What is the most corrupt party in the USA?

The Republican Party and now we know that for a fact.

The polls before the 2018 election for 9th Congressional District in NC was a dead heat. One week there was a small margin in favor of Dan McCready and the next week that same margin was in favor of Mark Harris. When realizing the public polls are completely unclear to the outcome of that race, it needs to be reinstated as an open seat and the candidates should continue to raise election monies in anticipation of the new election.

February 18, 2019
By Brian Murphy

Raleigh - The stepdaughter of a Bladen County political operativen(click here) detailed how she said his ballot harvesting operation worked on the first day of a hearing Monday into voting irregularities in the unresolved 2018 election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

Lisa Britt, whose mother was married to Leslie McCrae Dowless in the early 1990s, testified that Dowless paid workers to collect absentee ballot request forms and mail-in absentee ballots and drop them off at his office and his home.

She said Dowless and others made copies of request forms and had specific criteria for matching pen colors, where to mail ballots from, how many to mail at a time and even how to place stamps to avoid setting off alarms.

“He fussed at me for putting on stamps upside down,” Britt testified before the N.C. Board of Elections. “We didn’t want to throw up a red flag.”...

Keeping with the strange and unlawful out of North Carolina is the loss of watches shipped via FedEx.

February 18, 2019
By Simone Jasper

A repair shop in Southern Pines, North Carolina (click here) has filed a lawsuit against FedEx, say the company delivered a package that was missing watches worth almost $50,000, according to court records.

A repair shop in North Carolina says it shipped watches worth almost $50,000 through FedEx. But the retailer instead got just a padded envelope, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Cote Timeworks, which is based in Southern Pines, says FedEx was negligent and “didn’t take responsibility, forcing it to pay out-of-pocket to compensate its watch-less clients,” the Triangle Business Journal wrote.

The watch business in a lawsuit filed Tuesday said it paid to ship five watches to New Hampshire and back so that work could be done on them. The items included an 18-karat gold Rolex worth almost $20,000, according to a court document.

A Cote worker in July 2017 signed for the North Carolina-bound package, which was missing all five watches, the lawsuit said....

North Carolina forensics can't determine a wolf from a dog? Here is a reality check for North Carolina; I betcha is was a domesticated wolf. Domesticated wolves are not all that unusual in "the woods" of NC. Ah, "The Dire Wolf."

What do these issues prove about lawlessness in North Carolina?

February 18, 2019

Beaufort County - A North Carolina teacher has died, (click here) three days after she was attacked by an unknown animal.

Brenda Hamilton, 77, had been in critical condition at Vidant Medical Center since Friday morning's attack outside of Pantego. Members of the woman's family confirm that she passed away this morning at the hospital.

Hamilton was an English teacher at Pungo Christian Academy, having taught at the school since 1968.

Biologists with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission performed preliminary DNA tests over the weekend.

Originally, authorities said the woman was killed by a domesticated animal. But now deputies say test results from DNA evidence found on her clothing do not differentiate between wild K9s, such as wolves or coyotes, and domesticated dogs.

Deputies are now collecting DNA from dogs in the area for additional testing.

Wildlife officers say this morning they turned all their evidence over to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.

I think most Americans know "Trump" is the petroleum industry last best chance. Americans need to move past the oil era.

All the issues with Trump records are all very interesting, but, the "Green New Deal" is sound in its fundamental purpose to avert complete disaster due to the Climate Crisis.

(3) global warming (click here) at or above 2 degrees Celsius beyond preindustrialized levels will cause— 

(A) mass migration from the regions most affected by climate change; 

(B) more than $500,000,000,000 in lost annual economic output in the United States by the year 2100; 

(C) wildfires that, by 2050, will annually burn at least twice as much forest area in the western United States than was typically burned by wildfires in the years preceding 2019; 

(D) a loss of more than 99 percent of all coral reefs on Earth; 

(E) more than 350,000,000 more people to be exposed globally to deadly heat stress by 2050; and

 (F) a risk of damage to $1,000,000,000,000 of public infrastructure and coastal real estate in the United States; and 

To be clear...

...Jim Comey was fired 12 hours before this meeting in the White House, Oval Office where highly secret USA information was provided to Russia.

This meeting occurred at the very same time Trump was trying to rope a chaotic USA FBI in a conspiracy against the American people. End of discussion.

THAT IS CALLED TREASON.

...President Trump told Russian officials (click here) highly classified information when he met with them in the Oval Office last week....

...the information that Trump shared with the Russians is what’s called “Code Word” classified. That’s higher than the classification known as Top Secret....

The facts were already known by the FBI that Russia hacked the Clinton campaign and the DCCC before Trump took office.

Donald Trump expected Andrew McCabe and Ron Rosenstein to value a paycheck before the country, hence, Comey’s firing. When the leadership of the FBI could not be corrupted Trump continued his rant and firings. When Comey was fired with a tweet I am quite confident the FBI began to circle the wagons.

Trump carries out outrageous and audacious actions “in plain sight” to numb the country and rob it’s reality to create something different out of his lies. He thinks Americans are stupid. “W”rong!

Russia is an enemy to the United States of America and our allies. Trump goes out of his way to provide aid and comfort to Russia. Enough.

Trump is tweeting? He is feeling insecure. He finds security at the expense of others integrity.

Trump tweets to feel in control. He is sitting in the Oval Office right now in Executive Time while his daughter sits in a European security conference aggrieved the headset for translation will mess up her hairdo. That is a president of the USA? I don’t think so.

The president of the USA is more than occupying a space at a desk of integrity. President of the USA actually cares about the people and the world. Being an American is about having the freedom to experience the world and being an instrument of that freedom and democracy. Being an American is having a president that cares about the world Americans live in and the legacy a life can mean to generations to come. 

My hero has always been a first generation American that came with his parents from Galway Ireland. Who at the age of 17 accepted the responsibility of raising his five siblings after the bird flu took the lives of his parents. A man that worked the Pennsylvania anthracite coal mines to see every one of his children graduate high school and every one of his 40 grandchildren graduate college. That man was never a millionaire. That man had problems with alcoholism because he self medicated.  That man died of Black Lung Disease. That man was a Roman Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus who believed he never deserved Knight of the Year. He humbled himself before God and pledged his love to a woman that never worried about a roof over her head or bread on the table. She never worked a day in her life while revering every granddaughter that choose a profession along with a loving family to call her own. That man never tweeted a word. He died with throngs of people at his funeral. That man was a great American hero and he was my grandfather. That is the America I know and love. Trump can’t hold a candle to him.

“I believe Putin.”

Of course, Trump submitted all the Russian proof on North Korea to USA intelligence for forensics and assessment to complete the reason why he believes Putin that North Korea has no long range missiles. No? That is because Trump is afraid of Putin. Trump remembers Putin stating during the election for president if Hillary Clinton is elected there will be nuclear war with the USA. Trump is afraid of Russian Novichok. He is submissive to Putin because it is easier than standing up to him.

After all Putin won Trump a real seat of power. Why not believe him?

Does Trump believe Putin is killing people in Ukraine? Does Trump believe Putin broke a long standing international treaty to invade Crimea and Ukraine? Does Trump believe Russia is directly responsible for the war at the Russian border with Ukraine? Does Trump believe Russians were responsible for the downing of a commercial airliner killing hundreds of people? If not, what is all that Fake News? Is that what Trump believes of USA intelligence? Is USA intelligence Fake News?

There are millions of Americans living in NATO countries; Trump should not take their security so lightly.

I had a medical procedure. No. I had surgery this past week and have been told to rest. I'll leave you with this for this evening.

It's Sunday Night

It has become obvious to me men and women see relationships differently and as a result, women have been victimized for their sexuality.

Love is not defined by sex. Intimacy frequently follows love, but, the sex is a by-product of a trusting intimate relationship.

Sex appeal is something people of both genders practice to attract their partners. Recreational sex does exist, but, there needs to be some degree of respect for each other even as casual as it can be.

The expression of gender and sexuality takes all forms, but, the one form that gives men to treat women as an object often revolves around language.

I leave this with you tonight:

"Thought Catalog" (click here)
100 Quotes about Women
By Jim Goad

Example:

"It's a man's world. Then Eve arrived." by Richard Armour...

The people at the USA southern border are seeking asylum. They want to work and they want to raise their children. They are not here simply to find a job, that is done in a different way through visa application.

Some are young people alone without parents, but, one thing is clear that makes them asylum seekers, the countries they are coming from have a long documented history of violence against their citizens, primarily through the occupation of drug cartels.

There is no doubt with many of these asylum seekers they have a case. They have to pass a background check and be provided a standing with the USA courts.

Basically, they already have standing to declare asylum and if there is any kind of emergency with them it is a processing emergency and nothing more.

Everyone knows there is no national emergency at the USA - Mexico southern border, right?

For the sake of argument, let's just say there is with crushing throngs of people amassing there.

Why is a wall an answer at all?

There needs to be more of a humanitarian effort, including more judges hearing cases, more social workers assessing families and more lawyers processing cases. 

Why is a wall the only answer Trump seems to have?

Don't forget about job placement because most of these folks are looking for work. We know this is not an invading army. Even Pope Francis said so. Perhaps Speaker Pelosi can ask the Pope to make testimony to the court. 

February 17, 2016

Pope Francis (click here) called forced migration “a human tragedy” during his Mass in Ciudad Juárez.

“We cannot deny the humanitarian crisis which in recent years has meant the migration of thousands of people, whether by train or highway or on foot, crossing hundreds of kilometers through mountains, deserts and inhospitable zones,” he said. “The human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon today.”

He described “a journey laden with grave injustices: the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted,” adding, “So many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of a trade in human beings.”

He cited poverty, violence, drug trafficking and lawlessness as the root causes of migration to the United States from Central America and Mexico.

Here is more from his remarks:

“Being faced with so many legal vacuums, they get caught up in a web that ensnares and always destroys the poorest. Not only do they suffer poverty, but they must also endure these forms of violence. Injustice is radicalized in the young; they are ‘cannon fodder,’ persecuted and threatened when they try to flee the spiral of violence and the hell of drugs. Then there are the many women unjustly robbed of their lives.

No more death nor exploitation! There is still time to change. There is still a way out and a chance, time to implore the mercy of God.”

Francis saluted the migrant rights groups, priests and lay people “often risking their own lives” to help people on the trail....

It was several decades of trying, but, Guzman is finally behind bars.

Australia is now a target of the drug cartels.

February 17, 2019
By Sally Rawsthrone

...Plan Colombia

In the 1990s, (click here) Colombia was ground zero for the global war on drugs – and also one of the deadliest places on Earth, as cartels battled for supremacy and civilians were frequently caught in the crossfire.

As part of the United States' War on Drugs, then-president Bill Clinton implemented an enormous humanitarian program named Plan Colombia in 2000 – leaving Colombia in relative peace, as the cartels set up shop in its northern neighbour, Mexico.

"It's called a balloon effect," UNSW Latin American crime expert Dr Anthea McCarthy-Jones said. "It hasn't eradicated the problem, it's just pushed it closer to the US borders."

While Colombia still produces the majority of the world's cocaine, its sale is largely controlled by two Mexican cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel – whose fearsome leader Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán was convicted this week of pumping drugs into the US, bribing officials, laundering money and commanding his assassins to commit brutal acts of violence, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

These cartels are the two main suppliers to Australian criminals, and also control Mexico's superlabs that turn precursors imported from Asia into ice that is sold to Australia and elsewhere.

"The labs predominantly supply the US market. There's an oversupply of ice for US and that's being redirected to Australia and other countries," the Australian Federal Police's Assistant Commissioner for organised crime, Bruce Hill, told The Sun-Herald....

My connection is not that good. It will be better later today. Sorry about any disappointment but these things happen sometimes.

The US EPA lead levels in water are too high.

February 15, 2019
By Ron Fonger

Flint -- The city’s chief financial officer (click here) says the state will release previously withheld funds for work completed by contractors replacing water service lines in Flint

“These are the funds that were being questioned by members of the (City) Council and media,” CFO Hughey Newsome, said in a statement issued by the city on Friday, Feb. 15. “As I stated time and time again, we, meaning myself and the MDEQ, were working closely to get it figured out. I was confident that we would be reimbursed for the work that was completed.”

In late November, the state said it was withholding reimbursement for Flint’s water service line replacement work in a dispute with the city over the cost of performing full, traditional excavations at homes with copper water service lines that do not require replacement.

DEQ officials have questioned the need for full excavations at such homes, advocating instead for the city contractors to use hydro-excavation, a less expensive method, to uncover pipes....

Thirty years ago the level was much different and one third what it is today. Thirty years ago there were more lead pipes than today. So why is the state and federal agencies allowing higher level today when there is less and less lead pipes used?

...In 1988, (click here) it was estimated that a lead level of 5 µg/l was exceeded in only 1.1% of public water distribution systems in the USA (16). A more recent review of lead levels in drinking-water in the USA found the geometric mean to be 2.8 µg/l (10). The median level of lead in drinking-water samples collected in five Canadian cities was 2.0 µg/l (17). A recent study in Ontario (Canada) found that the average concentration of lead in water actually consumed over a 1-week sampling period was in the range 1.1–30.7 µg/l, with a median level of 4.8 µg/l (18). In the United Kingdom in 1975– 1976, there was virtually no lead in the drinking-water in two thirds of households, but levels were above 50 µg/l in 10% of homes in England and 33% in Scotland (2). In Glasgow (Scotland), where the water was known to be plumbosolvent, the lead concentration in about 40% of the samples exceeded 100 µg/l (19)....

What Type of Plumbing Pipe is Best? (click here) 

• Copper Pipes (Metal)
• Galvanized Steel (Metal)
• Polyvinyl Chloride Pipes or PVC Pipes (Plastic)
• Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride Pipes or CPVC Pipes (Plastic)
• Cross-Linked Polyethylene or PEX Pipes (Plastic)

Therefore, 1 g/m3 (1 gram per meter cubed) = 1 mg/L (1 milligram/liter) = 1 ppm (1 part per million). Likewise, one milligram per cubic meter (mg/m3) is the same concentration in water as one microgram per liter (ug/L), which is about 1 ppb.(1 part per billion)

With the changes in pipes in homes across the USA why is any level of lead tolerated?

February 15, 2019
By Ron Fonger

Thirteen Michigan water systems failed (click here) to meet federal standards for lead in drinking water in the last half of 2018, and seven of those systems had lead levels at least twice as high as the state will allow starting in 2025.

Data requested by MLive-The Flint Journal from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality shows water systems above that action limit in the most recent Lead and Copper Rule testing are located throughout the state and are both large and small -- one serving less than 100 homes and others providing water to cities as large as Hamtramck and Benton Harbor.

A total of 27 water providers registered 90th percentile lead levels of at least 13 parts per billion, beyond the 12 ppb future threshold established last year by the state.

The 90th percentile is a formula used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure the prevalence of lead in water sampled by the more than 1,200 public water systems in the state. Federal regulations set the lead limit at 15 ppb....

Lead in drinking water, food or air is nothing to ignore.

June 1977
By Dr, Herbert A, Schreier, Norman Sherry, MD and Elizabeth Shaughnessy

Lead poisoning (click here) and subclinical body lead elevations have become increasingly widespread findings in children, not only in the inner cities but in the suburbs and rural areas as well. This paper reports on 2 institutionalized children with elevated urinary lead levels who subsequently developed astrocytomas. Lead toxicity may play a role in causing mental retardation, hyperactivity, and more subtle neuropsychological dysfunction in children. It has been shown to have a direct toxic effect on neurons, causing astrocytic proliferation in humans and central nervous system neoplasms in rats.

In Maine, Wind Power is In!

February 15, 2019
By Scott Thistle

The governor's order (click here) opens the door for state agencies to issue permits that were put in limbo under her predecessor.

"Think GM"

February 15, 2019
By Gina Heeb

US industrial production fell 0.6% in January, compared with expectations for a slight increase.

Manufacturing activity showed particular weakness, dragged down by falling motor vehicle output.

The sector is expected to continue to decline, economists say, potentially entering a mild recession this year.

A measure of factory output unexpectedly fell (click here) at the start of the year, raising concerns that the sector could be headed for a downturn.

Industrial production declined 0.6% in January from a month earlier, the Federal Reserve said in a report Friday, well below expectations for a 0.1% increase. Manufacturing production slid 0.9%, seen as the result of rising protectionism and decelerating economic growth around the world.

"Manufacturing is under real pressure from the slowdown in China and the trade war, and we expect output to drift down over the first half of the year, putting the sector into a mild recession," said Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics....

I think any court will find Trump's use of a national emergency to rebalance congressional spending a corrupt act. Congress gave him plenty of money for Border Security. He does not have the southern border fully employed due to the president's previous order to put a freeze on government hiring. Donald Trump has created this mess which never existed before and then has the nerve to ask for billions and billions of dollars besides. That is corruption to me. If the Robert's Court throws in with Trump for the sake of the integrity of the Executive Branch there is something very wrong.

A president cannot create a crisis that never existed before to satisfy his politics. That is pure unadulterated corruption of government.

First, Trump, FOX News and right wing media finds a subject that instills fear in their listeners and viewers. Trump finds the topic very helpful in his speeches to win the presidency. Once elected he places a hiring freeze so open jobs for Border Patrol can no longer be filled. Then he takes away funding to USA foreign interests causing people to migrate to the USA southern border seeking employment. Trump then describes them as killers, rapists and thugs, takes their children and puts them in separate detention without any means of identification that will reunite them, creating orphans that are wards of the court and dependents of the USA government. He then prosecutes the parents and deports them. He places people claiming asylum in detention facilities without adding judges (again the hiring freeze). He puts the USA military during the holidays near the border to lay barbed wire. He follows that up months later by deploying USA military men and women from Afghanistan to the southern USA. A USA general allows USA military troops in the country because, "He has a valid order." The general later resigns because of the removal of troops from Afghanistan. 

As a side note a Border Patrol officer goes off the grid and kills prostitutes. It is revealed an entire year before the American people were aware of the child separations it was being conducted without notice of any kind or in any speech, indicating the secrecy of the actions. Then two record setting drug busts take place in the USA, one at the southern border with both at USA legal crossings and any wall did not have a darn thing to do with it.

Trump has no plan because he keeps adjusting his approach to the USA southern border to satisfy his constituents. His administration is missing many qualified staff members and relies on Twitter to communicate with staff regarding firings and the like. Spending is out of control approaching trillion dollar deficits. He has a group of Americans ignorant of the national media and only listens to their master's voice. He puts billions back into his cronies pockets including that of his family and the Kushners by means of government mechanisms including a tax cut. All this while the Middle Class is burdened with more taxes, unwittingly paying less payroll deductions imperiling the cash flow within the USA government and Treasury.

Then to top off this disaster, he sends government employees on furlough as government has no money to pay them causing an enormously dangerous paradigm shifts as the of the government shutdown rolls on for far longer than any other. His calendar is exposed and he hasn't been conducting the business of the president relying on the Cabinet officers to keep things humming. Those cabinet officers, without research to back them up, often slashing budgets and regulations to dangerous outcomes.

To complete the picture, Russia is welcome to the White House for a picture opportunity and in receipt of classified information. Russia is catered to allowing secret meetings by Trump and even having the Treasury Department override legislation by Congress to provide billions back to a Russian oligarch.

Now, he places a national emergency on the country stating it is because of the problems at the southern border he created. He didn't call a national emergency months ago, but, only when he decides he needs was billions for a border wall that serves no purpose.

California has standing in this and they have filed a lawsuit to end the national emergency. Trump states if it weren't for the wall California would be in chaos. It will be interesting to hear exactly what California has to say including States Rights and perhaps removing the border wall already there.

National Aeronautics AND Space Administration

February 15, 2019
By Christian Davenport 

During the height of the Space Age, (click here) the United States and the Soviet Union bushwhacked a frantic path to the lunar surface, landing nearly 20 spacecraft softly on the moon between 1966 and 1976, including the six carrying NASA’s Apollo astronauts.

But after the last of these missions, a robotic Soviet probe that brought back 6 ounces of lunar soil, Earth’s closest neighbor was virtually abandoned. The public and politicians lost interest.

While the occasional orbiter has launched to survey the moonsince then,in more than 42 years only one spacecraft touched down softly on the lunar surface: China’s Chang’e 3 in 2013....

It is pretty much another space race with new players and technology. NASA retired the Space Shuttle and any program that is to carry people to the moon will probably be on the revised Apollo booster rocket. I thought that wasn't ready for some time yet.

The complaints from the public will be similar; the national debt and prioritizing citizens over the space program.

...There is the rise of China, which on Jan. 3 landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, a historic first. This month, an Israeli spacecraft destined for the moon is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. If successful, it would make Israel the fourth country, after the United States, Russia and China, to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.

Later this year — the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing — two more moon missions are planned, one by India and another, by China. On Thursday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the space agency intends to partner with the private sector to land an American spacecraft on the moon as early as this year.

“It’s important we get back to the moon as fast as possible,” he told reporters. “We’re going to take shots on goal.”

If those landings are successful, it would set a record: the most soft lunar landings in a single year, surpassing 1966 and 1972, which each saw three vehicles touch down. (At the beginning of the Space Age, many spacecraft ended up crashing into the moon.)...

Speaker Pelosi and a number of Republicans are correct in that the idea of a national emergency at the USA southern border is not needed.

This is very plain. Donald Trump would USE the border issue to keep attention on him during his run for president.

And this is my memory, he did say to a national audience through the television media, during his Senate campaigning in 2018, that "The Wall" would always keep the attention of his audience if their interest was waning. Of course, he said it so other Republicans can use the idea in their campaigns.

Donald Trump has made undo cuts in funding to foreign interests and as a result, the people of the Northern Triad have migrated to the southern border seeking work. Donald Trump has created the so called "national emergency." He is attempting to keep a campaign promise that should not have been made in the first place.

There are problems with some undocumented people that have criminal records and their interpretation of freedom in the USA. They are used to violence and as a result, think little in using a gun if they get their hands on one. The occurrence of such lawlessness does not rise to a national emergency.

The GUN problem is a national emergency, including the fact gun stores, do not adequately secure the weapons in their stores in a way that prevents theft. There needs to be a bill that promotes sale stores and warehouses to secure their place of business to end burglary.

Gun stores have a particular problem in that they carry large inventories of guns, various other weapons and ammunition. I believe as a result they have sale stores that would require additional investment to better secure the premises from theft. The sale store owners are not making such investments, but, defer monies to purchases of more guns to sell.

The ability to steal a gun has to be brought under control and a bill WITH AVAILABLE FUNDING and/or AVAILABLE CONTRACTORS TO DO THE WORK should be passed to save lives and thwart criminals from using guns in their crimes.

The emergency is obvious, it is the easy availability of guns in the USA and not the Undocumented. There are Ports of Entry for asylum seekers and looking for work is not an issue of asylum. However, any fear of death is an asylum issue. There need to be more immigration courts, too. The open vacancies of Border Patrol officers need to be filled as soon as possible rather than the hiring freeze Trump has imposed to reduce the number of federal employees. Being short handed of enough officers/agents is a matter of safety, especially for the Border Patrol.

New York's abortion law is following the footsteps of other states.

October 1, 2018
By Tony Leys

...Fifty-four percent of Iowans (click here) now say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, compared to 48 percent who felt that way in a 2008 Iowa Poll. Thirty-nine percent believe abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, compared to 46 percent in the 2008 poll.

Iowa's fetal heartbeat law is on hold while opponents challenge it in court. It would ban nearly all abortions after a fetus' heartbeat could be detected. Experts say that can occur about six weeks into pregnancy, which is often before women realize they're pregnant.

The law’s supporters hope to use it to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide....

This is not her district and while the politics fits Ms. Ocasio-Cortez politics, Carolyn Maloney is their Representative.

Ms. Ocaaio - Cortez is not a spokesperson for every member of the US House. The Right Wing media is demonizing her and hanging every issue around her neck as if she speaks for Democrats. Knock it off. She should be referring questions outside her district, in cases like this, to the US Rep. that actually has information on the issue.

Ms. Ocaaio-Cortez knows little to nothing about this issue, has not attended one meeting with constituents and I doubt Ms. Maloney has either.

February 14, 2019

Notch another victory for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (click here)

The freshman Democratic representative celebrated online retailer Amazon’s decision Thursday to scrap its plans to build a new headquarters in her New York City district.

“I think it’s incredible,” Ocasio-Cortez responded when asked to comment on Amazon’s about-face. “It shows that everyday Americans still have the power to organize and fight for their communities and they can have more say in this country than the richest man in the world.”...

It is not unusual to have free people organize and demonstrate to have their will known to a company seeking to set up an office or warehouse in their neighborhood. Many Mom and Pop stores have done exactly that and complained whenever Walmart shows up to build another store. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. There are many examples of such issues and this is just one more.

It is true that the people won their fight, but, this isn't all that unusual. I believe it was a different district in New York City that turned away a Walmart some years ago.

Jeff Bezos has been in the media lately, so diverting headquarters all of a sudden is a big deal. This is not all that. The reason Bezos was turned away from Long Island City is because of a long standing complaint by residents about special treatment of some businesses and not others. It is about equitable treatment and Rep. Maloney should have known that rather than demanding Amazon keep their plans.

I strongly suggest House Members actually know their constituents and what THEY consider to be important and not what is imposed on them.

The Free World values property owners and the taxes they pay to local governments. As a result property owners have a significant importance and are taken seriously, as they should. If the people of Long Island City have a grievance then it should be known and addressed by local government and helped in any way by elected state and federal officials when it applies. This is a very interesting development of the disconnect between the people and their government. That should not exist.

President Trump needs to stop his fear mongering and hate speech.

August 7, 2019
Briana Bierschbach

...That percentage also stands out in the nation: Minnesota's 5th District has the 6th highest percentage of millennial voters of all 435 U.S. House districts. It's a microcosm of a trend nationally that has, for the first time ever, pushed the number of millennial-aged voters over the number of boomer-aged voters....

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar is a Somali-American and practices the Muslim faith. There is no reason to continue the hate speech regarding her that Trump prides himself with, including that of the Undocumented. The USA has never separated children from their families before the Trump administration and in the case of Ilhan Omar we are witnessing a woman that has grown up with her family to go on to succeed in a country that embraced her and her family.

Everyone should be proud to have Ilhan Omar in the US Congress. She brings a list of FIRSTS with her. She has been serving in government since 2016 as a member of the Minnesota legislature. The 2018 midterm elections resulted in a win for the first naturalized citizen from Africa to be in the US Congress. She brings incredible experiences and insight to the US Congress and that is something this country demands of its citizens. She is bringing profound diversity to the US Congress and we should embrace it.

Ilhan Abdullah Omar was born in Mogadishu. Mogadishu is the capital of Somalia. She made it out. She left behind a civil war that raged until 2012 and found a place in the USA to achieve and believe she could make a difference. I believe she can.

Her mother died when she was only at the age of 2 and lived in a refugee camp after the Civil War started with her father and grandfather. She has a lot to contribute to the USA. She is a living example of the USA's humanity and today we should all be proud of her current accomplishments and those we can expect from her in the future.

She is a rare find. Her TWEETS were inappropriate and she apologized. There is absolutely no way she deserves the wrath of an angry president. The Jewish community is embraced by this country and we uphold their rights to freedom and dignity and weep with them when anti-semitism rears it's an ugly head.

This wonderful Somali-American is only beginning to understand her importance to the people of the USA. We expect a lot from her and certainly wish her and her family well and success.

I am pleased to see Senator Markey involved with the "Green New Deal." He has wanted a bill to end GHG pollution longer than anyone in the Senate. If he says the bill is not ready, then it is not ready. I have confidence he knows something about having a bill properly prepared and ready for a vote.

I was looking for a CBO score on it and when I didn't find it I expected it was not ready. It does raise questions as to why Mitch McConnell wanted to bring it forward without it being completed. I am quite sure McConnell knows when a bill is ready for a vote. It is too bad the entire Senate isn't ready for such a bill. It should be. I am sure they are concerned about the world their children and grandchildren inherit. They can't possibly end their concern at an inheritance tax, right?