July 16, 2017

Question submitted by PatrickforO

July 10, 2017

An avalanche of hate How a Montana mom became the target of a neo-Nazi troll storm

Source: CNN

Whitefish, Montana (CNN)Once the calls began, they did not stop. Swiping to decline a call just led to the phone ringing again. Blocked number after blocked number filled up the voice mail. Deleting one message just created space for another to take its place. Then came the tweets and the email messages. The volume was overwhelming. The content: vile and terrifying.

Gunshots rang out from voice mails. Emails and texts read: "I hope you die," "Kill yourself," "We will take pleasure in your pain." Tanya Gersh found herself buried in an avalanche of hate, one she had not seen coming and one that focused on one fact: She's Jewish. The messages began late at night and continued into the early hours, keeping her family awake. Or there was a night of silence, broken by an onslaught at 4 a.m., jolting the family from sleep. One voice mail -- "You are surprisingly easy to find on the Internet. And in real life" -- ended Gersh's lifelong practice of leaving her home and car unlocked in her little Montana town, nestled by a lake in the Rocky Mountains.

Gersh appears to have become a target for hate after contacting the mother of known white supremacist Richard Spencer. Gersh says she warned Sherry Spencer about looming protests at a building owned by Spencer in Whitefish, a Montana town of 7,300 where both women live. Gersh says she advised Spencer to disavow the views of her son, including that the United States is a country for white people. She says she offered to sell Spencer's property as of a way of defusing tensions in town. Gersh suggested Spencer donate money to a human rights group.

Anyone who read Daily Stormer had access to all Gersh's information after Anglin posted it time and again. He put up photos and personal details: phone number, address, workplace and social media profiles -- including one used by her 12-year-old son. Each contained instructions to tell Gersh how they felt. "Listen here you fucking Jew. You had better back off and leave Richard Spencer's mom alone, you dirty scumbag," one caller said on Gersh's voice mail. "You fucking Jew. You had better back off of Richard Spencer's mom. Everybody is watching you." The Daily Stormer published more about Gersh and her "Jew agenda," once with a doctored photo showing her and her tween son on the gates of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/10/us/avalanche-of-hate-daily-stormer-lawsuit/index.html

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This is what Donald Trump and his right wing minions stand for. You think these ignorant, inbred, racist, heavily armed fucks won't start another Holocaust????

That it can't happen here????

Think again. Here's what I say:

NEVER AGAIN.

NEVER AGAIN.

NEVER AGAIN.

NEVER AGAIN.

July 5, 2017

Words Matter and the Moral High Ground

Kitchen table issues are things everyone worries about regularly while they are sitting together at the kitchen table. This is why they are called 'kitchen table' issues. Some common ones include getting laid off. Having something go wrong with your health. Making ends meet. Raising the kids right. Being a good parent/grandparent.

And, yes, I'm quite aware there are many other issues different people worry about, and I worry about them, too.

But if we want to recapture the 33 state legislatures, 32 governorships and the entire federal government, all now under GOP control, we've got to start winning elections.

What this means to all of us is that we need to focus on, and talk about, kitchen table issues articulately, compellingly, and in a way that attracts the millions of Independent voters who either voted for Trump or didn't vote at all. Because they worry every day about these kitchen table issues, just like you and I do.

Anyway, HOW we talk about them matters. Here's a couple of changes I suggest:

1. When we speak of the Republican repeal of Obamacare, we need to call the new Republican legislation 'the Deathcare law.'

2. Instead of saying we want 'single payer,' which only 44% of Americans polled respond to positively, we need to say, 'Medicare for all Americans.

3. When some sniveling, smug little GOP punk says, "Well, we need to cut ENTITLEMENTS," we need to respond with, "Oh, you mean EARNED BENEFITS if you're talking about Social Security and Medicare - I have paid into those for X years (over 40 in my case) and I've EARNED those. Bad idea to cut them because that amounts to STEALING from me.

4. Next time a Republican talks about 'Job Killin' Regulashuns,' come back with, "Oh, you mean the life saving guidelines that keep our air and water clean and us safe! Yes, those are very important. For example (have a story about how you or someone else benefited from a regulation - my example is the Martinez family dying when their dream home in Firestone, CO blew up due to an uncapped methane line, and how the Republicans in the state legislature killed a bill that would require companies to map these pipelines).

5. If someone says that government programs create 'dependency,' come back with, "Oh, you mean the programs that are funded by OUR tax dollars that WE pay in, and actually make our lives better? Things like good public schools, state colleges and universities, firefighters and police? Is that what you mean? Because I'm for sure dependent on good roads and clean water!"

6. If someone comes out against government workers who are losing their pensions, and says, "Hey, join the crowd, you're not special," reframe with, "Gosh those workers had pensions and they worked hard contributing to them. How come we don't have pensions? Why don't we try and get pensions for ourselves as well as helping them save their pensions? Let's help each other!"

Remember, folks, we have to fight HARD and we have to OWN our positions, whether it's gay marriage, social justice, voting rights or whatever, but we MUST talk regularly about kitchen table issues.

As to the moral high ground, we OWN IT. The GOP sure doesn't. They want to make our lives worse by stripping the treasury of money to give to corporations.

Medicare for all is a MORAL ISSUE

Keeping Social Security strong is a MORAL ISSUE

Keeping Americans safe with reasonable regulations is a MORAL ISSUE

The rights, safety and livable wages of American workers are MORAL ISSUES

Own them. We ARE on the high ground, but we need to be aggressive in battling this bullshit.

**********************************************

By the way, the new Fox talking points: "Well, there WAS collusion between Trump and the Russians, but how is that a crime?"

It's FUCKING TREASON, THAT'S HOW! Put your Senators and Representative on speed dial. Don't let up a minute. And don't listen to the wusses who tell us not to 'stress' Russia because people are tired of it. It is TREASON. We need to focus with single minded intensity on a) finding out the extent of it, b) bringing the American perps to justice, and c) making sure massive cyber attacks and sophisticated psychological warfare doesn't influence any more American elections. Are we Americans or not?

July 2, 2017

Cuts threaten rural hospitals 'hanging on by their fingernails

Source: CNN

The Senate bill could cut revenues to rural providers by $1.3 billion each year, according to the Chartis Center and its partner iVantage Health Analytics. Roughly 34,000 jobs are also at risk, according to the analysis.

Nearly two-thirds of the lowest performing hospitals are in states that didn't expand Medicaid, according to a previous Chartis report. One case-in-point: the state of Georgia, which did not expand Medicaid and where over half of the state's 73 rural hospitals are in danger of closing. Six have closed since 2010.

Raju knew that Richland's Stewart-Webster Hospital was "financially strained." Even for those patients covered by Medicaid, low reimbursement rates did not make a big enough dent. But Raju did not turn away any patients, even if they couldn't pay, he said. Rural hospitals take a financial hit when they provide care to uninsured patients who can't afford it, said Elehwany. By insuring poorer patients, the Affordable Care Act hoped to remedy that. Despite its positive impacts, she said, it wasn't the magic bullet rural communities had hoped for.

"We strongly support the goals of the ACA," Elehwany said. "Everybody admits there's a few problems with the ACA, and unfortunately ... they seem to be magnified in rural America." Some of these problems, she said, stem from high-deductible plans with rising premiums, as well as few choices on the private exchanges. This may make insurance out of reach for an aging rural population, who are poorer and sicker on average than their urban counterparts, and who bear the brunt of the opioid epidemic, according to experts. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, came out against the Senate health care bill this week for these reasons.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/health/rural-hospitals-medicaid-cuts-health-care/index.html

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Funny...all those RURAL voters voted for Trump by wide margins cuz they don't like no city slickers and carpetbaggers.

Ironic, then, isn't it, that those very voters will be f**ked by the very party they support.

As Trump would say....SAD.

June 30, 2017

CNNS Ana Navarro Goes Ballistic Over Trump Tweet: Lunatic Man Baby Must Stop

Anna Navarro is a CNN Republican strategist. She really gets DOWN on the 'man baby' in the white house on this one.

Since I don't know how to put in a video URL from Huffing post, here's the link - video well worth watching for some laughs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ana-navarro-trump-mika-brzezinski_us_59557791e4b0da2c7322487d?section=us_politics

June 24, 2017

Bannon: Trumps strategy is let the warfighters fight the war

Source: The Hill via CNN

Trump has increasingly empowered the Pentagon and military leaders to make tactical military decisions, breaking from the precedent of White House oversight carried out by both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past, CNN reported.

The move, administration officials say, is designed to reverse Obama administration – and, to a lesser extent, George W. Bush administration – practices that weigh down military campaigns and hamper commanders' abilities to make tactical decisions.

But that transfer of power from the White House to the Pentagon has also raised questions about whether Trump will be held to the same level of accountability as the military officials he has empowered.

"It's really important for the President to take responsibility for outcome and have a conversation with the American people that prepares people for both what we're trying to do and the sacrifices that will be required to do it," Kori Schake, George W. Bush's former National Security Council director for defense strategy, told CNN.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/339301-bannon-trumps-strategy-is-let-the-warfighters-fight-the-war

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This is the REAL Bannon agenda. He wants that apocalyptic war between Christianity and Islam to prove which is stronger. He says it's 'existential,' you know.

So...Russia, the new GOP healthcare monstrosity, gutting the EPA, allowing financial regulators to ignore the Volcker Rule and now this.

What, do you think, our world will look like by November 2018???

But, hey, why do we HAVE nuclear bombs if we're not gonna USE them???

May 30, 2017

Silent thread in support of continued telephone calls, emails, letters to US Representatives and

Senators regarding the unfitness of Trump to carry on in office.

When Trump arrived home after his trip abroad, he declared victory. He used the word 'home run.'

The trouble is that it was not a 'home run' in any sense of that word for us, the American people. It was, however, a home run for Vladimir Putin.

Look at the facts: Trump goes to Europe. He elbows aside the prime minister of another nation. He calls Germany evil. He leaves NATO allies wondering if the USA will support that alliance.

I'm old enough to remember the Cold War, folks. I know that Russia is a hostile power. Putin wants to recreate the old Soviet empire, or perhaps become the new Tsar of a new Russian Empire.

To do this, he has fooled the Republican party and enlisted an American president - a president, for God's sake! - to do his will.

DON'T let this become normalized. It is NOT normal in any sense.

Therefore, I urge you to pick up those telephones again and again and again. Call at least once a week.

We are all Americans here, and we are being influenced by a hostile foreign power. Until that stops, everything else is moot.

May 18, 2017

Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: report

Source: Reuters is cited in this report on The Hill


Reuters reported that former national security adviser Michael Flynn, along with other advisers to Trump, had contact with Russians in at least 18 calls or emails during the last seven months of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Of the 18 undisclosed contacts, six were phone calls between Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, and advisers to Trump, Reuters reported, citing current and former officials.

The calls and messages happened between April 2016 and November 2016, according to Reuters. The communications covered issues such as improving the U.S.-Russia economic relationship and fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Officials said Flynn talked with Kislyak ahead of the president's inauguration about creating a back channel for communication between Trump and Russia.



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/334001-trump-camp-had-at-least-18-undisclosed-contacts-with-russians-report

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I don't think this is anything particularly new, except that it's Reuters reporting it, which I think is significant.

It just ain't goin' away, folks!

Caricature by Niall O'Laughlin

May 9, 2017

A Trump-Friendly Media Company Is About To Get Even Bigger

Source: Huffington Post

In the wake of the 2016 election, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump and now a top White House adviser, reportedly told a gathering of business executives that Sinclair Broadcast Group’s local TV stations in Ohio reached more potential voters than CNN, the validation of a late-campaign strategy to turn to news anchors in swing states and sympathetic hosts on Fox News. “It’s math,” Kushner said.

The math is about to get a lot better for the Trump administration as Sinclair, a largely under-the-radar, conservative-leaning broadcasting company, plans to add 42 more stations through a $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media. Sinclair, which already owns 173 stations around the country, including local ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, would now reach over 70 percent of American households.

While polls indicate increasing distrust in the media, the public has said it trusts local news more than national outlets. The Trump White House, perhaps seizing on elevated levels of trust in local news and amid its public fight with the national media, has increased outreach to major players in local news, such as Hearst, Nexstar and Sinclair.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sinclair-tribune-media-donald-trump_us_5910a93de4b0e7021e99cfec?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

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This is a really big deal because it makes corporate-sponsored right wing propaganda even more ubiquitous than it already is. 70% of US television viewers is A LOT and we cannot allow this merger to take place. It needs to be opposed and stopped by the Federal Trade Commission as an unlawful merger.

In addition, it is clearly an effort by the Trump administration and family to subvert the First Amendment.

I'm going to be calling my Senators and Representative once a day on this beginning tomorrow. This is as far reaching as attacks on net neutrality, and every bit as insidious.

May 3, 2017

Christian Author: Satan Is Directing Anti-Trump Protests

Source: Huffington Post

In a video clip posted online by Right Wing Watch, Richardson said:

“In my opinion, when you see the rage of Satan directed against something, that’s usually evidence that God is involved because Satan is enraged in that which God is doing in the Earth and yes, there’s a lot of rage and Donald Trump and I’ll be honest: I wrestled through a lot of issues during the early part of the campaign.

But, I’ve become solidly convinced in my spirit that the Lord is using this administration. He’s doing something quite powerful. And it’s for that reason that the rage of Satan ― this irrational rage of Satan ― is so directed toward this man.”

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/satan-trump-protests_us_590979b1e4b0bb2d087326ab?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

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This is late breaking news in the sense that a) it was posted about three hours ago, and b) a substantial number of right wing 'christians' seem to think Trump is God's 'anointed.' To me, this is frightening because Trump is sending so many ships to the Korean peninsula that Kim Jung Un is threatening nuclear war. And what will these 'christians' say to that: Oh, well, it's the end times...

I posted this because we need to be alarmed about these religious fanatics.