Chief of Staff Reinz Previs Fired from Post

White House chief of staff Reinz Previs was fired yesterday as he was threatened to be and General John Kelly from Homeland Security is slated to take his place.  Now they are talking about moving Jeff Sessions to Homeland Security.  Reinz Previs was formerly the head of the Republican party and as such spear-headed Trump's campaign for President.  But he fell out of favor with the newly appointed head of Communacations, Anthony Scarimuchi, who threatened that this would be only the first of a whole lot of firings in the White House.  Previs was less than steadfast when that sex video came out and Reinz thought maybe Trump should drop out of the campaign.  There is also a concern that Previs is the source of a lot of White House news-leaks.  Steve Bannon is another individual whose job may be on the chopping block.  Scarimuchi is another one of these financial wheeler-dealer types whom is naturally the sort of person Trump would surround himself with.  It seems a little power hungry and has caused alarm among segments of the traditional Republican party.  So we know there have been major shake-ups in the Trump Administration already in these first six months and there are going to be more.  Meanwhile there is still no serious talk of impeachment.  People seem to have forgotten all about that.  And the whole Russian connection scandal, so dominant in the news the past eight months, seems to be fading into the background.

Trump is running for dictator in chief.  He encourages crowds in his campaigns to beat up people.  Now he's encouraging Police to rough up prisoners on the way to taking them to the police station.  They say "Trump  says these inflamitory things because he's catering to his political base".  He threatens the state of Alaska with cutting off of funds because Senator Lisa Marcauski voted the wrong way on a key bill.  And of course Trump wants personal loyalty pledges.  He also resents employees if they won't be his personal rubber stamp for condoning illegal activities like the failure to recruse one's self.  He wanted people to raise their right arm in Hitler fashion as a pledge of support from the crowds.  This despotism he's displaying now most likely will only continue to get worse and more blatant if allowed to continue unabated.

North Korea yesterday launched its most powerful ICBM ever.  This is an even more powerful inter-contenental missile than the one they launched on July fourth and it has moved us one step towards World War III.  They say this missile can be armed with a nuclear warhead within a year, which moves up the time-table for that by a couple of years.  This missile launched yesterday flew higher in its almost vertical path up into the skies and it flew further than the one of July fourth.  That missile they said had the capability of reaching Alaska.  This missile has the ability, if aimed more horizontally has the ability to easily strike the west coast mainland of the United States and perhaps the ability to go further.  Christians better pray hard that God is guiding Trump's actions, because left to his own devices I don't know what he will do.

John Mc Cain returned last weekend to the Senate and made that now famous speech urging cooperation and bi-partisan cooporation with the democrats.  At that time he voted for starting up debate on the bill to end Obama Care.  Mc Cain said that it was "just a shell of a bill" and he would vote against the final bill all things being equal.  Mc Cain was true to his word.   They had a vote a few days later on repeal and replace and that one failed.  Then they had another vote on repealing Obama Care but waiting two years before putting the law into effect.  That vote also failed.  Another vote held Thursday night called the "skinny repeal" also failed.  This is the bill where only Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Marcauski of Alaska and John Mc Cain voted "No" among the Republicans and the bill failed to pass by one vote.  President Trump said "Well I told you they should just let Obama Care fail of its own weight".  Trump has also said "And when it does the democrats themselves will come begging us to work with them and develop a replacement bill".  Trump will never acknowledge a defeat like this directly.  But as of now all related bills are dead, at least for this session of congress.  Congress will be going on their August recess in a week or so.

That eleven month old baby named Charlie in England- - died yesterday.  He died of all of the generic things he has suffered with including major brain damage- - that he had suffered from in his whole, short life.  Pope Francis issued his condolences.  

On Days of our Lives, Abe Carver conthiscated Theo’s computer and won’t give it back even though it’s theft of Di Mira property.  Andre has an actionable lawsuit against him.  Meanwhile Abigail has to go away with Dario because she’s being blackmailed to protect Chad.  The outcome hasn’t been determined yet.  Gabriel was upset that Abigail would leave Thomas like that- - a second time.   Ron lent me cigarette number seven before snacks.  I got two cups of iced tea from Rene and also a graham cracker.  Then I went and sat in the front room a while.  That gospel lady was in there singing.  Bill is out of the room.  There are four & a half days to go till I get paid.  

Make Conservation of the Planet - Not War

Re-posted from Washington's blog

If war were moral, legal, defensive, beneficial to the spread of freedom, and inexpensive, we would be obliged to make abolishing it our top priority solely because of the destruction that war and preparations for war do as the leading polluters of our natural environment.

I happened to read a report this week from a U.S. environmental think tank that advocates for the U.S. military to blow up trucks full of oil and gas. The trucks belong to ISIS, and the argument is that bombing trucks does less damage than bombing oil wells, and that — if you add in vague social and economic factors rather ludicrously quantified with numerical pseudo-precision — bombing trucks does less damage than doing nothing. The option of working nonviolently for peace, disarmament, aid, and environmental protection is not considered.

If we don’t start considering new options, we’re going to run out of options entirely. The roughly $1 trillion that the United States puts into militarism each year is the number one way in which war kills and the source of an infinity of not-yet-considered options. Tiny fractions of U.S. military spending could end hunger, the lack of clean water, and various diseases globally. While converting to clean energy could pay for itself in healthcare savings, the funds with which to do it are there, many times over, in the U.S. military budget. One airplane program, the F-35, could be canceled and the funds used to convert every home in the United States to clean energy.

We’re not going to save our earth’s climate only as individuals. We need organized global efforts. The only place where the resources can be found is in the military. The wealth of the billionaires does not even begin to rival it. And taking it away from the military, even without doing anything else with it, is the single best thing that we could do for the earth. The U.S. military is the leading consumer of petroleum around, the third-greatest polluter of U.S. waterways, the top creator of superfund environmental disaster sites.

Pre-presidential campaign Donald Trump signed a letter published on December 6, 2009, on page 8 of theNew York Times, a letter to President Obama that called climate change an immediate challenge. “Please don’t postpone the earth,” it said. “If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”

Among societies that accept or promote war making, those consequences of environmental destruction will likely include yet more war making. It is of course false and self-defeating to suggest that climate change simply causes war in the absence of any human agency. There is no correlation between resource scarcity and war or environmental destruction and war. There is, however, a correlation between cultural acceptance of war and war. But this world — and especially certain parts of it, including the United States — is very accepting of war, as reflected in the belief in war’s inevitability.

Wars generating environmental destruction and mass-migration, generating more wars, generating further destruction is a vicious cycle we have to break out of by protecting the environment and abolishing war.

Toward that end, many of us are planning an event in Washington, D.C., in late September that will bring together leading environmental and peace activists. You are encouraged to sign up and participate in#NoWar2017: War and the Environment.

We’re also taking a flotilla for peace and the environment to the edge of the Pentagon in the lagoon off the Potomac River. If you don’t have a kayak we’ll get you one. Sign up here.

Peace and planet! No more oil for wars!