mygedhotline.com Blog

In 2017 the poverty percentage in America was 12.3 percent affecting 45,950,000 people.  Elvis Presley was portrayed an article that I read as a “poor white” from Mississippi.

This article really is about what has happened to the United States since World War II.

And things were not too good before World War II.  The Great Depression-Jim Crow South-Anti-Semitism that kept Jewish immigrants out-Poverty all over America-Isolationism that did not work-And more.

Women went to work during World War II and Rosie the Riveter became famous.  There were Rosies everywhere.  The world started to change in relation to women’s role, but not completely or equally. Those women that went to work helped our nation as young men went off to war.  They helped America, but I will not say that they helped America to become great.  There are great things about America, but the whole leaves much to be desired.  Women helped make the driving engine of our workforce continue to work and many women today are in their own business, are executives of major companies, and are labor leaders, the latter should be important all over our nation, but labor unions are not in all states.  Some of the states where unions do not exist are still controlled by forces in our government and there is no freedom of choice.

Let’s look at the history to understand the present.  In 1950, 20 percent of people in the United States was living in poverty.  Things started to get better over the next twenty years and extreme poverty was eliminated.  The deep south has extremely high poverty rates: Alabama 16.9 percent, Mississippi 19.8 percent, Louisiana 19.7 percent, Arkansas 16.4 percent, South Carolina 15.4 percent, Georgia 14.9 percent, and North Carolina 14.7 percent.  Maryland (2 with the lowest poverty) and Virginia (11 with the lowest poverty) have far less poverty and that is largely due to government jobs located near our nation’s capital.  Among the 100 places in the nation with the lowest income, the states that were in the Confederacy have 66 such towns as we add Texas. Tennessee, and Florida to the list provided before.  And there are ten cities (250,000 people or more) with very high percentages of low income and those cities are not in the South with the exception of Miami, Florida. 

Rosie the Robot was just mentioned to me last week in one of our nation’s leading supermarkets.  Robots will be doing the work of people shortly (perhaps right now or by the end of the year).  People in the store are wondering about layoffs and I wonder what layoff protections they have.  It seems to me that a few losses of jobs per store nationwide will bring upon US losses that will make the loss of auto jobs look tiny.  And if this change in delivering service to consumers continues unchecked by the American people and/or their elected officials and the president, there will lots of long-term unemployment.  Take this in account not only for 2020, but also for the near future up to 2024.  Interventions are needed, particularly by Repugnicans who stirred up the idea that we are stupid and China is smart because it took jobs away from America (therefore we were given Make America Great Again).  What is about to happen and we’ve had warnings on television and in the media is that a tornado of automation may be taking jobs away from US and that tornado will be generated by the very same business people who were an integral part of the global effort to establish free trade agreements.  The message is loud and clear that workers fear losing their jobs right now and this isn’t even the third year of the four year Trump term of office.

Mexico and China are not responsible at all for the Rosie the Robot tornado that is approaching us.  The time to wake up is now and not in 2024.  And the global economy that Trump fought against is making itself heard loud and clear as companies are moving from China, but not back to the United States. This is classic economic history that I have read about and some of that history led to the downfall of the British Empire as Germany and other countries started up production of goods that the British had dominated.  And by the end of World War II, the British and people around the world began to acknowledge that Great Britain was losing its top status position to the United States.  The loss of America’s leading world position may be happening right now under our noses.  Important parts of the decline of Great Britain were its inability both financially and politically to maintain domination or supremacy over its colonies around the world and today Trump has only been a leader for White Supremacists.  We have situations that are modern day versions of the British Empire, including the Trump lies and efforts in relation to Puerto Rico and our nation’s minorities.  If Trump is true to form, within weeks or months you will be hearing that companies are coming back to America in the millions.

Since job growth in the Trump Administration has lagged behind the first Obama years by at least 700,000 jobs, some people are celebrating that they are working and others are not working and not celebrating.  The economic engines are in the cities, in Texas in four cities, but people are really continuing to suffer even in this so-called Make America Great Again period of our history.  We can see the same thing taking place in many countries around the world.  Jobs should be reaching people in rural areas, but they are not.  So all these people were left out of the debate in 2016 even by Trump who broadcasted that he would create 25 million jobs or more.  Unfortunately for our people the pace was not picked up and perhaps it will be unfortunate for Trump as the Trumpian economy is revealed to the people in 2020.  The stock market is truly way up, but not job growth and income for most people.  Much of the growth due to the rise in minimum wage has nothing to do with Donald Trump.  That was started well before he started campaigning.  Even the minimum wage has not gone up at the federal level.  Even many workers who had protections for overtime had those protections removed by Trump.  And he brought about a hiring freeze during good times.  So what can America expect of Trump when things get bad again as they did under George W. Bush?  And today I learned that the House of Representatives has just passed a $15 minimum wage bill that probably will not pass the Senate.  Open your eyes and see that Democracy Matters and workers who deserve pay increases who are not getting the raises should put this matter at the top of the list.

What I see in New York are lots of building projects that were started before Trump.  I have noticed the growth in fast food jobs as the major companies have provided much better service to keep their customers.  Much of this has also been powered by technology that helps people order their food.  Then there are delivery jobs as new companies have sprung up to deliver fast food and other restaurant food.  Again this has nothing to do with the Trump economy except that records are kept according to calendar months and years.  That is the reality of Trump’s claim which means that much of what I have said here is “fake news.”

Politically our democracy is not working for all of the people and those of us who are upset with conditions in America are not going to move out of the country because Trump and his supporters chant it.  Democracy has to be restored to serve all the people, which is something that has never happened in our history.  History speaks for itself.  So restoring democracy is “fake news” within the context of this article.  But politically speaking we have to restore lots of things that have been eroded by Trump and his band of dirty rotten scoundrels.  Even at this moment in New York, there is a challenger to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez who is insisting that the congresswoman work on creating jobs instead of working on a progressive agenda.  Trump has epitomized that effort and his effort has fallen way short.  The Republicans did what they intended to do: tax cuts and tariffs and no miracle has taken place.  This new candidate has already misspoken as she attacks the congresswoman.  Someone should tell Scherie Murray that Obama is not the president right now and he cannot be held responsible for Trump’s ideas.  She says she is about building bridges in infrastructure and education which Trump has not done.  All over America school improvement is held back by conservatives who make sure that school districts that need more money do not get it.  This is happening right now in schools where I live that suffer from the lack of high-income residents who pay more school taxes. 

Trump’s tariffs have been tripping up industries all over America including Mike Pence’s home state of Indiana and they are not going to tell you the truth.  The Carrier air conditioner deal was just a small deal.  Automobile manufacturers are still closing up and moving.  Recreational vehicles in Indiana, among other industries, are now hit hard.  And we already know that the price increases on American made washing machines have resulted in Americans paying several hundred thousand dollars for each wash machine made since Trump started the tariff war.  In other words, Trump has taken Americans to the cleaners again. 

This is from an article on Poor Whites.  “Further evidence of the hostility of the ruling class towards the Poor White is found in the enactment by several southern states of a poll tax, which required an annual payment of $1.00 (equivalent to $28 in 2018),[15] to vote, in some cases, or at least payment before voting. The poll tax excluded not only African Americans, but also the many Poor Whites, from voting, as they lived in a barter economy and were cash poor.”

This is typical of lots of countries where the nobles and people they depended on kept back the poor (in many Europeans countries those people were peasants and were forced to provide a lot of labor for the nobles).  Conditions in those countries became intolerable and with the support of family members and institutions lots of people came to the United States.  With all the talk about how great America was or is, no such migration existed back to Europe.  Since there was neither any infrastructure in place nor marketing for people to go home, most people stayed contributing to the greatness of America and lots of American myths. 

Poland, for example, is a small beautiful country and deserves the same respect as any nation.  Americans who have visited Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and lots of other countries often do not want to come home.  And these are people of all races and backgrounds.  It happens that the United States with all its terrible faults is the greatest large country in the world (and that is just an opinion that we commonly share).  Those smaller nations are amazing.

Breaking news about Trump.  Trump is taking Americans down a road that has precedent and it went from a tweet to his political campaign.  Since he knows he is right (it could be the dye of his hair affecting his brain or something else called racism), he should order his own employees to tell people if you don’t like America go back to your country.  There should be no hypocrisy here.   Trump should go for it.  Here you can see how Denny’s had to pay $54 million to settle a racial discrimination case back in 1994.  Those 54 millions would be hundreds of millions today.  Run Forrest Trump run.  You can do it.  You can outrun all the good people who wish to see America improve greatly.  Order your properties now to be aligned with your politics.  Of course it would quickly become “fake news” if a group of people alleged that a Trump employee had told them to go back to their country or countries.  And Trump’s spin on this would be the biggest news since the Mueller investigation and the “clean” category that he determined the report gave him.  He was as clean as manure.  And I can imagine that some American institutions like Denny’s will soon have a major problem as well since Trump has stirred the pot and it would make sense for all businesses across America to put out the message that Trump should not be imitated.  And please leave my favorite chicken alone.  Scaramucci has been disinvited to attend from a G.O.P. fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Scaramucci works behind the scenes to get Trump reelected.    Now that we see that Trump himself has spoken about not liking the “send her back” chant and that Scaramucci has opposed it, it leads me to conclude that this is a scheme for 2020 to appear more moderate to build up the polls.  Not liking it is almost an apology for Trump and that is impossible.

Trump has been the send them back leader for a long time.  Whether it is Black people or other, it’s just plain wrong.  The presidential statement should have been we are going to see you at the voting polls in November and retire you from office.  That is what we expect about Trump and his attacks on Americans.  It would be great if Trump would resign and/or not run again.

Alex Acosta, the labor secretary, has just resigned and it appears that Eugene Scalia may be the next secretary of labor.  Scalia has already been accused by Democrats in the past as being “hostile” to labor, but he is a labor lawyer if you fully appreciate Trump’s comment about that in praising Scalia.  Shouldn’t we have an Equal Rights Amendment for labor? It really appears to me that helping the workers is really dead on arrival in this country.  And shouldn’t we know now what has happened at Trump properties.  How many more workers has he hired and did he raise or lower workers’ salaries.  And is he going to use orange haired robots to deliver drinks at the bar and provide room service?

Breaking news first.  Border agents have confirmed that Trump has not built any new wall.  I wrote a series of articles about Trump’s wall in Jewish Business Wall, but I had no idea that after all of Trump’s fighting and talking that it was entirely made up.  I can hear him right now saying “We are building the wall” over and over.  Wrong grammar or tense or just another Hitler-Trump lie?  And his ratings go up over that kind of manure?

Stephen Miller could be an anti-Semite or anti-Semitic Jew.  His thinking is really quite unusual.

Donald Trump is not a patriot.  Allow me to explain.

We see what Ricardo Rosselló is going through in Puerto Rico for some or many of the same reasons that Trump may go through the same mass demonstrations.  Those demonstrations may soon take place against the greatest patriot of all. 

Trump could provide his tax returns to prove that he is a patriot.

He could take a lie detector test to prove that he is a patriot.

He could allow the C.I.A. to waterboard him to prove that he is a patriot.

He could even go to Afghanistan to fight alongside our men and women there since he is so great to prove that he is a patriot.

Stephen Miller says that the “racist remarks” are designed to silence Americans in connection with if you don’t like it go home patriotic comments being made which contradict the foundation of law about no discrimination due to national origin.  These comments, though popular for a long time, are similar to shouting fire in a theater.  It is not free speech that is conducive to the success of a nation, unless you are thinking about a White nation.  And the fact that Black Americans may go along with Trump is another story that needs development.

If a man shouted to a group of Hasidic Jews for whatever reason “go back to your country” would the Zionist Organization of America agree that it is patriotic?  I see a lack of critical thinking skills at ZOA, even though I know that the organization is doing some good things.  Where is the condemnation and denunciation from ZOA as of the publication of this article?  Keep in mind that Stephen Miller is the author of Trump’s speech about immigration and the designer of his policies.

The same anti-Semitic legislation that Americans connected with White Supremacy which charges immigrants as criminals kept Jews out of the United States as Hitler developed his Road to the Final Solution is harming human beings including Israelis that wish to enter the United States.  I honestly do not know if the Israelis who were reported for being detained at the border in a report were Jews or not, but I will not categorically state that they were not without evidence.  Does Stephen Miller make Talmudic sense?  He says that he is Jewish and so do I.  He worked for Senator Jeff Sessions and when I called Alabama and spoke to the only Jew that I probably have ever spoken to from Alabama about Sessions that Jew told me immediately (within 10 seconds) :

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

And this was copied and pasted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

And then Trump invitees went by invitation after the deplorable conditions were documented in the detention or “concentration camps” that Trump set up that would not make the immigrants comfortable so they would leave.  Although we cannot compare these camps to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and what Jews were going through, we can highlight the same attempt to use propaganda to confuse the public and the world by not allowing the truth to be told.

I am tired of Trump and his supporters always spending time on words like “racist” when our nation is on fire concerning White Supremacy and the massacre of Jews in Pittsburgh and San Diego are an integral part of that.  Hasn’t Miller even noticed that Muslims did not commit those atrocities?  He should speak out as I speak out.  This is not about Israel and Jews supporting Israel.  This is about exposing the evil of this nation.  Where are you going to send me back to?  Israel? No!  Galicia?  No!  How about Brooklyn?

Trump in the 2016 spoke about the “passion” that his supporters had as they went from chants to aggression at events and that was enough for me to profile him correctly.  Now those chanters are “patriots.”  Heil Hitler was certainly patriotic along with a lot of other chants.  Even if Trump is not Hitler, we should be able to see that he and the Department of Justice are taking US closer to the McCarthy era with all of this.  Conversely, I and others are not patriots, we (including the press and those four congresswomen) are the enemies.  The list is much greater than that.

Jews, as I have written about, have been divided throughout history, but people forget.  And we have fought conservatism for centuries and more.  In Galicia conservative Jews fought Zionists and had many shot in the back there by soldiers to maintain “order”, in New York City orthodox Jews fought against conservativism on the police force at the funeral of Rabbi Jacob Joseph and there were unnecessary attacks on Jews who were socialists who spoke to crowds in Yiddish by police as well (I can well imagine that the conservative Jews backing up “law and order”), there was the Civil War with Jews on both sides, and Jews in America and in Israel were on two sides in the 1950s when Eisenhower favored the Arabs over Israel and we were perhaps just steps away from watching Jews (there were Jews in the U.S. Army) fight each other in combat due to the Sinai War.  And the list goes on and on.  Israeli Jews are divided and we are divided at home and abroad. 

We are small in numbers and our influence is not really felt that much in red states where our system of government continues to thwart real democracy as the small states equal the large states in the senate.  So our problem is just not the electoral college.  And our problem is not just the Supreme Court as conservatives are appointed.  Our problem clearly exists among ourselves.  Americans are divided.  We are all Americans.  We stand behind the four congresswomen because we know that Trump’s poorly conceived thoughts do not point the compass north and the battle should be at the polls and not what is your country of origin or your color.  Trump’s compass was smashed a long, long time ago and he is incapable of guiding the American people.  Have you noticed that a cop has been fired after commenting that Congresswoman Omar should be shot?  That is the kind of support that all Americans need at this day in our lives.  This kind of toxicity has been encouraged by the Toxin-in-Chief.  Let’s eliminate the toxins everywhere including Stephen Miller.  And it really is time to defrost ICE to restore justice to people.  Even American hotel giants are pushing back against ICE right now.  Stephen Miller should come up with a detention plan that all Jews could e proud of, all people could be proud of or he should leave his position.

Stephen Miller has it made and he deserves nothing.  There could be a cushy position for him at Fox News.  He could be floated as vice-president one day.  Vice-president of what you may be asking.  Figure it out.  And that is just one step away from the office of President of the United States.  I am not really saying that Stephen Miller is an anti-Semite, but why can’t all of us just make him go away somewhere (in the United States or wherever he chooses).

Here is a good example of what Jews need to know.  Senator Cory Booker has been portrayed for being on the wrong side of the Iran Nuclear Deal and there has been a lot of history regarding that deal in the last few years that we should absorb.  But here Senator Booker, who I have met while trying to help Newark and I have written negative things about for what his administration there produced after I provided all kinds of helpful suggestions, states that he would not meet with Minister Louis Farrakhan which appeared in the Algemeiner.  That is important to Jews here in America and probably around the world.  And remember how Trump has portrayed the Democratic Party as being anti-Semitic?   Remember his call for Jews to quit the Democratic Party and the campaign that was started by his partisans?

Here is a quick quiz for my readers.  And as you can see Trump controls the court.

Trump’s remarks and policies that stir the pot of hatred in this country most resemble the remarks of

1. John F. Kennedy
2. Mitch Mc Connell
3. Adolph Hitler
4. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. Ronald Reagan

There were 40 million casualties during World War I.  There were about 23 million wounded and the rest died.  In earlier wars disease played a major role and disease accounted for about one-third of the deaths. American losses were put at under 120,000.  Do you think that Gavrilo Princip deserves the statue in Belgrade or would you decide that is should come down the way that statues of communist leaders, Confederate leaders, oppressors of the Irish, and others have come down?  A pillar to Princip was constructed and then destroyed in 1917. 

Of course you should not expect to find any World War I veterans anywhere near where you live.  This thought can only apply to one man who has broken the mold in American politics.  He has talked about airports that existed in the Revolutionary War and asked a woman who lost her family recently to violence where they were.  Here is that moment in what were the causes of World War I described in a lesson for kids instead.  It’s the story of world politics that went out of control, the Black Hand, and the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.  And the patriotic Confederates who took a rocket ship to the moon so that they could unite US today will probably be mentioned soon by Donald Trump.

The assassination appears in one of my other articles.  But this lesson is largely devoted to Gavrilo Princip and perhaps you will share this lesson with others.

A young man wants to enlist in the Serb military and the officer tells him “you are too small and weak” to be of use and the officer threatened the youth with a beating if he did not leave right away.  That youth was Gavrilo Princip.  A year and a half later, the nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary was assassinated along with his wife.  The archduke spoke and said “Es ist nichts!”  So this young man who was too “puny” to fight in the army made big news around the world.  This was actually around the time that my grandmother came to America.

Here is some background information about his life.

He was poor.  The door of his house was small so he had to lower his head to enter.  There were no windows in his house.  The floor was made of earth.  Smoke went through a badza or hole in the roof.  His poverty was worsened by the fact that an annual cash tribute had to be paid to the absentee-landlord.  There were huge temptations in Serbia as prostitution was big where Princip lived.  He abstained from drinking and he treated all women with the respect accorded to mother or sister.  The Black Hand met on Bosnia Street in Belgrade for the first time.  That street has since been named Gavrilo Princip Street.  Almost thirty years later, Adolph Hitler used the events of June 28, 1914 as an excuse to attack Belgrade.

There were six conspirators on that day.

Four of the conspirators who were armed failed to use their weapons either out of fright or inexperience.

One threw a bomb that bounced off the archduke’s vehicle.

The chauffeur unfamiliar with Belgrade made a wrong turn and waited for almost a half-minute to proceed and nothing happened at that time.

Princip did fire a fatal shot at the archduke and proceeded to fire a shot at the military governor.  But that second shot happened just as a bystander tried to knock the gun out of Princip’s hand.  The shot missed its mark, but struck the archduke’s wife, killing her.  The archduke spoke those words in German, telling his wife that he was okay, but he died shortly after being struck. 

Princip swallowed cyanide, but the cyanide had oxidized and he suffered great pain only.  He was also badly beaten by the soldiers and police at that time.  I guess if he had not been rejected by the army or if he had flat feet and could get a doctor’s note, the history of the world might have been different.  Perhaps more like the United States today under Trump.  Taking extreme action against people does have consequences you know.  Those actions can be war, detention, budget cuts, hostile remarks both ethnic and racial, and general lying.  Much of my report is news, but it is an opinion piece that has to be made well known.  But there is a difference between Princip and Trump.  It’s not about age, wealth, power, or anything that you might think of. 

Princip was interviewed by a psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Pappenheim, and it was revealed that Princip suffered great guilt.  Why?  Austria-Hungary had long desired Serbia and was ready to attack it.  In a Trump-like trumped up move, Serbia was given forty-eight hours to reply to the demand of an investigation of the archduke’s death to be carried out by Austrian agencies instead of an independent investigation.  Serbia was unable to accept or comply with the terms and Austria-Hungary soon started to pummel Serbia.  This was a period in which Austria-Hungary illegally annexed territories (Bosnia and Hercegovina).

There were other causes of World War I, but keep in mind the casualties and the costs.  We are not talking about the cost of a wall that most likely cannot work.  I know that there are Americans that love to see Trump fight for the wall.  They love to see him fight, even if he fails (and he has failed a lot).  Gavrilo Princip was no prince and Trump is no king, but Trump has mesmerized his supporters.   Remember that Trump called the attempt to reach the United States an invasion.  The attempt to reach Palestine by Jews should be called an invasion as well.  It was an exhodus just like the recent caravans.  The poverty that Princip experienced is different and more modern, but it does exist.  Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but that mouth is not presidential (it is pestilential).   America should ask for the resignation of Donald Trump just as Puerto Rico has asked for the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló.  The army officer that chased Grivaldo Princip away at the moment when he tried to volunteer to join the military as the officer he spoke to was actually firing his pistol at a cigarette package resting on the head of soldier at that moment (a la William Tell).  I see the words Make America Great Again on that package and the bullet demolishes the word Again completely.  We do have a lot to be happy for in America, but Trump has increased the national debt which did not have to go up (there was no borrowing that caused it), he has now begged the rest of the free world to help him with Iran, he has neglected large segments of the poor, African-Americans, and others across America at a time of tremendous growth, he has stirred the pot of anti-Semitism, racism, and Islamophobia, he has had the wrong Christians around him, and he never belonged in the race to the top of American politics.  He was unfit for duty in the U.S. military and unfit today for mental reasons that we see in him.  Let’s have a real president and Make America Great finally.  “Send him back” to Trump Tower and file charges against him.

I wish it would bear fruit in making this important point about the way that Trump is fighting for “his” Americans and making US safer, but I know that changing the minds of people who either voted for him or intend to vote for him (at this moment) is very slow.  A large percentage of those people keep repeating Trump falsehoods and/or lies.  Let’s take up waterboarding which Trump was talking about a long time ago.  The Justice Department gave its legal opinion on that when George W. Bush was president and Bush tried to have the attorney general sign off on allowing waterboarding even though the legal department advised against it.  Today it is as plain as daylight that Trump controls the Justice Department through Attorney General Barr and we have not seen a turnaround which Trump talked about.  So I guess with all the terrorism taking place in the world today, Trump is satisfied and he is not fighting to reinstate waterboarding to protect US and our interests.  Now what kind of fighter is that?  And remember that part of Trump’s modus operandi is to make things difficult for people (other nations, the immigrants trying to come here, the press, the opposition, the workers in our federal government, and more).    The national aspirations of Grivaldo Princips in Palestine, the Ukraine, and other places around the world still exist.  Trump is surely not keeping US away from World War III, but an intelligent American people can prevent that war.  The conclusion really is that an unknown radical student or a poorly informed elected official can do great, unexpected harm to his nation and its people (and the world).

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand caused violent demonstrations by angry Croats and Muslims where shops were attacked and two Serbs were killed.  The Austro-Hungarian Army committed executions, mass murder and rape as well as towns were burned and looted.  There was other destruction of property and water wells were poisoned.

Looking at the top 100 places for crime in America, you could easily conclude that the red states are doing a lousy job of helping their people.

The Baltimore Sun is right!  Donald Trump is a modern version of You Dirty Rat.  Trump has helped make Baltimore worse.

It’s not just about Baltimore or Chicago as cities across the United States need more funding to be great or better than they have ever been.  This new gunfight at the O.K. Coral between Donald Trump and Elijah Cummings is very old stuff combined with Twitter to reach the public.  It does remind me of those old Your Momma or Your Mother jokes that we used to tell each other back in the 1950s.  One of my old best friends once told a joke in front of a large group in high school and that joke was directed at me.  He picked me out and said “your momma rides shotgun for the knish man on Orchard Street.”  I had no reply, but this was a teenager that I used to help in his business of delivering the New York Daily News Sunday edition in the housing project where we lived.  I got a quarter to walk around with him and protect his shopping cart filled with newspapers as he rang doorbells to deliver the news.  Everyone laughed, but it really wasn’t that funny to me.  After all he was talking about my mother.  But there was no revenge in my heart and I knew that he really did not have any corrupt intent.  Now Trump is another matter.  Just ask Mueller and Comey and others.

The people of Baltimore need more money to take care of the problems.  Funds could have been distributed nationwide (Baltimore included) so that the war against rats could be fought with the zero tolerance that Trump fights against on other fronts.  Billions of dollars that he earmarked for the military has now been set aside to pay for repairing his much-needed wall.  There may be lots of Americans who agree with him, including African Americans, but the money to fight the rat population can help prevent disease and is a part of disease control.  The big question is how to get a divided nation to Make America Great (and Baltimore).  The solution comes at the ballot in November 2020, but no change is going to take place quickly to take care of the rats and other problems without the support needed by other states.  There are Baltimores across our nation that need lots of help and Trump has not addressed the issue at all.  If we look at the ten most problematic places for crime in America, we see Bessemer, Alabama, East St. Louis, Illinois, Monroe, Louisiana, St. Louis, Missouri, Detroit, Michigan, Baltimore, Maryland, Memphis, Tennessee, Camden, New Jersey, Flint, Michigan, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  Chicago is number 57.  America does not need racial and personal attacks.  It needs help that it is not getting.

Congressman Elijah Cummings can take action and look for that support in Congress to divert badly needed funds back to communities that need the funds instead of watching the shuffling of funds by people like Trump who budget something and then prove that the funds weren’t needed (military funds taken for the wall).  I have been in close touch with Eric Stevenson who is exploring a run for Congress (15^th Congressional District) in the impoverished community of the South Bronx in New York City.  Stevenson proposes free G.E.D. testing for everyone in our nation and taking that test away from states’ rights controls.  He advocates for psychological evaluation for police (more than a few have just committed suicide in New York City), and a proposal is being worked out to have a new federal partnership between the federal government and local police as well.  Trump is surrounded by hypocrites, one of whom got funding for 1,000 police in New York City from Bill Clinton in the 1990s. 

Trump has prided himself for doing more for African Americans than anyone I know of in recent American history.  His attack on Baltimore has opened up a can of worms and rats do not eat worms.  This attack on Baltimore is an alarm for African Americans all over our nation and a great reason to unite to make things better. Trump cannot even stick to a consistent game plan.

Imagine an eighteen-year old student on work experience telling a General who was Minister of War, General Savov, that he is no longer general nor minister.  “The people have stripped you of power,” he told the general in Radomir Station.  This was about the proclamation of the Republic of Bulgaria.  It is surely reminiscent in some ways of Puerto Rico right now as the governor decided to resign after 12 days of protests.  And this kind of thing can happen anywhere, including Washington, D.C.  A shift in power was taking place as the Armistice that Americans have heard about and celebrate was in the works.  World War I came to an end and the losers were giving up power.  This youth was given the honor or order to read the Proclamation of the Radomir Republic to people including that general.

I could never imagine being involved in something like that at the age of 18, nor could I imagine seeing myself in that position throughout my life and career as a teacher in New York City.  I hope that high school students across our country (including Puerto Rico) and around the world give this some thought and that youth can be empowered in ways we might not have thought about.  In fact, during the Nazi occupation of France, students gave the Nazis a very hard time, contributing a very important opposition.

The Germans appealed to President Woodrow Wilson to arrange a peace in Europe.  Things were going bad in Europe for the Central powers.  It was reported that Bulgarian soldiers at the fighting front presented themselves to officers in their underwear, because their uniforms were miserable rags.  I wonder if this kind of thought has entered into the minds of American and European soldiers since World War II.  I repeat that things were bad.   Students of French may be able to translate these words which was an order from the Serbian Chief-of-Staff “Mettez en route quatorze officiers et huit soldats.”  The number fourteen and eight are mentioned for officers and soldiers to be put on a route, but that message was camouflaged or coded.  This order was for an 8 o’clock in the morning attack on the 14^th of September 2018 to commence firing. 

There were hidden guns all over at this front, planted there under great scrutiny at night and camouflaged during the day (and this took months to achieve).  The Germans never found out about this operation until it was too late.  The attack was swift and devastating and there were 1,800 guns pounding away in this mountain region which produced scary sound effects as well. There was no escape either as French and Serbian airplanes attacked men trying to escape.  The entire defense system was falling and failing completely due to no communication with headquarters.  No reinforcements could come to help.  And there were troop desertions.

There was something that you are not likely to see in any war today, except if a war breaks out in Montana.  Hundreds of horsemen appeared called the Chasseurs d’Afrique.  These were squadrons from Morocco.  Other areas of Serbia were being liberated by Muslims from Africa.  The commander General Jouinot-Gambetta was the nephew of Léon Gambetta who was a hero of the Paris Commune.  The German defeat was the result of chaos and revolution.  Hindenburg set the stage for the German appeal that led to Woodrow Wilson’s door.

Keep in mind that these armies in the Balkans were filled by men who left their homes and farms in particular to fight.  Food was in extremely short supply and there was mass starvation and disease.  Even horses and oxen in those places were non-existent.  Bulgaria had lost 101,224 men and had 144,026 wounded. Suddenly Bulgaria’s hope was America and Wilson’s plans for peace.  Also the United States while entering the war late did not declare war on Bulgaria.  In September 1918, Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria feared that the soldiers’ rebellion taking place would result in revolution.  In those days the people in power generally feared the peasants who were very abused by the people in power.  And there were lots of peasants defending Bulgaria. 

Alexander Stamboliiski, a jailed leader of the people, was removed from prison and agreed to help Tsar Ferdinand calm the people.  Within weeks things had escalated and on September 27, 1918, Stamboliiski was informed that he was now President of the Radomir Republic as the despotic Ferdinand was overthrown.  Order now fell to administrators, district officials, district officials, police commandants, mayors, and military officers taking orders from the new government.  That change was brief as the tide turned.  Fighting broke out and Stamboliiski had to flee, but soon he was restored to power and influence in one of the important organizations and was even made one of the delegates to Paris Peace Conference. 

Here is a closer look at that Paris Peace Conference than is offered in history school books.  Stamboliiski served time in jail for opposing Bulgaria’s participation in the War.  Now he was “shunned and reviled” by the Allies at the conference.  Success like so much of politics that we observe in our nation had to be “unjust, absurd, plain unworkable or better still all three,” writes Misha Glenny is his book about the Balkans.  The enemy nations were locked out of the talks.  President Wilson himself, who was a power broker, gave Brazil three delegates to the conference and Serbia and Belgium which fought hard to win the war got only two delegates.  Brazil provided two torpedo boats to the whole effort.  This shows you just how bad presidents can be in making certain decisions, but retaining lots of support among the American people.  The resulting failure from the Paris Peace Conference cannot be ignored by Americans even today. 

The politics of spectacle and dictatorship took place in Fiume.  There were balcony addresses and Roman salutes, blackshirted followers and repression.  Large amounts of castor oil were given to opponents that could even kill them.

D’Annunzio advocated an expansionist Italian foreign policy and applauded the invasion of Ethiopia.  The source of this information is Wikipedia.    There is a great video of D’Annunzio that shows how similar he was to Mussolini.  Look for it!

I really try to apply information in a new context, a modern context for today.  This is an integral part of education that is often badly missed in lots of students and people.  Even presidents and governors can be severely affected by a lack in this area of critical thinking.

The overthrow of Ferdinand was not exactly like the recent protest in Puerto Rico about Ricardo Rosselló, but where do the people expect to go.  I called for Rosselló to resign as I have been calling for Trump to resign.  Puerto Rico has a solid democratic process in place and it was able to force Rosselló out.  As you can see that it was democratic even though no election was held.  But will Puerto Rico go from the frying pan into the fire with the next governor?  We have to wait and see.  What Puerto Rico needs now is much more than the protest leadership is offering at this moment.  Puerto Rico needs a great awakening to help its people.  Is that part of the agenda of Ricky Martin?  Or is his work over?  And what about David Begnaud who I hope received my article on Ricky Martin through channels at CBS News?   How far will these men go to help pave a new road now for Puerto Ricans?  My outreach also includes Jorge Ramos and Jose Balart-Diaz.  Someone has to step forward to lead in the new direction. 

In less than twenty years, the world was struck by a man filled with hate but German support that was annexing other countries and territories and allowing the killing of Jews.  The Jews were made “illegal” in Germany and Austria and by then it was too late to flee to America.  Too late?  The immigration law that leads to arrest of immigrants crossing our border and that makes people think that the immigrants are “illegal” was put in place just before Hitler’s Nazi tenure.  The American law needs immediate termination and support from all Jews and that includes those Jews that will only extend condolence calls to others who die or commit suicide in this Trump tenure.  Even the uncle of Stephen Miller has called out the immigration hypocrisy of a man who we should all detest.  What will take place in the United States soon? 

When Fort Sumter was attacked leading to the Civil War there was warning of great danger.  A part of that danger was Bleeding Kansas as people were taking things into their own hands.  Today just hours or so apart, our nation has witnessed the Mueller testimony before Congress and the demonstrations that led to the resignation of Rosselló.  Do I crave Trump’s resignation?  For my new readers in our nation’s high schools, I say let’s get a bunch of sliders and head over to the White House.  I crave it the way John Brown craved abolition, but in a modern way.  The way of the ante-bellum South may be a thing of the past and things that happened in the Balkans lived on even until the Clinton years in Serbia.  We should be protesting all over this land.  The time is right!

Woodrow Wilson lacked the knowledge to deal with European politics as Trump lacks knowledge today.  The Republicans prevented Wilson from obtaining membership in the League of Nations and we can conclude that probably led to the resurgence of Germany along with the history that followed.  That history did include severe measures that caused great resentment in Germany that reached its apogee under Hitler.  We have a man in the White House that is enacting severe measures to make deals.  The deals can be made, but there will surely be a lot of resentment in countries including the Central American Triangle countries. 

At home instead of the abolitionists and the slave holding states, we have Antifa and the White Supremacists.  There has been enough blood spilled already and we don’t need “Bleeding Kansas” nor the attack on Fort Sumter.  Massive protests do preoccupy leaders and their supporters as history has shown.  Massive violence can happen.  In history we read about those reactionaries who push us into revolution and we can taste it today, but we may not be able to feel it yet.  And we have seen during the Trump Administration huge women’s rallies and those rallies were small with what could take place.  That is where the Puerto Rican protests against Rosselló were not “fake news” and combining those Puerto Ricans on the island with Puerto Ricans all over the United States and all Americans who are deeply frustrated by Trump, his people in the Department of Justice (which has reversed course and shows itself to be a department of injustice), and the Repugnican leadership in Congress may pave the way to situations that Trump cannot handle domestically. 

The aftermath of World War I produced an “armistice” and we can learn from history now to ensure an armistice right now.  Trump has been turning our democracy upside down in many explainable ways.  His link of personality to Rosselló and those advisors of Rosselló who betrayed so many groups that had suffered during and after the hurricane and throughout history is a fact.  The lack of funding for Puerto Rico which is another Trump-Rosselló link and Trump’s lies about giving Puerto Rico $92 billion will impact more across our nation as demonstrations take place.  The Mueller testimony in Congress and what happens now will direct people into action and there could be a great crack in the dam of politics as there was under Abraham Lincoln. 

We cannot compare Lincoln to Trump, but we can cite the impact on people at the time of Lincoln’s election (as we already know the impact of the election of Barack Obama) and the great impact on the people of Donald Trump.  Trump’s tweets alone have provided our nation with lots of fuel against the man.  Trump has to resign as his politics will only divide US much more.  We cannot have an “armistice” of politics, especially with a man who will take revenge against anyone, including his own people and Fox News. 

We do need now for high school students who will be returning to school shortly and who will preparing to vote in 2020 (whether that reality has set in or not), to discuss and get the facts straight.  To debate as well and call out each now before it is too late.   White Supremacists, for example, should take note of the fact that both Obama and Trump have Jewish family members.  Michelle Obama’s cousin is a chief rabbi among Black Jews here in America.  Know your facts because they are important.  In this article, there are lots of facts, but I have expressed many strong opinions based on my knowledge and experience.  My articles expose lots of things that are going on in America and should be read by our nation’s students (my articles as well in Jewish Business News).  Holocaust studies programs, mandated in many of our states, should read the articles that I have written about the Holocaust.  And find out why I was against Trump early on and continue to be against Trump (I was not a Hillary Clinton supporter).

Wilson fought hard just as Trump fights hard for his base.  Wilson’s moves led to disaster for the world and Trump will be a disaster as well.  Students need to discuss the economy, Trump politics, and diplomacy more.  I know that they can do this and share their findings with students that they attend school with.  FACEBOOK is a great way to share things with people as communities get more organized.  Students can help the world again.  I am not trying to set up a university.  Trump did that and it was a fraud and he had to pay back millions of dollars.  So let’s be informal, even as students go back to school.  I know they don’t want to take on any additional work or study, but let’s save our nation from disaster together. 

Let’s take note of one thing here concerning Donald Trump.  We know that he is paying attention to all kinds of news and that people around him are doing what I am essentially doing right here.  I am waking people up to important history and news.  Let me cite a very important example of just how slow Trump is (and this should concern US). There has been no talk, no action, no tweet by Trump on this issue.  This kind of issue presents serious social and economic problems (Consider also that with a stroke of a pen, Trump has already cost Americans $4.1 billion dollars that has been added to the national debt.  The students of America will be paying that money back for a long, long time.  And if you family supported Trump, you will be indebted to him for a long, long time as well).  Families and friends are severely affected as well as law enforcement.  Five police officers have recently committed suicide in New York, all of them members of New York’s Finest or NYPD.  There has been no comment that I know of made by Donald Trump and no call to give help to police.  I’m not talking about one cop, five of them.  You take over.  Tell people about it and start a conversation on that.  And may this article wake you up to the great feeling of studying history.  Blue Lives Do Matter.

Join the Force 2020 DDT now.

The Garlic Festival calls attention to the need to know people better in our own communities, potential shooters.

And lots more shootings (hate shootings and more).  Of course America is not the land of mass shootings, but it can be painted that way.  I can behave at times the way that Trump behaves, putting out worthless messages that appeal to my base.  But we do have lots of mass shootings.   It also speaks of not believing that law enforcement has our back when things get reported.  Training and taking immediate action when things get reported are critical to saving lives.  And there are or could be lots of parallels between the Parkland Massacre and other shootings where our protectors have not done their best to protect us.  I have raised questions here that are important everywhere and I have read the strongly worded legal complaint made in the case of Carmen Schentrup who was killed in the Parkland Massacre.  This is the real story of Forty Days Later as there were very serious warnings about Nikolas Cruz forty days before he entered the property of Marjorie Stoneham Douglas High School.  Whether it is the Tree of Life or Viva Las Vegas, many shootings can be prevented.

How do we know the F.B.I. has not been making mistakes in our communities?  We learn from the law and cases that are taken against our government.

A warning was issued and then the wrong thing happened forty days later. 

Carmen Schentrup and others were victims of a massacre that could have and should have been prevented.

The South District of Florida will be the venue for the case that sparked our nation and the world on February 14, 2018 in Parkland.

The United States is the defendant in this matter since the F.B.I. is employed by the United States and the Attorney General will be involved in this since the F.B.I. is part of the Department of Justice.

Nikolas Cruz who made no attempt to conceal his identity was flagged by people who knew him and by others that Cruz corresponded on the internet. 

There was an important and urgent call and the F.B.I. could have taken action, alerted the office in Miami, provided information to local law enforcement and the MSDHS which is the high school that the world learned about.

Cruz had expressed an affinity for ISIS.  The F.B.I. is designated to fight against “terrorism” here at home and not just fight against other types of criminal or potentially criminal conduct.  The F.B.I. even has a guidebook on how to prevent mass shootings and that guide book details that the general public including people in contact with the person suspected of being a great risk is mentioned.  That includes fellow students, for example.  In the mass shootings that have been investigated, the shooter has told two people in advance that the shooting is going to take place and that takes place in almost 60 percent of shootings. 

The F.B.I. has admitted publicly on occasions that it made a mistake or mistakes in processing the information provided by tipsters about the Parkland shooter.

The lawyers for Carmen Schentrup’s family are seeking damages against the federal government for the pain and suffering for the survivors, beneficiaries, and heirs.  Loss of support in money and kind.  Loss of net accumulations.  Loss of value of life.

  Funeral expenses and/or other damages that the survivors and/or the beneficiaries that may be applicable under law.

In press conferences and in Congressional testimony the F.B.I. has admitted its failures and now the court case will proceed.

You can read the entire complaint right here and talk about it in your communities. 

I have to add one more thing to protect people across America.  A couple of years ago I was informed that a murder case had not been closed in Chicago and today I found out that two mothers fighting the gun violence in Chicago were gunned down on the streets.  Fortunately the woman that I had helped was not one of the victims, but she told back then that she feared for her life.  I took her fears to police headquarters in Chicago, because I have a close relationship with that office.  Superintendent Johnson has to be thanked for that.  The killing of the two women in Chicago has been investigated by the police and it was determined that those women were just in the wrong place at the wrong time as the shooters were after someone else.  On the other hand, it could easily appear that someone planned the perfect crime to kill two women, especially if those women feared death and had been threatened  Police detectives assigned to cases have to do a great job and that means communicating at the highest level with the family of the victims.  People who give those detectives a low rating for effort based on hard evidence should be heard by police departments all over our nation to keep people safe.  And people are being threatened after they have lost a loved one and we have to prevent murders which result from the gap between what people on the street know and the effectiveness of the individual detectives assigned to the case.  And this is a case where nobody has been arrested to date.  This leads people to conclude that they may be able to walk into a place, shoot it up, and get away without being identified. 

Maryland ranks at the bottom in the nation along with New York, Connecticut, Alabama, Mississippi, Michigan, Illinois, and Florida in diploma attainment for African Americans.

Unemployment in Baltimore City has dropped from 5.5 percent to 4.9 percent in the last year of record, but 4.9 percent is way too high for Baltimore as it struggles to reduce crime, especially since unemployment in the United States stood at 3.6 percent in April 2019.  Trump’s attack on Baltimore did not include the fact that unemployment is too high there.  Period.  Trump is hiding the fact that Baltimore needs more jobs.  And Fox News just helped Trump by its interview with Governor Larry Hogan.  Jobs are on the way because of an infrastructure need that was mentioned by the governor (a tunnel), but Trump did not mention that in his attack as he probably did not know about it. 

Governor Larry Hogan does have some redeeming values as his history shows us, but he is in charge of the State of Maryland.  Who does he think he is fooling?  He talks about the failure of the schools, but the State of Maryland is responsible for high school equivalency testing in the state and sharing the blame or success shows transparency and honesty, but the main question is what does the governor know about G.E.D. testing in his state?  He should have stayed away from Fox News, but we know that is the place to blast Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore even as he tries to moderate things.  He can be fair, but this is a serious subject.  With 6,3888 passers on the G.E.D. in 2013 and with things getting worse after that, we can ascertain where the government of Maryland before and during his administration has gone wrong.  At that time African Americans made 43 percent of the test takers and out of those test takers 57 percent were passers.  That gives us a grand total of 1,522 passers during the year which is about 25 percent of the test takers.  I cannot tell you the numbers for Baltimore but I wish we could ask the Department of Education of Maryland to provide the statistics for each zip code in Elijah Cummings’ district so we could know.  There is more than a 25 percent gap between Whites and African Americans on the G.E.D. test in 2013.  Now that is something to take into one of the first meetings with the Governor’s Association.

My point is that those numbers reflect sharing and caring about the people of Baltimore, in this case only the African Americans.  We could show statistics for White people, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans as well in this manner.  It is disappointing that a leader of our nation would say anything about the great state of Maryland, especially a state with a Republican governor.  My conclusion must be that the governor is doing a pretty bad job since Democrats are attacked for the same things when they control the government.  But where is the help for Maryland, particularly for the population discussed including the unemployed and the criminals?  How many people returning from prisons have obtained their diplomas annually who walked away from prison diploma-less?  The public should not be judging from a Fox News presentation and the staff of Fox News reveals itself, as well, for lack of knowledge.

I say that every member of every family should walk to church in Baltimore with a Bible in his or her hand, but also with a diploma at home.  Those diplomas mean jobs and better jobs and we see that the poverty rate provided by Fox News is much greater than that across our nation (22.4 percent).  Watch the video on Fox News and please send this to Fox News so that it can learn much more.  Where are the great jobs creation that Trump has been creating?  Where have Trump and the administration of Larry Hogan been for the last two and a half years?  And keep in mind that on Friday Governor Hogan became the head of the National Governors Association.

Questions.

What has the governor done to boost the passing rate on the G.E.D. of African Americans?

What new testing centers has he provided since he took office to help everyone?  And additional testing seats for all so that people can advance their education.

What has he learned about this important diploma from other states that achieve much higher success rates?  Sharing and caring are essential.  Talk is cheap.

Is Governor Hogan even open to discussing this matter with churches and local groups without selecting representatives the way that Donald Trump does?  A discussion is needed where all groups can participate.

And get this.  I look forward to hearing the governor issue a statement where he explains just how many G.E.D. diplomas have been earned by the people of Maryland since he took office.  And how many men and women have earned their diplomas in state prisons?

If you haven’t read Trump: Make Baltimore Great yet, here it is with solutions.  Maybe Hogan can return to Fox News to talk about these things to a national audience?

Cities across our nation have gun buy backs, but Baltimore has to emphasize putting down the guns and earning a G.E.D. now.  I also strongly recommend that all three high school equivalencies should be testing in Maryland now so that more diplomas can be earned.  I will provide more information on that another time.  And one more thing.  This is information that you will not hear during the presidential debates unless things change immediately.

School failures combined with church failures have affected significant portions of our population.  In the 19^th century throughout the world there was great amounts of crime before there were even schools.  Most of the governors since Spiro Agnew in Maryland have been Democrats, but if the Republican governors showed no concern or even “deliberate indifference” to the great needs of its people at the state level, then what proof do those Republicans have that things would have been better if Democrats have not been elected.  There is a hall of shame for everyone in office once things are properly exposed.  Communities also think of that third-grade reading score which they feel is that “pipeline to prison” without even thinking clearly that the game is not over in the third inning.  Seventeen years old students could have taken the G.E.D. test in massive doses instead of the weak numbers that we noticed in 2013 under a Democratic governor, but the numbers were also built up by a Republican who had previously been in office.  It would have been great to say that Maryland had governors who knew what to do and today the people need a governor who knows what to do.  That just isn’t the situation right now as Baltimore’s youth pick up guns instead of their G.E.D.  The governors could have been showing the mayor of Baltimore what to do and that never happened.

Governor Hogan could have mentioned this in his Fox News interview as well “To this day, they thank me. Governor, thank you for caring about the city, thank you for coming in. And the fact that we keep coming back, we have programs to help returning citizens and people that are formerly incarcerated that we’re providing job training, workforce development, trying to put them into jobs so that they don’t have to resort to crime and go back to jail.”  I found the governor’s important quote about fighting crime in Baltimore, but on Fox News that type of comment takes a back seat to promoting crime without showing the progress.  And we want to know from the governor what increases have taken place in those programs since the previous administration and how effective those programs really are. 

The census will be accomplished soon and that is where the G.E.D. statistics have come from.  The four-year graduation rate from high school in Baltimore City in 2018 was nearly 72.2 percent (which has been steady and significant rise in the graduation rate and that is not bad when compared with other similar cities.  Education does help reduce crime levels, but violent crime is also about those guns on the streets.  So a major part of the problem really is in the governor’s hands to act on.  You are not going to hear that on Fox News.

Ricky Martin is helping the Puerto Rican people but leadership means staying the course.  And he knows that Puerto Ricans have suffered a lot over the decades.  So what is the leadership about?  There should be a team that talks to each other by phone, internet, FACEBOOK, and more.  Boston manager Alex Cora should be part of that team.  Luis Fonsi must join as well.  J Lo if she has time?  They have to learn all the facts about Puerto Rico.  And they have to unite with the people for the long term work that is really needed.

In an article that I just wrote about poverty in the United States, Puerto Rico has a 44 percent poverty rate and the United States only 12.3 percent.  It’s very important to have good government, but that is not likely to be achieved in the near future.  And how many Puerto Ricans are living from check to check?  When a report was made about Puerto Ricans in New York around 2005 by Assemblyman Peter Rivera of the Bronx, things were not good.  About 1 in every 5 females suffered from depression and had suicidal thoughts and that percent was similar to Puerto Ricans on the island.  Poverty has plagued Puerto Ricans in New York for decades as other Hispanic groups have progressed.  This is certainly no When You Wish Upon A Star moment for Puerto Rico and its people.

I just received a message to join the group of Maria de Lourdes Santiago by Assemblyman Jose Rivera (I like Jose but).  I went to her FACEBOOK and I noticed that I had messaged her on May 30, 2016 or just over three years ago. My message was never answered.  Do I have to say anymore?  Part of what I wrote appears in an old article that was published after my visit to the Dominican Republic.  That article now appears on my website on the page called La Fuerza 2020 DDT.  Here is that article.  I had a meeting in the American embassy in Santo Domingo with Ambassador Raul Yzaguirre that really went nowhere.  A

In general we should find out from the government of Puerto Rico and its people just what other elected officials who are Puerto Rican (on the mainland) have contributed to Puerto Rico in terms of ideas that have helped the people?  The SOMOS EL FUTURO Conference is part of the historical record that could reveal what one government learns from another and I am not referring to corruption.  Great ideas that can be put into practice.  Solutions.  This is an international problem that I refer to here and I have asked the governments of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala to come together to discuss solutions to their problems.  Puerto Rico could join in if those nations take my suggestion seriously.  The failure of Puerto Rico and the countries mentioned here is the collective failure of all its people.  Corruption is everywhere and I have been critical of Puerto Rico’s government for a long time.  And we cannot suddenly put blind trust in anyone in politics.  That’s why we need a major discussion about where this situation will lead because political parties everywhere have failed us.

Donald Trump just lied again about US giving Puerto Rico $92 billion.  That kind of politics has to be addressed strongly by all Puerto Ricans including Trump’s supporters.  When Maria caused great damage, I was on the phone with Kenneth Mc Clintock who informed me that his assessment of the situation was that New York’s governor could help by providing water filters.  And within days after I contacted Cuomo’s office a donation of $1 million was provided for water filters.  Around that time a strong supporter of Donald Trump in Florida challenged me to donate a lot of money to aid small farms in Puerto Rico.  Food for the future is important, but there was lots of great work to feed Puerto Ricans who could become sick and die under the conditions that were present for a long time.  All of this tells us that we do not need cameo performances from anyone.  We need long term commitment.  And nobody should be building up his or her brand as some Puerto Ricans have achieved.  The team has to learn and grow and act like political or elected leaders where a staff provides information to the legislator or the governor.  That is where people who can make a difference come into play.  This is all achieved through access, not selecting friends or waiting around for friends to show up.

School will be starting soon in Puerto Rico and students have to be kept on track so they won’t fall behind.  The debate over charter schools has divided people.  Great leadership is needed now.  Here is my article about Governor Rosselló attending the N.A.A.C.P. Convention last year where that organization granted support for Puerto Rican Statehood and then rescinded it.  My views are very well known to the N.A.A.C.P. on charter schools, but the Puerto Rican government never opened a dialogue with me about charter schools since the governor wished to open more charter schools.  And here is my Latino Lives Matter article published in Jewish Business News.  And who wouldn’t want the children to learn various Romance languages so that they can have more opportunities in the future?  I can tell all of Puerto Rico that when I tried to find out about the new high school equivalency test that Puerto Rico started to use, no information was provided to me.  Throughout the 21st Century up to now, the census taken in 2000 revealed that a million adults in Puerto Rico needed a diploma and in some years the Education Department granted around 1,000 diplomas in a year when a decade earlier the government had granted well over 20,000 diplomas in a year.  The on-going financial crisis contributed to that great decline and in some years Puerto Rico would not even provide the data for each year.  In addition the G.E.D. administrator could not be found by the president of the G.E.D. Testing Service or by me.  And I tried lots of times.  And Puerto Rico has to learn more about parent involvement in the schools.  What has the attendance been like at meetings and how are the Title One funds used?  Are high school graduates failing their college placement exams in large numbers?  New York was well known for not preparing students well for college, including under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  I learned just a few years ago that the local community college near my home finally figured out how to help much greater numbers of students pass the college placement exam and it’s the same way that we provided help to students to pass the G.E.D.  

Puerto Ricans need new services now.  The people of Puerto Rico must have an open discussion of everything that matters in their lives.  This discussion has been needed for a long time, but once the great emergency resulting from Hurricane Maria hit the island, that discussion deserved to be put on hold to save lives and protect people.  Once things cleared and matters were under control, that discussion should have taken place instead of conducting business as usual.  I tried to get New York State to copy a model that was agreed to in Florida.  That model was that Puerto Ricans arriving on the mainland could obtain a Puerto Rican High School diploma in each state by satisfying the requirements of education of Puerto Rico.  I appealed to people in government here in New York including the governor and the borough president of the Bronx.  Nobody followed up that discussion that I started.  This is the way people in government almost always prefer to act.  I call it the corruption of the human mind.  I also contacted the Fortaleza about this matter.  You can access the critical information about this on my Puerto Rican Help After Hurricane Maria page on my website.  You will also hear a telephone conference call that I did with the help of Kenneth McClintock, former senator and secretary of state of Puerto Rico, and others.  This is the moment for much more in Puerto Rico than impeachment of the governor.  This is the moment for revolution by educating the people much more and demanding much better staffing in government.

In a New York Daily News editorial just now it was written to “forget about” Rosselló and “help the people” at this time.  The Daily News has its reasons.  Rosselló is toxic and should resign.  Trump is a major concern of the editorial and Trump is more toxic and he should resign.  What I hope for is this.  I hope that Ricky Martin will make a long-term commitment to helping the Puerto Rican people long after this major controversy surrounding the Fortaleza is over.  Let’s open the discussion now.

Ricky Martin is helping the Puerto Rican people but leadership means staying the course.  And he knows that Puerto Ricans have suffered a lot over the decades.  So what is the leadership about?  There should be a team that talks to each other by phone, internet, FACEBOOK, and more.  Boston manager Alex Cora should be part of that team.  Luis Fonsi must join as well.  J Lo if she has time?  They have to learn all the facts about Puerto Rico.  And they have to unite with the people for the long term work that is really needed.

In an article that I just wrote about poverty in the United States, Puerto Rico has a 44 percent poverty rate and the United States only 12.3 percent.  It’s very important to have good government, but that is not likely to be achieved in the near future.  And how many Puerto Ricans are living from check to check?  When a report was made about Puerto Ricans in New York around 2005 by Assemblyman Peter Rivera of the Bronx, things were not good.  About 1 in every 5 females suffered from depression and had suicidal thoughts and that percent was similar to Puerto Ricans on the island.  Poverty has plagued Puerto Ricans in New York for decades as other Hispanic groups have progressed.  This is certainly no When You Wish Upon A Star moment for Puerto Rico and its people.

I just received a message to join the group of Maria de Lourdes Santiago by Assemblyman Jose Rivera (I like Jose but).  I went to her FACEBOOK and I noticed that I had messaged her on May 30, 2016 or just over three years ago. My message was never answered.  Do I have to say anymore?  Part of what I wrote appears in an old article that was published after my visit to the Dominican Republic.  That article now appears on my website on the page called La Fuerza 2020 DDT.  Here is that article.  I had a meeting in the American embassy in Santo Domingo with Ambassador Raul Yzaguirre that really went nowhere.  And you can read my latest article about where things have gone wrong.

In general we should find out from the government of Puerto Rico and its people just what other elected officials who are Puerto Rican (on the mainland) have contributed to Puerto Rico in terms of ideas that have helped the people?  The SOMOS EL FUTURO Conference is part of the historical record that could reveal what one government learns from another and I am not referring to corruption.  Great ideas that can be put into practice.  Solutions.  This is an international problem that I refer to here and I have asked the governments of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala to come together to discuss solutions to their problems.  Puerto Rico could join in if those nations take my suggestion seriously.  The failure of Puerto Rico and the countries mentioned here is the collective failure of all its people.  Corruption is everywhere and I have been critical of Puerto Rico’s government for a long time.  And we cannot suddenly put blind trust in anyone in politics.  That’s why we need a major discussion about where this situation will lead because political parties everywhere have failed us.

Donald Trump just lied again about US giving Puerto Rico $92 billion.  That kind of politics has to be addressed strongly by all Puerto Ricans including Trump’s supporters.  When Maria caused great damage, I was on the phone with Kenneth Mc Clintock who informed me that his assessment of the situation was that New York’s governor could help by providing water filters.  And within days after I contacted Cuomo’s office a donation of $1 million was provided for water filters.  Around that time a strong supporter of Donald Trump in Florida challenged me to donate a lot of money to aid small farms in Puerto Rico.  Food for the future is important, but there was lots of great work to feed Puerto Ricans who could become sick and die under the conditions that were present for a long time.  All of this tells us that we do not need cameo performances from anyone.  We need long term commitment.  And nobody should be building up his or her brand as some Puerto Ricans have achieved.  The team has to learn and grow and act like political or elected leaders where a staff provides information to the legislator or the governor.  That is where people who can make a difference come into play.  This is all achieved through access, not selecting friends or waiting around for friends to show up.

School will be starting soon in Puerto Rico and students have to be kept on track so they won’t fall behind.  The debate over charter schools has divided people.  Great leadership is needed now.  Here is my article about Governor Rosselló attending the N.A.A.C.P. Convention last year where that organization granted support for Puerto Rican Statehood and then rescinded it.  My views are very well known to the N.A.A.C.P. on charter schools, but the Puerto Rican government never opened a dialogue with me about charter schools since the governor wished to open more charter schools.  And here is my Latino Lives Matter article published in Jewish Business News.  And who wouldn’t want the children to learn various Romance languages so that they can have more opportunities in the future?  I can tell all of Puerto Rico that when I tried to find out about the new high school equivalency test that Puerto Rico started to use, no information was provided to me.  Throughout the 21st Century up to now, the census taken in 2000 revealed that a million adults in Puerto Rico needed a diploma and in some years the Education Department granted around 1,000 diplomas in a year when a decade earlier the government had granted well over 20,000 diplomas in a year.  The on-going financial crisis contributed to that great decline and in some years Puerto Rico would not even provide the data for each year.  In addition the G.E.D. administrator could not be found by the president of the G.E.D. Testing Service or by me.  And I tried lots of times.  And Puerto Rico has to learn more about parent involvement in the schools.  What has the attendance been like at meetings and how are the Title One funds used?  Are high school graduates failing their college placement exams in large numbers?  New York was well known for not preparing students well for college, including under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  I learned just a few years ago that the local community college near my home finally figured out how to help much greater numbers of students pass the college placement exam and it’s the same way that we provided help to students to pass the G.E.D.  

Puerto Ricans need new services now.  The people of Puerto Rico must have an open discussion of everything that matters in their lives.  This discussion has been needed for a long time, but once the great emergency resulting from Hurricane Maria hit the island, that discussion deserved to be put on hold to save lives and protect people.  Once things cleared and matters were under control, that discussion should have taken place instead of conducting business as usual.  I tried to get New York State to copy a model that was agreed to in Florida.  That model was that Puerto Ricans arriving on the mainland could obtain a Puerto Rican High School diploma in each state by satisfying the requirements of education of Puerto Rico.  I appealed to people in government here in New York including the governor and the borough president of the Bronx.  Nobody followed up that discussion that I started.  This is the way people in government almost always prefer to act.  I call it the corruption of the human mind.  I also contacted the Fortaleza about this matter.  You can access the critical information about this on my Puerto Rican Help After Hurricane Maria page on my website.  You will also hear a telephone conference call that I did with the help of Kenneth McClintock, former senator and secretary of state of Puerto Rico, and others.  This is the moment for much more in Puerto Rico than impeachment of the governor.  This is the moment for revolution by educating the people much more and demanding much better staffing in government.

In a New York Daily News editorial just now it was written to “forget about” Rosselló and “help the people” at this time.  The Daily News has its reasons.  Rosselló is toxic and should resign.  Trump is a major concern of the editorial and Trump is more toxic and he should resign.  What I hope for is this.  I hope that Ricky Martin will make a long-term commitment to helping the Puerto Rican people long after this major controversy surrounding the Fortaleza is over.  Let’s open the discussion now.

Eric Stevenson had a plan to get NYPD more psychological help and it was turned down by the NY State Assembly.  Check it out here.  It is time to come together and learn from the mistakes of the past. 

I have covered a vast amount of territory in American politics including talking to Barack Obama on the phone just before he made his historic speech to the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.  I had met Senator Chuck Schumer prior to that at an event which was held at the City College of New York.  Internationally I have gotten to know two presidents of Latin-America, Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic and Elías Antonio Saca of El Salvador. Eric Stevenson watched me as I attended to his community in a housing project, bringing one of my best sidekicks with me to the event (William Bell father of Sean Bell who was killed by NYPD the night before his wedding to Nicole Paultre.

 Eric came to City Hall the day of my demonstration to save the G.E.D. test money and spoke to me, asking me to return to the Bronx to help his community.  He said that the community wanted me to come back, but by that time Eric was in trouble.  And one more thing extremely positive of Eric Stevenson was talking to me at one of the major events in Albany and telling me to come with him.  He moved me into the very important labor breakfast and sat me next to Lillian Roberts the president of D.C. 37, the largest union in the city.  I reached out to him and thanked him for the collaboration.  I have no doubt that Eric Stevenson can help his community.

Eric can bring people together.  He has the vision to accomplish that.  Among the things that he tried to do in 2011 was a bill to require more help for police officers.  Those were tense days between police and communities, but help was not given.  We hope to change things right now.  It is my view which I have expressed in articles that if a person cannot say Black Lives Matter and makes an attempt to bring all people under the same umbrella, something is wrong.  For me Jewish Lives Matter and I had to sit and watch as massacres took place against Jews in the United States.  Blue Lives Matter as I sit and learn about the three suicides in New York City.  Our men and women in blue still need help.  And their families have to learn the truth immediately.  Prejudices (racism) have to be put aside and we have to realize now just how people divide US.  They are all equal to me and easy to say.  Blue Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter.

Just the other day a woman over thirty got my kind of G.E.D. help.  Judging from her last name I thought that she could be Puerto Rican, but I was wrong.  She was from La Vega in the Dominican Republic she told me.  I told her how I had been in the very beautiful town of Jarabacoa in the mountains and she said that was where she was from.  She did achieve her high school diploma there, but she told me that the college there held her diploma and did not return it to her.  I will do everything in my power to make sure that either the diploma is returned to her or that she will receive a notarized diploma so that she can get jobs with her diploma and enter college here (she only needs to pass the TOFL test).  Eric Stevenson and I are making plans to help the entire district which is the poorest part of the Bronx.  No community will be left out and I hope that my I Have A Dream of mobilizing communities will finally begin after 19 years of trying to help people. 

People from all nations and religions will be able to get help in the South Bronx soon.  Martin is now connected with the Bangladesh community in New York City.  People can visit his website to see his collaboration to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. 

My work as a teacher brought me in touch with the youth of New York City fighting drug abuse in both Daytop Village and Elmcor.  I was the last G.E.D. teacher in the Astoria and South Jamaica Housing Projects.  I worked at both Offsite Educational Services and Auxiliary Services for High Schools.  And among other things I was known for fighting for my students and providing important articles in El Diario-La Prensa, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday.  I am a strong critic of people in government who have failed the people of New York City even today I am very critical.  One of my recent interventions is in the fight over elite school seats.

Former New York State Assemblyman Eric Stevenson Expected to Launch Exploratory Committee for Congressman of the 15 Congressional District

It is my constitutional right to run for office.  I am a man of conviction, but the public knows about my conviction (the truth behind it must be known as well).  So that is an issue, but I declare my intention to run because there are lots of public issues to address and hundreds of thousands of people who need help that has not been forthcoming.  Regardless of the past, Congress needs a strong voice with an open mind filling an important seat which I will fill with ideas that we can act on together.  The first days of this campaign will shock people as solutions will come forward that will help people immediately.  The United States government has passed criminal justice reform, but in its haste it surely has left out key components from that federal reform.  Jobs are needed to fight recidivism and if people do not have jobs they need other opportunities including business skills.  Did you know that they cannot take a business class in New York State programs unless you have a high school diploma or high school equivalency?   Why should people be held back this way, especially people trying to turn their lives around after being in jail.  And the one size fits all diploma needed to qualify for jobs where the job is sweeping floors is excessive and disqualifies lots of qualified people.  Here is where the heart and brain can make for much better government than we have had in the past.

Eric Stevenson is an experienced grassroots candidate to represent Bronx residents in Congress.  Grassroots means that all people will be able to approach Eric to share their solutions.  Grassroots means that new programs and outreaches will help more people including those living in poverty in the Bronx.  If you go back to even past presidential election campaigns, the focus was principally for the middle class and we cannot continue to make the mistake again that the poor will be left out.  Crime statistics are largely poverty statistics and used to be just that even back in the beginning of the 20^th Century.  Education was and still is the key to success.  The children of immigrants can count on continued support as they compete for seats in elite schools, the children of all parents can count on new support as Eric will fight for doubling the number of elite seats through annexes, parents can count on Eric to do more for the uneducated.  Did you know that under the stimulus package of President Barack Obama people who took the G.E.D. test in another state with that money and additional money will permit more New Yorkers to take the test and move more rapidly along the path to better jobs and higher education.  And English language projects will be explained to everyone so that families can be more efficient in communication in English. 

And although there are vital issues that will save the world from self-destruction, unlike other candidates that have been selected from the party point of view, Eric Stevenson has the party in mind, but his constituents are foremost in his mind.  He will be there to fight for infrastructure jobs for his congressional district and serve the district better than anyone has served before.  Just spread the word to your friends and neighbors and start talking to him.  As Congressman Stevenson he will train his staff to attain the highest level of communication with his constituents, especially as amazing solutions and proposals are revealed.  The key issues involving education, the rights of men and women, taxation, keeping New Yorkers safe, rising debt, and justice require a fighter, but a fighter who has the vision to help more people in our district.  Let the campaign begin right now and the people will soon learn truths about people in power who have not done enough and about new people who are challenging but still lack the vision to help our communities to progress.

Eric Stevenson has strong commitments to education, justice, and community that can affect large sections of the South Bronx that are still not being served properly.  Just several years ago it was reported that 25 percent of adults in the city of New York do not even have a high school equivalency and the South Bronx may have the lions share of those statistics since it has great poverty.  There is a huge battle taking place concerning the schools and even though the Congress does not control the school matters, getting the best advice and help from Congress Does Matter.  Empowering both the children and their parents is one of the goals of Eric Stevenson for Congress.  Great change can be achieved in the South Bronx.

Contact Eric Stevenson 646-455-9407

Martin Danenberg 631-807-0820

No sooner had the ink dried on my Laura Ingraham article when I noticed the article on Algemeiner about anti-Semitism and the quick action of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio. His actions show even more that shutting down two Polish anti-Semites is important and his work reveals just how complicit Fox News, Donald Trump, others in the Catholic Church, and supporters of Fox News and Trump have been since the Campaign of 2016.
This was taken from Algemeiner and should cause even Jews to reflect more about their own opinions.

This was taken from Algemeiner and should cause even Jews to reflect more about their own opinions.

Rodriguez emphasized that “anyone who offers a message that discredits the horror of the Holocaust, and the genocide which sought to extinguish the entire Jewish people, is not welcome at our parishes or academies.” She added that Bishop DiMarzio “regularly remembers in prayer the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and offers intentions for peace in our world.”

Both Donald Trump and Laura Ingraham objected to the recent FACEBOOK decision to remove right–wingers. I have been writing that Trump and many others have been stirring up hate, but even Jews and influential Jewish organizations have refused to see the light.

Hateful speech was just stopped in Brooklyn, but the White House has been full of hateful speech which has been applauded as Trump hides behind his Jewish family, friends, and the American flag and military.

It is time to reject Trump, right-wingers, much of Fox News, and institutions and organizations that remain silent or blame others as Hitler himself did.

We should establish right now American Councils across the United States to open the discussion up to the American people. We cannot count on the candidates. It is up to people like Bishop DiMarzio and others who truly understand and who can get things done. Trump keeps failing as he appeals to his base. Perhaps Brooklyn, where I was born, will establish that first council to lead the way. Trump need not apply! Please contact me for my input.