Shoe

Sierra Club Warns Vulnerable Senators Against Opposing President Obama On Clean Power

Ahead of the Paris environmental conference, the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization, Sierra Club, is urging vulnerable senators to support President Obama’s climate rule for power plants, warning that the rule is popular among voters who are heading to the polls next year.
The group polled voters in half a dozen states about the Clean Power Plan, a rule designed to cut carbon pollution from power plants, and found generally positive reviews among registered voters.
The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, found majority support for the plan in Maine, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia and Iowa. It said voters in those states generally prefer the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write environmental rules rather than members of Congress.
Four Republicans from those states are seeking reelection in 2016: Blunt (Mo.),  Kirk (Ill.), Portman (Ohio) and Grassley (Iowa), with Kirk and Portman seen as vulnerable.
Senator Kirk has voiced support for the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that was introduced last month by McConnell (R-Ky.) and  Capito (R-W.Va) that would overturn the Clean Power Plan. The CRA resolution of disapproval is a controversial legislative tactic that would allow Congress to nullify a final administrative ruling.

The CRA challenge would threaten clean air and climate action in Kirk’s state of Illinois by blocking the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and its steps to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. The CPP would also encourage job growth, such as through the Illinois Clean Jobs Bill, which would allow the state to comply with the CPP while creating an average of 32,000 jobs per year and save consumers $1.6 billion.
Handicappers consider Kirk to be especially vulnerable next year, and environmentalists have looked to challenge him on environmental issues. Portman is also considered a potential Democratic target in 2016. Iowa is an early-voting state in the presidential contest.
Earlier in the year Sierra Club launched a statewide TV ad campaign in Iowa calling out Portman for his votes against public health and clean air in Congress, including by leading the charge in attacks against the Clean Power Plan.
“ Portman voted repeatedly against the health of Ohio families by attacking the Clean Power Plan, the first ever steps to limit carbon pollution from dirty, coal-fired power plants” said Samantha Allen, an Ohio-based organizer with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “The Clean Power Plan’s efforts to curb carbon pollution will help prevent up to 6,600 deaths and up to 150,000 asthma attacks in children every year. Portman needs to stand with his Ohio constituents, not with the polluters that are hurting their health.”
The Senate is set to vote soon on the Congressional Review Act resolutions blocking the Clean Power Plan and other EPA power plant rules. The regulations are unpopular among Republicans, though at least one senator facing a tough reelection — Ayotte (R-N.H.) — has come out in favor of the plan, making her the first Republican Senator to support the landmark policy, which is promoted as a way to curb carbon pollution from power plants, protect vulnerable communities, and galvanize America’s transition to a clean energy economy.
In response, Melinda Pierce, Sierra Club Legislative Director, released the following statement:
“Ayotte’s decision to support the Clean Power Plan should inspire her fellow Republicans in the Senate to stop ignoring the climate crisis and proactively work with the Obama Administration to protect their constituents from the very real dangers of carbon pollution.”
“The Clean Power Plan will help our country move toward a new era of clean, affordable energy that protects the health of our communities, grows our economy, and signals to the rest of the world that the U.S. is serious about combating the climate crisis ahead of the Paris Conference.
“Doctors, scientists, faith leaders, and the majority of the American people have all called for strong, bipartisan action to tackle the challenge of climate disruption. Now it’s time for Senate Republicans to follow Ayotte’s lead and answer that call.”
In a statement, the Sierra Club urged other lawmakers to do so, too.
“Voters from these states have made it crystal clear that they want their senators to support the Clean Power Plan, not coal interests on Capitol Hill,” said Mary Anne Hitt, the director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
“Senators in these states have a choice: listen to their constituents back home and support the Clean Power Plan, along with all the public health and clean energy benefits it provides, or side with deep-pocketed polluters in Washington who are attacking it,” the statement continued.
A broad coalition of environmental groups say the Clean Power Plan is critical for reducing carbon emissions and confronting climate change, a major goal of the Obama administration. Its opponents have warned it could raise electricity prices and lead to job losses in the energy industry.
The President’s Clean Power Plan is the centerpiece of the United States carbon reduction proposal to be presented at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) which convenes the end of this month.
Sierra Club is wielding its considerable grassroots clout to prevent Republican senators from sidetracking President Obama’s climate leadership position as he heads for Paris in three weeks.

Doesn’t Get Better Than Colbert And Bill Maher ROASTING Republicans TOGETHER

This is why television was invented…
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Fiscal responsibility is definitely NOT among the claims the Republican cabal can make ...

Transportation traditionally has been funded by the federal gas excise tax, on the sound reasoning that people who drive on highways should help build and maintain them. Yet this tax, stuck at 18.4 ­cents per gallon since 1993, no longer raises sufficient revenue. And for political reasons the House leadership ruled out an increase — blocking Democrats from even bringing the issue to a vote on the new, more open House floor.Instead, the six-year bill cobbles together financing from expedients: one-time strategic petroleum sales; ostensibly improved tax compliance; and, most dubiously, a raid on the Federal Reserve’s capital. The Fed returns the vast majority of earnings on its portfolio (swollen by recession-fighting expansive monetary policy) to the treasury. But it retains some each year, matched by payments from banks, as a buffer against losses. The practice strengthens the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet and thus increases public confidence in its ability to weather a crisis, albeit marginally. It is part of what makes the Fed a credible, independent central bank.
Yet the House bill would undermine this long-standing  practice, a version of which other major central banks around the world also follow, by taking $29.3 billion that the Fed has socked away — and forbidding the bank from replenishing it.

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The Greatest Threat To American Democracy?

by John DeProspo 

American democracy is under siege. A confluence of factors has created a “perfect storm” that seriously challenges our form of government as never before.
So what is the greatest threat to our system of government? Is it income inequality, social injustice, voter suppression, religious fundamentalism, terrorist threats, gun violence or could it be Citizens United?
No. While the above forces are all tugging at the fabric of our democracy, the greatest threat is something more basic: cynicism.
I’m talking about the kind of cynicism that leads many Americans to believe participating in our representative form of government is meaningless. It’s the often heard, “What does my vote matter anyway; all politicians are corrupt.” The sad fact is that many otherwise intelligent individuals are simply turning off and tuning out.
Wingnuts from the time of Reagan have hammered the message that government is bad; that government is the problem, not the solution. Through their obstructionism, which has prevented government from performing its role in promoting the public good, wingnuts have turned Reagan’s mantra into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our government is bad. It does not work.
It is actually understandable why many Americans feel hopeless given our current political climate. But voting and being engaged in the governance of our country are the bedrocks of a participatory democracy. When people stop caring, they quit paying attention. Not paying attention is the moral equivalent of turning your back on America, on democracy.
Wingnuts are shrewd. They’ve had a game plan for years and are executing it to a tee. By getting voters to be disgusted with their government and to believe all politicians are the same, they get the result they want: control of our nation by their rich and powerful overlords.
Wake up people. Enough with the cynicism and pessimism. Become an informed citizen … and vote!

The New Republican War On Religious Freedom

"Never have the threats been greater to religious liberty than they are right here and now today," Cruz (R-TX) told a campaign rally in Iowa. He's right. And he and his fellow Republicans are the threat.

ISIL Killed His Wife And The Mother Of His Son In Paris, And He Has A Message For All Of Us

This man lost almost everything in the attacks on Paris.
He deserves a moment of our attention.
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Why Won’t Obama Blame Islam For Terrorism?

Chris Matthews Drops The Mic On Wingnut Propaganda

For the next time you hear a wingnut ask: ‘Why won’t Obama call blame Islam for terrorism?’

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Where Is The Grief For Republican Terrorism Imposed On Americans?

Only a beheading or a suicide bombing can possibly be as barbaric and cruel as denying medical care to millions of poor Americans…

The world is reeling with grief over the horrific terror events in Paris, and a few Americans are mourning as well. It is probable that many Americans grieving for France are the same people who, just twelve years ago, hated the French, renamed fried potatoes “freedom fries and accused them of aligning with Saddam Hussein. Americans showing emotion for any people’s suffering is a sign there are still some compassionate Americans, but in the same sense that most Americans ignored the recent grief suffered by victims of terrorism in Russia, Palestine and Beirut, they have even less regard for millions of American victims of Republican terrorism. Congressional Republicans are once again in the midst of demonstrating the depth of their contempt for Americans on a national level, and it is just a continuation of the disregard red state Republicans exhibit toward their poor and devoutly ignorant supporters and innocent constituents alike.
There have been two recent stories that prove Republicans have as much intent to wreak havoc on American citizens as terrorists unleashing Hell in a theater, near a stadium, and in street cafes and restaurants; only degree and numbers separate ISIL’s and Republicans actions. What is missing is an outpouring of support for the victims of Republicans’ ideologically and religious inspired terrorism, or the call to action to stop another attack Republicans are planning in plain sight for all Americans to see.
In fact, McConnell claimed that Republicans are working on their dastardly plan in public to “make sure the American people know we’re still on their side, and that’s the reason we intend to repeal Obamacare.” That remark is either McConnell lying, or a damn stark commentary on the inherent cruelty among Americans for wanting millions and millions of Americans and women to lose medical care; frankly it is a little of both. All Americans are not cruel, but there is a significant number who want millions of their fellow citizens to lose medical care; they are Republicans.
It is telling that poor McConnell is having trouble getting 51 Republicans to vote for the House reconciliation bill repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and defunding Planned Parenthood. Forget for a minute that some of McConnell’s woes are that the bill does not “eradicate the law root and branch” for all time, or that some like Cruz (R-TX) and Lee (R-UT) will not accept incrementally taking away healthcare from millions and millions of Americans and reproductive care and cancer screening from millions of poor women. Like any respectable terror attack, it has to be surprisingly swift, it has to be deadly and painful, and it has to produce as many American casualties in one fell swoop as possible. It is trying to imagine how any American can regard a small group of highly-paid politicians, with their imbecile supporters’ approval, anything other than terrorists for drooling to inflict as much harm on as many Americans as possible; and are angry it is not happening fast enough. In Republican misled states it has already happened and in the epitome of evil, Republicans are using taxpayer dollars to impose their brand of cruelty on other Americans.
According to a report from 2015 by the Kaiser Foundation, compared to states that took advantage of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, the rate of growth in enrollment by those Republican states that refused to expand Medicaid grew by 6.9 percent and cost state taxpayers $2 billion by mid-year 2015; states that expanded Medicaid enrollment was historically low at 3.4 percent. What that means is that as it was intended, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion actually reduced the rate of growth and saved participating states in the billions of dollars annually. This is more than Republican states “cutting off their noses to spite the faces” just to show they hate President Obama or his health insurance reform law, this is the ultimate demonstration of cruelty toward their own citizens because they are willing to spend $2 billion of taxpayer money to demonstrate their hatred of their own constituents.

Let’s face it, only a beheading or a suicide bombing can possibly be as barbaric and cruel as denying medical care to millions of poor Americans; and paying $2 billion for the obvious adrenaline rush of inflicting pain and death on other innocent civilians. Decent human beings can hardly comprehend the kind of people who would do this; particularly to their own citizens and especially when they claim to be followers of 'christ'. As bad as terrorists are, at least they inflict death and suffering on their perceived enemies and it leads one to wonder just how many Republicans secretly regard Americans, particularly poor Americans and women as their enemy.
It is no stretch to make a connection between ISIL and Republican barbarism, it is just a matter of degree as well as the intended number of casualties. It is true that ISIL has committed atrocities against all manner of people, but it is always people they regard as their enemies or an existential threat to Islam. Republicans, however, are committing atrocities against millions of their fellow citizens; including the stupid people who religiously vote them into office. The truly pathetic narrative is that even going into a national election it appears there is no boundary Republicans are unwilling to cross to assault American citizens who are paying their bloated salaries, exorbitantly lengthy paid vacations, and premium healthcare coverage. Whether it be the elderly poor, Social Security retirees, minorities, women, poor Americans or the middle class, Republicans have demonstrated that the only group they will not attack is the rich, and in that sense they are exactly like ISIL not attacking their own members.

Thanks to the NRA Over 2000 Suspected Terrorists Were Able to Buy Guns in the U.S.

Here’s an issue that President Obama has been begging Congress to fix, along with pretty much all sane law enforcement: Known terrorists can buy guns legally here in the United States of “freedom”. Yes, we can’t have nice things like refusing to sell handguns or assault weapons to suspected terrorists, because the NRA is too worried about the profits of the gun manufacturers they represent.

Christopher Ingraham writing in the Washington Post reported, “Between 2004 and 2014, suspected terrorists attempted to purchase guns from American dealers at least 2,233 times. And in 2,043 of those cases — 91 percent of the time — they succeeded.”
There you go, the NRA arming terrorists. In a rational political discussion about the alleged risks posed by refugees, we would be pretty focused on keeping assault weapons out of the hands of any terrorists who we are told will come in with the refugees. But notice, Republicans don’t address this, even as Christie tells us that he would deny even a 3-year-old orphaned refugee. Demonstrating his failure to understand how we vet incoming refugees.

Yes, we can’t be too careful. Unless of course, it comes to guns. When it comes to guns, we should give them to EVERYONE, no questions asked. To ask a question is to infringe on second amendment rights, which are sacred, unlike your first amendment rights, according to Republicans.
“But people on the FBI’s consolidated terrorist watchlist — typically placed there when there is “reasonable suspicion” that they are a known or suspected terrorist — can freely purchase handguns or assault-style rifles,” the Post explained.
A majority of gun owners agree on these basic background checks. The Post pointed out that even  King (R-NY) worked with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to bring forth the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2015”, which would have kept us from legally selling guns to terrorists.
But the NRA was not pleased with this notion of not selling guns to terrorists, after all, a terrorists’ money is as good as anyone’s. Or, as the NRA put it, the bill was taking aim at law-abiding citizens and terrorists will buy guns anyway (just not from gun manufacturers if in fact it were illegal, so yeah, it’s all about the profit). Per the Washington Post again:

“But these bills have rarely made it out of committee, in part due to vehement opposition from the National Rifle Association and its allies in Congress. The NRA objected to earlier versions of the bill, saying they were “aimed primarily at law-abiding American gun owners,” that “prohibiting the possession of firearms doesn’t stop criminals from illegally acquiring them,” and that the bills were “sponsored by gun control extremists.”

The NRA will do and say anything to keep even the most reasonable gun law from being enacted. They have in fact accused President Obama of planning to confiscate law-abiding citizens’ guns. In the wake of another mass murder, when the American public is really fed up with the gun laws, the NRA doubles down on the crazy, like this: “What Obama is really proposing, despite some platitudes to the contrary, is the end of private firearm ownership for self-defense…”
In fact, President Obama has been more than reasonable, calling for closing a loophole to keep the most dangerous guns off of the streets and keeping military weapons off of the streets. Huh. That’s almost like coming for private guns but not. Not at all. Sadly, Obama can’t make laws from the Executive Branch, he can only get behind policy or change things for federal contractors or change the implementation of a law (e.g., immigration). Congress makes actual laws.
And Congress is run by Republicans right now, and they aren’t alone in their NRA servitude.
So when Congressional Republicans are talking tough on terror, someone ought to ask them just when they’re going to address the terror they’ve allowed the NRA to inflict on this country.
Making sure terrorists can get guns legally is kind of an incentive to make sure they come here. Why not? We have everything they need and they don’t even have to hide. Thanks, NRA.

The 3 Reasons Wingnuts Will Bear Responsibility If A Paris-Style Attack Hits The US

Wingnuts are literally asking for the opportunity to “shoot back.”
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Cowardly Republicans Choose Fear Over Leadership In Aftermath Of Paris Attacks

U.S. Republican leaders are terribly, terribly frightened and they want the rest of America to be just as scared as they are. Nowhere is Republican fear more evident, than in the cabal’s unwillingness to offer support for Syrian refugees escaping the sectarian violence that has forced them from their homes. While Barack Obama, and all three of the Democratic presidential candidates have asserted that we can fight terrorism and provide safety for Syrian refugees, the Republicans are too afraid to help.

In an international crisis that demands complex decision making and mature leadership, all the Republican candidates offer are incredibly vague chest thumping cries for bloodthirsty revenge and a fearful “Not in my back yard (NIMBY)” approach to refugee immigration.
Presidential candidates Huckabee and Rubio are demanding that we seal our borders and deny all Syrian refugees. Carson and Trump feel the same way. Jeb and Cruz are open to letting a few refugees trickle in, just so long as they prove they are good 'christians'.
At least eleven Republican Governors have jumped onto the fear bandwagon and want to block Syrian immigrants from settling in their states. Unfortunately, that number will probably continue to grow.
The republican cabal candidates’ immature responses to the Paris attacks stretch to foreign policy as well. Huckabee wants to revoke our nuclear agreement with Iran, begging the question of whether he even understands that the Iranian regime is a bitter enemy to ISIL.
Cruz demands that we increase our tolerance for inflicting civilian casualties, because nothing says murdering innocent people is wrong, more clearly than killing yet more innocent people. Trump’s policy is no more sophisticated than we should “bomb the shit out of them”, while  Huckabee apparently supports the slightly less profane alternative of bombing “the absolute stink out of them”.

The problem for the Republicans is that difficult times call for real leadership, not just a toxic, but impotent mix of fear and bluster. If all the Republican cabal can offer is caving to fear, and promising to be mighty, mighty tough without providing specifics on what tough actually means, then voters should look elsewhere. It takes more than pushing panicked proposals and screaming fevered pitches for dropping more bombs, to lead a nation.

Huckabee Can’t Think Of Anyone Except Muslims Targeting Innocent Civilians

Huckabee Can’t Think Of Anyone Except Muslims Targeting Innocent Civilians

Oh, Really?!

Cruz Claims That 'Christians' Do Not Commit Acts Of Terrorism

In what has to be the biggest lie told by a Republican pretender wannabe thus far, Cruz told the press that 'christians' don’t commit acts of terrorism.

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The Media Is Promoting War Again, Just Like They Did In 2003

The Media Is Promoting War Again, Just Like They Did In 2003

Hasn't the American press learned lessons from their coverage on the lead up to the Iraq war?

Wingnuts blame Ryan for not blocking Syrian refugees, because that’s how this works now

Wingnuts blame Ryan for not blocking Syrian refugees, because that’s how this works now

The House 'Freedom' Caucus seems willing to shut down the government over their Islamophobia.

Spain Issues Arrest Warrant For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Will Bibi finally be held accountable for his crimes?
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Rush Limbaugh Says President Obama Has Been Tougher On Republicans Than On ISIL

You know, because President Obama has been bombing the hell out of the wingnut base and taking out its leaders. No, wait. That’s what he is doing to ISIL.

Read full story 

Paul Says You Don’t Have a Right to Pants

If that's true, what Paul is saying is that I DO have the right to pursue happiness without my pants. …

And then “poof!” officer, my pants were gone!

Speaking to the “Students for Rand” group Monday at the University of Minnesota, Rand Paul told them they “don’t have a right to pants.” I would venture to say that if Paul is trying to increase his viability as a candidate, he is going about it the wrong way.

“Government was instituted among men to protect your rights, not to create rights. So you don’t have a right to a chair, you don’t have a right to shoes, you don’t have a right to pants, you don’t have a right to health care, you don’t have a right to water — you have a right to be free.”
“And then you have a right to pursue happiness, but nobody guarantees you happiness,” Paul added.
Oh, yeah, we hadn’t figured that out yet. Thanks, Paul.
Ah, but I do have a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”! That’s in our nation’s other founding document, the Declaration of Independence. It calls these inalienable rights. It does not say they are the only inalienable rights but it gives us these three examples.
If that’s true, what Paul is saying is that I do have the right to pursue happiness without my pants.

Now, I don’t mean to be crass, but I can really only think of one happiness I can pursue without my pants.
Is Paul saying you do have the right to sex? (Or at the very least the joys of exhibitionism?)
And come on, let’s face it, if certain other people are running around pursuing their happiness without pants, that might reduce my own happiness. There are people I don’t want to see without pants, let alone pursuing their happiness without pants.
And if I don’t have a right to pants, why do I get kicked out of stores and restaurants if I don’t wear them? Paul says I have no right to shoes but damned if I can get into a restaurant without shoes. “No shoes, no shirt, no service,” unless you’re Kenny Chesney.
Seriously, if I don’t have the right to pants, doesn’t that imply at the very least a right to no pants?
A bigger problem is this whole “no right to water” deal because the human animal needs water to survive. You don’t last more than three days without it. So how is it I have a right to pursue happiness if I don’t have the right to the one thing I need more than any other to stay alive?
I’d say without some of these other rights – including pants in a Wisconsin winter (you come try it, Rand), I don’t get to live and it turns out I have no rights after all. Which is, I’m pretty sure, not what the Founding Fathers were telling us.
I mean, they all had pants, right? I’m pretty sure they felt the rest of us ought to have pants as well. Let’s remember that in France, where another revolution took hold, the sans-culottes (without-culottes) were lower class people who didn’t have the fancy knee-length breeches the nobility wore under the Ancien Regime.
But even they had pants. They just didn’t have much else. The French nobility didn’t think they had any right to food, for example. And you know what happened to them.
Yet Rand Paul stood up there and said again that he was going to link Bernie Sanders to mass murderers like Pol Pot:
“People say: ‘Oh, you’re saying that Bernie Sanders is Pol Pot.’ No, I’m saying that he’s embracing the same philosophy of socialism that lead ultimately to the extermination of people.”
Which prompted Ann Merlan to joke at Jezebel’s The Slot, “It’s a slippery slope: one second you’re calling for single-payer healthcare, the next you’re rearranging the skulls on your killing field.”
Sounds to me, though, all joking aside, that in denying we have a right to food and water, nihilist Rand Paul is the one embracing the philosophy that leads to the extermination of people.
Paul claimed to his Minnesota fanboys and fangirls that “There are certain rights that are yours, that come to you from your creator, and no majority should take them away.”
Which is pretty funny, when you think about it, because by this logic, we don’t need any laws at all, when obviously we do, as the Founding Fathers recognized. Otherwise, the Constitution would just say, “Do your own thing,” or quote Bill & Ted: “Be excellent!”
Because I’m not a welder, I’m going to lay some philosophy on you now: As Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) recognized in a century before the Founding Fathers, life in the state of nature, without laws and government (“the war of all against all”), is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
And without a right to food, water, pants and shoes, with winter coming, I’d say that about covers it. Of course, we can always pursue happiness without our pants until the snow covers our twigs and branches with frost.
One of his Minnesota student supports said “I like the little tinges of libertarian that he has in his beliefs,” but without pants, I think what she is really saying is that she likes the “little tinges of libertarian” that he has in his briefs.
I’m not sayin’. Just sayin’.

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Why Bernie Sanders Was Right To Link Climate Change To National Security

The Democratic Presidential candidate's remarks were criticized by people who apparently don't understand the existential nature the climate threat poses to this country and the world.

Cornel West gives rip-roaring parking lot speech supporting Sanders and blasting Fox News 'propaganda'

Cornel West gives rip-roaring parking lot speech supporting Sanders and blasting Fox News 'propaganda'

President Obama Defends Freedom Of Religion From Republicans Who Want To Destroy It

Since Republicans are calling for religious tests for refugees, President Obama took it upon himself to remind them what freedom of religion means in America.

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President Obama Rips and Humiliates Trump And Carson In Front Of The Entire World

President Obama took apart top Republican pretender candidates Trump and Carson in front of the entire world during his press conference in Turkey.
Obama threw down on Carson’s claim that he has better advisers and info than the White House, “I think it is entirely appropriate in a democracy to have a serious debate about these issues, Folks want to pop off and have opinions on what they think they would do, present a specific plan,” Obama said. “If they think that somehow their advisers are better than the chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff or the folks on the ground, I want to meet them and we can have that debate.”
The President also took down Trump, “What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership, or America winning or whatever slogans they come up with, that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people and protect people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like France. I’m too busy for that.”

Obama is not putting up with the usual empty talk coming out of the Republican cabal. Trump and Carson are both at the top of the Republican cabal pretender polls because they are selling a style that appeals to Republican primary voters. What is missing in both candidates is substance. Neither leading Republican candidate has been able to explain in any detail how they would combat ISIL and terrorism.
When Carson was asked for details during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, he unleashed a crazy worldview that somehow ended in the United States involved in a shooting war with Russia in Syria. For his part, Trump thinks that defeating ISIL is like a business deal. Trump has repeatedly stated that he will defeat ISIL by sitting down and talking tough with them.
The only other Republican “plan” belongs to Jeb and the neo-cons who want to return to the failed Middle East policy of the shrub years. As usual, the Republicans are long on criticism, but short on real solutions. While Trump and Carson pander to an increasingly delusional Republican primary electorate for votes, President Obama is trying to work the global community to defeat ISIL.
Obama’s message to Carson and Trump was to put up or shut up. President Obama showed Trump and Carson the difference between pretending to be president and actually being president.

Obama Tears Into Republican Cabal Candidates Who Only Want To Take In 'Christian' Refugees From Syria

"That's not American. That's not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion."

Fact Checkers Confirm That What President Obama Said About ISIL Being Contained Is True

PolitiFact concluded, "References or suggestions that Obama claimed ISIL no longer presents an active threat are incorrect."…

Republicans are trying to make hay out of a sound bite of President Obama saying ISIL is contained. But as I explained yesterday, the full context of his quote made it quite clear that anyone doing this is being dishonest. He was asked specifically about Iraq and Syria and he was correct in his response. Today I learned that PolitiFact agrees.

Looking back at Obama’s interview where he made this comment, it is quite clear that it’s within a narrowly defined scope: ISIL’s territorial expansion in Iraq and Syria. He did not rule out the potential for a terrorist attack, and he also made it clear that the United States’ anti-ISIS efforts are a work in progress.
References or suggestions that Obama claimed ISIL no longer presents an active threat are incorrect.

Experts agree that the President was correct, though his choice of words wasn’t great, given some people’s inability to understand stateless terrorism.
Perhaps the problem is that the people jumping to conclusions aren’t able to keep up with the President’s nuanced, in-depth understanding of fighting stateless terrorism, and only understand delusional bumper sticker slogans that make them feel better, in spite of not actually addressing the problem at all.

Speaking today at a press conference at the Kaya Palazzo Resort in Antalya, Turkey, President Obama demonstrated a remarkable grasp of how to fight ISIL (aka, ISIS). But it wasn’t just his prepared remarks, it was the agile, nuanced answers he gave to complex questions.
In fact, President Obama’s answers were so long that I can only fit one full response in this post. Read it in full and compare it to every single Republican pretender candidate’s “solution”. For that matter, compare it to each Democratic presidential candidate’s.
The following transcript is from the White House Press Secretary:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. One hundred and twenty-nine people were killed in Paris on Friday night. ISIL claimed responsibility for the massacre, sending the message that they could now target civilians all over the world. The equation has clearly changed. Isn’t it time for your strategy to change?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, keep in mind what we have been doing. We have a military strategy that is putting enormous pressure on ISIL through airstrikes; that has put assistance and training on the ground with Iraqi forces; we’re now working with Syrian forces as well to squeeze ISIL, cut off their supply lines. We’ve been coordinating internationally to reduce their financing capabilities, the oil that they’re trying to ship outside. We are taking strikes against high-value targets — including, most recently, against the individual who was on the video executing civilians who had already been captured, as well as the head of ISIL in Libya. So it’s not just in Iraq and Syria.
And so, on the military front, we are continuing to accelerate what we do. As we find additional partners on the ground that are effective, we work with them more closely. I’ve already authorized additional Special Forces on the ground who are going to be able to improve that coordination.
On the counterterrorism front, keep in mind that since I came into office, we have been worried about these kinds of attacks. The vigilance that the United States government maintains and the cooperation that we’re consistently expanding with our European and other partners in going after every single terrorist network is robust and constant. And every few weeks, I meet with my entire national security team and we go over every single threat stream that is presented, and where we have relevant information, we share it immediately with our counterparts around the world, including our European partners.
On aviation security, we have, over the last several years, been working so that at various airports sites — not just in the United States, but overseas — we are strengthening our mechanisms to screen and discover passengers who should not be boarding flights, and improving the matters in which we are screening luggage that is going onboard.
And on the diplomatic front, we’ve been consistently working to try to get all the parties together to recognize that there is a moderate opposition inside of Syria that can form the basis for a transition government, and to reach out not only to our friends but also to the Russians and the Iranians who are on the other side of this equation to explain to them that ultimately an organization like ISIL is the greatest danger to them, as well as to us.
So there will be an intensification of the strategy that we put forward, but the strategy that we are putting forward is the strategy that ultimately is going to work. But as I said from the start, it’s going to take time.
And what’s been interesting is, in the aftermath of Paris, as I listen to those who suggest something else needs to be done, typically the things they suggest need to be done are things we are already doing. The one exception is that there have been a few who suggested that we should put large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground.
And keep in mind that we have the finest military in the world and we have the finest military minds in the world, and I’ve been meeting with them intensively for years now, discussing these various options, and it is not just my view but the view of my closest military and civilian advisors that that would be a mistake — not because our military could not march into Mosul or Raqqa or Ramadi and temporarily clear out ISIL, but because we would see a repetition of what we’ve seen before, which is, if you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance and who are pushing back against ideological extremes, that they resurface — unless we’re prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries.
And let’s assume that we were to send 50,000 troops into Syria. What happens when there’s a terrorist attack generated from Yemen? Do we then send more troops into there? Or Libya, perhaps? Or if there’s a terrorist network that’s operating anywhere else — in North Africa, or in Southeast Asia?
So a strategy has to be one that can be sustained. And the strategy that we’re pursuing, which focuses on going after targets, limiting wherever possible the capabilities of ISIL on the ground — systematically going after their leadership, their infrastructure, strengthening Shia — or strengthening Syrian and Iraqi forces and Kurdish forces that are prepared to fight them, cutting off their borders and squeezing the space in which they can operate until ultimately we’re able to defeat them — that’s the strategy we’re going to have to pursue.
And we will continue to generate more partners for that strategy. And there are going to be some things that we try that don’t work; there will be some strategies we try that do work. And when we find strategies that work, we will double down on those.
Oh, okay, then. That sounds like a pretty thorough strategy. Hard to criticize unless one is suggesting endless occupation.
We all want to believe what the Republicans sell: That there’s a big daddy in the White House who will fix everything with his tough words and a big hat, but this is real life. The United States can’t fix this problem alone, we aren’t all powerful, and our President is brilliant and using the best minds in the business but he also can’t deliver a world in which zero military activity is required. Targeting ISIL means collateral damage as well, due to the way they hide among civilians. The real world is brutal sometimes.
It would be instructive to have the press ask the 2016 presidential candidates the same question President Obama was just asked, and to compare the answers side by side.

McCaul (R-TX) Wants To Ban Refugees And Keep Gitmo Open

President Obama can't be doing enough to secure the U.S. because Paris, France was hit. McCaul fearmongers over refugees and Gitmo once again.

‘I will bomb your fucking location’

‘I will bomb your fucking location’: Muslims face violent threats as Trump urges ban on mosques

Republican front runner Trump helped fan the flames of anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.

Taking the bait: How Republicans help ISIL spread their propaganda about the ‘war against Muslims’

Taking the bait: How Republicans help ISIL spread their propaganda about the ‘war against Muslims’

ISIL says we’re waging a war against innocent Muslims, and, the Republican candidates for pretender seem determined to send the same message.

McConnell’s Bill To Repeal ObamaCare Is Collapsing In A Heap Of Failure

Mitch McConnell is so bad at his job that his attempt to repeal parts of ObamaCare is turning into a total failure.

The Hill reported:
Senate Republicans are in danger of not being able to bring an ObamaCare repeal bill to the floor.
Senate Republican cabal leaders had hoped to move a House-passed package repealing parts of the controversial healthcare reform law before Thanksgiving. But that plan has been shelved amid party turmoil.
Senate Republican sources say the measure, which has encountered opposition from conservatives and moderates, albeit for different reasons, will have to wait until after Thanksgiving. Some say it could slide into next year.
The problem is that five wingnut Republicans refuse to vote for Mitch McConnell’s reconciliation bill that repeals parts of ObamaCare. Three moderate Republicans won’t vote for the reconciliation bill if it contains language that defunds Planned Parenthood. Even after lowering the threshold of votes he needs for passage to 51 votes, McConnell remains five votes short.
Senate Republicans are so divided that they can’t muster a majority to pass a piece of legislation that in one of the few areas that they all supposedly agree on.

McConnell complains about Democratic obstruction on a near daily basis, but the real problem in Congress isn’t the Democrats. The biggest problem with the nation’s Legislative Branch is that the Republican cabal is fundamentally broken. Republicans are incapable of governing, and when they try to govern, they fail.
The Republicans are desperate to trigger a veto fight with President Obama on the ACA. However, time is running out. Congress has an extremely light election year schedule for 2016. McConnell is proving to be so inept as Majority Leader that he is well on his way to screwing up an ObamaCare repeal bill.
Forget winning the White House, Republicans can’t keep control of their own people in the House and Senate.

Republicans Demand America’s 1920s Government Be Put Back In Place

Republicans want a government like that of the 1920s when the rich were given free rein to economically rape the American people…

Many Americans are unaware of the many programs and policies put in place by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his New Deal, but even if they did it is certain that a fair number of Americans would demand its elimination immediately. Republicans have been chomping at the bit, and plotting behind the scenes, over the past five years in particular to abolish all of the New Deal programs and send Americans back to an era where wealthy industrialists dominated the population and kept them in poverty fighting for survival.

It is no secret that Republicans hate the government with religious passion, and the current crop of candidates for the Republican pretender nomination are jockeying for supremacy in who can promise to change America; for the worse. Thus far, the Republican candidates demonstrating a fierce hatred for, and ignorance of, the federal government have garnered the greatest support among Republican voters.
Despite President Obama creating over 12 million jobs in five-and a-half years and presiding over economic recovery and solid growth, typical Koch Republican Cruz has the key to help the economy recover: by recreating the government of a century ago in the process. Cruz pledged to return the government to the 1920’s and according to his estimation create 4.9 million jobs by the end of the next decade or so. Cruz said,
“If you look at the history of America, there are three levers that government has to facilitate economic growth. The first is tax reform. I have rolled out a bold and simple ten percent flat tax for every American. The second element is regulatory reform, pulling back regulations. The third element is sound money. When we pursued those in the 1920s with Calvin Coolidge the result was incredible economic growth. We have done it before and with Republican leadership we can do it again.”
Now it is true daddy Cruz is a Cuban-Canadian immigrant to America, but it is likely that at some juncture during his tenure in his adopted country he has at least heard about “The Great Depression” that was caused by the very policies he lusts to revisit. In fact, Cruz’s economic policy recommendations are regularly cited as the three primary reasons there was a Great Depression in the 1920s; namely a lack of regulatory oversight, gross income inequality, and the gold standard.
What Cruz is proposing, and the Koch brothers pant to see realized, is eliminating each and every one of FDR’s New Deal provisions that economists assert caused and accelerated America’s economic recovery out of the Great Depression. Still, there are a significant number of Republican voters who want, as Slate’s Digby explains, an apocalypse with a Republican pretender leading America to economic ruin.

Actually, the reason extremist Republicans with no experience are faring well in the Republican cabal primary is because the base wants a “tough guy” who does not understand, or care, how America’s system of government works. As an ardent Cruz supporter, Republican strategist, and wingnut shrieking head said,
“Republicans don’t want reform, they want revolution. They don’t want a better government, they want a new government.”
They want a government like that of the 1920s when the rich were given free rein to economically rape the people and send the world into another, more intense economic crash. A crash, by the way, that increased the wealth of the very richest industrialists beyond their wildest dream; not unlike today when the wealthiest Americans have taken the lion’s share of wealth in the current recovery.
The Republican base wants a dictatorial pretender willing to challenge the Constitution and pledge that the system of government created by the Founders, the system with legislative checks and balances and regulations, is abolished and replaced with a theocratic libertarian “no government.” The wingnut base demands a Trump, Carson or Cruz who will assure them that the federal government “will no longer be a hindrance to wingnuts who are Hell-bent on achieving their agenda” no matter what it takes or how many Americans are adversely impacted.
It really is a sad and pathetic commentary on wingnut Americans who are sick and tired of waiting for the promised “revolution” to create a new government to replace the one Republican demigod Reagan told them thirty years ago is the source of all their misery. To add to their angst, the base have heard Koch Republicans and extremist “TeaPublicans” promise for five years they will remove Obama from the White House and send him to prison, close the borders, criminalize homosexuality and gay marriage, end political correctness, ban public education, abolish women’s reproductive rights, eliminate all federal regulations, “christianize” all aspects of American society, repeal workplace laws and social programs, and put a quick and permanent end to the idea that all Americans “are created equal.”
Oh, and they really demand their new 'christian' government be created solely to engage America in several wars against Muslims around the world and severely punish any “traitor” who dares suggest that diplomacy should ever be a part of the nation’s foreign policy. If one looks back over the past five years that President Obama has been in office, it is much more than just Republican pretender candidates panting for war against Muslims; it is a hard and fast rule to qualify as a Republican politician.
There is a serious state of affairs in America when one segment of society is frustrated that Republicans have successfully prevented the government from doing what it was created for to protect or provide for the welfare of the American people, while the right is furious that the government does anything whatsoever for Americans. Republicans have claimed they want to take America back, but this is likely the first time a Republican had the audacity to admit “taking America back” is going back to an era and the exact same conditions that created the Great Depression; and claim in public that it was a time of “incredible economic growth.”
It is looking more and more like Republican voters do want “an apocalypse” that will certainly eviscerate them as much as the rest of the population. There is nothing wrong with the government; Republicans just hate that it exists in any form except to make war, enforce religious edicts, and create incredible wealth for a select few. There are likely several reasons for why so many Republicans have a death wish for America, and even considering that they are incredibly stupid does not completely explain their mindset. It is more likely they are just angry and full of hate which informs why they support equally angry and hate-filled candidates who promise to fulfill their wildest dreams and “make America great again;” by taking it back to conditions that nearly accomplished today’s Republican’ goals of creating a nation of peasants serving a few wealthy industrialists.

Republicans Really Could End Up Nominating a Lunatic Fringe Wingnut Loon Like Carson or Cruz

Republicans Really Could End Up Nominating a Lunatic Fringe Wingnut Loon Like Carson or Cruz

King Endorses Cruz

“I hope this endorsement does add clarity to Cruz’s position on immigration and any of his competitors blurring his position," King said.

10 reasons why Rubio is the most dangerous Republican in the race

Here are 10 reasons why Rubio is the most dangerous Republican in the race

With a successful few debates under his belt and the Republican establishment desperate for a replacement for Jeb, it seems like Rubio is stacking up to be the new golden boy. Only, there is nothing golden about him.

Fox News: Obama Needs To Start Taking Advice From TV Show ‘Homeland’

Yes, they actually said this.

Read full story

The Little-Noticed Wingnut Plan To Permanently Lock Democrats Out Of Policymaking

The Little-Noticed Wingnut Plan To Permanently Lock Democrats Out Of Policymaking

Republicans want to destroy women’s access to abortions — and the right to study them

Republicans want to destroy women’s access to abortions — and the right to study them

More on the Koch Brothers

In addition to the billions they’re spending to elect wingnuts who will cut their taxes and deregulate, the Koch brothers have also been on a spending spree at colleges and universities. According to a new report from the Center for Public Integrity (below) the brothers Koch invested more than $19.3 million across 210 college campuses in 46 states in 2013 alone. That money comes with strings, of course. At the College of Charleston, the Charles Koch Foundation sought names and email addresses of any student participating in a Koch-sponsored class, and to be notified in advance of media outreach related to the school. And as I’ve previously noted, the Foundation’s pledge of $1.5 million to Florida State University’s economics department stipulated that a Koch-appointed advisory committee would select professors and undertake annual evaluations.In other words, the Koch brothers aren't just trying to buy American democracy. They're also seeking to buy American minds.

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Savage Threatens To Leave America For Russia Because It's 'The Best Country Left On The Planet'

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

Jumping on a report that actor Robert De Niro may take Russian citizenship, Savage said on his hate speech “Savage Nation” program last week that he’d consider leaving the U.S. for Russia as well in order to flee America before it turns into the Soviet Union.  MORE