DN Speak moves to DN Speak 2016

Hi, everyone!   We have some good news!  This blog is moving to a new location called DN Speak 2016, with an improved format.  This is necessary because we have so many posts in our collection that Google/Blogger can no longer back them up.  This move will enable us to resume publishing a simultaneous second version with more flexible views, which we had to discontinue 13 months ago when a critical Blogger function broke due to the volume of our posts.

When should I visit the new DN Speak 2016?

How about today?  

The most timely articles we find are getting posted there now.

Can I still read new articles on this original DN Speak site?

You will still see a small number of new posts appearing here as we exhaust some we already had ready to be published.  But posts dealing with the very latest news are going to be found DN Speak 2016 rather than here.

Can I still subscribe to have new posts show up in my mailbox?

Yes! But you need do visit DN Speak 2016 to sign up for it.

What about existing older posts?  Will they still be here so I can catch up on ones I missed?

Yes.  We'll still keep here what is here now.  We just aren't adding any new content.   All posts dealing with the most current events are at the new location.

Thank you for being a reader.  We trust that you will find DN Speak 2016 even better than this original site, and we look forward to seeing you there soon!

Inside a Trump Rally (David Smalley, Dogma Debate #228)

Alix goes inside a Trump Rally, and we have audio from supporters and protestors. We’re fact checking Democrats and Republicans, and Ken Ham reviewed our science book for kids!
Interview:
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/dogma-debate-with-david-smalley/e/228-inside-a-trump-rally-43205115

Opening The Books On Donald Trump's Business Deals In Atlantic City

Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow dissects Trump's acquisition of the Taj Mahal casino/hotel, which went into bankruptcy a year after it opened...
Interview: 
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/17/470806232/opening-the-books-on-donald-trumps-business-deals-in-atlantic-city

The Road To The White House Has Gotten Lumpy

The Ted-mentum might slow to a crawl now that he has to campaign to a bunch of elitists with New York values.
https://youtu.be/3m50EE8jeZA

A Torturer’s Confession: Former Abu Ghraib Interrogator Speaks Out

http://democracynow.org - Eric Fair served as an interrogator in Iraq working as a military contractor for the private security firm CACI. He was stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison and in Fallujah in 2004. In a new memoir, Fair writes about feeling haunted by what he did, what he saw and what he heard in Iraq, from the beating of prisoners to witnessing the use of sleep deprivation, stress positions and isolation to break prisoners. The military described such actions as "enhanced interrogations," but Eric Fair uses another word—torture. He writes, "If God is on anyone’s side in Iraq, it’s not mine." (Part 2 is the next post below.)
Interview:
https://youtu.be/2oGh93UnxQg

Former Abu Ghraib Interrogator: Because of Trump & Cruz, Door Still "Wide Open" for U.S. to Torture

http://democracynow.org - As Republican presidential candidates promise to bring back the torture techniques used under the George W. Bush administration, we speak with one of the men who actually carried out these policies. Eric Fair served as an interrogator in Iraq working as a military contractor for the private security firm CACI. He was stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison and in Fallujah in 2004. His new book, "Consequence: A Memoir," has just been published. Interview: 
https://youtu.be/1t54JZNbkCI

Long Lines at the Wisconsin Primaries: A Closer Look

Seth takes a closer look at the role of voter ID laws in the Wisconsin Republican primary.
https://youtu.be/fHxSfs7GfdY

Top U.S. & World Headlines — April 7, 2016

Interview:
https://youtu.be/AltadwHS48A

Donald Trump’s Frightening Response To The Brussels Attacks

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is seizing upon the attacks in Brussels to again call for the Mexican border to be closed, Muslims to be banned from entering the country, and terrorism suspects to be waterboarded....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/22/3762257/donald-trump-frightening-response-brussels-attacks/

Does free college equal more degrees? Detroit to test popular theory (+video)

Going to college just got dramatically more do-able for Detroit students, thanks to a "Detroit Promise" plan that will offer free community college to local high school graduates.

The city has secured permanent funding to cover two years at any of six local colleges for graduates of the Detroit Public Schools, Mayor Mike Duggan announced Tuesday. The state has already committed to instituting similar programs in 10 low-income cities in Michigan, all modeled after the largely successful "Kalamazoo Promise" begun in that city in 2005....
http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2016/0322/Does-free-college-equal-more-degrees-Detroit-to-test-popular-theory-video

Trump Praises The ‘Spirit’ Of Campaign Manager Who Grabbed A Protester

Donald Trump praised his campaign manager’s “spirit” for grabbing a protester at his rally in Tucson on Saturday. “I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted to take down those horrible, profanity-laced signs,” Trump told ABC News....

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/20/3761911/trump-tuscan/

Flint Investigation Lays Blame For Water Crisis Squarely On The State

An investigatory panel tasked by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) laid the blame for the contamination of Flint’s drinking water with lead and other toxins on the state in a final report released Wednesday. “[T]he state is fundamentally accountable for what happened in Flint,” it states. “The Flint water crisis is a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/03/23/3762859/flint-investigation-state/

Illinois College Students Say They Were Threatened With Arrest And Turned Away From The Polls

Students at Wheaton College outside Chicago, Illinois were looking forward to voting — many for the first time — in last Tuesday’s presidential primary. But instead of exercising their constitutional right, many students were threatened, intimidated, and turned away from the polls without a reasonable explanation....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/21/3761656/illinois-student-voting/

The Official Head Of The Democratic Party Joins GOP Effort To Protect Payday Lenders

Payday lenders fearing modest federal regulations will cut into their vast profit margins have a new, high-profile ally in Washington: The chairwoman of the Democratic Party. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) is co-sponsoring legislation to delay and permanently muffle pending Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rules to rein in small-dollar lenders that are currently able to levy triple-digit annual interest rates on the nation’s poorest, the Huffington Post reports....
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/03/01/3755213/wasserman-schultz-payday-loans/

AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed: Here's What Happens When a U.S. Senator Calls for Israel to Be Held Accountable for Atrocities

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy has piqued the temper of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and faces a rebuke from within his own party after demanding for an investigation into “gross violations of human rights” by Israel and Egypt, the top recipients of American military aid....
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/heres-what-happens-when-us-senator-calls-israel-be-held-accountable-atrocities

Best of Richard Feynman Arguments And Comebacks Part 1

Milwaukee Students Wait More Than Two Hours To Cast A Ballot

As the polls officially closed in Wisconsin’s presidential primary, students at the private Catholic school Marquette University faced two-hour voter registration lines at their polling site in the basement of the student union.


In a record turnout election, the wait times were exacerbated by a newly-implemented and poorly-publicized voter ID law and cuts to early voting hours — both signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Students in the massive line and impartial election observers told ThinkProgress they found the experience “ridiculous.” ...
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/04/05/3766887/marquette-voting-problems/

Bernie Sanders’ Brilliant Plan to Force a Contested Convention

Here we go again. After months of talk of a GOP contested convention, on Tuesday, Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager suggested that his man hopes to force a contested convention of his own. “I think what this campaign is looking for and what the senator is looking for is going into the convention and coming out with the nomination,” Jeff Weaver told CNN, adding: “So when we arrive at the convention, it will be an open convention. … So I think it’ll be an interesting Democratic convention.”...
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/05/bernie_sanders_wants_a_contested_convention_for_democrats.html

State Lawmakers Just Threatened To Throw A Planned Parenthood Employee In Jail

Republican lawmakers have been doggedly focused on Planned Parenthood for months, hoping to catch the national women’s health organization breaking laws related to fetal tissue donation. This crusade has taken a particularly aggressive turn in Missouri — where state senators are threatening to throw the head of St. Louis’ Planned Parenthood affiliate in jail.

The senators are trying to hold the Planned Parenthood employee in contempt of court — because the clinic has refused turn over a broad swath of private medical documents, which the organization says would have violated federal privacy laws....
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/04/06/3766831/planned-parenthood-employee-threatened-with-jail/

If You Think Voter ID Is About Voter Fraud, This Republican Congressman Has News For You

On Tuesday, Wisconsin held its first presidential election since the state’s new voter ID law took effect. It didn’t go smoothly, with students facing long lines and residents struggling to get the ID cards needed to vote.

The voter ID bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker is a solution in search of a problem, as study after study shows voter fraud isn’t a real issue in Wisconsin or elsewhere. But as another recent paper indicates, voter ID laws do have one benefit, at least for Republicans — suppressing reliably Democratic votes....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/04/06/3767043/glenn-grothman-voter-id-wisconsin-partisan/

Obama Kills Largest Corporate Attempt Yet To Flee Overseas And Dodge Taxes

The largest-ever corporate merger to skip out on American tax obligations is now kaput.

Drug giant Pfizer is giving up on its corporate marriage to Ireland-based Allergan after an Obama administration policy change designed to prevent U.S. companies from fleeing taxes by moving their mailing address abroad. The $160 billion merger cemented last fall would have produced significant tax savings for Pfizer, at the expense of the American public.

The sudden collapse of the deal comes as news organizations the world over comb through the huge Panama Papers leak that exposes how individuals take similar advantage of the cracks in international tax law to conceal their personal holdings and business dealings with offshore shell companies. The leaks are bringing a burst of fresh attention to a long-standing problem: It’s very easy, and often legal, to slip out of the taxman’s grasp by way of clever accounting....
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/04/06/3767056/pfizer-pays-150-million-escape-merger/

All TPM News: Ex-Staffer: Wisconsin GOPers Cheered Voter ID Bill For What It 'Could Do For Us’

A former top staffer for a Republican legislator in Wisconsin suggested this week that GOP legislators were motivated to pass the state’s tough photo voter ID law because they believed it would help them at the ballot box, an account he expanded on in a Wednesday interview with TPM....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/todd-allbaugh-voter-id-wisconsin-gop

Roger Stone, Riot Organizer and Unapologetic Racist, Is the Trump Campaign's Best Friend

One of Trump's best allies and surrogates, Roger Stone, is a major racist who used riots to help Bush win in 2000....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/roger-stone-riot-organizer-and-unapologetic-racist-trump-campaigns-best-friend

Trump Has Given White Supremacist Groups New Life

The staying power of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy has surprised and unsettled people across the political spectrum. Many voters who are angry about the loss of middle-class jobs and frustrated with our broken politics have rallied to Trump’s outsider campaign.

There’s a darker side to Trump’s campaign that should disturb anyone thinking about supporting him: It’s electrifying and energizing the white supremacist movement....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-has-given-white-supremacist-groups-new-life

Trump Proclaims He Will Use Mafia Tactics to Force Key U.S. Allies to Pay off the National Debt

It's hard to tell whether Trump is running for president or auditioning for "The Godfather."...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-proclaims-he-will-use-mafia-tactics-force-key-us-allies-pay-national-debt

Mother Jones: We Asked Cops How They Plan to Enforce North Carolina’s Bathroom Law

...How will the state try to enforce its new law, which is the first of its kind to be enacted in the United States? So I picked up the phone and started calling some North Carolina police departments to find out....
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/north-carolina-lgbt-bathrooms-hb2-enforcement

Why Warmer Winters Will Affect Nearly Every Aspect Of Human Life

For many, the winters we remember from childhood are becoming just that: memories. Winter’s record warmth in recent years — especially the shockingly high temperatures during the first months of 2016 — has become a frightening harbinger of a world to come....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/19/3761760/warmer-winters-impacts/

What No One in the Media Has Asked the Candidates About War

We've even made it easy with this helpful questionnaire....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/what-no-one-media-has-asked-candidates-about-war

What Happens When Neither Political Party Answers to the Bottom 90%? America in Crisis

As Donald Trump leads a full-scale war against the Republican establishment and elites, particularly through his attack on both their military (Iraq) and their trade (NAFTA) policies, the Democratic Party is also in a predicament that Bernie Sanders’ candidacy is exposing. Both parties right now face a great crisis of leadership/ideology as well as a great opportunity for reinvention, and whichever party first reinvents itself successfully will begin winning elections the way the Democrats did in the 1932-1968 era....
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/what-happens-when-neither-political-party-answers-bottom-90-america-crisis

The unseen side of Bernie Sanders's young voter revolution (+video)

The appeal of Bernie Sanders's policy to young liberals is well-known. The appeal of his 'spiritual' outlook is less discussed, but potent...
http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0302/The-unseen-side-of-Bernie-Sanders-s-young-voter-revolution-video

Juan González Was at Bernie Sanders' NY Daily News Editorial Board Meeting. What Really Happened?

Top U.S. & World Headlines — April 6, 2016

Johns Hopkins Professor Endangers the Lives of Transgender Youth

Once again, Paul McHugh has used the ever more tarnished name of Johns Hopkins to distort science and spread transphobic misinformation. This time, it comes via a position statement from the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) a tiny offshoot of a real professional organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics. The ACP is a group of less than 200 ultra-conservative, mostly Catholic, people (most of whom aren’t even pediatricians) who oppose letting gay people be parents, the HPV vaccine, marriage equality, birth control and medical care for transgender people. They are in favor of reparative therapy and abstinence-only education, though.

The ACP is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, along with organizations such as the Klan and Aryan Brotherhood....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/johns-hopkins-professor-e_b_9510808.html

Obama Just Shut Down Ted Cruz’s Terrible Ideas To Combat ISIS

During a Wednesday news conference in Argentina, President Barack Obama succinctly broke down why two ideas Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been propounding are bad ones....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/23/3762866/obama-explains-why-cruz-is-wrong-carpet-bombing-muslim-surveillance/

Buffett Says He Loves Renewables, So Why Is His Company Trying To Kill Solar Energy?

Warren Buffett’s recent annual letter to shareholders extols renewable energy. Yet he fails to mention that his company is working to crush solar energy in Nevada and around the western United States....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/07/3755717/buffett-solar-energy/

Climate Deniers’ Favorite Temperature Dataset Just Confirmed Global Warming

February smashed monthly global temperature records, according to the satellite data analyzed by the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH). At the same time, a brand new study concludes that miscalculations explain why the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) satellite temperature dataset had appeared to show a relatively slow rate of global warming....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/02/3755715/satellites-hottest-february-global-warming/

No, Transgender Protections Do Not Justify Men In Women’s Restrooms. A State Agency Just Said So.

The most frequently used argument against transgender protections in public accommodations is that it will make it legal for “men” to enter women’s restrooms and other facilities, thus putting women and children at risk. Following a recent stunt by one non-transgender man entering a women’s locker room at a Seattle pool, the Washington State Human Rights Commission has clarified in no uncertain terms that this kind of behavior is not protected under the state’s gender identity law....
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/02/29/3754688/washington-transgender-protections/

A Sign Speaks: The Message Behind ‘The PILL KILLS’

Religious zealots used to be able to force us all to live under the rules of their religion. They can’t anymore, and that smarts. They’re not above using fear and lies to get some of that power back. They’re only too happy to try to clothe their naked power grab in the noble garment of religious liberty....

https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/a-sign-speaks-the-message-behind-the-pill-kills

Privilege, Not Persecution: It’s Time For Fundamentalist Christians To Stop Whining

...Most progressive and moderate faith leaders acknowledge their position of privilege and realize they have little grounds to complain in this free nation where we place a great premium on freedom of conscience. It’s the right-wing fundamentalists who won’t stop yapping about 'persecution.'...
https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/privilege-not-persecution-it-s-time-for-fundamentalist-christians-to-stop

Sanders Exposes More Inequality: Low-Income Americans Die Earlier and Lose Out on Social Security

A new federal study commissioned by Bernie Sanders uncovers more insidious inequality....

http://www.alternet.org/economy/wealthiest-americans-live-longer-collecting-more-social-security

Led by a New Generation, Muslim Americans Are Making Their Presence Felt in the Presidential Campaign

...Led by a new generation that came of age after 9/11, Muslims have shifted their support to the Democratic presidential candidates seeking the outsized voting power of political minorities to help defeat an increasingly white, male and overwhelmingly evangelical Christian Republican party...
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/led-new-generation-muslim-americans-are-making-their-presence-felt-presidential

It's Now Legal In Mississippi To Discriminate Against Unmarried Couples That Have Sex | ThinkProgress

Mississippi is now in competition with North Carolina for having the most anti-LGBT law on the books. Tuesday morning, Gov. Phil Bryant (R) signed HB 1523 into law, endorsing a veritable catalog of discrimination against LGBT people and even those who have sex before marriage...
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/04/05/3766471/mississippi-governor-signs-anti-lgbt-bill/

PayPal Punishes North Carolina For Anti-LGBT Law By Abandoning 400-Job Expansion

PayPal announced Tuesday morning that it has abandoned its plans for a massive global operations center, which would have brought 400 new jobs to Charlotte, North Carolina. The company was unequivocal that the decision was made because of the state’s passage of HB2, a sweeping law that blocks cities from enacting LGBT nondiscrimination protections and mandates that transgender people use the wrong bathrooms for their gender identities....
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/04/05/3766501/paypal-north-carolina/

Cartoon Donald Trump Has The Biggest Numbers

Cartoon Donald Trump gives Stephen a cartoon math lesson. ...

Stephen Fry for president!

Ted Cruz Has Absolutely Nothing to Say to the GOP Voters He Needs Most

Ted Cruz’s impressive (though predicted) win in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary will probably do little to seriously change the contours of the race. Cruz certainly did better than expected, beating Donald Trump by a very solid double-digit margin. But his victory speech, a windy and repetitive accounting of delegate math and conservative talking points, showed that the Texas senator still has a ways to go in shaping his persona and image going forward. Outliving his many rivals and pushing Trump toward a contested convention, Cruz has run an astute campaign thus far, but his message remains as narrowly tailored as it did when he started....
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/05/ted_cruz_wins_wisconsin_then_blows_it_with_his_speech.html

Poll: Sanders Opens A Small National Lead As Democratic Divisions Harden

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has a lead of two percentage points over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationwide, while one in four of his supporters do not plan on supporting Clinton if she wins the nomination, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll released Wednesday....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/sanders-leads-recalcitrant-supporters-mcclatchy-april

Texas Republicans Find Craziest Person in State, Aim to Put Her in Charge of School Textbooks

Texas Republicans' drive to find the stupidest people in the state and elect them to office seems, if anything, to be picking up steam....
http://www.alternet.org/education/texas-republicans-find-craziest-person-state-aim-put-her-charge-school-textbooks

Louisiana’s Budget Crisis Spells Doomsday For Justice In New Orleans

Thanks to years of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate kickbacks under former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s leadership, Louisiana is on the brink of economic collapse. If the state can’t find billions of dollars in revenue by Wednesday night, many basic services will be slashed into oblivion — including hospitals, universities, and resources to combat child abuse.

 For a criminal justice system that’s already under-resourced and underfunded, the Doomsday scenario will also decimate indigent defense in the state. Public defenders are bracing for a 63 percent cut to their funding — meaning the 42 judicial districts will be given a paltry $12 million or so to operate. Offices across the state have already shut their doors, leaving Louisiana’s poor without constitutionally-mandated legal representation.

 In Louisiana’s largest city, an overburdened defense system is expected to get much worse...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/03/09/3757685/new-orleans-public-defense-crisis/

Why People Don't Take Right-Wing Evangelicals So Seriously Anymore

The Evangelical brand has gone from being an asset to a liability....
http://www.alternet.org/belief/why-people-dont-take-right-wing-evangelicals-so-seriously-anymore

On Fracking, Clinton And Sanders Give Vastly Different Answers

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders gave vastly different answers on fracking at the CNN Democratic debate on Sunday, illustrating a key policy contrast between the two....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/06/3757137/sanders-hits-clinton-on-fracking/

What Prayerfully Pro-Choice Looks Like

I am a busy parish priest half-way through Lent with Holy Week and Easter in sight in my rear view mirror — so I quite frankly did not have time this week to write about what it means to be prayerfully pro-choice... again. But the orchestrated efforts to turn back the clock on women’s reproductive freedom left me no other principled choice.....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-susan-russell/what-prayerfully-pro-choi_b_9380064.html

John Oliver Takes On Encryption And The Apple Vs. FBI Fight (VIDEO)

John Oliver took on the mammoth task of explaining encryption and the fight between Apple and the FBI during Sunday's "Last Week Tonight."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-oliver-encryption-apple-fbi

2 Reasons Paul Ryan Would Be A Hard Sell To Republican Voters

...Politico's Republican source said Ryan makes sense because he's "the most conservative, least establishment member of the establishment." But there are two issues for Republican voters where Ryan is less conservative than Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the leading contenders for the GOP nomination who between them have already received more than 13 million votes this primary season....
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/04/04/3766138/paul-ryan-republican-nomination-trump-cruz/

House Republicans Say Oil Spill Prevention Rule Should Be Easier On Oil Companies

Almost five years after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill sent millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration announced a set of new offshore drilling rules that it hoped would prevent another massive oil spill. Now, as those rules appear to be racing towards finalization, House Republicans are asking the administration to revise the rules to lessen the burden on the oil industry....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/04/04/3766124/offshore-drilling-republican-revision/

It's Bizarre: CNN and the Networks Now Rely on Trump to Stay Profitable

Neal Gabler on CNN: "I can’t recall a situation in which a network was so dependent on a candidate. Usually, it’s the other way around."...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/its-bizarre-cnn-and-networks-now-rely-trump-stay-profitable

Obama Speaks Out On Panama Papers, Corporate Looters, And The Politicians Who Enable Them

With journalists and law enforcement officials still combing through a massive leak of documents to uncover the global networks of offshore companies the wealthy and powerful use to hide their activities, President Obama made a rare appearance at the daily White House briefing to call out some of the people who encourage and enable such deception.

After laying out new Treasury Department rules intended to discourage American companies from using international mergers to get out of paying their taxes, Obama connected the dots between such “inversion” mergers and the revelations of the Panama Papers. While the early stories to come out of the leak focus on foreign figures and sanctioned governments, he said, powerful Americans use the same elites-only financial clubhouse too...
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/04/05/3766664/obama-reacts-panama-papers/

GOP Sen. Collins: Meeting SCOTUS Nom Left Me ‘Convinced’ We Need Hearings

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) emerged from an hour-long Tuesday meeting with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland “more convinced than ever” that the Republican-controlled Senate should hold hearings for him.

 “The next step in my view should be public hearings before the Judiciary Committee,” Collins told journalists gathered outside their meeting, according to NBC’s Luke Russert. Collins said she found Garland “impressive” and refused to rule out voting for him if hearings do proceed.

She also suggested other Republican senators may change their mind about moving forward with the process if they met with him, according to CNN’s Manu Raju....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/susan-collins-meets-merrick-garland

Roger Stone Threatens To Sic Trump Voters On Delegates Who 'Steal' Nom (VIDEO)

Roger Stone, an informal adviser to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, said Monday that in the event of a contested GOP convention he planned to disclose where delegates are staying in Cleveland so that Trump supporters could give them a piece of their mind.

Stone issued a scathing condemnation of the GOP nomination process in an interview on Freedomain Radio, and urged Trump's supporters to "march on Cleveland" if delegates were to "steal" the nomination from the real estate mogul....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/roger-stone-steal-trump-nomination

Obama: It's Not Just Trump, Cruz's Proposals 'Draconian' Too

In brief remarks to the press Tuesday discussing new Treasury Department regulations, President Obama also commented on Donald Trump's recently-released plan to make Mexico pay for a U.S. border wall, and he argued that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) supported "draconian" proposals, too....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-ted-cruz-donald-trump

Why North Carolina’s New Anti-LGBT Law is a Trojan Horse

When North Carolina lawmakers passed what is widely viewed as the most sweeping anti-LGBT law in the country, supporters said it was needed to fend off a potential wave of local laws like the transgender-friendly bathroom ordinance adopted by the city of Charlotte. Opponents have called the new law a “hostile takeover of human rights.”

But all the attention on who can use toilets and locker rooms has overshadowed what employment rights advocates say is an even more expansive change made by the law — one that could affect all workers in North Carolina, not just those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender....
https://www.propublica.org/article/why-north-carolinas-new-anti-lgbt-law-is-a-trojan-horse

Could Citizens United Help Foreign Billionaires Buy This Election? An FEC Commissioner Speaks Out

The release of the Panama Papers comes amid growing concern about undisclosed campaign contributions here in the United States, so-called dark money. Now, some members of the Federal Election Commission are calling for greater enforcement of campaign finance regulations and a narrower interpretation of the Citizens United ruling, which opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending on election campaigns...

For Ohio Women, Kasich’s Anti-Choice Policies Extend Beyond Abortion

Our community health workers do in-home visits and teach everything from safe sleep, to birth spacing, to nurturing the baby, to making sure there’s the healthiest experience for the infant as possible, and the mom too.
We've been doing this program for 18 years. We were doing it in one county for many years, and we did such a great job that we were allowed to add a county. So we are actually currently the only agency in the state of Ohio that’s allowed to run the program in two counties, and that’s because we’ve had such a great success rate with the program...
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/03/15/3760507/planned-parenthood-kasich-ohio/

Here’s How The One Percent Fares Under President Clinton Or President Trump

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s tax plan would raise trillions in revenue by increasing taxes on the wealthy, according to the Tax Policy Center’s new analysis.....

... That stands in stark contrast to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s plan. His proposal — which includes lowering the corporate tax rate and the capital gains rate, reducing the top tax rate paid by the highest income Americans, and ending taxes on inheritances altogether — would overwhelmingly help the rich....
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/03/03/3756366/hillary-clinton-tax-analysis/