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

[boutons_deux]

balls and strikes LIAR Roberts assuring the oligarchy will remain free to keep corrupting the entire political class

Chief Justice Roberts halts “dark money” finance ruling

The move lets anonymous campaign donors remain hidden

Chief Justice John Roberts halted a federal judge’s order that invalidated a Federal Election Commission regulation that has allowed donors to dark-money groups to be anonymous.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell was supposed to take effect Monday.

A three-judge D.C. Circuit panel turned down the same arguments for a stay.

The FEC regulation in dispute requires disclosure only when a donor designates his or her money for a specific independent expenditure,

but does not require donors’ iden ies to be made public under other conditions, including when they seek to support or oppose an individual candidate.

https://www.salon.com/2018/09/17/chi...uling_partner/

[boutons_deux]

Liar Catholic Roberts gets reversed? WTF?

Supreme Court Orders Disclosure For Dark Money, As New Report Unveils Some Donors

The Supreme Court on Tuesday insisted that many donations to predominantly conservative political nonprofit groups —

what's often called dark money —

be disclosed, seven weeks ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

The ruling closes, at least for now, a loophole that has allowed wealthy donors to finance aggressive ads while staying anonymous.

Crafted by the Federal Election Commission nearly 40 years ago, the loophole flourished after the 2010 Citizens United ruling.

The court set aside an order issued by Chief Justice John Roberts on Saturday. ??????

The social welfare group Crossroads GPS, a defendant in the lawsuit, had fought to stall disclosure while it prepares to appeal.

It failed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and then appealed to the Supreme Court.

The disclosure requirement is expected to apply to explicitly political ads by nonprofit groups for the remaining weeks of the campaign season.

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/648722358/supreme-court-orders-disclosure-for-dark-money-as-new-report-unveils-some-donors

[boutons_deux]

Here's a huge mouthful of where the oligarchy's Federal judiciary is targeting

Trump's judges double down, making it easier for prosecutors to convict innocent people

Donald J. Trump’s put five judges on the Fifth Circuit;

George W. Bush placed four there.

Two Reagan appointees are still active.

Just three Obama and two Clinton judges sit on that court, which hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

The latest reminder of what that means for our rights is a chilling one.

For the past 55 years, prosecutors have been required to share exculpatory evidence—

that is, evidence they have that a defendant may be innocent—with the defendant.

That requirement, called the Brady Rule or Brady Doctrine,

does little to alleviate the radical disparity between prosecutorial and defense resources when defendants depend on public funding,

but it’s a bulwark against the worst of abuses.

Seems like a fundamentally sound concept, no?

The Fifth Circuit doesn’t think so, at least not as it is today—an outpost of the GOP.

In 2009, it decided prosecutors didn’t have to turn over exculpatory evidence during the plea-bargaining process.

Given a chance to reconsider this deviant, destructive precedent,

they’ve instead produced an en banc ruling—

that is, a ruling from a hearing in which all judges participated—that reaffirms it.

In fact, the Fifth Circuit’s call flies in the face of how every other appellate court and state supreme court to have considered this question came out.

The repercussions are enormous:

97 percent of federal criminal convictions and

94 percent of state felony convictions

are the result of plea bargains.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...tail=emaildkre

So if the prosecution has secret evidence that the defendant is innocent, they'll convict the innocent anyway.

Of Course, the 5th is in slave state / Jim Crow New Orleans

The oligarchy's AmeriKKKa is truly a stinkin hole.

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy buys the rulings, laws that enrich it

U.S. airlines score win as Congress drops 'reasonable fee' rules

The U.S. airline industry scored a win on Saturday as bipartisan congressional legislation

dropped plans to mandate “reasonable and proportional” baggage and change fees,

airlines had heavily lobbied against new rules limiting fees.

U.S. airlines revenue from baggage and reservation change fees increased from $5.7 billion in 2010 to $7.5 billion in 2017.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-airlines/u-s-airlines-score-win-as-congress-drops-reasonable-fee-rules-idUSKCN1M20NO?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_so urce=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed% 3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%2 9

[boutons_deux]

Poland referred to European court over judges' forced retirement

Poland has been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over a rule which forced almost a third of the country's top judges out of office.

The government lowered the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to 65, in what opponents say is an attempt to appoint more favourable replacements.

The European Commission has now sent the case to the ECJ, saying the change undermines judicial independence.

It is the EU's latest move in a long-running feud over Poland's judiciary.

In December last year, the European Commission began disciplinary proceedings against Poland, accusing it of

significant interference in its own courts.

It invoked a European rule called Article 7 - the first time the commission had ever done so.

In the months since, Hungary has also faced censure under Article 7 over the actions of its leader Victor Orban.

Hungary and Poland have vowed to support each other in the face of what they see as political interference by the European Union in domestic matters.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45628757

Dictators, fascists, authoritarians, the fascist AMERICAN OLIGARCHY all understand that their control of the country begins and ends with degrading, polluting the judiciary with rightwing hacks in robes, eg, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, etc.

[boutons_deux]

'Shameless': Trump Repeals Rule Meant to Prevent Oil-Carrying 'Bomb Trains' From Derailing and Exploding

"Apparently there's no limit to the lengths the Trump administration will go

to prioritize the desires of polluting industries over the health and safety of the American people."



https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...?cd-origin=rss

Trash aint done with that knitter, yet.

[boutons_deux]

News from yet another Repug fascist hole

Attorney General Ken Paxton defends

Texas law requiring students to stand for Pledge of Allegiance

Students can be excused from the requirement if their parents give written permission.

But a lawsuit claims the law violates students' free speech rights.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/09...e-allegiance-/

[boutons_deux]

FEMA chief Brock Long used $151,000 in unauthorized taxpayer cash for people to chauffeur him around

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that an internal investigation into authorized government funds being used to

chauffeur FEMA chair Brock Long around found he spent $151,000 in taxpayer dollars.

The money was used while Long was in his home in North Carolina and his family was in Hawaii during a business trip that happened to be the same week as his family’s spring break.

The funds were never authorized by anyone, and

the use of the staffers totaled $94,000 in salary and

$55,000 in travel costs.

There was an additional $2,000 in maintenance as well.

The aide, Keith LaFoucade, then destroyed the evidence

detailing the trip in efforts to cover for Long during the investigation. That aide has since been suspended

Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen has ordered him to repay the money. Her spokesperson said, however, she and Long haven’t agreed on the amount he would pay back.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/09/fem...e+Raw+Story%29

... pays the money back and keeps his job?

The entire Trash Exec branch is a criminal enterprise.

[boutons_deux]

How Trash’s FDA Is Failing To Make Food Safe

For more than a decade, it’s been clear that there’s a gaping hole in American food safety: Growers aren’t required to test their irrigation water for pathogens such as E. coli. As a result, contaminated water can end up on fruits and vegetables.

After several high-profile disease outbreaks linked to food, Congress in 2011 ordered a fix, and produce growers this year would have begun testing their water under rules crafted by the Obama administration’s Food and Drug Administration.

But six months before people were sickened by the contaminated romaine, President Donald

Trump’s FDA – responding to pressure from the farm industry and Trump’sorder to eliminate regulations – shelved the water-testing rules for at least four years.

the FDA has shown no sign of reconsidering its plan to postpone the rules.

The agency also is considering major changes, such as

allowing some produce growers to test less frequently or

find alternatives to water testing to ensure the safety of their crops.

The FDA’s lack of urgency dumbfounds food safety scientists.

“If the risk factor associated with agricultural water use is that closely tied to contamination and outbreaks,

there needs to be something now. . . .

I can’t think of a reason to justify waiting four to six to eight years to get started.” $$$$$

irrigation water is a prime source of foodborne illnesses.

While postponing the water-testing rules would save growers $12 million per year,

it also would cost consumers $108 million per year in medical expenses,

his illness has been traumatic as well as costly.

After returning home from his nine-day hospital stay, he relied on narcotic painkillers for about six weeks.

The infection caused a hernia and tore holes in the lining of his stomach that surgeons had to patch with mesh.

Five months later, he still has numbness from the surgery and diarrhea every week.

under the Trump administration plan,

large growers wouldn’t have to start inspecting their water systems and annually test surface waters for pathogens until 2022.

Then they will have an additional two years to ensure irrigation water that comes in contact with vegetables and fruit does not contain E. coli above a certain concentration.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/how-trum...ke-food-safe/#

So meat factories consume scarce water and excrete that pollutes irrigation and drinking water.

Consumers bear the diseases and deaths as external costs that BigAg / BigChem escapes to preserve profits.

[boutons_deux]

Appeals court orders EPA to ban sales of widely-used farm pesticide chlorpyrifos

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping a widely used pesticide on the market despite

extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies' brains.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days.

A coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued last year after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruit, apples and other crops.

The attorneys general for several states including California, New York and Massachusetts joined the case against EPA.

In a split decision, the court said Thursday that Pruitt, a Republican forced to resign earlier this summer amid ethics scandals, violated federal law by ignoring the conclusions of agency scientists that chlorpyrifos is harmful.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epa-dow...urt-ban-sales/

... which is why Trash is now attacking the 9th Circuit Court by proposing oligarchy s as judges.

What do our ST poisonous farmers have to say about chlorpyrifos ?

chlorpyrifos has been banned in "social democratic" Europe while Capitalists up America.

[boutons_deux]

Andrew Saul is Unfit to Lead the Social Security Administration

"Like so many of Donald Trump's nominees, Andrew Saul is utterly unqualified for the position to which he has been nominated.

He has no background in Social Security whatsoever.

He did, however, serve on the board of the right-wing Manhattan Ins ute which

has consistently been extremely hostile to Social Security,

including publishing articles advocating for drastic cuts to benefits.
Furthermore, Saul has a track record of deeply concerning personal conduct.

In November 2007, Saul was forced to drop out of the race for a New York Congressional seat due to unethical campaign contributions.

In April 2012, Saul tried to lie "his way out of a trespassing rap by falsely identifying himself as a police commissioner."

https://www.commondreams.org/newswir...?cd-origin=rss



Trash's perfect record: every single one of his appointees is supposed to up, not improve, his/her govt organization.

[boutons_deux]

The pettiness, meanness and xenophobia of Trash/Miller. Hate-saturated Christian Sharia imposed on foreigners

Trump Administration to Deny Visas to Same-Sex Partners of Diplomats, U.N. Officials

The new policy will insist they be married—even if they're from countries that criminalize gay marriage.

The Trump administration on Monday began

denying visas to same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations employees, and

requiring those already in the United States to get married by the end of the year or leave the country.

The U.S. Mission to the U.N. portrayed the decision—which foreign diplomats fear will increase hardships for same-sex couples in countries that don’t recognize same-sex marriage—as an effort to bring its international visa practices in line with current U.S. policy.

In light of the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, the U.S. extends diplomatic visas only to married spouses of U.S. diplomats.

“Same-sex spouses of U.S. diplomats now enjoy the same rights and benefits as opposite-sex spouses,” the U.S. mission wrote in a July 12 note to U.N.-based delegations.

“Consistent with [State] Department policy,

partners accompanying members of permanent missions or seeking to join the same must generally be married in order to be eligible” for a diplomatic visa.

But critics says

the new policy will impose undue hardships on foreign couples from countries that criminalize same-sex marriages.
Samantha Power, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, denounced the new policy on Twitter as

“needlessly cruel & bigoted.”
“State Dept. will no longer let same-sex domestic partners of UN employees get visas unless they are married,” she tweeted, noting that

“only 12% of UN member states allow same-sex marriage.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/01...ials-gay-lgbt/

[boutons_deux]

Trump's EPA Rethinking That Whole 'Radiation Is Bad For You' Thing

Not content with giving the USA the gifts of

more toxic pesticides and

filthy coal-mine runoff,

the Environmental "Protection" Agency is

moving to embrace the idea that some level of exposure to radiation is perfectly safe,

and maybe even good for you. (Attention kids: do not try Trump Science at home.)

Needless to say, some in the nuclear industry, as well as fringe scientists, fans of radiation, and

those hoping to become mutant superheroes, are awfully receptive to the proposal.

Honestly, now that we've decided science is just a matter of who shouts loudest, why the not?

The Associated Press explains this rad new idea:

Supporters of the EPA's new proposal argue

the government's current no-tolerance rule for radiation damage forces unnecessary spending for handling exposure in accidents, at nuclear plants, in medical centers and at other sites.

"This would have a positive effect on human health

as well as save billions and billions and billions of dollars," $$$ for Capitalists ALWAYS trumps everything

said Edward Calabrese, a toxicologist at the University of Massachusetts who is to be the lead witness at a congressional hearing Wednesday on EPA's proposal.

Calabrese, who made those remarks in a 2016 interview with a California nonprofit, was quoted by EPA in its announcement of the proposed rule in April.


The article explains that radiation is everywhere, but this proposal involves the nasty stuff, "higher-energy, shorter-wave radiation, like X-rays, that can penetrate and disrupt living cells"

https://www.wonkette.com/trumps-epa-...-for-you-thing

[boutons_deux]

Trash's kakistocracy implementing anti-science bull Christian Sharia

Trump Administration’s Fetal Tissue Policy Review the Latest in the ‘Far-Right War Against Science’

The Trump administration is curtailing the use of fetal tissue in medical research, once again putting public health in jeopardy.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week that it had terminated a contract between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and fetal tissue supplier Advanced Bioscience Resources Inc. (ABR) and had begun a review of all agency fetal tissue policies.

The announcement follows a mid-September letter from anti-choice leaders pressuring the head of HHS, Alex Azar, to review ABR’s contract and end all government funding of fetal tissue research.

Anti-choice groups claim that fetal tissue procurement companies create a profit incentive for providers to increase the number of abortions they perform.

Pro-choice advocates suggest that the termination of ABR’s contract is not an isolated decision, but the latest front in the Trump administration’s anti-choice agenda.

“The FDA’s original contract with ABR was in place for several years, even as it came under fire from right-wing ideologues,”

“They’re now on the warpath once again because it was renewed.”

https://rewire.news/article/2018/10/...ainst-science/

[boutons_deux]

More Christian Sharia regulating women's vaginas and sex lives with a PROVEN FAILURE of abstinence-only

Trump’s HHS Turns Teen Pregnancy Grant Announcement Into ‘Political Theater’

The move by HHS seems to pit nonprofits and community organizations against each other—some left wondering if they would ever get federal funding.

The Trump administration has released a list of more than $19 million in federal grants for teen pregnancy prevention initiatives that the administration said it would have dispersed,

if not for lawsuits from reproductive rights advocates.

the administration was putting on a show, masking

an ongoing effort to promote abstinence-focused sexual education programs

against the will of the U.S. Congress.

in April, the Trump administration changed the criteria for the grant programs.

Opponents of the move said it was meant to shift funding to abstinence-focused programs favored by foes of reproductive rights.

https://rewire.news/article/2018/10/...tical-theater/

[boutons_deux]

Mitch McConnell Is Killing the Senate

6 things he's done to turn it into a weak arm of Trump’s White House.

To see just what a farce this process has been, consider that McConnell (with the help of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley) has:

Failed to demand the release of do ents produced during Kavanaugh’s time as a political and legal operative—

working closely with Karl Rove—in George W. Bush’s White House. These do ents are essential to any review of this nominee, since Kavanaugh’s job involved manipulation of the character of the federal courts through the nomination and confirmation processes. “Through obstruction, and concealment of tens of thousands of relevant records, the President and Senate leadership are preventing Senator Merkley and his Senate colleagues from exercising their cons utional obligation to provide advice and consent on the fitness of the nominee,” says Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Failed to conduct a serious inquiry into credible evidence that Kavanaugh lied to the Judiciary Committee.

The senior member of the Senate, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, has detailed lies Kavanaugh told the committee regarding his use of stolen do ents to manipulate the confirmation process for Bush’s judicial nominees. Former Judiciary Committee member Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, argues that: “Taking all his testimony together, we see a clear pattern emerge: Brett Kavanaugh has never appeared under oath before the U.S. Senate without lying.” Kavanaugh’s college roommate, said after the nominee testified last Thursday that he had not been a heavy drinker (as part of a broader effort to counter allegations of sexual abuse), that Kavanaugh had lied under oath. “Not only did I know he wasn’t telling the truth, I knew that he knew he wasn’t telling the truth,” explained James Roche. Yet, McConnell has made no effort to examine the question of whether Kavanaugh deliberately deceived individual senators and the body as a whole.

Failed to organize fair and impartial hearings regarding the nomination.

Initial Judiciary Committee hearings were constrained and rushed, and the hearing at which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified was a travesty. Witnesses who could have spoken regarding the specific allegations against Kavanaugh were not called, nor were witnesses who sought to present evidence of broader concerns regarding the nominee’s past. The issue of Kavanaugh’s credibility, as someone who stood accused of lying to the committee, was not examined. It was a sham hearing designed to move the process along as quickly as possible, rather than to get to the truth. As law professor Anita Hill, who presented testimony about on-the-job harassment to the Judiciary Committee as part of the 1991 confirmation process for Justice Clarence Thomas, has observed: “That the Senate Judiciary Committee still lacks a protocol for vetting sexual harassment and assault claims that surface during a confirmation hearing suggests that the committee has learned little from the Thomas hearing, much less the more recent #MeToo movement.”

Failed to demand a full FBI inquiry into charges against Kavanaugh.

McConnell and Glassley, in collaboration with the Trump White House, were dragged unwillingly into accepting a final FBI review of sexual abuse allegations involving Kavanaugh. They sought to limit the scope of the inquiry and got what they wanted: a background investigation finished in just five days that failed to interview key figures in the case. “The White House confirmation that it will not allow the FBI to interview Dr. Blasey Ford, Judge Kavanaugh or witnesses identified by Deborah Ramirez raises serious concerns that this is not a credible investigation,” noted California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. The White House says it took its direction from Senate leaders. McConnell and Grassley made no effort to demand the honest investigation that was needed to provide senators with basic information that it necessary to confirm or reject Kavanaugh.

Failed to make the FBI report available for full and easy review by members of the Senate and the American people.

Though the FBI report was inadequate, or perhaps because it was in inadequate, McConnell set bizarre rule regarding its review. CNN explains that: “This FBI’s work is not public. It will likely never be public. There will be no summary. There will be no release. There are 109 people who have clearance to access what was delivered to Capitol Hill at 2:30 Thursday morning—100 senators, four majority committee staffers and four minority committee staffers, one committee clerk. That’s it.” The secrecy that McConnell has imposed only reinforces the sense that the Senate leader recognizes one duty: preventing honest scrutiny of the president’s Supreme Court nominee.

Failed to set aside time for a serious debate about this nomination.

Even before the FBI report was in hand, McConnell had announced that the Senate would vote this week on whether to confirm Kavanaugh. He is rushing the process, with no deference to deliberation by a chamber that he has assured is no longer the greatest deliberative body in the world. Leahy says that the Senate is breaking “precedent after precedent in a manic rush to fill a Supreme Court seat.”


“We’re supposed to be, the Senate’s supposed to be, an independent equal branch of government. We’re no longer that.

We’re an arm in a very weak arm of the Trump White House,”

Leahy said toward the close of last week’s hearing.

“Every semblance of independence has disappeared.

It’s gone.
And I think that’s something historians will look at and call it

a turning point in the United States Senate.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/mi...ng-the-senate/

McC is a top General in the oligarchy's WAR to take over govt, to make USA a one-party country under the oligarchy, to compromise and pervert the Federal judiciary.

If K gets in, SCOTUS will complete the process af becoming a TOTAL JOKE in the service of the oligarchy that has been strategizing towards that goal for 40 years.

[boutons_deux]

Veterans Affairs won’t hand over do ents showing suspected shadow influence of Trump associates

"The reports of corruption and cronyism are serious," Rep. Tim Walz said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs won’t give Congress records that could show the undue influence friends of President Donald Trump have over agency policy, MilitaryTimes reports.

A bombs investigation by ProPublica in August revealed that

three close Trump associates —

Ike Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel Entertainment;

Bruce Moskowitz, who works in concierge medicine;

and Marc Sherman, an attorney—

have ruled the VA as unappointed, and unconfirmed, shadow officials

from their base at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
https://thinkprogress.org/veterans-a...-78ede27ce604/

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

The Shadow Rulers of the VA
How Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter and two other Mar-a-Lago cronies are secretly shaping the Trump administration’s veterans policies.
https://www.propublica.org/article/i...lers-of-the-va

How much is Trash paying these corrupt assholes?

[boutons_deux]

GOP Lawmaker Rips Mic From Democratic Candidate’s Hands During Debate

When he was done talking, Rep. Duane Quam just tossed the mic in front of her.

https://youtu.be/GX2GJvmxoFo

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...gEmail__101018

[Spurs Homer]

Mitch McConnell Is Killing the Senate

6 things he's done to turn it into a weak arm of Trump’s White House.

To see just what a farce this process has been, consider that McConnell (with the help of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley) has:

Failed to demand the release of do ents produced during Kavanaugh’s time as a political and legal operative—

working closely with Karl Rove—in George W. Bush’s White House. These do ents are essential to any review of this nominee, since Kavanaugh’s job involved manipulation of the character of the federal courts through the nomination and confirmation processes. “Through obstruction, and concealment of tens of thousands of relevant records, the President and Senate leadership are preventing Senator Merkley and his Senate colleagues from exercising their cons utional obligation to provide advice and consent on the fitness of the nominee,” says Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Failed to conduct a serious inquiry into credible evidence that Kavanaugh lied to the Judiciary Committee.

The senior member of the Senate, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, has detailed lies Kavanaugh told the committee regarding his use of stolen do ents to manipulate the confirmation process for Bush’s judicial nominees. Former Judiciary Committee member Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, argues that: “Taking all his testimony together, we see a clear pattern emerge: Brett Kavanaugh has never appeared under oath before the U.S. Senate without lying.” Kavanaugh’s college roommate, said after the nominee testified last Thursday that he had not been a heavy drinker (as part of a broader effort to counter allegations of sexual abuse), that Kavanaugh had lied under oath. “Not only did I know he wasn’t telling the truth, I knew that he knew he wasn’t telling the truth,” explained James Roche. Yet, McConnell has made no effort to examine the question of whether Kavanaugh deliberately deceived individual senators and the body as a whole.

Failed to organize fair and impartial hearings regarding the nomination.

Initial Judiciary Committee hearings were constrained and rushed, and the hearing at which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified was a travesty. Witnesses who could have spoken regarding the specific allegations against Kavanaugh were not called, nor were witnesses who sought to present evidence of broader concerns regarding the nominee’s past. The issue of Kavanaugh’s credibility, as someone who stood accused of lying to the committee, was not examined. It was a sham hearing designed to move the process along as quickly as possible, rather than to get to the truth. As law professor Anita Hill, who presented testimony about on-the-job harassment to the Judiciary Committee as part of the 1991 confirmation process for Justice Clarence Thomas, has observed: “That the Senate Judiciary Committee still lacks a protocol for vetting sexual harassment and assault claims that surface during a confirmation hearing suggests that the committee has learned little from the Thomas hearing, much less the more recent #MeToo movement.”

Failed to demand a full FBI inquiry into charges against Kavanaugh.

McConnell and Glassley, in collaboration with the Trump White House, were dragged unwillingly into accepting a final FBI review of sexual abuse allegations involving Kavanaugh. They sought to limit the scope of the inquiry and got what they wanted: a background investigation finished in just five days that failed to interview key figures in the case. “The White House confirmation that it will not allow the FBI to interview Dr. Blasey Ford, Judge Kavanaugh or witnesses identified by Deborah Ramirez raises serious concerns that this is not a credible investigation,” noted California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. The White House says it took its direction from Senate leaders. McConnell and Grassley made no effort to demand the honest investigation that was needed to provide senators with basic information that it necessary to confirm or reject Kavanaugh.

Failed to make the FBI report available for full and easy review by members of the Senate and the American people.

Though the FBI report was inadequate, or perhaps because it was in inadequate, McConnell set bizarre rule regarding its review. CNN explains that: “This FBI’s work is not public. It will likely never be public. There will be no summary. There will be no release. There are 109 people who have clearance to access what was delivered to Capitol Hill at 2:30 Thursday morning—100 senators, four majority committee staffers and four minority committee staffers, one committee clerk. That’s it.” The secrecy that McConnell has imposed only reinforces the sense that the Senate leader recognizes one duty: preventing honest scrutiny of the president’s Supreme Court nominee.

Failed to set aside time for a serious debate about this nomination.

Even before the FBI report was in hand, McConnell had announced that the Senate would vote this week on whether to confirm Kavanaugh. He is rushing the process, with no deference to deliberation by a chamber that he has assured is no longer the greatest deliberative body in the world. Leahy says that the Senate is breaking “precedent after precedent in a manic rush to fill a Supreme Court seat.”


“We’re supposed to be, the Senate’s supposed to be, an independent equal branch of government. We’re no longer that.

We’re an arm in a very weak arm of the Trump White House,”

Leahy said toward the close of last week’s hearing.

“Every semblance of independence has disappeared.

It’s gone.
And I think that’s something historians will look at and call it

a turning point in the United States Senate.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/mi...ng-the-senate/

McC is a top General in the oligarchy's WAR to take over govt, to make USA a one-party country under the oligarchy, to compromise and pervert the Federal judiciary.

If K gets in, SCOTUS will complete the process af becoming a TOTAL JOKE in the service of the oligarchy that has been strategizing towards that goal for 40 years.

These are reasons why Dems will investigate this sham if they retake the House.
The media and the right - will moan and use their talking points: "is this helping the country to heal?" "why are we going back instead of putting this behind us?"


But a coverup was done in full public view - and only because we are in the new Twilight Zone - is this not an outrage anymore.

Chuck Grassley - learned - that he could run this sham in record time and knew that he could get away with it (or he thinks he did) - because he did the same thing for the Russia hearings.
Grassley and Graham - both - filed a criminal inquiry against Christopher Steele - with no evidence - except for Nunes and FOX news' conspiracy theories. A slap in the face to our British ally - who cared enough about the USA to warn us of Trump/Russia conspiring to rig an election.

[boutons_deux]

Dean er attacks stage 4 cancer survivor while lying about his health care record

er wants you to believe he "stood up for Nevadans for pre-existing conditions." He hasn't.

Sen. Dean er (R-NV) attacks stage 4 cancer survivor Laura Packard as a “Democrat political operative”

while falsely claiming he’s “stood up for Nevadans for pre-existing conditions.”

er and every other Senate Republican with the sole exception of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

voted on Wednesday “against blocking the Trump administration’s expansion of health plans that can deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.”

er co-sponsored a bill that would have allowed states “to get waivers to allow insurers to charge people with pre-existing conditions higher premiums.”

https://thinkprogress.org/dean- e...-e34963306918/

[boutons_deux]

Republicans Go Full Blown Racist And Warn That Black Mobs Are Coming For Whites On Election Day

The Republican Party is now warning their white voters that black people are angry mobs who are coming for them on election day.

Ronna McDaniel
✔@GOPChairwoman

Maxine Waters incites violence against @realDonaldTrump’s cabinet.

Cory Booker pleads for activists to “get up in the face of some congresspeople.”

Hillary Clinton says “you cannot be civil with” Republicans.

Now Eric Holder wants the mob even angrier.
1:22 PM - Oct 10, 2018

The racial dog whistles were everywhere and pretty impossible to miss,

Ronald Brownstein@RonBrownstein

By escalating warnings of “mob” chaos & linking it so explicitly to racial coding, the GOP is trying to mobilize its base but is also testing boundaries of how many white voters, especially college educated, will identify with such open appeals to racial resentments & fears

Ronald Brownstein@RonBrownstein

That’s sure a lot of black people (plus one all season GOP target) to cram into one tweet as angry and threatening. Now awaiting the chorus of conservative voices explaining how there’s no racial signaling here. Trump era GOP continues to make old subtext the new text

https://twitter.com/gopchairwoman/st...89144632918018 …

3:19 PM - Oct 10, 2018

Since Brett Kavanaugh can’t save them, Republicans have turned to racism

The latest polling has revealed that the

Brett Kavanaugh confirmation has backfired by energizing more Democrats than Republicans,

so without the Kavanaugh card to play, Republicans have returned to their old reliable, the racist boogeyman.

Republicans have been using these racial codes to motivate their voters for decades.

They’ve done it with black people.

They’ve done it with Hispanics and immigration.

It reveals

the desperation of a failing party whose base has become dominated by angry old white men.

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/10/10/republicans-go-full-blown-racist.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed& utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29Ronald Brownstein@RonBrownstein

[Spurs Homer]

Republicans Go Full Blown Racist And Warn That Black Mobs Are Coming For Whites On Election Day

The Republican Party is now warning their white voters that black people are angry mobs who are coming for them on election day.

Ronna McDaniel
✔@GOPChairwoman

Maxine Waters incites violence against @realDonaldTrump’s cabinet.

Cory Booker pleads for activists to “get up in the face of some congresspeople.”

Hillary Clinton says “you cannot be civil with” Republicans.

Now Eric Holder wants the mob even angrier.
1:22 PM - Oct 10, 2018

The racial dog whistles were everywhere and pretty impossible to miss,

Ronald Brownstein@RonBrownstein

By escalating warnings of “mob” chaos & linking it so explicitly to racial coding, the GOP is trying to mobilize its base but is also testing boundaries of how many white voters, especially college educated, will identify with such open appeals to racial resentments & fears

Ronald Brownstein@RonBrownstein

That’s sure a lot of black people (plus one all season GOP target) to cram into one tweet as angry and threatening. Now awaiting the chorus of conservative voices explaining how there’s no racial signaling here. Trump era GOP continues to make old subtext the new text

https://twitter.com/gopchairwoman/st...89144632918018 …

3:19 PM - Oct 10, 2018

Since Brett Kavanaugh can’t save them, Republicans have turned to racism

The latest polling has revealed that the

Brett Kavanaugh confirmation has backfired by energizing more Democrats than Republicans,

so without the Kavanaugh card to play, Republicans have returned to their old reliable, the racist boogeyman.

Republicans have been using these racial codes to motivate their voters for decades.

They’ve done it with black people.

They’ve done it with Hispanics and immigration.

It reveals

the desperation of a failing party whose base has become dominated by angry old white men.

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/10/10/republicans-go-full-blown-racist.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed& utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29Ronald Brownstein@RonBrownstein

Snowflakes are afraid of EVERYTHING!
Muslims
Blacks
Browns
Immigrants (used to be only scared of "illegal" immigrants - now scurred of ALL IMMIGRANTS!)
Gays
Hillary
Obama
FBI



Did I miss anything they are not terrified of?

[boutons_deux]

'Kick boxing lesbian Indian will be sent back packing to the reservation,' says Kansas Republican


A local Kansas Republican Party committee member unleashed aracist, phobic attack on Democratic House candidate Sharice Davids

, prompting state party officials to … try to turn the attack back on Democrats.

“Little Ms. Pritchett- you and your comrades stealth attack on Yoder is going to blow up in your leftist face,” [precinct committeeman Michael] Kalny wrote.

“The REAL REPUBLICANS will remember what the s DEMONRATS tried to do to Kavanaugh in November.

Your radical socialist kick boxing lesbian Indian will be sent back packing to the reservation.”

Roughly 50 exclamation points followed the end of the message.

Sharice Davids is, in fact, a Native American lesbian amateur mixed martial arts fighter.

These could all be used as neutral or even positive descriptions of her, but the “s DEMONRATS,” “radical socialist,” and “sent back packing to the reservation” parts leave no doubt about how Kalny intended his screed.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...sas-Republican

You Repugs, the party of racists

[boutons_deux]

Indiana’s GOP State House Speaker paid $40K in campaign funds for dirt on former intern who said they had an affair


https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/ind...e+Raw+Story%29

[boutons_deux]

Voting Rights Become A Flashpoint In Georgia Governor’s Race

Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor, is in charge of elections and voter registration in Georgia.

Appling-Nunez’s application is one of over 53,000 sitting on hold with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office. And unlike Appling-Nunez, many people on that list — which is predominantly black, according to an analysis by The Associated Press — may not even know their voter registration has been held up.

through a process that Kemp calls voter roll maintenance and his opponents call voter roll purges,

Kemp’s office has cancelled over 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012.

Nearly 670,000 registrations were cancelled in 2017 alone.

Kemp, meanwhile, says Abrams and allied liberal activists are twisting

his record of guarding Georgia elections against voter fraud.

Two main policies overseen by Kemp have drawn criticism and legal challenges:

Georgia’s “exact match” registration verification process and

the mass cancellation of inactive voter registrations.

53,000 registrations on hold with Kemp’s office — was flagged because it ran afoul of the state’s “exact match” verification process.

An application could be held because of an entry error or a dropped hyphen in a last name, for example.

Appling-Nunez says she never saw any notice from Kemp’s office indicating a problem with her application.

“We’ve shown that this process disproportionately prevents minority applicants from getting on the voter registration rolls,” duh!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...gEmail__101118

Repugs cheating blatantly to keep SLAVE state Georgia a rigorously one-party, anti-democratic RACIST govt.