3.14.18
On March 11th NPR published this article –
China Removes Presidential Term Limits, Enabling Xi Jinping To Rule Indefinitely
In part the article reads –
“President Xi Jinping of China is poised to rule the country indefinitely after Chinese lawmakers passed changes to the country’s constitution abolishing presidential term limits.
The amendment was sure to pass the country’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, which voted 2,958 in favor, two opposed and three abstaining.
Since Xi assumed leadership of China’s Communist Party in 2012, he has rapidly consolidated power to levels not seen since the era of Mao Zedong. The constitutional change officially allows him to remain in office after the end of his second term in 2023.”
It is obvious that the people of China have little or no chance of any real human rights reform. I presume that the 2 legislators that voted against this law have disappeared, and the 3 that abstained are in a gulag (aka: re-education camp). Lets hope America never considers a step backwards like this. I believe that all senators and congressmen should have term limits as well as the President. It is important to allow the voter maximum control of the government, and to reduce the strangleholds on power that lifetime politicians create.
4.2.18
On March 30th the Texas Tribune reported that a 43 yar old woman, Crystal Mason, who is on probation after serving federal time for tax fraud, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for voting.
This is absolutely absurd. This woman just got out of prison after she served her time for a non-violent crime. She is trying to care for her kids, hopefully she is getting her life back together and trying to do the right things. To punish this woman at all for voting is idiotic, but to put her back in prison for 5 years will ruin her life permanantly and is purey barbaric. The district attorney that prosecuted this case has to be a sadistic ahole, and the judge, State District Judge Ruben Gonzalez, has to be the same. If this woman was barred from voting how come the people at the polling place gave her a ballot. Doesn’t the State of Texas have some responsibility in stopping this from happening or supporting a process that prevents a person from voting if they are legally barred from a basic right due to their past actions. If it really was necessary to try this case a fair punishment would have been a warning or maybe a minor fine. What would have happened if she had written her congressman to complain about her taxes, would she be facing 10 to life?
Read this article –texas-woman-sentenced-5-years-prison-voting-while-probation
4.24.18
A while back President Trump announced he will be meeting with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un. It seems that Kim initiated the possibility of a meeting. This is a situation that could be historic, and if the world is lucky, it will lead to nuclear disarmament by North Korea. I know the world hopes for the best on this, but I don’t think anybody has great expectations. This is most likely some kind of stalling ploy or sympathy stunt by Kim. Of course opinions on this are divided down party lines, especially in the media. The left wing zealots think that Trump will get played for a sucker by Kim. This is not an unfair assumption since Kim has played every other president we’ve had in the last quarter century (aka: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barak Obama) as suckers. That might happen, and it might not. Kim never felt it necessary to try to meet with any of the last 3 presidents. The right wing zealots are already nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Yea, I’ll hold my breath ’till that happens. But if he can actually get North Korea to abandon their nuclear program (something it would take years of follow up to verify) and bring permanent peace to the Korean peninsula then he may actually earn one.
What is really weird is many on the left are actually criticizing Trump for meeting with Kim. This is something he needs to do and in the eyes of the world, has to do. He certainly cannot refuse and then reasonably expect to be able to put any pressure on China to assist in the efforts to control the dangerous escapades of North Korea. He has to make a best effort on this, and we all hope for the best. However I think the reality will be a lot of BS by Kim and not much results.