Michael1942's Blog

“Late Term Abortion”

The Washington Post points out there is no precise medical or legal definition of “late-term,” and “many doctors and scientists avoid that language, calling it imprecise and misleading.”

The Daily Beast also notes that only 1.3 percent of abortions are performed after 21 weeks of gestation, and the idea that a woman can get an abortion moments before giving birth is “not how medical care works.”

The use of “dog whistles” aka “coded” labels has been common for many years but until recently has been out of the mainstream of conversation. The current administration aided by a neer do well Congress has brought these “coded” statements and words to common use. Along with this common usage the administration has trashed agreements put in place to prevent war and improve trade. Tariffs (taxes) put in place to offset the “tax” policy that was supposed to benefit everyday Americans and threats to bad actors who were in a state of containment with the approval of our now alienated allies. The administration has in a few years undermined our economy, foreign affairs and put us on an isolation footing all because of “dog whistles”.

Please Donate

“Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”

This oath plainly states our allegiance to our flag, country and one another as a UNITED population. Recent times have shown that we have allowed an electorate and “leader”(?) to divide us in order to work their nefarious and dangerous plans for their own purposes. TOTUS creates chaos while his aides and cabinet work hard to move his ill-defined and conceived policies forward. This dedication to an ill-informed administration depends on spreading lies and half-truths to support the constant stream of lies that they attempt to pass as policy. If you believe in the Pledge of  Allegiance then it is incumbent on us all to elect representatives who work for us and not against us. Party affiliation does not matter if the people we elect are as honest as we can find. we allow dishonesty by our accepting of name calling and denigration as entertainment. Government is a serious business that requires serious people and voters who are not afraid of replacing anyone who is working against the public interests. Prime examples of currently serving Government employees: TOTUS, Botch McConnell, N. Pelosi, and current Cabinet members. If you are not paying attention to these people then you are assured of re-electing the same poor public servants again and again. Party affiliation matters less than the “character” of the person you vote for.

Please Donate

Ok by now we should all realize that “BOTCH” McConnell is against reparations for Black Americans or perhaps we should say all nonwhite Americans (the native Americans were equally deprived). Think about this: what if it was White Americans who were deprived those 150 years ago? Uncle Botch would be all over it. The statement that none of us are responsible for it is a fallacy since I am sure “botch’s “ background is why he made the past President’s job so hard and was unwilling to assist in creating a proper Healthcare bill and is tacitly supporting this miscreant President. Mr. Graham’s input about the issue being too divisive rings hollow as the division has been supported by him in his support of TOTUS. Another Miscreant who is not doing his job MA
By Jordain Carney – 06/18/19 02:42 PM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said that he does not support reparations for descendants of slaves, a topic that has become a point of debate in the 2020 election cycle.
“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” McConnell said. “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an African American president.”

McConnell was asked about reparations during a weekly press conference, which comes a day before the House Judiciary Committee will hold the first hearing on the issue in a decade.
“I think we’re always a work in progress in this country but no one currently alive was responsible for that, and I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it — first of all it would be pretty hard to figure out who to compensate. … No, I don’t think reparations are a good idea,” McConnell continued.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is holding the hearing Wednesday “to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) reintroduced legislation that was initially spearheaded by former Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) that calls for a study on reparations.
The issue has become a topic of debate in the Democratic presidential primary.
Several 2020 candidates, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said while speaking at the National Action Network event earlier this year that they would sign a bill forming a reparation study commission into law if they become president.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has introduced legislation in the Senate that mirrors Jackson Lee’s legislation. Though it would form a commission and does not call for African Americans to receive payments.
Booker’s office announced last week that his bill has received 12 co-sponsors, including several 2020 candidates.
But the legislation is unlikely to move in the GOP-controlled Senate or in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I think it’s too remote in time. I think it’s too divisive,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters earlier this year.

Please Donate

Mike Pompeo apparently has his Head up his butt along with TOTUS. MA.

Hayley Miller, HuffPost 23 hours ago
Trump Would Accept Foreign Information on 2020 Opponent
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday was none too pleased when Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked him about President Donald Trump’s remarks last week stating he’d accept information about a political rival from a foreign government.
The president drew backlash from Democrats and some Republicans when he stated during an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he would likely “take” such opposition research. (Accepting election help from foreign governments is illegal.)
But Pompeo, a former CIA director, shrugged off Trump’s eyebrow-raising statement after Wallace asked him if accepting such information from a foreign government is right or wrong.
“Chris, you know, you asked me not to call any of your questions today ridiculous,” Pompeo said. “You came really close right there. President Trump has been very clear. He clarified his remarks later.”
Wallace said he agreed that Trump “kind of walked it back” when he told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that he would listen to the information first and then bring it to the FBI or the attorney general.
Trump told Stephanopoulos, in a clip of an interview that aired Wednesday, that he didn’t consider opposition research from a foreign government to be foreign interference in an election.
“They have information,” the president said. “I think I’d take it.”

After playing a clip of Trump’s remarks to ABC News, Wallace again pressed Pompeo, noting that the U.S. has a long history of describing foreign interference in our election as unacceptable.
“Chris, President Trump believes that too,” Pompeo said. “I have nothing further to add. I came on to talk about foreign policy and I think that’s the third time you’ve asked me about a Washington piece of silliness.”
But Democrats and several Republicans, including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), scolded Trump over his remarks to ABC News on foreign intelligence.
The interview prompted Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub to issue a statement warning politicians that it’s illegal to accept information from a foreign national linked to an election in the U.S.
“Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,” she wrote. “This is not a novel concept.”
Wallace on Sunday also asked Pompeo about reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half-brother being assassinated for being an informant for the CIA, but the secretary of state declined to comment “on intelligence matters in any way.”
“The American people should rest assured,” Pompeo said. “The United States is taking all the actions that it needs to take to make sure we understand the risks and the threats that are posed by North Korea.”
Wallace noted that Trump said last week that he opposes the use of CIA informants to spy on Kim’s regime.
“I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices,” he told reporters outside the White House.
Asked why Trump wouldn’t allow U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on North Korea, Pompeo danced around the question.
“We’re taking all the efforts necessary to make sure we know what’s going on all around the world,” he said. “That includes every country, Chris.”

Please Donate

“Botch” McConnell apparently is following his same line of defense on all things that benefits the American People, after the fact statements of what he is doing now as what he did (supposedly) before. Mr. slow walk anything that is good for the people and fast walk everything that is good for him and his $ backers.  He is careful to not speak a lot as he could equal TOTUS in the numbers on the lying scale. Shouldn’t the entire Congress  be bent out of shape on this too? MA
Hayley Miller,HuffPost 58 minutes ago
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday fired back at Jon Stewart after the comedian accused him of dragging his feet on legislation that would benefit first responders of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Stewart, a longtime advocate for 9/11 responders, tore into Republican lawmakers during an interview with “Fox News Sunday” for their reluctance to reauthorize the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), which is facing a significant funding lapse.
“I want to make it clear that this has never been dealt with compassionately by Sen. McConnell,” Stewart told Fox News, referring to past VCF legislation. “He has always held out to the very last minute, and only then, under intense lobbying and public shaming, has he even deigned to move on it.”

The hosts of “Fox & Friends” on Monday asked McConnell about Stewart’s criticism and why congressional votes on the fund often occur at the “last minute.”
“Well, many things that Congress have at the last minute,” McConnell said. “We’ve never failed to address this issue. And we will address it again. I don’t know why he’s all bent out of shape.”
Host Steve Doocy noted that Stewart was outraged that so few members attended a House subcommittee hearing about the bill last week, where he gave an emotional testimony about the needs of 9/11 responders and their families. Out of the subcommittee’s 14 members, just half showed up, CBS News reported.
“Well, that frequently happens because members have a lot of things going on at the same time,” McConnell said. “It sounds to me like he’s looking for some way to take offense. There’s no way we won’t address this problem appropriately.”
Asked if the VCF will be fully funded, McConnell said yes.

The Never Forget the Heroes Act of 2019 would ensure the fund can deliver benefits to 9/11 responders for the next 70 years. Stewart has visited Capitol Hill several times in recent months to advocate on behalf of the fund’s beneficiaries.
Roughly 45,000 people are suffering from at least one 9/11-related chronic health condition and more than 10,000 have been certified with a 9/11-related cancer, Stewart wrote in an op-ed for the New York Daily News in February.
The Justice Department announced earlier that month that a lack of funding for the VCF would lead to compensation cuts as large 50 to 70 percent. A total of 835 awards have been reduced as of May 31, The Associated Press reported.
“Your indifference is costing these men and women their most valuable commodity: time,” Stewart told lawmakers on Tuesday. “It’s the one thing they’re running out of.”
The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the bill on Wednesday. Before heading to the Senate, the proposed legislation will need to pass a full House vote, which has been scheduled for July.

Please Donate

TOTUS has now become the modern day “Cassandra” in spite of his ongoing failures including the chaos created crises and subsequent failures to correct them. As always when in doubt-lie! MA

Ros Krasny 8 hrs ago

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump, gearing up for the official start of his 2020 campaign, warned that the U.S. would face an epic stock market crash if he’s not re-elected.

“If anyone but me takes over,” Trump told his 61 million Twitter followers on Saturday, “there will be a Market Crash the likes of which has not been seen before!”
Trump officially starts his 2020 campaign on Tuesday with a rally in Orlando, Florida, and appears to be road-testing some of the themes he’ll be touching on in the next 18 months, including stoking fear of a market meltdown. “Tuesday will be a Big Crowd and Big Day,” he said in another tweet.

The president has claimed several times this year and as recently as Friday in a “Fox & Friends” interview that the U.S. stock market would be 5,000 to 10,000 points higher if the Federal Reserve hadn’t raised interest rates four times in 2018.
He also tweeted in February that “had the opposition party” won in 2016, “the Stock Market would be down at least 10,000 points by now” — an unprovable assertion. And in January Trump suggested that if “you want to see a Stock Market Crash, Impeach Trump.”
“We have never had a president so aware of where the stock market is and how much it is up or down on the year,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank NA, said in an email. “Better buckle up, equity investors.”
Research by Macrotrends shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s performance so far in Trump’s term has been middling compared with his predecessors, and trails the gains made under Democrats Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. It’s a touch above the gains logged under Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush; George W. Bush had presided over a losing market at this point in his first term.
The benchmark S&P 500 index made a record high in early May before slipping in the face of Trump’s stepped-up trade war with China. The more narrow DJIA, whose performance Trump likes to reference, last peaked more than eight months ago, on Oct. 3.
The Dow posted 71 record high closes in 2017, starting within a week of Trump’s inauguration, and another 15 in 2018, helped by the passage of a Republican tax bill. The index made 122 record high closes during Obama’s second term, after recovering from losses suffered during the recession of 2007-2009.
As Trump kicks off his re-election campaign, the chances of a recession starting in the U.S. within the next year have risen to 30% from 25% a month ago, according to a June 7-12 survey of economists conducted by Bloomberg News. Recent figures have shown slowing job gains, and Trump’s tariff threats are weighing on business sentiment. The rising U.S. budget deficit and national debt have also raised alarm bells.
(Updates with analyst comment, economist survey from sixth paragraph.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Steve Geimann
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Please Donate

The Tariff King is not winning the war and the American economy is taking the hit! MA 
By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business
2 hrs ago

India just increased tariffs on US exports, dealing another blow to fragile global trade.
The tariffs on several US products will go into effect on June 16, India’s Finance Ministry said in a statement Saturday. The goods targeted include American apples — which will be hit with a 70% tariff — as well as almonds, lentils and several chemical products.
India first announced plans to impose new tariffs a year ago in retaliation for increased US import duties on Indian steel and aluminum. But it repeatedly delayed imposing them while the two sides held a series of trade talks.
The Indian government did not specify the value of the goods targeted in its statement, but previously told the World Trade Organization that they were worth around $241 million.
The two countries exchange goods and services worth about $142 billion a year, but the relationship has soured in recent weeks after the Trump administration ended India’s participation in a preferential trade program earlier this month. The program exempted Indian goods worth more than $6 billion from US import duties in 2018.
One of President Donald Trump’s biggest priorities has been reducing the United States’ trade deficits with countries around the world. Last month, his administration increased tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and it’s threatening to target another $300 billion of exports from the world’s second-largest economy. Business is warning of damage to the US economy.
Tensions have been rising since the United States ended India’s participation in a preferential trade program this month.
India runs a small surplus in goods trade with the United States, exporting around $54 billion to the United States in 2018 and buying about $33 billion worth of American goods, according to US government data.
Trump has repeatedly slammed India’s tariffs on products like motorcycles and whiskey, and his decision to revoke trade privileges for India followed complaints from American dairy farmers and medical device manufacturers that tariffs imposed by New Delhi were hurting their exports.

Please Donate

It seems that “unfair” to TOTUS means “we got caught” lying again. This the pattern of this administration, keep lying until someone believes us, even when the truth is known. Can’t violate ethics when you have none.MA

POLITICS 06/14/2019 11:30 am ET
By Julian Shen-Berro

The president defended his adviser after a federal watchdog recommended her ouster for repeated Hatch Act violations.
President Donald Trump defended senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on Friday after an independent federal watchdog said she should be fired for repeatedly violating a law prohibiting government employees from political campaigning.
Trump tried to frame what a U.S. Office of Special Counsel report called Conway’s “disregard for the law” as a First Amendment issue and said he won’t remove her from his staff.

“It looks to me like they’re trying to take away her right of free speech and that’s just not fair,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “It really sounds to me like a free speech thing. It doesn’t sound fair.”
The Office of Special Counsel, which is different from the Justice Department office once operated by Robert Mueller, sent a report to Trump on Thursday outlining numerous occasions in which Conway violated the Hatch Act by disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity on TV and in social media.
Trump’s defense of his aide followed a White House statement attacking the Office of Special Counsel and accusing the agency of attempting to “weaponize” the Hatch Act and violate Conway’s “constitutional rights.”
The Supreme Court has long upheld the constitutionality of the Hatch Act, enacted in 1939.
When asked directly if he would follow the recommendation that Conway be removed from federal service, Trump said he would not.
“No, I’m not going to fire her,” he said. “I think she’s a terrific person. She’s a tremendous spokesperson.”
Trump added that he wouldn’t admonish Conway to stop criticizing other presidential candidates, telling host Brian Kilmeade, “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Biden was one of the people that she was accused of criticizing, but he criticized me, and we then criticized him, or she criticized him,” Trump said, referring to 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

The president and vice president are exempt from the Hatch Act, but not White House staffers like Conway.
The Office of Special Counsel report says that Conway, in her official capacity as a federal employee, “engaged in a pattern of partisan attacks on several Democratic Party candidates shortly after they announced their candidacy for President.”
The office also concluded in a report in March that Conway had unlawfully advocated for and against Senate candidates during the 2017 Alabama election. The latest report cites Conway’s remarks in an interview last month mocking the law.
“If you’re trying to silence me through the Hatch Act, it’s not going to work,” Conway said in the interview. “Let me know when the jail sentence starts.”
The Hatch Act has no criminal penalties. But if Conway’s violations go unpunished, the report says, it “would send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act’s restrictions”
Trump said he’s going to get “a very strong briefing” on the report. “I’ll see, but it seems to me to be very unfair.”

Please Donate