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Pruitt's security threat? A passenger shouting, 'You're f---ing up the environment'

For many indigenous people, the verdict in the Boushie murder trial is part of a cycle of government apologies and tears followed by limited progress on achieving equality for indigenous people. If Canada is to mend its systemic inequalities, it needs to first address its problem with racism.

A national truth and reconciliation commission reported in 2015 that Canada committed cultural genocide against indigenous people through long-term government policy, including separating children from their families, forced migration, and outlawing language and cultural practices. The intergenerational trauma wrought by these policies has left indigenous people at the bottom of nearly every social and economic indicator.

Suicide rates for indigenous youth are among the highest in the world. Indigenous people are 10 times more likely to be incarcerated, nearly twice as likely to be unemployed and can be up to three times as likely to experience food insecurity.

The Republicans have blocked every attempt to stop the school shooting in America. We can have a no-fly list for terrorists that prohibits them from flying but when the Democrats tried to make sure that terrorists could not buy semi-automatics weapons of war the Republicans put their foot down and said absolutely not. Who would want guns sold to known terrorists? The Republicans. The reason we should sell semi-automatic weapons to terrorist according to the Republicans is that a mistake might be made and someone accidentally put on the list who is not a terrorist and the NRA would miss out on a gun sale. The Republicans make a big deal out of the shootings be caused by the mentally ill. So, you would think if a regulation was put in place made to keep the certified mentally ill from buying weapons of mass destruction that they would at least the Republicans would agree to that. Not a chance these people were those that were drawing social security disability checks for mental illness. The checks went to guardians because their mental illness was so severe they were not able to handle their own money but the NRA wants them to have guns. Obama had made the regulation while in office and Trump killed the regulation as soon as he took office. When Trump tells the public, he is trying to stop the mentally ill from getting guns don’t judge him by his words judge him by his actions.

Trump was making a big deal blaming mental illness but his budget eliminates the Medicaid that pays for the 50% of the treatment of mental illness in America. Trump has said only the able bodied that work will be eligible for Medicaid. He didn’t say anything about the sound of mind. Most people with mental illnesses can’t hold a job so the streets will be full of people who can’t get their medication but on the bright side they will have plenty of guns the NRA will be thrilled. Bullet proof vests will be required for students apparel in the brave new Republican world.

They showed the picture of the shooter in FL and said here is the face of evil but that is not true, the real faces of evil are all the Republicans in congress who have taken the money soaked with the blood of American’s children to block anything from being done to stop the gun violence. Trump got his speech written for him by NRA members and gave it for the third time. Rubio tried to point to a tightening up on background checks in military as a major Republican accomplishment but it was stalled in the senate. Paul Ryan tried to say nothing can be done because the weapons of mass destruction already on the street would be grandfathered. That is absurd when Marijuana was outlawed if you had a farm raising it you were not grandfathered. If you had a moonshine still before it was made illegal you were not grandfathered. The guns could be bought back. When an older generation watched as the Thompson machine guns were used to commit mass murder they were banned not grandfathered and mass murders came to an end for a generation.

Trump and the NRA create a straw man to attack. They always say mentally ill but not one of the mass murders I know of has been found innocent because of mental illness. Even with this shooter saying he wanted to be a professional school shooter he stills has the right of free speech. All he had to say was it was a joke. Just because someone decides to kill people does not make him mentally ill. If a criminal robs a bank we don’t say he is mentally ill. Other killers who kill their wives or friends are not called mentally ill.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS THE PARTY OF SCHOOL SHOOTINGS THEY OWN IT.

President Trump's Stormy Daniels problem is getting worse.

The porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she is ready to spill the beans about a 2006 extramarital sexual encounter with the president now that Michael Cohen, the president's personal attorney, has acknowledged he paid her $130,000 to not discuss the allegations publicly.

Cohen, who spent years leading the legal team at the Trump Organization, has in the past described himself as the president's "fix-it guy."

A lawyer for Clifford says Cohen violated their nondisclosure agreement and that she's preparing to tell the story in full. "Everything is off now and Stormy is going to tell her story," said Gina Rodriguez, an attorney for Clifford.

Clifford's accusations bring unwanted scrutiny to the Trump's private life, and could also have legal ramifications.

The secretary of veterans affairs, David J. Shulkin, for a year enjoyed rare bipartisan support in Washington as he reformed his department, but now officials in the Trump administration are trying to replace him.

...Dr. Shulkin characterized the report as inaccurate and biased, but he said he would reimburse the government for his wife’s airfare and pay for the tennis tickets.

Mr. Leinenkugel’s suggested replacement for Dr. Shulkin would be likely to spark controversy: Michael J. Kussman, a former under secretary who has been associated with Concerned Veterans of America, a group funded largely by the billionaire conservative activists Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch that advocates shifting spending on veterans’ health care to the private sector.

Perhaps these dead children are really a price worth all the freedoms you've got in the USA. (You have to break an egg to make an omelet?)

Perhaps these dead children are really a price worth all the freedoms you've got in the USA.

Immigration failure shows the ideologues are ascendant in the Trump White House

The latest alleged Trump affair coverup is a damningly familiar tale

...So now we have two women having said they met Trump in the same type of room at the same hotel, with both reportedly receiving similar amounts of money from Trump allies shortly before the 2016 election. There is plenty to unpack here when it comes to the legal implications of those alleged coverups, but the fact that both cases describe such similar events before either of them became public suggests this story isn't going away.

a group funded largely by the billionaire conservative activists Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch that advocates shifting spending on veterans’ health care to the private sector

The nefarious relationship between the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission (FCC), conservative local TV news giant Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the Trump administration itself is now under investigation.

On February 15, The New York Times reported that the FCC inspector general has opened an internal investigation into potential improper conduct by Trump-appointed FCC chair Ajit Pai and his aides in advocating for deregulatory rules that specifically benefited Sinclair.

EARHARDT: Judge, we're all for -- I am at least all for less government. But when you see this shooting in Las Vegas, Sandy Hook where all the kids were killed. This shooting, the shooter was using an AR-15 in all three of those cases, correct? Is that right?

NAPOLITANO: Yes. It's a very powerful weapon. I know this weapon. It's the civilian version of an M-16. It's very, very powerful. But you could stop a person with an AR-16 with a slingshot if you know how to use it.

Congress, Ryan said in a radio interview, needs to "take a breath and collect the facts." The Republican leader added, "We don't just knee-jerk before we even have all the facts and the data."

That's actually a sensible reaction. I'm aware of the political circumstances, of course, and I understand that when Ryan says he wants to "take a breath," it's possible the Speaker simply wants to buy some time and wait for the political world to lose interest, but let's not be cynical. Instead, let's take Ryan's comments at face value.

Why don't we "collect the facts" and pull together "the data"? Because a Republican policy won't let us. The Washington Post reported last fall:

Quote:

[O]ne reason the positions are so intractable is that no one really knows what works to prevent gun deaths. Gun-control research in the United States essentially came to a standstill in 1996. After 21 years, the science is stale.

"In the area of what works to prevent shootings, we know almost nothing," Mark Rosenberg, who, in the mid-1990s, led the CDC's gun-violence research efforts, said shortly after the San Bernardino shooting in 2015.

In 1996, the Republican-majority Congress threatened to strip funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unless it stopped funding research into firearm injuries and deaths. The National Rifle Association accused the CDC of promoting gun control. As a result, the CDC stopped funding gun-control research -- which had a chilling effect far beyond the agency, drying up money for almost all public health studies of the issue nationwide.