a patented phrase by Donald J. Trump

Sourced from Time

After years of sourcing goods and services “off shore” himself, he now blames the downfall of the economy and manufacturing on foreign countries. I find this to be very hypocritical.

From the Guardian:

“The Mexican government and its people are in shock, but the week’s events have forged a sense of national unity. Normally taciturn billionaire Carlos Slim gave an extraordinary press conference on Friday in which he urged Mexico to bolster its internal market to gain more independence and historian Lorenzo Meyer wrote that a break with Trump would grant a “second independence”.

 

Coming into the second week and the month of February we can only hope that on Feb 2nd, “Groundhog Day” Trump doesn’t throw us into another Nuclear Winter!

(Groundhog link courtesy http://www.salon.com/)

Norm Swaebe