Most Americans want action on climate change. Republicans are the exception: Poll

Stephan:  The ignorant criminal we have as president, as the media tells us daily, only listens to his base. Unfortunately, as this data shows, his base are morons who live in a fact-free world. That makes it unlikely that as long as Trump is president anything will be done about preparing for climate change.
  • In this photo taken on November 19, 2015, smoke belches from a coal-fired power station near Datong, in China’s northern Shanxi province.
    Credit: Greg Baker/AFP

    In a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll 66 percent of Americans now say they’ve seen enough evidence to justify action on climate change, up from 51 percent two decades ago.

  • That figure incorporates 85 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of independents, 71 percent of women, 61 percent of men and strong majorities of all racial groups.
  • Resistance comes only from the one-third of Americans who identify themselves as Republicans. A 56 percent majority of the GOP says either that concern about climate change is unwarranted or that more research is necessary before taking action.

Americans have reached consensus on the need to act in response to climate change with one conspicuous exception: Republicans.

A new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll identifies that sharp break in the evolving pattern of public opinion as scientists have amplified their warnings of rising global temperatures and linked them to a […]

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How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business

Stephan:  The evidence just keeps accumulating. We have what amounts to a Russian agent as president. If I wrote the reality of Trump in a novel no one would find it plausible. Truth really is stranger than fiction.

US President-elect Donald Trump gets on an elevator after speaking with the media at Trump Tower on December 6, 2016 in New York. / AFP / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez

In the fall of 1992, after he cut a deal with U.S. banks to work off nearly a billion dollars in personal debt, Donald Trump put on a big gala for himself in Atlantic City to announce his comeback. Party guests were given sticks with a picture of Trump’s face glued to them so they could be photographed posing as the famous real-estate mogul. As the theme music from the movie Rocky filled the room, an emcee shouted, “Let’s hear it for the king!” and Trump, wearing red boxing gloves and a robe, burst through a paper screen. One of his casino executives announced that his boss had returned as a “winner,” according to Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio.

But it was mainly an act, D’Antonio told Foreign Policy. In truth Trump was all but finished as a major real-estate developer, in the eyes of many […]

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FBI collected fake green cards that Trump’s managers gave to undocumented immigrants working at his golf club: report

Stephan:  The criminality of Donald Trump extends from geopolitics to groundskeeping. If you had illegal workers to whom you had given illegal green cards you would be in jail. This man is president, and because of the protection he is afforded by the Republicans in Congress he has been getting a free pass. Don't you think it is time that this stops?

The employment documents related to immigrants who worked illegally at President Donald Trump’s golf club in New Jersey have been gathered by the FBI and state investigators, reports the Washington Post.

The report is sourced to a Newark attorney who represents five undocumented immigrants that worked at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The lawyer says that in November he met with investigators from the New Jersey state attorney general’s office and two FBI agents.

Among the documents reviewed were fake green cards and Social Security numbers that the workers say supervisors at Trump’s golf club gave to a Guatemalan worker.

“The materials collected by law enforcement agencies, first reported by the New York Daily News, indicate that investigators may be launching a probe into the hiring practices of the president’s golf club,” the Post writes.

The FBI and state investigators did not comment.

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How Much Paid Leave And Holidays Workers Get In America Compared To The Rest Of The World, Charted

Stephan:  Because of our advanced capitalist system, and the fact that profit is the only American social priority, as with our healthcare and educational systems, Americans get the worse deal in the developed world when it comes to vacation time. Am I exaggerating? Here are the facts.

There are some things other developed countries tend to do a lot better than the US: Public transportation. Healthcare systems that don’t habitually bankrupt sick people. Good-faith efforts to fight climate change.

Another of the things other countries do a much better job with is giving workers a much-needed break. Many wealthy countries (and even some not-so-wealthy countries) require companies to give workers a minimum number of paid vacation days each year. When you add these statutory minimum paid leave days to the public holidays observed in each country, workers in some countries are required to get at least 30 days off each year.

Meanwhile, workers in America get exactly… zero statutory paid leave days. We’re not even going to tell you to be grateful if you do get any paid leave from your work, given that almost one out of four American private sector workers doesn’t get any paid. Frankly, we should all be mad that the richest country in the world doesn’t care about workers’ well-being.

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FBI collected fake green cards that Trump’s managers gave to undocumented immigrants working at his golf club: report

Stephan:  The criminality of Donald Trump extends from geopolitics to groundskeeping. If you had illegal workers to whom you had given illegal green cards you would be in jail. This man is president, and because of the protection he is afforded by the Republicans in Congress he has been getting a free pass. Don't you think it is time that this stops?

The employment documents of related to immigrants who worked illegally at President Donald Trump’s golf club in New Jersey have been gathered by the FBI and state investigators, reports the Washington Post.

The report is sourced to a Newark attorney who represents five undocumented immigrants that worked at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The lawyer says that in November he met with investigators from the New Jersey state attorney general’s office and two FBI agents.

Among the documents reviewed were fake green cards and Social Security numbers that the workers say supervisors at Trump’s golf club gave to a Guatemalan worker.

“The materials collected by law enforcement agencies, first reported by the New York Daily News, indicate that investigators may be launching a probe into the hiring practices of the president’s golf club,” the Post writes.

The FBI and state investigators did not comment.

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