“Objective truth is dead. It has been slain by human feelings — by a soft tyranny of sentimentalism which dictates that how a person feels about anything now defines its reality,” writes Elizabeth Scalia at Patheos.

Because NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal believes herself to be Black is of no consequence to anyone. After all, if a person wants to be ‘transgendered’ or ‘transabled’ — they should be allowed to be ‘transethnic’ or ‘transracial’ too.

Dolezal is president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP and claims to be Black, though her parents say otherwise, releasing her birth certificate and photos of her as a freckle-face White child as proof. According to her parents, she began to identify herself more with the Black community around 2007.

Her claim reflects the 1986 film, ‘Soul Man,’ where actor C. Thomas Howell wears blackface to qualify for a Black-only scholarship at Harvard. Once there, he meets a Black woman and falls in love, only to learn he cheated her out of the scholarship.

Howell’s character eventually reveals he’s White. And the film ends with him paying back the scholarship and doing charity work to make up for his fraud.

Though a success at the box office, the NAACP criticized the movie for featuring a White actor in blackface.

“In the final analysis, it is our opinion that the American moviegoer is really unlikely to waste good time and money on going to see this questionable effort at film making,” the organization’s statement concluded.

Upon learning of Dolezal’s situation the NAACP responded: “We respect her privacy in this matter. One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership. The NAACP Alaska-Oregon-Washington State Conference stands behind Ms. Dolezal’s advocacy record.”

She is the chairwoman of Spokane’s Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, a volunteer appointment and is self-identified as White, Black and American Indian on her application. The city is trying to decide whether she violated any policies about her ethnic claims on the document.

Dolezal is also professor in the Africana Education Department at Eastern Washington University.  She was the education director of the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho until 2010 when she resigned after being passed over for promotion to the institute’s top job.

What’s bothersome about all of this is the fact that if a White man puts on ‘blackface’ it’s racist. But then being a hypocrite is simply being ‘transethical.’

Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments.
Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.
The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return. But what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that person know how you feel.

It’s also a sad thing in life is when you meet someone who means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was never meant to be and you jus’ have to let go. That’s because it takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone-but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don’t go for looks or wealth, instead go for someone who makes you smile. That’s because the best kind of lover and friend is the kind you can sit on the porch with, never say a word, and feel like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

It’s been said that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve missed until it arrives. With that dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

Most importantly, put yourself in the other’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too. Know this too, that happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything they jus’ make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Finally, when you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. You’re goal should be to live your life so that when you die, you’re the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.

There is a new form of government in the U.S.’s future. The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) or ‘fast-track’ legislation not only eliminates Congress’ constitutional powers, it places the U.S directly inline with the United Nations’ Agenda 21 planning.

Under TPA, Congress will hand its authority to the executive branch giving up the power to write, debate, amend, and vote on any trade legislation. Through TPA, Congress will also be pre-clearing a political and economic union.

TPA was created by the Nixon administration in 1974 as a temporary transfer of authority from the Congress to the President.  It officially ended in 2011, at which time President Obama began pushing renewal despite his ‘opposition’ to it as a candidate.

Progressives in both parties want the TPA so they can ‘fast-track’ the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which includes 12 Pacific Rim countries. Under TPP, a new transnational governmental structure called the ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission,’ will be formed and chartered using a ‘Living Agreement’ clause, already in place in TPP.

This clause gives the Commission the authority to amend TPP after its adoption, add new members, and issue regulations on labor, immigration, environmental, and commercial policy. In short, it will remove all constitutional protections against the creation of a global government.

There is also no expiration date to TPA. If Congress doesn’t refuse to reauthorize it at the end of 2018, it will automatically be renewed for another three years and so long as the President requests the extension.

If a trade bill’s is to Congress that the Commission believes violates TPA recommendations — or any U.S. laws — lawmakers wanting to amend it or remove it from the ‘fast-track’ will find doing so next to impossible. That’s because the bill falls under the control of the Committee.

Currently, the President’s required to send a report to Congress on the terms of a trade agreement at least 60 days before submitting legislation. Under TPA the President can also classify or otherwise redact information from this report and update the agreement without the consent of Congress.

The Administration can also act on its own to negotiate foreign worker increases with foreign trading partners without ever sharing them with Congress. Language already exists in TPA and TPP to provide for admitting more foreign workers, for longer periods of time, and language could later be added to TPP to further increase such admissions.

And if you don’t think Obama will take advantage of TPA and TPP, you’re fooling yourself. It’s exactly what he needs when it comes too completely and “fundamentally transforming America,” into something it wasn’t ever meant to be.

It was August 28, 2014, when President Obama stated, “We don’t have a strategy yet, we need to make sure that we’ve got clear plans. As our strategy develops, we will consult with Congress.”

Obama doubled-down on that claim, saying nearly the same thing at the recent G7 Summit in Germany, “We don’t have yet a complete strategy” he commented when asked about the achievements of the U.S.-led coalition in the battle against ISIL.

Now suddenly, following a new FOX News poll showing that 71 percent of those asked believe the president doesn’t have a clear strategy, the White House is planning to send another 450 more troops to Iraq. The administration says this will increase the number of training sites in Iraq from four to five and ‘enable’ Sunni’s to join the fight.

The decision, the Pentagon said in a statement, “does not represent a change in mission, but rather adds another location for DoD to conduct similar activities in more areas in Iraq. U.S. forces continue to perform an advisory, training, and support role and are not conducting offensive ground combat operations.”

Right now, the U.S. has 3,080 troops in Iraq, just under the cap of 3,100.  The new order will bring that level to about 3,550.

This means Obama’s broken another promise – this one about ‘mission creep” or rather the gradual shift in goals during the course of a military campaign, which usually resulting in an unplanned long-term commitment.

In September 2014 Obama told troops at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida: “The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission. As your commander in chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.”

But as Jason Ditz of Anti-War.com writes: “The new troops are being labeled “trainers,” but are likely to be among those that Pentagon officials are openly talking about “embedding” on the front lines, meaning they’d be sent into direct combat.”

“As losses have mounted in Iraq and Syria, with ISIS taking more and more cities, the Pentagon has repeatedly rejected the idea that the strategy was at all flawed, and has tried to blame Iraqi troops for not winning more. The U.S. appears to be doubling down on this narrative by adding troops,” writes Ditz.

His assessment is on-the-mark as the State Department says there are plans to deliver 1,000 anti-tank weapons to Iraq in the coming weeks, meaning the Obama Administration learned nothing from the recent ‘equipment dump’ made by the Iraqi’s as they fled from ISIL in Ramadi.

Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval says he won’t run for Senator Harry Reid senate seat, ending questions about whether he would or wouldn’t enter. Sandoval was re-elected in November with 71 percent of the vote and considered a favorite to run.

“I have said many times that it is an honor and a privilege to serve as Nevada’s Chief Executive and that I love my job,” he said in a statement, adding, ”For these reasons, I will not seek the United States Senate seat that will be available in 2016.”

Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced her candidacy while Congress Dina Titus said she would not run. Meanwhile Congressman Joe Heck is thinking about making a bid and Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers has already decided to enter race.

In March, Reid said he wouldn’t seek a sixth term following a ‘supposed’ exercise injury that left him blind in one eye. He’s backing Cortez Masto as his successor.

“We have a winner in Catherine Cortez Masto,” Reid told reporters. “She’s a wonderful longtime Nevadan and in fact lifetime Nevadan, and it doesn’t matter who runs against her she’s going to be just fine.”

Sandoval announced a $1.1 billion tax plan in January along with other tax-laden bills for education. Eventually, the Nevada Assembly approved his plan.

This package includes $400 million for the general fund in so-called “sunset” taxes, first enacted in 2009 and originally set to expire in 2011, but since extended twice as well as another $376 million for education, created by an increase in the state’s sales tax rate. The bill is also expected to raise $200 million from a dollar increase on cigarette taxes and about $500 million in higher payroll taxes, corporate business license fees and gross receipt business taxes.

Sandoval’s been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for former Florida Governor and unannounced presidential candidate Jeb Bush. The former governor said in a recent trip to Reno that it was much too soon to talk about potential running mates.

He had breakfast with Bush in Carson City in May. Bush later told reporters that he’s a “big Brian Sandoval fan.”

Sandoval claims Bush approached him, saying he wanted to discuss issues important to Nevada. Oddly, Sandoval’s hand-picked lieutenant governor, Mark Hutchison is running Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s campaign in Nevada.

Bush is expected to make his candidacy official during a June 15 speech at Miami-Dade College in Florida.

Sounding more like a spy thriller by Vince Flynn, the Iranian media is full of stories that Secretary of State John Kerry wasn’t injured in a fall from his bicycle May 31, but rather was the target of an assassination attempt. The alleged attempt came during a meeting with Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, a senior Tajik police commander, trained in the U.S, who recently defected to ISIL a few weeks ago.

The European Union Times reports Kerry left Geneva with officials from France’s 1er Régiment d’Hélicoptères de Combat and traveled to the former Phalsbourg-Bourscheid U.S. Air Base, in the Moselle department, which is now French Army base, Quartier La Horie. The purpose of the meeting was for a “strategy session” prior to a conference in Paris where over 60 nations will try finding a “final solution” to the problem of ISIL.

Communications reportedly intercepted by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) from France, the U.S. and Switzerland, claims that two other people were shot in the incident, one of them fatally. They state that after Kerry, 71, was wounded; he was taken by a French military medical helicopter to Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève and stabilized.

The story of Kerry breaking his femur in a bicycle accident in Scionzier, France, was then concocted to hide the incident.

Initial plans to fly Kerry aboard a commercial medical evacuation aircraft were cancelled after it was decided he should stay in Geneva for further evaluation. But due to his age and the extreme blood loss he suffered, U.S. military medical authorities were given the green-light for Kerry’s immediate evacuation, dispatching a C-17 assigned from the U.S. Air Force’s 86th Aerospace Medical Squadron, in Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Hopefully, Kerry’s covered by Obamacare as the 10-hour flight costs at least $250,000.

The Jerusalem Post also reports that the SVR claims President Obama made a secret nighttime visit to Boston June 2, from the U.S. Air Force’s 89th Airlift Wing, based at Joint Base Andrews, and landing in Boston minutes ahead of Kerry’s flight. Meanwhile, Kerry’s regular plane flew back from Geneva to the U.S., carrying his staff and reporters who had originally accompanied him on the trip.

There are no photographs of Kerry’s accident, though he’s known to have his own cadre of photo-journalists following his every move, nor are there pictures of his arrival in the U.S. or transfer to Massachusetts General Hospital. Meanwhile the Associated Press says Kerry has already begun physical therapy.

With the many time’s the Obama Administration has lied to the American people and the national media has allowed them to get away with it — it seems easier to believe what is ‘so-far’ nothing more than an outlandish rumor.

“A shift in who wields power and in what location does not necessarily mean better policies. It is more likely that a shift away from federal authority in education will increase the influence those with power and money, rather than enhancing democratic participation of average citizens,” writes Stevens Institute of Technology’s Arthur Camins.

A kitchen manager at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado lost her job after giving a meal to a child who didn’t have enough money to pay for it. In the Cherry Creek School District, students who fail to qualify for the free lunch or reduced lunch program receive one slice of cheese on a hamburger bun, and small milk.

Students still owe $15,000 for school lunches they bought in the Saugus School District in Massachusetts. The school board want the district enforce its collection policy to recoup the money. Earlier this year the board tweaked its policy to turn to a collection agency when people fail to pay.

The Orange School district in New Jersey fired a Forest Street School teacher for having her third-grade class to write ‘get well’ letters to a sick inmate convicted of killing a policeman in 1981. Activists held a sit-in in support of the teacher, demanding she get her job back.

In Florida, a science teacher’s been suspended for using a signal jammer to keep his students from using their cell phones in class. The Pasco County School board handed the teacher a five-day, unpaid suspension for potentially violating federal law because he interfered with 911 calls during an emergency.

A Mississippi family faces charges because they cheered when a loved one got her high school diploma. The girl’s father, aunt and two relatives are charged with disturbing the peace. The district’ supervisor doesn’t think the punishment is too much because he reminded audience members repeatedly to hold their applause.

A teacher at Encinal High School in Alameda, California told his students to find their parents’ sex toys and take selfies with them for extra credit.  Parents complained to the district which launched an investigation. The teacher remains in the classroom.

A Gaia Democratic School teacher in Minneapolis took about a dozen students to a sex shop. She said she wanted to provide a safe environment for students to learn about human sexual behavior. While parents are upset, teachers are defending the trip.

A Virginia high school teacher is under investigation after students reported seeing photos of her nude breasts. The Woodside High School teacher showed three students before and after photos of her breast augmentation. She has since resigned.

When a senior ordered her cap and gown for her Carrick High School commencement, she expected to be walking across the stage. What she didn’t know was that a trip her mother planned as a graduation gift would cost her the opportunity. Pittsburgh Public Schools mandates students attend graduation rehearsal.

It was graduation night at Northridge Academy High School, but many families who should have been celebrated were instead upset because they had been locked out of the ceremony. Nearly 150 people were unable to see their kids receive their diploma. The families were not allowed inside because the auditorium had been filled to capacity because the event was oversold.

A Florence, Oregon senior completed high school a year early but she won’t be allowed to wear a cap and gown and collect her diploma along with the Class of 2015 at Siuslaw High School. The problem? A deadline she missed by one hour.

A California high school has found itself in the hot seat after leaving two young women’s senior photos out of its yearbook because of dress-code violations. In their photos, for the Lincoln High School yearbook in Stockton, one student wore a tux and the other a button-down shirt and bow tie, rather than the off-the-shoulder black V-neck drape required for girls.

Two McKinney middle school students were sent home, and several others were told to cover up their “Gay O.K.” message on their shirts. They were worn as support for a Faubion Middle School seventh grader who came out and being was bullied. McKinney Independent School District in Texas said the shirts caused a disruption.

Also coming out of Texas, for the eighth year, teachers at Sulphur Springs Middle School handed out “Ghetto Classroom Awards.” Educators claim they didn’t know the term was derogatory. The school says it’s investigating.

In Nevada, a Rancho High School teacher in Las Vegas is under arrest for having sex with a pupil, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and kidnapping. Two bus drivers are also facing charges. One’s accused of inappropriately touching seven different children on 32 occasions, the other of assaulting passengers as young as three years old.

And finally, Somerset Academy in North Las Vegas apologized to a sixth-grader after telling her she couldn’t use a Bible verse in an assignment. The assignment asked her to include an inspirational quote in a presentation. The girl can now resubmit her work with the verse John 3:16.

The greater the power, the greater the abuse.

Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break.
The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it.
If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.

 

It had to be around 1967 when I first heard his name, only because I remember the grape boycott. Mom thought Cesar Chavez was a hero for shining a light on the plight of migrant farmers in California’s Central Valley, but I couldn’t care less at the time.

Three years later I had to do a book report about Chavez. Looking back, that reader made him seem god-like and the same appears true today as in 2014 President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day.

Since that book report, and setting aside politics, I’ve learned more about him as I recently, I picked up a 1975 copy of “Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa.” Though the information’s limited and vague, I jus’ discovered that he lived in Del Norte for a while, writing:

“By that time Helen and I had two children, Fernando and Sylvia, born a year apart, and Helen was pregnant with Linda. We rented a house from an Aunt in San Jose and started looking for a job. But we just couldn’t find one anywhere. The best we could do was pick string beans, making $1 or $1.50 a day and working only for a few hours because that was all the work there was. Finally the employment office told us they wanted people up in Crescent City, more than four hundred miles to the north.

We didn’t even know where Crescent City was, and we had never done any lumber work but Richard, my cousin Manuel, two other cousins, and I all got in the car and took off.

In the beginning it was very tough because we didn’t know all the tricks working in lumber. We worked so hard the first days that when we came home, we couldn’t eat or do anything. We went right to bed. Even though we were young, the work on the green lumber chain was just killing. Eventually, we learned, and it became easier.

After Richard built a little shack for us, we drove back to San Jose to get our families. Linda was born in Crescent City and so was Richard’s son Freddy.

We stayed about a year and a half, then got tired of all the winter weather. The constant rain was too much, so we returned to San Jose where Richard became an apprentice carpenter, and I got a job as a lumber handler in a mill.”

Evidently, pulling on the green chain kicked their butts – something I can appreciate as the chain moves green lumber along a belt in order for it to be graded and sorted. Employees stand beside the chain and literally ‘pull’ the fresh-cut wood, putting them in sorting piles.

But, in the end, it was Del Norte’s signature weather that became the deciding factor as to whether he would stay or not. I’d love to know what lumber mill he worked for, the shacks location and why I never learn about his connection to Crescent City when I was doing that damned book report.