Time to Think

  Birthright                                          #343 By Hank Silverberg   Commentary U.S. Constitution Fourteenth Amendment   Section 1 All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. There really is no room for interpretation here. And let's be clear, the U. S. Supreme Court decision this past week did NOT do away with Birthright Citizenship. The ruling simply said that Federal District Courts can not impose a nationwide injunction on ANY issue...

  War?                                                             #342 By Hank Silverberg   Commentary:  The attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was inevitable. The Israelis and the U.S. have been talking about it for years, even while they negotiated with Iran over getting rid of its nuclear program and imposed sanctions as a penalty for not doing so.  The threat of an Islamic bomb has hung over that region of the world since the 1980's and was heightened after Pakistan produced one. But Pakistan's action was mainly to counter India's creation of a bomb and not aimed at Israel or the west.  Ronald Reagan bombed Muhammar Kaddafi's headquarters and other targets in 1986, in part because Kaddafi was supposed to be working on a nuclear weapon and presented a threat to world stability.  It has been talk...

No Kings, Big Protests, Overreaction                      #341 By Hank Silverberg  "No Kings!" That was the cry that brought as many as seven million people out to protest in more than 2,000 communities from large venues like Los Angeles and New York City to small towns like Fredericksburg, Virginia. In general, they were mostly peaceful, with only a few confrontations, mostly on the west coast. What the demonstrations made clear is that there are millions of people very unhappy with some major policies from the Trump administration after just six months in office.  For some it was the insidious ICE fishing expeditions where they rounded up the usual suspects and sorted out who is actually a criminal later, while punishing people who did nothing wrong but crossed a border to look for a better life.    For others it's the massive cuts in federal spending that have ruined some lives already, and could hurt million...

  Xenophobia and Trump    #340 By Hank Silverberg I am second generation American.  My parents were born here, my grandparents were not. As I have written before in this blog, two-thirds of the people now residing in the United States are less than three generations removed from their immigrant ancestors. President Trump was reminded of that this past week when the newly elected German Chancellor, Friedrich Mertz, visited the White House. Mr. Mertz presented Mr. Trump with a gold framed birth certificate of the President's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, who was born in Germany in 1869 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1885. Mertz said, "it's a small present to remind you of your family."  Friedrich Trump left Germany to avoid the draft (irony?), but was able to come to the United States because of chain migration--his sister already lived here and the U.S. needed foreign labor.    It was a trend that cannot be forgotten or shoved aside. Immigrants built thi...