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Friday, December 18, 2015

The Daily Drift

Hello The Truth Be Told readers to today's edition.
You may not have noticed, because we work hard not to miss our publication schedule, but the Holiday Season has already impacted our schedule.
All the parties and dinners have us booked solid for the season - with still more late invitations arriving daily. The intensity will only increase over the next two weeks.
On top of all the parties thrown by others we are in the midst of organizing our annual New Year's Eve Bash (granted it is an annual event so a lot of the major details are already in place and ongoing from years past ... it is the little details that are forever causing consternation - as always).
Wonder if this is the year we set the party record for most Culturally Diverse crowd (that is always an easy one to get at our parties).
Hopefully we will be able to maintain our schedule throughout the holidays, but it looks like tomorrow's schedule is blown all ready ... we will see how the day plays out.
Welcome to Today's Edition of The Truth Be Told.
Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
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Republicans - Underdog won't save you ... !
Today is - Underdog Day
 
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Debunking the Wingnuts’ Obamacare Tax Meme Again

An old Republican lie about Obamacare and taxes is making the rounds again, so as a public service, here is a handy antidote…
obama aca 11.4 million signups
A popular Republican meme from last year is making its rounds of social media again and I thought I would debunk it here, appealing to both FactCheck and PolitiFact, to provide useful corrections in case you should encounter it, either via relative or stranger. A useful graphic is appended to post in response.
Here is the offending email, as mendacious a collection of lies as ever collected:
facebook_1449921448478
Here are the facts you will never see circulated by your Republican friends and family:
“Here is what DID NOT happen, quietly, on January 1, 2015”
These taxes actually took effect on January 1, 2013 as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was passed to avoid the “fiscal cliff” and it was quite public and far from “quietly”
“Medicare tax went from 1.45% to 2.35%”
This tax did actually come about as a result of the Affordable Care Act but again, effective on January 1, 2013, and it effects only those earning $200,000 or married couples earning $250,000.
“Top income tax bracket went from 35% to 39.6%”
These rates effect only those earning over $413,200 or married couples earning $464,850.
“Top income payroll tax went from 37.4% to 52.2%”
Income and payroll taxes are different things, first of all, but for the record, the combined rate went from 37.9% to 42.5%, NOT 52.2%, a number you can only get close to by adding state taxes but state taxes are NOT part of the Affordable Care Act.
“Capital Gains tax went from 15% to 28%”
The highest capital gains tax went from 15 to 20% and the ACA’s 3.8% Medicare tax for high-income earners makes it 23.8%, not 28%. You can again add state and local capital gains taxes to bring it to 28.7% but again, those are not federally imposed.
“Dividend tax went from 15% to 39.6%”
The December 2012 tax deal made the top marginal tax rate 20% (it was 39.6% pre-Bush). Obamacare turned that 20% into 23.8%. Neither 15% nor 39.6% are accurate, but invented.
“Estate tax went from 0% to 55%”
Estate tax was 0% for one year: 2010, and reimposed at 35% in 2011 and 2012 and raised to 40% on January 1, 2013 and it effects only the richest Americans, the richest 0.1%. If you make less than $5.25 million you don’t even have to file a form with the IRS.
“A 3.5% Real Estate transaction tax was added.”
The National Association of Realtors says this is FALSE, that “The new health care law will not create a new tax on all transfers of real estate.”
FactCheck.org goes into more detail:
No, with very few exceptions. The first $250,000 in profit from the sale of a personal residence won’t be taxed, or the first $500,000 in the case of a married couple. The tax falls on relatively few — those with high incomes from other sources…only those with incomes of over $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly) will be subject to it. And even for those who have such high incomes, the tax still won’t apply to the first $250,000 on profits from the sale of a personal residence – or to the first $500,000 in the case of a married couple selling their home.
PolitiFact has this to say:
It says that a 3.8 percent tax applies to all real estate transactions as a sales tax. That is not the case. The email seems intended to scare people, particularly older Americans thinking of downsizing. For that, we award this chain email a Pants on Fire!
“These taxes were all passed solely with Democratic votes. “
Ask yourself how this is possible, when the Democrats did not control either the Senate or the House? In fact, the 2012 fiscal cliff deal was passed with bipartisan support.
“Not a single Republican voted for these new taxes.”
In fact, rather than fiction, in the Senate, the fiscal cliff measure passed 89-8 with 40 Republicans voting for it and only 5 against it. In the House, it passed 256-167 with 85 Republicans voting for it and 151 voting against it.
“These taxes were all passed in the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.”
This is a flat out lie, of course, given the fiscal cliff deal had nothing to do with Obamacare. The ACA added to three taxes but the bulk of the increases resulted from the fiscal cliff deal. In the words of PolitiFact, “Less than a third of the total percentage-point increases cited by the email came from Obamacare.”
The original image says it is important for everyone to “know this” but what is important is for everybody to be informed, and the intent of this email is clearly to misinform.
Useful sources to cite when refuting these lies:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jan/05/chain-email/what-will-happen-taxes-january-2015-chain-email-wr/
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/04/a-38-percent-sales-tax-on-your-home/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/25/chain-email/3-8-percent-tax-real-estate-transactions-health-ca/
Please feel free to post the following image in response to this meme whenever an wherever encountered:
here-is-what-happened

Dear Muslim World: Let Me Apologize For Trump And The Republican Cabal

A Hijab-Wearing Muslim Judge Swore Her Oath On A Quran – Wingnuts Went Nuclear

A Hijab-Wearing Muslim Judge Swore Her Oath On A Quran–Conservatives Went NuclearIt will be interesting to see what happens the first time one of these idiots stands in her courtroom.

Wingnuts furious Serena Williams is Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year — instead of a horse

Serena Williams in her third round win over Ayumi Morita of Japan at the 2013 Australian Open on January 19, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia (Neale Cousland / Shutterstock.com)
Sport Illustrated has named tennis champion Serena Williams as its 2015 Sportsperson of the Year, but wingnuts are incensed.

Everything That's Wrong With Our Political Press in a Single Depressing Statistic

‘Kid Wingnut’ Studies Politics, Drops Wingnuttery, Endorses Bernie Sanders

‘Kid Conservative’ Studies Politics, Drops Conservatism, Endorses Bernie SandersKid Wngnut was born out of the Republican cabal’s desperation for a voter bloc that does not exist.

Democrats Get Exactly What They Want As Cruz Rockets Up The Republican Polls

cruz-pout
The Republican pretender primary is the gift that keeps on giving to Democrats. First, Dumbass Trump dominated the Republican field. Now, Cruz is leading the Republicans in Iowa.
The latest Des Moines Register poll has Cruz setting records by gaining record 21 points and leading  Trump 31%-21%. Carson is at 13%, followed by Rubio (10%) and Jeb at 6%.
The rise of Cruz is backed up by a Fox News poll of Iowa that found Cruz edging Trump 28%-26% with Rubio third at 13%. Carson was fourth at 10%, and Jeb was tied for fifth with Paul at 5%.
It is not a surprise that the same state Republicans who gave Rick Santorum the win in 2012 would end their flirtation with Trump and come back to Cruz. Cruz has been working hard on the ground lining up the state’s evangelical voters. The same evangelical crowd that flirted with Cain and Bachmann before settling on Santorum in 2012 have danced with Carson and Trump before maybe settling on Cruz in 2016.
Cruz and Trump atop the Republican field is a dream come true for Democrats. None of the top three candidates in Iowa can win a general election matchup against Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
According to Politico, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta recently told donors that Cruz is the likely Republican nominee, “Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta handicapped the wingnut race for 90 Democratic donors assembled at a private fundraising event in Berkeley, California, on Thursday night, according to a Clinton backer who was in the room, telling the crowd that he viewed Cruz as the likeliest nominee, followed by Trump, and then Rubio.”
The Republican field couldn’t be looking better for Democrats. In many ways, the divisive and disliked Cruz would be easier for Democrats to run against than Trump. Cruz has the government shutdown and record as long as your arm of statements that could lose a general election.
The rise of Cruz is an early Xmas present for Democrats as Republicans voters have embraced the spirit of giving by trying to gift four more years in the White House to the Democratic nominee.

Republican Cabal So Far Down the 'Black Hole' That They Might Not Be Able to Stop Progress

A Republican Coup – Not Against Obama, But its Own Voters

The Republican establishment is facing a revolt of its base and the only solution seems to be a top-down coup against the beast it created…
donald trump republican party
It is popular for Republican “populists” (read: followers of the Trump cult of personality) to deride the Republican establishment, though the actual differences between them is only one of degrees of extremism.
Sean Illing explained at Salon in October that the Republican establishment is “cooked” and “powerless.” South-of-the-border-phobia was replaced by the debate process which has now been replaced by Muslim immigration.
And it is not like the establishment has many – if any – viable choices. Cruz, it has been argued by Matthew Yglesias at Vox, is actually more extreme in his positions than Trump, and except for billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer, the establishment isn’t hurrying to line up behind former golden boy Rubio either.
When Robert Costa and Tom Hamburger wrote at The Washington Post about a power brokers dinner on Monday, a firestorm erupted – yes, another one. The root cause, which is really just a symptom, is that the dinner was hosted by Priebus, and the topic was to no one’s surprise, Trump. Thus revealing, says Costa, that the establishment is preparing for a contested convention.
This probably isn’t a surprise to anybody. Trump has already said that if he is not treated with respect he will run as an Independent, regardless of his loyalty pledge. In the words of The Young Turks, the Republican establishment is planning a “coup” if the voters pick Trump.
The Republican establishment, then, is facing a revolt of its base and the only solution seems to be a top-down coup against the beast it created.
As Costa then tweeted, this didn’t make Carson very happy:
So Carson has just figured out that the Republican cabal is not about “We the People.” Took him long enough. Welcome aboard, moron.
If the idea of the establishment launching a coup against its own base after riling up the base with visions of an anti-Obama coup is deliciously rich stuff to Democrats, wingnut shrieking heads are outraged. It is possible by the end of the Republican convention we’ll all be wondering how the RNC managed to stab itself in the back and throw itself off Trump Tower three times.
Laura Ingraham joined the circus on the December 11 edition of Courtside Enertainment Group’s The Laura Ingraham Show
See, all the brainiacs over at the RNC, all the brainiacs like Priebus, Dog bless them but they’ve, they all thought they were going to be so clever and tamping down a populist surge. They spent so much time trying to figure out a strategy for, in my mind, stopping the people from having much say over the process. They wanted a strategy to limit debates. Oh, we can’t have all this infighting. Did you ever come to think that maybe, maybe the establishment, as long as it doesn’t listen to the people, is just itching for a fight from the people? Why not actually work with the people? This is what I do not understand. They sit behind closed doors, at these fancy restaurants on Capitol Hill, and then they leak the details to Bob Costa. Because they are trying to scare off the candidates, trying to get people to drop out to pave the way for Marco, or for Jeb’s people.
[…]
INGRAHAM: They don’t listen on trade, on immigration, and even on this issue of limiting people coming into the country. They decide, OK let’s just demonize Trump, let’s demonize Trump and then we’ll demonize the whole populist movement, as a bunch of racists, xenophobics, (inaudible), low information people. They’re all dumb, they’re all stupid, and we’re going to figure it all out at the convention. And this piece merely reconfirms what I’ve been thinking for a long time, that the establishment refuses to listen to the people.
She’s far from alone, as Buchanan’s syndicated column Friday was titled “An Establishment Unhinged” where he argues in defense of Trump (and here he is talking about more than the Republican establishment) “that our political-media establishment is dumb as a box of rocks and leading us down a path to national suicide.”
Buchanan writes,
Calling for a moratorium on Muslim immigration “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” Donald Trump this week ignited a firestorm of historic proportions.
As all the old hate words — xenophobe, racist, bigot — have lost their electric charge from overuse, and Trump was being called a fascist demagogue and compared to Hitler and Mussolini.
The establishment seemed to have become unhinged.
So calling a xenophobe a xenophobe, and a racist a racist (he should know) and a bigot a bigot, is hate speech, apparently, but calling Mexicans a bunch of rapists and murderers, and Muslims a bunch of terrorists, is not hate speech.
In fact, Buchanan goes where Trump went, ignoring all the evidence of domestic terrorism (largely by white, at least nominally 'christian' men with assault weapons), saying:
Muslims are clearly more susceptible to the siren call of terrorism, and more likely to be radicalized on the Internet and in mosques than are 'christians' at cult or Jews at synagogue.
This is not true. As I argued the other day, 'christians' are very susceptible to radicalization, and Fox News is leading the charge, not that Buchanan hasn’t played his own part over the years. After all, he was the racist’s candidate of choice for the presidency back in the day.
Yet though many more Americans have been killed by cult-goers than by mosque-goers, he claims that this lie he just told “is why we monitor mosques more closely than cathedrals.”
Clearly, the establishment is not the people who are unhinged, or, in speaking of the Republican establishment specifically, at least not as unhinged as the Republican base, it’s demagogic leader, and cheering section.
If the plan all along was to utterly destroy itself, the Republican establishment could not have done any better than it has, and without any help from Democrats (such help seems completely superfluous at this point).
This is not to say we should let up (we shouldn’t) only that it is a time-honored precept that one should not interrupt one’s enemy while he is making a mistake. Or, as is the case here, publicly sodomizing himself.

Fundamentals Unchanged: The Republican Cabal Is Still Crazy

How Ryan Failed As House Speaker In Record Time

Ryan gained the Speaker’s Gavel after everyone and their mother determined that he was THE ONLY ONE who could save the wingnuts from disastrous dumbassery after Crybaby McDrunkerson decided to peace out. While…

‘Give me a break’

GOP presidential contender Ben Carson on This Week -- (ABC screen grab)‘Give me a break’: Carson bristles when asked if terrorists might simply lie to gain entry into the US

Fiorina Loses It On Live TV After Finally Being Called Out For Her Planned Parenthood Lies

Carly Fiorina Loses It On Live TV After Finally Being Called Out For Her Planned Parenthood Lies (VIDEO)Six months of lies all led to this spectacular take down of  Fiorina.

Rubio Attacks Cruz On National Security: 'Talks Tough'

Marco Rubio Attacks Ted Cruz On National Security: 'Talks Tough'

Rubio Calls For More Air Strikes In Syria

Marco Rubio Calls For More Air Strikes In Syria

Rubio Vows To Destroy Same-Sex Marriage

Marco Rubio Vows To Destroy Same-Sex Marriage (VIDEO)Rubio is promising to destroy same-sex marriage in all 50 states if he becomes pretender.

Wanna hear a racist joke ...

MTP Panel Pretends Trump Voters Consider Themselves Liberal/Moderate

The Father Of A Fallen Muslim American War Hero Puts Trump In His Place

This is, by far, the best response to Trump’s Islamophobia. On June 8, 2004, Captain Humayun S. M. Khan was serving a tour of duty in Iraq...

Trump's Sick Predecessors: 6 Racist Bullies Who Stirred Up Americans' Basest Instincts

Trump says Republican leaders ‘kidding themselves’ about stopping him

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to the crowd at a town hall meeting on December 12, 2015 in Aiken, South Carolina (AFP Photo/Sean Rayford)Trump says Republican leaders ‘kidding themselves’ about stopping him

This Is Why Trump Sounds and Acts Like Adolf Hitler

According to a recent profile of Hitler in the scholarly journal, Psychiatric Quarterly, all of Trump's tactics are modeled in Hitler speech book the Dumbass kept close by…
trump-fox-news-sunday
It is not unusual for a politician, especially one running for a national office, to study carefully highly successful political leaders’ campaign speeches and rhetoric. It should surprise no American that Republican front-runner for the pretender nomination, Trump, also carefully studied a highly-successful politician, except it was not an American and not the kind of monster any decent American should emulate. Trump is not remotely a decent American, and based on his embrace of Adolf Hitler’s volume of speeches he made between 1918 and 1941, he intends on being an effective Nazi instead of a good American.
It is not like it was a secret that Trump’s hateful speeches, and more troubling, his policy proposals are very close to those instituted in Nazi Germany; even some wingnuts have cited his “fascism.” However, the idea that he has studied, at least since prior to 1990, a book of speeches Hitler used in his rise to power should put an end to complaints about comparing him to Hitler or Godwin’s law.
The not surprising revelation is that prior to becoming a World Wrestling Entertainment or reality show hack, Trump kept a volume of Hitler’s speeches close at hand. Trump’s ex-wife Ivana related in a 1990 interview with Vanity Fair that “from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.” Trump confirmed that the former Mrs. Trump’s 1990 assertion is true.
The Hitler volume, “My New Order” not only contains 23 years’ worth of Hitler’s speeches, “it is profusely indexed and filled with details about the speeches’ impact on the media and the political establishment.” According to a literary periodical, Kirkus Review, Trump’s collection of Hitler speeches containsactual quotations from Hitler’s own utterances, including corresponding data showing the effect on the world press. Section after section follows pattern-background, speech, press;” and Trump faithfully follows Hitler’s model.
The way Trump rages like a madman, responds aggressively in public and argues closely follows Hitler’s instructions in “My New Order.” Trump successfully learned about targeting the audience’s lowest common denominator, how scare-propaganda works, and how to structure an emotional speech for effect and to incite rage. Trump has succeeded up to now in emulating his apparent Nazi hero because a recent analysis in the New York Times concludes that Trump is as proficient at hateful demagoguery as any 20th Century monster; they stopped short of naming Hitler…Godwin and all.
According to a recent profile of Hitler in the scholarly journal, Psychiatric Quarterly, all of Trump’s tactics are modeled in Hitler speech book the Dumbass kept close by his bed.
The elements of a delusional system are all there. This is not simply to say that the man is mad and so has plunged the world into chaos; but it is to say that there is overwhelming evidence in 19 years of his speeches that he firmly believes many of his most absurd declarations, including some which are contradictory.”
Note that Trump uses his audience’s racial animus and rage to attack Hispanics, African Americans and Middle Eastern Americans, and “mocks women and disabled people” with impunity. He also threatens to obliterate whatever enemies “he names or decides are enemies without regard for facts or inconsistency in his statements because he plays to his supporters’ fears and prejudices.
The reason Trump is leading Republicans is due to the hate, lack of intelligence and sheer terror of any and everything among his followers. According to a profile of Trump supporters, “One half of his voters have a high school education or less which is why Trump appeals to that special breed of southern Republican; with a particularly special appeal to Texans.”
Apparently Trump “took the highest proportion of Texas support from Cruz” which speaks volumes because the Cuban-Canadian immigrant himself is a very special breed of southern evangelical fascist. It is noteworthy, too, that although it is a mystery if Cruz officially embraces Adolf Hitler’s Nazism, he does in fact utilize the same tools as Trump; just not as effectively.
As the New York Times reported, Trump’s words are carefully crafted to appeal to angry, frightened, and ignorant racists. The Times analyzed “the content and style of all of Trump’s speeches between July and November, and although they were too terrified of Godwin’s law to mention Trump’s embrace of Adolf Hitler’s style of speech, they did note several Americans he emulates.
The Times wrote;
Trump’s pattern of elevating emotional appeals over rational ones is a rhetorical style that historians, psychologists and political scientists placed in the tradition of Goldwater, George Wallace, Joseph McCarthy, Huey Long and Pat Buchanan.” The men were all notorious American hate-mongers like Adolf Hitler who used vile language, propaganda, and fear to win favor with scared Americans.
In fact, in responding to a request from the Times, “Several historians watched Trump’s speeches last week and observed familiar techniques, like vilifying groups of people and stoking the insecurities of his audiences, that they associate with racist George Wallace and fascist Joseph McCarthy;” two of America’s worst, most notorious, and extremely dangerous demagogues.
What continues to be curious and monumental omission from any media reporting is that Trump would be finished already if not for his terrified, old, white and hateful base of support; a base who will remain fully intact when the Hitler acolyte is gone. And, they will be extraordinarily angry because the man that best represents their “ugly American” ideal will no longer represent their deep-seated hatred of everything. He also will not be the führer they want as president and America will not be the Aryan Utopia that Trump and his Republican base lusts after. Although that is a good thing, no Führer and no Aryan nation, a very significant number of Americans would disagree and it is why Dumbass Trump is parroting Adolf Hitler to raging success.

Trump's Corporate Media Coverage Outnumbers Bernie's 81 to 1

Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘Killed Hundreds Of Thousands Of People With Her Stupidity’

Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘Killed Hundreds Of Thousands Of People With Her Stupidity’ (VIDEO)
According to The Dumbass, Hillary Clinton “killed hundreds of thousands of people” in Benghazi and other places.

Portrait Of A Con: Trump’s Inflated Self Worth

Featured image credit: Ninian Reid, via Flckr CC 2.0How much is Trump really worth? During sworn testimony, Trump told the court it changes rapidly based on his feelings. No, really.

Trump Defends Having Greasy, Disgusting Hair, Inadvertently Admits He Has Greasy, Disgusting Hair

One of the downsides to never shutting up is that occasionally you’ll put your foot forcefully into your mouth. Trump never shuts up. In a...

Trump Calls Cruz 'A Maniac' Not 'Qualified To Be President'

Donald Trump Calls Ted Cruz 'A Maniac' Not 'Qualified To Be President'

Veteran Newsman Ted Koppel Blasts Trump For Being A Top Recruiter For ISIL

Trump is the best player on ISIL’s team according to legendary news anchor Ted Koppel. During an interview on Meet The Press on Sunday, Koppel...

Trump Has An Absolutely Terrifying Plan For The Supreme Court