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Sunday, November 22, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of The Truth Be Told.
Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
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These Infographics Show Why Historians Voted Dumbya The Worst POTUS EVER

There have been some pretty horrible presidents in American history. If you haven’t heard, historians voted that the shrub ...

The Republicans Are Shredding Obama, But Here Are 11 Times They Said It Was Unpatriotic To Criticize The President

It might surprise Republicans, especially the wingnut primary candidates, to learn that our military is deployed and engaging hostile enemies in both Iraq,...

Maybe ...

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Bernie Sanders Hammers Wall Street And The Rigged Economy With Two New Tough Ads

bernie sanders new ads
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is hitting Wall Street with a double barrel of truth via two new political ads that will begin running in New Hampshire and Iowa.
The ad “Works For Us All:”
In the ad, Sen. Sanders said, “If you’re doing everything right but find it harder and harder to get by, you’re not alone. While our people work longer hours for lower wages, almost all new income goes to the top 1 percent. My plan: Make Wall Street banks and the ultra-rich pay their fair share of taxes. Provide living wages for working people. Ensure equal pay for women. Together, we can make a political revolution and create an economy and democracy that works for all.”
The second ad is titled “This Is How It Works:”
Sanders said, “The truth is, you can’t change a corrupt system by taking its money. It’s called a rigged economy, and this is how it works. Most new wealth flows to the top 1 percent. It’s a system held in place by corrupt politics where Wall Street banks and billionaires buy elections. My campaign is powered by over a million small contributions from people like you who want to fight back.”
Sen. Sanders is putting the money raised by his 800,000 small donors to work spreading the message that America’s corrupt campaign finance system is the mechanism that is allowing income inequality to grow. If elected officials are accountable to their big donors instead of voters, the government stops belonging to the people.
The Bernie Sanders presidential campaign is dangerous to Wall Street and the billionaires because they aren’t owned by big money donors. Sanders doesn’t belong to the billionaires, which means that he is free to speak the truth. The truth is that our current political system is being corrupted by outside money and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
These ads can inform the public and for that reason Wall Street and billionaire oligarchs should be very afraid.

Proof Of Republican Failure: 9 of 12 States With Highest Unemployment Are Misled By Republicans

red state unemployment
New state unemployment statistics revealed that the fastest way to sink an economy is to vote for Republican candidates.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “North Dakota had the lowest jobless rate in October, 2.8 percent, followed by Nebraska, 2.9 percent. West Virginia had the highest rate, 6.9 percent. In total, 20 states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 5.0 percent, 12 states and the District of Columbia had measurably higher rates and 18 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.”
Here are the 12 states with a higher than the national average unemployment rate of 5.0%:
1). West Virginia (D) (6.9%)
2). Alaska (R) (6.4%)

3). Arizona (R) (6.1%)
4). Louisiana (R) (6.2%)
5). Nevada (R) (6.6%)
6). Alabama (R) (5.9%)
7). Georgia (R) (5.7%)
8). New Mexico (R) (6.8%)
9). Mississippi (R) (5.9%)
10). North Carolina (R) (5.7%)
11). Oregon (D) (6.0%)
12). California (D) (5.8%)
States with Republican governors tend to lag behind the national economy. The fastest way for voters to kill economic growth is to vote a Republican into office. The one thing that the Republican states on the list all have in common is that they have implemented the failed wingnut economic policy of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
To the surprise of no one, cutting taxes for those at the top in these states has not resulted in the magic job creator fairy raining jobs down from the skies on to the hard working people below. Republican economic policies do not create jobs.
The country is watching the Republican pretender candidates promise to use the same policies that are failing at the state level if they get into the White House. The struggles of red states to perform at the level that President Obama has national economy humming at should be a red flag for voters.
President Obama has righted the economic ship, and the fastest way to sink the boat would be to let Republicans steer the country straight into the trickle down iceberg.

Republicans Are So Detached From Reality, They Think Unemployment Has Risen Under Obama

The unemployment rate has not only dropped since Obama took office, it has dropped dramatically.…
Obamas jobs bill
A Bloomberg Poll released on November 19th found that a majority of Republican voters believe the unemployment has risen during Barack Obama’s presidency. According to the poll, 53 percent of Republican voters erroneously think the unemployment rate is higher now than when Barack Obama was first inaugurated in January of 2009. Only 38 percent of Republican voters correctly understood that the unemployment has dropped during Obama’s presidency.
The unemployment rate has not only dropped since Obama took office, it has dropped dramatically. When Barack Obama took the oath of office in January 2009, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent. It rose to 10.0 percent by October of that year, as the full impact of the 2008 economic crisis took hold and caused massive job losses in the U.S. economy.
However, since October of 2009, the unemployment rate has dropped sharply, and by October 2015 it had fallen to 5.0 percent. After the Bush economy fell flat on its face, Barack Obama has put Americans back to work again, and the nation has enjoyed a modest recovery.
Republican voters however, live in an alternate reality. They are so resistant to the idea that America isn’t on the road to ruin, that they refuse to see any good news so long as Barack Obama remains in the White House. Their frustration with the current president however is rooted in ideology not in genuine suffering. Republicans can believe what they want to believe, but they should never confuse their beliefs with the truth.
With the wingnut base so detached from reality, it is little wonder that they have rallied behind Trump’s “make America great again” slogan. Republican voters have lost sight that Barack Obama is already making America great again, rebuilding it from the economic destruction wrought by the policies of the shrub.
The wingnuts refuse to accept reality. They want to believe Barack Obama is a terrible president who has caused Americans untold suffering. They want to believe that unemployment has risen with Obama at the helm. However, this nightmare is a figment of Republican voters’ collective imaginations. The unemployment rate has dropped under Obama’s leadership, and even if Republicans can’t acknowledge that reality, the rest of us know its the truth.

Republicans Reeling As ObamaCare Opposition Is Crumbling In Red States

Obama-Smile-full-side-feat
The red states are the backbone of the Republican cabal, but growing evidence suggests that opposition to ObamaCare expansion is falling apart in the wingnut stronghold.
The Hill reported:
Vitter (R-La.) has expressed openness to Medicaid expansion if he was elected governor of Louisiana on Saturday, and his Democratic opponent, John Bel Edwards, has been an enthusiastic supporter of expansion as well.
More recently, there was surprising news out of Alabama, as a commission appointed by Republican governor Robert Bentley recommended expansion. Bentley said earlier this month that he is “looking” at the possibility of broadening Medicaid.
“What is going to happen is that support for Medicaid expansion will continue to build,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell told Atlanta Magazine in an article published Monday. “You hear the Alabama governor. You’ve heard conversations in Louisiana.”

Supporters of Medicaid expansion hope that if they can get a foothold in the South, other states will follow.
Republicans run on repealing the ACA, when behind closed doors, they are closely examining ways to expand Medicaid. There are two dynamics driving the change. The clock is ticking towards the 2016 deadline for the federal government to foot the entire bill for Medicaid expansion, and the program has not caused the apocalypse that Republicans predicted.
Even the math-challenged Deep South Republicans understand that they are giving up hundreds of millions of federal dollars for an ideological position on healthcare reform has lost. Signs are growing within all levels of the Republican Party that there are elements of the ACA that have popular support. The idea that the republican cabal will ever throw away the entire Affordable Care Act is more election year posturing than reality.
Republicans are trying to save face by doing it “their way,” but President Obama has won. Time and persistence are wearing down the last bastion of ACA opposition.

Republicans Launch New Offensive to Take Down Donald Trump

A team of establishment Republicans is hatching plans for a “guerrilla” offensive against Trump before the business mogul gains any more steam at the Iowa caucus on February 1.

Trump's Rivals Take Collective Aim, Sparking A Torrent Of Trump Tweets

Not only do they want to defeat Trump, they want to suppress the vote to make that happen.



Childish ...

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President Obama Drops Refugee Truth Bomb on Republicans in Epic Twitter Storm

Democratic Rep Walks The Walk After Republicans Challenge Him To Take In A Refugee

Image via TwitterIt’s not hard to make Republicans look like foolish bigots. Just ask Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton.

Maddow BLASTS Trump’s Blaming Media For ‘Muslim Database’ Blowback And It Is GLORIOUS

Rachel Maddow is an absolute godsend for liberals as far as media personalities go. On Friday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow...

Cruz Blows The ‘Obama Secret Muslim’ Dog Whistle

Obama Vows U.S. Will Help Refugees ‘As Long As I Am President’ — Wingnuts Go Insane

Obama Vows U.S. Will Help Refugees ‘As Long As I Am President’ — Conservatives Go Insane (VIDEO/SCREENSHOTS)
When Obama promised that refugee children will have help as long as he is President, conservatives showed that they have no humanity.

Reality ...

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The Dalai Lama Drops The Mic On Everyone Who Wants A Holy War Between Islam And The West

The Dalai Lama Drops The Mic On Everyone Who Wants A Holy War Between Islam And The West
Finally, a religious leader who has the courage to say it like it is.
Read more 

Biden Blasts Syrian Refugee Haters In Weekly White House Address

Vice President Joe Biden delivered the White House weekly address, and took on the hate being directed at Syrian refugees. Biden outlined the national...

Time to Stop Republican Fearmongering

by Senator Barbara Boxer 
 Senior Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Ted Cruz
When Donald Trump said he would not rule out special identification cards for Muslims, I got the chills. It took me back to when I was a child, and I learned that Jews were forced by the Nazis to wear the Star of David on their clothing.

Muslim Marine Masterfully Bashes Trump by Posting His Military ID Badge: ‘Where’s Yours?’

Remember ...


Peggy Noonan Sorely Disheartened By Obama, ISIS, Ne’er-Do-Well Ruffians

O grief! O agony! She had known a great deal of both in her time, had Sister Peggy Noonan of the Order of the Ketamine Martini. She wandered Fifth Avenue, the street of dreams...

Huckabee says Obama will make us memorize the Koran after Mali terrorist attack

The wingnut candidate responded to Friday’s terrorist attack in the West African nation of Mali with a non sequitur about something President Obama never said.

Eating Their Own: Jeb, Kasich Slam Trump For Nazi-esque Plan For Muslims


Eating Their Own: Jeb Bush, John Kasich Slam Trump For Nazi-esque Plan For MuslimsWell, at least Jeb and Kasich don’t plan to turn America into the new Nazi Germany.

Twenty Facts About Muslims For Wingnut Idiots

Featured image credit: wikimedia commons via Nabila Engagement.
Author Zul from Brunei Darussalam. cc 2.0
Here are twenty facts that expose the ignorance of wingnut anti-Muslim hysteria.
Read more 

The Shadows of a New American Fascism

Carson Gets The Ridicule He Deserves From Bill Maher, And It’s Glorious

Sometimes in life you run into a political candidate who thinks they can do no wrong. That they can walk on water. It just so happens that in this crop...

Koch Spy Agency Targeting Progressives Led by Notorious Republican Voter Fraud Huckster

Koch’s Justice Reform Proposal Restricts Prosecution For Environmental Violations


The Kochs want to pollute with impunity by simply claiming they were unaware that it was a federal violation to poison the air and water…
Corporate crime
Equality has never really caught on in America regardless the concept is ensconced in the nation’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution. One area that has come under increasing scrutiny over the past couple of years is the inordinate number of poor and people of color who are incarcerated at an incredibly higher rate than the rest of the population. In part, it is due to America’s inherent racism, and in part because there is big money and serious profit-taking in the nation’s penal system.
Now though, an unlikely alliance between the Koch brothers, the White House, Democrats, and the Kochs’ agitator network; the latter who have portrayed themselves as altruistic benefactors of the imprisoned by promoting major criminal justice reform “to unshackle millions of poor and people of color from a predatory legal system.” However, like everything connected with the Kochs, there is an ulterior motive behind their activism driven by a new and effective means of skirting environmental regulations with impunity under the guise of “criminal justice system reform.”
Neither the Koch brothers, ALEC, nor House Republicans are concerned about reforming the criminal justice system to relieve people of color or the poor from judicial inequality. They want the system reformed for corporations, the wealthy, and the Koch brothers. Like every piece of legislation, or “reform package” involving Koch-Republicans, there are hidden provisions to ensure that the Kochs and corporations get precisely what they demand; impossible “legal hurdles” to prevent federal prosecutors from pursuing white-collar criminals.
Apparently the Kochs have concluded that since they have been unsuccessful thus far in their significant attempts to eliminate federal regulations and laws, especially environmental regulations, they tasked “their Republican Congress” with passing legislation to neuter the judicial system’s ability to prosecute violators.
There is nothing whatsoever altruistic about the Koch’s alleged pursuit of fairness or justice in promoting criminal justice reform. It is just a “get out of jail free” card courtesy of Republicans and no small number of naïve Democrats motivated out of compassion to put a stop to judicial inequality. Time will tell if Democrats or the President can eliminate the Koch-corporate amendments hampering prosecution for serious crimes against the American people.
A House Judiciary Committee’s early draft of one proposed package of reforms substantially raises the legal threshold for prosecutors to prove a person committed a white-collar offense. The House bill will abandon a very basic precept in American law that no person can claim they did not know, or understand, that what they were doing was illegal or dangerous. If the legislation is enacted, it will require that the government “proves that the defendant knew, or had reason to believe, the conduct was unlawful;” in other words, prosecutors would be required to prove they could read a defendant’s mind at the time of their crime.
According to the president of Public Citizen, Robert Weissman:
The House language violates the basic precept that ‘ignorance of the law’ is no defense. There is absolutely no reason for the otherwise laudable criminal justice reform bill to contain any measure to weaken already feeble standards for corporate criminal prosecution.”
Of course there is no reason in a democracy to create a different set of legal standards for the rich and corporations than the rest of the population, but America is hardly an equitable society. But it is noteworthy that the Kochs directed Republicans to slip “fine print” protecting corporations into judicial reform heavily touted to protect the poor and people of color.
Some Americans may be aware that the Koch’s state-level legislative arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has spent no small amount of Koch, NRA, and Chamber of Commerce funds working on “criminal justice reform” in the states, but this latest push at the federal level is aimed directly at environmental regulations. In fact, nearly all Koch-funded, anti-regulation belief tanks have been extremely active issuing documentation and papers demanding that since Republicans control Congress and cannot abolish regulations outright, the next best thing is enacting more robust requirements to even prosecute violations, much less get a white-collar (corporate) conviction.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, Peter Carr, said if the Koch criminal justice reform ever becomes law that it will seriously undermine the DOJ’s ability to prosecute white-collar crime. Mr. Carr said,
It would create confusion and needless litigation, and significantly weaken countless federal statutes; especially those that play an important role in protecting the public welfare… protecting consumers from unsafe food and medicine;” it would also be the next best thing to eradicating federal regulations. It is precisely what the Heritage Foundation and Charles Koch Institute have clamored for and Congress is seriously on pace to give the Kochs what they expect for their money; results.
The Koch brothers and their conservative allies claim that federal prosecutors have far too much power and too readily abuse it; it is what normal people regard as doing their jobs. This has nothing to do with a racial justice agenda or anything close to civil rights activists focused on police and prosecutorial abuses of the criminal justice system; this is entirely about the Koch-corporate community focusing on neutering government regulations.
Heritage Foundation’s legal studies director, John Malcolm, wrote that
If somebody or some entity unwittingly does something that results in harm to the environment or public, there is no reason why it cannot be dealt with through the administrative or civil justice systems. This would avoid saddling blameless individuals and entities with a criminal conviction.”
It would also allow the Kochs to pollute, dump toxic chemicals, and destroy air and water with relative impunity by simply claiming they were unaware that it was a federal violation to poison the air and water.
Malcolm even devised a paper for Congress to base its “regulatory reform laws” on and laid out some excuses corporations can use to get out of jail free. Specifically, Malcolm’s provides a range of varying standards of proof federal prosecutors will be bound by law to get a conviction. At worst, a perpetrator can be prosecuted if they are accused of “negligence, recklessly, knowingly, intentionally, and willfully violate regulations or the law;” or they can plead that they just did not think it was illegal to dump toxic waste and poison into the air and water and force the Department of Justice to prove they were not ignorant of the law. It is something a person of color caught with a reefer in their pocket could never get away with. Obviously, the only point of the “reformation” is to protect corporations and give them free rein to violate federal regulations by making it impossible to prosecute them.
The principle behind criminal justice reform is admirable, and changing the system to treat the poor and people of color equitably is desperately needed. It is likely that the majority of Democrats, including President Obama, will push hard to see some kind of reform package passed sooner than later. However, no American should delude themselves for one second that the Kochs, who are praising themselves for acting on behalf of the poor or minorities, are spending one cent of their substantial fortune for any other reason than to protect themselves from prosecution for violating environmental regulations they have failed to eradicate.