It Is More Than A Correlation

I have been promoting science-based thinking for decades. Those who resist science-based thinking include the religious, supporters of alternatives to medicine, and all other pseudosciences. Since the controlling political party in the USA, the Republicans, has been hijacked by the most radical Christians, the Evangelicals, 80% of Republicans will support Trump no matter what he does, no matter that he is far from religious. Thus, the Republicans have allowed the greatest cancer in my lifetime to have virtually unchecked power. They also use projection to call strong but legitimate opinions from reasonable people as "Trump Derangement Syndrome." Put the puzzle pieces together, Republicans. YOU are the problem as well as your corrupt, ignorant, narcissistic, disagreeable, grandiose "leader."

A History Lesson

Trump forcefully caps off years of deterioration in European-American ties:

"Today, Europe and America face common perils and common problems — including the rise of ravenous strongmen who want to remake the world order. We’ve lost the bonds that might enable us to fight them together. Worse, the wolves are not only in the henhouse; they are in the Executive Mansion.

"Beware what happens when you walk away from your lineage."

(echeck.org)

We Know Enough Now To Impeach Trump

According to a report from NBC News, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has collected four findings on Donald Trump’s attempt to obstruct justice.

1. His intent to fire former FBI Director James Comey;
2. His role in the crafting of a misleading public statement on the nature of a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son and Russians;
3. Trump’s dangling of pardons before grand jury witnesses who might testify against him; and
4. Pressuring Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

Mueller’s Four Findings on Trump’s Obstruction of Justice 

The Liar In Chief

"For those tempted to shout “Fake News” at Obama’s claim, do yourself a favor. Go next door, ask to borrow your neighbor’s Google machine, and look it up.

"Then, perhaps, you might stop repeating this former reality TV host’s lies, start focusing on what really ails America and leave the dark, twisted fantasies to Donald Trump." 

 When it comes to lying, Trump is nonstop

 

Cutting Through Trump's Economic BS

"Those factors have contributed to the United States having a higher level of income inequality and a larger share of low-income residents than almost any other advanced nation. Only Spain and Greece, whose economies have been ravaged by the euro-zone crisis, have more households earning less than half the nation’s median income — an indicator that unusually large numbers of people either are poor or close to being poor."

Is it great to be a worker in the U.S.? Not compared with the rest of the developed world.

How the retired are really doing under Republican economics.

An answer to the failed "Trickle Down" economics 

(Anders Janmyr)

A Look At The US Constitution "Reconstruction Amendments"

"Freedom and equality — the concepts are central to the American identity, and yet for most of the last 150 years, the Supreme Court has failed to read the 14th Amendment as broadly as its framers intended. It took a century before federal laws backed up the amendment’s basic guarantees for black Americans in any meaningful way. Today its meaning is still hotly debated, at least among people on the right, which raises significant concerns in the post-Kennedy era. Whatever Justice Kennedy’s other flaws, he was willing to read the 14th Amendment in line with the framers’ expansive intent, especially in his decisions on gay rights and reproductive rights. Now that he’s gone, what will become of the amendment?"

America Started Over Once. Can We Do It Again?

Let's Look Behind The Curtain Of The Wizard

The more one learns about Trump, the worst it gets.

Trump's life has been one failure after another -- his presidency will be no different

A Problem With The White Moderate

“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

Civility without civil rights? Do better, white moderates

(Mashable)

Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article213979799.html#storylink=cpy

A Letter To Trump Supporters

Congratulations.

You got your preferred Supreme Court justice – even though that was only possible because Senate Republicans left the high court short-handed for a year for nakedly political purposes.

You got a pro-life candidate back in the White House – even though the abortion rate had already fallen to an all-time-low under a pro-choice president but may go back up because of policies implemented by a pro-lifer that undermine health care and comprehensive contraception coverage provisions that helped push the rate down.

Immigrant Economic Impact

Following are two links that give an objective look at immigrant economic impact on the USA.

Immigrants' impact on the U.S. economy in 7 charts

Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees

Will Trump Lead The World Into Another Great Depression?

If you think this question is too far out, ponder that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of the early 1930s had a devastating effect on the world economy.

How Donald Trump’s Trade Wars Could Lead to a Great Depression

 

 (PBS)

Immigrant Assimulation

One of the major push-backs against immigration has historically been the claim that immigrants do not assimulate well. The following academic link looks at immigration from a US historical perspective.

What history tells us about assimilation of immigrants

Its summary? 

"Overall though, lessons from the Age of Mass Migration suggest that fears immigrants can’t fit into American society are misplaced. It would be a mistake to determine our nation’s immigration policy based on the belief that immigrants will remain foreigners, preserving their old ways of life and keeping themselves at arm’s length from the dominant culture. The evidence is clear that assimilation is real and measurable, that over time immigrant populations come to resemble natives, and that new generations form distinct identities as Americans."

---

 

Understand These People To Understand Trump

While there are several questionable people who influence Trump, the following people are prime sources of what comes out of him:

Alex Jones

Stephen Miller

Sean Hannity 

Sheldon Adelson

Wayne LaPierre

Trump: The Full Monty

The man has one main goal in life: to make America White. I don't say "Again" because it never was.

Donald Trump's push for a whiter America

 

Let's Get Real On The Economy

Trump and his sycophants continuously talk about how good the economy and the stock market are doing.  If they were science-based thinkers instead of magical/faith-based thinkers, perhaps they would know the truth.

Why aren't many Americans benefiting from the robust U.S. economy?

(Lead Liaison)

It’s All Too Much, And We Still Have To Care

"Sure, tune out that which makes you feel hopeless. But hold onto what motivates you to act. Find all the humans you can find who agree with you and make calls and register voters. Because if things continue on this way for people without funds, or with brown skin, or for women and children and the sick, there will come a time when we all have fewer choices. This is not yet that time. Get out of the snow bank, find the St. Bernard with the tiny flask of hope, and stomp around like democracy depends on it."

Yes, it is easy to be discouraged. Perhaps just thinking about how much worse it could get if we all clam up and do nothing to fight it will be a motivating factor.

What’s going on at the border is horrifying, but we can’t go numb and turn away

 

Just Another Fox Watching The Chicken Coop

With all the negative stuff coming out on Scott Pruitt recently, the news media has deemphasized the other cabinet members of Trump. Betsy DeVos is one who needs to be closely watched because of her ignorance and negative effects on education.

Betsy DeVos Reinstated College Accreditor Over Staff Objections

Preschool IS Valuable

"Reviewing the preschool curriculum and assuming that a bright student like the young Donald J. Trump would have mastered it, if our president had gone to preschool, today we would have a leader who is an articulate speaker, a proficient and enthusiastic reader and writer, a proficient estimator, an accurate observer of scientific facts, a concerned citizen of the world who displays understanding, respect and empathy for people with disabilities, all genders, ethnicities and religions, and an individual who can differentiate between real and fake news."

President Trump might be different had he attended preschool

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article212691969.html#storylink=c

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article212691969.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article212691969.html#storylink=cpy"

The White House Foxes Are Still Watching The Chicken Coop

"The Trump administration, after heavy lobbying by the chemical industry, is scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market, documents from the Environmental Protection Agency show."

The Chemical Industry Scores a Big Win at the E.P.A.

(Wikipedia)

Hoover Is No Longer The Worst Republican President

"What was it that Sarah Palin once said about Obama’s foreign policy — that he was “coddling enemies and alienating allies”? Well, move over, Barack."

"Conservative apologists for Trump have long told us not to worry about his most extreme positions, because his sober-minded advisers would surely bring him to reason. Sure. This week one of those supposedly sober minds, Vice President Mike Pence, torpedoed relations with Canada by abruptly demanding a five-year sunset clause for a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement."

"The darker echoes of the 1930s are sounding louder. The shadow of Hoover grows longer. We know how this movie ends. If Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow had a gram of self-respect he’d resign."

Herbert Hoover’s Ghost