The silenced majority and useful idiots
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Truth Crusaders, and Freedom Fighters!
I hope you had a restful and relaxing weekend with your loved ones.
I was hoping for a much more restful weekend than I've had...didn't sleep well Friday night because I was thinking of work and knew I'd have to get up early and start running errands Saturday (still dealing with my parent's ransomware fallout); didn't sleep well Saturday night--my heart was pounding for hours as I was trying to fall asleep, and it was hard to stay asleep...and I also knew I'd have to get up and run more errands (finally getting around to dealing with a little of my own fallout from my parent's ransomware incident). I guess I shouldn't be surprised that working 50-60 hours in the span of four days plus dealing with the fallout from my parent's ransomware incident and running all those errands and making all those phone calls have left me a little burned out. On top of that, I'm only just beginning to disentangle my own financial affairs, and I still need to set up a number of medical appointments to bring my parent to...the ransomware incident has put me a good two weeks back in everything I was supposed to be doing. So much unnecessary damage. So many hours and hours of my life shot dealing with a completely manufactured emergency. If I can prevent just one of you from biting that bait and circling the drain like I did over the past week, I will be grateful. Please, friends, protect yourselves and your loved ones. Don't click on shit when you don't know what it is, and don't call phone numbers without Googling them first. And don't let your loved ones pull this shit, either.
As I mentioned in recent posts, I am reading "The Silenced Majority" by Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now!" and Denis Moynihan. Formatted as categorized series of DN! columns, the book has 4.5 star reviews on Goodreads, with some readers disappointed only that the good message doesn't dig deeply enough. The Goodreads link above has links to Amazon and Amazon Kindle where you can buy the book in paper or electronic format. (Watch yourself if you try to get free PDF at a site like Stepor Ebook--my Norton thinks that site is questionable, so just save yourself the aggravation...either hit the library, or spend the money and buy the book. I checked it out so you don't have to!)
You really need to read this book to understand the insidiousness of fascism in American politics--the depth and breadth to which our society is ruled by Big Money and the degree to which our corporate media normalize it all. Let's try just to get a sense for it, shall we? The book was published in 2012, when Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimated the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as costing $3 TRILLION, including not only executing the war but also taking care of wounded veterans, having families disrupted by having to care for their now-injured loved ones, and losing breadwinners. Only a year later, in 2013, the Washington Post estimated the cost of just running the war as between $4 and $6 TRILLION. If you Google "pentagon waste fraud abuse," you will see story after story on the problem of the Pentagon flushing OUR money down the crapper. Even the conservative Washington Examiner exhorts conservatives from time to time to stop supporting Pentagon waste, fraud, and abuse. Here's an excerpt from the linked article:
Writing for AlterNet in March 2013, William Boardman sums it up: “Now, more than a decade overdue and more than 100-percent over budget, the plane is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over its useful life, of which about $400 billion has already been spent.”
Also, a February report for the Secretary of Defense by the director of operational test and evaluation, J. Michael Gilmore, explained in detail how the F-35 can't fly at night or in clouds or near lightning. That's right. For now, the Pentagon can only use its pricey toy in warm sunny weather. Even if the plane was functioning properly, it would still be a waste of our money. As Jonathan Bydlak of the Coalition for Reduced Spending said:
But what does everyone in Congress want to cut? Not the war budget, oh no. No need to tighten the purse-strings on the Pentagon's little toy party. Not gonna raise taxes on the rich or the corporations--not gonna cut the tax-payer-paid subsidies they receive instead of paying taxes. Not a penny will they cut from corporate welfare or socialism for the rich and powerful. No--they want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans' Affairs. They want to cut food stamps, which save real lives of real people and which, in 2012 (you know it's been cut a LOT since then), only cost a taxpayer making $50,000/year...drumroll, please...$36/year. Ten cents a day to save the lives of your countrymen. And THAT'S what the rich and powerful want to cut.The jets were created to face Soviet fighters but are impotent in the face of 21st-century warfare. Even if everything goes perfectly in the future (doubtful after years of design flaws and healthcare.gov-reminiscent dysfunction), the F-35 is years away from meeting minimal operational standards.
Not the $6,000/year that American families pay for corporate welfare and socialism for the rich.
If you're not pissed yet, check out Citizens for Tax Justice. Here's a short list of who's taking what out of OUR pockets:
• As a group, the 288 corporations examined paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 19.4 percent over the five-year period — far less than the statutory 35 percent tax rate.
• Twenty-six of the corporations, including Boeing, General Electric, Priceline.com and Verizon, paid no federal income tax at all over the five year period. A third of the corporations (93) paid an effective tax rate of less than ten percent over that period.
• Of those corporations in our sample with significant offshore profits, two thirds paid higher corporate tax rates to foreign governments where they operate than they paid in the U.S. on their U.S. profits.
These findings refute the prevailing view inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway that America’s corporate income tax is more burdensome than the corporate income taxes levied by other countries, and that this purported (but false) excess burden somehow makes the U.S. “uncompetitive.”
• One hundred and eleven of the 288 companies (39 percent of them) paid zero or less in federal income taxes in at least one year from 2008 to 2012.
• The sectors with the lowest effective corporate tax rates over the five-year period were utilities (2.9 percent), industrial machinery (4.3 percent), telecommunications (9.8 percent), oil, gas and pipelines (14.4 percent), transportation (16.4 percent), aerospace and defense (16.7 percent) and financial (18.8 percent).
• The tax breaks claimed by these companies are highly concentrated in the hands of a few very large corporations. Just 25 companies claimed $174 billion in tax breaks over the five years between 2008 and 2012. That’s almost half the $364 billion in tax subsidies claimed by all of the 288 companies in our sample.
• Five companies — Wells Fargo, AT&T, IBM, General Electric, and Verizon — enjoyed over $77 billion in tax breaks during this five-year period.
Even Forbes thinks that conservatives, who are obsessed with moochers, should be up in arms:...the February 24 Good Jobs First report, “Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent,” by Philip Mattera, a respected thought leader in our business. It says that three-quarters of all state economic development subsidies went to just 965 corporations since the beginning of the study in 1976. The Fortune 500 corporations alone accounted for more than 16,000 subsidy awards, worth $63 billion – mostly in the form of tax breaks.
Think about that. The largest, wealthiest, most powerful organizations in the world are on the public dole. Where is the outrage? Back when I was young, people went into a frenzy at the thought of some unemployed person using food stamps to buy liquor or cigarettes. Ronald Reagan famously campaigned against welfare queens. The right has always been obsessed with moochers. But Boeing receives $13 billion in government handouts and everyone yawns, when conservatives should be grabbing their pitchforks.
His favorite televangelists at FUX Noise and on Christian tee vee have convinced him that "reality" is exactly the opposite. If you were to ask him, he'd tell you that the effective tax rate corporations pay of 12.6% is still too high and that we should be grateful to all the godly corporations for breathing our air and giving us all those jobs we have to apply for welfare and food stamps to survive on--he thinks that it is the corporations' overhead (bureaucracy), not the worker, that creates wealth. He would tell you that we shouldn't give money to people just because they're old (we don't--they paid into our social benefits system when they were young), just as he would quote Mike Huckabee when he infamously said that women need birth control because women, not men, can't control their libidos (hunh, I guess the evangelicals finally climbed onto the Catholic bandwagon that men are inherently saintly and don't even think about sex until evil women--or children, if you're a Catholic priest--seduce them). My Tea Party Christian friend would tell you that minimum wage jobs are for teenagers, despite the undeniably middle-aged and older faces he sees behind every counter of every Chic-fil-A, McDonalds, and Burger King everywhere he goes...including the road trips he enjoys taking up and down the east coast. He would love to see corporations pay no more than 10% in taxes, and he would love to see food stamps and the rest of the social safety net eliminated. Quoting his favorite politicians and tee vee personalities, he thinks the New Deal was a bad idea.
He fails to understand that it's not the workers getting the hand-outs from public assistance--it's their employers.
Doesn't he realize that the rich already have enough to LIVE on? Doesn't he realize that they already have more than they can possibly spend in a lifetime?
Doesn't he realize that the ordinary, hard-working Americans at the bottom of the financial heap WILL suffer, starve, and DIE because we as a society let their employers STEAL THEIR WAGES? Doesn't he realize that poverty in America is an institution with very few ways out? Just being poor, and living where poor people live, makes it hard to escape poverty. Even in lily white Maine, very few poor people, even with a job, escape poverty...and the cluelessness of those of us who do care can't compete with the heartlessness of those who don't. As far as my friend is concerned, it is these people's own fault that they're in the situation they're in--he perceives poverty as existing only in Black inner cities and not lily white rural red states, and he attributes it solely to laziness--so, thanks to FUX Noise and the televangelists who have him sending his money to Africa instead of helping people here at home, he hasn't a bit of use for his own country's poor. And he feels like a real hero for his attitudes and actions. The filthy rich (or is that richie filth) have convinced my middle class friend that the poor, rather than the love of money, are the root of all evil (along with women, people with melanin in their skin, LGBTQ, non-Christians, etc.).
People like my Tea Party Christian friend claim to be the most righteous people not only in the country but in the world. They claim to venerate the Constitution. They claim to love Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Well, their Orwellian understanding of reality doesn't seem like Truth to me, and endorsing corporate theft of wages and public assistance money doesn't seem like Justice to me when very real people are suffering and dying (Google it--poverty kills). And, right now, the American Way--robbing the poor to enrich the already rich--sucks.
It costs money to keep a human being--a worker, be it even a "lowly" vegetable picker or a burger flipper--alive. This is a real cost. Right now, the corporations are pocketing the profits and passing the real costs of doing business on to us, the taxpayers. As usual, they are turning their private costs into our public debt burden. And they are laughing all the way to the bank. They rely on people like my Tea Party Christian friend to remain gullible and to continue voting against their own best interests, just like they relied on my Tea Party Christian friend when he bought Rafael "DEFEATed" Cruz's canard that Democrats are trying to repeal the First Amendment when Democrats are really trying to address campaign finance and the big-money-in-politics fraud that is Citizens United...which states that money is speech and corporations are people...yeah, I'll believe that when a corporation gets its period, or gets pregnant out of wedlock, or gets executed in Texas, or gets sent to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq. The sad part? As long as the captains and the kings keep pouring that kool-aid, my Tea Party Christian friend and his ilk will keep drinking it. That's what happens when you're religious--once you deliberately turn off your critical thinking skills in one area, you abdicate them in other areas...including areas you don't even intend to. You make yourself other people's dupe, whether you realize it or want it or not. You make yourself disbelieve reality in favor of fantasy. And then, having knotted up your brain like used toilet paper, you go out and vote.
What strikes me is that the unreasonable evangelical fundamentalists constitute barely 25% of this country, but they are driving the whole nation's political bus with their intimidation tactics. AND THEY VOTE! They actively work to break government so they can turn around and crow that government doesn't work, falsely blaming both sides--with help from cheerfully complicit corporate media--so they can convince the overworked, underpaid middle and lower classes to stay home and NOT vote. And THESE are the people the fundies and the tea bags want in government--self-proclaimed saboteurs and anti-Obama seditionists who want to take our tax dollars in order to destroy our government instead of helping people. That is some scary shit right there.
/soapbox...
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Daily Kos
AlterNet
Democracy Now!
Conservatives are Destroying our Future
Conservative Clown Car
Americans Against the Republican Party
Americans Against the Tea Party
...And, whatever you do,
VOTE BERNIE!!!!!
Please send him a buck o' five--when people vote, Bernie wins; when Bernie wins, we win. Let's win in California!
Thanks for reading, thanks for being you, and thanks, I hope, for resting and relaxing when I couldn't. As for me...I'm going to do a faceplant as soon as I click "Publish"--again--thank you very much.
- Dot Calm's shadow
P.S.--Consider Dot Calm's disclaimer still to be in effect.
Disclaimer:
Not responsible for keys getting in the
way when headed to the right ones.
Not responsible for misspellings. Too lazy
to look up the right spelling.
Not responsible for initial caps. You know
where they belong...put them in.
Not responsible for punctuation or grammar;
consider poetic license being in effect.
Drive a HYBRID.
Leave a lighter footprint on the planet.
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ATTENTION, REPUBLICANS!
The Kenyan Muslim
liberal fascist
weak dictator
Obama is coming
for your guns 'n' Bibles
November 8, 2016.
DO NOT
LEAVE YOUR HOUSE
THAT DAY
FOR ANY REASON!
The rights you save
may be your own!
Obama is coming
for your guns 'n' Bibles
November 8, 2016.
DO NOT
LEAVE YOUR HOUSE
THAT DAY
FOR ANY REASON!
The rights you save
may be your own!
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If Donald Drumpf were beer,
he'd be the piss of beers...
he'd be the piss of beers...
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From the Mailbag
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My father Eli immigrated to America from Poland in 1921 after World War
I at the age of 17. He was not a refugee fleeing war, although much of
his family later became victims of the Holocaust. He came to America
looking to make a better life. He never made a lot of money, but it
didn’t matter because he was able to start a family and send his two
sons to college. That meant the world to him and he loved this country.
While my father came here as an immigrant seeking economic opportunity,
many immigrants arrived in our country fleeing war, oppression and
violence. This is true today for thousands of women and unaccompanied
children who came to our country in the last several years fleeing
horrific violence in Latin America.
This week the media reported something that I find not just wrong, but inhumane: President
Obama is currently planning "a month-long series of raids in May and
June to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children" who came to our country fleeing that same violence.
Sending women and children back into harm's way after they already fled
horrendous violence in Central America is painful and inhumane, and
must be stopped.
Donald Trump has of course called for building a "Great Wall" along the
border with Mexico. Hillary Clinton previously said that these same
children who fled violence in Latin America "should be sent back" in
order to "send a clear message."
I happen to see things differently. I don't believe that the United
States should turn away from our historic role as a haven for the
oppressed.
I recently met a young Salvadoran woman who came to the United States
on her own at the age of 15 to flee gangs trying to recruit her. I’ve
also spoken with many children who have told me with tears streaming
down their faces that they live in daily fear that their parents will be
taken away.
The United States of America must continue to be a refuge for
the poor, the tired, the oppressed, and certainly for women and children
fleeing horrific violence.
I urge President Obama to use his executive authority to protect
families by extending Temporary Protective Status for those who fled
from Central America, and I ask you to join me.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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Urge your Rep. to support ending or limiting the supply of US weapons to combatants in Syria's civil war.
Amnesty International reports that US and Saudi-backed armed
opposition groups in Aleppo are committing war crimes against Syria's
Kurds, and have called on the US and other countries
to "immediately block the transfer of arms to armed groups, including
logistical and financial support for such transfers, where there is
credible evidence that they have committed serious human rights abuses
and violations of international humanitarian law." Take Action
The House of Representatives has a unique opportunity to do something about this in the coming days. Amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act offered by Reps. Gabbard, Nolan [1, 2], and Yoho-Conyers would end or limit the transfer of US weapons to combatants in Syria's civil war.
Urge your Representative to support these amendments by signing our petition at MoveOn.
Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,
Robert Naiman, Avram Reisman, and Sarah Burns
Just Foreign Policy
Help support our work!
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The CEO of Wal-Mart makes $8,500 per hour. He can afford to pay his workers $15 per hour!
 | ||
| Tell Walmart: Pay workers $15 an hour with consistent, full-time hours | ||
My name is Jaffet Alamilla. I work as an overnight stocker at a Walmart in Riverside, California. I love my job at Walmart but I still struggle to provide for my family on Walmart pay. Following years of huge worker protests and massive strikes, I was so excited when Walmart finally agreed to a raise for all of its store associates earlier this year. That excitement didn’t stick once I realized they were only raising base pay to $10 an hour, and even less for long term associates. Ten dollars an hour is better than what most associates were getting but it’s still not enough to put food on the table for my family. That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, says the following: Walmart is one of the richest corporations in the world, yet its employees still don’t earn enough in wages or work enough hours to survive. Raise worker pay to $15 per hour and provide workers with access to full-time, consistent hours.Tell Walmart CEO Doug McMillon: Pay workers $15 an hour with consistent, full-time hours. Click here to sign the petition. As a father of five, nothing in the world is more important to me than my kids. In fact, I work overnights just so I can try and spend more time with them during the day. But if it weren’t for the breakfasts and lunches that their schools provide, I honestly don’t know how my children would get three meals a day. I can’t imagine why a company where the CEO makes over $8,500 per hour refuses to change things and instead, seeks to keep people like me in such hard situations. It’s time for Walmart to publicly commit to paying a decent wage. Our country is at a crossroads. Although our economy has started to improve – especially for those on Wall Street – many of us are still left without jobs or scrambling to survive. It’s time for Walmart to publicly commit to pay all of its workers $15 per hour with consistent, full-time hours. If you sign my petition, you can send Walmart a message that you're with us in our fight. Will you join me and add your name to my petition to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon to demand that Walmart pay workers $15 an hour with access to consistent, full-time hours? Thank you for your support, Jaffet Alamilla
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I was sickened to hear that Trayvon Martin's killer is auctioning off the gun used to take Trayvon's life. My son Jordan was also an unarmed African-American teenager killed by an angry man with a gun, and I can only imagine Trayvon's mother's pain at this news. People are outraged by the auction of the gun used to murder Trayvon. But here's what's also outrageous: Yesterday, the Missouri legislature passed a Stand Your Ground bill just like the one that let Trayvon's killer walk free in Florida. Stand Your Ground laws make communities less safe by letting people shoot to kill in public places, even when they can walk away from the danger. This fight is far from over, and we'll be urging the governor to veto. But today there's something we need to do first: Shame Missouri legislators for taking a dangerous step towards being the first new "Stand Your Ground" state since Trayvon's killing. This is a national disgrace -- and that's why I'm asking you to send an urgent message to tell them you're angry, and that the nation is watching. We'll deliver your messages straight to their inboxes.  These laws are dangerous, no question about it. Florida's "justifiable" homicide rate tripled after they passed Stand Your Ground. In Kentucky, that rate increased seven-fold. And this law has the potential to spread like wildfire. After Florida first passed Stand Your Ground, the NRA successfully pushed it in 21 more states. We've been able to stop them in the four years since Trayvon was killed -- but we can't afford to lose any ground. Send an urgent message telling the Missouri lawmakers who just passed Stand Your Ground: Shame on you. Thank you for fighting with me. Lucy McBath Faith and Outreach Leader Everytown for Gun Safety 
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From the National Religious Campaign against Torture--the CIA "accidentally" destroyed its full copy of the torture report...anyone have a copy they can send the CIA and the White House?
Earlier today Yahoo News reported that the CIA's Office of Inspector General has destroyed its copy of the full Torture Report (https://www.yahoo.com/news/
Please write to Attorney General Loretta Lynch! You can do so at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/
Absurdly, despite his strong public statements against torture, President Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ) has instructed federal agencies not to open, let alone read, their copies of the final Torture Report. Further, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the ACLU, the DOJ told federal courts that no copies of the report would be destroyed until the lawsuit was resolved. This latest action, by the CIA's Office of Inspector General (a position which, coincidentally, has been left vacant since the last Inspector General dared to criticize the CIA's attempts to spy on Senate Intelligence Committee staff), shows that the DOJ misled the courts.
Please write to Attorney General Lynch and tell her that this is unacceptable. Tell her that not only should the DOJ open and read the Report, and advise other agencies to do likewise, but it should also drop its efforts to prevent the Report from becoming public, explain why it ended the criminal investigation into CIA torture (including in instances where detainees were killed by torture), and, if appropriate, reopen the criminal investigation into torture.
Though Congress permanently banned torture by passing the bipartisan McCain-Feinstein amendment into law in late 2015, preserving the full Torture Report is critical to ensuring that we can learn from the lessons of history. As you write to Attorney General Lynch, please also write to your Members of Congress and ask them to prevent the CIA cover-up of its torture program.
Please write now. This cover-up cannot be ignored.
Matt Hawthorne
Policy Director
Please write to Attorney General Loretta Lynch! You can do so at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/
Absurdly, despite his strong public statements against torture, President Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ) has instructed federal agencies not to open, let alone read, their copies of the final Torture Report. Further, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the ACLU, the DOJ told federal courts that no copies of the report would be destroyed until the lawsuit was resolved. This latest action, by the CIA's Office of Inspector General (a position which, coincidentally, has been left vacant since the last Inspector General dared to criticize the CIA's attempts to spy on Senate Intelligence Committee staff), shows that the DOJ misled the courts.
Please write to Attorney General Lynch and tell her that this is unacceptable. Tell her that not only should the DOJ open and read the Report, and advise other agencies to do likewise, but it should also drop its efforts to prevent the Report from becoming public, explain why it ended the criminal investigation into CIA torture (including in instances where detainees were killed by torture), and, if appropriate, reopen the criminal investigation into torture.
Though Congress permanently banned torture by passing the bipartisan McCain-Feinstein amendment into law in late 2015, preserving the full Torture Report is critical to ensuring that we can learn from the lessons of history. As you write to Attorney General Lynch, please also write to your Members of Congress and ask them to prevent the CIA cover-up of its torture program.
Please write now. This cover-up cannot be ignored.
Matt Hawthorne
Policy Director
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We are in the home stretch to a successful Spring fundraising campaign. We need only $9,000 to hit our goal. We will publish 30 or more articles today, more than 190 for the week. Lots of good stuff. For free.
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You supporting us is also a good combo -- teamwork at its best. We need
you and hopefully you need us. Please make a contribution right away.
Peace,
Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet
P.S. Your contribution today is 100% tax-deductible.
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Help out Daily Kos--donate today!
Spend some time over at Daily Kos. Its devotion to the intimate details of modern campaigning is enviable, and one suspects it helps drive the left's small donor culture by engaging supporters in the day-in, day-out process of politics.A.J., that was written by Luke Thompson, a Republican operative who's worked as data director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and for Jeb Bush's super PAC, Right to Rise, in an essay about the weaknesses of right-wing media.
Thompson is right: We spend a lot of time diving deep into the weeds for our campaigns. The Daily Kos Elections team is the greatest group of elections nerds ever assembled. They're not here to report on the faux controversies or inside-the-beltway gossip that dominate cable news—they're here to report hard campaign news, relying on data and a deep knowledge of political history to inform their analysis and live coverage.
They produce data sets that are used by campaigns across the country, like their breakdowns of presidential and statewide elections results into state legislative districts, providing a roadmap for Democrats to make comebacks in state legislatures. (You can see that data illustrated here as interactive maps.)
That level of attention to detail and commitment to reality-based activism runs throughout Daily Kos, and the right wing has nothing like it. In short, even Republicans admit Daily Kos is kicking their ass.
But unlike the Bushes, our money comes from grassroots mobilizing. If we are going to keep kicking ass in 2016, we need your help.
Can you chip in $5 right now to help Daily Kos keep fighting?
Thank you,
Michael Langenmayr, Daily Kos
P.S. To get elections news delivered right to your inbox every morning, you can sign up for the Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest.
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From Daily Kos--let America VOTE!
The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act almost three years ago, and Republicans haven't looked back.
They've passed law after law to block votes – PROGRESSIVE VOTES.
This is not who we are. Americans believe in one person, one vote – not one party GAMING THE SYSTEM to block votes it doesn't like.
There is too much at stake for Dems to sit back while extreme Republicans trample over our basic right to cast a vote. Social Security, women's rights, the future of the Supreme Court are all at risk – unless we step up RIGHT NOW.
Stand with the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) to fight for every American's right to be heard. Add your name NOW to tell Congress: Restore the Voting Rights Act!
Keep fighting,
Rachel Colyer, Daily Kos
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Daily Kos for Team Duckworth
Dear Friend,
Donald
Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, and Republican incumbent Senator
Mark Kirk is “certainly” supporting him. Now more than ever it is
crucial that we take back the majority and build a Democratic firewall
in the U.S. Senate.The Washington Post has called Illinois the "#1 most competitive Senate race in 2016". This race is Democrats' best chance in the country to turn a Republican Senate seat blue in November.
Will you add your name to help Tammy defeat Mark Kirk, the most vulnerable GOP senator?
Incumbent Republican Senator Mark Kirk has proven again and again that he’s a Trump ally. Like Trump, it’s clear that middle-class Americans are not his priority. He put Wall Street first by voting to repeal Dodd-Frank banking reform. He voted against equal pay for equal work for women, childcare to support working moms, and nutrition aid for pregnant women.
Middle-class families need a leader like Tammy Duckworth who will fight for people like them and fight against Donald Trump’s hateful fearmongering.
Tammy will stand up for working families and won't be beholden to corporate interests and billionaires. She'll fight to help our students by making college more affordable. Tammy is a Veteran who is dedicated to protecting the honor of those who sacrifice for our country every day.
Tammy Duckworth is the type of leader America needs in the Senate and will help build a Democratic firewall in the Senate come November. But she needs your support in order to do so.
Join our grassroots campaign to help Tammy defeat Republican incumbent and Trump ally Mark Kirk and turn the Senate blue. Add your name to stand with her.
Thank you for helping Tammy take back the Democratic Senate majority,
Team Duckworth
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From ATTN:--jailing people addicted to pain killers is not the answer
Hi there,
This week, we released a video about America's escalating painkiller epidemic that is worth your attention. Drug addiction now claims more American lives each year than traffic accidents, and it can hit anyone, anywhere — inner cities, suburbs, the rich and poor alike. Painkiller addiction often starts legally with a doctor's prescription; from here, many people become chemically dependent and turn to heroin, fentanyl, or other, harder opioids found on the street where it's usually cheaper. As U.S. Sen. Patty Murray told ATTN: in an interview, "we need to stop treating addiction like a crime and start treating it like a disease."
Sadly, only 11 percent of drug addicts receive the treatment they need, and all too often, they end up in jail instead. "Jail's not a good answer," Sen. Murray told us. "All [police] do is arrest these people. Put them in jail. They cycle in and out of jail. They get back out on the street, and they are still addicted." That's why Murray is pushing for emergency funding to put more beds and staff in drug treatment centers across America.
Watch and share our interview here:
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Zimmerman is selling the gun he used to murder Trayvon
Tell Gov. Nixon: NO MORE ZIMMERMANS! Veto ‘Stand Your Ground'.
Take Action |
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Today, in another piece of SATIRE, Ann Coulter was arrested for using the WOMEN's bathroom at the Chic-fil-A.
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Today, in another piece of SATIRE, Ann Coulter was arrested for using the WOMEN's bathroom at the Chic-fil-A.
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Daily Kos
- Donald Trump loses one of the most embarrassing polls in recent memory
- Republican senators continue to obstruct President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Join NARAL in telling them to do their jobs. sponsored
- Jon Stewart analyzes, explains, and destroys Donald Trump and the Republican Party
- Paul Krugman explains Trump: "The making of an ignoramus"
- Rachel Maddow goes off on Donald Trump nomination
- Sign if you agree with Russ Feingold: We need to create a system of debt-free college for students. sponsored
- Arizona school poster depicts girls as 'meat.' Student protests with righteous results. =
- Donald Trump learned a very important message—do NOT pick a fight with Elizabeth Warren
- Thousands of pictures of naked defendants found on judge's computer
- I'm starting to hate pickup trucks
- Dear god, Donald Trump even gets baseball wrong!
- Hillary Clinton disses Donald Trump on Jimmy Fallon three times—it's so enjoyable
- Watch Joe Scarborough freak out when Rob Reiner said a lot of racists are voting for Trump
- Lawyer arrested when she remained silent during traffic stops by New Jersey troopers
- Koch brothers' attack on Russ Feingold backfires as local TV stations pull deceptive ad
- I have personally been to a closed door corporate Clinton speech. This is what I experienced.
- Why do people hate Hillary Clinton so much?
- Bill O'Reilly throws tantrum after Media Matters exposes his book as 'total BS'
- Sign if you agree with Russ Feingold: We must expand Social Security. sponsored
- Legendary actress ran an underground, illegal, life-saving AIDS safe house
- Jon Stewart exposes Fox News's Megyn Kelly's change of heart on entitlement programs!
- Man guns down Waffle House server after she asks him not to smoke inside—are you keeping count, NRA?
- Cartoon: The woman who took birth control
- Calm, cool and collected, President Obama schools ABC reporter during press conference at the Hague =
- The first New York Times article on Hitler serves as a reminder about why we can't downplay hateful rhetoric =
- Too important for clever titles: Scientific study says that America is now an oligarchy
- Sign if you agree with Nevadans for Background Checks: We need common-sense gun safety legislation. sponsored
- I was rejected by Teach for America
- People are being mean to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder about those poisoned kids in Flint
- Back when he used a pseudonym, Nate Silver wrote this brief history of superdelegates
- NAFTA at 20: An unhappy birthday and a look at the roll call votes on 'free' trade deals
- Did Fidel Castro almost play baseball for the U.S. Major Leagues?
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Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved with Women in Private.
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It's not the trans people you have to protect your children from--it's the priests and pastors.
There hasn't been ONE case of a transgender person molesting someone in a public bathroom, but there are way too many reports of priests and pastors molesting and raping women and children. Oh, and of having child porn. Like this:
There hasn't been ONE case of a transgender person molesting someone in a public bathroom, but there are way too many reports of priests and pastors molesting and raping women and children. Oh, and of having child porn. Like this:
Vehemently Anti-Gay Pastor Arrested On 70 Counts Of Child Porn
If a rapist wants to attack women in bathrooms, all he's going to do is wait until no one is looking before he walks in.
He's not gonna wear
make-up and a phuquen dress!
If a rapist wants to attack women in bathrooms, all he's going to do is wait until no one is looking before he walks in.
He's not gonna wear
make-up and a phuquen dress!
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AlterNet
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Conservative Clown Car asks, "Patrick just declared that Texas was prepared to forego literally billions of dollars in federal education funding rather than allow transgender children to use the bathroom. How many of these Teabaggers send their kids to private schools?" Yup, Texas conservatives would rather starve poor children than ignore the non-problem of trans people using bathrooms. The teaser to the article they post says, "You know who the bad guys are in a situation. They're the ones who harm innocent people to force the hero to give them their way."
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Drumpf without his wig
and oompa-loompa spray tan...
and oompa-loompa spray tan...
aka "Trump without money"
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Mark Cuban on Donald Trump, the goddamn airhead:
“There’s that guy who’ll walk into a bar and say anything to get laid,” Cuban explained at a conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. “That’s Donald Trump right now to a T. But it’s all of us who are going to get fucked.”
“Everybody’s got that friend that you just shake your head at,” Cuban continued. “He’s that guy who’d get drunk and fall over all the time, or just says dumb shit all the time, but he’s your friend.”
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Movies!
When I Googled "The Silenced Majority" to find links where you can buy a copy, I found this video. You can
--and should--also go to "Democracy Now!" and watch some of their videos that document some of the happenings Amy mentions.
Didja ever wonder how Wal-Mart can go into a reasonably functional area and bankrupt it? Ever wonder why workers are paid less and less and starving more and more? Well, it's all about "growth," namely, extractive corporate growth...
Amazing interview with delightful Black atheist, Alix Jules, by Seth Andrews. So much of what Alix says is spot on, and he is so wonderfully articulate. His remarks on what it means to be Black and atheist in America will open your eyes if you're not familiar with that world. His remarks on Pope Francis really resonated with me: the Pope seems schizophrenic...on the one hand, seeming to care genuinely for people the Catholic Church historically rejects, but on the other hand also spewing hate and bigotry. While Francis and JP II before him seemed like "progressive" trailblazers in the Church compared to the haters and misogynists before them, both men were limited in what good they could do simply because of the religious mindset they espoused. Crazy. Friends, this is what religion does to you: even someone genuinely interested in being and doing good may do some good but quite possibly also a lot of bad--both for the wrong reasons.
I know I've run these two fairly recently, but I just felt like watching them again. Enjoy!
posted by Dot Calm @ 4:39 PM
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