The Truth Be Told: 08/20/15

Thursday, August 20, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Liberal America Arising

More evidence that America is becoming more liberal can be found in a new poll that revealed growing public support for labor unions.

A new Gallup poll found that the nation’s approval of labor unions has jumped five points over the past year to a six-year high.

According to Gallup:

Americans’ approval of labor unions has jumped five percentage points to 58% over the past year, and is now at its highest point since 2008, when 59% approved. In the interim, the image of organized labor had suffered, sinking to an all-time low of 48% in 2009.

….

Consistent with the recent increase in approval of unions, the percentage of Americans saying they would like labor unions to have more influence in the country has also been rising, and now stands at 37%, up from 25% in 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage wanting unions to have less influence has declined from 42% to 35%, although it remains higher than it was from 1999 through 2008. Instead, fewer today say they want unions’ influence to stay the same.

The fact that the most liberal presidential candidate is attracting the biggest crowds is a symptom of a larger ideological shift that is growing in the United States. The Republican caused Great Recession has made the nation more open to liberal ideas.

The bedrock of wingnut economic ideology is a belief in the placing the individual ahead of the community. This belief is the driving force behind policies that have caused income inequality to skyrocket. The Great Recession has served as a reminder of the value of collective representation. As the rich are getting richer, the idea that workers can come together to increase their bargaining power is becoming more attractive.

President Obama’s presidency revived when he began discussing income inequality and getting the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in moral terms. Bernie Sanders is building a political army of ordinary Americans who are on a mission to make government work for regular folks instead of millionaires and billionaires.

The rising support for unions reflects a larger change in the country. The Republican economic arguments for trickle-down economics are increasingly falling on deaf ears. The United States of 2015 is not the same country as it was during the Reagan 80s and the Clinton economic boom of the 90s.

The number of people who want labor unions to have more influence outnumbers those who don’t. Americans are reacting to the Great Recession with a wave of liberalism that is set to wash Republicans out to sea.

Voter ID Laws

Because voting is, or should be, a fundamental right of adult citizens in the U.S., it would seem to me that if you want to require voter id at the polls, then it is the government's responsibility to make sure EVERYONE has free and easy access to voter id cards. Even to the extent that government reps go to a person's home to help them get the needed documents, if it's requested.

Study Proves Republicans Totally Wrong: Obamacare Doesn’t Kill Jobs

A new study from the Urban Institute proves that Republicans are wrong about Obamacare killing jobs.

The August 2015 study from the Urban Institute found:

„ We find that the ACA had virtually no adverse effect on labor force participation, employment, or usual hours worked per week through 2014. This conclusion is true for ACA policies overall and for the Medicaid expansions in particular, and it applies to the full sample of nonelderly persons and to the subgroup of nonelderly persons with a high school education or less who are more likely to be affected by the ACA. „

For nonelderly adults with a high school education or less, we find that employment in 2014 is 1.8 percentage points higher than what would be expected given the rates of unemployment, demographic characteristics and pre-existing time trends. This finding is inconsistent with predictions that the ACA would decrease employment. „

Also for nonelderly adults with a high school education or less, we find that part-time employment is higher than expected by 0.5 percentage points. This finding is consistent with some predictions that the ACA would increase part-time work, but may also reflect the continuing recovery in the labor market. This difference is sufficiently small, however, that we find no evidence of a change in the number of hours worked in 2014 and thus no overall change in labor supply beyond what would be expected. „

The ACA’s Medicaid expansions had virtually no effect on labor market outcomes through the end of 2014. This finding is consistent with the best available previous evidence, which suggests any effects of Medicaid expansions on employment are likely to be small.

Cruz has been falsely claiming for years that Obamacare is the biggest job-killer in America.

Boehner claimed that Obamacare will kill 2.3 million jobs:

Jindal has pushed the myth that Obamacare kills jobs, “Why not delay all of the mandates in Obamacare [which] has become such a job killer in our economy.”

In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a Republican who hasn’t embraced the false statements about the ACA and jobs. The reality is that every Republican, who claims that Obamacare kills jobs is lying. The studies and economic data agree that the ACA has had no impact on jobs.

Any Republican who claims that Obamacare kills jobs is not being honest. Instead of asking for Republicans to tell the truth, it’s time for the American people to confront them with the facts and ask why they don’t want us to have access to affordable healthcare.

Give'em Hell Bernie

Hillary Clinton Campaign Stands Up For Latino Immigrants While Slamming Trump and Walker

Hillary Clinton’s campaign called out both Walker and Trump for their positions of support for extreme anti-immigrant policies.

Hillary for America Latino Outreach Director Lorella Praeli said in a statement, “It is disturbing that Republican pretender candidates continue to embrace extreme anti-immigrant positions as core pieces of their immigration platform. While more Republicans are promoting policies that tear families apart, Hillary Clinton remains consistent in her position to defend President Obama’s executive actions and push for a comprehensive solution that includes a pathway to full and equal citizenship at the heart of any immigration reform plan.”

Trump’s immigration plan that in part gained the support of Walker is the exact opposite of a comprehensive solution. Trump’s plan was more pie in the sky race baiting that was designed to appeal to bigoted Republican primary voters.

What Walker, Trump, and the Republicans who support this scheme are ignoring is that any legislation to end birthright citizenship would be unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

The Fourteenth Amendment would have to be repealed for the Republican wet dream of ending birthright citizenship to become law. Republicans are costing themselves the 2016 election by supporting Trump’s overt racism. Every Republican that praises Trump’s plan is another nail in the Republican 2016 coffin.

Democrats have all been consistent in their support for immigration reform. If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, she has already pledged to continue, support, and defend the president’s executive orders on immigration. The odds of the next president getting to sign a comprehensive immigration reform bill remain slim, but the racist stance of immigrant hating Republican candidates has made it clear that the best chance for comprehensive immigration reform rests with electing a Democratic president in 2016.

Former Reagan And The shrub's Daddy Policy Advisor Says Trump Exposes Crazy and Stupid In The Republican cabal

Bruce Bartlett says policies don't matter for the Republican cabal, only attitude. "And Trump has exactly the right 'chip on your shoulder' attitude"…

Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience, or gives pleasure and delight. No matter what any American thinks of an already tiring 2016 presidential race, it is a form of entertainment; particularly on the Republican side of things. Of all the contenders on the Republican side, no candidate is more entertaining than Trump and obviously he is something much more than entertainment for his substantial base of support; and it is substantial according to polls. Whereas many conservatives are enamored with Trump for expressing the hateful hopes and dreams of typical teabaggers, corporatists, and racists, one conservative loves Trump for the same reasons establish Republicans want him out of the presidential race.

One well-known wingnut who served as a senior economic policy advisor in the shrub;s daddy's junta has a very interesting assessment of Trump’s performance and participation in the Republican primary; it is an invaluable service to the wingnut delusion. Bruce Bartlett said, “I love Trump because he exposes everything about the Republican cabal that I have frankly come to hate. It is just filled with people who are crazy, and stupid, and have absolutely no idea of what they are taking about. And the candidates, no matter how intelligent they may be, just constantly pander to this lowest common denominator in American politics;” crazy, stupid, racist and religious to the dangerous extreme.

Just a few weeks ago, Bartlett penned an op-ed in which he said what many political commentators have said for months: “The Trump phenomenon perfectly represents the culmination of populist anti-intellectualism that became dominant in the Republican cabal with the rise of the teabaggers. I think many Republican leaders have had misgivings about the teabaggers since the beginning, but the short-term benefits were too great to resist. A Trump rout is Republican moderates’ best chance to take back the Republican cabal. I think the problem is obvious and Trump is pointing this out. Among other things, one of the things that we are seeing very clearly this time more than any other year is that issues don’t matter. Policies don’t matter. The only thing that matters is attitude. And Trump has exactly the right ‘chip on your shoulder’ attitude that many, many people find extraordinarily attractive that is completely divorced from whatever he is saying about the issues, which is precious little.”

Now, although Trump is revealing the insanity, stupidity, and extremism rampant in the Republican base according to Bartlett, a moderate Republican, another noted wingnut and advocate for the Koch brothers delusion despairs that Trump still exists in the pretender race; because of the national exposure he is providing the significant extremist lunatic fringe wing among wingnuts. A typical Koch wingnut hack, George Will, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post explaining why he (and the Kochs) want Trump thrown out of the Republican pretender primary. Besides exposing how wingnuts feel about democracy, even in their own primary process, Will reveals that he understands the cabal’s base loves Trump because his extremist positions represent the Republican cabal and greatly jeopardizes their theft of the White House ambitions.

Will wrote that, “A political cabal has a right to secure its borders. Indeed, a cabal has a duty to exclude interlopers, including cynical opportunists deranged by egotism. This is why closed primaries are defensible: Let cabal members make the choices that define the cabal and dispense its most precious possession, a pretender nomination. The republican national coven should immediately stipulate that subsequent Republican debates will be open to any and all — but only — candidates who pledge to support the cabal’s nominee.” Remember, this is the Republican delusion and not only is there no room for, or tolerance of, dissenting opinions, all policy decisions and talking points are the purview of the Koch brothers and the religio-wingnuts. Obviously, Trump is not clearing any of his extremist statements with the Kochs or the cult; likely because he is aware his extremism comports with a majority of the Republican base.

George Will all but assigned the duty of “excommunicating” Trump from the cabal to an imaginary wingnut icon who will write an “excoriating” denunciation of Mr. Trump to frighten him into leaving the pretender primary immediately. Will writes that to rid the Republican primary process of Trump, “wingnuts should deal with Trump with the firmness (William F.) Buckley dealt with the John Birch Society in 1962. The society was an extension of a loony businessman who said Dwight Eisenhower was ‘a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.’ In a 5,000-word National Review “excoriation” (Buckley’s word), he excommunicated the society from the wingnut delusion.”

As an aside, it is indeed fascinating that Will used the John Birch Society (JBS) as comparison to Trump. Although the group “may have been” excommunicated from the wingnut delusion in 1962 with a lengthy National Review screed, for the past six years the John Birch Society (Koch brothers) have controlled every aspect of the wingnut delusion; it is exactly why Trump is so popular with the extremist Republican base. Incidentally, the businessman George Will said accused Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower of being a “conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy” was none other than John Bircher Fred Koch; Charles and David Koch’s father.

As a one-time noted wingnut senior policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and the shrub's daddy, Republican Bruce Bartlett has been a thorn in the side of Koch Republicans since 2009 when he began harshly criticizing new President Barack Obama. Republicans hated the idea that a staunch Reagan and shrub Republican would criticize the new President because he was too fiscally conservation and stingy with economic stimulus and infrastructure spending and way too focused on deficit reduction; especially in the midst of a Republican recession. Bartlett has made several calls for extremely substantial government investment (trillions of dollars) in public work projects and infrastructure improvements, and condemned Republicans for blocking what he labelled “woefully inadequate funding requests” from the President for programs to create “millions of real jobs” and begin a seriously robust economic recovery. Bartlett has also infuriated Republicans because he is a staunch advocate against tax cuts for anyone because they reduce government revenue.

Since the Koch brothers created the teabaggers, establishment Republicans embraced the “crazy” that is causing despair among so-called moderate wingnuts who recall a less-absurd movement. Now that Trump is bringing the level of absurdity among the base onto the national stage, and other Republicans are struggling to out-crazy the Donald and vie for the base’s support, one wingnut is taking “pleasure and delight” because entertaining or not, he celebrates that Trump is exposing the “crazy and stupid” that is the Republican cabal and defines the wingnut delusion. For a secular humanist, it is refreshing to finally see an establishment Republican admit what most semi-conscious Americans and several scientific studies have known for six years; the Republican cabal is full of “crazy and stupid people with no idea what they are talking about.”

Trump’s Racist Immigration Plan Would Wreck The U.S. Economy

Trump’s immigration plan is not only racist. It would also devastate entire sectors of the U.S. economy.

The Trump plan essentially calls Mexican immigrants money sucking criminals and demands that Mexicans pay for the construction of a wall along the Southern border, “Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options]. We will not be taken advantage of anymore.”

Trump also wants to end birthright citizenship, and his plan is loaded with bogus claims that immigration lowers wages.

The Trump plan is loaded with racism. Trump is trying to turn white workers against Hispanics. The United States has a long and ugly history of racism towards immigrants. Trump was trying to tap into that dark vein with his “policy document.” The problem is that his plan is a fairy tale.

Trump’s plan would gravely harm the U.S. economy.

The Hill reported in 2014, “According to the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, there were 8.4 million unauthorized immigrants employed in the U.S.; representing 5.2 percent of the U.S. labor force (an increase from 3.8 percent in 2000). Their importance was highlighted in a report by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs that stated, “Without the undocumented population, Texas’ workforce would decrease by 6.3 percent” and Texas’ gross state product would decrease by 2.1 percent. Furthermore, certain segments of the U.S. economy, like agriculture, are entirely dependent upon illegal immigrants.”

In 2012, The US Department of Agriculture found that reducing the supply of immigrant labor in farming would decrease US GDP by 1%. In 2009, the National Milk Federation warned that milk prices would increase by 61% if the immigrant labor force were eliminated.

Contrary to the bogus claims of Trump’s “policy paper,” undocumented immigrants add more to the economy than they take out. According to the American Immigration Council, “The unauthorized, like everyone else in the United States, pay sales taxes. They also pay property taxes—even if they rent. At least half of unauthorized immigrants pay income taxes. Add this all up and it amounts to billions in revenue to state and local governments. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has estimated the state and local taxes paid in 2010 by households that are headed by unauthorized immigrants. These households may include members who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. Collectively, these households paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.”

Trump’s plan, which conservatives are hailing as just what they have always wanted, would raise prices on consumers, lower the supply of labor in key sectors of the economy, and potentially plunge the country into another recession. What the Republican praise for Trump reveals most is that many conservatives are willing to destroy the economy to feed their racism against people of color.

Trump’s immigration policy would be an absolute disaster for the United States if it were ever enacted.

Walker Crushed As Hecklers Hit Him With The Truth At The Iowa State Fair

Scott Walker was crushed and booed by hecklers as he tried to tout his union-busting record at the Iowa State Fair.

When Scott Walker talked about his “achievements” in Wisconsin, he was met with jeers and boos. After a man held up a sign that read, “DON’T LET SCOTT WALKER DO TO AMERICA WHAT HE DID TO WISCONSIN, ” Walker tried to play the tough guy and claim that he would not be intimidated, “I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there. I will fight for the American people over and over and over and over again. You want someone who’s tested? I’m right here.”

By fighting for the American people, Walker meant fighting so that they don’t have access to healthcare, can’t get a job, and if they have a job, don’t earn a living wage. Walker will also fight to make sure that children are denied a quality education, and college is out of reach for most students.

That is kind of fighter Scott Walker has been for Wisconsin.

Walker’s pretender campaign has lost all momentum as he has fallen back to the middle of the 2016 Republican pack, so his campaign tried to turn a crushing embarrassment into a positive.

It is ironic that Walker would try to make political hay out of attacking unions on the same day that a new Gallup poll revealed that support for unions has risen to a six-year high.

Walker’s pretender campaign appears to have peaked in January, but that doesn’t mean that the working people of this country are going to let him off the hook for the way he has mistreated the workers and residents of the great state of Wisconsin.

Violent Republicans Attack Peaceful Protestors At Walker’s Iowa Fair Speech

by Shannon Argueta

Liberals are constantly talking about how violent members of the Republican cabal can be when they are confronted with uncomfortable truths, and they proved just how right we are on Monday morning at the Iowa State Fair.
Struggling Republican cabal pretender candidate Wisconsin's idiot Scott Walker made his appearance at the Iowa State Fair’s Soapbox and flipped out on protesters in the front row. Unfortunately for Walker, those protesters happened to be Addicting Info proprietor Matthew Desmond and two of his friends, Aaron Black and Khalil White.
Matthew explained what happened to him and his friends as they stood peacefully protesting Walker in the front row:

“I was holding up [a] sign, wasn’t yelling at him, but he was screaming at us and his supporters attacked us.”

A picture of the sign Matthew Desmond was holding when he was attacked.

Matthew went on to say:

“We [he and Aaron Black] were both attacked and had our signs ripped up. I kept pulling out more from my pocket and one guy attempted to climb on a hay bale and dive bomb me. They pushed my friend Khalil White, who has a torn meniscus in his knee, and ripped up his sign. Then they pushed me over, at one point, onto a woman in a wheelchair.”

He shared a picture of their main attacker, he can be seen in the picture below:

Matthew said that the man attacked him multiple times and tried to physically restrain them, for peacefully protesting a moron that has been nothing short of destructive for Wisconsin. Walker has made it his mission to screw over the working class citizens of his state and he is proud of it!
So what did Walker do while his violent fans attacked peaceful protesters? Why, he yelled at them too!
Walker said:

“I will not be intimidated. I will fight for the American people over and over, and over, and over again. We will not back down. We will do what is necessary.”

Walker has never done anything to “help” the American people. He has only hurt them with his pro-business agenda and big money policies. He claims that they will do what is necessary, does that mean attacking peaceful protesters who are practicing their First Amendment rights? Is that what he feels is necessary?
Sorry, Walker, we don’t want any of what you have to offer.