The President clearly stated at a speech he presented at Independence Hall in Philadelphia that MAGA is an attack on American democracy. He pointed out that those supporting MAGA beliefs take the position that there are only two consequences of an election. Either they won or they lost due to a corrupt election.
In other words they do not accept any loss. That means there is no democracy. President Biden said American democracy remains in great peril and declared former President Trump and his supporters the biggest threat to American democracy. While it was a political speech meant to rally Democratic Party loyalists to go to the polls in November the point he made rang true.
When do the MAGA Republicans accept an election loss? Apparently the answer is they do not accept any loss. To me Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are a threat to the very soul of this country.
The New York Times editorial board called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to seek an indictment of former President Trump if “sufficient evidence” exists to establish his guilt “on a serious charge.”
The board argued in a piece published Friday that, “Mr. Trump’s unprecedented assault on the integrity of American democracy requires a criminal investigation” following the Jan. 6 select committee hearings and news of the Justice Department’s search of Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., home for classified documents.
“This board is aware that in deciding how Mr. Trump should be held accountable under the law it is necessary to consider not just whether criminal prosecution would be warranted but whether it would be wise.”
The board mentioned former President Ford’s pardon of former President Nixon for any crimes he may have committed during the Watergate scandal, with Ford justifying the decision as avoiding the “rousing” of “ugly passions” and polarization.
The board stated that prosecuting Trump could entrench support for him and “play into the conspiracy theories he has sought to stoke.” They argued it could also allow future presidents to misuse the precedent set to go after their political rivals.
But, the paper warned that doing nothing poses a much more significant risk and not holding him accountable for his actions related to the Jan. 6 insurrection would could set an “irresistible” precedent for future presidents.
“Why not attempt to stay in power by any means necessary or use the power of the office to enrich oneself or punish one’s enemies, knowing that the law does not apply to presidents in or out of office?” the board wrote.
In Les Misérables, author Victor Hugo criticizes the injustices of the nineteenth century. Issues such as women’s rights, intergenerational conflict, cruelty of the justice system, and the failure of society’s institutions are all discussed in the novel, which is still resonate.
I have a four year degree from CSUN (California State University Northridge) in the San Fernando Valley. The first two years of my college experience was at a community college. The cost was $6.50 per semester. The two years at CSUN coast $42 per semester. The cost of a college degree was affordable for everyone.
I know, it was a long time ago but what happened? Why did the cost at the community college grow to $1238 per semester? CSUN now costs $7,064. I am not reporting on the cost of books or the cost or the cost of room and board.
It is no surprise that college attendance has resulted in high student debt. Since 1980, the total cost of both four-year public and four-year private college has nearly tripled, even after accounting for inflation. Federal support has not kept up: Pell Grants once covered nearly 80 percent of the cost of a four-year public college degree for students from working families, but now only cover a third. That has left many students from low- and middle-income families with no choice but to borrow if they want to get a degree. According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt.
This country refuses to help its youth obtain a college education. Sean Hannity: “We have a lot of young people that work on my TV show, they’re not making a $125,000. They’re now eligible to get in some cases up to $20,000 and in other cases $10,000. This is New Green Deal radical socialism.”
The Colorado River basin is drying up thanks to less snow and rain. Sadly the seven states are not working together to find an equitable agreement on sharing the shrinking amount of available water.
After Colorado River Basin states failed to meet a deadline for emergency drought reductions, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it would continue to work with affected states and tribes to reach an agreement.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead are at historically low levels and risk falling to “dead pool” status, which would mean there isn’t enough water to generate hydroelectricity for the tens of millions of people that rely on it, according to United Nations Environment Programme.
The seven states that benefit from the Colorado basin have been told to develop plans to drastically reduce water use by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet, but talks have grown acrimonious. At a press conference Tuesday, federal officials said that an agreement was urgently needed and that it was also declaring a tier 2 shortage for the next water year.
Under tier 2 shortage conditions, Arizona’s annual water apportionment will be reduce by 21%, Nevada’s by 8% and Mexico’s by 7%. There is no required water savings contribution for California however.
This situation will undoubtedly lead to a court fight over how much water each state must reduce consumption. There have been growing tensions between the states of the river’s Lower Basin — California, Arizona and Nevada — and those of the Upper Basin — Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah.
A few calm meetings would be far better than a court fight.
The Mar-a-Lago search warrant identifies three federal crimes that the Justice Department is looking at as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. The inclusion of the crimes indicates the Justice Department has probable cause to investigate those offenses as it was gathering evidence in the search. No one has been charged with a crime at this time.
In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel Rosenberg were tried and convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. They were executed in 1953. Their trial remains controversial today.
What do you suppose Donald Trump planned to do with that classified material? It is frightening to imagine what that classified information can mean to an adversary.
The politics of this situation could mean that Trump will never be tried for treason. Millions of Americans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen. The January 6, 2021 insurrection tells us that there are Americans who are willing to fight for Trump.
Can Attorney General Merrick Garland convince a majority of Americans that Donald Trump is guilty of espionage? Frankly I doubt it.
Trump should be executed but it probably won’t happen.
If you are not a resident of Canada but want to buy a piece of real estate in British Columbia or Ontario you must pay a tax of 20% of the purchase price. The tax was implemented to discourage foreign buyers who have driven up demand.
That is not the situation in the United States but that kind of tax should be implanted. Los Angeles area Southern Regional Association of Realtors, Inc. published an article in the Los Angeles Times Advertising Supplement on Saturday August 6, 2022 reporting that sales to foreign buyers is up 8.5%. International buyers purchased $59 billion worth of U.S. residential properties from April 2021 to March 2022.
In the Los Angeles area San Gabriel Valley is a well known area where Chinese buyers have bought homes where they do not reside.
Forbes magazine reports July 19, 2022. Anyone who bought a home – or tried to – over the past couple of years knows that it was rip-roaringly competitive, with bidding wars and all-cash deals. But it actually could have been worse. One group all but disappeared from the market during the pandemic: foreign buyers with mega millions. But now foreign real estate investments are slowly coming back, according to a new survey from the National Association of Realtors.
Ensuring affordable housing for all Americans is not on the agenda in Congress but it should be.
The worship of Donald Trump has resulted in loyal Americans willing to destroy the American democracy. Many of those supporters of Trump are still in government service. Thus the destruction of phone records and email messages before the June 6 insurrection, during the insurrection, and days following that insurrection is no surprise.
The advocacy group American Oversight sought the texts through a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, to learn more about the attack. The group requested emails, texts and calendar invitations for former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, his former acting chief of staff Kash Patel and former Defense Department general counsel Paul Ney.
“It now appears as if multiple federal agencies may have failed to preserve records surrounding the January 6th attack on the Capitol,” Heather Sawyer, executive director at American Oversight, said in a statement. “There are still too many open questions about the role of the Pentagon, Secret Service, and others before and during the attack.”
American Oversight says on its website that it is “a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to fight corruption, drive accountability, and defend democracy.”
It appears that there were and probably still are people in the Federal government that are intent on protecting Donald Trump and his lieutenants from prosecution related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The Department of Justice will likely bring criminal charges against those who intentionally destroyed those records. The Guardian reports the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has been asked to investigate yet another deletion of text messages and other communications by senior officials on 6 January 2021, this time by the Pentagon.
Today in the Los Angeles Times Garry Trudeau hits the mark. He correctly says “Now is the time to announce that the election is rigged.”
For those of you who are not familiar with Jim Crow (not Jimmy Crow). Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. Thus the term “separate but equal” supported the idea of races being separate, so long as they received “equal” facilities and treatment to that which the whites had or received. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that separate accommodations based on race was constitutional. 58 years later in Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka (1954) the court ruled that separate accommodations based on race were inherently unequal and so unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that would ban assault weapons following a summer of deadly mass shootings that reignited calls for increased gun control.
Though the measure passed mostly along party lines, two Republicans and five Democrats broke with their parties on the vote, according to the official tally.
Assault weapons have been used in numerous mass shootings, including killings this year in Uvalde and Buffalo; Parkland, Florida in 2018; Las Vegas in 2017; and Newton Conn. in 2012.
Among the the five Democrats who voted No was Vicente Gonzalez of Texas. James Rivera, a spokesperson for Gonzalez said “There are tens of millions of assault rifles already in circulation across America, many of them are used by responsible gun owners for hunting in South Texas, and a ban on some of those models will do nothing to reduce overall risks. Our focus should be on keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others.”
There are 20 million AR-15 type weapons in the United States. Do we need more?
The Legendary Norman Lear Celebrates 100-Years of Life Today!
Norman Lear contributed to our society in a funny entertaining way that is part of American cultural. “All in the Family” is now in repeats on my television.
Born in 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut, Lear attended Emerson College before flying 52 combat missions over Europe during World War II. Upon his return, Norman began a successful career writing and producing programs like The Colgate Comedy Hour, and The Martha Raye Show — ultimately leading to Lear captivating 120 million viewers per week with his iconic shows of the 1970s and ‘80s —
All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons,Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, One Day at a Time, and The Nancy Walker Show.
As Lear began witnessing the rise of the radical religious right, he put his television career on hold in 1980 to found People For The American Way. Today, the organization is over one million members and activists strong and continues to fight right-wing extremism while defending constitutional values like free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.
In 2000, the Norman Lear Center was dedicated at the USC Annenberg School for Communication for the study of entertainment, media and society.
One of the few surviving original copies of the Declaration of Independence was purchased by Lyn and Norman Lear in 2001, and during the decade that followed, they shared it with the American people by touring it to all 50 states through their Declaration of Independence Road Trip. Lear launched Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan youth voter initiative that registered over four million new, young voters in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 elections.
Lear is a 2017 Kennedy Center Honoree; a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, the Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016; and a proud member of the inaugural group of inductees to the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984. He has won six Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe. In 2021 the Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded him the Carol Burnett Award for Achievement in Television. When President Clinton bestowed the National Medal of Arts on Lear in 1999, he noted that “Norman Lear has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it.”
Norman Lear is married to Lyn Davis Lear, and is the father to six and the grandfather to four.
Coast Contact 