VRWC news: gonna be a long thread

[boutons_deux]

Kochs are pouring big money into AG races to fight clean energy

[The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)] is a Washington, D.C.-based political organization dedicated to electing and re-electing Republicans across the nation to be state attorneys general — and to supporting their efforts to fight “federal encroachment” and to promote “free markets.”

RAGA has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars this election cycle in support of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) and, through its Mountaineers Are Always Free state PAC, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), though the group claims both races are “safe for the in bent party.”

Thus far in the 2015-2016 cycle, RAGA has disclosed about $19 million in contributions received.
So where did RAGA get its money?

More than $2.4 million — about 13 percent — came from

Koch Industries,

Murray Energy,

the American Petroleum Ins ute,

Exxon Mobil,

the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity,

and other fossil fuel interests.

Another nearly $1.4 million came from the

U.S. Chamber of Commerce,

which receives a significant amount of its funds from fossil fuel companies and Koch-backed nonprofits. [...]

At the moment, several state attorneys general are fighting the EPA's Clean Power Plan, a rule that seeks to limit emissions from the electricity sector. It is expected to be one of the country's strongest tools to help meet goals under the Paris Agreement and avoid the catastrophic implications of a 2°C rise in global temperatures.

There are also state-led lawsuits again the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which is expected to protect drinking water for one out of every three Americans, and against a rule to limit methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/0...28Daily+Kos%29

the VRWC, BigCarbon, the Repugs

[boutons_deux]

Big Business Is Still Dominating State Supreme Courts

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the billionaire Koch brothers, and their bigbusiness allies have engaged in a decades-long effort to elect pro-corporate judges to state courts.

In 1971, a corporate lawyer named Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote a secret memo to the chamber arguing that big business was under attack from ins utions he perceived as liberal: academics, the media, college students, and politicians.

He also cited the public’s support for legislation to protect consumers and the environment.

Powell lamented that “few elements of American society today have as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders.” Powell suggested a solution:

The Chamber . . . should consider assuming a broader and more vigorous role in the political arena. American business and the enterprise system have been affected as much by the courts as by the executive and legislative branches of government.

Under our cons utional system, especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic and political change.

Later that same year, Powell joined the U.S. Supreme Court following his nomination by President Richard M. Nixon.

By the early 1990s, the Supreme Court had a clear conservative majority.

The Chamber of Commerce and its state affiliates then began shifting their attention to state courts.

In 2000, the chamber launched a $10 million effort to elect judges “with strong pro-business backgrounds” in five states.5 A law review article published around the same time by John Echeverria, a professor at Vermont Law School, reported that

“a little known Oklahoma-based group with close ties to Koch Industries . . . has organized a nationwide program to promote the election of state judges sympathetic to business interests in environmental and other cases.”

Echeverria said the group operated under the name “Citizens for Judicial Review” during the 1996 election, and he called it “a kind of nationwide franchising operation for pro-business advocacy in state judicial elections.” Since that effort began,

big business has spent millions of dollars to elect pro-corporate judges who tend to vote for corporate defendants and against injured workers or consumers.

The same pro-business groups have also aggressively argued for laws that limit the rights of injured individuals to sue corporations, health care providers, or anyone whose negligence contributed to the injury.

These so-called tort reform laws not only make it harder to file a lawsuit but can also limit the amount of money that juries can award to severely injured plaintiffs.9 Many courts were targeted by big business after they struck down tort reform laws for violations of state cons utional rights. The legal battles over tort reform helped to escalate the political battle for control of state supreme courts.

https://www.americanprogress.org/iss...upreme-courts/

[boutons_deux]

The Shackling of the American City

copies were handed out at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a 43-year-old organization that brings together state legislators and corporate representatives to write cookie-cutter laws for statehouses across the country.

Its members include many of the nation’s largest companies, a quarter of state legislators, one-fifth of the U.S. Congress, and seven sitting governors.

Since its distribution in the ALEC committee room, along with a U.S. map designed by the National Restaurant Association, versions of the sick leave policy have been adopted in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Cities in those states no longer have the right to decide whether the people who work there ought to receive a guarantee of sick time with pay.

Founded in 1973, the organization has paired lawmakers with businesses and special interests ranging from Google to the AARP to Exxon Mobil.

Over the years, this collaboration has produced hundreds of “model policies” that have made their way into state codes.

More than a few of those have been intended to void local laws, which would seem to undermine a central conservative tenet, one that Walker articulated last summer:

“When you send power back to the local level, the level closest to the people is generally best.”

(The paid sick leave law wasn’t technically an ALEC model policy, but its Wisconsin sponsor is ALEC’s 2016 national chairman, and the bill was sponsored by legislators with ties to ALEC in statehouses in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, and elsewhere.)

http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...an_cities.html

1973?

VRWC stink tanks Heritage, Cato, and other VRWC orgs were all created around that time.

"movement conservatism" aka VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY, with the Kock Bros financing a lot of it.

[boutons_deux]

Rendezvous with destiny: Newt Gingrich’s long war against FDR and the New Deal enters its final stage

Don't take Newt lightly: He sees Donald Trump as the final stage of his long campaign to undo the New Deal

All that our parents and grandparents achieved, however, is now in jeopardy.

For the past 40 years the GOP right and reactionary rich, abetted by neoliberal Democrats, have laid siege to the promise of the Four Freedoms and the legacy of FDR and those we have rightly come to call the Greatest Generation.

In the wake of November’s election, they seem poised to renew their campaigns.

Just last week, former Republican speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, a fervent ally of Donald Trump, took to the stage at the Heritage Foundation to rally the right’s forces around the president-elect in favor of launching a final assault on what remains of the New Deal and the Great Society.
Utterly disregarding the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million, and haughtily dismissing the fact that his Electoral College victory may be due to Russian interference in our electoral process, Gingrich spoke of Trump in the most fantastic terms.

Gleefully noting that politicians and pundits other than himself had completely underestimated the real estate mogul; bluntly assailing the media as “the propaganda media” and calling it a bunch of “idiots” (which is truly startling in light of how the “MSM” had helped to “normalize the Donald” to the public); and unashamedly hawking his own new e-book “Electing Trump,” Gingrich celebrated Trump’s business and political savvy, his salesmanship and showmanship, and his determination to “drain the swamp” and “kick over the table.”

But the real message Gingrich was bringing to Heritage was that right-wingers should stop worrying about whether they could trust Trump and start recognizing him as one of their own (notably, the editors of both the classically conservative National Review and the neoconservative Weekly Standard had distanced themselves from Trump’s campaign and candidacy).

Portraying Trump as their new champion, Gingrich assured them that the president-elect was someone they could count on, someone who was seemingly prepared to lead them against the left and the Roosevelt legacy.

Gingrich began by announcing that Trump’s impending presidency represents “the third great effort to break out of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt model.”

The first, Gingrich stated, was Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election victory and ensuing two-term presidency (aka “the Reagan Revolution”) and

the second, Gingrich proudly recalled, was the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress (the so-called Gingrich Revolution that briefly shut down the Federal government).


Gingrich then really took off. And his smarminess knew no bounds.

Professor Gingrich the historian — yes, he has a Ph.D. in history, and they don’t call it “piled higher and deeper” for nothing — referred to

“Trumpism” as a set of ideas and practices worthy of serious study.

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/26/rend...s-final-stage/

America is ed and un able.

[boutons_deux]

VRWC/BigCorp getting 1000% return on the their corruption of Repugs

Republicans pass sweeping bill to reform 'abusive' U.S. regulation

Republicans on Wednesday passed a bill in the House of Representatives that touched on nearly every step U.S. agencies take in creating and applying new rules, continuing their blitz to radically reform "abusive" federal regulation of areas from the environment to the workplace.

In a 238-183 vote, the House passed the "Regulatory Accountability Act," which combined eight bills aimed at changing how the vast government bureaucracy runs. Only five Democrats voted for it.

The legislation would give President-elect Donald Trump tools "to wipe out abusive regulation," said Bob Goodlatte, the Judiciary Committee chairman who is among the many House leaders calling for lighter regulation and saying the costs to comply with federal rules are too high.

Republicans say there is little accountability for regulations that apply to almost every aspect of American life because

they are created by appointed officials and not elected representatives. that's how govt has worked forever.

Federal agencies operate either independently or under the president's authority.

As House Republicans push for reform - last week they passed bills

requiring Congressional approval of major rules and

giving Congress power to kill dozens of recently enacted ones - Democrats are fighting back.

Democrats have said the many extra procedures required by the reform bills would

stall agencies' work,

making it impossible to create needed regulations on the environment, financial markets and other areas.

Democrats contend that

slowing down rulemaking is intended to help big businesses escape oversight.

The accountability act would jeopardize the government's capability "to safeguard public health and safety, the environment, workplace safety and consumer financial protections,"

"Worse yet, many of these new requirements are intended to facilitate the ability of regulated en ies - such as well-funded corporate interests - to intervene and derail regulatory protections they oppose,"

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-regulations-idUSKBN14W02N?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&u tm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign= Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reuters+Politics +News%29

VRWC/BigCorp/Repug essentially stopping govt from functioning.

America is ed and un able, for as far as the eye can see.

Expect red/slave states to follow suit.

[boutons_deux]

Frightened by Donald Trump? You don’t know the half of it

Yes, Donald Trump’s politics are incoherent. But those who surround him know just what they want, and his lack of clarity enhances their power. To understand what is coming, we need to understand who they are. I know all too well, because I have spent the past 15 years fighting them.

Over this time, I have watched as

tobacco, coal, oil, chemicals and biotech companies have poured billions of dollars into an international misinformation machine composed of thinktanks, bloggers and fake citizens’ groups.

Its purpose is to portray the interests of billionaires as the interests of the common people, to wage war against trade unions and beat down attempts to regulate business and tax the very rich.

Now the people who helped run this machine are shaping the government.

I first encountered the machine when writing about climate change. The fury and loathing directed at climate scientists and campaigners seemed incomprehensible until I realised they were fake: the hatred had been paid for. The bloggers and ins utes whipping up this anger were funded by oil and coal companies.

the names of Trump staffers who have emerged from such groups: people such as

Doug Domenech, from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, funded among others by the Koch brothers, Exxon and the Donors Trust;

Barry Bennett, whose Alliance for America’s Future (now called One Nation) refused to disclose its donors when challenged; and

Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance,funded by Exxon and others.

This is to say nothing of Trump’s own crashing conflicts of interest. Trump promised to “drain the swamp” of the lobbyists and corporate stooges working in Washington. But it looks as if the only swamps he’ll drain will be real ones, as his team launches its war on the natural world.

Don’t imagine that other parts of the world are immune. Corporate-funded thinktanks and fake grassroots groups are now everywhere.

the constant feed of confected scares about unions, tax and regulation drummed up by groups that won’t reveal their interests.

A few billion dollars spent on persuasion buys you all the politics you want.

Genuine campaigners, working in their free time, simply cannot match a professional network staffed by thousands of well-paid, unscrupulous people.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/donald-trump-george-monbiot-misinformation?CMP=fb_gu

[boutons_deux]

Is a billionaire-funded coup to rewrite the Cons ution on the verge of happening?



A “Convention of the States” has never been invoked before, but Republicans and Koch-backed organizations like Citizens for Self-Governance have been salivating over the possibility for years, even holding dress rehearsals in Washington, D.C., with representatives from across the country.

With the federal deficit presently hovering just below $20 trillion, their ostensible plan is to add a balanced budget amendment.

This alone would likely shred the country’s meager social safety net, but as Assembly Minority Leader and Kenosha Democrat Peter Barca warns the Wisconsin State Journal, a cons utional convention could put citizen’s very rights “up for grabs.”

“The balanced budget talk is a fig leaf to let them change America into a right-wing alternative universe.”

Imagine if the U.S. Cons ution barred the EPA and Department of Education from existing.

All union protections are dead, there are no more federal workplace safety standards, and even child-labor laws are struck down, along with a national minimum wage.

Imagine that the Cons ution makes it illegal for the federal government to protect you from big polluters, big banks and even big food and pharma—

all are free to rip you off or poison you all they want, and

your only remedy is in state courts and legislatures, because the Cons ution prevents Congress from doing anything about any of it.

The federal government can’t even enforce voting or civil rights laws.

To add injury to insult, the federal government has to shut down Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because all of these programs (along with food stamps, housing supports and any programs that help the middle class,

the less fortunate or disabled) are “beyond the reach” of what the federal government can do.

If passed, Wisconsin would become the 29th state to call for a cons utional convention; just 34 are needed for it to become a reality.

The 2016 elections have left Republicans in control of 33 state legislatures.

According to the Associated Press, the Democratic Party has lost more than 1000 governorships, state legislative and Congressional seats combined since 2008.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/is-a...-of-happening/

One way or the other, the wealthy class is going to EVEN MORE the non-wealthy class, esp the poor non-whites (and poor whites).

[boutons_deux]

the billionaire oligarchy wins big in war to destroy public education

Charter backers win their first L.A. school board majority

Thhe Los Angeles Unified School District underwent a dramatic political shift Tuesday night, as the curtain dropped on what has been the most expensive school board election in the nation’s history.

The election has been a proxy war between wealthy charter school advocates and public employee unions.

Charter supporters appeared to secure their first-ever majority on the seven-member Los Angeles Board of Education, a move that could accelerate the already-rapid expansion of charter schools across the city.

Election day brought to an end a more than $14-million campaign

fueled by outside spending.

The latest figures show charter supporters outspent their union opponents. But union spending, mainly under the banner of United Teachers Los Angeles, also reached into the millions.


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-school-election-20170516-story.html

[boutons_deux]

The Koch Brothers Want To Rewrite The Cons ution. They May Succeed

According to Article V of the Cons ution, just two thirds (34) of the 50 state legislatures need to call for a convention for the purposes of “proposing cons utional amendments” (no governor’s signature is required). Those amendments would then need to be ratified by three quarters of the states, currently 38, to become law. But beyond those very basic requirements, nobody knows what the rules for a convention would be, since one hasn’t occurred since the original in 1787.

bill would call a convention to pass cons utional amendments that would require the federal government to balance the budget

“It’s not just about a balanced budget,” said Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Chris Taylor. “Mostly I think they are going at the social safety net, they are going to go after Social Security and Medicare because it’s so unpopular to cut those programs, and this is how they do it.”

ALEC has drafted model Article V legislation and nearly identical legislation passed the state legislature in Missouri at the end of May; it called for a convention to “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.” Texas also passed Article V legislation last month,

The senator said the bill was not inspired by ALEC or other corporate interests

‘A Very Real Threat’

Even though such a convention would be unprecedented, with no clear rules on how it would work, Cons utional law experts admit it could happen.

“I think it is very possible,” David Super, a law professor at Georgetown Law, told IBT. “It’s a very real threat.”

the total number of states calling for a cons utional convention is at 27. As Super points out, given that Republicans control Congress, the Executive and the legislatures in 32 states, it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where the “fuzzy math” is enough.

“There’s nothing in the Cons ution that provides for a limited purpose convention,”

“There is absolutely no referee,” Super said. This could open up the convention to a flood of special interest money. And there is no rule stating the convention would have to be open to the public. “We wouldn’t know if everybody with big money was working over the delegates… There are absolutely no rules at all.”

But the one rule that is clear in the current Cons ution, a rule which some warn could be rewritten at a convention, is that 38 states, or three-quarters of the states, would have to ratify whatever came out of the convention.

“There is a risk of a runaway convention,” Michael Gerhardt, a cons utional law professor at the UNC School of Law told IBT. However, he said, “you could come up in theory with a relatively bizarre amendment, but you would need three-quarters of the states to ratify. That’s the presumed protection against a rogue amendment.”


The amendments passed would:

1. Require a vote of two-thirds in both houses of Congress to increase the public debt for one year.
2. Restrict Congress’ powers to regulate goods to only “the sale, shipment, transportation, or other movement of goods, articles or persons” across state lines. Congress would not have the power to “regulate or prohibit any activity that is confined within a single state regardless of its effects outside the state.”
3. Limit members of the House to six terms and senators to two terms.
4. Give the collective states the power to void any law, statute, executive order, or regulatory rule issued by Congress, the president or regulatory agencies if three-fifths of the states vote against the federal action.
5. Repeal the 16th Amendment and require a three-fifths vote by the House and Senate to increase or implement new taxes.
6. Implement a mechanism that would allow a quarter of the House to declare opposition to any federal regulation. If that happened, it would trigger a congressional vote on the regulation and would require a majority of the House and Senate to affirm the regulation.

It’s hard to begin to untangle the myriad consequences of those amendments, but what’s clear is they

would drastically reduce the power and scope of the federal government and radically realign the federalist system.
“This is very much abandoning everything our country has been,” Super told IBT.

“This is not tweaking or improving — this is abandoning it.”

http://www.nationalmemo.com/koch-brothers-want-rewrite-cons ution-may-succeed/

[boutons_deux]

The oligarchy makes, writes policy, and blocks all social progress away from American misogyny and brutality towards a humane, civilized America

Bradley Foundation Fueled "Independent Women's Forum" Campaign Against Paid Sick Leave Laws and More

The Bradley Files provide new insights into who underwrote recent efforts to undermine popular public policies that help women and families, such as paid sick leave laws. The Bradley Foundation did, through funding the controversial Independent Women's Forum.

The files indicate that Bradley gave the Independent Women's Forum more than one million dollars over the years.

That includes nearly half a million dollars in the past three years in response to its proposals for a campaign against public support for requiring paid sick leave, providing better child care policies, addressing the wage gap, and ensuring Americans can access life-saving medical treatment through the Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare."

The Independent Women's Forum said the campaign -- dubbed "Working for Women" -- would cost at least $720,000 last year. Bradley staff recommended a gift of $200,000 in 2016 to cover more than a quarter of that budget.

In 2015, the group had sought $350,000 from Bradley for the precursor to that project. Bradley obliged by providing nearly half the amount requested, $150,000.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/4...-laws-and-more

All pro-oligarchy LIES from the oligarchy-financed IWF

[boutons_deux]

Trash and Gorsuch Have The Right Wing Thinking Big. REALLY Big.


Religious Right leaders have a half-century long grudge against the Supreme Court over rulings

on church-state separation,

the right to privacy,

legal equality for LGBT Americans, and more.

Religious Right leaders were thrilled when Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch. They rallied support for his nomination and celebrated when he was confirmed.

They made it clear that they are counting on him

to undermine the separation between church and state.

National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown saw in him the first step toward overturning the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling.

Anti-abortion activists are dreaming of the day that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.

Much of the

Religious Right is also fully committed to the Tea Party’s radically restrictive view of the proper role of the federal government.

At Road to Majority, Trump adviser Steven Moore said the

government should get out of education and health care.

That stance draws on both a right-wing ideological view of the Cons ution and a

Christian Reconstructionist worldview that God did not grant government the authority to be involved in education or the alleviation of poverty,

A primary vehicle for reversing the “great progressive experiment” will be by

packing the federal courts with judges committed to a far-right view of the Cons ution and laws.

Gorsuch was part of Trump’s list of potential justices pre-approved by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, which has been working for decades to achieve right-wing ideological dominance in the federal judiciary.

getting Gorsuch on the Supreme Court is “something that is really going to change America.” Another Supreme Court nominee, he said, would let Trump create “epic, anic shifts.”

McConnell has “a laser-like focus on judges

Suares celebrated the “100-plus” vacancies on the federal courts, acknowledging “a lot of that is because of what we did last year and the year before” with “slow-walking” Obama nominees.

McConnell himself said that he was looking forward to Trump nominating Gorsuch-like judges for every judicial opening, giving him an impact “far beyond his time.”

Gorsuch gave Religious Right leaders evidence that he will indeed be the far-right justice they have longed for.

It’s OK, said Meadows, “to be of a faith as long as it’s not a Christian faith, in this city.”

There is an effort, he said, “to silence the pulpits and the pews across this country.”

Meadows urged attendees to pray for President Trump, who he said “is trying to do what he can do for the unborn and for marriage” and “Judeo-Christian values.” Meadows said

“the option of failure is not possible” because “our God still reigns over the affairs of nations.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-and-gorsuch-have-the-right-wing-thinking-big-really-big/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=botb&utm_campaign=rig htwingwatch

America is ed and un able.

The oligarchy and the Chrisitan Taliban supremicsts have not yet begun to REALLY America

Trash's supporters, the $50K and below, will more ed over by 2020.

[boutons_deux]

John Oliver's Hilarious and Frightening Warning About the Next (and Worse) Fox News

the Sinclair Broadcast Group produces flagrantly conservative opinion segments for their affiliate stations. No other station group does this. They include commentaries by their chief political analyst, Boris Epshteyn. After advising Donald Trump's campaign, Epshteyn served as the White House assistant communications director for surrogate operations. He resigned after repeated complaints about his "terrorizing" his media hosts and colleagues. So Sinclair snapped him up.

On Sunday night John Oliver wrapped up his season with another of his brilliant TV essays. The subject of this one addressed a topic that is currently swirling around the news cycle. Donald Trump's furious hatred of the media and the free press ed to new heights this weekend. His repulsive WWE themed tweet is a thinly disguised incitement to violence against journalists. And he is continuing his attacks on what he calls "fake news," but is really just any news that doesn't worship him sufficiently.

Trump's anti-media crusade has been laser-focused on CNN lately. But his broader targets include MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and virtually everything other than Fox News. However, John Oliver's show did some deep digging (video below) on an under-the-radar media company that may be even more of a threat to ethical journalism than Fox News.

Oliver's research found that the Sinclair Broadcast Group produces flagrantly conservative opinion segments for their affiliate stations.

No other station group does this.

They include commentaries by their chief political analyst, Boris Epshteyn.

After advising Donald Trump's campaign, Epshteyn served as the White House assistant communications director for surrogate operations. He resigned after repeated complaints about his "terrorizing" his media hosts and colleagues. So Sinclair snapped him up.

Oliver tagged the growing Sinclair empire as "The most influential media company you've never heard of."

And with its recent $4 billion bid to acquire the Tribune Company's stations, it will become even more influential. And that's a big problem. Because, while Fox News is known to be a purveyor of rabidly right-wing bullpucky, viewers are not as well informed about Sinclair's biases. But Sinclair's relative anonymity doesn't make it less dangerous. As Oliver observed:

"We did some math and we found out that when you combine the most watched nightly newscasts on Sinclair and Tribune stations in some of their largest markets, you get an average total viewership of 2.2 million households. And that is a lot. It's more than any current primetime show on Fox News.

"If the opinions were confined just to the commentary or to the ad breaks that would be one thing. But Sinclair can sometimes dictate the content of your local newscast as well. And in contrast to Fox News - a clearly conservative outlet where you basically know what you're getting - with Sinclair they're injecting Fox-worthy content into the mouths of your local news anchors."

the local anchors are required to read introductions to these segments written by the propagandists at Sinclair headquarters.

They are distributed to the stations as "must runs," so your local news editors have no editorial control.

Consequently, your friendly neighborhood TV anchor is feeding you pre-chewed conservative BS without disclosing it.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/7/3/1677607/-John-Oliver-s-Hilarious-and-Frightening-Warning-About-the-Next-and-Worse-Fox-NewsAbout-the-Next-and-Worse-Fox-News

[boutons_deux]

Misinforming the Majority: A Deliberate Strategy of Right-Wing Libertarians

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41206-misinforming-the-majority-a-deliberate-strategy-of-right-wing-libertarians

America is being ed into un ability, but the hyper-wealthy billionaire oligarchy, and most Americans have no clue.

[boutons_deux]

Having locked up 30+ state govts for the VRWC...

ALEC plans to bring their brand of legislation-by-lobbyist to your own city council

The group is now seeking to expand their reach into the nation's individual cities, which are considered entirely too liberal these days.

The model for how to do it remains the same: Have industry lobbyists write the legislation, wrap it with some conservative-sounding phrases, and see which suckers might bite.

Though the group is still young, it’s notched some significant accomplishments - most prominently helping distribute model legislation to end the automatic deduction of union dues from paychecks that 12 Kentucky counties implemented in 2014 as a precursor to that state becoming the 28th “right-to-work” state.

The American City County Exchange also distributes model legislation on everything from a taxpayer bill of rights that would require a supermajority to raise property taxes to measures requiring that cities explore all available materials to build sewer pipelines.

An official at the city council project, Bruce Hollands, is head of the PVC pipe association.

At the Denver meeting, Hollands gave a presentation to the roughly three-dozen attendees on how cities often rely excessively on iron pipes without enough bidding from manufacturers of other types.

Representatives of telephone companies gave presentations on new types of cellular service - and the need for different cellular towers - coming online.

And lobbyists from Uber and Airbnb touted the virtue of the sharing economy and state legislation that would prohibit cities from regulating it.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...n-city-council

America more ed and un able. The oligarchy is unstoppable and irreversible.

[boutons_deux]

Kock Bros don't enough $10Bs already

KOCH BROTHERS ORCHESTRATE GRASSROOTS EFFORT TO LOWER CORPORATE TAXES, DO ENTS SHOW

THE BILLIONAIRE KOCH BROTHERS are well-prepared for the upcoming debate over tax reform, with allies arranging to plant questions at town hall meetings and efforts to orchestrate a grassroots army to demand lower corporate taxes.

A detailed timeline for the Koch strategy was laid out in a recent do ent prepared by a public relations firm that services the broad network of conservative advocacy groups controlled by the billionaire brothers’ political network.

The plan calls for action to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s pledges to reform the tax code.

Trump has called for cutting the corporate tax rate by as much as 50 percent, and eliminating the estate tax on inherited wealth, creating a unique opportunity to propose legislation that would benefit business owners such as the Koch brothers.

“Comprehensive tax reform has been a long-standing priority for our network, and the election of Donald Trump,

coupled with pro-freedom majorities in the House and Senate,

offers us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore prosperity

by enacting reforms,”

the brothers pledged to raise $300 million for their network over the next year.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/koch-brothers-tax-reform-plan-grassroots-do ent/
These venal, greedy, predatory mother ers got nothing but lies.

[boutons_deux]

Conservative Media Just Broke Out In Rebellion Against Pro-Trump Plot To Take Over All TV Broadcasting


The big surprise in the wake of the tricky, underhanded deal allowing Trump-friendly Sinclair Broadcasting to swallow up Tribune Broadcasting – giving it local stations reaching an unprecedented 72 percent of U.S. TV homes – is the opposition by many of the hard core conservative media who until now supported the president.

Sinclair, already the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S., proved its loyalty to Trump during the 2016 presidential election when it not only mandated every one of its more than 100 local stations run favorable news stories about his campaign – and negative stories about Secretary Hillary Clinton – but also agreed to air unedited interviews with Trump and his campaign surrogates that amounted to free commercials in several key swing states just before election day.

Now Trump is repaying the favor.

His now Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission is granting a highly unusual waiver to Sinclair that goes against an Obama-era dictum which would have made the Tribune deal impossible,

allowing Sinclair to acquire even more TV stations, bringing its total coverage above the 39 percent allowed every other station operator – by nearly double to broadcast on over 233 stations.

Sinclair’s $3.9 billion deal to add the 43 Tribune Broadcasting stations is huge for them because for the first time it would mean the backwater Maryland-based broadcaster

would have a presence in the largest American cities – the media capitals – including New York (WPIX), Los Angeles (KTLA), Chicago (WGN) and Washington, D.C. (WDCW).




Once they are part of Sinclair, those

Tribune stations would be mandated to air certain segments created by the Sinclair Washington Bureau on their local news slanted toward a conservative point of view.

Each station’s news would also have to air controversial conservative commentaries by conservative pundits, including former Trump White House official Boris Epshteyn who is heard about nine times a week.

On CNN’s Reliable Sources, Baltimore Sun media writer David Zurawik said

Epshteyn’s commentaries “come as close to classic propaganda as I think I’ve seen in close to 30 years covering local TV and national TV.”

http://washingtonjournal.com/2017/08...-broadcasting/

the VRWC/oligarchy continues its push, mostly successful, for coup d'etat, turning USA in to a one-party autocracy.

[boutons_deux]

The is why the Repug FCC is going to continue the bloodless VRWC/oligarchy coup d'etat and approve extreme right wing Sinclair propaganda network buying the lefty Tribune group

173 TV Station Networks Are Defending Trump’s Indefensible Statements on Race and Nazism: Are They in Your City?

The Sinclair Broadcasting Group is pushing unabashed propaganda across its 173 stations.
Epshteyn is the chief political analyst of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative local TV giant that currently owns and operates

173 stations in

33 states and the District of Columbia.

He produces several 90-second commentary videos each week, which

Sinclair dictates must be aired on all its stations nationwide.

Epshteyn may have reached a new low last night with his take on Trump’s chilling defenses of neo-Nazis and white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville last weekend.

Epshteyn’s segment begins, “The sky is blue. Does the president have to repeat that fact day-in and day-out for us to believe it? No, he does not.”

The “Bottom Line with Boris” segment completely ignores Trump’s statements on Charlottesville aside from his Teleprompter-dependent, hostage video

Epshteyn ends the segment with a personal note,

explaining that he is Jewish and thus knows that Trump is not anti-Semitic.

This analysis, however, does not account for years of Trump’s public footsie with prominent white nationalists and anti-Semites, including former KKK grand wizard David Duke.

Sinclair’s other two right-wing “must-run” commentary segments --

“Behind the Headlines”

with Mark Hyman and the

“Terrorism Alert Desk” --

have yet to address the terror in Charlottesville

http://www.alternet.org/media/173-tv-station-networks-are-defending-trumps-indefensible-statements-race-and-nazism-are-they

Coincidently, Boris E is 100% Russian

[boutons_deux]

The Koch Brothers may be plotting to take over Time Inc.

The conservative billionaires may be teaming with the Meredith Corporation to buy the media giant

Conservative industrialists and political donors the Koch Brothers are reportedly looking to expand their influence by backing the purchase of one of America's major media companies, Time Inc, with their considerable wealth. According to the New York Times, "Time Inc. is said to be in talks to sell itself to the Meredith Corporation," a deal backed by the Koch Brothers.

The Times reported that

Time Inc., the publisher of Time, People and Fortune magazines, was in talks earlier this year to sell the company to the Des Moines-based

Meredith Corporation, the publisher of well over a dozen nationally distributed magazines and 13 local affiliate television stations.

The Times reports that early negations didn't lead anywhere, but have been renewed recently thanks the intervention of Charles and David Koch. Individuals involved in the discussions told the Times that a deal could be finalized quickly.

To strengthen the deal, the

Koch Brothers have reportedly offered to back Meredith’s proposal with a $500 million capital injection,

people with knowledge of the talks said. A spokesman for the brothers’ business, Koch Industries, declined to provide a statement to the Times.

Two Meredith executives denied that any negotiations were under way, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The brothers have swayed U.S. politics for years through the nonprofit conservative advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity. The group spent an estimated $720 million ahead of the 2016 election to support conservative policies and candidates.

The Times could not say how much influence, if any, the brothers would have on Time Inc. if the deal does indeed go through.

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/16/koc...-inc-magazine/

the oligarchy will be America's de facto Ministry of Truth and Information

[boutons_deux]

So who the is Meredith and why is Kock Bros involved?

TIME INC. BUYER HELPED KOCH BROTHERS AIRBRUSH THEIR IMAGE ACROSS THE INTERNET

In the coverage of the Meredith-Time deal, little has been made of the fact that Meredith has worked as a social media marketing firm for Koch Industries.

In the early years of this decade, Meredith provided stealth marketing efforts to delete critical commentary about the Koch brothers and their political ventures.

New Media Strategies, a subsidiary of Meredith, was retained by Koch Industries to airbrush Wikipedia articles relating to Koch Industries, David Koch, Charles Koch, the Tea Party, and Richard Fink, a strategist for the Koch brothers’ political operation.

Like Ailes, the Koch brothers have long used private detectives, political operatives, and media consultants to lash out at perceived enemies and critical journalists. Koch Industries has long maintained a website to lash out against critical reporters, and in 2011, hired a number of consultantsto dig up dirt on reporters viewed as too adversarial.

The Koch brothers’ interest in shaping the media is nothing new. Foundations controlled by the conservative donors have showered donations to conservative news sites, such as the Blaze, the Daily Caller, and Reason magazine.

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ premiere political organization, has also bestowed grants and awards to a wide array of far-right bloggers and provocateurs focused on influencing the mainstream media.

the executives involved in the media deal this week have claimed that Koch will have no board seats with the new company and will “have no influence on Meredith’s editorial or managerial operations,”

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/01/time-magazine-koch-brothers-meredith-corp/

[boutons_deux]

Leaks Show How Super Wealthy School Privatizers Sought to Influence Hillary in Lead Up to Campaign

A leaked policy book captures the influence of billionaire donors looking to overhaul and privatize public education

Hillary Clinton’s education platform is afforded through an overlooked Wikileaks-published do ent. En led “Policy Book— FINAL,”

The education portion of the do ent runs 66 pages, mostly concentrated on K-12 policy, and captures specific input from billionaire donors looking to overhaul and privatize public education.

Hillary Clinton’s donors, dubbed “experts," also sought rapid charter expansion and market-based options to replace public schools.

the “experts” were calling for

new federal controls,

more for-profit companies and

more technology in public schools — but first on the menu was

a bold remake of the teaching “profession”:

“Elevating the Teaching Profession and Reforming Teacher Training.

Every single person from across the spectrum wrote about and talked about the need to improve our schools of education, entry into the teaching profession and our professionalism once teachers make it in . . .

there is consensus that you could offer a bold vision for reforming teacher training and professionalizing the teaching profession for those new to the profession.”

Clinton campaign manager John Podesta indicated that recruiting and grooming younger, more compliant teachers was the plan to overcome resistance to corporate education reform over the long term.

“New Orleans is an amazing story  — 

when you make it possible to get political dysfunction and sick a bunch of talent on the problem — it’s the one place where grand bargain of charters has been kept the best.”

New Orleans' "amazing" story resulted in the firing of 7,500 mostly black school employees,

wiping out a substantial part of the city’s black middle class. Meanwhile, the “miracle” claims of boosters like Reed have fallen apart. A recent editorial in New Orleans’ African American newspaper called out the false promises and lack of results from the charter experiment.

https://www.alternet.org/money-talke...ucation-policy

Avaricious billionaires don't give a about education, only about transferring $100Bs of taxpayer public school funds to their own pockets through non-unionized, ty, unaccountable, failing for-profit charter schools.

[boutons_deux]

These s Are Buying Up Your Alt-Weeklies And Turning Them Into National Review Or Some

the millionaires and libertarians who just bought LA Weekly and fired the whole staff, to be replaced by unpaid contributors*, or about ARMSTRONG ING WILLIAMS licking his chops at the chance to buy the noble and beloved Washington City Paper, and what this means for the mythic “alt weekly,”

Now a Claremont Ins ute bag is taking over LA Weekly to make it great again. Unfamiliar? Here’s the Claremont Ins ute’s scholarly and legal work on Messicans:



They have sued to allow tax money for madrassas Jesus schools, and to keep the das ly gubmint from forcing poor gun owners to keep their weapons locked away from kids.

They are bad people on every topic, at every level, and their vice president dip will now be in charge of Los Angeles’s “counterculture.” Which I guess is to be expected, since “the counterculture” these days is MRAs and actual nazis.

https://wonkette.com/626585/these-di...w-or-some-


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

more by the Billionaires' Ministry of Truth

DNAinfo and Gothamist Are Shut Down After Vote to Unionize

A week ago, reporters and editors in the combined newsroom of DNAinfoand Gothamist, two of New York City’s leading digital purveyors of local news, celebrated victory in their vote to join a union.

On Thursday, they lost their jobs, as Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned the sites, shut them down.

At 5 p.m., a post by Mr. Ricketts went up on the sites announcing the decision. He praised them for reporting “tens of thousands of stories that have informed, impacted and inspired millions of people.”

But he added, “DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure.”

All other articles promptly vanished from the sites; an official at DNAinfo said they would be archived online.

Mr. Ricketts wrote that he founded DNAinfo in 2009 “because I believe people care deeply about the things that happen where they live and work,” and he thought he could build “a large and loyal audience that advertisers would want to reach.”

DNAinfo and Gothamist, which Mr. Ricketts bought in the spring, attracted more than 9 million readers a month, in New York and other cities where they operate satellite sites, DNAinfo said.

The decision puts 115 people out of work, both at the New York operations that unionized and at those in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington that did not.

They are getting three months of paid “administrative leave” at full salary, plus four weeks of severance, DNAinfo said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/nyregion/dnainfo-gothamist-shutting-down.html

[boutons_deux]

Trash's deluded, ignorant 35% STILL thinking Trash is looking out for them,

while he's been fully captured by the keptocratic oligarchy's policies to enrich themselves while ing over Americans and America

Koch Do ent Reveals Laundry List of Policy Victories Extracted from the Trump Administration

Do ents obtained by The Intercept and Do ented show that

the network of wealthy donors led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have

taken credit for a laundry list of policy achievements under Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress

https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...administration

[boutons_deux]

Here's the Capital keeps Labor from getting ahead, getting out of poverty or near poverty

Fed May Lean Toward Four Rate Increases in 2018 After Wages Data

Faster U.S. wage gains probably nudge the Federal Reserve toward raising interest rates a total of four times this year, rather than the three moves officials had penciled in for 2018 when they met in March.

“The data validate the

Fed’s focus on stopping the downtrend in the unemployment rate,”

Another data point suggesting four rate hikes rather than three: a 2.5 percent annualized increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index, excluding food and energy.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ter-wages-data

The early oligarchy Capitalists created the Fed for its own purposes (self enrichment on the backs of Labor)

Capital needs, demands cheap Labor, the Fed delivers.

Raising rates always hurts Labor (causes unemployment and holds down wages) to benefit Capital.

[boutons_deux]

Adelson gives $30 million to help GOP save the House

The donation to the Congressional Leadership Fund is a big boost to Republicans facing a tough midterm environment.

The long-sought donation was sealed last week when, according to two senior Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan flew to Las Vegas to meet with the billionaire at his Venetian Hotel.

Also at the meeting with Adelson was his wife, Miriam;

Norm Coleman, the former Minnesota senator who chairs the Republican Jewish Coalition;

Corry Bliss, who oversees the super PAC; and

Jake Kastan, Ryan's No. 2 political aide.

They laid out a case to Adelson about how crucial it is to protect the House.

As a federally elected official, Ryan is not permitted to solicit seven-figure political donations.

When Ryan (R-Wis.) left the room, Coleman made the ask and secured the $30 million contribution.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...idterms-579436

[spurraider21]

"gonna be a long thread"

15 pages in 8 years

Snopes = CIA has more activity in 1 week