‘Shithole Countries’? Words Worthy Of A Racist-In-Chief

  By Richard Wolffe The Guardian (1/12/18) Donald Trump knows a thing or two about “shitholes” – the label he apparently bestowed on El Salvador, Haiti and various African nations during an Oval Office meeting about immigration. His own father was reportedly so ashamed of coming from Germany – widely considered to be a “shithole” by Americans fighting in two world wars – that he pretended for most of his life that he was Swedish. These Aryan dreams glowed all blond and bright through Trump’s seminal book, The Art of the Deal, in which he claimed his father arrived as a child from Sweden like some…


In Wake Of Trump’s ‘Shithole’ Comment, Celebration Among American Nazis & White Supremacists

  By Brett Barrouquere Southern Poverty Law Center (1/12/18) After President Donald J. Trump declared Haiti and other black-majority countries a “shithole” during a meeting about immigration on Thursday, some of his white supremacist followers took it as a good sign. On Twitter, Gab, VK.com and the white supremacist message board Stormfront, there were celebratory comments, questions about why he didn’t do it sooner and even a slap at the citizens of Haiti. The Washington Post, NBC and other outlets reported that Trump referred to the countries as “shitholes” and wondered to a bipartisan group of congressmen why the United States was…


A Message For Martin Luther King Day From Cornel West: America Is Spiritually Bankrupt & Morally Emptied. We Must Fight Back Together

National Park Service photo. “In our world of the survival of the slickest and the smartest, we pave the way for raw greed and self-promotion. We make cowardice and avarice fashionable and compassion an option for losers.” By Cornel West The Guardian (1/14/18) e live in one of the darkest moments in American history – a bleak time of spiritual blackout and imperial meltdown. Exactly 25 years ago, in my book Race Matters, I tried to lay bare the realities and challenges to American democracy in light of the doings and sufferings of black people. Back then, I reached heartbreaking…


Group Of Quisling Democrats Just Handed Trump More Domestic Surveillance Powers. They Should Know Better.

  By Trevor Timm NBC News (1/11/18) Democrats have been all over the airwaves recently accusing Donald Trump of abusing the Justice Department to go after his political enemies —most notably his former opponent Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, which the Department of Justice is reportedly currently investigating based on allegation made during the 2016 presidential campaign. So you’d think they would oppose handing Donald Trump any more power with which he could potentially use against all sorts of Americans who attract negative attention from his administration. Yet, with the help of some Democrats, the House of Representatives voted today — and the…


Fat Cat Tuesday: A Commemoration Of CEO Excess

 Less For You. More For Them! (And The Republicans Just Cut Their Taxes To The Bone!)   By Leo W. Gerard, International President United Steelworkers Union The HuffPost (1/11/18) Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, a day of revelry, gluttony, intoxication and showers of shiny plastic beads. It is the party to end all parties because it’s followed by Ash Wednesday, when Lenten sacrifices commence. Fat Cat Tuesday is the day – Jan. 2, 2018 – on which the boards of directors of America’s biggest corporations handed their CEOs more money than those same CEOs would deign to pay their workers…


Wish I Voted For Sanders, Says Laid-Off Carrier Worker Duped By ‘Con Man’ Trump

  By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (1/12/18) In November of 2016, then-President-elect Donald Trump touted a deal he negotiated with an Indianapolis Carrier plant that he claimed would keep jobs from moving to Mexico. On Thursday, that very same Carrier plant, as expected, laid off more than 200 workers—a move critics highlighted as further proof Trump’s deal with the company was a “con” all along. Responding to the layoffs, Carrier workers who voted for Trump expressed regret that they ever believed he would follow through on his promises. “Financially, I thought he’s a genius. I said, ‘Well, America’s in debt; maybe he can…


Russia Monitor: Get Ready – Putin Has Plenty More Up His Sleeve, But Trump Can’t Be Bothered

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (1/15/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Either the Russians have decided to leave us alone or Trump’s personality frailties keep him from confronting Vladimir Putin or safeguarding the US from further intrusions. What do you think? We have this story from The Hill: Russia-Linked Hackers Targeting US Senate. Using the same approach employed to hack French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in May 2017, Russian hackers are targeting the U.S. Senate: “Russian hackers from the group known as “Fancy Bear” are targeting the U.S. Senate with a new espionage campaign, according to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro….


BBC Radio Documentary Captures Daily Brutality Of War: Ukraine’s Frontline Bakery

  Our World/BBC (1/11/18) The war in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed rebels and the Ukrainian army has killed more than 10,000 people over four years, and peace remains a distant prospect. Despite the violence and poverty though, civilians in the war zone try to live as normal a life as possible. In the frontline town of Marinka, a new bakery has opened which brings some comfort and sustenance to war-weary locals. From Marinka, Lucy Ash reports. Link to Story and 30-Minute Audio


Trump Boasts Of Selling “Call Of Duty” Video Game F-52 Jet Fighters To Norway

  By Alex Horton The Washington Post (1/11/18) President Trump caused a stir with his announcement that the United States had delivered F-52 fighter jets to Norway. Was it a secret advanced jet capable of beating its Russian counterparts? A ruse to fool intelligence analysts? Neither, it turns out. The “F-52” is a fictional jet only available to fly if you’re a gamer at the controls of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.” Trump lauded the sale of the fictional planes alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House on Wednesday, remarking on the very real and growing defense relationship with…


Dutch Reporters Offer Master Class To Limp White House Press Corps By Refusing To Let Trump Official Tell ‘Blatant Lies’

  By Julia Conley Common Dreams (1/11/18) Weeks after leaving a Dutch reporter stunned by denying that he’d made televised remarks about terrorism, several of the Netherlands’ political journalists refused to allow a Trump appointee to ignore their questions about the incident, demonstrating effective political journalism while many American news outlets are criticized for allowing elected officials to get away with blatant and repeated lies. Reporters at a press conference repeatedly asked Pete Hoekstra, the new U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, to comment on his remarks at a hearing in 2015. Hoekstra urged the press to move on from the issue, but to no…


Perverting The Language: How The Media Protects A Man Unfit For Office

  By Robert Reich Robert Reich’s Blog (1/12/18) Now that Trump has been president for almost a year, it’s time the media called his behavior for what it is rather than try to normalize it. Here are the six most misleading media euphemisms for conduct unbecoming a president: 1. Calling Trump’s tweets “presidential “statements” or “press releases.” “The President is the President of the United States, so they’re considered official statements by the President of the United States,” Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, said last June when asked during his daily briefing how his tweets should be characterized Wrong. Trump’s tweets are…


The Donald Trump Conversation: Politics’ “Dark Heart” Is Having The Best Time Anyone’s Ever Had

  (Editor’s Note: In response to Michael Wolff’s recent best selling book “Fire and Fury”, Donald Trump said he had never met Wolff. That was — as is typical of Trump — a lie. During the campaign Trump was interviewed by Wolff in Trump’s Los Angeles home. The result of that interview was a Hollywood Reporter cover story, which, in retrospect, is an interesting prelude to Wolff’s book. – Mark L. Taylor) By Michael Wolff The Hollywood Reporter (6/1/16) The long day is ending for Donald Trump with a pint of vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream. We’re settling in for a…


A Wolff Scratching At The Door Of Trump’s Shabby & Degraded White House

  By Mort Rosenblum Reader Supported News Service (1/9/19) his is just my own point of view, but I’m pretty clear about it after watching reaction to Michael Wolff’s neutron bomb, Fire and Fury: We Americans, collectively, have gone out of our flipping minds. Wolff has spilled enough beans to bury Donald Trump, his clown-car inner circle and the self-serving legislators who enable him. At least, you would think. But a 1980 Newsweek essay by Isaac Asimov is distressingly prescient at a time when human habitats are simultaneously drying up and flooding while an egomaniacal fool fingers a button that could…


Freeloader-In-Chief Is Scaling Back His Already Skimpy White House Work Schedule For 2018

    By David Ferguson The Raw Story (1/8/18) President Donald Trump is starting work later and ending the day earlier in 2018, according to internal White House documents obtained by Jonathan Swan of Axios.com. Trump is postponing the beginning of his work day until 11 a.m., taking fewer meetings and and demanding more “executive time” in which he is unscheduled for official duties. Even close White House officials admit, Swan said, that this means the president will be watching TV and using Twitter “alone in the residence.” “The schedule says Trump has ‘Executive Time’ in the Oval Office every day…


Ssssh! Jeff Sessions’ Dept. Of Justice Charged A White Supremacist With Terrorism … And Kept It Quiet

  (Editor’s Note: Just imagine how Trump, Jeff Sessions and the Rethuglicans — and the mainstream media — would have handled this if this right wing wack-job had been a member of Black Lives Matter or a Muslm. – Mark L. Taylor) By Ryan J. Reilly The HuffPost (1/8/18) WASHINGTON ― Usually, when the FBI arrests a terrorist and the Justice Department charges them, it’s a big deal. Combatting terrorism is one of the Justice Department’s top priorities, and terror cases are a great way for federal prosecutors and agents to make names and build careers. The press and the…


ACTION ALERT! — Tell Trump’s EPA: Don’t Kill Off The Clean Power Plan

  By Brandy Doyle, Campaign Manager CREDO Working Assets (1/9/18) Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to repeal our most important federal climate regulation: the Clean Power Plan. Without this rule, more states will rely on coal instead of transitioning to clean energy, and the United States will likely fail to meet its obligations under the Paris climate agreement. The EPA is taking comments on their reckless proposal until Jan. 16. By flooding their docket with opposition, we can build a strong public record of support for climate action that could help as states and others challenge the EPA in court. Tell…


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When I Despair…

M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it — always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi


Russia Monitor: Good For Her – Sen. Feinstein Lets The American People See For Themselves

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (1/11/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The Trump-Russia collusion news of this cycle is dominated by the release of the transcript of the Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) unilaterally released the transcript on Tuesday. The testimony – 312 pages long – is the result of Simpson’s appearance before committee investigators for ten hours in August 2017. Now you can be an active citizen and read it for yourself. There are many news outlets offering access to the full document. The best resource I’ve found so…


American Gestapo: ICE Agents Carry Out Unnerving Raids At Nearly 100 7-Elevens Across Nation

  (Editor’s Note: Whenever the majority permits the abuse and persecution of some, it is just a matter of time before that creeping totalitarian abuse affects everyone. History has shown that over and over. Beware my fellow citizens — the freedom of you and your children are at risk. – Mark L. Taylor) By Andea Germanos Common Dreams (1/10/18) Immigrant rights advocates denounced the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids carried out Wednesday at nearly 100 7-Eleven stores across the nation. According to Cristobal Gutierrez, employment legal advocate at Make the Road New York, they are “yet another example of the escalating attacks…


‘The Biggest Secret’ – James Risen On Life As NY Times Reporter In The Shadow Of The War On Terror

The crackdown on leaks only applied to low-level dissenters; top officials caught up in leak investigations, like former CIA Director David Petraeus, were still treated with kid gloves.   Democracy Now! (1/5/19) We spend the hour with former New York Times reporter James Risen, who left the paper in August to join The Intercept as senior national security correspondent. This week, he published a 15,000-word story headlined “The Biggest Secret: My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror.” The explosive piece describes his struggles to publish major national security stories in the…


VIDEO: A Day In The Life Of A Sniper In Syria

“My dreams are over. But I want a better life for generations to come. The things I have been through I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”   Video By Reber Dosky The Atlantic (12/4/17) “Did you kill any members of ISIS?” a hairdresser asks his client. The young man doesn’t answer. He simply stares at himself in the mirror—a soldier clad in camouflage with a rifle casually slung over his shoulder. Another try: “So, did you kill people or not?” Save for distant gunshots, silence hangs in the air. The reticent soldier in question is Haron, a Kurdish sniper who has…


Sure, Trump May Be Stupid, Incurious & Lazy But There Is One Way He Is An Absolute Genius

  By Robert Reich RobertReich.org (1/6/18) For more than a year now, I’ve been hearing from people in the inner circles of official Washington – GOP lobbyists, Republican pundits, even a few Republican members of Congress – that Donald Trump is remarkably stupid. I figured they couldn’t be right because really stupid people don’t become presidents of the United States. Even George W. Bush was smart enough to hire smart people to run his campaign and then his White House. Several months back when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “f—king moron,” I discounted it. I know firsthand how frustrating…


Indivisible Reform Movement Is Gearing Up To Meet The Threats & Opportunities For 2018

The Indivisible Team (1/8/18) Congress gets back to work this week and they already have a full plate. The good news? Democrats Doug Jones and Tina Smith were sworn into the Senate last week (seeing D-Alabama is really cool, right?), which means we now only need to peel off two Republicans to stop more of the Trump agenda. A single vote could make all the difference in upcoming fights! While it’s a new year, Trump hasn’t changed a bit. Over the holidays and into the New Year, he’s attacked North Korea on Twitter again, and attacked Robert Mueller and the Russia investigation multiple times (he’s…



Scott Walker 2016 Presidential Campaign Enriched By $1.1 Million From Oligarch Directly Linked To Russia

There may be another reason top Republicans have not been more vocal in their condemnation. Perhaps it’s because they have their own links to the Russian oligarchy they would prefer go unnoticed. (Editor’s Note: Thanks to Commoner Call reader Bob Fox for forwarding this story. Bob notes that the Dallas Morning News is a very conservative newspaper. – Mark L. Taylor) By Ruth May, Contributor Dallas Morning News (8/3/17) Party loyalty is often cited as the reason that GOP leaders have not been more outspoken in their criticism of President Donald Trump and his refusal to condemn Russia’s interference in the…


Steve Bannon’s Big Fall: From ‘The Great Manipulator’ To ‘Sloppy Steve’

  By S.V. Date The HuffPost (1/5/18) WASHINGTON ― Just a few months ago, Steve Bannon was warning “establishment” Republicans that a “day of reckoning” was at hand. As it turns out, he was right. Bannon, President Donald Trump’s initial top aide and self-described architect of his improbable victory, has fallen faster than might have seemed possible – from “The Great Manipulator” on the cover of Time magazine to the owner of a new, derisive Trump nickname in less than a year. “Sloppy Steve,” Trump called him Friday ― a continuation of the criticism that began on Wednesday when the president declared in a lengthy…


This Is “an Emergency” – The Psychiatrist Who Briefed Group Of Congress Members On Trump’s Mental State

By Eliza Barclay Vox (1/6/18) The longer Donald Trump is in office, the more he shocks and alarms us with his strange and extremely unpresidential behavior. From the incoherent, fallacious interview he gave the New York Times on December 28 to Tuesday’s tweet about his “nuclear button” to his Saturday morning assertion that he is a “very stable genius,” the remarks keep getting more menacing, bizarre, and portentous of disaster. As Vox’s Ezra Klein recently wrote, “The president of the United States is not well.” But how unwell is he, really? Could the behavior be caused by some illness eating away at his mental capacity, or is it…


Republicans Twist Language When They Say ‘Reforms’ But Really Mean ‘Cuts’

By Jared Bernstein The Washington Post (12/29/17) I have a simple request to journalists, columnist, pundits, and others writing about forthcoming efforts of Republicans to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the anti-poverty programs that make up our safety net. Call such efforts “cuts.” Do not call them “reforms,” “changes,” “overhauls,” “fixes,” “reshaping,” “modernizing,” or any other euphemism that could easily be misconstrued. At least, do not do so without also clearly defining what they really are, which is cuts. While D.C. insiders speak the unique creole of our swamp, there’s no reason to expect general readers to intuitively understand…


While Millionaires Get Tax Freebies: Baltimore Schools Closed After Outrage Over Widespread Reports Of Frigid Classrooms

  (Editor’s Note: Problems of old, crumbling and even dangerous school buildings is not unique to Baltimore. In a  nation that just approved massive tax cuts for the already wealthy and corporations racking up record profits and, often, evading their responsibilities to the country and workers that make all that wealth possible, far too many of our children don’t have decent schools to go to. Time to take that money back, people! – Mark L. Taylor) By Mary Rose Madden Morning Edition/NPR (1/3/18) Baltimore’s public schools closed Thursday after parents and educators there complained students were enduring frigid classrooms with…


Russia Monitor – Bannon Sums It Up: It’s Treasonous, Unpatriotic Bad Sh*t

  “Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad sh*t, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.” — Steve Bannon referring to Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2106 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower. (From Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury”.)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (1/8/8) Dear Fellow Readers, Oh my! It’s the family gathering where everything comes out by way of yelling, screaming and finger pointing. All the slights, hurts and disagreements that have been collected, held onto and nurtured for years come pouring…


If Dems Plan To Win They Need To Confront Restrictive Voter ID Laws, Hackers, Vote Blocking Gerrymandering

There is no need to win over the people when you have decided you’ve already won the election.   By Sarah Kendzior de Correpndent (11/10/17) On July 3, a group of Georgia voters filed a lawsuit  against state officials following the discovery that their voting machines were deeply vulnerable to hackers and had possibly been breached. This information was not news to the sued officials: a cybersecurity expert had discovered and reported breaches in August 2016, and even more vulnerabilities were reported in March 2017 – but nothing was done to fix them. Instead, elections were held in Georgia with ostensibly faulty equipment, making the…


Compassion & Courage: Volunteers In NYC Show Support For Immigrants At Court Appearances, Appointments

  By Beth Fertig NPR (12/25/17) A new type of volunteer opportunity has taken off in New York City. Hundreds of people are going with immigrants to court appearances and appointments with immigration officials. With President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, they want to show solidarity, and be a friendly support system. Link to Story and 4-Minute Audio


This Wednesday: State Republicans Targeting Basic Employee Rights

  Republicans in Wisconsin are wasting no time attacking workers in the New Year. A bill that preempts a local municipality from enacting a local living wage, fair scheduling standard, and a host of other measures that would improve the lives of working people is up for a public hearing at the state Capitol on Wednesday, January, 10. Senate Committee on Labor and Regulatory Reform Public Hearing on SB 634 Wednesday, January 10, 2018 10 a.m. 411 South, State Capitol Senate Bill 634 will preempt many ways in which local governments in Wisconsin could enhance employment standards in their own…


Some Hope: New Study Showing Ozone Recovery Hailed As Model For Tackling Climate Crisis

  By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (1/5/18) Hailed as an example of how concerted global action can help solve a planetary crisis, a new study conducted by NASA scientists documented the first direct evidence that an international effort to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has led to the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole. Published in the journal Geophysical Research Letterson Thursday, the study uses satellite observations to demonstrate that the decline in atmospheric chlorine that resulted from the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, enacted in 1989,has led to “about 20 percent less ozone depletion during the Antarctic winter than there was in 2005—the first year that measurements of chlorine and…


‘Very fine’ Charlottesville White Supremacist Arrested For Amtrak Terror Attack

  By Jen Hayden Daily Kos (1/5/18) In October, a Missouri man was arrested after he was found tampering with the brakes of an Amtrak train in Nebraska: “An armed man was arrested after police say he pulled the brakes on an Amtrak train headed east near Oxford on Saturday. “Police say Taylor M. Wilson was carrying a loaded revolver in his waistband and a speed loader in his pocket this weekend. “The Amtrak train was preparing to make a stop in Holdrege when police say 25 year–old Taylor Wilson got into the second locomotive and pulled the brakes in Furnas…



Somehow Trump Credits Himself For Year Of Commercial Airline Safety In Batty Tweet

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/4/18) Speaking from the egocentric worm hole Donald Trump calls his world, he declared Tuesday that 2017 was the safest year for air travel on record because of — surprise — him. In response to news that there were no commercial airline crashes anywhere in the world last year, Trump claimed responsibility, explaining: “Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!” Of course, Trump’s egocentric declaration came with no supporting…


“Fire & Fury” – The Book That Is Turning The Republican Party Into A Gunny Sack Full Of Wet Rats

  By Michael Wolff New York Magazine (1/3/17) On the afternoon of November 8, 2016, Kellyanne Conway settled into her glass office at Trump Tower. Right up until the last weeks of the race, the campaign headquarters had remained a listless place. All that seemed to distinguish it from a corporate back office were a few posters with right-wing slogans. Conway, the campaign’s manager, was in a remarkably buoyant mood, considering she was about to experience a resounding, if not cataclysmic, defeat. Donald Trump would lose the election — of this she was sure — but he would quite possibly hold the…


Russia Monitor: Time For Rascally Republicans To Stop With The Wabbit Chasing

  “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” — Martin Luther (Quote highlighted by former-FBI Director James Comey.) ***** “A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be “as foolish as the man who went bear hunting and stopped to chase rabbits.”” — Glenn Simpson, founder Fusion GPS Op-Ed for NY Times, January 2, 2018   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call…


The Tax Bill Could Be A Lifeline For Democrats. So, Will They Sink Or Swim?

By Richard Eskow Nation of Change (12/20/17) This simple rule of thumb has rarely failed: When Democrats get confident, I get nervous. That’s true, even when Republicans inflict disaster on the country – and potentially on themselves. “This tax bill will be an anchor around the ankles of every Republican,” says Sen. Chuck Schumer. “If they haven’t learned it yet, they’re going to learn it next November.” It must have been satisfying image for Schumer to conjure up: legions of Republicans dragged down to Davy Jones’ locker, like a spectral corpse crew from The Pirates of the Caribbean. And it…