turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalTrump designates Civil War site as national monument after decimating Utah monuments
Conservation groups note "irony" of Trump administration discovering value of Antiquities Act.
MARK HAND
OCT 30, 2018, 11:55 AM
The Trump administration designated a Civil War site in Kentucky as a national monument, a decision that runs counter to the administration’s emphasis on reducing the size of national monuments. The move has sparked skepticism among green groups.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Friday — under authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906 — declaring Camp Nelson a national monument. Located in Jessamine County, Kentucky, Camp Nelson was a key site of emancipation for African American soldiers and a refugee camp for their families during the Civil War.
In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of the Interior has been announcing additions to a network of historic sites related to African Americans and the civil rights movement.
Conservation groups agreed the 525-acre Camp Nelson was fully deserving of being declared a national monument. But they also noted the irony of the designation.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-designates-civil-war-site-as-national-monument-after-decimating-utah-monuments-63339c173a17/
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It’s at odds with the administration’s ongoing attack on national monuments, which began with Trump’s April 2017 executive order that required the Department of the Interior conduct a review of national monuments due to “modern Antiquities Act overreach” by previous administrations.
The Trump administration’s opposition to the Antiquities Act, for instance, was put on full display when it was used to decimate the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in December 2017.
Wyoming court rules controversial ag-gag law violates free speech
It's a victory for green groups and free speech.
KYLA MANDEL
OCT 30, 2018, 2:21 PM
In a victory for environmentalists, a Wyoming court has found that a controversial trespass law violates the right to free speech.
The state’s district court ruled Monday that Senate File 12, better known as the Data Trespass Law, is unconstitutional because it is “in violation of the First Amendment.” The law made it illegal for anyone to collect data on public or private open land — data often required by groups monitoring pollution from cattle grazing and other agricultural practices.
Critics of the law argued that it would silence whistle-blowers who expose public land management issues, particularly malpractice within the agriculture industry. The law, they said, would make it illegal for citizen scientists or concerned residents to expose contamination of streams by the ranching industry — which represents a significant share of the state’s economy. In 2015, a coalition of environmental, justice, and animal rights groups filed a lawsuit against the Data Trespass Law in federal court.
The law has been compared to other “ag-gag” laws in states such as Idaho or Utah, which specifically targeted undercover investigations of slaughterhouses. (These laws have also been successfully challenged in court.) Wyoming, however, was the first to introduce a more generalized version of an ag-gag law that didn’t have language directed specifically at factory farming. The state instead argues that the law was designed to grant more rights to property owners against trespassers.
https://thinkprogress.org/wyoming-court-strikes-down-law-forbidding-people-from-documenting-pollution-on-public-lands-f5cbd72b4ee2/
Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship is too much for even the judiciary's right-wingers
There is no good faith argument for Trump's position
IAN MILLHISER
OCT 30, 2018, 9:18 AM
Donald Trump, in an interview with Axios, said that he plans to sign an executive order stripping many Americans of their citizenship. Though it is unclear how far Trump wants to go, or whether he would attempt to retroactively strip many existing citizens of their citizenship, Trump apparently wants to target the children of undocumented immigrants.
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits,” Trump falsely claimed. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”
Trump’s plan is unconstitutional. It’s not even arguably constitutional. It is so obviously unconstitutional that it was rejected by a notoriously racist Supreme Court more than a century ago. The few scholars who think that Trump can actually do this are considered radicals even within conservative legal circles.
If the Roberts Court ultimately upholds such an order, it will reveal that its Republican majority is so captured by partisanship that it cannot even be trusted to read the clear words of the Constitution.
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-plan-to-end-birthright-citizenship-is-unconstitutional-d5394a6e7a68/
BREAKING: FedEx cuts ties with the NRA
Source: Think Progress
The move comes eight months after ThinkProgress reported its support of the gun lobby.
KIRA LERNER
OCT 30, 2018, 3:23 PM
FedEx said on Tuesday that it will stop providing discounts to members of the National Rifle Association, eight months after ThinkProgress reported the that the shipping company was helping the gun lobby entice members.
The decision comes three days after a gunman entered a Pittsburgh synagogue and shot and killed 11 people and wounded several others.
FedEx did not change its policies for the NRA after the Parkland shooting in February. After that shooting, more than two dozen companies that previous offered discounts to NRA members cut ties with the organization. The decisions were sparked by public outrage and social media campaigns after 17 students were shot and killed in Florida.
Both Delta and United Airlines said they’d no longer be offering discounts to members traveling to the NRA’s annual meeting. Various car rental companies, insurers, and financial companies said they’d no longer participate in programs with the gun lobby.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/fedex-cuts-tied-with-the-nra-3ef590dc8192/
Trump Wants To End Birthright Citizenship By Executive Order
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Kate Riga
October 30, 2018 7:56 am
In an interview with Axios, President Donald Trump aired his intent to end birthright citizenship, a right currently enshrined in the 14th Amendment that promises American citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil, no matter their parents’ citizenship status.
This is reportedly Trump’s latest attempt to end “chain migration.”
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States … with all of those benefits,” Trump said during the interview. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”
Trump believes that he can end birthright citizenship on his own with an executive order. When the interviewers pushed back on this notion, Trump cited unnamed sources who have given him the go-ahead.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-wants-to-end-birthright-citizenship-executive-order
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“You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress,” Trump said. “But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”
I want to know who the assholes that are saying that he can just do this and under what mandate.................who put this shit in his head, what are his team members name besides the usual suspects, Nelson, Miller, Kelly, Sanders, Ivanka, Jared, Eric, Sessions, Pompeo, Gingrich, Hannity, King, .............is it the white house attorney...............from Judicial Watch or the Federalist Society.....................Kochs.................................who
Trump Wants To End Birthright Citizenship By Executive Order
In another attempt to deflect........................by order and decree....................
Megyn Kelly Resisting NDA, Pushing For Total Remainder Of $69 Million Contract
By Nicole Lafond
October 30, 2018 9:11 am
Former NBC host Megyn Kelly is reportedly resisting signing non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements as NBC officials and her lawyer, Hollywood litigator Bryan Freedman, and NBC duke it out over Kelly’s departure negotiations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Freedman is also reportedly pushing to get the total remainder of Kelly’s three-year, $69 million contract with the network, of which she has a little over a year left.
NBC announced Kelly’s departure last week and said the time slot for her show, “Megyn Kelly Today,” would be staffed by “Today” show anchors for the time being. While the official circumstances surrounding Kelly’s ousting are unclear, the move came just days after she apologized on-air for not understanding the racist roots of blackface makeup.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/megyn-kelly-resisting-nda-pushing-total-remainder-contract
Andrew Lack...................wanted ratings, nothing more and nothing less, he wanted a right wing hate monger brought into NBC, knowing full well, that this Kelly person was vile........................he brought the Fox mentality over to NBC Comcast Universal, with this person
Andrew Lack, had the opportunity to bring in a progressive point of view, he did not.......................in that time slot and in other time slots.........................
I don't know about you, but to have to possibly pay out 69 million to a racists, tells me that the board, should look for someone to replace Lack, also.....................
Protesters dragged from Marsha Blackburn election rally in Nashville
"Marsha Blackburn is a white supremacist!" one demonstrator shouted before being escorted out.
ADDY BAIRD
OCT 28, 2018, 7:43 PM
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — Several protesters were forcibly removed from a rally Sunday for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the Republican Senate nominee in Tennessee.
The protests began before Blackburn took the stage, as one woman yelled something about the “extremist Republican party” before being drowned out by chants of “USA!”
The woman wrapped herself around a pole, continuing to yell while the crowd chanted back before three men picked her up and carried her out of the room while she kicked and screamed.
After the woman was removed, three more protesters began yelling, quickly drowned out by the crowd again. One young man was wrestled to the ground by multiple men. As he fought back against the group, two young women, one wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt, knelt silently with their fists up near the middle of the theater.
Tennessee GOP chair Scott Golden was at the lectern as the protests started, and as the second wave of protests began, he said, “This is what this election is all about.”
https://thinkprogress.org/blackburn-nashville-campaign-event-protesters-3cb24626bfd6/
No Scott Golden........................this is about your racist representative Marsha Blacknburn who is a racist..................look no further than that asshole John Bolton sitting on that stage..................those citizen have a right to protest..................it's in the Constitution, its called the First Amendment..........................which your fascist party doesn't like................
Pennsylvania's Republican gerrymander is now so dead that not even Brett Kavanaugh can revive it
Every now and then, democracy wins.
IAN MILLHISER
OCT 29, 2018, 4:02 PM
On Monday, the Supreme Court turned away an effort to reinstate Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered congressional maps. Although this is not the first time the Court refused to bail out the GOP’s partisan gerrymander in this state, it is the first time it turned away this case since Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation gave Republicans a solid majority on the Supreme Court.
The case is Turzai v. Brandt.
Last January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down that state’s congressional maps because they violated the state constitution. The unconstitutional maps were so aggressively gerrymandered that Republicans won 13 of the state’s 18 congressional districts in 2012 even though Democrats won a majority of the popular vote.
The state supreme court’s decision should have been the final word on the case. As a general rule, state supreme courts have the final word on questions of state law, and the Supreme Court of the United States cannot overrule their interpretation of a state constitution. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania Republicans came to the U.S. Supreme Court with a legal theory that is simultaneously outlandish but nevertheless well-crafted to appeal to Republican judges.
The Constitution provides that “the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” Pennsylvania Republicans argue that this language prevents the state supreme court from tossing out a partisan gerrymander because a court is not a legislature.
The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has repeatedly rejected this reading of the word “legislature.” It did so most recently in its 2015 decision in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistrict Commission.
https://thinkprogress.org/pennsylvania-republican-gerrymander-rejected-by-supreme-court-ddb138948cbd/
Trump is driving up the cost of health care for millions of families
By Oliver Willis - October 29, 2018
A new analysis proves that Trump's destructive actions caused health care costs to jump for millions of families in America.
Health insurance costs are increasing for millions of Americans as a direct result of Trump’s actions to sabotage the health care system.
A new analysis from the respected Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that silver-level plans sold in Obamacare marketplaces have increased in cost an average of 16 percent.
This increase can be traced directly to Trump getting rid of cost-sharing payments the government offered, along with removing the individual mandate and allowing looser regulations.
The foundation notes that without Trump’s meddling, the average plan in 2019 would cost $427 per month, but will now be $495 a month.
https://shareblue.com/trump-increasing-costs-obamacare-health-insurance/
That is a sixty five (65) dollar jump................
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