The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  

 

The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.

 
ALL Republicans are PATHOLOGICAL LIARS ... !

Today is - World Call Out Pathological Liars Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Buenos Aires, San Rafael, Argentina

Afogados da Ingazeria, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Florianopolis, Jundiai, Maraba, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Paulo, Brazil

Burnaby, Greater Sudbury, Montreal, New Liskerad and Ottawa, Canada

Santiago, Chile

Bogota, Colombia

San Salvador, El Salvador

Mexico City, Mexico

Lima, Peru

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Chula Vista, Devils Elbow, Ellicott City, Foothills Far, Gray Court, Horse Branch, Lake Havasu City, Mineral Springs andOregon City,United States

Montevideo, Uruguay

Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Europe

Minsk, Belarus

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Glavinitsa, Ruse and Sofia, Bulgaria

Zagreb, Croatia

Ceske Budejovice, Pardubice, Prague and Stare Mesto, Czech Republic

Tranbjerg, Denmark

Colney, London, Newcastle upon Tyne and Tronston, England

Boulogne-Billancourt, Cerny, Ivry-sur-Seine, Laval, Lyon, Paris, Roubaix and Rouen, France

Berlin, Gunzenhausen, Hamburg and Hurth, Germany

Marousi, Greece

Reykjavik, Iceland

Dublin and Waterford, Ireland

Altofonte, Brescia, Busto Arsizio, Milan and Rome, Italy

Riga and Ventspils, Latvia

Vilnius, Lithuania

Amsterdam, Den Haag and Voorburg, Netherlands

Gjerstad and Oslo, Norway

Gdansk, Lodz, Warsaw and Wroclaw, Poland

Costa de Caparica, Portugal

Timisoara, Romania

San Marino, San Marino

Edinburgh, Scotland

Moscow, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, Russia

Belgrade, Serbia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Lleida, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Spain

Akersberga and Gislovs Lage, Sweden

Neuchatel, Switzerland

Ankara, Turkey

Kiev, Ukraine

Wrexham, Wales

Asia

Beijing, China

Calicut, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pitampura, Pune, Shillong and Srivilliputtur, India

Jakarta, Indonesia

Seoul, Korea

Jarash, Jordan

Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and Sibu, Malaysia

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Bangkok and Hat Yai, Thailand

Africa

Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa

Carthage and Tunis, Tunisia

Lusaka, Zambia

The Pacific

Homebush and Melbourne, Australia

Cebu City, Makati and Manila, Philippines

Editorial Comment

With Bernie Sanders in the race now there will at least be a debate on the issues that Americans want.
OK, so the debate will be among thinking people which leaves out wingnuts, they will be spoon-fed their thoughts and ideas as always by their handlers.
Then again the wingnuts have proven and continually re-prove that they are not Americans so the point is moot.
The issues of inequality (social, economic, gender, etc.), a living wage, really better healthcare, fair taxation, campaign finance, building and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, military spending reduction (our military is more than double than the next 15 largest militaries in the world combined both in capability and spending - that is a text book case of overcompensation, folks - and more will all be up for debate.
With America's leftward foundation and leftward lean throughout it's history will be showcased during the race among thinking people. Progress has forever been more popular than regression and Progressive ideas and ideals are surging with even more popularity today.
Regressives (AKA: wingnuts) can't see this due to their mental illness and delusions of adequacy, to them their fondest fantasy is all rights and privileges to them and fuck everybody else in a dreamworld set against the backdrop of a 1950's era America that never existed.
And yes, it has been proven wingnuts are mentally ill and have a enlarged area in the brain that promotes fear - the only part of their brains that is 'enlarged' - so it shows why wingnuts are ever pushing fear ... that is all they know.
It has been postulated (sorry, wingnuts that's a big word) that this was a evolutionary/survival trait in early humanoids that has diminished over time as the use of fear to aid in survival has lessened to the point today that it isn't a need for as much fear for survival as was in the past.
That's evolution, so accordingly, the wingnuts don't believe it, which is further evidence for their arrested development -so when one labels wingnuts as 'Knuckle-Draggers', 'Troglodytes' and the like, they are only telling the truth and that is something the wingnuts don't like as well ... the truth. 

Have Fun and Enjoy

Hate ... The Republican Way

The Republican Way

What Bernie Sanders thinks about the issues: a comprehensive primer

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, now a presidential candidate, is the only socialist in Congress. But "he's a 'small S' socialist," professor Garrison Nelson of the University of Vermont told me last year. "He's not, 'Let's totally revamp the government, break up the corporations, create five-year plans.' He doesn't get out too far on an ideological limb."Sanders resembles many in the Democratic Party by criticizing the excessive influence of the wealthy. But he takes things much further, both rhetorically and substantively - he thinks checking the power of billionaires and corporations is the defining issue in US politics today. He's most interested in economic issues, from inequality to trade, and as a result he's won a devoted following among liberals who think their party too frequently carries water for the rich.
But while Sanders wants a single-payer health care system, a carbon tax, and much more government spending on infrastructure and benefits, he isn't an uber-liberal on everything. On social issues like abortion, gun rights, and gay rights, he is squarely within the mainstream of the Democratic Party - not to its left. And while he's suspicious of foreign wars, he voices sympathy with Israel's security concerns and warns of the dangers of ISIS. Here's a guide to his views.
Move to a single-payer health care system
[...]
Overturn Citizens United, publicly fund elections
[...]
Combat climate change with a carbon tax
[...]
Don't cut Social Security - expand it (by taxing the wealthy more)
[...]
More spending on infrastructure, less on defense
[...]
Don't tax the middle class more - they're already getting squeezed
[...]
Raise the minimum wage quite a lot
[...]
Supports immigration reform - but not guest worker programs for unskilled labor
[...]
Does not support drug legalization
[...]
Label foods with GMO ingredients
[...]
Supports more gun control - but hasn't always
[...]
Much more government funding for higher education
[...]
Less foreign policy interventionism
[...]
Stop the NSA's "out-of-control" surveillance
[...]
Supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage
[...]
Network neutrality is essential for free speech
[...]
Reform the Export-Import Bank
[...]

More

Reality is ...

... a concept Republicans cannot grasp

Republican Throws Temper Tantrum Because Republicans Can’t Impeach President Obama

by Allen Clifton

Since before Barack Obama ever stepped foot into the White House, Republicans have been trying to find ways to either prevent him from becoming president or remove him from the office he was overwhelmingly voted into by the American people twice.
From the ridiculous birthers who proclaimed that he wasn’t an American citizen, to those who believe his executive order on immigration is tantamount to treason, there has been no shortage of right-wing idiocy with conservatives crying about how Barack Obama should not be president.
Well, it seems the fact that the Republican cabal has been unable to remove President Obama from the White House has caused Paul Gosar to snap. The Republican from Arizona basically threw the equivalent of a temper tantrum when during a speech he suggested that Republicans should flat-out refuse to confirm anyone appointed by this president since they can’t impeach him.
“You may not be able to impeach a president,” Gosar said. “But boy I tell you what: remember, we have the right of advise and confer. Nobody gets confirmed. Nada. Nobody. None. I don’t care how good of a person you are. You’re not gonna get it.”
In other words, he’s extremely upset because there’s no logical or legal grounds for his party to remove President Obama – a man elected to office by the American people via guidelines our Constitution lays out – from power. These are literally some of the most immature and childish comments I’ve ever seen uttered by someone from the Republican party.
When you get right down to it, Gosar’s opinion that Republicans should refuse to confirm anyone appointed by this president isn’t based upon what’s best for the country or even the qualifications of the nominated person to do the job for which they need congressional confirmation, it’s entirely based on Gosar being upset that he’s not getting his way.
Gosar outright admitted, without shame, that it doesn’t matter how qualified the person might be for the position for which they’re seeking confirmation – it’s only about his desire to see his party play petty partisan politics because they’ve been unable to find any Constitutional or legal grounds to impeach this president.
Oh, and for the record, the House of Representatives doesn’t have anything to do with confirming presidential nominees. That’s a job that’s done entirely in the Senate.
So, while Gosar essentially has no say on whether or not the Senate will continue to confirm Obama nominees (to his credit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they would), his comments do showcase a tone among the Republican cabal that I’ve heard for years. Republicans don’t really care about governing, what’s best for this country or anything else – all they really care about is opposing practically anything and everything President Obama supports.
At the end of the day, they really do hate this president more than they love our country – if some of them even love it at all.

NY Republican Senate Majority Leader and son face arrest on corruption charges

Just another typical Republican - Corrupt to the core!

Corrupt Republican

***

Got to love that 'deer in the headlights' look he has above

Third World America: Manufacturing Jobs Return Because U.S. Workers Are Cheaper Now

The good news? Manufacturing jobs are returning to the U.S. The bad news? It’s only because our workers have gotten so cheap. Thank you, Republicans.

Read more 

Support America

Democrats Stand Up Speak Out And Link Republican Budget Cuts To Baltimore Unrest

Democrats tied the civil unrest around the country and in Baltimore directly to policy made in D.C., as they unraveled the cuts to Great Society programs in the 2016 GOP budget conference report during a conference call with reporters Friday.

The new Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), charged that the Republican budget is “same wrecking ball we’ve seen” will “wreak havoc”. Referencing the events in Baltimore, Chairman Butterfield continued, “There is definitely a relationship between budgeting in Congress and the .. civil unrest we are seeing across the country can be directly tied to poverty.”

“Black America is in a state of emergency, 1/4 live in a state of poverty, 1/3 of children live in a state of poverty… there is a huge disparity in this country between black, white and brown… In the city of Baltimore, they’ve lost 90,000 jobs in that community. The black unemployment is twice that of white unemployment.”

Chairman Butterfield concluded, “The civil unrest is a byproduct of poverty.”

“We need a new 21st century war on poverty rather than the war on drugs,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee.

The Democratic Congressman argued that “budgets tell a lot about our priorities” and “the Republican budget is stacked against working people, it really is not part of war on poverty but war on the poor.”

These are not just words. Van Hollen gave examples, “Look at the tax provisions. The child tax credit provision current law helps support lower income families. 67,000 people receive child tax credit in Baltimore. The Republican plan gets rid of increased refundability of the tax credit. 10,000 in Baltimore will loose the tax credit.”

To further his point, Van Hollen pointed out that the GOP budget cuts taxes for millionaires, just weeks after Republicans tried to eliminate estate taxes for estates over $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples, while at the same time cutting programs to help those in poverty like SNAP, Medicare, HeadStart, etc.

If voters were to make decisions based on things like policy instead of slogans, the Republican budget wouldn’t get too many takers. It is a vehicle designed to appease the to 1%, aka, the donors to the Republican Party. It’s fair to say that both parties cater somewhat to their donors, but the question that is left out of this equation is who are the donors. Are there a lot of individual people donations or is the party funded primarily by the top 1-2%. The answer to this question belies the “both sides do it” narrative.

The Democrats were confronted with conservative criticism of the Great Society programs by a reporter — basically, why should we make more of an investment in the Great Society programs since they clearly aren’t working? This is a great question. This is the kind of question that Republicans are so good at selling to the public. Notice that it doesn’t require any proof on their side, it uses the existence of poverty as justification to ignore poverty. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. It’s a bumper sticker slogan.

But this time, the Democrats came armed.

Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) challenged critics, “The fact that we haven’t eliminated poverty with social safety nets, let those who want to cut them show how that is going to make things better.” He scoffed, “The idea that the response should be to reduce the investments is absurd.”

Citing the President’s Economic Report that they say determined “40 million Americans would be in poverty if not for Great Society programs”, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chair of the Democratic Whip’s Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality and Opportunity and member of the House Committee on Budget, used herself as an example. She said, “If we had not invested in Great Society programs… we would have millions more living in poverty, and I cite my own self as an example. I was on public assistance and food stamps so I was able to go to college, start a business, run for office, and raise two children.”

“All of these initiatives that lifted people out of poverty, what we see is the Republicans cutting every initiative that has helped our communities,” Rep. Lee said. “It’s a shame to see a cut in food stamps …. and all of those initiatives started 50 years ago that helped many of us in Congress to move forward.”

Going back to events in Baltimore and Ferguson and around the nation, Lee said, “These are wake up calls. It’s our moral duty and moral responsibility to recognize that all lives matter, but that black lives matter also.”

Democrats are working hard to show the connection between policy and Americans’ lives. They aren’t the best at this sort of thing, but today they made significant progress in advancing clarity on the issues surrounding poverty. There is a direct connection between the people we vote for and the policies that trickle down into our communities.

Top cop in Freddie Gray case had guns confiscated, was hospitalized over mental health concerns 3 years ago

In 2013 Rice was ordered by a judge to stay away from his ex-girlfriend’s husband after reportedly threatening him.

Mentally ill cop

Bail set for charged Baltimore cops less than what was set for those arrested for rioting

All six police officers charged over the death of 25 year-old Freddie Gray have been released on bail, following a brief spell of detention at Baltimore’s central booking and intake center.

Joke bail set for charged Baltimore cops

Baltimore Police Union’s GoFundMe For Cops Who Killed Freddie Gray Fails Miserably

 

The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police attempted to raise money for the six officers who were arrested for the murder of Freddie Gray and failed miserably ...

Miserable Failure

Link Dump

Americans subsidize McDonald's and Wal-Mart's low wages to the tune of $153 billion a year

Bernie Sanders outraised cruz, rubio and paul in the first 24 hours of his campaign

Scientists may have an Alzheimer's break through

ALEC exposed

Cutting through the police propaganda in Baltimore

U.S. is 'world leader' in child poverty

The culture of violence among police

Is global warming a greater threat than terrorism?

Rand Paul isn’t a libertarian: criminal justice edition

With his comments on the protests in Baltimore, Paul’s transformation into a mainstream Republican is nearly complete.

Rand Paul is a criminal

Now Even Ted Cruz Says He’s Looking Into Whether Obama Is Invading Texas

The lunacy surrounding “Jade Helm 15,” a military training exercise set to take place in Texas (or so they say!) has officially hit a new low:...

Ted Cruz is insane

Hospital Told Dying Mom To Surrender GoFundMe Account Or No Kidney Transplant

Over the last few months there’s been a lot of talk about the poor Christian bigots who were prevented from raising money on GoFundMe. In spite of...

And the ASSHAT Award goes to ...

 

Topless Feminists Ruin French Fascist Leader’s Big Day

These French feminists just showed the world how to deal with wingnut bigots.

Read more 

What it’s like to escape an abusive, religio-wingnut religion

Sarah Morehead of the nonprofit group Recovering From Religion says leaving one's faith is like going on a "huge journey with no map."

‘I don’t believe this anymore'

Raped 10-Year-Old Denied Abortion

Just remember this is what the ignorant religio-wingnut teabagger republicans want here in the United States

by Nina Strochlic

Horrifying

The girl is pregnant after being raped by her stepfather but the government of Paraguay has refused to grant her an abortion, stating that her life is not in danger. Activists are arguing that “life is not only a matter of having a pulse."

A 10-year-old pregnant with her stepfather’s child will not be allowed to get an abortion because the government of Paraguay doesn’t believe that her life in immediate danger.
On April 23, the unnamed girl was reportedly checked into the hospital by her mother. She complained of stomach pains and tests showed she was already 21-weeks pregnant. Earlier this week, her mother apparently requested her daughter be given an abortion, and when it was revealed that her stepfather impregnated her, the mother was taken into custody.
Doctors requested permission to perform the procedure. In Paraguay, abortions can’t be performed in the case of rape or incest, and only if the government decides that a life is in danger. In this case they decided it wasn’t.
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), an international legal advocacy organization, has been collaborating with attorneys on the ground in Paraguay to fight the decision.
“They would not consider her health as a risk to her life?” says Paula Avila-Guillen, the Latin America and Caribbean advocacy advisor at CRR, about the government’s decision. “Life is not only a matter of having a pulse."
According to CRR’s information, the girl is under 70 lbs. and delivering a child could result in “permanent damage,” not to mention psychological issues.
“No 10-year-old is ready to be a mother. That will carry trauma for her whole family,” Avila-Guillen says. The risk of complications during child birth is exponentially higher in girls under 15—according to the World Health Organization maternal mortality is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls in developing countries.
“I don’t think anybody—you don’t need to be doctor or an advocate or even understand these issues—would realize a 10-year-old with a pregnancy as a product of rape is just completely inhumane,” Avila-Guillen says.
Punishment for illegal abortions can land a doctor, or even the woman herself, in jail for more than two years. As a result, the United Nations has reported upwards of 30,000 under-the-table abortions performed annually. According to CRR, as of Wednesday, the doctors were exploring other considerations to protect her health as petitions to approve the abortion had not garnered a response from the government, despite increasing international pressure.

“I don’t think anybody—you don’t need to be doctor or an advocate or even understand these issues—would realize a 10-year-old with a pregnancy as a product of rape is just completely inhumane.”

South America has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Abortion is against the law in all circumstances—even if a mother’s life is in danger—in Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. But CRR has worked on similar cases in abortion-restrictive countries, like Colombia and Chile, with success.
In the past, situations that garnered similar media attention have ended with the government accepting the demands of activists. But even a concession could come too late. Once a doctor decides a pregnancy is too far progressed for a safe abortion, there’s no choice but to deliver the baby. “Clearly a girl at such a young age doesn't have the capacity to be a mother. But even in cases where it’s too late, the role of advocates is to ensure some type of support,” Avila-Guillen says.
According to Amnesty International, which calls this case “tantamount to torture," the young girl has been transferred to a center for young mothers to be given neonatal care. "There is no indication that the health of the (girl) is at risk ... therefore we are not, from any point of view, in favor of the termination of the pregnancy,” Paraguayan Health Minister Antonio Barrios told CNN. "The Justice Department will determine later who will have custody of the mother and child after (the birth)."
Sadly, this case shares tragic similarities with another case being covered in local Paraguay news, of a 12-year-old girl impregnated by her father. Her stepmother saw signs of pregnancy and took her to the doctor, who confirmed it. The father is currently being held and could face 12 years in prison. What will happen to his daughter is not currently known.
“They think they’re allowing the right to life and they’re protecting basic life [with abortion laws],” Avila-Guillen says. “ But these restrictions are very harmful for women and girls—they not only affect their life, they affect their potential of the life they want to build. Access to abortion that should be granted and only discussed between women and doctors. If that had been the case she would not be in the news—she would not be exposed to all this.”