 03 November 18
FOCUS: William Boardman | The Fire This Time – It Will Keep Burning Long After November 6
 William Boardman, Reader Supported News Boardman writes: "Perhaps enough Americans in enough numbers in enough places have woken up to the wildfires consuming our country. Perhaps these woke Americans will throw some water on the fires in the November 6 election." READ MORE |
Showing posts with label Minority rule. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minority rule. Show all posts
Sunday, November 4, 2018
FOCUS: William Boardman | The Fire This Time – It Will Keep Burning Long After November 6
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Rebecca Traister | The Ruling Minority Will Stop at Nothing to Stay in Control
 30 October 18 AM
Rebecca Traister | The Ruling Minority Will Stop at Nothing to Stay in Control
 Rebecca Traister, The Cut Traister writes: "Kavanaugh’s ascendance hasn’t jolted these people to redouble their efforts to topple Republicans at the polls in November. Rather, it’s left them deeply demoralized, drained of hope and energy at perhaps the most crucial moment of all." READ MORE  Voters line up to vote at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, Mich, on Nov. 8, 2016. (photo: Cory Morse/AP)
Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger | We saved 155 Lives on the Hudson. Now Let’s Vote for Leaders Who’ll Protect Us All
Chesley B. 'Sully' Sullenberger III, The Washington Post Sullenberger writes: "Today, tragically, too many people in power are projecting the worst. Many are cowardly, complicit enablers, acting against the interests of the United States." READ MORE  Vote in the midterms. (photo: Mirah Curzer/Unsplash)
The Midterms Are More Than a Vote Against the President
Chris Winters, YES! Magazine Winters writes: "Midterm elections often get 'nationalized,' becoming a comment on the party in power rather than a vote for representation. But in 2018, more is at stake than a vote against President Trump." READ MORE  Gab's service has been suspended. (photo: Towfiqu Photography/Getty Images) ALSO SEE: Hate Speech Tied to Suspect in Synagogue Massacre Rekindles Calls for Regulating Social Media
Gab, Site Where Synagogue Shooting Suspect Posted, Is Suspended
James Doubek and Jasmine Garsd, NPR Excerpt: "Gab.com is a social network that touts itself as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook to give conservatives a platform for free speech. But it also has been criticized for providing a platform for anti-Semitism and white nationalism." READ MORE  Jair Bolsonaro after casting his vote on October 28, 2018. He’s about to become Brazil’s next president. (photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Brazil Has Elected "Most Extremist Leader in the Democratic World"
Democracy Now! Excerpt: "A far-right former Army officer who openly supports dictatorships and torture has been overwhelmingly elected president. Jair Bolsonaro’s election marks the most radical political shift in Brazil since military rule ended more than 30 years ago." READ MORE  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (photo: EPA)
PLO: Palestine Revokes Recognition of Israel Until Recognized
teleSUR Excerpt: "The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will suspend its recognition of Israel and all economic support until the state honors the 1967 borders and Palestine’s claim of statehood." READ MORE  Cattle in the Amazon rainforest. (photo: Michael Nichols/National Geographic/Getty Images)
Humanity Has Wiped Out 60% of Animal Populations Since 1970, Report Finds
Damian Carrington, Guardian UK Carrington writes: "Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilization." READ MORE |
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Matt Taibbi | Three Colliding Problems Leading to a New Economic Disaster
15 October 18 PM
Matt Taibbi | Three Colliding Problems Leading to a New Economic Disaster
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Taibbi writes: "The soaring stock market has been the crux of Donald Trump's argument for the competence of his reign. It might be his favorite tweet subject, outside the 'Failing New York Times.' But since the market hit an all-time high on October 3rd, Trump has shifted his tweets to other subjects. This makes sense, given that it took a nasty dive."
READ MORE
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Taibbi writes: "The soaring stock market has been the crux of Donald Trump's argument for the competence of his reign. It might be his favorite tweet subject, outside the 'Failing New York Times.' But since the market hit an all-time high on October 3rd, Trump has shifted his tweets to other subjects. This makes sense, given that it took a nasty dive."
READ MORE
Framers of the U.S. Constitution. (image: Slate/Howard Chandler Christy)
Jamelle Bouie | Minority Rule Does Not Have to Be Here Forever: Arguing That the Framers Intended It Is Specious and Ignorant of History
Jamelle Bouie, Slate
Bouie writes: "Calls to transform the Senate, or create new states, or even 'pack the court' aren't attacks on norms; they are Americans doing the hard work of crafting a democracy that works for them, of taking seriously the idea that the Constitution exists for us, not us for the Constitution."
READ MORE
Jamelle Bouie, Slate
Bouie writes: "Calls to transform the Senate, or create new states, or even 'pack the court' aren't attacks on norms; they are Americans doing the hard work of crafting a democracy that works for them, of taking seriously the idea that the Constitution exists for us, not us for the Constitution."
READ MORE
Turkish police are believed to have a voice recording of Khashoggi's murder. (photo: Virginia Mayo/AP)
Turkish Police Have Audio of 'Khashoggi Killing in Consulate'
Sinem Koseoglu, Al Jazeera
Koseoglu writes: "New details emerge over the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was allegedly killed in Saudi consulate in Istanbul."
READ MORE
Sinem Koseoglu, Al Jazeera
Koseoglu writes: "New details emerge over the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was allegedly killed in Saudi consulate in Istanbul."
READ MORE
Senator Susan Collins speaks to reporters after announcing her support for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, October 5, 2018. (photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
Maine Faces Consumer Backlash After Senator Susan Collins Backs Kavanaugh
David Millward, The Telegraph
Millward writes: "Businesses in Maine are facing a backlash after Susan Collins, the state's Republican senator, decided to back the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court."
READ MORE
David Millward, The Telegraph
Millward writes: "Businesses in Maine are facing a backlash after Susan Collins, the state's Republican senator, decided to back the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court."
READ MORE
A fight breaks out on E. 83rd street near the Metropolitan Republican Club on Friday. (photo: Sam Costanza/New York Daily News)
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at least two individuals who took part in Friday’s street violence were members of the 211 Bootboys, a far-right skinhead gang based in Manhattan that had previously been tied to the brutal beating of two grad students at a bar in 2017. A third individual, who is listed as one of the NYPD’s persons of interest, has belonged to the Latino skinhead group Battalion 49 and previously attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last year.
We continue to investigate the violent incident on the UES on Friday night, and need information regarding these persons-of-interest. no complaints have been filed; If you were the victim of a crime, or have information about the incident, please call 1-800-577-TIPS. @NYPDTips
Barnes writes: "Detectives are attempting to identify three persons-of-interest - who somehow the entire internet has already identified."
READ MORE
Aloisio Sampaio, a trade unionist known as Alenquer, the leader of the KM Mil landless peasant occupation. He was murdered on 11 October. (photo: Thais Borges)
Landless Movement Leader Assassinated in Brazilian Amazon
Sue Branford and MaurÃcio Torres, Mongabay
Excerpt: "The peasant leader, Aluisio Samper, known as Alenquer, was assassinated last Thursday afternoon in his home in the town of Castelo de Sonhos."
READ MORE
Sue Branford and MaurÃcio Torres, Mongabay
Excerpt: "The peasant leader, Aluisio Samper, known as Alenquer, was assassinated last Thursday afternoon in his home in the town of Castelo de Sonhos."
READ MORE
An orca breaches in view of Mount Baker, 60 miles distant, in the Salish Sea in the San Juan Islands of Washington. (photo: Elaine Thompson/AP)
That trio of challenges has been created over a century and could take that long, or longer, to be reversed. That makes the southern resident orcas fragile, particularly given how much they have struggled to reproduce. Two-thirds of the group’s pregnancies from 2007 to 2014 failed. Not a single calf has survived more than three years.
Rainey writes: "From 2007 to 2014, two-thirds of Pacific Northwest orca pregnancies failed. Not a single calf has survived more than three years."
READ MORE
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Getting ready for the next election!
Interesting article, interesting poll and interesting thoughts!
Polling aside, it overlooked a large segment of the population that is angry and MOBILIZED and ready to put the Tea Partiers out of office!
The Republican Party that used to be a reasonable political party has been overtaken by EXTREMISTS: Religious Zealots, Anti-Science Morons, poorly educated folks that sell Snake Oil well, and Extremist Think Tanks, well-funded by the likes of the Dirty Energy Kochs.
This is what you get when you create a poorly educated electorate that sends these clowns to Washington.....sadly.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Polling aside, it overlooked a large segment of the population that is angry and MOBILIZED and ready to put the Tea Partiers out of office!
The Republican Party that used to be a reasonable political party has been overtaken by EXTREMISTS: Religious Zealots, Anti-Science Morons, poorly educated folks that sell Snake Oil well, and Extremist Think Tanks, well-funded by the likes of the Dirty Energy Kochs.
This is what you get when you create a poorly educated electorate that sends these clowns to Washington.....sadly.
Their Real Goal: To Make Us All So Cynical About Government, We Give Up
Monday, October 7, 2013
An old friend who has been active in politics for more than thirty years tells me he’s giving up. “I can’t stomach what’s going on in Washington anymore,” he says. “The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life.”
My friend is falling exactly into the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into — such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they’re free to take over everything.
Republicans blame the shutdown of Washington and possible default on the nation’s debt on the President’s “unwillingness to negotiate” over the Affordable Care Act. But that law has already been negotiated. It passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by the President. It withstood a Supreme Court challenge.
The Act is hardly perfect, but neither was Social Security or Medicare when first enacted. The Constitution allows Congress to amend or delay laws that don’t work as well as they were intended, or even to repeal them. But to do any of this requires new legislation – including a majority of both houses of Congress and a president’s signature (or else a vote to override a president’s veto).
Our system does not allow one party to delay, amend, or repeal a law of the land by shutting down the rest of the government until its demands are met. If that were the way our democracy worked, no law would ever be safe or settled. A disciplined majority in one house could always use the threat of a shutdown or default to gut any law it didn’t like.
So the President cannot re-negotiate the Affordable Care Act. And I don’t believe Tea Bag Republicans expect him to.
Their real goal is far more insidious. They want to sow even greater cynicism about the capacity of government to do much of anything. The shutdown and possible default are only the most recent and most dramatic instances of terminal gridlock, designed to get people like my friend to give up.
And on this score, they’re winning. Congress’s approval rating was already at an all-time low before the shutdown, according to a poll released just hours before Washington went dark. The CNN/ORC poll showed that only 10 percent of Americans approved the job Congress was doing, while 87 percent disapproved. It was the all-time lowest approval rating for Congress on a CNN poll.
A recent Gallup survey found that only 42 percent of Americans — also a record low — have an even “fair” amount of confidence in the government’s capacity to deal with domestic matters.
And in a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 26% of Americans say they’re angry at the federal government while 51% feel frustrated. Just 17% say they are basically content with the government. The share expressing anger has risen seven points since January, and now equals the record high reached in August 2011, just after the widely-criticized debt-ceiling agreement between the President and Congress.
It’s a vicious cycle. As average Americans give up on government, they pay less attention to what government does or fails to do — thereby making it easier for the moneyed interests to get whatever they want: tax cuts for themselves and their businesses; regulatory changes that help them but harm employees, consumers, and small investors; special subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare. And these skewed benefits only serve to confirm the public’s cynicism.
The same cynicism also makes it easier to convince the public that even when the government does act for the benefit of the vast majority, it’s not really doing so. So a law like the Affordable Care Act, which, for all its shortcomings, is still a step in the right direction relative to the costly mess of the nation’s healthcare system, is transformed into a nightmarish “government takeover.”
So here’s what I told my friend who said he’s giving up on politics: Don’t. If you give in to bullies, their bullying only escalates. If you give in to cynicism about our democracy, our democracy steadily erodes.
If you believe the fix is in and the game is rigged, and that a handful of billionaires and their Tea Party puppets are destroying our government, do something about it. Rather than give up, get more involved. Become more active. Make a ruckus. It’s our government, and the most important thing you can do for yourself, your family, your community, and the future, is to make it work for all of us.
http://robertreich.org/post/63417612450
My friend is falling exactly into the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into — such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they’re free to take over everything.
Republicans blame the shutdown of Washington and possible default on the nation’s debt on the President’s “unwillingness to negotiate” over the Affordable Care Act. But that law has already been negotiated. It passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by the President. It withstood a Supreme Court challenge.
The Act is hardly perfect, but neither was Social Security or Medicare when first enacted. The Constitution allows Congress to amend or delay laws that don’t work as well as they were intended, or even to repeal them. But to do any of this requires new legislation – including a majority of both houses of Congress and a president’s signature (or else a vote to override a president’s veto).
Our system does not allow one party to delay, amend, or repeal a law of the land by shutting down the rest of the government until its demands are met. If that were the way our democracy worked, no law would ever be safe or settled. A disciplined majority in one house could always use the threat of a shutdown or default to gut any law it didn’t like.
So the President cannot re-negotiate the Affordable Care Act. And I don’t believe Tea Bag Republicans expect him to.
Their real goal is far more insidious. They want to sow even greater cynicism about the capacity of government to do much of anything. The shutdown and possible default are only the most recent and most dramatic instances of terminal gridlock, designed to get people like my friend to give up.
And on this score, they’re winning. Congress’s approval rating was already at an all-time low before the shutdown, according to a poll released just hours before Washington went dark. The CNN/ORC poll showed that only 10 percent of Americans approved the job Congress was doing, while 87 percent disapproved. It was the all-time lowest approval rating for Congress on a CNN poll.
A recent Gallup survey found that only 42 percent of Americans — also a record low — have an even “fair” amount of confidence in the government’s capacity to deal with domestic matters.
And in a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 26% of Americans say they’re angry at the federal government while 51% feel frustrated. Just 17% say they are basically content with the government. The share expressing anger has risen seven points since January, and now equals the record high reached in August 2011, just after the widely-criticized debt-ceiling agreement between the President and Congress.
It’s a vicious cycle. As average Americans give up on government, they pay less attention to what government does or fails to do — thereby making it easier for the moneyed interests to get whatever they want: tax cuts for themselves and their businesses; regulatory changes that help them but harm employees, consumers, and small investors; special subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare. And these skewed benefits only serve to confirm the public’s cynicism.
The same cynicism also makes it easier to convince the public that even when the government does act for the benefit of the vast majority, it’s not really doing so. So a law like the Affordable Care Act, which, for all its shortcomings, is still a step in the right direction relative to the costly mess of the nation’s healthcare system, is transformed into a nightmarish “government takeover.”
So here’s what I told my friend who said he’s giving up on politics: Don’t. If you give in to bullies, their bullying only escalates. If you give in to cynicism about our democracy, our democracy steadily erodes.
If you believe the fix is in and the game is rigged, and that a handful of billionaires and their Tea Party puppets are destroying our government, do something about it. Rather than give up, get more involved. Become more active. Make a ruckus. It’s our government, and the most important thing you can do for yourself, your family, your community, and the future, is to make it work for all of us.
http://robertreich.org/post/63417612450
Monday, October 7, 2013
The new reason Teapublicans shut down government
We’re now in Week 2 of the Republican shutdown. 800,000 workers furloughed, and no end in sight. Check out these Daily Kos stories for all the latest news:
- TIME Magazine’s
Cover
Majority Ruleby David Harris Gershon - Endgame is here: Republicans are breaking by Ian Reifowitz
- Boehner comes up with a new explanation for why Republicans shut down the government by Jed Lewison
- Ha-ha! Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) by Horace Boothroyd III
- The Brainwashing of my Dad by Limbaugh, Fox, GOP Media by Leslie Salzillo
- You won’t believe this new abortion decision, or who decided it by Adam B
- Republican who voted for shutdown: “I need my paycheck.” Does she think Head Start teachers don’t? by Laura Clawson
- PPP: “GOP could lose the House in 2014” by science
- The “Welfare Queen,” the “Homeless by Choice:” Reagan’s toxic legacy by Avila
- Your one-stop Obamacare shop by DarkSyde
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