~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Signature missing: Racism in YOUR House

01/12/2015 Nativegrl77

Arisha Michelle Hatch, ColorOfChange.org

Rep Steve Scalise thinks if he stops talking about it, people will forget that in 2002 he went to a white supremacist conference to pander for votes.

In a press conference with House GOP leadership yesterday, Scalise simply referred reporters back to his previous statement saying, “I think that’s where the story ends.” Unfortunately, that’s not true. In it he claims to have shown up to speak about a tax plan that didn’t even have its first committee hearing until 10 days after the conference.¹

Speaker Boehner is continuing to make excuses for Scalise rather than stand up to racism in his own caucus, hoping the story will just go away. With your voice, we can keep the story alive and demand that the GOP confront hatred in their ranks.

YES-I demand Republicans disavow white supremacy and strip Steve Scalise of his leadership position.

Thanks,

Arisha

1. “How I busted Steve Scalise: Inside a GOP political scandal — and its ongoing coverup” Salon, 1-6-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4526?t=3&akid=4029.1174326.hYbNXr

=================================================

The #3 Republican in the House has admitted to associating with white supremacists.

Demand Speaker John Boehner disavow white supremacy and strip Majority Whip Steve Scalise of his leadership position.

Black History

The Senate ~ CONGRESS 1/12 ~ The House

01/12/2015 Nativegrl77

The Senate stands adjourned until 2:00pm on Monday, January 12, 2015.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.1, the Keystone bill. The time until 5:30pm will be equally divided and controlled in the usual form.

5:30pm—1 roll call vote

Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.1, the Keystone bill.The Senate has convened and has resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S.1, a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, with the time until 5:30pm equally divided. At 5:30pm today, there will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the Keystone pipeline bill.Ifclotureis invoked, there would be up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate.Ifalltimeis used,thepost-cloturedebatetimewouldexpireatapproximately midnight Tuesday night.Oncethemotiontoproceedis adopted, the bill would be open to amendments. Senator McConnell urged senators who would like to offer amendments to the Keystone bill to reach out to the bill managers,SenatorsMurkowskiandCantwell.A few scheduling notes:
- The Senate will not be in session this Wednesday and Thursday (January 14^th and 15^th) in order to accommodate the Democratic and Republican caucus retreats.
- Senator McConnell announced there will be no roll call votes this Friday, January 16^th,, but the Senate will be in session working on the Keystone bill.
- Next Monday, January 19^th is a federal holiday, Martin Luther King Day.
- Next Tuesday, January 20^th, the President will deliver the State of the Union Address in the Hall of the House of Representatives at 9:00pm.
- 5:30pm The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on the motion to proceed to S.1, a bill to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.
- 5:30pm The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on the motion to proceed to S.1, a bill to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline;Invoked: 63-32
- Cloture was invoked on the motion to proceed to S.1, Keystone, by a vote of 63-32. There will now be up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate on the motiontoproceed.The Senate is in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time counting post-cloture.
  
  There will be no further roll call votes today.
- WRAP UP
- Roll Call Votes
  1. Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.1, to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline; Invoked: 63-32.

====================================================

Last Floor Action:
7:34:02 P.M. – SPECIAL ORDER SPEECHES – The House has concluded all anticipated legislative business and has proceeded to Special Order speeches.

Last Floor Action:
2:16:01 P.M. – The Speaker announced that the House do now recess.

The next meeting is scheduled for 5:00 P.M. today.

Last Floor Action:1/9
2:02:28 P.M. – The House adjourned pursuant to a previous special order.

The next meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on January 12, 2015.

12:00:22 P.M.		The House convened, starting a new legislative day.
12:00:26 P.M.		The Speaker designated the Honorable Diane Black to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
12:00:50 P.M.		MORNING-HOUR DEBATE – The House proceeded with Morning-Hour Debate. At the conclusion of Morning-Hour, the House will recess until 2:00 p.m. for the start of legislative business.
12:22:08 P.M.		The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. today.

2:00:05 P.M.		The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of January 12.
2:00:20 P.M.		Today’s prayer was offered by the House Chaplain, Rev. Patrick J. Conroy.
2:01:45 P.M.		POSTPONED PROCEEDINGS ON APPROVAL OF THE JOURNAL – The Chair announced that he had examined the Journal of the last day’s proceedings and had approved it. Mr. Ashford demanded that the question be put on agreeing to the Speaker’s approval of the Journal and by voice vote, the Chair announced that the ayes had prevailed. Mr. Ashford demanded the yeas and nays and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of agreeing to the approval of the Journal until later in the legislative day.
2:02:32 P.M.		PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair designated Mr. Israel to lead the Members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
2:02:59 P.M.		ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with one minute speeches.
2:16:01 P.M.		The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 5:00 P.M. today.

5:06:13 P.M.		The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of January 12.
5:06:19 P.M.		The Speaker announced that votes on suspensions, if ordered, will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. today.
5:06:36 P.M.	H.R. 203	Mr. Miller (FL) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill. H.R. 203 — “To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide for the conduct of annual evaluations of mental health care and suicide prevention programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to require a pilot program on loan repayment for psychiatrists who agree to serve in the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.”
5:06:52 P.M.	H.R. 203	Considered under suspension of the rules.
5:06:54 P.M.	H.R. 203	DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 203.
5:35:00 P.M.	H.R. 203	At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.
5:35:35 P.M.	H.R. 33	Mr. Ryan (WI) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill. H.R. 33 — “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that emergency services volunteers are not taken into account as employees under the shared responsibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
5:35:52 P.M.	H.R. 33	Considered under suspension of the rules.
5:35:56 P.M.	H.R. 33	DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 33.
5:59:43 P.M.	H.R. 33	At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.

6:00:09 P.M.		The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 P.M. today.
6:30:15 P.M.		The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of January 12.
6:30:19 P.M.		UNFINISHED BUSINESS – The Chair announced that the unfinished business was the question on agreeing to the Speaker’s approval of the Journal, and motions to suspend the rules, all of which had been debated earlier and on which further proceedings had been postponed.
6:30:54 P.M.	H.R. 203	Considered as unfinished business. H.R. 203 — “To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide for the conduct of annual evaluations of mental health care and suicide prevention programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to require a pilot program on loan repayment for psychiatrists who agree to serve in the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.”
6:55:05 P.M.		ADMINISTRATION OF THE OATH OF OFFICE – The Speaker administered the Oath of Office to Members-elect of the 114th Congress who were absent during the Oath of Office administered on January 6, 2015.
6:55:25 P.M.		ADJUSTMENT OF WHOLE HOUSE – Under clause 5(d) of rule 20, the Chair announced to the House that, in light of the administration of the oath to the gentlewoman from California and the gentlemen from Alaska and Texas, the whole number of the House is 433.
7:01:45 P.M.	H.R. 203	On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 403 – 0 (Roll no. 17).
7:01:45 P.M.	H.R. 203	Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
7:01:54 P.M.	H.R. 33	Considered as unfinished business. H.R. 33 — “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that emergency services volunteers are not taken into account as employees under the shared responsibility requirements contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
7:11:04 P.M.	H.R. 33	On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 401 – 0 (Roll no. 18).
7:11:04 P.M.	H.R. 33	Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
7:17:24 P.M.		On approving the Journal Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 257 – 128 (Roll no. 19).
7:18:13 P.M.	S. Con. Res. 2	Mrs. Comstock asked unanimous consent to take from the Speaker’s table and consider.
7:18:13 P.M.	S. Con. Res. 2	Considered by unanimous consent. S. Con. Res. 2 — “Authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for a ceremony to present the Congressional Gold Medal to the First Special Service Force, in recognition of its superior service during World War II.”
7:18:39 P.M.	S. Con. Res. 2	On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to without objection.
7:18:42 P.M.	S. Con. Res. 2	Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
7:19:10 P.M.	H. Con. Res. 7	Considered as privileged matter. H. Con. Res. 7 — “Providing for a joint session of Congress to receive a message from the President.”
7:19:27 P.M.	H. Con. Res. 7	On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to without objection.
7:19:37 P.M.	H. Con. Res. 7	Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
7:22:53 P.M.		ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with further one minute speeches.
7:34:02 P.M.		SPECIAL ORDER SPEECHES – The House has concluded all anticipated legislative business and has proceeded to Special Order speeches.

=====================================================

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Low Wages? Low Sales.

01/11/2015 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

By CAP Action War Room

The Middle Class Squeeze Is Worrying Big Retailers, Too

Earlier this month, CAP released a report highlighting how squeezed middle-class Americans have become. That report showed that while the cost of attaining middle class security has increased by over $10,000 since 2000, wages for most Americans have remained stagnant.

The cycle of economic stagnation—low wages, leading to weak demand, leading to slow growth, leading again to low wages—is not only hurting America’s hard-working citizens, but it is also hurting businesses where those workers might spend their money and in turn boost the entire US economy. Wall Street is finally starting to get it: Standard & Poor’s has issued a report saying that inequality is holding back economic growth and Morgan Stanley has warned investors that stronger wage growth is critical to our economic growth.

A new CAP report released today provides further evidence that this squeezed middle class weakens our entire economy, hurting both businesses and the consumers who support them. The report, ”Retailer Revelations,” looked at the financial reports of the top 100 retailers in America and statements of Wall Street’s top economists about the outlook for the country’s biggest retailers. The consensus: trickledown economics is not working.

It has taken more than five years for retail spending per person to reach its prerecession level in the United States and business have begun to realize the impact that is having on their bottom line. Using new information to show the impact middle-class stagnation has had on the economy, the report demonstrates that businesses’ support for economic policies that grow the middle class would directly benefit their own business.

Here are some key findings:

Eighty-eight percent of the top 100 US retailers consider weak consumer spending a risk to their stock price.
Sixty-eight percent cite falling or stagnant incomes as a risk to their stock price — roughly double the percent that cited them in 2006.
Fifty-seven percent cite rising costs of essentials like housing, healthcare and energy, as risks to their stock price, further showing the middle class squeeze.
Wall Street economists even argue that low wages drive low demand and high unemployment.
Retailers could see their bottom line increase by supporting a growth-oriented agenda with policies such as a minimum wage increase.

BOTTOM LINE: America’s biggest retailers have realized that when the middle class loses, everyone loses. It’s time conservative lawmakers and pundits realized it too. An economy that works for everyone is an economy that grows from the middle out.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Cooking The Books

01/11/2015 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

Two Seemingly Tiny Rule Changes By House GOP Will Rig The Game For The Rich

The new Republican Congress is wasting no time on high-profile political maneuvers to prove their right-wing agenda. Yesterday, the House GOP, bucking some of its own, took its 54th vote to dismantle the Affordable Care Act by voting to redefine full-time as a 40-hour work week (the move would leave up to 500,000 without insurance and increase deficits by $53 billion over ten years). Today, it passed legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline instead of working to create clean energy jobs and protect public health. And next week, it is expected to use the need to fund the Department of Homeland Security as a chance to please their far-right anti-immigrant base by defunding the president’s recent common-sense executive actions on immigration.

House Republicans, however, did something else this week that may be getting less attention, but is no less important: They passed the new rules package for the 114th Congress. And two of these little-known but significant rules speak volumes about the broader Republican agenda to favor the wealthy and corporations at the expense of everyone else.

A budgeting method that means a return to failed trickle-down economics

An important part of the lawmaking process is the evaluation of the potential law’s fiscal impact — how much it is projected to change federal spending and revenues. In the first rule change, the House GOP now directs Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeepers to use a new system called “dynamic scoring” when evaluating some proposed legislation: a move that will make it easier to cut taxes.

While the details are quite technical, what Republicans are attempting to do amounts to fuzzy math. Take this example: Republicans propose a tax cut. Scorekeepers have to evaluate how much it will cost. The new rule requires them to predict how the tax cut will affect the overall economy in the future–something that requires a lot of speculation, and could give the impression of reducing how much a tax cut would cost. Now say Democrats propose an investment in education or infrastructure. The rule does not allow scorekeepers to apply the same potentially beneficial predictive speculation to appropriations bills, where these investments are generally made.

This is in effect cooking the books in favor of tax cuts and trickle-down economics. We’ve seen very well how that went under President George W. Bush, whose massive tax cuts in 2001-2003 irresponsibly skewed the tax system in favor of the wealthy and subsequently forced dramatic cuts in important safety net programs. And more recently, Kansas has made the point again. With the promise of a “shot of adrenaline” for the state economy, the state passed massive tax cuts favoring the wealthy; instead, it has gotten a gaping hole in the budget and an under-performing state economy.

A move to hold Social Security hostage

With the second rule change, the House GOP have added a restriction to Social Security that could jeopardize the trust fund and help Republicans in their efforts to cut benefits.

There’s a routine transfer that happens between the Social Security retirement trust fund, which is financially secure, and the Social Security disability program, which has been under more strain in recent years due to demographic shifts such as aging baby boomers. It’s happened 11 times. The new rule passed by House Republicans prevents this transfer, unless it also includes new revenues or benefit cuts. The disability program is expected to run short of money in 2016, which means that beneficiaries will face up to 20 percent cuts in their payments without a transfer between the trust funds. In effect, the rule holds Social Security hostage so that conservatives can extract more concessions in a potential entitlement reform.

BOTTOM LINE: While this week has had a number of high-profile legislative pushes, little-known rule changes have had big effects in revealing the backward priorities of the new GOP Congress. Dynamic scoring for tax cuts will make trickle-down policies that favor the wealthy easier than before. And a restriction on a routine Social Security transfer could mean more benefits cuts for working families.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

the World must participate ~~ a better life, jobs, eduction, wages …

01/11/2015 Nativegrl77

Weekly Address: America Is Leading the World In this week’s address, the President reiterated the forceful and optimistic message of American leadership that he delivered in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week. America is leading the world against the most pressing challenges, including the fight to degrade and destroy ISIL, the effort to stop the Ebola epidemic, and the movement to confront the threat from climate change.

The world looks to America and its commitment to freedom in the face of uncertainty, and as the President said, it will continue to do so for generations to come.

Click here to watch this week’s Weekly Address.