PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalWell, I tell people to make sure they are checking the status of their voter registrations.
Last thing you want is to find out you cannot vote because of some political shenanigan.
So, I went into my state's database and looked myself up.
I've been a registered Democrat since 1990.
Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but...
(pat, pat, pat)
...do check the status of your own registration at some point soon.
My wife and I are watching 'On the Basis of Sex'
Highly recommended!
It stars Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg is a giant, and the movie is great.
The hundreds of private for-profit concentration camps dotting this country must
be closed down in 2020.
I'm posting this because all three of my grand kids were at my home on Christmas day, and when I looked at them playing and laughing, I thought about the children who are languishing in these concentration camps, living in cold cages with foil blankets, being cared for by older kids.
These are children OUR GOVERNMENT has ripped from their parents' arms and put in these evil places. They are cold, hungry, sick and alone.
My grand kids are 2, 4 and 10, and on Christmas Day, I looked at them and thought how very, very lost and alone these little children in these concentration camps must be.
Yeah, we taxpayers are being charged $750 per day per head to these private camps on no-bid contracts, and that stinks of corruption, but let's all get beyond that outrage, and think about a little four year old girl or boy being in one of those awful places, crying each night until sleep comes, wondering if they will ever see their parents again.
And think about their parents, lost somewhere in the system, victims of an administration that had NO plan to track where these families are so they could be one day reunited. NO plan.
Here are the specific provisions of the Rome Statute that are being broken:
1. The deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival and which are available to the rest of the population, such as clean water, food and medical services. Children have died in these camps for lack of medical care and life-saving medicine.
2. Creation of circumstances that could lead to a slow death, such as lack of proper housing, clothing and hygiene or excessive work or physical exertion. People in these camps are cold, have inadequate blankets, food, clothing, personal hygiene items and lack the physical exercise necessary to stay healthy.
3. Forcible transfer of children, imposed by direct force or through fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion. Just the act of ripping these children from their families and housing them in 'special' detention camps for children fits this definition.
4. Death threats or ill treatment that causes disfigurement or injury; forced or coerced use of drugs or other treatment that damages health. There have been reports of some of these kids being drugged to keep them quiet.
This is so far from being OK that it makes me want to vomit. It really does. You want articles of impeachment? Try GENOCIDE under Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
So, if you are part of the national Democratic Party apparatus, or if you are a Democratic candidate for office, HEAR THIS NOW. I'm NOT willing to give the odious white supremacist apparatus that has grown like a cancer on the Executive Branch of our government a pass on this this year or into the decade. No.
Trump, Miller, Kirstjen Nielsen, Pence, and the rest, down to the lowliest cruel guard must be called to account for their actions, and I vow to do everything that I can do to make sure that happens, both before, and after this year's election.
You want some additional articles for impeachment and trial in the Senate? The evidence of genocide is RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES, and flowing in the tears of the children and the mothers.
I will not stand still for this, give these people a pass just because they 'served' in our executive branch. They are criminals. What they have done is illegal. It is also unethical and immoral. It is a rot upon our nation that must be excised, and I vow during the next decade I will do everything in my power to see these people brought to justice.
Won't you join me?
Yes. Each year, my family has a tradition of watching the movie
Schindler's List. That because we must never forget the Holocaust.
Last night was the night we watched Spielberg's masterpiece. My daughter asked how many Jewish people there were in Poland in 1940. The answer was three million.
Do you know how many Jews are in Poland now? Around 15,000.
So, no surprise at all that Jews are going underground and are taking Antisemitism very seriously. I'm sorry they are going underground. I'm sorry that Muslims also must worship in fear, as must African Americans.
I am sorry for the for-profit concentration camps all over this country that are charging taxpayers $750 per day per head to house brown-skinned people in filthy cages with inadequate blankets, medical supplies, toiletries and food.
And I'm angry about it. Very angry.
Furious at Donald Trump and his racist supporters.
Mark my words, there will be an accounting for these crimes against humanity, this genocide. Indictments of everyone responsible, from Trump down to the lowliest guard, trials in international tribunal and then the meting out of justice. I don't want to hear Democratic politicians giving these criminals a pass, saying things like, "Democracies don't charge past presidents with crimes."
No. We gave Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice passes for war crimes back in '08, but I'm DAMNED if we're gonna give Trump and his henchmen passes. Not for what they've done.
My wife texted me this. Video from CNN the number of Trump's lies well worth watching.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/12/28/victor-blackwell-president-trump-claims-gumballs-2019-sot-ndwknd-vpx.cnnHere's the title: Blackwell uses gumballs to portray Trump's false claims
CNN's Victor Blackwell used jars of gumballs to represent President Donald Trump's 15,413 false or misleading claims since taking office, according to a count by the Washington Post.
Well, THIS is my 9800th post!
I want to dedicate it to the wish that 2020 is a GREAT year for all of us.
Not just getting Trump out and painting this nation deep blue. Yeah I do hope that, for sure.
But I also hope that for each and every one of you, and for your families, that 2020 is a much better year than 2019.
Colorado day care owner charged after allegedly hiding toddlers behind a false wall
Source: CNN
(CNN)The owner of a Colorado day care that allegedly used a "false wall" to hide 26 toddlers in a basement has been arrested and charged, court documents show.
Carla M. Faith, 58, was arrested Monday and faces charges related to child abuse and attempting to influence a public servant, according to the documents. Her bond was set at $3,000.
The charges stem from November, when officers went to Play Mountain Place in Colorado Springs after complaints about overcrowding. There, they found 26 children younger than 3 with two adults behind the false wall.
The day care had a licensed capacity of six children, according to May 2019 data on the Colorado Department of Human Services website.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/25/us/colorado-day-care-false-wall-trnd/index.html
OK, so let's talk about child day care and early childhood education.
First of all, not excusing Faith, there is a serious policy issue here. We must ask if it was ONLY her greed that caused her to over fill her daycare home? or was it pressure from market demand?
Consider these four facts:
A. There are not enough childcare centers. There are not enough licensed daycare homes.
B. Childcare workers are paid minimum wage, generally, and owners of child care licensed homes are capped so income is capped.
C. It costs literally an arm and a leg to put your kids in a childcare home and if you're middle class there's NO subsidy.
D. Colorado Springs is an urban area, and there are problems; there literally isn't any childcare in most rural areas. None.
So, while we recoil in horror at Trump and his disgusting antics, and hear the Republicans positively CROW about how GREAT the economy is, be mindful that because of the structure of our child care system and the fact that it doesn't seem to matter much to policy makers, the REALLY IMPORTANT people who provide this care for our pre-school age kids earn driddle squat and struggle to make ends meet every month.
Early childhood education (pre-school) again because of no subsidies, is stratospherically priced - only about 6% of kids even go because it is so expensive.
And we all know teachers in K-12 don't make nearly enough.
But, hey, sports stars earn kazillions of bucks and we have a brand new shiny space force!
Internet shutdowns used to be rare. They're increasingly becoming the norm in much of the world
This is scary, because many of us depend on the internet. For many things - communication, cloud computing, news, and research. So now, besides the Arjit Pai ruling that allows ISPs to slow or speed streaming based on how much you pay, we have countries jamming access as well.
Here's an excerpt:
An ongoing internet blackout in Indian-controlled Kashmir is now the longest ever in a democracy -- at more than 135 days -- according to Access Now, an advocacy group that tracks internet freedom. Only the autocratic governments of China and junta-era Myanmar have cut off access for longer.
The blackout came as Indian troops flooded into Kashmir following New Delhi's removal of the region's legal autonomy. But the shutdown left some Kashmiris unaware of the reason the internet had been cut. And without internet access, they have been largely removed from the conversation ever since, so difficult is it for people in the region to get their messages out.
India's increased internet censorship has been greeted with delight in China, however, where state-run media pointed to it as an endorsement of Beijing's own authoritarian approach. The People's Daily said this week that India's example showed "shutting down the internet in a state of emergency should be standard practice for sovereign countries."
Wednesday's marijuana legalization vote was truly historic -- here's why
BY JUSTIN STREKAL, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR, THE HILL — 11/21/19 03:00 PM EST
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/471521-wednesdays-marijuana-legalization-vote-was-truly-historic-heres-why
Here's an excerpt!
By a vote of more than two to one, members of the United States House Judiciary Committee passed legislation, House Bill 3884: The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act.
The MORE Act removes the marijuana plant from the federal Controlled Substances Act, thereby enabling states to enact their own cannabis regulations free from undue federal interference. The vote marks the first time that members of Congress have ever voted to federally deschedule cannabis.
According to a 2018 Quinnipiac University poll, 70 percent of U.S. voters support this policy change. To date, 33 states have enacted laws regulating patients’ access to medical cannabis and nearly one in four Americans reside in a state where the adult use of marijuana is permitted.
Let's hope Moscow Mitch doesn't kill this one in the Senate, too. FINALLY!!! If this passes and is signed into law it will be a great day.
Putin has relished US political chaos. He may now fear Trump's impeachment
Analysis by Matthew Chance, Senior International Correspondent, CNN
Updated 8:13 AM ET, Tue November 12, 2019
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/12/europe/russia-putin-trump-impeachment-intl/index.html
Here's an excerpt:
Of course, allegations of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, which swept Trump into office, are officially denied in Russia. But they are often referenced, even on serious television news shows, with a sarcastic wink.
"Have you lost your minds that you want to remove OUR Donald Ivanovich," bawls Vladimir Soloviev, host of "Evening," a pro-Kremlin current affairs program which has been focusing on the US impeachment proceedings.
"The chaos brought by Trump into the American system of government is weakening the United States," Karen Shakhnazarov, CEO of Mosfilm Studio and a regular guest on Russian state television, tells the studio audience. "America is getting weaker and now Russia is taking its place in the Middle East. Suddenly, Russia is starting to seriously penetrate Africa. So, when they say that Trump is weakening the United States -- yes he is and that's why we love him. The more problems they have, the better for us," Shakhnazarov says.
Think about this for a minute. Russia must own the entire GOP.
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Member since: Mon Apr 28, 2014, 06:28 PM
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