THE FLAG

From "Oklahoma Source"

June 24, 2015

Let's be clear. This flag was designed to symbolize racism, as stated by it's creator. 
You may *want* it to represent something else, but it does not, and never will.

MARRIAGE

THE SADDEST PHOTO

REPUBLICANS RIDICULOUS REPLACEMENT

Back in February, Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn of The Huffington Post wrote an insightful piece about the Republican side of our government wrestling with the quandary about what to do if the Supreme Court rules on the side of the plaintiffs in "King vs. Burwell", thereby causing subsidy problems for millions of Americans. That article is here :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/republican-obamacare-replacement_n_6623364.html

Now along comes Jeffrey Young again yesterday with a four month later follow up which basically proves once again that the Republicans cannot or will not do anything except the same tired response, being to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety ! Of course they say they have a plan to replace the ACA with something better, but they use all of the ACA's best parts and try to substitute what they say will give a "free market" approach. That approach is what we all had before the ACA was enacted and no person can be found on the planet that can prove that it worked !

Here is the link to Jeffrey Young's latest piece:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/17/obamacare-supreme-court-republicans_n_7607436.html

With the Republican Party in such disarray I don't need to make stuff up, they do it for me,

ED

TRUMP TRIES TRUMPING THE TRUTH

How fast can you refute The Donald's phony facts in his Presidential campaign ? Less than twenty four hours later, Factcheck.org rips his stuff apart. Line by line you can see the absurd statements dissected, viscerated, and done with ! I cannot take the time to go over all of the absurdities in The Donald's speech. It is much easier to direct you to YouTube for the video and to this link for the fact autopsy !

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/17/donald-trump-2016_n_7602754.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

He makes it all up as he goes along, we do not have the privilege,

ED

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE BEING MADE A JOKE

This is the best article that I have read about the constant attempts to blur the lines between the separation of church and state. Some of the arguments presented by these lawmakers are beyond a " little sketchy ." I would direct your attention to this comment by Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) "Let me be clear: Americans have the freedom of religion – but not freedom from religion. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/separation-church-state_n_7594272.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Sadly, I wish this was made up, but it is not,

ED

COLIN POWELL (REPUBLICAN), BLAST FROM THE PAST

He said it, I didn't. I was thinking it, 

ED

WHEN THE LAST TREE FALLS

“When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money.”

Please take a few minutes to look at these pictures at :

http://www.hefty.co/truth-in-pictures/

FOLLOW UP ON TRADE DEAL

Firstly, my bad feelings about the Trade Deals trying to wriggle through congress last week were made real when Nancy Pelosi bravely stepped into the well of the House and declared that she too had bad feelings about the deals ! The subsequent vote shot down the secret little entities in the bills that our President and the Republicans claimed were "good for the country." In the case of the Republicans, use of that phrase "good for the country" usually means "good for the corporations and Wall Street bankers." In the Presidents case we are unsure what he wants !

I now lead you to a link that says a lot about what the confusions are :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/the-real-meaning-of-obamas-trade-defeat_b_7582178.html

 

My truth is still this, we need FAIR Trade, not FREE Trade !

I hope you can get unconfused,

ED

TRADE BILLS ARE A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN

This will be disastrous for the nation, millions will lose their insurance, costs will go up, Doctors will be forced to close their practices, there will be death panels that decide when you should die, hospitals across the country will declare bankruptcy and close, poor people and the elderly will not be able to find a Doctor ------------ Oh wait, that was about the Affordable Care Act six years ago !

Now on the right train of thought, the Trade bills working through Congress this week, with a final series of votes expected today, are garnering strong arguments on both sides. It is extremely difficult for the common man ( me ) to figure out the end result of these bills, ( which are secret by the way ). I do believe as I have stated many times that the term FREE TRADE is a terrible thing for the workers of the United States. The only way we can compete as a country is to establish with other countries a policy of FAIR TRADE !

Until we address the problems of product dumping ( see CHINA, steel and drywall ) , currency manipulation ( various countries ) , slave labor ( see Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia ) , low wages ( practically every country ), FREE TRADE IS NOT FREE !

My call is for FAIR TRADE,

ED

MEDICARE FUNDS TO BE TRADED FOR TRADE

Labor unions and senior citizens' groups are launching efforts to lobby House members against a bill that includes $700 million in proposed cuts to Medicare reimbursements for doctors and hospitals. The cuts would be used to fund a $2.5 billion extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance funding, which aids workers who lose their jobs as a result of trade deals.

Only Republicans could come up with an idea like this !

I'll have to cogitate on this whole Trade Adjustment Assistance thing. Right now it appears that an assumption is made that the Trade deal is so good for the American people that some people will lose their jobs. 

I can't make up anything more bizarre!

ED

RARE REPUBLICAN REALITIES

 " From Robert Reich comes this gem of a paragraph !

( referencing the likelihood of a new Congressional Budget )

 "In this as in other domains of public policy, Republicans have not shown a particular affinity for facts.

Climate change? It's not happening, they say. And even if it is happening, humans aren't responsible. (Almost all scientists studying the issue find it's occurring and humans are the major cause.)

Widening inequality? Not occurring, they say. Even though the data show otherwise, they claim the measurements are wrong.

Voting fraud? Happening all over the country, they say, which is why voter IDs and other limits on voting are necessary. Even though there's no evidence to back up their claim (the best evidence shows no more than 31 credible incidents of fraud out of a billion ballots cast), they continue to assert it. 

Evolution? Just a theory, they say. Even though all reputable scientists support it, many Republicans at the state level say it shouldn't be taught without also presenting the view found in the Bible.

Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? America's use of torture? The George W. Bush administration and its allies in Congress weren't overly interested in the facts.

The pattern seems to be: if you don't like the facts, make them up.

Or have your benefactors finance "think tanks" filled with hired guns who will tell the public what you and your patrons want them to say.

If all else fails, fire your own experts who tell the truth, and replace them with people who will pronounce falsehoods. "

There's one big problem with this strategy, though. Legislation based on lies often causes the public to be harmed. "

I cannot say it much better. Oh hell, I cannot come close,

ED

RUBIO RUES THE VOTE, LOVES THE GUNS

MORE THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

NASTY STATEMENTS

Ultra-conservative dog whistler Ann Coulter once said on a talk show, " Our party has blacks too, but our blacks are better than their blacks."

On another talk show, Ann Coulter remarked " As Christians we love the Jews, we just want them to be perfected."

CHINESE DUMPED STEEL

"Dumped and subsidized imported steel from China has tripled from 750,000 tons in 2006 to 2.2 million tons in 2008 and have continued increasing in the first quarter 2009," said Rob Simon, vice president and general manager of Evraz Inc.'s Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel, Pueblo, Colo.  "These imports significantly undersold U.S. producers and have created a huge inventory buildup in the U.S. market."

DRUGGED DRIVING STATISTICS IN COLORADO

In 2012, the Colorado Department of Human Services collected 23,519 drug and alcohol evaluations. Of the total evaluations, 1,045, or nearly 5 percent, involved marijuana.  Also in 2012, there were 87 fatalities involving a drugged driver, and 35 of the 286 drivers tested for drugs had cannabis only in their system. Click here for more drugged driving statistics.

In the Columbus Dispatch April 15th, 2015, a letter to the editor complained of 650 DUI citations involving marijuana in Colorado in 2014. 

In other words the incidence of DUI citations has gone DOWN since the legalization of marijuana in Colorado !

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

President Obama's first job was with a Catholic Church Social Justice Organization.

Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden is the only Second Lady in history to have a paying job while serving the country.

There is no such thing as an " Obamaphone " The phones are sponsored by the telephone industry and subsidized by the Federal Government. The program actually started in 1996.

The highest concentration of people in Welfare Dependency are in Republican led States, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, New Mexico, Maine, Montana, Tennessee, W. Virginia, S. Dakota, . . . Take note, 8 of the above states are RED states, and 1, Maine is purple

Contrary to Republican anti-minimum wage talking points the fast food industry is not mostly teenagers working after school !

According  to the National Employment Law Project, the average age of fast-food workers is 29. Forty percent are 25 or older, 31 percent have at least attempted college; more than 26 percent are parents raising children. Union organizers say that one-third to one-half of them have more than one

job.

Facts are facts,
ED

COWARD CRUZ

Today as the Senate was to vote on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch to be the Attorney General of the United States, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, made a fool of himself (again) by mentioning the many highly ignorant hypotheticals he posed to Ms. Lynch during her nomination hearing. He posited that since she refused to answer his ignorant hypotheticals that she proved somehow that she intended to approve of President Obamas "lawlessness" as he calls it. 

If all that is not egregious enough, he then decided not to vote today. That's not a yes and not a no !

Sen. Cruz did not have the guts to go on the record with a NO vote. COWARDLY !

I am flummoxed----

ED

REPUBLICAN PLAN TO REPLACE THE ACA IS LUDICROUS

This excerpt from the L.A. Times by Noam N. Levy explains how the Republicans would replace the Affordable Care Act with, you guessed it, the Affordable Care Act !

"The Republican outline would ban insurance companies from imposing lifetime limits on coverage, allow young adults up to age 26 to remain on their parents' health plans, and create a system of tax subsidies to help Americans buy coverage. All are pillars of the current law.

Like the current law, the proposal includes a system for penalizing people who don't have health insurance, although the mechanism is different than the current tax penalty.

And the Republican plan, like the current law, relies on cuts in Medicare spending and a new tax on employer-provided health plans with particularly rich benefits."

The mind reels, the little cogs turn, nothing meshes, they smile,

And I just move on !

ED

A SEA OF WHITE PEOPLE

REPUBLICAN CLOWN CAR

EQUAL

SIGNING CEREMONY GRAPHIC REFUTES INDIANA GOV. PENCE

When Indiana Governor Pence invited witnesses to the signing ceremony for the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, he invited Priests, Monks, Nuns, a Rabbi or two, and three excessively HOMOPHOBIC men ! Why you might ask, for an Act that has nothing to do with discrimination against gays ?

http://www.glaad.org/blog/one-simple-graphic-shows-anti-lgbt-animus-behind-indianas-new-law

AMAZING GOVERNOR PENCE ANNOUNCES THAT THERE WILL BE A "FIX" TO BILL THAT DOES NOT NEED FIXING

While expressing complete confidence in the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act and extolling the fact that it is a " mirror " of the Federal Law and the laws of thirty other States, Gov. pence stated that he has asked the Indiana legislature to write a " fix " to the Act and have it on his desk by the end of the week !

So, see if I have this right. He has numerous times, on numerous media venues, specifically stated that this law does NOT allow discrimination against anyone regardless of who they are, who they love, or what are their beliefs. VOCIFEROUSLY !

Now he comes forth after a firestorm of protest across the Nation and states that the Act needs a FIX !

Wow, I can't seem to find anything to make up this week !

ED

JEB BUSH INSINUATES BEING GAY IS A LIFESTYLE

From Igor Bobic, Huffington Post

“I think Gov. [Mike] Pence has done the right thing,” former Florida governor and likely 2016 contender Jeb Bush said in a Monday interview. “I think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all.”

As a reason why such laws are necessary, Bush pointed to the case of a Washington state florist who was fined for refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.

“There are many cases where people acting on their conscience have been cascaded by the government,” Bush told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “This law simply says the government has to have a level of burden to be able to establish there has been some kind of discrimination. We’re going to need this. This is really an important value in our country, where you can respect and be tolerant of people’s lifestyles but allow for people of faith to exercise theirs.”
END

And now my take on this is :

Now I have to say that an increasing number of Republicans, their so-called pundits and those in the Religious Right when referring to LGBT issues always tend to use the word " LIFESTYLE." Always intimating that being Gay is a choice !

I would suggest to you that if being Gay is a " LIFESTYLE," then maybe being a Priest or a Rabbi or a Minister or a Heterosexual is a " LIFESTYLE." 

Maybe then we can all just set up businesses that only cater to say the Catholics, or to the Lutherans, or the legally man and a woman married couples. 

How about this. We use zoning to separate all businesses into " LIFESTYLE AREAS ."

If we take the ultimate step as an apartheid state, we can insist that all Mormons move to Utah, all Catholics move to Massachusetts, and all people of the " Gay LIFESTYLE " move to Indiana.

I cannot and have not made this up. It is impossible to do so ! This topic has caused me to assume the sarcastic " LIFESTYLE "

ED

DR. BEN CARSON THINKS WE LIVE IN A " POST CIVIL WAR WORLD "

Several Republican Presidential candidates were asked about states rights regarding same-sex marriage.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a favorite among the conservative grassroots, defended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s instructions. “Roy Moore understands the importance of preserving states’ rights in the modern post-Civil War world in which we live,” Carson told POLITICO in an email sent from his spokesman.

Apparently WW1, WW 2, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Iraq War are all a distant memory. 

I know, you think he was talking about States Rights, but Dr. Ben Carson always talks as if we live in a Nation solely based on the Bible and the Constitution. He feels that we should be governed according to his God's law and that it is manifested within the Constitution.

It is not necessarily that he isn't aware of his surroundings, he simply dreams of donning knickers, hose, and buckled shoes to tend to the wounded on the battlefield at Appomattox with copies of the Bible and the Constitution in his satchel.

I didn't make this up,

ED

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/republicans-gay-marriage-2016-115194.html#ixzz3RqpWbiEA

GROUNDHOG DAY AGAIN

Welcome to Groundhog Republican Spin Day ! Who would believe that someone actually scheduled the House Rules Committee to set the rules for the 56th or 57th iteration of the REPEAL OBAMACARE ACT on GROUNDHOG DAY .

While I have your attention I should point out that the Republicans declared four years ago that the various concerned committees would develop alternative proposals to replace what they lovingly call "OBAMACARE" with something else. To this date not a single committee has reported forward any single proposal. Not one single committee ! In four years ! Not one single idea !

I cannot make these things up. I have tried and tried, but the Republican Party always, always, beats me to it !

ED