A Breast Too Far

‘Family values’ Republican: Men should be allowed to grab breastfeeding women’s nipples in public:

A self-described “pro-family” conservative said on Facebook he should be allowed to grab the nipples of breastfeeding mothers if a law banning women exposing breasts in public didn’t pass. New Hampshire state Rep. Josh Moore (R) deleted the comment, but it was archived and posted by Slate...

Rubio Helps Felon BIL

Rubio Used Public Office To Help Ex-Con Brother-in-Law | Crooks and Liars

Trump Image Bad For POTUS

On Body Fluids and Armpit Farts | Uppity Woman:

...I need to digress a bit to make my next point. I can do that. It’s my blog. My father was an industrial general contractor. I remember him saying often that a certain contractor “Buys his brains”. What he meant was, brains are a commodity that can be acquired if you don’t have any of your own. You hire someone who knows what you don’t know. Everybody does that. But some people know nothing about what they are doing, so they hire ALL their brains. I think Donald hires his brains. And lucky for him he’s good at it. I think he’s worked on that all of his life. However, I am not so confident that this policy will translate well into running an entire country and being the leader of the free world, especially if the President is given to public tantrums. We’ve had good presidents and bad presidents, and if we have learned one thing it’s that the perception of the USA is heavily hinged upon how a President handles him or herself. Some may say that perception doesn’t matter to them. The truth is, in the real world, perception is everything. But that’s one for a post all by itself. Suffice it to say that the Office of The President Of The United States begs at all times for at least a reasonable amount of dignity. Say what you want, but I believe that the vast majority of Americans do not appreciate being embarrassed by a President.

Is Bill Back?

Donald Trump just gave Bill Clinton an excuse to get back into the game. It's going to be glorious.:

...Now Bill Clinton gets to re-enter his wheelhouse. The most enduringly popular man in American politics now has an excuse to take down Donald Trump because, hey, the other guy started it by hitting below the belt. It means Hillary can stay above the fray and focus on legitimate issues, while Bill and Donald duke it out over the sideshow stuff. It’s the populist opportunity that Bill Clinton has been arguably waiting for since he left office. And it’s going to be a sight to see.

The War On Women Continues

Exclusive: Islamic State ruling aims to settle who can have sex with female slaves | Reuters:

Islamic State theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when "owners" of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females...

The Daily Flashback: Revisiting Raygun Edition

Behind the Ronald Reagan myth: “No one had ever entered the White House so grossly ill informed” - Salon.com:

No one had ever entered the White House so grossly ill informed. At presidential news conferences, especially in his first year, Ronald Reagan embarrassed himself. On one occasion, asked why he advocated putting missiles in vulnerable places, he responded, his face registering bewilderment, “I don’t know but what maybe you haven’t gotten into the area that I’m going to turn over to the secretary of defense.” Frequently, he knew nothing about events that had been headlined in the morning newspaper. In 1984, when asked a question he should have fielded easily, Reagan looked befuddled, and his wife had to step in to rescue him. “Doing everything we can,” she whispered. “Doing everything we can,” the president echoed. To be sure, his detractors sometimes exaggerated his ignorance. The publication of his radio addresses of the 1950s revealed a considerable command of facts, though in a narrow range. But nothing suggested profundity. “You could walk through Ronald Reagan’s deepest thoughts,” a California legislator said, “and not get your ankles wet...”

Trump Flogs Gowdy

Trump slams Benghazi hearings head for supporting Rubio: His hearings were a ‘disaster’ for Republicans:

GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump took a few shots at Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Sunday morning for throwing his support behind rival Marco Rubio, stating that Gowdy’s recent hearings on Benghazi were a “disaster...”

I sense a trend.

Huck Flogs Cruz

Terrible Human is Terrible | Mock Paper Scissors:

So when word got out that the Pride of Canada, Ted Cruz is telling donors in NY that he’s not really that hardcore against the ‘mos, Mike ‘Uncle Sugar’ Huckabee went Biblical on him:...

Yeah, Everyone Needs To Be Packing Heat

‘I’ll kill you right now’: Florida man opens fire at McDonald’s restaurant after dispute over order escalates:

An argument over food at a Miami-Dade fast food restaurant escalated into gunfire on Saturday, NBC6 reports.

The incident happened at a McDonald’s restaurant at about 12:30 p.m. local time in Miami-Dade. Witnesses told the station it started when an older man yelled at another customer, telling him that his order was ready...

The Stupidly Absurd Becomes Routine

GOP Debates: The Wild Ideas You Missed While Donald Trump Was Talking - POLITICO Magazine:

...I’ve watched all the debates as well as the undercards live, but when I reviewed the transcripts, I was amazed how many radical statements had slipped under my radar. Ted Cruz called for putting the United States back on the gold standard. Marco Rubio accused President Barack Obama of destroying the U.S. military. Huckabee said Bernie Madoff’s rip-offs weren’t as bad as what the government has done to people on Social Security and Medicare. Lindsey Graham said his administration would monitor all “Islamic websites,” not just jihadist ones. I had even forgotten Trump’s claim that vaccines caused autism in a 2-year-old girl he knew...

Right's Righteous Rage Re Ryan

Fury of the right falls on Ryan | TheHill: prev
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Outside the Beltway, the right is livid with new Speaker Paul Ryan’s trillion-dollar spending deal with Democrats.

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter says Ryan, just seven weeks on the job, is ripe for a primary challenge. “Paul Ryan Betrays America,” blared a headline on the conservative site Breibart.com. And Twitter is littered with references to the Wisconsin Republican’s new “Muslim beard.” 
Ryan is refusing to let the attacks go unanswered and is using his megaphone as the nation’s top elected Republican to try to drown out the chorus of conservative critics...

Whiney Cruz Daughter Rebound

Meghan McCain Takes Up For Cruz: No One Would Have Done This To Obama Or Clinton's Daughters | Crooks and Liars:

...I also don't know what rock McCain has been living under if she honestly believes that no one has ever attacked the Obama girls or Chelsea Clinton, so I'd say it's safe to say she's lying.

You had the attacks over the eye rolling at the turkey pardoning.

There was Glenn Beck mocking Malia asking about the Gulf oil spill.

Rush Limbaugh decided to get in on that as well saying that "we've got a child here playing president."

Wingnut Rep. Steve King attacked the Obama daughters for heaven forbid, going on spring break.

And I'm sure there are many, many more where this came from, but you had El Rushbo calling Chelsea Clinton the White House dog back when she was just 13 years old.

And just this week we had Bill Kristol's son in law's rag referring to Chelsea's new baby as a "spawn."

I'm sure I missed a whole lot more examples of the right wing attacking either Jimmy Carter's daughter, Chelsea Clinton or the Obama daughters, but to borrow a phrase from McCain, this "double standard" just has me exhausted.

Paul Won't Sit At Kids' Table

Rand Paul: I won't do an undercard debate - POLITICO:

Rand Paul will not accept being relegated to an undercard debate and is willing to protest, the Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday.

“I won’t participate in any kind of second-tier debate,” Paul declared in a radio interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade...

Political Or Not?

Fire at Bill Clinton’s childhood home being investigated as arson - The Washington Post:

Authorities say a fire that caused minor damage to former president Bill Clinton’s first childhood home in Hope, Ark., may have been arson.

Hope Police Department Chief J.R. Wilson said a motorist spotted flames early Friday at the Clinton Birthplace National Historic Site. Wilson said that when firefighters arrived a short time later, flames were shooting 8 feet into the air on one side of the structure, a two-story white frame house...

Rove Goes Stupid Again

Karl Rove: Obama wishing Americans “Merry Christmas” in Hawaiian proves he’s un-American and soft on ISIS - Salon.com:

Former “Bush brain” Karl Rove published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal yesterday in which he complained about President Barack Obama’s “odd” decision to wish Americans “Merry Christmas” with foreign-sounding Hawaiian words, which he linked via juxtaposition to statements the president made about ISIS in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep earlier this week...

Cruz Hearts Voter Suppression

Cruz defends Alabama’s DMV closures, drawing fire from the Clinton campaign - The Washington Post:

During a campaign swing through Alabama, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) defended the state's controversial decision to shutter 31 offices that provided driver's licenses -- documents now required in order to cast a vote. When CBS-5 Mobile reporter Emily DeVoe asked about the closings, focusing on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's criticism of them, Cruz chalked it up to liberal stereotypes about the South...

Sense Quietly Slips Into Federal Budget: Re Pot

Congress Quietly Ends Federal Medical Marijuana Prohibition | Crooks and Liars

Buried in the 1,600 pages of Congress' new spending plan is a quiet little passage that radically alters the way America treats medical marijuana.


The provision ends the federal prohibition on medical marijuana and bans federal agents from policing its users or raiding dispensaries in any state or district where it is legal...

Laughing At Fleeing Cons

driftglass: Conservative Farmers Despondent Over Bumper Crop of Conservatism:

So there you are, a lifelong member of the Conservative Elite. Loyal writer of speeches and tanker of thinks, who has logged enough hours trashing Liberals and prostrating yourself at St. Ronald Reagan's reliquary of terrible ideas that you have become a minor but fixed point in the Wingnut Welfare firmament.

And now that you have tilled the Conservative soil under the blazing LED screen and planted and fertilized and watered and weeded your fields with care -- now that you have lived to see what you have help grow from tiny seedlings of hate and paranoia and grow so tall and strong that it blots out the sun...

Feel The Barney

Barney Frank left them speechless on Meet the Press (VIDEO):

...The zinger of the segment however came from Barney Frank’s comment about the bankers. He said,

I do want to add one thing though to your question about those poor beleaguered bankers who have been forced to do so much to keep from not being able to pay their debts, that they can’t lend money. If they really are running businesses that are so stressed that they can’t do their basic work, why are they paying themselves so much money?

That statement left Bartiromo, Paulson, and Gregory temporarily speechless with facial expressions that said it all. They were trapped and unable to speak to acknowledge the fact laid out by Frank. Their enslavement to the Plutocracy was evident. Gregory had a nervous laugh as Bartiromo again deflected.

This is what America has become. The mainstream media and our politicians are nothing but wards of the Plutocracy.

The Creation Of The Low-Fi Voter

Paul Krugman: Donald Trump’s winning because GOP trained its base not to care about facts, truth - Salon.com:

In his Monday New York Times column, Paul Krugman gave a brief history of the Republican Party’s commitment to political style over policy substance, concluding that the ascendancy of Donald Trump is merely establishment Republicans being forced to occupy the bed they made.

“George W. Bush was supposed to get your vote because he was someone you’d enjoy having a beer with, unlike that stiff, boring guy Al Gore with all his facts and figures,” Krugman argued. When Gore attempted to discuss policy differences, Republicans complained about the candidate’s “fuzzy math” and the media went right along with them, deeming the vice president to have lost the debates...

This CDS Was Inevitable--- And Very Sad

There's disgusting, then there's this sweaty ballsack of sanitorium.

Bill Kristol's Tabloid Refers To Chelsea Clinton's New Baby As 'Spawn' | Crooks and Liars:

The GOP, also known as the party of hypocrisy, prides itself on being just a mean-spirited bunch of bullies and no one exemplifies that sordid reality more than Matthew Continetti, the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon. Hillary Clinton Derangement Syndrome is practically its own section in the third rate tabloid, and nothing is sacred, not even the joyful announcement by Bill and Hillary's only daughter, Chelsea, that she is pregnant with their second grandchild. Here's how this publication felt compelled to announce the news...

Crazy In NC: Organized Crime Edition

EXCLUSIVE: Corrupt North Carolina Officials Try to Silence Whistleblower Using Child Protection Services:

A massive fraud cover-up in the state of North Carolina has Randy Davis fighting mad. The corruption involves senators, the NC Commission of Indian Affairs, the Coharie Intra-Tribal Council, and entire departments within Sampson County – including Child Protection Services (CPS) – where Randy lives.

The laundry list of crimes, which stretches back to the 1920s, is extensive and involves everything from misuse of federal HUD and USDA funds, to virtually every civil rights violation imaginable, to a massive land grab and falsifying birth and death certificates. The whole ugly story resembles the mafia – whole generations of families in NC with multiple crimes and cover ups. And Randy Davis not only knows everyone involved – he allegedly has hundreds of documents, audio and video to prove every bit of it. That apparently makes him a high value target that needs to be silenced...

Clinton Without Horns

Sunday Morning Rude Awakening | The Confluence:

...She was surprised at this?

Oh, that’s right. For the past 22 years, we’ve had to put up with the Sally Quinn’s and Tweety’s painting this image of Hillary Clinton as being a cold, calculating, unpleasant, humorless opportunist. Turns out that when you actually start to pay attention, because she is one of the few candidates this campaign whose qualifications and experience have to be taken seriously, then you start to realize that maybe, just maybe, you’ve been lied to. But it is a universal truth that every Mean Girl Queen Bee knows that if you keep repeating lies and distortions, deliberately mischaracterize a person’s intentions and actions, and mock them relentlessly, the target’s actual behavior, while being perfectly normal, can almost be seen to be completely at odds with what you’ve been told. You’ve got to re-evaluate. Maybe you’ve been wrong...

Not Quite "Bitter Clingers"

Obama Accuses Trump of Exploiting Working-Class Fears - The New York Times:

President Obama said in a radio interview airing on Monday that Donald J. Trump, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is exploiting the resentment and anxieties of working-class men to boost his campaign. Mr. Obama also argued that some of the scorn directed at him personally stems from the fact that he is the first African-American to hold the White House...

O is correct, of course, but I'm glad he didn't escalate it any further.

Bob of Borg Talks Football

About That Theft, Bernie

The Thief Says He’s The Victim. Meh. At Least This Debate Will Be Interesting | Uppity Woman:

...Listen, a couple of you left a window in your homes open to air a room out, so I just hopped in and stole your jewelry.

It’s your fault, you know. If you had closed your window, I wouldn’t have your stuff right now. So suck it up and don’t pick on me. Oh and by the way, I dropped my keys in your house while I was foraging. I need to get back in. If you don’t let me back in, I’m going to sue you. Okay?

Why are you picking on me! Can’t you see I am old white guy? Rank has its privileges, you know! There you go again!!!!:...

Teh Stoopid Has Been Weaponized

Political ignorance and bombing Agrabah - The Washington Post:

A recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 30% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats say they support “bombing Agrabah” – the fictional nation portrayed in the Disney movie Aladdin. This is not a surprising result. Pollsters have long known that it is easy to get survey respondents to express opinions about nonexistent legislation, such as the “Metallic Metals Act.” It is also easy to elicit survey responses that reveal widespread scientific ignorance. For example, one recent poll found that 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA...”

In Other Words, Cruz Is...

...a typical Republican.

The Daily 202: Is Ted Cruz a phony? - The Washington Post:

...Cruz has also been hit by the hawks and doves in his party for what they characterize as shifting rhetoric on the U.S. role in the Middle East.

“I think that Ted Cruz is a man who is lost,” said Lindsey Graham, his hawkish South Carolina colleague and rival in the presidential race. “He is trying to be an isolationist when that’s hot; he’s trying to be a Lindsey Graham-type when that’s hot...”

NYT Continues Pooching The Facts

Commenter bonneyanne and I had a discussion about this just yesterday:



The New York Times Has a Source Pollution Problem:

The New York Times has a serious source pollution problem. As is now obvious, somebody fed the paper bad information on San Bernardino murderess Tashfeen Malik's social media habits. It was said that she was posting jihadist screeds on Facebook. The Times hyped the scoop by stating pretty clearly that the government—and the administration running it—slipped up. It was the inspiration for endless bloviating about how "political correctness is killing people" at Tuesday night's Republican debate. Then comes FBI director James Comey to say that, no, there were no public Facebook posts that the government missed because there weren't any at all...

Torture Today In Almost Crime Prosecutions

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses - The New York Times:

...Americans have known about many of these acts for years, but the 524-page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report erases any lingering doubt about their depravity and illegality: In addition to new revelations of sadistic tactics like “rectal feeding,” scores of detainees were waterboarded, hung by their wrists, confined in coffins, sleep-deprived, threatened with death or brutally beaten. In November 2002, one detainee who was chained to a concrete floor died of “suspected hypothermia.”

These are, simply, crimes. They are prohibited by federal law, which defines torture as the intentional infliction of “severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” They are also banned by the Convention Against Torture, the international treaty that the United States ratified in 1994 and that requires prosecution of any acts of torture...

So No FB Terror Posts?

San Bernardino Suspects May Not Have Discussed Jihad, ISIS on Facebook, According to FBI Director:

... On Wednesday morning, FBI director James Comey told a press conference that, no, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik did not post on social media about their allegiance to jihad and their intention to commit acts of jihad in the United States. They did communicate in what Comey called "private, direct messages..."

...If you want to look at the New Normal, with which my man Chuck Todd seems to be rather thoroughly impressed, look at how we jump at shadows. Put this announcement together with the freakout in LA and it makes you wonder if Daesh even has to spend any money building bombs anymore. All they need is an Internet café and some flannel-mouths in the United States intelligence community and they can derail daily life and a presidential campaign. It's pretty clear that it's time for the FBI to engage in a discreet, but thorough, search for leakers because the three days in which "THEY SAID THEY WANTED TO KILL US ON FACEBOOK! THANKS, OBAMA!" did nobody any good.

White Terrorist

This White Terrorist Plotted To Kill Innocent Americans, But You Probably Haven't Heard Of Him:

A 55-year-old man thought he had procured a working X-ray device that could focus lethal levels of radiation on residents of an upstate New York community.

It's exactly the kind of horrific plot that might raise the alarm amid the heightened concern over terrorist attacks on the United States. But there's something notably different about this case -- Eric Feight is white, and his intended victims were Muslim-Americans...

tRump Irks Rush Et. Al.

Donald Trump upsets Rush Limbaugh with Ted Cruz attack.:

...If Trump continues hitting Cruz with these so-called “Democrat Party” attack lines, he risks losing the few powerful media voices who have been cheering on his ridiculous campaign. For a smarter way of going after the conservative senator, Trump might take notice of Cruz’s recent habit of saying one thing about immigration in public and another to his donors. There are so few exposed areas on Cruz’s conservative armor that you’d better hit them when they appear. To misfire on Cruz is to shift your shared fan base in his direction.

GOP Identity Cult

Republicans Have Nothing to Fear But the Fear of Shifting Demographics:

...They can't admit it. It goes against all their conditioning, all their training. They simply cannot admit that, for going on 40 years now, the warm heart of the Republican party—namely, the conservative movement and the fundamentalist Protestant right, both of which rose to power in the late-70's—has converted that party into an identity-based cult, and now the reactor's gone super-critical and nobody can remember which buttons to push and which dials to spin. At this point, their identity is their ideology—an ideology of victimhood, and of the fantasy oppressors that people outside the cult see merely as evidence of a changing world. They look at the country's shifting demographics the way that the Heaven's Gate people looked at the Hale-Bopp comet. It's going to take something seriously awful to shake them to their senses and, frankly, I'm not sure I want to live through whatever that has to be...

Hurricane tRump: The Perfect Metaphor

Donald Trump Has Had It With Hillary Clinton’s Nonstop Murder Spree | Wonkette:

Trump warned that Republican leaders who hope to steal the nomination from him at a brokered convention are sadly mistaken, my friend, sadly mistaken, because he is an unstoppable force of nature, and Hurricane Trump has no plans to stop blowing hard:...

Clinton Thumps tRump

Poll: Clinton would sail to win over Trump | TheHill:

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton would easily defeat GOP counterpart Donald Trump in a general election match-up, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released early Monday...

The Reasonable Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shockingly reasonable climate-change plea - Salon.com:

Arnold Schwarzenegger posted an article on his Facebook page this week that could be one of the most salient arguments in support of fighting human-made global warming we’ve yet seen — especially from a Republican.

Never in a million years did I think Arnold Schwarzenegger would be the guy who’d so clearly define the realities of the climate crisis. But there you go.In typical Arnold style, he took the fight directly to the people who need it the most. It’s too bad that the people who he tried most to convince will be the bubble-people who will plug their ears and shout, “Not listening!”...

Department Of Duh: GOP Racism

What social science tells us about racism in the Republican party - The Washington Post:

...Research has shown that voters who favor Republicans are more likely to hold racial biases against people of color. For instance, nearly one in five Republicans opposes interracial dating, compared to just one in 20 Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center...

FiGhoul's Head Nears Explosion Over PP

Watch Carly Fiorina explode at CNN’s Chris Cuomo for refusing to allow her to continue to lie about Planned Parenthood - Salon.com:

Fading Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina appeared on CNN’s “New Day” Friday only to discover that co-host Chris Cuomo remembered he was a journalist and was intent on holding her feet to the pro-life fires she’s been stoking since this summer.

Cuomo suggested that the man who shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, Robert Dear, was “influenced by some of the rhetoric that was coming out of you that painted a very ugly, unfair picture of Planned Parenthood...”

Benghazi Again! (Part 19 Million)

They have no shame: It’s confirmed, Fox News lied egregiously (again) in its latest Benghazi “bombshell” - Salon.com:

 On Wednesday, I picked apart the latest attempt by conservatives to churn up some old-fashioned Benghazi conspiracy theorism, as Fox News used some clumsy sleight of hand to suggest that the Obama administration had lied about not being able to save the people under attack at the Libyan diplomatic outpost. Fox’s entire argument was based on a newly released, partially redacted email that, per the conservative network, “contradicted” former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s claim that there were no military assets capable of arriving to Benghazi in time to make a difference. As I and others noted, the email didn’t actually contradict Panetta, and the whole thing was trumped-up nonsense. Well, now the Democrats on the Benghazi committee have released the full, unredacted email, and it confirms what we already knew: Fox News lied, and rather egregiously so...

Fox Drooges & Their Children

Morning Joe Panel Attacks Obama "as Parents":

...Every day, there are kids on the west side of Chicago who go to school with gunfire in the background. There are kids in the Mississippi Delta who go to school hungry, and who are sick with preventable diseases. There are kids in Appalachia who are sick because good dental care is unavailable to them. There are kids in Israel, and on the West Bank, in Somalia, and all over the world who get up every day with actual war being made all around them.

My children are all grown and, no, I don't want them to get shot at a rock concert, but I'd also like them to be able to go to Miami Beach when they retire, so it would be nice if we could do something to make sure Miami Beach will still be there. It is the height of journalistic cowardice to attack the president behind your children. If your kids are shaken by what they see on cable news, then don't let them watch cable news. In fact, that's a very good notion of child-raising all on its own...

GOPer Admin Shoves Koch Down Faculty Throats

WCU leaders, faculty at odds over Koch-funded free enterprise center:

Western Carolina University leaders bucked concerns of faculty when they voted last week to create a free enterprise center funded with outside money from politically-charged mega donors.

The WCU faculty senate voted overwhelmingly against the creation of such a free enterprise center in October — three in favor and 21 opposed. The majority who weighed in during a faculty forum and written comment period also opposed the free enterprise center...

Will tRump Kill The GOP?

Trump Is Devouring The GOP, And Fox News Fed It To Him | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...In August, I suggested that Fox News, via the unwieldy Trump charade, had "eaten the Republican primary season" and that the "slow-motion fiasco is only going to get much, much worse for Republicans."

Has it ever.

Trump is now on the verge of devouring the entire Republican Party in terms of its branding and what it stands for in the minds of voters. How can the GOP reach out to mainstream, independent voters next November when Fox News defends, or explains away, Trump's bouts of birtherism and Islamophobia -- while he leads the Republican polls?

Actually, note that most conservative commentators deplored Trump's outlandishly unconstitutional anti-Muslim plan. But not all. On Fox News Tuesday morning, the crew blamed Obama for essentially forcing Trump to take the radical leap. (Fox's Kilmeade did concede Trump's idea "seems extreme.")...

If Only...

A Southern Pastor: I Am Done:

As of this moment, I am done. No more news stories. No more shaking my head. No more arguing. No more worrying and being scared of what all of this means about the direction in which this country is headed. I am done.

The Donald Trump bankruptcy of intelligence and kindness is no longer funny or entertaining. It passed ridiculous and upsetting long ago. Now it is unconstitutional and scary. It is hatred and violence unlike any we have seen since the concentration camps and lynchings which occurred in industrial nations in the mid-twentieth century. It has gone too far.

It is time to take back our American values and beliefs. The only way to do that is to stop giving these violent, fascist, non-American public figures a voice. As of today, I am done.

I call upon the media to stop covering what Donald Trump and anyone else who spews hatred and violence says. No more air time, no more stories, no more videos, no more voice...

OMG Teaching

CURMUDGUCATION: Guest Post: No Excuse, Deceptive Metrics and School Success:

...On the wall to their right is a list of the class averages from the last six network assessments (taken by all second graders across the charter network�s three campuses), all of which are in the 50s and 60s. Even though these two-hour tests are designed by network leaders to be exceptionally challenging— a class average of an 80% is the holy grail of teachers, who use their students� scores to compete for status and salary increases— this class�s scores are the lowest in the school, and the students know it.
The teacher speaks to them in a slow, measured tone. “When I left school here yesterday, after working hard all day to give you a good education so you can go to college, I felt disappointed. I felt sad.”
Shoulders drop. Children put their faces in their hands.
“And do you know why?” The teacher looks around the circle; children avert their eyes.
One child raises her hand tentatively. “We didn�t do good on our tests?”
The teacher nods. “Yes, you didn�t do well on your assessments. Our class average was very low. And so I felt sad. I went home and I felt very sad for the rest of the day...”

The End Of Rand

Rand Paul’s sad final days: Donald Trump, the Koch brothers and the slow fizzle of the GOP’s libertarian/millennial dream - Salon.com:

...The short-term answer clearly involves the rise of Donald Trump. If you’re Rand Paul, it would be difficult to draw any other conclusion. The 10 percent to 20 percent of the Republican primary base that might normally turn out for a Ron or Rand Paul has shifted to the populist, xenophobic camp of Donald Trump. Libertarians come in all shapes and sizes, and if the polls are to be believed, many prefer at this moment to support a candidate who gives voice to their frustrations rather than their hopes for reducing the scale and size of government. As Michael Lind at Politico put it back in September:...

On The Gun License

Gun Control Is A Quagmire, But Here's A Realistic Solution | Crooks and Liars

...For my idea to work, we'll need to create a new department of the Federal government - let's call them "The Department Of Firearm Safety," or "DFS" - and their job is to work much like the DMV, but for gun control. The DFS would have offices all over America, pretty much wherever a DMV office exists. And if you want to own a gun, you'll need to spend some time there. If you're a gun owner, this already sounds terrible, but stay with me… I think it gets better...

I've seen this idea proposed many times over the years, but it has never gained any traction. Perhaps, it is time it should, though I think it will take a ruling from the SCOTUS to get the ball rolling.

What tRump Understands

driftglass: Donald Trump Is The Most Honest Man In Politics:

...To catch you up. the core thesis of the Vox article you may or may not have just slipped away to read was this:

Their trepidation has less to do with the fact of Trump lying than with the way he lies. They don't mind being properly lied to; it's all part of the game. What they cannot countenance is being rendered irrelevant. Trump is not kissing the ring. He barely bothers to spin the media. He does not need them, or give two shits what centrist pundits think. Their disapproval only strengthens him. Media gatekeepers are in danger of being exposed as impotent bystanders.

Trump understands what we Liberal bloggers have long understood -- that the Beltway media gatekeepers are not guardians of the truth or the integrity of journalism, but are instead the deeply corrupt priesthood of the American political system, who live large off the awesome and terrible power of a Holy Fraud which they themselves have invented...

No Endorsement Yet

The Day - Sen. Warren: I'm not ready to endorse in Democratic presidential race - News from southeastern Connecticut

The Loony Left Goes Stupid

Uber-Liberals Are Now Likening Hillary Clinton to Dick Cheney:

The professional hysterics at Salon—and, Lord, some of the commentary over there these days is audible only to dogs—have been warming up the old Naderization facility in the fairly reasonable assumption that Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for president.​​..

These are roughly the same idiots who managed to put George Bush in office instead of Al Gore. Yeah, we should really listen to them.

Vets On Gun Safety

Army veteran: It's time for vets to speak up about gun safety | MSNBC:

...Parker exercised the common sense of a trained military veteran and responsible gun owner. Without knowledge of the tactical environment, he held his post. Parker was a good guy with a gun; Mintz was a good guy without a gun. Both veterans made decisions that likely saved lives.

The discipline Parker exercised didn’t come part and parcel with being a gun owner. Rather, Parker did the right thing because of his military training. Like every member of the military, Parker was trained on how to properly carry, clear, disassemble, clean, reassemble, load, aim, discharge, and safely store any firearm for which he was accountable. Because of his tactical training, Parker knew that, oftentimes, proper use of a firearms...

Calling Out The Xian Victims

A Few Words About 'Prayer-Shaming':

...I am heartily fed up with this nonsense. I am heartily fed up with people whose personal relationships with their personal Lords And Saviors lead them to knuckle the poor, subjugate women, brag about their gunmanship, and topple inconvenient regimes that happen to be sitting on an ocean of oil. I am heartily fed up with people whose support for Israel is based on a couple of misunderstood passages from the craziest book in the Bible in which Jesus comes back to Earth as an X Man and gets into some enthusiastic disemboweling. And I am heartily fed up with alleged Christians who contribute to some very curious damn poll numbers...

Diapers Goes Down ...And Out

Democrat wins Louisiana governor’s race in surprise upset:

Democrats in Louisiana rejoiced as they reclaimed the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years, while the state’s GOP leader insisted “our Republican brand is strong” even amid the defeat of a one-time political powerhouse, Republican U.S. Sen.

After the results were announced, Vitter said he will also not run for re-election to the Senate...

...and the storm clouds parted and angels sang.

Tax Cheats Prospering

U.S. firms amass more untaxed foreign earnings:

Major U.S. corporations continue to amass increasing totals of foreign earnings held beyond the reach of the IRS as Washington efforts to revise the federal tax code remain stalled.

The ten firms with the largest stockpiles of indefinitely reinvested foreign earnings — revenue not subject to U.S. corporate income tax — collectively hold at least $724 billion of the funds, a review of financial filings shows...

The Daily Flashback: First Modern GOPer Edition

Have You No Decency? | Crooks and Liars:

This week in 1954, the U.S. Senate voted 67 to 22 in favor to “condemn” paranoid, communist-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy for “conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute...”

Another Rant On GOPer PP Guilt

The Murders At Planned Parenthood And The Unbelievable GOP Response | Crooks and Liars:

...Innocent people were maimed and murdered by an anti-abortion zealot driven to that kind of madness by relentless, hate-filled, dishonest propaganda perpetrated and generated by Republican leaders. Yes, Republicans.

And yet, days later, the publisher of a major American newspaper goes on television and endorses a Republican candidate based almost exclusively on his past actions against legalized abortion and against the very organization currently in the news, not over anything they've done wrong, but because somebody went in and shot up one of their clinics. (I'm repeating myself. I know. Allow me.)...

Crass & Crude Cruz

Ted Cruz on Birth Control: 'We Don’t Have a Rubber Shortage in America' - ABC News:

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz took a question about women's access to birth control and turned it into an attack against Democrats Monday, saying at an Iowa town hall that they've manufactured a war on women and falsely painted conservatives as the "condom police."

"Last I checked, we don’t have a rubber shortage in America. Look, when I was in college, we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voila. So, yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them, but it’s an utter made-up nonsense issue,” Cruz said at a campaign stop in Bettendorf, Iowa...

So murder at Planned Parenthood is a 50 cent issue?

Not Letting Go Of PP Murders

And I hope other people don't either.

Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting - You Can't Blame Republican Rhetoric, Says S.E. Cupp:

...Can I also mention that the "rhetoric" prior to the FRC shooting consisted of the Southern Poverty Law Center's listing of the FRC as an anti-gay hate group, an accusation that, as far as I know, never was picked up by any major Democratic politician, and that the accusation has not stopped Tony Perkins from enjoying the fruits of television celebrity, or prevented Republican politicians from seeking his counsel and endorsement? Whereas, the completely phony Planned Parenthood videos have been a major talking-point among all major Republican politicians this year, including every one of the presidential candidates. They have been used all over the radio to rouse the rabble, and they have been a staple of Mr. Murdoch's Angry Shut-In TV News. This has resulted in a major hit to the organization's finances and, now, it has led to a crazy man's killing three people, including an Iraq war veteran and a cop...

The Daily Flashback: Leftist Killers Edition

Well, as predicted the black hole spin about the PP murders has circled back to trying to convince that the killer is a left wing, transgendered godless Democrat. Nonsense, of course, but it is hardly the first time such crap has reverberated through the great right wing echo chamber.

The idea that recent mass shooters are mostly registered Democrats is a myth | Examiner.com:

Based on the assertions of Roger Hedgecock a right-wing radio show host, the meme that the five worst recent mass shootings were committed by registered Democrats is making its way through e-mail chains and social media. Hedgecock asserts, without providing any evidence or sources, that the Ft. Hood shooter, the Virginia Tech shooter, the Aurora Theater shooter and Adam Lanza of Sandy Hook infamy were all “registered Democrats”. He acknowledges that Klebold and Harris (the Columbine Colorado shooters) were too young to be registered voters but asserts, again without providing any evidence, that Harris and Klebold’s parents were progressives or liberal Democrats. All of these charges are utterly baseless and perhaps do not even deserve a response. However, given the effectiveness of right-wing lies in saturating social media and duping the incurious (a far too numerous segment of the population), some more detailed debunking is in order...

The Guilt Of The Right

Pottery Barn Terrorists: You Broke 'Im, You Bought 'Im | Crooks and Liars:

The Horror

...The vehemence bordering hysteria with which they thrust this man away from themselves belies the horrible verdict that fair-minded people will reach: the Right Wing created Rob Dear, put the gun in his hand and shoved him toward Planned Parenthood.

Stochastic terrorism is the mechanism by which so-called lone wolves like Dear became, in fact, the product of relentless programming specifically designed to radicalize malcontents to action. I recommend you all follow the link, and this one, as together they are a damning indictment not just of the Right, but of the weakly compliant and meekly complicit media who succumb to both-siderism out of fear and/or laziness...

WTH Bernie

Unintended?  Unintended? These loons have been calling for the murder of abortion providers and anyone who supports them for decades! Get your head out of your rectum and call them for what they are--- otherwise you're not a truth-sayer and a man of the people-- you're just another pol grinding a different axe. Become the Trump of the Left and you might gain some traction among moderates.

Bernie Sanders Calls Planned Parenthood Shooting An Unintended Consequence Of Bitter Rhetoric | Crooks and Liars

The Daily Flashback: Florida Recount Edition

The Bush presidency was my fault: I am so sorry my work stopped the Florida recount -

Salon.com: ...Later when the Florida Supreme Court weighed in, Chief Justice Charles T. Wells cited me in his dissent from the majority decision of the rest of his court to allow for a manual recount of the undervote in Florida. Summarizing the legal maneuverings, I simply note that in part because of Wells’s dissent the ongoing recount was discontinued, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and George Bush was (s)elected president...

Motive? For Murder At PP-- Let's Guess

Investigators search for motive in Planned Parenthood shooting that left three dead - The Washington Post:

The day after a gunman stormed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, investigators were working to determine what prompted the shooting that resulted in the death of three people, including a police officer...

Does Colorado have the highest shooting rate per capita in the US?

Trump Goes Really Low

Trump denies mocking journalist who has disability, demands an apology - The Washington Post:

A day after he was widely rebuked for mocking a reporter with a physical disability, business mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump on Thursday denied that he had done so and accused the reporter of “using his disability to grandstand.”

Trump also demanded an apology from the New York Times, the reporter’s employer, which earlier in the week issued a statement condemning Trump for ridiculing “the appearance of one of our reporters...”

Worse Excuse For Murder Ever

Fox Host: Lesson From Chicago Shooting Is Laquan 'Should Not Have Been Walking Away' | Crooks and Liars: MaCallum interrupted:

..."But how many situations where someone turns around and says, 'I've got a gripe with you police officer, but I'm going to go with you and then we're going to hash this out.' I mean, this young man should not have been walking away from police who were asking him to come over and talk to them because it ended in absolute tragic circumstances for him and his family..."

Doubling Down On Delusion

Amid Latest Controversy, Trump Claims 'World's Greatest Memory' - NBC News:

...The front-runner is now acting invincible — he even told NBC News in a phone call that he has "the world's greatest memory" — despite intense push back on his latest claims, including that "thousands and thousands" of U.S. Muslims were cheering in Jersey City, N.J., after the Twin Towers came down on 9/11...

Why Lie?

Of all the horns to honk on the Gop Klown Kar, this one, so far, is the weirdest.

Donald Trump's 9/11 celebration claim widely disputed - CNNPolitics.com:

Donald Trump twice repeated over the weekend that he saw people cheering in New Jersey after the September 11 attacks -- but his claims are being widely disputed as false.

GOP primary rival Ben Carson also said he witnessed the same, but his campaign walked back his statement later on Monday...

Dem Gov In LA

John Bel Edwards, Democrat, Defeats David Vitter in Louisiana Governor’s Race - The New York Times:

With a victory that defied political geography and near universal predictions from just months earlier, a previously little-known Democrat, State Representative John Bel Edwards, soundly defeated United States Senator David Vitter in a runoff election on Saturday to become the next governor of Louisiana...

Preventing Murder

Anti-terrorism ‘ghosts’ waging war from behind a computer | The Times:

...Ghost Security Group, which counts former military computer experts among its members, is credited with providing intelligence that foiled a terrorist attack against British tourists in Tunisia this year...

Being Safe

The Seduction of Safety, on Campus and Beyond - The New York Times:

I have been searching for safety for most of my life. I experienced a brutal assault when I was young and in that terrible moment, I learned I was vulnerable in unimaginable ways. I have come to crave safety, the idea that I can live free from physical or emotional harm. As an adult, I understand that there is no such thing as safety, that safety is promised to no one, but oh the idea of it remains so lovely, so elusive...

Comment Of The Day: Marco Terror Plan Edition

Florida Man Has All the Answers on How to Destroy ISIS

Craig Swarts ·Columbus, Ohio
So if we unpack Marco Rubio's prescription for dealing with the ISIS threat, we end up with the following scenarios:  
 1) We reignite the civil war in Iraq by insertingAmerican military force on behalf of the Sunni and Kurdish regions of Iraq, while destroying any possible diplomatic outreach to the Shia-led government.
 2) We declare a no-fly-zone in Syria, which effectively means that the U.S.targets Russan planes and starts a war with the second largest nuclear power on Earth.

Southern Baptist Minister Flogs GOP!

At Least One Southern Baptist Has A Soul | Crooks and Liars:

Occasionally, a prominent Christian minister actually does or says the right thing, and when they do it's worth giving them a thumbs-up. Today's accolade goes to Russell Moore, president of the Religious Liberty and Ethics Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who had some serious criticisms of what's being said right now by the 2016 GOP field...

The Daily Flashback: Madrid Terror Edition

When Fox News Didn't Blame The White House For A Huge Terror Attack In Europe | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...Looking back at the Fox coverage from 2004, President Bush seemed to be a minor player in the story and his name wasn't often invoked. For Fox viewers, Bush certainly wasn't targeted for much blame following the Madrid attack; he wasn't denounced for providing vacuous leadership.

By contrast, some at Fox today, including "news" anchors, can barely contain their contempt for Obama in the wake of the Paris killings. (Not to mention their open disdain for Islam.)

What's even more startling was the contention among Fox talkers in 2004 that, politically, a terror attack on America in 2004 would be good news for Bush; that it would seal his re-election bid because voters would overwhelmingly rally around the president...

Trump Gets Into Fat Shaming

Trump Says 'Seriously Overweight' Protester Upset Over Talk of Food Stamps - ABC News:

A Donald Trump rally was interrupted several times by protesters tonight and the outspoken presidential candidate suggested that one of them, whom he described as "seriously overweight," was upset because he was talking about food stamps.

"You know it’s amazing,

I mentioned food stamps at that guy who’s seriously overweight went crazy -- Amazing. Amazing," Trump told the audience in Worcester, Mass. "That’s an amazing sight..."

Udders On Boars Polling

Let’s all chill out about the Colorado poll: No one is electing Ben Carson president - Salon.com:

...But when it comes to predicting the outcome of the election this far out? No need to worry about it. We have many long months ahead of us and a lot can and will change before the 2016 election.

Water Gets Hotter For GoodHair

Texas appeals court to consider abuse of powers charge against Rick Perry | Reuters:

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is set to hear arguments on Wednesday on whether to dismiss an abuse of power charge against former Governor Rick Perry, who has said the case against him is politically motivated.

Perry, who unsuccessfully campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination this year and in 2012, is facing a first-degree felony charge that could bring up to 99 years in prison because of a funding veto he made in 2013 that was seen as being intended to force a local prosecutor to resign...

Ben's Brain

Doctor worship is no less misguided than jock worship or rocker worship. The mystique of the profession, and good PR in the past, carries them places that most should not tread. Your profession, be it medico or journo, is not an automatic qualification for leadership in the political arena.

Dr. Ben Carson is Not Smart:

...My point is that neurosurgeons are not automatically smart because they are neurosurgeons. To get through training and have any sort of practice they must be disciplined, have immense ego strength, a reasonably good memory, and have mental and physical stamina. However, like many other doctors, they are not always smart. Neurosurgeons, like other surgeons, can be outstanding technicians but that is different than being intellectually brilliant. A truly brilliant internal medicine specialist once told me that “you can train anyone to perform a procedure”. I’ve seen surgical assistants perform technically difficult procedures with stunning alacrity. It’s the old rule: do something enough times and you will get damn good at it...

Good-Bye, Bobby

Bobby Jindal Drops Out of 2016 Republican Presidential Race - ABC News:

Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal has dropped out of the race for the White House, ending a campaign plagued by low polling numbers both nationally and in Iowa, where he had focused most of his 2016 bid...

Anonymous Has Been Fighting ISIS

Anonymous Declares War on ISIS:

...Anonymous first mobilized against ISIS in January, after the terror attacks on Parisian newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and has since targeted 149 websites, ​101,000 Twitter accounts and 5900 propaganda videos, ​The Telegraph​ reports.

While the efficacy of shutting down Twitter accounts in slowing the spread of extremism has been disputed, it's clear that breaking up the means of communication for online extremists will require more resources, and skill, than ever. Reports today that ISIS operatives can communicate through PlayStation 4 and online games, without speaking or typing, indicate the sophistication and scale of the problem.

[H/T Time, ​T

he Telegraph​]...

Killing ISIS

There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS:

...It is long past time for the oligarchies of the Gulf states to stop paying protection to the men in the suicide belts. Their societies are stunted and parasitic. The main job of the elites there is to find enough foreign workers to ensla…er…indenture to do all the real work. The example of Qatar and the interesting business plan through which that country is building the facilities for the 2022 World Cup is instructive here. Roughly the same labor-management relationship exists for the people who clean the hotel rooms and who serve the drinks. In Qatar, for people who come from elsewhere to work, passports have been known to disappear into thin air. These are the societies that profit from terrible and tangled web of causation and violence that played out on the streets of Paris. These are the people who buy their safety with the blood of innocents far away...

Anonymous Targets Terrorists

Anonymous Issues Threat to ISIS Over Paris: 'You Will Now Be Hit by Major Cyber Attacks':

“We are furious with the repeated slaughter of innocent citizens in the name of a peaceful religion,” hacktivist group says

Hacktivist group Anonymous has issued another threat to terrorist group ISIS following Friday’s deadly attacks in and around Paris...

The VA Has Dental Care?

Most Vets Don't Qualify For VA Dental Care. So These Dentists Are Giving It For Free:

In order for veterans to qualify for full VA dental benefits, they have to be 100 percent disabled, have been a prisoner of war or have developed a dental condition during their service. The need is so great that homeless veterans list dental care among their top three unmet needs, along with housing and child care...

A personal sore point with me because I can get no help for injuries suffered on active duty because I "make too much money." I never thought I'd hear those words connected to an NC teacher's pension.

Dem Debate: Clinton Ok--- As Were All

Democratic Debate in Des Moines - Hilary Struggles with Wall St and 9/11:

...HRC did what she had to do, which essentially was not make any obvious gaffes and to counterpunch effectively which, after a rough start, she did well. If the game has changed in any way, it is devoutly to be hoped that it changed in that people in the country will assess the new threat posed by the Paris attacks and decide whether they want to govern themselves through politicians willing to engage in serious arguments about policies, or through politicians willing to make fear dance on a string to old and noxious tunes. I make that even money either way.​

Who'ya Gonna Declare War On?

Now the truth emerges: Here’s how the US fueled the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq:

...But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. And nowhere is that more so than in the Middle East, where today’s terrorists are tomorrow’s fighters against tyranny – and allies are enemies – often at the bewildering whim of a western policymaker’s conference call...

Comment Of The Day: Paris Terror Edition

Peggy Noonan: Nobody Looks To Mr. Obama For Wisdom And Will In Fight Against ISIS | Crooks and Liars
Geraldo an hour ago

These people would happily destroy the world if it would hurt Obama's polling numbers.

No Vote For Old People

I guess it's time to cap the voting age - at 65 - AMERICAblog News:

...But now the evidence suggests that those who ratified the 26th Amendment were looking at the wrong end of the age range. Because not only are people under the age of 25 too incompetent to vote, according to USA Today columnist and conservative law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, so is everyone over the age of 65...

GOPer Fear Mongering Upswing

The Aftermath of the Paris Attacks Is a Time to Grieve, Not Fear Monger�|�Sam Corey:

In the wake of the horrific Paris attacks that claimed the lives of at least 153 innocent people, FOX News and some Republican presidential hopefuls wasted no time to fear monger and stir up some good-ol-fashioned Islamophobia.

FOX anchor Megyn Kelly hosted R-NY Representative Peter King, a former IRA sympathizer, who stated in the interview:

"This was terrorism at its worst. This can happen in any major, large city in the U.S. and Europe. We always have to be on our guard. I hope this is a wake up call. I hope the president is listening when he says that ISIS is contained..."

Crazier Is Coming To Convert You

Bachmann Warns: Rapture Coming Soon, So Convert As Many Jews As Possible:

Ex-U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) warned Wednesday that Jesus is “coming soon,” making the task of converting the masses – particularly Jews – even more urgent...

Brooks Living Large

Twitter Reacts To David Brooks' Article: 'My $120,000 Vacation':

Twitter didn’t take too kindly to a feature story published Friday by New York Times columnist David Brooks that was titled simply “My $120,000 Vacation.”

The piece, which appeared in T, the Times’ style magazine, described Brook’s jaunt on a new round-the-world tour created by Four Seasons for well-heeled clientele. For $120,000, participants can travel around the globe for 24 days on a private jet, stopping off at Four Seasons locations in cosmopolitan centers like Tokyo, New York and Marrakesh...

BTB Psych Story A Hoax

Ben Carson's Psychology Test Story Gets Even Weirder | Mother Jones:

More Ben Carson news today! You remember Doc Carson's story about the psychology test hoax that proved he was the most honest man at Yale? Well, Carson says it really happened, and the proof is on the right. It's a piece from the Yale Daily News about a parody issue of the News published by the Yale Record. Apparently the parody issue announced that some psychology exams had been destroyed and a retest would be held in the evening. Hilarious!...

The Continuing Hypocrisy Of Fox News

...and conservatives in general.

 Fox News: Where Protests Against Racial Discrimination Are Anarchy But Armed Protests Against Federal Law Are "Patriotic" | Blog | Media Matters for America:

...Recall when Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy faced off with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over his refusal to pay grazing fees for his cattle's use of public lands in April 2014; he threatened violence and incited protests -- which included armed militia supporters -- to resist BLM efforts to collect on his debt. Fox News rocketed Bundy to conservative folk-hero status, lauding the rancher with the network's support even as numerous media reports described Bundy supporters pointing guns at federal law enforcement. BLM was even forced to suspend its operations when protesters -- some of them armed -- marched toward where BLM had impounded Bundy's cattle. Fox personalities praised Bundy supporters as "good, hardworking Americans," "law-abiding American citizens," and "patriotic Americans," and one Fox host, Clayton Morris, sanitized the interactions between Bundy supporters and law enforcement, claiming, "Suddenly people are there protesting peacefully, arguing against government intervention here ... and all of these police and folks roll in with guns and sniper rifles pointing at them."...

tRump Vents

Donald Trump begs Iowans not to believe Ben Carson: ‘Don’t be fools, okay?’ - The Washington Post:

As Donald Trump took the stage in a community college theater on Thursday night, something was off...

More GOPer Panic

Time for GOP panic? Establishment worried Carson or Trump might win - The Washington Post:

Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them.

Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands...

GOP Is The Budget Buster

Rand Paul is just hilariously trolling Republicans now — and inadvertently revealing the two words behind the GOP’s biggest lie - Salon.com:

...If you do start to question it, it becomes immediately apparent that finding a Republican who legitimately wants to shrink the size of the government, on principle, is harder than finding a Republican who has warm things to say about Planned Parenthood. On the contrary, one strong consistent trend over the past century is that Republican presidential administrations contribute more to the federal debt than Democratic ones. Even though almost no one knows it, deficit spending under President Obama has been consistently dropping, now shrunk by a $1 trillion compared to what the federal government had to spend to recover from the Bush recession. Principled adherence to “small government” would simply not lead to voting Republican, if only out of fear that all that war-mongering rhetoric would lead to more expensive adventure wars like the previous President Bush gave us...

You Were Warned, GOP

Liberals and moderates have been warning the GOP for years that their fear-mongering, crazy enhancing, scumming antics would come back to munch on their butts. Guess what, chickens. It's roosting time.

Days of Desperation - POLITICO Magazine:

There is an air of desperation out there on the GOP campaign trail. It’s impossible not to sense it in the kinds of things being said by teetering establishment Republican candidates like Jeb Bush and John Kasich, both of whom started off the last debate virtually pleading

with base voters to come to their senses about Donald Trump, who is barely identifiable as a conservative by any standard measure of ideology. Not to mention Ben Carson, whose views sound like a grab bag of life philosophies. “I want you to know I’m fed up. I’ve about had it with these people,” a flustered Kasich told a rally in his home state of Ohio this week. “What happened to our party? What happened to the conservative movement?”...

Killing The Bi-Partisan Chicken

The Single Question Republican Candidates Refused To Answer During The Undercard Debate | Bustle:

It's probably safe to say that the candidates in Tuesday night's non-primetime Republican debate didn't expect to be talking a lot about Democrats (unless you're Chris Christie). They were clearly even less prepared to talk about Democrats they like. They seemed to have readied their usual jabs at each other and even the occasional jab at Hillary Clinton, but when the candidates were asked about working with Democrats in Congress, the candidates quickly deflected and refused to answer the question...

Nerdist Revenge By English Majors

Read The Latest Updates On The Fox Business GOP Debate:

...Happily, Wells reports that "median midcareer salaries" for people with English degrees "are $ 71,400, which is slightly more pay than the average for people with degrees in business administration."

ROFL!

Boo-Hooing For Jesus

Christian Persecution Peddlers Want Special Treatment -- Not Religious Freedom�|�Dale Hansen:

Christian persecution has become a new religion for many. These people take it on faith that a war on Christianity is being waged in America. The reality is, the only war being waged right now is one to define the religious freedoms afforded to Americans by the Constitution. Despite this fact, the Christian crusaders in the conservative media are still out in full force trying to convince their viewers that any limitations to how and when they can practice their religion are tantamount to outlawing Christianity...

Daddy Cruz Not Heroic

Cuban Peers Dispute Ted Cruz’s Father’s Story of Fighting for Castro - The New York Times:

...The elder Mr. Cruz, 76, recalls a vivid moment at a watershed 1956 battle in Santiago de Cuba, when he was with a hero of the revolution, Frank Pa�s, just hours before he was killed in combat.

In fact, Mr. Pa�s was killed seven months later and in a different place and manner.

In interviews, Rafael Cruz’s former comrades and friends disputed his description of his role in the Cuban resistance. He was a teenager who wrote on walls and marched in the streets, they said — not a rebel leader running guns or blowing up buildings...

Sanders Nails One

The Democratic Forum Illuminated the Shitshowery of the Republican Debates:

...And what republicans are doing is so un-American, it is so outrageous that it is literally beyond belief. They are political cowards, and if they can't face a free election, they should get another job… Let me quote from my fellow Vermonter, Howard Dean, the Democratic party, as radical as it may seem, should be a 50 state party. You can't give up on South Carolina, or Alabama, or Mississippi...

Cruz Diss Cause

A lot of people just don’t like Ted Cruz. How come that’s okay with him? - The Washington Post:

...“There’s not a lot of love lost for the guy,” said Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). “And it’ s not what he’s trying to accomplish or what he says he’s trying to accomplish that bothers people,” Holmes added. “It’s that he’s consistently sacrificed the mutual goals of many for his personal enhancement.”

Karl Rove, a former senior adviser to Bush, sees Cruz as someone who conveniently takes aim at former allies “for political purposes...”

The Daily Flashback: Skippy 9-11 Edition

How Much Is George W. Bush Responsible for 9/11?�|�Elizabeth Drew:

...But that's not the heart of the matter. The heretofore hushed-up public policy question that Trump stumbled into is: Did George W. Bush do what he could have to try to disrupt the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001? It's not simply a question of whether he could have stopped the devastation--that's unknowable. But did he do all he could given the various warnings that al-Qaeda was planning a major attack somewhere on US territory, most likely New York or Washington? The unpleasant, almost unbearable conclusion--one that was not to be discussed within the political realm--is that in the face of numerous warnings of an impending attack, Bush did nothing.

Osama bin Laden was already a wanted man when the Bush administration took office. The Clinton administration had identified him as the prime suspect in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, and it took a few steps to capture or kill him that came to naught. Outgoing Clinton officials warned the incoming administration about al-Qaeda, but the repeated and more specific warnings by Richard Clarke, who stayed on from one administration to the next as the chief terrorism adviser, were ignored. In a White House meeting on July 5, 2001, Clarke said, "Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon." By this time top Bush officials regarded Clarke as a pain, who kept going on about terrorist plots against the US...

BTB Carson Piles On The BS

As Carson Stumbles, Trump Slowly Turns the Knife | The Fiscal Times:

Republican presidential contender Ben Carson struck back on Sunday, with somewhat mixed results, at a barrage of stories from the media suggesting that he had embellished – or just plain made up – a number of elements in his otherwise compelling life story.

He ripped a Wall Street Journal article in which the reporter claimed that a class given at Yale Carson claimed to have taken in his book Gifted Hands, did not actually exist. Carson pushed back by posting to social media what he said was a syllabus from the class. However, Carson claimed to have taken the class in 1970, and the syllabus was from 2002...

Sigh. "Feared For Life"

WATCH: Arizona cops assault unarmed man for pulling out his phone during profiling stop:

...Police claim that they feared for their lives when Velazquez told them that he was calling his sister, so they had no other choice but the escalate the situation to violence and beat an innocent man.

“You have additional people coming to the scene, and you are in fear,” Detective Steve Berry, with the Mesa Police Department said in regards to this innocent man using the phone. “Who might be armed, and showing up to assist...”

BTB (Ben The Blade) Navigating Life

Ignorance and Arrogance:

...But again, that's the exception that proves the rule. When you watch Carson navigating the public square you see someone who is remarkably ignorant about huge swathes of human knowledge and particularly information about US government and public policy. But you also see someone who's quite confident he's very knowledgable. So he's both remarkably ignorant and either stunningly unaware of his ignorance or totally indifferent to it. You might even say he is militantly ignorant. In all aspects of life, that is a dangerous combination. And the combination is almost always rooted in arrogance. None of us know everything. And in a complex world, we don't need to. The key is having some realistic grasp of what you do know and what you don't know...

Clinton On Pot

Hillary Clinton Proposes Reclassifying Marijuana As A Less Dangerous Drug:

..."What I do want is for us to support research into medical marijuana because a lot more states have passed medical marijuana than have legalized marijuana, so we've got two different experiences or even experiments going on right now," Clinton said after being asked about marijuana prohibition during a town hall. "And the problem with medical marijuana is there's a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions, but we haven't done any research. Why? Because it's considered what's called a Schedule I drug and you can't even do research in it."

"If we're going to have a lot of states setting up marijuana dispensaries so that people who have some kind of medical need are getting marijuana, we need know what's the quality of it, how much should you take, what should you avoid if you're taking other medications," she continued...

New Crime: WWB

Walking While Black--- similar to DWB.

WATCH: Mob of Austin cops tackle and assault two unarmed men for jaywalking:

Austin, TX — A group of friends, Jeremy Kingg, Lou Glen, Matt Wallace, and Rolando Ramiro were walking home Early Friday morning when they crossed the street in a manner unfit for a police state.

“We were walking across the street, the sign said ‘do not walk,’ but lights were already turning yellow and streets were blocked off, so we kept walking,” Ramiro says...

Threats Matter

My Opinion Doesn't Justify Your Rape Threats�|�Nora McInerny Purmort:

...It matters because this happens to every single woman you know. Every. Single. Woman. We all have a story like this. From real life and from online. A story where we are made to be scared and shut up because we said something or did something that a man didn't like.

But what they represent is colossal: the vile, brewing hatred in anonymous corners of the Internet. Because these aren't just names on a screen. These are people we share the earth with, who hate us, immediately, for daring to have an opinion on how we are treated. Whose default response to a woman saying she doesn't want to be told what to do by a drunk ass stranger is swift and violent and meant to get me to shut the hell up...

Is Business Finally Getting It About Singler Payer Healthcare?

CEO Richard Master Masterminds Full Medicare for All�|�Ralph Nader:

Just when the prospects for single-payer or full Medicare for everyone, with free choice of doctors and hospitals, appear to be going nowhere, from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley comes a stirring that could go national and make single-payer a reality.

Throwing down the gauntlet on the grounds of efficiency and humanness, businessman Richard Master, CEO of MCS Industries Inc., the nation's leading supplier of wall and poster frames, is bent on arousing the nation's business leaders to back single-payer - the efficient full Medicare for all - solution...

Keystone Dies And The Good Guys Win

The Keystone Pipeline and the Defeat of Faceless Corporate Power:

...The real story involves an alliance between liberal environmentalists and conservative farmers, between Native Americans and white people, between Democrats and Republicans. The real story involves a grassroots victory for a lot of people you've never heard of who pushed and yelled the national government into reversing a project that seemed almost unstoppable five years ago. The real story involves a defeat for faceless corporate power, and for the money that is poisoning our politics at all levels, and for the corrupt alliance between corporate power and poisoned politics that is so much of our national life these days...

Comment Of The Day: Open Carry Edition

Here's How Open Carry Worked Out For Colorado Springs | Crooks and Liars: by Walldude

"The mere act of openly carrying a gun in a non-threatening manner is not automatically to be considered suspicious behavior."

Wow. Let me make this very clear for you open carry folks. I don't <edit> know you from Adam. If you aren't wearing an orange vest and I see you with a gun, I consider that threatening. If you feel that the world you live in is so horrible that you must carry your weapon into the Produce section at your local grocery store, you are a threat to everyone around you

When Your Hobby Involves Snake Oil...

...expect to find more snake oil.

Ben Carson didn’t get a ‘full scholarship’ from West Point. That’s a big problem for his campaign. - The Washington Post:

Ben Carson's admission Friday to Politico that he had not been offered and accepted a full scholarship to West Point could be a major problem for a presidential candidate whose appeal is almost entirely built on his remarkable personal story...

Blue Wall Didn't Shield Rogue Cop

Police officers did not shield this rogue cop. So how did he continue his behavior for so many years when it was known and documented by so many? Was this political paralysis or was there something more sinister afoot? 

Colleagues Accused Crooked Cop Who Killed Himself of Years of Misconduct: Records - NBC News:

Joseph Gliniewicz — the Illinois cop who committed suicide and tried to make it look like a heroic death in the line of duty — clashed for years with many of his own colleagues, who accused him of extraordinary misbehavior on and off the job, according to his personnel records.

War On Cops Crickets Emerge

People Wrongly Blamed A 'War On Cops' For An Officer's Death. Here's What They're Saying Now.:

 ...This puts a number of pundits and politicians in an awkward spot. Immediately after Gliniewicz’s death, many seized on reports that he'd been brutally ambushed, Radley Balko points out in The Washington Post. They took to the airwaves and Internet to blame the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups calling for police reform, arguing that Gliniewicz -- a loving husband and father of four who was revered in his community -- was the latest tragic casualty of a so-called "war on cops."

Here’s what we're hearing from them now:...

The Daily Flashback: Sandinista Edition

Ben Carson Selling Snake Oil for Mannatech Was Good Practice for Running for President as a Republican:

...The process began with Ronald Reagan, the greatest patent-medicine salesman of them all. It was he who marketed the economic snake-oil with a wink and a smile. It was he who taught them how to flex and pose – fiercely denouncing terrorism while selling missiles to the mullahs. It was he who gulled the country with tales of Sandinistas driving jeeps across the Rio Grande, and dangerous Cuban adventurism in Grenada, while Marines were being slaughtered in their barracks. He was the best show in town. The starstruck rubes flocked to see him. The country swallowed the swamproot whole...

Poppy Bush In Legacy Protect Mode

Elder Bush Says His Son Was Served Badly by Aides - The New York Times:

After years of holding back, former President George Bush has finally broken his public silence about some of the key figures in his son’s administration, issuing scathing critiques of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld...

Culture Arguments On-Air

Activist Shuts Down White Texas GOPer On Live TV For Blaming Bad Cops On 'Black Culture' | Crooks and Liars:

..."Ms. Box, nobody supports a disruptive student in a classroom because it stops other kids learning," Quanell X explained. "But what I do have a problem with is, men should never handle a woman like the way that cop handled that little girl, to turn that desk over the way he did, grab her around her neck, then grabbed that child and threw her across the room, that is unbecoming of a man with decent character and conduct."

"Now for you to say that we need to deal with the culture of black kids in schools," he noted, taking a deep breath. "Let's deal with the culture of these crazy fanatic white boys who go in schools with guns and shoot and kill everybody..."

After reading through the culture argument comments, all of which condemned Box, rightfully I believe, for her arrogance in assuming that she understood black culture, I was reminded of a previous thread where many of the same commenters were passing judgment on Southern (redneck, hillbilly, incestuous mouth breathers, etc.) culture. Hypocrisy knows no political boundary.

The Making Of Rand Paul

Very thorough article. Rand Paul Rode Tea Party Fervor to Washington, Then Yielded - The New York Times

Ben The Cutter's Greatest Hits, Volume 1

Ben Carson Wisecracks: Many Americans 'Are Stupid' (VIDEO):

...Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, joked last year during a book tour that many Americans "are stupid."

Mother Jones on Tuesday flagged the remark from Carson's Oct. 19, 2014 speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. After an audience member asked Carson about running as an independent—Carson said he wouldn't "want to fracture" the GOP by doing so—the retired neurosurgeon referred to an ambiguous "they" who he accused of infiltrating the American media and school system with the goal of "fundamentally changing this nation."

"Everything was perfect. Except they underestimated the intelligence of the American people," Carson said. "The people are not as stupid as they think they are."

"Many of them are stupid, okay," he added to laughs from the audience. "But I'm talking about overall."

Carson also credited social media and Fox News with enabling him to spread his message outside of the mainstream media...