Trump is paying off his base with our money. These payments are undoubtedly designed to keep his base on board (and quiet) while they’re being hammered by his misguided tariff war.
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WTF 
WTF 
WTF WTF 
The polarization is so deep…and creeping into the norm, and raising it’s ugly head in the age of T, ‘both-sides,’ and am emboldened radical groups.
On the flip side, we have a more engaged press who keeps our eyes on them, and potential to check them legally. Notwithstanding, these groups are more dangerous than the jihad element that gets way more fear mongering.
Sad state of affairs indeed.
The number of hate groups in the United States rose for the fourth year in a row in 2018, pushed to a record high by a toxic combination of political polarization, anti-immigrant sentiment and technologies that help spread propaganda online, the Southern Poverty Law Center said Wednesday.
The law center said the number of hate groups rose by 7 percent last year to 1,020, a 30 percent jump from 2014. That broadly echoes other worrying developments, including a 30 percent increase in the number of hate crimes reported to the F.B.I. from 2015 through 2017 and a surge of right-wing violence that the Anti-Defamation League said had killed at least 50 people in 2018.
…
Trump has made people in the white supremacist movement move back into politics and the public domain,” Ms. Beirich said. “He is a critical aspect of this dynamic, but he is not the only reason why the ranks of hate groups are growing. The ability to propagate hate in the online space is key.”
The center said in a statement that most hate groups in the United States espoused some form of white supremacist ideology, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederates and white nationalists. It said the number of white nationalist groups jumped by almost 50 percent, to 148 in 2018 from 100.
…
That report said that right-wing extremism was linked to every extremist-related killing the group tracked in 2018, at least 50, and that jihadist groups were linked to none. It said that made 2018 the deadliest year for right-wing extremism since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
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Unfortunately, Virginia did not pass the ERA Amendment. 
RICHMOND — The Republican-controlled House of Delegates killed Democrats’ last-ditch efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment on Thursday, as advocates promised retribution at the ballot box.
Democrats had hoped to use procedural measures to force Republicans to take a floor vote on the amendment for the first time. After the effort failed, ERA opponents in the gallery overlooking the chamber clapped.
Then an ERA supporter, also in the gallery, shouted, “Shame on Virginia!”
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Adrienne Cobb…on Vice News (HBO)
who does the weekly recap…is profiled tonight 2/25/19
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But for Cobb, keeping track of Mueller’s work is about helping others feel less “helpless” in a wilderness of fast-paced, complex news that doesn’t always add up. She calls herself an “aggregator,” which seems simple enough, but it’s tough work. She checks Twitter and Reddit three times an hour for new, relevant reporting, and saves links to those articles with the program, Evernote. Meanwhile, news of every White House departure goes in a separate spreadsheet that she’ll refer to in order to update her website, 45Chaos, which notes in granular detail every staffer who’s left; whether and why they quit, resigned, or resigned under pressure (“R-UP”); the length of their tenure, measured in “mooches,” a metric born in Trump’s White House after Anthony Scaramucci’s brief stint. (She goes by 10 days, not 11, though there’s a debate over how long he lasted as White House communications director.)
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Cohen Congressional Testimony
I’ve searched a bit for the right news piece to reference this post but didn’t find what I wanted. After listening to portions of this, I walked away needing a shower. My take away was “I wouldn’t want to be in business with any of these people”, GOP or Dems. It was about political grandstanding and getting the GOP back for the Benghazi debacle. The hearings made me sad. This is what our political system has boiled down to, politicians needing “fixer lawyers”. Cohen manipulated the truth for Trump, then the GOP chastises him for manipulating the truth and works to destroy him in front of their base, saying “he can’t be trusted, we asked him to lie, what he’s saying now is a lie”. What a cluster f$#k. I’m interested in others reaction to this mess on display today.
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It’s been a constant barrage of unbelievably bad, sordid, deceitful news.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
We’ve been hearing and witnessing this type of low-life news for over 2 years.
I agree with your assessments…just don’t want to give any more power to their bufoonery by identifying the players.
We know who is upstanding, thoughtful, moral and intent on improving our lives, rather than the opposite.
Persist
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I disagree with this one point. Benghazi was a tragedy and unlike what happened today, President Obama wasn’t accused of actual criminal actions. Democrats are not doing this to “get back” at the Republicans. This is what proper congressional oversight looks like and the fact that we haven’t seen this in two years should make you sick.
All the Benghazi congressional committees found that there was no wrong doing and there wasn’t any way of preventing the attack from happening.
Benghazi: Everything you need to know - Vox17a8d5x
Kevin McCarthy is quoted as saying,
“Everybody though Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy asked. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.”
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I agree. Get back to normal as chairman Cummings wanted.
I believe there were 7 separate Benghazi inquiries and NONE of them proved a thing.
And to McCarthy ‘untrustable’ does not sound like a real word, just a ‘pretendable’ slam (!)
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Getting back to normal is a good objective. Whatever “normal” might be. I agree that the Benghazi incident was tragic, the loss of life is always tragic.
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Israel’s attorney general announced Thursday that his office had indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation.
The prime minister faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust.
Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases.
Police recommended an indictment in the case based on evidence collected that confidants of Netanyahu promoted regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq. In exchange, they believe Netanyahu used his connections with Elovitch to receive positive press coverage on Bezeq’s popular subsidiary news site, Walla. Police have said their investigation concluded that Netanyahu and Elovitch engaged in a "bribe-based relationship."
Who else does that sound like?
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Never underestimate the General Public’s interest or knowledge in many big and small things.
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Which begs the question for the best sources for learning about the Constitution. I know I’ve needed to brush up on some of the amendments & in this day & age, many need the Constitution for Dummies book.
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Now, Dershowitz wants to curb the press when the Epstein’s documents will be revealed. Wonder which names will be exposed there…perhaps T, definitely Dershowitz
An attorney for lawyer Alan Dershowitz wrote a letter to the U.S. District Court Second Circuit of Appeals on Tuesday, asking whether the media should be excluded from the proceeding because his oral arguments on behalf of his client could contain sensitive information that has been under seal.
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article226922729.html#storylink=cpy
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article226922729.html
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This is actually really exciting because this could be achieved within a few years. Most of the energy produced in Washington State already comes from carbon-free renewable sources. This is the future.
The Washington State Department of Commerce tracks the fuel mixes used by the more the 60 electric utilities in the state. The agency’s most recent tabulation shows that hydroelectric power generates two-thirds of electricity used by customers in Washington today. Adding in wind, nuclear, solar and other renewable generation raises the non-emitting share of Washington electricity sources to about 75 percent.
Fossil fuel-derived electricity currently comes from coal at 13 percent, natural gas at 11 percent and a marginal amount of oil.
Washington state is one of at least nine states considering 100 percent clean electricity generation measures in their legislatures this winter, according to the advocacy group Environment America. California and Hawaii previously passed 100 percent emissions-free electricity targets into law.
(…)
The only coal-fired electric power plant in Washington — TransAlta’s Centralia plant — has already agreed to stop burning coal by 2025. That means the December 2025 deadline to eliminate coal from Washington’s electric grid would mainly apply to electricity imports from out-of-state coal power plants.
Washington’s two biggest private utilities, Puget Sound Energy and Avista, take electricity from a large, co-owned coal-fired power plant in Colstrip, Montana.
Under pressure from climate activists, PSE has been pondering early retirement of at least some units of the Colstrip power plant. Avista’s current resource plan foresees Colstrip operating cost effectively well into the 2030s. Some Montana legislators who are worried about losing well-paid rural jobs at Colstrip have lobbed accusations of extraterratorial meddling at their Washington state counterparts.
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This is exciting. I live semi-rural in the state & keep wondering if/when I could generate my own power in order to be self sufficient. Unfortunately, I live in the red part of the state, so I imagine that all kinds of roadblocks will be put up. But we really need to have these ideas, goals, & conversations.
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Dept. of Good News
The Grack is Back!
Brandon Van Grack, a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s national security division who was on Mueller’s team until August, will lead the effort to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the official said. …
[John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for the national security division,] said Van Grack would lead a team of attorneys and administrative staff whose mission was to make sure the FARA law, which requires disclosure of lobbying on behalf of foreign interests, is more aggressively enforced.
Demers portrayed the move as a “big shift” in strategy for the Justice Department, which has only prosecuted a handful of FARA cases since the law was enacted in 1938 to address concerns over Nazi propaganda.
Demers said the decision to ramp up enforcement was influenced by the events surrounding the presidential election in 2016 and afterward, including the case of Manafort who earned tens of millions of dollars covertly lobbying for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
“I think that it opened everyone’s eyes to how much different foreign governments tried to influence our political discourse in a covert manner,” Demers said.
It’s good to know that the FBI is on the case, protecting our democracy from insidious incursions by hostile foreign powers. And, to me, there’s also a bigger, brighter message here. This development demonstrates that the FBI is undaunted by our President’s relentless attempts to weaken and delegitimize it. It remains strong and defiant and will continue to root out corruption, treason, and abuse of power wherever it may emerge.
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Alabama judge allows man to sue clinic on behalf of aborted fetus
An Alabama judge has recognized the legal rights of an aborted fetus, allowing a man whose girlfriend ended her pregnancy at six weeks to sue the manufacturer of the pill she used and the clinic that gave it to her.
The decree, issued by Madison County Probate Judge Frank Barger, explicitly states “Baby Roe” is a person and allows plaintiff Ryan Magers to name the fetus as a co-plaintiff in the suit for “wrongful death.” Magers said in court filings that when his then-girlfriend discovered she was pregnant in early 2017, he “repeatedly pleaded” with her to carry the pregnancy to term and give birth, but she wanted to have an abortion.
Abortion rights groups expressed alarm, saying the Alabama judge’s decision last month sets a dangerous precedent at a time when the idea of “fetal rights” — which recognize embryos and fetuses as separate from the women who carry them — is gaining currency in state legislatures, courts and law enforcement agencies. In one New Jersey case, a mother lost custody of her child when she had a vaginal birth instead of the C-section her doctors insisted was necessary. In others, pregnant women who drank or took drugs — both illegal and prescribed — and then had miscarriages were accused of child abuse. And dozens of states have passed fetal homicide laws that treat the unborn as a separate entity from the woman carrying them.
This is crazy. First of all, the first two weeks of pregnancy, a woman isn’t even pregnant.
The development of pregnancy is counted from the first day of the woman’s last normal menstrual period (LMP), even though the development of the fetus does not begin until conception, which is about two weeks later.
Source
Six weeks is the bare minimum she could have even discovered she was pregnant. Let alone opt for a medicated abortion, which btw is nearly identical to a
miscarriage. She should sue him for not wearing a condom and the emotional trauma she had to go through.
These stories make me livid.
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