Fat unattractive LOSER Donald John Trump is everything he hates--and everything YOU hate! Lobbyist. College-educated. Elitist. Secular. Freeloader. Deadbeat. Corrupted by Big Money. Outsourced YOUR job to China, Mexico, Bangladesh...
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders!
Today, I'm hoping my Tea Party Christian friends will read this post.
Listen, I know you love Donald Trump.
I know that he resonates with you because he hates and mocks all the same people you do. Nasty women. Uppity Blacks. Filthy Mexicans. Evil Muslims. Handicapped people. Poor people. The gays. All those icky people you wish would just go back into the shadows they came from. Yeah, I got all that.
I know that you admire him because he's rich. His daddy left him $40 million, and he's got maybe $100-250 million. You could easily achieve the same if you won the lottery. So I got that, too.
But what about all the other things you hate? You know. Lobbyists. college-educated people. Elitist people who think they're better than you are. Secular people who don't live by your Christian values. People who freeload off you, living like rock stars on your hard-earned tax dollars. People who don't pay their bills--who don't pay you when you work for them. People who claim to represent you but who take millions of dollars, like from Johnson & Johnson, and who are beholden to them while claiming right to your face that they don't take big money and are beholden only to you. Business elites who outsource your job to China or Mexico or Bangladesh...or who shut down your factory because they buy Chinese steel and aluminum instead of American.
People who tell you to your face that you're smart while treating you like you're an idiot.
People who claim they're just like you when they're really all these things you hate.
People who hate all the right people but who really hate you, too.
Riddle me this, Batman. Read about Donald Trump. Read everything he has done--he brags about being and doing everything I listed. Go ahead--read it...there's plenty of fodder in the headlines below, and there's even more in the recent archives of this blawg. Donald Trump has been a registered lobbyist. He's taken millions of dollars in insurance money for properties barely touched by storms, making your insurance bills go up. He's freeloaded off your taxes since at least 1995--probably since the 1970s. He's exploited teenage women decades younger than himself, not just for ogling but for sex--sexual trafficking, to be specific. He'd grope you or your wife or mother or sister or daughter and then deny it or brag about it, expecting his victim to be flattered. He's stolen from you by not paying you when you work for him--he's put your small businesses out of business and bilked you out of tens of thousands of dollars each to attend his non-university. He goes through wives faster than you go through clean underwear. He reamed Jeb! Bush a new asshole for taking donations from Johnson & Johnson heir Woody Johnson--and then turned around and started taking donations from Woody Johnson himself once he won the nomination (not to mention guzzling water during the third debate with Hillary Clinton after having criticized Marco Rubio for drinking water during the Republican primary debates...what's up with that?). Now...tell me: do you really think that Donald Trump, who has represented no one but himself from the moment he entered the public eye, is going to change his skunk stripe to represent you? Do you really think he's going to start paying you? Stop freeloading off of you? Cut you a break? Is it really worth it to you to have a president who will not only trash all the people you hate but you too in the bargain? Is it really worth it to destroy yourself just to get back at all those people? Is handing the nation over to a bully who will bully not only everyone you hate but you too really worth destroying the nation and the livability of the planet itself? Really?
If you really think so, then I have a request for you: whatever it is that you're smoking or drinking or snorting or popping, I DON'T want it.
And, if so, I can't say I'm too surprised. Donald Trump's attitude is pure vindictive scorched earth whenever he doesn't get his way--he's willing to bring down the entire Republican party. I guess it wouldn't be too surprising if you, like him, were willing to take down the entire nation and perhaps all of civilization because you haven't gotten your way for the past eight years. Maybe you and Donald Trump are cut from the same cloth.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading--it's more than I expected of you, and I'm super-impressed. Oh, and good luck with it all--you're going to need it.
And now for a few words for my "base"...
There's a Randi Rhodes video about the Al Smith dinner in the m00bies below. She opens with Donald Trump's awful attack on Hillary during the Al Smith charity dinner for needy children, but she then discusses a tiny little paragraph in The Guardian that is way too easy to miss: Roger Stone and Donald Trump are crowd-funding their own exit polls to be run by Mike Roman--the video is MUST SEE.
In other words, VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!
Do NOT sit this one out for ANY reason!
If we don't create a LANDSLIDE for Hillary and Democrats down the line, Trump and his minions WILL claim that the election was stolen from them!
This is scary AF!!!!!
Randi Rhodes's listeners are calling in to say that the Trump voters are turning out in force--we MUST counter them! We cannot afford to take ANY chances!!
My dad is partially disabled and, since I'm his only chauffer and since I work long crazy hours with a 2+ hour commute (especially if the trains are slow, which seems often to be the case), we went and voted absentee in person (early voting) on Saturday--in Dot Calm's honor. The election officials actually brought the absentee applications and ballots to us--curbside voting--so that my dear dad didn't hafta shuffle in and stand in line to vote.
Speaking of which, BRING PICTURE ID. If you don't have a driver's license for your own state, GET ONE NOW. If you have a passport instead, BRING THAT. Bring utility bills, birth certificates, voter registration cards...whatever it takes so that you can VOTE. Be sure to check your county's election website for details on which forms of ID they'll accept.
In our case, my dad kept me waiting half an hour after the polls opened before he was ready to leave the house, and he didn't bring his passport, which meant that we had to run home and get it because they wouldn't accept his old out-of-state driver's license. But other than that, it was as pleasant and painless of an experience as it could possibly be. The Democratic volunteers were there early with happy, smiling faces and sample ballots; one of them asked if we needed curbside voting and ran in and got the election official to come out and help us. And the election officials (there were two, since, as I said, we had to make two trips) could not have been nicer. In fact, they made sure that the machine could read both of our ballots before they dismissed us. If we'd had everything we'd needed, we'd have been done in less than half an hour--that beats socks offa standing in line for 1.5-2 hours on Election Day, as I've done in the past. My old, creaky knees hurt just thinking about it.
Even so, I'd have been happy to stand in such a line if that had been my only option. This election is too important to risk losing even one vote!!!!!
Hear me? WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE EVEN ONE VOTE!!!!!
I say that because of people like my coworker, who glibly says he'll vote for Trump based solely on the Republican reputation of spending more tax money on defense--my coworker, who claims to be apolitical, apparently has no fucking idea who Trump is, what Trump stands for, or what Trump can and will do if he gets into the White House. DoD may not survive long if that happens! In other words, there are people in this country who apparently live under rocks and thus plan to vote for Donald Trump out of sheer ignorance, and we must counter as many of their votes as possible--not to mention the third-party votes that will, as Keith Olbermann says below, act as votes for Trump by giving him fewer Hillary votes to counter.
If you are eligible to vote early, please go vote NOW.
Friends, we can't afford to risk the future of our country. If, like me, you lurve yourself some Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, then PLEASE vote for Hillary--there's no way we'll get anywhere close to progressive legislation if Trump gets in, but we're already halfway there if we get Hillary...we can catch our breath and start pushing her in the correct direction once she's in. I personally would rather see Donald "celebutante LOSER freeloader-in-thief-wannabe" Trump's political casket nailed shut with Liquid Nails, screws, bolts, and sturdy metal straps welded shut and then placed into eleventy-seven more similarly sealed political caskets like Russian nesting dolls than face the shitstorm of a trumper-tantrum that the douchebag orange fucksicle will raise if he doesn't lose by a YUGE landslide.
So, please--vote now if you can, and vote blue down the line! The future you save will be your own. Please and thank you.
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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Blackwater Founder Erik Prince, Who Got Rich Off Of Iraq, Now Backs "Anti-War" Donald Trump
...huuuuurrrrrrr?!??
...huuuuurrrrrrr?!??
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AlterNet: Ivanka Trump: Perfect No More
BuzzFeed: BuzzFeed CEO: I Heard Ivanka Trump Talk About "Mulatto Cocks"
...This story is important because Ivanka disclaimed her father ever using "lewd" language while casually using lewd and racist language herself.
A word from FiveThirtyEight
The Dominance Of Big Corporations Is Bad For Workers, Too
Clinton Voters Aren't Just Voting Against Trump
...See? I'm not the only one who, while acknowledging Hillary's flaws, also thinks she'd be a damn good president. What's interesting is that Hillary's supporters are more enthusiastic for her than Donald Trump's are for him. Who gnu?
Most Guns Used In New York State Crimes Come From Out Of State
A word from POLITICO
How White Nationalists Learned To Love Donald Trump
Tom Hayden, the Complicated Radical
...They've been playing excerpts of him on "Democracy Now!" and on other programs on my radio station. What an incredibly insightful man.
In North Carolina, Moderates Have Their Pitchforks Out
...and they're itching to stick 'em into Pat McCrory's tight ass...poink, poink, poink!!
A word or three from Vox
Newt Gingrich's fight with Megyn Kelly reveals a gross, twisted logic about sexual assault
...If you read nothing else today, click through and read this article. It's a very thorough analysis that explains how Republicans conflate sexual assault with sex--a real eye-opener. No wonder Donald Trump denies attacking women by saying they're not attractive enough...
Newt Gingrich melts down on Fox over Trump spiral, calls Megyn Kelly "fascinated with sex"
...Well, now, isn't THAT ironic coming from a Republican? They're the most sex-obsessed things on two feet. All I can say is just imagine if Obama bragged about and then stood accused of half of what Donald Trump actually said and stands accused of. Ms. Kelly is absolutely right...the fact that Newt can't even answer the question like a sane, rational adult--the fact that he has to scream and bully rather than answer the damn question--tells you all you need to know: Donald Trump is guilty as hell of assaulting every woman who's come forward and likely at least as many more who did not, right down to the last alleged detail. If that were not true, Newt would not have been defensive. Defensiveness is the first resort of those who know they're wrong, just as projection is the first resort of those who are too ashamed of their own behavior to own up to it and take responsibility. Something ol' Newtie would have done well to remember: Megyn Kelly experienced this filth herself at the hands of Roger Ailes, so it stands to reason that this is personal for her--she genuinely wants to know whether Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate is a sexual predator or not. A fair question! It only goes to show how immature (at best) Newtie is that he can't even take on a serious question and answer it with the seriousness it's due. Sadly, he's a perfect representative for Donald Trump, who's no better.
The election isn't "rigged." These are the real threats on Election Day.
The 9 types of lies Donald Trump tells the most
Trump in 2014: "I don't like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see"
Tim Kaine's feminism
...Great article! Very enlightening on Tim Kaine--a strong man supporting a strong woman. Intelligent, articulate, cosmopolitan, urbane, bilingual, polished, experienced, diplomatic, likeable, spiritual, and married faithfully to the same woman for 30 years, Tim Kaine is literally the anti-Trump.
Trump's popularity with evangelicals is a disaster for the religious right
Pro-lifers who support Donald Trump are kidding themselves — and hurting the movement
...Of course they're kidding themselves, duh. But if they're hurting the movement, I'm all for it!!
Why women are still voting for Trump, despite his misogyny
...Like I've said here before, it's because they don't have any self respect. In this article, that translates to wanting male protection. They've somehow fooled themselves into thinking that a man who wants only to prey on them is somehow going to protect them...a man who wants only to prey on the men in their lives is somehow going to protect those men so that they can protect their women. Excuse me while I go duct-tape my haid....
How Pepe the frog and Dilbert explain the culture wars of the 2016 election, in one comic
...Scott Adams of Dilbert really jumped the shark this time--he's been supporting Trump, but I thought he'd switched to Gary "Herp de derp" Johnson. Guess he's back to supporting Trump. I've literally lost all respect for the man. Damn.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh: "If Trump loses, I'm grabbing my musket"
..."Even if it's a joke, it isn't funny."
Donald Trump's bizarre hotel opening proved he's in this for himself
...In other words, it's all about the free publicity. If it had been about the campaign, st00pit sumbitch would be campaigning instead of wasting time. Dumbass.
Native Americans like Renee Davis are ignored when police brutality is viewed as black and white
Hillary Clinton is matching Barack Obama with young voters
...Give 'em hell, Hill!
Obama burns Trump while reading mean tweets
...Ouch. Donsie Wonsie's gotta be butthurt now. That's gonna leave a mark.
We finally have an "artificial pancreas" for diabetes. But it's a letdown.
...This article pisses me the hell off. Based on how the article describes the device, I'd never call it an "artificial pancreas." At best, it's barely a glorified pump. As a control theorist, I can think of several ways I'd attack the problem of controlling insulin delivery so that it truly is automated...linked to the actual blood sugar levels that need to be controlled. To me, someone just isn't doing their job. To me, the real challenge is how to provide cheaper insulin. Although synthetic human insulin seems to be the preferred treatment deze daze, I wonder whether there might not be a cheaper approach that might be worth the trade-offs. I once read in Cell magazine where a research team placed cells from rat livers into glass tubes and implanted them into rabbits from which the livers had been removed to see whether the rat liver cells, protected from rejection by the glass, would actually function within the rabbits' bodies. They did, as proven by increased levels of liver enzymes and by-products. So I wonder whether a similar approach might be used with pig pancreas cells, since pig hormones are so close to ours and since pig insulin was used before we learned how to synthesize human insulin in the lab using recombinant DNA--in fact, some doctors still prescribe pig insulin over the synthetic (I can understand why--I have MUCH better luck with Armour thyroid, which is pig thyroid, compared to synthetic, which makes me super-sick...bleah). I also wonder what it would take for me to find work in biomedical engineering, having been in DoD my whole career--so far, DoD has been the only gig in town with any dough. *sigh*
The AT&T/Time Warner merger has a big political problem on its hands
Teaching evolution in the South: an educator on the “war for science literacy"
...*sigh*...I keep thinking of all the wonderful discoveries we as a nation would have come up with by now if only we valued science over superstition. Alas, alas. Can you imagine where we'd be today if the science-hating religious among us had had their way decades ago? We wouldn't be having this conversation on the Internet...you wouldn't be reading my blawg on your smart phone...we wouldn't have GPS...and we certainly wouldn't be talking about synthesizing human insulin in the laboratory using the human genome. How many times over do you think cancer could have been cured if all the children in the world with an aptitude for science, including fundamentalist Muslims and Christians, had been exposed to and allowed to study it?
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Mailbag
From ColorOfChange--Help GOTV!!!
DC continues to throw down for the election cycle: This past Sunday, nearly 90 folks came out and together we contacted over 100,000 Black voters- a new record! That means we’ve now been able to engage and educate over 200,000 Black voters in critical swing states!
While it would be easy to be complacent this election cycle, we all know that when it comes to elections- there’s no such thing as a sure thing. And there’s still plenty of down ballot races with major implications that are up for grabs. That’s why Color Of Change PAC plans to talk to 2 Million Black people in swing states in partnership with volunteers across the country. It is our duty to keep fighting and together we can win for our communities and generations to come!
Join us at ImpactHub for our FIFTH Black Battleground State Text-A-Thon THIS SUNDAY, October 30, 2016. We want to continue getting as many Black voters engaged and excited about this election as possible!
Right now is our chance to win the White House, the Senate, and a more progressive Supreme Court. Right
now we have the power to elect prosecutors who are committed to
protecting communities- and fire the ones that are more concerned about
protecting corrupt police departments.
That is why Color Of Change PAC members, friends and family have been coming to Sunday
events. In a time when Republicans are enacting voter id laws and
legislation designed to keep Black and Brown folks away from the ballot
box, the work we’re doing together to activate Black voters is crucial- and it’s something that’s never been done on this scale!
Last
Sunday’s Text-A-Thon featured food, music, dancing, lots of smiles and
laughter and our Color Of Change PAC members texting away. For this week we're at ImpactHub (419 7th st. NW) 1-4:30p every Sunday up until the elections- and we’d love to see you there too!
We’ll provide food, drinks, and the tools needed to mobilize voters. All you need to bring is your passion for creating real impact in this year’s elections.
Remember, You helped us create this movement to mobilize Black voters in 2016. Now we need your help to see this through.
Join me at the Black Battleground State Text-a-Thon to contact Black voters in key battleground states like Ohio this Sunday.
Until justice is real,
Rashad and the Color Of Change PAC team
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Help stop the execution of an Iranian woman
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After a grossly unfair trial, Zeinab Sekaanvand, an Iranian woman,
faces imminent execution for the murder of her abusive husband — a crime
she says she did not commit.
She could be hanged within days. Amnesty is campaigning on behalf of individuals facing execution like Zeinab. Please support our work. Make an urgent donation. Phillip Luther, Amnesty's Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa says, "This is an extremely disturbing case. Not only was Zeinab Sekaanvand under 18 years of age at the time of the crime, she was also denied access to a lawyer and says she was tortured after her arrest by male police officers through beatings all over her body." Zeinab Sekaanvand was 17-years-old when she was arrested for the murder of her husband, whom she had married at the age of 15. She was held for the next 20 days in the police station, where she has said she was beaten by male police officers. She "confessed" to them that she stabbed her husband, who had been abusive. Zeinab was denied access to a lawyer during her entire pre-trial detention period and only met her state-appointed lawyer for the first time at her final trial session. It was at this session that she retracted her "confession." She told the court that her husband's brother, who she said had raped her several times, was responsible for the murder and had coerced her into confessing. Please support our work advocating for people like Zeinab who face execution and other grave human rights abuses. Make an urgent donation. Thank you. Margaret Huang Executive Director | ||||||
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AT&T is an enormous media, telecom and internet gatekeeper with a horrible track record of overcharging you, limiting your choices and spying on you. It's still fighting Net Neutrality. It helps the government spy on people by turning over its customer records to the NSA. It tries to stop communities from building their own broadband networks. It's a member of ALEC, the corporate-backed lobbying group that's pushed legislation like pro-fracking, voter-suppression and “stand your ground” bills that disproportionately harm people of color. And now AT&T wants to get even bigger. This merger must be stopped. AT&T wants to buy Time Warner in a deal valued at $85 billion. This would be one of the largest media mergers ever. Time Warner owns CNN, HBO, TBS and TNT, major movie franchises like Harry Potter and Batman, DC Comics … the list goes on. AT&T just swallowed up DirecTV in another massive merger. This deal would combine one of the nation's largest phone and satellite-TV companies with a media content behemoth. Tell Washington policymakers: Block this merger! Deals like this don't benefit you: They just line the pockets of overpaid media executives (the Time Warner CEO could walk away with nearly $400 million) and lead to job losses for working people. These kinds of mergers hike prices for internet access and put up bigger barriers to entry for content creators — shutting out independent voices and people of color who have been locked out of the traditional media system. This merger would create a media powerhouse unlike anything we've ever seen before. AT&T would control mobile and wired internet access, cable channels, movie franchises, a film studio and more. That means AT&T would control internet access for hundreds of millions of people and the content they view, enabling it to prioritize its own offerings and use sneaky tricks to undermine Net Neutrality. This merger would give one bad company way too much power. Urge policymakers to block the AT&T/Time Warner merger. Let's send a strong message from day one to whoever will be in charge in Washington next year. Massive mergers like this — and the billions of dollars they waste — never work out for the rest of us. We need to draw the line here. Thanks for all that you do— Candace, Craig, Matt, Joe and the rest of the Free Press team freepress.net P.S. Don't let AT&T become even more powerful than it already is: Tell policymakers to stop this deal today. |
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Maybe cops don't mind being seen as disgustingly racist...maybe Donald Trump's bigotry really does represent their values
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| Tell the Fraternal Order of Police: Disavow Trump | |
| The petition to Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police reads:
“Rescind your endorsement of Donald Trump.”
Add your name:
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From UltraViolet--Judge John McKeon sentences man to only 43 days in jail for repeatedly raping his 12-yr-old daughter...WTF?!??!??
A man from Montana repeatedly raped his 12-year-old daughter, and Judge John McKeon sentenced him to only 43 days in jail.1
The rapist pleaded guilty to repeatedly assaulting his daughter, and the prosecution recommended a 25-year sentence but Judge McKeon completely ignored that recommendation.2 Instead, he sent a message that this kind of sexual abuse can happen with impunity.
McKeon is about to retire in less than 30 days, and he'll leave the bench with a generous pension--unless we speak out. We can make sure he doesn't profit from this horrific decision by demanding he doesn't receive a government pension.
Pressure from UltraViolet
members has worked in cases like this before. After Judge Aaron Persky
sentenced Brock Turner to nearly no time in the Stanford rape case, we
forced him to stop hearing criminal cases.3 In Montana, UltraViolet members spoke out and forced another rape-apologist judge into early retirement.4 We can
put pressure on the Montana Judicial Standards Commission to kick this
judge off the bench and ensure he doesn’t get to collect retirement from
taxpayers. Can you add your name?
Tell the Montana Judicial Standards Commission: "Kick Judge John McKeon off the bench without his pension."
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Sadly, this isn't an isolated case--only 3% of rapists face jail time. It is no surprise that less than 50% of rapes are reported.5 Judges like McKeon make this problem worse. That's why he has to go.
The impeachment effort is being led by a group that formed around this case, Justice4Montana. Their main goal is to prevent Judge McKeon from collecting retirement.6
If we do nothing, Judge McKeon will retire in less than 30 days with a comfortable pension from the state. We need to speak out now so he has to answer for this failure of justice.
Will you demand the Montana Judicial Standards Commission impeach Judge McKeon?
--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Adam, Holly, Kathy, Onyi, Susan, Anathea, Audine, Shannon, Megan, Libby, Emma, PaKou, and Pilar, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. Father who ‘repeatedly raped his 12-year old daughter’ gets 60-day sentence. Fury erupts., Washington Post, October 19, 2016
2. Montana Judge Faces Call For Impeachment After Incest Sentencing, NPR, October 20, 2016
3. Brock Turner judge to no longer hear criminal cases, CNN, August 25, 2016
4. Montana judge to retire this year, sparked controversy with short rape sentence, CNN, January 8, 2014
5. The Criminal Justice System: Statistics, RAINN
6. Montana Judge Targeted For Impeachment For 60-Day Incest Rape Sentence, Huffington Post, October 21, 2016
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From CPD Action--STOP the CEO bonus loophole NOW!
From: Brian Kettenring, CPD Action
Date: October 13, 2016
Subject: Close the CEO bonus tax loophole
Dear friend
Finally.
Last week, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf announced his resignation after he and the bank faced months of scrutiny for opening nearly 2 million fraudulent bank accounts. Stumpf’s punishment for resigning amid a major scandal? Oh, just $124 million in walkaway money.
Just a month ago, Stumpf did the unthinkable: he aligned Republicans and Democrats in their disdain for his leadership of Wells Fargo. Over two separate testimonies. Elizabeth Warren even called for Stumpf’s “gutless leadership” to be criminally investigated.
This community has been integral in keeping the pressure up on big banks for years. We appreciate your support and ask you to keep the pressure mounting – tell the Senate to end the performance pay loophole so many Wall Street executives utilize.
The “performance pay” tax loophole allows corporations to deduct executives’ “performance” bonuses from their taxes. At the height of Wells Fargo's most recent scandal from 2012 and 2015, Stumpf received nearly $155 million in tax-deductible performance pay. That means taxpayers paid nearly $54 million of Stumpf’s compensation when his company was defrauding millions of customers.
Stumpf isn’t alone. After the financial crisis and bank bailouts in 2008, financial institutions like Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and more gave themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses.
Join CPD Action and our friends Americans for Tax Fairness to demand the end of 'performance pay' loopholes now and pass the Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act (S. 1127).
The legislation, introduced by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would cap 'performance pay' tax deductability at $1 million for every employee. Closing the CEO performance pay loophole would save taxpayers nearly $50 billion over 10 years, according to Congress' Joint Tax Committee. Lastly, closing the loophole would discourage the reckless, risky behavior that led to our financial crisis in the first place. Sign our petition to close the “performance pay” loophole for good.
In solidarity,
Brian Kettenring
Co-Executive Director
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It
is dangerous for a handful of billionaire-owned companies to
consolidate to the point where our media (and content) is owned and
controlled by a select few, while discouraging competition and raising
rates on consumers.
Already, 90 percent of the channels—from HBO to ESPN to MSNBC—are controlled by the same six networks.
And now, AT&T and Time Warner are proposing a $85.4 billion merger
that I fear will increase costs for consumers, reduce choice and
competition, threaten net neutrality, and risk union jobs and wages for
thousands of employees.
The
only people that benefit from this deal are the shareholders and CEOs
who always have the most to gain by these kinds of massive mergers.
Bigger is not always better. Further consolidation of the media could hurt millions of American consumers, which is why I’m asking:
This deal would place too much power in the hands of a powerful few and leave the American people with limited choices. It’s very concerning.
AT&T
is already first in the nation as a provider of pay TV—thanks to their
2015 acquisition of DirecTV—and it is the second-largest wireless
company and third-largest broadband provider in the country, per The Los Angeles Times.
That
means this merger will put their competitors at an unfair disadvantage
in the market because they can favor content they own. That is
anti-competitive—and will hurt consumers, as well as start-up content
providers, who have historically been the ones hurt by such monopolies.
Both Republicans and Democrats—Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—have expressed concerns about this merger.
This
is not a partisan issue. It never should be when it comes to protecting
consumers. But we know that special interest groups and lobbyists will
be descending upon Washington to ensure this merger succeeds, which is
why it is important we start mobilizing and putting the pressure on the
FCC and Justice Department now—before it’s too late.
We
should always look to support innovation in business, but another
consolidation of media conglomerates where big business wins and the
American people lose is the last thing we need in a system that is
increasingly stacked against consumers.
Mahalo,
Tulsi
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From Emily Cain via Dianne Russell--Help take back the House and put Bernie Sanders in as chair of the Senate Budget Committee!
Donald Trump is imploding. Paul Ryan is freaking out that Bernie Sanders could become chair of the Senate Budget Committee.
And now there's even talk that Republicans could lose the House of Representatives.
But control of the House of Representatives will be decided by just a few key districts, and one of the most important is Maine's 2nd Congressional district, where my friend Emily Cain is running against Bruce Poliquin, Wall Street's favorite Republican.
Will chip in to help Emily win this key district and take back the House of Representatives?
A month ago, polls showed Emily down by 5-10 points. But the race has completely changed in the last few weeks, and now we're getting polls showing Emily tied or even pulling ahead.
The reason is clear: Voters are sick and tired of Republican obstruction, and Bruce Poliquin is a classic example of why Washington is broken.
Political experts list this race as one of the very closest and most important in the country, and your donation can put Emily over the top. Will you you chip in today?
Yes, I'll chip in to help Emily win this key district and take back the House of Representatives.
Thank you,
Rep. Diane Russell
2011 "Most Valuable State Legislator," The Nation magazine
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| #NoDAPL: Native Americans and our Constitution are under assault | |
| The petition to North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple and the U.S. Department of Justice reads:
"Journalism and activism are not crimes. Ensure that journalists can exercise their constitutional rights to do their jobs without fear of government intimidation or prosecution. Uphold the rights of Native Americans and their allies to peacefully resist the Dakota Access pipeline without threat of violence."
Add your name:
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From Daily Kos--Please chip in $8.00 to keep the White House blue and flip the Senate and the House blue!
We're two weeks out from Election Day, and Democrats have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to run the table—and make history.
- Hillary Clinton is poised to win the White House in what could be an Electoral College landslide, making her the first woman president
- Democrats have a good shot to take back the Senate, giving Hillary the votes she needs to confirm her pick to replace Antonin Scalia and create the first liberal Supreme Court majority in a generation
- Even the House—so expertly gerrymandered by Republicans after the 2010 wave election—is in play, with President Obama and Hillary Clinton launching major new offensives to return Nancy Pelosi to the speaker's chair, an upset that could make the entire Democratic Party platform possible
Can you chip in $1 to each of our eight endorsed candidates to help Get Out The Vote in must-win races for House and Senate?
Keep fighting,
Michael Langenmayr, Daily Kos
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...proving yet again
that Republicans have
ZERO UNDERSTANDING of reality
and ZERO EMPATHY
ZERO UNDERSTANDING of reality
and ZERO EMPATHY
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Democracy Now!
Friends, read the headlines below: we've averaged 400 PPM carbon dioxide levels. At the rate we're going, corporate greed--aided and abetted by the likes of Donald John Trump--will destroy us all. Please get out there and vote blue down the line! It's the only hope we all have if we want to hand a livable planet to our children and their children.
-- Dot Calm's shadow
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From the no-duh department,
Limbo lower now...
How low
can you go?
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Daily Kos
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I knew that st00pit beard was gonna git him:
I knew that st00pit beard was gonna git him:
...Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!
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AlterNet
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Catholic dogma KILLS women.
Samantha Bee points a finger
at Catholic hospitals
at Catholic hospitals
and tells it like it is:
"How can our suffering and danger mean so little to you? Modern obstetric medicine is a miracle. It’s the reason that women in developed countries don’t have to choose between having children and staying alive. A miscarriage is already the worst day of a woman’s life. And in a Catholic healthcare network, it could also be her last. And maybe that’s ok with you, but do you really want to spend eternity explaining yourself to her?"
scroll down to see the video.
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Movies!
Interested in seeing the best anti-Trump ads? All each one does is quote Donald Trump himself! They are actually worth watching just to review everything the debauched orange douchebag has said and done--and how it's affecting our children. Like my precious nieces. What an awful lesson for them that the Republican candidate their parents support sees them as nothing more than a couple pieces of meat, worth only whatever of male sexual attention, unwanted or otherwise, their attractiveness can get them.
Here's the ad with Khizr Khan. It's very moving.
"Anti-lobbyist" Donald Trump WAS a registered lobbyist himself! Yet another stunning piece of hypocrisy from the crooked lying liar himself: Donald John Trump!
Keith Olbermann on why we all HAVE to vote for Hillary for our own safety and for the continued existence of the United States of America. Friends, this is NOT a joke.
...or, as Tea Party Christians like to say, as if she were a Christian beheaded by Muslims
Trevor Noah's take on the last debate. Isn't it funny that, although Trump and the rest of the Republicans hate Muslims with a seething passion, Trump invited Muslim Malik Obama--once the favorite target of right-wing conspiracists--to, what, unnerve Hillary...? Um, maybe someone shoulda told Donsie Wonsie that Malik Obama is not Hillary's half-brother! Hey, Tea Party Christians--tell me again exactly why Hillary was supposed to care...?
Randi Rhodes--Donald Trump has ZERO chance of winning
Randi Rhodes--Donald Trump's suicide mission at the Al Smith Catholic charity dinner. Randi hypothesizes that teh Dumbald wasn't sufficiently satisfied that he murdered his campaign during the third debate, so he took to stabbing it again and again and again--like Norman from Psycho--at the Al Smith dinner.... That's important because, again, it illustrates Donald Trump's
Randi Rhodes--Donald Trump is oh so scared of being the LOSER he is
Our police don't just kill Blacks--they kill Native Americans, too, and at higher per capita rates even than Blacks. Remember when Saint Ronbo Raygun shut down all the mental facilities because he wanted to give the money to the rich people instead? Well, this is what happened--our police have become untrained, unprepared mental health first responders, so when called upon for wellness checks or other support for the mentally ill, police shoot them instead! In this case, it was a twofer--the cops not only killed the woman but also her precious little fetus. I'm sure Republicans are up in arms...not.
Speaking of fetuses, the Catholic Church doesn't really care about their suffering any more than it cares about the suffering of
'Til next time, check out these great channels:
...or, if you just want something mindless and fun, try Tested
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Kellyanne Conway says
Donald Trump wants another debate,
so why not let Donald Trump
debate himself?
...Don't say I never did nuthin' fer ye,
Donnie boi!
Kellyanne Conway says
Donald Trump wants another debate,
so why not let Donald Trump
debate himself?
...Don't say I never did nuthin' fer ye,
Donnie boi!
posted by Dot Calm @ 8:05 PM
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