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Two progressive groups are teaming up for a six-figure radio ad buy targeting Republican Sens. Jeff FlakeJeff FlakeSenate should seek to retain its 'blue slip' tradition for judicial nominees Progressives target Heller and Flake on Senate GOP bill The Hill's Whip List: Senate ObamaCare repeal bill MORE (Ariz.) and Dean HellerDean HellerTrump called Cruz to press him on ObamaCare repeal bill: report Biden rips Senate GOP healthcare bill, says it 'isn't about healthcare' Pro-Trump group launches seven-figure ad buy against GOP senator opposing repeal bill MORE (Nev.), using veterans from their home states to warn against siding with the Senate GOPs healthcare reform plan.

Stand Up America and VoteVets.org are behind the buy, first reported by The Hill, which warns that the GOP's planned cuts to Medicaid could weigh heavy on veterans.

Nearly 2 million veterans rely on Medicaid for our health care. But if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, Medicaid will be slashed making it harder for veterans across Arizona to get healthcare, veterans say in the radio ads.

Thats outrageous and its wrong. You cant repeal the Affordable Care Act and call yourself pro-veteran.

Stand Up America has also made smaller digital buys in Ohio, Maine, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, home to senators that Democrats believe could be convinced to vote against the bill, calling on residents to call their senators and demand that they vote against the plan.

The Senate plan, releasedThursdayafter weeks of secrecy, repeals controversial pieces of ObamaCare such as its insurance mandate, instead providing tax credits to help defray the cost of insurance premiums.

It also includes deep Medicaid cuts, rolling back the Medicaid expansion that provides coverage for about 11 million people and eventually making changes to Medicaid that slows the growth of payment caps.

The bill will only need a majority of senators to pass, giving the Republicans room for two defections thanks to Vice President Pences tie-breaking vote.

Four senators have already come out against the plan as is, although theyve suggested they could be convinced if changes are adopted, leaving Democrats scrambling to pressure enough senators to sink the bill.

Heller and Flake are in a particular bind thanks to their vulnerable positions heading into their reelection races they are the only two Republican senators that Democrats have a real shot at ousting.

And Heller has received no air cover from key Republicans in his state, specifically Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has emerged as a vocal critic of the plans Medicaid cuts.

Originally posted here:
Progressives target Heller and Flake on Senate GOP bill - The Hill

Progressives bristled when Elon Musk, a purported leader of the green movement, associated himself with President Donald Trump by joining two advisory councils. After all, as a presidential candidate, Trump had claimed global warming was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government.

When Trump announced on June 1 that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Musk, the guru behind Tesla Motors and SolarCity, both green companies, resigned from the advisory councils. Climate change is real, Musk wrote in a tweet. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

For standing up to Trump, progressives applauded Musk, who regained his liberal bona fides. Or so it seemed. In fact, another problem looms for Musk that could have a much more devastating effect on his image, for while Musk is good on most leftist issues he has not always been good to the employees who work for him.

Consider a report issued in May from Worksafe, a California-based organization devoted to reducing workplace hazards. Based on figures obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency, Worksafe made some startling conclusions about conditions in Teslas Fremont, California, plant, which employs some 5,000 people. Teslas total recordable incidence rate in 2015 was 31 percent higher than the industry-wide incident rate, the report stated, noting there were 8.8 injuries per 100 workers. More troubling, the rate of serious injuries at [the] plant those that result in days away from work, restricted duty, or job transfer was approximately double the industry rate for 2015. Tesla is nonunion; Musk has resisted efforts to unionize.

That same month, The Guardian published an alarming article detailing Tesla workers laboring under grueling pressure which they attribute to Musks aggressive production goals. According to The Guardian, Ambulances have been called more than 100 times since 2014 for workers experiencing fainting spells, dizziness, seizures, abnormal breathing and chest pains. Hundreds more were called for injuries and other medical issues.

Firsthand worker accounts were harrowing. One worker recalled a scene all-too-common at Tesla: Ive seen people pass out, hit the floor like a pancake and smash their face open. They just send us to work around him while hes still lying on the floor. Another said: We had an associate on my line, he just kept working, kept working, kept working, next thing you know he just fell on the ground. Yet another, Michael Sanchez, disabled with two herniated discs, described what it was like working while injured: You can make it through Monday. You can make it through Tuesday. Come Wednesday, you start to feel something. Thursday is pain. Friday is agonizing. Saturday youre just making it through the day.

The current controversy about labor practices started in February when Jose Moran, a Tesla employee for four years, wrote a blogpost on Medium that attracted national attention. Im proud to be part of a team that is bringing green cars to the masses, Moran began. However, I often feel like I am working for a company of the future under working conditions of the past. Most of mycoworkers work well over 40 hours a week, including excessive mandatory overtime. The hard, manual labor we put in to make Tesla successful is done at great risk to our bodies. Preventable injuries happen often. A few months ago, six out of eight people in my work team were out on medical leave at the same time due to various work-related injuries. Moran revealed that he had put in 60 to 70 hours a week for the four years he worked at Tesla.

Subpar working conditions produce subpar results, which explains why, some observers contend, Consumer Reports placed Tesla 25th out of 29 brands in 2016. But workers at Tesla should not point out flaws to management, or there will be consequences, according to Cristina Balan, a former Tesla employee who became concerned about the companys quality standards. I wanted to alert Elon, Balan told The New Yorker in January, without lawyers or V.P.s present, that his company was in trouble. People are afraid of losing their jobs if they speak up and this will get worse as they try to mass-produce automobiles in a company that isnt ready to do that.

The magazine reported Balan says she was demoted, harassed, and ultimately forced to quit because she spoke up about shoddy workmanship, though Tesla denies that Balan was forced to quit over the issues she raised. On June 26, the matter will come before a judge in an arbitration hearing in San Francisco.

The Morning Email

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Musk Pleases Progressives by Bailing on Trump; Will His Record on Workers' Rights Drag Him Down? - HuffPost

What else can possibly go wrong with our great country, the former shining city on the hill, that is being tarnished day by day by influential anti-American groups with huge coffers?

Liberals from California and smaller blue states are exerting their influence on the electoral process in red states, determined to flip them to blue, and, by and large, are succeeding with the exception of the most recent election in Georgias 6th district where Democrats spent over $23 million, the most in the history of the House of Representative elections ever.

Im still scratching my head trying to understand the insanity of 144,000 low information Americans from Georgia who voted for the Democrat candidate Jon Ossoff, a French President Macron look-alike, even though he did not reside in their district and did not have much of a platform. No amount of cash, air time, dishonest claims, speeches, and other shenanigans Hollywood and progressives around the country engaged in, convinced the rest of the well-informed Georgia voters to elect Jon Ossoff.

Someone comically wrote that Snowflakes are crying their Ossoff in their parents basements after the results of the election determined that Ossoff lost.

Trying to cajole young voters who had just graduated from high school, frustrated that conservative parents interfered with their attempts to reach potential 18-year old voters living in their parents basements, voters who have no idea who runs the political world and our lives into the ground, Democrats complained to the compliant press that parents were mean and unresponsive to their frequent calls and attempts to brainwash their offspring to vote for the Democrat candidate.

The socialist Democrat platform was well articulated by candidates like Bernie Sanders. Vote for collectivism and social justice, he told his young and nave followers; when I lose, I can buy an expensive sports car and a second home in Vermont while you dopes are driving tin cans or old cars with the Feel the burn and Coexist bumper stickers on and lay your head down on your parents couch in the basement after a hard days work as baristas at Starbucks.

Democrats from progressive states have deep pockets which they spend on Millennials and other misinformed and brainwashed young people who, for $15 an hour, a living wage, will go anywhere dressed in black, with face masks, like the cowardly anarchists and fascists that they are, and will destroy someone elses property in the name of social justice and equality. The not-so-feminine and self-described nasty women dress in vagina costumes like vile idiots. They attack people who disagree with their insanity and demonize our duly-elected President with vitriolic hate.

Progressives have been moving to conservative states in droves, changing the face of the electorate and flipping parts of a red state into blue, eventually succeeding in flipping the entire state to the progressive agenda by dominating in a few very populous cities. Thus, a state like Virginia, because of its heavy concentration of communists and other fellow travelers in the northern part, it has elected a fellow progressive governor, senators, and other representatives despite the fact that the rest of the state is very much conservative.

Former Rep. Allen West, who was redistricted out of his seat by his own Republican party who did not like his America-first stance on many issues, compared this exodus of progressives and invasion of conservative states to the Muslim Hijra which is also taking place all over the world as we speak, including the United States. By far they are succeeding in colonizing western civilization beyond their wildest dreams, both in Europe and here at home.

If you add into the mix the illegal vote of so many aliens who have crossed our border unlawfully or were brought here by the Obama administration, one can see how elections are swayed in the direction of the Socialist Democrat Party, which now runs or heavily influences all the blue states, our government, the military, the fake main stream media, all the technology monopolies, social media outlets, publishing houses, academia, schools, Christian churches, the legal system, and the Deep State.

What conservatives are left with is the alternative media and talk radio with voices like Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, and TV personalities like Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity. Nobody is sure how long that will last. Liberals, the intolerant bunch that they are, operate on the following predilection - you have a right to say what you want, as long as you agree with me.

We were lucky that Georgia conservatism won this battle. Will we be lucky next time and win the war? Most Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security, have food on the table, air conditioning, heat, water, in-door plumbing, multiple sports channels, a home sweet home and, as long as nobody bothers their daily routines, they dont care who is in charge of their global enslavement. So they vote in more of the same corrupt politicians of both parties.

Many go to church and bend over backwards to appease the few atheists and their fellow travelers who demand separation of church and state in schools but say nothing when special accommodations are made for Muslim children and their prayer needs.

American Christian children are being indoctrinated into Islam by the Common Core curriculum in public and private schools, and are forced to go to the bathroom with a pedophile/mentally deranged person who pretends or feels that he is a she.

What else can possibly go wrong with our great country, the former shining city on the hill, that is being tarnished day by day by influential anti-American groups with huge coffers?

Listen to Dr. Paugh on Butler on Business, every Wednesday to Thursday at 10:49 AM EST

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Romanian Conservative is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, Echoes of Communism, Liberty on Life Support and U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy, Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Her commentaries reflect American Exceptionalism, the economy, immigration, and education.Visit her website, ileanajohnson.com

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Progressives moving in on conservative states in droves - Canada Free Press

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Friday, June 23, 2017

GoLocalProv News Team

Speaker Nick Mattiello

The budget begins the process of eliminating the $134 million deficit and starts the first year of a six-year phase-out of the car tax, but sparked opposition from Progressive Democrats, environmental groups, taxpayer organizations, and of course, Republicans.

"We heard about all this cutting. But that [nearly] $135 million we talk about is a revenue shortfall, which happens when we don't get enough taxes -- which shows our economy is weak and struggling," said House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan. "But as far as cutting, we spent $300 million more this year than last year. The budget is built on one time revenues taken from sewer bills, electric gas bills -- all of these scoops."

Opposition, and Defense

Political and advocacy groups took issue with the budget, but the Speaker -- and Governor -- lauded its approval.

"Governor Raimondo and General Assembly Leaders have agreed to a budget that short-changes Narragansett Bay," said Save the Bay this week.

Progressive Democrats criticized the tax-and-spend legislation vehemently, stating, "Speaker Nicholas Mattiellos budget, the annual revealing of wolves in Democratic clothing begins. This budget favors the rich and demonstrates a lack of concern for every Rhode Islander who is not so wealthy. The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of Rhode Island continued:

T"his budget relies heavily on deep across the board cuts to state agencies--cuts that have not been clearly specified. When a budget refuses to detail openly and clearly exactly what the cuts will be, we are highly suspicious that services, wages, and benefits will suffer. After the brutal pension cuts, we are already seeing signs of decreasing functionality in our state agencies, with the ongoing UHIP debacle the most visible sign of the dysfunction. Further cuts will only lead to worsening performance."

The Speakers office defended the budget claiming it raises the minimum wage, restores no-fare bus passes for low-income elderly and disabled people, includes a pilot program to provide two years of free tuition at CCRI and once again does not include any broad-based tax increases.

This budget accomplishes many goals that the people of Rhode Island have asked us for. It finally makes good on the promise to eliminate the excise tax on automobiles, which has been a priority for me because Ive heard from so many Rhode Islanders who believe its an unfair tax. Weve also restored free RIPTA passes for the elderly and disabled and included a portion of the governors free college tuition plan. Weve done all this while cutting spending to close a $134 million shortfall, without raising broad-based taxes. This is a budget that doesnt contain a lot of frills, but it does improve the lives of Rhode Islanders from all walks of life, said House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello.

Further Critique, and Support

TheRhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity claims that the budget does not address the "massive structural budget deficits," the business climate or Rhode Island's 48th ranking on the Center's jobs and opportunity index.

"What does the average family have to cheer about in this budget? The few provisions that offer minor relief to some are overwhelmingly outweighed by the massive special interest and corporate welfare spending that will continue drag-down our state economy. Only when the total relief package is bigger than new spending can we claim that Rhode Island is heading in the right direction," said Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center.

This was not an easy budget to accomplish, but it is a fair one. There were many tough decisions that had to be made, but we did so in the mindset of listening to the needs of Rhode Islanders. It will continue the progress we have made in previous budgets and I firmly believe it sets Rhode Island on a path of future prosperity and success," said Abney.

The House included a fraction of the Governor Raimondos proposal to provide two years of free tuition to students at state colleges. It will be a four-year pilot program to provide two years at the Community College of Rhode Island, with requirements that students maintain a 2.5 GPA and stay in Rhode Island following graduation. It also requires evaluation and reporting to the General Assembly on the effectiveness of the program.

As GoLocal unveiled on Thursday, a free diaper program for CCRI students who are parents with young children has a more stringent academic standards and has a means testing requirement.

CCRI

The state's community college is poised to be the sole beneficiary of the Governor's Promise scholarship program.

It would make Rhode Island the fourth state to have tuition-free community college, allowing every resident the opportunity to earn an associate's degree tuition free. There is no means testing for the program and few standards.

The cost would be roughly $3 million in the FY18 (for the first cohort of students) and then $6 million the following year there are two classes.

State Government

As part of negotiations -- and the fiscal realities facing Rhode Island with a nearly $140 million shortfally, the Speaker announced Thursday that $25 million will be cut in generalspending.

"It's something we discussed with the Governor and she thinks she can make [it] work," said Matteillo.

Also on the chopping block -- funding for the legislative office to the tune of $2 million.

Elderly and Disabled Bus Riders

After levying fares on some of the most needy RIPTA bus riders (the elderly and disabled) for the first time this past year, which resulted in strong public outcry, the House Finance budget contains just over $3 million -- for each of the next two years -- to refund the program this coming year.

WATCH: Opponents of RIPTA Fare Hikes to Rally at RI State House Wednesday Afternoon

Mattiello noted that after the two years is up, it is up to the Governor to find the funding.

Governor Raimondo

On Thursday, Raimondo learned she is poised to get a piece (jCCRI) of her free college tuition proposal, which had been a major focal point of her budget proposal - and political strategy.

On the flip side, she is tasked with finding $25 million in government spending to cut, in order to balance the budget.

Unlike the May estimating conference, where Rhode Island revenues were found to be off nearly $100 million plus, the Governor can't say she didn't see this coming.

Medical Marijuana Expansion

In June, Raimondo called for an increase in medical marijuana dispensaries and an increase in licensing fees to generate $1.5 million in revenue for the state.

She called for "no less than six licensed compassion centers."

On Thursday, Mattiello said it was not in the budget, due the proposal's late timing.

Davies High School

The House finance budget contains additional help for manufacturing, including $3.6 million to upgrade facilities at Davies Career and Tech.

Commerce Corporation

While Mattiello made scant mention of cuts in the briefing Thursday - save for the $25 million out of government spending -- the question was raised as to where the rest of the $140 million shortfall will come from.

"Millions in cuts came from the Commerce Corp budget. The budget kept the Rebuild RI funding, but money for several other Commerce programs were reduced," said Larry Berman, spokesman for Mattiello.

Mininum Wage Hike

Workers will be happy, employers might not.

The FY18 budget proposal calls for a $.50 minimum wage increase as of January 1, 2018, and then an additional $.40 the following year.

Business owners have continuously fought against such hikes.

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House Approves Controversial RI Budget Despite Progressives, Enviro, and Taxpayer Group Opposition - GoLocalProv

By late Tuesday night, the answers were rolling in. Prominently mixed into this dog's breakfast of recriminations, mostly from the party's activist left, there is at least one recurring thread: Democrats do not have, either by omission or commission, a cohesive economic message. Operatives and consultants peddle tactics, electoral "paths" to power, but after eight years of riding President Barack Obama, mistaking his talents for their own, the brain trust is unable to drive the party.

Still, as it relates to Georgia's 6th Congressional District, a number of caveats apply. Jon Ossoff, the 30-year-old former congressional staffer and documentary filmmaker, entered the race facing long odds. No Democrat had won the seat in his lifetime. Hillary Clinton came close to nicking the vote there from Donald Trump last November, but fell short. Tom Price, whose departure to join the Trump administration set off the months-long contest, won re-election a little more than six months ago by more than 20 points. Ossoff, despite losing, ate substantially into that margin.

And for the left flank of activists, that's a problem. For now and going forward into 2018 and beyond.

Most of the more prominent progressive objections look back further than the beginning of this race. Ossoff's particular strategic failures or flawed messaging were panned, but the most convincing criticism has been trained on the institutional aimlessness that guided him. This analysis by some progressives questions the fundamental assumption that Georgia's sixth was a national bellwether, instead presenting it as a lagging indicator of Democratic rot.

Not that Ossoff isn't catching his share of the blame. He ran, as much as anything else, as a Democratic cipher and seemed, in interviews and public appearances, to be physically straining himself to avoid any contentious comments. Disinclined to define himself, Handel and the Republicans wisely lashed him to a muddling party. (Hence the resurgence of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, more than seven years' removed from the speakership, as the chosen bogeyman. She at least represents something.)

"Until we take a risk as a party in offering a bold economic platform, we're not going to break through in some of these elections," California Rep. Ro Khanna said on the phone late Tuesday night. "When you try to target things to a lowest common denominator, you run the risk of not having an inspiring message."

Other critics, many less preternaturally diplomatic than Khanna, were unsparing. Democracy for America Chair Jim Dean unburdened himself in a press release delivered soon after Ossoff's loss was confirmed. But like the congressman, Dean zeroed in on the failures of the party's high level strategists.

"Defeating Republicans in districts that they have traditionally held requires doing something drastically different than establishment Democrats have done before," he said, listing among those priorities "heavily (investing) in direct voter contact to expand the electorate."

Questions about the theories that guided how Ossoff and his campaign spent their windfall were a recurring theme.

In an email, Robert Becker, who ran Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign in Iowa (and later, as deputy national field director, helped author its most famous win, in Michigan), was openly disdainful of what he suggested had been wasteful party management.

"Well, seems we spent $30 million to get 48% in Georgia ... and next to nothing to get 48% in South Carolina. One has to wonder what impact $30 million would have if it was directed to state Democratic parties instead of a gazillion TV ads," he wrote. "Maybe try standing for something and investing in grassroots instead would be the lesson?"

Other progressive activists asked why the district had become such an obsession for Democrats. Yes, Clinton did well there. But the logic, they insisted, was faulty. She might have overperformed in areas that went for Romney, like Georgia's sixth, but that was because her campaign targeted them -- not because they are naturally ripe to shed the GOP.

The strategy recalled a now infamously misguided prediction put forth by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the 2016 election, when he posited that "for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin."

Enter here a close cousin of Schumer's theory, the "Panera Bread path." Former top Clinton aide and Democratic strategist Brian Fallon, in a tweet on the night of the first round of voting in Georgia, held up the caf casual dining franchise -- typically located in comfortable suburban precincts -- as a rough guide for where Democrats should dedicate their resources ahead of the 2018 midterms.

"Even if he doesn't hit (50% and win outright) tonight, Ossoff is showing us the path to retaking the House," Fallon wrote. "It runs through the Panera Breads of America."

Progressives bristled, as much at the message as the messenger.

"We won't defeat Trumpism by courting moderate Republicans in wealthy suburbs," Max Berger, a co-founder of #AllOfUs, the millennial progressive group, told CNN. "Trumpism will be defeated by mobilizing voters who feel left behind -- young people and working class people of all races -- to take on the billionaires and the ruling class. The Democrat consultant class thinks a Panera strategy is their path back to power, but the left will no longer be led by those who offer no alternative."

What the desired agenda looks like remains a rolling question. As the Sanders campaign slowly broke up, the activists and organizers who drove its success mostly scattered, seeking to grow the new coalitions brought together by the Vermont independent's progressive populist platform.

Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org, hit this vein in her post-election message.

"Ossoff and the (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) missed an opportunity to make Republicans' attack on health care the key issue, and instead attempted to portray Ossoff as a centrist," she said in a statement, "focusing on cutting spending and coming out opposition to Medicare for All."

It was hardly the "sweeping change," Galland argued, "that the American people are clamoring for."

The string of defeats, going back to the 2014 midterms, provides further evidence, progressives and leftists say, that -- without a uniquely talented group of candidates on the horizon -- the party will no longer be able to paper over decades of either bland or, in the case of trade deals like NAFTA, destructive economic policies.

"I don't think many (national Democrats) have the charisma of Obama, the weird likability and material language of Sanders, or the conniving ability of Harry Reid," said Felix Biederman, co-host of the "Chapo Trap House" podcast. "It's time for them to stop ratf-----g even the hint of a left in their party and activate those voters who usually don't vote."

Read more here:
Progressives already thought Democrats were aimless. The special election wipeout might prove their point - CNN