The official Thread for Trash/Repug CRAPICATION of America, the planet

[boutons_deux]

Repug/BigCorp/oligarchy WAR ON EMPLOYEES

Another swamp win—Republicans in Congress voted to cheat workers out of overtime pay (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/3/1658565/-Another-swamp-win-Republicans-in-Congress-voted-to-cheat-workers-out-of-overtime-pay)

http://images.dailykos.com/images/337101/story_image/GettyImages-503902824.jpg?1481303476

As the American Prospect details, the Working Families Flexibility Act is ‘fraud masquerading as flexibility’: (http://prospect.org/article/gop-overtime-reform-plan-fraud-masquerading-flexibility)

As the bill proposes, workers would have the option to get an hour and a half of paid time off in the future instead of cash for every hour of overtime worked—an option that public-sector employers have been able to offer since the 1980s as a means for cutting costs. Labor advocates say that voluntary comp time works in the public sector because, unlike the private sector, more workers are in unions and there’s no profit motive to coerce workers.


Here’s why it will end up being a disaster for the average worker:

Worker advocates, however, say that while Republicans wrap the bill in fluffy “flexibility” rhetoric, it would in reality erode the pillars supporting the 40-hour workweek and open up already vulnerable workers to more exploitation on the job. A key benefit of the FLSA’s

overtime provision is that the pay premium beyond 40 hours disincentives employers from overworking their employees. If comp time instead of overtime pay is an option, employers could be driven to overwork employees while coercing them to opt in to comp time.
“Literally, this is a complete and total fraud,” says Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute.

“[The bill] doesn’t give any new rights to workers that they don’t have now. But it does give new rights to employers, including the right to not pay overtime in the week that it’s worked.”


Emphasis added. What’s worse, employers have ultimate veto power about when the comp time can be used.


Under the legislation, workers would theoretically be able to use their accrued comp time whenever they want. But there is a gigantic caveat:

Employers can veto a worker’s request to use her comp time on a given day if they decide that it would “unduly disrupt” business, and instead offer a different date, days or weeks after her kid’s baseball game or parent’s doctor appointment has passed.

The legal definition of “unduly disrupt” is quite broad and gives employers far more power over workers, who would have little recourse to contest comp-time disputes.


Zero democrats voted for this bill, which Senator Elizabeth Warren called a 'disgrace': (http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/02/news/economy/overtime-pay-bill-passes-house/)

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who is the top Democrat on the Senate HELP committee, said the bill doesn't put workers first.

"This is nothing but a recycled bad bill that would allow big corporations to make an end-run around giving workers the pay they've earned," Murray said in a statement.


Yep, you can chalk up another win for the swamp and big business.

If this passes in the U.S. Senate, it will be another huge loss for the average American worker.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/3/1658565/-Another-swamp-win-Republicans-in-Congress-voted-to-cheat-workers-out-of-overtime-pay?detail=emaildkre&link_id=9&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-dr-jane-goodall-has-words-of-advice-for-ivanka-after-being-quoted-in-ivankas-book&email_referrer=dr-jane-goodall-has-words-of-advice-for-ivanka-after-being-quoted-in-ivankas-book&email_subject=dr-jane-goodall-has-words-of-advice-for-ivanka-after-being-quoted-in-ivankas-book

Repugs enabling employers to abuse, cheat workers LEGALLY, and there is absolutely no doubt employers will.

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Republicans Scrap Rule For Small-Business Retirement Plans

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to rescind an Obama-era policy that allows states to offer retirement savings plans to millions of workers.

Retiree and worker protection groups say the move will hurt employees at small businesses.

Many small businesses say they can't afford to set up retirement savings plans, such as 401(k) plans, for their workers. That's a big reason why so many Americans aren't saving, says Cristina Martin Firvida, the AARP's director of government affairs.

"There are 55 million Americans who have no way to save for their retirement at work," Firvida says.

She says when bigger companies automatically enroll workers in retirement plans, the vast majority of people stick with it and keep saving. They could opt out, but they don't.

And Firvida says if similar plans were in place for workers at small businesses, "they would be 15 times more likely to save for retirement if they could do that straight out of their paycheck."

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/04/526830627/republicans-scrap-rule-for-small-business-retirement-plans?sc=tw

[Chucho]

Republicans Scrap Rule For Small-Business Retirement Plans

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to rescind an Obama-era policy that allows states to offer retirement savings plans to millions of workers.

Retiree and worker protection groups say the move will hurt employees at small businesses.

Many small businesses say they can't afford to set up retirement savings plans, such as 401(k) plans, for their workers. That's a big reason why so many Americans aren't saving, says Cristina Martin Firvida, the AARP's director of government affairs.

"There are 55 million Americans who have no way to save for their retirement at work," Firvida says.

She says when bigger companies automatically enroll workers in retirement plans, the vast majority of people stick with it and keep saving. They could opt out, but they don't.

And Firvida says if similar plans were in place for workers at small businesses, "they would be 15 times more likely to save for retirement if they could do that straight out of their paycheck."

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/04/526830627/republicans-scrap-rule-for-small-business-retirement-plans?sc=tw





Load of shit. Most Americans don't want to save their monies. Even when the disclosure act was passed, 401k brokers still found it hard to get more plan participants, even at minimal pay-ins and with employer matches.

American's don't save because Americans are frivolous. They don't save because they don't care or think about it. We aren't soooooo deep in debt because we are allllllllll so impoverished. Scare propaganda. Hurts the rare individuals who do want to retire, but c'mon, this is just more "we can't think for ourselves and be responsible, so let's grill the (place enemy here)" crap.

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There’s No Other Word for Kushner Visa Sale

“This is corruption, pure and simple.”

— Former Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, quoted by NBC News (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/spicer-kushner-not-involved-family-s-chinese-eb-5-visa-n756406), on Jared Kushner’s sister promising visas to Chinese investors.

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2017/05/09/theres-no-other-word-for-kushner-visa-sale/

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The Kushners and Their Golden Visas

The Kushner family has been caught in a shameless act of name-dropping. It has been highlighting its White House connections to entice wealthy Chinese investors (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/06/world/asia/jared-kushner-sister-nicole-meyer-china-investors.html) and promising them green cards in return under a special government visa program. That’s pretty bad. But it’s also a scandal that Congress allows real estate developers to use the American immigration system to pad their profits.

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser, is officially no longer managing his family’s businesses, but he still benefits from many of them.

Ms. Meyer’s disturbing investor pitch was made possible by the EB-5 investor visa (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-job/green-card-through-investment), which opens an express lane into the United States for those who can afford to invest nearly 10 times (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/) what the median American household earns in a year.

The program, which covers business investments as well as real estate, was created in 1990 and took off in the past 10 years as developers figured out how to turn it into a cheap source of capital.

Investors are willing to settle for low returns if it means they gain permanent residence status in the United States.

Affluent Chinese families seeking a foothold in a stable democracy snap up most of the visas (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/realestate/want-a-green-card-invest-in-real-estate.html), which are capped at 10,000 a year.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/opinion/the-kushners-and-their-golden-visas.html

I wonder if any of Trash's BFF in the Russian mafiya and oligarchy are being sold visas under cover?

[boutons_deux]

Sharia Law Conspiracy Theorist Gets Trump Administration Job

Beth Van Duyne, the outgoing mayor of Irving, Texas, to be a “regional administrator overseeing Texas and its four surrounding states.”

In 2015 Van Duyne received national attention for falsely claiming that a Sharia law court had been established in the town where she served as mayor, a myth the Houston Chronicle called the “2015 Texas Hoax of the Year (http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/The-2015-Texas-Hoax-of-the-Year-Rumors-about-6716157.php).”

In the incident, Van Duyne attacked a religious mediation panel led by Muslims—similar panels are led by Christian, Jewish and other religious groups (http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/08/applying-gods-law-religious-courts-and-mediation-in-the-us/)— as a “Sharia Law Court (https://www.facebook.com/beth.vanduyne/posts/10205051547001480?fref=nf)” and warned that the tribunal designed to resolve certain disputes (http://www.politifact.com/texas/article/2015/jul/17/sharia-court-irving-texas-negative/) could impose non-American laws, despite the fact (http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/shariatexas.asp) that the tribunal’s “proceedings must be conducted in accordance with the law of the land; local, state and federal within the United States.”

The Chronicle describes how the hoax story about the panel, which was established three years before Van Duyne pushed the Sharia court smear, gained traction (http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/The-2015-Texas-Hoax-of-the-Year-Rumors-about-6716157.php):

Email chains started to circulate about Texas allowing the first Sharia court in America. Van Duyne and state Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) pushed an ultimately failed bill that would’ve forbid judges from employing foreign laws in their own rulings. But the rhetoric has had consequences for the local mosque in Irving.

“It fuels anti-Islamic hysteria,” Zia Sheikh, imam at the Islamic Center of Irving told the Dallas Morning News in March (http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150319-dispute-on-islam-roils-irving.ece). “[The mayor’s] whole point was to rile up her supporters. … The problem is we become the whipping boys.”

In the past few weeks, the Ku Klux Klan and an armed militia group have used the Sharia rumors as a reason to organize protests outside the Islamic Mosque of Irving.

An Islamic tribunal does operate in the Dallas area, and has done so for several years. But the imams that run the panel do not usurp state or federal law. What exists is a forum where Islamic scholars help settle business disputes and other non-criminal matters. The rulings are nonbinding and work within the guidelines of U.S. law.
…
Since 1925, when Congress enacted the Federal Arbitration Act, U.S. law has been very open to the idea of private dispute resolution, said Lee Ann Bambach, a Georgia-based attorney who has a Ph. D in religion from Emory University. Her dissertation was titled “Faith-Based Arbitration by Muslims in an American Context.”

“Those who would jump up and down about these so-called Sharia courts, which are really just alternative dispute resolution forums, will speak very highly of Christian reconciliation,” which is based on Biblical teachings, Bambach said.
…
An armed militia group protested outside the North Texas mosque in November, and then published the home addresses of Muslims in the community and “Muslim sympathizer[s].”


Irving is the same Texas city where a young Muslim student, Ahmed Mohamed, ended up in handcuffs after he brought a digital clock that he built to school to show his teachers.

At the time, Van Duyne praised the school and police for handling “what they saw as a potential threat (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/muslim-student-arrested-for-making-a-clock-lives-in-hotbed-of-sharia-panic/)” and criticized Mohamed for being “passive aggressive (https://townhall.com/columnists/kyleshideler/2015/09/22/irving-mayor-ahmed-mohameds-family-blocking-release-of-records-obama-tweeted-support-even-before-clock-pic-released-n2055545)” with law enforcement.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/sharia-law-conspiracy-theorist-gets-trump-administration-job/

Trash piling up the SHIT around himself.

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Expect the even-more-Repug/BigPharma-tainted FDA to approve even more shit for profit

Nearly 1 in 3 drugs found to have safety concerns after FDA approval

for drugs approved between 2001 and 2010, nearly 1 in 3 had a postmarket safety event.

The team defines postmarket safety events as those that lead to either withdrawal from the market due to safety concerns, a boxed warning or FDA issuance of a safety communication.

They found that of 222 novel therapeutics the FDA approved during this time period, three were withdrawn, 61 received boxed warnings and 59 elicited safety communications. The team's findings are published in JAMA.

"The fact that so many new safety risks are being identified after FDA approval indicates that

the FDA is taking its responsibility of ensuring the safety of new drugs throughout their lifetime seriously,"

:lol Holy SHIT! :lol

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-05/bawh-n1i050917.php

How about "taking its responsibility" BEFORE the shit is approved and BigPharma makes $100Ms profits from untested shit? :lol

[boutons_deux]

West Virginia Reporter Arrested for Asking Questions of Trump Administration Member

A reporter for Public News Service was arrested while asking the head of Health and Human Services if domestic violence would be a pre-existing condition in the GOP's health-care plan.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/05/10/west-virginia-reporter-arrested-asking-questions-trump-administration-member/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

Laughing at dickless twerp Sessions? arrested and convicted

Asking a legit question? arrested.

Thanks, Repugs and all you asshole Repug/Trash voters.

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Commentator who amplified Macron hacks given White House press access

A U.S. far-right online activist credited with initially sharing on Twitter hacked emails from the French presidential campaign of centrist Emmanuel Macron is the latest conservative media figure to receive White House access from the Trump administration.

Jack Posobiec, a Washington-based writer at the Rebel Media, a Canadian online political and social news commentary platform, attended the daily press briefing on Tuesday and later

broadcast video from the White House grounds with positive commentary on President Donald Trump's abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-france-cyber-activist-idUSKBN187008

[boutons_deux]

Repugs preparing to CHEAT in 2018 and beyond with greatly increased voter suppression

Civil rights groups fume over Trump’s choice of Kobach to head voter fraud panel


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/333029_10150300970217344_144034470_o-800x430.jpg

Kris Kobach, who as Kansas secretary of state repeatedly made unsubstantiated voter-fraud allegations, will co-chair President Donald Trump's new Commission on Election Integrity,

it's all intended to perpetuate the president's false claim that millions voted illegally in November.

The 12-member bipartisan commission will review claims of improper registrations and voting, fraudulent registrations and voter suppression,

Independent fact-checkers mocked Trump for the voter fraud allegations, saying there was no evidence. Trump's team cited two-year-old reports that did not point to fraud even then.

Although bipartisan in name, Trump's commission will provide cover for Republican efforts to suppress voter turnout, particularly among minorities,

"For over a decade," Kander said, "the Republican Party has made it a central part of their political strategy to push the myth of widespread voter fraud ... when the real problem they're trying to solve is there are certain groups of Americans who are unlikely to vote Republican."

Kobach is the only secretary of state in the nation with prosecutorial power. During his tenure as Kansas' top election official, he has championed some of the strictest voting laws in the country, including the state's controversial proof-of-citizenship law, which requires people to provide birth certificates or passports in order to register to vote.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/civil-rights-groups-fume-over-trumps-choice-of-kobach-to-head-voter-fraud-panel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

With racist turd Sessions destroying the DoJ Civil Rights division, there will be no enforcement of Federal voting laws, already gutted by Repug/VRWC SCOTUS.

[boutons_deux]

Election Experts Warn That Trump Is Laying The Groundwork To Steal The 2020 Election

Trump is signing an executive order which is designed to justify his false claims of voter fraud, but his executive order has another purpose, and that is to lay the groundwork for stealing the 2020 election.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/05/11/election-experts-warn-trump-laying-groundwork-steal-2020-election.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

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Rep. Jenkins Laughs at Uninsured Single Mother, Son (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2009/9/1/774896/-)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/09/01/774896/-VIDEO-Rep-Jenkins-Laughs-at-Uninsured-Single-Mother-Son?detail=emailclassic&link_id=1&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-republican-congresswoman-laughs-at-uninsured-single-mothers-son-2&email_referrer=republican-congresswoman-laughs-at-uninsured-single-mothers-son-2&email_subject=republican-congresswoman-laughs-at-uninsured-single-mothers-son

All Repugs and their supporters are STINKIN ASSHOLES

[boutons_deux]

Racist Sessions telling US Attys to go hard possible as knitters and Mexicans

Jeff SessionsTells Top Prosecutors: Hold Off on Doing Justice

Attorney-General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as good as ordered his underlings to sometimes be unethical.

In his May 10 memo to US Attorneys nationwide, he trampled on what holds prosecutors to higher standards than ordinary lawyers.

Prosecutors must not only win cases, but they must also see that justice be done.

Sessions pretty much said forget about that until later, putting decent-minded prosecutors in a bind.

“It is a core principle,” Sessions directed, “that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”

In other words, accuse a suspect of the worst thing you can right off the bat.

As sensible as that sounds,

it runs afoul of professional ethics in many jurisdictions, not to mention the Justice Department’s own manual for prosecutors.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/05/12/attorney-general-tells-top-prosecutors-hold-justice.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=im

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In Reversal, E.P.A. Eases Path for a Mine Near Alaska’s Bristol Bay

In another reversal of Obama administration policy, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it had settled a lawsuit over a mine on Alaska’s Bristol Bay, one of the world’s most productive salmon fisheries.

Pebble Limited Partnership, the site’s developer, sued the agency, claiming that the Obama administration had colluded with the project’s opponents to block copper, gold and silver extraction at the site. An E.P.A. review found no evidence of such collusion.

Friday’s settlement allows the company to file a new application for a permit, which it has said it will do.

That effectively undercuts the E.P.A.’s previous determinations (https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-05/documents/bristol_bay_assessment_final_2014_es.pdf), based on years of scientific study, that the proposed mine on state land would be a risk to the long-term health of the fishery and wider ecosystem.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/climate/in-reversal-epa-eases-path-for-a-mine-near-alaskas-bristol-bay.html?_r=0

[boutons_deux]

USDA’s New Top Researcher Is A Godfearing Patriot, Which Is Way Better Than A Scientist


https://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Clovis-Sam.jpg

The USDA’s research section studies everything from climate change to nutrition. Under the 2008 Farm Bill, its leader is supposed to serve as the agency’s “chief scientist” and be chosen “from among distinguished scientists with specialized or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics.”

But Sam Clovis — who, according to sources with knowledge of the appointment and members of the agriculture trade press, is President Trump’s pick to oversee the section — appears to have no such credentials.

Clovis has never taken a graduate course in science and is openly skeptical of climate change. While he has a doctorate in public administration and was a tenured professor (https://web.archive.org/web/20150322160314/https:/www.morningside.edu/about-morningside/directory/sam-clovis/) of business and public policy at Morningside College for 10 years, he has published almost no academic work.

Clovis is better known for hosting a conservative talk radio show in his native Iowa and, after mounting an unsuccessful run for Senate in 2014, becoming a fiery pro-Trump advocate on television.

Clovis advised Trump on agricultural issues during his presidential campaign and is currently (https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/beachhead) the senior White House advisor within the USDA, a position described (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/white-house-installs-political-aides-at-cabinet-agencies-to-be-trumps-eyes-and-ears/2017/03/19/68419f0e-08da-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.99eb2d446074) by The Washington Post as “Trump’s eyes and ears” at the agency.

Clovis was also responsible (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/the-mystery-of-trumps-man-in-moscow-214283) for recruiting Carter Page, whose ties to Russia have become the subject of intense speculation and scrutiny, as a Trump foreign policy advisor.

, compared the move to appointing someone without a medical background to lead the National Institutes of Health. The USDA post includes overseeing scientific integrity within the agency. :lol

Clovis has repeatedly expressed skepticism over climate science and has called efforts to address climate change “simply a mechanism for transferring wealth from one group of people to another.”

He has indicated the Trump administration will take a starkly different approach at the USDA. Representing the campaign at the Farm Foundation Forum in October, Clovis told E&E News (https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060044564) that Trump’s agriculture policy would focus on boosting trade and lessening regulation and not the impact of climate change.

“I think our position is very clearly [that] Mr. Trump is a skeptic on climate change, and we need more science,” :lol he said.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-expected-pick-for-top-usda-scientist-is-not-a-scientist

Enormous, morbidly obese, incompetent greasebag crapifier, just what BigAg, BigChem wants.

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Oligarchy spending $Ms to destroy public education

Billionaires pour millions into buying Los Angeles school board seats for the Betsy DeVos agenda (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/12/1661393/-Billionaires-pour-millions-into-buying-Los-Angeles-school-board-seats-for-the-Betsy-DeVos-agenda)

Billionaires keep trying to buy seats on the Los Angeles school board to promote privatized charter schools in the city just as Betsy DeVos wants to do nationwide. The outside money is pouring in to the races for two critical seats on the board:

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $5 million (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-outside-spending-school-board-20170510-story.html),

two Walmart heirs have given six figures apiece,

Gap co-founder Doris Fisher has given more than $1 million,

reliable corporate education policy funder Eli Broad has put in six figures.

Interestingly enough, some of these same names (http://hedgeclippers.org/out-of-town-billionaires-trump-backers-attempt-to-hijack-local-school-board-election/) popped up as big donors back in 2012 opposing a statewide proposition to fund public education.

California already spends big money (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/04/15/1652901/-California-is-undermining-public-education-by-spending-big-on-charter-schools-it-doesn-t-need) on charter schools it doesn’t need and that don’t improve the quality of education. The millions of dollars being poured into defeating Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla are intended to make that worse.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/12/1661393/-Billionaires-pour-millions-into-buying-Los-Angeles-school-board-seats-for-the-Betsy-DeVos-agenda?detail=emaildkre&link_id=14&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-former-fbi-director-james-comey-is-willing-to-testify-but-he-wants-it-in-public-2&email_referrer=former-fbi-director-james-comey-is-willing-to-testify-but-he-wants-it-in-public-2&email_subject=ap-reports-trumps-tax-returns-show-no-russian-money-except-none-of-that-is-true

[boutons_deux]

Trash, Sessions going all out to cheer on the murderous, thieving, corrupt, racist police state

Trump Celebrates Police, Targets ‘Unfair Defamation,’ ‘Hostility And Violence’

President Donald Trump urged the nation on Monday “to work with our cops, not against them,” lauding police and issuing a veiled criticism to protest movements against police brutality.

Trump used most of his remarks to the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service to celebrate law enforcement for their contributions to society, saying it was “the personal priority of my administration to ensure that our police are finally treated fairly, with honor and respect that they deserve.”

“To all Americans watching this event today,” he continued, “next time you see a cop on the beat, take a moment to say two
wonderful words which they so readily deserve: Thank you.”

Still, parts of the speech emphasized a common theme in his campaign for President and young administration — that those who protest police brutality are responsible for violence against law enforcement and declines in public safety.

“We are living through an era in which our police have been subject to unfair defamation and vilification,” he said, adding: “Even worse, hostility and violence. More officers were slain last year in ambushes than in any year more than two decades.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-speech-national-peace-officers-memorial-service?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20tpm-news%20%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

Missouri lawmakers vote to undo St. Louis minimum wage raise that just took effect

Workers who got a raise could soon see it taken away, thanks to their state representatives.

In 2015, St. Louis passed a minimum wage increase that would have mandated that workers be paid at least $9 an hour that year, $10 an hour this year, and $11 by next year.

But it passed on the very same day that the state’s preemption law, which blocks cities and localities from increasing their own wages, took effect.

After a consortium of business groups sued to block the increase, it was under an injunction until a judge in February ruled in favor of the increase.

It immediately took effect after the injunction was lifted.


https://thinkprogress.org/missouri-lawmakers-vote-to-undo-st-louis-minimum-wage-raise-that-just-took-effect-ca596ef17c7

Repugs and you Repug supporters are fucking racist assholes, denying all your hated knitters from making more money.

[boutons_deux]

"Pro-Life" Stand From Texas Republicans Tanks Bill to Study Rising Maternal Mortality Rates

A woman is 14 times more likely to die from complications related to a pregnancy than an abortion.

The numbers are starkest in Texas (https://www.texastribune.org/2017/02/28/texas-maternal-deaths-absent-legislative-agenda/), where the rate of women dying from pregnancy complications rose to around 190 deaths a year in 2012.

No women died from abortion complications in the same timeframe.

But don't tell that to Texas House Republicans.

Last Thursday, conservatives spent the afternoon debating a bill that would make sure health providers are punished if they don't report complications related to abortion. Filed by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, a Southlake Republican, it appears HB 2962's authors don't believe that abortion procedures can really be that safe and hope this bill will prove so.

The bill would “provide a more accurate picture of abortion complications in Texas," according to Capriglione. That's because, in his words, "The data we’re getting is not right."

Capriglione's bill is largely redundant, as state abortion providers are already required to report any kind of complications to the Department of State Health Services within 30 days.

The only difference is that with Capriglione's bill, doctors would have to include additional personal information about the patient, like the date of her last menstrual cycle and her marital status, in their report. That, and — thanks to a last-minute amendment pitched by Rep. Matt Schaefer — doctors would have to report the incident within 72 hours.

Pro-choice opponents of the bill say it's just another tool used to mislead women and the public into believing legal abortions are less safe than they really are.

http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/05/15/pro-life-stand-from-texas-republicans-tanks-bill-to-study-rising-maternal-mortality-rates

Of course, most of the women that TX Repug policies are killing are black, brown, and poor (some are white, but that's just collateral damage for the Christian Taliban).

(mainly white) women with money can get all the abortions and perinatal care they want.

[boutons_deux]

Progress on reducing drug sentencing was close until Jeff Sessions got in the way (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/15/1662475/-Progress-on-reducing-drug-sentencing-was-close-until-Jeff-Sessions-got-in-the-way)

Jeff Sessions is what happens to the Department of Justice when we put someone in charge who doesn’t belong there and doesn’t actually care about justice.

Though he’s only been in office for a relatively short time, we are about to see him undo the Obama-era progress on criminal justice reform and go back to waging a war on drugs (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/05/10/1660762/-Sessions-moves-forward-with-war-on-drugs-like-he-doesn-t-have-anything-more-important-to-worry-about) which will only result in

a whole bunch more black and brown bodies in prison.

Of course,

this (systemically using the law to disenfranchise minorities) is exactly what he intended to do with the DOJ all along.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/05/15/1662475/-Progress-on-reducing-drug-sentencing-was-close-until-Jeff-Sessions-got-in-the-way?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

Repugs JUST HATE REGULATIONS

House panel approves bill requiring parental consent for minors to join unions

A bill that would require parental consent for minors to join a labor union could be headed to the full Texas House.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/15/house-panel-approves-bill-requiring-parental-consent-minors-join-union/

[boutons_deux]

House Republicans passed Medicaid-killing Trumpcare, now they're going after everything else (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/15/1662530/-House-Republicans-passed-Medicaid-killing-Trumpcare-now-they-re-going-after-everything-else)


Under enormous internal pressure to quickly balance the budget, Republicans are considering

slashing more than $400 billion in spending

through a process to evade Democratic filibusters in the Senate, multiple sources told POLITICO.

The proposal, which would be part of the House Budget Committee's fiscal 2018 budget, won't specify which programs would get the ax; instead it will instruct committees to figure out what to cut to reach the savings.

But among the programs most likely on the chopping block, the sources say, are food stamps, welfare, income assistance for the disabled and perhaps even veterans benefits. […]

Atop that, GOP budget writers will also likely

include Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposal to essentially privatize Medicare in their fiscal 2018 budget,

despite Trump’s unwavering rejection of the idea. While that proposal is more symbolic and won’t become law under this budget, it’s just another thorny issue that will have Democrats again accusing Republicans of “pushing Granny off the cliff.”


Not only are they admitting they're going to completely shred the social safety net, they say out loud that they're

doing it because popular vote loser Donald Trump wants them to.

He apparently was angered by all the headlines saying that Democrats won the short-term funding fight,

so now Trump has to win.

Says Rep. David Brat (R-VA), a budget committee member,

Trump's "critique last time was that we didn’t embed enough Trump agenda items into our budget" and that he has "made it clear it will be embedded in this budget. […]

And so people will see a process much more aligned with President Trump's agenda in this forthcoming budget."

Nothing like embracing even more fully a historically unpopular president who is under investigation for potential treason.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/5/15/1662530/-House-Republicans-passed-Medicaid-killing-Trumpcare-now-they-re-going-after-everything-else?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

this is what you rightwingnutjob assholes voted for, right?

Trump’s new bank regulator: Lawyer who helped banks charge more fees

In n the early 2000s, banks successfully sued (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3719471-IOWA-ATM-CASE-JUDGE-S-DECISION.html) to stop Iowa from limiting their ability to charge ATM fees to non-customers.

They also fought off (https://casetext.com/case/bank-of-america-na-v-sorrell) states’ attempts to stop them from charging non-customers to cash checks drawn on the banks’ accounts.

In another case, they stopped California from forcing two banks (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1332835.html) to conduct audits of their own residential mortgages.

What do all these cases have in common?

The winning argument in each was that states had no right to impose their laws on federally regulated national banks. And the man who helped make that

powerful argument was Keith Noreika (https://occ.gov/about/who-we-are/comptroller-of-the-currency/bio-keith-noreika.pdf) — President Trump’s pick to head the federal agency that oversees national banks.

Noreika, a prominent Washington attorney who

specializes in financial regulatory law,

has made a career out of representing banks as they sought

to fight back consumer-friendly state regulations and

class-action lawsuits accusing banks of deceptive practices.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trumps-new-bank-regulator-lawyer-who-helped-banks-charge-more-fees/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

This guy is gonna make Liz Warren look like a predatory, wealth-sucking capitalist.

[boutons_deux]

How does the oligarchy screw poor people out of the money and freedom?

President Trump’s Proposed Cuts to the Legal Services Corporation Would Increase the Justice Gap

One proposed cut would eliminate entirely the funding for the Legal Services Corporation (http://www.lsc.gov/about-lsc) (LSC).

The LSC’s purpose (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/2996b) is to provide “financial support for legal assistance in noncriminal proceedings or matters to persons financially unable to afford legal assistance.”

In other words, the LSC provides free legal assistance to low-income Americans involved in civil cases, giving them access to the justice system that they might otherwise not have.

A variety of respected firms (http://www.law.com/sites/almstaff/2017/03/28/185-in-house-counsel-urge-congress-to-fund-legal-services-corp/?slreturn=20170313123045), legal professionals (http://www.stthomas.edu/media/schooloflaw/pdf/lawdeanslettertoCongress.pdf), and organizations—including the American Bar Association (https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2017/03/statement_of_abapre3.html)—are outraged at President Trump’s hostility to civil legal aid.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/courts/news/2017/05/17/432553/president-trumps-proposed-cuts-legal-services-corporation-increase-justice-gap/

My guess is that the Repug House will kill LSC, PBS, PP

[boutons_deux]

Trump Administration Orders Government Offices To Switch All TVs To Fox News

Fox News is now the official state sanctioned news network: Government staffers report that office TVs were switched from CNN to Fox News by order of the “current administration.”

According to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News (https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/cber-fox-news?utm_term=.fu4v32ZZ2#.hy79P6jj6) the Trump administration ordered that all televisions at the Food and Drug Administration display the cable news network favored by conservatives. BuzzFeed News (https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/cber-fox-news?utm_term=.fu4v32ZZ2#.hy79P6jj6) reports:

Staffers at the Food and Drug Administration were told that office TVs were switched from CNN to Fox News by order of the “current administration,” according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News.


Politico (http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/05/05/hhs-fox-news-238050) also reports on the change:

The televisions in public areas at the Health and Human Services Department headquarters in Washington have been switched to Fox News. Now the same change appears to have applied to other HHS buildings, including Food and Drug Administration buildings in Maryland.


Think Progress (https://thinkprogress.org/fda-employees-being-forced-to-watch-fox-news-leaked-email-8845e6e075ca) reports the email explaining the new order from the Trump administration favoring Fox News “was initially obtained and shared to Twitter by journalist Paul Thacker (https://twitter.com/thackerpd/status/860507247608287232) and later by BuzzFeed’s Julia Reinstein (https://twitter.com/juliareinstein/status/860539779993264128).”

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/05/trump-administration-orders-government-offices-switch-tvs-fox-news/

[boutons_deux]

Trump FCC Promotes Pro-Trump Rightist Broadcasting Group

Thanks to the deregulatory efforts of President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Committee, the right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that it will purchase dozens of televisions stations across the country, allowing the company to spread its conservative programming to new markets and consolidate the ownership of broadcast stations in fewer hands.

Sinclair has entered into an agreement to purchase Tribune Media Group, which owns 42 television stations in 33 markets, along with cable, digital, and real estate assets, according to a press release (https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/861567802607628290) from the companies.

Given Sinclair’s existing slate (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/business/dealbook/sinclair-media-expansion-fox-conservative-media.html) of 173 television stations in 81 markets and its national news operation, the combined broadcast company will become the largest provider of local TV news (https://twitter.com/tcfrankel/status/861571837259644929) in the country.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-fcc-promotes-pro-trump-rightist-broadcasting-group/ (http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-fcc-promotes-pro-trump-rightist-broadcasting-group/)

The Ministry of Truth expands its propaganda reach.

[boutons_deux]

Trump's pick for a top Interior post has sued the agency on behalf of powerful California water interests

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-trump-bernhardt-20170517-story.html

The VRWC/Repug corporatocracy/oligarchy is fucking America for profit.

[boutons_deux]

Getting insurance to pay for storm damage may become harder

The executive director of Texas Watch (http://www.texaswatch.org/) says it's about to get even harder for consumers to sue insurance companies with the passage of House Bill 1774.

"This is a really dangerous bill that is going to have a harmful effect on thousands if not millions of Texas property owners," Texas Watch Executive Director Ware Wendell said.

He says the bill reduces penalties against insurance companies if they don't pay property claims on time. It can reduce the recovery of attorney's fees in some cases and it requires property owners to re-notify the insurance company of an impending lawsuit.

"It doesn't distinguish between good claims and bad so it helps the worst insurance companies," Wendell said.

But, Texas gets its fair share of severe weather and hail storms. The insurance companies say some home owners try to cash in on disasters.

"We've seen an enormous increase in litigation in homeowners," Texas Coalition of Affordable Insurance Solutions Executive Director Beamon Floyd said.

The Texas Coalition for Affordable Insurance Solutions, or TCAIS, says HB 1774 is about reigning in rogue lawyers and homeowners who abuse the system.

"It prevents them from going out and gathering a huge number of people, creating a big cut and paste filing and then try and use that as leverage to get insurance companies to pay more than they should," Floyd said.

http://keyetv.com/news/local/it-could-get-harder-to-get-your-insurance-to-pay-for-storm-damage

[boutons_deux]

Senate Conservatives Look to Cut Medicaid

Millions could lose coverage, but plan faces resistance from GOP centrists

https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-conservatives-look-to-slash-medicaid-1494759603?tesla=y

[boutons_deux]

REPUBLICAN IMMIGRATION BILL THREATENS TO TURN MILLIONS OF PEOPLE INTO CRIMINALS OVERNIGHT (https://theintercept.com/2017/05/18/republican-immigration-bill-threatens-to-turn-millions-of-people-into-criminals-overnight/)

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS are pushing legislation that would bring sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration enforcement apparatus, adding thousands of new deportation officers and, among other things, equipping each of them with body armor and an assault rifle.

adding thousands of new deportation officers and, among other things, equipping each of them with body armor and an assault rifle.

would bring additional legal force to the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda, which has already seen the pool of individuals prioritized for deportation broadened to include virtually all the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.

That third bill (https://judiciary.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Michael-Davis-Jr.-and-Danny-Oliver-in-Honor-of-State-and-Local-Law-Enforcement-Act.pdf),...would see

immigration violations traditionally treated as civil infractions transformed into criminal violations, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

would codify the Trump administration’s controversial threats to cut Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security grants to state and local law enforcement agencies that do not comply with federal immigration enforcement initiatives.

Under the law, states would also be required to provide DHS a wide range of details on all immigrants who are apprehended and “believed to be inadmissible or deportable,” including that individual’s name, address, photo, and license plate number, as well as other identifying information.

The bill echoes Trump’s call to increase ICE’s ranks with the addition of 10,000 new agents, as well as 2,500 new detention officers and 60 new full-time ICE prosecutors.

With deep ties to a range of far-right policy organizations, GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee have long been known for their hawkish views on immigration

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/18/republican-immigration-bill-threatens-to-turn-millions-of-people-into-criminals-overnight/

[boutons_deux]

How Republicans Are Blocking Cities From Raising the Minimum Wage

Republicans and their business allies are fighting back with a two-pronged strategy.

First, they’re working to derail the minimum-wage increases that have already passed. Business groups in Washington and Arizona have gone to court to block the November ballot initiatives, and lawmakers in Maine have introduced a number of bills (http://mainebeacon.com/maine-workers-fight-to-protect-minimum-wage-increase/) that seek to roll back or weaken the wage increase.

Second, in violation of their much-lauded belief in decentralized government, Republicans are moving aggressively to block more cities and states from boosting the minimum wage.

In Arizona, GOP lawmakers have approved bills that make it harder to pass citizen ballot initiatives (http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/legislature/2017/02/23/arizon-abill-change-ballot-initiative-process-advances/98225060/), a democratic process enshrined in the state constitution for more than a century.

And legislatures in 24 states have passed so-called “preemption bills” (https://thinkprogress.org/iowa-minimum-wage-paid-sick-leave-preemption-44168f0a223)to block cities and counties from passing their own minimum-wage hikes.

Many of the bills are the product of model legislation written by the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council, which has made the fight against minimum-wage increases a top priority.

The Iowa bill is particularly egregious because it actually lowered the minimum wage for 65,000 workers in the state who were already enjoying hourly increases of up to $3 in their counties. Those extra dollars make a huge difference to working-class Americans.

Preemption bills aren’t designed to reduce complexity—they’re intended to

override the wishes of voters and promote the GOP’s business-first ideology, at the expense of working-class Americans.

“Conservatives tout the virtues of local control all the time,” says Laura Huizar, a staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project. “But when it comes to local actions that raise wages for workers, that talk goes out the window. It’s a completely hypocritical agenda.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/142349/republicans-blocking-cities-raising-minimum-wage

Repugs, whores to Capital, fucking over Labor.

But the red/slave states' Labor will continue to elect Repugs to be fucked over by Capital.

[boutons_deux]

Police state following Trash's exhortation to "rough 'em up"

Reporter says he was manhandled by security at FCC when he tried to ask a question

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/reporter-says-he-was-manhandled-by-security-at-fcc-when-he-tried-to-ask-a-question/

Everything Trash and the Repugs touch turns to shit.

Goons escalate IMMEDIATELY to physical violence

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration makes ‘unprecedented’ move to block identifying ex-lobbyists working in the White House

Thhe Trump administration is trying to block the disclosure of the names of former lobbyists who have obtained waivers to work at the White House.

The New York Times reports (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-government-ethics-lobbyists.html) that the administration last week “sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers” for the former lobbyists.

The OGE requested copies of the waivers because

the Trump administration has hired dozens of ex-lobbyists — and

without knowing the identities of the people granted waivers, it would be impossible to know if they are violating federal ethics laws.
The report notes that the administration’s move to block disclosure is a “highly unusual” procedure, and Shaub told the Times that he had “never seen anything like it” before.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trump-administration-makes-unprecedented-move-to-block-identifying-ex-lobbyists-working-in-the-white-house/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

The Corruption Will Be UnPresidented

Obama was lawless! :lol

Crooked Hillary! :lol

[boutons_deux]

GOP Lawmaker: Lynch Anyone Who Takes Down Confederate Monuments

A Republican (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/republican-party) member of the Mississippi (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/mississippi/) House of Representatives has called for lynching anyone who removes a Confederate monument, including lawmakers in a neighboring state.

On Saturday, state Rep. Karl Oliver (http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/members/house/oliver.xml) (R) described the

“destruction” of Confederate monuments in Louisiana as “heinous and horrific” and compared leaders in that state to Nazis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/karl-oliver-confederate-lynch_us_59224866e4b094cdba54eece?ncid=inblnkushpm g00000009

Once a slave state, always a slave state.

[boutons_deux]

The Normalizing of Authoritarianism in America (http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/22/the-normalizing-of-authoritarianism-in-america/)

The Southern Poverty Law Center offers an updated warning, reporting that “the number of hate groups operating in the country in 2016 remained at nearly historic highs, rising from 892 in 2015 to 917 last year.” And “in the immediate aftermath of Election Day, a wave of hate crimes and lesser hate incidents swept the country.”

“One would be remiss to forget that in 1922 there were fewer than one hundred members of what was to become the ruling party of Germany within eleven years.” Whereas, “in the United States alone there are over three hundred hate groups that support or embrace the same beliefs that spawned German National Socialism.”

Like Germany, American democracy is being undermined by partisan and sectarian divides. With the election of America’s first black president, Barack Hussein Obama, the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats increased dramatically. Republican politicians – and their supporters – freely vented their racism as the “loyal opposition” party. And Obama’s re-election merely served to sharpen America’s partisan political divide – with the bi-partisan center shrinking even more.

A capricious Donald Trump tapped into America’s ingrained white supremacy.

He exhibited his own brand of racial purity as the leader of the Birther Movement, charging that President Obama was not born in the United States and could well be a Muslim.

President Trump’s executive order, allowing clergy to endorse political candidates from the pulpit, may seem to be the opposite of Hitler’s Concordat requiring Catholic Churches to stay out of the affairs of the State. But the executive order is actually similar to the Concordat: Hitler required the loyalty of Christians, and Trump is rewarding the loyalty of Christians.

To the dismay of many evangelical Christians and Catholics, his executive order did not include a religious liberty clause that would allow them to legally discriminate against LGBTQ persons. But there is still hope. Trump held that discriminatory carrot in front of conservative Christians throughout the presidential campaign by selecting Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate, and Pence has a proven anti-LGBTQ track record as governor of Indiana.

President Trump has wooed a large conservative Christian voter block. In the process he has effectively prevented moderate and liberal Christians and their more conservative counterparts from joining in common cause against his authoritarian policies.

In Mein Kampf, Hitler said,


With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people.


Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign this way:

Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. . . . They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. (sic) They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.




Similar racist ideologies. The one is about satanic Jews “destroy the racial foundations” of “the hated white race.” The other is about a foreign and criminal element destroying the national foundations of “the American dream” – with “making America great again” translated to mean restoring America’s Euro-white Christian foundations.

President Trump is now restoring “the [white] American Dream.” He has hired more immigration police, who are carrying out his promised mass deportations of undocumented Mexicans and other persons – this indiscriminate and cruel policy tearing immigrant families apart. Trump is keeping his campaign promise to “bomb the shit out of ISIS,” and to “kill their family members” – by giving the Pentagon authority to use military power as its sees fit, which has resulted in an increase in the deaths of civilians in Syria and Iraq and Yemen.

But President Trump is not an American authoritarian anomaly.

President George W. Bush outdid Trump by professing Christ as his savior, which not only helped him to be elected president. His falsely-based, horrific, destructive invasion and occupation of Iraq was supported by an overwhelming majority of evangelical Christians.

Their own authoritarian belief in Christ as the savior of the world led them to enthusiastically assume that, in the wake of their “Christian brother-in-Christ’s” pre-emptive invasion of defenseless Iraq, they could extend the “Kingdom of God” by converting Iraq’s vulnerable Muslims to Christ – thus fulfilling Jesus’ recorded commandment to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

President Trump, while extremely unstable and devoid of empathy, is not an authoritarian aberration. Journalist Glenn Greenwald exposes this media-made myth in his article, “Trump’s Support of Despots Is Central to the U.S. Tradition, Not a Deviation from It.” (https://theintercept.com/2017/05/02/trumps-support-and-praise-of-despots-is-central-to-the-u-s-tradition-not-a-deviation-from-it/)

Recognizing President Trump’s authoritarianism as made in America is not to minimize the dangerous extent to which he is normalizing authoritarian tendencies of Americans. His put down of “political correctness” is a slick winking encouragement to supporters to act out against designated enemies. Thus the dramatic rise in hate crimes against Muslims and immigrants and Jews.

He repeatedly tells his audiences that

“the media are “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people” — an obvious attempt to neutralize any examination, questioning or challenging of his policies, which defensive behavior reveals his anti-introspective tendencies.

President Trumps’ latest, alleged, authoritarian act was to demand loyalty from FBI director James Comey, whose position is traditionally independent of presidential or other political pressure.

President Trump continues to demonstrate that he is emotionally unable to participate as a member of a democratic society, [I]never mind lead it.

Transparency, accountability, the recognition and guidance of other authorities, these democratic traits are not part of Trump’s character.

His belittling of people with differing views,

authoritarian-like threats to kill adversaries,

demand for submission to his dictates,

anti-introspective tendencies,

stereotyping of whole groups of people as inferior, and

projection of his own aggressive tendencies on to other groups are plain to see.

But where are the faith leaders and their congregations?

But where are the public statements of mainline liberal and moderate Christian leaders?

Are they like most German Christians, who provided “virtually no public opposition” to the Nazi regime’s “state-sanctioned violence against the Jews?”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/22/the-normalizing-of-authoritarianism-in-america/

[boutons_deux]

Trump to propose big cuts to safety net in new budget, slashing Medicaid and opening door to other limits

President Trump’s first major budget proposal on Tuesday will include massive cuts to Medicaid and call for changes to anti-poverty programs that would give states new power to limit a range of benefits,

Trump’s budget plan would follow through on a bill passed by House Republicans to cut more than $800 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this could cut off Medicaid benefits for about 10 million people over the next decade.

The White House also will call for giving states more flexibility to impose work requirements for people in different kinds of anti-poverty programs,

Numerous social-welfare programs grew after the financial crisis, leading to complaints from many Republicans that more should be done to shift people out of these programs and back into the workforce. Shortly after he was sworn in, Trump said, “We want to get our people off welfare and back to work. . . . It’s out of control.”

he is rejecting calls from a number of Senate Republicans not to reverse the expansion of Medicaid that President Barack Obama achieved as part of the Affordable Care Act

The House has voted to cut the Medicaid funding,

he sought a big increase in military and border spending combined with major cuts to housing, environmental protection, foreign aid, research and development.

Tuesday’s budget will be more significant, because it will seek changes to entitlements — programs that are essentially on auto*pilot and don’t need annual authorization from Congress.

An average of 44 million people received SNAP benefits in 2016, down from a peak of 47 million in 2013. Just 28 million people received the benefits in 2008.

SNAP could be one of numerous programs impacted by changes in work requirements.

work requirements can include blanket ultimatums that don’t take into account someone’s age, physical or cognitive ability, or limitations put in place by the local economy.

Benefits from these programs are often low, and hardly replace the income someone would earn from a job.

And critics of stricter work requirements also believe it could pave the way for states to pursue even stricter restrictions, such as drug tests, that courts have often rejected.

“This budget continues to reveal President Trump’s true colors: His populist campaign rhetoric was just a Trojan horse to execute long-held, hard-right policies that benefit the ultra wealthy at the expense of the middle class,”

the White House signaled that it wanted to eliminate money for a range of other programs that are funded each year by Congress.

This included federal funding for Habitat for Humanity, subsidized school lunches and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates the federal response to homelessness across 19 federal agencies.

A key element of the budget plan will be the assumption that huge tax cuts will result in an unprecedented level of economic growth. :lol :lol

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-to-propose-big-cuts-to-safety-net-in-new-budget-this-week/2017/05/21/62c01f44-3e34-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_campaign=pubexchange_a rticle&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_term=.e485fdd99f31 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-to-propose-big-cuts-to-safety-net-in-new-budget-this-week/2017/05/21/62c01f44-3e34-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_campaign=pubexchange_a rticle&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_term=.e485fdd99f31)

the "winner" billionaires, including those who "accept Christ as their Savior", gonna screw the loser, immoral poor. And the Christian Taliban will not object, will support all of the fucking over of the poor with their silence.

[baseline bum]

:lol Trumptards
:lol this faggot ran on not touching Medicaid

[boutons_deux]

Trash to propose budget cutting $1.7 trillion from programmes including Medicaid and food stamps

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/22/trump-propose-budget-saving-17-trillion-programmes-including/

[ducks]

DHS: 600,000 US Visitors Overstayed Visas Into 2017

[ducks]

Trash to propose budget cutting $1.7 trillion from programmes including Medicaid and food stamps

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/22/trump-propose-budget-saving-17-trillion-programmes-including/

get to work min wage increased should not need food stamps

[ducks]

Trump administration makes ‘unprecedented’ move to block identifying ex-lobbyists working in the White House

Thhe Trump administration is trying to block the disclosure of the names of former lobbyists who have obtained waivers to work at the White House.

The New York Times reports (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-government-ethics-lobbyists.html) that the administration last week “sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers” for the former lobbyists.

The OGE requested copies of the waivers because

the Trump administration has hired dozens of ex-lobbyists — and

without knowing the identities of the people granted waivers, it would be impossible to know if they are violating federal ethics laws.
The report notes that the administration’s move to block disclosure is a “highly unusual” procedure, and Shaub told the Times that he had “never seen anything like it” before.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trump-administration-makes-unprecedented-move-to-block-identifying-ex-lobbyists-working-in-the-white-house/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

The Corruption Will Be UnPresidented

Obama was lawless! :lol

Crooked Hillary! :lol



quoting the new York times is not very smart

[boutons_deux]

quoting the new York times is not very smart

:lol Holy shit, ducks, you are amazing daily. :lol

Defending, apologizing for, fellating Trash is not very smart. :lol

[boutons_deux]

Bannon's Destruction of govt into dysfunctionality

Trump doesn’t need Congress to hamstring health and environmental agencies. It’s already happening.

Key positions in federal agencies remain vacant while talks of layoffs begin.

Steve Bannon famously called (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-wh-strategist-vows-a-daily-fight-for-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/2017/02/23/03f6b8da-f9ea-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.c076286ebcad) for the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”) He’s built an administration that is hostile to government regulation and has promised to roll back two government regulations (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/30/trump-wants-to-cut-two-regulations-on-businesses-for-every-new-one-imposed/?utm_term=.1d57ae2d814e) for every new one introduced.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has been urging agency heads to offer buyouts and early retirement packages, do layoffs, and eliminate jobs.

And four major health and science agencies —

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

the Department of Human Health and Services,

National Institutes of Health, and the

Environmental Protection Agency —

are acquiescing.

They have voluntarily chosen to uphold a hiring freeze put in place in January (and officially lifted in April) as they brace for staff cuts and reorganization, leaving hundreds of positions unfilled (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/19/nearly-700-vacancies-at-cdc-because-of-trump-administration-hiring-freeze/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.7992b5996b60).

Trump’s hiring freeze was both larger in scope and more forceful in tone (http://thehill.com/regulation/administration/316585-trumps-regulatory-freeze-goes-further-than-obamas) than his predecessor’s.

Less discretion was given to individual agencies on how to proceed with staffing needs, and even when the moratorium was lifted, Mulvaney said (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/white-house-tells-agencies-to-come-up-with-a-plan-to-shrink-their-workforces/2017/04/11/79961738-1efd-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html?utm_term=.0c27d6c73708), “This does not mean that agencies will be free to hire willy nilly.”

The freeze was officially lifted (http://www.npr.org/2017/04/12/523473051/trump-lifting-federal-hiring-freeze) in April, but many agencies have voluntarily chosen to uphold the ban in preparation for sweeping staffing cuts.

And the OMB issued a directive in April (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/white-house-tells-agencies-to-come-up-with-a-plan-to-shrink-their-workforces/2017/04/11/79961738-1efd-11e7-ad74-3a742a6e93a7_story.html?utm_term=.4b7fc32c19e6)tha t instructed all federal agencies to submit a plan to reduce their staff by June 30.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/5/24/15663474/trump-congress-debilitate-health-environmental-agencies

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos: If parents want to discriminate against LGBT kids, they can have federal money to do it (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/24/1665662/-Betsy-DeVos-If-parents-want-to-discriminate-against-LGBT-kids-they-can-have-federal-money-to-do-it)

Confirmed: Betsy DeVos would send federal money to schools that explicitly discriminate against LGBT students (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/betsy-devos-lgbtq-students_us_5925b7f5e4b0ec129d319c3b?odv) … or any other group, as long as an individual state embraced that form of discrimination.

In a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Rep. Katherine Clark highlighted the example of Lighthouse Christian Academy, which receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in vouchers from the state of Indiana despite refusing to enroll students from families where there is “homosexual or bisexual activity” or who are “practicing alternate gender identity.”

Clark’s question: Would DeVos block federal dollars from going to schools that discriminate?

And DeVos repeatedly refused to say that she would, making very clear that

she places “choice” above equality or non-discrimination.

as far as Betsy DeVos is concerned, states can use federal dollars to support schools that discriminate. Because to her, privatization is more important than non-discrimination.

“The bottom line,” DeVos concluded, “is we believe that parents are the best equipped to make choices for their children’s schooling and education decisions.”

And she’s willing to send federal money to equip parents to make the choice to keep their kids away from LGBT kids or special needs kids or kids of other races.

She’s not just saying that bigoted parents can use their own resources to live their bigoted ideals—she’s willing to actually give them money to do it with.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/5/24/1665662/-Betsy-DeVos-If-parents-want-to-discriminate-against-LGBT-kids-they-can-have-federal-money-to-do-it?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s housing secretary Ben Carson claims poverty is a ‘state of mind’

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/abc_tw_carson_candy_151129a1-800x430.jpg


he thinks “poverty, to a large extent, is also a state of mind”.

“You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there,” Carson said in the radio interview.

“And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trumps-housing-secretary-ben-carson-claims-poverty-is-a-state-of-mind/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Just another Bannon-style asshole hired to "deconstruct" HUD into dysfunctionality.

[boutons_deux]

House votes to undo pesticide protections for nation’s waterways

Opponents say Republican-led bill takes away the public’s right to know about pesticides.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to pass a bill that dismantles a pesticide permitting system. Opponents are calling the Republican-led legislation the “Poison Our Waters Act.”

Under the bill, anyone applying a pesticide that the Environmental Protection Agency has approved under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act would no longer require a Clean Water Act “general permit.”

https://thinkprogress.org/house-votes-against-protection-against-pesticides-9002a7da131d

[boutons_deux]

Meet Jared Kushner, scumbag slumlord (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/29/1665349/-Meet-Jared-Kushner-scumbag-slumlord)

The Beleaguered Tenants of ‘Kushnerville’

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-beleaguered-tenants-of-kushnerville?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1495540887

[boutons_deux]

People Think Ivanka Trump’s Memorial Day Popsicles Are Insensitive


http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ivanka-trump.jpg

if you’re Ivanka Trump (http://uproxx.com/tag/ivanka-trump/), it’s time to shill your recipe for champagne popsicles.

http://uproxx.com/news/ivanka-trump-champagne-popsicles-memorial-day/

[boutons_deux]

IRS trying to decrapify America

U.S. To Offer Tax Incentives To Companies That Do Not Openly Make World Worse At Every Turn

http://images2.onionstatic.com/onion/5625/1/16x9/1200.jpg

WASHINGTON—A growth-stimulus package introduced in Congress Thursday aims to provide tax incentives to companies that do not openly and unapologetically make the world a worse place than it already is.

"We want to encourage American businesses not to commit blatantly destructive or fraudulent acts in plain sight where everyone can find out about them and get upset," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said.

"We all understand that companies need to stay competitive:

Maybe you had to cut a few corners on safety and accidentally released thousands of gallons of toxins into the water supply, or

maybe you skillfully exploited regulatory loopholes to dupe your customers out of every dollar possible.

That's okay.

As long as you make a reasonable effort to cover it up, you're still eligible for this tax credit."

According to congressional sources,

companies that openly make the world worse can continue to apply for the same tax breaks they've always gotten.

http://www.theonion.com/article/us-to-offer-tax-incentives-to-companies-that-do-no-26457?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing (http://www.theonion.com/article/us-to-offer-tax-incentives-to-companies-that-do-no-26457?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing)

[boutons_deux]

"Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos plan to cut over $8 billion from the Department of Education.

The pain overwhelmingly falls on the poor and disadvantaged.

The beneficiaries? Private schools and for-profit charters.Betsy DeVos is an ideologue who has previously said her goal is to"confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God's kingdom."

Her vision is public money being siphoned to private, religious schools associated with the radical right.

Her children didn't go to public school.

She is the beneficiary of a billion-dollar family fortune.

Many of the cuts remain inexplicable.

Special Olympics.

Adult literacy.

Work study.

Perkins loans.

That is her vision of “God’s Kingdom on Earth.”"

... an email from peoplesaction.org

All y'all rightwingnutjob bigots, racists, xenophobes, misogynists, bubbas, shitckickers, rednecks doing God's work enriching the billionaires.

[boutons_deux]

they are all SLUTS anyway, right, white male Christian misogynists?

Trump Administration Moves To Roll Back Birth Control Coverage

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-birth-control_us_592dbaeae4b0e95ac1944521?ncid=inblnkush pmg00000009&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Email%20053117&utm_content=The%20Morning%20Email%20053117+CID_b49 94e6d8208bff8b44c147c03050fd1&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnewsThe%20Morning%20Email%2005311 7

Will dick hardeners still be covered by Medicare Advantage or Part D?

[boutons_deux]

Donald Trump Reportedly Plans To Withdraw From Paris Climate Deal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-paris-agreement_us_592dae29e4b0c0608e8bb885?utm_medium=e mail&utm_campaign=Reports%20Trump%20plans%20to%20withdr aw%20from%20Paris%20climate%20deal&utm_content=Reports%20Trump%20plans%20to%20withdra w%20from%20Paris%20climate%20deal+CID_e7f7bbaaab4a 8b45a6ca79164fc65c67&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Read%20More&ncid=newsltushpmgnewsReports%20Trump%20plans%20to% 20withdraw%20from%20Paris%20climate%20deal

Trash's name on withdrawal, but it's 100% VRWC/BigCarbon/Repug strategy.

[boutons_deux]

as always, against all evidence from other states ...

Gov. Walker Would Drug Test the Poor

As he prepares to run for a third term, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, ever the devotee of low-road, right-wing politicking, is hoping the Trump administration will allow his state to be the first in the nation to mandate the drug screening of childless individuals who apply for Medicaid (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicaid/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) help.

The politics of sloganeering that blames the poor for being poor did not get far with

welfare officials in the Obama administration, who cautioned that the Walker initiatives violated federal law.

But Mr. Walker obviously sees better prospects in trying again with the Trump administration.

If he succeeds, mandatory drug testing for Medicaid enrollment would affect an estimated 148,000 of the 1.2 million people receiving state health care support.

They are either totally impoverished or members of the working poor earning less than $12,060 a year.

Refusal to be tested would result in denial of health care for six months, with repeated state confrontations likely to follow.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/scott-walker-drug-test-medicaid.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1

America The Beautiful, with Repugs fucking Americans and America in every way available.

[boutons_deux]

Kobach ‘Voter Fraud’ Commission Gets Fast Thumbs Down

Lacking even the veneer of bipartisanship, the Kobach Commission represents an assault on basic voting rights.

http://prospect.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/ap_17138687983443.jpg?itok=WtOWPLB6

The Kobach Commission (sometimes referred to as the Pence Commission) on voter fraud was created in the way so many things have been in the Trump administration.

It started with an angry and completely unsubstantiated tweet,

echoing a campaign trope,

followed by public statements doubling down on the message,

followed by a half-baked executive order.

The Commission was created

to investigate the allegations of Trump’s alternative universe, where massive voter fraud cost the president millions of votes.

The true voter fraud—creating obstacles to the right to vote—is not part of its mandate.

Kris Kobach is of course the perfect choice.

As Kansas secretary of state, he has made his reputation seeking to make it as difficult as possible for people in Kansas to vote, and by fanning the fantasy of massive voter fraud.

Kobach has been sued four times by the ACLU for his efforts to prevent people from voting, and lost all four cases.

http://prospect.org/article/kobach-%E2%80%98voter-fraud%E2%80%99-commission-gets-fast-thumbs-down (http://prospect.org/article/kobach-%E2%80%98voter-fraud%E2%80%99-commission-gets-fast-thumbs-down)

[boutons_deux]

Jeff Sessions’ Civil Rights Agenda Chills Former DOJ Prosecutors

Sessions’ DOJ is signaling to move resources away from the types of cases and investigations that affect the more vulnerable members of U.S. society, attorneys who previously worked for the Civil Rights Division under President Barack Obama told Rewire.

“Overall, the budget reflects that vulnerable populations can count on less protection from the Justice Department,”

“I think [it’s] going to be less aggressive in certain areas that really need federal attention when it comes to protecting constitutional rights and ensuring people’s safety.”

a paragraph on voting rights removed language (https://www.justice.gov/jmd/file/822036/download#page=2) from the previous administration about “focus[ing] on detecting and challenging practices that violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” which prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race and color.

Among the changes in priorities, noted those who spoke to Rewire, are the shifts in approaches to police violence, discrimination against foreign-born workers, and school segregation.

budget’s omission of any commitment to prosecute illegal use of force by police officers, on which he worked closely.

“It’s not shocking, and it’s shocking,” Bains said. “It’s not shocking because we’ve seen the signs already from this attorney general that he wants to pull back from police reform. It is shocking because this is an urgent set of issues. And to completely back away from this work such that it doesn’t even appear on the list of priorities, I think, is going to be really detrimental to the country.”

Sessions early on ordered a sweeping review of these court orders and has indicated a desire to close some of them (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/us/justice-department-jeff-sessions-baltimore-police.html?_r=0) (he cannot close them alone; a judge would need to make a ruling).

For instance, just last month Sessions unsuccessfully (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/jeff-sessions-couldnt-stop-consent-decree-baltimore) attempted to delay and re-examine a consent decree with the Baltimore Police Department before it was put in place, even though local officials welcomed police reforms.

the Civil Rights Division might be used as a propaganda generator to further the Trump administration’s narrative that immigrants are stealing U.S. jobs.

“And now what the Sessions Justice Department is trying to do is essentially turn that around and say we’re going to use that anti-discrimination provision as a tool to go after employers who are discriminating against American citizen workers,

to try to develop a program that’s going to have basically a propaganda function of trying to tell a story to American citizen workers that immigrants are coming and taking your jobs.”

The very last agenda item (https://www.justice.gov/jmd/page/file/968381/download#page=2) listed in this budget request also shook the civil rights attorneys

It is essentially a commitment that DOJ’sCivil Rights Division will collaborate with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to review “regulatory materials,” as well as the approximately 170 consent decrees (https://www.justice.gov/crt/educational-opportunities-cases) entered into with schools districts that DOJ has found to not be complying with federal desegregation laws.

Already, Sessions’ DOJ withdrew guidance (https://rewire.news/article/2017/02/23/title-ix-protects-trans-students-no-matter-trump-administration-believes/) (joined by the Department of Education) that federally funded schools have to ensure that transgender students can access bathrooms consistent with their gender identities.

“It’s clear that they’re going to try to get rid of Obama-era regulatory guidance that had enhanced civil rights protections for students, and it’s clear that they’re going to go through desegregation decrees and try to get rid of those as well,”

https://rewire.news/article/2017/05/31/jeff-sessions-civil-rights-agenda-chills-former-doj-prosecutors/

There you have it, ST racists, bigots, xenophobes, YOUR Repug party is the party of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, HATE, and fucking non-Euro-whites every which way possible.

That's why Repugs put a fucking life-long racist as the USA's top racist goon.

[boutons_deux]

dickless gun fellator greasebag news


https://images.dailykos.com/images/408306/large/Whitmer.jpg?1496376726

Kansas State legislator reminds fellow legislator he's carrying a gun before she casts her vote.

https://twitter.com/SSCJoCoKs/status/870430850969550848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F20 17%2F6%2F2%2F1668139%2F-Kansas-State-legislator-reminds-fellow-legislator-he-s-carrying-a-gun-before-she-casts-her-vote

[boutons_deux]

Bannon seeking to take over US governmental messaging abroad


White House eyes Bannon ally for top broadcasting post (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/01/michael-pack-candidate-broadcasting-board-of-governors-239022)

With sweeping new powers, the position would oversee public media reaching 100 countries.

The Trump administration’s leading candidate to head the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a position that with recent changes would give the single person unilateral power over the United States’ government messaging abroad reaching millions, is a conservative documentarian with ties to White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.
Michael Pack, the leading contender for the post, is currently president and CEO of the Claremont Institute and publisher of its Claremont Review of Books, a California-based conservative institute that has been called the “academic home of Trumpism” by the Chronicle of Higher Education.


The truly alarming piece of this story:


Should he be appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate, Pack would be the first CEO of the BBG without a board as a firewall because of a little-noticed provision in last December's National Defense Authorization Act which disbanded the bipartisan board which controls the BBG (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-voice-of-america-232442).


Prepare for Breitbart conspiracy theory-driven propaganda to be spread around the globe — under the auspices of the U.S. government — should Pack be appointed and confirmed by the Senate.

Sinister? You bet.

The BBG controls Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcast Network, which constitutes the largest public diplomacy program by the U.S. government, reaching an audience of 278 million by broadcasting in 100 countries and 61 languages.
…
Under the new arrangement, the board of governors will be replaced by an advisory panel.

Once confirmed,

the new CEO could hire their own directors for the five networks under BBG and theoretically push whichever message he or she chose without the board’s approval.

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2017/6/1/1667954/-Bannon-seeking-to-take-over-US-governmental-messaging-abroad?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

Trash is crapifying America's name around the world

Tillerson visits New Zealand: Kiwis respond with disdain and disgust...(and water-filled condoms)! (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/6/1669234/-Tillerson-visits-New-Zealand-Kiwis-respond-with-disdain-and-disgust-and-water-filled-condoms)

now 2017 in New Zealand has hit rock bottom with a visit from Trump’s itinerant oiler and handshaker Rex Tillerson.

At least we Kiwis were well prepared to give him a suitably chilly welcome.

Some context: while New Zealand’s relations with the US have been slightly rocky since 1987 when we adopted a nuclear-free policy (and were unceremoniously dumped as a US ally),

we are also known for our unnaturally high levels of hospitality and politeness.

Until now...

Tillerson’s visit, as reported in newspapers around the world,

has been greeted with lines of kiwis giving him what we might call a ‘unique local salute comprising the raising of the middle finger in a gesture of elevated alertness’,

followed by a very frosty press conference with the New Zealand Prime Minister (who even mentioned the previously unmentionable diplomatic rupture in 1987),

all of which took place while protestors outside pelted an effigy of Trump with water-filled condoms.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/6/1669234/-Tillerson-visits-New-Zealand-Kiwis-respond-with-disdain-and-disgust-and-water-filled-condoms

cheeky bastards, those Kiwis! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Trash is crapifying America's relationships with its allies

Sen. Corker Shocked Silent After Learning of Trump Tweets Calling Qatar a State Sponsor of Terror

While speaking to reporters earlier today, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was completely shocked over recent tweets sent by President Donald Trump, as his conversation with the press was the first time he was made aware Trump’s statements.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/sen-corker-shocked-silent-after-reading-trumps-tweets-calling-qatar-a-state-sponsor-of-terror/

:lol

[boutons_deux]

Here Are 20 Questions Betsy DeVos Flagrantly Dodged During Her Latest Senate Hearing

DeVos has developed a penchant for evading difficult questions, and Tuesday’s hearing was no exception. Here are 20 questions she flagrantly dodged from 13 Republicans and Democrats.

Roy Blunt (R-MO)

1. “On May 19, the Department of Education put out a new proposal where there would be only one principle [loan] servicer. I’m inclined to think that is not the best direction to go. Why did you make that decision as opposed to letting the department, as it had been doing, allocate loans to servicers who are having the best experience and the best results?”

Patty Murray (D-WA)

2. “Your budget proposed a cut of $578 million (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/05/trump_budget_cut_disadvantaged_students_aid.html) in this funding for districts that don’t adopt your proposed policies… Are you aware your budget would result in these cuts?”

3. “What do you tell Republicans who feel strongly that the federal government shouldn’t use federal education dollars to bend states and school districts to their will?”

4. “Given that agencies certainly have the option to respond to inquiries and be transparent above and beyond what President Trump’s White House is saying (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/02/federal-agencies-oversight-requests-democrats-white-house-239034), do you plan to respond to inquiries from Democrats, or just ignore them and only respond to Republicans?”

Dick Durbin (D-IL)

5. “Whether it’s a question of gainful employment so the students don’t get so deeply in debt, they don’t have a chance to pay back their student loans. The defrauding of students by these schools [has] been shown over and over again. The question is, what are you going to do about this?”

Richard Shelby (R-AL)

6. “How does the Department of Education expect to be able to continue to effectively meet the needs of our state, all of our states, if you are going to cut the programs (such as technical education (https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/05/trumps-education-budget-takes-aim-at-the-working-class/527718/)) rather than improve them?”

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

7. “What should you say to Raymond and other [poor] students who will no longer have a place to go after school, who are going to go home without supervision, where they can get into trouble because their parents aren’t going to be home, who are not going to have the homework assistance, who are not going to have the help they need to succeed in school?”

Brian Schatz (D-HI)

8. “How are we going to come up with $9 billion [for programs cut] (http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/22/529534031/president-trumps-budget-proposal-calls-for-deep-cuts-to-education), or do you think there should be $9 billion less spent in education overall?”

9. “Do you include the cut of 40,000 teachers (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/news/2017/03/17/428598/trump-devos-budget-dismantle-public-education-hurting-vulnerable-kids-working-families-teachers/)federally funded in that category called duplicative (or ineffective) or could be supported by some other entity?”

Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

10. “Are you saying that if you have a private school, [since] private schools generally set their own admission policies, they will not be able to discriminate against LGBTQ students?”

11. “You cut in half the federal work study program (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.d14bdc6deb3d). Why not encourage students to be able to hold a job in college and reduce their debt, rather than making them have higher debt?”

Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)

12. “Last week, you testified in the house that you were going to have a willingness to review these rejected [Upward Bound, West Virginia State University (https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-05-24/devos-to-review-rejected-college-prep-grant-applications)] applications, and I am asking you for the same commitment today, and if you have been doing that?”

Joe Manchin (D-WV)

13. “Is there any flexibility that you have that we could work to help some of the schools, programs that were cut through the money that they are not going to be asking from you for choice?”

John Neely Kennedy (R-LA)

14. “What percentage of the elected officials in America that give advice about elementary and secondary public education do you think really know what is like to be in a classroom?”

15. “Would you support a bill that said that any elected official… that makes policy for elementary and secondary education should be required to substitute teach in a public school at least once a year?”

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

16. “How would $20 million for competitive grants make up for or replace the more than $1.5 billion in formula funding for programs that could support career and technical education and STEM education efforts (https://apnews.com/3adfbd0c03a940588c91d2287aa7c8f3/ivanka-trump-education-secretary-devos-promote-stem-careers)in every state?

17. “How do these truly draconian cuts reflect anything other than an effort to push college further out of reach to more and more young people?

Marco Rubio (R-FL)

18. “In a country that has become so diverse and so different geographically, and along so many different lines, how does this budget account for that in terms of the federal role in incentivizing competition and innovation, while still understanding [how] to address some of the basic things in the school system? If a kid doesn’t have access to wi-fi nowadays, they are going to struggle to be able to complete homework.”

Chris Murphy (D-CT)

19. “Does your proposal require any of these [charter school] companies to disclose their profits?”

20. “What protections—specific protections—will be in your program to make sure that taxpayer dollars don’t just end up enriching the pockets of the folks that own these companies?”

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/here_are_20_questions_betsy_devos_flagrantly_dodge d_during_senate_20170607

bitchy Devos is the shitty govt we get from VRWC/Repugs whose strategy is to destroy govt.

[boutons_deux]

Crapifying Repugs from TX, always with us

‘Round up everybody’: GOPer calls for mass firings at DOJ because of the ‘conspiracy afoot’ against Trump


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Gohmert-Conspiracy-Remaining-Afoot-in-Department-of-Justice-720p-800x430.jpg

Reep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Sunday called for mass firings at the Department of Justice because he believes that there is a “conspiracy” to destroy President Donald Trump.

According to the Texas congressman, former FBI Director James Comey was “lying” in his testimony last week when he alleged that Trump pressured him to drop an investigation related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

“I believe I heard him say he did the memo [about possible obstruction of justice] then he talked with some of his colleagues,” Gohmert insisted to Fox News host Julie Banderas.

“We need to round up everybody he talked to because they were all conspiring against the president and all conspiring against their oath of office, conspiring against their own employment agreement.”

“We have a conspiracy remaining afoot in the Department of Justice that is going to be out to destroy this president and they’ve got to be fired, if not worse,” he added.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/round-up-everybody-goper-calls-for-mass-firings-at-doj-because-of-the-conspiracy-afoot-against-trump/

:lol Fucking Texans who elect fucking assholes

[boutons_deux]

Abstinence-only, rebranded: Failed right-wing sex-ed policy returns as “sexual risk avoidance”

Under a clinical-sounding label, the shame-and-ignorance approach of the Bush era makes a comeback under Trump

The devil’s bargain Christian conservatives made with Trump is easy enough to understand:

They ignore his history of sexual incontinence, including rumors of a literal “pee tape,” and

he gives them more power over the sex lives of private individuals, especially young people and women.

In office, President Trump has done just that, launching a multitude of attacks (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38729364)on legal abortion (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-20/beyond-roe-v-wade-here-s-what-gorsuch-means-for-abortion) and contraception access (http://www.salon.com/2017/06/07/as-gop-attacks-on-birth-control-increase-new-paper-demonstrates-its-economic-value/).

the White House proposed a budget that would slash nearly every government expenditure, but would

increase spending on abstinence-until-marriage programs by $277 million (https://www.thecut.com/2017/05/trump-budget-abstinence-only-sex-ed.html).

Last week, it was revealed that

Valerie Huber (http://www.teenvogue.com/story/things-to-know-about-valerie-huber), the head of a pro-abstinence organization called Ascend (http://weascend.org/), will join the Department of Health and Human Services as chief of staff to the assistant secretary for adolescent health

, a position that will allow her to push for more support for abstinence-until-marriage programs in schools.

http://www.salon.com/2017/06/12/abstinence-only-rebranded-failed-right-wing-sex-ed-policy-returns-as-sexual-risk-avoidance/

[boutons_deux]

'Nonsense': Powerful Republican denounces White House information shut-out

An already contentious move by Republican President Donald Trump

to block opposition Democratic lawmakers from getting information about his administration

received its most scathing criticism yet on Friday - from one of the most powerful Republican members of the U.S. Senate.

Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in a more than 2,100-word letter to the White House,

asked Trump to rescind

unprecedented guidance that told executive agencies they do not have to honor requests for information from lawmakers in the minority party, currently the Democrats.
This week in hearings all over Capitol Hill members of both parties have criticized the information block. Democrats have posited that the

Trump administration is trying to hide mistakes, problems or wrongdoing from them.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-trump-idUSKBN1902TW?feedName=politicsNews&feedType=RSS

Obama was lawless! :lol

Obama overreached! :lol

Surprising that Grassley would give a shit about Trash's AUTOCRACY, and how many other Repugs will back him up?

[boutons_deux]

any bets on whether the whored Repug govt by corporate oligarchy will approve Monsanto + Bayer merger?

[boutons_deux]

A tweet from Trump’s legal team shows he doesn’t understand what being president is about


Mark Corallo @MarkCorallo1 (https://twitter.com/MarkCorallo1)

All US Attorneys work for and at the pleasure of POTUS. There is nothing abnormal with the executive speaking directly with his employees.
8:17 AM - 11 Jun 2017 (https://twitter.com/MarkCorallo1/status/873891832878551040)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1554954034/profile-image-corallo_normal.jpgMark Corallo @MarkCorallo1 (https://twitter.com/MarkCorallo1)

I'd Preet refused to accept the President's call, he deserved to be fired.
8:17 AM - 11 Jun 2017 (https://twitter.com/MarkCorallo1/status/873891948540645376)

they’re not the president’s “employees” and

they don’t “work for” the president.

Like the FBI director, the Cabinet, the generals and admirals who command the American military, and other key officeholders,

they work for the American people and they swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution.

Public officials work for the public

That public servants work for the public and not to serve the president is the basic difference between a free, law-governed society and a dictatorship. The FBI’s own website contains a useful essay written by FBI Academy legal instructor Jonathan Rudd about the significance of the oath of office.

“It is significant,” he writes, “that we take an oath to support and defend the Constitution and not an individual leader, ruler, office, or entity ... a government based on individuals — who are inconsistent, fallible, and often prone to error — too easily leads to tyranny on the one extreme or anarchy on the other.”

Some public servants have civil service protections. Others are political appointees who the president can fire at will. But regardless of their employment status,

public officials have an obligation to the law and to the public interest, not an obligation to cater to the president’s whims, insecurities, or desire to see his associates evade legal accountability for their actions.
https://www.vox.com/2017/6/12/15778412/carollo-tweet (https://www.vox.com/2017/6/12/15778412/carollo-tweet)

The Trash/WH/Exec shitstorm of autocracy and ignorance.

[boutons_deux]

This profile of Trump's budget director has an unintentionally revealing anecdote

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o-gg-4EuA58clQCiTcJQvNph3zo=/0x0:3000x2000/920x613/filters:focal(1016x427:1496x907):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55219703/688228892.0.jpg

Looking through a recent jobs report, Mick Mulvaney asked his aide for help, the Washington Examiner’s Alex Pappas (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-budget-cutter-mick-mulvaney-has-coolest-job-in-washington/article/2625282) wrote in the opening lines of a profile on President Donald Trump’s budget director. Mulvaney, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, couldn’t find the cross section showing government jobs:

As Mick Mulvaney takes a seat at the long wooden table in his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, he yells out to an aide about the jobs report just released by payroll processor ADP.

"I can't find the subset for government jobs," the president's budget director says. "Could you find that, please?"


It’s an unintentionally revealing anecdote about the man who constructed Trump’s budget proposal.

Mulvaney couldn’t find the “subset for government jobs” because there is no subset for government jobs.

There are subsets for small, midsize, and big private business, and cross sections for different industry types.

The average person might not know this, but the average person isn’t in charge of the federal budget — and, by extension, implementing the president’s agenda.

This isn’t the first gaffe Mulvaney — a former US representative — has made. His budget proposal to Congress appeared to make a $2 trillion accounting error (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/23/15680110/trump-budget-accounting-error), double-counting the economic benefits from tax reform.

That was a mistake so “egregious” according to Larry Summers (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/23/larry-summers-trumps-budget-is-simply-ludicrous/), that the former Treasury secretary and National Economic Council director said it was “a logical error of the kind that would justify failing a student in an introductory economics course.”

calls himself a “policy wonk and government junkie.” Just not a jobs data junkie, perhaps. :lol

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/12/15786876/profile-mick-mulvaney-jobs-mistake

Like Ryan, another "policy wonk" is a total incompetent, bullshtting FRAUD.

I bet he wanted the govt job report to see how badly the Repugs are fucking up govt by defunding, destaffing it.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs fucking up America and the democratic myth, while continuing to suppress the media

Journalists Face New Limits On Press Access In Covering Congress

Reporters on Capitol Hill are facing alarming new restrictions when trying to interview senators, journalists from multiple media outlets said Tuesday.

NBC News reporter Kasie Hunt tweeted (https://twitter.com/kasie/status/874650189885263872) that “reporters at Capitol have been told they are not allow [sic] to film interviews with senators in hallways.”

Reporters have traditionally been able to wait outside meetings and hearings and approach senators with question as they come and go. But now reporters are being told they need permission from the specific senator and the REPUG Senate Rules Committee.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/journalists-congress-media_us_59400933e4b0b13f2c6e238b?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Journalists%20Face%20New%20Limits%20O n%20Press%20Access%20In%20Covering%20Congress&utm_content=Journalists%20Face%20New%20Limits%20On %20Press%20Access%20In%20Covering%20Congress+CID_5 ec9910ed383d4f823f269700a5279f7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Read%20More&ncid=newsltushpmgnewsJournalists%20Face%20New%20Li mits%20On%20Press%20Access%20In%20Covering%20Congr ess

[Thread]

Repugs fucking up America and the democratic myth, while continuing to suppress the media

Journalists Face New Limits On Press Access In Covering Congress

Reporters on Capitol Hill are facing alarming new restrictions when trying to interview senators, journalists from multiple media outlets said Tuesday.

NBC News reporter Kasie Hunt tweeted (https://twitter.com/kasie/status/874650189885263872) that “reporters at Capitol have been told they are not allow [sic] to film interviews with senators in hallways.”

Reporters have traditionally been able to wait outside meetings and hearings and approach senators with question as they come and go. But now reporters are being told they need permission from the specific senator and the REPUG Senate Rules Committee.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/journalists-congress-media_us_59400933e4b0b13f2c6e238b?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Journalists%20Face%20New%20Limits%20O n%20Press%20Access%20In%20Covering%20Congress&utm_content=Journalists%20Face%20New%20Limits%20On %20Press%20Access%20In%20Covering%20Congress+CID_5 ec9910ed383d4f823f269700a5279f7&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Read%20More&ncid=newsltushpmgnewsJournalists%20Face%20New%20Li mits%20On%20Press%20Access%20In%20Covering%20Congr ess

Good.

[boutons_deux]

Jeff Sessions personally asked Congress to let him prosecute medical marijuana providers

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014,

The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, prohibit the Justice Department (https://www.congress.gov/amendment/113th-congress/house-amendment/748/text) from using federal funds to prevent certain states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana."

Sessions's citing of a "historic drug epidemic" to justify a crackdown on medical marijuana is at odds with what researchers know about current drug use and abuse in the United States.

The epidemic Sessions refers to involves deadly opiate drugs, not marijuana.

A growing body of research (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/28/attorney-general-sessions-wants-to-know-the-science-on-marijuana-and-opioids-here-it-is/?utm_term=.7a25a2a31965) (acknowledged by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine)) has shown that

opiate deaths and overdoses actually decrease in states with medical marijuana laws on the books.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/13/jeff-sessions-personally-asked-congress-to-let-him-prosecute-medical-marijuana-providers/?utm_term=.e70d725fbae5&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

Fuck you to hell, racist.

Another Repug stinky asshole believing his hateful ideology and vindictiveness override science and compassion.

[boutons_deux]

Report Finds That ARPA-E Is Working, Even as Trash Seeks to Shut It Down

A six-year study finds R&D and commercial successes for the DOE blue-sky energy research program. Trump wants to defund it.

ARPA-E’s initial $400 million budget, part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was followed by $180 million in 2011, $275 million in 2012, $251 million in 2013, and $280 million in 2014 and 2015, bringing its total budget to just under $1.5 billion.

With that money, the agency has funded hundreds of R&D projects, from universities and DOE labs to private-sector players both large and small.

Technologies that have received ARPA-E funding range from energy storage and electric vehicles to semiconductors and software.

These projects, in turn, have collectively won $1.8 billion in private follow-up funding (http://www.apple.com/), or a 20 percent margin on initial investment, according to the latest data.

More than 50 projects so far have developed into startups, and 68 have moved to other government agencies.

The Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget (https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/trumps-2018-budget-whats-on-the-chopping-block-for-clean-energy) calls for eliminating funding for the agency, along with a host of other DOE programs that support climate change research, clean energy development and efficiency.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/report-finds-that-arpa-e-is-working-while-trump-seeks-to-shut-it-down?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GTM_Solar+%28GTM+Solar%29

[boutons_deux]

Apparently There Are Two Kinds of Government Shutdown

“At times there could be a good shutdown, at times there may not be a good shutdown. There could be reasons at various times why that is the right outcome.”

— Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, quoted by The Hill (http://thehill.com/policy/finance/337589-mnuchin-at-times-there-could-be-a-good-shutdown), when asked about President Trump’s tweet earlier this year that “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2017/06/14/apparently-there-are-two-kinds-of-government-shutdown/

the super-wealthy predatory, vulture capitalist doesn't GAF, either way.

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Halts New Rules Aimed at Abuses by For-Profit Schools


The Trump administration is delaying new rules (https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-proposes-new-regulations-protect-students-and-taxpayers-predatory-institutions) that would erase the federal loan debt of student borrowers cheated by for-profit colleges (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/forprofit_schools/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier).

The announcement by the Education Department (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/education_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org) on Wednesday came just weeks before the rules, finalized during the Obama administration, were to take effect on July 1.

The new rules stood to benefit students from failed for-profit colleges already seeking to have their loans forgiven, as well as others who might be eligible to do so. They also established tougher standards intended to check the flow of further federal funds to rogue for-profit operators.

“My first priority is to protect students,” :lol

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement issued by the department. “Fraud, especially fraud committed by a school, is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately, last year’s rulemaking effort missed an opportunity to get it right. The result is a muddled process that’s unfair to students and schools, and

puts taxpayers on the hook for significant costs.” :lol

(who else is going to pay for the students fraud? govt made/backed the loans.
Devos's first priority is to stop govt spending and give the savings to Bigcorp and the wealthy)

The department said it would “develop fair, effective and improved regulations to protect individual borrowers from fraud, ensure accountability across institutions of higher education and protect taxpayers.” :lol

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/business/student-loans-for-profit-schools-colleges.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[boutons_deux]

Pruitt under fire again for misleading Congress on his email use

Pruitt’s conflicting testimony raises questions about accountability at EPA.

When now-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt testified at his confirmation hearing earlier this year, he misled senators about his email use (https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-lie-senate-epa-emails-3c750d5527ef) as Oklahoma attorney general. Now, legislators are raising questions about whether he fully disclosed the details of his email use even after the original mistake was brought to light.

In January, Pruitt testified in writing that he used two email addresses — one for business, and one for personal use — as attorney general. In May, Pruitt conceded, again in writing, that he had used the personal email address for business purposes while holding office. Now, it turns out that Pruitt used at least two business email addresses within the attorney general’s office.

The additional address was revealed in newly released email records, which were requested by the Center for Media and Democracy several years ago.

Earlier this week, Democratic members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sent a letter to Pruitt, saying his repeated failure to fully disclose his email use raises “serious questions” about whether he can “be trusted to inform Congress about your communications as EPA administrator.”

https://thinkprogress.org/but-his-emails-again-aed947a14e0f[/COLOR]

All these Repugs motherfuckers don't GAF about ethics, law, truth, protocol, transparency, committing treason, or ANYTHING because they are immune to reproach, having the oligarchy supporting, financing them.

[boutons_deux]

File under BigCorp War On Labor, and ideology of "privatizing govt function without oversight"

How Trump’s Executive Order Would Undermine Quality Apprenticeship

The Trump administration released an executive order (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/15/presidential-executive-order-expanding-apprenticeships-america) authorizing the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to move forward with efforts to permit third parties—such as industry groups, trade associations, companies, and other nonprofit and for-profit providers—to certify Registered Apprenticeship programs.

So-called industry-certified apprenticeship programs would undermine quality apprenticeships



Undermines the definition of apprenticeship. The executive order (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/15/presidential-executive-order-expanding-apprenticeships-america) defines an apprenticeship as an “arrangement that includes a paid-work component and an educational or instructional component, wherein an individual obtains workplace-relevant knowledge and skills,” a major departure from the existing federal definition, which is much more specific regarding the structure of on-the-job training, and the wage schedule.
Undermines quality assurance. According to the executive order, the secretary of labor could allow third parties broad discretion in how they ensure that these programs meet quality standards. It is unclear from the order whether those standards would be the existing federal standards, or new standards developed by the third party or by the DOL.
Undermines wage requirements. The executive order only addresses wages to the extent that it acknowledges that an apprenticeship arrangement is paid. It does not address scheduled wage increases, meaning that workers enrolled in these programs may not be guaranteed a raise as their skills progress. Additionally, the new definition of apprenticeship offered by the executive order, coupled with the lack of clarity on wages and wage progression, makes it totally unclear whether apprentices would be classified as employees and paid at least minimum wage.
Opens the door to federal funding without safeguards. As Registered Apprenticeships, these new programs—which would not necessarily have to adhere to existing federal standards—would also be eligible to access federal dollars through programs such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (https://www.doleta.gov/oa/federalresources/playbook.pdf) (WIOA).



Undermines credibility and portability of Registered Apprenticeship among employers. Given that these programs will be also be known as Registered Apprenticeships, it will be difficult for employers to know whether a former apprentice has received training that meets the applicable federal standards, or whether the apprentice participated in a lower-quality program that did not meet the same standards. In addition to undermining employers’ faith in apprenticeship, it may also undermine portability of the Registered Apprenticeship credential, as employers will be less inclined to view it as a signal of skills mastery.


President Trump’s apprenticeship executive order represents yet another broken promise to workers

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2017/06/15/434541/trumps-executive-order-undermine-quality-apprenticeship/

[boutons_deux]

President Trump chooses inexperienced woman who planned his son Eric's wedding to run N.Y. federal housing programs

She’s arranged tournaments at Trump golf courses, served as the liaison to the Trump family during his presidential campaign, and even arranged Eric Trump’s wedding.

Now President Trump has appointed longtime loyalist Lynne Patton — who

has zero housing experience and claims a law degree the school says she never earned —

to run the office that oversees federal housing programs in New York.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-chooses-family-event-planner-run-n-y-housing-programs-article-1.3251314?utm_content=bufferf5ded&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw

"Heckuva job, Lynnie"

"Heckuva job, Bennie"

:lol This how Repugs INSULT the very idea of govt and competence in govt.

[boutons_deux]

Repug racists use their racist stooge Session to fuck up DOJ and screw non-whites

Trash Administration Quietly Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across Federal Government

New directives will limit the Department of Justice’s use of enforcement tools and more.

For decades, the Department of Justice has used court-enforced agreements to protect civil rights, successfully desegregating school systems, reforming police departments, ensuring access for the disabled and defending the religious

Now, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the DOJ appears to be turning away from this storied tool, called consent decrees. Top officials in the DOJ civil rights division have issued verbal instructions through the ranks to seek settlements without consent decrees — which would result in no continuing court oversight.

The move is just one part of a move by the Trump administration to limit federal civil rights enforcement.

Other departments have scaled back the power of their internal divisions that monitor such abuses.

In a previously unreported development, the Education Department last week reversed an Obama-era reform that broadened the agency’s approach to protecting rights of students.

The Labor Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have also announced (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-plans-to-minimize-civil-rights-efforts-in-agencies/2017/05/29/922fc1b2-39a7-11e7-a058-ddbb23c75d82_story.html) sweeping cuts to their enforcement.

Sessions ordered (https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/954916/download) a sweeping review of all consent decrees with troubled police departments nationwide to ensure they were in line with the Trump administration’s law-and-order goals.

Attorneys who worked on the case for years were barely consulted about the change — many weren’t consulted at all, according to two former DOJ officials with knowledge of the matter.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-administration-quietly-rolls-back-civil-rights-efforts-across-federal

The racist Repugs gonna show that knitter Obama and his knitter AGs how to do racism The Jim Crow Way

[Thread]

^Good.

- "You have to watch that."

- "Derek's father" - "American History X"

[boutons_deux]

Hate crimes soar two years after Dylann Roof massacre

President Donald Trump announced he was running for office on June 16, 2015. The following day, white supremacist Dylann Roof (http://www.newsweek.com/dylann-roof-south-carolina-south-carolina-church-gunman-church-shooting-hate-541227) opened fire in a historically black church located in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people in the hopes of launching an all-out race war.

"There has been a massive explosion of violence across the country, and an increase in the number of hate crimes against virtually all minority groups. The numbers are definitely going up in 2017."

When looking at the data, it becomes immediately clear that spikes in hate crimes and racial tension haven’t only impacted black communities, like the Episcopal Church.

There were at least 1,314 reported cases of anti-Muslim bias in 2014, according to the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report (https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2015/topic-pages/incidentsandoffenses_final.pdf). By 2016, that annual figure soared to 2,213.

Anti-Semitic incidents also rose in 2015, the latest year the Anti-Defamation League has data (https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-audit-anti-semitic-assaults-rise-dramatically-across-the-country-in-2015) on, rising three percent to 941 total incidents nationwide.

Of all the hate crimes carried out that year, over 48 percent were committed by whites.

"We know that the normalization of violence, particularly against marginalized people, creates a culture of complicity and acceptance of hate based violence,"

In total, hate crimes rose from 5,479 reported incidents in 2014 to 5,800 the next year, when Roof made his decision to act on a months-long quest he had documented at length across the web and on his racist website, TheLastRhodesian.com.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/hate-crimes-soar-two-years-after-dylann-roof-massacre/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Thanks, all y'all Trash voters, defenders, fellators. Making American Shitty Again.

And Bernie MADE that guy shoot Scalise! :lol

[Thread]

"We know that the normalization of violence, particularly against marginalized people, creates a culture of complicity and acceptance of hate based violence,"

I'll just bet you do.

[boutons_deux]

Repugs will block this

US Commission On Civil Rights To Launch 2-Year Probe Into Trump Admin

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a watchdog agency in the federal government that monitors civil rights law enforcement, announced on Friday that it would launch a two-year assessment of the executive branch.

The commission warned that budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration could lead to a “dangerous reduction” in civil rights law enforcement.

“The Commission, by majority vote, expresses concern with the Administration’s proposed budget cuts to and planned staff losses in numerous programs and civil rights offices across the federal government that enforce our nation’s federal civil rights laws,” the commission said in a statement (http://www.usccr.gov/press/2017/06-16-Efficacy-of-Federal-Civil-Rights-Enforcement.pdf).

“Along with changing programmatic priorities, these proposed cuts would result in a dangerous reduction of civil rights enforcement across the country, leaving communities of color, LGBT people, older people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups exposed to greater risk of discrimination.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/us-commission-civil-rights-investigation-trump-administration?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20tpm-news%20%28TPMNews%29

Greater abuse and discrimination is exactly what the Repugs and Christian Bible-humpers want, and they are, and will be, permitting, inciting it.

Repugs didn't send a life-long racist from AL to be AG to protect non-white males.

[boutons_deux]

Christian Taliban supremacist Betsy Devostate doin' God's HATE-FILLED work

'Stunning and Dangerous': DeVos Memo Reveals Plan to Roll Back Civil Rights

In a move decried as "more evidence of backward thinking (https://twitter.com/LeonardGoldberg/status/876029698052149250)" by the Trump administration,

an internal memo from the Department of Education's office for civil rights lays out the agency's plan to

roll back investigations into civil rights violations at public schools and

diminish Obama-era rules requiring "schools and colleges to overhaul policies addressing a number of civil rights concerns,"

"requirements that investigators broaden their inquiries to identify systemic issues and whole classes of victims will be scaled back,"

"Also, regional offices will no longer be required to alert department officials in Washington of all highly sensitive complaints on issues such as the disproportionate disciplining of minority students and the mishandling of sexual assaults on college campuses."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/06/17/stunning-and-dangerous-devos-memo-reveals-plan-roll-back-civil-rights

Racism and sex were, aka social issuer, were apparently more important to Trash's base than economics, so Devos is delivering the hate that Trash's voters want.

[boutons_deux]

The militarized police state/VRWC/oligarchy hires whore Repugs to violate the Constitution in favor of autocracy protecting the oligarchy.

Since Trump's Election, 20 States Have Moved to Criminalize Dissent

"In my dozen years of monitoring state legislation, I've certainly not seen a wave of anti-protest bills this large,"

Republicans in at least 20 states have put forward or passed laws with the intention of making protest more difficult and the punishment for expressing dissent more draconian since President Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

In a move that sparked immediate outrage (https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/06/13/gop-faces-swift-backlash-over-disturbing-press-crackdown-senate), Senate Republicans last week announced new rules making it difficult for reporters to interview lawmakers in the hallways of the Capitol.

the White House barred reporters (http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/19/media/white-house-press-briefing-donald-trump-media/index.html) from making audio or video recordings of the daily press briefing,

"The state will try to devise ways to squash opposition and chill the will of people who are willing to face risks to their liberty to further their cause,"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/06/20/trumps-election-20-states-have-moved-criminalize-dissent

[boutons_deux]

Trump steals from the poor to give to himself—cuts housing aid for tenants, but not landlords (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/21/1673676/-Trump-steals-from-the-poor-to-give-to-himself-cuts-housing-aid-for-tenants-but-not-landlords)

Donald Trump’s proposed budget aggressively reduces programs designed to help the poor find housing, but leaves intact a program that rewards wealthy landlords—including one very special individual (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/trump-seeks-sharp-cuts-to-housing-aid-except-for-program-that-brings-him-millions/2017/06/20/bf1fb2b8-5531-11e7-ba90-f5875b7d1876_story.html?utm_term=.c0214c4abb6a).

One of those landlords is Trump himself, who earns millions of dollars each year as a part-owner of Starrett City, the nation’s largest subsidized housing complex. Trump’s 4 percent stake in the Brooklyn complex earned him at least $5 million between January of last year and April 15, according to his recent financial disclosure.


Trump may like to hang his name on faux luxury goods, but it’s the these apartments for the poor that has been his most dependable source of income.

Trump has already taken home $38 million in government money for Starrett City just since his inauguration.

The property has provided Trump a steady—and massive—income even when his disastrous investments in casinos and gaudy condos has left him filing bankruptcy on company after company. It’s an investment that’s proved to be so good, you can tell that Trump didn’t make it.

Trump once called Starrett City “one of the best investments I ever made,” but it was his father who was an investor in its construction, according to a representative of Starrett City.

“Upon Fred Trump’s death, his four children inherited his interests,” Bob Liff, a spokesman for Starrett City Associates ...


Not only is Donald Trump taking millions from the government, he’s still living on money given to him by his father.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/6/21/1673676/-Trump-steals-from-the-poor-to-give-to-himself-cuts-housing-aid-for-tenants-but-not-landlords?detail=emaildkre

[boutons_deux]

EPA accelerates purge of scientists

Members of the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors were told that they would not see their tenure renewed.

Dozens of Environmental Protection Agency scientists were recently informed that their contracts would not be renewed this August, leaving a key EPA office without important scientific guidance.

According to an email sent to EPA scientists and obtained by the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/20/trump-administration-to-decline-to-renew-dozens-of-scientists-for-key-epa-advisory-board/?utm_term=.085e7450f793), the EPA has decided not to renew the posts of any scientists working for the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC).

The BOSC functions as an advisory board for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, and helps the office make sure that it is using sufficiently rigorous science in its research and development programs.[

“The Board of Scientific Counselors was formed to make sure the EPA does the best possible scientific work with limited taxpayer dollars,” Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.

“This independent advice is needed now more than ever. By sacking dozens of scientific counselors, Pruitt is showing that he doesn’t value scientific input and the benefits it offers the public.”

https://thinkprogress.org/epa-dismisses-more-scientists-pruitt-trump-7530dc37dcf[/COLOR]

You rightwingnut "false equivalence" assholes tell us that Repugs and Dems are identical.

So President Hillary would have put a Pruitt in charge of EPA?

[boutons_deux]

How Trump-Style Policies Will Deepen the “American carnage”

President Trump, in his inaugural address and elsewhere, rightly says that over the decades since 1980 American household distributions of income and wealth became strikingly unequal.

But if recent budget and legislative proposals from Trump and the House of Representatives come into effect, today’s distributional mess would become visibly worse.

How would a Trump program along the lines of his and the House’s proposals affect rich households? The obvious answer is “very favorably.”

Because capital and wealth change slowly over time, some sort of economic growth model is needed to provide numbers. The one we used has four key characteristics.



Medium-term business cycle oscillations are ignored. As opposed to most growth models output is (realistically) determined by aggregate demand, not the available supplies of labor and capital as in mainstream exercises. In line with econometrics, both economic activity and capital growth are assumed to respond positively to a higher profit share.6
Model solutions track toward a “steady state” with all relevant variables growing exponentially at the same rate. Growth trajectories never quite reach this “attractor” or “center of gravitation” but economists pretend that the steady state represents the “long run.”
All profit income is transferred to households by interest and dividend payments and capital gains. (This assumption is counter-factual. Over recent decades, such transfers or capital losses of business exceeded net profits.)
The benchmark or baseline “balanced growth” simulation assumes that real wage growth equals labor productivity growth, which is pegged at 1.4% per year. (Again counter-factual: the benchmark holds the share of wages in income constant, when in fact it fell by around five percentage points after 1980).


We examine how variables shift from balanced growth in various scenarios. Current discussion involves policy changes in a range of one trillion dollars over ten years. With US aggregate demand (household and government consumption of goods and services, investment, and exports) approaching twenty trillion dollars, one hundred billion per year is not going to perturb the system very much. Larger changes have to involve cumulative effects over the years.

Upper range estimates for Trump’s and Congress’s proposed economic interventions include the following three items:



Reduce government spending on current and capital spending by $200 billion per year from a total of $3.2 trillion, decapitating discretionary outlays and boosting defense.
Cut transfers (mostly Medicaid) by $200 billion from a total of $2.5 trillion.
Remove taxes of $500 billion from a total of $700 billion for the top one percent and $200 billion for the middle class.


The impact of the first two moves would be to reduce aggregate demand,

with the effect magnified by the fact that (at least according to available data) lower income households spend more income than they receive.

Even though they have strongly positive saving, more income for the top one percent would boost their consumption.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/06/trump-style-policies-will-deepen-american-carnage.html

[boutons_deux]

Interior Secretary Attempts to Justify Deep Cuts to Native American Education Program

he attempted to defend the Trump administration's call for massive cuts to his own Interior Department, particularly programs for Native Americans.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Mastro (D-Nev.) grilled the Secretary over a proposed 12 percent cut to the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and an additional $23.3 million taken out of social service and welfare programs for Native Americans.

"More money may not produce a better solution," he claimed. :lol of course! :lol

The proposed budget cuts to BIE are in tune with the austerity imposed on the entire Native American community in the Trump Interior budget.

Hundreds of millions of dollars would be reduced from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget. The agency is tasked with managing social services and land protection for nearly two million indigenous Americans across the country.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs alone would shoulder $371 million in reductions.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41021-interior-secretary-attempts-to-justify-deep-cuts-to-native-american-education-program

but more tax cuts for BigCorp and 1% are ALWAYS better :lol

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos To Put $1.3 Trillion Student Aid Office In Hands Of Exec From For-Profit Student Loan Company

The top official at the federal Office of Financial Aid recently resigned (https://consumerist.com/2017/05/25/head-of-1-3-trillion-federal-student-aid-office-resigns-amid-tension-with-betsy-devos/) after butting heads with new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her plan to make sweeping changes to federal student loan programs.

Now DeVos has announced a replacement who is more likely to follow her lead: Dr. A. Wayne Johnson, the CEO of a private, for-profit student loan company.

DeVos announced (https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-education-betsy-devos-announces-intent-appoint-dr-wayne-johnson-chief-operating-officer-federal-student-aid) Tuesday the intent to appoint Dr. Johnson as Chief Operating Officer of the $1.3 trillion Federal Student Aid office.

he doesn’t have experience working in public education. It should be noted that Johnson did receive a PhD in Higher Education Leadership from Mercer University.

“Through its founder’s experience in the unsecured consumer finance industry, Reunion has developed proven and proprietary processes which allow for a fast, smooth and efficient refinancing experience,” the company’s website states.

It’s unclear the terms of the refinancing options offered by the company.

https://consumerist.com/2017/06/21/betsy-devos-to-put-1-3-trillion-student-aid-office-in-hands-of-exec-from-for-profit-student-loan-company/

[boutons_deux]

tribal loyalty replaces meritocracy, political savvy, EVERYTHING

Our new secretary of the Energy is completely addled when it comes to basic climate science (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/21/1673174/-Our-new-secretary-of-the-Energy-is-completely-addled-when-it-comes-to-basic-climate-science)

https://images.dailykos.com/images/381136/story_image/GettyImages-647275936.jpg?1490284453

the secretary of Energy, a position responsible for our nation's nuclear weapons and reactor research, among other duties, would be a person with at least basic competency in the sciences.

Past secretaries have included nuclear physicists, Nobel Prize winners, chemical engineers, and Navy admirals.

The new hire is known primarily for pledging to eliminate the department despite forgetting what it was. His own grasp of the sciences is just baffling (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/06/rick-perry-is-in-charge-of-nuclear-safety-too-bad-he-doesnt-understand-basic-science/).

Energy Secretary Rick Perry told CNBC Monday morning that he doesn’t believe carbon dioxide is primarily responsible for global warming, contradicting the overwhelming scientific consensus on the causes of climate change.When asked by interviewer Joe Kernan whether CO2 is the “primary” driver of changing temperatures, Perry responded,

“No, most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in.” :lol



This is an amazing level of gibberish, but coming from the freakin' secretary of Energy it's ... well, what do you even say? This is one of those declarations that's too stupid to even be wrong.

coming from the oil state of Texas, has decided he'll be denying the effects of burning fossil fuels on our atmosphere until he's dead and buried in the hot Texas ground. The denialism is just plain, market-driven denials.

somewhere talked to him about the ocean's pivotal role in all this and he retained a sliver of it, and is

regurgitating it back here in a scientifically addled game of telephone.

It's the worst possible combination of scientific illiteracy and market-driven disinformation, all rolled up tight and, to our eternal discredit, put in charge of the nation's policies.

Yet again, I mean—

the same ball of stupidity and crookedness is also now running the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and for all we know deciding what to stock in the Pentagon vending machines.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/6/21/1673174/-Our-new-secretary-of-the-Energy-is-completely-addled-when-it-comes-to-basic-climate-science?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

every Repub crapification thread MUST have some KAC in it

Kellyanne Conway: Media and Democrats Have a ‘Russian Concussion’http://www.mediaite.com/tv/kellyanne-conway-media-and-democrats-have-a-russian-concussion/

... and the 36% of American who STILL approve of Trash believe KAC's alternative facts.

[boutons_deux]

U.S. spent $28M on 'forest' uniforms for Afghan army fighting mostly in the desert

https://www.yahoo.com/digest/20170621/spent-28m-forest-uniforms-afghan-army-fighting-mostly-desert-10967844

US military just so SICK OF WINNING (...nothing since 1945)

[boutons_deux]

Trash hires "the best evah people", surrounding himself with trash

FBI Fired Sebastian Gorka for Anti-Muslim Diatribes

Trump confidant Sebastian Gorka was taking money from the FBI—and declaring that the fight against Islamic radicals was ‘a holy war on our side,’ too.

The inflammatory pundit Sebastian Gorka (http://thedailybeast.com/keyword/sebatian-gorka) worked for the FBI (http://thedailybeast.com/keyword/federal-bureau-of-investigation) while he was a paid consultant to Donald Trump (http://thedailybeast.com/keyword/donald-trump)’s 2016 campaign (http://thedailybeast.com/keyword/2016), lecturing bureau employees on counterterrorism issues.

Until the FBI terminated Gorka for his over-the-top Islamophobic rhetoric.

The Daily Beast has learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended its contract with Gorka just months before he joined the White House as a senior adviser to President Trump.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-fired-sebastian-gorka-for-anti-muslim-diatribes

[boutons_deux]

How the Pill Made the American Economy Great


The Missouri Senate just approved a bill (http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article156309839.html) that includes a provision rolling back employment protections in St. Louis for women who use contraception, which was tucked alongside a number of other attacks on reproductive rights.

The legislation would make it perfectly legal for an employer to fire or refuse to hire someone because she uses birth control.

gives bosses the power to dictate private aspects of their employees’ lives.

https://newrepublic.com/article/143446/pill-made-american-economy-great

misogyny, like racism, is a fundamental component of Repugs/Christian Taliban ideology.

[spurraider21]

entire page be like

https://i.gyazo.com/6917142a85c578fb92a2a9af6ae751d2.png

[boutons_deux]

the VRWC oligarchy's coup d'etat unstoppably rolls on

Donald Trump Is In The Perfect Position To Dramatically Remake The Courts

With 100+ judicial vacancies and a Senate eager to fill them, conservatives are salivating

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-judicial-nominees-federalist-society_us_59497166e4b04c5e50256f0c?lq&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__062217&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__062217+CID_854117c8 94ff9103a9bb86e45c90ac33&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__062217

[boutons_deux]

With BigFinance killing the CFPB, we won't be getting many more of these reports about abuse of student debtors.

Consumer Agency Condemns Abuses in Loan Forgiveness Program

Many borrowers “point to a range of student loan industry practices that delay, defer, or deny access to critical consumer protections,”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/business/consumer-agency-condemns-abuses-in-loan-forgiveness-program.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

... esp now that billionaire bimbo Christian supremacist Devos has put a for-profit loan predator to run $1T+ educational loan program

[boutons_deux]

United States rejects U.N. call for access to safe abortions

The United States on Thursday rejected a United Nations resolution on violence against women because it called for access to safe abortion for all women in countries where legal.

The administration of President Donald Trump said last month it was vastly expanding the scope of a policy blocking U.S. assistance to foreign groups that perform or provide information about abortions.

U.S. First Secretary to the U.N. in Geneva Jason Mack said, after a resolution from Canada on eliminating violence against women was adopted by consensus, that the U.S. "must dissociate from the consensus" specifically on access to safe abortions.

"We do not recognize abortion as a method of family planning, nor do we support abortion in our reproductive health assistance," he said in a statement read to the Council.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-women-usa-idUSKBN19D1T1?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FhealthNews+%28Reute rs+Health+News%29

[boutons_deux]

‘Not racist’ member of ‘White Privilege Club’ tries to run over Trumpcare protesters with motorcycle


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Motorcyclist-arrested-at-Trumpcare-protest-Facebook.png

A member of the “White Privilege Club” social media group was arrested for attempting to run over Trumpcare protesters in San Francisco with his motorcycle.

The motorcyclist drove at high speed directly at a group of demonstrators staging a “die-in” Wednesday afternoon to protest the Republican health care reform bill, reported the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Motorcyclist-detained-for-driving-at-protestors-11237466.php).

Some of the protesters were lying down, blocking Seventh Street near Mission Street for about seven minutes, when the man turned the wrong direction down a one-way street and drove directly toward them.

“He was revving and revving, he was gunning it, aiming at people who were laying down,” said witness Tracey Brieger, of Emeryville.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/not-racist-member-of-white-privilege-club-tries-to-run-over-trumpcare-protesters-with-motorcycle/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon

there was no known video of white cops stomping on his head while he was prone and handcuffed :lol

Trash'a America is a septic tank

[boutons_deux]

A surprising number of American adults think chocolate milk comes from brown cows

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-american-adults-chocolate-milk-brown-cows-20170616-story.html#testnws=breakroom&track=_newsletter_break-room___________20170623

and they voted for Trash and the Repugs :lol

[boutons_deux]

Jettisoning 'Best Available Science,' Trump Admin. Tosses Out Federal Protections for Yellowstone's Grizzlies

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/headlines/yellowstone-grizzly-lose-federal-protections.jpg?itok=TwZUqEOx

The "ongoing threats the bears face will now be compounded by trophy hunting and lethal removal by trigger-happy state agencies," says Andrea Santarsiere of the Center for Biological Diversity

Until natural connectivity with the northern grizzly population occurs, scientific studies make clear that a minimum population of closer to 2,000 bears would be needed to maintain long-term genetic diversity."
Another problem with the rule from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says Strong, is that it "dismisses the potential threat of climate change [... ] such as loss of food sources (like whitebark pine seeds) and shifts in denning time leading to increased conflicts with humans."

Under current law, eliminating threatened species protection for the big bear

paves the way for Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to take over responsibility from federal managers outside Yellowstone.

That means fewer restrictions;

states alone will make the call on dealing with nuisance bears—and will probably include a hunting season for grizzlies.

Bears within the boundaries of the national park will remain a federal responsibility and will not be hunted, unless they leave Yellowstone.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/06/23/jettisoning-best-available-science-trump-admin-tosses-out-federal-protections

Wolves also back on the dickless hunters' slaughter list.

[boutons_deux]

The Trump Administration Just Made Their First Move Against Hillary Clinton

But given the way that the Trump administration has been drunkenly stumbling from one disaster to the next without a care for the consequences, one can hardly be surprised that Rex

Tillerson’s State Department has decided this would be a good time to open another investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server. :lol

FOX News has jubilantly announced that a formal inquiry has been opened into whether or not Clinton (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/20/state-department-probes-clinton-handling-government-emails-could-pull-her-security-clearance.html) and her aides mishandled classified information while she was Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 in

an attempt to strip her of her security clearance, as confirmed by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) of the Senate Judiciary Committee. :lol

Grassley’s committee is also conducting its own inquiry. When pressed for comment, Grassley dutifully recited (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/20/state-department-probes-clinton-handling-government-emails-could-pull-her-security-clearance.html)the

holy Republican Litany Of How Hillary Clinton Was Extremely Careless In Her Handling Of Very Sensitive, Highly Classified Information

that we’ve all heard a thousand times before


Let’s recap:



President Trump held a national security meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-turns-mar-a-lago-club-terrace-into-open-air-situation-room/2017/02/13/c5525096-f20d-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc_story.html) while the vulturous patricians of South Florida gawked around him and took selfies with the nuclear football.
President Trump knowingly allowed Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to remain as National Security Advisor and sit in on classified CIA briefings (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/intel-community-had-concerns-about-michael-flynn-but-he-heard-cia-secrets-anyway/) for nearly a month after he was informed that Flynn was in the pay of foreign governments and was vulnerable to blackmail by the Russian Federation.
President Trump revealed the existence of a top-secret informant within the ranks of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) to the Russian ambassador because he was boasting about how he had the “best intelligence,” and then promptly announced in public, in Israel, that Israel was the source of that informant.


http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/21/trump-administration-just-made-first-move-hillary-clinton/

Next up? Repugs launch new investigation into Benghazi! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Dana Perino acknowledged that

part of the reason why the Senate has moved forward with their investigation

is because of a story that the Washington Post broke that the FBI obtained a document that shows communications (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-a-dubious-russian-document-influenced-the-fbis-handling-of-the-clinton-probe/2017/05/24/f375c07c-3a95-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.d306f9f85728) between the Department of Justice and the Clinton campaign.

However, the FBI concluded that the document was unsubstantiated and was possibly fabricated to confuse investigators.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/but-its-so-juicy-jesse-watters-pushes-a-bit-of-fake-news-gets-mocked-by-the-five-co-hosts/

=================

How a dubious Russian document influenced the FBI’s handling of the Clinton probe

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-a-dubious-russian-document-influenced-the-fbis-handling-of-the-clinton-probe/2017/05/24/f375c07c-3a95-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.94b678d26578

:lol Grassley, etc WASTING taxpayer $Ms in an investigation based on a fake document, to deflect from Trash's flaming crash out

Repugs are SUCH KLOWN's, refusing to govern since they want to destroy govt, except the part that pays their salaries for their carerr, free health care, and generous pensions.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Killed A UN Resolution To Protect Women In War Zones

the Trump administration wants to make it even worse, by rejecting a Canadian proposal for a UN resolution that was designed to prevent violence against women and ensure that they have “comprehensive sexual and health-care services” because of the greater risk in conflict zones.

According to an article in the British newspaper The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-violence-against-women-abortion-un-resolution-rejection-trump-a7803466.html), the reason for this inexplicable repudiation of what most civilized nations would automatically accept as a “no-brainer” is that fact that the language of the resolution included a clause that ensured access to safe abortions.

In other words, the Trump administration’s policy is to coerce women who become pregnant after being forcibly raped by a violent attacker in a war zone to carry their unwanted fetus, a painful and shameful reminder of the trauma they endured, to full term.
According to the Independent:

the US is rejecting a Canadian proposal to the 47-member

because the Trump administration

does “not recognise abortion as a method of family planning,

nor do we support abortion in our reproductive health assistance”.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/24/trump-just-killed-un-resolution-protect-women-war-zones/ (http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/24/trump-just-killed-un-resolution-protect-women-war-zones/)

[boutons_deux]

Marijuana News Roundup: Fed Threat Causes Bank to Close Pot Group’s Accounts

PNC Bank will close the bank accounts of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) on July 7, citing the risk of the bank faces from the hard-line U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has adopted for enforcing federal drug laws as they apply to cannabis.

http://247wallst.com/consumer-products/2017/06/25/marijuana-news-roundup-fed-threat-causes-bank-to-close-pot-groups-accounts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29

[boutons_deux]

a born-wealthy orthodox Jew with no political experience didn't gel with Abbas? shocking!

Jared Kushner’s meeting with Mahmoud Abbas went so badly that Trump is reportedly considering pulling out of talks
London-based Arabic daily

Al-Hayat reported Saturday that the meeting between Kushner and Abbas had been “tense.” Abbas was allegedly furious when Kushner relayed a set of demands from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"They sounded like Netanyahu's advisers and not like fair arbiters," a senior Palestinian official told the publication. "They started presenting Netanyahu's issues and then we asked to hear from them clear stances regarding the core issues of the conflict."

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/jared-kushners-meeting-with-mahmoud-abbas-went-so-badly-that-trump-is-reportedly-considering-pulling-out-of-talks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Ron Johnson: People with preexisting condition don’t deserve insurance like ‘somebody who crashes their car’

The Wisconsin Republican pointed to Obamacare rules that forbid insurance companies from charging more for people with preexisting conditions.

“We know why those premiums doubled,” he opined. “We’ve done something with our health care system that you would never think about doing, for example, with auto insurance, where you would require auto insurance companies to sell a policy to somebody after they crash their car.”

“States that have… guarantees for preexisting conditions, it crashes their markets,” he continued. “It causes the markets to collapse. It causes premiums to skyrocket.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/ron-johnson-people-with-preexisting-condition-dont-deserve-insurance-like-somebody-who-crashes-their-car/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

... y'all's garden-variety Repug sociopath and LIAR, from Kockistan, of course.

[boutons_deux]

Trump just ended a long tradition of celebrating Ramadan at the White House

In the early days of December 1805, a handful of prominent politicians received formal invitations to join President Thomas Jefferson for a White House dinner.

Such entreaties were not uncommon: Jefferson frequently hosted lawmakers for political working dinners at the White House, almost always commencing them about 3:30 in the afternoon, shortly after the House or Senate had adjourned for the day.
But this gathering, scheduled for Dec. 9, would be slightly different.

"dinner will be on the table precisely at sun-set - " the invitations read. "The favour of an answer is asked."

The occasion was the presence of a Tunisian envoy to the United States, Sidi Soliman Mellimelli, who had arrived in the country just the week before, in the midst of America's ongoing conflict with what were then known as the Barbary States.

And the reason for the dinner's later-than-usual start was Mellimelli's observance of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims in which observers fast between dawn and dusk. Only after sunset do Muslims break their fast with a meal, referred to as an iftar.

For the first time in nearly two decades, Ramadan has come and gone without the White House recognizing it with an iftar or Eid celebration, as had taken place each year under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.

In recent weeks, several former White House staff members told The Post they would usually begin planning an iftar "months in advance" and didn't anticipate the Trump White House could pull something off before the end of Ramadan.

In late May, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly said the State Department would break with recent tradition and not host a Ramadan reception, as it had done nearly annually for two decades.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Trump-just-ended-a-long-tradition-of-celebrating-11244746.php

Massively PVL so-called Pres Trash, of all Americans.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Withdraws Funding From Anti-Hate Group

The Trump administration has slashed funding for a group devoted to tackling radical white extremists.

The Department for Homeland Security (DHS) announced Friday that $400,000 in federal funding was being withdrawn from Chicago-based Life After Hate, one of the few U.S. groups dedicated to combating white nationalism.

The group was awarded the grant in the closing days of the Obama administration.

The new list of grant recipients doesn't include a single organization dedicated to fighting far-right extremism but several that are focused on countering Islamic extremism.

Reuters reported in February that administration officials were debating changing the name of the “Countering Violent Extremism” program to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism.”

http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-withdraws-funding-anti-hate-group/

white male misogynist supremacy winning protection from You People's Repug party of hate, paranoia, misogyny, xenophobia.

[boutons_deux]

White House Pushes Military Might Over Humanitarian Aid in Africa

Pentagon officials are themselves concerned that shifting to a military-heavy presence in Africa

will hurt American interests in the long term by failing to stimulate development.

An absence of schools and jobs, they say, creates more openings for militant groups.

“We have statements out of Washington about significant reductions in foreign aid,” Gen. Griffin Phiri, the commander of the Malawi Defense Forces, said in an interview during the African Land Forces Summit, a conference of 126 American Army officers and service members and their counterparts from 40 African nations.

“What I can tell you is that experience has shown us that diplomacy and security must come together.”

the United States will spend more money on military affairs in Africa but reduce humanitarian and development assistance across the continent.

The Trump budget proposes cutting aid to Africa to $5.2 billion in the 2018 fiscal year from $8 billion now,

a stark drop. Even some of the money still in the Trump proposal would shift to security areas from humanitarian and development,

“We are radically narrowing the definition of why and how Africa matters to U.S. national interests,”

Gone are the days, he said, when human rights, development, economic growth and humanitarian relief dominated the American agenda on the continent

The Trump administration has proposed slashing programs that buy antiretroviral drugs for people who are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, by at least $1.1 billion — nearly a fifth of their current funding.

Researchers say the cuts could lead to the deaths of at least one million people in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Over all, Mr. Trump’s budget submission would reduce State Department funding by roughly a third and cut foreign assistance by about 29 percent.

Rex Tillerson, reinforced the view on the continent that the Trump administration puts a low priority on diplomacy when in April he backed out of a planned meeting with the chairman of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the last minute. The aborted meeting, first reported by Foreign Policy magazine (http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/25/rex-tillerson-spurns-africa-in-botched-meeting-with-african-union-chief-moussa-faki-diplomacy-africa-affairs-trump-administration-state-department-understaffed/), left the chairman fuming.

two big think tanks, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United States Institute of Peace, are facing the complete elimination of federal funding for their Africa programs under Mr. Trump’s proposed budget.

And yet over at the Pentagon, it is a different story.

The American military leaders are among the first to sound alarms about the proposed cuts in humanitarian funding, worrying that the reductions could put in place conditions that lead to more conflict, which might then mean more military intervention.

Military leaders today echo Mr. Mattis’s sentiment.
“We recognize the limits of military power, and how important it is to leverage all elements and capabilities that our interagency and nongovernmental organizations bring to bear in Africa and around the world,”

“How do we operate in an environment when we are willing to send peacekeepers,” asked Alexander M. Laskaris, a State Department official with Africa Command, “but we’re not willing to take the steps necessary to make peace?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Awesome, Trash, just awesome.

white nationalist/racist Repugs don't give a fuck about American blacks, and give a hell of a lot les fuck about blacks anywhere.

Gotta cut spending on blacks and shift $Bs to the oligarchy, MIC and its investors.

[spurraider21]

entire page be like

https://i.gyazo.com/6917142a85c578fb92a2a9af6ae751d2.png

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Moved To Sell Off Our National Parks To The Highest Bidder

the President is cutting the budget for public lands where the poor and middle class have been able to vacation for generations.
Trump’s Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has announced plans (https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/week-21-corporate-takeover-our-national-parks?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=socialmedia) for “public-private partnerships” as the administration proposes cutting $1.5 billion (about 13 percent) of the department’s budget, even though there is a nearly $12 billion backlog of maintenance, construction, and repair work needed to keep the parks operating for the common good.

“Public-private partnership, says the non-profit National Resources Defense Council, is “code for privatizing the management of our national park system. The idea is both unpopular (huge majorities of Americans in virtually every demographic oppose privatization) and unwise (our national parks are a public good and therefore should be publicly managed).”




(https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke)Secretary Ryan Zinke (https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke)
(https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke)✔@SecretaryZinke (https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke)

330M visitors in parks last year. Will increase. Need to look outside parks to improve connecting trails & other #PublicLands (https://twitter.com/hashtag/PublicLands?src=hash) infrastructure
10:21 AM - 20 Jun 2017 (https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke/status/877184588078092289)





If you are a billionaire like almost all the members of Trump’s cabinet, having national parks available at a low cost isn’t important. You can fly around the world and stay in lavish circumstances, enjoy vast swaths of natural resources and live behind a gate that only admits your pals.

For the rest of us, the parks are a place where true democracy is practiced. It is where anyone who can get there can enjoy the great outdoors just as their ancestors did, at least they can once they get past the traffic jams and problems caused by park understaffing which keeps visitors fuming in long lines.


“Secretary Zinke is throwing hardworking park rangers under the bus,” says Chris Saeger, executive director fo
the Western Values Project, (http://westernvaluesproject.org/zinke-announces-plan-to-privatize-camping-in-parks/)

” while advocating for a budget that cuts essential funding and allows special interests to drill and mine public lands with virtually no accountability.”


Bringing in outside private vendors has been tried before and the only thing it assures is that the costs for visitors will rise.

“Some public lands advocates are concerned that privatization would drive up costs for visitors,” reports The Guardian, (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/25/us-national-parks-privatized-trump-administration) “and put the egalitarian nature of visiting a park out of reach for some.”

“If Donald Trump is actually interested in helping our parks,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club,

“he should stop trying to slash their budgets to historically low levels.

America’s parks and the people and economies they support need real funding, not a giant fake check.”


No president in the past had ever revoked a national monument designation.

Trump began doing exactly that in early June when Zinke announced (https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/bears-ears-falls-victim-trumps-attack-monuments?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=socialmedia)he had completed an “expedited review,” and that he would shrink the land for the Bears Ears Monument, and reevaluate its management.

“This strikes at a core American value – our commitment to set aside special places that preserve our heritage, enrich our lives and honor the people who forged our history,” says Rhea Suh, President of the NRDC, adding: “It sends a chilling signal about the Trump administration’s intent to hand over irreplaceable American landscapes to mining and fossil fuel interests. And this is just the beginning of the Trump administration’s assault.”


Now Trump and Zinke want to move forward privatizing the parks, which means selling the rights to run the roads, hotels, restaurants, concessions and more to private interests who would be free to raise prices.

“I don’t want to be in the business of running campgrounds,” Zinke said earlier this month at a meeting of the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association in Washington.

The park service has privatized services before. In the 1980s and 1990s it bid out services and, according to John Garder of the National Parks Conservation Association, learned that

“you can’t privatize services significantly without having to raise the cost of visitation.”

A provision in some of those contracts guaranteed that concessionaires would recoup their investment ahead of the end of the contract period.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/26/trump-just-moved-sell-off-national-parks-highest-bidder/

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Betrayed Thousands Of Immigrant Veterans Who Fought For America

Since 2009 the U.S. Army has had a program that gave foreign-born recruits an expedited path to being an American citizen in return for their service.

These troops have often filled important positions as interpreters, medical experts or foreign liaisons for American troops worldwide – jobs which few of the American recruits are capable of handling.

Now the Trump administration the military are discussing a

plan to cancel the enlistment contracts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/26/the-pentagon-promised-citizenship-to-immigrants-who-served-now-it-might-help-deport-them/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.5d1e5e99490c) for over a thousand new recruits and do enhanced security checks on about 4,100 others, many of whom are already naturalized American citizens, which could lead to their dismissal.


Another 10,000 are now being treated as security threats for things like having a foreign-born relative, which is not a surprise since they are foreign born.

This report comes from an “action memo” obtained by the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/06/26/the-pentagon-promised-citizenship-to-immigrants-who-served-now-it-might-help-deport-them/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.5d1e5e99490c) that was prepared for Trump’s Defense Secretary Jim Mattis by personnel and intelligence officials at the Pentagon.

At least a thousand who have signed contracts and made commitments have been left waiting for the call to attend basic training.

During that period the visas of some of those recruits have expired, making them technically illegal aliens.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/27/trump-just-betrayed-thousands-immigrant-veterans-fought-america/

[boutons_deux]

how the corporate oligarchy dictates to Repugs' corrupt politicians

EPA chief met with Dow CEO before deciding on pesticide ban

The Trump administration's top environmental official met privately with the chief executive of Dow Chemical shortly before reversing his agency's push to ban a widely used pesticide after health studies showed it can harm children's brains, according to records obtained by The Associated Press (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22The+Associated+Press%22).

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Scott+Pruitt%22)'s schedule shows he met with Dow CEO (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Dow+CEO%22) Andrew Liveris (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Andrew+Liveris%22) on March 9 for about a half hour at a Houston hotel (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Houston+hotel%22). Both men were featured speakers at an energy industry conference.

Twenty days later Pruitt announced his decision to deny a petition to ban Dow's chlorpyrifos pesticide from being sprayed on food, despite a review by his agency's scientists that concluded

ingesting even minuscule amounts of the chemical can interfere with the brain development of fetuses and infants.

Dow, which spent more than $13.6 million on lobbying in 2016, has long wielded substantial political power in the nation's capital.
When President Donald Trump (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Donald+Trump%22) signed an executive order in February mandating the creation of task forces at federal agencies to roll back government regulations, he handed the pen to Dow's chief executive, who was standing at his side.


The American Academy of Pediatrics (http://m.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news%2Fpolitics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22American+Academy+of+Pediatrics%22) urged Pruitt on Tuesday to take chlorpyrifos off the market. The group representing more than

66,000 pediatricians and pediatric surgeons said it is "deeply alarmed" by Pruitt's decision to allow the pesticide's continued use.

"There is a wealth of science demonstrating the detrimental effects of chlorpyrifos exposure to developing fetuses, infants, children, and pregnant women," the academy said in a letter to Pruitt.

"The risk to infant and children's health and development is unambiguous."

http://m.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/EPA-chief-met-with-Dow-CEO-before-deciding-on-11250533.php

For BigCorp and their Repug whores, profits ALWAYS before people, esp Trash's "beautiful babies"

[boutons_deux]

EPA and Army Corps seek to rescind clean water rule


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Scott-Pruitt-1-1-800x430.jpg


Thhe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers released a proposal on Tuesday to repeal the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the latest move by the Trump administration to unwind environmental regulations put in place by the previous administration.

The agencies are working to rescind the rule, known as the Waters of the United States rule and re-codify the regulation in place before 2015.

“We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/epa-and-army-corps-seek-to-rescind-clean-water-rule/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

crapification, indeed.

btw, the Gulf of MX dead zone craeted by a ag and BigCorp chemical sewer, aka the Mississippi river, is predicted to be twice as big this summer as last year.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s EPA Just Declared War On Clean Drinking Water

When Pruitt was still the Attorney General in Oklahoma, he joined in a lawsuit with a few others states including Alabama, to repeal the rule.

Trump during his campaign called it a “disaster,” and signed an executive order early in his term urging the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to dismantle it.

Yesterday, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, after talking to the only stakeholder that matters to him, Trump, announced a 42-page plan to undo the Clean Water Rules. His report does not address any of the scientific reasons for the rule.

“It would strip out needed protections for the streams that feed drinking water sources for one in every three Americans,” said Suh. “Clean water is too important for that. We’ll stand up to this reckless attack on our waters and our health.”


https://twitter.com/KieranSuckling/status/879785564685213700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwashingtonjournal.com%2F2017% 2F06%2F28%2Ftrumps-epa-just-declared-war-clean-drinking-water%2F

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/28/trumps-epa-just-declared-war-clean-drinking-water/

[boutons_deux]

After ugly White House briefing, the time is now for press to push back against Trump

During Tuesday’s briefing, Sanders took a question from a reporter for the right-wing Breitbart News platform about a CNN report on a member of Trump’s transition team and his alleged links to the ongoing Russian investigations, which the network had to retract. Three staffers resigned for their role in the report, which was based on just one anonymous source.
Sanders didn’t waste any time using the set-up to bash CNN.

“I think it's the constant barrage of fake news directed at this president that has garnered a lot of his frustration,” she said. “You point to that report. There are multiple other instances where

that outlet that you referenced has been repeatedly wrong and has had to point that out or be corrected.” :lol

She then went on to encourage “everyone” to view a video by propagandist James O'Keefe, maker of the infamous undercover video taken at the Baltimore offices of the community organizing group ACORN, that attacks CNN.

“There’s a video circulating now, whether it’s accurate or not, I don’t know, but I would encourage everyone in this room and frankly everybody across the country to take a look at it,” Sanders said.

“If it is accurate, I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism. I think that we have gone to a place where if the media can’t be trusted to report the news, then that’s a dangerous place for America.”

I don’t know if it’s accurate, but go look at it?

And somehow she gets from there to a “disgrace to all media” and” dangerous place for America” in a sentence?

And this is the person standing at the podium in the White House?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bs-fe-zontv-trump-war-cnn-20170627-story.html#testnws=politicsnow&track=_newsletter_politics-now___________20170629

Reich Minister Huckabee, you Goebbels wannabe, try this different subject

( "subject" is part of a sentence, aka grammar, you could look it up):

Don The Con Trash "...has been repeatedly wrong and has had to point that out or be corrected.”

[boutons_deux]

Tillerson has only himself to blame

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/06/27/National-Security/Images/China_Human_Trafficking_07000-09647-0759.jpg&w=1484


The normally laconic Texan unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to senior State Department posts and for questioning his judgment.

“Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting.” (Well, someone leaked about him complaining about leaking so yes, the White House, which is supposed to reject anonymous sources, is using one or more to bloody its secretary of state.) “Above all, he made clear that he did not want DeStefano’s office to ‘have any role in staffing’ and ‘expressed frustration that anybody would know better’ than he about who should work in his department — particularly after the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires, according to a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation.”

First, Tillerson must have known exactly what he was getting into when he signed up with a dilettante president who hired relatives and cronies. Surely he knew President Trump operates out of resentment and spite. He can hardly be surprised that Trump is acting like Trump and Trump’s minions are acting as advertised.

Second, Tillerson set the pattern of subservience by allowing the White House to veto as his deputy someone with superb qualifications and bipartisan support, Elliott Abrams. Once you roll over on that post, you’ve given the White House leverage.

Third, Tillerson has been excruciatingly slow in conducting his internal reorganization. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/06/15/tillerson-unites-ds-and-rs-they-all-ridicule-his-testimony/?utm_term=.a269ce448cf3) he wouldn’t get around to filling many slots until next year. Both Democrats and Republicans were aghast.

Fourth, Tillerson took a job for which he was not remotely qualified and which demanded skills he never developed as chief executive of an oil company. His role now includes public diplomacy, but he shuns the press.

Former State Department employees tell a similar story after visits to Foggy Bottom.

“State is being quickly gutted. Offices closing; Sr. and mid-level career experts fleeing or being axed,” tweeted Max Bergmann (https://twitter.com/maxbergmann/status/879892499665494016).

“Tillerson is now (https://twitter.com/maxbergmann/status/879893302379720704) clearly one of worst Sec States in American history. Few have done more to weaken America.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/06/29/tillerson-has-only-himself-to-blame/?utm_term=.94782f1c4102&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

[boutons_deux]

6 Things Betsy DeVos Has Done on Higher Ed

Education Secretary’s Higher Education Report Card at the 2017 Midpoint

1. Encouraged ‘too big to fail’ in student loan servicing

Number potentially affected (https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/data-center/student/portfolio): 32 million borrowers owing $963.5 billion

On April 12, the Trump administration withdrew Obama-era policy (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/12/devos-withdraws-consumer-protections-servicing-contract-process) guidance that incorporated borrower-focused protections and customer service guarantees (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/news/2016/12/13/294876/serving-students-first-federal-student-loan-servicers-face-higher-standards/) into a competition to select new companies that will service all federally held student loans. The revised competition (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/news/2017/06/01/433465/changes-servicing-contract-leave-students-behind/) announced in mid-May included some particularly troubling changes. First, the department announced that it would select just one company to serve as the primary servicer for all 32 million borrowers who have a student loan held by the federal government. Second, the department eliminated requirements for the servicer to provide more proactive assistance


2. Proposed cutting $143 billion from federal student loans

Number potentially affected: At least 6 million borrowers (https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/justifications/q-sloverview.pdf) a year and $143 billion (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/msar.pdf) in cuts over 10 years

The president’s budget request released in May (https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/index.html) had a clear message to student borrowers: Go kick rocks. Over 10 years, Trump’s budget proposes to cut a stunning $143 billion in various benefits to millions of student loan borrowers. This includes taking $39 billion (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/msar.pdf) from students by ending subsidized Stafford Loans for new borrowers. Every year, this program provides interest-free loans to 6 million borrowers with financial need while they are in school.
It also cuts another $76 billion by creating one plan for new borrowers to pay their loans based on their income. It would require borrowers to pay a larger share of their income each month than most plans available today.

3. Proposed raiding the Pell Grant surplus and reducing grant aid

Number potentially affected (https://www2.ed.gov/finaid/prof/resources/data/databook2016/databook2016.html): At least 1.6 million students and $5 billion in one year
In addition to the student loan changes, the Trump budget request also suggests cutting billions from grant programs. The largest is a $3.9 billion hit to the rainy day fund for the Pell Grant program, which had been built up over time (http://hechingerreport.org/opinion-dont-let-good-news-summer-pell-grants-distract-trump-budgets-damaging-higher-ed-proposals/) by earlier cuts to the student aid programs. Although this move does not immediately reduce the nation’s largest grant for college, it puts it on shakier ground for the long term. Beyond that, the budget also seeks to eliminate the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/justifications/o-sfa.pdf), which annually provides $732 million in additional assistance to 1.5 million students with need.

4. Began dismantling 2 consumer protection regulations

Number potentially affected: At least 64,000 students and an estimated $2.5 billion (https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2016/bd-unofficialfinalregs-102716.pdf)in pending borrower defense claims plus 360,000 (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/reports/2017/06/08/433531/gainful-employment-reduces-governments-loan-forgiveness-costs/) students and several billion dollars for gainful employment (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/reports/2017/06/08/433531/gainful-employment-reduces-governments-loan-forgiveness-costs/)

On June 14, the Department of Education announced plans to pause and rewrite regulations around two major consumer protection regulations. The borrower defense rule (https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-final-regulations-protect-students-and-taxpayers-predatory-institutions) provides a process for defrauded borrowers to get loan forgiveness; creates conditions for holding schools financially accountable when problems arise; bans the use of mandatory arbitration provisions that prevent students from taking their schools to court; and provides a longer time frame for students to get discharges when their school closes, among other things. The rule was supposed to take effect on July 1 but is now indefinitely paused (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/15/education-department-hit-pause-two-primary-obama-regulations-aimed-profits).
The attempt to redo the borrower defense regulation comes amid stories (https://apnews.com/c57f0c42e39243f184ed52ef22a5e7b5) that the department has approved no new requests for forgiveness through this provision since the Trump administration took office.

5. Restored onerous collection fees

Number potentially affected: Some small subset of the 4.2 million borrowers (https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/data-center/student/portfolio) in default on $65.6 billion in debt from the bank-based loan system

Restoring large collection costs on some defaulted borrowers was one of the first things (https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/trump-reverses-obama-era-protections-on-student-debt/520059/)DeVos did on higher education. This change applies to borrowers with certain types of older debt who immediately attempt to resolve a default.

6. Implemented year-round Pell Grants

Number potentially affected (https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget18/justifications/n-sao.pdf): 900,000 students and $1.5 billion

Despite the troubling actions cited above, Congress’ decision to restore funding for year-round Pell Grants is the most positive higher education development this year.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/06/28/trump-just-took-twitter-justify-stealing-healthcare-millions-poor-americans/

Devos is whore to BigFinance and a Bible-humping Christian supremacist

[boutons_deux]

The most alarmist pessimists were right about Neil Gorsuch


Gorsuch is disrespectful of precedent and eager to move the law very far, very fast. His agenda is both well-thought out and extraordinarily conservative.

When the Court splits into its old factions, with Justice Clarence Thomas staking out a position that no other member of the Court will sign onto, Gorsuch embraces Thomas’ view.


Echoing religious conservatives who sought the right to deny birth control coverage to their employees, Gorsuch wrote as a lower court judge in the original Hobby Lobby litigation that

“all of us face the problem of complicity,” and “all of us must answer for ourselves whether and to what degree we are willing to be involved in the wrongdoing of others.”


Gorsuch revealed himself as a hardline conservative on marriage equality and called for a broad expansion of Hobby Lobby. And he did so on the very same morning that the Court announced that it would decide whether religion is a license to discriminate.


So when Gorsuch defended Arkansas’s law by pointing to allegedly “rational reasons” for it to exist, he suggested that discrimination based on sexual orientation isn’t something the courts should worry themselves about.


Gorsuch disagreed, pointing to the state’s arguments “that rational reasons exist for a biology based birth registration regime.” Never mind, of course, that Arkansas did not have a “biology based birth registration regime,”


The conservative jurist’s use of the word “rational” here is also highly significant, as it offers a window into how Gorsuch views discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation generally. The lowest level of scrutiny the Court applies in constitutional discrimination cases?—?the level it typically applies to allegations it views as dubious?—?is known as “rational basis,” and it provides that the government is free to do whatever it wants so long as it can articulate a rational reason for doing so.


Gorusch mostly joined this opinion, but he also wrote a separate opinion calling for the Court to hand a much greater victory to the religious right.

Robert’s opinion, Gorsuch wrote, “leaves open the possibility a useful distinction might be drawn between laws that discriminate on the basis of religious status and religious use.”


As Gorsuch puts it, “I don’t see why it should matter whether we describe” a government benefit “as closed to Lutherans (status) or closed to people who do Lutheran things (use).”


Roberts’ opinion in Trinity Lutheran leaves open the possibility that religious belief will not be construed as a license to discriminate.

Gorsuch’s opinion, by contrast, strongly indicates that he intends to back the anti-LGBTQ business at the heart of Masterpiece Cakeshop.




In an impossibly boring case involving an obscure statute,

Gorsuch went to war with most of his colleagues, with established precedents, and even with one of the Court’s most conservative members.


Judges simply don’t behave this way. Or, at least, normal judges don’t behave this way. When there are no grand principles at stake and existing precedents clearly point in one direction, judges typically follow the path that’s already been blazed for them. Often, certainty in the law matters even more than the question of what the law is.


But not for Gorsuch. For him, even the most arcane case is an opportunity to tear down everything that came before him.


The question in Perry was what should happen in certain “mixed” cases where an employee alleges both a violation of the CSRA and a violation of anti-discrimination law.

The pain of not knowing the answer to this question must be killing you, I know. So allow me to end the suspense.

Seven justices, in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, concluded that the case goes to a federal district court. Gorsuch, joined by Justice Thomas, disagreed.




What’s interesting is that, despite Alito’s entirely justified frustration with the ungainly statute at issue in Perry, there was exactly one lawyer who was absolutely certain what the law says: Neil Gorsuch.


At oral arguments, Gorsuch repeatedly asked an advocate arguing on behalf of the government to disregard a 2012 opinion establishing that “mixed” cases typically go to a district court and not to the Federal Circuit, demanding that the lawyer justify that result under the statute. He repeatedly suggested that the “plain language” of the law — again, a law whose language Alito compared to an exercise in sadism — mandated just one result. And he insisted that past precedents must be cast aside to implement this result.


And, when confronted with the fact that the Court reached an entirely different conclusion in a very similar case five years ago, Gorsuch simply waves that case off. Uncertainty be damned! Precedent be damned! The warnings and frustrations of conservative stalwarts like Justice Alito be damned!

Neil Gorsuch thinks that he knows the one correct answer, and no one will tell him to reconsider.


If he’s willing to take that approach to a tortuous statute in a case with very little at stake, just imagine what he’ll do when he encounters a case he actually cares about.

Just imagine what he’ll do to marriage equality.


https://thinkprogress.org/gorsuch-supreme-court-christian-right-e7acb6f9427d


yet another oligarchy/Christian Taliban on SCOTUS, and yes, yet another fucking Catholic

[boutons_deux]

Repug/Price/Verma fucking it all up, keeping SECRETS behind the LIE of "data is inaccurate"

Medicare Halts Release Of Much-Anticipated Data
These so-called Medicare Advantage plans now enroll more than a third of the 58 million beneficiaries in the Medicare program, a share that grows by the month.But little is known about the care delivered to these people, from how many services they get to which doctors treat them to whether taxpayer money is being well-spent or misused.

The government has collected data on patients’ diagnoses and the services they receive since 2012 and began using it last year to help calculate payments to private insurers, which run the Medicare Advantage plans. But it has never made that data public.

Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been validating the accuracy of the data and, in recent months, were preparing to release it to researchers.

Medicare already shares data on the 38 million patients in the traditional Medicare program, which the government runs.

(ProPublica has created a tool called Treatment Tracker (https://projects.propublica.org/treatment/) that enables people to compare how doctors and others use services in the traditional Medicare program.)

The grand unveiling of the new data was scheduled to take place at the annual research meeting of AcademyHealth, a festival of health wonkery, which just concluded in New Orleans.

But at the last minute, the session was canceled.

The change caught researchers — and even some former Medicare officials — off guard as the data’s release was a highly anticipated expansion of the government’s effort to share information.

In a statement, CMS said there were enough questions about the data’s accuracy that it should not be released for research use. CMS said it will examine the data for 2015 “to determine if it is robust enough to support research use.”

Niall Brennan, until January the chief data officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, worked on the data — known as encounter data — during his time in office. “Hugely disappointing,” he tweeted, with a photo of the sign announcing the session’s cancellation.

“Hope CMS not backsliding on #opendata.”icare Halts Release Of Much-Anticipated Data


http://www.nationalmemo.com/medicare-halts-release-much-anticipated-data/

Repugs don't do #opendata, esp not data that might show BigInsurance is stealing taxpayer $Bs through Medicare.

[boutons_deux]

Repug misogyny news

Trump Administration Considering Shutting Down WH Council on Women and Girls

President Donald Trump’s administration is considering shuttering the White House Council on Women and Girls, established by the Obama administration, according to Politico. (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/30/donald-trump-white-house-council-for-women-and-girls-239979)

The council has reportedly been “defunct” under a new Trump administration, which is mulling whether to keep it in place.
Set up by former President Barack Obama in 2009, the council worked “to monitor the impact of policy changes and liaise with women’s groups,” per Politico.

Obama’s council was created three months into his first term, as a replica of Clinton’s, “which helped the Democratic administration maintain open lines of communication with women’s groups but was much-hated by conservative groups.”

As Politico notes, “veterans of Obama’s White House say

the existence of a robust office supporting women and girls sends a strong message about the president’s priorities — and that the lack of such an office does as well.”

http://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-administration-considering-shutting-down-wh-council-on-women-and-girls/

the Repug/Christian Taliban "message": fuck off, the feminazis

[boutons_deux]

Repug voter suppression "UnPresidented"

Trump Names Voter ID Pusher Hans Von Spakovsky To Bogus Voter Fraud Panel


https://dawm7kda6y2v0.cloudfront.net/uploads/2016/02/x1yswixbselp5lcn7szz-654x362-8f04e13.jpg

President Trump is appointing Heritage Foundation scholar :lol and Hans Von Spakovsky to the sketchy new presidential “elections integrity” commission,

Von Spakovsky served in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department during an era when the agency came under fire for politicizing voting rights issues.

Von Spakovsky approved Georgia’s voter ID law, over the objections of career DOJ employees.

Since leaving the federal government, he has continued to be an advocate for restrictive voting laws and has fanned the unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud.

He will be a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which is being led by

Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is also a prominent pusher of voter restrictions.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hans-von-spakovsky-trump-elections-commission?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20tpm-news%20%28TPMNews%29

Repugs rigging elections by voter suppression, gerrymandering, fraudulent vote counts, and refusing to upgrade vulnerable, hackable, riggable voting machines

[boutons_deux]

Calling Total Bullshit on Allowing Guns in Schools

Bring your gun to school – courtesy of the Pennsylvania Senate


The Pennsylvania state Senate voted 28-22 today to allow school employees like me to start packing heat. (http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/mc-nws-pennsylvania-senate-school-workers-guns-20170628-story.html)
Hooray!

My class sizes will be larger because of almost $1 billion in budget cuts the legislature couldn’t be bothered to heal over the last seven years (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/paying-back-school-kids-on-the-installment-plan-pa-budget-shenanigans/).

I’ll have to teach more sections because my district is bleeding money from charter school vampires that the legislature couldn’t be bothered to regulate. (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/report-charter-school-vampires-drain-traditional-pa-districts-dry/)
But now I can be fully armed.

Priorities.
Bullets over books, I guess.

As a more than 15 year veteran of the public school system, I can’t wait to get back in the classroom wondering which of my fellow teachers, principals, custodians or rent-a-cop security guards is fully locked and loaded (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/allowing-guns-in-schools-is-a-bad-idea/). I can’t wait until my elementary school daughter is finally protected by being in an adult’s daily line of fire.

This is going to make us much safer.

At my school, we fired a security guard for slamming a student’s head into the table.

I’m sure having these folks armed will have no negative effects at all. (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/the-worst-sort-of-violence-against-children/)

And the extra stress (https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/life-or-death-professional-development/) from added responsibilities being piled on my back will just make me more vigilant in case I need to take out my piece in class and chase away Black Bart with my Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model… uh… rifle.

This is what happens when you have a Republican-controlled legislature and a Democratic Governor. The kids say they want nothing but candy for dinner and Dad says “No.”

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/29/calling-total-bullshit-allowing-guns-schools

[boutons_deux]

California's top elections officer to Trump's voting fraud panel: No

President Trump's voter fraud commission will not be getting the names and addresses of California's registered voters. The panel's request was denied on Thursday by Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who said it would only "legitimize" false claims of massive election cheating last fall.

Padilla refused to hand over data, including the names, addresses, political party and voting history of California's 19.4 million voters.

Kris Kobach (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-kobach-profile-20160922-snap-story.html), the secretary of state of Kansas who serves as vice chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-voter-fraud-20170511-story.html), sent letters to all 50 states on Wednesday for information he said would help the group examine rules that either "enhance or undermine the American people’s confidence in the integrity of federal elections processes."

"I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally," he said in a written statement.

"California's participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach."

Kobach's request says the panel seeks only "publicly available" information. Basic information about California voters is routinely shared with journalists, political campaigns and researchers after a written request and payment of a fee.

The letter asks for data including "information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information."

Kobach to help lead Trump's commission, accusing the Kansas official of past efforts at racial profiling and suppressing voter turnout (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-arizona-voting-20170503-story.html).

"His role as vice chair is proof that the ultimate goal of the commission is to enact policies that will result in the disenfranchisement of American citizens,"

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-california-s-top-elections-officer-1498771356-htmlstory.html

names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/340117-trump-election-integrity-commission-requests-years-of-voter-data-from

[boutons_deux]

Trump says he is sending federal help to quell Chicago violence

Donald J. Trump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)✔@realDonaldTrump (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump)

Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!

5:48 AM - 30 Jun 2017 (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880739852286918656)

Trump’s tweet comes after authorities confirmed to The Chicago-Sun Times reported (http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/trumps-feds-arrive-in-chicago-to-fight-gun-crime/) that Trump had sent 20 agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to the city.

Twenty new ATF agents have joined a force of 35 to 40 agents who were already in the city, according to the report.

The agents are collaborating with the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police on a strike force that will work to track down gun traffickers and solve shootings in the city with the help of ballistics technology.Chicago police said Superintendent Eddie Johnson first met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions (http://thehill.com/people/jeff-sessions) in March to discuss the strike force.

Trump tweeted shortly after taking office in January that if city of Chicago did not fix the “carnage,” he would send in federal forces.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/340201-trump-says-he-is-sending-federal-help-to-quell-chicago-violence

20 more Feds? :lol

[boutons_deux]

Gun Sales Are Plummeting and Trump Wants to Help

The NRA’s new playbook includes guns for kids and open carry in every state.

 a triumphant Donald Trump owes the NRA bigly: The organization spent (https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/the-nra-placed-big-bets-on-the-2016-election-and-won-almost-all-of-them/) over $30 million to get him elected, making it one of the biggest pro-Trump groups.

And the payoff is coming. In his NRA speech, Trump announced “news that you’ve been waiting for a long time: The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.”

Over the years, the NRA has steadily transformed itself from a calm advocate for hunters and sportsmen to a primal outlet for hard-right paranoia, and it’s long been treated carefully by Republican presidents.

Though Ronald Reagan made a point of addressing the national convention, former president George H.W. Bush quit the NRA after the Oklahoma City bombing, when the group was seen as too close to the right-wing militia culture that produced Timothy McVeigh, and George W. Bush never showed up at the annual meeting as president.

When candidate Trump

talked about immigrants from Mexico who might be rapists and drug runners,

railed against sanctuary cities,

brought the mothers of people killed by undocumented immigrants onto the stage at the Republican National Convention, and

spoke in ominous tones about crime overtaking American cities,

he seemed a natural part of the movement that LaPierre has been building for decades.

And Trump received the earliest presidential endorsement in the NRA’s history.

LaPierre understands the gun-rights movement as a culture war first and a battle over gun laws second.

Before Trump spoke at the annual meeting, LaPierre declared:

“It’s up to us to speak up against the three most dangerous voices in America:

academic elites,

political elites, and

media elites.

These are America’s greatest domestic threats.”

The gun industry has been experiencing a dramatic decline in sales—which have declined 10 percent in the six months since Trump was elected compared with the same period last year—

The NRA also has a “family” branding arm that

promotes guns to children on its website, including in “the six- to 12-year-old range.”

 The US Army Corps of Engineers, which controls nearly 12 million acres of public land nationwide, has banned almost anyone from carrying loaded weapons or ammunition on this land since the 1970s. But there’s a case in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging that prohibition, and the Corps signaled in March that it would be dropping its challenge.

Ryan Zinke canceled a ban on the use of lead ammunition by hunters on federal lands, which environmentalists worried would damage their ecosystems. Zinke also directed any agency managing federal land to identify areas where hunting could be expanded.

Neil Gorsuch, who enjoyed a million-dollar ad blitz from the NRA when the Senate was considering his nomination.

NRA. Its top priority now is to get Congress to pass—and President Trump to sign—concealed-carry reciprocity legislation, which would require every state to recognize a concealed-carry permit issued by any other state.


https://www.thenation.com/article/gun-sales-are-plummeting-and-trump-wants-to-help/

anything you crappy gun fellators and NRA do CRAPIFIES America

[boutons_deux]

Top 5 Things Trump Is Currently Doing That Are Worse Than Insulting Mika Brzezinski

1. Trump and the GOP Congress are coming for Medicaid.

2. Trump has literally taken away the right to clean water (https://www.ecowatch.com/wotus-epa-clean-water-act-2449664043.html). He is fine if it is full of mercury (a nerve poison released by burning coal) and lead (which causes permanent damage to IQ and attention span in children).

3. Not to mention that he is trying to roll back limitations on toxic carbon dioxide emissions, which because it is a greenhouse gas, are poisoning our planet.

4. Trump would like to kill America’s scientific and technological advantages (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/trumps-tight-science-budget-will-hurt-tech-business-start-ups/) in the world by slashing funding for science and science research, reducing us to a fourth-world country.

5. Trump has deeply endangered U.S. national security by making us a laughingstock (https://www.juancole.com/2017/06/matters-thinks-laughingstock.html) and reducing by orders of magnitude the likelihood that any other powers will partner with us in world affairs.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/top_5_things_trump_is_doing_to_us_worse_than_insul ting_mika_20170630

the Morning Joe blackmail and insults are nothing, silly distractions, compared to what the Repugs are doing, which will continue under a Pres Pence.

[boutons_deux]

Energy efficiency, renewables spending to be cut in half under House budget proposal

Republican appropriations bill would eliminate ARPA-E, as proposed by Trump.

slash funding for renewable and efficiency programs and completely eliminate the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

The DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) would see its funding fall by about half under the House budget plan, from $2.1 billion to $1.1 billion.

EERE’s mission is to help support the development of clean, renewable, and efficiency energy technologies and support a global clean energy economy.

https://thinkprogress.org/house-committee-proposes-deep-energy-spending-cuts-f84a1485320e

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s budget expected to massively slash research on renewable energy – and NREL’s budgetResearch for “clean coal” also in the sights

[boutons_deux]

Scott Pruitt wants to hijack the peer-review process to push bad climate science

The EPA wants to “critique” climate science.


EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is undertaking a formal initiative to evaluate climate science,

It’s possible that the EPA might use the initiative to begin

building a case for rescinding the agency’s endangerment finding,

which found in 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health.

That finding provides the basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, and

has long been a primary target for industry and conservative lawmakers.

“They’re looking to use taxpayer funds to run a pro-fossil fuel industry disinformation campaign aimed at confusing the public and policymakers over what is potentially the greatest threat we face as a civilization,”

https://thinkprogress.org/scott-pruitt-climate-science-performance-54c018bb09b5

Pruitt will queer and gut any science that conflicts with Repug/BigCarbon politics, which is just like CIA's Casey and Gates compromising, fitting the nat sec data to fit Reagan's politics.

[boutons_deux]

Canada Tops Country Reputation Rankings; US Finishes 38th


http://247wallst.com/economy/2017/06/30/canada-tops-country-reputation-rankings-us-finishes-38th/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall +St.%29

[boutons_deux]

EPA scientist says she was pressured into changing testimony

Emails reveal that scientist Deborah Swackhamer was asked to toe the agency line before her Congressional testimony

One of the Environmental Protection Agency’s top outside scientific advisers says a high-ranking political official tried to interfere with her congressional testimony.

Internal EPA emails reveal that chief of staff Ryan Jackson told Deborah Swackhamer, chairwoman of the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors, that he needed to contact her “as soon as possible to get a copy of her testimony and discuss her question period before the Science Committee,”

“The right to communicate with Congress is guaranteed,” they added.

“Attempting to interfere with or obstruct the testimony of any individual to the U.S. Congress is a matter that should be taken extremely seriously and we trust that you will conduct a thorough investigation of the matter.”

http://www.salon.com/2017/07/05/epa-scientist-says-she-was-pressured-into-changing-testimony/

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy is continuing, consolidating its NON-VIOLENT COUP d'ETAT through its ground troups/hit men/brown-shirts of the Repugs

Trump’s Justice Department Just Made Its Scariest Demand From States Yet

the Department of Justice issued a letter to 44 different states last week demanding that they detail their “compliance with a section of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).”

The section details voter registration and crucially, the mechanisms for the purging of voter rolls.

Vanita Gupta, Pres. Obama’s former director of civil rights at the Department of Justice sees (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/department-of-justice-voter-purge_us_595d22b1e4b0da2c7326c38b?ncid=engmodushpm g00000003)serious reason to worry. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/department-of-justice-voter-purge_us_595d22b1e4b0da2c7326c38b?ncid=engmodushpm g00000003)

“These two letters, sent on the same day, are highly suspect, and seem to confirm that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork to suppress the right to vote.

It is not normal for the Department of Justice to ask for voting data from all states covered by the National Voter Registration Act. It’s likely that this is instead the beginning of an effort to force unwarranted voter purges.”


It certainly looks suspicious. The 44 states were told to provide relevant information on

how they kick people off voter lists,

who organizes the purging of voter rolls, and

the data from recent years on voter removal.

That, in turn, would allow the so-called Justice Department the information it needs for a widespread voter disenfranchisement crusade to tip purple districts red and solidify the Republican Party’s stranglehold on our political system, with

the ultimate goal of turning the United States into a one-party oligarchy.

Recent efforts to purge voter rolls, like this recently issued form from Georgia, would also seem to indicate that

the Trump administration is actively exploring ways to kick poor Americans and people of color off voting rolls and help cement their supermajority in Congress.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/05/trumps-justice-department-just-made-scariest-demand-states-yet/

[boutons_deux]

Jimmy Ricky crapifying :lol

Rick Perry tries to make the economic case for coal, screws up the economics part

Experts agree coal is not coming back, but Perry repeated the claim nonetheless.

Taylor Kuykendall
✔@taykuy (https://twitter.com/taykuy)

DOE Rick Perry at coal plant:"Here’s a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow."
11:24 AM - 6 Jul 2017 (https://twitter.com/taykuy/status/882998814549921793)


Given a generous reading,

Perry is referring here to Say’s law, also known as the law of markets, which has been rephrased as “supply creates its own demand.”

In fact, the classical economic theory could be more accurately rephrased as “the total demand of an economy will meet the amount of supply,” although Keynes and the Depression called Say’s law into rather dramatic question.

The rule does not apply to individual products, such as coal (or horses and buggies, or typewriters).

But Longview is an odd place to tout economic theory:

The plant, which went online in 2011,

went bankrupt in 2013. :lol

At the time (https://www.wsj.com/articles/longview-power-coal-supplier-file-for-bankruptcy-1377886078), the Wall Street Journal blamed low natural gas prices for the plant’s economic woes.

As a merchant plant, Longview sells electricity on the open market and is susceptible to price fluctuations as demand moves to lower-cost option

https://thinkprogress.org/coal-plant-tour-perry-847ca06cb6bb

Does spending your entire life in TX govt make make you stupid, ignorant,

or

are stupidity, ignorance prerequisites for TX govt employment?

[boutons_deux]

Jimmy Ricky doesn't even realize he was slaugtered by a much smarter man

Sen. Franken eviscerates Trump’s ‘red-team’ plan to undermine climate science

The Kochs already funded a red team — and it found ‘global warming is real’ and ‘essentially all’ due to humans.


On Friday, it came out that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is launching (https://thinkprogress.org/scott-pruitt-climate-science-performance-54c018bb09b5) a “red team, blue team” exercise to evaluate U.S. climate science. The “red team” would write a critique (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2017/07/03/the-energy-202-what-would-be-the-point-of-pruitt-s-red-team-blue-team-climate-exercise/5959a234e9b69b7071abca32/?utm_term=.451798d58bc3) of the overwhelming scientific consensus, the “blue team” would rebut that critique, and so on.

But, as Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) patiently tried to explain to Energy Secretary Rick Perry in a recent budget hearing (https://thinkprogress.org/al-franken-vs-rick-perry-climate-science-69fbc39619d4), this back-and-forth critiquing is exactly what scientists do every day. Furthermore, the petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers — the country’s top funders of climate disinformation — set up a red team of skeptics years ago, and they found that not only is global warming real, it is “essentially all” due to humans.

Franken’s knockout punch is pointing out the Koch brothers already helped set up a “red team” of skeptics a few years ago to take a new look at all of the historical data (https://thinkprogress.org/hot-dog-bites-skeptical-man-koch-funded-berkeley-temperature-study-does-confirm-the-reality-of-853f6a6202bd) on global surface temperatures. He then quoted what the head of that team, Dr. Richard Muller, wrote in a New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/the-conversion-of-a-climate-change-skeptic.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all) op-ed, “The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic.”

Muller wrote they found “global warming was real,” “prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct,” and “it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.”

Perry responds incredulously, sputtering “I don’t believe that” and “I don’t buy it.” :lol

And when Franken repeated himself, saying “that was someone hired by the Koch brothers,” Perry lost his cool entirely, saying,

“everybody has hired somebody that’s gotten something wrong from time to time. :lol

To stand up and say that 100 percent of global warming is because of human activity is because of human activity, I think on its face, is just indefensible.” :lol

https://thinkprogress.org/red-team-science-1223fa62885b

Ignorant, stupid, uneducated Bible-humping Texas assholes and the ignorant, stupid, uneducated Bible-humping asshole politicians they elect, over and over and over again. :lol

[boutons_deux]

When we have life-long knitter-hatin Repug as AG, this is what you get

Trump’s Justice Department Just Greenlit America’s Worst Voter Suppression Law

Although three federal judges have struck down a Texas voter identification law clearly intended to be discriminate against minorities and suppress voting by Latinos, people of color and the elderly, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions today said the federal government is dropping all objections (https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2017/07/06/justice-department-texas-voter-law-fixed)to the controversial law.

In a legal brief filed with the U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi, Texas – which is considering the Texas legislators’ fourth revamp of the 2011 law – the Justice Department writes that

the newest version remedies all “discriminatory effects” :lol

and should be allowed to take effect without any further penalties or delay.

The Texas law which limits the number of official, usable forms of ID before someone votes

was strongly opposed by the Obama administration – but it is no surprise the Trump administration is in favor of it.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/07/trumps-justice-department-just-greenlit-americas-worst-voter-suppression-law/

You can bet safely that other slave/red states will inevitably model their voter suppression laws on TX's shitshow.

America is fucked and unfuckable.

[boutons_deux]

Along with LePage in ME, here's a sheriff (probably a govt-hating treasonous Oath Keeper) in Repug OH saying his priority is saving the lives of his deputies at the cost of citizens.

Ohio Sheriff Says His Officers Won’t Carry Narcan

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/ohio-sheriff-says-his-overdosing-ohioans-my-guys-have-no-n780666

I can't find any reports of OD victims, once revived, becoming violent. If that were the case, nobody would be carrying Narcan.

Of course, any good deputy sheriff would shoot 'em dead anyway with impunity because of the magic, 5-word incantation "I feared for my life"

But no worries, Trash and the Repugs have the opioid crisis ravaging their self-defeating white base at the highest priority.

=================

One politician’s solution to the overdose problem: Let addicts die

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/28/a-council-members-solution-to-his-ohio-towns-overdose-problem-let-addicts-die/?utm_term=.a1de0efdaf18

[boutons_deux]

Our federal government, now under the thumb of America's worst bosses (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/8/1677575/-Our-federal-government-now-under-the-thumb-of-America-s-worst-bosses)

Across the federal government, Americans who have dedicated themselves to public service now find their entire careers are dependent on America's new worst bosses (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cabinet-secretaries-tough-task-lack-of-funding-support-for-agency-missions/2017/07/02/d17279ee-4ad9-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.bbfeadda5225).

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has invited staffers to his grand office overlooking the Mall to imbibe IPA beer from his home state of Montana and has trumpeted a new policy of allowing employees’ dogs to roam the department’s hallways on selected days.
But as soon as government rules allowed, he reassigned dozens of Senior Executive Service career staff members without consultation or notice, relocating some to other parts of the country.

The good news:

You can bring your dog to work.

The bad news:

You're now working for a department you've never worked for,

on issues you've never worked with,

in a state you've maybe never been to,

for a boss who legally can't fire you but can do almost anything else he can think of to destroy both your will to live and the carefully built-up competence of your old department.

But hey, have fun with the dog.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/7/8/1677575/-Our-federal-government-now-under-the-thumb-of-America-s-worst-bosses?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

[boutons_deux]

Irrefutable proof that Reppugs hate govt, and refuse to govern, insulting every govt employee

Survey of career State Department employees shows frustrated, confused agency (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/6/1678420/-Survey-of-career-State-Department-employees-shows-frustrated-confused-agency)

America’s diplomats are struggling to figure out what mission the Trump administration expects them to carry out, and they see the importance of their jobs waning as President Donald Trump seeks drastic cuts to the budgets of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. [...]

In addition to grave unease about the future, many of the 35,000 employees who responded to the survey complained about management culture, working conditions, uncertain performance goals and technological shortcomings that pre-date the Trump administration.

“No one we interviewed said that the working environment at USAID or DOS enabled them to be successful;” the report’s authors said, using an acronym for the Department of State.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/7/6/1678420/-Survey-of-career-State-Department-employees-shows-frustrated-confused-agency?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Corrupt, bad faith Oligarchy/Repugs fucking America into unfuckability.

[Thread]

Irrefutable proof that Reppugs hate govt, and refuse to govern, insulting every govt employee

Survey of career State Department employees shows frustrated, confused agency (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/6/1678420/-Survey-of-career-State-Department-employees-shows-frustrated-confused-agency)

America’s diplomats are struggling to figure out what mission the Trump administration expects them to carry out, and they see the importance of their jobs waning as President Donald Trump seeks drastic cuts to the budgets of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. [...]

In addition to grave unease about the future, many of the 35,000 employees who responded to the survey complained about management culture, working conditions, uncertain performance goals and technological shortcomings that pre-date the Trump administration.

“No one we interviewed said that the working environment at USAID or DOS enabled them to be successful;” the report’s authors said, using an acronym for the Department of State.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/7/6/1678420/-Survey-of-career-State-Department-employees-shows-frustrated-confused-agency?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29

Corrupt, bad faith Oligarchy/Repugs fucking America into unfuckability.




Yet, they wouldn't quit for money, marbles, nor chalk. Let 'em crawl like the motherfuckers they are for that check every two weeks.

Crawl, motherfuckers, crawl.

He mopped the fuckin' floor with her fuckin' ass.

Big shot was gonna go back in there, gonna take Bill and the O's with her. No. No fuckin' way. Any of ya's ain't goin' back in there. No. No. No more big shots.

[boutons_deux]

TRUMP’S NEW CDC CHIEF CHAMPIONED PARTNERSHIP WITH COCA-COLA TO SOLVE CHILDHOOD OBESITY (https://theintercept.com/2017/07/08/trumps-new-cdc-chief-championed-partnership-with-coca-cola-to-solve-childhood-obesity/)

THE NEW CHIEF of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors significant public health concerns, including the impact of sugary beverages on obesity and heart disease, will be led by Brenda Fitzgerald, a Georgia physician whose signature childhood obesity project was underwritten by Coca-Cola.

During her tenure as Georgia’s public health watchdog, in a state that has one of the highest obesity rates in the nation, Fitzgerald and Gov. Nathan Deal launched SHAPE, a statewide effort to address childhood obesity through “physical activity before class, physical activity during class, and more structured recess.”

More exercise, of course, is a good thing, but the Georgia SHAPE program notably eschewed another well-known step toward healthier living: curbing sugary beverage consumption.

Georgia, on the other hand, proposed the largest exemption to new federal rules curbing the sale of junk food in public schools.
Coca-Cola, along with PepsiCo and other sugar industry interests, has worked obsessively to defeat attempts to regulate sugary beverages.

Sugar industry interests, including Coca-Cola, have spent at least $67 million (https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2016/09/23/soda-industry-spent-67-million-fighting-sugar-taxes-and-health-labels-since-2009) on campaign efforts to defeat sugar taxes and related labeling ballot measures.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/08/trumps-new-cdc-chief-championed-partnership-with-coca-cola-to-solve-childhood-obesity/

:lol Coca-Cola, anti-obesity warrior! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Steve "cantaloupe calves" King, from fucking Iowa, again

A Republican Congressman Just Proposed A Disgusting Way To Pay For Trump’s Wall

Republican Representative Steve King has proposed a disgusting way to provide additional funding for the wall: $5 billion in cuts to Planned Parenthood and food stamp programs.

Apparently, King isn’t pleased with the wall just harming immigrants, he wants it to negatively affect women and the poor as well.

“I would find half of a billion dollars of that right out of Planned Parenthood’s budget. And the rest of it could come out of food stamps and the entitlements that are being spread out for people that haven’t worked in three generations,”

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/12/republican-congressman-just-proposed-disgusting-way-pay-trumps-wall/


===================

New Americans in Iowa

The Political and Economic Power of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in the Hawkeye State

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/new-americans-iowa

[boutons_deux]

Plan for US tax increase on Mnuchin not being considered: Mnuchin

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/10/plan-for-us-tax-increase-on-rich-not-being-considered-mnuchin.html

[boutons_deux]

racist, hater Sessions is the US Atty General only for straight white males and Christian supremacist haters

Sessions Talks to Anti-LGBTQ Group Behind Closed Doors

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday spoke at a private conference hosted by the conservative legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF),

ADF is representing a Colorado baker who was sued after refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, in a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this fall.

“How can we trust that the nation’s top law enforcement officer will protect all Americans when he’s willing to meet behind closed doors with a group that supports criminalizing homosexuality and marginalizing LGBT people around the world?”

https://rewire.news/article/2017/07/12/sessions-talks-anti-lgbtq-group-behind-closed-doors/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

[boutons_deux]

Betsy DeVos Set To Meet With Suspected Rapists To Discuss Loosening Campus Sex Assault Rules

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is now infamous for her ultraconservative agenda, particularly when it comes to anything that threatens the patriarchal dominance of white Christian males in American society – and she’s intent on using the department she bought with her political contributions to enforce that dominance any way she can.

To that end, Betsy DeVos is meeting with rape apology “men’s right’s groups” on the issue of the campus sexual assault epidemic

DeVos will be meeting (http://www.thedailybeast.com/betsy-devos-to-meet-with-accused-rapists) with accused rapists (http://www.thedailybeast.com/betsy-devos-to-meet-with-accused-rapists) who claim to have been falsely accused,

like Jonathon Andrews of “Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE)” who claims he was accused of assault as punishment for speaking out about his own assault, and

Joseph Roberts, who lobbies Congress to put a stop to the “witch hunt” of sexual assault in the military.


The group is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as

“lobbying to roll back services for victims of domestic abuse and penalties for their tormentors, while working to return the focus to the ‘true victims of abuse’ — the falsely accused.”

SAVE told the Daily Beast they had been sending “materials” to DeVos’s office since the election but couldn’t “recall” who called the meeting.

But a quick look at their website reveals a deeply disturbing agenda – muddying the waters with articles like

“10 Myths About Campus Rape,” (http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/ten-myths/) and creating an environment that allows sex assaults to go unpunished and unreported.

They will find a sympathetic ear in Candice E. Jackson, a DeVos appointee and a top civil rights official in the Education Department,who once said that: (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/us/politics/campus-rape-betsy-devos-title-iv-education-trump-candice-jackson.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&mtrref=t.co&mtrref=t.co)

In most investigations, she said, there’s “not even an accusation that these accused students overrode the will of a young woman.

Rather, the accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of

‘we were both drunk,’

‘we broke up, and

six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because

she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.”


Such disparaging comments are astounding to hear from a victim of sexual assault herself and is a terrifying glimpse into how the
DeVos DoE will be dealing with campus rape.

DeVos will also meet with “the National Coalition for Men (NCFM)” and “Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE),” two groups with similar objectives to SAVE but a

more openly pro men’s “rights” approach to discrediting accusers and over-hyping the despicable but infrequent false accusation phenomenon.

Campus rape researcher and activist Jaclyn Friedman condemned the meeting, stating unequivocally that

“they actively publicize the names of rape survivors in order to intimidate them and others into shutting up and taking it.”

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/12/betsy-devos-set-meet-suspected-rapists-discuss-loosening-campus-sex-assault-rules/

Ditzy Devos, an upstanding, Christ-loving white male supremacist.

yep, the standard Repug/rightwing hate media/Repug-hate-caucus position that raped women are lying sluts

[boutons_deux]

Trash surrounded by quality people recommended by a billionaire

Twitter Just Had A Field Day With Kellyanne Conway’s Bizarre Use of Props To Defend Trump


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEoJfldXYAAMoYB.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DElq6j3XcAAApHf.jpg

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/13/twitter-just-field-day-kellyanne-conways-bizarre-use-props-defend-trump/

There's LOTS more ridicule of this ridiculous lady. "People Are Amazing!"

[boutons_deux]

How long before TSA, Chris, Chucho run with this turd of a football

Far-right media are now accusing Obama of spying on John Roberts

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/07/13/Far-right-media-are-now-accusing-Obama-of-spying-on-John-Roberts/217252?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MediaMattersForAmerica-CountyFair+%28Media+Matters+for+America+-+Blog%29

[boutons_deux]

TheCorruption will be UnPresidented

HOW DO THIS STATE'S LAWMAKERS EARN THEIR MONEY? NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS

“There’s not a huge problem in Idaho — I don’t think there is,” Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke reportedly told lawmakers considering ethics reform (http://www.ozy.com/2016/could-donald-j-trump-make-campaign-finance-great-again/71757) two years ago.

“I know most of you well, I know your hearts.” :lol

While Bedke may know them, the public has no way to, because financial reporting isn’t required.

Only state lawmakers in Idaho and Michigan don’t have to report how they earn their keep, after Vermont passed a law in mid-June that requires public reports for incomes of more than $5,000. Such disclosures are seen as important checks against legislators, fans of transparent (http://www.ozy.com/wildcard/point-taken-should-salaries-be-transparent/69467)government say.

Idaho has no ethics commission to oversee potential corruption,

nor a cooling-off period that keeps public officials from becoming lobbyists soon after leaving office.

The result is a system with little oversight, which earned a D– rating from the Center for Public Integrity in its 2015 investigative report.

To be clear, there’s “no deep history of corruption” in Idaho, writes Betsy Russell, president of Idahoans for Openness in Government,

:lol "faith-based ethical beliefs, don't need no disclosure" :lol

study groups can go nowhere fast, as Idaho politicos found when a

“faith healing” committee :lol conducted a series of open town halls, then failed to give so much as a recommendation. :lol

Nationally, some states are actually pushing ahead on ethics reform; and this year, lawmakers in 26 states proposed a law compelling presidential candidates to release their federal tax returns, after Donald Trump notably refused to during the 2016 presidential election.

http://www.ozy.com/politics-and-power/how-do-this-states-lawmakers-earn-their-money-none-of-your-damn-business/79476?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07132017&variable=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031

[boutons_deux]

Trump Has Secretive Teams to Roll Back Regulations, Led by Hires With Deep Industry Ties


President Trump entered office pledging to cut red tape, and within weeks, he ordered his administration to assemble teams to aggressively scale back government regulations.

But the effort — a signature theme in Trump’s populist campaign for the White House — is being conducted in large part out of public view and often by political appointees with deep industry ties and potential conflicts.

Most government agencies have declined to disclose information about their deregulation teams.

But ProPublica and The New York Times identified 71 appointees, including 28 with potential conflicts, through interviews, public records and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Some

appointees are reviewing rules their previous employers sought to weaken or kill, and

at least two may be positioned to profit if certain regulations are undone.

The appointees include

lawyers who have represented businesses in cases against government regulators,

staff members of political dark money groups,

employees of industry-funded organizations opposed to environmental rules and at least

three people who were registered to lobby the agencies they now work for.

At the Education Department alone,

two members of the deregulation team were most recently employed by pro-charter advocacy groups or operators, and

one appointee was an executive handling regulatory issues at a for-profit college operator.

So far, the process has been scattershot. Some agencies have been soliciting public feedback, while others

refuse even to disclose who is in charge of the review. In many cases, responses to public records requests have been denied, delayed or severely redacted.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-teams-rolling-back-regulations-led-by-hires-with-deep-industry-ties#nws=mcnewsletter

Trash and his hitman Bannon destroying govt just as the swamp-monster oligarchy wants.

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration secretly cuts $213 million in funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/14/1680726/-Trump-administration-secretly-cuts-213-million-in-funding-for-teen-pregnancy-prevention-programs)

the Trump administration has zero plans to support programs that help teens make healthy choices and not get pregnant.

It’s already clear that Trump and his Republican buddies are doing everything humanly possible to deny access to abortions and contraception to women around the country—and in Texas, this has caused the abortion rate among teens to increase (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/12/1680000/-Republicans-defunded-Planned-Parenthood-in-Texas-and-abortions-rose-among-teens-Who-s-surprised).

But now, in sinking to a new and despicable low, they’ve gone and cut $213.6 million from teen pregnancy (https://www.revealnews.org/article/trump-administration-suddenly-pulls-plug-on-teen-pregnancy-programs/) prevention programs and research.

The Trump administration has quietly axed $213.6 million in teen pregnancy prevention programs and research at more than 80 institutions around the country, including Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University.

The decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ( Tom Fucking Price ) will end five-year grants awarded by the Obama administration that were designed to find scientifically valid ways to help teenagers make healthy decisions that avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Among the programs that lost their funding (https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/grant-programs/teen-pregnancy-prevention-program-tpp/current-grantees/index.html):

the Choctaw Nation’s efforts to combat teen pregnancy in Oklahoma,

Johns Hopkins’ work with adolescent Apaches in Arizona,

the University of Texas’ guidance for youth in foster care,

the Chicago Department of Public Health’s counseling and testing for sexually transmitted infections and

the University of Southern California’s workshops for teaching parents how to talk to middle school kids about delaying sexual activity.


Some grant holders were unaware that their final two years of funding was eliminated until they were contacted by Reveal this week. They had thought the letters were a routine authorization of 2017-18 funds and hadn’t noticed the line saying it was the final year of funding.

They cut access to programs which provided

sex education,

family values education, and

contraception to teenagers—

none of which provided abortion counseling.

The teen pregnancy rate has gone down nationwide but is still relatively high among teenagers in disadvantaged and minority communities. This will only ensure that the rate of unwanted teen pregnancies and abortions will skyrocket.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/14/1680726/-Trump-administration-secretly-cuts-213-million-in-funding-for-teen-pregnancy-prevention-programs

[boutons_deux]

The White House Just Publicized The Personal Information Of Trump Critics

Now, the commission has rolled out what may be its dirtiest trick to date. In the last 24 hours, it published 112 pages of comments people had posted, mostly in opposition to what the commission was doing.


https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/739167604514934784/as9mVLOb_normal.jpgChris Lu (https://twitter.com/ChrisLu44)

(https://twitter.com/ChrisLu44) ✔@ChrisLu44 (https://twitter.com/ChrisLu44)

Trump WH just released public comments submitted to voter fraud commission

without redacting

email addresses,

home addresses &

phone numbers

https://twitter.com/annalecta/status/885750679905722368 … (https://t.co/bJvJB0xc4n)




(https://twitter.com/davidbadash)
Many of the comments have been made public with the names, email addresses and even home addresses and phone numbers unredacted – making them visible to any Internet troll – and there are many – who don’t like what they are saying, or who supports Trump’s efforts to control who votes in the future.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/14/white-house-just-publicized-personal-information-trump-critics/

message: don't even think of speaking against the Repug autocrats, or they will fuck you.

However, the oligarchy's "money-is-speech" BigDonors to Repugs remain dark, secret.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Is Trying To Use A UN Climate Change Fund To Pay For Coal Plants

President Trump is trying to pervert the purpose of a United Nation’s fund created to help countries being hit hard by climate change to promote the construction of “clean” coal-fired power plants around the world – that would then have to import American coal.

He is also pushing for more countries to adopt natural gas, which the U.S. currently has a glut of, and thanks to new technology can export in a liquid form all over the world.



Trump wants to use American muscle to get his way with the Green Climate Fund, which was created as a tool to win support from smaller countries to join the Paris agreement on climate change.

At the time President Obama pledged $3 billion and paid in the first $1 billion.

Trump now says America will never pay the other $2 billion,

but the money Obama paid in buys a seat on the 24 member panel that chooses grants for at least a year.

Trump will use the year to push his agenda for coal and natural gas over renewable forms of energy like solar, wind and hydroelectric.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/14/trump-trying-use-un-climate-change-fund-pay-coal-plants/

[Thread]

Trump Is Trying To Use A UN Climate Change Fund To Pay For Coal Plants

President Trump is trying to pervert the purpose of a United Nation’s fund created to help countries being hit hard by climate change to promote the construction of “clean” coal-fired power plants around the world – that would then have to import American coal.

He is also pushing for more countries to adopt natural gas, which the U.S. currently has a glut of, and thanks to new technology can export in a liquid form all over the world.



Trump wants to use American muscle to get his way with the Green Climate Fund, which was created as a tool to win support from smaller countries to join the Paris agreement on climate change.

At the time President Obama pledged $3 billion and paid in the first $1 billion.

Trump now says America will never pay the other $2 billion,

but the money Obama paid in buys a seat on the 24 member panel that chooses grants for at least a year.

Trump will use the year to push his agenda for coal and natural gas over renewable forms of energy like solar, wind and hydroelectric.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/14/trump-trying-use-un-climate-change-fund-pay-coal-plants/

Outstanding!!!

[boutons_deux]

Get Ready for a Smoggier, Dirtier, Less Healthy America—Thanks to Trump's Foolhardy Evisceration of the EPA

Because of Trump's proposed 2018 budget, the agency led by climate denier Scott Pruitt will soon be unable to protect the air, land or human health.

The Environmental Protection Agency has long been considered one of the world’s leading environmental and human health research organizations.

But it is being

financially undermined and having its workforce decimated

by the Trump administration as it changes the priorities and role science plays.

remove scientists from the Science Advisory Board

indicates a move to

'stack the deck' with industry-inclined experts who deny climate change.

This administration has not only released many of the expert scientists, but has

also proposed slashing funding for the Board by up to 84 percent.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/get-ready-smoggier-dirtier-less-healthy-america-thanks-trumps-foolhardy-evisceration-epa

This what all y'all ignorant bubbas voted for, right?

[boutons_deux]

Kushner provides 'textbook example of cronyism' as he slips his startup into White House roundtable (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/14/1680672/-Kushner-provides-textbook-example-of-cronyism-as-he-slips-his-startup-into-White-House-roundtable)

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel, OpenGov. One of these things is not like the others. In fact, one of these things is about 4,000 times smaller than the others. But they all had front row seats at the White House tech roundtable.

How did a start up like OpenGov end up shoving aside companies much, much larger? They have a special friend. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/startup-that-got-a-seat-at-white-house-roundtable-is-part-owned-by-kushner-family-1500045800)

Mr. Kushner’s brother, through a venture-capital firm, is a part owner of OpenGov, according to government disclosures and data from Dow Jones VentureSource.

Until earlier this year, Mr. Kushner owned stakes in the venture-capital firm that he sold to his brother, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr. Kushner’s connection to OpenGov isn’t widely known.


The crony capitalism on display in literally giving his company a seat at the big table, while larger companies were shut out, might seem fairly minor.

But, as the name OpenGov suggests, there’s more at play here than just letting a friend bump elbows with tech giants.

Scoring a seat at the summit was a milestone for OpenGov, a Redwood City, Calif. company that aims to make government data more user-friendly and has sought business with the federal government, according to its website.

OpenGov’s clients are mostly state and local governments—such as Converse County, Wyo. and California Polytechnic State University—looking to upgrade their technology.


OpenGov sells their services to governments, including agencies of the federal government.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/14/1680672/-Kushner-provides-textbook-example-of-cronyism-as-he-slips-his-startup-into-White-House-roundtable

[boutons_deux]

THE ADVICE TRAP (https://theintercept.com/2017/07/16/financial-advisers-want-to-rip-off-small-investors-trump-wants-to-help-them-do-it/)

Financial Advisers Want to Rip Off Small Investors. Trump Wants to Help Them Do It. (https://theintercept.com/2017/07/16/financial-advisers-want-to-rip-off-small-investors-trump-wants-to-help-them-do-it/)

The new rule, issued by the Department of Labor, sets in motion a seemingly commonsense requirement that those who advise on retirement investments must put their clients’ interests ahead of their own.

consumer advocates and the financial industry that sunk millions of dollars into white shoe lobbying firms, industry-sponsored studies, congressional campaign contributions, and major lawsuits in an effort to block the rule.

In a study of 81 non-traded REITs published in 2015, McCann, the former SEC economist, found that

REIT investors over the past 25 years would have earned as much or more by investing in U.S. Treasury securities.

More than half their underperformance, he found, resulted from the upfront fees charged to investors, which largely went to brokers.

“The entire industry is built around practices that would be a crystal clear violation of a fiduciary duty,”

said Wingate’s lawyer, Stoltmann. “There is no faster way to clean up the securities industry than imposing a mandatory fiduciary rule.”

“Consumers and investors do not read disclosures. Period.” Multiple studies have shown that even the people who do read them don’t understand them, he said.

A 2012 report (https://www.sec.gov/news/studies/2012/917-financial-literacy-study-part1.pdf) from the SEC found that investors often don’t even understand the information they get from brokers about their trades: Only 53 percent of respondents in an online survey of 1,200 investors could correctly identify a trade confirmation as having been for a stock purchase.

“It’s a profoundly broken system,”

said Donner of Americans for Financial Reform.

“If there wasn’t so much money at stake for people making money off the broken system, it would not have taken seven years to get this rule done.”

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/16/financial-advisers-want-to-rip-off-small-investors-trump-wants-to-help-them-do-it/

Of course, crapifier-in-chief Trash and his team of crapifying crooks will make sure BigFinance can keep looting citizens.

[boutons_deux]

Likely Trump pick for enforcing federal wage laws sued for stiffing her house cleaners (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/15/1680118/-Likely-Trump-pick-for-enforcing-federal-wage-laws-sued-for-stiffing-her-house-cleaners)


Laurie Titus of Sunflower Cleaning Group stated in her suit that [current head of

South Carolina's

Department of Employment and Workforce Cheryl Stanton failed to pay for four house cleaning visits, :lol :lol

at $90 each.

“I have emailed, mailed, and certified mailed trying to get payment,” the lawsuit said.


Well you can see why Trump likes her. Donald has nothing but respect for people who try to stiff their workers for a decent day's work. It's also very important to him that he surround himself with people who, like himself, other people can’t stand to work with.

Stanton has faced questions about her management.“

In all my years as a manager, I’ve never been spoken to by a supervisor in such a confrontational and abrasive manner as you have done in our last two meetings,” former Assistant Executive Director Bill Beckham wrote in an April 2016 resignation letter. [...]

Beckham was one of several senior officials who left the agency under Stanton.

At a legislative hearing in May, Republican state Sen. Thomas Alexander grilled Stanton on her executive turnover, which he said was higher than at other state agencies.


Ah, that's the stuff—it's like reliving the first days of Trumpism all over again.

What's most impressive is how diligently they're working to find people that match the Trump criteria.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/15/1680118/-Likely-Trump-pick-for-enforcing-federal-wage-laws-sued-for-stiffing-her-house-cleaners?detail=emaildkre

They are all

A S S H O L E S ! :lol

[Mikeanaro]

Lol you have problems, acting like a bot posting crap after crap, 3 million lies wont be true because you want it so bad.

While Illinois is dying
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/obama-foundation-accepting-millions-corporate-192338477.html

[spurraider21]

Lol you have problems, acting like a bot posting crap after crap, 3 million lies wont be true because you want it so bad.

While Illinois is dying
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/obama-foundation-accepting-millions-corporate-192338477.html
is the obama foundation a government policymaking organization/committee?

[Pavlov]

Lol you have problems, acting like a bot posting crap after crap, 3 million lies wont be true because you want it so bad.

While Illinois is dying
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/obama-foundation-accepting-millions-corporate-192338477.htmlSo you post completely irrelevant crap like bot.

[Mikeanaro]

is the obama foundation a government policymaking organization/committee?
Was president for 8 years, used his political influence to get filthy rich is that news to you? or he is just a regular citizen?, talked shit about bankers and now takes their money to do useless things.

He is not going to help poor people in Chicago, all that crap about change and now he has an 8 mil mansion with dirty money from his globalist friends, disgusting.

[Mikeanaro]

So you post completely irrelevant crap like bot.
It could be, which says a lot about a guy posting millions of dumb links like they were an absolute truth, anybody can do that Laker Fan.

[Pavlov]

It could be, which says a lot about a guy posting millions of dumb links like they were an absolute truth, anybody can do that Laker Fan.What it say about him? This what thread for.

[Pavlov]

Was president for 8 years, used his political influence to get filthy rich is that news to you? or he is just a regular citizen?, talked shit about bankers and now takes their money to do useless things.

He is not going to help poor people in Chicago, all that crap about change and now he has an 8 mil mansion with dirty money from his globalist friends, disgusting.Unlike some Presidents, Obama disclose.

https://blogs-images.forbes.com/danalexander/files/2017/02/Barack-net-worth-in-office-earnings.jpg

https://blogs-images.forbes.com/danalexander/files/2017/02/Obama-charity-giving.jpg

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/02/06/obama-donated-over-1-million-to-charity-as-president-heres-where-the-money-went/#eabf242459e0

Not Jesus, but not Antichrist.

[Mikeanaro]

What it say about him? This what thread for.
Says he is a bot that will post any dumb thing he finds on the net without even caring if its true as long as it is against Trump, but has no problem with muslims beheading people, other countries producing more contamination than they are allowed, no problems with 8 years of no health plan, no problems with national debt, or that people he supports did nothing good in 30 years excepting getting sex in the oval office.

Because the thread was made for that it doesnt mean people wont disagree, specially when title says THE PLANET, thats the most pussy fearmongering shit ever.

[spurraider21]

Was president for 8 years, used his political influence to get filthy rich is that news to you? or he is just a regular citizen?, talked shit about bankers and now takes their money to do useless things.

He is not going to help poor people in Chicago, all that crap about change and now he has an 8 mil mansion with dirty money from his globalist friends, disgusting.
how is he helping the bankers by taking their money? does the obama foundation affect government policy?

was he accepting millions of dollars from them while president?

[Pavlov]

Says he is a bot that will post any dumb thing he finds on the net without even caring if its true as long as it is against Trump, but has no problem with muslims beheading people, other countries producing more contamination than they are allowed, no problems with 8 years of no health plan, no problems with national debt, or that people he supports did nothing good in 30 years excepting getting sex in the oval office.

Because the thread was made for that it doesnt mean people wont disagree, specially when title says THE PLANET, thats the most pussy fearmongering shit ever.USA decisions affect planet, so accurate. Understand boutons biased, but so what? Everybody biased. Trump Doing Awesome thread also here.

[Mikeanaro]

Unlike some Presidents, Obama disclose.

https://blogs-images.forbes.com/danalexander/files/2017/02/Barack-net-worth-in-office-earnings.jpg

https://blogs-images.forbes.com/danalexander/files/2017/02/Obama-charity-giving.jpg

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/02/06/obama-donated-over-1-million-to-charity-as-president-heres-where-the-money-went/#eabf242459e0

Not Jesus, but not Antichrist.
Disclose? having all the media on his side thats easy, specially when he doesnt have a business, he could have used campaign money for charity and nobody would notice it didnt come from his own pockets.

It would be stupid to reveal all your finances when you are a billionaire with competition and now you are the president so you will not be at charge of your business and you are not charging the country for leading the government.

That book deal is laughable.

[Pavlov]

Disclose? having all the media on his side thats easy, specially when he doesnt have a business, he could have used campaign money for charity and nobody would notice it didnt come from his own pockets.No, that disclosed too.


It would be stupid to reveal all your finances when you are a billionaire with competition and now you are the president so you will not be at charge of your business and you are not charging the country for leading the government.Trump charge government for using his properties all the time. That is disclosed. His charitable giving? Nope. Would think he would lead by example there.


That book deal is laughable.Publisher made money. Writer made money. Retailers made money. Why laughable?

[spurraider21]

Publisher made money. Writer made money. Retailers made money. Why laughable?
because he's a democrat

[Mikeanaro]

how is he helping the bankers by taking their money? does the obama foundation affect government policy?

was he accepting millions of dollars from them while president?
He helped the bankers during 8 years and now he is getting the benefits, what this? kindergarten?

Thats dumb, he was not going to get money in the wrong moment in the face of his stupid supporters, but now is getting thru ¨charity¨ just like the Clinton Fundation got theirs from countries that kill gays and women because its fun.
Take our millions, its chump change.

Do you really need everything to be explained?

[Mikeanaro]

No, that disclosed too.

Trump charge government for using his properties all the time. That is disclosed. His charitable giving? Nope. Would think he would lead by example there.

Publisher made money. Writer made money. Retailers made money. Why laughable?
Disclosed? you dont have any proof, like that book deal, nobody buys books anymore we are not in the old days, specially the young stupid generation that thinks they are entitled to free music movies and books and you are going to give someone 65 million like he changed the world, its more than laughable.

Not just Trump, anyone that has a legit business charge the government when they use their assets, thats how the real world works, except for Barry and the Clintons who never had a real job.

But hey you are defending the guy that says too much patriotism is a bad thing, so anything he says must be good, because he is good, and good must be good.

[Pavlov]

Disclosed? you dont have any proof, like that book deal, nobody buys books anymore we are not in the old days, specially the young stupid generation that thinks they are entitled to free music movies and books and you are going to give someone 65 million like he changed the world, its more than laughable.Maybe you don't buy books (ebooks count). People do. Easy to track sales. Amazon and publicly traded media companies don't just make sales numbers up.

When something disclosed, not hard to find.


Not just Trump, anyone that has a legit business charge the government when they use their assets, thats how the real world works, except for Barry and the Clintons who never had a real job.So you concede you were wrong. OK.


But hey you are defending the guy that says too much patriotism is a bad thing, so anything he says must be good, because he is good, and good must be good.Just say he disclose and is not Antichrist. I not think that make anyone angry, but here you are.

[Mikeanaro]

Maybe you don't buy books (ebooks count). People do. Easy to track sales. Amazon and publicly traded media companies don't just make sales numbers up.

So you concede you were wrong. OK.

Just say he disclose and is not Antichrist. I not think that make anyone angry, but here you are.
Ebooks aint worth shit, the publisher wont make 100 million selling an Obozo book, thats a fact, Spotify makes money too, but the artist doesnt get shit.

Im not wrong, he has a real business, you are expecting him to be poor because he is the president? Specially when Barry and the Clintons never had a real job and they got richer by using her political influences making business with big companies and other countries, thats illegal and its people´s money.

Just say he is dirty and you want to spin everything because you dont have real facts to prove he is a good person or he is clean, I dont think its wrong to admit you are biased and want to refute things even when your side is corrupt.

[Pavlov]

Ebooks aint worth shit, the publisher wont make 100 million selling an Obozo book, thats a fact, Spotify makes money too, but the artist doesnt get shit.Obama's ebooks are worth $9-12 according to Amazon. Sell Trump's books too. He made money off those.


Im not wrong, he has a real business, you are expecting him to be poor because he is the president? Specially when Barry and the Clintons never had a real job and they got richer by using her political influences making business with big companies and other countries, thats illegal and its people´s money.If illegal, cite laws broken in each instance. Also, Trump can prosecute Clinton if laws broken. Why isn't he?


Just say he is dirty and you want to spin everything because you dont have real facts to prove he is a good person or he is clean, I dont think its wrong to admit you are biased and want to refute things even when your side is corrupt.I post available evidence. You post actual evidence he is dirty. Innuendo doesn't count. Real facts only.

[Pavlov]

If Obama did anything like this, post it.

FinCEN Fines Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort $10 Million for Significant and Long Standing Anti-Money Laundering Violations (https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-fines-trump-taj-mahal-casino-resort-10-million-significant-and-long)

Can see why Trump not like disclosure.

[Mikeanaro]

Obama's ebooks are worth $9-12 according to Amazon. Sell Trump's books too. He made money off those.

If illegal, cite laws broken in each instance. Also, Trump can prosecute Clinton if laws broken. Why isn't he?

I post available evidence. You post actual evidence he is dirty. Innuendo doesn't count. Real facts only.
And you think the publisher will wait until he sells 6,5 million of books to get a dime? thats not business, its a screen to return him favors, this is not JK Rowling...

Cite laws? explain how its legal to use your power and steal money from your own country, Trump has been only 6 months why are you hurry?

You dont have any evidence, only posted a charity chart which says nothing really about his wealth, its laughable as much as the Clinton and their 360 million fortune, when Bill finished his term had to ask for a credit to buy a house, got a 15 mil deal and never had a real job since then, how the hell Hillary won that kind of money having a public job?

You want to play the shrink here, but facts beats any kind of perception or thesis, if you dont want to accept the fact like it is, its your problem.

[Pavlov]

And you think the publisher will wait until he sells 6,5 million of books to get a dime? thats not business, its a screen to return him favors, this is not JK Rowling...They give authors advances then take their cut of book sales. Have you never heard of this?


Cite laws? explain how its legal to use your power and steal money from your own country, Trump has been only 6 months why are you hurry?Explain the laws being broken. Bring the facts.


You dont have any evidence, only posted a charity chart which says nothing really about his wealthI posted his income during his years in office. His disclosures before he became President are available as well.


You want to play the shrink here, but facts beats any kind of perception or thesis, if you dont want to accept the fact like it is, its your problem.You haven't provided any facts. No psychology needed.

[boutons_deux]

The GOP’s moral rot is the problem, not Donald Trump Jr.

The key insight from a week of gobsmacking revelations is not that the Russia scandal may finally have an underlying crime but that, as David Brooks (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/opinion/donald-trump-family-ethics.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories) suggests, “over the past few generations the Trump family built an enveloping culture that is beyond good and evil.”

(Remember when the media collectively oohed and ahhed that, “Say what you will about Donald Trump, but his kids are great!”?

Add that to the heap of inane media narratives that helped normalize Trump to the voters.)

We now see that, sure enough, the Trump legal team (the fastest-growing segment of the economy) has trouble restraining its clients, explaining away initial, false explanations and preventing self-incriminating statements.

(The biggest trouble, of course, is that the president lied that this is all “fake news” and arguably committed obstruction of justice to hide his campaign team’s misdeeds.)

Let me suggest the real problem is not the Trump family, but the GOP. To paraphrase Brooks, “It takes generations to hammer ethical considerations out of a [party’s] mind and to replace them entirely with the ruthless logic of winning and losing.”

Again, to borrow from Brooks, beyond partisanship the GOP evidences “no attachment to any external moral truth or ethical code.”

Let’s dispense with the “Democrats are just as bad” defense.

First, I don’t much care; we collectively face a party in charge of virtually the entire federal government and the vast majority of statehouses and governorships.

It’s that party’s inner moral rot that must concern us for now.

Second, it’s simply not true, and saying so reveals the origin of the problem — a “woe is me” sense of victimhood that grossly exaggerates the opposition’s ills and in turn justifies its own egregious political judgments and rhetoric.

If the GOP had not become unhinged about the Clintons, would it have rationalized Trump as the lesser of two evils?

Only in the crazed bubble of right-wing hysteria

does an ethically challenged, moderate Democrat become a threat to Western civilization

and

Trump the salvation of America.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/07/14/the-gops-moral-rot-is-the-problem-not-donald-trump-jr/?utm_term=.8b84b738694e

[spurraider21]

He helped the bankers during 8 years
where's your outrage over the current POTUS putting top level bankers all over his administration?

[Mikeanaro]

where's your outrage over the current POTUS putting top level bankers all over his administration?
I dont have anything against bankers, that was Obama the divisive bozo, current POTUS has been only for 6 months, so this kind of threads bashing him are UNFAIR.

[Pavlov]

He is not going to help poor people in ChicagoWell...

Obama announces $2M donation to Chicago summer jobs programs (http://thehill.com/homenews/news/331788-obamas-donating-2m-to-chicago-summer-jobs-programs)

[Mikeanaro]

They give authors advances then take their cut of book sales. Have you never heard of this?

Explain the laws being broken. Bring the facts.

I posted his income during his years in office. His disclosures before he became President are available as well.

You haven't provided any facts. No psychology needed.
No shit, and there will be profit only after they sell 6,5 million of copies because if they dont sell that amount Barry is going to cash anyway, I can tell you that again or I can copy paste it if you want.

I´ve already named the facts, Presidents making money all over the country best interests.
With your nit picky point of view Bill did nothing wrong in the oval office multiple times with cigars, he lied to the USA said nothing happened, and truth is nothing happened to him, because to people like you it only counts when is someone you dislike.

Incomes as president are 12 mil, now he gets 65 mil and other crap that could make an extra 180 mil with no feasible reason.

All I said are facts, Obozo and Hillary´s fortune are a real thing, Bill´s sexual scandal and impeachment is a fact too, the Clinton Foundation getting money from countries that gives 2 shits about ¨help other people¨ for pay to play purposes, Obozo saying too much patriotism is a bad thing, all facts, as I said you have a problem.

[Mikeanaro]

Well...

Obama announces $2M donation to Chicago summer jobs programs (http://thehill.com/homenews/news/331788-obamas-donating-2m-to-chicago-summer-jobs-programs)
Good for you, Trump will be donating much more than that because he doesnt make a dime as president.

[Pavlov]

No shit, and there will be profit only after they sell 6,5 million of copies because if they dont sell that amount Barry is going to cash anyway, I can tell you that again or I can copy paste it if you want.Go ahead and copy/paste the terms of his contracts. You know, facts.


I´ve already named the facts, Presidents making money all over the country best interests.
With your nit picky point of view Bill did nothing wrong in the oval office multiple times with cigars, he lied to the USA said nothing happened, and truth is nothing happened to him, because to people like you it only counts when is someone you dislike.I simply asked you to show the laws broken. You failed.


Incomes as president are 12 mil, now he gets 65 mil and other crap that could make an extra 180 mil with no feasible reason.He's a former US President. Super high demand for those. Super limited supply.


All I said are facts, Obozo and Hillary´s fortune are a real thing, Bill´s sexual scandal and impeachment is a fact too, the Clinton Foundation getting money from countries that gives 2 shits about ¨help other people¨ for pay to play purposes, Obozo saying too much patriotism is a bad thing, all facts, as I said you have a problem.You're getting really emotional here. Again, just show the laws that each one broke.

I'm well aware of Clinton's impeachment. It's still pretty funny that of all the things you accuse him of the only thing he was on trial for was lying about cheating on his wife. Also, he wasn't convicted. You'd think with all the investigations all three have been through, the Republicans' should have been able to put them away.= for life.

But the simple fact is that all three are free and making lots of money for themselves and their foundations. If you have any facts that will put them away, by all means post them here and report them to the proper authorities.

[Pavlov]

Good for you, Trump will be donating much more than that because he doesnt make a dime as president.Great, how much has he donated already?

You know -- facts. Show me the facts.

[Thread]

Great, how much has he donated already?

You know -- facts. Show me the facts.

He gave a boodle to the Antietam Memorial.

[Pavlov]

He gave a boodle to the Antietam Memorial.OK. $78,000.

What else?

[boutons_deux]

how much has Trash donated EVER?

and how much has he self-dealt with his "charity's" funds?

it would be better, but less humorous, if rightwingnutjob bubbas kept their beer holes shut rather than fabulously fail to normalize, defend Trash

[Mikeanaro]

Go ahead and copy/paste the terms of his contracts. You know, facts.

I simply asked you to show the laws broken. You failed.

He's a former US President. Super high demand for those. Super limited supply.

You're getting really emotional here. Again, just show the laws that each one broke.

I'm well aware of Clinton's impeachment. It's still pretty funny that of all the things you accuse him of the only thing he was on trial for was lying about cheating on his wife. Also, he wasn't convicted. You'd think with all the investigations all three have been through, the Republicans' should have been able to put them away.= for life.

But the simple fact is that all three are free and making lots of money for themselves and their foundations. If you have any facts that will put them away, by all means post them here and report them to the proper authorities.
You have lots of problems with facts, and worst than that... problems with maths.

More problems with reality and you know... facts

Sure, he was very good at that right? at least according to you, wonder why the Bushes and Bill Clinton never made that kind of dough.

Emotional? thats your shrink side, instead of looking at the facts you are trying to analyze me... and deflect things that matter.

Lol so it happened but Bill wasnt convicted? so all that impeachment was for lying? is that good or bad according to your standards? like you kill someone then be like ¨NO I DIDNT DO IT¨ well case closed!

You seem to live in a fairytale world where all they do is legal because if the POTUS is banging people at the oval office I mean whats the problem? the fairytale world where huge companies could use the money to be bigger or buy fancy cars or yachts, but no whats better than give millons of their hard earned money employing people or having risks paying taxes to a stupid politician no matter rep/dem.

They dont put that kind of money on presidential campaigns but they have no problem for a stupid foundation with no record.

[Mikeanaro]

Great, how much has he donated already?

You know -- facts. Show me the facts.
Move your ass and do the math, is a fact unless CNN or other trashy place is telling you he is not donating the money, it seems you have issues with reality.

[Thread]

OK. $78,000.

What else?

I also believe he gave his 1st check to the Parks Service.

[Mikeanaro]

how much has Trash donated EVER?

and how much has he self-dealt with his "charity's" funds?

it would be better, but less humorous, if rightwingnutjob bubbas kept their beer holes shut rather than fabulously fail to normalize, defend Trash
More than the Clintons to Haiti, I guess.

[Pavlov]

Move your ass and do the math, is a fact unless CNN or other trashy place is telling you he is not donating the money, it seems you have issues with reality.More emotion from you. No facts.

[Pavlov]

I also believe he gave his 1st check to the Parks Service.That is the first check.

[Mikeanaro]

I also believe he gave his 1st check to the Parks Service.
Then asked his money back because no sweetie boobie chick was there to get the check.

[Mikeanaro]

More emotion from you. No facts.
As usual you dont have an argument anymore so you try to pick non related stuff like emotions, like all liberals do (failed shrinks).
And by the way, you are saying he doesnt donate money, OK.

[Thread]

Then asked his money back because no sweetie boobie chick was there to get the check.

:lol

And let's face it in the immediate light of total victory it's easy to give away almost a 1/2 million dollars. But, when January 20th comes you start sneakin' around it.

[Pavlov]

You have lots of problems with facts, and worst than that... problems with maths.

More problems with reality and you know... facts

Sure, he was very good at that right? at least according to you, wonder why the Bushes and Bill Clinton never made that kind of dough.Not really known for their writing. Barack is. Consensus is the deal was surprisingly high, but was always going to be higher than deals for the Clintons and Bushes. If you have different facts, post them.


Emotional? thats your shrink side, instead of looking at the facts you are trying to analyze me... and deflect things that matter.

Lol so it happened but Bill wasnt convicted? so all that impeachment was for lying? is that good or bad according to your standards? like you kill someone then be like ¨NO I DIDNT DO IT¨ well case closed!Well, what else was he on trial for? Facts, please.


You seem to live in a fairytale world where all they do is legal because if the POTUS is banging people at the oval office I mean whats the problem?Is that a sentence? I really don't care what politicians do sexually as long as it's consensual. As far as the rest goes, there are laws. If you say they broke laws, say which ones. Facts.



the fairytale world where huge companies could use the money to be bigger or buy fancy cars or yachts, but no whats better than give millons of their hard earned money employing people or having risks paying taxes to a stupid politician no matter rep/dem.wut.


They dont put that kind of money on presidential campaigns but they have no problem for a stupid foundation with no record.Well, they're individually restricted as to what they can give directly to individual candidates. Most money goes to PACs and the like. As far as the Foundations go, I don't like the way the Clinton Foundation was run, but the fact is there are no charges pending. If you know which laws were broken, give us the facts.

[Pavlov]

As usual you dont have an argument anymore so you try to pick non related stuff like emotions, like all liberals do (failed shrinks).
And by the way, you are saying he doesnt donate money, OK.I'm saying there isn't much in the way of FACTS regarding Trump's charitable giving. If you have any FACTS regarding it, post them.

[Mikeanaro]

Not really known for their writing.

Well, what else was he on trial for? Facts, please.

Is that a sentence? I really don't care what politicians do sexually as long as it's consensual. As far as the rest goes, there are laws. If you say they broke laws, say which ones. Facts.


wut.

Well, they're individually restricted as to what they can give directly to individual candidates. Most money goes to PACs and the like. As far as the Foundations go, I don't like the way the Clinton Foundation was run, but the fact is there are no charges pending. If you know which laws were broken, give us the facts.
Some people cant write for shit so they hire someone to arrange the material into something coherent, is that news to you?
Bet Barry wont write a single word on that waste of time.

Lying to the whole country is good to you? when you are the POTUS? OK

There were other women and they never had a chance to do shit because Bill´s buddies where there for him, and it wasnt consensual, but its impossible to do nasty stuff and break the law if you are president, at least according to you, also he was supposed to be working 24/7 as the poster boy of all dems instead he was fucking everyone.

You dont like the way CF was run, getting money so if she won the election that people would be getting benefits, could be weapons, drugs, inmigrants, giving away the country for money and leaving out people from her own country because it doesnt fit with HER INTERESTS, that are OVER USA.
Mafia is not illegal either.
Who said ISIS is illegal...

[Mikeanaro]

I'm saying there isn't much in the way of FACTS regarding Trump's charitable giving. If you have any FACTS regarding it, post them.
He is donating his presidential income, period.
What you need? a camera every time he signs the check?

[Pavlov]

Some people cant write for shit so they hire someone to arrange the material into something coherent, is that news to you?
Bet Barry wont write a single word on that waste of time.He's known as a good writer. Not everyone needs a ghost writer. Facts.


Lying to the whole country is good to you? when you are the POTUS? OKYou seem to be OK with Trump's constant lying, so....


There were other women and they never had a chance to do shit because Bill´s buddies where there for him, and it wasnt consensual, but its impossible to do nasty stuff and break the law if you are president, at least according to youstraw man
also he was supposed to be working 24/7 as the poster boy of all dems instead he was fucking everyone.Nah, you're describing JFK. That guy put Clinton to shame. I just noticed you couldn't come up with any other charges after all those investigations. Fact.


You dont like the way CF was run, getting money so if she won the election that people would be getting benefits, could be weapons, drugs, inmigrants, giving away the country for money and leaving out people from her own country because it doesnt fit with HER INTERESTS, that are OVER USA.All conjecture. No facts.


Mafia is not illegal either.
Who said ISIS is illegal...What does that have to do with anything?

Nothing.

[Pavlov]

He is donating his presidential income, period.
What you need? a camera every time he signs the check?So out of all his billions over many decades, the only FACT you have is one $78,000 donation?

:lol

[Mikeanaro]

So out of all his billions over many decades, the only FACT you have is one $78,000 donation?

:lol
Why you are entitled to his fortune? please explain that concept.

[Pavlov]

Why you are entitled to his fortune? please explain that concept.Strawman built of pure emotion.

All you need to say is you have no idea how much Trump donates to charity.

We all can see how much the Obamas have donated for about a decade.

These are facts.

[Mikeanaro]

He's known as a good writer. Not everyone needs a ghost writer. Facts.

You seem to be OK with Trump's constant lying, so....

straw manNah, you're describing JFK. That guy put Clinton to shame. I just noticed you couldn't come up with any other charges after all those investigations. Fact.

All conjecture. No facts.

What does that have to do with anything?

Nothing.
How is that a fact? do you have a camera recording him writing his books?
Hans Zimmer is a well known movie scorer, and he has a team of composers behind him, but at least he is honest.

About what? the fake Russian collusion? You seem to be OK with Bill´s lies thats for sure.

No straw man, I remember Bill´s face during the debate looking those women, was scared as fuck.

You try to bury Bill´s dirty stuff by using JFK as a straw man.

Is a fact, she never denied it during the debate, like Trump never denied he used chinese steel in his towers.

I dont know, Mafia and ISIS are criminal organizations, but whats illegal with them? please tell me.

[Mikeanaro]

Strawman built of pure emotion.

All you need to say is you have no idea how much he donates to charity.

We all can see how much the Obamas have donated for about a decade.

These are facts.
Pure emotion? where? it was you the one accusing Trump like he is a cheap bastard, there is no straw man, please see the web dictionary to understand what is a straw man argument,
So anytime someone asks something to me, can I say ¨STRAWMAN!¨?

The Obamas used charity as a popularity stunt, and it didnt cure cancer... nobody knows where that money comes from, also its a nice way to evade taxes, pretty dumb to say some person is good because of charity.

[Pavlov]

How is that a fact? do you have a camera recording him writing his books?
Hans Zimmer is a well known movie scorer, and he has a team of composers behind him, but at least he is honest.The ghost writers usually are known pretty quickly, like Trump's


About what? the fake Russian collusion?Sure, he has lied about that too. Just one subject of many. Facts.
You seem to be OK with Bill´s lies thats for sure.Where it comes to consensual sex, I really don't give a shit what politicians do or say.


No straw man, I remember Bill´s face during the debate looking those women, was scared as fuck.Do you know what a straw man is?


You try to bury Bill´s dirty stuff by using JFK as a straw man.No, JFK's philandering is a well established fact. Thanks for showing you don't know what a straw man is.


Is a fact, she never denied it during the debate, like Trump never denied he used chinese steel in his towers.Never denied what? You put five specific charges there that can only be conjecture because she isn't President.


I dont know, Mafia and ISIS are criminal organizations, but whats illegal with them? please tell me.You don't know what is illegal about the Mafia and ISIS? Really? Please answer yes or no.

[Pavlov]

Pure emotion? where? it was you the one accusing Trump like he is a cheap bastard, there is no straw man, please see the web dictionary to understand what is a straw man argument,
So anytime someone asks something to me, can I say ¨STRAWMAN!¨?Your claim that I argued I am personally entitled to Trump's wealth is a straw man. No one ever said anything of the sort.

I said no one knows how much he donates and you went off.


The Obamas used charity as a popularity stunt, and it didnt cure cancer...Man, you're really getting emotional here. So Trump used charity as a popularity stunt at the battlefield and it didn't cure cancer. Take that!


nobody knows where that money comes from, also its a nice way to evade taxes, pretty dumb to say some person is good because of charity.Hey, another straw man.

No one said he is good because of charity. Also, we do know where the money comes from because the figures come from his tax returns, which the Obamas disclosed.

[Mikeanaro]

Your claim that I argued I am personally entitled to Trump's wealth is a straw man. No one ever said anything of the sort.

I said no one knows how much he donates and you went off.

Man, you're really getting emotional here. So Trump used charity as a popularity stunt at the battlefield and it didn't cure cancer. Take that!

Hey, another straw man.


No one said he is good because of charity. Also, we do know where the money comes from because the figures come from his tax returns, which the Obamas disclosed.

So out of all his billions over many decades, the only FACT you have is one $78,000 donation?

:lol
You were the one questioning his donations, and putting emojis, or was another person?

The popularity stunt you said it sure didnt cure cancer, but he won the election over mother Hillary... take that.

No strawman, you are using donations as a measuring stick and as usual it leads to nowhere.
It seems you want to stick with the Obama fairytale, good for you.

[Pavlov]

You were the one questioning his donations, and putting emojis, or was another person? I am the one saying we really don't know much of anything about Trump's donations. Fact. :)


The popularity stunt you said it sure didnt cure cancer, but he won the election over mother Hillary... take that.Hey, another straw man. :)


No strawman, you are using donations as a measuring stick and as usual it leads to nowhere.You brought it up, genius. Now you regret it. Sorry. :)


It seems you want to stick with the Obama fairytale, good for you.I'm sticking with the facts. You hug your straw men with great emotion. :)

[Mikeanaro]

The ghost writers usually are known pretty quickly, like Trump's

Sure, he has lied about that too. Just one subject of many. Facts. Where it comes to consensual sex, I really don't give a shit what politicians do or say.

Do you know what a straw man is?

No, JFK's philandering is a well established fact. Thanks for showing you don't know what a straw man is.

Never denied what? You put five specific charges there that can only be conjecture because she isn't President.

You don't know what is illegal about the Mafia and ISIS? Really? Please answer yes or no.
Define usually, is that an exact thing?

Well if you think there is a Russian collusion please show the evidence.

Yeah, you dont care because nothing happened to Bill, I get it.

You dont have the minimal idea of what an straw man argument is.

You used JFK as a straw man because I´ve never talked about him, and now you pretend to use that againt me, BRAVO! BECAUSE I TALKED ABOUT JFK! AND THEN ABOUT HIS PHILANDERING ACT! whats next? JIMMY CARTER!!!!

Never denied what, do you have problems sticking to subjects?

Explain what law are they breaking, please.

[Mikeanaro]

I am the one saying we really don't know much of anything about Trump's donations. Fact. :)

Hey, another straw man. :)

You brought it up, genius. Now you regret it. Sorry. :)

I'm sticking with the facts. You hug your straw men with great emotion. :)
Straw man, who the fuck asked your opinion?

Straw man

Straw man, you were the one doing this

So out of all his billions over many decades, the only FACT you have is one $78,000 donation?

:lol
That one donation is not a measuring stick? Oops

Oh yeah, stick to your straw man.

And use more emojis please, as libs with no argument like to do.

[Pavlov]

Define usually, is that an exact thing?Means usually. Obama has produced enough work that a ghost writer would be known.


Well if you think there is a Russian collusion please show the evidence.
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr


Yeah, you dont care because nothing happened to Bill, I get it.No, I know enough about history to know that their sex lives are better left alone (again with the consent caveat). This goes for Republicans as well as Democrats.


You dont have the minimal idea of what an straw man argument is.Sure do.


You used JFK as a straw man because I´ve never talked about him, and now you pretend to use that againt me, BRAVO! BECAUSE I TALKED ABOUT JFK! AND THEN ABOUT HIS PHILANDERING ACT! whats next? JIMMY CARTER!!!!It was a point of comparison since you seemed to use a superlative about Clinton. Carter is a pretty faithful dude as far as I can tell. So was Nixon for what that's worth.


Never denied what, do you have problems sticking to subjects?You made the claim she never denied something, then you engaged in a bunch of conjecture about what she would do as President. You need help with your own arguments.


Explain what law are they breaking, please.ISIS? Sure, there are murder statutes everywhere they operate.

Mafia? Oh man, once you get RICO laws involved, this can cover almost any criminal activity or the planning thereof -- but we'll just put money laundering as an example, since that dovetails nicely with Trump's casino and the facts surrounding the activities there.

[Pavlov]

Straw man, who the fuck asked your opinion?Oh, you know more than the one donation? Go ahead and tell me.


Straw man

Straw man, you were the one doing this

That one donation is not a measuring stick? Oops

Oh yeah, stick to your straw man.

And use more emojis please, as libs with no argument like to do.One donation is all you -- well not even you -- have produced.

If you have more examples of his personal charitable giving, post it here. I look forward to it.

[Mikeanaro]

Means usually. Obama has produced enough work that a ghost writer would be known.


https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr

No, I know enough about history to know that their sex lives are better left alone (again with the consent caveat). This goes for Republicans as well as Democrats.

Sure do.

It was a point of comparison since you seemed to use a superlative about Clinton. Carter is a pretty faithful dude as far as I can tell. So was Nixon for what that's worth.

You made the claim she never denied something, then you engaged in a bunch of conjecture about what she would do as President. You need help with your own arguments.

ISIS? Sure, there are murder statutes everywhere they operate.

Mafia? Oh man, once you get RICO laws involved, this can cover almost any criminal activity or the planning thereof -- but we'll just put money laundering as an example, since that dovetails nicely with Trump's casino and the facts surrounding the activities there.
Usually is not exact, it does not compute.

Lame, and how affected the votes?

I care about sex lives, if someone is up there telling everyone what to do and being the face of a country I expect a low profile specially on sex scandals.

I´ve never talked about JFK.

No, you are making all that by yourself, I said Hillary shut his pie hole and Trump too on those accusations.

Is not illegal in their countries.

[Mikeanaro]

Oh, you know more than the one donation? Go ahead and tell me.

One donation is all you -- well not even you -- have produced.

If you have more examples of his personal charitable giving, post it here. I look forward to it.
No because you asked something to me, thats a straw man in your book.

It doesnt matter really, people can do what they want with their incomes.

[TSA]

Never thought a poster like Mikeanaro would be the one to break Pavlov who's now completely abandoned his schtick. Back to the drawing board Chumpdumper.

[Pavlov]

Never thought a poster like Mikeanaro would be the one to break Pavlov who's now completely abandoned his schtick. Back to the drawing board Chumpdumper.I've left the schtick plenty of times. He actually engaged me in a conversation of sorts. Someone like you who runs like a pussy when asked to explain can get all the dings and broken English.

[Pavlov]

Usually is not exact, it does not compute.A lot does not compute with you.


Lame, and how affected the votes?I'll give the Mueller investigation as much time as the Starr investigation had.


I care about sex lives, if someone is up there telling everyone what to do and being the face of a country I expect a low profile specially on sex scandals.Do you know who the President is?


I´ve never talked about JFK.I did since you thought Clinton was the only person who ever cheated on his wife. It probably would have become a national security matter.


No, you are making all that by yourself, I said Hillary shut his pie hole and Trump too on those accusations.You said all the things she would do if President. Conjecture.


Is not illegal in their countries.The mafia is in this country.

Your claim is that there are countries where murder is never illegal. OK, show me that country.


No because you asked something to me, thats a straw man in your book.

It doesnt matter really, people can do what they want with their incomes.So now it doesn't matter.

Why did you ever bring it up in the first place?

[Mikeanaro]

A lot does not compute with you.

I'll give the Mueller investigation as much time as the Starr investigation had.

Do you know who the President is?

I did since you thought Clinton was the only person who ever cheated on his wife. It probably would have become a national security matter.

You said all the things she would do if President. Conjecture.

The mafia is in this country.

Your claim is that there are countries where murder is never illegal. OK, show me that country.

So now it doesn't matter.

Why did you ever bring it up in the first place?
Still ¨usually¨ is not exact.

Good luck trying to prove something, so far is yadda yadda.

Im well aware of Trump, thats why media tried to bring 11 women with sex accusations, it didnt work.

JFK Bobby and the others had large sexual parties in the past, but I´ve never mentioned them, in fact nobody talks about that because of how JFK ended up.

In that particular sentence, Hillary didnt want to talk about the foundation, and Trump was not happy about the chinese steel either.

Mafia still exists but they are behind big corporations, the most stupid are dead or in jail.

How is illegal? they said ¨I didnt do it¨, or ¨tried to rape me¨ it was a ¨mistake/accident¨ ¨I was drunk¨
Afganistan, Albania, Islamic countries (Iraq/Syria/Somalia) dont care much about life either so laws are very very flexible, specially for the wealthy.
Sadly since the law is a very subjective thing in those places, thats why nobody likes Illegal inmigrants in their countries.

You were the one, posting Obama´s donations chart, not me.

[Pavlov]

Still ¨usually¨ is not exact.

Good luck trying to prove something, so far is yadda yadda.No problem. I'm fine with playing the odds. If you have proof of a ghost writer, post it. It's your claim.


Im well aware of Trump, thats why media tried to bring 11 women with sex accusations, it didnt work.Not even that. His own admissions of infidelity with married women and sexual assault should turn off someone who claims to care.


JFK Bobby and the others had large sexual parties in the past, but I´ve never mentioned them, in fact nobody talks about that because of how JFK ended up.And yet, facts still exist.


In that particular sentence, Hillary didnt want to talk about the foundation, and Trump was not happy about the chinese steel either.So the conjecture is all yours.


Mafia still exists but they are behind big corporations, the most stupid are dead or in jail.Ah, no.


How is illegal? they said ¨I didnt do it¨, or ¨tried to rape me¨ it was a ¨mistake/accident¨ ¨I was drunk¨
Afganistan, Albania, Islamic countries (Iraq/Syria/Somalia) dont care much about life either so laws are very very flexible, specially for the wealthy.Show where all murder is legal in these countries.

Sadly since the law is a very subjective thing in those places, thats why nobody likes Illegal inmigrants in their countries.So you can't find any country where murder is completely legal. All you had to say.


You were the one, posting Obama´s donations chart, not me.You brought up helping people, not me.

[Mikeanaro]

Show where all murder is legal in these countries.
So you can't find any country where murder is completely legal. All you had to say.

You brought up helping people, not me.
Illegal murder is just a screen for the United Nations dumbasses, the ones at charge in those countries dont give two shits about people.
Lol I would love to see a movie about some Iraq woman fighting in court against a guy that killed his husband and kids.

He helped no one, thats just political stunt crap to try to keep Dems relevant because they dont have new faces.

[Pavlov]

Illegal murder is just a screen for the United Nations dumbasses, the ones at charge in those countries dont give two shits about people.Depends on the people.


Lol I would love to see a movie about some Iraq woman fighting in court against a guy that killed his husband and kids.Why would a woman fight that? Governments prosecute crimes.


He helped no one, thats just political stun crap to try to keep Dems relevant because they dont have new faces.That makes no sense whatsoever. You're trying to negate the value of any charitable giving just to make a lame partisan point. It didn't work.

[Mikeanaro]

Why would a woman fight that? Governments prosecute crimes.

That makes no sense whatsoever. You're trying to negate the value of any charitable giving just to make a lame partisan point. It didn't work.
Because people equals shit in those places, governments job is to keep people dumb and killing each other so they can party like it´s 1999.

Charity doesnt work like that, the best charity is anonym, everything else is for the camera.
Obama gives some money, but the african americans has not seen much progress really, women either so its all a big nothing.

[Pavlov]

Because people equals shit in those places, governments job is to keep people dumb and killing each other so they can party like it´s 1999.No, it really isn't.


Charity doesnt work like thatIt works exactly like that.


Obama gives some money, but the african americans has not seen much progress really, women either so its all a big nothing.How much money do you think it will take for them to progress really?

[Mikeanaro]

How much money do you think it will take for them to progress really?
I dont think its about money, its about making something to keep them away from the thug life, it could be education, jobs, or some other thing than Barry and Michelle were not capable of deliver, but money by itself wont make much of a difference, people say ¨thanks for this, now fuck off¨.

[Pavlov]

I dont think its about money, its about making something to keep them away from the thug life, it could be education, jobs, or some other thing than Barry and Michelle were not capable of deliver, but money by itself wont make much of a difference, people say ¨thanks for this, now fuck off¨.So you have examples of people saying this for the charities they give to?

[Mikeanaro]

So you have examples of people saying this for the charities they give to?
Thats the attitude, do you have experience on the streets?

[Pavlov]

Thats the attitude, do you have experience on the streets?Blacks and women only live on the streets?

[Mikeanaro]

Blacks and women only live on the streets?
The kind that needs charity aid, yes.

[Pavlov]

The kind that needs charity aid, yes.No.

[boutons_deux]

Ethics Director Says Trump Has Made The US A ‘Laughingstock’ Abroad

Donald Trump has had a damaging attitude toward ethics, undermining the United States’ position as a role model on ethics.

“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean.

It affects our credibility,” he told the New York Times over the weekend. “I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.”

He said that Trump’s frequent trips to his own properties has raised ethics concerns.

“It creates the appearance of profiting from the presidency,” he said.

“Misuse of position is really the heart of the ethics program, and the internationally accepted definition of corruption is abuse of entrusted power.

It undermines the government ethics program by casting doubt on the integrity of government decision making.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/walter-shaub-trump-ethics-laughingstock?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20tpm-news%20%28TPMNews%29

[boutons_deux]

Canada Seen As The Most Positive Influence Globally




http://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/canada.png

http://ritholtz.com/2017/07/canada-seen-positive-influence-globally/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Pict ure%29

[boutons_deux]

Why is Betsy DeVos Listening to Groups That Smear Rape Survivors?

Advocates for sexual assault survivors worry that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will revoke Obama-era guidelines requiring schools to tighten processes for investigating assaults on campus.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/07/17/betsy-devos-listening-groups-smear-rape-survivors/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Inconvenienced Disabled Veterans So He Can Golf In Peace

The Washington Post reports (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/coast-guard-wants-to-kick-boats-off-potomac-river-when-trump-is-golfing/2017/07/17/8ac56828-6afd-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.193795161ae1) that the Coast Guard will be periodically cutting off access to a stretch of the Potomac River bordering a Trump golf course, ostensibly to reduce security risks when Trump and his associates play there.

The restricted area is currently used for a kayaking program for injured and disabled veterans.


The Post provided a helpful graphic:

http://washingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2300-trumpriver-0718-v5.jpg

“It’s just heartbreaking. Granted, it’s his golf course.

But he has other golf courses,” John Deitle, a veteran with chemical induced health problems, told the Post. Deitle regularly uses the Potomac for recreational and rehabilitative kayaking.

Howard Morland, another member of the local kayaking community, told the Post that

the real reason for shutting down the stretch of water could be to combat growing protests on the Potomac.

Since the inauguration, anti-Trump protestors have been taking to the water outside the club to voice their opposition.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/17/trump-just-inconvenienced-disabled-veterans-can-golf-peace/

[Pavlov]

claPetUPO7s

[boutons_deux]

A Texas wildlife refuge will be razed to build the first section of Trump’s wall

An official told the Texas Observer that construction would “essentially destroy the refuge.”

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has begun preparations to construct the first leg of the Trump administration’s border wall through the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in South Texas,

The Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge comprises 2,088-acres along the U.S.-Mexico border, and was established (https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Santa_Ana/about.html) in 1943 for the protection of migratory birds.

The refuge is home to (https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Santa_Ana/wildlife_and_habitat.html) at least

400 species of birds,

450 types of plants, and

half of the butterfly species found in North America.

It is also home to the highly-endangered ocelot.

Federal officials told the Texas Observer (https://www.texasobserver.org/trump-border-wall-texas-wildlife-refuge-breaking/) that the wall would consist of an 18-foot levee wall that would stretch for three miles in the wildlife refuge. The construction plan would require building a road south of the wall, as well as clearing land on either side. Such construction would “essentially destroy the refuge,”

Officials said that the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge is slated to be the site of the first section of the wall because the government already owns the land, and so won’t have to contend with issues of private ownership.

Part of the wall’s $21.6 billion (https://thinkprogress.org/trump-border-wall-eminent-domain-4b6134e62910) estimated price tag will almost certainly come from the cost of purchasing land along the route from private landowners.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-border-wall-wildlife-refuge-1e9427af7c7f

Hate, xenophobia, white dickless male supremacy crapifying America.

[boutons_deux]

Trump’s State Department Just Shut Down Its War Crimes Prevention Office

The State Department is closing down its Office of Global Criminal Justice, the part of the organization dedicated to preventing and responding to war crimes, reports Foreign Policy (http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/17/tillerson-to-shutter-state-department-war-crimes-office/).

The office has existed for twenty years and works to liaison with courts around the world to help them fight genocides, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

It was created at the orders of Madeline Albright, America’s first female Secretary of State. Albright was President Bill Clinton’s appointment, so one can’t rule out the possibility that Trump is removing the office because of the intense animus he feels towards all things Clintonian.

“This is a very harsh signal to the rest of the world that the United States is essentially downgrading the importance of accountability for the commission of atrocity crimes,” David Scheffer, a former head of the Office of Global Criminal Justice, told Foreign Policy.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/17/trumps-state-department-just-shut-war-crimes-prevention-office/

[spurraider21]

who cares about war crimes, they're chopping off heads!

[boutons_deux]

“We hope to issue this week a new directive on asset forfeiture — especially for drug traffickers,”

Sessions said in his prepared remarks (https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-national-district-attorneys-association) for a speech to the National District Attorney's Association in Minneapolis.

"With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures.

No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime.

Adoptive forfeitures are appropriate as is sharing with our partners."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/17/1681574/-Beauregard-Sessions-is-a-piece-of-loveliness

[boutons_deux]

Trump administration unveils new Iran sanctions

The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled a new slate of economic sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile program and

destabilizing actions in the region :lol

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/342505-us-hits-iran-with-new-sanctions-over-ballistic-missiles

Trash gets kicked in the balls by Congress, so he kicks somebody else, accomplishing nothing but faking toughness

"destabilizing actions in the region" :lol

how about:

Repugs/BigOil invading Iraq for oil! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Trash Just Fired America’s Top Cyber Security Official

So what is the Trump administration doing?

They are letting the top cyber expert in the American government leave his job, (http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-cybersecurity/2017/07/18/top-state-cyber-official-to-exit-leaving-myriad-questions-221386)where he has been a powerful force to defend America and its allies from these mounting cyber threats.

State Department under Rex Tillerson is planning to

downgrade its cyber security office and merge it with another operation.

Christopher Painter, who has been America’s top cyber security diplomat since 2011, and is credited with doing a phenomenal job-fighting cyber crime worldwide, coordinating efforts across the government and advancing Internet freedom without sacrificing safety, will leave his post in the State Department at the end of this month.

“Chris has been a tireless defender of American interests in cyberspace,” says Jason Healey, senior cyber researcher at Columbia University, “flying hundreds of thousands of miles a year to push our views of freedom online, conduct countless bilateral meetings with allies and friends and (champion) international engagement in multilateral settings.”

“The U.S. government,” adds Healey, “didn’t have many like Chris and his departure will be a major loss.”


Apparently former oil industry executive Rex Tillerson, who in six short months has proven ineffective and inept as a diplomat while destroying morale at the once distinguished State Department, will not be among those mourning the departure of the nations top diplomat in the crucial area of cyber space, at a time the threats have never been greater.

Tillerson is close to closing the cyber office, or merging it with another office (https://www.state.gov/e/eb/cip/) and downgrading the cyber coordinators rank, a source familiar with the internal plans says.

“It’s a step back from everything done over the last ten years,” said the source, adding that Tillerson was also considering

“limiting the number of people who work on cybersecurity” at the State Department.

“They basically gave (Painter) two weeks notice,” said the source. “It’s clear they’re thinking about reorganizing it…Clearly, they don’t think it’s that important.”

If Tillerson is eliminating the State Department’s dedicated cyber unit, it would make “the United States,” says Healey,

“the only major country without a lead diplomat to discuss cyber norms and try to reduce the ever-escalating cyber attacks we see all around the world.”


http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/18/trump-just-fired-americas-top-cyber-security-official-expert/

Trash bending Lady Liberty over and letting BFF Pootin amuse himself

Pootin and his FSB people, China, NK must be laughing their asses off.

[Thread]

^How the hell can he be worth a dime? All we've heard is how the Russians are in our election shit cycle after cycle. We're at their mercy. All the heads of the intelligence community threw up their hands and went before Congress and cried like babies over it. They should have all been fired January 21st.

[boutons_deux]

Jeff Sessions’ expanded civil asset forfeiture policy is even being blasted by conservatives

Conservatives are bashing a new policy that would give government the ability to take property without charges

Holder only focused on “adoptive” forfeiture, a smaller subset of the problem, but one of the most corrupt aspects. The “adoptive” forfeitures made it possible for state and local authorities to “sidestep sometimes stricter state laws, processing forfeiture cases under the more permissive federal statute,” according to the Post.

The Post elaborated (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/01/20/how-much-civil-asset-forfeiture-will-holders-new-policy-actually-prevent/?utm_term=.d04c06540a08) on adoption cases:

Adoption cases have minimal federal involvement. They are cases in which a local police agency simply calls up a field office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or other federal law enforcement agency to sign some papers so that the case gets kicked up to federal court, where it will be governed by the less restrictive federal forfeiture laws.


“This is a federalism issue,” Robert Everett Johnson, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that represents forfeiture defendants, told the Post.

Returning to federal adoptive forfeitures would “circumvent limitations on civil forfeiture that are imposed by state legislatures . . .

the Department of Justice is saying ‘we’re going to help state and local law enforcement to get around those reforms.'”

But Sessions also noted he intends on expanding the “adoptive” forfeitures, saying the practice is “appropriate as is sharing with our partners.”

States have made recent attempts to rein in the practice of asset forfeiture.

“Thirteen states now allow forfeiture only in cases where there’s been a criminal conviction,” Johnson told the Post.

The issue has oddly united both liberals and conservatives, specifically those who lean libertarian. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.,said he was afraid that expanding the “adoptive” forfeitures would undermine the attempts states have made to rein in the entire practice.

Ramping up adoptive forfeitures would circumvent much of the progress state legislatures have made to curb forfeiture abuse and expand a loophole that’s become a central point of contention nationwide. Criminals shouldn’t be able to keep the proceeds of their crime, but

innocent Americans shouldn’t lose their right to due process, or their private property rights, in order to make that happen.”

http://www.salon.com/2017/07/19/jeff-sessions-expanded-civil-asset-forfeiture-policy-is-even-being-blasted-by-conservatives/

Repug "overreach" nullifying the states' attempts to limit c/f?

Sessions' LIE is that this is about drug offenders, knowing DAMN WELL the cops and the Feds abuse c/f to steal from citizens for law enforcement's own enrichment.

There's not ONE FUCKING THING the Repugs have done that doesn't degrade and CRAPIFY America.

[boutons_deux]

Wisconsin’s OB-GYN Shortage Could Get Worse if Republicans Get Their Way

A GOP lawmaker is taking aim at the University of Wisconsin's arrangement allowing OB-GYN residents to receive training in abortion care at Planned Parenthood's Madison clinic.

A Wisconsin GOP lawmaker’s crusade against Planned Parenthood could cost the state’s flagship university millions and exacerbate the state’s shortage of OB-GYNs.

Wisconsin is facing a shortage of physicians who provide obstetrics and gynecological care, as 20 of the state’s 72 counties lack an OB-GYN,

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health this fall launched the nation’s first (https://badgerherald.com/news/2016/09/27/uw-launches-first-obgyn-rural-residency-program-in-nation/) rural residency program for OB-GYNs, with the hopes of increasing the number of doctors (http://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/health-care/2016/10/26/wisconsin-addresses-shortage-rural-doctors/92064220/) who can provide OB-GYN care in underserved areas.

But a bill pending in the GOP-held state legislature threatens to undermine the university’s efforts.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/07/20/wisconsins-ob-gyn-shortage-get-worse-republicans-get-way/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

[SpursforSix]

Wisconsin’s OB-GYN Shortage Could Get Worse if Republicans Get Their Way

A GOP lawmaker is taking aim at the University of Wisconsin's arrangement allowing OB-GYN residents to receive training in abortion care at Planned Parenthood's Madison clinic.

A Wisconsin GOP lawmaker’s crusade against Planned Parenthood could cost the state’s flagship university millions and exacerbate the state’s shortage of OB-GYNs.

Wisconsin is facing a shortage of physicians who provide obstetrics and gynecological care, as 20 of the state’s 72 counties lack an OB-GYN,

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health this fall launched the nation’s first (https://badgerherald.com/news/2016/09/27/uw-launches-first-obgyn-rural-residency-program-in-nation/) rural residency program for OB-GYNs, with the hopes of increasing the number of doctors (http://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/health-care/2016/10/26/wisconsin-addresses-shortage-rural-doctors/92064220/) who can provide OB-GYN care in underserved areas.

But a bill pending in the GOP-held state legislature threatens to undermine the university’s efforts.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/07/20/wisconsins-ob-gyn-shortage-get-worse-republicans-get-way/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29




meh..."shortage"...lol.
Abortions and deliveries are pretty much things any average person can perform. Don't need to waste an MD for that shit.

[boutons_deux]

Republicans set to confirm Trump-nominated federal judge who compared abortion to slavery


http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/download-8-800x430.jpg

Judge John Bush (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-bush-judge-trump-abortion_us_596f960be4b01696c6a239f6?x9g), who is up for a lifetime appointment presiding over the 6th circuit court, once compared abortion to slavery and called them “the two greatest tragedies in our country” on his extremely right-wing blog where he wrote under the pseudonym “G. Morris.”

he “regretted” many of the opinions expressed there :lol LIAR

and claimed he wouldn’t let his opinions taint his rulings from the bench. :lol LIAR

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/republicans-set-to-confirm-trump-nominated-federal-judge-who-compared-abortion-to-slavery/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

[boutons_deux]

Warnings as GOP Aims to Gut Protections for Endangered Species

House and Senate committees consider bills to roll back longstanding protections for vulnerable plants and animals

Conservation groups are issuing warnings on Wednesday as Congressional committees in both chambers considered Republican-backed bills aimed at weakening the Endangered Species Act.

As National Geographic recently reported (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/05/does-the-endangered-species-act-protect-too-many-species-/), some scientists (http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253.short) have "concluded that we may already be amid the sixth mass extinction since the beginning of life on Earth," and "if current trends continue...half of the planet’s species (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6970/abs/nature02121.html) may be on the path to extinction by the end of the century."

"If these dangerous bills are enacted, hundreds of plants and animals will be put on a fast track to extinction," said (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/endangered-species-act-07-18-2017.php) Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

"These efforts to gut and repeal the Endangered Species Act are deeply unpopular with the American people

who recognize that this incredibly successful law saved the bald eagle, humpback whale, American alligator, and many more species from being lost forever."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/07/19/warnings-gop-aims-gut-protections-endangered-species

The American People don't fucking count anymore in the America of unstoppable oligarchy.

[boutons_deux]

The Head Of America’s Largest Teachers’ Union Just Accused Trump Of Reinstating Segregation

Comparing President Trump’s controversial Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to a climate change denier, the head of the American Federation of Teachers said her push for taxpayer-funded vouchers, (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/20/union-leader-school-vouchers-polite-cousins-segregation/493617001/) tuition tax credits, and other plans are “only slightly more polite cousins of segregation.”

The real purpose of vouchers, tax credits, and private, for-profit charter schools, charges AFT President Randi Weingarten is to “hide a dangerous ideological agenda” that promotes racial and economic segregation, while it “destabilizes public schools.”


Weingarten said many private schools do discriminate because they are exempt from federal civil rights laws.

In Trump’s proposal for the 2018 budget, (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/politics/betsy-devos-refuses-to-rule-out-giving-funds-to-schools-that-discriminate.html)

$1.8 billion would go to what the administration calls “expanded school choices.”



At the same time, the

Trump budget would cut $9 billion, about 13 percent of the department’s funding, from about 20 programs that would help gifted students and disabled students, among others, who attend public schools.

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/07/20/head-americas-largest-teachers-union-just-accused-trump-reinstating-segregation/

well, duh. Charter schools are very big in the Confederacy, for the above reason.