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Thursday, April 30, 2015

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.
 
Well, that leaves the Republicans out - they wouldn't know honesty if it bit them in the ass... !

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Forgotten Resistance

President Obama Wins: Boehner Admits Republicans Don’t Have The Votes To Stop Iran Deal

boehner-angry-obama
John Boehner is privately admitting that Republicans don’t have the votes to stop President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
The top-ranking Republican in Congress privately acknowledged this weekend that his party doesn’t have enough votes to overcome a veto of any resolution disapproving the nuclear-weapons deal President Barack Obama hopes to reach with Iran.
Speaking at an off-the-record event Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s meeting in Las Vegas, House Speaker John Boehner told the audience that he didn’t expect that more than two-thirds of Congress would vote to overturn a veto from Obama if Congress voted against a nuclear deal, according to four people who were inside the room for the private talk.
All of the angst over President Obama agreeing to a sign a bill that gave Congress the ability to vote on the Iran deal was for nothing.
It turns out that President Obama didn’t cave or yield. President Obama knew that he had the votes in Congress to sustain his veto of any Congressional resolution that disapproves of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
Sure, Congress will get to voice their feelings, but their feelings won’t change the final outcome.
Boehner and McConnell dug their own grave when they made the Iran nuclear deal a partisan issue.
Speaker Boehner salted the Earth when he disrespected President Obama by ignoring protocol before he invited Netanyahu to address Congress. Mitch McConnell added to the damage by signing and supporting the infamous letter that 47 Republican senators sent to the Iranian government.
The fate of any deal on Iran’s nuclear program may have to go through to Congress, but President Obama has the votes to make sure that Republicans can’t kill the deal. Boehner and McConnell set themselves up for defeat by trying to sabotage President Obama on foreign policy.
There was no way that enough Democrats would go against their President to kill a deal with Iran. Republicans made two big mistakes.
Boehner and McConnell made the issue partisan, and they supported leaving the military option on the table. The discussion became about diplomacy or war, and when Democrats were left with that choice, a path to peace was the most logical option.
John Boehner is already admitting defeat as President Obama is on the cusp of achieving a historic deal to make the world a safer place. A successful deal to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon will add another accomplishment to a presidency that has been loaded with achievements.

Senate Republicans Plan New Treasonous Sabotage Of Obama On Global Climate Change Talks

obama-mcconnell
Not content with undercutting the President and sabotaging America’s foreign policy, Senate Republicans are planning a new treasonous act of sabotage against an Obama led potential global change agreement.
The Wall Street Journal reported, “The White House considers the agreement with nearly 200 nations a historic opportunity to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions world-wide. But some GOP senators view it as executive overreach, and they are quietly considering ways to warn other countries that the president doesn’t speak for them and may not be able to deliver on his promises to slash emissions.”
The only lesson that Senate Republicans appear to have taken away from their letter to Iran is that they need to keep their plots to undercut the President quiet. Look for the Senate Republicans to avoid releasing a public letter. They may use the same strategy and issue a letter, but they will try to sneak it a bit more under the radar.
Senate Republicans are setting themselves up for an even stronger backlash since they will be not only sabotaging President Obama, but also defying the global scientific consensus.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that climate change denying Republicans embarrass their fellow Americans at home, they are now considering humiliating the entire nation on a global scale.
Opposing an international agreement on climate change has nothing to do with the actual science. The Republican opposition is rooting in protecting corporate polluters who are destroying the planet combined with a desire to politically damage and embarrass a president that they irrationally despise.
Any Senate Republican plan to undercut Obama on climate change will backfire. It is also an unwise strategy to make climate change denial an issue in the 2016 election. Republicans need to attract moderates to win back the White House, and science denial only serves to reinforce to these voters why they should support Democrats.
The big message is clear. Senate Republicans will continue their campaign of treasonous sabotage until President Obama leaves office.

White House Hits Back At the shrub, Says He Created ISIL

White House Hits Back At George W. Bush, Says He Helped Create ISIS
The White House calmly reminded the shrub that ISIL was created because of military action in the region.

Even Fox News Calls Out ‘Clinton Cash’ Author For His Lies And Lack Of Evidence

Even Fox News Calls Out ‘Clinton Cash’ Author For His Lies And Lack Of Evidence
When Fox News calls you out for lack of evidence against Hillary Clinton, you might want to reevaluate what you’re doing.

Anti-Gay Republican Outed As Gay Blames Gay Agenda Smear Campaign

Anti-Gay Republican Outed As Gay Blames Gay Agenda Smear Campaign
An anti-gay crusader has been outed as gay; now gets to personally face the consequences of his bigoted voting record.

Wingnut Media Busted For Spreading False Story About Harry Reid’s Accident

Harry Reid announces he won't run in 2016
A Las Vegas man who concocted the story about Harry Reid getting injured in a brawl with his brother came forward over the weekend to confess that he made the whole story up. Larry Pfeifer, a convicted felon and former entertainment industry consultant, told reporters for the Las Vegas Sun that he invented the story to demonstrate the lack of credibility in the partisan media.
Pfeifer, using the pseudonym Easton Elliot, pitched his fabricated story to a number of media outlets. Pfeifer alleged that Harry Reid’s brother, Larry, showed up drunk at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Henderson, Nevada with an injured hand, claiming he had just beaten up a relative.
John Hinderaker, who writes for the right-wing blog “Powerline”, posted the story on April 3rd. The fabricated story quickly gained momentum in right-wing circles with Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, all spreading the phony account of how Harry Reid sustained his injuries.
Although Hinderaker did make a half-hearted disclaimer when he first published the bogus story, he quickly pivoted to chastising the mainstream media for not pursuing the story. In his blog he presented the information, in part, as follows:
That is Easton Elliott’s account. I can’t vouch for it, of course, but if what he says about the AA meeting is accurate, the inferences he draws seem reasonable.
Someone attacked Harry Reid on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day; that much seems clear from photographs and from the nature of his injuries. So far, to my knowledge, no one has investigated to try to find out what really happened. My “investigation” consisted of answering my telephone. Perhaps those reporters who were so eager to dig through Sarah Palin’s dumpster and track down Mitt Romney’s high school classmates will now swing into action, carry out an actual investigation, and either confirm or refute the events described by Mr. Elliott.
From there, the account spread like wildfire through the right-wing media universe, catching hold with right-wing talk radio icons like Limbaugh, Beck and Ingraham. Apparently none of them showed much concern for vetting the source, or for verifying the accuracy of the fabricated “eyewitness account”. After all, it fit a narrative they were all too happy to promote. Therefore, it didn’t matter whether it was actually true or not.
Pfeifer also acknowledged over the weekend that several media outlets acted more responsibly than the right-wing sites that spread the story. For example, he pointed out that the Las Vegas Sun requested that Pfeifer provide them with his real name and a copy of his driver’s license so they could run a background check and confirm his identity. That proved a wise decision on their part, as unlike many of the partisan right-wing sites, the Las Vegas Sun escaped the whole fiasco without getting “egg on their face”.
Pfeifer’s actions certainly should not be condoned since he spread damaging lies about both Larry and Harry Reid that amount to character assassination. However, Pfeifer does not bear that responsibility alone. Right-wing media outlets that were overeager to slander the Nevada Senator also should be ashamed that they promoted his story without verifying any evidence to determine if the story were reasonably likely to be true. By failing to apply even the flimsiest of journalistic standards or ethics, the right-wing media has demonstrated once again that they are far too willing to sacrifice the truth, as long as it furthers their extremely narrow and petty partisan agenda.

Illinois' Rauner Projects His Hypocritical Conflict of Interest on Democrats and Unions

Over the past weekend, Illinois Republican Bruce Rauner assailed state legislators who accept campaign contributions from public employee unions for being guilty of a "conflict of interest."…

Bernie Sanders Torpedos Republicans By Revealing GOP Budget Kills 2.3 Million Jobs

bernie sanders republican budget
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) dropped a bomb on Senate Republicans by revealing that their budget would kill more than 2 million jobs.
Sanders sent letters to the governors of all 50 states that broke down the cuts and job losses that each state would face if the Republican budget is enacted. The low-light of the letters is that the Republican cuts to transportation, education, and other programs would kill more than 2.3 million jobs across the country.
In a statement, Sen. Sanders said:
The Republican budget moves this country in exactly the wrong direction. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, it gives huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while making devastating cuts to education, Medicare, affordable housing and prescription drug coverage.

Instead of creating jobs, it will lead to the elimination of more than 2 million jobs. Instead of making college more affordable, it will increase the cost of college for millions of Americans. Instead of eliminating hunger in America, it will add to the financial problems of low-income families with children and will create more hunger. This budget is the Robin Hood principle in reverse. It takes from the poor to give to the rich.
Some of the hardest hit states would be those that have Republican governors. Texas would lose 193,000 jobs. Florida would lose 141,000 jobs. Ohio would lose 84,000 jobs. Georgia would lose 70,000 jobs. North Carolina would lose 68,000 jobs, and Wisconsin would lose 46,000 jobs.
It is important that the American people understand exactly what the Republican budget does. Not only does the Republican budget lower taxes for the wealthiest people while raising them for everyone else, it also kills millions of jobs.
Republicans in Congress don’t want to talk about many services will be cut, and jobs lost because of their budget. Republicans especially don’t want to discuss the number of jobs that will be lost in red states due to their budget.
Sen. Sanders was put in the top Democratic seat on the Budget Committee for this exact reason. Sanders is exposing the things that Republicans don’t want to talk about. He is revealing the ugly truth behind the GOP’s economic ideology, and in the process, he is destroying any potential support for their economic ideas outside of the Republican Party.
Sanders has become the tip of the left’s spear that is striking back against failed Republican economic policies and income inequality.

Harry Reid Shreds The GOP: ‘They Can’t Accept The Reality Of Obamacare’

Harry Reid Shreds The GOP: ‘They Can’t Accept The Reality Of Obamacare’Harry Reid issued a scathing attack on Republicans for their arrogant stubbornness to accept the fact they were wrong about Obamacare.
***
They Can’t Accept The Reality Period

Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit Would Invalidate Reagan Tax Law If It Succeeds

Republican Religio-Wingnut Fanatics Pose A Much Bigger Threat To Our Country Than ISIL

by Allen Clifton
Let me preface this by saying I’m in no way trying to downplay ISIL as a threat, nor am I attempting to say the behavior by Republicans is as barbaric and monstrous as the group wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq.
That being said, while Republicans would have Americans believe that we’re facing an imminent threat of some sort of radical Islamic takeover here in the United States (we’re not), what we’re actually seeing is a huge push by the evangelical religio-wingnuts to insert their dominance into our government and turn the United States into a theocracy.
If it were up to many Republicans, this country wouldn’t be governed by our Constitution, but by the Bible. Hell, not too long ago potential GOP presidential candidate and Fox News host Mike Huckabee literally said that Americans shouldn’t have to follow laws they felt were “ungodly.” In other words, if our Supreme Court rules that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, it’s okay for Americans to ignore that ruling – because the bible says so.
Their whole premise on same-sex marriage is based off the belief that the bible dictates what is or isn’t a marriage. These are people who are literally trying to pass laws that makes discrimination against homosexuals legal.
Then there’s always the issue of abortion and the control they want over what women do with their own bodies. As if pregnant women suddenly relinquishes her rights the moment she’s impregnated. Not only that, our Supreme Court has said that a woman has the right to have an abortion. This is yet another area of the private lives of Americans where these religious radicals feel they can force their religious views on those who do not share them.
Even when you look at climate change, a good portion of those who deny it’s being caused by humans do so because they don’t believe we have the ability to cause such changes to our climate. To many of these people, any change in our climate is controlled by dog, therefore it’s pointless for us to do anything to try to prevent the catastrophic disasters that will occur if we don’t start taking much better care of our planet.
But the truth is, this is just the beginning. I don’t doubt for a moment that if our Supreme Court was comprised of wingnuts, with Republicans controlling both Congress and the White House, that these religio-wingnuts would be taking even bigger steps to interject more and more of their religious dogma onto the rest of us.
That’s how all of this works; it starts with gay marriage and abortion, then it grows into other areas of the bible. They’re already trying to interject religion into education, and Fox News is basically just the talking arm of the religious right, so it wouldn’t take much before they slithered their way into other areas of our lives, adding more and more theocratic rule, backed by an ultra-religious Republican party and a highly conservative Supreme Court.
In fact, there’s been a plan for this in place for many years called the “7 Cultural Mountains.” Basically it’s a plan by religious fanatics to seize control over seven key areas of our society:
Arts and Entertainment Business Education Family Government Media Religion
Looking at that list, aren’t we already seeing this “plan” starting to evolve? I’ve never been one to push conspiracy theories, and I don’t think I’m pushing one now. It’s my opinion that we’re already seeing this plan take shape every single day in this country.
It’s like peeling an onion. If they go slowly, one layer at a time, they’re hoping most people won’t notice. But over time, as they continue to peel back layer after layer, eventually more and more of that onion begins to vanish until there’s basically nothing left.
Well, that’s what these religio-wingnut delusional radicals are trying to do with our freedom of religion. They’re slowly trying to peel back each thin layer at a time hoping we won’t notice, with their ultimate goal being to place the bible atop the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
So, while there’s no denying that ISIL is a religiously-driven threat to which we must pay attention, the more immediate threats we face in this country are the christian fanatics trying to chip away at our freedoms and our Constitutional rights, as they continue trying to turn the United States into a religio-wingnut theocracy built on bigotry, ignorance and oppression.

Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Are So Bad That Radio Stations No Longer Want His Show

limbaugh-noThe ratings have gotten so bad for Rush Limbaugh that radio stations no longer want to carry his show.
The advertiser boycott of Rush Limbaugh brought public attention to the sewer that conservative talk radio has become, but as Republican Daryl Parks wrote when rumors of Limbaugh getting moved to a smaller station in Chicago surfaced, radio station executives don’t want Limbaugh, but literally can’t give him away, “The Chicago rumors come as no surprise to me, as three different Cumulus executives have told me on different occasions they wish they could get rid of Limbaugh’s show and they can’t sell it.”
Parks also explained why these stations are stuck with Limbaugh, “Premiere Networks and its owner Clear Channel Media + Entertainment iHeart Media has crammed down Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck on its talk stations, not allowing local stations to make needed changes to their programming, changes that could provide some hope of staying relevant. It was a great business model…in the 20th century! In business speak it’s called “vertical integration.” The company produces the product and then uses its distribution arm, its radio stations, to broadcast the shows. Guaranteed clearance, plus in Limbaugh’s case and some of Hannity’s stations, the local stations have to pay a “rights fee” in addition to the barter commercial inventory they broadcast from the network. There was no negotiation whether to broadcast the show or what fee was to be paid. Here’s the number you pay was the only conversation during the budget process. This, as you can imagine, affected cash flow and coupled with the increasing demands for talk stations to generate more profit, it forced local stations to lay-off other talk hosts, producers and gut news departments. Talented people left the radio business and the death spiral for talk radio began. It began years ago.”
The radio stations don’t get a choice. They are being forced to carry Limbaugh while paying for the privilege of giving three hours of airtime to a host whose audience is even older than those who watch Fox News.
Radio stations in big markets have seen their ratings plummet thanks to Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio. The reality is that sports talk radio passed conservative talk radio in popularity years ago.
Younger people across the political spectrum don’t listen to talk radio. Stations that carry Limbaugh are losing both listeners and money. Rush Limbaugh doesn’t care about any of this. You’ll notice that Limbaugh still gets paid no matter what station he is on.
Limbaugh’s ratings data is guarded like a state secret, but it was revealed that his show is drawing fewer listeners than Spanish language stations in New York and Los Angeles. The biggest sign that Rush Limbaugh is on the decline is that he has fallen off of the political map. Limbaugh was at the center of the Republican Party during the early days of President Obama’s first term, but the Sandra Fluke scandal and advertiser boycott that followed has cost him dearly.
Many will never admit it, but the left played a key role in helping America move forward by tuning out Rush Limbaugh.

Setting evolution aside, even basic geology disproves creationism

Stone Age man with dinosaur (Shutterstock)
The creationist model doesn’t square with what you can see for yourself. And this has been known since before Darwin.

Australian News Anchor Congratulates Fair-skinned Biracial Twin For ‘Looking White’

Australian News Anchor Congratulates Fair-skinned Biracial Twin For ‘Looking White’ (VIDEO)
Even her co-host cringed while listening to this train wreck.
Read more 

Republican Dream: Russian Lawmakers Want To Criminalize Unemployment

Republican Dream: Russian Lawmakers Want To Criminalize UnemploymentRepublicans can’t criminalize unemployment, so they are trying to criminalize being poor.

$70,000 minimum pay turns out to be good for business

Remember Dan Price, the CEO who cut his own pay to raise the minimum annual pay at his company to $70,000? Turns out, that wasn't just a morally good thing to do, and Price doesn't have to wait for the longer-term payoff of increased productivity and reduced staff turnover-he's seeing an immediate payoff for Gravity Systems, his credit card processing company:
Price said the news has brought in dozens of new clients, making it the best week for new business in the company's 11-year history.
The firm has about 15,000 clients and handles about $10 billion in payments every year.
If the burst of new clients continues, it could create new jobs-new good jobs-and let other businesses know that treating workers well can pay off. But it's important to remember that workers shouldn't have to get lucky with an amazingly good boss to make a decent living and be treated well. Good bosses go viral, but for more workers, this is the reality:
While Price is cutting his own pay, most chief executives are continuing to see hefty compensation hikes. CEO pay rose more quickly in 2014 than in other recent years, with median compensation rising 6.9 percent to $12.2 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, American workers have been suffering from stagnating and, in some cases, declining wages.
That's a reality we need to fight to change.

Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too

It's Not just fast food ...
Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year. And as in fast food, we're talking about large, profitable chains: Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and more; Dine Equity, the parent company of IHOP and Applebee's; Bloomin' Brands, the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Carraba's Italian Grill, and more; Brinker International, the parent company of Chili's; and Cracker Barrel. Workers at these five chains need an estimated $1.4 billion from programs including the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and heating and housing assistance.
These five companies spend millions on lobbying-with one key priority being to keep the tipped worker minimum wage at $2.13 an hour, where it's been stuck for decades. Meanwhile:
[...]
The ROC report frames public assistance to workers at these restaurant chains as taxpayer subsidies for the chains' low wages; it's a powerful argument, but one that the respected economist Arindrajit Dube is arguing doesn't hold up as applied to programs that aren't tied to labor force participation or hours worked.
I'm not sure I'm 100 percent on board with Dube's argument, but in any case we don't need the taxpayer subsidy argument to see the hundreds of millions of dollars in public assistance needed by workers at these profitable chains as an indictment of their wages and labor practices. It's as simple as this: If a profitable company is paying its workers hundreds of millions of dollars a year less than they need for the most basic medical care, food, and housing, that company is a driving force in the low-wage economy. You don't need to believe that the public assistance going to their underpaid workers is a direct subsidy to the companies to see something wrong with that.

Audi Just Created Diesel Fuel Using Water And Air – And It’s Twice As Efficient As Fossil Fuels

Audi Just Created Diesel Fuel Using Water And Air – And It’s Twice As Efficient As Fossil Fuels
Exxon-Mobil is probably freaking out. Good.
Read more  

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.
 
Republicans are idiots, They can't figure out a simple zipper... !

Today is - Zipper Day
 
Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

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La Paz, Bolivia
Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil
Chelsea and Toronto, Canada
Torreon, Mexico
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Lima, Peru
Pajaros and San Juan, Puerto Rico
Bastrop, Bogalusa, Immokalee, Muskogee, Nixa and Churubusco, United States
Barquisimeto, Caracas, Venezuela
Europe
Vienna, Austria
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Brussels, Belgium
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Glavinitsa and Sofua, Bulgaria
Ostrava, Prague and Stare Mesto, Czech Republic
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The Eight Different Types Of Republicans, And How To Recognize Them

Liberal radio host Thom Hartmann says that the Republican party is made up of three types of people: the rich, shills for the rich, and suckers. That’s an accurate description, but not detailed enough. Each of those categories can be broken down further, to give a more precise picture of the makeup of the modern Republican party.
With that in mind, here are the eight types of people who currently call themselves Republicans.
1. The Oligarchs
Example: Sheldon Adelson
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson is one of the oligarchs financing the Republican party.
The oligarchs are the financial backers of the party. They rarely seek the limelight, but sometimes find themselves thrust into it. They are the “kingmakers,” thanks in large part to the Citizens United decision. Witness the Koch brothers’ recent vetting of announced and likely Republican presidential candidates, trying to settle on the one who will receive a massive infusion of their cash. Ditto Sheldon Adelson, who spent $93 million on the 2012 election, according to the Washington Post. Those are the biggest examples, but there are many more.
2. The Billionaire Industrialists
Example: Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney is one of the billionaires who want to be president
This group of Republicans could also fit into the category of oligarchs, but, unlike the oligarchs, they don’t want to be kingmakers, they want to be king. They see America as belonging to people like them: wealthy, and powerful. If you’re struggling to make ends meet, these guys will tell you that it’s just because you didn’t work hard enough, or weren’t creative enough. Never mind that most of these guys — Romney, Donald Trump, etc. — inherited wealth, positions of power, or both. If you’re poor, or middle class, and struggling, well, just work harder, and more. Sleep is overrated, anyway.
3. The Corporate Shills
Example: The Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is just one of many right wing think tanks
There are so many individuals shilling for the oligarchs, and financed by them, that it is easier to talk about the organizations they work for, than to identify each person. The Cato Institute, which describes itself as “a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace,” is just one of dozens of these groups.
According to Forbes, Charles and David Koch (see “Oligarchs” above) have contributed millions to the Cato Institute. It’s almost laughable to read Cato’s description of how the group is funded, which says:
In order to maintain its independence, the Cato Institute accepts no government funding. Cato receives approximately 80 percent of its funding through tax-deductible contributions from individuals, with the remainder of its support coming from foundations, corporations, and the sale of books and publications.
Other groups, that put out pseudo-research designed to promote the interests of the oligarchs who fund them include: Americans For Prosperity (another Koch brothers funded group), the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and many, many more.
4. The Religious Hucksters
Example: Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham is an example of a Republican religious huckster.
This faction of Republicans has an important job: To convince people to vote against their economic self-interest, by using “wedge issues” such as same-sex marriage, abortion, fear of Muslims (or “MOOs-lims” as Graham would say), etc. This group is extensive, and counts as members those with well known names such as Graham, as well as unknown preachers who step into the pulpits of numerous churches every Sunday. But they’re all selling the same message: vote Republican, or God will want nothing to do with you.
5. The “Noise Machine”
Example: Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh is part of the Republican noise machine. 
The noise machine is extensive, and it permeates the airwaves. Limbaugh has, for years, been the CEO of the Republican noise machine, but, after a series of gaffes cost him many sponsors, his star seems to be fading. There are plenty more out there, whose names may not be as big, but who are just as good as stirring up the uninformed, including: Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, and so on. Of course, this section can’t leave out the entire cast of characters at Fox NewsFrom the curvy couch crew of Fox and Friends, to the evening rants of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, Fox News is one 24 hour noise cycle.
Of course, the job of this segment of the party is to tell half truths, and flat out lies, to those who aren’t paying attention, in order to, again, get them to vote against their own self-interests (see “Religious Hucksters”).
6. The War Hawks
Example: Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney is an example of a Repubican War Hawk 
These Republicans have never seen a war they didn’t like. Some of this group served in the military, such as John McCain. But many of them, like former vice president Cheney, have never worn a uniform. They see the world as a dangerous place that can only be tamed by American intervention. Intervention that might require your child to go fight and die. But not their children. They have more important things to do, like grow up to be leaders, who will then send other people’s children off to fight and die. This group sees any dissent from a Republican president’s war plans as “unpatriotic.” But, they will travel the world to criticize a Democratic president for his handling of American conflicts he inherited from a Republican.
When talking about this group, we can’t leave out their connections to the defense industry. Isn’t it interesting that most of the biggest hawks in the country have the deepest ties to the military-industrial complex?
7. The Country Clubbers
Example: Hundreds of upper middle class voters
Upper middle class families often support Republicans 
This group includes a lot of educated people, who should be able to see through the claims made by the shills and hucksters. But hey, they live in gated communities. They’re doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women. Republicans keep their taxes low. And those wars Republicans like to start? No worries. The children of this group are in some sort of professional school, or preparing to take over the family business. They’re too busy to do anything like sign up for military service. Even though they don’t make anything close to the money made by the oligarchs and other billionaires, they’re comfortable. They don’t need things like food stamps, so they don’t really see the purpose of them. They take advantage of all sorts of tax deductions, but don’t like the idea of others getting government assistance. Their motto could be “Government program that helps me — GOOD. Government program that helps you — BAD!”
8. The Dumb Asses
Example: The Teabaggers
Michelle Bachmann attends a Tea Party rally 
This is an example of one place where something called “trickle down” actually works. Everything done by the members of the first six groups in this summary winds up here — with people who listen to what the shills have to say, and who vote the way the oligarchs want them to. Were it not for this group of terminally uniformed voters, mostly old, mostly white, mostly uneducated, there would be no Republican party, or at the very least, it wouldn’t resemble what it is today.
These people hate the government, but love the largest government agency — the military. They’re quite happy to send their kids off to die in Republican wars, to protect their “freedom.” They opposed the so-called “government takeover of healthcare,” aka the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), but don’t you dare touch their Medicare. They think that President Obama is a Muslim, Kenyan, socialist, who is destroying America, but don’t you dare call them racists.
You have to give the chiefs of the Republican party credit. They have all of the pieces in place, and the thing runs like the proverbial “well oiled machine.” This is why liberals can never rest. And why we must always, ALWAYS, get out and vote.

Waahmbulance Alert!

Waahmbulance Alert! Righties' Panties In A Bunch Over 'Mean Obama' At WHCD
Oh, the angst! Obama was mean!

President Obama Calls on Anger Translator to Skewer Climate Change Deniers

The millions of people who demand action on climate change get frustrated from time by time–ok, quite often, actually–with elected officials who continue to deny the existence of climate change. Imagine how President Obama must feel dealing with the likes of James Inhofe and Ted Cruz. It must get frustrating. Really frustrating.
Well in recent weeks, the president has been getting some of that frustration out, given that he doesn’t have to worry about elections any more. So during his speech at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama saved some of his best invective for climate change truthers. He got help from “Luther, the Anger Translator,” a recurring character played by Keegan-Michael Key from Comedy Central’s Key and Peele.
Well played, sirs.

Koch brothers to Jeb Bush: Dance, monkey, dance

The Koch brothers kept their billions out of the Republican pretender primary in 2012, then regretted Mitt Romney. So they're thinking about endorsing a 2016 candidate and using not just their money but their massive political organization to boost him. The question: Who'll be their guy? Being the answer to that question will be worth a lot to any candidate, which means the Koch brothers can demand a lot of ring kissing and campaign promises. That seems to be exactly what they're gearing up to do:
Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz debated at the Koch network's winter seminar in January, and Scott Walker made a separate appearance. Those were the candidates who appeared to have a chance at the Koch blessing, and attendees said Rubio seemed to win that round.
But those four - plus Jeb - will be invited to the Kochs' summer conference, the aide said. Bush is getting a second look because so many Koch supporters think he looks like a winner. Other candidates, perhaps Rick Perry or Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, may also get invitations.
On Monday, David Koch seemed to indicate support for Scott Walker, but then released a statement insisting he wasn't endorsing anyone. Yet. Instead, the plan, according to Politico's Mike Allen, is to wait until the primary heats up, candidates have a chance to have their "oops" moments in the debates, and polling starts to show which candidates might have a real chance-especially with a couple more billionaires behind them, billionaires planning to direct hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2016 election cycle.
The invitation to Jeb Bush could be another indication that, while the far-right faithful of Iowa aren't (yet) excited about him, his behind-the-scenes strategy of appealing to influential conservatives may be working to line up the kind of high-level support that will ultimately help him win over their followers. But he's definitely not getting a Koch endorsement without dancing for it.

Walkergate Prosecutors To Walker: Put Up Or Shut Up

Walkergate Prosecutors To Walker: Put Up Or Shut Up
Top John Doe prosecutors dare Scott Walker to go big, go bold or go home


CBS Host To Tony Perkins: You Are A Known 'Hate Group' Leader Who Doesn't 'Speak For christians'

CBS Host To Tony Perkins: You Are A Known 'Hate Group' Leader Who Doesn't 'Speak For Christians'As the nation prepares for the Supreme Court to possibly decide whether same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, it was clear on Sunday that even anti-gay crusader Tony Perkins was having difficulty being taken seriously by the mainstream media.
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The shocked look on his face when confronted with the truth was truly a wonderful thing to witness!

Minnesota Republicans Pass Bill Banning Cities From Raising The Minimum Wage

by Jameson Parker 
Minnesota Republicans Pass Bill Banning Cities From Raising The Minimum Wage. Seriously.
Can Republicans even pretend to not have a “screw the poor” mentality any more?
Republicans in Minnesota’s House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that focuses on ensuring workers making at or around minimum wage have absolutely no chance to see their wages increase without federal intervention. And in case that didn’t get their “screw the poor” message across loud and clear, they tacked on an extra measure that would slash the state’s minimum wage for tip employees – because if there is one group of people making too much money in this country, it’s restaurant wait staff.
In an all-too-common turn of events, support for the minimum-wage measure was “divided down party lines” – with Republicans taking on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge:
The bill would create a two-tiered minimum wage, with a lower rate for employees who receive tips of at least $4 per hour, while also prohibiting cities or the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from enacting a higher minimum wage than the state minimum.
Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, chairman of the Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy and Finance Committee and the bill’s chief author, said that without a change in the minimum-wage law, restaurants and taverns could be forced out of business by higher labor costs as the state’s minimum wage rises to $9.50 per hour by 2016 and then increases with inflation after that. [source]
Republicans have spent years artfully blocking attempts at the state or federal level to raise the minimum wage, despite the fact that the current one – at just $7.25 an hour – is widely known to be egregiously below the necessary income for a person to live on.
Minnesota lawmakers sought to rectify this problem in 2013 when Democrats in the Legislature voted to raise the state’s minimum wage from $6.15 to $9.50 by 2016. Sadly, having passed that measure, Republicans swept into office in 2014 and have been seeking to dismantle that legislation ever since.
First they went after waitresses. Citing (long debunked) concerns about restaurants being forced out of business after having to pay their employees a livable salary, Republicans are trying to roll back wage increases they are expected to receive in the next few years (see aforementioned Democratic minimum wage increase). The evidence that these modest increases in pay will spell certain doom for “restaurants and taverns” is complete fantasy. Despite several breathless reports by conservative websites that Seattle killed its restaurants by raising its wage to $15 an hour, even right-leaning Forbes took one look at the evidence and declared it a “lie.
Never mind that not so much as one of the restaurant closings discussed in the original piece referenced the coming rise in minimum wage as a reason for their decision to shutter their business. And never mind that the owner of one of the four eateries discussed is currently opening two new restaurants in Seattle. It was a headline that opponents of the citywide minimum wage increase could not resist—and the facts could not be allowed to stand in the way.
On the flip side, this conservative fantasy will lead to an already bad situation getting worse. Far from ruling like decadent kings, employees in food service are some of the worst paid people in the country. This is the group Republicans are choosing to target.
jobs-market-pay
source: New Geography
But that’s not all.
Having watched cities across the country subvert the GOP’s self-professed authority to keep the poor poor by passing their own minimum wage increases, Republicans in Minnesota (and other states) have begun drafting legislation that will ban cities from doing so. Even worse, Republicans seem to be doing in strictly to spite Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Mark Dayton for expressing interest in raising the wage floor.
The other minimum-wage provision, which would prevent cities or other governing entities from outpacing the state minimum wage, is an oblique shot at Gov. Mark Dayton, who has said he favors a $10 minimum wage for airport workers.
The measure also would serve to stop the labor-backed wage movement at the state border. Labor activists have pushed for higher wages across the country, including a $15-per-hour minimum wage in Seattle, for instance. The House measure would put a ceiling on the minimum wage statewide, preventing a similar wage action in Minneapolis or other cities. [source]
Thankfully, Minnesota still has a sane Governor and a State Senate that is controlled by Democrats, so it is unclear whether Republicans can successfully maneuver the bill into law. If they fail, and let’s hope they do, then all they will have accomplished is to shamelessly demonstrate the sickening “screw the poor” mentality that has infected the Republican Party. I guess we should be grateful that they aren’t even trying to hide it any more.

Jeanine Pirro Puts Her Clinton Derangement Syndrome On Full Display

Fox's Jeanine Pirro Puts Her Clinton Derangement Syndrome On Full DisplayIf anyone was wondering if Fox's Jeanine Pirro was going to be able to seamlessly shift from her Obama Derangement Syndrome to full blown Clinton Derangement Syndrome, this Saturday, she left no doubt.

Clinton Cash Crushed By Facts As Author Admits He Has No Evidence Of Clinton Crimes

When pressed by This Week’s George Stephanopoulos, Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer admitted that he has no hard evidence to support his allegations.
schweizer-this-week
Transcript via ABC’s This Week:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you have any evidence that a crime may have been committed?

SCHWEIZER: Well, I think it’s — if you look at a couple of recent examples. For example, Governor McConnell down in Virginia, or you look at Senator Menendez, in these cases, you didn’t have evidence of a quid pro quo. What you had was funds flowing to elected officials, some of them gifts, some of them campaign contributions and actions that were being taken by those public officials that seemed to benefit the contributors.

Certainly, I think it warrants investigation. What that investigation will reveal, we’ll see.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But a criminal investigation?
SCHWEIZER: Well, we’ll see. I mean that’s what the Governor McConnell has faced and that’s what Menendez has faced.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the…
SCHWEIZER: And I think the evidence here is far more widespread in terms of repeated action than there were in those two instances.
STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, the Clinton campaign says you haven’t produced a shred of evidence that there was any official action as secretary that — that supported the interests of donors.
SCHWEIZER: Well…
STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action. And an independent government ethics expert, Bill Allison, of the Sunline Foundation (ph), wrote this. He said, “There’s no smoking gun, no evidence that she changed the policy based on donations to the foundation.”
No smoking gun.
Is there a smoking gun?
SCHWEIZER: Yes. The smoking gun is in the pattern of behavior. And here’s the analogy I would give you. It’s a little bit like insider trading. I wrote a book on Congressional insider trading a couple of years ago and talked with prosecutors.
….
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you have any evidence that she actually intervened in this issue?
SCHWEIZER: No, we don’t have direct evidence. But it warrants further investigation because, again, George, this is part of the broader pattern. You either have to come to the conclusion that these are all coincidences or something else is afoot.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And that — that is that — the Clintons do say it’s a coincidence. As they say, you have produced no evidence. And I still haven’t heard any direct evidence and you just said you had no evidence that she intervened here.
Stephanopoulos asked Schweizer for hard evidence, and the author immediately tried to change the subject. The This Week host kept asking the author for a smoking gun, and all he could provide was a “pattern of behavior.”
It became very clear during this interview that there is no evidence that would merit a criminal investigation. Schweizer could not produce the smoking gun because there is no smoking gun.
Schweizer’s attempts to connect the Clinton Cash allegations and the McDonnell and Menendez cases were flimsy and did not hold up to the gentlest of inspections. In Gov. McDonnell’s case, there was evidence the governor promoted the donor’s company as a result of illegal gifts and loans. Sen. Menendez was charged because federal prosecutors believe that a case can be made that the senator used his position to intervene in Medicaid billing disputes in exchange for campaign contributions.
Schweizer’s argument that the three cases are equal is simply not true. There is no evidence that any donors to The Clinton Foundation received special treatment from former Sec. of State Clinton, which is why the mainstream press is not pushing the Clinton Cash scandal.
One of the main allegations in Schweizer’s congressional insider trading book had to be retracted after his claim that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) committed insider trading was found to be factually incorrect and wrong.
The Washington Post and New York Times harmed their own credibility by attaching themselves to partisan conspiracy theory book that doesn’t measure up to the basic standards of journalism.
The Clinton Cash scandal will live on the ozone of right-wing conspiracy theories and conservative media, but there is no evidence to support these claims. ABC News can’t find it. The New York Times can’t find it. The Washington Post can’t find it.
By the end of the interview, Schweizer sounded like a conspiracy theorist, and it was clear that Clinton Cash is the latest in a long line of empty and time wasting right-wing conspiracies.
Clinton Cash has been crushed by the facts.