December 31, 2016

BREAKING!!! Hypocrite Bans Guns At Inauguration

Donald Dump made the defense of “the Second Amendment” one of his central platform pieces, telling his naive and gullible fans that President Obama and Hillary Clinton were coming to take their guns and that the Second Amendment was “under siege.” He vowed to expand gun rights across the United States, declaring that “I’m going to get rid of gun-free zones on military bases and I’m also going to do it in schools” and to legalize weapon carry in all 50 states.

But the rules for the January 20th inauguration were just released, and the hypocrisy couldn’t be more obvious.

December 31, 2016

Trumps inaugural parade lineup announced

http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/inauguration-parade-lineup-233064

Here is a list of the participating groups, according to the committee, which said each branch of the military will also be represented:

1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment – Fort Hood, Texas
1st Infantry Commanding General’s Mounted Color – Ft. Riley, Kansas
Boone County Elite 4-H Equestrian Drill Team – Burlington, Kentucky
Caisson Platoon, Fort Myer – Fort Myer, Virginia
Cleveland Police Mounted Unit – Cleveland
Coastal Florida Police & Fire Pipes & Drums – Palm Coast, Florida
Columbus North High School Band – Columbus, Indiana
Culver Academy Equestrian – Culver, Indiana
First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry – Philadelphia
Fishburne Military School Army JROTC Caissons Battalion – Fishburne, Virginia
Frankfort High School Band – Ridgeley, West Virginia
Franklin Regional High School Panther Marching Band – Murrysville, Pennsylvania
Indianapolis Metro Police Motorcycle Drill Team – Indianapolis
Kids Overseas – Richmond Hill, Georgia
Lil Wranglers – College Station, Texas
Marist College Band – Poughkeepsie, New York
Merced County Sheriff’s Posse – Hilmar, California
Michigan Multi-Jurisdictional Mounted Police Drill Team & Color Guard – Ann Arbor, Michigan
Mid America Cowgirls Rodeo Drill Team – New Buffalo, Michigan
Nassau County Firefighters Pipes & Drums – East Meadow, New York
North Carolina Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association – Hillsborough, North Carolina
NYPD Emerald Society Pipes & Drums – East Moriches, New York
Olivet Nazarene University – Bourbonnais, Illinois
Palmetto Ridge High School Band – Naples, Florida
Russellville High School Band – Russellville, Arkansas
Talladega College Band – Talladega, Alabama
Texas State University Strutters – San Marcos, Texas
The Citadel Regimental Band & Pipes and Summerall Guards – Charleston, South Carolina
The Freedom Riders – Kersey, Colorado
Tragedy Assistance Marching Unit – Arlington, Virginia
Tupelo High School Band – Tupelo, Mississippi
University of Tennessee Marching Band – Knoxville, Tennessee
VMI Corps of Cadets – Lexington, Virginia
West Monroe High School Marching Band – West Monroe, Louisiana
American Veterans – National
Boy Scouts of America – National
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations – National
Disabled American Veterans – National
U.S. Border Patrol Pipes & Drums – National
Wounded Warriors – National

December 31, 2016

400 Companies Have Now Pulled Their Advertising From Breitbart News

Major companies are bailing out in droves

Many people have now joined the effort to inform major companies about the racist
and misogynist nature of Breitbart “News” and urge them not to advertise at this “alt-right” hate site, and this ad hoc campaign is getting serious results.

The number of companies that have now pulled their ads from Breitbart is at 400. That’s gotta hurt their bottom line (although they’re also being financed by some shady right wing organizations, and possibly by Donald Trump himself).

December 28, 2016

Gun Homicide Rates Up 31 Percent Since Stand Your Ground(FL)

Florida’s gun deaths have gone up 31 percent since Stand Your Ground has been on the books. An international research team published the findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/gun-homicide-rates-31-percent-stand-your-ground

December 28, 2016

Gun Homicide Rates Up 31 Percent Since Stand Your Ground (FL)

I would like to tie this OP to this LBN topic

Florida’s gun deaths have gone up 31 percent since Stand Your Ground has been on the books. An international research team published the findings in http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2582988

http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/gun-homicide-rates-31-percent-stand-your-ground

December 28, 2016

North Korea Is About To Give Trump The Nuclear Arms Race He's Lusting After

A North Korean defector said Kim Jong-un is demanding the country go all out to produce nuclear weapons by the end of 2017.

Out of the many things that simply scare the bejesus out of people about Donald Trump, the scariest may be his seemingly cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons. Last spring he said he thought more countries should have nukes for their own self-defense. But when he got called out on that remark he backtracked and claimed he had never said it.

Last week, in a tweet that seemed to contradict itself, Trump said the U.S. should greatly expand its nuclear arsenal.


snip


When MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski asked the president-elect to clarify what he meant in the tweet, Trump responded "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass." Now a North Korean defector says he may be about to get his wish.

Thae Yong-ho, a North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in July, said in a December 27 news briefing that the country's leader Kim Jong-un is pushing for the development of nukes "at all costs by the end of 2017." He says Kim believes that neither South Korea nor the United States will be in a position to stop the country's nuclear development "due to domestic political pressures."

snip

According to Thae, Kim's goal is to pressure both the U.S. and South Korea into "stability-focused" policies by adopting a provocative military posture. That plan may have worked with a normal American president of either party, but we all know Trump isn't normal. His entire posture is based on dominance rituals in which he must humiliate his opponents. That's a dangerous type of arrogance to bring to a nuclear standoff.

http://thedailybanter.com/2016/12/north-korea-wants-to-give-trump-his-arms-race/

December 28, 2016

First It Was A Typo In Congress Now It Will Cost Real Jobs

Congressional leaders promised all year to fix a “drafting error” poised to cripple parts of the renewable energy industry. But they haven’t.

THE GOP CAN'T GOVERN

Congress has passed on its last chance to help blue-collar manufacturers of geothermal pumps and fuel cells by making a correction — promised for a year — to a spending bill screwup.

The trouble started in December 2015, when Congress was trying to pass an end-of-year tax and spending bill to run the government for the following year.

Republicans and Democrats struck a deal: In exchange for allowing US oil companies to sell oil abroad after a decades-long export ban, the Republican-controlled Congress extended for their Democratic colleagues a set of tax breaks, which were set to expire at the end of 2016, that encouraged individuals and companies to invest in renewable energy.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/dinograndoni/congressional-typo-unfixed?utm_term=.cjRaAyWre#.aiOwQOqNr

December 28, 2016

Rightwingnutbloggers Mad That Stars They Despise Won't Come Out for Trump's Inauguration

Even if you don’t follow politics, you’ve probably heard that those charged with assembling talent for The Leader’s installation on January 20th have not had much luck: After several high-profile refusals, they have thus far engaged only the Normon Sabernacle Choir, the Rockettes, and TV talent show runner up Jackie Evancho.

Yet rightbloggers, whenever they talk about the celeb shortfall, become extremely agitated. Though they are about to assume complete control of the federal government, it seems that as long as someone in this great land of ours isn’t kissing their ass, they can’t be happy.

Since shortly after The Leader’s victory, a team of show biz experts has been working to sign up appropriately boldface-name performers for his inauguration. But Garth Brooks fell through, as did Celine Dion, as did (despite an erroneous report from The Leader’s team) Elton John. This pattern prevailed until the press was talking less about who might perform at the event and more about who had already declined to do so, and soon Alec Baldwin was trolling The Leader with an offer to perform an AC/DC song.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/rightbloggers-mad-that-stars-they-despise-wont-come-out-for-trumps-inauguration-9500363

December 27, 2016

President Obama Protects Non-Believers from Religious Republicans

Freedom of religion isn't just about the right to practice religion. It's about the right to have your own views about religion including being agnostic and atheistic.

By Rmuse on Mon, Dec 26th

It is no stretch to claim that over the past few months there has been a dearth of good news for anyone but the uber-rich, evangelical zealots, and extreme racists. It is noteworthy that what little good news there has been was provided by, and courtesy of, America’s outgoing President Barack Obama. This past week, there were two items that were sparsely covered by the media and one, in particular, was not only incredibly good news, it was a historical action that provided constitutional protections to a segment of the population commonly and systematically demonized as “un-American.”

President Obama signed into law the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act that, among many other things, “protects atheists, humanists, and other freethinkers around the world [including America] from religious persecution.” What that means for American Secular Humanists, agnostics, atheists and other nonreligious persons is that they are now explicitly named as “a class” protected by an “Act” that was quietly and unceremoniously signed into law last week. The new law was an update, and a much-needed upgrade, to the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act that states:

“The freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is understood to protect theistic and non-theistic beliefs as well as the right not to profess or practice any religion.”

Of particular note is the Act’s explicit condemnation of any group or government entity that specifically “targets non-theists, humanists, and atheists because of their beliefs” as well as attempts to forcibly legislate or compel “non-believers or non-theists to recant their beliefs or to convert.”

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/26/pen-stroke-president-obama-protects-non-believers-religious-republicans.html

December 26, 2016

Once more unto the breach, dear friends

Posted by George A. Polisner

As we struggle with an effective way forward there are critical areas I will be working to address -and am happy to collaborate with all that believe as I do (regardless of political ideology) -that the incoming Executive Branch represents a clear and present danger to America and the world.

1. Protect and defend: When I think of our most vulnerable -I think of the impoverished, people of color, undocumented workers, refugees, Muslims, indigenous people and the LGBTQ community. I must now add a whole new sector of people -scientists. I had some recent discussions with people on the research edge -working to solve horrific disease such as ALS and Parkinson's or addressing catastrophic climate change. They are now under very real threat of being fired, ostracized or worse -without the protection they once had by our Federal government. These are people we should celebrate as heroes. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican -regardless -these brave men and women are trying to ease human suffering, improve our quality of life and help guide our decision-making so there is less risk to people and planet. I am deeply disturbed by this horrific new attitude toward those dedicated to the furtherance of human knowledge.

2. Educate and Inform
3. Focus on Outcomes
4. Achieve Scale
http://alonovo.blogspot.com/2016/12/once-more-unto-breach-dear-friends.html