They speak for themselves
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Greetings, faithful Dot Calm Readers, Truth Crusaders, and Freedom Fighters!
I hope you all had fun at the Reason Rally. I was stuck helping a rellie move before settlement (he's selling his home), so I had to miss it...shucks, bummer, damn damn damn. I hope my friends who did go took lotsa pix.... If not, there's always YouTube for all the speeches, which I'm sure some kind soul video-recorded.
I just don't seem to be up to an essay today. There is so much awful crap--meaning the despicable behavior of the corporate Christo-fascists and their minions--in the mailbag and headlines that I'm just going to let it all speak for itself today.
If you do nothing else, check out todaze m00bies. You can listen to Seth's podcast while doing other things, and the other items are not very long...but they are very enlightening.
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
Also consider reading Slate. There have been some wonderful in-depth articles lately that I've been reading on my commute (no, not while I'm driving! ...I take public transportation, duh). You can get great back-story on the degree to which the Kochs are sitting out the 2016 election and why (look out, down-ballot Dems), Trump's rise to power and the disaster we'd face if he ever got into the White House, and all sorts of issues that affect us all that the corporate media do not report.
...And, whatever you do,
Please send him a buck o' five. I do whenever I can
--California's primary is tomorrow, and I'd love to see Bernie win big, despite the odds. At the very least, I'm gonna send $15 to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Democratic opponent on Bernie's behalf. That woman needs to GO!
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being good to yourself and your loved ones. If you have a senior friend or rellie, please visit, bring cookies, or take him or her out for a meal if you can. They and I will love you for it!
Peas!
- Dot Calm's shadow
Mailbag
From Daily Kos--Stop Trump...his SCOTUS would be a disaster!
The next president of the United States will have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the Supreme Court. That president cannot be Donald Trump.
Sign the pledge: I will help Get Out The Vote to defeat Donald Trump. We absolutely must do everything we can to stop him from getting to the White House.
Under a right-leaning Court, the Voting Rights Act was gutted, corporations gained limitless spending power in elections, and a major affirmative action case hangs in the balance, after Justice Antonin Scalia's death. Conservative justices have vowed to overturn Roe v. Wade for decades.
With several justices at or approaching the average retirement age, the next president may shape the voice of the Court for an entire generation. We need a Democrat in that seat..
Over 75,000 Daily Kos members have pledged to make phone calls, knock on doors, register new voters--whatever is needed to Get Out the Vote for the Democratic candidate in November. But we still haven't heard from you.
Sign the pledge: I will help Get Out The Vote to defeat Donald Trump.
Can't volunteer? Chip in $3 to Daily Kos to help us get voters to the polls.
Keep fighting,
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos
Tell the National Park Service: Keep corporate sponsorships out of our parks | |
Tell National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis:
“Cancel your plan to allow corporate sponsorships, logos, and branding in our national parks. Our national parks should be adequately funded by Congress, not dependent on corporate commercialization.”
Add your name:
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From Ruben Kihuen for Congress
- Cresent Hardy opposes Public Lands. He even called Cliven Bundy a "good friend."
- Hardy voted against a recent LGBTQ anti-discrimination bill and doesn't support marriage equality.
- He joined Romney in saying "Can I say that without getting in trouble like [former Mass.] Gov. [Mitt] Romney? The 47 percent is true. It’s bigger now."
- And he opposes the Department of Education.
Stop the sham defense of ExxonMobil. It's time to shut down the House Science Committee. | |
Petition to Speaker Paul Ryan
"The House Science Committee’s attempt to silence critics of ExxonMobil is the clearest symbol yet of the committee's blatant corruption and dangerous ignorance. If you are are seriously committed to fixing the 'broken' House of Representatives, stop this sham defense of Exxon, and disband the science committee entirely."
Add your name:
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Texas Rep Lamar Smith is a full-blown climate denier who thinks climate change is an international conspiracy. He is also the chairman of the House Science Committee — where Republicans have waged an assault on science, working to slash science budgets and launch baseless harassment of scientists and institutions.1
Now they’re going even further, rushing to the aid of ExxonMobil in a blatant attempt to silence the growing investigation into the company’s decades of climate lies.
Led by Smith, 13 Republicans sent a letter to 16 attorneys general and eight environmental groups — including 350 and Greenpeace — demanding mountains of documents, and incredibly claiming that inquiries into ExxonMobil’s decades-long effort to obscure climate science amounts to a violation of Exxon’s free speech!2
Unlike many of his colleagues, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has tried to project the image of a serious reformer. When he was sworn in last year, he said “But let’s be frank. The House is broken. We’re not solving problems, we’re adding to them.”3 There is no clearer symbol of those problems than the House Science Committee.
If Speaker Ryan is truly committed to substantive policy and reforming the House, he needs to shut down this sham, and disband the House Science Committee. Click here to sign the petition.
Scientific American called the House Science committee "a national embarrassment."4 But it’s far worse than that. The committee's baseless allegations and hostility to science have wasted millions of dollars of congressional and scientific resources, and had a chilling effect on scientific inquiry, earning a public rebuke last year from seven major American scientific societies.5,6
Of course, suppressing science is exactly what Smith wants to achieve as more and more evidence comes to light that ExxonMobil was part of a conspiracy to hide the dangerous truth about its products. Exxon knew as early as the 1970’s that burning fossil fuels could lead to catastrophic changes on our planet. But instead of doing the responsible thing, it spent millions to obscure the science and block climate action.6
Exxon’s actions weren’t simply immoral. They may also have been illegal, and that’s why the pressure on Exxon continues to mount with at least four state attorneys general investigating, and the Department of Justice referring investigation requests to the FBI.
The letter from the House Science Committee is so desperate that only half of the committee’s 26 Republican members signed on. But the fact remains that allowing efforts to suppress scientific inquiry and evidence-based legal investigations is not only dangerous, it sends the message that House Republicans are still ruled by corruption and ignorance — a record Paul Ryan says he is trying to correct.
Tell Speaker Ryan: Stop shilling for ExxonMobil. Shut down the House Science Committee. Click here to sign the petition.
This desperate ploy from the House Science Committee has everything to do with the fact that calls are growing for investigations and accountability into Exxon’s lies. Public pressure is mounting, more state attorneys general are joining the investigation, and even ExxonMobil’s big institutional investors — like California pension fund CalPERS — are demanding Exxon begin accounting for a low carbon future in its business models.8
If our pressure keeps building, the writing is on the wall for Exxon and other organizations who conspired to suppress the dangerous truth about fossil fuels for profit. That means Speaker Ryan has a choice to make.
Under Rep. Lamar Smith, and Republican committee chairs before him, the transparent goal of the House Science Committee has very clearly been to shill for big donors like ExxonMobil, who are still trying to profit off of destruction and suppression of science. If Speaker Ryan wants to show that his party stands for protecting Americans, and not just destructive corporations and billionaires, it’s long past time for this dangerous committee to go.
Tell Speaker Ryan: Stop shilling for ExxonMobil. Shut down the House Science Committee.
Thanks for speaking out.
Elijah Zarlin, Director of Climate Campaigns
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Inexcusable!! Sign here to call him out >> If you’re Mitch McConnell, the answer is as simple as it is revolting: Dodge, dodge, dodge:
- Politico reports that McConnell refused repeatedly to condemn Trump’s racist remarks -- even after being asked to do so THREE TIMES.
McConnell’s feckless “leadership” has gone on long enough. Will you add your name and CONDEMN his outrageous dodge?- His excuse for doubling down on Trump? “The primary voters have spoken.” WHAT? - And don’t forget he STILL thinks Trump would pick a good Supreme Court justice! Your Action History: Name: your name here! Last Petition Signed: N/A Denounce McConnell: signature needed >> Republicans won’t tell the truth about Trump, but we will: A man who thinks only people like him can be impartial judges has NO place in the White House. We can’t let his #1 fan in the Senate off the hook. Sign here to denounce McConnell’s shameful silence NOW -- if we don’t do it, no one will! Thanks, Team DSCC |
From UltraViolet--THIS is Rape Culture
A judge just sentenced Stanford University star athlete Brock Turner--who was caught in the act of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman--to only six months in jail.1
Why? Because the judge, Aaron Persky, worried that a prison sentence would have a "severe impact on him"--yes, the rapist--and said, "I think he will not be a danger to others."2 It's a horrifying example of rape culture: when a judge is more concerned with the well-being of a rapist than with justice or public safety.
This judge has no business staying on the bench.
Now the story is making headlines around the country and Judge Persky is coming under fire. If we all speak out, we can generate enough outrage to force California's judicial oversight commission to remove Judge Persky from the bench--sending a message to judges and law enforcement everywhere that rape culture has no place in our courts. Will you add your name?
Tell the California Commission on Judicial Performance: "Remove Judge Aaron Persky from the bench."
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After Turner was found guilty by the jury, his father wrote a letter to the judge pleading for a lenient sentence, saying that prison time "is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action," and asking for probation instead.3 Turner's six-month sentence is a disgusting perversion of justice that's all too common. Only three percent of rapists ever spend a day in jail.4
One in four women will be sexually assaulted in college.5 With an epidemic of that proportion, California can't afford to send the message that as long as you're a wealthy, white, star athlete from a prestigious school, you can attack women with impunity. That's why it's so important that we all speak up now, so that Judge Persky's terrible sentence doesn't set a precedent and reinforce rape culture across the country.
Add your name.
Thanks for speaking out.
--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Adam, Holly, Kaili, Kathy, Onyi, Susan, Clarise, Anathea, Audine, Ryan, Shannon, Megan, Kaytee, and Libby, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. ‘20 minutes of action’: father defends Stanford student son convicted of sexual assault, The Guardian, June 5, 2016
2. Stanford sex assault: Brock Turner gets 6 months in jail, The Mercury News, June 2, 2016
3. Brock Turner’s Father Shows Us Why His Victim Had to Write Her Powerful Statement, Slate, June 5, 2016
4. 97 of Every 100 Rapists Receive No Punishment, RAINN Analysis Shows, RAINN, retrieved June 5, 2016
5. 1 in 4 Women Experience Sex Assault on Campus, New York Times, September 21, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an environmental disaster. | |
Petition to Congress:
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a disaster for our environment. It would increase greenhouse gas emissions, undermine our transition to clean energy and give foreign corporations power to oppose our efforts to protect our air, water and climate. You must reject the TPP."
Add your name:
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Take Action
Maybe we can't save all the civilians trapped in Falluja. But the least we can do is make sure that civilians who succeed in escaping from ISIS are taken care of. What's the excuse for not having enough food and water in the camps for people fleeing the fighting?
Urge Congress to speak up for civilians fleeing the fighting in Falluja 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!
If you think our work is important, support us with a $15 donation.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.
Pesticides are killing bees and the U.S. government knows it | |
The petition to the Environmental Protection Agency reads:
“Toxic neonicotinoid pesticides are killing off honeybee populations at an alarming rate. Ban the use of neonicotinoids immediately to prevent further widespread bee colony collapse.”
Add your name:
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Democracy Now!
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Daily Kos
Those 11 states suing Obama over transgender bathrooms? Turns out they CAN'T
AlterNet
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Movies
I promised you, and I delivered: The Young Turks on Hillary's foreign policy speech that handed Trump his pasty white ass on a silver platter. I like TYT because they don't pull any punches--even with Democrats, even though they are Democrats. They call a spade a spade, which I find refreshing.
Seth Andrews of The Thinking Atheist interviews three experts on religion: the mind virus. The information you hear on this podcast will really open your eyes!
Michael Moore: Norway is unbelievable for Americans. Srsly, d00ds--just how provincial ARE we?!??
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