How not to talk to each other.

As I try to talk and reach out, here is what confronts me so.

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I watched with dismay as my friend JP posted so many mean things while she was at the Inauguration.  This is what JP says, and it is challenging to hear:

“A crazy woman from Washington didn’t understand why women could support Trump and I set her straight!”

During the Inauguration JP bragged that Bikers for Trump would lock down DC and using the language of the ALT Right bragged that Chris Cox and his 200,000 strong vigilante crew eat “Snowflakes for Breakfast.”   But she complained about the K Street Protesters and media asserting that their threats of violence was the reason why the Inauguration was not well attended.

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“Message to Woman’s Marchers- Give the next generation of women a head-start in equality and understanding, self-respect and strength of character by sending the girls and young women in your life to a single-sexed high school or college that will teach her what you marched about & for today!”

But then she writes:  “today is also the day when hypocrisy must end; when bias must be cast out and when we look for the good in each other.  People who claim they want unity and respect for women and for this country are marching in protest of a man whom millions of women supported.”  She decided that the best way to bring unity was to glare at protesters.

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But who was leading 8 years ago.  Remember when President Obama was delivering a nationally televised speech to Congress a mere 8 1/2 months into his first term, and South Carolina representative, Joe Wilson, shouted out “You Lie!” on live television?   Why was that the new norm?

Not long after, when Republicans regained control of Congress, Mitch McConnell (R)(Ky.), specifically stated that “my number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president.” He actually said that. In the midst of a financial meltdown, skyrocketing oil prices, terrorism in the middle east, and impending global catastrophe from climate change, the Congressional leadership put “intentionally obstructing the president” as the single most important issue for Congress to address. Whether Mr. McConnell was serious or just being glib doesn’t matter – the message was that Republicans had a deep dislike of Barack Obama and would do everything in their power to undermine his authority.

Don’t forget about the “birther” movement that launched Trump’s political career claiming that Obama was not American -that he was actually born in Kenya, and his birth certificate from Hawaii was forged. Or the constant insistence that Obama is actually a Muslim, despite his clear and unambiguous relationship with Christianity. Or the attempt to label him as a “communist,” although many of his policies are more to the right of Eisenhower, including his bail-out for banks, the auto industry, and the pushing through of his signature Trans-Pacific Partnership – all pro-business, right-of-center endeavors. And while occasionally being referred to as a monkey, or ape, or other racially incendiary comparison to lower level primates.

The language cannot help Americans reunite.  I heard these words over the last three days, and I had to look up what they mean.

Beta:  Alpha males are leaders, like Trump; beta males are portrayed as weak and emasculated.

Crybaby, whiny: Anyone who disagrees with them or their preferred candidate, particularly protesters and people who complain that the alt-right is embracing racism and anti-Semitism.

Cuckservative, cuck: The term “cuckservative” originated in the alt-right. It’s a portmanteau of “conservative” and “cuckold” used to describe Republicans who are perceived to be emasculated or “selling out.” Frequently shortened to “cuck,” the term has come under scrutiny for its racist implications.

Human biodiversity: Despite the fact that many say racism is at the heart of its platform, the alt-right is very sensitive about being called racist. They use the term “human biodiversity” as a more scientific-sounding way of referring to issues of race.

Libtard: The alt-right revels in the rejection of “political correctness,” so embracing an outdated term for a person with an intellectual disability (“retard”) serves the purpose of insulting liberals.

Masculinist: A word meant to embody the opposite of feminist, celebrating “manliness” and the traditional “heroic” nature of men. To the alt-right, “masculinist” principles are ones that serve and advocate for men. Critics say they primarily reinforce antiquated gender roles.

 

Multiculturalism (as a derogatory term): A major component of the alt-right platform is white supremacy and nationalism. “Multiculturalism” is used as a negative term for the blending of multiple cultures, as opposed to celebrating the supposed superiority of Western European culture.

Neoreactionaries: Also known as NRx and the “Dark Enlightenment.” A group of people who call for stripping away anything other than supposedly rational thought, as opposed to a “feelings first” mentality. They advocate for libertarianism, traditional gender roles and neofascism.

Political correctness: Anything that challenges an alt-right person’s right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, in any way they want to say it. According to the alt-right, political correctness is responsible for most of society’s ills, including feminism, Islamic terrorism and overly liberal college campuses.

Snowflake: Short for “special snowflake,” a pejorative for an entitled person. Most people protesting Trump are “snowflakes,” according to the alt-right, as are anti-Trump celebrities and most liberals.

SJW: Short for “social justice warrior,” this insult is mostly reserved for young women who try to argue on behalf of liberal or feminist ideas.

White genocide: What many alt-right members feel is the natural conclusion of liberalism and pro-immigrant policies.

Please reconcile for me why being American demands upon me and people who believe like I do to turn the other cheek?   We have a President who models escalation; how can American resist division?

I do not have the answers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where do we go from here?

Where do we go now to come together?  It is all about activism and service?  Could it be about something simpler, but perhaps more difficult?  Friendships with people with whom we disagree?  How to we rebuild the house that is divided?

We have firmly become flat characters in narratives.  The good and the evil. The pink hatted; the red hatted.  We hear the same words of the new President; for some it is hopeful and others hateful.  Why?  Because we are human and we want to belong to the tribe that surrounds us, and so we speak to belong?  It is nothing new.  We have turned on each other as Americans have in the past.  What is the way out?

Let us go back in time for perspective.  It is June 16, 1858, and we are listening to Lincoln’s House Divided Speech during his unsuccessful bid for a Senate Seat.  Although beloved now, it was very controversial at the time.  The words cost Lincoln the Senatorial election, but it made him a statesman for the world and all time.

On June 16, 1858 more than 1,000 delegates met in the Springfield, Illinois, statehouse for the Republican State Convention. At 5:00 p.m. they chose Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. At 8:00 p.m. Lincoln delivered this address to his Republican colleagues in the Hall of Representatives. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” a concept familiar to Lincoln’s audience as a statement by Jesus recorded in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke).

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.  It will become all one thing or all the other.

Even Lincoln’s friends regarded the speech as too radical for the occasion. His law partner, William H. Herndon, considered Lincoln as morally courageous but politically incorrect.  Herndon saw the political price for the words, “when I saw Senator Douglas making such headway against Mr. Lincoln’s house divided speech I was nettled & irritable, and said to Mr. Lincoln one day this — ‘Mr. Lincoln — why in the world do you not say to Mr. Douglas, when he is making capital out of your speech, — ‘Douglas why whine and complain to me because of that speech. I am not the author of it. God is. Go and whine and complain to Him for its revelation, and utterance.’ Mr. Lincoln looked at me one short quizzical moment, and replied ‘I can’t.'”

Herndon said later “Lincoln as a statesman, and political philosopher, announced an eternal truth — not only as broad as America, but covers the world.”

I was lucky enough to be in DC for the Inauguration  and at the Women’s March both of which were attended by friends that were passionately participating in citizenship that the ceremonies, galas and on the streets.    I saw how moved my friends J and K were to the words of the Inauguration Speech.  Let’s take a look at what was said.   Where is the what so and where we can agree? Here is what I can agree with.   Let’s talk about these things.  Can we?

  • True.  A nation exists to serve its citizens.
  • True.  Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.
  • True.  But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
  • Great idea.  We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.
  • Great idea.  We will get our people off of welfare and back to work — rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.
  • I like this.  We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.
  • I like this too.  We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.  When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.
  • I like this.  We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.
K asks me, “If you wouldn’t mind I would love for you to tell me what you feel is the purpose of this movement and what is the outcomes you’re committed to producing?”  I say, “It is simply equality for women.  Same pay.  Same control over our bodies. Mutual respect for our bodies and potentials.”  Here is how he hears it and what he says.
K:  “Anything that changes the hearts and minds of people is there’s a clear compelling message the people can understand and get on board for. I don’t see that right now I just see a bunch of angry people [who the news] puts on all the time.  It is off putting but what I saw in some of the pictures and from some of my friends sharing their participation today was Joy freedom and independence from suppression. That has an appeal.”
Beth:  “I saw no angry people today.”
K:  “My guess is that what it looks like right now is the beginning of something really great and it’s messy and awkward like anything when it first starts.”
Beth:  “Of course and when it’s being seen in the beginning it is not clear.”
K:  “I say this is authentically as I can. I live my life out of a possibility for all people…. that tone that arrogance [and] stupidity of relating to people like they’re idiots and that is the enemy . . . [Saying] ordinary people are stupid deplorable and irredeemable and those people are not that they’re just people. Scatter[ed] attacks on anything that doesn’t agree with one’s position is not going to get social change to take place effectively. It will just slow it way down.”
Beth:  “You are right. So where do we go from here?”
K:  “Hell I don’t know.”
Beth “You do know.”
K:  “It would be good if you answered my question about what’s the purpose I’m going to the outcomes. I always start there – if you get clear about that the path to producing it becomes pretty obvious.  What is the purpose? What are the outcomes that you’re committed to producing?
Beth:  “Equality for men and women.”
K:  “Well what would it look like if you were successful and you achieved your mission. What would start happening that isn’t happening? What would stop happening that is happening? What would we see more of? What would we see less of? And what would be a Eradicated?”
Now we are talking, and a house is being rebuilt.

We are Marching!

350 women attorneys are flying from Colorado to march in D.C. on January 21, 2017, and Beth Klein Boulder Attorney is preparing to be invigorated and inspired to stand up for the rights of all.  The buzz is that this march is expected to be one of the largest demonstrations in American history. The Women’s March now has almost 200 progressive groups, large and small, signing on as supporting partners. The issues they represent are as varied as the environment, legal abortion, prisoners’ rights, voting rights, a free press, affordable healthcare, gun safety, racial and gender equality and a higher minimum wage. Donald Trump’s ceremony may take a back seat to our protest.  I hope so.

I will be documenting the voices of the marchers and the event this week.  So please engage!

It’s never happened that so many people have gathered in opposition to a new administration on day one.

But it is the correct response to a man who has smashed decorum and frightened millions.

 

Saving Elephants

Please read Beth Klein Boulder Attorney’s writing about Synthetic Ivory.

https://www.worldpulse.com/en/community/users/beth-klein/posts/73333

Beth Klein Boulder Muses – can synthetic ivory save the elephants?

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Beth Klein Boulder Attorney and Synthetic Ivory

Last night I had a dream about replacing natural ivory with a synthetic. (As I regress to my kindergarten self, my imagination is getting stronger and my curiosity is off the charts.) After all, we have perfect synthetic diamonds, synthetic fish, and synthetic fur. Why not synthetic ivory – chemically identical and pure?  Vegan ivory?  Sustainable ivory?

I am posting this to find a team to explore this idea. Please contact Beth Klein, Boulder Attorney if you are interested in this exploration and project.

The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, African and Asian elephants. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is the same, regardless of the species of origin.

Legal hunting and illegal poaching of elephants is big business. Despite preserving lands and having armed guards (both great ideas), poachers are still killing elephants at an extinction pace because of the demand. But there is a darker side to this trade that fuels militant Islamic groups.

Elephant Action League (EAL) recently completed a two-year investigation into illegal poaching in Africa. And it led to al-Shabab, the Islamic militant group in Somalia that raided and occupied Nairobi’s Westgate Mall for several days last month.

Al-Shabab is buying illegal ivory from poachers, says EAL. They documented an estimated one to three tons of ivory going into Somalia each month through al-Shabab traders. That is “enough to fund of up to 40 percent of the monthly salary of Shabab’s estimated 5,000 fighters.”

You can hear the radio interview here.

“And they really need money, because many of the low-level Shabab people are driven by money concerns, as much as ideology,” he said. “For Shabab, ivory is just a commodity, like kidnapping, like charcoal, like shaking down small business owners. Compared to other kinds of sources, it’s a relatively easy source of funding, so thousands of people will risk their lives to get it.”

EAL says that poaching has a more profound effect on people than most suspect.

“The human toll of the ivory trade is much wider and deeper than al-Shabab. It’s not just about terrorists making money, it’s not just about the rangers dying trying to protect the elephants and the rhinos and other wildlife. It’s about entire local communities getting exploited by this market. It’s about widows and orpans, it’s about child soldiers, it’s about weapons bought to poach,” he said. “I think it’s time for the international community to face the broad spectrum of those side effects of the ivory trade.”

Tusks are used for decoration and remedies. What if, we could duplicate the formula and satisfy the market with a man-made ivory. Ivory keys on pianos have been replaced. Plastics worked for a while. Why not evolve?

Ivory consists mainly of dentine (inorganic formula Ca10(PO4)6(CO3)·H2O, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. We know the 3D layering of the structures of different animals. Tusks have a minor peripheral component, the cementum, a soft derivative of enamel, and a main core of dentine which is ivory. Dentine is composed of a matrix of particles 5-20 microm in diameter in a ground substance containing dentinal tubules about 5 microm in diameter with a center to center spacing of 10-20 microm. Here is an in-depth article from NIH.  So much work has been done.

Can we use a 3D printer to print ivory that looks so natural that a carver will chose it over the real thing?

Who can make Ca10(PO4)6(CO3)·H2O in shapes of enormous trophy sized tusks?  Bigger than what is natural?

Can manufacturing of Ca10(PO4)6(CO3)·H2O jobs be created to replace hunting and poaching?

Can a market for synthetic ivory be created in the countries that demand the product as the better alternative?

Who knows the right people to bring this into existence and see what impact we can have?

Please contact Beth Klein, Boulder Attorney.

The Influence of Phillip Dick & Trumpism

Beth Klein Boulder Attorney Blog
Beth Klein Boulder Attorney Blog

Not far from my home, the remains of Phillip Dick rest in Riverside Cemetery in Fort Morgan, Colorado, (section K, block 1, lot 56) where they were buried next to his twin sister Jane.  No crowds come to honor him as they do Jim Morrison at Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France. Ironically, Phillip Dick was one of the world’s most influential writers and thinkers who is deserving of our thanks.

I wanted to write an electronic memorial to him. When you read the names of his works, there is nothing else that needs to be added to describe his contribution to literature through battles with suspicion of propaganda and government, loneliness, drug abuse, depression and schizophrenia.

“I’m not much but I’m all I have.”

“My schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression.”

“Don’t try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.”

But, during these days as we watch America being degraded by a president elect, Phillip Dick’s words have even deeper meaning.   In “The Man In The High Castle,” Philip Dick wrote about how people judge competing narratives as true or false in the context of what we already believe is true.

In High Castle, he asks us to imagine a world where Nazi power triumphed in WW2, and a world in which the narrative of history was written by the victor. If we lived in that world, how would we know that the lies spun by a Nazi government were not the truth?  Until we see how stories are used to shape our perceptions and reality, we’re vulnerable to continued manipulation. But once we can think critically about the ways that narratives are constructed, and the various agendas they serve, we can begin to assess objectively our own beliefs.

What is red, what is blue, what is real?

We have now seen how a mass communication disinformation campaign can elevate a Putin Puppet to the highest power in a competing state, and to have millions of supporters simply repeat the mantra.  The context of hatred of a conservative or a liberal view now dominates the common hatred of national threats.

Now, with these manipulations, hating or not listening to a competing political view is more important than working together.  The Machiavellian common enemy which typically binds a nation, has now been turned inward upon the US.  If there is a legacy of the Trump movement, it is simply that.  Trumpism is moving a nation to implode by false narratives that are accepted as reality in the context of the right and wrong of red and blue.

“Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

  • Blade Runner
  • Total Recall based on the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,”
  • Confessions d’un Barjo (1992), titled Barjo in its English-language release, a French film based on the non-science-fiction novel Confessions of a Crap Artist.
  • Screamers (1995), based on the short story “Second Variety”, directed by Christian Duguay
  • Minority Report (2002), based on the short story “The Minority Report”, based on the 1953 story “Impostor,”
  • Paycheck (2003), directed by John Woo and starring Ben Affleck, based on Dick’s short story of the same name.
  • A Scanner Darkly (2006), directed by Richard Linklater and starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Robert Downey Jr.
  • Next (2007), directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Nicolas Cage, loosely based on the short story “The Golden Man”.
  • Radio Free Albemuth (2010), directed by John Alan Simon loosely based on the novel “Radio Free Albemuth”.
  • The Adjustment Bureau (2011), directed by George Nolfi and starring Matt Damon, loosely based on the short story “Adjustment Team”.
  • The Terminator series prominently features the theme of humanoid assassination machines first portrayed in Second Variety.
  • The Man in the High Castle for the BBC, in the form of a mini-series.[51] A pilot episode was released on Amazon Prime in January 2015 and Season 1 was fully released in ten episodes of about 60 minutes each on 20 Nov 2015

Phillip Dick was a twin, and his sister Jane died in childbirth.  Her death influenced his placement of the protagonist in two simultaneous realities themes in many of his works.

He believed that existence is based on internal human perception, which does not necessarily correspond to external reality; he described himself as “an acoustic pantheist.  After studying metaphysical realms, Dick came to the conclusion that the world is not entirely real and there is no way to confirm whether it is truly there.  He constantly asked the question: “What is an authentic human being?”  And themes of mental illness, religious, medical and recreational drug use, and divine experiences permeate his work.

In 1974 he had a mystical experience that helped calm his horror of the world, and he wanted to communicate the structure of the calm to others in Vast Acting & Living Intelligence Systems (VALIS).  He felt that something intervened to heal his mind and give him a sense of beauty of the world amid the insanity.

“Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. . . If reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn’t we really be talking about plural realities? And if there are plural realities, are some more true (more real) than others? What about the world of a schizophrenic? Maybe it’s as real as our world. Maybe we cannot say that we are in touch with reality and he is not, but should instead say, His reality is so different from ours that he can’t explain his to us, and we can’t explain ours to him. The problem, then, is that if subjective worlds are experienced too differently, there occurs a breakdown in communication … and there is the real illness.”

Following Orders was impossible for him as he explains in a 1979 interview.

He found that science fiction gave him the means for true expression, but felt that it became silly putty over time without an identity.

How he measured men was based upon acts, not celebrity or wealth.  My favorite quote is:

“The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. No, the true measure of a man is this: how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give.

Shortly before his death Philip offered a list of his own prognostications to be published in the collection Book of Predictions.  Here’s what he predicted courtesy of the PKD Otaku fan zine, issue number 11.  Fill in the blanks yourself about whether any of these modern day quatrains occurred.

1984
The U.S. will perfect a system by which hydrogen, stored in metal hydrides, will serve as a fuel source, eliminating a need for oil.

1985
By or before this date there will be a titanic nuclear accident either in the U.S.S.R. or in the U.S., resulting in shutting down all nuclear power plants.

1986
Such satellites as HEAO-2 will uncover vast, unsuspected high energy phenomenon in the universe, indicating that there is sufficient mass to collapse the universe back when it has reached its expansion limit.

1993
An artificial life form will be created in a lab, probably in the U.S.S.R., thus reducing our interest in locating life forms on other planets.

1995
Computer use by ordinary citizens (already available in 1980) will transform the public from passive viewers of TV into mentally alert, highly trained, information-processing experts.

2010
Using tachyons (particles that move backward in time) as a carrier, the Soviet Union will attempt to alter the past with scientific information.

Now is the time to question the nature of our reality and to stand in principles broader than making the “other” right or wrong.  Thank you  Phillip for cementing these words in story so that perhaps people will create something together rather than invest billions of dollars to destroy capable leaders and ourselves with words and binary codes.

 

 

Beth Klein Boulder Lawyer's Exploration of Human Powered Things in 2017

floatinggymBehold a human powered gym being powered by a spin class in Paris!

A well-conditioned cyclist can produce about 400 watts of mechanical power for an hour or more, but adults of good average fitness average between 50 and 150 watts for an hour of vigorous exercise.

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Manoj Bhargava has created a human-powered generator.  The generator, called the Free Electric, that can power a rural household running 24 lights and a fan, while charging a phone, for a day, all from an hour’s work by a single individual.

watts can:

Blender/Food Processor (400 Watts) 1 hour/week
Coffee Maker (894 Watts) one hour/day
Dishwasher (1,200 Watts) one hour/day
Microwave Oven (1,450 W) 30 min./day
Freezer 15 Cu. Ft. (341 W.) 12 hrs/day 124
Refrigerator – 14 Cu. Ft. (440 W.) 12 hrs/day

What is a watt anyway?

Electricity usage is calculated in kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is 1,000 watts used for one hour. As an example, a 100-watt light bulb operating for ten hours would use one kilowatt-hour.

What is on the cutting edge?

Princeton University engineers have developed a device that may change the way that we power many of our smaller gadgets and devices. By using our natural body movement, they have created a small chip that will actually capture and harness that natural energy to create enough energy to power up things such as a cell phone, pacemaker and many other small devices that are electronic.

The chip is a combination of rubber and ceramic nanoribbons. When the chip is flexed, it generates electrical energy. How will this be put to use? Think of rubber soled shoes that have this chip embedded into them and every time a step is taken, energy is created and stored. Just the normal walking around inside the office during a normal work day would be enough to keep that cell phone powered every day.

1-rocking-knit-chair-1

This chair knits you a warm hat! Using the energy generated by simply kicking back and relaxing, the “Rocking-Knit” draws yarn from a spool and knits it into a hat right above your head.

A washing machine, a blender, and a socket.  The later is soccer ball by day and a light all night.

The Pavegen tiles were designed for streets, schools, squares where lots of people walk as it transforms kinetic energy of your steps into electricity. The electricity generated can be used for powering up street lamps, to keep advertisement lamp boxes on, and more.

http://www.crookedbrains.net/

 

Beth Klein suggests – Program a Lego Robot

Lots of people are switching off social media and finding time to gather with friends and explore new ideas.

Here is a suggestion.  Host a “Program a Lego Robot” Party.  You may be surprised at your ability to intuitively program a robot.

This year Lego is selling Boost, a basic robotics- and programming-oriented kit that’s playful.  Boost is built around a motorized block called a Move Hub, powered by six AAA batteries and equipped with a tilt sensor. You can pick from five major building projects: a foot-high anthropomorphic robot called Vernie, a mechanical cat named Frankie; a colorful guitar; a tractor-like vehicle; and the “Autobuilder,” a 3D printer-like machine that can be programmed to put Lego together.

During the construction process, the app introduces new builders to the simple programming interface: a series of puzzle pieces representing different actions, which can be chained together and triggered by a tap of the screen or a real-world action.  You will actually learn just by tinkering with it.

You can program Vernie to dance and shake maracas, to shoot a small projectile at a target, or to hold a conversation using preset lines.  Frankie “plays” a Lego harmonica by detecting when different colors hit the sensor over its mouth, then playing a sound that’s linked to that color, including recorded audio.

Robotics and AI can be understood and a lot of fun.  Have a breakthrough in your relationship with these realms in 2017 with friends.

 

Turkey, ISIS and the PKK.

 

The Kurdish–Turkish conflict is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups that want a separate Kurdish nation or greater rights for Kurds in Turkey.  The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan).    The insurgency is mainly in southeastern Turkey and the Kurdish region in Iraq.   What follows is a very simplistic summary of the conflict.

The conflict between the Turks and the Kurds began in 1984.  Former French ambassador to Turkey Eric Rousseau estimated in addition to the 35,000 people killed in military campaigns, 17,500 were assassinated between 1984, when the conflict began, and 1998. An additional 1,000 people were reportedly assassinated in the first nine months of 1999. According to the Turkish press, the authors of these crimes, none of whom have been arrested, belong to groups of mercenaries working either directly or indirectly for the security agencies.

Since the 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for the thousands of human rights abuses against Kurdish people.  The judgments are related to systematic executions of Kurdish civilians, forced recruitments, torturing, forced displacements, thousands of destroyed villages, arbitrary arrests, murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists. The PKK was responsible for a number of civilian deaths, even though this number is lower than those perpetrated by the government. The number of total civilian deaths perpetrated by the PKK between 1989 and 1999 was determined as 1,205 by the independent Uppsala One-Sided Violence Dataset.

On December 29, 2012, Erdoğan said that the government was conducting negotiations with jailed rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan. Negotiations initially named as Solution Process (Çözüm Süreci).  Assassination of three Kurdish PKK administrators in Paris and the bombings of the Justice Ministry of Turkey and Erdoğan’s office at the Ak Party headquarters in Ankara nearly derailed the peace process.   But despite these attacks on March, 21 2013, a cease-fire that included disarmament and withdrawal from Turkish soil began the conclusion of the 30 year old conflict.

On April 23, 2013, the PKK announced that it would be withdrawing all its forces within Turkey to Northern Iraq.  Constitutional and legal changes towards the recognition of human rights of the Kurds starts simultaneously with withdrawal.

In October 2014, riots erupted in various cities in Turkey after ISIS sieged Kobane. The Kurds accused the Turkish government of supporting ISIS.The conflict between Turkey and PKK escalated following the 2015 Suruç bombing attack on progressive activists, which was blamed on a Turkish ISIL-affiliated group. Turkey bombed alleged PKK bases in Iraq and PYD bases in Syria’s Kurdish region Rojava, effectively ending the cease-fire.

Violence soon spread throughout Turkey. Many Kurdish businesses were destroyed and branches of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were also attacked. There are reports of civilians being killed in several Kurdish-populated towns and villages. In the spring of 2016 the violence increased and in May, a Turkish Bell AH-1 SuperCobra helicopter was shot down by a PKK-fired Russian made MANPADS.

During the winter there is typically a lull in the violence.  But three conditions indicate that in the Spring of 2017 indicate that the violence may increase:  the deadlock in peace talks , polarised antagonists who believe a military solution is possible, and competition over northern Syria in which both sides are seeking maximum outcomes and competing for US support.

After the attempted coup in July 2016, the violence of PKK tactics increased with the use of  improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and kidnapping, assault and killing of political figures.   Ankara has matched the PKK’s ramp up in tactics, convinced that the group could be defeated militarily. “Ankara has declared an ‘all-out war’, intensifying military operations and advancing its domestic crackdown against alleged PKK supporters,” the ICG stated, citing the recent arrests of pro-Kurdish mayors, the closure of Kurdish media outlets, and the arrests of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers.

In 2016, Turkey suffered 18 major terror attacks, most of which were carried out by the PKK, its affiliate group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), and ISIS.  In addition to its fight against the PKK and ISIS, Turkey has also, simultaneously, put forward a strong fight against the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), as well as the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) which carried out the July 15 coup attempt.

In 2017, the Turkish government is expected to continue its offensive against the PKK locally and in its cross-border operations, which may include an expansion of cross-border operations into northern Iraq, to fight PKK targets, including the Qandil Mountains and Sinjar, in addition to the expansion of Operation Euphrates Shield into areas held by the PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the PYD, in northern Syria.

In his recent speeches, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has particularly voiced that 2017 will be the worst year yet for the PKK.

“I say clearly that these are their good days. After April, they will be surprised to see what is happening to them, as their end will come soon. We will decisively continue our fight during the winter,” Interior Minister Soylu said on Dec. 8, during his visit to the eastern Van province.

The PKK, distanced itself on the Reina New Years nightclub attack.  “No Kurdish forces have anything to do with this attack,” it said in a statement. “The Kurdish freedom fight is also the fight for democratization of Turkey. That’s why we won’t target innocent and civilian people.”

ISIS took responsibility for the bombing.

No end is in sight for the armed conflict between these three groups.

 

 

 

Trump’s Stuxnet & Flame Primer

 

bromance-between-trump-and-putin

The romantic idea that war is handled by fleets of ships, planes, and other heavy metal manned by uniformed heroes is becoming part of the past.  Now, a USB stick can be more effective than a bomber.   And we are all part of the new system of war and espionage.  Every electronic device with which we interact provides behavioral data to Google, Facebook,  the NSA and the imaginary 400 pound man in bed in a basement.

It is no secret that Trump has a very limited knowledge of computers – except for his 7th grader mastery of bullying on Twitter.  He says “”I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on.”  Actually, people (other than the fake news issue) do know what is going on.  And thus, this writing on Stuxnet and Flame as a rudimentary primer on the sophistication of cyber warfare the day the first power grid was attacked in the US by the Russian Federation.

A code associated with the Russian hacking operation named the Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration was found in a laptop associated with the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.  This discovery occurred after Department of Homeland Security, FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shared the Grizzly Steppe malware code with executives from 16 sectors nationwide, including the financial, utility and transportation industries. Vermont utility officials identified the code within their operations and reported it to federal officials Friday.  The discovery reveals the vulnerabilities of the nation’s electrical grid. And it raises fears in the U.S. government that Russian government hackers are actively trying to penetrate the grid to carry out potential attacks.  You can read the official paper here.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said ,“Vermonters and all Americans should be both alarmed and outraged that one of the world’s leading thugs, Vladimir Putin, has been attempting to hack our electric grid, which we rely upon to support our quality-of-life, economy, health, and safety,” Shumlin said in a statement. “This episode should highlight the urgent need for our federal government to vigorously pursue and put an end to this sort of Russian meddling.”

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said, “This is beyond hackers having electronic joy rides — this is now about trying to access utilities to potentially manipulate the grid and shut it down in the middle of winter,” Leahy said in a statement. “That is a direct threat to Vermont and we do not take it lightly.”

And it started with Stuxnet.

Stuxnet is a militarized malicious computer worm for which no organization or state has officially admitted responsibility. The worm was at first identified by the security company VirusBlokAda in mid-June 2010.  It is believed to have been used to infect and destroy Iranian uranium production and to render Syrian radar systems unless in Operation Olympic Games during which Syria’s infant nuclear facilities were destroyed by undetected bomber planes.

Anonymous US officials claimed the worm was developed during the Bush administration to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program with what would seem like a compounding accidents over a long period of time and to demoralize the Iranians. In May 2011, the PBS program Need To Know cited a statement by Gary Samore, White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, in which he said, “we’re glad they [the Iranians] are having trouble with their centrifuge machine and that we – the US and its allies – are doing everything we can to make sure that we complicate matters for them”

Stuxnet specifically targets programmable logic controllers (PLCs).  PLCs platform automation of electromechanical processes such as those used to control machinery on factory assembly lines, amusement rides, or centrifuges for separating nuclear material.  It seeks out Siemens Step 7 software through the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Four zero-day flaws were exploited. A zero-day (also known as zero-hour or 0-day or day zero) vulnerability is an undisclosed computer-software vulnerability that hackers can exploit to adversely affect computer programs, data, additional computers or a network.

Stuxnet reportedly compromised Iranian PLCs causing the fast-spinning centrifuges to tear themselves apart.  Stuxnet reportedly ruined almost one fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.

Stuxnet has three modules: a worm that executes all routines related to the main payload of the attack; a link file that automatically executes the propagated copies of the worm; and a rootkit component responsible for hiding all malicious files and processes, preventing detection of the presence of Stuxnet.

Stuxnet is said to be introduced to the target environment via an infected USB flash drive plugged into a computer.

The worm then propagates across the network, scanning for Siemens Step7 software on computers controlling a PLC. In the absence of either criterion, Stuxnet becomes dormant inside the computer. If both the conditions are fulfilled, Stuxnet introduces the infected rootkit onto the PLC and Step7 software, modifying the codes and giving unexpected commands to the PLC while returning a loop of normal operations system values feedback to the users.

Operation Olympic Games was a covert and still unacknowledged campaign of sabotage by means of cyber disruption, directed at Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States and likely Israel. As reported, it is one of the first known uses of offensive cyber weapons.

Started under the administration of George W. Bush in 2006, Olympic Games was accelerated under President Obama, who heeded Bush’s advice to continue cyber attacks on Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz. Bush believed that the strategy was the only way to prevent an Israeli conventional strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Stuxnet has not been useful in North Korea because the computer systems are secured and the ability to introduce even an infected thumb drive is zero.

Stuxnet and cyber warfares’ potential supersede conventional treaty mandated inspections and weapon proliferation.   In cyber warfare, entire power grids, chemical plants and transportations systems can be turned against their own nation of residence.

And now Flame has been detected.  Flame appears to be a new generation of Stuxnet, and when it infects computers, it turns each computer into a bluetooth transmitter of all keystrokes, electronic communications including video chats such as Google hangouts, Skype and Face Chat.  It also has a kill command which wipes all traces of the malware from the computer.

Its discovery was announced on 28 May 2012 by MAHER Center of Iranian National, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), Kaspersky Lab[6] and CrySyS Lab of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Flame “is certainly the most sophisticated malware we encountered during our practice; arguably, it is the most complex malware ever found. Flame can spread to other systems over a local network (LAN) or via USB stick. It can record audio, screenshots, keyboard activity and network traffic. The program also records Skype conversations and can turn infected computers into Bluetooth beacons which attempt to download contact information from nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices.”

If all electronic devices that interact with the internet and communications systems are indeed blue tooth transmitters, clearly people know what is “going on” with whom and may be able to predict behavior with the behavioral data mining giants of Facebook and Google.

 

 

Creativity and Boredom.

alma-deutscher

Alma Deutsche gets her musical ideas when she’s about to go to sleep or when she’s waking up, but primarily “by skipping with this skipping rope,” she says.  “I don’t actually skip but I wave it round like this and I tell stories in my mind. Very often a melody just springs into my head. And then I run back and write it down in my notebook,” she says.  “You see it has to be just this kind of skipping rope, with shining tassels and sparkles. Other ropes don’t work at all.”

The child prodigy, who could play the piano at two, the violin at three and could read music before she could read words, swings the rope to help her think up the melodies that have already made her a world-famous composer and performer, and a favourite of musical giants such as Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim.

“I used to use sticks but I didn’t want to wave them in someone’s eye,” Alma says. “I’d get into a terrible panic if I couldn’t find the right kind of stick, if it wasn’t ‘swing-ey’ enough.

A skipping rope was much nicer to swing around — I got more melodies and thought of more stories with it. I think it’s to do with the swinging movement and being outside, running around with the wind in my hair.”

Alma does not have a smart phone, a computer, or a TV.  She reads 100 or more books a year, and she composed an opera at age 11 that opens in Vienna today.

On December 29 the full-length version of Cinderella, Alma’s first opera — composed when she was 10 — will have its world premiere in Vienna under the patronage of Zubin Mehta. It follows a chamber version performed by a string quintet without scenery in Israel in July. “This will be at a completely different level, with a full orchestra, costumes and sung in German,” she explains. At the moment she doesn’t speak German and is desperate to learn it, “so I can understand my own opera”.

Her opera protagonist is a Cinderella who is smart and who wrote a song.  The Prince heard and loved the song and searches the kingdom for the girl who can correctly finish the musical phrase he sings.

She considers electronic media a waste of time and that TV ruins the mind.  She also feels that it would interrupt her access to the music in her brain.

Alma is home-schooled. Her father has said that Alma had hoped she would learn to read on her first day at the local school and how frustrated she became. They quickly realised the limitations an ordinary school would impose on her immense gifts, but not just her abilities to play instruments, to sing and to compose.

“I learn here in one hour what would take five hours in school,” she says. She spends each morning practising violin or piano, listening to music or working on her compositions. She writes in notebooks or uses a Sibelius music software programme because it’s faster.

She paints, does ballet or goes to gym classes with other home-schooled children in the afternoons, leaving plenty of time to play, skip and twirl with her rope in the garden — the Deutschers have sensibly invested in bulk supplies of sparkly skipping ropes from Amazon.

Please enjoy her music for a few minutes.

Recently, James Taylor spoke about his need for “empty time.”

Every time I sit down and play, there’s a possibility that a chord change or a chord progression will become a song.

You get in a cage somewhere without any distractions. One of the things I found this time is that I actually need a week of defended empty time before lyrics really start to come through.

t used to be that I could find a place near my home, set up all my notebooks and recorders and my guitar, and work away from three hours before lunch and two hours after lunch, maybe take a long walk. Now I find I actually have to drive a couple of hours away from home and set up camp for a whole week, and after a couple of days, things start to flow.

 

Taylor says that a great deal gets done in “empty time.”

It turns the idea that smart people never get bored on its head.    Maybe we all need some boredom.

 

 

 

 

Beth Klein Boulder Attorney Suggests How to Help Refugees

“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

As America balances on the head of the pin of the future, two camps firmly believe in polar opposite scenarios. And each camp is entrenched in a siloed world view, and the silos must be broken. Over the past year nationalism has vilified terrified Syrians running for their lives and made them virtual human punching bags with a tiny chance of fleeing to the United States. So little truth is known, but red-Americans firmly believe that the United States’ interests are served by shutting out the terrified refugees. Helping refugees and ensuring education and safety is the better path. Beth Klein Boulder’s suggestions on how to get into action instead of just believing are at the bottom of this essay.

About 5 million Syrians have fled since the war began in 2011. The U.S., which took in only about 2,000 refugees in the first several years of the war, has increased the number to about 12,000 this year. The federal resettlement program is administered via nine agencies that depend on the work of volunteers.

More than 4.5 million refugees from Syria are in just five countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt:

Turkey hosts 2.5 million refugees from Syria, more than any other country worldwide

Lebanon hosts approximately 1.1 million refugees from Syria which amounts to around one in five people in the country

Jordan hosts approximately 635,324 refugees from Syria, which amounts to about 10% of the population

Iraq where 3.9 million people are already internally displaced hosts 245,022 refugees from Syria

Egypt hosts 117,658 refugees from Syria
The UN’s 2015 humanitarian appeal for Syrian refugees was just 61% funded by the end of the year. Funding shortages mean that the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in Lebanon receive just $21.60 per person month or around US$0.70 cent a day for food assistance, well below the UN’s poverty line of $1.90. 86% of Syrian refugees in urban areas in Jordan are living below the local poverty line.

Selfish memes garner electronic blue thumbs up on Facebook. Then sorrowful memes of pictures of dead children – how did we stand by and watch this happen? Neither are useful to middle class people reduced to nothing and starving. Action matters.

How can we, the privileged and “exceptional”, be debating hope in the face of Aleppo and the Syrian diaspora. How can kind people become so fearful, that they turn away from kindness? When kindness turns away, a violence becomes a reality. Violence becomes the norm birthed from fear and horror.

Sunday, 47 children inside the orphanage near the front line in eastern Aleppo some in “critical condition from injuries and dehydration” were bused out of hell There are many other “vulnerable children” among untold thousands of people still inside eastern Aleppo, according to estimates from the U.N. and humanitarian agencies.

France’s U.N. ambassador , Francois Delattre, urged immediate deployment of U.N. monitors to former rebel-held eastern Aleppo to avoid new atrocities. The goal of the French-Russian compromise resolution adopted Monday is to avoid a repetition of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslims – “to avoid new mass atrocities by the forces on the ground and the militias in particular.”

On Monday buses drove residents toward the western countryside, where aid workers greeted them. Many were exhausted and distressed after a nightmarish journey from an area that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described as a “synonym for hell. About 5,000 people have been bused out since midnight, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, bringing the total number of evacuees to 15,000. Buses are expected to run through the night.

Despite what is said by France, the Russian Federation denies and questions reports of “mass atrocities every day.” But today, solitary men on shoestring budgets can bring superpowers to the knee for a time – with violence and horror.

The UN human rights office said it had reliable evidence that up to 82 civilians were shot on the spot by government and allied forces who entered their homes, or at gunpoint in the streets, over the past few hours.

“The reports that civilians – including children – are being massacred in cold blood in their homes by Syrian government forces are deeply shocking but not unexpected given their conduct to date. Such extrajudicial executions would amount to war crimes,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International’s Beirut Regional office.

“Throughout the conflict Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, have repeatedly displayed a callous disregard for international humanitarian law and utter disdain for the fate of civilians. In fact, they have regularly targeted civilians as a strategy, both during military operations and through the mass-scale use of arbitrary detention, disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment. As government forces gain full control of eastern Aleppo the risk that they will commit further atrocities raises grave fears for thousands of civilians still trapped.

Consider:

Donate or Volunteer With the International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee works globally and has been providing critical humanitarian aid to Syrians since 2012. They provide services from cash vouchers for Syrians to purchase food, legal assistance, employment, and education.

The IRC will be providing $100 to 500 of the most vulnerable families fleeing the current situation in Aleppo. While supporting 12 health facilities in Idleb governorate and five schools providing an education for 4,000 children.

In the United States, you can sign up to volunteer at a local resettlement office.

Donate to International Red Cross

The International Red Cross is standing at the ready to help Syrians still trapped in Eastern Aleppo. You can support their efforts to treat the wounded, make sure children are properly fed and cared for, and to get people to safety as quickly as possible by donating.
Work for refugees when they can’t

Double up your support by donating your time and money to refugees. Fear that refugees will take jobs, and lack of economic opportunities for refugees contributes to a difficult environment for refugees to generate income. Combine this with the lengthy time it takes to process work visas for refugees and it can be hard for refugees to feed their families.

This is part of what inspired #WorkforRefugees. A project from World Vision New Zealand where students contributed a portion of their earnings to charities supporting refugees.

You can do this too. Donate a small portion of your effort to show support for refugees and #WorkforRefugees to show your efforts.

Translate for a Syrian refugee

Lend your time in any way you can with the skills and tools you have. If you’re bilingual, especially in Arabic, you have a great opportunity to help. Donate your time by translating for Syrian refugees. Being in a place where you don’t speak the language can be intimidating. Signing up to translate is a great way to help refugees understand their rights and surroundings in a new environment.

Help with legal support

Refugees need help navigating complex laws around immigration status too.A group of law students realized that both could benefit from working together and created an organization that pairs law students and professionals with refugees (15 percent are Syrian) in need of legal assistance. I f you have experience, or are looking to gain experience in the legal field you can join the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Support doctors and medical needs

Doctors without Borders, also known as MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), provides support in Aleppo, and has doctors working in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Airbnb your apartment or room with refugees

Through Refugees Welcome you can sign up to provide shelter to refugees by renting to them or offering to invite them in and room with them. The organization will even help you pay your rent and cover extra utilities.

If you need further details on how you can help, I am here to help you find a powerful connection. Please leave a comment for Beth Klein Boulder Attorney, and let’s see what we CAN do.

Beth Klein Boulder Attorney suggests ways and reasons to help refugees.

“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

As America balances on the head of the pin of the future, two camps firmly believe in polar opposite scenarios about refugees.  And each camp is entrenched in a siloed world view, and the silos must be broken.

Over the past year nationalism has vilified terrified Syrians running for their lives and made them virtual human punching bags with a tiny chance of fleeing to the United States.   So little truth is known, but red-Americans firmly believe that the United States’ interests are served by shutting out the terrified refugees.  Helping refugees and ensuring education and safety is the better path.  Beth Klein Boulder’s suggestions on how to get into action instead of just believing are at the bottom of this essay.

About 5 million Syrians have fled since the war began in 2011. The U.S., which took in only about 2,000 refugees in the first several years of the war, has increased the number to about 12,000 this year. The federal resettlement program is administered via nine agencies that depend on the work of volunteers.

More than 4.5 million refugees from Syria are in just five countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt:

Turkey hosts 2.5 million refugees from Syria, more than any other country worldwide

Lebanon hosts approximately 1.1 million refugees from Syria which amounts to around one in five people in the country

Jordan hosts approximately 635,324 refugees from Syria, which amounts to about 10% of the population

Iraq where 3.9 million people are already internally displaced hosts 245,022 refugees from Syria

Egypt hosts 117,658 refugees from Syria

The UN’s 2015 humanitarian appeal for Syrian refugees was just 61% funded by the end of the year.  Funding shortages mean that the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in Lebanon receive just $21.60 per person month or around US$0.70 cent a day for food assistance, well below the UN’s poverty line of $1.90.  86% of Syrian refugees in urban areas in Jordan are living below the local poverty line.

Selfish memes garner electronic blue thumbs up on Facebook.  Then sorrowful memes of pictures of dead children – how did we stand by and watch this happen?  Neither are useful to middle class people reduced to nothing and starving.  Action matters.

How can we, the privileged and “exceptional”, be debating hope in the face of Aleppo and the Syrian diaspora.  How can kind people become so fearful, that they turn away from kindness?  When kindness turns away, a violence becomes a reality.  Violence becomes the norm birthed from fear and horror.

Sunday, 47 children inside the orphanage near the front line in eastern Aleppo  some in “critical condition from injuries and dehydration” were bused out of hell There are many other “vulnerable children” among untold thousands of people still inside eastern Aleppo, according to estimates from the U.N. and humanitarian agencies.

France’s U.N. ambassador , Francois Delattre, urged immediate deployment of U.N. monitors to former rebel-held eastern Aleppo to avoid new atrocities. The goal of the French-Russian compromise resolution adopted Monday is to avoid a repetition of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslims – “to avoid new mass atrocities by the forces on the ground and the militias in particular.”

On Monday buses drove residents toward the western countryside, where aid workers greeted them. Many were exhausted and distressed after a nightmarish journey from an area that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described as a “synonym for hell.  About 5,000 people have been bused out since midnight, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, bringing the total number of evacuees to 15,000. Buses are expected to run through the night.

Despite what is said by France, the Russian Federation denies and  questions reports of “mass atrocities every day.”  But today, solitary men on shoestring budgets can bring superpowers to the knee for a time – with violence and horror.

The UN human rights office said it had reliable evidence that up to 82 civilians were shot on the spot by government and allied forces who entered their homes, or at gunpoint in the streets, over the past few hours.

“The reports that civilians – including children – are being massacred in cold blood in their homes by Syrian government forces are deeply shocking but not unexpected given their conduct to date. Such extrajudicial executions would amount to war crimes,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International’s Beirut Regional office.

“Throughout the conflict Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, have repeatedly displayed a callous disregard for international humanitarian law and utter disdain for the fate of civilians. In fact, they have regularly targeted civilians as a strategy, both during military operations and through the mass-scale use of arbitrary detention, disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment. As government forces gain full control of eastern Aleppo the risk that they will commit further atrocities raises grave fears for thousands of civilians still trapped.

Consider:

Donate or Volunteer With the International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee works globally and has been providing critical humanitarian aid to Syrians since 2012. They provide services from cash vouchers for Syrians to purchase food, legal assistance, employment, and education.

The IRC will be providing $100 to 500 of the most vulnerable families fleeing the current situation in Aleppo. While supporting 12 health facilities in Idleb governorate and five schools providing an education for 4,000 children.

In the United States, you can sign up to volunteer at a local resettlement office.

Donate to International Red Cross

The International Red Cross is standing at the ready to help Syrians still trapped in Eastern Aleppo. You can support their efforts to treat the wounded, make sure children are properly fed and cared for, and to get people to safety as quickly as possible by donating.

Work for refugees when they can’t

Double up your support by donating your time and money to refugees. Fear that refugees will take jobs, and lack of economic opportunities for refugees contributes to a difficult environment for refugees to generate income. Combine this with the lengthy time it takes to process work visas for refugees and it can be hard for refugees to feed their families.

This is part of what inspired #WorkforRefugees. A project from World Vision New Zealand where students contributed a portion of their earnings to charities supporting refugees.

You can do this too. Donate a small portion of your effort to show support for refugees and #WorkforRefugees to show your efforts.

Translate for a Syrian refugee

Lend your time in any way you can with the skills and tools you have. If you’re bilingual, especially in Arabic, you have a great opportunity to help. Donate your time by translating for Syrian refugees. Being in a place where you don’t speak the language can be intimidating. Signing up to translate is a great way to help refugees understand their rights and surroundings in a new environment.

Help with legal support

Refugees need help navigating complex laws around immigration status too.A group of law students realized that both could benefit from working together and created an organization that pairs law students and professionals with refugees (15 percent are Syrian) in need of legal assistance. I

f you have experience, or are looking to gain experience in the legal field you can join the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Support doctors and medical needs

Doctors without Borders, also known as MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), provides support in Aleppo, and has doctors working in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Airbnb your apartment or room with refugees

Through Refugees Welcome you can sign up to provide shelter to refugees by renting to them or offering to invite them in and room with them. The organization will even help you pay your rent and cover extra utilities.

If you need further details on how you can help, I am here to help you find a powerful connection.  Please leave a comment for Beth Klein Boulder Attorney, and let’s see what we CAN do.

 

 

 

 

Who are the electors -give them a call.

Here is a list of the Electors and their current position on their vote. I have also included whether they are mandated to vote in a certain way. Consider talking to them and please let me know who you called and the results.

Alabama
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Perry O. Hooper Jr., Pike Road, At-Large
Grady H. Thornton, Birmingham, At-Large
Frank Burt Jr., Bay Minette, CD1
Will B. Sellers, Montgomery, CD2
James Eldon Wilson, Montgomery, CD3
Tim Wadsworth, Arley, CD4
J. Elbert Peters, Huntsville, CD5
Mary Sue McClurkin, Indian Springs, CD6
Robert A. Cusanelli, Carrollton, CD7

Alaska
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Sean Parnell, Palmer
Jacqueline Tupou, Juneau
Carolyn Leman, Anchorage

Arizona
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

J. Foster Morgan, Glendale — The youngest elector, at 19.
Walter Begay Jr., Kayenta
Bruce Ash, Tucson – National Committeeman
Sharon Giese, Mesa
James O’Connor, Scottsdale
Jerry Hayden, Scottsdale
Robert Graham, Phoenix – State Party Chairman
Edward Robson, Phoenix
Carole Joyce, Phoenix
Alberto Gutier, Phoenix
Jane Pierpoint Lynch, Phoenix
Arkansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jonathan Barnett
Jonelle Fulmer
Keith Gibson
Tommy Land
John Nabholz
Sharon R. Wright

California
Electors: 55, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Dustin R. Reed, Concord
Javier Gonzalez, San Jose
Shawn E. Terris, Ventura
John M. Ryan, San Rafael
Mark W. Headley, Berkeley
Gail R. Teton-Landis, Santa Barbara
Faith A. Garamendi, Davis
Ana A. Huerta, Bakersfield
Marie S. Torres, Hacienda Heights
Kathleen R. Scott, Lincoln
Donna M. Ireland, Pleasanton
Robert S. Torres, Pomona
Timothy J. Farley, Martinez
Christine T. Kehoe, San Diego
Dorothy N. Vann, Long Beach
Analea J. Patterson, Sacramento
Vinzenz J. Koller, Carmel – Has indicated that he is undecided, currently suing California over law forcing him to vote for Clinton.
David S. Warmuth, Pasadena
Janine V. Bera, Elk Grove
Andrew R. Krakoff, Orinda
Karen D. Waters, Inglewood
Sandra M. Aduna, Laguna Woods
Katherine A. Lyon, Coronado
Shirley N. Weber, San Diego
Saundra G. Andrews, Oakland
John P. MacMurray, La Habra
Denise B. Wells, Victorville
Jane C. Block, Riverside
Sheldon Malchicoff, Westlake Village
Gregory H. Willenborg, Los Angeles
Edward Buck, West Hollywood
Nury Martinez, San Fernando
Laurence S. Zakson, Los Angeles
Francine P. Busby, Cardiff
Gwen Moore, Los Angeles
Laphonza R. Butler, Los Angeles
Cathy A. Morris, Rancho Cucamonga
Benjamin Cardenas, Montebello
Stephen J. Natoli, Visalia
Jacki M. Cisneros, Los Angeles
Mark A. Olbert, San Carlos
Raymond L. Cordova, Garden Grove
Christine Pelosi, San Francisco – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Steven D. Diebert, Fresno
Carmen O. Perez, Long Beach
James A. Donahue, El Cerrito
Celine G. Purcell, Redwood City
Patrick F. Drinan, Escondido
Andres Ramos, Elk Grove
Susan Eggman, Stockton
Olivia A. Reyes-Becerra, Stanford
Eileen Feinstein Mariano, San Francisco
Priscilla G. Richardson, Cathedral City
Natalie P. Fortman, Valencia
Steve J. Spinner, Atherton

Colorado
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Micheal Baca, Denver
Terry Phillips, Louisville
Mary Beth Corsentino, Pueblo
Jerad Sutton, Greeley; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Robert Nemanich, Colorado Springs; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Amy Drayer, Greenwood Village
Ann Knollman, Arvada
Sen. Rollie Heath, Boulder
Hon. Polly Baca, Denver; has indicated she will cast her vote for an alternative Republican candidate.
Connecticut
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Barbara Gordon, West Hartford
Ellen Nurse, Hartford
Edward Piazza, New Haven
Tyisha Walker, New Haven
Christopher Rosario, Bridgeport
Robert Godfrey, Danbury
Steven Jones, Tolland

Delaware
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lynn Fuller
Lydia York
Linda Cavanaugh

District of Columbia[
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Anita Bonds – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Jack Evans
Franklin Garcia

Florida
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tony Ledbetter
Pam Bondi[
Sharon Day
Ade Aderibigbe
Larry Ahern
Brian Ballard
Kristy Banks
Michael Barnett
Lizbeth Benacquisto
Robin Bernstein
John Browning
Dena DeCamp
Nick DiCeglie
Jeremy Evans
John Falconetti
Peter Feaman
Kat Gates-Skipper
Joe Gruters
Debbie Hannifan
Blaise Ingoglia
Mike Moberley
Susan Moore
Joe Negron
Clint Pate
Ray Rodrigues
Carlos Trujillo
Robert Watkins
Susie Wiles
Christian Ziegler

Georgia
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bruce Allen Azevedo
Brian K Burdette
Lott Harris Dill
John David Elliott
James Randolph Evans
Bobbie D. Frantz
Linda D. Herren
Rachel Blackstone Little
Deborah M. McCord
Michael Neil McNeely
Mary L. Padgett
Neil L. Pruitt
Joshua Kirk Shook
Frank B. Strickland
Baoky Nguyen Vu (resigned, will be replaced by alternate)
John B. White

Hawaii
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Electors
John Bickel
Janice Bond
Marie (Dolly) Strazar
David Mulinix

First Alternates
Kainoa Kaumeheiwa-Rego
Eileen McKee
Michael Golojuch Sr.
Yvonne Lau

Second Alternates
Carolyn Golojuch
Julie Patten
Michele Golojuch
Leo Caries

Idaho
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Layne Bangerter
Caleb Lakey
Jennifer Locke
Melinda Smyser

Illinois
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Toni Preckwinkle
Carrie Austin
Silvana Tabares
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia
Pam Cullerton
Nancy Sheperdson
Vera Davis
William Marovitz
Barbara Flynn Currie
John R. Daley
Michelle Mussman
Lauren Beth Gash, Highland Park
Kevin Duffy Blackburn, Joliet
Jerry Costello, Belleville
Carol Ammons, Urbana
Mark Guethle, North Aurora
Flint Taylor, McLeansboro
John Nelson, Rockford
Don Johnston, Rock Island.
Shirley McCombs
Indiana
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Stephanie Beckley, Jamestown
Daniel Bortner, Bedford
Laura Campbell, Carmel
Jeff Cardwell, Indianapolis
Donald L. Hayes, Jasper
Randall Kirkpatrick, Ligonier
Ethan E. Manning, Peru
Macy Kelly Mitchell, Indianapolis
Edwin J. Simcox, Fishers
Kevin Steen, Muncie
Chuck Williams, Valparaiso

Iowa
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

James Whitmer
Don Kass
Dylan Keller
Alan Braun
Kurt Brown
Polly Granzow
Danielle Massey

Kansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ashley J. McMillan, Concordia, party vice chair.
Helen Van Etten, Topeka, national committeewoman.
Mark Kahrs, Wichita, national committeeman.
Ron Estes, Wichita, Kansas State Treasurer.
Clayton L. Barker, Leawood, party executive director.
Kelly Arnold, Wichita, party chairman.

Kentucky
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jim Skaggs
David Disponett
Robert Duncan
Michael Carter
Scott Lasley
Walter Reichert
Mary Singleton
Troy Sheldon

Louisiana
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Chris Trahan, CD1
Lloyd Harsh, CD2
Charles Buckels, CD3
Louis Avalone, CD4
Kay Katz, CD5
Lennie Rhys, CD6
Garret Monti, At Large
Scott Wilfong, At Large

(1st-alternate) Candy Maness
(2nd-alternate) Jennifer Madsen
(3rd-alternate) Christian Gil
(4th-alternate) Constance Diane Long
(5th-alternate) Verne Breland
(6th-alternate) Glenda Pollard
(At Large-alternate) John Batt
(At Large-alternate) Raymond Griffin

Maine
Electors: 4

Democratic Party
3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

(1st) Diane Denk of Kennebunk
(At Large) David Bright of Dixmont
(At Large) Sam Shapiro of Winslow

Republican Party
1, pledged to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

(2nd) Richard A. Bennett of Oxford
Maryland
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lesley Israel
Robert Leonard
Lillian Holmes
Salome Peters
Hagner Mister
Claudia Martin
Courtney Watson – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Karen Britto
Susan Ness
Wayne Rogers

Massachusetts
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Nazda Alam
Mary Gail Cokkinias
Marie Turley
Dori Dean
Donna Smith
Cheryl Cumings
Marc Pacheco
Curtis Lemay
Jason Palitsch
Paul Yorkis
Parwez Wahid

Michigan
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Haggard
Jack Holmes
Kelly Mitchell
Judy Rapanos
Henry Hatter
Robert Weitt
Wyckham Seelig
Ross Ensign
Michael Banerian
Brian Fairbrother
Ken Crider
Mary Vaughn
Jim Rhoades — Motorcycle lobbyist.
William Rauwerdink
Hank Fuhs
Joseph Guzman

Minnesota
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Fred Knudson
Roger Gehrke
Marge Hoffa
Raymond Hess
Muhammed Abdurrahman
Betsy O’Berry
Mike Wammer
Mary Murphy
Jules Goldstein
Sherrie Pugh

Mississippi[edit]
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ann Hebert
Joe F. Sanderson Jr.
Bradley R. White
J. Kelley Williams
William G. Yates Jr.
Wirt Yerler
Missouri[edit]
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tim Dreste (1st)
Jan DeWeese (2nd)
Hector Maldonado (3rd)
Sherry Kuttenkuler (4th)
Casey Crawford (5th)
Tom Brown (6th)
Cherry Warren (7th)
Scott Clark (8th)
Al Rotskoff
Susie Johnson

Montana
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Thelma Baker
Nancy Ballance
Dennis Scranton
Vondene Kopetski (alternate)
Becky Stockton (alternate)
Thomas Tuck (alternate)
Nebraska
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Craig Safranek, Merna
Chuck Conrad, Hastings
John Dinkel, Norfolk
Phil Belin, Omaha
Paul Burger, Kearney
Nevada
Electors: 6

Dayananda Prabhu Rachakonda
Larry Jackson
Joetta Brown
Paul Catha II
Greg Gardella
Teresa Benitez-Thompson
New Hampshire
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

The only all-female slate of electors, all four of whom are the first Democratic women to hold their elected offices.

Terie Norelli- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Bev Hollingworth- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Dudley Dudley- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Carol Shea-Porter – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
New Jersey
Electors: 14, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Alaa R. Abdelaziz of Paterson
Tahsina Ahmed of Haledon — The first Bangladeshi-American female to hold elected office in the nation
Anthony Cureton of Englewood
Lizette Delgado-Polanco of Ewing
Edward Farmer of Piscataway
Christopher D. James of East Orange
Leroy J. Jones Jr. of East Orange
Retha R. Onitiri of Clarksburg
Marlene Prieto of Secaucus
Ronald G. Rios of Carteret
Hetty M. Rosenstein of South Orange
Kelly Steward Maer of Manasquan
Mary Ann Wardlow of Lawnside
Heriberta Loretta Winters of Williamstown

New Mexico
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Roxanne Allen, a Democratic ward chairwoman in Albuquerque.
Noyola Padilla Archibeque, chairwoman of the San Miguel Federation of Democratic Women in Las Vegas.
John Padilla, a Bernie Sanders delegate to this year’s Democratic National Convention and a ward chairman in Albuquerque.
Lorraine Spradling, a grassroots organizer in Los Lunas.
E. Paul Torres of Isleta Pueblo.
New York
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

William J. Clinton
Andrew M. Cuomo
Kathy C. Hochul
Thomas P. DiNapoli
Eric T. Schneiderman
Carl E. Heastie
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Bill de Blasio
Letitia A. James
Scott M. Stringer
Melissa Mark-Viverito
Byron W. Brown
Christine C. Quinn
Basil A. Smikle, Jr.
Melissa Sklarz
Mario F. Cilento
Rhonda Weingarten
George K. Gresham
Daniel F. Donohue
Stuart H. Appelbaum
Gary S. LaBarbera
Lovely A. Warren
Stephanie A. Miner
Katherine M. Sheehan
Anastasia M. Somoza
Sandra Ung
Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Hazel L. Ingram — The oldest elector, at 93.
Rachel D. Gold
North Carolina
15, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Linda Harper
Charles Staley
Karen Kozel
Martha Jenkins
Celeste Stanley
Donald Webb
Robert Muller
Jennifer Dunbar
Andrea Arterburn
Glenn Pinckney Sr.
Mark Delk
David Speight
Ann Sullivan
Lee Green
David Smuski
North Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Olson
Duane Mutch
Bev Clayburgh
Ohio
Electors: 18, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marilyn Ashcraft
Curt Braden
Christina Hagan
Lee-Ann Johnson
Ralph King
Alex Triantafilou
Mary Anne Christie
Corey Schottenstein
Jim Dicke II
Cheryl Blakely
Richard Jones
Tom Coyne
Judy Westbrock
Leonard Hubert
Tracey Winbush
James Wert
Brian Schottenstein
Ed Crawford
Oklahoma
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

David Oldham
Teresa Lyn Turner
Mark Thomas
Bobby Cleveland
Lauree Elizabeth Marshall
Charles W. Potts
George W. Wiland, Jr.

Oregon
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Frank James Dixon, Portland
Karen A. Packer, Newberg
Austin Folnagy, Klamath Falls
Leon H. Coleman, Aloha
Harry W. “Sam” Sappington III, Albany
Timothy Norman Powers Rowan, Portland
Laura Gillpatrick, Eugene

Pennsylvania
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bob Asher
Mary Barket
Robert Bozzuto
Theodore (Ted) Christian
Michael Downing
Margaret Ferraro
Robert Gleason
Christopher Gleason
Joyce Haas
Ash Khare
James McErlane
Elstina Pickett
Patricia Poprik
Andrew Reilly
Carol Sides
Glora “Lee” Snover
Richard Stewart
Lawrence Tabas
Christine Toretti
Carolyn Bunny Welsh
Rhode Island
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Clay Pell – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Grace Diaz
L. Susan Weiner
Frank J. Montanaro
South Carolina
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Glenn McCall
Matt Moore
Terry Hardesty
Jim Ulmer
Brenda Bedenbaugh
Bill Conley
Shery Smith
Moye Graham
Jerry Rovner
South Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Jackley
Dennis Daugaard
Matt Michels
Tennessee
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Beth Scott Clayton Amos, a State Executive Committee member for the Republican party, member of the Board of the Estate Planning Council of Middle TN, At Large
Joey Jacobs of Brentwood as a statewide delegate (Pres & CEO of Acadia Healthcare), At Large
Jason Mumpower (Bristol), CD1
Susan Mills (Maryville), CD2
Liz Holiway (Harriman), CD3
Lynne Davis (Lascassas), CD4
Tom Lawless (Nashville), CD5
Mike Callahan (Monterey), CD6
Pat Allen (Clarksville), CD7
Shannon Haynes (Alamo), CD8
Drew Daniel (Memphis), CD9
Texas
Electors: 38, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Rhymes
Thomas Moon
Carol Sewell
John E. Harper
Sherrill Lenz
Nicholas Ciggelakis
Will Hickman
Landon Estay
Rex Lamb
Rosemary Edwards
Matt Stringer
Shellie Surles
Melissa Kalka
Sandra Cararas
David Thackston
Robert Bruce
Margie Forster
Scott Mann
Marian K. Stanko
Tina Gibson
Ken Muenzter
Alexander Kim
Virginia Abel
Curtis Nelson
Kenneth Clark
Candace Noble
Fred Farias
John Dillard
Tom Knight
Marian Knowlton
Rex Teter
Stephen Suprun Jr.; (Chris Suprun) wrote in the New York Times that he will not vote for Donald Trump
Jon Jewett
Susan Fischer
Lauren Byers
William Greene
Mary Lou Erben
Arthur Sisneros — Vacated the position in late November 2016,[50] stating “Since I can’t in good conscience vote for Donald Trump, and yet have sinfully made a pledge that I would, the best option I see at this time is to resign my position as an Elector. This will allow the remaining body of Electors to fill my vacancy when they convene on Dec 19 with someone that can vote for Trump. The people will get their vote. They will get their Skittles for dinner. I will sleep well at night knowing I neither gave in to their demands nor caved to my convictions. I will also mourn the loss of our republic.”

Utah
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Cherilyn Eagar
Kris Kimball
Jeremy Jenkins
Peter Greathouse
Chia-Chi Teng
Richard Snelgrove
Vermont
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Peter Shumlin
Martha Allen
Tim Jerman
Virginia
Electors: 13, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Bethany J. Rowland, Chesapeake
Debra Stevens Fitzgearld, Harrisonburg
James Harold Allen Boyd, Culpeper
Jasper L. Hendricks, III, Pamplin
Jeanette C. Sarver, Dublin
K. James O’Connor, Jr., Manassas
Kathy Stewart Shupe, Sterling
Keith A. Scarborough, Woodbridge
Lashrecse D. Aird, Petersburg
Susan Johnson Rowland, Chesapeake
Terry C. Frye, Bristol
Virginia L. Peters, Alexandria
Vivian J. Paige, Norfolk

Washington
Electors: 12, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Elizabeth Caldwell
Dan Carpita
Peter Chiafalo – Undecided voter.
Levi Guerra – Has stated she plans to vote for a Republican “consensus candidate.”
Eric Herde
Joshua Ivey
Esther John
Julie Johnson
Varisha Khan
Chris Porter
Robert Satiacum, Jr. – A member of the Puyallup Tribe. Undecided voter.
Phillip Tyler

West Virginia
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ron Foster
Patrick Morrisey
Ann Urling
Mac Warner
Bill Cole
Wisconsin
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Kim Travis, Williams Bay, CD1
Kim Babler, Madison, CD2
Brian Westrate, Fall Creek, CD3
Brad Courtney, Whitefish Bay, CD4
Kathy Kiernan, Richfield, CD5
Dan Feyen, Fond du Lac, CD6
Jim Miller, Hayward, CD7
Bill Berglund, Sturgeon Bay, CD8
Steve King, Janesville, At Large
Mary Buestrin, River Hills, At Large

Wyoming
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bonnie Foster
Teresa Richards
Karl Allred

Who are the Electors – Call Them?

Here is a list of the Electors and their current position on their vote.  I have also included whether they are mandated to vote in a certain way.  Consider talking to them.

Alabama
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Perry O. Hooper Jr., Pike Road, At-Large
Grady H. Thornton, Birmingham, At-Large
Frank Burt Jr., Bay Minette, CD1
Will B. Sellers, Montgomery, CD2
James Eldon Wilson, Montgomery, CD3
Tim Wadsworth, Arley, CD4
J. Elbert Peters, Huntsville, CD5
Mary Sue McClurkin, Indian Springs, CD6
Robert A. Cusanelli, Carrollton, CD7

Alaska
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Sean Parnell, Palmer
Jacqueline Tupou, Juneau
Carolyn Leman, Anchorage

Arizona
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

J. Foster Morgan, Glendale — The youngest elector, at 19.
Walter Begay Jr., Kayenta
Bruce Ash, Tucson – National Committeeman
Sharon Giese, Mesa
James O’Connor, Scottsdale
Jerry Hayden, Scottsdale
Robert Graham, Phoenix – State Party Chairman
Edward Robson, Phoenix
Carole Joyce, Phoenix
Alberto Gutier, Phoenix
Jane Pierpoint Lynch, Phoenix
Arkansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jonathan Barnett
Jonelle Fulmer
Keith Gibson
Tommy Land
John Nabholz
Sharon R. Wright

California
Electors: 55, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Dustin R. Reed, Concord
Javier Gonzalez, San Jose
Shawn E. Terris, Ventura
John M. Ryan, San Rafael
Mark W. Headley, Berkeley
Gail R. Teton-Landis, Santa Barbara
Faith A. Garamendi, Davis
Ana A. Huerta, Bakersfield
Marie S. Torres, Hacienda Heights
Kathleen R. Scott, Lincoln
Donna M. Ireland, Pleasanton
Robert S. Torres, Pomona
Timothy J. Farley, Martinez
Christine T. Kehoe, San Diego
Dorothy N. Vann, Long Beach
Analea J. Patterson, Sacramento
Vinzenz J. Koller, Carmel – Has indicated that he is undecided, currently suing California over law forcing him to vote for Clinton.
David S. Warmuth, Pasadena
Janine V. Bera, Elk Grove
Andrew R. Krakoff, Orinda
Karen D. Waters, Inglewood
Sandra M. Aduna, Laguna Woods
Katherine A. Lyon, Coronado
Shirley N. Weber, San Diego
Saundra G. Andrews, Oakland
John P. MacMurray, La Habra
Denise B. Wells, Victorville
Jane C. Block, Riverside
Sheldon Malchicoff, Westlake Village
Gregory H. Willenborg, Los Angeles
Edward Buck, West Hollywood
Nury Martinez, San Fernando
Laurence S. Zakson, Los Angeles
Francine P. Busby, Cardiff
Gwen Moore, Los Angeles
Laphonza R. Butler, Los Angeles
Cathy A. Morris, Rancho Cucamonga
Benjamin Cardenas, Montebello
Stephen J. Natoli, Visalia
Jacki M. Cisneros, Los Angeles
Mark A. Olbert, San Carlos
Raymond L. Cordova, Garden Grove
Christine Pelosi, San Francisco – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Steven D. Diebert, Fresno
Carmen O. Perez, Long Beach
James A. Donahue, El Cerrito
Celine G. Purcell, Redwood City
Patrick F. Drinan, Escondido
Andres Ramos, Elk Grove
Susan Eggman, Stockton
Olivia A. Reyes-Becerra, Stanford
Eileen Feinstein Mariano, San Francisco
Priscilla G. Richardson, Cathedral City
Natalie P. Fortman, Valencia
Steve J. Spinner, Atherton

Colorado
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Micheal Baca, Denver
Terry Phillips, Louisville
Mary Beth Corsentino, Pueblo
Jerad Sutton, Greeley; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Robert Nemanich, Colorado Springs; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Amy Drayer, Greenwood Village
Ann Knollman, Arvada
Sen. Rollie Heath, Boulder
Hon. Polly Baca, Denver; has indicated she will cast her vote for an alternative Republican candidate.
Connecticut
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Barbara Gordon, West Hartford
Ellen Nurse, Hartford
Edward Piazza, New Haven
Tyisha Walker, New Haven
Christopher Rosario, Bridgeport
Robert Godfrey, Danbury
Steven Jones, Tolland

Delaware
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lynn Fuller
Lydia York
Linda Cavanaugh

District of Columbia[
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Anita Bonds – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Jack Evans
Franklin Garcia

Florida
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tony Ledbetter
Pam Bondi[
Sharon Day
Ade Aderibigbe
Larry Ahern
Brian Ballard
Kristy Banks
Michael Barnett
Lizbeth Benacquisto
Robin Bernstein
John Browning
Dena DeCamp
Nick DiCeglie
Jeremy Evans
John Falconetti
Peter Feaman
Kat Gates-Skipper
Joe Gruters
Debbie Hannifan
Blaise Ingoglia
Mike Moberley
Susan Moore
Joe Negron
Clint Pate
Ray Rodrigues
Carlos Trujillo
Robert Watkins
Susie Wiles
Christian Ziegler

Georgia
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bruce Allen Azevedo
Brian K Burdette
Lott Harris Dill
John David Elliott
James Randolph Evans
Bobbie D. Frantz
Linda D. Herren
Rachel Blackstone Little
Deborah M. McCord
Michael Neil McNeely
Mary L. Padgett
Neil L. Pruitt
Joshua Kirk Shook
Frank B. Strickland
Baoky Nguyen Vu (resigned, will be replaced by alternate)
John B. White

Hawaii
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Electors
John Bickel
Janice Bond
Marie (Dolly) Strazar
David Mulinix

First Alternates
Kainoa Kaumeheiwa-Rego
Eileen McKee
Michael Golojuch Sr.
Yvonne Lau

Second Alternates
Carolyn Golojuch
Julie Patten
Michele Golojuch
Leo Caries

Idaho
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Layne Bangerter
Caleb Lakey
Jennifer Locke
Melinda Smyser

Illinois
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Toni Preckwinkle
Carrie Austin
Silvana Tabares
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia
Pam Cullerton
Nancy Sheperdson
Vera Davis
William Marovitz
Barbara Flynn Currie
John R. Daley
Michelle Mussman
Lauren Beth Gash, Highland Park
Kevin Duffy Blackburn, Joliet
Jerry Costello, Belleville
Carol Ammons, Urbana
Mark Guethle, North Aurora
Flint Taylor, McLeansboro
John Nelson, Rockford
Don Johnston, Rock Island.
Shirley McCombs
Indiana
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Stephanie Beckley, Jamestown
Daniel Bortner, Bedford
Laura Campbell, Carmel
Jeff Cardwell, Indianapolis
Donald L. Hayes, Jasper
Randall Kirkpatrick, Ligonier
Ethan E. Manning, Peru
Macy Kelly Mitchell, Indianapolis
Edwin J. Simcox, Fishers
Kevin Steen, Muncie
Chuck Williams, Valparaiso

Iowa
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

James Whitmer
Don Kass
Dylan Keller
Alan Braun
Kurt Brown
Polly Granzow
Danielle Massey

Kansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ashley J. McMillan, Concordia, party vice chair.
Helen Van Etten, Topeka, national committeewoman.
Mark Kahrs, Wichita, national committeeman.
Ron Estes, Wichita, Kansas State Treasurer.
Clayton L. Barker, Leawood, party executive director.
Kelly Arnold, Wichita, party chairman.

Kentucky
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jim Skaggs
David Disponett
Robert Duncan
Michael Carter
Scott Lasley
Walter Reichert
Mary Singleton
Troy Sheldon

Louisiana
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Chris Trahan, CD1
Lloyd Harsh, CD2
Charles Buckels, CD3
Louis Avalone, CD4
Kay Katz, CD5
Lennie Rhys, CD6
Garret Monti, At Large
Scott Wilfong, At Large

(1st-alternate) Candy Maness
(2nd-alternate) Jennifer Madsen
(3rd-alternate) Christian Gil
(4th-alternate) Constance Diane Long
(5th-alternate) Verne Breland
(6th-alternate) Glenda Pollard
(At Large-alternate) John Batt
(At Large-alternate) Raymond Griffin

Maine
Electors: 4

Democratic Party
3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

(1st) Diane Denk of Kennebunk
(At Large) David Bright of Dixmont
(At Large) Sam Shapiro of Winslow

Republican Party
1, pledged to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

(2nd) Richard A. Bennett of Oxford
Maryland
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lesley Israel
Robert Leonard
Lillian Holmes
Salome Peters
Hagner Mister
Claudia Martin
Courtney Watson – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Karen Britto
Susan Ness
Wayne Rogers

Massachusetts
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Nazda Alam
Mary Gail Cokkinias
Marie Turley
Dori Dean
Donna Smith
Cheryl Cumings
Marc Pacheco
Curtis Lemay
Jason Palitsch
Paul Yorkis
Parwez Wahid

Michigan
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Haggard
Jack Holmes
Kelly Mitchell
Judy Rapanos
Henry Hatter
Robert Weitt
Wyckham Seelig
Ross Ensign
Michael Banerian
Brian Fairbrother
Ken Crider
Mary Vaughn
Jim Rhoades — Motorcycle lobbyist.
William Rauwerdink
Hank Fuhs
Joseph Guzman

Minnesota
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Fred Knudson
Roger Gehrke
Marge Hoffa
Raymond Hess
Muhammed Abdurrahman
Betsy O’Berry
Mike Wammer
Mary Murphy
Jules Goldstein
Sherrie Pugh

Mississippi[edit]
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ann Hebert
Joe F. Sanderson Jr.
Bradley R. White
J. Kelley Williams
William G. Yates Jr.
Wirt Yerler
Missouri[edit]
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tim Dreste (1st)
Jan DeWeese (2nd)
Hector Maldonado (3rd)
Sherry Kuttenkuler (4th)
Casey Crawford (5th)
Tom Brown (6th)
Cherry Warren (7th)
Scott Clark (8th)
Al Rotskoff
Susie Johnson

Montana
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Thelma Baker
Nancy Ballance
Dennis Scranton
Vondene Kopetski (alternate)
Becky Stockton (alternate)
Thomas Tuck (alternate)
Nebraska
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Craig Safranek, Merna
Chuck Conrad, Hastings
John Dinkel, Norfolk
Phil Belin, Omaha
Paul Burger, Kearney
Nevada
Electors: 6

Dayananda Prabhu Rachakonda
Larry Jackson
Joetta Brown
Paul Catha II
Greg Gardella
Teresa Benitez-Thompson
New Hampshire
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

The only all-female slate of electors, all four of whom are the first Democratic women to hold their elected offices.

Terie Norelli- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Bev Hollingworth- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Dudley Dudley- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Carol Shea-Porter – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
New Jersey
Electors: 14, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Alaa R. Abdelaziz of Paterson
Tahsina Ahmed of Haledon — The first Bangladeshi-American female to hold elected office in the nation
Anthony Cureton of Englewood
Lizette Delgado-Polanco of Ewing
Edward Farmer of Piscataway
Christopher D. James of East Orange
Leroy J. Jones Jr. of East Orange
Retha R. Onitiri of Clarksburg
Marlene Prieto of Secaucus
Ronald G. Rios of Carteret
Hetty M. Rosenstein of South Orange
Kelly Steward Maer of Manasquan
Mary Ann Wardlow of Lawnside
Heriberta Loretta Winters of Williamstown

New Mexico
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Roxanne Allen, a Democratic ward chairwoman in Albuquerque.
Noyola Padilla Archibeque, chairwoman of the San Miguel Federation of Democratic Women in Las Vegas.
John Padilla, a Bernie Sanders delegate to this year’s Democratic National Convention and a ward chairman in Albuquerque.
Lorraine Spradling, a grassroots organizer in Los Lunas.
E. Paul Torres of Isleta Pueblo.
New York
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

William J. Clinton
Andrew M. Cuomo
Kathy C. Hochul
Thomas P. DiNapoli
Eric T. Schneiderman
Carl E. Heastie
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Bill de Blasio
Letitia A. James
Scott M. Stringer
Melissa Mark-Viverito
Byron W. Brown
Christine C. Quinn
Basil A. Smikle, Jr.
Melissa Sklarz
Mario F. Cilento
Rhonda Weingarten
George K. Gresham
Daniel F. Donohue
Stuart H. Appelbaum
Gary S. LaBarbera
Lovely A. Warren
Stephanie A. Miner
Katherine M. Sheehan
Anastasia M. Somoza
Sandra Ung
Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Hazel L. Ingram — The oldest elector, at 93.
Rachel D. Gold
North Carolina
15, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Linda Harper
Charles Staley
Karen Kozel
Martha Jenkins
Celeste Stanley
Donald Webb
Robert Muller
Jennifer Dunbar
Andrea Arterburn
Glenn Pinckney Sr.
Mark Delk
David Speight
Ann Sullivan
Lee Green
David Smuski
North Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Olson
Duane Mutch
Bev Clayburgh
Ohio
Electors: 18, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marilyn Ashcraft
Curt Braden
Christina Hagan
Lee-Ann Johnson
Ralph King
Alex Triantafilou
Mary Anne Christie
Corey Schottenstein
Jim Dicke II
Cheryl Blakely
Richard Jones
Tom Coyne
Judy Westbrock
Leonard Hubert
Tracey Winbush
James Wert
Brian Schottenstein
Ed Crawford
Oklahoma
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

David Oldham
Teresa Lyn Turner
Mark Thomas
Bobby Cleveland
Lauree Elizabeth Marshall
Charles W. Potts
George W. Wiland, Jr.

Oregon
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Frank James Dixon, Portland
Karen A. Packer, Newberg
Austin Folnagy, Klamath Falls
Leon H. Coleman, Aloha
Harry W. “Sam” Sappington III, Albany
Timothy Norman Powers Rowan, Portland
Laura Gillpatrick, Eugene

Pennsylvania
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bob Asher
Mary Barket
Robert Bozzuto
Theodore (Ted) Christian
Michael Downing
Margaret Ferraro
Robert Gleason
Christopher Gleason
Joyce Haas
Ash Khare
James McErlane
Elstina Pickett
Patricia Poprik
Andrew Reilly
Carol Sides
Glora “Lee” Snover
Richard Stewart
Lawrence Tabas
Christine Toretti
Carolyn Bunny Welsh
Rhode Island
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Clay Pell – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Grace Diaz
L. Susan Weiner
Frank J. Montanaro
South Carolina
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Glenn McCall
Matt Moore
Terry Hardesty
Jim Ulmer
Brenda Bedenbaugh
Bill Conley
Shery Smith
Moye Graham
Jerry Rovner
South Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Jackley
Dennis Daugaard
Matt Michels
Tennessee
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Beth Scott Clayton Amos, a State Executive Committee member for the Republican party, member of the Board of the Estate Planning Council of Middle TN, At Large
Joey Jacobs of Brentwood as a statewide delegate (Pres & CEO of Acadia Healthcare), At Large
Jason Mumpower (Bristol), CD1
Susan Mills (Maryville), CD2
Liz Holiway (Harriman), CD3
Lynne Davis (Lascassas), CD4
Tom Lawless (Nashville), CD5
Mike Callahan (Monterey), CD6
Pat Allen (Clarksville), CD7
Shannon Haynes (Alamo), CD8
Drew Daniel (Memphis), CD9
Texas
Electors: 38, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Rhymes
Thomas Moon
Carol Sewell
John E. Harper
Sherrill Lenz
Nicholas Ciggelakis
Will Hickman
Landon Estay
Rex Lamb
Rosemary Edwards
Matt Stringer
Shellie Surles
Melissa Kalka
Sandra Cararas
David Thackston
Robert Bruce
Margie Forster
Scott Mann
Marian K. Stanko
Tina Gibson
Ken Muenzter
Alexander Kim
Virginia Abel
Curtis Nelson
Kenneth Clark
Candace Noble
Fred Farias
John Dillard
Tom Knight
Marian Knowlton
Rex Teter
Stephen Suprun Jr.; (Chris Suprun) wrote in the New York Times that he will not vote for Donald Trump
Jon Jewett
Susan Fischer
Lauren Byers
William Greene
Mary Lou Erben
Arthur Sisneros — Vacated the position in late November 2016,[50] stating “Since I can’t in good conscience vote for Donald Trump, and yet have sinfully made a pledge that I would, the best option I see at this time is to resign my position as an Elector. This will allow the remaining body of Electors to fill my vacancy when they convene on Dec 19 with someone that can vote for Trump. The people will get their vote. They will get their Skittles for dinner. I will sleep well at night knowing I neither gave in to their demands nor caved to my convictions. I will also mourn the loss of our republic.”

Utah
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Cherilyn Eagar
Kris Kimball
Jeremy Jenkins
Peter Greathouse
Chia-Chi Teng
Richard Snelgrove
Vermont
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Peter Shumlin
Martha Allen
Tim Jerman
Virginia
Electors: 13, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Bethany J. Rowland, Chesapeake
Debra Stevens Fitzgearld, Harrisonburg
James Harold Allen Boyd, Culpeper
Jasper L. Hendricks, III, Pamplin
Jeanette C. Sarver, Dublin
K. James O’Connor, Jr., Manassas
Kathy Stewart Shupe, Sterling
Keith A. Scarborough, Woodbridge
Lashrecse D. Aird, Petersburg
Susan Johnson Rowland, Chesapeake
Terry C. Frye, Bristol
Virginia L. Peters, Alexandria
Vivian J. Paige, Norfolk

Washington
Electors: 12, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Elizabeth Caldwell
Dan Carpita
Peter Chiafalo – Undecided voter.
Levi Guerra – Has stated she plans to vote for a Republican “consensus candidate.”
Eric Herde
Joshua Ivey
Esther John
Julie Johnson
Varisha Khan
Chris Porter
Robert Satiacum, Jr. – A member of the Puyallup Tribe. Undecided voter.
Phillip Tyler

West Virginia
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ron Foster
Patrick Morrisey
Ann Urling
Mac Warner
Bill Cole
Wisconsin
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Kim Travis, Williams Bay, CD1
Kim Babler, Madison, CD2
Brian Westrate, Fall Creek, CD3
Brad Courtney, Whitefish Bay, CD4
Kathy Kiernan, Richfield, CD5
Dan Feyen, Fond du Lac, CD6
Jim Miller, Hayward, CD7
Bill Berglund, Sturgeon Bay, CD8
Steve King, Janesville, At Large
Mary Buestrin, River Hills, At Large

Wyoming
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bonnie Foster
Teresa Richards
Karl Allred[

Aleppo has fallen

boy-standing-in-refugee-camp-in-gevgelija-serbia-dsc_8453After years of fighting and an incalculable bloody human toll, insurgents agreed to a ceasefire.  Rebels said fighting would end on Tuesday evening and insurgents and the civilians who have been trapped in Aleppo will leave the city for opposition-held areas of the countryside to the west.

What brought us to this war?

Syrians complained about high unemployment, widespread corruption, a lack of political freedom, and state repression under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000.

In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations in the Arab Spring movement erupted in the city of Deraa. The government used deadly force to crush the protests, but instead of quashing them, the protests grew nationwide.  Assad’s resignation was demanded.

The government crackdown and the unrest grew.  Opposition supporters began to take up arms,to expel government forces from their towns. Assad vowed to crush “foreign-backed terrorism” and restore state control.The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war.

The intervention of regional and world powers, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States escalated the  fighting, and turned Syria into a proxy war zone.

Jihadist groups have also seized on the chaos.  Daisch is battling government forces, rebels and Kurds.

Air strikes by Russia and a US-led multinational coalition intensify the danger.  Russia launched an air campaign in September 2015 with the aim of “stabilising” the government. Moscow stressed that it would target only “terrorists”, but activists said its strikes mainly hit Western-backed rebel groups.  Six months later, having turned the tide of the war in Assad’s favour, Putin ordered the “main part” of Russia’s forces to withdraw, saying their mission had “on the whole” been accomplished.

Shia powerhouse of Iran is spending billions of dollars a year to bolster the Alawite-dominated government, providing military advisers and subsidised weapons, as well as lines of credit and oil transfers. It is also widely reported to have deployed hundreds of combat troops in Syria. Assad is Iran’s closest Arab ally and Syria is the main transit point for Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support government forces.Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which is seeking to counter Iran, has been a major provider of military and financial assistance to the rebels, including those with Islamist ideologies.

Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, has meanwhile sought to limit US support for Kurdish forces battling IS militants in northern Syria, accusing them of being affiliated to the banned Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Assad says the US is responsible for widespread atrocities and must step down, has provided only limited military assistance to “moderate” rebels, fearful that advanced weapons might end up in the hands of jihadists. Since September 2014, the US has conducted air strikes on Daisch in Syria, but it has avoided attacking government forces.

The UN says 250,000 people have been killed in the past five years. However, the organisation stopped updating its figures in August 2015. One monitoring group estimates 470,000 deaths,.

More than 4.8 million people have fled Syria, most of them women and children.

Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee movements  in history.  About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe.  Political divisions and nationalism have risen as countries argue over sharing the human burden. A further 6.5 million people are displaced inside Syria.

As people cross the Mediterranean, hundreds drown every week.  Coyotes and traffickers charge enormous sums to transport terrified men, women and children in unseaworthy boats.

The US has essentially denied entry to these terrified people.  And now we have a new policy called “extreme” vetting.

With the fall of Aleppo, people are being shot as they are running.  They didn’t get out in time to cross a sea, walk a continent, or beg for bread.  There is no better circumstance to breed terrorism than in the place of fear and hopelessness.  I hope we can realize this and start a new way – a human way. Not the “Me First” way.

I have watched the desparate social media pleas for help, and I am helpless.