Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
President Obama gave a weekly address that included a lot of references to workers, unions, the labor movement in general, and government regulations — all the stuff the rightwing hates. (Or thinks they hate: when questioned on specifics, even a lot of right-wingers like overtime pay, etc.)
Obama followed with economic good news brought about by his administration: jobs added, unemployment rate lower, adding 16 million citizens to the tally of those who have health insurance, lots of places raising the minimum wage, etc.)
Then he moved on to begging Congress to do their freaking job:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address
Well, yes, President Obama, but a shutdown could also hurt you, so of course a lot of Republicans will push for that. They want to sap any momentum your administration has built up, and they don’t care if they hurt working Americans.
Mike Huckabee is diving deeper into the legal/cultural morass around the Kentucky clerk that refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/huckabee-kim-davis-rally-jail
Kim Davis’s attitude may be representative of more rightwing approaches to life in the USA than we realize. She embodies the protection of privilege, and she feels threatened. Writing for Salon, Elias Isquith took a closer look at the Kim Davis story, and he came up with a broader interpretation. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis added):
Remember the big guy that escorted Jorge Ramos out of a Trump press conference at Trump’s behest (though Trump denied he gave the order)? Well, that guy is Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
Schiller recently made more news by delivering a right cross to the head of a Latino protestor, Efrain Galicia, outside Trump Tower. This was on the day that the chairman of the Republican National Committee visited Trump there to beg for a signature on a loyalty pledge.
The “jumped from behind” claim is bogus. The Latino man, who is much smaller than Schiller, was trying to retrieve a sign/banner that Schiller had taken from him. As for the “harassing people” claim, view the video. It looked to me like people on the street had plenty of room to walk around the protestors who were stationary and were holding signs or banners.
Of course, the Trump contingent is suing: “The authorities were contacted immediately, a complaint was filed and we will be pursuing legal action against this individual,” said a campaign spokesperson.
Washington Post link
Roger Stone used to work on the Trump campaign. Now he doesn’t work for Trump so he has time on his hands, and he has an urge to cause political mudslides of trumpian proportions. What’s a guy to do?
Stone is writing yet another anti-Hillary Clinton book.
Here is some of the anti-Clinton material that Stone intends to rehash:
– Hillary ordered the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Texas.
– The Clintons took part in murder and drug smuggling.
– Hillary ran a terrorist organization to distract from Bill’s affairs with other women.
– Hillary is a lesbian.
– The Clintons are still waging a war on women.
Stone plans to coauthor the book with notorious doofus Robert Morrow. Morrow has a habit of accusing everyone of being gay, a murderer, and a money launderer.
Holy crap, Mr. Stone! Working for and supporting Trump was bad enough, but this book plan is even worse. Marketing ploy run amok. New heights of unethical chicanery and batshit craziness combined.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/latest-anti-clinton-book-promises-be-most-fantastic-yet
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/437195328/how-white-nationalist-groups-found-their-candidate-in-donald-trump
This podcast covers the issue well.
From the is-this-thug-for-real department, the dimwit’s dimwit, Sarah Palin makes pitch to lead — and ‘get rid of’ — a Trump energy department:
It possible would be, especially if they were attached to reality and not beholden to Faux & Kochroch Bros., UnLimited. But that person ain’t you, and ain’t gonna be appointed by emperor trum-prat.
“These blames”? Can you speak something resembling English?
No. “American”? Can she possibly be that uneducated of a self-centred incurious eejit?
blf @7, Oh, for fuck’s sake. Palin has, if anything, gotten worse than she was when she was a vice presidential candidate. Although, I have to concede, maybe she does “speak American,” as awful as that is.
In other news, Rachel Maddow covered the fight between Donald Trump and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In response to a thoughtful op-ed, Trump printed out the op-ed and wrote across it in big magic marker:
Donald Trump gives Palin a run for her money when is comes to “speaking American.” Here is a single sentence from a speech Donald Trump gave:
Link
Supporting unions, (instead of breaking up unions as Scott Walker has done), turns out to a feminist issue. Supporting unions = supporting women.
http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-union-advantage-for-women
Hmmm, also an Hispanic issue. And, it turns out, a healthcare issue. Women workers represented by unions are more likely to have benefits like health insurance. Greater financial security and health benefits, sounds good to me.
Lynn@9, Unless I’m getting my examples of ‘trum-prat borks “american” megasalad’ mixed-up, when that example first happened, I pointed out (on Ed’s blog here at FtB) the trum-prat actually got one thing right. There was a Dr John Trump at MIT, who apparently worked with Dr Van de Graaff on million-volt generators. As I recall, I suggested the trum-prat left his head inside a running megavolt generator for far too long, which explains the hair: It’s trying to cover up all the holes and carbonized emptiness beneath.
Today being Labor Day, it was appropriate for President Obama to announce his executive order that requires all federal contractors to provide to employees at least seven days of paid sick leave.
Paid sick leave is common in most developed countries, but not in the USA. Because the USA has a Republican-dominated House of Congress, a bill introduced in March of 2013 to provide more workplace protections has never made it out of committee. As we’ve seen on other issues, President Obama is reduced to making what changes he can via executive orders that affect federal government employees and contractors.
Low income jobs are more likely to be jobs that offer no paid sick days. Once again, we have a feminist issue since low-income jobs are dominated by a female work force.. Once again, we have an Hispanic issue, since low income Hispanic workers “have less access to paid sick leave and family leave than any other racial group.” Link
Some states have passed laws requiring paid sick leave, and some cities have also done so. New York City, Portland (OR), Pittsburg, Seattle, San Francisco, the State of Connecticut, and New Jersey have paid sick leave laws. Our federal government lags behind thanks to a loud and largely illogical group of right-wingers in Congress.
We asked all 22 presidential candidates to define a US refugee policy. Few had clear answers:
We interrupt this babbling thug to point out that whilst he probably meant “to people who are hurting” rather than the stated “[to] hurt people”, that later interpretation is perhaps more-correct. USAnnilate!annilate!annilate! does have the largest military and, as I recall, exports more weaponry, then any other country. Now back to the thug…
Relative to GNP, USAllmineminemine is one of the most niggardly sources of foreign aid, ranking about 20th at only c.0.19% — less than a third of the 0.7% of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals target. The thugs claim USAllmineminemine provides the most assistance of all is correct-ish in absolute terms at c.$32bn, but only by squinting and ignoring the EU’s collective c.$68bn, more than twice as much for a region of similar-ish size, population, wealth, albeit far more governments and cheeses.
blf @13, Thanks for that compilation of all the Republican statements on immigration. Most of them have both empathy and logic deficits when it comes to immigration.
Meanwhile, Sweden is doing the right things in the right ways. What a great example, really shows up the USA.
Al Jazeera link
Sometimes it seems like there is nothing that a Republican candidate in the USA can do that is so awful that he/she will be immediately rejected by the public.
In Canada, they have some awful politicians (Harper), but they do have a few standards. If a politician pees in your coffee mug, the public will condemn him.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jerry-bance-canadian-parliament-peegate
More Kim Davis news, apparently she doesn’t to be a martyr in jail for much longer. Her fellow religious nutjobs, (cleverly disguised as lawyers), have filed another appeal.
Ben Carson, neurosurgeon and total doofus, said some stupid stuff about evolution. PZ nailed Carson:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2015/09/08/welp-ben-carson-just-lost-my-vote/
As most of you know by now, Rep. Trey Gowdy (a Republican from South Carolina) chairs the House Benghazi Committee. Gowdy has leaked deceptive info to the press on multiple occasions in the past.
Well, that sneaky, unethical, pompous man has done it again. Here’s what Gowdy told us: “Serious investigations do not leak information or make selective releases of information without full and proper context.” Here’s what the fool did: He leaked info to Poltico that was so misleading it should be classified as a lie.
The “raising alarms” part refers to the ARB (Accountability Review Board), a government panel that gave a draft of one of the nine previous investigations to the Secretary of State’s office. This question about the ARB report has been asked and answered many times. Gowdy is bringing it up as if it were new. Not only is it not new, all, all of the previous times it was raised the answer was: no, Hillary Clinton did not try to influence the outcome of the investigation; and, no, Cheryl Mills did not try to influence the investigation.
Gowdy is looking for shit to throw at the Hillary Clinton campaign. We the taxpayers are paying for this. We don’t need another Benghazi Committee. We don’t need politicians like Gowdy that leak like a sieve and still have no clue when it comes to true transparency.
Here’s a list of the previous Benghazi investigations:
– Independent State Department Accountability Review Board
– Senate Intelligence Committee
– Senate Armed Services Committee
– House Intelligence Committee
– Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
– House Armed Services Committee
– House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform
– House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
None of the previous investigations confirmed rightwing conspiracy theories, so Gowdy wanted to grandstand in yet another investigative committee. So far, we the taxpayers have spent over $4.3 million on this nonsense.
Colin Powell broke Republican ranks and made a public statement in support of the Iran nuclear deal.
MSNBC link
Powell used to work for Bush and Cheney.
While working to prop up Republicans trying to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal, Dick Cheney proceeded to lie more blatantly than usual:
Link
There’s no wiggle room here, no “that’s my interpretation” way out of this. Cheney lied. The Iran nuclear program went from zero nuclear centrifuges to 5,000 during the Bush/Cheney administration. In Cheney’s alternate universe, Obama is to blame for shit that happened on Cheney’s watch.
This is a followup to comment 20.
Here’s more backup for the fact that Cheney is lying:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/08/cheneys-iran-ideas-as-sophisticated-as-expected.html#
Donald Trump found yet another way to praise himself: he claims that the school he attended was like military service.
NY Times link
Well, let’s add that bit of nonsense to the time he dissed John McCain for being a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Okay, now let’s see if the number of military service members planning to vote for Trump goes up.
About McCain, Trump said in July: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”
Here’s a true thing that Trump said: “When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.”
Bernie Sanders now leads Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. Polls show Sanders with a nine point lead.
Congress came back to work today after taking six weeks off. As was noted in another thread, congress critters take off all the time they want and it never negatively affects their pay, their health care benefits, etc.
Now that they took so much time off they have very little time to address a looming deadline.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/us/politics/congress-girds-for-fights-over-spending-iran-and-planned-parenthood.html
Oh, FFS, problems with the basic concept of separation of church and state … again.
Robert Lloyd applied for a job as Williamson County Constable in Texas. He was well-qualified after 25 years in law enforcement. But he didn’t get the job because he is not a Baptist. (He may eventually get the job thanks to a lawsuit he filed.)
The commissioners were deposed, and in the interviews admitted they asked those questions.
http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local/2015/09/06/lawyer-claims-wilco-commissioners-want-baptist-employees-only/71830116/
Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey and candidate for president, said some stupid stuff.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/chris-christie-obama-attack-on-police-213393
Christie also lied. President Obama has commented multiple times on the deaths of the police officers. He offered personal condolences to their families and coworkers. One example: “We cannot erase every darkness or danger from the duty that you’ve chosen. We can offer you the support you need to be safer,” the president told a large gathering at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the U.S. Capitol. “We can make the communities you care about and protect safer, as well. We can make sure that you have the resources you need to do your job. We can do everything we have to do to combat the poverty that plagues too many communities in which you have to serve.”
Christie lied on Faux News, and he was allowed to get away with the lie.
As you may have already heard, a federal judge released Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis.
According to her lawyers, Davis plans to continue refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Lynna, OM @25
The commissioners must be unfamiliar with Article VI, paragraph 3 of the Constitution, which reads in part:
I suspect the county will lose the lawsuit.
Lynna, OM @26
Of course Christie got away with the lie. He was saying nasty things about Obama on Faux News, which means they automatically weren’t lies, even though there was no truth in them.
Lynna, #27
The judge didn’t say anything about her name having to be on the certificates.
But I’m wondering if that can even be allowed. I would have thought there’s standard procedure about the clerk’s name being on them.
Judge Bunning seems to have made it pretty clear that even indirect interference in marriage licensing will be a violation of her conditions of release.
Al Dente @28, yes, you are quite correct. Some sources are reporting that the commissioners are going to mount a “religious freedom” defense. [sigh]
So glad to see that Mr. Lloyd is going after them in the courts.
I guess this is the next chapter in the ongoing Kim Davis saga: her supporters are trying to one-up one another as they define her “martyrdom” and/or create outrageous comparisons to describe her suffering.
Link
Link
Saad @30, I noticed that. I think that the residents of Kentucky may have to wait until the legislature is back in session in January for some of the issues to be resolved.
In the meantime, I think some of Davis’s coworkers took delight in issuing same-sex marriage licenses in her absence. They will not be likely to comply with interference on her part in the future.
And, as you say, the judge may put Davis right back in jail.
Al Dente #28.
It took the Fourteenth Amendment for that clause to be applied to state/local governments. The Due Process clause is what applies the US constitutional rights to the states. (from the Wiki article)
Many state/local governments still pretend they haven’t got the memo yet.
Saad #30
As near as I can tell with Google Search, Kentucky state law requires the elected Clerk’s name to be at least prinited on the license (the Kentucky County Clerks Association is now petitioning the Kentucky legislature to change that, *links available lead to liberturd websites*), and probably all paperwork issued by the office. It doesn’t require a signature, except when accepted after being returned and processed for the State Archives.
It is fait accompli that Davis’ name is now on documents associated with gay marriage.
Scott Walker is not just saying some stupid stuff, he is promising to do stupid stuff.
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel link
Walker is currently taking a two-day motorcycle tour in New Hampshire.
A description of the release of Kim Davis from jail:
Link
Fascinating details: “Eye of the Tiger” theme song, and the vision of Davis as having triumphed over the forces of darkness. What a circus.
People in the audience were holding up signs that read “Beginning of a new HOLOCAUST???” etc. They all seemed super happy to have been persecuted, supposedly persecuted, or that they might imminently be persecuted.
Nerd @34, thanks for the clarification, and for the sentence “Many state/local governments still pretend they haven’t got the memo yet.”
That’s perfect summary for the situation.
Ah, Republicans, you never give up. We know that tax cuts for the upper middle-class and the rich do not pay for themselves with a resultant surge in economic growth. No, that doesn’t happen.
The previous head accountant for the Congressional Budget Office, Doug Elmendorf, wasn’t a partisan lackey. He wouldn’t tell Republicans what they wanted to hear on any analysis he did. So what did Republicans do? They ousted Elmendorf and appointed Keith Hall. Hall is now the CBO chief. He was touted as a reliable Republican. Unfortunately for the rightwing, Hall seems to still have a working brain.
http://news.yahoo.com/u-tax-cuts-dont-pay-themselves-republican-appointed-201552799–business.html
This is a followup to comment 38.
Steve Benen from The Maddow Blog, wrote about the Congressional Budget Office.
Now that Republicans have lost the fight to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal, they are looking for ways to take the teeth out of the deal.
Some Republicans, including Lindsey Graham, have proposed we “strip the IAEA, a United Nations agency, of the U.S. portion of its funding.”
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are absolutely essential to ensure compliance outlined in the Iran nuclear agreement. The USA provides about $88 million of the budget for the IAEA, and other countries cover the rest.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/lindsey-graham-iaea-funding-iran-deal/
Is this guy effing bugnuts?
Speaking of bugnuts, Cheney has always been that way, but if possible, he’s even worse of late. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, offered insanity as an explanation for what’s wrong with Cheney.
Chris Hayes hosted an excellent segment, including an interview with Wilkerson. Excellent.
http://www.msnbc.com/all
Scott Walker said some stupid stuff:
That was Walker’s way of refusing to answer questions about the refugee crisis hitting Europe.
The TV camerawoman who was seen to trip and kick refugees has been fired.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/tv-camerawoman-fired-after-tripping-migrants-fleeing-hungary-cops-n424031
So far, 28 Republicans have signed on to a plan to shut down the federal government if they don’t get their way when it comes to defunding Planned Parenthood. All of the core group of 28 are men.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee is investigating Planned Parenthood on the basis of the bogus videos released by the
Center for Medical Progressextremists in the anti-abortion rightwing. The House Judiciary Committee is made up of 22 Republican men, and one woman.The pledge to shut down the government reads, in part:
In addition to the 28 men in the House of Representatives, some Senators (Ted Cruz and a few others) also want to shut down the government over what they mistakenly think is federal funding for abortions. The $500 million that Planned Parenthood receives is used to provide birth control, annual exams, cancer screenings, etc. — by law, it is not used for abortions.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/46a2961cf0284492b4484b321aa29b1f/congress-starts-planned-parenthood-hearings-accusations-fly
More coverage on Lawrence Wilkerson’s comments about Dick Cheney.
Video is available at the link, in case you had trouble viewing it at the link in comment 41.
Lawrence Wilkerson is a Republican.
More on the thug’s Kangaroo Kourt Kircus (@44), Planned Parenthood not invited to congressional hearing on organization:
blf @45, well that’s special. They investigate Planned Parenthood and do not have representatives from Planned Parenthood testify before Congress? Typical. I guess they are afraid to hear facts, afraid reality will bring them down from their rage high.
The title of the hearing, “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider,” boggles the mind.
Oregon judge against same-sex marriage displayed Hitler photo in courthouse:
As one of the commentators puts it, “No doubt the good judge will put up a picture of a Ku Klux Klansman on Martin Luther King day to honor civil rights marchers. And a photo of Osama Bin Ladin on 9/11 to honor first responders.”
The Koch brothers have been whitewashing (deceptively editing) Wikipedia articles since 2011.
Now we have direct evidence of whitewashing efforts by Koch Industries.
Link
At the link there are a lot more fascinating details. This is a real scandal. For example: Rolling Stone’s “Inside the Koch Brothers’ Toxic Empire was cited multiple times, and reverted without explanation multiple times. The whitewashing effort was broad and deep, and it violated Wikipedia’s Terms of Service.
Bernie Sanders put out a thoughtful statement on the criminal justice system of the USA, and the reforms that are needed. I agree with him when he suggests eliminating privately run prisons.
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/09/08/bernie-sanders-declares-war-americas-corrupt-profit-prison-system-bill.html
So far, Rick Perry has shut down his campaign offices in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. I think he’s done and just doesn’t know it. He has no money to pay staffers.
Oh, good, we may, at last, get Louie Gohmert out of the House of Congress. Gohmert has been called the dumbest congressman.
Now he says that if the Iran nuclear deal is treated like a treaty by the House and Senate, he will not run for a seat in the House again. He’s outta there to protect what he calls his “integrity.”
Link
This news was delivered gleefully today by Glenn Beck. Beck is not celebrating Gohmert’s imminent self-deportation from Congress though, he is celebrating the fact that Gohmert is brave and is taking a stand, etc. etc.
If Glenn Beck praises you, look around to see what you are doing wrong.
Donald Trump was on the same stage today as Glenn Beck and Ted Cruz. Trump added his own brand of stupidity mixed with arrogance.
No, The Donald did not offer any details at all. No details about what is wrong with “the worst deal he’s ever seen,” and no details about what he would prefer as an alternative. I’m getting bored with this guy.
Mike Huckabee used the Bible and Jesus to defend Kim Davis. Then he got skewered on live TV for having done so. Huckabee is slippery, but he doesn’t really have a leg to stand on.
Think Progress link
This falls into “the company you keep” category. I’ve posted before about über rightwing, über religious pseudo-historian David Barton. That doofus has decided to run Ted Cruz’s Super Pac.
Barton’s 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson was so full of inaccuracies, so full of actual lies and misleading maundering that even Barton’s christian publisher couldn’t take it. They pulled the book from circulation. Barton’s big idea is that America should be a christian theocracy. I guess Ted Cruz agrees with him.
It’s another mind-boggling moment in U.S. politics when Ted Cruz, presidential candidate, is backed by this guy.
Right Wing Watch link
A more in-depth look at Kim Davis’s lawyer, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel:
Donald Trump gets caught in another, blustering, stupid lie.
Talking Points Memo link
Donald, do you have problems with your memory? One month ago, on CNN, you said you wouldn’t jump to defund Planned Parenthood.
The “one aspect” he was referring to is abortion.
Trump also previously supported abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother.
Now he supports bullshit.
PZ covered the Rolling Stone interview of Donald Trump in this post.
Here is a cross post of one of my comments in that thread:
Trump doesn’t really need strong needling from an interviewer to reveal his many flaws, his outrageous ego being just one. In the Rolling Stone interview, Trump reveals his flaws … but Trump supporters won’t care and/or they simply won’t see those flaws.
The more Trump looks like a cartoon character, the better the base of the Republican/Tea Party likes him. Without providing any details, Trump can say that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry are “stupid, very stupid, very very stupid,” and his followers will think “that’s right, they’re stupid.”
Link
Another cross post from the “Has the media no shame?” thread.
During the damage control interview this morning, Trump also gave his own analysis of the Rolling Stone article:
” […] the pictures in the magazine were magnificent. Overall, it was probably a pretty good story.”
So, yeah, the article posted lots of photos of Trump, and he does like looking at himself. From the Rolling Stone article:
This reminds me of Trump doing his version of damage control after the remarks about Rosy O’Donnell became fresh news again. He told us that it is hard for others to make fun of him in that way because he is “so good looking.”
Trump in a nutshell.
A $15 per hour minimum wage was passed on a city basis previously, but now New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will push for a $15 minimum wage for the entire state of New York.
Campaigns for a $15 minimum wage are also gaining ground in Oregon and California.
Glenn Beck just called Sarah Palin a “clown.” How bad do you have to be for Beck to think you are a clown?
The pronouncement by Beck follows a rally held in Washington D.C. that was supposedly going to bring a God-approved hammer down on the Iran nuclear deal.
YouTube link to the Palin speech that triggered Beck’s “clown” comment.
Rachel Maddow showed clips from the anti-Iran deal rally that was held yesterday. She highlighted rally speeches by Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachmann, Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty, and Sarah Palin. Rachel’s segment begins with a Mexican soccer ad that makes fun of Donald Trump. The video is about 16 minutes long, and all of it is excellent. “Amazing vocal performance” by Palin.
Here are some highlights from the anti-Iran-deal rally in Washington D.C. yesterday:
Link
The Oathkeepers, a recognized hate group of armed doofuses, has sworn to protect Kim Davis from rearrest. Some of the pronouncements from the Oathkeepers also sound like a threat to the judge that put her in jail in the first place.
http://oathkeepers.org/oktester/oath-keepers-offer-of-protection-for-embattled-clerk-kim-davis/
Here’s an excerpt from Palin’s speech at the anti-Iran-deal rally:
At the anti-Iran-deal rally, Trump used R.E.M’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” song as his walking-to-the-microphone soundtrack.
R.E.M. was not pleased. Michael Stipe said:
Bassist Mike Mills said:
And here is the official R.E.M. statement from their Facebook page:
Oh, good, a Republican Senator has to decided to support Democratic Party legislation to fix the Voting Rights Act (a Supreme Court ruling recently hobbled the VRA — it needs to be restored).
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is that brave Republican.
More here.
Mike Huckabee is so confused! Well, he was always untrustworthy and somewhat confused, but his recent support of Kim Davis seems to have further unhinged him.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mike-huckabee-dred-scott-still-law
This sounds like good news to me. The state Supreme Court in Washington State has ruled that the charter schools there are not public schools, they are private schools. As private schools, they do not qualify for public money.
Charter schools are often used to sneak religion or Tea Party-ish politics into education, and/or to benefit the children of more well-to-do parents at the expense of children from lower-income households. In many states there is also a problem with oversight/regulation, with charter schools being subject to less regulation than traditional public schools.
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/10/washington_charters_partner/
Campaign finance laws in the USA are a shambles. The laws are so ridiculous, so toothless, that, as everyone knows, various billionaires and corporations are effectively buying politicians.
Nevertheless, Carly Fiorina apparently finds even those toothless laws too restrictive, so she has been avoiding the laws, and mocking them. Consider the name of her super PAC: CARLY for America:
Salon link
Carly Fiorina also thumbs her nose at the FEC at pretty much every campaign event. The CARLY PAC people show up to do all of the work.
National Journal link
The law says that super PACs may not coordinate with the campaign staff of candidates, nor with the candidate himself/herself. Obviously, these people are coordinating.
being a Spingsteeniac, this is reminiscent of W using the Boss Born in the USA, as his campaign jingle. Bruce was most displeased about that. ‘The title line of that song is so often taken out of context. (*shaking head*) Listen to the whole song for a change’. [that was a paraphrase of the Boss response to W misusing the song as representative of W iconic patriotism.]
Summarizing Boss response, ‘that song don’t mean what you think it means’.
*ahem*
This issue of popular songs being absconded for political campaigns seems endemic. As if it was written in the rule book: “political campaign requires popular songs to act as attention seeker”. okay to start like that but then it seems they’ve (all) continued it into: “and then baffle them with bullshit”
Lynna:
This isn’t a moment of political madness, but it does relate to politics in the US. I hope it’s ok by you-
Bargaining for the American Dream: What unions do for mobility:
Tony @71, thank you for posting that. The fact that upward economic mobility correlates with higher union membership is important.
That study is yet another reason to distrust the anti-union fervor of politicians like Scott Walker.
Karl no-self-awareness-whatsoever Rove used a personal email account when he worked for the Bush/Cheney administration. More importantly, Rove was the center of an investigation about emails missing from his personal account. Five million emails were missing in total, and most of those were from personal accounts used by 22 White House staffers, most notably Karl Rove. Rove used personal email for 95% of his email correspondence.
The emails that went missing were related to the scandal over partisan firing of eight U.S. Attorneys.
What is Rove doing now? He is making a big, noisy stink about Hillary Clinton’s use of email.
Rightwing doofuses are now calling the Iran nuclear deal “ObamaNuke,” or “Atomic Obamacare,” which is kind of catchy, but really stupid. National Review link.
The complaint has no foundation since Obamacare is working well, thank you.
The rightwing is comparing an international agreement to an issue confined within the borders of the U.S.
There is common ground in both instances: Republicans respond illogically to both issues, and their hatred (voiced loudly for a long time) feeds a need for rage while simultaneously sifting out all the facts and throwing them away. We don’t need no stinkin’ facts.
Common Core is Obamacare for K-12 public education.
Environmental protections related to carbon pollution are Obamacare for energy markets.
Financial regulations are Obamacare for banks.
Hillary Clinton’s plan to make college more affordable is Obamacare for higher education.
Jeb Bush put out a trickle-down economic plan that he himself describes as time “to let the big dog eat.” WTF?
Bush’s PR flacks have succeeded in casting this plan as a “populist” revision of the tax code. It is not, most decidedly not. I am reminded of PZ’s recent thread “Has the media no shame?” Apparently, most of the media, including NPR and the NY Times, have no shame.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/how-jeb-bushs-tax-cuts-suckered-the-media.html
A more fact-based analysis would note that the Bush plan benefits the über wealthy, and that there is no way to pay for this redistribution of wealth for the 1%.
Jeb lightly rebukes Wall Street with a baby jab at hedge fund managers, then he proposes new tax breaks for rich folks, and for corporation. There’s also a thin veil of tax reforms for middle- to low-income workers, but the balance is way off. Way off! Most of the make-the-rich-richer plan takes money from low- to middle-income people in order to funnel it to the top predators.
“A new analysis by the business-backed Tax Foundation shows that the biggest percentage increases in after-tax income under Mr. Bush’s tax plan would go to the top 1% of earners, people making more than about $406,000.” — Wall Street Journal
Jeb’s platform, as a single soundbite, sounds good, “Make government smaller”. The issue he refuses to explain is the specifics. Details.
EG many agree that DOD is too big, and spending for weapons to only be used as deterrents is somewhat wasteful, being a form of corporate welfare, to fund the industries producing those weapons [NRA?] and support equipment for maintenance, etc.
To even suggest reducing the military budget would produce too much pearl clutchin and gasps of fright, to even consider. So many have proposed meeting the “reduce govmint size” req. with “eliminate health service and edumacation”, which are only LongTermInvestments instead of the DOD’s which is simple costs for .
Jeb is playing the “long con” of saying what people want to hear, where the listeners infer differently than what Jeb actually meant by his phraseology. IMO
Poll finds almost a third of Americans would support a military coup. It must be pointed out this is a online self-selecting “survey” and hence prone to numerous biases. It was not, to the best of my knowledge, “Pharyngulaed”, which is perhaps unfortunate:
The YouGov survey showed 29% of Americans could imagine supporting a coup. Yet, 41% said they could not imagine supporting such an event.
[…]
YouGov, which conducts internet polls about “politics, public affairs, products, brands and other topics of general interest”, surveyed 1,000 people online on the issue.
They found that 43% of Republicans would support a military coup in certain instances, while only 20% of Democrats and 29% of independents would.
[…]
Abraham Wyner, director of the undergraduate program in statistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said that online polls were “worse than just about any other way you can put together a poll” because they were prone to selection bias, meaning proper randomization was not achieved and the sample was not representative of the population — since people can choose to participate.
Possibly the best comment so far: “Dwight Eisenhower warned us about this coup as he left office 65 years ago. Many today would suggest the coup succeeded as planned, and U.S. wars are now for-profit, branded, logoed, and sold on the stock market.”
(And of course,
Previewisn’t working…)The bulk of me@77 is obviously a
<borkquote>…Rick Perry suspended his campaign for the presidency because God told him to do so:
Link
blf, preview is working for me.
Regarding a military coup in the USA, that’s the wet dream of Oath Keepers and other armed far rightwing groups. And, as we’ve seen, domestic terrorism is more of a threat than terrorism from outside our borders. NY Times link
Legislators in Oklahoma still want to erect a six-foot-high Ten Commandments monument at the state capitol, despite the fact that the state’s Supreme Court ruled against them 7-2, noting that state government must be neutral when it comes to religion.
So the doofus-headed Attorney General Scott Pruitt (a Republican, of course), fights on:
Tulsa World link
Pruitt is saying that to remain neutral equals hostility , specifically, hostility toward Christians. My bet is that won’t fly with the court either.
Religious liberty in Sterling Heights, Michigan means NO! to a proposed mosque. Let’s see the rightwing whackos defend the mosque plans in the name of religious freedom. Not going to happen. Detroit Free Press link
More “religious freedom” nonsense from the rightwing, this time in West Virginia. A parent sued the local board of education, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Institutes of Health “alleging that the his religious freedom rights had somehow been violated because his child learns about evolution in public school.”
The N.I.H., really?
Americans United for Separation of Church and State link.
The local parent didn’t get far. A federal court decided, yet again, that teaching evolution in public schools does not violate the First Amendment.
From the doofuses complaint to the court:
[head meet desk]
Yet another clue that the Republicans should give up on the issue of Hillary Clinton’s emails:
When good news associated with Obamacare is confirmed, rightwing media does not cover it. When good news confirming Clinton’s right to delete her personal emails is confirmed, the rightwing media does not cover it.
Buzz Feed link
Ben Carson couldn’t find evidence of “overwhelming science that the things that are going on are man-caused and not naturally caused” when it comes to climate change.
Governor Jerry Brown of California decided to help Ben Carson out. He sent Carson overwhelming evidence.
Link
You can lead Ben Carson to evidence, but you can’t make him read it.
When your news source is arrested for promoting terrorism, perhaps you should question the methods you are using to vet your news sources. Maybe? Breitbart, get a clue.
The guy who started a sort of troll war aimed at Shaun King, Joshua Goldberg, is also a news source for Breitbart.
The Daily Beast link
Rightwing whackos are trying to nurture another terrorist attack within U.S. borders. What the fuck for? To push for war, and for more anti-muslim, anti-immigrant sentiment. This is worse than flooding the media with deceptively-edited videos. Glad the guy was arrested.
Jimmy Fallon did his Donald Trump impression to interview Trump.
Link. Scroll down for video.
Republicans failed to stop the Iran nuclear deal, so they need some more red meat to chew on. How about President’s Obama’s plans to push for an international agreement to combat human contributions to climate change? Yeah, that’ll do.
Think Progress link
Writing for Think Progress, Joe Romm characterized the rightwing approach as ” nakedly immoral and self-destructive greed.” That’s about right.
Just like they did with the Iran nuclear deal, Republican leaders are contacting leaders in other nations directly to ask those leaders to oppose President Obama’s plan. One of McConnell’s aides informed “foreign embassies about GOP plans to oppose Obama’s strategy on global warming.”
Also, fuck that bit about “cementing his environmental legacy.” President Obama has a greater concern, addressing global warming. The opposition is the group that thinks in terms of preventing Obama from cementing his legacy. Tunnel Vision on the part of the GOP, those narrow-minded doofuses of very little brain.
Oh, FFS, Governor Haley. That “unethical practice at clinics affiliated with Planned Parenthood” has been debunked.
Nikki Haley, the Republican governor of South Carolina was just looking for an excuse to shut down some of the Planned Parenthood clinics in her state. Her excuse is bogus, but that’s not a problem apparently.
Haley said, “Over the past weeks, I have been shocked by recent accounts of unethical practices at clinics affiliated with Planned Parenthood, particularly those regarding the sale of human fetal tissue.”
Haley pushed the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to suspend the licenses of two clinics yesterday. There are only 3 clinics in the entire state that provide abortion services.
The suspensions are politically motivated. Last year the health department found one of the clinics to be 100% compliant with the law. Now, suddenly it isn’t compliant?
Inspection tactics, including noting if an abortion is performed sooner than 60 minutes after an ultrasound, are being used to suspend the licenses of clinics.
The Post and Courier link
As he exited the presidential race, Rick Perry took the opportunity to say what he really thought of Donald Trump:
More religious right-wingers have decided to make maximum use of the press coverage that will accompany the return of Kim Davis to work on Monday. Count Ray Comfort in.
Ray Comfort says he’ll be in Kentucky to promote “Audacity,” which is an anti-gay film. If you join Comfort there, he’ll give you a book, a t-shirt or a copy of his movie. Comfort has also paid for the services of a plane to fly a banner overhead.
Comfort is not pleased that mainstream media has not covered his film. How is he supposed to get out the word that God is going to hold gays “morally accountable,” that God is going to send them to Hell, and so forth?
Vimeo link to interview with Ray Comfort on Bryan Fischer’s rightwing show.
Rush Limbaugh loves Donald Trump. For the infamous kiss-on-the-lips photo, see this article.
A good sign of the times: despite fawning over Trump daily during his radio show, Limbaugh is, once again, losing sponsors. He is even losing more radio station outlets. The turn against Limbaugh began in 2012 and it continues to this day. He still has millions of listeners, but his audience is steadily dwindling. And his BFF Trump will not save him. Details at the link above.
You can hasten Limbaugh’s demise. There’s a petition and a list of sponsors to whom you can complain.
Rush is still on the air spewing his hate speech thanks, in part, to Tea Party and Koch Brothers donations. The FCC should shut that shit down. If someone pays you to spew their propaganda, you are supposed to reveal that fact on the air. Rush doesn’t do that. Link
Here’s a handy link to a few dozen examples of Limbaugh’s most egregious hate speech. Limbaugh tries to trump Trump when it comes to undocumented immigrants, calling them an “invasive species,” “mollusks,” and “lazy spermatozoa.” That last one is really weird, but then so is Rush’s brain.
Sales of freeze dried food have increased by more than 500% in Utah. Mormons (and many other sects, including evangelical christians) are responding to a plethora of doomsday predictions that cite September as the month in which we’ll see a worldwide financial collapse, and/or armageddon in various flavors.
And, of course, the doom mongers are making use of “blood moon” superstitions, near-death experiences, visions and whatever.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2935776-155/some-mormons-stocking-up-amid-fears
Some commenters have noted that God would not interrupt Football Season, so they’re not that worried … yet.
Also from the comments:
Hum… September this year. Disasters so far:
● Mr Corbyn is now the head of the British Labour Party (only a disaster to the B.Liar-ite kooks and crooks who used to run the show).
● Crane collapses in Mecca, killing numerous people. Definitely a disaster. (Except, I suppose, to the people nutters worried about something magical, since the “wrong” sort of people were killed, and it fell at(? on?) the Grand Mosque.)
● Restaurant blown up in India, many killed. Another definite disaster, and worse, deliberate.
● Severe fires and extremely severe drought in California. Absolutely a disaster. (Except they have Teh Gay there, so it’s all right…)
● For that matter, Teh Gay. Not a disaster, and not specific to this month or year, but who care when you and your sky faeries are making shite up?
● Typhoon in Japan, large sandstorms in Middle East, and the trum-prat is still lying. All to be expected, albeit I believe the sandstorms are larger than typical (well, the trum-prat’s hot air has to go somewhere…).
● Thugs fail to stop the agreement between Iran and the Group of Six. Not a disaster, except in the minds of some nutters in the Israeli “government” and their USAnnihilate!annihilate!annihilate! sycophants.
Other disasters, real, imagined, and not. Yep, world’s gonna end. Better stock up on freeze-dried jello.
This is a followup to comment 91. Here’s some of what Rush Limbaugh said on Friday, September 11:
And from the “I didn’t do it, says Thug, it’s all Obama/Clinton/____(insert bogeyperson of choice)___‘s fault” authorization excuse department, Chris Christie: ‘Stop blathering’ about Bridgegate and focus on Hillary Clinton:
Eh?: “stop reading the newspapers“! A nice, clear, mostly unambiguous example of the contempt of thugs for reportage. Just do what we say, only read what we provide (if we even bother to educate you chattel slaves), and all will be as we want it. And shut up.
Legislators in California sent a bill to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature. The bill would allow doctors in that state to prescribe life-ending drugs to Californians that request them.
In other news, The New York Times has become, in some people’s opinion, a propaganda machine with the aim of taking a hatchet to Hillary Clinton. Media Matters link that presents an interview that Chris Hayes hosted with David Brock. Brock does bring up a lot of good points. The video is about 6 minutes long and is worth watching.
There is a pattern of running inaccurate stories, and of relying on rightwing sources that provide the newspaper with skewed or false information.
blf @93, the “freeze dried jello” made me laugh. If you make it, mormons will buy it. A business opportunity!
blf @95, I saw that interview with Christie. He is certainly desperate to throw “Bridgegate” off a bridge. He’s fed up. But really, at least bridgegate is a real scandal instead of a fake one. I almost choked on my coffee when Christie suggested that we stop reading newspapers. And that pivot to harassing Hillary Clinton about her emails (which is mostly a fake scandal by the way), that pivot was so fast it made my head spin. (Donald Trump should be jealous.)
Chris Christie doesn’t believe in segues. He’s also operating in “look over there!” mode all the time in order to distract everyone from the terrible job he has done, is doing, as governor of New Jersey.
Lynn@97, There’s a long history of people blaming The New York Times, The Grauniad, Le Monde, and other similar important and widely respected newspapers in the world, for reporting — or not-reporting — what they do / don’t like or agree with. The “Israel is always right” nutters (who are very reminiscent of S.African apartheid supporters) are constantly going after The Grauniad — you can, e.g., find numerous Grauniad-hating-sites on the web with a distinct pro-Israel flavour — simply for The Grauniad either pointing out cases where Israeli actions or claims are dubious or wrong, or for being not-always-hostile to Palenstine / Arabs / etc., or for publishing opinion pieces written by people who are indeed sometimes anti-Israel or antisemitic.
It is possible The New York Times is more susceptible or prone to relying on dubious sources then The Grauniad: NYT is very much a for-profit company. So is The Grauniad except they are owned by The Scott Trust, whose central objective is “To secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity: as a quality national newspaper without party affiliation; remaining faithful to its liberal tradition; as a profit-seeking enterprise managed in an efficient and cost-effective manner.” The Scott Trust does not pay dividends and has been designed in such a way no single individual or organisation can take control.
I believe — albeit I may be mistaken — The New York Times is far more susceptible to outside influences. I have no idea about Le Monde, except, as I recall, it is one of the very few papers (The Irish Times being another) which is also owned by a Trust, albeit probably not as robust as the Scott Trust.
So far, Trump’s claim that he will win, or is winning, the Latino vote is handily debunked by the latest polls showing that Latino voters prefer Hillary Clinton (69% to 22%), a three to one margin.
Scott Walker has decided that the way to increase his poll numbers is to go after labor unions even more viciously than he has done in the past. Can’t Wait for this one to backfire on him.
Sheesh. Apparently Walker doesn’t like the National Relations Labor Act that was signed by President Roosevelt in 1935.
The fact that Planned Parenthood did not break any laws seems to be a fact that has finally made it through the anti-fact force field surrounding some Republicans. To counter this, they have decided to shut the P.P. organization down anyway. Facts be damned.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/253452-gop-defund-planned-parenthood-even-if-it-didnt-break-the-law
This will not surprise anyone who can breathe and walk at the same time, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric could lose Republicans the 2016 election:
blf @101, that was interesting.
What I take from that is that Trump’s anti-immigrant stance has not only lost him a lot of votes, it has also united Latinos from various countries. Trump’s schtick is a model for uniting Latinos against Republicans.
Marco Rubio’s history includes a stint as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rubio is now leveraging this slim mormon background to win votes in western states.
The fact that Rubio thinks having been a mormon is a good thing boggles the minds, but apparently mormons in Nevada are happy with Rubio’s courtship.
Yeah, mormons are influential. They hold a disproportionate number of local, county and state political positions. And I don’t think Rubio is being “subtle,” he’s obvious in his pandering.
Politico link
Beware mormon voting blocs. Eighty-eight% of them voted for Romney.
“Enrich” is not the word I would use. Mormons pollute local school boards, for example, and negatively affect public education. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is an example of how mormons negatively affect land management in the state.
Just like Oregon, California lawmakers approved a bill that automatically registers voters who get a driver’s license or a state identification card. Good move.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-california-legislature-live-updates-htmlstory.html?update=84410115
Here’s another rightwing prediction that did not prove true: when Colorado legalized marijuana, dire predictions of calamity were numerous, including a prediction that stoned drivers would make the highway fatality rates shoot up. Nope. Not true.
Highway fatalities are down, according to a Washington Post investigative report.
Bernie Sanders spoke at Liberty University today. The Bern is a brave man. Liberty University is a private, evangelical christian “university” in Virginia. It deserves the scare quotes.
Sanders quoted the bible and made an effort to find common ground with the students, but the audience was cool. They applauded questions that attacked Sanders for his support of a woman’s right to choose.
In one telling moment, Sanders pointed out that the Founding Fathers created a country that was based on racism. That must have hit Liberty U. students directly in their misconceptions about the Founding Fathers.
Yes, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis went back to work today. She hid out in her office with the blinds closed. The Deputy Clerk issued marriage licenses, including a license for a lesbian couple.
Davis gave a deluded, self-aggrandizing speech in which she claimed that licenses not approved by her were not valid. Her equally deluded lawyers said they will file a new lawsuit against Governor Steve Beshear. They claim they have a case because the governor failed to provide reasonable accommodation for Davis. I guess the accommodation would be: don’t obey the law, that’s fine; and don’t do your job, that’s fine.
Some members of Oath Keepers have suggested that the judge who put Kim Davis in jail should be arrested. (See comment 63.) They are not alone. The head of Gun Owners of America, Larry Pratt, also called for the arrest of Judge David Bunning.
Right Wing Watch link
Here are some excerpts from Kim Davis’s deluded back-to-work speech:
Salon link
Mississippi is the only state in the U.S. that still bans same-sex couples from adopting children, and even from fostering children. That Mississippi law is unconstitutional according to the recent Supreme Court Obergefell decision, which banned discriminatory state legislation.
No problem, says Mississippi. We will defend our unconstitutional legislation. Heading this quixotic venture is Governor Phil Bryant and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. They will spend lots of taxpayer’s money. They will fail.
Lynna OM @109
Quoting Kim Davis:
What about your deputy clerks who are doing the right thing by not discriminating against the people you hate? Will you take action against them?
Wait, if Rubio used to be a Mormon, wouldn’t that make him an apostate and therefore less popular to the Mormon voting block?
microraptor @112, you may have underestimated the mormon skill of selective condemnation. They don’t condemn Marie Osmond for not wearing her sacred undergarments either. Fame, even Marco Rubio’s level of semi-fame, earns you a pass.
Technically, the worst thing a mormon can do is to accept and believe in the Book of Mormon and then reject it. Technically, Rubio is worse than an infidel. He’s headed for the Outer Darkness for sure
In the meantime, Rubio is saying nice things about mormons and they are desperate for that kind of semi-fake love. Maybe the mormons think they can bring him back into the fold.
For those of you who have been following the Jade Helm conspiracy, you will be relieved (or, I don’t know, disappointed?) that the military training exercise ends today. And, lo, President Obama did not use the military to take over Texas.
Link
Republicans in North Carolina are keeping it classy, as usual.
Representative Michael Speciale defended his post:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nc-lawmaker-facebook-meme
Stephen Colbert came up with a new slogan for Donald Trump. The segment does a good job of highlighting some of the more ridiculous claims Trump has made. Funny stuff.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/stephen-colbert-donald-trump-campaign-slogan
Scroll down for video.
The Club for Growth, a far rightwing organization that is to the right of Donald Trump, came up with an advertising campaign designed to take The Donald down. I doubt that it will work, but it is interesting that they are trying.
Link
The Club for Growth people say Trump asked to meet with them, which is probably right. Trump always tells stories like this as if the peons were coming to him as King and asking for money.
YouTube link to one of the ads characterizing Trump as a liberal.
YouTube link to another ad that highlights Trump’s support for “the government taking private property and giving it to corporations” (Supreme Court KELO decision, or their spin on that decision).
In the past, the Koch brothers have contributed to funding for The Club for Growth. It seems to still be a cog in the Koch machine, and also has billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer as a source of funds. It is a 501(c)4 organization. In 2013, they donated a lot of money to Ted Cruz.
Hillary Clinton outlined her plan to “end campus sexual assault.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/clinton-we-need-end-campus-sexual-assault
Hillary Clinton has some union support that may help her in the New Hampshire primary.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/253558-clinton-wins-key-nh-union-endorsements
Mike Huckabee said some really stupid stuff about the flood of refugees from war-torn countries. Huckabee was especially dismissive of refugees from Syria:
The people he inspires, and the company he keeps, continue to make Donald Trump look bad. I just wish more people noticed how bad.
Link
Other comments at the same rally included:
– Latinos should speak English
– “If it ain’t white, it ain’t right.”
– “Send the illegals back to where they came from.”
After a speech in Dallas, Trump supporters chanted “Blue lives matter.”
We know, Mike. It comes naturally to you.
President Obama commented on the rash of anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from rightwing candidates:
The fact that he called them “un-American” has a lot of right-wingers red with rage. Let them splutter and spit.
Scott Walker is dropping in the polls. Even his rabid anti-union statements don’t seem to have helped him, nor did the fact that he rode a motorcycle around New Hampshire.
His emphasis now is to explain why he is suing the federal government over the fact that the feds won’t let him drug test food stamp applicants in Wisconsin. I hope this does not give him a boost in the polls.
Translation, let them go hungry if they test positive for drugs. It will do them good to be hungry.
For a long time they’ve used words like “liberal” and “progressive” as if they were insults. They got mileage out of that for a good while. So it’s surprising to me to see how desperate they’ve come in their derangement. With policy so far out of line with what people want, they have to paint themselves as endorsing progressive policies because of their worries of being seen as unelectable extreme?
That’s just …
…wow.
This is a followup to comment 92, a comment about the 500% increase in sales of dried food (armageddon supplies) in states dominated by religious fundamentalists of all stripes. Some politicians are stoking the fear fires, as are many religious whackos.
And, oh dear, it looks like atheists are going to have competition when it comes to eating babies.
Right Wing Watch link
Glenn Beck has a plan to relocate a lot of refugees from Syria. You may have heard of this plan, which sounds like a fundraising scam, The Nazarene Fund.
Did you know that Beck plans to save only Christians?
Beck plans to relocate 2000 christian refugees, which is more than the number of Jews saved by Oskar Schindler during WWII, as Beck constantly repeats in a Trump-ish “I’m the biggest and the best” manner.
He is not going to bother with Muslim refugees, because, as he says, he can’t tell “which is the good Muslim and which is the bad Muslim.” He goes on to explain his christians-only plan:
Link
I hope someone is tracking the money that comes into The Nazarene Fund so we’ll know when Glenn Beck uses some it to support his rich man’s lifestyle.
Elizabeth Warren is making a great deal of sense … again. This time she is taking on a common practice of employers in the USA, the practice of checking the credit score of a potential employee.
http://time.com/money/4034052/stop-employer-credit-checks/
Crip Dyke @124, the rightwing love of redefining words to mean the opposite of their dictionary meaning bothers me too. But, as you rightly point out, it is also a sign of desperation on their part.
Rightwing politicians have often named legislation or organizations they support as if they actually understood sarcasm and irony. They don’t. Examples:
“Right to Work” laws
“Paycheck Protection”
“Patriot Act”
“Defense of Marriage Act”
“Religious Freedom Act”
“Americans for Tax Reform”
“American Legislative Exchange Council”
“National Organization for Marriage”
etc.
It’s like Mike Huckabee saying he is not being trite when he is being trite.
Donald Trump says he cherishes women.
Scott Walker labeling his retrograde, screw-the-poor policies as “progressive.”
A PAC supporting Kanye West’s 2020 campaign for president produced some campaign ads.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kanye-west-super-pac-yeezy-2020
Meanwhile, I listened to Donald Trump’s speech that he gave in Dallas. He criticized the Iran nuclear deal as the worst contract ever, but he provided only debunked and false reasons for the deal’s supposed badness (like the claim that IAEA inspectors have to wait 24 days before inspecting operating nuclear facilities; and like the claim that the Iranians are inspecting themselves).
The reason this bad deal came about was, in The Donald’s mind, because John Kerry broke his leg while riding a bicycle during the time the negotiations were in full swing. This made Kerry a ridiculous figure, and Iranian negotiators made fun of Kerry and did not respect him. Trump promised never to ride a bicycle if he is elected president.
There was a lot more (more than an hour’s worth of drivel), but I just can’t bring myself to summarize it. Basically it was all of the “Kerry rode a bicycle” low quality of discourse.
Kanye West would be an improvement.
More from the category “the company he keeps.” Donald Trump appeared on stage with Robert Jeffress, and Trump praised the hate monger.
Media Matters link
Yes, Jeffress sounds like an ideal Trump supporter.
What Justice Scalia wrote in 1990 when the Employment Division v. Smith case was being decided:
Yes, Justice Scalia, you were right then. That sort of thing just doesn’t wash when one is trying to run a country.
But now we have Kim Davis and her ilk. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed by Congress, an act in which the concept of “accommodation” for religious principles was enshrined in law. Then, in 2014, the Supreme Court, including Scalia, lost its mind and approved accommodation for a corporation, Hobby Lobby.
In fairness, we must remember that four of the Supreme Court justices did not lose their minds. They wrote dissenting opinions.
Kim Davis and her lawyers are simply pushing the door of “accommodation” open wider. Davis wants to be able to choose, on an individual basis, which parts of being a citizen of the USA suit her, and which parts she will discard or disregard.
Ayn Rand worship is still going strong in the Republican Party. And it’s the most rabid of the rightwing doofuses that express their love for Ayn Rand.
“Ayn Rand, one of my all-time heroes.” — Ted Cruz
“I’m a big fan of Ayn Rand, and I’ve read all of her novels.” — Rand Paul
“We really have developed this culture of entitlement and dependency. That is not what America is all about. I mean, America — and that’s of course what ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is all about — it is about individuals aspiring to build things to make their life — and, as a result, the world — a better place. If we shift to a culture where people are saying, ‘I’m happy to sit back and let the government provide me with things,’ that becomes a dangerous point and time for this country.” — Senator Ron Johnson (Wisconsin)
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/navy-vessels-as-political-props–a-history-526286403955
The link above is for a Rachel Maddow segment covering the recent history of foreign policy or national security speeches (including Biden’s charming use of “malarky”). It includes Trump’s nonsense-filled speech staged on a decommissioned battleship, the USS Iowa.
Trump’s speech was billed as a “major national security speech,” but the exceptionally short (for Trump) speech was mostly Trump talking about Trump, with thirty seconds of national security thrown in … if you can call this part of a national security policy statement:
Trump’s speech was, supposedly, a fundraiser for a veteran’s group. The group that sponsored the speech is not a group. It is one guy, a rightwing doofus, who scams money from people who think they are donating to a veteran’s group. Here is Rachel Maddow’s coverage of the “veteran’s group,” Veterans for a Strong America, that apparently consists of one person.
That Maddow segment covers the history of Veterans for a Strong America kissing Trump’s ass by posting defenses of Trump online, including this:
One guy is running that ass-kissing show, and that one guy reports to the IRS that Veterans for a Strong America has $30 in its bank account. Presumably, he has more money now since The Donald gave a big speech for him.
A guy named Joel from South Dakota runs the fake vet’s group. Trump gave a fake national security speech for Joel. People paid up to $1000 for a ticket to see Trump on a battleship. Trump claimed that Joel’s group has “hundreds of thousands of members.” Nope. It was all made up.
“Assumptions and fear don’t keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building.”
That quote is from Hillary Clinton’s twitter feed.
KA-POW! WHAAAAP! BANG! This is great, Donald Trump’s critics hit back by ordering piñatas of GOP frontrunner:
There are very few comments at the moment, but the first is great: “When the Trump piñata splits open, what falls out? Money? Candy? Or, is it empty, like his ideas?”
More detail on Veterans for a Strong American, and the guy who heads it (the guy who may be the only member), Joel Arends. Link
According to OpenSecrets.org, Veterans for a Strong America has $30 in cash on hand, and $318 in debts.
Trump’s take on this is delusional:
More condemnation of this event, from a real veteran’s organization:
In addition to this on-point condemnation, we can suss out the Veterans for a Strong America unethical approach by looking at some of their past activity.
The organization produced anti-Obama ads centered around the killing of Osama Bin Laden, during which Arends claimed to speak for Navy Seals.
I love that almost all the replies to this Huckabee tweet are negative. Put a smile on my face.
blf @136, they should use those piñatas as stage decoration for tonight’s debate.
In other news, extremist Republicans in the House of Congress are moving forward with their plans to shut down the federal government if the new budget fails to defund Planned Parenthood.
The quote above is from Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), and he has plenty of friends who back him up. The destructive act is being planned in concert with Republicans in the Senate, including Ted Cruz.
House leadership (John Boehner) and Senate leadership (Mitch McConnell) do not want to go along. But it looks like extremists in their ranks will force the issue.
This probably doesn’t need to be repeated, but just in case:
– Planned Parenthood is not racist
– PP does not “convince mothers to kill their children”
– PP does not sell baby parts to the highest bidder
All of that crap has been debunked multiple times.
The timeline we’re looking at here is two weeks. Without a new budget, the federal government will shut down in two weeks. Of those two weeks, Congress critters are taking one of them off — they won’t be working.
This is a followup to comment 139.
At least one Republican has had enough of this shutdown-the-government threat. Let’s hope others follow Tom McClintock’s lead.
Make no mistake, McClintock is still a hard-right culture warrior. He’s mostly complaining about the fact that circus sideshows like the shutdown threat make it harder to pass conservative legislation. Still, there’s a ray of hope when one member of the House Freedom Caucus sees the the ridiculous nature of the defund-Planned-Parenthood movement.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcclintock-house-freedom-caucus
I’m going to have to agree with Donald Trump on this one: the three, 3!, hours that CNN has allotted for the Republican debate tonight is too long.
“We know that ISIS wants to infiltrate its people through refugees.”
That’s Republican dunderhead, Peter King, a congressional representative from New York, speaking.
His “ISIS embedded in refugees” argument is being repeated by Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, by Rush Limbaugh, and other rightwing guys who are reality-phobic.
Here’s a counter-argument based on facts:
Think Progress link
Sometimes the Pope has a good effect — lots of bad effects, yes, but sometimes a positive effect. The Pope’s views on climate change have positively affected some rightwing members of Congress.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/16/3702014/republicans-thaw-on-climate-change/
So a Portland artist has taken a swing at Trump over his “blood coming out of her wherever” comment: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/15/period-blood-donald-trump/72339462/
Oh, forgot to say, as the link suggests, the artist used her menstrual blood to paint a picture, so some people may not wish to click the link.
Cross posted from the “I did not watch the Republican debate” thread that PZ posted.
Marco Rubio on gun laws:
Rubio went on to connect gun violence to marriage equality and to President Obama’s “left-wing government.” Category of worst-segue-ever.
Rubio was anti-factual when it came to purported violence from North Korea:
The “dozens” part of that is wrong, and it is unlikely that North Korea has what it needs to deliver a nuclear weapon long distance — to California for example. It’s true that N.K. is a huge problem and a nuclear threat, but exaggerating the problem doesn’t help to solve it.
Rubio also claimed that “we have a president that is more respectful to the ayatollah in Iran than he is to the prime minister of Israel.” Not true, not ever true. Not true in the past, not true now.
Bloomberg posted a three-minute version of the debate.
Link
Jimmy Fallon does a great Trump impression.
Here’s his interview, as Trump, of Hillary Clinton. Link
“I’ve known a lot of women and they all have issues.”
This is a follow up to 134 and 137.
Rachel Maddow dug deeper into the fake veterans group for which Donald Trump gave a fake national security/foreign policy speech. That was the speech on the decommissioned battleship.
Trump’s campaign personnel billed the speech as a major foreign policy address. There was no foreign policy in the speech. And, more fakery, the Veterans for a Strong America scam is worse than previously noted.
Fiasco that should be covered more widely.
Carly Fiorina said that she wants to rebuild the Sixth Fleet, in part to handle Putin. Ezra Klein addressed Fiorina’s blatant bullshit (“blizzard of bull” as journalist Laura Clawson called it):
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9342761/carly-fiorina-debate
Stephen Colbert made fun of all of the Republican debaters trying to “get their Ronnie on” in the Reagan library. Talking Points Memo link. Scroll down for video.
re @151
in ref to Late Show with Colbert, the Raygun “Bear scare” was nostalgic. That it actually presented two fair views of bears. “Is there a bear? is it calm, or ravenous? Let’s be strong.” with a man standing in front of a bear, on a mountain ridge somewhere. Was refreshingly different than today’s fearmongering ads.
The Rubio, derivative, “scorpion ad”, was a much more offensive. Pretty clear what it meant to imply.
“There is scorpion in the desert, with a poisonous sting.” yet the final shot is the scorpion confronting a boot that doesn’t move against it. The expected sight is for the foot to stomp the scorpion threat, yet it remains immobile, while the scorpion backs away.
Colbert pointed out that the ad asked more questions than answered (which desert, what does scorpion represent, etc, who does boot represent, why did the boot let the scorpion retreat?, etc) I suppose that was the point of the ad, to get the viewers imaginations riled up with fear, looking for relief, when pops up over the Scorpion, “Rubio knows.”
It would be nice to be able to reply to such an ad with a simple, “yeah, a scorpion is in the _desert_, leave it there, We don;t need to go there, it’s a _desert_!!!!”
Colbert’s satire of the ad, goin all arachnophic, somewhat missed the mark. Not his best, but adequate.
Cross posted from the “I did not watch the Republican debate” thread that PZ posted.
The Republican candidates plan to revamp the Supreme Court to fit their ultra conservative view of the USA. IF one of them is elected president. Very scary. They do not think, for instance that John Roberts is conservative enough. But it was Roberts that provided the fifth vote in some crucial decisions:
– gutting the Voting Rights Act
– removing most of the limits on money in politics (Citizens United)
– giving religious liberty rights to corporations (Hobby Lobby)
– upholding late-term abortion bans
– taking the teeth out of anti-discrimination laws
Holy crap! Republicans think they need a Justice who is more conservative than Roberts? Ted Cruz said:
And here is Mike Huckabee’s litmus test for people he would appoint to the Supreme Court:
Jeb Bush also made noises about Justice Roberts not being conservative enough.
This is related to @143, Republicans to break rank with party leaders in call for climate change action:
I haven’t read the following (I need to leave soon-ish), but apparently, and perhaps surprising only for the claimed reason, Pope Francis faces challenge persuading US’s Catholic leaders on climate change: “Campaigners say challenge lies in diverting church leaders from preoccupation with gay marriage in order to take up public cause the pope is seeking to ignite”. Really!? These eejits are worried about SSM? Geeesh! Another preoccupation would be avoiding trial or paying restitution over mass child rape.
Cross-posted from the “I did not watch the Republican debate” thread.
Amy Davidson, writing in The New Yorker, called the debate “crowded, bloated, sour, and long.”
Yes. And the moderators made it longer and more ridiculous by asking questions like the one about code names; and by asking questions that amounted to “so-and-so said this about you, what sort of nasty thing do you want to say back?” The moderators were often as bad as the candidates.
It’s as if they all wanted to produce an entertaining reality show, Real Candidates of the Republican Party. The only thing missing was liquor. (Though I’m sure the at-home audience was drinking as a survival tactic.)
Here’s an excerpt from Amy Davidson’s article (link in comment 155):
I think it was right after that that Chris Christie tried to prove that New Jersey is a planet.
This is a followup to comments 1, 4, 139, and 140.
Republicans, some of them anyway, are threatening to shut down the government … again. This threat is related to the fact that the most far right of Republican Senators and Republicans have completely bought into the bogus, deceptive videos released about Planned Parenthood.
Ted Cruz said:
Steve Benen of The Maddow Blog put together a list of the more recent shutdowns and threats of shutdowns:
Republican presidential candidates who have expressed some support for this ridiculous brinksmanship, this latest shutdown threat, are:
Ted Cruz
Carly Fiorina
Chris Christie
Ben Carson
No wonder some people think Donald Trump might be an improvement. (He wouldn’t be, but you can understand some of the frustration that fuels part of his appeal.)
Carly Fiorina is not backing down from the lie she told about Planned Parenthood.
Link
Hmmm. Here’s an interesting twist to the story of attempts to close Planned Parenthood clinics in Utah. The state’s governor, Gary Herbert, is, of course, a mormon, and he has ordered state agencies to stop distributing federal funds to Planned Parenthood. An excommunicated (former mormon) woman, Kate Kelly, is helping to fight Herbert. In Utah, this means she is not only fighting the governor of a conservative state, but she is fighting the LDS church.
Yeah, it’s those damned, deceptive videos again.
Salt Lake Tribune link
In what looks like a replay of Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare (they voted more than 40 times to repeal it, all failures), Republicans are now voting repeatedly to disapprove the Iran nuclear deal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is now 0 for 3 on the resolution of disapproval.
The Hill link
Speaking of all those dozens of unsuccessful attempts to repeal Obamacare, did anyone else notice that Obamacare was not mentioned during the Republican debate?
Donald Trump held a town-hall event. It was his first public speech since the debate. He let an audience member get away with saying that President Obama is a Muslim, and that Obama was not born in the USA. The audience member also brought up the conspiracy theory that there are Muslim terrorist training camps inside the U.S.
Trump nodded along and offered, “We’re going to be looking into that.”
You have to see the video to believe it. Trump was cowardly.
Trump’s audience members might enjoy some of Sam Harris’s rhetoric.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-fails-correct-man-who-calls-obama-muslim
This is a followup to comment 162.
When asked by MSNBC to explain his response to the anti-muslim birther at the town-hall event, Trump said, “Christians need support in this country. Their religious liberty is at stake.”
WTF?
Trump’s campaign staff issued a statement: “To be clear, Mr. Trump’s response to the question regarding training camps in this country was we will look into it.”
As we’ve discussed before, 43% of Republicans believe the president is a secret Muslim. Trump supporters believe the lie in greater numbers.
Trump’s birther background may not bite him in the ass after all. The birther thing and the Muslim thing are equally nonsensical. BTW, I remember Trump’s promotion of the birther ideology, how bombastic he was. He sent investigators to Hawaii, and, he said, we would not believe what they found.
Rachel Maddow interviewed Bernie Sanders last night.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/sanders–government-under-conservative-attack-527751235782
The interview is in two parts, the link is to the first segment, which starts with video of Trump saying he’ll look into the issue of Muslim training camps. Trump goes on to answer a question about veterans, a question which included the assertion that CNN “is a Clinton network.” Bernie Sanders responded to the veterans question.
The Maddow interview went on to discuss more broadly the problems that ensue when Republicans want to privatize everything.
You can access the second segment of the interview at the same link.
Whoops. Regarding comment 164, that interview with Bernie Sanders is in three parts, not two. All of the segments are good, all are dense with real facts.
This is progress, slow and minuscule progress, but progress nonetheless.
Link
There are 247 Republican legislators in the House of Congress. Eleven of them are brave enough to make a vague gesture toward recognizing and dealing with global warming.
This is a followup to comments 162 and 163.
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell remembers interviewed Trump’s Iowa co-chair and Apprentice runner-up Tana Goertz last night. Here is an excerpt:
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/09/trump-iowa-co-chair-says-hell-reveal-what
Well this is amusing. Republican candidates and other rightwing leaders are on Mackinac Island for a conference. There will be, among other events, six more hours of speeches from presidential candidates. Maybe that’s why the staffers got into a bar fight.
John Patrick Yob (Rand Paul staffer) and Rich Beeson (Marco Rubio staffer) engaged in fisticuffs.
Detroit News link
Lynna@166, The Grauniad summarized the vague gesture (see @154) as “By any standards outside of those of Republicans in Congress — where a majority denies the human contribution to climate change, or opposes action on climate change — the resolution would be seen as exceedingly timid.”
This is a followup, sort of, to comment 168. Trump’s staffers will not be able to participate in the bar fights on Mackinac Island. Trump has withdrawn from the conference. That’s odd.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-heritage-presidential-forum
blf @169, “exceedingly timid” is an appropriate description. Leave it to the journalists who are Brits to get it right.
Here’s some exceedingly-batshit-whacko climate change news from the USA.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gene-koprowski-pope-francis-environment-paganism
(Cross-posted from the With a name like Ahmed Mohamed, what else would you expect? thread…)
First Dog on the Moon, published in The Grauniad, has a nice cartoon about [the] racist goons, Ahmed Mohamed: it’s a clock with a built-in racism detector: “I think we have all learnt an important lesson from this situation which is that ‘brown’ people with aspirations are dangerous”.
Oh no. Conservative politics have damaged the brain of a 13 year old boy in Georgia.
The kid posted a video calling President Obama “ignorant,” and “incompetent.” CJ Pearson is especially fired up about the Muslim kid that was invited to the White House.
Excerpt:
Depressing video available here.
blf @172: Ha! Laugh-worthy (in a pained, black comedy way). Great cartoon. Hits all the right notes.
A followup on the news about Trump’s failure to shut down anti-Muslim/birther comments from audience members in New Hampshire:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/09/18/3703000/fear-of-uptick-in-hate-crimes-following-donald-trump-supporters-get-rid-of-muslims-remark/
An extremely worrisome collision with reality, Donald Trump on vaccines: ‘It’s not helpful’, experts say:
Trump’s ridiculous response to his racist supporters
Is that the most vague and meaningless response given ever to anything?
Also, I hope more of his supporters spew their hideous bigoted lies on the national stage like this.
Congressman Paul Gosar (a Representative from Arizona) is planning to boycott Pope Francis’s address to a joint session of Congress tomorrow.
Link
Gosar is a dentist as well as a Congess critter. He likes to display his ignorance. He self-identified as a Tea Party candidate when he ran for office. He was endorsed by Sarah Palin, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others. Birds of a feather being ignorant together. Gosar lists his religion as Roman Catholic.
@173- it’s a problem, but honestly I wasn’t that different at that age (except it was Clinton in the Oval Office). Hazards of growing up in a Conservative household, but don’t write the kid off as a lost cause yet.
This is a followup to comments 134, 137 and 149.
To add to the ridiculousness of the supposed “major foreign policy address” Donald Trump delivered on a decommissioned battleship, the group for which he was raising funds had its non-profit status revoked by the IRS.
Associated Press link
The White House statement on the racist and stupid comments made by members of Trump’s town-hall event:
microraptor @178, I hope you are right and that the kid will grow out of his narrow-minded views.
In other news, as expected House Republicans voted today to block funding for Planned Parenthood.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/254181-house-votes-to-freeze-funding-for-planned-parenthood
This is a followup to comment 158.
Here’s a very thorough debunking of Carly Fiorina’s lie about the footage of an aborted fetus she claimed to have seen.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/carly-fiorina-abortoin-defense
Video available at the link.
Donald Trump’s campaign office issue a policy statement today on gun control. He wants to expand gun rights.
The short statement proposes nationwide concealed carry permits (the permits are presently issued on a state-by-state basis), and he wants to end bans on magazines that hold more ammunition.
Other points:
– no ban on carrying guns on military bases
– no ban on carrying guns in recruiting centers.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/second-amendment-rights
Glenn Beck thinks the Donald Trump campaign is a plot to discredit the Tea Party. The plot, Beck says, was hatched by Big Business.
Things are pretty bad when Glenn Beck has to come up with a conspiracy theory to dismiss Donald Trump.
Link
By the numbers:
– 61% of Trump’s supporters think Barack Obama is a Muslim
– 61% of Trump’s supporters think Barack Obama was not born in the USA
Looking at those numbers, I don’t think Trump will apologize for his recent failure to correct statements made by an audience member at his town-hall event. He is counting on those people to keep his poll numbers up.
Link
Hilary Clinton’s response to Donald Trump’s failure to correct the guy who claimed President Obama is a Muslim, is not a citizen of the USA, etc.:
This is good news.
Washington Post link
Playground atmosphere at Republican debate puts antics ahead of substance:
Excerpts from some of the comments:
● “Perhaps the problem with Republicans is that they long ago abandoned any attempt at leading the country anywhere besides backwards? They seem less like leaders than folks who look for hot button issues than leap in front of the parade of crazies that pursue such issues. […]”
● “Watching the republican debates yesterday was like going through the looking glass and finding a surreal world. It was truly a Mad Hatters Tea Party (pun intended). I know it’s been said a lot lately but these people are really scary. They came across as the Inquisition, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and Joseph Goebbels all at the same time. The world hasn’t heard such saber rattling since World War I. Their default position is always war, death, and destruction. Their only tactic is to instill fear and out-macho each other as though building another Great White Fleet will solve all our problems. I didn’t hear one iota of reasonableness or circumspection. […]”
● “This was total dross. Not one new platitude was uttered. We need to take our country back; this, the greatest country on earth — yes, we know and we’ve heard it over and over and over — there was not one proposal of a solution to anything […]”
● “Top Ten GOP Panderfest Recap: 1) War on Iran; 2) War on Planned Parenthood; 3) War on Women; 4) War on Hispanics; 5) War on Trump; 6) War on the Environment; 7) War on Intelligence; 8) War on Rational Thought; 9) War on Equality; 10) War on Sanity.”
● “In order to even be a GOP candidate one must embrace ignorance, be anti science, anti choice and pro war(with the possible exception of Rand Paul, who is looney on any other subject), especially be pro any war of aggression against countries that have no intention, or capability, to invade the US, meaning the rest of the world. The more know nothing, science hostile, xenophobic and warlike a candidate is, the better their chances. Even the two so called doctors in the race, are anti evolution, ‘young earth’ followers and climate change deniers. It’s the triumph of the dunces and a circus of grotesque clowns that shames every American with a double digit I.Q.”
The only good thing that can be said about the show was it didn’t set off The Big One. The sheer density assembled over an earthquake fault should have caused some massive deformations (of the Earth’s crust, as well as reality), triggering a really big quake. (On the other hand, there was that quake in Chile…)
When I lived in USmogAndmoarsmogistan, I drove an Audi. It was a good car, with the only problem being a wonky radio. So it pains me to say this, but I will never again do business with Audi and VW. This is inexcusible, Volkswagen under investigation over illegal software that masks pollution (the boldfacing is mine):
Let’s be clear here: VW(and Audi) were deliberately trying to pollute the planet. The maximum possible fine should be imposed — the full c.$18 billion — and as much as possible, other sanctions (prosecutions?) applied.
And back to bigots (at least she isn’t trying to kill everyone on the planet), Kentucky deputy clerk casts doubt on validity of Kim Davis’s marriage forms:
Donald Trump has responded via Twitter:
@ 191. Lynna, OM :
Hey Trump :
1) Every time? No. That time someone directly spews birther shit in front of you at a major political event? Well, yeah, that time you kinda seriously do.
2) I rather doubt that. Usually take peoples’ words for things but in your case here not so much. Oh is that kinda an implied admission of trolling in “RL” here?
3) Actually there is a chance I think. Because Obama isn’t as much of a scumbag as you are and probably would tell the truth in your defense if the occasion to do so ever arose although given his followers aren’t the sort that believe the sorta crap that yours do its less likely. But say an Obama fan said something utterly wrong about you, Trump, in front of Obama at a major political or media event, I do think Obama would correct them. Apart from anything else – like ethics – he’s got the sense to know how it looks to do otherwise.
4) Really? (Eyeroll.) Um, you *are* challenging “the man” (President actually) by running to replace him (& his party’s choice) as President and also all that birther shit you’ve spewed before.
I very much doubt that the media – which has really given you a pretty softball run – because that’d be obviously wrong and why would they? Nothing to do with Freezepeach actually and not exactly a no-win situation either. Hint : had you just said : “Well no. I do accept that Obama is a Christian and was born here and that stuff about him being born in Kenya was debunked” well, that’d be a win for you on the facts and might’ve gained you some respect and coverage and more. Y’know like what John McCain did in 2008 I think in similar circumstances. At the very least you wouldn’t look like the sort of douchebag loser who actually believes such utter rubbish so you lost when you could’ve won here. Okay, maybe not won that pitiful fools vote -or his like “minded” friends (although who else would they vote for?) but in so many other ways. Too bad, you’ve flubbed it. Again.
Cross-posted from the “Maybe I’m just too cynical” thread.
Interesting take on the Trump town-hall event — from The New Yorker.
Question: since Trump is now so pro-gun, is he planning to start allowing guns into his casinos and other property?
microraptor @194, My bet is that Trump will allow himself, and no one else, to carry a concealed weapon into his casinos and onto his golf courses.
In other news, city council members in Coolidge City, Arizona (“Kook Ridge”) have lost their minds again. They voted to think about allowing only Christian organizations to offer prayers before public meetings.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/09/16/coolidge-city-council-christian-prayer/32519297/
More city council news from a conservative community: God told a city councilman in Alabama to pass an ordinance banning “busting slack” in the town of Dadeville. No word or whether or not God used the phrase “busting slack” or the more traditional “baggy pants” or “saggy pants.”
Link
John Oliver made fun of and tested the IRS rules for non-profit, religious organizations. He got away with it, of course. But now he is shutting his church down.
http://www.ourladyofperpetualexemption.com
The doofuses supporting Kentucky clerk Kim Davis used the song “Eye of the Tiger” to usher her onstage when she was recently released from jail. Survivor’s Jim Peterik threatened action against the doofuses if they did not stop using his music.
Donald Trump used R.E.M’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” and was roundly dissed by band members: “Go fuck yourselves, the lot of you–you sad, attention grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”
Now its the Dropkick Murphys having a beef with a politician they don’t like. Presidential candidate Scott Walker was using the Boston-based punk band’s music, and they told him to stop. Back in January, the band told Walker, “we literally hate you,” after he walked onto the stage to one of their songs at the Iowa Freedom Summit.
The Dropkick Murphys then praised Martin O’Malley for using their music. “It’s nice to have a guy who stands up for working people using it !!!”
I see a pattern here.
I forgot to post this earlier, but on Rachel Maddow last night she had one piece stating that Bernie Sanders was apparently tied for first place (with Trump and IIRC Carson, though I’m not positive about that) in the New Hampshire Republican Primary polls right now.
re @199:
clarification please. your phrasing puts Sanders in the Republican primary. That, I find difficult to accept as other than mistake. I’m sure his generic primary polls, might rank him as high or higher than Trumpster and Carsock, overall. Yet, to call it (q)the New Hampshit Rethuglican Primary poll” seems a little too specific.
is that Maddow’s error or mine, misunderstanding your phraseology? sorry. too early, need more java juice.
Bernie Sanders is an Independent from Vermont. He has been an Independent for decades. He caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. He is a Democrat for the purposes of the presidential election, probably because there is not a big enough “Socialist” party in the USA.
The whacky poll that showed him winning the Republican primary in New Hampshire (or being tied with Donald Trump) was shown as just that, whacky, by Maddow. The title of the segment was “The News Gods Must Be Drunk Today.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/punch-in-the-face-starts-the-days-2016-news-528414275515
The Latino Victory Project is fighting the hatred and racism of the Republican Party by registering voters. One of their voter-registration videos uses the words of various Republican candidates very effectively. YouTube link
National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15. Good time to spread some good news about our Hispanic Heritage.
http://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/about/
From the adventures in legalland department of rabbit holes, Teen prosecuted as adult for having naked images — of himself — on phone:
Meanwhile, the leader of a large organized paedophile ring is about to visit USAbsurdtine on a diplomatic passport and, amongst other things, address (a joint? session of) congress. (I also assume the two teens’s lawyer(s) made a bundle rather than correcting a wrong.)
Having now insulted and alienated pretty much every Latino (see @101), the trum-prat is moving on to another marginalised group, Trump: I would have ‘just listened’ if supporter had opposed black people:
The trum-prat has probably just insulted people in Saudi Arabia and Germany, as there were connections between the hijackers and those countries. He doesn’t do diplomacy very well.
Within the comments is this question, which I really like, “If I was a journalist, I’d be asking what Trump’s response would be to an audience member talking about America’s Christian problem. You know, those who really do have militia training camps on American soil: A Christian militia in America’s midst“.
No-where near adequate (see @189), VW software scandal: chief apologises for breaking public trust:
One comment pretty much nails this inexcusable behaviour — which VW / Audi obviously already knew about as they admitted it essentially immediately — “Deliberately rigging software to fool smog testing shows malice of intent.” And, I would add, a complete disregard for the planet / environment and human (and other) life.
Another comment, “Fucking pathetic modern day apologies. Don’t say sorry for ‘breaking trust’, ‘causing upset’, or whatever. Say sorry for doing wrong.”
CEO of Morgan Stanley says a president needs more skills than a CEO needs for business.
http://isp.netscape.com/news/story/1001/20150920/2880
hate to say it, but I can, somewhat, see Trumprat’s point. (we do it here all the time, btw) When someone says something totally offensive, it’s usually advisable to simply listen. Maybe nod, saying “I’m listening” (with implication of, “…waiting for you to dig yourself deeper into that hole you’re digging”.)
What trumpster is trying to dash past is that his response was not just letting the dingbat dig himself deeper. Trumpy actually helped him, “yah, …that’s something we’re looking into…” He didn’t just silently listen. He did respond, and did not correct the wingnut from the long disproved myth of Obama being Muslim.
slithey tove, #207
Keep in mind this is the same Trump that insisted Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. because of his skin and “funny” name.
There’s no chance Trump was thinking what you’re saying. He agrees with the guy but was being political about it.
Also, “that’s something we’re looking into” is a code way of saying he agrees.
re 203:
It is reasonable to be suspicious of the piccy, as being stored for distribution. Regardless of the person, the fact it was nude of an adolescent and stored on a distribution device (cell phone), make me somewhat suspicious of his motivation.
agree the charge is ridiculous and the rationalizations, not fair.
blf @24, second half: I saw the way that Trump repeatedly skipped around answering that question on the ABC News show. He’s a slippery character.
When questioned by Chuck Todd, Trump also blew the dog whistle again that Obama is a Muslim, but he did it in his a slightly different sneaky way:
@209 Slithey-
He’d texted it to his girlfriend. I don’t see what could be suspicious about it. I’ve got a ton of old pictures on my phone just because I haven’t bothered going through and checking whether I still wanted them or not.
PZ, not sure if you’ve heard about this already, but I just saw this on Mano’s blog:
Alabama puts one-page insert in all public school biology textbooks about evolution
There’s a picture of the insert there too.
Republican candidates for president are vying with each other to see who can abolish the most critical parts of the federal government “on day one.”
Rubio wants to get rid of the federal Department of Education.
Carson wants to eliminate the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Perry wanted to eliminate three departments, but couldn’t remember which three.
Santorum: “[…] the first thing I’d do is abolish the State Department and start all over.”
The State Department was created in 1789, so if Santorum abolished it that would put an end to a long run. Santorum went on to explain his reasoning: “Every problem that the State Department has, the answer is diplomacy. Why? Because if it’s not diplomacy, they don’t have a job.”
Here are the results from a new national poll:
That’s a slight uptick for Clinton.
Trump has experienced a decline in his poll numbers.
That’s an eight point drop for Trump.
Trigger warning for rape.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html
The Grauniad has a work-in-progress summary, Ben Carson’s anti-Muslim comments: what have the other candidates said?. I won’t excerpt it since, at the moment, it just a summary of past statements. However, the plan is to update the article: “The Guardian is contacting all the campaigns for their responses to Carson’s comments and will update this article accordingly.”
Evil hedge fund managers prove once again that they can be sociopathic:
NY Times link
In a related story, Hillary Clinton says she will stop the practice of prescription drug “price gouging.”
Clinton’s tweet cause the NASDAQ’s Biotechnology Index to trend downward. I guess Wall Street takes her seriously.
Here are few more examples of price-gouging:
Get ready to take a shower after this one. It’s a deep dive into the rightwing swamp. Note that this guy loves Donald Trump.
Right Wing Watch link
This is another “the company you keep” comment. Ted Cruz is keeping company with Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore. He named her to a leadership position on his campaign team.
Fiore is a supporter of Cliven Bundy, the armed and dangerous rancher that refused to pay the grazing fees for his cattle.
Fiore told us that cancer is “a fungus” and that we could flush it out of our bodies with salt water and baking soda. That’s helpful.
She suggested that “young, hot little girls on campus have a firearm” in order to prevent rape.
Sounds like a perfect fit for Ted Cruz.
Ohio’s governor, and Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich, came up with a scheme to selectively deprive communities with high minority populations from food aid, while simultaneously protecting the food aid going to majority white communities.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/09/law-john-kasich-wrote-now-keeping-food-stamps-minorities-ohio
Another thug bites the dust, Scott Walker to end 2016 presidential bid in race’s first shock dropout:
Only by the deluded, who have to “un-skew” polls and do not know what “reality”, “evidence”, “humanity”, or “the common sense of a dead duck” means. Walkonyou was never viable, much less plausible, believable. or even useful.
This is a followup to comment 217.
At least one of the greedy sociopaths that tried to increase prescription drug prices has folded under public pressure:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/big-price-increase-for-tb-drug-is-rescinded.html
Nope. Members of Black Lives Matter did not vandalize this guy’s truck:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/texas-man-busted-for-falsely-accusing-blacklivesmatter-supporters-of-vandalizing-his-truck/
Marco Super-Confused Rubio said some more stupid stuff about Planned Parenthood:
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-09-21/rubio-women-being-pushed-into-abortions-for-fetal-tissue-profits
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2976033-155/bagley-cartoon-speaking-american
The link is to Pat Bagley’s cartoon of the intersection between anti-muslim sentiments, Donald Trump, and Ahmed’s clock.
Kim Davis could be back in court for altering marriage license forms
Senator Ted Cruz, (Republican doofus, friend of Donald Trump, and presidential candidate), said some stupid stuff about the Supreme Court Justices:
Holy crap, Ted, that’s some ridiculous pandering you put forth for the Heritage Action Forum. You thought no radical leftist nutcases were listening, right?
Cruz seriously dislikes Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor. How can you not love, or at least respect The Notorious R.G.B? Cruz even made noises about Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts being a disappointment to conservatives. If you think Citizens United and the Hobby Lobby decisions were bad news, just elect Ted Cruz president to see even more bad news. Cruz plans to purge the Court of liberals (of reasonable people and of women).
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/cruz-supreme-court-justices-nutcase-213843
Rachel Maddow hosted a great segment on Governor Scott Walker’s withdrawal from the presidential race.
The segment begins with a reporter in London asking Walker about evolution. A series of other gaffes are highlighted. Basically, Walker ran for president and people saw that he was both dull-witted and narrow-minded.
I like the way Walker claimed to be ready to fight ISIS because he fought public school teachers in Wisconsin. Good entertainment, that.
With all-Pope-all-the-time coverage in the news today, this thread will probably be light on political news.
Also, yours truly has to earn some money today by working on a few proposals that may help refugees from Syria (not my proposals, I’m just the writer for other organizations). At least I will be spending my time on something worth more than Donald Trump’s inanities.
Ben Carson’s inanities about Muslims have increased his cash flow:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article36079707.html
This is a follow up to comment 230.
A Public Policy Polling result shows that 30% of conservative voters in Iowa think that the religion of Islam should be illegal in the U.S.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/09/trump-still-leads-iowa-clinton-in-good-shape.html
Ben Carson’s longer, and still stupid, explanation of his opposition to a Muslim president:
Carson made the comments on Faux News, in an interview with Sean Hannity.
This is a strike that should get a lot of news coverage thanks to the Pope’s visit.
Democratic Party presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, will join the striking workers.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/capitol-workers-to-strike-ahead-of-papal-visit
A few bits and pieces from rabid rightwing media:
The World Congress of Families is also anti-contraception.
Most of the quoted text above was excerpted from Right Wing Watch.
Ta-Nehisi Coates will be writing for Marvel’s “Black Panther” comic. This is good news. I have great respect for Coates.
Link
From a review of Coates’s book “Between the World and Me”:
Chris Hayes interviewed Coates:
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/one-on-one-with-ta-nehisi-coates-529727043895
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent at The Atlantic.
A Critique That Misses the Point: Mass incarceration is a complicated problem—and deserves to be treated as such.
Ben Carson, Bigot
re 232:
like how Carshit likes to say things to be interpreted however he wants. He explains his comment, “I don’t think a Muslim should be president.” as “The Constitution rules above all religions, of course I don’t want a Muslim theocracy for our president.” Retconning the initial comment as being synonymous with “If a Muslim was running for POTUS, I wouldn’t vote for him”, which is fine and acceptable. To say “Muslims [generically] should be disallowed to become POTUS”, is a little different than the retcon he tries to foist.
*shrug*
The Obama administration is on the side of the homeless. Various Republican politicians (mostly at the local level) are not for helping the homeless, they are for arresting them.
Yes, take their money away if they are going to use it to arrest homeless people.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/09/22/3704274/hud-homelessness-criminalization-funding/
Donald Trump wants you to know that he as ignorant and arrogant about global warming as he is about most other issues.
Trump said that today.
A couple of journalists have pointed out that Trump is wrong (also mindlessly repeating conservative conspiracy theories) about the supposed discussion in the 1920s about global cooling.
From David Roberts at Vox:
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/22/9368591/trump-global-warming
Jeb Bush says multiculturalism is wrong, hints at white supremacy, gets international standing of America wrong
Note: Stupid CNN videos autoplay
“empower them to become Americans”….. so just help them take the citizenship test? That’s how they’d become Americans. Culture, language, etc has fuck all to do with it.
Oh… he means empower them to become like the default white Americans…
Jeb Bush says multiculturalism is wrong, hints at white supremacy, gets international standing of America wrong
Note: CNN videos autoplay
“empower them to become Americans”….. so just help them take the citizenship test? That’s how they’d become Americans. Culture, language, etc has nothing to do with it.
Oh… he means empower them to become like the default white Americans…
Test
“Test”@239: Looks outside… Yep, sky continues to be the expected colours with the clouds casting rather pretty shadows on the still bubbling molten lava. Partial success, I’d say.
VW/Audi has admitted that c.11 million cars worldwide (albeit mostly in Europe) contain the pollution test “defeat device” (see @189 & @205). When the car is not being emissions tested — that is, essentially all the time (normal usage) — the emission controls are disabled, allowing the cars to spew up to c.40x(!) as much poison into the air. (Some reports say “may contain” rather than “do contain“.)
The Grauniad analyzed the implications, VW scandal caused nearly 1m tonnes of extra pollution [per year], analysis shows:
According to Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge, Drax (historically one of the most polluting power stations in Western Europe) “has the highest estimated emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the European Union.”
Mike Huckabee said some stupid stuff about who should vote in the U.S., and who should not vote.
That’s right. The guy that sided with Kim Davis, the guy that claims the Supreme Court decision on marriage equality can be superseded by Kim Davis’s religious beliefs, that guy says some voters shouldn’t vote because they don’t know what the Constitution says.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mike-huckabee-says-less-stupid-people-should-vot#.lx6zNBP62
Donald Trump has a faulty circuit in his brain, or something. He has trouble defining the word “bigot.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-60-minutes-muslim
CBS’s Scott Pelley pressed Trump again, describing the questioner a a “bigot.” Trump replied, “You don’t know that. I mean, he asked a question. You don’t know that he was a bigot.”
Uh, yeah, we do know the guy is a bigot. We know that from the way he phrased his question: “We’ve got a problem in this country called Muslims. You know our president is one. He’s not even American. But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: when can we get rid of them?” The first three sentences of that question undoubtedly put the questioner into the “bigot” category.
Some mormons might feel comfortable with Ben Carson because he uses mormon lingo. Carson calls Satan or the Devil, “The Adversary.”
“I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct.”
The editors didn’t realize that when they reported what Carson said, they should have capitalized “The Adversary.”
BuzzFeed link
Carson’s most recent defense of his past comments is that he doesn’t want to talk about his faith, nor about the faith of others. Big copout.
Bernie Sanders wrote a thoughtful essay that expanded on his reasons for promoting legislation that will end for-profit prisons.
Much more detail at the link
Donald Trump is claiming that Hillary Clinton started the whole “birther” thing during the 2008 campaign.
Trump tweeted:
Trump is not alone. Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and other news media personalities have joined Trump in this assertion. Trump is basing his conclusion on this exchange, which took place on “60 Minutes” in 2008:
Don Lemon of CNN recently brought the matter up again in an interview with Clinton:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/hillary-clinton-birther-don-lemon
Yes, the right conclusion is that Trump is feeding prejudice and paranoia. Sometimes he does it overtly, and sometimes covertly, but he is consistent.
Donald Trump has decided to boycott Fox News (again?). He’s not getting the kind of bended-knee worship he craves. Trump tweeted:
Trump also renewed his feud with Megan Kelly. We thought that was over. No, for Trump it is never over. Sample tweet:
This falls into the “company you keep” category: Donald Trump is going to speak at the “Values Voter Summit” run by The Family Research Council. The Summit has a reputation as one of the most openly bigoted and extremist conferences that Republican presidential candidates attend.
Perhaps in preparation, The Donald expounded on his relationship to God today:
Link
Rick Santorum weighed in on the issue of a Muslim president in the U.S. He defended Ben Carson.
Oh, FFS. Carly Fiorina lied her ass off during a Republican debate. She got away with the lies for the most part.
With that encouragement, she has decided to lie some more. She and her campaign staff put together a fake video to prove that she had not lied earlier about what she saw on one of the deceptively-edited videos put out by the Center for Medical Progress. She is covering a lie about a faked video with another faked video.
Fiorina and her team put together a video that is a mashup of discredited shit from past videos, and her new fake is still NOT a video that ever existed before — it did not exist in the CMP collection of anti-Planned Parenthood videos. It exists now as an even more blatant example of misleading propaganda.
Here are the contents of Fiorina’s new lie:
Planned Parenthood has responded:
Link
Rightwing media seems to have settled on a description of Pope Francis. The Pope is a Marxist.
Here are a few excerpts:
The quote above is from Michael Savage’s conservative radio show. He went on to say that the Pope is “directing mankind to worship the Antichrist.”
The last quote is from Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano.
Breitbart said that Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, an “out and out marxist,” controls the Vatican, and the Pope. That particular conspiracy theory comes from Christopher Monckton.
Ted Cruz’s father, Pastor Rafael Cruz, is campaigning for him in Iowa. The elder Cruz has picked up the “Marxist” label that is being applied to the Pope and is using it to connect President Obama and Hillary Clinton to marxism. Yeah, they’re all marxists. Not.
Rafael Cruz also presented an extended rant of religious freedom:
Here’s some good news, Donald Trump gave a speech and the crowd was not yuuuge. Trump ended up speaking in a half-empty ballroom in South Carolina. Photos at the link.
Link
Yeah, you need good lawyers.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/23/volkswagen-hires-kirkland-ellis-to-defend-emissions-cases
Are there law firms that specialize in defending über assholiness?
(cross-post from racism thread)
Presidential hopeful and racist theocrat Mike Huckabee says Obama just pretends to be Christian
He also tweeted this about the Pope’s visit:
Ha ha. He’s just jealous that the Pope came to see Obama and has never even heard of Mike Huckabee.
@Lynna #256:
Yes. Yes, I do believe there are. Because everyone deserves a defence*. Especially a pre-emptive one.
*Proportional to the depth of their pockets, naturally.
@saad #257:
‘Governor Huckabee has said consistently that he believes this campaign should center on a discussion of the important issues confronting our nation,’ said Senior Advisor, Dr. Charmaine Yoest, ‘and not focus on questions of religious belief. He wants to assure persons of all faith traditions of his firm commitment to religious tolerance and freedom of worship. Governor Huckabee believes that one of the great strengths of our nation lies in its diversity of thought, opinion and faith.’” — NYT, 12 Dec 2007
Oh wait, wrong campaign. Obviously what Huckabee says only applies when he says it, and is not in any way to be interpreted as a matter of principle holding sway at any other time in his life.
God preserve us from hypocrites…
From Lynna’s @251:
Did he think this sounded ok in his head? Bc I’m wondering what it’s antithetical TO.
I love the not-too-subtle implication that the “totality” of Islam is worse than the “totality” of Christianity.
Donald Trump said today that if he is elected president, the USA will not accept any Syrian refugees.
This comes after the Pope made speeches about the importance of accepting immigrants.
Trump has a tin ear.
Least reassuring reassurance about why Trump won’t win: the superdelegates. The superdelegate system was put in place to make sure that “populist” movements don’t get control of the situation and win over the person that the establishment wants. In short, Trump won’t win because he doesn’t have enough support in the oligarchy, no matter how many average US-Americans he can convince. I’d almost rather have Trump win than that be true. Not quite because Trump scares me, but almost.
We heard the typical non-answer from Trump today on the subject of deporting every undocumented immigrant in the USA:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-deportation-warmly-humanely
Well, I’m reassured. /sarcasm How about you? “Warmly and humanely” … dude, you are in LaLa land. Your train is off the tracks. All of your screws are loose. Your ego has ballooned out to Pluto. Do the people you hire routinely let you get away with this nonsense?
Our classy Congress critters:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/shoe-pope-capitol-open-mic
Related: a 124-second video showing how much right-wingers hate the Pope.
Link, scroll down for video.
Here’s a new approach to gerrymandering in order to keep Democratic Party candidates out of office, and to ensure that Republicans stay in office.
Link
Additional link
Ben Carson, the Republican presidential candidate running second to Donald Trump in many polls, believes in a literal 6-day creation:
Link
For those who may have missed the Pope’s address to the joint session of Congress, here are some highlights:
This is good news, a good court decision. We will soon be finding out more behind-the-scenes details about those deceptively edited videos from the Center for Medical Progress.
The Center for Deceptive Propaganda about Planned Parenthood wanted to keep their filming methods and their editing methods secret. The 9th Circuit court of Appeals said, “NO!” They will have to participate in discovery and turn over information to the National Abortion Federation and to StemExpress.
Yes, bring those doofuses and their methods into the light. Let’s examine them.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/david-daleiden-center-for-medical-progress-planned-parenthood-video-213992
More good news: Democrats in the Senate blocked the Republican bill to defund Planned Parenthood. The nonsense and brinkmanship from Republicans is not over, but Democrats won the first battle. There were even some Republican Senators who joined the Democrats to kill the bill.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/senate-spending-bill-planned-parenthood
This is a “the company you keep” story, and a tale of Donald Trump getting what he paid for.
Yes, Trump keeps company with fellow bigots, racists and doofuses. Trump helps them get jobs where they can portray him positively in the media.
http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/09/24/jeffrey-lord-is-cnns-on-staff-donald-trump-apol/205768
Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis blames Governor Beshear for her legal problems with a court document. Talk about somebody with a clue they are trying to unconstitutionally impose their religion on other people.
Jeb Bush: Democrats lure black voters with “free stuff”
House Speaker Boehner to resign both Speakership and House seat at the end of October.
Sounds like he is tired of dealing with the crazies.
Regarding Nerd’s comment #273, when we see Boehner quitting in the middle of a Congress we are seeing something highly unusual. There are no precedents in the modern age.
Boehner served in Congress for nearly a quarter of century. The most recent years were a constant struggle during which Boehner, never a guy with great ideas, had more trouble than usual thanks to rightwing House members who just wanted to blow everything up all the time.
I am, on the one hand, glad to see Boehner go, but on the other hand I think his successor will be even worse, more hapless, more rightwing. Less well be accomplished in terms of legislation (hard to imagine less than almost nothing), and more self-inflicted wounds will occur. More brinkmanship, more threats to shut down the government, default on debt, blow up international agreements, etc.
First Dog on the Moon, published in The Grauniad, explains This week we learned how VW’s secret extremely clever software reduces harmful engine emissions: “The vehicles could tell when their emissions were being monitored and stop emitting toxic nitrogen oxides. How is that for innovation!”
I see that rightwing media sources are already blaming President Obama for John Boehner’s departure.
However, some of this sudden goodwill toward Boehner (Obama frustrated him to death?) is a change from what a lot of Republicans have been saying, that Boehner is keeping true conservatives from doing their job in Washington. In a recent poll, only 26% of Republicans approved of Boehner.
When Marco Rubio announced Boehner’s resignation, Rubio’s audience stood up and applauded.
More signs of bad shit coming soon:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/conservatives-react-boehner-resignation
Donald Trump weighed in on Boehner’s resignation:
“I think it’s wonderful, frankly.”
Even while he often fought the most rabid of his rightwing colleagues, Boehner racked up a bad record.
In October 2013, he shut down the government over “the threat of Obamacare.” Standard & Poor’s, that shutdown cost the USA $24 billion, a loss of 0.6% of the GDP in the fourth quarter.
He killed bipartisan immigration reform. His excuse was that Healthcare.gov had technical difficulties, therefore the government can’t do anything right. WTF? Bipartisan immigration reform passed the Senate, and 200 House members signed on to the bill, but Boehner refused to bring it up for a vote. Boehner was probably afraid of backlash from the rabid rightwing.
He used the debt ceiling to blackmail Democrats and President Obama. That fight brought us sequestration, automatic budget cuts, from which we are still suffering.
He ran the least productive Congress in history according to the Pew Research Center.
He led a Congress that tilted at windmills, voting more than 50 times to repeal Obamacare.
More tilting at windmills: Boehner spent $2.3 million defending the Defense of Marriage Act.
Yesterday, John Boehner’s communications director told Time magazine, “He’s not going anywhere. If there’s a small crew of members who think that he’s just going to pick up and resign in the middle of his term, they are going to be sadly mistaken.”
Uh ….
Who wants the job of House Speaker? The record is scary: “Newt Gingrich resigned in disgrace; Bob Livingstone resigned in disgrace; Dennis Hastert is under criminal indictment; and John Boehner is quitting mid-term.” (The quoted text is from Steve Benen, who writes for The Maddow Blog.)
Saad @272, Jeb bush inherited wealth and power. Now he does a Mitt Romney and accuses African-Americans of wanting “free stuff?” Who is going to vote for this guy? Mitt Romney.
Teh trum-prat not only has a tin ear, a problem with the word “bigot”, and no connection to reality, but also is unaware of those and other problems. Other people are not, Donald Trump booed by conservative crowd for first time in his campaign:
Some of the comments are speculating teh trum-prat “thought” the boos were for robuoverandover.
blf @282, Ha. That’s funny.
When Trump flew to Texas to expose himself to what he characterized as extreme danger at the border with Mexico, protestors met his plane. Trump claimed that the protestors were supporters cheering him on. One has to wonder if he really sees and hears such a skewed world.
In a way, a horrifying way, that’s an impressive display of ironclad hubris.
Now that the rabid rightwing has forced Boehner out of office, they say that Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader is next.
According to Representative Matt Salmon (R-AZ), that’s what happened, the House Freedom Caucus forced Boehner out by threatening a coup … and they had help from God — all those prayers from those attending the Values Voter Summit. (Ted Cruz pushed that line too. God wanted Boehner out.) Now they have their sites set on McConnell.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/matt-salmon-mcconnell
So, “the next guy in the crosshairs is McConnell.” Right. Like I said, things are going to get worse, not better. The rabid right pushes their ill-informed ideology even harder. Feeling sorry for President Obama.
Kim Davis never was a Democrat, she just claimed to be one. Now she is officially switching parties. She and her husband will be Republicans. The Republican Party has already welcomed her.
Kim Davis also has a new book deal with a christian publisher.
Cheap. Vaudevillian, whatever adjective you choose … the Trump show at the Values Voter Summit was even more stomach-churning than usual:
Link
I am so relieved (not). Trump has weighed in the issue of the “War on Christmas.”
This is a flip-flop on Trump’s part. In the past his Trump Hotel Collection cards read “MAY PEACE, JOY, HOPE AND HAPPINESS BE YOURS DURING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON AND THROUGHOUT THE NEW YEAR. HAPPY HOLIDAYS.” The all-caps bit is from the original. All-caps is a Trump style that he repeats everywhere, as in TRUMP HOTEL COLLECTION, etc.
President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a joint press conference where China made a financial commitment of $3.1 billion to help developing countries lower greenhouse gas admissions, adapt to climate change, and make other adjustments to address climate change.
This is one outcome from bilateral talks between Obama and Xi Jinping.
Obama’s commitment of $3 billion to the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund is opposed by Republicans in Congress. They have blocked the first payment of $500 million. The rightwing take on this is that they will do what they can “to prevent $3 billion in taxpayer dollars from going to the Green Climate Fund, where the money will be spent by unelected UN bureaucrats to dictate U.S. policy and hinder developing countries’ ability to aggressively address the economics of poverty.”
Link
Rachel Maddow covered the breakthrough climate-change agreement with China. “The biggest news in climate policy …”
Rand Paul’s campaign, and members of his family, are in big legal trouble.
Whoops. Big October surprise. I think this will take Rand Paul out of the race.
Not yet October and already Christmas season controvs???
To reiterate, talking to Mr. Trumpster, Happy Holidays is simply a euphemism for M.C., attempting to be all inclusive. What is wrong with greeting even non-christians with wishes to be happy during the same period that the Christians are celebrating. Must Christmas be totally exclusive to a specific subset of people?
pffft
raising the observation that there *are* people who refuse to give presents to non-Xians for Xmas (one group in particular), while they will not reciprocate by refusing gifts from nonXians for the holiday.
;-D Of course, I do it the correct way. Solstice time is to party, invite friends regardless of heritage, hand out gifts to each of them, be kindly accepting of, without expecting any, gifts reciprocated.
Sorry, I’m just trying out some egotism, by declaring myself the source of correct practice. However, I am just playacting, simply describing my approach (to the holly days [deliberate misspelling]). Not actually declaring it the “proper method”.
Back to War on Christmas. It is still baffling that people would object to the inclusive greeting over the exclusive one, especially for a holiday that in intended to be attractive. In response I tend to remind the xmasholics that the holiday is pretty much a retconned pagan holiday. That the date itself is a mismatch to the birth they are celebrating. The RCC adopted the holiday to lure the celebrating pagans to accept the Xian theology over their pagan theology.
sorry to get longwinded. pshww
Cross-posted from the “You don’t have to be smart …” thread.
Another example of rightwing politics melding with rightwing religion:
https://www.au.org/media/press-releases/stop-promoting-christianity-in-workplace-americans-united-tells-kansas
Kobach has also been involved in several schemes to disenfranchise African-American voters.
Confluence of religion and politics:
Daily Mail link.
Carly Fiorina failed the test of being reasonable and of understanding basic science just as badly as did Ben Carson.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9342761/carly-fiorina-debate
This is a followup to comments 273, 274, 276, 277, 278, 279 and 280.
Here’s some useful background, and insight on John Boehner’s situation.
Link
Texas senator, 2016 presidential candidate, and all-around bigot Ted Cruz wants to kill Ayatollah Khamenei (auto-playing video)
Using the 72 virgins thing makes it an anti-Muslim sentiment too.
Also, Cruz calling anyone a theocratic zealot is fucking hilarious.
A new voting bloc may be emerging in Canada. First Nations people have decided to take a different approach to politics in Canada.
Since 1960? Holy crap, that is late in the game.
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21665035-after-years-abstaining-aboriginal-people-could-now-be-swing-voters-electoral-war-path
Cross-posted from the “You don’t have to be smart to be an MD” thread.
Ben Carson added to his litany of stupid comments. He would consider religion as probable cause for searches.
Link
John Boehner has given his first interview since announcing that he would resign on October 30.
Excerpt below:
Link
Well, that will be a change if Boehner does get a bunch of stuff done. He will have to work with Nancy Pelosi and use the votes of Democratic Party members to get anything done.
The Nice Pope supports Kim Davis and second-class citizen status for gay people
Elizabeth Warren defended the Black Lives Matter movement, and also made some strong points about community policing.
Warren’s speech also acknowledged related issues such as voter suppression, economic justice, housing discrimination, predatory banking practices, and social justice.
Think Progress link
Transcript of speech
The guy John Boehner supports to replace him as Speaker of the House, current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, seems to be a conservative in the John Boehner mold — some bad and some good habits of mind.
On the other hand, Tea Party members of the House of Representatives are backing Representative Daniel Webster. Webster has some weird associations. He is tied to the Institute in Basic Life Principles, which was founded by Bill Gothard, the doofus that taught a bunch of patriarchal/authoritarian crap to the Duggars.
Link
http://prospect.org/article/submitting-christian-right
John Oliver skewered the Fox News coverage of the refugee crisis.
Salon link
Scroll down for video.
Excerpt from transcript below:
Donal Trump announces his tax plan.
Whiles some ideas sound good and populist (no taxes for lower income Americans), I’ll wait for the experts to say if it will produce the present revenues. I smell some waving of hands over the figures.
And now from the thug morals (lack of) and facts (lack of) departments, Carly Fiorina endorses waterboarding ‘to get information that was necessary’:
The Grauniad is immediately, and quite properly, taken to task in the comments for its less-than-direct introduction, “What a lead-in: ‘waterboarding, the controversial interrogation method that HAS BEEN CALLED torture’! The Guardian seems determined to outdo the New York Times in its use of weasel words.
“Even Charles Krauthammer — who endorsed the practice — described waterboarding as ‘a terrifying and deeply shocking torture technique in which the prisoner has his face exposed to water in a way that gives the feeling of drowning.’ As Andrew Sullivan so often reminded us, ‘Waterboarding is a war crime, with no statute of limitations.'”
Other comments point out how deluded this thug is. For instance, “Fiorina said: ‘I believe that all of the evidence is very clear — that waterboarding was used in a very small handful of cases (and) was supervised by medical personnel in every one of those cases.’
“Medical personnel? Then she’s as naively deluded as she is morally wrong. The United Nations Report of the Committee Against Torture: Thirty-fifth Session of November 2006, stated that state parties should rescind any interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, that constitutes torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
“Just because you are a bitter, homophobic, crackpot science believing, barking mad right wing harridan does not make torture an acceptable technique for the men and women on the front lines, protecting your sorry, Iran sanctions-busting ass.”
Best comment so far, “A spokesman for [daesh] has stated that they only use beheadings ‘when there was no other way to get information that was necessary’.”
Re @304, whilst this analysis of the trum-prat’s tax “plan” is probably rather flawed — it relies quite heavily on the Cato Institute, which is a lyingturdian bunch of wanks heavily involved with at least one of the Kochroach brothers — it does make some valid points, none particularly surprising given whose “plan” it is, Trump’s tax proposal is ‘nothing radical’ — and the richest get the biggest cuts:
The rest of the article — this is an astonishingly poor “analysis” in The Grauniad — is sufficiently vague I’m not going to bother excerpting it. For instance, it says “even the rich would be getting a tax cut — in fact, the most generous one”, but does not seem to explain what most generous means.
How do House Republicans reward the most outrageous and least logical of their members? This is how: they elect them to higher positions of power within the House.
New York Times link
Maddow Blog link
Carly Fiorina lies some more … different subject, same tactic.
In that same interview, Fiorina bothered to repeat the lie, twice. Here’s evidence of her saying what she said she did not say:
More from David Nir at DailyKos:
This is a followup to comment 307, where Congress critter Trey Gowdy is mentioned.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards is testifying before Congress. Pity her.
The disrespect that Republican members of the house are showing Cecile Richards is off the charts.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jason-chaffetz-cecile-richards-hearing
Scroll down to watch video.
This is a followup to comment 310.
Republicans also showed Cecile Richards a slide of a graph showing bogus, fake data presented in a simplistic, childish style. They claimed the graphs showed the number of breast exams done by Planned Parenthood going down over time, while the number of abortions skyrocketed.
There’s an image of the pulled-this-out-of-our-asses graph at the link.
More fake shit from the far right:
That photo was used during the ceremonial presentation of a “Cost of Discipleship Award” to Kim Davis at the Values Voter Summit.
Link
We can conclude that they don’t value truth, don’t value facts.
Republicans have been coming after National Park lands, and other public lands, for decades. Their schemes have included plans to cede Park lands to state control, passing legislation that defunds the National Park Service, opening Park lands to development and to extractive industries, etc.
Now they have a new tactic:
Okay, right there Bishop revealed himself to be an anti-government-at-all-costs doofus. State legislators in Utah, and the lawmakers that Utah sends to Congress, are particularly rabid when it comes to public lands. They hates ’em. They want to drill and build on those lands.
Link
You have got to be kidding me. Ben Carson loves rightwing conspiracy theorist and general whacko, W. Cleon Skousen. Holy crap. Skousen is dead now, but his legacy lives on in the likes of Glenn Beck, and in the lives of a lot of mormons.
Skousen influenced former mormon “Prophet, Seer and Revelator’ Ezra Taft Benson. Skousen’s books are used as textbooks in universities founded/supported by Glenn Beck. Skousen was a rabid anti-communist who also claimed that a global cabal of Jewish bankers controlled the world. One of his books referred to the “blessings of slavery.” Skousen wrote that Communists created “a regimented breed of Pavlovian men whose minds could be triggered into immediate action by signals from their masters.” (I think he was referring to mormons and predicting Ben Carson. /sarcasm)
Skousen eventually became so embarrassing that even LDS (mormon) leadership warned their members that he did not speak for the church. That didn’t, hasn’t, stopped many mormons from being Skousen disciples to this day.
This is the second time that I’ve seen a close connection between Carson and mormonism. Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist, but he uses mormon terms, like “The Adversary,” (see comment 246), and he promotes mormon views of history (faux history and nutjob conspiracy theories).
Link
Skousen claimed to have been a CIA agent, but in the non-fantasy world, “Skousen worked in the FBI for 15 years which he claimed allowed him to see the top secret information that detailed the vast Communist conspiracy. However, the FBI said that he mostly did clerical work and that he was never trusted with high level information.”
J Edgar Hoover maintained a 2,000 page FBI file on Skousen and considered him an extreme right wing threat to the Republic.
I think this love of Skousen reveals how unsophisticated Ben Carson really is. Skousen’s books are hyperbolic, not founded in fact, and not well-written. Tellingly, Skousen was active in the John Birch Society. He predicted total communist takeover by 1973. Carson usually talks about Marxists, Saul Alinsky, and other dark forces that he thinks Skousen documented as tearing down the United States.
No wonder Carson thinks that Satan (The Adversary) promoted the Big Bang Theory and the Theory of Evolution. It all fits together in Whacko Conspiracy World.
As Republicans in the House of Congress try to defund Planned Parenthood, with threats to shut down the government if they don’t get their way, one of their major talking points is that there are thousands of already-existing clinics that could replace Planned Parenthood. That talking point is a lie, patently false, easy to disprove.
Yes, there’s a list of 13,540 clinics, listed by state, that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services) put out. Most of the clinics listed do not have a certified OB-GYN on staff. They do not have the expertise, nor in most cases the medical equipment, to provide reproductive health services for women.
Many private clinics do not take Medicaid patients. About half of Planned Parenthood patients rely on Medicaid.
Thanks to Nerd and to blf for bringing up Donald Trump’s tax plan.
For rich people, Trump offers to:
Cut the top marginal rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent
Eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax
Eliminate the estate tax
Cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent
Those are the obvious goodies for the rich, and the plan provides details, numbers. When you get to the supposed ways in which the tax plan will supposedly cost Trump and other rich people millions of dollars, there are no specifics.
This vague category includes:
Eliminating loopholes for the very rich and special interests.
Ending carried interest tax breaks, unless those tax breaks grow the business or create jobs.
Do something unspecified about the exemption on life insurance interest for high-income people.
Trump’s plan also exempts individuals making $25,000 or married couples making $50,000 from paying Federal income tax. These people already do not pay federal income tax for the most part.
Experts analyze Trump’s tax plan:
Link
My own analysis is based on Trump having said, “This will be a rocket ship for the economy,” and that his plan “doesn’t add to our debt and deficit, which are already too large.” In other words, bluster combined with trickle-down voodoo economics.
And we know that supply side conservative theories have been proven wrong, so Trump’s tax plan is even worse than the Tax Foundation says it is.
More economists weigh in on Trump’s tax plan:
Well, that’s a damned sneaky way to partially defund the Affordable Care Act.
There is one semi-progressive proposal:
Back to the bluster, back to a proposal meant to provide a distraction and a talking point:
Another big loophole for rich people is hidden in the plan. It will create some jobs, however, for tax lawyer and accountants.
Trump’s tax plan is so similar to Jeb Bush’s tax plan that Bush chided Trump on Twitter for copying his plan.
Citizens for Tax Justice found that the Trump and the Bush plan would give the top 1% an average increase in net income of 11.6%. The bottom 80% of taxpayers would enjoy increases of about 1% to 3%. In other words, both plans are guaranteed to increase income disparity.
More importantly, both Bush and Trump really have no way to pay for the goodies they intend to give the rich. Both claim that tax cuts to the top1% will spur economic growth that will shower us all with riches.
Trump is pushing his tax plan as “tax relief for the middle class.” A lot of people believe him.
Trump blustered:
In the most recent Public Policy Polling results, 72% of Republicans in North Carolina said that a Muslim should never be president of the USA. An equal number agreed with Donald Trump that President Obama is waging a war on christianity. 40% said the practice of Islam should be illegal
Jeb Bush out an energy plan that does not even mention renewable.
Think Progress link
He does mention reducing regulations on fracking, on coal mining, and on importing/exporting fuels.
Mike Huckabee shows us how Republicans can start anywhere and still end up at Benghazi:
Here’s some good news.
Salt Lake Tribune link
Cheney ][, I mean Bush ]I[, proposes to make things worse, Jeb Bush lays out energy plan with call to relax environmental rules:
The position you are running for, Mr Cheney ][, is President, not CEO of VW.
Indeed, it is very low-hanging fruit: There is NO reason to approve it.
“Common sense” as defined by Faux & Kochroach Bros., Unlimited, and not even correct in the 21st century BCE.
YOU FECKING EEJIT: The people with “real world experience” have fecking polluted this planet to near-death (examples: VW. Exxon, BP, …), and started numerous pointless wars simply to increase their profits (WWI, both Iraq / “Gulf” Wars, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, …).
Typical thug. Don’t allow questions and literally attempt to kill the reporters.
Here are a few more telling details related to the hearings that Congress held today concerning Planned Parenthood.
Link
The guy most likely to become the new Speaker of the House after Boehner’s resignation, Kevin McCarthy, has trouble speaking. He is known for fumbling and bumbling around in what we can only assume he thinks is the English language.
Link
In related news, another guy, Representative Steve Scalise, current majority whip, is throwing his hat into the ring. He too wants to be Speaker of the House. Scalise is the guy who once claimed that he is “David Duke without the baggage.”
Cecile Richards needs some good news after being grilled (and constantly interrupted) by Republican members of Congress today. Here’s one bit of news that’s good, Missouri now joins a long and expanding list of states that have investigated Planned Parenthood and found no wrongdoing.
Link
Yes, far rightwing Republicans in the House of Congress are still looking for ways to repeal Obamacare. The grand total is now 60 of these quixotic votes by Republicans, according to Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee. Most of the media has stopped counting. Journalists just go with “more than fifty” and call it good.
Associated Press link.
Maddow Blog link
Manufacturer demands return of drug to be used in Virginia execution:
European drug manufacturers have been refusing to supply any of the drugs used in USAssassinate to murder people, causing a severe shortage. As a result, some planned murders have been delayed or carried out in a improvised fashion, and/or the drugs used obtained from dubious sources, or, in a few places, other methods of murder have been proposed.
More on the bloviating aspect of Donald Trump’s tax plan, and the economic plans of other Republicans:
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-09-29/trump-plan-highlights-the-dubious-assumption-at-the-heart-of-republican-tax-proposals
How many U.S. presidents since WWII have seen 4% or higher GDP growth? None. Nada.
In an even more ridiculous statement, Jeb Bush said, “I think the left wants slow growth because that means people are more dependent upon government.” Dafuq?
Bloviation by candidate:
Chris Christie, 4%
Scott Walker, 4.5% (he’s no longer a candidate)
Mike Huckabee, 6%
Donald Trump, 4% to 6%
Jeb Bush, 4%
Carly Fiorina’s latest lie, (maybe it is not her latest. I don’t know, I can’t keep up):
She claimed that not signing the pipeline agreement would cost the U.S. 1.2 million jobs.
Liar falls flat and goes Ka-BOOM! Kudos to Senator Warren, Elizabeth Warren lobbying query leads Brookings Institution fellow to quit:
Kevin McCarthy, a Congress critter who is likely to be the next Speaker of the House, accidentally told the truth today. Basically, he admitted that the Benghazi Committee is all about bringing down Hillary Clinton. Dude, you weren’t supposed to say that out loud. But, thank you.
McCarthy is very proud of himself.
Follow-up to @328, Virginia’s planned murder using dubious drugs has been halted, albeit possibly only temporarily, Federal judge temporarily halts Virginia execution over drug concerns: “Provenance of pentobarbital acquired from Texas called into question […] Prieto’s attorneys are seeking more information about the pentobarbital [obtained from the Texas state murders] the state intends to use — including the name of the supplier, tests confirming its sterility and potency, and documents showing that the drugs were properly handled, transported and stored.”
Jeb Bush is obsessed with “animal spirits.”
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/09/30/3707122/jeb-bush-animal-spirit/
The owner of the Washington Redskins football team gave Jeb Bush $100,000. And now Jeb says that he does not think the team name is offensive. To be more precise, Daniel Snyder gave $100,00 to the Right to Rise Super PAC.
Apartheid supporters are at it again, Pro-Israel groups targeting Palestinian organizations in US, report finds:
(My added boldfacing.) Yep. That seems to be standard operating procedure, possibly even the “argument” of first resort, whenever an Israeli proposal, action, or policy is criticized or even questioned. As an example, there is an agreement that ambulances from occupied Palestine will not be hindered when crossing the border on a emergency call. The Israeli border goons stop, search, and delay ambulances carrying patients to hospitals in Israel. I’ve been called an “antisemitic” for pointing that Israeli forces are ignoring the agreement, and Israel seems to do nothing about it.
Eh? How does “[profiling] people associated with pro-Palestinian student groups, to dissuade potential employers from hiring them” help accomplish anything but reinforce the claimed antisemitism? What is such an individual going to do, think “right, I can’t get a job because something thinks I’m antisemitic, so therefore I will…”, ah, what, exactly? Is there some way of being taken off that hate list?
Which is what you are doing to them! Geesh…
Some people, including military leaders, have begged Congress to pass spending bills that keep the government funded for more than a few months at a time. Lawmakers did not hear those pleas, or did not take them seriously. Congress has, again, passed a stop-gap spending bill that funds the government just until early December.
The good news is that we won’t have another government shutdown … at least not until December.
The bad news is that the military leaders, people building the few infrastructure projects we have funded, public land managers, etc. etc. will have a difficult time planning. The future of their funding is too uncertain.
Rachel Maddow hosted a segment in which she introduced us to Kevin McCarthy, John Boehner’s likely successor as Speaker of the House. This Republican doofus has a lot of trouble speaking the English language: “[…] the place of the band on America.”
McCarthy apparently has trouble writing in the English language as well. Many of his “the place of the band on America” comments are delivered from written text. You can see him reading his notes.
McCarthy will be third in line to the presidency. About veteran’s affairs, McCarthy says, “[…] that can’t keep the simple promise to all of our heroes to the need when they need it most.” That quote is part of the foreign policy speech McCarthy gave on Monday.
Other memorable bits from the foreign policy speech:
“We must engage this war of radical Islam if our life depended on it.”
“This safe zone would create a stem a flow of refugees.”
“Unlike the surge in Iraq when Petraeus and Crocker had an effective politically strategy to match the military strategy.”
“We have isolated Israel, while bolding places like Iran.”
“The absence of leadership over the past six years has had a horrific consequences all across the globe.”
“In the past few years alone I have visited Poland, Hungria, Estonia, Russia, and Georgia.”
“It had to be hundreds of thousands of grandchildren to make that decision.”
“We don’t have the same as difficult decision, but this White House is managing the decline in putting us in tough decisions for the future.”
In yesterday’s last minute effort to keep the lights on for the federal government of the USA, about 1/3 of the House Republicans voted for the bipartisan bill to prevent a shutdown. The remaining 2/3 of the House Republicans voted against the bill. Two thirds of them wanted to shut down the government.
Democrats voted for the bill, and that’s why it passed. This was not the first time that soon-to-be-gone Speaker John Boehner relied on Democratic Party votes to get something done.
– same for raising the debt ceiling last year
– reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act
– a bill providing relief funds for victims of Hurricane Sandy
etc.
I do not see how prospective Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, could possibly handle such situations. Boehner was bad enough, but McCarthy will be worse.
I also think the bill to keep the lights on was acted on, in part, because Republicans just wanted to skip town. They wanted to quit work again for an extended vacation.
Content note for possible irony meter explosions
Ben Carson: a Hitler-like figure could be possible in the U.S.
This from a guy who has been treating Muslims like some evil outsiders who should not be trusted…
Saad, @340, I keep a spare irony meter nearby at all times. I think we’ll need a good supply between now and November 2016.
Ben Carson drives me up a wall. He may be worse than Trump when it comes to saying blatantly stupid and blatantly racist stuff. All of those Hitler references hark right back to Carson’s veneration of Cleon Skousen. See comment 314.
I’m sure that’s not Carson’s only anti-factual source for Hitler references, but I am struck by the similarity to Skousen’s moments of madness.
blf@336, many thanks for those extended comments. I don’t have anything to add, but I did learn something from your presentation.
Alabama state legislators passed voter I.D. laws … then they closed the driver’s license offices in every county where African-Americans make up more than 75% of the registered voters. The driver’s license offices are the official dispensers of the kind of I.D. that voters in Alabama will need to vote in any election.
Talking Points Memo link
Alabama, al.com, link
Regarding Saad’s post @340, don’t let Ben Carson’s reluctance to directly equate Barack Obama to Hitler this time fool you.
Carson has been less cautious in the past.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/01/3707851/ben-carson-hilter/
15 people have been confirmed dead in a mass shooting at Umpqua Community college in Roseburg, Oregon. The confirmation of 15 dead comes from the KATU News Twitter feed.
http://koin.com/2015/10/01/active-shooter-reported-at-umpqua-community-college/?cid=twitter_KOINNews
The supposedly non-partisan Benghazi Committee actually interviewed witnesses without even notifying Democratic members of the committee. This blatant lack of professionalism, and lack of ethical behavior, was followed by selective, deceptive leaking of witness testimony to the press.
Link
Scroll down at the link for video from Chris Hayes’s interview of Representative Adam Schiff.
Partial transcript below:
Donald Trump says some more stupid stuff. Now we know what decade he loves: the 1950s.
Link
Seth Meyers used humor to highlight some of the ridiculous aspects of the Congressional hearing on Planned Parenthood.
Link
Remember the awful phrase “legitimate rape” that Republican Congressman Todd Akin came up with? Now Rob Portman, a Republican congressman from Ohio has come up with a turn of phrase that is almost as offensive:
Link
Those clinics you are talking about Mr. Portman, do not offer the same services as Planned Parenthood. The rightwing talking point that centers around shunting women to other, existing clinics has been debunked multiple times, but Republicans are sticking with it anyway. See comment 315.
Also, yet another white rightwing male congress critter is telling women what is “legitimate” health care. [head-desk, head-desk]
Get ready for yet another self-imposed crisis fostered by Republican lawmakers in Congress. We have the shutdown fight coming up in December, since lawmakers kicked the budget fight down the road, but didn’t kick it far.
Even more alarming, the Treasury Department says the U.S. will reach its debt limit soon. Some Republicans really want to fight over raising the debt limit, which they are doing by threatening catastrophe. Here’s why we’ve crept up on the debt limit sooner than expected:
Roll Call link
From the Democratic Party side we have the usual arguments for reasonable action. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a statement:
The one chance we have to avoid this debt-ceiling crisis rests with John Boehner. It is possible that he will not let the more rabid of his rightwing colleagues hold the government hostage over, say, Planned Parenthood. Boehner may end his career on a reasonable note. He may hold a vote to raise the debt ceiling, with support from Democrats and about 1/3 of the Republicans.
Ben Carson said some more stupid stuff on Wednesday:
New Republic link
Wait … it got worse. Ben Carson went on to say, “Just the way the Earth rotates on its axis, how far away it is from the sun. These are all very complex things. Gravity, where did it come from?”
First Dog on the Moon is an occasional(?) cartoon taking a somewhat snarky look at current news. It runs in The Grauniad, about once-a-week as of late, and (in my opinion) is worth reading. The most recent one, Mars water: will it be contaminated by Earth cooties?, starts with the recent NASA announcement about very recent liquid water on the surface of Mars, and makes a good point: “Humans are amazing. We can fly a spaceship to Mars but we can’t clean the Mars Rover — or Earth, for that matter”.
This is a followup to comment 342.
Now that Alabama officials are catching some heat for closing driver’s license offices in communities with majority African-American populations, (a way to keep those voters from obtaining the required voter I.D.), the officials have come up with some explanations/excuses/lies.
The Alabama Secretary of State, John Merrill, said:
The mobile van looks like a bandaid to me. How does one appearance of a mobile van make up for closing a driver’s license office that was open five days a week every week? What if you can’t get off work, or can’t find childcare, or are elderly and can’t arrange transportation on the mobile-van-day?
Also, the Board of Registars offices that officials left open are centered in mostly white, mostly Republican communities.
How many people in Alabama will be negatively affected by this voter-restriction law?
The Nation link
Multiply the voter-restriction problem by other states that have passed similar laws, and you can see that we have a real problem going into the 2016 election.
Regarding the meeting Kim Davis had with the Pope, she and her lawyers made a lot more out of that than it actually was.
Associated Press link
More on the sneaky ways in which Republicans at the state level are actively engaging in voter-suppression of non-white or likely-Democratic-voter communities:
Link
Other ways in which North Carolina makes it hard for people to vote:
– voter I.D. laws
– elimination of same-day registration for voting
– reduction of early voting days
– eliminating voting on Sundays, the “souls to the polls” day on which many black churches offer free bus rides to polling places
– moving polling places (as discussed in the quoted text above
The child rapists have gone into full-lie mode, Vatican: pope did not show support for Kim Davis:
Mr Winters seems to get it almost correct. Even if Ms Davis did allow her clerks to grant the licenses, she was still “forcing others to practise her religion”, besides disobeying her oath of office and the law, and — a thing completely rules out any of this “conscientious objector” twaddle — a bigot.
The comments are contemptuous of the transparent hypocrisy of the child raping cult, perhaps summed out by “Her just having an invite speaks volumes.”
Thanks, blf @355, for the additional details.
In other news, Donald Trump has weighed in on the Oregon massacre:
Link
In addition to saying a bunch of stupid stuff, Ben Carson is doing some stupid stuff. He has rounded up a bunch of like-minded doofuses, including anti-vaxxers and John Birch Society leaders, to advise him on health care policy.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/02/3708572/ben-carson-medical-coalition/
Presidential candidate and rightwing religious doofus, Mike Huckabee, weighed in on the murders in Oregon:
Trevor Noah nails Donald Trump.
Salon link
Scroll down to watch the video. Great stuff.
About @357, If teh neuroh!goofus is using john birch-ers (do they still actually exist?) to “advise him on health care policy”, does that mean we’ll see the return of General Jack D Ripper and his concern about “precious bodily fluids” — commonly considered to be a satire on the john brich-ers anti-fluoridation bugfeck nuttery?
Rachel Maddow analyzed the subjects that President Obama talked about during his press conference today.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/obama-talks-russia–syria–congress-and-guns-537532483775
Video.
This is a followup to comment 313.
Well, they did it. Republicans killed what has been called one of the most successful conservation program in the USA. The Land and Water Conservation Fund was shot and then buried by Republican extremists today.
High Country News link
Without spending taxpayer money, the LWCF put about $17 billion into federal, state and local parks (since 1964, when it was created).
The Columbia River Gorge is one example of the land protected through use of LWCF funds. About 2/3 of the Appalachian Trail is another example.
Republican extremists view the LWCF as a sneaky way to expand the amount of land controlled by the federal government. The Koch brothers have consistently lobbied against the LWCF.
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell said,
A Republican rightwing extremist from Kansas is fomenting revolution against the federal government.
State Senator Forrest Knox said of lot of stupid stuff before, but urging revolution against President Obama is new. Here are some of his past forays into the land of Stupid:
– in 2013 he supported a bill to put guns in all schools (this was after Newtown)
– he proposed legislation to pay foster parents more money if they could prove that they were in a faith-based relationship, and were not having extra-marital affairs
– he says he is for small government, but he wants to expand government massively if it will force people to behave according to his rules
“[…] [snipped reference to the American Revolution] Industries will not take the chance of opposing the federal government. Sooner or later a state legislature will if it keeps moving this way,” Knox said.
His fiery talk about revolution was triggered by his opposition to the EPA, to clean power, and to other environmental protection mandates.
The Wichita Eagle link
About that mass murderer who was an atheist; I agree that the atheist community has some serious problems, and the idea that atheists are inherently morally superior to theists is a big one, but whenever I hear about an atheist committing a serious crime, I still feel the need to defend myself.
We all know that conservative religious zealots are going to use these cases as proof that all atheists are evil, and I don’t like it when my ideological opponents have the moral high ground. This means that I’m usually going to point out that similar crimes have been committed by christians in order to level the playing field. For example, I point to countries in Africa where christians and muslims are massacring each other, or point out that fundamentalist religious cults in the US are suffering from rampant cases of rape and child molestation. I actually feel guilty for focusing on proving that my opponents aren’t spotless either, but I still feel like it’s necessary to avoid them lording over me.
I will say that the fact that this guy was one of those conservative atheists who presumably hated social justice and humanist values at least distances us from him a bit, but I have a feeling that’s the wrong attitude to take.
Presidential hopeful Rand Paul wants next Kentucky governor to stand up to presidents (quoted in full):
Not exactly political madness, and not specifically USAlien, but some related-to-both sensible proactive news, Leading same-sex marriage activist heads to Europe after US triumph:
@emergence
Well of course we need to defend ourselves. It simply isn’t true that we are all like that, otherwise there would be a constant stream of atheists going on shooting sprees. Instead we find such people have all assorted religious beliefs.
One idea: treat every young man who wants to buy a fun like every woman who wants to bet an abortion.
Republican obstructionism is destroying the Justice Department.
Link
The New Yorker published a thoughtful article on Donald Trump. I particularly liked their takedown of Trump’s anti-immigration stance, and his lack of foreign policy expertise.
Trump is morally bankrupt. He is ethically bankrupt.
This is a followup to comment 370. Link for quoted text is also in #370.
Trump also talked about President Eisenhower having deported undocumented immigrants. As usual, Trump used bogus “facts” to back up his claims.
People in rural North Carolina know that they need local hospitals. And they know that Republican policy is likely to shutter rural hospitals in the name of fighting the supposed evil of Obamacare, and more specifically, in the name fighting the Medicaid expansion offered to states by Obamacare.
As a result, a rare coalition of North Carolinian Democrats and Republicans are fighting for the right to reasonably good health care.
Link
Yes, it is the working poor who will suffer if the campaign for good health care fails in North Carolina.
Link
Link
The National Rural Health Association says that 283 rural hospitals across the USA are at risk. Their financial status is similar to hospitals that have already closed.
On “Meet the Press,” Donald Trump claimed that the community college in Oregon where the most recent mass shooting took place was a “gun-free zone.” Trump claimed that no guns at all were allowed in the area. This is plainly false, and easily debunked, but Chuck Todd let Trump get away with the lie.
Hillary Clinton appeared on “Saturday Night Live.” She did well, or at least not bad for a person who is not a comedian. Link
Scroll down for several videos.
This is cross-posted from the “Another day, another shooting” thread.
Hillary Clinton just picked up an endorsement from the National Education Association. The NEA is the nation’s largest labor union.
Carly Fiorina seems to fail at making friends wherever she goes. 302,000 employees worked for her when she was CEO at Hewlett-Packard, but not one of them has donated to her presidential campaign.
Link
When Fiorina ran for Senate in 2010, she hired staff, of course. Problem is, she didn’t pay them what they were owed. Her Senate campaign manager said, “People are just upset and angry and throwing her under the bus. If we didn’t win, why do you deserve to get paid?”
Link
Republican politicians have been happy to emphasize the importance of mental health care in response to the shooting in Oregon. Across the board they have called for better mental health care care. It’s one way of blaming people as opposed to backing better gun regulation.
Here’s an issue they fail to emphasize: many Republican governors have rejected the Medicaid expansion that is part of the Affordable Care Act.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/03/if-you-want-mental-health-services-to-prevent-violence-medicaid-expansion-is-critical/
Hillary Clinton announced some major gun regulation proposals as part of her campaign for president. She said that she would use executive authority to change the definition of who is “in the business” of selling guns.
The federal definition doesn’t cover all gun sellers equally. “This would ensure that high-volume gun sellers are covered by the same common-sense rules that apply to guns stores — including requiring background checks on gun sales,” said one of Clinton’s aides.
Link
Apparently, Carly Fiorina can lie her ass off and be nasty to all of her employees and campaign staffers while still winning the hearts of the Koch brothers. Reuters link.
People who claimed that the Umpqua Community College campus was a gun free zone:
Donald Trump
Mike Huckabee
Carly Fiorina
Professor William A. Jacobson writing for USA Today
David French writing for National Review
Newt Gingrich
Erich Pratt, Gun Owners of America
This is a followup to comment 381.
Add Ben Carson to the list of right-wingers who have falsely claimed that the Oregon community college was a gun free zone.
Link
Carson was wrong about Thomas Jefferson too. The quote to which Carson referred came from Cesare Beccaria, an Italian philosopher. Jefferson copied the quote into his “Legal Commonplace Book,” and added the note “False idee di utilità.” There is some scholarly discussion of what Jefferson meant by this, but it definitely was not Jefferson who said:
Republicans generally take a fast and loose approach to truth, to accuracy, to facts. The fact-checking function becomes overwhelming.
This is a followup to comment 249, in which we saw Donald Trump announcing that he was going to boycott Fox News because the broadcasting company was not nice enough to him.
After that announcement, Trump did dot disappear from Fox News. In terms of on-air interview time, Trump still leads all other contenders for the presidency. In other words, it was all sound and fury signifying nothing.
Trump’s on-air interview time over the past week added up 2 hours and 42 minutes, which is 30 minutes more than his closest rival. In other words, Faux News is really pushing the Trump-for-president idea hard.
Maybe he should boycott Fox more often. The end result is more air-time on Fox.
On Fox News, Lou Dobbs analyzed the shooting in Oregon and came up with the explanation that school shootings are happening because the USA forbids prayer in schools. There’s so much wrong with this, that I don’t know where to begin.
California just became the fifth state to pass a right-to-die bill. Governor Brown signed the bill that makes it legal for terminally ill people to end their lives using drugs prescribed by a doctor.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/terminally-ill-californians-gain-right-die-after-gov-brown-signs-bill
More voter restriction moves from right-wingers, this time from Republicans in Maryland. (For an earlier discussion of ways in which voting rights are being restricted in Alabama, see comments 342 and 352.)
Link
When the decision to close those two sites was made, Democratic members of the elections board were not included in the discussion. They were blindsided.
This is a followup to comment 378.
John Oliver discussed the tendency of Republicans to skip around gun control issues by focusing on Mental Health. Mental Health is not something that Republicans support with policy or funds.
We send mentally ill people to jail. Sometimes we put them in nursing homes. Sometimes we release them from care early and give them a Greyhound bus ticket to get them out of town. Republican state governors refuse Medicaid expansion that could cover programs that treat mental illness.
There’s a lot more detail in John Oliver’s presentation.
Mike Huckabee said and did some stupid stuff:
Time link
This is the same Mike Huckabee who called it “economic terrorism” when LGBT groups supported a boycott of Chick-fil-a.
Oh, FFS. Not content with grilling Cecile Richards in a disrespectful manner, and not content with displaying bogus charts, Congress critters have decided to set up a Benghazi-like committee to further investigate Planned Parenthood.
Link
The State of South Carolina is just drowning in flood waters. It is an epic disaster. 14 people died. 18 dams have broken so far, and more dams are threatened.
Lindsey Graham, the Senator for South Carolina, wants some help from the federal government, and he wants it fast. That’s understandable. But this is the same Lindsey Graham who voted against federal aid to help states pummeled by Hurricane Sandy. The hurricane came in late 2012. The vote for the largest federal aid package was held in 2013. When asked about this blatant hypocrisy, Graham replied:
Yeah, I’ll bet a whole bunch of Republican senators can’t explain why they voted against Sandy Relief for northeastern states. Maybe none of them remember how they epitomized a lack of empathy and a shameless partisanship when it comes to helping their fellow citizens.
Hurricane Sandy, which slammed the east coast prior to the 2012 election, was supposed to be “Obama’s Katrina.” Republicans did not want recovery and cleanup to go well. They wanted people to blame Obama for failure to properly respond to a natural disaster.
Public Service Annoucement.
Please check your tinfoil hat and supply of freeze-dried jello. The world will burn up tomorrow. Do not worry. Roast some marshmallows.
Christian group predicts the world will be ‘annihilated’ on Wednesday:
Camping’s original 21 May 2011 predication was for a miracle at 6pm(local tiem, around the world). And there was one at 6pm in Wales: That was the start of the second half of the Heineken Cup Rugby final, and Leinster, who were badly trailing at that point, mounted one of the most astonishing and surprising come-backs and won.
This year is the Rugby World Cup. Tomorrow’s matches are South Africa vs USA, and Namibia vs Georgia. (The final isn’t for a few more weeks.) South Africa is expected to win in their match against the USA, so in keeping with Rugby miracles, does this mean these loonies are predicting a USA win? Or, in another miracle, perhaps they mean Namibia will win their first-ever Rugby World Cup game (this is Namibia’s 5th(?) tournament).
I am so disappointed, per blf’s 391, that the world never ends as predicted by Biblical doofuses. I get all prepared, and nothing happens. Sheesh.
In other news, Ben Carson said some more stupid stuff:
Link
This is a follow up to comment 377. Carly Fiorina’s operations director for her 2010 failed Senate campaign explained not paying some vendors and staffers this way: “If we didn’t win, why do you deserve to get paid? If you don’t succeed in business, you shouldn’t be the first one to step up and complain about getting paid.”
Okay. I hadn’t noticed that “If you don’t succeed in business … ” part earlier. By that criteria, Carly Fiorina should not have left Hewlett-Packard with $21 million in severance pay, plus another $21 million in stocks, options, and pension. She was also given three months of free tech support.
Fiorina pushed Hewlett-Packard into a merger that sent the company’s stock into the basement, and that resulted in 30,000 people losing their jobs.
Link
Bobby Jindal wrote some stupid stuff in relation to the shooting in Oregon:
The quoted text is from an essay that Jindal wrote for his presidential campaign website. The essay also excoriates “shallow and simple minded liberals” for blaming “pieces of hardware for the problem.”
Jindal closed with:
Fun fact, supporters of Democratic Party candidates make about half as many grammatical errors as supporters of Republican candidates when posting comments online.
Democrats also did better at spelling. Those who support Donald Trump made the most mistakes.
Link
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of the many Republican candidates for president, said some stupid stuff about the shooting in Oregon:
One point in Kasich’s favor: he did expand Medicaid in his state, an act which does provide more options for mental health services to people living in Ohio.
Eric Bolling, a Fox News host, said some stupid stuff about background checks for gun buyers:
I think Bolling may be confusing permits and/or licenses required by some states with a supposed fee for the actual background check. At any rate, I don’t get the guns-or-food dilemma he is proposing for poor, urban people.
Some of the residents of Roseburg, Oregon are not pleased about President Obama’s planned visit to their town.
Link
Michele Bachmann said some stupid stuff about the floods in North Carolina.
David Jaques is a fruit-loop. He worked as an “advisor” to our former county commissioner, Marlyn Kittleman (something that no other county commissioner here has ever had) and the two of them were so off-the-rails in their nuttiness that commentators from FAUX Noise actually made fun of them during her tenure. That’s right, someone was such a right-wing nutjob in office that FAUX was calling them over the top. Granted, that was before the rise of the Tea Party, but still.
OT but it’s at least about Ed Brayton, who writes about politics. And there doesn’t seem to be a general discussion topic any more.
Is anyone here in contact with him? There is no – repeat, zero – contact information for Dispatches at its new home. During a recent troll invasion my account somehow got blocked, which is, I assume, an accident, since I wasn’t one of the trolls. I’ve been beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how to even ask if it was for cause.
Thanks, and apologies for the OTness.
No, no, no, yer assuming “succeed in business” means stuff like a for-profit company making an ethical profit and being seen-as an acceptable enterprise. And making / providing / whatever a useful, non-frivolous, non-lethal product&nsbp;/ service…
For example, ah, um, errr… well, there might be such a company…
However, to greedy raptors like Fiorina, teh trum-prat, and so on, it means amassing great personal wealth. Not much else, perhaps having a bunch of flunkies (for firing), other than, of course, amassing even more personal wealth. “Success” means “moar! Moar!! MOAR!!! (for me!!!!)!!!!!”. (The “business” is just because “absolute ruler for life”, the traditional route to “success”, is too much trouble.)
I don’t have any news to post at this point, but I just want to take the time to say FUCK Bobby Jindal (re: Lynna’s #394).
Meanwhile, up in Canada: The current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, seems to have turned from a slightly right-wing dictator to a full-on fascistic xenophobe. He recently made comments suggesting that the civil service might look into banning employees from wearing certain garments. His claim is that he’s standing up for women’s rights, but in reality he’s saying “Boo! Vote for me, else, scary Muslims!”
CBC story on barbaric cultural practices (such as Tory campaign ads).
The worst part is, it seems to be working….
microraptor @400 (in reference to 398), well, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that David Jaques was so far off the rails that even Faux News made fun of him. Roseburg, Oregon must have a concentrated node of rabid rightwing nutjobbiness.
myeck @401, sorry I can’t answer your question. Maybe someone else can help?
Re Saad @403, right. Total agreement.
Re quotetheunquote @404, Stephen Harper might be happier living in Texas or Alabama.
Bobby Jindal followed up on his stupid comment about making the father of the Oregon shooting apologize by issuing a tax plan that, if he were president, would cut taxes for the rich and increase taxes for the poor.
Jindal wants to eliminate deductions that allow many low-income and poor people to pay zero federal income tax. (They do pay other taxes.) He is taking Mitt Romney’s “47 %” comment seriously. He wants poor people to have some skin in the game by paying at least a 2% rate on federal income tax.
The working poor already pay sales taxes, state taxes, local taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare/Medicaid taxes, and sometimes property taxes. They don’t make enough money to meet the requirements of the IRS to pay federal taxes. Jindal wants to partially finance his giveaways to rich people with pennies from the poor.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/bobby-jindal-wants-all-to-pay-some-income-tax-1444172400
Sigh. Here we go again. Time to debunk yet another one of Carson’s anti-factual statements.
Carson thinks our education system has gone down the tubes. (Well, there he stands as an example, so maybe he is right in one sense.)
Carson took a bunch of crap from a chain email, expanded on it, and then made more bogus assertions.
The test to which he refers actually exists. It is from an 1895 (not 1830s) test for eighth graders (not sixth graders) in Salina County, Kansa. Only 25% of those kids graduating from the eighth grade passed that test. Here are six of the 50 questions on the test:
In addition to the 75% failure rate, only about half of the school-age children attended school in Carson’s beloved 1830s, (about 90 to 99% do now, depending on where you are gathering the stats).
The literacy rate in the USA was 30%.
Link
Carson uses a thoroughly debunked quote from Tocqueville to back up his claims. The Tocqueville Fraud was debunked in 1995. The quote Carson attributes to Tocqueville comes from a 1941 book on religion.
This is the bogus quote:
Democrats issued a “Fact Sheet” delineating how Republicans used the Benghazi committee as a vehicle to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign:
http://democrats.benghazi.house.gov/news/press-releases/democrats-release-new-video-and-fact-sheet-couldn-t-be-more-plain
More on the way that Trey Gowdy is using the Benghazi Committee to take down Hillary Clinton:
Washington Post link
See comment 408 for the description of Gowdy’s unnecessary use of armed marshals to bring Blumenthal to the hearing.
According to a new PPP poll, 44 percent of Republicans think that Christianity should be made the official religion of the USA. Theocracy anyone?
Link
Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican doofus likely to become House Speaker; and the guy that recently outed the Benghazi Committee as the partisan attack dog it is; that guy asked us today to, “Stop playing politics with Benghazi.”
In Oklahoma, Governor Mary Fallin wants state lawmakers to amend the state constitution so that she can put the 10 Commandments monument back up on the capitol grounds.
Link
Well, the Rugby miracle, if that is indeed what the nutters @391 were trying to predict, isn’t the USA winning against South Africa at the on-going World Cup. In fact, after a while, the miracle became “the USA will score” (whilst the miracle’s goal-posts moved, the game’s didn’t, not that that would have helped much). They lost, 64–0, so even that miracle-lite didn’t happen.
The Clinton campaign made an ad that uses Kevin McCarthy’s remarks to make fun of House Republicans. Scroll down for video.
Link
The New York editorial board has come out in favor of shutting down the Benghazi Committee.
Link
That should be The New York Times: Shut Down the Benghazi Committee.
Thank you, blf, at 416 for the correction.
In other news, some public schools in Georgia have been shaming elementary students who do not come from religious (i.e. Christian) families.
Think Progress link
Here is some relatively good news out of Utah. More people are noticing that Brigham Young University does not support religious freedom for its students.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/3032642-155/speaker-cancels-talk-at-byu-says
This is from The Grauniad’s “Pass Notes” series, which are short, often snarky, summaries written in a Q&A style, Ben Carson: now rivalling Donald Trump in the stupid department:
Lynna @405- Oregon in general is actually a pretty conservative state once you get outside of Portland, Eugene, or Ashland, but Jaques is considered a wingnut even by local standards.
Actually, he’s something of a Tea Party hipster: he was a Tea Party nutjob before the Tea Party actually existed. He and his partner in insanity Marylin Kittleman have their supporters, but they’re disproportionately represented in things because they’re basically the observation to everything. After the local newspaper insulted Kittleman (by printing the truth about her illegal actions as county commissioner) the two of them started their own paper, the Roseburg Beacon so they could just print whatever BS they wanted. They jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon as soon as it was a thing and pretty quickly wound up as the local chapter head by default. Jaques hasn’t changed a thing, but FAUX has shifted far enough that they’re now on the same wavelength.
A county commissioner in Tennessee introduced a resolution to ask God not to smite the county. Sounds kind of like a Kim Davis-type public servant — very much against same-sex marriage.
Link
Not every one in the community agrees with Blount County Commissioner Karen Miller. A lot of people showed up at council meeting, only to find that the commissioners abruptly adjourned the meeting. The opponents of the ridiculous resolution booed loudly. They wanted to be heard.
Karen Miller says she is not deterred. She will introduce the resolution again.
blf @419, Thanks for that link.
I noticed that Ben Carson was not the only Republican candidate with delusions of Clint-Eastwood-ness. Donald Trump mimed pulling his concealed weapon if anybody gives him trouble. Trump repeated the draw-and-fire mime twice during a speech today when he was talking about the shooting in Oregon.
On Twitter, Trump defended Ben Carson:
Imaginary heroism is easier than real heroism.
Trump has a concealed carry permit.
microraptor @420, Thanks for the additional information. Sigh. I really do not want the likes of Jaques and Faux News teaming up to dispense misinformation — don’t like them agreeing that whackjobbiness is a virtue.
Mike Huckabee said some stupid stuff about President Obama. Huckabee thinks Obama needs to prove he is a Christian. Huckabee had some helpful hints.
Link
This is a followup to comments 381 and 382.
Add Rand Paul to the list of Republicans claiming, falsely, that the Oregon community college was a gun-free zone.
Ben Carson is a presidential candidate who knows very little about government or about public policy.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview:
The host kept trying to explain the difference between the federal debt limit and the budget, but Carson never did get it.
MarketPlace link
Oh, FFS, Jeb Bush is so ill-informed that it is scary. He says he does not support reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act.
Hey, Jeb!, what about Alabama closing drivers’ license offices in majority black counties? Drivers’ license offices are the place where most people get the photo ID they need to vote.
What about North Carolina moving polling locations to places that would require black voters to drive further — ditto for some counties in Maryland.
In Florida, the state that Jeb calls home, voter suppression tactics include voter ID requirements that are discriminatory, reduction of early voting days, restriction of voter registration days, and the blatant removal of hundreds of thousands of voter names from the rolls without good cause.
Jeb knows that without voter restriction and voter suppression tactics, Republicans can’t win. Of course he does not want to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Or, he really is that stupid, he really does believe that comment about it only playing a “constructive role in the 60s.”
Quoted text above is from the Des Moines Register.
Hillary Clinton is coming closer to agreeing with proposals discussed by Elizabeth Warren in the past. Clinton is releasing policy papers that, among other things, discuss bringing criminal charges against Wall Street individuals responsible for sending our economy into a tailspin in 2008 — perhaps I should have said “partially responsible.” They didn’t do that on their own. They had help from Bush/Cheney era policies.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/08/3710471/hillary-wall-street/
The competition for Speaker of the House of Congress has changed dramatically. Kevin McCarthy has taken himself out of the race. He announced that he won’t be running. He said that he had no path to 218 votes on the first ballot on the House floor. As a result, John Boehner said that voting on the House Speaker position would be postponed.
Looks like the rabid rightwing, (more rightwing than McCarthy), has screwed things up again. Obstructionism and a reluctance to actually govern.
For previous discussion of McCarthy in this thread, see the following comments:
302
307
325
332
338
339
411
414
Jason Chaffetz is making it difficult for Democratic Party members of the House of Congress to get a good look at the Planned Parenthood attack videos.
The Hill link
FBI chief: ‘unacceptable’ that Guardian has better data on police violence (the text in {curly braces} are The Grauniad’s edits):
So far, Ok-ish, albeit the claim about it being “not good”, if taken literally, is absurd. The goon’s goon then blows it completely (my added boldfacing):
No, goon. There is no reason for that “have to” qualifier. What doesn’t exist, and what The Grauniad, et al., are assembling, are the fundamentals: How many times goons used force. Independent of cause. They are not filtering-out the unjustified, the “didn’t have to”, uses-of-force.
Erik Rush of WorldNetDaily says that the Obama administration is behind the recent mass shootings.
Right Wing Watch link
So, President Obama’s administration is recruiting people from the “beta male” online forums? Sheesh.
Republican presidential candidate John Kasich showcased his misogyny at the University of Richmond in Virginia. A mix of 500 students, faculty and community members attended the Kasich Town Hall event.
18-year-old Kayla Solsbak wrote about her experience:
The Collegian link
blf @431: At least we are now seeing a more substantial discussion about the fact that law enforcement agencies in the USA do not keep good records, and that crime/arrest/shooting statistics are NOT readily available to the federal government.
Present Obama brought this up during his recent comments on the shooting in Oregon. He noted that NRA lobbyists have worked against legislation meant to ensure that good data is available.
I agree with you that the “have to use force” language is offensive.
This is a followup to comment 429.
Nancy Pelosi recently said:
Yep. The anti-Obama, anti-government, anti-governance faction of the House Republicans has taken over. They’ve thrown a wrench in all the works. Holy crap.
Twitter reactions to Kevin McCarthy dropping out of the Speaker of the House race:
Donald Trump’s response to Kevin McCarthy dropping out of the Speaker of the House race:
“Well it’s pretty obvious what happened,” Dent Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)] said. “The same members who wanted to take down John Boehner, I always said would try to frag the next guy. Well, they just fragged Kevin McCarthy.”
Dent is one of the supposedly “moderate” Republicans in the House. His use of “frag” is instructive. That term is connected to enlisted troops in Vietnam killing their own offices with grenades.
Democratic Senator Harry Reid is concerned that the chaos in the Republican House majority will delay the vote to raise the debt limit. Congress accrued those debts and now they have to agree to pay them. To fail to do so would result in a downgrade of the credit rating of the USA, costing us billions, and causing a lot of chaos that would extend far beyond the House Republican morass.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reid-gop-chaos-debt-limit-raise
Lynna @439
These people actively hate our country.
One interesting factoid is that the Speaker of the House is voted upon by the entire House. Traditionally, each party nominates their candidate, and party line votes make the majority party candidate Speaker. There has been penalties enacted against those who break party discipline in the last century, like loss of seniority and committee positions.
Pelosi might be able to find some 10 democrat house members not running for reelection, and ask them to vote for a Speaker candidate that isn’t for the US defaulting. Shove the reactionaries back into the their cage.
Nerd @441, It is amusing (if also depressing) to see that John Boehner will have to go hand-in-hand to Nancy Pelosi again, basically begging for Democratic support in order to get anything done.
And Boehner was so happy when he announced his departure — singing Zip A Dee Do Dah twice during the press conference, and looking a man with a reprieve from the firing squad.
Chaos among House Republicans is bad for all of us. It is bad for the economy.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/wall-street-rattled-by-house-gop-bedlam-214572
Republicans in general, and Republican presidential candidates in particular, may scoff at “highfalutin science,” but the average citizen in the USA does think that politicians should have a basic understanding of science:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/r-8oa100715.php
Ben Carson dug a deeper hole for himself and for Rupert Murdoch.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/08/3710661/carson-murdoch-obama/
Carson has his facts wrong. President Obama’s 2009 stimulus kept six million people out of poverty. Obama’s first six years as president positively affected job creation — the USA has added approximately five times more jobs in those six years than during the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency. The unemployment rate is now lower than it was when Obama took office.
There are still lots of problem, yes. There is still a racial divide, but our first black president is for real when it comes to addressing economic issues for poor and lower-middle class workers. He could have succeeded even more if Republicans had been more cooperative and less blindly obstructive.
This may not strictly belong here, but there’s been another school shooting. This time in Arizona (Northern Arizona University). One dead, three wounded.
CNN
NAU’s Twitter page
Saad @446, The shooting in Arizona is relevant. Unfortunately, it will give the dunderheaded Republican presidential candidates yet another opportunity to say something stupid about gun control.
Here’s a statement Ben Carson made yesterday, not specifically about the shooting in Arizona, but about gun control in general … and Nazis. It’s always Nazis with Carson. From Carson’s book, as read by Wolf Blitzer during an interview with Carson:
Carson’s comment:
I’ve heard this Nazis-take-our-guns attitude repeated often. Kind of bored with that simplistic take, but it is a meme with strong roots, and it is widely spread among right-wingers. Note that Carson also slipped in the “dictatorial people” phrase, a dog-whistle reference to President Obama.
Some people, including the Anti-Defamation League, have pushed back against Carson’s Nazi comments (see comment 447):
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/ben-carson-defends-hitler-gun-control-comment-214601
Yeah, that’s right, the Anti-Defamation League is “foolish” for referring to historical accuracy, for referring to the facts. Ben Carson, had he been there, would have saved the Jews single-handedly.
This is a followup to comment 428.
More details on Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street reform plan:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-rolls-out-wall-street-plan
This might put some serious holes in the claim that Clinton is overly friendly with Wall Street, or that she has been bought by Wall Street.
Another entry in the teh thug’s The Hunting of The Speaker…
Representative Mark Takano (D-CA) has posted a jobs listing on the position of speaker on craigslist. Reproduced at The Grauniad, Got what it takes to be the next US House speaker? Apply here!: “Never work another weekend? Play golf with the president? Sit front row when the pope visits? […]”
I cannot copy&paste from it, but contains such gems as “Gluttony for punishment and lackluster organizational skills a must”.
Adding to blf’s #450:
From the Wiki article on the Speaker of the House:
The last speaker election in January had three non-house candidates, Allen West (2 votes), Colin Powell (1 vote), and David Walker (1 vote).
So a job ad, while comic, is not totally out of line. And may be the only way to fill the position.
Lynna@434, re me@431: The Grauniad essentially agrees with you, The tracking of police violence in the US may have reached a turning point: “The past week has seen a series of comments regarding the state of documenting US police killings — and some clarity on how the government plans to do so. […]”.
Wikelieaks has just published what may or may not be part of the final draft of the TPP, Wikileaks release of TPP deal text confirms ‘freedom of expression’ fears (my added boldfacing):
I meant Wikileaks in @453…
I’m having horrible connectivity and responsiveness problems at the moment, making it hard to see what I am typing and even harder to proofread.
Time to giev u.p
I’ve been following the TPP discussion, but there’s a big lack of information so far. If blf is correct, and Wikileaks has published the language of the treaty, this is an opportunity to dig into it. Let’s see how much leverage and power it gives to both corporations and nations to screw the public.
Hillary Clinton recently came out against TPP, with the caveat that she had NOT been able to read the entire trade agreement. Bernie Sanders came out against TPP some time ago, as did Martin O’Malley.
Regarding the Speaker of the House fiasco, I saw that job listing on Craigslist. Very clever. Too true, as well.
In the meantime, some of the requirements that the 47 members of the Freedom Caucus (Tea Partiers and other rabid right-wingers) demand of prospective candidates for Speaker have been published. The requirements are outrageous. Here’s an example:
Why do 47 dunderheads have so much power? A new speaker has to have the support of 218 Republicans in the House. There are total of 247 Republicans in the House. If you subtract 47 from 247, you don’t get 218.
Some of the other demands in the “questionnaire” to which the Freedom Caucus subjects potential speakers:
– structural reforms that include cutting Social Security and Medicaid (“structural entitlement reforms”)
– no compromises with Senate Democrats to pass appropriations bills
– shut the government down if President Obama and Senate Democrats do not agree to defund Obamacare
– fund the military, but shut down the education department
Link
More on the Shakespearian tragedy of the search for a Republican Speaker of the House:
Link
Or, maybe PZ could wear red and black underwear in order to hasten Armageddon.
Another college shooting, this time in Texas:
http://isp.netscape.com/news/us/story/1001/20151009/0666
Per Nerd @258, Yet another deadly shooting on campus. Horrible. [Head in hands]
President Obama is considering taking executive action to make some headway on gun control. No doubt Ben Carson and his ilk will find the executive actions “dictatorial,” and other Republicans will claim that Obama’s actions are unconstitutional.
Washington Post link
Some of the protestors who gathered to greet President Obama in Roseburg, Oregon were armed. They also carried “Don’t Tread on Me” banners — emblems of Tea Party whackiness.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-roseburg-shooting-armed-protesters
Speaking of wackos with machine guns, time to put on yer pirate custom, go to yer local mosque, wave plastic swords and laugh at some islamophobic “protestors” this weekend, US Muslim leaders brace for protests with potentially armed demonstrators:
Mother Jones stood up to a conservative mormon billionaire in Idaho, and they won.
Frank VanderSloot loved and backed Mitt Romney. He says he is going to spend even more money to back a 2106 Republican candidate.
Frank VanderSloot dislikes gays, gay marriage and anything that makes the Mormon church look bad. He spent a lot of money fighting marriage equality, and even sued (is in fact, still suing) a gay reporter from a small town Idaho newspaper. When the facts showed that a mormon bishops extended a Boy Scout Troop Leader “calling” to a man who abused boys, VanderSloot spent money wildly to try to kill the story.
VanderSloot made a show of coming around to supporting equal rights for gays recently, but his actions say otherwise.
He is fighting tooth and nail (well, actually, his lawyers are fighting for him, backed by a ton of cash) to muzzle media sources with whom he disagrees. This is a fascinating story, and one that will be even more relevant as VanderSloot gears up to back 2016 Republican candidates.
I think he would be a perfect match for Donald Trump. All that bluster, all that money. But maybe he will back Marco Rubio because Rubio used to be a mormon?
Including, I assume, Reality, Bad Fiction, Good Fiction, plus (especially) the moronic cult’s own stories, bribery, corruption, and its leaders and followers.
We haven’t heard much from the media bout the four Planned Parenthood clinics that were attacked in the last three months. Since the Center For Medical Progress released a series of deceptively edited videos smearing the P.P. organization, acts of domestic terrorism against clinics have increased.
Media Matters link
The movement in the House of Representatives to defund Planned Parenthood, (quixotic at best since most Planned Parenthood money comes from reimbursements for services rendered — reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid, for example), that movement has spawned an even more ridiculous effort in states controlled by rightwing lawmakers. Some states are now trying to criminalize science.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/planned-parenthood-universities-214353
Banning research at universities seems to be the goal.
Now that their underhanded motives in setting up and in prolonging the Benghazi Committee have been revealed, Republicans in the House of Representatives have set up a special committee to investigate Planned Parenthood. They need some place to vent their rage.
The deceptively edited videos that spawned this histrionic display from Republicans have already been debunked multiple times, including in official results from six states that paid for their own investigations. Never mind all that, Republicans are moving forward in their usual manner:
Yeah, that sounds fair. Not.
It’s a show trial. There’s no real reason to spend tax-payer dollars on “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining Abortion Procedures and Medical Ethics at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider.” Yes, that’s the name of the Committee, but it is really just an anti-abortion show trial.
Link
The Benghazi Committee is having more credibility problems. In addition to Kevin McCarthy having outed the committee as a cudgel for Republicans to use against presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, some of the people who worked for the committee are now confirming that it was a partisan attempt to discredit Clinton.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/benghazi-committee-ex-staffer-lawsuit
This is a followup to comments 394, 403, and 406.
Bobby Jindal is doubling down on the stupid comments he made earlier about the shooting in Oregon, comments that included Jindal suggesting that the father of the shooter should apologize.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bobby-jindal-oregon-shooter-father
President Obama gave Kanye West some advice. Funny stuff. Video at the link.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/barack-obama-kanye-west-president
Amy Schumer helped to stage an excellent pro-gun-control fake ad on Saturday Night Live. Good satire.
Scroll down for video.
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/11/amy_schumers_brilliant_snl_devastating_gun_ad_kevin_mccarthy_parody_highlights_near_perfect_show/
Marco Rubio said some incoherent stuff about abortion, and about a woman’s right to choose:
Translation: A woman does not have the right to choose if I take that right away. I will say one thing and do another.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/marco-rubio-i-believe-women-have-right-to-choose-with-their
Ben Carson said some more stupid stuff. Within the last week, Carson had already said that he prefers to see human bodies wounded by gunshots to the awfulness of restricting gun rights, and he associated gun control with a new dictatorial regime that’s just like the Nazis. Now he has added new “facts” about Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Link
Rightwing media is repeating this “little known fact” and is praising Carson. Carson is wrong.
Khamenei never studied in the former soviet Union. Khamenei and Abbas are older than Putin, so during Kahmenei and Abbas’s university days, Putin was 16 years old and still in high school.
Carson claimed he had sources in the CIA and in other government agencies that confirmed his “facts.”
The guy is fucking bugnuts.
Hooray for California! The state is finally cracking down on “crisis pregnancy centers” that are little more than fronts for anti-abortion groups, often religiously based.
This is a win-some-lose-some action. New court battles are on the horizon.
Link
New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, a guy who is still a presidential candidate (with super low poll numbers), said some stupid stuff about fighting Putin.
NY Times link
Marco Rubio also wanted to shoot down Russian planes.
Talking tough while being ill-informed is a dangerous way to approach foreign policy.
Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and bugnuts Republican presidential candidate, said some more stupid stuff:
Atlanta Journal link.
Mr. Carson, “one nation under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance in 1954. The Founding Fathers had nothing to do with that.
Courtrooms do not have “In God We Trust” banners, plaques or inscriptions on the walls.
Congress mandated the change to “In God We Trust” on all currency in 1956. Money was mostly, if not entirely, secular before that.
The”God” stuff Mr. Carson thinks is in our founding documents, is not there.
His definition of schizophrenia is wrong — kind of surprising for a doctor to make that mistake.
Nobody is asking or forcing Mr. Carson to kick God to the curb. That would make an interesting YouTube video, however.
Mr. Carson lost his grasp on reality a long time ago.
Hillary Clinton, who is in Las Vegas for the debate tonight, joined a Culinary Workers Union protest in front of Trump International Hotel. She took the microphone briefly to say:
The state of Texas has sued President Obama thirty times. They spent a lot of tax-payer money, experienced the delight of venting their rage, but they never won a court case. They are, however, not done. Suing Obama is still a thing.
This can be entertaining in a kind of appalling way:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ken-paxton-wife-gun-obama-song
Scroll down for video. I’m including a warning for possible brain damage, or at least a headache warning, of you watch the video. The audience loved it.
Alternate link:
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/ken-paxton/article/ken-paxton-obama-sue-lawsuit-song-angela-6566379.php
This is interesting. Enough people complained about Alabama’s plan to close drivers’ license offices (especially in counties with majority black populations) that the governor, is now looking for a way to mitigate the damages.
Some Republicans can be convinced that they are in the wrong, and/or that their actions will have disproportionately negative effects on African-American communities … and on voting rights. It takes a bulldozer to move them off their privilege pedestals, plus the backing of a lot of public opinion, but it can be done.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bentley-plan-reopen-dmvs
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/10/bentley_plan_would_reopen_clos.html
This fight is not over. A lot of Republican legislators are not backing their governor. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
A lot of media outlets are pushing the idea that the Democratic Debate tonight will be boring because the debaters plan to focus on policy.
I just have to say, what the fuck? This is a debate between presidential candidates. It is supposed to focus on policy. Have we become so used to Trumpian vanity that we can’t watch more serious and appropriate presentations. Sheesh.
Tonight, on CNN, we will see Jim Webb, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee on the debate stage. Maybe we won’t have to discuss Carly Fiorina’s face, an issue that came up in the Republican debate. Maybe we won’t have to discuss the purported beauty, goldenness and massiveness of the imaginary door in Trump’s anti-immigration wall.
The Washington Post thinks we will be “bored senseless” by discussions like “how each would pay for his or her higher-education overhauls.” I don’t find that boring, and after reading a lot of this morning’s news, I am fed up with the pre-debate attempts to reduce the audience by predicting a snooze-fest.
Trump will score the debate on TV ratings alone. Predictable.
Even the NY Times wondered if anyone would tune in, adding: “Donald Trump is a celebrity of a different magnitude entirely, and the rest of the Republican field is a cast of thousands and each one offers a different plot twist.”
What the ever-loving fuck?
Jeb Bush is all for allowing corporations in the USA to deny paid leave to new mothers.
Oh, Jeb! Yes, we do need federal rules. The USA is one of three countries that does not guarantee paid leave. The USA joins Oman and Papua New Guinea in this list.
About 12 percent of workers in America can access paid leave to take care of a new child. Low-income workers are most likely to be denied paid leave.
Some states, like California, make their own rules. Their family leave programs do not hurt employers, and as research has shown, the leave programs have an overall positive impact. At the same time, having no access to family leave, really hurts employees. It hurts them financially and emotionally.
In addition to Jeb Bush, the following Republican candidates have stated that they are against mandatory paid family leave: Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio.
The story on the Democratic Party side is the opposite. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley all support twelve weeks of paid leave.
Lynna @480
At my last job, not only was there no paid maternity/paternity leave, but one coworker who took time off to give birth actually had it counted on her six month performance evaluation and was denied a raise, Assholes.
It’s about time. Conservative columnist David Brooks has finally acknowledged that there is something wrong with the Republican Party.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/opinion/the-republicans-incompetence-caucus.html
Amazing. David Brooks finally got something right.
Brooks still has too rosy a view of the Republican Party of two decades ago (or more), but at least he, as one of the “intellectuals” that conservatives claim as their own, is finally stating the obvious.
Remember the Oath Keepers? They are the armed, militia-type, groups of mostly men who sided with Cliven Bundy in Nevada in a standoff with federal land managers; they are the guys that took up armed guard patrols in front of military recruiting offices (until the military shooed them off); and they are the hate group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Office as having domestic terrorist leanings.
That infamously unreasonable group has come up with a plan to keep students from being murdered during school shootings. I think Ben Carson would like this.
Link
I really, really do not want to see these doofuses sponsoring Oath Keepers chapters on college and high school campuses.
More anti-gay stuff from the rightwing, and it is aimed at children. The Christian Action League, an American Family Association’s affiliate, has published a “Little Red Riding Hood” children’s book that features a big, bad, ultra gay wolf.
Link
Did I say that was a children’s book? I think it might be aimed at the Republican base, illustrations of gay wolf with his hand on his hip and all.
Jeb Bush said some really stupid stuff about health care:
No, Jeb, no. That study compared uninsured people to Medicaid recipients. (Jeb got his insured and uninsured people mixed up. He used both terms.) More importantly, he misread the study and its results. That study did not say that uninsured people got “better quality care” than Medicaid recipients.
The health outcomes that were measured over two years were “blood-pressure, cholesterol, and glycated hemoglobin levels.”
To my mind, reduced rates of depression and financial strain are good outcomes. Again, there was no “better quality care” outcome for uninsured people. Jeb might wish that were true so that he could cut Medicaid funding with a clean conscience, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Medicaid actually protects the people it serves from financial ruin. Jeb is a dunderhead. His brain is not in fully working order.
New England Journal of Medicine link
microraptor @481, that should be illegal. If that woman were rich and could hire a pack of lawyers, she could probably sue the company.
The lack of understanding there, even of economic practicality let alone human empathy, is stunning.
485:
Jeb is, of course, confusing expense provider services with medical service. IE Medicare/aide assists paying for the medical services. Doctors/hospitals provide the care. The choice of medical provider based on ones financial servers is outside the scope of the financial provider’s responsibilities.
Does he clarify the ‘uninsured v. Medicare’ issue? As in; even when uninsured, one can choose one’s healthcare “out of pocket”. While some doctors do not accept medicare payments for services rendered, the place to address that is with the medical profession. Medicare is an insurance program, not a healthcare service.
Lynna @486- yeah, but of course the people getting hired are ones who live paycheck to paycheck so nobody’s going to stand up to them. Hell, when it came time for performance evaluations, my department was A) told that the promised $0.50 raise we were told about at the time of hiring was only going to kick in after 5 years and B) the evaluation for the actual raise ($0.25) included several things that weren’t even done in our department. Seriously, we were being graded on something that we weren’t hired to do and never did as part of our jobs and therefore we were given automatic failures, thus making it literally impossible to actually qualify for the full raise- the highest anyone in the department go was a $0.20 raise.
About that time I decided that I needed to reevaluate the level of effort I actually cared to give.
For today, I am posting most of my political news in this thread:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2015/10/13/the-democrats-are-easy-at-least
Mitch McConell is preparing to hold the debt-ceiling bill hostage. He has already prepared a ransom note to send to President Obama.
Link
In 2011, McConnell used the debt-ceiling bill to create a crisis, and afterwards he said that Republicans were pleased with the results, that the debt-ceiling is “a hostage worth ransoming.”
The debt ceiling has to be raised. This is not an action that can just be shunted aside. Without the raise we default on the USA’s financial obligations.
If Republicans really want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and EPA regulations, the way to do that is to write bills and then vote on them. They know that those bills would fail, so they’d rather take a shortcut that is a threat to our entire economy. They can’t get what they want, so they are going to threaten to blow the whole thing up. Obama won’t pay the ransom. Their shortcut will also fail.
I do wish that the ridiculous tactics of Republicans would make them look worse to their base, and to the American public in general. I think McConnell is forced to make this stupid move by the rabid rightwingers in both the House and the Senate.
Okay! This is good news. We have taken a baby step toward holding gun stores accountable when they sell guns to criminals. It took a lawsuit from two police officers to get this far. A lawsuit from an ordinary citizen might not have fared so well.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/gun-shop-ordered-pay-millions-injured-police-officers-34453798
Prescription drugs are a political issue. How should we regulate drugs, and how should we pay for them? A lot of people find it hard to pay for prescription drugs. And there is tension between the capitalist, let’s-make-money attitudes of most pharmaceutical companies and the need to provide care for everyone, including the poor, including people with diseases that requires years of treatment.
Turing Pharmaceuticals made the problem worse by combining hedge-fund-like activities with drug distribution. Turing CEO Martin Shkreli, PharmaDude, was dubbed the “most-hated man in America” when he hiked drug prices. Shkreli may face his day in court soon.
WTKR link
Wall Street asshole Shkreli raised the drug price by 5000% and, not satisfied with that, worked to make it impossible for other companies to develop a generic replacement. Yes, I’d call that a situation where an antitrust probe is appropriate.
This is a followup to comment 473.
Right-wingers from the USA are exporting their anti-abortion views to other countries, and this includes the deceptive tactic of establishing “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” which do NOT offer healthcare, but do offer anti-abortion propaganda.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/10/14/3712266/us-cpc-ireland/
Ted Cruz said some really stupid stuff about the Black Lives Matter movement. He said at a campaign stop in Iowa today that BLM protestors are “literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers.”
Cruz also claimed that the Obama administration encouraged the “vilification of law enforcement.”
Link
The guy who directed Kirk Cameron’s “Saving Christmas” movie, has released a new film. “The Free Speech Apocalypse” features two Republican presidential candidates, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, as well as a host of other right-wingers.
Right Wing Watch link
Southern Poverty Law Center link
More embarrassing news comes out regarding the Benghazi Committee.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-congressman-says-benghazi-committee-designed-go-after-clinton
Okay, can we throw that committee in the trash now?
Recent events, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Just how miserable is Rand Paul?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/campaign-stunt-exposes-rand-paul-misery-544749635582
Holy crap, that is one miserable guy.
Well, these christians are even meaner than what we’ve come to expect. They beat two teenage boys to make them confess their sins.
http://news.yahoo.com/cops-discuss-mans-fatal-beating-inside-york-church-110209962.html
All of the suspects, everyone who participated in the beatings, pleaded not guilty.
Politics come in where we let abusive religious organizations exist because they are religious. This reminds me of the mormon polygamous colonies on the Utah/Arizona border. They too abused girls, boys, young women and young men for decades.
I doubt that this abusive christian sect will be forced to disband.
Like Republicans before him (Newt Gingrich, for example), Ben Carson may have decided to run for President just to increase sales of his latest book, and to increase his future speaking fees.
Carson is taking a break from the campaign trail between October 2 and October 28. He will continue fundraising and focusing on his book tour.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ben-carson-puts-public-campaign-events-hold-weeks/story?id=34481847
Are we supposed to be able to tell the difference between Carson’s presidential campaign and his book tour?
Some lawmakers in Missouri are considering passing a bill that would force Planned Parenthood to build a memorial to aborted fetuses.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/10/15/3712653/missouri-planned-parenthood-proposal/