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The New and Improved Armageddon 2000!

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Leonard Eiger / The Loose Nukes

Remember the Armageddon 2000? The Armageddon 2000 Nuclear Hardened Travel Trailer is the only travel trailer that you can enjoy all year long and, when the mushroom clouds start to appear on the horizon, instantly converts into a bomb shelter.

We introduced the Armageddon 2000 way back when President Trump was about to take office, and since then sales have gone through the roof. There is a one-year waiting period to get one (humanity should last that long)! And you can bet that all those people on the waiting list are getting nervous as Trump’s days in office seem to go on forever and his Tweets keep pushing the world closer to the coming Trumpocalypse.   [Read more…]

How San Diego’s Transit Went from First to Worst

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By Murtaza Baxamusa / UrbDeZine

The current leadership at San Diego’s regional transportation agency hates tax, except that they love to spend it.

This double-standard has become increasingly apparent in the recent months, as they are back-filling the shortfall in the local sales tax revenues and increase in project costs with $5 billion from a statewide gas tax that many on the agency’s board vehemently oppose.

With the failure of the local sales tax measure last year, and the gridlock in Washington D.C., the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG – in charge of planning and building transit in the county) is now far more dependent on the passage of transportation taxes by the California legislature.

Yet, SANDAG is institutionally resistant to achieving state transportation goals particularly with regard to climate change.   [Read more…]

Putting a Knot in Pinkwashing

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The pink ribbon isn’t just a symbol of breast cancer awareness; it’s a symbol of the breast cancer industry.

By Karuna Jaggar / Common Dreams

Breast cancer is the darling of corporate America, with pink ribbons adorning everything from handbags to handguns. Corporations put a pink ribbon on their products to boost sales and build their brand. And it works—sales go up and profits increase. Unfortunately, despite 25 years of pink ribbon marketing, breast cancer diagnoses have not gone down.

It’s one reason the national education and activist organization that I lead, Breast Cancer Action, has long called October “Breast Cancer Industry Month.” October was designated Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) more than 30 years ago—by the corporation now known as AstraZeneca, in partnership with the American Cancer Society.   [Read more…]

Michael Moore’s Proposal to Repeal the Second Amendment and Replace It With a New 28th Amendment

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By Michael Moore / Facebook

My Proposal to Repeal the Second Amendment and Replace It With This:

PROPOSED 28th AMENDMENT TO THE US CONSTITUTION
“A well regulated State National Guard, being helpful to the safety and security of a State in times of need, along with the strictly regulated right of the people to keep and bear a limited number of non-automatic Arms for sport and hunting, with respect to the primary right of all people to be free from gun violence, this shall not be infringed.”

I, Michael Moore, along with all who support an end to this epidemic of gun violence, propose a new Amendment to our Constitution that repeals the ancient and outdated 2nd Amendment (which was written before bullets and revolvers were even invented), and replaces it with a new 28th Amendment that guarantees States can have State militias (a.k.a. State National Guards which are made up of citizen-soldiers who are called upon in times of natural disasters or other State emergencies), allows individuals to use guns for sport and gathering food, and guarantees everyone the right to be free of, and protected from, gun violence (i.e., the public’s safety comes ahead of an individual’s right to own and fire a gun).

This amendment would allow states and the federal government to pass laws that would regulate gun ownership in the following manner:   [Read more…]

#TrumpTaxScam: Plenty of Money for the Wealthy, Pain for Everybody Else

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From eliminating the estate tax to lowering the corporate and top-tier rates, billionaire president just rolled out “plan only the superrich and giant corporations could love”

By Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams

While President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted from a podium in Indianapolis that his tax plan was “more fair for everyday Americans,” a chorus of voices quickly derided the new, detail-short proposal as “wealth-fare,” a “cruel joke,” a “plan that only the superrich and giant corporations could love,” and like “Christmas morning for tax cheats.”

The president’s plan includes slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent; capping the individual rate—now 39.6 percent—at 35 percent; cutting the so-called “pass-through” rate by a third, and eliminating entirely the estate tax.   [Read more…]

Trump’s DACA Deal: The Art of the Double Cross

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

On Wednesday evening, stories broke that Donald Trump had reached agreement with Democratic leaders on a plan for restoring DACA and keeping Dreamers in the United States. For a few hours, hundreds of thousands of young people directly affected—and millions of Americans who support them—felt a tremendous sense of relief. 

And then …

Trump’s morning twitter session brought the idea of a rational solution crashing down. White House aides from Wednesday’s meeting indicated that Trump and Democrats had reached a bargain that would protect the young immigrants whose lives were upended when Trump dismantled DACA. It was understood that Trump would continue to go after his much-discussed “wall” however …   [Read more…]

ACLU Challenging Warrantless Border Searches of Phones and Laptops

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By Hugh Handeyside & Esha Bhandari / American Civil Liberties Union

Warrantless searches of smartphones, laptops, and other electronic devices at the border are a major threat to privacy and civil liberties. Today, the ACLU, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit challenging such searches as unconstitutional. The border should not serve as a dragnet for law enforcement to pry into our personal and professional lives.

We represent 10 U.S. citizens and one green card holder from a variety of backgrounds: a military veteran, journalists, students, an artist, an engineer, a limousine driver, and a business owner. All of them had their rights violated when border officials searched their smartphones or other electronic devices when they were returning from travel abroad. Officials also confiscated and held several of our clients’ devices for weeks or months.

None of our clients have been accused of any wrongdoing, nor have they been given any valid explanation for why this happened to them.   [Read more…]

The Heat Is On: How Climate Change Is Making Western Wildfires Worse

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By Sher Watts Spooner / Daily Kos

Let’s look at the other set of natural disasters that is being exacerbated by climate change.

Major wildfires are burning in British Columbia in western Canada and in at least nine states throughout the American West: California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. California, Montana, and Oregon are bearing the worst of it. So far in 2017, more than 8 million acres have burned. More than 26,000 firefighters are working on controlling the roughly 80 major fires still burning. Homes are being evacuated or burned to the ground. It often rains in Seattle; it does not, however, usually rain ash.

The state of Montana is being described as a fiery apocalypse. Wildfires have been burning for months across the western half of the state, over 1 million acres have burned, and two firefighters have died. Gov. Steve Bullock has declared a statewide fire disaster, having already declared state fire emergencies in July and August. Bullock has deployed the Montana National Guard as firefighters. “Montana is in one of the worst fire seasons in modern history and on its way to becoming the most expensive,” he said in his declaration.   [Read more…]

Issa and Hunter’s Staffing Merry-Go-Round

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By DWeisman / Escondido Grapevine

Many congressional staffers are young, not attached to geography as they represent congressional offices far removed from their native lands. And many in the Republican brand play a game of office musical chairs where no chairs go unfilled although they swap around from time to time.

Take, for example, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-49th District) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th District).

Or rather consider the unusual case of Issa’s most notorious spokesman, Kurt Bardella, who has landed on his feet with frequent CNN appearances and something he calls Endeavor Strategies, described as “entertainers as well as politicians…relying on a new frontier of public relations and communications.”   [Read more…]

Dolores Huerta Calls Out Trump and Says the End of DACA Is ‘ A Step Above Slavery’

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By Kelly Macias / Daily Kos

Dolores Huerta sees Donald Trump and the Republicans for the racists they are—and she’s not keeping quiet about it. At 87 years old, she’s been engaging in social and racial justice work since the 1950s.

Huerta wants us to know that what they are doing to actively marginalize immigrants and people of color is an old trick that is about economics and racism. She also wants us to know that we can do something about it.   [Read more…]

Evangelicals Nashville Statement Promises Hell for Homosexuals

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By Abby Zimet / Common Dreams

Sigh. Just when the country could use some healing, here comes the hateful, vengeful, medieval and distinctly unholy Nashville Statement, a 14-point manifesto on “Biblical sexuality” released Tuesday by 150 evidently godless evangelical Christians of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW).

Convening earlier in August in Nashville, the CBMW affirmed their belief that “homosexual or transgender self-conception” is a sin and abomination, a ruinous “departure from Christian faithfulness and witness,” as is premarital sex. The only okay sex is married sex, between (duh) a man and woman. Any of you doing any of that other sketchy stuff: Sorry, but also not. Hell awaits you, as it should.   [Read more…]

Farewell to Sea World Orca Kasatka

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By Cara Wilson-Granat / OB Rag

Kasatka, the matriarch of SeaWorld’s orca family died on Tuesday, August 15, 2017. The news of this creature’s death appeared in the business pages of the U-T and was tagged as “tourism”. We think Kasatka deserved better in her life and better in her death. We are re-posting Wilson-Granat’s biography of Kasatka for our readers.

  [Read more…]

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