You don’t get to break the law in order to prove the law was broken
![Bill Moyers 041814 [YouTube]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tveFkCB6nPfWj3TG1qwDTs506apu7SOI4xEZ01SBvUzu-bIZ3JI8Dv1wqPmIfKDwGo27gm_-9H5tZw_EuimjRxn6FrRiOPPHF_uX-vW0eGd4M5yd9ZIbg-v0WT5hntkkmNL7FgTR3OUWGCBvNbT5rz4Rd3Eo3KCN3NiPgVw2iBh8MijNI6yY2PT9W8=s0-d)
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
NAACP challenges Alabama’s voter ID law as racially discriminatory, citing DMV closures
The law has racially disparate effects, and appears to have been implemented with discriminatory intent.
What will happen if the Supreme Court redefines “one person, one vote”
Short version: long-term Republican majorities.
Judicial elections are literally killing people
Justice isn’t blind, and elections are fogging its windshield.
Scalia gets schooled by Reagan-appointed judge who perfectly points out his theocratic hypocrisy
Monday, December 7, 2015
The Daily Drift
Welcome to Today's Edition of The Truth Be Told.
The Truth Be Told is read in 205 countries around the world.
Republicans - No Cotton Candy for you ... !
Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Chile - Colombia - Mexico - Nicaragua - Peru - Puerto Rico
United States
Europe
Austria - Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - England - France - Georgia - Germany
Hungary - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia
San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Spain - Slovakia - Slovenia - Sweden - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
India - Indonesia - Korea - Mauritius - Palestine - Thailand - United Arab Emirates - Vietnam
Africa
Algeria - Angola - Morocco - Sudan
The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand
Republicans seek to prove ignorance is strength while they rip the country apart
For reasons hard to fathom, the Republicans
seem to have made up their minds: they will divide, degrade and secede
from the Union.
CNN’s President Had Some VERY Choice Words For Trump’s Attempt To Extort $5 Million
Obama Speaks The Blunt Truth: It Is Too Easy For People To Carry Out Mass Shootings
The President said while a delivering a statement about the San Bernardino shooting from the Oval Office:
We just can’t just leave it to the professionals to deal the problem of these kinds of horrible killings. We all have a part to play, and I do think that as the investigation moves forward it is going to be important for all of us, including our legislatures, to see what we can do to make sure that when individuals decide that they want to do somebody harm, we’ll make it a little harder for them to do it. Because right now, it’s just too easy.
We’re going to have to, I think, search ourselves as a society to make sure that we can take basic that would make it harder, not impossible, but harder for individuals to get access to weapons.
President Obama said that it might take some time to get to the bottom of the motive behind the San Bernardino shooting. It is too early to know whether the motive was terrorism or workplace violence, but the President made the broader point that it is too easy for mass murders to carry out their plans.
The President was correct. One of the main reasons why there are more of these incidents in the US is that there are more deadly military grade weapons available to almost anyone who wants them.
President Obama was blunt and honest about the larger cultural problem. It is now up to the voters to demand a solution.
Fox Contributor BLASTS Gun Lobby After Mass Shooting: ‘The NRA Is Full Of Shit’
President Obama has another ally at Fox News backing his call to action to prevent mass shootings.Senate Democrats To Hold Republicans Accountable By Forcing Vote On Gun Amendment
Politico reported:
Senate Democrats plan to force a vote on keeping guns out of the hands of people convicted of violating laws protecting the entrances of health care clinics.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has introduced the amendment, which would ban gun ownership by people who have been convicted of misdemeanors under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 law meant to prevent violence and harassment at abortion clinics.
Reid’s amendment is a response to the mass shooting at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic but after the mass shooting at a center for the developmentally disabled in California, the idea of keeping guns out of the hands of people who have been convicted of crimes has never been more timely.
Senate Democrats are going to make Republicans defend their all guns all the time for everyone attitude. Republicans and their gun industry backers have gotten away not being held accountable for too long. Republicans are going to have to go on the record, and explain to the families of mass shooting victims why they are voting against a common sense step to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
After another shooting outside of a women’s clinic in Houston, TX, the time to act is now. Every day that Republicans waste equals 24 hours where innocent Americans are at risk of being victimized by gun violence.
Obamacare Repeal Backfires As Democrats Move To Replace ACA Repeal With Gun Laws
The Hill reported:
A group, led by the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced Thursday that they would be forcing votes on measures such as universal background checks, just one day after 14 people died in a massacre in Southern California.
“Enough is enough. Senate Democrats are not waiting one more day. Today’s the day we act,” Schumer said at a briefing, flanked by a half-dozen other vocal gun control advocates.
“The entire country will know where every member of the Senate stands on tightening background checks, on keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists and on strengthening and improving mental health in this country,” he continued.
Schumer said the Democrats’ amendments would aim to replace the ObamaCare provisions and “turn it into meaningful legislation that the president would actually sign.”
McConnell's empty Obamacare repeal show vote will end up backfiring on Republicans who are going to be forced to vote against many common sense gun laws that a majority of Americans support. Senate Republicans will get their completely worthless Obamacare repeal bill, but it is going to cost them dearly.
The campaign ads almost write themselves in blue states where Republican senators are hanging on for dear life.
It is not an understatement to suggest that McConnell’s decision to push an Obamacare repeal bill may end up costing Republicans their Senate majority. Republicans are going to be forced to vote for terrorists being able to legally buy guns in the United States.
The Obamacare repeal bill may end up being a disaster for Senate Republicans. Obamacare will still be the law of the land, and Republicans will be on the record as supporting legal loopholes that empower mass murderers.
Things we learned from the Republicans in November
- The Egyptian pyramids were built by the biblical Joseph for storing grain. (Carson)
- Let's single out and database all American citizens who practice Islam in case we need to round them up. Oh, and spy on the mosques, except the ones we decide to close outright. (Trump and Trump)
- Texans should have a vote on seceding from the United States. (Texas Republican cabal committee member Tanya Robertson)
- America's founding fathers had no political experience. (Carson again)
- Gay marriage will bring about the next financial collapse. (Robertson)
- Obama should be stripped of his salary and also his food. (Huckabee)
- We need a federal department of judeo-christian values (Kasich)
- Thousands of New Jersey Muslims cheered as the World Trade Center towers fell on 9/11/01 (Trump again)
- Promiscuity is okey-dokey for my family, but not for thine. (Palin)
- Thomas Jefferson crafted the U.S. Constitution. (Carson again)
- Only Syrian refugees who can prove they're 'christian' should be allowed into the U.S. as refugees. (Jeb)
- Russia is the greatest country on the planet. (Savage)
- Dog’s rulings are more legally binding than the Supreme Court’s rulings. (Rubio)
Lingerie-clad ex-lawyer thought woman in bed was a giant panda
An ex-lawyer who sneaked into a woman’s bedroom while wearing stockings
and a purple G-string has been cleared by a jury after he explained he
believed the woman was a giant panda.
Former high flyer Desmond Moran, 53, who hails from Tipperary, Ireland,
said he had taken so many drugs that he thought the woman was a panda.
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court in south London heard on Tuesday that
the woman had been been sleeping in her bed at her Bayswater flat with
her two children on July 14 2015 when she awoke to see Moran standing
in the doorway while wearing the stockings and G-string.
The jury also heard Mr Moran was once a high flying lawyer, having
worked in New York, Singapore and Hong Kong, but had fallen on hard
times in recent years and had been living in hostels.
Mr Moran, who was arrested at the scene by police, admitted in an
interview he was high on crack cocaine and crystal meth at the time and
he had been sleeping rough for a number of years prior to the offense.
A jury cleared him of trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offense
after just 30 minutes deliberation.
The court had earlier heard harrowing evidence from the woman who awoke
to find Mr Moran staring at her. The woman, who cannot be named, said:
“I woke up and I saw him there and he was just looking at us, I felt
like he was looking at me even though the two kids were there.
“I said: 'Who are you, what are you doing? What are you doing in my apartment?' That's when I started getting quite anxious and I started screaming at him, and the children woke up.” The woman said that she was shouting at Mr Moran but he didn’t respond. When she see looked closely at him, she realized he wasn’t wearing trousers or a jacket. “It was costume, and when he went to the window and turned around I could see his bottom – I think he had a G-string on.” Fearful for her children's safety, the woman said she slammed Mr Moran into a door several times and tried to forced him out of the room. When he left, she ran off to her nanny’s room with her children and called the police. When the police arrived, they found Mr Moran in the basement of the block of flats.
He was still in his fishnet stockings and G-string when police arrived but was so agitated it took three officers to put him in handcuffs. In his subsequent police interview, he claimed that he went into the block of flats to get a bed for the night. “I honestly didn't see a woman on the bed, I didn't see any children in the bed, I honestly thought it was a big panda bear in the bed, that's what it looked like to me. I had taken some drugs but I am pretty certain that's what I saw, I didn't see any woman, I didn't see any kids... were they under the panda?” He continued: “I went to the bay window and the window was open, and I thought 'why is the window open?' I went over and I looked down into the street. Then I thought 'I'm just going to leave. I was nearly out of the room, I hadn't seen the woman, then it all happened so quickly – she was screaming 'who are you, get out of my house'.” Mr Moran sobbed when the verdict was delivered.
Man tried to electrocute his father after learning he would be sole beneficiary of his will
A Florida man attempted to electrocute his father when the son found out
he would be the sole beneficiary of the elder man's will, police said.
John Knudsen, 44, was arrested on Thursday and charged with felony
attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault on an elderly
disabled person after police say he tried to electrocute his 81-year-old
father, also named John Knudsen, at their Ormond Beach home.
The father and son got into a heated argument on Nov. 22, the father
telling the son that he needed to find a job.
Days later the father told his son that his will and deed would go to him upon his death. Early on Thanksgiving morning, the son was holding two black wires which he pressed to his fathers chest. The father passed out. When the father awoke he attempted to talk to his son but he eventually went to his bedroom. The father then grabbed his revolver to protect himself, police said.
After a while the father was able to sneak out of the house and head to the Ormond Beach Police Department. The father had a bruise on the top right side of his head and told police his son knew of his weak heart condition. Officers responded to the house and attempted to find out what happened but the son was uncooperative. The younger Knudsen, who has no criminal history in Volusia County, is being held Monday at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $70,000 bail.
Days later the father told his son that his will and deed would go to him upon his death. Early on Thanksgiving morning, the son was holding two black wires which he pressed to his fathers chest. The father passed out. When the father awoke he attempted to talk to his son but he eventually went to his bedroom. The father then grabbed his revolver to protect himself, police said.
After a while the father was able to sneak out of the house and head to the Ormond Beach Police Department. The father had a bruise on the top right side of his head and told police his son knew of his weak heart condition. Officers responded to the house and attempted to find out what happened but the son was uncooperative. The younger Knudsen, who has no criminal history in Volusia County, is being held Monday at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $70,000 bail.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
The Daily Drift
Welcome to Today's Edition of The Truth Be Told.
The Truth Be Told is read in 205 countries around the world.
Republicans - Liars ... !
Don't forget to visit our sister blog Carolina Naturally
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Canada - Colombia - Mexico - Puerto Rico - United States
Europe
Austria - Bosnia/Herzegovina - Bulgaria - England - France - Georgia - Germany - Hungary
Ireland
- Italy - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - San Marino -
Scotland - Serbia Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Switzerland - Ukraine -
Wales
Asia
China - India - Indonesia - Korea - Mauritius - Palestine - Seychelles - United Arab Emirates
Africa
Morocco - South Africa - Sudan
The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand - Philippines
Bernie Sanders Gets Electable By Beating Every Top Republican Candidate In New Poll
The Quinnipiac poll showed Sanders beating Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and Carson:
– Topping Trump 49 – 41 percent;
– Getting 44 percent to Rubio’s 43 percent;
– Beating Cruz 49 – 39 percent;
– Leading Carson 47 – 41 percent.
Sanders has the highest net approval rating ( +12) of any candidate Democratic or Republican, and he is also the candidate that voters deemed the most honest (59%-28%).
While Sanders does better on net approval rating and honesty than Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner also leads against all of the top Republicans.
The Democratic Party has a very good problem on its hands. While Republicans don’t appear to have a single electable candidate, Democrats have two. Either Sanders or Clinton would be the favorite to win the presidency if they won the Democratic nomination.
In contrast to the Republican primary where the candidates are tearing each other apart in an attempt to win the support of a small subset of voters who may help them win in Iowa, the Democratic candidates are doing it the right way.
Both Sanders and Clinton are getting stronger as the early campaign goes along. By not engaging in the sort of mudslinging contest that is dragging the Republican cabal down, Democrats are putting their nominee in the best position possible to win in November.
Bernie Sanders has risen to become the second electable possibility for Democrats in 2016, and if he could upset Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, the senator from Vermont might be favored to become the next President Of The United States.
Obama Drops The Veto Hammer On Senate Republican Obamacare Repeal Bill
In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House made it clear that the wingnut bill is DOA:
The Administration strongly opposes Senate passage of the Senate amendment to H.R. 3762. By repealing numerous, key elements of current law, this legislation would take away critical benefits and health care coverage from hard-working middle‑class families. The bill also would remove policies that are expected to help slow the growth in health care costs and that have improved the quality of care patients receive. The Senate amendment to H.R. 3762 detracts from the work the Congress could be doing to foster job creation and economic growth.
The Affordable Care Act is working and is fully integrated into an improved American health care system. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions is a thing of the past. And under the law, health care prices have grown at the slowest rate in 50 years, benefiting all Americans.
Repealing key elements of the Affordable Care Act would result in millions of individuals remaining uninsured or losing the insurance they have today. An estimated 17.6 million Americans gained coverage as several of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage provisions have taken effect – 15.3 million since the beginning of the first open enrollment in October 2013. The Senate amendment to H.R. 3762 would roll back coverage gains and would cost millions of hard-working middle-class families the security of affordable health coverage they deserve.
This legislation is being considered by the Senate just days ahead of the December 15 deadline for Marketplace coverage that starts on January 1, 2016. Rather than refighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal basic protections that provide security for the middle class, Members of Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle‑class families, and create new jobs.
If the President were presented with H.R. 3762, as amended by the Senate amendment, he would veto the bill.
The reconciliation bill that repeals Obamacare and defunds Planned Parenthood is the epitome of McConnell’s failed time as Majority Leader. McConnell is obsessed with political show votes and empty gestures that are destined to go nowhere.
McConnell isn’t interested in dealing with the kitchen table issue that impact the majority of Americans. McConnell is spending his time on show votes that he hopes will allow him to make the argument that his ineptitude is all President Obama’s fault.
The reality is that McConnell has chosen to waste precious time with several deadlines looming and only a few working days left in the year on a bill that was dead from the moment it was brought up.
McConnell may get his Obamacare repeal bill through the Senate with less than 60 votes, but the President will veto it, Democrats in Congress will sustain his veto, and voters will be given another reason to hand the Senate majority back to Democrats in 2016.
House Democrats Hand Ryan His First Defeat By Rejecting Republican Spending Proposal
Ryan (R-WI) needs Democratic votes to pass
the Republican spending bill, but his first proposal was rejected by
Democrats because it contained over 30 poison pill policy riders.The Hill reported:
Citing dozens of “poison-pill” riders, House Democrats have rejected the Republicans’ initial year-end government funding bill and plan to respond with their own alternative package.
Wingnut leaders had delivered the sweeping spending proposal to the Democrats on Tuesday evening as Congress scrambles to fund the government and prevent a shutdown ahead of a looming Dec. 11 deadline.
But Democratic leaders said “more than 30” Republican policy amendments, known as riders, made the package unacceptable, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the budget talks.
Laughably, House Republicans sent a proposal to Democrats gutting environmental regulations, Wall Street reform, and shutting down the Syrian refugee program.
Democrats immediately said no, and reminded Ryan that they told him that the bill needed to be done by November 20. Instead, Republicans went home for Thanksgiving and left the task of avoiding a government shutdown on December 11 for the last minute.
Ryan is finding out what life is really like as the Speaker of the dysfunctional Republican House. Ryan needs the poison pill riders or he faces the real possibility of losing almost all of his Republican support. In the best case scenario, Ryan will need dozens of Democratic votes to pass the funding bill, and Democrats will not support anything containing riders that are nothing more than a Republican policy wish list.
Just like Boehner, Ryan is going to have to cave. Ryan has to drop the poison pill riders in the funding bill or his first major act as speaker will be a government shutdown.
Obama On San Bernadino Shooting: ‘No Parallel’ With Rest Of World
President Obama reacted to the San Bernadino mass shooting by
pointing out the deadly brand of killing has “no parallel” in the rest
of the world.Hell Freezes Over: Fox News' Smith Backs President Obama’s Statement On Mass Shootings
In a clear break with Fox News policy to oppose President Obama no
matter what, Shep Smith sided with him on the issue of mass
shootings.KNBC Cameraman's Heartfelt Eye Witness Account Of San Bernardino Shooting
Colorado Springs Republican accuses Planned Parenthood of ‘genocide’ after shooting
Twitter users shame Republican inaction on gun violence
(Ret.) Senator Bill Bradley Calls The NRA: 'A Zealot Organization'
Sen. Bill Bradley labeled the NRA a wacko
group and blamed them as one of the main reasons gun control has gotten
so out of hand in America.
The World Can’t Afford Trump: Narcissist-in-Chief
The world has many conflict hotspots, but a narcissist like Trump would make them about himself, rather than what's good for
America…
Move over American Exceptionalism, and make way, if Trump
attains the White House, for Trump Exceptionalism. Make no mistake,
Trump’s presidential hopes are Trump hopes. Make America Great is
Trump-speak for Make Trump Important. Because as the image says, Trump
likes himself some himself.In other words, the problem for America is that the Republican front runner is a textbook narcissist, at least according to psychologists. This is probably not a surprise even to laymen, but Vanity Fair asked some professionals to weigh in with their opinion (perhaps because Vanity Fair believes Trump could really be elected president) and what we’re hearing in response is “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” and “Remarkably narcissistic,” and “He’s so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example of his characteristics…he’s like a dream come true.”
Or a nightmare:
That mental-health professionals are even willing to talk about Trump in the first place may attest to their deep concern about a Trump presidency. As Dr. Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry and the director of the master’s of bioethics program at Columbia University, pointed out, the American Psychiatric Association declares it unethical for psychiatrists to comment on an individual’s mental state without examining him personally and having the patient’s consent to make such comments. This so-called Goldwater rule arose after the publication of a 1964 Fact magazine article in which psychiatrists were polled about Senator Barry Goldwater’s fitness to be president. Senator Goldwater brought a $2 million suit against the magazine and its publisher; the Supreme Court awarded him $1 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in punitive damages.Scary stuff. And think about what it would mean to America to have the Trump Cult of Personality in the White House. Look at all the hotspots around the globe.
There’s Iraq and Syria and Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, there is Iran and Russia and the Baltic States and Russia and the Ukraine and Russia in Syria and Russia and Turkey. As the International Institute for Strategic Studies tweeted,
Then there is the South China Sea with China versus just about everybody:
Don’t forget Korea, and Afghanistan, and India and Pakistan, tension
over natural resources in the Arctic, not to mention African hotspots
like Nigeria. The world is a mess. (a complete list of ongoing conflicts
can be found here – as of November 26, “27 Countries and 191 between militias-guerrillas, separatist groups and anarchic groups involved”).
Map
of hypothetical scenario of China-Japan Conflict, showing conflict
zones (A); sea exclusion zones (B); and air restriction zones (C ).
Military bases are represented by total population within 50km Cambridge Center for Risk Studies – See more at:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/planning-for-war-a-guide-for-businesses#sthash.TrTU6xKH.dpuf
So yeah. We need a stable president to confront this mess, not a president who is a man who can’t handle facts at the expense of his own ego. The world is not black and white, either/or, or good vs. evil. Reality has nuance that escapes most Republicans, but Trump sees the world as defined by “winners” and “losers.” Huffington Post talked to Joseph Burgo, psychologist and author of The Narcissist You Know, who said,
“Narcissists like Trump… are constantly driven to prove themselves among the ‘winners’ of the world, often by triumphing over or denigrating other people as comparative ‘losers.’ If you examine Trump’s language in his public statements as well as in the debates, you will hear him proclaim his winner status again and again while sneering at his detractors as losers.”
Vanity Fair approached Licensed clinical social worker Wendy Terrie Behary, the author of Disarming the Narcissist: Surviving and Thriving with the Self-Absorbed, and she said,
“Narcissists are not necessarily liars, but they are notoriously uncomfortable with the truth. The truth means the potential to feel ashamed. If all they have to show the world as a source of feeling acceptable is their success and performance, be it in business or sports or celebrity, then the risk of people seeing them fail or squander their success is so difficult to their self-esteem that they feel ashamed. We call it the narcissistic injury. They’re uncomfortable with their own limitations. It’s not that they’re cut out to lie, it’s just that they can’t handle what’s real.”
So imagine Trump in any of these scenarios mentioned above. He couldn’t confront a media lightweight like Kelly without losing it, or even that antithesis of a journalist Todd. But let’s assume for a moment that he could find his testicles long enough to face down Putin. It’s a recipe for disaster. We need common sense and a realistic appraisal of the situation and we’ll have instead two guys comparing the lengths of their “penii.”
Or look at Trump confronting China over its economic policy, which he has entirely wrong (perhaps an explanation for his four corporate bankruptcies) or over its military reach into the South China Sea against Vietnam, the Philippines, or even its ongoing taunting of a re-arming Japan. The United States has interests in this area. Is Trump going to turn this into another case of Trump has to win because Trump is a winner? Or is he going to engage in sober diplomacy? You tell me.
If psychologists are worried enough to speak up, we should heed their fears. We should all be worried. The world is no place for Donald Trump with a nuclear briefcase. The place for Trump is reality TV where he can ruin only a few lives at a time, the lives of people who have agreed to have their lives ruined by this narcissist. The entire world should not be at his mercy. It’s great the Republican establishment opposes him, but they created him and they’re opposing him for all the wrong reasons.
As Vanity Fair’s Henry Alford put it, “the need to protect or exalt the self is at odds with the job requirements of a president.” Obama understand this. Sure, presidents have a care for their legacy. But Obama understands his duty is to the nation and to the American people. Trump see’s his only duty as being to himself. And if he got into the White House, there is nowhere in this world any of us could hide from his fragile ego.
Republicans Completely Fucked As Trump Surges In Polls After Mocking Disabled Reporter
![Donald Trump appears at a fundraiser held onboard the USS Iowa. [MSNBC]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s2bS6IQpwUpZbysyatrRNiBGk4MIcOhsff_82FtyY3kjdtQxZ-d8gbkFFUSrXUmfX_W53OZQt4_H6OwYwPz4fjGeDYfwQrkeMZcJP-JgztexsMpxLtrymKztVEGXnEFBDhF45HlcvWAUKum3zE=s0-d)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)