I am giving thanks to my grandparents who had the wisdom the move to America.
I am giving thanks to the wise men who wrote our constitution.
I am giving thanks to the ten amendments to the constitution especially the first amendment.
I am giving thanks that there are people in authority today who defend the rule of law.
Lastly I am thankful that I can afford to enjoy a turkey dinner.
Donald Trump is guilty of extortion. He should be removed from office.
The proof is his pressure on Ukraine on that government to investigate Joe Biden and is son Hunter Biden in exchange for $400 million in aid. Once his attempt became public knowledge he released the aid.
The definition of extortion is Obtaining money or property by threat to a victim’s property or loved ones, intimidation, or false claim of a right (such as pretending to be an IRS agent). It is a felony in all states, except that a direct threat to harm the victim is usually treated as the crime of robbery. Blackmail is a form of extortion in which the threat is to expose embarrassing, damaging information to family, friends or the public.
Nixon’s ’68 and ‘72 running mate, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace in 1973 after being accused of bribery, extortion, and tax evasion during his tenure as Maryland governor.
Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J. “Imagine your house is on fire and you call 911, and the dispatcher says to you, ‘Oh, my gosh. Your house is on fire. That’s terrible. We’d love to help. We need a favor, though,’” he said. “At every stage of our interaction with the government, there’s a quid pro quo, there’s a favor demanded in exchange for a service that’s supposed to be in the public interest.”
As to Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch the president’s words left her “shocked” and “devastated,” told lawmakers Friday that when she read how President Trump had talked about her to his Ukrainian counterpart in a July phone call — saying ominously that “she’s going to go through some things” — the color drained from her face. “It sounded like a threat,” she said. Trump’s response to criticism of his attack on her, ‘I have freedom of speech.’
We start with the message that homelessness is a sad situation and an issue that faces all cities across the United States. Even the president has said that it is a disgrace.
The city of Los Angeles has over 90 neighborhood councils that are advisory groups that recommend actions to the city council. Everyone of them has a committee trying to devise plans to help the homeless. Beyond those neighborhood councils there are many other groups working to help the homeless.
The public voted for taxes to help build homeless 34 facilities around the city. $230 Million would be raised through the property tax. The mayor has said he wants at least one homeless shelter in every city council district.
A majority of voters may have wanted to provide housing for the homeless but not in the community of Chatsworth. Chatsworth residents and parents of students at Chatsworth Park Elementary school protest the planned homeless housing project near the school on Topanga Blvd near Devonshire Street. Their signs told it all reading “Protect our children.” There is the issue. Fear that homeless people are child molesters.
In my nearby community I have heard the same argument and more. They are all dangerous drug users.
Sure. Help the homeless. Just not in my neighborhood.
KCRA Channel 3 Sacramento and CNN: California will provide free tuition for two years of community college to first-time, full-time California students. Full time students are those taking at least 12 units per semester. It does not include the cost of books, housing, or any other expenses. This is the same program that existed in the 1950s.
Business Insider: American Airlines has started using facial recognition technology to let passengers board planes without their boarding pass.
LA Times: Delta Air Lines began using facial recognition technology at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, installing cameras to identify passengers at one boarding gate, with plans to add more. Critics of the technology say the images collected by the cameras can be stored and used to violate the privacy of innocent people, and that the technology is more likely to misidentify women and people of color than white men.
Washington Post: The doorbell-camera company Ring has quietly forged video-sharing partnerships with more than 400 police forces across the United States, granting them access to homeowners’ camera footage and a powerful role in what the company calls the nation’s “new neighborhood watch.”
Washington Post: The president has told senior aides that a failure to deliver on the signature promise of his 2016 campaign would be a letdown to his supporters and an embarrassing defeat. When aides have suggested that some orders are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said. He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the use of eminent domain, saying “take the land,” according to officials who attended the meetings.
If you’re a parent, heading out the door before a car ride with the kids probably goes a little like this:
Parent: “Did you go to the bathroom?”
Child: “No, I don’t have to go.”
Parent: “Go now, you may not get the chance later.”
Wendy Augur has had this license plate for 15 years. New Hampshire’s DMV demanded she turn in the plate because it had a phrase relating to “sexual or excretory acts of functions”. In a hearing it took the governor’s intervention to allow her to keep the plate.
LA City Councilman John Lee opposes a proposed homeless housing site on Topanga Canyon Blvd. “I don’t think the site was really well thought out. It was thrown at the community, and I don’t believe the site is going to work” he told the LA Daily News. The location is along a stretch of the boulevard that is all commercial buildings. He implied he had another location in mind. The neighborhood council has been on record opposing any homeless shelter in the community.
1 – Homelessness has surged 75 percent in six years. An estimated 57,000 people will be without a home in Los Angeles tonight. Many of these people are families and children; veterans and friends.
2 – 26 percent of homeless individuals in California are severely mentally ill, 18 percent chronically abuse drugs and 24 percent are victims of domestic abuse.
New tariff took effect Sunday Sept. 1 (Labor Day). The tariff list includes 90 types of boots, slippers, leather shoes and other footwear; more than 125 kinds of watches and clocks; various color TV sets video monitors; computer printers, all Apple products (except the iPhone that will be impacted on December 15), and hundreds of clothing items. In all, about $110 billion worth of imported products from China are newly subject to 15% tariffs.
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson posted and then deleted a tweet Wednesday morning that suggested the “power of mind” could deter Hurricane Dorian from slamming into the US.
“The Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas…may all be in our prayers now. Millions of us seeing Dorian turn away from land is not a wacky idea; it is a creative use of the power of the mind. Two minutes of prayer, visualization, meditation for those in the way of the storm,” her now-deleted post read.
Williamson did not qualify for the next debate scheduled for September 12.
LA Times: As a high-level government auditor, Beth Kennedy has investigated or reviewed the spending of many city of Los Angeles departments without serious incident, she says. But now, Kennedy, a chief internal auditor for City Controller Ron Galperin, is alleging that she was warned not to delve too deeply into controversial contracts awarded by the Department of Water of Power, according to a legal claim she filed against the city last month.
Kennedy claims that a superior in her office told her in May that, for personal safety reasons, she should “not be as thorough” with her audit. Then in June, someone smashed a glass patio door at Kennedy’s home in Orange County, according to La Habra police.
A new study published in the journal PLOS One (a scientific journal) concludes grey squirrels use the sounds of nearby birds to infer the absence or presence of predators. According to the researchers, bird sounds are “likely to indicate safety because such sounds are generally given when imminent threat has not been detected.”
So after the indicated presence of a threat in the red-tailed hawk, the squirrels were more likely to relax if they thought other species around them were relaxing too.
California lawmakers are on the verge of approving one of the only state laws in the nation to limit rent increases after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a deal with legislative leaders last week on a bill to cap annual rent hikes.
Why do this?
In Boyle Heights (a low income community in Los Angeles), apartments without rent controls saw rents increase from a median $1,200 a month to $1,700 between 2016 and 2017. Such rent hikes would no longer be allowed under the proposed legislation.
He falsely claimed that Hurricane Dorian was likely to hit Alabama. Then he repeated the claim after the National Weather Service debunked it. Then he insisted that the media, not him, was in the wrong. Then, to try to prove his point, he showed the media an outdated map that had clearly been altered with a Sharpie marking pen. Then, trying again, he tweeted out an unaltered map that was too old to prove his point. Then, trying again he tweeted out some more old maps. Finally, Trump got his homeland security adviser to issue a statement vouching for him.
Even today there have been threats that NOAA employees would be fired for contradicting the president.
The object was obvious. He did put himself in the forefront of the hurricane threat and that was his purpose.
And that’s the way it was!
The new census projections indicate that, for youth under 18–the post-millennial population–minorities will outnumber whites in 2020.
This is scary stuff for racists and bigots.
Donald Trump and the white supremacists are trying their very best to sustain the white population as the majority group in the United States. That is the reason the U.S. government has developed new regulations for green card holders. The idea is to encourage immigrants to leave this country and discourage anyone else, except perhaps the wealthy, to attempt entrance. The KKK couldn’t be happier.
The problem for the white supremacists is they are too late in their efforts. As reported by Brookings Institute, the U.S. Census Bureau 2018 statistics show “that for the first time there are more children who are minorities than who are white, at every age from zero to nine.”
The Bureau projects that by 2045 the White population will be less than 50% of the total.
Donald trump will employ the fear factor, “they are coming and I can stop them”, and it will play well in mid-western states that have small minority populations in the 2020 election. But the Census Bureau prediction for 2045 means that White people will not have the power they have today. And “That’s the way it is!”
This column by Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times points out that ownership of guns does not necessarily lead to mass shootings but sadly does not diagnose the reason for our national acceptance of repeated massacres.
“Canada has mental illness, the internet and violent video games, too — the same video games, in the same language — and its rate of gun violence is far lower.”
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-08-06/is-there-something-wrong-with-us-new-story
Read from a teleprompter were words written by his staff to convey an idea that he doesn’t really believe but he hopes will mollify those who are horrified by current events. That is what Donald Trump did on Monday, August 5, 2019.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” the president said, reading from a script that scrolled on a teleprompter in front of him. He added, “Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside — so destructive — and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion and love.”
Does anyone believe he really cares? I don’t.
This is the man, after the Charlottesville attack said there are “very fine people on both sides.”
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida Trump said ‘we will act.’ The president hosted a discussion at the White House about school shootings. Several students from the school recalled the shooting that they survived. No new laws were even proposed. Trump did nothing and voiced his support for the second amendment.
We will see Donald Trump visiting El Paso and Toledo (oops, I mean Dayton) offering words of prayer, condolences, and telling us that we are all united against hate. His speech writers are very good.
He will return after the next shooting and all of those that will follow.
It was the Walter Cronkite sign-off words every night on CBS. Everyone watched and listened.
Why is this man laughing?
What percentage of Americans own stocks?
Politifact California Stats:
6.7% are owned by bottom 80 %
9.3% are owned by the next 10%
84% are owned by the top 10%
Reported on NPR: As of 2013, the top 1 percent of households by wealth owned nearly 38 percent of all stock shares, according to research by New York University economist Edward Wolff.
Market Watch confirmed the same data.
According to U.S. News: In the U.S., there are 607 billionaires, up from 586 last year and 404 in 2010, and 14 of the world’s 20 richest are from the U.S. More than 40 percent of U.S. billionaires live in two states – California and New York. Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates don’t.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. States that have not set a higher wage must pay that amount to their employees. In California the minimum is $12 for employers with 26 or more employees, otherwise $11.
The super wealthy keep telling us how lucky we are by pointing out how the working classes in other countries are poorer than the American working class.
The USA is run by rich old people. Sadly that is not likely to change despite the campaigns of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
The picture at the top of this posting is Warren Buffet. His net worth this year is over $84 Billion.
The stage included the leading candidates in all the national polls with the exception of Senator Elizabeth Warren who had participated in the Night One debate. Joe Biden has clearly led in all the polls. Kamala Harris seemed to be fading after her initial declaration of candidacy. Harris’ poll numbers showed her with about 6% of supporters versus Biden’s 32%.
Personally I lack enthusiasm for Biden who I view as old and out of touch with today’s Democratic activists. My reasoning: 1) The job of president is difficult and the stress could easily kill him. 2) Without young activists to help in a campaign, Donald Trump will overwhelm a less than enthusiastic Democratic Party challenger. Is it any wonder that Trump is rooting for Biden to win the nomination?
Eric Swalwell’s attack on Biden when he said “Joe Biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans 32 years ago. He’s still right today. If we’re going to solve the issues of automation, pass the torch. If we’re going to solve the issues of climate chaos, pass the torch. If we’re going to solve the issue of student loan debt, pass the torch. If we’re going to end gun violence for families who are fearful of sending their kids to school, pass the torch.”
From the transcript of the debate Kamala Harris said the following.
“Okay. On the issue of race I couldn’t agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly. There is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend, or a coworker who has not been the subject of some form of profiling or discrimination.”
“I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris began, turning to face Biden. But, she added, “it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”
“And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
Biden, sputtering in response, declared Harris’ accusation “a mischaracterization of my position across the board.” He rattled off civil rights measures he had supported in his long career as a senator and tried to defend his opposition to busing during the 1970s and 1980s.
“I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education,” he said, reprising the states’-rights position that he, as a senator from a border state with a history of segregation, had taken decades earlier.
Harris shot back: “That’s where the federal government must step in, that’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act … because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.”
Joe Biden’s responses were weak throughout the debate. I can imagine Kamala Harris using her prosecutor skills to overwhelm Donald Trump in a debate.
Grandpa it’s over.
Coast Contact 