TheDormouse
TheDormouse's JournalDevin Nunes' family moved farm to Iowa; employs undocumented workers?
According to this explosive Esquire article by Ryan Lizza, Devin Nunes' family quietly moved their family farm to Iowa a few years ago and appear to want to keep this a secret.
Nunes is the conservative Republican chair of the House intelligence committee, who has been doing his damnedest to undermine Congress' efforts to investigate allegations that the Trump campaign may have conspired with Russia to win the election, and that Trump may have obstructed justice by interfering in the investigation.
Nunes has represented California's 22nd district (San Joaquin Valley--most of western Tulare County and eastern Fresno County) for the past 15 years. His grandfather moved to California from Portugal and set up a dairy farm there, which Nunes highlights in all his campaign material. But his brother and parents moved the farm to Steve King's district in Iowa a few years ago.
They apparently want to keep this a secret (Lizza provides pretty convincing details on why he thinks this in the article).
Lizza traveled to the Iowa district last month to interview locals & try to interview Nunes' family, but things got really strange. People in white vans started following him. Sources abruptly stopped talking to him in the middle of interviews after they got unexpected phone calls. An obscure article published in an online trade publication that had mentioned that the Nunes family had moved to Iowa disappeared from the internet.
And multiple locals that Rizza interviewed, from local reporters to farmers to workers themselves, said that almost all of the workers on the dairy farms in the region are undocumented and that the farm owners all know this. They are all terrified that Trump's ICE agents could swoop in and start taking down their operations.
Despite this, Steve King continues to win every election, even though he is one of the most anti-immigrant, pro-ICE members of Congress.
The farmers in the region don't agree with King on his immigration stance, but they still seem to vote for him. As Lizza writes:
There is massive political hypocrisy at the center of this: Trump’s and King’s rural-farm supporters embrace anti-immigrant politicians while employing undocumented immigrants. The greatest threat to Iowa dairy farmers, of course, is not the press. It’s Donald Trump.
Lizza talked with a priest at a church across the border in Worthingon, Minnesota, less than 30 minutes away, who told him that ICE are in Worthington (which is a Hispanic hub in the area) terrorizing families two or three times a week. Yet the city administrator in Nunes' area said they had not been aware of ICE agents coming to their own area in the past 4 years.
So here are a bunch of big issues:
(1) Will the national & local media ignore this story?
(2) Will anybody on CNN, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC ask Nunes or the ubiquitous Steve King whether ICE should be investigating the dairy farms in King's district, where apparently most of the workers are undocumented immigrants?
(3) Will anybody in the White House press corps ask Trump (or Huckabee Sanders) about this--especially since a big demand by Trump in the NAFTA renegotiations with Canada that have been underway involves DAIRY FARMS?
(4) Are there any debates coming up between Nunes and Democratic challenger Andrew Janz? Will Janz (or his supporters) campaign on these immigration issues (Nunes' undivided support for the anti-immigration Trump administration and Steve King; immigration reform; balancing farmers' needs with legal immigration) and Nunes' hypocrisy? Or is this election just going to be about Trump-Russia?
Nunes won his last House election in the district 68%-32%.
Does his Democratic challenger stand a chance this time around?
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/
Devin Nunes' farm in Steve King's Iowa district; employs undocumented workers?
According to this explosive Esquire article by Ryan Lizza, Devin Nunes' family quietly moved their family farm to Iowa a few years ago and appear to want to keep this a secret.
Nunes is the conservative Republican chair of the House intelligence committee, who has been doing his damnedest to undermine Congress' efforts to investigate allegations that the Trump campaign may have conspired with Russia to win the election, and that Trump may have obstructed justice by interfering in the investigation.
Nunes has represented a California district for more than 15 years. His grandfather moved to California from Portugal and set up a dairy farm there, which Nunes highlights in all his campaign material. But his brother and parents moved the farm to Steve King's district in Iowa a few years ago.
They apparently want to keep this a secret (Lizza provides pretty convincing details on why he thinks this in the article).
Lizza traveled to the Iowa district last month to interview locals & try to interview Nunes' family, but things got really strange. People in white vans started following him. Sources abruptly stopped talking to him in the middle of interviews after they got unexpected phone calls. An obscure article published in an online trade publication that had mentioned that the Nunes family had moved to Iowa disappeared from the internet.
And multiple locals that Rizza interviewed, from local reporters to farmers to workers themselves, said that almost all of the workers on the dairy farms in the region are undocumented and that the farm owners all know this. They are all terrified that Trump's ICE agents could swoop in and start taking down their operations.
Despite this, Steve King continues to win every election, even though he is one of the most anti-immigrant, pro-ICE members of Congress.
The farmers in the region don't agree with King on his immigration stance, but they still seem to vote for him. As Lizza writes:
There is massive political hypocrisy at the center of this: Trump’s and King’s rural-farm supporters embrace anti-immigrant politicians while employing undocumented immigrants. The greatest threat to Iowa dairy farmers, of course, is not the press. It’s Donald Trump.
Lizza talked with a priest at a church across the border in Worthingon, Minnesota, less than 30 minutes away, who told him that ICE are in Worthington (which is a Hispanic hub in the area) terrorizing families two or three times a week. Yet the city administrator in Nunes' area said they had not been aware of ICE agents coming to their own area in the past 4 years.
So here are a bunch of big issues:
(1) Will the national & local media ignore this story?
(2) Will anybody on CNN, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC ask the ubiquitous Steve King whether ICE should be investigating the dairy farms in his district, where apparently most of the workers are undocumented immigrants?
(3) Will anybody in the White House press corps ask Trump (or Huckabee Sanders) about this--especially since a big demand by Trump in the NAFTA renegotiations with Canada that have been underway involves DAIRY FARMS?
(4) Are there any debates coming up in Iowa's 4th district, and will Democratic challenger JD Scholten campaign on this issue (immigration reform, the current role of ICE, & balancing farmers' needs with lawful employment of immigrants)?
Steve King won his last House election in the district 61%-39%.
Does his Democratic challenger JD Scholten stand a chance this time around?
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/
We're screwed even if Trump gets impeached.
Pence is VP.
Ryan is Speaker.
Either of them will be even worse than Trump because
1. they actually know what they're doing
2. they aren't so blinded by greed and narcissism that they will make as many obvious mistakes
This fecker. Duterte. Remember Noriega?
A U.S. government aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, said earlier in the week that its board deferred a vote on a renewal of the development assistance package for the Philippines "subject to a further review of concerns around rule of law and civil liberties." ...
"I understand that we have been stricken out of the Millennium Challenge. Well, good, I welcome it," Duterte said with apparent sarcasm.
"We can survive without American money," he said....
In November, Duterte said he wanted U.S. troops out of his country in the next two years.
"I want in the next two years, to be freed from the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out," Duterte told reporters Nov. 1. "And if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, I will." ...
While calling Americans "sons of b------" and "hypocrites," Duterte praised China as having "the kindest soul of all" for offering what he said was significant financial assistance. "So, what do I need America for?" he asked.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/12/17/philippines-duterte-us-over-aid-bye-bye-america/95557384/
Remember what happened to Manuel Noriega, Big Man of Panama?
And what happened to Sadaam Hussein, Big Man of Iraq?
Obama - Won't say it's time to dump the Electoral College
A good man. But the wrong man for our time.
He says that when Democrats' message is strong and speaks to where the people are, the popular vote and the Electoral College vote will tend to align.
Feckless.
We have needed/need a fighter, not someone who is the perennial optimist.
We need another FDR.
Prof Stephen F. Cohen on Russian hacking - WTF??
Anyone been listening to Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen over the past few days? He's been going out of his way across various media sites to defend Putin against allegations that Russia, on Putin's orders, interfered in the US election to help Trump.
He spins it as being a skeptic on the widespread uncritical acceptance, as he sees it, of alleged reports from anonymous sources that the Russian government was behind the hacking. He claims that with this "new McCarthyism," in which anyone who questions the allegations for lack of evidence is essentially branded a traitor, we are at risk of provoking an all-out hot war with Russia. He says we should be having a debate about what America's stance toward Russia should be right now, but we aren't because everyone is jumping on the bandwagon attacking the Russians.
DEMOCRACY NOW Weds
AMY GOODMAN: Twenty seconds, Ken Roth.
KENNETH ROTH: Well, I’m all for talking with Putin, trying to cooperate with him. In fact, my New York Review piece argues that the key to Syria is for Trump to put pressure on Putin, because Assad wouldn’t be able to commit these atrocities without Putin’s active support. So, I’m—
STEPHEN COHEN: That’s not talking with Putin; that’s putting pressure on Putin.
KENNETH ROTH: And talk to him, too. And we never objected to the ongoing debate, the ongoing conversation, but it shouldn’t be in lieu of the kind of pressure, which is all that Putin listens to these days.
STEPHEN COHEN: Oh, for God’s sake. That’s all he listens to. And you base that on what? Your careful study—
^ This exchange was on Democracy Now, in which Ken Roth of the Human Rights Watch accused Russia, and Putin specifically, along with Syria's Assad of commiting war atrocities in Syria.
CNN Thurs
Here's my point, and what I've never seen in my life: that we have ratched it up to a moment so dangerous, at least as dangerous with Russia since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962--normally we have a national debate about what to do.... What are we talking about? It could be fiction. We don't know.
CNN last night
TSA delays of 3 hrs for a 2hr flight
Anybody following the media coverage of public backlash against airport delays due to slow security screening?
In highly predictable fashion, all the usual sources are blaming TSA for incompetence and saying things like the public is to blame for bringing so many carry-on bags to be screened, and the airlines are to blame for charging fees to check bags, which leads to more passengers taking bags through security as carry-ons to avoid having to check the bags. 
How about we blame Congress for failing to provide sufficient funding for the task that TSA has been presented with????
Which candidate would give this speech?
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred.
Alabama Sorority Prints T-Shirts with Racist Image
So what else is new?
Here's a pic of this chapter of the sorority from the interwebz:
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Extremely diverse, wouldn't you say?
They claim that they didn't notice the image of a black man eating a watermelon on the t-shirt.
"In selecting the T-shirt, we failed to focus on the specific images in the design," Lauren Hammond, president of the sorority's Samford chapter, said in a statement issued through its national headquarters Friday. "We are horrified by our oversight. Had we recognized what the design details depicted, we would never have purchased the shirts."
Here's my question: Why was somebody even selling t-shirts like that in the first place?
Will Cruz just go away now?
Please, please, please!
(And take Carly with you!)
Or is he going to be a petulant backside continuing to terrorize the American people from the US Senate for the next 2 years?
I'm praying Lyin' Ted loses his Senate seat when he is up for re-election.
