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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Daily Drift

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Bernie Sanders Calls Out The Biased Corporate Network News For Blacking Out His Message

bernie sanders morning joe
After it had been revealed that Bernie Sanders has gotten 1/30th of the coverage that Donald Trump has received on the network news, the Sanders campaign issued a statement calling on the corporate news to give Sanders the same coverage as other candidates. The Sanders campaign said in a statement:
Sen. Bernie Sanders has made big gains in Iowa, leads most New Hampshire polls and fares better than Hillary Clinton in general election matchups against Donald Trump and other Republican White House hopefuls.

But the insurgent campaign that has drawn the biggest crowds on the presidential campaign trail has been all but ignored on the flagship television network newscasts, according to Tyndall Report, which tracks nightly news coverage by NBC, CBS and ABC.
“The corporately-owned may not like Bernie’s anti-establishment views but for the sake of American democracy they must allow for a fair debate in this presidential campaign,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager. “Bernie must receive the same level of coverage on the nightly news as other leading candidates.”
There is no objective metric that the media can use to justify their blackout of his campaign. Sanders polls equal to or better Trump. Sen. Sanders beats Trump in potential head to head election matchups. Sen. Sanders has consistently drawn bigger crowds than any other candidate. Sanders is a legitimate presidential contender, yet he is being ignored by the corporate network news.
The explanation is that Sanders is a threat to the billionaires and corporations who own the networks. The corporate press has convinced itself that America is a conservative nation that has no interest in liberal politics, and that voters are too stupid to care about the issues. Both of these self-serving fallacies allow the corporate press to treat news like entertainment while devoting most of their political airtime to politicians who will serve their pro-corporate agenda.
The corporate network news’ treatment of Sen. Sanders is proof of the pro-conservative bias that has overtaken the nightly news broadcasts. Both Sanders and Clinton supporters have long suspected pro-Republican bias, and the nightly news neglect of Bernie Sanders has proven that their suspicions were both accurate and true.

ABC, CBS, And NBC News Made An Intentional Decision To Ignore Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders Portland, Maine
An analysis of network television news coverage reveals what supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders have long suspected; the three broadcast television networks are intentionally ignoring the Sanders campaign.
Eric Boehlert of Media Matters has the revealing details:
So in terms of stand-alone campaign stories this year, it’s been 234 minutes for Trump, compared to 10 minutes for Sanders. And at ABC World News Tonight, it’s been 81 minutes for Trump and less than one minute for Sanders.
Bernie Sanders polls equal to or better than Trump in every single poll, but the corporate owned network news divisions have given Trump nearly 30 times more airtime than Sanders. These same broadcast networks also spent nearly the same amount of time covering the bogus Republican email scandal as they did discussing Hillary Clinton’s campaign, so it’s not as if the networks are anti-Sanders and pro-Clinton.
The corporate owned profit first network news divisions have made the editorial decision that they are going to lavish airtime upon the presidential candidate who most fits their corporate owners’ ideology.
The networks are ignoring Bernie Sanders because his anti-corporate message is dangerous to their well being. The broadcast and cable networks both have a habit of ignoring stories that can hurt their bosses’ bottom lines.
Sen. Sanders is trying to inform the electorate, but the broadcast networks would rather focus on keeping voters ignorant by focusing on Trump.
Trump is the perfect corporate media candidate. The mainstream press has decided that has to be entertaining and turn a profit. Trump is an entertainer who is masquerading as a presidential candidate. Trump has turned the Republican primary into his own reality show.
Sen. Sanders has consistently criticized the media for their coverage of the election. In August, Sanders said, “I want you to talk about and force discussion about climate change. Do you think you do that enough? I would like you to force discussion of poverty in America. I have talked over and over and over again that 51 percent of African-American kids are unemployed or underemployed. You think that’s an important issue? I do. Are you going to discuss it?”
The data shows that the corporate media is not going to give any coverage to Sanders or the issues.
Bernie Sanders is a huge threat to the corporate media, which is why they are ignoring his campaign.

Republicans Give the Kochs and Big Oil Billions Annually To Export Domestic Oil

Republicans are inserting a rider in the omnibus spending bill eliminating the ban on oil exports developed to protect American consumers…  
GOP Oil Above AllOnly a person who has been comatose over the past couple of decades is unaware that there are no lengths too far for Republicans to go to provide profits for the oil industry at the expense of the American people; both economically and health-wise. It is just what they exist to do and they are at it again. Republicans are wont to claim that America’s energy independence is their primary concern to prevent providing the Middle East with oil profits from American consumers, but they are a day away from making America much less energy independent and the oil industry billions more in profits.
As is their typical practice, Republicans are inserting a “rider” in the omnibus spending bill that eliminates the ban on American oil exports that was developed specifically to protect American consumers financially and strengthen America’s energy independence; it was also a means of protecting the environment. Republicans could hardly pass up an opportunity to provide the oil industry with an additional $22 billion annually in pure profits, increase fuel prices for American consumers quite substantially, increase carbon emission damage to the climate, and make America more dependent on Middle East oil; likely controlled by ISIL.
It is not unique for Republicans to insert several riders in spending bills that specifically cut environmental protections and attacks on the EPA, or to insert them in a last-minute attempt to keep government operating. Of course adding riders in lieu of legislation that would never pass, or survive a Presidential veto is nothing new any more than Republicans providing the oil industry with profits at the expense of the population or the environment is not new; it is why the Koch brothers bought control of Congress.
Obviously Americans do not want to pay more for oil and gas, but when given the choice between protecting Americans or the oil industry, Republicans will always choose their funding machine. Like the nasty Canadian corporation’s KeystoneXL pipeline, giving the Kochs, et al, extra profits and free rein to sell off American oil on the foreign market serves no benefit for the nation, its people, or the environment. In fact, environmentalists and consumer advocates oppose lifting the domestic oil export ban because it definitely increases fossil fuel extraction and global warming, and raises the price of oil and gas for American consumers; a double assault on Americans that Republicans must be ecstatic over.
A federal policy representative for the Sierra Club said the lifting the ban “will certainly lead to more drilling,” and the American Petroleum Institute is giddy to report that it means an additional half-a-million barrels of oil daily will be extracted (mostly fracked) and sent overseas; leaving Americans with less gas and oil and higher fuel prices to provide big oil and the Kochs with outrageous profits and an additional chance to brag about assaulting on the climate.
The Sierra Club’s Radha Adhar took the time to say the obvious, but few Americans will listen. Adhar said,
Big Oil is going to get $22 billion in profits annually because of this. Twenty-two billion. It’s absolutely crazy. These people are destroying our democracy — they are behind every environmental attack we have to defend against, and the idea of giving them more power is untenable, especially when it comes at the expense of consumers and the environment.”
Within 5 years that $22 billion annually will grow to $170 billion annually with nary a red cent going to America or the people. It is the Republican way of saying sod the environment and President Obama’s efforts to combat climate change because the Kochs and big oil need billions more in profits annually while American consumers take a hit on their energy costs, their environment and their health.
A report published by the Center for American Progress notes that repealing the ban for the Kochs and big oil means an additional 515 metric tons of carbon emissions beginning in 2016. That is approximately equivalent to putting 108 million more passenger cars on the road or putting an additional 135 coal-fired power plants online next year and continuing every year thereafter. To make matters that much worse for Americans’ health and lack of potable water, the increased extraction will be primarily from toxic and earthquake producing hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The proven dangers of fracking will be accompanied by an increase in rupture-prone pipelines and dangerous oil trains that are already responsible for epic environmental damage and hazards to Americans’ health; something Republicans believe is well worth the cost according to their highest regard for increasing profits for their masters the Kochs and big oil.
As usual, while Republicans’ only regard is oil industry profits, 80 percent of Americans oppose exporting domestic oil for economic and national security reasons. First, they know it means America will become more dependent on the always unstable Middle East for its oil and gas, and second, they are smart enough to know that exporting domestic oil and reducing the supply will automatically increase consumer prices at home. Still, the public be damned according to Republicans serving their special interest masters in the oil industry.
It is worth noting, too, that not all of the oil industry will profit from lifting the ban on shipping out American oil. The nation’s oil and gas refiners oppose the Republican plan because they will take a monumental economic hit because the “crude oil will not be refined in America;” but the Kochs and big oil need more billions so domestic refineries and American workers be damned. Like the economic costs, health concerns, and environment damage from exporting America’s oil, sacrificing domestic refinery jobs to overseas is just the price American businesses and labor force has to pay to increase profits for the Kochs’ oil industry cabal.
That oil cabal has been instrumental in paying various Koch and conservative belief tanks to pressure Congress and deny any environmental impacts from increased drilling and fracking. They even lie, like they did in pushing the Keystone XL pipeline, that shipping oil to foreign nations will be a major economic benefit for the American consumer.
A Brookings Institute report authored by an oil industry employee said that “In terms of environmental impacts, Congress is aware that oil producers in the United States have a long history and extensive experience complying with U.S. environmental requirements,” and that there is no such thing as climate impact from pouring an additional half-a-million metric tons of carbon pollutants into the atmosphere and water.
The oil industry (Brookings Institute) report also claimed that “If Congress truly wants to address climate change, then it should adopt appropriate climate policies that address emissions;” seriously, they really wrote that. They could never say it in public because they could hardly conceal their wild laughter at the idea of their Republicans addressing climate change.
According to a report released yesterday by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), besides the Koch brothers, the major funders behind the export ban repeal are ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell; what the PAI report said was “a multifaceted effort by the oil industry lobbying groups” demanding Republicans’ blessing and authority to send American oil overseas and increase the nation’s dependence on Middle East oil.
Like everything Republicans have done over the past few decades, giving the oil industry free rein to export American oil out of country to increase Middle East oil imports into the country has no benefit to the nation, the people, and certainly not the environment. And, Republicans are again imposing economic, health, and environmental damage, not including national security threats, on the American people just so the already highly-profitable oil industry can earn billions more annually to add to their billions in subsidies while paying next to nothing in taxes. As horrid as all that is, the travesty is that Republicans will continue garnering electoral support from their base while imposing a world of damage on the American people, including their incredibly ignorant base.

Hey Wingnuts: Here’s How Our Founding Fathers Protected Muslims’ Rights

Hey Conservatives: Here’s How Our Founding Fathers Protected Muslims’ RightsWingnuts love to say our Founding Fathers didn’t want Muslims in America, but they went to great lengths to protect people of ALL religions.

This Is How It’s Done, America: Canadian Prime Minister Personally Welcomes Syrian Refugees

This Is How It’s Done, America: Canadian Prime Minister Personally Welcomes Syrian RefugeesPrime Minister Justin Trudeau just made a powerful statement to the refugees coming into his country – and shamed American wingnuts in the process.

Georgia Breaks Federal Law, Refuses To Process A Refugee Family’s Request For Food

Georgia Breaks Federal Law, Refuses To Process A Refugee Family’s Request For FoodThey are new to America, they have nothing, and they are in need. Starving them accomplishes what, exactly?

Rubio enrolled under Obamacare

Rubio enrolled under Obamacare - and benefits from taxpayer-funded subsidy

Fiorina snarls and everyone laughs at her

A combative Carly Fiorina battles with CNN host Chris Cuomo -- (CNN screengrab)Fiorina snarls at CNN host after he confronts her over Planned Parenthood smears

As World Leaders Defend The Planet, Cruz Tries To Defend Stupidity

Pretender candidate Cruz does not believe that climate change is real, as he made laughably clear in a Senate hearing  …
te3d cruzAs world leaders and their representatives were meeting in Paris week, trying to come to an historic agreement on how to best respond the the growing global threat of climate change, pretender candidate and Cruz (R-TX) made a fool of himself by convening a Senate hearing to attempt to prove that man-made climate climate doesn’t even exist.
“Facts matter, science matters, data matters. That’s what this hearing is about.”
That’s how Cruz (R-TX), the chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, began a Monday hearing he called about the reality of human-caused climate change. Cruz – who is also running for president – does not believe that human-caused climate change is real, which he made clear at Monday’s hearing. He did not make it clear that 97 percent of climate scientists disagree with him, but such is life in the U.S. Senate, where 70 percent of Republicans largely side with Cruz.
The thing about Cruz, though, it’s that he’s a master of political debate. He spoke forcefully and eloquently at Monday’s hearing about what he said were falsehoods surrounding the scientific consensus on climate change. He even injected some real data into his harsh rhetoric, which made him sound even smarter.
Much of the information Cruz cited, however, was presented in perplexing ways. He confused completely different geographic locations, took data out of context, and made at least one unintentionally hilarious historical comparison.
With his assertion that “science and data matter” in mind, here is a debunking of some unscientific things Cruz said during his climate change ‘hearing.’
What Cruz said: A bunch of scientists got stuck in Antarctic ice last year, so John Kerry was wrong about Arctic ice melt.
“The summer of 2013 has come and gone, and John Kerry was not just a little bit — he was wildly, extraordinarily, entirely wrong. Had the [2014] Antarctic expedition in the picture next to it not believed the global warming alarmists, had they actually looked to the science and the evidence … they wouldn’t have been looked down and been surprised when they got stuck in ice.”
What science says: The Antarctic is not the same as the Arctic. (pause for laughter!)
Climate science deniers across the internet love the story of the Antarctic ice scientists.
Last year, on their way to study climate change’s impact on Antarctic, the scientists’ ship became frozen in ice, unable to move. They eventually had to be airlifted from the vessel. For Ted Cruz, this seemed like a perfect way to open his hearing: John Kerry said Arctic ice would be gone in 2013. But here are a bunch of scientists, in 2014, frozen in Antarctic ice.
This is a laughably false comparison. The Arctic and the Antarctic are literally polar opposites, and each is impacted by global warming in fundamentally different ways. From LiveScience: “Strong circumpolar winds may be compacting and thickening the Antarctic ice. But the Arctic ice is much more vulnerable to ocean warming, and summer storms only speedup the thaw.”
Cruz said: CO2 isn’t bad, because we’ve had more CO2 in our atmosphere then we have right now.
“I would note that the history with markedly more CO2 pre-dated the industrial revolution, so it didn’t come from automobiles or the burning of carbon fuels. … I would note those facts are directly contrary to what the global warming alarmists tell us day in and day out, and what the media who echoes those concerns tell us day in and day out.”
Science says: The last time CO2 was this high, humans didn’t exist, and the planet was a terrifying place.
According to Cruz, the carbon dioxide humans emit can’t be harming the planet, because the planet had more carbon dioxide in its atmosphere before the industrial revolution.
This is a pretty easy one to debunk. Yes, the earth had more carbon dioxide before the industrial revolution – but that was literally millions of years ago, before humans existed.
What Cruz said: Arctic and Antarctic ice are both increasing.
“Here are the inconvenient facts about the polar ice caps. The Arctic is not ice free. This year’s minimum sea ice extent was well above the record low observed in 2011. In the Antarctic, a recent study… indicates that the ice is not only not decreasing, but is in fact increasing in mass, directly contrary to what the global warming alarmists had told us would be happening.”
What science says: Sea ice in the Arctic and land ice in the Antarctic have been dramatically decreasing for decades.
Let’s just state this for the record: Climate change doesn’t mean that you’ll see higher temperatures and less ice year after year. It means that on average, over many decades, you’ll see higher temperatures and less ice.
Cruz said that minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic “was well above the record low observed in 2011.” First, Cruz just directly admitted the lowest-ever-recorded minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic was just four years ago.
Second, Cruz doesn’t mention that Arctic ice as a whole has been decreasing for decades.
As for Antarctic ice, Cruz is right when he says sea ice is growing. But Antarctic land ice – glaciers, ice sheets, and ice masses that have accumulated over thousands of years – is decreasing at dramatic rates. And that’s arguably much more important than sea ice, considering Antarctica’s sea ice completely melts every year.
Cruz said: It doesn’t matter that 97 percent of scientists agree about climate change, because 97 percent of scientists said the sun rotated around the earth in the 1600s.
What science says: There were no ‘scientists’ in the 1600s. Scientists did not use the modern scientific method until the 17th century.
This is ostensibly why Cruz disagrees with the fact that multiple peer-reviewed studies show 97 percent of climate scientists agreeing that humans cause global warming: because in 1615, scientists thought the sun rotated around the Earth.
Today, scientists use the scientific method. This is really great, because the scientific method requires people to back up their evidence using empirical data – they can’t apply their own personal biases to it. To have success using the scientific method, a person with a completely different worldview will be able to replicate what you have found. The scientific method means looking outside yourself to find empirical truth.
In 1615, by contrast, scientists didn’t use the scientific method. Scientists were philosophers and ideologues, smart white men who sat in armchairs thinking about what made sense to them. After they thought about it for awhile, they’d say things, and then people would believe them or they wouldn’t.
So in other words, Ted Cruz is essentially saying that the scientific method is no more reliable than a bunch of white dudes sitting in armchairs yelling about how they believe the world works.
What Cruz said: Satellite data shows no warming for the last 18 years.
“According to the satellite data, there has been no significant global warming for the past 18 years. Those are the data. The global warming alarmists don’t like these data, they are inconvenient to their narrative. But facts and evidence matters.”
What science says: Satellite data, ground-based weather station data, and sea-based buoy data all show a steady warming trend over the long term.
Ted Cruz loves satellite data. He talks about it all the time.
But like most of Cruz’s statements regarding climate science, his focus on this particular type of data in this particular small time-frame contains an element of truth and ignores larger context. And climate change is all about larger context.
As a reminder: Climate change doesn’t mean that you’ll see higher temperatures every year. It means that on average, over many decades, you’ll see higher temperatures.
When Cruz says there’s been “no warming” in 18 years, that’s because 1998 was an abnormally warm year. But if you start, say, in 1950, the long-term, gradual trend in temperatures has gone distinctly upward. And despite 1998 being a very warm year (because of an El Nino), 13 of the 15 warmest years ever recorded all happened since the year 2000. 2015 is set to be the hottest year on record. And according the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850.”
It’s also worth noting that the data Cruz relies on comes from a scientist who has publicly decried Cruz for using his data to make claims that global warming isn’t real. For that scientist, the way people interpret his data matters — it’s clear, however, if it matters not to Cruz.

Like Trump, Carson Is Threatening To Leave The republican Cabal

More Americans support Bernie Sanders than Trump

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump
As the Trump campaign turns from farce to tribulation, it’s worth noting that millions more Americans support Bernie Sanders than the Republican front-runner.

Petition To ‘Send Trump Into Space And Leave Him’ Gets 10K Signatures In A Day

Petition To ‘Send Donald Trump Into Space And Leave Him’ Gets 10K Signatures In A Day (SCREENSHOTS)
In space, no one can hear you complain about brown people.

Leaders Across The World Denounce Trump


Trump "Has Become The Middle Finger Of The Right Hand"

The producer of All in the Family had some other choice words to describe The Dumbass, too.

Trump Tells Britain They Have A ‘Muslim Problem’, Their Reaction Will Make Your Day

Trump Tells Britain They Have A ‘Muslim Problem’, Their Reaction Will Make Your Day (TWEETS)
You’re going to fall a little bit in love with Britain after this.
Read more 

Trump Frantically Trying To Scrub Mob Ties From Internet

Featured image credit: video screen capture ABC NewsTrump’s well-documented connections to twice-convicted Russian mobster Felix Sater just won’t go away.

Anonymous Delivers Trump Some Very, Very Bad News

Anonymous Deliver Donald Trump Some Very, Very Bad News (VIDEO)
Things are about to get pretty ugly for Trump.
Read more 

Trump like a guy who’ll ‘say anything to get laid’ so he can ‘fuck the country’

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban before NBA game against the New York Knicks Feb. 24, 2014 at Madison Square Garden [AFP]
Billionaire Mark Cuban: Trump like a guy who’ll ‘say anything to get laid’ so he can ‘fuck the country’

Thugs at Trump speech violently shove female protester to the ground

A female protester is knocked down by security at a Trump event (PennLive/Screenshot)
Security guards at Trump speech violently shove female protester to the ground