Corrupt Don-the-con Trump really needs to just go away already...
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders!
Hi!
I have my hands full at the moment...
(What else is new?)
My dad is getting in-patient medical care, so I haven't been near the 'puter much at all this week. He's fine...it's the sort of thing where, if you have to be in a hospital, it's much better to be in for something that's not a huge emergency and that is straightforwardly treatable...just not at home. This is exactly the case that my dad and I are dealing with, but, as you can imagine, it's really taken my attention away from the blawg.
That plus I'm trying not to get fired for being in the hospital with him Monday and Tuesday. You'd think that a reasonable employer would understand that sometimes an older person needs a younger knowledgeable one to give all the doctors and nurses accurate, concise, useful answers.
I guess not, given that it's 2016 America.
It also sux that my dad is in the hospital for his b'day. Ugh. At least he is in a very good facility and is getting the best possible care. I've been through the whole hospital thing with several friends and family members in the past several years, and this facility is about the best I've seen in a long time. So that's encouraging--I can go to work in peace for the next however many days and throw a party for my dad when they spring him. I plan to take him for a nice steak dinner and give him my famous homemade vegan gluten free chocolate cake with killa vanilla frosting for tizzert.
That...and a nice big fat Fireball.
I'm sure we'll both need one by then!
Since a lot of this was going down Monday, I just didn't have the energy to watch the debate...that and there isn't enough Fireball in the world to get me through listening to Don-the-con's lies and bullshit. I hear that Hillary handed the asshole his ass on a plate. I'm glad
--I've come to respect and trust her more than I ever have (Dot Calm would be proud of me for finally realizing the truth), and I think she'd make a great president. I think Hillary would be both better and stronger than Obama, who I think did a stand-up job of getting us back on our feet.
The conclusions I've reached based on Hillary's honesty (she shocked me by comparing favorably to Bernie, let alone asbestos-panty-wearing Trump), experience, qualifications, temperament, and personality make the prospect of her losing the presidency that much more bitter. Hillary is seasoned, reasonable, and thoughtful. She researches, talks to experts, and considers all angles. She listens and learns. She honors her supporters by hearing their inputs and doing everything in her power to make what they need happen (let's not forget that we live in a corporate kleptocracy, which Donald Trump would only feed, not dismantle...if you don't believe that, I've got some lurvely swampland in Florida for sale). Once Hillary is in the driver's seat, she knows she can't afford to be too hawkish, but she won't let us get stepped on, either. I think her foreign policy is balanced and respectable (given that the corporate elites are really the ones driving the train deze daze--again, Trump relishes that, as all Republicans do...while Democrats know not to kill the golden goose and at least let us live). And, perhaps most of all, Hillary just adores kids and really wants to do what's best for us ordinary Americans and our families. Which doesn't mean--as Republicans think--love the fetus, hate the child.
You know what else? I'll betcha dollars to doughnuts that Hillary makes a big fat hairy deal out of doing e-mail and IT right if she's elected: not only will she not make the same mistake twice, but she will bend over backwards to show she's more than learned her lesson--unlike Trump, who can't even admit when he's wrong, which is pretty much 24/7/365. You wouldn't find a safer person than Hillary to trust with our information--unlike Trump, who's itching to blab it to Melania or show off to anyone else who's listening. I betcha Trump has already blabbed everything he was briefed on!
Two libertarians I know who both support Trump (!) both concluded that Trump won, simply by showing up and not sounding like a maniac. Hm, that's rather a low bar, I thought. I really love these two guys like brothers, but I think I've lost my respect for libertarians...!
It bugs the shit outta me that the media can't be bothered to fact-check both candidates in real time--instead leaving it (in effect) to Hillary to fact-check Trump in real time. Erm, isn't that what moderators are for?!??
Allz I can say, friends, is PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE volunteer to reach out and call millenials and other voters who might be on the fence. I plan to--I want to help people understand exactly what's at stake. I don't ever want to go back to baby Bush's America--and Trump's would be even worse because he would be standing on Bush's shoulders! Don't forget--Trump would have an eager and willing Republican House and Senate to do his bidding because they all agree with him! Checks and balances don't apply when the legislature and the executive all have the same screw-America-to-enrich-ourselves agenda. We would be skrooed for the next generation--or more, if we survive that long--if Trump got in. SCOTUS is that big of a deal alone. And just look at our history: every time a Republican (Reagan and both Bushes) got in and ran the economy into the ground, it took a Democrat (Bill Clinton, Obama) to pull it back out of the crapper. Young people may not remember what Reagan did to us, but I do. He dismantled our unions, discontinued our student grants and loans, cut taxes on the rich, and saddled the middle and lower classes with the bill. Reagan was the first to make a platform plank out of shaming the needy, calling them "welfare queens" and accusing them of living like rock stars on their paltry public assistance...which he then cut. Reagan gutted so many middle and lower class safety nets that we as a society still haven't recovered--we've all been too busy trying to survive to look back and realize exactly what's been stolen from us by the rich. Reagan was the beginning of the end of the American middle class. He was the beginning of income inequality as we see it now; baby Bush put the spurs to it with his tax cuts for the rich. If Trump gets in, he will drive income inequality right through the roof...and we may never recover from that, either, because we will be in even more desperate straits to survive. That is, if Trump doesn't get us nuked to kingdom come first.
Friends, I just don't wanna go there. I really don't! Please don't make me!
Look, I know we're in a fascist corporate kleptocracy. but the answer isn't to hand over the rest of everything to the thieves while yelling "BOHICA!" And that's what a Trump presidency would be.
The only way to fix the system is to work from within it--not to nuke the planet out of existence just to watch it burn.
Vote for Hillary, and vote blue all the way down the line. The ass you save may be your own!
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Daily Kos
AlterNet
Peas, friends. Take care of yourselves for me. Trust me--you're worth it!
- Dot Calm's shadow
Consider the preemptive Blogger phuqued-up phormatting disclaimer to be in effect. Grrr.
-- Dot Calm's shadow
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I couldn't pick which meme to post,
so I decided, "?Porque no los dos?"
so I decided, "?Porque no los dos?"
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Choo-choo time articles from Vox:
What Assad and Putin are doing in Syria "is not counter-terrorism--it's barbarism."
...I tried to find the article "Assad and Putin are bombing Syrian hospitals on purpose," which I read earlier this evening on the train, but Vox seems to have taken it down. You can find references to it elsewhere--the article was a few days old but worth my re-posting ICYMI.
A conservative case against Trump's apocalyptic view of America
How Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would tax the 1 percent, in one chart
...To anyone who says there's no difference between the two candidates, I say, "READ THIS ARTICLE!" Trump would cut taxes on the rich by an obscene amount; Hillary would raise taxes on the rich by a reasonable amount that would benefit all Americans (rising tides float all boats).
This tool shows exactly which cars screw the climate
...Yay! My Prius doesn't suck!
The sudden, incredible decline in teen births since 2009
...Weird!! Vox took down this original article, too. Its title was "It's official: teen births hit an all-time low in 2015."
The FDA's drug reviewers keep leaving to work for big pharma, and it's a big problem
Hillary Clinton's debate may have gotten young voters excited about her. Not a moment too soon.
...Give 'im hell, Hillary!
Trump says an old interview is proof that he opposed the Iraq War. Nope.
...Trump and his minions keep pulling old media pieces out of their butts that prove the exact opposite of Trump's claim du jour that he opposed baby Bush's invasion.
Shimon Peres believed in a new Middle East. He died stuck in the old one.
...Peres's "new Middle East" included nukes for Israel and ever expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Don't forget that religious fundamentalists of both Jewish and Christian stripe believe that Israel's borders should match those described in the Old Testament, which means no more Palestine because god. No wonder Israel feels so entitled to encroach!
San Diego area police shoot and kill Alfred Olango, who was reportedly unarmed and mentally ill
...This has become a more-than-weekly occurrence. Police brutality is driving Blacks not to all 911 when they need help because, too often, they or their loved ones they seek help for get shot by police. Please see the vids I posted Monday re white supremacists infiltrating our police forces. If you ever needed proof that #BLM, just keep watching the news. They shoot Blacks, don't they?
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Vox: Donald Trump's history of corruption: a comprehensive review
Updated by
Now, sometimes Trump’s abuses of trust entail breaking the law, and sometimes they’re within the bounds of the law. And sometimes the legality of Trump’s actions isn’t yet clear — as in the case of Trump University, which will face a fraud trial shortly after the election, and with some of the controversies around the Trump Foundation.
But the common thread is that Trump screws people over to benefit himself. And despite the plethora of excellent reporting on this topic, many voters seem to be unaware of his troubling history here, and may view him primarily as a successful businessman who says some offensive things. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, for instance, found that Trump had a 10-point advantage over Clinton on “being honest and straightforward.”
Indeed, he is betting his campaign on his hopes that he can frame himself as an independent outsider free of special interest influence, to contrast with Hillary Clinton, whom he has dubbed “crooked.”
But Trump’s record makes it crystal clear that he’s more interested in rapaciously extracting what money he can and doing what he wants, with little regard to laws, rules, or people who aren’t Donald Trump. Furthermore, he’s repeatedly proven willing to violate norms about what sort of behavior is acceptable and ethical.
And most importantly of all, if elected president, Trump would wield incredible power. Yet if you look at what he’s done with power in the past, suddenly this theme in his biography — his corruption — becomes among the most troubling of his many troubling qualities. There are many, many reasons to be concerned about a Trump administration’s ethics and potential to abuse power. Here are just a few.
Trump has a history of shady business practices
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First off, the way Trump has run his businesses for the past few decades should raise grave doubts about how he’d run the federal government — he’s allegedly been willing to break rules, break promises, and discriminate against nonwhite people.
There are the hundreds of accusations that Trump refused to pay contractors and workers what they were owed, which the Wall Street Journal and USA Today compiled this year. “The actions in total paint a portrait of Trump’s sprawling organization frequently failing to pay small businesses and individuals, then sometimes tying them up in court and other negotiations for years,” USA Today’s Steve Reilly wrote. “In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources.” (Trump told Reilly that if he ever didn’t pay, it must have been because he was unhappy with the work.)
And recently, Republican consultant Brian James Walsh further corroborated these accusations with his own personal story:
The government argued that black applicants would repeatedly be told there were no vacancies in Trump-owned buildings, but white applicants would then inquire and get offers. The Trumps denied the claims and fought back in court, but eventually settled — “with no admission of guilt,” Trump pointed out during Monday’s debate, which is not exactly saying he was innocent.
Then there was Trump’s illegal financial maneuver back in 1986. That year, he tried to take over two rival casino companies by buying up their stock. But the law required him to disclose his large purchases to the Federal Trade Commission in advance, and he failed to do so. The matter ended up in court, and he was eventually forced to pay a $750,000 penalty as a result.
And there’s the matter of Trump’s alleged contacts with the mob. Now, to be fair to the GOP nominee, the Mafia’s influence was pervasive in the New York City construction industry at the time. Still, when reputed mobster Robert LiButti was a high-dollar gambler at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, the Trump Plaza worked very hard indeed to keep him happy, as Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News reported:
- When LiButti demanded that women or black card dealers not be allowed on his games, the Trump Plaza kept them away from him — and it was later fined $200,000 for violating state nondiscrimination laws.
- The Trump Plaza also gave LiButti nine luxury cars as gifts, all of which he quickly exchanged for a total of $1.65 million in cash. But cash gifts from casinos to high rollers were then illegal in the state, so the Trump Plaza was slapped with another fine — this one for $450,000.
- LiButti was wiretapped bragging that he was “very close with” Trump and that he rode in Trump’s helicopter.
And Trump’s reputed mob contacts didn’t stop there. “I’ve covered Donald Trump off and on for 27 years, and in that time I’ve encountered multiple threads linking Trump to organized crime,” reporter David Cay Johnston wrote in Politico Magazine in May. “No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks.”
Trump has used other people’s donations to his charity to benefit himself
Donald Trump has a charitable family foundation to which, in recent years, he has given hardly any money, instead raising the vast majority of its funds from others. That’s rather dishonest of him, since he constantly claims that the foundation’s donations are from his own pocketbook. But the more serious problem is that he’s then used several hundred thousand dollars of that foundation money in deeply questionable ways that may well have run afoul of laws against “self-dealing” with charity money.
For instance, last week, the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold — the reporter who’s absolutely owned the Trump Foundation beat — reported that Trump used $258,000 of the foundation’s money to settle legal problems involving his for-profit businesses.
- First, in 2007, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was fined $120,000 by the town of Palm Beach, Florida, because the height of its flagpole violated town rules. An eventual settlement entailed the town waiving the fines and Trump committing to donate $100,000 to a veterans charity. But Trump used his foundation, not any of his businesses, to make the donation.
- Second, in 2010, a guy named Martin Greenberg sued Trump’s golf course, claiming he was cheated out of a promised million-dollar prize for getting a hole in one during a charity tournament. The golf course agreed to settlement in which it would donate to Greenberg’s charitable foundation — but the $158,000 sent over was instead from the Trump Foundation, not any of Trump’s businesses.
Again, what Trump seems to have done here is used other people’s charity donations to get his own businesses off the hook for lawsuits. Which seems ... pretty corrupt. (The Trump campaign sent out a statement Tuesday night that attacked Fahrenthold but did not dispute any facts in his story.)
And this week, Farenthold found another bombshell. Businessman Richard Ebers bought almost $1.9 million worth of goods and services from Trump or his businesses, but he was told to pay Trump’s tax-exempt foundation instead, according to Fahrenthold’s sources. But according to the law, Trump should have paid taxes on that money as income — and his campaign refuses to say whether he did so.
And those are just the latest Trump Foundation controversies. Fahrenthold has also reported on an illegal $25,000 donation the foundation made to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s political group around the time she was weighing whether to investigate Trump University, for which the foundation was hit with an IRS penalty. (The Trump campaign claims this was a mistake.) There was also that time Trump spent $12,000 of the foundation’s money to buy a football helmet autographed by Tim Tebow, plus a jersey, at a charity auction. And much more.
Trump University is facing a fraud trial
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Repeatedly during the campaign, Trump has admitted that he has been “greedy” in business — but he’s argued that as president, he would channel that trait to benefit the American people. “I want to grab all that money. I’m going to be greedy for the United States,” he’s said.
It’s a dubious claim, made even more dubious by his behavior in the matter of Trump University. This was the GOP nominee’s seminar business that purported to be able to teach its students secrets of real estate investing. Former students sued Trump, claiming they were bilked out of their money, and he’s set to face a trial for fraud in the matter shortly after the election. The New York attorney general’s office has also sued, claiming Trump University made deceptive claims.
"[The instructors] were unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's 'right-hand men,'" Jason Nicholas, a former employee, said in one deposition. "They were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals. It was a façade, a total lie."
The business model was, apparently, to try to hook the gullible with a free seminar and pressure them into signing up for more and more expensive installments that promised to teach students how to invest in real estate.
But these “classes” were, apparently, worthless. "To my knowledge, not a single consumer who paid for a Trump University seminar program went on to successfully invest in real estate based upon the techniques that were taught," former employee Ronald Schnackenberg said in another deposition. Read Libby Nelson for more.
Trump won’t release his tax returns, which is unprecedented for a recent presidential candidate
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Every major party nominee in the past three decades has released his or her tax returns. But Donald Trump is still refusing to do so, and is giving a nonsensical justification for it.
Trump says he won’t release his returns because he’s currently under an IRS audit. But as the IRS has confirmed, being audited doesn’t mean he has to keep his returns secret. Furthermore, Trump has many previous years of tax returns that are no longer being audited that he could release — but he refuses to.
So there has naturally been a lot of speculation on what Trump is trying to hide here. Do the returns show he’s not as rich as he says he is? That he’s given far less to charity than he claims? That he’d rarely even paid taxes? That he has a lot of money offshore?
“How much tax is Trump paying or sheltering domestically vs. in foreign jurisdictions? That needs to be known to ascertain which nations Trump has financial ties to and where he may be susceptible to pressure,” Richard Painter and Norm Eisen write at the Washington Post. Until Trump releases his returns, we won’t know.
Trump has spent millions of dollars of campaign funds on Trump businesses
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As of August, the Trump campaign had allotted 7 percent of its total spending so far — more than $8.2 million — to companies owned by Trump or his children, according to an analysis by Politico’s Ken Vogel. Payments went to various Trump venues, an aviation company Trump owns, Trump Tower for office space, his corporate staff, and various other vendors.
Now, it’s not as if Trump should have donated his company’s stuff for free — indeed, that would have been a prohibited corporate contribution. And the Trump campaign tends to respond by emphasizing that Trump put $54 million of his own money into the campaign. Still, he has deliberately chosen to spend his campaign money (which includes millions raised from other people) on companies he or his children own rather than on independent vendors.
Meanwhile, taxpayers are chipping in too — the US Secret Service has paid $1.6 million to travel on a plane operated by one of Trump’s companies, according to another report by Vogel and Isaac Arnsdorf. Again, Secret Service reimbursement to a campaign for travel is common. But as the authors write, since Trump owns the aviation company, “the government is effectively paying him.”
And about that Trump Tower rent — shortly after the Trump campaign shifted from a largely self-funded model to one more reliant on donors, Trump nearly quintupled the rent that Trump Tower was charging the campaign for office space, according to the Huffington Post’s S.V. Dáte. This came at a time when the campaign didn’t expand its staff size, though Trump’s team later told CNN that they were paying for two new floors “in anticipation of more staff.”
Donald Trump has surrounded himself with shady people during this campaign
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Throughout the campaign, Trump has claimed not only that he would be an excellent president but that he’d be excellent at hiring. “I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people,” he said last year.
Instead, he has surrounded himself with people who’ve not only demonstrated a history of unethical behavior but also abused their past power, often to try to intimidate critics or opponents.
Trump appointed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to head his transition, giving him a key role in recommending candidates for hundreds if not thousands of federal jobs. Yet two of Christie’s job appointees in New Jersey are currently facing trial for their involvement in the Bridgegate scandal — prosecutors say they conspired to cause a serious traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey, to punish the town’s mayor for refusing to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign. Another aide, David Wildstein, has already pled guilty in the matter.
Furthermore, prosecutors also asserted in court last week — and Wildstein testified this week — that Christie knew about both his aides’ actions and their motivations while the scheme was being carried out. (Christie has long denied this.) Wildstein tesitfied that he bragged to Christie about what he was doing when he saw him at an event, and that Christie laughed and responded with jokes.
Craziest of all, Donald Trump himself has long said that Christie “totally knew about” his aides’ actions in Bridgegate. Yet this suspicion that Christie was fine with his aides’ abuse of power in a petty revenge plot seems to have been no obstacle for Trump in his determination that Christie is the best-qualified person to help him staff the federal government.
Another current Trump adviser is Roger Ailes, who was pushed out of his job as CEO of Fox News just in July over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women, which, if true, is clearly an abuse of power. (Ailes denied the allegations, but some of his harassing comments were caught on tape, according to New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, and Fox settled with accuser Gretchen Carlson for the hefty sum of $20 million.)
Furthermore, while at Fox News, Ailes also used company money to try to orchestrate smear campaigns against journalists from other outlets who were reporting on him. Yet according to BuzzFeed News’s McKay Coppins, Ailes is “playing a much larger backstage role in handling Trump than most people realize.”
And then there is Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who by some accounts has effectively been running the Trump campaign for a few months. Kushner is a real estate heir who took over his father’s company after his father was sent to prison for tax evasion, making illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. When Kushner’s holdings ran into some financial trouble in the wake of the economic crisis, he asked fellow mogul Richard Mack for a write-down on a loan Mack had extended him — but Mack refused.
Not long afterward, Kushner apparently wanted revenge on Mack, and he sought to get it by using the newspaper he owned — the New York Observer. Kushner had heard a rumor about Mack, and he wanted his reporters to publish a story about it. “There's a guy named Richard Mack, and we've got to get this guy,” Kushner told one reporter, according to Esquire’s Vicky Ward. Reporters were put on the case and failed to corroborate the rumor, but Kushner kept pushing to move the story forward anyway, as the Observer’s then-editor, Elizabeth Spiers, recounts. It never saw the light of day, but it’s deeply concerning about how Kushner operates.
What’s most troubling of all, though, is that Trump is surely aware of everything I’ve mentioned in this section but doesn’t seem to mind. He puts a man whose appointees are facing trial in charge of government appointments. He invites an alleged serial sexual harasser who tries to intimidate critical journalists to be a key adviser. This should set off alarm bells.
Trump’s corruption is a threat to our norms of governance
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“Americans pride themselves on our politicians' respect for the rule of law, on the checks and balances that protect us from the powerful,” Ezra Klein wrote earlier this year. “But as often as not, our real protection is found not in laws but in norms.”
And that’s the deeper problem underlying all this — that Trump has repeatedly shown he has little respect for norms of ethical or acceptable behavior.
There’s been much discussion about how Trump has repeatedly violated political norms of acceptable behavior — with his proposed Muslim ban, his constant vicious attacks on critics, his attempts to discredit a judge because he happens to be Mexican-American, and countless other actions.
But his decades-long track record in the business sector and the nonprofit world, and his management of his current campaign, suggests he’s willing to violate ethical norms too. He treats rules or laws as inconveniences. He ignores conflicts of interest. He takes what he wants, regardless of who gets hurt. And all this is when he is simply a wealthy businessman.
Yet if Trump wins in November, he becomes the most powerful person in the world, with a nuclear arsenal, the US military, and thousands of government appointees who can carry out his wishes at his disposal.
No one can say for sure what will happen then. But we can’t say we weren’t warned.
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Mailbag
From Daily Kos--Volunteer or contribute to GOTV!
There are only 43 days until the election and polls are showing a virtual coin toss for control of the Senate.
Turnout will determine who wins this election. That's why Daily Kos has teamed up with MoveOn to help build their massive, volunteer-powered voter turnout campaign. There are already more than 100 neighborhood canvasses happening across the country this weekend. MoveOn has found that sending text messages to invite folks to events is the best recruitment tactic. Using an app that makes peer-to-peer texting faster than ever—and doesn't cost a dime on your text messaging plan—MoveOn has already recruited almost 50% of canvassers through text message. Will you sign up to get involved? We have a user guide, a support team, and everything else you'll need. Can't join the Text Team but still want to help? Click here to chip in $3 to the Daily Kos Get Out The Vote Fund. It's a simple process. You'll sign up today and then receive an email with further instructions. After a short, self-guided training, you'll be invited to sign up for your first shift. In no time, you'll be texting Democrats in crucial states and giving them an excellent opportunity to make a difference this fall. Hillary can't do much as president if she is stuck with the same intransigent Republican Congress we currently have. We need your help to defeat Trump and give Hillary a Congress willing to do their jobs. With only weeks left on the clock, now is the time for all hands on deck. Can we count on you to recruit volunteers by sending text messages with us? Click here to signup for MoveOn's Text Team and receive your next steps. Can't join the Text Team but still want to help? Click here to chip in $3 to the Daily Kos Get Out The Vote Fund. Keep fighting, Monique Teal, Daily Kos |
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| Stand with Sen. Warren: Tell the FBI to explain failure to prosecute bankers | |
| Petition to Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz:
"Publicly explain why the Department of Justice failed to prosecute any of the Wall Street institutions and individuals involved in the 2008 financial crash."
Add your name:
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Support AlterNet--Give now!
I’m Kali Holloway, an AlterNet investigative reporter. I’m writing to tell you about my latest deep dive, examining Internet trolls – specifically, the kind who have made stalking, harassment and intimidation an everyday hazard of going online.
A lot of these trolls love Donald Trump. I know because I’ve spent the last two weeks wading through the cesspools where the worst trolls gather.
They frequently target women, people of color, LGBT folks, Jews and Muslims. Trump’s racism, misogyny and hatred have helped neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and women-haters unite online toward the common goal of getting him elected and spreading their toxic ideas.
We can't expect traditional media to be brave enough to fight the toxic right-wing.
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If you want a president who will ignite real and lasting change, help us flip the Senate this November by electing more pro-choice Democratic women.
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From CPD Action--STOP Donald Trump! (I just sent them $20, which is a lot for me!)
I'm going to keep this short. We must stop Donald Trump.
There are just six weeks left in the election and we can’t take them lying down. During last night's debate, Donald Trump proved he's erratic, unpresidential, and out of touch with working people. He even bragged about not paying taxes and that made him "smart." (No, really.)
Voting is the only way we can stop Trump and the regressive, conservative policies of the GOP that harm working people, immigrants, and communities of color. CPD Action and our partners are building out aggressive Get Out the Vote operations in key states like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Colorado to ensure the voices of working people are heard at the polls.
Support our program to get out the vote and mobilize working people to the polls.
We have the power to elect people who will fight to raise the minimum wage, to take on climate change, to say Black Lives Matter, and to work for comprehensive immigration reform. But it won’t be easy. Hundreds of millions of undisclosed dollars are being dumped into elections, drowning out the voices of the many.
Not only are we voting in a new wave of elected officials, but key progressive policies are also on the ballot. Hundreds of thousands of workers could get a raise if minimum wage increases are passed by voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and New Hampshire. And in Silicon Valley, an area with some of the greatest income inequality in the country, hourly workers can keep the momentum for fair scheduling and increased hours growing.
Donate to CPD Action now to help us get more voters registered and out to the polls in November to defeat Trump and pass progressive policies.
In solidarity,
Andrew Friedman
Co-Executive Director
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Please donate to Hillary.com--Let's counteract Trump's aggressive fundraising! (I just sent $25, which is also a lot for me!)
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Friend,
Election
Day is 6 weeks from today! In addition to the many candidates at all
levels who deserve your vote based on their support for full equality
for LGBT people, there are also important ballot initiatives that
directly impact our community.
 EqualityMaine is endorsing Question 3,
which would require background checks for all gun sales in our state.
Hate violence has disproportionately impacted the LGBT community for
many years, and a recent study showed that homicides of LGBT people
actually increased 20 percent in the United States from 2014 to 2015.Loopholes in our laws allow felons, domestic abusers, people with severe mental illness, and other dangerous people to purchase a firearm. While no law could prevent every crime, we believe that this initiative is a common sense approach to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people who would inflict violence on the LGBT community.
This weekend, EqualityMaine is participating in a Weekend of Action along
with other supporters of Question 3. Our members will join volunteers
around the state who will be knocking on doors and making phone calls to
voters.
Activities
are scheduled in Bangor, Bath, Belfast, Ellsworth, Lewiston, Orono,
Portland, Rockland and York. To join us at an event near you, CLICK HERE!
Most importantly, please join us and vote YES on Question 3!
Sincerely,
Meredith Hunt
President, EqualityMaine Board of Directors
For more information on Mainers for Responsible Gun Ownership, visit:
http://responsiblemaine.org/   |
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Annie dear, this is for you!
For the millions of Americans with severe allergies, an EpiPen isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity. But
over the past several years, Mylan, the maker of EpiPen, has hiked the
price for this lifesaving drug from roughly $55 per pen to more than
$600 per pack, gouging consumers to turn a profit.
It’s despicable that Mylan is putting Americans’ lives at risk
just to increase their bottom line. I’m standing with my colleagues in
Congress to demand that Mylan make EpiPens affordable, but we need your
voice with ours. Sign the petition to speak out against Mylan’s price gouging!
Click here to demand Mylan make EpiPens affordable.
Click here to demand Mylan make EpiPens affordable.
Mylan has a virtual monopoly on the EpiPen auto-injector, leaving
parents with nowhere else to turn when the prices start to climb. And
severe allergies aren’t just a problem for young children: Seniors are
also put at risk by skyrocketing EpiPen prices.
Too many Americans are facing an impossible choice for themselves or their children: pay for a medicine they can’t afford, or risk a life-threatening allergic reaction. It’s wrong, plain and simple.
Our collective outrage has already forced Mylan to take some steps to make EpiPens more affordable, but Mylan still refuses to lower the price further. Now we need to keep raising our voices to demand Mylan make this lifesaving medicine affordable. Sign the petition today.
Add your name: Tell Mylan to make EpiPens affordable!
Too many Americans are facing an impossible choice for themselves or their children: pay for a medicine they can’t afford, or risk a life-threatening allergic reaction. It’s wrong, plain and simple.
Our collective outrage has already forced Mylan to take some steps to make EpiPens more affordable, but Mylan still refuses to lower the price further. Now we need to keep raising our voices to demand Mylan make this lifesaving medicine affordable. Sign the petition today.
Add your name: Tell Mylan to make EpiPens affordable!
Thanks for speaking out,
Xavier Becerra
Chairman of the House Democrats
Xavier Becerra
Chairman of the House Democrats
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| Tell the Justice Department: Block the Monsanto-Bayer merger | |
| The petition to the Department of Justice reads:
“The mega-merger of Monsanto and Bayer could put 90 percent of the world’s food production in the hands of only four multinational corporations, threaten the safety of our food supply and further push a model of agriculture that relies too heavily on toxic chemicals and genetically modified foods. Block this merger now.”
Add your name:
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| Just hours after he went public one day in June 2013, a RootsAction petition declared: "We thank Edward Snowden
for his principled and courageous actions as a whistleblower, informing
the public about vast surveillance by the National Security Agency that
undermines our civil liberties." Since then, Snowden has gained enormous support, and that's wonderful. Now the release of the movie Snowden is creating new positive momentum. But many other "national security" whistleblowers are in the media shadows, without any support -- past or present -- from well-heeled outfits like the ACLU. Last year Snowden told an interviewer: "It's fair to say that if there hadn’t been a Thomas Drake, there wouldn’t have been an Edward Snowden." Before the whistleblowing heroism of Ed Snowden, there was the whistleblowing heroism of Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. Both Tom and John have paid a very heavy price. The Obama administration pursued multi-year vendettas that absurdly used the Espionage Act against those two brave whistleblowers. Thomas Drake endured years of ruthless investigation, threats and prosecution before defeating the government in court. John Kiriakou spent two years in prison. Along the way, the government wrecked their personal finances. Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation now. Half of every dollar will go directly to Tom and John, while the other half will go to the Whistleblowers Public Education Campaign that they co-chair.  As Tom Drake has said, "Our whistleblowing turned our lives upside down. It will take years for us to recover from the ordeal of the government criminally prosecuting both of us as vindictive and malicious punishment for exposing criminal conduct involving torture and mass surveillance." Click here if you don't think the financial lives of whistleblowers should be destroyed for speaking truth about power. "We are eyewitnesses to the dark side of history," Tom said. "It is the truth tellers and the whistleblowers who are key to sounding the alarm and holding our own government to account. Please support our education campaign to get the word out that informs the public and holds up a mirror to those in power who abuse power. "Please donate generously to the RootsAction Education Fund to support this important work of getting the word out to people, so they can know the truth and choose wisely. The choice is further erosions of our rights and slide into dystopia -- or a fundamental renewal and rebirth of our birthright freedoms and liberties. Our future is at stake." The RootsAction Education Fund is proud to be working with Tom Drake and John Kiriakou. Their voices must be heard -- as widely as possible. It will make a real difference if you can help their vital public efforts move forward. "When I was arrested and charged with espionage after blowing the whistle on the CIA's torture program, I thought my life had come to an end," John Kiriakou said. "After all, espionage is one of the gravest crimes with which an American can be charged. I was looking at 45 years in prison. I would die there. I wouldn't get to see my five children grow up. "The government had an unlimited supply of money and resources to use in the case against me. I didn't have a chance. I thought. And then I heard about Tom Drake. "Tom had gone through the same thing. He had been charged with espionage after blowing the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse at NSA. Of course, he hadn't committed espionage, just like I hadn't. He had fought the government, refusing their multiple plea offers. And he had won. It was from Tom Drake that I drew my strength. Tom was the trailblazer." The trailblazing by Tom and John provided essential information to Edward Snowden, who realized that he couldn’t expect to get results by "going through channels" any more than he could expect a fair trial as a whistleblower. "I was the first whistleblower charged with espionage since Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame," Tom Drake points out. "My case became the signature hallmark 'national security' criminal case under the Obama Administration -- designed to send the most chilling of messages to those who would dare speak truth to power and call out government wrongdoing and criminal conduct. "By charging John and me with espionage, the government diverted attention from the crimes and wrongdoing we disclosed and exposed (including high crimes and misdemeanors as defined by the Constitution – like unconstitutional torture and mass surveillance as well as massive fraud and critical 9/11 intelligence failures), and as punishment for going to the press under the First Amendment. We were effectively declared enemies of the state. "We both paid enormously high prices and have dedicated ourselves to informing people about what is at stake in the U.S. and around the world for liberty and our inalienable rights." Here at the RootsAction Education Fund, we hope you can take a minute now to make a tax-deductible contribution in solidarity with Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou and the Whistleblowers Public Education Campaign.  --- The Roots Action Education Fund team Background: > Jesselyn Radack, The New York Times: "Whistleblowers Deserve Protection Not Prison" > The Huffington Post: "The One Man Jailed for CIA Torture Tried to Expose It" > Jane Mayer, The New Yorker: Thomas Drake -- "The Secret Sharer" |
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Hi there,
Every girl who's stayed up late to read the entire book only to be talked over by a guy who read the CliffsNotes on the way to class can feel proud, because last night one of our own took that guy down.
It was obvious: Hillary won the debate last night. Donald Trump didn't.
News stories described his performance as everything from "embarrassingly undisciplined" to "winging it" to "borderline incoherency." Even so, he managed to interrupt Hillary a jaw-dropping 51 times.
I'm more fired up than ever to elect Hillary as our next president. If you are too, donate $3 right now to help elect her and a Congress she can work with.
Donald Trump's said and done plenty of outrageous and offensive things. But last night, he finally had to start answering some tough questions about them.
Trump was pushed on his sexist comments that Hillary doesn't "have the look" to be president, on spreading the racist notion that our first black president wasn't born in America, and on why he's the first presidential candidate in 40 years who won't release his tax returns.
Unlike Trump, Hillary didn't have to scramble for answers during last night's debate because she's been doing the hard work all along. She put forward ideas to help families struggling to get ahead, addressed racism in our criminal justice system, and showed she is more than qualified to make the decisions that will keep our country safe.
We've got six weeks to go. And that means we have six weeks to make sure voters know the choice is between a candidate who wants to wing it with the presidency and one who, like many women, is twice as prepared.
Ready to help elect Hillary and a Congress that will work with her? Donate $3 today:
https://secure.emilyslist.org/
Thanks,
Marcy Stech
Vice President of Communications, EMILY's List
Every girl who's stayed up late to read the entire book only to be talked over by a guy who read the CliffsNotes on the way to class can feel proud, because last night one of our own took that guy down.
It was obvious: Hillary won the debate last night. Donald Trump didn't.
News stories described his performance as everything from "embarrassingly undisciplined" to "winging it" to "borderline incoherency." Even so, he managed to interrupt Hillary a jaw-dropping 51 times.
I'm more fired up than ever to elect Hillary as our next president. If you are too, donate $3 right now to help elect her and a Congress she can work with.
Donald Trump's said and done plenty of outrageous and offensive things. But last night, he finally had to start answering some tough questions about them.
Trump was pushed on his sexist comments that Hillary doesn't "have the look" to be president, on spreading the racist notion that our first black president wasn't born in America, and on why he's the first presidential candidate in 40 years who won't release his tax returns.
Unlike Trump, Hillary didn't have to scramble for answers during last night's debate because she's been doing the hard work all along. She put forward ideas to help families struggling to get ahead, addressed racism in our criminal justice system, and showed she is more than qualified to make the decisions that will keep our country safe.
We've got six weeks to go. And that means we have six weeks to make sure voters know the choice is between a candidate who wants to wing it with the presidency and one who, like many women, is twice as prepared.
Ready to help elect Hillary and a Congress that will work with her? Donate $3 today:
https://secure.emilyslist.org/
Thanks,
Marcy Stech
Vice President of Communications, EMILY's List
------------------------------------------------
The first presidential debate Monday night was yet another look into Donald Trump’s limitless self-obsession, lack of empathy, and all around incompetence.
He
tanked, plain and simple. But we still have a big problem: pollsters
across the country continue to show Trump and Hillary in a dead heat.
What’s even more unsettling is that our last FEC deadline of the election is this Friday and my team tells me we’re still way behind our goal -- like $17,000 behind.
Nothing
Trump said made the choice we have this election clearer than his
answer on what he would do to improve race relations as President.
His solution was this: he would “bring back law and order” and expand Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous “Stop and Frisk” policy.
Stop
and Frisk was not only completely ineffective, it was ruled
unconstitutional because it led to egregious racial profiling in New
York City.
It’s hard to believe that a major party presidential candidate can be this out of touch, but this is what we’re up against.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
It’s
becoming increasingly clear that our progressive movement is going to
be the deciding factor this November. I’m counting on you to help us
finish strong.
Thank you,
Keith Ellison
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Democracy Now!
Stories |
"I Called You to Help Me, But You Killed My Brother": Police Shoot Dead Unarmed African-American Man
Police in the San Diego, California, suburb of El Cajon shot and killed an unarmed African-American man Tuesday, after his sister called 911 to report her brother was having a mental ... Read More →
|
What Drives Trump Supporters?: Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild on Anger & Mourning of the Right
In the wake of Monday
night's first presidential debate, the establishment Republican Party
and conservative newspapers continue to distance themselves from Donald
Trump amid ... Read More →
|
The
largest prison work strike in U.S. history has entered its third week.
Organizers report that as of last week at least 20 prisons in 11 states
continued to protest, including in Alabama, ... Read More →
|
Prison officials in Alabama have confirmed a group of correction officers refused to report for the evening shift Saturday at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The ... Read More →
|
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off Monday night in one of the most anticipated debates in U.S. history. The debate was held at Hofstra University on Long Island and ... Read More →
|
Hundreds of people protested outside the debate at Hofstra University on Monday to demand the presidential debates be opened up to third-party candidates. At least 24 people ... Read More →
|
On Monday
night, the two major-party candidates squared off for the first
presidential debate. It was one of the most anticipated debates in U.S.
history. Ahead of the event, TV ... Read More →
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Daily Kos
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AlterNet
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Movies!
Richard Dawkins interviews faith-healing-fraud-buster Derren Brown
Stephen Colbert on Trump bribing Florida AG Pam Bondi to call off investigating TrumPEW fraud
That's all I had time for this time, friends. I am so ready for a Fireball and a faceplant!!
'Til next time, check out these great channels:
...or, if you just want something mindless and fun, try Tested
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posted by Dot Calm @ 8:16 PM
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