I am really grateful Merrick Garland is the Attorney General. We will finally have a competent DOJ that can win trials.

Civil Rights are going to be a huge issue going forward. Georgia passed draconian election and voting laws and now Florida is up to the same tricks. Only DeSantis is also committing censorship with the media because the announcement of the election and voting changes occurred with a single audience, Fox News. Of course, Fox could put an end to preferential treatment, but, they don't. Censorship is a red flag for investigation.

May 6, 2021

By Stephanie Becker and Chandelis Duster

The Justice Department  (click here) on Wednesday issued a warning in the Republican-run Arizona Senate-ordered audit of the 2020 election ballots, saying the audit could be in violation of federal voting and civil rights laws.

The warning comes amid scrutiny over the audit of nearly 2.1 million ballots from Arizona's largest county, Maricopa, where election officials previously found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or other issues during the state's 2020 presidential election. The review -- which perpetuates the falsehood that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump -- has been decried by both Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors, which is majority Republican, and the Arizona secretary of state, who is a Democrat. The results of the election have long been certified by the secretary of state.

Pamela Karlan, principal deputy assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, warned Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, in a letter obtained by CNN that turning over election materials to audit contractor Cyber Ninjas -- a Sarasota, Florida audit contractor hired by the GOP-controlled Arizona Senate -- could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Karlan also wrote in the letter that there are "at least issues of potential non-compliance with federal laws enforced by the Department."...

While Trump was in office, the GOP wanted to end the federal government.

Shown Here:

Introduced in House (01/03/2017)

Tax Code Termination Act (click here)

This bill terminates the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 after December 31, 2021, except for self-employment taxes, Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, and railroad retirement taxes. A two-thirds majority vote in Congress is required to change such termination date.

The bill declares that any new federal tax system should be a simple and fair system that: (1) applies a low rate to all Americans, (2) provides tax relief for working Americans, (3) protects the rights of taxpayers and reduces tax collection abuses, (4) eliminates the bias against savings and investment, (5) promotes economic growth and job creation, and (6) does not penalize marriage or families.

The new federal tax system must be approved by Congress in its final form by July 4, 2021.

The Republicans are not competent practitioners of democracy. These bills to defund the federal government by eliminating the tax code and replacing with a national sales tax is out of the question. The budget runs on what the federal government requires, not by how much tax was collected.

Introduced in Senate (01/03/2017) (click here) 

Fair Tax Act of 2017

This bill is a tax reform proposal that imposes a national sales tax on the use or consumption in the United States of taxable property or services in lieu of the current income and corporate income tax, employment and self-employment taxes, and estate and gift taxes. The rate of the sales tax will be 23% in 2019, with adjustments to the rate in subsequent years. There are exemptions from the tax for used and intangible property, for property or services purchased for business, export, or investment purposes, and for state government functions.

Under the bill, family members who are lawful U.S. residents receive a monthly sales tax rebate (Family Consumption Allowance) based upon criteria related to family size and poverty guidelines.

The states have the responsibility for administering, collecting, and remitting the sales tax to the Treasury.

Tax revenues are to be allocated among: (1) the general revenue, (2) the old-age and survivors insurance trust fund, (3) the disability insurance trust fund, (4) the hospital insurance trust fund, and (5) the federal supplementary medical insurance trust fund.

No funding is authorized for the operations of the Internal Revenue Service after FY2021.

Finally, the bill terminates the national sales tax if the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (authorizing an income tax) is not repealed within seven years after the enactment of this bill.

This is the insurrection US House Republican members are backing by denying Liz Cheney her status.

The Confederate Flag which is the icon of White Supremacists was everywhere. You can't love your country and hate Rep. Liz Cheney. It is not possible that two truths exist.

 

The Trump Party are anti-constitutionalists.

There is no way a political party can live under the facts of Trump's relationship with Russia during the 2016 elections and afterward and still oust Liz Cheney from leadership. Steve Scalise is a white supremacist. There isn't anything else to say, there is a movement within the Republican Party that wants to destroy the US Constitution.

May 5, 2021
By Chris Cillizza

Two things have become very, very clear over the last 24 hours: (click here)

1. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is likely to be removed as the third-ranking Republican in House leadership -- as soon as next week when the House reconvenes.

2. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik is the preferred replacement for Cheney in leadership, with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (Louisiana) now publicly supporting the Cheney-for-Stefanik swap.

These two developments are quite clearly related -- and revealing.

Every word she states is based in the facts of the insurrection. Any Republican that sees her as a threat to the party is wrong and the most extremist of the party.

Both cannot be true. The DOJ today plainly stated the relationship with Russia existed clearly with the Trump administration and it's election campaign. That cannot be true and at the same time, Rep. Cheney is wrong about her words. Both cannot exist. The extremist members of the GOP are following the wrong path to protect our democracy. Putin is still having a clear effect on the GOP. 

With Voting Rights under attack, it looks like the Three-Fifths Compromise is at work again.

May 4, 2021
By Rick Rojas

Nashville - The Three-Fifths Compromise, (click here) an agreement reached during the negotiations in 1787 to create the United States Constitution, found that, for the purposes of representation and taxation, only three-fifths of a state’s enslaved people would be counted toward its total population. It is regarded as one of the most racist deals among the states during the country’s founding.

Yet in a speech in the Tennessee General Assembly on Tuesday, one representative defended the compromise, arguing that it was “a bitter, bitter pill” that was necessary to curtail the power of slaveholding states and that helped clear the way to ending slavery — remarks that were rebuked by critics, including Black colleagues, as insulting and demeaning.

“By limiting the number of population in the count,” the state representative, Justin Lafferty, a Republican from Knoxville, said on the House floor, participants in the Constitutional Convention “specifically limited the number of representatives that would be available in the slaveholding states, and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery — well before Abraham Lincoln, well before the Civil War.”...

Justin Lafferty went on to explain away the idea of a Five-Third slave population count in order to secure US Representatives to the US House was a racist act; by stating it lead to the end of slavery. Well, if that were the case, it sure took a long time to make the switch in the USA from slave to citizen. 

The assault on voting rights needs to be seen for what it is, a power grab that ELIMINATES the rights of minorities by OBSTRUCTING voting opportunity.

The Fourteenth Amendment originally passed July 9, 1868. 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

However, slavery was illegal in the thirteen original colonies in 1776. This is a really good analysis of the Thirteenth Amendment and slavery in general when it came to the rights of citizens.

By Jamal Greene and Jennifer Mason McAward

Slavery is America’s original sin. (click here) Despite the bold commitment to equality in the Declaration of Independence, slavery was legal in all of the thirteen colonies in 1776. By the start of the Civil War, four million people, nearly all of African descent, were held as slaves in 15 southern and border states. Slaves represented one-eighth of the U.S. population in 1860....

The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution reiterates the rights of all citizens.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

These three Amendments to the USA Constitution are the framework to end slavery in the USA. Why is it today, there is so much racism in our society and government?

"... previous condition of servitude" may be grounds to end the obstruction of former prisoners to vote. Being incarcerated and the definition as "servitude" was defined clearly in the 13th Amendment. The words are clearly written to make exceptions to incarceration as "...except as a punishment for crime...." There is a clear understanding that incarceration is defined in the US Constitution as involuntary servitude. Therefore the words in the 15th Amendment are even more clear when realizing the constitutional language of servitude. When prisoners are released from incarceration for any reason they are no longer in involuntary servitude and any previous servitude is not to abridge their right to vote.

There isn't anything difficult about this. The day prisoners walk out of prison or jail a free person, they have the right to vote. PERIOD! 

The words of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment to the USA Constitution is clear. There is nothing to be in the way of voting, except time in incarceration. But, once that incarceration ends there is nothing that should obstruct their return to full citizen rights, including voting. 

Prison is used as a financial tool for the states, including that once a prisoner has served his or her time there are still bills to pay and until those bills are paid, there is no return to full citizen rights. That is unconstitutional. The use of prisons as a means of raising monies to the state's treasury has to end, especially, where it prevents the return of voting rights.

When a judge hands down a sentence, there are fines to be paid. There is no order by any judge to assign the cost of prison to the prisoners and their families. There should never be any such assignment by a judge because it is unconstitutional to assign the cost of incarceration that prevents voting rights.

Congress needs to address the abliity of the DOJ to hide it's proceedings.

Attorney General Garland needs to assist Congress in drafting legislation that will end these secretive practices in the DOJ.

It is all fine and good to have the political discussions this news spawns, but, there needs to be something done about the ability of the DOJ to carry on unlawfully in secret. I know there is a lot to be said about ethics, but, the ability of the DOJ to carry out secret political agendas is out of the question. There needs to be someone, like the Inspector General, that screams bloody murder over law-breaking within the department itself.

This cannot be allowed to exist at all anywhere in the USA government or any state or local government either.

The professions are supposed to police themselves with state organizations that remove licenses and bring about fines for unethical practices, but, there is every indication professional organizations were made mute during the Trump years. Nothing they did or stated mattered.

This news from Judge Jackson is alarming in the worst possible way. The DOJ under the direction of Bill Barr, then Attorney General, conducted itself in a corrupt and illegal way that undermined even the investigation of the relationship Russia had with the Trump campaign. I don't care if the meetings were haphazard, the nexus existed and it has to be put to an end.

What is even more disturbing is the fact the transfer of power to a new president was met with real challenges. The State of Georgia had it not been for the Secretary of State could have been corrupted and lost to the electoral count. Vice President Pence, if it had been someone else, could have effected the actual electoral count. The fact that the insurrection even occurred, let alone resulted in violence at the US Capitol which actually did delay the electoral vote count; are all factors the Congress must address to prevent such problems from manifesting again. 

Perhaps, stenographers need to be assigned to the Attorney General that records every word spoken in meetings and then submitted to the Inspector General and/or an Inspector General assigned to record and evaluate the Attorney General's decisions. 

There must be a way of policing the DOJ that removes the ability to maintain a veil of secrecy to undermine the USA Constitution. The DOJ must be prohibited from acting as an adjunct to the President's political agenda. The DOJ must retain the right to prosecute the Executive Branch for unlawful acts while in office.

May 4, 2021
By William S. Schmidt

...The department (click here) had argued that the memo was exempt from public records laws because it consisted of private advice from lawyers whom Mr. Barr had relied on to make the call on prosecuting Mr. Trump. But Judge Jackson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, ruled that the memo contained strategic advice, and that Mr. Barr and his aides already understood what his decision would be....

Citizen Arborists. It is a great program. The benefits outweigh any costs.

May 3, 2021
By Morgan Greene

When Shirley Rounds Davis (click here) moved to her home on the Far South Side decades ago, she could see a maple tree through the window. Over the years, she watched it grow.

“And the birds would come,” Davis said. “In the morning, they would wake me up, and my children too, they’d wake us up with their song in the morning.”...

...Davis is one of many Chicagoans caring for the trees that make up the regional canopy coverage, which has increased by 2% since 2010, according to a new tree census from the Morton Arboretum. But that finding comes with some caveats....

...The canopy across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties increased overall, from about 157 million trees and shrubs in the region in 2010 to 172 million today, a 2% increase bringing regional canopy coverage to 23%, according to findings from the census. Chicago has about 4 million of the trees, with the other 168 million in the seven-county region....

IT is not the only job of the future.

Grow tree stewards (click here) of the future by inspiring creativity and learning at the many education programs just for youth at The Morton Arboretum.

The EPA is correct in bring "no tolerance" to hydrofluorocarbons.

May 3, 2021
By Lisa Friedman

Washington - The Environmental Protection Agency (click here) on Monday moved to sharply cut down on the use and production of powerful greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, part of the Biden administration’s larger strategy of trying to slow the pace of global warming.

The first significant step taken by the E.P.A. under President Biden to curb climate change, the proposed regulation focuses on hydrofluorocarbons, a class of man-made chemicals that is thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet....

...But the speed with which the E.P.A. crafted language and moved forward with the proposed regulation is unusual and underscores the urgency that the Biden administration is placing on climate change, said Francis Dietz, vice president for public affairs at the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, a trade group.

These ozone-replacing gases should have been under control a long time ago to prevent global warming. President Biden is moving quickly to do all the work no one else bothered doing. These gases should not exist in manufacturing anywhere on Earth.

The list cannot stop here. The next biggest offender is methane. It has to be brought under control, including capping wells and ending leaks. Has to happen.

The EV (electrical vehicle) market MUST TAKE PRECEDENT. There was a report I read that said the USA will run out of gasoline this summer. No surprise. Peak oil was in 2005. No one bothered to tell the public they are living with gas engine cars and trucks on borrowed time. 

It is time for a major shift in personal transportation to EV. There are going to be people that fall off the car market altogether. What are they going to do about work and commuting? This is a major paradigm shift that will cause unemployment simply because people can't get to work. They bought the dream of living in suburbia. Wrong-way to go. 

For two decades I have advocated high-speed rail from coast to coast. Where is it? Anyone take that seriously? The only city in the country that has bothered to support living in the Burbs, is Boston. They have a commuter rail that most people working in Boston can take not far from their homes. Where has everyone been?

There needs to be more extensive mass transit. Any working American should have the option of getting on a bus to travel to the rail service.

Time to get real and only 100 days in office and Biden's EPA is moving quickly in the right direction.

Just a drop in to say hello.

Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. Where did he get the speed and endurance?

Great Grandparents. 

Storm Cat

AP Indy

Unbridled

They are all great horses themselves, but, when one considers Seattle Slew and Bold Reasoning who was sired by Bold Ruler at Clairborn Farms; I would have bought the colt in a heartbeat, too.

Medina Spirit has some of the finest thoroughbred blood lines, including the fact Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler. Bold Ruler wasn't much of a racehorse, but, he was a heck of a daddy.

If one is going to follow Medina Spirit, his career may very well follow that of Seattle Slew. Little known horse bought fairly cheaply at an auction, but, delivered a 1000 times his price.

The only other sire that turns my head is Princequillo.

When it comes to breeding Thoroughbreds,(click here) the wise money generally goes with the tried and true within the box of fashionable bloodlines. The wiser money will look outside the box and, once in a while, find gold where no one else would consider looking. Princequillo is one such Thoroughbred. He was like this his entire life....

It is always the "Rags to Riches" stories that make the greatest sires. Isn't he a beauty and his strength as a sire still holds true today. You can still find him in the lineage somewhere.

If it weren't for the horse, the trainer is nobody.

Sunday Night will be delayed.

Thank you for your interest.

The GOP is reining in the rude.

Guinea pigs for a radically modified radiaition scan. This scan was never approved by the FDA.

April 28, 2021
By Paul Egan

Stebbins, 22, of Mount Morris, is visibly pregnant and said she had not thought about any potential risk until later when her mother raised the issue.

Ms. Stebbins is not supposed to have to worry about being exposed or having her unborn child exposed to radiation. She is not a physician. Ms. Stebbins is supposed to be protected from GROSS MALPRACTICE.

First, Flint residents were exposed to toxic lead. (click here)

Now, there are concerns many could be exposed to harmful radiation through bone scans as they seek to document their exposure to lead and secure their shares of a $641.25 million settlement of civil lawsuits arising from the Flint water catastrophe.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Flint pediatrician who helped expose the 2014 lead poisoning of the city's drinking water supply, is among those raising concerns about the use in Flint — through arrangements made by plaintiff attorneys — of a portable bone scanner that its manufacturer says is not designed for use on humans....

..."It is not an approved practice by any global regulatory agency or professional body," Reynolds said. Instead, "it is being promoted by misinformed attorneys" as part of an "unauthorized/unsupervised research project, masquerading as an accepted medical procedure, as a condition for compensation to claimants."...

This isn't misinformation. It is however gross legal malpractice.

National Research Council (US) Committee on Measuring Lead in Critical Populations.

Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1993.

The purpose of this chapter (click here) is to discuss analytic methods to assess exposure to lead in sensitive populations. The toxic effects of lead are primarily biochemical, but rapidly expanding chemical research databases indicate that lead has adverse effects on multiple organ systems especially in infants and children. The early evidence of exposure, expressed by the age of 6–12 months, shows up in prenatal or postnatal blood as lead concentrations that are common in the general population and that until recently were not considered detrimental to human health (Bellinger et al., 1987,1991a; Dietrich et al., 1987a; McMichael et al., 1988). As public-health concerns are expressed about low-dose exposures (Bellinger et al., 1991a,1987; Dietrich et al., 1987a; McMichael et al., 1988; Landrigan, 1989; Rosen et al., 1989; Mahaffey, 1992), the uses of currently applicable methods of quantitative assessment and development of newer methods will generate more precise dosimetric information on small exposures of numbers of sensitive populations....

Well, if Genesee County doesn't have the vaccine for the public, what good is a strategy?

23 April 2021

By Jiquanda Johnson

Nearly a dozen people sit in on a Zoom call (click here) on a Wednesday afternoon for what they call a “publications” meeting – one similar to many others held daily in Flint, Michigan, as community partners collaborate for the sake of public health.

In essence, it’s a meeting bringing organizations together to help strategize on how to get the word out about Covid-19 vaccinations.

Like the rest of Michigan, Flint is seeing steep increases in Covid-19 numbers.

“My city is on fire. Covid-19 is on fire,” said Debra Furr-Holden, director of the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions (FCHES) and associate dean for public health integration at Michigan State University, as she talks about new efforts to reduce Covid numbers....

...Now the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking renewed havoc in the city as a wave of new infections struck Michigan just as much of the rest of the country seemed to be recovering. Numbers of positive cases in Flint are steadily increasing and the pandemic has not made it easy to get information out to a community struggling with various communication gaps. It is a fresh crisis, but it is also one that multiple local activists and community leaders are seeking to combat....

Can't imagine why everyone is upset, can you? A year ago...

A security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint, Michigan, was shot and killed after a confrontation with the family of a woman he had told to leave the store because she wasn’t wearing a face mask. (Three people, including the woman’s mother, were charged with first-degree murder.) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the state’s stay-at-home order would remain in place for two more weeks; her statement came on the same day that President Donald Trump tweeted that she should “make a deal” with protesters who gathered at the state Capitol a day earlier, some carrying assault weapons.

April 29, 2021

By Craig Mauger

Lansing — Robert Gordon, (click here) Michigan's former health director who abruptly resigned on Jan. 22, said he made the decision after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told him it was time to go in a "new direction."

Gordon revealed the comment at the beginning of a Thursday morning state House Oversight Committee hearing. The Republican-controlled panel subpoenaed Gordon last week to appear before the panel. GOP lawmakers voiced concerns that the $155,606 separation agreement Whitmer's administration reached with Gordon violated a constitutional provision barring "extra compensation" paid to any public officer after the person's "service has been rendered."...

April 30, 2021

By Sarah Rahal

The first case of the India variant of COVID-19 (click here) has been identified in Clinton County north of Lansing, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Bob Wheaton told The Detroit News Friday.

The new variant, B.1.617, was initially detected in India in October with two mutations, E484Q and L452R, according to the World Health Organization....

April 30, 2021

Washington – The U.S. will restrict travel from India (click here) starting on May 4, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden’s administration made the determination on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

Why is it that Genesee County does not have adequate vaccines for COVID-19? Flint is in Genesee County. I am fairly certain other areas of Michigan have sufficient vaccines.

April 26, 2021

By Dan Bondy

Flint - According to the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, (click here)  the number of children in Michigan being hospitalized with COVID-19 is growing.

The Association reports hospitalization rates for children to increase three hundred and eleven percent between February nineteenth and April twentieth....

...The report also says the number of children hospitalized with severe covid-19 symptoms hit a high of 70 across the state last week.

The report says, on average there are 1,500 pediatric covid cases diagnosed each day.

April 29, 2021

By Craig Mauger

Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (click here) announced a plan Thursday to tie the future of COVID-19 restrictions in Michigan to the percentage of residents who get their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The Democratic governor described the "MI Vacc to Normal" plan as the state's way out of the pandemic, which has been tied to more than 17,400 deaths in Michigan and spurred limitations on gatherings and businesses for more than a year.

Under the new four-phase plan, the Whitmer administration will begin easing restrictions two weeks after 4.5 million residents, or 55% of the adult population, receive their first dose. She said her administration will lift a requirement for remote work when it's feasible....

So, let me get this right. Whitmer has a plan to lift restrictions on movement within Michigan after 55 percent of adults are vaccinated. Which 55 percent is that because Genesee County will have restrictions lifted without much of a hope of 55 percent of their citizens being vaccinated. Where did the 55 percent come from anyway?

I WOULD THINK the 55 percent of vaccinations is in the cities, right? That is where transmission is most likely to happen. Cities where there are many more people per square mile than rural areas. Where is the 55 percent coming from? Will it actually end the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Michigan? Heck, no!

Immunizations (click here)

Due to the current recommendations of social distancing and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Immunization Department is appointment only, no walk-ins are available at this time.

Please call (810) 237-4569 or 810-237-4540 for an appointment, you will be asked a few questions on recent travel and current health status.

A bipartisan US Senate recognizes the poor condition of the country's water supply.

30 April 2021

By Cornell University

Jerel Ezell (click here) is a mixed methods researcher‚ currently enrolled in the sociology doctoral program at the University of Chicago. He is a graduate of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (M.P.H., 2010), where he had his first experience in the housing sector working at New Destiny Housing Corporation, a nonprofit which develops supportive, sustainable housing for low-income survivors of domestic violence...

...The Senate has approved a bipartisan, (click here) $35 billion bill to upgrade the country’s water infrastructure, a measure that would clean up the nation’s water supply.

Jerel Ezell is professor of Africana studies and an expert in health disparities and social inequality in post-industrial communities. Ezell has worked on city infrastructure challenges in Flint, Michigan and his new research shows that five years after the beginning of the Flint water crisis, 29% of residents had associated PTSD symptoms, with higher rates observed among Black residents.

Ezell says:

“This rare moment of bipartisanship is welcome, and this bill takes a small, but important, step in acknowledging the importance of clean water as a basic human right. However, while this legislation will do a good deal to address some of the long-standing technical issues plaguing our national water supply, infrastructure upgrades alone will not motivate communities who are used to limited water potability to use it.

“This bill must be reinforced by earnest public engagement and education campaigns on water consumption, particularly in low-income and racial/ethnic minority communities like those in Flint, Michigan which have routinely been subjected to poor tasting water that has been unsafe to drink or bathe in and at times disastrous for their health.”...

Ashley Babbitt’s family has no basis for a lawsuit

Ashley Babbit was an insurrectionist that destroyed the people’s property and then attempted to enter a chamber to bring harm to members of Congress.

It was a lynch mob and she was a member of that group of people. In any video of the incident the crowd is yelling, “ He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun.” She went through the broken glass anyway. Was she wearing a bulletproof vest or not? They aren’t good at close range. The gun the agent was using looked like a 9 mm. 9 mm are effective against body armor.

The agent involved has been exonerated. He was acting according to his training. This isn’t a racist issue. This was a government agent doing his job. As soon as Ashley was shot the crowd started to disperse because they became scared. The agent did his job and saved lives.

Ashley Babbitt’s family has no basis for their lawsuit. 

President Biden's address to Congress.

They were finally able to come up with a solution to get people in the same room. It is highly notable that the Speaker of the US House and the President of the US Senate are women. They made history today. The women sitting at the front are Democrats. The historical basis of this cannot be ignored. The President of the US Senate is a minority. The historical significance by Democrats is groundbreaking. That is not a minor achievement. Democrats need to be proud of their progress and their history that brought the country to this accomplishment.

April 28, 2021

President Biden Addresses Joint Session of Congress (click here)

President Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress. He discussed his actions over the first 100 days of his presidency, highlighting the number of people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the economic aid package. He also outlined his agenda for the rest of the year, including his plans for child care assistance, jobs, combating climate change, and other issues.

I think President Joe Biden is one of the greatest presidents of this country. He is focused on the people and Wall Street is welcome to participate.

C-Span has a margin on the right to highlight the topics of the speech.

President Biden represents everything good about the USA. He believes in a powerful Middle Class that lifts people out of poverty.

The "American Jobs Plan" is a blue-collar, blue plan to build American. There is dearly little I disagree with in this speech. He is a great president. I always knew he was the answer to America's woes. There is every reason to support his agenda.

President Biden is absolutely correct about research and development. 

DARPA (click here)

I suppose if elected officials want to destroy the USA's national security to expose it to remove democracy by far inferior countries, depriving DARPA of significant funding is a sure way to do it.

"America's Families Plan" is a return to American values sacrificed for the politics of racism.

When having listened to the speech, Fact Sheets can be found at the White House website that expands on President Biden's speech.

Today, President Biden announced the American Families Plan,(click here)  an investment in our kids, our families, and our economic future.

In March, the President signed into law the American Rescue Plan, which continues to provide immediate relief to American families and communities. Approximately 161 million payments of up to $1,400 per person have gone out to households, schools are reopening, and 100 percent of Americans ages 16 and older are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. The Rescue Plan is projected to lift more than five million children out of poverty this year, cutting child poverty by more than half. While too many Americans are still out of work, we are seeing encouraging signs in the labor market, as businesses begin to rehire and some of the hardest hit sectors begin to reopen....

At this point, I have to remind Congress and the media that the filibuster is a problem. The Biden agenda needs the majority of both houses to return structure and strength to the USA. We MUST rise to the demand to strengthen this country out of the reach of people seeking to destroy it.

There are also other issues about the perception of President Biden by the people. There should be no bad choices in the presentation of President Biden to the country. In this picture, his right leg looks odd. It is nothing but the pant leg of his trousers moving ahead of a man briskly moving through the room. I am not asking for censorship, but, just common decency when presenting President Biden to the country. He deserves that consideration.

I sincerely have no issues with the agenda and programs President Biden provides in this speech. He is highly competent in his understanding and application of the USA's power both domestically and abroad. We all should come to terms with how the USA functions best for all citizens as opposed to using USA power for political power plays that are nothing short of corruption

Joe is taking us home. We all need to follow. He and Vice President Harris were the best choices for this country in the election of 2020. Now, we need to follow their lead to protect our democracy and country.

The media, especially major networks, need to appreciate the fact they still exist with a Democratic President and Congress. Had the election gone the other way, that might not be a reality today.

Our democracy, it's Constitution, and the power of the people are to be protected as it is the best of the USA. We are the shining light of democracy in the world. The USA cannot be sacrificed for the corruption that lingers beyond January 6, 2021.

Example:

...As we take a closer look (click here) at what is known about Trump’s actions, we’ll start with what McCarthy told Wallace. Broadly speaking, we found that McCarthy’s answers are not provably wrong, but they were evasive, inconsistent with his earlier comments, and selectively framed in a flattering way to Trump.

Congress, meanwhile, hasn’t been able to put together an official bipartisan inquiry into the storming of the Capitol because of partisan disagreement over its parameters.... 

The question of future insurrections is not politics, it is subversion. The USA was compromised on January 6, 2021. It is not to happen again!

Rudy Guiliani. It is about time the raid took place.

December 6, 2020

Washington - President Donald Trump (click here) said Sunday his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump’s inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the U.S.

Giuliani was admitted Sunday to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly....

He survived the virus and recently the DOJ raided his home. I don't want to hear how attorney offices are never raided. Conveniently, the media has forgotten about Michael Cohen.

April 28, 2021
By Erica Orden and Paula Reid

Federal investigators on Wednesday (click here) seized cellphones and computers from Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who became President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, stepping up a criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, three people with knowledge of the investigation said.

F.B.I. agents executed search warrants around 6 a.m. at Mr. Giuliani’s apartment on Madison Avenue and his Park Avenue office in Manhattan, carting away the electronic devices, Mr. Giuliani confirmed in a statement.

The execution of search warrants is an extraordinary action for prosecutors to take against a lawyer, let alone a lawyer for a former president. The move marked a major development in the long-running investigation into Mr. Giuliani, which examines some of the same people and conduct that were at the center of Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial....

Police reform in the USA is long overdue. Murder and assassination makes the police the criminals.

There need to be very clear indictments of all the police responsible for the assault of Andrew Brown. Assassinations are not legal.

I don't care if Andrew Brown was the biggest drug mob boss on the planet, there are to be no assassinations. Every person believed to have broken the law MUST receive a fair trial.

Mafia boss John Gotti, (click here) who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don” after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements....

Remember this guy? "Teflon Don" Gotti. He ran one of the biggest and most corrupt crime syndicates in the country, if not the world. It took trying, but, eventually, we got him and imprisoned him for life. I believe it was the FBI that finally made the case about him. John Gotti died in prison.

I don't know what the police are chasing these days, but, assassination is out of the question. If there are crime bosses in a city or neighborhood that needs to be put in prison and the local authorities are unable to safely make the arrest, then it needs to be moved to a more federalized authority.

Enough of all this.

I realize there are criminals to be apprehended, but, assassination is out of the question. If Andrew Brown was a notorious criminal he should have been arrested. His success as a criminal is due to other people that are worse criminals. We need people like Andrew Brown to END THE DRUG TRAFFIC, not just move it to the next block. The testimony he could have given made him invaluable to law enforcement.

The plight of the African American community is one that the entire country needs to share. We need to find the men and women that can actually police the public without killing ANYONE. The police in the USA have too much authority to kill and their unions write those tragedies right into their contracts that make police above the law.

This has to stop. I don't know Andrew Brown and he may have been the toughest guy in the world to pin down and arrest but he DID NOT DESERVE TO BE ASSASSINATED. The police are wrong and the city needs to get on with charges against them and discharging them from their jobs. There are 20 seconds of video evidence that PROVES Andrew Brown was murdered for no reason at all.

The prosecutor does not need a judge's approval to watch the video, take testimony, and file charges. The county prosecutor needs to do his job or be replaced. It is not up to civil actions to bring a murderer to justice. That is the responsibility of the prosecutor. Civil actions normally happen AFTER the prosecutor filed charges, not before. The entire POWER DYNAMICS of these killings is wrong and prosecutors are not doing their job!

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein needs to get his county prosecutors in line to carry out the brevity of the Rule of Law.

Murders by police happen and all too frequently it is the African American community that is the target. The county prosecutors need to do their jobs. If they are receiving death threats because they are doing their jobs, then give them bodyguards. Justice has to be the bottom line and not corruption. I know AG Stein is up to this. He can make North Carolina safe for all it's citizens.

   

Someone has a hate writing campaign going on. Have the authorities considered global contributions?

The DuSable Museum of African American History since 1961 (click here)

April 27, 2021
By Patrick Elwood

Chicago - The president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American (click here) History went public Tuesday with news of a series of threatening letters that began after the Capitol insurrection and shortly before the Biden/Harris administration took office.

“They were targeting us as a conduit to other Black leaders, threats against President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, even Nancy Pelosi,” said president and CEO Perri Irmer. “The minute I saw the content of this mail, I reached out to the US Secret Service.”

In all, the museum, which is the nation’s oldest independent Black museum, has received six letters espousing hate and vitriol since Jan 22. The latest one received was last Friday, April 23. The museum has also encountered threatening letters in the past, during former President Barack Obama’s tenure.

As a result, security has been increased on an already tight budget amid the coronavirus pandemic. Officials tell WGN the Chicago Police Department, the FBI and Secret Service are investigating....

Perhaps Reverend Al and other prominent African Americans can make speeches in a ceremony to celebrate 60 years of displaying art.

President Biden is absolutely correct. Vaccination to prevent illness is a patriotic act.

May 1st is around the corner. It is time for everyone to be prepared to be vaccinated.

To the left is the COVID-19 data tracker (click here).

The color coding is unbelievable. The percent change in counties at each level of transmission is the absolute change compared to the previous 7-day period.

Most of the USA is either high in the numbers of cases or substantial. The only place where blue shows up in most of the Midwest where population density is lower than the rest of the country. There are some areas in the West that are holding down the infection spread rate.

Every state with a red dot should be ashamed of themselves. It isn't easy to say, but, this is a horrible exposure may for the so-called greatest country on Earth. The spread over the past seven days is directly related to people who don't care about their fellow man, woman, or child.

This is a national shame. The Biden Administration has done everything possible to end the danger of SARS-CoV-2 and the people aren't paying attention.

Masks should still be in use.

Social Distancing should still be observed.

Proper hand hygiene is necessary and don't touch the face until hand hygiene is performed. 

There is nothing difficult about any of those strategies to protect from the viral spread. I don't care what it takes to have people feel an obligation to the country to be a part of the solution. Hand out flags or a sticker saying "I voted with my vaccination arm." Something to have people realize it is best to be vaccinated. 

I had my two vaccines and I am fine. I am better than fine. I don't worry as much as I used to a year ago. I have made peace with this and it is because I am vaccinated.

April 21, 2021
By John Wagner and Colby Itkowski

President Biden (click here) cast getting vaccinated as a patriotic duty Wednesday, urging all Americans over 16 to protect themselves and help protect those in their community from getting the coronavirus and putting their lives at risk.

His comments came at an event at which Biden announced that the nation was about to reach his goal of 200 million vaccinations and that the government would underwrite the costs of businesses giving their workers time off to get vaccinated....