Corrupt Donald Trump, Deabeat Donald Trump, Scandal-boi Donald Trump hasn't ONE ounce of humanity
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders!
I'm still not able to spend much time blawgging right now--my dad is still in a health facility, so every minute I'm not at work, I'm there with him. Fortunately, he should be home in about a week or so. But until then, I'm hardly home more than he is!
Even tho I am scraping the bottom of the barrel of hours in the day to bring you this blawg, I still apparently managed to overload the Mailbag today nearly to bursting--the gussets are about to blow any second, cap'n! As a ree-ward for your patience, I have hidden a few extra funnies at the bottom of the post. Read, scroll, watch, giggle (hopefully--or snort some Fireball!), and enjoy (hopefully, or snort some more Fireball!).
Be sure to read through all the headlines today and watch all todaze videos--they tell the stories I don't have time or energy to comment on for you today--and 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 and your elderly friends and rellies for me. Trust me--y'all are worth it! I shudder to think what would happen to my beloved dad if he didn't have me to lean on. And fortunately for me, he lets me lean on him, too. I'm just grateful to have him with me and to have the wherewithal to take good care of him. But I can say this: getting older is an adventure, so be prepared. And enjoy every minute you have with your loved ones while they're still with us. I miss Dot Calm more each day.
- 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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Many people are saying
that inhuman Donald J. Trump
wanted Alicia Machado to die
from anorexia and bulemia.
So much better for her to be skeletally thin
and sick unto death
and maybe die
than to gain weight,
regain her health,
and live.
***
Donald J. Trump liked
Alicia Machado at 118 pounds.
He thinks he's the healthiest,
sexiest man on the planet
when he's 60 pounds overweight,
orange,
and bald...
but he doesn't want to see
an anorexic-bulemic survive
if it means that she gains weight.
that inhuman Donald J. Trump
wanted Alicia Machado to die
from anorexia and bulemia.
So much better for her to be skeletally thin
and sick unto death
and maybe die
than to gain weight,
regain her health,
and live.
***
Donald J. Trump liked
Alicia Machado at 118 pounds.
He thinks he's the healthiest,
sexiest man on the planet
when he's 60 pounds overweight,
orange,
and bald...
but he doesn't want to see
an anorexic-bulemic survive
if it means that she gains weight.
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AlterNet: 10 Times Police Killed The People They Were Called To Save
AlterNet: How to Hack 3 Sexist Things Every Woman Has Heard in the Office
Rolling Stone: Donald Trump's 13 Biggest Business Failures
deathandtaxes: Donald Trump claims his wife doesn't poop or fart
Democracy Now!: ExxonMobil Lawsuit Cites Decades-Long Cover-Up of Climate Change
...And now a buncha headlines from Vox:
I'm from Atlantic City. I've seen how Donald Trump's false promises devastate a community.
...Donald Trump: the Wal-Mart of real estate.
Donald Trump's tax plan makes impossible promises. This cartoon explains.
...This is why evangelicals and some young people gravitate to Donald--they don't realize it's impossible, and they wouldn't care if they did. Magical thinking in action.
Whatever is actually in Trump's tax returns is worse than what the New York Times says
...Ya think?!?? I think Americans have a right to know what the fat orange anus is hiding. Personally, I'd bet that he's not even worth $100 million, that he hasn't paid a dime in charity since Sony Walkmen were a thing, and that he hasn't paid taxes since then, either. Speaking of charity, doncha just love how the Trump Foundation takes other people's money to give charity to Trump? And here I thot Republicans didn't like mooches....
Leaked tax documents reveal how Trump could have avoided paying income tax for a decade
...And here's the New York Times's take: Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found
The past 6 days proved Donald Trump is dangerously unfit for the presidency
...Now tell us something we didn't know!
Let's dispel this notion that Donald Trump knows what he's doing
...You've got to be shitting me! Someone, anyone, actually ever once thought Donald knew what he was doing...ever?!??
Donald Trump's nasty, false tweetstorm against Alicia Machado proves how easy he is to bait
...When it comes to being baited, Donald J. Trump is the master baiter. In all seriousness, though, do you really want your president to be Vladimir Putin's--and, indeed, all our enemies'--puppet? Watching Hillary's masterful playing of Dumbass Donald, could anyone still doubt that Donald Trump is Putin's
I counted every interruption in the first presidential debate. And then I did the same for Obama-Romney
...Spoiler: Donald interrupted Hillary 51 times. She didn't interrupt him nearly as often. Too bad Donald doesn't understand what a debate is. My dad, who took debate class in high school, was appalled.
The surge in violent crime is overblown — but here's how to combat it
...Step 1: start holding police accountable!!!!!
Why Donald Trump can't stop feuding with Alicia Machado, explained
...Hell, I'll explain it: Donald is a narcissistic cry-baby who can't deal with having his ass handed to him by a girl.
What Hillary Clinton's leaked audio teaches us about Hillary Clinton
...It teaches us that Hillary is a seasoned, realistic politician who understands The Art of the Possible. Donald does not even understand what reality is. I was shocked at how flattering the article is to Hillary--if you have a thing for reality, that is. I do.
Alec Baldwin nails Donald Trump's debate performance in SNL cold open
...Oh, snap! I'll dig this up and post it next time, friends. Meanwhile, I doubled over laughing when I read this on the train home this evening!
Trump Foundation receives cease-and-desist letter from New York Attorney General
...And that's because the foundation isn't set up properly to receive the funds for Donsie Wonsie to spend-spend-spend on himself.
States are using welfare money to fund anti-abortion propaganda
...Fuck. This is so fucking wrong on so many fucking levels. They are taking Welfare money that people need to live on and spending it to force women to give birth whether they want babies or not. They are taking food out of the mouths of the very babies they demand be born! These fuckers need to be made to live on the reduced resources they're leaving people with so they can see what it's like to be made to live like a political football.
You don't need "genius" to pull off Trump's tax avoidance — you just need to be rich
...Mortgage underwater? Lost your job because some rich asshole outsourced your position to China? Too bad you're not rich like Donald Trump--then you'd be able to write off your losses to offset your income tax bill on future income. Nice work if you can get it....
CNN's Jake Tapper: should Trump really "be casting aspersions on the marriages of anyone else?"
...I saw a funny about this that I'll post at the bottom if I can find it.
Donald Trump's The Apprentice was the definition of a hostile work environment
...For women. In case you didn't know.
Drudge Report is spreading a conspiracy about Bill Clinton it debunked in 1999
...Republicans are so phuquen pitiful...!
LeBron James endorses Hillary Clinton: “we need a president who brings us together”
...Thanks, LeBron. Now, let's see if Donald thinks you're as great this season as he did last season! But I know you're too comfortable in your own beautiful skin to give a phuque what Dumbass Donald LOSER Trump thinks!
Short-term thinking in corporate America is strangling the economy
...Isn't this what they call extraction capitalism--isn't that why Wal-Marts always leave the communities they infiltrate infinitely poorer and worse off than they found them?
The mind-blowing scale of Trump's billion-dollar loss, in one tweet
...Short read, friends. It's only about one tweet, after all!
Young voters seem to mistakenly think Donald Trump would be tough on Wall Street
...Holy phuque. They're so wrong that they're not even wrong.
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AlterNet: Donald Trump’s Misogyny Doesn’t Sleep: Tweeting Sexist Smears at 3am Is Super Unpresidential
September 30, 2016
If Donald Trump is really as rich as he claims to be, why hasn’t his team hired a few people to keep an eye on him 24/7 and wrestle his phone away from him when he’s about to go on a tweet rant? It seems like it’d be a good investment. Because his middle-of-the-night frothing about sex tapes does not make him look super presidential.
During Monday evening’s debate, Hillary Clinton pushed all of Trump’s buttons when, toward the end of the conversation, she mentioned former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who reigned when Trump was an owner of the pageant. “One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest,” Clinton told the crowd. “He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman Miss Piggy. Then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado and she has become a U.S. citizen and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”
Machado has in recent weeks been an outspoken Clinton supporter, reigniting the controversy that surrounded her 20 years ago when she gained weight during her time as Miss Universe. Back then Trump explained to the world that “When you win a beauty pageant . . . you really have an obligation to stay in a perfect physical state.”During Monday evening’s debate, Hillary Clinton pushed all of Trump’s buttons when, toward the end of the conversation, she mentioned former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who reigned when Trump was an owner of the pageant. “One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest,” Clinton told the crowd. “He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman Miss Piggy. Then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado and she has become a U.S. citizen and you can bet she’s going to vote this November.”
Machado, who says that Trump called her “Miss Piggy,” was put on a diet — even as she went public with her personal struggles. In 1997, as her term was winding down, she told the Washington Post that when she was crowned, “I was anorexic and bulimic, but almost all of us are. By the time I won, I was actually recovering. But the year leading to it, I didn’t eat at all. And whatever I ate, I threw up. I weighed 116 pounds when I won. I was skeletal.” In May, she told The New York Times, “I was sick — anorexia and bulimia for five years.”
Yet Machado’s admitted history of eating disorders seems not to have registered with Trump — or his outspoken supporters. On “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday, Trump called in to say that Machado “was the worst [Miss Universe] we ever had. The worst. The absolute worst. She was impossible. . . . She was the winner and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem.”
Newt Gingrich also defended Trump’s narrative, saying this week, “You’re not supposed to gain 60 pounds during the year that you’re Miss Universe.” And a Trump talking-points memo that circulated on Wednesday claimed that “Hillary Clinton bullied and smeared women like Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky.”
What’s more ironic, Gingrich judging someone’s weight or Trump accusing anybody of “smearing” a woman?
Campaigning in New Hampshire Thursday, Trump insisted that “I don’t think I took the bait. You know every online poll had me winning the debate.” But by the early morning hours of Friday, he was behaving rather . . . baited. In a true to form storm of incoherence, the man who says he has a “winning temperament” was tweeting these gems:
Trump, who earlier this week was addressing a group of evangelical Christians and is now recommending people “check out sex tape,” appears to be referring to Machado’s 2005 appearance on a Spanish-language reality show called “La Granja” (“The Farm”). Though she was engaged to another man at the time, at one point cameras caught her cavorting — clothed and under the covers — with a fellow cast member. Sure, you could technically call it a “sex tape,” but it was tame enough for television. Consenting adults are allowed to have sex and it doesn’t make them “disgusting.”
Machado was also accused in 1998 of driving the getaway car after her boyfriend was involved in a shooting. The judge in the case later claimed she had threatened him. She was not arrested or charged. On Anderson Cooper’s CNN show this week, Machado addressed her history and said, “He can say whatever he wants to say. I don’t care. You know, I have my past. Of course, everybody has a past. I’m not a saint girl. But that is not the point now.”
Funny how quickly Trump’s commitment to not “bully” women evaporates when they directly challenge him on his past crappy behavior toward them. Bonus hilarity: Let it not be forgotten that lately Trump is allegedly being advised by Roger Ailes — a guy who just settled a sexual harassment suit.
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Democracy Now!: USA Today Editorial Board: Donald Trump Unfit For Presidency
In news from the campaign trail, the editorial board of USA Today has declared Republican nominee Donald Trump unfit for the presidency. It’s the first time in its history that the country’s highest-circulation newspaper has taken sides in a presidential race. This is USA Today editorial page editor Bill Sternberg.
Bill Sternberg: "The unanimous consensus of the board is that he lacks the temperament, the knowledge, maturity, steadiness, that America needs in its president."The USA Today editorial board wrote of Trump, "He is erratic. ... He is ill-equipped to be commander in chief. ... He traffics in prejudice. ... His business career is checkered. ... He isn’t leveling with the American people. ... He speaks recklessly. ... He has coarsened the national dialogue. ... He is a serial liar." USA Today has not endorsed Hillary Clinton or any other candidate.
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AlterNet: It's The Science, Stupid--Science can explain why Trump supporters believe so many things that are demonstrably wrong
September 30, 2016
Last week, The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper went to a Donald Trump rally to interview the spray-tanned oaf’s supporters about some of their more fantastical beliefs. The results were bizarre, even by the standards of a presidential campaign that long ago broke the wacky-meter.
Trump supporters suggested that Hillary Clinton had multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and even AIDS, and was using a body double to conceal her ill health from the public. They also dug into birther conspiracy theories about President Obama.
One man even ranted that, “Barack Obama had big part of 9/11,” because he was “always on vacation, never in the office.” (Pro tip: Barack Obama was not president when 9/11 occurred.)
To liberal viewers, this whole display is boggling. These folks clearly are competent enough to dress themselves, read the address of the rally and show up on time, and somehow they continue to believe stuff that’s so crazy and so false that it’s impossible to believe anyone that isn’t barking mad could believe it. What’s going on?
“There definitely are conspiracy theorists. There definitely are facts where people have fundamentally misinformed beliefs. But there are also propositions that they’ll affirm for a display purpose,” Dan Kahan, a Yale professor of law and psychology explained to me over the phone.
Kahan also works as a researcher and educator for the Cultural Cognition Projection, where researchers look into “the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact … to values that define their cultural identities.” The project looks at issues, such as climate change or vaccination safety, where huge swaths of people stubbornly reject scientific facts, because those facts don’t conform to their worldview.
There are a couple of reasons that people might embrace flatly false beliefs like the ones on display at this Trump rally, Kahan explained to me. One explanation is that they sincerely believe these false things.
“People have a stake in some position being true,” Kahan said, “because the status of their group or their standing in it depends on that answer.”
“But then there are other things that people will say because that’s kind of like a declaration of who they are,” he added. “Part of the reason they might be doing it is because they know it’s really going to get an aversive response from people who have an alternative identity and who know that’s the true answer.”
With birtherism, Kahan continued, there are people who actually believe that Obama is hiding the facts of his birth, but there also a lot of people who are saying that more because it’s a “kind of a middle finger” and because it gives conservatives pleasure to drive liberals batty by saying these things.
As evidence, Kahan pointed to a paper by published in Public Opinion Quarterly in 2014 that found that minor changes in survey wording found very different rates of birtherism in the public.
With some questions, researchers hypothesized, “respondents might have viewed this question as constituting a quiz to assess whether they were well informed about political facts,” leading Republicans to be more inclined to admit that Obama was born in the United States.
It’s not exactly lying. It’s more that the truth is secondary to the goals of expressing political views and antagonizing liberals by staking out these positions.
This distinction might explain some of the positions that Trump supporters staked out in the Daily Show video.
“I don’t have any,” one man told Klepper when asked for proof of his outrageous claims. “It’s my opinion.”
This, of course, makes liberals nuts, because whether or not Clinton has Parkinson’s is not an opinion, but a matter of empirical fact. But folks who say things like this are “telling you something about this belief,” Kahan explained.
“It’s not even a matter of fact for them,” Kahan continued, noting that some beliefs, “by their essence, defy empirical assessment.”
“Do I have proof? No. Do I have articles? No,” one woman in the Daily Show interview proudly declared. “My mind is made up.”
“I think at that point someone’s just telling you that it’s some kind of performance,” Kahan said.
This no doubt goes a long way towards explaining how on earth it is that Trump is considered more honest and trustworthy than Clinton by voters. According to Politico’s fact-checkers Trump tells a lie an average of once every three minutes. Clinton, in contrast, was rated by Politifact as the most honest candidate in either party in this year’s primary season.
For a lot of people, a candidate’s adherence to empirical facts isn’t really relevant to their estimation of how honest they are. “Honest” is more about a tangle of beliefs, stereotypes and wishful thinking than about the facts on the ground.
On the flip side, Trump’s willingness to thumb his nose at “political correctness” may not be fact-based, but it is blunt, and that often gets confused with honesty by a lot of people. Conservatives aren’t wrong to think that a lot of people believe racist or sexist things, but fear to say them out loud for fear of social censure. Trump throws caution to the wind and says the foul things that many people fear to say out loud, and that makes him seem “honest” in their eyes, even though he literally struggles to make it through five minutes without telling a lie.
None of this means that facts don’t matter. But in understanding why people believe the things they do or say the things they do or vote the way they do, facts matter less than things like identity, values or what social circles people run in. That Trump can lie his head off, day in and day out, and never lose the support of his fans is just further evidence of what social science has been demonstrating for years.
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Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon. She's on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte.
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Mailbag
Stop Trump Volunteers via ActionNetwork.org
Donald Trump is MELTING DOWN.
A bombshell report from the New York Times says Trump may not have paid any income tax for the last 20 years, because on his 1995 tax return he reported losing nearly one billion dollars.
After this news was released, Trump showed up to a campaign rally and delivered a truly unhinged set of remarks. He said Hillary probably cheated on Bill, that she should be in jail, and mocked her bout with pneumonia by flailing his arms around.
Trump's meltdown couldn't come at a worse time for him. Hillary is soaring in the polls after her huge victory in last week's debate, and early voting has started in swing states like Iowa, Virginia and Wisconsin.
This is our chance to finish off Trump. There is a way for anyone--including you--to turn out Hillary Clinton voters where early voting has started. You can contact voters in those states today, from home, no matter where you live.
Sign up to make calls from home to get out the vote in swing states for Hillary Clinton. Just follow this link, click the "get started" button, create an account, and start calling!
Can't make calls? Please chip in $5 on PayPal to help me sign up volunteers to make phone calls. I'm just a volunteer working to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump, and I fund the operation of this email list out of my own pocket.
Making calls is surprisingly easy:
- All you need is a computer and a phone.
- Once you are ready, just click through this link.
- From there, you will see a red "Get started" button. Click that button.
- After you click the red button, a pop-up window will appear.
- In that window, take 30 seconds to create an account as a Hillary Clinton volunteer.
- Once you create an account, you will be automatically directed to a list of active phone banks.
- Choose whichever phone bank you like, or select a state from the drop-down menu you will see.
- Finally, the name and phone number of a voter will appear on your screen, along with a script of what to say.
- Just give the voter a call, read the script, listen to what they have to say, and mark down how the call went!
- When you are done, you can easily move on to another call. Make as few or as many calls as you wish!
It's really that easy, but if you need more help Hillary's campaign has tutorials and training sessions which are easy to find after you create an account. You can even make practice phone calls before starting the real thing.
Sounds great! I can sign up and start making phone calls from home to help get out the vote in swing states for Hillary Clinton.
Can't make calls? Please chip in $5 to help me sign up more people to make phone calls. I'm just a volunteer working hard to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump and I fund the operation of this email list out of my own pocket.
Phone calls like these are the most effective ways you can volunteer in this election, These calls are how we are going to defeat Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton--with regular people like you and me reaching out to voters in swing states.
It's the perfect time to make phone calls. Donald Trump is melting down, Hillary Clinton is rising in the polls, and early voting has started in some crucial swing states.
Hillary's campaign has made calling voters in swing states easy. All that's needed now is to add your voice to those calls.
Yes! I can sign up to make calls from home to help get out the vote in swing states for Hillary Clinton.
Can't make calls? Please chip in $5 to help me sign up more people to make phone calls. I'm just a volunteer working hard to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump and I fund the operation of this email list out of my own pocket.
Thank you for reading,
Natasha Chart
Mother. Daughter. Private citizen. Volunteer.
Rochester, New York
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| Tell Pres. Obama: Stop giving weapons of war to local police | |
| The petition to President Obama reads: "Police aren’t at war with civilians – they don’t need weapons of war. Stand strong on your ban on certain military equipment transfers through the 1033 Program and move to end the 1033 Program completely."
Add your name:
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From ATTN:
Hi there:
This week was National Voter Registration Week, and ATTN: launched a campaign called 3 Minutes (because it only takes about 3 minutes to register) in order to highlight the importance of making your voice heard in this election. As an issues-driven media company, ATTN: believes strongly that your vote matters. Not only have countless Americans fought and died for this right, but critical issues such as war and peace, environmental agreements, the future of the Supreme Court, and criminal justice reform all depend on whom you elect to office.
Even if you don't love the major presidential candidates in this election, it's still up to you to choose your representatives, senators, governor, and even local sheriffs, prosecutors, and judges. Ignoring the system will not change it, and letting others decide for you is too risky a bet. Take 3 Minutes: register to vote now or share this link with your friends who are not yet registered.
Other Stories Worth Your Attention This Week:
+ Raising the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Kill Jobs, It Creates Them
+ Politicians Should Be Asked About Their Policies, Not Their Outfits
+ Not Enough People Are Talking About What Just Happened to Children in Syria
+ Donald Trump Had a Chance to Win the First Debate. Here's How He Blew It
+ Snoop Dogg Explains What Issue He's Voting For This Election
Talk to you soon,
Matthew
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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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From HillaryClinton.com--Deadbeat Donald Trump released parts of his 1995 tax returns, which show he didn't pay federal taxes for the following 18 years!
Late last night, right around the time that we were finally leaving headquarters, three things happened:
The New York Times unearthed parts of Trump’s 1995 tax returns -- which, among other things, reveal that it’s possible, even likely, that Donald Trump didn't pay federal income tax for the following eighteen years. That means not one cent of his supposed millions went to veterans, students, or improving our infrastructure -- not one.
At a rally in Manheim, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump went off the deep end, claiming that Hillary is sick, that she belongs in jail, and that the election will be rigged -- claims with no basis in reality outside the fever dreams that wake Trump up at 5:30 in the morning.
Our team in California had to cancel bus trips for volunteer canvassers into Nevada in the month of October -- because we just didn't have the budget to pay for it.
I can’t tell you how important it is that you donate right now. We’re 37 days from Donald Trump sliding gleefully into the Oval Office.
Please. We have to win. You’ve already stepped up this week -- thank you. Chip in $25 right now:
Thank you,
Christina
Christina Reynolds
Deputy Communications Director
Hillary for America
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| Tell Congress: Stop the modern day Native American land grab | |
| The petition to the U.S. Congress reads: "Reject the Utah Public Lands Initiative Act and any other legislation that would strip away sacred, fragile lands from Native American tribes and hand it over to the oil and mining industry."
Add your name:
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Right now you can make your voice officially heard regarding police accountability.
Because of the Arrest Related Death Act the DOJ has the responsibility to require police officers to collect data on any and all deaths of people while in custody. Right now, the DOJ is accepting public comment on the importance of this data collection.
We need this information. We need you to help make sure the DOJ has the support of the public to require police to comply.
Sign and send the petition: Tell the DOJ to require accurate data on deaths in police custody.
This opportunity allows the public to let the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Justice know data regarding deaths during arrest is extremely important to the public and media. The DOJ has a responsibility to uphold this Congressional Act to the full extent of the law--and holding police accountable is long over due in this country.
The public must weigh in on the importance of this data--OR the DOJ will only hear from law enforcement agencies, who will likely say this reporting is a burden.
The public needs to comment and make it known that data regarding the loss of life during an arrest is not a burden, but an opportunity to protect citizens in the future.
Sign and send our petition to the DOJ: Law Enforcement Agenices must report deaths in custody.
The data collected via the ARD Act will be instrumental in drafting and passing legislation that protects citizens and transforms the role of law enforcement agencies and the way they interact with citizens when they are in crisis. This data is just one of many steps in our fight to ensure that the police are working for communities of color and not against them.
The moments you take to clearly express your opinion will bring the Law Enforcement Agencies in this country one step closer to accountability.
Sign and send the petition here.
Keep Fighting,
Carissa Miller
Because of the Arrest Related Death Act the DOJ has the responsibility to require police officers to collect data on any and all deaths of people while in custody. Right now, the DOJ is accepting public comment on the importance of this data collection.
We need this information. We need you to help make sure the DOJ has the support of the public to require police to comply.
Sign and send the petition: Tell the DOJ to require accurate data on deaths in police custody.
This opportunity allows the public to let the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Justice know data regarding deaths during arrest is extremely important to the public and media. The DOJ has a responsibility to uphold this Congressional Act to the full extent of the law--and holding police accountable is long over due in this country.
The public must weigh in on the importance of this data--OR the DOJ will only hear from law enforcement agencies, who will likely say this reporting is a burden.
The public needs to comment and make it known that data regarding the loss of life during an arrest is not a burden, but an opportunity to protect citizens in the future.
Sign and send our petition to the DOJ: Law Enforcement Agenices must report deaths in custody.
The data collected via the ARD Act will be instrumental in drafting and passing legislation that protects citizens and transforms the role of law enforcement agencies and the way they interact with citizens when they are in crisis. This data is just one of many steps in our fight to ensure that the police are working for communities of color and not against them.
The moments you take to clearly express your opinion will bring the Law Enforcement Agencies in this country one step closer to accountability.
Sign and send the petition here.
Keep Fighting,
Carissa Miller
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From SumOfUs.org--Bayer kills bees dead, wants bees dead, and is suing Europe for saving the bees...Bayer wants us all to starve!
Wow. Bayer, BASF and Syngenta are suing the European Commission to overturn a ban on the pesticides that are killing millions of bees around the world.
A huge public push won this landmark ban -- and we can't sit back and let Big Pesticide overturn it while the bees vanish.
The UN sounded the alarm bells: Unless we act now, the bees are at risk of global extinction. We have to show Bayer and Co. now that we won't tolerate them putting their profits ahead of our planet's health.
Bayer and its friends make a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics.
Neonics are coated upon seeds before they are planted, spreading through the plant and killing insects stopping by for a snack.
These pesticides can easily be replaced by other chemicals which don’t have such a devastating effect on the food chain. But companies like Bayer, BASF and Syngenta make a fortune from selling neonics -- so they’ll do everything they can to protect their profits.
The EU banned three of these bee-killers in May 2013, after a massive public campaign and a clear scientific finding from the European Food Safety Authority that neonics pose huge risks to bee populations. Let's defend this landmark ban for the bees and our food supply.
Worse still, a EU report that could have banned dozens of pesticides has been buried -- due to industry's massive lobbying.
We cannot allow Bayer and Co. to intimidate European authorities.
The current ban on bee-killing pesticides is up for review soon, so let's make sure their lobby efforts aren't successful this time!
Bayer is an enormous company with a ton of public-facing brands. Neonics are a big part of its bottom line, but it can't afford poor publicity on a global scale. And if word gets out that Bayer is wrecking our ecosystem and threatening a creature responsible for pollinating a third of all our crops, the company will have to back down.
SumOfUs have been right at the front of the global campaign to save our bees. Tens of thousands from the SumOfUs community took action and got Lowe's -- one of the biggest garden retailers in the world -- to stop selling bee-killing pesticides. And we just helped France win a major victory for the bees: France's parliament voted in favor of banning all neonics -- now we are fighting to get the law through the Senate and uphold this historic ban.
The pressure from Bayer is mounting -- but we can only save the bees if we stand up against the big corporate interests.
Sign the petition to tell Bayer, BASF and Syngenta to drop their bee-killing lawsuits now.
Thanks for all that you do,
Paul, Emma, and the team at SumOfUs
More information:
EU scientists begin review of ban on pesticides linked to bee declines, The Guardian. 1 July 2016
'Supressed' EU report could have banned pesticides worth billions, Euractiv, 3 February, 2015
Lobby against bee-killing pesticides, Digital Journal, 1 May, 2014
EU insecticide ban triggers legal action, Nature News, 28 August, 2013
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My kids are lucky not to have any debilitating allergies – but some of their classmates do. Parents across the nation rely on the epinephrine auto-injectors called EpiPens to keep their kids safe, but purchasing a pack of two EpiPens – one to keep at home and one to keep in their kids’ backpacks – costs more than $600.
The recent news that Mylan has raised the price of lifesaving EpiPens by 548% in less than a decade is even more shocking: Pricing EpiPens out of the reach of so many whose lives literally depend on them just to make more money is wrong.
There aren’t many other working moms in Congress, so I often have a different perspective from most of my colleagues. That’s why I fight so hard on issues like this – and it’s why I need your help now. Join me to call on Mylan for immediate action:
As a co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Kids’ Safety Caucus, I know how important it is that we take action on this price hike that likely happened just to pad executives’ pockets: A reported 40% of Mylan’s operating profits are from the sale of EpiPens alone.
I called on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to investigate Mylan’s pricing, and I’ve introduced legislation to lower prices for EpiPens. I’m doing everything I can to make sure this critical medicine is accessible and affordable – but I need you with me:
Thank you for standing up with me,Grace
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| VICTORY: Alabama judge Roy Moore suspended from the bench |
| Our activism works. Friday, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary suspended Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from the bench for using his office and his authority to block marriage equality.1 Last January, more than 53,000 CREDO activists pushed back on Judge Moore’s hateful and bigoted misuse of power. They recognized that despite the fact that LGBTQ people could marry in all 50 states, the fight for equality for LGBTQ Americans was far from over.  The massive opposition to HB 2 is having a chilling effect in other states like Texas where right-wing extremist legislators are trying to push similar anti-LGBTQ bills.2 Alabama’s strong rebuke of Judge Moore will send a similar message to other anti-LGBTQ public officials that there will be a price to pay for obstructing equality. You can help add more voices to this important work and celebrate the power of our collective activism by sharing the news of this victory with your friends and family. Click here to share on Facebook. Click here to share on Twitter. You can also just share this link or forward this email to your friends and family: http://act.credoaction.com/go/ We look forward to continuing to work together to fight for LGBTQ equality. Thank you for your activism. It clearly matters. Heidi Hess, Senior Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets References:
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| Submit your public comment to protect reproductive health care. | |
| The comment to the Department of Health and Human Services should read: "I support President Obama’s new rule that would prevent states from withholding Title X federal family-planning money for reasons other than a provider’s ability to deliver services effectively. Adopting the new rule would stop Republican extremists from using politics to deny trusted health care providers like Planned Parenthood Title X funding. Please bring an end to state-level attacks on women’s health. Ensure that all women and all families have unfettered access to high-quality comprehensive reproductive health care."
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Six months ago, political insiders shunned the public option. But after insurance giant Aetna pulled coverage for millions of people, the PCCC got to work.
We launched a Senate resolution with 5 leaders, including Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley. That's now ballooned to 33 senators and national headlines like this on Thursday:
NEW YORK TIMES: The Health Care 'Public Option' Is Back
Join over 100,000 others by signing onto the petition here.If voters wake up on Election Day thinking about the public option, debt-free college, expanding Social Security, and Wall Street reform (instead of email servers and tax returns), Democrats will win in a landslide.
Will you chip in $3 to our (wildly successful) efforts to mobilize voters in November by pressing Democrats to campaign on popular progressive issues.
Why did the Big Insurance lobby and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell attack our public option campaign?
Because they know it's effective, we have momentum, and voters will rally around big popular ideas like the public option if they hear about it before November.
When Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and Senate leaders like Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray join with progressive leaders like Sanders, Merkley, and the PCCC in calling for a public option, it's clear we are changing the debate for voters.
The same is true on other issues PCCC members have helped thrust into the national spotlight: Debt-free college, expanding Social Security, breaking up Too Big To Fail banks, jailing corporate executives who broke the law, and others.
As we aim to mobilize young voters and swing voters in November, nothing is more important that pressing the Democratic Party to keep campaigning on popular progressive issues. The New York Times says "the public option is back." Will you chip in $3 to help keep the momentum going?
Thanks for being a bold progressive.
-- Adam Green, PCCC co-founder
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From UltraViolet--Donald Trump's unhinged misogynist tweetstorm
For five days, Donald Trump has been at war with Alicia Machado, the Miss Universe winner he insulted as "Miss Piggy" and "Ms. Housekeeping."1
And early this morning he unleashed a storm of tweets, attacking her in the most viciously personal terms.
His poll numbers were already terrible with women and Latinos, and this has the chance to put Trump away for good.2
To keep the pressure on, we're flying airplanes over five big college football games in key battleground states THIS WEEKEND with banners saying "Trump Says Women R Pigs. Disagree? Vote."
Will you chip in $5 to help fly these airplane banners and fund other efforts calling out Trump's sexism?
College football is a BIG deal in key swing states like Iowa and North Carolina. By flying these airplane banners over stadiums and tailgates, we'll be creating a huge buzz in the press and among the young voters we need to win.
Polls are saying that young voters appear less likely to vote this year than in 2012 and 2008, but Trump's attacks against women and body-shaming of Alicia Machado has the the potential to inspire young people—especially young women—to vote like never before.3
This morning, Trump doubled down again on his attacks on Machado, calling her "disgusting" and threatening to reveal a sex tape of her (which at this point doesn't appear to exist).4
Hillary's performance clearly got under Trump's thin skin. Everyone's saying he lost, and now he's lashing out. If we can lean in and take advantage, this could finish him for good. Will you chip in $5?
Yes, I'll chip in $5 to help fly airplane banners at college football games this weekend calling out Trump's sexism.
Thanks for speaking out.
--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Adam, Holly, Kathy, Onyi, Susan, Anathea, Audine, Shannon, Megan, Libby, and Emma, the UltraViolet Action team
Contributions will be used at UltraViolet Action's sole discretion to support its programs and activities.
Sources:
1. "Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Hopes 'Miss Piggy' Story Will Boost Clinton Support," NBC News, September 28, 2016
2. "Clinton and Trump's demographic tug of war," The Washington Post, accessed September 30, 2016
3. "Less than half of millennials think they'll definitely vote in November," The Washington Post, September 29, 2016
4. "Before 6 a.m., Donald Trump proved Hillary Clinton's point about his temperament," The Washington Post, September 30, 2016
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We wanted to make sure you had a chance to see the email General Clark sent this morning.
There's a lot at stake this November: stopping Donald Trump, electing progressive veterans like Tammy Duckworth and Jason Kander, and stopping the well-funded campaign to privatize veterans' health care.
There's just a few hours left before we close the books on the final FEC quarterly fundraising deadline of the election, so we wanted to echo General Clark's request and ask:
Please make an important $3 contribution to VoteVets before tonight's FEC fundraising deadline comes to a close.
This deadline isn't just about how much money we can raise -- although that's important -- it's about how many contributions we receive to elevate the voices of veterans in these campaigns.
All our best,
The team at VoteVets
There's a lot at stake this November: stopping Donald Trump, electing progressive veterans like Tammy Duckworth and Jason Kander, and stopping the well-funded campaign to privatize veterans' health care.
There's just a few hours left before we close the books on the final FEC quarterly fundraising deadline of the election, so we wanted to echo General Clark's request and ask:
Please make an important $3 contribution to VoteVets before tonight's FEC fundraising deadline comes to a close.
This deadline isn't just about how much money we can raise -- although that's important -- it's about how many contributions we receive to elevate the voices of veterans in these campaigns.
All our best,
The team at VoteVets
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The right to vote is under attack. In states across the country, conservatives have enacted discriminatory photo ID laws, cut back early voting, eliminated polling locations and done everything they can think of to make it harder for people to vote. How did it come to that, today, in 2016? Find out by watching a video CREDO just co-produced with the Brennan Center for Justice on the fight to vote in 2016. Please watch the video now and share it with your friends.  To learn more, watch the video now. Then, share it with your friends and family. Click here to watch and share the video on Facebook. If you are not on Facebook, you can watch and share the video on YouTube by clicking here. Thanks for everything you do to defend the right to vote. Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets P.S. Our friends at Fight for the Future have set up a simple online tool that makes it easy to register to vote or find out if you’re registered via text message. Click here to get started now. |
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© 2016 CREDO. All rights reserved.
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From Daily Kos--Our Get Out The Vote program is YUUUUGE! Have you signed up yet?
In the last three weeks, more than 10,000 members of the Daily Kos community have signed up to volunteer for get out the vote. This destroys every one of our previous get out the vote volunteer efforts. Absolutely incredible!
You, and other members of the Daily Kos community, are clearly invested in defeating Donald Trump, taking back the Senate and electing progressive candidates up and down the ballot. So we're expanding the volunteer opportunities available to meet the demand!
Keep the momentum going! Sign up to make calls from home for progressive candidates across the country.
Can't volunteer but still want to help? Click here to chip in $3 to the Daily Kos Get Out The Vote Fund.
Daily Kos has joined the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) Call Out The Vote program. Calls are made from home or any location you choose — you don’t need to live in a target state or go into a field office. We already have call shifts scheduled — including one for TODAY!
PCCC has been running this program for years and have gotten fantastic results.
They team up with progressive candidates so that we're calling the voters the campaign has identified as most important.
Also, once you sign up to make calls, an organizer will follow up with you by phone and email to make sure you have everything you need so that your volunteer shift is success.
There are only 38 days left before the election. It's a critical time. Thanks to you, we're doing great work. Let's keep up the momentum.
Yes, I can help by Calling Out The Vote from home! Show me the schedule so I can sign up.
Can't volunteer 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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Movies!
Sam Harris completely dismantles Donald Trump. Very recently, I've developed more trust and respect for Hillary Clinton than I'd ever have expected to--I've learned to see why Dot Calm admired Hillary so greatly. But I don't forget Hillary's history, either. However, as John Oliver remarks in his video posted below, the only reason she seems so scandal-plagued is that her detractors have worked overtime to publish and denounce her every fart. And, like I said last time, I'm not worried about Hillary's e-mail scandal because I think she'd jump through her own asshole to overcompensate fixing the problem if elected--and I think the Clinton Foundation coverage has been unduly negative (again, watch the John Oliver clip below). If you don't like Hillary Clinton even the least little bit, which is completely understandable given her media coverage since the 1990s, you need to listen to Sam Harris talking about both candidates. He's no Clinton fan either, but he makes a clear and reasoned case for voting for her, just as Noam Chomsky does. I agree with Sam that Christopher Hitchens, who wrote a book on Clinton scandals, was a pragmatist and would also have voted for Hillary, just as he said he was open to doing in 2008. Remember, if elected, Donald Trump would have an eager and willing Congress to pass the Paul Ryan budget and a lot of other theocratic hateful legislation that would endanger us all. Just imagine how much poorer we would all be! Just imagine how much more unsafe our food, water, and air would be once they deregulate everything! Just imagine all the wars they'd get us into...!
Here's Samantha Bee's take on Fat-Donald-the-john-wiper calling Alicia Machado fat and referring to her as "housekeeping." Like I said last time, Donald claims to be 6'3", and he claims to weigh 235 lbs--but we all know what a "projectile liar" (great term--thanks, Sam Bee!) he is...meaning that there's at least another 50 lbs in his gut and his ass and he's probably not 6'3" any more (if he ever was) because of his age, weight, and poor diet. Like I said last time, he just pretends his extra weight doesn't exist, like his tax returns and his $650 MILLION foreign and domestic debt (conflict of interest much?)...and he just pretends he's still tall and commanding the way he pretends he still has his daddy's fortune, which in fact he's pissed and frittered away in one bad business deal after another (the link is to Matt Taibi's Rolling Stone article on just 13 of Donald's failed business deals. Did you know about "Donald Trump: the fragrance"? Probably smells like ass after pooping McDonald's). Like I said last time, being generous and assuming that Donald isn't lying (which he is) about being 6'3" and weighing 235, DONALD J. TRUMP IS OBESE. Like I said last time, it is hypocritical AF for Donald to poke fun at people who gain weight when he's such a GLUTTONOUS UNATTRACTIVE FAT PIG DOG MISS PIGGY OINK OINK WHERE'S MAH TROUGH himself! Wanna talk someone who "likes to eat"? Then just look in the mirror, Donald GLUTTONOUS UNATTRACTIVE FAT PIG DOG MISS PIGGY OINK OINK WHERE'S MAH TROUGH Trump! What's interesting is that Donald GLUTTONOUS UNATTRACTIVE FAT PIG DOG MISS PIGGY OINK OINK WHERE'S MAH TROUGH Trump can't give a shit about Alicia Machado herself. As Hillary said, Alicia Machado is a person with a name. And if Donald GLUTTONOUS UNATTRACTIVE FAT PIG DOG MISS PIGGY OINK OINK WHERE'S MAH TROUGH Trump had had just an ounce of humanity, he'd have looked at Alicia Machado as a person and realized that she had been battling anorexia and bulimia and that she was sick and trying to heal--trying to survive. But Donald GLUTTONOUS UNATTRACTIVE FAT PIG DOG MISS PIGGY OINK OINK WHERE'S MAH TROUGH Trump doesn't have an ounce of humanity. He'd rather live in his fantasy world where women are only worth something if they look like 118-pound anorexic-bulimic Miss Universes...and Melania doesn't poop or fart (trust me, Donald GLUTTONOUS UNATTRACTIVE FAT PIG DOG MISS PIGGY OINK OINK WHERE'S MAH TROUGH Trump--maybe 5'11", 125 lb Melania doesn't eat enough to poop often enough for you to know about it, but she probably farts silent-but-deadlies 24/7/365 in your general direction. You just can't hear it or smell it because you're OLD).
Here's the Samantha Bee segment mentioned in the Vox headline I posted last week.
...He looks like he's about to sneeze...
too much blow before the debate?
Here's John Oliver's well researched but also deliciously funny must-watch take on the 2016 election and candidate scandals...
ICYMI last time I posted this...
Here's a 2014 John Oliver video on the American wealth gap. Only this year has O'Bama finally managed, against complete Republican obstructionism, to create an inflection point where the rich are getting rich slightly less quickly than everyone else, and the 99%'s incomes are finally starting to trickle up--THANKS, OBAMA! For some reason, this is not the big news I'd expect it to be. As John Oliver says, the kind of income inequality we've seen in America since Reagan took office is dangerous to overall growth. I liken it to a game of Monopoly where one player has all the property and the money stops moving--the game isn't won or lost yet, but it completely stagnates. You'd think that the ultra-obscenely-rich Republicans in this country would have that elementary understanding of money and how it moves. But no--they are so driven by money-lust that they'd rather kill the golden goose (that's us) than let it live another day to go on enriching them.
John Oliver on American journalism, which is in real trouble. If honest-to-goodness journalism goes down the tubes, so do we. Donald Trump's
John Oliver on America's illegal domestic spying and Edward Snowden
John Oliver on police accountability. All we want is for police to be held accountable the same way society holds us accountable--especially if we are Black and Brown. No more double standards!! Do I trust the police--do I think for one moment they hold themselves or each other accountable when they shoot someone Black? Hell no!! They lie like bad carpet. With every new tragedy, I automatically disbelieve the po-po's story because they've been caught lying so many times before. They are just not credible. And they're not even responsible to their own, either, apparently. The one officer in the video whose fellow officers wouldn't respond with back-up when he was in dangerous situations? That's not fucking funny. Those bastards could have gotten the man killed, and it all would have been fair, square, and legal-like. They'd have laughed all the way home to their presumably battered wives and girlfriends. Sick. Fucking. Bastards.
Randi Rhodes on Donald Trump's taxes: like Leona Helmsley says, only the little people pay taxes. It's feckin' hilarious that Giuliani and Christie call Trump "genius" for sticking us with the bill--but how genius is it to LOSE NEARLY ONE BILLION DOLLARS in the first place?!?? And do they really expect us to believe that Donald John Trump does his own taxes himself every year, which is surely what they're implying when they give him the credit for skipping out on his tax bill for decades at a time?!?? Donald Trump is a horrifically bad businessman--there isn't a word in the English language to describe just how feckless, gormless, and incompetent of a businessman Donald Trump is. I wonder if he actually pays his accountant--if anyone deserves credit for maneuvering the tax code, that's the guy. Not moronic Donald Trump.
'Til next time, check out these great channels:
...or, if you just want something mindless and fun, try Tested
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Why the phuque would anyone
marry any of these nasties even once?!??
Don't get me wrong...
I like Jill Stein, but this is funneh!!
BoingBoing's September 30th edition
of Trump lies...
And now a few words
from Mrs. Betty Bowers...
Betty tweaked
Donald "Miss Piggy John wiper" Trump's
sash...
it used to say "Miss Congeniality"...
I think The New Yorker
tweaked everything else--
it's way too flattering
to be realistic!
Why the phuque would anyone
marry any of these nasties even once?!??
Don't get me wrong...
I like Jill Stein, but this is funneh!!
BoingBoing's September 30th edition
of Trump lies...
And now a few words
from Mrs. Betty Bowers...
Betty tweaked
Donald "Miss Piggy John wiper" Trump's
sash...
it used to say "Miss Congeniality"...
I think The New Yorker
tweaked everything else--
it's way too flattering
to be realistic!
posted by Dot Calm @ 8:24 PM
