(http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/27/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-house-intelligence/index.html)
The House Intelligence Committee, as well as its Senate counterpart, are investigating Russia's alleged attempts to influence the election, including any possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. FBI Director James Comey disclosed publicly last week that the FBI is doing the same.
(http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-cuts-billions-urban-areas-he-vowed-help-n734516)
President Donald Trump is proposing slashing billions in federal funding that helps heavily minority urban communities - just months after appealing on the campaign trail to residents of cities like Detroit, asking "What the hell do you have to lose?" . . . the budget calls for $6.2 billion of cuts to the nation's Housing and Urban Development agency, putting the already strapped federal housing authority under even bigger strain. . .The reductions come in a spending plan designed specifically to keep the president's many promises - "if he said it on the campaign, it's in the budget," Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters Wednesday - and one that advocates say will have disastrous effects in the largely African-American communities that Trump promised he'd "fix."
(from a multitude of sources)
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security is inviting comment and COUNTING CALLS before it decides whether to approve Steve Bannon's appointment to the National Security Council: 202-224-4751. . . You don't have to talk to anyone - just leave a message. Here's a sample script: "I don't need a call back. I'm calling to say that I strongly believe Steve Bannon does NOT belong on the National Security Council and I'm urging you to vote against his being included. Thank you for your time."
Please copy and paste on your page.
(from https://www.mintpressnews.com/green-party-senate-candidate-margaret-flowers-crashes-two-party-debate/221860/)
". . . Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Green Party candidate for Senate from Maryland, interrupted a televised debate to protest her exclusion from the forum . . .“I’m a candidate on the ballot. I have a statewide campaign. I don’t understand why I’m not up here,” Flowers declared as she briefly occupied the debate stage. . . Flowers is running for the seat long occupied by Democratic incumbent Barbara Mikulski, who announced her retirement earlier this year. . . During the direct action, Flowers took the stage amid loud applause from the audience and shook hands with her opponents, Democratic nominee Chris Van Hollen and Republican nominee Kathy Szeliga, both of whom agreed to debate Flowers. . . Despite being welcomed by her opponents, the organizers of the debate, CBS Baltimore and the University of Baltimore, refused to allow Flowers to participate. . . "
. . . who is threatened by an open debate among ALL candidates?
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
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(from http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/07/26/bernie-sanders-to-return-to-senate-as-an-independent/)
". . . Bernie Sanders said he plans to return to the Senate as an independent, despite winning 13 million votes in the Democratic Party’s presidential primary contest. . .“I was elected as an independent; I’ll stay two years more as an independent,” Mr. Sanders said. . . the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee doesn’t go far enough in fixing the situation and that more staff members need to leave following embarrassing disclosures of thousands of internal emails. . . “We need a DNC which has as very different direction,” he said. “I honestly don’t know many of the people there. But my guess is we’re going to need new leadership, a new direction and new personnel.” . . . "
. . . as I return to my pre-primary voter status as a proud "Unaffiliated"!
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dick-cheney-statue_563a8e80e4b0b24aee48e5a2)
". . . Starting in December, the likeness of former Vice President Dick Cheney will grace the U.S. Capitol, in accordance with a Senate tradition honoring former vice president. The Huffington Post was tipped off by a Senate resolution "authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for the unveiling of the marble bust of Vice President Richard Cheney on December 3, 2015." The resolution, not yet officially introduced, was confirmed by the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday. Cheney, vice president during George W. Bush's two terms, left office in 2009 with a 13 percent approval rating. As part of the vice presidency, Cheney served as president of the Senate, and it's traditional for the Senate to honor former vice presidents with busts of them in the Capitol. In 1898, the Senate passed a resolution establishing the practice.
Marble busts of those who have been Vice Presidents of the United States shall be placed in the Senate wing of the Capitol from time to time, [and] that the Architect of the Capitol is authorized, subject to the advice and approval of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, to carry into execution the object of this resolution. . ."
(from http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/08/dick-cheney-should-be-prosecuted-war-crimes-former-international-court-justice-judge)
". . . A former judge for the International Court of Justice and renowned expert on human rights law told a reporter this week that former vice president Dick Cheney should be prosecuted for war crimes and torture. "I voted for Obama but I think he made a great mistake when he decided not to instigate legal proceedings against some of these people." The former judge added that, despite the inaction so far, he believes eventual charges are inevitable: "I think—yes—that it will happen." . . ."
(from http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a35397/bush-cheney-war-crimes/)
". . . Richard Clarke, the man to whom nobody in the administration of C-Plus Augustus listened because what did he know, anyway?, had a chat with Amy Goodman in which he minced no words regarding his former employers. "I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all have. But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. . ."
(from http://americanfreepress.net/cheneys-long-list-of-crimes/)
". . . In the pantheon of warmongers and political criminals, a special place has been reserved for Dick Cheney. In his recently released memoirs, Cheney sounds proud of his crimes, but he knows if he were to step off a plane in Europe or in many other parts of the world, like Henry Kissinger, he would be placed in irons and handed over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But without fear of prosecution, Cheney persists in lying about the reasons he took America into two wars and how he cherry-picked information to forge fictitious links between Iraq’s former leader Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, alleging they both plotted together the 9-11 attacks. He even has the audacity to blame his lies about Saddam having weapons of mass destruction on others while still justifying an Iraq war that cost over a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives, and an untold number of dead Iraqi civilians. . ."
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(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
Starting in December, the likeness of former Vice President Dick Cheney will grace the U.S. Capitol, in accordance with a Senate tradition honoring former vice presidents.
The Huffington Post was tipped off by a Senate resolution "authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for the unveiling of the marble bust of Vice President Richard Cheney on December 3, 2015."
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, and Senate majority leader ACTUALLY said:
“After so many years of sluggish growth, we’re finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope; the uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama Administration’s long tenure in Washington: the expectation of a new Republican Congress. So this is precisely the right time to advance a positive, pro-growth agenda.”
During the election cycle, McConnell constantly accused the President of destroying the economy. As McConnell whined, economic conditions just kept getting better and U.S. job growth reached a 15-year high last year.
Never mind all those bothersome facts, now McConnell wants credit for the recovery’s unexpected strength. McConnell took his time to come up with this rhetorical trick. Two days before Christmas, when Americans learned that GDP growth in the third quarter of 2014 reached an 11-year high, McConnell said . . . nothing.
(thanks to http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-wants-credit-economic-turnaround)
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
. . . how your reps voted on cutting military pensions in Congress? . . .
. . . then you probably saw this . . .
(http://reason.com/24-7/2014/01/21/senate-could-vote-to-restore-military-pe)
The Senate may consider a proposal to restore cuts to the pensions of working-age military retirees as early as Monday, according to a Senate aide.
The measure was inserted in an omnibus veterans bill sponsored Thursday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and would repeal the $6 billion in cuts made to veterans’ pensions included in the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) invoked “Rule 14” last Thursday, which will allow the bill to bypass committee votes and go straight to the Senate floor, an aide for Sanders said
. . . person to give credit to the current U.S. Senate, would be ME . . .
. . . but . . .
Signs of progress began to emerge in U.S. budget talks on last Tuesday, as top Senate Democratic negotiator Patty Murray said that she sees a path toward an agreement to ease automatic "sequester" spending cuts.
Murray, asked if there was now a path forward in her talks with her counterpart, Republican Representative Paul Ryan, said: "I believe there is."
The lawmakers are racing against a December 13 deadline for a deal, as Republican resistance to including new tax revenues continued to be a sticking point, according to a Democrat on the negotiating committee headed by Murray and Ryan.
House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches Sunday on what would be the first successful budget accord since 2011, when the battle over a soaring national debt first paralyzed Washington.
The deal expected to be sealed this week on Capitol Hill would not significantly reduce the debt, now $17.3 trillion and rising. It would not close corporate tax loopholes or reform expensive health-care and retirement programs. It would not even fully replace sharp spending cuts known as the sequester, the negotiators’ primary target.
(thanks to Reuters and the Washington Post)
A reasonable, thinking man. I may not prefer he be my president, but I would have him represent me in the Senate . . . if I could convince him to talk sense to ALL the others.
Sen. John McCain, has joined President Obama's call to review "Stand Your Ground" laws in the aftermath of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting. McCain also believes his home state, which has such a law on the books, should also consider it.
Meantime, other extreme-rightists continue to stand THEIR ground, like
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas who criticized Obama for his comments. McCain, logically asserted that it is time to try to come together in light of several weeks of what is really exacerbating relations between elements of our society? McCain says he favors discussion rather than condemnation.
Journalist William Rivers Pitt, in his http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/17641-on-the-cover-of-the-rolling-stone article called the recent controversy (I call it 'stink') about Rolling Stone magazine's cover featuring alleged terrorist Dzhohkar Tsarnaev the "outrage du jour", which indeed it is.
I'm no journalist mind you, but I must say he expressed the same thoughts that crossed my mind when this developed. The two major points that he (and I) make are that- 1. the fact that the young man is honestly handsome makes the situation seem all the worse to those up in arms; and 2. there are so many other more important issues that we should be upset about that this is, in truth, a non-issue.
Then in his usual eloquence, Mr. Pitt lists some of those other things like Harry Reid's recent attempt to change the senate filibuster rules, recent abortion legislation in several states, the Trayvon Martin shooting, Syria, Egypt and the NSA etc. to which I might add big business in politics, the 1%, the banking system, gun laws (related to Trayvon Martin and others) etc. etc.
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