Wednesday, March 28th, 2018
NATASHA GEILING, Climate Reporter - Think Progress
Stephan: The Trump administration stole thousands of acres of public land from the American people, and now -- no surprise -- they are auctioning those acres off to the extractive industries. And what is the Republican congress doing? Why nothing of course; they have no interest in the wellbeing of America, as long as they can stay on the public teat, and retain power. Here's the story.
The Bureau of Land Management auctioned off 43 parcels of public land taken from what was once the Bears Ears National Monument
Ayers Energy LLC is, ostensibly, an energy company based out of either Bedford, Texas, or Cheyenne, Wyoming, depending on what day you look at the results of the Bureau of Land Management’s most recent oil and gas auction.
Public information about the company is scarce: It’s not listed as a taxable entity by the Texas Comptroller, and doesn’t appear to be a registered corporation in the state of Texas or Wyoming. In fact, a search for Ayers Energy through Vigilant, a public records database, did not yield any registration records for the company in any state.
On March 21, Ayers’ address — according to federal documents — was listed as on Pecan Bend Drive in Bedford, Texas. As of March 22, that address had changed to Central Ave in Cheyenne.
But, despite the vague and ever-changing information about Ayers Energy LLC, the company, as of March 20, owns the rights to pursue oil and […]
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Tuesday, March 27th, 2018
IAN MILLHISER, - Think Progrress
Stephan: The Republican Party is no longer interested in sustaining a healthy democracy. Oh, I know they talk a good game, but the facts tell the real truth. The Republican attacks on the institutions of American democracy take a number of forms, two of the most prominent of which are gerrymandering and voter suppression.
How bad is it? To quote this report, while every one has been talking democracy, the christofascists have so rigged the system that, according to "the Brennan Center for Justice... congressional races are so heavily rigged in favor of Republicans that the United States can barely be described as a democratic republic."
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 07: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) (3rd L) shares a laugh with Republican members of Congress after signing legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and to cut off federal funding of Planned Parenthood during an enrollment ceremony in the Rayburn Room at the U.S. Capitol January 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. President Barack Obama has promised to veto the bill.
Credit by Chip Somodevilla/
A new report by the Brennan Center for Justice suggests that congressional races are so heavily rigged in favor of Republicans that the United States can barely be described as a democratic republic. The upshot of their analysis is that, to win a bare majority of the seats in the U.S. House, Democrats “would likely have to win the national popular vote by nearly 11 points.”
To put that number in perspective, neither party achieved an 11-point popular vote win in the last several decades. The last time this happened, according to the Brennan Center, was […]
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Tuesday, March 27th, 2018
ARI BERMAN, - Mother Jones
Stephan: Another way the Republican chrisotfascists are undermining American democracy to their benefit is by trying to take over and control the judiciary branch of government. Here the story.
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker addresses a joint session of the Legislature in the Assembly chambers during the Governor’s State of the State speech at the state Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, in Madison, Wis.
CreditL AP /Andy Manis
On Thursday, a judge ruled that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker must hold special elections this spring to fill two vacant state legislative seats that some Republicans fear could flip to the Democrats. But instead of scheduling new elections, Wisconsin Republicans came up with a different plan: They would convene a special legislative session to change the law governing special elections so they wouldn’t have to hold them before November.
Walker had a “plain and positive duty” to hold the elections, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Josann Reynolds, who was appointed by Walker in 2014, ruled on Thursday. She instructed Walker to issue an order within a week scheduling the elections.
But the next day, Walker threw his support behind the plan to change the election law. “It would be senseless to waste taxpayer money on special elections just weeks before […]
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Tuesday, March 27th, 2018
SARAH K. BURRIS, - Raw Story
Stephan: One of the most important trends going on in the U.S. today although it is drawing little attention from the media is the step-by-step, day-by-day, revelation that the christofascist Republican community is completely morally bankrupt, and utterly hypocritical. Here's a report that lays it out.
According to a survey in the journal Sociology of Religion, the reason evangelicals continue to support President Donald Trump despite alleged moral failings comes from their priorities being tied to Christian nationalism.
Voters’ religious doctrine has nothing to do with those who stand with Trump. “Their view of the United States as a fundamentally Christian nation,” are paramount to their continued support, The Washington Post wrote.
The Post compared the recent survey to the fifth wave of the Baylor Religion Survey that surveyed Americans shortly after the inauguration in 2017. They combined responses to six specific questions in which people were asked if they agreed or disagreed.
The questions involved declaring the U.S. a Christian nation, and the U.S. is “part of God’s plan,” saying government should advocate Christian values, display Christian symbols, allow prayer in schools and other similar questions.
The findings ultimately showed the more someone believed that the U.S. should be a Christian nation, the more likely they are to vote for and support Trump, even after controlling for other influences such as politics, party and cultural factors.
Respondents’ specific religious […]
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Tuesday, March 27th, 2018
Trevor Butterworth, Vice President of Research for CynjaTech, a Company Specializing in Data Protection and Privacy - VOX
Stephan: Why is it Europe can work to protect the privacy of its citizens on social media but the American congress and the president and his appointees cannot? What else is going on?
Mark Zuckerberg
Credit: Frederic Legrand
It’s the tech bro equivalent of a 1950s B-movie: Evil data scientists betray the simple trust of an unwitting, socially benevolent company to snatch private customer data and turn it against them and the world! Mark Zuckerberg’s apology for what has happened at Facebook more or less follows that script.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m sure Zuckerberg is very sorry that his share price has plummeted and that the #DeleteFacebook movement is gaining momentum, putting billions of dollars in shareholder value at risk.
But this story is not about Facebook’s rules being broken, or the apps that seek to discern a more algorithmically predictable “you” through inane clickbait quizzes about which philosopher or dog breed you like best. It’s not, fundamentally, about Cambridge Analytica, or even about Facebook. If you delete Facebook because you’re worried about privacy, you’ll have to delete almost every other app and platform too, because almost everything else on the internet is operating the same way.
This story, at root, is about what you don’t […]
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