Something is changing in the USA, I think we can all feel it. After many years of listening quietly, the brainwashed massed finally found their pick. His name is Donald Trump. We might call him a lunatic or a clown, but he is rapidly achieving a pretty important goal: Causing chaos. Why should this be his goal, you might ask? Because chaos can only be of benefit for him. If there is chaos, you need a strong man to "fix it." In the mind of his followers, this man is the Donald. Through inciting hatred over and over again against protesters at his rallies, the inevitable is happening: People are getting angrier, on both sides, and violence suddenly becomes reality. Just as the Nazis "saved" Germany in 1933 from the chaos they created themselves, Donald Trump will now say: I am the only one who will restore law and order.
Donald Trump's rally in Chicago had to be cancelled today because protesters basically took over the floor. Astonishing as well as frightening scenes occurred. I fear that at some point a gun will be pulled and somebody will get shot. The consequences would be catastrophic. By encouraging his supporters to beat protesters as well as openly presenting himself as a white supremacist, Trump is definitely responsible for this new and dramatic development. But could these events give him an advantage? This remains to be seen. I do not believe however that this is impossible.
My feeling is that Donald Trump's provocations are calculated, and that he hopes for an angry response. This being said, it surely is important to protest against a man who clearly wants to be a dictator, and who loathes the freedoms which are being protected in a democracy, like a free press and the right to protest.
In an interview with Don Lemon on CNN, who was asking good questions, Donald Trump denies that it was him who was causing the violence, and naturally, he does not regret anything he said about protesters in the past, that they should be beaten etc. He falsely claims that the protesters were the ones who were being violent during his rallies in the past, and then makes up some stories to bolster his claim, after being challenged by Don Lemon.
Marco Rubio is happily shaking hands with President Obama - or is he?
By Patrick
Yes, finally a post about Ted Cruz again! We have missed him dearly, right? The 2016 campaign has largely been a Trump-show so far, but we shouldn't forget the that Ted Cruz is also part of the game. Some people even think that Ted Cruz is more dangerous than Donald Trump. I personally do not agree with this view, as a Trump-presidency would cause complete political and economic chaos worldwide, however, it is obvious to me that the habitual liar and religious extremist Ted Cruz is dangerous as well. However, he is dangerous in a slightly different way in my opinion.
But what I would like to talk about in this post is a photoshopped picture which brilliantly symbolizes the ugly face of Ted Cruz and his campaign. On the photo at the top of this post, Marco Rubio is shaking hands with Barack "The Antichrist" Obama, and Marco has a happy smile on his face, just like a little child. He clearly is in cahoots with the enemy, isn't he, the treacherous Marco Rubio, a friend of the Democrats and a part of the despicable Washington establishment! Who would vote for such a dishonest creature? Boooooo, Marco!
There is only one problem: The photo used by Ted Cruz's campaign is fake. It is a photoshopped "stock photo", but Ted Cruz had of course no hesitation to use it extensively. And, in order to put the cherry on top, the Cruz campaign then lied about the fact that it was a photoshopped picture. Thankfully, we have the internet to quickly expose such tricks.
In detail:
Here is a slightly larger version of this picture:
And here is the "stock photo" which it is based upon - the Cruz campaign simply photoshopped Marco Rubio's and President Obama's heads on this photo:
The people from the Cruz campaign might change their story later, but seriously, these people are obviously in a real competition with Donald Trump's campaign for "Huuuuugest liars of the universe."
We keep our fingers crossed that the American voters will keep these people far, far away from the White House! :-)
So, we have good news on a Sunday, and now we can all hope that the world will be a better place again.
It took Matt Lewis 6 1/2 years to realize what most people realized immediately when they first encountered Sarah Palin, but better late than never.
The above interview is very interesting indeed. Matt Lewis admits that a conservative who criticized Sarah Palin in the past was "in trouble", was in danger to get "beaten up". I also find it sweet that he uses the phrase "Palin fatigue", a phrase which is only too familiar to all of us.
In his article and his interview on MSNBC, Matt Lewis pulls no punches. The love affair is over, and from his remarks, it is more than obvious that Matt has been "disenchanted" for a very long time, probably for years. He also mentions Palin's famous bus tour from 2011, when the media was "chasing her bus caravan around the country", and Matt concludes that Palin now is just interested in "attention" and "fame".
But what is the alternative to Sarah Palin? That's where the harsh reality kicks in. The Republican party is now being ruled by nutjobs, and the Koch Brothers are the paymasters in the background. They seem to be in full control of the GOP these days.
"Disclosure: Matt Lewis has previously spoken for Americans for Prosperity,
an organization founded by David Koch."
Also, taking into account that the Koch Brothers are notorious for their secrecy, we can probably assume that the above "disclosure" is only scratching the surface, as far as the connections of Matt Lewis to the "Koch empire" is concerned...but please correct us if we are wrong, Matt.
So, who are the other contenders? Matt Lewis names them (from 1:45 in the clip): Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Joni Ernst. At the end of the clip, from 4:00, he also mentions that people should "now focus on Scott Walker and Marco Rubio."
One really does not know whether to feel sorry, or whether to be angry. The new line-up of the Republican Party, these "fresh faces", as Matt Lewis calls them, is a joke. If any of these people that he mentioned became President, the happy days would be over.
People like Ted Cruz and Joni Ernst are simply dangerous extremists, who surely would in Europe be members of some right-wing fringe party, far removed from the "mainstream". But even worse: All of the people that Matt Lewis mentions in this interviews are just "puppets" of the Koch Brothers, they are all "Koch Suckers", short and simple.
Now, any outside group — with unlimited donations from corporations, labor or wealthy individuals — can make a direct pitch to voters right up until election day. The only caveat with these “independent” expenditures is they cannot work in collaboration with a candidate’s campaign.
But make no mistake: The campaigns are well aware of the potency of this outside help. The Koch brothers’ annual winter retreat at Palm Springs attracted aspiring Republican presidential candidates Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.
So who are these Koch brothers, who stir so much fear and ire among Democrats, and what is their agenda?
Charles, 78, and David, 74, own the Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, the nation’s second-largest privately held company. They are worth an estimated $41 billion each.
Their overriding philosophy is promotion of deregulation, tax cuts and smaller government. Among their specific targets are opposition to climate change — they are heavily invested in energy — and repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
The notion that two individuals with no qualification or popular mandate beyond a fat checkbook now are free to make an entire party apparatus essentially irrelevant ought to trouble both Republicans and Democrats. Since the widespread adoption of direct primaries for state and national offices, the parties have become much more democratic institutions, subject to major course corrections at the ballot box. If ultra-rich industrialists and financiers, like the Koch brothers, are now free to buy a pass that circumvents the modern parties, we’re back to the days of Mark Hanna and his ilk, when both parties essentially were run by secretive back-room arbiters subject to the influence of self-seeking special interests.
In short: We can stop worrying about an imbecile like Sarah Palin, although her legacy as the "folksy demagogue" of the Republicans will last for much longer. But we really have to worry about the Koch Brothers and their band of puppets, aka "Republican presidential candidates."
The intentions of the Koch Brothers have been known for years. They want to buy themselves a president, and they are deadly serious about it.
If the Koch Brothers achieve their goal, to buy themselves a president, then you can say good-bye for example to environmental regulations and effective health insurance. The progress of several decades will be reversed.
The Koch Brothers might be billionaires, but their greed seems to have no limits.
Just a few days ago, I watched on German TV an excellent documentary about the early US industrialists, the "Men who built America." I only found out just now that this documentary by the History Channel won two Emmys, well deserved in my opinion. You should all definitely watch it!
The documentary also tells the story about how the industrialist bought their own presidential candidate in 1896, who finally managed to win the election, through excessive donations and bribes to the media: William McKinley.
Then of course it struck me immediately: The Koch Brothers try to replicate the success from 1896. This is more than obvious, and this should worry us all, A LOT.
It is a shame that intelligent people like Matt Lewis are caught in their conservative bubble and cannot see this danger. It took him 6 1/2 years to finally speak out openly against Sarah Palin. Taking his pace into account, it will probably take decades until he finally admits that the Koch Brothers posed a huge threat to Democracy, and to the welfare and well-being of the "common people" in the USA.
It's a tragedy, and we can only all hope that the Democrats learn from 2014 and get their act together in 2016.
Hopefully the "sub-standard" line-up of the GOP will help the Democrats (h/t ScoutandAbout):
The poll is by no means a definitive assessment of the feelings of the hundreds of wealthy business leaders who comprise the vaunted network created by billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. But it does provide an early glimpse into the leanings of a pool of megadonors who are being hotly courted by the field of would-be candidates, and whose checkbooks could go a long way toward determining who emerges with the GOP nomination — regardless of whether the Koch network decides to formally back a candidate.
The network has thus far steered clear of endorsing specific candidates in primaries, but it is coming under internal and external pressures to do so. It hopes to raise $889 million from wealthy backers like those who gathered in Rancho Mirage to push its agenda in 2015 and 2016, more than double what it spent in the 2012 election cycle.
In addition to Cruz, Paul and Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker paid a visit to the Ritz meeting, though he was not present for the forum.
The three-day conference was organized by Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit outfit that oversees the vast political and policy network created by the Koch brothers.
Particularly interesting is this excerpt:
The meeting — part of an ongoing series of twice-a-year “seminars” as they’re called in the Kochs’ orbit — featured a mix of presentations on policy, politics and business. This winter’s session included a discussion moderated by conservative journalist Stephen F. Hayes on principled corporate citizenship and a luncheon discussion featuring MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, according to an attendee.
Yes, the famous hosts on the supposedly "left" cable-channel MSNBC now turned into Koch-Suckers as well.
You really don't know what is more terrifying: Industrialists who try to buy a Democracy, or a mediocre line-up of candidates, or incredibly naive journalists who apparently lack any political education. In any case: The Koch Brothers need to be defeated, or Americans will be in real trouble.
+++
UPDATE 2:
There are two more clips which I would like to add to this post.
The conservatives now basically try to "erase" the memory of the GOP politician Sarah Palin, who was highly regarded within the GOP as long as she was a useful idiot for relentlessly attacking President Obama.
Oh yes, dear readers, the FUBAR surrounding the October 1, 2013, debut of the President's signature legislation website was gleefully panned by GOPers as the end of that dastardly Affordable Care Act. Well, by December 1, fifty thousand uninsured Americans an hour were able to access the site, and the Republican Tea Party echo chamber became just the dark-hole vacuum from which it had originally emerged.
Whaddaya Mean, It's Constitutional?
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010; the Supreme Court of the United States found on June 28, 2012, that, except for mandatory expansion of Medicaid in all states, the law was constitutional. And the Republicans still haven't gotten over it. Mitt Romney said right after the SCOTUS decision that, if elected in November, he would repeal the law on Day One. Now either Romney is totally ignorant of the job he wanted so badly concerning the Constraints of Presidential Powers, or he thought his idiot followers were stupid enough to believe him. Either is a legitimate possibility. But a president cannot simply sign some sort of repeal paper to get rid of a law he doesn't like. It's called Separation of Powers, a little thingy the Founders stuck in the Constitution for a damn good reason: to prevent such an act without a consenting majority vote in both the House and Senate.
And the Hits Just Keep on Coming, But Miss Their Target
Lots of people hate Obamacare -- or so they think. In Kentucky, where one in every five adults has been without healthcare insurance, a public health worker helped a man sign up for the Affordable Care Act. The man was very pleased that he would qualify for either tax credits under KYTECT -- the Kentucky healthcare exchange chosen by their Democratic governor -- or would be eligible to join a Medicaid pool. He said, This is better than Obamacare, I hope. (Can you say Fox News zombie?)
There's a lot of that going around, and Republicans are fueling it:
**It's been popular for the GOPers to warn young people against signing up for healthcare under the new act because they'd be unfairly charged more than older citizens. DUH! That's what any health insurance is based on. However, that hasn't worked out very well for these, um, lawmakers.
**Ted Cruz tried to pull another stunt by tying defunding of the AHA to the $1.1 trillion spending bill. That didn't work.
**California Republicans tried a dirty trick (shades of Karl Rove) by directing people looking for the AHA to go to a fake website that aimed to scare people from signing up. Just as an example, the website told senior citizens that there probably wouldn't be enough doctors. I don't know who they're calling senior citizens; anyone sixty-two or older usually has Medicare. (And just as an aside, why does Medicare spend $29 million a year to pay for penis pumps? No, seriously!)
**Rand Paul says that his twenty-year-old son was forced to sign up for Medicaid. That, my friends, is bullshit. The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler is doing an on-going investigation on the issue, writing recently: The available evidence suggests this happened
because of an error on the part of either Paul or his son, but there are enough
uncertainties that a definitive conclusion cannot be reached. Paul earns the [two]
Pinocchios because the process he described on television does not match up
with the Kynect screen shots.
**John Boehner -- you know him, he's supposed to be the Speaker of the House -- stated this past week that at the up-coming Republican retreat, healthcare will be on their agenda. I think you'll see Republicans come forward with
a plan to replace 'Obamacare,' a plan that will actually reduce costs for the
American people and make health insurance more accessible. Very timely, John, so very timely.
**The House passed a bill that would require Health and Human Services to provide them with weekly number on ACA instead of monthly numbers. Ain't going to happen.
End Note: President Obama's Up Yours to the Moralists
But before I do that, my king-sized Sippy Cup needs a Merlot refill!
It's no secret that the House of Representatives is the most malfunctioning organ in the body politic of the United States government.
There's a history, of course: In 2008, John McCain lost and Barack Obama won. And things haven't been quite the same since. The new President's first -- and last -- highly significant legislation to pass into law was the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, which he signed in March of 2010. The Taxed Enough Already movement (the Tea Party) was already making noises about government spending and lower taxes. Then they got co-opted by the shrilling extreme right and their message turned to social issues. Thus, by the November mid-term election, they ushered in a bunch of the most contemptible anti-Americans ever to enter that hallowed chamber. Thus we -- and John Boehner, who became the Speaker of the House -- were cursed with the most Do-Nothing legislative body in history.
Boehner not only has the Teabaggers to endure, he also has to put up with outside groups -- yeah, they're lobbyists, regardless of what they call themselves -- who threaten dire election consequences for Republicans who go against them. So now, to steal a quote from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, they are engaged in a great civil war for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Or something like that. Is it any wonder Boehner drinks? (Oh, there's no truth to the rumor that Boehner limps because of an old football injury. He actually fell off his stool in a sports bar.) What is Groundswell and Why Does it Matter?
Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas, is the maker and shaker of Groundswell, a super-clandestine group of far-far-right Tea Partiers who see the Obama administration through the foggy lens of tyranny! That is not hyperbole, dear readers; this group consists of such teabagging luminaries as former ambassador (thank God) John Bolton, former (ditto) GOP representative Allen West, journalists (huh?) from Breitbart.com, and a top aid to Sen. Ted Cruz. Are you getting the picture here?
As David Corn of Mother Jonesreported last summer, the Groundswellers have launched a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform
the nation.How will they win this war? With what they hope is persuasive messaging, of course. Like Reince Priebus, it's not their policies that are losing voters, it's the message, stupid! And they know their audience well, using phrases such as the low-information voters, writing their propaganda on a 4th grade level, and using images like Humpty Dumpty that voters can identify with to get their points across. (How sad is this, I ask you!)
Immigration Reform and the Spanking of Marco Rubio
I didn't mean to take a LEFT, honestly I didn't!
Groundswell has a lot of hissy-fit issues with President Obama and Democratic lawmakers, of course, but none is as critical to them as Immigration Reform: If we lose on immigration, we lose on every other
issue. The key to defeating this bill is Sen. Rubio.
Marco Rubio was one of the Gang of 8, a bipartisan group assembled in late January 2013 to tackle Immigration Reform. Being from Florida and of Cuban ancestry, Sen Rubio seemed a perfect choice to take on this important task -- particularly in light of the stiff-arming the GOP got from Latinos in the November 2012 general election. But the Republican was in a quandary, you see, because the teabaggers got him elected and they want nothing to do with immigration reform. It is interesting (ahem) what Rubio did in March: he actually donated $30,000 from his leadership PAC to Jim DeMint's Senate Conservative Action group, which is closely connected to Groundswell! The Immigration Reform bill put together by the Gang of 8 was passed in the Senate in June. However, Boehner said it would never be brought to the House without major redo because he thinks immigration reform should come in steps. My, my, my! Groundswells' War on Karl Rove
Uber-GOP Strategist Karl Rove is pretty sick of his party losing winnable elections because the most unelectable candidates were selected to run against their Democratic opponents. Still smarting from the 2012 election, in February Rove put together a group called the Conservative Victory Project, which plans to pick the most conservative candidate who can
win.(Translation: Forget about those Tea Party candidates like Christine O'Donnell, Todd Akin, and Richard Mourdock!)
Groundswell, however, has an entirely opposite goal. They'll most likely end up embracing such people as Tea Party extremist Dr. Greg Brannon of North Carolina, who is for all the most radical positions in America today. To whit, he's against public education because it dehumanizes students; he doesn't believe that states have to follow Supreme Court decisions; he thinks that bipartisan compromises enslave Americans; he believes the late Jesse Helms was a modern hero; and he supports secession so that to achieve a free and independent Southern republic. Oh, yes, and he's been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul. Good luck with this, Karl. End Note
It should come as no surprise to those Americans who don't have pickle relish for brains that the GOP is in disarray. Perhaps disarray is too mild; the GOP is in the midst of a self-made tsunami of chaos. And hey, it wasn't the Democrats who said that the Republican Tea Party would never have the elite, smart people on their side. It was Rick Santorum who engaged in that bit of intellectual segregation.
CPAC 2013 -- Only Wingnut Faithfuls Welcome
The Conservative Political Action Conference (fondly referred to as Conservative Politicians Are Clowns by the liberal establishment) will be held March 14-16. CPAC is actually sponsored by the American Conservative Union, which boasts as members of its board of directors such black holes luminaries as David Keene (NRA), Carly Fiorina, John Bolton, Grover Norquist, etc.
There are a couple of head-scratching paradoxes going on at CPAC this year. First is the rather weird news that Mitt Romney is attending.
The Mittster, of course, convinced CPAC participants in 2012 that he was severely conservative, and he ended up winning the straw poll with thirty-eight percent of the vote. OK, so they're idiots, but that's not the point. This year it is expected that with all the usual suspects -- and some of the other losers -- having speaking roles that the focus will again be on proving that they lost last year because the nominee was not conservative enough. And there will be Romney in the middle of it. Hmmm...can you say awkward?
The other shoot-yourself-in-the-foot issue is that it seems there will be several panels devoted to discussing how the GOP can become a more inclusive party. Well, that's all fine and dandy, of course, until it comes to some who will never be included. GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans have once again been barred from attending because both groups are advocates for -- shh, quietly now, gays and lesbians. Gasp! Oh yes, in 2012 the far-right Christianista family values groups pitched a hissy-fit and said they would pull their sponsorship if those people were allowed to attend. Same for this year.
And so it goes with the Republican Tea Party attempting to, um, reinvent itself.
Who Will Speak at CPAC?
Why, the Tea Party will speak at CPAC, that's who. What, you were expecting a half-way sane Republican like Jon Huntsman? Splort! Not a chance. As it stands today, the brain-cell count in that room will dip into negative numbers. In fact, the conference's theme this year is -- wait for it -- CPAC—America's Future: The Next
Generation of Conservatives. Let's take a quick look at several of the saviors swirling around in CPAC's Tea Party dreck.
Dem strategist's email during Jindal's 2009 SOTU rebuttal: I'd pay a lot of money to be back watching a Palin speech.
*Bobby Jindal (LA-Tea Party) -- Gov. Jindal had quite a lot to say about the results of the 2012 election (not to belabor the point, you understand, but: Obama 332, Romney 206). His main criticism was that the GOP should stop being the stupid party and should embrace a larger group of constituents. (Psst! Hey, Bobby, does that include gays and lesbians? If so, perhaps you should inform CPAC.) Things aren't faring too well in his home state these days, either. While Jindal is said to be a favorite among conservative intellectuals (isn't that an oxymoron?), he is living with an approval rating of less than fifty percent because both Democrats and Republicans are unhappy with him. Oh, well!
If I just take a quick gulp, no one in the whole country will notice, right?
*Marco Rubio (FL-Tea Party) -- Anointed by Time Magazine as The Republican Savior (no question mark; Time is seems to be certain about this) should make Sen. Rubio the creme de la creme of the GOP. To be sure, he's steeped in the Tea Party's ideals. In his rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address recently, he pulled out the same old party lines: Obamacare bad; raising taxes bad; accepting climate change science bad. Long before he felt the urge to re-hydrate himself during the rebuttal, Rubio had announced his support for Florida Gov. Rick Scott's illegal purge of vote registration rolls. What about this inclusion thingy the GOP was talking about? He's a real piece of work, is Sen. Rubio, but that's exactly what the Republican Tea Party is looking for. Can he save the party? Well, it's according to what your definition of savior is, I suppose.
Going UP or Going DOWN?
*Ted Cruz (TX-Tea Party) -- The newest loudmouthed Tea Party agitator has been blessed with the coveted Last Speaker spot on the CPAC agenda. Oh yes, the Cruz Missile is the newest darling of the far-right wingers. On a recent escape to Texas where he is adored, Sen. Cruz stopped by a lumber yard and a factory that spits out AR-15 rifles. Hot damn! He told his supporters that Texans elected a senator to go to Washington and speak the truth. The only problem here is that he doesn't exactly tell the truth, relying instead on innuendo. He's made absurd accusations about Chuck Hagel and he's saidthere there were 12 communists actively plotting against the government at HarvardLawSchool while he was there. Hey, the man sees radicals and communists everywhere, leading many to refer to him as the new Joseph McCarthy. This kind of thing might play well in Peoria, but when his own party has to rebuke him for his outlandish rhetoric, he might have a small problem.
I am DOWN with this Tea Party stuff, you betcha!
*Mia Love (UT-Tea Party) -- Mama Mia! This one's a treat. A Mormon, an African American, and a Tea Partier, she just might be one Karl Rove wants to keep an eye on when he's making his not-right-for-the-GOP list. Love's parents came to the U.S. from Haiti in 1973, leaving their first two children behind. Mia was born in 1975, and then the parents sent for her siblings. Can you say Anchor Baby? She is the mayor of Saratoga Springs and ran for the House of Representatives in 2012. During her campaign she made the statement that once in congress, she would join the Congressional Black Caucus and take that thing apart from the inside out! I'm sort of sorry she lost, actually. I'd love to have seen her come up against the likes of long-time respected members of the CBC such as Elijah Cummings, Keith Ellison, and John Lewis, just to name a
few. Talk about taking that thing apart. Whew!
Bendy Straws, Anyone?
*Sarah Palin (AK Failure-Tea Party) -- Frankly, I have no earthly idea why Palin is speaking, except to remind Democrats and Moderates how far outside the Bell Curve she is. There are smarter, younger, and more motivated far-right conservative wannabes than she is. We're talking Sarah Palin here, the same Quitting/Fired Failure who lacks the intelligence to organize a pissing contest at a sports bar on Super Bowl Sunday. The Next Generation of Conservatives?
By the standard set by its own theme, we can assume that CPAC would not have the be-knighted Ronald Reagan as a speaker this year. In all probability, Reagan would be appalled at how the Tea Party has taken over the conservative movement in this country. It's also pretty obvious that, by CPAC's standards, Chris Christie doesn't fit in. Sarah Palin does. Go figure. A Reminder for Liberals End Note
Which part of NO didn't the Republican Tea Party understand in the 2012 Election results?
