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Thursday, August 6, 2015

Trump Falls Apart When Called Out On His Racism Towards African-Americans

donald trumpTrump fell apart when questioned about his racism towards African-Americans on ABC’s This Week.
Transcript via ABC’s This Week:
KARL: So let me ask you about something you tweeted last year. You said of Barack Obama, “Sadly, because President Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations.”

What did you mean by that?

TRUMP: Well, I think he’s been a very poor president. I think he has done a very poor job as president. We have $18 trillion right now in debt and going up rapidly.
KARL: But what did you mean? What —
TRUMP: Wait a minute.
The world is — we don’t have victories anymore. China is killing us on trade. Mexico’s killing us at the border and also killing us on trade. Mexico’s doing unbelievably against us in trade.
You look at what’s going on with Japan. You look at what’s going on with Vietnam. You look at Saudi Arabia, makes $1 billion a day and we defend them. We get nothing.
KARL: I understand your critique. But why do you say that means we won’t see another black president for generations?
TRUMP: Because I think that he has set a very poor standard. I think that he has set a very low bar and I think it’s a shame for the African American people.
And by the way, he has done nothing for African Americans. You look at what’s gone on with their income levels. You look at what’s gone on with their youth. I thought that he would be a great cheerleader for this country. I thought he’d do a fabulous job for the African American citizens of this country.
He has done nothing. They are worse now than just about ever and —
KARL: But —
TRUMP: — they are — excuse me. They have problems now in terms of unemployment numbers, look at their unemployment numbers. And you have — here you have a black president who’s done very poorly for the African-Americans of this country.

And I think that I will win the African-American vote, and I think I will win the Hispanic vote. And if you see the recent polls that came out, Jon, you’ll see that because I’m leading in the Hispanic vote.
Trump’s claim was that since Obama has been a “bad” president, no African-American will be able to win the White House for generations. When Jon Karl pressed him on what he meant by there won’t be another African-American president for generations, Trump broke into his billionaire bluster and claimed that African-Americans and Hispanics will vote for him.
The contradiction in Trump’s claim was an inference that African-Americans voted for Obama because he is black, but they are going to turn to the rich white man to “rescue” them in 2016. Trump was called out on his racist beliefs, and instead of admitting his racism, he fell apart and retreated to his usual empty tough talk.
When even Jon “Benghazi emails” Karl is calling out Trump’s racism, the writing is on the wall.
However, racism is what has made Trump so popular with Republican voters. Don’t expect Trump to apologize or change because without the racism, he is just another unqualified Republican candidate.

Trump backlash intensifies within Republican cabal ahead of first 2016 debate

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has accused Mexican immigrants of being criminals and rapists (AFP)Amid growing rancor among Republican pretender candidates ahead of their crowded first debate on Thursday, current frontrunner Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to consider running as an independent if he was not “treated fairly” by the cabal.

Report Reveals What Obamacare Does To Hospital Bills

Featured image by Will O'Neill. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89355994@N05/8136434824/
It seems that Obamacare is having an interesting effect on unpaid hospital bills.

Some Analysts Think Putin's Downfall May Be Imminent

Could a world leader with as much power as Vladimir Putin really be headed for a toppling in the near future? Trace examines the arguments some are making for exactly that.

The Truth Hurts

Last Week In Wingnut Stupidity

The 5 Most Asinine Quotes Of The Week
This Week In Right-Wing Stupidity: The 5 Most Asinine Quotes Of The Week
The stupid, it burns.
Read more 

Last Week In Wingnut Racism

#BlackLivesMatter Will Destroy America; Comparing Confederate Flag To MLK
This Week In Right Wing Racism: #BlackLivesMatter Will Destroy America; Comparing Confederate Flag To MLK
Another week, another list of racist incidents from the wingnuts.
Read more 

Last Week’s Tin Foil Moment

This Week’s Tin Foil Moment: Obama And The NAACP Are (LOL) Banning The Gadsden Flag A story cleverly placed by Liberal Trolls is making its rounds in wingnut circles, and the outrage is hilarious.

The Before And After Demeanor Of This Suspended Bully Cop Will Have You Typing ‘SMH’

(Image courtesy of YouTube altered screen capture)
This deputy will be back at it soon enough, and the cameras won’t always be rolling.

Last Week In Police Brutality And Corruption

Cop Culture 
Featured image credit: video screen capture via Michael Storm on youtube
This week’s update from America’s police state provides a stark glimpse into the culture of corruption that exists in law enforcement agencies across the U.S.

Wingnut Obsession

jesus Versus Republicans

On S-E-X
Featured image credit: public domain photo, via Wikipedia
Was jesus as obsessed with sex as the 'christian' wingnuts?
Not even close.
Read more

Top 5 Stupid Things Pseudo-christians Said Last Week

Top 5 Stupid Things Pseudo-Christians Said This Week
Pseudo-christians had a lot to say about President Obama’s speech in Kenya. Also an old myth about contraception and Mike “I’m Too Dumb To Realize I Blew It” Huckabee.

Last Week In Bad 'christianity'

The Return Of Anti-LGBTQ Hate
"Rainbow Flag" image by Benson Kua. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Cross image by Murraytheb. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. Images merged and altered by Rika Christensen/Liberalistics
Here’s your weekly dose of the worst excuses for 'christians' ever.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
The Truth Be Told is read in 205 countries around the world.

Typical Republican - Hopelessly out of touch ... !
Today is -National Underwear Day
 
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Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Bangladesh - China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia - Iran - Korea - Mauritius - Singapore - Vietnam
Africa
Algeria - Morocco - Mozambique - South Africa
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Australia - Philippines

Bernie Sanders Says His Truth Bombs Are Forcing Hillary Clinton To Deal With Reality

bernie sanders univison
During an interview with Jorge Ramos, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that his campaign has forced Hillary Clinton to deal with reality.
Transcript via Univision:
Jorge Ramos: Are you putting her to the left? Are you exposing her weaknesses? In other words, that you’re better on TV, better on the campaign trail, getting more money from small donors.

Bernie Sanders: Well, it’s not a question of pushing her to the left. We are speaking to the needs of the American people. What the American people know is the rich are getting much richer and almost everybody else is getting poor. We know that youth unemployment is just horrendously high. A study came out recently, Hispanic youth unemployment, 36 percent; African-American youth unemployment, for kids who graduate high school, 51 percent. People understand that we need to create jobs. We got a program to do that.

JR: But are you exposing her weaknesses?
BS: I think by telling the truth we are forcing her and other candidates to respond to that reality. I’ve come out for a $15 minimum wage. Because I don’t think people can survive on $7.25 an hour or $9 an hour. I think she’s moving in that direction too.
Beneath the claims that he can beat Hillary Clinton, Sen. Sanders has been very open about the goals of his campaign. One of the goals that he stated before he launched his campaign was that he wanted to make sure that liberal and progressive voices had a seat at the table during the Democratic primary. Sanders also wants to have a serious discussion about the issues that impact the lives of everyday Americans. He has also stated the goal of building a movement of millions to take back the electoral system from the Koch brothers and other oligarchic billionaires.
So far, Bernie Sanders has been successful at almost every level. His goal may not have been to push Hillary Clinton to the left, but that is what his campaign is accomplishing. By forcing the Clinton campaign to compete for Democratic voters, the Sanders campaign has forced them to define their positions sooner than they may have liked. The Sanders campaign is helping Hillary Clinton become a stronger candidate while sparking a discussion on economic issues that have been ignored for decades.
Senator Sanders is shaking up the political landscape because he is authentic, and he is telling the truth. The focus is on the issues, and Bernie Sanders has fundamentally transformed the 2016 Democratic primary through his blunt message of economic truth.

Bernie Sanders Gets Major Environmental Endorsement

Bernie-Sanders-point
The campaign of Bernie Sanders scored a major coup Saturday, earning the first endorsement of any candidate by a national environmental group, Friends of the Earth.
Granted, the field is limited to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, given that no living Republican candidate will ever earn the endorsement of any environmental group, local, state, or national. But with the narrowing gap between Clinton and Sanders, this endorsement is no small thing.
Donald Trump, of course, currently the leading Republican candidate, announced back in January of 2014 that “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.”
Now, with 2014 behind us, the studies are in, and according to NOAA, 2014 was the warmest year on record:





“NOAA's State Of The Climate report says four datasets confirm 2014 was warmest year pic.twitter.com/ABlCxHUEt3http://ow.ly/Qmp3K 
 
The Sanders campaign released a statement from Concord, New Hampshire:
“I am very honored to receive the endorsement of one of the great environmental organizations not only in America but in the world,” Sanders said at the news conference at a park here along the banks of the Merrimack River.
The endorsement was announced by Michael Herz, a former chairman and current Friends of the Earth board member. Erich Pica, the president of Friends of the Earth Action, said in a statement that the endorsement means his group’s 2 million activists will promote Sanders’ bid to become the Democratic Party nominee for president.
“He has proven himself a bold and fearless voice for the planet,” Pica said of Sanders in a prepared statement. “Sen. Sanders’ bold ideas and real solutions to addressing climate change, inequality and promoting a transformative economy that prioritizes public health and the environment over corporate profits, have earned him an enthusiastic endorsement from Friends of the Earth Action.”
In the audience at the news conference was Jerry Curran, the chairman of the New Hampshire chapter of the Sierra Club. Another leading environmentalist and best-selling author, Bill McKibben, took part in the May 26 kickoff of Sanders’ presidential campaign at a Lake Champlain shoreline park in Burlington, Vermont.
In accepting the Friends of the Earth endorsement, Sanders focused on the most serious environmental issue confronting the planet: global warming. “We need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into sustainable energy,” Sanders said.
The endorsement capped a week during which Sanders welcomed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s support for solar power and energy efficiency, but questioned her refusal to take a stand on construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean.
“If you’re concerned about climate change, say no to the Keystone XL pipeline,” Sanders said at the news conference. He said the pipeline would ship some of the dirtiest oil on the planet from Canada’s tar sands region across the United States to refineries in Texas.
Sanders’ clear stand on the pipeline was among the factors Friends of the Earth cited in its endorsement.
Sanders said he would tax emissions from burning oil and coal to discourage the use of fossil fuels responsible for climate change. He has proposed eliminating $135 billion in tax breaks for fossil fuel companies which turn enormous profits. He introduced legislation Congress passed to create an energy efficiency block grant program. His measure was folded into a broader energy bill that Congress passed in 2007. He later secured $3.2 billion for the initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. And his 10 Million Solar Roofs Act would make solar power more affordable and make it simpler for homeowners and businesses to get local permits.
The environment gets far too little attention. Republicans don’t care about it. Ann Coulter, for example, echoing what many Republicans seem to believe, says immigration is the important issue, not the fact that sea levels are rising along with global temperatures, year after year.
It is important that going forward, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders address this important issue, because it is the only issue being talked about in this campaign cycle that affects every living person on this planet. And without a habitable planet, all other issues, no matter how dear to your heart, become non-issues.

While Other Candidates Tap Millionaires, Sanders Campaign Is Fueled By Small Donations

Bernie Sanders' campaign is a grassroots movement, while most of the other campaigns are backed by millionaires and billionaires.…

The 1 Percent Are Spending Millions To Buy This Election, No Voting Required

Report: The 1 Percent Are Spending Millions To Buy This Election, No Voting Required
This is really scary.
Read more 

Remember When Louis Black Talked About Trump? It Was Hilarious And Dead On

Remember When Louis Black Talked About Donald Trump? It Was Hilarious And Dead On (VIDEO)Louis Black endorsed Donald Trump in 2012, sort of. He says he would be a ‘President who’s not afraid of telling the truth…about being a lying asshole.’

Trump Becomes The Face Of The Republican Cabal As He Surges To Huge Lead In Iowa

Trump's 16 point lead in the Republican cabal field in Iowa, has made him the de facto face of the Republican cabal.…

Trump Would Be The Republican Cabal Nominee if Vote Were Held Today

Trump's play to misery, that "We are really far down" and "We are in big trouble" have found resonance among the Republican base…

Two Kinds

IRS Surrenders To The Koch Brothers’ Dark Money, Gives Up On Regulating PACs

by Shannon Argueta
Any hope that the I.R.S. would crack down on “dark money” donors who have created tax exempt nonprofit groups for political purposes before the 2016 election is gone. The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John Koskinen, told a House committee meeting on Thursday that there were no plans in the works for new regulations before the upcoming elections.
Donors use these tax-exempt organizations because there is no accountability and little paper trail that reveals who is donating to them; the perfect way to funnel money to causes without leaving any fingerprints. Koskinen later gave reporters an unbelievable explanation as to why the I.R.S. was not going to do its job and change the tax code:
“I don’t want people thinking we are trying to get these regs done so we can influence the election.”
His announcement comes on the heels of another decision earlier this year in which the commissioner said he would allow the political organizations who have disguised themselves as nonprofit “social welfare” groups to keep their tax exempt status as long as they only spend up to 49 percent of their revenue on political activity.
The IRS has been under attack from the Republican cabal ever since they began investigating just where the teabagger covens came from, and where the war-chests that toppled mainstream Republicans from their seats and began rapidly radicalizing American politics. The Republican cabal erupted in self-righteous fury, accusing the IRS of bias and that wingnut ‘nonprofits’ were being unfairly targeted by the I.R.S. Even though it was quickly discovered the left-leaning groups were given the same scrutiny that teabagger covens were given, but that didn’t stop the hysterical cries of victimization and government overreach that fulfilled their purpose- to draw attention away from the puppet masters- the Koch Brothers. Since then, the Republican cabal has been steadily cutting away funding from the I.R.S, hindering them from fulfilling their most basic functions..
Now, they are backing down from the Kochs and their dirty dollars once again. It is absolutely infuriating that Koskinen is not going to crack down on these cabals, especially when you find out just how much money they are illegally spending on political activities. According to the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) these nonprofit organizations exploded after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010. In 2006, spending from these dark money fueled nonprofits was just under $5.2 million in 2006, but in 2012, just two years after the SCOTUS ruling, it was over $300 million. This next cycle, they are planning to shell out a jaw-dropping $900 million to tilt the odds in their favor.
This is horrendous news for the fate of our elections. Not only do we have the I.R.S. not taking any action to punish illegal activities, but we have the Federal Election Commission completely unable to enact any kind of reform because of the Republicans on the board. With both the I.R.S. and F.E.C. paralyzed by Republican cabal obstructionism, big money has been given a free pass to take over our elections, potentially  drowning out the rest of America. This is why it is so important that a Democrat wins the upcoming election; after four more years, the damage to our democracy might be irreversible.

Cheney’s Halliburton Suing The Cancer-Stricken Iraq War Vets They Poisoned

Halliburton, the colossal oil field services company that was formerly run by Black Prince of Darkness, Dick Cheney, was one of the biggest profiteers off of the atrocious bloodshed during the War in Iraq. Cheney arranged for his former company and its subsidiaries to get massive government contracts, and used American servicemen to guard the sites. The toxic nature of oil work has resulted in the poisoning of untold numbers of our soldiers and Iraqis alike without their knowledge, even though the company was certainly aware of it.In 2012, a federal court in Portland, OR, awarded $85 million in damages to twelve Oregon National Guardsmen who had been exposed and fallen ill from the cancer-causing toxin sodium dichromate at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant, Iraq, a site operated by the Halliburton subsidiary KBR. The 9th Circuit Court threw out the judgement on appeal, ruling that they had to sue the company in their own state of Texas.
The case against KBR is being filed again in Houston, but KBR has retaliated by suing the veterans for $850,000 in legal fees from the first case, in a retaliatory and deeply immoral attempt to punish the veterans and silence their efforts to bring the company to justice.
By burying these veterans in litigation and possibly crushing debt if the court sides with KBR again, they will have poisoned US veterans, on the US government’s dime, and have gotten away with it. It is absolutely reprehensible. The ghosts of Iraq still haunt our soldiers and our conscience, eight years later. Corporate privilege in our nation extends much far too far if shocking travesties like this are allowed to occur in our nation. Cheney, Halliburton, and KBR have done enough damage and stolen enough money to our nation as it is. We can’t let them do this to our vets again.

Wingnut Says Liberals Hate 'christians', ‘As Much As The Nazis Hated The jews

Image via video screen captureHe also has an interesting theory about weather patterns.
And, if you’re going to listen to anyone about such matters – it should be this guy.

The Law is catching up to the Texas Republican's Corruption

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton indicted by grand jury on fraud charges: reports

Florida police laundered millions in drug money overseas and enjoyed lavish lifestyle

Handcuffs on cash (Shuttershock)
An investigative report by the Miami Herald reveals that two local Florida police agencies engaged in a slick money laundering scheme ripped from a Hollywood movie.

South Carolina Cop Never Reported Killing 19-Year-Old

Featured image credit: video screen capture, Fox Carolina
There better be an investigation into this.
Read more

A Thousand Points of Hate ...

Couple Plans Massive Series of Anti–Gay Marriage Billboards
by Samantha Cowan
Some highway billboards are the same wherever you go across this great land of ours: McDonald’s, Target, Walmart. Others are more regional (where is the line at which Carl’s Jr. becomes Hardee’s, anyway?). Some are particular to states, and those road-tripping through Oklahoma will likely see billboards directing them to visit online adult toy shops and to alert law enforcement about any methamphetamine use they come across. And in one small part of the state—the town of Durant, in the southeast corner—visitors and residents may now feast their eyes upon a message against marriage equality.
The plea comes from Betty and Richard Odgaard, an Iowa couple who say they recently closed their wedding business rather than perform same-sex marriages. Iowa legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, but the Odgaards and their Görtz Haus Gallery came under fire in 2013 when they refused to assist two men with their upcoming nuptials, citing their 'christian' delusions, The Blaze spews. A small payout from the lawsuit, followed by boycotts and a decline in their accompanying flower and restaurant businesses, led the couple to close their doors at the end of July.
After their wedding business was shuttered, the couple established a nonprofit called dog’s original design cult. They plan to place up to 1,000 anti–gay marriage billboards around the country. dog’s original design cult is listed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means it doesn’t have to pay taxes on the money people send in.
The Odgaards have previously warned that people of similar delusion will be unable to run their own businesses as they see fit due to anti-discrimination laws. Their website notes that their billboards “give a voice to the ‘silent minority’ ” who mistakenly think marriage should be between a man and a woman. Although polling figures showed that 61 percent of Americans supported marriage equality even before the Supreme Court ruling, the billboards—funded entirely by donations—indicate that intolerance is alive and well.
Advertising homophobia on massive street signs is nothing new, and counter billboard campaigns are ready to help.
“dog Loves Gays” also shouts from the mouth of highway signs. These billboards feature an image of a smiling old man under a rainbow. Last month, the group behind the project erected its third billboard in Dearborn Heights, Michigan—in the same location where an antigay billboard previously stood. Oklahoma might be next, as dog Loves Gays lists it among potential locations for its next sign.

Finding "Evidence"

The White House Gets Fox News To STFU Over Biased Planned Parenthood Coverage

Erick Erickson Threatens 'Violence In The Polling Booths' If The Republican Cabal Doesn't Shutdown Govt Over Planned Parenthood

From the "What a Dick" Department:
Erick Erickson Threatens 'Violence In The Polling Booths' If GOP Doesn't Shutdown Govt Over Planned Parenthood Erick Erickson is demanding the Republican cabal to shut down the government over the Planned Parenthood videos or they will face harsh retribution.

Nice Try, Republicans!

Nice Try, Republicans! Smear Videos Helped RAISE Money For Planned Parenthood After wingnuts released a series of four highly controversial videos attacking women’s health organization Planned Parenthood for making profits...

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  
 
The Truth Be Told is read in 205 countries around the world.

Republicans - No night out for you  ... !
Today is -National Night Out
 
Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally

Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Colombia - Mexico - Nicaragua - Peru - Puerto Rico - Saint Kitts/Nevis  
Sint Eustatius/Saba - United States - Uruguay
Europe
Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - Czech Republic - England - France - Germany - Ireland - Italy  Latvia - Lithuania - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia - Scotland - Serbia - Slovenia  Spain - Sweden - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Bangladesh - Burma - China - India - Indonesia - Israel - Korea - Malaysia - Mauritius - Pakistan 
Saudi Arabia - Sri Lanka - Thailand - Vietnam
Africa
Algeria - Morocco - South Africa
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Australia - Philippines

Bill Maher on running for office: Americans would ‘probably elect a pedophile before an atheist’

'Real Time' host Bill Maher delivers special commentary for 'Real Sports' on Feb. 26, 2015. [YouTube]

President Obama Tears Boehner And McConnell A New One At Highway Bill Signing

While he signed the three-month transportation funding bill, President Obama delivered a stern lecture to Congress in general and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell specifically about their total inability to govern.
The President said:
obama signs highway billWell, I am about to sign a three-month extension of our highway funding, and that’s a good thing because if this wasn’t in front of me and ready for signature we would end up having projects all across the country be frozen after midnight.
On the other hand, we have now made it a habit where instead of five-year funding plans for transportation instead of long-term approaches, instead we operate as if we’re hand to mouth three months at a time, which freezes a lot of construction, which makes people uncertain, which leads to businesses not being willing to hire because they don’t have any long-term certainty. It’s a bad way for the U.S. government to do business.
….
We can’t have bridges collapsing and potholes not being filled because Congress can’t come up with an adequate plan to fund our infrastructure budget for more than three or five or six months at a time.
….
So I want to make sure that before I sign this Congress gets a clear message, and that is we should not be leaving all the business of the U.S. government until the last minute.
That little lecture was directed at two people whose names the President did not mention. Obama was talking about the dysfunction between Boehner and McConnell. The Senate did their job. They negotiated a bipartisan multi-year agreement on transportation funding that House Republicans immediately refused to pass.
Republicans promised the American people that the governing from crisis to crisis behavior would stop if they were given control of both the House and Senate. Well, Republicans control Congress, and the dysfunction and chaos have grown worse.
President Obama has been forced into the role of the national parent who has to scold and reprimand Republicans who refuse to carry out their basic duties. The spoiled Republican children are taking millions of dollars in salary and benefits from the taxpayers while providing little in return.
The drama over the highway bill is nothing compared to the potential government shutdown that is looming after Congress returns from its August break. As the stakes get higher, it is expected that President Obama’s language will get even tougher as Boehner and McConnell appear to have no idea how to make this Congress work.

President Obama Calls Out The Republican Lies On Medicare

Obama medicare
President Obama is pushing back against the Republican lies about Medicare while celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid.
The President said:
This week, there was a big birthday you might have missed. Medicare and Medicaid turned 50 years old. And that’s something worth celebrating.

If one of the best measures of a country is how it treats its more vulnerable citizens – seniors, the poor, the sick – then America has a lot to be proud of. Think about it. Before Social Security, too many seniors lived in poverty. Before Medicare, only half had some form of health insurance. Before Medicaid, parents often had no help covering the cost of care for a child with a disability.

But as Americans, we declared that our citizens deserve a basic measure of security and dignity. And today, the poverty rate for seniors is less than half of what it was fifty years ago. Every American over 65 has access to affordable health care. And today, we’re finally finishing the job – since I signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the uninsured rate for all Americans has fallen by about one-third.
These promises we made as a nation have saved millions of our own people from poverty and hardship, allowing us new freedom, new independence, and the chance to live longer, better lives. That’s something to be proud of. It’s heroic. These endeavors – these American endeavors – they didn’t just make us a better country. They reaffirmed that we are a great country.
And a great country keeps the promises it makes. Today, we’re often told that Medicare and Medicaid are in crisis. But that’s usually a political excuse to cut their funding, privatize them, or phase them out entirely – all of which would undermine their core guarantee. The truth is, these programs aren’t in crisis. Nor have they kept us from cutting our deficits by two-thirds since I took office. What is true is that every month, another 250,000 Americans turn 65 years old, and become eligible for Medicare. And we all deserve a health care system that delivers efficient, high-quality care. So to keep these programs strong, we’ll have to make smart changes over time, just like we always have.
Today, we’re actually proving that’s possible. The Affordable Care Act has already helped secure Medicare’s funding for another 13 years. The Affordable Care Act has saved more than nine million folks on Medicare 15 billion dollars on their prescription medicine. It has expanded Medicaid to help cover 12.8 million more Americans, and to help more seniors live independently. And we’re moving our health care system toward models that reward the quality of the care you receive, not the quantity of care you receive. That means healthier Americans and a healthier federal budget.
Today, these programs are so fundamental to our way of life that it’s easy to forget how hard people fought against them at the time. When FDR created Social Security, critics called it socialism. When JFK and LBJ worked to create Medicare, the cynics said it would take away our freedom. But ultimately, we came to see these programs for what they truly are – a promise that if we work hard, and play by the rules, we’ll be rewarded with a basic measure of dignity, security, and the freedom to live our lives as we want.

It’s a promise that previous generations made to us, and a promise that our generation has to keep.
As usual, the President didn’t mention anyone by name but it was clear who he was talking about. Jeb Bush has made phasing out the beloved program that help the poor, seniors, and the disabled a key piece of his campaign. Republicans routinely misinform in an attempt to provide justification for their ideological goal of destroying Medicare/Medicaid.
Republicans are still claiming that Obamacare is destroying Medicare when the reality is that the ACA has added to Medicare funding. As we move into campaign season, the Republican lies about the stability and future of Medicare will return to the surface. The truth is that the Republican goal has been, is, and will continue to be to get rid of Medicare.
Obama nailed it. Republicans are wrong about the ACA, Medicare, and Social Security. The President is standing tall and not letting the right’s ideological fallacies go unchallenged.

White House Promises Obama Will Veto Republican Bill To Defund Planned Parenthood

obama veto 40 hour work week
President Obama is standing by Planned Parenthood as the White House confirmed that he will veto the Republican bill to defund the organization.
The White House on Friday threatened a veto on any bill that defunds Planned Parenthood.

A budget measure that strips funding from the organization “is certainly something that would draw a presidential veto,” press secretary Josh Earnest said.

“We have routinely opposed the inclusion of ideologically driven riders” in budget bills, Earnest added.
This veto threat is larger than most because Ted Cruz and House Republicans are threatening to shut down the government if Planned Parenthood is not defunded. Cruz is set to deploy the same tactics that he used in 2013 to shut down the government when he attempted to defund Obamacare.
The 2013 shutdown was a complete disaster, and House and Senate Republicans will be under the same kind of pressure to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood. The Obama veto threat is the first shot in what could be an ugly showdown in September. This White House is opposed to ideological add-ons in budget bills. That means that when Cruz and his House wingnut allies pressure Boehner and McConnell into adding a provision that defunds Planned Parenthood to the budget bills, Republicans will be putting the wheels in motion for a government shutdown.
Republicans in Congress have been trying this same failed stunt for years. Republicans always convince themselves that they have found the golden ticket to make Obama blink, but the President has stood his ground and not batted an eye. In the end, Republicans always cave under the pressure of the crisis that they created bring down the President.
Nothing has changed. Republicans are going to fail again because the White House has made it clear that President Obama is not going to be intimidated.

Obama Draws Bright Red Line In The Sand Over Planned Parenthood, Dares Republicans To Cross It

Obama Draws Bright Red Line In The Sand Over Planned Parenthood, Dares Republicans To Cross It
This is what a president who stands up for women’s rights looks like.
Read more

Hillary Clinton Just Obliterated Jeb In Front Of Jeb

Hillary Clinton Just Obliterated Jeb Bush In Front Of Jeb Bush
This. Was. Epic.
Read more

Republicans Tell Their Own Media: You’re Destroying Our Chance To 'Govern' With Your Idiocy

Republicans Tell Their Own Media: You’re Destroying Our Chance To Govern With Your IdiocyRepublicans are concerned with what Liberals have been saying for years: the wingnut media’s push to extremism is harming the Republican cabal’s ability to 'govern'.

Fox News Says Don’t Worry if Times’ Clinton Email Story Wrong, Keep Talking About it

Judith Miller says don't worry about facts, we need more coverage. This is Fox-speak for "We've got nothing, so let's keep talking about it"…
Judith-miller-clinton-emails
A classic Fox News response to the botched, re-botched and botched again New York Times Hillary Clinton email story:
On Fox News’ Happening Now, Judith Miller said we need more coverage of the Clinton emails “Whether or not The Times got certain facts about the story wrong.” This is Fox-speak for “We’ve got nothing, so let’s keep talking about it.”
They don’t have to prove a thing. They just have to keep doubt alive, just as they’ve tried to do with global warming, and before that, smoking. Throw enough dirt, and some will stick. And after all, where they’ve invented one lie, they can invent another, and keep inventing them.
Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:
Sure, some of what the Times said was wrong, claims Miller, but, she says,
What we’re missing here is the bigger picture, and that is that Hillary Clinton, whether or not the Times got certain facts about the story wrong, has huge potential legal and certainly political problems because of her handling of the email, and if I were Hillary Clinton’s press secretary, I would want to divert attention too to what The New York Times did or didn’t do and how fast it did it. Look, we already know she had 60,000 emails, only 30,000 of which were turned over to the State Department. The other 30,000 she destroyed. We know there was at least five emails which contained classified information. We don’t know how many more did. We don’t know when that information was classified. We also know there was that mysterious disappearance of two months of emails just around the Benghazi attack. I mean, there are so many issues here and problems.
Miller says the question is why the media did not “get on this story sooner. Why did it take until The New York Times’ original story about the existence of a private server in her private home to prompt others to begin to look at this issue.”
Hillary Clinton is lining up Republican pretender candidates and knocking them down like dominoes. At this rate, she will have all 16 down even before the first debates. Fox News, like the Republican cabal, is frantically looking for ways to stop her. Expect more Benghazi, expect more emails and more emails + Benghazi and anything else they can invent to throw at her.
What is funny is that The New York Times can call out the campaign being engineered against Planned Parenthood without noticing their own deceptive campaign against Hillary Clinton. As The Atlantic‘s Norm Ornstein so succinctly put it, The New York Times‘ handling of Clinton email story is “a direct challenge to its fundamental credibility.”
We could say a lot more about Fox News, but they never had any credibility to begin with.