An email from Senator Debbie Stabenow on her support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Dear Morris,


Thank you for contacting me about your support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I share your views.

The CFPB was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act to give consumers the information they need when making financial decisions and to promote fairness and transparency for mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer financial products and services. Our shared desire to protect working families is why I strongly supported and am involved with the implementation of Wall Street Reform.

A number of bills have been introduced to weaken or eliminate the CFPB’s ability to regulate consumer financial products and services. While it is important that Congress exercises appropriate oversight over the CFPB, I will continue to ensure that the agency can accomplish its mission of representing the needs of consumers, families, and small businesses.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please continue to keep me informed about issues of concern to you and your family.

Sincerely,

 

Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator

Thank you, Senator Stabenow.

Department of Commerce v. New York (18-966) SCOTUS Citizenship question on the Census

Here is a line from the SCOTUS decision on the citizenship question on the Census (Department of Commerce v. New York (18-966)):

"The Secretary did not violate the Enumeration Clause or the Census Act in deciding to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 census questionnaire,...

but the District Court was warranted in remanding the case back to the agency where the evidence tells a story that does not match the Secretary’s explanation for his decision."

In the first part of the statement, the court states that the Department of Commerce did not violate the Enumeration Clause by placing in the census a question about the applicant's citizenship.

But, second part of the statement states that sense the Department of Commerce lied during their defense of their actions, the case was sent back.

In other words, the agency outright lied.

The funny thing about this is that the statement from the court says that if the Department of Commerce had not lied, the Department of Commerce and President Trump would have won.

Just tell the truth.

Conway and the Hatch Act

Kelleyanne Conway is being requested to testify before the House of Representatives about public statements she made that may have violate the Hatch Act.

In part, the Hatch Act states that no one not paid from the budget allocated for the executive staff of the president can make any statements that can be taken as political in nature.

It doesn't appear that Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, has violated the Hatch Act. 

Conway's salary is paid out of the budget for the president.

The house should give up this issue to pursue larger issues that they are on firm ground for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-moves-to-bar-counselor-kellyanne-conway-from-testifying-to-congress-about-alleged-violations-of-hatch-act/ar-AADm008?ocid=se

Corporations and Public Charities Fund Abortion Bans in many States

Charitable organizations should not be attempting to influence legislation at any level.  Yet, according to this article and others, charitable organizations helped shaped, support and pass the abortion legislation in Alabama and elsewhere.

Be mindful of these groups.  I ask that if you see them somewhere, don't do business with them or don't donate to their cause, not matter how benign it sounds.

If also requested that you speak up.  They have decided to enter the political sphere with their support to the Right.  They open the door for the Community to respond.

Want a sample of some?  How about Amazon, General Electric and Pfizer.

Rewire News

INVESTIGATIONS ABORTION

These Corporations and Public Charities Funded the state abortion laws.

Jun 14, 2019, 1:30pm Alex Kotch

Thank you for your consideration.

Trump's Immigration Speech

Trump telling what I will do,
instead of inviting me

If President Trump would like to start a conversation with me about anything and especially something as important as immigration reform, don't start out by insult me and my fellow compatriots, the Democrats.  

Trump lost me at the first insult.  And then, he continued till the end.

Compromise comes from being inviting, not insulting.

I will support none of it.  Not till Trump at least is more inviting.  

Then we will at least start the conversation.  

Presidential Medal of Freedom Award Process

The Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board is a committee that makes recommendations to the President of the United States for people who should be considered for civil public awards from the United States. 

The history and make up of the committee are listed below from Wikipedia.

One of the recommendations that the committee makes is who should be considered for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, pictured to the right.  The award was recently bestowed on Tiger Woods. 

Perhaps Woods is a person that should receive the award but there are problems with the award.  He is a close friend with and has business interest with, President Trump.  Additionally, never in memory has the award given to someone that is only part of the way through their career. 

Note the following from an article about the event from Huffington Post:

"It's unusual for a president to give the award, widely considered to be the nation's highest civilian honor, to a person only midway through their career.  It's even more unusual for a president to give the award to someone he's in business with.  

"I can't think of something like this," Kyle C. Kopko, a professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania who authored a story on the award, told the New York Times on Sunday of Trump bestowing it on Woods."

In the previous blog post I did cover how this is a problem because President Trump is enriching his own business investment by giving the honor to Woods. 

Here, I am recommending changes to the way the award selects its Recipients.

1 The Distinguished Civilian Service Board membership should be selected by the Civil Service Commission.

2 A clear and unbiased criterion should be established for selection of possible recipients.

3 The award should only be given to people that are recommended by the Distinguished Cillian Service Board.

4 Any requests made by the president for awarding any honor should be submitted to the board for review.

This would be a great way to hold the line on the president awarding a prize to people who support him politically or are business partners.

Sources

Wikipedia about Distinguished Civilian Service Award

Huffington Post about awarding Tiger Woods Award

Wikipedia about Civil Service Commission  

This is not right

Bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods not only isn't the right thing to do, it further shows that President Donald Trump is bolstering his investments while in office.  

Trump has taken every opportunity to improve his investments while he has been president.

Woods and Trump have a long history of business relationships.  The following link to the Huffington Post article about them will provide the details.  Most recently, Trump's organization hired Woods to design the new golf course in Dubai.  (The course has not opened as of yet.)

In the article, it quotes: 

"It's unusual for a president to give the award, widely considered to be the nation's highest civilian honor, to a person only midway through their career.  It's even more unusual for a president to give the award to someone he's in business with.  

"I can't think of something like this," Kyle C. Kopko, a professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania who authored a story on the award, told the New York Times on Sunday of Trump bestowing it on Woods."

President Trump must stop this type of activity.

Sources:

Huffington Post

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-tiger-woods-business_n_5cd0647ee4b0e4d757366234 

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom