THE D.C. STATEHOOD ISSUE .......

In response to my interest in the issue of Washington DC gaining statehood in the USA, I received a response from Congressman Gerald Connolly. Washington DC is technically a district, ruled by the Federal authorities, not a state, against the will of the majority of its citizens (as recognized on the DC cars license plates, clearly stated "Taxation without Representation"). This has been a long-standing issue in the US, and the last time the US Congress voted on this issue was roughly 30 years ago, in 1992. As I believe it describes the issue at hand rather well, I have decided to paste the letter in its entirety below for readers to enjoy and better understand; 

Dear Omar Dabbagh:

Thank you for contacting me about D.C. statehood. I appreciate your interest in this issue and your views are important to me.

I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 51, the Washington D.C. Admission Act. A legislation, introduced by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, she introduced this bill and has fought tirelessly to fight for the rights of the District residents. This legislation would admit the Washington, Douglass Commonwealth as the 51st state in the nation, and provides its residents with representation in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Under H.R. 51, two square miles that include the Capitol Building, White House, National Mall, principal federal monuments, and federal buildings adjacent to the National Mall would remain the District of Columbia. The other 66 square mile area currently in the District's boundary line would be admitted as the Union's 51st state.

Since its inception on the Mason-Dixon line, Washington, D.C. has lacked the authority to govern its own people and to deliberate and implement decisions on the behalf of its people. Upon enactment of this bill, present-day District executive, legislative, and judicial officials would be deemed officials of the state. The Mayor, members of the Council, and the Chair of the Council would be deemed the Governor, members of the Legislative Assembly, and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, respectively.

In the past, Congress has considered three factors when determining admission to the United States:

• Do the residents have a commitment to self government?;
• Do the residents support statehood?; and
• Does the proposed state have sufficient resources and population to support itself and its share of the costs to be part of the federal government?

On October 28. 2016, the D.C. Council adopted a state constitution and boundaries. On November 8, 2016, D.C. residents approved an advisory referendum requesting that the Council petition Congress for statehood. Under the terms of the referendum, residents agreed to statehood, a constitution, boundaries, and a representative democracy.

The residents of the District demonstrated their support for statehood when they overwhelmingly approved the November 2016 referendum with more than 83 percent in favor.

The District currently has 702, 455 residents. Two states have smaller populations: Vermont (626,299) and Wyoming (577,737) and six states have populations below one million. The Internal Revenue Service collects more in gross revenue from the District than it collects from 22 states and more per capita from the District than any state. Additionally, the District has a higher per capita personal income and GDP than any state. The District's fiscal year 2020 budget in $15.5 billion. By comparison, 14 state budgets were smaller than $16 billion in fiscal year 2017. More than 99 percent of the funding source for the District's budget are the same as in state and local budgets. Less than one percent of the budget consists of congressional appropriations not available to other jurisdictions. If it were a state, the District could certainly support itself.

Nearly 200,000 District residents are dedicated civil servants working for the federal government, and nearly 10,000 residents serve in the military. They should have a say in federal elections and control over local decisions.

This is an issue of particular importance to me because I served as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County, where I had the authority to make great positive change for more than 1.1 million residents by expanding affordable housing opportunities, promoting reusable energy, and making critical transportation improvements. The people of the District of Columbia deserve to have leaders who have the authority to make change that reflects their local priorities.

When our Founding Fathers adopted the Constitution in 1787, they knew that our nation needed a capital and envisioned a small administrative enclave. But they could not agree where to place it. In fact, it was at a famous dinner at Thomas Jefferson's home with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison at which the Founders hammered out a compromise: Hamilton got the new nation to pay lingering state debts and the national capital would be in the South - where Jefferson and Madison wanted it. The Founders never intended to deprive District residents of the right to vote.

Instead, the District of Columbia has been subjected to repeated attempts by the United States Congress to dictate how it spends its own money and to prevent it from implementing laws passed by the City Council, when it could not find a majority in Congress to override those laws. Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, Congress has to approve the District's budget and has a say over how it spends money it raises from local taxes. From 1999 to 2007, Congress blocked the District from using locally-raised tax dollars for needle exchange programs that have been proven to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. This ban occurred at a time when HIV/AIDS exceeded epidemic proportions in the District. For ten years, from 1992 to 2002, Congress prevented the District from spending any funds to implement the Health Care Benefit Expansion Act, which allowed domestic partners greater rights. From 1988 until today, Congress has inserted riders in annual appropriations legislation to prevent the District from using its own money to cover abortion services through Medicaid.

After the D.C. Council passed a law requiring companies that make wet wipes sold in the District to prove that products labeled "flushable" won't damage the pipes or make it clear on the package that the wipes are not flushable, the nonwoven fabrics industry lobbied Congress to reverse the law. As a result, Congressman Andy Harris announced that would be reviewing the issue and consider ways to block the legislation.

Let's call this opposition what it is. You can be sure when they say their massive resistance is not about race and partisanship, that it is precisely about race and partisanship. And the results are tragic for the people of the District of Columbia and the nation. It's not about the Constitution. Clearly there are implied powers of the legislature. And one of them is to determine statehood. In 1862, the state of West Virginia was established from parts of Virginia. And it was done without a constitutional amendment.

Failure to grant the residents of this District the right to vote in federal elections would be a terrible blow to democracy. It has been 26 years since the House held a hearing to examine D.C. Statehood, and it is past time to act on this moral imperative.

Once again, thank you for expressing your concern on this very important issue. I enjoyed hearing from you. For official statements and more information on my views on other issues, please feel free to visit my website at http://connolly.house.gov and sign up for my email newsletters. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter for real-time updates on my work in Congress and the 11th District. If I may ever be of service, please do not hesitate to contact me.

DUPLICITY AND HYPOCRISY .....

Mr. Trump, backed by his top loyalist politicians and senior members of his administration, is seeking continually to maintain a climate of war fever, he started with Iran, then it was Cuba and later Venezuela, after the Covid19 pandemic and his stalled trade negotiations with China, he started a major campaign of anti-China propaganda, with again all his senior people echoing his exact words, his same unfounded lies and disinformation, without a shred of evidence or proof of any scientific backing or reality.

Mr. Trump and his entourage routinely blame China's ruling party for deliberately hiding the Corona virus from the entire world and America, causing the huge American death toll, which scientists from around the world agree that the White House is directly responsible for, mostly through its criminal negligence, indifference and misjudgment.

The few other world wide examples that copied and followed the American case as in Brazil, Israel, GB and Iran, all governed by Trump like reckless leaders, looking for their political survival and their selfish interests. While sacrificing their peoples and the entire globe with it, are all paying a high price in contracting and the number of deaths.

Historically, we all remember how we were within hours of a total nuclear war with Russia, and the world, when the Cubans invited Russian missiles on their territories, unacceptable as Cuba was in our direct sphere, but we see no problem in sending several aircraft carriers and multitude of war ships to the South China sea, conducting high war games, all timed to coincide with Chinese naval exercises, all in the same strategic waters in the most direct sphere of China.

Israel, in the midst of the most dangerous and volatile area, decides with our total open approval and incitement to annex the Syrian Golan heights, and now the West Bank, Jerusalem and some of Lebanon's oil and gas fields. Iran is working hard to tip the balance and turn Iraq, Syria and Lebanon into vassal countries expanding its territories all the way to the Mediterranean. Turkey decides to take over Libya and turn its museums into Islamic mosques and not the reverse, all for its own Ottoman dreams of glory and imperialism.

We accelerate our anti-China campaign by denouncing human rights abuses in Hong Kong and against the Muslim Uighur minorities within China, ignoring and denying our own problems of racism, apartheid and white supremacy. Our arrogant false superiority and fascist patriotism and brutality in our own countries, from our past and our present times. It wouldn't matter when we push our militarized Police forces and National guards against American youth on our own streets, or invade several countries annex their territories or annihilate their economies.

We are presently wedging real wars with our troops, economic wars, monetary and banking wars, embargoes and sanctions, and all types of pressure against a good dozen countries or more around the glob. Including the UN Health Agencies, International Tribunals, UNRWA and all Palestinian aiding agencies, UNESCO, against Russia, China, Iran Syria, Lebanon, even some of our closest allies in Europe, and many others in Africa, Latin and north America, all to make America great again!!! Does this slogan mean total control and total subordination and humiliation of the entire world?? Let's beware the next 100 days, all for reelection sake. 

Is it only our way or no way, and if we don't succeed, we will declare war and annihilation against the entire glob ?? Just to prove our total white Evangelical superiority, We with our closest allies spy openly and bluntly on the entire world population including ours, while we accuse certain countries of spying on us through their students and researchers. Instead of Mr. Trump commenting on "Black Lives Matter" as a "Symbol of hate" our foreign policies should reflect and move from symbols of hate to real cooperation, mutual respect, civility and fairness.
                      My thanks to you all , keep safe.                         

A LETTER TO MR. TRUMP ......

Ralph Nader is a progressive activist and politician and one of the thought leaders of the modern era. People like Nader, Noam Chomsky, and many others, have left powerful messages in the pages of American History. Below is a letter written by Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein to Mr Trump addressing the issue of Palestinian territories annexation by Israel.



President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Trump:

Do you think you have enough on your table these days? Wait until the Israeli government, fortified economically and militarily by U.S. taxpayers, illegally annexes a large region of the Palestinian West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, next month. That is the declaration of the Israeli Prime Minister.

This flagrant violation of international law, once again confirmed by various countries and the United Nations, is expected to unleash crushing repression and violence which will be broadcast and shown by photojournalists around the world. This annexation will lead to demonstrations condemning you and the Prime Minister. Inside Israel, there is strong opposition from retired high military and security officials, as well as members of the Knesset from which the Prime Minister is not seeking approval. Sound familiar?

The collateral damage from this unilateral seizure of thirty percent from what is left of Palestinian land (the West Bank is about 20 percent of the original Palestine) will include a rupture of warming relations between Israel and nearby Arab countries, especially Jordan, alienating your friend Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, and lead to unintended consequences that will be arriving at your door as the Covid-19 pandemic widens. Even with your limited attention to detail, your inability to recognize the consequences of international disputes, and your short attention span, you should be able to envision how much time and energy this war crime will take from you.

For the Palestinians, there will be more dread and devastation. Half of their food comes from the Jordan Valley. It would spell the end of the “two-state solution,” and lead to the possible dissolution of the Palestine Authority security arrangements with the Israeli occupation. That would mean more Israeli patrols, more destruction of homes, more innocent Palestinian casualties, and more responsibility on you stemming from your reckless, mindless endorsement of annexation several months ago.

You can prevent these calamities. First, you need to stop your bigotry against the Palestinian Arabs and desperate Syrian Arab refugees that make you a leading anti-Semite against the Arab peoples. There is, in your regime (Michael Pompeo), the spreading of the “other anti-Semitism,” a term James Zogby used to title an address he gave years ago at an Israeli University. Ever since the South Carolina primary in 2016, when you, out of the blue, assailed two poor newly arrived Syrian refugee families who had fled the horrors of their war-torn country, you have expanded your politically motivated hatred of powerless, impoverished Arabs. For example, at a recent rally in Minnesota, you bragged−even gloated−about cutting off $500 million a year in aid provided to desperate Palestinian families. You broke a humanitarian program supported by Democratic and Republican presidents since 1950 in recognition of the role that the U.S. has played in that region. You have fully backed brutal Israeli actions against defenseless Palestinians and their children. As a multi-faceted anti-Semite against Arabs, what the Israeli regime does in the coming months will be ascribed to you. You could stop this atrocity, but you are actually inciting, what are in essence, territorial war crimes. Your political allies in Israel welcome such racist evocations from the White House. Politicians in the Israeli government’s coalition have expressed over the years the most vile epithets against Palestinians, so racist that if you bothered to read them, it would shock even your limited sensibilities.

And what is the Palestinian grievance at its core? Israeli’s founder, David Ben-Gurion, put it concisely in a widely reported comment – It was their land and we took it. Now you are depriving these Palestinian descendants from having their tiny independent state, endorsed by previous U.S. presidents. Their poverty has worsened because of occupations, blockades, and regular attacks by the military. Add the deprivation of water, taken by Israel, and according to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Israel “has recently escalated its spraying of pesticides on Palestinian fields in Gaza and increased harassment of fisherman.”

This is one fast-arriving crisis that you brought onto yourself. It is not too late to stop. Your advisors, including your son-in-law, know full well that the Prime Minister will not make the annexation move without your concurrence. Tell the Prime Minister NO and he will comply. You are known as a control freak. Exercise this trait and you’ll prevent multiple eruptions in the Middle East that may be uncontrollable and create another foreign policy crisis in your administration.

Domestically, a majority of American Jews oppose this annexation and other Israeli policies that seriously harm Palestinians and also undermine democratic freedoms in Israel. J Street and Jewish Voices for Peace are gaining many more adherents. Even AIPAC has reportedly expressed disapproval of the Prime Ministers racist policies and the move toward annexation by privately signaling that they won’t push back against lawmakers who criticize the plan. Where does that leave your political calculations?

On the eve of the 1956 elections, President Dwight D. Eisenhower handily won acclaim and reelection, while stopping Israel’s collaborative invasion of Suez with Britain and France.

Act now, say NO to annexation.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader
Bruce Fein