Thursday, December 31, 2015

6 Harsh Truths that WILL Make You a Better Person

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person_p2/

2016 - A good time to think about your approach to life and criticism by other people and how you react.

Wishes for 2016. This is great, my thoughts exactly.

https://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/2015-in-review-wcs-wishes-for-2016/

Overpopulation.
Anthropocentric climate change.
Our national government still remains broken.
The American people re-discover their values
Find a path to reduce income inequality
Reform Campaign Finance and Lobbying

I would also add, reverse CITIZENS UNITED which is part of Govt is broken.

80 Year Old walks into a guitar store and JAMS - Awesome.

http://sfglobe.com/2015/12/29/80-year-old-bob-wood-has-guitar-store-employees-cheering-when-he-plays/?src=fbfan_48205&t=fbsfg

No one is ever too old to appreciate good music, and 81-year-old Bob Wood proved that when this YouTube video of him playing "Besame Mucho" went viral back in October of 2014. In an article put out by Guitar Player, Wood, a native of Nashville, Tenn., reveals that the impromptu concert was inspired by a desire to check out a couple of amplifiers he had taken in to be repaired and was picking up. Shane Radtke of British Audio Service, the shop where the amplifiers were being repaired, heard Wood playing from the back of the shop and decided to video the performance. Radtke is quoted as saying, “I was in the back at my bench, and I heard somebody playing something pretty original. And I was like, wow, that’s really cool. So I said, ‘Guys, let’s shoot a video of this.’ ”

Climate Chaos across the Nation: Global warming is real

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/science/climate-chaos-across-the-map.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=image&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

What is going on with the weather?
With tornado outbreaks in the South, Christmas temperatures that sent trees into bloom in Central Park, drought in parts of Africa and historic floods drowning the old industrial cities of England, 2015 is closing with a string of weather anomalies all over the world.
The year, expected to be the hottest on record, may be over at midnight Thursday, but the trouble will not be. Rain in the central United States has been so heavy that major floods are beginning along the Mississippi River and are likely to intensify in coming weeks. California may lurch from drought to flood by late winter. Most serious, millions of people could be threatened by a developing food shortage in southern Africa.
Scientists say the most obvious suspect in the turmoil is the climate pattern called El NiƱo, in which the Pacific Ocean for the last few months has been dumping immense amounts of heat into the atmosphere. Because atmospheric waves can travel thousands of miles, the added heat and accompanying moisture have been playing havoc with the weather in many parts of the world.

GOP: Polls show GOP losing support across the board and will lose in 2016

http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/republicans-are-doomed-for-2016-poll-shows-gop-loses-support-across-the-board/

The Republicans should lose the elections in 2016.  We also know that the Republicans and the Koch Brothers/ Adelson as well as other Billionaires will be dumping Billions into getting a Republican to win.  We need to get out the vote of the average person.

Where they needed to gain was with Hispanics, women, and young people. As Reuters reports from a late-November poll, theRepublicans have lost ground across the board in those areas. The report gave a comparison of polls taken after the 2012 election and the 2015 numbers, showing a reality the Republicans may not come back from:
  • In 2012, Democrats made up 44.7 percent of party-affiliated likely voters, compared to 39.1 percent Republicans, a difference of about 6 percentage points, according to the analysis of 87,778 likely presidential voters polled leading up to the 2012 presidential election. The results have a credibility interval of plus or minus 0.3 percentage points.
  • Three years later, that lead had grown to nine points, 45.9 percent to 36.9 percent, according to the analysis of 93,181 likely presidential voters polled in 2015. The results in 2015 have the same credibility interval as 2012.
  • Among Hispanics who are likely presidential voters, the percentage affiliated with the Republican Party has slipped nearly five points, from 30.6 percent in 2012 to 26 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, Hispanic Democrats grew by six percentage points to 59.6 percent.
  • Among whites under 40, the shift is even more dramatic. In 2012, they were more likely to identify with the Republican Party by about 5 percentage points. In 2015, the advantage flipped: Young whites are now more likely to identify with the Democratic Party by about 8 percentage points.
  • Meanwhile, black likely voters remain overwhelmingly Democratic, at about 80 percent.

NRA: Why is it illegal to do research on gun deaths?

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/why-it-illegal-research-impact-gun-control-public-health?akid=13823.294211.RksC69&rd=1&src=newsletter1048140&t=10

The NRA can pump out whatever "good guys with guns" propaganda it wants, but the fact of the matter is that Americas are safer with fewer, not more guns, on the streets.
The latest proof of this comes out of Missouri, which in 2007 repealed some of its most important gun control laws, including universal background checks.
According to a new study from Johns Hopkins University, this caused a 16 percent jump in the Show Me State's gun homicide rate.
Missouri was always a violent place - its gun homicide rate was actually 13.8 percent higher than the national average before the 2007 repeal - but doing away with common sense things like background checks made things much, much worse.
Between 2008 and 2014, the first eight years after repeal of their control laws, Missouri's gun homicide rate was 47 percent - yes, 47 percent - higher than the national average.
It's a pretty straightforward equation: More freely available guns equals more gun deaths - and fewer freely available guns equals fewer guns deaths.
Period.

Which raises the question: If gun violence caused by easy access to guns is such an obvious public health problem with such an obvious solution, why doesn't our government treat it like one?
The answer to that question has a one-word answer - Republicans.
Believe it or not, it's actually illegal for the Centers of Disease Control to conduct any research whatsoever into the impact of gun control on public health.
That's right - illegal!
This is all thanks to former Arizona Republican Congressman Jay Dickey, who in 1996 pushed for and helped pass an NRA-backed law that bans government research into the relationship between gun ownership and public health.
This law is now called the Dickey Amendment after its creator, and, outside of NRA money, it's one of the biggest roadblocks in the way of our having a sensible gun control policy in this country.
Even Jay Dickey thinks so, which is why he now opposes the law he once helped create.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

14 Year old girl pregnant - No Sex - God told Mom Jesus is being born again

http://stuppid.com/girl-pregnant-baby-jesus/

That’s when Amanda’s mother begged God to forgive her sinful daughter. However, her prayers were met strangely:  Judy claims God came to her in a vision and said he had impregnated Amanda through immaculate conception and that she was to give birth to Jesus.
“At first I was confused, ” Mrs. Peters said. “Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary thousands of years ago, why was Amanda going to give birth to him again? But God explained this was how Jesus was to return to Earth as promised.”
Judy told her daughter who was overjoyed that she was no longer grounded and had regained her phone privileges.
“Things are the double bomb right now,” Amanda said. “My mom’s totally supportive and buying me lots of cool stuff I want and said she is going to pay for everything Jesus needs.”
“I was so sick with grief over Amanda having sex,” Judy said. “And I’m now so happily relieved to know she’s still a virgin and this was all God’s doing. I can’t believe I’m going to be Jesus’ grandma… actually, I don’t know how that will work, but I’m just extremely happy my daughter isn’t having premarital sex and Jesus is coming back in less than a month.”

CA: Police can take guns with a warrant starting Jan 1.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/29/california-gun-law-will-let-police-confiscate-legally-owned-weapons/

This law would have prevented the college student who got guns and drove around shooting in CA.  I think it makes perfect sense.

AB1014 was passed last year in the wake of 2014’s Isla Vista shooting, where teenager Elliot Rodger went on a rampage near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, killing six people along with himself.
Rodger’s parents had reported him to the police prior to the shooting, concerned about his mental health and rants he posted online. But after meeting with Rodger, police decided he wasn’t a criminal risk, and consequently didn’t search his apartment, where he was stockpiling weapons and ammunition.
The new law is intended to stop such a situation from re-occurring. Under the law, a judge has the power to grant a restraining order telling police to seize a person’s guns, based solely on accounts from family members or police that the person is poses an imminent danger to others. The restraining order can be granted without the affected person knowing it exists or being allowed time to contest it.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/29/california-gun-law-will-let-police-confiscate-legally-owned-weapons/#ixzz3vqdB6pog

Aretha Franklin makes President Obama cry by singing to him

http://www.eonline.com/news/727145/aretha-franklin-brings-president-obama-to-tears-by-performing-you-make-me-feel-like-a-natural-woman-live

Great stuff

Open Carry Gun Laws for Whites - NOT FOR BLACKS. A Tamir Rice discussion

http://trofire.com/2015/12/30/open-carry-laws-dont-apply-to-black-people-only-white-the-young-turks/

Last Week,  a grand jury refused to indict the police officer involved in the killing of Tamir Rice, because the prosecutor threw the case to help his political career. But Ohio is an open carry state… Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.

New Kentucky Right Wing Governor is what a Right Wing GOP President would be like.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/12/sneak-peek-of-what-gop-presidency-would-be-like.html?mid=fb-share-di

Wonder what a new Republican president might do in January 2017 to reverse Barack Obama's policies? Newly elected Kentucky governor Matt Bevin gave Kentuckians a taste of that particular lash with five executive orders reversing prior edicts issued by his Democratic predecessor Steve Beshear.
Bevin's actions will probably be treated by friendly media as a Christmas gift to culture warrior Kim Davis, since one order removes a legal requirement that the name of county clerks appear on marriage licenses. That means Davis can keep her job without performing a key component of it, to the greater glory of what she considers to be the homophobic stance of the Prince of Peace.
But for other constituents, the orders will be experienced as a big lump of Kentucky coal in their Christmas stockings. He killed Beshear orders restoring voting rights to about 100,000 ex-felons who have paid their debt to society, and raising the minimum wage for state employees and those working on state contracts. 
Bevin took office December 8. He might have waited until the end of the holidays to mess with voting rights and wages, but I suppose he thinks it's never too early to institute conservative policies. 
It's a reminder of the kind of havoc we can expect just over a year from now if a Republican is elected president. Without question, he or she will be expected to revoke a host of Obama executive orders — including some affecting wages, but also the high-profile policies he implemented on immigration enforcement and climate change. And even before those actions are taken, Republicans on the Hill, in right-wing think tanks and in the lobbying shops of K Street, will be hard at work on a legislative package taking the federal government back to Bush policies and well beyond, to be enacted quickly by the no-filibuster budget reconciliation process. 
So watch Kentucky and learn. 

NORTH POLE, Arctic: 50 degrees above normal on Christmas: GLOBAL WARMING

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/12/30/freak-storm-has-pushed-north-pole-to-freezing-point-50-degrees-above-normal/

A powerful winter cyclone — the same storm that lead to two tornado outbreaks in the United States and disastrous river flooding — has driven the North Pole to the freezing point this week, 50 degrees above average for this time of year.
From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, a mind-boggling pressure drop was recorded in Iceland: 54 millibars in just 18 hours. This triples the criteria for “bomb” cyclogenesis, which meteorologists use to describe a rapidly intensifying mid-latitude storm. A “bomb” cyclone is defined as dropping one millibar per hour for 24 hours.
NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center said the storm’s minimum pressure dropped to 928 millibars around 1 a.m. Eastern time, which likely places it in the top five strongest storms on record in this region.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Trump is quitting the Presidential Campaign:

http://americannewsx.com/hot-off-the-press/breaking-news-donald-trump-quits-race-for-republican-partys-2016-nomination/

The speculation as to why he is quitting has started:  They list a variety of ideas on the link above.

Scenario A).
That hairy, furry, weird looking little critter that dwells on top “the Donald’s” head could have finally been declared an endangered species by the National Wildlife Federation. In turn, Donald Trump being the poor creature’s only known natural habitat, could not possibly serve America in such a public manner as is required of our Commander in Chief on a regular basis. Therefore, America’s number 1 priority must be to ensure the overall health and well being of that fugly little fur-ball that Trump pretends is growing right out of his head. I say this mainly because it is possibly the last living specimen of it’s kind on earth. The American government has sworn to do everything in their power to give this newly discovered creature, the “toupee rat” a fresh start and hopefully prevent it from ultimately going extinct.

I think Trump is still in - parody.

Reagan: The empty vessel Conservatives wanted

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2015/12/new-book-called-american-president-on.html

Courtesy of Salon:

In all fields of public affairs—from diplomacy to the economy—the president stunned Washington policymakers by how little basic information he commanded. His mind, said the well-disposed Peggy Noonan, was “barren terrain.” Speaking of one far-ranging discussion on the MX missile, the Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton, an authority on national defense, reported, “Reagan’s only contribution throughout the entire hour and a half was to interrupt somewhere at midpoint to tell us he’d watched a movie the night before, and he gave us the plot from War Games.” The president “cut ribbons and made speeches. He did these things beautifully,” Congressman Jim Wright of Texas acknowledged. “But he never knew frijoles from pralines about the substantive facts of issues.” Some thought him to be not only ignorant but, in the word of a former CIA director, “stupid.” Clark Clifford called the president an “amiable dunce,” and the usually restrained columnist David Broder wrote, “The task of watering the arid desert between Reagan’s ears is a challenging one for his aides.” 

IS sex rules for slaves. Pretty Brutal stuff

http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/islamic-state-issues-new-ruling-on-sex-slaves/news-story/819d5dab72825b15f50c190bf6727233

ISLAMIC STATE’S NEW RULES
• “It is not permissable for the owner of a female captive to have intercourse with her until after she has her menstrual cycle and becomes clean.”
• “If she is pregnant, he is not allowed to have intercourse with her until after she has given birth.”
• “It is not permissable to cause her to abort if she is pregnant.”
• “If the owner of a female captive releases her, only he can have intercourse with her and he cannot allow someone else to have intercourse with her.”
• “If the owner of a female captive, who has a daughter suitable for intercourse, has sexual relations with the latter, he is not permitted to have intercourse with the mother and she is permanently off-limits to him.”
• “The owner of two sisters is not allowed to have intercourse with both of them.”
• “If the female captive becomes pregnant by her owner, he cannot sell her and she is released after his death.”
• “If two or more individuals are involved in purchasing a female captive, none of them are permitted to have intercourse with her because she is part of a joint ownership.”
The US government’s full translation of the list, which has not been previously published, is here. It makes for grim reading.

Pres Obama gives the Military biggest raise in years: GOP silent.

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/republicans-silent-as-pres-obama-gives-our-soldiers-their-biggest-raise-in-5-years/

President Obama’s previously announced pay raise for the military and other federal employees – the largest such increase in five years – is set to go into effect at the end of the week in spite of Republican obstructionism on the bill. Soldiers will see their salaries rise by 1.3%, while all other federal employees will receive a 1% raise. The pay increase for the military is especially significant given that military pay had increased only minimally in recent years after being frozen from 2011 to 2013. The average salary of a soldier is about $40,000, a shamefully low figure that Republicans have done nothing to increase despite all of their cowardly war-mongering bluster that puts these brave men and women in harm’s way.

Trump song - song of truth

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/parody-song-ruthlessly-mocks-trumps-fascist-ideas-but-trump-fans-love-it-anyway/

roup of Arizona conservatives are working to keep Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination.
The nonprofit Public Integrity Alliance, which has tangled with corrupt Republican lawmakers in the past, have produced a humorous music video, called “Make America Great Again,” mocking Trump and his supporters to help draw attention to their efforts to influence the GOP primary race, reported thePhoenix New Times.
The country-rock song, performed by comedian Brian Nissen’s redneck “Dwain” character, mockingly celebrates some of the candidate’s most outlandish proposals and outrageous insults — although in the bizarro world of the 2016 presidential race, it’s not hard to imagine Trump playing the song at his own rallies.
“I’ve noticed that some of the Trump fans loved it,” said Tyler Montague, founder and president of PIA. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, this is everything Trump is about, this is dead on.’ We’re like, ‘You’re kidding us, right?'”
Montague, who appears in the video as a redneck buddy, said the 501(c)(4) group — which is not required to report its donors but cannot be used primarily to influence elections — became motivated to act after Trump suggested a ban on Muslims in the U.S.
“When he said the stuff about Muslims, we were like, we’ve got to call that out and make fun of the absurdity of that,” Montague said.

DON'T MOVE TO PORTLAND - A PSA, really - Don't Move here.

http://www.homesnacks.net/this-dont-move-to-portland-psa-is-actually-one-of-the-funniest-things-youll-see-all-week-123328/

You out of towners are making our traffic horrible.

Holiday Gun Shootings: 2015 - There were a lot of shootings and killings during the Holidays (so far)

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2015/12/more-tragic-gun-stories-to-help-bring.html

Got a new gun or magazine:  Shoot some one as a means of saying Merry Christmas.

This first one is from Missouri:

A Missouri teen who was accidentally shot by her father has died after being taken off of life support Christmas Eve. 

 Kaitlyn Pullam, 17, was shot the night of December 21 at her Poplar Bluff, Missouri home, KFVS reported. 

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs told the television station that Pullam's father thought the gun was not loaded and it inadvertently went off. 

She was found unresponsive in her bedroom with what appeared to be a single gunshot wound to her face, authorities said. 

And another from Oregon:

A 2-year-old girl in Oregon was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the face on Christmas morning by her uncle. 

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said officers received a 911 call just after 11:00 a.m. on Friday informing them that a child had been shot in the face with a handgun. The shooting occurred at a home near Molalla. 

The uncle who shot her, 24-year-old Luke Andrew Bowman, reportedly was cleaning a .45 caliber handgun when it went off, striking the girl in the cheek. 

A sheriff’s deputy told KGW the uncle had been given a gun cleaning kit for Christmas.

The next one comes to us from Las Vegas:

Gun Control - Missouri - Gun Permit required till 2007 - then stopped and gun deaths shot up 16 times

http://trofire.com/2015/12/29/missouri-is-proof-gun-laws-work-thom-hartmann-show/

Thom Hartmann comments on a Johns Hopkins University study that found gun related murders rose after the state of Missouri repealed a 2007 law that required potential gun buyers to be vetted and licensed by a local sheriff.

Austerity SNAKE OIL: How it was sneaked in as Political Policy in the US and Worldwide

http://www.alternet.org/economy/sneaky-way-austerity-got-sold-public-snake-oil

The Sneaky Way Austerity Got Sold to the Public Like Snake Oil

A budget approach cloaked in science and technical jargon became a tool to crush the people.

Monday, December 28, 2015

Cannabis Oil cured Stage 4 Lung Cancer

http://www.naturalnews.com/047924_lung_cancer_cannabis_oil_medical_marijuana.html

(NaturalNews) An Australian woman in her mid-50s recently posted a YouTube video explaining how she has eliminated her stage IV lung cancer with cannabis after being given a death sentence of six months with no treatment. Her oncologist suggested chemo as an option, but it wouldn't cure her cancer. It would only prolong her life a few months with chemo side effects.

Despondent, she and her husband prayed for a solution to her dilemma. She was shocked because she never smoked tobacco her whole life, and now she was scheduled to die with lung cancer in a few months. Their daughter suggested that they go on the internet and look into information on cannabis for cancer.

ISIS: Defectors are talking, ISIS is getting weaker and poverty is the norm

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/23/10649808/isis-defectors-testimony

ISIS territory, from everything we hear, is an absolutely miserable place to live. This should be a liability for ISIS: if it's really so terrible to be live under its rule, you'd think that a number of their fighters would want to leave.
There haven't been waves of mass defections from ISIS — partly because, according to some reports, ISIS commanders shoot people who try to leave. But a few people have left the group. Scholars Anne Speckhard and Ahmet S. Yayla found some of them and got them to agree to interviews, excerpts of which they have published in the newest issue of the journal Perspectives on Terrorism.
The defectors' stories are harrowing. They're also a valuable window into how life in ISIS works — and some of the group's real weaknesses.

The number of people who overdosed from POT in 2015 is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marijuana-deaths-2014_56816417e4b06fa68880a217

A comparison of overdose deaths due to POT, Prescription Drugs and Alcohol compared  --  interesting info.

2015 - Top 5 Anti Science Moments

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/12/video-anti-science-nonsense-climate-vaccines

Watch the video
In 2015, science was a favorite punching bag for many of America's politicians. While leaders of nearly 200 nations met in Paris to hammer out a historic deal to combat climate change, the US Senate held a hearing—hosted by presidential hopeful Ted Cruz (R-Texas)—to debunk the science. It had a subtle title: "Data or Dogma?" In fact, 2015 did nothing to alter the notion that one whole American political party—and nearly all of its candidates for the White House—remains stuck on a murky spectrum from outright climate denial to the policy version of ¯\_(惄)_/¯, as we wrote about all too often this year.
There was, of course, the infamous snowball thrown on the floor of the Senate. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) claimed global warming wasn't happening because it was cold when he made the snowball. (Repeat after me: Weather does not a climate trend make.) But perhaps the more insidious attack on science was directed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Smith accused government scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of rigging climate data to disprove the so-called "global warming pause" (a contested but popular talking point often used to attack the science). He then attempted to depose the scientists and subpoena their documents. "Political operatives and other NOAA employees likely played a large role in approving NOAA's decision to adjust data that allegedly refutes the hiatus in warming," he told the Washington Post.

2015: 17 Best moments of Political Comedy

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/here-are-the-17-best-moments-of-political-comedy-in-2015/

17 videos - jon Stewart and many others

Bernie Sanders admonishes Rand Paul about the aged and poor

http://americannewsx.com/politics/watch-bernie-sanders-owns-rand-paul-in-this-senate-hearing-with-an-assist-from-senator-franken-video/

Often with Presidential candidates, people like to dig up “old dirt” in the form of pictures, audio, or video that make political opponents look bad. In the case of Bernie Sanders, the opposite may be true. Regardless if people individually agree with Sanders on any individual issue, one thing is true to all: Bernie Sanders walks the walk he talks. And his talk has been consistent since day one.
There aren’t many in politics who are in that league.
“Making sure that seniors have the nutrition that they need is not only the right thing to do, it is thefinancially smart thing to do,” begins Senator Bernie Sanders in this clip from a Senate committee meeting on the issues surrounding senior hunger.
Sanders goes on to make his case on how preventive care, in this case making sure seniors, then steps in then newly christened Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky. Paul looks down his nose donning spectacles apparently trying to appear as founding fatherly as he can and retorts with a line from his right wing – libertarian playbook:
It’s curious that only in Washington can you spend 2 billion dollars and claim you are saving money. Here’s a thought, ” Paul smugly went on – “perhaps the 2 billion that we spend on OAA if we subsumed that into another program and didn’t spend it that might be saving money.
And that’s when Sanders taught the young Paul the difference between rabble rousing and governing:
Seantor Paul is suggesting that only in Washington do people believe that spending money actually saves money. And I think that is the kind of philosophy that has us spending twice as much per person on healthcare as any other country on earth!

5 Right Wing Predictions for 2015 which failed.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/five-failed-right-wing-prophecies-and-predictions-2015

Five Failed Right-Wing Prophecies and Predictions of 2015

Surprise, surprise: Right-wingers got a lot of things wrong.

Conservative commentators are running out of time for all of their dire prophecies about President Obama to come true, including fears about the looming imposition of martial law, establishment of Obama’s private army and the assassination of conservative leaders. Right-wing pundits also seemed to have missed with their prophecies about financial collapse, natural disasters and widespread unrest coming in 2015.

South Beach Miami, FL is flooding now - It will only get worse.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami

To cope with its recurrent flooding, Miami Beach has already spent something like a hundred million dollars. It is planning on spending several hundred million more. Such efforts are, in Wanless’s view, so much money down the drain. Sooner or later—and probably sooner—the city will have too much water to deal with. Even before that happens, Wanless believes, insurers will stop selling policies on the luxury condos that line Biscayne Bay. Banks will stop writing mortgages.
“If we don’t plan for this,” he told me, once we were in the car again, driving toward the Fontainebleau hotel, “these are the new Okies.” I tried to imagine Ma and Pa Joad heading north, their golf bags and espresso machine strapped to the Range Rover.

As temperatures climb again, so, too, will sea levels. One reason for this is that water, as it heats up, expands. The process of thermal expansion follows well-known physical laws, and its impact is relatively easy to calculate. It is more difficult to predict how the earth’s remaining ice sheets will behave, and this difficulty accounts for the wide range in projections.
Low-end forecasts, like the I.P.C.C.’s, assume that the contribution from the ice sheets will remain relatively stable through the end of the century. High-end projections, like NOAA’s, assume that ice-melt will accelerate as the earth warms (as, under any remotely plausible scenario, the planet will continue to do at least through the end of this century, and probably beyond). Recent observations, meanwhile, tend to support the most worrisome scenarios.

A Black pastor smacks down GOP candidates - Very Good

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/watch-black-pastors-epic-smack-down-of-conservative-reporter-you-dont-have-the-character-to-even-listen/

v. Graylan Hagler confronted Dan Joseph of the conservative Media Research Center on Monday for refusing to acknowledge that white supremacy was still an issue that needed to be addressed the United States.
On Monday’s edition of the WJLA’s NewsTalk program, Joseph asserted that Trump was leading the GOP presidential race because voters were tired of political correctness.
Hagler, however, argued that political correctness was another phrase for “respecting other people.”
“Political incorrectness is racist, it’s xenophobic because it really in a sense diminishes people’s humanity,” Hagler explained. “It characterizes people in negative ways, it stereotypes people in ways that are ultimately destructive.”
The pastor contended that the political success of Trump was tied to America’s history of racism, and to the way some whites feel threatened by the election of President Barack Obama.
“People basically tried to restore the Confederacy and did so after the compromise,” Hagler noted. “And we’re really facing this white supremacist paradigm all over again.”

Some of President Obama's best comebacks

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/28/watch-obamas-best-rebuttals-republican-bullst-during-his-presidency-video/

WATCH: Obama’s Best Rebuttals Of Republican Bulls**t During His Presidency (VIDEO)

AUTHOR DECEMBER 28, 2015 8:32 AM
President Barack Obama has been known for his oratory skills and his “no drama Obama” coolness under pressure. He’s also known for his quick wit and rebuttals when Republicans attack him, and there have been plenty of attacks in the seven years he’s been president. The Democratic president has always handled himself with charisma and a humor that will be missed once he leaves office in a year.
Take for example this question posed by Barbara Walters about Sarah Palin. Obama is actually trying to be nice until he’s pushed a little:
Walters: “You may have heard that Sarah Palin told me just last week that she could beat you if she ran. Could she?”
Obama: “You know I don’t speculate on what’s gonna happen two years from now.”
Walters: “Mr. President, you will not tell me that you think you could beat Sarah Palin?”
Obama: “What I’m saying is I don’t think about Sarah Palin.”

Republicans sell lies better than Democrats sell the truth.

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/reality-check-democrats-republicans-sell-lies-better-tell-truth/

In the days after every election, I avoid the political media as much as possible. During this time all these “experts” will go back and forth trying to overcomplicate the “whys and why nots” of what happened, just like they have this election. Even though the truth is glaringly obvious: Republicans sell lies better than Democrats tell the truth.  All I’ve heard since Tuesday night is how “serious” Mitch McConnell is about working with the president to end the gridlock in Congress. 

Sure, I’ve heard them say a lot of trigger words like “economy,” “jobs,” “border security” and “terrorism” – but I don’t recall many of them actually laying out their plan for any of it. Let’s take a look at the “values” Republicans represent. They: Want a ban on same-sex marriage. Want to ban all abortions (many are even against abortions for rape victims). Are against the minimum wage. Are anti-immigration reform. Are against laws to protect equal pay for women. Want religion interjected into every facet of our lives. Want to gut (and eventually get rid of) Social Security and Medicare. Don’t believe in climate change. Heck, many of them don’t even believe in science period. Oppose sensible gun regulations. Support the right for businesses to discriminate against homosexuals. Yes, they just gained more power in Congress – because the GOP sells lies better than Democrats tell the truth.

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/reality-check-democrats-republicans-sell-lies-better-tell-truth/

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/reality-check-democrats-republicans-sell-lies-better-tell-truth/

Bernie Sanders takes over a shallow interview. He insists on talking about real issues.

http://egbertowillies.com/2015/12/27/bernie-sanders-did-not-allow-andrea-mithcell-to-change-the-narrative/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=EgbertoWillies.com&utm_content=Bernie%20Sanders%20%27belittles%27%20Andrea%20Mitchell%27s%20shallow%20interview%20(VIDEO)

ndrea Mitchell: Let’s talk about, first of all, the data breach and the dust up between you and the Democratic party. You fired one staffer. Suspended two others. Has any other action been taken, any update now, on this dispute?
Senator Bernie Sanders: Well, we’re trying to work with the DNC to put this whole thing behind us. There were two breaches. We screwed up on one and the other one we did the right thing. Right now we’re in negotiations with the DNC. Frankly, Andrea, I think for the American people there are far more important issues having to do with the disappearance of the American middle class and huge income and wealth inequality and climate change and the corrupt campaign finance system. So I think on both sides we’d like to focus on the real issues.

Abortion: TV totally distorts the experience of getting an abortion.

http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/how-tv-totally-distorts-common-experience-having-abortion?akid=13813.294211.K6U-Ml&rd=1&src=newsletter1048008&t=18

How TV Totally Distorts the Common Experience of Having an Abortion

While one in three American women will have an abortion at some point in their lives, it’s rare to see this common reality portrayed on television.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Race and Gun Killings by Police: Whites are treated much different than Whites

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/5/18/1385588/-Why-race-is-the-main-reason-the-murderous-bloodbath-in-Waco-was-romanticized-w-velvet-gloves?detail=emailclassic


Dozens of others stabbed, beaten, and seriously injured.
Over 100 guns recovered.
Sounds like one of the worst crimes in modern American history, right?
Then why do the men above look like they are tailgating? Smoking cigarettes, others using their cell phones, nobody in the world could guess that these men were even associated with such a horrible crime.
Instead, you'd think the man below was involved.
The police arrested this man for violating curfew and refusing to get on the sidewalk
Nah. He refused to get on the sidewalk during a curfew in Baltimore. Sprayed in the face with pepper spray, the officers even seemed to enjoy brutalizing him. See the smile?
It's not a harsh comparison at all.
In Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, and around the country, protestors were actually protesting against violence and were often treated as if they were murderers.