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turbinetree's JournalOutrage after Aloha Poke Co tells Hawaiians to stop using 'Aloha' in business names
Chicago-based poke chain sent cease-and-desist letters to a native Hawaiian business in Anchorage, Alaska, and other shops around the country
Hawaii residents are calling out a Chicago-based poke chain after it tried to stop other US restaurants selling the trendy sushi bowls from using “Aloha” in their business names, accusing the company of cultural appropriation.
In May, lawyers for Aloha Poke Co, sent cease-and-desist letters to a native Hawaiian family business in Anchorage, Alaska, ordering it to stop using “Aloha” or “Aloha Poke” in its name, Aloha Poke Stop. Aloha Poke Co had done the same to other shops around the country, including at least one in Hawaii, where poke originated.
Over the weekend, the Anchorage business announced that it had been bullied into changing its name, setting off a firestorm in the Hawaiian community. The business has since been pummeled with bad Yelp reviews and messages on social media, accusing it of bullying native Hawaiians out of using their own language.
“Aloha” literally means both “face to face” and “breath of life,” according to Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor, a Hawaii historian. It is a Native Hawaiian word used around the islands in place of “hello” and “goodbye”. But the word is also an important cultural concept for the islands’ culture, and its generally peaceful, kind and welcoming way of life.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/31/aloha-poke-co-cease-and-desist-letter-hawaiians-aloha
We Found a New Batch of Trump Administration Appointees
Since April, at least 69 people have been appointed or transferred to political jobs within the Trump administration with little or no fanfare. Here’s a look at some of them.
by Nisa Khan July 31, 5 a.m. EDT
In 2015, March Bell was Republican staff director and chief counsel for a House panel that investigated Planned Parenthood. The mission: to find out if Planned Parenthood, a system of more than 600 reproductive care clinics across the country, was profiting off donated fetal tissues. The investigation was kicked off by undercover videos from anti-abortion activists that were heavily doctored and edited.
After 15 months of investigation and $1.6 million in taxpayer dollars, the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives found no evidence of wrongdoing but nonetheless recommended that the National Institutes of Health stop funding Planned Parenthood. Later, a Texas grand jury cleared the nonprofit of misconduct after the state attempted to defund it. Texas prosecutors did, however, indict two of the anti-abortion activists who shot the undercover videos.
Now, Bell, a former Department of Justice attorney, is a senior adviser and chief of staff in the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services. He started in the Trump administration in March 2017 and took on the additional adviser title in April 2018. The exact details of Bell’s new position have not been made public.
Bell is just one in the latest group of appointees for whom ProPublica obtained information through a Freedom of Information Act request. Since April, 34 people have been appointed to political jobs within the Trump administration, and another 35 have transferred to other government agencies or taken on new jobs, according to the data we obtained.
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-batch-of-trump-administration-appointees
If it wasn't for the Freedom of Information Act........................and ProPublica......................
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough................................vote
How Soybeans Explain What's Wrong With Trump's Claim The Economy Is Booming
The Truth Behind His Economic Lies
By David Cay Johnston, DCReport Editor-in-Chief
There’s good economic news, Donald Trump declared July 27, with the economy growing 4.1% in the second quarter of 2018. That number is accurate, for the moment, provided you don’t look beneath the surface or back at past economic performance or to a horizon about 60 days out.
Let’s take a look at the results of Trumponomics at 19 months by examining Trump’s statements about the facts on economic growth.
That 4.1% growth in the economy, or Gross Domestic Product as its formally known, is the best so far under Trump. But initial quarterly reports are notoriously inaccurate. Maybe growth was more and maybe it was much less.
“The first-to-final estimates of quarterly GDP lately has had a lot of volatility,” noted Professor Robert Eyler, chair of the economics department at Sonoma State University in California. He said the revised data may show just 3.5% growth, which would still be a good number.
https://www.dcreport.org/2018/07/31/the-truth-behind-trumps-economic-lies/
-snip-
When Trump assumed office the economy was growing steadily, not collapsing.
July will mark 94 consecutive months of growth in the number of American jobs–of which only 19 months will be on Trump’s watch. Let’s hope the number of jobs keeps growing, but let’s not get dragged into the ahistorical nonsense that Trump inherited economic disaster in 2017.
That was Obama. When he took office in 2009, the country was losing up to 750,000 jobs each month. But when he left the nation had added more than 15 million jobs from the low point.
House Republicans Are In Total Disarray
Ryan’s Already Checked Out, and There’s No Obvious Candidate to Replace Him
By Stan Collender, The Budget Guy
Consider all of the following now that the House of Representatives has left Washington until after Labor Day:
Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is a lame duck speaker who no longer seems to care about supporting Trump or Trump’s legislative agenda.
Ryan has no heir-apparent who, as Ryan increasingly checks out, has the authority to take over what was an already very unruly House Republican caucus.
There are three candidates to replace Ryan who are openly campaigning for the job and dividing the GOP caucus. This competition will likely get worse when the House reconvenes.
https://www.dcreport.org/2018/07/31/house-republicans-are-in-total-disarray/
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough.........................vote
Witness For The Prosecution: How Rick Gates Went From Paul Manafort's Protg To His Greatest Nemesi
By Tierney Sneed | July 31, 2018 6:00 am
He’s been called Paul Manafort’s “right-hand-man,” his “protegé,” and even Manafort’s “rabbi.” Now Rick Gates — who, at one time, was also Manafort’s co-defendant — is expected to be the key witness against his old business partner and mentor in his trial on bank and tax fraud charges.
After a rocky road to cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, Gates is expected to provide critical testimony against Manafort, whose own attorney has called Gates the “heart” of the government’s case.
“He’s not Manafort’s brain, but he knows Manafort’s brain,” said Patrick Cotter, a former prosecutor, who worked on the conviction of John Gotti. “If anyone on earth knows Manafort’s brain and intentions it’s Rick Gates, and Rick Gates is going to get on the stand and say, ‘Let me tell ya. His intentions were to commit crimes.'”
Much of the evidence prosecutors are putting forward is what lawyers call a “document case,” i.e. the financial records showing where millions of dollars have traveled and whether or not those cash-flows were properly disclosed or subjected to taxes under federal law.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-rick-gates-went-from-manaforts-protege-to-his-enemy-on-the-witness-stand
Its show time .....................and then there is the DC court case this coming fall....................which will link the treason bull shit..........................
Think tank in the 'king of the red states' assumes power in Trump's Washington
After conquering Texas, right-wing policy organization goes national.
MARK HAND
JUL 31, 2018, 8:00 AM
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a conservative think tank and advocacy group, emerged as a political force in the Lone Star State more than a decade ago. While its influence was largely contained to Texas for many years, TPPF has found an eager audience in the White House and is now flexing its muscle on the national stage.
Founded almost 30 years ago, TPPF is a Koch-funded research and advocacy group that touts itself as a defender of liberty and free enterprise. By no means a strictly libertarian group, the group also attracts widespread support from social conservatives, counting former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as two of its most prominent allies.
From the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to the Department of Energy (DOE), former TPPF officials are now filling top roles in the Trump administration and are working to promote pro-fossil fuel and anti-environment policies at the national level.
The Trump administration, in fact, has already turned into a revolving door for TPPF officials. At least eight TPPF senior staff members have joined or were recruited by the administration. One former TPPF employee has already served two stints in the Department of Energy under Perry’s leadership and another foundation employee returned to TPPF after a brief stint in President Donald Trump’s State Department.
https://thinkprogress.org/texas-right-wing-think-tank-tppf-perry-cruz-trump-washington-dc/
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough..........................vote
The single worst idea to defend abortion rights from Brett Kavanaugh
Clarence Thomas is not your friend.
IAN MILLHISER
JUL 31, 2018, 8:00 AM
Sometime in the next few months, the Senate will vote on whether or not to kill Roe v. Wade. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who Donald Trump nominated to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, is hostile to abortion rights and would join a Court that already has four anti-abortion votes.
Though there is some uncertainty about whether a Court with two Trump appointees would actually use the words “Roe v. Wade is overruled,” or whether it would simply uphold every abortion restriction presented to it while pretending that Roe remains good law, the result will be the same: if Kavanaugh is confirmed, expect abortion rights to end in many conservative states.
When this happens, anti-abortion groups will almost certainly push for a national ban — and, barring a massive realignment in America’s partisan coalitions, it is likely they will eventually have a Congress willing to enact such a law and a president willing to sign it. The question is what happens next.
A handful of pro-choice law professors have an out-of-the-box proposal: enlist Justice Clarence Thomas as an ally in the fight against a federal abortion ban. As Cornell professor Michael Dorf writes at Take Care, when Thomas “joined the Court’s majority upholding the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2007,” he also “emphasized that the Court’s ruling rejected a challenge based on the right to abortion but left open the possibility that the law might not be ‘a permissible exercise of Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause.’”
https://thinkprogress.org/justice-themas-roe-wade-theory/
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Thomas’ opinion took a third option. It struck down the California law, while claiming that laws requiring abortion providers to engage in anti-abortion speech are just fine and dandy. Thomas effectively held that abortion providers have fewer First Amendment rights than abortion opponents.
Asking the Court’s conservative bloc to be principled in an abortion case, in other words, is a dangerous game. And if litigants embrace the Thomas Gambit, millions of Americans are likely to get burned.
Federalist Society assholes .......................and the "Church doctrine"..................
Koch-backed study finds 'Medicare for All' would save U.S. trillions
An estimated cost of $32.6 trillion over 10 years is less than the US would spend over the next 10 years under the current system.
ADDY BAIRD
JUL 30, 2018, 1:56 PM
A single-payer Medicare for All system would reduce the amount the U.S. spends on health care by more than $2 trillion, a Koch brothers-funded study released Monday found.
Research by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University — a libertarian think tank backed by the Koch brothers — projected that the Medicare for All plan championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would cost the government $32.6 trillion over 10 years. The highly critical report found that even doubling all federal individual and corporate income taxes would not cover the costs of Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.
The study did conclude, however, that Medicare for All would result in significant savings for the government because of lower prescription drug costs, saving $846 billion over the next decade. Streamlined administrative costs under the plan would save another $1.6 trillion, the researchers at the Mercatus Center found.
When we talk about a Medicare for All system, it’s important to discuss the costs in the context of what the U.S. already spends on health care. As of 2016, national health expenditures — which includes federal spending, state Medicaid programs, and private employer health care spending — totaled $3.3 trillion per year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
https://thinkprogress.org/mercatis-medicare-for-all-study-0a8681353316/
Supreme Court: Landmark climate lawsuit against Trump administration can go forward
Source: Think Progress
Trial is set for October.
KYLA MANDEL
JUL 30, 2018, 5:23 PM
A landmark climate case brought against the federal government by 21 children and young adults has survived the highest-level attempt by the Trump administration to block the lawsuit.
On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously refused to throw out the case, saying it can go ahead as planned. The decision comes after the Justice Department went to the high court earlier this month in a last-ditch effort to have the case thrown out.
The landmark lawsuit, which seeks to compel the government to preserve a clean atmosphere, argues that the government is violating its obligation to future generations by not doing so.
In Monday’s decision — which came less than two weeks after the administration filed its request — the court rejected the administration’s attempt to block any further legal action, stating, “the government’s request for relief is premature and is denied without prejudice.”
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/supreme-court-landmark-climate-lawsuit-against-trump-administration-can-go-forward-97f20d2f4696/
This case will go before the US Supreme court, under appeal..................and the Federalist Society judges will have a final say in this case..........................keep watching, on who is more important................
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough.....................vote
Jeff Sessions announces religious liberty task force
Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to nuns being "ordered to buy contraceptives."
CASEY QUINLAN
JUL 30, 2018, 1:48 PM
On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department has formed a task force to implement religious liberty guidance it introduced last year. Sessions made the announcement during a “Religious Liberty Summit” at Justice Department headquarters.
When the guidance was issued in October, saying that the government can’t punish anyone for acting or not acting “in accordance with one’s religious beliefs,” civil rights organizations worried it could be used to excuse individuals and groups who refuse to provide services to people in the LGBTQ community and people who want reproductive care. Indeed, Sessions specifically mentioned LGBTQ rights and reproductive rights in his announcement of the task force.
“We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives,” Sessions said on Monday. “We’ve seen U.S. senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips.”
Jack Phillips is the Colorado cake artist who told a same-sex couple he would not make them a wedding cake because it is against his religious beliefs in the U.S. Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In his critique of senators’ questions for judicial and executive branch nominees, Sessions may be referring to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) questioning then HUD Secretary nominee Ben Carson about whether he supported LGBTQ rights or senators asking judicial nominee Wendy Vitter about her past anti-reproductive rights actions.
https://thinkprogress.org/jeff-sessions-announces-religious-liberty-task-force-8c264c763081/
He is still a fucking traitor..................he lied to Congress.........three fucking times he lied.........
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