There Are Concentration Camps. In America. In 2019. | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Ametia asked me to write about the Concentration Camps. That’s what they are. Not going to get into any debate as to what to call them…because, they are Concentration Camps. On American Soil. In 20…

Source: There Are Concentration Camps. In America. In 2019. | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Iran Crisis Shows Why Trump’s Lies Matter | La Prensa San Diego

Credibility is a currency that Trump has squandered by lying about both trivial and important things. Now he should huddle together enough respected experts and allies to bolster his arguments, or no one will take him seriously. War is not a negotiation to be taken lightly, with bombastic rhetoric and flippant lies. The truth matters. Lives depend on it.

Source: Iran Crisis Shows Why Trump’s Lies Matter | La Prensa San Diego

Trump Administration Didn’t Want Stonewall Pride Flag On Federal Property—So It Gave Flagpole To NYC Parks Department

Trump Administration Didn't Want Stonewall Pride Flag On Federal Property—So It Gave Flagpole To NYC Parks Department

With the launch of the WorldPride festival coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn later this week, it’s likely that tens of thousands of people will stop by the Stonewall National Monument (which includes the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park across the street) to pay tribute to the bar’s legacy this weekend. And while there, they’ll see the iconic LGBT pride flag on display just on the eastern tip of the landmarked national park. But it seems the Trump administration was not so keen on the pride flag appearing on federal property, to the point that they gifted the flag to the NYC Parks Department so they wouldn’t have to deal with it. [ more › ]

Boris Johnson takes to airwaves to lie, lie and lie again | John Crace

3500.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=forma

Tory leader-in-waiting unable even to maintain the most basic rules of conversation

You can see why Boris Johnson’s carers have chosen to mothball him in recent weeks. His decline has been almost total. Johnson never did much care for the past or the future. Every day has always been a tabula rasa, one on which he was free to reinvent himself as he pleased without being bound by any commitments he may have made. Now though, he appears to barely have a present. Unable even to maintain the most basic rules of conversation, his words are just a scattergun of free association.

Nick Ferrari began Johnson’s LBC radio interview with a few easy rapid-fire yes and no questions as if to establish a benchmark for the lie detector. It proved hard work as Johnson was such a shambles he could barely even confirm his name. Was he a coward? That should have been a no brainer. That’s the one thing on which everyone – even his friends – agree. Johnson merely looked confused. The silence was interpreted as a yes on the polygraph.

Continue reading…

Microsoft employees want to starve its PAC, which keeps giving money to homophobic, racist, climate-denying Republicans

Microsoft’s stated values are “diversity, inclusion, and growth mindset,” but the six of the top ten politicians funded by MSPAC — which derives funding from voluntary contributions from 4,000 of Microsoft’s 140,000 employees — are far-right Republican extremists, including Mitch McConnell, who reliably vote for homophobic, climate-denying and racist policies.

In response, a movement among Microsoft employees is calling for a boycott of MSPAC contributions, despite a promise by the MSPAC managers that they will create “advisory councils” to help inform its purchase decisions.

Some anonymous Microsoft employees who spoke to Dave Gershgorn at Onezero expressed bafflement that the PAC could give money to Biblical literalists, witch-burners, Handmaid’s Tale LARPers and other stalwarts of the Republican apparatus, but it’s actually pretty easy to understand: oligarchs are at a disadvantage in democracies, because, by definition, the one percent cannot win an election by force of numbers.

Oligarchs do their best to solve this problem through gerrymandering and voter suppression, but the core of their strategy is getting turkey to vote for Christmas. By promising to enact policies of racist, homophobic and misogynist cruelty while handing trillions to the super-rich, oligarchs can turn out bigots and sociopaths (along with temporarily embarrassed millionaires) on election day.

The oligarch project is supposed to draw votes from the religious maniac/white supremacist base, but only field candidates from the finance wing of the party, who will dog-whistle their bigotry, rather than shouting it from the hills (shouting gets you kicked out of the nice restaurants). But every election, the base vomits up a candidate who isn’t afraid to shout the party’s truth rather than whispering it: Roy Moore, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum…

The finance wing of the party sabotages that candidate, rallying around a “sane” candidate who looks and talks like them and has the common sense to confine their bigotry to private events. It’s worked pretty well since the Reagan years…until it didn’t.

But Trump didn’t change the Republican party, he just exposed it as a fusion of people who will cut taxes on the rich and gut protections for old people, young people, brown people, disabled people, people with uteruses, the environment, workplaces, water, air, and animals (oligarchs and their bootlickers); and people who think the Earth is 5,000 years old, that Jesus is coming soon, that guns are the key to democracies, and that the civil war was about states’ rights (useful idiots).

That’s why all those companies that sponsor your Pride march also give massive amounts of money to politicians who reliably vote against marriage equality and legal protection for queer people: not because the companies endorse those policies, but because they understand that those policies are the price of admission for a world where they retain the right to maim their workers, poison the air and water, and dodge their taxes. The price of a “business friendly” Congress is being ruled by politicians who think calling concentration camps “concentration camps” is worse than building and operating concentration camps.

MSPAC did indeed donate $10,000 to the Republican Senate Majority Leader for his upcoming reelection bid. Since 1998, Microsoft workers have given a total of $39,000 to McConnell through the PAC, according to federal lobbying records analyzed by OneZero. This isn’t a huge amount compared to some of McConnell’s other fundraising efforts. The Kentucky senator received more than $225,000 from the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, in the last five years alone, and more than $26 million in total.

McConnell is also far from the top recipient of MSPAC funds. MSPAC has given Washington Congressman Adam Smith, a Democrat, $105,000 since 1998 — an average of more than $5,000 a year. While McConnell is the Senate’s top Republican, Smith is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, where last year he appointed Microsoft technical fellow Eric Horvitz to serve on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. (Horvitz has never donated to the PAC, according to 20 years of FEC data.)

The political contributions of MSPAC have typically been a fairly even 50/50 split along Democratic and Republican party lines, according to OpenSecrets, a website built by the Center for Responsive Politics to track political lobbying. The one exception is the 2016 election cycle, when the MSPAC gave nearly $625,000 to Republican congressional candidates, almost twice as much as it did to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets.

A Group of Microsoft Employees Is Fighting the Company’s Political Action Committee [Dave Gershgorn/Onezero]

(via /.)

Second Look Behind the Headlines – News you can use…

Baldacchino di Perla

"Luce di parole, ombra di sogni."

Northern Desert Photography

Living on the Edge of the Sagebrush Ocean

Susana Cabaço

Spiritual Insights & Personal Empowerment

Barbara Picci

Artist & Art Blogger

craft journey

Furnicraft, woodwork, and art

musings corner

reveries and rants

Japão para Românticos

Bem Vindos a este espaço onde compartilhamos um pouco da realidade do Japão à todos aqueles que desejam visitar ou morar no Japão. Aqui neste espaço, mostramos a realidade do Japão e dos imigrantes. O nosso compromisso é com a realidade. Fique por dentro do noticiário dos principais jornais japoneses, tutoriais de Faça você mesmo no Japão e acompanhe a Série Histórias de Imigrantes no Japão. Esperamos que goste de nossos conteúdos, deixe seu like, seu comentário, compartilhe e nos ajudar você e à outras pessoas. Grande abraço, gratidão e volte sempre!

Leben als Mensch

Willkommen auf Elke´s Glücks-Blog

Sharpshot Nature .Com

- Specializing in the great outdoors, capturing nature at its finest!

Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss education and democracy

Expansão e Percepção

Seu Guia de Inspirações e Reflexões Diárias

noga noga.

my-health-and-beauty.com/

Uğurcan'ın Ütopyası

Benim Gezegenime Hoş geldiniz !!!

AKILS

Blog de viajes y lugares

Ed Mooney Photography

The official blog of Ed Mooney Photography. Dad of 3, Photographer, Blogger, Powerlifter. Exploring the historical sites of Ireland.

everything Explored on the earth

It has new aidias,news, about education , motivation, social, historical, culture, marketing creation new aidias education of language science culture and history

Born to die

L'unico modo sensato di vivere è senza regole

Early Morning Memories

by Anuran (A) & Sayoni (S)

My thoughts

Fun for the Brain

Neo Vision College

An exemplary learning community.

Anthony’s Crazy Love and Life Lessons in Empathy

Loves, lamentation, and life through prose, stories, passions, and essays.

Episodic Squalid Rants

public tantrums by a non-two-year-old

The Street Art Directory

Public, street and urban art worldwide

Artie & Stu

all the rules of free form

Everyone read that they fell in love first

<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-2937106805202763" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

davidscottmoyer

Lapsed Painter, Occasional Photographer, Compulsive Writer

Health & Fitness

Health Blogs

Buildings Tell Tales

Exploring the hidden architectural heritage of Budapest

Divit kalem

Yaşamdan

Roy's Weblog

The third incarnation...

Thought Pukes

More than a thought less than a question

"بوصلة الحياة"

"بوصلة الحياة: مدونة متعددة المجالات، من السياسة إلى الرومانسية، ومن تطوير الذات إلى الأدب وأكثر!" بقلم مشاعر بنت عبدالرحمن

parallax

The view from here ... Or here!

ClearingSpace4Joy

Bringer and seeker of joy

Belladonna’s Flashlight

The One Where She Stumbled Through Her 40's and Faced Her Demons

~ Trivial Music Silliness ~

Baw wit da baw. Just sayin'.

mo mnsoor blog

Website storys

Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss

Welcome to the Anglo Swiss World

gnaddrig ad libitum

Querbeet und ohne Gewähr

Peace & Truth

KINDNESS IS FREE, sprinkle it all over the world, and 😁 smile

Ética de la vida diaria

Nuestra ética de todos los días...

Elizabeth Gauffreau

Fiction Writer in Poet's Clothing