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As Interest in Democratic Socialism Surges, Ocasio-Cortez Explains to Colbert What a 'Moral' Economy Would Look Like

Published on Friday, June 29, 2018 by Common Dreams

"I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

87 Comments

"I think that no person should be homeless if we can have public structures and public policies to allow for people to have homes and food and lead a dignified life in the United States," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said during an appearance on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." (Photo: CBS/Screengrab)

Since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's stunning primary win over Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday, interest in democratic socialism—the label Ocasio-Cortez unabashedly uses to describe her platform and political outlook—has surged exponentially, prompting corporate TV networks to feature segments on the term and driving a record-breaking membership boost for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

"I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live."
—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

In an interview on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" Thursday night, Ocasio-Cortez—who is one of DSA's 42,000 members—was given a chance to explain the core principles of democratic socialism to an audience of millions.

"I believe that in a modern, moral, and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live," Ocasio-Cortez told Colbert, who claimed that democratic socialism is "not an easy term for a lot of Americans."

"So what that means is healthcare as a human right," Ocasio-Cortez explained. "It means that every child, no matter where you are born, should have access to a college or trade school education if they so choose it. And, you know, I think that no person should be homeless if we can have public structures and public policies to allow for people to have homes and food and lead a dignified life in the United States."

Watch:

While democratic socialism may not be an "easy term" for Republicans and corporate Democrats, a large percentage of Americans appear to have no problem with the label.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who has self-identified as a democratic socialist for decades—is by far the most popular politician in the country, and polls have shown that Democratic voters prefer socialism over capitalism.

In an attempted takedown of Ocasio-Cortez's ambitious progressive agenda, Fox News host Sean Hannity inadvertantly demonstrated why many Americans view democratic socialism favorably, particularly during a time of staggering inequality, soaring healthcare costs, environmental degradation, and falling wages.

"Many are hailing Cortez as a rising star on the political landscape, but in reality, her views, her policy positions are actually downright scary... Look very carefully," Hannity ominously warned in a Wednesday night segment. "This is the future, this is the modern Democratic Party."

The camera then proceeded to show a list of widely popular proposals like Medicare for All as well as basic, humane principles like "Women's Rights" and "Support Seniors."

As Vice summarized, "Sean Hannity accidentally made a great argument for socialism."

Comrade @SeanHannity brings our message to the masses. ✊ pic.twitter.com/fkKI6BscjL

— Jacobin (@jacobinmag) June 28, 2018

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It Takes Patience to See the Movement that is Taking Place

Dear friends,

     Patience is considered one of the highest virtues a human can possess. There are times when it can be sorely tested; when things seem to be stuck or moving very slowly. It is not a test of patience to wait for the bus or stand in a long line at the movies without losing one’s composure. Patience is how we are when the appearance is not to our liking but our knowing is strong that things are happening on unseen levels.

     It is like my experience of the frozen river I could see from my window when I lived in Canada. I marveled at how it had suddenly ceased to move and seemed rock solid. I later learned that the river was moving along at a swift pace underneath the ice. It couldn’t be seen but there was real activity. That is how I often feel when watching the news. It seems as if we are stuck in a very out-dated paradigm, one of denying our oneness, of being afraid of each other, of preparing for the worst. It takes patience to see the movement that is taking place at the same time. Human beings are far more aware than ever.

     Patience in this sense is not waiting or inactivity. It is about maintaining the highest idea possible. It is about speaking up and speaking out. It is about joining with others to insist on what is for our highest good. It is about daily meditation and affirmation. Patience is movement without fear. It is conscious and committed. It is keeping on keeping on. It moves us from fate to destiny. Be restfully alert. We need to be clear and steadfast.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org   www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Opioid of the Masses?

by John Lawrence, June 30, 2018

Karl Marx made famous the quotation "religion is the opiate of the masses." If he were alive today and writing in English, he might coin the term "opioid of the masses", but it wouldn't be about religion. Today drugs, themselves, are the "opioids of the masses." Today people go directly to the available drugs to relieve suffering rather than to religion. Drugs, evidently, are more effective than religion in relieving suffering. Drugs seem to be a universal human need. Archaeological evidence shows that humans were taking opium and ‘magic’ mushrooms as far back as 10,000 years ago. Cannabis has been in use for thousands of years and is believed to have been used in ancient Central and South Asia.

This is from Huffington Post:

“It is generally thought that mind-altering substances, or at least drugs, are a modern-day issue, but if we look at the archaeological record, there are many data supporting their consumption in prehistoric times,” Dr. Elisa Guerra-Doce, an associate professor of prehistory at the University of Valladolid in Spain and the author of the review, told the Huffington Post in an email. “As soon as drug plants and fermented drinks were first consumed, there is uninterrupted evidence for such use over centuries, and occasionally, the relationship that began in prehistoric times has continued into the present day.”

Drug use seems to be the main recreation and right of adulthood as children are usually forbidden from consuming alcohol, coffee or marijuana. If drug use is so ubiquitous, why is there such a big hue and cry about them? Responsible use of drugs should be taught in schools. All drugs should be legalized so as to take the criminal element out of their trafficking. Already the legalization of marijuana has caused huge financial losses to the drug cartels in Central America. There is no need to smuggle marijuana into the US if it can be legally grown here.

So why isn't the need for drugs being studied in colleges and universities, and I use drugs in the larger sense including nicotine, caffeine, alcohol and even some foods like sugar? Pharmaceutical corporations have profited big time from selling all kinds of drugs and pain relievers. Drugs have the basic property of relieving pain but also of getting one high. So wherever you are on the emotional spectrum, there is a drug for you - either to get high or to relieve pain. Heroin can do both, and is in fact used for both. As an addict uses more heroin the phenomenon of resistance takes place. Initially the drug was taken to get high, Finally, it is just used to keep from getting low.

So why do humans need drugs at all? We are not satisfied with our current state of emotional affairs no matter where they're at. We always want to feel better. That's where drugs come in. They make us feel better at first. As time goes on, it takes more and more drugs to make us feel better, and finally more and more drugs just not to feel worse. Why isn't this phenomenon being studied in colleges, universities and research centers? Probably because there is too much money in exploiting people's ignorance about drugs.

What Must We Do Now?

by Robert Reich

Thursday, June 28, 2018

My friends, this is a dark hour. Intolerance, cruelty, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and environmental destruction have been let loose across the land.

Trump controls the Republican Party, the Republican Party controls the House and Senate, and the Senate and Trump will soon control the Supreme Court.

Republicans also control both chambers in 32 states (33 if you count Nebraska) and 33 governorships. And in many of these states they are entrenching their power by gerrymandering and arranging to suppress votes.

Yet only 27 percent of Americans are Republican, and the vast majority of Americans disapprove of Trump. The GOP itself is now little more than Trump, Fox News, a handful of billionaire funders, and evangelicals who oppose a woman’s right to choose, gay marriage, and the Constitution’s separation of church and state.

So what are we – the majority – to do?

First and most importantly, do not give up. That’s what they want us to do. Then they’d have no opposition at all.

Second, in the short term, if you are represented by a Republican senator, do whatever you can to get him or her to reject Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, or, at the least, postpone consideration until after the midterm elections. Urge others to join with you. Senate switchboard: 202-224-3121

Third, make a ruckus. Demonstrate. Engage in non-violent civil disobedience. Fight lies with truth. Join the resistance. @IndivisibleTeam @swingleft @UpRiseDotOrg @MoveOn @Sister_District @flippable_org.

Fourth, don’t succumb to divisive incrimination over “who lost” the 2016 election (Hillary loyalists, Bernie supporters, Jill Stein voters, etc.). This will get us nowhere. We must be united.

Fifth, vote this November 6 for people who will stand up to the Trump Republican outrage. Mobilize and organize others to do so. Contact friends and relations in “red” states, and urge them to do the same.

Sixth, help lay the groundwork for the 2020 presidential election, so that even if Trump survives Mueller and impeachment he will not be reelected.

Finally, know that this fight will be long and hard. It will require our patience, our courage, and our resolve. The stakes could not be higher.

Stop, Look and Listen

Dear friends,

     For most people the attention is either in remembrance or projection. Thinking of the past and anticipating the future are the two most common states of mind. We also must notice the quality of those states. Are we remembering with guilt, regret, resentment? Are we fearing the future, imagining all sorts of worst case scenarios? What lies between those opposite poles is NOW.

   The present moment is powerful. While in it, we can perceive Reality. Reality is being, not doing. Reality is the awareness of aliveness. Reality is sensing unity with Life itself. Reality is stillness and peace. Reality is you in the moment perceiving your own perception.   There are many benefits and many techniques for achieving this-moment awareness. They begin with a willingness to suspend activity and simply be.

   From the ancients “to the one who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible.” That paradoxical statement holds the secret to everything we seek. It speaks of the natural occurrence in all of Nature as rest and action. Like heartbeats, there is a space between rest and action that produces rhythm. It is what makes music danceable.   Without the rest stage, (temporary emptiness) there is sound but not music. 

     Observe your own breath and you will discern a tiny stop between inhale and exhale. Consciously allowing the stop to extend is another good practice for being more present.   Kindergarteners are advised to “stop, look and listen” before crossing the street. Let’s take that advice to heart today, before stepping out into action.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes  

www.mvcsl.org    www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Trump's Summits With Kim Jung Un and Now Putin

by John Lawrence, June 29, 2018

While the Washington establishment decries Trump's getting together with the likes of Kim and Putin, I think it's probably a good idea to talk and reduce the tension with our so-called enemies. There are lots of reasons why some Americans feel animosity towards these two, but the fact remains that we should try twice as hard to get along with those we disagree with as we do with those we agree with. Trump is charting his own path on foreign policy, and he might actually make a difference in this department although when it comes to climate change, the environment or taxes, he has gone totally the wrong route. But he could change on these issues given enough time. I'm not holding my breath. When it comes to immigration, we should look to our "allies" as to how they're dealing with their own, much more urgent, immigration crisis. Cooler heads could avail, but I doubt if they will.

I think Trump is all about enriching himself even further and using the Presidency to do it. After all, this is the model for US politicians at this point. All the Congressmen use their offices to enrich themselves when they leave Congress to "spend more time with their family" which is a euphemism for "to get a lucrative job with a corporation for which I got legislation they wanted written into law." I think that's what the Mueller investigation will find: that Trump was all about greasing his own palms and using his office to do it rather than doing something underhanded and nefarious to help Russia subvert American institutions.

The New York Times reported:

The Helsinki talks, which will come on the heels of a NATO summit meeting in Brussels on July 11 and 12, could exacerbate American relations with European allies even as it eases tensions with Russia.

Mr. Trump this week sent his national security adviser, John R. Bolton, to Moscow, where he met on Wednesday with Mr. Putin.

Afterward, an aide to Mr. Putin, Yuri Ushakov, reiterated Moscow’s denial that it tried to influence the United States presidential election in 2016, comments that Mr. Trump cited on Thursday in a Twitter post before the meeting with Mr. Putin was announced.

“Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!” Mr. Trump wrote.

The potential for such a high-level meeting has concerned some American allies in Europe, particularly because of recent tensions between the Trump administration and traditional American allies including Canada, France and Germany.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said that it was important to get along with Russia and other countries.

But a meeting with Mr. Putin, and improving the relationship between the United States and Russia, have long appeared to be priorities for Mr. Trump.

Yes, the old status quo of NATO is hard to give up for the European allies and the Clinton branch of the Democratic party in the US. Trump is a disrupter, and, if he can bring some progress towards reintegrating Russia with Europe, that would be all to the better. Germany, in particular is hypocritical towards Russia as it leans on its NATO security blanket even while being dependent on Russian natural gas. The EU better get on with making friends with Putin instead of relying on the NATO and American security blankets which are frayed and superannuated. Just think how much money we could save if we didn't have to defend Europe. Trump has put that meme out there. I hope he follows up on it.

 

The Ongoing Fulfillment of our Destiny

Dear friends,

     It never fails to amaze me, the intelligence operating in birds, insects, spiders, bugs and other tiny beings.  These small creatures, using the principles of geometry and engineering, build the most elaborate and beautiful structures for various reasons, most often to capture prey or to provide shelter for their offspring to be. We do not look closely enough at Nature to find the presence of Intelligence, but we ought to.   We might call it instinct, but it is really inner Knowing that these animals display. They are born knowing how to create their own destiny. They have no second thoughts to inhibit their forward progress.

     We humans are also born to create our own destiny. But we have that annoying little trait called inner Forgetting. We have forgotten who we are and how our lives unfold from within. We made the colossal mistake of naming something apart as the Source of our experience. Call it God or the government, the Divine or the economy, the Deity or our childhood, we give up our creative intelligence without a second thought.

     We have lots of second thoughts, usually when we talk ourselves out of the bigger idea and settle for the status quo. But there is a right use of second thoughts. It is to turn away from the world, the current accounting for what is so, and to contemplate Reality. Are we some random species that fell out of the sky into Nature? Or did we arise out of it? Are we as smart as an ant, a bird, a spider or a caterpillar? Are we as well-equipped to design our own dwelling place? Do we have the inner Knowing that guides us in the right use of our Intelligence? Yes we do.   And as we apply our intelligence to a new design for our own living, we move out of Fate into the ongoing fulfillment of our Destiny.

Stay tuned in.

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org   www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Trump's Tariffs Could Backfire Big Time

by John Lawrence, June 28, 2018

Just as Harley-Davidson is moving some production to Europe, other corp[orations and countries could shuffle things around on the chess board to defeat the purposes of the tariffs. So if there is a tariff on some Chinese product entering the country, for example, China could just move production to the US, thus escaping the tariff. European tariffs on American booze could lead American countries to move production abroad just as Harley did. So while Trump plays two dimensional chess, the rest of the world will be playing three dimensional chess which will totally defeat the imposition of Trump's tariffs.

Some corporations will no doubt bring production to the US from abroad in order to escape tariffs on imported cars, for example. When all is said and done, the production necessary to satisfy local markets will take place locally, and production to satisfy foreign markets will take place there. So the jobs will be shifted around depending on local consumption. Not a bad result actually.

Ripping Into Trump for Treating Children Worse Than Seized Property, Judge Orders Reunification of Separated Families

Published on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 by Common Dreams

"This ruling is an enormous victory for parents and children who thought they may never see each other again."

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

 

0 Comments

Protesters walked though the streets of El Paso, Texas on June 21, 2018 to protest against the Trump administration's immigration policies. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A federal judge in San Diego, California ruled late Tuesday that the more than 2,000 migrant children separated from their parents under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy must be reunited with their families within 30 days—and children under age 5 must be returned to parents within two weeks.

"This ruling is an enormous victory for parents and children who thought they may never see each other again," declared Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, which fought for the families in court. "Tears will be flowing in detention centers across the country when the families learn they will be reunited."

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📣 The judge ruled that the Trump administration must reunite separated families within 30 days, and children under 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days. #FamiliesBelongTogether

— ACLU (@ACLU) June 27, 2018

>

"The facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance—responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government's own making. They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our constitution," wrote (pdf) U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw. "This is particularly so in the treatment of migrants, many of whom are asylum seekers and small children."

The Trump administration's family separation policy was implemented without any standards for adequately tracking detained children taken from their parents, so as Sabraw noted, the "startling" and "unfortunate reality is that under the present system migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property."

Karen Tumlin, director of legal strategy for the National Immigration Law Center, drew attention to the court's pointed criticism of federal officials treating children with less care than a detainee's personal effects:

Court rips into the U.S. government for the "startling reality" that it has failed to have any process for keeping track of kids ripped apart from their parents & has done a worse job keeping track of children it jails than it does of "property." #FamiliesBelongTogether 2/

— Karen Tumlin (@KarenTumlin) June 27, 2018

In addition to setting deadlines for reunification, Sabraw also issued a nationwide injunction to block officials from separating any more families—unless a parent "affirmatively, knowingly, and voluntarily declines to be reunited with the child...or there is a determination that the parent is unfit or presents a danger to the child"—and mandated that the government establish phone contact between separated children and their parents within 10 days.

While the ruling, which allows the case to proceed as a class action suit, was welcomed by the immigrant rights community, it is still unclear how officials will actually go about reuniting families, particularly if a parent already has been deported and their child remains in government custody.

Congratulations to the @ACLU for this enormous victory. The fight is not over, we are still unclear about what will happen to parents, including our clients, who were already deported without their children. The admim must clarify. #FamiliesBelongTogether https://t.co/AXW9NstHOB

— Texas Civil Rights Project (@TXCivilRights) June 27, 2018

Prior to Tuesday night's ruling, 17 states and the District of Columbia—all led by Democratic attorneys general—filed suit (pdf) with the U.S. District Court in Seattle over President Donald Trump's recent executive order that called for an end to the policy but which critics say trades "one form of child abuse for another."

"The new federal executive order does not bring back together the thousands of families that were torn apart by the Trump administration's policy, and it does not prevent families from being separated in the future," explained Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The attorneys general have not yet updated or withdrawn their case following the ruling in California.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that 2,047 children remain in government custody and claimed they could not be reunited with their parents because of the 1997 Flores agreement, which puts a 20-day limit on detaining families.

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Our Subjective Mind Is Our Servant

Dear friends,

     Are you as amazed as I am at how often people blame others for how they react to something? “You made me mad” etc. is a truly victimizing statement. In fact, we always have a choice as to how we feel, and it comes from deep within us, not caused by anyone else.   Yes, I know it seems as if “they” are at fault but that is never true.

     A great example is what we experience as a collective. World events can be viewed in many ways, the most frequent reaction is fear or anger. But there is another way to see things. What if our desire for liberty and justice for all is actually so powerful that it is kicking up the very kinds of actions that prevent it? Are we being given an opportunity to rise up and lead?

     Have you noticed that when you are deeply wanting to make a change in yourself but have been ignoring it, things begin to happen that demand you pay attention?   Our subjective mind is our servant.   It honors what we give it to do.   If we are wanting answers, it will find a way to get them to us!

     The one emotion we might want to cultivate right now is gratitude. Let’s be thankful that we are always the deciding factor in our relationship to anyone or any situation. How we experience anything is self-generated. That is our power and our greatest challenge. No shame, no blame, just claim it.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org     www.californiafrepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Trump threatens Harley-Davidson with taxes ‘like never before’ and predicts its eventual collapse

by John Lawrence, June 27, 2018

So says the title of an article in the Washington Post. So is Trump's strategy collapsing around his ears? Obviously, Harley-Davidson can avoid European tariffs by shifting jobs and production to Europe, just the opposite of the effect Trump intended. So could we say that Trump's policy backfired?

Trump tweeted the following:

A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2018

So the time honored right of American corporations to hire workers anywhere in the world where they are the cheapest is out the window? American corporations, including Harley-Davidson, better stay right here or else. Oh no, an iconic All-American corporation like Harley-Davidson, known for celebrating American freedom - of the road at least - is taken to task by the MAGA President. Trump doesn't mind pissing off even those whom he has previously ballyhooed.

Now all the European motorcycle manufacturers like Triumph, Ducati and Norton will be salivating, anticipating all the sales they will gain at Harley-Davidson's expense. If even American icons can experience Trump's wrath, what about all the lesser lights who will be moving their manufacturing abroad to escape Trump's tariffs? How about China? The Chinese and the Europeans will be laughing all the way to the bank as Trump makes a huge faux pas with his amateurish tariff policy. He's all about winning trade wars, but we'll see. Maybe he'll be losing big time - losing all those good paying jobs that he has sworn to protect and create.

Trump threatened to hit the company with an unspecified tax if it attempted to sell motorcycles in the United States that were made in Europe. Or he could put a tariff on motorcycles imported from Europe. Tit for Tat. But he doesn't get it. Harley-Davidson doesn't want to import motorcycles made in Europe into the US. 40% of Harley's production is sold in Europe so the motorcycles made there will be sold there. The net result is that jobs will leave the US and migrate to Europe. It just goes to show that Trump doesn't know what he's doing. Oh what tangled webs we weave, especially if, like Trump, you're a total amateur. Never did he contemplate the unintended consequences of his blustery, bold moves.

The Washington Post reported:

Tuesday marked Trump’s second straight day of leveling attacks at Harley-Davidson. The company’s announcement sparked a massive sell-off in the stock market amid fears that other companies might follow suit, worried about getting caught in the middle of Trump’s trade war with Europe, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan and possibly India.

In his Tuesday morning Twitter posts, Trump wrote that “Harley must know that they won’t be able to sell back into the U.S. without paying a big tax!”

It was unclear what he meant. He has threatened such a tax since the 2016 campaign, but he hasn’t imposed one, and Congress has blocked his efforts to craft such a tax. He could be referring to the tariffs he is attempting to unilaterally impose on imports.

In fact, Trump has tried to threaten numerous countries with tariffs if they do not reduce their own tariffs and other trade barriers, but so far most of those discussions have ended in acrimony and frustration. Numerous countries are moving forward with retaliatory tariffs against the United States, such as the ones European leaders have leveled at Harley-Davidson, to try to exert political pressure on Trump to back down.

Trump also suggested Tuesday morning that his adversarial approach to trade policy had only begun.

It's clear Trump's ignorance is manifesting itself, and the Republican Congress lets him get away with anything he wants. He's right at the brink of making a total fool out of himself, so I guess the Democratic strategy is just to wait and let it happen. Of course his base is a bunch of fools too so they will probably reelect him so he can make a complete mockery out of the United States. Way to go, Republicans. Celebrate Ignorance, that should be your motto.

Trump’s Fourth of July

by Robert Reich

Monday, June 25, 2018

On this coming Fourth of July, it’s worth pondering the true meaning of American patriotism – as opposed to the malignant, distorted view of it propounded by Donald J. Trump.

For Trump, the central challenge of American patriotism is to secure our borders. “Without borders, there can be no nation,” he says.

But excluding foreigners has never been a dominant part of American patriotism. For most of its existence America has been relatively open to people from the rest of the world, especially those fleeing tyranny and violence.

America’s core struggle has been one of inclusion, not exclusion. We have strived to extend equal citizenship to Native Americans, African Americans, women, and LGBTQs. 

The poems of Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes, and the songs of Woody Guthrie, expressed loving devotion to America while turning that love into a demand for justice. 

“This land is your land, this land is my land” sang Guthrie. “Let America be America again,” pleaded Hughes:  “The land that never has been yet–/And yet must be – the land where everyone is free./The land that’s mine – the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME –.”

Trump’s patriotism centers on symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving the American flag.

But such displays haven’t been at the center of American patriotism, either. Historically, American patriotism has meant taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going.

This includes volunteering time and energy to improving the community and country. It has meant paying taxes in full rather than lobbying for lower taxes, seeking tax loopholes, or squirreling away money abroad.

It also means refraining from making political contributions that corrupt our politics, and blowing the whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one’s job.

Real patriotism involves strengthening our democracy – defending the right to vote and ensuring more Americans are heard, not claiming without evidence that millions have voted fraudulently and pushing for laws that make it harder for blacks and Latinos to vote.

True patriots don’t inundate government with industry lobbyists, attack the freedom of the press, criticize judges who disagree with them, or fill the airwaves with lies. They don’t direct employers to fire employees who exercise their freedom of speech.

True patriots don’t court foreign dictators, and don’t excuse tyranny by denigrating America.

When asked whether Vladimir Putin is a killer, Trump responded “you think our country’s so innocent?” When asked about Turkish strongman Erdogan’s disdain for civil liberties, Trump said “when the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger.”

True patriots don’t fuel racist, religious or ethnic divisions. They aren’t homophobic or sexist. To the contrary, true patriots seek to confirm and strengthen and celebrate the “we” in “we the people of the United States.”

Trump is the first United States president to use the term “we” to refer only to his supporters. “My supporters are the smartest, strongest, most hard working and most loyal that we have seen in our countries history,” he tweeted recently. “As we get stronger, so does our country.”

A majority of today’s Americans do worry that the nation is losing its national identity. But that identity has never been centered on our support for a particular president or his policies.

Nor, more fundamentally, has our identity depended on the whiteness of our skin or the uniformity of our ethnicity.

Our national identity has been our shared ideals.

If we are losing our national identity it is because we are losing those ideals: a commitment to the rule of law, to our democratic institutions, to truth, to tolerance of our differences, to equal political rights and equal opportunity, to participating in our civic life and making necessary sacrifices for these ideals we hold in common.

We must share these ideals if we are to have a functioning society. Without them, there is no America.

Trump is doing everything he can to destroy these ideals. We must do everything we can to strengthen them.

This is the true test of our patriotism.

Meditation Helps Us to Regain Some Semblance of Our True Nature

Dear friends,

     Why do we become frustrated with ourselves and with others? Why do we think we could all do better? Why do we sometimes disappoint ourselves? Why does the evening news distress us? There must be something in us that is subconsciously aware of our potential for intelligent and loving choices. We must have an inner guidance system that is actively attempting to lead us into wise decisions. Is it possible that we are right now enlightened but have forgotten our origins, our power, our capacity for creating beauty and prosperity?

     Thomas Troward said we are all beginners, but at what? Perhaps at being human. I have often taught that Jesus was teaching his followers how to be human.   He seemed to know, as did Buddha, that it is a real challenge for a spiritual being, infinite and boundless, to be “trapped” in a physical body and limited by physical laws.

 Paramahansa Yogananda voiced a similar point of view. He thought that being encased in the womb was frightening to a soul, but the actual birth was ever more shocking. In that moment, we had no choice but to become survivors. Children often have glimpses of their nature. I can recall when I was very small, around two years old, trying to remember what I came here to tell people. I was so frustrated that I could not bring it up. It wasn’t until I walked into a Science of Mind Center at age 34 that I found the answer.

     To sum up, we are both spiritual and physical; both beginners and ancient beings; both enlightened and in the dark. Things like meditation help us to regain some semblance of our true nature. When we understand our shared predicament, we can be a little more compassionate with our fellow humans. Let’s also affirm that everyone is awakening to their origins and their ability to create a world that reflects our profound joy in being.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

The US Has No Qualms About Invading Other Countries

by John Lawrence, June 26, 2018

So why not invade Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and take out M-13. That should solve our immigration problems. Seriously, the migrant/refugee crisis will not abate until conditions improve in those Central American countries. There are just too many poor people in the world who have nothing to lose by risking death to move to an area where they feel they and their families will be better off. The migrant/refugee crisis is happening all over the world - in Europe, for example. Angela Merkel has made deals with Turkey and other countries to cut off refugee routes into Germany. Most European countries, after accepting large numbers of immigrants, have strengthened their borders. Otherwise, most of the Middle East and Africa would have moved there. Why live in a hellhole when you can migrate to a decent country and have a decent life for your family? That is exactly the crux of the matter.

Evidently, the only good paying jobs in Central America are with gangs doing drug and human smuggling. If the US took pains to improve the lives of the poor living there, they would probably not migrate here. But the US has its own internal refugee crisis - the homeless. And there is nowhere for them to go to improve their lives. Basically it's the same situation all over the world, and it'll only be exacerbated by the climate crisis. Poor people want a better life. So far the world's rich countries, the chief among them being the US, have done little or nothing to improve poor peoples' lives either here or abroad. The US puts primary emphasis on defense, in other words, keeping poor people in their places so they can't harm us. The US policy is to make the world safe for rich people, not to help the poor and the struggling. "Give me your poor, your huddled masses etc" is so passe. It's not what the US is about nor has it been about for many years.

The US needs to help Central American countries to improve the lives of poor people and get rid of the gangs who make a good living bringing drugs and people to the US. If economic conditions improved there, the migrant/refugee crisis at the southern US border would ameliorate. Of course, the US has a right to territorial integrity. That's where Trump and his base are right. However, there is a moral imperative to help others improve their lives in situ. Otherwise, the crisis will not abate. That goes for the homeless crisis in the US as well. Capitalism can only go so far to improve peoples' lives, but it is not far enough without precipitating the crisis of the poor and dispossessed all over the world. Beating our swords into plowshares would be a good first step. We spend much to much money on the War Department and not enough on the Peace Department. Oh, I guess that doesn't even exist. Silly me.

'Both Illegal and Unconstitutional': Trump Brazenly Suggests Immediate Deportations, Zero Due Process

Published on Sunday, June 24, 2018 by Common Dreams

"When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came," the president tweeted Sunday.

by Andrea Germanos, staff writer

 

3 Comments

President Donald Trump speaking at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28, 2018. President Donald Trump on Sunday called for immediately deporting immigrants—a group he referred to people who "invade our country"—without due process.

The ACLU hit back at president's proposal, calling it "both illegal and unconstitutional," as the right to due process extends to those who've entered the U.S. without documentation.

At roughly 11am, Trump sent out a pair of tweets, saying in part, "When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came."

We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2018

....Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years! Immigration must be based on merit - we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2018

📣 What President Trump suggested here is both illegal and unconstitutional.

Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally. https://t.co/qsy58VACSB

— ACLU (@ACLU) June 24, 2018

"That's not how any of this works," the ACLU added in a comment about Trump's tweet.

It was just a year and half ago Trump swore he would "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States"—a point noted by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.):

<

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Remember the oath you took to the Constitution at your relatively small inauguration? You should read the Constitution. The Due Process Clause applies to all persons, not just US citizens.

As @POTUS, you of all people need to follow law and order. https://t.co/CK8VSVrp8h

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 24, 2018

>

Ethics expert Norm Eisen, meanwhile, suggested the tweets were a sign the president's attack on the rule of law would widen its scope:

He's trying to use the most vulnerable as a battering ram in his ongoing attack on the rule of law. But if he can deprive them of due process, American citizens will be next. How long before new chant at his rallies is "lock them all up"? Now is the time to hold the line https://t.co/38wSQj3ghK

— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) June 24, 2018

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Be Cheerfully Expectant That Life is For Us, Never Against Us

Dear friends,

     Experience is temporary. It is a fact, not the truth. For example, we might have an illness, but wholeness and vitality are the truth. If that were not so, there would be no healing. We could say, about anything, this is a limited version of what is possible. Since we are dealing with an Infinite Field of Intelligence, there is always a greater possibility. Knowing this might eliminate both attachment to how things are and or, fear that they are permanent.

     Often times, we feel that we are stuck with what is so now, or that we might lose what we now have. Both are fear based ideas and have negative effects. We want to become so convinced of the truth of constant creation that we can relax and allow facts to arrange themselves into new and better circumstances. It could be said as “go with the flow.”

     That doesn’t mean we are not involved or take on a do-nothing stance. It means there is a deep trust in the Law of Mind, which is responsive to our mental images. Life has a tendency to move up and out. We see it in all of nature as tiny seeds become revealed as all life.   Things grow and become ever more of themselves. That is as true of limited beliefs as it is of cheerfully expectant ones. Let’s be cheerfully expectant that life is for us, never against us, and is always producing our best version of the Truth we speak.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org    www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Uber and Lyft Work For Me

by John Lawrence, June 25, 2018

As a recent retiree, I found that I wasn't quite meeting monthly expenses without taking money out of my reserves. This was not a good situation as eventually my reserves would be totally depleted. So the wolf was getting closer and closer to the door. When the reserves get down to zero, the wolf is at the door, and, finally, he gets inside, and the next thing you know, you're on the street. Not a good situation.

Luckily, I got the idea of replenishing my reserves by driving for Lyft and Uber. I'm glad I checked them out. Before long I was significantly adding to my reserves on a weekly basis, and the work was fitting completely into my lifestyle as a retiree. I still got my swim and my nap in. Anything else that came up that I wanted to do, I did that too. As someone said once, "You're never late for work." That's because you have complete and total control over your time. You do it when you want to do it, and, when you don't, you don't. There are not too many jobs that require essentially no training (I got 15 minutes with Lyft), no credentialing, no course taking, nothing but a good driving record and a decent car. It sort of puts the kibosh on 5 years of college and a ton of student loan debt.

I've heard a lot of blather about how Uber and Lyft drivers get no "employee benefits" because they are self-employed. It's BS. I was self-employed for 40 years of my life as a window cleaner. Not only do you get no employee benefits as a self-employed person, but you have the privilege of paying both the employer's and the employee's social security contribution which amounts to approximately 15% of your income. Still it's worth it to be your own boss in my opinion, and have the freedom to decide when and where you want to work.

Employee benefits don't amount to too much in my opinion. They used to have "defined benefit" pensions. That meant that you paid a little money to your employer out of your paycheck, and your employer invested that money so that, when you retired, you got a monthly check. However, all that money you paid in belonged to your employer, not you, so that when you died, your employer kept the rest of the money. It did not go to your heirs. Sweet for your employer, a screw job for you and your family.

Now they have the "defined contribution" retirement plan or 401(k). You can contribute part of your paycheck to the stock market. There is no guarantee that you'll ever realize enough from it to pay your monthly expenses when you retire. If the stock market crashes, you may lose all your money. It's basically a plan that enriches Wall Street. You still do not have control over your investments so, for instance, you can't invest in real estate.

As a self-employed person, you have to think about investing on your own terms so that the wealth you create can be passed down to your heirs and not go to enrich some corporation or Wall Street. For me, that meant real estate. So the idea is that you have to be in the business of creating wealth not just living on a monthly stipend as wages when you're working and a pension when you retire. Creating wealth means that you will be able to cash that in when you can no longer work. Hopefully, you will have enough at some point so that you don't have to work. You will have a nestegg or reserves.

That's where Uber and Lyft came in. I found that my nestegg wasn't big enough to sustain me even when my rental and social security income was taken into account. My social security income was about equivalent to what I can make in one week with Lyft and Uber, and that's even after the privilege of paying both the employee's and employer's share into it. I pity the other seniors who have to live off of that. Fortunately, I did invest in California real estate early on so I have some rental income. It's just not quite enough, that's all. I should have take this wealth creation bit more seriously, but that's not how I (or most people my age) were raised. I was raised to be an employee and have my employer take care of me. (Actually they were mostly taking care of themselves.)

So driving for Lyft and Uber, getting my swim and my nap in each day, and getting the wolf farther and farther from my door is a happy situation for me. I have a 5 year plan. When my new Toyota Camry Hybrid is 5 years old, it will probably be shot with the miles I'm putting on, and I will probably be shot too. At that time, I will probably be able to live off my reserves as a supplement to my other monthly income, and I will have the knowledge that I can pass it all on to my heir when the time comes for me to depart the planet.

Off the Top of My Head

Children at the Border

by John Lawrence, June 24, 2018

The fact that Trump backed down shows the power that the people have when they act in concert. There is a growing peoples' movement against the reactionary politics of Donald Trump. At the same time his so-called base is firmly entrenched on his side. There are two sides totally at odds with each other. Which side wins in upcoming elections will determine what the nature and character of the US of A will be in the future, and whether the US will be acting on the side of protecting children or on the side of the money interests who could care less about children. They only care about money. Wall street cares about nothing but the bottom line, and tries to enforce this ethic on all Americans.  The years ahead will be interesting. Will America sink into the morass that Trump and his followers are determined to sink us into, or will America rise above that mentality and put childrens' interests first?

If Only We Would Retain the Eyes of a Child

Dear friends,

     When I was little, about 4 years old, I would see little lights dancing in the garden. When I asked my mother what they were, she said “must be the fairies.”   What a wonderful answer. She could have discounted the whole experience with “it’s nothing, just the sun.” But with that one reference to the fairies, she opened my mind to the beyond, to the wondrous world we can sometimes glimpse if our eyes are not trained to dismiss what we see.

     There are so many mysteries in life, one cannot say for sure what is real and what is not. It is all such a personal experience of perception. When it comes to other people, the same is true. No one is merely what they appear to be. There is a vast inner self, a magical child, a wise one, a soul on fire with possibility.   We may see only the dirty shoes or the unshaven face, but that person will always be the little light that reflects the true Self.

     Love is seeing through to the beyond, to what is inherent, to the not-yet-known, to the possible. This is as true of us looking in the mirror as it is in how we observe the world. If we do not see beyond the façade, we miss the beauty of the soul. Yes, sometimes it is nearly impossible to perceive, when the behaviors have so distracted us, but it is there. If that were not true, there would be no redemption, no rehabilitation, no rising out of the past.

     It is too bad we do not retain the eyes of child. What we call naïve is actually spiritual vision. What we think of as childish is spiritual maturity. But what we consider wisdom is world-weariness. Make no mistake, the fairies dance in the garden for those who have eyes to see, and the potential of humanity is far beyond anything we have claimed so far.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes www.mvcsl.org www.californiafreepress.net

My mother would have been 103 today.

We are All One

Dear friends,

  Meister Eckhart, the mystical scholar of centuries past, influenced many of our greatest students of Life, including Martin Luther King. Eckhart said “compassion is justice. God is justice. The closer we get to compassion and justice the closer to freedom.”   We live in a country that espouses “liberty and justice for all.” As children we were required to recite that pledge every morning in school. We were taught that our ancestors fought for it, died for it, that our country was built on the quest for liberty and justice.

     What looks like politics and social upheaval on our TV news right now, is actually a spiritual crisis. We are living in the most dangerous era in human history, one in which liberty and justice are allotted to the very few.   We have come face to face with our superstitions, dogma and wrong-headed beliefs. We are being challenged to heed the words of the wisest who have lived among us, those who have tried to show us that our differences are merely superficial, that our common ground is our Source, one power becoming all life, being all life, in this moment right now.

     "Divide and Conquer" is the modus operandi of the power seekers, those with “merchant mentality” as Eckhart stated. Look at the TV ads for drugs. We have been separated from our natural health, our capacity for physical renewal, our wholeness. We have become divided by fear; fear of sickness, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty, fear of difference, fear of death. We have been divided by racism, classism, sexism. We have been conquered emotionally and mentally.

     But it is not possible to completely conquer the human soul and the mind. We can take back our power in any moment.   We absolutely must begin with compassion for our own previous apathy; compassion for our ignorance; compassion for our willingness to kill and denigrate; compassion for our abhorrent treatment of those we deem ‘not us.' We must demand justice and liberty for all.

    Spirituality is based on the simple truth; We are all One. We are of the same origin. We have access to the same Intelligence, love, peace, joy and supply.

We, the people of planet earth, have all the power we need to create a world that reflects our belief in liberty and justice for all.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes  

www.mvcsl.org   www.californiafreepress.net

Denuclearize the United States? An Unthinkable Thought

JUNE 18, 2018, From The Guardian

by PAUL STREET

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Photo by rottinam | Public Domain

An early challenge to the United States’ self-declared right to manage post-World War II global affairs from the banks of the Potomac came in 1950, when Korean forces joined by Chinese troops pushed back against the United States’ invasion of North Korea. Washington responded with a merciless bombing campaign that flattened much of the country. U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay boasted that “we burned down every town in North Korea.” LeMay proudly guessed that the gruesome U.S. assault killed a fifth of North Korea’s population. The attack included napalm and chemical weapons and the bombing of dams – a war crime for which Nazis were hanged at Nuremberg. The scale of the devastation was soul-numbing, enough to disgust even many veteran U.S. military observers. As Korea expert John Feffer has written:

“The U.S. used massive bombardments to erase North Korea from the map, destroying  75 percent of all physical facilities and using napalm on a large scale for the first time…Three million civilians fled south to escape the saturation bombings…In June 1953, the United States bombed irrigation dams and the retaining wall of the Toksan reservoir, flooding cities and undercutting the capacity of North Koreans to grow food, acts considered war crimes when the Nazis did much the same to the Dutch.”

These monstrous transgressions went down the United States’ “memory hole” even as they took place – and even as the leading public U.S. military journals of the day exulted over how the bombing of Korean dams sent “Asians” scurrying to survive. As far as most U.S.-Americans know, they never occurred and therefore hold no relevance to current U.S.-North Korean tensions.

Things are different in North Korea, where every schoolchild learns about the epic crimes committed by the U.S. “imperialist aggressor” in the early 1950s.

With the southern portion of the Korean peninsula retained for development within the Western-ruled order, the shattered north ripened into a crypto-Stalinist family dictatorship and paranoid garrison state that became the closest thing on Earth to a living example of the nightmare totalitarian regime depicted in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty Four– hardly a shining role model for Third World peoples’ revolution even as it achieved significant economic growth with Chinese and Soviet bloc assistance through the 1970s .

“It’s the only Third World country where everyone has good food, good housing, and good education,” a left Peruvian writer claimed in 1981, “but it is the saddest, most miserable country I’ve ever been in in my life.”

The madness of the North Korean regime (and no doubt the sadness of its people) deepened in coming decades with no small help from harsh economic decline, famines, lost Soviet backing, U.S.-led economic sanctions, and hundreds of U.S. nuclear weapons and U.S.-South Korean military exercises (including simulated bombing and missile attacks) menacing North Korea up close. The North Korean dictatorship has long used the sanctions and military encirclement to rally North Korea’s subject populace around the flag.

George W, Bush’s bizarre post-9/11 identification of North Korea as part of an “Axis of Evil” linking Pyongyang to Iraq and Iran provided no small justification for Kim Jong Il’s February 2005 announcement that North Korea had successfully developed a nuclear weapon. Just two and half years before this announcement, the world had seen Bush use blatantly false pretexts to invade defenseless Iraq, a criminal regime change operation that would lead to the premature death of at least half a million Iraqis (by one conservative estimate) between  2003 and 2013.

 

The Trump Takeover of the Courts

by Robert Reich

 

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Trump’s most lasting legacy might be his impact on the federal court system. It must be stopped.

Quite apart from the Supreme Court, Trump is already having a dramatic effect on the lower federal courts.

Even though much of his legislative agenda has stalled in Congress, Trump is nominating and getting Senate confirmation of judges to the federal bench much faster than previous presidents.

Many of Trump’s picks for these lifetime positions are extremists with little judicial experience. For example, Thomas Farr, his nominee for a North Carolina judgeship has ties to a group that has promoted white supremacist policies and eugenics. 

Other Trump picks have openly spread conspiracy theories, defended lethal injection, and one even called a sitting Supreme Court justice a “prostitute.”

Fortunately, not all of them have been confirmed. But by the end of his first term Trump could end up filling over 20 percent of the judges in the federal courts.

And even if he’s removed from office, these judges will be around long after he’s gone. Trump has identified young candidates who could serve for decades.

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is greasing the wheels in the Senate to speed up the confirmation process.

Traditionally either senator from a judicial nominee’s home-state was allowed to block a nomination. But McConnell has done away with this rule, even though he did everything he possibly could to block President Obama’s nominees, including his pick for the Supreme Court.

This takeover of the federal bench is another assault on our democracy. The power of the courts is being placed in the hands of people who share Trump’s ideology.

That’s why we need to keep up the pressure, and it’s another reason why we need to win back the Senate.

Off the Top of My Head

Denuclearize the Korean Peninsula AND the United States

by John Lawrence, June 22, 2018

With all the talk about denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, has it been forgotten that the US has a thousand more nuclear weapons than Korea has? How about denuking the US. This is especially important now that the US has a loose cannon at the helm. Hypocrisy is the modus operandi of the US which thinks that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander. The Bible says, "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye."The Trumpster has sent the US tendency to talk down to the rest of the world into overdrive. Now they all better do as we say or we'll apply sanctions ... or bombs. This whole state of affairs will not end well. The US has gone from being the world's guiding light to being the world's bully.

Bill Maher said this in the Guardian:

I'm just pointing out that in recent years, our foreign policy debates look like the Facebook page of a loner who shot up a McDonald's. We're the only country in the world that muses out loud about who we might bomb next:

Iran, yeah we might bomb you … thinking about it … maybe, depends on my mood.

We did this with Iraq after 9/11, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11. We do it with Iran every day. And now, it's Syria's turn. We're like a schoolyard bully who's got every kid in the class nervous they're going to be next – and I don't know if anyone should have that power. Can you imagine going to work and sitting at the lunch table in front of ten people and saying:

Hey, you think we should … kill Bob? It would send a message to Steve.

Who acts like this?

People in other countries don't talk like this. Probably because, if they did, we'd bomb them. Is there no self-awareness about how arrogant it looks to sit around politely pondering who needs a good bombing?

And,we're the only nation – as we have seen in this Syrian fiasco – who threatens to drop bombs on you while telling you we don't want to get involved!

We're just bombing, please, don't get up – no boots on the ground, just a little light bombing, we'll be out of your hair in a week.

I remember being on the Howard Stern show 12 years ago this week, right after 9/11, and Howard said that, in retaliation for 9/11, America should bomb a Muslim country, any Muslim country, it didn't matter which one. And yet somehow, I was the one on trial for talking crazy.

And I thought to myself, really? Bomb any Muslim country – that's the policy? Get a map of the Middle East and just throw a dart at it?

Well, apparently George W Bush was listening that day because that's exactly what we did.

George W Bush just wanted to be a war time President. Starting any war would do. He unwittingly (unwittingly because he had no wits) opened a can of worms, and US status and moral leadership in the world has sunk lower and lower from that day. It is still going down while we have a nutcase for a President. But who cares? The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. Nobody better mess with us or they might get bombed. Everything is right with the world.

'To Make It Easier to Screw the Poor,' Trump Wants to Massively Reorganize Federal Government

Published on Thursday, June 21, 2018 by Common Dreams

Provisions of this "closely guarded" plan reportedly include merging the Education and Labor Departments, and creating a welfare "megadepartment"

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

 

3 Comments

Anti-Trump protesters march in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2017. (Photo: Susan Melkisethian/Flickr/cc)

In what critics are calling an "insane" proposal by the Trump administration "to make it easier to screw the poor," the White House is reportedly considering sweeping changes to the organization of the federal government, which could be announced as early as Thursday.

According to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, as part of this massive reorganization, President Donald Trump may propose:

• merging the Labor and Education Departments;
• collapsing all social safety net programs "into a new megadepartment" that would replace the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and redefine benefit programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); and
• in "an attempt to strangle" the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant Program, relocating it from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the Department of Commerce.

The looming welfare reorganization, first reported by Politico earlier this month, has been slammed "as a way to institute cuts and conservative policies such as work requirements on more programs," Rewire explained last week.

"Under the guise of reorganizing healthcare programs, the Trump administration wants to make it easier to slash the basics that families rely on, impose broad work requirements, and further infringe on women's personal decisions."
—Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee

"Under the guise of reorganizing healthcare programs, the Trump administration wants to make it easier to slash the basics that families rely on, impose broad work requirements, and further infringe on women's personal decisions."
—Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee 

"Under the guise of reorganizing healthcare programs, the Trump administration wants to make it easier to slash the basics that families rely on, impose broad work requirements, and further infringe on women's personal decisions," Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus Chairs Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told Rewire.

"Families who rely on these programs do so out of necessity—to feed their families, stay healthy, and keep a roof over their heads," the pair of lawmakers added. "Republicans have shown that they have no respect for either women's economic interests or their healthcare. In Congress, we will fight this dangerous proposal and protect the programs that women and their families need to thrive."

Meanwhile, many observers were critical of the possible Education-Labor merger—which was first reported by Education Week—but they also pointed out that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos "is destroying the education system as we know it, and Labor Department is not doing anything for workers," and concluded, "On bright side maybe DeVos will get fired."

Steven Greenhouse, a former labor reporter for the Times, described the merger as a "downgrade," and called out Trump for failing to live up to the "champion of workers" persona on which he campaigned:

Trump campaigned as a champion of workers, but a true champion of workers would not downgrade the federal government's efforts to protect workers by merging the Labor Department with the Education Department--and Trump & Mulvaney hope to do that. https://t.co/iLhqxs0pQC

— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) June 20, 2018

"This is spelling an end to protected unions, public education, protection of students and workers," warned filmmaker Jessica Ellis.

They are merging (read: shutting down) the Departments of Labor and Education. This is spelling an end to protected unions, public education, protection of students and workers.
We are running out of time. And I don't know what to do.

— Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama) June 21, 2018

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the merger "the new parlor game," and referenced Trump's iconic line from his reality televsion show The Apprentice, on which he made a sport of firing people.

The new parlor game... to which Secretary is Trump saying “You’re Fired” @BetsyDeVosED or @SecretaryAcosta —- White House to propose merging Labor and Education into one agency as centerpiece of federal government overhaul https://t.co/9c0ByKpp7W

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) June 21, 2018

Citing draft documents and unnamed sources, the newspapers report that this "closely guarded" proposal has been crafted by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney—who is also acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—but "the blueprint for the plan was a 2017 list of reorganization recommendations produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation."

As the Times explains: "Mulvaney's proposal is, in part, a back-to-the-future bureaucratic move. From 1953 to 1979, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare housed most of the nation's social welfare and economic support programs."

"The changes would require approval from Congress, but it isn't clear that lawmakers have the appetite to undertake a far-reaching reorganization, especially at this point in the political calendar," the Journal notes. "Lawmakers have shown reluctance to embrace such plans in the past, and Congress has limited time for major legislation before the November midterm elections."

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Love is the Cohesive Force That Brings Us Together

Dear friends,

     Today we can be grateful that our hearts desire has been met. Now we use our very powerful Word to reunite those who belong together. Ernest Holmes said “that which belongs with me cannot be kept from me.” Today I hold that to be true for anyone who is separated from their own, whoever or whatever that may be.

Let’s know and declare:

     There is One Life being all Life. Never separate, never far away, always immediate, that Life is the Source of all creative expression. It knows no obstacle, sees no limitation, cannot be restricted. In Love, it moves through what was, creating something new in every moment. There is nothing to overcome, no problem to solve, only the beautiful truth “Love is the cohesive force that brings together that which belongs together.”

     In this moment, right now, the pure Intelligence of the Universal One is operating locally to bring about the immediate re-union of innocence and wisdom.   On the earthly level, that manifests in a myriad of ways, one of which is the restoration of relationships in time and space. Principle acting through and upon our Word, needs no precedent. Nothing needs to happen first. It acts NOW.

     Those humans in charge are the instruments of Spirit and have no resistance whatsoever. They are liberated along with their prisoners. I declare that those who have been forcefully taken from their families are NOW reunited with them. It is done with swift and careful wisdom. There is joy in the hearts of everyone involved.   The One Love is greater than any other energy. It is the Power that Makes All Things New.

   It is done. We rejoice knowing our human error is immediately transformed into human victory.   All is well. We are grateful. And so it is.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org and www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

If Trump Can Direct Military to Build Housing for Immigrants, He Can Tell Them to Build Housing for the Homeless

by John Lawrence

After the latest Trump imbroglio over separating immigrant families at the border, with the stroke of a pen, he now stops them from being separated. All well and good. It shows what a huge public outcry can accomplish. So now, since more and more families with children are showing up at the border, the US is running out of adequate facilities to shelter them until they get their day in court to determine if they should be admitted into the US or sent back where they came from.

Faced with this dilemma, Trump just rattled off the top of his head that he would direct the military to build housing for them. Very nice, but if he can do that, why can't he build housing for the homeless? The homeless situation is developing into a far greater crisis than is the situation of migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. The homeless are American citizens fuhchrissake. How about making America Great Again by guaranteeing that every US citizen has adequate housing?

Politico reported:

President Donald Trump Wednesday ordered Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to provide facilities and care for migrants as part of the president’s move to stop separating families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico.

Trump’s executive order directs Mattis to “take all legally available measures” to provide any existing facilities available to house and care for migrant families — and build whatever other facilities might be needed.

So the President can order the military to "build whatever other facilities might be needed." That's reassuring because the next Democratic President can just order facilities to be built to house the homeless without even going through Congress!

This President seems capable of ordering anything without the Congressional tie-ups and filibusters that Obama experienced. Why did Obama try to get everything through Congress if he could just order it done like Trump does? Very interesting. Probably Trump won't order the military to build housing for the homeless, but the next Democratic President should take a page out of Trump's book and just do it. Have we come to the age of the Imperial Presidency? It sure looks like it with Trump at the helm. Who needs Congress? He just orders it, and it's done.

And the same goes for international diplomacy. Who needs all the fol de rol of sending hordes of bureaucrats when the President can just dial up a dictator like Kim Jong Un and arrange a summit? Peace in the world by fiat? Certainly possible. Give Trump at least credit for that. He's broken the ice of a sclerotic bureaucracy.

"These Are Prisons for Babies": Forcibly Separated From Parents, Youngest Kids Sent to So-Called "Tender Age" Detention

Published on Wednesday, June 20, 2018 by Common Dreams

Those who have visited the facilites describe "play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis." 

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

 

5 Comments

The Associated Press reports that young migrant children forcibly separated from their parents are being sent to facilities that critics described as "prisons for babies." (Photo: @NIJC/Twitter)

Under the Trump administration's cruel and widely condemned family separation policy, immigrant babies and young children torn from their parents at the Southern border have been sent to a trio "tender age" shelters that, according to lawyers and medical professionals who have visited the South Texas facilities, feature "play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis."

"They've created a jail for babies," tweeted ThinkProgress editor and founder Judd Legum, in response to the "absolutely soul-crushing" Associated Press report. "Creating prisons for babies and toddlers is not just another screwed up policy. These are crimes against humanity."

These are prisons for babies.

Prisons. For babies. https://t.co/417dScJZLi

— Women's March (@womensmarch) June 20, 2018

As of Tuesday, at least 2,342 children had been separated from their families since May 5. Images of children in cages and audio of young migrants crying for their parents have fueled international outrage and demands that the administration immediately halt the policy, which critics say amounts to a serious abuse of human rights, and even torture.

With the number of children detained in U.S. custody expected to continue rising as long as the policy remains in place, the AP reports that the government plans to convert a fourth facility in Houston, despite protests from local leaders. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says the fourth facility is a warehouse that was used to house people after Hurricane Harvey, and could hold up to 240 children.

Turner has met with the contractor for the fourth shelter, Austin-based Southwest Key Programs—which is reportedly slated to make some $458 million off of operating child detention centers—to ask the nonprofit to reconsider the plans. At a press conference on Tuesday, Turner said he told the contractor: "I do not want to be an enabler in this process. I do not want the city to particiapte in this process."

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner voiced opposition to a plan to house migrant children separated from their families at the border in a private facility in his city, saying he doesn't want to be an "enabler" of the Trump administration practice https://t.co/xoN842gUSM pic.twitter.com/nv9vhIHuJS

— CNN (@CNN) June 20, 2018

"The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it," Kay Bellor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which organizes foster care and other services to migrant children, told the AP. "Toddlers are being detained."

Toddlers are being detained. Toddlers.

This is why we filed a class action. This is why we won’t stop fighting until families are reunited.#FamiliesBelongTogetherhttps://t.co/hHTpmBB7jB

— ACLU (@ACLU) June 20, 2018

The three existing facilities for young migrants are located in Combes, Raymondville, and Brownsville, and, according to the report, "have been rapidly repurposed to serve needs of children including some under 5."

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who recently attempted to visit a facility in Texas, called out Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen—who has been sharply ridiculed for lying about then defending the family separation policy, and even left a Mexican restaurant where she was dining Tuesday evening after being confronted by members of the Democratic Socialists of America's Metro D.C chapter.

Taking babies from their moms and putting them in mass shelters is horrific. @SecNielsen: Look in a mirror. Is this how you want to be remembered?https://t.co/i5YVxkJ4E8

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) June 20, 2018

While the Trump administration continues to claim the policy is necessary to deter immigrants from coming to the United States and that the shelters are specially equipped to meet the needs of children—despite news reports to the contrary—as South Texas pediatrician Marsha Griffin, who has visited many facilities, concluded, "The shelters aren't the problem, it's taking kids from their parents that's the problem."

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow broke down on air Tuesday night while trying to read the breaking AP report to her viewers. Maddow addressed the moment in a series of tweets following the broadcast.

This is the clip of Rachel Maddow in tears when she found out about the report of "tender age" shelters for babies and young children separated from their parents.pic.twitter.com/ELMj1ylrwT

— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) June 20, 2018

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We See the Children of the World as Wise and Innocent Beings

Dear friends,

     Recently, the deepest relationship we will ever have, that of child and parent has been publicly discounted. It is shocking and heart-breaking. Personally I cannot watch the news about it without tears welling up in my eyes.   What a shameful choice by those in office. As a person who deeply believes in the power of the Word, I offer this spiritual Mind Treatment for the immediate healing of this situation. I encourage you to read it daily.

There is One Power, One Presence, One Source of all sentient life. It never withdraws its presence nor withholds its power. It is here and now, right where we are. It is our power to use. Knowing this and knowing It always responds to a Word spoken with clarity and conviction, I declare:

There is an immediate rise in our collective consciousness.   A powerful wind of change is blowing through our shared awareness. We wake up to the preciousness of all life, to the beauty of diversity, to the joy of being alive. We lift our sense of the possible and include everyone in it.

In particular, we see the children of our world as the wise and innocent beings they are. We cherish them, keep them in our embrace, hold them in high esteem.   There is a release of old ideas that rob children of their natural right to freedom. We have made a dramatic and sudden shift from yesterdays choices and now facilitate the restoration of the family unit.

Those in positions of authority are transformed by our critical mass. Our leaders reflect our deep love of humanity and our insistence on real freedom for all.   We celebrate our awakening. It is here. It is now. It is sudden, swift and wonderful.

I release all animosity towards those who have shown ignorance. I know they are also endowed with the capacity for love and compassion. The children held in camps without their parent’s permission are now reunited with their family. It is done, it is over, it is now. It is a sign of the times that are changing.

Grateful and cheerfully expectant I declare it is done!   And so it is!

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org  www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

US Leaves UN Human Rights Council

by John Lawrence, June 20, 2018

The US is becoming the world's pariah. After leaving the Paris climate accords, the Iran nuclear deal and the Trans Pacific Partnership, now they're leaving the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) after the UNHRC criticized the US for separating parentrs and children at the border and Israel's shooting of unarmed protesters. Trump's go it alone strategy and make America Great Again (at the expense of everyone else) is isolating the US and turning it from a world leader into a banana republic. Slapping tariffs on everyone and starting a trade war is only going to redound to the malefit (the opposite of benefit) of American businesses and consumers. Trump is literally shooting the US in the foot. Countries that used to look up to us are now looking down upon us.

What message does this latest brouhaha send to the rest of the world, CNN fondly askes:

The United States has quit the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), saying the body is a "cesspool of political bias."

US ambassador Nikki Haley announced the move Tuesday, which followed criticism by the UNHRC of Israel's shooting of unarmed protesters and the separation of children from their parents at the US-Mexico border.

While US officials have tried to frame the move as pro-human rights, Washington's withdrawal is likely to renew criticism that the Trump administration places less value on human rights than its predecessors, as exemplified by Trump's dealings with alleged human rights abusers like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un or Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, and the recent outcry over the treatment of immigrants along its southern border.

The UNHRC is only the latest international body or agreement that the Trump administration has withdrawn from, including the Paris climate accords, the Iran nuclear deal, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

 

Both Haley and Trump have previously sparred with the wider UN over criticism of the US and Israel, with Haley claiming the international community pays outsized attention to Washington's actions while ignoring the "reprehensible human rights records of several members of its own Human Rights Council."

That comment was in response to UN criticism of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, which Haley said was the "sovereign" right of the US to pursue.

In a statement, US Vice President Mike Pence said that in exiting the UN body Washington "took a stand against some of the world's worst human rights violators," claiming the council had made "a mockery" of its original mission in its criticism of the US and Israel.

However, both the Trump White House and previous US administrations have been open to dealing economically and otherwise with human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, China and Egypt.

 

Founded in March 2006, the UNHRC is responsible for "strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them." It acts as something of a UN equivalent to international human rights groups, monitoring and investigating situations in countries and drawing international attention to them. So what is the definition of human rights? They are based on the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, which lays out the basic rights, both political and economic, that every human being on the planet should be entitled to.

 

The US never adhered to the economic rights laid out in the Universal Declaration. According to the US, there are no economic rights, only political rights. As far as political rights are concerned, the US has allied itself with some of the worst violators in history including Saudi Arabia. And as far as human rights are concerned, the Declaration needs to be amended to cover the rights of civilians who have been harmed by war and the rights of refugees. So far the US has been given a free pass for all the damage caused to civilians by its interminable wars in the Middle East including its support for Saudi Arabia in the current travesty happening in Yemen. These wars have created the European refugee crisis, and , while they have caused Europe much grief and hardship, the US has gotten off Scot free. At the same time the US has created its own refugee crisis on its southern border which has noting to do with the one in the Middle East and Europe.

 

Elizabeth Warren Says Let's Be Clear: Trump Is Holding "Thousands of Kids Hostage to Try and Get Congress to Pay for His Stupid Wall"

Published on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 by Common Dreams

"This is his policy," says senator, "and he can stop it."

by Jon Queally, staff writer

 

4 Comments

Demonstrators protest the Trump administration policy that enables federal agents to separate migrant children from their parents at the border on June 5, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

With national outrage boiling over the Trump administration's cruel and unprecedented policy of separating children from their migrant or asylum-seeking parents, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is calling out the president directly for both creating the crisis in the first place and now doing nothing to end it.

"The Trump administration's decision to prosecute parents for illegal entry was taken in order to create an excuse to separate mothers from children."  
—Brianna Rennix, Current Affairs

 

President Donald Trump, declared Warren in a tweet Monday night, "could pick up the phone and stop the separation of families seeking refuge in the US. Instead, he continues to hold thousands of kids hostage to try and get Congress to pay for his stupid wall. This is his policy, and he can stop it."

Warren's tweet also included a video highlighting the damage the atrocious policy is having on the children detained (in places that look like this and sound like this); detailing the origins of the policy; and countering the repeated false claims made by the Trump administration as it continues to defend ripping apart families:

.@realdonaldtrump could pick up the phone and stop the separation of families seeking refuge in the US. Instead, he continues to hold thousands of kids hostage to try and get Congress to pay for his stupid wall. This is his policy, and he can stop it. #FamiliesBelongTogether pic.twitter.com/pDw4eoFK8n

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 18, 2018

While child safety, immigrants rights groups, and progressive organizations announced a national march against the family separation policy for June 30th, administration officials—including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders—continue to obfuscate and lie about the nature of the policy and who is responsible for ending it.

Janet Gwilym, managing attorney for the Seattle branch of Kids in Need of Defense (Kind), which offers assistance to immigrant children and their families in  Washington state, told the Guardian, that it is an affront to treat these children and their families this way instead of welcoming and protecting them. "We have a moral responsibility to take them in. It's international law to take in refugees; that's who these people are – and instead we are just adding to the trauma that they are going through."

"This is as shocking an immigration policy as we've seen from this Trump administration, but frankly," Gelernt added, "I've been doing this work for approaching three decades, and this is the most horrific immigration policy I have ever seen."

"I've been doing this work for approaching three decades, and this is the most horrific immigration policy I have ever seen."
—Janet Gwilym, attorney

 

But it's not a mistake or a miscommunication, say experts. It's an intentionally cruel policy with a specific political design.

Writing for Current Affairs, Brianna Rennix, a journalist who has written extensively on U.S. immigration policy, offered a detailed explanation of Trump's "monstrous" child separation. Exploring a crucial point—and one worth quoting at length—she worries many people do not recognize, Rennix writes:

Children are NOT being taken from their parents simply because the government wishes to prosecute their parents for illegal entry and the children cannot accompany them to jail. That makes it sound like these separations are simply incidental to a separate enforcement policy that the government decided to pursue.

The reality is actually just the opposite. The Trump administration's decision to prosecute parents for illegal entry was taken in order to create an excuse to separate mothers from children. As I’ve said, the irritating problem the Trump administration has been struggling to overcome, with reference to the many thousands of bona fide asylum seekers that come to the border, is that a) lots of them are moms with kids, b) kids can’t legally be kept in more restrictive custody than absolutely necessary, and c) there is a federal court decision, legally binding on Trump administration, that states that when you release children from detention who are detained alongside their mothers, the mothers have to be released too.

This is what Trump and Sessions have meant when they have talked cryptically about “loopholes” that are “forcing” them to release asylum-seekers into the interior. There are lots of asylum-seeking moms that the government would otherwise have preferred to have kept locked up in hidden border facilities, without any meaningful ability to recruit counsel, for the entire duration of their cases. But because these moms had a child detained with them, they couldn’t do this.

Separating kids from moms thus serves two purposes. One is deterrence. It's designed to send a gruesome message to women contemplating fleeing Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico: If you come here looking for protection, we will take your child away from you. As a deterrence tactic, this is likely to be extremely effective. Even if you were trapped in a house with someone you thought might murder you and your child, would you readily run for help to a next-door neighbor who happens to be a notorious child kidnapper? That alternative is so horrific that you would teeter a long while before you chose it. You might think to yourself that trying to placate the would-be murderer is a better bet than throwing yourself on the mercy of the kidnapper. A lot of women are going to get murdered as they hesitate over this monstrous ultimatum. (Jeff Sessions, who is apparently a Christian, had better hope that Christianity turns out to be bunk, because otherwise he is going to burn for eternity. I myself am rooting strongly for Christianity to be real!)

The second and perhaps even more critical purpose of family separation is to ensure that moms who are still brave enough and desperate enough to come here will lose their cases. There are not nearly enough competent immigration lawyers along the border to meet the needs of all the people who come to ask for asylum. In the past, when the government was forced to release moms with kids, these families could go settle anywhere in the country they chose, and have their case adjudicated in the local immigration court in their new place of residence. Because they weren’t detained, they had the ability to actually recruit a lawyer to help them. And a lot of them settled in parts of the country, like California or New York, where the immigration judges actually, you know, sort of care about people not being murdered, as opposed to border judges, who are mostly looking for any colorable reason to say “no” to a case. Now that the government is starting to separate moms from kids on a large scale, it is possible we will start to see moms detained in border facilities for the entire duration of their cases. They will be unrepresented and facing unfriendly judges. They will lose.

I think it is important to understand that these family separations are not just a byproduct of brute over-prosecution of "illegal" entry. Rather, they are part of a concerted strategy to allow the government to avoid granting people asylum, and to circumvent the courts' few, limited attempts to legally impose humane limits on their treatment of asylum-seekers.

So the policy is cruel. That is really clear. What's also important to remember is this: the Trump administration is carrying out this policy precisely because of its cruelty. It's not a side effect—it's the whole point.

In May Attorney General Sessions announced a "zero tolerance" policy at the US-Mexico border that results in children being separated from their parents. It's a policy that is cruel by design. If you think it should be stopped, sign this petition, donate to the ACLU, make a call. https://t.co/7Q0ez3Q5Yo

— nate dern (@natedern) June 18, 2018

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Thoughts are Powerful Tools in the Creative Process

Dear friends,

Dreams do come true, whether they be to our greater good or not. There is an old piece of writing which speaks of the need to manage one’s mind.

“Behold this vine. I found it in a wild tree, whose wanton strength had swollen into irregular twigs.   But I pruned the plant and it grew temperate in its vain expense of useless leaves, and knotted as you see in these clean full clusters to repay the hand that wisely wounded it.”

   Is our mind full of “useless leaves”? Could it use some care and attention? Does it need pruning? Why do we allow it to run wild? Usually we have forgotten its power.   We have unwisely shifted our sense of Cause to the outer world, to the past, or anything but ourselves. God is within or it is nowhere.

     Our imagination is the Christ. It is the only begotten of the One. It is how God becomes individualized. It is our Ace in the Whole.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org

www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Children Separated From Families: It's Happening All Over the World

by John Lawrence, June 19, 2018

There is a migrant crisis not only on the US southern border, but in Europe as well and it's ten times worse. There migrants are fleeing war torn countries that are victims primarily of US started wars in those countries. Even though the US is directly responsible, European countries are bearing the brunt of this crisis. Boatloads of people trying to land in Italy recently were turned away. They ended up in Spain. Many have drowned in capsized boats in the Mediterranean. European countries are trying to absorb all these people but not very successfully. There is a political backlash brewing because many of these countries want to preserve their ethnic identity and not be overrun by people from a different ethnic and religious background.

One way to stem this flood of migration is to make conditions livable in the migrants' home countries. Central Americans from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are fleeing because of gang violence related to the drug and human trafficking trade. The US has no qualms about invading other countries so why doesn't it invade Central America and take out the drug gangs and cartels? They could also improve the economic conditions of peoples' lives there because poverty is a big reason why people migrate and a big reason why people join gangs. But the US is only interested in making Central America safe for corporate exploitation, not in improving peoples' lives who happen to be at or near the bottom of the economic spectrum.

The cartels in Mexico are a real threat to both Mexico and the US. If Mexico can't do anything about them, the US should step in. They are using migrants as pawns to distract the US border patrol and tie up US resources so they can smuggle in opioids now that their pot business has dried up.

The Federalist reports:

The cartels don’t just benefit from being paid by these migrant families desperate to get away from the violence in Central America. Every family group the cartels send across ties up the Border Patrol for hours. Back in 2014 when unaccompanied minors were flooding across in large groups, U.S. authorities were well aware that the cartels were taking drugs just a few miles upstream while they dealt with the minors, but there was nothing they could do about it. They were hamstrung by their own humanitarian policies.

There’s something going on here that brings to mind the ignorance of the U.S. military when it came to the early days of ISIS. It’s as if we refuse to acknowledge that the enemy reads the same media we do – that they can’t follow coverage of the issues, and understand how to manipulate the story lines to their advantage. That’s clearly what is going on here, and the Trump administration’s zero tolerance crackdown in response to this increased migration is playing into their hands.

When will the US take into account the larger picture of what is going on here? It is not enough to put these families through a review process and decide which ones should stay in the US and which ones should be sent back. If the US is concerned about what is happening in its own hemisphere, it should focus resources here not half way around the world. The US should step in and eliminate the gang and drug culture in Central America, create a safe and prosperous atmosphere for people there to live in, and then there would be no migrant crisis. Building a wall is just plain stupid. Creating prosperity and safe living conditions in Central America is the way to go.

Coalition Ignores Famine Warnings and Continues Assault on Yemen as Critics Question US Complicity

Published on Saturday, June 16, 2018 by Common Dreams

While senators demand answers from the Pentagon, anti-war advocates are calling the attack on Hodeida a failure by the U.S. to stop it and demanding an end to American military support for the coalition

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

 

12 Comments

Women and girls line up to receive food aid on June 10, 2018 in Sana'a, the rebel-held captial of Yemen. About 70 percent of humanitarian assistance reaches Yemenis through Hodeida, a port city currently under seige by Saudi-led coalition forces. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

Ignoring international aid groups' warnings that an attack on the Yemeni city of Hodeida, which is held by Houthi rebels, could exacerbate hunger in an impoverished and war-torn nation already on the brink of famine, Saudi-led U.S.-backed coalition forces continued a sweeping assault on the Red Sea port city Saturday, reportedly seizing control of an airport.

"The lack of humanitarian assistance, following suspension of aid programs and with limited NGO staff on the ground while a military offensive is ongoing, will have severe consequences on a region already facing restrictions on the import and internal transportation of vital supplies, including medicines, food, and fuel."
—Frederic Pelat, Médecins Sans Frontières

"The lack of humanitarian assistance, following suspension of aid programs and with limited NGO staff on the ground while a military offensive is ongoing, will have severe consequences on a region already facing restrictions on the import and internal transportation of vital supplies, including medicines, food, and fuel."
—Frederic Pelat, Médecins Sans Frontières 

Since the fighting started earlier this week, thousands of Hodeida's 600,000 civilians have evacuated and hundreds of people have been killed. The port city is the main conduit through which about 70 percent of international aid reaches Yemenis, many of whom are battling starvation and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera.

The Norwegian Refugee Council's office in Yemen told Reuters that "humanitarian agencies cannot currently access areas south of the city where people are most likely to have been injured, affected, and displaced, leaving us without a clear picture of needs."

"The lack of humanitarian assistance, following suspension of aid programs and with limited NGO staff on the ground while a military offensive is ongoing, will have severe consequences on a region already facing restrictions on the import and internal transportation of vital supplies, including medicines, food, and fuel," Frederic Pelat, head of Médecins Sans Frontières' mission in Yemen, warned Thursday. "Yemenis living in the northern parts of the country depend on vital supplies that pass through Hodeida's port."

The port of #Hodeida is an essential lifeline for the country: more than 70% of all food, essential medicines and healthcare supplies are brought in through this port. #Yemen@DrTedros pic.twitter.com/lv1HENfWmf

— WHO Yemen (@WHOYemen) June 16, 2018

Martin Griffiths, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen, arrived in the Houthi-held capital Sana'a on Saturday after the U.S. and U.K. blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have called on coalition forces—which are being led by the United Arab Emirates in Hodeida—to immediately implement a ceasefire due to mounting fears that if the coalition takes control of Hodeida, the majority of Yemenis will be cut off from humanitarian assistance.

In an article published by The Intercept on Saturday, former White House and State Department officials, humanitarian leaders, and Yemen experts characterized the coalition's operation in Hodeida "as a major failure by the U.S. to restrain its coalition partners, who are largely dependent on American weapons, intelligence, and logistical support," and suggested "the attack was a sign that the U.S. is allowing allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE to drive American policy decisions in Yemen."

Kate Kizer, policy director at the D.C. advocacy group Win Without War, noted that "rather than preventing the offensive, which the U.S. has done twice before, [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo [released] a weak statement giving the UAE the green light to potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people with no political strategy or end goal."

"The UAE's assault on Hodeida is just another example of the Trump administration outsourcing U.S. policy in Yemen—and really the region writ large—to the Gulf states," Kizer concluded. "Believing that this offensive will bring the Houthis to the negotiating table is living in a fantasyland."

On Friday, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis that acknowledged reports that the U.S. denied the UAE's request for "intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance" support for the Hodeida operation but still demanded answers about the U.S. military's ongoing assistance to the Saudi-led coalition.

.@SenMikeLee and I call on Sec. Mattis to immediately disclose the full extent of the U.S. military role in the Saudi-led war against Yemen’s Houthis and issue a public declaration opposing the impending assault on Hodeida. https://t.co/jZx5G2Je7i

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 15, 2018

The senators wrote,

We call on you to immediately disclose the full extent of the U.S. military role in the Saudi-led war against Yemen's Houthis, including the use of special operations forces; disclose any role that the Pentagon is currently performing, has been asked to perform, or is considering performing regarding an attack on the port of Hodeida; and issue a public declaration opposing this impending assault and restating the administration's position that Saudi Arabia and other parties to the conflict should accept an immediate ceasefire and move toward a political settlement to resolve the conflict.

Their letter on Friday followed a similar memo sent last month, which went unanswered, as well as a War Powers Resolution that the pair of senators, along with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), introduced earlier this year. While dozens of lawmakers were lauded by peace groups for backing that measure, which would have withdrawn U.S. forces from the war in Yemen, it was ultimately voted down by a majority of the Senate in late March.

In spite of that setback, anti-war advocates continue to push for congressional action to stop U.S. support for the war in Yemen:

Yemen. Can't. Wait.

Send a message to your Representative to act now to stop it from getting even worse: https://t.co/D9xKU0PwWt https://t.co/gRbdGg5OLA

— CODEPINK (@codepink) June 16, 2018

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Off the Top of My Head

The US Shouldn't Be Such a Hypocrite About Human Rights

by John Lawrence, June 18, 2018

The US is always taking a holier-than-thou attitude about human rights with respect to other nations. The concept of human rights evidently does not include freedom from being killed or injured in war or having your real estate destroyed if you are a non-combatant. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in Iraq and other Middle East countries because of the illegal war that President George W Bush got us into there. Did those Iraqis that were killed or injured or that lost loved ones have their human rights violated? Evidently not, according to the narrow US definition. But the US doesn't hesitate to criticize other nations if they kill their own citizens. For instance, Assad in Syria is said to be despicable because he bombed his own citizens. Didn't President Lincoln kill his own citizens in the American Civil War. Of course he did - in massive numbers. It was a war of attrition.

Now the US is involved in a massive humanitarian crisis in Yemen in which children are being starved and contracting cholera in huge numbers. Don't tell me this is not a human rights violation of the highest magnitude. We are supplying the weapons to the Saudis who are killing and starving civilians, men, women and children, without mercy. Don't they have human rights? It makes the fact of separating children from their parents at the border a minor crime against humanity in comparison.

So maybe Putin had a few journalists killed. Of course there is no proof, but even assuming he's culpable, what's a few journalists compared to hundreds of thousands of civilians including wedding parties killed by the US? Is it the fact that they are not US citizens but the journalists were Russian citizens that makes the difference? I don't think so. A death is a death. An injury is an injury. The same applies to Kim Jong Un. If killing his brother makes him a pariah, is the killing of hundreds of thousands by the US in the Middle East OK because it was done as an act of war? Because they were collateral damage? A life is a life. A death is a death. Not too many world leaders do not have blood on their hands.

The US has been involved in the overthrow of legitimate governments and bloody coups all over the world like in Iran in 1953 when the US ousted Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and installed the brutal Shah. The democratically elected Allende in Chile was ousted by Pinochet in 1973 aided and abetted by the CIA which was complicit in Pinochet's "human rights violations." There are many more similar situations in world history so the US should not take a holier-than-thou attitude and lecture other countries about human rights violations. Human rights, as Shakespeare's Hamlet said, are honored more in the breach than in the observance.

Like Nixon said "If the President does it, it is not a crime." I guess if the US does it, it is not a crime either or a human rights violation even when greater numbers of victims are involved.

To the Press, after 18 Months of Trump

by Robert Reich

Friday, June 15, 2018

1. Stop treating Trump’s tweets as news.

 
2. Don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.

3. Don’t fall for the reality-TV spectacles he creates. (For example, his meeting with Kim Jong-un.) They’re not news, either. 

4. Don’t let his churlish thin-skinned vindictive narcissistic rants divert attention from what he’s really doing. 

5. Focus on what he’s really doing, and put the day’s stories into this larger context. He’s (1) undermining democratic institutions, (2) using his office for personal gain, (3) sowing division and hate, (4) cozying up to dictators while antagonizing our democratic allies around the world, (5) violating the rule of law, and (6) enriching America’s wealthy while harming the middle class and the poor. He may also be (7) colluding with Putin.

6. Keep track of what his Cabinet is doing – Sessions’s attacks on civil rights, civil liberties, voting rights, and immigrants; DeVos’s efforts to undermine public education, Pruitt’s and Zinke’s efforts to gut the environment; all their conflicts of interest, and the industry lobbyists they’ve put in high positions. 

7. Don’t try to “balance” your coverage of the truth with quotes and arguments from Trump’s enablers and followers. This is not a contest between right and left, Republicans and Democrats. This is between democracy and demagogic authoritarianism.  

8. Don’t let him rattle you. Maintain your dignity, confidence, and courage. 

Be the Change You Wish to See

Dear friends,

     Every life form in nature, from the tiniest of insects to giant mammals, lives in relationship to all other life forms. We interact, are involved with each other. Our perception of the other is vital to how we choose to interact.   For example, our perception of Nature is changing rapidly. No longer do aware people see it as “out there” a place for us to visit and possibly exploit. No, today we see Nature as our Mother, our co-creator, our best friend. We are also shifting our sense of the intelligence of animals.

     It is no longer possible to deny that animals have feelings of affection and love.   They remember those humans who treat them well. Even after years apart, when reunited, they show the same joy at seeing their old friend as you and I would, We are more and more aware of the interconnection of species of all kinds.   We are able to communicate because our common language is not our words, but our shared Source. Aliveness recognizes aliveness. The most important awareness today is the fact of our interdependence. We are moving out of the “save the whales on the weekend but do business first” mentality.

     We have a common fire, a shared passion. It is the simple joy of being. Some of our previous views of Reality have robbed us of that. We have been made to think of ourselves as fallen sinners, or flawed by the fact of our physicality. As we move deeper into the 21^st century, we will see a falling away of the institutions that promoted such unenlightened thinking. Our part as individuals is to daily identify left-over ideas in ourselves that do not belong with the truth of our being. It can be enough to announce “I do not believe that anymore.” Then declare what we do believe. We will find ourselves acting in ways that prove it.   This is what is meant by “be the change you wish to see.”

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Last Year California Spent $75,560 on Each Prisoner

by John Lawrence, June 16, 2018

The prison industry complex is big business. It costs as much per year per prisoner as it costs for a year of grad school at Stanford or Harvard. These corporations that run prisons are very profitable. But they need a continual flow of gist for the mill. That's where black people come in. A goodly percentage of the prisoners are black. They are guilty of such crimes as driving while black, walking while black and existing while black. It doesn't help that some of them have a chip on their shoulder in the first place and are defiant rather than compliant when approached by the police.

The LA Times reported:

The price for each inmate has doubled since 2005, even as court orders related to overcrowding have reduced the population by about one-quarter. Salaries and benefits for prison guards and medical providers drove much of the increase.

The result is a per-inmate cost that is the nation’s highest — and $2,000 above tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses to attend Harvard.

Since 2015, California’s per-inmate costs have surged nearly $10,000, or about 13%. New York is a distant second in overall costs at about $69,000.

The prison system has one well paid employee for every two inmates. Really? Is that necessary? While spending that much per prisoner California spends next to nothing on the homeless - poor people that have not committed a crime. California does have a plan to spend $2 billion to build housing for the homeless, but that bill is tied up in court.

The LA Times reports:

Nearly two years after California lawmakers approved a $2-billion bond to help finance new housing for the state's homeless, not a penny has been spent, and it's unclear when any of the money will be available.

The dollars are tied up in court as a Sacramento attorney challenges the state's plan to pay off that debt with money California voters approved in 2004 for mental health services. The funding, the attorney contends, should not be diverted from treatment programs, even if the mentally ill benefit from the housing. State housing officials said they don't know how long the litigation will take to resolve.

So taxpayers don't mind spending $75,000 a year per prisoner, but balk at spending $2 billion to build housing for the homeless. What did they do to deserve free housing? The prisoners did something to deserve theirs. They committed a crime. We will spend unlimited amounts on criminals, but hardly anything to house the homeless. What's wrong with this picture? Do the homeless have to commit crimes in order to get housing, medical care and 3 squares a day?

THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL DRAIN

by Robert Reich

Thursday, June 14, 2018

As Trump stokes tensions around the world, he’s adding fuel to the fire by demanding even more Pentagon spending. It’s a dangerous military buildup intended to underwrite endless wars and enrich defense contractors, while draining money from investment in the American people.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower once noted, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." 

Eisenhower was a Republican and a former general who helped win World War II for the allies, yet he understood America’s true priorities. But Washington–and especially Trump–have lost sight of these basic tradeoffs.

Since 2001, the Pentagon budget has soared from $456 billion–in today’s dollars–to $700 billion, including the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other national security expenses. All told, when you include spending on the military and war, veterans’ benefits, and homeland security, military-related spending now eats up 67 percent of all federal  discretionary spending.

According to the 2018 Military Balance report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States already spends more on the military than the next 10 nations combined. Even if the Pentagon budget were cut in half, the United States would still outspend China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea combined.

The military budget has become bloated with waste and abuse. According to the Pentagon’s own internal figures, the department could save at least $125 billion by reducing operational overhead. 

Out-of-control defense contractors also drive up spending. In the coming years, cost overruns alone are projected to reach an estimated $484 billion. Meanwhile, the CEOs of the top 5 defense firms took home $97.4 million in compensation last year.

Despite all this, some still argue that military spending is necessary to support good-paying jobs and economic growth. Baloney. America would be much better served by a jobs program that invested in things we really need – like modern roads and highways, better school facilities, public parks, water and sewer systems, and clean energy – not weapons systems.

The biggest reason for increases in Pentagon spending is the incredible clout of the military-industrial complex – Eisenhower’s term. Every year, defense contractors spend millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to keep federal dollars flowing their way. More than 80 percent of top Pentagon officials have worked for the defense industry at some point in their careers, and many will go back to work in the defense industry.

Since taking office, Trump has increased military spending by more than $200 billion. Let’s take a second to look at how else that $200 billion could be spent.  We could, for example:  

Offer free public colleges and universities, as proposed by Bernie Sanders.

And fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

And expand broadband Internet access to rural America.

And meet the growing needs for low-income housing, providing safe living conditions for families and the elderly.

And help repair the physical devastation in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

Spending more on bombs and military machinery funnels money away from the American people and into wars. It’s time to rein in Pentagon spending and this endless war machine, and demand investment in America.

Climbing a Mountain is Not a Sprint to the Top

Dear friends,

     There was a study of very successful people. One of the common behaviors was unexpected. They always returned the grocery shopping cart to the proper place!   That makes perfect sense. This trait indicates follow through, responsibility, awareness of how our behaviors affect others, care for property, and in a way, the ability to close the deal. People who live successful lives tend to pay attention to details or the components of what builds towards a goal.

     It is wonderful to have a big vision but we need to be able to put it on the ground, as it were. There are first steps, baby steps and the wobbly, tentative steps that feel risky.   But we keep moving, don’t we?   Little by little and sometimes with a mini leap, we create the foundation for the big picture to unfold. This reminds me of the old religious saying “God helps those who help themselves.”

     In other words, we need to be involved with our dream. We need to participate in it and facilitate it. We need to be the central character in it. Too many of us have the dream but do not put ourselves in it. Today is a good time to start building towards our big goals.   Make lists of what we could do today to get the energy moving again. Take some steps in that direction. It might be a phone call or reconnection with someone who could help. Climbing a mountain is not a sprint to the top. It is chipping away at apparent obstacles and moving up. So today, do the thing that is calling you. Give it some respect and for heaven’s sake, put that shopping cart back where it belongs!

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

When is Trump Going to Take on NATO?

by John Lawrence, June 15, 2018

Trump is taking on our NATO allies over trade which is chump change compared to the amounts we're paying for their defense. He has said that they aren't paying their fair share. Of course they're not when Germany pays 1% of GDP for defense, and we pay 4%. But it really doesn't even have to do with GDP. The US is paying roughly $1 trillion a year when all the contingencies and defense related budgets are figured in. And who are we defending the Euro zone against? Russia? Well, if Trump could bring peace to the Korean peninsula, Vladimir Putin's Russia should be low hanging fruit for a peace process between Russia and our European friends. Trump told his partners at the G-7 summit that Russia should be let back in making it the G-8 as it used to be. He also said Crimea was part of Russia not Ukraine. "Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run," he said. "And in the G7, which used to be the G8 — they threw Russia out — they should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table." 

Thus Trump is breaking the mold of political correctness as set up by the Obamas and Clintons. If it is not a good thing to make a pariah out of North Korea, it certainly is not a good thing to make a pariah out of Russia. Crimea was part of Russia from 1783, when the Tsarist Empire annexed it a decade after defeating Ottoman forces in the Battle of Kozludzha, until 1954, when the Soviet government transferred Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics (RSFSR) to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR). Crimea was the site of major military bases from Tsarist times on, having become a symbol of Imperial Russian military power against the Ottoman Turks. Nobody understands why Russia just gave away Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, including the Russians, perhaps as part of some political reshuffling or friendship gesture?In any event at that time it was not anticipated that Ukraine some day would want to join NATO.

In short Crimea has historically been more a part of Russia than Ukraine. The problems began when Ukraine was hankering to become a part of NATO right on Russia's border. Russia has military bases in Crimea so this would have been pretty awkward to have Ukraine a part of NATO and Russian military bases in Crimea. The Black Sea fleet is the fleet of the Russian navy having been founded by Prince Potemkin in 1783. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Black Sea Fleet and most of its vessels were inherited by the Russian Federation. Russia was not about to let its naval base in Crimea fall into the hands of a Ukraine with aspirations of joining NATO.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, President Ronald Reagan gave assurance to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move any closer to Russian borders. This is from The National Interest:

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was given a host of assurances that the NATO alliance would not expand past what was then the East German border in 1990 according to new declassified documents.

Russian leaders often complain that the NATO extended an invitation to Hungary, Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia to joint the alliance in 1997 at the Madrid Summit in contravention of assurances offered to the Soviet Union before its 1991 collapse. The alliance has dismissed the notion that such assurances were offered, however, scholars have continued to debate the issue for years. Now, however, newly declassified documents show that Gorbachev did in fact receive assurances that NATO would not expand past East Germany.

Despite these assurances, the US reneged on Reagan's promise and started recruiting countries that were formerly part of the Soviet bloc. In Putin's effort to Make Russia Great Again, his annexation of Crimea made perfect sense. Now it seems Trump at least is willing to accept that as a fait accompli and is willing to move on rather than turning Russia into a pariah over the issue. This should lead to a reduction in the US defense budget and a savings of billions of dollars a year for the American taxpayers. After all Germany relies on Russian natural gas so how much of a threat could it assume Russia to be? It comes down to the fact that US defense contractors stand to lose billions of dollars if peace breaks out between Russia and the US. War, whether cold or hot, is immensely profitable. Trump's threat to make NATO countries pay their fair share for their own defense is more of a threat to US corporate profits than Russia is a threat to our Euro zone friends and they know it.

A Victory for Sanity in World Politics

From truthdig, June 12

by Robert Scheer

President Donald Trump walks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island in Singapore. (Evan Vucci / AP)

President Trump gave peace a chance like few presidents before him, and if his critics cannot respect that fact, shame on them. What he and the hawks around him have done is as profound a shift in U.S. foreign policy as it is unexpected in its departure from an America-centric view of the world.

At the heart of this bold initiative is an openness to the wisdom and concerns of other nations, beginning with the government of South Korea but including most definitely the insights of the leaders of neighboring China, Russia and Japan. It is a break with the demonization of the North Korean enemy in the spirit of Richard Nixon’s opening to Communist China, which effectively ended the Cold War.

That’s the real news here, a profound example of risking peace instead of war, and it should be celebrated in a nonpartisan spirit as a victory for sanity in world politics, whatever one’s prejudice against President Trump.

To nitpick this courageous step while ignoring its enormously positive potential for reducing the risks of nuclear annihilation would be foolhardy in the extreme. Of course, much remains to be negotiated and implemented on the path to eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. But Trump’s willingness to separate regime change from that effort, and to postpone ritualistic war drills, is crucial to diplomatic success and a welcome departure from the militaristic obsessions of recent presidents, both Republican and Democrat.

Trump has pulled off a remarkable achievement, and while that certainly does not absolve him of other truly egregious behavior, it does suggest, as with Nixon in his bold opening to “Red” China, that blustering hawks can be transformed into constructive peacemakers.

 

'Peace Is Bad for Business': War Profiteer Stocks Plummet After Diplomatic Progress With North Korea

Published on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 by Common Dreams

Last year, investors were drooling over the prospect of all-out war with North Korea, but Tuesday's summit has them worried

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

23 Comments

As financial analyst Brad McMillan noted in an interview with USA Today, falling defense stocks represent investors' fears that the chances for a hot war between the U.S. and North Korea could be slipping away. (Photo: U.S. Air Force/Madelyn Brown)

American defense contractors were practically drooling over the prospect of all-out war with North Korea as President Donald Trump was recklessly flinging "fire and fury" last year, but Tuesday's summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have dampened war profiteers' dreams of yet another catastrophic U.S.-led military conflict—at least for now.

"If weapons are used they need to be replaced. That makes war a growth story for these stocks. What the agreement does, at least for a while, is take military conflict off the table."
—Brad McMillan, financial analyst

 

Demonstrating that even the slightest whiff of peace is enough to scare investors in America's most profitable military contractors, USA Today reported on Tuesday that shares of Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics all "took a dive" as Trump and Kim signed a vague, non-binding agreement that is merely the first step toward a lasting diplomatic solution.

"Peace is bad for business," noted writer Ajit Singh in response to the new report.

According to USA Today:

Shares of Raytheon, which makes Patriot and Tomahawk missiles, fell 2.6 percent. Lockheed Martin, which supplies the Pentagon with air and missile defense systems as well as the F-35 Stealth fighter jet, tumbled one percent. And Northrop Grumman, which has increased its focus on cyber warfare and missile defense systems more recently, declined 1.3 percent. Boeing, which makes Apache helicopters and aerial refueling aircraft, dipped 0.2 percent. General Dynamics, a Navy shipbuilder, fell one percent.

By contrast, the Dow Jones industrial average edged up 20 points.

As financial analyst Brad McMillan noted in an interview with USA Today, falling defense stocks represent investors' fears that the chance for a hot war between the U.S. and North Korea—which he describes as "one of the big potential growth stories recently"—could be slipping away.

"If weapons are used they need to be replaced. That makes war a growth story for these stocks," McMillan added. "What the agreement [between Trump and Kim] does, at least for a while, is take military conflict off the table."

Let’s take a moment to think about the real victims of the North Korea peace talks...[checks notes] defense stocks pic.twitter.com/61OB9rf9a7

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 12, 2018

But before you start feeling bad for America's war profiteers—and before you give Trump credit for dragging their stocks down—just remember that Democrats and Republicans in Congress just granted the U.S. president's wish for a $717 billion Pentagon budget, much of which goes straight into the pockets of companies like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin.

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The Newest Science and the Most Ancient Wisdom

Dear friends,

     In our western culture, there is a generation of young adults who have never known the freedom of childhood. They have been helmeted, buckled in, car-seated, monitored and fussed over.   No running out the back door to greet little friends and taking off for make-believe adventures. No, they had play dates and mommy went with them. They were never out of sight of some supervising adult hovering nearby. They did not develop the coping skills that come from dealing with life on one’s own. No wonder so many of them are depressed. Once out of the house they must feel abandoned. There is no one to tell them what to do next or to do it for them.

     Of course I understand the rationale behind helicopter parenting. We have been lulled into thinking the world is a terrible and dangerous place. The danger, we are told, includes strange viruses and strange people who are out to hurt our children and ourselves. We must guard against attacks of all kinds. Even our computers are under siege by cyber hackers. Everywhere we go, we are inundated with the message of “be alert, be afraid, be careful, watch out, take this pill, don’t eat that.”   The list is long and sad.

     Religion was part of the problem. But the generation I am speaking about did not buy into the Man in the sky God and the Devil in the next room propaganda. However, they were not given anything new to latch onto as a guiding principle. They have been subliminally taught to fear life and guard against it.   Naturally, in this state of mind, one needs something to raise the spirits or numb the senses. It is all part of oppression of the economic kind.   Buy this and take that and all your fears will vanish.

     If you know a young adult who seems to be lost and seeking something real and good and true, send them to a Center for Spiritual Living.   Dogma free, it is a way of perceiving reality that fits in with the newest science and the most ancient wisdom.   It is life-changing, life-affirming and life-giving. It is about self-awareness, love and joy.  It is empowering and celebratory. It is about trusting oneself to be in the right place at the right time to live a good and prosperous life.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org and www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Trump Brought North Korea into the Community of Nations

by John Lawrence, June 13, 2018

While Nancy Pelosi disparages the fact that Kim Jong Un has been given legitimacy by Trump's willingness to sit, talk and eat with him without getting any actual results, in fact this meeting was the best thing that could have been accomplished. You don't demand things of your enemies before you'll even be willing to talk to them. You show them some respect and friendship first, and then the details of who gets what and when can flow from that. Jesus said Love Your Neighbor as Yourself and then related the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans hated each other, wouldn't even talk with one another. Then one day a Jew was robbed and badly beaten.

This website tells the story better than I:

"Love your neighbor as yourself" was part of the Old Testament Law (Leviticus 19:18) that was sacred to Jesus' kinfolk, the Jews. But, many people thought a "neighbor" meant only their fellow Jews. One day a lawyer asked Jesus, "And just who is my neighbor?" Jesus told the Parable of The Good Samaritan to answer his question in a way we can never forget:

A Jewish man was taking a trip alone and was attacked by robbers. They beat him, robbed him of everything he had, and left him nearly dead beside the road. After while, a Jewish priest came along and saw the poor man lying beside the road. As a religious man, you would expect him to stop and do what he could to help. But, instead, he kept going and pretended he did not see. Later, a Levite came along. Levites were assistants to the priests, so you would expect him to stop and help, too. But, he did just like the priest and kept on going.
Parable of the Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan bandaged the man's wounds, put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn.
Finally, a Samaritan man came by. Even though they both lived in the land of Palestine and shared a similar religion, the Jews and the Samaritans definitely did not think of each other as "neighbors." In fact, they hated each other. The Samaritans came from a different race of people than the Jews. They had considered each other enemies for hundreds of years and refused to even talk to each other!

You would expect the Samaritan man to be the one who just passed by without helping. Instead, this Samaritan man took pity on the injured Jewish man. He bandaged his wounds. He put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he could be safe and recover. Since the injured man had been robbed of everything he had, the Samaritan man even paid his bill at the inn and paid the innkeeper to take good care of him!

In this case Trump was the good Samaritan no matter how much Nancy Pelosi and the Dems disparage the fact that Trump made concessions (no more war games) and didn't get anything in return. The American political establishment is anal-retentively focused on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Why not also focus on the denuclearization of the US? That doesn't even come into the discussion.

I'm glad Trump just said in effect, "Fuck all this protocol. I think Kim and I can be friends." In doing so he played the role of the Good Samaritan and obeyed Jesus' commandment to "Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself." Giving legitimacy and making friends should be the first step, not the last which is the way Pelosi and the US political establishment do business.

'Better Than Threats of Nuclear War': Trump Vows to End US War Games After Summit With North Korea's Kim Jong-un

Published on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 by Common Dreams

"I believe this is a big prelude to peace," North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told reporters

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

13 Comments

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during their historic U.S.-DPRK summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. (Photo: Kevin Lim/The Straits Times/Handout/Getty Images)

Following four hours of talks behind closed doors with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced during a press conference that America will halt its "provocative" joint war games with South Korea in return for the North's commitment to starting the denuclearization process "right away."

"I believe this is a big prelude to peace," Kim told reporters on Tuesday. "There will also be big challenges ahead but I'm willing to do this."

Watch Trump's announcement:

"Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace" - US President Donald Trump on "honest, direct" meeting with Kim Jong-un #TrumpKimSummit https://t.co/slT5YzZ7IR pic.twitter.com/8amE1a1oZs

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 12, 2018

Beatrice Finn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, added:

I'm not a fan of Trump but let's not promote the idea that stopping to practice mass murdering millions of civilians with weapons of mass destruction is weak and bad. https://t.co/7qkbeQz7IQ

— Beatrice Fihn (@BeaFihn) June 12, 2018

Trump's decision to suspend military exercises on the Korean Peninsula—which have long been perceived by the North as a simulation of all-out war—was applauded by independent analysts as a crucial step toward lasting peace in the region.

Tim Shorrock, a Korea expert who is in Singapore for the historic summit, called the end of U.S.-South Korea war games a "huge deal."

Interesting press conference - one hour! Trump seemed very enthused about his summit with Kim. HUGE deal that the US is ending the joint US-South Korean military exercises. He even called them "provocative." Probably what Pompeo meant yesterday by "unique' security guarantees.

— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) June 12, 2018

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whose "masterful diplomacy" laid the groundwork for peace talks even as Trump and his advisers continued to hurl threats and insults, applauded signs of significant progress in U.S.-North Korea relations in a statement on Tuesday.

"I join all the people in ardently aspiring for the success of the summit to bring complete denuclearization and peace to us and usher in a new era among the two Koreas and the United States," Moon said.

Talks are better than threats of nuclear war. The #TrumpKimSummit has reduced recent tensions in the region and the agreement for follow on negotiations are the key to any long lasting peace in the region. pic.twitter.com/LIOusYGz0O

— Paul Kawika Martin (@PaulKawika) June 12, 2018

As Tuesday's summit in Singapore came to a close, Trump and Kim signed and released a joint statement affirming their commitment to "the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."

While acknowledging that the document is vague and "thin," Christine Ahn, founder of the peace group Women Cross DMZ, applauded the joint statement as "bold in reorienting relations between historic adversaries."

"The compass has been set, it's time to ensure that these principles are followed through with concrete action, and this is where it is crucial for civil society, especially women's groups, step in," Ahn concluded.

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A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Dear friends,

     Although we are mainly aware of the surface level of our mind, there are actually two more. There is the personal subjective that contains all that we have ever seen, heard, felt in this lifetime. Imagine if we could bring up at will, whatever information we desired from our own past.   I might be able to finally understand what my 10^th grade geometry teacher was saying! Conversely, if we are not current with our thinking, really present in this moment, old negative emotions can suddenly appear, usually at the most inopportune times.

   This subjective mind is also linked to a collective remembrance, that of the whole field of human awareness. There is access to these deeper realms of mind, but we need to develop our ability to retrieve what is needed in the moment. With regular meditation, the local awareness relaxes its protective stance enough to allow images and knowledge to surface. Sometimes an answer to a quiz will pop up and we say “I didn’t know I knew that.” But there is a third level of subjectivity that is even more amazing.

     We are also linked to the subjective mind of Spirit. That is the entire content of awareness that is universal and total.   Everything that has ever been known, everything that is not-yet known, and everything that is possible, is alive in the quantum field, which in our vernacular is known as the Mind of God.   We are not talking about a Big Brain, but a field of intelligence, quivering with its own energy. It is always poised to be downloaded, as it were, into a personal awareness of it and to, therefore, become a personal experience.

     There used to be a public service message on TV about the lack of education in our country. The tag line was “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” That seems appropriate as we contemplate how much of what is ours to use is almost completely ignored.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org and www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

Trump Makes History With Korea

by John Lawrence, June 12, 2018

I'm not a big Trump fan, but I give him credit for breaking the ice with North Korea. The US penchant for making pariahs out of world leaders and taking a Holier Than Thou attitude towards supposedly "rogue regimes" is over. Thank God for that. It's unconscionable that a country with nukes is 30 some miles away from Seoul, a city with 28 million people. Some pundit has said that, if the North dropped a nuke on Seoul, we might lose 100,000 people. Really? It would be more like 28 million people. It's like having a festering wound that nobody (except Trump) was willing to do anything about.

Trump has broken through all the niceties of diplomacy and shown up the pathetic lack of success by former Presidents due to their sclerotic approach to world affairs. It should be pointed out that the US bureaucratic establishment didn't want Trump to do this. It was all about him. In this case he did the right thing in blowing up the outdated approach to world affairs championed by the US bureaucratic establishment. This is not really about all the details of sanctions versus nukes. It's about accepting an isolated world regime into the community of recognized countries. Pariah, no more, Kim will make further efforts towards bringing peace to the Korean peninsula, and this even has overtones for the whole world.

Peace, diplomacy, talk, sitting down for a meal together - these are all good things. We need to talk to our supposed enemies. We need to think and put our minds towards making friends out of our enemies. The details can be worked out later. This was Trump's genius. Instead of demanding a bunch of details first, make peace first and then work out the details. So this was an historic breakthrough, and we need to give Trump credit where credit is due.

So when will there be a Trump Tower in Pyongyang? Trump has broken through the bullshit. That's what his supporters elected him to do. He said that, if he can save millions of lives by sitting down with Kim, he's willing to do it, even though all kinds of people are terribly, terribly vicariously offended that the leader of the Free World should lower himself to sit down with a persona non grata, an outcast, an undesirable. Well, I think Trump has made an historic breakthrough here. For all his bluster, for all his head-in-the-sand approach to climate change, for all his giving tax breaks to the rich, this one thing that he's done pulls his reputation out of the mud in my mind at least. Trump has broken through the bullshit barrier imposed by bureaucrats whose greatest fear is that there should be peace and friendship in the world among all peoples.

The Constitutional Crisis is Now

by Robert Reich

Sunday, June 10, 2018

I keep hearing that if Trump fires Mueller we’ll face a constitutional crisis.

Or if Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify and Trump defies the subpoena, it’s a constitutional crisis.

Or if Mueller comes up with substantial evidence that Trump is guilty of colluding with Russia or of obstructing justice but the House doesn’t move to impeach him, we’ll have a constitutional crisis.

I have news for you. We’re already in a constitutional crisis. For a year and a half the president of the United States has been carrying out a systemic attack on the institutions of our democracy.

A constitutional crisis does not occur suddenly like a coup that causes a government to collapse. It occurs gradually, as a system of government is slowly weakened.

The current crisis has been unfolding since the waning days of the 2016 campaign when Trump refused to say whether he’d be bound by the election results if Hillary won.

It continued through March 4, 2017 when Trump claimed, without evidence, that Obama had wiretapped his phones in the Trump Tower during the campaign.

It deepened in May 2017 when, by his own admission, Trump was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading the bureau’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and then admitted to Russian officials that firing Comey had relieved “great pressure” on him “because of Russia,” according to a document summarizing the meeting. 

A constitutional crisis becomes especially dangerous when a president of the United States tells the public it cannot trust the government of the United States.  

Over the last few weeks, Trump has done just this.

First he accused the FBI of sending a spy to secretly infiltrate his 2016 campaign “for political purposes.” Then he issued a “demand” that the FBI investigate the spying – resulting in the Justice Department sharing portions of the FBI investigation with Trump’s allies in Congress.

Trump blamed the entire Mueller investigation on a conspiratorial “deep state” intent on removing him from office. He used pardons to demonstrate to those already being investigated that they shouldn’t cooperate because he can pardon them, too, and then bragged to reporters that he is considering 3,000 more pardons —thereby anointing himself the judge of what is fair, rather than the judicial branch.

He claimed he has the absolute right to pardon himself and can thereby immunize himself from any outcome; and asserted he has the power under the Constitution to end the investigation whenever he wants.

The crux of America’s current constitutional crisis is this: Our system of government was designed to constrain power, but Trump doesn’t want to be constrained.

Our system was conceived as a means of promoting the public interest, but Trump wants to promote only his own interest.  

Our system was organized to bind presidents to the Constitution, but Trump doesn’t want to be bound by anything.  

The crisis will therefore worsen as long as Trump can get away with it. An unconstrained megalomaniac becomes only more maniacal. He will fill whatever political void exists with his unbridled ego. 

The only legal way to constrain Trump is to vote for a Congress, this November, that will stand up to him. And then, in November 2020, vote him and his regime out of office.

If he refuses to accept the results of that election, as he threatened to do if he lost the 2016 election, he will have to be forcefully removed from office.

Friends, we are no longer trying to avert a constitutional crisis. We are living one. The question is how to stop it from destroying what’s left of our democracy.

Keep Asking the Big Questions

Dear friends,

   In a recent interview, Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about the struggle scientists live with every day. He said science is asking questions and struggling to find the answer. We humans are quick to ascribe meaning to everything, but the scientist cannot make assumptions. Proof is what is needed.

   When a priest asked mythologist, Joseph Campbell, if he believed in God and his answer was negative, the priest asked, could you prove there is no God? Campbell answered, "If I could, what would be the role of faith?"

     We have faith in things unseen, such as gravity and electricity, but we do not ascribe meaning to them other than the obvious function they serve. But when it comes to what is the source of our life, oh, we make up the most amazing stories!

     The interesting thing is that we do not have to know the source of our being to know that we exist, that we are conscious and that our mind is quite creative.   We have faith in the laws of cause/effect and therefore have no need to fear consequences. We know this is a mathematical universe. What you give, you receive. What you do comes back to you in some form at some time. There are no rewards or punishments, only consequences.

     But this is too cut and dried for many people. They want magic, mystical experience. They want to feel that something is looking out for them. They equate that with Love. It seems to me that the most loving expression of some Intelligence is to provide fail-safe principles that work for everyone in the same way. What we give the principle to do is the determining factor in our experience. That feels like unconditional love to me.

     Yes, there are many mysteries in this universe and we must keep asking the big questions. In the meantime, can we work with what we can prove? Can we assume the obvious, that we are endowed with almost magical powers? That we are the How of the What. That we are the way creation carries on and, in the process, is made personal? Yes, we can.

Stay tuned in,

Carol Carnes

www.mvcsl.org  

www.californiafreepress.net

Off the Top of My Head

When is Trump Going to Take on Our NATO Allies?

by John Lawrence, June 11, 2018

Trump's making a big thing out of slapping tariffs on our "allies" because he thinks we've been getting a raw deal on trade. These tariffs only amount to shooting ourselves in the foot, and they don't address the real raw deal the US has been getting that I thought Trump was going to address. That is that our allies are not paying their fair share for their defense. The US is paying much more than they are for defending them. The US defense department budget for 2018 is $639 billion. But that doesn't count the CIA, Homeland Security, the NSA and various other defense related budgets. Throw in another $70 billion for that. The Department of Energy is all about defense too. They have control of all the nukes. Then you throw in the cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere and you have a budget of about $1 trillion that the US spends on war and war related activities every year. Do you think we could solve some infrastructure problems with that?

Contrast this with the amounts our "allies" spend on defense. France: $57.8 billion. UK: $47.2 billion. Germany: $44.3 billion. Saudi Arabia: $69.4 billion. If you figure by percentage of GNP, the US spends 3.1%, France spends 2.3%, the UK spends 1.8%, Germany spends 1.2%, Saudi Arabia spends 10%, the highest in the world. But most of the Saudi military budget consists in buying weapons from the US. So the US makes money off the Saudis. The US made $40 billion off of weapons sales in 2015, making it the top weapons seller in the world. But that money was made by private corporations, not the US government which only spends money on military activities instead of making it. In 2017 the US set a record in weapons sales - $75.9 billion. Remy Nathan, vice president of international affairs with the Aerospace Industries Association, said, “any growth in defense trade is positive. It supports high-skill, high wage American jobs [and] funds innovation; lowers unit costs; and delivers a better deal for the taxpayer.”

OK. Mr. Nathan has no sensitivity at all to the fact that war and war related activities, and the growth thereof, may not be the best thing for the planet in general or even the US in particular. He thinks any growth in that arena is positive. It supports high skill, high wage jobs, fuhchrissake. What's wrong with this picture? War is good. Peace is bad because it doesn't support high skill, high wage jobs? The fact is peace is not a value in the US. Peace is bad for the economy. Even if our allies spent more on defense, the US would lose out unless that spending consisted of buying weapons systems from the US. If they developed their own defense industry, it would lower US GDP and contribute to theirs.

According to Mr. Nathan, the US would become a backwater economy if it weren't for the high skill, high wage jobs that only a continual and permanent war time economy produces. Without war there would be no progress and there would only be a permanent recession. The middle class that's head over heels in debt now would lose everything because they would have to work for lower wages if they even could find a job. So please, Mr. Trump, don't let our allies pay for their own defense. Leave NATO alone. Make sure Russia, Iran and China remain as our permanent enemies. And what are you thinking? Making peace with North Korea? The defense economy would have to take a hit if you removed all the troops stationed there.

Just remember, Mr. Trump, the US is an empire, an empire based on war and a war economy. If you choose peace, the US loses, perhaps even collapses and the US dollar wouldn't even be worth a farthing.