David Clark, The NRA, and Russia

Could our next Secretary of Homeland Security really be a gun-loving, Russia-visiting jails boss who’s left a trail of dead inmates behind him?

SNIP

Clarke—who shows up at annual NRA conferences to promote insurrection and sits on the board of the Crime Prevention Research Center, which essentially gun nuts’ propaganda arm—is also featured in a commercial the group released praising cops in the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, which he has said is made up of “slimy people” who “only care about political power.”

The Crime Prevention Research Center is run by former academic John Lott Jr. Listening to his thoughts on guns is akin to taking Lance Armstrong’s advice on clean living or tips from Chris Christie on talking with your inside voice. Lott has pretended to be a former female student—named Mary Rosh—online, who just loves and praises, well, John Lott. He fabricated an entire survey that “found” 98 percent of the time guns are used defensively. Pressed to show his work, he claimed his hard drive had eaten his homework. This is the company Clarke keeps.

And Clarke has served as a virtual Bering Land Bridge between the NRA and its counterpart in Russia, The Right to Bear Arms, taking a trip to the country almost exactly a year ago with a who’s who of NRA brass. Present on this bizarre excursion were ex-NRA President David Keene, NRA First Vice President Pete Brownell—who also just happens to run an enormous firearm accessory empire—and NRA Women’s Leadership Forum executive committee member Hilary Goldschlager.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/05/how-david-clarke-bridges-donald-trump-s-gun-nuts-and-vladimir-putin-s-kleptocrats.html

China chases Silicon Valley talent who are worried about Trump presidency

This f'ker could precipitate a brain drain?!

China is trying to capitalize on President-electDonald Trump's hardline immigration stance and vow to clamp down on a foreign worker visa program that has been used to recruit thousands from overseas to Silicon Valley.

Leading tech entrepreneurs, including Robin Li, the billionaire CEO of Baidu, China's largest search engine, see Trump's plans as a huge potential opportunity to lure tech talent away from the United States.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/05/china-chases-silicon-valley-talent-who-are-worried-about-trump-presidency.html

The coming Theocracy willl not be pretty

SNIP

No matter how one assesses the Trump-evangelical love-fest, it is obvious that the religious right was more than willing to install a lying sexual predator, one who specifically admits to never asking forgiveness, if he pledged to give them what they wanted: power to impose compliance to their religious beliefs over the government and the people. Those beliefs included three specific areas the evangelicals demand be implemented according to their, and the Vatican’s, dogmata. They want a Supreme Court justice who will repeal Roe v. Wade, something Trump promised is a priority of any nominee and something that will “happen automatically.” They also demand that Planned Parenthood be defunded, legal protections to discriminate against any American who doesn’t embrace evangelical dogma, and the requirement that health insurance plans cover birth control is abolished. Of course they want much, much more, but those are first on their agenda to set the stage for inserting their religion into all aspects of government; there is no other legitimate reason for any of their demands.

Like much of the damage a Trump administration will wreak on the people and the nation, the idea of religion driving legislation and policy comes from a minority of the population. Evangelical malcontents only make up 26 percent of the population, but since they turned out in force at the ballot box for their chosen candidate their agendas are going to be implemented – from a very significant minority position. However, it was a big enough minority position to carry Trump to victory. According to the chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of “The End of White Christian America,” Robert P Jones, “The wall of white Christian voters held.” And according to Mr. Jones; the religious right “held” because so-called “values voters” were not turned off by Trump’s sexual harassment and predation of women, pathological lying, refusing to pay taxes or stiffing subcontractors, and not because Christians are the forgiving type, they are not. As Mr. Jones said,

“Trump has really changed their entire political ethic. It’s moved from a principled basis to more of a utilitarian ethic, where the ends justify the means.” Translation: Christians embraced the sinner and his sins as their own as long as he pursues their theocratic agenda. It is an agenda Trump will pursue with urgency because it will not affect his wealth one way or the other, and because his choice for vice president is an avowed evangelical fanatic.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/04/trumps-emboldened-religious-wreak-havoc-america.html

David Clark, NRA, Russia

Could our next secretary of homeland security really be a gun-loving, Russia-visiting jails boss who’s left a trail of dead inmates behind him?

SNIP

Clarke—who shows up at annual NRA conferences to promote insurrection and sits on the board of the Crime Prevention Research Center, which essentially gun nuts’ propaganda arm—is also featured in a commercial the group released praising cops in the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, which he has said is made up of “slimy people” who “only care about political power.”

The Crime Prevention Research Center is run by former academic John Lott Jr. Listening to his thoughts on guns is akin to taking Lance Armstrong’s advice on clean living or tips from Chris Christie on talking with your inside voice. Lott has pretended to be a former female student—named Mary Rosh—online, who just loves and praises, well, John Lott. He fabricated an entire survey that “found” 98 percent of the time guns are used defensively. Pressed to show his work, he claimed his hard drive had eaten his homework. This is the company Clarke keeps.

And Clarke has served as a virtual Bering Land Bridge between the NRA and its counterpart in Russia, The Right to Bear Arms, taking a trip to the country almost exactly a year ago with a who’s who of NRA brass. Present on this bizarre excursion were ex-NRA President David Keene, NRA First Vice President Pete Brownell—who also just happens to run an enormous firearm accessory empire—and NRA Women’s Leadership Forum executive committee member Hilary Goldschlager.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/05/how-david-clarke-bridges-donald-trump-s-gun-nuts-and-vladimir-putin-s-kleptocrats.html

Breitbart War On Kellog Backfires, More Advertisers Flee The Hate

Breitbart News, an ultraconservative website that has served as a platform for the white nationalist “alt-right” movement, is touting its growing readership and “main street American values” as a reason advertisers should stick with it.

Some marketers, however, are heading for the exits, directing their advertising dollars away from Breitbart amid the publication’s call for a boycott against Kellogg’s (K), which has pulled its ads from the site. That prompted Breitbart to declare “war” on Kellogg’s: Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow said on the site that “to blacklist Breitbart News in order to placate left-wing totalitarians is a disgraceful act of cowardice.”

Breitbart’s campaign against Kellogg’s is unusual on a number of fronts, not in the least because news organizations traditionally maintain a separation between their business operations and their editors and reporters so that journalists can operate independently from business interests.

And whether the boycott will help Breitbart financially appears questionable, given that attacking a major advertiser isn’t likely to make the site more appealing to other brands.

snip

Other companies saying this week that they’ll pull their ads from Breitbart include Vanguard, 3M (MMM) and AARP, among others.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-breitbart-wages-war-on-kelloggs-advertisers-flee/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=31953376

Nations largest solar installer to open Florida facility

The largest U.S. solar panel installer is moving into Florida’s residential market after the state’s voters last month rejected a utility-backed ballot measure that critics said would make going solar more expensive.

SolarCity, a San Mateo, Calif.-based subsidiary of electric car maker Tesla Motors, on Thursday said it is opening an operations center in the Orlando area and plans to expand into other areas of Florida.

The company’s decision to enter the Florida market was helped by voters’ rejection of Amendment 1 on Nov. 8. If successful, the utility-funded Amendment 1 would have opened the door to new laws that could have hindered the growth of residential solar power.

Lyndon Rive, the company’s CEO, said the vote strengthened the company’s resolve to move into the state.

“It reinforces to any policymaker or regulator that when you’re making the rules, consider that the voters voted for competition and energy choice,” he said in a telephone interview.

A typical SolarCity operations center employs about 100 people, a company spokesman said, and the company is hiring for sales and installation jobs at its Orlando area facility in Clermont. Right now, that facility has about 40 employees.

SolarCity installs custom solar systems that it leases to homeowners. It also maintains and repairs them, a business model that allows property owners who want to go solar to do so without having to buy and maintain an entire system.

In some states, the company also sells the power directly to consumers from the panels it leases.

In Florida, however, the law allows only utility companies to sell power directly to consumers, so SolarCity has been slow to enter the state’s market even with its abundant sunshine.

The company said it will be serving customers of Duke Energy Florida and Orlando Utilities Commission.

SolarCity was recently acquired by Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk is also chairman of the solar company.

Musk has said that he wants to sell solar panels through Tesla’s stores so that customers can use them to power their electric vehicles and homes.

RESIST

After Trump’s Win, Secure Messaging App Signal’s Downloads Increase 400%

“I think there’s a lot of fear, given Trump’s alarming statements about surveillance and his penchant for revenge, that he will attempt to use surveillance to crush dissent.”

Signal, the encrypted messaging app that comes with an Edward Snowden endorsement, has seen a 400% increase in daily downloads since Donald Trump won the presidency.

“There has never been a single event that has resulted in this kind of sustained, day-over-day increase,” Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Open Whisper Systems, the software nonprofit behind Signal, told BuzzFeed News. Marlinspike interpreted the jump as a reaction to Trump’s win, and anxiety over the future of US surveillance.

The secure communications tool is well-known in technologists, journalists, and political activists’ circles. It allows people to text and speak with one another using what’s known as end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender and their intended recipient can read or hear the message.

“Trump is about to be put in control of the most pervasive, largest, and least accountable surveillance infrastructure in the world,” Marlinspike said. “People are maybe a little bit uncomfortable with him.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hamzashaban/after-trumps-win-secure-messaging-app-signals-downloads-incr?utm_term=.yf6XWEzK9#.wm0YpLNJE

Trump HHS Pick, Member of Group Falsely Linking Abortion to Cancer

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons is explicitly anti-choice, and in a 2003 resolution defined human life as beginning at the moment of conception, which is in line with the radical "personhood" movement.

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), selected by President-elect Trump to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a member of a medical group known for its opposition to evidence-based science on vaccinations and abortion care.

https://rewire.news/article/2016/12/01/trumps-hhs-pick-member-group-falsely-linking-abortion-cancer/

Trump plan could create incentive for governors to rebrand stadiums as infrastructure

I followed up on Monday’s quick take on what Donald Trump’s infrastructure tax-break plan could mean for stadium subsidies with a longer investigation for Vice Sports, and after speaking to a half-dozen experts in the field, the conclusion is: This is mostly a plan to coerce states into outsourcing roads and other big public projects to private companies, but if it means funneling money to things like stadiums and calling it “infrastructure,” they’ll probably take that too.

While some [public-private partnerships] have worked out well, the failures have been of epic proportions. A few years ago, Texas contracted out State Highway 130 to a private developer, which skimped on construction costs by installing cheaper asphalt rather than sturdier concrete, resulting in what the Austin Statesman described as “a rumbling, dangerous washboard effect that tends to last for a couple of seconds each time.” Despite a much-ballyhooed 85-mile-per-hour speed limit, the road’s builders filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, sticking the federal government with a half-billion-dollar tab for its piece of the P3.

Under Trump’s proposal, more for-profit companies getting involved in building public roads would probably be the best-case scenario. Without strict limits on what qualifies for the Trump tax breaks, all sorts of projects for private benefit could end up being rebranded as “infrastructure.” We’ve already seen mayors and business leaders propose everything from affordable housing (this from the mayor of D.C.) to “Internet of Things technology” (this from the CEO of IBM, which makes—you guessed it—said technology) as infrastructure projects…

You can probably see where this is going. John Q. Governor decides that he wants a slice of that sweet, sweet Trump money so he can show voters that he can get benefits for his state. He doesn’t need another toll road, and no private investors are looking to build a new sewage system because sewage doesn’t pay the bills (and also, ick). However, the local arena shuffleboard team is asking for a new stadium, and shuffleboard arenas are infrastructure, right? Like, the kids can use them to practice for pro shuffleboard careers? Plus, jobs. Jobs are totally infrastructure!

Do I think that Trump is definitely going to unleash billions of dollars of federal sports subsidies on top of the couple billion a year currently being spent by local governments? No. Do I think that he’s set to open a giant loophole that every sports team owner is going to try to figure out how to drive a stadium through? Yeah, that one.

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2016/11/23/11843/trump-plan-could-create-huge-incentive-for-governors-to-rebrand-stadiums-as-infrastructure/

Change.org petition NYC refusing third lady costs of $1M/day