The Right to an abortion

The gap in abortion rights is growing across the country.

Why should legislatures make laws restricting abortion? Because they can. It is elected representatives imposing their religious beliefs on the rest of us. Thank God I live in California.

The map below depicts where abortion is currently most protected and restricted as measured by the Guttmacher Institute, a group working for abortion rights.

In this map More protections to the left (purple) and More restrictions to the right (orange tan). Alabama is about to join the most restrictions group.

Money laundering to get your children into the most honored universities

What will it take to get my kids into UCLA, USC, Stanford, or another Ivy League university? Do I have to bribe someone?

Can money buy anything you want even if it means you cheat? Apparently for many wealthy people the answer is Yes!

Money laundering is the generic term used to describe the process by which criminals disguise the original ownership and control of the proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to have derived from a legitimate source. The processes by which criminally derived property may be laundered are extensive.

The parents, who were charged last month with conspiracy to commit fraud, were charged on Tuesday in a superseding indictment with conspiring to launder bribes and other payments through a charity run by Rick Singer, the mastermind of the scam, as well as by transferring money into the United States to promote the fraud, prosecutors said.

If Lori Loughlin and 15 other parents don’t plead guilty they could face some real prison time. Did these people understand that their actions were at a minimum fraudulent? What did they think bribes given to a non-existent charity was if not an act of money laundering?

I would love to sit on the jury to hear their defense. That is not going to happen. It appears the case will be tried in Boston.

This is Chutzpah! This is Hypocrisy!

If you don’t know the meaning of the word you will have to Google it.

From Dana Milbank’s column March 26, 2019 in the Washington Post. He attended the AIPC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) literally read from Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” on the House floor and borrowed Hitler’s “big lie” allegation against Jews to use on Democrats. “Unconscionable,” said the Anti-Defamation League. But Republicans, and Netanyahu, said nothing.

Tuesday was the 40th anniversary of the signing of the historic Camp David Accords. But the Israeli leader didn’t mention this, either, instead delivering division to a group that has embraced his (and Trump’s) nationalist policies.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest branch of American Judaism, noticed that the AIPAC crowd had “beyond a doubt” become mostly pro-Trump conservatives, not the cross section of Israel supporters that AIPAC once drew. The rhetoric fit the room. “To suggest anti-Semitism is part of the Democratic Party and liberal part of the spectrum and not also part of Republican leaders’ discourse .

The thing that has kept Israel safe over the decades is rock-solid bipartisan support.

Consider the hypocrisy:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) issued (then deleted) a tweet targeting three wealthy Jews: “We cannot allow [George] Soros, [Tom] Steyer and [Michael R.] Bloomberg to BUY this election! But at AIPAC, McCarthy denounced anti-Semitic language on the “floors of Congress” — an apparent reference to Omar — and said he’d be “lying” to say Democrats are as opposed to anti-Semitism as Republicans.

Vice President Pence once declared that “I know of no synagogues in my district” (there were two) and, after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, attended a memorial with a Jews-for-Jesus Christian rabbi. But at AIPAC, he said Democrats have “been co-opted by people who promote rank anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

President Trump, of course, said there “were very fine people” among the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, told Jews they wouldn’t support him “because I don’t want your money,” tweeted an image of a Star of David atop a pile of cash, used anti-Semitic tropes in an ad with photos of prominent Jews, and often denounces “globalists” such as Soros — among many other offenses. But he calls the Democrats “anti-Jewish.”

And here at AIPAC, his appointees attacked Democrats. “We will not do this for the Benjamins,” David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, said, informing the crowd that Trump “deserves” an extended ovation.

Teen party with Nazi salutes but the anti-Semitism is far more pervasive than those parties

A series of photos featuring a group of teenagers crowded around a swastika made of red plastic cups – laughing, toasting and Sieg Heiling over the Nazi symbol – is shaking swaths of predominantly white and affluent communities across Orange County, Calif., where at least some of the teens are enrolled in high school.

Freshman Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar is once again facing criticism and charges of anti-Semitism from her own party’s leadership for comments about the political influence of Israel. She is supported by another Muslim, Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Ocasio-Cortez together with fellow Democrats Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, have called themselves a “squad” in social media posts and have publicly come to each other’s defense.

Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren each came to the defense of Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday for remarks that critics have called anti-Semitic.

Meghan McCain gets emotional on ‘The View’ “With the rise of anti-Semitism in this country, is it more important to defend party politics, or is it more important to defend anti-Semitism?” she asked the rest of the panel, referring to Omar, a Democrat.

From USA Today “The now trendy Democratic Socialists of America have even called for Israel to be eliminated.”

Hate is in the air!

Jewish people are major contributors to the Democratic Party but maybe not any more.

Trump sees the wall as a monument to himself

This analysis of Donald Trump and his obsession with building a wall along America’s southern border is worth your consideration.

Analysis by Gloria Borger, CNN Chief Political Analyst

Updated 12:27 PM ET, Tue January 22, 2019

(CNN)One thing about Donald Trump: He knows how to tell you what he’s really thinking.

About the wall, for instance.

Consider this from Trump during the campaign in 2015, explaining the rationale for his favorite edifice:

“What I do best in life, I build. … I want it to be so beautiful because maybe someday they’ll call it ‘The Trump Wall.’ Maybe. If they call this ‘The Trump Wall,’ it has to be beautiful.”

There you go. The wall, for the President, is a monument. To himself. A visible legacy of his achievement; an example of what he considers himself best at: building and branding. It’s not like tax reform or trade policy. It’s actually concrete (or slats) and there for all the world to see as a Trump achievement. Even when he leaves the Oval Office. And way beyond.

If he could put his name on it in gold filigree, he would. But maybe calling it The Trump Wall is good enough.

This is not new for Donald Trump. His life has always been about the theatrical product. “It’s like the curtains opening at an opera,” says biographer Michael D’Antonio. “It’s like a piece of scenery for his show.”

Indeed. And as Trump produces this scene, his concern for the hundreds of thousands of furloughed government workers is lost, taking a back seat to his star, the wall. Kind of like Atlantic City 30 years ago when he was building other monuments to himself, inconspicuously named The Taj Mahal, for instance. The gilded splendor marketed as Trump mattered the most; paying the contractors what they were owed took a back seat. Always.

And so now he has boxed himself in. He truly believes the artifice he has constructed about both his great ability to build and his prowess at negotiating for permission to build. He did it in real estate, he tells us, and he was brilliant, or so he claims.

But now his monument is caught between his own grand vision and Democratic priorities for immigration reform, not to mention his party’s far right. Trump probably longs for the good old days, when he could — and would — say just about anything in a room to test a real estate deal, especially since his company was not publicly held. Exaggeration was king, a perfect fit for Trump. Alan Pomerantz, who represented a group of Trump’s creditors in the early 1990s, calls it “puffing.” Trump probably perfected the art of the hype.

Problem is, negotiating with Congress isn’t like doing a real estate deal. In real estate, you can walk out of a room, as Trump did many times. But when he tried it with Chuck and Nancy it didn’t work. In fact, it backfired.

So now, Trump is left with the ideal of a shrine to himself, but no deal. Concrete or slats, who cares? Furloughed workers in distress, never mind.

So long as the monument can be built, standing for future generations to be reminded of the President of the United States, the Master Builder.

Diversity versus the White Christian Patriarchy

Yes, Donald Trump is the president of the United States. I believe he dreams of being America’s first dictator. Our constitution and laws limits his power. Here are some things that should at least give pause to his pursuit of what he believes is what is best for the United States.

President Donald Trump condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists in remarks about the Charlottesville, Va. rally at the White House and later in that same White House statement undercut his pre-planned remarks by blaming both sides at the rally that took place August 11 to 12, 2017. Trump defended the KKK and other hate groups saying there were good people among the haters.

He’s changed his demand from time to time and he’s changed the amount of money he’s asking for dramatically from 2 billion to 5 billion to 11 billion to 25 billion even to 70 billion dollars. And when we asked for specifics, how are you going to spend this money? What are you going to do with it? He basically says we’ll shut down the government till you agree on it.

– Senator Dick Durbin

Mike Pence swears in new Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema. At her request, she is being sworn on a law book that contains the Constitution, rather than on a religious text. (President John Quincy Adams did the same thing in 1825.) She’s the first openly bisexual member of the Senate. Meanwhile, Rashida Tlaib, who (along with Ilhan Omar) is the first Muslim women to enter Congress, was sworn in on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran, provoking sputtering rage from Christian bigots.

On its first day this year, the House passed bills to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, except for the Department of Homeland Security, which got a continuing resolution through Feb. 8, with no funding for Trump’s Wall. The funding is on the same terms that the Senate passed by acclamation before Christmas, but now Mitch McConnell is refusing to bring it up for a vote.

The new Congress makes the country’s political situation clear at a glance: There is one party that wants to preserve the white Christian patriarchy, and another party for everybody else. The Everybody Else Party just came to power in the House.

Americans can choose. I stand for freedom of speech and diversity.

We are now in a Bear Market!

Bah! Humbug!

It’s Christmas Eve and here I am writing about something that is sad.

Stocks ended sharply lower today putting key equity benchmarks on track to log their worst month and a year in a decade. The S&P 500 slipped 2.7% to end near 2,352.

It should be obvious what the causes are.

1. Trade war with China.

2. Federal Reserve interest rates have risen four times this year.

3. President Donald Trump has discussed the possibility of firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

4. There is a Federal government shutdown with no solution in sight. Another such shut down could occur on March 1, 2019 when the federal debt limit will be reached.

5. Growing concerns that the economic expansion may be coming to an end.

It’s helpful to know what a “bear market” is because based on history, it looks like we could be here for a while.

The term on Wall Street is synonymous with serious, long-lasting declines in stock markets. In numeric terms, a bear market is a 20 percent or more drop from a recent peak. The S&P 500 hit that milestone on Monday, dropping 20 percent from its 52-week high.

If this bear market is anything like the last time, it could take some time to recover. Since World War II, bear markets on average have fallen 30.4 percent and have lasted 13 months, according to analysis at Goldman Sachs and CNBC. When that milestone has been hit, it took stocks an average of 21.9 months to recover.

The good news is that bear markets do not last forever. So have a happy holiday and think positive about the new year.

Those Damned Lefties are to Blame!

Those radical leftists have harmed our nation irretrievably. They, through the Democratic Party, passed laws that have given those poor stupid working class Americans benefits that have clearly harmed America in ways that cannot be appreciated. With the exception of President George W. Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act all those wild eyed commies are to blame for those legislative acts that have obviously destroyed this great country.

I did the research to learn of the laws they passed.

Under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Social Security Administration. That is the law that created

-Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses

-Unemployment compensation funded by a tax on employers

-Aid to families with dependent children and the disabled

The Fair Labor Standards Act. That is the law that established a minimum hourly wage and maximum number of hours on a work week and set rules for the employment of those under the age of 18.
Established the National Labor Relations Board to hear testimony about unfair practices.
Created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)to provide insured loans for home buyers
Created the Securities and Exchange Commission to supervise the stock market.
Created the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDC) that requires manufacturers to provide the ingredients of their products.
Created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which protects bank deposits.

Under President Harry Truman segregation in armed forces was banned. Truman was the first president to propose that all Americans have health insurance.

Under President Lyndon Johnson three law were passed.

Civil Rights Act of 1964
1965 Voting Rights Act
Medicare and Medicaid amended to the Social Security Act on July 30, 1965.

In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act, which added outpatient prescription drug benefits to Medicare.

Under President Barack Obama.

The Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act (EPA) prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions
The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) providing health care for most American at affordable prices.

What do you suppose those lefties will do next? Are they likely to provide low cost college educations? Or even worse they might provide real re-training programs for those who have lost their jobs as the result of automation?

Damn those lefties. They keep trying to help their neighbors.

The Drama King brings more excitement to Cable News

Donald Trump’s TV show, The Apprentice, was big hit. Today he tried to reignite the excitement as he had television cameras in the oval office as he verbally spared with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer. His supposed purpose was to obtain their support for a border wall with Mexico. He knew they would say no but his real purpose was obvious to me. He wanted all of his supporters to know that he is doing everything in his power to obtain the $5 billion in 2019. He told the world he would shut down the government to get his way. He actually said he was “proud to shut down the government for border security” telling Schumer you can blame me for the shutdown. “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down — I’m not going to blame you for it.”

The next step in this soap opera will be the days before the shutdown date, December 21. We can all expect more drama starting December 20 and beyond.

An interesting feature of the show was Vice President Mike Pence who said not on word during the entire program. He sat there like a statue.

Where is the great negotiator in this spectacle? He is nowhere to be found. Sadly we will be burdened with this president for two more years.

The difference between America’s aristocracy and British Royalty

There is no difference. We all just viewed a week long burial ceremony for a past president of the United States. Many of us, especially the media, treated George H.W. Bush like royalty. It should be important to note that the founding fathers of America abhorred the royalty of Great Britain. Terms like “your excellency” and “your highness” were specifically rejected by congress as words to be used in addressing the president of the United States. The title of “Mr. President” was decided to be sufficient.

Fareed Zakaria wrote an interesting opinion piece in the Washington Post about the things we all can learn from the WASP class that has managed the United States from its founding. In that article he pointed out that “the old WASP aristocracy did have a sense of modesty, humility and public-spiritedness that seems largely absent in today’s elite.”

For those of you not familiar with the term WASP. It is an abbreviation for White Anglo Saxon Protestant.

My answer is that in public America’s aristocracy (meaning the rich and powerful) takes the positon that they know what is the best for the rest of us mere mortals. Absence of that earlier more modest behavior does not make them royalty.

Zakaria did not grow up in the United States and is obviously blind to the fact that America’s aristocracy promised change for over 200 years but nothing changed. The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. Non-white Americans continuously face discrimination as they have throughout the country’s history. That has not changed with the Trump presidency. The only thing that has changed is the names and faces.

The Bush family was and is still part of that WASP culture and so are the Clintons, the Bidens, the Newsoms (California’s next governor), the Garcettis (mayor of Los Angeles) and almost everyone else in leadership you can name.

Stupidly we, the proletariat, keep sending the same people to Washington and expecting a new outcome. Hillary Clinton seemed to think that just running for president would give her the job. Donald Trump simply saw the opportunity to convince voters that he would lead America to a new place.

Trump’s style has continued to convince Americans that their lives will be better under his leadership. He is just an outsider but is also among the rich that have no real concern for American lives or America’s place in the world. Trump is a WASP from a wealthy family who has done a better selling job of his brand of “he will be helping the rest of us.”