Another Day, Another Mass Shooting

Now isn't that a sad headline... :-(

VOX Texas Shootings
FOX Texas Shootings

Medical Center Hospital in Odessa said it received 13 shooting victims, seven of whom were in critical condition. Two others were in serious condition and one patient was deceased. One victim, a 17-month-old child, was airlifted to a level one trauma center in Lubbock, about two hours north of Odessa. The other two victims had been treated and released as of Saturday evening.

VOX Maps and Charts
VOX More Maps and Charts

And yet Trump is still scared of the gun lobby.

Of course I would go even further...

Gun Control Summary

G2A's Simplified Gun Policy Goal Statement:

1. Ensure that trained, responsible people can keep and carry their hunting and self defense weapons.
2. Ensure these weapons are removed from the homes of scary angry, insane and generally irresponsible people.
3. Minimize the death, injury and/or trauma to the innocent citizens of the USA when the system fails and a scary angry, insane and generally irresponsible person does not have their weapons confiscated.

G2A's Supporting Policy / Tools 

1. Mandatory back ground checks for every gun purchase or ownership transfer. Eliminate gun show / internet sales loop holes.
2. Mandatory confiscation of guns from people with anger issues / restraining orders. (Red Flag Laws)
3. Improve NICS, and State and Agency reporting into the database.
4. Mandatory Gun Registration (especially for hand guns and semi-automatic rifles)
5. Severe penalties for ANYONE holding a gun that is NOT registered, that should be.
6. Allow law suits against people who allow their guns to be stolen, especially if they have not reported the theft.
7. Allow trained school personnel to conceal and carry.
8. Limiting clip sizes to ~15 or fewer bullets
9. Banning weapons that are bump fire-able.

The good news is that Florida bill addresses some of these common sense changes. CNN Florida Gun Law Awaits Govs Signature

Trump Shares US Top Secret Capabilities

NPR Trump Tweets Sensitive Surveillance Image Of Iran

Yes Trump is that foolish... :-(

Vaccines and Their Risks

CH The Vaccine Study You Will Never See

Okay, I spent some time looking through 1200 Studies.  And here are the thoughts and questions I sent back to the author.  So far I have received no answers to my questions...  Sorry for the formatting, I have other things to get started on today. :-)

Okay I have skimmed to page 142 and am beginning to confirm that this is not an analysis paper, but a simple attack paper. I had to do a literature review for my thesis and they sure do not look like this. :-(

There is simply nothing fair or balanced about any of the topics, the risks, the rewards, the trade offs, etc. Just a bunch of numbers with cherry picked statements to try to back them up.
What I find most amazing is that you have stated that there is a link between vaccines and autism like it is a fact. When one of your source expert links clearly says that you are wrong.

The exact quote from the Autism Society... These I assume are the experts in this area of study... Why again would they unequivocally say that you are incorrect?

Statement of the Autism Society of America on Vaccine Safety

March 8, 2019, Bethesda, Maryland — The Autism Society of America is aware of the ongoing public discussion surrounding the use of vaccines. We affirm there has never been any credible scientific or medical evidence linking vaccinations with autism. In fact, robust scientific research and the overwhelming consensus of the medical community conclude that vaccines are safe, effective, and life-saving.  The Autism Society of America encourages parents to discuss any concerns about vaccines with their child’s physician.

For more information, please consult the following resources reviewed by our panel of professionals.

• The Autism Science Foundation
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) general information about vaccines and immunizations
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Vaccine Safety
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Statement

For questions, please contact Scott Badesch, Executive Director/CEO.

Now it sounds like you started this effort in 2015 after the Kimmel skit. And you state that you started "neutral", which I really have to question after reading the paper and how emotional you became during the skit...

So I am wondering, did you you have your children vaccinated or were you against vaccinations way back them?

By the way, you may have the last laugh on me... I am heading to Sao Paulo Brazil next Wednesday and the Travel clinic loaded me up with Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Flu and MMR vaccine just to be safe. So if you don't hear from me again you will know that the vaccines finally got me. :-)

I'll try to keep skimming, but I am sure losing hope of it being worth my time. :-(

A couple of more links from the Autism Science Foundation. Do you think they also are in the pockets of big pharma? That these Medical Doctors would risk the lives and well being of children? Cause and Risk Factors

People keep waiting until they are older to have children, more children are being born into impoverished single parent homes, we can now keep many people alive to procreate who never would have 50 years ago and you wonder why things are a changing... I am hopeful that the scientists will determine the true root causes sooner than later.

Okay I made it down to page 685 and it gets better with the Problem and Solution Statement. Especially the ones dealing with children needing good nutrition and healthcare. Since it sounds like you "pro-life" (taking the choice away from the mother), are you pro-medicaid, pro-welfare and other systems that are there to help the fetus and the new infant?

I ask because it seems you support the freedom to choose vaccinations or not? How are these topics similar or different from your view?

By the way, being part of the American society is also a free choice. If you do not like what the American society determines is best for the vast majority of Americans one is free to move to Mexico or another third world country that does not require vaccines. With our freedom comes a responsibility.

The "free document" having copy and paste blocked is very frustrating, so I will need to just paraphrase you. It seems on 708 that you are putting the onus on the vaccine proponents to accept your data and "do what is right". And yet it seems you are choosing to ignore their data and perspectives? Is this open mind supposed to go both ways?

Finally, this is a pretty interesting piece. Especially when it explains a little how antivaxxers are "free riders" on the back of our herd.

Should Farmers Blame Trump?

Alpha News Minnesota farmers shouldn’t blame Trump getting tough on China The trade war doesn’t help, but there’s a lot more going on    A FB friend posted this link.; I replied with the following.

This is probably a less biased and more thorough source.  Market Watch Trump’s tariffs and bad weather take toll on U.S. farmers  That author only seems to show up on right leaning media. I mean if Trump's Trade War was not hurting farmers... Why did we bail them out because of the "Trade War"? Farm Bailout Money
As is often the case, I got no answer.  Thoughts?

Please remember that I am fine with Trump going after China, they are going to be a major challenge in the future.  And they are developed enough now that they must play by the rules that everyone else does.  The problem I have is that Trump alienated all of our Global Partners who could have helped apply pressure.  (ie Withdrew from Trans Pacific Partnership, Placed Tariffs on all of our Allies, Repeatedly Insulted many of Our Allies, etc)  For a "Deal Maker", he is incredibly inept and it costing American Consumers and Businesses a LOT of MONEY.

Trump is SO Jealous of Boris Johnson

VOX Boris Johnson just suspended Parliament over Brexit.


Imagine how happy Trump would be if he could put Congress on a 6 week "time out"...

Trump Lashes Out at FOX News

The Hill Trump Lashes Out at FOX News
The Hill Brett Baier Pushes Back

It is sad when lovers spat... :-)  And just because the FOX poll results match the majority of polls, not the outlier Rasmussen Poll. (see below)  RCP Trump Polls  I mean how in the world can Trump imagine that his approval rating is getting better when he spends his days attacking everyone except his core True Believers?

Teaching Kid's Stuff

From Laurie: new topic related to education:

The Atlantic The Radical Case for Teaching Kid's Stuff

The Atlantic American Students Reading

The two links are very similar. The first one is more recent. I am halfway through the Wexler book on this topic. I think if we want to improve education focusing on knowledge in elementary schools will have a much greater impact than getting rid of teacher's unions.

1200 Studies: Fact or Conspiracy Theory

A distant cousin who is a chiropractor and health / wellness coach has published a document that challenges the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations. WellnessDoc 1200 Studies  Initially I think he is just promoting conspiracy theories, however I will take some time to read some of his work.  I mean how could so many other highly reputable health organizations be wrong?

For more data from the main stream medical doctors.
Immunization Alliance
CDC Child immunization schedule
CDC Why metals are in vaccines?
McGill Should we worry about metal in vaccines?
Mayo Clinic Tough Questions about Childhood Vaccines
Children's Hospitals Immunization site
APA Paper

Here are some of my response on his FB page so far.

The challenge with people doing research, be it pharmaceutical companies or yourself is that both have a belief that biases their research. (confirmation bias) I fear that you are a "natural medicines" fan who is seeking to support your beliefs rather than to help keep families across America safe and healthy. And scaring young mothers and fathers certainly is concerning.

What are the folks who did this study missing?
Are they in the pocket of a pharmaceutical company?

"Concerns about vaccine safety have led some parents to decline recommended vaccination of their children, leading to the resurgence of diseases. Reassurance of vaccine safety remains critical for population health. This study systematically reviewed the literature on the safety of routine vaccines recommended for children in the United States. The study authors found evidence that some vaccines are associated with serious adverse events; however, these events are extremely rare and must be weighed against the protective benefits that vaccines provide." from one of the above sites :-)

And here are my interesting ethical questions:

• If people fail to vaccinate their child(ren) for fear of a rare event. 
• And other children suffer or die because of that choice. 
• Did those parent(s) do the ethical thing?

Emperor Trump Orders Businesses

"Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,"

I really have to wonder when the "small government free trade conservatives" will finally have had enough of this joker.  Can you even imagine how they would have howled if Obama had said the above?

And then there is his berating the man he hired...

 "My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?"

He seems to be the Little Emperor throwing a temper Tantrum.

VOX Trump Escalates
FOX Orders US Firms
VOX Trump's Crazy 72 Hours
FOX Trump Defiant
RCP Friedman Comments on Trump Views

Non-Citizens: More Fed Arrests

From Jerry:

"Moose insists that illegal aliens (7% of the population) are no more "criminal" than the rest of us. non-citizens are 64% of federal arrests"

Trump Calls Jews Ignorant or Disloyal

Is he purposefully trying to alienate everyone in America except his True Believers?

Media-ite Trump Called Out For Deriding Most Jews in America as Ignorant or Disloyal: ‘Blatantly Anti-Semitic’

FOX Trump suggests Dems' Jewish voters lack knowledge or show 'great disloyalty,' amid Omar-Tlaib feud

Jewish Presidential Votes

So apparently Trump thinks 71% of Jews are stupid or somehow beholden to a foreign country's policies?

"American Jews tend to favor Democrat candidates, with 71% of Jewish voters choosing Democrat candidates and only 25% choosing Republicans since 1968. "

Is he missing the fact that these folks are American citizens and have made an intentional choice to stay here?

JPost TRUMP: JEWS WHO VOTE DEMOCRAT SHOW LACK OF KNOWLEDGE, GREAT DISLOYALTY

PBS Omar and Tlaib Press Conference

NPR Hope fades for Palestinian state

CBN Omar Statements

I do find it amazing that the USA gives Israel $3 BILLION per Year...
And we can not twist their arms to implement a 2 state solution?

Is a Recession Coming?

Trump officials preach optimism and offer little other good news.

Recessions come about every 8 - 10 years so we are somewhat over due. I mean what goes up does come down.  The only question usually is how deep will it be and how long will it last?

Now Bush and crew minimized the 2001 recession with a big tax cut which drove a huge increase in the national debt when the consequences of all that optimism caught up with us in 2008.  There is some hope that a 2020 recession may not be too deep due to the Trump tax cut, but the consequences to the National Debt will be huge due to his excessive spending.

The big question is did people learn from the 2008 Recession and save for the next rainy day?


Of course Trump wants blame others for his excessive spending, erratic policies, his trade wars, normal market volatility, etc.  And unfortunately his brain washed True Believers will probably believe him.  This weekend a couple of them were praising him for the tax cut he signed, and blaming others for the spending increases he signed.  It was so surreal and aggravating !!!!  He is the POTUS and owns the good and the bad !!!

Mark Sanford for President?

NBC Mark Sanford Interview

GovTrack Mark Sanford

I would need to learn more about him and his positions, but he makes sense to me.

Trump, Antifa and Alt Right Killers

WE Trump watching Portland

So we have the Alt Right Extremists assaulting and killing people, and our idiot President is trying to paint Antifa as the terrorist organization... :-(  Maybe he really is a KKK member hiding in plain sight..

VOX Trump does not mention the Alt Right
BBC 7 Things to Know about Antifa

Alt Right Proud Boys 
SPLC Proud Boys

I am thinking that people who push back against racists like the Proud Boys are not all bad... :-)

No More Poor Immigrants?

NYT Trump Immigration Plan Offers a Ticket to the American Dream. The Poor Need Not Apply.


This is an interesting and disturbing piece.  It makes perfect sense that we do not want to bring a bunch of welfare recipients into the country.  I mean we have enough of them without importing more. :-)


And yet it does seem Un-American to not welcome some of the world's struggling masses. 


I assume most of us would not be here if these standards were in place when our family members came here with nothing.  On the other hand there was no Medicaid, food stamps, social security, Medicare, education grants, etc for them to receive.  Just some land out in the middle of no where...


Thoughts?

Trump Campaigns On Tax Payers Dime

What do the Trump True Believers think?

Is it okay that the White House billed this as a Presidential speech regarding energy policy...
So we the tax payers paid the costs,
And then Trump turned it into a Trump 2020 rally?

VOX Why Trump’s blurring of the line between campaigning and governing matters, explained by an expert

CNN 28 Trump Lines from Official White House Speech

The Hill Trump Attacks media, Biden, etc

Rev Trump Transcript

Political Polarization Quiz

From Laurie...

In my previous comment I implied my views were influenced by the news sources I choose.  Maybe my views (party affiliation) are mostly influenced by the fact that I am a non religious white woman.  NYT Polarization Quiz

Stock Returns by President

Now that is interesting... Click to expand...

How to be an Anti-Racist

NPR Ibram X. Kendi's Latest Book: 'How To Be An Antiracist'


I listened to this on the way to work. It deserves more study.


Atlantic Am I American?
Wiki Ibram X Kendi

Washington DC Free Pre K

I am a huge fan of a sliding fee scale for Quality Preschool programs, and the concept that a child's first 5 years are most important.  This means that tax payers pickup more of the bill for lower income households.


Here is some information regarding a Washington DC Program.  It sounds like they are embedding it in the Public Schools and Picking up the tab for everyone, both of which I disagree with.

Trump True Believer Stages of Denial

Moose had posted this awhile back and I thought it was excellent. He said he did not cpme up with it, but it helped me to understand how Trump True Believers rationalize his most manipulative blatant lies? Maybe we can call it the Trump Stages of Denial. :-)

1. He didn't say that.
2. And if he did, he didn't mean that.
3. And if he did, you didn't understand it.
4. And if you did, it's not a big deal.
5. And if it is, others have said worse."

Now let's test it out on a few fact checked Trump quotes.

"If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value," Trump told his fellow Republicans April 2.  "And they say the noise causes cancer." 

"If you buy, you know, a box of cereal, if you do anything, you have a voter ID. … The only thing you don’t is if you’re a voter of the United States."

"For years, they have not been able to get tax cuts -- many, many years, since Reagan." 

California "admitted" there were "a million" illegal votes in the 2016 presidential election.

Now I understand that Trump will be Trump, that is not what puzzles me.  I am more interested in how people can look at me straight faced and go through this list almost every time he throws out an obvious falsehood.

Why it is so hard for them to admit that they voted for a chronic liar and manipulator, and that they will likely do it again?

How do they determine what is real?

The scarier thing... What does Trump think in real?

Will Farmers Quit Trump?

FP Farm Loan Delinquencies High
Stress Response Program
Forbes Trump Fails Farmers

Do People Want News?

Two older Conservatives linked to this on FB. I found this odd given that most Conservatives I know seem to dislike news, data, facts, etc. They seem to thrive on the FOX talking heads, Rush Limbaugh, Prager U, etc.  And they seem to work hard at not fact checking Trump.

I spend most of my time reading the sources that are closer to the center. Usually I find that they:

• give more facts and less opinion
• if they have speakers, they have one from both tribes

When I look at sources from the far left or far right. I try to read them very critically by considering:

• what is their agenda?
• do they provide real data?
• do their assumptions make sense?
• do they use absolutes like all, none, always, never, etc?

So do we want news? Or do we want to hear people confirm our perception of reality?

How Can Religious Right Person Score Neutral?

Jerry took the Political Compass Test and scored 0.0 on the Authoritarian / Libertarian axis.  This puzzled me because we know that he often supports the government passing and enforcing morality laws.

So I took all the questions and sorted them...  My guess is that the blue ones had the most impact on the Freedom axis. The interesting thing is that they have many offsetting questions.

A Religious Right person may agree with spanking, free markets, and company freedom.  Whereas they may disagree with LGBT rights, ProChoice, Recreational Drugs.

So as with all tools, one must be careful to consider the details.  By the way, he did score the highest on supporting more government control than the rest of us.  Not sure what that indicates. Especially since he is a pretty devout "GOP Small Government Conservative". :-)

Personally I think people on both the Far Right and Far Left tend to like using government to enforce their version of morality. Even though they are very different.

The Consequences of Trump's Words :-(

NYT Trump and the Shooter

ABC Trump Comments

Words of Hate have consequences.

I wonder if Trump is capable of understanding that?

Or if he and his True Believers will rationalize 

the death of these innocent men, women and 

children away... :-( 

The Small Tent Democrats

When did Obama become a Republican?
Thanks Obama

And the DEMs wonder why the Centrists are balking at their message?

Similar to the Political Compass is the the Nolan Diagram.  I think this a better graphic.

More Comics

Democratic Debates

From Laurie:

links for a new topic:

How to Campaign When Nothing Is Possible

Democrats Aren’t Addressing the Biggest Challenge We Face

Pete Buttigieg had the most important answer at the Democratic debate

As the three links explain the DEMs will be able to get nothing done if they win so John should just go ahead and vote against Trump. I found the links very persuasive and depressing for contemplating the future of our country.