This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Republican strategy - keep 'em dumb, they'll be Republican.
Another headache for Chris Christie
Chris Christie's brother bought property just before Christie pushed for big overhaul (Click on this heading to read more)
Gottalaff
Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 3:55 pm.
Welcome to Christie World, courtesy of Steve Kornacki and NorthJersey.com. Two words come to mind. Ruh and roh:
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Governor Christie's brother, Todd Christie, and two business partners have bought and sold a handful of properties within walking distance of the PATH station in Harrison, slated for a $256 million renovation funded by the Port Authority and championed by the governor, records show.
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Per the article, Chris Christie's younger sib has profited nicely from real estate deals, and what deals they were! One of his partners managed to haul in "tens of millions of dollars" in work from state agencies since Governor "I Know Nothing" took office in 2010. Together, they "began buying small residential lots in early 2011, about a year before the train station renovation was approved by the Port Authority."
Trying to analyze the Christian right-wing
Time Warp: The Modern Religious Right and American Theocracy (Click on this link to read more)
By: Trevor LaFauci more from Trevor LaFauciSaturday, January, 25th, 2014, 11:38 am
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Today's Republicans are stuck in time.
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Republicans in the year 2014 yearn for a past that fits their idyllic view of what life should be like. They clamor for a time and place that they believe best represents their view of an ideal society. For many Republicans today, it can be argued that their utopian society occurred during the 1950s, a time where America prospered both domestically as well as internationally and was seen as the envy of the world. It was this time and place that many Republicans reference when they describe how far America has come since its "glory age" of the 1950s.
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However, upon closer examination, the rosy retrospection that Republicans give this era does not hold up under scrutiny. For example, the 1950s was a time period of extreme civil unrest and a period consisting of rampant discrimination of minorities, especially in the south. Sure, American universities were the envy of the world, but it also helped that during that time period, the top marginal tax rate was 90% on the wealthiest Americans. And, despite being the preeminent world power, the United States was not involved in any prolonged internationally conflict, thus leaving our military industrial complex starving as we as a nation were temporarily unable to quench our hunger for some kind of international conflict.
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It is with this realization in mind that today's Republican Party has been forced to find an alternate time period that best exemplifies their views. For them, it has to be a time period that is both well-chronicled as well as historically significant. It has to be a time period viewed favorably by a large percentage of Americans and it has to be one where most Americans have an appreciation of the people and what they were going through at that time. Lastly, it has to be a time period where the actions of the people could be understood as necessarily for a way to continue to live their life the way they most saw fit.
For today's Republicans the answer is simple: They yearn for life in modern-day America to be exactly like it was 2,000 years ago in the Middle East.
Sounds like treason to me - just sayin'
Retired Army General To Tea Party Group: I Would Lead A Coup Against The U.S. Government (Click on this link to read more)
By Mike Rivera on January 28, 2014 at 1:55 pm
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Tea Party leader, retired Army general and former Fox News contributor Paul Vallely in a recently published video told a Tea Party group that, if given the troops, he would lead a coup against the U.S. government.
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Vallely has called made his comments in a discussion with an Arizona-based Tea Party group last December, a recording of which the website Right Wing Watch recently acquired. "I had a call this afternoon from Idaho, the gentleman said, 'If I give you 250,000 Marines to go to Washington, will you lead them?'" Vallely, who was Fox News' senior military analyst during the Iraq War, told the group. "I said, 'Yes, I will, I'll surround the White House and I'll surround the Capitol building, but it's going to take physical presence to do things."
Go, guys, GO!
College Football Players Are Trying to Unionize, and the NCAA Is Not Happy About It (Click on this heading to read more)
Matt Connolly
Tuesday, January 28, 2014, 5:19 pm
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Football players at Northwestern University, led by quarterback Kain Colter, took formal steps Tuesday to gain labor union representation. Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA linebacker who's now the president of the National College Players Association, an athlete advocacy group, filed a formal petition with the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago office on behalf of the players.
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If certified, the union would be known as the College Athletes Players Association. CAPA's initial goals don't call for salaries for players, instead focusing on medical protection for concussions and other issues, guaranteed multiyear scholarships even if players get injured, and a trust fund players could use to finish schooling after their NCAA eligibility expires. Athletic departments of schools in the five major conferences currently generate $5.15 billion in revenue
Our government leaders - a wholly owned subsidiary of American businesses
Keystone XL pipeline builder TransCanada upped its lobbying of Congress by 24% in 2013 (Click on this heading to read more)
Rss@dailykos.com (meteor Blades)Monday, January 27, 2014, 9:16 pm
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TransCanada Corp. (TRP), the Calgary-based company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, spent $1.05 million to lobby Congress and the administration last year, about 24 percent more than it spent in 2012, records filed with the U.S. Senate show. [...]
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Its chief Washington lobbyist, Paul Elliott, is a former top campaign aide to Hillary Clinton, who served as Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's first term.
Zero toleance policies are just plain insane.
On the Today show this morning, as they reported on this story, Al Roker asked, 'Did they also trip the kids as they took their trays?'
Liberty - does it still have a meaning?
Liberty is the quality individuals have to control their own actions. - Wikipedia
Thursday, January 30, 2014
An analogy on Republican thinking
Mitch McConnell Thinks You're Stupid (Click on this link to read more)
Seth D. MichaelsThursday, January 30, 2014, 6:01 am
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Imagine, for a moment, that Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll were to go on ESPN with an unusual announcement about Sunday's Super Bowl. He says his team will refuse to kick off to the Broncos unless the Broncos spot them a field goal in exchange.
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"We're not just going to give the other team the ball unless we get something significant in return," imagine Carroll declaring. "It would be irresponsible for us to just give in to their request for the ball without getting at least three points attached to it." Carroll says that unless the condition is met, the Seahawks aren't even going to bother playing the game. They insist that if the Broncos won't sit down and negotiate, it'll be their own fault if the Super Bowl gets canceled. [...]
Five more political posters
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| For those too young to remember, 50-years-ago - and more- abortion was illegal so women turned to back-door, criminal abortion providers and thousands died every year. Will conservative efforts return us to those glorious days? |
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| Speaking of global warming... |
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| Right-to-life my ass... |
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| Although there's a kernel of truth to this, Obama is following the law, and Nixon broke the law. A subtle difference? Republicans are likely too dumb to pick up on the difference. |
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| Just a little parody on a number of issues in the news these days. |
It's time to just turn over our government to the big banks - government oversight is just a sham.
HSBC settlement approved: no criminal charges, 5 weeks' profit in fines, deferred bonuses for laundering billions for narco-terrorists (Click on this heading for the original post)
Cory DoctorowMonday, January 27, 2014, 6:23 pm
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Remember when HSBC got caught laundering billions for Mexican narco-terror cartels? Remember how they offered to pay five weeks' profits in fines and to defer their executive bonuses to escape criminal charges?
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The crime-fighting legal eagles at the Department of Justice approved the settlement last week. Remember, though, if you are suspected of laundering money or selling drugs, the DoJ will take your house away and put you in jail for the rest of your life. Nice to be "too big to jail." Still, deferring multimillion-dollar bonuses has gotta hurt, huh?
Republicans: "We're not going to be happy until we starve some of these poors out of existence."
Farm Bill Deal Would Cut Food Stamps By $800 Million Per Year (Click on this heading to read more)
MARY CLARE JALONICK - January 27, 2014, 6:14 PM EST1273.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A House plan to make major cuts to food stamps would be scaled back under a bipartisan agreement on a massive farm bill, a near end to a more than two-year fight that has threatened to hurt rural lawmakers in an election year.
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The measure announced by the House and Senate Agriculture committees preserves food stamp benefits for most Americans who receive them and continues generous subsidies for farmers. The House could vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday.
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The compromise was expected to cut food stamps by about $800 million a year, or around 1 percent. The House in September passed legislation cutting 5 percent from the $80 billion-a-year program.
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[NB - the House of Representatives have now approved this bill. It does not appear that there are enough Senate Democrats willing to vote to stop this bill - too many free give-a-ways for the food industry.]
Republicans: "Hang on to your hats, Anmerica, we're going to take you for a ride again."
GOP Demands Mighty Big Tits For Few Tats (Click on this heading to read more)
David GarberMonday, January 27, 2014, 8:29 pm
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Mitch McConnell is a spokesperson for the latest round of fiscal disasters the GOP is trying to foist on the American public. He's going about it on behalf of his party in a very strange way.
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In order to get the Republican votes necessary for a clean debt ceiling passage, here's what Senator McConnell, the Kentucky Fried Cuckoo bird had to say, according to The Hill:
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"I think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling when we have a debt the size of our economy is irresponsible. So we ought to discuss adding something to his request to raise the debt ceiling that does something about the debt or produces at least something positive for our country," he said on "Fox News Sunday.".
Okay, ladies in gents, there seems to be need for some 'tit for tat' here. And never let it be said the GOP doesn't like tit or tat.
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So what's the conservative right wing have planned? Hold onto your seats. It's the XL pipeline. Yup, that is what they're going to hold as hostage.
Shooting report
And the shootings continue. Obama promised some fixes in his SOTU, but we're still waiting.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Republicans: still hating on the poors
Remember when I posted this?
Politicians share many of the same traits as a sociopath. Narcissism, delusions of grandeur, the ability to lie at the drop of a hat are all at least somewhat necessary to achieve a place in the political hierarchy of America.
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For the past thirty years or so, the party that seems to have attracted the most sociopaths is the GOP.
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Sociopaths do not feel empathy. To them, people are simply things to be used for their own pleasure, objects that have no worth. A sociopath will look at a hungry child, or a person with a terminal illness, or the survivor of rape and be unable to comprehend what that person is feeling.
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The payday lending industry is infamous for providing 12 million Americans each year with short-term loans that end up costing an average of more than 138 percent in interest and fees. But as the U.S. Department of Justices moves to crack down on those lenders who have illegally taken billions from the checking accounts of consumers, two powerful U.S. Congressmen are going to bat for the industry, a letter obtained by ThinkProgress reveals.
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Each year, millions incur long-term debt by taking out a short-term loan that's intended to cover borrowers' expenses until they receive their next paychecks. Most take out nine repeat loans per year with an interest rate as high as 400 percent. Forty-four percent of borrowers ultimately default, even after paying back their loans several times over, and thus are pushed ever closer to poverty. Critics have called the practice "legalized loan sharking" and describe the industry as "bottom feeders." In recent years, major banks have also joined in the practice.
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In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice began to take aim at the big banks that illegally help payday lenders rip off consumers. "Operation Choke Point" is a massive investigation into whether banks help payday lenders illegally siphon billions of dollars from consumers' checking accounts in exchange for a fee. Some banks have already announced they would get out of the payday lending business entirely to avoid the regulatory crackdown.
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But rather than cheer this consumer-friendly move, two powerful Congressmen are moving to stop it. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on January 8, accusing the Justice Department of "using its civil investigative power" to "inappropriately target two lawful financial services: third-party payment processing and online lending."
Politicians share many of the same traits as a sociopath. Narcissism, delusions of grandeur, the ability to lie at the drop of a hat are all at least somewhat necessary to achieve a place in the political hierarchy of America.
[...]
For the past thirty years or so, the party that seems to have attracted the most sociopaths is the GOP.
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Sociopaths do not feel empathy. To them, people are simply things to be used for their own pleasure, objects that have no worth. A sociopath will look at a hungry child, or a person with a terminal illness, or the survivor of rape and be unable to comprehend what that person is feeling.
Congressmen Go To Bat For Abusive Payday Lending Industry, Attack Justice Department Investigation (Click on this heading to read more)
By Josh Israel on January 27, 2014 at 2:40 pm.
The payday lending industry is infamous for providing 12 million Americans each year with short-term loans that end up costing an average of more than 138 percent in interest and fees. But as the U.S. Department of Justices moves to crack down on those lenders who have illegally taken billions from the checking accounts of consumers, two powerful U.S. Congressmen are going to bat for the industry, a letter obtained by ThinkProgress reveals.
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Each year, millions incur long-term debt by taking out a short-term loan that's intended to cover borrowers' expenses until they receive their next paychecks. Most take out nine repeat loans per year with an interest rate as high as 400 percent. Forty-four percent of borrowers ultimately default, even after paying back their loans several times over, and thus are pushed ever closer to poverty. Critics have called the practice "legalized loan sharking" and describe the industry as "bottom feeders." In recent years, major banks have also joined in the practice.
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In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice began to take aim at the big banks that illegally help payday lenders rip off consumers. "Operation Choke Point" is a massive investigation into whether banks help payday lenders illegally siphon billions of dollars from consumers' checking accounts in exchange for a fee. Some banks have already announced they would get out of the payday lending business entirely to avoid the regulatory crackdown.
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But rather than cheer this consumer-friendly move, two powerful Congressmen are moving to stop it. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on January 8, accusing the Justice Department of "using its civil investigative power" to "inappropriately target two lawful financial services: third-party payment processing and online lending."
Shooting report
Just keeping you up to date on the fact that there are no new gun control laws and Americans continue to shoot each other for sport - or something.
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