text:
Sunday Reads: Don't bitch to us…
Posted: December 29, 2019 | Author: Minkoff Minx | Filed under: 2020 Elections, Climate Change, Democratic Politics, Diplomacy Nightmares, Domestic Policy, Donald Trump, Elections, Environment, Environmental Protection, Main Stream Media, morning reads, open thread, Republican presidential politics, The Media SUCKS, WE TOLD THEM SO | 11 Comments
With all the bullshit lately about fucking Bernie Sanders…and since the one person who could stand up to tRump has/was left to drop out (Kamala)…to where we are seriously looking at a old white guy (Biden)…to wit, do we honestly think the elections are actually "secured" anymore (Putin)…
I feel that when tRump is re-elected, we here can tell all those news media assholes, BernieBros, Biden Shills, Tom Perez and the rest of the damn fools…
Hey! You listen to me, wacko.
See this fist?
I'm about ready to use…
that hatchet-face
of yours as a punching bag.
Now sit down and shut up!
Mole's right, Peggy.
I am sick of listenin'
to your bitchin'.
The next time you feel a fit
comin' on, go outside and bitch.
Bitch at the air.
Bitch at the trees.
But don't bitch at us!
Gotta love John Waters Desperate Living!
As 2019 winds down I get to reflect back on the work I've done this past year. Here are my top ten cartoons. Thank you all for the support. Couldn't do it without you. • #topten #top10 #yearinreview #goodbye2019 #politicalcartoons #fucktrump #politicalart #resist #guncontrol #mostliked #mostlikedphoto #hello2020
A post shared by Benjamin Slyngstad (@slyngstad_cartoons) on Dec 28, 2019 at 1:02pm PST
No shit…but in all seriousness, if tRump is re-elected, the USA will turn into a Mortville:
(Once you get past the roaches, you'll see what I mean.)
Since this post is a total downer, let's take a look at who died this year.
Now the video does not include, Sue Lyon Dies: 'Lolita' Star Was 73
She was 14 when Kubrick cast her as Lolita back in 1962. She was two years older than my mom.
More, "Gone but not forgotten…"
13 Trailblazing women:
Cokie Roberts, Toni Morrison. Gloria Vanderbilt.Getty Images/AP
From the NYT: In a Year of Notable Deaths, a World of Women Who Shattered Ceilings
Just a few tweets to round this thread up:
Horrified by terrorist bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia which killed at least 78 people.
Many victims were young students returning to university.
Too early to say for sure, but the attack bears the hallmark of al-Shabab. Another grim reminder of the terror threat that remains. https://t.co/LF7KCTwSqA
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 28, 2019
The President of the United States has, today alone, retweeted 2 QAnon fan accounts, a Pizzagate account, an account that compared his following to a cult, and an account that described Obama as "Satan's Muslim Scum." And this insanity isn't even a blip on the news radar.
this is fine pic.twitter.com/SSQTai7fKS
— Ad Infinitum (@Ad_Inifinitum) December 27, 2019
Bernie Sanders needs to stfu about Joe Biden voting for the Iraq War
Tulsi Gabbard voted for the war, joined the Military to help W on the ground & supports Modi, Assad & Netanyahu
Sanders loves Tulsi Gabbard even though she's the 167th most progressive
Something is amiss pic.twitter.com/HIH5khWSqq
— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) December 28, 2019
Nope. And this is why I am not VBNMW. Folks who screamed any old blue won't due and smeared Barack and Hillary do not now get to tell me "Unity!!!" with a straight face.
Tom Perez may have bought that ish but I am not.
— Rohit ⚖⚖⚖ (@columbiatexan) December 27, 2019
You, should be directing your kumbaya towards the berners who insist on threatening, berating, and insulting people on social media. 25% of them voted for trump. He is their fault & they can stfu.
— theagowdy (@agowdy) December 28, 2019
👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/JVWHWmivNq
— ⚖Bernie Sanders Voted For The Crime Bill⚖ (@KHiveQueenB) December 28, 2019
I'm gonna rig the primary against Bernie by being a person of color and voting in it.
— An Antic Disposition 🍩 (@pavanvan) December 28, 2019
It's truly something that 7,800 media workers lost their jobs in 2019 and not one of them was Bret Stephens
— Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) December 28, 2019
All I can say to this next tweet is…If only:
Berners sure fear Kamala.
Half the trolls are trolling me about her & the other half are trolling me about Bernie.
Weird, because the Kremlin also fears Kamala Harris.
It's like they're all scared she'll
jump back in the race five seconds before Iowa & win too many delegates.
https://twitter.com/raising_hill/status/1210746457801625602?s=21
In record heat Australia and South Australia, where temperature have risen to 40 degrees, koalas approached cyclists on the road to seek water. pic.twitter.com/DvW84gbaRq
— Akki (@akkitwts) December 28, 2019
Government photographer Simon Edelman was fired by the Trump admin after he leaked a photo of Energy Sec. Rick Perry hugging a coal exec. Perry announced his resignation today. pic.twitter.com/unfz2QtkP3
— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) December 27, 2019
Oh yeah, this tweet reminds me:
Giuliani pals leveraged GOP access to seek Ukraine gas deal
Check it out, Nixon got something right:
Forty-six years ago today the #EndangeredSpeciesAct was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Since then the law has saved more than 200 species from extinction: https://t.co/8qSaQgal8Z
— Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) December 28, 2019
Dec 24: Christmas Eve
Dec 25: Christmas Day
Dec 26: Boxing Day
Dec 27-30: Every day feels like a Sunday, proof that time is a social construct
Dec 31: New Year's Eve
Jan 1: New Year's Day
Jan 2: Reality hits
— James Cosgrove (@MrJamesCosgrove) December 27, 2019
And lastly:
Didja know that Nancy Pelosi has the right to submit Donald Trump to an 'involuntary' psych evaluation? https://t.co/LcFcgH2A7f pic.twitter.com/0nrpLP1ZCk
— act.tv (@actdottv) December 27, 2019
This has been a difficult year, I miss my mama like crazy. Just wanted to get through all the sad depressing rehash of who we lost this year. Some I have left out on purpose. Can y'all guess who?
This is an open thread.
After I wrote this post, news of the latest anti-Semitic attack/hate crime in NYC:
Breaking: Multiple people were reportedly stabbed tonight at a Jewish house of worship in Rockland County, New York. https://t.co/Y7aHgVHywb
— NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) December 29, 2019
I am deeply disturbed by the situation unfolding in Monsey, New York tonight.
There is zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific situation.
I stand with the Jewish community tonight and every night.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) December 29, 2019
Another incident of anti-Semitic violence in a year that has already seen too many. https://t.co/qDQi3H5eEm
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) December 29, 2019
BREAKING: At least 3 people have been stabbed by a man with a machete inside a synagogue in Monsey, New York. More here: https://t.co/BPHbnAboHA #CBSNewYork
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) December 29, 2019
Three Jews stabbed in a synagogue in Monsey tonight. An intruder came into Rabbi Rottenberg's shul with a machete.
There are no words to describe the anxiety of this moment. pic.twitter.com/F4VBhNWMpz
— Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt (@avitalrachel) December 29, 2019
Sunday Reads: Twenty Years
Posted: June 17, 2018 | Author: Minkoff Minx | Filed under: Congress, corruption, Domestic Policy, Donald Trump, Human Rights, ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement, immigration, indefinite detention, morning reads, open thread, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, Political and Editorial Cartoons, racism, Real Life Horror, Refugees, refugees from Central and South America, the GOP, tRump crimes against humanity, U.S. Politics, Violence against women, white nationalists | 71 Comments
Good Morning?
It is never a good morning with that asshole in office. That headline above could seriously be used for tRump…with all the crimes he has committed. That he is getting away with… it is infuriating. These last two days I had to stay away from the news. I could not subject myself to the horrors anymore.
Last night while I was looking up a few things to post for today, I was listening to my album of Omara Portuondo…this song was so emotional for me, it is talking about a breakup, but there is a line that seems so poignant with today's standard. The tRump standard.
How mournfully we watch
A love that ebbs away
Heartlessly a part of the soul
Is torn away
That part about "Heartlessly a part of the soul…Is torn away"… That is what tRump and Sessions and the rest of these assholes are doing. And let us not forget, on this Father's day, that so many of these "men" are "fathers" themselves.
Happy Father's Day @SpeakerRyan. pic.twitter.com/VVWv5XMasU
— Molly Jong Un Fast (@MollyJongFast) June 17, 2018
Heartless and cruel. Calculated and precise. I don't give a fuck about Godwin's Law…these people, tRump, his top brass…"generals" or head accomplices and or advisors, administration and his devoted cult like followers, they are all Nazis.; in the purest sense of the word.
If we do not heed the many many warning signs about Trump and remove him from office this is exactly where we could end up.
Former CIA Chief Compares Trump's Border Policies to Nazi Germany https://t.co/fZtUbQDVRs via @thedailybeast
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) June 17, 2018
¿Qué te importa que te ame,
Si tú no me quieres ya?
El amor que ya ha pasado
No se debe recordar
Fui la ilusión de tu vida
Un día lejano ya,
Hoy represento al pasado,
No me puedo conformar.
Si las cosas que uno quiere
Se pudieran alcanzar,
Tú me quisieras lo mismo
Que veinte años atrás.
Con qué tristeza miramos
Un amor que se nos va
Es un pedazo del alma
Que se arranca sin piedad
What does my love mean to you
If you no longer love me?
We should not dwell
On love that is past
I was your life's desire
One day long ago
Now I'm history
I can't face the change
If only we could make
Our dreams come true
If only you would love me
As you did twenty years ago
Felipe Valdes Leal
I only have a series of Tweets and Instagram links for you today. I cannot manage any comments. My head is to overwhelmed with disgust.
A breastfeeding mother at a detention center had her daughter ripped away. Border agents tell parents they're taking their children for a bath – but they don't come back. There's a humanitarian crisis at our border, and we have to fight it.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) June 16, 2018
Trump aide Stephen Miller brags about policy ripping immigrant kids away from parents: 'It was a simple decision' https://t.co/uw43pUn3XJ via rawstory
— 🖕🏻Aunt Crabby calls Bullshit 🖕🏻 (@DearAuntCrabby) June 17, 2018
RT if you demand that this evil neo-nazi is FIRED from the White House. He's dragging America back to the times of slavery by normalizing evil acts.
Stephen Miller brags about policy ripping immigrant kids away from parents: 'It was a simple decision' https://t.co/3jHVYciW5W
— The Hummingbird 🐦 (@SaysHummingbird) June 16, 2018
Eh, he'll have a regular column in the New York Times within five years. https://t.co/IvauItmrcM
— Tom Tomorrow (@tomtomorrow) June 17, 2018
In which I discover that Stephen Miller is the re-animated corpse of Arnolt Bronnen, an actual, half-Jewish Nazi, of the Hitler Nazis. pic.twitter.com/fgMt747X12
— Emily L. Hauser 🔥 (@emilylhauser) June 14, 2017
Stephen Miller may have pushed Trump, but Trump is making all final decisions now on domestic and foreign policy. Anyone who disagrees with him is shown the door. Trump, like Miller, is a white nationalist who places no value on brown and black lives This atrocity is on Trump!
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) June 16, 2018
Republicans will never stop Trump, his lies or his attacks on children.
They know what Trump is doing to children but just watch.
"Trump could stop this policy with a phone call."
pic.twitter.com/JFZstH0c8O
— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) June 17, 2018
And while all this shit is going on…it isn't just little brown children tRump and the GOP despise:
Every American should keep in mind that while Trump is kidnapping children at the border who are seeking asylum,
Trump is also trying to throw millions of American children off of their health insurance and decrease their food availability.#FathersDay
pic.twitter.com/eonmaDkGfq
A few other tweets to take a look at:
Trump tweeted a defense of his summit with Kim on Sunday morning, claiming that he received "so much for peace in the world" and teasing that "more is being added in finals." https://t.co/8Eotb7Z4mK
— Axios (@axios) June 17, 2018
Trump unilaterally disarmed & ended US military exercises in the region, at the recommendation of Vladimir Putin, in exchange for nothing.
And meeting with the world's worst dictator, and treating him as an equal on the world stage, is a concession. https://t.co/XHcxWoYaJr pic.twitter.com/W3VjEEebaa
— John Aravosis (@aravosis) June 17, 2018
This is the cartoon that got @Rob_Rogers fired after 25 years working at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Spread it around like a lice outbreak at a pre-k. pic.twitter.com/XJL52csPa1
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) June 15, 2018
Rob Rogers refused to do cartoons praising Trump. He got fired for it. Here's what we have to say about the moral cowards who did it
https://t.co/hzyqGAhfGY
— Pat Bagley (@Patbagley) June 15, 2018
I Was Fired for Making Fun of Trump https://t.co/aauivB2OEl
— Rob Rogers (@Rob_Rogers) June 16, 2018
It's hard not to get angry watching the brutal separation of parents and children. https://t.co/rQnivjPbFl
Do read and circulate and speak out – Editorial cartooning under attack. As CRNI we fight against this within dictatorial regimes, a shock to see it happening in the United States: Cartoonist Rob Rogers – 'I Was Fired for Making Fun of Trump' https://t.co/necPEczB4n
— CRNI (@CRNetInt) June 16, 2018
This is John Block, the owner and editor in chief of the @PittsburghPG newspaper. pic.twitter.com/rYMEScJSPK
— Paul Ward (@Paul_Ward_Irl) June 16, 2018
This makes him the 11th Trump advisor to admit to meetings with the Russians https://t.co/opKTKs1z36
— Aaron Vallely (@Vallmeister) June 17, 2018
SCOOP: Roger Stone met with a Russian promising dirt on Clinton during 2016 campaign, despite earlier denials. And…the Russian once claimed to be an FBI informant. By @RoigFranzia @PostRoz https://t.co/ZNIEbo9Qrw
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) June 17, 2018
Dershowitz knows the answer to this question and should stop misleading the public. Manafort is in jail because the judge found that he committed a crime while he was out on bond. He is still presumed innocent and will face trial. https://t.co/v2yW2RW7n3
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 16, 2018
SANDRA BLAND WAS HELD IN JAIL FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO PAY A $500 FINE FOR A TRAFFIC VIOLATION AND SHE DIED IN PRISON AFTER THREE DAYS ALONE IN A CELL AND YOU HAD BETTER BELIEVE I AM SHOUTING BECAUSE SHE WAS ONLY 28 YEARS OLD AND SHOULDN'T HAVE LOST HER LIFE FOR A TRAFFIC TICKET. https://t.co/InH9gygh9O
— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) June 17, 2018
Back to the crimes against humanity:
1. It is legal to seek asylum
2. No crimes are being committed by asylum seekers
3. Migrant parents seeking asylum are not criminals
4. Trump's holding children hostage by his own choice and insanely blaming democrats
5. Trump is abusing human rights like Kim Jong Un
— Treason Memes (@treasonstickers) June 16, 2018
Media-when you do go down to visit places migrant children are being housed, go to locations not on the tour. Remember what Hitler did w/the media and Jewish children. Assume the Trump regime will show you what they want you to see.
(CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA!)
it's called a "lie"—NYT still can't find the courage to say do https://t.co/nsoneQEgth
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) June 17, 2018
2) I need some advice, however, regarding some specific laws & how best to follow them. When I burn a bull on the altar as sacrifice, it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They say the odor is not pleasing to them. Can I smite them?
Just got this message from a concerned citizen in Tornillo, TX if anyone can answer:
"I'm here along the border. Where are the girls? We can't find them anywhere. All we hear about are boys. Here in Tornillo they're bringing in boys. Where are the girls? We are panicking."
To commemorate World Refugee Day, we'll be sharing stories of women displaced by conflict and war in the communities where Women for Women International works. Today we celebrate the courage and resilience of Rose, an internally-displaced woman who is rebuilding her life against all odds. Read her story on our blog. Link in bio. #With Refugees #SheInspiresMe #WomensRights #Feminist
A post shared by Women for Women International (@womenforwomen) on Jun 16, 2018 at 1:00am PDT
They say people who have sadness issues have a stronger awareness of reality. Maybe. @okayyesfine no one understands monsters like u do…
A post shared by Carissa Potter Carlson (@peopleiveloved) on Jun 15, 2018 at 8:23pm PDT
Day 511: In which a fashy fanboy shows his dictator daddies he's ready for the big leagues with some killer kiddie concentration camp stats. #resist #magaisformorons #cartoon #dumptrump #donthecon #kidjailer #shitholepresident #notmypresident #dailydrawing #thedailydon
A post shared by Jesse Duquette (@the.daily.don) on Jun 15, 2018 at 6:37pm PDT
"With everything that is happening, it's a great reminder that there is no excuse for separating children from their parents. Not biblical, not legal, not moral. The only reasons are hate, xenophobia and white supremacy."—@vamos_juntos_ #Resist #ChingaLaMigra #DismantleICE (🎨@lazy.beam)
A post shared by Muchacha Fanzine (@muchachafanzine) on Jun 16, 2018 at 8:27am PDT
Updates on bills put forth in Congress to stop the atrocious tRump policy of stealing children from their parents:
My bill, HR 3923, Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, answers so many of the issues that we are dealing with around family separation. We are up to 89 co-sponsors. If you want to check if your Congressmember is on the bill, you can go here: https://t.co/CqsqubFENe
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) June 17, 2018
UPDATE: 43 senators now support our bill to bar children from being taken from their parents at the border. We still need a Republican senator to join. If you're represented by a Republican senator, please ask them to cosponsor S.3036. #FamiliesBelongTogether
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) June 15, 2018
I believe the first GOP congress critter is speaking out on the "FamiliesBelongTogether issue…
GOP lawmaker: Using immigrant kids as a deterrent policy is "unacceptable" https://t.co/jtRbQdGG2B pic.twitter.com/6H5nBTN9uZ
— The Hill (@thehill) June 17, 2018
Happy Father's Day:
Knock, knock?
Who's there?
Children being imprisoned by the American government. https://t.co/o5cx5wfiE9
— Quinn Cummings (@quinncy) June 17, 2018
Sunday Reads: Happy Motherhood is a Pre-existing Condition Day!
Posted: May 13, 2018 | Author: Minkoff Minx | Filed under: children, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, corporate greed, corruption, Domestic Policy, Donald Trump, Fox News, fundamentalist Christians, Human Rights, immigration, Iran, Israel, Middle East, morning reads, open thread, Palestine, racism, Refugees, Republican politics, Republican presidential politics, Rick Perry, Russia, the GOP, The Right Wing | Tags: John Kelly | 29 Comments
Happy Mother's Day….
Or as one person in the Twitterverse puts it:
Happy Motherhood Is A Preexisting Condition Day, from the GOP.
— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) May 13, 2018
(If you aren't following @OhNoSheTwitnt you should…)
It is a strange Mother's Day for me, I am not sure how to approach the day. My mom's results from her latest CT scan were not good. The chemo treatment has not been working, there is new tumor and it looks like she has run out of options. So today, on this Mother's Day, I am faced with the reality that eventually I will be spending a Mother's Day without my Mama. I don't want that. And this sense of eminent loss is so overwhelming, that my days are becoming a cycle of playbacks. When she is up, I want to watch a movie with her…whatever she wants to watch. I want to spend that time laughing at funny scenes, or enjoying a film that we both appreciate. It is the same thing daily, and believe me…we have seen some of these films many times, but I want to capture those feelings once more. I don't want to lose them. That is what it comes down to this Mother's Day. Grasping those hours so that I can recycle them later…it is all I can do.
So, with all that being said, the disasters of the day seem to pass by me…until I watch Maddow, then I am back into my mood where I am unable to focus on anything. Here are some news stories for you this morning, my commentary on them will be minimal at best. Basically, the shit has gone beyond my comprehension of what kind of corruption and scandal it takes to bring a politician down. tRump could kill someone on Fifth Avenue, and get away with it…and still remain in the White House as President. I don't think anything is going to happen, it is over. We are all fucked.
The most alarming thing to me about living through an illegitimate proto-fascist coup of American democracy is how mundane it is.
I still have to pay rent on time. There's still baseball on TV.
But everything is… wrong. Like an Instagram filter over every second of every day.
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) May 11, 2018
Now for the news:
You really can't make this %^*+ up. pic.twitter.com/X5XC9CgiNX
— Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) May 13, 2018
Take a look at this thread on twitter:
Now, check this out:
Trump Compared to Cyrus the Great – Talking Points Memo
Fox Host Jeanine Pirro says Donald Trump fulfilled biblical prophecy by moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
Full video at the link.
Here is the quote:
Trump fulfilling 'Biblical prophecy' by moving embassy to Jerusalem says Judge Jeanine Pirro in bonkers rant
The move, she said, "Sent a huge signal to Iran, and Shiite Muslims, that we stood with the more moderate Sunnis." (ISIS and Al Qaida are both Sunni; there has never been a major terrorist attack on the United States led by a Shiite group.)
"Trump has assured the world that his word is worth more than any former U.S. president," she said. "His word is more than any treaty, and stronger than any UN resolution."
And then she got Biblical.
"Jerusalem is the one and only capital of Israel," she said. "By Trump putting his impermada on what has been history for the last 3,000 years—and that's it has been the people's capital of one people's country or one kingdom. That people is the Jews and that country is Israel."
She said that Israel is the foundation of our Judeo-Christian nation.
"Donald Trump recognized history, he like King Cyrus before him, fulfilled the Biblical prophecy of the God worshipped by Jews, Christians and, yes, Muslims, that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish state and that the Jewish people finally deserve a righteous, free and sovereign Israel."
With Fox peddling these "coins" that have the tRump is King Cyrus symbolism propoganda…it adds to the rest of the big picture.
Former Trump campaign aide is helping Russian firm shed sanctions – CNNPolitics
A former senior campaign and transition aide to President Donald Trump recently inked a deal to help a Russian oligarch's conglomerate shed sanctions the Trump administration slapped on them last month.
Bryan Lanza, who is in regular contact with White House officials, is lobbying on behalf of the chairman of EN+ Group, an energy and aluminum firm presently controlled by Oleg Deripaska, according to several sources. Deripaska is a billionaire who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was the target of US sanctions imposed last month. Lanza is also a CNN contributor.
Lanza is representing the chairman of EN+ Group, but not Deripaska directly. The company is seeking to reduce Deripaska's ownership in the company enough to be freed from US sanctions. Deripaska is expected to maintain a substantial stake in the company.
You can read about more tRump lobby connections at the link. Names like Corey Lewandowski, Brian Ballard, Jason Miller have all opened up their own DC firms. All the while, keep in mind:
Still find it remarkable that Michael Cohen made most of these consulting deals (or kept receiving money from these deals) while he was National Deputy Finance Chairman of the RNC.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 12, 2018
We know that at least 3 American Companies & 1 Russian asset has literally bribed The President of The United States.
1) By Monday, it will be ancient news.
2) The legislative branch of our government will do absolutely nothing.
Repeat: The President is taking BRIBES. A Crime.
— YS (@NYinLA2121) May 9, 2018
Ford Officials have told invesigators that Cohen had approached them to make it clear that paying him a month fee would mean that Trump would stop attacking their negative moves to Mexico and praise them for other things.
Isn't thsr called extortion?
— Pesach 'Pace' Lattin (@pacelattin) May 12, 2018
Before you judge…
Let he who has never sold access to a pharmaceutical company by having them buy off his blackmail payment to a porn star he silenced so he could illegally support his campaign after being caught bragging about sexual assault cast the first stone. pic.twitter.com/1fIRI93v0Y
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) May 9, 2018
The FBI warned four years ago that a foundation controlled by Viktor Vekselberg (the Russian oligarch with ties to Michael Cohen) might have been acting on behalf of Russia's intelligence services, according to NPR. https://t.co/Ag12VsPt2G
Michael Cohen made more than $2 million working as a Trump whisperer. But he's far from the only one https://t.co/j7qMA7am2q pic.twitter.com/ehbbXzjCEX
— POLITICO (@politico) May 13, 2018
But…it is all just a normal day in Washington:
.@SpeakerRyan wanted $30 million from Sheldon Adelson for his SuperPAC, but it's illegal for Representatives to ask for that much money. To avoid the law, he went into the hallway while his friend asked.
Get big money out of politics. End Citizens United.https://t.co/SehIiDQxzs
— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) May 11, 2018
Oh, this also happened on the quiet:
Perry Halts Nuclear Arms-Into-Fuel Project
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has formally ended construction of a facility meant to reprocess weapons-grade plutonium and uranium into fuel for reactors, a key element of the nation's commitment to containing the global nuclear threat.
Perry executed a waiver Thursday to terminate construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
A day earlier, Perry called it a "historically questionable" expenditure in testimony before Congress about the Trump administration's 2019 budget proposal, which includes $220 million toward closing the project, and $59 million toward replacing it with a so-called "dilute and dispose" approach to surplus nuclear material.
Yeah, King Cyprus…I mean tRump is gonna need all those nukes to "dilute and dispose" of over there in Iran…right?
Iran nuclear deal: Iranians worry about impact of US sanctions | Iran News | Al Jazeera
Iran's parliament is expected to debate emergency legislation, after US President Donald Trump's decision to pull America out of the nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister is in China as part of a whirlwind diplomatic tour, to rescue the agreement.
Inside Iran, people are bracing themselves for the possibility of more hardship from sanctions.
Video report at the link.
Just one more thought on hardship…and motherhood…
"The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever."
— John Kelly
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 11, 2018
Everyone in the Trump administration is going to Hell or whatever. https://t.co/3wpcMajQlv
#DearJohnKelly: Separating children from their parents doesn't seem like a Be Best policy.
Also, it violates international human rights law. https://t.co/L1NkAkU9Xl
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 12, 2018
"Or whatever"! A perfect summary of just how much these people care about little kids: zero. https://t.co/ZubW4lGUzK
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 12, 2018
John Kelly's 'Family Separation' Recalls Slave Era Practice of Selling Parents Down the River – Truthdig
John Kelly, White House chief of staff, is an immigrant-hating bigot, as demonstrated by a long series of Draconian statements and measures that would have embarrassed most normal people into a lifetime vow of silence in their wake.
Kelly bizarrely defended Confederate slave drivers of the 1860s as having lived at a time before the evils of slavery were apparent to moral people. Haiti abolished slavery in 1804, Mexico in 1824 and Tunisia in 1846. But Kelly's assertion becomes a little more understandable in view of his NPR interview on May 11.
On undocumented immigration, Kelly's interview went like this:
Kelly: "But a big name of the game is deterrence."
NPR: "Family separation stands as a pretty tough deterrent."
Kelly: "It could be a tough deterrent — would be a tough deterrent. A much faster turnaround on asylum seekers."
NPR: "Even though people say that's cruel and heartless to take a mother away from her children?"
Kelly: "I wouldn't put it quite that way. The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever. But the big point is they elected to come illegally into the United States and this is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long."
Kelly's doctrine of "deterrence" of undocumented immigration into the US through family separation is undergirded by a special kind of sadism and ignorance combined. First of all, villagers in Honduras are not going to know about Kelly's policy. Second, they are so desperate that many will take the risk anyway. Third, it is wrong to pounce and take US citizen children away from their mothers and fathers all of a sudden, giving them no time to make alternate arrangements. As for foster homes, with all due respect to the dedicated people who often run them, social science has proven that they are the biggest producer of a criminal class in the US. Children growing up without strong parental role models have a much greater chance of ending up in prison. Yes, that's right. Social science says that if you want a safe society, don't deport the parents of US citizen children.
Under Trump, ICE (which was only created recently and should be decommissioned) has been routinely doing things like traumatizing families by arresting undocumented parents when they come to pick up their children at school, in front of the eyes of the children, and leaving the latter unattended. The agents are not wrong to enforce the law, but this sort of tactic is clearly the result of instructions from Kelly and his successor, and is deliberate psychological warfare on American citizens.
Kelly's self-satisfaction with getting rid of unwanted adults and putting their children, our fellow US citizens, in "foster care or whatever" (!!!) can only be compared to one phenomenon in American history.
Back in the days of slavery, white slave owners in the mid-Atlantic states like Kentucky used to separate fathers and sometimes mothers from their children and "sell them down the river" to the big plantation owners of the deep south.
Brown and black slaves were, like undocumented immigrants, not citizens and so they were not conceived by white elites as fully human persons. Hence, their families could be divided at will and parents could be sent far away, never to see their children again. They were treated like thoroughbred animals.
Kelly went on to slam these immigrants for not knowing English and for being unassimilable and having no skills. In fact, as conservative godfather Milton Friedman argued, they wouldn't come here if they weren't finding jobs that locals would not or could not fill. As for language and assimilation, Kelly's own Italian-American side of the family came without English and remained here without citizenship for decades.
Cole then proceeds to quote the tweets showing Kelly's own family background, which proves John Kelly's own family members is one of those "illiterate" immigrants "and could not speak English 10 years after arrival." Yeah, these people…wtf is it with them?
I am a Syrian-Israeli Muslim immigrant. I hold more than 1 PhD while speaking 5 languages fluently. I read & write in more than 8 languages.
I work for "Your" government #JohnKelly.
Unless you can tell me to fuck off in 9 languages I'd suggest you kindly eat a bag of dicks Sir pic.twitter.com/yfeXt8VSUH
— 🎉🦄Gypsy Beech🦄🎉 (@DGB_JAIID) May 11, 2018
🚨U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled that he may invoke a rarely used power of his office to rewrite the rules for cases of political asylum, and eliminate it for victims of domestic violence.🚨
WE NEED TO BE SCREAMING ABOUT THIS.https://t.co/6EBpIydzty
— Maureen Shaw (@MaureenShaw) May 12, 2018
Just saw several dozen teens escorted by armed Customs and Border Protection agents marching in the streets of Washington, DC. They're partaking in CPB's Explorer program, which recruits kids to assist in operations, receive firearms training and become "guardians" of the borders pic.twitter.com/qhtrpvu9s9
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) May 11, 2018
And while all that is sinking in…this tweet should really be the icing on the Mother's Day cake:
On Joy Reid's show this morning, it was brought up that 1,500 of the children that have been separated from their parents who illegally crossed our border are now "lost in the system". They have no clue as to where they are. Let that sink in…1,500. Let that sink in…
— Barb Johnson (@frosty121b) May 12, 2018
I don't want to end on a bad note…
So, I have pictures.
First some fun ones:
DragCon is happening this weekend:
Those kick ass heels…a bit of marginalia to ring in the occasion? Quinn Cummings has been posting some awesome pictures on her Instagram feed:
@bufffaye #dragcon2018
A post shared by Quinn Cummings (@quinncummings) on May 12, 2018 at 12:27pm PDT
So please click the link up top and enjoy!
Sticking with the Medieval times a bit:
Elvis…he was a style icon…before he became a style icon!
Smooth huh?
And lastly, I wanted to share a few pictures from my daughter's wedding, they are in a slideshow below.
Have a good day, Happy Mother's Day to all of you!
Friday Reads: Crazy go Nuts News only because of Crazy go Nuts White People
Posted: May 11, 2018 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights, Domestic Policy, domestic surveillance drones, Domestic terrorism, Donald Trump, morning reads, Rape Culture | 42 Comments
It's Friday Sky Dancers! It's the day of the week when the news cycle goes bonkers. But, of course, it's only because what's going on in our country makes it so. WTF is wrong with White People? Haven't we learned anything? If any of our Sky Dancers of Color would like to start actively writing on the front page please let us know! I can write about all of this but only as some one who watches and learns. That's not the vantage point that needs to be heard. We know of all the white supremacist activity that's been happening around the country. So, why is the FBI focused on this?
This is horrifying: From the Guardian: 'Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance. Exclusive: Rakem Balogun spoke out against police brutality. Now he is believed to be the first prosecuted under a secretive US effort to track so-called 'black identity extremists' '
Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment. Startled awake by a large crash and officers screaming commands, he soon realized his nightmare was real, and he and his 15-year-old son were forced outside of their Dallas home, wearing only underwear.
Handcuffed and shaking in the cold wind, Balogun thought a misunderstanding must have led the FBI to his door on 12 December 2017. The father of three said he was shocked to later learn that agents investigating "domestic terrorism" had been monitoring him for years and were arresting him that day in part because of his Facebook posts criticizing police.
"It's tyranny at its finest," said Balogun, 34. "I have not been doing anything illegal for them to have surveillance on me. I have not hurt anyone or threatened anyone."
Balogun spoke to the Guardian this week in his first interview since he was released from prison after five months locked up and denied bail while US attorneys tried and failed to prosecute him, accusing him of being a threat to law enforcement and an illegal gun owner.
Balogun, who lost his home and more while incarcerated, is believed to be the first person targeted and prosecuted under a secretive US surveillance effort to track so-called "black identity extremists". In a leaked August 2017 report from the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit, officials claimed that there had been a "resurgence in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity" stemming from African Americans' "perceptions of police brutality".
The counter-terrorism assessment provided minimal data or evidence of threats against police, but discussed a few isolated incidents, notably the case of Micah Johnson who killed five officers in Texas. The report sparked backlash from civil rights groups and some Democrats, who feared the government would use the broad designation to prosecute activists and groups like Black Lives Matter.
Balogun, who was working full-time for an IT company when he was arrested, has long been an activist, co-founding Guerrilla Mainframe and the Huey P Newton Gun Club, two groups fighting police brutality and advocating for the rights of black gun owners. Some of the work included coordinating meals for the homeless, youth picnics and self-defense classes – but that's not what interested the FBI.
Then, watch this:
"I am more offended as an African American woman than you will ever be."
Rep. Maxine Waters responds to Rep. Mike Kelly's words on discrimination during debate about repealing 2013 auto lending guidance. pic.twitter.com/t9YOwv4RJE
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 11, 2018
From Elle Magazine: 'A Dusty Congressman Tried to Reclaim Rep. Maxine Waters' Time; It Didn't Go Well'.
Hello and welcome to another edition of America's favorite game show, They Really Tried It, with your host, Representative Maxine Waters. Today's contestant is Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania (R) who, on Tuesday, took it upon himself to point his finger at Rep. Waters, shake it like a Polaroid picture, and tell her to stop talking about discrimination.
I'm already exhausted. In a video that comes from @FCSDems, an informational service that also doubles as a Maxine Waters fan account, Kelly attempts to call Waters out but it goes straight to voicemail. Waters, in turn, reminds him and all of us, just who she is. In so doing, she also coins a new catchphrase for the kids, but we'll get to that in a second.
Rep. Kelly, who in the video of the exchange is the kind of hype you imagine Twitter trolls with three followers are, really thought that he could take it upon himself to tell Rep Waters, well, anything. Well, audience, we have the results and it turns out, he could not.
The dispute started, as most basic misunderstandings of intersectionality do, with a discussion of auto lending. The Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are trying to roll back Obama-era legislation (how many times has that phrase been written) that prevents auto lenders from discriminating against potential buyers. The legislation, S.J. Res. 57, seeks not only to repeal the guidelines and permanently prevent Congress from ever again enacting anything similar.
Trump seems hellbent on rolling back everything that President Obama did. Tomorrow he's outlawing tan suits and next week he's rolling back the death of Fidel Castro and putting Cuba back on the no-no list. It's amazing to witness the work of a president whose policy handbook comes straight from Biff Tannen of Back to the Future. I would not be surprised to find out Trump is working on a time machine so that he can go back and prevent Obama's birth. I'm fine with that, actually, because he'd send himself back to Kenya in 1961 and spend the rest of his days fruitlessly nosing around hospitals like a low-rent Herod.
Back in the present, Rep. Kelly wasn't satisfied to just make whatever point he had about keeping all the Whos in Whoville from enjoying Christmas, and thought it was a good time to lecture Waters. "We're making America great," he said, apparently without irony. "And the best way to do that is to stop talking about discrimination."
Lest we forget how bad white male privilege can get, let's wander on down into the swamp of the local level in states like mine. Here's The Advocate showing how one state Representative from Louisiana managed to offend every woman representative in the entire body.
An effort to describe how Louisiana's female prisoners should be treated sparked testy exchanges in the House, as a male lawmaker criticized the measure as offering unequal treatment to women and men.
The bill would require female prisoners to have access to feminine hygiene products at no cost, amid concerns some women have been forced to pay for them. The measure also would limit when male prison guards can conduct a pat-down or body cavity search on a woman and add guidelines for how male guards enter areas of a prison where women are undressed.
Rep. Kenny Havard responded with an amendment to place similar limits on how female prison guards deal with male prisoners. It provoked an outcry from female lawmakers, who called it disrespectful. Havard withdrew the proposal.
Havard. R-St. Francisville, made international news in 2016 when he attempted to amend legislationaimed at setting a minimum age for strippers with weight restrictions. Havard, at the time, said his stripper amendment was a misfired criticism about bills that are too intrusive.
That's the Cliff Notes version. Here's some details from my friend Melinda DeSlatte who covers the lege for AP.
A Louisiana lawmaker sparked complaints Thursday that he disrespected women by criticizing legislation that recommends how female prisoners should be treated.
The bill up for debate would require female prisoners to have access to feminine hygiene products at no cost, amid concerns some women have been forced to pay for them. The measure would limit when male prison guards can conduct a pat-down or body-cavity search on a woman. And new guidelines would describe how male guards should enter areas where women may be undressed.
Rep. Kenny Havard, a St. Francisville Republican, responded with an amendment to place similar limits on how female prison guards could deal with male prisoners. The proposal provoked an outcry and some shouting from female lawmakers, and Havard withdrew the amendment before the House ultimately approved the bill.
"Rep. Havard, have you ever been a woman?" Rep. Julie Stokes asked during the debate.
"I was at Halloween one time," Havard replied.
Stokes, a Kenner Republican, then told him that women have "biological things" that make life "a bit harder."
"In my opinion, you're disrespecting women," Stokes told Havard.
Rep. Patricia Smith, a Baton Rouge Democrat, echoed the complaints, citing rapes of female inmates.
Men get raped in prison, too, Havard replied.
Havard said he was merely trying to make a point that men and women should be treated equally. He also raised concerns that the bill could make it harder to monitor female prisoners for contraband and other improper activities. And he complained about news coverage of earlier comments he made about having too many female prison guards for male prisoners.
"My point that I'm trying to make here is we have to find a way to fund these prisons so we aren't short-handed," Havard said.
After Havard withdrew his amendment, the bill sponsored by Sen. Regina Barrow, a Baton Rouge Democrat, passed with a vote of 86-0.
Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras chastised his colleagues: "OK, members, we're getting to the end of the day. The decorum is falling apart."
So, this is part of a nationwide Trumpsterfire to dismantle anti-discrimination laws that aggrieve white men and their captive wives, it seems. The ACLU is "Suing Ben Carson for Trying to Dismantle the Fair Housing Act". That one is of particular interest to KKKremlin Caligula since Daddy and junior were successfully found guilty of violating it many times over. It also has an Obama link and of course, Hair Furor has to actively destroy all things Obama.
It is no accident that much of the United States remains segregated. Decades of slavery, Jim Crow laws, discriminatory lending practices, and intentional policy choices at the federal, state, and local level — most of which were enacted within the last 80 years — helped make it so.
The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968, just a week after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, was meant to address the decades of discrimination that led to such segregation. The FHA made it illegal to discriminate against anyone buying or renting a house because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (it's since been amended to include family status and disability, too). But it also sought to replace segregation in America with "truly integrated and balanced living patterns" by requiring agencies to "affirmatively" further fair housing in all programs related to housing.
The FHA brought about a sea change with respect to individual housing discrimination — Americans today would be shocked to find an apartment listing that indicated Black people or women with children could not apply. But its promise of integrating neighborhoods has been left largely unfulfilled. As former Vice President Walter Mondale, who co-authored the legislation, pointed out recently in a New York Times op-ed, the FHA is the "most ignored" of the era's civil rights laws.
It seems like Secretary Ben Carson, head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, would like to keep it that way. In January, the agency suspended the only regulation to ever give the FHA real leverage in ending segregation. The move puts housing integration in serious jeopardy, so we're challenging it in court.
Since it was enacted, successive presidential administrations largely ignored their affirmative obligations to create fair housing, allowing federal government dollars to flow uninterrupted to cities and towns that have policies in place that maintain segregation. Then, in 2015, the Obama administration finally began to seriously address this issue by putting in place a regulation called the Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule. The rule required cities and towns to create a plan to address segregation and discrimination and to lay out concrete goals for bringing fair housing and opportunity to members of all the groups protected by the FHA before receiving government money. Examples of these goals include building affordable housing in areas well-served by transit and prohibiting landlords from discriminating against people who use a government subsidy to pay part of their rent.
Shall we head on up to the head of the beast? This is from Think Progress: White House chief of staff demonizes immigrants in racist rant. Xenophobia doesn't get more hackneyed than this.'
In a wide-ranging interview with NPR, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly shared some rather racist views to justify the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy on illegal border crossings.
Defending an approach that will split up families, Kelly explained that he thinks these immigrants don't really fit in with United States culture anyway:
Let me step back and tell you that the vast majority of the people that move illegally into United States are not bad people. They're not criminals. They're not MS13. … But they're also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States, into our modern society.
Concerns about immigrants' ability to assimilate with American society have been used repeatedly throughout the country's history to justify barring different groups from immigrating. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers from 1882 until 1943, was passed because Chinese immigrants were blamed for the depressed wages that followed the Gold Rush and Civil War. In 1890, the New York Times printed an article that explained that while "the red and black assimilate… not so the Chinaman."
Let's just head back to an article from The Atlantic from 2016. We've known all along that Make America Great Again and all Donald Trumps associated rhetoric harkens back to the KKK and to anti immigrant fever from times not as far back as we thought. "Make America White Again? Donald Trump's language is eerily similar to the 1920s Ku Klux Klan—hypernationalistic and anti-immigrant."
This has happened before. As The Atlantic's Yoni Appelbaum pointed out, the Republican front-runner's refusal to repudiate white supremacists' support as well as the bombast in his campaign are both echoes of the Ku Klux Klan. As a historian of the 1920s Klan, I noticed the resonances, too. Trump's "Make America great again" language is just like the rhetoric of the Klan, with their emphasis on virulent patriotism and restrictive immigration. But maybe Trump doesn't know much about the second incarnation of the order and what Klansmen and Klanswomen stood for. Maybe the echoes are coincidence, not strategy to win the support of white supremacists. Maybe Trump just needs a quick historical primer on the 1920s Klan—and their vision for making America great again.
In 1915, William J. Simmons, an ex-minister and self-described joiner of fraternities, created a new Ku Klux Klan dedicated to "100 percent Americanism" and white Protestantism. He wanted to evoke the previous Reconstruction Klan (1866-1871) but refashion it as a new order—stripped of vigilantism and dressed in Christian virtue and patriotic pride. Simmons's Klan was to be the savior of a nation in peril, a means to reestablish the cultural dominance of white people. Immigration and the enfranchisement of African Americans, according to the Klan, eroded this dominance and meant that America was no longer great. Simmons, the first imperial wizard of the Klan, and his successor, H.W. Evans, wanted Klansmen to return the nation to its former glory. Their messages of white supremacy, Protestant Christianity, and hypernationalism found an eager audience. By 1924, the Klan claimed 4 million members; they wore robes, lit crosses on fire, read Klan newspapers, and participated in political campaigns on the local and national levels.
To save the nation, the Klan focused on accomplishing a series of goals. A 1924 Klan cartoon, "Under the Fiery Cross," illustrated those goals: restricted immigration, militant Protestantism, better government, clean politics, "back to the Constitution," law enforcement, and "greater allegiance to the flag." Along with the emphases on government and nationalism, the order also mobilized under the banners of vulnerable white womanhood and white superiority more generally. Nativism, writes historian Matthew Frye Jacobson in Whiteness of a Different Color, is a crisis about the boundaries of whiteness and who exactly can be considered white. It is a reaction to a shift in demographics, which confuses the dominant group's understanding of race. For the KKK, Americans were supposed to be only white and Protestant. They championed white supremacy to keep the nation white, ignoring that citizenry was not constrained to their whims.
This was the movement that attracted Donald's Daddy Dearest.
Every day, a monumental 20th century stride towards making our union more perfect with the goal of inclusion is being torn down. Voting while we can has never been more important.
Oh, and Don't forget! If you're black and you stay at an Air BNB be sure to smile and wave and maybe shuck and jive so the white people know you're not a Black Panther!!!
UPDATE: The owner of the Airbnb says the situation could have been avoided "if the kids had simply smiled at (my neighbor) and waved back…" https://t.co/xsgKoaQ4PL pic.twitter.com/krO5bCETkv
— Okayplayer (@okayplayer) May 9, 2018
And if you're a black graduate student who falls asleep in your own dorm … well, I don't know what you have to do for this little white girl. She calls the cops on every black person around her …
It's a familiar story. A black person is minding their own business. A white woman notices them and calls the cops.
The latest event in a long historical pattern took place at Yale University this week (paywall). A black graduate student, Lolade Siyonbola, was taking a nap in her dorm's common room on Monday night after an evening writing papers. A white woman who also lives in the dorm noticed Siyonbola sleeping, told her she was not supposed to be there, and called campus security. "I have every right to call the police. You cannot sleep in that room," the woman said in the first of two Facebook videos posted by Siyonbola.
The fallout is captured in a 17-minute Facebook video posted by Siyonbola, which now has more than 600,000 views. She shows the campus officers her room key and unlocks her apartment; the officers press her to produce identification, while Siyonbola questions whether the request is justified. Once the officers verify her identity, they leave.
The incident is the latest in a string of high-profile incidents that have exposed a troubling, often-overlooked truth about racial discrimination in the US. The Black Lives Matter movement intensified focus on police brutality in black communities, which tends to involve white male police officers' violence against black men, sometimes with deadly results. But Siyonbola's experience highlights the fact that white women play a role in encounters between the police and black Americans, too. Again and again, the news cycle highlights stories of white women who felt threatened by the mere presence of a black person in a public space, and called the cops.
And don't go any here near your local Neighborhood phone Ap Nextdoor because it will be an endless stream of black people sightings including kids just trying to walk home from school even in my 9th ward New Orleans neighborhood.
You may want to read this and think on it. From the Guardian: "How white women use strategic tears to silence women of colour" by Ruby Hamad.
At the Sydney writers' festival on Sunday, editor of Djed Press, Hella Ibrahim, relayed the final minutes of a panel on diversity featuring writers from the western Sydney Sweatshop collective. One of the panellists, Winnie Dunn, in answering a question about the harm caused by good intentions, had used the words "white people" and "shit" in the same sentence. This raised the ire of a self-identified white woman in the audience who interrogated the panellists as to "what they think they have to gain" by insulting people who "want to read their stories."
In other words, the woman saw a personal attack where there wasn't one and decided to remind the panellists that as a member of the white majority she ultimately has their fate in her hands.
"I walked out of that panel frustrated," Ibrahim wrote. "Because yet again, a good convo was derailed, white people centred themselves, and a POC panel was told to police it's [sic] tone to make their message palatable to a white audience."
What's on your reading and blogging list today? And the offer to extend the front page is open to really any one. We're having a hard time keep up with things here since so much of what we care about is basically under fire.
I was thrilled to find so many local governments running kids' art projects for Fair Housing themes. These are some selections from Greensborough, NC, and Portland, Oregon.
Friday Reads: Death Spirals Real and Imagined
Posted: March 10, 2017 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: Affordable Care Act, Affordable Care Act (ACA), Afternoon Reads, corruption, Diplomacy Nightmares, Domestic Policy, Donald Trump, FBI | 46 Comments
It's getting really difficult to find anything upbeat these days out there on the news front. Usually,there are several areas with persistent messes. Today, things folks never thought we'd have to worry about are suddenly in play. They say Rome wasn't built in a day nor did it fall in day. It seems like the US is on a downward spiral that rivals the speed of light or at least a hefty meteor. Bets on how long we last at this rate?
Suggestions on how can we stop this?
Much of the destruction is going on inside the federal government while Kremlin Caligula puts on a show. We've learned that Trump and cronies are planting lobbyists and ideologues to cripple agencies. The State Department appears to be one of the major functions of government that is in a death spiral. The Russian Connections between Trump and his cronies run deep. There's no longer a need to connect the dots. It's a four lane highway between Trump Tower with off ramps all over the place.
It appears that the Trump Syndicate may have been laundering money for Russian Oligarchs. Here are some links to get caught up on the Russia fiasco. Many of these are updates from stories that BB wrote about yesterday.
From CNN: "The super-secret division in charge of the Russia investigation".
From the Palm Beach Post: "Trump in Palm Beach: Why did Russian pay so much for his mansion?"
From The American Interest: "The Curious World of Donald Trump's Private Russian Connections"
By the late 1990s the actual chaos that resulted from Yeltsin's warped policies had laid the foundations for a strong counterrevolution, including the rise of ex-KGB officer Putin and a massive outpouring of oligarchic flight capital that has continued virtually up to the present. For ordinary Russians, as noted, this was disastrous. But for many banks, private bankers, hedge funds, law firms, and accounting firms, for leading oil companies like ExxonMobil and BP, as well as for needy borrowers like the Trump Organization, the opportunity to feed on post-Soviet spoils was a godsend. This was vulture capitalism at its worst.
The nine-lived Trump, in particular, had just suffered a string of six successive bankruptcies. So the massive illicit outflows from Russia and oil-rich FSU members like Kazahkstan and Azerbaijan from the mid-1990s provided precisely the kind of undiscriminating investors that he needed. These outflows arrived at just the right time to fund several of Trump's post-2000 high-risk real estate and casino ventures—most of which failed, since people doesn't go to casinos that much anymore, people prefer to play and gamble online in different sites, for example here is a List of Betfred's bonus codes for all their products. As Donald Trump, Jr., executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization, told the "Bridging U.S. and Emerging Markets Real Estate" conference in Manhattan in September 2008 (on the basis, he said, of his own "half dozen trips to Russia in 18 months"):
[I]n terms of high-end product influx into the United States, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.
All this helps to explain one of the most intriguing puzzles about Donald Trump's long, turbulent business career: how he managed to keep financing it, despite a dismal track record of failed projects.4
According to the "official story," this was simply due to a combination of brilliant deal-making, Trump's gold-plated brand, and raw animal spirits—with $916 million of creative tax dodging as a kicker. But this official story is hokum. The truth is that, since the late 1990s, Trump was also greatly assisted by these abundant new sources of global finance, especially from "submerging markets" like Russia
Rex Tillerson is incapable of doing an actual job. The State Department is in disarray and it's hard to see how Tillerson is doing anything to change that. Here's some analysis from David Ignatius writing for WAPO.
Tillerson's State Department has been in idle gear these past two months. He doesn't have a deputy or other top aides. His spokesman can't give guidance on key issues, because decisions haven't yet been made. Tillerson didn't attend important meetings with foreign leaders.
As a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, Tillerson is accustomed to a world where a visible display of power is unnecessary, corporate planning is meticulous and office politics are suppressed. But this is Washington
"I am an engineer by training. I seek to understand the facts," Tillerson said at his confirmation hearing. That sounds reassuring, but it doesn't fit the glitzy, backstabbing capital that spawned the television series "House of Cards."
"He may pay some cost up front for not meeting Washington expectations," notes Stephen Hadley, national security adviser for President George W. Bush and a Tillerson supporter. "The short-term buzz was that he's out of the loop, but Tillerson is playing for the long game."
Tillerson couldn't even get his choice for a deputy pass President Bannon.
The Republicans in the House and Senate are using the chaos to cover up their end game. They're trying to dismantle everything from Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, the EPA, Social Security, Dodd Frank, and just about anything used to protect citizens from the malfeasance of of short sighted, profit-oriented business practices which rule the US commerce landscape. The GOP is planning a full scale assault on Federal Regulations.
There is a flurry of anti-regulatory legislation floating around Capitol Hill, but it is becoming clear that the key Republican vehicle to rein in rulemaking will be Ohio Senator Rob Portman's Regulatory Accountability Act. A 16-page draft of the legislation obtained by POLITICO was significantly less radical than several aggressive bills recently passed by the House of Representatives, but industry groups have pinned their hopes on this one attracting support from enough moderate Democrats to overcome a Senate filibuster and make it to Trump's desk. And even if the Portman bill won't automatically ensure "the deconstruction of the administrative state" promised by White House adviser Steve Bannon, it could still dramatically curtail the power of government regulators in the long run.
Portman has not yet introduced the bill, but behind the scenes in Washington it is already the subject of furious lobbying by more than 150 public interest groups that oppose it as well as more than 600 business groups that support it. It is much narrower than a bill the House passed last month with the same name, but would still revamp and insert new bureaucratic hurdles into the federal regulatory process, which the Obama Administration used to enact tough new restrictions on coal plants, Wall Street banks, for-profit colleges and other corporate entities. The Portman bill would add new obstacles for agencies to overcome before enacting economically significant rules, require them to choose the most cost-effective alternative, and give judges more discretion to block regulations when the regulated interests object.
"When I visit a factory or small business in Ohio, one of the complaints I hear most from employers is that there are too many costly and unnecessary regulations that limit their ability to invest in their business," Portman said. "We need a smarter regulatory process that promotes job creation, innovation, and economic growth."
Portman and the Washington business community are portraying his reforms as a pragmatic approach to burdensome red tape, hoping to distinguish them from more extreme Republican bills that would give Congress a veto over all major rules, eliminate the deference that courts traditionally give to federal agencies, and even forbid those agencies from implementing rules until every lawsuit against them is resolved. House Republicans have passed five regulatory reform bills this year, and have introduced a dozen more, but insiders say most of them are doomed to die in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to overcome a filibuster. That's why Portman is now negotiating over his more temperate language with Democratic senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who are both up for reelection in 2018 in states Trump won easily. Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida and independent Angus King of Maine have supported similar bills in the past.
Trump has not outlived his usefulness to the Republican Agenda of installing a warped Christian Theocracy and a kleptocracy capable of ruining the environment and killing people. Portman obviously decided Trump was the way to sneak a lot of things through.
"it would be very meta of me to place one of my old Paul Ryan memes inside this new Paul Ryan meme" -me, ten minutes ago pic.twitter.com/BFuHjGsGTo
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) March 9, 2017
And then there's Paul Ryan who thinks the only thing that should occur right now is decimation of the ACA regardless of the results. It's right there on his Power Point. It pretty much looked like the Republican version was DOA yesterday but now Senate Republicans are actually talking about changing the Senate rules to get it shoved through one way or another. This is despite the massive outrage about the repeal.
A growing number of conservative lawmakers on Thursday urged GOP leaders to push the limits of how much of the health law they can reshape under a powerful procedural maneuver known as budget reconciliation — and to overrule the Senate parliamentarian if she doesn't decide in their favor.
Such a gambit would require the unlikely buy-in of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a noted institutionalist who earlier this year avoided talk of changing his chamber's rules to kill the ability to filibuster Supreme Court nominees.
If the Senate changes precedent for what can be passed under reconciliation now, a future Senate — whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats — could enact a wide range of legislation with just a simple majority.
"There are limits to what we can do" on Obamacare while complying with the Senate rules, Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Senate Republican, said in a Thursday floor speech. Under reconciliation guidelines, bills can be passed in the Senate with a simple majority and cannot be filibustered, as long as their provisions have a direct impact on spending or tax levels.
I wake up every day in fear of what's coming next. It seems that everything I've ever planned my old age around is now collapsing around me. The Republican Plan is a massive DumpsterFire. Paul Krugman has some great analysis.
Obamacare rests on three main pillars. Insurance companies are regulated, prevented from denying coverage or charging higher prices to Americans with pre-existing conditions. Families receive subsidies linked to both income and premiums, to help them buy insurance. And there is a penalty for those who don't buy insurance, to induce people to sign up even if they're currently healthy
Trumpcare — the White House insists that we not call it that, which means that we must — preserves some version of all three elements, but in drastically, probably fatally weakened form.
Insurers are still barred from excluding the sick, but they're allowed to charge older Americans — who need insurance the most — much higher premiums.
Subsidies are still there, in the form of tax credits, but they're no longer linked to either income (as long as it's below $75,000) or the cost of insurance.
And the tax on those who don't sign up becomes a small surcharge — paid to insurance companies, not the public — on people who sign up after previously letting coverage lapse.
Affluent young people might end up saving some money as a result of these changes. But the effect on those who are older and less affluent would be devastating. AARP has done the math: a 55-year-old making $25,000 a year would end up paying $3,600 a year more for coverage; that rises to $8,400 for a 64-year-old making $15,000 a year. And that's before the death spiral.
For the combination of price hikes and weakened penalties would lead many healthy Americans to forgo insurance. This would worsen the risk pool, causing premiums to rise sharply — and remember, subsidies would no longer adjust to offset this rise. The result would be even more people dropping out. Republicans have been claiming that Obamacare is collapsing, which isn't true. But Trumpcare, if implemented, would collapse in a Mar-a-Lago minute.
How could House Republicans under the leadership of Paul Ryan, who the media keeps assuring us is a smart, serious policy wonk, have produced such a monstrosity?
The only thing that's been fun about this is the Twitter Attack on Paul Ryan and his Power Points.
So glad @ResistanceTees fixed Paul Ryan's faulty PowerPoint. pic.twitter.com/cspmGuYMxA
— Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) March 10, 2017
So, I know a few people that have been basically kidnapped by their families and put into conversion therapy. This story of a survivor is chilling reading.
TC, a 19-year-old gay man who spoke to The Huffington Post anonymously for this article in order to protect his safety, is a survivor of conversion therapy practices.
TC was subjected to conversion therapy in 2012 when he was 15 years old after his parents discovered he was gay. The conversion therapy practices took place in the basement of a church after school hours, and were explained to TC and his parents as having two separate components. He told The Huffington Post:
The first step ― which usually lasted six months ― [is] where they "deconstruct us as a person." Their tactics still haunt me. Aversion therapy, shock therapy, harassment and occasional physical abuse. Their goal was to get us to hate ourselves for being LGBTQ (most of us were gay, but the entire spectrum was represented), and they knew what they were doing…. The second step of the program, they "rebuilt us in their image." They removed us of everything that made us a unique person, and instead made us a walking, talking, robot for Jesus. They retaught us everything we knew. How to eat, talk, walk, dress, believe, even breathe. We were no longer people at the end of the program.
TC said that the conversion therapy sessions would take place every weekday, with shock therapy treatments lasting approximately an hour, and aversion therapy lasting three.
This is torture. Pure and Simple.
So, this is what they'd fund while getting Insurance 101 wrong.
Paul Ryan actually said "The whole idea of Obamacare is…the people who are healthy pay for the…sick. It's not working, & that's why it's in a death spiral."
No Speaker that's a risk pool and it's how insurance works.
Everyone pays into the pot and draws on it when they're sick. Younger people, who tend to be healthier than older people, pay for health insurance like everyone else. They'll rely on it when when they need it, probably more when they're older and there are younger, healthier people filing in behind them. It's the same with car insurance
. Some people pay for decades and never get into an accident and never collect on their coverage (though the likelihood of anyone never using health insurance is unlikely).That's what actuarial figures are all about, so an insurance system can assess the risks of segments of customers to determine what everyone needs to put into the pot so there's enough to pay out when someone needs the money.
Ryan has perhaps been on taxpayer-paid health insurance for so long that he has forgotten how the concept works. He believes that's only the way it works for Obamacare. "The conceit of Obamacare," he said at his press conference on Trumpcare, is that "young and healthy people are going to go into the market and pay for the older, sicker people." That's why Obamacare is in a "death spiral," he noted.
Twitter had a pretty predictable response to Ryan's summary of health insurance: Duh.
Meanwhile, every one except the stupid, the greedy, the mean, and the crazy resist.
I have never seen such a beautiful sight in front of the Trump DC Hotel.#NativeNationsRise pic.twitter.com/g5IfLcUvJR
Well, what's on your reading and blogging list today?
Posted: March 3, 2017 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: Domestic Policy, Donald Trump, Economic Develpment, Economy, Federal Budget, morning reads, Social Security | Tags: budget, Deconstruction of the Administrative State, EPA, State Department | 24 Comments
Our Federal Government continues to morph into something hostile, xenophobic,and corrupt as we look at yet another weekend where taxpayer money will be filtered into a private resort owned by Kremlin Caligula. The Cabinet is now filled with corrupt and unqualified people. Entire Departments are being defunded and destroyed. First among them is the State Department. This all appears to part of Bannon's crusade to "deconstruct the administrative state".
This week began with reports that President Donald Trump's budget proposal will drastically slash the State Department's funding, and last week ended with White House adviser and former Breitbart head Stephen Bannon telling the attendees of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference that what he and the new president were after was a "deconstruction of the administrative state." At the State Department, which employs nearly 70,000 people around the world, that deconstruction is already well underway.
In the last week, I've spoken with a dozen current and recently departed State Department employees, all of whom asked for anonymity either because they were not authorized to speak to the press and feared retribution by an administration on the prowl for leakers, or did not want to burn their former colleagues. None of these sources were political appointees. Rather, they were career foreign service officers or career civil servants, most of whom have served both Republican and Democratic administrations—and many of whom do not know each other. They painted a picture of a State Department adrift and listless.
Sometimes, the deconstruction of the administrative state is quite literal. After about two dozen career staff on the seventh floor—the State Department's equivalent of a C suite—were told to find other jobs, some with just 12 hours' notice, construction teams came in over Presidents' Day weekend and began rebuilding the office space for a new team and a new concept of how State's nerve center would function. (This concept hasn't been shared with most of the people who are still there.) The space on Mahogany Row, the line of wood-paneled offices including that of the secretary of state, is now a mysterious construction zone behind blue tarp.
Under Trumps Slash and Burn Budget, everything loses but the military. The EPA will be decimated.
A wide slew of Environmental Protection Agency programs could be under the knife to meet President Donald Trump's budget proposal requirements, a source told CNN Wednesday night.
The source spelled out details of an Office of Management and Budget proposal that would cut the EPA's budget by 24% and reduce its staffing by 20%. Some of the EPA's most longstanding and best-known programs are facing potential elimination — including initiatives aimed at improving water and air quality as well as a number of regulations tasked with reducing the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.
Other programs include the Environmental Justice program, which is meant to help local communities grapple with environmental concerns, and Global Change Research, a program funded by several agencies, including the EPA, which reports humans' impact on the planet.
The Clean Power Plan, which could also be recommended for cuts, was an initiative by former President Barack Obama meant to reduce carbon emissions from each state. Fourteen separate EPA partnership programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could also be on the chopping block.
Also among the programs up for elimination are multi-purpose grants to states and tribes, Energy Star grants, Science to Achieve Results (STAR) graduate fellowships, the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act and initiatives aimed at environmental protections along the US-Mexico border.
Some of the grants recommended for elimination could be matching grants for local projects around the country, the source added.
Ken Cook, the head of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy and research organization, told CNN in a statement: "The Trump administration has decided fence-line communities across the country, whose residents already bear an outsized burden from pollution, are on their own to take on big polluters."
Daryl Cagle / darylcagle.com
The American Heritage Foundation has been out for the EPA for a long time. Its even had a plan that may be part of the Adminstration's vision for letting go of any kind environmental controls and regulation.
Right now, the Trump administration is crafting a budget proposal that envisions steep cuts to a number of federal agencies — including, reportedly, a 24 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency that would eliminate one-fifth of its 15,000 jobs.
There aren't yet any final decisions on exactly which environmental and energy programs will be targeted for elimination; the White House is still discussing with the relevant agencies. But one place to look for clues is this budget "blueprint" put out by the Heritage Foundation, a major conservative think tank. According to multiple reports, Donald Trump's team has been using Heritage's blueprint as a rough guide in its search for $54 billion in domestic spending cuts for fiscal year 2018.
The Heritage budget explains how to get cuts of that magnitude — spreading them out across every agency. And it goes particularly hard after energy and environmental programs. The EPA's climate-change programs? Gone. Federal research into wind, solar, electric vehicles, nuclear, and other clean tech? Gone. Environmental justice programs? Gone. There are cuts to pollution enforcement and EPA programs that deal with surface water cleanup to diesel truck emissions. Plus cuts in aid to poor countries that help deal with ozone depletion and global warming. Taken together, the blueprint's cuts would amount to a stark change in US environmental policy.
These cuts won't all necessarily fly with Congress — a few Republicans are already balking at some of the numbers Trump's team is tossing about. But it's a useful read as an aspirational document, a look at the programs that some influential conservatives with Trump's ear would like to see rooted out of the federal government (and why)
It isn't clear at all that the Pentagon needs that much money or wants it for that matter. It traditionally gets pretty much what it wants already. The nation has been on a war time footing since 9/11 so it isn't even clear that there's been any kind of "depletion" of anything.
Defense spending accounts for almost the same proportion of the federal budget as all non-discretionary domestic spending, meaning that the Trump administration's proposal will result in a roughly 10 percent across-the-board cut in all other federal spending programs.
Budgets for most federal agencies would be reduced substantially, said an OMB official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on a call with reporters to discuss the proposal.
The announcement marks the beginning of a process in which the OMB will coordinate with agencies to flesh out the plan.
Trump said his budget, which will be submitted to Congress next month, will propose "historic" increases in spending to bolster the country's "depleted military," and he said it will support law enforcement in an effort to reduce crime.
I really don't think that any one in the administration has a clue what they're doing in any kind of conventional sense since nearly all of them have no experience in governance at any level. Bannon's slash and burn the state ideology appears to be driving much of this. The cabinet appointees will have difficulty doing much of anything at this rate because staff is fleeing already.
The career executives who staff and run the approximately 250 federal departments and agencies not only formulate and implement executive orders, they also make choices every day that influence large swaths of public policy — from immigration to law enforcement to education to the environment. They use their legal authority to do what all executives do: interpret the power given them by their board of directors (in this case, Congress), set organizational priorities in formal guidance or memorandums and make decisions about where to allocate people and dollars.
The recent enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) illustrate how agency choices about what to prioritize and how to enforce the law can produce a dramatic policy change.
Trump's success as president depends in part on his ability to get agencies to behave like ICE and choose to use their power in the ways he would prefer.
A number of agencies have already gone literally rogue on him with employees undermining him every chance they get. This is even true of some of the agencies that are to be used to purge the country of whatever it is Trump fears. Bannon has even indicated that the Cabinet picks were part of the Deconstruction plan.
President Trump's critics have noted that at least some of his Cabinet picks seem uniquely unsuited to their roles. Scott Pruitt, recently confirmed as head of the EPA, had previously challenged its regulations in more than a dozen suits. Trump's initial pick for labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, operated a company that depended on low wages and faced allegations of labor abuse. Puzder's nomination was scuttled by the discovery that he had employed at least one undocumented immigrant.
Trump's FCC chairman and energy secretary have also been critics of the very agencies they're now tasked with managing. Rick Perry, Trump's pick for energy secretary, famously called to eliminate the department while running for President in 2011.
Putting anti-regulation chairs at the top of regulatory bodies is nothing new for conservative administrations—George W. Bush's EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, for instance, pushed back against staff recommendations and slackened enforcement. As the saying goes, elections have consequences, and lightening the regulatory load on businesses is a pillar of modern Republican doctrine.
What's remarkable here, though, is Bannon's framing of these moves as more anti-state than pro-business. The CPAC comments about 'deconstruction' are a toned-down version of startling statements made last August to the Daily Beast. Bannon impishly declared himself a "Leninist," saying that the Soviet leader "wanted to destroy the state, and that's my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today's establishment."
It's not a stretch to see Bannon's comments reflected not only in Trump's cabinet picks, but in his slow progress in filling hundreds of lower-level cabinet positions. Until they're filled, those positions are staffed by temporary administrators with reduced power, leaving enforcement and other matters in limbo.
This is perhaps though why Paul Ryan–on top of Putin–find the Trump minions to be "useful fools". Ryan is known as the nation's premier granny starver and all this chaos and cutting is pretty much right up his ally. This is analysis by Jonathan Chait.
What is the substance of the supposed schism between Trump and the regular GOP? The Times depicts the president and the House Speaker as split over whether to cut "Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." But, while Ryan has made it known that he would like to cut Social Security (a position that has won him immense inside-the-Beltway Establishment credibility), he has not persuaded his party to go along. The "Better Way" plan crafted by Ryan and endorsed by House Republicans makes no mention of Social Security at all. It does propose privatizing Medicare, but only for workers who are not retired or are near retirement — which means, despite its long-term significance, it has no impact on the budget over the next decade. And both Trump and Ryan are planning deep cuts to Medicaid.
The similarities continue. Both favor increases in defense spending and dramatically weaker enforcement of labor, environmental, and financial regulation. Both favor deep cuts to anti-poverty spending. Trump is more enthusiastic than the regular GOP about infrastructure spending, but he has decided to postpone that issue until next year and use it as an election messaging vehicle rather than a real legislative priority. Most important, both agree that large, upper-income tax cuts are the party's highest priority. Trump has even endorsed Ryan's legislative strategy of sequencing Obamacare repeal first in order to grease the skids for bigger tax cuts. ("Statutorily and for budget purposes, as you know, we have to do health care before we do the tax cut," he said this week.)
It is true, as conservatives say, that Trump's budget numbers do not really add up. But he is relying on the same voodoo economics assumptions that are de rigeur in his party. "The money is going to come from a revved-up economy," Trump said on Fox & Friends. "I mean, you look at the kind of numbers we're doing, we were probably GDP of a little more than 1 percent. And if I can get that up to 3, maybe more, we have a whole different ballgame." Remember that ultra-Establishment Republican Jeb Bush promised tax cuts and deregulation would produce 4 percent growth, so Trump's 3 percent growth promise is actually moderate and realistic by Republican fiscal standards.
The illusion that Trump has radically altered his party's agenda is convenient for all sides.
Democrats have already sent out a battle cry as have a few Republicans. Lindsey Graham is having none of the cuts to State.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that President Trump's first budget was "dead on arrival" and wouldn't make it through Congress.
"It's not going to happen," said Graham, according to NBC News. "It would be a disaster."
Graham, a frequent Trump critic, expressed concerns with Trump's proposed cuts to the State Department budget, especially the targeting of foreign aid.
These are trying times. Let's just hope we have enough leaders in the District with other patriotism or deep seated interests in some of these agencies or our country will never look the same again.
Blue Blue Monday Reads and Yes! Let's politicize homophobia and gun fetishists!
Posted: June 13, 2016 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: 2016 elections, American Gun Fetish, Barack Obama, Breaking News, children, Domestic Policy, Donald Trump, FBI, Gun Control | Tags: AR-15, mass shootings, NRA, Orlando Shooting | 68 Comments
Once again we see the results of toxic religious zealotry and resentment whipped up to the point that some nutter feels compelled to kill in the case of the Orlando massacre. This occurs all too frequently in this country. You may recall the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting where we saw Robert Dear go on a shooting spree with the same deadly combination of anger whipped up by right wing politicians and preachers, mental illness, and easy access to weapons. One claimed ISIS inspiration and Islamofascism. The other was inspired by Christofascists in the US that bring you terror in the name of Fetus Fetishism.
We still haven't heard about the motives of the Indiana man–a 20 year old white guy–in terms of why he was going after participants and viewers of a California Gay Pride parade. Suffice it to say, the politicization of the private lives of the GLBT community by Republicans, their presidential candidate, and the various religious whackos that they court likely will come into play at some point.
Harassing and encouraging anger is just one political tool used regularly by Republicans these days. I have noticed that the silence is deafening right now on James Wesley Howell. The press can is clearly focused on the bloodbath and the sensational background of the Pulse Shooter rather than wondering why we manage to get bigger and badder displays of hatred and anger these days. I'm not sure that most people realize that any Abrahamic-based religion is going to beget violence in some folks. It goes with territory. A few of them take retribution and strict commandments from their angry sky fairy way too seriously. This is especially the case if they have some kind of severe emotional or mental disorder.
(Spoiler Alert) It's the easy access to guns of all kinds in this country. The irresponsible and cynical use of anger and outrage to gain power and money is out of control. Religion is just another vehicle to whip up the anger and the outrage and it frequently turns deadly.
The weapon of choice for mass shooters is the AR-15 rifle. This is one of the weapons that was included in the assault weapons ban signed by Bill Clinton in 1994 that expired in 2004. The rifle was used in Orlando, Aurora, Newton, and San Bernadino. It's easily obtainable and the latest shooter–who had a history of Domestic Violence and was under the eye of the FBI for terrorist rantings–had a license to carry it and to obtain it legally. Let that sink in.
There were calls to ban the weapon after the Newtown shootings, which led to a spike in sales. Gun manufacturers have called the AR-15 one of the most popular weapons in the U.S., with more than 3 million estimated to be in circulation.
"It was designed for the United States military to do to enemies of war exactly what it did this morning: kill mass numbers of people with maximum efficiency and ease," lawyer Josh Koskoff, who's representing Newtown families in their lawsuit against the gun industry, said Sunday.
Regulations on magazine capacity for the weapon vary from state to state, but it can fire 45 rounds a minute.
Most forms of the gun had been prohibited under the 1994 federal assault weapons ban that was allowed to expire in 2004, following ferocious lobbying by the National Rifle Association.
The NRA has used its lobbying might in the years since to bury attempts to revive the ban.
"During the decade of the ban, there were half as many casualties in mass shootings as the decade before, and a third as many casualties in mass shootings as the decade after," said Richard Aborn of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a strategist involved in the original legislation.
Hillary Clinton has called for a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban that her husband signed in his first term. This is one of the reasons that I am so happy she is the nominee. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has some extremely neoconfederate views of gun control that he reiterated yesterday. He believes it is a state and local issue, voted against the Brady Bill many many times, and has supported relieving gun manufacturers and stores of any liability for the damage done by their product.
Hillary Clinton has called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban in the wake of the worst mass shooting in American history that left 49 people and the gunman dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
In forthright comments a day after the massacre at the Pulse Club, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic party issued a call for a return to "commonsense gun safety reform" and lambasted the Republican-controlled Congress for what she called a "totally incomprehensible" refusal to address the country's lax gun laws.
"We can't fall into the trap set up by the gun lobby that says if you cannot stop every shooting you shouldn't try to stop any," she said.
Clinton's tough stance on gun control sets up a torrid fight with her Republican rival for the White House Donald Trump, who has positioned himself as a champion of the second amendment and dismissed any calls for greater gun controls as weakness. She insisted that while she did believe that law-abiding American citizens have the right to own guns, it was also possible to see that "reasonable, commonsense measures" could be taken that would make people more safe from guns.
One of the things that stuns me is the ease with which a guy on the FBI threat radar could get a permit to carry and purchase a rifle that no civilian should own.
A day after the deadliest mass shooting in US history, questions are mounting over why the shooter Omar Mateen was legally able to buy an assault rifle and handgun despite having been investigated twice by the FBI for suspected terrorist sympathies.
Mateen, 29, launched his attack on Pulse club, an LGBT venue in downtown Orlando celebrating its popular Latin dance night, at 2.02am on Sunday morning.
Twenty minutes into the spree he took the bizarre step of making a 911 call in which he reportedly referred both to Islamic State and the Tsarnaevs, the brothers who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013.
Sunday's attack – which left 49 clubgoers dead and 53 injured – was launched by Mateen using a .223-caliber assault rifle and 9mm semi-automatic pistol with multiple rounds of ammunition that had been purchased quite lawfully in the week before the rampage using Mateen's firearms license. Mateen was shot dead by police.
He also held a permit to work as a security guard, which he did at a courthouse in Port St Lucie, Florida, even though he was interviewed three times by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 following separate reports of extremist behavior and connections to terrorism that were in the end deemed insubstantial.
Mateen was released because no evidence of wrongdoing was found by the FBI. He's a natural born American so that provides him the usual protections. This is something that appears to have blown completely pass Donald Trump whose rhetoric and bragging were dialed up to 11 yesterday. He revisited his call to ban all Muslims from entering the country despite the fact that all three of the shooters claiming support for Islamofascim–Nidal Hassn (Fort Hood),Syed Rizwan Farook, (San Bernardino) , and Mateen (Orlando)–were American citizens. Only Farook's wife–Tashfeen Malik–was foreign born.
The presumptive Republican nominee pulled no punches in a lengthy statement yesterday, going so far as to call for Barack Obama to resign and reiterating his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States (despite the fact that the shooter was born in New York).
"In his remarks today, President Obama disgracefully refused to even say the words 'Radical Islam'. For that reason alone, he should step down," Trump said in his press release. "If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words 'Radical Islam' she should get out of this race for the Presidency. If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore. Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen – and it is only going to get worse. I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can't afford to be politically correct anymore."
"We admit more than 100,000 lifetime migrants from the Middle East each year. Since 9/11, hundreds of migrants and their children have been implicated in terrorism in the United States," Trump added. "Hillary Clinton wants to dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East, bringing in many hundreds of thousands during a first term – and we will have no way to screen them, pay for them, or prevent the second generation from radicalizing." (To be fair, this mischaracterizes Clinton's position.)
The statement followed a stream of self-congratulatory tweets.
Clinton has decided to adopt the use of radical Islam. Let's hope she will also be brave enough to point out radical Christians like Ted Cruz's "Kill the Gays" pastor or the horrid group at Westborough Baptist Church. She used the term on several morning news shows today.
Hillary Clinton on Monday broke from President Barack Obama in referring to the terrorist attack as "radical Islamism," countering Donald Trump's accusations that both she and Obama are weak on tackling terrorist threats.
In an interview with NBC's "Today" on Monday morning, Clinton said words matter less than actions, but that she didn't have a problem using the term.
"And from my perspective, it matters what we do, not what we say. It matters that we got Bin Laden, not what name we called him," Clinton said. "But if he is somehow suggesting I don't call this for what it is, he hasn't been listening. I have clearly said we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering people. We have to stop them and we will. We have to defeat radical jihadist terrorism, and we will."
Both terms "mean the same thing," Clinton continued, adding, "And to me, radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing. I'm happy to say either, but that's not the point."
"I have clearly said many, many times we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people. We have to stop them and we will. We have to defeat radical jihadist terrorism or radical Islamism, whatever you call it," Clinton said later on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," reiterating, "it's the same."
The U.S. cannot, on the other hand, she added, "demonize, demagogue and declare war on an entire religion." Clinton also said she could assure Americans that she is equally committed to fighting Islamic extremism as well as protecting law-abiding Muslims.
The President spoke on the radicalization of Mateen several hours ago.
President Obama said Monday that the Orlando mass murder was "inspired" by violent extremist propaganda on the internet and there's no evidence the killing spree was ordered by ISIS.
"We see no clear evidence that he was directed externally," Obama said from the Oval Office, using another name from the Islamic State terror group. "It does appear that at the last minute he announced allegiance to ISIL."
Obama said investigators are tracing Omar Mateen's "pathway" to murder by reviewing his internet searches and other materials.
"It appears that the shooter was inspired by various extremist information that was disseminated over the internet," Obama said.
"All those materials are currently being searched … so we will have a better sense of pathway that the killer took in the making a decision to launch this attack."
Obama made the brief remarks after meeting with FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other security officials.
The Orlando shooting and the shooting that might have been in California both are rooted in hate and easy access to guns. Both shooter and potential shooter had histories of mental illness. The Orlando shooter had a history of Domestic violence which in many states would stop him from getting access to any gun. Clearly, we have a problem in this country with hate and guns turned on the hapless population. One of our political parties has weaponized hatred and bigotry then enabled shooters by catering to all the whims of the most radical elements of the NRA gun lobby.
Clinton is right. This has to end on all accounts.
bostonboomer on Feisty Friday Reads
Parnas pressure grows on Senate GOP (Jordain Carney/The Hill)
Amid hacking fears, key caucus states to use app for results (Associated Press)
Thursday Reads: The Proverbial Sh** Is Hitting The Fan skydancingblog.com/2020/01/16/thu… https://t.co/gFgsnJVYbJ 1 day ago