The Immigration Game

When thinking about this ban of refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries you have to take into account different factors in concerns to the legalities as well as the impact that it will have on the United States as well as the world.

Before any person that slams this article for thinking that Trump is the only President that is doing something like this, just let it be known that further down in the article there will be other examples.

The biggest concern about this piece of executive legislation is what it can lead to, but at the current moment it is two sides of the same coin; one of optimism and one of serious concern.

Has History Taught Us Nothing?

I can not easily put into words the way I feel about the things our President has done in the last week. Hearing that he wants to ban refugees and Muslims makes me want to cry. My grandparents were immigrants, my boyfriend is an immigrant and nearly every person in this country can trace their ancestry back to the generation that came to this country. Not only is trying to do this severely un-American and not in keeping with a long tradition of immigrants coming to our country, it is just down right wrong!

Alternative Facts

Yesterday Press Secretary Sean Spicer lashed out at the media for it's report of the attendance numbers at Trump's inauguration Friday.  To put the numbers in perspective let's do this:

• 1993 (Clinton): 800,000
• 1997 (Clinton): 250,000
• 2001 (Bush): 300,000
• 2005 (Bush): 400,000
• 2009 (Obama): 1.8 Million
• 2013 (Obama): 1 Million
• 2017 (Trump): 250,000 (estimated)

Women's March 2017

My Facebook this morning was flooded with pictures of women dressed in pink and messages to friends saying "be careful as you march"! All across the country, and apparently across all 7 continents (yes even Antartica) women are marching in support of women's rights, LBGTQIA rights, reproductive rights, and a host of other important issues of which this new administration is working to reverse the major steps we have taken in moving forward. In my family, I was raised to know that people are people, it does not matter what skin tone they have, what religion they practice or who they love. I pride myself on being a person who does not see a person for their differences from me, I see them for who they are because that is what is right. So I can not understand any person be it President of the United States or not who says things that spread messages of hate.

It's Official: Trump is #45

IT happened...

IT will be burned into my memory forever...

IT was 12:15...

For every IT I am talking about I am referring about the Inauguration.  At 12:15 while my third class of the day was winding down I had the Inauguration on my laptop and I witnessed Donald Trump on my little video window get sworn in to become the 45th President of the United States of America.

Education Watch

Last night the confirmation hearing for the Secretary of Education occurred. For those of you not keeping up with politics these days President-elect Trump has chosen a woman named Betsy DeVos as his pick for Secretary of Ed. More on her resume later but before I continue I suppose I should tell you who I am. I am NOT an expert on education, I don't even play one on TV (shout out to my dad who always makes those jokes :-))! I am a product of public education and a public university. I also spent 2 years as a teacher in the public schools of North Carolina. One of those years I spent teaching students with emotional and behavior disabilities in a separate setting with only 8 students. I currently  work in an Early Childhood Center, and early childhood education has become a major passion of mine.I have never taught in a private or charter school and don't have a lot of knowledge about them but I continue to learn from my teacher-friends around me. I know many people who have attended private schools both religious based and not, I also know many people who teach in them as well as teachers in charter schools. I also understand that while it may not have been my parents choice to send me to a private school there are many benefits to that environment (smaller class sizes and more individualized attention to name a few).

...And That's the Bottom Line 'cause Russia Said So!

There is a serious issue when the President-Elect blatantly seems to only care what Vladimir Putin says instead of the American people.   When he tweets that things are false about Russian involve because "that is what Russia said when I talked to them" then he either is the most incompetent man destined for the Oval Office or worse: an agent of Putin.

Quick Muse: Congressional Term Limits

The great part about having freedoms of speech and expression means that we all have the right to agree to disagree.  Every once in awhile though, we end up being able to agree with people that have completely different viewpoints than yourself.  Case in point: Ted Cruz.

Intelligence

Donald Trump was recently given intel on the Russian hacking situation and of course seemed to scoff at the notion that this could be a possibility.  He even went on the defensive (again) accusing NBC of knowing more information on certain matters of intelligence than he had known:

How did NBC get "an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented?" Who gave them this report and why? Politics!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

Even after the fact that the intelligence report, given by both the FBI/Department of Homeland Security as well as another report from the Director of National Intelligence saying that Vladimir Putin "sought to help" Trump win the 2016 election he still goes on to tweet this:

Intelligence stated very strongly there was absolutely no evidence that hacking affected the election results. Voting machines not touched!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017

Come on now Donald!  You have two separate reports going against you and you are going to tweet a lie to cover yourself?  You can't.  The government will always post public reports (albeit with a lot of classified details left out) and you can't contradict what they find.  He is factual with the voting machines part, but the hacked emails definitely did play a factor into swaying the vote towards him instead of Hillary Clinton.  As a businessman he can ignore facts, but as a politician and soon-to-be President of the United States of America he can't and if he does he will be scrutinized by both his peers and the voting citizens of America.