Author J.K. Rowling took to Twitter on
Tuesday to throw cold water on comparisons of U.S. Republican
pretender front-runner and former reality TV hack Trump to Lord
Voldemort.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
The Daily Drift
Welcome to Today's Edition of The Truth Be Told.
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Republicans - It's Mountain Day, Now Jump Off ... !
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Obama Rips Wingnut Candidates For Betraying Our Values During National Address
The president laid out his plan defeat ISIL and some blunt criticism for what the Republican pretender candidates are offering.
After rejecting sending ground troops back to the Middle East, the President said:
It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country.
It is our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim-Americans should somehow be treated differently.
Because when we travel down that road, we lose.
That kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values, plays into the hands of groups like ISIL.
Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our coworkers, and our sports heroes, and yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that.
The President reminded the country that freedom is more powerful than fear. President Obama also talked about the San Bernardino shootings as an act of terror, and he repeated his plea for Congress to pass common-sense gun laws.
This address was partially an explanation of his ISIL strategy, but just as importantly, it was also about pushing against the climate of fear and discrimination that Republicans like Trump are attempting to build and exploit. Each of the proposals that Obama urged the nation to reject have been offered by Republican pretender candidates.
President Obama was correct. The Republican pretender candidates are trying to convince the American people to betray our core values. The President addressed pushed back candidates who are trying to frighten people into voting for them.
Republicans are attempting to revive the cynical post-9/11 politics of fear, but President Obama used his bully pulpit to appeal to our better natures. Obama is standing tall, and not about to let the nation that he leads be defeated by fear.
Obama’s national security speech made wingnuts’ heads explode
America’s angry, wingnut cranks were
quick to respond to President Barack Obama’s speech last Sunday night about
national security in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack in San
Bernardino, California.
Republicans Try To Kill Climate Deal While Democrats Work To Save The Planet
10 Democratic senators have flown to Paris to tell climate
negotiators President Obama has strong support for an international
climate deal.…
But in Paris, a group of 10 Democratic senators lead by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-NM) had a different message: President Obama has strong support for an international climate deal.
“What you see here are people who are going to protect what the president is putting on the table here in Paris as a promise from the American people to the world,” Ed Markey, (D-MA), said during a press conference held Saturday. “We are going to back up the president every step of the way.”
As the Guardian pointed out, Markey, a long-time champion of climate action who co-wrote a 2009 climate bill that passed through the House, was hardly the only long-time advocate of climate action to make the journey to Paris, as he was joined by both Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who has given over 100 speeches related to climate change on the floor of the Senate, and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who recently co-sponsored a bill that would end the extraction of fossil fuels on public lands. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), Al Franken (D-MN), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Tom Udall (D-NM), rounded out the coalition.
“We are moving in the right direction and we are not going to back down,” Udall said. “We have the president’s back and we are going to make sure we keep moving in the right direction.”
Still, the Democratic senators’ visit to Paris comes at a crucial time in the negotiating process, as a draft of a potential deal was recently sent to the ministers of participating nations. The draft, which observers are calling more “streamlined” than previous drafts, will serve as the basis of upcoming negotiations.
Environmental groups praised the senators’ trip, with Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune calling it a “clear message to COP21 negotiators.”
“American leadership has helped drive momentum around the globe to ensure these negotiations would be successful, and it’s clear that American leadership will help ensure the implementation of a strong agreement that will grow our clean energy economy and protect our families and our communities,” Brune said in a press statement.
Fox News' Dash Gets Censored On TV
Wingnuts on TV are losing all
perspective and have been continually using inappropriate language since
the 2016 presidential primaries have begun.
In A New Low Even For Fox An Hack Calls President Obama A ‘Pussy’ In Unhinged Rant
This is a pathetic low, even for Fox. Shame on them.
This teabagging birther is frighteningly close to giving white rural voters even more influence over your life
Rubio promises to turn back the clock on LGBT progress
The wingnuts’ fresh face for a New American Century is rather old-fashioned.
Ryan’s Response: Less American Values and More Assault Weapons to Terrorists
Responding to Obama, Ryan said nothing about gun sales to
terrorists or the dangers of radicalizing Muslims with more Republican
hate…
“Our primary responsibility is to keep the American people safe from the real and evolving threat of radical Islamic terrorism. That will require the president to produce a comprehensive strategy to confront and defeat ISIS. The enemy is adapting, and we must too. That’s why what we heard tonight was so disappointing: no new plan, just a half-hearted attempt to defend and distract from a failing policy.
“American families should have confidence that our leaders are working together to address this threat. That’s why this week the House will vote on a bipartisan bill to update our visa waiver program to reduce the risk of an extremist entering the country from abroad. This legislation builds on a recent bipartisan vote to strengthen the certification requirements in our refugee program.
“But the ultimate solution is a comprehensive plan to eliminate the extremist threat, and only the commander-in-chief can provide that. The horrific events of recent weeks remind us that any hope to contain ISIL has been a failure. Until we hear from the president what more can be done —with our military, our intelligence-gathering, and our international partners — we will remain one step behind our enemy. This is not just the next president’s problem. It is our problem, and we must confront it today.”
Nothing was said by Ryan about common sense gun laws. Nothing about why Ryan wants terrorists to be able to buy assault rifles.
"What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?" —@POTUS
It was certain from the moment the identity of the killers broke,
that the San Bernadino mass shooting would be treated differently than
any other shooting, because our other recent mass shootings have been
carried out by white men – not by Muslims, but by 'christian' domestic
terrorists. The Planned Parenthood shooting is absolutely an example of Republican thinking gone awry. It was committed by a white man who had been influenced by Republican hate speech and support for a faked video about Planned Parenthood. Every Republican candidate is partly to blame for what happened. Congress is responsible as well, for not embracing common sense gun laws.
Who is going to keep us safe from domestic terrorists like him? Who is going to keep us safe from Ryan and a Republican-misled Congress?
Nothing was said by Ryan about betraying our core values by imposing religious tests on refugees, or profiling them on the basis of religion. Their recipe of hate is only going to radicalize more Muslims, just as their recipe of hate continues to radicalize “white 'christian' Republicans.”
While Ryan insists Obama develop a plan to protect us from Islamic terrorists, he wants no action taken at all to protect us from domestic terrorists. In fact, by promising to continue with the hate speech that has become the knee-jerk response to all things Islam and abortion, Ryan promises to make us less safe.
Remember this?
Yeah…it’s not. It’s the same old day. New face, same narrative.
CBS, introducing the address, put hack Chuck Todd on camera to tell
us that the president should have addressed the nation already. Nothing
about Obama will ever satisfy the conservative trolls who dominate the
mainstream media. Nothing Obama says will change the Republican response
in Congress, which is at this point as predictable as death and taxes.It is Republican politics as usual, in a speech that could have as easily come out of the mouth of Boehner. Nothing changed when Boehner stepped down and nothing is going to change. Republicans want to to back to September 12, 2001. They want fear and they want hate, they want a compliant president who will do their bidding – and they want war, endless war.
Republicans will complain about President Obama’s address Sunday night on the basis of this or that, but until they embrace American core values and common sense gun laws, they have no right at all to claim that it is Obama who is doing nothing about terrorism.
Trump Demands Obama Show Him Muslim Sports Heroes, Forgets His ‘Friend’ Muhammad Ali
Trump really needs to think before he tweets because this is just embarrassing.
San Bernardino Truthers Blame Obama Conspiracy ...
'We Do Not Have One Year Left To Live Out This Administration'
Conspiracy theorist hate radio hack Jones doubled down today on his claim that the San Bernardino
shooting was a false flag attack, speaking with fellow lunatic fringe conspiracy
theorist Pieczenik about why they believe the tragedy was an Obama
administration plot to push gun control.
Pieczenik said it was... MORE
Time to Stop Blaming the NRA for Gun Violence and Focus on Cowardly Republicans Instead
Although the NRA hands out millions to Republican congressmen,
neither the NRA nor its insane leader, Wayne La Pierre, get to cast a
vote…
It is excusable that some Americans are so disgusted over the level
of gun violence that they desperately seek a villain to lash out
against. Every time there is a mass shooting the usual targets,
Republicans and the National Rifle Association receive the brunt of
criticism but always emerge unscathed and more empowered to carry on. It
is true that Republicans, and some Democrats, embrace the NRA line that
any gun safety proposal is a war against good Americans that drives
their votes to continue the NRA’s gun proliferation crusade unabated. Whether gun safety advocates will acknowledge that there are no Senate or House members representing a state or district called “NRA” is irrelevant; they seriously need to stop blaming the NRA for the actions of congressional Republicans and terrified, angry, and religious conservative voters responsible for promoting guns to kill other Americans.
Obviously, and with seemingly valid reasons, a significant number of Americans are blaming the number and increase of mass shootings on the National Rifle Association and its lunatic executive vice-president Wayne La Pierre for doing what the NRA exists to do; sell millions of guns. Now there are more than Americans assailing the NRA including a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) host who decided to advise American citizens that if they are tired of mass shootings and needless deaths, they simply have to “break and dismantle the NRA.”
The BBC’s Aaron Heslehurst discussed America’s gun violence epidemic with columnist Maike Currie who agreed that the frequency and number of mass shootings plaguing America were “staggering.” Currie said the problem is that “everyone points to the Second Amendment that was set up in 1789 in a different world; something needs to be done about this.” Heslehurst agreed and threw out some “staggering statistics” he believes indicts the NRA for the number of Americans killed by guns, then counseled what it takes stop the carnage. He noted,
“In the last 43 years, more Americans have been shot by another American — shot and killed by another American — than all of America’s soldiers killed in wars in the last 240 years. And you go where’s the priority? You talk about the NRA, right? If anyone really wants to get serious, that’s what you have to try to break, dismantle.”
Yglesias notes, “lots of lobbying groups have more money than the NRA and almost none of their clout. The NRA’s true sources of power are people and focus.” Because the NRA has over 5 million real members who are terrified, religious, and angry to call their congressional representatives, volunteer and spread NRA fear and loathing with family, friends and acquaintances, Republicans get the message that gun maniacs pay attention to how Republicans vote and show up on Election Day.
The NRA’s focus is simple; oppose gun regulations using any means necessary. That laser focus makes them a very adept and successful corporate lobby, but they are not shooting people, casting votes in Congress or at the ballot box.
It is beyond dispute the National Rifle Association exists to sell guns to Americans, and it spends inordinate amounts of money buying loyalty from Republicans. Even pressuring legislators with the dreaded NRA “report card” is a ploy to sell more guns, but the organization is not shooting Americans; frightened, hate-filled, and religious Americans are and that is where the blame lies. Without a base to elect Republicans willingly doing the NRA’s bidding, the NRA would be as unsuccessful as the gun safety movement.
Although the NRA is handing out nearly a million dollars to several leading Republicans in Congress to block gun safety measure, neither the NRA as a non-profit organization, nor its insane leader Wayne La Pierre, are allowed to cast a vote in the House or the Senate. That decision lies with Republicans, and some Democratic cowards, who are terrified of receiving a failing score, or reduction in donations, from the NRA.
It is true that the NRA exerts inordinate power over legislators, but without frightened and gun-mad voters electing equally frightened Republicans to keep gun violence rising, the NRA would be impotent. It is time to stop blaming the NRA and focus on “breaking and dismantling their base of support and cowardly Republicans;” the two groups ultimately responsible for the increase in guns and gun violence.
'Christian' Pastor Orders Women To Obey Bible And Submit To Husbands Immediately
Men like this pastor are precisely the reason why we should reject theocracy.
TV Host Admits She Wanted To ‘Slap That Bitch’ Coulter LIVE On Television
Tennessee Wingnuts Demands University Admin Be Fired For Holiday Parties That Don’t Focus On Xmas
Thursday, December 10, 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 hate Human Rights ... !
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United States - Venezuela
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Hungary
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Spain - Sweden - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
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The First Amendment, by definition, doesn’t need your prayers
Criticism of prayer isn’t a violation of your religious or speech rights. It’s an exercise of them.
Bernie Sanders Hits The Kochs Where It Hurts With People Before Polluters Plan
In a statement Sen. Sanders said:
Pope Francis is right. This planet is moving in a suicidal direction unless we effectively combat climate change and transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy,” Sanders said.
The scientists are virtually unanimous that climate change is real, is caused by human activity and is already causing devastating problems in the United States and around the world. And, they tell us, if we do not act boldly the situation will only become much worse in years to come in terms of drought, floods, extreme storms and acidification of the oceans.
The United States must lead the world in working with China, Russia, India and the international community to break our energy dependence on fossil fuel. Sadly, we now have a Republican cabal that is more concerned about protecting the profits of Exxon, BP and Shell and the coal industry than protecting the planet. While fossil fuel companies are raking in record profits, climate change ravages our planet and our people – all because the wealthiest industry in the history of our planet has bribed politicians into ignoring science.
– Cut U.S. carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050 by putting a tax on carbon pollution, repealing fossil fuel subsidies and making massive investments in energy efficiency and clean, sustainable energy such as wind and solar power.
– Create a Clean-Energy Workforce of 10 million good-paying jobs by creating a 100% clean energy system.
Protect low-income and minority communities, who are hit first and worst by the causes and impacts of climate change, while also protecting existing energy-sector workers as they transition into clean energy and other jobs.
The Koch fortune is based in fossil fuels, which is why the Koch brothers have secretly donated at least $79 million to climate change science denial organizations.
The fossil fuel industry supplies a substantial sum of the dark money that Republicans use to fund their campaigns. A serious plan to combat climate change would not only clean up the environment, but it would also clean part of a dirty and corrupt campaign finance system.
Sen. Sanders’ plan would hit the Kochs in the wallet and strike a blow against the systemic legalized bribery of our post-Citizens United campaign finance system.
Bernie Sanders is proposing a plan that could both save our planet and our democracy.
Sorry Republicans – Climate Envoy Says Wingnut Votes Aren’t Hurting Paris Talks
Obama administration's top negotiator in Paris said wingnut votes against
the president's environmental agenda aren't hurting the US position. …
Todd Stern, the State Department’s special envoy for climate change, told reporters in Paris on Wednesday that he’s fielded questions about the Republican-backed votes from other diplomats, but he’s assured them that President Obama’s policies will stand.
Stern made the remarks a day after the House voted to overturn two landmark Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that require power plants to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.
“I don’t actually think that has much of an effect here,” Stern told reporters. Obama plans to veto both measures.
“It produces questions, so I have had countries ask me about, but what I have said is that the Clean Power Plan rule is going to go forward,” he said.
Because of Obama’s veto threat, Congress’s action was largely symbolic, timed to coincide with the opening days of the Paris talks.
The wingnuts want to send a signal to world leaders that Obama’s pledge to cut the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent cannot be met because the power plant rules will be overturned, be it by the next president, Congress or the federal courts.
“The message could not be more clear that Republican and Democrats in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House do not support the president’s climate agenda and the international community should take note,” Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement.
The Senate passed similar resolutions in November.
It’s just one tactic Republicans are using to try to derail the United Nations talks, where negotiators are trying to reach an international agreement to combat climate change. That deal is not likely to impose legally binding emissions cuts, however, because some countries, including the U.S., do not think they could approve such an accord.
For Trump Sycophants, It’s Unconditional Love
by John DeProspo
The pattern by now is all too familiar. No matter how outrageous the
comment or how verifiable the lie, Trump supporters will stick with
their man. The truth simply does not matter to devout Trump backers.
They are too enamored by the force of his personality.Trump has found what few of us ever find in our lifetimes: unconditional love. So he lied about seeing thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrate the attack on the Twin Towers. So deporting eleven million illegal immigrants is a ridiculous idea. So what!
Trump is like a divine shepherd who can lead his sheeple anywhere… even if it’s to the slaughterhouse!
The mainstream media can spend all the time it wants pointing out Trump’s distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies. It will not matter in the end. Trump has found unconditional love from his acolytes.
And as with all unconditional love, the more their revered one is attacked by his critics, the more his followers will circle the wagons and come to his defense. Logic and facts do not matter for those blinded by true adulation.
Will the steady, roughly 25% support of Republican base be enough to carry Trump to the presidential nomination? Probably not… unless Trump can build on his base of die-hard, smitten supporters. The odds are that all those Trump sycophants who have found unconditional love for their candidate are all present and accounted for.
Trump Treats Two Black Sycophants Like Circus Performers, Asks Them To ‘Do A Little Routine’
He LITERALLY points and laughs at them.
Read more
Read more
Wingnut Brain Abnormalities Inform That Gun Madness Is Here To Stay
To gun nut zealots, every mass shooting provides another undeniable and
convincing argument that what America needs most is more guns, not less…
No matter how bad of a pretender Ronald Reagan was for myriad reasons,
he did have enough sense to advocate for measures to protect the people
from themselves without deleting the 2nd Amendment. In fact, President
Obama and sane Democrats’ gun safety proposals are not as robust as
those that Reagan promoted, but of course Reagan was a white guy. On signing gun safety laws, the wingnut demigod said, “There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” As pretender, Reagan signed a ban on fully automatic rifles, supported legislation for background checks, a waiting period for potential gun owners, and was an ardent supporter of a ban on assault-weapons and the Brady Bill.
Of course, those days are history and Republicans are unwilling to “take their country back” to an era of gun safety sense; they are just too afraid of everything. It is why there is not a chance in Hell there will be any legislation to help protect Americans from gun violence, and if there were it would be fundamentally useless with the past six years of NRA fear-mongering and gun proliferation that created an already well-armed population.
One commentator said the status quo on guns in the US will never change without “overwhelming political force” because evidence, death tolls, or rational debate will never have any effect on gun zealots. That assessment is only half right.
To garner “overwhelming political force” for minimal gun safety laws, a significant number of Americans will have to be convinced using evidence and debate. With a terrified population, and guns and gun violence now informing America’s “worldview and identity” as a “structurally violent society,” evidence and persuasion, even emotional persuasion, to change is futile no matter how many mass shootings or gun casualties.
Every single time there is a mass shooting, a couple-hundred Americans seriously believe the deaths and carnage will provide the emotional and convincing argument to halt the proliferation of guns. But to terrified gun nut zealots, every mass shooting provides another undeniable and convincing argument that what America needs most is more guns, not less.
As surrogate for the National Rifle Association, frightened evangelical Cuban-Canadian immigrant Cruz said the increase in mass shootings means that now more than ever, “the American people must be armed to get rid of bad guys by using our guns.”
Cruz took advantage of the wingnut brain’s abnormalities and psychological dysfunction and said gun safety measures are President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s plan to “strip us of our fundamental right to protect our homes, our lives, and our families while they refuse to protect America and stand up to Islam.” It was typical fear mongering that Cruz knows easily manipulates his terrified, psychologically bent, and abnormal-brained base.
According to an ever-growing body of psychological and social scientific research, the reason “liberals and wingnuts disagree about politics is because they are different people at the level of personality, psychology, and physiological and genetic traits.” Translation: wingnuts are physically abnormal and psychologically incapable of not being frightened and cannot exist without a loaded firearm at their side.
In a paper by John Hibbing of the University of Nebraska, research shows that “political wingnuts have a negativity bias meaning they are physiologically more attuned to negative (threatening, disgusting) stimuli in their environments;” it is why Republicans have such an easy task keeping their base frightened of everything that is “not white and evangelically wingnut.”
Other research this column has referenced in the past to demonstrate why Republican voters, although dirt stupid, are driven by abject fear is due to an abnormality in the brain preventing them from normal human cognitive and emotional dynamics. The Hibbing research teams found, and reported, that wingnuts have larger right amygdalae than liberals or normal human beings.
A normal amygdalae regulates basic pleasure and fear responses that wingnuts are incapable of performing. Besides being terrified of anything Republicans tell them to, an abnormally functioning amygdala is responsible for a world of psychological disorders and conditions including wild irrational fear, high anxiety and PTSD.
As the President has reiterated often, if Republicans and their frightened base could not be moved to support the most basic gun safety law, background checks, after 20 children and six adults were slaughtered like animals, by a white 'christian', nothing will move them to act. It does not matter if it is a mass shooting in a theater, cult, women’s health clinic, or a school campus, Republicans will not act because they are as frightened of the NRA as their base is everything non-christian, non-white, and non-male. Although prayers are not going to stop gun violence or mass shootings, if it makes decent people feel better, then by all means pray away because it is about effective as what this country is doing now.
Over 80 Percent Of Guns Used In Mass Shooting Obtained Legally
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