Sean Spicer, White House news spokesman, would not confirm his boss Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the election. Obviously he can’t deny that Trump’s claims are true, either, because he would lose his job if he did. So Spicer jumped into the position of saying that Trump believes his own conspiracy theory claims to be true, and hung out with that. Other Republicans wouldn’t dispute Trump’s claims either, until Sen. Lindsey Graham (R SC) spoke up.
In an interview, Graham told CNN:
List of expository and investigative news sources – plus tips for finding truths and protecting them
The origin story of Pres. Obama’s Fired Up, Ready to Go chant. A very inspiring story that contains a colorful private detective heroine.
To all of you young people all riled up because #orangeman became president:
Better vote next time around.
Meanwhile, join the FreePress 100 Days of Disruption and learn what protecting democracy means. Remember, democracy is not a spectator process. By definition, it can only be a participatory one.
All factual information from the Obama presidency is not lost! The President Obama White House website, including its Spanish language pages and its data catalog all remain publicly accessible at the ObamaWhiteHouse.gov website. Even the Obama White House social media feeds have been archived there.
Creation of this resource is another huge reason to thank President Obama: as of 23 January 2017, the incoming administration has already removed both climate change data and all Spanish language information. Pres. Obama’s team tells why he created the archive and what you’ll find there:
In January 2017, the White House website was archived as a way to preserve the online presence of the administration of President Barack Obama. Additionally, the websites for Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative, the We The People Petitions, and the White House Data Catalog (open.whitehouse.gov) were also preserved. These websites are historical material, “frozen in time.” They are no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages will not work.
These archived websites are an excellent resource for photographs, speeches, press releases, digital data, and other public domain records of the Obama Presidency from 2009–2017.
The official files making up the websites are archived in NARA’s Electronic Records Archives (ERA), however the website interface and functionality is preserved for easy use by the public through this portal.
09 January 2017
TRENTON – Two pieces of legislation sponsored by Senator M. Teresa Ruiz and Senator Fred H. Madden focusing on helping the homeless in New Jersey received was signed into law today.
“It must be a top priority of government to protect the health, safety and welfare of our residents,” said Senator Ruiz (D-Essex). “Providing basic government documents to those without a permanent residence free of charge is the right thing to do, since these documents are vital to accessing any number of services and to obtaining housing and employment.”
“This is a small way we can help those who have fallen on hard times and it’s the right thing to do,” said Senator Madden (D-Gloucester/Camden). “Those who are homeless may not have the ability to pay for an identification card or a copy of a birth certificate, which could potentially prevent them from getting the critical services they need.”
The first bill signed into law, S-2350, allows a homeless person to obtain, duplicate, or renew a non-driver identification card without paying fees to the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC). In order for the fee to be waived, the law requires a homeless person to submit proof of temporary residence through a social worker or the coordinator of an emergency shelter for the homeless where the person is temporarily residing.
Currently, residents who are 14 years of age and older may apply to the MVC for a non-driver identification card, for a fee of $24. The card is issued solely for the purpose of providing identification and is not a license to drive.
The second law, S-2351 will permit homeless people to obtain free certified copies of their birth certificates by submitting a request for the certificate to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics through a social worker or through the coordinator of the emergency shelter for the homeless where the person is temporarily residing.
The law would also amend current law to waive any fee associated with attaining a certified copy of a birth certificate.
Both pieces of legislation cleared the Senate and the Assembly unanimously.
S-2350 takes effect in August and S-2351 takes effect immediately.
The Atlantic reports that two major credit bureaus have been misinforming and misleading users:
A CFPB investigation concluded that Transunion and Equifax deceived Americans about the reports they provided and the fees they charged…
In their investigation, the Bureau found that the two agencies had been misrepresenting the scores provided to consumers, telling them that the score reports they received were the same reports that lenders and businesses received, when, in fact, they were not. The investigation also found problems with the way the agencies advertised their products, using promotions that suggested that their credit reports were either free or cost only $1. According to the CFPB the agencies did not properly disclose that after a trial of seven to 30 days, individuals would be enrolled in a full-price subscription, which could total $16 or more per month. The Bureau also found Equifax to be in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which states that the agencies must provide one free report every 12 months made available at a central site. Before viewing their free report, consumers were forced to view advertisements for Equifax, which is prohibited by law.
Thursday 12 January 2017 (Snow Date: January 13th)
9am – 1pm
1600 Valley Road
Wayne, NJ 07470
Veteran’s Assistance will be available.
PLEASE PLAN ON ARRIVING EARLY. SOME COMPANIES MAY NOT BE ABLE TO STAY UNTIL 1PM.
Bring your best self, your resumé if you have one and partake of workshops like:
Ireland has music deep in its soul. Phenomenal 10 year old Kayleigh Rogers leads her special classmates of The Killard House School in singing such a sweet, pure and strong Christmas rendition of Hallelujah that it brought me right to tears. It will do the same for you, if you’re lucky. God bless.
The BBC comments about Kayleigh’s stellar performance:
Kayleigh is one of 200 students aged three to 16 at Killard House School in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland … (she) often sings at the local Christmas concert at First Presbyterian Church, Newtownards, but this year she lost her voice and had to pull out of last Sunday’s service. Instead her headteacher played the video above, which had been filmed just weeks before at the school, and it left many of the congregation in tears.
The video, filmed by Billy McAuley, was uploaded to Facebook and YouTube, and reported in the local press. It has since been viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of times, and the school has taken calls from people in Australia, America and Japan who have all seen the video.
Kayleigh started at Killard House School in year four and has autism and ADHD, which results in learning delays with literacy and numeracy.
Music teacher Lloyd Scates spotted her talent early on and encouraged her to sing solos during school shows, to help develop her voice and her confidence.
Trevor Noah speaks on The Breakfast Club about his autobiographical book on growing up knowing his birth – as a biracial child – was a crime in apartheid South Africa … a place where his mother had to dress as his nanny in order to be able to walk down the street with him.
Noah shares his questions and opinions on Donald Trump and speaks about his decision to invite Tomi Lahren to be his guest on The Daily Show. One reason for doing it was to have the chance to be heard by her audience, who otherwise would never learn anything about him.
Noah is a confirmed supporter of women, and women’s rights. He took fans who spoke crudely about Tomi after her show appearance. Noah told them, you can’t do that: you can’t pretend to be a defender of people rights when you turn around and make misogynistic statements about a woman.
The Breakfast Club interview is almost 50 minutes long, but well worth a listen, or a watch.
This heartening Op-Ed by Tina Rosenberg on the power of protests via the New York Times demonstrates that standing up against bad policies and politics can produce success … especially when the cause is just and the movement is organized.
And keep in mind … we must protect the open internet now more than ever before, so we can communicate freely. One of Trump’s first targets is dismantling the FCC, which has offered internet users a meaningful level of First Amendment and corporate abuse protections.
An excerpt:
Pull out the pillars. Gene Sharp, an American academic who is the guru of strategic nonviolence, argues that every leader, no matter his power, relies on obedience. Without the consent of the governed, power disappears. The goal of a civic movement should be to withdraw consent. Pull out the pillars, and the whole structure falls.
NY Daily News reporter Shaun King is doing something very courageous and important: documenting attacks and reports of hate incidents made by Trump supporters.
We all need to read @ShaunKing's Twitter feed starting yesterday. Prepare yourself first. He's documenting "#Trump Day 1" hate. Horrifying.
— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) November 10, 2016
"Almost all white people except for educated white women chose Donald Trump in droves &that's a problem"- @ShaunKing pic.twitter.com/1GajQn8WLV
— HOT 97 (@HOT97) November 10, 2016
This was in Queens, NY. She was asked to go to the back of the bus.
Day 1 of Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/c4TBmYCoCe
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) November 10, 2016
This is in Philadelphia.
Sieg Heil, Trump, and swastikas on windows of a local store. pic.twitter.com/Bq1nFW1ipk
.@realDonaldTrump is https://t.co/gY10rg4e9x immigrants must boycott for dignity. Sign our pledge https://t.co/eKPXuaaqrU #migrantboycott pic.twitter.com/J8wMvORpbe
— Movimiento Cosecha (@CosechaMovement) November 9, 2016
New Jersey Assemblyman Dr. Tim Eustace wants New Jersey voters to know that voting YES on Ballot Question #2 will enable extremely important protections of taxpayer dollars. Election Day this year falls on Tuesday, November 8.
Here are short and long versions of the reasons it’s important to vote YES to Q2. You already know how important it is that you go vote in the first place – right?
On the gas tax issue, Assm. Eustace comments:
The New Jersey gas tax increase of 23¢ is law – and it’s a mistake to think it will go away if people vote NO on Ballot Question #2 at the polls next Tuesday. Gov. Christie’s second-in-command discussed the ballot question in a 101.5 Radio interview, revealing that either she does not understand this law, or maybe Ms. Guadagno is hoping to draw out Republican voters who believe that the gas tax will go away if they vote no. But, this is not true.
It’s essential that gas tax money be used only for transportation and that this money not become accessible to the governor for use in the general budget. Gov. Christie used over $1.2 billion from the State’s Clean Energy Fund to plug general budget holes. In order to ensure that gas tax money can only be used for transportation expenditures, vote YES to Ballot Question #2 on Election Day.”
Dr. Eustace is the NJ Assembly Environment Committee Chair.
An NJ.com editorial echoes the assemblyman’s message:
…experts attest that if all that if annual gas tax revenue were dedicated exclusively to transportation projects, we could have filled a few more potholes by now … if (taxpayers) are tired of seeing large sums ($35 million last year, higher in previous years) scraped from the gas tax for purposes other than transportation, they can do something about it on Election Day.
Now that the gas tax increase is something we’ve all got to live with, we support Ballot Question 2, a constitutional amendment that dedicates every penny of that revenue to the Transportation Trust Fund.
That means the government can no longer raid the TTF to plug other budget holes – a lockbox provision that 30 other states already have.
Road to Repair offers a short but complete statement on why a YES vote to Q2 is so important:
On Facebook, Aaron Hyndman addressed this issue with a thorough analysis of the New Jersey gas tax ballot issue, “TO ANYONE STILL ON THE FENCE ABOUT NJ BALLOT QUESTION #2.” Hyndman is Communications Coordinator at the NJ Bike & Walk Coalition and the following is his statement:
I finally have a spare moment to contribute some thoughts regarding Ballot Question 2, so here are some things that I hope everyone will take into consideration:
First of all, there is a great deal of misinformation being spread by the Lt. Gov. and other interests that are opposed to the ballot question for reasons that are more self-serving and not purely altruistic. Too much is being said ABOUT the ballot question instead of discussing what is ACTUALLY in the ballot question, which reads as follows:
“
Do you approve amending the Constitution to dedicate all revenue from the State motor fuels tax and petroleum products gross receipts tax to the Transportation Trust Fund?
