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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Military Industrial Complex and Republican Cabal Plans To Rob Taxpayers and Bankrupt America

According to Ryan's "prosperity budget" within ten years the only government left in existence will be the military.…
Ike_Poster
Apparently, there are Americans who hate the idea of contributing to the general welfare of the United States, what George Washington called “the people,” by paying taxes. It is likely that nearly all Americans hate the idea of their tax dollars being spent to enrich corporations; especially when those very same corporations control where Americans’ tax dollars are spent. As one might expect, with Republicans in charge of the nation’s purse strings, “those corporations” direct their wingnut lackeys’ attention to spending as much, if not all, of the nation’s funds on their interests; not the people.
It is not enough that the 2015-16 budget allotted well over 60 percent of all “on the book” government spending to the military; if a bevy of defense contractor lobbies have their way Americans will likely see the lion’s share of their tax dollars going directly to the military industrial complex. Now, defense spending is crucial to America’s security, but so is infrastructure like power grids, hospitals and the nation’s decrepit roads and bridges as well as social programs that are crucial to the “general welfare of the people.” Still, Republicans have never seen a bloated defense budget they, or their defense contractor lobbies, believe is too small and their corporate defense donors have a plan to blow through trillions of taxpayers’ dollars in the next decade because building war machines is a very profitable affair.
It was barely three weeks ago that the U.S. Air Force announced it had chosen Northrop Grumman as the defense contractor to build 100 new bombers; allegedly to replace the B-2 long range bomber. However, an affiliate of a defense lobby decided that when the Air Force requested 100 aircraft, they really meant 200. The recommendation to double the Air Force’s request, albeit without the Air Force or Pentagon’s input, came from a “study” by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The Mitchell Institute is very closely tied to the Air Force Association (AFA) that is staffed by retired Air Force personnel and depends on very hefty and overly generous contributions from over 600 defense contractors including Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing: the three defense contractors that competed for the bomber contract.
AFA boasts on its website that one of its greatest assets is having a “crack government relations staff” whose current crusade is “recapitalizing the entire Air Force” and “strengthening America’s nuclear mission.” What AFA never mentions is where the government will get the trillions to pad their “corporate” friends’ bottom line or how much of the government will be eliminated to increase defense contractors’ profits and build weapons of war the Pentagon does not need.
One of the things the Mitchell Institute propaganda piece failed to note is that the new bomber is both unnecessary and unaffordable according experts with the Ploughshares Fund who assessed the proposals in Aviation Week and Space Technology. Tom Collina and Will Saetren point out that the 100 bombers currently proposed will cost at least $1 billion each “that doesn’t even count classified funding in the Pentagon’s so-called ‘black budget’ or reflect the cost overruns that are “a chronic feature of every Pentagon aircraft procurement program.” Still, the defense industry is putting no small amount of money into helping Republicans increase defense spending on unwanted and unnecessary military hardware while America rots from the inside.
Pushing to double the number of bombers is just a taste of the military industrial complex’s intent to devote all government spending to their very substantial bottom lines. Besides 200, instead of 100, bombers, there is a monumental push to build over 2,400 F-35 combat aircraft; not only the most expensive weapons program in the history of Pentagon procurement, but also a very dangerous and ineffective one according to the Air Force and pilots tasked to fly them.
Still not enough taxpayer money flowing directly to the defense industry, the AFA is also pushing very hard for the Air Force to “recapitalize” (replace) its entire “tanker, trainer, combat search and rescue, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms.” According to experts, “there is no conceivable set of circumstances under which the Air Force can afford to purchase all of these aircraft; something will have to give.” Republicans have already touted plans to slash all domestic spending while increase money for defense, but when combined with their planned revenue drop due to tax cuts for the rich, the majority of the government will have to go. Remember, according to Ryan’s “prosperity budget,” within ten years the only government left in existence will be the military.
Just to make sure that the American people will live and work to fund war, another plan modernizes the nation’s “entire nuclear triad” at a cost of well over $1 trillion. The nuclear triad includes bombers, ballistic missile submarines, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and a redundant nuclear-armed Air-Launched Cruise Missile at over $25 billion.
America already has the most powerful military on the planet, and with thousands of nuclear warheads, there is no need for a “trillion-dollar triad” recapitalization, or new bombers and combat aircraft for that matter. Military experts claim the “current bomber and fighter force can operate safely and effectively for decades,” so the current rush to spend a couple of trillion dollars is purely to profit the military industrial complex; something Republicans have proven is why Americans pay taxes.
It is safe to say that the majority of Americans do not oppose a portion of their tax dollars going to defense; the county’s security is the one expense that few Americans oppose. However, the nation should not exist to profit the military industrial complex and yet that is, next to privatizing government, the one policy Republicans hew to with religious passion. It is noteworthy that directly after warmonger Senator Tom Cotton initiated an open letter to Iran’s hardliners pledging that Republicans would derail the P5+1 nuclear deal so Israel could start a war America would finish, he immediately addressed a defense industry group; likely to promise they were going to profit from another Middle East war.
The citizens of this country deserve more than to work just to support the defense industry. They deserve decent schools, hospitals, highways, bridges, and domestic programs that any sane human being would regard as necessary for “the general welfare of the people.” But this is America and with a robust propaganda campaign to keep Americans terrified, it is likely that Republicans will do their defense contributors proud and use every last penny of taxpayer money to build unnecessary weapons of war while the nation falls apart. That kind of agenda is what led to the demise of the once-powerful Soviet Union and is on pace to bring America, massive military and all, crumbling down.

FBI On Hunt For Anti-Muslim Gun Nut Threatening To Invade NY Muslim Community

FBI On Hunt For Anti-Muslim Gun Nut Threatening To Invade NY Muslim Community (VIDEO)
This is the terrorism we REALLY need to be worrying about.
Read more 

Black Religious Leaders Are Saying No to Endorsing Trump

One black religious leader says Trump flaunts "a ticket of unbridled bigotry, sexism, racism and everything that is wrong with America."…
Trump-women (1) It turns out that when Trump said 100 black religious leaders would endorse him yesterday, what they meant was that they wanted him to meet with them to engage in dialog. Dialog and Trump? That isn’t how The moron works. He talks; you listen. But dialog?
Trump’s press release had mentioned “a coalition of 100 African American Evangelical pastors and religious leaders who will endorse the wingnut front-runner after a private meeting at Trump Tower.”
And Breitbart had reported Friday that “Trump has held several meetings with evangelical 'christians' during his pretender campaign.”
One of the people who was impressed with Trump after meeting him was Darrell Scott, pastor of the New Spirit Revival Center in Ohio. Scott helped organize the coalition of black leaders who are expected to meet with Trump Monday.
Scott apparently didn’t do his homework, or Trump wasn’t listening. Somewhere, somehow, there was a disconnect. Trump did get a couple of endorsements. Scott, of course, and the Wall Street Journal offered another name Friday, Pastor Mark Burns of South Carolina, whose reasons, apparently come down to the fact that “He says merry christmas and not Merry Xmas.”
Oh wow. Well…
That’s not enough for most black religious leaders, apparently. CNN was one of those outlets quick to report that Trump had spoken out of turn. Because several pastors now have said that was never in the books. For example, Bishop Clarence McClendon of Los Angeles and star of his own reality show, “The Preachers of L.A.” posted on Facebook that “The meeting was presented not as a meeting to endorse but a meeting to engage in dialogue”:
Bishop McClendon was INVITED to attend Monday’s meeting and his name was used as an invitee, but had made no plans to attend the meeting and indeed will NOT be in attendance. The meeting was presented not as a meeting to endorse but as a meeting to engage in dialogue.
He does believe that African American spiritual leaders should be listening and engaging in dialogue with any candidate who is currently, based on the polls, exhibiting a real potential for occupying the Oval Office.
Bishop McClendon has NOT made up his mind for whom he will vote in the upcoming election and had previously determined that he would not make any decision until after January 2016. He exhorts all serious minded believers to not vote on allegiance to any political cabal but on the basis of the judeo-christian ethic and their spiritually inspired conscience.
Facebook was also the medium chosen by Bishop Corletta Vaughn, who is not only Senior Pastor of The Holy Ghost Cathedral but also a star of the Oxygen reality series “Preachers of Detroit,” and she was abrupt and to the point when she wrote, “Trump is an insult and embarrassment. But he represents the country we have become”:
Trump is an insult and embarrassment.. But he represents the country we have become.
ZERO experience.. Flaunting a ticket of unbridled bigotry, sexism, racism and everything that is wrong with America.
Carry on!
Trump, meanwhile, was left to bluster and shake his little fist at CNN for treating him unfairly.
The media exists for Trump as a propaganda arm of his campaign or they are his enemies – the old fascist “with me or against me” routine. You say what he wants you to say but gods forbid you think for yourself or ask untoward questions of the great and mighty idiot in his tower of power.
The truth is, this is what you see from Trump supporters, and on his Twitter feed.
I submit to you he is not going to draw a lot of black support with this “white genocide” nonsense.
We found out yesterday no black religious leaders showed up to endorse Trump. Much less than 100 and Trump was just guilty of doing some 'Republican math'. They all do it, and we expect it at this point, just as we expect the media to be blamed every time a Republican candidate lies, because, you know, the media recorded the conversation or filmed the candidate telling his or her lies and then, you know, quoted the candidate.
The problem, however, isn’t the media putting a hit on Trump, but Trump attempting to put a hit on reality – and failing. Even Trump’s money can’t buy you facts, though lies apparently come pretty cheap for Trump. He just has to open his mouth.

Ohio's moron destroys Trump in rant ...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich  (R) -- Screenshot from This WeekOhio's moron  destroys Trump in rant: ‘He’s not going to be the nominee and everyone needs to get over it’
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Finally a wingnut actually spoke the truth ... who thought it possible.

Trump offers helicopter rides to ‘beautiful’ children at Florida campaign rally

Donald Trump in Sarasota, Florida (Screenshot/YouTube)
Last Saturday, Trump made it clear he didn’t want just any children in his chopper. They had to be “beautiful children.”

Todd finally smacks down Trump ...

“You’re running for president of the United States,” Todd explained to Trump. “Your words matter. Truthfulness matters. Fact-based stuff matters.”

Trump Falls Apart After Todd Goes Off On Him For His 9/11 Lies

trump-racist
Trump crumbled and fell apart on Meet The Press after Todd relentlessly pressed the Republican front-runner for evidence to support his 9/11 conspiracy theory.
Transcript via Meet The Press:
TODD: All right. Well, let’s back up here a minute. Let’s go to this Jersey City comment. You said you saw this. Nobody can find evidence of this. And, more importantly, the article that you tweeted out that’s backed you up, that in itself, there were three or four different reports that month in New Jersey that said it was a myth that was spread, that it was a false rumor. F.B.I., you name it. Where did you see this?

TRUMP: Chuck, I saw it on television. So did many other people. And many–
TODD: In Jersey City–
TRUMP: –many people. I said hundreds. In the area. I–
TODD: –you saw during Jersey City? Okay.
TRUMP: –heard Patterson. Excuse me. I’ve heard Jersey City. I’ve heard Patterson. It was 14 years ago. But I saw it on television. I saw clips. And so did many other people. And many people saw it in person. I’ve had hundreds of phone calls to the Trump Organization saying, “We saw it. It was dancing in the streets.” Now, by the way The Washington Post I tried to pull back, but the Washington Post reported tailgate parties and reports of tailgate parties.
Tailgate parties means, like, for a football game where you have hundreds and hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of people having tailgate parties. I saw it at the time. I stick by it. Hundreds of people have confirmed it.
TODD: This didn’t happen in New Jersey. There were plenty of reports. And you’re feeding that stereotype.
TRUMP: Chuck, it did happen in New Jersey. I have hundreds of people that agree with me.
TODD: But they want to agree with you that doesn’t make it true.
TRUMP: Chuck, you have a huge Muslim population over there. And that’s fine. But you have a huge Muslim population, between Patterson and different places and Jersey City, an unbelievable large population. If they’re going to be doing it at soccer games, if they’re going to be doing it all around the world, it was being done.
When the Trade Center came down, it was done all around the world. And you know that because that has been reported very strongly. Why wouldn’t it have taken place? I’ve had hundreds of people call in and tweet in on Twitter, saying that they saw it, and I was 100% right.
Now, the Washington Post also wrote about tailgate parties. We’re looking for other articles. And we’re looking for other clips. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we found them, Chuck. But for some reason, they’re not that easy to come by. I saw it. So many people saw it, Chuck. And, so, why would I take it back? I’m not going to take it back.
TODD: Well just because somebody repeats something doesn’t make it true. And I guess that’s actually–
TRUMP: Chuck, I’ve had hundreds. I don’t mean I had two calls, Chuck. Even yesterday, I was in Sarasota, Florida. And people were saying they lived in Jersey, they–

TODD: People weren’t saying. If I said people–
TRUMP: –moved down to Florida because taxes are a lot lower in Florida. They told me there that they saw it.
TODD: Mr. Trump. If I said, “Well, people have said Mr. Trump’s net worth is $10 billion,” you would say that was crazy. You wouldn’t make a business deal–
TRUMP: But that’s a very different. It’s much different.
TODD: –based on re-tweets and based on hearsay. You’re running for president of the United States. Your words matter. Truthfulness matters. Fact-based stuff matters.
TRUMP: Take it easy, Chuck. Just play cool….

Trump is selling himself as a big bad deal-maker who will get things done in Washington, but he couldn’t handle Todd questioning him with facts.
Trump was so far on the defensive that he tried to get Todd to calm down, even though the Meet The Press host was clearly not upset. Todd has been rightly criticized for his performance in the past, but during the Trump interview he did something that more members of the media should emulate.
Todd demanded facts and pressed Trump to back up his claims with evidence. Trump doesn’t have any evidence of Muslims tailgating and celebrating in the streets of New Jersey. All he has is a memory of something that he thinks he saw on television almost 15 years ago.
If Trump wins the nomination, it will be a disaster for the Republican cabal. If Donald Trump can’t handle Todd, he is completely unfit to be pretender.

Elephant At Trump Rally Owned By Animal Abuser

Elephant At Trump Rally Owned By Animal Abuser (PHOTO/VIDEO)
Even the people with an elephant at Trump’s campaign rally are scummy.

Jeb is totally insane

Further proof of his severely delusional state:
Jeb: I'd still support Trump over Clinton because 'anybody is better than Hillary'

Carson’s refugee plan ...

Host Dickerson pressed the candidate: “So, make the link between Halloween and the refugees for me? Are you talking about a national fundraising drive?”

Fox Hacks Blame Black Lives Matter And Unions For Economic Woes

Republicans Refuse To Condemn Saudi and American Evangelical Religious Police As “ISIL-Like”

To a substantial number of people if they talk like ISIL and behead people for religious non-compliance like ISIL, the Saudis are ISIL-like.…
Saudi Religious Police
There is an idiom first attributed to Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) that says, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” The aptly named “Duck test” is a form of abudctive reasoning that implies it is easy for anyone to identify an unknown subject by observing that subject’s habitual characteristics.
Recently, there has been an increase in the number of Americans who recognize that there is negligible difference, if any at all, between the dreaded ISIL, American wingnuts, and now Saudi Arabia. Since the three groups, although not related, all share the same characteristics, they can be easily identified as practicing religious extremists. Just one aspect connecting the three closely-aligned groups is enforcing religious edicts and imposing extraordinarily harsh punishment for non-compliance. It is true that in America the government is not yet terrorizing or killing citizens for violating evangelical “religious laws,” but that action is increasingly the purview of armed religious maniacs; more on that later.
One thing is certain; it is very unpopular to point out to religious extremists that they are acting precisely like extremists in the Islamic State (ISIS, IS, ISIL). There was a news item that Republicans likely forbade corporate media to report because although Saudi Arabia imposes extraordinarily harsh death penalties for violating religious laws, the “Kingdom” is a major defense industry customer. Republicans epitomize hypocrisy as a matter of course, but while they complain that ISIS beheads people for not adhering to their religious beliefs, they turn a blind eye when Saudi Arabia does exactly the same thing.
Two weeks ago a Saudi court sentenced a Palestinian man to death by beheading for apostasy based on alleged “blasphemous statements” during a discussion group and in a book of his poetry. The condemned poet, Ashraf Fayadh, claims another man made false accusations to the country’s religious police following a personal dispute. Now, what connects Saudis directly to ISIL is their implementation of dreaded “religious police” that monitor the population for non-compliance to religious edicts and metes out punishment; often in the form of a proper public beheading. One might wonder why Republicans are not clamoring to invade Saudi Arabia or bomb them into the Stone Age, but they receive for free, and spend a significant amount of money on, American-made weapons of war. It is also very possible that Republicans are terrified of Saudi Arabia suing them in court if they dare call out their ISIL-like behavior; something the “Kingdom” has already threatened.
Earlier this week, after the Saudi Arabian religious courts handed down the death sentence, international human rights organizations and “legions of Twitter and other social media users” condemned the religious death sentence as “ISIL-like.” It is entirely possible that Saudis are unfamiliar with the storied “Duck Test,” but to a substantial number of people if they talk like ISIL and behead people for religious non-compliance like ISIL, they are ISIL-like.
Saudis do not see it that way and a source for the Saudi justice ministry threatened anyone comparing Saudi beheading for religious non-compliance with ISIL beheading for religious non-compliance. The Saudi said,
The justice ministry will sue the person who described the sentencing of a man to death for apostasy as being `Isis-like.’ Questioning the fairness of the courts is to question the justice of the Kingdom and its judicial system based on Islamic law, which guarantees rights and ensures human dignity. The Kingdom’s courts would not hesitate to put on trial any media that slandered the religious judiciary of the Kingdom.”
For the record, no-one is “slandering” the religious judiciary of the Kingdom; they are just using abductive reasoning and the Duck Test to determine that beheading someone for religious non-compliance is ISIL-like. Something the Kingdom’s religious ministry is likely unaware of is that, at least for the time being, Americans are guaranteed freedom of speech that includes making comparisons the Saudi religious judiciary believes is “slander.” It is the “real” definition of a “system which guarantees rights and ensures human dignity,” and it is the American system the fanatical evangelical right cannot and will not countenance; and they have an unofficial religious police force doing their bidding. Last Friday it was at work at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
America’s religious police, although not official and blatantly un-Constitutional, are no less dangerous than Saudi or ISIL religious police; they are just constrained by law enforcement but not the law or Constitution. The events in Colorado Springs demonstrate that like ISIL inciting terrorism toward innocents, the anti-women’s choice evangelicals have concluded that “questioning their judicial system based on biblical law” warrants bringing a gun or Molotov cocktail to impose punishment on religious non-compliance. In the case of evangelicals attacking women’s health clinics, or putting out contracts on medical providers, they regard women choosing a religiously unapproved legal medical procedure are guilty and warrant the death sentence; albeit without the beheading.
Although the Colorado Springs shooter’s motive is not yet officially known, there have been plenty of cases of religion-driven attacks on women’s health clinics across the nation and they are on the rise. Some anti-choice agitators have went so far as engage in criminal solicitations seeking assassins to kill medical providers in the name of religion; including giving out pertinent information on the identity and location of the “alleged” apostates violating the evangelical religious edicts against women’s choice.
If Republicans in particular, and Washington leaders in general, refuse to condemn the Saudis and American evangelical anti-choice movement for “ISIL-like” behavior, then they lose all credibility in criticizing the Islamic State. No matter how one goes about determining the identity of a person, a religion, a movement or a government, in the case of religious police imposing death sentences on non-compliance it does not matter who they are or where they live; if they act like ISIL, they are ISIL-like.

Enough About ISIL, Let’s Talk About RWCTs (Religio-Wing 'Christian' Terrorists)

Featured image credit: Colorado Springs Police Department
“AIDS, hurricanes, we are in the end times. Accept the jesus while you can,” Robert Lewis Dear, mass shooter, member of the RWCT Network.

Sanders Finally Said What No Politician Dared ...

The Wingnuts’ Rhetoric Fostered Planned Parenthood Shooting
Sanders Finally Said What No Politician Dared: Right’s Rhetoric Fostered Planned Parenthood Shooting
Bernie Sanders just WENT THERE.
Read more 

Huckabee: Anti-Choicers Are Victims Of Planned Parenthood Shooting Because This Makes Us Look Bad

Huckabee: Pro-Lifers Are Victims Of Planned Parenthood Shooting Because This Makes Us Look Bad (VIDEO)Huckabee spent all summer calling Planned Parenthood employees murderers and now he wants to play the victim.

The Republican Cabal Is Responsible For The Terrorist Attacks Against Planned Parenthood

Here’s Why The GOP Is Partly Responsible For The Terrorist Attacks Against Planned Parenthood
The cabal of 'personal responsibility' won’t take responsibility. Ever.
Read more 

‘Pro-Life’ Wingnut ‘Christians’ Are Cheering The Planned Parenthood Terrorist As A Hero

Image via WikimediaOn Friday, a gunman named Robert Lewis Dear killed three people and wounded nine others in a terrorist attack at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado. But “pro-life” wingnuts are hailing him as a hero.

Fiorina: Linking Planned Parenthood attack to ‘pro-life’ agitators is ‘typical left-wing tactics’

Carly Fiorina - Fox News screenshotFiorina: Linking Planned Parenthood attack to ‘pro-life’ agitators is ‘typical left-wing tactics’
***
Yes, sir, typical all right, the truth is always typical for progressives.

This Is The Bastard Who Is Ultimately To Blame For The Planned Parenthood Shooting

Black Friday became a lot blacker than usual when a right-wing extremist set up propane tanks in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood facility in...