O'Malley Rips Boehner For Refusing To Address Structural Problems In Our Economy

Former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley let John Boehner have it for trying to blame the economic woes in our cities on "liberal economic" policies.

O'Malley Rips Boehner

Gohmert: 'It's A Real Shame' That People Want To End Mass Incarceration Of Non-Violent Offenders

Louie Gohmert (R-TX) over the weekend lashed out at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for calling to end mass incarceration in the United States.

Gohmert Is Insane

Big Dangers for the Next Election

by Elizabeth Drew

While people are wasting their time speculating about who will win the presidency more than a year from now—Can Hillary beat Jeb? Can anybody beat Hillary? Is the GOP nominee going to be Jeb or Walker?—growing dangers to a democratic election, ones that could decide the outcome, are being essentially overlooked. The three dangers are voting restrictions, redistricting, and loose rules on large amounts of money being spent to influence voters. In recent years, we’ve been moving further and further away from a truly democratic election system.

More

Republican Senators Voted To Sell Off Your National Forests

In case you missed it, almost every Republican Senator just voted to sell our public lands — including National Forests, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas —  to the highest bidder.
This is just downright wrong. As Ronald Reagan once said, “The preservation of parks, wilderness, and wildlife has also aided liberty by keeping alive the 19th century sense of adventure and awe with which our forefathers greeted the American West. Many laws protecting environmental quality have promoted liberty by securing property against the destrutctive trespass of pollution. In our own time, the nearly universal appreciation of these preserved landscapes, restored waters, and cleaner air through outdoor recreation is a modern expression of our freedom and leisure to enjoy the wonderful life that generations past have built for us.”

More on this budgetary amendment from indefinitelywild

“SA 838 is a budgetary amendment which backs support for and funding of state efforts to take over federal land. It was part of a larger debate over the 2016 fiscal year federal budget.
Introducing the amendment, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R, AK) stated, “When we have an opportunity to consider this amendment, a vote for it is really a vote in support of — as a priority of this Congress — comprehensive approaches to land policies to facilitate economic development, empower States and improve our conservation systems.”
The back story is that there’s ongoing, and potentially unconstitutional efforts taking place in Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Alaska and Idaho to see those states take possession of public land from the federal government, then allow the exploitation of their resources by private industry.
AmericanProgress.org calls it “…a losing battle that amounts to little more than political grandstanding to rally their extreme conservative base and feed an antigovernment narrative. Such bills contradict the majority of public opinion in these states, as well as economic realities and constitutional precedent dating back to the mid-19th century.”
The senate’s budgetary amendment to support this privatization carries no legal weight — it’s not a law — but does signify a troubling level of support for the privatization of public land. And make no mistake, this is about privatization and resource exploitation.
Efforts to “reclaim” public land are financially support by special interest groups like ALEC and Americans For Prosperity. ALEC is primarily funded by ExxonMobil while Americans For Prosperity was founded by David and Charles Koch.
SA 838 passed 51-49. Democrats unanimously opposed it, while all but three Republicans voted for it. The holdouts were Corey Gardner of Colorado, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
If it’s not a law (yet!), then why worry about it? “If you let a bad idea fester long enough, it sounds less and less like a bad idea,” states Steve Kline, of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. The fear is that this success in the senate could encourage future efforts to pass similar language as actual legislation.” – indefinitelywild

Here is what you can do

If you prefer not to see our public lands sold to private industry sign this petition from The Wilderness Society.
You could also write or call your local senator in opposition to the amendment.

After A Steady Diet Of Demonizing Baltimore Mayor, Fox Plays The Victim When She Won’t Talk To Them

They're just too used to living in their own bubble.

Won’t Talk To Fox

10 Really Good Reasons To Not Vote Republican In 2016

The obvious reasons are of course policy related.  Republicans are opposed to anything sensible that would help the working poor, the middle class, those in need of help, the environment or anything else that doesn’t increase the bottom lines of their campaign donors.These ten reasons are far more specific.

10.) Marco Rubio

“The Hispanic community understands the American dream and have not forgotten what they were promised”

The Senator loves to champion the cause of Latinos.  Unfortunately he may be the most out of touch Hispanic man of all time.

9.) Bobby Jindal

“It’s time to update traditional public schools, charter schools, home schools, online schools and parochial schools. Let the dollars follow the child instead of forcing the child to follow the dollars, so that every child has the opportunity to attain an education.”

The quote is of course all about privatization.  Jindal wants to hand money to private schools run by campaign donors while at the same time slashing higher education funds to give tax breaks to the wealthy.

8.) Chris Christie

“I don’t compromise my principles for politics”

Christie has proven time and time again that he has no principles to compromise.  Electing this man to anything ever again would make the Republican Party the laughing-stock of the world.

7.) Rick Santorum

“I love it when the left and when the president say, ‘Don’t try to impose your values on us, you folks who hold your Bibles in your hand and cling to your guns.’ They have values too. Our values are based on religion, based on life. Their values are based on a religion of self.”

Santorum’s values are based on cash.  His “Christian values” have nothing to do with Christianity.  Holding your bible in one hand and your gun in the other, as he puts it, proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

6.) Donald Trump

“Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money.”

Let’s go with “hate him.”  First off, speaking of yourself in the third-person shows just what a narcissist you are, and secondly, your idiotic and extremely sexist comment about women makes any realistic run at the highest office in the land nothing but a really bad joke.

5.) Rick Perry

“The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we inhabit are not only critical elements in the quality of life we enjoy – they are a reflection of the majesty of our Creator.”

In Perry’s tenure as Governor of Texas he allowed fracking and oil production to consume the landscape, saw unmitigated destruction of public park lands and had zero to say on environmental issues other than to tout the modest improvement in Texas air quality, which was caused by federal mandates, not his.  Sit back down, Rick.  We like our planet.

4.) Scott Walker

“What makes America amazing is that there have always been men and women of courage who were willing to think more about the future of their children and grandchildren than they did about their own political careers.”

That’s why Walker slashed education to give tax breaks to the wealthy and destroyed the unions in Wisconsin to make his campaign donors happy, leading to the utter destruction of his state’s economy.  It was all for the children.

3.) Rand Paul

“Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so.”

This kind of idiotic thinking is exactly why we can’t afford someone like Rand Paul.  Article III section II of the constitution grants judicial authority to the Supreme Court in “all cases in law and equity” under the document.  Your statement may be the dumbest thing anyone who claims to be a “constitutional conservative” has ever said.

2.) Ted Cruz

“Is it true that the American people are war-weary? Absolutely. We are tired of sending our sons and daughters to distant lands year after year after year, to give their lives trying to transform foreign nations.”

Cruz signed the letter to Iran letting them know he in no way wants peace with them or any agreements that may end in our NOT bombing them.  He is a warmonger who supports putting boots on the ground wherever and whenever possible, because war is good for business.

1.) Jeb Bush

“It’s been painful to see the people that you love be attacked when you know it’s not fair or true.”

Not fair or true?  Your brother came perilously close to destroying our economy permanently.  His actions and lies sent thousands of Americans to their death in a war based on deceit.  Had President Obama lost in 2008 and John McCain continued his policies, which is a certainty, we would right now be renaming the Great Depression “not so bad if you compare it to this.”
No.  Just no.  No more Bushes.  No more.  None.  Be gone, we’re done with you.

---

This list certainly doesn’t cover all of the ineptitude the Republican Party has to offer.  With jerks like Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and…gulp…Sarah Palin still out there making fools of themselves this list could go on virtually forever.
The only positive thing about the Republican primary will be watching these fools tear each other to shreds, forcing them to flip-flop their positions as the political wind blows, as usual.

Here’s How The Nation’s Two Largest States Plan To Crack Down On Predatory Lending

Predatory lenders thrive in Texas, where regulations are scarce on stores that offer payday advance loans and allow borrowers to put their cars up as collateral for high-cost, short-term credit. But a trio of bills being considered in the legislature would update state law to make it harder for desperate borrowers to wind up trapped in endless loan-renewal cycles when they turn to payday and auto title loans.
The bills would put a length limit on what lenders can offer, prohibiting unpaid loans from being rolled over more than three times. The industry’s profits depend upon borrowers who get stuck in much longer chains of loan renewals that drive the overall interest rate on the borrowing up over 400 percent APR, according to federal data.
Along with the duration cap on re-lending, companies would have to ensure that a customer pays down the principal amount by at least 25 percent each time they refinance a loan. The two provisions together would help tie loan terms to a borrower’s real income and timely ability to repay.
Such rules are unenforceable without having comprehensive data on who is borrowing what from whom. One of the Texas bills would create a state database to track lending. Payday lenders have fought hard against databases in other states like Alabama, lobbying lawmakers and filing suit to enlist judges in their efforts.
The bills have the backing of the local chapter of the AARP. A fifth of all customers at Texas payday and auto title lending shops are over the age of 50, according to the group, which has also published polls showing that three-quarters of Texans older than 45 say they strongly support tighter rules for the loans.
If the Texas laws pass, the two largest states in the country would likely be building payday loan databases at the same time. California regulators are introducing a new slate of rules for policing high-cost lending, including a database provision that would help the state to better enforce the rules that are already on the books.
“California limits you to one payday loan at a time, but there’s no way to enforce that because there isn’t a database,” Pew Charitable Trusts small-dollar lending expert Alex Horowitz told ThinkProgress, stressing that even a loan that complies with California law is still more expensive than should be allowed. “Databases have acted as a backstop in some states. But they’re not sufficient as regulation. Even with a database and with this proposal, most borrowers cannot afford to repay $300 in two weeks. For an average payday borrower, that’s a quarter of their gross income.”
While Texas’ proposed database is part of a crackdown on brick-and-mortar loan shops, the new California consumer protections are tailored to the digital age. The state wants to prohibit payday lenders from gaining access to borrowers’ bank accounts – a move that could drive internet-only lenders out of business, and decrease the price that low-income borrowers pay for desperation loans – and force them to rely on traditional paper checks as collateral. The regulators are also partnering with Google and Microsoft to make it harder for unscrupulous internet lenders to promote their products to California web users.
Pushing online lenders out of business should make for a less-abusive overall market for resource-starved families who need quick cash. “Interest rates online are generally higher than they are at storefront lenders,” Horowitz said.
Compared to the dozen-plus states that have made payday lending impossible in their borders, California’s current approach is moderate. Storefront lenders that register with the state have “loan sizes capped at $255, and fees capped at $45,” Horowitz said. Interest rates on such loans are still quite high, but far lower than the roughly 400 percent annual interest that lenders charge on average in less-regulated states.
Reform proposals for storefront lending in Texas and online lending in California illustrate the diversity of regulatory approaches that states pursue in the absence of national rules for lending that targets the poor. As the industry siphons billions of dollars per year out of low-income communities, federal neglect has turned efforts to protect consumers into a game of whack-a-mole in which lenders successfully lobby against most regulations. But all that will soon change, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is preparing the first-ever national regulations to link lenders’ offerings to borrowers’ actual ability to repay the loans.
With its new regulations, the agency seeks to balance genuine consumer demand for emergency loans with the public interest in preventing the most predatory and abusive features of the traditional business model. While states like Connecticut and New York have sought to prohibit payday lenders from operating in any form, most Americans live in states like California and Texas that allow the businesses to exist while trying to legislate against their most abusive habits.
The forthcoming federal rules will attempt to replicate the most successful elements of those hybrid regulatory approaches, and impose new underwriting standards on lenders to prevent them from knowingly signing someone up for a loan they can’t afford to repay on time. The final rules are years away, but they will likely be modeled on the approach that states like Colorado take: limit the cost of these loans, prohibit the most egregious fine-print tricks lenders use, but make sure this lending remains economically viable so that desperate low-income people have somewhere to turn.

Republican Steve King Is 'Campaigning' for Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton, please take a moment to thank Rep. Steve King for his tremendously effective effort to assure your election in 2016. When it comes to rapidly ascendant American Latino and Asian-American voters, Steve King and his radical ideas are the equivalent of several, well-funded SuperPacs dumping money in Hillary Clinton's favor.

'Campaigning' for Hillary 

The truth about trailer parks ...

Sex offenders have been good for park owner Lee financially, with park occupancy running at “1,000%”. She rents trailer pad spots for about $325 a month. The trailers are either owned by the tenant or rented from a third party. Many trailers are divided into three bedrooms, for which tenants are charged $500 a month per room.

Poor forced to live among sex offenders and felons as owners cash in

Jesse Ventura: I question the sanity of anyone who watches Fox News

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura has a few words for Fox News and their views, and he's not being kind. The governor just doesn't appear to have patience anymore for the top rated cable news station in the United States.
Is he a deserter or a hero? Maybe it's something in between? These questions have surrounded Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, who was released earlier this year after spending five years in captivity of the Taliban. President Obama made the call to arrange a swap of five Taliban prisoners who were being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, in exchange for the POW Bergdahl who was finally released on May 31, 2014. Reports have stated that when Bergdahl went missing, he had actually abandoned his post, putting fellow soldiers in jeopardy in the process. After this information leaked, the situation quickly became political. Republicans jumped on President Obama, accusing him of negotiating with terrorists and and giving up too much for an alleged "traitor" and "deserter." The Obama administration quickly defended their actions, stating that the United States leaves no solider behind.
The number one anti-Bergdahl voice was the right-wing safe haven, Fox News. Known for their constant attacks on the Obama administration, Fox News framed the story as one of a weak commander in chief in another attempt to slander President Obama. On his podcast "We the People with Jesse Ventura," released each Thursday, host Jesse Ventura came clean with his thoughts on Fox News and the people who rely on them for a "fair and balanced" approach to the news.

"Anyone that gives Fox News any shred of credibility is ridiculous. When I'm out in the world and I hear people tell me that they watch Fox News, right away I question that person's sanity to myself. That person can't be of solid mind because no one of solid mind will watch Fox News and take it seriously."

Fox News promotes their brand as one that delivers "fair and balanced" news coverage, but time and time again, show themselves to be a major branch of the right wing media. Jesse Ventura has had his run ins with Fox News over the years, from heated debates with Sean Hannity, to making Brian Kilmeade leave the Fox and Friends news set after questioning the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Fox “News”: Amend Constitution So Democrats Can’t Lie During Election

Oh, the Hypocrisy - It Burns

by Marc Belisle

As we all know, the august broadcasting institution known as Fox “News” is a bastion of “Fair and Balanced” reporting. They would never dream of cherry-picking out-of-context, twisted or simply invented “facts.” They would never aggressively peddle opinion as fact with slick packaging and arrogant bloviation to pursue a partisan agenda at the height of an election. Oh, no.
As enormous election year 2016 begins to take off, Fox wants to force everyone else to be just as honest as they are. So, it was a great public service that Fox “News” published a recent op-ed entitled, “Harry Reid is the poster child for why our Constitution must be changed.” Said op-ed argued that we need to remove the text from Article I of the Constitution which provides immunity from defamation lawsuits to members of Congress. At first blush, it might sound like a decent idea to force our elected officials to give it to us straight. Our politicians do lie a lot. But if you think our government is dysfunctional now, imagine how fun it will be when anyone in the world can sue anyone in Congress for lying. The article, by Fox shrieking head Gregg Jarret, is featured prominently on Fox’s opinions page as an “editor’s pick.”
The reason for Jarrett’s gripe is that, in 2012, when Mitt Romney was just about to glide into the White House, according to Jarrett, Harry Reid was mean to him, and then he lost. Sad face.

At the height of the heated campaign for President in August of 2012, then Majority Leader Harry Reid stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and smeared Mitt Romney as a millionaire tax dodger. Reid claimed the Republican nominee paid no taxes for ten years.
It was an audacious and deceitful claim because Reid possessed no evidence. He presented not a scrap of proof…because none existed. He appeared to invent the accusation out of thin air in a brazen ploy to turn votes away from Romney in favor of Obama.

Harry Reid used a “brazen ploy” to help his own party win an election! How dare he? Jarrett continues that the Founding Fathers could not have imagined that someone in Congress would abuse the legal immunity given to protect debate in order to slander a private citizen running for the White House mere weeks from the election “and subvert the democratic process.” The problem is compounded, Jarrett writes, because Harry Reid is still not sorry about it.
It’s nice to hear a Fox shrieking head concerned about the “democratic process.” That’s refreshing. If we go along with Jarrett’s assertion that Reid went too far, Reid’s comment is pretty mild compared to the slander that the right has slung in Presidential elections in recent history. From Willie Horton to Swiftboating and the birth certificate, conservative politicians and media like Fox spin complex yarns of terrifying fiction every election cycle, in an attempt to see it stick to Democrats. It’s kind of a well-established tradition. The most recent example of this was in 2014, at the height of the midterms, when wingnuts peddled the idea that a devastating Ebola pandemic was imminent, despite experts explaining it was pretty much impossible to contract in a country with decent public health infrastructure. But based on the assumption that we were one sneeze away from The Stand, they argued that Obama was allowing America to be infected for his nefarious purposes. Funny enough, Gregg Jarrett was an eager participant in incubating this idea and infecting his readers with it. Is he sorry about that?
The Ebola story was quite a whopper. Wondering how Romney got rich? Meh. It’s worth remembering that in 2012, the whole country, including many nervous Republicans, were asking, “WHY?!” Romney was the only major Presidential nominee in modern history to refuse to show the nation his tax returns. It is a fact that he was hiding something. We may never know what he was hiding, but whatever it was, he calculated that it was worse than the weeks of speculation about the mystery that dogged him. He sold himself to the American people as the right man for the Presidency because he was a successful businessman, but then told the voters they didn’t need to know how he made all his money. That proved to be an untenable contradiction. Harry Reid did not sink Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney sank Mitt Romney, and President Obama’s high popularity after four years, relative to Presidents in recent history, bought him a second term.
Jarrett compares Reid’s comments about Mitt Romney to Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist witch hunts. In the world of political attacks, this is a bit like comparing the bite marks of a mosquito to those of a Tyrannosaurus. Romney wanted to be President Ritchie Rich without answering any questions, and Reid grabbed him by his Achilles heel. McCarthy destroyed the careers and reputations of thousands of innocent people. His hearings have more in common with the actual Salem witch trials than an opportunistic political attack on a powerful figure trying to pull a fast one. McCarthy’s judgment may have been compromised by the fact that he was a major alcoholic. This is something that Gregg Jarrett ought to keep in mind as he returns to reporting for Fox “News,” after his arrest for being belligerently drunk in an airport last year.
Changing the Constitution is a complex, serious matter, and should not be taken lightly. Jarrett’s desire to amend something as fundamental to our republic as Article I, section 6’s “Speech or Debate Clause,” highlights the fact that today’s conservatives aren’t conserving anything, but are often radical in their quest to subvert the will of the people and the legitimate authority of the government to corporate privatization and imperialism. If we’re going to consider changing the Constitution, there are a number of potential amendments that would be well worth the effort, including the Equal Rights Amendment, and an Amendment to overturn Citizens United.

The Daily Drift

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

 

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

 
ALL Republicans are PATHOLOGICAL LIARS ... !

Today is - World Call Out Pathological Liars Day
 

Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

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Buenos Aires, San Rafael, Argentina

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Europe

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Editorial Comment

With Bernie Sanders in the race now there will at least be a debate on the issues that Americans want.
OK, so the debate will be among thinking people which leaves out wingnuts, they will be spoon-fed their thoughts and ideas as always by their handlers.
Then again the wingnuts have proven and continually re-prove that they are not Americans so the point is moot.
The issues of inequality (social, economic, gender, etc.), a living wage, really better healthcare, fair taxation, campaign finance, building and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, military spending reduction (our military is more than double than the next 15 largest militaries in the world combined both in capability and spending - that is a text book case of overcompensation, folks - and more will all be up for debate.
With America's leftward foundation and leftward lean throughout it's history will be showcased during the race among thinking people. Progress has forever been more popular than regression and Progressive ideas and ideals are surging with even more popularity today.
Regressives (AKA: wingnuts) can't see this due to their mental illness and delusions of adequacy, to them their fondest fantasy is all rights and privileges to them and fuck everybody else in a dreamworld set against the backdrop of a 1950's era America that never existed.
And yes, it has been proven wingnuts are mentally ill and have a enlarged area in the brain that promotes fear - the only part of their brains that is 'enlarged' - so it shows why wingnuts are ever pushing fear ... that is all they know.
It has been postulated (sorry, wingnuts that's a big word) that this was a evolutionary/survival trait in early humanoids that has diminished over time as the use of fear to aid in survival has lessened to the point today that it isn't a need for as much fear for survival as was in the past.
That's evolution, so accordingly, the wingnuts don't believe it, which is further evidence for their arrested development -so when one labels wingnuts as 'Knuckle-Draggers', 'Troglodytes' and the like, they are only telling the truth and that is something the wingnuts don't like as well ... the truth. 

Have Fun and Enjoy

Hate ... The Republican Way

The Republican Way

What Bernie Sanders thinks about the issues: a comprehensive primer

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, now a presidential candidate, is the only socialist in Congress. But "he's a 'small S' socialist," professor Garrison Nelson of the University of Vermont told me last year. "He's not, 'Let's totally revamp the government, break up the corporations, create five-year plans.' He doesn't get out too far on an ideological limb."Sanders resembles many in the Democratic Party by criticizing the excessive influence of the wealthy. But he takes things much further, both rhetorically and substantively - he thinks checking the power of billionaires and corporations is the defining issue in US politics today. He's most interested in economic issues, from inequality to trade, and as a result he's won a devoted following among liberals who think their party too frequently carries water for the rich.
But while Sanders wants a single-payer health care system, a carbon tax, and much more government spending on infrastructure and benefits, he isn't an uber-liberal on everything. On social issues like abortion, gun rights, and gay rights, he is squarely within the mainstream of the Democratic Party - not to its left. And while he's suspicious of foreign wars, he voices sympathy with Israel's security concerns and warns of the dangers of ISIS. Here's a guide to his views.
Move to a single-payer health care system
[...]
Overturn Citizens United, publicly fund elections
[...]
Combat climate change with a carbon tax
[...]
Don't cut Social Security - expand it (by taxing the wealthy more)
[...]
More spending on infrastructure, less on defense
[...]
Don't tax the middle class more - they're already getting squeezed
[...]
Raise the minimum wage quite a lot
[...]
Supports immigration reform - but not guest worker programs for unskilled labor
[...]
Does not support drug legalization
[...]
Label foods with GMO ingredients
[...]
Supports more gun control - but hasn't always
[...]
Much more government funding for higher education
[...]
Less foreign policy interventionism
[...]
Stop the NSA's "out-of-control" surveillance
[...]
Supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage
[...]
Network neutrality is essential for free speech
[...]
Reform the Export-Import Bank
[...]

More

Reality is ...

... a concept Republicans cannot grasp

Republican Throws Temper Tantrum Because Republicans Can’t Impeach President Obama

by Allen Clifton

Since before Barack Obama ever stepped foot into the White House, Republicans have been trying to find ways to either prevent him from becoming president or remove him from the office he was overwhelmingly voted into by the American people twice.
From the ridiculous birthers who proclaimed that he wasn’t an American citizen, to those who believe his executive order on immigration is tantamount to treason, there has been no shortage of right-wing idiocy with conservatives crying about how Barack Obama should not be president.
Well, it seems the fact that the Republican cabal has been unable to remove President Obama from the White House has caused Paul Gosar to snap. The Republican from Arizona basically threw the equivalent of a temper tantrum when during a speech he suggested that Republicans should flat-out refuse to confirm anyone appointed by this president since they can’t impeach him.
“You may not be able to impeach a president,” Gosar said. “But boy I tell you what: remember, we have the right of advise and confer. Nobody gets confirmed. Nada. Nobody. None. I don’t care how good of a person you are. You’re not gonna get it.”
In other words, he’s extremely upset because there’s no logical or legal grounds for his party to remove President Obama – a man elected to office by the American people via guidelines our Constitution lays out – from power. These are literally some of the most immature and childish comments I’ve ever seen uttered by someone from the Republican party.
When you get right down to it, Gosar’s opinion that Republicans should refuse to confirm anyone appointed by this president isn’t based upon what’s best for the country or even the qualifications of the nominated person to do the job for which they need congressional confirmation, it’s entirely based on Gosar being upset that he’s not getting his way.
Gosar outright admitted, without shame, that it doesn’t matter how qualified the person might be for the position for which they’re seeking confirmation – it’s only about his desire to see his party play petty partisan politics because they’ve been unable to find any Constitutional or legal grounds to impeach this president.
Oh, and for the record, the House of Representatives doesn’t have anything to do with confirming presidential nominees. That’s a job that’s done entirely in the Senate.
So, while Gosar essentially has no say on whether or not the Senate will continue to confirm Obama nominees (to his credit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they would), his comments do showcase a tone among the Republican cabal that I’ve heard for years. Republicans don’t really care about governing, what’s best for this country or anything else – all they really care about is opposing practically anything and everything President Obama supports.
At the end of the day, they really do hate this president more than they love our country – if some of them even love it at all.

NY Republican Senate Majority Leader and son face arrest on corruption charges

Just another typical Republican - Corrupt to the core!

Corrupt Republican

***

Got to love that 'deer in the headlights' look he has above

Third World America: Manufacturing Jobs Return Because U.S. Workers Are Cheaper Now

The good news? Manufacturing jobs are returning to the U.S. The bad news? It’s only because our workers have gotten so cheap. Thank you, Republicans.

Read more 

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Democrats Stand Up Speak Out And Link Republican Budget Cuts To Baltimore Unrest

Democrats tied the civil unrest around the country and in Baltimore directly to policy made in D.C., as they unraveled the cuts to Great Society programs in the 2016 GOP budget conference report during a conference call with reporters Friday.

The new Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), charged that the Republican budget is “same wrecking ball we’ve seen” will “wreak havoc”. Referencing the events in Baltimore, Chairman Butterfield continued, “There is definitely a relationship between budgeting in Congress and the .. civil unrest we are seeing across the country can be directly tied to poverty.”

“Black America is in a state of emergency, 1/4 live in a state of poverty, 1/3 of children live in a state of poverty… there is a huge disparity in this country between black, white and brown… In the city of Baltimore, they’ve lost 90,000 jobs in that community. The black unemployment is twice that of white unemployment.”

Chairman Butterfield concluded, “The civil unrest is a byproduct of poverty.”

“We need a new 21st century war on poverty rather than the war on drugs,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee.

The Democratic Congressman argued that “budgets tell a lot about our priorities” and “the Republican budget is stacked against working people, it really is not part of war on poverty but war on the poor.”

These are not just words. Van Hollen gave examples, “Look at the tax provisions. The child tax credit provision current law helps support lower income families. 67,000 people receive child tax credit in Baltimore. The Republican plan gets rid of increased refundability of the tax credit. 10,000 in Baltimore will loose the tax credit.”

To further his point, Van Hollen pointed out that the GOP budget cuts taxes for millionaires, just weeks after Republicans tried to eliminate estate taxes for estates over $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples, while at the same time cutting programs to help those in poverty like SNAP, Medicare, HeadStart, etc.

If voters were to make decisions based on things like policy instead of slogans, the Republican budget wouldn’t get too many takers. It is a vehicle designed to appease the to 1%, aka, the donors to the Republican Party. It’s fair to say that both parties cater somewhat to their donors, but the question that is left out of this equation is who are the donors. Are there a lot of individual people donations or is the party funded primarily by the top 1-2%. The answer to this question belies the “both sides do it” narrative.

The Democrats were confronted with conservative criticism of the Great Society programs by a reporter — basically, why should we make more of an investment in the Great Society programs since they clearly aren’t working? This is a great question. This is the kind of question that Republicans are so good at selling to the public. Notice that it doesn’t require any proof on their side, it uses the existence of poverty as justification to ignore poverty. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. It’s a bumper sticker slogan.

But this time, the Democrats came armed.

Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) challenged critics, “The fact that we haven’t eliminated poverty with social safety nets, let those who want to cut them show how that is going to make things better.” He scoffed, “The idea that the response should be to reduce the investments is absurd.”

Citing the President’s Economic Report that they say determined “40 million Americans would be in poverty if not for Great Society programs”, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chair of the Democratic Whip’s Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality and Opportunity and member of the House Committee on Budget, used herself as an example. She said, “If we had not invested in Great Society programs… we would have millions more living in poverty, and I cite my own self as an example. I was on public assistance and food stamps so I was able to go to college, start a business, run for office, and raise two children.”

“All of these initiatives that lifted people out of poverty, what we see is the Republicans cutting every initiative that has helped our communities,” Rep. Lee said. “It’s a shame to see a cut in food stamps …. and all of those initiatives started 50 years ago that helped many of us in Congress to move forward.”

Going back to events in Baltimore and Ferguson and around the nation, Lee said, “These are wake up calls. It’s our moral duty and moral responsibility to recognize that all lives matter, but that black lives matter also.”

Democrats are working hard to show the connection between policy and Americans’ lives. They aren’t the best at this sort of thing, but today they made significant progress in advancing clarity on the issues surrounding poverty. There is a direct connection between the people we vote for and the policies that trickle down into our communities.

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Raped 10-Year-Old Denied Abortion

Just remember this is what the ignorant religio-wingnut teabagger republicans want here in the United States

by Nina Strochlic

Horrifying

The girl is pregnant after being raped by her stepfather but the government of Paraguay has refused to grant her an abortion, stating that her life is not in danger. Activists are arguing that “life is not only a matter of having a pulse."

A 10-year-old pregnant with her stepfather’s child will not be allowed to get an abortion because the government of Paraguay doesn’t believe that her life in immediate danger.
On April 23, the unnamed girl was reportedly checked into the hospital by her mother. She complained of stomach pains and tests showed she was already 21-weeks pregnant. Earlier this week, her mother apparently requested her daughter be given an abortion, and when it was revealed that her stepfather impregnated her, the mother was taken into custody.
Doctors requested permission to perform the procedure. In Paraguay, abortions can’t be performed in the case of rape or incest, and only if the government decides that a life is in danger. In this case they decided it wasn’t.
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), an international legal advocacy organization, has been collaborating with attorneys on the ground in Paraguay to fight the decision.
“They would not consider her health as a risk to her life?” says Paula Avila-Guillen, the Latin America and Caribbean advocacy advisor at CRR, about the government’s decision. “Life is not only a matter of having a pulse."
According to CRR’s information, the girl is under 70 lbs. and delivering a child could result in “permanent damage,” not to mention psychological issues.
“No 10-year-old is ready to be a mother. That will carry trauma for her whole family,” Avila-Guillen says. The risk of complications during child birth is exponentially higher in girls under 15—according to the World Health Organization maternal mortality is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls in developing countries.
“I don’t think anybody—you don’t need to be doctor or an advocate or even understand these issues—would realize a 10-year-old with a pregnancy as a product of rape is just completely inhumane,” Avila-Guillen says.
Punishment for illegal abortions can land a doctor, or even the woman herself, in jail for more than two years. As a result, the United Nations has reported upwards of 30,000 under-the-table abortions performed annually. According to CRR, as of Wednesday, the doctors were exploring other considerations to protect her health as petitions to approve the abortion had not garnered a response from the government, despite increasing international pressure.

“I don’t think anybody—you don’t need to be doctor or an advocate or even understand these issues—would realize a 10-year-old with a pregnancy as a product of rape is just completely inhumane.”

South America has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Abortion is against the law in all circumstances—even if a mother’s life is in danger—in Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. But CRR has worked on similar cases in abortion-restrictive countries, like Colombia and Chile, with success.
In the past, situations that garnered similar media attention have ended with the government accepting the demands of activists. But even a concession could come too late. Once a doctor decides a pregnancy is too far progressed for a safe abortion, there’s no choice but to deliver the baby. “Clearly a girl at such a young age doesn't have the capacity to be a mother. But even in cases where it’s too late, the role of advocates is to ensure some type of support,” Avila-Guillen says.
According to Amnesty International, which calls this case “tantamount to torture," the young girl has been transferred to a center for young mothers to be given neonatal care. "There is no indication that the health of the (girl) is at risk ... therefore we are not, from any point of view, in favor of the termination of the pregnancy,” Paraguayan Health Minister Antonio Barrios told CNN. "The Justice Department will determine later who will have custody of the mother and child after (the birth)."
Sadly, this case shares tragic similarities with another case being covered in local Paraguay news, of a 12-year-old girl impregnated by her father. Her stepmother saw signs of pregnancy and took her to the doctor, who confirmed it. The father is currently being held and could face 12 years in prison. What will happen to his daughter is not currently known.
“They think they’re allowing the right to life and they’re protecting basic life [with abortion laws],” Avila-Guillen says. “ But these restrictions are very harmful for women and girls—they not only affect their life, they affect their potential of the life they want to build. Access to abortion that should be granted and only discussed between women and doctors. If that had been the case she would not be in the news—she would not be exposed to all this.”

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