June 22, 2016

Dobson and Reed and Bachman and more. Meet tRump's Evangelical Advisory Board

Executive board members include:

•Michele Bachmann - Former Congresswoman
•A.R. Bernard - Senior Pastor and CEO, Christian Cultural Center
•Mark Burns - Pastor, Harvest Praise and Worship Center
•Tim Clinton - President, American Association of Christian Counselors
•Kenneth and Gloria Copeland - Founders, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
•James Dobson - Author, Psychologist and Host, My Family Talk
•Jerry Falwell, Jr. - President, Liberty University
•Ronnie Floyd - Senior Pastor, Cross Church
•Jentezen Franklin - Senior Pastor, Free Chapel
•Jack Graham - Senior Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church
•Harry Jackson - Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
•Robert Jeffress - Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas
•David Jeremiah - Senior Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church
•Richard Land – President, Southern Evangelical Seminary
•James MacDonald – Founder and Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel
•Johnnie Moore - Author, President of The KAIROS Company
•Robert Morris - Senior Pastor, Gateway Church
•Tom Mullins – Senior Pastor, Christ Fellowship­
•Ralph Reed - Founder, Faith and Freedom Coalition
•James Robison - Founder, Life OUTREACH International
•Tony Suarez - Executive Vice President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
•Jay Strack - President, Student Leadership University
•Paula White - Senior Pastor, New Destiny Christian Center
•Tom Winters - Attorney, Winters and King, Inc.
•Sealy Yates – Attorney, Yates and Yates

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/trump-campaign-announces-evangelical-executive-advisory-board




Next Release: Donald J. Trump Announces Staff Expansion

June 22, 2016

The Cheney Loophole- big enough for big oil to pollute to their hearts' content

Judge rules Fayette fracking ban invalid


CHARLESTON — A federal judge ruled Friday that Fayette County's ordinance banning fracking waste disposal is invalid because such regulations are preempted by state and federal law.

Judge John T. Copenhaver issued the order hours before a hearing was scheduled between Pennsylvania-based petroleum company EQT Production Company and the Fayette County Commission, granting EQT's motion for summary judgment.

He ruled provisions in the ordinance that supersede state or federal permits, like those issued by the Department of Environmental Protection, and allow residents to sue violators in circuit court, are not enforceable.

Tom Rhule, co-founder of Headwaters Defense, a local environmental group that helped craft the county ordinance, said he disagrees with the ruling.

<snip>
read:http://www.fayettetribune.com/news/judge-rules-fayette-fracking-ban-invalid/article_93b96d58-335e-11e6-8dc4-5b9d344e6415.html

June 22, 2016

Fucking Horrible. Fucking Typical. Nothing to see here.

Obama-appointed judge strikes down federal fracking rule


The decision is a major loss for the administration, which worked for years to update its oil and natural gas drilling regulations to account for dramatic increases and innovations in fracking.

Judge Scott Skavdahl of the District Court of Wyoming agreed with the arguments of industry groups and a handful of western states that said Congress has expressly forbidden Interior from getting into fracking with a 2005 law, with few exceptions.

“Congress has not delegated to the Department of Interior the authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing,” Skavdahl wrote in his opinion published late Tuesday. “The [Bureau of Land Management’s] effort to do so through the Fracking Rule is in excess of its statutory authority and contrary to law.”

Interior had countered with the argument it has broad authority over oil and natural gas development on federal and American-Indian land — the only places where the rule would be enforced. But Skavdahl, who was nominated in 2011 by Obama, disagreed.

<snip>

read:http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/284388-judge-strikes-down-federal-fracking-rule

June 21, 2016

In Vegas, Donald Trump took the longtime psychosis of the GOP base and amplified it.

Before posting bits from this story, I'd like to add that that's what he's done coast to coast- hardly just in Vegas. And these people aren't just batshit crazy, they're batshit crazy in the ugliest possible way.



LAS VEGAS—Anna Khait, a 27-year-old professional poker player and a contestant on the latest season of Survivor, was standing next to the entrance of the Cirque du Soleil’s Mystère in the Treasure Island Hotel, explaining the shirt she was wearing. It read “Hillary for Prison 2016.” A line looped around vast portions of the sprawling casino—thousands of people, in all, hoping to see Donald Trump speak.

<snip>

“She’s done treasonous acts,” said Gary Wilson, an exceedingly friendly 39-year-old registered Libertarian and former Ross Perot supporter who was wearing a tricorn hat with a “Make America Great Again” sticker on it. Wilson was involved in the Tea Party movement until it was “co-opted,” in his words, and he supported Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s armed standoff with federal officials in 2014. (“I enjoyed their company,” he said of meeting the Bundys. “I thought they were really solid people.”)



What should the punishment be for these crimes of Clinton’s?



“Public hanging, to be honest with you,” he said.

<snip>

“I do,” he said. He’d want the execution to be public. “I believe that would probably be the biggest pay-per-view event in the history of cable.”


read:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/06/donald_trump_takes_the_psychosis_of_the_gop_base_and_amplifies_it.html

June 21, 2016

How is Donald Trump going to quit?

<snip>

Trump isn’t going to let himself lose in any official capacity, of course—that would go against everything the Trump brand stands for. So when his numbers start dropping, as they inevitably will and already have, Donald Trump is going to save face the best way he knows how: Quitting before it’s too late.

Remember, Trump had a blast during the primaries. Back then, he was free to spew any sort of nonsense he wanted. And not only did no one question him too seriously, but as his discourse became increasingly unhinged and racist, his poll numbers rose in kind. The more his poll numbers shot up, the more media attention he got. And for Trump, there is no purer joy. If Donald Trump is able to buy his way into heaven, it’s just going to be him reliving the 2016 primaries every day for the rest of eternity.

Now, though, the Democrats are just about done squabbling, Republicans are out of distractions, and the cold, sobering reality of what our nation has wrought is finally settling in. Now that the fun is winding down, the small-handed prince of our country’s most base anxieties is going to start looking for a way out. He’s already laying the groundwork, saying on Fox & Friends that “it would be nice to have full support from people that are in office, full verbal support. With all of that being said, I may go a different route if things don’t happen.”

But what exactly is that different route going to look like? As I see it, Trump still has about four opportunities left to get out before it’s too late.


<snip>

read:http://gawker.com/how-is-donald-trump-going-to-quit-1782312998

June 21, 2016

Amazon jaguar shot dead at Olympic torch ceremony

A jaguar featured at an Olympic torch ceremony was shot dead by a soldier shortly after the event in the Brazilian Amazon city of Manaus as the animal escaped from its handlers, an army statement said.

The jaguar was killed Monday at a zoo attached to a military training center, when a soldier fired a single pistol shot after the animal, despite being tranquilized, approached the soldier, the army said.

“We made a mistake in permitting the Olympic torch, a symbol of peace and unity, to be exhibited alongside a chained wild animal. This image goes against our beliefs and our values,” the local organizing committee Rio 2016 said in a statement, adding "We guarantee that there will be no more such incidents at Rio 2016.”

A smiling yellow jaguar known as Ginga is the mascot of the Brazilian Olympic team.

The shooting caused uproar among animal rights groups, which questioned why the animal was involved in the Olympic event.

"When will people (and institutions) stop with this sick need to show power and control by confining, taming and showcasing wild animals?" the Rio de Janeiro-based animal rights group Animal Freedom Union said on its Facebook page.

The jaguar is a nearly threatened species that has already been wiped out in Uruguay and El Salvador, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.


<snip>

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/amazon-jaguar-shot-dead-olympic-torch-ceremony-192428528--oly.html

June 21, 2016

Did anyone just hear the piece on NPR about doctors in Syria?

Never heard anything quite like it- not because of the horrific content, but because both host and interviewee, a journalist from The New Yorker were struggling- and failing- not to break down.

http://www.npr.org/2016/06/21/482981905/in-syria-underground-efforts-to-train-doctors-amid-regime-attacks

June 21, 2016

Ahead of tRump visit to Scotland, neighbors of his golf course erect Mexican flags in solidarity

Two of Donald Trump’s keenest critics in Scotland have hoisted Mexican flags next to his Aberdeenshire golf course to show “solidarity” with the Mexican people during his visit later this week.


The presumptive Republican presidential nominee flies into Scotland on Thursday to officially unveil his lavishly revamped hotel and championship golf course at Turnberry in Aberdeenshire. Trump says he has spent £200m ($293m) refurbishing the resort.

Trump will then fly north to Aberdeenshire on Saturday to visit the far smaller course he opened there in 2012, after winning a bitterly fought battle to bulldoze coastal dunes which were legally protected because of their ecological value and rarity.


Two of his neighbours, David Milne and Michael Forbes – the man Trump once branded a “disgrace” and his home a slum – have erected Mexican flags on their homes in plain view of Trump’s clubhouse and golf course.


“It’s just to show solidarity with the Mexican people,” Milne said, “and everyone else that Trump has derided, insulted and intimidated.”

<snip>

read:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/21/trump-golf-course-scotland-mexican-flag

June 21, 2016

Idjit. Trump questions Clinton's religion

Speaking to a group of top social conservative evangelical Christian leaders at a gathering in New York City, Trump said, “we don't know anything about Hillary in terms of religion.”

“Now, she's been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there's no — there's nothing out there,” Trump said. “There's like nothing out there. It's going to be an extension of Obama but it's going to be worse, because with Obama you had your guard up. With Hillary you don't, and it's going to be worse.”

The meeting was closed to the press but E.W. Webb, a faith leader on hand for the event, posted video of the remarks.

Clinton does not speak frequently about being a Methodist, but she has opened up about it on several occasions on the campaign trail this year.

Trump on Tuesday also said that while it’s important to pray for everyone, that those one hand shouldn’t be “politically correct” by praying for the nation’s leaders who are “selling the evangelicals down the tubes.”

read:http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/284281-trump-questions-clintons-religion

June 21, 2016

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah convicted in racketeering case

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, a longtime federal legislator and staple of Philadelphia politics, was convicted Tuesday of orchestrating a medley of corrupt dealings to boost his career and help himself and his family financially, authorities said.

Fattah, 59, had lost his seat in Congress while the allegations of wrongdoing swirled around him, and now he faces a potentially even more serious consequence: federal prison. The Philadelphia Democrat was convicted of racketeering and all other counts against him.

Fattah and several allies were charged in a 29-count indictment in July with racketeering and other crimes for what prosecutors said were a variety of schemes to abuse the congressman’s office and cover their tracks. Defense attorneys had argued that the government’s case was based on the word of those who cut plea deals to avoid stiffer penalties themselves and that Fattah had “nothing to do with any of it.”

The trial, which began in the middle of May, signaled a remarkable downfall for Fattah, who — despite his loss in the 2007 mayoral election — seemed to be a stalwart in Philadelphia politics, having held his congressional seat for more than two decades. Allegations had long swirled around him, but as recently as two years ago he had no primary challenger and easily defeated a Republican opponent. The congressman, though, was bested in the Democratic primary earlier this year by state Rep. Dwight Evans, probably because of the looming criminal case.


<snip>

read:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/06/21/u-s-rep-chaka-fattah-convicted-in-racketeering-case/?utm_term=.7b9a6526c867