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The Last Word, good watch;
Lawrence: 'Stupidest' candidate Trump did not answer reporters' questions
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-stupidest-candidate-trump-did-not-answer-reporters-questions-216787525948
Donald Trump rambled and lied for over an hour without any follow up questions or fact-checking. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell says that while he hopes Vice President Harris answers questions from reporters, after the press conference that Donald Trump turned into a “charade,” Vice President Harris has “absolutely no greater obligation to do so because of what Donald Trump pretended to do today.”Aug. 8, 2024
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America First Policy Institute's recent pivot to election litigation is part of a larger right-wing focus on rolling back voting rights and sowing discord in elections through the courts. Here's what you should know about the Trump-linked think tank.https://t.co/11O2Vt9daG
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) August 9, 2024
Beside NC voter suppression tactics and installing criminal donOld trump loyalist and election denying extremists to effect the certification of elections;
Republican leaders in North Carolina's legislature are deliberately starving the State Health Plan.
The plan, which covers hundreds of thousands of state employees and their families, will lose $100M this year and is creeping towards insolvency.
State Health Plan could be unable to pay bills as soon as 2026, NC Treasurer says
Rising health care costs, longer lifespans and a lack of financial support from the state legislature are putting the State Health Plan's solvency at risk, North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell says.
https://www.wral.com/story/state-health-plan-could-be-unable-to-pay-bills-as-soon-as-2026-nc-treasurer-says/21563678/
Posted 3:57 p.m. Aug 6 - Updated 4:01 p.m. Aug 6
There are literally too many official corruption stories in #ncpol to track right now:
— Carolina Forward (@ForwardCarolina) August 9, 2024
- @JasonSaine97th cashing in on casinos
- @markrobinsonNC's Balanced Nutrition fraud scheme
- Now: a bunch of GOP #NCGA lawmakers flew to Paris for the Olympics on paid junket by lobbyists.
Jill Stein is a traitor, worked with traitor flynn, and definitely had influence with Clinton election. You might think this guy just sounds like a conspiracy theorist, but he pretty much told exactly what and how J6 was going to play out way before it happened and as it was developing. He has been a major thorn in traitor flynn and his cohorts, so much that flynn has sued and lawfared him and sent his underlings to terrorize him, his family, and his backers. Jim won against flynn in the courts, but I think certain cases are still pending. But these extremist are not doing lawfare for a "win", their main intent is to just drain resources and threaten their opponents along with taking whatever court wins they can muster.
Since Jill Stein is trending, it’s a good time to remember she has been a Russian agent engaging in election interference since she sat across the table from Mike Flynn and grinned while Vladimir Putin praised RT chief Margarita Simonyan on 12/10/15.
— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) August 3, 2024
pic.twitter.com/5v4PG6MaKR
Criminal donOld trump and his republicans aren't worried about ads, they've got their republicans in congress doing sound bite theater, and they know that they are losing the vote. The only thing they are focused on is suppression of the votes with lawfare, paying for the army of lawyers that are getting ready to cancel our votes and have their republicans in congress picking their candidate.
The money isn’t going into resources to win the election.
— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) August 8, 2024
The money is going into resources to change the results. pic.twitter.com/O2kK1zljlk
"The target of the smear is you", don't let them control the court.
Realize; the target of the smear is you. It's harmless if it's confined to Truth Social or GETTR. The goal is to get YOU talking about it. So ideally, we'd just ignore LaCivita's lies about Walz. The problem is, media is now helping them. They're making the smear the story. 2/ pic.twitter.com/UqujxW1E8F
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024
This smear matters ONLY because media is amplifying it - like they did to John Kerry. Your goal is to quash the smear, but the more you talk about it, the more it spreads. If you're rebutting lies over and over again, you're not helping - you're letting Trump set the dialogue. 4/ pic.twitter.com/Nz9MJF6Dlv
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024
This response is a master class. Do not respond to provocation. Hit it back, pivot, and go back on offense. 6/https://t.co/IN0UgId1HH
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024
For those looking for a "reputable source" to deflect to, one option is VoteVets. But don't RT their rebuttal, instead use an article with a headline that quashes. Like this one: "Vets Group calls BS ..." The goal is to squash the lie and move on. 8/https://t.co/tbwhlwtqqu
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024
As you might expect, a veterans' group also understands tactics - here they've nicely executed the pivot to offense. Now it's your turn: don't get stuck on the defense, instead RT their offense. Make the story JD's lack of support for vets. 9/https://t.co/0OuI6Q6SNM
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) August 8, 2024
The definitive guide to Project 2025
https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/definitive-guide-project-2025
Media Matters presents a close look at Project 2025, from a secretive 180-day plan to a MAGA staffing database to extreme proposals that would turn back the clock on a whole host of issues
Written by Media Matters Staff
Research contributions from Madeline Peltz, John Knefel, Jacina Hollins-Borges, Jack Wheatley, Sophie Lawton, Justin Horowitz, Allison Fisher & Olivia Little
Published 08/08/24 10:36 AM EDT
Project 2025 is an extreme right-wing initiative organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration. The effort involves more than 100 partner organizations, a database of potential MAGA staffers, a secret 180-day plan, and its nearly 900-page policy book — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise — represents a major threat to democracy. The below PDF is also available here.............................
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Criminal donOld trump with 2025 author and recording of him complimenting Walz;
— Aes🇺🇸 (@AesPolitics1) August 7, 2024
Hallucinations of the criminal donOld. Criminal trump sneaks a post by his managers. His handlers have been trying hard to create some form of overseeing with his dementia issues, cleaning up his poopy butt and ketchup off the walls, editing his posts, but they can't get them all. lol
I'm still laughing MAO from your post. Thank you, Thelma!
— DrJackBrown 🌊 (@DrGJackBrown) August 8, 2024
Elon Musk shares fake news claiming UK rioters will be sent to ‘detainment camps’
Elon Musk is at it again.
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) August 8, 2024
Amid an ongoing feud with the British government about unrest on the country's streets, the X owner boosted, and then deleted, an entirely-manufactured news headline pushed by a far-right political party.https://t.co/1fnerJR12B
Scott Ritter's passport was seized a while ago and he hasn't been able to get back to Russia.
Meanwhile at Scott Ritter's lair: looks like the FBI left with lots of goodies. pic.twitter.com/o8Czl7JkXw
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) August 8, 2024
Taylor Swift Shows in Vienna Canceled After Terrorism Threat
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-07/taylor-swift-shows-in-vienna-canceled-after-terror-plot-arrest?
By Marton Eder
August 7, 2024 at 2:23 PM MDT
Updated on August 7, 2024 at 2:48 PM MDT
Taylor Swift shows planned for this week in Vienna have been canceled after Austrian police arrested two people on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
Concerts for the American pop megastar were canceled after the Austrian government confirmed the planned terror attack at the Ernst Happel Stadium, concert organizer Barracuda Music said on its website. A government spokesman said the decision was made by the organizer.
The singer-songwriter was scheduled to perform three shows in Vienna as part of her Eras Tour on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the tour’s final European performances in London.
Police arrested a 19-year-old Austrian citizen in Ternitz, Lower Austria, on Wednesday morning under the suspicion he was planning attacks against mass events in Vienna, Director General Franz Ruf told reporters. The unnamed person had been radicalized by Islamic State and had focused on Taylor Swift’s concerts as a potential target, he said.
Officials found chemical substances at his home, and later detained another person in Vienna.
Austrian officials in recent years have arrested a number of people affiliated with Islamist and far-right groups, though terrorist incidents have been rare. In 2020, a gunman killed four and wounded more than a dozen in an attack claimed by IS.
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Not sure, Musk is deleting, blocking, agitating, and and a whole lot of suppression of things that are posted against the extreme right and criminal donOLD's republicans. Even the most simple or silly statements sometimes gets hit and especially things noting Elon's degeneracy.
I think this might be it.
Other tweets about this, he's also aggressively suppressing;
UK government calls on Elon Musk to act responsibly amid provocative posts as unrest grips the country
https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-britain-riots-tweet-df3df49e7ba70b5af68f4fafa2fb4e68?
X Is Boosting the Far Right’s UK Riots as Telegram Scrambles for Control
Far-right protesters are trying to share violent rhetoric on social media. For the first time, Telegram is blocking them—while X is giving them a platform.
https://www.wired.com/story/telegram-is-blocking-the-far-right-from-boosting-the-uk-riots-x-is-emboldening-them/
Might be diligent to just copy text and pics instead of links and screenshot certain posts. Musk is going full blast in backing republicans lies, suppression tactics, fear mongering, conspiracy baiting, and control. Time consuming and a hassle, but these are the times we're in now.
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Man who helped ignite George Floyd riots identified as white supremacist: Police
https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-helped-ignite-george-floyd-riots-identified-white/story?id=72051536
This ought to have some "swift" results.
This is our place, we’re having a call! 💙
— Swifties For Kamala (@Swifties4Kamala) August 7, 2024
Join us on Tuesday, August 27 at 7 pm ET to kick off the organizing efforts of our #SwiftiesForKamala coalition committed to protecting democracy by working together to elect Vice President Kamala Harris as our next President! pic.twitter.com/F4DlU3fkc9
Walz is a Union member.
NEW: Tim Walz is the first union member on a presidential ticket since Reagan.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) August 7, 2024
He comes from the working class and champions ideas that make a real difference for working class people.
He capped insulin at $35, banned junk fees, gave every student free school lunch, and more. pic.twitter.com/krvzcuqMp0
Good luck. He aims to burn everything down. His behavior is intentional. https://t.co/mPL5P1irMa
— Dave Troy (@davetroy) August 7, 2024
Wow. 140,000 people at this rally (in Trump units). pic.twitter.com/jWKlhHrOyx
— Adam Mockler🇺🇸🦅 (@adammocklerr) August 7, 2024
The Wide Angle: Peter Thiel and the American Apocalypse
by Dave Troy
Jul 30, 2024 | Economy, The Wide Angle
Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance
PHOTO CREDIT:
Gage Skidmore
Between the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, and the rapid coalescence around Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee, everyone’s rushing to update their political calculus. But there’s one recurring thread that haunts us that people aren’t yet talking about: the debt ceiling, which must be addressed once again by January 2nd, 2025.
As I’ve reported in The Washington Spectator previously, any default on US debt would be unprecedented, sparking a global catastrophe with unpredictable outcomes. How soon we forget — in 2021 Moody’s estimated that default could mean the loss of at least 6 million jobs and the destruction of $15 trillion in wealth. (The COVID bailout packages amounted to about $4 trillion, by comparison.)
CBS News Moneywatch, September 22, 2021 (CBS News)
We got lucky in 2021, when Congress passed a $2.5 trillion increase right before the Christmas break. That kicked the can down the road to January 19, 2023, when we hit the limit once again. Janet Yellen enacted “extraordinary measures” to stretch available cash until June 5; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden struck a deal which was passed just days before default, or “X-Date.”
That deal (which really only registered with political and finance nerds) bought us until January 2025. If sane people are elected to Congress and the Presidency, that shouldn’t be a problem: just sort out some kind of deal, pass it, and live to fight another day. But these are not sane times. It’s wise to plan for the worst, which unfortunately is quite a plausible eventuality.
J. D. Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate suggests that Vance’s benefactor, Peter Thiel, is running the show, reprising an aborted effort to run the show from 2016. He seems to have learned from his mistakes. Thiel’s main hook into the first Trump administration was Steve Bannon, and their efforts were largely stymied by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and other advisors; Bannon was ultimately forced out and left the administration after the deadly white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.
In The Contrarian, a 2021 biography of Thiel, author Max Chafkin describes Vance as an “extension” of Thiel, who was a primary funder of Vance’s victorious 2022 race for Senate in Ohio. If Trump wins, Vance will be a heartbeat away from the presidency — and that should give everyone palpitations of their own.
A new Congress will be sworn in on January 3, 2025 — one day after we hit the debt ceiling. The Treasury Secretary (presumably Janet Yellen) will then again have to enact “extraordinary measures” to avoid default. That may buy us anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending on who is elected President, and who is appointed Treasury Secretary.
President Biden must try to prevail on Congress to put together another debt ceiling deal before the end of the year. If that doesn’t happen, that task will fall to the next President. Depending on who is in control of the House and the Senate after the election, the current Congress may decline to act and wait for the next Congress to take this up, adding to the drama. And if Mike Johnson retains his status as Speaker of the House, it’s possible that the House will not introduce a bill at all — or if they do, it might be coupled with draconian measures, like a return to pre-COVID budget levels, as the Cato Institute and others have proposed.
Joe Lonsdale interviewing Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society on his podcast, “American Optimist.” March 7, 2024, “Ep 80: Leonard Leo Knows How to Win and How to Save Our Country” (YouTube)
The biggest concern, however, is that Thiel is coordinating with his old “PayPal Mafia” colleagues including David Sacks, Elon Musk, and Joe Lonsdale. While Thiel runs Vance, Sacks is bundling contributions and running his own propaganda effort in support of the Republican campaign. Musk and Lonsdale have recently teamed up to create a “Super PAC” in support of the Trump/Vance ticket, which has been buffeted almost daily by revelations of Vance’s earlier denunciations of Trump, and his own bizarre views of women and human sexuality.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk might support that PAC to the tune of around $45 million per month. Musk has denied that specific claim since, but the America PAC, which is run by Lonsdale, appears to be created to support the “PayPal Mafia” worldview — which includes (and indeed depends on) the bankruptcy of the United States (see below).
Another secretive network may have helped provide Vance with the necessary momentum to become a favorite for VP. The Rockbridge Network, founded in 2019 by Vance, Thiel, and Chris Buskirk, publisher of the pro-Trump publication American Greatness. According to Puck News, the group’s network has included Republican donors Harlan Crow, Rebekah Mercer, David Sacks, and other familiar names.
According to Chafkin, Thiel believes that the 2008 financial crisis should have led to a depression. Indeed, it was the investment thesis of his firm, Clarium Capital, that this would happen. But low interest rates and other bailout measures kept Thiel’s “bet against the United States” from working out. Now, he’s out for revenge.
Tweets from Elon Musk suggesting that the United States will default on its debt. (Source: X)
Musk has expressed similar views in connection to last year’s debt ceiling standoff. In April 2023, he said, “Given Federal expenditures, it is a matter of when, not if, we default.” And he’s taken up a similar line more recently. This week, Musk tweeted “America is going bankrupt btw,” citing a story that claims interest debt is “eating 76% of all income taxes collected.”
However one may feel about the national debt and the need to curb budget deficits, one thing is certain: a default will launch a global catastrophe from which recovery will be difficult or even impossible. And unfortunately, this seems to be their plan, and it is aligned with similar ideas expressed by Christian Nationalists and Putin-aligned actors.
James Scaminaci, a scholar of Christian Nationalism, has warned about the “North-Paul Strategy,” a scheme dreamed up by Christian firebrand Gary North and the Libertarian ideologue Ron Paul. Their plan envisions taking control of the United States through bankruptcy, asserting that “God’s judgment, which is pro-revolution, will produce a cataclysmic collapse of the American political-economic system.” In 2013, North predicted a “Great Default on $205 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities.”
Sergey Glazyev, an economist leading the idea of a BRICS currency as an alternative to the US dollar, wrote a book in 2016 called “The Last World War: The U.S. to Move and Lose,” describing much the same scenario. He wrote, “The financial and information hegemony of the U.S. is threatened by the ever-growing likelihood of collapse of the pyramid of debt obligations denominated in dollars.”
Glazyev was also very close to crank political theorist Lyndon Larouche and his wife, Helga Zepp Larouche, who now runs Larouche’s organization, the Schiller Institute, which has published many papers along the same lines. The Schiller Institute was deeply involved in the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally in Washington D.C. in February 2023, has also promoted voluminous material about the “Noosphere” concept — one basis of Putin’s policy agenda.
In May, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced H.R. 8421, the “Federal Reserve Abolition Act” which aims to “abolish the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve banks” and repeals the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the law that created the Federal Reserve System. What would happen after that is unclear, but this bill, as designed, would end the current dollar system and introduce a new financial system rooted in a gold-backed dollar and cryptocurrencies. It should be obvious that this may have catastrophic consequences for individuals, potentially obliterating their life savings.
Books by BRICS architect Sergei Glazyev and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts (original cover design).
Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance wrote the foreword for Roberts’ book.
While Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the controversial policy package developed by the Heritage Foundation, J.D. Vance has become closely associated with the scheme. Kevin Roberts, like Leonard Leo a member of the secretive extremist Catholic organization Opus Dei and one of the principal architects of Project 2025, wrote a book called “Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America,” with J.D. Vance supplying the foreword. The title was subsequently changed to replace “burning down Washington” with “taking back Washington,” to avoid the obvious and literally incendiary implications of the former. Vance wrote of Roberts’ book, “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”
Project 2025 also contains recommendations for terminating the Federal Reserve, echoing Rep. Massie’s H.R. 8421, specifically on page 694, “that the next Administration should think about proposing legislation that would “effectively abolish” the Federal Reserve and replace it with “free banking,” whereby “neither interest rates nor the supply of money” would be “controlled by government.”
Donald Trump has become a leading proponent of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency projects. (X, Bitcoin conference)
Donald Trump, who in 2021 said Bitcoin was a “scam against the dollar,” is now an ardent advocate of Bitcoin and NFTs (non-fungible tokens), both of which have provided him with a significant financial boost. Trump is a headliner at the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, along with Putin apologists Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Russell Brand, and Edward Snowden. CNBC recently reported that Trump has raised more than $4 million in Bitcoin and other digital assets since he began supporting cryptocurrencies. At that conference, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) proposed establishing a “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” which she claims will “create a brighter future for generations of Americans by diversifying into Bitcoin.”
Vance is also a major backer of cryptocurrencies and disclosed in a recent filing that he held between $100,001 and $250,000 in Bitcoin. He has also gone on record in favor of devaluing the US dollar to boost exports.
A former adviser to Thiel recently suggested to me that his worldview was “largely self-referential,” and that of a “kid in high school who was picked on.” This source went on to assert that Musk’s America PAC amounted to the “neuro-atypical leading us into [a] business coup,” referencing the 1934 “Business Plot” (See: Paranoia on Parade.) And given Vance’s role as an “extension” of Thiel, per Chafkin, this is cause for grave concern.
Michael Anton, another character from the Thielverse, wrote an essay describing the 2016 election as a “Flight 93 Election,” comparing Hillary Clinton to the 9/11 terrorists. Anton, who is connected to the conservative Hillsdale College and is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, more recently has called for a “Red Caesar,” or a leader whose “post-Constitutional rule will restore the strength of his people,” with Vance now seemingly cast in that role. And as the Supreme Court recently ruled, if he manages to become president, he will now have immunity for any “official acts.”
Musk has made similar proclamations, calling for an American “Sulla,” famous for being the first Roman general to march his army on Rome, seizing control by force. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn seems ready to take up that role and has continued to call for various “black swan” events, and has made repeated warnings about potential assassinations, including of Donald Trump.
We have seen how rapidly public opinion can now shift based on the interplay between traditional media, social media, and authority figures. The Silicon Valley Bank run and the crisis of confidence in Joe Biden following his poor debate performance shared similarities. In early 2021, I circulated a memo privately in Washington suggesting that Musk and Thiel were aiming to do the same thing to the US dollar. And now we see that plan coming into place, with Thiel, Musk, Russia, and other right-wing media planting seeds of doubt in the dollar. Thiel ally Balaji Srinavasan just published an article arguing that default is unavoidable.
New York Times Headline, July 16, 2024. (NY Times)
A Harris victory is a necessary but insufficient condition to avoid a catastrophe. Biden must act now to provoke Congress to resolve the debt ceiling situation, ideally permanently. A prospective Harris administration must educate itself on the perils of gold-standard revanchism, and understand that cryptocurrencies are neither innovative nor neutral, but rather instruments of warfare which will be used by our adversaries to upend the world order. The system, as they say, is “blinking red,” and if there ever was a “Flight 93 election,” it’s this one. May we have both the wisdom and capacity to intercept these threats before it’s too late.
Dave Troy is an investigative journalist focused on exposing threats to democracy. Based in Baltimore,
his background as a technologist with an interest in studying online extremism affords him a unique perspective.
His work has appeared at MoMA in New York, and he is a fellow with New America Foundation’s Future Frontlines.
Dave writes regularly about information warfare, history, and politics. He is the host of the podcast Dave Troy Presents,
and speaks regularly at conferences on disinformation, extremism, and information warfare.
Contact information is available at davetroy.com.
2/The current threat is they will use the debt ceiling deadline to spark a US debt default and a currency crisis. The dollar and your savings are at risk.https://t.co/eju21yyeYG
— Dave Troy (@davetroy) August 6, 2024
4/And no, we can't simply vote our way out of this. A Harris victory is a necessary but insufficient condition for dealing with this. @POTUS and Congress must take action now to get ahead of the debt ceiling crisis. And @DOJ @FBI should be looking hard at Musk and Thiel.
— Dave Troy (@davetroy) August 6, 2024
The #UKRiots have been organized and fomented on Telegram. But even that platform is taking some steps to curb the spread of hate.
— David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) August 7, 2024
Elon Musk and Twitter on the other hand are doing everything they can to make the situation worsehttps://t.co/jcoA3XlpY1
Three hours until Harris and Walz are set to appear in Eau Claire and this is the line of cars to get to the rally…
— Sabrina Rodríguez (@sabrod123) August 7, 2024
1.5 miles away. pic.twitter.com/kwyqikAqNV
Daniel Goldman
@danielsgoldman
Before Trump and Republicans lecture Jews about which party is more friendly to us, let’s look at which party actually elects Jews:
26 Jewish Members of Congress
Dem: 24
GOP: 2
9 Jewish Senators
Dem: 8
Ind: 1
GOP: 0
So please spare me the patronizing lectures.
7:43 AM · Aug 7, 2024
·
143.5K
Views
NEW: On Saturday, Trump praised three members of the Georgia Election Board by name. Yesterday, those same members passed a rule making it easier to delay election certification. It's all a part of Trump's plan to subvert the election, @marceelias writes.https://t.co/1EXhpmu9XA
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) August 7, 2024
She spoke up against the slaughter of Palestinian civilians.
Adherence might be an issue, but at least it's a step in the right direction and brings a little attention to the threat we're facing today.
ABA House of Delegates passes policy adopting “Statement of Principles” protecting democracy
https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024/08/aba-hod-passes-statement-of-principles-protecting-democracy/
CHICAGO, August 6, 2024 — The American Bar Association House of Delegates passed Resolution 801 which adopts the “Statement of Principles to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution, the Rule of Law and American Democracy” by the Society for the Rule of Law.
During the past year, the ABA Presidential Task Force on American Democracy created by President Mary Smith has been working to expose and combat perceived threats to the cornerstones of our democratic form of government. This resolution supports principles that go to the heart of that endeavor.
“It is imperative for the American Bar Association and the legal profession to lead the way in protecting our democracy,” Smith said. “Lawyers are uniquely equipped to uphold the rule of law, rejuvenate judicial norms and safeguard election integrity. Adopting this overarching Statement of Principles as policy sends a powerful message of the ABA’s commitment and rededication to the fundamental principles underpinning our enduring democracy and bolsters the ABA’s charge as the voice of the legal profession to stand up for the democratic institutions that have made our country great.”
While the Statement of Principles is consistent with existing ABA policy, this resolution “enables a comprehensive and forceful stance at this critical moment in defense of democracy and the rule of law.”
The ABA is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. View our privacy statement online. Follow the latest ABA news at www.americanbar.org/news and on X (formerly Twitter) @ABANews.
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Of course, just another one of criminal trump's republicans.
BREAKING: Andy Ogles confirms my report, says the FBI took his cell phone. https://t.co/G5UWMb4l3D pic.twitter.com/3ltsKNNjDS
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) August 6, 2024
BACKGROUND: He doesn't report having checking or savings. So where did Andy Ogles get $320,000 for his campaign? https://t.co/oIT6QQ0cUc
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) August 6, 2024
Fuck you @elonmusk you scared bitch. pic.twitter.com/upMaketqkL
— Matt Convente 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@mattconvente) August 6, 2024
And now, a new Vigilantes Inc. operation is back — for Trump. The exact same plan as the KKK 1940’s scheme — now powered by billionaires’ loot.
— Greg Palast (@Greg_Palast) June 3, 2024
▶️ Full story: https://t.co/3FiinsvpSR#VigilantesInc #Election2024
Even children's enthusiasm, or the lack of it, tells it all.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz signing a bill guaranteeing all children get to eat. Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders signing a bill forcing children to work at the Hog De-Knuckler factory. Both parties are not the same. pic.twitter.com/NX5JtgGZiY
— Rob Israel (@robisraelart) August 6, 2024
Musk is doing a lot of this sort of thing. Personally he has unfollowed, even blocked quite a few people I would never even think of blocking or unfollowing, plus a whole lot of other republican subversion and suppression tactics. This is the only reason that Musk and the Saudis took over twitter.
Just had to RE-follow @FPWellman for a SECOND time, and I know damn well I never unfollowed him. Check your follows. Elon likes to remove them from left-leaning voices. If you want a follow back, leave a reply and share and I’ll follow back until I reach Musk’s limit.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) August 6, 2024
Make America Burn Again is trending to reinvent what happened in Minneapolis in 2020 as a problem of the progressive left.
— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) August 6, 2024
FACT: The fires that ignited there were not set by “Antifa” or any other boogeyman invented by MAGA, they were set by a “rightwing extremist.”… pic.twitter.com/pXssBP0glz
The Charade of "America First"
https://www.americaamerica.news/p/the-charade-of-america-first
This weekend Donald Trump was back to praising Vladimir Putin, once again casting doubt on his allegiances and underscoring his hostility to American values. Let's remember this in November.
Steven Beschloss
Aug 05, 2024
Any doubt who’s in charge? Donald Trump emerging from a private meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018. (Photo by Chris McGrath via Getty Images)
I will never get over July 16, 2018, the day that Donald Trump betrayed America and sided with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. You likely recall that was during a press conference when he rejected the findings of the U.S. intelligence community and supported Putin’s insistence that he did not interfere in the 2016 presidential election. This disgraceful act followed a private meeting with Putin, after which he emerged looking battered and beaten (see the photo above).
“My people came to me—[Trump’s National Intelligence Director] Dan Coats came to me, some others—they said they think it's Russia," Trump said. “I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."
We likely will never know exactly what was said in that private meeting, since Trump consistently refused the keeping of any detailed records of this and at least four other face-to-face meetings with Putin. But his willingness to publicly kowtow to Putin that day and indeed to slavishly praise him has been a consistent and shameful pattern. Calling Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “savvy” stands as a particularly repellant expression of his sycophancy, his hostility to democracy and the charade of his so-called “America First” enterprise.
All this came careening back on Saturday after the Biden-Harris administration’s remarkable achievement—securing the release of three Americans and other prisoners unjustly held by Putin’s Russia—followed by Trump’s sour and traitorous comments. This complicated deal involved Russia releasing 16 prisoners while eight Russians were returned to Moscow, making it the largest exchange of its kind since the days of the Soviet Union. This included freedom for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan (in custody for five years), Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, along with a number of Russian dissidents held in Russian prisons.
The prisoner swap has been rightly defined by the president as a “feat of diplomacy,” involving Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Norway and Turkey. Particularly key was the willingness of American ally Germany and its chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Biden friend, to agree to release Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov from a Berlin prison to make the deal happen.
But of course that’s not how the pro-Putin, anti-American Trump saw it. "I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal. Did you see the deal we made?" Trump said during his rally in Georgia. “We got our people back, but boy we make some horrible, horrible deals.”
No praise for Biden. No criticism of an adversary that takes Americans hostage. Just congratulations for the Kremlin’s murderous boss.
Of course, Trump is surely mostly aggrieved that Biden and Harris—not he—got this done. In May, he claimed in a Truth Social post that Evan Gershkovich “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me but not for anyone else.”
Trump’s adoration for Putin, which he succeeded in spreading throughout the GOP, is nothing new. While running for president in 2016, during which Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort handed over internal polling data to a Russian operative, Trump praised Putin as being “a leader far more than our president,” referring to Barack Obama.
Let’s not forget that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had Trump’s number. During the third and final debate in October 2016, Trump said that Putin had “no respect” for her or President Obama. “Well,” Clinton said, “that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States.” There has been plenty of reporting on Trump’s reliance on Russian money to recover after his multiple bankruptcies in the ‘90s.
Soon our focus will turn to the decision by presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris of a running mate. The announcement of her choice may come as soon as today, with a joint event introducing the Democratic ticket tomorrow in Philadelphia.
But once again this weekend, Trump reminded us what’s at stake in this election—the increased danger that America faces if this convicted felon armed by the Supreme Court with near-total immunity gets back into office. This includes his continuing determination to serve the interests of Putin over those of a democratic United States—whether by trashing a prisoner swap to return Americans to safety, siding with Russia against Ukraine as our ally fights to maintain sovereignty and democracy, publicly adoring and joining forces with pro-Putin authoritarian types like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, openly working to undermine the NATO alliance and even threatening NATO allies that he’d encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” with them if they don’t pay enough.
Just this week the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which is the part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that counters foreign propaganda campaigns, warned that Russia remains “the predominant threat to U.S. elections” and that “Russian influence actors have undertaken distinct efforts during this election cycle to build and use networks of U.S. and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russian-friendly narratives.” The agency had previously concluded that Putin’s propaganda campaign in 2020 focused on “denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party” and “supporting former President Trump.”
While we haven’t yet heard detailed statements by VP Harris about her foreign policy plans, we have every reason to expect she will hew closely to the values and goals of President Biden. On the tarmac Thursday night, after the newly freed prisoners rejoined their families, Harris said, "This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy… and strengthening alliances."
The VP has frequently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and advocated for additional aid to his country. Here’s what Harris said in February at the Munich Security Conference, when Republicans in Congress were resisting support: “This is a moment where America has the ability to actually demonstrate through action where we stand on issues like this, which is, ‘Do we stand with our friends in the face of extreme brutality or not?’ And I say we stand with our friends.”
Permit me to share a few words from President Biden’s speech to the United Nations last September. I think they offer a useful summary of the values the Biden-Harris administration has upheld—and a stark contrast to what the pro-Putin, dictator-hungry Trump portends.
“The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people because we know our future is bound to yours,” he said. “Cooperation, partnership—these are the keys to progress on the challenges that affect us all and the baseline for responsible global leadership.”
As I noted in my essay a year ago, “A Matter of Values,” there was “no grinding, grueling America First talk, no thinly veiled aggression wrapped up in fake, flag-waving patriotism, no litany of violent invectives meant to fuel hostility and target the vulnerable, no effort to flaunt American (or his own) superiority on the world stage. This was a chance to share human values and advocate for expanding alliances.”
It’s exactly three months until the November election, an opportunity for American voters to reassert what it means to be American and what future we want. It’s only three months, but I’m impatient to get to November 5 and prove that the majority remains committed to democracy and a better life, not a downward slide into autocracy and chaos as Vladimir Putin applauds.
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Vance is campaigning in Pennsylvania for Harris. For a party that does nothing but pose for political subterfuge, sure have a bunch of bozos for their campaign team setting up this shot. The people that they pay to sit behind criminal trump and vance in all their shots in every speaking event sure show a lot of enthusiasm for there job. Probably ought to stick with waving at empty parking lots. lol
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Blast from not so distant past and effecting the now and future.
‘The best state for workers’: what are Minnesota’s new labor laws?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/07/minnesota-pro-worker-paid-leave-union
Steven Greenhouse
New legislation will mandate paid leave, prohibit non-compete clauses and bar captive anti-union meetings, among other measures
Wed 7 Jun 2023 06.00 EDT
Minnesota’s Democratic governor and legislature has enacted one of the most pro-worker packages of legislation that any US state has passed in decades which includes paid family and medical leave, prohibits non-compete clauses, bars employers from holding anti-union captive audience meetings, and strengthens protections for meatpacking workers and Amazon warehouse employees.
Minnesota’s new legislation mandates paid sick days, allows teachers’ unions to bargain over educator-to-student ratios and creates a statewide council to improve conditions for nursing home workers.
These moves come as labor rights in the US – which are far more limited than in other industrial nations – have come under sustained attack from business groups and many conservative politicians.
Minnesota’s commissioner of labor and industry, Nicole Blissenbach, said the new laws “truly make Minnesota the best state for workers and their families”.
The legislation’s backers say these pro-worker measures were made possible by the Democrats’ winning control of Minnesota’s state senate in last November’s midterm elections, giving that party trifecta control of the house, senate and governor’s office. The Democrats now have a 34-to-33 majority in the state senate.
“This legislation represents work that has been a long time coming,” said Jennifer McEwen, a Democrat who is chair of the senate labor committee. “These are things that most workers in our peer nations take for granted and enjoy.” The US is the only wealthy industrial nation and one of a handful of nations worldwide that doesn’t guarantee all workers paid parental leave.
Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, a Democrat, signed the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act as well as an omnibus labor bill that contains a raft of pro-worker provisions. In signing the paid leave legislation, Walz said: “We’re ensuring Minnesotans no longer have to make the choice between a paycheck and taking time off to care for a new baby or a sick family member.”
The law allows Minnesota workers to take up to 12 weeks a year with partial pay to care for a newborn or sick family member and also allows workers 12 weeks to recover from a serious illness or health problem. The law places a cap of 20 weeks a year for employees who use both provisions.
Alice Mann, a medical doctor and the bill’s main senate sponsor, said: “Paid family and medical leave leads to so many great things: better maternal health, better child health, decreased hospitalization for children, increased rates of breastfeeding, increased employee retention, greater participation in the workforce for women and decreased gender disparities in the workplace.”
The bill passed Minnesota’s senate 34 to 33, with business groups opposing it and every Republican voting against.
This is a long time coming and it’s definitely long overdue
“This is a long time coming and it’s definitely long overdue,” said Representative Ruth Richardson, the bill’s main sponsor in the house. “The vast majority of Minnesotans don’t have access to paid family and medical leave. We see who is left out – it is disproportionately women and communities of color and low-income workers who often can’t afford to take leave.”
Some supporters say that several of the newly enacted provisions should be embraced and enacted in other trifecta blue states, such as Michigan.
“Paid family and medical leave is extremely popular, not only in Minnesota, but nationally as well,” Richardson said. “It’s one of those issues that are incredibly bipartisan. I believe that passing paid family and medical leave is possible in blue and red trifecta states and in everything in between.”
The omnibus labor bill that Walz signed was full of pro-worker provisions ranging from paid sick leave to warehouse safety to setting up a new standards board for nursing home workers.
Under the new legislation, non-compete provisions are void and unenforceable. Walz’s office said the law, by prohibiting a practice that bars workers from taking jobs with competing employers, gives workers “the freedom to seek better working conditions and higher wages without restrictions”. The ban doesn’t invalidate non-compete clauses entered into before 1 July 2023.
To help workers take care of themselves or a family member, the new legislation also allows employees to earn one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked. The law allows accrual of up to 48 hours of sick time each year.
The law calls for creating a nursing home workforce standards board with an equal number of worker and employer representatives that will set statewide minimum standards for nursing-home employees, while seeking to improve working conditions and care.
Those of us who are more progressive say this is exactly how we win the next election. This is what we do. We do the things we promised
State senator Jennifer McEwen
It also requires Amazon and other warehouses to tell employees about every work quota they are required to meet, how their work speed is measured and what happens if they fail to meet their quota. The law also allows employees to see work speed data and prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who seek such data.
Under the new legislation, Minnesota employers also cannot require workers to attend anti-union propaganda sessions, often called “captive audience” meetings. The law makes it illegal for an employer to retaliate against a worker for refusing to attend a political or religious meeting, and under the law an anti-union meeting is considered a political meeting.
The state labor department will appoint a meatpacking industry worker-rights coordinator to submit an annual report recommending ways to improve conditions for meat and poultry processing workers. The law also calls for enhanced workplace safety standards for meatpacking plants with 100 or more workers.
Finally, the new legislation tackles wage theft by ensuring a contractor entering into a construction contract assumes liability for any unpaid wages, fringe benefits or damages that a subcontractor owes to its workers.
Bernie Burnham, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, heaped praise on the new laws, calling them “some of the most sweeping pro-labor legislation in state history” and saying they “will improve the lives of workers in every corner of our state”.
Burnham added: “Minnesota has a strong labor movement, and we worked hard to advance our legislative priorities.”
Corporate lobbyists complained that the paid leave law would impose too great a burden on business – employers will have to pay 0.35% of their payroll to finance paid leave, while employees will have to contribute 0.35% of their paychecks.
John Reynolds, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the paid leave “mandate” is “deeply flawed” and “will cost much more than expected and make it harder for small businesses to keep their doors open”.
Mann said the business community was crying wolf. “They’re saying businesses are all going to go out of business and close their doors,” she said. “That hasn’t happened in the 11 other states that have passed paid family and medical leave.”
Mann added: “I am someone who believes that when we lift all boats and make a better standard of living for people, I don’t think corporations actually lose. I think we all gain.”
McEwen said: “Those of us who are more progressive say this is exactly how we win the next election. This is what we do. We do the things we promised we would do, and we hope people will say, ‘Please, more of that.’”
This story has been co-published with the Century Foundation
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Billboards Highlight Consequences Of Texas Abortion Ban
https://texassignal.com/billboards-highlight-consequences-of-texas-abortion-ban/
Jessica Montoya Coggins
Aug 5, 2024 — 2 min read
Billboards Highlight Consequences Of Texas Abortion Ban
On Monday, August 5 Texans in the greater San Antonio area will start seeing four large billboards with a shocking message: “Everything’s bigger in Texas: including our infant mortality rate.”
The infant mortality rate in Texas has indeed increased since the near-total abortion ban Senate Bill 8 went into effect in September 2021. A report from Johns Hopkins showed that the infant mortality rate in Texas rose by 13 percent in the year following SB 8. Texas also experienced increases in neonatal deaths (when infants are less than 28 days old) as well as deaths from congenital anomalies.
The billboards, which will stay up for four weeks, are from the health education nonprofit Mayday Health, which was formed on the day that the Supreme Court announced the Dobbs decision that reversed Roe v. Wade. Their Executive Director and Co-Founder Olivia Raisner spoke with Texas Signal ahead of the billboard launch.
Image Courtesy of Mayday Health
Raisner said that the very “stark” image is meant to grab people’s attention. But ultimately their goal is to direct viewers of the billboards to their website where they can learn about reproductive options.
That website is all about accessing information. Raisner emphasizes that they are not medical providers but are directing visitors to options. She describes them operating in a very “specific lane” especially for accessing abortion pills. “We spread information about what abortion pills are and how people can access them in states where brick and mortar clinics are banned like in Texas,” says Raisner.
Raisner also says that every action Mayday Health has taken has been rooted in “taking risks” because they are relying upon First Amendment protections. One of their first big moves took place in Jackson, Mississippi right across from the clinic that was at the heart of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision. They advertised their website on a billboard with the message “Pregnant? You still have a choice.” They received a cease and desist from the Attorney General of Mississippi but did not back down by removing the billboard. According to Raisner, they never heard back from the Mississippi AG.
“It’s our duty to spread this information in as many states as possible,” says Raisner. Mayday Health has previously been on the ground in Texas. Last year they opened a pop-up information store in Bastrop, Texas with posters and QR codes for their website which directed people to access birth control, emergency contraceptives, and abortion pills. And they have also been aerial, like when they flew a banner over a Texas Rangers game promoting abortion pills via their website.
So far, Mayday Health has not heard from the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. But even if they did, they plan to remain active in the state especially with less than three months until the November election. “We feel emboldened and confident that the work that we do is protected and it’s really vital to get life-saving information,” says Raisner.
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There is not one conservative Supreme Court Justice with any integrity. 😡 pic.twitter.com/inOJblY0JO
— Annie (@AnnieForTruth) August 6, 2024
This is the “independent judiciary” that Republicans want to preserve. They call it the #LeoCourt https://t.co/PTFj5DnhTp
— jennycohn@toad.social ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) August 5, 2024
The only thing criminal trump and his republicans are mainly focused on and where most of their monies are going to is lawfare and setting up for another coup attempt with the republicans in control of the House. They know they won't have the votes unless they suppress all the votes against them. Everything else is just theater to keep our minds away from what they have been doing and setting up for.
he’s telling them exactly what he wants them to do: block the certification of the election, because if a county doesn’t certify the election, its state can’t certify the election, preventing the vote count & potentially throwing the decision to the Supreme Court or the GOP controlled House - that are both in Trump’s pocket. Another coup in plain sight.
Truth teller Rachel #Maddow delivers a sobering warning: when Trump named & thanked 3 GA election board members at his rally - he’s telling them exactly what he wants them to do: block the certification of the election, because if a county doesn’t certify the election, its state… pic.twitter.com/V5mgNQuHFo
— anyone_want_chips (@anyonewantchips) August 6, 2024
Try again https://t.co/MIUpVqGq1n pic.twitter.com/WaBg0Q583n
— Rachel Bitecofer 🗽🦆🌴🥥🇺🇸 (@RachelBitecofer) August 6, 2024