[mpen-dayton] FW: Our president & "Study says wealthy would get most tax cuts" & "Trump bankruptcy on Puerto Rico" & "Bill O'Reilly is back?!" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' added to the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons to protect my email servers.
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- FW: Our president
- FW: The Latest: Study says wealthy would get most from tax plan
- FW: Trump bankruptcy on Puerto Rico & FW: Trump Golf Course
- FW: My beloved Puerto Rico
- FW: Workers' Rights & FW: Trump Admin seeks info on protesters against it
- FW: It Will Be A Miracle If There Isn't A Hot Shooting War In North Korea, While Trump Beats Up On Football Players
- FW: Stand with Black athletes
- FW: Bill O'Reilly is back?!
- FW: AlterNet's Unprecedented Challenge: Overcoming Google and Facebook
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From: Joe Biden
Subject: Our president
Forget politics for a second -- because this is about something deeper and far more consequential than partisanship.
Today, we have an American president who tweets about NFL ratings while 3.4 million American citizens face a desperate search for food and water in Puerto Rico.
We have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between Neo-Nazis and those who would oppose their venom and hate. Who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support.
A president who cares more about dismantling his predecessors' achievements than ensuring tens of millions of Americans know the security of health insurance -- one who threatens our global standing on a weekly basis with his careless actions and his words.
Every week, it's something new. And I know it's tempting to throw your hands up -- to give up, shut down, or tune out for the next three years. But we cannot grow weary. We cannot grow discouraged. And we cannot give an inch.
Folks, it's up to us now to do what our president has not: Uphold America's values. Defend our constitution. Say, full-throated and together, "This is not who we are."
There is no question that we must stand up and speak out against every symbol of hate -- be it a flag, a swastika, or a statue. We must declare that there is no place for these hate groups in our America.
But tearing down symbols of hate is not enough.
We have to build, too. And that starts with electing leaders and representatives who will actually lead and represent us.
I'm fighting like hell for as long as I can stand to make sure this country once again lives up to its highest ideals. Join me today.
My mother had an expression. "Courage is a virtue," she'd say -- because every other virtue depends on it.
Those with the courage to oppose hate still far outnumber those who promote it. That's the America I know. That's the greatness of this nation.
Our children are watching. We can make them proud of what we did with this moment.
And I believe we will.
From: Margaret Peters
Subject: The Latest: Study says wealthy would get most from tax plan - - att.net
http://start.att.net/news/read/article/the_associated_press-the_latest_trump_touts_giant_beautiful_massive_tax-ap#.Wc92BHaJWjQ.email
From: tbacane
Subject: FW: Trump bankruptcy on Puerto Rico
TRAITOR Trump must go, please pass the word and do everything possible to help in this effort!
----- Message from A Concerned American -----
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/09/30/did-president-trump-add-33-million-to-puerto-ricos-debt-by-bankrupting-a-golf-course-there/
Subject: FW: Trump Golf Course
Did you know that TRAITOR Trump is responsible for a large part of Puerto Rica's debt crisis, while he tweets about that island just wanting other people to do everything for them? He screwed the people of PR for almost 33 million dollars in one of his failed golf course projects. Most Americans are not aware of this and the US Congress especially the Senate should investigate this matter. We Americans must demand that TRAITOR Trump get off his ass and shut his damn mouth and start acting like the President he is not and get the proper aid to our brothers and sisters in PR. This is very critical since he is responsible in many ways for the disaster that is happening there. How much longer will we allow this TRAITOR, this FAKE President, to destroy how country? He is doing everything that Russia wants done to our country and it is tome for the real patriots to demand an end to this TREASON! WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
----- Message from: A Concerned American -----
http://www.snopes.com/trump-puerto-rico-golf-course/
https://www.buzzfeed.com/danielwagner/trumps-puerto-rican-golfing-trip-that-ended-in-bankruptcy?utm_term=.drWMqwn95#.rmlpbdO0V
From: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Subject: My beloved Puerto Rico
Lin-Manuel Miranda here. I wrote "Hamilton." I'm writing you today to ask for your help.
Puerto Rico—my family's island, America's island—is in desperate need of supplies and resources. Like Texas and Florida, Puerto Rico was just devastated by a natural disaster, but Puerto Rico's need is magnified by the island's geographic isolation from the U.S. mainland. It's been over a week since Hurricane Maria, but so far, help for Puerto Rico is in short supply.
That's why I'm asking for your help with hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. Will you make a tax-deductible contribution to the relief efforts on the ground through MoveOn? They will pay 100% of the credit card fees. Donate
There's no shortage of heartbreaking stories about the devastation experienced by people in my beloved Puerto Rico.
From the children still searching for their parents, to the families who've lost everything but one another, to those displaced from the only homes they've ever known … Hurricane Maria's destruction of Puerto Rico has been the most brutal disaster in the island's modern history, leaving a destroyed power grid and unprecedented destruction in its wake.
If you're able to help, please make a tax-deductible contribution to support relief in Puerto Rico below, and MoveOn will pay 100% of the credit card fees. Donate
My cousin Daniela lives in Puerto Rico and is studying to be a veterinarian. Her parents' home in the hills of Vega Alta is practically an animal sanctuary—there are two goats, a number of cats, several bunnies and a few birds, nine dogs(!) and a couple of horses. Her older sister Camila has been studying recently for the MCAT exam—she wants to be a doctor.
Across the street from their home is my Aunt Yamilla's house, formerly the home of my grandparents and the place where my sister and I spent every summer as children. I remember when my grandfather Guisin was building it—at last, he was moving up to the peaceful hills after a life in town.
As Hurricane Maria roared toward Puerto Rico earlier this month, my family in Puerto Rico braced for impact.
They knew that the wooden house built by Abuelo Guisin—my grandparents' dream home, where I worked on new musicals during summer breaks from college—could not possibly withstand a major hurricane.
For a time, my uncle's concrete house across the street became Noah's ark, as my family sought refuge there—huddled together, along with Daniela's animal menagerie and the precious things that can't be replaced, like family photos and mementos that represent memories of generations of Mirandas.
My late grandfather's dream home is in pieces, the roof and the porch gone. Needless to say, my cousin Camila's MCAT exam has been postponed indefinitely. Thankfully, Noah's ark—my cousins' family home across the road—still stands, and my family is safe so far.
I'm sharing my family's story to give you just a glimpse of what our island is going through.
The truth is that my family was very lucky compared to many. But they and their fellow American citizens in Puerto Rico now face a host of mounting crises—a lack of running water, a shattered power grid, no access to telephone service, and being unable to connect to the outside world.
There are 3.4 million people in Puerto Rico, each with their own powerful story, and they need our help. Puerto Ricans need supplies and resources just as badly as their fellow American citizens in Texas and Florida, and this need is magnified by their geographic isolation from the U.S. mainland. Donate
The Hispanic Federation is currently facilitating the deployment of fully-trained and certified first responders, including paying for flights to Puerto Rico and related expenses. These first responders—comprised of NYPD and FDNY members and others—will join relief efforts on the island and provide the technical support and expertise that's so badly needed. Relief efforts include examining the structural integrity of buildings so that individuals can safely return to their homes to providing basic supplies like food and clean water.
They need your help to keep it up. Click below to make a tax-deductible gift: Donate
With so much to be done and such great urgency before us, let's help Puerto Rico dig out and rise up. Do it for Daniela and Camila and their dreams. Do it for your fellow citizens.
P.S. A version of this letter originally appeared as a guest column in The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to read it.
From: Andrew J. Tierman
Subject: Workers' Rights
The US Sup Ct could deal a blow to hourly workers in an upcoming case in which employers seek to enforce individual arbitration clauses in contracts, which are effectively contracts "of adhesion" - that is, without the least powerful party having any real power to negotiate. See:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/the_supreme_court_is_poised_to_deal_a_devastating_blow_to_minimum_wage_workers.html
Subject: Trump Admin seeks info on protesters against it
Trump's Dept of "Justice" wants Facebook account information from activists against the administration. See:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/28/politics/facebook-anti-administration-activists/index.html
From: MARGARET PETERS
Subject: FW: It Will Be A Miracle If There Isn't A Hot Shooting War In North Korea, While Trump Beats Up On Football Players
On Tuesday, September 26, 2017 7:16 PM, The Pen <theteam@peaceteam.net> wrote:
Consider the kind of precipitory events that have started pointlessly destructive wars in the past, for example, the random assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke, and by a stray anarchist, not by anyone actually representing the countries they went to war with, that gave us World War I.
Most pertinently, in 1964 there was the relatively minor attack on the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. At the time, South Vietnam was conducting aggressive raids on the coast of North Vietnam, and US ships were providing intelligence support from "international waters." At the time it was called a "dangerous game."
Three North Vietnamese patrol boats approached the Maddox and the Maddox fired FIRST, hundreds of large caliber shells. Some torpedoes were launched in response from the North Vietnamese patrol boats which missed, there were NO injuries on the American side and little damage.
There was supposedly a subsequent attack two days later which in fact never happened. And on this basis Congress effectively declared the Vietnam War with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which after the death of 50,000 American soldiers was REPEALED because it was so historically bogus.
The Vietnam war was started because we WANTED it, because the administration wanted it, because the military wanted it, and exactly the same dynamic is happening right now in North Korea.
On the current hot-headed trajectory we are just one misstep away now from a hot shooting war that could go nuclear. If recent history proves nothing it is that America needs hardly more than a flimsy excuse, not even a provocative incident, to start an insane and self-destructive war, witness the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
But our military, at the behest of the inflammatory bonehead in the White House, is literally going out of its way to provoke such an incident. We now have strategic bombers flying further north and closer to North Korea than ever before, over "international waters." Where have we heard that expression before? See the above, dangerous game and all.
This is not a show of strength. It is a show of overt aggression and stupidity. It will deter nothing. Instead, it will only make unstoppable and horribly tragic war inevitable.
While at the same time Trump makes more and more explicit existential threats against North Korea. Given this level of deliberative game of chicken confrontation, it is just a matter of time, and probably not long, before somebody fires a shot at someone else, and it will probably be our side, again, that fires first.
In some ways it reminds us of the scenario where a police officer kills an innocent person because they claim they thought they had a weapon and felt threatened, resulting in nothing but senseless and unnecessary fatal violence. Except, here we are talking about tens of thousands of innocent people at minimum, and the weapons the other side can actually deploy may be nuclear.
All wars are justified on the basis of blind patriotism. Remember the fill in the blank attack whatever. And in this context Trump's attack over the weekend against football players for kneeling, and not even in overt disrespect, because they would not robotically follow some prescribed ritual of body position, is all the more alarming.
Trump is firing up the jingoism big time, and purposefully so. Surely you see it too. These events are connected. Ah, yes, jingoism, the last refuge of war starting demagogues.
With a couple exceptions, the entire NFL, including many owners who were among his biggest supporters, have spoken out in unison against Trump's ugly and foul mouthed provocations. And yet he still continues to double and triple down even against them.
Who will speak out now against this mad rush to war?
What hope is there of stopping Trump's lunatic plunge into potential nuclear Armageddon in North Korea?
Frankly, we do not have an answer.
We suppose we are bound to call our members of Congress to demand they stand up against this latest escalation. Here is their main number again.
202-224-3121
But we fear it has already gone too far. Trump listens to nobody, as long as he can get a couple thousand self-selected supporters at a rally to jeer and holler. This is precisely why he never should have been let within 3000 miles of the White House in the first place.
If you would like to make a contribution to support these messages of truth, here is that page, and feel free to request any of our activist, progressive policy message items.
Donations: https://www.utalk.us/?p=donate And here is the mailing address if you would prefer to send a check:
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At this point, we will consider ourselves lucky to survive long enough to spend it on something politically productive for you.
From: David K. Greer
Subject: FW: Stand with Black athletes
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Once again, 45 has proven that Black people are nothing more than property to him. In response, athletes and individuals around the league and our country united to fight back. Now, we're calling on owners to reject Trump's words by doing more than linking arms with players but actually working to protect their safety, rights, and freedoms both on and off the field.
Tell the NFL: Support Player's Platform & Plan for Racial Equality
On Friday night in Alabama, Donald Trump reaffirmed his disdain for Black people by referring to any NFL player who peacefully protests racial inequality during the pregame national anthem as a "son of a bitch" who should be forced off the field. During his rambling speech, Trump also took the time to criticize the NFL for implementing rules to promote player safety because those efforts impact his personal entertainment. This came about a week after Trump went after sports journalist Jemele Hill and tried to publicly strongarm ESPN into firing her for comments made on her personal social media.
Perhaps he was feeling emboldened by NFL buddies like Dan Snyder (Washington), Shad Khan (Jaguars), Bob McNair (Texans), Robert Kraft (Patriots), Woody Johnson (Jets) and Stan Kroenke (Rams), all of whom each contributed $1 Million to his inauguration. Kraft even gave him a Super Bowl ring. Or perhaps he had the consent of the league itself, as their marketing department contributed $100,000. Either way, Trump feels way too comfortable demanding the NFL be nothing more than a league of modern day gladiators whose sole purpose is to destroy their bodies for entertainment. Now it's time for Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL owners to choose which side they're on.
The NFL can't have it both ways: either support the people who are the reason the league exists or continue to cower to a bigot.
Earlier this year, a group of players and a former player, Malcolm Jenkins, Michael Bennett, Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin, met with Goodell and NFL officers to discuss the Player's Coalition's activism in their local communities. They delivered a recently publicized memo calling on the NFL to declare November a month of social activism to advance racial justice causes, including criminal justice reform, to elevate the issue in the same way the NFL does with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. The request is detailed and includes an ask for owners and league officials to attend player-led visits to local prisons and meetings with formerly incarcerated people and their family. It also makes clear that the request is not for permission but financial support and genuine collaboration.
Demand the NFL listen to players and designate November an official month for racial justice activism.
After Trump's Friday night tirade, several NFL owners rushed to release statements condemning his words.1 But we need action- not more words. To this day Colin Kaepernick remains blackballed by league owners, despite public acknowledgment from elite quarterbacks around the league from Cam Newton to Tom Brady that Kaepernick is more talented that numerous QBs who have jobs today. Equivocation and calls for unity from the league are no longer acceptable.
Now that several NFL owners claim to support of their players' rights, it is time for Commissioner Goodell to declare November a "month of unity." NFL rosters are 70% black, and the league owes it to its players to recognize the heroes who have stood up to racial intolerance in America.2 Soccer leagues around the world are working to stand up to racism;3 it is past time for the NFL to do the same. As DeMaurice Smith, the president of the players' union, said on Saturday, "We will never back down. We no longer can afford to stick to sports."4
Tell the NFL: Support Player's Platform & Plan for Racial Equality
References:
- "NFL Owners Are Closing Ranks Against Trump — Here's What They're Saying," Fortune, 24 September 2017. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/9019?t=10&akid=7941%2E888422%2EkzBFM3
- "White House doubles down on ESPN attacks, cites previous 'suspension' as reason Jemele Hill should be fired," The Undefeated, 26 April 2017. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/9020?t=12&akid=7941%2E888422%2EkzBFM3
- "FIFA is finally stepping up its anti-racism measures in soccer," Quartz, 15 June 2017. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/9021?t=14&akid=7941%2E888422%2EkzBFM3
- DeMaurice Smith, 23 September 2017. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/9022?t=16&akid=7941%2E888422%2EkzBFM3
From: Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Adam, Holly, Kathy, Susan, Anathea, Audine, Shannon, Emma, Pilar, Natalie, Melody, Pam, Lindsay, and Ryan, the UltraViolet team
Subject: Bill O'Reilly is back?!
Former Fox News host and serial sexual predator Bill O'Reilly is making a comeback thanks to Sean Hannity.
On Tuesday, O'Reilly--who was kicked off the air in part thanks to UltraViolet members--appeared on the show Hannity and given how the network hyped his appearance this may not be the last time.1 O'Reilly is unapologetic--he continues to blame the many women he harassed for his firing--so he is just as dangerous as when he was fired.
If Hannity and Fox News don't face major backlash for bringing a sexual predator back for one night, they'll think people have stopped paying attention and they can get away with giving O'Reilly and other predators a platform again.
Dozens of advertisers--including ones that rely heavily on women like Jenny Craig and Wayfair--that pulled their ads from Bill O'Reilly's show continue to advertise on Hannity.2 Now that Hannity is helping O'Reilly's comeback, we can put the same pressure on these advertisers to not only drop Hannity, but Fox News entirely. Will you add your name to demand companies stop supporting Hannity and all Fox News shows?
Tell Jenny Craig, Advil, Wayfair, and other Hannity advertisers: "Sean Hannity is working to normalize Bill O'Reilly, the sexual predator you didn't want to be associated with, by bringing him back on the air. Drop all Fox News shows now." |
O'Reilly was kicked off the air a few months ago thanks in part to the work of Color of Change, Media Matter for America, and UltraViolet members like you. After it came to light that Fox had paid off five women who accused O'Reilly of sexual harassment to keep him on the air, we worked together to force advertisers to pull out of the show, a major pressure point on the company.3 Now, we can do it again--not just to push Hannity out, but to pressure advertisers to drop Fox News altogether for profiting off of decades of sexist abuse on and off air.
Dozens of women have now come forward at the network to report harassment, assault, and rape.4 The problem goes way beyond one man and it is time that advertisers recognize that supporting any Fox News show means supporting rape culture.
Will you sign now to call on advertisers to drop Fox News?
Sources:
- Bill O'Reilly appears on Fox News for first time since his ouster, CNN, September 26, 2017
- Here are Sean Hannity's advertisers that dropped Bill O'Reilly's show, Media Matters, September 25, 2017
- What to Know About the Accusations that Brought Down Bill O'Reilly, Time, April 19, 2017
- Here Are The Women Publicly Accusing Roger Ailes Of Sexual Harassment, HuffPost, August 12, 2016
What to Know About the Accusations that Brought Down Bill O'Reilly, Time, April 19, 2017
Fox News has fired host Eric Bolling, Salon, September 8, 2017
Woman Says Fox News Banned Her After She Accused Charles Payne of Rape, New York Times, September 18, 2017
Want to support our work? UltraViolet is funded by members like you, and our tiny staff ensures small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
From: Don Hazen; Executive Editor, AlterNet
Subject: AlterNet's Unprecedented Challenge: Overcoming Google and Facebook
The story I am going to share with you is very disconcerting for independent media and America's future, and frankly it is unprecedented in AlterNet's history.
It is hard to imagine anything scarier than Donald Trump's presidency. But this problem is actually bigger than Trump, and it is a situation that certainly helps him.
This story affects you too, in ways you may not fully be aware of—in fact it affects our whole media system and the future of democracy, and that is not an exaggeration.
We have not yet gone public with our own story. I wanted you, and the rest of our supportive community, to know the details first. We are going to need your help.
The New Media Monopoly Is Badly Hurting Progressive and Independent News
The story is about monopoly on steroids. It is about the extreme and unconstrained power of Google and Facebook, and how it is affecting what you read, hear and see. It is about how these two companies are undermining progressive news sources, especially AlterNet.
In June, Google announced major changes in their algorithm designed to combat fake news. Ben Gomes, the company's vice president for engineering, stated in April that Google's update of its search engine would block access to "offensive" sites, while working to surface more "authoritative content."
This seemed like a good idea. Fighting fake news, which Trump often uses, is an important goal that we share.
But little did we know that Google had decided, perhaps with bad advice or wrong-headed thinking, that media like AlterNet—dedicated to fighting white supremacy, misogyny, racism, Donald Trump, and fake news—would be clobbered by Google in their clumsy attempt to address hate speech and fake news.
The Numbers Are Striking
We have had years of consistent search traffic averaging 2.7 million unique visitors a month, over the past two and a half years. But since the June Google announcement, AlterNet's search traffic plummeted by 40 percent—a loss of an average of 1.2 million people every month who are no longer reading AlterNet stories.
AlterNet is not alone. Dozens of progressive and radical websites have reported marked declines in their traffic. But AlterNet ranks at the top in terms of audience loss because we have a deep archive by producing thousands of news articles for 20 years. And we get substantial traffic overall—typically among the top five indy sites.
So the reality we face is that two companies, Google and Facebook—which are not media companies, which do not have editors, or fact checkers, which do no investigative reporting—are deciding what people should read, based on a failure to understand how media and journalism function.
The Harvey and Irma of Journalism
Britain's famed journalist Sir Harold Evans described Facebook and Google as "the Harvey and Irma of journalism—and democracy":
"Whatever else they do, the electronic duopoly deprive millions of information and argument as surely as the series of super storms deprive millions of light, power, home and hearth.
"The climate change deniers will go on calling the link between hurricanes and greenhouse gases a 'hoax'… but no one can deny the devastating effect of Facebook and Google on the viability of news organizations to investigate complexity and resist suppression."
The Google Hit Goes Right to Our Bottom Line
We need your help because we are going to take a financial hit over the coming months.
Why? Because Google's undermining of progressive journalism means we have lost a major chunk of audience and as a result are looking at big potential losses in ad revenue.
AlterNet's long-term success is based on our balanced economic model. We get roughly half of our revenue from advertising and half from contributions from readers and supporters like you, as well as a handful of foundations. But now 40 percent of our traffic, earned over many years, has disappeared due to Google's arbitrary tactics.
We need to stay strong, keep our great staff, and fight Donald Trump and his cult of core supporters.
We are proud to have never made a desperate appeal for money. We were pleased that we didn't harass you with fundraising pitches every day for months. We had a very healthy balance, and our financial supporters contributed exactly what we needed each year. But now, due to media monopoly on steroids, we are very concerned.
Can you rededicate yourself to AlterNet and its mission of producing important and powerful independent journalism?
This fall fundraising campaign is necessary; we need to bolster our finances and prepare to pivot AlterNet so it can survive and continue to be read by a huge audience of millions, without having to rely on Facebook and Google to do it.
That means we need to rely on you—will you help? (Your contribution today is 100% tax-deductible.)
End of Minority People's Email Network (MPEN) e-Newsletter
posted by lucas at 10:19 AM
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