Political Truth.
Whether you like it or not.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to the Sunday Edition of The Truth Be Told.
Our latest comment:
It is important you keep telling the truth about the lunatic fringe.
~ Mason Lemon
Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
The Truth Be Told is read in 205 countries around the world.

Republican hate women, so they will NEVER appreciate a wife  ... !
Today is - Wife Appreciation Day
 
Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Chile - Ecuador - Nicaragua - Peru - Puerto Rico - United States
Europe
Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Czech Republic - England - France - Germany - Hungary - Italy  Latvia - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Portugal - Russia - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia  Spain - Sweden - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Burma - China - India - Indonesia - Japan - Kazakhstan - Korea - Pakistan - Taiwan
Africa
Algeria - Morocco - South Africa
The Pacific
Australia - Philippines

Non Sequitur

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/GkzoY_deRlF1TuDqjnKARQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9MTk1O3B5b2ZmPTA7cT03NTt3PTYwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/nq150915.gif

5 Ways Liberals Are Much More Constitutional Than Wingnuts

by Allen Clifton
I’ll admit, this article is a direct result of a back and forth debate I had this afternoon with a wingnut. This debate centered around this person’s belief that wingnuts are people who support “Constitutional values,” while liberals are constantly trying to undermine our Constitutionally protected rights.
So I decided I’d list my top five ways that liberals are much more Constitutional than wingnuts.
In no particular order, let’s get started.
1) Religious freedoms: This is the one that often irritates me the most when it comes to wingnuts. They really can’t mentally grasp the concept that “freedom of religion” means that no American can be forced to have another person’s religious views placed upon them. Liberals actually believe in true religious freedom. As in, keep religion private and out of public policy. Simple, right? Let people practice their religion (any religion, or no religion at all) as much as they’d like, just as long as it’s done so privately. You know, where it cannot be forced on other people. That’s true religious freedom. The right for myself, or any other American, to live our lives as we want, without someone else’s religious views being forced upon us. Wingnuts are constantly trying to assert that “religious freedom” means that they have the right to pass laws which force their religion on other people. Forcing people who don’t subscribe to a particular religion to follow laws based on that religion isn’t “freedom of religion” – that’s religion by force. In other words, it’s completely unconstitutional.
2) Women's rights: This one is really simple. When the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade it gave women the right to have an abortion – end of story. Any attempt to infringe upon that right is unconstitutional. Which is exactly what wingnuts are constantly trying to do. Hiding their attempts to ban abortion clinics under the guise of “protecting women’s health” is laughable.
3) Equal rights: I’m not quite sure how this is even an issue. Seriously, in this day and age, how are we’re still having to fight for equal pay for women and equal rights for homosexuals? Well, because Republicans continue to vote against legislation that protects women in the workplace, while supporting laws that would make discriminating against gay Americans legal. The rule here should be crystal clear: If a straight, white 'christian' male is given a right - everyone should have that same right. That’s the thing about every American’s right to “equal rights” – you can’t pick and choose which Americans you want to give them to. Although wingnuts are constantly trying to do exactly that.
4) Voting rights: Long ago, some people attempted to keep certain people (typically people of color) from voting by requiring tests or charging a “poll tax” in order to vote. These were clear attempts to discourage these particular people who might want to exercise their Constitutional right to vote from being able to do so. Well, since Republicans can’t flat-out prevent people from voting, they’re now passing strict new voting laws that make it more difficult for many Americans to vote. But it’s “okay” because these laws aren’t meant to discourage people from voting; that would be unconstitutional, you see. No, no. These laws are meant to combat rampant voter fraud – a problem that doesn’t actually exist. Liberals want to make voting easier, and more accessible – while wingnuts are trying to make it more difficult and discouraging.
5) Obamacare: A fairly new one, but still a constant. It’s rare that you can bring up the Affordable Care Act to a wingnut where they don’t go on and on about how “unconstitutional” and “socialist” the health care law is. The law was passed by Congress, signed by the president and upheld by the Supreme Court – it’s Constitutional. In fact, outside of a full-on Constitutional Amendment, you don’t get much more “Constitutional” than the Affordable Care Act.
***
If you look throughout all of these subjects, you’ll notice a common trend. When it comes to wingnuts, it isn’t about what’s actually Constitutional, but what they wished was. Wingnuts will frequently go on and on about how much they love our Constitution – up until it supports something with which they disagree. Then they have absolutely no problem doing everything they can to prevent Americans from being given those rights.

The National Voting Machine Crisis Is Upon Us - And It's Affecting Elections

Athena Image

Stephen Colbert asks Justice Breyer about TV ban: ‘Why can’t we watch you?’ The government can watch us

Justice Stephen Breyer and Stephen Colbert (YouTube)
Stephen Colbert asks Justice Breyer about TV ban: ‘Why can’t we watch you?’ The government can watch us

O'Reilly Tries To Ambush Bernie Sanders And Fails

Senator Bernie Sanders hasn't wanted to visit The O'Reilly Factor often enough. So O'Reilly decided to try and embarrass him with an ambush interview. But, O'Reilly's the one who came out looking foolish.

Obama Calls Republican Behavior Un-American While Slamming Republican Cabal Immigrant Bashing

obama republicans unamerican immigrant bashing
President Obama is speaking his mind, and he isn’t holding anything back. The President took Republicans to task during a town hall in Iowa for their un-American immigrant bashing behavior.
The President said:
And this whole anti-immigrant sentiment that’s out there in our politics right now is contrary to who we are. Because unless you are a Native American, your family came from someplace else. And although we are a nation of laws and we want people to follow the law, and we have been working — and I’ve been pushing Congress to make sure that we have strong borders and we are keeping everybody moving through legal processes — don’t pretend that somehow 100 years ago the immigration process was all smooth and strict and — that’s not how it worked.

There are a whole bunch of folks who came here from all over Europe and all throughout Asia and all throughout Central America and all — and certainly who came from Africa, who it wasn’t some orderly process where all the rules applied and everything was strict, and I came the right way. That’s not how it worked.

So the notion that now, suddenly, that one generation or two generations, or even four or five generations removed, that suddenly we are treating new immigrants as if they’re the problem, when your grandparents were treated like the problem, or your great-grandparents were treated like the problem, or were considered somehow unworthy or uneducated or unwashed — no. That’s not who we are. It’s not who we are.

We can have a legitimate debate about how to set up an immigration system that is fair and orderly and lawful. And I think the people who came here illegally should have the consequences of paying a fine and getting registered, and all kinds of steps that they should have to take in order to get right with the law. But when I hear folks talking as if somehow these kids are different from my kids, or less worthy in the eyes of God, that somehow they are less worthy of our respect and consideration and care — I think that’s un-American. I do not believe that. I think it is wrong. And I think we should do better. Because that’s how America was made — by us caring about all our kids.
Logic and facts have no impact on Republicans, so maybe calling out their racism disguised as fake patriotism will have an impact. President Obama was correct. Republicans aren’t engaging in a legitimate debate. A debate on immigration policy has been replaced by a furthering of the centuries old ugly American tradition of immigrant bashing.
Obama is speaking his mind. The rhetoric that Republicans are engaging in is an attempt to hide the real source of the nation’s problems. Republicans are blaming immigrants to hide their role and responsibility for the nation’s problems. As Bernie Sanders said, “It was not undocumented people in this country whose greed and recklessness on Wall Street drove us into the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. It wasn’t undocumented people in this country who got us into a war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into. It wasn’t undocumented people in this country who gave huge tax breaks to billionaires and are fighting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And I think they’re being used as a punching bag, and I resent that.”
The Republican behavior is embarrassing and very un-American. Luckily, we have a president who will not allow the promotion of hatred and bigotry without pushing back.

Republicans Enraged As Obama On Track To Completely Eliminate Deficit By 2017

One of the most hurtful lies that Republicans hurl at President Obama is the false claim that he is responsible for the ballooning of our nation’s national debt. It is especially grating to know that couldn’t be further from the truth, since President Obama was forced to inherit George W. Bush’s colossal deficit and has made incredible strides to get it back to manageable levels. Since Obama took the presidency, he has cut our national deficit in half– and it is possible that within the next two years, he could get rid of it entirely. Bush, the so called “fiscal conservative,” put two enormously costly and wasteful foreign wars on proverbial credit cards while the profits went to private companies like Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and slashing taxes on corporations and the wealthy, depriving our economy of millions in needed revenue. Bush managed to turn the Clinton surplus into a staggering $1.4 trillion deficit by the time Obama came into office in 2009- some 9.2% of our nation’s GDP. By September 2014, through a brutal recovery period, Obama had already cut the deficit in half:
deficits
Projections for this upcoming year have already been revised to cut a further $60 billion than what was projected in March, putting our deficit at $426 billion- a far cry from the $1.4 trillion he started with. The Congressional Budget Office reported that “this year’s deficit will be noticeably smaller than what the agency projected in March, and fiscal year 2015 will mark the sixth consecutive year in which the deficit has declined as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) since it peaked in 2009.”
At this rate, by being able to set the budget for the first year of the next president, President Obama is in a strong position to follow in the footsteps of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, and completely eliminate the federal deficit, cementing a new tradition of Democrats upholding the values of fiscal responsibility that the Republicans now pretend to uphold. Many things will need to go right for him; a big test is quickly approaching as the rebellious “Freedom” caucus of legislative terrorists, led by the idiot Cruz (R-TX), plan to force a shutdown standoff over Planned Parenthood funding. But President Obama has proven very able in the past at balancing the need to spend while reducing the government, and we have no doubt that he will be able to make this hope a reality.

The Republican Assault On The American Fabric Started With Him

by Egberto Willies
Lewis Powell Powell MemoThis may sound like a hyper-partisan article. It is not. It is based on actions by Republicans of all stripes that are verifiable and quantifiable. All Americans are being played irrespective of party affiliation. Republican leadership and political sidekicks are the masters of the game, the citizenry the pawns.
Republicans have never been known as a party fighting for the poor or the middle class. They have never been known as a party that believed in a social safety net. The problem for Republicans is that 90+% of Americans fall into that category.
The level of intolerance by the GOP is incomprehensible until the strategy is understood. It is easy to dismiss comments by a few. However when it becomes a chorus line that is perfectly synchronized, it becomes a strategy.
Republicans balk when one speaks about the Republican war on women, war on the poor, war on the environment, war on gays, war on minorities, and many other select micro wars. They don’t want these wars called out. And the reality is these should not be called wars at all. It is much too simplistic.
It is a war on democracy. How do you win a war on democracy when there are many more subjects than you? You fight many battles. So the battle against the poor, the battle against women, the battle against gays, the battle against minorities, the battle against education, and any other micro battle to keep the subjects occupied is the modus operandi. It does not matter if in the process a few of the battles are lost. After all their eyes are on the ball, the destruction of a functional democracy.
It was all in the Powell Memo
This week I interviewed Jeff Clements, co-founder of Free Speech for People, and author of Corporations Are Not People about corporate personhood and the Citizens United ruling. In that interview he brought up the Powell Memo. Read the memo in its entirety. It gives the necessary perspective.
The Powell Memo illustrates the fear that Lewis Powell, a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of varies corporations had for the masses. Powell was subsequently confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.
Powell lays out the game plan. The Powell Memo is a plan that was forward looking. It is a plan that so far has been well implemented. How did they do it?
The success of the Powell Memo is in the ubiquity of its implementation.
They created think tanks responsible for dispersing misleading information with a false cloak of authenticity. The Heritage Foundation is a classic example of this. They took control of the airwaves to disperse misleading information (e.g., talk radio, Fox News, CNBC, etc.). A relenting Chamber of Commerce uses corporate monies to bully policy and politicians that squeeze the masses (e.g., support for free trade agreements, outsourcing etc.).
They infiltrated college campuses with directed research for planned outcomes. They infiltrated the elementary and secondary schools’ textbook evaluation process to attempt Right Wing indoctrination. They used graduate business schools to indoctrinate students on an irresponsible form of capitalism. They flooded the country with books and paid advertising promoting their message. They continue to destroy unions.
The implementation has been successful thus far. The problem is that in Powell’s days there was no Internet. There was no way to form disjointed communities in mass that could rise up when knowledge was not controlled in a top down manner. A new tactic had to be added. This new tactic is not new. It is the war to divide and conquer.
The current strategy is simply a modification of the Powell Memo to achieve the same result.
If one keeps a community, a city, a country in a constant state of disarray or chaos, it is easy for the subjects to take their eyes off real problems. That is the same tactics use in countries where a functioning Plutocracy reigns like Panama and many ‘third world’ countries around the world. Underlying human behavior is the same throughout the world. The world then becomes the testing ground for successful suppressive tactics. The successful ones are effectively being used against Americans now.
All the little battles described above occurring at the same time are nothing more than death by a thousand cuts. Americans are so busy trying to survive, fighting these culture battles and sub-class battles that they are unable to fight what really ails. What ails is the Plutocracy Powell’s memo aimed to preserve. The Republican assault on the fabric of America is but that implementation.

North Carolina Wingnut Refers To Obama As An “Islamic Son Of A Bitch” On Facebook Page

http://i0.wp.com/www.politicususa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Speciale-Facebook-post.jpg?resize=652%2C365
Republican lawmakers aren’t known for their civility towards President Obama, but North Carolina wingnut Michael Speciale sunk to new depths by posting a meme that referred to Obama as an “Islamic son of a bitch.” The offensive meme shows a mock conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama. In the apocryphal exchange Netanyahu unloads on Obama, stating:
Look you Islamic son of a bitch, unless you give all your land back to the native indians (sic), don’t pretend to lecture Israeli’s about our borders when you can’t control your own. Do you know why ISIL doesn’t fuck with Israel. Mr. President? It’s because they know we don’t have a problem calling them Islamic Terrorist’s (sic) and killing every one of them. Now are you going to do something about them or should Israel show you how it’s done because you are too much of a coward and the most piss poor excuse for an American President in your Great Nations (sic) history.
The insane wingnut, who represents North Carolina’s 3rd House District, shared the meme, which plays into a lot of wingnut false narratives about Obama being a muslim, being a weak leader, and the United States being inundated by illegal immigration. None of those narratives are backed by evidence. However, in the wingnut bubble, ideology trumps evidence as evidenced by Trump’s popularity, despite running a campaign built on a foundation of insults and lies.
Taking a page from the Trump play book, after a news article pointed out Speciale’s Facebook post, the lunatic wingnut doubled down on attacking President Obama. Rather than apologizing for spreading the offensive meme Speciale defended it, by whining:
I find it interesting how many liberals pretend that they are offended by this post, yet they have no problem with Obama repairing the rent fabric of this nation. These same folks didn’t appear fazed when some of the most honest facts were being stated by their fellow liberals at the shrub! It must also be a slow news day, since they think this is a story today. Obama will end up as the best President in history, and it will be a result of his performance, and none of my Facebook posts can be blamed!
Politicians have every right to criticize the president’s policies if they disagree with them. In a functioning representative democracy, contentious debates over policy are sometimes necessary, and an exchange of competing ideas can be healthy. However, the modern Republican cabal isn’t interested in debating policy differences. They are merely engaging in the politics of division and derision, because they hate the president. Speciale, like so many other present day Republicans, is a sorry excuse for a representative of the people. His constituents should demand better, and vote him out in 2016.

Lunatic Fringe Wingnut Teabagger Slams McConnell, Ramps Up Shutdown Fight

Tbbsiivo58ile62yfbxbA lunatic fringe wingnut teabagger eager to dethrone Boehner (R-OH) is ratcheting up the pressure for a shutdown battle over Planned Parenthood that neither Boehner nor McConnell (R-KY) want and are trying desperately to avoid.

The Truth Hurts

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/XnU2W.bjQlfNy5E1866MqA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9NDMzO3B5b2ZmPTA7cT03NTt3PTUwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ucomics.com/tt150914.gif

Wingnuts File To Impeach EPA Head For Trying To Protect Environment

Republicans File To Impeach EPA Head For Trying To Protect Environment
The head of the EPA made the mistake of using science during her testimony in front of a room full of Republicans.

How Republicans Made Climate Change America's Most Divisive Political Issue

Once Wasn’t Enough So Senate Democrats Humiliate McConnell Again By Blocking Iran Deal

senate-democrats
McConnell tried to threaten Senate Democrats into supporting the resolution of disapproval of the Iran deal, and Democrats responded by handing the Senate Majority a second humiliating defeat.
Before the vote, McConnell a.k.a. The Great Obstructor demanded that Democrats stop blocking the Iran deal resolution of disapproval, “This debate should not be about a President, who will leave office in 16 months. It should be about where our country will be in 16 years….This is an important moment for the Democrat Party. But more importantly, it’s an important moment for our country. Let’s stand up for the people we represent. Let’s allow them a vote on one of the most consequential foreign policy issues of our age.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that nothing is going to change. The Senate vote from last week was going to stand, “The outline he just gave has nothing to do with intellectual credibility. The agreement that was finalized last week dealt with one subject and one subject only. Whether or not Iran should have a nuclear weapon and the answer was resoundingly no.”
McConnell thinks that he is scoring political points by getting Democrats on the record as supporting the Iran deal, but the reality is that McConnell was grandstanding while the clock continues to tick towards a government shutdown. Democrats had shown no signs of division. No one was changing their mind.
McConnell’s second Iran disapproval resolution vote was a complete waste of time. The Senator from Kentucky could not muscle the resolution through the first time, and he only made Democratic support for the deal more resolute.
After McConnell had made his announcement, Harry Reid returned to the Senate floor and listed all of the times that McConnell required 60 votes for legislation to pass. Reid said that McConnell forced Democrats to file cloture more than 600 times by blocking final votes on legislation.
McConnell’s next move is going to be to file an amendment that would prohibit President Obama from removing sanctions until Iran recognizes Israel’s right to exist and releases American prisoners that are being held in Iran. While the nation has no budget, McConnell continues to worry more about saving his failing majority in 2016 than passing real legislation.
Democrats stood up to McConnell’s threats and sent a strong message that they will not be bullied by Senate Republicans.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters explains Trump’s appeal to wingnut voters: ‘He is pig-ignorant’

Pink Floyd Pig at BPS 2011 (Flickr/Jonathan Rhodes)
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters asserted this weekTrump’s recent popularity in the Republican pretender race was based on “American exceptionalism gone crazy.”

Here's What China's Residents Think Of Trump's Obsession With Their Country

As He Faces Prison Time Perry Blames Democrats For His White House Bid Flop

rick perry indicted blames democratsPerry is blaming Democrats for his spectacular pretender campaign crash and burn while ignoring the fact that he is under indictment for felony abuse of power.
Perry blamed Democrats on Fox News’s Hannity.
Perry said, “We knew that there were two things we had to take care of. Two things that had to go away if you will, and another thing that needed to happen. One of those was the indictment. The indictment by the Travis County district attorney’s office, this drunk DA that had used this office, we think, for political purposes did the same thing to Tom DeLay. Lasted for ten years. The other thing that we knew had to happen. We had to be on the main debate stage on August the sixth. We missed by just a few percentages of one point, so when those two things didn’t happen it had a very negative impact on our fundraising through the summer.”
Perry went on to blame Democrats for the indictment. He said, “The political opponents, they did their damage. They let that be a real corrosive effect on the process.”
Perry’s felony abuse of power indictment carries a potential prison sentence of 5-99 years, but he is blaming Democrats for the fact that he abused his power as governor in an attempt to force a district attorney to resign. Perry attempted to use his veto power to withhold funding from the Public Integrity Unit in order to force a county district attorney to resign.
Republicans call themselves the cabal of personal responsibility, but Perry is taking no personal responsibility for his behavior. It is impossible to take Republicans seriously when they talk about personal responsibility when they take zero responsibility for their own behavior.
Here is a news flash for Perry. If he had not abused his power as governor, he wouldn’t be under indictment. The failure of his pretender campaign is tied to decisions that he made as governor.
With his attitude of whining and blaming others, Perry isn’t going to last long behind bars when he gets convicted.

Small-town Pennsylvania Mayor Seeks To Challenge Toomey

Small-town Pennsylvania Mayor Seeks To Challenge Sen. Pat Toomey
Driving his candidacy, he said, is the same issue that drove him to be mayor: inequality in things like opportunity, health care and "the air that we breathe."

Kristol Would Rather Support Cheney As Third Party Candidate Trump

Aw, HELL NO!
Bill Kristol Would Rather Support Dick Cheney As Third Party Candidate Than Trump
Kristol breaks with Republican orthodoxy and says he'll support Cheney as a third party candidate if Trump wins the nomination.

Fiorina Did GREAT Job With Hewlett-Packard ... Too Bad It Was In Iran.

Maybe the demon sheep did it
So here’s a thing: You know how, on her first day in office, Fiorina would call the Supreme Leader of Iran and tell him the nuke deal is off? If that happens (it won’t), chances are good the Supreme Leader’s transcript of that call would be printed with a Hewlett-Packard printer, since while Fiorina was CEO of HP, the company “sold hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of products to Iran through a foreign subsidiary, despite strict U.S. export ...

Fiorina's New Ad: Cowardly And Hypocritical, With A Splash Of Limbaugh

Fiorina's New Ad: Cowardly And Hypocritical, With A Splash Of LimbaughThis Fiorina ad is an exercise in hypocrisy and cowardice.

Hans von Spakovsky turns absentee ballot fraud into something it isn’t

Hans von Spakovsky, via LBJ Foundation / FlickrHans von Spakovsky turns absentee ballot fraud into something it isn’t
Photo ID requirements don’t prevent absentee ballot fraud, which is prohibitively difficult to mass-produce.

Emily Blunt Told To 'Leave Hollywood' By 'Fox And Friends' Hacks

Like anyone cares what the hacks at Fox think or say ...
Athena Image

Tide’s New Commercial Hilariously Mocks Kim Davis And Anti-Gay Bigots Everywhere

Tide’s New Commercial Hilariously Mocks Kim Davis And Anti-Gay Bigots Everywhere (VIDEO)Religio-wingnuts will never buy Tide again after seeing this commercial!

Remember Operation Jade Helm, A.K.A. Obama’s Military Takeover Of Texas?

Featured image by United States Army. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/82nd_Airborne_Division#/media/File:Army_M14_Sage_Stock.jpg
How could we totally forget that Obama tried to take over Texas?
Read more 

Oh Look, Not-Joe The Not-Plumber Hasn’t Vanished Up His Own Asshole Yet

Sadly, no longer available for saleRemember that “Joe” the “Plumber” guy who was briefly a wingnut 'hero' because, like Chauncey Gardiner, he was a simple man who spoke simple truths (Obama’s a SOCIALIST and TAXES WILL CRUSH MY DREAMS)? Turns out that once you get on the wingnut gravy train, you’re free to say any damn thing you want, and people will listen, even if your 15 minutes were up in 2008. Samuel Wurzelbacher, who failed to turn his moment of fame into either a punditry career or ...

Wingnuts caught half-naked in car admit trying to smear cop who busted them

Two more married Midwestern wingnuts are having to apologize for sneaking around behind their spouses’ backs and having a fling.

Are You A 'Christian'? ... Feeling Repressed?

Here Are 7 Ways To Tell If You Are Really Being Persecuted
This is actual persecutionCertain groups of American 'christians' whine that they are being persecuted.
They have no idea what persecution really means. Here’s a handy list they can check.