Friday, January 13, 2017
Zach Galifianakis Has a New North Carolina Film
North Carolina – once a beacon of light and generosity in a sea of red state reactionary politics – is now one of the most regressive and intentionally belligerent states in the union. The new documentary Democracy for Sale featuring NC native Zach Galifianakis uncovers the role that money has played in this shift and offers a lesson for the rest of the nation.
We’re thrilled to be partnering with Appalachian Voices, Democracy NC, The NC NAACP, and many others to organize more than a dozen screenings across North Carolina to inform and mobilize residents to demand campaign finance reform, environmental protection, and an end to racist gerrymandering....
Schedule of dates and cities below.
Monday January 23rd at 7pm – CullowheeRoom 210, Memorial Dr.
Cullowhee, NC 28723
Hosted by: Student Democracy Coalition.
A K Hinds University Center – WCU
Tuesday January 24th at 7pm – Walnut Cove
Rising Star
915 Windmill St.
Walnut Cove, NC 27052
Hosted by: Appalachian Voices.
Wednesday January 25th at 7pm – Asheville
The Grail Moviehouse
45 S French Broad Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
Hosted by: Buncombe County NAACP, Clean Water for NC, Democracy NC, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and Southern Environmental Law Center.
Thursday January 26th at 7pm – Bakersville
The Old Courthouse
11 N Mitchell Ave.
Bakersville, NC 28705
Hosted by: Yancey Mitchell NAACP.
Sunday January 29th at 3pm – Shelby
Newgrass Brewing
213 S Lafayette St.
Shelby, NC 28150
Hosted by: MountainTrue, and Broad River Alliance.
Tuesday January 31st at 7pm – Fayetteville
Cameo Art House Theatre
225 Hay St.
Fayetteville, NC 28301
Hosted by: The Fayetteville Branch NAACP.
Wednesday February 1st at 7pm – Wilmington
The Cameron Art Museum
3201 S 17th St.
Wilmington, NC 28412
Hosted by: New Hanover County NAACP.
Thursday February 2nd at 7pm – Durham
Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
4907 Garrett Rd.
Durham, NC 27707
Hosted by: The Durham People’s Alliance, and NC WARN.
Friday February 3rd at 7pm – Chapel Hill
Church of Reconciliation
110 N Elliott Rd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Hosted by: Southern Environmental Law Center, Church of Reconciliation Justice and Peace Committee, and Raging Grannies.
Monday February 6th at 7pm – Boone
Price Lake Room at ASU's Student Union
287 Rivers St.
Boone, NC 28608
Hosted by: Appalachian Voices, Democracy Matters, and Democracy NC.
Tuesday February 7th at 7pm – Raleigh
Community UCC
814 Dixie Trail
Raleigh, NC 27607
Hosted by: 350 Triangle, and the CUCC Social Justice Committee.
Tuesday February 7th at 7pm – Goldsboro
Saint Mark Church of Christ
700 W Ash St.
Goldsboro, NC 27530
Hosted by: Down East Coal Ash Coalition and Wayne County NAACP.
Tuesday February 7th at 6pm – New Bern
UU Fellowship of New Bern
308 Meadows St.
New Bern, NC 28560
Hosted by: Craven County NAACP and Democracy New Bern.
Additional screenings are being scheduled in Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Pembroke, and Winston Salem. If your city isn’t on the list and you’d like to bring Democracy for Sale to your town, contact Andy at amyers@workingfilms.org.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
What Have You Done, America?
PEOTUS was right off the bat in his press conference yesterday ... lying about himself:
Yeah, riiight! If you believe that, you're as stupid as you act.
Because Mr. Trump is known for his high-grade truthfulness and his almost Christ-like selflessness.
Bottomline: Most of what PEOTUS proposes for his business does not satisfy governmental ethics experts. The director of the Office of Government Ethics said yesterday after Trump's announcement: "This is not a blind trust," he said. "It's not even close."
Later Trump said this:
All the furor yesterday was over the leaked report that Putin has collected incriminating video of "salacious behavior" and other shit on Trump that he can use to blackmail our prez. Maybe that's all fantasy, but Trump has been acting like a man who knows he's under threat of blackmail.
"If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability," PEOTUS said, which sounds so much like whistling past the graveyard.
"The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters. They’re the only ones," said Trump. A new poll by the Pew Research Center found that 60% of Americans want Trump to release his tax returns.
It’s very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis. I think we probably maybe won the nomination because of news conferences, and it’s good to be with you.Sound right to you? Do you recall "almost daily" press conferences either before he won the nomination or after? (Note: Above direct quote is from the published transcript of the press conference, since I couldn't actually make my eyes watch it.)
Trump Will Keep His Conflicts of Interest
He keeps telling us that the law on conflicts of interest don't apply to him, like a man who already knows just how egregiously he plans to exercise his privilege to benefit the family business by steering the US government in certain lucrative directions. He says he'll turn over daily business operations and management to his two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and won't discuss any business dealings with them.Yeah, riiight! If you believe that, you're as stupid as you act.
Because Mr. Trump is known for his high-grade truthfulness and his almost Christ-like selflessness.
Bottomline: Most of what PEOTUS proposes for his business does not satisfy governmental ethics experts. The director of the Office of Government Ethics said yesterday after Trump's announcement: "This is not a blind trust," he said. "It's not even close."
Braggart-in-Chief
Trump said:We’re going to create jobs. I said that I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created, and I mean that.Under Obama, the unemployment rate now stands at 4.7 percent, which is at or very near what economists have generally considered "full employment." In other words, it's not more jobs that's needed as much as higher wages, and Trump's already on record saying wages are too high. People can find jobs. The problem right now is that they often need two or three of them to maintain a toe-hold in the middle class.
Later Trump said this:
...if our politicians had what it takes .... you would have millions more workers right now in the United States that are 96 million really wanting a job and they can’t get. You know that story — the real number. That's the real number.
According to NPR reporter Danielle Kurtzleben, "There are not 96 million Americans who want a job and can’t get one. Not even close. According to the latest jobs report, there were around 7.5 million unemployed Americans — that is, people who are out of work and looking for a job. Of course, there are discouraged workers and other 'marginally attached workers,' all of whom want to work but are not searching. Those people total nearly 1.7 million. Add that to the number of unemployed, and you get around 9.2 million."
His Continuing Tickle-Fight with Putin
Trump said:As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.That's a first! Opening the door a crack on Russian hacking, but then he very quickly smudged the threshold: "other countries and other people" have done it too, so who can be sure, amirite? Much later in the press conference, he essentially took it all back: "But you know what, it could have been others also" who did the hacking.
All the furor yesterday was over the leaked report that Putin has collected incriminating video of "salacious behavior" and other shit on Trump that he can use to blackmail our prez. Maybe that's all fantasy, but Trump has been acting like a man who knows he's under threat of blackmail.
"If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability," PEOTUS said, which sounds so much like whistling past the graveyard.
Late in the press conference, Trump was asked directly: "Can you stand here today, once and for all, and say that no one connected to you or your campaign had any contact with Russia leading up to or during the presidential campaign." Trump ignored the question and changed the subject.
Still No Release of Tax Returns
Because ... of course not. Hell has not frozen over yet.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
US Supreme Court Puts Temporary Hold on 2017 Elections
The Supremes will hold a closed-door judicial conference on January 19 on the Republican suit asking to overturn the three-judge ruling about the racial gerrymander, and they could agree with the Republicans that the federal judges overreached, or they could dismiss the Republican suit altogether and order the redistricting and the new elections to go forward.
Which means the Twitter crowing of high-ranking Republicans in the General Assembly -- "No 2017 elections for #ncga. #SCOTUS halts flawed, partisan, lower court ruling” -- is a bit premature. What the gerrymanderers in the General Assembly may have forgotten is that the current 4-4 split on the Supreme Court, which is not going to be altered before January 19, would mean that the lower-court ruling will stand.
So we're not going to put Cortizone 10 on our itch to vote again in 2017 just yet.
Debtor-in-Chief
He owes over $5 million to companies who worked on his newest 5-star hotel in Washington, D.C. Several companies have filed liens on the property -- the Old U.S. Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, including A&D Construction of Sterling, Va., an Hispanic-owned company that did fine carpentry finish work on the hotel -- "trim and casework and architectural millwork, wall base, crown molding." Trump owes this man $79,700. For a small company, that's a fortune.
Trump literally owes a couple of other contractors a fortune indeed ... $2.98 million to one company for "all plumbing, mechanical and HVAC work, along with site sewer, water, storm and water services" on the hotel.
The electrical contractor is owed $2.075 million.
Trump had the gall to say at the ribbon-cutting for the new hotel last October that his fantastic new hotel was done ahead of schedule and under budget, thanks to an incredible team of people — "including hundreds of construction workers, electricians, maintenance workers and so many others who helped make this project a reality. They're really the important ones." The important ones?
Trump has a history of stiffing his workers. He likes to force contractors and suppliers to sue him and bear unconscionable personal expense to collect what's owed them.
Hell of a PEOTUS, though, right? Capital fella! Can't wait for him to start lifting up all those forgotten working people.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Our Last Hope?
Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
--Princess Leia
Kushner is said to have "a calming effect" on Daddy Trump. We have to take that on faith, for if Trump has been periodically "calmed" during the last 18 months, we hate to think what displays we would have been treated to without Kushner's "calming effect."
Everyone gives Kushner props for ditching Trump's first campaign manager, Cory Lewandowski, and for showing Gov. Chris Christie the door, no small feat in itself (if it's true).
It's true that once upon a time Gov. Christie put Kushner's father in jail, but even without that personal reason for animus, Kushner's father was a prominent Democrat in New Jersey where Christie was a prominent Republican, and Jared Kushner himself is a life-long Democrat, said to be very liberal on social issues and liberal with the checkbook, giving to Democratic candidates.
The fact that Kushner, an orthodox Jew, has teamed up with white nationalist Stephen Bannon means that one or both of them is being influenced in directions he didn't necessarily intend to veer. Maybe it's those old Harvard ties that allow Kushner and Bannon to operate in the same orbit.
Only time with tell if Kushner can keep the Death Star from disintegrating the entire planet. He certainly knows where the plans are kept.
Monday, January 09, 2017
Pretty Soon, DJT Will Be Small Enough To Fit in a Walnut Shell
Now, after Merle Streep's take-down of Trump last night at the Golden Globe Awards (without ever uttering his name), Trump is compounding the lies with (you guessed it!) a series of three early-morning tweets:
Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a.....
Saturday, January 07, 2017
The Unclassified Summary
Three things are very clear:
1. The Russians -- well, Vladimir Putin specifically -- wanted Donald Trump in the White House.
2. The Russians acted to help make that happen. American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials celebrated and congratulated themselves on the outcome.
3. Donald Trump has continued -- as recently as this morning -- to deny, to excuse, to minimize, to obfuscate, to deflect, and to defend not our intelligence agencies but Vladimir Putin.
I can think of only one reason for # 3. Donald Trump knew all along what was going on and is now part of the attempted cover-up.
As far as I'm concerned, he's no longer just an ignorant buffoon. He's a traitor. He's an illegitimate president. He's a threat to our American democracy.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey Jr., who up until Thursday was a top advisor to Trump on intelligence matters, evidently got a stomachful of the lying Russian puppet. Woolsey resigned from the Trump transition team because he was being excluded from discussions on intelligence policy. His advice was being ignored, and he had become increasingly restive with a PEOTUS who totally confuses twittering with sober and complex thought.
Friday, January 06, 2017
Puff Daddy
Everybody knows by now that Donald Trump has to reinflate his self-image constantly, because evidently it holds air about like an old, dry-rotted tire. So he brags, especially on Twitter, when he's in trouble (Russian hacking, yep) and when modesty -- or even truth -- would look a hell of a lot better on him.
For example,
Had to look up who Jackie Evancho is and what about her album sales? Jackie is the 16-year-old singer whogot conned agreed to sing the National Anthem at Trump's inauguration. What Trump didn't mention about those album sales is that it's a Christmas album, so perhaps natural market forces might improve its sales as we approached Christmas, instead of the magic touch of King Midas.
For example,
Donald J. Trump
Jackie Evancho's album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her Inauguration performance.Some people just don't understand the "Movement"
Had to look up who Jackie Evancho is and what about her album sales? Jackie is the 16-year-old singer who
So this morning we get a pair of preening tweets from the next president of the United States, who brags that he was far better at junk TV than his celebrity replacement on "The Apprentice":
Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got "swamped" (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT. So much for....
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