Economy First! It is where we live everyday. Agree that Health Care and other support for working families is up front important. Trump wanted to kill the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) but had no replacement. Still does not so far as I know. But how to address the general state of the economy, food prices, fuel, other consumer goods. I think a Blue Ribbon Commission to advise you and show your direct concern would be a good idea right now! Economy is complicated, a visible effort to examine the factors would help inform the country and underscore your continuing effort and concern.
In a free market economic system we depend on competition to keep runaway prices in check. In a global economy that includes foreigh competition. Sometimes the free market economy goes sideways. That is why we have laws against monopoly and price fixing. People are feeling high food prices especially, but a thorough examination of the causes should proceed any assumption of price gouging. These guardrail laws are not communism.
Visit the Border! Talk about bringing back the bi-partisan immigration reform bill and what effect it would have. Why we need to modernize these policies. Has it been nearly 75 years, it was a different world back then. We have a monthly jobs report. People are concerned about the Border, we should have a monthly report about that too, to limit exaggeration and measure our efforts. California was probably the first State to erect a barrier and Texas seems to be the last. There are historic reasons. It is not a political monument, it is a tool, where the Border Patrol believes it will be cost effective and helpful. It is also not a “wall” but rather a fence. Border Patrol wants to be able to see what is happening on the other side. Even this simple change of terminology might lessen the political fervor.
Cruelty in any form is the wrong policy. Setting up concentration camps to deport eleven million people is insane. We deport the bad actors and those who have recently crossed illegally. For those who have been here a long time, built lives and families, part of our communities, we make some accommodation. And it certainly is not necessary to ban entry based on race or religion. Entry from terror torn parts of the world requires thorough vetting. If vetting is not possible, no entry.
An individual storm or natural disaster does not tell us much about Climate Change. Need to look at world wide averages which is why the NASA Earth Science program is so important. However extreme, record breaking weather are markers, easily seen, which push the average. We cannot stick our heads in the sand about this and simultaneously we cannot starve ourselves for fossil fuels. The whole world is still dependent. There has to be a compromise while we move to cleaner energy sources. Donald Trump would have us believe it is all a fiction. Did I read that he or project 2025 want to shut down the weatherman? (National Weather Service)
A monthly energy report like the jobs report. How much are we producing and where does it go? Too little production, too much export? Would it make sense, with oil and gas leases on public lands, to give an advantage to petroleum companies that only sell within the United States?
Trump and Vance look like two peas in the pod, two fat cats there to protect the interests of the other fat cats and their self interest. Trickle down economics has never worked. The rich get richer. These guys with SO MUCH MONEY (Elon Musk) get so far removed from where we all live, then think they are qualified to govern. More about that and the Supreme Court. And now, after X interview, it is three peas in the pod, add Musk. All fat cats looking out for their own interests.
Terminating a pregnancy is a choice that some women have made for hundreds, probably thousands of years. It does not surprise me that it is not specifically mentioned in the constitution. I see it as a right of the people that preexisted the constitution and thus wrongly taken away by the Supreme Court. Our whole nation night do well to note what happened in Ireland. After several years of a national ban, it was voted out. An abortion ban is blind to human condition. It is not where we really live.
Trump always plays the victim but his legal troubles are of his own making. The pardon power should be used for humanitarian reasons after all legal prosesses of completed. We are, and should all be, equal under the law.
Another school shooting. Another AR-15 rifle. Beyond the absurdity of giving a 14 year old child an assault rifle, to the broader issue. Any gun can kill but some guns are more lethal than others. The ballistic characteristics of the AR make it especially so. An educated guess, that an AR has been used, can be made from the proportion of dead and wounded in a mass shooting. Two especially good articles in the Miami Hearld after the Parkland shooting. Rounds for an AR literally tear the human body apart. This is a military weapon. It should not be sold to the general public. There should be a buy back program for those in circulation. If someone wants to keep the AR which they already have, keep it secured in your home. It should be illegal in any public place.
