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...