Attorney General Barr's Absurd Concept of Presidential Power

Barr believes that if it isn't written down that the President can't do something, there is nothing preventing a President from doing what he wants.(No wonder Trump was eager to put Barr in as Attorney General). To take this to its logical conclusion, there is nothing written down which says a President can't commit murder. Therefore Barr believes that Trump could commit murder and not be charged for it. This is the man who interpreted Mueller's report for the American people  Are you getting this ridiculous concept of the Imperial Presidency. Barr turned out to be the man who extended presidential power in extraordinary ways. I don't believe the founders, or the framers of the Constitution would have accepted this concept. It is absurd in the extreme. There are a lot of people from Jefferson to Washington who are rolling over in their graves because of this absurd notion. In my mind there's a question of where this leads the country I love. If I could get Medicare in Canada, I'd be headed for British Columbia today. I'm disabled so I can't leave this country, but I'm feeling like an awful fool for letting Barr make these decisions. I love America. I'm a Mayflower descendant whose eyes tear up when I hear the National Anthem, but I'm feeling pretty bad about what's happening in Washington.

Mueller Report Did Not Exonerate Trump Of Obstruction of Justice

We need to see the Mueller Report in its totality. Attorney General Barr got his job by sending Trump an analysis that the president had vast powers (an unusual position held by a man who wanted to be attorney general). His analysis of the Mueller Report fits with his earlier analysis that got him the AG job. But Mueller explicitly said his report did not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice. Therefore a cloud hangs over Barr's analysis. The sooner we see the whole report(allowing for redactions of grand jury testimony) the sooner a majority of Americans can feel justice has been done 

Rod Rosenstein: An American Hero and Protecter Of Our Constitution

In the age of Trump there have been many heroes, but the greatest of all was Rod Rosenstein. After the recusal of the Attorney General from the investigation, the investigation of low life Donald Trump was placed in Rosenstein's hands. Instead of picking some slime ball, he picked a man whose integrity no one could question, Robert Mueller. I think it was fascinating that people talked about
Attorney General William Barr and Rosenstein sifting through the mountains of evidence included in the report the other night. My last living hero was John McCain. Now my favorite living hero is Rod Rosenstein. God Bless him for his courage.

FAA Has Blood On Its Hands

With the Presidency Of Ronald Reagan, The Republicans modified certification rules and cut appropriations to the FAA. Until that time, The FAA had enough people to work on the certification of new airplanes. After the Republicans cut their budgets, the FAA had to count on employees of the aircraft companies in order to certify the safety of an aircraft. The FAA was especially close to Boeing. Most of the safety tests on the 737 Max were done by Boeing employees. The concept of the Fox guarding the henhouse was in high gear.  A lot of the world looks on FAA certification before they decide a plane should be added to their fleet. As we've seen the comparisons of the two aircraft having identical problems shows that the inherent problems in Boeing's software on the 737 Max shows what happens when federal agencies are intentionally defanged. Boeing had been promising a fix on the software components since the first plane went down. Even last week the head of Boeing talked with Trump about keeping the aircraft flying in the US. It reminds me or  WWII when Glen Curtis's planes were so poorly put together that Pilots blamed Curtis for the deaths of pilots that flew his planes. The Republicans would love to reduce the power of federal agencies, not caring whether a lot of deaths might be the result of letting bad planes in the air. I will never trust flying a 737 Max. I might suggest you ask what planes are flying to the places you want to travel to. If you hear 737 Max, I would suggest you not fly on that plane.

We Call Each Other "Compadre"

I have a friend who is one of the finest people I've ever known. He is Latino and a gardener. Last year when his wife was going through cancer treatment I helped him out financially. This summer (if I'm able to function) I'll be helping his  high-school-age sons out with English grammar and composition. He explained to me today that a compadre in Mexico is close to a family and that person steps in to help a family. I can't tell you how much this means to me. Oliver Wendell Holmes said "to live is to function." Helping people out was why I was a college professor. When I was a University Vice President there the number of African Americans was equal to that of Latinos. Now the school is 65 per cent Latino. I asked a colleague where the Black students go to school. She said they don't go, which made me quite sad. But getting back to my compadre, I feel so good talking with him. He has told me how wonderful his father was and I told him the billboard that said Latino to me said "leche" (milk) on it. Trump is a dickhead who doesn't understand how many great Latinos I've known. He would rather stir up race hatred than say positive things abour our great Latino immigrants

Why Do Turks Have Such Bloodlust?

In Glendale, CA, every year on April 24, the flags are lowered to half mast on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. This occurs because a great many residents are Armenians. They were wiped out in a Holocaust in 1917 when the Turks brought to an intensity when they killed all the men, women and children in all the Armenian villages. A movie about this ghastly extermination has just appeared on Amazon. It is called "The Promise" and it is not for the faint hearted. The brutality is unbelievable and heart wrenching,
In the Middle East America has had one group we could always trust: The Kurds. The Turks want to go in and kill all of them and seemed thrilled when Trump pulled America out of Syria. With us gone, the Turks were ready go in and wipe them out.
I've knew some nice Turks when I lived in Germany, but there must be a lot of Turks full of hate. When they move against the Kurds, will we step in to stop another slaughter?

Is Boeing like VW, Where Silence Led To Shame?

When their Dreamliner was grounded, Boeing lost $20 million and  three months of down time for that plane. Today Boeing faces something disastrous. The Dreamliner never crashed and killed people, but the 737 Max has crashed twice killing everyone aboard. The stock, of course, has fallen 11 per cent, but that is only a reflection of the reality. Boeing 737Max is a dangerous airplane that no country is allowing it to fly. There is a lack of room in the front of the  plane that will limit certain fixes.
In some ways this sounds like the story of VW. Is it possible that none of the aerospace engineers who'd gone through a tough academic discipline to arrive at Boeing never expressed some concerns about the design. Either they weren't as smart as you might expect, or they were muzzled because Boeing was making a lot of money off the plane. It would be interesting to find out what happened within Boeing as they put this plane together.

The Beauty of Elvis's Voice

All the songs Elvis made famous, from Hound Dog on never showed the beauty of the voice of Elvis. I would have never thought to praise his voice before I heard an album of his hymns. He sings hymns that I've never heard before and his voice is that of an angel, alternately singing in one octave and next another.. I've seldom heard someone who didn't come out of gospel have such a spectacular voice. Give one of those albums a try and you won't believe how much you've missed. There is a purity that doesn't sound like the voice of an addict, more like the voice of one of  God's finest followers

Trump Tries for Peace Prize, but Wins Piss Prize

Donald Trump, apparently thinking he could change the mind of the Korean Dictator, had Shinzo Abe nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. All the professionals in Intelligence told him Kim Jong Un would never give up his nuclear arsenal, but Trump believes in the art of the deal, so he thought he could pull it off.
What he did win was the venerated Piss Prize, given to presidents who make things worse than their Predecessors had left things. We have the worst trade deficit in history, despite all the tariffs Trump created. The overall trade deficit is 621 million dollars. That is $100 million more than the last year of the Obama presidency.
This, of course, will not be acknowledged by his followers, unless someone on right wing talk radio brings this up. Since Trump's cabinet has already shown that pigs can fly frequently, perhaps there is a chance this is all a dream (and we actually have an honest president).

Meng Wanzhou, The Poor Little Rich Girl from Huawei

China is soon bringing out 5G software that is 100 times faster than 4G. We can't say China stole it from us, because we don't have it. Apple won't make a 5G phone because it doesn't know how, therefore why should some one buy an Apple phone in China.
Because I guess Trump was pissed off that China was  ahead of us he had Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's leader and its chief financial officer, captured while changing planes in Vancouver.
Some people were waiting around to see her at her seven bedroom, $16 million dollar house the other day while she was holed up in her six bedroom, $6 million dollar house. (all these prices are in loonies, Canadian currency, which is worth less than the dollar these days, but many times it has been worth more than the dollar)
She can travel around the area with a tracking device and has guards which both protect her and make sure she goes to court later. She reminds Canadians that foreigners have bought up property in Vancouver so no regular meddle class folks can live there. As such, the Canadians have mixed feelings about her presence there. I have real questions about her arrest in the first place.