Fox & Friends tries to ambush Democrat who supports abolishing ICE and it does not go well

Unable to win the debate, host Brian Kilmeade abruptly ended his interview with Rep. Mark Pocan.

AARON RUPAR JUN 27, 2018, 10:31 AM

On Wednesday morning, Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade confronted Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) about legislation he’s introduced that would abolish U.S. Customs and Immigration (ICE). It did not go well for Kilmeade.

Pocan recently made a trip to the southern border. Upon his return, he released a statement saying, “it was clear that ICE, and its actions of hunting down and tearing apart families, has wreaked havoc on far too many people.”

Pocan began the interview by explaining why he thinks ICE should be shut down.

“Unfortunately, the president has created this situation where ICE is not doing what it was created to do. It is being used as his own personal police force, and in those actions it is actually making it less safe because the critical functions of ICE can no longer happen when the president has them going after people in church and workplaces,” Pocan said.

https://thinkprogress.org/mark-pocan-brian-kilmeade-abolish-ice-fox-and-friends-faa212e2218c/



Touch'e Congressman Pocan...................

Fox & Friends tries to ambush Democrat who supports abolishing ICE and it does not go well

Supreme court strikes blow against unions with 'fair share' ruling

Non-union members no longer have to pay for representation
Mark Janus argued that ‘fair share’ fees violated his free speech

The supreme court dealt a huge blow to organized labor on Wednesday, ruling that non-union members no longer have to pay their “fair share” for union representation in collective bargaining negotiations.

The closely watched case – Janus v AFSCME – could public unions, according to some experts, and will impact public sector employees in 22 states.

In a 5-4 decision the court overturned a previous decision that had protected the right of public sector unions to collect administrative fees from non-members, ruling it was inconsistent with the first amendment right to free speech.

Without that protection, unions may not only lose fees from non-members but also lose members who are happy with the union’s work but do not want to pay for it. Rightwing activists, who have long campaigned for the decision, are already preparing a nationwide drive to persuade public sector trade unions to stop paying dues following the decision.

Donald Trump celebrated the decision on Twitter, writing: “Big loss for the coffers of the Democrats!” Unions are major donors to the Democratic party.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/27/supreme-court-unions-fair-share-ruling


I think it is appropriate to see how news organization outside of the country looks at this issue, when it comes to labor.............

Canada's largest national park risks losing world heritage status

Wood Buffalo national park also faces danger from oil and gas development and hydroelectric projects, government report says

The world’s second-largest national park is under threat from a destructive combination of climate change, oil and gas development and hydroelectric projects, according to a new report from the Canadian government.

Wood Buffalo national park, which straddles Alberta and the Northwest Territories, was placed on Unesco’s endangered list in 2017, and Canadian authorities were given one year to develop a solution to stem the rapid deterioration of the park.

The UN body warned that inaction would “constitute a case for recommending inscription of Wood Buffalo national park on the List of World Heritage in Danger”.

But ahead of a Unesco meeting in Bahrain this week, the federal government’s report has confirmed problems are only getting worse: “Desired outcomes for the world heritage values are not being met,” said the report.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/26/canada-wood-buffalo-national-park-report-climate-change

Rising seas: 'Florida is about to be wiped off the map'

Sea level rises are not some distant threat; for many Americans they are very real. In an extract from her chilling new book, Rising, Elizabeth Rush details how the US coastline will be radically transformed in the coming years

Elizabeth Rush

Tue 26 Jun 2018 07.37 EDT Last modified on Tue 26 Jun 2018 19.52 EDT

Take the six million people who live in south Florida today and divide them into two groups: those who live less than six and a half feet above the current high tide line, and everybody else.

In 1890, just over six thousand people lived in the damp lowlands of south Florida. Since then the wetlands that covered half the state have been largely drained, strip malls have replaced Seminole camps, and the population has increased a thousandfold. Over roughly the same amount of time the number of black college degree holders in the United States also increased a thousandfold, as did the speed at which we fly, the combined carbon emissions of the Middle East, and the entire population of Thailand.

About 60 of the region’s more than 6 million residents have gathered in the Cox Science Building at the University of Miami on a sunny Saturday morning in 2016 to hear Harold Wanless, or Hal, chair of the geology department, speak about sea level rise. “Only 7% of the heat being trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the atmosphere,” Hal begins. “Do you know where the other 93% lives?”

A teenager, wrists lined in aquamarine beaded bracelets, rubs sleep from her eyes. Returns her head to its resting position in her palm. The man seated behind me roots around in his briefcase for a breakfast bar. No one raises a hand.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/26/rising-seas-florida-climate-change-elizabeth-rush

Seth Meyers: 'Trump's one political skill is his inability to feel shame'

One football pitch of forest lost every second in 2017, data reveals

Global deforestation is on an upward trend, jeopardising efforts to tackle climate change and the massive decline in wildlife

Damian Carrington, Niko Kommenda, Pablo Gutiérrez and Cath Levett

Wed 27 Jun 2018 03.00 EDT

The world lost more than one football pitch of forest every second in 2017, according to new data from a global satellite survey, adding up to an area equivalent to the whole of Italy over the year.

The scale of tree destruction, much of it done illegally, poses a grave threat to tackling both climate change and the massive global decline in wildlife. The loss in 2017 recorded by Global Forest Watch was 29.4m hectares, the second highest recorded since the monitoring began in 2001.

Global tree cover losses have doubled since 2003, while deforestation in crucial tropical rainforest has doubled since 2008. A falling trend in Brazil has been reversed amid political instability and forest destruction has soared in Colombia.

In other key nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s vast forests suffered record losses. However, in Indonesia, deforestation dropped 60% in 2017, helped by fewer forest fires and government action.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2018/jun/27/one-football-pitch-of-forest-lost-every-second-in-2017-data-reveals

Without trees we all fucking die.....................

America's famed Route 66 put on list of 11 endangered historic places

To ensure special protection for famous highway, Congress and the president would have to declare it a national historic trail

Believe it or not, there is a way for Donald Trump to unite the country – by saving the famous Route 66, which has been placed on a list of America’s most endangered historic places.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a heritage charity, has placed the famed highway on its 2018 list of the 11 most at-risk sites. The Trust highlights architectural and cultural spots it deems in danger from development or neglect.

Route 66 is up for designation as a national historic trail, which the Trust says would bring “recognition and economic development” to historic sites along the famous road. In order to declare the road a national historic trail, and therefore officially protected, the US Senate would have to pass legislation and Trump would have to sign it.

But time is running out: Trump must sign any bill – something surely everyone could get behind in these divided days – before the end of the year.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/26/route-66-highway-national-endangered-list


Not holding my breath. Hitchhiked on that fabled road from California to get to Woodstock.....................

Trump Administration Now Has Fair Housing In Its Sights

HUD’s Carson Wants to Make It Easier for Banks, Insurers and Landlords to Redline Minorities

By Sarah Okeson


The Trump administration is trying to make it easier for banks, landlords and insurance companies to discriminate against minority homeowners and tenants.

Anna Maria Farías, an assistant secretary at HUD, is asking for comments on possible revisions that could “add clarity” and “reduce uncertainty” on a HUD rule based on a legal theory the Obama administration and its predecessors used to prove discrimination cases.

The theory, “disparate impact analysis,” measures discrimination, such as African-Americans paying higher interest rates on loans, without having to prove an intent to discriminate.

More than 50 years after passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, signed just seven days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, African-American homeownership rates are almost the same as the 1960s. Neighborhoods are more segregated now than they were in 1918.

https://www.dcreport.org/2018/06/26/trump-administration-now-has-fair-housing-in-its-sights/


I just got my new Mother Jones, Harpers, Progressive magazines..................and the hate that this man has for people in public housing is just fucking amazing....................Carson is loser and dangerous one at that, and has no business at HUD, this asshole needs to to go Cairo, Illinois......................



November 2018 cannot get fast enough------------------get out and vote

We've Found $16.1 Million in Political and Taxpayer Spending at Trump Properties

Most came from political entities such as the Trump campaign, but government agencies chipped in, too. “I could offer clarity,” one federal employee explained, “but I choose not to.”

by Derek Kravitz, Alex Mierjeski and Gabriel Sandoval June 27, 6 a.m. EDT


Since Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president in late 2015, at least $16.1 million has poured into Trump Organization-managed and branded hotels, golf courses and restaurants from his campaign, Republican organizations, and government agencies. Because Trump’s business empire is overseen by a trust of which he is the sole beneficiary, he profits from these hotel stays, banquet hall rentals and meals.

To arrive at the total, we compiled campaign finance reports from the Federal Election Commission; state government spending gleaned from dozens of state websites and portals; and federal agency expenditure records obtained by the Washington-based transparency organization Property of the People. For this project, Property of the People filed Freedom of Information Act requests with 15 federal agencies and sued four of them to obtain records. (The organization is also attempting to procure comparable records for the Obama era.)

The vast majority of the money — at least $13.5 million, or more than 84 percent of what we tracked — was spent by Trump’s presidential campaign (including on Tag Air, the entity that operates Trump’s personal airplane). Republican Senate and House political committees and campaigns have shelled out at least another $2.1 million at Trump properties. At least $400,000 has been spent by federal, state and local agencies. (For example, the Florida Police Chiefs Association held its summer conference last year at the Trump National Doral Miami.) The state and local tally appears to be a gross undercount because of the agencies’ spotty disclosures and reporting.

The use of taxpayer dollars at Trump hotels is under scrutiny in a closely watched lawsuit in Maryland federal court. The District of Columbia and the state of Maryland sued Trump, citing a venerable anti-corruption provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause. It prohibits any financial gift, or emolument, from benefiting a sitting public official, including the president.

https://www.propublica.org/article/political-and-taxpayer-spending-at-trump-properties-16-1-million



https://projects.propublica.org/paying-the-president/



November 2018 cannot get here fast enough......................vote