turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalRightwing alliance plots assault to 'defund and defang' America's unions
Source: The Guardian
Rightwing activists across the US have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine progressive politicians by depriving them of a major source of support and funding – public sector unions.
A network of conservative thinktanks with outposts in all 50 states has embarked on a “breakthrough” campaign designed to strike a “mortal blow” against the American left. The aim is to “defund and defang” unions representing government employees as the first step towards ensuring the permanent collapse of progressive politics.
The campaign carries a powerful echo of the populist creed espoused by Donald Trump. The president was propelled into the White House last November after unexpected victories in several previously Democratic rust belt states including Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which have endured withering attacks on trade unions in recent years.
The new assault is being spearheaded by the State Policy Network (SPN), an alliance of 66 state-based thinktanks, or “ideas factories” as it calls them, with a combined annual budget of $80m. As suggested by its slogan – “State solutions. National impact” – the group outlines an aim to construct a rightwing hegemony throughout the US, working from the bottom up.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/30/rightwing-alliance-unions-defund-defang
Trump threatens to shut down government to build border wall
Source: The Hill
President Trump on Tuesday threatened to shut down the government, if necessary, to make sure his proposed border wall with Mexico is approved and funded by lawmakers.
"Build that wall. Now the obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it, but believe me we have to close down our government, we're building that wall," Trump said Tuesday during a rally in Phoenix, Ariz.
Funding for Trump's proposed border wall, a promise that was at the center of his 2016 presidential bid, is poised to be the center of debate this fall as Congress negotiates a new government funding bill.
If a new bill is not passed, the government will shut down on Oct. 1.
Democrats, however, are staunchly opposed to funding for the wall, setting up a challenge and tense negotiating over the government's funding.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/347588-trump-threatens-to-shut-down-government-to-build-border-wall
Well for "all" of the ass**** standing behind him, and those on Social Security, and other services they paid for is stopped, do they think with there 401K BS pension is going to help, if the market crashes, they really are idiots
Court hands pipeline opponents a major victory
Source: Think Progress
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision Tuesday that forces the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reconsider the environmental impacts of the Sabal Trail pipeline and two related pipeline projects that run from Alabama to Florida.
In a case brought by the Sierra Club and two local environmental groups, a panel of three judges ruled that FERC had failed in its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to adequately consider the greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that will be served by the natural gas pipeline.
“We conclude that the EIS for the Southeast Market Pipelines Project should have either given a quantitative estimate of the downstream greenhouse emissions that will result from burning the natural gas that the pipelines will transport or explained more specifically why it could not have done so,” Judges Judith Rogers and Thomas Griffith wrote. “As we have noted greenhouse-gas emissions are an indirect effect of authorizing this project, which FERC could reasonably foresee, and which the agency has legal authority to mitigate.” A third judge, Janice
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/pipeline-opponents-climate-impacts-ferc-win-b8f3573e60bf/
What trans soldier Albert Cashier can teach Trump about patriotism
On 6 August 1862, a young man called Albert Cashier enlisted in the Union army in Belvidere, Illinois. He was short for a soldier, just 5ft 3in. His fellow privates noted that Cashier kept his collar buttoned high up his neck, above his Adam’s apple, and that he always slept apart from the other men.
Cashier’s size did not hold him back. Fighting with the 95th Illinois infantry, he was involved in some of the most important battles in the war.
Cashier’s bravery was noted in accounts from the time. On one occasion, he was captured and escaped by attacking his Confederate guard. In another battle, comrades remembered Cashier sweeping up a Union flag which had been felled from its post by Confederate gunfire. He climbed a tree and lashed the tattered stars and stripes to a branch, showing that the Union would not be cowed.
But what Cashier’s fellow soldiers did not know was that the diminutive private had a secret – one that would only be revealed decades later.
Albert Cashier was assigned female at birth.
His story, from immigrant to proud soldier, to eventually being “outed” by nefarious hospital workers, will be retold in Albert Cashier the Musical, which airs in Chicago this month.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/22/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban-albert-cashier
Ryan: 'There is no moral relativism when it comes to neo-Nazis'
Source: The Hill
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Monday said there can be no "moral relativism" when talking about neo-Nazis in his sharpest statement yet on the violence last week in Charlottesville, Va.
Ryan's message, delivered as a post on Facebook, did not mention President Trump, but was clearly worded as a response to the controversy surrounding the president's remarks on the issue, in which he said both sides were to blame for Charlottesville — white supremacists and those fighting them.
As long as hate exists, Ryan said, it needs to be confronted.
"We need to call it what it is. And so long as it is weaponized for fear and terror, we need to confront it and defeat it," he said. "That is why we all need to make clear there is no moral relativism when it comes to neo-Nazis. We cannot allow the slightest ambiguity on such a fundamental question."
Trump's comments last week that there were good people on both sides of the clashes in Charlottesville have been rebuked by a series of Republicans. They have also raised consternation among many in the GOP who have worried their party could lose any chance of winning over members of minority groups given Trump's rhetoric.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/347331-ryan-there-is-no-moral-relativism-when-it-comes-to-neo-nazis
FU ass****, you have been leading the charge on racism, that stokes this sh*t for years you use economic racism.
All racism and other factors leads to and comes from economics ass****, always!
Just take for example your mantra of trying to gutting social security, and medicare, and how your pin head governor from wisCONsin, has been gutting voting, and then having a show on that FoxCONN job , which it is a con, to take taxpayer money to foot the bill.
Then you come out and say what you said with out mentioning your leader trump message of BS---------------you are spineless
Scott Pruitts successor as Oklahoma AG opposes mega-wind project
AUG 18, 2017, 12:58 PM
Scott Pruitt’s successor in Oklahoma is showing the fossil fuel industry that he cares as much about it as the state’s former attorney general. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) appointed Mike Hunter as attorney general in February after Pruitt resigned from the position to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump administration.
In June, Hunter, along with 11 other attorneys general and one governor from right-leaning states, sent a letter threatening to sue California’s insurance commissioner over his decision to call for insurance companies that operate in the state to disclose their fossil fuel investments and divest from coal companies.
As attorney general, Hunter’s predecessor also held a soft spot for coal. When Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. (OG&E) sought to extend the life of its Sooner coal plant by spending $500 million on pollution scrubbers, regulators rejected the idea. But Pruitt successfully intervened on its behalf. After twice rejecting OG&E plans to add the scrubbers, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission changed its mind in April and backed the utility’s approach after Pruitt filed a supportive statement.
https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-successor-opposes-mega-wind-project-3d21307fbf99/
I guess this carbon copy ass**** has never heard of acid rain.......................or has he scrubbed that from state site , like his buddy is trying to do at the federal level
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/acid-rain/
Darrell Issa called for hearings on white supremacists after appearing at conference for hate group
Source: Think Progress
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) called on the House Judiciary Committee last week to hold hearings on white supremacists and other hate groups, but in June, Issa gave an interview at a conference put on by a group the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group and white supremacist organization.
In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Issa called for the Judiciary Committee to hold hearings in order to “more fully understand” what led to the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia two weekends ago.
One woman, Heather Heyer, was killed in Charlottesville when a man drove a car into a group of counter-protesters who were there to protest white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and KKK members who had gathered for a rally.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/issa-letter-fair-82c935ac46f8/
Well Darrell either you were there at the events or you were not, but it appears that you were, so either your a liar -------again, or your just full of sh*t, I say both
Fran works six days a week in fast food, and yet she's homeless: 'It's economic slavery'
Once a customer has barked their order into the microphone at the Popeyes drive-thru on Prospect Avenue, Kansas City, the clock starts. Staff have a company-mandated 180 seconds to take the order, cook the order, bag the order and deliver it to the drive-thru window.
The restaurant is on “short shift” at the moment, which means it has about half the usual staff, so Fran Marion often has to do all those jobs herself. On the day we met, she estimates she processed 187 orders – roughly one every two minutes. Those orders grossed about $950 for the company. Marion went home with $76.
Despite working six days a week, Marion, 37, a single mother of two, can’t make ends meet on the $9.50 an hour she gets at Popeyes (no apostrophe – founder Al Copeland joked he was too poor to afford one.) A fast food worker for 22 years, Marion has almost always had a second job. Until recently, she had been working 9am-4pm at Popeyes, without a break, then crossing town to a janitorial job at Bartle Hall, the convention center, where she would work from 5pm- to 1.30am for $11 an hour. She didn’t take breaks there either, although they were allowed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/21/missouri-fast-food-workers-better-pay-popeyes-economics
This is why I do not go to any of these fast food places, they are not restaurants, they are not
EARTHJUSTICE CALLS OUT TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ON ATTEMPT TO DELAY CLEAN AIR FOR NATIONAL PARKS
AUGUST 18, 2017
Washington, D.C. — Today, Earthjustice said it would fight a Trump Administration attempt to stall adoption of standards to clean up air pollution in national parks and wilderness areas caused by power plants in Texas. The standards as proposed are projected to not only curb haze in parks, but also save almost 700 lives a year across 14 states. A court ordered consent decree secured by Earthjustice requires EPA to adopt final standards by September 9, 2017, but today the agency asked the court to delay that deadline until the end of 2018.
Earthjustice will strongly oppose the request on behalf of its clients in the case, including National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense Fund.
“People should not have to breathe dirty air and see filthy skies when they go to a national park,” said Earthjustice attorney David Baron. “We will strongly oppose any more delay in protecting these majestic places from power plant pollution. EPA has had more than enough time to finalize the proposal.”
http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2017/earthjustice-calls-out-trump-administration-on-attempt-to-delay-clean-air-for-parks
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