turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalHow Chris Hurst was driven to run for office by gun violence and won
It was the second high-profile shooting, not the first, that pushed Chris Hurst from his career as a local television journalist to his decision to run for office.
In 2015, Hurst’s girlfriend, journalist Alison Parker, was shot dead by a disturbed former colleague during a live television broadcast in Virginia. WDBJ7 cameraman Adam Ward was also killed.
More than a year later, Hurst was sent to cover another workplace shooting at a local rail car manufacturing company. A disgruntled former employee had burst into the facility and shot several workers, one fatally, before killing himself.
The similarities to Parker and Ward’s killings left Hurst shaken and convinced that he could not continue to work as a journalist. Instead, he decided to run for local office in Virginia against an NRA-backed Republican incumbent – and he won.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/29/how-chris-hurst-was-driven-to-run-for-office-by-gun-violence-and-won
One seat at a time at the local and federal level....................
Trump choice for judge has sordid N.C. history
BY WILLIAM BARBER II
Special to the New York Times
DECEMBER 28, 2017 08:53 AM
Among President Trump’s worrisome nominees to the judiciary, perhaps none is as alarming as Thomas Alvin Farr, a protégé of Jesse Helms, the former North Carolina senator, and a product of the modern white supremacist machine that Helms pioneered.
Farr, nominated to serve on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, began his career as counsel for Helms’ Senate campaigns, where he participated in racist tactics to intimidate African-American voters. This alone is reason to reject his nomination, as is his apparent lying on the topic to the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Farr’s connections to Helms’ white supremacist causes and political network go much deeper.
Having lived in North Carolina since childhood, I know Helms’ racist legacy, and I hold no doubts that Farr perpetuates it. An unabashed segregationist, Helms was affiliated with the Council of Conservative Citizens, an outgrowth of the White Citizens’ Councils that promoted white supremacy. Helms, who served in the Senate for 30 years, used his honorable seat to support the apartheid regime in South Africa while opposing desegregation, civil rights legislation and the creation of the Martin Luther King’s Birthday holiday in this country.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article191917234.html
I don't know about anyone else but this man is unfit to be on bench, let alone have a law license
Capital Hill Senate: 202-224-3121 (Operator assistance) - - House: 202-225-3121
America's heroes of 2017: the people who inspired us
Sally Yates
Donald Trump’s presidency was a week old. Hillary Clinton was in the woods (literally). Women marched on Washington. Then Trump dropped a bombshell executive order immediately banning entry to America from seven majority-Muslim countries, and blocking refugees. Airports erupted in chaos and loved ones were torn apart, before judges intervened. Sally Yates, acting attorney general, instructed justice department lawyers not to defend the order, doubting it was legal or matched her “obligation to seek justice and stand for what’s right”. Trump fired her. It later emerged she had warned the White House about national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was soon fired for lying about contacts with the then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Ashley Judd
The actress was the first publicly to name movie mogul Harvey Weinstein as a sexual predator, after years of his alleged crimes being obscured. Others then accused him of sexual harassment, misconduct and rape, professional sabotage and intimidation. His downfall, police investigations and lawsuits followed. He apologized, vaguely, but denies non-consensual sex. The floodgates opened as female and male victims accused men across high-profile industries of entrenched power abuse. Heads rolled and the spotlight is back on other famous accused – including Donald Trump. The #metoo rallying cry went global and “silence breakers” collectively were named Time’s person of the year.
Colin Kaepernick
The NFL football star began kneeling instead of standing during the national anthem before games in 2016, in protest at racial injustice, especially police brutality and killings involving young black men. But the effects peaked again in 2017 when Donald Trump chose to stoke the row, rather than address underlying issues. The protests continued to spread, bringing things to a new head. Kaepernick, a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, found himself in the sports wilderness after leaving the San Francisco 49-ers, despite his talent. He was named GQ magazine’s citizen of the year.
Kathy Switzer
Running a marathon is tough. Running one at 70 is tougher. But toughest? A woman barging into a race that’s only open to men and successfully preventing an official from manhandling her off the road. All those achievements belong to the same person. Kathy Switzer ran the Boston marathon in 2017, 50 years after she became the first woman to run the race, after registering only her initials then sneaking into the field. She became a hero of the women’s rights movement. “I knew if I dropped out no one would believe women could run distances,” she said.
Bill Peduto
Who? The mayor of Pittsburgh. These words may ring a bell: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” That was Donald Trump taking the US out of the Paris accord to combat climate change. The Pennsylvania city is, indeed, best known as an industrial powerhouse (“hell with the lid off” was a 19th-century nickname). But Peduto hit back. “We will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future,” he tweeted. He stands out amid a surge of local leaders defying Trump in favor of the environment.
April Ryan
Interactions that American Urban Radio Networks and CNN journalist April Ryan had with Trump and his first press secretary, Sean Spicer, are epic, she as gracious and wry as they were boorish and dishonorable. Trump responded to Ryan asking if he had consulted the Congressional Black Caucus about inner cities by telling her to arrange a meeting. “Are they friends of yours?” he asked her, a rare African American in the White House press corps, moments after declaring himself the “least racist person in the room”. (The CBC had already written to Trump and been ignored.) She pushes back fearlessly and incisively. “Please stop shaking your head,” Spicer demanded during one of his notorious briefings.
Heather Heyer
Her Facebook photo said: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” The 32-year-old legal assistant from Virginia was demonstrating peacefully against white supremacists in Charlottesville when she was mown down by one of their alleged sympathizers driving at high speed. The civil rights activist had long protested against bigotry and discrimination. “They tried to kill my child to shut her up. But guess what? You just magnified her,” her mother Susan Bro said. Heyer was protesting against a huge rally of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and their ilk that marked a low in 2017, deepened by Trump’s equivocal response.
Carmen Yulín Cruz
If Donald Trump tosses you paper towels when your city’s decimated by storms, you must gush gratitude, apparently. But Carmen Yulín Cruz forgot the rules when hurricanes Jose and Maria hit Puerto Rico. After Trump said help for the US territory was slow because “this is an island, surrounded by water”, Cruz, mayor of San Juan, snapped. “We’re dying here … if we don’t get the food and water into people’s hands, we’re going to see something close to genocide,” she said. The estimated death toll is many times higher than the official 64.
Jonathan Smith
A very ordinary name. An extraordinary man. Jonathan Smith, 30, is a copy machine repair guy and father from California. When a gunman opened fire from above a country music concert in Las Vegas, killing 59, Smith ran towards danger and helped about 20 terrified strangers to safety. He carried one who had fallen, then took a bullet in the neck, which may be lodged for life. Among almost 500 injured who crowding into hospitals where heroic acts were witnessed, Smith said: “No one deserves to be in that situation and be left like that.”
Fayrouz Saad
Part of “the wave” of women running for office in reaction to Trump, Saad announced she will stand for Congress in 2018. She aims to represent her Michigan district, north-west of Detroit, and if she wins she’ll be the first Muslim American female member of Congress. The surge of new candidates nationwide are mostly Democrats and political novices, many are young and people of color. With four-fifths of congressional seats occupied by men and 90% of lawmakers identifying as Christian, Saad has pledged to be a catalyst for change in Washington.
Taylor Mac
In the worlds of drag and queer theater, Taylor Mac has long been an icon. But in 2017 he burst into the national and international consciousness by touring his astonishing new show, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. It’s not just singing and prancing in glitter while talking politics, fairies, and smack about bigots – Mac’s fringe fare. The show tells an alternative, underdog’s history of America via an extravaganza of costumes by outlandish designer Machine Dazzle. Mac won a MacArthur “genius grant” and a Kennedy prize.
Juli Briskman
It may have been spontaneous, and rude, but it was still gutsy, and it had consequences. As Juli Briskman was riding her bicycle she was overtaken by Donald Trump’s motorcade leaving his golf club near Washington, and she raised her middle finger high. The Guardian, whose reporter was on White House “pool” duty, captured the story and the pic went viral. Briskman’s sensible helmet and plain attire encapsulated her everywoman defiance. “Some people have compared that picture to Tiananmen Square and that might be a bit of a reach,” she deadpanned. Briskman was fired, but has no regrets.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/30/us-heroes-2017-people-who-inspired-us
Add to the list there are a lot more......................
Russia supreme court rules Kremlin critic cannot run for president
Source: The Guardian
Russia’s supreme court has upheld a ban on the government critic Alexei Navalny from running for president, a decision he has vowed to respond to with nationwide protests.
“We don’t recognise elections without competition,” Navalny wrote on Twitter after the ruling on Saturday. He did not attend the hearing, which his lawyers say they will appeal against at the European court of human rights.
The ruling was widely expected and came after Russia’s central election committee said on 25 December that Navalny, 41, was not allowed to stand for public office until at least 2028 because of a previous fraud conviction.
An anti-corruption lawyer with a huge online following, Navalny says the charges were trumped up to prevent him taking on Vladimir Putin in the presidential election in March. He says Putin, who has been in power for 18 years and is widely expected to win re-election, is only prepared to face handpicked rival candidates.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/30/russia-supreme-court-rules-kremlin-critic-alexei-navalny-cannot-run-president
Heres how Californias House Republicans think they can survive in 2018
BY DAN MORAIN
dmorain@sacbee.com
My feed
DECEMBER 29, 2017 05:00 AM
UPDATED DECEMBER 29, 2017 01:56 PM
Now that most of California’s House Republicans have voted for a tax overhaul that will raise taxes for many of their constituents, you have to wonder what more good cheer they’ll bring us in the new year.
I’m thinking roads and other infrastructure.
A measure hurtling toward the November 2018 ballot would repeal the 12-cent per gallon gasoline tax increase approved this past legislative session to pay for road repairs, bridge maintenance and some public transit. Granted, no one wants to pay more for gasoline. But potholes don’t fill themselves.
That’s not stopping House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and most of California’s Republican congressional delegation from backing that repeal – with a notable exception, Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock.
McCarthy, a guy who knows politics, dumped $100,000 into the initiative to repeal the gas tax. Rep. Mimi Walters, an Orange County Republican, and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, chipped in $50,000 each, recent campaign finance reports show.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article192080624.html
Hey McCarthy, you can try to pull your bull shit, but we are coming...............we hate traitors and people that support traitors, and we really hate people that support a sexual serial assaulter and since your the number two on the fascist list in the house, what say you about your speaker and what he did?
Here is a reminder, and people in California should ask, when did you know? You are the RNC asshole, all of you............................even the "guy" from Turlock................
WE are coming November 2018 can't get here fast enough, asshole.................
Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe
Lunatic Fringe
Red Rider
See you on the other side
Lunatic Fringe
I know you're out there
You're in hiding
And you hold your meetings
I can hear you comin'
I know what your after
We're wise to you this time
(Wise to you this time)
We won't let you kill the laughter
Uh huh
Uh huh
Uh huh
Lunatic fringe
In the twilight's last gleaming
This is open season
But you won't get too far
Cause you gotta blame someone
For your own confusion
We're on guard this time
(On guard this time)
Against your final solution
Oh no
Uh huh
Uh huh
Uh huh
We can hear you comin'
(We can hear you comin')
Medicaid is GOP target in 2018
Source: The Hill
Medicaid could face crucial tests in 2018 at both the federal and state levels.
Republicans in Congress failed in their attempts earlier this year to impose drastic cuts to the program as part of ObamaCare repeal, but GOP lawmakers could try again next year.
The tax bill that President Trump recently signed into law is projected to add $1 trillion to the federal deficit, making cuts to Medicaid an even more tempting target for some conservatives.
“Medicaid is front and center in any budget exercises, and now that deficits have increased, it puts Medicaid squarely in the bulls eye,” said Joan Alker, the executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said he wants to bring down entitlement spending, saying in December that “health-care entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid are the big drivers of debt.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/366728-gop-could-push-medicaid-cuts-in-2018
Maybe this asshole, should ask the republicans in Utah if this is what they want.......................
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141948488
Deep freeze puts thousands of homeless people in jeopardy
As an arctic blast sends temperatures plunging across the country this week, advocates for the homeless are warning the frigid conditions could be deadly for the estimated half a million people who live on the streets.
Homeless shelters in cities across the Northeast and Midwest are reaching capacity, according to local news reports, and struggling to accommodate the increased demand as temperatures dip far below freezing.
“It’s life and death out there,” Stephen Welch, the director of development for a nonprofit organization that serves the homeless community in Boston, told a local CBS affiliate on Thursday. “I talked to a couple of guys who thought they were going to die today. They could barely move.”
In Cincinnati, a 55-year-old homeless man named Ken Martin was found dead at a bus stop this week. Advocates from nonprofit group Maslow’s Army, which has long pushed for a 24-hour shelter for homeless people to seek refuge, blamed Martin’s death on the city’s shortage of resources to assist homeless people.
https://thinkprogress.org/cold-snap-homeless-shelter-4bf398c416f1/
John Kaisch, calling John Kaisch are you there John Kaisch and the republican controlled state---------------------
nope no one is at home.........................and this asshole wants to be president
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