Wednesday, December 19th, 2018
Walter Einenkel , Staff Writer - Daily Kos
Stephan: As it happens I am a vet from the Viet Nam war era. If you vote Republican you vote to degrade your life. All you Republican voters... hope you're happy. And thanks Wyoming voters for sending this slimeball to Congress.
Republican Senator from Wyoming Mike Enzi who couldn’t care less about Viet Name vets.
In June, the House voted 382-0 to pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which would extend veterans’ benefits to the numerous men who served off the coast of Vietnam during the war. Many of these men have had to spend a considerable part of their lives trying to prove that they were exposed to Agent Orange, leading to some, if not most, of their health problems. Since June, the act has been stuck in the Republican-led Senate. Last Monday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) attempted to get the unanimous consent of the Senate to pass the bill.
If the Senate can get unanimous consent on a bill, it can move through approval considerably quicker, and this bill is a seeming no-brainer for Democrats and Republicans. There are no “poison pills” attached to the act, no secret money for food assistance (giving to people who need it money for food is something that can really scare off Republican legislators). The only drawback to […]
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2018
TRAVIS GETTYS, - Raw Story
Stephan: In the 1950s and early 60s, when I was involved with the civil rights movement, I thought American White racism was as bad as it could get; I was wrong. Since Trump was elected I have seen a constant litany of the most amazing racism I have ever witnessed. Dozens of Black men being shot by police for... nothing other than being Black. Black men and women arrested for babysitting, going to the pool where they live, helping a child run a lemonade stand, walking in their own neighborhood, murdered by police in their own apartment, and on and on. But this one just left my jaw hanging open.
Racism is alive well and prospering in the United States and the data makes it clear: there are a massive number of White racist morons in our population.
Paul McCowns
A black Ohio man said bank tellers refused to cash a paycheck from his new job, and then called 911 on him, because they were suspicious that he earned so much. Paul McCowns tried to cash his first paycheck from a job with an electric company Dec. 1 at Huntington Bank in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn, reported WOIO-TV.
The paycheck was for a little more than $1,000, and McCowns and tellers confirmed he showed two forms of identification and a fingerprint, as required for non-Huntington customers.
But McCowns said bank employees started looking at a computer screen and questioning the transaction, and ultimately they refused to cash the check without speaking to his employer.
“They tried to call my employer numerous times,” McCowns said. “He never picked up the phone.”
McCowns left the bank, but employees called 911 on him and a police squad car pulled in front of his truck before he could drive away.
“He’s trying to cash a check and the check is fraudulent. It does not match our records,” a teller told the dispatcher, according to call records.
The teller admits McCowns […]
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Tuesday, December 18th, 2018
Anton Woronczuk, - truthout
Stephan: I am posting this, even though I do not agree with all of it. I'm doing this because this piece is one of a series of articles and essays I have begun seeing depicting what I see as a good news trend. It is beginning to become clear to people looking at climate change that a society based only on profit simply cannot make the decisions necessary to effectively deal with climate change.
To be effective, one has to begin with the premise that all policies must foster wellbeing from the individual to the family, community, nation, and the planet itself, and you can't do that when you are driven by greed and all you care about is profit. The 2020 election, in my view, is going to hinge on this issue and, unless something changes, I think we are going to fail. I just checked fivethirtyeight.com and today Trump's approval rating is 42.2%, more or less where it has been the entire time he has been president. To continue to approve of Trump, given the endless criminality the media describes every day, one has to be willfully ignorant, racist, and rather stupid, and millions of Americans are. Moreover, a large percentage of socially progressive men and women are too lazy or too sectarian or purist to vote at all. Put that mix together and I can guarantee your grandchildren will despise you.
Credit: Darksoul72/shutterstock
International climate negotiations have failed to curb runaway greenhouse gas emissions since the first UN treaty on emission reductions was adopted in 1992. Consumer-focused solutions to climate change such as eating less meat or reducing food mileage, though important, simply won’t be enough to address the systemic nature of the crisis. So what needs to be done to halt global warming? Truthout spoke to Simon Pirani about his newest book, Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption, and the prospects for transitioning to a post-fossil fuel world.
Anton Woronczuk: Burning Up situates the last few decades of accelerating fossil fuel consumption alongside the social and economic history of energy production and policy. How does this context help us understand what is driving, and what has driven, the growth of greenhouse gas emissions through today?
Simon Pirani: When people think about the threat of dangerous climate change, and decide they want to do something about it, it is not easy to work out what to do. It is clear we have to move […]
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Tuesday, December 18th, 2018
Mike Ludwig, Staff Reporter - truthout
Stephan: As I said yesterday, the United States federal government, and many of the nation's state governments have reached a level of corruption that has moved into the realm of satire. If you wrote it in a novel about another country reviewers would criticize the work as unbelievable. Here is the latest on the Trump administration and net neutrality. You just can't make this stuff up.
Credit: Rawpixel com
The Trump administration just made it a lot easier for big wireless providers like Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to interfere with texting, all in the name of protecting consumers from spam, according Democrats and digital rights groups.
Have you ever signed up to receive text blasts from an activist campaign? Does your doctor’s office text you reminders about upcoming appointments?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines on Wednesday to classify SMS and MMS text messaging as a Title I “information service” rather than a Title II “telecommunications service” under federal law, a move that congressional Democrats and digital rights groups say will give wireless providers the power to block and censor text messages and widen the digital divide.
The decision applies to standard texting — the text messaging service that comes with your cell phone plan — rather than apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger that require data or a wi-fi connection.
The move follows a long list of deregulatory decisions by the FCC under President Trump, who installed a […]
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Tuesday, December 18th, 2018
Stephan: Am I exaggerating about the continued approval Trump enjoys amongst Republicans? As usual, let's look at some actual data.
Iowa Republicans and Trump
Credit: Des Moines Register
About two-thirds of Iowa Republicans in a new survey said they would vote for President Trump if the 2020 election was held today, according to a new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll. (emphasis added)
The survey, which was released on Sunday night, found that 67 percent of the state’s Republican respondents said they would vote for Trump if the election were held today. Nineteen percent said they would consider someone else, while 10 percent said they would definitely vote for someone else.
But the poll also reveals that 63 percent of Republican respondents said the Republican Party of Iowa should welcome challengers to compete at the state’s 2020 caucuses. Twenty-six percent said the Republican Party of Iowa should discourage potential candidates challenging Trump.
CNN notes that 72 percent of Republican respondents with college degrees say that the Iowa Republican Party should welcome challengers. In addition, it notes that the share of women surveyed who said they’d welcome challengers to the party caucuses, 66 percent, is higher than men, at 50 percent.
Trump’s approval among the […]
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