Elizabeth Warren . . .

The Next Senate Majority Leader?

Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Warren . . . that can be a reality, if progressives get out and vote in 2016.

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Republican’s Racist Gerrymandering Takes Another Hit At The Supreme Court

North Carolina Republicans are so smug when it comes to their redistricting plans. After all, they’ve been getting away with the same kinds of election rigging schemes for years.

Read more 

The Shill Game

Changing the Tax Code

Hillary Clinton floats tax-code changes to reward companies that actually produce goods

Suing the Government

Supreme Court makes it easier for people to sue the government

The Chamber Of Commerce Is Fighting Fiercely To Stop The Scourge Of Corporate Transparency

BIG BIZ LOBBIES: PAWS OFF OUR DARK MONEY!

Now That McConnell Has Proved He’s An Embarrassment, It’s Time To Confirm Loretta Lynch

Now that the Republican scam to include anti-abortion language in the Human Trafficking bill has failed, Mitch McConnell also lost his official excuse for pushing Loretta Lynch’s confirmation to the back of the Senate’s bus.  The irony lies in the fact that Republicans chose to hold the leader in the fight against human trafficking hostage for a failed attempt to get anti-abortion language into a bill intended to help survivors of human trafficking.

Perhaps that’s why John McCain admitted Republicans are obstructing Lynch’s nomination, (not to mention the 18 others waiting for a floor vote and the 130 plus nominations that continue to languish in committees) to “get even” with Democrats using the Senate rules to break Republican obstructionism during the previous term.

I told ‘em: ‘You jam them through, it’s going to be a long time before I approve of them,'” McCain said, recounting what he told Democrats after they changed the rules in 2013 and confirmed dozens of lifetime judicial appointments and several high-profile Cabinet nominees. “It’s affected me as chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

The only time Republicans suspended their temper tantrum was to confirm Defense Secretary Ash Carter. President Obama nominated Carter on December 5^th.  Republicans managed to hold hearings and confirm Carter on February 15.

It has gotten so bad that even Republicans are embarrassed. A few days ago, Jeb Bush echoed similar embarrassment over the behavior of Senate Republicans.

Aside from being embarrassing, this stunt defies all logic.  For as long as Republicans delay confirming Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder remains the Attorney-General.  Moreover, while Republicans whine about perceptions that they are misogynistic racists, obstructing the nomination of the first black woman to become Attorney-General, reinforces that image.  Nothing about this stunt will address the deficits of support Republicans have from women and racial minorities.  The optics are even worse when you consider Lynch’s stellar record of prosecuting human traffickers.

Lynch – according to prosecutors, officials and victims’ advocates familiar with her tenure as US attorney for the eastern district of New York – has a prodigious history of throwing sex traffickers in prison, breaking up prostitution rings, rescuing underage victims forced to work as prostitutes and reuniting mothers held captive by the rings with their long-lost children.

As of this writing, Loretta Lynch has waited for confirmation longer than the seven previous Attorney-Generals combined, as shown in this table by politifact.

Nominee	President	Nomination received by Senate	Confirmed by Senate	Days
Eric Holder	Obama	Jan. 20, 2009	Feb. 2, 2009	13
Michael Mukasey	G.W. Bush	Sept. 21, 2007	Nov. 8, 2007	17
Alberto Gonzales	G.W. Bush	Jan. 4, 2005	Feb. 3, 2005	30
John Ashcroft	G.W. Bush	Jan. 29, 2001	Feb. 1, 2001	3
Janet Reno	Clinton	Feb. 26, 1993	Mar. 11, 1993	13
William Barr	G.H.W. Bush	Oct. 25, 1991	Nov. 20, 1991	26
Richard Thornburgh	Reagan	July 25, 1988	Aug. 11, 1988	17

The total is 119 days.

Republicans don’t have any good reasons to delay Loretta Lynch’s confirmation. During her confirmation hearing way back in January, Republican critics acknowledged that Lynch is eminently qualified to hold the position of Attorney-General by virtue of the fact that they spent most of that hearing attacking Eric Holder.

Even other Republicans like Rudy Giuliani of all people joined with the President to recognize that this scheme is embarrassing to Republicans and reinforces the image of racism and misogyny. McConnell has run out of doomed to fail schemes and pathetic excuses to avoid doing what he should have done months ago.  Give Loretta Lynch a vote.

***

Editor's Note: Lynch was confirmed Thursday.

Republican Xenophobia In Full Swing As Scott Walker Now Wants To Curb Legal Immigration

In a Monday interview with right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck, Wisconsin GOP Governor Scott Walker suggested that he not only wants to curtail illegal immigration, but that he also wants to find new ways to limit legal immigration as well. Walker told Beck that he has been having conversations with anti-immigrant Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who has warned that the percentage of Americans who are foreign-born is expected to reach record numbers in the next decade.

Walker hinted that in order to “protect” American workers, “adjustments” would need to be made to our legal immigration policy. He stated:

In terms of legal immigration, how we need to approach that going forward is saying, we will make adjustments. The next president and the next Congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system that’s based on, first and foremost, on protecting American workers and American wages.

Because the more I’ve talked to folks — I’ve talked to Senator Sessions and others out there, but it is a fundamentally lost issue by many in elected positions today — is what is this doing for American workers looking for jobs, what is this doing to wages, and we need to have that be at the forefront of our discussion going forward.

Walker’s new anti-immigration position contrasts sharply with his 2013 stance. At that time, he was a Republican supporter of immigration reform and of providing a path to citizenship for undocumented workers and students. Now the Governor, running for President has done an about face and not only opposes a path to citizenship, but is even suggesting imposing further restrictions on legal immigration.

Since entering the presidential race, Walker has pandered to the hardcore GOP base on a number of issues, but few have been as breathtakingly craven as his transformation on immigration policy.  Walker has decided to throw his weight behind the “Know Nothing” xenophobic wing of the Republican Party. With the first two major GOP contests being held in predominately white Iowa and New Hampshire, perhaps his strategy will even work for a few weeks. However, in a nation that was built on the contributions of immigrants, Walker’s new position is politically risky in a general election.

More importantly, it is also bad policy. Voters should say no to the parochial prejudices of the Scott Walker wing of the Republican Party, and embrace the continuation of a generous immigration policy that helps America build upon the contributions of immigrants, arriving from a wide variety of foreign nations.

Republican ‘One Percenter’ Chris Christie Says He’s Not Wealthy, Whines About His ‘Insane’ Tax Return

Republican New Jersey governor and potential Presidential candidate Chris Christie wants everyone to believe he’s the everyday American complaining...

Chris Christie is Insane

Two Republican Congressmen Under Investigation For Violating Gun Laws

The Hill reported:

Police in Washington, D.C., have been referred materials for a possible investigation into two Republican congressmen who posed for a picture with an assault rifle in a House office building.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) last week tweeted a picture of himself and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the leader of the House’s Benghazi investigation, holding an AR-15.

Having the AR-15 in the District could be a violation of the city’s strict gun laws, and the city attorney general’s office has referred the matter to police, a spokesman told The Hill.

The Republicans will use any potential investigation as a reason to tout their “Second Amendment Rights,” but the issue is the respect for existing laws. The hypocritical contradiction between law and order conservatives, and the Republican willingness to violate laws that they disagree with is striking.

Contrary to what Republicans believe, this is not a Second Amendment, or personal liberty issue. It is an issue of public safety and respect for the law.

Rep. Gowdy is better known as the guy who is supposed to be leading the House’s latest Benghazi investigation, but his credibility will be damaged if he is breaking the law while investigating the Obama administration for breaking the law.

Gowdy is another Republican, who President Obama lawless while he is potentially breaking the law. Republicans have demonstrated repeatedly that the when it comes to breaking the law, nobody outdoes the GOP.

Non Sequitur

With or Without Rick Scott, South Florida is Taking Action on Climate Change

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5 Republican Climate Change Deniers Who Are Murdering Our Planet

From the "Public Enemies" Department:

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Survey Shows Wingnuts Don't Care About Their Grandchildren

How else to explain their lack of urgency on the major issue of our time?

Wingnuts Don't Care About Their Grandchildren

This 8-Year-Old’s Letter To Obama Proves Wingnuts Passing Delusions Onto Their Kids

Here’s what you could sound like if you grew up in a Fox News-only household.

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Tennessee Idiocy

Tennessee governor expected to sign bill requiring 48-hour abortion waiting period

Oh Goody, The Wingnuts Are Fighting Over Social Security!

We just love it when they're fighting.

Oh Goody, The Wingnuts Are Fighting

Tennessee Republican Opposes Exceptions To Abortion Restrictions Because Rape Is 'Not Verifiable'

Tennessee state Rep. Sheila Butt (R) on Tuesday moved to table an amendment that would have exempted victims of rape and incest from new restrictions on access to abortion because she said that their claims were "not verifiable."

Rape Is 'Not Verifiable'?

The Daily Drift

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

 

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

 
Well, that leaves out Republicans - they can't speak English in the first place ... !

Today is - Talk Like Shakespeare Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

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The Supreme Court Says No To North Carolina’s Version of Vote Packing

The Supreme Court dealt vote suppressors in North Carolina a blow when it vacated the State Supreme Court’s decision to uphold The Republicans’ 2011 electoral maps.  The Court’s order told North Carolina’s Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling in the case of Dickson v. Rucho in light of the SCOTUS’ March ruling in Alabama Legislative Black Caucus et al. v. Alabama et al

The plaintiff in the North Carolina case, former state rep. Margaret Dickson, expressed satisfaction with the ruling in a statement.

 We have always known that the current maps were unconstitutional and are gratified that the Supreme Court of the United States has now set in motion a way forward for final disposition of this long-running and wrongly-decided case.

The Court’s order told North Carolina’s Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling in the case of Dickson v. Rucho with consideration of the same issues and concerns the Supreme Court raised in the Alabama case.

That ruling was split 5-4 along ideological lines.  The majority held that a three-judge panel didn’t not properly consider complaints that Alabama officials concentrated black voters into too few voting districts, a practice known as “vote packing.”  This is a specific form of gerrymandering that amounts to weakening the influence of black voters.

In the Alabama case, Justice Stephen Breyer criticized the 3-panel court for its failure to review claims of racial gerrymandering on a district-by-district basis instead of statewide.  Justice Breyer went on to say that Alabama’s court should have asked what percentages the minority should have to elect their candidate of choice instead of asking how to maintain minority percentages in districts.

Justice Breyer put the issue squarely when he said, ”Asking the wrong question may well have led to the wrong answer.”

Following the Alabama ruling, Phil Berger, NC’s Senate Leader and Tim Moore, the N.C. House Speaker were “confident” it would not have any impact on North Carolina because The Alabama and North Carolina redistricting cases involve different questions of law.”

They also claimed that Republicans were new to power and besides, they drew districts that were pre-approved by the U.S. Justice Department.  Nothing says personal responsibility like blaming the DOJ for an obvious attempt to rig elections beyond one of the most restrictive vote suppression laws in the country.   On the same day of the Alabama ruling, the Supreme Court declined to consider challenges to that law.

However, North Carolina’s justices will have to review the case on redistricting with a focus on the concerns raised by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This order by the U.S. Supreme Court is a welcomed victory for voting rights in the sense that it does establish limits to the degree of cheating Republicans can get away with.

The order doesn’t rectify the fact that the Supreme Court severely weakened the Voting Rights Act in 2012, resulting in restrictive “Voter ID laws” in Republican-controlled states, including North Carolina.  And, at least for now, North Carolina’s very restrictive “Voter ID law” remains intact. However, at least the Court recognizes that wherever vote packing occurs it raises the same legal question with the same legal answer.

Obama Turns Republican Sarcasm Upside Down While Having Some Fun With Thanks, Obama Meme

President Obama demonstrated his playful side during remarks honoring the 2014 College Football National Champion, the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday afternoon in the East Room of the White House.

Video:

Video Link

The President started off congratulating Coach Urban Meyer for his third win, noting that he has only done it twice and for the same team, “I want to thank The Ohio State University President, Michael Drake, who is here; Athletic Director, Gene Smith; and of course, Coach Urban Meyer. So this is Ohio State Football’s eighth National Championship. It’s Coach Meyer’s third time winning it all, with his second team, which is pretty impressive. I’ve only done it twice. And for the same team both times.”

“This was a historic year in college football. The country got to enjoy its first-ever College Football Playoffs,” the President said. Then Obama went into the Thanks Obama meme joke, “And I will say it — it was about time. I cannot claim full credit —I will point out that I pushed for a playoff system in 2008. I’d say I threw my weight around. PolitiFact, which keeps track of whether politicians keep their promises — this is a promise kept by me. So you’re welcome, America. It was a great playoffs.”

The “Thanks, Obama!” meme started when the Right began blaming President Obama for everything that went wrong in their lives. Know Your Meme explains:

“Thanks, Obama!” is a sarcastic expression used by critics of President Barack Obama to blame personal troubles and inconveniences on public policies supported or enacted by the administration. The phrase is often used to caption animated GIFs in which the subject appears to be struggling with a rather simple task, satirizing those who scapegoat Obama as the cause of problems for which he has little or no influence.

On December 17th, 2009, the conservative political blog Authentic Connecticut Republican[1] published a post highlighting a demotivational poster of a young girl making a “middle finger” gesture with the caption “Thanks, Obama”.

(You’ll have to click over there to see it. Not family values enough for our liberal audience.)

An example of the meme in use:

The college football playoff final was a massive success that set a ratings record for ESPN and cable television. President Obama was joking, but it didn’t hurt the cause to have the then future president on the side of college football fans who had suffered for years with the lousy BCS system. President Obama always seems to love his job, but he gets especially happy when he gets to do things that any sports fan would consider cool.

For fans, one of the best sports developments of the Obama years has been the college football playoffs. In the best sense of the meme, the President deserves a solid Thanks, Obama for fixing college football.

President Obama has finally responded to the Right’s attempt to blame him for everything by taking credit for something.

“You’re welcome, America.”

Hillary Clinton Pulverizes Republican Attempts To Dodge Issues By Demonizing Her

Secretary Clinton seems to have a bit of her husband’s skill when it comes to breaking things down. On Monday, during a media availability in Keane, New Hampshire, the Democratic candidate called Republicans out for avoiding the issues by demonizing her.

After a weekend of nothing but Hillary bashing during the Republican “leadership” summit, during which 19 alleged Republican hopefuls vied for attention by attacking Clinton, Ms. Clinton noted, “… the Republicans seem to be talking only about me. I don’t know what they would talk about if I wasn’t in the race.”

Eric Bradner, a CNN reporter, tweeted:

Eric Bradner        ✔ @ericbradner

Hillary Clinton's response in a very brief media avail in Keene, NH, to the latest Clinton Foundation cash criticism:

“We are back into the political season and there are all kinds of distractions and attacks. And I am ready for that. I know that comes, unfortunately, with the territory. It is, I think, worth noting* that the Republicans seem to be talking only about me. I don’t know what they would talk about if I wasn’t in the race. But I am in the race and hopefully we will get onto the issues and I look forward to that.”

Clinton is right, of course. Republicans are in an awkward position, given the disparity between their base and their very wealthy controllers (a problematic and unanticipated outcome of the 2010 Citizens United decision for their party). Republicans can’t afford to discuss issues on the national stage, when reporters are paying attention and the fact-checkers are alert.

This explains why Republicans are left to sift through their desperate attempts to create scandal where there was none, resurrecting the long-debunked even by their own party Benghazi “scandal” in an attempt to mitigate Hillary Clinton’s vast foreign policy expertise. Expertise which dwarfs all of the Republican hopeful’s foreign policy experience and, most likely, knowledge. That’s sort of one of those things you have to do do grasp, though that is not to say that a newcomer with an open and hungry mind couldn’t be good at it. Many of the Republicans are trying to package themselves as an anti-Bush foreign policy type in name only, but that is a difficult sell given their actual positions.

Senator Rand Paul has taken to begging the public to find dirt on Hillary Clinton, as if all of the Republican operatives who tried to destroy President Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton might have missed something. Paul doesn’t need it to be real– he just needs something he can turn into a sound bite attack, in order to avoid discussing issues. This is why he is hawking a conspiracy theory about the Clinton Foundation in a book he says he hasn’t read or vetted. That kind of judgment just screams “ready for the Oval.”

But sadly, all of the Republicans find themselves in this position of needing to focus the media and public’s attention on conspiracies and whispers in order to avoid discussing issues — issues like the minimum wage, equal pay, healthcare for everyone, and generally taking from the working poor to feed the top 1%. That is, to avoid discussing the Republican platform.

Hillary Clinton just poked a huge hole in the Republican efforts to demonize her, by calling it out early and calmly. She is making her campaign thus far about talking to actual voters instead of a made for TV production. We don’t hear a lot of campaign rhetoric from her (yet?). Just a laser focus on the issues she has long stood for.

While Republicans got away with demonizing President Obama for the past six years, the public has known the Clinton family for a very long time. It will be much harder to sell crazy conspiracies to the general public, though of course the hardcore Republican voters will believe. They already do believe some pretty nutty things about the Clintons. But there’s the sought after middle, and they do not believe those things. They grew up with the Clintons. And Ms. Clinton keeps on polling well, polling in double digits against the GOP field — though we are early in the game.

Hillary Clinton is defining and framing the “game”. She will be discussing issues with the voters. If the media wants to cover it, they will be forced to cover these issues because of the way Clinton is running her campaign. And in response, Republicans will accuse her of being guilty of any number of scandals with scant, if any, evidence. This says more about Republicans than it does their target. It’s like a child asked about doing something wrong who points at their little brother and cries, “But he did X!”

This is hardly Clinton’s first rodeo with right wing attacks. The problem with this being the only game for the GOP is it’s an old game and they are running against one of their first victims, only it’s years later and she is on to them.

* Other reporters wrote that she said “worth noting” so I corrected this in the transcript of Bradner’s tweet, though he could be correct that she said “nothing”.

The Truth Be Told

Liberals Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Al Franken Stand Up For The Free Market By Taking On Comcast

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Al Franken (D-MN), Ed Markey (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have come together on a letter to both the FCC and the Department of Justice urging them to block the Comcast/Time Warner deal.

In their letter, the Democrats wrote:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) are reported to be meeting this week with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to respond to regulators’ concerns about the proposed acquisition of TWC by Comcast. In advance of this meeting and as the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finalize their respective evaluations, we write to urge the FCC and DOJ to reject Comcast’s proposed acquisition of TWC. Today’s world demands affordable access to high-quality Internet and TV services. Should the transaction survive the FCC’s and DOJ’s reviews, we believe that Comcast-TWC’s unmatched power in the telecommunications industry would lead to higher prices, fewer choices, and poorer quality services for Americans – inhibiting U.S. consumers’ ability to fully benefit from modern technologies and American businesses’ capacity to innovate and compete on a global scale.

Since the proposal was announced last year, we have heard from consumers across the nation, as well as from advocacy groups, trade associations, and companies of all sizes, all of whom fear that the deal would harm competition across several different markets and would not serve the public interest. The concerns about the transaction center on the undeniable reality that the combined Comcast-TWC would be the overwhelmingly dominant cable and broadband Internet provider in the nation and control much of the programming that Americans watch. With 57 percent of the broadband Internet market and 30 percent of the cable market, Comcast-TWC would have an ability to defeat competing TV and Internet companies and stifle American innovation across the industry. And with Comcast’s ownership of NBCUniversal and the numerous popular TV networks it controls, the combined company would have incentives and means by which to extract higher prices from other multichannel video programming distributors and prioritize its own programming over that of competitors. Comcast-TWC’s monopsony power to dictate the terms of transactions with programmers will also force companies from across the country to reevaluate their business models, including the content they produce and the prices they charge.

We’ve also heard from constituents in our home states who are rightfully frustrated about their increasingly high cable and Internet bills and are concerned that the proposed acquisition will only drive those prices higher. Unfortunately, with only a handful of cable and Internet providers dominating the market, consumers are often left with little choice but to pay the price a given provider demands and have little say over what content is made available to them. Comcast-TWC’s combined ability to drive out competitors will only make things worse for consumers. Technological advances in the industry will be slowed, independent programmers and content will be foreclosed, and consumers will be left with even larger bills to pay. This is an industry that requires more competition, not less.

The Comcast-Time Warner deal is an attempt to create a virtual monopoly in an industry that already suffers from a lack of competition and options for consumers. Republicans claim that they are the party of the free market, but it is a group of liberals in the Senate who are actually defending the principles of competitive capitalism.

Consumers should be very concerned about the Comcast-Time Warner deal because it will result in fewer choices, higher prices, and create a dominant national Television and Internet Service Provider. It is a bad deal for consumers, and Democrats are showing who the real party of free market capitalism is by opposing this deal.

Bernie Sanders Busts The GOP Plan To Take Health Insurance Away From 27 Million Americans

Sen. Bernie Sanders is exposing the Republican plan to pay for a tax cut for the very wealthiest Americans by taking private health insurance away from 27 million Americans.

In a statement, Sen. Sanders (I-VT) said:

Both the Senate and the House budget resolutions would make the rich richer and cause devastating pain to tens of millions of working families throughout the country. Instead of making health care more affordable, both Republican budgets would eliminate health insurance for at least 27 million Americans. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, both Republican budgets would provide huge tax breaks for the top one-tenth of 1 percent, while paving the way for a tax hike on 13 million working families.

Both of these budgets represent a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest people in this country. The Republican philosophy of cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, and cutting nutrition programs for hungry kids, while providing huge tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, would move this country in exactly the wrong direction.

According to a report from the Senate Budget Committee Democrats, Republicans would take away health insurance from 27 million Americans by disabling the federal health insurance exchanges, “What is particularly bizarre is even as Republicans in both chambers seek to dismantle the private insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, they propose moving Medicare onto a private insurance exchange that mimics the ACA exchanges. The key difference between the two systems is that the Republican budgets fail to provide sufficient funding for these exchanges, therefore raising out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries.”

Republicans talk about the bottom line on their budget, but what they never mention is how it gets there. Republicans are planning on gutting Medicare and throwing 27 million people off of their private insurance in order to pay for tax cuts to the top one-tenth of one percent. It is common sense, if the people who have the most are going to get a big tax cut, somebody else has to pay for it. In the Republican budget, 27 million people will pay for a tax cut for the wealthy by losing their health insurance subsidies, which will mean millions of people will be thrown back into a market where they either can’t buy or can’t afford health insurance.

Sen. Sanders has exposed their plan by standing up for working people as the ranking member on the Democratic side of the Senate Budget Committee.

The Republican plan to hurt tens of millions of working people, seniors, children, and the poor must be made clear to every American. Republicans tried to pull a fast one on American workers, but Bernie Sanders busted them and exposed their plan for the world to see.

Senate Democrats Win As McConnell Caves On Abortion Language In Trafficking Bill

McConnell was dealt another defeat by Senate Democrats as he was forced to abandon his attempt to add expanded anti-abortion language to the human trafficking bill.

The Hill reported:

The agreement calls for funding a domestic trafficking victims’ fund with federal dollars appropriated by Congress and money collected from criminal offenders, preserving the prohibition on federal funds being used to pay for abortion services but not expanding it.

….

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), who helped hash out the deal, claimed victory.

“After weeks of stalling on the bipartisan human trafficking bill our Republican colleagues have agreed not to expand the scope of the Hyde language,” he said.

Senate Republicans are trying to sell the agreement on the language as bipartisan governing, but in reality this was a defeat for McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky tried to prove that he could force his agenda down the throat of Democrats, but his power play failed miserably. Democrats never budged. With pressure growing on Senate Republicans to demonstrate that they can govern, they had no choice but to look for a face-saving escape route out of their own mess.

McConnell intentionally picked this fight with Senate Democrats by adding abortion language to the Senate legislation that wasn’t in the House-passed bill. The senator made things worse on himself with the decision to double down by holding a final vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination to be the next attorney general hostage.

The compromise deal is a big win for Senate Democrats. It also proves that the real power in the Senate rests on the Democratic side. Nothing will get done in the Senate without the support of some Democrats.

Mitch McConnell tried to bully Senate Democrats, and the result was a defeat for the increasingly incompetent looking Senate Majority Leader.

Kansas' Sam Brownback Stealing Is From Welfare Recipients To Enrich Banks

Brownback's Republicans have imposed an inordinately cruel measure to steal taxpayer money from welfare recipients and hand it to the banking industry …

It is beyond refute that Republicans have devised some truly cruel means of stealing from taxpayers and the poor to enrich their donors in the corporate world, the wealthy and banking industry. Although there is no shortage of examples of Republicans at the national and state level who find a way, and excuse, to transfer money directly from taxpayers and the poor to their donors, one of the leaders is Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.

Brownback has successfully tanked the Kansas economy by creating a revenue shortfall with outrageous tax cuts for the rich that has cost the state several credit downgrades, massive education and social service cuts, and on pace for bankruptcy. Now, Brownback’s Republicans have imposed an inordinately cruel measure to steal taxpayer money from welfare recipients and hand it to the banking industry under the guise of putting an end to their blatantly luxurious lifestyles and help them get off welfare and enter Kansas’ non-existent private job market.

It is noteworthy that Brownback touts his ‘social conservative’ (evangelical extremist) bona fides as his finest attribute, but unlike his Jesus, he is stealing from the needy to profit the banking industry in what has to be one of the cruelest tactics Republicans have come up with yet. To be fair, Brownback’s latest ploy is being put in place in several states and it is allegedly to keep welfare recipients, mostly the unemployed, the elderly and children from spending their paltry monthly allotment on luxuries. Brownback and his Republican disciples claim the new restrictions are a clever means of moving poor families from welfare to jobs. However, the evil incarnate in Brownback’s statement is that due to his epic trickle down cockup, Kansas jobs, like the state’s revenue streams, are virtually non-existent.

Kansas’ Draconian measure sets the cash limit welfare recipients can withdraw using a state-issued Electronic Benefit Card (EBC) at $25 per day. Forget that Kansas’ bank ATM’s do not dispense $5 dollar, or $25, bills thus reducing a recipients daily withdrawal limit to $20. According to bankrate.com, the average cash withdrawal fee using an EBC across America is $4.35 that on a $20 withdrawal in Kansas amounts to an over 20 percent levy on the poor; those who can least afford it. Worse, the limit also significantly harms welfare recipients’ spending patterns because regardless what hateful Republicans claim, the primary use of cash spending by the poor is to pay their rent; not exorbitant luxuries that Brownback and Republicans claim is one reason the new limit is necessary.

Kansas’ new law that Republicans claim warrant the $25 limit includes the most exhaustive list of spending curbs in America; this according to Republicans who are proud of their harsh new law. However, the same Republicans admit that they have no idea what kind of, or how many, luxury items and services the poor are spending on with the pittance they receive in assistance; especially in Kansas. Since they are unaware of just what kind of luxury items the poor are purchasing with state aid, Republicans argue it is best to preemptively prevent them from wasting tax dollars by limiting the daily amount of cash they can withdraw. According to advocates for low-income people, the poor spend what little they receive predominately on monthly rent.

According to the director of an advocacy group for low-income people (CLASP), Elizabeth Lower-Basch, the $25 per day limit “will significantly harm welfare recipients’ spending and is really disconnected from the reality of people’s lives. The single biggest expense that people have is rent, and the $25 limit will result in multiple trips to an ATM until the total amount of rent money is withdrawn. They’re just going to have to go every day to get their rent money. Also, no ATM gives you a $25 bill, so the real limit is $20. It’s a mess.” No, the real limit is $16 after subtracting the bank fees for every cash withdrawal with the government-issued social assistance cards. The banks are accruing millions of dollars each year in taxpayer money that is meant to assist those who need it most and banks do not need it at all.

As an example of bank profits at the expense of taxpayer-provided assistance, California welfare recipients spent $19 million on bank fees last year. The fees charged by banks are nothing more than an effective means of shifting public funds from those who need it most to banks according to a report from the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC). In fact, according to the CRC, an advocacy organization for low-income families, banks in most states charge a minimum of $4 to use an Electronic Benefit Card at an ATM. It is what the report said is basically an extra “tax on the poor because they are charged every time they withdraw funds from the ATM.” So in Kansas’ case, recipients can only withdraw less than $16 daily and as Lower-Basch stated, since “welfare benefits are not very high in the first place, this is just a means for banks to take money out of poor people’s pockets.” It is certainly a fact that is not lost on Sam Brownback and Kansas Republicans who have spent four years taking money from Kansas residents to enrich corporations, banks, and the wealthy; taking money from welfare recipients is just the next logical step for Republicans.

As one expects, a cretin like Brownback does what Republicans and evangelical extremists do best; lied through his teeth about why Republicans imposed a Draconian measure like a daily withdrawal limit on welfare recipients. Brownback said the only purpose of taxing the poorest people in Kansas, effectively slashing the value of what little assistance they get by 20 percent to enrich banks is “to get people off of public assistance and into private-sector employment; we’ve had a lot of success with that.”

Kansas’ job numbers tell a different story and Brownback knows it because just one of the highly-public and adverse effects of his failed trickle down experiment of giving outrageous tax cuts to the rich is that Kansas’ job creation lags the rest of the nation as well as the region. It is likely that besides a new and novel way of transferring taxpayer money intended to help the poor directly to banks, this new harsh and cruel law, and Brownback’s lies defending it, are distractions from the increasingly disastrous state of Kansas’ economy. If the cruel law can hurt the poor and enrich the banks in the process, then it is a distraction other Republican states with economic woes will soon be implementing.

The Koch Brothers Have Picked Scott Walker To Be Their 2016 Pretender Puppet

The Koch brothers have selected Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to be their chosen 2016 Republican candidate/puppet.

The New York Times reported:

Charles G. and David H. Koch, the influential and big-spending conservative donors, have a favorite in the race for the Republican nomination: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

On Monday, at a fund-raising event in Manhattan for the New York State Republican Party, David Koch told donors that he and his brother, who oversee one of the biggest private political organizations in the country, believed that Mr. Walker was the Republican Party’s best hope for recapturing the White House.

“We will support whoever the candidate is,” said Mr. Koch, according to two people who attended the event. “But it should be Scott Walker.”

The Koch’s didn’t say why Jeb Bush isn’t their “chosen one,” but odds are that it is because Bush doesn’t need their money in order to win the Republican nomination. The good news for Democrats and left is that the Koch brothers are about to waste millions more of their dollars on a presidential candidate who can’t beat Hillary Clinton. The bad news is that thanks to the Koch owned conservative justices on the Supreme Court, there is no limit to the amount of money they can spend in their quest to get Walker elected.

Democrats don’t need any more motivation to work against Scott Walker’s candidacy, but it is clear that if Walker were to win, the Koch brothers would be occupying the White House. The most important endorsement in the 2016 race has been made, and it is Scott Walker who has won the Koch primary.

The Kochs have money, and a willing puppet, but the American people still have the votes to make sure that Koch hostile takeover of the United States government ends in failure.

Rand Paul Kissing Koch Brothers' Asses: 'Libertarianism' In A Nutshell

Rand Paul is supposed to be the new, hip ‘libertarian’ alternative to the usual right wing culture warriors, but he’s becoming less of the former and more of the latter all the time.

'Libertarianism' In A Nutshell

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’