Category: Government

Government: who rules us.

Jared Kushner likened to Icarus by Kissinger

IcarusKissinger, per Time Magazine, likens Trump’s son-in-law to Icarus who flew too close to the sun.

Kissinger writes:

“Transitioning the presidency between parties is one of the most complex undertakings in American politics. The change triggers an upheaval in the intangible mechanisms by which Washington runs: an incoming President is likely to be less familiar with formal structures, and the greater that gap, the heavier the responsibility of those advisers who are asked to fill it.

“This space has been traversed for nearly four months by Jared Kushner, whom I first met about 18 months ago, when he introduced himself after a foreign policy lecture I had given. We have sporadically ­exchanged views since.

As part of the Trump family, Jared is familiar with the intangibles of the President. As a graduate of Harvard and NYU, he has a broad education; as a businessman, a knowledge of administration. All this should help him make a success of his daunting role flying close to the sun.”

Updated by Zack Beauchampzack@vox.com

Zack Beauchamp writes:

“In private life, contra Kissinger, Kushner doesn’t have a lot of successes. His tenure as head of the New York Observer was disastrous, his family real estate company’s flagship skyscraper has low occupancy rates and a serious debt problem, and it’s been credibly reported that his dad bought his place at Harvard with a $2.5 million donation.”

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Monterey Bay Forum: Does anyone really read Time magazine anymore?

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Susan Rice not so nice? Bengazi video & now “un-masking” Americans?

Rice requested unmaskingUn-masking Americans?  Remember  National Security Advisor Ms. Rice who told Americans that a video caused the Bengazi murders of Ambassador Stevens and other Americans?

And now we learn  that Ms. Rice ordered a spread sheet containing the names of Americans “un-masked” when American intelligence contacted various ‘bad actors’ who were in touch with the Trump transition team.

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Aptos Psychologist:  To catch a rat she  sat on a mat with a bat — and whacked a bunch of plain old Americans?   Did former National Security Advisor  Rice do not so nice acts   to aide  former President Obama?  If so,  that may be a  felony.  “Un-masking” Americans is a ‘no-no’.

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San Francisco Library: how about a first edition syringe?

  librarySan Francisco library  trains staff  to handle persons who overdose on drugs.

library trains staff how handle overdoses
library trains staff how handle overdoses

In addition to checking out and re-shelving books, San Francisco library staffers may soon be trained to give lifesaving medication to reverse overdoses among the growing number of heroin users mixing in with the homeless in and around the Main Library.

The idea surfaced after an addict was found dead in one of the Civic Center library’s restrooms in early February.

San Francisco’s Main Library has become a magnet for the city’s exploding homeless population. Coincidentally or not, the neighborhood has seen epidemic numbers of users of heroin and prescription painkillers – opioids such as codeine, morphine and OxyContin.

In 2016, the Main Library tracked 689 instances of patron misbehavior, ranging from vandalism and altercations to verbal disturbances and drug use[.]

… San Francisco has taken a compassionate approach when dealing with the problem, offering both free and unlimited access to syringes.

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Firenze Sage:  Why have a library or a police force or a jail if you simply don’t care.

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Carl Jr: I’ll have a double cheese berger and a ticket out of CA

Carl’s Jr:  double cheese bergerI’ll have a double cheese berger  — and a ticket out of state.

Carl’s Jr., the iconic California “healthier” fast-food chain, announced earlier this month that it is quitting the Golden State for greener pastures in Tennessee.

Investors Business Daily reports: “CKE Restaurants (Carl Karcher Enterprises), the corporate parent of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants, announced that they are relocating to Nashville, Tennessee.”

ns.”

It adds, however, that “company executives say this with a wink. Tax savings are a big factor, as is the stifling regulatory environment on the left coast, where businesses are treated like villains and rich people as cash dispensers for big government programs.”

CKE is following in the footsteps of something close to 9,000 other companies that have expanded elsewhere or pulled up stakes altogether since 2008, according to a 2016 Breitbart News analysis of a report by Spectrum Location Solutions (VLS), a site selection service for companies.

Tennessee is one of several states aggressively recruiting California companies with generous incentives including free or heavily subsidized real estate, expedited project approvals, and low or no state income tax.  If California continues its current course — and there is no indication of any course correction — more California companies will be tempted to relocate to friendlier climes.

In spite of making noise in Sacramento about addressing California’s notoriously unfriendly business climate — with the creation of yet another bureaucracy known as “GoBiz” ostensibly designed to spur economic growth — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed hundreds of new regulations every year, suffocating business owners with more paperwork, requirements and restrictions that suck up their time, and tax their resources.

One of the most disturbing sections in Spectrum’s 2016 report on why businesses leave California is titled:  “Why California’s Business Environment is Likely to Worsen.”  Most of the author’s more fearful predictions have already come true, making his summation sound prophetic:

“California is considering imposing a broad set of taxes on businesses in 2016 and 2017 — a ‘tsunami’ of levies that may trigger the harshest levies on private-sector finances ever organized by the state. The proposals, if enacted, will worsen California’s business environment, so much so that a result may be an increasing number of businesses leaving California for greener domestic or international pastures.”

The only real question remaining is: which California company will be next to leave.

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Firenze Sage:  Free health care for all is next after 15 dollars an hour. Then watch em go bye bye.

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Catholic church in Mexico favors illegal entries

Mexicans who help build Trump wall  are ‘traitors,’ Mexican  Archdiocese Card says

Demonstrators hold placards that collectively read "No wall" during a march to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed border wall, and to call for unity, in Mexico City, Mexico
Demonstrators hold placards that collectively read “No wall” during a march to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, and to call for unity, in Mexico City, Mexico, February 12, 2017. REUTERS/Ginnette Riquelme

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexicans who help build U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned border wall would be acting immorally and should be deemed traitors, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico said on Sunday, turning up the heat on a simmering dispute over the project.

In a provocative editorial, the country’s biggest Archdiocese sought to increase pressure on the government to take a tougher line on companies aiming to profit from the wall, which has strained relations between Trump and the Mexican government.

“Any company intending to invest in the wall of the fanatic Trump would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered traitors to the homeland,” said the editorial in Desde la fe, the Archdiocese’s weekly publication.

On Tuesday, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo warned firms it would not be in their “interests” to participate in the wall. But the editorial accused the government of responding “tepidly” to those eyeing the project for business.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese, which centers on Mexico City and is presided over by the country’s foremost Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, said the editorial represented the views of the diocese.

internet info links concerning  Cardinal  Noberto Rivera: 

Mexico- Complicit Cardinal named to new Vatican council, SNAP responds

For immediate release: March 10, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915 home)

Mexico City’s corrupt Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera is one of 15 individuals named to Pope Francis’ new “Council for the Economy.” We are disappointed in this choice.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=20722

“For decades now, pedophile priests and complicit bishops have been – and still are – the biggest crisis the church has faced in modern times. And in this on-going scandal, Rivera Carrera’s record – in Mexico – is terrible.

“As long as the Vatican continues to promote bishops who covered up clergy child sexual abuse, Catholics can expect more kids to be hurt and more sex crimes to be committed.
“In 2013, we named Rivera Carrera as one of the dirty dozen for a papal choice. Our view of him has not changed.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_s_dirty_dozen_list_the_papabile_who_would_be_the_worst_choice_for_children

“In 2007, Rivera Carrera worked to prevent a prolific predator priest from facing justice. He was accused of concealing the dreadful child sex crimes of Fr. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. The Cardinal did virtually nothing while Fr. Aguilar Rivera traveled between his native Mexico and the Los Angeles archdiocese, molesting kids in both places. Aguilar Rivera’s current whereabouts are unknown and is on Mexico’s most wanted criminal list.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/mexico/docs/aguilar/

“Rivera Carrera has blamed the media for “attacks on the church,” alleging “over-reporting” of church sex cases.

http://www.natcath.org/crisis/071902g.htm

Rivera Carrera  also made the ridiculous claim that there are no “documented” cases of abuse against minors in Mexico.

“It is disturbing that a cardinal who has been charged with covering up the crimes of a child molester, who is completely out of touch with the realities of child sex crimes, and who has not stepped up to the plate to help victims and protect kids is on a another Vatican council.

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Firenze Sage:  Maybe more emphasis on Mexican corruption and cartels would help Mexicans more than calling its citizens traitors.

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Want to change the world? Jim Wallis of Sojourners online class forms basis for discussion

change the worldOur current political and world situation provides an incentive for us to learn and act says Pastor Dale with Christ Lutheran Church in Aptos, CA.  This church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Come  to Christ Lutheran on Sundays  in March at 11:15 for  a series of six classes titled Faith and Public Policy. Location: 10707 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA.  831 688-5727  www.aptosChurch.org

The classes on Faith and Public Policy  follow  Christ Lutheran’s   10 am Worship service and  time for  Coffee, Food and Fellowship.

Pastor Dale will lead  the discussion sessions based on online lectures and suggested readings by Jim Wallis, President and Founder of Sojourners.

Class 1 is titled  Introduction.  Class 2 is titled  Poverty (Part II) of Jim Wallis’ online lectures.  Class 3 is titled Immigration.  Class 4 is titled Race and Religion.

For information on the online classes available through Jim Wallis:

Faith, Social Justice  and Public Life

https://sojo.net/faith-social-justice-public-life

Breitbart’s perspective of Jim Wallis and Sojourners:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/13/jim-wallis-progressive-cleric-tortures-bible-to-promote-intolerant-islam/

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/23/anti-trump-religious-leader-radical-sixties-group-students-democratic-society-sds1/

Resource for the  Social Statement by Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (1991):

http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Church_SocietySS.pdf?_ga=1.205253843.2103735961.1488843566

Start small in changing the world?  Garden plots are available at Aptos Community Garden, an outreach of Christ Lutheran Church.  Spade that dirt!  Turn that soil!  Make beautiful vegetables and flowers.

 

 

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Why have a landline? 911 calls one reason

911 call center womanNeed to call 911?  Landline calls pop up instantly to operators with the caller’s name and address.  Cellphone calls only  include a rudimentary location and rarely a name.

On Oct. 25 and 26, 911 centers in a dozen or so U.S. states from California to Texas were overwhelmed by what investigators now believe was the largest ever cyber attack of the country’s emergency response system.

The U.S. emergency system, not a single system, consists of roughly 6,500 separate answering systems run by local authorities with a hodgepodge of technology.

Onky 420 of the 6,500 centers had implemented a cyber security system as of 2015.  In 38 states no money was spent in 2015 for cybersecurity for 911 centers.

Much of the 911 system relies on copper telephone lines a helpful defense against cyber attacks which usually need an internet connectivity.  Smart phones pose a new type of risk as each is essentially a web-enabled computer that can be compromised by malicious software.

An 18 year old youth, Meetkumar Desal, successfully hacked into a loophole in the  the Apple  iPhone operating system iOS.  He currently is charged with four felony charges of computer tampering.

iphoneApple says that a forthcoming system update of the iPhone will plug the loophole that made the attack possible.

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Monterey Bay Forum:  Why not ‘sentence’ that 18 year old iPhone hacker to community service time that will strengthen cyber security.  Use his skills!

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Obama and Trump – who is more authoritarian?

bathroom girl boy School bathroom decisions given back to states by Trump.  That’s not authoritarian.

Lost in most of the coverage of President Trump’s decision to rescind the Obama administration’s transgender mandates is a fundamental legal reality: The Trump administration just relinquished authority over gender-identity policy in the nation’s federally funded schools and colleges.

In other words, Trump was less authoritarian than Obama. And that’s not the only case.

  • Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, a man known not just for his intellect and integrity but also for his powerful legal argument against ­executive-branch overreach. Based on his previous legal writings, if Gorsuch had his way, the federal bureaucracy could well face the most dramatic check on its authority since the early days of the New Deal.
  •  Trump nominated H. R. McMaster to replace Michael Flynn as his national-security adviser. McMaster made his name on battlefields in the Gulf War and the Iraq War, but he made his name as a scholar by writing a book, “Dereliction of Duty,” that strongly condemned Vietnam-era generals for simply rolling over in the face of Johnson-administration blunders and excesses.
    In his view, military leaders owe their civilian commander in chief honest and courageous counsel — even when a president may not want to hear their words.
  •  When the Ninth Circuit blocked Trump’s immigration executive order (which was certainly an aggressive assertion of presidential power), he responded differently from the Obama administration when it faced similar judicial setbacks.

Rather than race to the Supreme Court in the attempt to expand presidential authority, it told the Ninth Circuit that it intends to rewrite the order to address the most serious judicial concerns and roll back its scope.

Authoritarianism is defined by how a president exercises power, not by the rightness of his goals.

The above is from the National Review.

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Monterey Bay Forum: So far,  Trump’s bark is much louder than his bite.   He certainly controls the news narrative of the day. What will come tomorrow?

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Media: their job is to control exactly what people think some say

fake-news-pppListen up ….

Controlling “exactly what people think” is the job of the media, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski boldly declared Wednesday morning.

While discussing President Trump’s entreaties to the American people to remain skeptical of the press, Bzezinski worried that if the economy turns south, Americans may end up trusting him over the media.

“And it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he  [Trump] could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think,” Brzezinski said. “And that, that is our job.”

SCARBOROUGH: “Exactly. That is exactly what I hear. What Yamiche said is what I hear from all the Trump supporters that I talk to who were Trump voters and are still Trump supporters.

They [Trump supporters] go, ‘Yeah you guys are going crazy. He’s doing — what are you so surprised about? He is doing exactly what he said he is going to do.'”

BRZEZINSKI: “Well, I think that the dangerous, you know, edges here are that he is trying to undermine the media and trying to make up his own facts. And it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he [Trump]  can actually control exactly what people think. And that, that is our job.”

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Firenze Sage;  These totalitarians think this is what freedom of the press is all about. Journalism school or indoctrination camps?

information-control-as-weapon

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hey mom can we go skating today? No, Trump built the rink

woolman-ice-rink-central-park-new-york Hey mom can we go skating  today in Central Park?  At the Woolman ice-rink?

No?  Why?  Because Trump built the rink.

A group of liberal moms at an elite New York City school torpedoed an annual ice-skating party.

Why?  Because Donald Trump rebuilt the  rink in the 1980s.

The picture below shows Trump in 1986 when the Woolman ice-rink in New York Central Park  opened under budget and ahead of schedule.

trump-woolman-rink-1986The Dalton School said that the  ice-skating event was shelved due to low participation.

reported anti-Trump sentiment is said to be the real reason the ice-skating caper was cancelled.  When The New York Post asked the school’s parent association president about the allegation, she refused to comment:

Dalton’s PA president, LaMae DeJongh, declined to comment — but sources said the low attendance was due to rampant anti-Trump sentiment at the elite prep school, which boasts alumni such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Trump repaired the ice-rink:  Before Trump took over the project in the 1980s, the Wollman Rink in Central Park was a symbol of government incompetence. The rink’s repairs and renovations went $12 million over budget, contractors botched the amount of concrete needed, and for six years the incomplete rink served as a lightning rod for the press to remind the Ed Koch administration how untamed things were in the city, according to Bloomberg.
When Trump finally took over fixing the Woolman rink in Central Park,  he finished two months ahead of scheduled and $775,000 under budget:
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Firenze Sage:    This is almost as stupid as boycotting a hospital wing the Koch brothers donated. Liberals are mindless  — but, oh so principled.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/10/liberals-protest-100-million-donation-to-hospital-because-david-koch-gave-the-money/

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