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ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 21, 2017

Thomas Frank: The Fury Around Donna Brazile’s New Book Is Symptomatic Of Our Broken Politics

  By Thomas Frank The Guardian (12/20/17) Donna Brazile has spent most of her life as a good soldier of the Democratic party, managing presidential campaigns, supporting the Clinton family, and (last year) stepping in to take over the Democratic National Committee after its chair was felled by scandal. But with the publication of her campaign memoir Hacks, this woman with a fondness for old-style cooking metaphors has finally succeeded in pissing off every last group on the country’s political spectrum. Supporters of Bernie Sanders were furious last year when a hacked email revealed that Brazile, then a popular CNN…

ALL ARTICLES, Putin & Donnie, Russia Monitor, Trumpenstan December 21, 2017

Russia Monitor: Putin’s All-Purpose Fool Tool

“He knows how to handle an asset and that’s what he’s doing with the president.” – Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper referring to Putin’s relationship with Trump. (CNN – 12/18/17)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/21/17) Dear Fellow Readers, COLLUSION! As NBC News reported Tuesday, soon after Trump became the Republican nominee senior FBI officials briefed him on counterintelligence. including a very specific warning that foreign adversaries “would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign”. These briefings are common practice with presidential nominees. Candidates are encouraged to report such contacts: FBI Warned Trump In 2016 Russians…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, FEATURE, Rethuglicans December 21, 2017

Bipartisan Stupidity & Blindness Have Destroyed Whatever Democracy The US Ever Had

Our Clueless Leader By Dave Lindorff Counter Punch (12/15/17) Okay, somebody has to say this, so it might as well be me. The American political system exists as it is because of two reasons: 1) The majority of Republican voters are either incredibly ignorant or are simply incredibly selfish, and 2)  The majority of Democratic voters are so blinded by their fear of Republicans that they will vote for the most puerile, manipulative, deceitful, greedy and/or feckless candidates, as long as they are Democrats, and will re-elect them even after having been betrayed by them time and time again. There, I’ve…

ALL ARTICLES, War State America December 21, 2017

Bombs In Our Backyard: US Military Waging Active Chemical Warfare Against Americans

  By Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica (12/18/17) IT WAS A SECRET wartime project, with a code name and an urgent mission: develop a more powerful bomb, one that could be mass produced in time to fend off the German forces ravaging Europe. It was 1940. British chemists toiled with a tripod-shaped bond of nitrogen and oxygen molecules linked by carbon and hydrogen they referred to as “research department explosive” — a substance one and a half times as powerful as TNT, but so delicate it had to be mixed with beeswax to be stable and pliable enough to fit into warheads. Even then,…

ALL ARTICLES, Documentaries, History They Don't Want You To Know, War State America December 21, 2017

Story Behind The Famous Pentagon Papers: The Story Of A Whistleblower & A Young Reporter

Secrets, Lies and Leaks. The Center For Investigative Reporting & PRX (5/21/17) In this episode of Reveal, we’re using the full hour to take a deep look at the leaking and publication of the Pentagon Papers. At the center of the episode are two guys who have a knack for being in the room when history gets made: Robert J. Rosenthal and Daniel Ellsberg. For Rosenthal, the Pentagon Papers came calling when he was at the beginning of his journalism career. When Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971, he was turning his back on a long career close…

ALL ARTICLES December 21, 2017

Fundraiser: Duty To Protect Books About Trump For Congress

  GoFundMe We are a nonpartisan group of concerned mental health professionals who would like to give a copy of the NY Times best selling book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, to every Senator and House Representative to warn about the dangers of the current presidency and to offer solutions.  More than two dozen psychiatrists and other mental health experts offer their consensus view that Trump’s mental instability presents a clear and present danger to our nation and individual well-being.  The book costs $20.99. There are 100 Senators in the Senate and 435 Representatives in the House of Representatives. Therefore…

ALL ARTICLES December 21, 2017

60 Environmental Protections On The Way Out Under Trump

  (Editor’s Note: What’s in a word? A lot. In fact a whole universe. Read the headline above. It is the original New York Times wording with one exception. I swapped out “Protections” for “Rules”. I have added the same below next to the word “regulations” and “rules”. Notice the different emotional reaction to reading the headline and the sentences below with the different wording. What you are experiencing is message framing. The right has high jacked the language where a good “protection” become a dreaded, pesky “regulation” or “rule” to be eliminated. Even the vaunted New York Times has…

ALL ARTICLES December 21, 2017

As The Nation Speculates Whether Or Not Special Counsel Robert Mueller Will Be Fired By Trump, Activists Across The County Are Gearing Up For A Nationwide Response

#MarchForTruth On June 3rd, you joined tens of thousands of Americans across the country in the #MarchForTruth to demand urgency and transparency in the investigations into Russian election interference and ties to Donald Trump and his associates. Now, we could have a deepening Constitutional crisis on our hands. Will Donald Trump take action to stop the investigation? With indictments being handed down, it has been reported Donald Trump is considering firing the man investigating him and his inner circle, special counsel Robert Mueller. Various individuals in the President’s circle have suggested the investigation should end, and in recent days GOP attacks…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 18, 2017

Absolutely Do NOT Watch This Video!

Michael Moore: The DNC Will Cost Us The Election In 2018 Unless You & Others Run For Office My friends, if we let the old guard, the party hacks of the Dem party call the shots next year, we are doomed. By Michael Moore Michael Moore’s Facebook Page (12/16/17) At the DNC, a Bernie supporter goes off on the corruption of the party hacks who… spent over $700 million on 5 consultants?! (Watch video below.) The DNC will cost us the election in 2018 unless you and others get out there and run for office on your own. I drove…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats December 18, 2017

Charles Barkley’s Wake-up Call – And Deep Warning – To Democrats On Alabama Victory

By Richard Eskow OurFuture.org (12/14/17) Before he became one of the great basketball players of his time, Charles Barkley was a son of the Alabama soil.  He went home to help Doug Jones pull off his upset victory against Roy Moore in this week’s special Senate election. Here’s what he had to say on CNN after Jones was declared the winner: “This is a wake-up call for Democrats. Democrats, I told Mr. Jones this, and I love Doug, they’ve taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time. It’s time for them to get off their ass…

ALL ARTICLES, Worker Notes by Tom Crofton December 18, 2017

Are We Seeing A Sea Change Or A Rogue Wave?

By Tom Crofton The Commoner Call (12/18/17) The latest chapter of resistance to Trumpism in particular, and society’s ills in general is the refreshingly feminist movement to “out” sexual harassment. This development is long overdue and parallels all other movements for social justice, whose progress often display a ratcheting quality of a couple steps forward, and a couple back. In many ways the latest round is built on the waves of social change going back to the original fights for emancipation and suffrage. The fact that feminists have reached public position and office, and are using those rostrums to speak…

ALL ARTICLES, Paul Ryan December 18, 2017

Good Riddance To Paul Ryan – The Biggest Fake In American Politics

By Charles P. Pierce Esquire (12/14/17) Ring and run, you wretched cur. In what passes for a genuine scoop, Tim Alberta and Rachael Cade broke the news in Politico on Thursday that Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, may well be hanging them up at the end of the 2018 midterms. Of course, Ryan—and various People Who Are Familiar With His Thinking—has a number of deeply pious, and unquestionably phony, reasons for his departure. “On a personal level, going home at the end of next year would allow Ryan, who turns 48 next month, to keep promises…

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ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, FEATURE, Paul Ryan December 18, 2017

Paul Ryan’s Primary Challenger Pushes Ugly White Nationalist Ideology & Coded Nazi Language

  (Editor’s Note: While his ideology and racist language may be crude, don’t underestimate the potential impact of far right Paul Ryan primary challenger Paul Nehlen. In the 2016 election he produced a powerful campaign video and his campaign website is slick. Clearly he has a lot of money behind him – his or others. – Mark L. Taylor) By Christopher Mathias The HuffPost (12/16/17) HuffPost asked Paul Nehlen three times by email this week if he considers himself a white nationalist. Twice Nehlen dodged the question. The third time he didn’t respond. The Wisconsin Republican is running to replace House Speaker Paul…

ALL ARTICLES December 18, 2017

The Weekly Hate Report: Uptick In Hate Crimes, A Nazi Style Guide & Wisconsin Congressional Candidate

  By Will Carless & Aaron Sankin Center for Investigative Journalism (12/15/17) In this week’s Hate Report: A swath of new hate crimes and hate-crime prosecutions across the country, a style guide for neo-Nazis and a white nationalist stumping for Roy Moore. After a relatively quiet couple of weeks, hate incidents returned with a vengeance in early December: • In Owasso, Oklahoma, a man accused of targeting the homeless community in a series of horrific attacks now also faces hate-crime charges. Jeremy Dean Thacker was charged with murder and nine related felonies after he allegedly ran victims over with his truck. The case…

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor December 18, 2017

Russia Monitor: What Will Donald Leave In America’s Stocking This Week?

“He (Trump) is so compromised with Russia that he is willing to outright lie for Putin because he is bought and paid for or he is completely disconnected from any sense of reality.” “hiredman”, writing on Saturday (12/16/17)for the Daily Kos By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/28/17) Dear Fellow Readers, It looks like we are in for a BIG week with Trump-Russia collusion. As reported Saturday in The Hill, the recurring story is that Trump is prepared to fire special counsel Robert Mueller as early as this upcoming week: Rumor Is Trump Could Fire Mueller Before Christmas. “Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Friday…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Screwing With Your Vote December 18, 2017

Election Madness: The Ballot Is Never Enough

“Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.” – Howard Zinn, Election Madness (2008)

ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change December 18, 2017

Thawing Of Arctic Permafrost Faster Than Ever, Climate Study Reports

  Associated Press (12/12/17) Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing faster than ever, according to a new US government report that also found Arctic seawater is warming and sea ice is melting at the fastest pace in 1,500 years. The annual report released on Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed slightly less warming in many measurements than a record hot 2016. But scientists remain concerned because the far northern region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe and has reached a level of warming that’s unprecedented in modern times. “2017 continued to show us we…

ALL ARTICLES December 18, 2017

‘Making America Stupid Again’: Outrage Over Forbidden 7 Words You Can’t Say At Trump’s CDC

  “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”  ― George Orwell, 1984 By Jon Queally Common Dreams (12/16/17) Comedian George Carlin famously invented the seven words you cannot say on television, but it appears that it took Donald Trump becoming president to learn what seven words scientists and advisors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are no longer allowed to say or write in their official capacities. Government watchdogs, women’s health advocates, lawmakers, and scientists are up in arms on Saturday after it was reported that President Donald Trump’s CDC has created and distributed a list of seven “forbidden” words,…

ALL ARTICLES December 18, 2017

SILENCE! Your Right To Protest Under Attack In D.C. Inaugural Day Protester Prosecutions

Medics, Observers & a Journalist Face 50 Years in Prison (Editor’s Note: Bullshit Alert! As was seen in various Occupy Wall Street protests, many black clad rioters have proven to be police agents provocateurs determined to undermine and smear peaceful protests. Here is one particularly brazen example. Why was a far right ‘journalist’ released by the police but a left wing journalist was charged? As was seen in the infamous decades long COINTELPRO action, the government is determined to destroy legitimate First Amendment citizen rights. – Mark L. Taylor) Democracy Now! (12/15/17) Final arguments are underway today[12/15] in Washington, D.C., in a…

ALL ARTICLES, FEATURE, Gun Cult, Ron "Wall Street" Kind December 14, 2017

CARTOON: How Rep. Ron Kind Chose To Observe Today’s 5th Anniversary Of The Sandy Hook Slaughter Of Innocent Children & Teachers

  Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (12/14/17) On Dec. 6 Wisconsin’s Democratic Rep. Ron Kind Voted For The National Rifle Association’s ‘Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017’, Which Overrides State & Local Protections From Handgun Violence. In many states, including Wisconsin, concealed carry gun permits are easier to get than a drivers license. Two states encourage mail-in orders for concealed carry gun permits from non-residents. Few states require permit holders to pass any kind of rigorous, real-world training and evaluation of gun handling skills and judgment. On December 6 Rep. Ron Kind joined his close pal republican Rep. Paul…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Trumpenstan December 14, 2017

The Story Of George Wallace & The Radical Fascist Right Shows That Even After Trump The Threat To The Nation Remains

Whether Trump lasts another three weeks, another three years, or another seven years, our troubles won’t be over when he’s gone. They may well get worse. (Editor’s Note: This is an important, excellent analysis of the American fascist right that properly explains how Trump is a product of, not the progenitor of the radical fascist right. Rich draws from the history of George Wallace, showing the parallels and the political DNA of the right wing movement going back to the 1930’s. As the internet is choked off and the Sinclair group takes over more media the threat of the radical…

ALL ARTICLES, Resist! December 14, 2017

In Trump World There Is The Essential Civic Duty For Disobedience

  By Roger Cohen The New York Times (12/13/17) LONDON — Dog lovers tend to find each other in life for the rest of humanity is, after all, suspect. On a long flight recently, I fell into a conversation with a woman about dogs. It turned into a conversation about disobedience, and the world’s current need for it. When immense power is in erratic and belligerent hands, as it is today in the United States, the readiness of subordinates to disobey becomes critical. “Befehl ist befehl” — an order is an order — was the German principle that enabled the…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resistance Tunes December 14, 2017

As Republicans Gear Up To Gut Social Security To Fund Massive Tax Cuts For The Wealthy, Here’s What Life Was Like Before Earned Benefits

Red House Records Boise Song Talk (10/14/12) Rosalie Sorrels reads the chapter “Social Security” from her mother Nancy Stringfellow’s memoir, “Report from Grimes Creek after a Hard Winter”. This is an excerpt from the full interview with Rosalie Sorrels and James Coberly Smith in the Boise Song Talk series. Link to 6-Minute Video Rosalie Sorrels Talks About Health Insurance & Death: 6-Minute Video

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor December 14, 2017

Russia Monitor: Sex & Russia – Be Prepared For The Unthinkable

“It is almost a maxim of the Trump era that the bounds of the unthinkable continuously shrink.” – Jonathan Chait for New York magazine, 12/11/17 By Dan Peak The Commoner Call 912/14/17) Dear Fellow Readers, In his victory speech after winning the Alabama senate seat previously held by attorney general Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III, Doug Jones quoted Dr. Martin Luther King: “The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.” We may not know the ‘how’ or the ‘when’, but it’s clear that history will remember Trump for what he is, and history will not be kind…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know December 14, 2017

Chris Hedges: On Fall Of Empire & The Rise Of Bullying Fascists

  “All great empires and nations decay from within. By the time they hobble off the world stage, overrun by the hordes at the gates or vanishing quietly into the pages of history books, what made them successful and powerful no longer has relevance. This rot takes place over decades, as with the Soviet Union, or, even longer, as with the Roman, Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian empires. It is often imperceptible. “Dying empires cling until the very end to the outward trappings of power. They mask their weakness behind a costly and technologically advanced military. They pursue increasingly unrealistic imperial ambitions….

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism December 14, 2017

Alt-America Threat: The Time For Talking About White Terrorism Is Now

  By David Neiwert The Guardian (11/26/17) In the days before he walked into Charleston’s Mother Emanuel church with a gun and murdered nine people, Dylann Roof put together a manifesto. It was a bizarre, rambling tract loaded with racial and political animus, much of it cribbed from white-supremacist groups with ties to South Carolina’s Republican establishment. In the final section, Roof wrote: “I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing…

ALL ARTICLES, Rethuglicans December 11, 2017

Make America Grope Again: Roy Moore Is Not Innocent Until Proven Guilty

The legal presumption of innocence is not the same as innocence itself. By Phillip Rotner The HuffPost (12/7/17) Alabama voters will decide on Tuesday whether to send an accused child predator, Roy Moore, to the United States Senate. The mere thought of it sounds unthinkable, but the polls indicate that it is not only possible, but even likely that Moore will be elected. Those who believe the allegations made against Moore by credible Alabama women, but plan to vote for him anyway, are beyond redemption. Nothing anybody says or does will deter them from supporting a member of their tribe….

ALL ARTICLES, Police State America, Rethuglicans December 11, 2017

Frank Rich: The Party Of Lincoln Is Now The Party Of Predators

  By Frank Rich New York Magazine (12/9/17) Though the Republican National Committee has restored funding for Alabama’s Roy Moore, Republican members of Congress — and even the committee’s own officials — are keeping their distance from party support. Is it better for the GOP if Moore wins or if he loses? Even The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which sold its soul to Donald Trump after the election, said this morning that “you have to believe in magic to think this is going to end well for Republicans.” Anticipating the resignation of Al Franken, the editorial pleaded with its party, from Trump down, to disown Moore — if…

ALL ARTICLES, Economic Injustice, History They Don't Want You To Know December 11, 2017

Neoliberalism – The Ideology At The Root Of All Our Economic & Social Crises

  By George Monbiot The Guardian (11/15/16) Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is? Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power. It has played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which…

ALL ARTICLES December 11, 2017

Last Friday: DNC’s Secretive & Deeply Cynical ‘Unity’ Commission Further Dividing & Watering Down The Democratic Party…

The Real News (12/8/17) “You look at the big picture and you see that there’s a lot of money that keeps flowing to Clinton-aligned political consultants from the Democratic party, and the majority on this commission clearly does not want to shake up that game, much less end it,” says Norman Solomon, co-founder of RootsAction.org . Link to 18-Minute Video ***** …24 Hours Later: DNC Unity Commission Agrees On Set Of Historic Reforms (But Will They Survive Or Be Smothered In The Cradle?) By Daniel Marans The HuffPost (12/9/17) WASHINGTON ― At its final meeting on Friday and Saturday, the…

ALL ARTICLES, Climate Change December 11, 2017

As World Warms, Heart-Breaking Video Shows What It Looks Like When A Polar Bear Starves Due To Climate Crisis

By Julia Connely Common Dreams (12/8/17) A video of a starving polar bear led to calls for climate change denialists to confront the real-world effects of global warming this week. Taken by a Canadian conservationist and photographer and posted to social media, the video offered a stark visual of the drastic impacts of climate change that have already begun taking root. Paul Nicklen was traveling with the conservation group Sea Legacy in Canada’s Baffin Islands, located in the Arctic, when he spotted the emaciated animal struggling to walk across the dry land—historically covered with ice in December and home to…

ALL ARTICLES, Russia Monitor December 11, 2017

Russia Monitor: Could Trump Eventually Be Undone By A Gift From Barack Obama?

    By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/11/17) Dear Fellow Readers, This has been a relatively quiet Trump-Russia news cycle, though there are always new developments. As an example, there is more to the Donnie Jr. June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with indicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort,  Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and various Russians. It would take a herculean effort to count the number of times Donnie Jr. has lied about the communications prior to the meeting, who was present at the meeting, what was discussed or what, if anything, happened after the meeting. So it’s no…

ALL ARTICLES, Women In America December 11, 2017

Salvadoran Woman Jailed For ‘Abortion’ Pleads For Freedom

TeleSur (12/8/17) Teodora Vasquez is one of 31 women imprisoned in El Salvador for falling foul of anti-abortion laws that are among the six most draconian on the planet. A Salvadoran woman who has been jailed for a decade since her miscarriage was ruled an ‘illegal abortion’ has pleaded for her freedom before a court revising her 30-year prison sentence. “I am paying for a crime I didn’t commit,” Teodora Vasquez, 34, told the tribunal in San Salvador. Since the Constitution came into force in 1999 under the conservative government, abortion in the Central American nation has been illegal, regardless of whether pregnancy results from rape or poses any…

ALL ARTICLES, Women In America December 11, 2017

This Is What The United States Has Become: When Immigration Detention Means Losing Your Kids

By Emma Jacobs Morning Edition/NPR (12/8/17) About five million children in the United States have an undocumented parent. These families have always been at risk of separation if the parents are detained, but expanded immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration may increase that risk. Immigration attorneys are warning that without preventative measures, more children will end up in foster care, and their parents will struggle to regain custody from outside the United States. They point to cases like that of a Guatemalan woman named Maria Luis, who was separated from her children back in 2005. “Daniel knew me but…

ALL ARTICLES, American Socialist Tradition December 11, 2017

The Public Bank Option – Safer, Local & Half The Cost

Note: Phil Murphy, a former banker newly elected as New Jersey Governor, has made a state-owned bank a centerpiece of his platform. With his win on November 7, the nation’s second state-owned bank in a century could follow. By Ellen Brown Web of DebtBlog (11/4/17) A UK study published on October 27, 2017 reported that the majority of politicians do not know where money comes from. According to City A.M. (London) : “More than three-quarters of the MPs surveyed incorrectly believed that only the government has the ability to create new money. . . . “The Bank of England has previously intervened to point…

ALL ARTICLES, Trumpenstan December 11, 2017

“The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump”: Psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee On Growing Mental Health Concerns

  Democracy Now! (12/8/17) Questions over President Donald Trump’s mental health continue to grow, following his speech on Wednesday where he slurred his speech and mispronounced words during an address on Israel. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded Thursday to the mounting concerns by announcing that Trump has scheduled a physical health exam. Meanwhile, Pentagon leaders last month told a Senate panel they would ignore any unlawful order by the president to launch a nuclear strike. The testimony came as part of the first congressional hearings in more than 40 years on the president’s authority to start a…

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, CIA, War State America December 11, 2017

Pandora’s Box: An Ex-CIA Officer Speaks Out About The Explosive & Illegal Italian Rendition Case

“It’s really important that this entire story be told because this case is emblematic of a broader, larger political and policy issues.” – CIA whistleblower Sabrina De Sousa VICE News (11/3/15) Sabrina De Sousa is one of nearly two-dozen CIA officers who was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced by Italian courts in absentia in 2009 for the role she allegedly played in the rendition of a radical cleric named Abu Omar. It was the first and only criminal prosecution that has ever taken place related to the CIA’s rendition program, which involved more than 100 suspected terrorists and the assistance of…

ALL ARTICLES, Trumpenstan December 7, 2017

Since You Can’t Serve Two Masters, Mike Pence Has Chosen His

Will the vice president—and the religious right—be rewarded for their embrace of Donald Trump? By McKay Coppins The Atlantic (January/February 2018) No man can serve two masters, the Bible teaches, but Mike Pence is giving it his all. It’s a sweltering September afternoon in Anderson, Indiana, and the vice president has returned to his home state to deliver the Good News of the Republicans’ recently unveiled tax plan. The visit is a big deal for Anderson, a fading manufacturing hub about 20 miles outside Muncie that hasn’t hosted a sitting president or vice president in 65 years—a fact noted by several…