On Facebook (click here) 

Ted's ego is his problem. He can't bring himself to support anyone but himself.

Every Republican's hubris is about Martin Luther King, Jr. Pence never once honored him.

If one's life honors Martin Luther King, Jr., then it honors Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the Voting Rights Act of 1964. 

Pence never lived up to his heroes ideals and standards.

July 18, 2016
By Brayton

That might be the understatement of the century.(click here) MLK was a fierce advocate for labor unions; Pence is in favor of right-to-work (for less money). And Trump said early in the campaign that wages in America are too high.

MLK fought for voting rights. Pence wants to undermine them with shorter hours at polling places and photo ID laws that disenfranchise poor and minority voters.

MLK was in favor of government-provided full employment and a guaranteed annual income for every American. Pence wants to repeal even the minimum wage and has voted repeatedly in favor of cuts to food stamps, Medicaid and other social programs.

MLK was anti-war. Pence was all for the Iraq War.

MLK is spinning in his grave right now.

It doesn't get worse than Pence. This was his radio program.

Pence had to do penance before running in the same race with a man with three marriages.

For Mike Pence, be careful how you hold hands with.

July 18, 2016
By Josh Isreal

..."Before his career as an elected official, (click here) Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN) hosted both a radio and television show in the 1990s, with the name, “The Mike Pence Show.” While his commentaries from that time in defense of cigarettes and in opposition to the feminist message in Disney’s Mulan have made news, one less noticed piece suggested that adultery should be a crime in the United States. It appeared on the website for his television show on WNDY, retrieved through the Internet Archive WayBack Machine."...

Trump left the arena before Pence spoke. Is that a deal with Pence, to not taint the air while Pence is there?

e of cigarettes and in opposition to the feminist message in Disney’s Mulan have made news, one less noticed piece suggested that adultery should be a crime in the United States. It appeared on the website for his television show on WNDY, retrieved through the Internet Archive WayBack Machine."

Scott Walker takes the food out of the mouths of the working poor.

Scott Walker is not a moral man. He is ruthless and demoralizes the moral content of Wisconsin's laws. The minimum wage in Wisconsin is $7.26 per hour.

December 3, 2015

Last year, 100 low-wage workers in Wisconsin (click here) decided to sue their governor, Scott Walker (R), over their pay. The state had a century-old statute on the books saying that the minimum wage “shall be not less than a living wage,” enough “to permit an employee to maintain herself or himself in minimum comfort, decency, physical and moral well-being.” The workers said they weren’t making enough to meet that standard,demanding the governor take the required action to increase it.

But this week they were handed a final defeat: A judge dismissed their lawsuit. That’s not because Walker’s administration was found to be in compliance with the statute. It’s because rather than increase the state’s minimum wage, the administration simply erased the law.

“The lawsuit has just been dismissed because there’s now no law to rule on,” explained Lisa Lucas, communications director for Wisconsin Jobs Now, one of the groups that helped bring the original suit. “So it wasn’t surprising. But it was disappointing.”

An 11-hour addition to the state budget passed and signed in July eliminated the living wage statute, instead replacing all references to a living wage with the words “minimum wage.” “The budget itself was a really sneaky, underhanded way to do it,” Lucas said. “They stuck the repeal in an omnibus motion.” And it also flew under the radar thanks to bigger controversies over other such additions, such as the failed attempts to gut the state’s government transparency laws....

                        

With China rejecting the ruling by the Hague to benefit the Philippines, Vice President Biden has been visiting the southern hemisphere.

20 July 2016
By Ben Doherty

America will “ensure the sea lanes are secure, (click here) and the skies remain open” in the Pacific, the US vice-president, Joe Biden, has vowed in a pointed riposte to Chinese territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech in Sydney on Wednesday, Biden paid tribute to the US-Australian alliance, describing it as “a partnership that reminds us what is best in ourselves”.

But his most pointed remarks were clearly directed towards China, which has been building and weaponising artificial islands in the South China Sea in an effort to exclusively claim the surrounding maritime territory as its own.

China claims its control of the waters – inside the so-called nine-dash line – dates back to ancient times, marked in historic 600-year-old mariners’ books. But last week in The Hague the permanent court of arbitration ruled there was no legal basis for China’s historic claim, a decision China has furiously rejected....

The Pacific has border issues and tensions that go back in time to the dark ages.

7 July 2016
By Oliver Holmes and Tom Phillips

...The lead up 7(click here) to the ruling was fraught. China’s foreign minister called the US secretary of state, John Kerry, by telephone last week and warned against moves that infringe on China’s sovereignty. And Beijing conducted military drills,deploying at least two guided missile destroyers and a missile frigate.

Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) thinktank in Washington, said a ruling that questioned or rejected China’s “nine-dash line” would not invalidate all of Beijing’s claims to land or maritime zones in the South China Sea. “[But] it would really limit the amount of water that the Chinese could have any legal sovereignty claim to....

This isn't about sovereignty. No one is threatening China's sovereignty. This is about ancient arguments that should have died with it's ancestors. This is as bad as watching a Republican 17 person debate for the presidency. This is picking a fight that should not exist in the first place.

China shot itself in the foot and now is complaining with BIG GUNS rather than lawyers. China's posture is brinkmanship. Then the West wonders why North Korea is such a disaster rather than a country moving toward an economy that supports its people.

A popularity campaign by China doesn't reach The Hague by osmosis. This is pure arrogance by China.

17 July 2016

By Julian Ku

China asserts sovereignty over maritime areas that are also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Japan.

...But taking a step back (click here) after reviewing the award, perhaps I should not have been surprised. China’s legal arguments for maritime rights in the South China Sea were always weak since the Chinese mainland is much farther away than any of its neighbors. China exacerbated these weaknesses by refusing to participate in the tribunal in any way, and then launching a global public relations campaign that dramatically heightened the award’s significance in the eyes of the global media....

He was imprisoned by Belarus in 1997 for reporting on abuses of the government. He had been widely awarded for his work.

20 July 2016

A prominent journalist (click here) working for a Ukrainian online investigative newspaper has been killed by a car bomb in central Kiev.

Pavel Sheremet, who wrote for Ukrayinska Pravda, was driving to work in the car of the newspaper’s owner on Wednesday morning when it was blown up, an adviser to the interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said.

Two witnesses said they had heard a loud blast and saw an explosion from underneath the car, which lay charred in the middle of the street....

US Embassy Statement  (click here)

We are shocked and saddened at the news of the death of prominent journalist Pavel Sheremet,who was killed in an unprecedented car explosion in Kyiv this morning. 

Pavel led a life of purpose and integrity in multiple countries. We respect him as a fearless practitioner and supporter of freedom of speech, the Revolution of Dignity, and a brighter future for Ukraine.

We welcome the  statements by the police and prosecutor general that the circumstances surrounding his murder will be fully investigated and any perpetrators brought to justice.  We extend our sympathies to his partner Olena Prytula, his family, his colleagues at Ukrainska Pravda, and his many friends and defenders of freedom of media and speech in Ukraine.

The article below explains the detention of Pavel Sheremet, but, the filming was to prove the ease in which smugglers crossed the border between Lithuania and Belarus. 

In the film Pavel Sheremet walked from one side of the border to the other without anyone stopping him. He was charged with illegal border crossing and conspiracy.

JOURNALISTS DETAINED BY BELARUSIAN BORDER GUARD (click here)

Belarusian border guards on 22 July detained a Belarusian camera team working for Russia's ORT television network. The journalists were detained on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, Interfax reported. The crew included ORT's Minsk bureau chief Pavel Sheremet, a cameraman, and a driver. They were detained while shooting footage on the activities of Belarus border guards. A spokesperson for the Belarusian State Border Committee said Sheremet had applied for permission to shoot footage on the border and was given approval for this fall. He had decided, however, to film now without permission. A report has been filed stating that the journalists violated laws on protecting the border area. The men have since been released and have returned to Minsk. Sheremet was recently stripped of his accreditation for Belarus. 

Every right wing assault will return. No matter the court's decisions, Pence knows nothing by radical (not extremist) positions.

Pence is the last breath of the old guard. 

19 July 2016
By Molly Redden

...Donald Trump had fashioned (click here) the most anti-abortion White House ticket in recent memory.

...most notorious instance had nothing to do with abortion. In 201 Pence signed an anti-LGBT bill opponents said would allow wide-scale discrimination, kicking off a furious and costly boycott of the state by much of corporate America.

 ...Pence has signed every abortion bill to cross his desk since he was elected in 2013, including an unprecedented measure to ban abortion in cases of genetic abnormality. And before he was one of the country’s most controversial governors, Pence was a solitary congressional crusader whose one-man assaults on Planned Parenthood provided a blueprint for the entire party’s line of attack.

“He’s been at the forefront of these attacks on Planned Parenthood and on access to basic reproductive healthcare for years and years,” said Erica Sackin, director of political communications for Planned Parenthood....

A conservative movement within the Republican party accepts climate change is not about "believing."

This is a recent downburst in Arizona that destroyed a home and knocked out power for tens of thousands.

20 July 2016

By Oliver Milman

Conservative and free-market groups (click here) have staged a rearguard effort to get the Republican party to accept the dangers of climate change, criticizing climate denialism within the GOP and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Climate change, and other environmental concerns, are unlikely to receive much, if any, attention during the Republican convention in Cleveland this week. This is despite a slew of temperature records being broken – June was the 14th consecutive month of record heat around the world – and extreme examples of Arctic ice decline and drought and wildfires in the US west.

But the Republican gathering has been targeted by conservative voices calling for climate science to be accepted and for national parks to be preserved, rather than opened up for drilling and other development.

A group called the Partnership for Responsible Growth has launched a TV advertisement campaign aimed squarely at conservatives, reminding them of previous Republican acceptance of climate science. The ad, which will run on Fox News throughout the GOP convention in Cleveland this week, shows clips of presidents George W Bush and George HW Bush, as well as former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, outlining the dangers of climate change....

It is obvious this conservative approach to the climate crisis has no real influence with the Republican party.

...The official Republican platform explicitly rejects the idea of a “carbon tax” and commits the party to withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, which was signed by 195 nations in December. The platform also opposes the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and rejects the idea that species including gray wolves and sage grouse should be protected under the Endangered Species Act....

...and a norovirus, too.

July 20, 2016

A terrifying word (click here) circulated today at the Republican National Convention: norovirus.

A dozen staffers in the California delegation who had arrived in Cleveland early have fallen ill with the extremely contagious virus, California GOP chairman Jim Brulte said.

The virus causes extreme vomiting and diarrhea and has been known to spread explosively through people in closed places, such as cruise ships, schools and nursing homes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Brulte said that, so far, no delegates or alternates have shown symptoms. He said his delegation will continuing to attend the convention at Quicken Loans Arena, where the Californians sit next to the Maryland delegation.

The delegates from California are staying at the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, nearly 95 km (59 miles) away from Cleveland. Brulte said the delegates and their guests were spending the day at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky or at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio - or just relaxing at the Kalahari Resort....

Good-bye, Roger Ailes.

It is time for the women of FOX to write an all tell book. Seriously. They need to liberate them from the 'sexy standard.' 

July 19, 2016
By John Kobllin and Jim Rutenberg

...Mr. Ailes’s exit (click here) would be a humbling and startlingly sudden fall from power for a man who started Fox News from scratch 20 years ago and built it into a top-rated cable news network and a critical profit center for 21st Century Fox. Along the way, Mr. Ailes, a former Republican operative, established Fox News as the leading media platform for conservative politics. He also minted prime-time stars like Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren.

Mr. Ailes, 76, has also long been at the center of Republican politics, and the timing of the discussions between Mr. Ailes and 21st Century Fox was remarkable, occurring on the second day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

News of Mr. Ailes’s impending exit landed like a shock wave in Cleveland, where many of the nation’s leading television executives and personalities were gathered in tight quarters. Several Fox anchors who were approached on Tuesday afternoon declined to comment on Mr. Ailes’s fate, many having followed developments from the chaotic convention scene....