Newsletter - June 2019

Trump! Trump! Trump!  Terrible man.  That is all the media has to say.  He just doesn’t fit the proper mold of a Republican President who smiles while taking a lot of abuse.  He has his own rules.  That is not good.

Some of us in California who are still able to think rationally and not emotionally look at what is going on in the state in amazement.  George Skelton in a current article from the Los Angeles Times appears to also be amazed.  Apparently, the heavily Democrat State Legislature is less popular among California voters than Donald Trump.  What?  The nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a poll that so stated.  Also, Congress is less popular than the Legislature and Mr. Trump.

Why is that?  Mark Baldassar, the PPIC president replies:  Because they’re not getting anything done.  The California Legislature is also perceived as doing nothing.  The feeling is that the Legislature is not in sync with the Governor. 

Democrat voters approve of the Legislature by nearly 2 to 1 and Republicans disapprove by almost 8 to 1.  No surprise.  However, the increasing number of independent voters who happen to outnumber registered Republicans had different numbers.  They gave the Legislature 32% approval and 55% disapproval. 

Why would that be?  Could it be the fact that while there is a $21 Billion surplus in the state budget, the only ideas that come out of the legislature are to increase taxes on just about anything including new tires, car batteries, firearms, prescription painkillers, corporations based on the their CEO pay, oil extraction and water?

The legislature heard from enough voters that they dropped many of these bright ideas.  However, it seems to appear that they can’t figure out how to help solve the homeless problems in our cities which have basically descended to third world status.  An interesting fact is that the majority of cities that have descended into filth, pandemonium, and poverty are run by Democrats.

Now, let us move on to our Governor.  Mr. Newsom is opening California to the world.  He wants to provide health insurance for all illegal persons under age 26 in the state who have just walked in.  He took a trip to El Salvador to help them with something.  What that something was is unclear.  On May 31, 2019 the Governor signed a “Proclamation on Reproductive Freedom” in which he reaffirms the state’s commitment to “protecting women’s reproductive choices” and welcomes women to California to exercise that right. Come to California for your abortion.

At this point, it is necessary to address this entire abortion issue.  Many people believe that abortion is a religious issue.  It is really a life issue.  The issue is Who Lives and Who Dies?  And, Who Makes the Decision?

An unborn child is a human being.  It is not a potato, an amoeba or some other thing.  It has all the DNA of a human being.  Many have survived and lived long before the end of a normal pregnancy.  Melissa Ohden survived a botched saline abortion and was left to die before a nurse saved her.

There is an issue in the entire abortion controversy that is being constantly ignored.  Someone: the woman, the doctor or another person is making the decision to end the life of another human being.  There is no judicial review, no committee to discuss the case.  Occasionally, a judge gets called in but that is rare.  Since when in the United States of America can one citizen decide that another person can die?  The Democrat Party is now stating that if the baby is born alive then the mother and doctor can decide whether or not they will take care of it or just let it quietly die.  (Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia).  Since 1973 (Roe v. Wade) women have had the option of ending a life.  Because you cannot see the victim does not mean that everything is ok. 

Democrat presidential candidates are pushing to end the Hyde Amendment.  The Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions.  The Amendment stops taxpayers from paying for a procedure with which they are in total disagreement.

Our nation was built on freedom and equality.  A war was fought to guarantee those principles for all Americans.  The abortion issue removes those principles for our most vulnerable members. 

Unwanted pregnancies can be a burden on women.  However, there are agencies and groups that are prepared to help women in these situations.  It is good to remember that Americans travel around the world to locate children they can adopt.

The pro abortion position totally ignores the residuals of abortion on the women who have an abortion.  Many carry the grief and sorrow the rest of their lives.

We cannot ignore a major factor in this whole discussion.  MONEY.  Too many people do not understand that a major push behind the abortion industry is money.  Planned Parenthood receives over half a billion dollars each year from Medicaid reimbursements. 

The Trump administration has finalized a new rule that will likely result in a large drop in federal funding for Planned Parenthood.  The rule forbids use of Title X family-planning funds to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.  A loss of Title X grants will cost Planned Parenthood about $60 Million.”  The statue governing the program has always declared that “none of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”  For much of this program’s history that language was effectively ignored.         

Title X funding will not be reduced but merely redirected from groups that perform abortions.  Fewer than 500 of the approximately 4,000 Title X service sites in the country are Planned Parenthood facilities. 

Planned Parenthood wishes to be thought of as a benevolent health-care provider.  The organization claims that abortion makes up a mere 3% of the organization’s activities.  Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports have some interesting statistics.  In the last fiscal year Planned Parenthood facilities performed upwards of 332,000 abortion procedures.  The new President, Leana Wen, stated that “protecting and expanding access to abortion” is the group’s “core mission.” 

The glorification of abortion extends to other issues in our lives:  treatment of the disabled, the elderly and those people who are just plain inconvenient.  Let us remember that America is supposed to be a shining city on a hill not a grave for those who don’t matter.