Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Life under President Trump:
• Right-wing rhetoric raises the chances of political violence this year, and beyond.
• Daniel Garza of the Koch-funded Libre Initiative has a problem with numbers. The right-wing group is targeting Latino voters, especially in Florida and Nevada. NPR interviewed him this week:
"On the issue of minimum wage, which is one that is always used as, you know, you don't care for decent wages, here is a case where you have Latino minorities who are at 20 percent unemployment and you want to double the cost to hire them by doubling the minimum wage. How is that going to help young Latinos?"
Nonsense. In August, the unemployment rate for Latinos was 5.6 percent. As Dean Baker points out, even for teenaged Latinos, the hardest hit group, Garza’s figure fell short, at 15 percent, of his claim. But then Koch marionettes have a history of disinformation. And, after all, Donald Trump has claimed the actual unemployment rate is 42 percent.
• Donald Trump has zero newspaper endorsements so far, and now he’s lost what’s usually a sure bet for Republican nominees—The N.H. Union Leader: That ultra-right-wing newspaper hasn’t fail to endorse the Republican in 100 years. It urged a vote for Herbert Hoover in 1932 and told readers to hold their noses to vote for Nixon in 1972. But the paper is breaking tradition this year:
“The man is a liar, a bully, a buffoon,” wrote Joseph W. McQuaid, the Union Leader publisher, of Mr. Trump in a signed editorial. “He denigrates any individual or group that displeases him. He has dishonored military veterans and their families, made fun of the physically frail, and changed political views almost as often as he has changed wives.”
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson got the paper’s nod instead.
• Does it matter that Bayer bought Monsanto?
A giant company just bought another giant company, but if you’re not an investor or a farmer, you may not have noticed. Bayer—the aspirin company that also makes farm products like pesticides—announced on Wednesday it was merging with Monsanto, the massive genetically-modified seed producer that owns about a third of the seed market in the US.
The $66 billion merger is the largest this year, and means Bayer now controls more than a quarter of all seeds and pesticides on the planet, according to the BBC. But what’s even crazier is that this is just the latest in a long list of big mergers of agricultural companies this year, meaning the options for where farmers buy their seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers are shrinking at lightning speed.
• Arab American leader: Muslims are facing the most hostile time in the U.S. since the weeks after 9/11:
It is time for all Americans to speak out. When we allow one faith community to be targets then we open the doors for others to be targeted. I believe the worst is yet to come unless more people actively intervene with their voices, their votes and in public acts of solidarity with their Muslim neighbors. In a time of growing tensions we must uphold our fundamental freedom to worship in the land of religious freedom and its why I choose to be unapologetically Muslim every day. As a Muslim woman, not only is wearing my religious headscarf in public an act of faith, but it has become an act of courage.
• EPA estimates new Chevy Bolt will have a 238-mile range: That’s more than the Tesla 3, with its estimated “at least 215 miles.” The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Bolt will be “below $37,500.” The price for a basic Tesla 3 is $35,000.
• Trump’s new economic plan would be a disaster for the environment, and worsen climate change:
Beyond eliminating key protections and regulations, Trump’s plan would basically declare open season for fossil fuel companies. His plan calls for “[unleashing] an energy revolution” through supporting coal production and natural gas production via fracking. It also calls for maintaining fossil fuel production on public lands, as well as opening up “vast areas of our offshore energy resources” for drilling. This is the antithesis of the Keep It In The Ground movement supported by climate activists, environmental groups, and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, which calls for the end of new leases for fossil fuels on federal grounds.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: If you’re the nervous type about polls... you’re a Democrat! And it means you should listen to Greg Dworkin. Don Jr. & Ivanka don’t handle questions well. The Deplorables of the Day are: accomplished system-riggers Wells Fargo, Scott Walker, and ExxonMobil.
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