Saturday, September 19, 2015
As His Leads Grow In Iowa And New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders Shows His Foreign Policy Chops
Bernie Sanders is building on his leads in Iowa and
New Hampshire by showcasing his knowledge of foreign policy, and his
peaceful path forward for the United States.
According to the latest CBS News battleground tracker polls,
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has increased his leads Iowa and New
Hampshire to ten and twenty points respectively over Hillary Clinton.
Sanders now leads Clinton 43%-33% in Iowa and 52%-30% in New Hampshire.
The poll tells a different story in South Carolina as Clinton leads
Sanders 46%-23%, and Sanders has the lowest growth potential will only
11% of those polled saying that he would be their second choice in South
Carolina.
His success in the polls has led to Sanders
beginning to broaden the scope of his campaign. On Meet The Press, Senator
Sanders discussed his view of how to handle the Middle East.
Sanders said, “I think clearly the now is not who is
at fault. The issue is now what we do, and what we do is bring the
region together. Countries like Saudi Arabia, which has the third
largest military budget in the world. Turkey, other countries are going
to have to get their hands dirty on the ground in taking on ISIL. I
believe strongly that the U.S., the UK, other countries should be
supportive, but I disagree strongly that the United States should have
combat troops in that area. I fear very much that we will be in
perpetual warfare in that region. I do not want to see that occur.”
Senator Sanders was at risk of being labeled a one-note
economic populist candidate, but his status as the leader in Iowa and
New Hampshire has given him the time and the platform to expand his
campaign. The Sanders foreign policy message is going to be very popular
with Democratic primary voters who also fear a return to perpetual war
in the Middle East.
Bernie Sanders doesn’t have the same kind of foreign
policy experience as former Sec. of State Clinton, but he is no slouch
in the area of foreign affairs. The Sanders campaign understands that to
win the Democratic nomination, their candidate must be well rounded.
A lot can and will change before voters cast their
votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, but Bernie Sanders is morphing from an
underdog to a candidate who is battling on equal footing with Hillary
Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Koch Brothers Caught Manipulating Wikipedia to Scrub the Truth About Them
For all their evil ways and naked ambition, the Koch Brothers are desperate to save their precious public image and depict themselves as “champions of the poor” and “saviors of the world.” Their latest attempts: “whitewashing” all Wikipedia references to themselves and Koch Industries.
It’s something of which the moderators at Wikipedia take a very dim view. Usually, they are on top of such shenanigans – but there is a great deal of material to keep track of, and most of the people who monitor and edit Wikipedia entries work on a volunteer basis. Besides, the moderators and editors of Wikipedia were dealing with the sneakiest, most devious slimeballs on the planet. Were it not for an undercover investigation by some equally devious journalists at Daily Kos, the Koch Brothers’ ongoing efforts to lie about themselves to the public might have continued unchecked.
There were, of course, suspicions. The Wikipedia “Talk Page” for Charles Koch’s biography is replete with critical comments and observations on the article’s objectivity (specifically, the lack thereof). The problem was finding evidence of deliberate tampering: was the poorly-written nature of the article and related pieces due to laziness and slipshod research on the part of the writers, or was there something more sinister going on?
A Daily Kos contributor went into Wikipedia undercover and used the ultimate weapon to expose the Koch’s campaign of whitewashing: a “Truth-Blitz.” The agent attempted to add a section to the entry on Koch Industry, entitled “Legal and Regulatory Events,” which was subsequently removed. Grounds for removal were based on “arcane Wikipedia rules” and claims that the information was “irrelevant.” In response, the Daily Kos team responded with a comprehensive and exhaustive list of well-documented facts.
It turns out that the Koch Brothers and their hired literary whores can’t handle the truth.
The Kochs have been up to these attempts to sanitize themselves in the eyes of the public for many years. Recently, as more and more people become aware of their abominations, the Koch Brothers have become increasingly desperate. They’ve even gone so far as to compare their agenda to the Civil Rights Movement. Despite their best efforts, however, the sickening truth continues to come out about these latter-day tyrants and bloodsuckers and their willingness to destroy the planet in order to increase their own wealth and power.
Well…as HAL 9000 said, “I’m sorry, Dave.” And, to quote an old TV ad for canned fish, “Sorry, Charlie.” You two bastards have overstepped your bounds too many times. Thanks to social media, new digital Progressive news outlets and clever and courageous investigative journalists like our friends at Daily Kos, you will continue to be exposed.
Ellen Page on Standing Up to ‘Homophobic’ Ted Cruz, the Celluloid Closet, and Her LGBT Documentary
by Marlow Stern 
Of John Dillinger and Perry (and Trump et al)
by P.M. CarpenterTheir cardinal sin, outside the usual sins? They made themselves a target; they brought forth the focused eyes and superior firepower of officialdom; in going for national headlines, they squandered what might have been long lives of local, nickel-and-dime grifting. Organized crime figures who have made the same mistake, such as John Gotti, suffered similar truncations of their profession. To survive, one lays low, one opts for big froggism in little ponds, one makes only the smallest of splashes.
Likewise, modern demagoguery is defined by McCarthy. Add an 'ism" to his name and one recognizes not merely an era, but the dark art itself. Yet from launch to exile, McCarthy's national career lasted a mere four years. An assassin's bullet ended Huey Long's — which spanned roughly three — but even he understood he could never whip Roosevelt. (Arguably, the most skilled of all American demagogues was "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman; his political longevity, however, was due largely to tending his garden locally, in South Carolina.) These memorable pols were doomed, for they went on demagogic sprees much like Dillinger's and Nelson's and Floyd's criminal sprees — and sprees, by definition, do not endure.
Thus we note that egregious error in perspective committed by political pundit and best-selling co-author of Bush's Brain, James Moore, in August of 2011. Moore predicted with what is now embarrassingly high confidence that Rick Perry "will spawn the ugliest and most expensive presidential race in U.S. history, and he will win." The Texas demagogue's "money, image and support will become overwhelming." His rugged "good looks" and "podium skills … will create a product Americans will want to believe and buy." After dominating the primaries, wrote Moore, Perry will "turn to" another good-looking demagogue, Sarah Palin, as his running mate. In the general election, "unemployed voters in places like Ohio … will vote against Barack Obama. And in the process, they will write the epitaph to set upon the tombstone of history's greatest democracy: Perry-Palin, 2012."
Or not. Perry's political crime spree endured about one-fourth as long as Dillinger's more honestly straightforward endeavor. Perry was assassinated in Rochester, Michigan on 9 November 2011, by his own hand, for the weaponized Rick Perry hadn't the good sense to keep his two-bit grifting local. Although his shot to the head will be remembered as that which done did him in, it is useful to recall, as does the Post's Chris Cillizza this morning, that "Just more than a week before Perry's 'oops' moment, he had given what can only be described as a bizarre speech in New Hampshire. The speech was so odd that Perry was forced to deny, on the record, that he had been drunk." It was over before it was over.
This year, like a banished Charles Luciano, Perry believed he could stage a comeback. He was no luckier than Charlie. So now he's out, again.
The cavernous, conspicuous moral of this story: Bold demagoguery is thrilling, it's captivating, it's headline news; it's also as self-limiting as a Dillinger on the run. More subtle demagoguery, such as that practiced party-wide by you-know-who, can survive for a generation before the jig comes up. But a Perry, a Cruz, a Huckabee or a Trump? For them there's a splash, and then they're gone.
What Mark Twain would have made of Trump
Samuel Langhorne Clemens anticipated The Donald's special brand of madness in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
Trump’s glory days as the butt of Spy’s jokes
An interview with satiric magazine co-founder Kurt Andersen about the angry, '80s Trump they mocked with glee
Trump Says Overpaid CEOs Are A ‘Complete Joke’
***
Holy Shit! He actually is correct about something! Talk about a blind hog finding an acorn ... 
CNN calls out Walker backing Koch ‘special interests’ while defunding Planned Parenthood
Christie Brags About Cutting Pensions And Raising The Retirement Age In N.J.
Christie believes promising to cut our social safety nets is going to help win him the Republican cabal nomination.
Christie Freaks At Chuck Todd On New Bridgegate Revelations
Christie got very testy when he was again confronted with the fallout of the Bridgegate
scandal on Meet the Press.
Viral Video Of Officer Hugging Suicidal Man Shows Exactly What Policing SHOULD Be
This North Carolina cop gets what too many don’t: It’s about compassion, above all else.
Oregon Cop’s Life Threatened After He Turned In Racist Police Chief
An Oregon cop who turned in his racist police chief is receiving death threats, but he’s still glad he did it.Are YOU Prepared?
For several months now we’ve been hearing apocalyptic predictions
from the religio-wingnuts.The batshit-crazy-lunatic-fringe-wingnut-loon Hagee has been flogging his “blood moon” nonsense,...
Friday, September 18, 2015
The Daily Drift
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Republicans - No cheeseburgers for you ... !
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Editorial Comment
With Autumn rapidly approaching we here at The Truth Be Told are beginning to feel all the family and friends reconnect
time that this time of the year brings - everybody has that one weird
aunt or crazy friend they "never" see until now.That said, our
list of gatherings and parties through the new year is growing with
invites coming in daily - so we feel we'll be busy for a few months, but
this blog will continue undisturbed.
The only 'problem' we have in maintaining this blog is the vast amount of wingnut stupidity, ignorance, vileness, and utter depravity there is to post about - and it is only getting worse.
The bright spot that is glowing ever brighter is the fact that Americans (the real ones, not the wingnuts) are hip to the lunatic fringe's shenanigans and are not letting them away with them any longer.
Studies continue to prove that wingnuts are stupid ... be they social, cultural, medical (MRI's show that wingnuts have a small thinking and reasoning area of the brain), so we will never be without something moronic a wingnut has said or done to post about.
The only 'problem' we have in maintaining this blog is the vast amount of wingnut stupidity, ignorance, vileness, and utter depravity there is to post about - and it is only getting worse.
The bright spot that is glowing ever brighter is the fact that Americans (the real ones, not the wingnuts) are hip to the lunatic fringe's shenanigans and are not letting them away with them any longer.
Studies continue to prove that wingnuts are stupid ... be they social, cultural, medical (MRI's show that wingnuts have a small thinking and reasoning area of the brain), so we will never be without something moronic a wingnut has said or done to post about.
'Historic' victory won over Wall Street
The list of defendants includes some of the biggest names on Wall Street: Bank of America Corp., Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., HSBC Holdings PLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and UBS AG.
Congress Can Rein In the Supreme Court's Ideologues If It Uses Its Authority
It Is Time To Prosecute Republicans For Violating the U.S. Constitution
Republicans not only have no intent in fulfilling their oath of
office, they may have no idea what they are swearing to support and
defend .…
An oath of office is an affirmation a person takes
before undertaking the duties of an office, usually a position in
government or within a religious body, and it is typical to believe the
person taking the oath not only intends on fulfilling that
“affirmation,” they actually comprehend what they are swearing to
uphold. It is increasingly evident that since the American people twice
elected an African American man as President, Republicans not only have
no intent in fulfilling their oath of office, they may have no idea what
they are swearing to support and defend. This is particularly true,
once again, now that Republicans are questioning the need for the United
States government to pay all its debts; something that the Constitution
prohibits legislators to do.
Every congressional representative is mandated by
the U.S. Constitution to take the oath of office before they can serve
in either the House or Senate. At the start of the current session of
Congress, every Republican stood and repeated that, “I do solemnly swear
(or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the
United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will
bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation
freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I
will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I
am about to enter. So help me dog.”
As it turns out, even the religious Republicans who
appealed to their dog for “help” in supporting and bearing true faith
and allegiance to the Constitution are making plans to violate the
document as has been their wont since Barack Obama was elected
President. The latest unconstitutional stunt is a repeat of the
Republican 2011 debacle that cost America its first credit downgrade and
a few hundred billion dollars in increased interest expense. As
reported here a couple of days ago, House Republicans are once again
making arrangements to make limited debt payments to teach Americans
exactly how Republicans define “responsibility” they preach is what the
people lack. It is noteworthy to remind Americans that the ratings
agency downgrading America’s stellar credit said it did so on the
grounds that Republicans actually questioned whether America really has
to pay its debts; a lion’s share for the two unfunded wars and tax cuts
for the rich at Republicans hands.
Now, there is no dispute on whether refusing or
questioning the need to raise the debt ceiling or not paying the
nation’s debts is Constitutional or not. According to the 14th
Amendment, Section 4, “The validity of the public debt of the United
States shall not be questioned.” As if the Founding Fathers foresaw that
in the 21st Century a cabal of racist wingnut legislators would
balk at or question paying the nation’s debts because an African
American was twice elected as President, they included in Article 1,
Section 8 the task assigned to all members of the federal legislature.
Section 8 says, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,
duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the
common defense and general welfare of the United States,” and “to borrow
money on the credit of the United States.”
It could not possibly be clearer that
Republicans even questioning whether or not they have to pay the
nation’s debts is a blatant violation of the Constitution as well as
their “so help me god” oath to “support and bear true faith” to the law
of the land. Actually, the idea of a “debt ceiling” is, in and of
itself, unconstitutional and nothing but an unconstitutional legislative
construct that is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Obviously,
Republicans were well aware of Article 1, Section 8 and the 14th
Amendment when white Republicans were president, so their actions now
and in 2011 were borne of racial animus aimed at Barack Obama. However,
since Republicans were able to “question the full faith and credit of
the United States” four years ago with impunity, except for the credit
downgrade and billions in added interest expense the people are paying,
they are more than willing to repeat their performance.
If this was the first time Republicans in Congress
violated the Constitution one might tend to put it down to drunken
revelry or childish petulance, but it is not the first, second, or even
third time. At the start of this legislative session with control of
Congress, Republicans passed unconstitutional legislation that
superseded Executive Branch authority to benefit a foreign corporation,
the Koch brothers, and Boehner. The
construction permitting process for TransCanada’s climate devastating
KeystoneXL pipeline is the purview of the Department of State that is
within the Executive Branch; not the legislature, the Kochs, or a
foreign corporation. Still, Republicans disavowed their oath of office
and attempted to seize Executive Branch power and approve TransCanada’s
permit without the State Department’s input.
It is exactly the same case with the President’s
authority over, and executive action on, immigration enforcement.
Despite that the wingnut Roberts Supreme Court already ruled that
the Executive Branch has authority over immigration enforcement,
Republicans have attempted to move mountains to block President Obama’s
executive action that every president since, and including, Dwight D.
Eisenhower enacted without Republicans taking them to court or throwing
childish fits.
Besides the current “questioning the nation’s debt,” Republicans have attempted to block the head of the Executive Branch’s authority to set foreign policy. Not only is attempting to supersede the Executive Branch authority to set foreign policy a constitutional violation, Republicans violated their swear to god oath to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the U.S. Constitution because their true faith and allegiance is to a foreign nation and its head of state.
Besides the current “questioning the nation’s debt,” Republicans have attempted to block the head of the Executive Branch’s authority to set foreign policy. Not only is attempting to supersede the Executive Branch authority to set foreign policy a constitutional violation, Republicans violated their swear to god oath to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the U.S. Constitution because their true faith and allegiance is to a foreign nation and its head of state.
There are various other ways Republicans are
violating the Constitution whether it is writing legislation to
establish religion or actively working against the general welfare of
the United States by conspiring with an alleged Iranian enemy to provoke
a war. If Americans were not so inherently stupid, and had even a
rudimentary comprehension of the Constitution, they may force special
elections to recall the Republicans who are anxious to violate the
Constitution while an African American man is in the White House, but
Americans are not close to being smart enough to take that route.
The Justice Department announced it was
going to start giving extra attention to investigating and prosecuting
“white collar crime;” apparently to hold Wall Street bankers accountable
for their malfeasance. However, after four years, and counting, of
Republicans deliberately, and with malice aforethought, violating their
oath of office and the Constitution, it is time for Republicans to be
prosecuted and thrown out of office. They certainly do not have to be
investigated because their unconstitutional acts have been very public
and very costly to taxpayers. However, the Obama Justice Department will
not even prosecute clear acts of sedition against federal agents
fulfilling their Constitutional mandate, or the numerous Republicans
praising armed vigilantes training firearms on federal officials, so it
is useless to even think Republicans violating the Constitution will
ever be brought to justice; it is why they continue unabated violating
their oath of office and the U.S. Constitution with impunity.
Republicans send letter demanding Obama administration respond to letter they didn't send
by Hunter
Great job, everybody. Let's go home.
Republican staffers sent a letter to the Obama administration chiding them for failing to answer a series of questions from the House Science and Technology Committee. The only problem? They hadn't sent the questions in the first place.And really, why bother? The questions in the letter to the Office of Management and Budget—the one they didn't send—were about the Obama administration's new ozone regulations and how they are Horrible—it's not like actually getting answers to those questions would affect what Republicans were going to do next.
[The letter] continues, “Unfortunately, the responses we received were deficient and do not substantively address the specific requests contained in our original letter.”I'll say. It's like the administration didn't even read the not-sent letter. To be fair, this was all a big mixup. The staffer in charge had a trip scheduled, so he prepared the note of irritated condescension in advance, in anticipation of it probably being needed. It wasn't his fault they sent the snide reply letter before they sent the actual inquiry.
Republican aides acknowledged the letter could make it look like they were pre-judging the administration’s response, refusing to be satisfied no matter what. And while they rejected that suggestion, they contended it was reasonable to predict they'd be unsatisfied with the response, based on past experience.Good save, Republican aides. Sure it looks a little bad, but in the end isn't sending the obnoxious version first just the most efficient use of everybody's time?
Nightmare Poll Result Makes it Impossible For Republican Cabal To Win 2016
Walker is a Labrador
Sources close to the Wisconsin idiot say it will help him with the whole “diversity” thing.
CNN Staffers Fed Up With Non-Stop Trump Coverage
Jeff Zucker got an earful at a recent staffers' town hall meeting.
Trump’s fellow military academy alums recall school a bit differently
Trump’s mass deportation timeline is logistically and morally insane
Trump says he can, with “good management,” remove the population of Boston every month for 18 months.
Trump’s simpleminded circus
This week's absurd rally against a done deal seals it. Trump is the funniest man in America — for now
Will Trump's fear-mongering scuttle criminal justice reform?
by Kerry Eleveld
Just a few months ago, reformers were celebrating that most of the 2016 Republican cabal pack had signaled that, at least in theory, they supported retooling America's justice system. But, as has been the case with so many other sensitive issues, the entrance of Trump has changed the dynamic. Now instead of talking about criminal justice reform, the Republican cabal primary contenders are warning of a supposed nationwide crime spike, touting the mandatory-minimums in "Kate’s Law," and lobbing “soft on crime" accusations. “I’m concerned about the impact on the push for justice reform because we’re expecting a bill at some point this month,” Jason Pye, director of Justice Reform at the conservative FreedomWorks, told TPM. “I’m concerned about the impact of the rhetoric on that.”Yes, FreedomWorks is backing criminal justice reform. It's just one sign of the breadth of liberal and conservative entities—including the ACLU, NAACP, the Koch brothers and Grover Norquist—that have come together around the issue. So is there hope? Maybe. It's all a question of how nervous the campaign trail rhetoric makes lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Nice work, Trump.
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