North Carolina has a law that prohibits cities and towns from dismantling confederate statues.

And, oh by the way, 2020 is being planned by the Trump re-election campaign already. It provides profiting by the Trump Organization even before the nomination and less than eight months in the Executive Branch of the USA government.

Trump's 2020 campaign has already paid $395,000 for space in New York’s pricey Trump Tower, ensuring the president and his family will profit.

August 7,  2017
By Ciara Torres-Spelliscy

It seems Donald Trump’s 2020 (click here) run for the White House will look a lot like his 2016 bid – the campaign will patronize Trump-owned enterprises -- ensuring the candidate and his family will profit.

For instance, the campaign has already paid $395,000 for space in New York’s pricey Trump Tower, according to spending reports for the first six months of the year filed with the Federal Election Commission. Whatever logic may have existed in 2016 for housing the campaign in the same place where Donald Trump conducted his business, does not obtain in 2020 when the candidate is 230 miles away in the White House. Overall, the campaign has raised $15 million and spent $10.7 million.

Of course, staffers stay in Trump hotels. For instance, the campaign has dropped $12,400 alone in lodging costs at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. And to the degree one can tell which charges are for a one-night stay, the campaign usually paid more than the advertised rate for the cheapest room, which is now $319 per night. One can question why aides must stay in a five-star hotel in the first place, but if that type of luxury is required, Trump’s digs would not be the first choice. For instance, Washington’s venerable five-star The Hay-Adams not only has rooms that are $40 cheaper per night than Trump’s, it is ranked higher by consumers in Tripadvisor (no. 3 vs. no. 11), but is even closer to the White House....

An independent militia marched in the sovereign State of Virginia. This is not even remotely governed by the USA Constitution. They want to overthrow the established government of the USA. They all need to be charged with treason. 

They marched as a militia through the peaceful streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. They could have opened fire at any time or before or after the march. One of their supporters took a car through a crowd in the methodology used against innocent and magnificently innocent people in Europe. He did so intending to kill people. Unarmed people were mowed down in the street of Charlottesville, Virginia after a militia marched in its streets.

That is treason. It is a military paradigm intended to recruit and terrify people and change the way the USA defines itself.

The people of Charlottesville, Virginia were in profound danger by a highly armed right wing extremist militia. 

THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN IN THIS COUNTRY! 

This is a strong statement by Mr. Kenneth Frazier. How many times is an American asked to serve on a Presidential Council.

August 14, 2017

By Michael Erman

(Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier (click here) resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump's American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism.

Trump denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan as criminals and thugs on Monday, bowing to mounting political pressure after initially saying many sides were to blame after a white-nationalist rally turned deadly in Virginia.

Frazier, who is African-American, is the only CEO so far to leave one of Trump's advisory councils because of his reaction to the violence in Virginia, although the AFL-CIO said it was considering pulling its representative on the committee. Prominent Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump's response to the violence over the weekend....

I hope Mr. Frazier will serve again sometime in the future. It is a real loss to the USA to lose such qualified African Americans from contributing to our policies. I understand Mr. Frazier completely and he has to be true to his morality.

President Obama tried at every turn to bring minority citizens to opportunity during his eight years. Mr. Frazier is one of those important people that brings valuable insight the USA never had before. I look forward to his return sometime in the future.

And on top of the loss of Mr. Frazier, President Trump states he will not give Merck any more time to lower "rip off drug prices." Revenge. Trump uses intimidation and coercion. Amazing. I don't recall Merck being a company with problem drug prices. 

Merk's prices don't look like rip offs to me. Merck supplied vaccines to our Veterans Administration at a cost of $72,900. NOT MILLIONS. (click here) That is only one of the contracts Merck has with the VA (click here).

Our veterans better not suffer because of inferior providers because of Trump's revenge agenda.

President Trump's statements today.

He seems to like to open with a statement of the economy. I thought he wasn't going to address Charlottesville at all. But, after those opening statements, he did address the issue.

President Trump did call out the name of the hate groups at that rally that was also involved in violence. The New York Times has brought us the profile to James Alex Fields, Jr.

James Alex Fields Jr. (click here) of Ohio was charged with second-degree murder in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday after the authorities said he smashed a car into a line of cars in an episode that left a 32-year-old woman dead and injured at least 19 other people who were protesting a rally staged by white nationalists....

I find it interesting Mr. Field's family is mentioned in his description. They have come out to talk to the media very soon after the violence. I have no sympathy for James Fields, Jr. I don't care if he lost his father early in his life. Was his father a White Supremacist? There are many children that lose their father, mother or both parents at a tender age, do they all become killers?

Considering the degree the White Supremacists/Nationalists were ready to participate in violence wearing military uniforms and carrying very deadly weapons; President Trump could have been more condemning of the demonstration itself. This was never supposed to be intended to be peaceful. I think that is obvious. That is a huge problem. The uniforms and weapons are a clear message to the country these men intend to exert violence in the country and others should join them. In my opinion, President Trump did not even begin to address these people that promote hate and violence. I mean no one expected a march through the streets of a peaceful city to include military uniforms and highly deadly weapons. What else were they carrying, hand grenades?

What is the relationship of James Fields, Jr. have with the organizations involved in the march and in particular David Duke.

Those uniforms were not a benign part of this march. It very well could have triggered the violent attack on the crowd by Alex Fields in a way we have witnessed in Europe. Every group in the march carries responsibility for the violence, including the murder and maiming of innocent people by one of their supporters.

If I was a spectator along the route of the march I would have been terrified and my first reaction was to understand why the National Guard was in the city.

Israel noticed. This is from Haaretz. 

March 14, 2017
by Nancy Goldstein

Had ISIS (click here) conducted the same kind of recruitment efforts in the United States as the armed militias that descended on Charlottesville this weekend, the Department of Justice would already be investigating and prosecuting them. So will it?...

I demand any other marches planned by these groups anywhere in the USA be canceled. Immediately.

President Trump has a great deal of reflection to carry out. He needs to realize his administration is viewed as a White Supremacist administration. The bigotry and racism have been a very big driver to his election and an identity by his own words.

Steve Bannon is a radical, White Supremacist and agitator. He acts out and makes the news nearly daily if not more often. He obviously keeps White Supremacy at the very front of the Republican Party. He would not mind if the country did have a civil war or worse. Bannon has to go. He is not a benefit to the American people in the Oval Office. He is highly detrimental to the political dialogue and this hostile and violent march is a direct result of his political influence. The phones available and his data lines, as well as websites, should be examined for any connectedness with violent extremist groups. He may very well be involved in the promotion of violence.

I want Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation of this case. He gave a speech at a White Supremacist meeting in California, not long ago.

Having s White Supremacist/Nationalist within political funding and/or on the staff of the Oval Office is NOT diversity.

Next bating opinion question:

"Is the COLA of SSI ...

1. ...too generous?

2. ...just about right?

3. ...or not enough?

Answer: COLA? What does cola have to do with SSI?

Help given: "COLA is the cost of living raise SSI recipients every year."

Answer: "OMG, they are just looking for money. They are looking for donations. Look at this, it isn't about my opinion at all."

I would expect a federal investigation into this as well.

August 13, 2017
By Rachel Weiner

Two Virginia state troopers killed (click here) doing surveillance work during Saturday’s white nationalist rally in Charlottesville were well-known to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

H. Jay Cullen, 48, was a veteran pilot who spent several years shepherding the governor around Virginia. Berke Bates, who would have turned 41 on Sunday, was just beginning to realize a lifelong dream of becoming a helicopter pilot.

“I was close to both of those state troopers,” McAuliffe (D) said at a memorial service in Charlottesville on Sunday morning. “Jay Cullen had been flying me around for three-and-a-half years. Berke was part of my executive protection unit. He was part of my family. The man lived with me 24-7.”

Cullen was the commander of the State Police Aviation Unit.

“They’re still coming to terms with it,” Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said of the troopers under Cullen’s supervision. “It’s very raw.”...                

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

Opinion polls: "Who do you think should be running the states, the federal government, the states or no opinion?"

Huh?

The states and the federal government work together to fund the states. The question is one that divides and conquers. It also sets folks up for the elections next year. The federal government will be the enemy in all the right extremist commercials and it will be hurting the states in someway or another. Probably god will be under attack. 

The recipient of the opinion poll said after getting off the phone, "I don't think there should be a federal government. There should be one pot of gold (Irish - seriously) and all the states take from it as needed. Why are we paying for so many bureaucrats in Washington anyway?" That was the answer. Amazing how people know NOTHING about their government and how it works. There are Donor States and Taker States and the Takers are primarily the southern states where lack of education and faux beliefs live.

These folks never stop to assess their own education or lack thereof. They are an authority because the country is one person-one vote. They never stop to ask if anyone else has answers based in facts and policy; god is the authority and has control, no one else needs to. Amazing. They don't value education or the knowledge of others, they value their own lack of it, powerlessness to god and life circumstances of sacrifice/impoverishment to prove their worth in heaven. It is a darn shame they don't participate in thinking about policy so much as react to power.

Their disdain for Washington, DC is due to the fact Trump is not a king and there is a Congress to decide policy. It is why Congress is always receiving bad ratings, it doesn't capitulate to the king.

The elections of 2018 is about States Rights and runaway government in Washington; dissolving DC and placing power in the states will allow the people to finally have what they want. BUT, they don't want to give up the 'collective' pot of gold, now do they?

That opinion is from a woman in a Taker State.

There is no appreciation of the arts either. Remember "W?" What is opera?

When conceived in 1880 (click here) in its original size (approx. 70 cm) as the crowning element of The Gates of Hell , seated on the tympanum, The Thinker was entitled The Poet. He represented Dante, author of the Divine Comedy which had inspired The Gates, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell, while meditating on his work. The Thinker was therefore initially both a being with a tortured body, almost a damned soul, and a free-thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through poetry. The pose of this figure owes much to Carpeaux’s Ugolino (1861) and to the seated portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici carved by Michelangelo (1526-31).

The Democrats need a new icon rather than a donkey. "The Thinker" is about perfect to reflect the American mind and it can't think beyond the next message from the preacher and the commercial media. At least "The Thinker" WANTS to move out of suffering and not wallow in it.

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning gibbous

21.2 days old

60.5 percent lit


The picture below right (click here) is of a burned spot on a young man's eye after observing a solar eclipse without proper protective lens/eyeglasses.

There is currently no treatment for Solar Retinopathy. (click here) 

It is all very real. There is permanent damage to the eye when observing a solar eclipse without protective eyeglasses. Every person of every age, be it man, woman or child MUST where protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse.

CLINICAL PRESENTATION (click here)

Solar retinopathy more commonly occurs in younger patients.H ypotheses suggest this demographic is most at risk because the clearer crystalline lens at younger ages transmits more light to the retina, including some of the higher-energy UV-B light. Men have an increased incidence of solar retinopathy than women....

The effort around the country to protect eyes while bringing people together to observe, learn and talk about the solar eclipse is impressive. NO excuse, take care of the eyes.

...More than 6,800 libraries (click here) across the U.S. are distributing safety-certified glasses. Many are working with scientists to hold viewing events and activities before and during the eclipse. For a listing of participating libraries, visit: 

Link: https://www.starnetlibraries.org/2017eclipse/