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debsy

debsy's Journal
debsy's Journal
March 7, 2019

Is Kristjen Nielsen being paid for her product placement?

How could anyone not notice the bottle of Pellegrino sitting on the table beside her at the hearing today?

[link:https://www.c-span.org/video/?458250-1/homeland-security-secretary-kirstjen-nielsen-testifies-border-security|]

Apparently, this isn't the first time she's done this:

[link:https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-20181031-story.html|]

It would be interesting to find out whether she is being compensated somehow for the "free" advertising.

February 20, 2019

If we have any luck at all, it will be...

... NANCY PELOSI! I know, that is wishful thinking but what if DUMPSTER AND DENSE went DOWN in smoke??? Then we would have Madam Speaker as our beloved PRESIDENT!

February 12, 2019

'...the Age of Environmental Breakdown': Report Details World on Edge of Runaway Collapse

From Common Dreams:

A new report from U.K. researchers is being praised as "absolutely brilliant," "essential reading for policymakers," and "a clarion wake-up call to the world."
byJessica Corbett, staff writer



[link:https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/12/we-have-entered-age-environmental-breakdown-report-details-world-edge-runaway|]

Direct link to IPPR report:

[link:https://www.ippr.org/files/2019-02/risk-and-environment-february19.pdf|]

I'm really starting to feel the urgency of the CLIMATE CRISIS in my bones. Everything else is a distraction.

February 3, 2019

Governor Northam needs to resign - I accept I could be wrong

I have to admit that I wasn't there, I don't know what happened, I don't know the schools the governor went to or how he behaved 35 years ago. I don't know the kind of effort Russia (and, by extension, the GOP) is putting forth to have him removed and I see now someone is smearing Justin Fairfax as well. This could be yet another effort to bring someone down rapidly without proper investigations into what actually happened. I think jumping to conclusions is what whoever the trolls are want. Maybe I am playing right into their hands. I just don't know anymore.

My original post follows, unedited.

I've been internalizing conflicting arguments of why Governor Northam should stay in office versus why he should resign, including my own, for days. I have seen a fairly consistent theme in the arguments:

1) This happened 35 years ago. He has changed.
2) The Republicans are much worse
3) Let the African American community decide.

I'll break these down point-by-point.

1) This happened 35 years ago. He has changed.
While I understand that people are capable of change, invoking Senator Byrd as an example doesn't fly because when he was elected, most Southern Democrats held the same view as he did and I'm sure more than a few were members of the KKK. He was elected before "realignment", when many Southern Dems jumped ship and moved to the Republican Party (bringing their racism and KKK membership with them). Simply because something was acceptable 50 years ago doesn't mean we should accept the same standard today. We are supposed to be "progressive". Maintaining the status quo of 50 years ago is the definition of "conservative". Furthermore, we have to show progress from 50 years ago. ANYONE who has ever - in their life - endorsed such blatant, hateful outright evil as blackface and the KKK WITHOUT DISCLOSING THAT HISTORY BEFORE RUNNING FOR ELECTION (which would take courage) needs to be disqualified from Democratic leadership. Joking about blackface and the KKK (two portraits in hateful cowardice fueled by ignorance and loathing) then trying to suppress that information displays a lack of courage and fortitude that shows HE HAS NOT CHANGED. Instead, it leaves a stain on Northam that is unbleachable.

2) The Republicans are much worse
This one is easy: The fact that Republicans allow their membership to remain in office regardless of their criminal tendencies and/or lack of ethics should be something that sets Democrats apart from the GOP, not something we aspire to. The Democratic Party must set itself apart from the Republican Party.

3) Let the African American community decide.
Let us ALL decide! Regardless of our personal ethnicity and gender, the Democratic Party should UNITE in holding our elected officials to a higher standard. We are ALL human. We understand that people make mistakes. We also know that slavery was (and is) unconscionable and is representative of the most evil and reprehensible of human tendencies. WE ALL must reject hateful behavior that is designed to differentiate us from one another. Democratic leaders must represent the best of human tendencies. There are plenty of Democrats who have lived their entire life comitted to the current Democratic Party's core principals: Courage, inclusion, liberty, human rights, equal opportunity, and EQUAL justice for ALL. Our leaders must be the standard bearers of those values.

January 21, 2019

Literally, billionaires could chip in and have the 5.7 billion dollars for the immoral wall...

... in less than 3 days.

A 'Fundamentally Inhuman' Economy: 26 Billionaires Own as Much as World's 3.8 Billion Poorest People
While the wealth of billionaires increased by $900 billion last year, or $2.5 billion a day, latest Oxfam report on inequality shows "this bonanza has not been felt by the poorest half of the world, which saw its wealth decline by 11 percent."


[link:https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/21/fundamentally-inhuman-economy-26-billionaires-own-much-worlds-38-billion-poorest|]

We need to be paying attention to who is benefitting from the shutdown. I'm sure there is plenty of evidence of the billionaire "class" being the ones who gain the most while the rest of us transfer more of what little we have directly into their yacht fuel tanks.

January 9, 2019

Trump Storms Out of White House Meeting with Democrats on Shutdown

Source: NYTimes

WASHINGTON — President Trump slammed his hand on a table and stormed out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said she would not fund a wall along the southern border, dramatically escalating the confrontation over the government shutdown.

Stunned Democrats emerged from the White House meeting declaring that Mr. Trump had thrown a “temper tantrum.” The president’s allies accused Democrats of refusing to negotiate. Then he tweeted that the meeting was “a total waste of time.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/us/politics/government-shutdown-trump-senate.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage



petulant child.
August 16, 2018

Trump, Seeking to Relax Rules on U.S. Cyberattacks, Reverses Obama Directive

Source: Wall Street Journal

President Trump has reversed an Obama-era memorandum dictating how and when the U.S. government can deploy cyberweapons against its adversaries, in an effort to loosen restrictions on such operations, according to people familiar with the action.

Mr. Trump signed an order on Wednesday reversing the classified rules, known as Presidential Policy Directive 20, that had mapped out an elaborate interagency process that must be followed before U.S. use of cyberattacks, particularly those geared at foreign adversaries.


Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-seeking-to-relax-rules-on-u-s-cyberattacks-reverses-obama-directive-1534378721



This seems very bad.
July 1, 2018

From NYTimes: Agents Seek to Dissolve ICE in Immigration Policy Backlash

[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/politics/ice-immigration-eliminate-agency.html|



June 28, 2018

WASHINGTON — At least 19 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators are seeking to dissolve the agency, concerned that the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal migrants has limited their ability to pursue national security threats, child pornography and transnational crime.



Question: Who benefits from ICE not being able to focus on national security threats, child pornography, and transnational crime? We all know the answer to that.
June 12, 2018

From the NYTimes - Trump Gushes...

What if this whole "summit" was orchestrated before hand by Russia, NK, and the dumpster administration and they decided they would undo the results of the Korean War (conflict, that is) - since Russia backed North Korea then - and just give the South to Kim Jung Un? Yes, that is a wild conspiracy theory but look at what they have done already from before the election until now. They (including the GOP domestically, BTW) are working to undo anything that was instituted since WWII.

The term “security guarantees” was not explained, but in providing them to allies like South Korea and Japan, the United States has committed to use military force to come to their defense. It seems highly unlikely that would apply in the case of North Korea, and it shouldn’t.

Mr. Trump later told a news conference that he still hoped at some point to withdraw the 28,500 American troops from that country. He said he intended to halt American war games held routinely with South Korea because they are “expensive” and “provocative.”

But it seems that he failed to forewarn both the Pentagon and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, a grievous mistake, especially with an ally who is directly affected by the decision and played a central role in causing the Kim-Trump meeting to happen. While Mr. Moon hailed the meeting’s outcome in general, stunned South Korean officials worried that Mr. Trump was making concessions too fast. The South Korean Defense Ministry said it was seeking to clarify the president’s intentions.


[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/opinion/trump-north-korea-summit-nuclear.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region|]

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