Summary Of How Veterans In California Are About To Be Screwed Over

I saw this article by the Sacremento Bee on Google's search engine regarding how California's veterans have been screwed over by the GOP's tax scam bill. Read it for yourselves and let me know what you think.  

Make 2018 Our Year Of Rage

There's nothing to disprove the fact that the GOP's far-right-wing has chosen the party's donors over the American people. None of this is a massive surprise, as it's what they campaigned on. Now is the time to get our rage together so that we'll boot the far-right-wing out of power on Capitol Hill and across the states. Their tax-scam isn't going to give us jobs, it's just a ruse while they line their pockets with our tax dollars. Susan Sarandon was right in saying that Donald Trump would bring us Bernie Sanders' revolution that much faster.

Don't let the Democrats' congressional and party leadership lull you into a false sense of complacency as we still need to kick out the corporatists within their ranks as well. It's time to tell Nancy Pelosi to step aside for real progressives to take over the House Democrats' leadership. For now let's just hold Chuck Schumer's feet to the fire so that progressive policies go through the ranks of the Senate Democrats. He's been good about keeping an open mind and has been somewhat responsive to progressives within the grassroots.

Why We Need To Ditch The DNC For Next Year's Midterm

Given the bombshell revelation by Donna Brazille about The Democrats rigging the primaries last year, it's more of a reason to go around the DNC for the midterms next year. That deal they made with Hillary Clinton in 2015 about giving her complete control of their primary process was shameful and shortsighted. Granted the party was in terrible debt after Barack Obama's re-election back in 2012, but that was no excuse to sell their moral compass to a candidate who was so universally disliked and was being investigated for possible treason, via the Espianoge Act, in addition to various other crimes. Additionally, that was no reason to carry out a new wave of McCarthyism following Hillary's loss to Donald Trump.

However, the biggest reason to ditch the DNC is that it's clearly lost touch with the progressive grassroots and the country as a whole. That's why for our purposes it's better to go through Our Revolution. The DNC will never listen to us progressives, and would rather let themselves be steamrolled by the GOP than to concede that we're right on the merits. We can thank Donna Brazille for making our point for us, and many others who have bravely come forward to put an end to the Clinton Dynasty's holding us hostage.

What Next Year Holds In Terms Of Healthcare, Taxes, Et Al.

By all means are we going to see the collapse of what's left of our restored economy next year, and won't get it back again in our lifetimes should the GOP get its way with "Tax Reform." It's made even more aggrivating that the Vice President told Congressional Republicans and their billionaire donors to move quickly to bully the American electorate into supporting this nakedly upward transfer of wealth. How this connects to health care is that there's a complete scrapping of all American's ability to write off medical expenses for tax purposes. That's an additional tax that approximately 90-100% of the people cannot afford. Raising taxes on the poor to subsidize the rich is the most ass-backward approach to retaining a sustainable economy.

Do yourselves a massive favor by using this link to contact your Senators and Representatives in Congress (especially if they're Republicans) and tell them to ditch this plan fast: https://whoismyrepresentative.com/. I can't stress this enough, as it's not right nor sustainable.

Donald Trump Doesn't Understand Nor Support Freedom Of Expression Unless For His Alt-Right Base

The last couple of weeks has shown that Donald Trump clearly doesn't understand the premise that freedom of expression is not exclusively applicable to his alt-right base, nor does he support it for anyone who's not from his alt-right base. If he thinks that using intimidation tactics, via Twitter, he's making a big mistake. People aren't falling for the threats. The president has done more to embolden White Supremacists and encourage their acts of violence than many of his predecessors had. This type of Nixon-esque bullying has no place in our political discourse.

Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem. Respect our Flag and our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

Donald Trump's Latest Tone-Deaf Remarks On Twitter Regarding Aid To Puerto Rico

It's not lost on anyone, including me, that Donald Trump has been a little too trigger happy when it comes to his tweets. The biggest problem is that many of them have been so tone-deaf that they're alienating the very professionals needed to help those in disaster in Puerto Rico. Going after local officials isn't helping in coordination for even the most mild of criticism.

My Administration, Governor @RicardoRossello, and many others are working together to help the people of Puerto Rico in every way...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

......#FakeNews critics are working overtime, but we're getting great marks from the people that truly matter! #PRStrong🇵🇷

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

Results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints by San Juan Mayor. Doing everything we can to help great people of PR!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

Again, these examples speak for themselves.

North Korea's Kim Jong-Un Is Dumber Than I Realized

North Korea has just shown its sheer level of stupidity. As it turns out, their moron leader, Kim Jong-Un, has made clear just how suicidal and apocalyptic he is. If he thinks that we won't bother to retaliate should he launch a missile at Guam, he's definitely smoking some bad weed. The same also holds true if he thinks that Russia and China will back him up, should he go on the offensive. It's like I just described in my latest video on Youtube, and on my Facebook page and Twitter feed, he's in for a nasty surprise when that happens. Russia and China have made their point of absolute neutrality should North Korea fire the first shot pretty clear.

This latest nuclear test has just gotten both the Russians and the Chinese into the stage of considering their most beneficial outcome, and that outcome looks good for neither North Korea nor Kim Jong-Un himself. There on notice that America is ready to flex its diplomatic and economic muscles with both of them, and they both know that being on good terms with America is a much better deal for them. This is primarily why both Russia and China are now beginning to think with their wallets. They both know that coughing up North Korea's Kim Regime may be a worthwhile down payment in a much more lucrative investment in America's profitable markets.

White Supremacists Come To San Francisco

Just when I thought that things couldn't get any crazier, I've been proven wrong yet again. Apparently, what was once the laughable anecdote about White supremacists coming to San Francisco and making idiots of themselves has now become a frightening reality. The National Park Service, unsurprisingly, approved a staging permit for many different elements of the White supremacy movement (Neo-Nazis, Neo-Confederates, Oath Keepers, etc.) to hold a rally in Chrissy Field. My advice to anyone and everyone coming to visit San Francisco over the weekend: stay away from Chrissy Field and the Marina District! There's no reason to engage a rally of White supremacists looking to incite violence.

If you have any further questions for me, hit me up on either Facebook and/or Twitter.

Out Of Control Threats Of Nuclear War

I can't begin to describe the ramifications at play here, with loose threats of nuclear warfare between Donald Trump & Kim Jong-Un, without turning it into a history lecture. That's the price I pay for being a history graduate from San Francisco State University. I'll try to keep this as concise as I can, but no guarantees.

Loose threats of nuclear war are terrifying beyond the imagenable, and it should serve as a major wake-up call to quicken the process of nuclear disarmament. For the people who grew up during the Cold War, this is a terrifying reminder of their childhood and adolescense. That makes their terror very justifiable.

However, one of the ways these threats have gotten so out of control is by the leadership in North Korea having absolutely no regard for human life. Even worse is the level of cockiness by Kim, who thinks that he'll be able to take on America with the aid of North Korea's de facto allies: Russia and China. This is where he is wrong on so many levels as the dynamics are much different now than with the start and end of the Korean War in 1950-3. The biggest reason is that Russia and China are not going to back North Korea up should it engage in a war of aggression against America and its regional allies.

This doesn't mean that the American side is without its own contributions. For years, America has been engaging in aggressive activity very close to North Korea's territory, both terrestrial and marine, through joint military exercises with both Japan and South Korea. Granted, these activities are primarily defensive in origin, but their execution can come across as a threat to the North. Another factor to add is the cockiness on display by Trump, who, in a way, is lettling his ego cloud his judgment in a sense. Trump is a president with no prior experience in government, which puts him at a huge learning curve. 

The BCRA's Failure To Pass Is A Welcome Reprieve

Seeing that the bill pushed by the Senate GOP failed its vote for passage is a tell-tale sign that the BCRA is dead (or on life-support). If 9 Republicans jumped ranks when the vote came up, it means that more will begin to cave as pressure from their constituents increases. 1 of the Republicans that voted against it, Dean Heller (R-NV), is up for re-election in next year's midterm and he's representing a state that voted for Hillary Clinton in last year's presidential race. This shows that popular opposition is enough to overcome big money's beckoning.

Comcast & Other Big Cable Companies Must Be Nationalized To Save Net Neutrality

For too dang long, big cable companies like Comcast and AT&T have been throwing their weight around and now they're intent on getting rid of net neutrality altogether. They've proven that they're enjoying the threat they pose to free speech on the internet that net neutrality offers, and they need to be stopped. The only way to do so is to nationalize all the big cable companies before they shut down free speech online. Contact your Senators and Representatives in Congress and tell them that you're going to remove them from office next year if they don't pass legislation nationalizing big cable. This isn't about government controlling free speech, it's the American public shutting down a threat to the 1st Amendment right of free speech.

Seeing The Left Destroy Itself

I know that I wrote about how the Right was destroying itself last year, but I think it's time to give the Left its due. The biggest problem is that the "leadership" is doing everything humanly possible to prevent anything meaningful from being enacted. This is a massive problem when the Democrats are holding America hostage just to fatten Corporate America's wallet (the GOP notwithstanding), while only pretending to care about the issues that actually matter to the electorate. At this point the Democratic National Committee has lost its mind, only carrying on (until about last week or so) Hillary Clinton's post-election media tantrum. Be it about Donald Trump's supposed connections to Russia, or how everyone who voted for someone other than Clinton as a mysogynist. That's just a couple of examples, but it paints the picture of how badly out-of-touch the "Left" (and I'm being very generous to the Democratic Party's current leadership) has become. Until there's a revolt from within, there's no way for the left to actually assert itself in America's political dialogue. Especially when we're fighting the very worst elements of the far-right.

Trump's Obsession With Bringing Back Jim Crow And Democrats' Lacklustered Noncommitted Response

It's no secret that Donald Trump has been on the move towards bringing back Jim Crow, but the Democrats' lackluster response is going to ensure that Trump succedes. Their platitudes are just simply lip-service as the DNC has had no interest of doing anything to rectify any of the underlying issues that are driving this recent push. We need to continue to show the DNC that if it wants our support, it needs to act on the issues affecting all of our lives. Otherwise it gives the current demagogues in control of the GOP their blank check to continue to use non-Whites as scapegoats for the public's problems.

It's time for them to grow a pair and start actively opposing this new push for social injustice. It's time for them to stand up and fight back. Anyone within the Democratic ranks that refuses to fight back should be primaried and removed as they're part of the problem.

James Comey's Firing & What It Shows About The Politicization Of The Justice Department

It's not exactly a secret that James Comey's job was on the line since Donald Trump entered the White House in January. No one can deny that there's a political motivation in the works, which does no service to we the people, but that's only the tip of the iceberg here. While it's a fact that in no way should we back any attempt by President Trump to politicize the Justice Department, we need to bear in mind that there's another layer of government commonly known as the unofficial "Fourth Branch" (aka the Intelligence Community/Deep State) that was looking for any excuse to get the President to fire Comey.

There are a couple of reasons behind this theory. For starters, he bungled an attempted cover-up that actually began inside The Obama White House regarding Hillary Clinton's emails. In addition, there's the investigation into possible collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russia in last year's election. The latter reason had to do with possibly exposing the propaganda/misinformation campaign meant to discredit the President from the very first day he entered office.

In terms of politicization, there's no effort to hide the Trump Administration's intent on using the Justice Department to silence many of its most vocal political opponents. That's been a common theme from day 1. How this ties to Comey is his failed effort trying to maintain the FBI's non-partisan integrity. He was set up to be the fall-guy should anything come to light regarding both Russiagate and Emailgate. Comey's refusal to let partisan politics to take precedence over the FBI's sole duty to enforce federal law is what partially led to his ousting. That may have contributed to his ouster, and is part of a long pattern that the Trump Administration has been following over the past few months. There's no question that some of the reason is a way of covering up any potentially questionable ties that many of Trump's closest advisors may have had before he entered office.

Another factor to bear in mind is that Trump has slowly been turning the Justice Department into his personal secret police force to go after anyone (especially those who are public figures) that opposes him politically. As opposition hardens, he's going to get much more violent in his response. Think of Richard Nixon's presidency when J. Edgar Hoover was the FBI Director. That's what we're going to be looking at. However, unlike under Nixon, The Democrats have been lackluster in their response to Trump's maneuvers. The disarray in the party today in 2017 is much worse than it was back in 1969.

Why Fears Of A War Breaking Out Between America And Both Russia And China Are Overblown In Regards To The North Korean Nuclear Crisis

There's been a lot of talk in news headlines around the world that America is on a collision course to war with both Russia and China regarding the ongoing crisis with the Kim Regime's Nuclear Program. That's not the case as both the Russians and Chinese's strategic patience has worn almost thin enough to endorse an American-led military strike against North Korea. Even though there have been traded conventional and nuclear war threats between America and North Korea, the fact is that the North Koreans' closest "allies," Russia and China, won't back them up. They'll see giving up the Kim Regime as an evil they can live with if that's the way to get American military hardware out of the region.

Should war break out, the Americans' response to the North's aggression will be several fold stronger than in World War II, especially in defense of both Japan and South Korea. Both the Russian and Chinese leaderships know this, which explains why the likelihood of them retaliating against the Americans is very low. North Korea has long thumbed its nose at international law and has continually shown that it will only settle its disputes with military force. By consistently threatening to engage in preemptive nuclear warfare, it's shown that it has no regard for human life.

How To Curtail Trump As The 2018 Midterm Nears

I know that for many of us looking to establishment channels to hold Donald Trump accountable, but I need to give a cold shock to that by illustrating just how useless The Democrats and the GOP have become. Neither body wants to change the structural hurdles that we the people have to jump through when they make too much money accepting corporate donations. The only real way to curtail Trump goes as follows.

The way to rein in Trump is to completely bypass the DNC, and instead work to nominate outside candidates with the zeal of taking on the corruption shrouding Washington. In addition, it's also on all of us to protest loudly and strongly to keep our elected officials' feet to the fire when they move to placate their corporate donors. We should also take guidance from Bernie Sanders and other progressive leaders about pushing through the agenda set by Our Revolution. Don't worry about the corporatists within the Democratic rank-and-file, as they're completely disinterested in pushing for the kinds of structural reforms that we the people desperately need.

Trumpcare's Demise And What It Means In 2018

Here's the deal with what just happened yesterday: Trumpcare didn't have the support of all of the House Republicans just ahead of its rescheduled votes. Many within the House Republican Conference were not keen on going back to their districts explaining to their constituants why they voted for the American Health Care Act. In addition, they were very uneasy about having to defend Donald Trump in their districts as well. The implications for the GOP at any level of government are not good, not when Trump's approval rating is in the mid-30s. Yesterday's vote was a shining example of the Republicans' utter incompetence at governing.

The Reign Of The Incompetent

Seeing that it's been almost a month since Donald Trump's been in office, and it's been nothing but non-stop incompetence. Pitiful, as it makes George W. Bush actually look competent in comparison. Luckily this is temporary, as we got the 2018 Midterm Election coming up in a little more than a year from now. In the meantime, we have to keep organizing and pushing to bring the change we desperately need.

The New Era Dawns

There's no doubt that with Donald Trump as our 45th President that we are entering a new era. It no surprise to hear that because there's united government under the GOP, both House Republicans and the Senate GOP are now drunk with power. Take this article illustrating a recent tussle between Ron Wyden and Pat Roberts from Politicus USA , and it's easy to see how this new direction is about to take us into a period of chaos. This is a reason to keep organizing opposition to the ongoing antics that the Republicans continue to pull. Now hopefully Trump will force them to do right by the oath that they've taken to protect and defend the Constitution, but even that's a low bar to set.

If there's any ideas pushed out by the new Trump Administration to put people back to work, then by all means we should join forces with them to make sure that comes into fruition. Trump's absolutely right in saying that our infrastructure is falling into deep disrepair, and that our foreign and trade policies are a trainwreck that need some deep revisions. I'll go by what Bernie Sanders has said about working with Trump, but I'm not holding my breath.

Why Opposing Donald Trump And The Republicans' Far-Right Wing Is The Easy Part For The Next 4 Years

For all the stories we're hearing in the news how it'll be end times when Donald Trump becomes our 45th President on Friday, the last thing we should do is panic. The fact is that opposing Trump and the GOP's far-right wing is not the hard part of getting by the next 4 years, that surprisingly is the easy part. There's going to be an overreach by the Republicans, and that may happen sooner rather than later. To prepare our opposition we need to organize and continue to press the point that what they're planning to do will actually do more harm than good. Plus we'll have the majority of the people on our side. However, this can only work if the Democrats ditch their corporate-wing, which has been helping the Republicans accelerate the ongoing race to the bottom.

Prying control of the party from the corporate-wing is the hard part, and without doing this, we can't start the process of reversing the worsening effects of social and economic inequality. Those effects are what's driving the power of the far-right, and its quick fixation on scapegoats as a way of directing the people's attention elsewhere. We can't tackle the issue of racial division without simultaneously tackling the issue of class inequality. If we don't resolve both issues at the same time, we're likely to see political figures even more extreme than Trump is possibly entering the presidency.