Emmanuel Macron l’a fait.
Angela Merkel l’a fait.
Pourtant, on peut pardonner aux Européens s’ils ne voient pas la rencontre entre Donald Trump et Vladimir Poutine comme un rendez-vous ordinaire.
Il faut remettre les choses dans leur contexte.
Trump va s’entretenir avec Poutine alors qu’il n’est toujours pas d’accord avec ses propres services de renseignement sur l’ingérence russe dans la présidentielle américaine de 2016.
La Russie, a tweeté Trump le 28 juin, “maintient qu’elle ne s’est pas du tout mêlée de notre élection !”.
Les renseignements américains ne sont pas de cet avis et plusieurs pays européens ont aussi été la cible d’ingérences russes en période électorale.
Trump est également en conflit avec les alliés européens des États-Unis sur plusieurs dossiers, notamment la politique commerciale, le changement climatique et l’accord sur le nucléaire iranien.
Au vu de l’ambivalence du président américain concernant l’OTAN, les dirigeants européens discutent ouvertement d’une autonomie européenne en matière de défense.
Saturday, June 30, 2018
WAPO says Bozo urged Macron to Frexit in April
Alors qu’ils s’entretenaient en privé à la Maison-Blanche, à l’occasion de la visite d’État du président français Emmanuel Macron à Washington à la fin du mois d’avril, Donald Trump aurait demandé à son homologue français : “Pourquoi ne quittez-vous pas l’Union européenne ?”
C’est ce que raconte le chroniqueur Josh Rogin dans les colonnes du Washington Post.
Le président américain aurait ajouté que “si la France quittait l’Union, Trump lui offrirait un meilleur accord commercial bilatéral que ce que les États-Unis proposent à l’Union européenne dans son ensemble”.
Ces propos rapportés par des officiels européens “n’ont pas été démentis par la Maison-Blanche”, ajoute le quotidien, qui pointe que celle-ci n’a pas souhaité commenter.
Is this how Trump backs the US away from globalism?
Pentagon Mulls Withdrawing US Troops From Germany
But if he's doing that what does he need with a bigger military budget?
It makes little or no sense to maintain such sizable forces just to have them sit around in stateside barracks.
If we're backing away from our overseas alliances to defend America from North America, we certainly won't need such large and expensive forces.
WAPO reports
The Pentagon is analyzing the cost and impact of a large-scale withdrawal or transfer of American troops stationed in Germany, amid growing tensions between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to people familiar with the work.
The effort follows Trump’s expression of interest in removing the troops, made during a meeting earlier this year with White House and military aides, U.S. officials said.
Trump was said to have been taken aback by the size of the U.S. presence, which includes about 35,000 active-duty troops, and complained that other countries were not contributing fairly to joint security or paying enough to NATO.
But if he's doing that what does he need with a bigger military budget?
It makes little or no sense to maintain such sizable forces just to have them sit around in stateside barracks.
If we're backing away from our overseas alliances to defend America from North America, we certainly won't need such large and expensive forces.
WAPO reports
The Pentagon is analyzing the cost and impact of a large-scale withdrawal or transfer of American troops stationed in Germany, amid growing tensions between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to people familiar with the work.
The effort follows Trump’s expression of interest in removing the troops, made during a meeting earlier this year with White House and military aides, U.S. officials said.
Trump was said to have been taken aback by the size of the U.S. presence, which includes about 35,000 active-duty troops, and complained that other countries were not contributing fairly to joint security or paying enough to NATO.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Somebody hates MSNBC
Somebody to do with the sound.
Constantly repeated brief interruptions of the sound lasting at most one or two seconds, preventing completion of interesting sentences.
Constantly repeated brief interruptions of the sound lasting at most one or two seconds, preventing completion of interesting sentences.
A purely personal matter, it seems
Nothing to do with the president stoking fury at the press.
Who they were: 5 killed in Capital Gazette shooting
Five people were killed when a gunman targeted a Maryland newspaper Thursday.
The victims — Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara and Wendi Winters — were all employees of the Capital Gazette, a newspaper published in Annapolis.
Five dead in 'targeted attack' at Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, police say; Laurel man charged with murder
Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings.
He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a long-standing grudge against the paper.
Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to online court records.
He did not have an attorney listed; a bail review hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in Annapolis.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf.
“This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people.”
. . . .
Ramos’ dispute with the Capital Gazette began in July 2011 when a columnist wrote about a criminal harassment case against him.
He brought a defamation suit against the columnist and the organization’s editor and publisher.
A court ruled in the Capital Gazette’s favor, and an appeals court upheld the ruling.
Neither the columnist, Eric Hartley, nor the editor and publisher, Thomas Marquardt, are still employed by the Capital Gazette.
They were not present during the shootings.
Police said the suspect used “smoke grenades” in the attack.
They said 170 people were inside at the time.
The Capital Gazette is owned by The Baltimore Sun.
Who they were: 5 killed in Capital Gazette shooting
Five people were killed when a gunman targeted a Maryland newspaper Thursday.
The victims — Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith, Gerald Fischman, John McNamara and Wendi Winters — were all employees of the Capital Gazette, a newspaper published in Annapolis.
Five dead in 'targeted attack' at Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, police say; Laurel man charged with murder
Police took a suspect into custody soon after the shootings.
He was identified as Jarrod W. Ramos, a 38-year-old Laurel man with a long-standing grudge against the paper.
Ramos was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to online court records.
He did not have an attorney listed; a bail review hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in Annapolis.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf.
“This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people.”
. . . .
Ramos’ dispute with the Capital Gazette began in July 2011 when a columnist wrote about a criminal harassment case against him.
He brought a defamation suit against the columnist and the organization’s editor and publisher.
A court ruled in the Capital Gazette’s favor, and an appeals court upheld the ruling.
Neither the columnist, Eric Hartley, nor the editor and publisher, Thomas Marquardt, are still employed by the Capital Gazette.
They were not present during the shootings.
Police said the suspect used “smoke grenades” in the attack.
They said 170 people were inside at the time.
The Capital Gazette is owned by The Baltimore Sun.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
They were right to give the Statue of Liberty to us.
They certainly don't deserve it, themselves.
Not least because it appears he can do this by decree, all on his own.
France is bringing back mandatory national service for all 16-year-olds
French President Emmanuel Macron is bringing mandatory national service back to France.
The service program, called the universal national service, will require every French citizen to participate when he or she turns 16 years old.
The aim of the service program is to "encourage the participation and commitment of every young person in the life of the nation, to value citizenship and the feeling of belonging to a community gathered around its values, to strengthen social cohesion and boost the republican melting pot," according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.
. . . .
The service program will start at the beginning of the 2019 school year, an official with France's Education Ministry said.
The Elysee Palace said a working group hopes to make formal recommendations to Macron on how to specifically implement the service program by the end of the year.
. . . .
Macron, who didn't serve in the armed forces, first brought up the idea for a revival of a national service program during a speech in March 2017, although his original vision was much more militaristic.
"Through a direct experience of the military life, its know-how and its requirements, every young French person will go to meet their fellow citizens, will experience social diversity, and republican cohesion for a month," he said.
"It will help young people to prepare their entry into professional life as well as into their life as citizens. "
A YouGov poll in February 2018 showed that 60% of French people favored a compulsory national service of between three and six months.
Mandatory military service in France ended in 1997.
Not least because it appears he can do this by decree, all on his own.
France is bringing back mandatory national service for all 16-year-olds
French President Emmanuel Macron is bringing mandatory national service back to France.
The service program, called the universal national service, will require every French citizen to participate when he or she turns 16 years old.
The aim of the service program is to "encourage the participation and commitment of every young person in the life of the nation, to value citizenship and the feeling of belonging to a community gathered around its values, to strengthen social cohesion and boost the republican melting pot," according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.
. . . .
The service program will start at the beginning of the 2019 school year, an official with France's Education Ministry said.
The Elysee Palace said a working group hopes to make formal recommendations to Macron on how to specifically implement the service program by the end of the year.
. . . .
Macron, who didn't serve in the armed forces, first brought up the idea for a revival of a national service program during a speech in March 2017, although his original vision was much more militaristic.
"Through a direct experience of the military life, its know-how and its requirements, every young French person will go to meet their fellow citizens, will experience social diversity, and republican cohesion for a month," he said.
"It will help young people to prepare their entry into professional life as well as into their life as citizens. "
A YouGov poll in February 2018 showed that 60% of French people favored a compulsory national service of between three and six months.
Mandatory military service in France ended in 1997.
Will a jury convict?
Sounds like they should, at least for manslaughter, but they certainly might not.
Certainly he intended to shoot the kid in order to stop his flight.
Apparently, he fired three times because the first two, hitting the face and arm, didn't stop him.
Apparently, the third shot hit him near the center of the back and killed him.
Did he intend to kill him?
How do you prove that?
East Pittsburgh officer charged with homicide in fatal shooting of unarmed teen
The East Pittsburgh police officer who shot Antwon Rose II in the back as the unarmed 17-year-old ran from him should never have opened fire, District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Wednesday after charging the officer with criminal homicide.
Officer Michael H. Rosfeld, 30, of Penn Hills, gave conflicting statements to investigators about the fatal June 19 shooting, at first saying he saw “something dark” in the teenager’s hand and thought it was a gun, prompting him to fire three shots — but then saying he did not see a gun and wasn’t sure what he saw in Antwon’s hand, according to the criminal complaint.
The teen’s hands were empty, Mr. Zappala said, and both video and witness accounts suggest Antwon showed the officer his empty hands before he sprinted away.
"You do not shoot somebody in the back when they are not a threat to you," Mr. Zappala said.
"I find that Rosfeld's actions were intentional, and they certainly brought about the result he was looking to accomplish.”
But read the story.
Doesn't look like the sweet and innocent kid he's been painted to be by his family and others.
It is difficult to believe that, had he not been shot himself, he would not have been charged with something in connection with the drive by shooting, even if he did not personally shoot.
Antwon was shot three times: on the right side of his face, in his right elbow and in his mid-back, to the right of his spine, according to a criminal complaint.
The wound to the back was fatal.
. . . .
Mr. Zappala said Wednesday that Officer Rosfeld should have waited for backup after he stopped the Chevy Cruze.
"You've got three guys in the car,” he said. “You wait for backup."
An officer may not shoot at a fleeing felon, Mr. Zappala said, unless he is "in fear of death or serious injury. Those elements, clearly, are not there."
Mr. Zappala said that Officer Rosfeld was "remorseful" in his interview with county detectives.
Mr. Thomassey said his client sobbed through his first interview with him, and cried throughout his interview with county homicide detectives.
“He’s very, very remorseful. He’s not remorseful because he’s been charged. He legitimately is sad that this happened,” the attorney said.
“Mike kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe that kid didn’t have a gun in his hand.’”
In filing a general charge of criminal homicide, Mr. Zappala said, his office will let a jury determine which of five possible crimes would apply.
They range from first-degree murder — a premeditated, deliberate killing — down to involuntary manslaughter.
"The evidence supports third-degree murder," Mr. Zappala said.
But he continued, "We think we should have the right to argue first-degree murder."
Certainly he intended to shoot the kid in order to stop his flight.
Apparently, he fired three times because the first two, hitting the face and arm, didn't stop him.
Apparently, the third shot hit him near the center of the back and killed him.
Did he intend to kill him?
How do you prove that?
East Pittsburgh officer charged with homicide in fatal shooting of unarmed teen
The East Pittsburgh police officer who shot Antwon Rose II in the back as the unarmed 17-year-old ran from him should never have opened fire, District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Wednesday after charging the officer with criminal homicide.
Officer Michael H. Rosfeld, 30, of Penn Hills, gave conflicting statements to investigators about the fatal June 19 shooting, at first saying he saw “something dark” in the teenager’s hand and thought it was a gun, prompting him to fire three shots — but then saying he did not see a gun and wasn’t sure what he saw in Antwon’s hand, according to the criminal complaint.
The teen’s hands were empty, Mr. Zappala said, and both video and witness accounts suggest Antwon showed the officer his empty hands before he sprinted away.
"You do not shoot somebody in the back when they are not a threat to you," Mr. Zappala said.
"I find that Rosfeld's actions were intentional, and they certainly brought about the result he was looking to accomplish.”
But read the story.
Doesn't look like the sweet and innocent kid he's been painted to be by his family and others.
It is difficult to believe that, had he not been shot himself, he would not have been charged with something in connection with the drive by shooting, even if he did not personally shoot.
Antwon was shot three times: on the right side of his face, in his right elbow and in his mid-back, to the right of his spine, according to a criminal complaint.
The wound to the back was fatal.
. . . .
Mr. Zappala said Wednesday that Officer Rosfeld should have waited for backup after he stopped the Chevy Cruze.
"You've got three guys in the car,” he said. “You wait for backup."
An officer may not shoot at a fleeing felon, Mr. Zappala said, unless he is "in fear of death or serious injury. Those elements, clearly, are not there."
Mr. Zappala said that Officer Rosfeld was "remorseful" in his interview with county detectives.
Mr. Thomassey said his client sobbed through his first interview with him, and cried throughout his interview with county homicide detectives.
“He’s very, very remorseful. He’s not remorseful because he’s been charged. He legitimately is sad that this happened,” the attorney said.
“Mike kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe that kid didn’t have a gun in his hand.’”
In filing a general charge of criminal homicide, Mr. Zappala said, his office will let a jury determine which of five possible crimes would apply.
They range from first-degree murder — a premeditated, deliberate killing — down to involuntary manslaughter.
"The evidence supports third-degree murder," Mr. Zappala said.
But he continued, "We think we should have the right to argue first-degree murder."
Women? You bet. Nonwhites? Absolutely. Working class whites? Not so much.
Who are the Democrats about?
Since the announcement of Kennedy's retirement the big story at all the Democrat media, 24/7, has been whether a court dominated by five solid conservatives will overturn Roe.
The second biggest story has been endless congratulations concerning some primary victories by a number of socialist and ultra-progressive women, at least one a not entirely white Latina ex-bartender and Sanders organizer.
Not a single word, not once, about the threat such a court poses to Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, Medicaid, CHIPS, food stamps, the federal minimum wage, sick and family leave, and a host of other progressive constructions built over a century to benefit and protect the working and poor men and women of America from bare-knuckle capitalism.
Nope.
So "the forgotten men" stick to Fox News, which never berates them and endlessly lies to them that Trump and the GOP have absolutely got their backs.
'Cuz, hey, white.
Since the announcement of Kennedy's retirement the big story at all the Democrat media, 24/7, has been whether a court dominated by five solid conservatives will overturn Roe.
The second biggest story has been endless congratulations concerning some primary victories by a number of socialist and ultra-progressive women, at least one a not entirely white Latina ex-bartender and Sanders organizer.
Not a single word, not once, about the threat such a court poses to Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, Medicaid, CHIPS, food stamps, the federal minimum wage, sick and family leave, and a host of other progressive constructions built over a century to benefit and protect the working and poor men and women of America from bare-knuckle capitalism.
Nope.
So "the forgotten men" stick to Fox News, which never berates them and endlessly lies to them that Trump and the GOP have absolutely got their backs.
'Cuz, hey, white.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
A new face.
A very interesting photo essay.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old who is now a new face for the Democratic Party
Some scoop.
Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Wikipedia
She is much further left than me and I probably would have preferred Crowley.
Too, much further to the left, I think, than most Democratic voters.
But if she had politics similar to his I would much prefer her to him.
Yes, Democrats need to be younger and more conspicuously diverse.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old who is now a new face for the Democratic Party
Some scoop.
Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Wikipedia
She is much further left than me and I probably would have preferred Crowley.
Too, much further to the left, I think, than most Democratic voters.
But if she had politics similar to his I would much prefer her to him.
Yes, Democrats need to be younger and more conspicuously diverse.
The Buchananism at the heart of Trumpism
Chauncey Devega
Here are the biggest hypocrisies behind America’s Trump-fueled white paranoia politics
He's absolutely right that white fear - less so white anger - is central.
After all, when have non-whites in America not accurately and loudly complained of the slings and arrows of minority status?
When has any minority in any country not faced trials ranging from minor (but real) annoyances to ethnic cleansing and even genocidal attacks?
But he gives short shrift to the rest of typical Buchananism, focussed on ditching NATO, the EU, and our alliances in the Pacific, on undermining globalist institutions from the WTO to the UN, on protectionism, and on a break toward authoritarianism.
And the whole built-in sociocon gun-rights, anti-abortion, real men and real women schtick.
All of it serving to put in the shade the plutocracy's agenda item in chief, repealing a century of progressive constructions.
"The browning of America.”
“A majority minority country.”
“By the year 2050 whites will be a minority in America.”
These phrases inspire extremely divergent responses from liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans.
Liberals hear those three phrases and are (mostly) pleased and inspired because they view America’s ethnic and racial diversity as a source of strength and proof that the country’s creed is transcendent and inclusive.
Conservatives — and especially Trumpists — hear those three phrases and are filled with dread, anger and fear.
While they often hide their sentiments behind words such as “tradition” and “culture,” on a fundamental level, white conservatives believe that to be a “real American” requires a person to be first and foremost white and Christian.
Donald Trump rode this wave of white rage and fear to the White House. He had many criers on that damnable highway.
Extreme right-wing opinion columnist and occasional Republican presidential primary candidate Pat Buchanan was and is one of the loudest and most panicked.
He quotes Charles Blow who has this absolutely right, and whose quotes of Buchanan reveal the outlook of whites who not only fear the dangers of minority status (I fear them too. What white person but a fool would not?) but are prepared to stave it off by extreme measures reaching well beyond what Trump is doing and will yet attempt.
But Devega writes,
Of course, these claims and worries that whiteness (and white people) in America will be eclipsed or annihilated are ahistorical, lack proper social and political context in the present, and in total are nightmares of shadow and fog without any real substance.
That is egregiously and wholly untrue, though reports of white genocide are clearly greatly exaggerated.
[And his nonsense about changing definitions of who is white is plain fake news, though it is perfectly true that some have felt, perhaps with Churchill (or maybe it was some other English master of arrogance), that "the wogs begin at Calais."
Not to forget the Irish, of course.]
And this is how so many whites have been herded successfully into voting Republican and, specifically, voting for Trump, blatantly contrary to their class interests.
As an aside, note that the supposed cultural worries of the Nativists make more sense - but not that much more sense - in Europe, where migrants are overwhelming non-Christian and mostly Muslim, than in America, where the migrants are overwhelmingly Christian and mostly Catholic.
Here are the biggest hypocrisies behind America’s Trump-fueled white paranoia politics
He's absolutely right that white fear - less so white anger - is central.
After all, when have non-whites in America not accurately and loudly complained of the slings and arrows of minority status?
When has any minority in any country not faced trials ranging from minor (but real) annoyances to ethnic cleansing and even genocidal attacks?
But he gives short shrift to the rest of typical Buchananism, focussed on ditching NATO, the EU, and our alliances in the Pacific, on undermining globalist institutions from the WTO to the UN, on protectionism, and on a break toward authoritarianism.
And the whole built-in sociocon gun-rights, anti-abortion, real men and real women schtick.
All of it serving to put in the shade the plutocracy's agenda item in chief, repealing a century of progressive constructions.
"The browning of America.”
“A majority minority country.”
“By the year 2050 whites will be a minority in America.”
These phrases inspire extremely divergent responses from liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans.
Liberals hear those three phrases and are (mostly) pleased and inspired because they view America’s ethnic and racial diversity as a source of strength and proof that the country’s creed is transcendent and inclusive.
Conservatives — and especially Trumpists — hear those three phrases and are filled with dread, anger and fear.
While they often hide their sentiments behind words such as “tradition” and “culture,” on a fundamental level, white conservatives believe that to be a “real American” requires a person to be first and foremost white and Christian.
Donald Trump rode this wave of white rage and fear to the White House. He had many criers on that damnable highway.
Extreme right-wing opinion columnist and occasional Republican presidential primary candidate Pat Buchanan was and is one of the loudest and most panicked.
He quotes Charles Blow who has this absolutely right, and whose quotes of Buchanan reveal the outlook of whites who not only fear the dangers of minority status (I fear them too. What white person but a fool would not?) but are prepared to stave it off by extreme measures reaching well beyond what Trump is doing and will yet attempt.
But Devega writes,
Of course, these claims and worries that whiteness (and white people) in America will be eclipsed or annihilated are ahistorical, lack proper social and political context in the present, and in total are nightmares of shadow and fog without any real substance.
That is egregiously and wholly untrue, though reports of white genocide are clearly greatly exaggerated.
[And his nonsense about changing definitions of who is white is plain fake news, though it is perfectly true that some have felt, perhaps with Churchill (or maybe it was some other English master of arrogance), that "the wogs begin at Calais."
Not to forget the Irish, of course.]
And this is how so many whites have been herded successfully into voting Republican and, specifically, voting for Trump, blatantly contrary to their class interests.
As an aside, note that the supposed cultural worries of the Nativists make more sense - but not that much more sense - in Europe, where migrants are overwhelming non-Christian and mostly Muslim, than in America, where the migrants are overwhelmingly Christian and mostly Catholic.
OK, she convinced me
Dems get a memo
In social media one perpetually comes across discussions of who should be the democratic nominee in 2020, and it’s nearly always the same few names that have been around forever, like Joe Biden.
I like Joe, but he’s a relic of the past at this point.
Why don’t the Democrats allow young lawmakers to rise to the top posts?
The Dems seriously need newer, and more diverse, faces to represent them if they are going to win the trust and loyalty of younger voters.
. . . .
This is bullshit.
In social media one perpetually comes across discussions of who should be the democratic nominee in 2020, and it’s nearly always the same few names that have been around forever, like Joe Biden.
I like Joe, but he’s a relic of the past at this point.
Why don’t the Democrats allow young lawmakers to rise to the top posts?
The Dems seriously need newer, and more diverse, faces to represent them if they are going to win the trust and loyalty of younger voters.
. . . .
This is bullshit.
Ossified Democratic leadership is the cause of the “identity crisis,” and if the party doesn’t start to lurch left, good luck turning the young folks out to vote.
As Dylan Scott says, Maybe Democrats should stop being afraid of the left.
I who am a loyal supporter of democratic and progressive capitalism and an opponent of actual, outright, full frontal socialism, say I agree.
Oh really?
The point of killing the man-eating tiger is not to send other tigers a message.
The point of putting down the man-attacking dog is not to send other dogs a message.
And neither is it to end once and for all tiger attacks on people (though extinction will do that, probably, fairly soon), or to end once and for all attacks by dogs on children.
The point is to end attacks by that tiger, or by that dog.
And there is not the slightest doubt it works.
Harsher punishment won’t keep kids safe from sexual abuse: the death penalty in India
The point of putting down the man-attacking dog is not to send other dogs a message.
And neither is it to end once and for all tiger attacks on people (though extinction will do that, probably, fairly soon), or to end once and for all attacks by dogs on children.
The point is to end attacks by that tiger, or by that dog.
And there is not the slightest doubt it works.
Harsher punishment won’t keep kids safe from sexual abuse: the death penalty in India
Primary voters are more emphatic than the general run of party voters
Not all of us, but as a group, we are further and more consistently left (or right) than the general run of Democrats (or Republicans).
No idea how this will play out this fall.
Winners and losers from the latest primaries
No idea how this will play out this fall.
Winners and losers from the latest primaries
Seven states held primaries Tuesday night — South Carolina, Oklahoma, New York, Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi and Utah — and as usual, President Trump loomed over top races for Republicans.
But the big news of the night was on the Democratic side[.]
Democrats went left.
Even way left, though not all the way to outright communists.
Still, any Democrat is better than any Republican.
And a Democratic congress is way better than a Republican congress.
Still, any Democrat is better than any Republican.
And a Democratic congress is way better than a Republican congress.
They can't even agree on their own bill
As in all else, they wrote the thing with zero Democratic input, so it's a 100% Republican bill.
Because it funds the Wall and for other reasons the Democrats were united against it, but the Republicans, had they been united among themselves, could easily have sent this to the senate.
The more conservative of the Republicans - and they are all conservatives, even the moderates - voted overwhelmingly against it.
House rejects GOP immigration bill, ignoring Trump
The Republican-led House rejected a far-ranging immigration bill on Wednesday despite its eleventh-hour endorsement by President Donald Trump, as the gulf between the GOP's moderate and conservative wings proved too deep for leaders to avert an election-year display of division on the issue.
The vote was 301-121, with nearly half of Republicans opposing the measure.
The depth of GOP opposition was an embarrassing showing for Trump and a rebuff of House GOP leaders, who'd postponed the vote twice and proposed changes in hopes of driving up the vote for a measure that seemed doomed from the start.
The tally also seemed to empower GOP conservatives on the fraught issue.
Last week a more conservative package was defeated but 193 Republicans voted for it.
Because it funds the Wall and for other reasons the Democrats were united against it, but the Republicans, had they been united among themselves, could easily have sent this to the senate.
The more conservative of the Republicans - and they are all conservatives, even the moderates - voted overwhelmingly against it.
House rejects GOP immigration bill, ignoring Trump
The Republican-led House rejected a far-ranging immigration bill on Wednesday despite its eleventh-hour endorsement by President Donald Trump, as the gulf between the GOP's moderate and conservative wings proved too deep for leaders to avert an election-year display of division on the issue.
The vote was 301-121, with nearly half of Republicans opposing the measure.
The depth of GOP opposition was an embarrassing showing for Trump and a rebuff of House GOP leaders, who'd postponed the vote twice and proposed changes in hopes of driving up the vote for a measure that seemed doomed from the start.
The tally also seemed to empower GOP conservatives on the fraught issue.
Last week a more conservative package was defeated but 193 Republicans voted for it.
Gorsuch comes through, again. And Kennedy.
Supreme Court delivers blow to organized labor in fees dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt a big blow to organized labor, ruling that non-members cannot be forced in certain states to pay fees to unions representing public employees such as teachers and police, shutting off a key union revenue source.
The 5-4 ruling overturned a 1977 Supreme Court precedent that had permitted these so-called agency fees, which have been collected from millions of workers who opt not to join unions in lieu of union dues to fund non-political activities such as collective bargaining.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt a big blow to organized labor, ruling that non-members cannot be forced in certain states to pay fees to unions representing public employees such as teachers and police, shutting off a key union revenue source.
The 5-4 ruling overturned a 1977 Supreme Court precedent that had permitted these so-called agency fees, which have been collected from millions of workers who opt not to join unions in lieu of union dues to fund non-political activities such as collective bargaining.
The court's conservative justices were in the majority, with the liberal justices dissenting.
Forcing non-members to pay these fees to unions whose views they may oppose violates their rights to free speech and free association under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, the court said in the ruling authored by Justice Samuel Alito.
"States and public-sector unions may no longer extract agency fees from non-consenting employees," Alito wrote.
Forcing non-members to pay these fees to unions whose views they may oppose violates their rights to free speech and free association under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, the court said in the ruling authored by Justice Samuel Alito.
"States and public-sector unions may no longer extract agency fees from non-consenting employees," Alito wrote.
In a dissent, Justice Elena Kagan accused the court's conservatives of "weaponizing the First Amendment" to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.
A present for Trump and the Republicans
Justice Kennedy to retire
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said on Wednesday he plans to retire after three decades as a pivotal vote on the highest U.S. judicial body, giving President Donald Trump an opportunity to make the court more firmly conservative.
The conservative Kennedy, who turns 82 in July and is the second-oldest justice on the nine-member court, has become one of the most consequential American jurists since joining the court in 1988 as an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said on Wednesday he plans to retire after three decades as a pivotal vote on the highest U.S. judicial body, giving President Donald Trump an opportunity to make the court more firmly conservative.
The conservative Kennedy, who turns 82 in July and is the second-oldest justice on the nine-member court, has become one of the most consequential American jurists since joining the court in 1988 as an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan.
He proved instrumental in advancing gay rights, buttressing abortion rights and erasing political spending limits.
His retirement takes effect on July 31, the court said.
And then wait for them to revisit the constitutionality of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPS, and a whole lot more.
Susie Madrak
With the next Trump appointment, the court is now likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, allow states to ban abortions, reverse some gay rights, and bar race-based affirmative action.
Is she much younger than me?
Or is it because I'm male and she is female?
I thought of welfare state risks ands she thought of identity politics risks.
Of course we are both right.
And then wait for them to revisit the constitutionality of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPS, and a whole lot more.
Susie Madrak
With the next Trump appointment, the court is now likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, allow states to ban abortions, reverse some gay rights, and bar race-based affirmative action.
Is she much younger than me?
Or is it because I'm male and she is female?
I thought of welfare state risks ands she thought of identity politics risks.
Of course we are both right.
This is when the Duce decides it's safe to blow off a federal court ruling against him
Unless his pals on the Supremes will instantly give him the desired relief.
Federal Judge: Separated Families Must Be Reunited Within 30 days
A judge in California on Tuesday ordered U.S. border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a hard deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents.
If children are younger than 5, they must be reunified within 14 days of the order issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego. Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also issued a nationwide injunction on future family separations, unless the parent is deemed unfit or doesn’t want to be with the child.
It also requires the government to provide phone contact between parents and their children within 10 days.
. . . .
Also Tuesday, 17 states, including New York and California, sued the Trump administration Tuesday to force it to reunite children and parents.
The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, joined Washington, D.C., in filing the lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, arguing that they are being forced to shoulder increased child welfare, education and social services costs.
Federal Judge: Separated Families Must Be Reunited Within 30 days
A judge in California on Tuesday ordered U.S. border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a hard deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents.
If children are younger than 5, they must be reunified within 14 days of the order issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego. Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also issued a nationwide injunction on future family separations, unless the parent is deemed unfit or doesn’t want to be with the child.
It also requires the government to provide phone contact between parents and their children within 10 days.
. . . .
Also Tuesday, 17 states, including New York and California, sued the Trump administration Tuesday to force it to reunite children and parents.
The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, joined Washington, D.C., in filing the lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, arguing that they are being forced to shoulder increased child welfare, education and social services costs.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Yes, splitters are spoilers
Jill Stein made Bozo a winner.
For the record, the candidate Goodman was endorsing in August 2016, Jill Stein, got 31,072 votes in Wisconsin; Trump's margin of victory there was 22,748.
Stein got 49,941 votes in Pennsylvania; Trump's margin of victory there was 44,292.
Stein got 51,463 votes in Michigan; Trump's margin of victory there was 10,704.
For the record, the candidate Goodman was endorsing in August 2016, Jill Stein, got 31,072 votes in Wisconsin; Trump's margin of victory there was 22,748.
Stein got 49,941 votes in Pennsylvania; Trump's margin of victory there was 44,292.
Stein got 51,463 votes in Michigan; Trump's margin of victory there was 10,704.
Pelosi and Schumer won't sign on for indefinite detention of families in Der Fuhrer's new internment camps
Democrats reject GOP’s narrow fix to Trump’s family separation policy
At the Capitol, both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that they could not endorse a GOP plan to change existing law to allow families to be held together indefinitely in custody, extending a 20-day limit on child detentions established under a 1997 court settlement in what is known as the Flores case.
“Everybody in our caucus understands that the Flores decision is not improved by extending the length of time, it is weakened,” Pelosi said.
“It is a bad bill; it is a cynical attempt on the part of Republicans, once again.”
Schumer said it remains up to Trump, not Congress, to reverse the “zero tolerance” enforcement policy that has prompted the practice of separating migrant children from their parents.
At the Capitol, both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that they could not endorse a GOP plan to change existing law to allow families to be held together indefinitely in custody, extending a 20-day limit on child detentions established under a 1997 court settlement in what is known as the Flores case.
“Everybody in our caucus understands that the Flores decision is not improved by extending the length of time, it is weakened,” Pelosi said.
“It is a bad bill; it is a cynical attempt on the part of Republicans, once again.”
Schumer said it remains up to Trump, not Congress, to reverse the “zero tolerance” enforcement policy that has prompted the practice of separating migrant children from their parents.
A Trump voter at play
'Rapists, animals, drug dealers': woman abuses US Latino man in echo of Trump
Video of Esteban Guzman being verbally attacked by the unidentified woman has been watched more than a million times since it was shared early on Monday morning.
The footage shows the woman pointing her finger in Guzman’s face.
“Why do you hate us?” Guzman asks.
“Because you’re Mexicans,” the woman replies.
Guzman tells her “we’re honest people”.
“Yeah, rapists. And animals,” the woman says. “Drug dealers.”
. . . .
Guzman, 27, works in construction on weekends to supplement his full-time job in IT as a systems administrator.
He and his mother were clearing a yard in Running Springs, 80 miles east of Los Angeles, when the woman approached.
“She was yelling at my mom go back to Mexico,” Guzman told the Guardian.
Guzman said he was “afraid” for his mother’s safety when he approached.
“I was like hey, what’s the problem? And she said we were all illegals,” Guzman said.
“I told her: ‘I’m a United States citizen.’ And she obviously she didn’t believe me.”
Video of Esteban Guzman being verbally attacked by the unidentified woman has been watched more than a million times since it was shared early on Monday morning.
The footage shows the woman pointing her finger in Guzman’s face.
“Why do you hate us?” Guzman asks.
“Because you’re Mexicans,” the woman replies.
Guzman tells her “we’re honest people”.
“Yeah, rapists. And animals,” the woman says. “Drug dealers.”
. . . .
Guzman, 27, works in construction on weekends to supplement his full-time job in IT as a systems administrator.
He and his mother were clearing a yard in Running Springs, 80 miles east of Los Angeles, when the woman approached.
“She was yelling at my mom go back to Mexico,” Guzman told the Guardian.
Guzman said he was “afraid” for his mother’s safety when he approached.
“I was like hey, what’s the problem? And she said we were all illegals,” Guzman said.
“I told her: ‘I’m a United States citizen.’ And she obviously she didn’t believe me.”
Gorsuch pays off
Supreme Court upholds Trump's travel ban
The congressional GOP refused to confirm O's last nominee to save the seat for the next president, hoping Trump would win.
He did, and he put up Gorsuch, whom they quickly confirmed.
And Trump got his Muslim ban, 4 conservatives plus Kennedy to 4 liberals.
It looks like the court avoided the question whether the US constitution guarantees foreigners seeking to travel here against religious or other forms of discrimination in immigration law or policy or in policy regarding visas, accepting the administration's claim that it was all about national security and inadequate vetting of applicants in the countries affected.
That is, they accepted it was not a Muslim ban per se.
How Trump’s immigration ban threatens health care, in 3 charts
But these dissenters addressed that issue, claiming the First Amendment does apply and prohibits the ban.
Sotomayor, Ginsburg Issue Strong Dissent of Travel Ban Decision
While the court’s opinion stated the president had “sufficient national security justification” to order the travel ban, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a scorching dissent calling attention to Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric on the campaign road.
“The United States of America is a Nation built upon the promise of religious liberty,” they wrote.
"Our Founders honored that core promise by embedding the principle of religious neutrality in the First Amendment.
"The Court’s decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle.
"It leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.”
Rulings Are a Victory for G.O.P. Tactics on Gorsuch
The consequences of President Trump’s nomination of Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court — and the Republican blockade of President Obama’s nomination of Merrick B. Garland in 2016 for that seat — reverberated powerfully on Tuesday as the court’s conservative majority handed down major decisions on Mr. Trump’s travel ban and on abortion rights.
Social conservatives cheered the court’s ruling that a California law requiring “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide abortion information likely violates the First Amendment, their latest win to advance their anti-abortion cause since Mr. Trump has taken office.
Some conservatives also viewed the ruling as another opportunity for them to energize their base ahead of the November elections.
. . . .
For many social conservatives, the court’s support of their anti-abortion cause justifies their decision to vote for Mr. Trump in 2016, despite widespread misgivings.
For many liberals, the decisions underscored their worst fears about the audacious Republican tactics in 2016 to block President Obama’s more progressive nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Garland, following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
The Republican majority in the Senate refused to convene a hearing or a vote on Judge Garland’s nomination, insisting that the next president should fill the seat — a highly controversial move that some legal scholars called unprecedented.
The congressional GOP refused to confirm O's last nominee to save the seat for the next president, hoping Trump would win.
He did, and he put up Gorsuch, whom they quickly confirmed.
And Trump got his Muslim ban, 4 conservatives plus Kennedy to 4 liberals.
It looks like the court avoided the question whether the US constitution guarantees foreigners seeking to travel here against religious or other forms of discrimination in immigration law or policy or in policy regarding visas, accepting the administration's claim that it was all about national security and inadequate vetting of applicants in the countries affected.
That is, they accepted it was not a Muslim ban per se.
How Trump’s immigration ban threatens health care, in 3 charts
But these dissenters addressed that issue, claiming the First Amendment does apply and prohibits the ban.
Sotomayor, Ginsburg Issue Strong Dissent of Travel Ban Decision
While the court’s opinion stated the president had “sufficient national security justification” to order the travel ban, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a scorching dissent calling attention to Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric on the campaign road.
“The United States of America is a Nation built upon the promise of religious liberty,” they wrote.
"Our Founders honored that core promise by embedding the principle of religious neutrality in the First Amendment.
"The Court’s decision today fails to safeguard that fundamental principle.
"It leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.”
Rulings Are a Victory for G.O.P. Tactics on Gorsuch
The consequences of President Trump’s nomination of Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court — and the Republican blockade of President Obama’s nomination of Merrick B. Garland in 2016 for that seat — reverberated powerfully on Tuesday as the court’s conservative majority handed down major decisions on Mr. Trump’s travel ban and on abortion rights.
Social conservatives cheered the court’s ruling that a California law requiring “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide abortion information likely violates the First Amendment, their latest win to advance their anti-abortion cause since Mr. Trump has taken office.
Some conservatives also viewed the ruling as another opportunity for them to energize their base ahead of the November elections.
. . . .
For many social conservatives, the court’s support of their anti-abortion cause justifies their decision to vote for Mr. Trump in 2016, despite widespread misgivings.
For many liberals, the decisions underscored their worst fears about the audacious Republican tactics in 2016 to block President Obama’s more progressive nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Garland, following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
The Republican majority in the Senate refused to convene a hearing or a vote on Judge Garland’s nomination, insisting that the next president should fill the seat — a highly controversial move that some legal scholars called unprecedented.
Monday, June 25, 2018
Pretty good bet the cop will get away with it
Rose, 17, was shot by an officer three times on Tuesday as he attempted to flee a car stopped by police.
. . . .
East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld fired on Rose, hitting him in three spots, police said.
Rose had been a passenger in the car, which authorities suspected of being involved in a shooting earlier on Tuesday, Allegheny County police said.
The officer ordered the driver out of the car and onto the ground, police said. Rose and another passenger "bolted" from the vehicle, and the East Pittsburgh officer opened fire, striking the teenager, police said.
Rosfeld had been sworn in to the East Pittsburgh police force just hours before the shooting, though he'd worked with other local departments for seven years, CNN affiliate WPXI reported.
"He murdered my son in cold blood. If he has a son, I pray his heart never has to hurt the way mine has but I think he should pay for taking my son's life. I really do. I think he should pay for taking my son's life," Kenney told ABC.
Rosfeld has been placed on administrative leave, police said.
A teachable moment
Numerous liberal news media have seized the occasion of Trump's border cruelty to damn America for past sins, some centuries in the past.
This is news?
No, this is scolding.
This is angry finger wagging.
This is shaming people who would have to be more than a century old to be personally implicated in any of that.
Never miss a chance to justify right wing claims that the left just flat out hates America.
Family Separation Is a US Tradition. Just Ask Native Communities.
This is news?
No, this is scolding.
This is angry finger wagging.
This is shaming people who would have to be more than a century old to be personally implicated in any of that.
Never miss a chance to justify right wing claims that the left just flat out hates America.
Family Separation Is a US Tradition. Just Ask Native Communities.
Bozo is a big fat, orange distraction
Trump is terrorizing immigrants to prepare to steal your Medicare
This week, while the backlash against Trump’s baby jails occupied the news, the Republicans in the House Budget Committee voted on a plan that clarifies what they’d do if they keep the House in November and add a few seats in the Senate.
House Republicans want to cut $2 trillion from Medicaid and Medicare, while ending Medicare as we know by turning it into the voucher program Paul Ryan has long pimped.
The resolution would also allow this Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut $300 billion from federal programs with 50 votes in the Senate for the rest of this budget year, which includes the lame-duck session that would take place after Republicans could lose the House.
. . . .
But we can’t ever forget the point of the strategy isn’t just to make Trump feel less like the curdled, terrified child he knows he is.
He’s made a deal with Republicans that will go along with anything he does as long it helps conservatives control the courts and billionaires loot us with tax cuts while destroying our retirement by gutting Medicaid and Medicare.
That’s the agenda and it will always be the agenda.
Know this: People who’d steal babies would steal anything.
This week, while the backlash against Trump’s baby jails occupied the news, the Republicans in the House Budget Committee voted on a plan that clarifies what they’d do if they keep the House in November and add a few seats in the Senate.
House Republicans want to cut $2 trillion from Medicaid and Medicare, while ending Medicare as we know by turning it into the voucher program Paul Ryan has long pimped.
The resolution would also allow this Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut $300 billion from federal programs with 50 votes in the Senate for the rest of this budget year, which includes the lame-duck session that would take place after Republicans could lose the House.
. . . .
But we can’t ever forget the point of the strategy isn’t just to make Trump feel less like the curdled, terrified child he knows he is.
He’s made a deal with Republicans that will go along with anything he does as long it helps conservatives control the courts and billionaires loot us with tax cuts while destroying our retirement by gutting Medicaid and Medicare.
That’s the agenda and it will always be the agenda.
Know this: People who’d steal babies would steal anything.
And vice versa?
A now famous restaurateur asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave rather than be served, apparently because some of the staff object to her and Bozo's policies.
Sanders left but later publicly complained, and Bozo has tweeted attacks on the restaurant.
The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!
Trump’s Attempt to Bully Restaurant Is Going to Backfire Hilariously
Jon Chait writes,
. . . if the Trump administration supports the right of bakers to withhold service from gay and lesbian weddings because they are disgusted at the thought of gay people getting married, it should also support the right of restaurant owners to deny their delightful creations to people who work for an authoritarian racist presidency.
And if liberals support the right of the restaurateur . . . ?
Sanders left but later publicly complained, and Bozo has tweeted attacks on the restaurant.
The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!
Trump’s Attempt to Bully Restaurant Is Going to Backfire Hilariously
Jon Chait writes,
. . . if the Trump administration supports the right of bakers to withhold service from gay and lesbian weddings because they are disgusted at the thought of gay people getting married, it should also support the right of restaurant owners to deny their delightful creations to people who work for an authoritarian racist presidency.
And if liberals support the right of the restaurateur . . . ?
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Now this is just stupid
So each sector has to balance, according to the authors of this story.
Now that is fake news.
US imported more seafood in 2017 than any prior year
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data say the U.S. imported more than 6 billion pounds of seafood valued at more than $21.5 billion in 2017.
The country exported more than 3.6 billion pounds valued at about $6 billion.
The data say the seafood trading deficit grew by more than 10 percent from 2016 to 2017.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has identified reducing the deficit as a priority for the federal government.
The U.S. is home to major commercial fisheries for species such as Alaska pollock and New England lobster, but it imports more than 90 percent of the seafood the public consumes.
Now that is fake news.
US imported more seafood in 2017 than any prior year
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data say the U.S. imported more than 6 billion pounds of seafood valued at more than $21.5 billion in 2017.
The country exported more than 3.6 billion pounds valued at about $6 billion.
The data say the seafood trading deficit grew by more than 10 percent from 2016 to 2017.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has identified reducing the deficit as a priority for the federal government.
The U.S. is home to major commercial fisheries for species such as Alaska pollock and New England lobster, but it imports more than 90 percent of the seafood the public consumes.
Another basis for impeachment of The Duce
Trump administration's 'secret shutdown' of immigration program discriminated against Latinos: Lawsuit
How Bozo sees that the laws are faithfully executed.
S.A. had been waiting decades to bring her daughter and now her grandson to the U.S., where she is a legal resident, from her native El Salvador, where she escaped violence and poverty.
Through a special immigration program, she was finally close to her dream.
In February 2017, she made a final payment of $2,500 to the U.S. for her family's flights.
They were told by authorities they would be given final documentation and a plane ticket to travel in two weeks time -- but months went by, and nothing ever came.
Without notifying them, President Trump's administration had already frozen the program just days into his term, even as it solicited and collected thousands of dollars from S.A. and others like her who had been granted conditional approval, according to a new lawsuit that argues the administration broke the law and was driven by "racial animus against Latinos."
How Bozo sees that the laws are faithfully executed.
S.A. had been waiting decades to bring her daughter and now her grandson to the U.S., where she is a legal resident, from her native El Salvador, where she escaped violence and poverty.
Through a special immigration program, she was finally close to her dream.
In February 2017, she made a final payment of $2,500 to the U.S. for her family's flights.
They were told by authorities they would be given final documentation and a plane ticket to travel in two weeks time -- but months went by, and nothing ever came.
Without notifying them, President Trump's administration had already frozen the program just days into his term, even as it solicited and collected thousands of dollars from S.A. and others like her who had been granted conditional approval, according to a new lawsuit that argues the administration broke the law and was driven by "racial animus against Latinos."
They'll be back
Charlottesville rally organizer gets approval for 'anniversary' event
The organizer of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left a woman dead last summer, has been granted permission to hold an “anniversary” event in Washington in August.
Jason Kessler, who was behind the “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017 where white nationalists held a torchlight rally, clashed with protesters and caused a political furore when Donald Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence, filed an application with the National Park Service (NPS) to hold a “white civil rights rally” outside the White House.
Kessler had received initial approval from the NPS to hold the rally on Saturday 11 August and Sunday 12 August, the Washington Post reported.
The weekend marks the anniversary of the Unite the the Right rally in Charlottesville, where Heather Heyer was killed when James Alex Fields Jr, a self-described Nazi, drove his car into a crowd of protesters.
In Kessler’s application for a 2018 rally permit he said the purpose of the event was: “Protesting civil rights abuse in Charlottesville, VA/white civil rights rally.”
He asked for permission to hold a rally at Lafayette Park, located in front of the White House, for 400 people.
In a section of the form asking if the applicant believed anyone might “seek to disrupt the activity”, Kessler wrote: “Members of antifa affiliated groups will try to disrupt.”
The organizer of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which left a woman dead last summer, has been granted permission to hold an “anniversary” event in Washington in August.
Jason Kessler, who was behind the “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017 where white nationalists held a torchlight rally, clashed with protesters and caused a political furore when Donald Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence, filed an application with the National Park Service (NPS) to hold a “white civil rights rally” outside the White House.
Kessler had received initial approval from the NPS to hold the rally on Saturday 11 August and Sunday 12 August, the Washington Post reported.
The weekend marks the anniversary of the Unite the the Right rally in Charlottesville, where Heather Heyer was killed when James Alex Fields Jr, a self-described Nazi, drove his car into a crowd of protesters.
In Kessler’s application for a 2018 rally permit he said the purpose of the event was: “Protesting civil rights abuse in Charlottesville, VA/white civil rights rally.”
He asked for permission to hold a rally at Lafayette Park, located in front of the White House, for 400 people.
In a section of the form asking if the applicant believed anyone might “seek to disrupt the activity”, Kessler wrote: “Members of antifa affiliated groups will try to disrupt.”
The moron in the White House and the Constitution
The Fifth Amendment binds the federal government and we should all be glad nobody believed Madison that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
It doesn't say "no citizen" and courts have never thought it means "no citizen".
The Duce this morning tweeted.
We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country.
When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.
Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.
Most children come without parents...
....Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!
Immigration must be based on merit - we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!
Discussing this today MSNBC thought it pertinent to display and read section one of the Fourteenth Amendment.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Three days ago Der Fuhrer reportedly tweeted on the same point.
“We shouldn’t be hiring judges by the thousands, as our ridiculous immigration laws demand, we should be changing our laws, building the Wall, hire Border Agents and Ice and not let people come into our country based on the legal phrase they are told to say as their password,” Trump tweeted.
The only part of the constitution his fans care about is the Second Amendment.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
It doesn't say "no citizen" and courts have never thought it means "no citizen".
The Duce this morning tweeted.
We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country.
When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.
Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.
Most children come without parents...
....Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!
Immigration must be based on merit - we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!
Discussing this today MSNBC thought it pertinent to display and read section one of the Fourteenth Amendment.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Three days ago Der Fuhrer reportedly tweeted on the same point.
“We shouldn’t be hiring judges by the thousands, as our ridiculous immigration laws demand, we should be changing our laws, building the Wall, hire Border Agents and Ice and not let people come into our country based on the legal phrase they are told to say as their password,” Trump tweeted.
The only part of the constitution his fans care about is the Second Amendment.
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Evangelicals are the real aliens among us.
Why Rank-And-File Evangelicals Aren’t Likely To Turn On Trump Over Family Separation
Oh, lots of reasons.
Read it.
These folks will be fine with internment and with mass deportation, when it comes to that.
These are folks whose ancestors hated immigration of "the wrong sorts", too.
First, polling on white evangelical Protestants has shown that they’re more likely than any other religious group to support hardline immigration policies and to have negative views of immigrants overall.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 70 percent of white evangelical Protestants are in favor of expanding the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, compared with only around half of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics and much lower shares of other religious groups.
Another Pew survey, conducted last year, found that while majorities of nearly every religious group agree that immigrants strengthen our country, white evangelical Protestants are more divided, with a plurality (44 percent) saying that immigrants are a burden.
These findings line up with results from other surveys too, like a 2017 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute that found that white evangelical Protestants were the only religious group in which a majority (57 percent) said they’re bothered when they encounter immigrants who don’t speak English.
They were also the likeliest to say that they have little or nothing in common with immigrants.
Daniel Cox, the research director at PRRI,2 said these findings help explain why evangelicals aren’t likely to abandon Trump over the child separation crisis, even if they’re troubled by it.
“More than other groups, white evangelical Protestants seem to perceive immigrants as a threat to American society,” he said.
“So even if they don’t like this particular policy, they’re on board with Trump’s approach to immigration in general, and that makes it likelier that they’ll see this as a tactical misstep rather than a breaking point.”
. . . .
Robert Jeffress, the pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist Church and a strong Trump supporter, told FiveThirtyEight that the separation of children from their parents was “disturbing” but quickly added that Trump has the “God-given responsibility” to secure the border in the way he deems appropriate and punish people breaking the law, even if it appears harsh.
. . . .
A 2015 poll by LifeWay Research, a Baptist-affiliated research organization, found that although a strong majority (72 percent) of evangelicals agreed that “immigration reform should protect the unity of the immediate family,” even more believed that “immigration reform should respect the rule of law” (88 percent) and “guarantee secure national borders” (86 percent).
Partisanship and racial anxieties are also likely playing a role, said Janelle Wong, a political scientist at the University of Maryland and the author of a new book on evangelicals and immigration.
“Evangelicals are in a difficult position because of their emphasis on supporting the traditional family,” she said.
“But here, if you strongly support the president’s overall strategy on immigration and see immigrants as dangerous lawbreakers — some even blame the parents for putting their children in this position — it’s easier to justify.”
Oh, lots of reasons.
Read it.
These folks will be fine with internment and with mass deportation, when it comes to that.
These are folks whose ancestors hated immigration of "the wrong sorts", too.
First, polling on white evangelical Protestants has shown that they’re more likely than any other religious group to support hardline immigration policies and to have negative views of immigrants overall.
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 70 percent of white evangelical Protestants are in favor of expanding the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, compared with only around half of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics and much lower shares of other religious groups.
Another Pew survey, conducted last year, found that while majorities of nearly every religious group agree that immigrants strengthen our country, white evangelical Protestants are more divided, with a plurality (44 percent) saying that immigrants are a burden.
These findings line up with results from other surveys too, like a 2017 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute that found that white evangelical Protestants were the only religious group in which a majority (57 percent) said they’re bothered when they encounter immigrants who don’t speak English.
They were also the likeliest to say that they have little or nothing in common with immigrants.
Daniel Cox, the research director at PRRI,2 said these findings help explain why evangelicals aren’t likely to abandon Trump over the child separation crisis, even if they’re troubled by it.
“More than other groups, white evangelical Protestants seem to perceive immigrants as a threat to American society,” he said.
“So even if they don’t like this particular policy, they’re on board with Trump’s approach to immigration in general, and that makes it likelier that they’ll see this as a tactical misstep rather than a breaking point.”
. . . .
Robert Jeffress, the pastor of Dallas’s First Baptist Church and a strong Trump supporter, told FiveThirtyEight that the separation of children from their parents was “disturbing” but quickly added that Trump has the “God-given responsibility” to secure the border in the way he deems appropriate and punish people breaking the law, even if it appears harsh.
. . . .
A 2015 poll by LifeWay Research, a Baptist-affiliated research organization, found that although a strong majority (72 percent) of evangelicals agreed that “immigration reform should protect the unity of the immediate family,” even more believed that “immigration reform should respect the rule of law” (88 percent) and “guarantee secure national borders” (86 percent).
Partisanship and racial anxieties are also likely playing a role, said Janelle Wong, a political scientist at the University of Maryland and the author of a new book on evangelicals and immigration.
“Evangelicals are in a difficult position because of their emphasis on supporting the traditional family,” she said.
“But here, if you strongly support the president’s overall strategy on immigration and see immigrants as dangerous lawbreakers — some even blame the parents for putting their children in this position — it’s easier to justify.”
Using victims of actual criminals to justify treating all of them as criminals
Trump hosts victims of undocumented migrants amid family separations row
There is not the least doubt in the world that a tiny minority of illegal immigrants is comprised of very bad people.
The despicable liar in the White House trots out some of their victims to justify his Nazi treatment of the vast majority guilty of nothing but illegal entry, including illegally preventing entry by people legally seeking asylum.
All which, by the way, has taken loads of federal law enforcement and immigration and border agents off dealing with the actual criminals and wasted them on this crime against humanity.
Feel safer already, do you?
"Your loved ones have not died in vain," he told the group of so-called Angel Families at the White House.
. . . .
"These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones," Mr Trump said on Friday, before introducing family members of victims.
"I cannot imagine it being any worse, but we promise to act with strength and resolve.
"We'll not rest until our border is secure, our citizens are safe and we end this immigration crisis once and for all," the president added.
. . . .
In 2017, Gallup polls showed that almost half of Americans believe that immigrants raise crime rates. Yet many studies have found that the reverse is actually true.
Native-born Americans are more likely to commit a crime than immigrants, and more likely to be incarcerated.
One study spanning four decades compared immigration rates with crime rates. The researchers found that immigration appeared to be linked to decreases in violent crimes like murder, or property crime such as burglaries.
"The results show that immigration does not increase assaults and - in fact, robberies, burglaries, larceny, and murder are lower in places where immigration levels are higher," said the paper's lead author, Robert Adelman.
A 2017 study by the Cato Institute found that the incarceration rate for native-born Americans was 1.53%, compared to 0.85% for undocumented immigrants and 0.47% for legal immigrants.
There is not the least doubt in the world that a tiny minority of illegal immigrants is comprised of very bad people.
The despicable liar in the White House trots out some of their victims to justify his Nazi treatment of the vast majority guilty of nothing but illegal entry, including illegally preventing entry by people legally seeking asylum.
All which, by the way, has taken loads of federal law enforcement and immigration and border agents off dealing with the actual criminals and wasted them on this crime against humanity.
Feel safer already, do you?
"Your loved ones have not died in vain," he told the group of so-called Angel Families at the White House.
. . . .
"These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones," Mr Trump said on Friday, before introducing family members of victims.
"I cannot imagine it being any worse, but we promise to act with strength and resolve.
"We'll not rest until our border is secure, our citizens are safe and we end this immigration crisis once and for all," the president added.
. . . .
In 2017, Gallup polls showed that almost half of Americans believe that immigrants raise crime rates. Yet many studies have found that the reverse is actually true.
Native-born Americans are more likely to commit a crime than immigrants, and more likely to be incarcerated.
One study spanning four decades compared immigration rates with crime rates. The researchers found that immigration appeared to be linked to decreases in violent crimes like murder, or property crime such as burglaries.
"The results show that immigration does not increase assaults and - in fact, robberies, burglaries, larceny, and murder are lower in places where immigration levels are higher," said the paper's lead author, Robert Adelman.
A 2017 study by the Cato Institute found that the incarceration rate for native-born Americans was 1.53%, compared to 0.85% for undocumented immigrants and 0.47% for legal immigrants.
Federal courts like DACA
Though the Republicans at the time and since have argued, rightly to my mind, that it was unconstitutional overreach by president Obama.
DHS stands by DACA rescission in court-requested filing
This report shows much support for the program among jurists.
DHS stands by DACA rescission in court-requested filing
This report shows much support for the program among jurists.
Calling his supporters in madness "deplorables" understates it
Trump jabs 'Wacky Jacky and Pocahontas' while campaigning for Dean Heller in Nevada
Better her in the White House than him, by a long, long way.
In a visit to boost one of the nation's most vulnerable Republican senators ahead of this fall's November election, President Donald Trump unveiled a new nickname for the Democrat running to unseat Sen. Dean Heller.
"Wacky Jacky," Trump said at the Nevada GOP convention, in reference to Rep. Jacky Rosen. "You don't want her as your senator."
. . . .
As controversy still rages over his administration's handling of immigrant families at the Southern border, Trump said he sees the issue as immigration as a winner for Republicans in the midterms.
"I think I got elected largely because we are strong on the border," Trump said.
Of undocumented immigrants, he said, "if they see any weakness, they will come by the millions."
Trump also noted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 challenger, was in the state Saturday speaking at the state Democratic convention, again using the "Pocahontas" slur to describe the Massachusetts Democrat.
"Wacky Jacky is campaigning with Pocahontas, you believe this? In your state! Can you believe this?" Trump said at the Nevada GOP convention.
"When you see that, that's not the senator you want."
He apparently does not recall that Hillary got millions more votes than he did.
Better her in the White House than him, by a long, long way.
In a visit to boost one of the nation's most vulnerable Republican senators ahead of this fall's November election, President Donald Trump unveiled a new nickname for the Democrat running to unseat Sen. Dean Heller.
"Wacky Jacky," Trump said at the Nevada GOP convention, in reference to Rep. Jacky Rosen. "You don't want her as your senator."
. . . .
As controversy still rages over his administration's handling of immigrant families at the Southern border, Trump said he sees the issue as immigration as a winner for Republicans in the midterms.
"I think I got elected largely because we are strong on the border," Trump said.
Of undocumented immigrants, he said, "if they see any weakness, they will come by the millions."
Trump also noted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 challenger, was in the state Saturday speaking at the state Democratic convention, again using the "Pocahontas" slur to describe the Massachusetts Democrat.
"Wacky Jacky is campaigning with Pocahontas, you believe this? In your state! Can you believe this?" Trump said at the Nevada GOP convention.
"When you see that, that's not the senator you want."
He apparently does not recall that Hillary got millions more votes than he did.
What "border security" is about
Mike Huckabee accused of bigotry and racism after tweet touting Pelosi's 'campaign committee'
Nancy Pelosi introduces her campaign committee for the take back of the House.
According to a guide to from New Jersey's Office of the Attorney General, some of the hand gestures seen in the photo are used as gang signs for MS-13. According to the Department of Justice,
"MS-13, which is short for La Mara Salvatrucha, is a gang composed primarily of immigrants or descendants from El Salvador.
In the United States, MS-13 has been functioning since at least the 1980s."
Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said when reached for comment, "Trump and his surrogates will continue to repeat blatantly false attacks as long as the media continues to take the bait and print them."
The image and caption has also generated backlash on Twitter, including accusations of bigotry and racism against Huckabee.
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol referred to the tweet as a "dog whistle."
Dollars to donuts Gomer's ancestors railed similarly against Italian immigrants, the Black Hand, and the Mafia.
Imagine what they said about the Jews.
Nancy Pelosi introduces her campaign committee for the take back of the House.
According to a guide to from New Jersey's Office of the Attorney General, some of the hand gestures seen in the photo are used as gang signs for MS-13. According to the Department of Justice,
"MS-13, which is short for La Mara Salvatrucha, is a gang composed primarily of immigrants or descendants from El Salvador.
In the United States, MS-13 has been functioning since at least the 1980s."
Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, said when reached for comment, "Trump and his surrogates will continue to repeat blatantly false attacks as long as the media continues to take the bait and print them."
The image and caption has also generated backlash on Twitter, including accusations of bigotry and racism against Huckabee.
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol referred to the tweet as a "dog whistle."
Dollars to donuts Gomer's ancestors railed similarly against Italian immigrants, the Black Hand, and the Mafia.
Imagine what they said about the Jews.
The Post-Gazette goes red
Rob Rogers fired for doing cartoons critical of the Duce
Until he was fired last Thursday—because he insisted on doing his job, which included lampooning the president of the United States—Rob Rogers was the celebrated editorial cartoonist of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“They clearly had a plan to either break me or get rid of me,” Rogers told The Daily Beast about the abrupt end of his 25-year career, at age 59, as the house caricaturist for western Pennsylvania’s dominant media outlet—equal parts satire and indignation, punctuated by a bare-knuckled visual punch.
Rogers’s bosses had killed 19 of his cartoons in recent weeks and all but banned his work from the newspaper.
A typical Rogers cartoon depicts a morbidly obese Trump, his too-long tie dragging on the ground, as he brandishes a key and bends over a terrified caged immigrant child.
“This is tragic!” Trump exclaims. “It should be Hillary in there!”
For many year the Pittsburgh Post Gazette was a Democratic newspaper.
But recent changes have resulted in a marked shift to the right.
Starting in March 2018, the traditionally liberal paper started shifting more conservative following the consolidation of its editorial department with that of longtime sister newspaper The Blade and the appointment of that paper's chief editor Keith Burris, a strong supporter of Donald Trump.
In June 2018, cartoonist Rob Rogers was fired after working 25 years for the newspaper.
Rogers had drawn cartoons critical of Donald Trump. Rogers told The Guardian, "Suppressing voices in any situation is bad. You want to have as many voices as you can and they are starting to have only one voice of the paper, and I think that goes against what a free press is all about – especially when silencing that voice is because of the president."
Bill Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh said, "The move today by the leadership of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to fire Rob Rogers after he drew a series of cartoons critical of President Trump is disappointing, and sends the wrong message about press freedoms in a time when they are under siege.
"This is precisely the time when the constitutionally protected free press – including critics like Rob Rogers – should be celebrated and supported, and not fired for doing their jobs.
"This decision, just one day after the president of the United States said the news media is 'our country's biggest enemy', sets a low standard in the 232-year history of the newspaper."
So now Pittsburgh, a Democratic city, has a Trumpist paper and a loony right digital only paper, The Pittsburgh Tribune.
Until he was fired last Thursday—because he insisted on doing his job, which included lampooning the president of the United States—Rob Rogers was the celebrated editorial cartoonist of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“They clearly had a plan to either break me or get rid of me,” Rogers told The Daily Beast about the abrupt end of his 25-year career, at age 59, as the house caricaturist for western Pennsylvania’s dominant media outlet—equal parts satire and indignation, punctuated by a bare-knuckled visual punch.
Rogers’s bosses had killed 19 of his cartoons in recent weeks and all but banned his work from the newspaper.
A typical Rogers cartoon depicts a morbidly obese Trump, his too-long tie dragging on the ground, as he brandishes a key and bends over a terrified caged immigrant child.
“This is tragic!” Trump exclaims. “It should be Hillary in there!”
For many year the Pittsburgh Post Gazette was a Democratic newspaper.
But recent changes have resulted in a marked shift to the right.
Starting in March 2018, the traditionally liberal paper started shifting more conservative following the consolidation of its editorial department with that of longtime sister newspaper The Blade and the appointment of that paper's chief editor Keith Burris, a strong supporter of Donald Trump.
In June 2018, cartoonist Rob Rogers was fired after working 25 years for the newspaper.
Rogers had drawn cartoons critical of Donald Trump. Rogers told The Guardian, "Suppressing voices in any situation is bad. You want to have as many voices as you can and they are starting to have only one voice of the paper, and I think that goes against what a free press is all about – especially when silencing that voice is because of the president."
Bill Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh said, "The move today by the leadership of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to fire Rob Rogers after he drew a series of cartoons critical of President Trump is disappointing, and sends the wrong message about press freedoms in a time when they are under siege.
"This is precisely the time when the constitutionally protected free press – including critics like Rob Rogers – should be celebrated and supported, and not fired for doing their jobs.
"This decision, just one day after the president of the United States said the news media is 'our country's biggest enemy', sets a low standard in the 232-year history of the newspaper."
So now Pittsburgh, a Democratic city, has a Trumpist paper and a loony right digital only paper, The Pittsburgh Tribune.
Pittsburgh cops are thugs, too
Car drives through crowd protesting police killing of Antwon Rose in Pittsburgh
Protesters angry over the death of an unarmed teen who was shot by police this week marched Friday for the third straight night down the streets of downtown Pittsburgh.
Four people were arrested as hundreds of demonstrators blocked streets, Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said.
Police are looking for a black sedan that drove through the crowd late Friday, said Chris Togneri, the city spokesman. No injuries were reported, he said.
Protesters were near PNC Park, where fans were leaving a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game, when the car drove through, CNN affiliate KDKA reported.
Antwon Rose, 17, was shot by an officer three times on Tuesday as he attempted to flee a car stopped by police.
East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld fired on Rose from behind, hitting him in three spots, police said.
The manner of Rose's death was listed as homicide, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said.
"Three shots in the back, how you justify that?" protesters chanted Friday.
Demonstrators carrying a sign that read, "Fire killer cops," led hundreds of supporters to the Homestead Grays Bridge, halting traffic for a few hours.
. . . .
Friday marked the third night of protests in Pittsburgh. Several groups since Wednesday have shut down highways and intersections across the city.
As it grew dark, police became more visible.
Rosfeld, the officer who shot Rose, had been sworn in to the East Pittsburgh police force just hours before the shooting, though he'd worked with other local departments for seven years, CNN affiliate WPXI reported.
Protesters angry over the death of an unarmed teen who was shot by police this week marched Friday for the third straight night down the streets of downtown Pittsburgh.
Four people were arrested as hundreds of demonstrators blocked streets, Allegheny County Police Superintendent Coleman McDonough said.
Police are looking for a black sedan that drove through the crowd late Friday, said Chris Togneri, the city spokesman. No injuries were reported, he said.
Protesters were near PNC Park, where fans were leaving a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game, when the car drove through, CNN affiliate KDKA reported.
Antwon Rose, 17, was shot by an officer three times on Tuesday as he attempted to flee a car stopped by police.
Rose was one of two passengers in the car, which matched the description of a vehicle that had been involved in an earlier shooting, Allegheny County Police said.
East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld fired on Rose from behind, hitting him in three spots, police said.
The manner of Rose's death was listed as homicide, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office said.
"Three shots in the back, how you justify that?" protesters chanted Friday.
Demonstrators carrying a sign that read, "Fire killer cops," led hundreds of supporters to the Homestead Grays Bridge, halting traffic for a few hours.
. . . .
Friday marked the third night of protests in Pittsburgh. Several groups since Wednesday have shut down highways and intersections across the city.
As it grew dark, police became more visible.
Squad cars trailed the crowd, and officers in riot gear formed a tight line, holding batons and blocking protesters' way.
Rosfeld, the officer who shot Rose, had been sworn in to the East Pittsburgh police force just hours before the shooting, though he'd worked with other local departments for seven years, CNN affiliate WPXI reported.
He has been placed on administrative leave, police have said.
They blocked the Parkway East during rush hour, the other day, near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.
They blocked the Parkway East during rush hour, the other day, near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.
Making America Great Again
Social Security must reduce benefits in 2034 if reforms aren't made
The GOP will never fix this.
And the Dems won't, if they are unwilling to jog a bit toward their progressive wing.
The GOP will never fix this.
And the Dems won't, if they are unwilling to jog a bit toward their progressive wing.
Not everybody can stand it
George Will: Vote against the GOP this November
Amid the carnage of Republican misrule in Washington, there is this glimmer of good news: The family-shredding policy along the southern border, the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something.
Amid the carnage of Republican misrule in Washington, there is this glimmer of good news: The family-shredding policy along the southern border, the most telegenic recent example of misrule, clarified something.
Occurring less than 140 days before elections that can reshape Congress, the policy has given independents and temperate Republicans — these are probably expanding and contracting cohorts, respectively — fresh if redundant evidence for the principle by which they should vote.
The principle: The congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced.
The principle: The congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced.
So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution’s Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use against the current wielder of Article II powers.
They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have atrophied because of people like them.
. . . .
The Trump whisperer regarding immigration is Stephen Miller, 32, whose ascent to eminence began when he became the Savonarola of Santa Monica High School .
. . . .
The Trump whisperer regarding immigration is Stephen Miller, 32, whose ascent to eminence began when he became the Savonarola of Santa Monica High School .
Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign official who fell from the king’s grace but is crawling back (he works for Vice President Pence’s political action committee), recently responded on Fox News to the story of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome taken from her parents at the border. Lewandowski replied: “Wah, wah.”
Meaningless noise is this administration’s appropriate libretto because, just as a magnet attracts iron filings, Trump attracts, and is attracted to, louts.
In today’s GOP, which is the president’s plaything, he is the mainstream.
In today’s GOP, which is the president’s plaything, he is the mainstream.
So, to vote against his party’s cowering congressional caucuses is to affirm the nation’s honor while quarantining him.
A Democratic-controlled Congress would be a basket of deplorables, but there would be enough Republicans to gum up the Senate’s machinery, keeping the institution as peripheral as it has been under their control and asphyxiating mischief from a Democratic House.
And to those who say, “But the judges, the judges!” the answer is: Article III institutions are not more important than those of Articles I and II combined.
Still not letting anyone in the camps
No journos, no congresspeople, no senators, nobody at all.
How do they get away with that?
So how many laws are Trump and his jackbooted thugs starting with Jeff Sessions breaking in all this?
How do they get away with that?
So how many laws are Trump and his jackbooted thugs starting with Jeff Sessions breaking in all this?
Friday, June 22, 2018
Let them starve!
House Republicans running for Senate vote to slash food for poor kids
The House farm bill would kick families off nutritional assistance, while giving subsidies to billionaires.
Every House Republican running for Senate voted to pass it.
. . . .
The bill, championed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, is breathtakingly vicious to poor families and children.
It would impose strict work requirements on up to 7 million food stamp recipients — a cruel and pointless extra regulation on the poor.
It also restricts eligibility in a way that could kick as many as 400,000 households off of nutritional assistance, and thousands of kids off of free or low-cost school lunch programs.
And just like the GOP tax scam, the House farm bill shifts money to the rich.
Another provision in the bill effectively guts means-testing for federal farm subsidies, letting billionaires claim extra money even as struggling households see cuts.
The bill is opposed by the National Farmers Union, AARP, the SEIU, 68 child and family advocacy organizations, several religious leaders, and the American Public Health Association.
Even some right-wing organizations have criticized it, like the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, who decried the bill as “rife with corporate welfare.”
Some key Senate Republicans like Pat Roberts and Chuck Grassley also want some of the bill’s extreme provisions rolled back.
The House Republicans running for Senate, on the other hand, are openly proud of their vote.
The House farm bill would kick families off nutritional assistance, while giving subsidies to billionaires.
Every House Republican running for Senate voted to pass it.
. . . .
The bill, championed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, is breathtakingly vicious to poor families and children.
It would impose strict work requirements on up to 7 million food stamp recipients — a cruel and pointless extra regulation on the poor.
It also restricts eligibility in a way that could kick as many as 400,000 households off of nutritional assistance, and thousands of kids off of free or low-cost school lunch programs.
And just like the GOP tax scam, the House farm bill shifts money to the rich.
Another provision in the bill effectively guts means-testing for federal farm subsidies, letting billionaires claim extra money even as struggling households see cuts.
The bill is opposed by the National Farmers Union, AARP, the SEIU, 68 child and family advocacy organizations, several religious leaders, and the American Public Health Association.
Even some right-wing organizations have criticized it, like the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, who decried the bill as “rife with corporate welfare.”
Some key Senate Republicans like Pat Roberts and Chuck Grassley also want some of the bill’s extreme provisions rolled back.
The House Republicans running for Senate, on the other hand, are openly proud of their vote.
Hey, they're not our kids
Brian Kilmeade on Fox and Friends
Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade defended President Trump on Friday by pointing out that while his harsh “zero tolerance” policy may have resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents at the southern border, at least the kids affected aren’t Americans.
“Like it or not, these aren’t our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like he’s doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas,” he said.
“These are people from another country.”
Hilarious.
Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade defended President Trump on Friday by pointing out that while his harsh “zero tolerance” policy may have resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents at the southern border, at least the kids affected aren’t Americans.
“Like it or not, these aren’t our kids. Show them compassion, but it’s not like he’s doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas,” he said.
“These are people from another country.”
Hilarious.
Take that, Nicki Haley
America's poor becoming more destitute under Trump, UN report says
Americans born into poverty are more likely than ever before to stay that way, according to a United Nations report on poverty and inequality in the US.
"The United States, one of the world's richest nations and the "land of opportunity," is fast becoming a champion of inequality," the report concluded.
The Trump administration has slammed the UN report arguing the organization should instead focus on poverty in the third world.
US Ambassador to the UN Nicki Haley said, "It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America."
The report, presented Thursday in Geneva, comes two days after Haley announced the US would withdraw from the UN human rights council.
Haley's comment was in response to a letter from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 18 other politicians calling on the US to "take action to reduce shameful levels of poverty across the country."
They argued with the report's conclusion that the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion tax cuts "overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality."
Philip Alston, a New York University law and human rights professor, led a UN study traveling across US. The group went to Puerto Rico and Washington DC -- and Alabama, California, Georgia, West Virginia were among the states they also visited.
"Most Americans don't care about it. They have bought the line peddled by conservative groups that poor people deserve what they are getting," Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights told CNN.
The report notes that the US has highest child mortality rate of 20 rich countries (OPEC comparison).
It also has among the highest child poverty rates in the developed world at 21%. It also considered obesity rates, income inequality and incarceration rates.
Haley said the UN special rapporteur had "categorically misstated" the progress America had made reducing poverty, but she gave no examples.
Americans born into poverty are more likely than ever before to stay that way, according to a United Nations report on poverty and inequality in the US.
"The United States, one of the world's richest nations and the "land of opportunity," is fast becoming a champion of inequality," the report concluded.
The Trump administration has slammed the UN report arguing the organization should instead focus on poverty in the third world.
US Ambassador to the UN Nicki Haley said, "It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America."
The report, presented Thursday in Geneva, comes two days after Haley announced the US would withdraw from the UN human rights council.
Haley's comment was in response to a letter from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 18 other politicians calling on the US to "take action to reduce shameful levels of poverty across the country."
They argued with the report's conclusion that the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion tax cuts "overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality."
Philip Alston, a New York University law and human rights professor, led a UN study traveling across US. The group went to Puerto Rico and Washington DC -- and Alabama, California, Georgia, West Virginia were among the states they also visited.
"Most Americans don't care about it. They have bought the line peddled by conservative groups that poor people deserve what they are getting," Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights told CNN.
The report notes that the US has highest child mortality rate of 20 rich countries (OPEC comparison).
It also has among the highest child poverty rates in the developed world at 21%. It also considered obesity rates, income inequality and incarceration rates.
Haley said the UN special rapporteur had "categorically misstated" the progress America had made reducing poverty, but she gave no examples.
The Grand Wizard (and moron) in the White House to GOP Congress: Wait for the Red Wave
Trump killed immigration bill with one tweet
For weeks, House Republican leaders have been working behind closed doors to thread the needle on an immigration bill that could secure the support of the bulk on their conference.
On Friday morning, President Donald Trump ended all that with a tweet.
"Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November," Trump tweeted.
"Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red Wave!"
. . . .
All of which means that what Trump did Friday morning effectively ends the immigration debate in Congress until the fall.
And raises the stakes on the already hugely important showdown over the budget -- and whether Trump will get the full funding he wants for the border wall.
"We come up again on September 28, and if we don't get border security, we'll have no choice," Trump said in April of the coming fall fight.
"We'll close down the country because we need border security."
A government shutdown over wall funding would be a disaster for Republicans in marginal congressional districts.
For weeks, House Republican leaders have been working behind closed doors to thread the needle on an immigration bill that could secure the support of the bulk on their conference.
On Friday morning, President Donald Trump ended all that with a tweet.
"Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November," Trump tweeted.
"Dems are just playing games, have no intention of doing anything to solves this decades old problem. We can pass great legislation after the Red Wave!"
. . . .
All of which means that what Trump did Friday morning effectively ends the immigration debate in Congress until the fall.
And raises the stakes on the already hugely important showdown over the budget -- and whether Trump will get the full funding he wants for the border wall.
"We come up again on September 28, and if we don't get border security, we'll have no choice," Trump said in April of the coming fall fight.
"We'll close down the country because we need border security."
A government shutdown over wall funding would be a disaster for Republicans in marginal congressional districts.
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Impeach him, please!
There are so many reasons to impeach the bastard, now, that have nothing to do with Russiagate.
The Other America is still with us
But some don't want us to see that.
Nikki Haley blasts damning UN report on US poverty under Trump
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has launched a scathing attack on the UN monitor on extreme poverty, dismissing his recent report on America that accuses Donald Trump of cruelly forcing millions of citizens into deprivation as “misleading and politically motivated”.
Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, said she was “deeply disappointed” that the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, had “categorically misstated the progress the United States has made in addressing poverty … in [his] biased reporting”.
She added that in her view that “it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America” – which prompted puzzlement as Alston carried out his investigation at the formal invitation of the Trump administration.
Trump's 'cruel' measures pushing US inequality to dangerous level, UN warns
Nikki Haley blasts damning UN report on US poverty under Trump
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has launched a scathing attack on the UN monitor on extreme poverty, dismissing his recent report on America that accuses Donald Trump of cruelly forcing millions of citizens into deprivation as “misleading and politically motivated”.
Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, said she was “deeply disappointed” that the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, had “categorically misstated the progress the United States has made in addressing poverty … in [his] biased reporting”.
She added that in her view that “it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America” – which prompted puzzlement as Alston carried out his investigation at the formal invitation of the Trump administration.
Trump's 'cruel' measures pushing US inequality to dangerous level, UN warns
“This is a systematic attack on America’s welfare program that is undermining the social safety net for those who can’t cope on their own. Once you start removing any sense of government commitment, you quickly move into cruelty,” Alston told the Guardian.
Millions of Americans already struggling to make ends meet faced “ruination”, he warned.
“If food stamps and access to Medicaid are removed, and housing subsidies cut, then the effect on people living on the margins will be drastic.”
Asked to define “ruination”, Alston said: “Severe deprivation of food and almost no access to healthcare.”
. . . .
The Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told the Guardian it was profoundly important that international observers were speaking out about Trump’s impact.
“This administration inherited a bad situation with inequality in the US and is now fanning the flames and worsening the situation. What is so disturbing is that Trump, rather than taking measures to ameliorate the problem, is taking measures to aggravate it.”
Top of the list of those measures was the $1.5tn tax cuts enacted by the Republicans last December that slashed corporate tax rates.
“Can you believe a country where the life expectancy is already in decline, particularly among those whose income is limited, giving tax breaks to billionaires and corporations while leaving millions of Americans without health insurance?” Stiglitz said.
The UN monitor similarly excoriates Trump and the Republicans in Congress for passing a tax bill that “overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality”.
Alston added that “the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege”.
A letter to the Pentagon
The White House sent a letter today to the Pentagon asking the military to find and prepare spaces on military bases to hold 20,000 children by July.
So, family separation over?
Nah.
So, family separation over?
Nah.
The opposite of plain
The foods Bourdain seems to have liked involve mixes of veggies and sauces and meats in the sort of mashup I would love but my wife hates.
She's strictly a fried meat and boiled potatoes kind of girl.
The only exception is the cold sauced mess she puts together at a salad bar.
And she loves the fast foods AB deplores.
She's strictly a fried meat and boiled potatoes kind of girl.
The only exception is the cold sauced mess she puts together at a salad bar.
And she loves the fast foods AB deplores.
Massaging the law to make migrant camps legal
Washington Monthly
There will be families interned in camps awaiting deportation.
That is where illegal newcomers and people seeking asylum or refugee status from the South will go.
The only question is whether Trump will wait for his second term to order mass roundups of the 11 or so million illegals living and working among us, to put them into such camps to await deportation.
Or indefinitely like some vast Gitmo-Lite, for those no one will accept.
There will be families interned in camps awaiting deportation.
That is where illegal newcomers and people seeking asylum or refugee status from the South will go.
The only question is whether Trump will wait for his second term to order mass roundups of the 11 or so million illegals living and working among us, to put them into such camps to await deportation.
Or indefinitely like some vast Gitmo-Lite, for those no one will accept.
Was Bourdain's death really suicide?
He was still in motion, just going on with his rather fun sounding life.
Anthony Bourdain.
On June 8, 2018, Bourdain was found dead of an apparent suicide by hanging in his room at the Le Chambard hotel in Kaysersberg, France.
Bourdain was traveling with his friend Éric Ripert, who became worried when Bourdain missed dinner and breakfast.
Christian de Rocquigny du Fayel, the public prosecutor for Colmar, said that Bourdain's body bore no signs of violence, and that toxicology tests would determine whether drugs or medications were involved.
Bourdain was working on an episode of Parts Unknown in nearby Strasbourg.
Bourdain's mother, Gladys Bourdain, told The New York Times: "He is absolutely the last person in the world I would have ever dreamed would do something like this."
Following the news of Bourdain's death, various celebrity chefs and other public figures expressed sentiments of condolence.
Among them were Andrew Zimmern, Gordon Ramsay, and former astronaut Scott Kelly.
CNN issued a statement, saying that Bourdain's "talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much."
Regarding Bourdain, former U.S. President Barack Obama, who dined with Bourdain in Vietnam on an episode of Parts Unknown, wrote on Twitter, "He taught us about food—but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown."
On June 8, 2018, CNN aired Remembering Anthony Bourdain, a tribute program.
In the days following Bourdain's death fans paid tribute to him outside his now-closed former place of employment, Brasserie Les Halles.
Cooks and restaurant owners gathered together and held tribute dinners, memorials and donated net sales to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
In an assessment of Bourdain's life for The Nation, David Klion theorizes that, "Bourdain understood that the point of journalism is to tell the truth, to challenge the powerful, to expose wrongdoing. But his unique gift was to make doing all that look fun rather than grim or tedious."
According to Klion, Bourdain's shows "made it possible to believe that social justice and earthly delights weren't mutually exclusive, and he pursued both with the same earnest reverence."
Bourdain advocated for communicating the value of traditional or "peasant" foods, including all of the varietal bits and unused animal parts not usually eaten by affluent, 21st-century Americans.
He also praised the quality of freshly prepared street food in other countries—especially developing countries—compared to fast-food chains in the U.S.
He championed industrious Spanish-speaking immigrants–from Mexico, Ecuador, and other Central and South American countries--who are cooks and chefs in many U.S. restaurants, including upscale establishments, regardless of cuisine.
He considered them talented chefs and invaluable cooks, underpaid and unrecognized even though they have become the backbone of the U.S. restaurant industry.
In 2017, Bourdain became a vocal advocate against sexual harassment in the restaurant industry, speaking out about celebrity chefs Mario Batali and John Besh and in Hollywood, particularly following his partner Asia Argento's sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Bourdain accused Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino of "complicity" in the Weinstein sex scandal.
Anthony Bourdain.
On June 8, 2018, Bourdain was found dead of an apparent suicide by hanging in his room at the Le Chambard hotel in Kaysersberg, France.
Bourdain was traveling with his friend Éric Ripert, who became worried when Bourdain missed dinner and breakfast.
Christian de Rocquigny du Fayel, the public prosecutor for Colmar, said that Bourdain's body bore no signs of violence, and that toxicology tests would determine whether drugs or medications were involved.
Bourdain was working on an episode of Parts Unknown in nearby Strasbourg.
Bourdain's mother, Gladys Bourdain, told The New York Times: "He is absolutely the last person in the world I would have ever dreamed would do something like this."
Following the news of Bourdain's death, various celebrity chefs and other public figures expressed sentiments of condolence.
Among them were Andrew Zimmern, Gordon Ramsay, and former astronaut Scott Kelly.
CNN issued a statement, saying that Bourdain's "talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much."
Regarding Bourdain, former U.S. President Barack Obama, who dined with Bourdain in Vietnam on an episode of Parts Unknown, wrote on Twitter, "He taught us about food—but more importantly, about its ability to bring us together. To make us a little less afraid of the unknown."
On June 8, 2018, CNN aired Remembering Anthony Bourdain, a tribute program.
In the days following Bourdain's death fans paid tribute to him outside his now-closed former place of employment, Brasserie Les Halles.
Cooks and restaurant owners gathered together and held tribute dinners, memorials and donated net sales to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
In an assessment of Bourdain's life for The Nation, David Klion theorizes that, "Bourdain understood that the point of journalism is to tell the truth, to challenge the powerful, to expose wrongdoing. But his unique gift was to make doing all that look fun rather than grim or tedious."
According to Klion, Bourdain's shows "made it possible to believe that social justice and earthly delights weren't mutually exclusive, and he pursued both with the same earnest reverence."
Bourdain advocated for communicating the value of traditional or "peasant" foods, including all of the varietal bits and unused animal parts not usually eaten by affluent, 21st-century Americans.
He also praised the quality of freshly prepared street food in other countries—especially developing countries—compared to fast-food chains in the U.S.
He championed industrious Spanish-speaking immigrants–from Mexico, Ecuador, and other Central and South American countries--who are cooks and chefs in many U.S. restaurants, including upscale establishments, regardless of cuisine.
He considered them talented chefs and invaluable cooks, underpaid and unrecognized even though they have become the backbone of the U.S. restaurant industry.
In 2017, Bourdain became a vocal advocate against sexual harassment in the restaurant industry, speaking out about celebrity chefs Mario Batali and John Besh and in Hollywood, particularly following his partner Asia Argento's sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Bourdain accused Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino of "complicity" in the Weinstein sex scandal.
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