Sunday, December 29, 2013
Drifting Along
South Dakota: the Bermuda of the prairie, letting billionaires avoid millions in estate tax
The project has failed. The entire trust industry only employs about 100 South Dakotans, but repugican Governor Dennis Daugaard, a former banker, says it's worth it: "If you've got several hundred well-paying jobs, it's worth it to us."
Trusts overseen in the Kresge five-and-dime building hold all kinds of assets, from stakes in private companies to a castle in Italy. While their holdings aren’t public, securities filings sometimes offer a glimpse. In July, the two top executives at Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST), the Corona, California-based energy drink maker, shifted $478 million of their stock to undisclosed “entities” controlled by a trust company based in the building.
In 2010, the Pritzker family, whose members include U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, revealed in a securities filing that one branch had moved $360 million of Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H) stock to trusts overseen by a native South Dakotan named Thomas J. Muenster. Muenster, whose sister married a Pritzker, maintains an office in the Kresge building...
... In 2007, the Wrigley family, heirs to the candy fortune, transferred oversight of family trusts holding $1.9 billion of company stock to a private trust company in the Kresge building, according to an SEC filing.
Now we know what causes narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease
— a finding that helps explain why the 2009 swine flu (and the vaccine
used to prevent it) was correlated with increased cases of narcolepsy.
100 Things We Didn't Know Last Year
Interesting and unexpected facts can emerge from daily news stories.Here's an almanac of the best of 2013.
These Snow Sculptures From China Are Simply Breathtaking
The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival
was originated from local Harbiner traditional ice lantern show garden
party in winter since 1963. It had been interrupted for a number of
years during the Cultural Revolution but had been resumed and announced
as an annual event at Zhaolin Park on January 5 in 1985.
Parts Of New York City Are Built On The Ruins Of English Cathedrals
Parts of Manhattan are actually built on the wartime ruins of English
towns - churches, homes, pubs, libraries, shops, and businesses - all
shipped to the U.S. as ballast during World War II.
The city is thus, in an instant, revealed to be a weird layer cake of other cities, of ruins smoothed over ruins, paved under concrete and utterly unknown to the people driving over it everyday - unaware that, beneath them, there are still perhaps recognizable chunks of English cathedrals all packed in gravel and other broken chips of rock.
The city is thus, in an instant, revealed to be a weird layer cake of other cities, of ruins smoothed over ruins, paved under concrete and utterly unknown to the people driving over it everyday - unaware that, beneath them, there are still perhaps recognizable chunks of English cathedrals all packed in gravel and other broken chips of rock.
Top 10 Medieval News Stories Of 2013
City of San Diego sued over smelly sea lion poo
Sea lion poo and cormorant guano in affluent La Jolla have caused a
lawsuit in San Diego. Citizens For Odour Nuisance Abatement sued the
City of San Diego and its Interim Mayor Todd Gloria, in Superior Court,
demanding they clean up the odorous excrement from rocks by La Jolla
Cove, and remove a fence that limits public access to it. The city has
"exclusive dominion, control and responsibility for the maintenance of
the cliffs in and around the La Jolla Cove and is responsible for
keeping the area free of noxious odors," they say in the lawsuit. It
was established this year to do just what its name says.
The group claims that the city "at some point in time and without public notice, "erected a fence along the sidewalk that runs along La Jolla Cove, preventing the public from accessing the rocks. The fence was built without an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and is in violation of the Local Coastal Plan (LCP), which requires maximizing coastal access." The lawsuit continues: "Preventing coastal access to the rocks by the public gradually led to a build-up of excrement from sea lions and cormorant birds, causing noxious odors resulting in illness to the citizens of San Diego and others who visit this area.
"The odors have also caused patrons to flee the business establishments
in the area to avoid these odors, causing these businesses a loss of
patrons and revenues." The odor-haters claim that the illegally erected
fence is directly responsible for the excess of excrement: "if the
public were able to merely be allowed to make use of the area as they
did prior to the illegal fence being installed, the sea lions and
cormorant birds would be more likely to stay away from the upper part of
the rocks where they are leaving excrement causing foul odors as a
result of the excrement not being washed away by high tides and wave
action in this area."
In a feeling of resentment that could reasonably be estimated as high, the plaintiffs add: "Any feigned concern for the safety of the pedestrians walking on the rocks should be given short shrift as the installation of caution signs should be more than sufficient to protect the safety of the pedestrians that assume the risk of walking on the rocks." They describe the odor of the sea lion and cormorant poo as "foul, noxious and sickening." They want the fence taken down, and the area cleaned of the perilous poo and seek an order to show cause why the city should not abate the public nuisance, and an injunction ordering it to do so.
There's a news video here.
The group claims that the city "at some point in time and without public notice, "erected a fence along the sidewalk that runs along La Jolla Cove, preventing the public from accessing the rocks. The fence was built without an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and is in violation of the Local Coastal Plan (LCP), which requires maximizing coastal access." The lawsuit continues: "Preventing coastal access to the rocks by the public gradually led to a build-up of excrement from sea lions and cormorant birds, causing noxious odors resulting in illness to the citizens of San Diego and others who visit this area.
In a feeling of resentment that could reasonably be estimated as high, the plaintiffs add: "Any feigned concern for the safety of the pedestrians walking on the rocks should be given short shrift as the installation of caution signs should be more than sufficient to protect the safety of the pedestrians that assume the risk of walking on the rocks." They describe the odor of the sea lion and cormorant poo as "foul, noxious and sickening." They want the fence taken down, and the area cleaned of the perilous poo and seek an order to show cause why the city should not abate the public nuisance, and an injunction ordering it to do so.
There's a news video here.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
The Daily Drift
Carolina Naturally is read in 194 countries around the world daily.
Every time we get the flu shot we get the flu ... !
Today is - (there is no special celebration today) Day
Don't forget to visit our sister blog: It Is What It Is
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Today in History
| 1688 | William of Orange makes a triumphant march into London as James II flees. | |
| 1694 | George I of England gets divorced. | |
| 1846 | Iowa is admitted as the 29th State of the Union. | |
| 1872 | A U.S. Army force defeats a group of Apache warriors at Salt River Canyon, Arizona Territory, with 57 Indians killed but only one soldier. | |
| 1904 | Farmers in Georgia burn two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices. | |
| 1920 | The United States resumes the deportation of communists and suspected communists. | |
| 1933 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt states, "The definite policy of the United States, from now on, is one opposed to armed intervention." | |
| 1936 | Benito Mussolini sends planes to Spain to support Francisco Franco's forces. | |
| 1938 | France orders the doubling of forces in Somaliland; two warships are sent. | |
| 1946 | The French declare martial law in Vietnam as a full-scale war appears inevitable. | |
| 1948 | Premier Nokrashy Pasha of Egypt is assassinated by a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood because of his failure to achieve victory in the war against Israel. | |
| 1951 | The United States pays $120,000 to free four fliers convicted of espionage in Hungary. | |
| 1965 | The United States bars oil sales to Rhodesia. | |
| 1968 | Israel attacks an airport in Beirut, destroying 13 planes. | |
| 1971 | The U.S. Justice Department sues Mississippi officials for ignoring the voting ballots of blacks in that state. |
Did you know ...
That America needs stricter gun laws
That unfortunately, teabaggers will always be with us
About the science of snowflakes
About the cheerleader effect
Obama’s New DOJ Voting Rights Advocate has Texas and North Carolina In Her Crosshairs
The repugicans and the tea party thought they had it made
when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. They were wrong. …
The repugicans and the tea party thought they had it made when the
Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Texas’ version of a vote
suppression law was so stringent it caught judges, politicians and the
state’s attorney-general in the net of imagined fraudulent voters.
North Carolina’s Pat McCrony sold his version using the same fear and myth strategy that repugicans have used nationwide. He stayed mum on provisions that increased the amounts that corporate interests could donate to state political campaigns. After all, even fans of Duck Dynasty would see that if the state had a voter fraud problem it isn’t going to be fixed by allowing outside corporate interests to spend more buying up state politicians or by getting rid of pre-registration and voting awareness programs.
The repugicans in Texas and North Carolina probably thought they could face down the legal challenges, even those brought by the Department of Justice. After all, corporate money can buy fancy lawyers and with Federal court nominations being gummed up by repugicans in Congress, things were looking pretty good for the vote suppression crowd.
That was before some recent changes at the Department of Justice. Last month, President Obama nominated Debo Adegbile to be the new Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. He worked as senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. For over a decade, Adegbile worked in several positions for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. He appeared before the Supreme Court, twice, in an effort to save the Voting Rights Act.
Last Friday, the Department of Justice announced that Pam Karlan, another top expert on voting rights, will work under Adegbile as the Deputy Attorney-General for Civil Rights. Karlan has the combination of legal scholarship and experience as effective civil rights attorney. She co-wrote the brief that brought an end to the Defense of Marriage Act. Pam Karlan was assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education fund and was a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law before she joined the Stanford faculty in 1998. President Obama abandoned plans to nominate her for the Federal Appeals Court in 2012. Oh, did I mention that she wrote the leading text book on Voting Rights, along with several books on constitutional law and civil rights?
Pam Karlan is the person who will be handling the DOJ’s challenges to the Texas and North Carolina suppression laws.
As Think Progress explained it at the time:
Adgebile and Karlan’s combined expertise on voting rights, their determination and their understanding of the Supreme Court’s current climate means repugicans will have to either offer up evidence of the rampant voter fraud they claim necessitates their attacks on the vote or shut up. It’s about time!
North Carolina’s Pat McCrony sold his version using the same fear and myth strategy that repugicans have used nationwide. He stayed mum on provisions that increased the amounts that corporate interests could donate to state political campaigns. After all, even fans of Duck Dynasty would see that if the state had a voter fraud problem it isn’t going to be fixed by allowing outside corporate interests to spend more buying up state politicians or by getting rid of pre-registration and voting awareness programs.
The repugicans in Texas and North Carolina probably thought they could face down the legal challenges, even those brought by the Department of Justice. After all, corporate money can buy fancy lawyers and with Federal court nominations being gummed up by repugicans in Congress, things were looking pretty good for the vote suppression crowd.
That was before some recent changes at the Department of Justice. Last month, President Obama nominated Debo Adegbile to be the new Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. He worked as senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. For over a decade, Adegbile worked in several positions for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. He appeared before the Supreme Court, twice, in an effort to save the Voting Rights Act.
Last Friday, the Department of Justice announced that Pam Karlan, another top expert on voting rights, will work under Adegbile as the Deputy Attorney-General for Civil Rights. Karlan has the combination of legal scholarship and experience as effective civil rights attorney. She co-wrote the brief that brought an end to the Defense of Marriage Act. Pam Karlan was assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education fund and was a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law before she joined the Stanford faculty in 1998. President Obama abandoned plans to nominate her for the Federal Appeals Court in 2012. Oh, did I mention that she wrote the leading text book on Voting Rights, along with several books on constitutional law and civil rights?
Pam Karlan is the person who will be handling the DOJ’s challenges to the Texas and North Carolina suppression laws.
As Think Progress explained it at the time:
[Charlie] Savage also explains that Obama’s decision not to pursue nominees like Karlan was part of a “deliberate strategy” to appoint “relatively moderate jurists who he hoped would not provoke culture wars that distracted attention from his ambitious legislative agenda.Wingnut heads are spinning 360 degrees because Karlan is a smart and well educated woman, a liberal, a Jew, a member of the LGBT community and she has the cojones to describe herself as snarky. In other words, she is a strong advocate for the franchise and she isn’t someone who is going to back down from a fight, like say, John Boehner.
Adgebile and Karlan’s combined expertise on voting rights, their determination and their understanding of the Supreme Court’s current climate means repugicans will have to either offer up evidence of the rampant voter fraud they claim necessitates their attacks on the vote or shut up. It’s about time!
Swing District Voters Tell Their Reps Extend Unemployment Benefits if You Want to Keep Your Job
A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey shows voters in
competitive House districts overwhelmingly support extending
unemployment benefits.…
A Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey
released December 23rd, shows voters in competitive House districts
overwhelmingly support extending unemployment benefits for Americans
who are out of work. The survey polled voters in four critical repugican-held swing districts and in a fifth less competitive repugican cabal
district held by House speaker John Boehner. In addition to polling
Boehner’s District (OH-8), PPP also surveyed voters in the districts held by Gary Miller (CA-31), Mike Coffman (CO-06), Rodney Davis (IL-13), and Dan Benishek (MI-01).
In all five districts voters favored extending unemployment benefits by about a 2 to 1 margin. In each district, even repugican voters expressed support for extending unemployment benefits. In Michigan’s first district, repugican support for extending long term unemployment benefits polled at 60 percent with only 36 percent of repugican voters approving of cutting off those benefits. The poll demonstrates how out of touch House repugicans are not only with the American people, but even with rank and file repugicans.
The repugican Congressmen who continue to play scrooge this holiday season may end up paying a price at the polls next November. All of the repugican congressmen surveyed have negative approval ratings already, and those numbers could plummet even further if the congressmen choose to cut off benefits for the unemployed. Voters in each district stated unequivocally that they would be less likely to vote for their congressional representative if he did not support extending unemployment benefits for those who need them.
Gary Miller, Mike Coffman, Rodney Davis, Dan Benishek, and even John Boehner had better take note. If they choose not to extend relief for America’s jobless this legislative session they may soon find themselves searching for a new job along with so many of their constituents.
In all five districts voters favored extending unemployment benefits by about a 2 to 1 margin. In each district, even repugican voters expressed support for extending unemployment benefits. In Michigan’s first district, repugican support for extending long term unemployment benefits polled at 60 percent with only 36 percent of repugican voters approving of cutting off those benefits. The poll demonstrates how out of touch House repugicans are not only with the American people, but even with rank and file repugicans.
The repugican Congressmen who continue to play scrooge this holiday season may end up paying a price at the polls next November. All of the repugican congressmen surveyed have negative approval ratings already, and those numbers could plummet even further if the congressmen choose to cut off benefits for the unemployed. Voters in each district stated unequivocally that they would be less likely to vote for their congressional representative if he did not support extending unemployment benefits for those who need them.
Gary Miller, Mike Coffman, Rodney Davis, Dan Benishek, and even John Boehner had better take note. If they choose not to extend relief for America’s jobless this legislative session they may soon find themselves searching for a new job along with so many of their constituents.
Scrooge doesn't take a holiday
Congress is killing unemployment
benefits for over a million americans. unemployment has gotten worse if
you look at something other than the official unemployment rate.
 |
| the orange line is the unemployment rate while the blue line is the number of unemployed according to the bureau of labor statistics |
Two repugican Senators are Blocking Al Franken’s Bill To Improve Mental Health Services
Tom Coburn (r-OK) and Mike Lee (r-UT) are blocking a bill that would improve mental health services in the United States. …
Two wingnut senators are blocking a bipartisan mental health bill that would provide 40 million dollars to
extend funding for mental health courts for five years, establish more
crisis intervention teams to cooperate with law enforcement officers,
and provide more extensive mental health screening for veterans
suffering from post-traumatic stress. The Justice and Mental Health
Collaboration Act, co-sponsored by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and
Representative Rich Nugent (r-FL), enjoys broad bi-partisan support.
However, according to the Minneapolis Star & Tribune,
an unnamed source reports that the legislation is being blocked from
going to a floor vote by right-wing Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Tom
Coburn of Oklahoma.
The Franken Bill would provide much needed mental health services and tools for police and the courts to address deficiencies in the nation’s mental health system. The legislation should be uncontroversial, but Mike Lee and Tom Coburn adhere dogmatically to an anti-government ideology that would even deny combat veterans and others suffering from mental illness, access to critical services. Franken’s bill has 15 repugican co-sponsors in the US House and 13 in the US Senate, but Coburn and Lee still insist on stalling the legislation. Senate repugican sponsors include staunch wingnuts like Mike Enzi (WY), Pat Roberts (KS), Orrin Hatch (UT), Chuck Grassly (IA) and Roy Blunt (MO), as well as more moderate repugican Senators, including Susan Collins (ME), Rob Portman (OH) and Kelly Ayotte (NH).
Wingnuts who oppose gun control often argue that instead we need to do something about mentally ill people who become killers, yet when given the opportunity to approve of expanding mental services, wingnut lawmakers like Lee and Coburn refuse to fulfill their obligation to do so. Mike Lee is a repeat offender. The Utah Senator joined Senator Rand Paul (r-KY) in April by refusing to reauthorize and improve federal programs related to mental health and substance use disorders.
Wingnut and Libertarian opponents of gun control frequently argue that better mental health care, not new gun laws, are needed to prevent future mass shootings. Al Franken’s amendment is designed to provide better mental health care for Americans who need it, but wingnut and Libertarian heroes Tom Coburn and Mike Lee are blocking that legislation. The words of support for better mental health care ring hollow if they are not backed up by legislative action.
Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis highlighted the need for better mental health services for veterans. James Holmes, Jared Loughner, Adam Lanza and several other recent mass shooters have illustrated the need for better mental health intervention programs in this country. However, Tom Coburn and Mike Lee do not want to take any action to reform our gun laws and they do not want to support federal programs designed to help the mentally ill. Until the lunatic fringe puts some money into mental health services, their words about improving mental health care policy in this country provide absolutely nothing but empty rhetoric.
The Franken Bill would provide much needed mental health services and tools for police and the courts to address deficiencies in the nation’s mental health system. The legislation should be uncontroversial, but Mike Lee and Tom Coburn adhere dogmatically to an anti-government ideology that would even deny combat veterans and others suffering from mental illness, access to critical services. Franken’s bill has 15 repugican co-sponsors in the US House and 13 in the US Senate, but Coburn and Lee still insist on stalling the legislation. Senate repugican sponsors include staunch wingnuts like Mike Enzi (WY), Pat Roberts (KS), Orrin Hatch (UT), Chuck Grassly (IA) and Roy Blunt (MO), as well as more moderate repugican Senators, including Susan Collins (ME), Rob Portman (OH) and Kelly Ayotte (NH).
Wingnuts who oppose gun control often argue that instead we need to do something about mentally ill people who become killers, yet when given the opportunity to approve of expanding mental services, wingnut lawmakers like Lee and Coburn refuse to fulfill their obligation to do so. Mike Lee is a repeat offender. The Utah Senator joined Senator Rand Paul (r-KY) in April by refusing to reauthorize and improve federal programs related to mental health and substance use disorders.
Wingnut and Libertarian opponents of gun control frequently argue that better mental health care, not new gun laws, are needed to prevent future mass shootings. Al Franken’s amendment is designed to provide better mental health care for Americans who need it, but wingnut and Libertarian heroes Tom Coburn and Mike Lee are blocking that legislation. The words of support for better mental health care ring hollow if they are not backed up by legislative action.
Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis highlighted the need for better mental health services for veterans. James Holmes, Jared Loughner, Adam Lanza and several other recent mass shooters have illustrated the need for better mental health intervention programs in this country. However, Tom Coburn and Mike Lee do not want to take any action to reform our gun laws and they do not want to support federal programs designed to help the mentally ill. Until the lunatic fringe puts some money into mental health services, their words about improving mental health care policy in this country provide absolutely nothing but empty rhetoric.
When Boehner and Cantor Say What The American People Want They Mean ALEC and the Kochs
In repugican parlance, when they say "what the people want,"
they mean their wealthy benefactors the Koch brothers, ALEC, and Wall
Street who are the "American people" to…
The repugicans, particularly those in leadership positions in Congress,
are in the habit of claiming their anti-American policies are “what the American people want,”
and then forge ahead either doing nothing, or obstructing legislation
the people overwhelmingly support. Over the course of 2013, and really,
the past three years that repugicans had control of the House of
Representatives when they say “it’s what the American people want, and expect us to do,”
they mean it is what their wealthy benefactors want and the people be
damned. However, for the first time in a while, a poll indicates that if repugicans do not act on behalf of a small segment of the population,
they may pay at the polls in 2014.
What the Public Policy Polling survey of voters in four key congressional districts revealed was that besides 63-68% of voters supporting extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed, voters said they were less likely to vote for the repugican incumbent in 2014 by at least a 9-point margin if they voted to cut off extended unemployment benefits. The benefits end on December 28 and with Congress home for the holidays, it is all but certain extending the benefits will have to wait until 2014. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have already said the recent improvement in unemployment figures and good economic news informed it was unnecessary to spend the money to help 1.3 million Americans struggling to find jobs.
What the survey also revealed is that the American people are concerned about their fellow citizens’ plight and it is a recurring theme over the past few months across a range of issues all dealing with the economy and widening income gap repugicans are duty-bound to see never changes to enrich the wealthy and their corporations. What is telling is that prior to the bicameral budget agreement to fund the government for the next two years, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said it was an “immorality” that the benefits were not secured in the recent deal and she was joined by moderate repugicans who urged Boehner and Eric Cantor to rescue jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed in early December telling them “the issue was important to many American families.” Boehner’s answer was the only way he would consider the proposal is if cuts were made to other domestic programs; and only if continued job growth could be guaranteed. It is likely that alone is why the measure ultimately did not make in the budget deal; that and compassionate wingnut Paul Ryan’s open hostility toward the poor and unemployed. The only thing Boehner did not say, at least in public, was that throwing 1.3 million Americans into poverty was “what the American people want.”
Over the course of the past couple of months the American people have told pollsters precisely what they want and repugicans spent all of 2013 blocking every single attempt to follow the will of the people. For example, an overwhelming majority of Americans (63%) want comprehensive immigration reform passed for roughly 11.7 million individuals living in the United States illegally; including 73% of Democrats, 60% of repugicans, and 57% of Independents. Instead, John Boehner said he would not bring the Senate-passed legislation up for a vote until after the 2014 primaries and then only in a piecemeal manner after the borders were secured with an absurd fence along the entire Mexican-American border. In fact, teabagger hero Ted Cruz recently said blocking immigration reform in the House was the repugican strategy to take back the Senate and called on Boehner to refuse to allow a vote on reform he said “was a kick in the teeth to Americans” who are likely racists panting to throw 11 million Hispanics out of their “whites only” nation.
Last week, an ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed that well over two-thirds of Americans said it is time to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour; another poll showed over three-quarters of voters support raising the minimum. The ABC/WaPo poll also showed an overwhelming majority supported government efforts to address crippling income inequality enriching the wealthy that they said is a result of federal government policies that favor the rich over the rest of the population. The repugicans claimed it is not what the American people want and instead claim their interest lies in protecting business and corporations who threaten to stop hiring and cut back hours of current employees if the federal minimum wage is hiked. One wonders why the poll did not ask respondents if they would withhold electoral support for incumbents who disregard the will of the people, but it is likely they already knew the answer and were mortified of giving other voters the wrong idea.
The repugicans allowed all food stamp recipients to go without several meals each week in November when they refused to fund SNAP and voted to slash $39 billion from the program in September. Compassionate wingnut Paul Ryan called for $133.5 billion in cuts in the budget Republicans passed earlier in the year and yet in June in a HuffPost/YouGov poll the majority of Americans said they preferred no cuts and instead wanted an increase to help Americans struggling to put food on the table. Last year an overwhelming 90% of Americans approved of either maintaining SNAP at current levels or doubling funding to ensure all Americans avoid food insecurity and to prevent the daily hunger they experience.
The repugicans are panting to make cuts to Social Security and Medicare in 2014 despite that overwhelming majorities of Americans, both repugicans and Democrats, support preserving and even improving benefits including their willingness to pay more according to a survey by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). Like every other repugican line, they claim the American people want benefits cut and the program privatized that reveals who repugicans are serving with every claim they are doing “what the American people want.”
In repugican parlance, when they say “what the people want,” they mean their wealthy benefactors the Koch brothers, ALEC, and Wall Street who are the “American people” to repugicans. What all the polls showing what Americans really want reveal is they care deeply for their fellow citizens who have been economically raped mercilessly by repugicans and declared open war on the people they pledged to serve. If any American thinks repugicans are unaware of what the people really want, or are the least bit concerned they will lose even one vote because they serve their wealthy masters, they are deluded beyond belief because for three straight years repugicans, particularly in the House, knew exactly what the people wanted. Instead of following the will of the people they have spent every day of three years deliberately obstructing, filibustering, and blocking legislation the people want passed because the Americans repugicans serve; the Koch brothers, ALEC, and Wall Street want total victory in their class war against the American people and it is a war they have already won.
What the Public Policy Polling survey of voters in four key congressional districts revealed was that besides 63-68% of voters supporting extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed, voters said they were less likely to vote for the repugican incumbent in 2014 by at least a 9-point margin if they voted to cut off extended unemployment benefits. The benefits end on December 28 and with Congress home for the holidays, it is all but certain extending the benefits will have to wait until 2014. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have already said the recent improvement in unemployment figures and good economic news informed it was unnecessary to spend the money to help 1.3 million Americans struggling to find jobs.
What the survey also revealed is that the American people are concerned about their fellow citizens’ plight and it is a recurring theme over the past few months across a range of issues all dealing with the economy and widening income gap repugicans are duty-bound to see never changes to enrich the wealthy and their corporations. What is telling is that prior to the bicameral budget agreement to fund the government for the next two years, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said it was an “immorality” that the benefits were not secured in the recent deal and she was joined by moderate repugicans who urged Boehner and Eric Cantor to rescue jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed in early December telling them “the issue was important to many American families.” Boehner’s answer was the only way he would consider the proposal is if cuts were made to other domestic programs; and only if continued job growth could be guaranteed. It is likely that alone is why the measure ultimately did not make in the budget deal; that and compassionate wingnut Paul Ryan’s open hostility toward the poor and unemployed. The only thing Boehner did not say, at least in public, was that throwing 1.3 million Americans into poverty was “what the American people want.”
Over the course of the past couple of months the American people have told pollsters precisely what they want and repugicans spent all of 2013 blocking every single attempt to follow the will of the people. For example, an overwhelming majority of Americans (63%) want comprehensive immigration reform passed for roughly 11.7 million individuals living in the United States illegally; including 73% of Democrats, 60% of repugicans, and 57% of Independents. Instead, John Boehner said he would not bring the Senate-passed legislation up for a vote until after the 2014 primaries and then only in a piecemeal manner after the borders were secured with an absurd fence along the entire Mexican-American border. In fact, teabagger hero Ted Cruz recently said blocking immigration reform in the House was the repugican strategy to take back the Senate and called on Boehner to refuse to allow a vote on reform he said “was a kick in the teeth to Americans” who are likely racists panting to throw 11 million Hispanics out of their “whites only” nation.
Last week, an ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed that well over two-thirds of Americans said it is time to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 per hour; another poll showed over three-quarters of voters support raising the minimum. The ABC/WaPo poll also showed an overwhelming majority supported government efforts to address crippling income inequality enriching the wealthy that they said is a result of federal government policies that favor the rich over the rest of the population. The repugicans claimed it is not what the American people want and instead claim their interest lies in protecting business and corporations who threaten to stop hiring and cut back hours of current employees if the federal minimum wage is hiked. One wonders why the poll did not ask respondents if they would withhold electoral support for incumbents who disregard the will of the people, but it is likely they already knew the answer and were mortified of giving other voters the wrong idea.
The repugicans allowed all food stamp recipients to go without several meals each week in November when they refused to fund SNAP and voted to slash $39 billion from the program in September. Compassionate wingnut Paul Ryan called for $133.5 billion in cuts in the budget Republicans passed earlier in the year and yet in June in a HuffPost/YouGov poll the majority of Americans said they preferred no cuts and instead wanted an increase to help Americans struggling to put food on the table. Last year an overwhelming 90% of Americans approved of either maintaining SNAP at current levels or doubling funding to ensure all Americans avoid food insecurity and to prevent the daily hunger they experience.
The repugicans are panting to make cuts to Social Security and Medicare in 2014 despite that overwhelming majorities of Americans, both repugicans and Democrats, support preserving and even improving benefits including their willingness to pay more according to a survey by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). Like every other repugican line, they claim the American people want benefits cut and the program privatized that reveals who repugicans are serving with every claim they are doing “what the American people want.”
In repugican parlance, when they say “what the people want,” they mean their wealthy benefactors the Koch brothers, ALEC, and Wall Street who are the “American people” to repugicans. What all the polls showing what Americans really want reveal is they care deeply for their fellow citizens who have been economically raped mercilessly by repugicans and declared open war on the people they pledged to serve. If any American thinks repugicans are unaware of what the people really want, or are the least bit concerned they will lose even one vote because they serve their wealthy masters, they are deluded beyond belief because for three straight years repugicans, particularly in the House, knew exactly what the people wanted. Instead of following the will of the people they have spent every day of three years deliberately obstructing, filibustering, and blocking legislation the people want passed because the Americans repugicans serve; the Koch brothers, ALEC, and Wall Street want total victory in their class war against the American people and it is a war they have already won.
Cultist wingnuts Thrown Into A Frenzied Panic After Court Won’t Impose biblical Law
Cultist wingnuts have been thrown into a frenzied panic
because a federal judge struck down what they thought was their
dog-given right to impose biblical law on people.…
America’s justice system does more than deal with deciding the guilt
or innocence of alleged criminals, or settling civil suits between two
parties where a crime has not occurred. The federal courts often rule on
the constitutionality of a law, and it never fails that regardless
their decision one of the parties refuses to accept the decision;
particularly if the court rules against a law founded on religion. Last
weekend in a very religious state a federal judge ruled that a law
forbidding two people who love each other from marrying was
unconstitutional, and it sent religious wingnuts into a frenzied
panic because a federal judge struck down what they thought was their
dog-given right to impose biblical law on people who do not subscribe to
the mormon cult.After a federal court ruling overturned Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage on Thursday, the repugican theocratic cabal went berserk and immediately filed an emergency motion for a temporary stay the next day; likely because it was inconceivable that a federal court would curtail the Mormon’s right to impose the bible as law. It is likely that Utah repugicans, especially Governor Gary Herbert (r), denounced the decision and threatened the federal court that he intended to appeal the ruling because it violated his cult of latter day saints (mormon) dogma forbidding one class of people from marrying the person they love. Directly following the ruling, same-sex couples rushed to the country clerk’s office to procure marriage licenses and enjoy the same rights as couples of the opposite sex. The ruling was another case of a cult organization practiced in demonizing and punishing an entire class of Americans seeing their dominance shot down by the United States Constitution that would have made Founding Father Thomas Jefferson celebrate.
Even though federal courts are tasked with ruling on the Constitutionality of laws, and mormon Governor Herbert swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, he followed through on his threat after denouncing the decision where he said, “I am very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah. I am working with my legal counsel and the acting attorney general to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah.” Herbert followed through on his threat and appealed to the 10th Circuit Appeals Court to put a stop to equal rights for same-sex couples. They promptly denied the governor’s emergency request “without prejudice” because “the motion before us does not meet the requirements of the Federal or local appellate rules governing a request for a stay, we deny the motion.”
According to the 10th Circuit’s ruling, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and the local rules of this court provided and set out the requirements for a stay pending appeal, and they noted that the defendants-appellants “acknowledged that they have not addressed, let alone satisfied, the factors that must be established to be entitled to a stay pending appeal.” It is likely that because they are mormons and rule of their own accord in Utah, they felt they were not bound by requirements for a stay pending appeal. It is highly probable that regardless how a higher court rules on appeal, the mormons could not, and would not, allow any same-sex marriages to go forward in the interim because the lds cult has set in stone that, like the National Organization for Marriage, only the union of one man and one woman is accepted as legal. Regardless if repugicans prevail on appeal, same-sex marriages will be allowed to stand.
What the 10th Circuit found, like the federal district court ruling Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, is that Governor Herbert or the overriding will of the people of Utah cannot infringe on same-sex couples by violating their “rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.” The original ruling, by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby, noted that the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any conceivable way. Shelby wrote that “In the absence of such evidence, the State’s unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify the State’s refusal to dignify the family relationships of its gay and lesbian citizens.”
The mormon argument that same-sex marriages destroy opposite-sex marriages is precisely what they spent untold dollars in California to convince ignorant voters to pass the unconstitutional Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. It is likely mormons, like NOM, know that gays enjoying equal rights to marry the person they love does not destroy unions in traditional, one man, one woman, marriages, but it is a favorite argument that frightens insecure opposite-sex couples and religious sycophants into voting to violate gay couples’ “rights to due process and equal protection” guaranteed in the 14th Amendment.
Governor Herbert’s claim that an “activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah” is another well-rehearsed complaint of cult groups to cover a majority’s right to deny a minority their Constitutional protections and is routinely struck down by the courts. The mormon cult on Friday said it stands by its support for “traditional marriage” and “continues to believe that voters in Utah did the right thing by providing clear direction in the state constitution that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and we are hopeful that this view will be validated by a higher court.” That view is predicated on forcing a religious belief on all Americans and the Constitution is crystal clear that government shall “make no law respecting an establishment of religion;” especially a law establishing one religion’s right to violate other Americans 14th Amendment rights whether or not the will of the people demand it.
America is changing, and finally reverting to the nation’s founding document to bring religious imposition based on the bible to the end it deserves. It is remarkable that any, and every, time a federal court rules that laws based on the bible are unconstitutional and violate some Americans’ 14th Amendment rights, repugicans, particularly cultist repugicans, make the same accusation that an activist judge is overriding the will of the people. What irks mormons, evangelicals, and any cult group seeking to force their dogmata and beliefs on the people is that despite their machinations, the bible is not, and never will be, the Constitution and America’s justice system is not about to let it be.
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