A Few Sustaining-Level Donations are Essential
Last month we had 3 donations in the one thousand dollar range. Just those three were hugely important. Along with the hundreds of smaller donations it gave us a chance.
Sustaining supporters are hugely important.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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06 June 22
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Reader Supported News
Former Trump Administration White House adviser Steve Bannon leaves after an appearance in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15, 2021. (photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
The former Trump adviser was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in 2020, only to be pardoned by the former president
Bannon was charged for the alleged fraud in 2020, only to be pardoned by Trump before the former president left office. Bannon and three others were accused of defrauding donors to the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding effort, which raked in more than $25 million.
Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York have said Bannon used $1 million in funds to pay co-conspirator Brian Kolfage for his personal expenses, despite donors having been told that all the money would go directly to the construction of the wall. According to the 2020 indictment, Kolfage used this donation money for home renovations, a boat, jewelry, plastic surgery, and paying off credit card debt, among other things.
In a 2019 video clip from one of the group’s “Wall-A-Thon” fundraisers, Bannon actually jokes about taking money from the “We Build the Wall” effort.
“We’re off the coast of Saint-Tropez in southern France, in the Mediterranean,” Bannon crowed. “We’re on the million-dollar yacht of Brian Kolfage. Brian Kolfage, who took all that money from ‘We Build The Wall.’ No, we’re actually in Sunland Park, New Mexico.”
Kolfage, along with co-defendant Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Kolfage also admitted to filing a false tax return. “I knew what I was doing was wrong and a crime,” Kolfage told a judge. The pair are set to be sentenced in September. A fourth person charged by federal prosecutors, Timothy Shea, is on trial after pleading not guilty.
According to CNN, Manhattan prosecutors are waiting to make a decision on charging Bannon until the cases against his three co-defendants have concluded.
“We Build the Wall” didn’t result in much wall being built. About one mile of fence was put up on private land the group bought in Sunland Park in 2019. Bannon said then that that project cost $6 million.
This should just be the beginning of the SCAMS.
MERCER, who parks his gazilions offshore to avoid supporting government, has guided tRump appointments, including BANNON, the blond air head and others.
MERCER supported Breitbart misinformation & PARLER.
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/27/rebekah-mercer-book-capitol-riot/
COMMENTS:
Do you know that Robert and Rebekah Mercer also financed Steve Bannon as well as neo nazis Richard Spencer and Andrew Anglin (founder of The Daily Stormer) right up until the Mueller investigation was starting to cast light on them as well. Then they pulled back from underwriting the most blatantly fascistic individuals ...for a time anyways. Clearly they're still at it.
The US has come to this: a vicious inherited aristocracy out to destroy any hope of social justice in the USA.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Representative Cori Bush stand together during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21, 2021. (photo: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
“If you are concerned about your workers discussing topics like ‘restrooms’ or ‘slave labor,’” write Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Cori Bush, and others, “the answer is … to improve your treatment of workers.”
The Intercept reviewed internal company documents revealing a plan by Amazon to block and flag employee posts on a planned internal messaging app that contain certain keywords criticizing Amazon’s working conditions, such as “slave labor,” “prison,” and plantation,” as well as “restrooms” — presumably related to reports of Amazon employees relieving themselves in bottles to meet punishing quotas.
“I urge you to modify your approach,” the letter, signed by Warren, Bush, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, says. “If you are concerned about your workers discussing topics like ‘restrooms’ or ‘slave labor,’ or exploitative working conditions generally, the answer is not to interfere with your workers’ ability to communicate with each other, but to improve your treatment of workers.”
“If it does launch at some point down the road,” Amazon spokesperson Barbara M. Agrait told The Intercept in April, “there are no plans for many of the words you’re calling out to be screened. The only kinds of words that may be screened are ones that are offensive or harassing, which is intended to protect our team.”
Addressed to Andy Jassy, the president and CEO of Amazon, the letter raises concerns that the company may have violated federal labor law, which protects worker communications regarding labor organizing.
“Amazon’s compliance with federal labor laws is an important matter of public concern especially given the company’s status as one of the largest retailers in the country,” the letter states.
Federal labor law requires that employers report expenditures on activities that interfere with employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and, the letter notes, Amazon has not reported any such expenditures in relation to the app. The letter also asks Amazon to disclose any spending in relation to the planning, conception, design, uses, rollout, and implementation of the app.
The National Labor Relations Board last month found merit in charges that Amazon had violated federal labor rules when it required workers to attend anti-union meetings. Despite the anti-union efforts, the Amazon Labor Union stunned the nation by winning a union election at a sprawling warehouse in Staten Island — the first such union of any Amazon facility.
In a landmark ruling earlier this week, the NLRB found that Amazon illegally threatened employees with adverse consequences like loss of benefits and reduced wages if they voted to unionize at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island. (Unlike the other Staten Island facility, the union vote at this warehouse narrowly failed.)
President Joe Biden has voiced support for the Amazon union effort, meeting with Amazon Labor Union President Christian Smalls at the White House last month.
“This disturbing report is part of a pattern of worker exploitation, retaliation, and union busting on the part of Amazon. Notably, Amazon faces complaints brought by the NLRB for firing workers in retaliation for organizing and for threatening, surveilling, and interrogating workers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York,” the letter states. “Unfortunately, the Proposed App and its anti-worker censorship fit all too well with Amazon’s track record of worker surveillance, inhumane treatment, and union busting.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament, in London, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. (photo: Matt Dunham/AP)
If Johnson loses the vote among the 359 Conservative lawmakers, the party will choose a new leader, who will also become prime minister. If he wins, he can't face another challenge for a year under current party rules.
While Johnson has weathered many political storms, he has recently struggled to turn the page on months of ethics scandals, most notably over rule-breaking parties in government buildings during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Revelations that the prime minister and his staff repeatedly flouted restrictions they imposed on Britain in 2020 and 2021 have fueled outrage in the country at the scandal known as "partygate."
Conservative Party official Graham Brady announced Monday that he had received enough letters from lawmakers demanding a vote on Johnson's leadership to trigger one. That happens if 54 Tory legislators — 15% of the party's group in the House of Commons — write to Brady.
"The threshold of 15% has been passed," Brady said. He said the vote would take place in person in the House of Commons on Monday evening, with the result announced soon after.
Johnson's Downing Street office said the prime minister welcomed the vote.
"Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people's priorities," it said.
Late last month an investigator's report on "partygate" slammed a culture of rule-breaking inside the prime minister's Downing Street office.
Civil service investigator Sue Gray described alcohol-fueled bashes held by Downing Street staff members at a time when pandemic restrictions prevented U.K. residents from socializing or even visiting dying relatives.
Gray said the "senior leadership team" must bear responsibility for "failures of leadership and judgment."
The prime minister said he was "humbled" and took "full responsibility" — but insisted he would not resign. He urged Britons to "move on" and focus on Britain's battered economy and the war in Ukraine.
But a growing number of Conservatives feel that Johnson, the charismatic leader who won them a huge parliamentary majority in 2019, is now a liability.
If Johnson is ousted it would spark a Conservative leadership contest, in which several prominent government ministers are likely to run.
Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a Johnson critic, said "we have some very good alternatives to the prime minister so we're not short of choice."
"Any single one of those people in my view would make a better prime minister than the one that we've got at the moment," he told the BBC.
Discontent seems to have come to a head over a parliamentary break that coincided with celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. For many, the four-day long weekend was a chance to relax — but there was no respite for Johnson, who was booed by some onlookers as he arrived for a service in the queen's honor at St. Paul's Cathedral on Friday.
Cabinet minister Steve Barclay, a Johnson ally, said toppling the leader now would be "indefensible."
"The problems we face aren't easy to solve," he wrote on the Conservative Home website. "Democracies around the world are all currently facing similar challenges. But under Boris Johnson's leadership, our plan for jobs shows how we are navigating through these global challenges.
"To disrupt that progress now would be inexcusable to many who lent their vote to us for the first time at the last general election, and who want to see our Prime Minister deliver the changes promised for their communities."
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, waits to speak to activists demanding action on gun control legislation at the Capitol on 26 May. (photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP)
Senator Chris Murphy says measures passed in Florida after Parkland shooting could attract Republican support
Chris Murphy of Connecticut, speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, said he was optimistic that recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, could finally prompt enough bipartisan support for legislation that has previously proven elusive.
But he also warned of “significant” consequences if lawmakers failed to act.
“I’m more confident than ever that we’re gonna get there,” Murphy said. “But I’m also more anxious about failure this time around.
“In Connecticut last week I’ve never seen the look in parents’ faces that I did. It was just a deep, deep fear for our children. And also a fear that things in our country are so fundamentally broken that you can’t put politics aside to guarantee the one thing that matters most to adults: the safety of their children.”
Murphy added: “The possibility of success is better than ever before. But I think the consequences of failure for our entire democracy are more significant than ever.”
Florida, a Republican-controlled state, acted swiftly after the murders of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in February 2018, passing red flag laws and raising the age requirement for buying, but not owning, firearms from 18 to 21, among other steps. The Parkland gunman was 19.
In his address to the nation last week, Joe Biden called for a federal ban on semi-automatic weapons, and raising the age requirement if that couldn’t be done.
Murphy acknowledged the Florida actions and said “there is interest in taking a look at that age range, 18 to 21” during bipartisan discussions about possible legislation, led on the Republican side by Texas senator John Cornyn.
“Right now we’re trying to discover what can get to 60 votes [in the Senate],” Murphy said.
“But I think the template for Florida is the right one, which is some significant amount of investment in school safety and some modest but impactful changes in gun laws. That’s the kind of package we’re putting together right now.
“As Senator Cornyn said, there is interest in looking at that age range … and doing what is necessary to make sure that we aren’t giving weapons to anybody that has, during their younger years, a mental health history, a juvenile record.
“Often those juvenile records aren’t accessible when they walk into the store buying as an adult. So we’re having a conversation about that specific population, 18 to 21 and how to make sure that only the right people, law abiding citizens, are getting their hands on weapons.”
With a handful of exceptions, Republican politicians have remained resolutely opposed to any kind of gun reforms, despite polls showing overwhelming public support for “common sense” measures including red flag laws and expanded background checks.
In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Republican House minority whip Steve Scalise, who was shot by a gunman in a 2017 attack during practice for the congressional baseball game, attempted to paint soaring gun crime in the US as solely a mental health issue.
“We are not focusing on the root cause of the problem,” Scalise said.
“The immediate visceral reaction of Democrats in Washington is to go after the rights of gun owners in America. We need to be focused more on stopping things before they happen.”
Murphy said he hoped the negotiations, which have been ongoing during the Senate’s Memorial Day recess, will lead to a vote that could finally pass the chamber.
“This time we have far more Republicans,” he said. “We don’t need to have competing proposals on the Senate floor. We need one proposal that can get 60 to 70 votes from both parties.”
Democratic senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said on CBS’ Face the Nation he hoped any proposal would include an expansion of background checks, at least for commercial sales of guns.
“We all agree violent criminals and deranged, dangerously mentally ill people shouldn’t have firearms,” he said, noting that lawmakers “not engaged on this in the past” have been involved now in negotiations.
It's time to vote out those who fail to protect Americans.
The NRA has bought & paid for too many who regurgitate the propaganda.
The best they could think of was DOORS!
https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohen/videos/586839206161133/
Greg Abott was BOOED, went to a campaign fundraiser before going to UVALDE.
BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS!
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (photo: Vice)
Gov. Ron DeSantis is severely limiting access to transgender healthcare for kids and adults in his state.
The DeSantis administration made twin proposals Thursday to not only to stop minors from accessing gender-affirming care, but also prevent trans adults on Medicaid from doing the same.
The moves would severely limit access to care for transgender youth and adults, which are recommended by major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics as key to improving quality of life and mental health for a group already more susceptible to depression and self-harm as a result of discrimination and alienation in society.
The DeSantis administration released a 46-page report Thursday arguing that transgender healthcare should be banned for Medicaid recipients, saying that existing medical literature “provides insufficient evidence that sex reassignment through medical intervention is a safe and effective treatment for gender dysphoria,” and claiming that such studies which show the opposite are “either low or very low quality and rely on unreliable methods such as surveys and retrospective analyses.”
The DeSantis administration will “now initiate the rulemaking process regarding the Medicaid program’s coverage treatments for gender dysphoria,” according to a press release announcing the report.
Despite claims dismissing the quality of the studies, the report references “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” which was coined in a 2018 study by a Brown University researcher which has been the subject of intense criticism of both its methods and findings ever since.
Though Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal government and the states, it is administered by the states. Ten states explicitly ban coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender people, though a federal judge struck down a law in Iowa doing so last year. (The Affordable Care Act “prohibits discrimination” on the basis of gender identity.)
“This is just pure cruelty to low income trans people,” tweeted lawyer and journalist Alejandra Caraballo, a Harvard Law School clinical instructor.
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics have repeatedly defended the use of gender-affirming care to treat transgender patients.
“In my care of more than 200 transgender youth, I’ve seen the incredible relief and affirmation that these tools can provide,” Dr. Brittany Allen, associate professor of pediatrics at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and co-director of a transgender clinic at American Family Children’s Hospital, said in a statement provided by the AAP earlier this year.
“Every major medical association in the United States recognizes the medical necessity of transition-related care for improving the physical and mental health of transgender people,” the AMA said in a statement last year opposing a law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Arkansas.
But just hours after release of the report arguing gender-affirming are shouldn’t be covered for transgender adults on Medicaid, Florida Surgeons General Dr. Joseph Ladapo—who has also emerged as a vocal critic of COVID-19 mitigation efforts such as masks and vaccines—wrote in a letter to the Florida Board of Medicine that the science referenced by the AMA “extraordinarily weak” and politically motivated, and asked the board to effectively ban care for transgender youth.
“Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine,” Ladapo wrote, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
When Ladapo was appointed by DeSantis last year, an unnamed former supervisor at the University of California, Los Angeles declined to endorse him for the job, saying “the people of Florida would be better served by a surgeon general who grounds his policy decisions and recommendations in the best scientific evidence rather than opinions,” the AP reported in February. (A Florida Department of Health spokesperson dismissed this at the time as a “smear” from a “disgruntled supervisor.”)
The twin proposals announced Thursday—which are described as aligning the state with “generally accepted professional medical standards,” despite being opposed by major medical groups—come at a time of increasing attacks from Republicans on transgender existence.
The DeSantis administration’s moves, which come at the start of LGBTQ Pride Month and follow the “Don’t Say Gay” law signed by DeSantis prohibiting classroom discussions of LGBTQ identity in schools, were slammed by transgender advocates and medical professionals Thursday.
“It’s unconstitutional for the government to step in and deprive youth—and especially trans youth—of getting the necessary medical care they need,” Tampa psychologist Gary Howell told NBC News. “This interferes with the rights of parents.”
“He’s trying to take the freedom of trans ADULTS to access healthcare and of parents to care for their kids,” Florida state Rep. Carlos G. Smith, a Democrat who is openly gay, said in a Thursday tweet. “There’s no consistent or conservative ideology here. Just cruelty and a willingness to use vulnerable people to advance his presidential dreams.”
Attackilng 'those others'?
excerpt:
Earlier in the semester, I was sitting in the dining hall with some friends eating dinner. We were talking about the infamous Trump Travel Ban when I decided to share a story I had heard on campus.
There was a girl from one of the countries on the ban list who came back for sorority recruitment, which was a few days before classes started. Had she come back just for classes, the ban would’ve been in effect, and she wouldn’t have been able to return to school. Hearing of something so local and so close in my community left a huge impact on me.
I shared this story with the group, and what happened next left me speechless.
“But what does that have to do with you?” asked one of the girls.
Everything.
That was my answer that day, and it is my answer now. Humanity is not a partisan issue. Humanity does not know red, blue, green or yellow. Humanity does not know liberalism, centrism or conservatism. If we have truly lost the ability to relate to our fellow human beings, what does that say about us?
Growing up, someone used to tell me that whatever cause I was working toward at the moment was not about me. I wish I had told them right then and there that these causes are for all people. Everyone is affected, be it directly or through other means. Everyone should fight for human rights, and I will never understand the attitude of disaffectedness I saw at the dining table that day.
When your family, friends, or professors tell you that [insert your fight here] is not your battle, keep fighting. Don’t hesitate to be an ally to a movement. Know what it means to be a good ally. Remember who and what you’re fighting for. Immigrant rights are human rights. LGBT+ rights are human rights. Women’s rights are human rights. Everyone has the responsibility to fight for human rights.
First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Niemöller
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/first-socialists
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