AmericanMan1958
AmericanMan1958's JournalSo it Begins.... In Michigan!
Michigan's Lame Duck session are known for their shameless attacks on the citizens of this state.
Laws are past at a expedient pace. Bill's are introduced and voted on within a couple of days. No committees, ignore all rules, vote, passed and straight to the Governor's desk for signature. Any Bill proposed during Lame Duck sessions in Michigan are going to pass, end of conversation.
Really, it should not be surprising in a state that would lead poison a whole city, then fight in court to not have to supply bottle water.
Welcome to the New Michigan!
Stricter voter ID laws on fast track to pass in Legislature
State Rep. Lisa Lyons, R-Alto, a term-limited state representative who won election Nov. 8 as the next Kent County Clerk, said she believes the integrity of elections needs to be strengthened, even though there have been only a handful of voter fraud cases brought in Michigan in the last several decades, according to the Secretary of State.
Her bills would require that legally registered voters who forget their photo identification on election day to vote a provisional ballot. That ballot would be set aside and not counted until the person provided their identification within 10 days after an election at their local clerk's office. Currently, a legally registered voter who forgets their ID signs an affidavit swearing that they are who they say they are and their vote is counted on election day. More than 18,000 people who forgot their ID signed affidavits and voted on Nov. 8.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/01/michigan-stricter-voter-id-laws/94760112/
Fight over 'Buy America' provision erupts in Congress
At issue is language included in the Senate-passed version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that would require American iron and steel products be used in projects assisted by the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
Sources familiar with the negotiations say Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is actively pushing to strip the provision from the bill.
Supporters of the provision say Ryan's push is at odds with President-elect Donald Trumps promise to support American manufacturers and create jobs for the middle class.
From our end its a little baffling, said Roy Houseman, a legislative representative for the United Steelworkers. Its been a program thats been really successful, and it has bipartisan support. Were just very confused by the Speaker, whos not listening to the rest of his caucus.
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/308358-last-minute-fight-over-buy-america-provision-emerges-in-water-bill
There will be only one rule under Trump's leadership. "There are no rules!"
Trump Treasury pick is just another creature in the swamp! But Trump likes him!
In Florida, the company foreclosed on a 90-year-old woman after a 27-cent payment error. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo singled out the lender for squeezing Superstorm Sandy victims. Last month, the companys successor, CIT Bank, was accused of discriminating against minority borrowers.
Were just coming out of a foreclosure crisis and a serious economic downturn. Its not the time to appoint someone who sided with corporate America over real people, said Alys Cohen, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. Mr. Mnuchin comes from Wall Street and has served monied interests over homeowners.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-treasury-foreclosed-homes-mnuchin-232038
Donald Trump wasnt the only person to see opportunity in the 2008 housing collapse. As the economy recovered from the rubble of failed banks, foreclosed homes and government bailouts, Steven Mnuchin emerged a winner.
By picking Tom Price to lead HHS, Trump shows hes absolutely serious about dismantling Obamacare
The Washington Post reported late Monday that Trump intends to announce Price, who currently serves as House Budget Chair, to lead the federal agency overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.
Price will arrive with at HHS with a clear blueprint for what comes next: he is the author of the Empowering Patients First Act, one of the most thorough and detailed proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare. Hes the HHS Secretary youd pick if you were dead serious about dismantling the law.
http://www.vox.com/2016/11/28/13772342/trump-tom-price-obamacare
Well, we as Progressives better put aside our differences and figure what we are going to do to combat these all out attacks that are about to be thrown at us. While we are busy arguing about who or what to blame for our tragic lose in this past election. Trump and his new cabinet is lining up to shred every program that benefits the normal American citizen.
Shits about to get real.
Dan Rather speaks truth to injustice
Please follow link, this is what news used to be like. Well worth the read!The journalist whose show, Dan Rathers America is on Sirius XM, says the problem goes beyond party or policy and reaches down to the fundamentals of our democracy:
"History will demand to know which side were you on. This is not a question of politics or party or even policy. This is a question about the very fundamentals of our beautiful experiment in a pluralistic democracy ruled by law."
"When I see neo-Nazis raise their hands in terrifying solute, in public, in our nations capital, I shudder in horror. When I see that action mildly rebuked by a boilerplate statement from the President-elect whom these bigots have praised, the anger in me grows. And when I see some in a pliant press turn that mild statement into what they call a denunciation I cannot hold back any longer."
"We set up institutions like a free press and an independent court system to protect our fragile rights. We have survived through bloody spasms of a Civil War and a Civil Rights Movement to extend more of these rights to more of our citizens. But the direction of our ship of state has not always been one of progress."
"We are a great nation. We have survived deep challenges in our past. We can and will do so again. But we cannot be afraid to speak and act to ensure the future we want for our children and grandchildren."
http://www.bipartisanreport.com/2016/11/22/breaking-dan-rather-drops-big-donald-trump-announcement-details/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Normally, the losing side in the presidential election frets about the countrys future, and the press gives the winner some latitude. But Rather says that these are not normal times. The problem is not about tax policy, health care, or education even though all those and more are so important. Instead the problem is far deeper: racism, bigotry, intimidation and the specter of corruption.
Meet the security expert telling Clinton to contest the election
Without more detail, its impossible to judge the teams claims. But one thing is clear: Halderman is credible and trusted among his peers.
Halderman is very credible, and if he says there are anomalies that deserve investigation, they should be investigated, wrote Rick Hasen, a professor of Law and Political Science at UC Irvine, on his Election Law Blog.
While no system is 100 percent hack-proof, elections in this country are secure perhaps as secure as theyve ever been, said David Becker, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research, said at a House hearing in September. To manipulate election results on a state or national scale would require a conspiracy of literally hundreds of thousands, and for that massive conspiracy to go undetected.
Halderman disagrees. Becker is wrong, he told me in an email earlier this month. Even though the machines arent connected to the Internet, their software can potentially be attacked through a stuxnet-style attack that spreads via the memory cards that are used to load the ballot design.
This is more complicated than attacking an online voting system that is directly connected to the Internet, he added. But its within the capabilities of nation-state attackers, and it would not require a large conspiracy.
https://www.revealnews.org/blog/meet-the-security-expert-telling-clinton-to-contest-the-election/?utm_source=Reveal&utm_medium=social_media&utm_campaign=facebook
Never thought the day would come that I would have to agree with Lindsey Graham.
We cannot sit on the sidelines as a party and let allegations against a foreign government interfering in our election process go unanswered because it may have been beneficial to our cause, Graham said.
Protecting Donald Trump costs New York City more than 1 million a day
Amagine to cost protecting all his busines interest overseas from possible terrorist attacks.
They could be easy target and surely draw us into another war. Exactly, what ISIS needs to survive.
That's because Melania Trump and their 10-year old son Barron expect to stay at their home at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, at least until the end of the school year. And Donald Trump has indicated he plans to return home regularly, especially while they're still here.
Adding to the expense is the cost of police assigned to Trump's adult children and his grandchildren, who are also receiving Secret Service protection, John Miller, NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence & counterterrorism, told WCBS Monday. All of them live in the city, and all are entitled to receive Secret Service protection.
"The number one imperative here is safety and security. We owe that to the president elect, his family and his team," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio at a press conference on Friday. But he added the city will need help with those costs, particularly police overtime.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/21/news/protecting-donald-trump/index.html
Have you heard of GAMERGATE
Just found this, I have no opinion on the matter, but I will research for further understanding.Eventually I learned what Gamergate really was. The more I learned, the more depressed I felt. The people who promoted Gamergate said they were concerned about journalism ethics. As a professor of journalism with a social media bent, I felt obligated to examine their claims. When I did I discovered nasty troll behavior with a hard edge of misogyny. Its about ethics in games journalism became an internet joke. Deservedly so.
But that is not the end of the story.
Recently Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Buzzfeeds news operation, wrote: The big story of 2014 was Gamergate, the misogynistic movement championed by Breitbart and covered primarily by new media. That turned out to be a better predictor of the presidential election than any rubber chicken dinner in Iowa (or poll by a once-reputable pollster).
Ben is right. The Gamergate model in press relations posits that high-risk tactics should not be ruled out of consideration. It says that rejection and ridicule by the mainstream media can be a massive plus, because these events activate and motivate your most committed supporters: your trolls. The Gamergate model proposes that transgressing the norms of American democracy is not some crippling defect, as previously believed, but a distinct advantage because the excitement around the transgression recruits new players to the fight, and guarantees the spread of your content.
The Gamergate model anticipates that the mainstream press will freak out. Full stop. And it tries to profit from this (over) reaction. What the traditional press considers negative publicity is, from the Gamergate point of view, a kind of gift. Trump and his advisors have absorbed these lessons. Gamergate is thus one possible template for the future of White House-press corps relations. Those who have not studied it carefully will be at a distinct disadvantage.
http://pressthink.org/2016/11/22/tile/gamergate-model-press-relations/
Activists Urge Clinton Campaign to Challenge Election Results in 3 Swing States
Zeynep Tufekci ?@zeynep 18m18 minutes ago
Wowze. I've not looked into this myself. But if Halderman says there should be an audit, there should be an audit.
Could this be way Trump is saying leave Hillary alone and No Special Prosecutor?
Last Thursday, the activists held a conference call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to make their case, according to a source briefed on the call. The academics presented findings showing that in Wisconsin, Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic-voting machines compared with counties that used optical scanners and paper ballots. Based on this statistical analysis, Clinton may have been denied as many as 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000. While its important to note the group has not found proof of hacking or manipulation, they are arguing to the campaign that the suspicious pattern merits an independent review especially in light of the fact that the Obama White House has accused the Russian government of hacking the Democratic National Committee.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/activists-urge-hillary-clinton-to-challenge-election-results.html
Some U.S. Soldiers Share Extremely Blunt Thoughts On Commander-In-Chief Donald Trump
As a Veteran, I feel these honorable soldiers emotions of distress.Last week, we asked for government employees to share their thoughts with us about the prospect of working for a Trump administration. These are responses that we received from soldiers. They are well worth reading.
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/some-u-s-soldiers-share-extremely-blunt-thoughts-on-co-1789228136?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
Profile Information
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2010, 09:14 PMNumber of posts: 520