“After months of anticipation, the impeachment trial of President Trump wound up consisting of two weeks of dry debate and posturing and will now conclude without any witness testimony or new evidence. For those hoping for more, here is … ‘The Trial You Wish Had Happened.’” Link To 9-Minute Video
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“If the president is so confident in his case, if Leader McConnell is so confident the president did nothing wrong, why don’t they want the case to be presented in broad daylight?” — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer By Jon Queally Common Dreams (1/21/20) As the U.S. Senate on Tuesday began debating the rules that will dictate the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump going forward, progressive groups continued their denunciation of the proposal put forth by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who they charge has set the stage for a legal process that will “amount to nothing more than a fact-free sham trial perpetrated…
By Nina Totenberg Morning Edition / NPR (1/22/20) The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a major case that could dramatically alter the line separating church and state. At issue is a Montana state constitutional amendment that bars direct and indirect taxpayer aid to religious institutions. Conservative religious groups and advocates of school choice are challenging the “no-aid” provision. They have long sought to invalidate state constitutional amendments that prohibit taxpayer funding from going to religious schools. Given that Montana is one of 38 states with a “no-aid” provision, the court’s eventual decision could have far-reaching consequences. The case…
In the Senate, nearly one-third of the members of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee own stocks in top defense contractors. By Donald Shaw & David Moore Sludge (1/13/20) It was shortly after midnight in Baghdad on Friday, Jan. 3, when a missile strike ordered by President Trump killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. When stock markets opened the next day, dozens of members of Congress saw bumps in their portfolios as their holdings in defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon increased in value on the possibility of war. Over the next three trading days, the leading defense industry…
By Sarah K. Burris Raw Story (1/8/20) Former Republican Rick Wilson unleashed an epic rant against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Wednesday night. As part of the mockery of the South Carolina Senator, Wilson outlined new rules for Republican officials to follow under the leadership of President Donald Trump, who he called “Sniffles The Clown.” “The assertion by Lindsay Graham that today’s bizarre performance by Sniffles The Clown was on par with ‘Tear Down This Wall’ is part of the Saddamification of the GOP,” said Wilson. “What are the new rules?” he asked. Never be the first guy to stop clapping…
By Mike Lofgren Common Dreams (12/27/19) “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” —Matthew 24:24 Just when you thought the soon-to-expire year had long since reached peak stupidity, Newsweek published a piece that set a record for preposterous ideas, confidently but incoherently argued. At first glance, it also appeared to demonstrate the lengths the supposedly mainstream media will go in giving equal time to fringe points of view—what is pretentiously called the national conversation. But it may actually be the result of a more ambitious agenda than just a…
The nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church, Claremont California. Like families in our federal concentration camps, Jesus, Mary & Joseph portrayed as refugees separated in cages. As folks gather with family and friends this Wednesday for Christmas keep in mind the thousands of immigrant children — including toddlers and infants — separated from their mothers and fathers in the spreading United States concentration camps along the southern border. The message of the season couldn’t be further removed from the policies of this criminal government. While conservatives love to rail on and on about a fictitious “war on Christmas” and many…
Trump’s Cowardly Lions Of The Far Right. MSNBC (11/4/19) In the first batch of transcripts released from the impeachment investigation depositions, House Republicans make no attempt to defend Trump and fail to undermine the expert witnesses who testified. Link To 8-Minute Video (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org ) ***** Impeachment Transcripts Expose The Shameful Truth: House Republicans Don’t Give A Damn About Protecting America By David Cay Johnston Raw Story (11/5/19) Transcripts of closed-door testimony in the Trump impeachment investigation show a disturbing pattern of behavior…
White used Jewish holy days such as Passover and Yom Kippur this year to promise people access to special divine blessings in return for sending her money. By Peter Montgomery Right Wing Watch (11/5/19) Just two weeks before it was revealed that President Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White had officially joined the White House staff, White’s most recent book became the latest evangelical offering to portray Trump’s election as part of a divine plan. White is a prosperity gospel preacher who tells supporters that they can access divine blessings by sending money to her ministry. Her new memoir, “Something Greater: Finding Triumph Over Trials,” seems designed to humanize White by…
By Julia Conley Common Dreams (11/4/19) Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett said Monday that President Donald Trump is responsible for violent hate crimes like an acid attack which left a 42-year-old man with second-degree burns in the city on Friday. Mahud Villaluz told CNN affiliate WISN that a man confronted him over a parking spot, called him “an illegal,” and told him to “go back to [his] country” before throwing battery acid at him. The incident was caught on surveillance video and a 61-year-old man was arrested in connection with the crime on Monday. “My concern is that more and more people feel that…
David Packman Show (10/7/19) Shocking pictures appear to confirm Donald Trump’s likely use of “uppers” after boxes of Sudafed [a formulation not sold in the United States] were photographed during the 2016 campaign in his Trump Tower office desk. Link To 5-Minute Video ***** MASH-UP: Trump’s al-Baghdadi Speech & Obama’s Bin Laden Speech Jimmy Kimmel Live (10/28/19) When Barack Obama went on TV to announce they killed Bin Laden, he spoke for nine and a half minutes. Trump yesterday, when he announced they killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, did for 48 minutes. So, for further comparison, we thought it might…
Imagine six months of Giuliani butt-dials. By Charlie Sykes Politico (10/30/19) To: Senate Republicans By now it should have dawned on you that there is no escape. You are going to have to render a verdict not just on Donald’s Trump’s policies, but on his personal conduct. For just the third time in U.S. history, the Senate will hold a trial on the impeachment and removal of a president. The first step to saving your life is to recognize what the monster feeds on. In this case, it’s your fear of standing up to him. You’ll have to vote up…
By Sophia Tesfaye Salon (10/26/19) Former Vice President Joe Biden called for President Trump’s impeachment for the first time earlier this month, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally announced the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry. Now as Republicans unite to derail the inquiry with unprecedented stunts, Biden’s main campaign pitch — that his ability to cut deals with GOP leaders will forge a post-Trump coalition — seems not only naive but pretty much unfathomable. “There’s an awful lot of really good Republicans out there,” Biden argued at a Massachusetts fundraiser this summer. Calling them “decent people,” Biden insisted that he…
By Dan Peak The Commoner Cal (10/20/19) Dear Fellow Readers, Two powerful images. When you look at this first picture what do you see? I predict this is a picture we will see a lot over the rest of our lives. There is one woman in the picture. She is clearly talking to one man across the table from her. Look at his expression, look at the three men to his right, what do we read into their posture with their heads down? Official White House photo, 2019. Can anyone look at this picture and not choose a side?…
One boy said he was threatened with rape if he didn’t behave. Several others were allegedly beaten while handcuffed. By Gaby Del Valle VICE News (10/18/19) Being run over by a vehicle, beaten while handcuffed, and even threatened with rape — they’re all examples of the treatment migrant children and teenagers have said they endured while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection. Some of the kids claim officers hit them for no reason. One boy said officers accused him of lying about his age and told him he’d be raped by an adult man if he didn’t tell the…
When you are the son of a famous and powerful politician, you are showered with opportunity, whether you deserve it or not. This is nepotism, but it is also, if we are being direct, a form of corruption. Moral corruption. By Hamilton Nolan The Guardian (10/11/10) One of the peculiar stupidities of the American political mind is its resolute refusal to hold two separate ideas at once. Our dominant political narrative is like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book for morons, offering only a conservative red storyline or a liberal blue storyline, with nothing in between or outside those primary color bounds. Politicians themselves, out…
The danger of democracy transitioning into pathocracy is always real. It is always closer to us than we think, and once it has a foothold, will crush every obstacle in its way. By Steve Taylor The Conversation (9/19/19) After spending his early life suffering under the Nazis and then Stalin, the Polish psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski devoted his career to studying the relationship between psychological disorders and politics. He wanted to understand why psychopaths and narcissists are so strongly attracted to power as well as the processes by which they take over governments and countries. He eventually came up with the term “pathocracy”…
By Lloyd Green The Guardian (9/15/19) Nearly 35 years ago, the pollster Stanley Greenberg took a hard look at Macomb county, Michigan, wanting to better understand the political DNA of “Reagan Democrats”. He concluded: “These white Democratic defectors express a profound distaste for blacks, a sentiment that pervades almost everything they think about government and politics.” A supporter of Robert Kennedy in 1968, Greenberg saw class, not race, as the lever of choice in wooing Democratic voters. A quarter-century later, he was Bill Clinton’s pollster in his victorious 1992 presidential bid. Now Greenberg delivers RIP GOP, in which he predicts that the…
The conservative movement has been overtaken by performative stupidity. By Stephen Marche Medium (9/4/19) There are new rules. It doesn’t matter if you want to play by them. It doesn’t matter if you believe there should be other rules. In the world of images we have entered, a world of screens, the sudden acceleration of the scope of mass media in all forms has generated, on the right, a conservative buffoonery that has taken over the major parties, and, on the left, a tendency toward political suicide by the refinement of image. As with Ernest Hemingway’s proverbial bankruptcy, the crisis…
We need to understand that Trump is a symptom, not the problem. By Andrew O’Hehir Salon (8/2/19) We are in the middle of a slow-motion coup in the United States of America. Even the phrase itself is banal, which is itself a symptom of our moral and political exhaustion. But sometimes clichés are on the money. Most of this coup is happening right out in the open, where those of us who are somewhat paying attention can notice it, bemoan it and then move on to the next day’s real or manufactured outrage. That doesn’t seem to be helping. There…
The goal of abortion opponents is clear: they do not want women to be equal players in society. [Editor’s Note: This article explains perfectly the hypocrisy of how anti-choice activists, who are supposedly in favor of life, oppose healthcare, education and childcare and supportive family programs that help the lives they hypocritically say they are so concerned about. The reason is that it is not about life; it is all about control, dominance and power over women. — Mark L. Taylor] By Jill Filipovic The Guardian (8/22/19) According to self-identified “pro-life” advocates, the fundamental divide between those who want to outlaw…
Middle Americans got so used to getting nothing out of elections, they started treating national politics for what it had become to them, a distant, pretentious sitcom. By Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone (8/19/19) Early evening, August, Cincinnati. The Queen City’s many bridges are sealed off, its sky is dirty with helicopters, and seemingly every cop for 100 miles is patrolling Pete Rose Way along the Ohio River. A crowd of 20,000 or more stands in punishing heat, waiting to enter U.S. Bank Arena. The evil rumor buzzing down the line of MAGA hats is that not everyone will get in…
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” — Martin Luther King Jr. By David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement (8/17/19) House Republican leadership has sent a memo to GOP members of Congress directing them to lie about right wing white supremacist gun massacres, and to call it “violence from the left.” The memo, which The Tampa Bay Times acquired, includes talking points for congressional Republicans to parrot when speaking with reporters or constituents. It instructs them on how to address questions about gun violence, including the domestic terrorism recently perpetrated in El Paso, Texas. If asked a question…
The Koch Brothers Grab $16.4 Million Every Day. [Editor’s Note: Given the impact of the surreptitious Koch brothers’ machinations in Wisconsin a review of their role in American politics is in order. There pernicious influence on universities is especially dangerous. This is a good, concise review. Be sure to watch all the way through the credits at the end. — Mark L. Taylor] Brave New Films (1/21/15) The last time we exposed the Koch Brothers’ dealings to the world we here at Brave New Films wound up in their crosshairs. They produced online ad campaigns attacking us, but, it takes more…
Mike Huckabee: Thoughts & Prayers Are ‘Only Thing’ That Will Stop Mass Shootings By David Moye HuffPost (8/5/19) This weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have many people demanding that something be done to stop gun violence. However, Mike Huckabee insists there’s only one solution to curbing the violence and it’s ― you guessed it ― “thoughts and prayers,” that time-honored solution of pretending to do something without actually doing anything. On Monday, the former Arkansas governor and twice Republican presidential candidate wrote a post on his blog where he attempted to make the case that “thoughts…
“Don’t be an a-hole. Don’t be a racist. Don’t be a misogynist, right? Don’t be a homophobe. These are real basic things that we should all have learned in kindergarten.” — Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), the GOP’s only back member in the House of Representatives who has announced his retirement. Watch A Republican Congressman Scold Trump: Don’t Be ‘An A**hole’: Link to 17-Minute Video (Commoner Call cartoon by Mark L. Taylor, 2019. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )
This tax bill was constructed on a foundation of lies. By Marshall Auerback Independent Media Institute (7/16/19) The most commonly heard refrain when Donald Trump and the GOP were seeking to pass some version of corporate tax reform went something like this: There are literally trillions of dollars trapped in offshore dollar deposits which, because of America’s uncompetitive tax rates, cannot be brought back home. Cut the corporate tax rate and get those dollars repatriated, thereby unleashing a flood of new job-creating investment in the process. Or so the pitch went. Since the passage of the tax bill, the data show no…
Want a response to a lawless & complete failure of a President? He is the crisis. His dangerous ideology is the crisis. He needs to be impeached. — Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Tweet ***** By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (7/17/19) After the House late Tuesday passed a nonbinding resolution condemning President Donald Trump’s racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen, outside progressives and lawmakers argued a “strongly worded” rebuke is not sufficient to hold the president accountable and called for impeachment hearings to begin immediately. In a statement after the resolution passed largely along party lines—with just four House Republicans breaking from their party and…
“Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal. That includes the people responsible for fixing the problems.” By Ginger Thompson ProPublica (7/16/19) The Border Patrol agent, a veteran with 13 years on the job, had been assigned to the agency’s detention center in McAllen, Texas, for close to a month when the team of court-appointed lawyers and doctors showed up one day at the end of June. Taking in the squalor, the stench of unwashed bodies, and the poor health and vacant eyes of the hundreds of children held there, the group members appeared stunned. Then,…
Trump’s attack against four progressive Congresswomen was an act of racism, white nationalism — and narcissism. “More to the point, it requires challenge. America doesn’t move forward without being pushed. Speaking as someone with many family members who have served in the armed forces, I would still argue that our greatest patriots are those who fight in good faith in our communities to force this nation to own up to its original guarantees. But the aspiring strongman requires a different pledge of allegiance. This is a president who has done all he can to center the state in himself, masking his authoritarian…
Wherever these questions lead prosecutors and reporters must follow. And the public must demand real accountability, no matter the answers. By Jill Filipovic The Guardian (7/10/19) I hope Jeffrey Epstein sings like a bird. The wealthy and well-connected financier and registered sex offender was arrested this week in New York on accusations of child sex trafficking. He just may bring a lot of bad men – and a few bad women – down with him. Epstein allegedly groomed and recruited dozens of underage girls, many of them vulnerable runaways, for sex with him and his friends. Despite being caught by…
Miriam Adelson Longs For A ‘Book Of Trump’ In The Bible By Josefin Dolsten Jerusalem Post (6/29/19) It isn’t news that Sheldon and Miriam Adelson are big fans of President Donald Trump. The Republican mega-donors gave millions to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. But Miriam Adelson took it one step further on Thursday. The Israeli-American physician compared the president to biblical prophets in an article in which she asked why he has not enjoyed higher support among American Jews. “That this has not been the case (so far, the 2020 election still beckons) is an oddity that will long be pondered…
“I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. “If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and misrepresentatives of the masses — you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. “I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be…
Investigation Of Secret Border Patrol Group Launched As New Degrading Facebook Posts Surface A ProPublica story revealing demeaning posts directed at Latina lawmakers prompted widespread revulsion. By A.C. Thompson & Dara Lind ProPublica (7/1/19) The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has opened an investigation into vulgar and misogynistic social media posts made by members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. On Monday, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection was made aware of disturbing social media activity hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees,” said Matthew Klein, head…
“In March 1864, a decade after Alvan Bovay founded the Republican Party in Ripon [WI], a delegation from the New York Workingman’s Democratic Republican Association came to the White House to offer the country’s first Republican president an honorary membership in their labor organization, “None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working people,” Abraham Lincoln told them, after accepting the honor. “Let them beware of prejudice, working division, and hostility among themselves. The most notable feature of a disturbance in your city last summer was the hanging of some working people by other working…
MSNBC’s Mika Scorches Trump Over Sex Assault Denials: ‘What type of woman would you rape?’ ***** “For God’s sake, they’re kids, man.” By Alex Samuels Texas Tribune (6/24/19) On Sunday, Austin Savage and five of his friends huddled into an SUV and went to an El Paso Target, loading up on diapers, wipes, soaps and toys. About $340 later, the group headed to a Border Patrol facility holding migrant children in nearby Clint with the goal of donating their goods. Savage said he and his friends had read an article from The New York Times detailing chaos, sickness and filth in the overcrowded…
“If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps ― not the nomenclature.” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez By Hayley Miller HuffPost (6/19/19) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) controversial comments likening U.S. immigrant detention centers at the southern border to “concentration camps” aren’t inaccurate, a concentration camp expert and author said Tuesday. Andrea Pitzer, who literally wrote the book on the global history of concentration camps, defended the freshman lawmaker against Republican backlash during an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.” What the U.S. is doing at the U.S.-Mexico border today by detaining hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and children “fits…
Mark Taylor’s commentary [The Price Of Money: Political & Moral Defeat 6/13/19] about the disparity of funding between Clinton and Trump during the 2016 election was well constructed and informative but does not diminish the corrupt influence that money has had on our electoral process, and our democracy as a whole. Greed, PAC’s, billionaire donors have poisoned our democratic principles, and will continue to do so unless our politicians have the courage (quite doubtful) to reconstruct the funding process for political office. Here’s another problem with our current funding system. Many potential, highly qualified candidates for office often lack the…
“The Democrats have no power to change the system. Yet. So if they want to stay in the game and be competitive they’re going to have to match the Republican’s fundraising juggernaut, otherwise Trump will out-organize, out-advertise and flat out bury us in 2020.” — Facebook post (6/6/19) By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (6/13/19) So let’s take a look at that siren call of money… Two figures to consider from the 2016 presidential race: $1.2 billion and $217.5 million. The first is the amount of money raised by Hillary Clinton. The second is the amount of money raised…
Opponents note silencers make it harder for potential victims and police to identify gunshots. Pro-gun advocates say they’re important hearing protection. By Julian Shen-Berro HuffPost (6/5/19) The mass shooting in Virginia Beach last week has reinvigorated the debate over the regulation of gun suppressors — also known as silencers — which muffle the sounds of gunfire. The shooter behind the attack, which left 12 people dead on Friday, used a suppressor on his firearm. One survivor described the sounds of his weapon as something like a nail gun. Gun-control advocates have argued that suppressors add to the threat of gun violence…