November 21, 2016

Jerry Falwell, Jr. Met with Trump About a Possible Dept. of Education Position

Oh Jesus

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/falwell-meets-with-president-elect-trump-in-new-york-city/2016/11/18/d2c62c98-ada7-11e6-8f19-21a1c65d2043_story.html

I thought it was bad enough when Dr. Ben Carson, an evolution and climate change denier, was being considered as the next Secretary of Education. (His business manager Armstrong Williams later said Carson didn’t want the position because he “has no government experience” and would not want to “take a position that could cripple the presidency”… even though that didn’t stop him from campaigning to be the President.)

Trump’s alternatives, however, are no better. The Associated Press reports that another possibility for Secretary of Education is Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., who recently met with Trump to discuss the role:

Falwell tells local media that he and Trump met Thursday at Trump Tower to discuss the U.S. Department of Education and Falwell’s potential role. He wouldn’t confirm or deny whether he was being vetted as secretary of education, but says he will “definitely play a role” in the administration.

How bad must Trump’s vetting process be if Falwell in still in the mix? He, too, is a climate change and evolution denier whose idea of education is keeping students in a bubble where critical ideas must be suppressed. Liberty has also been embroiled in a sexual assault scandal.

It’s not clear whether Trump is seriously considering Falwell for the position, if Falwell would accept it if offered, or if this was just a courtesy to someone who supported him throughout the campaign.

But the idea that we’re even having a conversation about a potential Secretary of Education who runs a private university that puts indoctrination over actual learning is horrifying. There’s no telling what Falwell would do with the power of that office.

November 21, 2016

Is EmDrive Real? NASA Paper On Impossible Propulsion System Passes Peer Review

Can you drive a car by getting on the front seat and pushing the windshield? The answer, as anyone familiar with high-school level physics would tell you, is no. Newton’s third law of motion — for every action has an equal and opposite reaction — explicitly prohibits this.

However, after months of rumors, speculation and criticism, a peer-reviewed study published last week in the Journal of Propulsion and Power claims to have shown a propulsion system that, to all appearances violates this cardinal law, actually seems to work.

Electromagnetic drive, or EmDrive, is a proposed fuel-free propulsion system that putatively works by bouncing microwaves around a closed chamber. The problem with this kind of propulsion system is that it’s impossible. A system cannot produce thrust without pushing something in the opposite direction.

http://www.ibtimes.com/emdrive-real-nasa-paper-impossible-propulsion-system-passes-peer-review-2448992

November 21, 2016

Trump's America: Gold Star family booed by airplane passengers

The father of a soldier who was killed in a deadly attack in Afghanistan told Army Times that he and his family were booed by their fellow passengers as they flew to meet his son's remains at Dover Air Force Base.

Stewart Perry and his wife and daughter on Monday flew from Sacramento to Philadelphia, with a layover in Phoenix. From Philadelphia, they took ground transportation to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

https://www.armytimes.com/articles/gold-star-father-urges-compassion-after-airplane-passengers-boo-family

November 21, 2016

Spice company owner flames Trump voters: You committed an act of racism

MILWAUKEE — Penzeys Spices, a Wauwatosa-based company famous for its spices, is in the middle of a political firestorm after its owner slammed President-elect Donald Trump and the voters who supported him.

"The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades," Bill Penzey Jr. wrote in a Tuesday night email to the company's mailing list. "The American people are taking notice."

Penzey followed up with a Facebook post titled "Cooking trumps Racism."

On Facebook, he praised Republicans who refused to back Trump but slammed those who voted for him.

"You just voted for an openly racist candidate for the presidency of the United States of America," Penzey wrote.

And he urged Trump voters to make amends by donating to civil liberties or anti-hate groups.

"You really are a good bunch, but you just committed the biggest act of racism in American history since Wallace stood in the schoolhouse doorway 53 years ago," he wrote. "Make this right. Take ownership for what you have done and begin the pathway forward."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/20/spice-company-owner-flames-trump-voters-you-commited-act-racism/94164924/

November 18, 2016

Trump Refiles Suit Against D.C. Over Hotel Taxes

Source: Bloomberg BNA

Nov. 15 — President-elect Donald Trump refiled his lawsuit seeking a refund of taxes paid for his new luxury hotel project in Washington, D.C. ( Trump Old Post Office LLC v. District of Columbia , D.C. Super. Ct., No. 2016-CVT-000010, second amended petition filed 11/14/16 ).

Trump, through a company he owns called Trump Old Post Office LLC, first filed suit against the city in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in June, contesting the assessment against several downtown lots along Pennsylvania Avenue. That lawsuit was dismissed Oct. 27, but the court allowed Trump to refile separate petitions for each of the lots involved in the Trump International Hotel.

The first of those petitions was filed Nov. 14. More petitions will be filed, according to court papers.

Trump’s 263-room hotel is housed in the castle-like Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Ave., completed in 1899, five blocks from the White House. Its official grand opening was Oct. 26.

Read more: http://www.bna.com/trump-refiles-suit-n57982082831/

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The President-Elect Is Suing Washington, D.C.,

The hits just keep on coming

November 18, 2016

Republicans Are Ready To Unleash The Most Unconstitutional Law Ever Conceived

November 16, 2016 by Mark

While everyone is talking about Trump’s transition and how badly it is going, something is falling under the radar. This is a piece of legislation that the Republican House, Republican Senate and President-Elect all support.

I don’t know how else to say this. I know it will piss off a lot of people, but I really don’t care right now. This piece of legislation is the first step towards America’s version of the Nuremberg Laws. I say that because it is so despicable that absolutely no one will be protected once it is passed and signed into law.

This bill is called the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). As you can guess from the name of the bill it is as civil rights suppression law just like their Freedom Of Religion Defense Acts that have passed in several states including Pence’s Indiana.

The initial targets of this shameful law will be LGBT and women. This bill will allow legal discrimination based on “religious beliefs”. If a baker decides that they won’t bake a cake for a gay couple, the government cannot do anything about it.

SNIP

If you think you are immune from this law, better think again. I know it talks about “marriage” but the “religious belief” and “moral conviction” opens the door to several unwanted things. Like what if a state elects an anti-gun Governor and legislature. They decide to pass a law that says you cannot own a gun because it is against their “religious belief” or “moral conviction”. According to this law the federal government can do nothing to stop them from taking your guns.

What if a state employee decides that you cannot get a marriage license if you were divorced because of their “religious beliefs” or “moral convictions”? The federal government cannot force that person to issue that marriage license.

This bill is so broad and so vicious anyone can be affected because someone in a position of authority can force their “religious beliefs” or “moral convictions” on you. How would you feel if your boss was very much against divorce and fired you when you get a divorce just because you got a divorce. He claims “religious belief” or “moral conviction” and you have no recourse.

MUST READ: https://leanleft.com/2016/11/16/republicans-are-ready-to-unleash-the-most-unconstitutional-law-ever-conceived/

November 17, 2016

Mail order 1st Lady elect now says she paused her studies at college

LMAO

The official bio of Melania Trump now suggests that she did not complete a college degree in Slovenia, as she previously claimed on her own website.

The future first lady's bio on President-elect Donald Trump's government website says that she "paused her studies to advance her modeling career in Milan and Paris." It does not say whether she resumed or completed the degree.

As recently as July, Melania Trump's personal site said she obtained a degree in design and architecture at an unspecified university in Slovenia, her country of birth.

It did not say when or where she completed the degree but said she was working as a model at the time and "jetting between photo shoots in Paris and Milan."

Questions began to surface earlier this year about whether this resume was entirely accurate.

Blaz Matija Vogelnik, a professor who said he briefly taught her at Slovenia's University of Ljubljana, told NBC News in August that she did not complete his course.

"She hasn't finished university, at least not in Ljubljana," he said. "My personal opinion is that, because she was very beautiful girl ... I believe that she realized that she could gain more with that, than to have long studies."

Vogelnik noted that his former student had passed a rigorous test to gain entry to the college, and based on that he believed "her IQ was very high."

Had she completed the course, Melania Trump's research would ordinarily be in the university's library, but it could not been found there when NBC News visited the college this summer.

November 17, 2016

Who here will start a petition on petitions.whitehouse.gov

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

for the president to pardon the president elect as a sign of support in pledging a smooth transition.

Obama told Trump that "we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed — because if you succeed, then the country succeeds."

Ref: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028286044

November 16, 2016

At least consider a boycott of all Trump business and properties

This Shopping Spreadsheet Is A One-Stop Way To Boycott The Trumps

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/boycott-trump-list-of-retailers_us_582c789de4b0aa8910bde58f

November 16, 2016

Autocracy: Rules for Survival

By Masha Gessen

Rule #1: Believe the autocrat.
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you.
Rule #4: Be outraged.
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.
Rule #6: Remember the future.

Must read: http://www2.nybooks.com/daily/s3/nov/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival.html