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Thread: Election 2020-get your popcorn ready!

  1. #26
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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.14fc942c2146

    Now theres the Koch Brothers of the Anti-Vax Movement being revealed

    A wealthy Manhattan couple has emerged as significant financiers of the anti-vaccine movement, contributing more than $3 million in recent years to groups that stoke fears about immunizations online and at live events ? including two forums this year at the epicenter of measles outbreaks in New York?s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

    Hedge fund manager and philanthropist Bernard Selz and his wife, Lisa, have long donated to organizations focused on the arts, culture, education and the environment. But seven years ago, their private foundation embraced a very different cause: groups that question the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

    How the Selzes came to support anti-vaccine ideas is unknown, but their financial impact has been enormous. Their money has gone to a handful of determined individuals who have played an outsize role in spreading doubt and misinformation about vaccines and the diseases they prevent. The groups? false claims linking vaccines to autism and other ailments, while downplaying the risks of measles, have led growing numbers of parents to shun the shots. As a result, health officials have said, the potentially deadly disease has surged to at least 1,044 cases this year, the highest number in nearly three decades.


    The Selz Foundation provides roughly three-fourths of the funding for the Informed Consent Action Network, a three-year-old charity that describes its mission as promoting drug and vaccine safety and parental choice in vaccine decisions.

    Lisa Selz serves as the group?s president, but its public face and chief executive is Del Bigtree, a former daytime television show producer who draws big crowds to public events. Bigtree has no medical credentials but holds himself out as an expert on vaccine safety and promotes the idea that government officials have colluded with the pharmaceutical industry to cover up grievous harms from the drugs. In recent weeks, Bigtree has headlined forums in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County, N.Y., both areas confronting large measles outbreaks.

    ?They should be allowed to have the measles if they want the measles,? Bigtree told reporters outside the Brooklyn meeting on June 4. ?It?s crazy that there?s this level of intensity around a trivial childhood illness.?


    Bernard Selz and his wife, Lisa. (Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images)
    Thanks largely to the Selzes? donations, ICAN is now the best-funded among a trio of organizations that have amplified concerns about vaccines. ICAN brought in $1.4 million in revenue in 2017, with just over $1 million supplied by the Selz Foundation, according to tax filings.

    The Selzes and the groups they support are hardly the only purveyors of anti-vaccine ideas. Environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a nephew of the late president, runs the Children?s Health Defense, a charity that promotes a similar agenda; it brought in $727,000 in 2017, according to tax filings. Barbara Loe Fisher, who says her son was injured by vaccines, runs a Virginia-based nonprofit that fights legislative efforts to tighten vaccine requirements. Her group, the National Vaccine Information Center, brings in about $1 million a year, according to its 2018 tax documents.


    Though they are separately organized, the three groups reinforce one another?s efforts. Kennedy and Bigtree often appear together at public events, while ICAN?s website includes a link to Fisher?s group. Bigtree?s weekly live stream broadcast, which ICAN promotes, frequently features Kennedy.

    New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot, who has battled the nation?s single worst measles outbreak since October, said she never heard of the Selzes. ?But I do know the science and the science is clear ? the MMR vaccine prevents measles,? she said, using the common acronym for the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. ?Any suggestion to the contrary is a threat to the health and well-being of New Yorkers.?

    [Listen on Post Reports: Health reporter Lena Sun on the money behind today?s anti-vax movement]


    The Selzes did not respond to emails or phone messages. A woman who answered the telephone at the couple?s home on Manhattan?s Upper East Side declined to identify herself. ?There?s nothing to say,? she said before hanging up.

    Bernard Selz, 79, has more than 40 years experience in the securities industry and runs Selz Capital, a hedge fund that holds a portfolio valued at more than $500 million, according to recent filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Lisa Pagliaro Selz, 68, worked for Manufacturers Hanover Trust and Tiffany and Co. Since 1993, she has helped manage the Selz Foundation ?with a focus on humanitarian, educational, geriatric, homeopathic, animal causes and the arts,? according to a news release issued by LaGuardia Community College Foundation, where she was a board member from 2011 to 2016.

  2. #27
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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...t=on&utm_term=.

    The Selzes’ sons — both young adults — declined to comment. Friends and family members reached by The Washington Post said they were unable to shed light on the Selzes’ philanthropic choices.

    “This is a topic we don’t discuss,” said Marilyn Skony Stamm, a business executive and close friend of Lisa Selz. “We have differing opinions.” Stamm declined to elaborate, except to say that she values her friendship with the Selzes, whom she called “an incredibly philanthropic family.”

    Support for a key figure
    Tax filings for the couple’s charitable foundation show they began supporting the movement in 2012, when they gave $200,000 to a legal fund for Andrew Wakefield, one of the most important figures in the anti-vaccine movement.


    Wakefield, a former gastroenterologist, rose to fame in 1998 after publishing a paper in the Lancet, a respected British medical journal, that linked the MMR vaccine to autism in eight children. An investigation by Britain’s General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, found Wakefield guilty of professional misconduct in 2010 and revoked his license. The panel concluded that Wakefield had financial and ethical conflicts of interest, and had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly.” Twelve years after the study’s publication, the Lancet retracted it.

    Wakefield declined to comment for this report. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said he was motivated by children’s suffering.

    “You have probably heard in the newspapers and elsewhere that I am guilty of scientific fraud,” Wakefield said via Skype to a forum this spring in Rockland, N.Y. “And I want to reassure you that I have never been involved in scientific fraud. What happened to me is what happens to doctors who threaten the bottom line of the pharmaceutical companies.”


    By 2012, Wakefield had moved to Austin, where supporters began raising money for the Dr. Wakefield Justice Fund, an effort to sue the journalists who had questioned Wakefield’s findings. The fund was “established by friends and supporters . . . to respond to false claims made against Dr. Wakefield; expose the corrupting influence of special interest groups behind these allegations and protect Dr. Wakefield’s work from both profit- and politically-motivated censorship and retribution,” an archived version of the fund’s website says.

    Wakefield’s lawsuit was unsuccessful, but the Selz Foundation found other ways to support his work. After he launched two nonprofits in 2014, the Selz Foundation donated $1.6 million to the groups over the next several years, according to tax records. One, the AMC Foundation, was registered as a public charity to fund documentaries about public health issues. The other was a Texas nonprofit corporation.

    Wakefield used the money to help fund a documentary film called “Vaxxed,” which details his allegations about a government coverup of vaccine dangers. After filming, he and other producers traveled the country in a black “Vaxxed” bus that stopped at churches, libraries and chiropractors’ offices to record interviews with parents who believe their children had been injured by vaccines.


    “Virtually every dollar in this film to date has been donated by a handful of brave parents and philanthropists,” the “Vaxxed” website says. In the credits, the film lists the Selz Foundation first among 16 donors who financed the production.

    The film also introduced a new face to the anti-vax movement: Bigtree. Once a television producer of “The Doctors,” a daytime talk show filmed in Hollywood, Bigtree signed on to co-produce the film, which was released in 2016.

    Tara Smith, an infectious disease expert at Kent State University who has researched the anti-vaccine movement, called the film “an effective piece of propaganda” that uses “heart-wrenching stories of children supposedly harmed by vaccination.”

    For example, one mother featured in the film said her son developed autism after he was inadvertently given a double dose of the MMR vaccine. Filmmakers provided no medical documentation to support the claim, and the mother has said publicly that her son’s medical records were stolen from her apartment.


    The stories in the film “frequently fall apart when scrutinized,” Smith said.

    Bigtree said the film’s critics are “spreading misinformation” unless they “have proof that the exact stories of vaccine injury by the parents that appear in ‘Vaxxed’ are false.”

    Since the publication of Wakefield’s Lancet paper, 21 studies have investigated vaccines and autism. None has found evidence of a link. The latest and largest study published this spring involved 657,461 Danish children born between 1999 and 2010. Experts note the first symptoms of autism often appear when children are about 12 months old — the same age they receive their first MMR shot — leading many parents to blame vaccines.

    Last year, Wakefield dissolved the two nonprofits, according to Texas business filings and Wakefield’s co-founder, Polly Tommey. During its brief life, the AMC Foundation doled out grants exclusively to Autism Media Channel LLC, a private company that was also run by Wakefield, Tommey and a third partner, according to tax filings.


    According to the filings, the grants supported an educational film project.

    Attorney Marc Owens, a former head of the IRS division responsible for monitoring tax-exempt organizations, said the arrangement is “a very suspicious transaction.”

    “They transferred all of their income, it appears — with the exception of a small amount — to, basically, themselves,” Owens said. “It is extremely unusual to see this sort of expenditure from a public charity.”

    In an interview, Tommey defended the transactions.

    “Everything was cleared legally, and we stuck to our mission,” she said.

    Tommey said she is now focused on the upcoming release of a sequel to “Vaxxed” that will include information about Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against several strains of the human papillomavirus. Wakefield, meanwhile, has launched another public charity to fund educational film projects, according to tax filings.

    The same year “Vaxxed” was released, Bigtree established the Informed Consent Action Network. The Selz Foundation donated $100,000 that first year — 83 percent of the charity’s funding, according to tax records.


    A woman attends the anti-vaccine forum in Brooklyn, where several hundred measles cases have been confirmed this year. (Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post)

    Attendees at the Brooklyn forum attempted to block the windows with paper and plastic to prevent passersby and the media from peering inside. (Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post)
    As Bigtree became a leader within the movement, donations from the Selzes grew: In 2017, the foundation boosted its contribution to more than $1 million — 74 percent of ICAN’s total revenue.

    Tax filings show the charity spent more than $600,000 that year on legal fees. In 2018, the organization filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. The suits sought to compel the release of data and documents related to vaccine safety.

    Another quarter of a million dollars went toward salaries for two ICAN officers: Catharine Layton, the group’s chief administrative officer, was paid $98,000. And Bigtree, who was previously unpaid by the charity, drew a salary of $146,000.

    In a written response to questions from The Post, Bigtree said the compensation from ICAN is currently his only salary. He declined to answer questions about his relationship with the Selzes.

    “Like many charities, we receive funding from multiple sources and we do not discuss our donors or their donations as a matter of policy,” he wrote. “None of our donors make decisions on the science we research, or the lawsuits that we file.”

    ICAN also reported travel expenses exceeding $148,000 in 2017. Bigtree frequently travels the country, speaking at wellness conferences and testifying before lawmakers considering vaccine-related legislation.

    At the height of a measles outbreak in Washington state in February, for example, Bigtree testified in Olympia against a measure intended to make it harder for parents to opt out of measles vaccinations for school-age children. The bill passed and was signed into law in April.

    In late April, Bigtree spoke in Salem, Ore., at a rally against a bill aimed at getting more children vaccinated against measles and other preventable diseases. A day later, he led a similar protest in Sacramento.

    In a recent interview, Bigtree said he had discovered “this ability to be able to talk to legislators that I didn’t know I had.”

    Bigtree also produces a weekly online talk show broadcast through Facebook and other social media that has brought in new supporters. Among them are New York City real estate executive Stephen Benjamin and his wife, Elizabeth.

    Yes Vaccines are a political issue.

  3. #28
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    https://www.baltimoresun.com/educati...620-story.html

    Here is more on Bernard and Lisa Selz they are named as the "Koch Brothers" of the Anti-Vax Movement. Yes and Vaccines will come into play in the 2020 elections.

    A member of Goucher College’s board of trustees is helping fuel anti-vaccination movements throughout the United States, spending millions of dollars alongside her husband to fund the efforts, according to a report Wednesday in The Washington Post.

    Lisa Pagliaro Selz, who graduated from the private liberal arts college in Towson in 1973 and is on its board of trustees, according to its website, is half of a Manhattan couple that has given more than $3 million to groups that raise doubts about immunizations, the Post reported.

    Selz and her husband, Bernard Selz, were also tied to funding that went toward anti-vaccination movements that fueled a measles outbreak in New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, the Post reported.

    The Selzes donated $1.05 million to Goucher College in 2017, according to their foundation’s tax filings.

    A residence hall on campus — the Pagliaro Selz Hall — is named after them, and they have hosted events with former President Jos? Antonio Bowen, including an event in 2015 at the Colony Club in New York, according to the college’s website.

    Inside Baltimore's Orthodox Jewish community, battle pits leaders vs. anti-vaxxers in fight against measles ?

    A spokesperson for the college did not return multiple calls for comment. When called by a Baltimore Sun reporter Friday afternoon, a receptionist with the Selz Foundation said the couple is declining to comment.

    While it is widely accepted within the scientific community that immunizations for diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella are not harmful to humans, there’s a growing chorus of activists who say the vaccines are linked to rises in autism and other diseases.

    The United States has had 1,044 individual cases of the measles this year as of June 13, according to the Centers for Disease Control, with instances confirmed in 28 states, including Maryland. It’s the highest number of confirmed cases since 1992; the United States declared the disease eliminated in 2000.

    According to the Post, Lisa Selz serves as president of Informed Consent Action Network, a charity that describes its mission as “investigating the safety of medical procedures, pharmaceutical drugs, and vaccines while educating the public of their right to ‘informed consent.’ ”

    The Selz Foundation has provided three-fourths of the group’s funding, the Post reported.

    Baltimore Sun reporter McKenna Oxenden contributed to this article.

  4. #29
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    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48752927

    Some of America's richest people are urging US presidential candidates to back a wealth tax on the super-rich to improve inequality and climate change.

    "America has a moral, ethical and economic responsibility to tax our wealth more," they said in a letter.

    Signatories include investor George Soros, Facebook's co-founder Chris Hughes, and Molly Munger, daughter of billionaire Charlie Munger.

    The group said they were non-partisan and not endorsing any candidate.

    The open letter said: "A wealth tax could help address the climate crisis, improve the economy, improve health outcomes, fairly create opportunity, and strengthen our democratic freedoms. Instituting a wealth tax is in the interest of our republic."

    Among the 18 were a descendant of Walt Disney and the owners of the Hyatt hotel chain. Many in the group have been associated with progressive initiatives on issues such as climate change and the growing wealth gap.

    The letter pointed out that fellow billionaire Warren Buffett has said he is taxed at a lower rate than his secretary.
    Distrust

    While the group did not back a particular candidate, it praised a proposal by Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren that would lift taxes on those with more than $50m, a measure that would affect the 75,000 wealthiest families. She estimated that it would raise $2.75tn over 10 years.
    ADVERTISEMENT

    The letter alluded to support among Democratic presidential candidates for higher taxes on the super-wealthy, including Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke.

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    Of about 40 countries, the US is the sixth highest in terms of wealth concentration, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

    Taxing the super-wealthy "would slow the growing concentration of wealth that undermines the stability and integrity of our republic," the letter said.

    It added: "Today, major policies seldom come to pass without the prior support of wealthy elites or other wealthy interests. Division and dissatisfaction are exacerbated by inequality, leading to higher levels of distrust in democratic institutions-and worse."

    US president Donald Trump proposed a one-off wealth tax in 1999 to cut the national debt, but did not make it part of his election policy.

  5. #30
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    https://wtop.com/politics/2019/07/mi...ublican-party/

    Congrats!

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) ? Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, the only Republican in Congress to support the impeachment of President Donald Trump, said Thursday he is leaving the GOP because he has become disenchanted with partisan politics and ?frightened by what I see from it.?

    In an opinion article published in the Washington Post , on July 4, Amash said partisan politics is damaging American democracy.

    ?I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party,? Amash said. ?I?m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us.?

    Amash was the only Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against Trump, drawing the ire of many fellow Republicans and Trump.

    Amash, who was considered a libertarian-leaning Republican in Congress, has represented Michigan?s 3rd Congressional district in the western part of the state since 2011.

    Copyright ? 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

  6. #31
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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.59cfad79172f

    Justin Amash, an independent, represents Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District in the House.

    When my dad was 16, America welcomed him as a Palestinian refugee. It wasn’t easy moving to a new country, but it was the greatest blessing of his life.

    Throughout my childhood, my dad would remind my brothers and me of the challenges he faced before coming here and how fortunate we were to be Americans. In this country, he told us, everyone has an opportunity to succeed regardless of background.

    Growing up, I thought a lot about the brilliance of America. Our country’s founders established a constitutional republic uniquely dedicated to securing the rights of the people. In fact, they designed a political system so ordered around liberty that, in succeeding generations, the Constitution itself would strike back against the biases and blind spots of its authors.

    My parents, both immigrants, were Republicans. I supported Republican candidates throughout my early adult life and then successfully ran for office as a Republican. The Republican Party, I believed, stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty — principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family.


    In recent years, though, I’ve become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.

    George Washington was so concerned as he watched political parties take shape in America that he dedicated much of his farewell address to warning that partisanship, although “inseparable from our nature,” was the people’s “worst enemy.” He observed that it was “the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

    Washington said of partisanship, in one of America’s most prescient addresses: “The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. …


    “It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”

    True to Washington’s fears, Americans have allowed government officials, under assertions of expediency and party unity, to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law. The result has been the consolidation of political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy.

    These are consequences of a mind-set among the political class that loyalty to party is more important than serving the American people or protecting our governing institutions. The parties value winning for its own sake, and at whatever cost. Instead of acting as an independent branch of government and serving as a check on the executive branch, congressional leaders of both parties expect the House and Senate to act in obedience or opposition to the president and their colleagues on a partisan basis.

    Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said President Trump engaged in impeachable behavior as shown by Robert S. Mueller III’s report on Russian interference. (Reuters)

    In this hyperpartisan environment, congressional leaders use every tool to compel party members to stick with the team, dangling chairmanships, committee assignments, bill sponsorships, endorsements and campaign resources. As donors recognize the growing power of party leaders, they supply these officials with ever-increasing funds, which, in turn, further tightens their grip on power.


    The founders envisioned Congress as a deliberative body in which outcomes are discovered. We are fast approaching the point, however, where Congress exists as little more than a formality to legitimize outcomes dictated by the president, the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader.

    With little genuine debate on policy happening in Congress, party leaders distract and divide the public by exploiting wedge issues and waging pointless messaging wars. These strategies fuel mistrust and anger, leading millions of people to take to social media to express contempt for their political opponents, with the media magnifying the most extreme voices. This all combines to reinforce the us-vs.-them, party-first mind-set of government officials.

    Modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape.


    Most Americans are not rigidly partisan and do not feel well represented by either of the two major parties. In fact, the parties have become more partisan in part because they are catering to fewer people, as Americans are rejecting party affiliation in record numbers.

    These same independent-minded Americans, however, tend to be less politically engaged than Red Team and Blue Team activists. Many avoid politics to focus on their own lives, while others don’t want to get into the muck with the radical partisans.

    But we owe it to future generations to stand up for our constitutional republic so that Americans may continue to live free for centuries to come. Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.

    Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.

  7. #32
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    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-ste...ay-2019-07-09/

    Tom Steyer from California is running for president. If you are from Sacramento and San Francisco Steyer is best known for putting political ads on local TV here.

  8. #33
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    https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...mpaign-failed/

    Eric Swalwell, we hardly knew ye. The Democrat announced on Monday that he was dropping out of the presidential race to instead focus on his duties as the U.S. representative of California’s 15th District.

    Altogether, Swalwell’s White House bid lasted about three months. (He formally launched his bid in early April.) And his departure marks the first of what will surely be a lengthy series of presidential campaign obituaries from FiveThirtyEight. After all, only one Democrat can win the nomination, and more than 20 major candidates are in the race. But to prime you for what’s to come, in each installment of this series, we’ll discuss why the candidate’s campaign failed and what that means for the candidates still running.

    For Swalwell, his decision to drop out is fairly straightforward. He never polled above 1 percent in a state or national survey and, as a result, was in real danger of missing the second Democratic debate in late July. As I wrote last week, Swalwell was currently the odd man out thanks to the Democratic National Committee’s tie-breaker rules, which edged Montana Gov. Steve Bullock ahead of him. This could have changed in the next few weeks with the release of a new qualifying poll, but his campaign wasn’t willing to wait. In the press release announcing his withdrawal from the race, it said that he no longer saw a path forward to the nomination after the first debate, as “our polling and fundraising numbers weren’t what we had hoped for.” (We don’t yet know how Swalwell performed on the fundraising front — second-quarter reports are due on July 15 — but we do know that he didn’t have 65,000 individual donors, one of the thresholds for qualification for both the first and second debates.)

    Another reason he may have dropped out early: Swalwell is already facing a Democratic challenger for his House seat. The congressman had previously said he wouldn’t run for both president and Congress at the same time, and he still had plenty of time to decide if he would seek reelection to Congress. (California’s candidate filing deadline is Dec. 6.) But had Swalwell continued his long-shot presidential bid, he might have endangered his chances of retaining his House seat. His congressional opponents could have campaigned at home in California while he was off trying to make inroads in places like Iowa and New Hampshire. But now Swalwell can turn to defending his spot in Congress, from which he could still launch a future bid for higher office, if he wants.

    It’s hard to know what this means for the other Democrats in the race, as Swalwell was such a lesser-known candidate, other than now there’s less competition for those also polling around 1 percent (and good news for Bullock’s chances of making the next debate). But regardless of what happens with his reelection bid, Swalwell will go down in the history books as one of the first Democratic candidates to drop out of the presidential race. And that might be better than no mention at all.

  9. #34
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    Long Beach police arrest man for online threat against Bernie Sanders campaign rally

    https://abc7.com/politics/long-beach...rally/5447375/

    LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A Huntington Park man was arrested Monday on suspicion of making an online threat against an upcoming presidential campaign rally in Long Beach were Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to speak, authorities said.

    Rafael Guzman, 27, was booked for criminal threats and threatening a public officer, a statement from the Long Beach Police Department said. He was released after posting $50,000 bail.

    "We take all potential threats of violence very seriously and thoroughly investigate all reported incidents," said Police Chief Robert Luna. "Our department will remain vigilant and continue to be visible to ensure the safety of our community."

    Sanders is set to appear at a 7 p.m. event Tuesday at Long Beach City College, according to his campaign's official website.

    DEVELOPING: More details will be added to this report as they become available.

  10. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019...ent/index.html

    From Reagan to Trump:
    Here's how stocks performed under each president

    Lol. Thankyou. I never bothered checking that "fact".

  11. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    LoL

    I'll be voting for Trump again based on how my bank acct and portfolio look! Its good times, surplus cash for everyone. It feels like the mid-90's when Clinton was running shit.

    Trump 2020!!!!!!!!
    Surplus cash that the middle class will have to pay back. Republicans have taxed on so much debt... And only a few people have benefited. Even if I was positively affected by Obama's economy.... Because Trump doesn't know Jack about the economy, I still wouldn't vote for him. He's a trash bag posing as a human being.

  12. #37
    Senior Member Queena's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    You have to be joking right?, Way higher? What about all the shit during the 2008 election?, how can we have a nigger from Nigeria as our President? How can we have an old man who can't even raise his arms above his head as our President? In my opinion this shit going on now is nothing compared to the shit in 2008!
    A nigger? I would call you so many things, but you're not reflective of your race. You're trash. Trash trash trash. Fuck off, Obama has more education in the tip of his finger tips than your trashy subhuman ass. It's people like you that have made this country as worse as its been since the 80's. Thank God that hate and racism will kill you off fast. I pray it's fast enough to keep you from breeding. Trash breeds trash.

  13. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Queena View Post
    A nigger? I would call you so many things, but you're not reflective of your race. You're trash. Trash trash trash. Fuck off, Obama has more education in the tip of his finger tips than your trashy subhuman ass. It's people like you that have made this country as worse as its been since the 80's. Thank God that hate and racism will kill you off fast. I pray it's fast enough to keep you from breeding. Trash breeds trash.
    I'm a single father.....I have one daughter, do you think I should send her to live with other family members or put her up for adoption so she can have a better chance to succeed in life? What do you think?

  14. #39
    Senior Member Jumaki15's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    I'm a single father.....I have one daughter, do you think I should send her to live with other family members or put her up for adoption so she can have a better chance to succeed in life? What do you think?
    Yes. I doubt they are sociopaths.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jumaki15 View Post
    Yes. I doubt they are sociopaths.
    You're right. I should give her up for adoption, surely she'll do better and be better off. You guys have done well, you've helped save a child from a bad parent. I'll start looking into adoption for her.

  16. #41
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    You're right. I should give her up for adoption, surely she'll do better and be better off. You guys have done well, you've helped save a child from a bad parent. I'll start looking into adoption for her.
    Isn't she almost an adult?

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    Quote Originally Posted by blighted star View Post
    Isn't she almost an adult?
    Yes. But its never too late to get a good parent, I'm a failure as a father, she deserves better.

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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...by-two-groups/

    RFK Jr. is Named as one of the parties spamming facebook with anti-Vax ads

    The majority of Facebook advertisements spreading misinformation about vaccines were funded by two anti-vaccine groups, including one led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a study published this week.

    The World Mercury Project, headed by Kennedy, and a California-based organization called Stop Mandatory Vaccination bought 54 percent of the anti-vaccine ads on Facebook, the study found.

    Researchers said the results surprised them. Much of the anti-vaccine content posted on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter may appear to be organic, grass-roots discussions led by neighborhood groups and concerned parents, said David A. Broniatowski, an associate professor at George Washington University and one of the authors of the study.

    “In fact,” said Broniatowski, who studies group decision-making, “what we are seeing is a small number of motivated interests that are trying to disseminate a lot of harmful content.” The small group of anti-vaccine ad buyers successfully used the ads to reach targeted audiences.

    The study was conducted before Facebook changed its policies around anti-vaccine advertising, but researchers said it provides a look at how the platform has been used to spread misinformation. The study also provides a baseline for researchers to evaluate how well Facebook’s new policies are working, said Amelia Jamison, a social science researcher at the University of Maryland and another study author.

    The report in the journal Vaccine is the first to study anti-vaccine advertisements in Facebook’s advertising archive. The platform, a publicly available and searchable repository, was introduced by Facebook in 2018 to improve transparency related to certain forms of advertising considered of “national importance.” The social media giant has repeatedly come under fire for allowing the promotion of anti-vaccine material.

    In recent years, false claims on social media about vaccines have led growing numbers of parents to shun or delay getting their children vaccinated. Misinformation and skepticism about the safety of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine contributed significantly to the nearly year-long measles outbreak in the United States that ended in October. The potentially deadly disease surged to 1,261 cases this year, as of Nov. 7, the highest number in nearly three decades. Anti-vaccine activists also spread misinformation about vaccine-preventable diseases, downplaying their danger.



    Earlier this year, The Post reported on a wealthy Manhattan couple who have emerged as major financiers of the anti-vaccine movement. Hedge fund manager and philanthropist Bernard Selz and his wife, Lisa, have contributed more than $3 million in recent years to a handful of activists who have played an outsize role in the anti-vaccine movement.
    Kennedy is another major player in anti-vaccine publicity and support. The attorney and nephew of president John F. Kennedy runs the Children’s Health Defense, which is closely aligned with the World Mercury Project. The group’s overall message falsely claims that vaccines are contributing to a vast array of childhood illnesses. In May, Kennedy’s brother, sister and niece publicly criticized him, saying he has helped “spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.”

    The group Stop Mandatory Vaccination is headed by Larry Cook, who calls himself “an advocate for natural living.” On his website, Cook says he uses donations to pay for Facebook advertising, among other expenses, including his personal bills. “All donations to me go directly to me and into my bank account,” he writes on the site. Many advertisements his group funded featured stories of infants allegedly harmed by vaccines, researchers found.

    Broniatowski and colleagues at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University searched Facebook’s Ad Archive, now called the Ad Library, for vaccine-related ads at two points: December 2018 and February of this year. Of 309 relevant advertisements, 163 were pro-vaccine and 145 were anti-vaccine. The messages promoting vaccination did not have a common or organized theme or funder. They focused on trying to get people vaccinated against a specific disease, such as ads for a flu vaccine clinic, or were part of the Gates Foundation campaign against polio, for example.

    Despite a similar number of advertisements, there were 83 different groups that promoted vaccinations, while five groups accounted for 75 percent of anti-vaccine messages. The top two were the World Mercury Project and Stop Mandatory Vaccination.

    Many pro-vaccine advertisements were taken down by Facebook, researchers found, because first-time buyers failed to fill out required information disclosing their funding. That ends up inadvertently removing science-based information.
    Yes Vaccines is at play for the 2020 elections.

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    Trump 2020!!!

  20. #45
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    Trump 2020!!!
    If you all don't vote for Bernie, send him to Australis please, all of ours need replacing.

  21. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by blighted star View Post
    If you all don't vote for Bernie, send him to Australis please, all of ours need replacing.
    I disagree with giving everyone free shit, I would never vote for Bernie.

    I'm confused, what needs replacing???

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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    "Congress needs to demand that Trump apologize to Muslims". Lmfaooooo.

    Fuck their feelings.

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    Are they fighting again? That young lady hates Trump, absolutely hates him. Gotta love her passion.

    I don't understand why everyone is fighting over climate change, the earth has been warming and cooling, cooling and warming for millions of years there's nothing that can be done about it. Even if we had no cars no planes no factories no garbage no emissions the earth would still warm then cool then warm then cool. All this fighting about it is a huge waste of time.

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    Quote Originally Posted by S281Saleen160 View Post
    Are they fighting again? That young lady hates Trump, absolutely hates him. Gotta love her passion.

    I don't understand why everyone is fighting over climate change, the earth has been warming and cooling, cooling and warming for millions of years there's nothing that can be done about it. Even if we had no cars no planes no factories no garbage no emissions the earth would still warm then cool then warm then cool. All this fighting about it is a huge waste of time.
    I think it's him that hates her. He has hounded her whereever she goes and attacked her.

    I am just glad I don't have kids that will inherit this earth after all the changes the current administration are making with their rollback and giveaways to corporate polluters.

    Whether you want to believe what science has proven about climate change or not, why in the world would you want your kid to breathe in the pollution in the air, drink the pollution in the water, and live in the pollution the current administration is doing everything in its power to encourage?

    I'll be honest with you, I really don't give a fuck anymore. I don't have kids. I will be gone by the time it really becomes an issue. I used to fight it all, but then I realized why bother fighting, just give up and stop stressing myself out...and be selfish about it...it's not my kids that will be living with it.

  25. #50
    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    Koubacher also dropped out now. I wish some of these candidates would have dropped out sooner because there's a lot of mail in ballots with defunct candidates being voted for now. It was so heavily saturated that it became a circus. It's not a good look for those that are independents or swing voters.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



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