GOP senator says Kavanaugh should be confirmed because he's 'just a really nice guy'

Beyond parody.

JOSH ISRAEL AUG 16, 2018, 9:04 AM

By replacing retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy with Donald Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, the United States Senate could well set back civil rights, voting rights, workers’ rights, access to healthcare, reproductive rights, and civil liberties for decades. But one of his biggest Senate supporters thinks colleagues should overlook all of that because he finds Kavanaugh to be personally charming.

On Fox & Friends on Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) largely ignored Kavanaugh’s arch-conservative ideology, his judicial record, and his work as a key adviser to former president George W. Bush, instead arguing that the nomination should be quickly confirmed because Kavanaugh loves his daughters.

“Just a really nice guy, a decent person, a person of integrity, a judge,” Johnson answered when asked to describe his meeting with the nominee. “You have to see his eyes light up when he talks about his daughters, coaching their basketball team.”

Johnson then noted that he had spent his time interviewing Kavanaugh for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court by asking about his mentoring “his daughter’s friend” who had lost her father to ALS .

https://thinkprogress.org/ron-johnson-brett-kavanaugh-nice-guy-fox-and-friends-677974a86ec6/


Hey Johnson......................FUCK YOU...............


November 2018 cannot get here fast enough...............vote

D.C. Metro workers call for manager's firing after special trains provided to white supremacists

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 wants Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld fired.

CASEY QUINLAN AUG 16, 2018, 2:15 PM

Unionized Metro workers continue to call for accountability after the transit agency appeared to provide special accommodations for white supremacists attending the Unite The Right 2 rally in Washington, D.C. last weekend. Workers gathered at a rally in D.C. on Thursday and called for Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld to be fired.

When Jason Kessler, the white supremacist who organized the rally, arrived at the Vienna, Virginia stop, police officers swarmed the station. They provided protection for Kessler and the few white supremacists who accompanied him and they boarded a car marked “Special.”

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, the largest Metro Union, is not pleased. Before the rally on Sunday, Metro officials said they wouldn’t provide special treatment for the white supremacists. Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans, who is a city council member, told WAMU that the Metro “…never considered providing private trains and will not be doing so.”

There were 30 to 40 Metro workers and members of the community at the rally on Thursday. One rally-goer, Everett, told ThinkProgress he attended the rally because he said he once lived in Arkansas, which has a history of what are known as “sundown towns” that excluded Black people.

https://thinkprogress.org/dc-metro-workers-rally-after-white-supremacists-received-special-treatment-unite-the-right-2cda62b4425a/

Rep. Keith Rothfus' constituents are fed up with his health care agenda

Constituents of the three-term Republican incumbent have not forgotten his allegiance with Trump.

ELHAM KHATAMI AUG 16, 2018, 8:00 AM

ROSS TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — It’s usually pretty quiet outside Rep. Keith Rothfus’ (R) Ross Township office.

But that changes every Wednesday, when dozens of the congressman’s constituents gather outside his nondescript doors to demand that he hold a town hall meeting. Each week, since February 2017, organizers have rallied about a different topic important to the people of the 17th district, which is made up mostly of the suburbs surrounding Pittsburgh. This week their focus was on protections for people with pre-existing conditions. About 25 attendees held colorful signs, with some dressed up in costumes. Passers-by cheered them on and drivers honked their horns to proclaim their support.

It seems that the surrounding community has come to recognize the organizers of “Where’s Rothfus Wednesday” better than they recognize the congressman himself.

There’s a reason for that. Rothfus is hardly ever seen in public. The three-term incumbent hasn’t met with his constituents in an open forum since he was re-elected in 2016. And his constituents are fed up.

https://thinkprogress.org/keith-rothfus-health-care-agenda-hurting-him-in-the-polls-53cdc2d12db8/

A Year After Charlottesville Melee, Silicon Valley Still Profits Off Extremism

By Jared Holt and Luke Barnes | August 16, 2018 4:01 pm

This article was reported in collaboration with ThinkProgress. It also appears on ThinkProgress.

A year ago, Americans watched on in horror as the extremism and hate of the so-called “alt-right”, which had long been festering online, materialized in a very real and terrifying form on the streets of Charlottesville.

In response to the violence, which left counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer dead and dozens of others injured, tech companies belatedly woke up to the fact that they were effectively providing safe spaces for far-right hate. These companies made promises to the public that they would take action, and soon cracked down on some of the far-right’s most prominent figures and organizations.

Far-right figures were booted off Twitter, domain-hosting companies shut down neo-Nazi forums like Stormfront, and Richard B. Spencer, one of the most immediately recognizable figures in the latest rebirth of the racist white identitarian movement that branded itself an alternative to the likes of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Confederate groups, has been repeatedly kicked from fundraising platforms.

But one year later, many of the most well-documented hate groups and conveners of extremism online are still operating on the backs of some of the largest tech industry giants. The tech companies are aware of this problem, but they seem to have chosen indifference.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/a-year-after-charlottesville-melee-silicon-valley-still-profits-off-extremism/

Colorado's oil and gas industry goes after reporters and signature gatherers in new fracking fight

With large oil and gas reserves, Colorado often is at the center of the nation's fossil fuel wars.

MARK HAND AUG 16, 2018, 5:07 PM

As Colorado gears up for another fight over oil and gas drilling near homes and schools, this time the fossil fuel industry is reportedly doing whatever it takes to win.

In the latest flare-up, the oil and gas industry used a website to single out individual journalists for criticism. At the same time, pro-industry protesters were reportedly shadowing canvassers who were gathering signatures to get a measure — Initiative 97 — on the November ballot that would increase the distance between drilling sites and homes.

Colorado Rising, the anti-fracking group behind the ballot initiative, issued a statement last week claiming “harassers were paid to intimidate petition circulators and discourage voters from signing” the petition to get the initiative on the ballot.

Anne Lee Foster, a Colorado Rising volunteer, told Colorado Public Radio that an anonymous employee at Anadarko Petroleum shared an internal document that appeared to ask employees to report when they see Initiative 97 canvassers. The letter includes an email address and a text message hotline, Foster said.

https://thinkprogress.org/colorados-oil-and-gas-industry-goes-after-reporters-and-signature-gatherers-in-new-fracking-fight-711c2b01fc4b/


Does this sound like someone that is doing the same thing at the Department of Justice.....................and he committed treason along with his other playmates..................and he had his playmate tell the whole world that he helped him win an election...................



November 2018 cannot get here fast enough......................vote

Aretha Franklin inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame......The First Woman & Her Song

Philippines' Duterte could resign if Marcos Jr becomes VP: spokesman

REUTERS Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel
16 AUG 2018 AT 06:09 ET

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte could step down if the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos succeeds in overturning his 2016 vice presidential election defeat, Duterte’s spokesman said on Thursday.

Duterte’s single term ends in June 2022 and he has spoken often recently about quitting before that. At two separate events on Tuesday he said he was “ready to go”, expressing frustration about his failure to tackle illicit drugs and corruption in government.


However, he said was reluctant to do that now because a constitutional succession would mean handing power to Vice President Leni Robredo, whom he said was not up to the job.

Robredo, who leads the opposition party, was not Duterte’s choice for vice president and was elected separately having narrowly defeated Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the ousted former ruler.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/philippines-duterte-resign-marcos-jr-becomes-vp-spokesman/


-snip-

In a statement, Marcos expressed his gratitude to Duterte for showing faith in him, but said the president should finish his term.

“I urge him not to leave the presidency as our people still need him for the betterment of our lives and our country,” Marcos said.

Marcos Jr, is just as much as a psychopath as the guy in charge now, and looks like his father and mother trained him him to also be a despot.............

Don Lemon calls BS on Trump claiming it was "hectic" to revoke security clearance while on vacation

Trump and the Republican Congress are quietly using 5 strategies to destroy Obamacare

ROBERT REICH - COMMENTARY
16 AUG 2018 AT 05:16 ET

Trump and Republicans in Congress haven’t been able to officially kill the Affordable Care Act. But they’re quietly using 5 strategies to destroy it. Know what they’re doing so you can hold them accountable on Election Day.

1. They’ve repealed the requirement that all Americans sign up for health insurance. Republicans slipped this repeal into their tax cut for the wealthy and corporations.

But that requirement had meant enough healthy people were enrolled to cover the sick. Without it, 4 million Americans will lose coverage by 2019 and premiums will increase by 10 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

2. They’ve cut subsidies that help an estimated 6 million low-income Americans afford coverage through private insurers. Trump wants you to believe these cuts will save money. Baloney. Ending the subsidies is expected to drive up premiums, thereby increasing costs for taxpayers.

3. They want to flood the insurance market with junk plans. They’ve made it easier for small businesses and individuals to buy alternative types of health insurance with fewer benefits and weaker protections. This will leave sicker people and those with pre-existing conditions out in the cold.

4. They’ve made it harder for people to sign up for coverage – shortening the enrollment period, scaling back outreach efforts, increasing the amount of paperwork. It’s even been reported that the Trump administration redirected funds from a marketing campaign designed to promote enrollment to a campaign criticizing the law.

5. They’ve stopped defending key provisions of the law in court. The Justice Department has stopped defending the Affordable Care Act’s protections for Americans with preexisting conditions in a case brought by Republican attorneys general.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/trump-republican-congress-quietly-using-5-strategies-destroy-obamacare/

Trump and the Republican Congress are quietly using 5 strategies to destroy Obamacare