The Republican Convention Is a Star Wars Barroom of Conspiracy Nuts

Robert Reich. (photo: unknown)

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

20 July 16
readersupportednews.org

 
he Republican convention of 2016 is a Star Wars barroom of conspiracy nuts, white supremacists, nativists, Birthers, gun crackpots, paranoids, anti-science fruitcakes, old-time Hillary haters, gonzo isolationists, anti-Semites, homophobes, Latinophobes, misogynists, and other know-nothings who have spent their lives on the fringes of the Republican Party, and have now taken it over.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, the presidents Bush, and other sane Republican politicians are wisely staying away from the festivities in Cleveland, but it doesn’t matter. The Party is no longer theirs. It’s under the control of people who have learned everything they know from the darkest regions of the Internet, hate radio, and Fox News. It serves the GOP right. It's been bottom-feeding on all this for years.

Yesterday, for example, Trump advisor Roger Stone told the “Citizens For Trump America First Unity Rally” that, 23 years ago, Hillary Clinton ordered thugs to move the body of Vince Foster (the Clinton family friend who committed suicide). Then Stone introduced Alex Jones, the radio host who claimed that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing, and on whose show Trump is a frequent guest.

The inmates have taken over the asylum that the GOP used to run.

Pence One of Most Extreme Right-Wingnuts in U.S.

Former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star)

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

16 July 16
readersupportednews.org

 
ike Pence -- Donald Trump’s pick for vice president -- is one of the most extreme right-wing officials in America. Let us count the ways:

1. As governor of Indiana he signed the “license to discriminate” bill allowing Indiana businesses to deny service to gays.


2. He has tried to halt the settlement of Syrian refugees in the state.


3. His position on abortion is so extreme that, as a member of congress, he voted for legislation that would give “personhood” rights to embryos, and defund Planned Parenthood.


4. He also voted against measures aimed at preventing LGBT discrimination, and he supported federal legislation prohibiting same-sex marriage.


5. He also threatened to block Hurricane Katrina reconstruction unless the money needed was offset by cuts to Medicare and the national school lunch program.


6. He has compared Obamacare to the 9/11 attacks (although later apologized for the comment).


7. Pence is also a favorite of the Koch brothers.

Bumper-sticker nominees:

TRUMP-PENCE: YOU'LL BE SORRY
TRUMP-PENCE: NONSENSE
DUMP TRUMP, SUSPEND PENCE
Others?

I Fear For Our Country!

Protesters march during a demonstration near the site of the Republican National Convention on July 17, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. Protestors are staging demonstrations ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention which starts Monday. (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

18 July 16

readersupportednews.org

leveland – I am safe. I’m in a heavily armed city that is preparing to host the nation’s elite. I have press credentials, so the police deployed all over the city will have my back. As I hear reports from Baton Rouge, I look out the window of the deli where I’m eating lunch and see police on every corner. I am safe, but I fear for my country.

Baton Rouge and Dallas will not be isolated incidents. Rage in the African American community is boiling over. I stood in a crowd of about 150 yesterday listening to militant black nationalists make a case for throwing off the chains of the oppressive “white” government.

While I don’t agree with their methods, I do understand their anger. I feel like I am watching the same dynamics that existed in the 60s. There are the black leaders who would have been aligned with Dr. King, and there is a new movement that would have aligned with Malcolm X.

The resurgence of a black nationalist movement should not be taken lightly. One speaker sent chills down my spine when he said we should not fear death, we are all going to die someday. The government is not threatened, but our personal security is. Al Qaeda and ISIS have shown that it doesn’t matter if you are outgunned – you can shatter the psyche of a country with terrorist attacks. Especially if those carrying them out are prepared to die.

Their target is a society that has oppressed them for 400 years. Many speakers pointed out that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson took up arms for much less than what we have put African Americans through for 400 years.

Back is the red, black and green flag. There is a new Black Panther Party. We won’t defeat them with force. Violence begets more violence. Look at what is happening in the Middle East. We have created a new generation of terrorists there.

We are creating a new generation of terrorists here. We need a real war on poverty and institutional racism. We don’t need a racist president like Donald Trump. As Cleveland honors Donald Trump and hosts his racist supporters, I fear for my country.

US-Mexico poll finds opposition to Trump's wall

July 18, 2016

Survey from ASU's Cronkite News, Univision and Dallas Morning News also shows respondents find election politics damaging

The overwhelming majority of residents living along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are opposed to the construction of a wall between their countries, according to a major bilingual poll released Monday by Arizona State University’s Cronkite News, Univision News, and The Dallas Morning News.

The Cronkite News-Univision News-Dallas Morning News Border Poll found:
• 86 percent of border residents in Mexico and 72 percent of border residents in the U.S. were against building a wall between Mexico and the U.S.
• Compared to other border issues, 77 percent of border residents in Mexico and 70 percent of border residents in the U.S. described building the wall as “not important.”
In addition, a majority of residents along both sides of the border also see the tone of the U.S. presidential campaign as potentially damaging for relations between the two countries (Mexico: 69 percent; U.S.: 59 percent).

“As a journalist, I hope this poll serves as a bridge in bringing two countries closer by shining a light on the border, a vibrant, complex and often misunderstood region where people on both sides have more in common than the differences that are too often highlighted,” said Alfredo Corchado, the former Dallas Morning News Mexico City bureau chief who now serves as an editor on the borderlands desk at Cronkite News.

The poll surveyed 1,427 residents in 14 cities along the U.S.-Mexico border to assess attitudes and opinions on important election issues such as the local economy, immigration and border security. Part of ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Cronkite News is the student-staffed, professionally led news division of Arizona PBS.

The survey was conducted in April and May by Baselice & Associates Inc., a public research opinion firm based in Austin, Texas, with extensive experience in the Southwest.

“While people in Mexico and the United States have opinions about the border, this unique survey explores the opinions of people who live along that border,” said pollster Mike Baselice, president of Baselice & Associates. “We have the benefit of having asked several of the questions in this survey 15 years ago. Therefore, this survey tracks similarities and differences along with the responses to new questions.”

In comparison to the 2001 poll, opinions on the status of the border region have become less favorable. In 2001, roughly 40 percent of residents on both sides of the border felt the region had gotten better. When asked the same question this year, less than 20 percent said the region had gotten better.

The 2016 poll, which had an overall margin of error of 2.6 percent, surveyed residents in seven pairs of “sister cities” stretching from California/Baja California to Arizona/Sonora and Texas/Tamaulipas.

It showed that residents in neighboring border communities were deeply connected. Both share similar concerns for their families on issues such as safety, jobs and education.

• When asked: “Do you like your neighbors in U.S./Mexico?” 86 percent of U.S. border residents said yes, as did 79 percent of border residents in Mexico.
• When asked: “Which of the following best describes how much your city depends on your sister city across the border?” 79 percent of U.S. border city residents and 69 percent of Mexico’s border city residents said their cities are either “somewhat dependent” or “very much dependent” upon each other.
• When sister city residents (such as those in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Chihuahua) were asked if they favored or opposed allowing workers to cross the border to work and then return home, 76 percent of U.S. border residents and 85 percent of border residents in Mexico were in favor.

“The U.S.-Mexico border is a major issue this election year,” said Christopher Callahan, Cronkite School dean and Arizona PBS CEO. “This extraordinary poll captures the voices of the people who actually live and work along the border, providing a critical component to the national discourse this election season and showing how united border residents are on many issues.”

In addition to publishing the poll’s results, Univision News has assigned a seasoned television reporter and a team of digital journalists to focus on its most relevant findings. Univision Network’s national newscast, “Noticiero Univision,” will feature their reporting during the week of the poll’s publication, while Univision News’ website, UnivisionNoticias.com, will launch a permanent section dedicated to border issues that will include the poll-related stories, videos and graphics prepared specifically by its team of journalists as well as other stories dealing with life on the border.

“In the midst of an exceptionally contentious presidential election in which immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border have become hot topics, this poll provides a fascinating and underreported perspective that may surprise many voters,” said Daniel Coronell, president of News, Univision Communications, Inc. “Univision News has always given special attention to all aspects of the immigration debate, and now during the 2016 election cycle we are even more committed to being Hispanic America’s go-to source of information and analysis on border-related issues. This poll and our new dedicated digital section are two examples of this focus.”

The Dallas Morning News, part of A. H. Belo Corporation, will feature a multimedia package of stories on its website, dallasnews.com, as well as a full print report in its July 18 and July 19 editions. The news package includes a close look at how residents in Texas towns from El Paso to Brownsville view life along the border.

“The Dallas Morning News is proud to be a partner in this project,” said Mike Wilson, editor of The Dallas Morning News. “Polling people on both sides of the border provides special insight into issues affecting both countries and gives readers — and political leaders — some of the information they need to make effective public policy decisions.”

The Cronkite News Borderlands team of students, led by award-winning veteran journalists Corchado and Angela Kocherga, has produced multimedia packages and reports for the Cronkite News nightly newscast, which reaches 1.9 million households in Arizona, and the Cronkite News website.

“This election year, a lot of people are talking about the border and the wall but not to border residents,” Kocherga said. “Those who live on the border know the issues firsthand, and they are directly affected by policies. This groundbreaking poll reflects their views.”

This summer, Cronkite News student journalists have traveled to the border, interviewing residents in English and Spanish about the Border Poll. Cronkite student Courtney Pedroza visited seven border cities between Nogales, Arizona, and Laredo, Texas, to interview people and document their issues and concerns.

“Working on this border poll opened my eyes to a community I hadn’t really seen before,” Pedroza said. “One I don’t think people understand well. With my camera, it gave me the opportunity to document their lives, hopes and frustrations.”

The Cronkite News-Univision-Dallas Morning News Border Poll was funded by the media partners and the public through the crowdfunding platform, Beacon, which matched the contributions.

Between the three news organizations, numerous stories and graphics are being produced for this project.

“Our Borderlands team is committed to telling stories of life in the region,” said Kevin Dale, executive editor of Cronkite News at Arizona PBS. “This project with our partners at Univision and The Morning News illuminates the issues and concerns faced every day by those residents.”

Top photo: Courtney Pedroza, Cronkite News

4 Reasons Mike Pence Is the Absolute Worst

Trump's VP pick Indiana governor Mike Pence. (photo: Michael Conroy/AP)

By Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone

15 July 16
readersupportednews.org

 

Trump's potential VP pick may offer ballast to his ticket, but he clearly does not offer balance

onald Trump is likely to name Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a former Congressman, as his running mate Friday, according to the Indianapolis Star (though Trump could still surprise us and go with Newt Gingrich or Chris Christie).

A colorless politician with executive experience, Pence may offer ballast to the Trump ticket. But he clearly does not offer balance. On many of the most important issues of our time, Pence is a hard-line right-winger.

Here's why Mike Pence is a threat to progressives everywhere.

1. He signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
In April, Gov. Pence signed into law a bill that forbids abortion on the basis of fetal chromosomal abnormalities, including Down syndrome, among other factors. The law further bans fetal-tissue donation — requiring any aborted or miscarried fetus to be cremated or buried. And it placed onerous restrictions on abortion providers nearly identical to those that the Supreme Court recently found unconstitutional in Texas.

2. He signed a bill that made it OK for Indiana businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers.In 2015, Pence signed a "religious freedom" law, whose sweeping language permitted Indiana businesses to refuse to serve LGBT Americans, much like Southern businesses used to discriminate against African-Americans during the days of segregation.

Backlash against the law was swift and intense. Pence was forced to quickly sign a bill amending the legislation, which the governor claimed had been subject to "mischaracterizations."

3. He blocked the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana — and illegally tried to cut off federal aid to existing refugees.In the wake of the massacre in Paris last fall, Pence issued an executive order to block the resettlement of Syrian war refugees in Indiana. Not content to keep new war widows and orphans out of the state, Pence upped the xenophobic ante by also trying to cut off federal aid to those already in the state. A federal judge blocked Pence's action, writing that the governor's order "clearly constitutes national origin discrimination" and "in no way directly, or even indirectly, promotes the safety of Indiana citizens."

4. He's an unreconstructed drug warrior.  At a time when lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are tackling the nation's drug problems with less focus on incarceration, Pence signed a bill to reinstating a mandatory minimum drug sentence. Many drug users sell drugs on the side to support their addictions. Thanks to Pence, any Indiana resident convicted twice for selling meth or heroin is now sentenced to a full decade in prison. Expressing his pleasure at signing a law stripping judges of discretion in drug sentencing, Pence declared, "We need to make it clear that Indiana will not tolerate the actions of criminals."

Trump Jumps to Conclusions Minutes After Nice Attack, Says He Would Declare a World War as President

Police officers and a soldier stand by the sealed off area of an attack after a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers who'd gathered to watch the fireworks in the French resort city of Nice, southern France, Friday, July 15, 2016. (photo: Ciaran Fahey/AP)

By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, ThinkProgress

15 July 16
readersupportednews.org

 
n back-to-back interviews with Fox News hosts Greta Van Susteren and Bill O’Reilly, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump condemned Muslims and immigrants for a horrific truck attack in the French resort town of Nice, France that occurred late Thursday.

No terror group or organization has yet claimed responsibility after 77 people were killed and about 100 injured when a truck plowed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day fireworks. When Van Susteren asked Trump to contrast what Obama would say about the attack with what he would say, Trump immediately cited “radical Islamic terrorism” as a potential cause, then said “I don’t think the people come out of Sweden, okay? It’s probably, possibly but if it is indeed, radical Islamic terrorism, it’s about time that [Obama] would say so, okay?”

“I mean, it just happened now,” Trump admitted, before speculating that the attack could have been carried out by a Muslim as in “Orlando, like in San Bernardino, like in Paris, like in the World Trade Center, like many other places, if it’s radical Islamic terrorism.”

Even if the attacks are ultimately linked to Muslim or immigrants, Trump was speaking as a presidential nominee just minutes after the attack, when none of this information was known.

During his interview with O’Reilly, Trump appeared to backtrack a bit on his earlier comments, telling the host that we should “wait a little while, and let’s see what happens. Who knows? Maybe you will be surprised and maybe we will all be surprised” in the truck attack.

But in the same breath, Trump bashed the refugee process into the United States, claiming that the country will admit at least 10,000 unscreened Syrian refugees by the end of the fiscal year.

“They may be ISIS,” Trump said, alluding to the terror group Islamic State. “This could be the great Trojan horse of all time. I mean, this could be the ultimate Trojan horse.”

Syrian refugees actually undergo one of the most stringent processes to come to the United States, which can take anywhere between 18 and 24 months. The process requires at least 21 steps in which biographic information, biometrics, and documentation are shown and put under scrutiny.

Trump has long claimed that Muslims and immigrants could bring criminal activities to the United States. In fact, he launched his campaign by deriding Mexican immigrants as rapists, criminals, and drug dealers. Soon after Paris was under siege from a terror attack, Trump called for a ban on Muslims immigrating into the United States, later adding that Muslims should be put into a database so that they can be tracked. He has also condemned resettling Syrian refugees in the country, using a similar argument that they lack documentation.

On the basis of this speculation, Trump said he agreed that this was now a “world war scenario” and, as president, he would seek a formal declaration of world war from Congress.

“I would. I would,” Trump told O’Reilly. “If you look at it, this is war, coming from all different parts. And frankly, it’s war and we’re dealing with people without uniforms. You know, in the old days, you would have uniforms. You knew who you were fighting.”

Trump then pivoted to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s U.S. immigration policies that would potentially allow undocumented immigrants to stay in the country.

“These people — we are allowing people into our country, who we have no idea where they are, where they are from, who they are, they have no paperwork, they have no documentation in many cases and Hillary Clinton wants to allow 550 percent more in than even Obama,” he added.

Prior to the interviews, Trump tweeted that he would postpone the announcement of his vice presidential candidate, originally set for Friday.

I Blame the Police

'The Counted' (image: Guardian UK)

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

10 July 16

readersupportednews.org

 

want to be very clear: what happened in Dallas this week was not merely a despicable act, or an attack on democracy as some have categorized it. It was a direct consequence of an unprecedented campaign of lethal force applied by law enforcement agencies across the country.

U.S. cops kill. They kill at a rate unparalleled anywhere else in the world. The killing exceeds that of any domestic nationwide police contingent in history, during peacetime. These are not Praetorian-style security forces, shadowy death squads, or uniformed police acting at the behest of drug lords, they are fully sanctioned, state-sponsored civilian police forces functioning in a supposedly democratic state.

The numbers are staggering. Private media accounts, because private media accounts are the only ones available to the public, put the number of people killed by U.S. police so far this year at 571 (as of this writing). This simply does not happen anywhere else in the world and never has.

Micah Johnson, the man who attacked police with an assault rifle at an anti-police violence rally in Dallas, was the 566th. Five more people have been killed by U.S. police since the events in Dallas. This according to The Guardian’s ongoing landmark investigation, The Counted: People killed by police in the US.

Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address today that eulogized in heroic tones the police officers killed and wounded in Dallas. His rationale, while heart-rending, leads toward, not away from, the violence he urged Americans to reject.

Biden said in part, “Being a cop wasn’t just what they did. It was who they were – like every officer who joined for essentially the same reason. There was something about them that made them think they could help, that they should serve, that they had a duty.” While those are stirring words, they obfuscate the truth.

The truth is that U.S. police are trained to kill. Not just maim, wound, or subdue – kill. The problem is systemic, from the highest echelons of government right down to the patrol officer on the street. “Kill when you need to kill. We’ve got your back.”

There are a number of initiatives in the U.S. to promote training that would teach police officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations. The instruction is referred to as “de-escalation training.” It is a good idea that will fail. As long as police officers are confident that they can kill with impunity, they will continue to kill. Make no mistake about it: today in America, police kill with impunity.

Not until police officers are consistently held accountable by the justice system will the appalling number of killings decline.

If you grieve for the slain Dallas Police officers, that is perfectly reasonable. They were murdered and taken from their families horrifically. They were human beings, and deserved human dignity in life and even more so now in death. However if you cannot find the courage to extend that respect to the people killed unnecessarily by police, then you are procreating the conditions that led to Dallas.

In reviewing the limited data in The Guardian’s synopses of the individual killings, it’s important to read between the lines, trying to understand why U.S. police are the only police in the world who have to resort to killing so often. The key question in each case is, “Was this the only way?” The answer in the vast majority of cases is no, another way could have been found. Even if it meant temporarily backing off.

Something U.S. police are rarely trained to do. It’s the training that leads to the killing.

The U.S Department of Justice can and must take a leading role, and they must prosecute. Failure to do so will ensure that the cycle of violence continues. Once the police are reminded in no uncertain terms that the taking of human life is not insignificant, then and only then will they apply their intellect and find other ways of addressing these situations.

Further, it is absolutely imperative that we not continue to issue blanket free passes to “our boys (and women) in blue.” By demanding accountability on the part of armed law enforcement officers, we lead them toward job conditions that are more humane for them and for the public that they serve.

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Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.