madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[boutons_deux]

Governor Tells High School Students He'd Like To Shoot A Student's Dad; Arrest/Investigation Fail To Ensue

Anyone who's spent any time in comment sections would have seen these comments as nothing more than the internet being the internet -- a place where hyperbole and stupidity very often outweighs thought and nuance. The comments are being treated as serious threats by the US government, seeing as they were posted below an article about a federal judge. Here are two of the more "violent" comments:

AgammamonI5.31.15 @ lO:47AMltt
Its judges like these that should be taken out back and shot.

AlanI5.31.15 @ 12:09PMltt
It's judges like these that will be taken out back and shot.
FTFY.

croakerI6.1.15 @ 11:06AMltt
Why waste ammunition? Wood chippers get the message across clearly. Especially if you
feed them in feet first.

Cloudbusterl6.l.15 @ 2:40PMIIt
Why do it out back? Shoot them out front, on the steps of the courthouse.

And yet, when a prominent political figure says roughly the same thing -- TWICE! (possibly) -- it's not followed up by the issuing of subpoenas or government-led investigations.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage's joke about shooting a political cartoonist is falling flat.

The son of Bangor Daily News cartoonist George Danby said LePage made the remark after he asked what the governor thought of his father's cartoons Wednesday during an event at Dirigo Boys State, a youth leadership program.

The governor told a crowd of high school students he would like to "shoot" this cartoonist. This was said directly to the cartoonist's son during a Q&A session with the governor. (Video -- albeit silent -- of the incident located here.) The Bangor Daily News noted the audience of teens laughed and took it as a joke. And it was, albeit a horrifically tasteless one considering cartoonists have very recently been shot for expressing their views. (That the governor's joke about shooting someone, delivered at a school event, wasn't immediately greeted with a swarm of police officers and strongly-worded condemnations by school officials is yet another bit of hypocrisy…)

Cartoonist George Danby -- the one the governor would like to shoot -- doesn't find the joke particularly funny. But as offended as he is, he's only asking for an apology, not an investigation. (And he still hasn't received one.)

But this isn't an isolated experience. It appears Governor LePage would like to kill many, many people.

A day after Gov. Paul LePage told a group of high school students that he would “like to shoot” a Bangor Daily News cartoonist, a top advocate for expanding passenger rail to Lewiston-Auburn said that LePage earlier this month said state lawmakers from Lewiston should be “rounded up and executed in the public square.”

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...to-ensue.shtml

[boutons_deux]

News from Kockenstein monster and his Repug Egors running Kockenstan.

What Else Was Buried In That Wisc. Bill That Almost Gutted Gov't Transparency

A provision in a Wisconsin budget package that would have gutted the state’s open records laws were scrapped after the Gov. Scott Walker (R) and the GOP legislative leadership came under intense scrutiny. However, a number of other consequential policy initiatives tucked into the larger budget bill remain intact. Some provisions appear to double down on Walker’s longstanding war on labor. Others roll back efforts to hold law enforcement accountable through transparency measures.

The governor’s office did not return TPM’s request for comment as to whether Walker, who will make his run for the White House official next week, intended to support or veto the measures. However, in the fallout over the open records law changes, legislators of both parties signaled his office was aware -- if not approving -- of all the provisions in the budget package, known as Motion 999, that passed the Joint Finance Committee on Thursday.
Here is what else is the package:


Changes the state’s pension board:

One provision would alter the composition of the state board tasked with assessing any potential changes to Wisconsin’s retirement system for public employees. Currently, the board, known as the Joint Survey in Retirement Systems Committee, is made up of a mix of lawmakers of both parties, representatives from relevant state agencies and a citizen who is not participating in the state retirement program. If Motion 999 becomes law, it will instead consist of only legislators, with the number chosen by the majority party proportional to the ruling party's majority on other legislative committees, in effect politicizing the board.
The change comes as Walker has struggled to push through measures that would alter the state’s current pension plan. Though Wisconsin’s retirement program is one the most financially sound in the nation, Walker has signaled he would be willing to overhaul the system, only to receive pushback. Officials at the agencies represented on the board have previously saidchanges to the state’s retirement plan weren’t necessary, however a board made up of entirely partisan legislators might be more likely to greenlight such a plan. Both houses of the Wisconsin legislature and the governorship are currently controlled by Republicans.

Redefinition of Wisconsin’s “living wage:”

A 1913 law stipulating that Wisconsin’s minimum wage “shall not be less than a living wage” has prompted a legal challenge to Wisconsin’s current $7.25 minimum wage, which was brought by low wage workers last fallagainst Walker after the state refused to consider their complaint that $7.25 did not qualify as a living wage.

A provision in Motion 999 undermines that and future legal challenges, as well as the larger discussion they provoke, by wiping mention of “living wage” from Wisconsin’s books and replacing with it “minimum wage,” at the currently established levels.

Attacks on limits on the seven-day work week:

Under Motion 999, factory or mercantile workers will be allowed to opt-out of regulations requiring that employees receive 24 hours off within every seven consecutive work days.

Doubling down on Walker's war on public sector unions:

A provision in Motion 999 requires that government workers seeking to unionize win the support of 51 percent of all the workers in the affected pool, rather than just a majority of those voting. In doing so, it further streamlines Walker's controversial anti-public-sector-union legislation passed in 2011 as part of Act 10.

Elections to initiate new public sector unions were left out of Act 10's new standards for unions to maintain their negotiating abilities. The 2011 law established that public sector unions would need to vote to recertify annually -- as opposed to the special cir stances that previously prompted a recertification -- and also increased the level of support required, as workers who do not vote in union elections essentially count as a vote against recertifying.

Under Motion 999, that standard of support would also apply to efforts to start a union, which currently operate on the old, majority of voters standard.

Restricts what is disclosed in public reports of police involved-civilian deaths:

Even before police misconduct became a national issue, it was a hot topic in Wisconsin, with legislators passing a law in 2014 requiring outside investigations of civilian deaths at police hands.

One of Thursday’s provisions puts new limits on what investigators are allowed to disclosure in reports released to the public, requiring investigators weigh the public’s right to know the details of incident against the potential harm a disclosure could have on those involved.

Revoking previous oversight efforts of law enforcement’s use of military grade weapons:

Motion 999 rolls back a previous provision approved by the Joint Finance Committee to monitor the use of military equipment given to local and state law enforcement by the federal government. Those measures included developing policies regarding agencies' use of such equipment, requiring reporting of when military equipment is used by local and state law enforcement, and mandating that law enforcement makes public any request for military equipment. Motion 999 eliminates those provisions.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pr...+%28TPMNews%29

Kock Bros monster wants to be President

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retrumplicans gonna be pissed, but...

U.S. FAA to change navigation codes named after Trump

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/09/us-usa-election-trump-faa-idUSKCN0PJ2G020150709?feedType=RSS&feedName=domest icNews

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Colorado had sex education program that reduced teen pregnancies and abortions by many 10s of %. Repugs and Christian Taliban, obsessed with sex and vaginas, killed it.

“11-year-olds shouldn’t get IUDs!”: Fox News creates mythical preteen IUD seeker, ignoring the success of school-based reproductive healthcare clinics

Fewer pregnant teens, fewer abortions, fewer unwed mothers, fewer single-parent families on welfare, more balanced state budgets. Sounds like a set of goals that should be common ground for anyone who cares about America’s future, right?

Apparently not. Fox News, Breitbart and other right-leaning news outlets showed their non-patriotic non-loyalty to the Red, White and Blue this week by assaulting a Washington state program that helps to make these broadly American objectives a reality.

Public-private partnership leads by building on global model, U.S. research.

In King County, home of Seattle, an innovative public-private partnership brings adolescent health services to youth where they are — in schools. Since the top reason girls drop out of high school is pregnancy, on-site clinics in Seattle high schools have long included family planning services, and Washington voters have long defended teen access to care, whether or not young people have supportive parental adults they can turn to for help.

Since 2010, a model program developed by Neighborcare Health and adopted by other primary care providers has applied “medical best practices” shown in Missouri and Colorado to dramatically decrease teen pregnancy. This includes on-site provision of top-tier IUDs and implants that are endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC as the first line of contraception for sexually active teens.

School-based clinics that provide reproductive healthcare have been around for a quarter of a century and span the globe from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Cape Town, South Africa. The Washington program has backing from public health authorities and educators and state law. But that hasn’t prevented a chorus of inane formulaic screeching about mythical 11-year-old sixth-graders sneaking behind the backs of their otherwise doting parents to get “dangerous” IUDs, “gynecological procedures” and “invasive contraceptives” from unqualified government bureaucrats.

Religious right fabricates 11-year-old mascot

By design, media hype generated by Fox and similar outlets requires little basis in reality. (If only the story had broken in June, the Fox lineup could have included Bristol Palin touting the virtues of abstinence, which works — don’t you know — 100 percent of the time.)
Conservative commentators appear not to care that their mascot, the 11-year-old IUD seeker, hasn’t shown up once during the past five years of service. Nor do they care that real teens who do exist have received the best family planning care available, stacking the odds in favor of their education, their dreams and their future families.

Rather, commentators, including Penny Nance from the fundamentalist Christian group Concerned Women for America, used misleading shock headlines as an opening to rant against government overreach and parent rights.

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/10/11_y...hcare_clinics/

Christian supremacist Taliban and the Repugs/VRWC that exploits them really re ing, ing up America.

40%+ of Americans deny evolution!

Thanks, Repugs!

[Infinite_limit]

So this is where Bouton takes his daily dump

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Donald Trump is not helping the Republican 'demographic death spiral'

It's delicious watching Republicans fuss and flail and try to figure out what to do about their Donald Trump problem—a problem that's a symptom of the party's deeper long-term problems.

It turns out, interviews show, that the mathematical delicacy of a Republican victory in 2016 — and its dependence on aging, anxious white voters — make it exceedingly perilous for the Republican Party to treat Mr. Trump as the pariah many of its leaders now wish he would become.

Republicans can't afford to piss off Trump's many supporters, but the party's leaders really would have preferred to keep those voters happy with messages sent through dog whistles, not foghorns.

Because everyone hears a foghorn—swing voters, Democrats who only turn out to vote if they're angry, and definitely the populations being called rapists at top volume.

“As a presidential candidate, he’s taking a problem we already have as a party and making it worse,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, another White House aspirant. “If we continue this we’re going to accelerate the demographic death spiral we’re in.”

Graham is a realist on this if not on his own chances at the presidency. Republicans are overwhelmingly a party of white people, which isn't sustainable as the U.S. population shifts.

But since the white people they rely on to win elections now aren't going to accept messages or policies that do anything but alienate black and brown people, Republicans have to walk a delicate line between giving up votes now and giving up votes in the future. And many prominent Republicans—Donald Trump high among them—are not so good at delicate.

http://www.dailykos.com/?detail=action

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GOP Lawmakers Vote To Increase Unplanned Pregnancy Rate

In early July, Colorado’s success with free long-acting contraceptives was trumpeted by news media. The New York Times called the results “startling” and “stunning.” “Colorado’s free birth control experiment could change the world,” ravedSFGate, a news website.
But the news was not so surprising.

After health authorities provided free contraceptives such as intrauterine devices to low-income girls and women over six years, from 2009 to 2013, the out-of-wedlock birth rate among teenagers dropped by 40 percent. The abortion rate among that group declined by 42 percent, said the Times, using figures from Colorado officials. And they reported similar declines among unmarried women younger than 25 and without high-school diplomas — a group likely to be mired in poverty if they started motherhood too soon.

Aren’t those results exactly what you’d expect when young women are given easy access to a reliable and simple-to-use method of birth control? Isn’t that what advocates of women’s reproductive health have been preaching for decades?


Here’s the surprise: The Colorado state legislature has refused to provide $5 million to renew the program, despite its dramatic results. Apparently, its members were cowed by opposition from the usual coalition of right-wing religious groups, such as Colorado Family Action. (The initial funding was provided by an anonymous donor.)

“We believe that offering contraceptives to teens, especially long-acting reversible contraceptives, while it may prevent pregnancy, does not help them understand the risks that come with sexual activities. We should not remove parents from the equation,” Colorado Family Action said in a statement.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/gop-lawmakers-vote-to-increase-unplanned-pregnancy-rate/

Just like in TX where Repugs INCREASED the abortion rate by killing contraception to poor women, the Colorado Repugs are INCREASING the CO abortion rate. #FETUSLIVESDONTMATTER

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As usual, Repugs ing up by protecting their paymasters rather than serving We The People.

Enviros, Tea Partiers, and the Christian Coalition all agree: Florida needs more rooftop solar

There’s an increasingly energetic fight brewing in Florida — one that has odd battle lines, bringing Tea Party activists and environmentalists together against monopoly utilities and big-money right-wing groups like Americans for Prosperity, and turning city governments against neighboring city governments.

The issue at stake? Whether state law should be amended to allow organizations other than utilities to sell electricity, which would clear the way for more rooftop solar power.

Florida is one of only five states in the country that actively bars third parties from selling electricity. (Another 20-plus states don’t explicitly bar it, but don’t allow it either — what this means for solar companies is unclear, one group that tracks the issue told PolitiFact.) So Floridian homeowners aren’t allowed to buy energy from companies that install solar panels on their roofs.

The state’s utilities, at the moment, only draw 1 percent of their electricity from solar, despite the fact that the state ranks third in the country in terms of potential to generate solar energy, and despite the fact that solar energy has become cost compe ive with fossil fuels and is often a safer investment for utilities.

A growing coalition — including environmentalists, the League of Women Voters, the Christian Coalition, and Tea Party activists who see the ban as meddling in the free market — is pushing to get rid of the third-party electricity ban. They’ve been gathering signatures to put an initiative on the 2016 ballot, called the Solar Choice amendment, that would allow businesses and individuals to sell up to two megawatts of solar power.

The utility companies have asked the Florida Supreme Court to throw out the ballot amendment, even before signature gathering is done.

http://grist.org/news/enviros-tea-pa..._campaign=feed

Will the ELECTED SCOFL kill the amendment to please the utilities cartel?

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Right-wing Christian ‘expert’ on feminism insists that submitting to marital rape makes Jesus happy

In his July 11, 2015, post led, “Is My Husband Raping Me?,” Mr. Biblical Gender Roles responds to an extremely distraught female reader whose husband frequently demands sex against her wishes, even when intercourse is painful for the wife.

Here’s the appalling “biblical response” to the question of whether it is wrong for a husband to have sex with his wife when she is in pain, according to Mr. Biblical Gender Roles:

“It depends. Had he just had sex with her in the last few days? Then perhaps he should have put her need to not experience more pain and discomfort ahead of his need for sex. But if she had been in pain for weeks or a month and he finally came to her and said ‘Babe I need this, I promise I will make it quick’ – then she should have put his need for sex above her need to not experience additional discomfort.”

"A woman who has sex with her husband, even when she does not feel like it, even when her husband is not doing everything he should, is doing EXACTLY what God wants her to do. She is living according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/righ...e+Raw+Story%29

"Christians!" The Repug BASE!

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Watch Fox host deliver unhinged anti-LGBT sermon: Chick-fil-A ‘is the official chicken of Jesus’

Speaking to Abilene Baptist Church in Augusta on Sunday, Starnes began by saying it was good to be back in the South where it was easy to find Waffle House and Chick-fil-A restaurants, which he argued was “the official chicken of Jesus.”

“I believe that the reason that God blessed America is because we know how to smoke a pork butt,” Starnes said, turning to the recent Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage.

“There is a war on religious liberty!” he bellowed. “And this war is not targeting people of the Muslim faith or the Jewish faith or the Hindu faith. This war on religious liberty is targeting people of the Christian faith.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/watc...e+Raw+Story%29

rightwingnuts, all y'all got some real nice spokespeople.

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Ted Cruz’s Caught In A Lie As He Has No Proof That He Did Not Buy His Own Books

After being accused of printing a false story by the Ted Cruz presidential campaign, PoliticusUSA asked Cruz to provide proof that he or one of his super PACs did not buy his own books. The result has been complete silence from the Cruz campaign.

The New York Times refused to place Ted Cruz on their bestseller list because they found evidence that Cruz or someone supporting him tried to rig the game by buying his books in bulk.

Cruz responded by calling The New York Times a bunch of liberal liars who are trying to blackball his book.

I explained how Cruz, or most likely a group of three super PACs who are supporting him followed what has become a standard Republican candidate practice of buying books in bulk in order to land on the bestseller list.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/07/...iticus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

VRWC/Repug War on Public Education and public school teachers

More Kansas teachers leaving state, retiring

Classroom spending cuts, uncertain school financing, low pay and eroding tenure protections all play into a hostile climate in Kansas that teachers and school administrators say is spurring a surge of teacher departures and retirements.

At least 3,720 Kansas teachers have left the state, retired or taken jobs outside of education after this past school year, a huge jump from the 2,150 who did so just a couple of years ago, according to a newly released data by Kansas State Department of Education.

The teacher exodus comes as a panel of district judges declared last month that key parts of a new state law for funding public schools violate the state cons ution. The panel ordered an immediate increase in funds, but the Kansas Supreme Court later stayed that order pending its review.

But it is not just the financing problems fueling a perception education in Kansas is under attack. The GOP-dominated Legislature also tried to limit teachers' bargaining power and sought unsuccessfully to pass a law that would allow teachers to be criminally prosecuted for presenting material deemed harmful to minors.

"Instead of funding our schools, (lawmakers) are vilifying our teachers,"

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/ju...tate-retiring/

[boutons_deux]

Senate leader says Congress will block some Obama moves on Cuba

The top Senate Republican said on Sunday that Congress is likely to block any nominee that President Barack Obama names as ambassador to Cuba and retain broad economic sanctions, even as Obama moves to establish diplomatic and economic ties with the Communist-run island.

https://news.yahoo.com/senate-leader-says-congress-block-obama-moves-cuba-183828420.html

the objective? block the uppity n!gg@.

[boutons_deux]

Conservatives in AU up distributed energy sources, as conservatives do everywhere

Australia Moves To Ban Wind And Rooftop Solar From Its Clean Energy Investments

In another blow from Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s administration to clean power, Australia’s renewable energy investment agency has been told not to invest in wind farms or small-scale solar projects.
Opposition leaders and solar energy supporters say the government directive prohibiting the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) from investing in rooftop solar will cripple the industry and further diminish Australia’s chances of transitioning to a clean energy economy.

“To say this is about lowering the costs of power is cynical in the extreme,” Grimes told Guardian Australia. “What they’re doing with this is the precise opposite.”
The directive followed failed attempts to completely dismantle the CEFC, despite broad public support for clean energy in Australia. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been as clear in his desire to do away with the CEFC, as he has been strident in his support for the country’s coal industry.

“It is our policy to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation because we think that if the projects stack up economically, there’s no reason why they can’t be supported in the usual way,” Abbott told reporters in Darwin.

According to official do ents, the CEFC currently expects an average lifetime investment portfolio yield of approximately 6.5 percent. That means its investments are expected to return the taxpayers’ money — with a profit

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...ar-investment/

but AU conservatives have approved dumping dredging tailings for deep water coal ships onto the endangered Great Barrier Reef.

Confederate red states have almost zero incentives for alternative energy.

[boutons_deux]

Oklahoma Republican Party Compares Americans on Food Stamps to Animals You Shouldn't Feed




http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...ter1039320&t=7

[boutons_deux]

Food Disaster: Republicans Stomp on GMO Labeling

With no debate and only a voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture today (July 14, 2015) passed out of committee H.R. 1599, a bill to preempt states’ rights to label GMOs.

Within hours, it was announced that the bill will go straight to the House floor, as early as next week, with no vote in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

If we don’t stop it in the House next week, the fight to stop this this “Mother of All Monsanto Protection Acts” will take place next in the U.S. Senate, before summer’s end.

http://www.alternet.org/food/republi...ter1039320&t=5

A large majority of Americans poll in favor of GMO labelling. The Repugs, in their uncompe ive, red, gerrymandered states and districts, NEVER respect the 99%.

[boutons_deux]

Christian Taliban supremacist

N.C. Republican Reveals His ‘Primary Mission’ as Congressman: ‘We’re Here as Emissaries For Christ’

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...er1039345&t=19

[boutons_deux]

Christian Grifter news

Florida church sends $1,000 collection notice to single mother because she didn’t he

A Florida church sent a delinquency notice to a new member reminding her that worshipers were expected to pay $1,000 in required fees or face possible removal.

Candace Petterson said she started attending the Greater Mount Moriah Primitive Baptist Church about six months ago after moving to a new home in the Tampa area, but she received a troubling letter last week from the church, reported WFTS-TV.

The single mother said she received what amounted to a delinquency notice from her new church asking her to contribute $50 a month, along with other assorted fees, to remain a member in good standing and vote on church matters.

The predominantly black church, which has operated for more than a century, asked her to pay a yearly $250 anniversary fee and another $150 for Mount Moriah Day – amounting to $1,000, some of which would be set aside to pay off church debt.

“What church charges you to help pay off what they’re going through?” Petterson said. “I’m not there for that.”

The letter, from assistant administrator Ladreda Spencer and Pastor B.R. Fulton Jr., also reminded Petterson that children – including her 11-year-old daughter – were expected to pay $5 a month to the church in addition to two annual $15 fees.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/flor...e+Raw+Story%29

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...

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Mayor in Washington makes disgusting racist remarks about the Obamas, refuses to resign


"Gorilla face Mic e, can't disagree with that. The woman is not attractive except to monkey man Barack. Check out them ears. LOL."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/15/1402582/-Mayor-in-Washington-makes-disgusting-racial-remarks-about-the-Obamas-refuses-to-resign?detail=email

[boutons_deux]

iow, "GTFO, n!gg@"

They Are Greeting President Obama with Confederate Flags in Durant, OK




http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/0...K?detail=email

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott unveils crack Jade Helm monitoring team

Abbott's office said Tuesday that four to five members of the State Guard are expected to coordinate with a military liaison at Austin's Camp Mabry, according to The San Antonio Express-News. The State Guard is expected to brief the governor's office once a day, offering a review of the past 24 hours' activity as well as a rundown of what's scheduled to happen in the next 72 hours.The State Guard is not expected to monitor "Jade Helm 15" in the field, however, according to the newspaper.

Note that this is independent of the larger(?) volunteer force that will be driving around Texas looking for Jade Helm so they can call in their sightings.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/0...?detail=email#

[boutons_deux]

Senate Republicans Block A Bill That Would Create 1 Million New Jobs For Young People

Senate Republicans voted down a bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have provided funds to state and local governments to create 1 million new jobs for nation’s struggling young workforce.

The Senate voted down the legislation that was an amendment to the education bill by a 43-55 margin.

The legislation would have provided $5.5 billion to state and local governments for jobs and training programs.

Republicans objected to the bill because it would have been paid for by closing a tax loophole for billionaires.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/07/...iticus+USA+%29

[boutons_deux]

The Violent, Vile Facebook Rants Of The ‘Counter Jade Helm’ Leader





Pete Lanteri, the former Marine who's organized a citizen surveillance group to monitor a military training exercise taking place this summer across seven southern states, is a self-described "hothead" prone to Facebook rants about rounding up "commies" and how blacks are a "failed race."

Lanteri, a 44-year-old former Marine who is originally from New York, where he once directed that state's branch of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, and currently resides in Arizona, sat down last week with Fox News Radio's Alan Colmes to talk about how his group plans to monitor the military operation dubbed "Jade Helm 15."

In the Thursday interview, Lanteri complained about being labelled a "Jade Helm 15" conspiracy theorist while simultaneously being dismissed by the tin foil hat set as too sympathetic to the feds. (Lanteri did not respond last week to a request for comment sent to an email account associated with his group).

Colmes asked Lanteri about a Facebook post labeling "libs" and "conspiracy nuts" as "useless ing Americans":

Lanteri responded to Colmes by describing himself as a "Sicilian hothead from the Bronx."

“I tend to write something before I think, and a lot of people do that," he added. "Of course I don’t think that."

Colmes further pressed Lanteri to explain an inflammatory comment he wrote on the same post, in which he replied “I can’t to wait to kill thousands of these s" to another man who was advocating a "revolution":


“I admit I wrote it and I admit it was stupid. And guess what? I get hotheaded at times,” Lanteri said, adding that he had been upset about having to cremate his dog that day.

In light of those posts and Lanteri's self-identification as a "hothead," Colmes asked how people could trust the former Marine with leading the surveillance group.

“Well, those are rare examples,” Lanteri responded. “But I personally felt like [Counter Jade Helm] was needed. Others agreed with me. And we’re gonna do it.”

A quick pass through Lanteri's public Facebook page revealed that those posts were not rare examples, though. The "Counter Jade Helm" leader over the past several months has spouted off about everything from a "war on whites" to a fantasy about Fox News pundit Geraldo Rivera getting killed in last month's massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

And for someone who has vowed to screen "Jade Helm 15" conspiracy theorists out of his group, Lanteri himself did dabble in one of the debunked, wilder rumors about the military taking over shuttered Wal-Mart stores:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckrak...+%28TPMNews%29

Abbott "running" with these paranoid, angry assholes!

Jade Helm taking over TX!

[boutons_deux]

Senate Committee Votes Down Several Auto Safety Reforms

Since automakers began recalling vehicles in force last year – punctuated by the millions of models covered by General Motors’ massive ignition switch defect and Takata’s explosive airbags – lawmakers have been trying to push through reforms that would make it more difficult to keep potentially deadly automobiles on the roadways. But proposed laws such as those that would impose fines on owners of vehicles who don’t follow-through with recall repairs or barring used car dealers from selling vehicles with unrepaired recalls likely won’t see the light of day after being voted down by a Senate committee last week.

The New York Times reports that a number of auto safety reforms – including one that would impose criminal penalties on auto executives who fail to disclose deadly defects – failed to make it to the latest version of the transportation bill, expected to be seen by the entire Senate floor later this month.

While a majority of the reforms introduced as attachments to the larger bill went nowhere, some managed to make it through, including those that increase the maximum civil penalty imposed on automakers from $35 million to $70 million and one that would increase funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – so long as the agency implements recommendations recently set forth by the Transportation Department’s Inspector General.

Additionally, lawmakers were successful in adding a measure that would ban rental companies from handing out cars with unrepaired safety recalls to customers. That amendment is a stark contrast to a proposal introduced just two weeks ago that would have allowed companies to rent the potentially dangerous vehicles as long as they simply notified the renter that the repairs hadn’t been made.

Senator and committee chairman John Thune, of South Dakota, said a similar bill that would have banned used car dealers from selling recall vehicles failed because it would have had “unintended consequences” for the industry, the NYT reports.

http://consumerist.com/2015/07/20/se...afety-reforms/

Good ol' Repugs, always "promoting the general welfare" over BigCorp profits.