The American Dream must be saved?

September 5, 2019: THURSDAY NEWS BYTES

Have we lost the American dream? Some think so...  

Tawheeda Wahabzada

"Give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," written by Poet Emma Lazarus and emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty, meant to welcome immigrants from all around the world has now fallen on deaf ears. The ears are those of Republicans, starting at the top with Donald Trump and working its way down to the minions of the party. We scoff at the baby boomer generation's me, me, me. Republicans are focused only on themselves.

Common Dreams said on RawStory...

"It is a truism that whatever starts off hurting immigrants eventually harms us all. On the other hand, if something benefits immigrants that too ends up helping all of us."

There's more...

"When xenophobia hits a nation, this basic principle is forgotten, as a false us-versus-them dichotomy takes hold. A disturbing aspect of American exceptionalism is that this dichotomy keeps being presented as something virtuous; the veneer of exceptionalism blinds us to our common interest and is now breeding the intense storm of resentment that is ostensibly targeted toward immigrants but is actually a reflection of deep self-hatred."

WOW! That explanation would certainly account for the way Donald Trump demeans so many others when in fact it is not them, but himself that he really detests. Also true for other xenophobics and racists; there's just something terribly wrong with them and they refuse to face up to it. And these lowlifes have made it so bad for some, like Tawheeda Wahabzada, here from Afghanistan, that she is considering self-deporting back to Canada, the country of her birth.

Who are the dreamers?...

Wahabzada, 29, says...

"I speak as someone who believes in completely open borders, to a degree far greater than any of the current Democratic Party contenders, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Julián Castro or Beto O’Rourke, are willing to concede."

She feels that comprehensive immigration reform is an excuse to negotiate the rights of Hispanics down for a "bargain which takes away a lot of migrant rights in return for much fewer concessions." We're between a rock and a hard place here since we can't just throw the gates to our borders open without some control that legally qualifies those entering. At the same time, there must be laws passed to grant immigrants citizenship just like those who came through Ellis Island.

More, later this morning.

Racism incidents accelerating: REPORT

September 4, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

This sign says it all

Latest wrap up on racist incidents  

There have been 7 more racism incident in less than two weeks after my last report on August 23rd. That's close to one a day, and I am sure my research does not reveal the full extent of this problem. What the hell is wrong with these people? They must have little or no self-esteem, certainly a double-digit IQ, and are extremely insecure. Probably don't really like themselves, and rightfully so since they must be the dregs of humanity. Hard not to rant on but here are the events.

"Texas governor busted sending racist call-to-arms a day before El Paso attack." AFTER: "Promised to work to reduce violence in his state, in the wake of the shooting in El Paso that left 22 dead and dozens more injured." BEFORE: "Sent out a letter peppered with racist attacks on Hispanic immigrants — and a menacing, violent suggestion that Texans “take matters into our own hands.” Just how pathetic can these Republicans get?

"A white Florida man cited ‘stand your ground’ for shooting a black man. A jury found him guilty." Didn't work this time - Take that Marion Hammer and your NRA. Michael Drejka, 49, was convicted of manslaughter based on his shooting of Markeis McGlockton, after McGlockton pushed Drejka. Jury decided McGlockton's action did not justify his death. Watch it on the video.

Stephen Colbert on Trump racism and The Squad...

"‘Go back to China’: Racist white woman goes berserk after she allegedly hits ‘chinky’ Asian woman’s car." A racist white woman who was identified as Carla Waldman tells woman to go back to China for parking next to her when it was Waldman's car that was parked incorrectly. Looks like a double-digit IQ case for sure. And this was in Canada.

"Racist woman gets probation for insane and relentless campaign of harassment against neighbors." This has been going on for years. Roberta Madison finally admitted to one count of violating a harassment restraining order and was sentenced to one year of probation. "Neighbors have complained for years that Madison has subjected them to various and bizarre forms of harassment."

MSNBC does Donald Trump racism...

"‘I can’t breathe’: Officers caught on video applying chokehold to black man while they Taser him." There has to be a better way of taking a suspect down and the police had better find it fast. This has become much too common, especially with blacks. This happened in DeKalb County, Illinois where police officers were caught on camera using a Taser to shock a black man before putting him in what appeared to be a choke hold.

And, finally, this one takes the cake. "American Airlines booted allergic black man from plane so dog could fly first class: lawsuit." This reminds me of signs in yards in Norfolk, VA, during the Korean War: Sailors and dogs, keep off the grass. The black man was complaining he was allergic to the dog sitting close by, and it was a support dog. You decide.

Once again you are updated on the rampant racism going on in our country, but just hang around, there will be plenty more.

My last two posts on racism:

Racism at its worst in the U.S.today documented

Wrapping up the worst of.racism documented

Top Republican says Trump everything but electable

September 4, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

Donald Trump completely unqualified for his office 

And that's an exaggeration

“He’s unqualified, he is unfit, he’s a child, he’s reckless, he’s erratic, he’s a narcissist, he’s mean, he’s cruel and he lies every time he opens his mouth.” That was a Republican talking about Donald Trump, not a Democrat. It was former Rep. Joe Walsh from Illinois, and the above tirade was followed by Walsh's assessment that the "GOP is in big trouble." There's more in this article reported by RawStory...

“If he’s our nominee in 2020, the Republican Party is going to get spanked because young people don’t like Trump, women don’t like Trump and people who live in the suburbs don’t like Trump,” Walsh explained. “I heard you earlier, Joe, the Republican Party right now is at a real crossroads and because of Trump they’re in trouble.”

You have to understand here that Joe Walsh is challenging Donald Trump in the Republican Primary. Then MSNBC's Joe Scarborough asked former RNC head Michael Steele...

“You have run the Republican Party before and it’s looking like another political tsunami is coming the Republican Party’s way if Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket,” he prompted.

“Yeah, it will be very hard for the president to sustain the races beneath the presidential campaign,” Steele conceded.

Joe Walsh challenging Trump in 2020 Republican Primary...

Vanity Fair says...

"his [Donald Trump's] first victory was a miracle. A second, after four years of embarrassments and betrayals in office, might take an act of God."

There's more and it's classic...

The best you can say for Trump is that he became less scary to a lot more people, and the devil you know is always preferable to some.

The magazine continues with its assessment of Donald Trump on everything from gun violence to trade tariffs, and most of it isn't complimentary, but it's definitely worth reading.  Salon/AlterNet reports on a Steve Bannon statement from the 2016 election, “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” Donald Trump took it from there with his lies and racism, concluding...

"Nearly three years into Trump’s tenure the American news media is still struggling with how to cover a president and an administration that have no use for democratic norms, the Constitution, the rule of law, and the truth or reality itself."

Republicans exit the House en masse...

Now here's an interesting viewpoint...

"The media covers President Trump because it must — and because he is highly entertaining and good for ratings. Those two factors together mean that Trump the president and TV character is highly profitable for the corporate media. He stands at the center of the country’s and the world’s attention in two roles. He is both the Mad King and the King of the American Kakistocracy."

And here's another glaring illustration that Republicans are looking at disaster in 2020, "GOP lawmakers are quitting at a ‘stunning’ pace rather than serve under Trump." That is perhaps one of the, if not the most, damning condemnation of Donald Trump I've heard yet. Here's the scenario...

CNN’s “New Day,” contributor John Avlon highlighted the exodus of GOP House members who have chosen to step down and not run for re-election under Donald Trump, calling the sheer number of them “stunning.”

The results: “Since Trump took office, the House GOP has seen a stunning 38 percent turnover." It can only bode well for Democrats, but will 2020 come too late?

How to stop mass shootings with a computer model

September 3, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

Second thoughts on a gun violence database  

Now that looks like a mass murderer

It's like anything else Donald Trump proposes, you question it immediately. Not in the same way lowlife Senate head Mitch McConnell reacts to Democrats' motions in Congress where everything is blocked. Trump denial is based on his first two years in the White House spewing lie after lie--10,000 since his inauguration--his perpetual bouts with instability which occur daily, and a general feeling by leading psychiatrists that the man is incompetent in his job.

Having said that, I published a post on September 1, "Trump to launch Big Brother to stop mass shootings." And I have to admit that my intentions were not totally focused on solving gun violence, but to point out where the Oval Office lunatic was trying to pry into the lives of innocent Americans. And then I saw this article in the local papers suggesting a FICO-like score that could predict what gun owners might be prone to gun violence.

I had just entered the direct marketing industry when the FICO score was being created. Actually had the opportunity to sit in on some meetings held at the then retail giant, Montgomery Ward. FICO works, not only for credit, but also for determining auto insurance rates for drivers. But the key to anything aimed at gun violence would be lifestyles; your wine preference; the books you read; if you are a coffee drinker; Are you a fitness freak; there are several hundred.

Charlie Manson who started it all...

And they are documented by several database companies in the U.S. That plus a multitude of demographic data is readily available. The next thing missing is data on guns by household, which would require a U.S. registry of guns that will certainly be repelled by most gun owners and the National Rifle Assn. But the most important factor in this formula will be getting individual online search behavior, which, like a gun registry, will be resisted.

With the combination of the four, an AI (artificial intelligence) computer model could be generated that would very possibly tell us the next location of a mass shooting, even those on an individual basis. It's a matter of combining the right variables to solve the problem. But it's all questionable whether most of this could be accomplished in a Republican environment. However, with the NRA on the ropes and on its way out, and a Democratic takeover in 2020, there's hope.

Wanna know more about artificial intelligence?...

Not sure whether this should be government run or private enterprise, but it will take the feds to assemble the data necessary, plus enact a law requiring everyone register their guns. No doubt this will be the major hurdle, an act that may also demand getting rid of Wayne LaPierre and his NRA. But both are a good thing. I personally have created AI models that were able to predict the customers for a mail order catalog that would spend the most money.

We will need to analyze the household characteristics of the mass murderers to date (around 50 since 2014) using the guns per household, demographics, and lifestyles, plus online surfing behavior. Building the AI model will have to determine two things. One, based on the appropriate variables, what is the area where the next mass shooting is most likely to take place? Two, which households are most likely to house the shooter?

Wouldn't it be nice to give it a try for the sake of our children and innocent adults?

The bizarre behavior of Donald Trump

September 3, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREEY NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

The outlandish madness of Donald Trump  

I have so many articles saved on the preposterous stupidity of Donald Trump that I decided to list them one by one with their absurdity intact and let the reader rank them in their idiocy...

Donald Trump being led out of White House

"Trump is ‘having a full-blown mental breakdown’ and needs to resign: Trump ex-staffer." This coming from Anthony Scaramucci, during an interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily.” Scaramucci was one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders--for a few days--then turned on him with vehemence.  READ MORE

"New video emerges of Trump blurting out anti-Semitic slurs," exclaiming "that the majority of American Jews were 'disloyal' to Israel because they support the Democratic Party." But there's more, "a video clip from 2011 that shows Trump boasting about how great one of his golf courses is before saying that “even these spoiled, rich Jewish guys, they can’t believe how good this [course] is.” READ MORE.

Not Trump but "Trump campaign official bizarrely compares president to Mother Teresa: ‘Who has done more for women?’" Just as is the case with all the women who voted for Trump, this idiot has no self respect, or otherwise she is mentally deranged. Tana Goertz, the key primary state’s [Iowa] Trump Team coordinator, claimed the president had done more for women than possibly anyone else in history than the sainted Calcutta nun." READ MORE.

Yes, Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland...

 "GOP strategist: Greenland debacle proves that Trump is ‘batsh*t crazy’ and a ‘madman.’" Keep in mind this is not a Democrat doing the harsh criticizing, it is a Republican, none other than the unwavering Never Trump conservative GOP strategist Rick Wilson. Wilson mentions Trump's notion to purchase Greenland adding, “This isn’t madman theory,” Wilson declares in his op-ed. “This is just a mad man.” And so many agree. READ MORE.

"‘He’s empty’: Psychiatrist warns Trump is in a ‘psychotic-like state.’" Now this is so scary that it should start a stampede for the doors of reality for the morons in Congress. Dr. Lance Dodes, a Los Angeles psychiatrist, said, "Donald Trump, because he has a fundamental need to be all-powerful and all loved, can’t stand challenges. And the nature of democracy is that it challenges people." The key here is "Democracy," a word that T-rump destroyed the minute he took over the White House. READ MORE.

"Former Trump officials are increasingly worried about the president’s erratic and outlandish behavior." Alex Henderson of AlterNet reports, "Donald Trump became the butt of jokes all over the world this week when he offered to purchase Greenland and angrily canceled a visit to Denmark after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described the proposal as 'absurd.'” Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker note in a report for the New York Times "stress that to former Trump Administration officials, the president’s erratic behavior is no laughing matter...increasingly worried about his actions — especially with the 2020 election only 15 months away and the U.S. economy possibly going into a recession." READ MORE.

Donald Trump China call lie, sounding stupid in rebuttal...

"Trump’s fabricated China phone call is ‘a serious escalation of his lying’ which bodes ill for America." It's not like the Oval Office lunatic hasn't been lying since the first day he hit the White House, and on the campaign trail before that. But the media is jumping on the China lie because it had other serious ramifications than the regular untruths. This one seemed to be destined to boost a sagging stock market to prop up T-rump's ratings. The real story is, "Trump’s tariff hikes on Chinese goods in 2018 alone cost consumers $32 billion, threatening jobs and economic activity across the country. But there is no sign China is interested in negotiating for a deal to end the standoff." Yes, this man is a maniacal liar. READ MORE.

There's more to come but even I can't take too much of Donald Trump in one sitting.

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Labor Day: What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Great explanation of Labor Day from a cowboy...

Have a safe Labor Day!

Trump to launch Big Brother to stop mass shootings

September 1, 2019" PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

Donald Trump seeks Orwell's 1984 to solve gun violence  

Trump - Orwell

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell wouldn't think of initiating the correct approaches to stopping mass shootings, things like universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, halting straw purchases, and, of course, banning assault weapons. No, the Oval Office lunatic and Moscow Mitch would go with grossly invading the privacy of innocent Americans with Orwellian fictionalized technology. They prefer "new 'solutions' that won’t do anything about guns"...

"These proposals frequently focus on mental health, but a new plan before the White House to monitor “neurobehavioral” predictors of violence isn’t just misguided, it’s terrifyingly dystopian."

Should we all re-read George Orwell's 1984 to understand Donald Trump?...

They are creating a new agency called HARPA, a healthcare counterpart to the Pentagon’s research and development arm DARPA. And here is how HARPA would stick their noses into the lives of us proles...

The proles in 1984 are Orwell's satirical take on the proletariat, the industrial working class in whose interest the Party is ostensibly operating. George Orwell's novel was intended to be a very dark satire on what a totalitarian government would be like if it were ever inflicted upon Britain.

HARPA "would reportedly collect volunteer data from a suite of smart devices, including Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echos, and Google Homes in order to identify “neurobehavioral signs” of “someone headed toward a violent explosive act.” The project would then use artificial intelligence to create a “sensor suite” to flag mental changes that make violence more likely." And there you have it, George Orwell's Big Brother in 2019.

This maniacal idea has been in the works since 2017, but the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio gave it momentum. Trump's demented mind calls it, “SAFE HOME,” an acronym for “Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes.” And why does Donald dufus keep returning to mental health as an answer to gun violence? Because Donald Trump, himself is mentally ill and he wants everyone else to be the same.