Immigration

During my years in the classroom, I told one story so often that some of my students would groan when I launched into it.  But it pertains, even today.

In Ohio and Pennsylvania, thousands of refugees from Bhutan are being helped to feel at home, and to build a new life.

In a way, that's reminiscent of me before IT and blogging.  Shades of North Braddock can be found in Akron and Cleveland.

Bodhi was a bookkeeper at Fashion Spear, a retailer of women's clothing.

Ya Think?

The one group that most benefits from a free, independent press is us - the working class.

Yet Donald Trump,who presented himself as a champion of workers, today issued a not-very-thinly-veiled threat against those who provide us with critical information.  He suggested that licenses of entities like NBC should be challenged.

Bodhi agrees completely with Chris Cillizza of CNN.com, author of the piece just cited, when he says This is, simply put, the stuff of authoritarian governments. Democracy is built on the free and independent press. If a president or any leader seizes the ability to control the news media, democracy dies.

Our best protection is to be correctly, fully, and regularly informed.  So I'll let my inner lecturer take over; read Cillizza's full piece.

What In Hades Were You, and Are You, Thinking?

I ask that of all my working-class brothers and sisters.

Not only will Donald Trump not make us safer (by decertifying the Iran nuclear accords), he won't:

• bring back coal jobs
• move a finger to prevent the complete loss of a fish habitat
• promote a Clean Power Plan that might have helped reduce greenhouse gases

Pay attention, people; the man s a con artist.

Fear-mongering R Us

Late last week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas should look into a professor who said that people will die as a result of President Donald Trump’s election.

Specifically, Sanders said that the instructor in question should be ashamed of herself, and the university should look into it. What a terrible example to set for students.

No - what a terrible ignoring of the First Amendment ...

Ya Gotta Love 'Em

Hackers, that is - at least, benevolent ones.

One great pleasure of my life as a geek was my interaction with icons of Open Source like Monty Widenius.  Despite my not being even close to such folks in technical prowess, those exchanges were characterized by a full-duplex flow of ideas.

So it was with something approaching glee that I read of the Voting Machine Hacking Village held recently at the DEF CON hacker conference.  Hackers toyed with more than 25 pieces of election equipment, such as voting machines and electronic poll books, purchased from eBay.

By the end of the conference, each of the 25 had been breached.

These folks plan to form a coalition comprised of cyber and national security leaders, academic institutions, and government associations, in order to focus on ways to make elections more secure on the federal, state and local level.  That's good news for us all.

So Much for Populism

Once again, shame on the Trump administration.  Late Monday (10/09), Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan announced that the Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico expired on Sunday night, and would not be extended.

That means that the island will go back to paying much higher shipping costs to import supplies. The Jones Act requires that all goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried by American-owned and operated ships, which are more expensive vessels than others in the global marketplace. So, Puerto Rico will again pay double the costs for goods from the U.S. mainland than is paid by neighboring islands like the U. S. Virgin Islands.

Ability to Assimilate

My bubbas might have been turned away at Ellis Island, had Donald Trump's standards for issuing green cards been in force 100 years ago.  The Trump Administration's immigration policy is based upon:

• a merit-based approach to issuing Green Cards
• a focus on ability to assimilate

What the heck does ability to assimilate mean?

Living in Tumpland

Don't envy those who reside there; it's like having a bully always over your shoulder.  Just ask Bob Corker and Mike Pence.

After the Senator from Tennessee announced he would not seek re-election, Mr. Trump tweeted the statements below.  (I've substituted bold and italic for his quotation marks.)

Senator Bob Corker begged me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said NO and he dropped out (said he could not win without my endorsement). He also wanted to be Secretary of State, I said NO THANKS. He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!  Hence, I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run!

Though it's completely emblematic of the total lack of courtesy and sensitivity we've come to expect from POTUS, this effort at humiliation is in fact second to another - Trump's ordering VP Mike Pence to fly from Indianapolis to San Francisco to stage a faux protest against the First Amendment.

Happy Columbus Day

In his proclamation celebrating Columbus Day, Donald Trump praised the permanent arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere as a transformative event that fundamentally changed the course of human history.

It certainly did so for Native Americans ... and slaves ... and ...