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usaf-vet

usaf-vet's Journal
usaf-vet's Journal
October 4, 2024

Donald Trump is gaining on Kamala Harris in the polls. I have some theories why Robert Reich

Here are some snippets from a long, detailed article.

By now, almost everyone in America knows Trump and has made up their minds about him. Recent polls have found that nearly 90% of voters say they do not need to learn more about Trump to decide their vote.
But they don’t yet know Harris, or remain undecided about her.

Trump’s strategy also requires that he and his allies simultaneously flood the airwaves and social media with negative ads about Harris, which are then amplified by the rightwing ecosystem of Fox News, Newsmax and Sinclair radio.

Finally, Trump’s strategy necessitates that he refuse to debate her again, lest she get additional positive exposure (hence he has turned down CNN’s invitation for a 23 October debate, which she has accepted).

Having said all this, I’m cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the election. Why? Because Trump is deteriorating rapidly; lately he’s barely been able to string sentences together coherently.

Harris, by contrast, is gaining strength and confidence by the day, and despite Trump’s attempts to shut her out, more Americans are learning about her. As she gets more exposure, Trump’s “devil-you-know” advantage disappears.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to say I’m nauseously optimistic, because, to be candid, I go into the next five weeks feeling a bit sick to my stomach. Even if Harris wins, the fact that so many Americans seem prepared to vote for Trump makes me worry for the future of my country.
Bold emphasis be me.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/01/trump-gaining-on-harris-polls-theories?
October 2, 2024

Vance avoided answering the question of the night. At this point, the best analysis of what he avoided is found in...

... THEBULWARK posting of October 2nd 2024

Here is the link to the post: https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/the-one-question-that-mattered-in-the-vp-debate-vance-walz?

Please go read it.

My reading of it is clear to me.
Trump and Vance want to get the process of certifying the election results into Congress, where they can use political power to push the next election (2025) to a place where they feel they can alter the outcome using the advantage they have in the Congressional chamber they hold, the House of Representatives, ignoring the wishes of the voters.

July 12, 2024

Here is the question. Who now has the NEW SCOTUS given powers. Just DJT? Biden should have them now. See below.

From the ACLU this morning's email

Dear Members: the RNC is just days away – where the Republican Party will officially present their platform and confirm their nominee for president – with the DNC soon to follow. And thanks to the Supreme Court, both candidates know they can now use their powers to break the law without fear of criminal prosecution. [BOLD highlight my addition]

With one ruling, the Court gave the president the ability to use their elected office to break the law with impunity – overruling centuries of precedent. We've been fighting to reverse this destructive order ever since.

Congress could pass a constitutional amendment overturning this decision and establish once and for all that presidents are not above the law. Yet in the two weeks since this ruling dropped, Congress has refused to act.

But thousands of your fellow ACLU supporters have acted – sending over 100,000 messages to Congress demanding they take bold action to repair the Supreme Court's mistake. Join them and tell Congress: Inaction is not an option. We must overturn this decision by passing a constitutional amendment today.
WRITE YOUR REPS

The Court's decision to grant unprecedented immunity from criminal legal consequences leaves our country vulnerable to rising authoritarianism and puts our democracy at risk. Future presidents could use their new powers to weaponize the government against anyone they disagree with – from political rivals to everyday critics to you.

Now is not the time to sit back and express dismay. Our representatives need to do their job and pass a constitutional amendment immediately.

Join us: Tell Congress to take action today.

July 10, 2024

Maybe Biden realizes that with the new SCOTUS powers he can't lose. If he's not in first place he can order his....

.... opponent, under the official acts (remember he is STILL president ), to be placed under house arrest in an undisclosed location and then stripped of all USSS protections and other bennies. Promise to build him a one-hole putting green so he can still play golf.

Then, he could use his newfound powers for good, like expanding the SCOTUS court by appointing five new justices (no congressional action needed). You know, just say this is an official act.

Oh, one more thing: confiscate all the 2025 lists of those they planned to use to take over the government and jail the ring leaders. This is the next official act.

Think about it: "Medicare for All" is the next official act.

Increase taxes to 40% on the billionaires, the next official act.

The next official act is raising the Social Security monthly tax on everyone making over $250k per year.

Then rest for a few days and do some more official acts.

What do you think?

July 3, 2024

I have to say that I am discouraged, and disappointed with the fact that the wife and I aren't able to spend unlimited..

... amount of money to stay informed and still manage to pay our bills. Considering we need to get through our retirement. We have donated to every Democratic candidate on the ticket. We have sent several hundreds of dollars to President Biden and our State Senator and Representative races.

And now, one of the organizations that we follow and listen to their podcasts is having a three-way conversation (tease) about Biden possibly needing to step down for the good of the country. They are discussing President Harris and her chances................... then nothing!!!!

If we want to hear and participate, we would need to spend another minimum of $100.00 to get a full subscription. Pay or stay uninformed.

Just maybe, considering the massive shift the country has had in the last week. Maybe, just maybe, they can tell us what to do with our limited dollars to best get Democrats elected and in control. Yet now, with a discussion about a President Harris, those conversations will cost yet more money.

How many other retirees can't afford the cost of maintaining our democracy? When I say retirees, that means we have spent at least 65 years doing what our country has asked of us, and now, when we are still needed, there is an admission to get in the door.

Do I sound discouraged and frustrated? There has been a quantum shift in the last week, and we CAN't hear what's next.

July 1, 2024

It is now apparent to me that, over the last few years, there has been back-channel collusion between DJT, and SCOTUS...

...... and Judge CANNON.

They and others knew this decision was coming; all the players needed to do was delay until the pieces fell into place.

Additionally, the billionaires and millionaires who funded the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation, to name a few of the players, have been colluding to destroy the Constitution, which restricts their desired directions, and this ruling will prevent further opposition.

Also, consider what this decision will do to our relationship with our allies. They will no longer be able to trust our Presidents' intentions when discussing international concerns.

Those who would rightfully look at the likes of DJT know, first and foremost, that he is only concerned with his own interests. Knowing he would sell out their safety and interest, even to the extent of blackmailing or soliciting a bribe to earn his support.

For all we know, DJT has already sold out our safety since he stole and held national classified documents, and all it would take for him to do that is the right amount of money.

How do we know? We know because he told all of the gas and oil executives gathered together, "Give me a billion dollars, and I will" eliminate any federal obstacles you face.

June 24, 2024

Is there ever going to come a point when a FORMER president will not be able to seek and get special treatment.....

... even in a case where he illegally took hundreds of classified and top-secret documents that he is NOT entitled to hold. He has made attempts to further hide the documents and obstruct the FBI during their attempts to confiscate them and return them to the National Archives, where they belong.

He has made numerous comments saying the FBI was attempting to kill him based on his false intentional statement that the warrant the FBI was serving had instruction about the use of deadly force.

He has a Judge Whom he appointed to the lifetime position. She continues to rule in DJT's favor. Ensuring that his trial will not be heard before the 2024 election.

Again, he is a former president who continues to act as if he still has presidential power to protect him.

Others with access to classified material are being arrested, prosecuted, and jailed for offenses involving fewer documents than DJT held.

Here is what turned up with a quick Google search.

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2023/0213/Who-goes-to-jail-over-classified-docs-and-who-doesn-t
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-fbi-analyst-sentenced-retaining-classified-documents
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/jack-teixeira-guilty-plea-classified-documents-leak-pentagon/
https://www.wptv.com/news/political/donald-trump-not-first-person-to-be-indicted-for-mishandling-classified-documents
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/reality-winner-imprisoned-leaking-classified-report-calls-case-trump-i-rcna46683
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/us/politics/fbi-analyst-prison-classified-documents.html
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-classified-documents-hearing-06-24-24/index.html

June 24, 2024

Religious hatered is pervasive across this nation. I hope the ACLU takes this case and makes the....

..... school financially regret their act of ignorant hate.

Educators on the Fort Apache Reservation have repeatedly condemned teens for participating in a sacred dance. It follows a pattern of Christian discipline begun more than a century ago. [The girls]They took part in Apache ceremonies. Their schools expelled them for satanic activities


The school apparently makes no attempt to respect the traditions of the native community.
There are over 80 churches representing 27 different Christian denominations on the reservation.

For the first 12 years of her life, Caitlyn looked forward to having her own dance – a sacred coming-of-age experience celebrating the transition from girlhood to womanhood. It’s a great financial sacrifice for the family. Over four days, a girl’s community prays for her. They offer her gifts and witness her as she participates in rituals symbolizing her maturity and growth. A medicine man presides over the event, praying and singing with holy members of the community called Crown Dancers, who recite the creation story to the audience.


The idea meant the world to Caitlyn. But she didn’t have her own Sunrise Dance: if she were found out, she would be expelled from school immediately, a stain on on her permanent record that could affect her college opportunities.


At the time, her private school’s teachers were mostly white people who would often discuss the satanic nature of Apache traditions. When Caitlyn was in fifth grade, she was given an F on an art project for drawing the White Mountain Apache crest and including an eagle feather. An “A” student, she was devastated to be chastised this way. As Caitlyn remembers it, her teacher smiled and explained that this kind of project wasn’t allowed because it denoted “pagan worship”. Her father was furious but the family couldn’t do anything about it. It was what the girl and her family expected from the white people who worked on the reservation.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/jun/24/apache-students-school-reservation
May 3, 2024

After this week's squalid experiment, see voter ID for what it is: a Tory scam to steal elections.This exercise in....

....shrinking the electorate to Conservative advantage must not be the new normal.

Unlike Boris Johnson, did you remember to take ID when you went to vote yesterday? Did you remember to take the right kind? Or, like one in seven Britons, did you have no idea you needed ID to vote? Or, like at least 2 million Britons, did you have no acceptable voter ID at all?

Until last year, when the 2022 Elections Act came into effect, British elections were free of these questions. For centuries, despite the slow, sometimes hugely contentious expansion of the electorate, and the acrimonious and distrustful character of our politics, voters were not required to produce documents in polling stations to prove who they were. This country did not believe in identity cards, many of our politicians proudly told us – particularly Tories. As the then shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, put it in 2009, shortly before his party returned to power: “ID cards … are both an affront to British liberty and will have no place in a Conservative Britain. They are also a huge waste of money.”

After 14 years in office, the Conservatives have not introduced ID cards yet, although given the party’s ever more authoritarian instincts I wouldn’t bet against it. Already, their Elections Act has created a form of identity document, the voter authority certificate, which anyone wanting to vote at a polling station needs to apply for if they don’t have another form of ID that the act deems acceptable. As so often, the party which says it loves freedom and hates regulation has burdened Britons with another layer of bureaucracy and state control.

The justification for this fundamental electoral change is flimsy, summed up by the government as “stamping out the potential for voter fraud” – in other words, dealing with a problem which doesn’t yet exist, or only on an insignificant scale. According to the Electoral Commission, at the last nationwide elections before voter ID was introduced, in 2022, only seven people were accused of the crime that the new system is supposed to end – impersonating another voter at a polling station – and none of these allegations led to police action.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/03/voter-id-tory-election-conservative-labour

October 26, 2023

As her state mourns 18 dead in shooting spree, Susan Collins is now facing criticism for her votes against gun control.

In her 26-year career as senator, Collins has voted down several Senate amendments on gun control, according to data from Vote Smart, a nonpartisan non-profit that collects data on candidates’ voting records.

In 2013, Collins rejected two Senate amendments that would have banned the sale of assault rifles and limited access to firearm magazine capacity.

Collins has also supported allowing loaded guns in state parks and the concealed carrying of firearms across state lines, two Senate amendments she voted for in 2009.

More recently, Collins was one of 15 Republicans who voted for the 2022 bipartisan gun bill, which ended nearly three decades of congressional inaction on the issue.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/26/maine-shootings-republican-senator-susan-collins


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