Those Primitive Indians Just Don’t Understand, No.

Obama Legacy; Bears Ears National Monument.

The Fight for Bears Ears has been going on for a very long time; people have been happy with Pres. Obama’s protective national monument status. Now the GOP is arguing that us dumb Indians, gosh, we just don’t understand. If places are declared national monuments, it will seriously impact our primitive lives, and we wouldn’t be able to do native stuff, like gather firewood, so um, just give us the land, and everything will be great! There really isn’t deep enough mockery for these arrogant colonialists.

Speaking alongside Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about the Trump administration’s order to review — and potentially shrink or eliminate — nearly 30 national monuments, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said Native Americans were “manipulated” into their support for the 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument southeastern Utah.

“The Indians, they don’t fully understand that a lot of the things that they currently take for granted on those lands, they won’t be able to do if it’s made clearly into a monument or a wilderness,” Hatch said on Sunday. “Once you put a monument there, you do restrict a lot of things that could be done, and that includes use of the land… Just take my word for it.”

Oh, right. We should just take the word of a white man. Gosh, that’s worked so well in the past.

Hatch’s dismissal of native voices is not only condescending, it is incredibly inaccurate in the case of Bears Ears. Protections for Bears Ears were nearly 80 years in the making. Most recently, the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, which brought together five tribal nations, pushed for the protection of the Bears Ears region. After the group received no substantial response from the Utah Congressional delegation about protecting the area, the group opted to propose that President Barack Obama should create a national monument, which he did in December 2016.

[…]

But variations of Hatch’s argument have been routinely made by critics of the national monuments — namely, Republican politicians in Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert (R) has long purported that a national monument would get rid of critical tribal activities, such as firewood gathering. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) similarly stoked fears that the federal government would seize native American land for the monument. Utah state legislator Mike Noel (R), who is looking to join the Trump administration, launched an investigation into the tribal support of a Bears Ears National Monument, calling it a “charade.”

These accusations are part of a continued misinformation campaign targeting tribal members that started during the lead-up to the monument designation. In the summer of 2016, flyers meant to antagonize local Navajo were found posted around towns adjacent to the now national monument. One of the flyers impersonated an Interior Department press release that claimed the government would be taking over four million acres of Navajo reservation land. Others suggested the national monument would ban firewood gathering and Native American access.

Think Progress has the full story.

Pigs Will Fly 2.

Artist’s rendering – Flying Pigs on Parade over the Chicago River.

Last night, I posted about Flying Pigs on Parade, a great art project, and one which needs help from people! Marcus gave me another reason to spread the word:

Enjoy, and please, if you can, donate to Flying Pigs on Parade, so that pigs will fly in front of Trump everywhere.

Pink Floyd’s Pigs Will Fly!

Artist’s rendering – Flying Pigs on Parade over the Chicago River.

“Flying Pigs on Parade” is a visual response to the loud, illogical and frequently hateful expressions that polluted the presidential elections and that now define the actions of our U.S. leadership. 

One hundred years ago the Russian Revolution launched a series of events that would drastically alter the world. George Orwell used these events as the basis for his 1946 novella Animal Farm. The poignancy of the text has reverberated with many generations. We feel the message, once again, seems sadly relevant.

In 1977 Pink Floyd rendered their musical interpretation of the allegory into the concept album Animals in response to social-political conditions in late-70’s Britain. Like Orwell’s book, the interpretive messages of Animals have unfortunately become highly relevant again.

[…]

Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) has given us approval to replicate the original iconic Battersea pig in gold. Since we will have invested in the balloons, we intend to deploy the folly in other cities.

Flying Pigs on Parade is intended to first deploy in Chicago as a single day art installation. Most of the technical bits have been resolved. We are currently progressing through requirements for municipal approval, negotiating a float date in late summer.

We will need financial assistance in implementing the project.

(please see “DONATE” at top of page or our GoFundMe.com page)

If you can, help to spread the pigs all over! Flying Pigs On Parade. Donate!

Raw story has this also.

“That was before we became this dark, dystopian data company that gave the world Trump,”

The Guardian.

Carole Cadwalladr has an extensive and in-depth piece on the shadowy world of the Mercers and others, and their aims, none of which will make you rest easy. The age of reasoned paranoia is upon us. Recommended reading.

“That was before we became this dark, dystopian data company that gave the world Trump,” a former Cambridge Analytica employee who I’ll call Paul tells me. “It was back when we were still just a psychological warfare firm.”

Was that really what you called it, I ask him. Psychological warfare? “Totally. That’s what it is. Psyops. Psychological operations – the same methods the military use to effect mass sentiment change. It’s what they mean by winning ‘hearts and minds’. We were just doing it to win elections in the kind of developing countries that don’t have many rules.”

Full story at The Guardian.

A Not So Tiny Tantrum.

Wonkette.

The Tiny Tyrant has had yet another tantrum, once again directed at McMaster, possibly the one person who simply doesn’t give a shit about the wannabe dictator’s dictums.

Donald Trump last month stirred up controversy when he said that South Korea should be the country that foots the bill for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a missile defense system that’s a key deterrent against North Korea.

However, Trump was quickly contradicted publicly by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who rushed to assure the Korean government that the United States would pay to install THAAD.

According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, Trump was absolutely furious about this and chewed out his own national security adviser during a heated phone conversation.

“Trump was livid, according to three White House officials, after reading in the Wall Street Journal that McMaster had called his South Korean counterpart to assure him that the president’s threat to make that country pay for a new missile defense system was not official policy,” Lake writes. “These officials say Trump screamed at McMaster on a phone call, accusing him of undercutting efforts to get South Korea to pay its fair share.”

I suppose we can be thankful there’s at least one person in the regime who knows what they are doing, and when to do it. Full story here.

Mr. Tweet Rides Again.

Mr. Tweet has once again gotten loose, and has been saying deranged and nasty things about Sally Yates now. Once again, an unfounded accusation is made, and people are wasting no time smacking back, hard.  UPDATE: Huh. When I posted this, Trump’s tweet was included, as it was at the source. That’s now gone. It has been disappeared! Oh no, let’s cook up a conspiracy!

You can see more choice responses at Raw Story.

Sunday Facepalm.

artika.info.

Yesterday, I briefly mentioned the stupidity of Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID). Rather than just admitting his “no one ever died from not having access to health care” was extraordinarily wrong and stupid, he is, of course, doubling down, and blaming the media for focusing on a “5 second clip”. I think they are focusing on the stupid which fell steaming from your mouth, Mr. Labrador, especially in light of your history of saying equally stupid things in regard to health care.

On Saturday, Labrador posted a statement on the exchange, saying that his response “wasn’t very elegant” and criticizing the media coverage.

“In the five-second clip that the media is focusing on, I was trying to explain that all hospitals are required by law to treat patients in need of emergency care regardless of their ability to pay and that the Republican plan does not change that,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t help that the media is only highlighting a five-second video, instead of the entire exchange.”

Labrador’s longer explanation, however, also doesn’t hold up.

No kidding it doesn’t hold up. One of the reasons the Affordable Care Act was so necessary was because those without coverage would go to the ER, usually waiting until they were in a dire state. People taking care of their health in such a way drives up cost all the way around, for everyone. Mr. Labrador is also woefully ignorant of the fact that hospitals do come looking for their money, and they are quite serious about that, too. So, a really stupid, ineffective way to have a healthy citizenry, but that’s good, because you still have that option! I mean, if you don’t feel well, just go park yourself in a busy ER for 10 hours or so, you don’t need to work, right? Then, after you’ve been treated, and realize you can’t afford medicines or aftercare, you had best gather up all your stuff, get a new identity and move, because a big damn bill will be chasing you. Yeah, excellent choice, that. Well, as the rethugs have pointed out time and time again, there are options: there’s Jesus, or you could just die.

Think Progress has the full run down, with all the necessary numbers and links.

If You Don’t Talk To Your Constituents, I Will!

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY ) on MSNBC — screenshot.

Cheers to Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who has come up with a brilliant plan, given the sheer amount of rethugs who refuse to show at town halls and other meetings, unwilling to face angry constituents. I think this needs to be implemented, not just used as a threat. Get out there, Dems, and talk to people.  All the Twitterati, get this one out to all your Dem reps, light a fire.

Appearing with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Friday, a New York congressman called out a Republican House member from a neighboring district for ducking his constituents’ questions about the newly passed GOP health care plan and said he might hold a town hall there himself.

Saying, “If it takes a Democrat,” to face constituents to talk about their health care worries, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) said he’s willing to go to GOP districts and host town halls.

“Maybe a Democrat ought to go into every district where a Republican who supported TrumpCare won’t hold a town hall meeting, and do it for them,” Maloney told Maddow “I think every Republican who voted for this thing ought to have to stand in front of their voters and explain it.”

Maloney was focusing his ire on New York Republican Rep. John Faso who is refusing to meet with constituents, including one woman, Andrea Mitchell (not the NBC host), who is suffering from brain cancer and worries she will be left without insurance under the AHCA.

[…]

“And if it takes a Democrat to go in and do it for them for a while, I’ll explain what’s in this bill, and if he doesn’t like it, he should stand up and explain it himself.,” Maloney explained.

Video at the link.

And, in one of the top 10 stupidest, most idiotic statements ever, the winner is Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), who stated, at a town hall, “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”

Can I just point to every fucking generation of people since there were people? Yeah, lots of dead people because no health care. Jesus Christ.

Mail Me To The GOP.

Reason #5

My combat tour in Iraq resulted in enough disability to make me uninsurable, but not enough to get all my healthcare through the VA. You killed me, you prick.

Reason #4

Asthma. I cannot afford to be in a high-risk pool and without health insurance, I will die of an asthma attack. I will die of an easily controlled incurable lung disease that affects millions. I hope my parents put my blue-faced body on Congressman Lloyd Smucker’s doorstep.

Reason #3

because you took away my fucking insurance

Mediaite has the full story. Mail Me To The GOP. If the senate passes the Fuck You No Healthcare Plan, I’ll be signing up.

No healthcare stuff:

HHS Secretary Price argues people with pre-existing conditions should pay more: “Well, it’s pricing for what an individual’s health status is, and that’s important to appreciate.”

House Republican didn’t know the health care bill he voted for could cost his state $3 billion: Rep. Chris Collins didn’t read it before he voted for it.

Women Helping Women / SASS.

https://womenhelp.org/

While the fate of the Fuck You No Healthcare Plan is not certain yet, one thing is more than clear: whether or not the senate squashes this monstrosity, it will be women and other people who can get pregnant who will end up being hurt the most. In spite of the fact that abortion is legal in uStates, the reality is the opposite for a majority of women. For many women, being able to obtain a termination within draconian time limits has been made impossible, and there are many efforts to make sure that women cannot access early abortion pills, either. The FDA updated its protocol on mifepristone last year, increasing its eligibility of use from 49 days’ gestation to 70 days’, but my state, nDakota, along with Ohio and Texas, refuse to comply, adhering to the old protocol as a means to prevent women from using it. Many states have outlawed the use to telemedicine in regard to mifepristone, which is yet another nail on autonomy’s coffin when it comes to those of us who live rural. Tom Price, who doesn’t much believe in contraception anyway, and denies the fact that women need help to obtain it, so he refuses to cover it, is elated with the latest move, and that is very bad news indeed, for all women who use contraception.

When I was younger, I thought that the days of the Jane Collective were long past, that such networks would not ever be needed again. I certainly felt that way when I obtained an abortion in 1975. At that time, no one cared about my private medical decisions, or the private medical decisions of others. It took many years for the anti-choice brigade to whip up a proper frenzy, but they managed it, and here we are, back in an age of necessary collectives.

A Dutch Collective, Women Helping Women is active, providing help with Self-Managed Abortion; Safe and Supported (SASS). If you find yourself in trouble, please, please, do things safely. There are people who can help you, so take advantage of that, and remember you are not alone.

WHW has an emphasis on privacy, it’s clandestine, and you cannot be traced, which is necessary because women are being prosecuted for inducing abortions.

While the Trump administration didn’t invent anti-choice ideology or policies, it is unapologeticallylaying the groundwork for an unprecedented attack on reproductive rights and the women who seek abortion care. And although anti-choice legislators have historically focused on restricting surgical abortion, medical abortion is very much in their crosshairs, too.

“While people in the U.S. have been self-inducing abortion with pills safely, effectively and privately, they do so under the looming threat of arrest and prosecution, or detention and deportation,” said Jill Adams, Chief Strategist at the Self-Induced Abortion (SIA) Legal Team at Berkeley Law. “Not because self-induced abortion is per se illegal, but because rogue prosecutors have been manipulating and misapplying laws in a modern day witch-hunt.”

According to the SIA Legal Team, there are 17 known arrests or convictions in connection with self-induced abortion. “This threat looms most heavily over communities of color, immigrants, and people living in poverty who already face some of the highest obstacles to reproductive healthcare access and over policing of their communities,” said Adams.

Think Progress has the full story.

Sigh. Speaking of:

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad on Friday signed into law a 20-week abortion ban that faces a legal challenge in the Midwestern state’s supreme court.

The law, passed by Iowa’s Republican-controlled House and Senate last month, bans abortions once a pregnancy reaches 20 weeks and stipulates a three-day waiting period before women can undergo any abortion.

The law does not make exceptions for instances of rape or incest but does allow for abortions if the mother’s life or health is at risk.

Full story here.

The Shining? Worse. Carrie? Worse. The Stand? Worse.

Stephen King has come across a horror which outdoes every one of his works, and its name is Donald Trump.

“That this guy has his finger on the nuclear trigger is worse than any horror story I ever wrote.”

King, who wrote “Carrie” and “The Stand,” said the president’s first hundred days present a “clear portrait: he’s an almost textbook case of narcissistic personality disorder.”

It’s a pity this isn’t a King book, we could have all skipped to the end, slammed it shut, and tucked it away in a nice dark corner. Via Raw Story.

Betrayal Beyond Belief! *Sob*

Donald Trump (CPAC).

Oh, the deplorable tears are flowing freely, with Trumpholes yelling “Betrayal!” all over the place. Poor babies, they seem to have forgotten about congress, who aren’t terribly keen on the idiotic wall business, and unlike the Tiny Tyrant, recognize a massive waste of money, especially when that money isn’t there. It would be easy enough to fund the idiotic wall if the money were yanked from the military’s greedy hands, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen. Ah well, good. The “wall” was, and is, a damn stupid idea. In the meantime, there are thuggish tears for everyone to enjoy.

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives agreed upon a budget deal in order to keep the government operating and avoid a shutdown. The budget included no funds to begin construction of President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise, a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

The Hill said, “The $1.1 trillion bill passed with support from both parties in a 309-118 vote. Fifteen Democrats and 103 Republicans voted against it. It now heads to the Senate, which will have to approve it by Friday, when current funding expires.”

The budget did include funding for Planned Parenthood and Obamacare subsidies, cut no major funds from the Environmental Protection Agenvy (EPA) and included no money for Trump’s “deportation force.”

“Betrayed by the GOP: Trump’s First Surrender”

“Budget Betrayal Beyond Belief: Dem priorities funded; where is Trump? And his promises?”

Hmmm. Have you looked in Florida? Various golf courses? There’s more here.

Cinco de Mayonnaise.

Mike Pence will be in charge of the ‘taco bowl’ festivities for Cinco de Mayo at the white house. It will be held on the 4th of May because…who the fuck knows? The Twitterati have been merciless in their response to this bit of fluffy news. You can see some of them here, and of course, at the Politico tweet stream.