In my time a smore was a Halloween treat only. After my brothers and I were done trick or treating and our pillow sacks were full of candy we would come home and spread our goodies out on the living room floor for our parents to see.
While we were out getting goodies my Mom was home giving out goodies to trick or treaters and fixing diner. Diner was hot dogs roasted over the fire in the fireplace and fresh french fries. Desert was a smore.
Smores are simple, gooey, and messy.
A graham cracker with a Hershey bar and a fire roasted marshmallow. The marshmallow was supposed to be hot enough to melt the chocolate when squeezed together as a sandwich. Many marshmallows went up in flames.
I have no idea why my Mom only did this for Halloween, but that was our tradition. Mom got the recipe off the graham cracker box. This was in the 1950's.
Halloween has always been my favorite Holiday. It's a little surprising that Halloween has become so popular, but well deserved. As a young adult I was famous for my Halloween costume parties.
NASA is saying “goodnight” to its pioneering Kepler telescope, which a few months shy of its 10th birthday but years past its expected lifespan, has finally run out of fuel.
The planet-hunting spacecraft, credited with discovering thousands of exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system, will be retired and left in its current orbit, a safe distance from Earth, NASA announced Tuesday. Kepler’s transmitter and other instruments will be shut down in the coming days.
Kepler was launched in March 2009 with enough fuel to keep it going for at least six years, according to The Verge. It far surpassed expectations, however, collecting data in deep space for more than nine years. In all, the telescope made more than 2,600 exoplanet discoveries, NASA said.
“As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate, said in a statement. “Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars.”
Kepler searched for alien worlds by looking out for their transits, which are dips in the brightness of stars that could indicate orbiting planets.
“It was like trying to detect a flea crawling across a car headlight when the car was 100 miles away,” William Borucki, who led the original Kepler science team, told AP of the telescope’s technology,
When Kepler’s stabilizing equipment began malfunctioning in 2013, NASA feared it was doomed.
But the mission team managed to salvage the telescope after figuring out how to use the pressure of sunlight to balance the spacecraft. Once the fix was made, NASA approved a new mission for the spacecraft, dubbed K2.
Kepler continued to hunt for planets during its K2 phase. As Space.com notes,
the spacecraft also studied “a variety of cosmic objects and phenomena,
from comets and asteroids in our own solar system to faraway supernova
explosions.”
“TESS builds on Kepler’s foundation with fresh batches of data in its search of planets orbiting some 200,000 of the brightest and nearest stars to the Earth, worlds that can later be explored for signs of life,” NASA said.
Calling Kepler’s mission “stunningly successful,” TESS project scientist Padi Boyd told AP that the retired telescope has shown us that “we live in a galaxy that’s teeming with planets.”
Boyd also noted that our exploration of the cosmos has only just begun.
“We’re ready to take the next step to explore those planets,” Boyd said.
A Supreme Court ruling has required identification with a provable
street address in the state, a rarity for people living on reservation
Blake Nicholson - AP
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe on Tuesday sued the state of North Dakota over its voting identification requirements, part of a larger effort to ensure American Indians can vote in next week’s election in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a similar lawsuit filed by another tribe.
To cast a ballot, voters in North Dakota need identification with a provable street address — something that’s hard to come by on reservations. The state maintains everyone has a street address via the statewide 911 system, but the lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund, the Campaign Legal Center and two law firms argues the system is “incomplete, contradictory and prone to error on reservations.”
“State policies should be designed to make it easier for all citizens to vote, but North Dakota’s voter ID law disenfranchises Native Americans living on reservations,” said Danielle Lang, senior attorney with the Campaign Legal Center.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to have the street address requirement ruled unconstitutional.
“We have a choice between a democracy that includes all eligible voters and a system that excludes people based on their circumstances or backgrounds,” Lang said. “Unless the court steps in, eligible Native American voters including our clients may be denied the right to vote next week due to the state’s deeply flawed system of assigning and verifying voters’ residential addresses.”
Secretary of State Al Jaeger said the state does not comment on pending litigation.
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa sued over the voter ID requirements in 2016. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in that case earlier this month allowed the state to continue requiring street addresses, as opposed to other addresses such as post office boxes. However, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in a dissent that “the risk of voter confusion appears severe here.”
North Dakota’s four large American Indian tribes have been scrambling since the Supreme Court decision to make sure their members can vote in the election, which includes a race that could help determine control of the U.S. Senate. Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp — who narrowly won her seat in 2012 with the help of the American Indian vote.
The state’s voter ID laws were tightened just a few months later, but the Republican-controlled Legislature maintains the changes were not due to Heitkamp’s win. Jaeger has said the changes were aimed at guarding against voter fraud.
The four tribes in recent days have been issuing free IDs with residential street addresses to their members, but the Spirit Lake lawsuit argues that the 911 addressing system on reservations is “characterized by disarray, errors, confusion, and missing or conflicting addresses.” It cites several examples of what it says are tribal members who have experienced problems, including one man who used the residential street address listed on his state-issued ID on an absentee ballot application and had it denied due to an “invalid” address.
The skirmish over voter access isn’t limited to North Dakota. Voters in
at least eight states will face more stringent laws than they did in the
last federal election, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for
Justice.
Section 1, which contains the Citizenship Clause, of the 14th Amendment guarantees that right for all children born in the U.S.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due
process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws."
The 14th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1866 after the Civil War
and during the period of Reconstruction. The amendment was ratified on
July 9, 1868 by three-fourths of the states. By extending citizenship to
those born in the U.S., the amendment nullified an 1857 Supreme Court
decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford), which had held that those descended
from slaves could not be citizens.
A biased Supreme Court could decide that the 14th amendment applies only to blacks, or it could find the 14th amendment unconstitutional.
What is constitutional, is what the Supreme Court says is constitutional. The 14th amendment changed what the Supreme Court previously found constitutional, that blacks were not citizens. The Supreme Court can reverse their previous decision, just as they can reverse Roe/Wade, or any other law.
For those who fear a fascist like takeover of our government, it starts with getting the ruling court of the country to overturn accepted laws. That's how Hitler started and when he became Fuhrer he simply declared what the law was.
Can it happen in the United States? YES.
Trump cannot overturn the 14th amendment by a simple executive order, but with help from the Supreme Court that executive order can be found constitutional and become law.
"Only now at the end" do we understand the importance of a Supreme Court decision.
Vice President Mike Pence defended President Donald Trump on Saturday amid criticism that the divisive rhetoric pouring from the White House had influenced the mass pipe bomb mailings sent to prominent Democrats or the attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh last week.
“Everyone has their own style, and frankly, people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences,” Pence said on NBC News Saturday. “But I just don’t think you can connect it to acts or threats of violence.”
There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...
There was a billboard this week that said, "Make America White Again."
Many posts this week, and every time we have a mass murder event, blame white men.
The problem highlighted by the racist, hate filled, white man we have as president is more than a matter of numbers (white men being a majority of men in the USA) but the culture these men have been raised in. Hate, bigotry, and violence are learned traits. Mental delusions are an improper reaction to a persons perception of their lot in life.
It's just a fact that white men are responsible for much of the violence and death in America. It's just a fact that most child molesters are middle age white men whether the abused kid is male, or female. It's just a fact that white men commit most of the crime in America. That's a reality of the numbers, but it's more than just the numbers of a majority, it's a sickness of societal norms.
Must I apologize for being a white man? I am certainly not involved in, or the cause of these criminal, murderous acts. Yet, I feel the guilt just for being who I am. I enslaved no one, but my ancestors did. My grandfather hated black people and used to boast about being at a lynching in the 1890's. I was shocked at his thinking. Must I take on his guilt? To a certain extent, yes. That's why I support government positions like affirmative action and non-discrimination laws.
Being part of the cultural norms of a white male in America and how that breeds this criminality and violence. It's a complex mix unique to America that defines a man's self worth. Capitalism has a lot to do with self worth. Peer pressure of being financially successful and/or successful in position in life and society is part of it. If a man thinks he is a failure, that causes desperation.
I can't just blame testosterone. As an adult I'm supposed to be in control of my actions. If I feel I am a failure that doesn't mean I can kill myself, or kill others. That takes a delusional mind.
If I feel I'm a failure, why would I blame someone else for that, or some group. These guys are mentally ill. The idea that these killers kill because they feel put upon, or treated unfairly by society, is bullshit.
Normal white men can be fulfilled just being a garbage man their whole lives, knowing they are providing for their families at honest, hard work. It's the illusion created by society that confuses the weaker mind. The idea of competition and can a man measure up to his fellow man, if a mans answer to that is no, that can cause unbelievable anger in a man.
The bomber was 50 years old and living with his parents. How did he get to that position in life? However it happened he obviously blamed someone besides himself and his self worth cannot accept the situation he finds himself in.
I'm going to reject feeling guilty just because I'm a white man. But I have known many men that have "dark hearts." Much of it caused by their upbringing. I've met guys who seem totally nice, just to find out they were bigots, or women beaters, or dishonest to ensure they get more than the next guy. Why do lawyers lie? Why are rich men greedy, cheating ass holes? Why do people who seem to have everything, want more, and will do anything to get more?
This white man has fought against the "dark hearts" all his life including getting arrested for protesting injustice, giving money to help, using my position in business to give a help up in life to those who have society's bigotry against them.
MLK was speaking to me when he pleaded for society to end racism. He wasn't speaking to some black guy who couldn't get a job because he was black.
I have ended what I thought were good friendships because as we sat and talked I would not accept his definition of his next door black neighbors as, "the yard apes are out barbecuing again, so I don't want to go out in my backyard."
I once reported my white buddy to the police for badly beating a black guy because he had sex with a white girl.
In my circle of friends, I find white guys have improved their attitudes since I was young. Maybe that's because I have eliminated those "dark hearts" from my circle of friends. But I believe I can see the improvement since the 1950's. I am well aware of the "dark heat" men that are out there. I have had little success at changing their hearts, but I speak up at the risk of losing their friendship.
I don't have the answer, but I can control my reactions and speak out to my white friends when they are inappropriate. If I end a friendship for those reasons, maybe that is lesson enough. I don't know, because I usually never see them again, but I doubt it.
The numbers tell us white men are to blame, but lets not make the same mistake the haters do and blame a whole group for the actions of some of that group.
My response to feeling the guilt of being a white man is to help make society better towards all people.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions personally ordered Department of Justice officials not to meet with the Census Bureau to discuss alternatives to adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a top DOJ official said in a deposition Friday.
John Gore, the acting head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, revealed the attorney general’s personal involvement while testifying in a lawsuit challenging the question, according to a Friday court filing.
The plaintiffs in the case say Sessions’ move further supports their argument that a DOJ request for a citizenship question was meant to hide the Trump administration’s true intent.
The plaintiffs are 18 states, the District of Columbia, several cities and a handful of immigrant groups that argue the Commerce Department, which oversees the decennial census, had decided to add the question even before the DOJ made its request. The Justice Department had claimed that adding a citizenship question would help it get better data to enforce the Voting Rights Act ― a pretext, the plaintiffs say.
Furthermore, they argue that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was determined to add the question regardless of what any analysis of the consequences found, and that he lobbied the DOJ to request the question.
In January, after the DOJ made its request, the Census Bureau’s chief scientist wrote a memo advising against it. Adding a citizenship question, he said, would be costly and decrease the accuracy of census data. There was a better alternative: using existing administrative records to get citizenship data.
In February, Ron Jarmin, the bureau’s acting director, wrote to a top Commerce and Census Bureau official that the DOJ did not want to meet to discuss the request. In April, Jarmin testified before Congress that he did not believe anyone from the Census Bureau had met with anyone from the Justice Department or the White House about adding the citizenship question.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the brief.
According to that filing, Gore said in his deposition that he didn’t know if the data collected from a citizenship question would have “larger margins of error, or will be any more precise, than the existing citizenship data on which DOJ currently relies.”
Those comments are important because the plaintiffs, as well as some former Justice Department officials, say the DOJ does not need better citizenship data to enforce the Voting Rights Act. The decennial census, which goes out to every American household, has not asked about citizenship since 1950 ― 15 years before the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. In their filing, the plaintiffs said Gore’s comments were evidence that the stated rationale of needing better data to enforce the Voting Rights Act was merely a pretext.
The Department of Justice fought hard to block Gore from having to sit for a deposition in the suit. Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court put on hold an order to have Ross sit for a deposition in the case.
In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation earlier this month, Sessions criticized a lower court’s order to order Ross’ deposition, calling it an example of judicial overreach.
“When a hot-button policy issue ends up in litigation, judges are starting to believe their role is to examine the entire process that led to the policy decision— to redo the entire political debate in their courtrooms,” he said, according to prepared remarks. “Decision-making is improved when the decision-makers can have candid and open conversations. It is no different in the executive branch.”
Trial in the case is set to begin Nov. 5 in New York City.
I woke up early this morning to find that my team the Boston Red Sox lost a world series record long game of 18 innings. The Sox are up 2 games to one and the fourth game starts soon.
So I went out to do some errands and get some treats for diner and watching the game. I turned on the TV while cooking and heard about the mass shooting at the synagogue. Just sad.
I heard our fearless leader say that if someone in the synagogue had a gun they could have stopped the guy. Then I find out that four well armed police officers were also shot. Like an untrained, but armed civilian could have stopped the guy better than these four well trained, well armed policemen. There is no way to know for sure that a civilian with a gun can stop these well armed lunatic gunmen. This killer had an AR-15 and three high powered hand guns.
This kind of hate and mass killings have been going on for a long time. In fact it's been a while since we have had a mass gun killing. One cannot say that Trump is responsible for this hate, but his hate filled oratory does stir up these nut jobs and encourages them to act. Hate crimes are up since the fascist Trump took office.
Listening to Trump sounds so hollow. He could care less. He's just saying what his advisors tell him to say, then he goes on encouraging hate at public events.
One of these days when I'm not paying attention to the news, I will be vaporized while out visiting friends, or doing my normal chores. It won't matter much, because there wouldn't be much I could do even if I had notice.
Fate is a funny thing and it cannot be foreseen that one day I would be caught up in a mass killing by some gun nut. Having a pistol on me would not ensure that I would survive that situation. I'd rather the nut job not be able to get a gun in the first place.
11 dead and at least one very critical condition. All the policemen are expected to live.
The shooter is expected to live andf will be charged with hate crimes, which allows for the death penalty to be his punishment.
Less than 24 hours after bombs were sent all over the country:
President Trump calls the media fake news.
The presidents spokeswoman claims CNN is creating division in America.
Lou Dobbs a popular TV personality says the bombs are fake. Purposely faked by Democrats.
Republicans claim Trump's oratory is no more responsible for these bombs than Bernie Sanders was for the shooting of Republican legislators at a ball game.
Hannity says Clinton is all of the sudden civil now that she is the victim of a bomb attack.
Three more bombs were found. Two meant for vice-president Biden. One for actor Robert De Niro.
These are the same Republicans who claimed the Parkland shooting was a fake, it never happened.
The president is sending troops to the boarder to meet the marchers. He will tell us later today how many troops. Who wants to bet that someone won't end up being shot?
Try talking to these people about bringing civility back to politics?
The only thing to do is vote them out of office, or find the evidence to have them put in jail.
The brief order from the court is a victory for the Trump administration, which fought hard to block Ross from having to answer questions under oath. It’s a major blow to the plaintiffs in the suit, a coalition of states, cities and immigrant groups that say the way the question was added violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
In testimony before Congress and in a memo announcing the question, Ross said the administration added the question at the request of the Department of Justice so that the department could better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But documents disclosed in the lawsuit show Ross was interested in adding the question months before the Justice Department made its request, and that he discussed it with Steve Bannon, a top White House adviser.
Ross’ deposition could have provided key insights into those conversations and how the decision was made. The plaintiffs likely would have used it to make their case that the Justice Department request was a pretext and that Ross, who has control over the Census Bureau, was set on adding the citizenship question before he even instructed census officials to study the possibility of doing so.
Civil rights groups strongly oppose the decision to add the citizenship question, saying immigrants will be less likely to respond to the census because they are fearful about giving information about their own immigration status or the status of a loved one to the Trump administration.
They say the question has a “discriminatory purpose” in violation of the Constitution’s due process protections, and that Ross violated federal law by deciding to add the question before the Census Bureau had reviewed it.
An inaccurate census would have severe consequences. The survey helps determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds are allocated, and how political districts are drawn. While the Census Bureau does ask about citizenship through the American Community Survey, which only goes out to a small percentage of households each year, it has not asked about citizenship on the decennial census, which goes out to every American household, since 1950.
It is not common for federal judges to order high-ranking government officials, including Cabinet secretaries, to sit for depositions. But U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, the trial judge who is overseeing the case in New York, ordered Ross in September to sit for one. He reasoned that Ross’ “intent and credibility are directly at issue in these cases.”
“The concededly relevant inquiry into ‘Commerce’s intent’ could not possibly be conducted without the testimony of Secretary Ross himself,” Furman wrote in September. “Critically, that is not the case merely because Secretary Ross made the decision that Plaintiffs are challenging. ... Instead, it is the case because Secretary Ross was personally and directly involved in the decision, and the unusual process leading to it, to an unusual degree.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld Furman’s decision in October.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions strongly criticized Furman’s ruling in a speech to the Heritage Foundation this month, saying it was an example of the federal courts overstepping their authority.
“The probing discovery of the kind ordered in the Census case is just the kind of intrusion Hamilton warned against,” Sessions said, according to prepared remarks. “And we are seeing it in case after case. When a hot-button policy issue ends up in litigation, judges are starting to believe their role is to examine the entire process that led to the policy decision — to redo the entire political debate in their courtrooms.”
The trial in the New York case is scheduled to begin in early November. There are also separate federal lawsuits in California and Maryland seeking to block the question from being added.
I am one of those who have been aware of Donald Trump since the 1980's. I was not surprised that he was the leader of the Birther movement. I was not surprised that he was caught on tape talking about grabbing pussy. I was not surprised he told a female reporter asking him questions about his treatment of women, that she must be bleeding from some hole. I was not surprised that he imitated a handicapped reporter as some mental retard. I was not surprised that he called Mexicans crooks and rapists. I am not surprised at all the racist, woman hating, stupid shit he says. I am not surprised that he calls himself a "nationalist."
Trump's father was also a hate filled racist. But apparently millions of Americans were surprised, even though Trump showed his true awful character during the primaries while he was running for president. Enough to get him elected president. I don't understand why. I just chalked it up to another mistake by stupid American voters. Who could be conned, or mistake the horrible character Trump put on public display for all to see?
If you want to vote for Trump, or hate filled Republicans who could care less about America, fine, that's your choice. Your vote is a reflection of who you are and who you think is best to run the country. But don't claim later that you did not know exactly who these people are. These people don't hide their beliefs. There have been KKK members in Congress since the end of the Civil War. Anyone paying attention knew it. Their own behavior and statements couldn't hide it.
The Governor's race in Georgia is a perfect example. Kemp, after being very public about suppressing voter rights was caught on tape saying, "We are in trouble if these people show up at the polls and vote." Will they? Lets see. The race is tied, which means even though everyone knows he is a dirty politician at least half the voters are going to vote for him anyways.
This is not a problem of one generation. Nixon was a well known dirty politician who once gave a famous "checkers" speech. Nixon was accused of taking kick backs of all kinds. "Checkers" was a dog given to him by some illegal donor, which Nixon admitted. Nixon went on national TV and he said plainly he was not going to give back a dog his kids loved. Fine, but the dog was an obfuscation of all the other illegal kick backs he had received, which he never addressed, yet, the country fell for his speech and he ran for president with half the country voting for him. Nixon lost a squeeker to Kennedy, but eight years later he was elected president and he won a second election as president in 1972, even though by that time the country knew the White House was tied to Watergate. So a man who was once a buddy of Joe McCarthy became popular enough to win two presidential elections.
Another generation voted for George Bush Jr. a second time even though by that second election the country knew he had lied and caused the death of 10's of thousands of innocent people, not to mention the death of thousands of American soldiers. This after his first elected win as president was given to him by the right wing Supreme Court.
Sorry folks, there is no other way to say it, you are the dumbest voters on the face of the Earth. Not bedcause you might disagree with my liberal politics and thinking, but because you willfully vote for crooks, liars, and bigots as your leaders.
It's to late to go back to some kind of political normalcy, which was always a dirty process anyways, but we are now political extremists, partisan political hacks, and dishonest as a society of voters. This is a learned behavior and like racism it won't disappear until those haters literally die off and even then there will always be the residual of this trait in our people.
It's true. The enemy is within us and we are destroying our own once great society.
You can no longer claim these politicians have some hidden agenda, or you did not know their evil intentions. They have made themselves very, publicly clear. Their lies are obvious. It's your choice now and I'm not confident in your choice given your past voting decisions.
This country is a mess, financially and in every other way. Your votes have ensured the problem will only get worse. Even if you had a change to sanity right now, it would take the rest of the 21st century to fix the mess and I won't wait for Hell to freeze over to expect you will become sane in the next two weeks.
One winning ticket was sold in South Carolina for Tuesday night’s record-shattering Mega Millions jackpot worth at least $1.6 billion, the state’s official lottery website reported.
The winning numbers were 5-28-62-65-70, with a Megaball of 5.
The jackpot winner can choose to take either an annuity for the full prize, paid out over 30 years, or a lump sum that would come to about $905 million before taxes.
Fragments were forged with the intention of fooling wealthy American
evangelical Christians — like the founder of Washington’s Museum of the
Bible, Steve Green.
Five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the Museum of the Bible’s most prized artifacts, were exposed as fakes on Monday and pulled from displays.
The museum, the brainchild of evangelical Christian businessman Steve Green, opened last year in Washington near the National Mall. The pieces, subjected to scientific tests in Germany, were deemed to have “characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin,” the museum said in a statement.
“Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts,” chief museum curatorial officer Jeffrey Kloha said.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a series of fragments from approximately 930 manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea in modern Israel during the late 1940s and 1950s.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Doubts were raised as to the authenticity of the fragments prior to the museum’s opening.
Experts estimate that as many as 70 forged fragments of scrolls have been traded on the antiquities market since 2002, according to CNN.
The museum said it would swap the fakes with three other fragments (but even those may not be real).
“Exhibit labels will continue to inform guests that there have been questions raised about the authenticity of these fragments, and that further research will be conducted,” the museum said.
President Trump is a congenital liar. Trump has lied about everything. Not one thing Trump has said is the truth, not one. If you want to know the truth just believe the exact opposite of what Trump says. Even FOX (Sheppard Smith and other FOX news on air personalities) news has said there is no evidence to prove what Trump says is true. As the middle class saying goes, "He just pulls it out of his ass!"
Worse yet, not one Republican elected official is voicing that Trump is lying, even when Trump's lies involve them doing something they never will, or is actually impossible for them to do. The Republicans are giving their lying leader the free rein to spew whatever lie he wants and they are silent.
And where are the voices of the minority opposition? What are Schummer and Polosie saying publicly about Trump's lies? What have they done to fight back against Trump's actions? They simply gave in to Republican judicial appointments without any debate. At least Clinton wrote a long editorial in the "Atlantic" exposing Trump's character and moves, but that got little coverage to the American people.
Recent polls show Trump's popularity is up, which means the American people are believing Trump's lies. Recent polls show there is no slant one way, or the other to the election two weeks away. There is no blue wave.
Trump is lying to create fear and Trump is trading on fear to win over the American voter and it is working. I cannot explain why the American voter would believe Trump's lies, or be fearfull of Trump's lies, even if they think they are true.
When good people sit back and do nothing that's called apathy. When good people actually help instill lies as truth that's enabling and abetting the destruction of a government and a society.
"First they came ..." is a poem written by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It is about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
Niemöller created multiple versions of the text during his career. The poems words have been changed many times to highlight whatever cause some group wants to highlight as being complacent to allowing oppression to win over a society.
This is an expression of more than just apathy, or complacency, but the inaction that allows evil to win over good.
Evil and lies are certainly winning over good and truth in America. We took the first step when we elected Trump as our president. Trump is using lies and fear to suceed at the next step. A second term as president and the numbing acceptance of the American people of his lies becoming American truths.
For the damage to be complete Trump has to get the American people to accept illegal, immoral actions as legal and acceptable. He has already done that to a large extent and the damage to our financial health is already complete.
The revolution against Trump's evil empire is strong in spirit, but weak in ammunition. As a famous saying goes, "Only now at the end do you understand."
Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King drew national attention last week for elaborating at length on his white nationalist views in a far-right Austrian propaganda outlet.
But in state legislatures across the country, GOP lawmakers’ embrace of openly racist or extremist figures, organizations and views often goes unnoticed. And even when it has been exposed in recent years, a Washington-based group that helps elect Republicans to state legislatures says nothing.
The Republican State Leadership Committee has provided funding to groups backing lawmakers and candidates with extremist and racist ties. It has not, however, publicly denounced any individual lawmakers or candidates, even though several state lawmakers’ extremist ties have been exposed in recent years.
In Florida, it emerged in August that Peter Gemma, a white nationalist and supporter of Holocaust denial who once worked for the openly racist Council of Conservative Citizens, hosted a campaign event for Tommy Gregory, an attorney who was elected to the state House of Representatives in a special election. Gregory, apparently not shy about associating with Gemma, touted the “meet and greet” in a Facebook post. He tagged Gemma and Gemma’s wife Catherine.
In Tennessee, home to active white nationalist groups, a GOP-controlled panel of state House lawmakers killed a resolution in March urging that law enforcement prosecute “white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups” with the same ardor as other forms of terrorism. It never received a vote on the House floor.
In Arizona, state Rep. Bob Thorpe introduced an aggressive new immigration bill in February 2017 that would empower local law enforcement to question undocumented immigrants about their immigration status. The organization behind the bill is the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks far-right organizations, designates FAIR an anti-immigrant hate group in light of the views of founder John Tanton and other leaders. Tanton has routinely framed his anti-immigration views as part of an effort to preserve a white, “European-American majority.”
Thorpe has some company in the Arizona House of Representatives. Fellow state Rep. Mark Finchem is a member of the Oath Keepers, a radical anti-government group awash in conspiracy theories and dreams of violent revolution. The group’s founder, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, mused in May 2015 about the prospect of convicting then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) of treason and hanging him.
In Michigan, state Rep. Beth Griffin served as president of a local branch of ACT for America, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as the “largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in America.” Group founder Brigitte Gabriel has said no practicing Muslim can be a “loyal citizen” of the United States. When questioned about it as a candidate in October 2016, Griffin did not dissociate herself from the organization.
The Republican State Leadership Committee has financially supported state Republican parties or legislative campaign committees in Florida, Tennessee, Arizona and Michigan. It has contributed over $1.8 million to the Florida Republican Party from 2002 to 2017; $110,000 to the House Republican Caucus of Tennessee from 2006 to 2014; $25,000 to the Arizona Republican Party from 2014 to 2016; and $130,000 to the House Republican Campaign Committee of Michigan from 2006 to 2018.
The Republican State Leadership Committee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Ben Wexler-Waite, a spokesman for Forward Majority, a super PAC working to elect Democrats to state legislatures, called on the GOP committee to denounce the individual lawmakers and sever ties with them.
“The Republican Party’s growing affinity for white supremacists and neo-Nazis is sickening and the RSLC must pull support and condemn each and every legislator, who associates with white nationalist organizations,” Wexler-Waite said.
Iowa Youth Basketball Coach Admits To Sexually Exploiting At Least 400 Boys
Greg Stephens, 42, had coached boys between the ages of 9 and 17 since 2008.
By Ryan J. Foley - AP
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A prominent Iowa youth basketball coach faces potentially decades in prison after admitting to a yearslong pattern of sexually exploiting and abusing at least 400 boys, including former players, their friends and other young athletes.
Greg Stephen, 42, posed as girls on social media to trick the boys into making live videos masturbating. He secretly recorded them showering during trips to tournaments. In some cases he recorded himself fondling nude players as they slept.
The massive scope of Stephen’s abuse was revealed in a plea agreement filed Thursday after the former Iowa Barnstormers coach pleaded guilty to seven charges, including sexually exploiting minors and possessing and transporting child pornography, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Stephen’s arrest in March shocked the basketball community in Iowa, where he for years was a coach and co-director of the Adidas-sponsored traveling program for the state’s top youth players. The case has played out amid heightened awareness of sexual abuse in sports triggered by the arrest of disgraced gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who is serving decades in prison after hundreds of women and girls accused him of sexually assaulting them under the guise of medical treatment.
Stephen acknowledged that he had a hard drive containing folders named for 400 different boys, each containing explicit photos and videos that he had amassed over the years through his involvement in the program for children ages 9 to 17. Many former Barnstormers have gone on to play college basketball at Division 1 programs.
Some images were of boys undressing and showering, captured by recording devices that Stephen secretly placed in hotel bathrooms. Devices designed to look like a bath towel hook and a smoke detector were used at his home in Monticello, Iowa, and his lake cabin in nearby Delhi.
Stephen also took photos and videos of sleeping boys with their pants pulled down, including recordings of himself touching their genitals with his hands and, in at least one case, his mouth.
One such recording involved a boy who was 11 or 12 and had been given medication by Stephen that made him drowsy beforehand. Stephen would share beds with players during trips in which players competed in American Athletic Union tournaments or attended NBA games.
When they weren’t traveling together, Stephen often posed as teenage girls on Facebook and Snapchat and used those profiles to trick boys into giving him explicit images. He would offer to exchange nude videos and photos, telling the boys the types of images to produce. He used software to record live transmissions of the boys without their knowledge, and saved those images as well as their chats.
Prosecutors said the victims’ folders included at least one explicit video or photo of each, with some containing many different types. The plea agreement says that Stephen “committed sexual acts and sexual contact” on an unspecified number of boys.
The conduct occurred in 2018 and in “past seasons going back several years,” according to the plea agreement, which notes Stephen had been involved with the Barnstormers since 2008.
Stephen had initially offered an innocent explanation of the videos of boys showering, telling investigators they were intended to monitor their physical development and were not sexual in nature.
Stephen’s conduct was exposed after his former brother-in-law, Vaughn Ellison, discovered a recording device while remodeling Stephen’s home in February. Ellison gave the device to police after seeing that it contained several videos of boys showering in hotels in Lombard, Illinois, and Ankeny, Iowa. Investigators obtained warrants to search Stephen’s homes , where they found the hard drive and other devices.
Stephen’s attorneys have argued that the evidence should be suppressed because it was based on Ellison’s unlawful seizure of a device. A judge rejected that argument earlier this month . The plea agreement allows Stephen to appeal that decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
If his conviction stands on appeal, Stephen will face a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 180 at sentencing, which hasn’t been scheduled. He has been in custody since his arrest and will remain jailed pending sentencing.
The agreement notes that the potential sentence he faces will be lengthened due to the number and age of victims, the fact that he engaged in sexual acts and contact with multiple boys, and that he had supervisory control over them.
Ted Nugent said it’s “sacrilege” that he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and complained that an “ultra leftist liberal CEO driven gang” is keeping him out.
The artist behind “Cat Scratch Fever” told the Myglobalmind website last week:
″Is it or is it not vulgar, dishonest, and obscene that Grand Master Flash, Patti Smith, and ABBA are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but Ted ‘Fucking’ Nugent isn’t? Is that the most outrageous and disgusting lie you have ever seen?”
But a two-time member of the Hall of Fame said there’s a reason Nugent doesn’t belong in that exclusive club ― and it has nothing to do with politics.
David Crosby called Nugent a “hack” who “could not write a decent song if his life depended on it.”
Fewer than two dozen performers are in the Hall of Fame twice. Crosby was inducted in 1991 as a member of the The Byrds, and again in 1997 with Crosby, Stills and Nash.
He’s gone after Nugent before for his Hall of Fame complaints.
That is really funny stuff ....he’s not good enough and he never will be ....a hack player and no singer at all ....could not write a decent song if his life depended on it
Nugent, an outspoken member of the NRA board of directors, has frequently made headlines for reasons other than music.
In 2007, Nugent held up what appeared to be a pair of machine guns at a performance and said that Barack Obama, then a senator and presidential candidate, could “suck on my machine gun” and that Hillary Clinton could “ride one of these into the sunset.”
