We the People: Introducing New Graphics and Branding!

Okay, I admit, I'm pitiful. I am a designer, but I am not a developer. I have no idea how to get the url for my blogger Twitter card without first posting my Twitter card image, so that I can then use that url to create the Twitter card. I've changed the name of my blog and updated the branding. Here is the big reveal. Now I have to implement these files. Hopefully it will all be up by the time people start viewing it.

We the People

So here is  a post to show off my new Header, Logo, and Favicon for my newly rebranded blog.

I love the new styles. Unfortunately, all the previous links I created, broke, the minute I changed the site name. Sigh . . . better now than a year down the road after I had grown.

Logo

This should show up in any links to my general blog page on Twitter or Facebook. Hopefully I will have this working soon.

 

Header 

You can also see this ABOVE this post in all its glory.

Favicon

This is the little tiny icon that shows up next to the url or on the browser tab. It almost the same as the Logo, only it will be tiny, so I had to make it high contrast.

Great American Betrayer

My aim with this post is to take individual cases of Trump's betrayal of America and break them down into clear points that readers can use in dialog with fellow citizens to express how Trump is unfit for office. I hope these conversations can be done in a non-partisan way. Even though people are dug in to their side, it may be helpful to remind people, as the crimes become more difficult to deny, that they do not need to switch parties to admit this President is unfit for office. They don't have to (read in Darth Vader voice) "come to the Blue side," if you will.

Case 1: Trump's Aides Proffer Russia Sanction Relief and a 50 Million Dollar Penthouse Bribe to Open Path to Financing for the Trump Tower Moscow. 

Summary

• It was a three decade dream of Trump's to build a Trump Tower Moscow.
• Michael Cohen and Felix Sater worked on the deal until summer of 2016, with plans for financing by Russian banks subject to US sanctions. 
• Financing with those banks would have been impossible while sanctions were in place.
• As part of the deal, the plan was to give Putin a 50 million dollar penthouse.
• Cohen kept Trump and family apprised of his efforts toward the deal.
• Trump repeatedly lied to the US public about business dealings with Russia, both during the campaign and after, keeping his Trump Tower Moscow deal negotiations secret.
• Before inauguration, Trump refuses to divest his businesses and Trump's incoming National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, has conversations with a Russian diplomat about Sanctions. 
• Days after Trump's inauguration, Trump's administration makes moves to drop US sanctions against Russia, despite the fact that the most recent sanctions were levied in response to Russias interference into our election.
• Cohen, Sater, and a Ukrainian lawyer Andrii Artemenko draw up a Russia-Ukraine peace plan that includes dropping US sanctions on Russia, and deliver it to Flynn.
• Trump was willing to eliminate sanctions, the only deterrance we have to try to keep Russia from meddling in our elections.
• Trump would have benefitted personally from Russian sanctions being dropped by opening the door to financing the Trump Tower Moscow deal, his decades long dream.
• In short, Trump was willing to give up our election security for Trump Tower Moscow. He knew it was wrong and so he lied about it. This is a betrayal of the citizens of the United States of America.

Essential Guide to Understanding Trump's Collusion

Book Review 
Title: Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America
By: Seth Abramson

I have been avidly, and perhaps obsessively, following the Trump collusion investigation since it officially began, because, like many Americans, I was stunned by his election and the clear Russian interference into our election process. The assault on our Democracy offended me at the deepest level and my patriotic heart thrummed for justice . . . for a way to heal the wound to our nation.

The scope of the investigation, and many lines of criminal inquiry, are massive. This poses a problem for many people, like me, who have trouble memorizing random points of data. So many facts have hit the public sphere, it really is impossible for anyone, except those most gifted in memorizing detail, to see the whole picture.

Author Seth Abramson has done the public a great service in his piece of work, Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America. He has meticulously tracked all of the publicly available data points from reputable news sources and public filings, and has codified the relevant facts into a master timeline and provided that information in this book.

All I Want for Christmas Is My Democracy Back

Democracy in Distress. Please help! 

Democratic National Committee
Representative Nancy Pelosi
Senator Chuck Schumer
Governor Roy Cooper

Dear Democratic Leaders,

I'm a citizen in gerrymandered district NC11. While we were not successful in getting our Democratic candidate elected, I donated what I could to support his efforts, as well as many other Democrat's campaigns, both in the House, Senate and some Governor races. I donated my time in a variety of efforts to get out the vote.  I also lifted my voice, every single day, for the last few years. Clearly, I was not alone.

The amount of money that was spent by individual contributors (me and many others), in an attempt to compete with large PAC and SuperPAC donations, is nothing less than gross waste. Imagine how many homeless vets we could have housed, or orphaned children we could have helped. I'm certain our forefathers never dreamed that citizens would have to financially compete with corporations to get our voices heard.

This must be corrected.

The blame lies in many places. As citizens, we must own part of the blame for not paying enough attention to politics for too long, and allowing those who wish to corrupt, free rein. Democracy is a ship that requires a captain to steer it. We, the citizens, are that captain. We must steer the ship. I assure you, we are steering now.

Vote Young People, Vote!

We need your unjaded, hopeful hearts, unhindered by thoughts of "how things have always been" and instead, simply seeing "how things are" and "how they should be."

We need your bright, educated minds, whose curiosity has brought you to Google questions and YouTube ideas we haven't even thought of.

We need your values and vision of the future to determine what our government should be.

You will live with the consequences of this election, whether you vote or not. Do you really want me defining the future of the country you must live in, without your say? Do you really want to relinquish your power to me? Do you think I know enough about what you want, what you need, to shape this world to your standards?

This election is the most important election in my lifetime, and many say, since the birth of our nation. It will likely be the most important of your lifetime too.

Vote your conscience.
Vote for your hopes, your dreams.
Vote for your future.

Own your power. Wield it.

VOTE

Make Voting Cool!

I came up with a brilliant idea (at least in my own mind!) of making voting cool with social media voting badges.

Little icon badges would display on the user account of major social media applications if the user:

• Verified they are a Registered Vote
• Voted that Election Cycle

Almost half of U.S. citizens do not vote and the fastest way to make the positive change we need is to get a good portion of them voting.

Dear Party of Democrats

I am a Democrat, but there are two issues that have held me back from donating to party organizations since 2016. Instead, I have donated to individual Democratic candidates who align with my values.

The two issues are:

• Super Delegates
• Lack of concrete effort to fix campaign finance (in my view)

I see the Super Delegate issue has been dealt with and now they will only vote in the case of a tie. I'm pleased about that. I also see that your platform has included campaign finance reform on your website. I'm not sure if you have updated the platform or if it is the same written commitment it has always been.

Where is Obama? I know.

My Fellow Americans,
Do you believe President Trump has fulfilled his oath of office? If yes, then this letter is not for you.

This letter is for the rest of us who watched in horror as President Trump praised Putin and denied his involvement in the assault on our democracy in the 2016 elections. A denial that must be seen as a cover-up and collusion with Russia since we now know he was informed by American intelligence agencies, immediately upon taking office, that the attacks on our democracy unequivocally came from Putin. He boldly and blatantly lied to the American public, calling it Fake News, which can be seen as nothing less than aiding and abetting our enemy.