April 19, 2017

Jesus paid taxes.

Matthew 17:24-27New King James Version (NKJV)

Peter and His Master Pay Their Taxes
24 When they had come to Capernaum,[a] those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”

25 He said, “Yes.”

And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”

26 Peter said to Him, “From strangers.”

Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you

April 19, 2017

Why are teachers in blue states paying for health benefits for coal miners in red states?

I know it's a loaded question, but how the hell can anyone justify lifetime healthcare for coal miners AND their widows when these red state coal miners are the first to argue against universal health care?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coal-miner-benefits-government-shutdown_us_58f67521e4b0de5bac41b528?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Congress in December extended health coverage for for retired miners and their widows, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) promised the Senate would vote to permanently fund it when the next deadline came around.

I should add that the funding is supported by democratic leadership.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “Anything less is an unacceptable and tragic failure of this body to keep its word to the men and women who powered our nation to prosperity at the risk of their own health and lives.”

This would be ironic if it wasn't so phuqed up.

April 3, 2017

Tom Perez won't apologize for saying republicans don't give a sh*t about people.

Not the language I would have chosen, but I definitely prefer a democratic leader with fire in the belly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/02/tom-perez-wont-apologize-for-insulting-trump-and-gop-leaders-heres-why/?utm_term=.26d4c52db394&wpisrc=nl_most-draw14&wpmm=1

On Friday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told activists in New Jersey that their protests were hitting the Trump administration where it hurt. He pointed to Jan. 21, the day of the Women’s March, as the start of a resistance that had been more effective than critics ever expected.

“Women marched all over the world and said: Donald Trump, you don’t stand for our values!” Perez said. “That’s what they said. Donald Trump, you didn’t win this election!” If anyone didn’t want to hear this, Perez had an answer: “I don’t care, because they don’t give a s--- about people.”

Hours later, the conservative Daily Caller posted clips of Perez’s remarks for a story that was shared on Facebook more than 18,000 times. Ronna Romney McDaniel, the new chair of the Republican National Committee, demanded an apology for the “dangerous” remarks, snarking that Perez “needs a lesson on how the electoral college works.”

But Perez did not apologize. On Saturday, in Texas, he said exactly the same thing. In an email, Perez spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa explained that the DNC chair was not going to stop belittling Trump’s victory.

March 31, 2017

Democrat Joe Manchin to vote for Neil Gorsuch

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-neil-gorsuch_us_58dd68a0e4b08194e3b88089?u3v&

Can't say I'm shocked, but I can comfortably say it feels like yet another gut punch.

Edited to say Oops! This is old news. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028873422

March 29, 2017

The word of the day is B-L-O-W-B-A-C-K.

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/3/27/more_than_1_000_civilians_killed

Onslaught of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria has reportedly killed as many as 1,000 civilians in March alone, according to the journalistic project Airwars.

Trump said he would go after "their families," and now we know what he meant. This, folks, is how you plant and grow future enemies, i.e. terrorists.

March 26, 2017

Other republicans benefitted from Russian hacking.

Let's please not forget that Democrat house candidates were also targeted by Russian hackers.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/house-democrats-hacking-dccc.amp.html

Republicans refuse to investigate Trump because they are covering their own asses.

March 6, 2017

The Art of the Distraction

Washington Post: It is past time to dispense with the fiction that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is trying to distract us. And, at least this weekend, he succeeded.

-- The country’s chief law enforcement officer made a false statement to Congress, while under oath, about his contacts with one of this nation’s biggest adversaries. (Legal experts, including Republicans, note that others have been prosecuted for less.) When he got busted, the attorney general initially claimed through a spokeswoman that he couldn’t recall specifics of what had been said during his undisclosed sit-down with the Russian ambassador, except that it wasn’t political in nature. Then, with his job on the line, he miraculously remembered supposedly exculpatory details.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/03/06/daily-202-wiretapping-allegations-accomplished-what-trump-wanted-but-may-backfire-bigly/58bca8bde9b69b1406c75d42/?utm_term=.aa78ef027145&wpisrc=nl_most-draw14&wpmm=1

February 22, 2017

Letter from Bill Howell to Trump

Don't know of Bill Howell, but I like his way with words:

Dear Mr. Trump,

It’s taken me a while to realize this and to admit it, but I’m grateful to you.
For the past few months I’ve spent a good deal of time lamenting your campaign and the poison it has so effortlessly generated. I’ve watched our country imploding, our public discourse become polluted, our political climate grows ever more corrosive, and wrongly assumed you were to blame.
It’s only lately I’ve come to understand that you haven’t manufactured our current national ugliness—you’ve simply revealed it.

By saying the irresponsible, mean-spirited, ignorant things you say so freely and so frequently, you’ve given other like-minded people license to do the same. You’ve opened up the floodgates for our corporate sewage to flow fully. People no longer conceal their vile mess, they now revel in it, they broadcast it and retweet it.
You’ve made bigotry and racism socially acceptable again and that has been a kind of twisted gift because it’s allowed me to really see people; not as they pretend to be on the surface—but in the very depths of their wounded, weaponized hearts.

Over and over as your campaign has persisted, your supporters would tell me that they like you because you “speak your mind”. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve realized that you speak their minds. You’ve given credence to their prejudices and made those prejudices go mainstream.

Thanks to the terrible ground you’ve broken, politicians, pastors, friends, and strangers, both in person and on social media now regularly out themselves as hateful, intolerant, and malicious—and they remind me just how close they are to me, just how deep the sickness in us runs, and just how far we have to go together.

You’ve emboldened people to be open about things they used to conceal for the sake of decorum, and though it turns my stomach, I know that this is the only way we can move forward; to have that cancerous stuff exposed fully so that it can be dealt with. Our progress as a nation is predicated on authentic dialogue, no matter how brutal and disheartening that dialogue is.

In other words, you’ve let us know what we’re really dealing with here and while it’s been rightly disturbing, it’s also been revelatory. That’s the thing about that kind of harsh light: you’re forced to see everything. Beauty and monstrosity equally illuminated.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think you’re the least qualified, least knowledgeable Presidential candidate we may ever have had participate this far into the process, and if you somehow were elected I’d fear gravely for the world my children would inherit—should it survive your Presidency at all. I believe you’re reckless, bitter, and completely reprehensible; the very worst kind of bully.

But whether you win or lose, you’ve already allowed me the blessing of Truth; about me, about you, about other candidates, about our nation. And in the process you’ve also shown me that I am not alone in resisting you and this ugly thing you’ve revealed about us. You’ve generated an equally loud, equally passionate response to it and this is where I find my hope these days.

I find it in those for whom equality isn’t just a cheap buzzword, it’s the most precious of hills to die on.

I find it in those people who refuse to be silent in the face of our impending shared regression.

I find it in those willing to be bolder in defending the inherent value of all people.

I find it in the growing army of those who will not tolerate hatred as a core American value.

I find it in those who reject violence as our default response to dissension.

I find it in the ever rising voice of people who will not let malice and bitterness represent them in the world.

Today I find my hope in those who, like me, will not be complicit in allowing bigotry and intolerance to become a source of national pride, because we’ve seen where that leads.

Yes, Mr Trump, you’ve unearthed our hidden sickness and you’ve allowed it to go viral. You brought every awful thing about us out into the open.

You will NEVER Get My Vote!