Indictments For The Poisoning oF The People Of Flint, MI Are Now At The Doorstep Of Republican Governor Rick Snyder - Also, The "Midas" Touch - How Snyder Stole $150M From The Poorest Citizens

Can Governor Rick Snyder Be Indicted Next?

Photo by commoncause.org

John A. Smith, Founder/Editor, New York, December 20, 2016 9:54 AM

Four More Former Government Officials Indicted

     The governor's office in MI is exempt from freedom of information laws (FOIL), which is a story in itself, and Governor Snyder (R-MI) has used that exemption for everything it's worth. Gov. Snyder has refused to release key documents on the poisoning of people in the city of Flint, MI, for the past 2 1/2 years. Anyone that thinks many incriminating documents of Snyder and his appointed Emergency Managers and staff haven't been destroyed by now are simply not in touch with reality. But Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is still making progress with indictments of former state-appointed Emergency Managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose and former city employees Howard Croft, a public works superintendent, and Daugherty Johnson, a utilities manager, who were the latest to be charged by AG Schuette. That brings the total indictments to 13 as 9 people had been charged prior to the third round of indictments that took place yesterday. The two Emergency Managers can be sentenced to 40 years in prison each, one of them 46 years because he made public statements that the water was safe to drink when he knew it wasn't. The indictments are now at the door of the Governor, will they make it into his office? With those indicted already saying the decisions were made at the highest levels, the Governor's office, he should be. The system of taking away democracy and replacing local politicians with "Emergency Managers" who are picked by, and who only report to, the Governor, is still in effect in Michigan!

Photo by Fox17

The "Midas" Touch - How Gov. Snyder Stole $150M

     Michigan Integrated Data Automation System, "M.I.D.A.S." is the name of a computer Rachael Maddow (The Rachael Maddow Show/MSNBC) reported on her show yesterday that was brought online by Gov. Snyder in the fall of 2013. Michigan elected Republican Governor Rick Snyder in 2010, he was a computer executive before then. What MIDAS did was kick all human beings out of the process of evaluating unemployment applications. What MIDAS actually did is turn the problem of unemployed people into money. When MIDAS was brought online it started treating everyone who applied for unemployment benefits like criminals. The automated system erroneously accused claimants in 93% of cases of fraud. Michigan unemployment agency made 20,000 false fraud accusations. Instead of getting their unemployment checks applicants had their applications kicked back to them and accused them of fraud. And when it did that it didn't make it clear that applicants could appeal that finding. People did not know they were even eligible to appeal against the fraud charge. People who did appeal, in 9 out of 10 cases, WON! It's an intimidating system where it tells the applicants that they made a fraudulent application and they could go to jail and have to pay fines. The people accused lost access to unemployment payments, and reported facing fines as high as $100,000. Many people did not only not appeal, not get their unemployment benefits, but were scared and started paying the fines. People who didn't pay their fines had their federal and state taxes garnished. People who were expecting a tax return, instead got a letter saying that because of the MIDAS finding of fraud the state was keeping it. Carolyn Hayes was one of the 27,000 people accused of fraud by the MIDAS system. Carolyn won her two appeals, in fact the state auditor general's report showed that of those that appealed the fraud finding, in 9 out of 10 cases won. This system held onto the money that people paid in fines,and the money garnished, and held from federal and state tax returns. You wouldn't think you can get that much money from poorer people but it did. The account that held money paid in fines and such from unemployment, the Michigan Unemployment Agency Contingent Fund, prior to MIDAS being implemented had $3.1M, in 2011. Now, after MIDAS was implemented, it holds $155M. That's MIDAS, it turns everything into gold, or in this case, money. Congressman Sandy Levin (D-MI-9) has been all over this. Two major lawsuits have been filed against the state of Michigan and has resulted in a "limited review" of this MIDAS catastrophe and what it has done to people. So far, of the money took, unlawfully, 2,571 individuals have been repaid a total of $5.4M from the $155M that they stole from these people who lost their job, filed for unemployment, were told they committed fraud, paid fines, all the while not having any money for food and housing. Because it's Michigan though, Rachael Maddow says, "I believe that because they continue to be the least appreciated, and most radical Republicans in the whole country, they passed a bill this week to transfer $10M of that stolen money, calling it a "surplus" unemployment insurance funds to help balance the state budget. They're probably going to try to use all of it before they are ordered to repay the people they stole it from. You know, the people that lost their jobs, had no money for food, clothing, and housing, were not only denied unemployment benefits, but were told they committed fraud and had to pay fines to avoid jail, were not allowed to re-apply, and had their tax returns taken by the state. Even while the investigations are going on, they pass a bill to take $10M of the stolen money to balance their state budget. In 2013 when MIDAS was being put into use Governor Rick Snyder appointed an "Emergency Manager" to the city of Flint. The "Emergency Manager" law is a democracy stealing law that takes away democracy in that it allows the Governor to totally ignore elections of local officials who were duly elected by the people and appoint "Emergency Managers" picked solely by the Governor and who report ONLY to the Governor. It is still in effect. 

Photo by EcoWatch

Donald Trump's Connection To The Flint Water Crisis

     Ryan Schleeter of EcoWatch reports Flint, MI, still does not have clean drinking water. Now, President-elect Donald Trump—whose campaign stump speech included a crude joke about the city's water crisis—has tapped one of the people responsible for the crisis to join his cabinet.

     Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick for Secretary of Education, and her family have a long history of using their wealth to manipulate Michigan state elections and push through "reforms" that undercut local democracy. She's a staunch advocate of privatization measures that shift power from people to corporations—and one of those measures led directly to the poisoning of Flint's water and citizens. Read more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/us/flint-water-charges.html?_r=0

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-michigan-water-idUSKBN1491XK

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/12/20/schuette-flint-water-charges/95644964/

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Congressman+sander+levin%2C+MI

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/21/flin-d21.html

The MIDAS  Touch References

LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency recently finished a review of 22,427 fraud determinations, and 93 percent of those cases have been overturned, according to the UIA. Of those cases, 2,571 people have been repaid a total of $5.4 million.

Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI 9th District) called for the case reviews in May. Read more.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's MIDAS program had a 93% error rate and falsely accused 20,000 workers of unemployment fraud Read more.

Rachael Maddow Reports MIDAS

     As if the Flint water crisis wasn't enough, Michigan's unemployment system installed under Governor Rick Snyder flagged a whopping 93 percent of applicants as fraudulent. See video. Read more.

WATCH RACHAEL MADDOW REPORT THIS ON YOUTUBE

If This Bothers You, FIND and CONTACT YOUR Representatives, NOW, It's EASY!

How to Find and Contact your Representatives

To FIND, and CONTACT, your State Senators, Assembly-person, and other Local Legislators enter your ​Address and ​Zip Code at:

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(You can also search for “Bills” and “Legislation” that are, or were, in the House of Representatives (Congress,) see which Congressional district you are in, and much more about the United States House of Representatives (Congress,) the at this site.)

To FIND, and CONTACT, your U.S. Senators enter your Zip Code at:

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Other very useful sites are:

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Like It Or Not - Someone Is Going To Be Voted as the Next President of the United States on November 8, 2016

NBC photo at 1st 2016 Presidential Debate

 John A. Smith, Editor/Founder, September 27, 2016

Trump Started Strong

     Initially it appeared that whatever little preparation Donald Trump did with his campaign staff was working, like he was reading from a teleprompter. He addressed trade and her never-ending e-mail problems. He definitely scored when he said that Hillary called TPP "the gold standard" before she was against it. PolitiFact live-fact-checking found her saying those exact words in an address over seas. He later kind of wasted his attack on her e-mails when he was answering the question from Lester Holt on why he wouldn't release his tax returns. First he said he would release his taxes after the audit is over (even though the IRS has put a statement out saying there is no reason he can't release his taxes because of the audit) and then immediately said "I've been under audit for the last 15 years" and then a moment later changed to "I'll release my taxes when Hillary releases the 33,000 deleted e-mails."

Then Trump Became Trump

     Then, drinking a lot of water, sneering, interrupting, and not being able to stand still like a kindergarten child having to go to the bathroom, it became evident that he was uncomfortable and starting to lose his composure. Once their he put the fact checkers into overdrive as his lies multiplied, and he repeated things that everyone who doesn't live completely off-the-grid now know to be absolutely false, lies. For five years after President Obama produced his long form birth certificate Donald Trump continued using the birther ridiculousness to rile up his based because let's face it, it was the birther show and the "build a wall" promise that has been his core stance since day one of his candidacy and he was still using his birther lie as late as last week. Continuing to lie about being "opposed to the Iraq war long before it started" and "strongly opposed" to it also went over like a led balloon because anyone with any kind of instrument/device that allows you to hear, or see, heard him on Howard Stern say he guesses so as to whether we should invade Iraq. Drinking more water, making faces, fidgeting, and starting to interrupt with constant "wrong," "no," "I didn't say that," and making faces, signaled that he had arrived, in his parallel universe and would no longer be able to look , or sound, presidential. 

Hillary Was Prepared

It's the American people who lose when during a debate like this the candidates don't lay out explicit plans they have to solve our problems and it was Hillary Clinton who won as far as having, and expressing, actual plans. Trump again said "you have no plan" about childcare, and again, she has had a thorough plan posted for an eternity. When she said "go to hillaryclinton.com to read it" he interjected "I do too, go to my website," he doesn't have any well thought out plans that actually have a chance of working. Like his economic plan that give the richest in the country big tax breaks, that experts say will increase the deficit from $20T to $25T and lose another 3.5 million jobs. You know, like the unpaid tax breaks to the rich that George W. Bush took over $800M from Social Security for and in addition exploded the deficit. Trump supporters aren't going anywhere because as their candidate said, he could walk down 5th Avenue and shoot someone and he wouldn't lose a single supporter. I get it, I understand, why people are angry, I'm angry, angry that all of the wealth and income is going to the top 1/10th of 1%, I'm angry that we have a Congress that obstructs everything for their own political gain, and greed, that we have infrastructure that is past deficient and we could be putting a lot of people into good paying jobs to start to rebuild that infrastructure. But Trump saying that he will fix it all doesn't mean he has any idea whatsoever that he knows how he would fix even the smallest problems. When asked about how he would deal with violence, race, and police and community relations, his answer is to implement "Stop & Frisk." Really?! Stop and Frisk in NYC had 9 million minorities stopped and frisked and only .2% of those stopped were found to be arrest-able. It was unconstitutional. And rightfully so. That is his great plan for how to change the poor relations between police and the community? 

We Need Change

We need change, we need to stop the oligarchy, we need to get money out of politics and overturn Citizen's United with a constitutional amendment. We need to start putting CEO's in real prisons, for appropriate sentences. Look at the latest where Wells Fargo CEO enticed and showed over 12,000 employees how to steal money from their own customers accounts to open accounts that they never wanted or even knew bout. The stock went up because the CEO got his directive and each customer ended up with numerous accounts, his stock options increased in value by $200M because of the fraud, and he is going to be allowed to just walk away with the bank's customers money. Oh, and don't forget, he fired 5,300 of their employees to say he took care of "the problem." We need to fire all the Tea Party Republicans, Republicans and Democrats that follow the lobbyists requests for their own benefit, and all of the obstructionists that are refusing to do their jobs that we are paying them for. Not allowing President Obama's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court to get an up/down vote, or even as much as a hearing is preposterous, and willful neglect for the job they swore they would perform and for the American people who voted them in.Let's get out and vote on November 8, 2016 and fire the establishment, give the next President a House and Senate that will work with the President, and get American going in the right direction at breakneck speed.

Where Does Donald Trump Stand Within the Republican Party and With America?

By John A. Smith, Editor/Founder August 8, 2016

Donald Trump Drops In Polls

Washington Post/ABC News poll August 1 through August 4, 2016

Trump Doesn't Listen To Anyone - Except Maybe The Polls

     After two weeks of Republican Presidential Nominee Donald J. Trump repeatedly tweeting attacks on his favorite social media, Twitter, attacking the Gold Star Khan family, not initially endorsing Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and popular New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte. In announcing he wasn't endorsing Ryan last week Trump said “I’m just not quite there yet,” using the exact words Ryan used about him after the Indiana primary in May when asked if he would support Trump. The candidate also went to New Hampshire last week and claimed he is doing better than fellow Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte in statewide polls. He got a "Pants On Fire" from PolitiFact for that one.  Read More: Read More: Donald Trump's Pants on Fire claim about doing better than Kelly Ayotte in N.H. polls. Many people started to question whether the presidential nominee needed a "candidate intervention," or maybe they are the one's who need an intervention. Read More: Someone Needs an Intervention Here, and It’s Not Donald Trump/Slate.com. He wasn't listening to anyone and his running mate Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) and Campaign Manager Paul Manafort found themselves crazy with trying to "spin" all the nuttiness coming out of their candidates mouth and on his Twitter account. 

     But later, the National and State polls showed Trump in a free-fall and he reversed himself. On Friday, August 5th, at a campaign rally in Green Bay, WI,  he unenthusiastic-ally endorsed them all. Read More: Trump Endorses Paul Ryan, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte/ABC News  By then national polls showed a match up between Trump and Clinton, if the Presidential election were held today, to be 3-8 points in Clinton's favor. By Saturday a Washington Post/ABC News Poll finds Clinton has widened lead ahead of Trump to 8 points . But perhaps the worst results were coming in the battleground states. 

Battleground State Polls:

Virginia

     "The battleground state of Virginia looks a little less like a battleground today, as Hillary Clinton has opened up a lead there of 49 percent to 37 percent, echoing some of the movement seen in national polls this week."  This is of course Hillary's running mate junior U.S. Senator Tim Kaine's home state.  

Arizona

     "On the other side of the country in Arizona, Trump leads 44 percent to 42 percent, only two points in a state Republicans typically win without too much trouble. Even if this is as close as Arizona ever gets (just 15 percent of those not voting for Clinton would still consider her) it nonetheless tells the story of a potentially shifting map, forcing Trump to defend usually-red territory, in part because of such strong Hispanic support behind Clinton. In Arizona, 80 percent of Hispanic voters feel they're more motivated to vote this year than previous years, and don't believe Donald Trump treats all people fairly."

Nevada

    " In Nevada, Clinton leads, 43 percent to 41 percent, also bolstered by support from Hispanic voters and younger voters, but facing more difficulty with older, white voters. In Nevada, as elsewhere, the commander-in-chief measure nets Clinton a large advantage, even as she has lower numbers on measures such as bringing change. And the selection of Tim Kaine as vice president may have helped Clinton in Virginia, too, as voters are more likely to say it makes them more likely to vote for the ticket than to vote against it." 

NOTE: Comments on Virginia, Arizona, and Nevada are excerpts from a post on CBS.com

By Anthony Salvanto CBS News August 7, 2016, 10:30 AM:  Read More: Poll: Clinton opens big gap in battleground state of Virginia.

 New Hampshire

     According to a CNN Politics "A new poll of New Hampshire shows Clinton with a commanding 15-point lead over Donald Trump, finding Granite State Democrats coalescing around their nominee after their convention while state Republicans remain resistant to Trump.

Clinton leads Trump 47% to 32% among likely New Hampshire voters, according to the poll from WBUR, with third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein included. Matched up one-on-one, Clinton's lead grows to 17 points, 51% to 34%."

     Although it should be noted that the poll used here doesn't take into account Hillary went on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on July 31, 2016  Read More: Clinton fact-checked on 'truthful' claim in email scandal and said FBI Director James Comey confirmed her statements on her email scandal were “truthful” – with one prominent fact-checker giving the claim four “Pinocchios.” 

     "Hillary Clinton has admitted that she may have “short-circuited” her answers to media questions about the way she handled classified emails. The former secretary of state insisted on Friday that she did not misrepresent FBI director James Comey’s findings on the issue that continues to dog her presidential campaign." Read More: Clinton says she may have 'short-circuited' statements about email.

Pennsylvania

     "In Pennsylvania -- a Democratic-leaning Rust Belt state that Trump has vowed to put in play for the GOP this election -- another poll released Thursday showed Clinton leading Trump by double digits. Clinton leads Trump 49% to 38% among likely Pennsylvania voters, according to the Franklin and Marshall College poll. Her lead swells to 13 points, 47% to 34%, with Johnson and Stein included." Read More: Battleground polls: Clinton tops Trump post-convention/CNN Politics

Michigan

"Another battleground poll released Thursday -- Michigan -- also found Clinton holding a significant lead over Trump. 

 

Clinton is ahead of Trump by 9 points, 41% to 32%, among likely Michigan voters, according to a Detroit news/WDIV-TV poll. Clinton's lead is smaller, 6 points, without third-party candidates included.

 

Pollster Richard Czuba told the Detroit News the survey found a "shocking" Clinton lead in typically reliable Republican areas in west and southwest Michigan, where she carries leads of 5-6 points. And according to the poll, 30% of self-identifying Michigan Republicans are not backing Trump.

Trump's struggles in the state's conservative strongholds are attributable in part to Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson. The poll found that in those west and southwest regions of Michigan, critical for flipping Michigan red, Johnson is drawing 10% and 16% support, respectively.

The poll also found a majority of Michigan voters -- 61% -- say Trump is "ill-prepared to be commander in chief."

 

The Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll was conducted from July 29 through August 1, surveying 600 likely Michigan voters. It has a margin of error of +/- 4 points."  Read More: Battleground polls: Clinton tops Trump post-convention/CNN Politics

 

 

Coming Soon: Can, and will Hillary stop lying long enough to get her "Untrustworthy" numbers down?

Conventions Are Over - 104 Days to Vote - What The Hell Do We Do Now?

Day 3 and 4 - The DNC Convention,

 What Do We Do Now? 104 Days To Vote

2016 Democratic National Convention - Philadelphia, PA

Democratic National Convention - Days 3 

     After the gavel in on Day 3 Erica Smegielski was the first speaker. Erica’s mother Dawn was the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary and was killed while trying to protect her students.The full schedule of speakers can be found here from WTOP.com: Full schedule of speakers for Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA The headliners were Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. Vice President Nominee Tim Kaine accepted the nomination for Vice President.

     So President Barack Obama delivered another speech as only a good orator could, Unfortunately he, and other speakers, in going with how we are a great country he sort of, let's say, stretched the truth a little bit. Here are some things fact-checkers found without having done their entire speeches as yet. Don't these people think that fact-checkers are going to check what they say?

• President Barack Obama claimed that under his administration, “we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil,” but dependency on imported oil had begun to drop years before he took office.
• The president repeated a frequent boast that the U.S. “doubled our production of clean energy” during his tenure. Monthly renewable energy production has gone up 40 percent.
• Obama said deficits have “come down” under his administration. That’s true, but they are expected to rise again soon under his proposed budget.
• Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine falsely referred to economist Mark Zandi as “John McCain’s chief economic adviser during the ’08 race,” in touting an estimate of job loss under Donald Trump’s proposals. In fact, Zandi is a Democrat.
• Rev. Jesse Jackson wrongly said “we have not lost a single job, a single month” since Obama became president, and he was also off in saying the U.S. trades “more with Mexico than we do with China.”
• Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta falsely claimed that Trump “says he gets his foreign policy experience from … running the Miss Universe pageant.” Trump didn’t say that was his foreign policy experience.
• Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid claimed that the GOP ticket wanted to “gamble” Social Security “in the stock market.” But Trump’s campaign has called for making no changes to Social Security.
• Kaine claimed that Trump said he “wants to abandon” our NATO allies. Trump has said that he doesn’t want the U.S. to leave NATO, but has suggested he would not automatically defend NATO allies that do not pay their share of defense costs.

     There was some good in that this convention actually had more viewers that the celebrity show candidate drew, hopefully that will mean more Democrats come out on November 8, 2016 and vote for every Senator and Congressman and woman running. In "the takeaways" by The New York Times America first — in the world. From The New York Times "Takeaways" of the DNC Convention    they said "The third night of Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic National Convention, heavy on national security themes, could have been titled “America First in the World.” Democrats celebrated the country’s diversity, with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, the vice-presidential nominee, ladling on the Spanish. Prominent Democratic hawks, including Leon Panetta, a former C.I.A. director and secretary of defense, made the case for internationalism and multilateral engagement, harking back to the Cold War tradition." The Fix section of The Washington Post give you their Winners and losers from the third night of the Democratic convention . Overall, a good line-up of speakers; 

Democratic National Convention - Days 4

     The finale, Democratic Nominee for President of the United States Hillary Clinton accepted the nomination. By now I'm way too upset at Hillary. The straw that broke the camel's back was when she "promoted" the Former Chair of the DNC Debbie Wasserman-Schultz moments after she was forced to resign after hacked e-mails showed there was a concerted effort to hurt Senator Bernie Sander's campaign. She could stand up there and promise the moon and just how many of the 70% of Americans that consider her "untrustworthy" are going to believe a word she says. Well, when you look at how many supporters the narcissistic, misogynistic, hateful, racist, businessman/celebrity reality show host, Republican Nominee for President of the United States has, it's not easy to answer that question. "The Democratic nominee for United States president made a play for progressives, moderates, and Independents alike during her address in Philadelphia on Thursday night." Hillary Clinton Begins Building Her Coalition  David A. Graham, The Atlantic reported "While Clinton did not skip over the historic aspect of her nomination, she spent most of her hour-long speech emphasizing two, interlocking themes: the importance of community and togetherness, and the fundamental unfitness of the Republican nominee for office."

So Here We Are - Two Horrible Candidates With 104 Days Left

      I am really angry that the current political system has given us these two candidates to us to choose from for the President Of The United States (POTUS). They say we have a two party system. I had to look for options, I always looked for all my options when I was in business and had to make an important decision. So I looked for people that I can have an honest conversation with, to help me find what options I have.

What Are Our Options? Do We Have Any?

     I've been following and conversing with some people for a few years on Facebook. Many people I follow, to see what they post, are passionate about their beliefs, most are quite outgoing and have no trouble telling you what they think about anything they think is important to them. There are also a couple people that I share thoughts with as they do with me and I find them to be quite intelligent, passionate and stimulate my intellect and thought process. I find that they share accurate information (I do a lot of fact-checking and research) and express their thoughts without being disrespectful, hateful, or immoral. I don't know if they would want me to use their names in my blog so I'll just ask them, if they want, to please comment on this post and tell me, and my readers, Why, or Why Not, should people consider, with the two bad choices we have to vote for, for POTUS, or not consider, Jill Stein, Green Party Candidate for President of the United States? In fact, I invite all readers to comment on this question. 

     
     There are two people in particular that I speak to on Facebook that I eluded to above, I find to be very intelligent and speak truthful about facts and I respect their thoughts and opinions. As to the first one, I'll call him, Knowledgeable, Insightful, Respectful, Facebook Friend #1,  We disagree on some things and that is O.K. and is normal. He has lived through some history that I haven't (he's a tad older) and can site facts, and his prospective of what happened in some situations, movements, events, and eras.  He got involved by speaking up and voicing his educated opinion. He got involved because he cared enough about our country. He witnessed the Civil Rights movement first hand. He served in Vietnam and took the time during, and after, to find out as much as he could about what it was all about. He can tell you things you wouldn't read in any media. I've just decided while I was writing this post that I'm going to ask him, both actually, if they would consider being a contributing author to this blog. I'm sure any readers I have would enjoy their contributions. Anyway, today I was talking to Knowledgeable, Insightful, Respectful, Facebook Friend #1 about the "war on drugs" as it were, and he explained how opium was actually transported by Air America, a division of the CIA during the Vietnam war. My brother who served in Vietnam also had talked about them a number of times so I had heard of them before. They had silver helicopters and were indeed part of the CIA, and there wasn't a bunch more information available about them at that time. These facts are not disputed today. He can tell you, Knowledgeable, Insightful, Respectful, Facebook Friend #1,  the motivations behind the Iran/Contra dealings and much, much more. The "war on drugs" conversation that he linked "Air America" to went on. But I digress. The reason I bring him up is that we have been talking over the course of the past couple years and we find that we are both very angry at the choices we have for POTUS. I said that I really wish we had someone else to vote for, that I really dislike the candidates. I was pretty much giving in as far as saying I can't vote for Trump, I may have to vote for Hillary. I will point out what I like and dislike about Trump and Clinton in the next section, although I can tell you now that it will mostly be what I don't like. So I asked what his thoughts were on the election.

    Knowledgeable, Insightful, Respectful, Facebook Friend #1 made it clear that knowing me, and how active I am in politics, that I would not be content "voting for the lesser of two evils," and he was right. I think a lot of people use that and actually end up voting against someone, instead of for someone. He then said I should look at the Green Party candidate, so I did. I've been looking and researching for two days and I like what I see. I have hesitation that since no third party candidate is ever going to get anywhere near the $2B of free exposure that Trump has gotten, if ANY, that votes for a third party candidate would simply draw votes away from Hillary Clinton, therefore giving the worst candidate in the history of America, for President, a win. But he said if you're not willing to even look at the candidate and try, and vote for someone you despise, how are you going to feel. How will we ever get away from the crooked, lying, disrespectful, broken, system we have now? He hit a nerve. So I started looking at Jill Stein, Green Party Presumptive Nominee for President of the United States.

Who Is Jill Stein? Why Is She An Alternative To Clinton and Trump for President?

    

     Jill Ellen Stein (G-MA) (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and politician. She is currently the Green Party's presumptive nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Stein was the nominee of the Green Party for President of the United States in 2012, and was twice a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts—in 2002 and 2010. She received 469,501 votes in 2012 (0.36% of the total votes), more than any other female general election candidate.^[11] On June 22, 2015, during an appearance on Democracy Now!, Stein formally announced she would seek the Green Party's 2016 presidential nomination. (From Wikileaks - Read More)

     She was born and raised in Highland Park, IL and lives  Stein is married to Richard Rohrer, who is also a physician. They live in Lexington, Massachusetts, and have two adult sons. In 1973, Stein graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she studied psychology, sociology, and anthropology. She then attended Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1979. After graduating from Harvard Medical School, Stein practiced internal medicine for 25 years.

     Her platform is called "Our Power to the People Plan" includes Climate Action: Protecting Mother Earth and Humanity; Jobs as a Right, and Key Support for Labor;
End Poverty; Health Care as a Right, and much more. She has actual plans unlike one of the candidates running in the "two-party" system. (Read Jill Stein's Platform here) If you are a Bernie Sanders supporter there is a lot to like here.

     Some news has been coming out and Sanders supporters are taking notice:

     Seattle Times July 28, 2016: the said "On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders urged his supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton in a prime-time speech from the Democratic National Convention stage in Philadelphia. That same day, socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant — who had backed Sanders — told a crowd at a rally across town to continue Sanders’ “political revolution,” not by following his lead, but by voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein." Read More: Thinking of voting for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson? Here are their policy positions

     Politico June 19, 2016:  After an anxiety-inducing and divisive primary, Democrats are starting to breathe easier. Bernie Sanders, while not formally conceding to Hillary Clinton, has turned his fire on Donald Trump. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the darling of the left before Sanders, has effusively endorsed Clinton. So at last the presumptive nominee can hope to gather in all those unhappy Bernie voters and lead a united Democratic Party in the fall, right?
Not if Dr. Jill Stein has anything to say about it.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/2016-campaign-election-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-green-party-jill-stein-progressives-liberal-213972#ixzz4FqKxd7aC

 

Check out Jill Stein's Facebook Page 

                 Jill Stein's Twitter Page 

                 

     O.K. I started writing this post to close out my thoughts on the Democratic National Convention. It took on a whole new direction as I came to find out that we have two candidates that for numerous reasons, will NOT  do the right thing if your in the 99%. We need to look elsewhere, and that is where this post started to be about the "Other" choice, Jill Stein.

Why Not Hillary Clinton? Think About It, Carefully

     I find many, many, things that displease me with her. She is a former board member of Monsanto, and other large corporations that I despise. She has been paid $225,000 per hour to speak at Goldman Sacs on a couple of occasions. She has close ties with many other Wall Street firms, and receives more donations from them then other candidates, that I'm comfortable with. I don't believe for a minute that she will push to get Glass-Steagal put back, or get Dodd-Frank implemented, which was actually passed July 15, 2010 more than 2200 days ago and still has not been fully implemented. It calls for those TBTF banks and institutions to be broken up. Glass-Steagal was regulations put in place after the great depression, removed by George W. Bush which allowed these banks and institutions to become TBTF. Instead of those 29 being broken up they are actually BIGGER today, and to beat all, there are now MORE than 29! When the financial crisis occurred in 2008 there were 29 banks and financial institutions that were Too Big To Fail (TBTF) and the taxpayers had to bail them out. Dodd-Frank was passed after those very institutions put large sums of money (that we helped them make) into blocking it. After it passed they have put even bigger amounts of money, and lobbyist have been successful in blocking it's implementation. H.R. 4173 (111th): Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act . Hillary Clinton was for the TPP but now says she's against it. She set up a personal server hidden in a closet across the country and said it was because she only wanted to use one device. It was proven beyond any doubt she used several devices. She traveled all over the world, where we have people and countries that don't like us, and have the capabilities to hack those devices, and she knowingly sent and received confidential information. WTF?! Just so she could hide her dealings with foreign nations to get money funneled into the Clinton Foundation. She acts dumb when asked why she would not only delete 30,000 e-mails but then have the hard drives professionally "wiped clean" before turning it over. Really?! And she didn't understand what she was doing? GIVE ME A BREAK! 

Donald Trump

     I find it mind boggling that so many Americans are so gullible as to believe a word of what this hateful, racist, narcissistic, ignorant (about everything a President would actually have to know and learn), misogynistic, bullshit artist has come out of his mouth. He displays his ignorance everyday and people still rally behind him. It sickens me that he says he will run this country likes his businesses. He has ripped off so many people that did business with him, and many people struggling to get by, that he had his con-artist's  at Trump University scam money from. He is a hateful, greedy, racist, narcissistic, misogynistic, reality TV host, that doesn't know the first thing of what it will take to run this country. His son, Donald Jr., interviewed Governor Kasich as part of the Vice-President vetting process. Donald Jr. asked Governor Kasich what he thought about being "the most Powerful Vice-President that ever lived?" Governor Kasich said "well, how would that be?" Donald Jr. said "because you will be in charge of all domestic and foreign policy." Governor Kasich said "well, that's everything, what would Donald Trump be doing?" Donald Jr. replied "making America great again." ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME?!

     I'm done for now, I have to calm down. Please think about not voting for the lesser of two evils. Take a look at Jill Stein. Remember that our next President is going to pick probably at least 2 U.S Supreme Court Justices nominees and may as many as 4-5. Also remember that their are a lot of seats open in the House and Senate. We need to fire the obstructionists that have been holding this country hostage by not doing what they get paid for. They don't care, they know that they will get high salaries being lobbyists when they do finally get kicked out of office.

     Please respond with your comments, I welcome them.

 

John Oliver Examines the One Proposal that Trump has Actually Shared Anything on "HOW" He would Execute

      "I'm Going To Build A Wall, A GREAT Wall, It's Going To Be So GREAT, The BEST Wall Ever, and Mexico Is Going To Pay For It"  - Donald Trump

John A. Smith, Editor/Founder of this blog "Get Involved For A Better America" March 27, 2016

People Angry At "Bought And Paid For Politicians" and "Establishment"

     Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has got people into a frenzy, and some have become violent, partly because he "says things the way they really are," according to the supporters. Granted that it has become painfully obvious that people, in general, both Republican and Democrats, are angry that politicians who accept very large donations from 1%er's and large corporations are indeed indebted to those contributors, and therefore laws are made to protect and assist them without any regard for the actual people that those politicians are supposed to be representing. Up to as many as 70% of people in polls have said they are disgusted with 1) Politicians who are bought and paid for by the rich and corporations, and 2) so called "establishment" politicians who "go along to get along" and whom just go through the motions of looking like they are representing their constituents but are actually working for their party and the large contributors. At times the obstructionists in the Republican party have threatened their own members with running someone against them in their next primary if they don't vote the way the party wants them to, which is against anything President Obama supports. With this being a fact, Trump has been able to soar in polls and get followers to vote for him in primaries. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has also inspired a number of young people to get involved in the political process because they want things to change. The number of people that show up at Senator Sanders rallies is astounding, and shows people want someone that is straight talking and for the people, not for the corporations and ultra rich. Sanders also is able to do the straight talk, and tell the truth. He is able to say what is on his mind because he has received over 6 million individual donations which average only $27 per donation. Sanders is not taking the kind of money from Wall Street and 1%er's like other candidates in the Presidential campaigns and does not have a Super PAC like Hillary Clinton (D-NY) whose Super PAC recently raised over $15M. He speaks the truth because he's not a puppet, and not beholden to 1%er's and large corporations. Sanders has been said to be organizing a "revolution" which is bringing a lot of young people into politics. That is why when there is a large voter turn out Bernie Sanders does very well. Hillary Clinton just took 5 days off her campaign for fundraising, fundraising from the 1%er's and corporations which people are unhappy about. This has lead to Trump making outrageous, unrealistic, false, statements and outright lies that he knows will get people riled up. He actually makes fun of his supporters, he has said things like "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any supporters." Not only are his proposals mostly unrealistic but are impossible to execute, unconstitutional, and require others to adhere to his ridiculous ideas  ("Mexico will pay for the wall"), which don't seem likely at all. His proposal to ban any Muslims from entering the country is just ridiculous because 1) every country that has flights to the United States would have to require Custom Agents to screen all passengers by asking them if they are Muslim. It isn't realistic to think that Mr. Trump would be able to get that kind of cooperation from all over the world to go along with his proposal. n if that happened, it never would, you would have to have the "Muslim" say they were Muslim. Who on earth thinks that an actual terrorist that is Muslim would answer "yes" to the question from a customs officer "Are you Muslim?" because the only way to know if someone is Muslim is by asking them; and 2) those passengers that were asked if they were Muslim would have to answer yes knowing that when they did they would be denied boarding! For a Muslim to say yes, he or she is a Muslim when they know they will not be able to board, especially a Muslim terrorist, is just not realistic and in fact absurd. It is truly insane to try to understand why people actually follow, and believe, Donald Trump. Knowing what we do about voters and the fact of why they are truly angry at the way things are we understand why people like to hear things that Trump blurts out, off the cuff, but to believe he could actually do what he proposes when he offers no actual ways of doing them is just dumb. Trump says all these things like his slogan "We will make America GREAT again, "the wall will be a GREAT wall," "Mexico will pay for the wall," "I will make the BEST deals and wipe out the bad deals that our leaders have made," but has rarely ever said HOW he would do any of it. Since one of the first things he said he would do is "build a wall" he has actually gotten pressed enough to give a few specifics about his idea of this wall. He said initially that the wall would cost "about $4B, they say $10B but it would only cost $4B if you know what your doing." And this is where John Oliver on "Last Week Tonight" on HBO Sundays at 10PM ET picks up the story.

John Oliver Examines the One Proposal That Trump has Actually Shared Any Specifics About - THE WALL

     Donald Trump said "the wall will cost about $4B, they say $10B but it will be $4B if you know what your doing." John Oliver started by saying "lets look at a serious proposal by a serious candidate seriously." Trump subsequently changed his estimates of what the wall would cost to: "the wall will cost about $6B; then he said the wall will cost $8B-$10B"; then to "the wall will cost maybe $12B." "Trump's margin of error is equal to the entire GDP of Moldova." said Oliver.

State flag of Moldova

     During a stump speech by Trump a child asked "what will the wall be made of"? Trump said that's a great question and brought the boy up on stage. His answer was "hardened concrete, reinforcement bars (rebar) and steel." Trump has given numerous statements about how tall the wall would be, he has answered anywhere from 35' to 90'. Actual estimates for a 35 foot wall, by experts, put the cost as follows: $10B for the concrete panels, $6B for steel and labor, $1B for footings, $2B to build roads so 20-ton trucks can get the materials to the site, and another 30% for design, engineering, and management. That puts the estimated cost at 2-6 times Trumps estimate, that's $25B. That's not worst thing. Two other factors are worse than the cost estimates, 1) The government has no buffer between the border and where the fence would be built (because a lot of the border is actually the Rio Grande river) causing the government to either have the land signed over by the property owners, or taken away from those property owners. That happened when GWB ordered a 700 mile fence. One couple was told they have to sign over 3/4 of their property, they said no, so the government used eminent domain and took their property. This same scenario happened many, many, times. 2) Studies showed that maintenance would pass the construction costs in seven years meaning the maintenance would cost more than $25B every seven years. In addition there are other problems. GWB signed a law to build the fence and allowed waived 36 laws allowing Homeland Security to ignore those laws. Laws like the "Endangered Species Act" and 35 others. While they were building the 700 mile wall the government unearthed graves, sacred burial grounds. Perhaps the biggest problem with the efficacy of the wall stopping illegal immigration is that more than half of illegal aliens entering the country do so by coming through actual controlled border points. They enter on work, and other visas and simply overstay their visas time. The next problem is that drug cartels build and use tunnels, and actually have devices to simply launch drugs over the wall, like a catapult.  

THIS IS TO RIDICULOUS TO EVEN WASTE MY TIME, THIS POST IS DONE.