On his program Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel said President Trump must have awakened that morning and asked, “What’s something horrible I can do to distract people from the Russia investigation?”
“Someone said, ‘you know there are 800,000 innocent kids you can deport for no good reason!'” Kimmel then said.
Pundits and politicians alike spent much of the day on Tuesday unpacking President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
And then it was time for late-night comedy, though for some comics, there was nothing funny to say and they opted for seriousness, an increasing tendency since the conflict in Charlottesville last month.
From “Late Night With Seth Meyers” to “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” hosts leaned on their refined Trump imitations to paint the picture of an administration no better at managing a natural disaster such as Hurricane Harvey than at preventing what Colbert dubbed the “man-made disaster unfolding in Washington right now” — the end of DACA.
Pivoting off Trump’s appearances in storm-ravaged Texas, comedians used stories of undocumented first responders as examples of those at risk of deportation.
They mocked Trump for delegating the announcement to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and took note of the fact that Trump’s wives also immigrated to this country.
“Ultimately Donald Trump believes if these kids want to be American, then they have to do it the right way,” Kimmel said. “By marrying Donald Trump!”
The monologue included a spoof television commercial claiming Trump’s three oldest children were hard-working “dreamers” who couldn’t help that they were born to a mother who emigrated from Eastern Europe.
“Tell Congress to protect these children of immigrants, no matter how terrible their parents are,” said a serious, albeit spooky narrator.
Colbert said the administration’s decision had Trump “in some deep DACA.” Footage of the news conference in which Sessions announced the end of the program included the attorney general saying the move “does not mean they are bad people or that our nation disrespects or demeans them in any way.”
“You’re right Jeff,” Colbert quipped. “Deporting innocent children does not mean they’re bad people. It means you’re a bad person.”
On “The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah was also quick to note that the young people protected by DACA had no say in being brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.
“It’s their parents, it’s not like it was their choice,” Noah said as a photo of a young boy appeared on the screen. Assuming the voice of a young child, Noah said “No Mama, you go on without me. I’m going to stay in Honduras and uphold the law. You go on. You go on. I know what Jeff Sessions wants me to do, Mama. I’m staying here.”
Soon after, Noah recapped numerous politicians, business and tech leaders who have publicly supported DACA.
“I’ll tell you this, if Amazon says you can’t return something, then you know you’re doing something wrong,” he said.
Seth Meyers suggested Trump hid behind his attorney general while simultaneously urging Congress to act through a single tweet:
“Trump ends every tweet like he’s jumping out from behind a door to scare you,” Meyers said.
But he was more serious on the subject of Trump’s repeated assurances that “dreamers” would be taken care of by his administration. In January, Trump said they “shouldn’t be very worried … I do have a big heart. We’re going to take care of everybody.”
Near the end of his monologue, Colbert revived a fleeting but viral moment from Tuesday’s White House briefing in which press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accidentally referred to President Obama instead of President Trump while describing how DACA’s repeal would unfold. Reading a prepared statement, Sanders corrected herself by saying “Sorry, President Trump.”
As Unions have been weakened by the wealthiest, THE MIDDLE CLASS has been SHRINKING. THANK A UNION and become a Union Member if you have the option.
This is repost of a blog I wrote in winter of last year when the protests against Governor Walker and union busting were gearing up.
Way beyond my wildest expectations, this post actually went viral.
I've decided to post this again here, not to try and prolong the success of it or recycle it, but because I feel it is still very relevant and can't be said enough. Especially with the Wisconsin recall elections less than a month away.
The right has made unions the boogeymen of our time. It is our duty to set the record straight.
Please share this with everyone you know. I don't care about credit. You can put your name on it for all I care. I just want the message out.
Unions are not a bad thing. In fact, we should thank them everyday of our working lives.
God Bless Unions!
Solidarity Forever!
Let's get one thing straight...
Employers and Corporations did not feel generous and decide to give you two days off every week to have a social/personal life. (We now call them weekends). Corporations did not just feel like being nice one day and give their employees paid vacations. CEOs didn't get together in a board room and say "Let's give our employees more rights at work" or "Maybe there should be laws to limit our power over an employee".
Virtually ALL the benefits you have at work, whether you work in the public or private sector, all of the benefits and rights you enjoy everyday are there because unions fought hard and long for them against big business who did everything they could to prevent giving you your rights. Many union leaders and members even lost their lives for things we take for granted today.
The right-wing attack on unions is nothing more than ignorance, lack of education, and propaganda.
If republicans would rather support corporations instead of organized groups of workers working to secure a fair work environment A.K.A a union, I ask them to walk the walk as well. Give up every benefit and right that you use that unions are responsible for.
Complete trust and submit yourself to the corporate agenda you fight for. Play by their rules with no influence from democrats or labor unions to try to force rights among the workers of this country. Dedicate your life to their life goal of making your company more money than the year before. Just understand that this may mean sacrificing the union fought rights you enjoy everyday. I mean, you don't want to be a hypocrite, do you? Like bashing unions on your union fought lunch break? Which means if you practice what you preach, you don't get a lunch break.
Corporations use to work employees 80+ hours a week, offer no breaks, hire children, offer horrid, unsanitary work conditions, paid literally next to nothing, and even murder. Not murder with a pen like they do today, but actual murder. They basically did whatever they wanted.
This is what they were like before unions. Don't take my word for it, look it up. (Links at bottom of page). If we rid the world of unions tomorrow, who is to say that they won't go right back to the way they were merely 70 years ago? The GOP governor of Maine signed a bill to repeal child labor laws this year, maybe they are going back to their roots whether we have unions or not.
So conservatives, please practice what you preach and give up all these rights and leave the umbrella of these laws for they were brought to you by unions...
36 Reasons Why You Should Thank a Union
Weekends All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks Paid Vacation FMLA Sick Leave Social Security Minimum Wage Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination) 8-Hour Work Day Overtime Pay Child Labor Laws Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) 40 Hour Work Week Worker's Compensation (Worker's Comp) Unemployment Insurance Pensions Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations Employer Health Care Insurance Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees Wrongful Termination Laws Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 Whistleblower Protection Laws Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee) Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS) Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises) Sexual Harassment Laws Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Holiday Pay Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance Privacy Rights Pregnancy and Parental Leave Military Leave The Right to Strike Public Education for Children Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work) Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States
So will conservatives give up all 36 of these union fought rights? Will they stand by their rhetoric that unions are thugs and refuse to take benefits from these "thugs" or will they hypocritically carry on the diatribe that unions are ruining this country while enjoying their weekends and paid vacations?
Or...
Maybe they could just admit that while not perfect, like anything else, unions have done great things for working people that they use and benefit from everyday of their lives?
Maybe a conservative union-hating family got to have some of the best moments of their lives while on vacation from work, and they still got to come to a job still there waiting for them, because of unions?
Maybe a conservative can't wait for their lunch break at work so they can turn on the radio and listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Back talk about how horrible unions are?
If you don't want to give up all your union fought rights and benefits at work, I understand. I don't want to either, that's why I'm pro-union and vote Democrat.
But maybe you could just admit that unions are not demons spawned from hell, and admit the FACT that they have improved your life in more ways than one?
Giving every adult in the United States a $1,000 cash handout per month would grow the economy by $2.5 trillion by 2025, according to a new study on universal basic income.
The report was released in August by the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute. Roosevelt research director Marshall Steinbaum, Michalis Nikiforos at Bard College's Levy Institute, and Gennaro Zezza at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio in Italy co-authored the study.
The study made economic forecasts for three proposals: a full universal basic income in which every adult gets $1,000 a month ($12,000 a year), a partial basic income in which every adult gets $500 a month ($6,000 a year), and a child allowance in which parents get $250 a month ($3,000 a year).
The larger the universal basic income, the greater the benefit to the economy, according to the report.
A $1,000 cash handout to all adults would grow the economy by 12.56 percent after eight years, the study finds. Current Congressional Budget Office estimates put the GDP at $19.8 trillion. The cash handout would therefore increase the GDP by $2.48 trillion. (Vox first did this extrapolation in their coverage of the report, and Steinbaum confirmed the accuracy of the extrapolation to CNBC Make It by email.)
The $250 allowance would grow the GDP by 0.79 percent and a $500-a-month payment would grow the GDP by 6.5 percent.
"THE LARGER THE UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME, THE GREATER THE BENEFIT TO THE ECONOMY, ACCORDING TO THE REPORT."
These estimates are based on a universal basic income paid for by increasing the federal deficit. As part of the study, the researchers also calculated the effect to the economy of paying for the cash handouts by increasing taxes. In that case, there would be no net benefit to the economy, the report finds.
"When paying for the policy by increasing taxes on households rather than paying for the policy with debt, the policy is not expansionary," the report says. "In effect, it is giving to households with one hand what it is taking away with the other. There is no net effect."
The study is based on the Levy Macro-Economic model, which presupposes that the potential of the economy is constrained because household income is low. That opinion, even the authors of the study admit, is debatable. "Other macroeconomic models would disagree," the report says.
The idea of a universal basic income has been promoted lately by technology leaders and Silicon Valley billionaires.
Some, like Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, see cash handouts as a solution to the imminent threat of automation to the labor force. Musk has said that universal basic income will be a virtual necessity because robots will put so many low-skilled workers out of a job.
Others, like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, think handouts could give everyone the safety net necessary to think like an entrepreneur. Zuckerberg touts UBI as a way to ensure people are not afraid to take risks to pursue the projects and business ventures they are passionate about.
Y Combinator President and Silicon Valley heavyweight Sam Altman has launched an initiative to study the long-term effects on human behavior of getting a cash handout. The research is still in process.
Even as the idea of universal basic income is being studied by and discussed among the tech elite, the idea is a non-starter in the United States, according to some.
Robert Greenstein, the founder and president of the D.C.-based think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, called the notion too idealistic. "An effort to secure UBI would prove quixotic," he wrote in 2016. Greenstein says universal basic income is both too expensive and impossible to get through Washington, D.C.
Greenstein offered one innovative alternative: "To be sure, there is a possible exception: a carbon tax that returns its proceeds to the public via a universal payment." But even that, he says, is more theoretical than realistic because he suggests that money reaped from a carbon tax would be better used to study alternative energy or to support those at the very bottom of the economy.
"If a carbon tax could pass, we might need to focus the proceeds available for these payments on low- and moderate-income families — so the payments would be adequate to offset the higher energy costs these families would face as a result of the tax — rather than extending the payments all the way up the income scale in universal fashion," Greenstein says.
Two months ago, an ostensibly liberal man from Ohio with a history of violence opened fire on a group of Republicans practicing for an upcoming baseball game. Several were injured, one of them, Congressman Steve Scalise, seriously. The reaction from the media was swift and loud.
Scalise critical as shooting stokes fears of rhetoric-fueled violence - Fox News
Extremism experts are starting to worry about the left - Vice
Terrorism experts say GOP shooting highlights disturbing rise in left-wing violence - Miami Herald
Since then, anti-fascists ("Antifa") have grown increasingly confrontational with neo-Nazis holding rallies to call for genocide. Again, the press is looking for the closest fainting couch.
Antifa Beats Up Trump Supporters, Fuels Right-Wingers - New York Magazine Berkeley proves liberals are enabling Antifa violence - Washington Examiner Violence by far-left protesters in Berkeley sparks alarm - LA Times
Outside of left-leaning media outlets like ThinkProgress, Raw Story and, of course, The Daily Banter, you'd be hard pressed to find this kind of pearl clutching after any of the hundreds of right wing attacks that have occurred just since the election, never mind the hundreds (thousands?) over the 8 years of Obama's presidency. It's almost as if ideologically motivated crimes from the right don't really count.
That's because, in essence, they don't.
You know the drill by now. Whenever a right winger commits what is undeniably an act of ideological violence, he's dismissed as "crazy" or as a "lone wolf." Sometimes, conservatives manage to even convince themselves the right wing murderer is actually a liberal. The media, unwilling to call out the right, gamely plays along because it's just bad form to call a right wing killer a right wing killer. It is, however, of paramount importance to highlightthe race and/or religion of any killer that is not a white conservative Christian. Also, there's no such thing as a "lone wolf" jihadist because all of Islam is dangerous, a stigma that is never applied to Christianity no matter how many abortion clinics are firebombed in the name of Jesus.
Keeping with this theme of Immaculate Innocence, the right lost its mind back in 2009 when the Department of Homeland Security put together a report about the growing number of extremist right wing groups and how they would target returning veterans for recruitment. It wasn't that the veterans were more likely to be extremists but rather that they would be vulnerable during the often difficult transition back to civilian life and their military knowledge was very appealing to people planning to wage war on the government. Just discussing the existence of these groups, never mind their plans to prey upon veterans, sent the entire right wing into high pitched hysterics. But that's exactly what these groups did and the number of anti-government militias increased by almost 1000% by just 2012. But, hey, don't get your panties in a twist, snowflake, they're just patriots that love America unlike liberals that should be shot on sight.
Violent rhetoric? What violent rhetoric?
Now that some Republicans were the target of political violence and there is an organized resistance to white nationalism, we're supposed to panic about the heated rhetoric that's been the norm for the past decade or so. The right is tripping over itselfto demonize the left and tie antifa to the Democratic Party. The House GOP is demanding bodyguards now. They're growing uneasy and they should. Political violence from the left is a completely different beast from the right wing violence we're all used to aggressively ignoring.
Here's the thing: Right wing violence is based on lies. All of it. They claim that the government is coming for their guns or that Obama is secretly working with terrorists to destroy America. They say that liberals want to make everyone's children into gay atheist baby killers. They say that Latino immigrants are the cause of a massive increase in crime and blacks want to rape their white women. They literally believed that a military exercise in Texas was the prelude to a government takeover of America (you know, the country the government currently runs). They literally believe that liberals are setting up detention centers for conservatives inside of empty Walmarts. They literally believe Hillary Clinton runs a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizza place.
It's all gibberish but it still inspires them to violence on a daily basis. And since that violence essentially supports the status quo of white supremacy and divisive fear, it's allowed to continue with little opposition. Allow me to explain how that works.
Republicans have spent decades demonizing the government to the point where most people consider it a separate entity from ourselves. They no longer believe "of the people, by the people, for the people" exists. Many consider the government to be intrusive and oppressive (because they don't know what oppression really is. Yet). In that atmosphere, hating "the government" is easy so we tend to ignore anti-government violence because it follows the false narrative we've been fed. That's why the Bundys got a slap on the wrist and the Tea Party protests were accepted at face value by the corporate media.
Consider this: When a right winger bombs a federal building or shoots up a church filled with black people, it's because he believes in one of the myriad fantasies that motivate the right. Whether it be "white genocide" or Walmart concentration camps, right wingers are lashing out at delusions. The consequences for the people they're attacking are very real but it changes nothing in our system because there was never anything to change.
At the same time, right wing violence against marginalized groups supports our institutionalized discrimination. Harassing, assaulting or murdering blacks, Latinos, women, Muslims and members of the LGBT community does nothing to alter the imbalance of power so, again, it's "normal" to us. Hell, the police do it as a matter of course and we pay them for the privilege of terrorizing our most vulnerable neighbors!
On the other hand, nonviolent movements like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and the protests at Standing Rock trigger an extremely hostile response from the government at all levels. Why? Because unlike the Tea Party and the Bundys, these protests actually threaten progressive change and that is intolerable. This is why BLM is labeled a "terrorist" organization and Occupy and Standing Rock required what was essentially a military response to unarmed protests.
But now we're seeing an escalation of anti-fascist protest into the realm of actual violence. The Antifa movement has little to no compunction about punching a Nazi in the face or starting a brawl with the KKK. This has the press all abuzz about left wing violence in a way rarely seen when the right goes on one of its numerous murder sprees.
The bottom line is that violence from the left, particularly the Antifa, is a natural response to a very real and very clear threat. I'm not advocating violence but can we really be surprised that people are lashing out at the right? Have you been listening to them, especially for the past 8 years? The American right wing been engaging in nonstop eliminationist rhetoric, promising to wipe out their enemies with "Second Amendment remedies." They carry guns with them everywhere and pass laws to make it easier for them to legally murder anyone they're afraid of. They train in the woods for a war they desperately want in order to secure their political power forever. They literally pointed guns at federal agents, occupied a federal building and got a pat on the back from Fox News.
And that was while they were out of power. Now, the ascendant right has openly embraced white nationalism. The NRA's recent ads are so close to calling for the mass murder of liberals and the press, they might as well be in the original German. The KKK, actual Nazis, and white power militias have an ally in the White House openly supporting them.
Until just a few weeks ago, Steve Bannon had Trump's ear and his idea of a good read is a book in which the white race is exterminated. Bannon regularly refers to "The Camp of the Saints" as a cautionary tale against immigration. At the same time, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken several steps to embolden the police to terrorize minorities again with impunity. And just to make it clear that the United States government is no longer in the business of protecting the civil liberties of minorities, Sessions wants to decimate the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and stop it from enforcing civil rights laws.
All of this is on top of the Trump administration massively increasing raids on immigrant communities and implementing, at long last, a limited Muslim ban. He pardoned America's most racist sheriff, Joe Arpaio, signalling to his most ardent supporters that they are above the law. These actions feed the white nationalist agenda of keeping the "impure" out and whipping up Trump's violently racist base into a frenzy.
We know exactly where this ideology and these kinds of steps lead and it ain't Disneyland. Nazi Germany didn't elect Hitler and then immediately put all the Jews into concentration camps. It started with small changes that looked an awful lot like America 2017. But unlike 1930s Germans, we have been listening very closely to the rage of the right wing.
When Richard Spencer and his fellow Nazis had their "free speech" rally on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial, they wrung their hands about how they're the victims and they're only standing up for their constitutional rights. But when you go to their websites (which is becoming difficult to do as they keep being kicked off the internet) and see what they talk about when they're not in public, they're quite clear about their plans. Their "bible" is "The Turner Diaries", a book that glorifies worldwide genocide of all of the "lesser" races.
These are not the idle threats of arrested development cases living in their mom's basement. These are promises they have every intention of fulfilling the second they get the power to do so; power they believe is within their grasp. This is why they're showing up to their rallies in body armor and carrying assault rifles; they want to spill blood; they're just shocked that someone is fighting back and winning. This was supposed to be their time and Antifa is getting in the way of their glorious race war.
None of this explains why the establishment finds left wing violence so alarming, although that's actually quite easy to understand. Unlike the right wing fantasies of "white genocide" and the "Global Jewish Conspiracy", the left is grounded in reality and they know exactly who is responsible for the pollution, propaganda, and poverty that is crushing this country (and the world). Rather than some shadowy made up enemy, they know that the Kochs, the Mercers, Sheldon Adelson, oil companies, Wall Street banks, the pharmaceutical industry, etc. etc. are spending billions to buy politicians, take over country and turn us into modern day serfs. Antifa and other factions of the left don't "think" or "guess" this is happening because the 21st century robber barons have been very open about their vision of an America run for benefit of the rich and no one else.
An organized resistance to this agenda that is willing to get violent is just as dangerous to the 1% as letting people vote in free and open elections. Being an oligarch with unlimited power and wealth doesn't do you a lot of good if someone puts a bullet between your eyes or blows up your car with you in it. Left wing violence is a direct threat to the interests of the rich and powerful and you can guarantee the official response to Antifa's increasing presence will be a massive propaganda push on every possible media platform combined with escalating calls to suspend civil rights "in the name of national security." And if this allows Trump and Republicans to further consolidate power? What an unexpected bonus that would be!
You don't have to love Antifa or agree with all of its tactics but as you're being bombarded with messaging designed to turn you against them, remember what the alternative is. Fascism has never be a peaceful or benevolent form of government and the United States is far more racist than prewar Germany was. In fact, we inspired Germany's eugenics program that led directly to the Holocaust. Our version of The Final Solution would be orders of magnitude worse than anything dreamt of in Hitler's darkest moments.
The right is growing afraid but don't feel bad for them. They've sown the seeds of political violence for decades and they've always assumed they would be the ones to reap the benefits. It never occurred to them that someone would fight back and fight back hard. It would behoove America's budding fascists, in the coming days, to remember that while the NRA has pushed millions of guns out on to the streets, not all of them landed in the hands of Fox News viewers and Breitbart readers. When the white nationalists inevitably give in to the urge to start shooting, they're going to find that a gun fired by the left is just as lethal as one fired by the right.
And there's a lot more of us than there are of them.
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