Clovis Democratic Club Annual Picnic Early Bird Ticket Sales
Early bird ticket sales end on June 15th for the Annual Patriotic Picnic hosted by the Clovis Democratic club. Grab your tickets soon before the prices increase!
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Mueller Report Town Hall
You are cordially invited to the Mueller Report Town Hall brought to you by the FCDP. Hear from local experts, Pat Brown and Dr. Daniel Garst, who will discuss the report and its impact on our democracy.
For more information and to RSVP call 559-495-0606.
Julian Castro to Headline Fresno Democrats’ Fund-Raiser
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2019
Julián Castro Keynote Speaker for Fresno Democrats Event
U.S. Presidential candidate Julián Castro, who was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration, will be the keynote speaker at the Fresno County Democratic Party’s May 3 fund-raiser.
“We are thrilled to host a Presidential candidate in the Central Valley. Julián Castro has an impressive resume and a track record of public service,” says Michael D. Evans, chair of the Fresno County Democratic Party.
“As we think about the future of our country and the party, Fresno County Democrats are leading a new era of politics,” Evans adds. “The results in the 2018 election are just the start of the kind of impact this county can have on the country.”
Fresno County Democratic Party Chair Comments on STOU
020619-FCDCC-Press-Release.pdf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2019
Democratic County Chair Comments on SOTU
We appreciate President Donald Trump’s call for unity in the State of the Union address and hope that he will move forward working jointly with Congress to solve the country’s many problems.
We are, however, disappointed in his continuing obsession with a southern border wall and the lies he tells to support that position. A border wall is unnecessary, racist and ineffective; moreover, the only discussions about a border wall should be with the Mexican government¾not the U.S. Congress or the American people—as per Trump’s own assurances throughout his campaign for the presidency.
This State of the Union address was also marked by what it did not include. Trump did not address the continuing influence of Russia on his administration’s policies, climate change, clean drinking water for every American, accessible and affordable healthcare for everyone, comprehensive immigration reform (a real solution to border concerns), voter protection (protecting democracy) or gun violence.
—Michael D. Evans, Chair, Fresno County Democratic Party
Contact the Fresno County Democratic Party at 559-495-0606 or dems@fresnocountydemocrats.org.
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The Gang That Cannot Shoot Straight Strikes (Out) Again on International Trade
The Gang That Cannot Shoot Straight Strikes (Out) Again on International Trade
“It doesn’t seem like anything was actually agreed to at the dinner and White House officials are twisting themselves into pretzels to reconcile Trump’s tweets (which seem if not completely fabricated then grossly exaggerated) with reality,” or so declared Carl Qintanilla in JP Morgan Notes about the 90-day truce in the U.S.-China trade war Trump and Xi arranged over their dinner at the Buenos Aires G-20 Summit.
Financial markets have issued a similar acid verdict on the President’s latest trade diplomacy, with the Dow plunging nearly 800 points, or 3.2%, two days after the deal was concluded. The Dow and the Nasdaq have since fluctuated wildly, and one major factor in this instability is market uncertainty regarding future developments in trade with China.
Markets are right to be rattled. The episode in Buenos Aires provides yet more proof, as if it were needed, that when it comes to trade, Trump and his economic team are the gang that can’t shoot straight. This crew could not be in sync on even the basic matter of when the 90-day time line for China to make “structural changes” on intellectual property protections, forced technology transfer and other issues was to start.
National Economic Council Director Lawrence Kudlow initially put that at Jan. 1, only to have the White House correct him shortly afterward to say that starting date was actually Dec. 1. The President engaged in his usual flair for exaggeration in describing his accomplishments in summit negotiations, claiming on Twitter that China had agreed to remove tariffs on American cars coming into China and immediately start buying large quantities of U.S. farm products.
Kudlow quickly dialed back expectations regarding autos, telling reporters following the Trump-Xi meeting, “We don’t have a specific agreement on that,” apparently contradicting Trump’s tweet on this matter. He then airily declared, “But I will just tell you, as an involved participant, we expect those tariffs to go to zero,” even though auto tariffs were not mentioned in the U.S.-China statement issued after the Trump-Xi dinner meeting.
As the old adage goes, “The fish rots from the head,” and this certainly applies to Trump administration trade diplomacy. Directing it is a President who wears his lack of basic literacy about international economic on his sleeve.
In his latest Wall Street Journal interview on Nov. 26, Trump mixed up tariffs, which are a sales tax imposed on imported goods, with interest rates, which are the extra money individuals owe when taking out a loan. Trump repeated this claim, even after Wall Street Journal reporter Bob Davis noted the error. In the same interview, while discussing his steel tariffs, the President invoked phantom steel plants as he played up the steel and aluminum duties.
And Trump keeps insisting that when the U.S. runs trade deficits with China, it is giving money to the Chinese, as opposed to purchasing and getting products, which in most cases would not make sense to produce domestically. Moreover, much of the money China obtains from running a trade surplus with the United States is recycled back to us in the form of lending to our government when China purchases T-bills and the like, thereby helping to finance American fiscal profligacy.
For the latest round of trade negotiations with China, Trump has sidelined Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who no longer has much credibility in Beijing following his inability to keep the deal Vice Premier Liu He thought they struck back in May. Trade hardliner Robert Lighthizer will be leading the U.S. team instead.
Surprisingly, some on the Chinese side seem happy with this choice, despite Lighthizer’s credentials as an incredibly competent trade hawk and negotiator. In taking on this chore, however, he has embarked on mission impossible.
The basic problem is that China and the United States have different understandings of the Trump-Xi dinner deal. While the Trump administration foresees swift progress in lowering the China-U.S. bilateral trade deficit, Chinese state media vaguely talks about a “gradual” reduction. The same applies to White House claims that China will purchase “very substantial” quantities of American farm, energy and industrial exports.
As was noted earlier, the President casually asserted that China was eliminating tariffs on imported American cars, even though nothing of the sort was said in the joint communique issued in Buenos Aires (under World Trade Organization [WTO] rules, if China did that, it would have to do the same for motor vehicles exported from other countries).
In intellectual property (IP), the Trump administration believes that China will immediately negotiate forced technology transfer and strengthen IP protection. The Chinese have said the two countries will merely work together to reach a consensus on such matters, however. None of this bodes well for the success of the upcoming negotiations.
In sum, the can has merely been kicked down road, with the Sino-American trade war likely to heat up again in 90 days. As with practically everything Trump has done with respect to policy-making, this is shaping up to be a first-class train wreck.
Fresno Democrats — Birthright Citizenship
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2018
Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment
fresno—With the election fast approaching, the radical right has stooped to a last-ditch attempt to transform fear of immigrants into conservative voter turnout. Recently, Donald Trump abruptly announced that he wanted to overrule the 14th Amendment, which ensures everyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen, known as birthright citizenship. Ending birthright citizenship fulfills one of the most important White nationalist objectives, and Donald Trump appears to agree.
“Trump will do or say anything to energize his cult-like base,” said Michael D. Evans, chair of the Fresno County Democratic Party. “But we need to refocus away from his vitriolic rhetoric toward building on the strength of our diversity to be a true democracy.”
Trump says that the United States is the only country with birthright citizenship. That is not true; about 30 other nations have it, most in the Western hemisphere with our same history of immigrant founders.
Trump says he can overturn an amendment to the Constitution with an executive order. This is not true; he does not have this authority. Regardless of his chances of success, this ridiculous, hateful statement is deeply dangerous and divisive to our nation.
Vice President Mike Pence also suggested that the amendment wording of persons “subject to the jurisdiction thereof (the U.S. government)” did not include people born to undocumented immigrants.
Members of immigrant families know well how much they are under the jurisdiction and the mercy of the U.S. government these days. The thought that the rights of future generations could be stripped away based on the fate of their parents is rightly terrifying. The 14th Amendment was created to stop exactly that, as it fought to end hereditary slavery. We cannot tolerate even threats to return to the days of a legally mandated hereditary underclass.
California alone is home to more than 10 million immigrants, about a quarter of the foreign-born population of the entire country. Repealing birthright citizenship would “create a self-perpetuating class that would be excluded from social membership for generations,” according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute.
A 2010 study by the Institute and Pennsylvania State University found that ending birthright citizenship for U.S. babies with two undocumented immigrant parents would increase the existing undocumented population by 4.7 million people by 2050. Denying U.S. citizenship to babies with one parent who is undocumented would balloon the undocumented population to 24 million in 2050 from the 11 million today.
Trump and his Republican allies are radically redefining what it means to be an American, and we must mobilize to stop them. They are trying to transform our neighbors both at home and across our borders into an insidious enemy. They are trying to poison democracy with hate and fear.
“Democrats have a vision for America that embraces our diversity along with governance that works to improve the lives of everyone,” says Evans. “We will only achieve that vision when people vote for good leadership.”
People have the power. Vote on Nov. 6.
The Fresno County Democratic Party can be reached at 559-495-0606 or dems@fresnocountydemocrats.org.
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