Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Chelsea Manning showed up at a far-right pro-Trump bash, infuriating the far-left

© Steven Senne/AP/ Chelsea Manning speaks at an event in Nantucket, Mass., on Jan. 11.


By: Kyle Swenson

Hours after hundreds of thousands of pink-hatted marchers pounded down New York streets to protest President Trump’s first year in office, a different sort of one-year anniversary party kicked off in a Hell’s Kitchen nightclub last Saturday.

The “A Night for Freedom” was billed as a “gathering of patriots and political dissidents who are bored with mainstream political events,” in the words of Mike Cernovich, the far-right activist and conspiracy theorist who organized the party. The $139 general admission fee got attendees hor ‘d oeuvres and tickets for three drinks. DJ duo Mike ‘n’ Cooks handled the music. As the event shifted into high-gear, it featured an all-star lineup of fringe Internet celebrities, Trump backers and media trolls, including reportedly Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes, Project Veritas’s James O’Keefe and the Gateway Pundit’s Lucian Wintrich.

But an unexpected guest, neither a Trump die-hard nor Internet provocateur, ended up dominating the news coverage of the event. Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence officer who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, was spotted “smiling and socializing with attendees” early in the evening, BuzzFeed reported.

“I f — king crashed!” Manning, a current candidate for a Maryland U.S. Senate seat, told a New York Observer reporter at the coat check. Later in

the night, Manning posted her own tweet acknowledging she had “crashed the fascist/white supremacist hate brigade party,” she wrote. “[L]earned in prison that the best way to confront your enemies is face-to-face in their space.”

“I think it’s clear that she does what she wants,” Cernovich told BuzzFeed. “And I think she knows that we’re the same way.”

But a backlash quickly kicked up on the left, many of whom seemed to feel the pro-Trump fest was antithetical to the positions Manning has voiced since her release in May 2017, after President Obama commuted her 35-year sentence. What followed was an overheated Internet tug-of-war between opposite sides of the political spectrum, each accusing the other co-opting Manning, while her intentions were relentlessly picked apart.

Further gasoline was poured on the fire when journalist Yashar Ali dug up a photo from December featuring Manning and other prominent far-right Internet figures, including Cernovich, Wintrich, Jack Posobiec and Gateway Pundit contributor Cassandra Fairbanks.

“Chelsea Manning at a CERNOVICH EVENT??? Say it ain’t so Chelsea!,” one poster wrote. “Good to know on the day of the Women’s March, Chelsea Manning is attending a party held by an ultra right wing bigot and nazi sympathizer,” another said.

The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald also chimed in, arguing that “Questioning her is 100% valid.” But Greenwald also pointed out that “someone w/her history — she went to prison for 7 years to expose US war crimes, withstood abuse the UN said was ‘inhumane,’ and then defended trans rights *while in a military prison* — deserves the benefit of the doubt that she’s not a fascist.”

On Monday, Manning again addressed the Saturday night event, writing on Twitter “fascists/alt-right deserve no platform” and that she “took up an opportunity to gather intel on them b/c the ideology they peddle threatens everyone.” According to the Guardian, Manning also reached out to apologized for her “very bad judgment” to Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour. Buzzfeed’s Joe Bernstein reported Manning “was on the verge of tears” when she expressed her regret to Sarsour.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/chelsea-manning-showed-up-at-a-far-right-pro-trump-bash-infuriating-the-far-left/ar-AAv3yLR?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=mailsignout 

Also Read: Centrist Dems Launch Smear Campaign Against Young Trans Woman, All to Keep an Old Straight White Man in Power


So, I question Why, the far left is all bent out of shape when it is they who are trying to demean Chelsea's run for a Senate seat to begin with!!! I agree that it is best to know your Enemy...



Chelsea Manning's Campaign Announcement Reveals Hypocrisy of Centrist Dems

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Tom Petty Died From Accidental Drug Overdose Involving Opioids, Coroner Says

Tom Petty’s system showed traces of fentanyl and oxycodone, among others. A statement from his family said he was prescribed “various pain medications for a multitude of issues.” Credit Jeff Haynes/Reuters








Tom Petty, the chart-topping singer and songwriter, died in October from an accidental drug overdose as a result of mixing medications that included opioids, the medical examiner-coroner for the county of Los Angeles announced on Friday, ending the mystery surrounding his sudden death last year.

The coroner, Jonathan Lucas, said that Mr. Petty’s system showed traces of the drugs fentanyl, oxycodone, temazepam, alprazolam, citalopram, acetyl fentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl.

Barely a week after Mr. Petty, 66, had concluded a tour with his band, the Heartbreakers, with three shows at the Hollywood Bowl, representatives said the singer had suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, Calif. on Oct. 2. But Mr. Petty’s official death certificate, released about a week later, listed his cause of death as “deferred” pending an autopsy.

In a statement posted to Mr. Petty’s Facebook page on Friday, his wife, Dana, and daughter, Adria, wrote that Mr. Petty suffered from “many serious ailments including emphysema, knee problems and most significantly a fractured hip,” but that he continued to tour, worsening his conditions. “On the day he died he was informed his hip had graduated to a full on break and it is our feeling that the pain was simply unbearable and was the cause for his over use of medication,” the statement said.


They said: “We knew before the report was shared with us that he was prescribed various pain medications for a multitude of issues including Fentanyl patches and we feel confident that this was, as the coroner found, an unfortunate accident.”

“As a family we recognize this report may spark a further discussion on the opioid crisis and we feel that it is a healthy and necessary discussion and we hope in some way this report can save lives,” Mr. Petty’s family said. “Many people who overdose begin with a legitimate injury or simply do not understand the potency and deadly nature of these medications.”

Photo courtesy of Billboard
In 2016, the pop singer Prince was found to have died from an accidental overdose of self-administered fentanyl, a synthetic opiate estimated to be more than 50 times more powerful than heroin. In 2015, federal officials said that incidents and overdoses with fentanyl were “occurring at an alarming rate throughout the United States.” Drug deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled from 2015 to 2016, according to the governmental account of nationwide drug deaths last year. 

Prince, his friends and associates said after his death, also suffered from chronic hip pain that was exacerbated by a breakneck touring schedule, and he sought to hide what became a serious opiate addiction. 

Photo courtesy of Billboard
Lil Peep, the 21-year-old emo rapper who died of an accidental overdose in November, was found to have fentanyl, among other prescription drugs, in his system as well.

Mr. Petty, who formed the Heartbreakers in the mid-1970s, was a rock radio stalwart with hits like “I Won’t Back Down,” “Free Fallin’” and “American Girl.” He sold millions of albums and headlined the Super Bowl in 2008.

“On a positive note we now know for certain he went painlessly and beautifully exhausted after doing what he loved the most, for one last time, performing live with his unmatchable rock band for his loyal fans on the biggest tour of his 40 plus year career,” Mr. Petty’s family said in their statement. “He was extremely proud of that achievement in the days before he passed.”

Correction: January 20, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of concerts Tom Petty performed at the Hollywood Bowl in his final tour. It was three, not two.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/arts/music/tom-petty-cause-death-opioid-overdose.html 


I really cannot remember what site I was at, it was probably a week ago, I was reading a post and there was a video, I was curious, so I clicked on it and part of what it said is that more Americans are dying from prescription drugs, I am Honestly not that surprised....

 

Tom Perez Admits He “Underestimated” How Difficult Rebuilding the DNC Would Be

Photo courtesy of Billboard













Published on Jan 20, 2018


Tom Perez has been the DNC Chairman for nearly a year now, and he recently opened up about just how difficult the job has been, admitting he initially "underestimated" how difficult the task of rebuilding the DNC has been. Yeah. Too bad there wasn't someone more qualified for the job that applied for that position before you... oh wait!

Source: 
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/0... 

************************ 
Visit Our Website: http://www.humanistreport.com/ 
Follow Us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HumanistReport 
Like Us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/humanistreport 
Support the Show: http://www.humanistreport.com/support... 
Become a Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/humanistreport 
Download Our Podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

************************ 
Help Us Grow by Using These Links to Shop (We Earn Commission): 
Support Us by Shopping on Amazon! Bookmark this Link: 
http://amzn.to/1SGruTY 
Sign Up for a FREE 30-Day Trial to GameFly: 
https://www.gamefly.com/#!/registrati... 
Try Lootcrate if You're a Geek or Gamer: 
http://www.trylootcrate.com/click.tra... 
Web Hosting for Only $3.95 with HostGator: 
http://partners.hostgator.com/c/17181...

************************ 

The Humanist Report (THR) is a progressive political podcast that discusses and analyzes current news events and pressing political issues. Our analyses are guided by humanism and political progressivism. Each news story we cover is supplemented with thought-provoking, fact-based commentary that aims for the highest level of objectivity. 

Mike brings up many interesting points, me personally, I think Bernie is the only person who can bring the DNC back up, I really think this is a conversation worth sharing, what's your take???

Thursday, January 18, 2018

South Carolina deputy dies, 3 others remain wounded, after 'ambush' shooting

© Provided by Fox News











Katherine Lam

A South Carolina sheriff's deputy has died after a man, who was wanted for assaulting his wife, "ambushed" and shot him and three other officers, officials said Wednesday. 

York County Detective Michael Doty died Wednesday after he was shot by Christian Thomas McCall, 47, during an hours-long manhunt Tuesday morning.

"It is with a heavy heart & great sadness that York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson announces the passing of Detective Michael R. Doty," the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook. Doty spent 12 years working for the department.

SWAT team members Sgt. Randy Clinton and Sgt. Buddy Brown are in stable condition, and Sgt. Kyle Cummings, also of SWAT, is still recovering from his wounds. A K-9 officer was also injured in the attack.

The officers were called to McCall's house, outside of York, around 10:20 p.m. Monday night after he attacked his wife, authorities said. McCall ran into the woods and deputies spend about three hours searching for him.

Clinton has been with the department for 34 years, WSOC reported. Brown has been with the force for 13 years, and Cummings has been on the force for three years.

McCall, (right photo) a father of three children who was shot during a gunfight with officers, remained in the same Charlotte, North Carolina hospital Wednesday where the four officers were also taken. He was initially charged with three counts of attempted murder for the three officers who were less seriously wounded, but due to Doty's death, the charges are expected to change.

McCall’s father-in-law told WSOC-TV after the shooting Tuesday it was “uncharacteristic” for his son-in-law to act violently toward police. He revealed that McCall had assaulted his wife, who was not seriously injured, Monday night. Police received a call around 10 p.m. about a domestic disturbance.

But details about McCall’s history included one arrest in February 1994, when he was charged with assaulting a law officer, resisting arrest and simple assault. It’s unclear what happened to the case. Deputies were also called to the two-story York home in 2015 when McCall was the victim of an alleged domestic disturbance. Details from that incident were not released.

Roger Gilfillan, a neighbor, said Tuesday morning’s incident was “baffling” and called the McCalls “real nice people.”

"He just kept to himself," Gilfillan said, adding the 47-year-old never caused any trouble in the neighborhood.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/south-carolina-deputy-dies-3-others-remain-wounded-after-ambush-shooting/ar-AAuOSOW?ocid=mailsignout 
 

Also read: 5 Colorado deputies shot, 1 fatally, in 'ambush' attack


I am not really sure what is going through people's heads these days, I can't say the left or right can fix these problems, or could it be their lack of action gives us this end result??? My thoughts and best wishes for all in South Carolina affected by this tragedy...

 

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Jeff Flake rips Trump: A president 'who cannot take criticism ... is charting a very dangerous path'

© Senate TV via AP In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. speaks on the Senate floor, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2017 at the Capitol in Washington. 


















Flake, who announced he will not be seeking re-election in 2018, has said he will use his remaining time in the Senate to speak out against the President when he believes it is warranted. 

Flake announced his decision to retire in a Senate speech in October that bemoaned the "coarsening" tenor of politics in the United States and criticized his own party's "complicity" with Trump's behavior.

The Arizona Republican has said he doesn't have any formal plans to run for President after his time on Capitol Hill.
"I don't rule anything out, but it's not in my plans," Flake told ABC's "This Week" last month.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jeff-flake-rips-trump-a-president-who-cannot-take-criticism-is-charting-a-very-dangerous-path/ar-AAuOYXo?ocid=mailsignout 



 
 
WOW!!! Sorry to see Senator Flake not seeking a reelection, he seems to be one of the Only Rebublicans that sees the light of day in Truth and our supposed Leader... This post originally only had the first 53 seconds, however I found the same video that shows his entire speech, well worth viewing, I am looking forward to hearing more from him til his term ends, a Tip of the Hat to you Senator Flake!!!

Monday, January 15, 2018

Centrist Dems Launch Smear Campaign Against Young Trans Woman, All to Keep an Old Straight White Man in Power

  
Chelsea Manning attends the 22nd Annual OUT100 Celebration Gala at the Altman Building on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in New York.


January 15 2018, 7:46 a.m.


(updated below)

Over the weekend, Chelsea Manning announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate by posting a video outlining the broad themes of her campaign. Manning, a whistleblower who served seven years in a U.S. military brig for exposing systemic U.S. war crimes, was held under prison conditions so brutal that the U.N. formally denounced them as “inhumane.”

While her whistleblowing made her a hero around the world, Manning has also now become an icon of LGBT equality and trans rights with an act of profound bravery that at least matches, if not surpasses, her whistleblowing. She announced her transition, and demanded the dignity and treatment to which she was entitled, while she was imprisoned in the middle of a sprawling U.S. military base, in a brig at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Since her release from prison, she has become a visible and outspoken advocate for the rights of trans people. She has used her position as a Guardian columnist to stake out a wide range of positions, including drafting a proposed law to provide protections for whistleblowers. She certainly has more political experience and activism than many other Senate candidates previously supported by the Democratic establishment (Al Franken comes to mind as one example). If elected, Manning would become the first trans woman ever, and the youngest woman ever, to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Manning’s opponent in the Democratic Party primary is one of the most standard, banal, typical, privileged and mediocre politicians in the U.S. Congress: Benjamin Cardin, a 74-year-old white, straight man who is seeking his third six-year Senate term. Cardin’s decades-long career as a politician from the start has been steeped in unearned privilege: he first won elective office back in 1966, when his uncle, Maurice Cardin, gave up his seat in order to bequeath it to his nephew Benjamin. With this dynastic privilege as his base, he has spent the last 50 years climbing the political ladder in Maryland.


Cardin and Graham at the annual AIPAC Conference, 2015
Photo: Cliff Owen/AP
Cardin has remarkably few achievements for being in Congress for so many years. One of his few distinctions is that he has become one of the Senate’s most reliable and loyal supporters of AIPAC’s agenda and the Israeli government, if not the single most loyal. In 2015, he joined with Lindsey Graham in kicking off the annual AIPAC conference, causing neocon columnist Jennifer Rubin to gush about how identical they sounded.

But Cardin’s crowning achievement came last year when he authored a bill that would have made it a felony to support a boycott of Israel – a bill that was such a profound assault on basic First Amendment freedoms that the ACLU instantly denounced it and multiple Senators who had co-sponsored Cardin’s bill (such as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand) announced that they were withdrawing their support.

Despite all of this, or perhaps because of it, establishment Democrats wasted no time in mocking and denouncing Manning’s bid to become the first ever trans woman in the Senate, instead quickly lining up in support behind the straight white male who has wielded power for decades. To demean Manning, many of these establishment Democrats invoked the primary tactic they now reflexively use against anyone they view as a political adversary: they depicted her as a tool of the Kremlin, whose candidacy is really just a disguised plot engineered by Moscow.

Leading the way in spreading this obviously deranged but acceptable-in-DC conspiracy theory was Neera Tanden, the president of the largest Democratic Party think tank in Washington. Last night, Tanden spread a viral tweet that strongly implied – without even pretending to have a shred of evidence – that the Kremlin had engineered Manning’s candidacy as punishment for Cardin’s hard-line position on Russia:





This conspiracy theory mocks itself. The idea that Vladimir Putin sat in the Kremlin, steaming over Benjamin Cardin’s report on Russia, and thus developed a dastardly plot to rid himself of his daunting Maryland nemesis – “I know how to get rid of Cardin: I’ll have a trans woman who was convicted of felony leaking run against him!” – is too inane to merit any additional ridicule. But this is the climate in Washington: no conspiracy theory is too moronic, too demented, too self-evidently laughable to disqualify its advocates from being taken seriously – as long as it involves accusations that someone is a covert tool of the Kremlin. That’s why the president of the leading Democratic think tank feels free to spread this slanderous trash.

(As a side note: Tanden’s ongoing attempt to smear all of her critics as agents of a foreign power is particularly ironic given that the think tank she runs, the Center for American Progress, conceals the identity of many of its largest donors, but admits that one of its largest contributors is one of the world’s most repressive regimes. If there’s any entity worthy of the type of disloyalty innuendo that Tanden loves to spread, it’s the one she runs: 

Why have so many establishment Democrats so quickly decided to back a white, straight male politician steeped in privilege, while devoting themselves to opposing a candidate who would make history by becoming the first trans woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, in the process inspiring trans youth around the world and helping to erode the stigma that has made them so vulnerable to discrimination and violence?



They’ve decided to do this presumably because they find Cardin’s centrist ideology and politics more appealing than Manning’s more radical politics, and believe that this trumps what could be the historic value of Manning’s candidacy. They’ve apparently decided to prioritize their own centrist ideology over the important gender, sexual orientation and trans equality progress that Manning’s victory would ensure.

One can certainly make an argument that the license they’ve granted themselves here – to prioritize ideology and politics over identity – is a reasonable one. But one wonders whether they intend to maintain a monopoly on this license or extend it to others. 

UPDATE: Establishment Democrats have spent all day attacking this article with one claim: that it cites “only” one example of a Democrat who depicted Manning’s candidacy as a Kremlin plot – CAP President Neera Tanden – and therefore it’s baseless to say that there’s a smear “campaign” against Manning from centrist Democrats. It’s worth making a few points about this claim:

(1) The idea that Neera Tanden is just some random person I picked off Twitter whose views are irrelevant to Democratic Party politics – when she is in fact the President of the largest and most influential Democratic Party think tank in Washington (which is why I cited her) – is really quite laughable.

(2) This objection is completely ancillary to the actual point of this article, which is the extremely inconsistent, self-serving way that centrist Democrats use identity politics: they give themselves license to support old straight white men at the expense of pioneering minority candidates when doing so advances their ideological agenda, whereas leftists who do so are vilified for doing the same thing (see the rhetoric from Clinton supporters in the 2016 Democratic Party primary about the misogynistic, malignant motives of Sanders supporters for how that works).


(3) The fact that I cited “only” Neera Tanden does not mean that she was the only one spreading this inane Kremlin conspiracy theory about Manning’s candidacy. The claim was all over Twitter. It was re-tweeted thousands of time. I obviously couldn’t list all of the instances in a single article so I chose the most important one. But for those who need to see more, here are several, beginning with this former official from the Hillary Clinton campaign:













Then we have this, from one of the U.S. media’s favorite Russia-obsessed “experts”:



Then we have one of the #Resistance’s most beloved MSNBC personalities, helping to spread the same conspiracy theory as the one Tanden re-tweeted:

And then we have this from the former RT anchor who is widely celebrated in Democratic Party circles for having left the network:

I could literally spend the rest of the evening posting examples from large accounts that – within 24 hours of Manning’s announcement of her candidacy – tried to tie her and her campaign to the Kremlin. Even if it had “just” been the head of the Center for American Progress doing it, that would have justified this article; but clearly, it was far more widespread and coordinated than that. 

And just to underscore the point again: this issue is totally ancillary to the primary point of the article, which is about how centrist Democrats exploit identity politics when it suits them, but then feel free to keep old white straight men in power at the expense of marginalized minority candidates such as Manning. 

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/15/centrist-dems-launch-smear-campaign-against-young-trans-woman-all-to-keep-an-old-straight-white-man-in-power/?comments=1#comments 

So there you have it... While we have Douche Bag, Howard Dean saying it's time for Baby Boomers to step aside for younger leaders but apparently Chelsea does not Count? Give me a Fucking Break!!! Apparently only Pro Israel 74 year old White Males count these days, no Fucking wonder I left the Democratic Party!!!!

Monday, January 1, 2018

Report: The American Public Spent $43 Million Last Year So Trump Could Play Golf

 



By



The American public spent at least $43 million in order to support President Donald Trump's considerable golf habit in 2017.

Reports on presidential golf expenses are not itemized under official U.S. government statistics or written into the outlays for the U.S. governmental financial year. Rather, the $43 million total is a low-end estimate provided by TrumpGolfCount.com. (A similar tracker took note of President Barack Obama‘s similarly publicized proclivity for the track.)

Trump’s golf count is mostly based on confirmed news reports of presidential golf outings published by The Washington Post. Additional sources include White House Public Press Pool postings about golf and a handful of additional stories regarding Trump’s frequent golf forays issued by various media. The pool report statistics are culled from press pool RSS feeds mentioning “any of the following words or phrases: vacation, palm beach, golf, golfing, golfed, Trump International, Trump National, Bedminster, [and/or] Sterling.”

Bedminster, New Jersey is the home of the Trump National Golf Course. Sterling, Virginia is the home of the Trump National Golf Club. The entire methodology employed by TrumpGolfCount.com is explained in two lengthy sections of the website here and here.

In sum, President Trump made a confirmed 88 visits to various golf courses in 2017. Some caution, however, as a confirmed visit to a golf club doesn’t necessarily equate to a confirmed game of golf.
 That list is available in full here.


To break down the numbers a bit, taxpayers shelled out just shy of $20 million for airfare on Trump’s golf outings to Mar-a-Lago alone. An additional $8.5 million was spent on flights to Trump’s Bedminister club.

The site also features a side-by-side comparison between Presidents Obama and Trump–both maligned by their respective political opposition for spending an inordinate amount of time out on the links.

When the 44th and 45th presidents face-off over the dubious honor, however, Trump beats Obama hands-down. In fact, it’s not even close: After the first year of each man’s presidency, Obama had only played golf 28 times; Trump definitely played at least 43 times in that same timespan–and likely played around 76 games of golf–at a cost of roughly $1 million per game–all on the dime of the American people.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/report-the-american-public-spent-dollar43-million-last-year-so-trump-could-play-golf/ar-BBHLCNo?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout 




https://youtu.be/I05PFWHQofU

So for as much as Phrump complained about Obama and his time golfing, does he really have any room to talk Smack??? I gotta tell you, I do not pay taxes for this ShitHead to spend his time playing golf when there are so many other issues on the table... How bout spending some time finding ways to take care of our returning Veterans instead???