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Sunday, June 7, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Climate Change Could Cause Changes In The Ocean That Haven’t Been Seen In 3 Million Years


After Ruling That McDonald’s Can’t Pay Workers In Bank Cards, The Bank Pays Up


A lawsuit over payroll debit card fees charged to McDonald's workers in Pennsylvania has prompted a major Wall Street bank to do something unusual: give money back voluntarily.

According To Polls Real Americans Are Socialists Like Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders sex essay meet the press
Most Americans should understand that a ‘label’ is an identifier, or more aptly put a word or short phrase that describes someone or something. Republicans are real big on labels, and they have had a fair measure of success improperly labeling “socialism” as any policy or agenda that does not enrich corporations and the wealthy, spend half the budget on the military, or create greater numbers of poverty level Americans. To be fair, America does have one purely ‘socialistic’ program in the Veterans Administration, but other than that one agency, America is the epitome of anti-socialist.
In its basic form, socialism is simply organized society in which all major industries and financial institutions are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and corporations. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont self-describes himself as a ‘democratic socialist,’ but there is not only nothing ‘socialistic’ about his policies, those he does espouse are supported by the majority of Americans that likely rail at the idea they are socialists. It is why he is having a measure of success creating a grass roots movement and may have even more if he did not self-label as a socialist.
The reason Sanders is unlikely to win the nomination for president is because only 31% of Americans “react positively” to the word socialism. However, among 18 to 29-year olds, about half view socialism favorable and only 47% see capitalism as a good thing. Still, even with the ‘socialist’ label, Senator Sanders’ policy positions enjoy a great deal of support among the population and it should not only frighten Republicans, it should, and is, pull Hillary Rodham Clinton farther to the left; the left that twenty years ago was decidedly Centrist. One thing is clear; even as a self-described socialist, Sanders’ views on ‘key political issues’ are more in line with mainstream Americans’ opinions of, expectations for, and demands of government.
Senator Sanders’ concept of tax reform is the reverse of Republicans, and what they say Americans demand, and believes the system overtly favors the rich at the expense of the government and rest of the population. Sanders believes the rich do not pay nearly enough in income taxes and recently supported returning to the 90% tax rates established during Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower administration. Socialist moniker or no, a February poll revealed that 68 percent of voters said wealthy households pay far too little in federal taxes. Voters also agree with Sanders’ policy, and legislation that cracked-down on offshore tax havens for the rich and corporations. Sanders’ bill required corporations to pay the top corporate tax rate on profits they hide offshore. Interestingly, a stunning 85 percent of business owners favor closing all overseas tax loopholes in their entirety and 68 percent of the public agrees that the government should “close any and all tax loopholes for large corporations that ship jobs offshore.”
Americans also closely align with self-described ‘socialist’ Sanders on campaign finance. Senator Sanders rails against Citizens United and has a called for a constitutional amendment that would effectively prevent corporations from making political donations and buying the government; he also support public funding of elections. Although most Americans think corporations should have a very limited right to make political donations, over half say ban all political donations from individuals and private groups and shift to a government-funded system; only 44 percent of voters oppose such a law.
Sanders believes, like many Americans, that “Instead of cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and nutrition programs, we should be expanding these programs.” Many polls reveal that majorities of voters, including Republican voters, demand that Social Security is expanded and a poll last year showed that even Republicans in red states want Medicaid expanded. Most Americans also support expanding nutrition and housing programs. A poll conducted last year showed that even voters in red states want to expand Medicaid. In a January 2015 poll, it found that over 50 percent of likely voters agree with Sanders and support a single-payer healthcare system.
On regulations, a surprising sixty-four percent of Americans agree with Senator Sanders and strongly support regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, factories and cars to reduce global climate change; they also support a federal law requiring utilities to generate more power from low-carbon sources. Americans are not, as Republicans claim, in favor of deregulating banks or abolishing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. In fact, a substantial majority of Americans agree with Sanders that big banks “are too powerful to be reformed and must be broken up.” A recent survey revealed that 58 percent of voters agree with ‘socialist’ Sanders and support “breaking up big banks.”
It is almost a no-brainer, but over 63 percent of Americans completely agree with Sanders that it is imperative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour “over the next few years.” Americans want the minimum at $15 an hour by 2020. What is surprising, and should worry Koch Republicans in Congress and states, is that Senator Sanders support for legislation guaranteeing that workers can form and join a union is favored by 53 percent of Americans. In fact, that 53 percent actually “supports a new law that would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers.”
It is glaringly obvious that for regardless the reason Senator Sanders self-labels himself as a “democratic socialist,” or whatever negative connotations that label socialist has according to constant harping by Republicans, most Americans support Mr. Sanders’ policies. Of course the truth of the matter is there is nothing, nothing whatsoever, in any of Senator Sanders policies that are remotely ‘socialistic,’ and he may enjoy even greater success if he would just drop the label and be what he, and most Americans really are on social and legislative issues; liberal.
Republicans have for too long enjoyed success by labeling progressives, liberals, secularists, and indeed, Democrats as some kind of anti-American monsters. However, the more people like Senator Sanders, and by force of public opinion Hillary Rodham Clinton, expose their popular policy positions as “good for all Americans” and America, the quicker the Republican label machine will be exposed for what it really is; contrary to the popular will of most American people.
Bernie Sanders sex essay meet the press

Poll Finds 80% Of REPUBLICANS Agree With Bernie Sanders On Citizens United

bernie-sanders-rubio
Sen. Bernie Sanders is often characterized by the media as an out of the mainstream presidential candidate, but a new CBS/New York Times poll revealed that 80% of Republicans agree with Sanders on the issue of getting money out of politics.
The CBS/NYT poll found that:
– 80% of Republicans believe that money has too much influence in our politics.

– 54% believed that most of the time candidates directly help those who gave money to them.

– 81% of Republicans felt that the campaign finance system needed fundamental changes (45%) or a complete rebuild (36%).
– 64% are pessimistic that changes will be made to reform the campaign finance system.
– 71% want to limit the amount that individuals can give to campaigns.
– 73% felt that super PAC spending should be limited by law.

– 76% thought that superPACs should be required to disclose their donors.

All of these positions are held by Bernie Sanders, and the opinion of the majority on each question is the exact opposite of the reasoning used by the majority of the Supreme Court in the Citizens United decision.
Where Republicans differ from the rest of the country is that a substantial number (48%) believe that money is free speech, and they believe that both parties benefit equally (62%), but among those who picked a party that benefited more, they felt that Democrats (24%) benefited more from the current campaign finance system than Republicans (6%). Fifty-five percent of Independents and 53% of Democrats felt that money is not free speech. Fifty-two percent of Democrats believe that Republicans benefit more from the current system.
In 2012, Sen. Sanders laid out why Citizens United is the threat to our representative democracy:
This is unprecedented and it is the most savage attack against American democracy, and the concept of one person, one vote that we have seen in our lifetime, and what it is is saying if you are a billionaire, you can buy elections. You can by politicians, and by the way, on the floor of the Senate, on the floor of the House, you can intimidate members, because you will be saying to them if you are going to vote against Wall Street, or the insurance companies, or the military industrial complex, you just do that, and we’re going to have millions of dollars in thirty-second ads in your state this weekend.”

So this whole effort to put huge unprecedented unbelievable amounts of money is the one percent saying look, we’re not content that the top one percent owns forty percent of the wealth. We want more. We want more. We want more, and we’re going to buy the political process to get what we want. So this is the worst assault on the basic democratic traditions which have made our country great that you and I have seen in our lifetimes, and what it means, we have to overturn Citizens United. We have to pass a disclose bill, disclosure legislation next month, which at the very least forces these CEOs to get on television when they do a negative ad, and say I approve this message, and it forces us to know who is contributing.
Overall, 84% of Americans agree with Bernie Sanders that money has too much influence in U.S. politics. Seventy-five percent favor donor disclosure and 77% favor limiting contributions.
Hillary Clinton and President Obama also favor getting the money out of politics, but both of them have been forced to raise huge sums of money in order to be competitive.
Bernie Sanders isn’t as far out of the mainstream as the media likes to believe, and it is also clear that mainstream America wants their country back from the billionaires who are attempting to take it over.

NSA Critics Get A Historic Win As Senate Passes USA Freedom Act

patriot-act-congress
History was made, as the Senate voted 67-32 to reform a key provision of the Patriot Act by scrapping the NSA’s controversial phone metadata collection program.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could only sit and watch as three proposed amendments that his critics called poison polls withered and died. The passage of the USA Freedom Act has been a foregone conclusion for weeks, but McConnell tried to manufacture a crisis to force the passage of a full extension of some key Patriot Act spying powers. The Senate Majority Leader’s strategic blunder left him trapped in a quagmire between Rand Paul and his Democratic opponents.
The Patriot Act has long been a blight on civil liberties, but the degree of victory for NSA critics is debatable. The reforms in the USA Freedom Act are fairly modest. The metadata phone collection program is gone, but it has been replaced by the phone companies collecting the data, which only requires a warrant for a government search. It is better than nothing, but far from the sweeping reform that some are making it out to be.
It is important to remember that the data is still collected. The only difference is where it is being stored.
Senator Bernie Sanders made this point when he announced that he would be voting against the bill:
We must keep our country safe and protect ourselves from terrorists, but we can do that without undermining the constitutional and privacy rights which make us a free nation. This bill is an improvement over the USA Patriot Act but there are still too many opportunities for the government to collect information on innocent people.

This is not just the government. It’s corporate America too. Technology has significantly outpaced public policy. There is a huge amount of information being collected on our individual lives ranging from where we go to the books we buy and the magazines we read. We need to have a discussion about that.
The victory is history because it is the first one of its kind, but your data is still being collected, and it will only take a piece of paper to give the government the ability to search it. Hopefully, the USA Freedom Act is the first step towards full repeal of the Patriot Act.

$8.5 Trillion Missing From Pentagon Budget

Report Reveals $8.5 Trillion Missing From Pentagon Budget Gee, I wonder if Republicans will be as worried about this as they are about food stamp users' shopping choices.

Fox News Now Just Reads RNC Talking Points On Air

Fox News Now Just Reads RNC Talking Points On Air (VIDEO)
Fox News is the propaganda arm of the Republican National Cabal and they’ve stopped pretending otherwise.

Paranoid Wingnut Loses His Mind — Thinks The US Army Just Invaded Michigan

Paranoid Wingnut Loses His Mind — Thinks The US Army Just Invaded Michigan (VIDEO) The paranoia that’s occurring in Texas surrounding Jade Helm 15 seems to be seeping in to other parts of the nation. Now, a man in Michigan is fairly...

Clueless Scott Walker Gets The Patriot Act Wrong While Lying About President Obama

obama-walker
During an appearance on Fox and Friends, Scott Walker (R-WI) got the status of the Patriot Act wrong and launched into a new big lie while blaming President Obama for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s crushing defeat on renewing provisions of the Patriot Act.
Walker was asked about the USA Freedom Act being a step back for national security, and he said, “Well, a step back would be doing nothing, so I certainly prefer this over nothing. I just think going forward that it’s another example of the failure of this president to lead. This is an example where the president could lead. Could have used the bully pulpit to tell the American people how important it is to make sure that we have the information to prevent another terrorist attack out there, and this is one of the many tools that we need to do that. I hope that in the future we’ll reestablish the Patriot Act.”
Walker was wrong. The Patriot Act hasn’t gone anywhere. Congress did not repeal the Patriot Act. They tweaked one data collection program in a section of the Patriot Act. Gov. Walker doesn’t understand that the Patriot Act doesn’t need to be “reestablished.” It is still here.
Secondly, President Obama proposed the reforms contained in the USA Freedom Act eighteen months ago. This wasn’t a case of failed leadership because Congress passed the bill that the President supported. Walker’s attempt to blame President Obama for Mitch McConnell’s failure to extend the Patriot Act was nothing less than a complete lie.
Scott Walker was inventing his own reality on Fox News. The Wisconsin governor made the whole thing up because when in doubt, blame Obama. Gov. Walker has repeatedly proven that he is in way over his head. Walker’s intellect does not match his ego and ambition. Where Walker excels is in telling Republican voters exactly what they want to hear.
When one really listens to what Walker is saying, the emperor has no clothes. Behind Walker’s rhetoric is an empty man who devoid of ideas. In other words, Scott Walker might be the perfect presidential candidate for the empty Koch controlled Republican Party.

This Asshole Just Called President Obama A Terrorist During House Session

This Congressman Just Called President Obama A Terrorist During House Session (VIDEO)
This is utterly abhorrent…

Wingnuts Furious That Clinton Thinks Black People Should Be Able To Vote

Conservatives Furious That Clinton Thinks Black People Should Be Able To Vote (VIDEO)The wingnuts are apoplectic that Hillary Clinton wants black people to have an easier time voting.


Ann Coulter Wants To Deny Citizenship To Blind People & People In Wheelchairs

Ann Coulter, who is on a media tour promoting her new anti-immigrant book “Adios America,” called in to Simon Conway’s talk radio show in Iowa yesterday, where the two got to discussing citizenship requirements and naturalization ceremonies. Coulter told Conway that she was appalle... MORE

We Now Know Two Of Dennis Hastert’s Victims

We Now Know Two Of Dennis Hastert’s Alleged Victims (VIDEO) One by one, it seems, the people at the highest levels of the impeachment of Bill Clinton, are guilty of sexual misconduct at levels far beyond anything...

6 Reality Show Ideas That Would Exploit The Rich And Help The Poor

Despicable Fox News Gives The Duggars A Primetime Special To Cover Up Child Molestation

duggars-foxFox News has managed to go even lower than giving Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar a favorable interview. The network is giving the Duggars an hour-long primetime special to explain away why they covered up their son’s child molestation crimes.
Fox’s Megyn Kelly made it very clear that she planned to softball the Duggars in an interview that will air at 9 PM ET on Wednesday.
Video:
On Monday, Kelly said, “I’ll take that reputation as a tough but fair journalist. However, this isn’t going to be a cross-examination of a family. It’s going to be an interview. I want to hear their story. And I think America wants to hear their story now.”
Kelly followed up her admission that the interview was going to be a Duggar rehab job by running a segment on Tuesday’s programming asking whether the police chief who released Josh Duggar’s arrest record should be fired.
Fox News isn’t going to be satisfied with giving Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar a platform to explain away child molestation. Fox is giving the Duggars an hour-long primetime special from their home in Arkansas to try to whitewash away the scandal. The Washington Post reported, “A portion of that interview with Megyn Kelly will air Wednesday evening with a one-hour special scheduled for broadcast Friday.”
Fox News has gone beyond being the home for brainwashing Republican misinformation and transitioned into a becoming a network that defends a child molester and his abuse covering up parents. Megyn Kelly and Fox News are going to allow the Duggars to play the victims. Forget about the little girls, that Josh Duggar molested. The real victims are Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar because their television show has been taken off the air.
Be prepared for lots of liberal blaming and self-pity from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The Duggars covered up their son’s crimes by not going to the police, but to a state trooper family friend who was later sentenced to fifty-six years in prison on child pornography charges. Instead of holding the Duggars accountable for why they didn’t stop their son from molesting children, Fox News is going to portray the Duggars as heroes who have been persecuted by liberals and the media.
Fox News is happily playing a role in helping the Duggars minimize the sexual abuse of children, which is why Fox News is just as repulsive as Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
The Duggars are trying to keep 19 Kids and Counting on the air. You can tell TLC to cancel the show by signing our petition.

‘Final act of patriarchy’

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar at Starbucks - Duggar Family Facebook
Twitter erupted in a din of unified rage on Wednesday night in reaction to Megyn Kelly’s televised interview with members of the Duggar family on Fox News. During the interview with Kelly, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar admitted they knew their son Josh Duggar had molested several of their daughters, but described Josh’s actions as “inappropriate touching” and “nothing like rape.” Jill and Jess Duggar, two of Josh’s younger sisters, announced on air they were among their brother’s […]

Scott Walker: Women are only concerned with rape and incest in ‘initial months’ of pregnancy

Wisconsin governor, a Republican who is expected to run for president in 2016, says he is prepared to sign into law a 20-week abortion ban without exceptions

Texas family beat 14-year-old rape victim for six hours to induce an abortion

Crime scene (Shutterstock)
The young girl told police she became pregnant after a sexual assault by a family member but was too embarrassed to report it to authorities.

Pastor’s lawyer says underage girl probably lying about rape: ‘She consented 6 times after that’

Former youth pastor Daniel Jack (WPXI/screen grab)
Court documents filed against 31-year-old Daniel Allen Jack of Amplify cult alleged that the youth pastor first met the victim in December 2014 when she joined the cult youth group.