Everyday Erinyes #75

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:19 pm Politics

May 192017

(AKA Friday Furies – today)

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. Even though there are many more which I can't include. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

After last week's focus on the Bradley Foundation (more fully, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation), I wanted to follow up a little, with articles that focus on specific things that the Foundation is doing, and articles that show that it is now getting attention from local media where it is getting most active.

Of course the Foundation is located in Milwaukee, WI, so it makes sense that Wisconsin media would be interested. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has zoomed in upon the Foundation's activities, including its ties to Scott Walker (gee, thanks, Bradley /S)

When Gov. Scott Walker laid out a plan in his state budget address urging people to take steps to avoid welfare, it mirrored a platform of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which has pushed for greater personal responsibility and more stringent welfare requirements.

Documents hacked from the Bradley Foundation's computer server show the connection is not just philosophical — it's financial….

The foundation even awarded a $100,000 grant to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to underwrite the commission itself — an unusual, if not unique, step in government. Neither the source of the commission's money nor the foundation's stake in the outcome was disclosed. The state spent about $62,000 of the grant before making its recommendation to the governor.

This excellent piece of reporting follows the money to show how deep the Bradley Foundation's tentacles go, and how they spread out into multiple areas of Winsoncin government. Or maybe we should say "Fitzwalkerstan" government. Personally, I think it's a pity Scotty didn't take a post with the Trump Administration before now, so that he could be taken down with it. But, if he was too cunning to do so before, he's definitely too cunning to do so now. Sad.

The Journal Sentinel is very much on the whole story; there are two other articles just this week on the Foundation. One focuses on its funding of groups opposing climate regulation, and the other includes an interview with Marcus S. Owens, who ran the IRS's tax-exempt organizations division during the 1990's; he shows how closely they are skating to the exempt-non exempt line, and indeed going over it.

Other Wisconsin media are also discussing the Foundation, including the Wisconsin Independent and Urban Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, it has comne to the attention of Colorado Politics that the Bradley Foundation is putting a lot of money into Colorado, with a focus on union-busting. Citing the CMD report, the article says:

Bradley has given the Colorado-based Independence Institute $1.45 million between 2004-2016, the documents indicate, including multiple grants some years. With the assistance of the Independence Institute, the right-wing Douglas County school board enacted a series of measures, including countywide school vouchers for private and religious schools (later struck down by the courts), plus an end to collective bargaining, teacher tenure, and automatic dues deductions for teachers unions. In 2013, the battle resulted in a high-dollar school board race where unions and the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity group spent heavily.

Bradley has been a big funder of this agenda. In 2015, Bradley gave a grant of $100,000 to Independence Institute for “aggressive education reform,” which Bradley says included “neutralizing the power of Colorado’s teachers’ unions by defunding them at the local school district level” (Independence Institute, Grant Proposal Record, 11/10/15).

The Independence Institute's response:

It’s no secret that the Independence Institute, the Denver-based libertarian-leaning think tank, takes on unions at every turn, and it depends on anonymous donors to do it.

“We never talk about our donors,” Independence Institute president and CEO Jon Caldara said in an e-mail. “But if Bradley gave us that much money to fight unions, I’d be living on some small island with that cash right now instead."

Oh my. Well, it certainly is refreshing for a right wing/Libertarian operative admit he is an embezzler, even if only at heart.

Over in the State of Washington, The Stand ("News About Working People Standing Together in Washington State") also picked up the informmation about union-busting.

In Washington state, the Bradley Foundation granted $1.5 million over three years to the Freedom Foundation with the purpose of “defund[ing] Big Labor,” because “Washington State’s liberal labor laws have long allowed it to be a net exporter of union dollars to other parts of the country,” according to proposals regarding the grant.

Examples of the Freedom Foundation’s anti-union activities in Washington include canvassing, mailing, and phone banking union members to get them to opt out of their unions. They also hired a Santa Claus to leaflet state workers as they walked in and out of their workplace, encouraging them to stop paying full union dues.

The Stand also noted that, besides Wisconsin, Colorado, and Washington, the two states the Foundation targets most aggressively are North Carolina and Oregon.

Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO said:

We’re not going to let the Bradley Foundation, the Freedom Foundation, or the other groups they fund get us down. More than ever, working people are coming together to raise wages, protect workers’ rights, and expand the right to organize in our state. We will continue to spotlight and expose the negative, destabilizing outside pressure from anti-union groups on state and local governments. We must ensure Washington politics put the priorities of Washington’s working families first.

Dear Furies, fighting this thing is like fighting the nine-headed Lernean Hydra, which grew two new heads every time one was cut off, at least until the immortal head in the middle was found. Perhaps you need to enlist Heracles to deal with this – thing. One version of the myth says that cauterizing the necks with a torch prevented their regeneration; if you are too busy to hold the torches, perhaps Iolaos, who originally served that function, would come along.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4053330

18 New Russian Contacts

Posted by TomCat at 11:48 am Politics

May 192017

Back in the old days, Pence put on his very best pseudo-Christian disguise and lied with pretended piety that there had been absolutely no contacts between the Trump Campaign and Russian operatives. It’s not so easy for him to tell that lie today, because example after example of both Russian contacts and Pence’s lies about them have surfaced. Jonathan Landay just reported eighteen new ones.

The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.

Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said…

From <Reuters>
Photo credit: politico

Rachel Maddow covered the story in two segments.In the first she sets up the background, as only she can, and expands on Pence’s lies.

In the second, she discusses the Russian contacts with Jonathan Landay.

One thing is clear. As the noose around the Trump Residency (He NEVER was or will be President) tightens, replacing him with coconspirators like pseudo-Christian Pence or Lyin’ Ryan is moving America out of the frying pan and into the fire.

RESIST!!

Vivian Birdwell Has Another Big Mouth! ;-)

Posted by TomCat at 11:48 am Blog News, Politics

May 192017

89-VivianB

This is Vivian’s third award. She earned her first on 4/23/2015 for the 63,000th comment, and her second was last month for the 88,000th comment. Vivian is a denizen of Care2. A resident of Oklahoma, she must face horrible frustration politically, but she has great humor in spite of it. She has a huge heart. She supports Native American rights, the environment, animal causes, peace, LBGT marriage rights, prison reform, and much more. She describes herself as a “hillbilly hippie”. She’s also a hard charger in our fantasy football league. She an almost daily regular, and this site is still far better due to her presence here. After two in a row, is she trying to take over the Big Mouth department?

Please join me in showering her with kudos and hugs. She’s still a keeper.

Open Thread – 5/19/2017

Posted by TomCat at 11:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 192017

I had almost no sleep last night. The building overheated yesterday, and I had to turn on the AC. The noise bothered me. In addition, Stumpy had a severe bout of phantom nerve pain, so please accept my apology in advance for typos and brain farts.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: House Speaker Paul Ryan has set a Google News alert to notify him of the instant that Donald Trump becomes unpopular enough to turn against, Ryan revealed on Thursday.

The news alert, which Ryan said was set to the phrase “Trump approval rating falls below fifty per cent among Republican voters,” will inform the House Speaker of the precise moment “that I can bail on President Trump at no political cost to me,” Ryan explained.

“There’s this sense out there in the media that Washington is consumed by drama and nothing is getting done,” Ryan told reporters. “I think it’s important for people to know that important things are, in fact, getting done, and setting this Google News alert is one of those things.”

Asked by a reporter when he anticipated turning on Trump, Ryan dismissed that as a hypothetical question, adding, “There is no timetable for my inevitable betrayal of him. Once I receive that Google News alert, it will most likely happen a split second after that.”

Dang Andy! That sounds like you know Lyin’ Ryan personally! RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump called the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, weeks after he took office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out word that Mr. Trump was not personally under investigation, according to two people briefed on the call.

Mr. Comey told the president that if he wanted to know details about the bureau’s investigations, he should not contact him directly but instead follow the proper procedures and have the White House counsel send any inquiries to the Justice Department, according to those people.

After explaining to Mr. Trump how communications with the F.B.I. should work, Mr. Comey believed he had effectively drawn the line after a series of encounters he had with the president and other White House officials that he felt jeopardized the F.B.I.’s independence. At the time, Mr. Comey was overseeing the investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

Those interactions included a dinner in which associates of Mr. Comey say Mr. Trump asked him to pledge his loyalty and a meeting in the Oval Office at which Mr. Trump told him he hoped Mr. Comey would shut down an investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Mr. Trump has denied making the request.

The day after the Flynn conversation, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, asked Mr. Comey to help push back on reports in the news media that Mr. Trump’s associates had been in contact with Russian intelligence officials during the campaign.

More kudos to Mike Schmidt! Drip… Drip… Drip… RESIST!!

From CNN: There are people in Washington who would be happy to see Joe Lieberman return to public life. They just don’t happen to be members of the party that once nominated him for the second highest office in the land.

That’s what happens when you commit partisan treason.Lieberman, a longtime Democratic senator, became a pariah in his own party in 2008 when he not only endorsed the presidential bid of his GOP buddy, John McCain, but lambasted his own party’s nominee, Barack Obama, during a speech at the Republican Convention.

Now, it’s Republicans, rather than Democrats, who are welcoming the news that President Donald Trump might nominate Lieberman to head the FBI. And it is Republican senators, and possibly a smattering of Democrats, who would most likely vote to confirm him.

OMFG!! LIEberscum?!!? AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 5/18/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:16 pm Personal, Politics

May 182017

The Comcast tech was on time, and I’m most pleased with the job he did here. He worked for almost two hours setting up a network that is rated at 200 Mbps, but is actually performing at 298 Mbps, over three times the speed of the old modem. He configured my computer, laptop, printer, phone, Kindle Fire, and Roku devices, and he tested them all. He cancelled the $40.00 I had been charged for the setup because of my disabilities. And for the time I had the old modem, he gave me 3 months of HBO. I was surprised to receive such excellent service. After I broke for lunch, Neighborhood House arrived. I wish I had had the time to do research, considering all the scandalous news that Trump and the Republican Rectum Reich have caused lately.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:20). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: While Washington insiders and most of the American press are falling over themselves and each other trying to keep up with the latest Trump scandals (for the love of God, it’s only Tuesday), you might wonder how the nation’s worst major news network is handling the news that Donald Trump accidentally or on purpose leaked information to Russian diplomats that is considered so sensitive that no United States newspapers are willing to detail exactly what it is.

You needn’t wonder—because at newly Ailes-less, O’Reilly-free Fox News, it’s been business as usual.

While CNN and MSNBC provided wall to wall coverage of the breaking news, Fox News defended Trump before returning to coverage of such hard hitting stories as the “Romper for men,” Miss USA’s comments about healthcare, Michelle Obama’s comments about school lunches, “Media Hysteria,” and “leftists” on college campuses

What else would you expect from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise? RESIST!!

From Washington Post: A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy. [emphasis added]

Read the transcript here. Lyin’ Ryan and the Republican leadership knew about these crimes all along and instituted a cover-up! RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel on Wednesday to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, dramatically raising the legal and political stakes in an affair that has threatened to engulf Mr. Trump’s four-month-old presidency.

The decision by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, came after a cascade of damaging developments for Mr. Trump in recent days, including his abrupt dismissal of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the subsequent disclosure that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to drop the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.

Mr. Rosenstein had been under escalating pressure from Democrats, and even some Republicans, to appoint a special counsel after he wrote a memo that the White House initially cited as the rationale for Mr. Comey’s dismissal.

By appointing Mr. Mueller, a former federal prosecutor with an unblemished reputation, Mr. Rosenstein could alleviate uncertainty about the government’s ability to investigate the questions surrounding the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Frankly, I’m quite surprised that Rosenstein has done this. It was the only way to begin to repair his own credibility, after the ridiculous memo he signed on the reasons for firing Comey, since Trump threw him under the bus by bragging about the real reason. Remember, since a sitting President may not be charged with a crime, Muller’s only remedy is to refer his evidence to the House for possible impeachment. Will they impeach? Also, the investigation will take months. If Republicans have decided not to save Trump, they will use the time strip the cupboard bare and create huge deficits providing welfare for billionaires. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0518Cartoon

More Obstruction of Justice

Posted by TomCat at 2:16 pm Politics

May 172017

I had no doubt that Putin’s Puppet, Fuhrer Donald Trump, was obstructing justice, when he fired Sally Yates to stop her investigation into his treason. It became even more clear when he fired James Comey for the same reason. When admitted that it was because of "the Russia thing", he removed all doubt. Nut now, it is so obvious that even some Republicans are taking notice.

President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.

“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.

The documentation of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. Late Tuesday, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that the F.B.I. turn over all “memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings” of discussions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey.

Such documents, Mr. Chaffetz wrote, would “raise questions as to whether the president attempted to influence or impede” the F.B.I.\

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. It was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of it to a Times reporter… [emphasis added]

From <NY Times>

Here is Rachel Maddow interviewing Mike Schmidt the reporter who broke the story in the above article.

If Republicans don’t take action, and I still seriously doubt that they will, their failure to do so, given the existence of clear documentation, may just be the final gasp of the Republican Party. If they Dump Trump now, it will put the kibosh on the Republican tax agenda. They are way too greedy to risk that.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 5/17/2017

Posted by TomCat at 2:13 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 172017

I'm writing late today to be sure that I'm up when Store to Door delivers my grocery order. Wendy is coming this evening to de-stink the over-humidified TomCat and help with chores. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow. Comcast is coming in the early morning to install an upgraded cable modem and make sure all my wireless devices function properly with it. Neighborhood House, the Nonprofit that covers around 15% of Wendy's care, is coming in the late morning for me to sign some paperwork.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:50 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): What’s Happening in Donald Trump’s Head? | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

I have no doubt that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten suffers from severe, acute Narcissistic Personality Disorder. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Amid concerns about Donald Trump’s fitness to be President, former President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he was willing to serve as “temp President” while Trump undergoes psychiatric evaluation.

“It would just be a temp thing,” Obama told reporters. “As soon as psychiatrists determine that Donald Trump is mentally stable and fit to serve as the most powerful officeholder in the world, I’d step aside.”

Obama said that he was a “logical choice” to serve as temp President because of his eight years in the White House. “For starters, I know how the light switches work,” he said.

Obama said that, once installed as temp President, he would look after the day-to-day running of the White House: “You know—vetoing bills, naming Supreme Court Justices, that kind of thing.”

From Andy's keyboard to God's eyes! RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Since entering office, President Trump has faced accusations that his District hotel is profiting from his presidency.

For a few minutes Monday night, projection artist Robin Bell tried to bring attention to the issue by shining light on it — a big, blue light.

Bell parked his van about 9:15 p.m. on 12th Street NW across the street from the west entrance of the Trump International Hotel. Bell and two friends then turned on a projector in the van and displayed animated anti-Trump messages about the president’s alleged conflicts of interest onto the upscale hotel’s facade.

Hotel security ordered him to shut off the projections after only a few minutes, but it was enough time for the messages to go viral on social media, garnering thousands of posts on Twitter and Facebook.

Kudos to Robin Bell. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Cartoon 5 years old today. Republicans have not changed.

Poll Results – 6/16/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:54 pm Blog News, Politics

May 162017

Here are the results of our “When Should Democrats Compromise?” poll. Politics Plus Polls are not scientific, because those who respond are not balanced according to demographic categories. Therefore, we do not accurately reflect the makeup of the US population. Nevertheless, our polls are usually factually accurate, and more often than not, they reflect thinking of the majority of those who actually think.

0516Poll

Since our polling site no longer enables us to copy and paste your poll comments, you may read them here.

I voted with the majority. The problem I have had with making deals with Republicans is that, over the long term, they have refused to negotiate in good faith, holding out for all for them and none for us. Trying to get them to deal, Democrats have caved-in far too often and far too deeply. But I have no objection to compromise as long as it’s fair to us, and as long as we don’t budge on core values. The only other popular choice was ‘Never’. That may offer feel-good purity, but it leaves the politically uneducated no way to tell the difference between us and the Republicans. It puts ideological purity ahead of the well being of the American people, just like those, who were willing to inflict Trump on us so they could avoid voting for Hillary to protect us.

The new poll is posted. Please vote and think about why it should inspire you to

RESIST!!

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