“Shithole” Nations

Posted on January 12, 2018 by maidstonejewelry
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Republican Rep. Mia Love: Trump ‘must apologize’ for ‘shithole’ remark

From Susan Solo Esq.:
Exactly how much longer do Americans have to endure this racist man?
His comments today about why the US has to accept immigrants from Africa, Haiti and El Salvador, so called “shithole” nations, and that he wants immigrants from nations like Norway, are self evident of his mind set.
If there was any doubt before, this eliminates it…he is racist.
The WH defends him & sees no problem with his comments, he speaks to and for his base.
This is a sad day for all of us. Trump is #notmypresident.
Posted in bigotry, immigration/deportation, Trump, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Glenn Simpson Transcript: Summary

Posted on January 11, 2018 by maidstonejewelry

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Thomson Reuters

One of us has actually read the Glenn Simpson transcript! Mr. Simpson is the man behind an explosive dossier — produced at his firm, Fusion GPS, with a former British spy, Christopher Steele — outlining possible connections between the president, his associates and Russian officials.

 

John Tepper Marlin reports:

Here is a guide of what is actually in the transcript released by Diane Feinstein!

It’s very readable. It covers some of the same ground as the book Fire & Fury, but it is much more scientifically sound.
Here are a couple of notes I took:
Pages 1-66 – groundwork for the interview
Page 67 – Felix Sater (not mentioned again) and other Russians.
Page 68 – Prevezon, mentioned again p 136
Page 70 – Trump seemed to be okay with organized crime, Italian or Russian (very different)
Page 71 – Trump claims to be poor on his tax forms for federal state and local govts.
Page 73 – Law suit in Scotland revealing
Page 77 – Trump gets its goods for its branded products from sweatshops
Pages 80-95 – Chris Steele, what he reported, old MI5 hand.
Pages 96-136 – Lots of Russians. One after the other.
The entire document is 311 pages!
You can also read the whole thing here.
Or you can use the New York Times interactive version here.
Posted in Russian connection, Trump, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Most Popular Blog Posts – 2017

Posted on January 4, 2018 by maidstonejewelry

Local-groups-map

Map of all Indivisible groups across the USA, which includes Resist & Replace (R&R) of East Hampton, NY

 

The 10 most viewed blog posts in 2017 on R&R are:

1) 780 views  – Special Report: Brookhaven Town Clerk (part 1; part 2 and part 3)

2) 693 views – “School Voucher” for the Trump Family

3) 278 views – Manny Vilar: proud Trump supporter

4) 138 views – Zeldin: Guns OK in our Schools?

5) 125 views – Crowd spilling over at OLA meeting in Bridgehampton

6) 123 views – AARP’s letter to Congress

7) 118 views – Rep. Zeldin requesting your opinion

8) 97 views – If Stephen Hawking is right about Earth’s end keep an eye on the deer

9) 96 views – If you see this label on the fruit, do not buy it at any cost

10) 86 views –  Zeldin and Bigotry

 

Happy New Year and keep writing!

Vote for your favorite blog post in the comments section!

Posted in Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Zeldin Boasting about Environment Record?

Posted on January 2, 2018 by maidstonejewelry

Recently Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), co-chair of the Long Island Sound Caucus and founding member of the “Congressional Estuary Caucus”, was joined by EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Director Carrie Meek Gallagher, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Northeast Regional Director Amanda Bassow, and others, to announce 31 grants, totaling $2.04 million, that will be awarded to local governments and community groups. The grants will support projects that will continue to improve water quality, restore natural habitats, enhance living resources, and educate and involve the public in protecting and restoring the Long Island Sound.

“The Long Island Sound is a precious feature of our life, culture, and economy, one that affects the livelihoods of all Long Islanders, as well as our local recreation and tourism industries,” Congressman Zeldin said…

Wow – that sounds great!?  But here is the thing:

From Marc Rauch:

Last I checked Long Island Sound was still connected to the Atlantic Ocean.

Lifetime, Zeldin has voted against measures in Congress to mitigate climate change 85% of the time, with 17 anti-env. votes on climate change and 3 pro-env. votes.  See complete Zeldin Enviro voting record here  and here.

Climate change has a number of deleterious effects on oceans, including warmer ocean temperatures and acidification. Long-term, the disruptive effects of climate change on ocean ecosystems will be profound and in bodies of water like Long Island Sound that are basically extensions of oceans, these adverse effects will overwhelm any benefits that can be gained from efforts to limit runoff, waste disposal, and the like. So Zeldin is touting his advocacy for applying bandaids while repeatedly voting against efforts to cure the underlying serious illness.

From David Friedman:

I see that Zeldin in his press release about the $2.04 million brags about being “a founding member of the Congressional Estuary Caucus” (whatever that is).  Based on his record, he will cheerfully vote to damage any estuary outside CD1:

9/7/2017 Voted in favor of Goodlatte Amendment #50 (roll 479) to HR 3354. This amendment reduces the ability of the EPA to enforce standards of the Clean Water Act in cleaning up Chesapeake Bay. It limits EPA’s key authority to protect clean water in the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay watershed which spans 6 states and the District of Columbia. 13 Republicans voted against this amendment.

7/13/2017 Voted in favor of H.R. 23. This is a companion bill to H.R. 1654 (see below) which bypasses environmental and other regulatory reviews for the construction of new dams in California, overrides California state law, and enacts a number of other provisions favorable to agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin valley. It weakens protections for endangered species of fish and for commercial fisheries along the West Coast in order to redistribute limited water supplies, primarily to large industrial farming operations in one area of California. It preempts California and federal laws that mandate restoration of the San Joaquin River and its native salmon runs, effectively stopping restoration. The result could be to permanently dry up this river, the second longest within California. It overturns recent court decisions protecting the Trinity river and its Salmon runs. It mandates quantified water delivery for a small set of specified agribusiness users at the expense of everybody else. It truncates the environmental review process for new dam construction. It prevents federal agencies from placing any limits on water use when issuing federal permits (if the use is recognized under state law), which would allow water users to leave streams and rivers on public land dry. This bill would destroy thousands of fishery jobs, do serious damage to the Bay-Delta estuary and possibly cause the extinction of native fish species. It is opposed by the American Sportfishing Association, Golden Gate Salmon Association, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and Cal Trout. It is also opposed by the Governor of California, both California Senators, and a majority of its Congressional delegation. It is another example of Republicans’ convenient disregard of “states rights” when it comes to favoring big business interests, since it overrides California state law. And it is also an example of “picking winners and losers” in spite of the professed GOP horror of doing that.

6/22/2017 Voted in favor of H.R. 1654. This act establishes the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as the lead agency for the purposes of coordinating all reviews, analyses, opinions, statements, permits, licenses, or other approvals or decisions required under federal law for new construction or expansions of dams, and above-ground water storage on federal land in 17 Western states. In effect it fast-tracks the construction of new dams by by-passing rules currently in effect to assess the environmental and other impacts of such dam construction. It guts the National Environmental Policy Act by limiting the “Environmental Impact Statement” (EIS) process to “1 year and 30 days”. Although this may sound reasonable on its face, this time frame is actually grossly inadequate in many cases to properly and correctly assess the impact a proposed new dam would have on a river. Proponents of the bill argue that “streamlining” the permitting process for new dams will help to create jobs and grow the economy. In reality, the high cost of building a dam, coupled with the limited available funds and permitting issues on the state level, are the primary impediments to building new dams, not federal environmental laws or delays in the federal permitting process. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, not a single dam has been denied construction because of a lack of coordination between Reclamation and other agencies or because of delays associated with environmental review and permitting. The bill is supported by down-river agricultural interests which stand to benefit from the rapid construction of new dams to facilitate mass irrigation of arid land. Downstream fisheries, obliterated by new dams and reservoirs, will pay the price. The breeding grounds of salmon and other commercially important fish will be cut off or degraded, both upstream and down, as a result of the restricted flow of water. An amendment to H.R. 1654 was introduced by Rep. Alan Lowenthal who represents a downstream California district. This amendment exempts any dam projects from being fast-tracked by the bill if it could harm commercial fisheries. Zeldin voted against this amendment.

Posted in climate change, Environment, EPA, Paris Climate Accord, Uncategorized, Zeldin | 5 Comments

“Trump Slump” in tourism

Posted on January 2, 2018 by maidstonejewelry

I have previously posted on the “Trump Slump” in tourism. And here, and here too.  But it is time to reexamine the issue because the data over one solid year indicate that the slump is here to stay!   How will this affect us locally?  TBD.

U.S. Economy Losing Billions As ‘Trump Slump’ Continues In Tourism Sector

By  Alexandra Talty , Women@Forbes

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Disney Land. The Grand Canyon. The Golden Gate Bridge. Yosemite. The World Trade Center.

The United States has long been a bucket-list destination, but as executive announcement piles on executive announcement, international visitors are wary of choosing the tourism-behemoth for their next vacation.

Inbound arrivals have fallen 1.4% since January, while global arrivals have jumped 4.6%, leading many travel industry experts to say the ‘Trump Slump’ is real. Credit: Nick DeSantis, Forbes.

After the announcement of the first two travel bans in January and March, the number of international travelers arriving in the U.S. has dramatically dropped, according to ForwardKeys, a European travel-prediction firm.

Looking at the number of U.S. inbound arrivals – or the number of international tourists arriving at airports around the country – the firm found that the number of visitors dropped 1.3% following the announcement of the first travel ban on January 27. On June 26, when the second ban was partially re-instated, inbound visitors dropped again by 2.8%.

Experts expected to see falling arrivals following the first executive announcement in January, when European interest in visiting the U.S. fell 12%  but to see the number of arrivals impacted so quickly is startling.

 

“The confusing and convoluted travel bans have done nothing but worsen the country’s reputation around the world,” said Lee Abbamonte, an American travel expert who has been to every country in the world, in an email. Although he believes there should be a vetting process, he says that as it stands now, it is too stringent, and confusing for many international citizens.

A small percentage drop in arrivals is no small potatoes when translated into a dollar amount. In 2016, the U.S. travel and tourism industry generated over $1.5 trillion in economic output, supporting 7.6 million jobs, according to SelectUSA, an international trade analyst firm. That represents 2.7% of overall GDP.

“I’m not surprised inbound travel is dropping,” agrees Liz Carlson, a travel expert blogger who was recently named New Zealand’s top blogger, in an email. An American, Carlson lives in Wanaka, New Zealand. Most of her friends are foreigners, and Carlson says that each of the executive announcements, as well as laptop bans, have put many off from traveling to the land of the free and the brave.

She says, “Whenever I meet people traveling, everyone says something about it, and nothing is positive … My friends who have traveled there recently are worried about the rules where TSA can look through your phones or laptops.”

In March, after the second travel ban, Oxford Economics, an advisory and analysis firm, found that travel could drop by 8% due to the executive announcements and procedures to restrict immigration to the U.S.

“Our latest detailed findings confirm what our data has been predicting since the first travel ban. There has been a ‘Trump Slump,’ and the strong dollar has compounded it,” said ForwardKeys co-founder and CEO, Olivier Jager, in an email. “This must be worrying for the US economy – travel is a huge earner for the United States, and relative to the rest of the world, its tourism exports are losing ground.”

Tourism is the seventh largest employer in the US economy. In 2012, nearly 84% of travel companies identified themselves as small businesses.  For those Americans, the outlook is bleak.

Over the first three months of Donald Trump’s presidency, 697,791 fewer foreigners visited the U.S. than normal, down 4.2% to 15.8 million people, according to new figures released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. That drop accounted for $2.7 billion in spending, according to Tourism Economics.

In cities like New York, foreign tourists spend four times as much as domestic tourists, so even slight drops in inbound arrivals spell big losses for the U.S. economy. According to US Travel, international travel spending directly supports 1.2 million American jobs, accounting for nearly $32.4 billion in wages. the typical overseas traveler spends around $4,360 when visiting the United States, over an 18 night stay.

Cities across the U.S. have seen the writing on the wall and are bracing for declining tourism revenues. Los Angeles Tourism board led the charge earlier this year, putting millions towards a marketing campaign to welcome foreigners with a gigantic human powered sign that welcomed incoming planes in four languages. Other tourism boards have followed suit with their own campaigns.

But as the third executive announcement is implemented and the Supreme Court hearing on the previous travel bans is cancelled, many industry experts wonder if this is just the beginning of another lagging sector in the U.S. economy as tourists choose destinations with easier, more comprehensive visa policies.

 

Alexandra Talty is a writer and columnist, exploring the world on a journalist’s paycheck. Follow her adventures on Twitter and Instagram.

 

Comment (D. Posnett):  I have wondered how a real estate mogul like Trump who owns hotels and golf courses does not seem to care about tourism.  It is interesting to follow stock prices of major hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott and see that they are doing just fine.  In fact, like Trump businesses, they are expanding internationally.  So perhaps this means that worldwide tourism is not that much affected.  It is just that international tourists are chosing to go elsewhere rather than visiting the USA.  For example, as the per Dan Caplinger in the Motely Fool: “Marriott sees prosperous days ahead. Sorenson noted that the international opportunity that the hotel company has is huge, pointing out that more than half of rooms under development are located outside North America“. 

So much for those American jobs that Trump voters had bet on.

 

Posted in economy, immigration/deportation, National Parks & Monuments, Travel Ban, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Zeldin’s Friend Steve Bannon

Posted on December 31, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

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You Are the Company You Keep!  “Personal branding is the name of the game these days, and in our age of radical transparency it is informed not just by how you present yourself but also by the people you associate with“.  So writes Marian Salzman , Contributor to Forbes.  I doubt many would disagree.

Let’s examine Rep. Lee Zeldin of NY Congressional District-1.  He has associated himself with Steve Bannon of Breitbart fame.  Bannon recently headlined a Zeldin fundraiser in New York City and this has not gone un-noticed!  Zeldin has excused Bannon noting that Bannon “gets a bad rap” and is not anti-semitic, but a “friend of Israel”.  You can check out the story via various local outlets:

Dan Rattiner writes in Dan’s papers: “For those that have been living under a rock, Steve Bannon is the chief of Breitbart News, one of the most right-wing, fake-news, dangerous organizations imaginable. His “news” celebrates the Ku Klux Klan, anti-Semites, the wildest of the redneck bigots and the neo-Nazis. If he had his way, Bannon would surely consider the likes of me, a member of the media, as someone who belongs in jail. He is a clear and present danger to the American democracy we all hold so dear.”

But  what I would like to do here is expose Bannon.  His tactics are devious.  He avoids leaving a personal trail of antisemitic or hateful comments.  In stead he hires writers for Breitbart News, his Alt-right platform.  They then write inflammatory commentaries based on their neo-nazi sources, and an army of alt-right followers and nut-cases leave the most awful and hateful comments.  So, lets examine the specifics. They need to be public to expose Mr. Zeldin and the company he keeps.

Breitbart Under Bannon: Breitbart’s Comments Section Reflects Alt-Right, Anti-Semitic Language as exposed by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center).  Bannon turned the comment section into “a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.”

POLITICO reported, “Bannon said the best things about Breitbart are the comments section and the callers.”

Here is a list of Breitbart contributors, who they are and what they do.  It is based on reporting by Breitbart Truth,  It covers White Nationalists and InfoWars conspiracy theorists at Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News. This is a great source (screenshots from FB and Twitter etc. )

The Breitbart journalists featured here have collectively written over 17,000 articles for Breitbart since 2010.

Click here and see more!  Specially if you want to check the screen shots of tweets and pictures!  (The material was too much to include in this post)

  • Charles Johnson, Breitbart US writer,  CJ has written nearly 300 articles for Breitbart between 2010 and 2013.  On January 9th, 2017, Forbes.com staff reported that CJ was helping to select Trump administration officials during the Presidential transition.  On January 27th, 2017, CJ self described himself as a fascist in a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything.  A Holocaust denier, Charles went on the self-described fascist podcast “Fash the Nation” where he talked about the genetic IQ inferiority of blacks and how Jews should not be able to hold top positions.
  •  Milo Yiannopolous, Breitbart US writer:  Milo was a senior editor at Breitbart US, and wrote 400+ articles for Breitbart between 2014 and 2017. In leaked emails, Milo praised a Neo-Nazi staff member of the Nazi website The Daily Stormer. Milo said: “He’s one of the funniest, smartest and most interesting people I know.”  He also befriended white supremacist Devin Saucier and hired white nationalist Tim Gionet. In emails with Devin Saucier, Milo said he was “easing everyone in gently” to the racial IQ superiority ideas that Saucier supports. In April 2016, he sang for a Neo-Nazi gathering in Dallas, Texas. White nationalist Richard Spencer can be seen in the video.
  • Jack Hadfield, Breitbart US writer. …frequent Breitbart contributor JH acts as an administrator of the right-wing “free speech” Facebook group the Young Right Society (YRS), which is frequently awash with appalling racist and ‘alt-right’ content.  Hadfield has authored over 200 articles for the far-right news outlet Breitbart, itself accused of pandering to the white nationalist alt-right.
    Membership of the secret group has included open fascists and nazis, well-known alt-right figures such as Scottish blogger Colin Robertson (aka Millennial Woes), alongside Conservative Party activists and UKIP youth leader Jamie Ross McKenzie. …Hadfield also posted the work of Italian “traditionalist” philosopher Julius Evola, who idolised Hitler’s murderous SS and was admired by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, with the caption “Got me some good new summer reading”.   The book was published by Arktos, the central publisher of the racist alt-right.
  • PJ Salvatore, Breitbart US writer. Twitter handle: @PortosJ81J.  Salvatore has written over 750 articles for Breitbart between 2010 and 2012.   As of 12-2-17, PJ has deleted nearly all of his Tweets and has removed nearly all of the accounts he Followed, like  @DegeneracyKills   @DereksCorpse

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  • Virginia Hale, Breitbart London. @Virgehall.  Hale has written over 300 articles for Breitbart since December 2014. Hale is currently writing articles at Breitbart London. Virginia Hale “liked” a tweet from @ShabbosShekels (aka FashyGoy). “Fash” means fascist in far right circles, and “goy” is a non-Jew in Yiddish.  Followed and communicated with Julius Ebola, white nationalist Twitter user, as well as white nationalists Richard Spencer and Matthew Heimbach.  She also follows Wagner C. Soto.  You can read more about Virginia Hale’s views at Media Matters.  Update (April 2017): Virginia Hale deactivated her Twitter account sometime in March of 2017, but continues to write for Breitbart London.
  • John Binder, Breitbart US writer. @Jxhnbider.He has written nearly 300 articles for Breitbart since August 2016. Follows Paul Town, Baked Alaska, InfoWars.  Also follows Peter Brimelow, white nationalist who gives speeches for white nationalist groups National Policy Institute and American Renaissance.  Follows Based Monitored, Blaqpilled Victor, Brittany Pettibone, Ricky Vaughn, and Brannon. All followers/retweeters of white nationalists.  Retweets WND, a conspiracy theorist website, VDare and Vegas4Trump, a self described white nationalist.
  • Nick Hallett (@NickJhallett)  Breitbart London writer. He has written nearly 2,000 articles for Breitbart since February 2014. Nick follows Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson. Infowars believes 9/11 was performed by the US government (inside job), and that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
    Nick also follows @ReactionaryTree (aka TrumpenReich Tree)
  • Ezra Dulis, Breitbart US writer. @ezradulis   Ezra has written about 300 articles for Breitbart since 2010.  Ezra follows self described “American Nationalist” @RopePusher777 who retweets InfoWars, the 9/11 conspiracy website that says the US government performed 9/11 and killed 3,000 of its own citizens.  Ezra follows and communicates with “Saul Townstein“ whose real name is Paul Town.  Paul Town’s website, PaulTown.com, has a sidebar that invites people to visit American Renaissance website, a white nationalist group, and Daily Stormer, a neo-nazi group, and Fash, the Nation.com, a white nationalist website and podcast.Screen Shot 2017-12-30 at 5.03.39 PM.png
  • Christian Toto, Breitbart US writer. @HollywoodinToto.  Mr. Toto has written nearly 3,000 articles for Breitbart since 2009. Mr. Toto follows Mark Dice, Illuminati/NWO conspiracy theorist. And also follows @kaleriley, who believes in the PizzaGate conspiracy theory and that Kanye West is fighting the Illuminati.
  • Donna Rachel Edmunds (@Donna_R_E). Breitbart London writer. Donna has written nearly 2,000 articles for Breitbart since May 2014. Follows Alex Jones (Info Wars), Info Wars main account, and Paul Watson (Info Wars). Info Wars is a conspiracy website that believes 9/11 was an inside job where the US government killed 3,000 of its own citizens.  Also follows @ThaRightStuff, a self described fascist who runs http://www.Rightstuf.biz.
  • John Nolte, Breitbart US writer. @NolteNC. He has written nearly 6,500 articles for Breitbart since 2009. Nolte follows @velow1 who describes himself as a pro-white nationalist. He also follows “Resist Tyranny” who tweets Muslim American conspiracy theories and also follows “Fash” who tweets Infowars.
  • Lucas Nolan, Breitbart USA writer.@Lucasnolan_.  He has written nearly 270 articles for Breitbart since June 2016.  He follows InfoWars. Follows MissPatriarch (aka Becky), who is pro-Assad, pro-RT.com, and pro-white nationalism.  Also follows and communicates with Paul Town, white nationalist who runs a website linking to Daily Stormer and Fash the Nation.
  • Katie McHugh, Breitbart US writer. @k_mcq. She has written more than 500 articles for Breitbart since 2014. She communicates with Paul Town (link 1, link 2) and Richard Spencer supporter @ReactionaryTree (link).  Screencapped on 1-12-17. Here, Katie McHugh “likes” a Vdare tweet about John Derbyshire. Derbyshire was fired from the conservative journal National Review after he wrote the following:

“The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black.

(9) A small cohort of blacks—in my experience, around five percent—is ferociously hostile to whites and will go to great lengths to inconvenience or harm us. A much larger cohort of blacks—around half—will go along passively if the five percent take leadership in some event. They will do this out of racial solidarity, the natural willingness of most human beings to be led, and a vague feeling that whites have it coming. 

(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date.
(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.”

Source for quotes.

Derbyshire was positively mentioned by Breitbart here
As mentioned above, Vdare hosts white supremacist articles.

  • Dustin Stockton, Breitbart US writer, @DustinStockton.  He has written nearly 150 articles for Breitbart since August 2015.  Dustin follows, retweets, and tweets Based Alaska (@bakedalaska), who retweets Paul Town, InfoWars, RightStuff, and Richard Spencer.  Dustin also retweets Mike Cernovich (“diversity is code for white genocide” link) and Mark Dice (NWO/Illumunati conspiracist)

 

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  • Neil McCabe, Breitbart US writer. @NeilWmccabe.  He has written nearly 400 articles for Breitbart since June 2016.  Neil follows Irma Hinjosa who posts birther conspiracy theories.  And Neil retweets InfoWars’ Paul Watson. InfoWars is a conspiracy site that believes 9/11 was done by the US government against its own citizens.  Neil retweets Russia Today (RT.com) articles (RT is Russian government propaganda).
  • Matthew Boyle, Breitbart US writer. @mboyle. Matt has written nearly 2,500 articles for Breitbart since 2012. Mr. Boyle retweets VDARE tweets.Here are some excerpts of VDARE’s work:“America was defined — almost explicitly, sometimes very explicitly — as a white nation, for white people, and what that means is that there is virtually no figure, no law, no policy, no event in the history of the old, white America that can survive the transition to the new and non-white version. Whether we will want to call the new updated version ‘America’ at all is another question entirely.”— Sam Francis, VDARE.com, July 21, 2003“What race realists find most infuriating about the liberalism of the last half-century is not just that it has lost its instinctive appreciation for the culture and people of the West but actively, viciously attacks them. Whites are doing something no other people have ever done in human history. Our rulers and elites welcome replacement by aliens, they vilify our ancestors and their own, they sacrifice our interests to those of favored minorities, and they treat the entire history of the West as if it were a global plague of rapine and exploitation. This is a disease that is killing us, and we must fight it head on.”Jared Taylor, VDARE.com, July 4, 2008

 

  • Lee Stranahan, Breitbart US writer. @Stranaha. He has written nearly 900 articles for Breitbart since 2010. Lee follows Haley Claus. also follows Westleigh, and Infowars, also follows Jeremy Nolt, more Infowars / RT connections. Infowars is a conspiracy website that believes 9/11 was a US government attack on its own citizens.  RT (Russia Today) is a Russian government propaganda website.

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  • Chris Tomlinson. Chris is a writer at Breitbart London. He has written over 660 articles for Breitbart since January 2016.  He follows multiple “Identitarian” Twitter users.  Identitarians are far-right activists similar to white nationalists.

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  • Brandon Darby, Breitbart Texas Editor-in-Chief. @Brandondarby.  He has written nearly 500 articles for Breitbart since 2010.Brandon follows John Blake, who retweets self described fascist @TheRightStuf, a self described fascist who runs www.Rightstuf.biz.

 

ASK YOURSELF: Do President Trump and Lee ZELDIN  know that Steve Bannon hired multiple white nationalists and InfoWars conspiracy theorists? And that Breitbart News still employs them? Do right-wing media outlets like FOX News know of Bannon’s links to white nationalists and InfoWars conspiracy theorists, but choose to ignore the issue?

Here is an interesting article on Breitbart, racists and the dirty work of laundering the ‘alt-right’.  I quote from this article: “the more apparent portrait is of a budding media empire that seems intent on growing its own market share, and political power, by courting some of the coarser and most hateful elements on the American right — or turning a blind eye to the staffers doing the dirty work. It shows its one-time star [Milo Yiannopolous] literally seeking the approval of the farthest of the far right, even as he and they agree that Breitbart risks too much in acknowledging their influence….  That was the conclusion conservative blogger Ben Shapiro reached when he resigned from Breitbart in March 2016.”

And what happened to Ben Shapiro after he left Breitbart? It is a messy story!  I quote:

…since his resignation from Breitbart in March, Shapiro, currently editor-in-chief of Daily Wire, has increasingly found himself targeted by the so-called alt-right movement…Breitbart published a piece by an alt-right Twitter personality known as “Pizza Party Ben” …that consisted mostly of a video mocking Shapiro for having complained about anti-Semitism, the alt-right, and Trump…

The nadir came a couple of weeks ago, though, when Shapiro’s wife gave birth to the couple’s second child. As the Daily Wire noted, Shapiro was hit with a wave of vicious anti-Semitic abuse, including multiple Holocaust references and requests that Shapiro and his family be sent to the ovens.

 

Breitbart News is “the platform for the alt-right,” boasts Stephen Bannon as per MotherJones.

I ask Lee Zeldin, is this the kind of personal brand you want?

 

 

Posted in bigotry, Civil Rights, Fake News, first amendment, immigration/deportation, Religion & tolerance, Russian connection, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Firing Mueller: Beware!

Posted on December 25, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

Contact your local resistance group!  BE READY.

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Posted in bigotry, Russian connection, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | 3 Comments

Taking the Heart out of Obamacare

Posted on December 21, 2017 by D. Posnett MD
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Tax bill sets up 2018 attacks on our health care
This week, House and Senate Republicans passed their deficit-busting tax giveaway to corporations and the ultra-rich without a single Democratic vote, clearing it for Donald Trump’s signature. After failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act outright earlier this year, GOP leaders gloated that “doing away with the individual mandate [in the tax bill] makes the ACA unworkable” and “takes the heart out of Obamacare.”

It’s true that repealing the individual mandate will do real damage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, premiums will rise an average of 10% (wiping out any short-term tax cut that low- and middle-income families might see under the bill before their tax rates jump up again in a few years) and 13 million people will lose their health insurance as a result of the Republican tax bill. Combined with regulatory changes proposed by the Trump administration to make “junk” plans more attractive to healthy people and the GOP’s ongoing efforts to sabotage consumer protections, the coming year could be turbulent, expensive and scary for millions of people in need of affordable care.

But while it’s easy to feel despair, Republicans have not taken the “heart” out of the ACA. Not yet!

It will be up to us next year to fight against attacks on the true heart of the ACA: the Medicaid expansion, subsidies to help low- and moderate-income families pay their premiums and consumer protections for women and people with pre-existing conditions. That’s because GOP leadership has made clear that, having blown a giant hole in the deficit with tax cuts, they intend to use that hole as an excuse to dismantle core safety net programs including the ACA, Medicaid, food stamps and more.

Help Raising Women’s Voices protect the true heart of the ACA in 2018 by making a tax-deductible charitable donation before year’s end! You can donate through the Network for Good page

Our 2017 work isn’t over yet!
Meanwhile, our fight for affordable health care isn’t even over for the week.  Having now given themselves and their donors an expensive Christmas bonanza with the national credit card, Republicans are hoping to leave town for the holidays without reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which expired in September. CHIP funds health insurance for nine million kids, including two million kids with serious chronic conditions, but without federal support, states are spending down reserves and moving to cut off new enrollments as a first step to shutting down their CHIP programs altogether.

Today, the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families released new analysis which found that if Congress does not act soon to fund CHIP, an estimated 1.9 million children in separate CHIP programs could lose coverage in January. An additional 1 million children would also be at risk of losing coverage by the end of February.

According to congressional Republicans, “The reason CHIP’s having trouble is we don’t have any money anymore.” Having just voted to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit in order to slash taxes on the rich, Republicans are refusing to fund the $14 billion CHIP program unless they win deep health cuts elsewhere. They hope to push off dealing with CHIP until after the New Year, even though states like Alabama have already announced that they will be forced to freeze enrollment on January 1.

Also left without continuing funding are community health centers, which provide vital primary care to many low-income families, the Maternal Infant Childhood Home Visiting Program, and the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments program, which supports safety-net hospitals that serve large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients. Word today is that Congress will pass yet another short-term extender of government funding until early in 2018.

There’s still time to push Congress to take more decisive action this week! The number for the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. You know what to do!

From Raising Women’s Voices, NY, NY
Posted in ACA, American Health Care Act, Health Care, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Feel powerless? Here is something that will save a life, save a family.

Posted on December 21, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

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DECEMBER 20, 2017

If you’re an attorney, law student, or fluent in English and another language, please consider volunteering with the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative. Just one week of your time could help save a life. If you’re unable to volunteer, please share this email with someone who you think would be interested.

The Trump administration is shredding civil rights protections in our country – and there’s one group that’s suffering the most: immigrants caught up in the president’s cruel deportation dragnet.

Not only are Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests tearing families apart, but some immigrants could face death if they are deported.

Many of these people have meritorious claims, but few have access to quality legal counsel. Needless to say, their due process rights are being trampled. We’ve hired numerous attorneys, but the need is so great that we need volunteers.

That’s why we created the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI), an SPLC project that provides pro bono representation to immigrants detained in the Southeast. It’s the largest deportation-defense program in the country that is funded and operated by a non-profit organization.

Here are a few facts:

ICE arrests have increased by 40 percent this year, and tens of thousands of men and women are being held behind bars as they await deportation proceedings.

Immigrants with legal representation are 10 times as likely to succeed in their cases as those who represent themselves.

For those seeking asylum because of persecution in their home countries, having an attorney can mean the difference between life and death.

By volunteering just one week of your time, you’ll help protect the right to due process that’s under assault by the Trump administration, ensure fair and humane treatment of people in the legal system, and make your mark on history.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to help those in need.

Your friends at the SPLC

P.S. Have questions? Please see our FAQ.

Posted in bigotry, immigration/deportation, Judiciary, Religion & tolerance, Trump, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Keep Bannon out of New York

Posted on December 14, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

This demonstration is tomorrow Thursday on Park Ave and 47th in front of the offices of Wayne Berman, one of the hosts of Zeldin’s fundraiser with Bannon.   The location may change in the last minute – keep checking this Facebook site:

https://www.facebook.com/events/787115771474452/?active_tab=discussion

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On December 14, Steve Bannon will be in NYC fundraising for Rep. Lee Zeldin. It’s Bannon’s first fundraiser for a House Representative, and we have to show up big if we’re going to make it his last.

After Steve Bannon was ousted from the White House (we helped do that!), he set his sights on Congress with a plan to elect extremists who support Trump and his white supremacist agenda.

We need to make it clear that Steve Bannon and his white supremacist agenda are NOT welcome in New York or in Congress.

Help us bring our message to Rep. Lee Zeldin and every Member of Congress: if they’re willing to threaten our communities by giving a platform to Steve Bannon’s hateful agenda for their own political gain, we’re going to do everything in our power to hold them accountable.

Share and invite your friends, and sign our petition: http://www.weveseenthisbefore.org/zeldin_dump_bannon

More details to be announced!

CO-SPONSORS: Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Show Up LI, Let’s Visit Lee Zeldin, Suffolk Progressives, Resist and Replace, Long Island Progressive Coalition, PEER/NYPAN: Progressive East End Reformers, Resist Here, T’ruah, United Through Action/Flip Long Island, Make the Road New York, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice [JFREJ]

I would add:
As Doug Jones in Alabama proved yesterday and summed up by Michael Steele on MSNBC:
Prepare you signs/banners (but don’t mount them on sticks or poles).
Ideas for signs:
When you lie down with fleas…
No Hate in NY State
Zeldin is a Bannon puppet
Zeldin is a Trump puppet
Zeldin: Alt right Jew ???
Zeldin: siding with Alt Right
We are coming for you Lee Zeldin
Toxic Lee has the Bannon Virus
Peter King on Bannon:
Posted in bigotry, GOP, Peter King, Religion & tolerance, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rally to protest Zeldin/Bannon fundraiser

Posted on December 12, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

Today, Dec 11th, in Patchogue we rallied to protest Bannon as the featured speaker in a Zeldin fundraiser scheduled for Dec. 14th in NYC.  Today we submitted a petition with over 5000 signature to Rep. Zeldin’s office in Patchogue and rallied with speakers and chants.  By my count there were 150 supporters in attendance and a small handful of bigoted Zeldin/Bannon/Trump supporters.

“Incensed residents…” says Patch.com.  Darn right.  https://patch.com/new-york/easthampton/constituents-protest-petition-bannon-zeldin-fundraiser

Enjoy these videos:

 

 

 

Posted in bigotry, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Medicine and Why Net Neutrality Matters

Posted on December 11, 2017 by bcolbath42

Published in The Doctor’s Tablet

by NANCY R. GLASSMAN, M.L.S., M.P.H, on DECEMBER 8, 2017

Recently, the library at Einstein, where I work as a medical librarian, experienced a momentary internet outage. In that instant everything seemed to stop in its tracks.

Medical students preparing to take their STEP 1 Board exams couldn’t finish their web-based practice tests. Ph.D. candidates couldn’t download the journal articles they needed in preparation for writing their theses. Faculty members were unable to download data sets sent from collaborators across the country. Librarians were interrupted in the middle of presenting a webinar about searching for clinical research studies in PubMed to medical residents at our university hospital across town. The frustration was palpable.

After what seemed like forever―but was in reality just a few minutes―access was restored. Life, as we typically know it, resumed.

This moment and the disruption it caused illustrate how essential fast, reliable internet access is to nearly everything we do in the library and at the medical school in support of education, research and patient care.

It’s also the first thing I thought of when, just before Thanksgiving, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)―led by its chair, Ajit Pai―presented detailed plans for dismantling network neutrality.

Network neutrality in action
“Net neutrality” refers to the concept that internet service providers (ISPs) should handle all data―no matter its source, destination or content―traveling through their networks in the same way. This means that individuals, community-based organizations, small businesses, educational institutions, public libraries, government agencies and large corporations are all sending and receiving information at the same speeds and levels of quality. In 2015, the FCC adopted a set of rules designed to protect net neutrality. These rules were affirmed by a federal appeals court ruling in 2016.

Because of our reliance on the internet, the current debate regarding the future of net neutrality deeply concerns me. Removing the current protections for the public that net neutrality represents could impede internet access to the web by imposing slower speeds and higher costs.  Access to educational and non-profit websites could be deprioritized in favor of commercial websites. Without net neutrality, the scientific and academic community would be subject to the whims and biases of those in power and the profit margins sought by ISPs in control of internet access.

Net neutrality is essential to education today
I’ve worked as a medical librarian in an academic health science library for more than 25 years. During that time, I’ve been directly involved in the move from print to a primarily online environment. Open and equal access to information, no matter its source, is vital to the primary mission of my library, whether it is supporting education, laboratory research or patient care. At a time when budgets are tighter than ever, the possibility of having to pay more for access to electronic resources could result in a reduction in online subscriptions.

This issue also brings to mind the digital divide. I think about my colleagues at the local branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL, which serves as the primary internet access point for many members of the community. These people use the library’s computers and Wi-Fi network in connection with many aspects of their lives, including homework, research, literacy training and applying for jobs. Like those of other public libraries, the NYPL’s mission could be jeopardized by the administration’s proposal.

Earlier this year, many organizations in the library, education and science fields took a civilized stand in support of net neutrality by submitting comments to the FCC. Among those lending their voices to protecting net neutrality is a coalition of leadership associations in higher education, including the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Research Libraries and EDUCAUSE.

Other organizations have also voiced concerns over the FCC chair’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” order. Yet informed conversations on this topic have largely been overshadowed by disheartening rancor and abusive language directed toward Mr. Pai. This only weakens the cause of net neutrality. Those wishing to comment should first learn more about the importance of neutrality through these statements from the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, and the scientific journal PLoS and use them to make a well-reasoned case.

On December 14, 2017, the FCC’s five commissioners are scheduled to vote on Mr. Pai’s new draft order. If they approve the order, it will drastically change the way we access the internet resources we rely on daily and our ability to connect and communicate effectively and efficiently. Although the FCC is not currently accepting comments, there is still time to add our voices to those supporting protection of net neutrality. Contact your representatives using this customizable email form from the American Library Association to let them know how important fair and equal access to information is to you.

Posted in Health Care, Internet, Net Neutrality, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Zeldin: gutting NY’s gun control laws

Posted on December 9, 2017 by D. Posnett MD
With the help of Lee Zeldin, this week, Republicans in the U.S. House pushed through a bill that would gut New York’s gun control laws and open the barn door to a flood of concealed, loaded firearms on New York streets.
The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act is a huge gift to the gun lobby and an attack on states like ours that have taken commonsense steps to protect our communities from gun violence. The bill would require New York to accept the porous gun laws in states like Mississippi and Arkansas, which allow virtually anyone to carry a concealed firearm anytime, anywhere—no permit required.
How much of a threat is this bill? If it passes the GOP-controlled Senate by December 31st, the NYPD would be unable to place any meaningful restrictions on loaded, concealed firearms in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. That is madness.
There’s a reason we’ve cut gun violence so dramatically in New York in recent years. Our sensible gun laws keep firearms away from dangerous individuals and restrict who may carry a concealed firearm. We can’t allow the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act to become law. If it does, our neighborhoods will become less safe and our police officers will be at greater risk.
All my best,
Eric Schneiderman
PAID FOR BY SCHNEIDERMAN 2018
Posted in Guns, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tax Plan: Declaration of War

Posted on December 7, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

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Published in the East Hampton Star, Dec 6th

 

To the Editor,

The Republican tax plan is nothing short of a declaration of war on the lower and middle classes, especially those in blue states. Republicans have decided they can say one thing (their tax plan simplifies taxes and provides relief for the middle class), do another thing entirely (it’s really tax relief for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations), and chalk up any criticism to fake news and liberal bias.

Why are they literally stealing from the middle class (e.g., threatening the mortgage tax deduction and state and local tax deductions) to give the wealthy a tax break? Because their backers want to see some bang for their big-buck donations. Don’t take my word for it. According to Chris Collins, a Republican congressman representing New York’s 27th District and discussing the importance of passing a tax bill: “My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.’ ”

We must stop this insanity. Tell Lee Zeldin it’s not enough that he voted no on the House bill. He needs to convince his colleagues that this bill is abjectly unfair and work to make the final bill less disastrous for his constituents.

Even better, vote for a Democrat in 2018. Then we won’t have a congressman who has to fight his own party in order to represent us.

Sincerely,  CAROL DEISTLER

Posted in Tax Reform, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Republican Tax Scam

Posted on December 2, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

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By Saumya Narechania, National Issues Campaign Manager, Organizing for Action

Yesterday’s tax scam will go down as one of the most shameful acts in Senate history.

In a single bill — finalized Friday night (Dec 1, 2017) in scribbled handwriting, and passed in the early Saturday morning hours — Mitch McConnell and 50 other senators voted to:

  • Push 13 million Americans off health care.
  • Ultimately raise taxes on 87 million middle-class families.
  • Punish homeowners, college students, and graduates.
  • Add a trillion dollars to our deficit.

All in the name of massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.

It’s a bill that was never — not for a second — presented honestly to the American people, and its stain won’t soon go away.

We’ll fight this bill as it goes to conference. We’ll make sure every House member knows he or she should think long and hard before rubber-stamping this calamity.

We’ll let every Senator who voted “yes” know that we deserve better than this bill, this process, and this vote.

And we will keep working, over the next few months, on the fights that determine the future of our country. Let’s channel our anger!

This work needs you

Please sign up. I just did

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John Tepper Marlin writes this about the  THE TAX BILL based also on reporting from Dana Chasin:

  • there is a looming Dec. 8th deadline: by then the house must accept the Senate’s changes
  • The Senate grants owners of pass-throughs a deduction rather than a maximum rate, zeroes out the individual mandate penalty, and retains a panoply of deductions eliminated in the House bill.
  • The bill is unpopular. This is possibly the least-popular tax package that the Senate has ever passed. Only 25 percent of voters approve of it.
  • Some Republican Senators threatened to break ranks over these issues: Fiscal (Debt) Impact, Small Business Treatment, Property Tax Deductibility, ACA Individual Mandate Repeal
  • Reps. Ryan and Brady promised to save the average family of four earning $59,000 a year an estimated $1,182. But this works only for the first year of the plan…These families face tax increases in 2024, paying approximately $450 more by 2027. Furthermore, these hikes are expected to affect families earning less than $30,000 in 2019 and less than $40,000 in 2021.
  • That this unpopular tax bill could pass the Senate so quickly is astonishing. However, Americans won’t be filing under the new tax system, if it passes, until April 2019 and most Americans won’t suffer a tax increase until after the 2020 election.

 

 

 

Posted in economics, economy, Tax Reform, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Why are Drug Prices Going Through the Roof?

Posted on December 1, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

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Twitter Accounts: @WritersVoice
On Facebook & LinkedIn

Why are drug prices going through the roof? We talk with Wendell Potter about Big Pharma and what his new investigative journalism site, Tarbell, is finding out about it.

Critics say single payer health insurance would be too expensive. We talk with economist Gerald Friedman, who developed Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.  He answers his critics point by point.

Wendell Potter

Are Americans getting swindled at the pharmacy? We pay an average of 300% more for medications than people in other major countries. And the costs just keep going up.

And of course, it’s not just drugs. We pay far more for all aspects of health care — insurance, doctors and hospital fees, tests and drugs — than other nations. But we aren’t getting our money’s  worth.

Wendell Potter is a former health insurance industry executive turned whistleblower. We spoke with him several years ago about his book DEADLY SPIN, about how the health insurance industry skews the playing field in its favor, making sure to kill efforts at reform while getting laws passed that fatten its bottom line. His book NATION ON THE TAKE showed how corporate America in general does the same thing.

Now Potter has started a nonprofit investigative journalism site, Tarbell, to expose the inner workings of the healthcare industry. Tarbell went online in November with a series of investigative articles by different journalists about the influence of Big Pharma over our political process. We called up Wendell Potter to learn about the results of those investigations and to find out more about Tarbell itself.

How Big Pharma Keeps Drug Prices High

Gerald Friedman

During the presidential primary season last spring, we spoke with University of Massachusetts economist Gerald Friedman about Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan. Friedman was the architect of that plan.

At the time, some mainstream economists published an op-ed in the New York Times saying the plan was too expensive. Then the Urban Institute came out with a study claiming that the Sanders’ plan would cost an extra $32 trillion. And candidate Hillary Clinton declared that single payer health care would “never, ever happen.”

Since then, Sanders has come out with a Medicare for All Senate bill that has actually garnered the support of sixteen Democratic senators, including some potential presidential hopefuls. Among them are Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker.

With the GOP continuing its assault on health insurance coverage — the latest being the so-called Tax Reform bill that would collapse Obamacare and take billions out of Medicare — a push for single payer  by an outraged electorate might actually gain steam.

So, would single payer really break the bank? We called up Gerald Friedman to ask him to address criticisms of his plan so we could make up our own minds.  To listen to the interview on a podcast click on this link http://www.writersvoice.net/2017/11/wendell-potter-gerald-friedman/ and then click on the player to hear both interviews.

Posted in economics, Health Care, medicare, Seniors, trumpcare, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Zeldin and Bannon do the 2 step dance

Posted on December 1, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

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White nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. (AP/Steve Helber)

A shorter version, was published as a letter to the editor in the East Hampton Star, Nov 30, 2017:  “Anti-Semitic Stance“

 

Lee Zeldin is one of only 2 Republican Jews in Congress. As such he should be a strong voice for those suffering religious persecution and anti-semitism in particular.

His latest move, is his alliance with Steve Bannon, who will be headlining a high end fundraiser for Congressman Lee Zeldin in New York City. Bannon is the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, the “platform for the alt right” which has a public anti-Semitic stance and is in lockstep with the neo-Nazi movement.

Mr. Zeldin has cast a blind eye on the rise of anti-semitic hate crimes since the campaign and election of Donald Trump.

The FBI just released 2016 data: There were 6,063 single-bias incidents involving 7,509 victims. A percent distribution of victims by bias type showed that 58.9 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias; 21.1 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias.

The SLPC has commented on this data from the FBI: The number of hate crimes has reached a five-year high in 2016, taking a noticeable uptick toward the end of the year around Donald Trump’s surprise electoral college victory.

The majority, by far, of these hate crime incidents were anti-jewish, not anti-muslim or anti any other religion!

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This flies in the face of an earlier statement by Lee Zeldin that denies a correlation between increase in anti-Semitism and Trump’s election and blames “those who are … looking for any excuse to undermine the Trump presidency,”

Zeldin hasn’t responded to a US vote against condemning Nazism at the United Nations. The resolution called on all U.N. member nations to ban pro-Nazi speech and organizations. The Russian-drafted resolution was approved Thursday by the General Assembly’s human rights committee on a vote of 125-2, with 51 abstentions. Only Ukraine joined the United States in voting “no.” Despite U.S. pressure to vote “no,” Israel supported the resolution.

On October 13th, Richard Cohen, President of the SPLC, wrote about the annual “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, featuring a rogue’s gallery of far-right extremists along with President Trump and Steve Bannon! “No one should be fooled. These are people and groups who harbor extreme beliefs that are antithetical to the very foundations of our democracy.”

One of the headliners at the Summit, was Roy Moore – the former Alabama chief justice who suggested in a 2002 judicial opinion that the state would be justified in executing gay men and women to protect children. Moore also wrote in 2006 that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, shouldn’t be allowed to serve because of his faith. As any judge should know, the U.S. Constitution explicitly bars any sort of religious test as a prerequisite to holding federal office.

We’ve twice had Moore removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for thumbing his nose at the Constitution. The first time, in 2003, was after he defied a federal court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments that he had installed in the state judicial building. The second time was after he ordered state officials to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue with its landmark ruling in 2015.

Bannon, however, called Moore a “good and righteous man” during his Summit appearance.

Bottom line: When Jews neglect to call out anti-Semitism and intolerance, I am reminded of those Jews that stood by Hitler and lived (or died) to regret it.

 

Postscript 1:

It may not be surprising that Trump brought so much racial animus into the 2016 election cycle, given his family history. His father, Fred Trump, was a target of folk singer Woody Guthrie’s lyrics after Guthrie lived for two years in a building owned by Trump père: “I suppose / Old Man Trump knows / Just how much / Racial hate / He stirred up / In the bloodpot of human hearts.” And last fall, a news report from 1927 surfaced on the site Boing Boing, revealing that Fred Trump was arrested that year following a KKK riot in Queens. It’s not clear exactly what the elder Trump was doing there, or what role he may have played in the riot.

Postscript 2:

This blog has posted numerous past entries on the topic of anti-semitism and religious/ethnic tolerance in the Trump era. They are listed here for reference:

Holocaust Seen Through the Eyes of a Child

Hatemongers without the Robes and Hoods

“They Want Everything Done For Them”

Zeldin & Bigotry

Devoid of Emotion & Supported by Zeldin

Remove Lee Zeldin from the US Holocaust Memorial Council

The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor Alive

What has Zeldin Actually Done ?

“Prejudice, hatred, and racism”

How sincere was trumps condemnation of racism as evil? His history indicates not very.

An Open Letter to our Fellow Jews

Mr. Zeldin Learns the Trump “Two-Step”

Anti-Semitic Posters on Cornell Campus

 

Posted in bigotry, israel, long island, Religion & tolerance, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

We Can Reverse Climate Change

Posted on November 30, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

By Cate Rogers, East Hampton, NY

Screen Shot 2017-11-30 at 12.24.47 PM(Copyright: Peter Weber Shutterstock)

I was thrilled to participate in a free showing at my local library of the film “An Inconvenient Truth”, being a new pinned Climate Leader of The Climate Reality Project, and having just completed training led by The Climate Reality Project’s Founder and Charman, Mr. Al Gore.

Then I was surprised to hear an opinion from members of a sponsoring group that perhaps there are other films to consider. Mr. Gore may be an “icon to us” in the movement, but, as they stated, he is a “lightning rod” to others. This was a political statement and I was saddened to see that colleagues in the effort let politics come into play regarding the science of climate reality. However, this is now common in our daily discourse. We attack the messenger and ignore the message. This is also a form of climate change denier tactics. We could be having a much better conversation.

It is ironic, because that is the exact message of The Climate Reality Project. There are simply three questions to be considered when discussing climate reality:

Must we change? Can we change? Will we change?

Mr. Gore’s work and his decades long dedication to acknowledging and adapting to climate change reality go as far back as his natural curiosity of his world. I think that feeling is one to which we all can relate. He was inspired by a science teacher, like many of us, in college who happened to be keeping his own climate record by hand and doing his own historical research with other scientists. The result was defined by the scientific method and it were clear. Our climate has changed since the Industrial Revolution as our worldwide dependence on fossil fuels began in earnest. We are heating up our atmosphere by the release of CO2. This was shown to Mr. Gore and others in the 1970’s and even earlier, and this research has been borne out over the decades.

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After decades of speaking on Global Warming, Mr. Gore has become a world leader in the effort to acknowledge the scientific facts and adapt our ways for our own future. Climate Change is not simply a political issue. It is important for our survival that we do not give in to the current trends of discourse and that we remove distortion and manipulation from our discussion. There will always be a great effort to silence the truth tellers.

The fact is that The Climate Reality Project organization is one of the best collections of the top climatologists and top scientists in all fields sharing without boundaries the most up to date scientific research. The effects are happening globally and are often not shown in the media. These scientists are presenting solutions that are available and being implemented throughout the world regarding our climate.  It is about the work of hundreds of scientists, world leaders, business leaders, and people who share a commitment to sustaining our planet…and us.

Locally in East Hampton, NY, there is a discussion about a Wind Farm. Many groups are coming to the table. I hope folks can get past partisan politics to come together to work to sustain the fisheries which might be affected by the wind farm.

Must we change? Can we change? Will we change?  The very good news is that the answers are Yes. Yes. Yes.

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Find out more information here: www.climaterealityproject.org. Please contact me for a free presentation to your group, class, club, and office at rogerscate@gmail.com or my fellow Climate Leader Afton DiSunno at aftondis26@optonline.net

(All photos are used by permission of the Climate Reality Project)

Sincerely and respectfully,  Cate Rogers

 

 

Posted in climate change, Environment, EPA, Uncategorized, wind energy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Is Peter King (NY-02) Going to Retire?

Posted on November 30, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

Republicans are leaving the U.S. House at the highest rate in a decade.   Nathaniel Rakich, a reporter with 538, has analyzed the Republican exodus and finds there are 2 groups: those that are moderate Republicans and belong to the so called “Tuesday group”, and those that are being forced out of subcommittee chair positions because of term limits.  Based on these 2 criteria they have created a list of congressmen most likely to join the retiree list.  Another indicator is the total amount of money raised for the 2018 race: a congress person who is contemplating retirement will not actively be raising funds.

The list of likely retirements coming in 2018 was summed up in a table (see below). Chris Collins from NY-27 makes the list.  But congressman Peter King from Long Island gets a special note:

“Maybe the likeliest retirement prospect is New York’s Peter King, who is both a Tuesday Group member and the term-limited chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. He’s also raised a pitiful $294,848 and has one of the lowest Trump scores in the Republican caucus.”

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Posted in Congress, GOP, long island, Peter King, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Zeldin – Bannon Alliance

Posted on November 30, 2017 by D. Posnett MD

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – NOVEMBER 29, 2017
CONTACT: Mara Gerstein: mgfightclub@gmail.com or Victoria Glynn
Victoria.Glynn@berlinrosen.com
Coalition of Groups Launch Petition to Demand Lee Zeldin Disinvite Steve Bannon From
Upcoming NYC Fundraiser

Suffolk County and New York, NY – New York City and Long Island residents and activist
organizations are planning coordinated actions between now and Lee Zeldin’s December 14th fundraiser in New York City to protest his headline speaker, Steve Bannon.

Steve Bannon proudly foments hatred against immigrants, Muslims, people of color, women, the poor, and Jews. As a member of Trump’s inner circle and executive chairman of Breitbart, Steve Bannon’s platform and strategy empowered the white supremacists who violently took to the streets in Charlottesville. Now, removed from the White House, Bannon is focused on electing extremists to Congress who support Trump and a white supremacist agenda. By hosting Bannon, Congressman Zeldin is declaring that he wants to be part of that plan too.

Jewish social justice organization, Bend the Arc, in collaboration with several New York activist groups, launched a petition to demand that Lee Zeldin immediately disinvite Bannon from his December 14 fundraiser.

You can read and sign the petition here:  http://www.weveseenthisbefore.org/zeldin_dump_bannon

The groups are also planning protests as part of a coordinated response.
Congressional District 1 resident Amy Turner said,” Zeldin says he represents the needs of our diverse district yet he is willing to align himself with Bannon’s white supremacist agenda. We will not allow him to infect our district and the City of New York with his message of hate.”

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach, rabbi of a congregation in Lee Zeldin’s district, said “I’m sickened that Zeldin is aligning himself with Bannon and the divisiveness and bigotry he fuels. During the high holiday season, I stood in the wind and rain outside Lee Zeldin’s office alongside Jews and allies to blast the shofar. I said these words to Zeldin:  ‘You cannot include Nazis and White Supremacists as part of your coalition and not be complicit in their hate and violence. It’s that simple.’”

 

This is national news that is spreading virally!

Read more here:

Jewish Republican blasted over fundraiser with ‘enemy of our …

https://www.rawstory.com/…/jewish-republican-blasted-over-fundraiser-with-enemy-o…

23 hours ago – GOP Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin and Steve Bannon, … $1,000 for the December 14 fundraiser in midtown Manhattan, which will be …

Bannon has House Republicans looking over shoulders for 2018 …

abcnews.go.com/Politics/…/bannon-house-republicans-shoulders-2018-51389387

3 days ago – Surabian said Bannon will headline a fundraiser next month for Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. But some GOP incumbents aren’t certain Bannon will …

 

Posted in bigotry, Religion & tolerance, Trump, Uncategorized, Zeldin | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment