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Wall Against Mexico discussions might be over soon; it won't be built, but we will see changes and perhaps improvements in US immigration policies. Throughout history, walls have ugly histories. Congress won't allocate monies to build the Wall Against Mexico, and nor will Mexico. Mexicans supply a large part of the labor in jobs that Americans don't want to do. WHY SHOULD THEY PAY FOR ANYTHING like a wall between our nations?President Trump, Please Tear Down that Wall Against Mexico Before You Build It!

President Ronald Reagan "Tear Down This Wall" Speech at Berlin Wall President Ronald Reagan delivers this memorable speech at the Brandenburg Gate.

What would revered Republican Ronald Reagan have to say about the Trump Mexican Border Wall? After all, Reagan's most famous utterance was his command and plea in a speech in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate, directed to Mr. Gorbachev:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtYdjbpBk6A

On November 15, 2016, the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Heath Hazard Assessment’s (OEHHA), Carcinogen Identification Committee (CIC) met to decide whether to list aspartame as a carcinogen. Just to be clear, no listing decisions are made at meetings such as this one; instead, the CIC members “prioritize” the substance and that then determines whether or not the substance at issue has a chance at being put on California’s “Prop 65” list of known carcinogens.

 

Remember, Proposition 65 (or “Prop 65” as it is now popularly called) was the referendum measure passed into law by California voters in November 1986, thirty years ago. Prop 65 requires, among other things, that all known carcinogens be declared (usually on food and drink labels) to consumers. It is so pervasive that even residents in other States will often see Prop-65 warnings about carcinogenicity on food and drink labels or on websites when ordering.

The CIC Voting Process

The US Court of Appeals ruled back in mid December that federal laws
cannot be used to prohibit states and counties from creating laws
regulating, labeling, and even banning genetically modified crops.

This monumental decision by the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals was a
ruling regarding whether federal and Hawaii state laws supersede the
authority of individual counties to regulate the use of genetically
modified crops and pesticide use.

Because of its almost limitless growing season and its being a testing
ground for all kinds of Monsanto genetic experimentation and
modifications, Hawaii has been in the middle of the debates over Genetic
Modification for decades as Monsanto and others have used the islands for
many kinds of agricultural research and local farmers have vigorously
resisted them. This is a victory for Hawaii's farmers and for the 7000
year old history of agriculture itself.

Many of these same companies have abused the very concept of research by
spraying 20 times more insecticides and pesticides than is permitted in

Washington, DC – Three activists with Democracy Spring disrupted Congress today, issuing a citizens’ objection to the Electoral Vote count. They were detained and arrested by Capitol Police after standing up in the House chamber protesting massive voter suppression and Russian interference in the election. The interruption of the joint session took place after members of the House objected to nine different state vote counts.

“I will do what I must to defend our democracy.” said Tania Maduro, an organizer with Democracy Spring who took part in the protest. “I object to this Electoral Vote. Hundreds of thousands of American votes, especially those cast by people of color, were suppressed. We need a One person, One vote democracy.”

A young man was tortured in Chicago this week. It wasn't an act of the Chicago police. It was live streamed on Facebook. And the President of the United States declared it an horrific hate crime.

The President did not advise "looking forward" rather than enforcing the law. Nor did he hold open the possibility that the crime might have served some higher purpose. In fact, he didn't excuse the crime in any way that might help recommend it for imitation by others.

Yet this same president has forbidden the prosecution of U.S. government torturers for the past 8 years and has now seen fit to keep a four-year-old Senate report on their torture secret for at least 12 years more.

Some people in the United States would maintain that environmental and climate policy should be based on facts. Some other people (there is very little overlap between the two groups) would tell you that U.S. policy toward Russia should be based on proven facts. Yet, here we are readily accepting that U.S. torture policy will be based on burying the facts.

It’s too easy simply to blame Donald Trump for the void that’s suddenly apparent at the center of American government — or will be on Jan. 20.

In fact, I’m utterly sick of hearing his name, let alone accounts of his latest outrage or trivial impertinence, which is the equivalent of crack cocaine in the news cycle: all Trump, all the time. It’s been that way for a year.

Trump is a symptom. But, come on, far less of a symptom — of a deep, raw social and cultural wrongness — than, for instance, the global war and terror, environmental exploitation, climate chaos, poverty, racism (old and new), infrastructure collapse, the commonness of mass murder, the limitless expansion of the security state, or the congealing of a one-party status quo that ignores all of the above.

Letter to Investigators Individual copies of this letter were sent to:  Hon. Loretta Lynch, Attorney General Hon. Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security Hon. James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence Hon. John Brennan, Director, Central Intelligence Agency Hon. James Comey, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as aides to Senators and Members of Congress on committees that are investigating Russian interference in the election:  

We are a group of independent election forensic investigators, election monitors, data analysts, and election integrity advocates who have been examining and analyzing the 2016 election. We are writing to you to share our views regarding the importance of including certain systemic vulnerabilities in the scope of your investigation, and to offer our resources to assist with your investigative work.

Bob yelling into a mic and words Bob Bites Back

The Russian election hack may be a “red herring” so to speak. Visions of a new Cold War and appeals to Mother Russia aside (see this issue’s cover), the real problem is private, partisan, for-profit vendors secretly programming the computer hardware and software used in our elections.

Why is this so difficult to see? In Ohio, the Right-to-Life movement has long been active in voter registration databases, ePolling books, central tabulator and computer voting machine maintenance through companies like Triad and GovTech.

When dozens of computer security experts like Alex Halderman, professor at the University of Michigan, tell us that our elections are easily hackable, why don’t we believe them?

So Russians aside, let’s look at the history of computer voting in the U.S.

To understand the history of voting machines, we need to go back to the beginning of the Cold War. In 1950, the Bureau of Social Science Research (BSSR) appeared at American University. In 1953, it became a non-profit entity heavily involved with the CIA.

Vice Neil singing into mic with long stringy blonde hair and lots of tattoos

The year was 2001. My wife and I were both second-year law students at Ohio State, and had just had our first date at what was then the Thirsty Ear Tavern. Casting around for second date plans, I learned that my old guitar teacher’s band was opening up for Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil at the Alrosa Villa. Oh great, I thought, this ought to be hilarious.

Exactly what Neil, who had just gotten off of a world tour with Crue, was doing playing an 800-person capacity club with a group of hair band hacks is an open question. It wasn’t a side project, as he was only playing Crue songs. Maybe he needed beer money? In any event, it was a mess of a show.

Neil was an astonishing ass who couldn’t sing for shit, and my wife still talks about the horrors in the woman’s restroom. Seared in my mind is this weird look of disappointment his guitar player had when a woman in the crown refused to take his suggestion to remove her shirt. In fairness, this was all sort of the point in going.

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