Actually ...

Republicans must think their base voters are ‘wearing sheets’

Chris Matthews: Republicans must think their base voters are ‘wearing sheets’

Jon Stewart hammers ‘narc’ Chris Christie

Jon Stewart hammers ‘narc’ Chris Christie for online gambling push while ripping legal marijuana

Oh Rick, Honey, You’re A Mess

Oh Rick, is a moron, bless his lil' heart

Link Dump

income inequality is bad for your health

how big pharma gouges Americans

beware the corporate stand against bad political law

what we can learn from the workers who tore down the first gilded age

the emerging GOP war platform
Toledo hospitals object to price comparisons
the most insane products from Glenn Beck's insane clothing line

workers say the fight for 15 is about more than just raises

14 reasons the congressional GOP has declared economic war on Americans

who needs a boss?

making the rich and powerful work for everyone

Here are 6 Republicans who desperately need a high-school sex ed class

The wingnuts have some very unusual opinions and misconceptions on how women's bodies work.

Morons who desperately need a high-school sex ed class

Michigan Republican: I Will Not Support Childcare Funding Bill Because Daycare Is ‘Gubmint’ Brainwashing

Rampant Paranoia runs deep in the wingnut ranks and we all suffer because of it.

Read full story

Proof That Bigots Are Not the Best and Brightest

If you listen to the anti-gay rhetoric coming from the GOP, you realize just how desperately hateful and stupid these people are…

Michele Bachmann has assured us that the Rapture is imminent, and that “we in our lifetimes potentially could see Jesus Christ returning to earth and the Rapture of the church.”

Thanks, Obama.

But until our Evangelical neighbors start drifting skyward and getting in the way of Amazon’s delivery drones and drive CNN to distraction, we have to continue to deal with our mundane reality.

Like so-called Religious Freedom legislation. And the people we wish would float away (seriously, Michele, nobody wants the Rapture more than we do), like Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall, author of one of those repressive RFRAs.

It’s funny how we keep hearing that, as the American Family Association’s Tim Wildmon puts it, we hate them because they allegedly ‘represent God’s message of a moral standard having to do with sexuality’ while they have absolutely no standards where honesty is concerned.

And let’s face it: honesty made the Ten Commandments and sexual morals did not. So which is more important? Thou shallt not diddle or thou shallt not bear false witness?

So we find Bob Marshall lying like a rug about his legislation and other recent RFRAs, like Indiana’s, which he claims is identical to Virginia’s current 2007 law – which is based on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 – even though it is not.

Marshall is angry that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe published a letter in the Indianapolis Star inviting businesses to relocate to Virginia. You’d think he’d be happy McAuliffe is drumming up business for his state, but Marshall takes it as an insult to heterosexuals.

Gov. McAuliffe wrote,

In light of that responsibility and recent events in Indiana, I would like to welcome you to take advantage of Virginia’s open, inclusive and thriving business environment.

In Virginia, we do not discriminate against our friends and neighbors, particularly those who are supporting local businesses and generating economic activity.

According to Marshall,

When you actually look at the rhetoric, that you need these laws to hire the best and the brightest, that kind of like is a sweeping statement that says that heterosexuals cannot be the best and the brightest.

No. I think it’s saying that bigots cannot be the best and the brightest.

And to prove my point, Marshall says that the LGBT community isn’t being discriminated against anyway:

My question is, what possible rights can a person who has this inclination have that you don’t have right now? I mean, homosexuals go to public schools, they can go to colleges, they vote, they drive cars, they have businesses, they go to country clubs. I don’t know what else is needed.

You don’t get to enjoy the kingdom of God when you’re a big fat liar, do you? Maybe Bachmann is right to get all worked up. It seems strange that she would blame Obama for what is, after all, supposed to be a good thing.

Maybe she agrees with Harlem pastor James David Manning who likes to rant about “Obama’s homo-demons,” and the coming “homosexual Armageddon!” Manning says “The sodomites are the most vicious, demonic, vile people,” even though he and his Evangelical friends are the ones acting like ***hats.

There is something seriously messed up about people like this, and what is disturbing is that these attitudes cut across all segments of the right wing, from top down and from bottom up. Hate permeates the Republican Party.

Well, hate and stupidity. We can’t forget that James Dobson thinks bisexuality means orgies:

“I would like them to think, just for a moment, about ‘LGBT. The ‘B’ stand for bisexual! That’s orgies! Are you really going to support this?”

Does he sound a bit breathless and excited to you, too?

These people are not only backing some of the crazy laws passed by Republican legislatures, but they’re the ones responsible for them being written in the first place.

Even while the Republicans are giving our money to corporations hand over fist, Liberty Counsel’s Matt Staver is claiming “studies estimate” that “homosexuality” is costing the federal government tens of billions of dollars (heterosexuals don’t cost a penny, apparently).

It is a well-known fact that stupid people don’t realize they are stupid. As Plato said, you have to be wise to know how much you don’t know. And there is not a drop of wisdom to be found in the Republican Party, which is living proof that room temperature IQs go hand in hand with bigotry.

I personally suspect that all these men have very small penises too as a driving force of their insecurities, though I have no interest in proving it (and by Republican standards, at any rate, should not have to). I can’t exclude Michele Bachmann and her wife Marcus from this either, for the same reasons.

I’m not sayin’. I’m just sayin’.

Walmart closings ignite wingnut fears of martial law and Russian ‘death domes’

"From the Boston Marathon bombings to Sandy Hook, the government has been executing false flags for purposes of imposing absolute NWO control over its citizens."

Martial Law and Russian ‘Death Domes’

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  

 

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This is how Republicans celebrate Earth Day ... !

Today is - Earth Day
 

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'Flag-saving' wingnut violated Flag Code during nude photo shoots

A Georgia wingnut who stopped protesters from “desecrating” the American flag last week apparently doesn’t mind mistreating the flag herself.

Oopsie

Obama White House Strongly Condemns The Murder Of Ethiopian Christians By ISIL Terrorists

The White House is strongly condemning the murder of 28 Ethiopian christians by terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State.

In a statement, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the brutal mass murder purportedly of Ethiopian christians by ISIL-affiliated terrorists in Libya. We express our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Ethiopian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens. That these terrorists killed these men solely because of their faith lays bare the terrorists’ vicious, senseless brutality. This atrocity once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya to empower a unified Libyan rejection of terrorist groups.

Even as terrorists attempt through their unconscionable acts to sow discord among religious communities, we recall that people of various faiths have coexisted as neighbors for centuries in the Middle East and Africa. With the force of this shared history behind them, people across all faiths will remain united in the face of the terrorists’ barbarity. The United States stands with them. While these dehumanizing acts of terror aim to test the world’s resolve – as groups throughout history have – none have the power to vanquish the powerful core of moral decency which binds humanity and which will ultimately prove the terrorists’ undoing.

The ISIL terrorists shot 16 Ethiopian christians and beheaded 12 others. islamic extremists targeted Ethiopia, because of their military’s attacks on Muslim dominated neighboring Somalia.

The White House is correct. The only thing that ISIL is accomplishing is uniting persons of all faiths in all countries on the agreed upon goal of the elimination of the terrorists. Humanity is united against the barbaric terrorist acts of ISIL.

Obama Is About To Sign The Biggest Health Care Bill Since Obamacare

 President Barack Obama is poised to sign into law the most far-reaching health care reform bill since Obamacare, permanently ending the "doc fix" dilemma that has haunted Congress for more than a decade.It also slashes Medicare benefits for upper-income seniors.
And in the strangest of twists, the legislation passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, an exceedingly rare achievement for a Congress that has all but ceased to address big, long-term problems.
The legislation passed the Senate on Tuesday night by a vote of 92-8. It was approved 392-37 by the House last month before Easter recess. Obama had endorsed the proposal as Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) were closing in on a deal.
"It's another reminder of a new Republican Congress that's back to work," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
On the urging of Boehner and McConnell, the Senate rejected six amendments to the legislation offered by both parties and approved it as written. Boehner is expected to send Obama the legislation after a House signing ceremony on Thursday.
"Through this bold, necessary legislation, we have secured critical support for low-income seniors, for poor children, and for underserved communities across the country," said Pelosi.
The legislation has three broad components.
First, it fixes a gaping hole in the Medicare program by replacing the formula to pay physicians - known as the Sustainable Growth Rate - which imposes steep annual cuts that Congress has routinely overridden for 12 years. Instead doctors will receive a 0.5 percent pay bump for each of the next five years before transitioning to a new system aimed at paying them for quality of care.
Second, it cuts billions of dollars from Medicare. It requires seniors who earn between $133,500 and $214,000 a year (and couples making twice that amount) to pay more for insurance and prescription drug coverage, and cuts spending on supplemental Medigap plans in order to discourage over-utilization of services on the taxpayer dime. It also modestly reduces long-term spending on providers of hospice care, home health services and nursing homes.
Third, it extends the Children's Health Care Program for two years, moving the new expiration date to October 1, 2017. (Democrats had pushed for a four-year extension but House Republicans rejected that idea and Senate Republicans killed an amendment to that effect.)
Physician groups, including the American Medical Association, rejoiced..
The long-term Medicare changes are an important legacy achievement for Boehner, whose restive right flank has for years thwarted his efforts to secure entitlement deals with Democrats. This time many House conservatives, fed up with perennial "doc fixes," gave him their blessing to cut the deal with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and stood by him.
In the end, most of the opponents were hardline Republican fiscal hawks who complained that the permanent "doc fix" wasn't fully paid for, including Sens. Ted Cruz (TX) and Marco Rubio (FL). It is projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to add $141 billion to the deficit in the next decade.
Notably, numerous GOP fiscal hawks who have a background as physicians put aside their deficit concerns to vote for the measure, including Sen. Rand Paul (KY), Sen. John Barrasso (WY), Rep. Tom Price (GA), Rep. John Fleming (LA) and Michael Burgess (TX). The Medicare benefit cuts were a draw for some conservatives.

More

For Corporate Profits Republicans Want President Obama To Skirt Congress’ Authority

The word duplicitous may be unknown or novel among Republicans, but it should not; particularly because it describes their speech and actions as a matter of course. The word means contradictory doubleness of speech or actions, often belying one’s true intentions by deceptive words, counsel, or action.  The term came up this week when Republicans in the Senate, offended that the President singled them out by name, expressed disappointment that their typical obstructionism, traitorous backstabbing, and contrary demands drew sharp and fairly blunt criticism from the President the likes they have not heard in six years. For many Americans, particularly those supportive of the President, his blunt talk was long overdue and likely why Republicans were taken aback that the President had the temerity to attack Senate Republicans; by name no less.

It was actually White House spokesman Josh Earnest who used the term ‘duplicitous’ after the President lashed out at the over five month delay in getting a Senate confirmation vote on his nominee for Attorney General Loretta Lynch. More on that later. The President did not mince words in telling Senate Republicans there was no excuse for not confirming Lynch whom he nominated back in 2014 and said “This is embarrassing, a process like this.” The only thing the President failed to say is that Republicans have been an embarrassment for the past six years, but apparently he was couching his bluntness with a little diplomacy; a less restrained President would not have held back.

The President also singled out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “trying to tell the world, oh, don’t have confidence in the U.S. government’s abilities to fulfill any climate change pledge that we might make.” Again, the President held back from really raking McConnell over the proverbial coals, and he failed to berate turtle-boy mercilessly for telling governors not to implement new carbon emission rules. Rules that McConnell claimed, like the climate change agreement, were illegal and that Republicans were working to put an abrupt end to them. Seriously, the President should have slammed McConnell for issuing a directive to governors to violate federal law while he was on a roll, but he was likely making another attempt at being diplomatic with McConnell; something it is time to bring to an end.

The President criticized John McCain for bitching and moaning about something in the nuclear negotiations with Iran that might prohibit expediting the war he has panted over for the past decades. But that is just typical John McCain who condemns something he has never seen if he even thinks it might prevent another war. The President could have let the old warmonger’s typical remarks go instead of giving him any exposure; most Americans acknowledge that McCain hates peace and like his running mate Palin, it is best to ignore them both.  However, with the aid of some Democrats loyal to Israeli Netanyahu, McCain helped successfully pressure the President to relent and give Congress say over the P5+1 negotiations, so the criticism targeting McCain was likely face-saving, but not duplicitous.

Now, when White House spokesman Josh Earnest used the term ‘duplicitous,’ he was referring to the never-ending wait for Senate Republicans to hold a confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch as Attorney General. Specifically, Earnest condemned Senator Chuck Grassley by noting that Grassley counseled President Obama back in October not to dare attempt to push through Ms. Lynch’s confirmation during the lame duck Senate in November and December, but now says the delay is the fault of Democrats who should have acted when they had a Senate majority. It is that kind of bovine excrement that Earnest called “duplicitous.” When he was asked if using such a terribly harsh word like ‘duplicitous’ to describe Republicans was a very smart move or would accomplish anything positive, Earnest replied, “Being nice has gotten us a 160-day delay. So maybe after they look up ‘duplicitous’ in the dictionary we’ll get a different result.”

However, the real duplicity came from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after the President criticized him for both holding up the Lynch confirmation vote and telling foreign nations America has no intention of meeting its commitment to reduce its carbon emissions that are driving global climate change. McConnell said that “Rather than spending so much time criticizing people like Chuck Grassley and myself, he ought to be out there lining up the Democratic votes for trade promotion authority. This is a time for presidential leadership.”

Republicans loyal to multinational corporations that are moving American jobs, and tax free profits, offshore maintain that President Obama should be working on their legislative effort to give the President executive authority to negotiate trade deals without having to bother going through, or face delays, in the United States Congress. Many Democrats are rightly in opposition to such a bad deal fearing it will cost even more American jobs and lower environmental standards. President Obama says he can protect jobs and the environment, but he is only President for another year-and-a-half and if Republicans have demonstrated anything over the past six years, repealing things that do not profit corporations is their raison d’être.

What is duplicitous and very telling about how Republicans operate, and where their only loyalties and priorities lie, is that they are pushing the President to seek unilateral authority to negotiate and sign an international trade deal; something that requires congressional approval. And yet they have done everything in their power and all but forbid him from exercising his rightful executive authority where Congress has no say according to the Constitution; like on immigration enforcement and negotiating with foreign governments. In fact, on every occasion President Obama has exercised executive authority, Republicans have taken extreme measures to thwart his executive authority including threatening a lawsuit, passing approval for an international border-crossing construction project, and demanding a final say over a United Nation’s nuclear agreement with Iran. However, they are rabid to grant unconstitutional presidential authority to negotiate an international trade agreement without Congress’ “interference” because it benefits Republicans’ biggest donors.

McConnell and Republicans push and demand that the President lobby Democrats for authority to skirt Congress for a corporate-friendly trade deal is without doubt contradictory doubleness of speech and actions. It is also without a doubt something the President needs to harshly condemn with the same bluntness he has displayed recently and he needs to do it in very public forums at every opportunity; and he needs to inform Americans why Republicans want Congress out of the way. If nothing else, it will inform the American people that Republicans cannot support the Constitution when it comes to Executive authority on any level and just how far they are willing to go to enrich corporations, kill more Americans’ jobs, continue to endanger the environment, and keep corporate income tax free. However, informing Americans of any of those aspects of a bad trade deal is something one of its biggest proponents is hardly going to do because that would be duplicitous.

Bernie Sanders 'Making Sure You Have The Money'

"Making sure you have the money to run a credible campaign is very important," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

'Making Sure You Have The Money'

Obama Is Set To Troll Rick Scott By Giving Climate Change Speech In Florida

Let’s see Rick Scott try and stop the president from saying climate change.

Read more

Martin O’Malley Comes Out Swinging Against GOP, Calls Their Economic Theories ‘Bullshit’

O’Malley came out swinging at the Republican economic policies of trickle-down theory and fewer regulations.

Read more 

Latest Poll Shows Hillary Clinton Crushing The Republican Field By Double Digits

A CNN/ORC poll released on Monday finds Hillary Clinton is still dominating the Republican field in the 2016 presidential race. Clinton leads each hypothetical GOP candidate by a margin of at least 14 percentage points. The telephone poll was conducted between April 16-19, 2015, generating responses from a representative sample of 1,018 adult Americans.

The survey found that Clinton holds a commanding lead over each potential Republican opponent.  The closest match-up is against Florida Senator Marco Rubio. In that race, Clinton leads 55-41 percent. She has a 56-39 advantage over Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. She leads both Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie by a 58-39 margin. Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson are in even more miserable shape, as each of them trail Hillary Clinton by over 20 percentage points.

The Republican field appears wide open, with no candidate garnering better than 20 percent support. Bush leads the GOP race with 17 percent, followed by Scott Walker at 12 percent, and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, both at 11 percent. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is dominating the field with 69 percent support. Her nearest Democratic challenger, Vice President Joe Biden, is favored by just 11 percent of potential Democratic primary voters.

Although Hillary Clinton has received a fair amount of negative press coverage in the past couple of months, her candidacy seems to be weathering the storm quite well. Republicans hoping that they have carved into her lopsided lead may find Monday’s poll numbers disheartening. For all their efforts, the GOP doesn’t seem to be gaining any traction in slowing down the Clinton campaign juggernaut.

The Republicans have been chomping at the bit for a chance to win back the White House. However, this new poll suggests that while American voters are ready for Hillary, the Republican candidates certainly are not. Every one of the GOP candidates is getting steamrolled by Clinton in the polls.

The general election is still almost a year and a half away, so the polls may tighten between now and then. But as of April 2015, there isn’t a single Republican candidate who polls competitively against Hillary Clinton. If that dynamic doesn’t change, Hillary Clinton will become America’s first woman president. Not only that, but she would accomplish the feat in convincing fashion, vanquishing her GOP opponent in a historic landslide.

Watch The Hilarious Spoof Which Has Hillary-Haters Hyperventilating With Rage

If American voters were wondering if wingnuts could hit a lower point than Benghazi, they just got their answer.

Read more 

Rand Paul Hits A New Low By Begging People On The Internet For Dirt On Hillary Clinton

Rand Paul has been promising a mystery Hillary Clinton scandal that he can’t deliver, so the Kentucky senator is begging his supporters on the Internet to send him their dirt on Clinton.

Politico reported:

Rand Paul is soliciting information regarding the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of contributions from foreign governments in his latest move to cast doubt on the former secretary of state’s candidacy.

“Do you have additional information about the Clinton Foundation accepting foreign contributions?” a page on Paul’s campaign website reads. Users can then enter their first and last names, along with their ZIP code, email address and the information they have. The form shared by Paul on Sunday via Twitter did not appear to include a secure HTTPS protocol.

In his speeches, he has promised some mystery scandal that will destroy Hillary Clinton’s campaign. When pressed for details, Paul said nothing. The begging for dirt on Hillary Clinton on his campaign website suggested that he is open to any crazy unsubstantiated wingnut conspiracy theory.

It is impossible to take a presidential candidate seriously who promises a big scandal but has to ask his supporters to dig something up.

Sen. Paul is not hanging all of his hopes on a soon to be released book by a former Bush speechwriting consultant and wingnut media hack that turns the Clinton Foundation into the new Republican boogeyman that will sink her campaign.

Paul’s quest for dirt on Clinton is not only a sign of the Democratic frontrunner’s strength, but also his own desperation. For a brief time last year, it looked like Rand Paul could be a top-tier Republican presidential candidate, but Paul has been quickly pushed to the second tier behind Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Marco Rubio. Paul is competing with Sen. Ted Cruz and possibly Mike Huckabee to be the candidate that joins the top of the Republican field.

Just like Paul’s attempt to find dirt on Clinton, the Republican attempt to turn the Clinton Foundation into the new Whitewater won’t work. The Republican bag of tricks is quickly emptying, as candidates like Rand Paul are flailing about while trying to stop Hillary Clinton.

Rand Paul: The Nastiest Candidate Of Them All

Paul's comments about Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire are just a taste of things to come.

The Nastiest Of Them All

The Truth Be Told

'Serious' GOP Contenders About as Serious as Sarah Palin

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

'Serious' GOP Contenders About as Serious as Sarah Palin

Chris Christie Goes the Full Donald Trump

From the "Public Enemies" Department: 

Chris Christie Goes the Full Donald Trump

No, Ted Cruz, the 2nd Amendment doesn’t protect your right to rebellion

Ted Cruz is apparently running for President of National Riflestan instead of the United States.

Ted Cruz is an idiot

Wisconsin Republican Wants To Make Poor People Shop In Separate But Probably Not Equal Grocery Stores

Republicans are always looking for legal ways to discriminate.
Read more 

Wingnut Councilwoman Caught On Video Slapping 6-Year-Old Autistic Child’s Face

A wingnut Washington city councilwoman showed her devotion to “christian family values” by slapping an autistic child.

Read more 

Study quantifies how much welfare spending goes to subsidizing low wages

What could America do with an extra $153 billion dollars?

Subsidizing low wages

Walmart Closing Five Stores For 'Plumbing Problems'

And if you believe that, I have some swampland in New Jersey I'd like to sell you. 

'Plumbing Problems' - Yeah, Right

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  

 

The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.

 
Republicans can't handle Kindergarteners, they too mature and smart for Republicans ... !

Today is - Kindergarten Day
 

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Michelle Obama Just Made Groundbreaking Remarks On Native American Struggles

So given this history, we shouldn’t be surprised at the challenges that kids in Indian Country are facing today. And we should never forget that we played a role in this. Make no mistake about it – we own this.

Read more 

Call'em What They Are ...

Democrats Mock the First 100 Days of Fail of the Boehner and McConnell Led Congress

Republicans really shouldn’t make this so easy for Democrats. Just as Boehner has become synonymous with fail, to the degree that even the beltway admits regularly that he can’t get done or won’t get done what he says he will or what he needs to do for the party, now the entire Congress is infested with the stench of GOP fail.

Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office sent out a memo Sunday morning mocking Republicans for the fail.

You have to see the entire memo to get the full sense of fail, from an uprising against establishment leaders to fails on immigration with calls for mass deportation to catering to the 1% and pretending it makes sense and is good for Main Street to being unable to fund the DHS for weeks even as terrorist attacks made the headlines, it is not a recommendation for Republican leadership.

Here you go:

Last week marked the first 100 days since the start of the 114th Republican Congress.  What have Americans seen from Speaker Boehner and House Republicans?  Let’s go through a headlines recap of the past 10 legislative weeks.

WEEK ONE:

• Washington Post- John Boehner just endured the biggest revolt against a House speaker in more than 150 years 

·         New York Times - House Republicans Change Rules on Calculating Economic Impact of Bills

WEEK TWO:

• MSNBC- House GOP goes on the record for mass deportation

WEEK THREE:

• CBS News- ​House GOP abruptly drops plans to debate abortion bill after backlash

• Huffington Post- GOP Quietly Giving Committee Chairmen Unilateral Subpoena Power

WEEK FOUR:

• New York Times- Republicans Pretend to Care About Inequality

WEEK FIVE:

• VOX- GOP Rep. Mo Brooks says maybe you should blame immigrants for measles

• New York Times- House G.O.P. Again Votes to Repeal Health Care Law

• POLITICO- Boehner: No clear idea how McConnell will resolve DHS standoff

WEEK SIX:

• Slate- House and Senate Republicans Blame Each Other for Screwing Up GOP Legislative Greatness

WEEK SEVEN: 

• Tampa Bay Editorial- House Republicans should not hold Homeland Security hostage

• NJ.com Editorial- On immigration, GOP will pay for obstruction

WEEK EIGHT:

• The Hill- The terrible, horrible, no good start for GOP

• Washington Post- No House Republican leaders are going to Selma this weekend. That’s a dumb move.

WEEK NINE:

• New York Times- Chasm Grows Within G.O.P. Over Spending

• Washington Post- Error in House budget understated spending cuts by $900 million

• Washington Post- House Republicans want to cut back grants for poor college students

WEEK TEN:

• Huffington Post- Divided House GOP Prevents Embarrassment, Passes Budget Boosting Defense Spending

Also last week, House Republicans twice voted to block equal pay for equal work and passed a ”massive tax break for millionaires, billionaires.”   Stay tuned for more – their obstruction, dysfunction and distraction is bound to intensify.

What’s happened to the Republican Party is it no longer stands for the things it is supposed to stand for, and that is really why it’s become a hot mess as seen above. While catering to lunatics and fringers in order to get votes, the real agenda of the party is to serve the top 1%. They have to mask this purpose in order to peel off the misinformed and the uninformed, but it creates internal chaos to have an agenda that is vastly different from what your base thinks you stand for.

This is not the party of personal responsibility and it can’t be defended any longer. It is not even the party of the wealthy and educated who feel they make better decisions for the masses, a position that can be legitimately defended even if you don’t agree with it. No, this is the party of raging deficits because they can’t tax big business at all, but they preach about deficits being bad. This is the party of “liberty” and “freedom” that actively works to take freedom and liberty away from many minorities, including deliberately working to undermine minority voting rights because, in general, minorities are on to them.

This record of fail doesn’t bode well for Republicans in 2016. How can they make the case that they can lead? Perhaps they will do it as they always do– giving them the Senate wasn’t enough, they really need the White House in order to accomplish anything. Like John McCain promising to tell us where Bin Laden after we elected him. This has been their go-to line for a while now.

But the truth is always in the policy.

And policy wise, the Republican Party has pushed for things to cater to the fringers and passed things to serve their 1% masters. Fringers and puppet masters. That is what has become of the party that used to stand for personal responsibility and fiscal conservatism.

It is now left to the Democrats to demonstrate the kind of fiscal restraint and responsibility that they are not known for, but have actually been practicing for a while. No, they aren’t trying to drown government and starve the poor, so they are not turning into actual conservatives, but in terms of fiscal responsibility, their budgets tend to add up and they aren’t pretending that math isn’t a thing. They try to pay as they go, even when it means admitting uncomfortable political positions of raising taxes, albeit on the wealthy — a position that is popular, but costly in terms of dark money spent against them in elections.

Democrats have become the party of grown ups. That’s what this memo represents, and it matters.

Bernie Sanders Storms Sunday Morning And Drops A Liberal Bomb On Fox News

The Republican-dominated Sunday morning shows got a blast of liberalism as Bernie Sanders stormed Fox News Sunday and showed the conservative Fox viewers what liberalism really looks like.

Host Chris Wallace tried to use Senator Sanders to attack Clinton, but the Vermont senator turned his question towards a discussion of the billionaires and Citizens United. Sanders said, “My point is it’s not just Hillary Clinton….Well, the answer is that I think that is the fight we have to wage if we are going to save the middle-class, and I do have doubts about whether Hillary Clinton or any Republican candidate out there is willing to take on the big money interest who control so much of our economy, and as a result of Citizens United, so much of our political process as well.”

Sanders added, “But what we need to do, Chris is to understand that in America if we’re going to be successful in taking on the billionaire class, we need a strong national grassroots movement, and what the Secretary will have to convince the American people is in fact based on her past record and her views today that she is in fact going to break up the major banks on Wall Street. That she is going to ask the wealthiest people in this country to start paying their fair share of taxes. That she’s going to end the abomination of major corporations making billions of dollars, stashing their money in the Cayman Islands and not paying a nickel in federal income taxes. That in fact she is prepared to deal with our disastrous trade policies.”

Host Chris Wallace tried to divide Sanders and Clinton on the TPP, but Sanders talked about how trade agreements don’t create jobs and have driven wages down, “I think we don’t need to be sending more jobs to low-wage countries. I think corporate America has got to start investing in this country, and create decent paying jobs here.”

Sanders turned around a question about Vermont dropping their idea for single payer into a discussion of the dysfunctional U.S. health care system.

Sensing that some of the common sense ideas of Senator Sanders might be popular with their audience, Fox News Sunday tried to poison the well by inaccurately suggesting that Sanders wanted a fifteen percent cut in military spending. The Vermont senator responded by highlighting the need to eliminate excess and waste in the budget.

Fox News Sunday viewers got a dose of the real face of liberalism, which was much different from the bastardized and demonized version of the left that Roger Ailes markets to his 2 million or so viewers every day.

Fox News Sunday hosted Sen. Sanders because they are trying to create conflict and divide on the left, but they got for their efforts was a healthy dose of the populism that Republicans despise with a passion. Bernie Sanders will not be the tip of the media’s spear against Hillary Clinton, and Fox News Sunday’s plan to create divide and discord was blown to shreds by Senator Sanders.

The Truth Be Told

Cashin' In Crew Attacks CEO Who Upped Workers' Pay To $70K A Year

The shrieking heads on Fox were doing their best to look out for the 1 percent once again.

Cashin' In Crew Attacks CEO Who Upped Workers' Pay To $70K A Year

Paul Ryan's immoral act requires a response

It is hard to believe that Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his ilk would be so blatant in showing that their main purpose in Congress is to serve the wealthy. This is neither hyperbole nor an exaggeration. Matt O'Brien in the Washington Post says it best:

A specter is haunting America's super-rich - the specter of progressive taxation.

Don't worry, though, the Republican Party is manning the barricades against this menace. That's been true for the last 35 years, and it's no less so now. Indeed, the Paul Ryan-led House Ways and Means Committee just symbolically voted to end the estate tax entirely. In other words, to stand in solidarity with the heirs of the top 0.2 percent.
That's how many households pay the estate tax now: 2 out of 1,000. Why so low? Well, the first $5.43 million that an individual or $10.86 million that a couple leaves behind isn't taxed when they pass away. The estate tax, with its 40 percent top rate, only kicks in for anything more than that. And even then, creative accountants and big deductions can shield a lot of the rest from Uncle Sam. So it's important to remember that there's a difference between the top marginal tax rate and the effective tax rate that estates pay. Since the super-rich only owe the estate tax on some of what they own, they actually pay, on average, 16.6 percent of the value of their estate.
Here is the thing: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the estate tax repeal would cost $269 billion in reduced revenues between fiscal 2016 and 2025. If one counts the incurred interest on the debt from the deficit it would create, the figure jumps to $320 billion. Worse, the estate tax repeal affects only 0.2 percent of Americans-in other words, 99.8 percent of Americans get no benefit from said tax cut because they could not possibly inherit, or receive income and capital they did not work for, that would qualify for the estate tax repeal.

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Scott Walker Talks Up GOP Common Sense While Proving He Has None in NH Speech

Walker throws facts and history to the wind as he talks up a fantasy GOP with common sense that nowhere exists and has no chance of existing…

After being booted to a smaller room at the Republican Leadership Summit at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, Scott Walker talked about how Republican common-sense can fix everything in Washington, that “there is no end to how much better things can be” with “common-sense” GOP leadership in the Capitol.

Yes, Walker throws facts and history to the wind as he talks up a fantasy GOP with common sense that nowhere exists, and furthermore, has no chance of existing.

“If you put common-sense Republican, conservative leadership in place, if that team works together, there is no end to the good things that can happen. If we do that in Washington — with a Republican House, Senate, and president — there is no end to how much better things can be.”

He says that while the GOP controls two-thirds of the federal government – the legislative and the judicial. This is a GOP that has, since 2009, made nothing but bad decisions when they can be bothered to make any decisions at all.

Not enough for you?

Then remember that it was Republican common sense that got us into two un-funded wars, destroyed the world economy, and paved the way for the rise of ISIL in the ruins of Iraq, and country Republican common sense destroyed.

Remember the last time Republicans controlled the House, the Senate, and the presidency, back in 2005-2006 (The 109th Congress): We had George W. Bush as President, Dennis Hastert as Speaker of the House, and Ted Stevens as Senate President pro tem.

Things were far from better in 2005-2006, and were well on the way to getting much worse.

Yet, ignoring the lessons of history both national and local, Walker cited among his own Bush-like accomplishments, destroying Wisconsin’s economy, attacking workers’ rights, and putting women’s health at risk because “We no longer fund Planned Parenthood.”

Walker bragged that, “I got together in the capital with all the Republicans, those in office and the newly-elected,” and “I said, ‘It is put up or shut up.'”

He did neither. He neither put up any accomplishments nor shut up about lying about it, as you can see:

I said: ‘We need to go big and bold. We need to show we are different than the party we replaced.’ I don’t think anybody would doubt that we went big and bold.

The reason it sustained us during the attacks and protests because we knew it was because of my sons,” Walker said, referring to his two now-adult sons, Matthew and Alex. “All the others of their generation. Sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. We knew it was not acceptable to have a state that was better than the one we inherited.

It was not just about taking on protests. We had to bring together Republicans in both houses. Sometimes, there are people who like the status quo, even in our own party. They don’t want to change things.

We had to make the case for why reform was necessary.

Which is no doubt why, while he is popular with NH Republicans, he is losing to Hillary in his own state by a margin of 52-40.

The guy who has massive school layoffs, healthcare, food stamp cuts populating his Koch budget, claimed,

When we not only grow the economy, but put people into better jobs and raise wages, we put ourselves in a position where we lower the deficit problem by raising the amount of revenue — not by higher rates but by spreading the volume.

Raise wages? To what? Scott Walker says $7.25/hour is a living wage. Does he plan to ante up an extra nickel?

Walker proved his policy platform is anchored solidly not on actual ideas of his own, but opposition to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, claiming that “Americans need to realize that. This isn’t a third term of Bill Clinton. This is a third term of Barack Obama.”

When I think about the president and people like Hillary Clinton, they seem to measure success in government by how many people who are on Medicaid and food stamps and unemployment.

We should measure success on the opposite: by people who are no longer dependent on the government. Freedom and prosperity do not come from the mighty hand of the government. It comes from allowing people to live their own lives and control her own destiny through the dignity that is born of work.

Because being paid a pittance, lacking healthcare, losing your home, your car, and starving with your family is so dignified. Republican ideas about dignity are as bizarre as their ideas of religious freedom.

And of course, Walker, who has said if he can defeat a bunch of peaceful labor unions protesting against having their rights illegally taken away that he can defeat a bunch of heavily armed terrorists like ISIL, and who compared ISIL to a computer virus, who dodged questions about how HE would defeat ISIL, attacked Obama’s foreign policy, which in a round-about way amounts to an endorsement of Obama’s foreign policy:

It is so frustrating to think that we have a president that a couple of years ago drew a line in the sand — and a lot of people crossed it. We have a president that called ISIS just a year ago the JV squad. But called Yemen a success story and Iran as someone that we can do business with.

I guess this means tough old, common-sense Scott Walker would fight himself a couple of he-man wars to destroy parts of the world missed by earlier Republican wars. Iran beckons. And Syria. The man who dropped out of college can demonstrate his GOP bona fides by laying waste to vast swathes of real estate and killing thousands of people no Republican cares about in the process.

This is something that will no doubt endear him to the un-thinking Republican base. It will be a much harder sell to people who disagree with his statement that,

“We are not going to wait until they bring the fight to us. We are going to fight on their soil and not ours.”

Because thinking people realize we have invaded enough countries for a while. That more unfunded wars are maybe not good ideas; that maybe more young Americans don’t have to give their lives to prove how tough chickenhawks like Scott Walker are.

After all, he’s not going to take a bullet for his beliefs. But he fully expects you to, or your sons and daughters, or your mom or dad.

That’s the Republican way. And that’s why if they handed out rooms based on a grasp of real-world facts and common sense, Scott Walker would barely rate a broom closet for his next speech.

Scott Walker Once Touted Work Pushing For Tighter Gun Laws

When he was in the Wisconsin state assembly, Scott Walker (R), who's poised to jump into the 2016 pretender race, highlighted his support for "tightening gun laws" for certain felons, according to Buzzfeed.

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