Yoder and Kansas GOP Set For a Fall?

There is a terrific, even hopeful article out this week at The Hill and it has potentially good to great information on Kansas’ House seat.

Check it out:

Top 10 GOP House Seats Most Likely to Flip

Sharice Davids, Kevin Yoder

Kevin Yoder (KS-03)

Yoder is the only member of Kansas's all-Republican congressional delegation seeking reelection in a district won by Clinton in 2016.

What's more, the state's 3rd District includes Kansas City and its surrounding suburbs, making it a prime target for Democrats this year.

Yoder faces a challenge from Democrat Sharice Davids, who, if elected, would be one of the first Native-American women in Congress.

Recent public polls show Davids with a solid lead in the race. A survey released late last month by Emerson College put her ahead of Yoder by 12 points, and The Cook Political Report has for over a month kept the race in the "Lean Democratic" column.

At the same time, the NRCC has drastically scaled back its financial support for Yoder - a sign that the GOP House campaign arm may be losing confidence in his prospects.

I love it, of course.

Take nothing for granted, folks. Get out there this Tuesday and VOTE.

And VOTE BLUE!!

Libertarianism: The Only Thing Worse Than Being a Republican

Wouldn't it be great to be a billionaire and then fund Libertarians and the Libertarian cause---so you could destroy government, lower your own taxes and so, make and keep yet more money?


Wouldn't that be great?

Missouri Teen Hits the Political Big Time

There is a pretty terrific article about what seems to be a very bright, hard-working teenager in St. Louis today in the New York Times.

Homework? First I Need to Get to the Bottom of This Comey Story

It seems this 15 year old from St. Louis has been writing away about national politics now for years. From his website:

Gabe Fleisher is an eighth grader from University City, Missouri, with a passion for politics and history, as well as for informing and engaging people in the news.

What he does, according to that same site:

"At Wake Up to Politics, the daily goal for the past five years has been the same - to inform readers with the most non-partisan and comprehensive yet understandable version of the news that really matters."

"That goal is put into a daily political newsletter, sent out around 8:00 AM every weekday morning. Every day, Wake Up To Politics strives to give you a look at the day's news that matters - and a glimpse into what our leaders are doing. That includes news on the President, Congress, the courts, elections, history, a daily trivia question, and more."

He's been writing since he was 8 years old and has some huge names in the nation and media, following him and his output. People like:

Gene B. Sperling, contributing editor at The Atlantic; the MSNBC anchor Steve Kornacki; Major Garrett, chief White House correspondent for CBS News; the “Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. (who on Twitter called Wake Up “one of the best political newsletters to hit my inbox”); the author Mark Halperin; and Jim VandeHei, the founder of Axios and a founder of Politico — as well as reporters for The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, many of whom are among Gabe’s nearly 5,000 Twitter followers. (Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, is also a follower.)
Incredible kid, it seems.

Could be a great link to have and keep up with for you, on politics.

Links:

Wake Up To Politics

Wake Up To Politics - Home | Facebook

U. City's Gabe Fleisher Continues To 'Wake Up To Politics

Missouri 6th-grader builds following

University City fourth-grader is political junkie

Local teen informing thousands with political newsletter

People Predicted the Likes of Mr. Trump

Way back in 1957, when this movie came out, people predicted that, with advertising and slogans and sound bites, someone very like Donald Trump would come along.





And now, here he is.

Link:   A Face in the Crowd (1957) - IMDb

The Right Wing Learns The Donald Is Waffling On Immigration

I love this meme.

One More Thing Congress Needs to Act On

Sure, Congress needs to act and is doing precious little besides legislating to get the wealthy and corporations yet more money or curb women's reproductive rights instead of, say, writing, proposing and passing a jobs/infrastructure bill.

Here's one more thing they haven't yet acted on but need to:

Social Security disability payments 

will be cut by a fifth 

Not only do they need to act on this or risk Americans' payments being cut, they also, this year, made 

On the first day of the new Congress, Republicans symbolically bound themselves to what is certain to be a controversial reform of the federal disability insurance program, which would probably occur near the height of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Social Security has two components, the disability insurance program and the much larger Old Age and Survivors Insurance program, for which almost all Americans become fully eligible when they reach retirement age. Congress has historically treated them as one system, moving money between one pot and the other if one is running short on funds and the other has plenty of money.

That's the situation now, as the disability pot is expected to be empty late next year. There is enough money in the larger pot to last until 2034, or to keep both programs solvent through 2033, according to the Social Security Administration.

Here's where they made the/our situation worse, and recently:

On Tuesday, however, the House adopted a parliamentary rule that adds a procedural obstacle to reallocating the money.

If Republicans do decide that a transfer is necessary, they can change the rules again easily enough. Still, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Tex.) said that a reallocation would be only a temporary solution that would avoid making real changes to "the fraud-plagued disability program."

"It will actually make the retirement program worse off, and it does nothing to fix the disability program," he said in a statement.

Fraud appears limited to relatively few cases in the disability program, although it is difficult to know precisely how many beneficiaries could be working.

So not only are they doing very little but one of the few things they recently did has made their work possibly even more difficult, more complicated. Terrific.

Meanwhile, check out this information on the elderly in America lately:

Number of seniors facing hunger has doubled 

since 2001

And then, on the heels of Memorial Day when we otherwise honor our nation's Veteran's, there's this:

Bernie Sanders Rips Republicans For Cutting 

Social Security Benefits for 1 Million Disabled 

Veterans

Republicans' nerve and even hypocrisy seem to know no bounds.

So on this, as with so many things, this Congress needs to act.

And they need to do what's right for America and Americans. They need to make certain these cuts in Social Security payments don't occur, at least, and as soon as possible.

Republicans' hypocrisy "honoring Dr. King"

I was just out on Facebook and saw how Missouri's Senator Roy Blunt said he was to "honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." By comparison, Congressional Representative Billy Long had no tribute of any kind and Rep. Vicky Hartzler honored her mother's death, a week ago, instead.

In the bigger picture, their Republican party's true actions show what they're really made of and what they're about and it's important to keep it in mind and perspective:

The GOP’s state-by-state crusade to disenfranchise voters

You can't get too much more un-American than taking away the votes of fellow Americans.

North Carolina Voter ID Law Targets Students

Their official policies take voting away from students, the elderly, the physically-challenged, blacks, Hispanics, the poor, virtually anyone and everyone they even think might vote for any political party but their own.

Three ways the GOP’s disenfranchised voters

More Republican Voter Disenfranchisement

The GOP And Voter Disenfranchisement

The Republican Disenfranchisement Project

They sometimes use the excuses of protecting the voting process but it's known, statistically, that people don't try to cheat on voting in anything like significant numbers, either state by state or nationally:

The Big Lie Behind Voter ID Laws

UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud

So happy Martin Luther King Day, Republicans. You, with your Jim Crow tactics in 2015 America.

You shameless, lying, un-American hypocrites.

The Common, Repeated, Everyday Use of Fear in America

It's gotten old.

Really old.

We should be smarter than to let anyone do this to us.

HUGE news yesterday

It hit late last afternoon:

Eric Cantor Loses GOP Primary. 

Wait, What!?

That is some big, even incredible news.

The ultra-Right Wing of the nation, of the Republican Party, the Tea Party and all of their ilk just keep cannibalizing the Republican Party and each other.

Outstanding.

What they don't seem to know is that it weakens them. What they also don't know is that it strengthens the opposition party.

What they also don't know is that all this is better--far better--for the nation, too.

And I love this.  The guy who beat Cantor is named Brat.

That seems to me worthy of Charles Dickens.

And why did the Brat (you should have seen that coming) defeat Mr. Cantor?

Turns out, it may have been due to Cantor's nod to possibly accepting immigration reform. That's bad news for the mainstream Republican Party, also, because the core of the Party realized, rather reluctantly, that they need more and more of the Hispanic vote if they expect to both grow, as an organization, and most importantly, win future elections.

One more thing good for America here is that Mr. Brat only raised an estimated $150,000 in his campaign.

Mr. Cantor?

It's estimated Mr. Cantor raised $5.5 million.

The big money got tossed.

Even though it's the Tea Party, I'll still take that as a bit of a small win for America.

So, the coming 2016 election?

Politics, elections and government in America today

Our government legislators and representatives have become prostitutes. Prostitutes in the truest sense of the word, to and for money, to and from businesses, corporations and the wealthy for money so they can afford their election campaigns and they can continue to remain in their political positions. It's constant. It is in no way even subtle. They're not sexual prostitutes, of course, but people exchanging money with a quid pro quo, certainly.

This is not healthy. This is not good for our nation.

Not good for the people or the nation in any way.

It only serves the wealthy and the corporations.


We must fight for change.

What Republican policies begat

National exceptionalism is when citizens perceive that their home country is extraordinary, special, and the best place on the planet to live, and in many Americans’ minds is based on absolutist ideology and gross lack of knowledge of comparative circumstances. There may have been a time that America was exceptional over thirty years ago when white people had the opportunity to attain the American dream of a middle class income through hard work and perseverance, and could live out their golden years with the knowledge their children would at least accomplish as much as their parents. However, about thirty years ago a b-movie actor ushered in the era of America’s decline when his directors gave him a script to convince ignorant Americans that handing over the nation’s wealth and assets to the rich and their corporations was the key to success and the results have been that America is no longer exceptional, or even mediocre, and is rapidly deteriorating into inferior and second-rate status compared to the rest of the developed world.

It is true that America is the richest nation on Earth, has the most powerful military in the world, and is home to the most millionaires and billionaires of any country on the planet, but that is where the exceptionalism ends. In just about every other category, America is inferior and that is being extremely generous. However, there are millions of ignorant Americans arming themselves to maintain the status quo and prove their belief that the United States is number one and it is down to their ignorance and acceptance that if it is American, it is the best. Many Americans are led to believe the country’s storied “great middle class” is proof positive the nation is exceptional, but according to the “Global Wealth Databook 2012″ the great middle class ranks 27^th in the developed world behind poorer nations such as Spain, Ireland, France, and Cyprus. Even in countries struggling with double and triple-dip recessions, the middle class holds four times the wealth as the average middle class American who is watching what little they have left transferred to the richest one-percent due to thirty years of Republican policies.

Just a few of Republicans’ favorite policies that are creating a second-rate nation and a population of peasants are weak labor laws that give corporations and big business the ability to pay poverty wages without any benefits. In fact, the woefully inadequate poverty level minimum wage is 13^th among developed nations, and in nearly every industrialized country, every job provides at least a month of guaranteed paid vacation and as many paid sick days as one needs to recover from illness or injury. Republicans are busy passing laws making it illegal to provide paid sick leave, suggest eliminating worker compensation rules for on-the-job injuries, and panting to abolish the pitiful minimum wage to put American labor on par with peasants in Communist China. The Republican House of Representative just passed legislation eliminating overtime pay, and ALEC’s Republican right-to-work states have more poverty-level residents while the states’ corporations haul in record profits.

America has the worst healthcare system in the world because few can afford it, and even if they can this country’s people have the worst health outcomes of “all other industrialized countries” on Earth. In the event of a serious health issue or injury, Americans are guaranteed to join the poverty ranks and it makes Republican and health insurance industry’s drive to destroy the Affordable Care Act all the more Draconian and informs keeping Americans sick and impoverished is their ultimate goal. In many Republican states, at the behest of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, Medicaid expansion is out of the question and the GOP is desperate to make senior citizens’ Medicare a thing of the past regardless they paid into it their entire working lives.

In nearly every country on Earth a college education is virtually tuition-free and yet in America, Republicans decry spending on any education and are driving college students into life-long unsustainable debt to enrich the banking industry. In most Republican states, ALEC templates are diverting public school funds to the private religious schools to enrich corporations and create the next generation of ignorant Americans claiming the nation is exceptional as they reject established science to assist their precious oil industry decimate the environment.

America is at the end of its thirty year slide into second-rate status and it is all down to the Republican drive to give every last bit of wealth to the richest one-percent that controls the fate of this nation. It began with Reagan-Republican deregulation of the financial industry that gave Wall Street power to transfer wealth from the middle class into the wealthy’s coffers they hide offshore to avoid paying taxes. America’s social programs and safety nets are among the worst in the world, and instead of bolstering them to help Americans claw out of poverty, Republicans slash them to provide tax breaks for the rich and corporations. Last week House Republicans passed legislation to deregulate derivative trading again that resulted in the 2008 Great Recession killing tens-of-millions of Americans’ jobs, bankrupting retirement accounts, and causing millions of middle class Americans to lose their greatest assets; their homes.

America became an exceptional nation with the rise of the great middle class, and it is sliding into a nation of peasants as Republicans thirty year effort to destroy the middle class is reaching fruition. Nearly a quarter of America’s children are living in poverty, millions of Americans earn a pathetic minimum wage insufficient to put a roof over their heads, and the idea of ever achieving anything more is being thwarted by Republicans in all areas of government, but particularly the states. Right to work laws, banning minimum wage, eliminating healthcare, prohibiting paid sick leave, robbing food and housing assistance for seniors and the poor to provide more of the nation’s wealth for the rich and their corporations are all part of the Republicans’ three decade effort to destroy the middle class and still, Republicans have convinced a large segment of the population that America is number one. Well it is number one; number one in guns, number one in prison population, number one in billionaires and millionaires, number one in military might, and after thirty years of Republican economic policy and deregulation, it is the number one poverty creator and nothing whatsoever to be proud of or consider exceptional.

From the PoliticusUSA website and their article How Republicans Made America A Top Poverty Creator

Fires, widespread drought, epic hurricanes and this is our response

Our government used to work. Remember that?

The wealthy and corporations have taken it--our government--and so, us, over.

Work to end campaign contributions.

Let's get the big, ugly, corrupting money out of our politics, our political system and so, our government.

Quote of the day

"In the Romney candidacy, the Republican party has found the apotheosis of the fact that it now represents solely the super-rich." --Robin Wells, writer for the Guardian, UK (England)

Even the British can see, from far across "the pond", that the Republican candidate for our presidency is by the rich, of the rich and for the rich, nearly solely.

Pathetic.

That he has a chance at winning is downright scary.


Keep cool, y'all and have a great weekend. Think good thoughts, in spite of everything else.

Link to original article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/mitt-romney-offer-government-billionaires

Politics and prostitution---what we've come down to

‎"Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? 'I'm not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I'm just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I'd like to cut your chest open.' The crowd cheers." —Tina Fey, in her book "Bossypants"

In case you want to know what they mean

As always, click on picture for better viewing.

The man who might be president

As ever, click on picture for better viewing.

That he has a chance is scary. So scary.

Check out this little bit of fun propaganda

From our uber-friends at Warner Brothers--the ones who brought us Bugs and Daffy and all the rest: What a hoot.

Tired, tired, tired

I am so incredibly tired of the ugliness and negativity and pessimism--too much of it unfounded--along with the baseless paranoia rampant in the world today. Maybe it's just the United States. Between people who haven't paid attention to the local, regional, state, national and international situations, along with the fear of the country failing or falling, coupled with the outright fear of something as simple as having a president of a different race as them who isn't on their own intellectual level, is it any wonder so many are confused? If you haven't known what's going on for the previous decade and suddenly you find yourself--and your nation--in a bit of trouble--financial, mostly--it's no wonder people are scared. Sadly, they lash out. Some just verbally. Others, physically. Uninformed? Yes, frequently. Sincere? All too frequently.

George Carlin, seemingly on this recent debt ceiling negotiation

Though George Carlin is long gone, sadly and unfortunately, he said this years ago but it's still relevant, of course, and fits this recent debt ceiling negotiation nonsense we just went through. Enjoy, such as you can.

Your yuk of the day

‎"Sarah Palin's son Track and his wife are having a baby. They haven't picked a name yet, but they do know it will be a verb." –Conan O'Brien