Weird statement from Ivanka

In his testimony yesterday Michael Cohen said that Trump thought his son Donald Jr. had the “worst judgement of anyone in the world.”

I don’t think Ivanka is far behind.  When talking about a guaranteed minimum wage Ivanka opposed the idea because she felt that all Americans “want to work for what they get.”

Take a minute to think about that.

Bipartisan environmental bill

Yesterday the House of Representatives passed a bill on a 363-62 vote to protect over one million acres of public lands.  The Senate had already passed the bill, and it now goes to Trump.  

The bill designates 1.3 million acres of land in Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, and California as wilderness, which is the highest level of protection.  It defines hundreds of miles of rivers in Massachusetts and Connecticut as wild and scenic, and it adds thousands of acres to the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.

If Trump vetoes it, there just might be enough votes to override.

For the full story, see Coral Davenport, “House Backs Broad Bill To Protect Public Land,”  New York Times, (Feb. 27, 2019), p. A15.  I apologize to all of the readers who already heard about this on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Facebook, Twitter, CBS, NBC, or ABC.

$10 million

In less than a week as an announced presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders has raised $10 million dollars.  That sounds really impressive until you remember that the guy who owns Starbucks can simply write a check for that amount for his presidential campaign.

We really do need to overturn that “Citizens United” decision.

LeBron James, Serena Williams, or Tom Brady?

Which one is the best?  Which one should be labeled “the best athlete of the year”?

It’s a stupid question, right?  How can you compare basketball, tennis, and football?  And that is why the Academy Awards are so stupid.  You are comparing “A Star is Born” to “The Green Book” to “Black Panther.”  All three of them are movies, but basketball, tennis, and football are all sports.  I don’t see how the “best film” or the “best actor” makes any sense, and I don’t understand why people even pay attention to the whole process.

The EPA says toxins are good for you

Toxicologist Ed Calabrese has been writing for years that toxins were good for you.  Reputable scientists thought Calabrese was completely wrong about this, but the EPA has recently adopted Calabrese’s ideas and published them in the Federal Register.

When you think it can’t get worse, it gets worse.

The whole Calabrese debacle was in today’s Morning Call in a reprint from Los Angeles Times reporter Susanne Rust.  So many of these policies are slipping in unnoticed.  I wish MSNBC and CNN would pay more attention to the actual policy changes and less attention Trump, his tweets, and the 2020 presidential race.

A petition to slaughter songbirds

The Times News today ran a story entitled “Petition to stop cat feeding ban grows.”  A Humane Society Officer Donna Crum has started a petition to pass legislation for the protection of feral cats in Pennsylvania.

I am so tired of arguing this issue.  Just in case you missed it, here is a copy of a letter I sent to Bruce Frassinelli of the Times News. 

In a recent editorial you defended a compromise plan in Palmerton involving feral cats.  The plan calls for a trap, neuter and release program.  You said it was a “workable strategy with which everyone can live.”

Everyone, perhaps, except the song birds, voles, salamanders, and other small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians that will be killed by the released cats.  Cats are natural predators, but they are not natural to the ecosystem, nor do they cease hunting even after they are fed.  They are among the leading causes of the decline in bird populations.

The plan ignores other species.  Releasing cats, neutered or not, is not an environmentally responsible policy.  

Trump in Vietnam

He finally got there, 50 years too late.

Let’s hope his bone spurs don’t act up.