Category: Politics

The eye-witness report of what transpired on January 6, 2021, “The January 6th Report”

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NOTE:
The January 6th Report appendices on pages 693–716 can be accessed via the QR code below, along with the hyperlinks from the chapter endnotes and witness testimony transcripts.

Celadon Books and The New Yorker present the report by the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

The January 6th Report
On January 6, 2021, insurgents stormed the U.S. Capitol, an act of domestic terror without parallel in American history, designed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. In a resolution six months later, the House of Representatives called it “one of the darkest days of our democracy,” and established a special committee to investigate how and why the attack happened.

As we all remember from our TV sets watching the mass protesters destructions of the Capitol, people and the capitol police getting into violent confrontations and being hurt. A coup attempt that was pattern from third world countries autocrats and military juntas dating back in the 80’s. Yet revived and somehow refurbished in the 21st century with the greatest nation on earth.

Celadon Books, in collaboration with The New Yorker, presents the committee’s final report, the definitive account of January 6th and what led up to it, based on more than a year of investigation by nine members of Congress and committee staff, with a preface by David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and an epilogue by Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a member of the committee.

The January 6th Report is an easy-to-read, well-organized chronicle of the seditious plan to sabotage the peaceful transfer of power after the U.S. 2020 election. The Big Lie of election fraud is made clear, as is the true motive of it all and concludes on how it all points to the 45th President Donald Trump as brains behind this conspiracy. The report also details many other transgressions by Trump, and various lawyers (e.g., Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman) supporting his plan to have the election declared fraudulent, in order to continue as President.

At the end, years and generations from now when history is written and remembered. January 6 will be remembered as a day that we almost lost being a democratic nation and became a dictatorship. Come 2024, to be continued on what happens again on this presidential elections.

Asians COVID-19 hate crimes bill in May

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Coming in a few weeks at the House of Representatives full house vote. The bill still needs to pass the House to make it to President Joe Biden’s desk. It was going to be debated in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, but its chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., postponed that discussion until the Senate voted, meaning the legislation is unlikely to go to a full House vote for at least a few weeks. 

After last month’s mass shooting in Georgia that killed eight people – six of whom were women of Asian descent – lawmakers in both chambers of Congress pushed to expedite the legislation and called for quick action. The bill just passed the US Senate with only One Republican Senator opposing it on a vote of 94-1. Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., a co-author of the legislation, said at a rally with Schumer on Monday that “we are finally taking action in Congress” after a year of discrimination that has made many in the AAPI community afraid to use public transit or even leave their homes.

This bill which was sponsored by Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, would establish a position at the Justice Department to expedite the agency’s review of hate crimes and expand the channels to report them. It would also encourage the creation of state-run hate crime hotlines, provide grant money to law enforcement agencies that train their officers to identify hate crimes and introduce a series of public education campaigns around bias against people of Asian descent.

The bill would also issue guidance to local law enforcement officials on making hate crime reporting more efficient through online reporting, which would be available in multiple languages. Additionally, the bill would expand “public education campaigns aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes and reaching victims.”

Another key aspect of the bill is its plan to issue guidance that would be aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the amended bill. Former President Donald Trump regularly called COVID-19 “the China virus” while crimes against Asian Americans surged since the dawn of the pandemic.

The bill is the most substantive congressional response to what has been an alarming rise in racist sentiment against Asian Americans, fueled in part by derogatory language about the virus’ origins in China. Donald Trump, while president, played into that narrative with derisive nicknames for the virus. The moment harks back to earlier eras of racism against Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and others of Asian heritage in the U.S. 

The continuous statements made by the Former President of the China virus as it relates to Asian Americans simply ignited the flames throughout the year of chaos.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that tracks Asian American discrimination, there were 103 incidents in Texas from March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021, which were among nearly 3,800 nationwide.

Even till this day with the onset of the recent gun violence and the covid-19 pandemic, the Asian hate crimes still prevails in different cities. Thankfully we now have some roving community ambassadors in the different neighborhoods. Yet we cannot wait until the US House of Representatives finally makes a full house vote of the bill in the coming weeks. Hopefully by June, the President signs this bill into law.

Electoral College, Election Meltdown on Democratic Principles

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Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy
Election Meltdown

Richard L. Hasen (Author) writes on his book, As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take shape, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. In this timely and accessible book, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting stories illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression has escalated as a Republican tool aimed to depress turnout of likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pockets of incompetence in election administration, often in large cities controlled by Democrats, have created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old‑fashioned and new‑fangled dirty tricks, including foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns via social media, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about “stolen” elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans.

Book Description

Outlining the necessary steps to create an election process that is trusted by all, Richard L. Hasen describes the four factors most threatening the integrity of the 2020 presidential contest: voter suppression; incompetence in election administration; misinformation campaigns; and inflammatory rhetoric undermining faith in the integrity of elections.

The US Constitution cites on ArtII.S1.C2.1.2.3 Discretion of Electors in Choosing a President.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 2:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Quoting from Wikepedia.org.

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.[a]

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.[1]

American voters elect the President and Vice President of the United States indirectly, through an arrangement known as the electoral college system. The electoral college system comprises a complex mosaic of constitutional provisions, state and federal laws, and political party rules and practices.

Richard L. Hasen‘s book very much describes  the most threatening the integrity of the 2020 presidential contest: voter suppression; incompetence in election administration; misinformation campaigns; and inflammatory rhetoric undermining faith in the integrity of elections. With the misinformation campaigns started by the 45th President, and now the seditious fiasco combined with the same elected officials recently elected in the US Capitol, not only with this open to make new books written historically but this can be a demise of a political party.

Voters losing faith in the integrity of elections is one of the greatest risks any democracy faces. And in the long run when history is written the people that have connived will face the same voters again on their political future.

The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonious affair. But President Donald Trump’s repeated, baseless efforts to challenge Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory will bring more attention than usual to the Jan. 6 joint session of the Senate and the House.

The congressional count is the final step in reaffirming Biden’s presidential win, after the Electoral College officially elected him on Monday. The meeting is required by the U.S. Constitution, and includes several distinct steps.

The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. If there is a tie, then the House decides the presidency, with each congressional delegation having one vote. That hasn’t happened since the 1800s, and Joe Biden’s electoral win over Trump was decisive, 306-232. https://apnews.com/

The last time such an objection was considered was 2005, when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, objected to Ohio’s electoral votes by claiming there were voting irregularities. Both chambers debated the objection and rejected it. It was only the second time such a vote had occurred.

The role of the vice president as presiding officer is often an awkward one, as it will be for Pence, who will be charged with announcing Biden’s victory — and his own defeat — once the electoral votes are counted. It will be especially tense for the former Indiana congressman as his boss, Trump, has refused to concede.

It can be long day of debates and discussions for the US Capitol on January 6 on this Constitution requirement as final step to reaffirm the 46th President and Vice-President win in the November 2020 elections.
In the end, the new President – Elect and Vice-President will be declared as winners, case closed.

“A hard-hitting critique of the American election process as timely as it is frightening. . . . Required reading for legislators and voters.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review -- Election Meltdown

The Last Straw in Avoiding Indictments

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60 hours from now the mid term elections of 2018 concludes in the United States.

Not only this is the most expensive mid terms in decades, it has surpassed the initial number of voters that had already voted compared to recent years. it’s predominant that independents turn Democrat’s and the youth ages 18 to 21 had the most numbers ever seen for the first time. In past years both these categories would simply not vote.

As we recall history no incumbent President had enormously campaigned as much as President Trump. This is because no incumbent’s party in the past had won The majority in Congress. This non traditional president as reported will try to overturn history as he tirelessly campaigned till the day of the elections.

By that time, it could be 70% of the votes has been cast. But is it really about changing history or it’s a strategy in avoiding what lies ahead in terms of investigations in the 2016 Presidential elections. What lies beneath the conclusion of the Special Counsel investigations awaits the fate of this President.

It’s not a question anymore that Democrats will will the House of Representatives. Whether they win or not the Senate, the turn to completely stop the non democratic acts of this President is inevitable. If they do win the Senate, the days of this future lame duck President is doomed.

This will be the time that how much great a businessman President is with no traditional political experience, gets to realized the actual realities of politics.

There are such fates in politics and the baggage that it carries that if you don’t have the experience to swim on it, you can’t simply say, “I will deal with it”. I’m sorry it will take the turn and deal with you instead.

As we await the conclusion of this mid term elections, let us reflect as a country of what is really needed in our daily lives. Is it Immigration or the Economy or is it having a paycheck increase on our hourly wage and really getting affordable healthcare as the paycheck deductions on medical, vision and dental is already 30% of that check which we could have used to buy food on our table.Fear Trump in the White House

Fear Trump in the White House

Innovation and Tech Diplomacy

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While listening through some of the speeches on the Rise of Techplomacy, it reminded me of the initial policy deliberations in 1996 while forming the then APEC Young Entrepreneurs Assn in line during the APEC ministerial meetings where we represented the Youth and Young Entrepreneurs in the Business Advisory Council.

At that time we talked about Innovation Centers for Young Entrepreneurs venturing then with the internet and it’s future. We wanted to develop a mechanism of sharing information and research which will benefit future business leaders.

Two decades after at the onset of the Millennium Age driven tech and business leaders, I’m amazed that the innovative Swiss and Expats in the Bay Area talks about Techplomacy. On the speakers dialogues explained the existence of the foreign consulates initiatives outside the typical passports and the like towards gearing focus on Techplomacy new research and innovations.

With our own branded websites at ADLE International for example were making sure we are in compliance with the EU Cookie policy. We have also seen the social media traffic fluctuations we got right after the recent Cambridge Analytica case scrutinized affecting online interactions.

I guess part of the Techplomacy involves also the discussions on Privacy as it affects diplomacy especially as this specific case involved a national election. Personally. I’m happy that this era has trended as I thought our initial discussions then in 1996 died through these years. However in today’s mobile news I believe I’m sort of still in touch if ever there’s something relative to the topic. After all these are the topics I’ve advocate through my young entrepreneur years then.

Even back then although we give a general consent when we give our personal data to then pledging internet companies, before its shared to a 3rd party for whatever purpose there should be another disclosure or consent before implementation. So for our websites for example like Affordable Book Deals the best is not to share any information outside of us and neither do we retain any information. Our merchant processors have to go through their extensive PCI compliance and their secured gateways channel any credit card information so it’s no where recorded in our websites.

Kudos to the efforts of this cause on Techplomacy as we watch the next steps in this evolution.

Dreams from My Father – A Revisit

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51FOmnPzYmL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_  Dreams from My Father

I happened to see this book at the bookshelf corner while looking for the last copy of 2017-01-19 17.54.13Russian Roulette

During President Obama’s last few years in office, his book Dreams of My Father was an all time Bestseller deficting his growing up years in Kenya, Indonesia and Hawaii. It was the same time when then candidate Trump started his campaign about Obama not being an American. The question of citizenship kept popping up from this candidate throughout.

Through his book, Obama explores his heritage as a Black American and what it means to his life up to maintaining his heritage and yet be equal to everyone when he become President in 2008. Obama’s legacy as the first minority non caucasian President was a turning point of history.  Till this day, some people still try to question it happened hence is also part of the contention why America will take a while to even elect a Woman Madame President.

Obama’s journey from happy, race-less boy running barefoot through the muddy back streets of Jakarta to perplexed adolescent and student in Honolulu, Los Angeles and New York, and to eager but ignorant and, eventually, reasonably productive community organiser on Chicago’s South Side depicts life of immigrants who came to the US young or in their teenage years. The ability to adapt to change living in the US while keeping one’s heritage alive is what immigrants depict. The ability to blend with both cultures and lifestyles is really the most important structure to living at present in American society.

Someone who never gained such experience will never undertand the immigrant life in the USA. As such the superficial thinking of the bad criminals are more predominant to associate them with undocumented aliens. The reality is that crime is integrated to society and people who commits any crime can be anyone regardless of rare, culture, gender or identity.

Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother—a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego. This is an example of the same questions and realities of immigrants living in America.

With Russian Roulette, For more than a year now, journalists Michael Isikoff and David Corn have been devoted to covering the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.   On Trump’s interest in meeting Vladimir Putin during his 2013 trip to Moscow, On how the project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow influenced Trump’s views on Russia. Hence the book mostly talks on connecting the dots between Russian the 2016 Presidential elections.

Both books are bestsellers yet Obama’s book reprintedin 2007 and Russisn Roulette was just published a few weeks ago. I’ll leave it to the reader and book critics the comparison the historical perspectives of both books.

Alex Esguerra

ADLE International

 

Russia’s Tampering – Return of History

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With the recent headlines in mind about Vladimir Putin’s maneuvering of the 2016 US Presidential elections reminds me of the book written by bestselling author, Jennifer Welsh

.  return

 The Return of History

Recalling the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 which I personally witness was very much similar to another political change in 1983 in a country like the Philippines when then Philippine President Marcos ended an era under a Martial Law regime by fleeing out the Malacanang Palace en-route to exile in Honolulu, Hawaii.

As author Welsh quoted American political commentator Francis Fukuyama about his famous essay, “The End of History”. The essay depicts the demise between communism and capitalism towards expanding the West Liberal Democracy towards the ideals of “progress”in history. In both of the above events, the breakdown of the wall during the Reagan years signified one of the greatest achievements of the divide between East and West Germany. Growing up in terms of living a couple of teenage years in Germany I can personally testify the mass disparity of income and inequality prior to that historic wall coming down.  At the same watching the news on the developments on the fall of the Marcos regime was very significant to the impoverished society living right at the wall of the Pacific Ocean in Manila.

The book illustrates the traditional barbaric and aristocratic way of a tyrant in this new millennium age by way of Vladimir Putin. The espionage and treason of course is local in Russia but the new cyber way and hacking which was seen in the recent US Presidential elections is a good example. Back in the cold war era it was of course more exemplified by warfare showing off military might. Today’s new tactics on spying, hacking, adware as well as internet viruses and attacks are just some of the most creative way of advance technology led infiltrations.

As Jennifer Welsh writes, ” Another way in which the West could re-examine its recent history and temper its triumphalism would be to look inward and reassess the health of its own political and economic model in this renewed era of competition with Russia”.

Indeed the  Soviet threat in arms takes a turn on a new form with regards to how the West should assess what goes on today and with the recent analysis on how Russia has played it’s cyber attacks during the recent US Presidential elections.

Alex Esguerra

Affordable Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was campaign confusion about Clinton’s first interview. Here’s how it really happened. – CNN

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https://apple.news/Abn9zP0PASfmXf1i5OjRwAw  shattered

Today when “Shattered” hit the bookstores, it almost sold out in a matter of hours from the shelves. This just shows how people are still trying to wake up to the reality that Hillary Clinton lost the November 2016 elections.

Lessons to comparisons from 2008 to 2016 in how Hillary tried to change her image yet still embarked on the same analytic online metrics rather than grassroots level campaigns which after all she and Former President Bill Clinton used to be sublimed experts in reaching out directly to underlying communities.

Having had the experience on seeing and somewhat involved in years of Presidential campaigns from the Reagan, Bush and Clinton years, Obama truly changed a lot of the mechanics of campaigning garnering armies online and social media.

In spite of this fact, the making of First Lady, Senator, Sec. Of State Hillary Clinton are still integrally image attached to the years pre-Obama. What does it mean? It’s simply that although data analytics online where indeed giving the numbers Hillary’s campaign wanted to see, the candidate should have more reach out directly with localism campaigns and direct contact. Hence, this was also trending in 2008 hoping that her concession speech then would have gotten more direction to her staff. So although a lot of us are still trying to decipher why she lost and keeps hovering on the Electoral College, grassroots campaigns electioneering might be a real factor why such a lost being tied to the making then of candidate Clinton.

So far what we know years from now historians will write about the first woman to achieved nomination to a US Presidential campaign and likewise her accomplishments will tie all what Hillary is all about. Yet as we know we haven’t seen the last of Mrs. Clinton.

Washington is confused by Trump’s act. What became of America First? – the guardian

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https://apple.news/AGhXzIHfXR1OR8VS3TZXGIw

Foreign policy as defined is an agreement between 2 nations thus looking after the interest of each one to working policies.

Barely 100 days towards the new administration came the test towards this and diplomacy. Hence the new commander in chief is now slowly recognizing that one’s belief does not necessarily factor the needed actions in performing the job as President.

Where does The “America First” slogan fit in dealing with diplomacy and foreign policy? As of now it may be perceived as we’re still a world power, yet as any past commander in chief would probably know, it’s a worldly cause of action making sure the world is a safe place to live. Thus actions involves policies and careful assessment that would affect the entire region, continent or even the world. It is one of those cases any futile aggression or incorrect move may cause a global effect socially, political and economics.

The next actions and moves will now start writing the chapter in history of this president and administration.