Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

SECOND SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE OF 2018

FINAL DAY!

(Report to readers:  This is the last day of our drive.  Please do subscribe or donate.)

Subscriptions and donations make our work possible.  Without them, we could not continue.  

By participating you'll be supporting our efforts, but you'll also receive our twice-a-week emailed page, the Angel's Corner.  It features posts by subscribers and donators like you, and is our most popular feature.  Our readers can write, many have vast experience in areas we cover, and they have plenty to say.   

Details on subscribing and donating are in the right-hand column of this page, opposite these words, under SUBSCRIPTONS. 

If you're already a subscriber or donator, please consider raising your participation to secure our future. 

You can join us through PayPal, or use SENDINC, which has become widely accepted by our readers.  If you prefer a regular mail subscription, just email me at service@urgentagenda.com, and I'll give you our mailing address. 

We hope to welcome you.

JUNE 24,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

WHAT WE'RE BECOMING – FROM CNN:   Washington (CNN) Amid the furor over the policy that resulted in thousands of families separated at the border, Department of Homeland Security employees have been warned about threats to their personal safety, according to a department-wide email obtained by CNN.  In the message from Claire M. Grady, the acting deputy secretary of homeland security, on Saturday afternoon, DHS employees were given information about the security resources available to them and were provided with tips for security, like not wearing their badges in public and being on guard for risks in public and online.  "In recent days, DHS has determined there may be a heightened threat against DHS employees in response to U.S. Government actions surrounding immigration," Grady wrote.  "This assessment is based on specific and credible threats that have been levied against certain DHS employees and a sharp increase in the overall number of general threats against DHS employees -- although the veracity of each threat varies. In addition, over the last few days, thousands of employees have had their personally identifiable information publicly (sic) released on social media."  Real great guys, those ultra-liberals.  If they'd been living in Germany in the 1930s, they'd have had their right arms up, like everyone else.

CONGRATS BERNIE; HOW ABOUT A MERCEDES? – FROM DAILYWIRE:  For the second year in a row, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has reportedly raked in more than a million dollars, putting him solidly in the one percent of American income earners.  Though he's still well behind his colleague-in-arms, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA, estimated personal wealth, $18.5 million), a financial disclosure form filed just last month shows the Vermont Senator and former progressive Presidential candidate, did very well in 2016 and 2017, raking in more than a million each year from book deals, cash payments, and royalty fees, according to VT Digger.  Much of that money, the Vermont-centric investigative reporters say, came from his book, "Our Revolution," which earned him around $888,000. The book, which was critically panned, sold around half a million copies in its first week and the audio book even earned Sanders a Grammy nomination.  Just another man of the people.  I'm sure he feels our pain.

LAW AND ORDER – FROM AFP:   Mexico City (AFP) - The whole police force in a Mexican town of Ocampo where a mayoral candidate was slain this week has been detained for an internal investigation, authorities said Sunday.  "All of them are being interviewed to proceed as due under law in the event anyone has taken part in acts that violate the town's codes," said the security secretariat in Michoacan state, where the town of about 20,000 people is located.  It did not give the exact number of police detained.  Mayoral candidate Fernando Angeles was shot dead last Thursday when he was preparing for campaign events.  No wonder they all want to come here. 

June 24, 2018       Permalink 

IMPORTANT LABOR STORY – AT 2:21 P.M. ET:  There was a time when American journalism recognized the importance of stories about labor.  Labor unions were more prominent, strikes more common, and the working family was seen as the heart of the country.

Labor stories are still important, but we just don't get many of them.  This one is important.  From Fox Business:   

It looks like customers will still get their packages delivered.

Teamsters negotiators say they have tentatively agreed to a new five-year contract with United Parcel Service.

The deal promises to raise wages for existing workers but creates a new class of lower-paid drivers to handle weekend deliveries, according to Dow Jones.

The agreement must be finalized and then ratified by a membership vote.

The current deal expires on July 31.

The two sides are negotiating one of the largest collective bargaining agreements in the U.S., covering about 260,000 UPS employees.

The new contract provides hourly wage increases totaling $4.15 over five years and raises the starting wage for part-time workers to $13 an hour as of Aug. 1, with increases in subsequent years.

The settlement also creates a new category of "hybrid drivers" that would normally work on weekends, allowing the company to expand its Saturday delivery and potentially add Sunday services.

The starting hourly pay for these full-time workers is $20.50 and tops out at about $35, the union said.

COMMENT:  There had been serious concern that this strike would actually happen, and would disrupt the nation's economic boom.  UPS is a critical service, especially for online retail buying. 

June 24, 2018       Permalink

HOW CLASSY – AT 1:53 P.M. ET:   It is shocking, and disheartening, to see how the level of the once-great Democratic Party has descended into the sub-basement.  Maxine Waters is one of the most powerful voices in the new, shabby party.  From American Mirror: 

Maxine Waters wants more people to harass Trump administration officials in public spaces.
The California Congresswoman went on a shouting rampage during a toy drive outside the Wilshire Federal Building on Saturday.

After claiming Trump is”sacrificing our children,” referring to the illegal immigrant kids separated from their “parents” near the border, Waters again called for the president’s impeachment, triggering loud applause from the baying mob.

“History will record while he tried to step on all of us, we kicked him in his rear and step on him,” she yelled, whipping up the crowd.

“If you think we’re rallying now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she warned.

“Already, you have members of your Cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants,” she continued as the crowd erupted, “who have protesters taking up at their house, who say, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep,'” she continued.

“And guess what,” she predicted, “we’re going to win this battle because while you try and quote the Bible, Jeff Sessions and others, you really don’t know the Bible.

“God is on OUR side!” she declared, as the crowd went wild. “On the side of the children. On the side of what’s right. On the side of what’s honorable.”

COMMENT:  This was the party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy.  None of them could come anywhere near a presidential nomination in today's Democratic Party.  It is a disgrace to the nation.

I'm hoping their wildness and extremism just drive people away.

June 24,  2018     Permalink

AH, ENTERING THE LATTER PART OF THE 19TH CENTURY – AT 1:30 P.M. ET:  The women of Saudi Arabia, they got wheels.  From AFP:

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive from Sunday, overturning the world's only ban on female motorists, a historic reform that is expected to usher in a new era of social mobility.

The move, which follows a sweeping crackdown on women activists who long opposed the ban, is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's wide-ranging reform drive to modernise the conservative petrostate.

Women in the capital Riyadh and other cities began zipping around streets bathed in amber floodlights soon after the ban was lifted at midnight, some in cars with thumping stereo music.

"It is a historic moment for every Saudi woman," said Sabika al-Dosari, a Saudi television presenter before driving a sedan across the border to the kingdom of Bahrain.

The lifting of the decades-long ban, a glaring symbol of repression against women, is expected to be transformative for many women, freeing them from their dependence on private chauffeurs or male relatives.

"This is a great achievement," billionaire Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal said as his daughter Reem drove a family SUV, with his granddaughters applauding from the back seat.

COMMENT:  Great.  I hope it ushers in a new era of freedom, and new outreach to the West.  And I hope Saudi women learn all about satellite radio and moon roofs. 

We can sell cars there.

June 24,  2018     Permalink

JUNE 23,  2018

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

PROGRESS? – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    Nix the nuclear warheads, cue the doves.  The North Korean government is erasing much of its anti-U.S. propaganda following dictator Kim Jong-un’s forays onto the world stage.  Gone are the posters depicting the U.S. as a “rotten, diseased, pirate nation” and promising “merciless revenge” on American forces for an imagined attack on the totalitarian country.  In their place are cheery messages touting praising the prospects for Korean reunification and the declaration Kim signed in April with South Korean President Moon Jae-in promising “lasting peace,” according to reports.  Still the most isolated country in the world, very few North Koreans have access to news and information from the outside world. So state propaganda plays a huge role in shaping their views.  We'll see. This is the easy part.  Next come the negotiations over denuclearization.  If they go well, great.  If they don't, according to the Trump White House, no deal

WHAT A PHONY – FROM FOX:  A vocal critic of President Donald Trump's immigration policies is a top recipient of campaign donations from operators of privately run prisons, according to a report.
The 2016 re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., received a total of $7,500 from private prison operators, the Seattle Times reported, citing Federal Election Commission filings and data from OpenSecrets.org, a campaign-finance transparency organization.  The sum includes $5,000 from the Florida-based political-action committee for the GEO Group, the nation’s largest private-prison firm, the data show.
GEO Group operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash., which has faced protests and lawsuits alleging mistreatment of detainees facing deportation, the Times reported.  Aside from the GEO Group, Murray also received a $2,500 donation from the PAC for Management and Training Corp., a Utah company that runs facilities housing immigrant detainees, according to the Times.  She's one of the bigger frauds in the Senate.  This does not surprise me.  But the level of hypocrisy in the Democratic Party is staggering.

EVEN MR. ROGERS ISN'T SACRED – FROM THE HILL:  Protesters confronted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) on Saturday as she left a movie screening of the new documentary about Mr. Rogers, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"  A video posted to Twitter shows Bondi being escorted out of the building by police officers as protesters chant slogans and demand Bondi support health care provisions from the Affordable Care Act.  "What would Mr. Rogers think about you and your legacy in Florida? Taking away health insurance from people with pre-existing conditions, Pam Bondi!" yelled Maria José Chapa, a labor organizer, according to the Tampa Bay Times. "Shame on you!"  What would Mr. Rogers think of the rudeness of the demonstrators?  Not much, I think.

June 23, 2018       Permalink

THE STANDARDS OF JOURNALISM – AT 2:06 P.M. ET:   One of the things driving our low politics is our low journalism, which in turn is largely caused by our low educational system.  A society cannot escape the impact of low standards.  From the Daily Mail: 

Time magazine has issued a correction to a controversial cover story about a Honduran migrant girl who they said was taken from her mother by US border patrol agents after it was revealed that the pair were never separated at all. 

Three-year-old Yanela Denise became the unintentional face of the now defunct family separation crisis after photographer John Moore captured her agonized face screaming as her mother was questioned by agents on June 12. 

After the picture was taken, the pair were taken together to a family detention center. Yanela's father has since told DailyMail.com that they are 'safe'. 

As millions shared Yanela's photograph on social media and attached to fundraisers for other children who have been separated from their families, Time used it on its cover.  The magazine photoshopped an image to place her at the foot of a towering Donald Trump and the words 'Welcome to America' appeared next to it. 

In the story, despite Moore having told the magazine that he did not know what became of the girl after he took the picture, the journalist wrote that she had been taken away like the thousands of other children who have been.

Time issued its correction on Friday after US and Honduran officials, along with the girl's father, confirmed that this was not the case.  

'The original version of this story misstated what happened to the girl in the photo after she (was) taken from the scene.

'The girl was not carried away screaming by US Border Patrol agents; her mother picked her up and the two were taken away together,' the magazine said. 

COMMENT:  Well, TIME, a dying magazine, kind of apologized.  In fact, its editor defended the use of the photo as symbolic of what was happening.  That's the kind of thinking that goes with a modern college education.  Everyone is entitled to his own "narrative." 

Fake journalism, plain and simple.  It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  From what I've seen in journalism, it sometimes takes a thousand words to explain the picture.

June 23, 2018       Permalink

OUTRAGEOUS – AT 1:26 P.M. ET:  The level of our politics is sinking rapidly.  I can't deny that Mr. Trump has done his part, but the left is far, far worse.  From Fox: 

White House Press Secretary Sanders was thrown out of a Virginia restaurant on Friday because she works for President Trump -- the latest Trump official to be hounded out of a restaurant because of their political affiliation.

TMZ reported that she was kicked out of the restaurant -- The Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia -- on “moral grounds” and cited a waiter who said that Sanders was served “for a total of two minutes before my owner kicked her out along with seven of her other family members.”

Sanders confirmed the events on Twitter, saying she was told to leave by the owner because she worked for the president.

“Her actions say far more about her than about me,” she said. “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”

After initial reports emerged of the incident, users took to the Red Hen’s Facebook and Yelp pages to bombard it with one-star reviews.

“Everyone should boycott this restaurant. Put them out of business. Asking a paying patron to leave because she's a Republican is repulsive,” one Yelp review said.

COMMENT:  Yes, absolutely repulsive.  But Sarah Sanders handled it in her usual dignified manner.  I have to believe the American people will notice, and rebel against, the behavior of the fringe left.

June 23,  2018     Permalink