December 4, 2018

'No Labels' Needs A Warning Label by Rep. Mark Pocan

I was duped.

When I was elected to Congress in 2012, I attended the Bipartisan Program for Newly Elected Members of Congress at Harvard University. I was so excited to be a member of a branch of government for the most awesome country on the planet.

At the program, one of the presentations was from a group named No Labels. The organization put forward a proposal for governing that meant working across the aisle to solve problems and stopping the gridlock in Washington. I was excited! While I was a strong progressive in the Wisconsin Legislature, that was my governing approach. By working with people who do not always agree with you, you find out what you have in common and you can get good things done.


The moment we were sworn in, we were given lapel pins to brand us as the Problem Solvers Caucus, which was sponsored by No Labels.However, things quickly went south. I attended a few meetings at the outset, but the rhetoric wasn’t about finding ways to get things done and breaking gridlock ― rather it was more about finding more centrist, more corporate and more special interest-focused things to do.

Soon thereafter, No Labels became involved in elections with a closely contested U.S. Senate race in Colorado, backing Republican Cory Gardner over Democrat Mark Udall.That didn’t seem right. A group that wasn’t supposed to pick labels was doing exactly that: picking a label. When asked to join the Problem Solvers Caucus, members were never told that this would be part of the program.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-no-labels-mark-pocan_us_5c06b110e4b0cd916fb0b042?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004



Pocan went on to relate that when he inquired about where No Labels funding came from , they wouldn't tell him and said "we can just take you off our list".

December 4, 2018

We participated in INF negotiations. Abandoning it threatens our very existence. -Gorbachev &Schultz

By Mikhail Gorbachev and
George P. Shultz December 4 at 2:28 PM
Mikhail Gorbachev is a former president of the Soviet Union; George P. Shultz is a former U.S. secretary of state and is now a distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

More than 30 years have passed since the day the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, meeting in Geneva, adopted a joint statement declaring that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” It was more than just rhetoric. Less than a year later, in Reykjavik, Iceland, they agreed on the parameters of future treaties on the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear forces, or INF, and the radical reduction of strategic nuclear arms. A year after that, in 1987, the first of these treaties was signed in Washington. The elimination of the entire class of nuclear missiles opened the way to a process of real nuclear disarmament.

The INF Treaty and subsequent treaties reducing strategic nuclear arms established an innovative system of verification, inspections, data exchange and mutual consultations to ensure that each side can confidently verify that the other is faithfully adhering to the treaty limits.

Reykjavik was a historic milestone also because the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union agreed that the ultimate goal of the process of nuclear arms reduction should be the elimination of all nuclear weapons. The path to this goal is inevitably difficult, but the mutual understanding between the two leaders has borne fruit: As of now, the strategic nuclear forces of the two sides have been reduced to a fraction of what they were then.

Another important result of the agreements was the emergence of mutual trust between the two nations, and a healthier international environment overall. This helped to resolve regional issues, facilitated democratic processes and improved the lives of people in many countries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-participated-in-inf-negotiations-abandoning-it-threatens-our-very-existence/2018/12/04/21c8bd20-f4cc-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.12eaa7cb25ca

December 4, 2018

Interesting tweet re: George and Kelly Conway

https://twitter.com/CheriJacobus/status/1069940770315165696


Conway's have Trump's blessing. George infiltrated NeverTrump last spring to get support for upcoming Kavanaugh nom. If Trump really was angry, he'd fire Kellyanne & slam George himself. Sending Eric out to "fake fight" w/them is choreography. CNN has a seat waiting for Kellyann


https://twitter.com/CheriJacobus/status/1069805393453465600

all of this is Kabuki theater. Ignore both of the Conways and what the designated Trump was sent out to say about them to give the appearance they are all mad at each other. George isn't someone the press covered before & shouldn't make him a celebrity now. You're being played.



Cheri Jacobus is a neverTrumper. Her bio on Twitter: Former GOP. PR consultant, TV pundit, writer. Ran GOP campaigns, congressional staffer, RNC, fmr adjunct professor @GSPMgwu. NeverTrump, editor A House United

December 4, 2018

Trump administration gives Russia 60 days to comply with INF treaty, or the U.S. will move to withdr

BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that Russia is in material breach of a Cold War-era arms control agreement and that the United States would begin the process of leaving the accord in 60 days if Moscow doesn’t come into compliance.

The ultimatum, issued at a meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels, amounts to a softening of the Trump administration’s position after President Trump abruptly announced in October that he had decided to “terminate the agreement.”

The termination plan was set to go into effect Tuesday, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders persuaded the president to delay the move to allow for additional consultations with allies and to try to pressure the Kremlin one last time to comply with the treaty, according to diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions.Merkel’s last-ditch effort, which she advanced in a meeting with Trump in Buenos Aires on Saturday, came up against a determined drive by the president’s national security adviser John Bolton to withdraw from the landmark accord.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, banned nuclear and nonnuclear missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or about 310 to 3,400 miles. It has been a pillar of Europe’s security architecture for more than three decades, but the Trump administration has said it puts the United States at a military disadvantage against China, which is not bound by the treaty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trump-administration-gives-russia-60-days-to-comply-with-inf-treaty-or-the-us-will-move-to-withdraw/2018/12/04/64c5bec2-f74a-11e8-8642-c9718a256cbd_story.html?utm_term=.9d1c2ab080b0

December 4, 2018

Must read: Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent's Stealth Takeover of America

This article has been re-circulated due to what Republicans are trying to pull in Wisconsin and Michigan. Highly recommend McClean's book Democracy in Chains

Nobel laureate James Buchanan is the intellectual linchpin of the Koch-funded attack on democratic institutions, argues Duke historian Nancy MacLean


Ask people to name the key minds that have shaped America’s burst of radical right-wing attacks on working conditions, consumer rights and public services, and they will typically mention figures like free market-champion Milton Friedman, libertarian guru Ayn Rand, and laissez-faire economists Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises.

James McGill Buchanan is a name you will rarely hear unless you’ve taken several classes in economics. And if the Tennessee-born Nobel laureate were alive today, it would suit him just fine that most well-informed journalists, liberal politicians, and even many economics students have little understanding of his work.

The reason? Duke historian Nancy MacLean contends that his philosophy is so stark that even young libertarian acolytes are only introduced to it after they have accepted the relatively sunny perspective of Ayn Rand. (Yes, you read that correctly). If Americans really knew what Buchanan thought and promoted, and how destructively his vision is manifesting under their noses, it would dawn on them how close the country is to a transformation most would not even want to imagine, much less accept.

That is a dangerous blind spot, MacLean argues in a meticulously researched book, Democracy in Chains, a finalist for the National Book Award in Nonfiction. While Americans grapple with Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency, we may be missing the key to changes that are taking place far beyond the level of mere politics. Once these changes are locked into place, there may be no going back.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/meet-the-economist-behind-the-one-percents-stealth-takeover-of-america



Important to note that the Koch Brothers aren't Republicans, they're Libertarians , and they're just using the party to undermine democracy and install a corporate authoritarian state. Their aim is to destroy both parties and Republicans are happy to help them do it.

December 4, 2018

Most dangerous countries for women 2018

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1069622288360849408



Most dangerous countries for women, 2018.

1. India
2. Afghanistan
3. Syria
4. Somalia
5. Saudi Arabia
6. Pakistan
7. DR Congo
8. Yemen
9. Nigeria
10. United States

(Thomson Reuters)

December 4, 2018

Manafort Tried to Broker Deal With Ecuador to Hand Assange Over to U.S.

WASHINGTON — In mid-May 2017, Paul Manafort, facing intensifying pressure to settle debts and pay mounting legal bills, flew to Ecuador to offer his services to a potentially lucrative new client — the country’s incoming president, Lenín Moreno.

Mr. Manafort made the trip mainly to see if he could broker a deal under which China would invest in Ecuador’s power system, possibly yielding a fat commission for Mr. Manafort.

But the talks turned to a diplomatic sticking point between the United States and Ecuador: the fate of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

In at least two meetings with Mr. Manafort, Mr. Moreno and his aides discussed their desire to rid themselves of Mr. Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, in exchange for concessions like debt relief from the United States, according to three people familiar with the talks, the details of which have not been previously reported.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/politics/manafort-assange-wikileaks-ecuador.html

December 4, 2018

The Cowardly Face of Authoritarianism

By Timothy Snyder

First we see the face. The face of America’s Donald Trump, or Hungary’s Viktor Orban, or Russia’s Vladimir Putin, or Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the face of men who wish to transform democracies into personality cults.

The face is the oldest mark of leadership, the mark that works for clan or tribe. If we see only the face, we are not thinking about policies or politics; instead, we are accepting the new regime and its rules. However, a democracy is about the people, not a single mythicized person.

People need truth, which a cult of personality destroys. Theories of democracy, from the ancient Greeks through the Enlightenment to today, take for granted that the world around us yields to understanding. We pursue the facts alongside our fellow citizens. But in a cult of personality, truth is replaced by belief, and we believe what the leader wishes us to believe. The face replaces the mind.

The transition from democracy to personality cult begins with a leader who is willing to lie all the time, in order to discredit the truth as such. The transition is complete when people can no longer distinguish between truth and feeling.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/opinion/authoritarian-leaders-trump-putin-orban.html

December 3, 2018

At center of voter fraud scandal, a convicted felon and 'grassroots' campaigner

A man who worked as an “independent contractor” for Republican Mark Harris’ campaign in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District is a convicted felon who faced jail time for fraud and perjury, according to court records.


Over the last two decades, he has been paid by at least nine candidates, all for get-out-the-vote work, according to state records.

Leslie McCrae Dowless was convicted of felony fraud in 1992 in Iredell County, according to court records. Dowless and his wife were accused of taking out an insurance policy on a dead man and collecting nearly $165,000 from his death, according to a 1991 Fayetteville Observer article. He served more than six months of a two-year prison sentence, according to court records.


Dowless, now 62, was convicted of felony perjury in 1990, according to court records.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article222459875.html

December 3, 2018

Mangled remains of Lockerbie plane lie forgotten in a Lincolnshire scrapyard: 30 yrs later

Chilling images of the wrecked plane which blew apart over Lockerbie 30 years ago have emerged as the mangled metal still lays in a Lincolnshire scrapyard.

When a terrorist's explosive went off on December 21, 1988, 259 passengers and crew were killed as they flew in the Boeing 747 which was travelling from Frankfurt to Detroit, via New York and London.

Eleven residents of the small town were also killed by falling debris in the tragedy - which was caused by a bomb smuggled on board the plane in a suitcase and remains Britain's worst ever terror attack.

Many of the victims were American college students flying home for Christmas, including 35 Syracuse University students participating in a study abroad program.




I can remember being glued to the tv. The note to the little girl in the red dress. RIP