Noisy town hall protests show how the left is trying out tea party tactics to fight Trump

There has been no shortage of opportunities for the anti-Trump left to vent their angst since the president took office: Women’s marches , airport protests and impromptu rallies have become a near-daily feature of life in cities across California and the nation.

Trump Protesters Borrow From Tea Party to Put Pressure on Lawmakers

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – For weeks, a swelling group has been showing up every Friday here at the local office of Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen to demand that he hold a town-hall meeting to answer its concerns about his fellow Republicans’ plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

The purpose of this page is to provide the latest concerning, meetings, activities and events of, The,” and Indivisible organizations and chapters. This hopefully will prevent people from searching through hundreds of different pages and organizational information. We are simply trying to be a conduit to help you locate an individual organization that may be in close proximity to your residence or an event you desire to attend. You are therefore encouraged to leave the following information regarding your organization:

1. Organization name and location
2. Contact information, including any website or page links
3. Contact information, including individuals, phone number and email addresses as may be necessary.

For events, please provide us a comprehensive description in the relevant page and website links.

Good luck to all of you in this fight for equality. We must all stand up and be counted. And remember, vote.

All information is provided alphabetically as best as possible by state.

  The Libertarian party- Issues and Platform

Gary Johnson

Although I am very informed and engaged in the current presidential election, I must admit the shock when I began studying the Libertarian platform. Even more confusing are the results of several recent polls showing that many Bernie Sander’s millennials have moved toward the Libertarian party. The reason for my confusion is that the majority of their platform is further to the right than the Republican Party and diametrically opposite the issues adopted by the Sander’s progressive movement. In other words, why would a Sanders supporter migrate to a candidate that rebuffs the major components of the Sander’s platform.

I would be interested in hearing comments, especially from millennial’s, and more specifically from those who supported Bernie that now support the libertarians.

Key Issues

Johnson does not believe in climate change.

Johnson supports Citizens United.

Economy and Budget

1. Pledged to submit a balanced budget within the first 100 days of his administration. This would necessitate a more than 20% decrease in current federal spending and will include the reduction of entitlements. A few departments would be eliminated and military spending dramatically decreased. Most experts on the Internet indicate this position would be dangerous to the economy and to senior citizens and low income individuals.
2. They would reduce military spending by 20%. Military bases throughout the United States and the world would also be reduced by 20%. Experts on this issue indicate this proposal could jeopardize the security of the United States and our allies. Many indicated the proposal is dangerous.

Entitlements- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

1. In regard to Medicare and Medicaid, The libertarians would basically eliminate the role of the federal government. The literature on this issue believes this could result in 50 different systems and programs that could result in substantial chaos for these programs.
2. Johnson, would reform Social Security, including increasing the eligibility age. His comments have ranged raising the age from 68 – 70.

Gun Control

1. Does not believe the, “no-fly list”, should be utilized to deny a person gun ownership.
2. Believes open carry should be a national policy as it will reduce mass shootings. He states that Americans would be safer if guns were more readily available and not restricted. He believes that private citizens carrying guns could have stopped some of the atrocities. He forgets that in Orlando there was a security guard on duty with a gun.
3. Johnson believes that no restrictions should be placed on the purchase of automatic in semi automatic assault rifles

Medical and Abortion

1. Supports abortion
2. Supports Planned Parenthood
3. Would eliminate the Affordable Care Act and has no plan to replace it with a different program.
4. Does not believe in, nor would permit funding for stem cell research.
5. Eliminate the Bush plan for prescription drug assistance.
6. Does not believe in funding nor would support insurance four mental health issues.
7. No government involvement whatsoever on any healthcare insurance.
8. No government cost regulations related to prescription drug even those that are lifesaving.
9. Reduce Medicare and Medicaid by at least 50% or eliminate altogether.

   International Trade

1. In general Gary Johnson typically opposes trade agreements. However, he does support The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

This article should not be considered to be a testament of exoneration of the Hillary Clinton email situation. However, it should bring into the question why Republicans, who essentially did the same thing or worse were never questioned. I believe the consternation brought to bear on Hillary Clinton is simply because she is, who she is, and that Republicans ignore the same circumstances that exist within their own party. But more importantly, what astounded me as I conducted the research is the lack of press and media attention on all of the numerous other similar situations.

Let us begin with Jeb Bush, Florida Gov. from 1999 – 2007, who voluntarily from his own computer server posted thousands of emails online that were categorized by his own determination of what was relevant to government business. When questioned, the Bush campaign indicated that public records not related to government business were not turned over to the state. But again, similar to the Clinton situation, that was strictly based on the his discretion. Sources indicate that Bush did not include emails related to politics, his campaign, or donors asking for favors.

During the George W. Bush administration, Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of staff, deleted 22 million emails dating from2003 to 2005. Further, the Bush administration improperly utilized email of the Republican National Committee (RNC) that somehow disappeared. It was believed the RNC email system was utilized specifically because they would be hidden from public purview.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a watchdog group, alleged that the missing emails were possible violations of the Federal Presidential Records Act

In 2006, seven Democratic US Attorneys were fired and replaced with political hacks with little or no experience.  A congressional committee investigating the firing of the US attorneys requested the emails and learned they could not be found. At the time there was considerable outrage that the firings were simply a political act to protect VP Dick Cheney and his comrades for unmasking Valerie Palme, a CIA specialist. Palme was a covert CIA agent whose husband publicly criticized the Bush administration for invading Iraq without accurate information concerning weapons of mass destruction. As a result, of the unmasking Palme sued Cheney, Rove, and Scooter Libby, (Bush’s Chief of Staff) for conspiring to destroy her career. Scooter Libby was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine. President Bush commuted his prison sentence, and therefore he is one no time.

A majority of the records regarding Palme scandal and the US attorney firings were deleted from the private political server located in the White House. Not a single Republican called for an investigation of this situation. The emails contained information regarding the firing of the eight attorneys who would’ve been involved with the prosecution in the Palme case. Wouldn’t it have been interesting to have those emails available? And where was the Republican outrage. It doesn’t exist because the name Hillary Clinton wasn’t involved.

In 2007, CREW and that National Security Archive sued the Bush administration, stating that he violated federal laws that required such records be maintained.

Links:

nydailynews

CNN

Republican Comments concern abortioning and rape:

Do you know who made these comments- Scroll down for the answers

1. Who said this: “Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that’s been raped?” the XXXXX Republican asked at the St. Joseph’s Covenant Keepers gathering.

2. Who said This:  Asked by a reporter how women could be expected to purchase abortion insurance in preparation of being raped, [Right to Life Michigan president, responded: “Nobody plans to have an accident in a car accident, nobody plans to have their homes flooded. You have to buy extra insurance for those two.”

A group backed by Right to Life of Michigan has been approved to circulate petitions seeking a new state law prohibiting health insurance companies from covering elective abortion procedures. The ballot committee No Taxes for Abortion Insurance wants to require women to purchase optional riders to cover abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Slog

Answers

1.  Kansas, Sen. Sam Brownback, campaigning for president Saturday before the National Catholic Men’s Conference, questioned whether rape victims should get abortions.

Sam Brownback

He also noted, He said that encouraging a woman who has been a victim of sexual abuse to have an abortion doesn’t address the problems she faces as a result of the rape and does nothing to prosecute the rapist. Link

2. Right to Life Michigan president Barbara Listing.

More Links

In the 2014 congressional elections Republicans took control of the Senate and increased their stronghold on the House of Representatives. The most significant talking point by the Republicans concerned The Affordable Care Act. We thought it would be interesting to fact check their talking points which was similar throughout the party. We utilized fact check.o.org as our basic information source.

Below, is there description wherein FactCheck describes their mission

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.  Link

Their Funding information can be found here. Funding

As you may have determined, they are a nonpartisan organization.

Republican talking point number 1:

The Affordable Care Act puts the government between you and your doctor.

FactCheck Answer:

Those “government-run” health care claims were once so ubiquitous we called them a “mantra.” They’ve died down considerably, but we’re still seeing them in 2014 congressional races. The Affordable Care Act doesn’t create a government-run system, in which the government provides health insurance, or care, to residents. It does expand Medicaid, and also boosts business for private insurers, by about 12 million customers over the next decade, and leaves intact work-based insurance on which most Americans have long relied.

An ad from Florida House GOP candidate Curt Clawson says: “You and your doctor, it’s an important relationship. But Obamacare created a trillion-dollar mountain of government between patients and physicians.” Video

And in an ad about how Washington is broken, Oklahoma Senate candidate T.W. Shannon says future generations will inherit “a health care system run by bureaucrats, not doctors and patients.” Video

As we’ve said before, the law’s regulatory provisions are more like putting the government between you and your insurance company. The ACA says insurers can’t have caps on coverage, can’t deny customers based on preexisting conditions (or charge them more), and can’t spend more than 15 percent or 20 percent on non-medical-related costs. It also requires coverage of preventive care, such as cancer screenings, with no cost-sharing.

The law doesn’t create a single-payer system, in which the government insures everyone. In fact, while the law is expected to cut the number of uninsured Americans by 25 million, it still leaves 31 million uninsured.

Republicans also have repeatedly attacked the Independent Payment Advisory Board as a bureaucrat-filled rationing board. But the IPAB, which is created by the health care law, is charged with slowing the rate of growth of Medicare spending, and it’s limited in how it can go about doing that. The law says the board’s proposals “shall not include any recommendation to ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums … increase Medicare beneficiary cost sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and co-payments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria.” The IPAB is made up of medical professionals, health care experts, economists and consumer representatives, not bureaucrats.

– Lori Robertson  FactCheck.org

The Republican talking point is a myth or stated more correctly, a lie. But their constituents will believe anything they say.