Are Americans Too Dumb To Fix The Mess We're In?

Probably. That's why Robert Reich, who summarizes the American Problem so well, would not stand a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the US Presidency. Today he posts:

Connect the dots: Almost all the economic gains are going to the top, which means the rest don’t have the purchasing power to get the economy out of first gear. So unemployment remains high, and most families’ wages continue to drop. The ranks of the poor are growing and almost a quarter of our nation’s children are in poverty. We know how to reverse this (a living wage, better schools and affordable colleges, stronger unions, wage subsidies, no more trickle-down or austerityeconomics, green jobs) but cannot because our democracy is drowning in big money. Much of it is coming from Wall Street, large corporations, and a few billionaires that want to keep wages down and unemployment high, reduce their own taxes and regulations, and collect corporate welfare.

This is not sustainable. We must get big money out of politics and restore broad-based prosperity. How and when? At the very least, with a candidate for president in 2016 who makes this the centerpiece of his or her campaign and turns it into a national movement, which you and tens of millions of others join. I don’t see any prospect on the Republican side. Then will Hillary Clinton do it? If not, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders? If no one else will do it, I will.

I just can't imagine why highly-paid right wing Fox "news" pundits don't want hard working Americans to earn a decent paycheck. Yeah, right...

Overtime pay is killing the American work ethic, according to the talking heads on Fox News. They think that if people just work harder, they’ll get their due. To them, worker protections like overtime pay laws undermine people’s desire to work harder for extra pay.

This is in response to President Obama’s executive order to the Department of Labor to revise the overtime pay law in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The purpose, he said, is to expand overtime pay to millions more Americans, who currently aren’t getting paid fairly for the amount of work that they do.

Read about it here, you lazy asses.

South Dakota GOP lawmaker: KKK business owners deserve right to ban blacks and gays

To Hell with this guy.

Story here.

In The Pink!

Kristin Cavallari: 'I've Read Too Many Books' To Vaccinate My Child

Anti-science rules the land. Few things are more harmful to the Nation and science than the belief by anti-vaccers that vaccines cause autism in kids. What we know for sure is that NOT vaccinating little Darling is a surefire way to spread disease and sicken little Darling.

Read the STUPID.

"Small Gummit" House GOP passes bill to force Big Gummit on Washington state and Colorady.

Because...... Ben Ghazi!!

From various sources, but I used this one.

Doin' America's Bidness. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOP-led House votes 1st time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 2nd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 3rd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 4th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 5th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 6th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 7th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 8th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 9th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 10th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 11th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 12th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 13th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 14th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 15th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 16th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 17th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 18th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 19th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 20th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 21st time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 22nd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 23rd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 24th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 25th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 26th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 27th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 28th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 29th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 30th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 31st time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 32nd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 33rd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 34th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 35th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 36th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 37th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 38th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 39th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 40th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 41st time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 42nd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 43rd time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 44th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 45th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 46th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 47th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 48th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 49th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 50th time to unravel Obamacare
GOP-led House votes 51st time to unravel Obamacare

Read more: GOP-led House votes 51st time to unravel Obamacare - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_25343800/gop-led-house-votes-51st-time-unravel-obamacare#ixzz2vxDyxfKp 

Bully That Shot Texting Father In Movie Theater Was Also Texting

Curtis Reeves’ son, Matthew Reeves, told detectives that his father texted him at 1:04 p.m. Jan. 13, the documents show. Curtis Reeves told his son he was already seated inside the theater. Matthew Reeves, who is a Tampa police officer, made plans to meet his parents at the theater for the 1:20 p.m. showing of “Lone Survivor” but was late because he stopped to wash his truck, he told detectives.

So it’s not like Reeves was a stranger to texting. This wasn’t a “get off mah lawn ya whipper snapper!” moment, this was simply a bully with a gun doing what bullies do:

Assistant state attorney Manny Garcia told the judge that Reeves has a habit of confronting people who use phones in theaters. Garcia said he was contacted late Monday by a woman who said she had a similar incident with Reeves in December.

“She was at the Cobb movie theater when she was confronted by the defendant for texting,” Garcia said. “He was glaring at her the entire time.”

Garcia added that Reeves followed the woman to the bathroom, which “made her feel very uncomfortable.”

That woman must be wondering if she’d be the one with a bullet in the chest if she’d told Reeves to frakk off.

Why was Reeves so aggressive for a 71 year old man? Why pick a fight with a man almost half his age? Why harass and intimidate a woman? Gun entitlement, of course. This is the predictable result of the combination of “stand your ground” and concealed carry. ”I have a gun so I can do whatever I want. If you give me any lip, I’ll just blow you away and claim I was standing my ground.”

As the open carry movement spreads (and it will because politicians are still terrified of the NRA despite their lousy track record), it will get worse. Arrogant gun nuts will feel even more entitled to bully everyone around them. If you doubt this, please recall the group of gun nuts that just “happened” to show up in the parking lot of a restaurant where a handful of middle age women where having an anti-gun meeting. The gun nuts tried to claim that it was just a coincidence but even far right “The Blaze” wasn’t buying it:

“Open Carry Advocates Stand Outside Moms Against Gun Violence Meeting: Tell Us if You Think They Went Too Far”

Yeah, let’s put moar gunz on the street. Because the freedom to bully people without guns is exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

From: Proud To Be A Filthy Liberal Scum Blog

Michele Bachmann Calls for the Imprisonment of Harry Reid and Daily Kos (No, Really!)

What Balls

Teabagger Michele Bachmann, who rails against Big Gubmit, is calling on the Feds to imprison everyone criticizing the Koch brothers. 

Bachmann, who must of skipped class when the First Amendment was taught at her law school, believes critics of Charles and David Koch should be indicted on RICO anti-racketeering charges.

Appearing on Hate Radio, during CPAC's annual lunatic convention, Bachmann said,

I just thank God that there’s a billionaire or two on our side.

All the billionaires seem to be on the radical left, so I’m glad that we have a couple on ours.

I hope we get a few more that are willing that come out but realize also this is an intimidation movement. I’m sure that the donors on our side don’t like to have their names vilified and that’s what this is about, intimidating people from giving money to our cause, that’s it. There’s something called the RICO statute, the racketeering law, that should be applied against them for doing this. (cite) Arresting critics and throwing them in jail -- straight out of GOP icon Vladmir Putin's playbook.

RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), of course, was designed to tackle organized criminal activities. Political speech as yet to be considered a criminal activity, but we're a young country, so who knows what the future holds.

In any event, you're On Notice, Jed Lewison, Laura Clawson, Barbara Morrill, Markos Moulitsas! Your days of hurting the fee-fees of Charles and David Koch are numbered. ~ Daily Kos

Give A Shit About Wildlife

So Much For That College Degree.

The Republican/Tea Party... Treason Wrapped In The American Flag

Another Americans For Prosperity (Yeah, Right) Bullshit O'Bama "Horror Story" Bites The Dust

The case of Julie Boonstra, a leukemia patient who was featured in an Americans for Prosperity ad against Representative Gary Peters (D-MI) claiming she had lost her doctor and seen her premiums rise as a result of the Affordable Care Act, became controversial last month after politicians and reporters disputed the details of the ad, finding that Obamacare would actually improve her health coverage at lower cost. 

Glenn Kessler, Washington Post’s fact checker, originally assigned the story ‘two Pinocchios’ (on a scale of four) pending further information about Boonstra’s plan (which he said AFP declined to give him). On Tuesday morning, he downgraded AFP’s ad to ’3 Pinocchios,’ arguing that much of Boonstra’s story had proven to be false, and that the group’s new ad, which merely says that Boonstra’s plan “isn’t right for me,” is a much fuzzier and “more subjective” claim.

Kessler noted that Boonstra’s new plan allowed her to retain her old doctor, and lowered her premiums by $1,200/year. It also covered all of her prescription medications and all of her out of pocket medical expenses on a bone marrow transplant, contrary to her worries on both.

“One cannot claim that a plan is ‘unaffordable’ when over the course of the year it will provide you with substantial savings,” Kessler wrote. “Thus we are changing the rating on this ad from Two Pinocchios to Three Pinocchios.”

Mediaite

Congress Loves War.

The USA Is One Fucked-Up Country...

... if citizens line up to get autographs from a guy whose claim to fame is killing an unarmed teenager after harassing him.

George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, was the featured guest at a central Florida gun show this weekend, where he autographed photographs for customers. Organizers of the New Orlando Gun Show almost canceled the event because of backlash, but instead agreed to relocate Zimmerman’s signing to a smaller venue.

Oh, the stupidity.

The Sundae Funnies...

OK, not funny...

2 Generations 'O Stoopid...

Income equality is just a dream for most Americans

The greatest predictors of mobility are education and the ability to own a home or other significant assets, says Carol Hedges, executive director of the CFI. One likely contributor to the state's high growth of income inequality is an influx of wealthier residents with the resources to choose where they want to live, she says.

Another is that Colorado has decreased its investment in educating the children who are born here. "It's the Colorado paradox: We import people with college degrees who can earn really good wages, but we don't do as good a job of educating our own," says Hedges. If education is unaffordable, people lack the skills they need to earn the higher wages required to sustain a family. At the same time, companies face a shortage of highly skilled workers, and have fewer consumers who are able to purchase their products. In short, everybody loses.

We need to realize that income inequality isn't just a political or even moral issue. Rather, it is an economic problem that impacts both Republicans and Democrats, business and labor, rich and poor.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of our state economy, which means the middle class, not wealthy business owners, are the real job creators, says Robert Reich, former labor secretary under President Clinton, in his documentary, "Inequality for All."

When we have a strong middle class, a greater number of consumers are spending money, creating a virtuous cycle where companies hire more, and the government invests more in public programs, including education, says Reich.

In addition, the traditional argument that wealthy business owners create jobs and opportunities no longer holds true: Although productivity rose more than 60 percent between 1979 and 2012, wages remained nearly flat, reports the EPI. Meanwhile, CEO pay has skyrocketed 875 percent — more than double the stock market growth during the same time period.

So while middle-class employees work longer hours to increase corporate productivity and profits, their hard work no longer translates into higher wages and increased job opportunities. That's not equality, and it's not the American dream.

Read more: Income equality is just a dream for most Americans - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_25297563/mind-gap#ixzz2vUthAoTo 

Scary Palin's Answer For The Crimean Situation?

Just rattle them nukes!

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggested on Saturday that only the United States could stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, AFP reported.

Palin, who spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), offered unsolicited advice to President Barack Obama on containing Russian aggression, saying that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/178256#.Uxyd_OddVYU