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milkbreadtoast · 5 years ago

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INFO ON WHY THE US POSTAL SERVICE IS IN TROUBLE + HOW TO HELP (IF YOU LIVE IN THE US)!! If you don’t live in the US, please share for your US followers!!

CONSOLIDATED INFO INTO IMAGES THAT CAN BE SAVED/SHARED!! click images to read!! (plaintext below the cut) Feel free to repost these anywhere!!

TLDR VERSION:

use resistbot (text RESIST to 50409, OR dm @resistbot on twitter) to call and write your reps

ask your reps to support: HEROES Act, USPS Fairness Act, and Delivering For America Act !!

it only takes a few min!

link to my twitter thread about this

store.usps.com

(sorry the format got messed up when i copypasted)

THE US POSTAL SERVICE IS IN DANGER Why? Here's the main points:

* The USPS has been defunded by Republicans for years in an effort to make it non viable so it can be privatized. * Notably, the GOP-sponsored "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act" of 2006 forced the USPS to prepay worker's pensions for the next 75 years. Due to this act alone, the USPS went from running a profit to being billions of dollars in debt. * Lately, the coronavirus pandemic has led even more people than usual to rely on the USPS to ship things. It has become extremely overwhelming for postal workers, and they are not provided PPE. However, Trump cut the USPS from receiving any covid relief. * Here's where it gets even scarier. Postmaster General DeJoy, the first postmaster with 0 postal working experience * is a huge Trump donor * holds stock in several private shipping companies, creating a serious Conflict of interest. In other words, it HELPS him to DESTROY the service he is supposed to lead * over the past few months he's been implementing change after change to sabotage the USPS. Here are just a few: * Shutting down mail-sorting machines so workers must do it by hand. * Requiring post offices to purposely delay mail * Requiring letter carriers to leave mail to avoid extra trips. * Prohibiting overtime pay. * removing/destroying mail sorting machines in key election cities * 1. Battleground states (OH, PA, FL, MI, WI, IL) * 2. NY & Philly: liberal leaning cities in incumbent-targeted states * 3. Houston: city w/ the highest black pop in TX (4th in US) * removing/destroying mailboxes * Trump is openly admitting to trying to destroy the USPS to suppress voting and rig the election in his favor. Quote: "Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots...But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting...” * FINALLY: Postal Workers have been trying to spread the word that vote-by-mail may not be safe in the upcoming election, due to inevitable Trump sabotage. Instead, they recommend: * vote early in person * use a ballot drop box * drop off your ballot at an election office or polling location * organize community ballot collection * *note: some options may not be available in your state so pls check * Request your ballot ASAP!! So... how do we help save the USPS?! The answer: call/write to your reps!!!

HOW TO CALL/WRITE: you can google who your reps are and how to contact them, but the EASIER way is to use resistbot: * text RESIST to 50409, or... * direct message @resistbot on twitter Resistbot will walk you through creating an account if it's your first time! Simply follow the prompts. The bot is very polite and user friendly, honestly it's pretty fun to use Keep calls short, but writing can be longer! Feel free to make it personal! Write about what the USPS means to you/why you need it!! When writing, make sure to write a slightly different message every time and do not copy and paste, or it can be filtered out. when calling: state your name & zip code ex) Hi, my name is and my zip code is . My callback number is __. I am calling to ask you to please...

CALLING SENATORS: Vote YES/ IN FAVOR OF: * HR 6800: HEROES Act * to get the USPS direly needed funding and PPE * HR 2382/ S.2965: USPS Fairness Act * repeals the requirement that the USPS prepay pensions These two acts have passed the house but not moved in the Senate!! Please urge your senator to vote on them! CALLING YOUR HOUSE REP: * Delivering for America Act(new) * undos Postmaster General Dejoy's harmful changes to USPS operation * just introduced! ask ur rep to support it!! The House has oversight capabilities: Ask them to investigate Postmaster General Dejoy's policies that have been crippling the USPS, and his conflicts of interest owning stock in private mail courier companies: - Delaying mail creating a massive backlog. - Shutting down mail-sorting machines so workers must do it by hand. - Requiring letter carriers to LEAVE MAIL BEHIND to avoid extra trips. - Prohibiting overtime pay.

make saving the post office a NATIONAL PRIORITY! Some reasons we need the USPS voting medication taxes small businesses many areas in the US rely on the USPS to send and receive any mail period we rely on USPS during pandemic elderly, veteran, minority/POC workers postal workers have inadequate covid protection/PPE shipping couriers (UPS, FEDEX, etc) outrageous prices (14$ vs 60$ for shipping small parcel internationally) Feel free to make it personal! Write about what the USPS means to you/why you need it!!

Finally, OTHER WAYS TO HELP (in addition to calling, not in place of!!) * Buy stamps at store.usps.com ! This is the most direct way to donate to them * Support and buy from small businesses/artists who rely on the USPS to ship! (hate to say it but...if the USPS becomes non-viable and many go out of business...please buy from them while you still can )

#USPS #save the usps #save the us postal service #us postal service #sorry if this post is not easy to read im just trying to spread the word here too

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sevdrag · 5 years ago

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dreamwidth update: Fanfic Commissions 2.0, Electric Boogaloo, 2 Broke 2 Furious

tl;dr: Sev needs a new computer. It's old, slow, and doesn't understand scrolling sometimes. Just today I had to restart it because the delete/backspace/arrow keys all decided to take a vacation: it's the beginning of the end.

All of the money I earn doing commissions this round will go directly to a new laptop. This'll help me write more, be more active in Discord and other places, and be much more productive with paid work. Some estimating with a friend has revealed that I can get exactly what I want for around like $700-$750, so that's my eventual target.

I still have commissions left from the first round: 3 short (which I will deliver before starting anything new) and 2 longer projects that I'll work on in the background. Apologies for taking so long, and please know I'll wrap those up before starting Round 2. I intend to deliver them by the end of the month.

Last round I took a whole number of commissions at once and overwhelmed myself, which is why I still have some to deliver here in September. This round, I'll be taking commissions in a limited queue. Once the queue is empty, I'll post again and open up another round. I'll also post periodic updates on the standing of the queue just to keep interest alive. I will also be keeping my current WIPs moving, because I also learned that I need projects of my own as well as commissions or ADHD brain will self-destruct. Basically: I will be slow and careful with your commission, and I'll deliver top quality, and you won't be getting it back in like 3 days.

Commission Notes

Details are under the cut. If you're curious, here are the works I've delivered for Round 1. My pricing structure has changed somewhat because I discovered I spent a lot of time on commissions -- I hope the work shows that. You can see the rest of my recent work here.

If commissions aren't for you right now but you want to help influence what I work on in the background, consider my Patreon -- for $5/month you get to vote (Fridays) on what project I focus on for the next week, and (if i get more followers) sneak peeks as well.

And if you're as broke as me but still want to help out, please reblog on Tumblr or Twitter, or repost whatever sassy little graphic I'll end up making for DW. Every little bit of extended audience helps!

( Commission Details )

And a BIG THANKS to everyone who commissioned me last round, or donated to help me out, or helped spread the word, or supported me during word sprints, or seriously watched me write smut in a GDoc while eating popcorn and cheering, or yelled at me to make words, or sent me pictures and videos as rewards, or otherwise made me smile, laugh, or drink copiously during this time. I appreciate your patience, your fandom love, and your generosity.

NOW DO IT AGAIN IM BROKE

#crossposted #dreamwidth #fanfiction #commissions #fanfic commissions #winterhawk #mcu #avengers #clint barton #bucky barnes #tony stark #natasha romanoff #wanda maximoff #pietro maximoff #steve rogers #bruce banner #mcu tags for this reblog #others to follow #PLEASE REBLOG

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ingebird · 3 years ago

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This year is nearly over and what a year it was. I thought 2020 was bad but 2021 was quite the encore. For me it was hard, no, impossible most of the time to walk the Eightfold Path. Right Speech was the hardest. I cannot keep my mouth shut when I see humans acting like dicks to other sentient beings and that goes double for humans who are supposed to have our best interests at heart. I am talking about our elected officials. This year has been an eye opener for me. The ones who are supposed to be impartial when it comes to reporting the news have helped spread misinformation, fear, division and outright censorship of any type of robust dialogue. In the 66 years that I have been alive, I have not witnessed such divisiveness since the late 60s. This time it's worse, much worse. The good thing is that the veil of deception is being lifted. The “owners of this country” (as George Carlin liked to say) are no longer hiding their behavior. They are crooked. They are greedy. They will do whatever it takes to get what they want. How many times have we heard both parties say we need money out of politics? We need term limits. And blah, blah, blah. Nothing gets done. Nothing changes. They play good cop (the dems) vs bad cop (the repubs) but they are both cops. It's one big scam and we are the mark. All of us. This is why I am angry. One of my college professors told us decades ago, “Media doesn’t tell us what to think, they tell us what to think about.” I think they now do both. Look at social media. Look how easy it is to get humans to tweet and/or repost information that has not been researched or verified? Social media makes it easier to control opinions. Censorship is alive and well in 2021. Tweet or post something that goes against the establishment's narrative and get a “time-out” or banned altogether. I am against censorship. Period. I recently found this Monty Python clip which reminded me of how humans on social media are today. https://youtu.be/yp_l5ntikaU In the 90s I attended a school board meeting in a city where there was a large population of ultra conservative Christians. They wanted the book. “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, written by Shel Silverstein, banned from the school library. Why? They didn’t like his poems and stories. Especially about the little girl witch Halloween story, and (get this) he looked like the devil. I had not witnessed such craziness in my adult life. These parents were really freaked out about a kid's book. In the end, the book stayed but I am willing to bet any copies mysteriously disappeared before the school year was over. What is happening now reminds me of those crazy parents and how the elected officials with the help of mainstream media are fueling the fires. Keeping us divided. Common sense has all but disappeared. There hardly is anyone stopping to think and asking questions. It shocks me. I used to write for an online progressive blog until last September. I questioned the mandates. I did my research. I included articles from (at least back then) reliable resources who exposed companies track records. Companies who were in charge of our health. I was called a Trumper. How the Hell someone came up with that conclusion after reading my article is beyond me. I wanted to write a follow up which included information about private support groups where people who were harmed by the you-know-what could go. The editor said no. Not only was I now considered a Trumper, but an anti-vaxxer. None of his arguments made sense. The funny thing is that we met during the Occupy Movement. He considers himself to be progressive except when it comes to thinking for himself. So this brings me back to my original thought. It is harder for me to walk the Eightfold Path. I think some things cannot be hugged out. They require vigorous debate that includes evidence to support one's opinions or in this case, mandates. Our system is clearly broken. We keep voting in the same old humans who are greedy. They have learned to tell people what they want to hear and as soon as they are sworn, it is business as usual. In 2008, I volunteered at a campaign office to help get Obama elected. I believed his promises. I believed in his vision. Then he took office and he turned out to be like the rest of them. He was not as bad, but he followed orders from the ones who own this country. Now I am with George Carlin. I will remain cynical until I see change. Meaningful change.

#politics #mainstream media #censorship

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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Who Funds Republicans For The Rule Of Law

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-funds-republicans-for-the-rule-of-law/

Who Funds Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Do Republicans Value Democracy Or The Rule Of Law The Answer Is Clear But There’s Still Time To Fight Back

Critics accuse Trump of abusing the law as he grants clemency to former advisor Roger Stone

Newt Gingrich; John Roberts; Donald Trump

Even before the latest Supreme Court decisions approving hyper-partisan gerrymandering and effectively;allowing;the addition of a citizenship question to the census, experts have wondered aloud whether Republicans remain committed to democracy. Toward the end of a recent plenary;panel;on Supreme Court reform at the American Constitution Societys national convention, University of Chicago law professor Aziz Huq suggested, We dont really know how committed the Republican Party is to the project of democracy.

If the GOP still values the rule of law, then perhaps the danger to democracy will recede after President Trump leaves office. But if the GOP no longer cares about democracy, then our political system could be in peril. Democracy probably cannot survive, after all, if one of our two major political parties is indifferent to its fate.

Unfortunately, the answer to Huqs question is clear. The Republican Party is not at all committed to democracy, and GOP leaders and voters would happily tolerate alternative political arrangements. That is a worrisome claim, to be sure, but the evidence is indisputable. Republicans have abandoned any concerns they may have had for the integrity of our political system.

Thanks to gerrymandering, dark money and voter suppression, it will remain very difficult for Democrats to capture the levers of power. They will require wave elections to do so;

Exclusive: Former Wwe Execs Introduce A New Fund

George Barrios and Michelle Wilson the former co-presidents of World Wrestling Entertainment who abruptly left the company a year ago are announcing their next project today: Isos Capital Management, an investment firm focused on media, entertainment and sports.

The idea was hatched in the summer. Mr. Barrios and Ms. Wilson are veterans of the sports and entertainment business, including more than a decade at WWE. We feel really proud of everything that was accomplished during our tenure, so were excited about the next chapter with Isos, Ms. Wilson told DealBook. After WWE, they both considered several opportunities including C.E.O. roles but decided instead to continue working together.

An industry in flux. The new fund will target companies at all stages of development, in industries that are undergoing rapid technological shifts. There are spaces whether its video gaming, e-sports, sports betting that will drive fan engagement, and that digital transformation will really become the vehicle to make that happen, Ms. Wilson said.

As money has poured into the space and deal making has picked up, the funds founders believe their experience and contacts set them apart at WWE, for example, they led the companys aggressive international push. Capital is important, but its fungible, Mr. Barrios said. What Michelle and I bring is expertise, credibility and a global network.

Theyve Been Jabbing At Mike Lee & Praising Maryland Governor Larry Hogan On Social Media

The women of Utah have questions for Senator Lee, including: Do you mean you already fully understood his utter disregard for the rule of law, and just dont care?

Republicans for the Rule of Law

Republicans for the Rule of Law recently reposted a letter to the editor that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, slamming Utah Senator Mike Lee. The letter, written by the Utah chapter of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, asked Lee why he continues to stand by the president. The letter reads:

When you state that nothing in this report changes your view of this president, do you mean that you already fully understood that President Trump was doing whatever he could to obstruct justice and was saved only because his staff refused to follow his orders? Do you mean that you support the president despite this unethical and self-serving behavior?

Republicans for the Rule of Law has also been showering praise on Maryland governor Larry Hogan. Hogan is the son of the late Maryland representative Lawrence Hogan, who was the only Republican representative to vote for all three articles of impeachment against Nixon. More recently, Larry Hogan made headlines when he called the Mueller Report disturbing and said it didnt exonerate the president.

Don’t Miss: Who Are The Two Republicans Running Against Trump

Corporate America Rethinks Political Donations

Big businesses often donate to both political parties and say that their support is tied to narrow issues of specific interest to their industries. That became increasingly fraught last week, after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and some Republican lawmakers tried to overturn Joe Bidens win in the presidential election. A flurry of companies have since reviewed political giving via their corporate political action committees.

Some big banks are pausing all political donations:

Goldman Sachs is freezing donations through its PAC and will conduct a thorough assessment of how people acted during this period, a spokesman, Jake Siewert, told DealBook.

JPMorgan Chase is halting donations through its PAC for six months. There will be plenty of time for campaigning later, said Peter Scher, the banks head of corporate responsibility.

Citigroup is putting all campaign contributions on hold for a quarter. We want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law, Candi Wolff, the banks head of government affairs, wrote in an internal memo.

Some companies are pausing donations to specific politicians:

Heres what we heard from some of the big corporate donors to the group:

Jay Timmons Makes A Statement

Amid the flurry of corporate condemnations of last weeks violence at the Capitol, one stood out. In its statement, the National Association of Manufacturers called out President Trump directly and urged Vice President Mike Pence to consider removing him to preserve democracy. The Timess Jim Tankersley, Peter Eavis and DealBooks Lauren Hirsch got the back story of the unexpectedly severe statement, perhaps the starkest sign of corporate Americas break with the Trump administration.

Once a reliable conservative ally, the trade group has hosted Mr. Trump at annual meetings, worked closely with his administration on deregulation and tax cuts, and gave Ivanka Trump an award last year. N.A.M.s president, Jay Timmons, has long ties to the Republican Party, and previously served as chief of staff to Senator George Allen of Virginia.

What changed? Quite likely, the reason that the group was able to speak out so forcefully last week was that Mr. Timmons did not poll the boards membership before issuing the statement . When The Times reached out to the companys board members, most referred to their own vaguelywordedstatements condemning the violence. Few would comment on N.A.M.s call for the removal of Mr. Trump.

Also Check: Are Republicans More Racist Than Democrats

Their Legal Adviser Is The Son Of The 1940 Republican Nominee For President

Republicans for the Rule of Law has a legal advisory board of seven legal advisers. One of those seven advisers is Wendell Wilkie II, who is an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an adjunct professor at NYU. Willkies father, Wendell Willkie, was the 1940 Republican nominee for president. Willkie initially ran on an anti-isolationist platform, although his positions evolved during the campaign. He was beaten handily by Franklin D Roosevelt.

The Group Is Part Of A Larger Conservative Ngo That Calls For Increasing Legal Immigration & Expanding Free Trade

Republicans for the Rule of Law is part of a larger organization called Defending Democracy Together. That group, a coalition of Republicans and Conservatives, says it is opposed to the nativist tendencies in the modern Republican party. The group is in favor of free trade and legal immigration. The organizations mission statement says, in part:

Today, the Republican Party finds itself entertaining some of the same unsettling nativist and authoritarian impulses that characterized Europe throughout the 20th century. These ideals are antithetical to what it means to be a Republican, and what it means to be American.

Defending Democracy Together is a 501c4 advocacy organization created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans many of whom have served in Republican administrations and write for conservative publications. We are dedicated to defending Americas democratic norms, values, and institutions and fighting for consistent conservative principles like rule of law, free trade, and expanding legal immigration.

Recommended Reading: Why Are Republicans Trying To Repeal Obamacare

The Rldf Opposed Epa Regulations

The RLDFs Opposed New EPA Regulations That Limited Emissions Of New Power Facilities. According to a web post from the Rule of Law Defense Fund, On May 9, sixteen Republican Attorneys General fought back against the EPAs proposed rule to restrict the emissions of new power facilities under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act and, thereby, reducing the diversity of potential power sources. Authored by Republican Attorneys General Patrick Morrisey and Jon Bruning , the letter asserts, States have a unique role in facilitating and ensuring affordable and reliable electric service while encouraging robust economic policy and responsible environmental protection. The current proposal upsets this careful balance by preventing the States from utilizing vital resources to supply the future energy needs of their citizens.

The RLDF Posted A Letter From Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt In Opposition To The EPA Investigating Frackings Impact On Water Sources. According to a web post from the Rule of Law Defense Fund, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, in a letter joined by 10 Republican Attorneys General, responded on May 15 to a memo from the EPAs Office of Inspector General announcing its intent to study the states ability to manage potential threats to water resources from hydraulic fracturing.

Gao Rules Biden Freeze On Border Wall Funds Legal

Wisconsin Republicans push plans for federal funds, but many may not follow federal rules

The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday ruled that President BidenJoe BidenSpotlight turns to GOP’s McCarthy in Jan. 6 probeBiden visits union hall to mark Labor DayBiden approves disaster funds for NJ, NY after Ida floodingMOREs move to freeze border wall funds did not violate budgetary law, angering Republicans.

It is clear that delays in the obligation and expenditure of Department of Homeland Security appropriations for border fencing or barriers are programmatic delays, not impoundments and do not violate the ICA, Shirley Jones, managing associate general counsel for appropriations law at GAO, said in a statement.

Budgetary law requires the executive branch to spend the funds that Congress appropriates, and sets limits on what administrations can do to impound, or avoid spending required sums.

In its decision, the GAO said that delays for environmental reviews and consultations with stakeholders, which are required by law, were appropriate, and did not constitute an illegal impoundment.

Delays in the obligation and expenditure of funds in these circumstances are programmatic delays, not impoundments, Jones said.

Donald TrumpSpotlight turns to GOP’s McCarthy in Jan. 6 probeFewer than 50 percent of West Virginians think 2020 election was legitimate: pollMORE diverted from military construction projects to the wall using emergency powers, a move that faced a slew of legal challenges.

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Are In The United States

Republican Voters Against Trump

The advertisements feature Republican voters stating reasons why they are not voting for Trump. According to Sarah Longwell, the executive director of Defending Democracy Together, the advertisements will target voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Arizona. Bill Kristol, the former editor of the Weekly Standard and Never Trump commentator, and Tim Miller, a previous adviser to Jeb Bushs 2016 presidential campaign, are involved in the Republican Voters Against Trump initiative.

What Is Your Opinion

Why might it be important for the rule of law to protect those who express ideas that the majority may find offensive

Should symbolic speech receive the same First Amendment protections as other forms of speech?

Are there times when the government should be able to limit speech? If so, under what circumstances and why?

You May Like: What Is Difference Between Democrats And Republicans

Republicans For The Rule Of Law Is Financed By A Democrat

Just hours after Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general last Wednesday at the presidents behest, #TheResistance found its newest target for destruction: Sessions interim replacement, Matthew Whitaker….NeverTrump conservatives are aiding Schiff and the media in their campaign to paralyze if not remove Whitaker. Commercials attacking the acting attorney general were aired on several Sunday morning political shows. The ads were sponsored by Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group founded earlier this year by Bill Kristol, the editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard. The groups primary role so far appears to be pimping for the Mueller probe, a political witch-hunt that Kristol and his fellow NeverTrumpers pray will lead to the impeachment and removal of the president. The Left and their NeverTrump footsoldiers fear Whitaker will thwart the special counsels investigation instead of rubber stamping Muellers ever-expanding investigation as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has done over the past 18 months.

A Viral Ad Released By The Group Says Republican Silence On The Mueller Report Is Deafening

Republicans, your silence is deafening. Stand up for the rule of law.

Republicans for the Rule of Law

A new ad from the Republicans for the Rule of Law has been going viral on social media; you can see it above. Many people are retweeting it and adding instructions to listen with your sound turned all the way up, because this video is supposed to be all about silence. The spot, shot in black and white, features close-ups of Republican Ben senators Sasse, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, Tim Scott. Theyre all looking straight ahead and saying nothing. You can hear a bit of static and the faint sound of a ticking clock.

A caption at the end reads, Republicans: Your silence is deafening. Our president attempted to obstruct justice. Stand up for the rule of law.

Read Also: What Other Republicans Are Running For President

Rldf Listed As A Participant Of Rally That Led To January 6 2021 Storming Of Us Capitol

RLDF was one of many conservative groups listed as participants in the “March to Save America”, a rally on January 6, 2021, the day the Congress was scheduled to count Joe Biden‘s electoral college votes, confirming him as the president-elect.

RLDF also sent out a robocall describing the location and time of the protest. One call obtained by Documented said, “Im calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message. The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in Presidents Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

They Recently Posted An Embarrassing Video Of Lindsey Graham From The Clinton Era

Sen. Graham says President Clinton should be removed from office for obstructing justice in 1999: “He is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the land. He encouraged people to lie for him. He lied. I think he obstructed justice.”

Republicans for the Rule of Law

On April 22, Republicans for the Rule of Law posted a video of Lindsey Graham talking about presidential misconduct. You can see that video above. The video shows Graham saying:

This is about a person out of control. He took the law, turned it upside down. Every time there was a crossroads, he put his personal and legal interest ahead of the nation. He is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the land. He encouraged people to lie for him. He lied. I think he obstructed justice. I think theres a convincing and compelling case that he has in fact engaged in conduct that it would be better for him to leave office than to stay in office.

of course, this clip is taken from a 1999 interview Graham gave to C-Span, and the president hes talking about is Bill Clinton, not Donald Trump. But some people take the video as a sign of Republican double standards and are saying that the clip is embarrassing for Lindsey Graham, who pushed hard for Bill Clinton to leave office but has supported President Trump.

Don’t Miss: Where Are Republicans On The Political Spectrum

Texas Abortion Law A Radical Expansion Of Who Can Sue Whom And An About

Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue anyone who performs or aids in an abortion, marks an unprecedented change to who has standing to bring a lawsuit. The tactic is also an emerging trend in Republican-dominated states that may compromise constitutional rights, some legal experts said.

, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Republican lawmakers move to ban nearly all abortions in Texas was accomplished through a huge, unprecedented expansion of who can bring a lawsuit against someone else: Under the law, anyone can sue anyone who performs, aids or intends to aid in an abortion regardless of whether they have a personal stake in the abortion performed.

Its wide open, said David Coale, an appellate lawyer in Texas. That is a radical expansion of the concept of standing.

The expansion has far-reaching legal implications, legal experts say, by challenging the very notion of what a court is for and emboldening civilians to enforce law, a duty traditionally left to the government. Its also a reversal by Texas Republicans on tort law, in which they have typically sought to limit the ability to sue, not expand it.

Legal experts also told The Texas Tribune that the measure is part of an emerging trend in Republican-dominated governments that find it difficult to constitutionally prohibit cultural grievances. Instead, they empower civilians to sue for civil remedies.

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xtruss · 4 years ago

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Can Biden Reverse Trump’s Damage to the State Department?

Reeling from the leadership of Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, career officials wonder whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken can revitalize American diplomacy.

— By Ronan Farrow | June 17, 2021 | The New Yorker

Donald Trump whispers to Mike Pompeo in a Cabinet meeting. Mike Pompeo echoed many of Donald Trump’s hard-line foreign-policy views, and was adept at surviving under a mercurial President. Photograph by Tom Brenner / NYT / Redux

Last year, in the early hours of October 27th, Philip Walton, an American citizen living and working as a farmer in southern Niger, was kidnapped in front of his family by armed mercenaries. The militants demanded a million-dollar ransom from Walton’s family and threatened to sell the American to local extremist groups. As Walton’s captors smuggled him across the border into northern Nigeria, Navy seals planned a rescue operation. Several days later, as the seals stood ready to conduct the raid, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a government plane, flying back to the United States after travelling in Asia. A State Department staffer entered Pompeo’s cabin and updated the secretary on Walton’s case. The staffer outlined the steps that Pompeo would need to take to facilitate the exfiltration, including a call to the President of Niger.

To the surprise of his aides, Pompeo pushed back on the staffer’s requests. Pompeo grew visibly annoyed with the request that he make the phone calls, eventually replying, “When am I going to sleep?” The staffer told Pompeo that the American citizen being held was unlikely to be sleeping much. At the end of the discussion, Pompeo agreed to make the necessary calls. On the morning of October 31st, the seals parachuted from an Air Force Special Operations Command plane and rescued Walton, killing six of his kidnappers. Donald Trump and Pompeo later boasted about the operation on Twitter, where Pompeo called it “outstanding.” Staffers said the tweet was one of multiple instances when Pompeo appeared to use his position to boost his or Trump’s political fortunes.

Aides who worked under Pompeo said the exchange regarding the raid typified a leadership style that included brusque treatment of personnel and an intense focus on partisan politics that sometimes hampered the day-to-day business of the State Department. In interviews, dozens of other department employees alleged that Pompeo’s chaotic tenure, and that of his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, left deep institutional and cultural scars that continue to impede American diplomatic efforts around the world.

During the Trump Administration, a hiring freeze, radical proposals to cut the State Department’s budget, and an unprecedented number of vacancies in pivotal roles undercut the institution’s capacity to conduct diplomacy. In an interview before taking office as the current Secretary of State, Antony Blinken warned that the departure of so many career diplomats had deeply damaged the department. That “penalizes you in all sorts of ways that will go on for generations, not just for a bunch of years,” Blinken told me. Absent a more robust department, he said, “We’re going to get into all kinds of conflicts we might have avoided through development, through diplomacy.”

State Department officials told me that the Biden Administration is acting too slowly to reverse the effects of the purge. Some said that they feared that Blinken and other Administration officials, eager to distance themselves from the reckless decision-making of the Trump era, have been hesitant to make bold policy decisions. “Things aren’t moving forward,” one career diplomat, who works with Blinken and asked not to be named, told me. “There’s starting to be some chatter around the building about, you know, let’s do the hard work. And I’m not sure that these folks are prepared at this point to do that.”

The initial wave of Trump-era damage was wrought by Rex Tillerson, who championed budget cuts of proportions not seen since the first Clinton Administration, which advocated for a downsizing of the department in the name of a post-Cold War focus on domestic priorities. Pompeo, a Republican who had served as a congressman from Kansas and as Trump’s C.I.A. director, promised to restore the institution’s “swagger.” He had little by way of diplomatic experience, but was politically savvier than Tillerson—and, ultimately, more adept at surviving under a mercurial President. An evangelical Christian from Orange, California, Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point and served in the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he moved to Kansas to start an aerospace business, with investment from the Kochs’ venture-capital fund. He successfully ran for Congress amid the Tea Party wave, in 2010, again with Koch backing. Pompeo’s tenure as C.I.A. director was brief, just fifteen months, but he gained a reputation for being sharp-elbowed there as well, discarding the standing precedent of serving as an apolitical director and instead cultivating unusually close ties to Trump, sometimes even accompanying the President to meetings that were unrelated to intelligence. Pompeo echoed some of Trump’s hard-line foreign-policy views. When the President issued pugnacious calls to dismantle the Iran nuclear deal, Pompeo did so, too. And he appeared to internalize some of the lessons cited by White House officials about playing to Trump’s ego. The President, Pompeo declared during his tenure as C.I.A. director, “asks good, hard questions.”

After arriving at the State Department, Pompeo lifted the hiring freeze enacted by Tillerson but then isolated himself from the staff, in what seemed to some officers to be a deliberate show of mistrust. “Tillerson’s problem was function, Pompeo’s was deliberate,” one Foreign Service officer who worked closely with Pompeo told me. “There was never really any input from the field. There was less input from the building.” The new Secretary of State, several staffers said, treated them harshly. “He did a lot of screaming in private,” the Foreign Service officer added. “Pompeo was a dick, that I would agree on,” another senior official who worked closely with Pompeo told me. At times, his outbursts were directed to foreign interlocutors, including one prominent European foreign minister.

By the end of the Trump Administration, morale in the department had collapsed. Pompeo had lost the confidence of his staff, some of whom believed that he was preoccupied with a potential Presidential run and was playing to his conservative political base. Several cited his repeated refusals to sign off on even perfunctory commitments to diversity, at a time when Black and Hispanic diplomats each comprised just eight per cent of Foreign Service officers. Allegations of corruption surrounded him as well. The House Foreign Affairs Committee moved to hold Pompeo in contempt for refusing to comply with multiple subpoenas. The State Department inspector general’s office disclosed the existence of five different investigations into State Department activities, including at least two that directly involved Pompeo.

One investigation focussed on his use of subordinates to run personal errands for him and his wife, such as picking up dry cleaning and walking their dog. After Steve Linick, the department’s inspector general, began examining the Secretary’s conduct, a Pompeo ally dismissed him. Linick, a career public servant, was abruptly placed on administrative leave and locked out of his office. He later told a congressional committee that he was given no explanation for the removal. (In April, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General concluded that Pompeo had violated the department’s ethics rules, but noted that he is no longer subject to penalties because he has left the government.)

After Trump’s loss, last November, staffers’ concerns about Pompeo’s political activities increased. As Trump rejected the election results, Pompeo’s State Department impeded the transition process. Messages from foreign leaders to President-elect Joe Biden piled up, as Pompeo declined to observe protocol and release them. In the department’s press briefing room, Pompeo told reporters, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration.” No one was sure whether he was joking. Pompeo seemed irritated at follow-up questions, saying that “every legal vote” had to be counted, an adage used by Trump allies claiming, falsely, that the election results were fraudulent.

As Pompeo set out on a post-election international trip, last November, his refusal to acknowledge the balloting results cast a shadow over his diplomacy. E.U. officials declined to meet with him, prompting Pompeo to cancel some stops. As he visited Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Georgia, where the United States has encouraged electoral transparency, career Foreign Service officers wondered what moral authority their country still carried on the subject. After he learned that plans for a routine transition meeting with his successor, Blinken, had leaked to the press, Pompeo cancelled it. Although the meeting later took place, Foreign Service officers who worked with Pompeo were dismayed by the apparent prioritization of politics over an orderly transition. “He didn’t want to be seen as doing his job,” one told me.

During the same period, Pompeo was posting political messages on Twitter. The messages were reposted to an account in Pompeo’s name, with more than a hundred thousand followers, on Telegram, where a far-right audience, shunned by some mainstream platforms, had congregated. (A spokesperson for Pompeo said that Pompeo was unaware of the Telegram account.) His posts often focussed on domestic issues, including criticism of news outlets, and featured political slogans like “#AmericansFirst” and “#SoMuchWinning.” In one message, from January, Pompeo told his followers, “America is a land of many freedoms - it’s what makes us the best country in the world. Even after I leave office, I will continue to do all I can to secure those freedoms. Follow me @mikepompeo and join me.”

After Pompeo and Trump left office, the State Department was riddled with vacancies. More than a third of all Assistant Secretary or Under-Secretary positions—the organization’s top leadership—were empty or filled by temporary, “acting” officials. For more than half of the Trump years, the senior position responsible for nonproliferation and arms control, including confronting nuclear threats from North Korea, had been vacant or led by an acting appointee. Diversity among senior staff had dwindled, and the department’s workforce was overwhelmingly white, with just thirteen per cent of the senior executive service roles filled by individuals of color. Concerns about a lack of diversity in the department’s workforce predate the Trump Administration, but recent employee surveys showed growing frustration with the department’s failure to address the problem.

Today, the staffing challenges persist. Five months after taking office, the Biden Administration has filled numerous senior roles, but the State Department still employs slightly fewer Foreign Service officers than at the conclusion of the Trump Administration. And diversity has yet to improve, according to figures published in March.

The Trump Administration also left behind a culture of suspicion. “There’s this mistrust of career officers,” Blinken told me, of his predecessor’s era. A 2019 State Department inspector-general investigation found that Trump’s political appointees had retaliated against career employees who typically serve under Administrations of both parties. Those employees, who carry much of the department’s institutional memory, were pilloried as “disloyal” or “traitors,” part of a shadowy and allegedly liberal “deep state.” Pompeo defended Trump’s habit of praising authoritarian leaders—a practice that diplomats told me was generally not part of any wider diplomatic strategy. Trump extended White House invitations to the Egyptian autocrat Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who was presiding over a brutal human-rights crackdown, and the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, who has admitted to murdering opponents and had encouraged his troops to rape women. Echoing Trump, Pompeo praised Sisi’s approach to religious freedom and, according to a Philippine spokesperson, told Duterte that he was “just like our President.”

Numerous diplomats acknowledged what they described as unprecedented challenges ahead for the State Department. “There’s a real corrosion of the sense of American leadership in the world and the institutions that make that leadership real,” William Burns, President Biden’s current C.I.A. director and a former Deputy Secretary of State, told me before taking office. “Diplomacy really ought to be the tool of first resort internationally. It can sometimes achieve things at far less cost, both financially and in terms of American lives, than the use of the military can.” Several staffers praised Biden for pledging, on the campaign trail, to empower diplomats, and for embracing diversity initiatives that Pompeo had shunned. “They’re saying all the right things about diversity, they’re doing all the right things about affinity groups,” one official told me. But many diplomats said that there had been little visible progress on these issues. They wondered whether Biden, an establishment figure, was the right President to confront them at a time that they believe merits a radical course correction.

Biden ran on promises to reverse his predecessor’s embrace of dictators. “No more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator,’ ” Biden tweeted during the 2020 campaign, referring to Sisi, in Egypt. But in his long career in Washington, Biden often championed such relationships. As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he had presided over the rubber-stamping of unfettered military aid to the Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak. As Vice-President, he was one of Mubarak’s last supporters in Washington, saying, two weeks before Mubarak was unseated, in 2011, that he was not a dictator and didn’t need to leave office. Blinken told me that the subject had been a focus of fierce debate within the Obama Administration. “There were some folks who wanted us to much more forcefully defend Mubarak,” Blinken said. “And others suggested that, as one said, we needed to be on the right side of history.” The dispute had been “more generational than anything else,” he added, with a group of younger officials, including the current U.S.A.I.D. administrator, Samantha Power, arguing against “some of the older, more seasoned hands, who had, after all, been dealing with the relationship with Egypt for years,” including “[Robert] Gates, Hillary [Clinton], Biden,” who defended Mubarak. Blinken said that loyalty to Mubarak had been a mistake. “Yeah, maybe we were caught flat-footed in Egypt,” he told me.

Several diplomats said that the Biden Administration, in an effort to strike a different tone than that of Tillerson, Pompeo, and Trump, is being too cautious. “These new folks are doing their best to be not-the-last-folks,” the career diplomat who works with Blinken said. “That’s great in some ways, and, in some ways, it’s sort of keeping them from finding their groove. Sometimes there are tough decisions to make. And if the last folks made that decision, they’re trying not to do it.” As an example, the diplomat cited conversations about the extent of the United States’ ongoing presence in Iraq, which have, several staffers said, largely stalled since Biden took office. The diplomat added, “We can’t get a rhythm until we stop trying to be the anti-Trump, anti-Pompeo people.” (A State Department spokesperson told me, “We’re not going to make apologies for running a process that is inclusive and appropriately deliberative,” a reference to consultations with offices across the State Department and the wider government. “You can’t have an inclusive process and expect dramatic shifts, in every single realm, in a hundred and fifty days.”)

William Taylor, an Ambassador who testified during Trump’s first impeachment, said that rebuilding the Department’s battered workforce would be difficult. “They’ve seen things that have bothered them, that have disturbed them, that have shaken their faith in this institution they have been serving in. And a whole lot of people have left the Foreign Service,” Taylor told me. “It’s a real loss. They’ve left a hole, a vacuum.” But Taylor and other veterans of the State Department expressed optimism that American diplomacy could be revitalized. “Damage has been done. But there are smart people, good people,” Taylor said. “If we get good leadership and reëstablish trust and transparency, they’ll go back.”

— This piece was drawn from “War on Peace: Revised and Updated,” by Ronan Farrow, published by Norton.

— Ronan Farrow, a contributing writer to The New Yorker, is the author of “Catch and Kill” and “War on Peace.” His reporting for The New Yorker won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

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changhomin-hatsukoi · 8 years ago

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Dear Anon who asked me about my sexuality (and accusing me of fetishizing m/m couple),

Since I only got this kind of shit after I joined Shadowhunters (more specifically on Malec) fandom, I imagined this is about malec and not the fact that I write gay fics (for other fandom since fucking forever).

So anyway, I went through every single of my malec post to find what was it that i did/post/write that was so WRONG in your eyes...

Was it because i praised their scenes?

Was it because I am in so much awe of Harry’s and Matthew’s acting.. and I actually ‘voiced’ it out?

Was it because I am so amazed by how sweet and actually tender their scenes are?

Was it because I noticed Magnus’s every expressions and again, we are back to my amazement of Harry’s acting?

Was it because I actually feel excited at finally having LGBT couple that seems HAPPY for once?

Was it because yes, I strongly support consensual sex.. but at the same time I disagree the way some fans are harassing the cast/crew?

Was it because I encourage people to vote for them in that damn couple contest?

Was it because i keep reblogging all the gifs/pics/vids of them with some caption at again, how I am in awe of how great this couple is (again, kudos to harry and matthew)

Or maybe~

it was because I support strong-but-also-vulnerable!magnus and doesn’t think Alec is a delicate flower like so many does in the fandom.

Dear Anon,

This may sounds mean but the truth is...

This fandom/ship is nothing special/different in the way i treat it.

As in, I gushed about Malec the same way I gushed about everything else in my life that hold my attention/affection at the time: the absolutely greatest book i’ve ever read, the best movie I’ve watched, the best fics I’ve found, the funniest manga I love..etc...

When I like something.. when I truly am in awe of something.. I want to spread the joy around. I will post and repost and reblogs and gush about it coz I want all my friends, siblings and followers to know about it so they too could find the same joy I found in it (i may be new to SH fandom but~ i am very active in other fandom and thus have quite a bit of followers).

I love malec, yes.

I love the couple not because i have some fantasy about them... The ‘no sex’ scene doesn’t bother me (but I fully respect those who are bothered by it).

I am amazed by them because the chemistry.. the dynamic.. between the characters.

They have such different personality and background but somehow they matched really well..

As a writer, i cant help but take notice of all those little things like expressions/gestures/lights in their eyes.. coz all those that makes a big difference to how believable the couple looks on screen.

And yes, I do think they’re cute together.

They do make me smile.

They are hot and attractive individuals and amazing couple (in the show).

I love having their pics and all those lovely captions by fans on my dashboard.

I do admire them.

What was so wrong about that?

See, some of you have this.. i dunno~ some kind of misplaced superiority complex going on or something.

You want people to watch/support the show

You want people to appreciate and favor your ship (in this case, malec)

You want people fight for your ship’s right.

BUT

When people actually likes and support them and naturally gets excited about them, you started throwing accusations and look down on these fans and purposely makes them feel bad.

You want others’s support but only on your own terms.

You harassed those who has different opinions than you or those who doesn’t follow EXACTLY the way you want them to support your ship.

You want to dictate and control how they post about your favourite ship. It doesn’t matter to you that they are posting on their OWN blogs and doesn’t force anyone to read/agree with them, if they don’t follow your way of shipping the couple then they must be horrible and not worthy to even be called ‘fans’ (until when you need the viewer ratings of course..).

You talked about being oppressed in real world.. your opinions, choices.. your voice being controlled, silenced and discarded as useless.

Let me ask you: what the hell would you called what you’re doing yourself right now then?

Your first ask towards me was ‘Are you a straight girl?’ which btw, showed how much a heterophobic you are... you are exactly like those homophobic except you are on the other extreme end.

No. That doesn’t make you any better than them.

Someone informed me that there is no such thing as ‘heterophobic’. That it’s not real.

Fair enough.

Maybe the word itself doesn’t exists.

But the prejudice (by thoughts/actions) that SOME of the lgbtaq members have against hetero IS real.

I’m not saying that all heteros are saints either.

Some of them are horribly homophobic and treat the lgbtaq community as second class citizens.

SOME of them.. not ALL.

The same as not ALL Muslims are terrorist

not ALL Asians are a straight laced, whiz in Math student

not ALL Jews are pro-Israel.

not ALL white people disrespects others’ cultures...etc..

Point is: Stop generalizing people.

Gay, Straight, Trans, Bi..etc.. for fucks sake, they’re all HUMAN BEINGS that each deserves to be treated as individuals

That’s it.

No group is more special than others.

If you are a jerk, you are a jerk. Period.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with who or what you want under the sheet with you nor your religion/race..etc

“...If we no longer thought of them as groups, but as individuals, we would soon find that they varied in their different groups as much as we do in our own. It seems to me quite natural to say: “I do not like John Jones.” The reasons may be many. But to say: “I do not like Catholics or Jews” is complete nonsense. . . . It is individuals we must know, not groups!”

- Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘The Minorities Question’ (1945)

So get off your high horse, stop being dramatic and LET PEOPLE BE HAPPY AND LOVES MALEC (and any other ships) IN THEIR OWN WAY.

Sincerely,

CriZz

#malec #shadowhunters

#malec #shadowhunters #rant/rave #this goes for any fandom #urgh #lgbtaq #fandom #sorry for the long rant

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asanders4299 · 6 years ago

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Compliance Law

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that a brokerage firm has agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty to settle charges of compliance and trading surveillance failures.

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Federal securities laws require firms to enforce policies and procedures to prevent the misuse of material, nonpublic information to which their employees routinely have access. The SEC’s order finds that Sidoti & Company LLC had no written policies or procedures in place from November 2014 to July 2015 as it pertained to those making investment decisions for an affiliated hedge fund that invested in issuers covered by Sidoti’s research department and some other issuers for which Sidoti provided investment banking services. For example, Sidoti maintained a “daily restricted list” of securities restricting personal trading because Sidoti was involved in investment banking or marketing activities or the firm was publishing research on the security. There were 126 instances from Nov. 3, 2014 to May 5, 2015 when the hedge fund traded in a stock that appeared on the daily restricted list.

“Sidoti did not devote sufficient resources to set up the requisite trade surveillance and compliance systems and failed to meet its obligation to prevent the misuse of material nonpublic information,” said Andrew M. Calamari. Without admitting or denying the findings, Sidoti consented to the SEC’s order finding that the firm violated Section 15(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

SEC POSTS NOTICE OF IFRS TAXONOMY

youtube

The Securities and Exchange Commission today published a taxonomy on its website so that foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) may submit those reports using XBRL. XBRL is a machine readable data format that allows investors and other data users to more easily access, analyze and compare financial information across reporting periods and across companies.

Foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board may begin immediately to submit their financial statements in XBRL. Otherwise, all such foreign private issuers must submit their financial statements in XBRL for fiscal periods ending on or after December 15, 2017. “Foreign private issuers will use the published IFRS Taxonomy for IFRS financial statements, which will enable the public to take advantage of enhanced data analysis of those financial statements, as they already can with financial statements of issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with U.S. accounting standards,” said Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar. In 2009, the Commission adopted requirements for structuring certain foreign private issuer financial statements in XBRL once an IFRS taxonomy was specified on the Commission’s website, SEC.gov.

SEC APPROVES RULES TO EASE INVESTOR ACCESS TO EXHIBITS IN COMPANY FILINGS The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to adopt rule and form amendments to make it easier for investors and other market participants to find and access exhibits in registration statements and periodic reports that were originally provided in previous filings. The amendments will require issuers to include a hyperlink to each exhibit in the filing’s exhibit index. Currently, someone seeking to retrieve and access an exhibit that has been incorporated by reference must review the exhibit index to determine the filing in which the exhibit is included, and then must search through the registrant’s filings to locate the relevant filing. “As the SEC looks for new ways to modernize financial disclosures, one of the easiest things we can do is add hyperlinks that automatically direct users to additional information on our EDGAR system,” said SEC Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar. “We are so accustomed to clicking hyperlinks on basically every website we visit, this commonsense solution will make life simpler for a lot of people.” The final rules will take effect on September 1, 2017.

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The amendments require registrants that file registration statements or reports subject to the exhibit requirements under Item 601 of Regulation S-K, or that file Forms F-10 or 20-F, to include a hyperlink to each exhibit listed in the exhibit index of these filings, and to submit such registration statements and reports on EDGAR in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format. Specifically: • Registrants will be required to include a hyperlink to each exhibit identified in the exhibit index, unless the exhibit is filed in paper pursuant to a temporary or continuing hardship exemption under Rules 201 or 202 of Regulation S-T, or pursuant to Rule 311 of Regulation S-T. This requirement will apply to the forms for which exhibits are required under Item 601 of Regulation S-K as well as Forms F-10 and 20-F. The final rules, however, will exclude exhibits that are filed with Form ABS-EE and exhibits filed in the eXtensive Business Reporting language (XBRL).

• Registrants will be required to file in HTML format the registration statements and reports subject to the exhibit filing requirements under Item 601 of Regulation S-K, as well as Forms F-10 and 20-F, because the text-based American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format cannot support functional hyperlinks. While the affected registration statements and reports will be required to be filed in HTML, registrants may continue to file in ASCII any schedules or forms that are not subject to the exhibit filing requirements under Item 601, such as proxy statements, or other documents included with a filing, such as an exhibit.

The final rules will provide a longer compliance date for non-accelerated filers and smaller reporting companies and for certain filings on Form 10-D. Under the final rules:

• Non-accelerated filers and smaller reporting companies that submit filings in ASCII will not have to comply with the final rules until September 1, 2018.

• The compliance date for any Form 10-D filing that will require a hyperlink to an exhibit filed with Form ABS-EE will be delayed until SEC staff completes programming changes to EDGAR that will allow registrants to include the Form 10-D and Form ABS-EE in a single submission so that the required exhibit hyperlinks can be created at the time the Form 10-D is filed. The SEC will publish a notice in the Federal Register and on the SEC website announcing the compliance date for those Form 10-D filings.

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blockheadbrands · 7 years ago

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On (Legal) Main Street USA, Old Fears Slow Cannabis Progress

Tobias Coughlin-Bogue of Leafly Reports:

Everett, Washington is a midsize industrial city just north of Seattle. It’s the county seat of northern Washington’s Snohomish County and home to Boeing’s largest factory, which drives its economy. Politically, it leans working-class conservative—Glenn Beck grew up nearby, and Trump saw it as a superior location to Seattle to host one of his infamous campaign rallies.

Yet Everett has happily supported five legal cannabis stores since legalization took effect in 2014. Cannabis is, according to most polls, no longer a strictly progressive issue. Republican leaders have become some of legalization’s staunchest advocates nowadays, and people from all points on the political spectrum support it.

RELATED STORY Data Dive: Legalization No Longer a Partisan Issue, Election Data Show

On paper, Everett looks like the perfect illustration of this phenomenon: It’s a working class, conservative community whose largest pot store regularly clears $700,000 a month in sales. But in practice, Everett’s cannabis policy reveals that legalization isn’t quite the bipartisan darling it might appear to be.

In 2015, the state Legislature passed SB 5052, dubbed the Cannabis Patient Protection Act. It shuttered the state’s medical marijuana industry, replacing it with an expansion of retail licenses under the recreational system. Stores interested in catering to patients could apply for a special medical marijuana endorsement.

Afterward, regulators at the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) allotted five new licenses to Everett. The City Council, however, voted to opt out, issuing a moratorium on any new cannabis stores. That ordinance included a commitment to revisit the issue before June 1, 2018. Recently, the city’s planning commission did just that, recommending the city lift the moratorium and allow all ten stores as approved by the LCB.

Everett’s five remaining licenses are stuck in purgatory—as are the business owners who obtained them.

As a result, Everett’s five remaining licenses are stuck in purgatory—as are the business owners who obtained them. The licenses have been approved and issued by the LCB, but they’re specific to Everett. The city’s moratorium renders them useless.

One of the expansion license holders, Gene Kulinovsky, who operates Kushman’s, which has two other stores in Lynnwood and Mukilteo, has been campaigning for two years to overturn the moratorium. He said he’s frustrated to have gone through the expensive LCB licensing process, which includes leasing a physical location for the shop, for nothing.

“I think it’s common sense that you’d allow five more shops here, simply for accessibility and security,” said Sean O’Sullivan, a lobbyist for Kushman’s. “There is a black market out there, and what these shops do is undercut the black market.”

As council members were set to vote May 16 on a proposed ordinance that would have lifted the moratorium, lobbyists and advocates showed up in force. Supporters argued that the additional stores could help with everything from the opioid crisis to the local economy. Two veterans, in particular, spoke about their experience using cannabis in place of opiates, and advocated for increased access.

Trey Sewell, an Everett resident who uses CBD to treat pain from injuries sustained jumping out of planes in the Army, said, “We need these new influx of products to meet the needs of medical patients. It’s the only reason I can go to work and maintain almost a full-time job every week.”

RELATED STORY How Veterans Are Leading the Fight for Cannabis Reform

He took issue with public comments from the previous week’s council meeting that, he said, characterized him as “some sort of drug addict for taking a medicine that helps me to reintegrate into society.”

Another veteran, Chester Curtis, bemoaned a full-page ad taken out against the ordinance the day prior in the Everett Herald, describing it as “grossly misleading and false.” The organizations behind the ad, MomsStrong.org and PopPot.org, are proponents of the widely discredited gateway drug theory and are opposed to cannabis on broader moral grounds. Both regularly repost content from the anti-cannabis lobby Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Rather than being a gateway drug, Curtis countered, cannabis had been his ticket off of opioids. He’s not the only one.

RELATED STORY Cannabis as an Opioid Exit: 5 Real-Life Stories

Others at the City Council meeting opposed expansion of the industry for different reasons. One of the owners of Kushmart, the city’s biggest existing cannabis store, was there to argue that his store was already meeting the city’s demands. Several others trotted out the gateway drug theory or suggested that more cannabis stores would lead cause a surge in illicit drug sales and petty crime.

After an impassioned public comment period, the council members themselves weighed in. Jeff Moore, a pro-business conservative, argued against the ordinance based on his belief that more cannabis stores would drive other businesses away from Everett. Despite Kulinovsky and other licensees making the case that the stores themselves were businesses, and would generate up to 70 new jobs, Moore was more concerned with attracting bigger business—the type, he suggested, that might be driven off by cannabis stores.

Another council member, Ethel McNeil, invoked the gateway drug theory in explaining her opposition to the measure.

When the amended expansion bill came to a vote, it failed. Only 3 of the council’s 7 votes were in favor of lifting the moratorium.

RELATED STORY Is Cannabis a ‘Gateway Drug’?

Outside, the frustrated licensees and their lobbyists stood in a circle, smoking cigarettes and punctuating their chatter with shrugs and sighs. The vote was hopeless, one said, with the majority of the council, in his view, voting along “religious lines.” Though no council member explicitly cited religious beliefs as the reason behind their no vote, it was clear the lasting social stigma and moralizing around cannabis came into play.

Josh Estes, a lobbyist working on behalf of the five businesses with licenses but no place to put them, said the vote sent “a clear message to the marijuana industry”:

“Everett is not interested in respecting what the voters overwhelmingly voted for,” he told Leafly in an email the next day. “It seems as if they are more interested in pleasing a small faction of the faith-based community under the disguise of appealing to an economic development concern that simply does not exist.”

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON LEAFLY, CLICK HERE.

https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/even-on-legal-main-street-usa-old-fears-slow-cannabis-progress

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notbemoved-blog · 7 years ago

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Lighting a Candle instead of Cursing the Darkness

First in a Series on the Federation of Southern Cooperatives

It’s been more than six months since I published my last blog post, which announced the publication of a friend’s new book about the Jackson Church Visits—Sanctuaries of Segregation—and recounted the story of my encounter with John Anderson, whose seating of four Black women in the, until then, all-White St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, broke the color barrier and opened up new possibilities for respectful dialog on the race issue. The re-posted blog was called “A Legacy of Hope” and its reposting coincided with the first 100 days of our current President’s Administration.

I needed hope then and I need it now, given all that has occurred in the ensuing months. [We are approaching Day 300 and as far as I can see, things have gone from bad to worse.] At the time of that last blog, I decided to take a break from adding to the chatter of the blogosphere, since none of it seemed to be making much difference in the direction our democracy was headed.

Instead, I decided, I would concentrate on the work before me. In May, I was commissioned to develop the 50th Anniversary commemorative booklet for an economic justice organization called The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, which has struggled mightily for the past half century to increase opportunities for the working poor through cooperative development, primarily in agricultural communities throughout the Southern United States. The project had an incredibly ambitious timeline, which I agreed to, in part, to keep my mind focused on the deadline and drop all need to think about the deteriorating political situation.

The result, which was released in August at the Federation’s 50th Anniversary celebration in Birmingham (AL) is a wonderful compilation of the Federation’s 50 years of service to some of America’s poorest citizens. For the next several months, I will highlight excerpts from the booklet, particularly from my “Brief History of the Federation: 1967- 2017.” It is my way of lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness. Here is the first installment of this series.

Preface

The 50-year history of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund is one of service, struggle, and empowerment. Against overwhelming odds, this organization—and those who energize it—has offered hope and sustenance to some of the most economically impoverished people in America. They also happen to be some of the most resilient people, willing to try new forms, new models, new approaches because the ones they were taught to idealize did not work for them. They also happen to be mostly Black farmers and agricultural workers who have tended to the crops and livestock in the American Southland for generations, dating back to when their forebears were enslaved. They know what they’re doing; they just need the freedom and the capital to do it. This has been their plight: to live in the richest nation on earth, amidst some of the most fertile soil on the planet, and not have enough to eat, not be able to feed their families, and not for want of trying. Governmental policies, cultural intransigence, and powerful elites have conspired to insist that they either live poor or leave. Many did leave and headed North or West to crowd the cities and overwhelm those urban landscapes. Others decided to stay. This was their home, after all. They would stay and try to find a new way of survival. Cooperatives offered the best opportunity. By banding together with others, perhaps they could make a go of it; perhaps they could change the dynamic of an oppressive culture; perhaps they, too, could grab a piece of that elusive American Dream. Perhaps . . . .

In the Beginning

The 1960s were a decade of great turmoil. American life was being turned on its head. Protests and demonstrations about racial segregation had finally pushed their way onto the front pages of newspapers across the country and into the halls of America’s political establishment. Questions about how we could all live together as free and equal people were at last given serious consideration. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were direct, tangible results of the clamor for change. Federal power was wielded over intransigent Southern states that had found ways, despite existing law, to disenfranchise their Black populace—often comprising upwards of 30 to 40 percent of the residents of many Southern states.

These aggrieved people, who formed the backbone of the South’s agrarian economy, were impoverished despite centuries of planting, nurturing, and harvesting the cash crops that made the South wealthy: cotton, sugar, and tobacco. Enslaved on these shores for their first 250 years, then emancipated, shockingly, without a plan for their survival, these Southern Blacks adapted to a changing political environment that left them without land to live on or homes to live in. The promise of “40 Acres and a Mule,” which could have given them a fresh start, evaporated in the recriminating politics that followed the American Civil War. For many, the only option left was to agree to till the land of their former enslavers, for what would come to be known as “slave wages”—cents on the dollar for a full day of backbreaking work in the torpid, Southern summer sun, and rickety shacks to live in on the landowner’s plantation. This was freedom?

“This has been their plight:

to live in the richest nation on earth,

amidst some of the most fertile soil on the planet,

and not have enough to eat,

not be able to feed their families,

and not for want of trying.”

This system of sharecropping continued for the next 100 years as Jim Crow laws replaced the more liberal Reconstruction policies and Blacks lost power and social status to the entrenched landowning gentry. It might have continued had several developments not occurred: the modern civil rights movement and the industrialization of modern agriculture. The mid-20th-century civil rights movement was years in the making, the result of endless yearning for a better life. Its gains, however, were mostly social (integration) and political (voting rights). Although economic justice was always a part of the dialog—the 1963 March on Washington, was, after all, titled the March for Jobs and Freedom—somehow it always took a back seat to the more pressing demands of political and social equality.

But economic issues were always at the forefront of poor peoples’ minds. As Federation stalwart and social activist Carol Prejean would later say, “For us, this was survival!” How to find enough to eat, to keep a roof over your family’s head, to save for a rainy day, these were daily concerns of the Southern rural poor. The 1950s and ‘60s were a time for searching for new models to help replace those systems that had failed to generate subsistence, let alone security. Some who came South hoping to help with literacy and voting rights realized quickly that, although important, these things took a back seat to the day-to-day struggle for survival. Economic issues were more pressing than purchasing a hamburger at the local Five and Dime. Where was the dime supposed to come from? As Ezra Cunningham, another Federation enthusiast from Alabama would famously say, “You Can’t Eat Freedom!” and, “A Ballot is not to be Confused with a Dollar Bill.”

Cooperatives Offer Hope as Agriculture Changes

One of the new forms uncovered during this period of discovery was the cooperative business model. Cooperatives offered Black farmers of the 20th-century rural South the same opportunity that they offered to the 19th-century English weavers of Rochdale—the opportunity to band together to create a new system of support and empowerment; a chance to be a full partner in a community enterprise; a way of helping one’s self while helping others. Cooperatives were models of democratic governance. In that sense, they were incubators to help those left out of the political process to see how true democracy worked. By participating in the cooperative enterprise and voting for one’s elected representatives to the cooperative’s board of directors, people once struggling alone suddenly had a way forward. They understood that their vote mattered, that they were participating in something larger than themselves and their own struggle for survival. Although that struggle was still real, at least they were struggling with others like themselves, working together to build something that would help the entire community. It was exhilarating; it was empowering; it was life-affirming. Suddenly, all of the things they had been struggling for—food, housing, employment, health care, education—seemed possible.

The Civil Rights Movement occurred just when the South was experiencing a revolution in agricultural techniques. Mechanization and chemical fertilization and weed killing were dramatically changing the way crops were tended, particularly cash crops like cotton, sugar, and tobacco. No longer were armies of plantation laborers necessary to plant, chop weeds, and pick the crops. Combines and chemicals could do the work previously relegated to hundreds of day laborers or sharecroppers. The humans who had meticulously tended these cash crops were being turned out of their homes, no longer needed by the plantation owners who had paid them penny wages and housed them in hovels. For landowning Black farmers, the cost of equipment and fertilizer to employ these new techniques and technologies was often prohibitive.

Some historians assert that it was precisely because of the civil rights gains of the mid-1960s that African Americans were being pushed off the land. The Voting Rights Act, in particular, opened up new opportunities for Black political power, and many Southern counties were what we now call majority-minority counties. Blacks had the power to sway elections and even put their own candidates into the mayor’s office or the chief of police’s squad car. Whites who had dominated Southern politics were not about to turn over the reins of power without a fight, so they pushed people off of the land for the slightest provocation—attending a political speech or registering to vote—in the hope that they would just pack up and leave. In addition, most White-owned banks discriminated against Black farmers seeking loans, which then forced loan defaults and foreclosures and displaced thousands. But where were they to go?

Many fled the Jim Crow South, expecting to find better jobs and better lives elsewhere. They flooded northern and western cities. Depending on where the trains took them, they ended up in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, and various stopping points along the way. From 1940 to 1970, five million Blacks left the South seeking better lives in other parts of America. It became, as we now know, one of the greatest migrations of people in the history of the world. These shifting populations would put unbearable strains on the infrastructure of these urban centers until they, too, would explode under the weight of racial and economic stress.

Others wanted to stay where they had been born. They wanted to take the chance of building their lives in the rich soil that was the rural Southland. “Bloom where you’re planted.” They wanted to create opportunities and institutions for themselves and their families that would be better than those their forebears had been able to conceive. They wanted to build something that would create a legacy for the future. This, really, is where the story of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives begins.

NEXT - The Start of the Southern Black Cooperative Movement

#Federation of Southern Cooperatives #The Federation #Land Assistance Fund #Blacks in Agriculture #Southern Black Cooperative Movement #Charles Prejean #Ezra Cunningham #You Can't Eat Freedom #Black Farmers

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asanders4299 · 7 years ago

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SEC Proposed Inline XBRL Filing

As a lawyer in Utah, we regularly go over new developments in the law. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently voted to propose amendments intended to improve the quality and accessibility of data submitted by public companies and mutual funds using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).

SEC PROPOSES INLINE XBRL FILING OF TAGGED DATA

The proposals would require the use of Inline XBRL, which has the potential to benefit investors and other market participants while decreasing, over time, the cost of preparing information for submission to the SEC. The recommendations are part of the SEC’s disclosure modernization initiative.

“While XBRL technology has made disclosures easier to access for investors, there are legitimate concerns about the burdens smaller companies face when preparing their filings,” said SEC Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar. “Today, the SEC is asking comment on a way to streamline this process to ensure usability for the public while keeping compliance costs down.”

The SEC will seek public comment on the proposed rules for 60 days.

FACT SHEET (SEC Open Meeting)

Highlights

The proposed amendments would require the use of Inline XBRL format for the submission of operating company financial statement information and mutual fund risk/return summaries. The proposal would also eliminate the requirement for filers to post XBRL data on their websites.

Among additional potential benefits:

Inline XBRL allows filers to embed XBRL data directly into their filings instead of as attachments, reducing the likelihood of inconsistencies.

Inline XBRL would give the preparer full control over the presentation of XBRL disclosures within the HTML filing. In addition, tools like the open source Inline XBRL Viewer on SEC.gov can be used to review the XBRL data more efficiently.

For mutual funds, the proposed amendments would facilitate efficiencies in the filing process by permitting the concurrent submission of XBRL data files with certain post-effective amendment filings. The proposed amendments also would improve the timeliness of the availability of risk/return summaries in XBRL by eliminating the current 15 business day filing period accorded to all filings containing risk/return summaries.

Under the proposals, requirements for operating company financial statements would be phased in over a three-year period. Requirements for mutual funds risk/return summaries would be phased in over a two-year period.

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Background

In 2009, the Commission adopted rules requiring operating companies to provide financial statement information in registration statements and periodic and current reports in XBRL by submitting it to the Commission in an Interactive Data File as an exhibit to these filings and posting it on their corporate websites, if any.

In 2009, the Commission also adopted rules requiring mutual funds to provide risk/return summaries in XBRL by submitting them to the Commission in Interactive Data Files as exhibits and posting them on their websites, if any.

There is a wide range of users of XBRL data, including investors, financial analysts, economic research firms, data aggregators, academic researchers, filers, and Commission staff. Machine-readable financial market data, including XBRL-formatted data, enhances the Commission’s rulemaking and market monitoring activities by allowing staff to efficiently analyze large quantities of information.

SEC’S OFFICE OF THE INVESTOR ADVOCATE TO HOLD EVIDENCE SUMMIT, LAUNCH INVESTOR RESEARCH INITIATIVE

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Investor Advocate today announced it will host an Evidence Summit to discuss strategies for raising retail investors’ understanding of key investment characteristics such as fees, risks, returns, and conflicts of interest.

The March 10 Evidence Summit will mark the official launch of the SEC’s new investor research initiative led by the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate, dubbed ‘POSITIER’, also known as Policy Oriented Stakeholder and Investor Testing for Innovative and Effective Regulation.

POSITIER seeks to inform the rulemaking process with evidence obtained from surveys and specific testing projects. Under this initiative, the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate has launched a specific study program to examine the topic of Retail Disclosure Effectiveness. This study program seeks to identify and test interventions that increase investor awareness of key investment features and, in turn, improve investment outcomes.

“I am excited about the launch of POSITIER,” said Investor Advocate Rick Fleming, “because it has the potential to make a significant contribution to evidence-based policymaking at the Commission. With this new tool, we can gain better insights into the potential benefits to investors from proposed rule changes, and we will be able to help identify the best options amongst competing policy choices.”

Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar and Commissioner Kara Stein will speak at the event, as well as an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars in household and behavioral finance, psychology, marketing, and law. Although the focus will be on disclosure in the context of investment funds, the insights on improving the cognitive salience of information will be relevant to other financial disclosure contexts.

MORGAN STANLEY SETTLES CHARGES RELATED TO ETF INVESTMENTS

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has agreed to pay an $8 million penalty and admit wrongdoing to settle charges related to single inverse ETF investments it recommended to advisory clients.

The SEC’s order finds that Morgan Stanley did not adequately implement its policies and procedures to ensure that clients understood the risks involved with purchasing inverse ETFs. Among the order’s findings, Morgan Stanley failed to obtain from several hundred clients a signed client disclosure notice, which stated that single inverse ETFs were typically unsuitable for investors planning to hold them longer than one trading session unless used as part of a trading or hedging strategy. Morgan Stanley solicited clients to purchase single inverse ETFs in retirement and other accounts, the securities were held long-term, and many of the clients experienced losses.

The SEC’s order further finds that Morgan Stanley failed to follow through on another key policy and procedure requiring a supervisor to conduct risk reviews to evaluate the suitability of inverse ETFs for each advisory client. Among other compliance failures, Morgan Stanley did not monitor the single-inverse ETF positions on an ongoing basis and did not ensure that certain financial advisers completed single inverse ETF training.

“Morgan Stanley recommended securities with unique risks and failed to follow its policies and procedures to ensure they were suitable for all clients,” said Antonia Chion, Associate Director of the SEC Enforcement Division.

Free Initial Consultation with an SEC Lawyer

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