Donkey Feed, August 22nd, 2018

By Michael Bryan

First a cool tool for you: StampsLicked.org will take your personal message to your House or Senate critter and hand deliver it to your member on the Hill. This sort of communication is the most effective at actually influencing a congressperson, especially if it shares something personal from a constituent. Start putting a human face on policy issues today: FOR FREE! Donations are welcome on their website, but not mandatory.

Now for some graphical goodness. Why does America care so little about reproduction that we won’t give women (let alone men) paid time off work to do it (WaPo) when every other advanced nation (and many not-so-advanced ones) does so? I think this really would be a bigger issue if both political parties weren’t captured and captivated by the money of big corporate employers who will fight a new employee entitlement tooth and nail. To be fair, some Democrats have raised the issue, but none will run on it, and proposed legislation would only put us on par with Pakistan, South Africa, and Mexico. So much for valuing family…

How about reading a couple of books recommended by Barrack Obama?

“Educated: A Memoir“ by Tara Westover, is about a woman who leaves her survivalist, home-schooled, Idaho roots behind to become college educated; “An American Marriage: A Novel” (Oprah’s Book Club 2018 Selection) by Tayari Jones, is about a newlywed black attorney wrongly convicted of rape and the effect of the wrongful incarceration on his family.

Next up, a standard fundraising pitch, for just small, itty-bitty, teeny-tiny donation:

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Now, just click on “Continue reading” to enjoy the rest of your feed…

Arizona:

• Prop 127 will be on the November ballot despite efforts by APS and others to keep it from voters; passage will require utilities to source at least 50% of their energy from renewable sources: TucsonNewsNow.
• The Arizona State Legislature doesn’t want Arizona citizens to have the right to legislate, but the Courts are pushing back and the issue is heading to the Arizona Supreme Court (Arizona Capitol Times); Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith struck down the new strict compliance mandate, saying it “unconstitutionally violates Arizona’s separation of powers doctrine and infringes on the people’s reserved power to legislate via initiative”: AZCentral.
• Arizona Capitol Times profiles the Republican primary for AZ Secretary of State; Meanwhile, the incumbent, Michele Reagan, is being sued by the ACLU for not updating voters’ addresses (AZCentral) when they changed their addresses on their driving licenses, which could lead to disenfranchisement (Tucson.com) of about 500K voters in our primarily mail-in elections: AZ Capitol Times.
• The question of whether Pima County should continue to accept the Stonegarden grant funds for ICE to operate in the Pima County Jail continues to be a flashpoint in local immigration debates: ADI.
• Kelli Ward must be desperate following polling showing her falling further behind McSally (hear the lamentations and wailing [Seeing Red AZ] of the far-right?), so she is doing a bus tour (AZCentral) with alt-right conspiracy theorist and male supremacist Mike “Pizzagate” Cernovich: TPM.
• Why has Gabby Giffords’ PAC endorsed three Republicans for Congress this year?: NYTimes.
• Property taxes for TUSD district taxpayers are going up by up to 86% due to the state legislature stripping TUSD of $16 million in desegregation funds: Tucson News Now.

National:

• Trump has laundered Russian mafia money through his properties over 1300 times, amounting to billions of dollars; still think he’s not compromised by Russian intel?: Crooks and Liars.
• GOP Georgia elections officials try to shut down 75% of polling places in a predominantly African-American county; these sorts of systemic efforts to suppress minority voting (NYT) are exactly why we need the pre-clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act: Crooks and Liars.
• Many are calling for mass resignations of Catholic Church leadership in penance for new revelations of sexual abuse of minors and the subsequent cover-ups: Breitbart.
• Mueller is looking a whether Trump fundraiser Elliot Broidy took kickbacks for influence pedaling from Chinese and Malaysian interests: TruthDig.
• Trump isn’t attacking an “enemies list”, he’s attacking Mueller’s witness list: Salon.
• Surprised? Not! More swamp muck is found on Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s shoes: Forbes.
• Militarizing the police does not reduce crime, but it does reduce Americans’ support for the police: Pacific Standard.
• Melania Trump is headed for a tour of Africa (the shit-hole countries according to her husband) and her premier issue is cyber-bullying (while her husband calls a woman a dog on twitter); is she trolling her husband or just a hypocrite?
• This is how Elizabeth Warren announces her candidacy for President in 2020 – not with some soaring rhetoric on a stump in Iowa, but by announcing a major, ass-kicking, name-taking, new anti-corruption bill that will surely become the centerpiece of her campaign: The Intercept.
• Prisoners across the country are going on strike to protest prison conditions that amount to “modern slavery”: The Guardian.
• Thousands of children are facing immigration court on their own, with no parents, no counsel, and no idea what’s happening to them: The Atlantic.
• EPA’s new retrograde coal pollution rules will cost lives. Up to 1400 annually. Trump values coal company profits over American lives: NYT.
• Manafort and Cohen acted in such nakedly corrupt ways that one has to wonder, would they have ever been caught if there were no special counsel investigating?: Vox.

World:

• The United States is deeply implicated (Informed Comment) in the bombing in Yemen that took the lives of dozens of innocent children; we built the bomb, sold it to Saudi Arabia (The Guardian), provided logistical support for dropping the bomb, and have remained silent on the tragedy and the whole tragic civil war in general: CNN.