Donald Trump launched a sensational attack on NFL players who have kneeled in protest of the national anthem during a speech in Alabama on Friday night, challenging the league’s owners to release anyone who engages in the movement started last year by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” the president said at a rally at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center in support of Republican senator Luther Strange, who is running in a special GOP primary election next week to remain in the Senate seat vacated by attorney general Jeff Sessions.

“You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it [but] they’ll be the most popular person in this country.”

Trump went on to attribute the NFL’s dip in television ratings to the rule changes implemented over the last few years to make the game less violent and limit head injuries.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/sep/22/donald-trump-nfl-national-anthem-protests

I guess its time to go to a professional game and sit thru the song

FUCK YOU drumpf and I mean it with all sincerity, FUCK YOU

Source: The Guardian

Activist groups praised John McCain for his promise to vote no on the Lindsey Graham-Bill Cassidy healthcare bill on Friday, but they warned against complacency as they said the fight to protect the Affordable Care Act was “not over”.

McCain’s pledge, which means Republicans can only afford to lose one more Senate vote in their quest to repeal the ACA, widely known as Obamacare, was met with celebration on the left.

But the Indivisible activist group urged progressives to continue with their frantic phone banking efforts and protests against the Graham-Cassidy bill.

Hundreds of people are planning to travel to Washington DC on Monday to protest against the legislation, which would dismantle the ACA and potentially strip millions of Americans of their healthcare.

The Center for Popular Democracy said people from across the country would be in the capital next week to take part in protests and demonstrations, while National Nurses United said nurses would join efforts to pressure senators to vote against the legislation.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/23/republican-healthcare-bill-protests

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And if you do not know where to go or you close by to one of these events to remind these jerks that health care is a RIGHT and not a Privilege here is another information thread which can be used

http://act.indivisibleguide.com/event/killthebill/search/

Source: The Guardian

An urgent appeal to the supreme court by Planned Parenthood has created an unexpected early test of Justice Neil Gorsuch’s views on abortion restrictions.

The court’s newest member has never spoken publicly in any significant detail on one of the most divisive issues he will deal with as a justice, and he gave evasive answers about abortion during his confirmation hearing before the Senate.

But on Friday, Planned Parenthood challenged abortion restrictions before the court for the first time since Gorsuch joined the bench, effectively compelling him to weigh in.

At issue is whether a law preventing three Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri from performing abortions should remain in effect while the group challenges the restriction in federal court. Planned Parenthood previously convinced a district judge to suspend the law, but on 15 September, the eighth circuit court of appeals stayed the judge’s decision.

Planned Parenthood has appealed the matter to the supreme court. The court’s decision, and Gorsuch’s position, is expected to be published in a matter of weeks – if Gorsuch doesn’t first weigh in by himself. Because procedural issues like this one are overseen by an individual justice, and Gorsuch is the justice with jurisdiction over the eighth circuit, the power to block Missouri’s law, leave it in place, or refer the matter to all nine justices initially belongs to him.


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/22/neil-gorsuch-abortion-rights-supreme-court-planned-parenthood-missouri

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Communities of color are hit the hardest by rising court fees and fines, according to a report released by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Thursday.

The commission recommends that the Trump administration continue to discourage bad practices, such as using fines and fees to raise revenue, rather than improve public safety, because of the negative impact of the fines on low-income people and people of color.

State and local legislative bodies are responsible for setting court fines and fees for people who commit low-level crimes, such as misdemeanors and ordinance violations. According to the report, 47 states have increased these civil and criminal fees since 2010. State and local court budget reductions may play a role in increasing fees and fines.

https://thinkprogress.org/court-fees-collections-companies-58ece19be258/

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

In Kabul, Afghanistan, American Embassy personnel who want to meet with their counterparts at the nearby U.S. military base have to travel a mere 100 yards. But they don’t make a practice of walking or driving. They go by military helicopter, reports The New York Times. The space between is too dangerous to cross on the ground.

It’s the sort of bizarre fact that might have emerged in Ken Burns’ new PBS series on the Vietnam War, illustrating our inability to turn South Vietnam into a safe, stable place. But it’s not the past; it’s the present.

The Vietnam War was the greatest U.S. military catastrophe of the 20th century. A conflict begun under false pretenses, based on ignorance and hubris, it killed 58,000 Americans and as many as 3 million Vietnamese. It ended in utter failure. Never in our history have so many lives been wasted on such monumental futility.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/vietnam-syndrome-lost-need/

We couldn't and were not allowed to vote (eighteen) t one time, but we could be "picked" (drafted) to die------------------that was BS

It still pisses me off..............reinstate the draft and see how many families want there kid to go to war, and get rid of the mercenaries such as XE formally Blackwater

Source: Think Progress

SOURCE: COURT FILINGS AS OBTAINED BY BLOOMBERG

Ivanka Trump and her clothing brand are entangled in an intellectual property battle in which she wants no part. Fashion designer Edgardo Osorio, co-founder and creative director of fashion brand Aquazzura, has taken legal action against Trump for allegedly copying the design of his iconic “Wild Thing” sandal that catapulted his brand to international success.

Instead of facing the lawsuit, however, Trump has shielded herself behind her official White House title.

According to a Bloomberg report, when Osorio first noticed that a number of labels had copied his design, his brand filed multiple lawsuits, mainly targeting larger brands like Marc Fisher and Steve Madden. One of the other companies on his list was Trump’s which was selling his $785 shoe for only $65.

Aquazurra called out Trump on its Instagram account, writing that copyrighted design theft was “one of the most disturbing things in the fashion industry.”

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/ivanka-trump-hides-behind-her-white-house-job-to-avoid-a-copyright-lawsuit-7c2657057319/

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Some days, the air would smell acrid, sharp like bleach, and I would hurry from the car into the house. Other days, the wind seemed normal, unremarkable. I didn’t know why.

My south-eastern Ohio town in the Appalachian foothills is a small, rural place where the demolition derby at the county fair is a hot ticket, Walmart is the biggest store, and people in the even smaller villages surrounding the county seat must often drive for 30 minutes to grocery shop. We hold the unfortunate distinction of being the poorest county in the state: an area that is both stunning – rolling hills, rocky cliffs, pastures and ravines – and inaccessible, far from industry.

It’s here that fracking companies dump their waste.

The Hazel Ginsburg well, an injection well built in the hillside decades ago, was meant to deposit saline and sand underground into porous rock. For the last few years, however, the well has held waste from out-of-state fracking operations done in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states.

A forgotten byproduct of fracking is the waste. What goes into the ground must come out: a sludge of toxic chemicals and undrinkable water, which trucks ship across the country. Far from the drill pads, far from the cities that profit from fracking, far from any city at all, the leftover wastewater is injected into the ground – my county’s forgotten ground.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/21/appalachia-ohio-fracking-wells-toxic

And were is the Ohio governor and right wing legislature.....................getting paid with bribe money, and not drinking the same water, and not trying to keep the health care costs down in Ohio.........................

Source: The Hill

Insurance companies blindsided by the Senate GOP’s decision to pull the plug on bipartisan talks and move forward again with ObamaCare repeal are scrambling to figure out how to move forward.

The death of the bipartisan push leaves them with no clear way to shore up fragile marketplaces ahead of the 2018 enrollment season, which begins Nov. 1.

The new ObamaCare repeal bill may get a Senate vote next week.

If it becomes law, insurers will face a whole new world in 2020, with states deciding how to use millions in block grant funding that will come from Washington.
If it fails, it’s uncertain if there will be another bipartisan push.

Either way, it creates huge concerns for insurers.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/351617-insurers-are-scrambling-to-keep-up-with-obamacare-drama

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I feel that any senator that votes yes to create this death panel, must help pay for there individual constitutes pre-existing conditions out of their own pocket, since after all, they get there pay check from the same people they are f*cking, and they need to be held accountable for there actions.................



US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121

Source: Talking Points Memo

By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 6:00 AM

The Senate is barreling toward a vote next week on a recently unveiled bill that would repeal much of the Affordable Care Act and convert Medicaid into a shrinking block grant. With just a few days left to muster the 50 votes necessary to pass the bill before the clock on reconciliation expires, the bill’s conservative authors are pressuring their moderate colleagues to get on board, despite the fact that the bill includes none of the protections moderates have demanded for months, nor any of the concessions that they won in previous Obamacare repeal bills.

With only a single committee hearing, no markup, no complete score from the Congressional Budget Office and only 90 seconds of floor debate allocated for the bill, and no time to hold a conference committee with the House, moderates are essentially being told to fall in line and swallow the bill as is.

If Senate Majority Leaders Mitch McConnell (R-KY) holds a vote next week, he’ll be throwing under the bus moderates who promised their constituents opioid treatment funding, protection for Medicaid, and equal treatment for people with pre-existing conditions.

During Senate Republicans’ most recent run at repealing Obamacare, they threw in a provision that allocated a whopping $45 billion dollars for addressing the opioid epidemic in an attempt to win the votes of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), whose states have been hit particularly hard by the crisis. While experts noted that the $45 billion was nowhere near enough to address the addiction scourge gripping much of the country, it was a significant concession to those lawmakers.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/graham-cassidy-strips-away-the-few-concessions-gop-moderates-already-won

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Heller, your toast.............your right wing governor sent and signed his name to a letter, denouncing this newest same old more extreme death panel that you now endorse, how do sleep at night

hey Heller, do you f*cking realize that giving the defense department 650 billion in tax dollars, that half of that money would stabilize the health care system----------------you really are a f*cking idiot

Portman, and Caputo must have millions to help family members with there pre-existing conditions, after all if they vote yes on this piece of sh*t legislation, they don't get the same health care coverage their under now, because they will exempt themselves like that ass**** Paul Ryan and that bunch of sh*t had in there bill................

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

What’s been happening politically and culturally this year in Colorado’s second largest city is inspiring. Progressive/populist organizing to build grassroots movements to counter plutocratic rule and govern in the people’s interest now have a model of success in one of the least likely places.

Since the 1990s, Colorado Springs has been shaped by an inordinate number of right-wing institutions. Yet, the Springs also is home to a hardy band of progressives, including environmentalists, unionists, women’s champions, scrappy entrepreneurs, LGBTQ activists, students and teachers, a sizeable immigrant population, social justice church groups and some sensible libertarians.

With Bernie Sanders bringing new, highly energized voters into play, young people who had previously evinced zero interest in the old Democratic-Republican duopoly were rallying behind Bernie’s grassroots populism. His revolutionary call to rein in America’s corporate oligarchs also sparked a fire in older, working-class people, including Repubs and none-of-the-above folks who’d given up on the idea that either party gave a damn about people like them. A shift was occurring in Colorado Springs’ political zeitgeist — one that might open a path for new alignments and a progressive-populist movement.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/populist-victories-won-conservative-colorado-town/

Near my old stomping grounds from Parker, CO