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yallerdawg
yallerdawg's Journal
yallerdawg's Journal
August 7, 2017
Source: al.com, by John Archibald
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/08/black_people_cant_win_until_th.html#incart_river_home_pop
Republican "Equal Opportunity" - Pay No Attention to the Outcome
(Beware the Alabamafication of America!)Source: al.com, by John Archibald
In 2015 in Alabama, that pro-business bastion of growth and economic opportunity, there were 66,691 businesses with paid employees - or one for every 73 Alabamians, according to the Census.
We're not talking mom and pops here, the ones that keep it all in the family and eat on what they earn. We're talking businesses with payroll, with at least one worker who counts on it for survival.
In Alabama there were but 2,151 firms with employees owned by black people. That's one company for every 2,260 Alabamians. Or one for every 582 black people.
We're not talking mom and pops here, the ones that keep it all in the family and eat on what they earn. We're talking businesses with payroll, with at least one worker who counts on it for survival.
In Alabama there were but 2,151 firms with employees owned by black people. That's one company for every 2,260 Alabamians. Or one for every 582 black people.
Alabama is more than a quarter black, but black-owned businesses - with employees - amount to 3 percent of all companies. Just 3 percent. It's nothing. You know it because Alabama pays more than 3 percent in sales tax without complaint.
But - and here's the real reason these statistics are so telling - Alabama is not the worst. Not even close.
Its percentage of black-owned businesses is enough to rank ninth best nationally. Black-owned businesses with employees, across the whole country in 2015, made up just 2 percent of all businesses.
Its percentage of black-owned businesses is enough to rank ninth best nationally. Black-owned businesses with employees, across the whole country in 2015, made up just 2 percent of all businesses.
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/08/black_people_cant_win_until_th.html#incart_river_home_pop
August 7, 2017
Health care
"The Affordable Care Act was never intended to be the end-all, be-all. It is too complicated. It was always meant to be a work in progress - to see what works, what doesn't work. But unfortunately, the Republicans co-opted it and turned it into a political football. They wanted to repeal Obamacare when the real objective was to try and repeal President Obama.
"How do we fix the Affordable Care Act? No one truly knows because the Senate and the House refuse to have open hearings, they refuse to bring experts in and talk to people like you and me in an open forum to try to understand the basic issues of what's wrong. Every piece of legislation needs to be reviewed."
Immigration
" (Trump's proposal to require immigrants to speak English) was about legal immigration. He wants to roll back legal immigration and make it tougher. If you have to speak the English language before you get here, it will stop a lot of people from coming. That is going to greatly reduce a workforce that we need to be working to expand. It's going to hurt Huntsville and (north Alabama) up here.
"We're not going to build a wall. It's going to cost too much money and it's just a dumb idea. And now, we've got even bigger problems with Donald Trump's wall because he said we're going to ignore all the EPA regulations to build the wall."
What could be done to help the environment after pulling out of the Paris Accord?
"Maybe build a wall around the White House."
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2017/08/democrat_senate_forum_has_enth.html
Women's health and equality
"I will defend women’s access to contraception and a woman’s right to choose and fight any legislation or executive action that would allow insurance companies to discriminate against women. Planned Parenthood provides essential preventative and reproductive health care services like cancer screenings, STD testing and low-cost birth control to millions of American women who have no insurance or otherwise can’t afford these services. I stand with Planned Parenthood.
"Today’s champion of equal pay is Lilly Ledbetter and her battle for equality in Gadsden, Alabama. In the Senate, I will work to extend the spirit of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to make if mandatory that two people, doing the same job with the same qualifications are paid equally – regardless of their gender. The shenanigans around the 2016 campaign must be pushed aside and full equality for women made the law and the norm in America."
http://dougjonesforsenate.com/priorities/
US Senate Candidate Doug Jones (D) on the Issues
(Yes, we have real Democratic candidates in Alabama. Primary vote August 15.)Health care
"The Affordable Care Act was never intended to be the end-all, be-all. It is too complicated. It was always meant to be a work in progress - to see what works, what doesn't work. But unfortunately, the Republicans co-opted it and turned it into a political football. They wanted to repeal Obamacare when the real objective was to try and repeal President Obama.
"How do we fix the Affordable Care Act? No one truly knows because the Senate and the House refuse to have open hearings, they refuse to bring experts in and talk to people like you and me in an open forum to try to understand the basic issues of what's wrong. Every piece of legislation needs to be reviewed."
Immigration
" (Trump's proposal to require immigrants to speak English) was about legal immigration. He wants to roll back legal immigration and make it tougher. If you have to speak the English language before you get here, it will stop a lot of people from coming. That is going to greatly reduce a workforce that we need to be working to expand. It's going to hurt Huntsville and (north Alabama) up here.
"We're not going to build a wall. It's going to cost too much money and it's just a dumb idea. And now, we've got even bigger problems with Donald Trump's wall because he said we're going to ignore all the EPA regulations to build the wall."
What could be done to help the environment after pulling out of the Paris Accord?
"Maybe build a wall around the White House."
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2017/08/democrat_senate_forum_has_enth.html
Women's health and equality
"I will defend women’s access to contraception and a woman’s right to choose and fight any legislation or executive action that would allow insurance companies to discriminate against women. Planned Parenthood provides essential preventative and reproductive health care services like cancer screenings, STD testing and low-cost birth control to millions of American women who have no insurance or otherwise can’t afford these services. I stand with Planned Parenthood.
"Today’s champion of equal pay is Lilly Ledbetter and her battle for equality in Gadsden, Alabama. In the Senate, I will work to extend the spirit of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to make if mandatory that two people, doing the same job with the same qualifications are paid equally – regardless of their gender. The shenanigans around the 2016 campaign must be pushed aside and full equality for women made the law and the norm in America."
http://dougjonesforsenate.com/priorities/
August 6, 2017
On Abortion, Gov. Brown: No 'Ideological Purity' for Democrats
Today's 'Meet the Press' (from transcript)
CHUCK TODD:...How do you tell the Democratic base that says, "Look, sometimes you've got to compromise." So, for instance, the issue of abortion. We talked about culture. You've got some inside the Democratic Party, some major Democratic leaders from a senator in New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, to others who think, you know what? The Democratic Party, should not support -- abortion should be a litmus test, should not support Democrats who are not pro choice on abortion.
But you have people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer who say, "You know what? The Democrats need to be a big tent." And sometimes you have Democrats that will say they love what you say when you announce, but, "Wait a minute. Why are you working with the other side and compromising some of your principles?" How do you square those two? How do you tell the Democratic base, "You've got to learn to compromise"?
GOV. JERRY BROWN: Well, first of all, I don't know who this Democratic base is. It's shifting. The segments of our party are highly differentiated. There are environmentalists; there are gun owners; there are pro choice people; there are religious fundamentalists, not very many, but they're there.
So I'd say, look, even on the abortion issue, it wasn't very long ago that a number of Catholic Democrats were opposed to abortion. So the fact that somebody believes today what most people believed 50 years ago should not be the basis for their exclusion. In America, we're not ideological. We're not like a Marxist party in 1910. We are big tent by the very definition. We're not ideological in the European sense of what political parties used to be. Even in Europe now, they don't have that same ideological purity.
America is not one place. Alabama is not San Francisco or California. To come together, as a great Jesuit once said, everything that rises, converges. So we have to rise above some of our most cherished ideological inclinations and find a common basis. And the economy has often been that common basis, or security in the world could be a part of that common basis. But you can't let these hot button issues, that work great in particular congressional districts one way or the other, to be the guiding light for a national party that covers a very wide spectrum of belief.
CHUCK TODD: So you don't believe there should be a litmus test on abortion? Or is there an issue there should be one on, for the Democrats?
GOV. JERRY BROWN: Well, the litmus test should be intelligence, caring about, as Harry Truman or Roosevelt used to call it, the common man. We're not going to get everybody on board. And I'm sorry, but running in San Francisco is not like running in Tulare County or Modoc, California, much less Mobile, Alabama.
August 5, 2017
Source: al.com, by Roy S. Johnson
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/08/might_america_elect_another_bl.html#incart_river_home
Might America actually elect another black president in 2020?
(An opinion page from Deep Red Alabama. Almost 3,000 comments at link so far - and growing!)Source: al.com, by Roy S. Johnson
Of course, you can't even ponder the prospects of Booker, Harris, and Patrick vying for the Democratic nomination without asking the elephant-in-the-room question: Is America ready to elect another black President?
University of Alabama Associate Professor Joseph Smith, Phd, who chairs the Political Science department agrees, with caveats:
"It will be easier to elect the second African-American president compared to the first," he told me. "President Obama's two terms makes having a black president more familiar to Americans.
"Many Democratic voters look back very positively on his time in office. Even Republican voters who opposed Obama see the country made it through his presidency. Those two factors reduce the obstacles to electing a second black president compared to electing the first one."
"It will be easier to elect the second African-American president compared to the first," he told me. "President Obama's two terms makes having a black president more familiar to Americans.
"Many Democratic voters look back very positively on his time in office. Even Republican voters who opposed Obama see the country made it through his presidency. Those two factors reduce the obstacles to electing a second black president compared to electing the first one."
"A lot of people are convinced Obama destroyed the country, and they're beyond reaching by the Democrats," Smith said. "But others are saying that it's hard to look at President Trump and think: this is the kind of person I want to be president. They can look at Obama and say: yes, this is the kind of person I want to be president. He was not that extreme, actually, not even that liberal on almost anything--though a lot still see just the opposite."
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/08/might_america_elect_another_bl.html#incart_river_home
August 5, 2017
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/08/us_rep_terri_sewell_endorses_d.html#incart_river_home
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell endorses Doug Jones in Democratic Senate primary
Source: al.com, by Paul Gattis
Former U.S. attorney Doug Jones received a major endorsement Friday when U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, formally gave her support.
Jones, who lives in Birmingham, is among a field of seven candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate in the Aug. 15 primary.
Jones, who lives in Birmingham, is among a field of seven candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate in the Aug. 15 primary.
Sewell's endorsement carries clout as she is the only Democrat from Alabama currently served in Congress.
"Doug Jones shares the Democratic values that my constituents and I hold dear and he is my choice to represent Alabama in the United States Senate," Sewell said in a statement. "His experience as a US Attorney in fighting for the most vulnerable among us demonstrates his strong commitment to being a voice for the voiceless."
Sewell praised Jones for his prosecution of Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry for their roles in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four girls. Jones led the prosecution more than 40 years after the bombing.
"Doug displayed political courage in prosecuting and convicting the last perpetrator of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church which caused the deaths of the 4 little girls," Sewell said. "While it was justice delayed, justice was not denied because Doug made it so. We need that same tenacity in the US Senate fighting for all Alabamians. I plan to vote for Doug Jones for US Senate and urge you to do the same."
"Doug Jones shares the Democratic values that my constituents and I hold dear and he is my choice to represent Alabama in the United States Senate," Sewell said in a statement. "His experience as a US Attorney in fighting for the most vulnerable among us demonstrates his strong commitment to being a voice for the voiceless."
Sewell praised Jones for his prosecution of Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry for their roles in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four girls. Jones led the prosecution more than 40 years after the bombing.
"Doug displayed political courage in prosecuting and convicting the last perpetrator of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church which caused the deaths of the 4 little girls," Sewell said. "While it was justice delayed, justice was not denied because Doug made it so. We need that same tenacity in the US Senate fighting for all Alabamians. I plan to vote for Doug Jones for US Senate and urge you to do the same."
Read it all at: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2017/08/us_rep_terri_sewell_endorses_d.html#incart_river_home
August 4, 2017
Source: NJ.com, by Brent Johnson
TRENTON -- President Donald Trump is planning to host foreign leaders at his Bedminster golf club in September when he attends the annual United Nations General Assembly, according to a report by the Washington Post.
The move breaks with decades of precedent for U.S. presidents, who usually hold meetings with foreign dignitaries at hotels or at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, the report said.
Trump is expected to make his first presidential address to the General Assembly on Sept. 19.
The U.S. State Department is preparing to host the leaders at Trump National Bedminster over several days that week, according to the report, which cites anonymous sources familiar with the planning.
Continued at: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/08/trump_to_host_world_leaders_in_nj_report_says.html#incart_river_home
"It's not trying to escape! It's just the wind!"
Trump to host world leaders in N.J., report says
(Planning for your next taxpayer-funded "working vacation" at your private golf course - while on vacation!)Source: NJ.com, by Brent Johnson
TRENTON -- President Donald Trump is planning to host foreign leaders at his Bedminster golf club in September when he attends the annual United Nations General Assembly, according to a report by the Washington Post.
The move breaks with decades of precedent for U.S. presidents, who usually hold meetings with foreign dignitaries at hotels or at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, the report said.
Trump is expected to make his first presidential address to the General Assembly on Sept. 19.
The U.S. State Department is preparing to host the leaders at Trump National Bedminster over several days that week, according to the report, which cites anonymous sources familiar with the planning.
Continued at: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/08/trump_to_host_world_leaders_in_nj_report_says.html#incart_river_home
"It's not trying to escape! It's just the wind!"
August 4, 2017
Source: Washington Post, by Kristen Day, Executive Director, Democrats for Life of America
*****
This attention to local values and interests was the crux of Howard Dean’s “50 state strategy,” which earned the party victories across the country in 2006 and 2008. As Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez put it back in April: “In order to execute a 50-state strategy, we need to understand what’s going on in all 50 states, and attract candidates who are consistent with their messages but perhaps not on 100 percent of the issues. … If you demand fealty on every single issue, then it’s a challenge.”
*****
Signed into law along with the Affordable Care Act were several legislation proposals crafted by Democrats for Life of America called the Pregnant Women Support Act. We intended our proposals to reduce abortion by getting rid of many of the forces that push women toward abortion in the first place. We moved to eliminate pregnancy as a pre-existing condition for insurers, require State Child Health Insurance programs to cover mothers, fully and federally fund WIC and provide federal funding for day care. Likewise, when Senate Republicans moved last year to institute a 20-week ban on abortion, we at Democrats for Life of America urged legislators to include a paid family leave package along with the bill, with the aim of reducing financial burdens on pregnant women and their families. And in 2012, antiabortion Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) introduced the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law that would ensure that pregnant women receive reasonable adjustments on the job and that they don’t face retribution for asking to be accommodated.
In other words, one of the factors that best distinguishes Democrats who oppose abortion from Republicans who do is the very fact that Democrats are cognizant of the pressures that finances and the economy can place on a person’s life, and we are invested in freeing people from them to the greatest degree possible.
*****
The abortion debate is polarized and often extremely bitter. It’s easy to imagine that there really are only two sides: yours and the other guy’s. But Americans’ views on abortion are mostly in the gray area between always legal and never legal, and each person’s moral perspective will be nuanced by his or her own values and experiences. When Luján says that Democratic candidates who run for office in districts with strong antiabortion leanings deserve funding from the party, he isn’t saying that the party is going to fund candidates whose positions are tantamount to those of Republicans. He’s rightly observing that Democrats — real, bona-fide Democrats — do have a range of views on abortion, and to win as many elections as possible, the party has to recognize that.
Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/03/democrats-dont-need-to-be-afraid-of-antiabortion-liberals/?utm_term=.6618df3783f8#comments
Democrats don't need to be afraid of antiabortion liberals
("Seek first to understand, and then to be understood." - Stephen R. Covey)Source: Washington Post, by Kristen Day, Executive Director, Democrats for Life of America
*****
This attention to local values and interests was the crux of Howard Dean’s “50 state strategy,” which earned the party victories across the country in 2006 and 2008. As Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez put it back in April: “In order to execute a 50-state strategy, we need to understand what’s going on in all 50 states, and attract candidates who are consistent with their messages but perhaps not on 100 percent of the issues. … If you demand fealty on every single issue, then it’s a challenge.”
*****
Signed into law along with the Affordable Care Act were several legislation proposals crafted by Democrats for Life of America called the Pregnant Women Support Act. We intended our proposals to reduce abortion by getting rid of many of the forces that push women toward abortion in the first place. We moved to eliminate pregnancy as a pre-existing condition for insurers, require State Child Health Insurance programs to cover mothers, fully and federally fund WIC and provide federal funding for day care. Likewise, when Senate Republicans moved last year to institute a 20-week ban on abortion, we at Democrats for Life of America urged legislators to include a paid family leave package along with the bill, with the aim of reducing financial burdens on pregnant women and their families. And in 2012, antiabortion Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) introduced the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law that would ensure that pregnant women receive reasonable adjustments on the job and that they don’t face retribution for asking to be accommodated.
In other words, one of the factors that best distinguishes Democrats who oppose abortion from Republicans who do is the very fact that Democrats are cognizant of the pressures that finances and the economy can place on a person’s life, and we are invested in freeing people from them to the greatest degree possible.
*****
The abortion debate is polarized and often extremely bitter. It’s easy to imagine that there really are only two sides: yours and the other guy’s. But Americans’ views on abortion are mostly in the gray area between always legal and never legal, and each person’s moral perspective will be nuanced by his or her own values and experiences. When Luján says that Democratic candidates who run for office in districts with strong antiabortion leanings deserve funding from the party, he isn’t saying that the party is going to fund candidates whose positions are tantamount to those of Republicans. He’s rightly observing that Democrats — real, bona-fide Democrats — do have a range of views on abortion, and to win as many elections as possible, the party has to recognize that.
Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/03/democrats-dont-need-to-be-afraid-of-antiabortion-liberals/?utm_term=.6618df3783f8#comments
August 3, 2017
A sample from Media Matters - a Fox News interview:
STEVE DOOCY (HOST): Explain to me the connection between President Andrew Jackson and the Nazis.
DINESH D'SOUZA: Well, the book uncovers a sort of secret history between fascism and the Democratic Party and the left. This is important because, as you know, fascism is now the card that is played by the left against [President Donald] Trump. Trump is a fascist, Republicans are the party of fascism. I show that the opposite is true. Fascism has always been on the left. I also point out three ideas that Hitler got, very destructive, genocidal ideas from the Democratic Party. So, one of them you mentioned, Hitler is sitting in Landsberg Prison and he's frustrated because the British and the French have conquered large parts of Asia and Africa, and Hitler goes, "There's nothing left for us." And then he says, "Wait a minute, in America, the Jacksonian Democrats drove the American Indians off their land, dispossessed them, enslaved them." He goes, "That's what I'm going to do. I’m going to throw the Poles, the Slavs, the eastern Europeans, the Russians off their land. We'll resettle it with German families. If any of those guys remain we'll enslave them." So, Hitler got his blueprint for European, you may say conquest, in Europe directly from the Jacksonian Democrats.
Are you starting to hear rumblings about a Democratic Party/Nazi Fascist link?
It's a new book the rightwing media is promoting!A sample from Media Matters - a Fox News interview:
STEVE DOOCY (HOST): Explain to me the connection between President Andrew Jackson and the Nazis.
DINESH D'SOUZA: Well, the book uncovers a sort of secret history between fascism and the Democratic Party and the left. This is important because, as you know, fascism is now the card that is played by the left against [President Donald] Trump. Trump is a fascist, Republicans are the party of fascism. I show that the opposite is true. Fascism has always been on the left. I also point out three ideas that Hitler got, very destructive, genocidal ideas from the Democratic Party. So, one of them you mentioned, Hitler is sitting in Landsberg Prison and he's frustrated because the British and the French have conquered large parts of Asia and Africa, and Hitler goes, "There's nothing left for us." And then he says, "Wait a minute, in America, the Jacksonian Democrats drove the American Indians off their land, dispossessed them, enslaved them." He goes, "That's what I'm going to do. I’m going to throw the Poles, the Slavs, the eastern Europeans, the Russians off their land. We'll resettle it with German families. If any of those guys remain we'll enslave them." So, Hitler got his blueprint for European, you may say conquest, in Europe directly from the Jacksonian Democrats.
August 3, 2017
Source: AP, by Darlene Superville
Read it all at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_VACATION_NJOL-
Buh-bye again!
Trump set to embark on 1st vacation since inauguration
(All those others don't count.)Source: AP, by Darlene Superville
Donald Trump once questioned the wisdom of taking vacations. "What's the point?" he asked.
But now the president is getting ready to join the annual August exodus from this town he calls "the swamp." Trump is due to set out Friday on his first extended vacation from Washington since the inauguration - a 17-day getaway to his private golf club in central New Jersey.
But now the president is getting ready to join the annual August exodus from this town he calls "the swamp." Trump is due to set out Friday on his first extended vacation from Washington since the inauguration - a 17-day getaway to his private golf club in central New Jersey.
Asked whether Trump would be leaving Washington this month, given his recent warning that Congress should stick around until they vote on health care legislation, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday: "We'll continue to keep you guys updated on his August schedule as those details are finalized."
Trump and his supporters like to tout his disdain for taking vacations, when the truth is he takes them constantly.
Trump and his supporters like to tout his disdain for taking vacations, when the truth is he takes them constantly.
Trump said last year that he wouldn't have time for golf if he became president. "I'm going to be working for you, I'm not going to have time to go play golf," he told supporters in Virginia. But he plays golf whenever he's at his clubs; sometimes it's the full 18 holes, other times less than that. His staff rarely acknowledges that he plays, even when photos of him on the course pop up on social media.
Read it all at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_VACATION_NJOL-
Buh-bye again!
August 3, 2017
Trump to Summer White House Aug 4 - Aug 20 (?)
Filed today:
http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_7_2568.html
Now we know why Trump spends so much time at N.J. golf club
The White House has refused to confirm Trump's golf outings or members of his foursome even when the president has been spotted with his clubs, according to the SI article published on golf.com. Trump had been a critic of President Barack Obama's golf outings.
Trump has made four trips to Bedminster since becoming president and the Federal Aviation Administration has imposed a temporary flight restriction around the area from Aug. 3-20, traditionally a precursor to a presidential visit.
Trump has made four trips to Bedminster since becoming president and the Federal Aviation Administration has imposed a temporary flight restriction around the area from Aug. 3-20, traditionally a precursor to a presidential visit.
Trump has spent 14 days at Bedminster so far, according to NBC News. He also has spent 15 days at his golf club in Virginia and 14 at his two facilities in Florida.
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