The HEROES Act; A Response to AZ (section 30615)

So on social media, a friend was complaining about how Senate Republicans have been obstructing any chance at relief.  A friend of hers blamed it on the Democrats in Congress for passing the HEROES act, which he claims is chockfull of unnecessary and insensible.

Since he posted a list of complaints on Quora, we have a chance to analyze his views in some detail.

And I warn you, this is going to be a long one.  That’s why I’m going to break down responses by section.

Indepence Day Echoes

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence?  Not just the first paragraph, but the entire thing.

We recently had occasion to re-visit this cornerstone of our nation, and were surprised to find echoes in the grievances against King George.  A surprising number of them could be applied to our current… White House Occupant… who we’ll call T-Rump Rex.

A Very Stable Genius

DJT
I am the very model of a Very Stable Genius,
In matters diplomatic I am practically avenious!
The Dictators all say that I am really quite congenious;
From the Kremlin to the Philippines, and anywhere insidious,
I compliment the workings of the minds of the nefarious.
And anyone who questions me or expresses contradicting views
I quickly can refute them by proclaiming that it’s all fake news!

A Real Stable Genius

Someone pointed out that Trump claims that he is a stable genius.  Well, if he wants to boast about being the smartest ass in the barn, he'll need to take that up with Francis the Talking mule.

Or Mr. Ed.

Who Says We Need News Media? The Founders of this Country.

Eqsuire Magazine reports that the Trump administration wants to kick the press out of the White House. 

"There has been no decision," Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, said about the plan today. But Spicer acknowledged that "there has been some discussion about how to do it."

Donald Trump has already started hammering away at the press, recently refusing to answer a senior correspondent from CNN at his first press conference.  This was in retaliation for CNN’s report that the CIA had briefed Trump, President Obama, and Vice President Biden,  that reliable sources indicate that Russian intelligence may have compromising photos and video of Trump.

Does California Let Non Citizens Vote?

Recently on Facebook, someone stated that the Popular vote showing Hillary Clinton leading over Trump was inaccurate because “a large portion of people voting for Hilary were illegals and dead people”, and he followed that up with “the entire state of california gave illegals the right to vote”.

  

I asked for the source, and he sent me a link to this InfoWars story.  He also sent me a link to the Washington Times, which is simply a direct copy and paste of this story.

  

While it would be easy simply to dismiss the claim out of hand, I believe that anytime someone takes the effort to try to back up their statements, the least I can do is read their citation and analyze it...

History Fun: Why Independence?

A friend of mine, inspired by our Independence Day celebrations, wrote “…we Declared our Independence from England partially to get away from heavy taxation and decreasing civil liberties.”

It’s a common refrain: Britain taxed us too much, so we left.  If only bad old England hadn’t taxed us so much.

 

But the thing is, that’s not true.  While taxes were certainly a part of the complaint, they weren’t a major complaint.

 

I’m not going to do a complete history of the Revolutionary War – I’d be posting for MONTHS.  No, this is just addressing the root causes of the war.  That is, I’m going to tell you just WHY we “Declared our Independence from England.”