Have I told you how much I hate these people? - Mike Malloy. It is every thinking person’s responsibility not to side with his or her executioners. - Albert Camus. Popular democracy anywhere threatens fascism everywhere. - The Scallion. A fascist junta of neocons using George W. Bush as its shill has taken over America by bloodless coup. What will it take for us to stage a revolution and take our country back? - Dot Calm. Drive a hybrid. Leave a lighter footprint on the planet. - Dot Calm.
Like Granny D, I have watched my own beloved country change, and I am angry beyond words about what I see. I grew up seeing America as the equivalent of the movie good guy, the hero in the white hat who came to the rescue of those in need around the world. I have watched in silent horror as the corporations, the captains and the kings of industry, used a comparatively small outlay of cash to buy the Republicans to use as their shills. George W. Bush is the puppet cowboy-king of shills, the proverbial emperor with no clothes. Every day, I watch these evil men legalize, legitimize, and institutionalize robbing the poor to pay the rich. They are carving up America like a giant carcass and doling out choice chunks of its meat to themselves and their cronies. Since the Democrats have been sipping at the same corporate teat where the Republicans have been gorging for the past generation, the fascists are free to do their worst; there is no longer any opposition. There is no one left to stand up for the rights of the American people, the Constitution, or the democracy, which I fear will be replaced by a fascist dictatorship in my lifetime. Wake up, America: we need a REVOLUTION NOW!
Like I said last time, I'm not feeling well...so, as you can imagine, I haven't had strength for much more than binge-watching YouTube videos. And you get to be the beneficiaries of that effort--I do it all for you (hurr, hurr).
Seriously, though...I'm just passing along the ones I thought were most interesting. I hope you find them edifying, too.
As always...
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Don't forget to hug and kiss your loved ones today, and please be good to yourselves because I'd give all of you a great big hug if I could right now....except that I wouldn't want you to catch this nasty-ass li'l bug. Argh.
As Tax Day approaches, some large multinational corporations in the U.S. won’t pay any taxes this year. An Economic Snapshot
by EPI’s Hunter Blair explains that the U.S. corporate income tax base
has eroded rapidly in recent decades. Corporate income tax revenue
equaled 5.9 percent of GDP in 1952, but last year it equaled only 1.9
percent of GDP.
EPI submitted comments
to the U.S. Department of Labor in support of its proposed rule
implementing paid sick leave for federal contractors. EPI estimates that
between 694,000 and 1,053,000 employees of federal contractors could
benefit from additional paid sick leave, including an estimated 450,000
to 775,000 who currently receive no paid sick leave. For more on this
topic, read EPI’s research on paid sick leave.
An Economic Snapshot
by EPI’s Elise Gould and Jessica Schieder illustrates that women’s
labor force participation is lower in the United States than in peer
countries. The snapshot explains that one way to remedy this is by
making quality child care affordable and accessible, which would make it
easier for women to enter or stay in the labor force. This would narrow
the gender wage gap by helping women avoid the earnings penalties they
incur when taking time out of the labor force to care for children.
Valerie Wilson, director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE), contributed research for a new report by the Black Women’s Roundtable. Wilson wrote the section State of Black Women in the American Economy, examining the economic insecurity, slow wage growth, and higher poverty rates of many African American women. Read the report here.
EPI’s Daniel Costa talked with the Wall Street Journal
about employer abuse of the H-1B guestworker program. “There’s a lot of
evidence now that the program is used for cheap labor in the tech
industry,” Costa said. “The fact that reforms have not been agreed upon
in Congress, despite all the attention, shows just how important the
H-1B program is to the business community.”
|
"Demand for H1-B Skilled-Worker Visas Forces Agency Into Lottery"
»
Remember that Hillary Clinton fundraiser on Friday
where a couple could contribute $353,000 to sit at a table with George
Clooney? Well, George Clooney himself was asked on NBC whether that was
an obscene amount of money, and here’s what he said:
"It is an obscene amount of money, the Sanders campaign when they
talk about it is absolutely right. It’s ridiculous that we have this
kind of money in politics."
- George Clooney
Here’s the truth: you cannot change a corrupt campaign finance system
by taking its money. That’s what this election is about: tearing down a
system where big money props up the institutions that rig the economy
against ordinary Americans. And the central question of our campaign is can 99% of Americans defeat the 1% trying to maintain the status quo? That’s why we have to ask:
Contribute to Bernie’s campaign today
to help us win New York and as a way of saying you have had ENOUGH of
millionaires and billionaires buying our campaigns and elections.
If you've saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
This is without question that most important week of our campaign. New York votes Tuesday and five states follow one week later.
How we step up and respond in this moment could very well mean the
difference between victory and defeat for our political revolution.
Tell the United States Soccer Federation (USSF): “Stop the wage discrimination against players of U.S. women’s
national soccer team. They deserve the same pay as members of the U.S.
men’s team.”
If there's one thing I've always fought for, it's the right of voters to have our voices heard.
For years, I've fought for same-day voter registration, Clean Elections, and ranked choice voting.
Last week, I voted to make Maine a presidential primary state because
it's just not right that thousands of people would be disenfranchised
because they can't stand in line for five hours at a caucus.
And now I'm leading the fight to end super delegates as part of the Democratic Party's presidential nominating process.
At the Maine Democratic Convention next month, I will offer an
amendment to end the undemocratic super delegate system, and I was
honored to discuss my proposal with The Washington Post last week.
Since I announced my proposal, I've gotten an incredible response
across the party--from rank-and-file voters to party leaders, Hillary
backers as well as those feeling the Bern.
I'm even hearing from delegates in other states who wish to compare notes and offer a similar amendment in their own states.
Petition to Congress: "Ignore tax preparation lobbyists and instead simplify and
decrease the costs of the tax filing process for millions of American
taxpayers by passing the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2016."
It's been 33 days since Merrick Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama.
That may not feel like very long just yet, but if Republican senators
get their way, American women and families could bear the brunt of this
delay for years to come.
For the past month, GOP senators like Sen. Chuck Grassley have been
bragging about their obstructionist ways and proclaiming that they won't
hold a hearing or an up-and-down vote on Garland. That's childish, it's
irresponsible and it's ludicrous.
And it's having a real impact: Since the death of
Justice Antonin Scalia earlier this spring, we're already seeing the
effects of a court that's short one member. In an attempt to avoid being
hamstrung by 4-4 deadlocks on important issues, the Supreme Court is
taking up fewer cases for next year, leaving large gaps in its calendar.
Usually, the court hears about 70 cases each term. As of April 4th, they were only scheduled to hear EIGHT next term.1
Republican senators may think they'll score some political points by
blocking yet another action of President Obama's, but their obstruction
could have real impact on cases that affect American families, like ones
surrounding birth control coverage and abortion access.
In Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, the case we rallied around in front of the Supreme Court on March 2, a 4-4 ruling would set no national precedent but leave the lower court ruling in place. That means millions of women in Texas will be without access to vital reproductive health care.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) have
initiated a bipartisan letter to President Obama urging him to maintain
his policy of refusing to transfer shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles (“Manpads”) to Syrian combatants. This letter highlights the
repeated votes by the House of Representatives in 2015 and 2016 that
prohibited the use of any DOD funds to transfer Manpads to any party in
the Syrian Civil War.
Manpads can be fired at aircraft by individuals on the ground and easily hidden or transported in the trunk of a car. U.S. and Israeli officials have expressed concern that they could be used by terrorists to bring down commercial airliners.
Since their first use against a civilian aircraft in 1978, thirty fatal
Manpad attacks have resulted in almost 1,000 civilian deaths.
While the Obama Administration had previously opposed the transfer of Manpads to parties in Syria, according to the Wall Street Journal,
“Saudi Arabia and Turkey have increased pressure on Washington to up
the ante in support of the moderate opposition in part by calling for
the introduction of weapons systems that they know are a red line for
Mr. Obama, such as Manpads.” [1]
The transfer of these dangerous weapons to any non-state actor would be
irresponsible, but the transfer to opposition groups in Syria could be
particularly dangerous. Weapons transferred to Syrian insurgents in
the past have wound up being used by insurgents in Iraq against the
U.S.-backed Iraqi army and have been captured by terrorist groups
Al-Nusra and ISIS.
More
than 900 people have been arrested over the past week on Capitol Hill
in a series of unprecedented protests against the influence of big money
and corporate lobbying ... Read More →
Is seafood on the menu tonight?
Well, there's a chance it might have been caught by a slave. That's
what the Associated Press uncovered when reporters traveled to the ... Read More →
Civil rights activists are planning to conduct a mass sit-in next Monday at the opening of the North Carolina legislative session to challenge the anti-LGBT law HB 2. We ... Read More →
Despite
the fact that gay people formed a significant portion of the Dachau
prisoners, they had not been included in the early histories of the
concentration camps. READ MORE»
Those who forgot that Cruz had attacked their city were reminded by Trump, who was the first candidate to address the crowd. READ MORE»
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******************************************** Don't forget, boys 'n' girls-- Jesus and Ted Cruz are watching you masturbate!
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Movies!
My Tea Party Christian friend bought into this Rafael "BUSTed" Cruz lie hook, line, and sinker. What a yutz!!!
Well, Kyle, the Bible isn't exactly pro-choice. Remember, women are property in the Bible, and property doesn't get to make choices. But the Bible is definitely pro-abortion. It's all about killing pregnant women in wars, ripping fetuses out of the bellies of pregnant women, drowning pregnant women and babies in the great flood, and so on. Of course, God performs the abortions himself when married women get pregnant by cheating on their husbands. When you look at the over two million people God and His followers killed in the Bible, you can't exactly call God pro-life. If you look up how much people of each sex and age are worth--where women are worth half to two-thirds of what men are worth--you'll see that fetuses aren't priceless...they're worthless. So are babies less than a month old. And my Tea Party Christian friend gets all up in arms because Muslims actually follow their holy book when it says that women are only worth half to two-thirds of what men are worth (remember, the Koran is based on the Old Testament). He reads his Bible every day, and he claims to believe that every word is literally true, but he STILL doesn't know what's in his own holy book. Amazing.
How much have YOU heard in the corporate news about Democracy Spring? Yeah, I thought so!
I phuquen love this.
So! Do you want to live in a country that's regular or unleaded? Let John Oliver and the Sesame Street muppets learn ya about lead in America.
For dessert, let John Oliver make Donald Drumpf again!
