turbinetree
turbinetree's Journal'We're fighting for our way of life': Republican tax bill presents grave threat to Alaska's tribal g
For tribal people in northern Alaska, a Republican tax overhaul that was hastily cobbled together in congressional backrooms 3,000 miles away has raised fears that their entire way of life could be erased from this frigid corner of the US.
The Senate’s tax bill may land a decisive blow in a 30-year environmental battle over the Arctic national wildlife refuge, a vast untrammeled area hailed as America’s Serengeti by conservationists, by finally prising open the wilderness to oil and gas drilling. The region’s Gwich’in people fret that their primary food source, caribou, may be lost, and with it the future of the tribe itself.
“We are fighting for our way of life right now,” said Bernadette Demientieff, the executive director of the Gwich’in steering committee, who is spending the week in Washington DC to frantically plea the tribe’s case to Congress.
“Caribou provide 80% of our food, as well as our clothing. This is a sacred place and we will be wiped out if there is drilling there. We live off the land and this is our garden. Take that away and we starve.”
The reliance on hunted food like caribou is practical in an isolated place where a store-bought box of cereal can cost $24. But it is also deeply cultural – the Gwich’in, a community of 9,000 people spread across 15 settlements in Alaska and Canada, revere the animal in song and dance dating back as long as anyone can remember.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/07/alaska-republican-tax-bill-oil-gas-drilling
These corporations are helping elect an alleged child sex abuser to the U.S. Senate
Last month, after several women came forward and accused Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore of child sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, the Republican National Committee (RNC) said it had cut ties with the candidate and terminated a joint fundraising program aimed at helping his campaign. In the time since, more women have come forward with similar stories and evidence of their relationships. Yesterday, after Donald Trump offered his full support to Moore anyway, the RNC reversed course and reportedly will resume its efforts to elect Moore in next Tuesday’s special election and will devote party resources to the effort.
A ThinkProgress review of contributions to the Republican National Committee so far in this 2017 to 2018 campaign cycle, at least 15 companies have donated $15,000 or more each from their corporate political action committees (PACs) to the party, and are thus contributing to the pro-Moore efforts. The totals include donations through the end of September. According to Federal Election Commission data from the subscription online Political MoneyLine, these include:
Comcast Corporation & NBCUniversal with at least $100,000.
AT&T Inc with at least $60,000.
Leo A Daly Company with at least $30,000.
Amerisourcebergen Corporation with at least $15,000.
Lockheed Martin Corporation with at least $15,000.
Honeywell International with at least $15,000.
Pricewaterhousecoopers with at least $15,000.
AFLAC with at least $15,000.
Pfizer Inc. with at least $15,000.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company with at least $15,000.
Textron Inc. with at least $15,000.
Exelon Corporation with at least $15,000.
The Boeing Company with at least $15,000.
Microsoft Corporation with at least $15,000.
BNSF Railway Company with at least $15,000.
While federal campaign finance law prohibits corporations from donating directly to national parties and federal candidates out of their company treasuries, corporations have long influenced politics by establishing political action committees and pooling donations from executives and other employees.
ThinkProgress reached out to each of these companies to ask them if they are comfortable with their donations being used to help elect Moore. None immediately responded.
https://thinkprogress.org/corporate-contributions-rnc-roy-moore-cc9f837209e2/
So why do they have employment background checks.........................this is just fucked up, to say the least
They don't even follow there business ethics, one iota, or the board of governance to operate under
This is totally fucked up
Trump too busy and important to face defamation lawsuit, president's lawyers claim
Can you sue the president? The finer points of this question were subject to much legal sparring on Tuesday when a lawyer for Donald Trump argued for the dismissal of a lawsuit that threatens to reignite one of dozens of accusations of sexual assault facing the president.
The lawsuit was brought by a former contestant on The Apprentice, Summer Zervos, who claims Trump kissed her and groped her breast during a 2007 meeting to discuss business opportunities at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Trump thunderously denied her accusations, along with those of other women he called politically motivated liars. Zervos is suing Trump for defamation.
Or rather, she’s trying. In a hearing before a New York judge, Jennifer Schechter, to determine the case’s future, Trump’s attorney Marc Kasowitz argued that Zervos shouldn’t be allowed to proceed with her suit.
Trump’s denials were political speech, he said, protected from legal action, and a lawsuit would prevent the president, who holds a singular office, from performing his job.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/05/trump-defamation-lawsuit-summer-zervos
The sexual predator will be forced to meet his accuser-------------------that is the rule of law, even as far back as 1997
I smell Impeachment
America's homeless population rises for the first time since the Great Recession
America’s homeless population has risen this year for the first time since the Great Recession, propelled by the housing crisis afflicting the west coast, according to a new federal study.
The study has found that 553,742 people were homeless on a single night this year, a 0.7% increase over last year. It suggests that despite a fizzy stock market and a burgeoning gross domestic product, the poorest Americans are still struggling to meet their most basic needs.
“The improved economy is a good thing, but it does put pressure on the rental market, which does put pressure on the poorest Angelenos,” said Peter Lynn, head of the Los Angeles homelessness agency. The most dramatic spike in the nation was in his region, where a record 55,000 people were counted. “Clearly we have an outsize effect on the national homelessness picture.”
Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which produced the report, said in a statement: “This is not a federal problem – it’s everybody’s problem.”
Officials are due to announce the results on Wednesday morning.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/america-homeless-population-2017-official-count-crisis
No asshole this is a federal problem, this is why you were hired to solve this problem--------------your a brain surgeon by trade, if you can't solve this problem then you need to resigned
Woman with stage 4 cancer thrown out of town hall after asking GOP senator about health care
Source: Think Progress
Las Vegas resident Laura Packard is a self-employed small business owner who has stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and health insurance through an Affordable Care Act exchange. On Saturday, she was thrown out of a town hall event featuring Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) after she tried to ask him why he supports legislation that would strip coverage from people like her.
After the moderator of the LIBRE Initiative read Heller a question about the Republican tax cut plan that was written by Packard, she got up and said, “That’s my question, and I also have stage 4 cancer. Obamacare is keeping me alive. Why do you not care about the lives of thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans? Why are you voting for me to lose my health coverage? Without it I will die.”
As Packard sat back down, a security guard approached her and asked her to leave. Video of the exchange was uploaded to Twitter by Battle Born Progress. (Heller’s staff denies they had anything to do with the decision to kick Packard out.)
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/dean-heller-laura-packard-health-care-29b7e4649631/
Dean Heller is a chicken shit punk---------------------and needs to be held accountable for his actions he is lackey that is so full of shit, that he makes $174,000 a year and he will still get his taxpayer funded health care--------------------
FUCK YOU DEAN HELLER, you are a spineless piece of shit-------------you can join Murkowski and Colins who are also pieces of shit
Hundreds of protesters fight the GOP tax bill on Capitol Hill
Source: Think Progress
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly 300 protesters stormed the the Cannon Office Building at the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon, flooding the halls with chants of “Kill this bill, don’t kill us.”
The protesters focused on the offices of Congress members who voted yes on the GOP tax package and are vulnerable in the 2018 midterm elections. Among them: Reps. Ryan Costello (R-PA), Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Charles Dent (R-PA), John Katko (R-NY), David Reichert (R-WA), David Joyce (R-OH), and Ed Royce (R-CA).
For the majority of these protesters, storming the halls of the House building has become common practice, and many present on Tuesday were regulars at protests over the summer during Congress’ multiple failed attempts at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. Now that a key provision of the ACA, the individual mandate, is in danger of being repealed in the Senate version of the tax bill, the activists have mobilized again to fight back.
“This is my seventh time here, its gonna be my third time arrested,” said Olga Irwin, an Ohio resident. “I’ve lived with HIV for 20 years, and before the ACA, I had a hard time affording my medicine.”
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/protesters-gop-tax-bill-5a85ba098507/
“This is my seventh time here, its gonna be my third time arrested,” said Olga Irwin, an Ohio resident. “I’ve lived with HIV for 20 years, and before the ACA, I had a hard time affording my medicine.”
WE are coming Eddie Munster and Turtle
Hundreds of protesters fight the GOP tax bill on Capitol Hill
WE need to do this everyday
Conservative lawmakers met to discuss GOP chairmans ouster
Leaders of the conservative Republican Study Committee met last week and discussed their desire to oust Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen as Appropriations chairman after the New Jersey Republican voted against the GOP tax-reform bill, The Hill has learned.
Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), a former Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman who’s now the party’s chief vote-counter, participated in that discussion last Thursday, GOP sources said.
The very next morning, RSC Chairman Mark Walker (R-N.C.) and another RSC leader huddled with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in his office and informed him that it was the “consensus” of RSC leadership that Frelinghuysen needs to go. The RSC leaders cited Frelinghuysen’s “no” vote on the tax-cuts bill last month and his waffling over ObamaCare repeal earlier this year.
Frelinghuysen had initially told reporters he would oppose the American Health Care Act (AHCA), but he eventually voted for the repeal and replace legislation after some arm-twisting by leadership.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/363427-conservative-lawmakers-met-to-discuss-gop-chairmans-ouster
Eating there own and leaving him out to dry---------------Paul Ryan truly is a little fucking fascists along with the other dips shit Walker--------------------they are the Ayn Rand death panel fuckers
TRUMP IS LOOKING AT PLANS FOR A GLOBAL NETWORK OF PRIVATE SPIES
Source: Vice News
By David Gilbert Dec 5, 2017
The White House is reportedly looking at a proposal to create a ghost network of private spies in hostile countries a way of bypassing the intelligence communitys deep state, which Donald Trump believes is a threat to his administration.
The network would report directly to the president and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and would be developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, according to multiple current and former officials speaking to The Intercept.
Pompeo cant trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him, a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals told the website.
Read more: https://news.vice.com/story/trump-network-private-spies
Erik Prince is a traitor,
Mike Pompeo is also a traitor
Oliver North is also a fucking traitor
This is just fucked up, that these people are that fucking paranoid and in power
2018 can't get here fast enough
Selling this cherished Arctic landscape to the highest bidder is a grievous mistake Trip Van Noppen
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the last intact wild landscapes on Earth – and the largest wilderness left in the US. The 19.6m-acre swath of mountains and tundra is publicly owned and ecologically unique. Now, thanks to the Republican tax bill making its way through Congress, a part of the refuge we’ve long fought to protect risks being transferred to the hands of the fossil fuel industry.
History will judge the decision as an egregious error.
The Arctic Refuge is long revered by writers and photographers, and iconic among the ecologically unique wildernesses that conservationists have sought to protect since the early 20th century. The Arctic Refuge can never be restored to its original majesty once roads and pipelines are built, wells and drilling pads are dug, and oil is pumped and spilled.
Public research polling shows that a majority of Americans are strongly opposed to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Analysis also shows that the entire premise for opening the refuge to drilling – to raise revenue to help pay for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest Americans – is unrealistic and will do nothing to offset the projected budget deficit. Nevertheless, senator Lisa Murkowski and other drilling proponents forced this controversial measure through as part of the tax bill, which was approved by the US senate on Friday through a simple majority vote.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/05/selling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-cherished-landscape-grievous-mistake
Yepper, there is a republican write-in senator that decided all by herself, with some lobbyists assholes sitting in her office, that she could just fuck everyone up in Alaska, fuck the tundra, caribou , the water, and Indigenous People that are losing there ground to higher water, and the polar bear, has to go further out into the sea ice to eat and find food.
And then to add more pain, she decided all by herself with the help of the Ayn Rand mentality, to fuck people out of Health care, just like she is going to fuck the water, air, land, and food that this blue marble needs to survive-------------------
Yep Liza Murkowski-----------------FUCK YOU
Profile Information
Member since: Fri May 30, 2014, 03:30 PMNumber of posts: 24,688
