Resist.
There are journalists who are determined to report facts and make a constant effort to disclose the truth. That’s very important right now. Think Progress has started a fund, and if you are able to drop a few pennies, this is a good place to do so.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Alex Brandon.
If you are young, you might not know what “double plus ungood” means. It’s Newspeak, from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. It means terrible; very bad. I first read Orwell’s novel when I was in my early teens (I think, it’s all a bit fuzzy these days), and by the time the actual 1984 rolled around, I was 26 years old, and everyone was having fun with jokes about Big Brother and all the rest. Magazine covers all did plays on the novel. People were still optimistic then, and relieved, I think, that Orwell’s novel hadn’t come true. It hadn’t come true in 1984, but it rather looks like we’re heading that way in 2016. Today, I’m 59 years old, and the gift I’d like the most is to have that optimism back.
Friday evening, the Washington Post reported that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered at President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC to “to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect’s newest hotel.” The tour included a look at the hotel’s $20,000 a night “town house” suite. The Post also quoted some of the diplomats saying they intended to stay at the hotel in order to ingratiate themselves to the incoming president.
[…]
The incoming president, in other words, is actively soliciting business from agents of foreign governments. Many of these agents, in turn, said that they will accept the president-elect’s offer to do business because they want to win favor with the new leader of the United States.
In an exclusive exchange with ThinkProgress, Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who previously served as chief ethics counsel to President George W. Bush, says that Trump’s efforts to do business with these diplomats is at odds with a provision of the Constitution intended to prevent foreign states from effectively buying influence with federal officials.
The Constitution’s “Emoluments Clause,” provides that “no person holding any office of profit or trust under” the United States “shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”
The diplomats’ efforts in seek Trump’s favor by staying in his hotel “looks like a gift,” Painter told ThinkProgress in an email, and thus is the very kind of favor the Constitution seeks to prevent.
Emolument. There’s a new one for the vocabulary.
…Assuming that Trump does not divest from his hotel, however, it may prove difficult to enforce the Constitution against him. There are few court cases dealing with the Emoluments Clause. Typically, the country has relied on internal safeguards within the executive branch and fear of political embarrassment to prevent violations by the president. […] There is, however, at least one remedy under the Constitution for such a violation of the public trust by the president: impeachment.
I think we can rule out any fear of political embarrassment on the part of Trump or his appointees. They don’t seem to be capable of such a sense. The possibility of impeachment might get through to one of them, but whether or not it gets through to Trump is a different story, as right now it appears as though he doesn’t understand the slightest thing about politics or government. As I noted in a previous post, It’s becoming increasingly clear that Trump does not plan to work as a president, or to treat the presidency as an actual political office. The full story is at Think Progress, well worth reading. Also see: Government watchdogs demand Trump put business holdings in ‘blind trust’.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell talks to reporters after the Senate Republican weekly policy luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, July 8, 2015. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said repealing the Obamacare health insurance system is a “pretty high item on our agenda” for the new Congress that was elected on Tuesday, calling it the “single worst piece of legislation” from the first two years of the Obama administration.
McConnell told reporters he would like to see bipartisan comprehensive tax reform, and that border security should also be high on the to-do list. He expects president-elect Donald Trump to send the Senate a Supreme Court nominee soon, and to review environmental regulations put in place by Obama, including on coal.
All those people who could only get healthcare through ACA (affordable Care act), well, look just how fast the republican thugs want to yank that threadbare rug out from under you. Gosh, having citizens who have affordable healthcare, oh, how horrible, it’s unthinkable! Much better for people to be sick, and who gives a fuck if they die? Certainly not republicans. The only thing republicans truly excel at, besides inciting fear based on racism, is holding a spiteful grudge. They just can’t wait to destroy anything President Obama did, and if it makes people suffer, hey, all the better!
And Arkansas senator Tom Cotton just can’t wait to built that wall, and to force everyone to turn over immigrants.
Via Raw Story.
Lettered tiles spell out a cry for help (Shutterstock.com)
In the wake of the election of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, many Americans are — as former Obama administration official Van Jones noted — feeling shocked, alarmed and deeply afraid.
President-elect Trump spent his campaign stoking resentment and mainstreaming white nationalism. Many Muslims, immigrants, women, black and LGBT Americans all woke up on Wednesday wondering what the future has in store.
A lot of people are struggling, some may be contemplating taking drugs and alcohol to numb the despair or worse, contemplating self-harm or suicide.
David Ferguson at Raw Story has a very long list of help resources. You are not alone, there is support, and if you need it, please, please, reach out.
The title should probably be “Praise Mankind and Pass the Bleach”, as Genesis II is quite the scam, and goes to some length to explain that they aren’t really a god type church, but a to serve mankind church. They do this via MMS, Master Mineral Solution, and yes, of course it cures every possible ill. You can read about mixing a basic dose here, and yes, chlorine dioxide gas. So healthy, that. They’ve made the news once again, for selling Autism miracle cure kits. As if kids with autism don’t have enough to deal with, here, drink this bleach.
By playing off the fears of parishioners looking for an answer to autism, which may have impacted them or a loved one, the church was able to sell millions of its “miracle cure” kits worldwide.
“This is a high-strength industrial bleach. It really scares me that people would give this to their kids because it is a poison,” Dr. Paul Wang, the senior president of Autism Speaks, an advocacy organization in the United States that has been a source of funding directed towards the causes and treatment of autism, told ABC News. “You can’t blame any parent for wanting to help their child. In this case, we just want to make sure that everybody understands MMS (the Church’s chemical solution) is not a cure.”
[…]
Its [Genesis II / MMS] creator Jim Humble, a man who calls himself an archbishop and claims to have come to Earth from another galaxy, introduced his first of four books about the supposed healing solution titled “Master Mineral Solution of the Third Millennium” and published in 2010.
[…]
Because it is illegal to sell similar false cures under federal law, Humble moved to Mexico to avoid being convicted like other officials from the objectively eccentric church have been already.
Louis Daniel Smith sold bottles of the same “cure” online for $9.99 in Spokane, Washington under a company called “Project Greenlife” from 2007-2011. He was found guilty on five federal counts, including “introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead,” and sentenced to 51 months in prison in October 2015, according to the United States Department of Justice.
Though Smith was not a member of the church, Genesis II supporters came to his aid by providing emotional support and raising money for his legal defense online.
Full story here.
My name is David Archambault II, and I’m the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which has long opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline project. This proposed pipeline presents a threat to our lands, our sacred sites, and our water. Current and future generations depend on our rivers and aquifer to live.
Yesterday, militarized law enforcement agencies moved in with tanks and riot gear on water protectors who stand in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline—a massive pipeline project that would cut through four states, impact the water to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and violate sacred sites and ancient grounds. While native elders prayed in peace, they were attacked with pepper spray, rubber bullets, as well as sound and concussion cannons. By the end of the day, more than 140 people were arrested.1 Please, add your name and demand that President Obama reject this pipeline once and for all.
[…]
While we engage in the long legal process to curtail construction of the pipeline, Dakota Access is still poised to begin construction. Halting the construction was an unprecedented step in response to our powerful movement—and now President Obama must reject the pipeline’s permit outright.
Current and future generations depend on our rivers and aquifer to live. The Dakota Access pipeline jeopardizes the heath of our water and could affect our people, as well as countless communities who live downstream, as the pipeline would cross four states. The pipeline, as designed, would destroy ancient burial grounds, which is a violation of federal law.
Please, please, sign, and pass this on to as many people as possible. Lila wopila to all you who do so (very great thanks). If enough people do, we can get millions on this petition.
Contrast the #oregonstandoff verdict with what's being done to protesters on the #DakotaAccessPipeline #StandingRock #BREAKING pic.twitter.com/wAdjBRgjvY
— Oregon's Beaten Path (@OregonsPath) October 27, 2016
Courtesy Bucky Harjo
Sunset at the new water protectors’ camp in the path of the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL).
While Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier sat down with President Barack Obama at a private roundtable in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 25, Morton County, N.D. Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier was calling in police reinforcements from six states to enforce Energy Transfer Partners’ demands that “trespassers” be removed from the path of the pipeline.
Authorities implied they may forcibly remove the water protectors from the new camp, which is on land recently purchased by Dakota Access LLC, the subsidiary that is building the pipeline.
“We have the resources. We could go down there at any time,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said, according to the Associated Press. “We’re trying not to.”
“We are here to enforce the law as needed,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said. “It’s private property.”
The so-called trespassers are Lakota citizens and their allies determined to stand their ground to prevent further destruction of burial grounds and cultural sites, and to protect their water supply from the pipeline. As DAPL moves forward with aggressive construction even on weekends and at night, water protectors took the bold action to declare eminent domain over their homelands last week and set up a new camp directly in the pipeline’s path.
What began with prayers and a single tipi alongside Highway 1806 quickly grew to more than a dozen tipis surrounded by tents, buses, cars and hundreds of water protectors. Some are calling it the “1851 Treaty Camp” to acknowledge their Treaty rights.
Across the road is the encroaching pipeline and a heavily militarized police force with armored vehicles, helicopters, planes, ATVs and busloads of officers. Tensions are growing as unarmed citizens worry that police will use unnecessarily harsh tactics.
In recent weeks, nearly 300 unarmed water protectors who were arrested have been subjected to pepper spray, strip-searches, delayed bail, exaggerated charges and physical violence, according to interviews with several who were taken into custody. The ACLU and National Lawyers Guild recently sent attorneys to Standing Rock to help the Red Owl Collective, a team of volunteer lawyers headed by attorney Bruce Ellison, who are representing many of those arrested.
On Wednesday, October 26, civil rights leader and Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrived in Standing Rock to speak out against the multiple human and civil rights violations being perpetrated against water protectors.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to water protectors standing against the Dakota Access oil pipeline on Wednesday October 26. (Photo: Courtesy KILI Radio)
“When will the taking stop? When will we start treating the first peoples of these lands with the respect and honor they deserve?”
The decision to change the pipeline route from north of Bismarck to its current route is “the ripest case of environmental racism I’ve seen in a long time,” Jackson said. “Bismarck residents don’t want their water threatened, so why is it okay for North Dakota to react with guns and tanks when Native Americans ask for the same right?”
Full story at ICTMN. Related news:
Mark Ruffalo in Standing Rock; Leo DiCaprio, Jesse Jackson Head to Standing Rock.
Fighting for Our Lives: #NoDAPL in Historical Context.
DAPL: Former Vice President Al Gore Supports the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Donald Trump’s close financial ties to Energy Transfer Partners, operators of the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline, have been laid bare, with the presidential candidate invested in the company and receiving more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from its chief executive.
Trump’s financial disclosure forms show the Republican nominee has between $500,000 and $1m invested in Energy Transfer Partners, with a further $500,000 to $1m holding in Phillips 66, which will have a 25% stake in the Dakota Access project once completed. The information was disclosed in Trump’s monthly filings to the Federal Election Commission, which requires candidates to disclose their campaign finance information on a regular basis.
The financial relationship runs both ways. Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, has given $103,000 to elect Trump and handed over a further $66,800 to the Republican National Committee since the property developer secured the GOP’s presidential nomination.
On 29 June, Warren made $3,000in donations to Trump’s presidential campaign. The limit for individual contributions to a candidate is $2,700 per election and it’s unclear whether Trump returned $300 to Warren. Trump’s campaign was contacted for comment.
Warren made a further $100,000 donation to the Trump Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee among Trump’s campaign, the RNC and 11 state parties, on 29 June. A day earlier, the Energy Transfer Partners chief executive doled out $66,800 in two separatedonations to the RNC.
Full story at the Guardian. All I have right now is a lot of fucking cussing, and feeling like I’m going to vomit. Crispy fuckin’ Christ onna stick. I’m going back to work.
Protestors face off with the Riot Police across the fenceline near a Dakota Access construction site. CREDIT: Facebook/Rob Wilson.
Concerned and angered by the use of dogs, pepper spray, military tactics and strip searches against unarmed water protectors at the construction sites of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to step in.
“I am seeking a Justice Department investigation because I am concerned about the safety of the people,” Archambault said in a statement. “Too often these kinds of investigations take place only after some use of excessive force by the police creates a tragedy. I hope and pray that the Department will see the wisdom of acting now to prevent such an outcome.”
In a formal letter, Archambault called on U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate the alleged civil rights violations, outlining the ways in which the protectors’ safety is being compromised and their First Amendment rights jeopardized.
[…]
Archambault said protesters and tribal members have told him that “the militarization of law enforcement agencies has escalated violence at the campsite,” even as the tribe’s lawful efforts to keep the 1,172-mile-long pipeline from being routed through sacred burial sites and underneath the Missouri River a half mile from its reservation have drawn worldwide support.
“Firsthand accounts and videos filmed by participants reveal a pattern of strong-arm tactics targeting Native Americans and peaceful protestors,” the Standing Rock Sioux said in the statement. “The abuses include strip searches, violent security dog attacks, pepper-spraying of youth and intimidation by law enforcement.”
Archambault’s letter went further, describing roadblocks, checkpoints and unwarranted stops, all of which “are clearly targeted at Indian people, and are designed to intimidate free speech.”
Add to that the “constant surveillance, with low-flying planes and helicopters constantly overhead at the camps of the water protectors,” the confiscation of at least one drone and the shooting down of another, even those being used by journalists, plus the actual arrests of journalists such as Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, add up to a “larger effort by local law enforcement to intimidate the press and to prevent the full and fair reporting of the activities of law enforcement on this matter,” Archambault’s letter said.
“Rather than seeking to keep the peace, law enforcement personnel are clearly working in tandem with private security of Dakota Access,” the chairman wrote, adding that the tactics not only evoke the civil rights movement of 50 years ago but also bring up the collective memory of the U.S. government’s “long and sad history of using military force against indigenous people.”
Via ICTMN. In related news: Justice Dept Reaffirms It Will Not Grant DAPL River-Crossing Permits Anytime Soon.
Nevada voter named Barbara speaks to CBS News (screen grab).
Following the third presidential debate, Face the Nation host John Dickerson spoke to a group of voters in Nevada about why they supported either Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
A voter named Barbara explained that she was motivated to support Trump because “morality and values” were important to her.
“Based on what the country was based on,” she said. “I think that the laws that Obama has passed, the way the country has — I call it down turning. Some of the other people are proud of it and happy for it. I personally am against it, the homosexuals, the abortions. All the stuff, I am against.”
“When Donald Trump says ‘Make American Great Again,’ is that what you hear?” Dickerson wondered. “That it’s going to go back to before the time that you’re now describing?”
“That’s part of it,” Barbara agreed.
No, Barbara, morality and values aren’t important to you in the least. You wouldn’t know morals, values, or ethics if they leaped up and bit your nose. What is important to you? The need to control, dominate, and oppress others. The need to be sitting on top of the people heap. The need to be a judgmental asshole, pointing a finger in accusation and screaming about prayer. People like yourself Barbara, have this awful sadistic need to stomp all over other people you perceive as lesser, giving them the convenient label of sinner. You dream of an America that never was, like most ignorant white asses. I have a bit of news for you, Barbara – all your stuff, I am against. I suggest you run and hide, because all the liberal, queer, and thinking people, they are coming to get you, Barbara.
Full story here.
Facebook / Twitter
Via ICTMN.
Facebook has done it again, in their ongoing mania regarding [female] breasts, and those oh-so-forbidden nipples. Cancerfonden, a Swedish cancer charity, posted an animated video, showing how to perform breast exams. This is very important knowledge, and it is something everyone should know, as well as do. When it comes to something like breast exams, pamphlets aren’t always the best way of instruction, especially compared to video. A video can be viewed privately, and played as many times as needed. Well, unfortunately for Cancerfonden, the nipple nazis of facebook wouldn’t allow it. As per usual, it took a very long time for Cancerfonden to get through to someone to explain. FB did uncensor the video, but really, you get the feeling they didn’t want to do it. In an absolutely brilliant move, Cancerfonden went square:
After Cancerfonden’s video was taken down, the organization responded with an open letter in which it proposed a different depiction of the cartoon breasts, composed entirely of squares.
“After trying to meet your control for several days without success, we have now come up with a solution that will hopefully make you happy: Two pink squares!” the letter reads. “This can not possibly offend you, or anyone. Now we can continue to spread our important breast school without upsetting you.”
Lena Biornstad, communications director for Cancerfonden, tells the AFP that it is “incomprehensible and strange how one can perceive medical information as offensive,” adding: “This is information that saves lives.”
The Verge has the full story.