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With Nation Transfixed By Kavanaugh Monstrosity, House GOP Votes To Give Rich Yet Another $3 Trillion In Tax Cuts

  By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (9/28/18) With the nation’s attention rightly transfixed by the Senate GOP’s monstrous efforts to ram through a Supreme Court nominee who has been credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault, House Republicans on Friday voted overwhelmingly to approve another $3 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans just weeks before the November midterms. “Today the GOP doubled down on last year’s giveaway to the donor class known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement following the 220-191 vote. “Tax Cuts 2.0 gives nearly $3 trillion…


As Millions Of Taxpayers Go Without Health Insurance The Pentagon Rushes To Spend $110 Billion Before End Of Month

  By Daniel Moritz-Rabson Newsweek (9/28/18) The Pentagon is expected to spend more than $111 billion in three months as it rushes to use the remainder of its $700-billion budget before the end of the 2018 fiscal year on September 30, Defense One reported. As of early August, the Defense Department had only allocated contracts worth $177 billion out of an expected $574 billion in discretionary spending, the outlet said, citing analysis by The Pulse. “The spending spree is the product of the omnibus budget agreement signed six months late in March coupled with funding increases of $80 billion for defense,” Defense One reported. “The shortened time…


Russia Monitor: The Master Of Chaos Keeps Stirring The Pot

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (10/1/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The news cycle has been — and will be this next week — dominated by Trump SCOTUS nominee Federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings including testimony accusing the nominee of sexual assault from Dr. Christine Blassey Ford. One important point that could well have been missed was an action taken by the American Bar Association to downgrade Kavanaugh’s judicial rating following concerns about ““his professional experience and the question of his freedom from bias and open-mindedness.” Questions were raised about his “ability to be balanced and fair”, one interviewee described him…


Trump: Our National EmbarrASSment

  Trump Is A Laughing Stock. But If We Weren’t Laughing, We’d Be Crying By Michael H Fuchs The Guardian (9/25/18) For the rest of the world, President Donald Trump’s America is a laughing stock, not a leader. That was the takeaway from Trump’s speech to the 2018 United Nationsgeneral assembly. Trump opened his speech the same way he opens his campaign rallies, TV interviews, and probably conversations with every visitor he meets: “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” The response from the leaders assembled in the room?…


Authority & Trust: After The Crash, Episode 1 of 5

Ten years ago the world financial system had a heart attack and the political reverberations of that crisis continue today. The Compass / BBC (9/30/18) In 2008 the world financial system had a heart attack. Gripped by panic, banks stopped lending, cash ran out and the world came to the edge of a financial precipice. As millions of people lost their jobs and asthe shock that started in Wall Street reverberated around the world, the crisis led to a collapse of the Greek, Spanish, Icelandic and other economies. Professor Ian Goldin looks at the origins of the crash and he…


Great News For Mass Shooters: One Year After Las Vegas, A New Texas Company Is Selling Murderous Bump Stocks

  By Alex Yablon The Trace (9/28/18) When a gunman perched in a Las Vegas hotel room used rifles affixed with bump stocks to commit the deadliest mass shooting in American history, Slide Fire Solutions went from an obscure Texas manufacturer of a gun world novelty to the main purveyor of a notorious and widely condemned product. As federal and state lawmakers of both parties called to ban bump stocks, and attorneys filed lawsuits, Slide Fire announced in April that it was shutting down. But on the one-year anniversary of the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, bump stocks remain not only…


Chris Hedges: The Absurdity & Tragic Sacrifices Of American Empire

  Laura Flanders Show (9/11/12) What happens when you force communities, families and entire ecosystems to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace? You get what Chris Hedges, co-author with Joe Sacco of Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, calls “sacrifice zones.” From Appalachia to North Dakota to Camden, New Jersey, these zones, ravaged by the excesses of capitalism, prefigure our collective future. Link to 18-Minute Video



God, Media & Tribal Identity: Why Many Women Ignore Their Interests & Vote For The Frat Boy GOP

[Editor’s Note: This article provides valuable insight as to not just why many women, but many workers and members of the middle class vote Republican even though the party is a direct threat to their families, interests and needs. — Mark L. Taylor] By Valarie Tarico The Raw Story (9/24/18) Lists of crazy comments about women by Republican men have been an internet staple for years. If the party agenda were to alienate as many females as possible, they should be doing quite well. Worse yet, from an impact standpoint, the policy priorities of Republican electeds match their expressed attitudes. Equal…


Gee, Why Would A Woman Hesitate To Testify About Sex Abuse?

Tucker Carlson Criticizes Rape Victims Who Don’t Report: ‘You’re Part Of The Problem’ By David Barden HuffPost (9/26/18) Fox News host Tucker Carlson has slammed sexual assault survivors who don’t report their abusers, labeling them as “part of the problem” for not fulfilling their “obligation to tell us.” It’s the second time in as many weeks that Carlson has blamed victims of abuse for failing to protect “the other 320 million people who live here” while discussing the allegations leveled by research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The professor at Palo Alto University in California, who goes…


When The Muzzle Finally Comes Off

The ‘brank’ torture device for ‘scolding’ women. By Rebecca Traister The Cut (9/24/18) I write this not knowing if by the time it is published, Brett Kavanaugh will still be the Supreme Court nominee, or whether more people will have come forward with more stories of assault or degradation, or whether Chuck Grassley or Donald Trump will have doubled down on their inhumanity, or whether there will be more evidence put forth discrediting the women coming forward with stories about Brett Kavanaugh or other men currently engaged in his defense. There is so much I don’t know about what’s going to happen next, whether…


David Glosser: “Stephen Miller Is An Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle”

  Democracy Now! (9/26/18) White House senior adviser Stephen Miller is the mastermind behind many of the Trump administration’s widely condemned immigration policies, including family separation, the Muslim ban and slashing the number of refugees admitted to the United States. Now he’s behind a proposal that will make it harder for immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of public benefit programs, including Obamacare, children’s health insurance and food stamps. Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are leading some in his own family to speak out against him. We speak with Dr….


The Washington Post Tried To Penalize Writer For Criticizing Owner Jeff Bezos. He Fought Back—And Won

  By David Dayen In These Times (9/18/18) Fredrick Kunkle was upset. A staff writer for the Washington Post’s Metro desk, he noticed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the owner of his newspaper, musing on Twitter about what to do with his money, which happens to be more than any human being has ever accumulated in modern history. Kunkle had an idea for the funds: reversing the hits Bezos had forced upon Post workers in successive contract negotiations. The co-chair of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild’s collective bargaining unit at the paper, Kunkle witnessed in 2014 Bezos’ management team freeze defined-benefit pensions for non-union employees, replacing them with a lump sum or annuity…


Recent Terror Attack In Iran May Have Been Hatched To Pull US Into War On Behalf Of Saudi Arabia

  By Trita Parsi Middle East Eye (9/22/18) Iran has been hit by yet another terrorist attack. At least 29 people were killed in the southwestern city of Ahvaz when gunmen opened fire on a crowd watching a military parade on Iran’s equivalent of Memorial Day. But unlike previous terror attacks, this one may spark a much larger regional conflagration – involving not just regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also the United States. In fact, it may have been designed to trigger just that. The terrorist attack, which was first claimed by an Arab separatist group with alleged…


‘Shameless’: Trump Repeals Rule Crafted To Prevent Oil-Carrying ‘Bomb Trains’ From Derailing & Exploding

    By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams (9/25/18) n a move that outraged environmentalists and increased the chances of deadly and destructive accidents, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has repealed an Obama-era rule that mandated safety upgrades for “dangerous” oil tanker trains to reduce the possibility of derailments, explosions, and spills. “This commonsense rule was put in place in response to a series of deadly accidents, and this shameless decision to repeal it will mean more workers and communities are put at risk,” declared Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign director Kelly Martin. The rule required trains carrying…


Russia Monitor: The Worried Witch Of The West Wing

“Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration. They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.” — Trump to UN Security Council (9/26/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/27/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Along with all the accusations of Russian hacking and claims of U.S. ‘readiness’ ,Trump offers his own news that it’s China we have to watch because “they do not want me to win”. It’s hard to take anything at face…


If Trump Fires Rosenstein… Here’s The Rapid Response Plan To Flood The Nation’s Streets

  Common Dreams Staff (9/24/18) While crucial questions remain about exactly how a White House meeting between Trump administration officials and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will play out on Monday, progressive groups are reminding the nation that if Rosenstein is fired there’s a plan to take to the streets in massive numbers. “You know those signs that say ‘In case of emergency, break glass?’” wrote The Atlantic‘s David Frum after news broke that Rosenstein had been summoned to the White House, with multiple news stories reporting that his ouster was likely imminent. “This is that emergency.” As Common Dreams has previously reported, progressive advocacy…


Fire, Flood & Drought: America’s Era Of Mass Climate Disaster Migration Has Begun

  By Oliver Milman The Guardian (9/24/18) After her house flooded for the third year in a row, Elizabeth Boineau was ready to flee. She packed her possessions into dozens of boxes, tried not to think of the mold and mildew-covered furniture and retreated to a second-floor condo that should be beyond the reach of pounding rains and swelling seas. Boineau is leaving behind a handsome, early 20th-century house in Charleston, South Carolina, the shutters painted in the city’s eponymous shade of deep green. Last year, after Hurricane Irma introduced 8in of water into a home Boineau was still patching up from…


While The Wealthy Get Their Tax Cuts, Hidden Homelessness Crisis Afflicts California

In the United States it is parking lots instead of homes. VICE News (9/6/18) There is a shortage of affordable housing in every state in the country, but it’s especially bad in California — where there’s only one affordable housing unit for every five extremely low income households. The gap is not only pushing more and more people out onto the streets—it’s also creating a new, fast-growing, and hidden class of homelessness: People who in the past would have been able to afford a room or apartment but now live in their cars by necessity. Danielle Williams is one of…


Lightweight: The Democratic Party Went AWOL In 2016 – And Two Years On Is Still Missing

By Cas Mudde The Guardian (9/20/18) On 8 November 2016 Donald Trump won the US presidency. But it was also the day the Democratic party went awol. Almost two years later, the Democrats are still not to be found. They have no clear leader, or even leadership team, no convincing analysis of why they lost the election, and, consequently, no strategy to do better next time. In a July 2017 Washington Post-ABC News poll a majority of Americans (52%) said the Democratic party “just stands against Trump”, while just a minority (37%) believed the party “stands for something”. I seriously doubt these numbers will…


Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9” Lays Bare The Dangerous Crossroads We Are At And What We Need To Understand From Steve Bannon

  Tyrant. Liar. Racist. And a hole in one.   By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (9/24/18) This past weekend I saw Michael Moore’s new documentary film Fahrenheit: 11/9. You will find a detailed review of the film below, so I won’t go into a lot of detail here other than to say it is an extraordinary film — in my opinion, his best — that lays out the path of how this nation has come to the dangerous crossroads with fascist totalitarianism we now confront. As Moore explains, it is not hyperbole to talk in such terms and his…


Your Future Home Could Be In A Flood Zone — And There’s No Legal Protections Required To Inform You

  By Greta Mora Grist Magazine (9/20/18) Olga McKissic lives in an airy, white-brick home with a pillared porch, the kind where you might sit and watch fireflies late in the night. The only issue is that every few years, the rising waters from a nearby river pour into her Kentucky home, ascending the porch like an uninvited guest. Her home flooded in 1997, 2006, 2013, and 2015. “That property that we purchased back in 1986, that we thought was such a wonderful, tranquil, lovely place — it’s a nightmare to live here with the thought that it is going…


Police State Updates: Evil On The Loose As ICE Arrests Dozens Of Family Or Guardians Attempting To Retrieve Children From Detention

  By Julia Conley Common Dreams (9/20/18) Confirming the fears of many immigrant families who have declined to step forward and claim children who are being held in detention facilities, a new report shows that more than 40 people have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after doing just that. CNN reported Thursday that between July and early September, at least 41 people have been detained after attempting to retrieve their young family members from government-run detention facilities, which are now at 92 percent capacity with more than 13,000 children in custody. Just 12 of the arrests were of people…


The Anti-War Speech That Sent Eugene Debs To Prison In 1918 Rings True Today

Mark Ruffalo Reads Eugene Debs Voices of a People’s History of the United States (3/13/08) Actor Mark Ruffalo reads union leader Eugene Debs’ famous “Canton, Ohio” speech. Part of a reading of Voices of a People’s History of the United States (Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove) at All Saints Church in Pasadena, CA on Feb 1, 2007. Link to 4-Minute Video ***** Excerpt From Deb’s Famous Speech For Which He Lost His Citizenship & Was Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison On June 16, 1918, Eugene Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio in opposition to World War I and was arrested…


Has America Crossed Into The Realm Of Fascism? A Look At The Ten Pillars of Fascist Politics

  “There is no question we are witnessing its successes here.” By Jeff Schechtman Who.What.Why (9/21/18) A country does not have to be fascist or have a fascist government in order to be riddled with fascist politics. This is the scary premise Jason Stanley argues in his recent book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University, is Jeff Schechtman’s guest on this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast. Stanley reminds us that while 63 million Americans voted for President Donald Trump, a man who taps into America’s worst impulses, historically there is nothing new about the kind…


EPA Putting School Children At Risk Of Asbestos Poisoning, Internal Watchdog Agency Warns

By Olivia Rosane EcoWatch (9/18/18) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) isn’t doing enough to protect the 50 million school children and seven million teachers and staff who spend time in U.S. private and public schools from asbestos exposure. That’s the conclusion of a report released Monday by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency’s internal watchdog. The report assessed the EPA’s compliance with the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) of 1986, an amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that requires local education agencies to inspect schools for asbestos, make asbestos management plans and carry out actions to reduce…


Right-Wing Network Spent Millions To Portray Questions For Kavanaugh On Abortion As “Anti-Religious”

  Democracy Now! (9/20/18) As Republicans charge forward with Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nominee hearing despite Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s claim that he raped her as a teenager, a new Nation investigation reveals a secret network of right-wing activists has spent millions of dollars attacking questions about Kavanaugh’s stance on abortion, LGBTQ rights and executive privilege as “anti-religious bigotry.” We speak with Sarah Posner about her explosive new report for The Nation, “The ‘Anti-Catholic’ Playbook.” She is a reporting fellow at the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Link to Story, Transcript and 8-Minute Video The Nation: The ‘Anti-Catholic’ Playbook — Does Brett…


Russia Monitor: How The Hell We Got Here

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/24/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The news this cycle is complex. We’ll start with the most important which also turns out to be the easiest to present – the New York Times has produced an impactful summary of ‘how we got here’. So in this order: Timeline of Russia’s Unprecedented Interference in the 2016 Election Payments Made Before and After Donnie Jr.’s Trump Tower Meeting with Russians The Lying and ‘Correction’ by Trump’s Former (pleaded guilty) National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s Assistant – K.T. McFarland New Trump-Russia Book and a Chance to Directly Question…


Call For A New International Movement To Fight Rising Fascism & Corporate Globalists

  By Yanis Varoufakis The Guardian (9/13/18) Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a globally unifying rightwing – a Nationalist International – that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism. Whether it will also be remembered for a successful humanist challenge to this menace depends on the willingness of progressives in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom as well as countries like Mexico, India and South Africa, to forge a coherent Progressive International. Our task is not unprecedented. Fascists did not come to power in the mid-war period by promising violence, war or…


A Commoner Writes: Rollback Of DNR Wetland Protections Set Stage For Recent Flooding

  Major rollbacks of DNR wetlands protections quietly set the stage for massive flooding destruction without precedent this August and September in Sauk, Dane, and other counties. Many rollbacks came in unorganized knee-jerk pieces over Walker Administration’s eight years.  Policies determined by the people changed to policies wanted by corporations or rich campaign contributors. In April 2016, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker with sponsorship by Wisconsin’s Senators Leah Vukmir and Frank Lasee and Representative Adam Jarchow enacted SB459 into Law.  SB459 caused wide-ranging deregulation of wetlands and navigable waters that removed protections controlling wild forces-of-nature and allowed man-made foolishness. This major repeal…


American Fascism: Trump Is The Symptom, Not The Problem

Concern regarding ascendant fascism isn’t necessarily misguided— the question back is: where have you been for the last fifty years? [Editor’s Note: This is an especially insightful column that peels away to “the” problem we are facing in our political and tilted economic system. — Mark L. Taylor] By Rob Urie CounterPunch (9/17/18) From Whence ‘We’ Came Fascism is a loaded topic for Americans. The term is usually put forward as oppositional, as the flip side of representative democracy, e.g. authoritarian. Left unaddressed is whose interests’ American representative democracy represents. Twenty years of research by political scientist Thomas Ferguson strongly supports the…


Intercept Report Reveals Senate Ignored Federal Court Employees Willing To Testify Against Kavanaugh

  Democracy Now! (9/18/18) Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley has announced that the committee will hold another hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh next Monday in light of accusations that he attempted to rape a 15-year-old girl at a party while he was in high school. Both Kavanaugh and his accuser, professor Christine Blasey Ford, will testify under oath. As the allegations against Kavanaugh gain steam, a new report from Ryan Grim for The Intercept has revealed that attorney Cyrus Sanai tried multiple times to reach out to Senators Charles Grassley and Dianne Feinstein on behalf of federal…


Ex-RNC Chair Michael Steele: Republican Defense Of Kavanaugh Despite Sex Scandal Is ‘reminiscent of Roy Moore’

    By Bob Brigham The Raw Story (9/18/18) For the second time during Donald Trump’s presidency, a sex scandal involving a Republican judge is causing heartaches for the GOP. In the fall of 2017, former Judge Roy Moore’s campaign for the United States Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions was rocked by allegations of sexually assaulting women and girls. The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting and Democrat Doug Jones won the December special election. Now, Judge Brett Kavanaugh is facing allegations of attempting to rape Dr. Christine Ford when was an underage high school girl. The allegations against Judge Kavanaugh are…


Michael Moore Plays His Trump Card: A New Movie, Modern Fascism & A Prediction For 2020

  By Gregg Kilday The Hollywood Reporter (9/5/18) The first time Michael Moore encountered Donald Trump, the filmmaker uncharacteristically held his tongue. The two had been booked as guests in 1998 on Roseanne Barr’s afternoon talk show, The Roseanne Show, taping at New York’s Tavern on the Green. Trump’s The Art of the Deal had been published in 1987 while Moore had already earned a reputation as a cheeky provocateur out to puncture capitalism’s balloon with his 1989 doc Roger & Me, and so when Trump spotted Moore, he threatened to walk. One of the show’s producers pulled Moore aside: Could he convince the…


Facebook Empowering Right-Wing Magazine To “Drive Liberal News Outlets Into The Ground”

  By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (9/14/18) When Facebook selected the right-wing, Iraq War-boosting magazine The Weekly Standard as an official fact-checking partner last year as part of its effort to combat “misinformation,” progressives warned that the conservative publication would use its power to suppress accurate articles published by center-left and left-wing outlets. That’s precisely what happened. After ThinkProgress published an article by Ian Millhiser last week arguing that Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh’s comments during his Senate confirmation hearings combined with a speech he gave in 2017 eliminates “any doubt” that the judge opposes the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, the Weekly Standard deemed the article “false“—a designation that,…


History Democrats Need To Remember: FDR’s Message 78 Years Ago To Corporate Quislings In The Democratic Party Applies Today

  By Alfonso KC ExtraNewsFeed (3/30/17) The 32nd president of the United States, the one that brought us Social Security and The New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wanted us to criticize corporate Democrats from the very beginning. I’m not kidding. In 1940, when he was running for his third term, he decided to drop his former Vice President, John Garner. He did this mostly because Garner was not progressive enough; Garner was opposed to a majority of The New Deal, and was opposed to FDR running for a third term. Ouch. After FDR replaced him with former Secretary of Agriculture,…


Stormy Daniels Attorney Michael Avenatti Asks How Fox News & Sarah Sanders Will Confirm Details About Trump Genitalia

“‘I had sex with that,’ I’d say to myself. Eech.” — Stormy Daniels’ reaction every time she saw Trump on television, Full Disclosure (2018). By Dominique Jackson The RawStory (9/18/18) Stormy Daniels’ forthcoming book entitled Full Disclosure provides intense details about her time with President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told CNN’s Jim Acosta that people would be a fool to continue to call Daniels a liar. “She’s included a lot of the details relating to Donald Trump because she’s tired of being called a liar,” Avenatti said. “She has been called a liar by Sarah Sanders repeatedly, by…


Russia Monitor: Fun Facts — Trump Has Much In Common With A Mushroom, Water Is Wet & Republicans Are Corrupt

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/20/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The news is dominated by a negotiation over whether the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee will give a fair hearing to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford over her accusations that SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her during a party in the 1980’s. Eleven Republicans make up the majority on the committee; all of them are men. One in particular was on the committee when Anita Hill testified about sexual harassment perpetrated by now SCOTUS Judge Clarence Thomas. That hearing was a circus, a travesty of injustice to Hill and…


Escaping Auschwitz: ‘I Have A Message For You’

‘Hells Gate’ at the Auschwitz Nazi concentration death camp.  [Editor’s Note: At a time of our own official governmental concentration camps and the cruel separation of families this story is a powerful warning of where we may be heading in this nation. Beware. Resist. — Mark L. Taylor] The  New York Times (8/3/18) This week’s Op-Doc is Matan Rochlitz’s powerful film “I Have a Message for You,” about a woman’s extraordinary journey of survival and redemption. It’s a remarkable piece, both for the creativity of its visual approach and for its unusual combination of tragedy, beauty and catharsis. Link to…