So Elizabeth Warren has presented us with a DNA test that proves she is, in fact, of Native American heritage (said this way because she obviously does not have official membership in a tribe) that goes back "6 to 10 generations." And I have questions.

I did a little research because of the claim that she was an affirmative action hire at Harvard and I have to say... I still can't tell if that's true or not. According to this, the Dean says she was an affirmative action hire, but for being a woman. Elizabeth Warren claims Harvard was not aware of her heritage when she applied, although claims are that she "checked the box" for her heritage. I assume this is that little bit at the end of job applications where they ask your gender, race, disability status, etc. that you aren't required to fill out. This one claims they were only made aware after she was employed. Oddly, this article also claims she is 1/32 Cherokee, pending a cheek swab test... back in 2012. This one claims she did try to benefit, and once told a story that her parents eloped because of discrimination suffered by her part Cherokee mother. 

The bottom line is, without seeing the actual application she filled out, I can't verify if she "checked the box," and I can't verify if she was an affirmative action hire for anything. But it does seem her history with this claim is a little shady. And it is leaning towards she at least tried to benefit from it. 

As stated, there was a "pending" cheek swab test at least as early as 2012. It appears that never happened. Trump offered her $1 million to take the DNA test. She declined. All of a sudden she releases a DNA test from a doctor that proves her claims out of the blue?

I would like to know why this is such a big deal with her. She's so little Cherokee (and the DNA test most likely can't confirm Cherokee) that it really doesn't matter for anything. I've had a DNA test that proves I am 4 different races. At no point have I ever claimed to be any of those races. My great grandmother was Native American - Delaware - and I have seen a photograph of her as well as know her name. I don't claim to be Native American. I don't feel I have enough in my blood to claim that. I can also claim African and Middle Eastern. Again, at such small levels I would never dream of actually claiming minority status because of this. Truthfully, I can also claim "Asian" but the test isn't specific enough to say where in Asia and it might overlap with the Middle Eastern part. 

Elizabeth Warren is so little Cherokee that it doesn't even need mentioning. At no point should any boxes have been checked, and it didn't need to be mentioned to an employer unless it was casual conversation about family history or something. It certainly shouldn't be this big of news. Ever. At any point. 

​So something must have happened for her tiny heritage to be this kind of news for at least six years. Yes, since before Trump. And no, Trump wasn't the first to call her Pocahontas, either. 

Now, as I stated, I have also had a DNA test. I did mine through ancestry.com. When I got the results back they were vague at best. I know a lot of my family history, enough to know that my dad had grandparents who were from Germany and Austria. His grandfather was German and his grandmother was from Austria. She emigrated to Germany where she met and married her husband, then together they came to the USA.  

Now, if I look at my DNA results, they don't say Germany and Austria. They give me a map with huge circles and say I am 18% Germanic Europe and 7% Eastern Europe and Russia, which includes, just barely, Austria. It also includes Hungary, which my father's side of the family claims relations from as well. 

My mom's side of the family is heavily Irish and English. Actually, when my mom did her DNA, it said she was 83% Irish. My DNA results say I am 43% "Ireland and Scotland." I assume it is all Ireland in reality, because we have no record of anyone in our family coming from Scotland, but who knows. I am also 29% "England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe." So by that, I could be Irish or Welsh... maybe I'm French, who the heck knows. 

Here's an interesting fact. According to my DNA test results... I am 0% Native American! Odd, considering I have documented evidence that my great grandmother was, in fact, Native American. And we are blood related. I never met her, she died very young (26). But I got the picture and information from her son... my grandfather. Now, before anyone gets off on a tangent about him telling tall tales, remember the time period he grew up in. At this point in time, being of mixed heritage was not a plus. My family kept it very quiet, even my father. It wasn't something they discussed in mixed company, and even getting the information out of anyone was tough and had to be done in private, one on one. Even with evidence, though, I do not claim Native American status in any capacity. I certainly have never tried to use it for affirmative action. 

Why did I tell you all of this? The point of it all is that the DNA results cannot tell her she is Cherokee. They aren't that specific. It can't even break down exactly where in Europe my family comes from, so they are certainly not going to be tribe specific. 

Also, my DNA results list a ton of other places I come from, but there is so little in my DNA they aren't worth listing. They do, but I have to click a separate link to look at all of those. All of them are 1% or less. At 1% or less, they don't really matter to my genetic makeup enough to be considered. Which means claiming them as part of my heritage would be factual but useless. Any minority listed therein couldn't be claimed for minority status. 

At best, Warren is 1/64th Native American and at worst, 1/1,024 Native American. However, the study was also not based off of Native American DNA from in the USA. So she might actually be Mexican, Peruvian, or Colombian. Again, at such a small level she couldn't claim minority status. It's literally so small a percentage that it isn't worth mentioning. I could tell people all day long that I'm Russian. I wouldn't be wrong according to my DNA results that claim the general region, but it is 7% or less for me. It's meaninglessly small.  I'm Irish and English predominantly. Plain and simple. 

So Elizabeth, you're a white chick. Deal with it. 

​

You might not know this, but there was other news this week besides Kanye meeting with Trump at the White House. Let's have a look!

Apparently, Trump signed legislation to clean up millions of tons of garbage from the world's oceans. You'd think the environmentalists would be all over this. 

​Trump also signed a bill to help patients from overpaying for drugs. Where is everyone who is all about healthcare? 

Democrats agreed to confirm 15 judges this week, too!

Kuwait has all but stopped shipping oil to the US for the first time since the early 90s. 

California "accidentally" registered 1500 people to vote who were not eligible. 

Why am I telling you all of this cheery news, especially when we have a Newsroom at the website? 

Consider this your friendly reminder that when there is a huge story - no matter what it is - you need to start paying extra attention to what isn't being talked about. While the Kavanaugh debacle was going on, you should have been doing the same. There was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that wasn't getting the attention it should. This week was worse. We were all hyper focused on a story that was, ultimately, a non-issue. Kanye was at the White House. Well, so what? 

Always start looking harder when a story seems to take over the news. While they sit around screaming and yelling about tweets and celebrities, start looking for the real news that isn't getting reported or is being under reported. You'll always find something. And it will always be far more important than what they are trying to hyper focus us on.

If you have a cell phone, odds are you got a "presidential alert" today. Apparently, some people didn't get the alert, and then some of us got two of them. For those who didn't get one, here are the two I got:

It was really rather... mundane. And no, I didn't think anything of it. I certainly didn't begin today thinking I was going to be writing something up on it, but here we are! 

But according to the internet, the world is ending!

There are a lot more out there to be found, but these are just a nice little sampling so you can see what's going on. 

OK, so what actually is this alert system? Well, it's a national emergency alert system. Similar to the emergency alerts you get on the TV and the radio, this is another way to reach more people. Let's face it, a lot of folks are actually getting rid of their TVs or going to subscription internet services, and fewer people than ever are listening to the radio. But we've all got phones in our pockets, it seems. 

​No, Trump isn't going to be sending out mass tweets or contacting you about random stuff. It is an emergency alert system. 

And you've probably already dealt with it on a state level. 

Hey, Hurricane Florence just ravaged my state. We got real familiar with those emergency alerts during the duration of that, from actual hurricane warning alerts to tornado alerts to flash flooding alerts, we were getting the noise constantly. It's real nice of them to go off in the middle of the night to let you know there's a tornado barreling towards your house while your family is asleep. If I travel out of state, I get the alerts from there, too. It isn't a new system... it's just a national system now on top of your state one. It would be useful for things like, oh, I don't know... 9/11. 

And those state alerts have been going on for years. Literally, years. I even get Amber Alerts this way.

All of a sudden, it's Trump "raping us through technology." Or it is setting off PTSD (I can actually see this, and I'm sorry to hear that, but again... it isn't just the national alerts, you are most likely getting state alerts, too). Or... it's a pre-cursor to martial law?!

That screen shot is actually from the #walkaway discussion group. So the irrational freak out isn't coming from just one side. 

​Folks. Calm the hell down. The world isn't ending. Trump isn't harassing you. The Russians aren't coming for your soul. We aren't going into martial law. It's just an alert system being put into place for national emergencies so we can alert people to imminent threats. Things like North Korea lobbing missiles at us or a large terrorist attack or mass rioting. You'll be OK, I promise.