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05 September 19

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FOCUS: Amanda Marcotte | Texas Republicans Love Their Guns - and Simply Don't Care About the Body Count

Texas governor Greg Abbott speaks at the NRA annual meeting on May 4, 2018. (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty)

Amanda Marcotte, Salon
Excerpt: "After the latest mass shooting, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has nothing to offer but empty words - and looser gun laws."

EXCERPT:

n the span of three years, there have been at least six major mass shootings in Texas. Eighty-one people have died in these incidents. Nearly 100 people were injured, some in ways that are debilitating. I don't live in Texas any longer, but these attacks feel personal all the same: The El Paso shooting happened in the neighborhood where I grew up, and my mother's family lives in the area where the latest West Texas shooting took place. People are understandably terrified by these random crimes that end the lives of people who were simply out shopping or in church or out for the day with their families, but unfortunately, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has nothing but empty words to offer to the public.

After so many mass shootings during his tenure, Abbott clearly feels he needs to be seen appearing to take action. But make no mistake: These words are empty noise. Abbott and the Texas Republican Party, which has a death-grip on power in the state, have no intention of taking any meaningful action to stop mass shootings — or any kind of shootings — in their state. On the contrary, while the cities of Midland and Odessa were still reeling from the effects of a man driving around shooting strangers on the streets, a new slate of laws loosening restrictions on guns were going into effect.

It's still unclear how Seth Ator, the man who killed seven people on Saturday before he was killed by police, obtained his weapons. Ator had a minor criminal record and, according to Abbott, had failed a background check when trying to purchase a weapon legally.

Ator himself seems to have been a mass of waving red flags that, in a saner system, should have been cause to remove any guns he owned a long time ago. Ator's neighbor said she and her husband called Ator "El Loco" because he was always shooting animals from his house. Once he came to her house, she said, threatening her with a gun. She claims police didn't do anything about it because he had no legal address.

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Thursday, September 5, 2019

Garrison Keillor | Listen to Your Uncle, for Crying Out Loud

05 September 19

This organization can be converted overnight into far more powerful voice and higher achieving project. “Significant” participation by our readership is what is and has been lacking for far too long.

I have to get you on board. We don’t need people to give more, we need more people to give.

Time has come.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Garrison Keillor | Listen to Your Uncle, for Crying Out Loud

If you would prefer to send a check:
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CA 95611

04 September 19

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
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Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Blog
Keillor writes: "Each life is a work of art but these days I live a very small life, more an etching than a mural."
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Trump border wall prototypes being built in October, 2017, near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California. (photo: Mani Albrecht/U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Flickr)

Trump Pulls $3.6 Billion From Pentagon Budget to Build Border Wall
Matt Stieb, New York Magazine
Stieb writes: "During the 2016 campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump assured prospective voters that Mexico would pay for a wall on the southern border."
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Members of a family place flowers at a memorial outside the Walmart at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, where 22 people were killed by a gunman on Aug. 3. (photo: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

House Democrats Postpone Their Response to Mass Shootings Due to Hurricane Dorian
Alex Daugherty, McClatchy DC
Daugherty writes: "A special legislative meeting on gun control scheduled after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, was postponed due to Hurricane Dorian."
READ MORE

The view leading into Trump National Doral Miami. (photo: Michele Eve Sandberg/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump Digs His Own Political Grave
Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
Rubin writes: "Even before we see signs of a trade-war-induced recession, Trump gets lower marks on the economy, and his trade policy gets panned."

EXCERPT:

Voters are right to be skittish about the economy. CNBC reports, “The ISM U.S. manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 49.1% in August, the lowest reading in more than three years. Any reading below 50% signals a contraction.” As one might expect, “The report raised fears of a recession and hit the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 300 points, extending losses following the morning release from ISM.”

For all his bluster and insults, Trump has taken on a somewhat feeble quality. He makes the bare-minimum statement on the latest gun massacre, ducks a World War II commemoration in Poland on the grounds that he has to monitor the hurricane (but then plays golf and misinforms the public about the hurricane’s path) and eggs Vice President Pence to stay at the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Ireland, raising once more the grotesque self-dealing and corruption that permeates this administration. (Recall that he’s trying to get the Group of Seven to meet at his Doral golf club next year, thereby presenting the federal courts that are considering emoluments cases one more example of the president’s willingness to use the power of the presidency to line his own pockets.)

As Trump is falling, Democrats remain oddly quiet, perhaps on the theory that one shouldn’t interfere with one’s political opponent when he’s in the midst of blowing himself up. However, at next week’s Democratic presidential primary debate, it would behoove candidates to use the free prime-time TV slot to pound away at the diminished president. Trump has taken credit for just about everything, so it is time to start holding him accountable for just about everything — the listing economy (thanks to Trump’s suffocating trade war), an epidemic of mass shootings (thanks to Trump’s refusal to cross the National Rifle Association), a culture of corruption (thanks to arguably the most corrupt president in history, who sets the pattern for everyone else), strained relations with allies (thanks to Trump’s picking fights with them as he carries water for Russian President Vladimir Putin) and ever-more-extreme weather (thanks to climate change deniers, led by Trump).

An anti-Brexit protester wearing a clown costume and a defaced mask depicting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a placard outside the Houses of the Parliament in London, Britain, September 4, 2019. (photo: Reuters)

UK: Johnson Calls for Election After Humiliating Brexit Defeat
teleSUR
Excerpt: "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Wednesday demanded an Oct. 15 snap election after lawmakers seeking to prevent a no-deal Brexit dealt him a humiliating defeat in parliament which he cast as an attempt to surrender to the European Union."
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Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaks during a press conference in Mexico City, Mexico, on Wednesday. (photo: Sáshenka Gutiérrez/EPA)

Mexico's President Seeks Inquiry Into Botched Investigation of 43 Missing Students
David Agren, Guardian UK
Agren writes: "Mexico's president has promised to investigate the botched investigation into the abduction and disappearance of 43 teacher trainees in 2014 - one of the country's most notorious crimes and an atrocity the then government tried to downplay as a minor local matter."
READ MORE

An aerial view of houses in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian shifts north. (photo: Adam Stanton/US Coast Guard/Getty Images)

Hurricane Dorian's Nightmarishly Slow Pace Is Linked to Climate Change
E.A. Crunden, ThinkProgress
Crunden writes: "Hurricane Dorian's historic destruction in the Bahamas earlier this week is already emerging as the latest example of a disconcerting trend. The storm hit the islands with Category 5 wind speeds and then stalled over land for hours before inching towards the United States."
READ MORE

Michael Moore | New Jersey's Politicians Are Attempting to Cover Up Newark's Water Crisis

Monday, September 2, 2019

Michael Moore | New Jersey's Politicians Are Attempting to Cover Up Newark's Water Crisis

02 September 19

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The filmmaker Michael Moore, near a closed factory in Flint, Mich., where his father worked. (photo: Fabrizio Costantini/NYT)

Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
Moore writes: "The mayor of Newark and the governor of New Jersey are covering up how serious the lead poisoning is in Newark’s water system."
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Investigators searching for evidence on Sunday after a shooting spree in Odessa, Tex. (photo: Ivan Pierre Aguirre/NYT)

Texas Shooting: Death Toll Rises to Seven, With 17-Month-Old Among 22 Wounded

Ed Pilkington and Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "In Texas, eight new gun laws came into effect on Sunday, dramatically loosening already lax controls. O’Rourke is calling for universal background checks on all gun sales, a ban on the sale of AR-15-style rifles and a mandatory buy-back of those weapons."
READ MORE

Cheers and applause erupt during a plea to reopen the Philadelphia Energy Solution's refinery in South Philadelphia as soon as possible. (photo: Brad Larrison/WHYY)

'Particularly Dark' Labor Day for Philadelphia's Unemployed Union Workers
Catalina Jaramillo, WHYY
Jaramillo writes: "Robert Campbell has worked for more than 20 years at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery complex in South Philadelphia."
READ MORE

US Military veteran and amputee Lloyd Epps walks after doctors serviced his prosthetic leg at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital on January 29, 2014 in Manhattan, New York City. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

Why We Should Fight for the Veterans Health Administration
Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, Jacobin
Excerpt: "Think of America's forever wars as a funnel between the largest and second-largest federal government departments."
READ MORE

ICE agents talk to a women in her home. (photo: Norsk Telegrambyra AS/Reuters)

ICE Rule Change on U Visas Sparks Outrage
Zack Budryk, The Hill
Budryk writes: "The Trump administration has quietly altered its handling of visas granted to immigrants who cooperate with criminal investigations, allowing people to be deported even while they are waiting for their visas."
READ MORE

Dua and Dalal AlShowaiki. (photo: Vice)

How Two Sisters Pulled Off a Daring Escape From Saudi Arabia
Gianna Toboni and Ana Sebescen, Vice
Excerpt: "Dua and Dalal AlShowaiki spent five years planning their escape from Saudi Arabia. In early June, they finally had their chance during a family vacation in Istanbul."
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Uprooted trees, fallen power lines and the debris from damaged houses scatter on a road as Hurricane Dorian sweeps through Marsh Harbour, Bahamas. (photo: Ramond A. King/Reuters)

Historic Hurricane Dorian Bears Down on Northern Bahamas as a Category 5 Storm
Shannon Van Sant and Emma Bowman, NPR
Excerpt: "Hurricane Dorian strengthened into a catastrophic Category 5 storm on Sunday, reaching the Bahamas as 'the strongest hurricane in modern records' to ever hit the archipelago, according to the National Hurricane Center, based on its sustained winds of 185 mph."
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FOCUS: Beto O'Rourke on Texas Shooting: 'This Is F*cked Up'

Sunday, September 1, 2019

FOCUS: Beto O'Rourke on Texas Shooting: 'This Is F*cked Up'

YOUR VOTE CAN CHANGE THIS!

01 September 19
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Beto O'Rourke. (photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/AP)

Anna Kaplan, The Daily Beast
Kaplan writes: "Former Texas representative and 2020 hopeful Beto O’Rourke railed against Congress late Saturday for not doing enough to stop gun violence after yet another mass shooting."

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Friday, August 30, 2019

DUMP MOSCOW MITCH!

MoveOn

We MUST defeat Mitch McConnell, Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief, and Kentucky MoveOn members stepped up the fight by commissioning these billboards in the state, highlighting how awful McConnell is for Americans.

Take, for instance, his response to the deadly mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. McConnell won’t allow a vote on a Senate bill for background checks on gun sales, even though it’s supported by a majority of voters, Republicans and Democrats.

He’s known as “Moscow Mitch” for his obstruction of election-security legislation. And he leads and enables a GOP that turns a blind eye (at the very least!) to white supremacy.

We have an important chance to defeat McConnell. More than 60% of voters in Kentucky say "it's time for someone new" in his Senate seat, and his opponent raised a stunning $2.5 million on her first day as a candidate. We need your help so MoveOn can fund what's needed to beat McConnell—without taking away from our efforts to defeat Trump. So help us keep these McConnell billboards up and fuel the full range of our work to win in 2020. Will you upgrade to a $10 monthly donation to help take on McConnell AND Trump?

ACT.MOVEON.ORG

Donate Monthly to Take On McConnell AND Trump

It’s time to ditch Mitch.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Andy Borowitz | Trump Blasts Media for Reporting Things He Says

28 August 19

Donations Trickling In - Work With Us

You are here. We love that you are. Stop and Donate. This site is news funded by the Readers, it’s what we do.

With you.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

FUNDING OR BUST, HARSH BUT REAL: We gotta have it, a working budget. If you are not an active donor, we need you. Look at what RSN does. Is it worth it? Chip in, give this project a boost. In Solidarity. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

If you would prefer to send a check:
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27 August 19

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
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Andy Borowitz | Trump Blasts Media for Reporting Things He Says

Sean Hannity, a 'journalist' Trump trusts. (photo: Mike Segar/Reuters)

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "The Republican Presidential nominee, Donald Trump, tore into the media on Thursday for what he called its 'extremely unfair practice' of reporting the things he says."
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Hillary Clinton supporters at a rally in Coconut Creek, Florida, in October 2016. Russians breached two county voting systems and a software vendor in 2016. (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Russian Hackers Likely to Target Florida Again in 2020 Election, Experts Warn
Peter Stone, Guardian UK
Stone writes: "Florida's record as a vital swing state made it a target for meddling in the 2016 election when Russians breached two county voting systems and a software vendor and now concerns are being raised about voting security in the state for the 2020 ballot, say election and cyber security experts, federal reports and Democrats."
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Sen. Kamala Harris speaks during a health care roundtable in Burlington, Iowa, Aug. 12, 2019. (photo: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images)

Before Kamala Harris Soured on Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All Bill, She Grew Her Email List From It
Akela Lacy, The Intercept
Lacy writes: "Before distancing herself from Sen. Bernie Sanders's Medicare for All campaign, Kamala Harris repeatedly boasted her support for the legislation in Facebook ads, in an effort to grow her list of supporters."
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Rifles for sale at a Virginia store. (photo: Jim Watson/Getty Images)

How to Disarm America
Jack Crosbie, Splinter
Crosbie writes: "There are more than 363 million civilian-owned guns in the United States. We kill each other and ourselves with them almost constantly, at a rate of around 100 deaths per day."
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Massachusetts senator Ed Markey. (photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Trump Accused of 'Deporting Kids With Cancer' After the Administration Reportedly Ends Medical Deferral Program
The Week
Excerpt: "Federal immigration officials have told immigrant medical patients who have 'medical deferred action' to leave the U.S. within 33 days, Commonwealth Magazine reported on Monday."
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Fires in the Amazon. (photo: Victor R. Caivano)

We Aren't Terrified Enough About Losing the Amazon
James Temple, MIT Review
Temple writes: "Scientists aren't sure if there's a tipping point, or how close we are to it - but it would be 'absolutely catastrophic' if we cross it."
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Employees clean a flooded area at the National Museum in Jakarta following heavy monsoon rains in February 2015. (photo: Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images)

As Jakarta Sinks, Indonesia Announces Location of New Capital City
Matt Stieb, New York Magazine
Stieb writes: "Jakarta, the soon-to-be-former capital of Indonesia, is an imperfect city to point to as an early mark of climate change."
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