The Day We told the GOP to shove their Thoughts and Prayers up their ass after Mass Shootings

http://www.pajiba.com/web_culture/the-day-we-told-finally-politicians-to-shove-their-thoughts-and-prayers-up-their-ass.php

While the fallout continues from yesterday’s shooting in San Bernardino that left at least 14 dead — the 355th mass shooting of the year — it was hard not to notice a dramatic turning point in the conversation around mass shooting yesterday. The sense in the past is that we in the media — social, Internet, and mainstream — shouldn’t be quick to politicize these tragic deaths, but the tide has begun to turn. We’re beginning to fight against this idea that we shouldn’t politicize something that can only be fixed through politics.

Chris Kluwe began teasing it out in October, after a mass shooting,

After a mass shooting is exactly the time to politicize these acts of violence, Kluwe seemed to suggest, and after yesterday’s mass shooting, Vox was quick to explain whyit’s important to politicize it:

The same debate that has played out over and over after a mass shooting in America: A massacre happens, someone calls for action, critics say calls to action are politicizing the issue, and nothing changes.

This is not an accident. Cries of “politicization!” are in and of themselves political — they’re meant to stop any momentum for changes in gun policy. The reality is that responding to crises with political agendas is one of the things that government is supposed to do, and doing nothing is a political and policy decision by itself.

The mass shootings have gotten out of hand, and now we’re finally pushing back. 

A Furious Heartbroken response to the killings in San Bernardino and all the rampant mass shootings.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-furious-heartbroken-response-to-san-bernardino-that-everyone-needs-to-read?c=ufb1

Police escort family members of employees of the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, the site of yet another mass shooting Wednesday. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images.

I'm sick and tired of watching helplessly as innocent people are gunned down nearlyevery. single. day. for no reason at all.

I'm sick and tired of hearing there's no way to prevent this.

I'm sick and tired of being told not to make this political. The only people who benefit from "not making this political" are those who don't want anything to change.

I'm sick of tired of hearing that the rate of gun murder has nothing to do with the availability of guns. Yes, it very much does. 

I'm sick and tired of hearing that killers will kill with or without guns. Yes, some will still try — with knives, or bats, or their own fists. But it will be much easier to stop them before they cause mass carnage.

I'm sick and tired of hearing politicians say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims." You know what's better than thinking and praying? Doing something.

These White Male Crazies with Guns at Mosques are terrorists.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/10/11/i-want-them-the-fck-out-of-my-neighborhood-armed-gun-nuts-terrorize-mosque/

Conservatives lose their shit over a lot of things. People peacefully practicing any religion other than Christianity –namely Islam — turns them into raging, violent lunatics. As Islamophobia reaches a fever pitch among rabidly Christian, gun-wielding right wingers, public incidents of terrorizing Muslims simply for existing, continue to become more common. One such incident has occurred at a Mosque in Phoenix, Arizona.

The latest protest at this Mosque is part of a series of armed protests against Muslims by people who believe that Muslims want to take over America. Calling these protests a Global Rally for Humanity, the protests haven’t attracted many people, until now. The Phoenix protest drew roughly 120 people, many armed with various firearms, including assault weapons.

One of the organizers for the Phoenix protest, a self-identified militia member named Gary Burleson, who admits to spending much of his free time patrolling the border, said of the adherents to the Islamic faith:

“I want them the fuck out of my neighborhood. They can practice Islam in their own country. I don’t want it shoved down my throat in my own country.”

The GUNS in the San Bernardino shootings were legal thanks to the NRA

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-guns-from-the-san-bernardino-shooting-were-legal-thanks-to-the-nra-20151203

The Guns From the San Bernardino Shooting Were Legal Thanks to the NRA

The weapons used in San Bernardino are only legal in the U.S. because the NRA cowed Congress into watching the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban expire

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-guns-from-the-san-bernardino-shooting-were-legal-thanks-to-the-nra-20151203#ixzz3tN5XU5Me
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Mass Shootings DON'T Convince Gun Folks to Support Gun control: How Gun Nuts Think

http://www.vox.com/2015/12/4/9845146/mass-shootings-gun-control

One thing I often hear in the wake of these endless mass shootings is, "Surely this will convince those gun people. Surely the carnage and suffering are bad enough now that they'll feel compelled to support some gun control."

This betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the cognitive and emotional dynamics at work. It presumes that mass shootings constitute an argument against guns, to be weighed against arguments in their favor. But to gun enthusiasts, mass shootings are not arguments against guns but for them. The rise in mass shootings is only convincing both sides that they're right, causing them to dig in further.

It's not even clear that opinions on guns and gun violence remain amenable to argument. Over the past few decades, gun ownership in the US has evolved from a practical issue for rural homeowners and hunters to a kind of gesture of tribal solidarity, an act of defiance toward Obama, the left, and all the changes they represent. The gun lobby has become more hardened and uncompromising, pushing guns into schools, churches, and universities.

This has taken place in the context of a broader and deeper polarization of the country, as Red America and Blue America have become more ideologically homogeneous and distant from one another. The two sides are now composed of people who quite literally think and feel differently — and are less and less able to communicate. The gun issue is a salient example, but far from the only one.

This suggests that if the status quo on guns in the US is to change, it will be through overwhelming political force, not through evidence and argument. Guns have now ascended to the level of worldview and identity, areas largely beyond the reach of persuasion.

GOP Blocks Bill to Stop people on NO FLY LIST from buying guns legally

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/262030-senate-blocks-tying-gun-fight-to-obamacare-repeal

Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected an amendment to the ObamaCare repeal bill that would have tied it to a separate fight on blocking suspected or known terrorists from being able to buy guns. 

Senators voted 45-54 on procedural hurdle for the measure from Sen. Dianne Feinstein. 

 

The California Democrat's proposal, which she has also introduced as a separate piece of legislation, would allow the attorney general to block the sale or transfer of a gun or explosive to a suspected or known terrorist if the individual is believed to use the weapons in an act of terrorism.

 

Terrorists: NY Daily News labels Terrorists including Wayne LaPierre

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/new_york_daily_news_front_page_labels_nra_head_wayne_lapierre_a_terrorist

I agree with NY Daily News.

NY Daily News Labels NRA Head Wayne LaPierre A 'Terrorist'

Two days after the largest mass shooting in three years, one New York City tabloid is targeting the head of the NRA.

Missouri Rep files a bill to make Gun Laws similar to Abortion Bill

http://theslot.jezebel.com/missouri-state-rep-files-bill-to-put-gun-sales-under-ex-1746030454?newstream=on&utm_expid=66866090-71.ZDl_b8uGQgG7HBI5sxDRgQ.2&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F

You can read the full text of House Bill 1397 here; it sweetly proposes that gun buyers have a 72-hour waiting period imposed upon them, and have to “confer and discuss with a licensed physician” and risk factors that might arise “from the proposed firearm purchase:”

Prior to any firearm purchase in this state, a prospective firearm purchaser shall, at least seventy-two hours prior to the initial request to purchase a firearm from a licensed firearm dealer located at least one hundred twenty miles from such purchaser’s legal residence, confer and discuss with a licensed physician the indicators and contraindicators and risk factors, including any physical, psychological, or situational factors, that may arise with the proposed firearm purchase. Such physician shall then evaluate the prospective firearm purchaser for such indicators and contraindicators and risk factors and determine if such firearm purchase would increase such purchaser’s risk of experiencing an adverse physical, emotional, or other health reaction.

Gun buyers would also have to watch a 30-minute video “on fatal firearm injuries” and verify in writing that he or she viewed the entire video “in the presence of a licensed firearm dealer.” There’s more:

Larry Wilmore takes down Donald Trump re: Black Pastor Meeting

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/02/you_people_are_just_lying_how_stupid_do_you_think_we_are_larry_wilmore_delivers_the_epic_trump_takedown_the_political_press_hasnt_managed/

Wilmore rolled the clip of Trump’s spokesperson on CNN’s Jake Tapper saying that Trump wasn’t making fun of the reporter. He was just gesticulating wildly to show the exasperation of the reporter. “Oh my God, you people are just lying,” Wilmore said. “I mean, that is a lie. How stupid do you think we are?! Look, if somebody accuses me of making fun of blind people, my excuse can’t be, ‘ya know my neck started hurting so I started moving it like this, and it got kinda bright in there so I put some shades on…'”

And Wilmore began doing an impression of Ray Charles.  “I’m not making fun of Ray Charles. In fact, I demand an apology from the Ray Charles estate.”

But the best moment came when Wilmore showed the hilarious clip of Tapper’s WTF face when Trump’s spokesman said the 9/11 claim was true. The spokesman had never come across something where Trump has said something that is inaccurate. “Seriously?” Tapper asked after a double-take.

8 Ways the Richest make the lives of regular folks worse

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/8_ways_the_super_rich_make_life_miserable_for_the_rest_of_us_partner/

1. The wealthy are more politically active than typical citizens. 
2. The wealthy want government to act on their behalf

5. The wealthy support education, but not public schools. The very rich and the general public both support investing in education, but diverge on key specifics. The researchers found that a majority of the 1 percent and the general public would pay more taxes for pre-K and kindergarten; support merit pay for teachers; support charter public schools; support taxpayer-funded vouchers so parents can send their kids to private or religious schools; and support giving high school students the option of vocational training to start work immediately after graduating.

Where they differ, however, is notable.

The top 1 percent have a strong bias against public schools, with only 35 percent agreeing that “the federal government should spend whatever is necessary to ensure that all children have really good public schools they can go to,” compared to 87 percent of the general public. On affirmative action in education, a slight majority of the wealthy, 53 percent, agreed that “it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that minorities have schools equal in quality to whites, even if it means you will have to pay more in taxes,” compared to 71 percent of the general public. Only a small slice, 28 percent, agreed “the federal government should make sure that everyone who wants to go to college can do so,” compared to 78 percent of the general public.

It is time to Politicize MASS SHOOTINGS. Mass killings in the US is out of control.

http://www.vox.com/2015/10/7/9471503/politicize-shootings-gun-violence/in/9602151?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=ezraklein&utm_content=thursday

Dealing with crises is one of the points of government and the political system. The government is meant to solve problems that individuals and private organizations can't fix on their own. And the political system lets the general public hold politicians accountable, and provides a way to discuss the best strategies to respond to big problems.

In fact, the most consistent criticisms hurled at political leaders come when they do nothing in the face of a crisis. After Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Democratscriticized President George W. Bush for vacationing during the beginning of the disaster. After the attacks on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans died, Republicans criticized Obama for not calling the attack an act of terror (he did) and not being in the Situation Room the night of the attacks. This happens time and time again, whether the issue is police officers getting shot, the Keystone pipeline, war, or something else entirely.

In the case of gun violence, there is something the federal government can do. We know, for instance, that America has more gun violence than other developed nations; we also know part of the reason for that is America has more guns, and the research very clearly shows more guns mean more gun deaths. So reducing the number of guns — by limiting access to them, or by immediately cutting the supply of them through, for example, buyback programs — would very likely lead to fewer gun deaths.

As one example, if the US reduced its firearm deaths to UK levels, it would have saved nearly 33,000 lives in 2013.

Russia: ISIS is being helped by Turkey (video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMnl0nO-oCk&feature=youtu.be

Found this interesting.

Sowing Doubt about Climate Change is very effective. (Some are making big bucks by destroying our environment.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/02/new-research-confirms-that-sowing-doubt-about-climate-change-is-devastatingly-effective/

Energy and Environment

This is why sowing doubt about climate change is such an effective strategy

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By Chris Mooney December 2 at 3:10 PM  

Steam billowing from the cooling towers of Vattenfall’s Jaenschwalde brown coal power station behind wind turbines near Cottbus, eastern Germany Dec. 2, 2009. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski

For some time, social science researchers have been studying an oddity about the U.S. — compared with many other nations, we’re a hotbed of global warming doubt and denial. Accordingly, and to counteract this, a variety of messages or ways of “re-framing” the issue have been proposed, often with the goal of appealing to the ideology of political conservatives, which is where most of the doubt lies.

Some of the most popular framing ideas include talking about climate change in the context of economic opportunity (solving climate change will lead to a clean energy boom), national security (not solving it will make the world a dangerous place), faith-based ethics (we need to be good stewards of the Creation) and public health (climate change will make us sicker, or lead to the spread of diseases).

Now, however, a new study suggests not only that these messages may not be  particularly effective, but that messages espousing climate change doubt or denial — which are ever-present in the din of public debate and discourse — appear to have considerably more impact.

“The positive frames really don’t move the needle at all, and the presence of the denial counter-frame seems to have a suppressive or a negative effect on people’s climate change belief,” says Aaron McCright, a researcher at Michigan State University who conducted the research with three university colleagues. The study is just out in the journal Topics in Cognitive Science.

Another Shooting 12 Dead - 20 Shot. Just another day in Murica.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/at-least-20-shot-just-blocks-from-san-bernadino-planned-parenthood/

 As many as 20 people have been shot near a health clinic in California.

Witnesses reported seeing three heavily armed and masked men wearing military-style clothing and possibly body armor at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

GW Bush - WHY WE WENT INTO IRAQ. General Wesley Clark talks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUvYLHEJwE&feature=share

General Wesley Clark recalls the plans well before we went in to Iraq.

Trump: What really happened when Black Preachers met with Trump?

http://trofire.com/2015/12/02/what-really-happened-when-trump-met-with-black-religious-leaders-this-week-not-good-for-trump-at-all/

If there was ever “great love in the room” as Trump claims, it went out the window when Bishop Couzens told Trump that he should “apologize and repent.” Couzens was immediately cut off by angry staffers who demanded to know why he owed an apology to anyone and questioning what he had to repent for. Significantly, Trump said nothing, letting his hired goons speak for him. When it was finally revealed after the meeting that most of the clergy in attendance had in fact not promised to endorse his candidacy, Trump canceled a press conference that was to be held in conjunction with the meeting. Later on, Trump claimed that it was members of the Black Lives Matters movement who pressured the clergy to withhold their endorsements.

That wasn’t the case, either. Rather, it was a letter, signed by over 100 African American members of the clergy, urging their colleagues not to endorse Trump:

Mr. Trump routinely uses overtly divisive and racist language on the campaign trail. Most recently, he admitted his supporters were justified for punching and kicking a Black protester who had attended a Trump rally with the intent to remind the crowd that “Black Lives Matter.” Trump followed this action by tweeting inaccurate statistics about crime prevalence rates in Black communities – insinuating that Black people are more violent than other groups. Those statistics did not reflect the fact that most crimes are intraracial, meaning that most people do harm to people of their own race. They also did not speak to the crime of neoliberalism, capitalism, and white supremacy which kill thousands of black and nonblack people each day.

Global Warming and the Terrorism - Bill Nye, the connection

http://reverbpress.com/environment/global-warming-and-terrorism-bill-nye/

This makes so much sense.

Muslim extremist and Christian Extremist are made for each other: hilarious video compares them

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/11/30/this-hilarious-video-shows-that-christian-and-islamic-fundamentalists-are-made-for-each-other-video/

It’s certainly true that both sets of extremists have much in common. It’s also pretty damned scary. Basically, Christian fundamentalists in America are the equivalent of ISIS in the Middle East. And one thing the video left out is that both have no problem with committing acts of terrorism to press their oppressive agenda.

That is why is more important than ever before to support the separation of church and state and reject the agenda of Christian fundamentalists who would gladly shred our Constitution and replace it with the Bible. Because in the end, the Islamic extremists would cheer them on if it means destroying the United States. Only it would be destroyed from within by the very people who claim to be true patriots. So, we are not only fighting ISIS overseas, we have to fight Christian extremists here at home. Because the two groups of extremists are equally dangerous. Always and forever.

Why It is Important to Keep Abortion Legal: From a Facebook post

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/02/this-amazing-facebook-status-perfectly-summarizes-why-we-should-fight-to-keep-abortion-legal/

The argument that’s so far missing from the discourse following the Christian extremist attack against Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs is that in reality, abortion is a safe and legal medical procedure provided as a right to any woman who chooses it. Naturally, it’s easy to lose site of the forest for the trees given how the GOP has effectively skewed the abortion issue into the fringes, forcing pro-choice activists to address whether abortion should be legal in the most extreme circumstances, such as rape and incest.

While activists are understandably distracted by conservatives calling for abortion bans even in cases of rape, Republicans at the state level have been passing all varieties of abortion restrictions, from forced ultrasounds to abortion clinic closures.

The following Facebook status, apparently written by a feminist named Amanda Duarte, has been circulating through social media again this week. It’s mandatory reading for everyone, especially those of us who are interested in protecting a woman’s right to a constitutionally-protected healthcare service.

I don’t care if Planned Parenthood provides nothing BUT abortion services. I don’t care if it’s a million-story abortion superpark with abortion waterslides and an abortion electrical parade. Abortion is legal. ABORTION IS LEGAL. If I read one more “defense” of Planned Parenthood that says “it’s not JUST abortions!” or “only 5% of what they do is abortion! And abortions aren’t federally funded!” I’m going to abort myself. Abortion is legal, culturally necessary, and good for humanity. It has been and will be practiced for millennia. It is essential. It is a fact. By minimizing, denying or apologizing for this fact, you are allowing these venal anti-woman Nazis to frame this debate and continue to chip away at this essential right. Abortion is not tragic. It is not painful. It is a fact. It is a right. Demand it, fight for it, and for the sake of the women who have given their lives to defend it, stop apologizing for it.

Christian Conservatives scramble to deny stirring violence with their incendiary rhetoric

http://www.alternet.org/christian-conservatives-scramble-deny-stirring-violence-their-incendiary-speech?akid=13727.294211.u9IzKK&rd=1&src=newsletter1046632&t=4

In what could be the greatest head-spinner of the season, Christianist Republicans, from presidential candidates and congressmen to Fox News anchors and sleazy video-splicers, are scrambling to deny that their words actually matter or have any real-world influence. We had nothing to do with any shooting rampage at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs. Cough. Baby killers. Cough. Body parts for sale. Cough, cough.

To those of us on the outside, the relationship seems clear. Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, which was targeted in the CMP video hoax, has experienced the terrorizing first-hand. “We’ve seen an alarming increase in hateful rhetoric and smear campaigns against abortion providers and patients over the last few months. That environment breeds acts of violence.”

Former ISIS hostage says Strikes on ISIS are a trap

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/former-is-hostage-says-strikes-on-isis-are-a-trap/

Nicolas Henin is a French Journalist who was held hostage by Isis for 10 months. One of his jailers was Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”.

Listen to what Nicolas has to say about Isis, our treatment of refugees and most importantly: what it’ll take to defeat them.

Womens Health Advocate slam Right Wingers planned parenthood smears

http://www.alternet.org/womens-health-advocates-slam-right-wingers-planned-parenthood-smears?akid=13727.294211.u9IzKK&rd=1&src=newsletter1046632&t=14

Women's Health Advocates Slam Right-Wingers for Planned Parenthood Smears

"Anti-choice rhetoric must end, or anti-choice violence never will," noted the head of NARAL's Colorado branch.

Black Preacher demolishes one of the Pastors that met with Trump.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/12/01/black-pastor-demolishes-one-of-the-pastors-that-met-with-trump-at-least-prostitutes-get-paid-you-got-nothing/

Black Pastor Demolishes One of the Pastors That Met with Trump: ‘At Least Prostitutes Get Paid, You Got Nothing’

Unacceptable Carnage in US: Excessive Guns is the common thread

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-common-thread-in-americas-unacceptable-carnage-access-to-guns/2015/11/30/3b94cf96-97a5-11e5-b499-76cbec161973_story.html

The Post's View

The common thread in America’s unacceptable carnage: Access to guns

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People attend a vigil at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs for the victims of a deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic Friday. (David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

By Editorial Board November 30 at 7:44 PM 

THE 57-year-old man charged in the murderous shooting spree at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado allegedly made remarks to police about “no more baby parts.” That has led some to speculate that antiabortion rhetoric sparked the rampage. The suspect’s history of aberrant behavior prompted others to theorize that mental illness was the culprit. In the early stages of the investigation, we don’t know what, if any, role was played by either of these factors. In the meantime it is worth restating the obvious: The one factor common to every terrible case of gun violence is access to guns.

A police officer, an Iraq war veteran and a young mother of two were killed, and nine other people were wounded, in last week’s attack at the health clinic in Colorado Springs. Such mass shootings are all too sickeningly familiar. On the very same Friday after Thanksgiving, two people were killed and two injured in a shooting in Sacramento. In the very same community of Colorado Springs a month ago, a shooter gunned down three people targeted at randombefore being gunned down himself by police.

Carlie Fiorina: You are a lying Sack of Sh*t

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/29/1455125/-Carly-Fiorina-you-Go-amned-Lying-Sack-of-Sh-t?detail=email

Why am I surprised today? I thought that Ben Carson, after meeting refugees face to face, would exhibit a bit of humanity. Noooo. He didn’t. And Carly Fiorina, well, she, I expected would, at least,  steer clear of the Planned Parenthood massacre. No, again. She has learned a lot of lessons from Trump about The Art of the Lying Spiel. Never back down, even in the face of universal fact checking. Then turn everything around, and blame the other side for your crimes. Our Carly was not content to attack Planned Parenthood by using the actual altered, lying videos.. No, she created a video that lived  in the world of Trump’s “thousands upon thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the World Trade Center collapsing. A video where an “aborted fully formed fetus, its legs kicking, its heart beating” is kept alive by the PP doctors to harvest its brain. And now, she’s angry.  Yeah, let me repeat, she’s angry. That is, how you say, rich. "Fiorina: It's 'Left-Wing' To Link Planned Parenthood Attack To Videos." No apology. No introspection. Just what she, I assume, believes is righteous indignation. How did we get so many sociopaths running for President in one year, anyway?

The Religious Right is neither: The History behind the Religious Right

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/01/the_religious_right_is_neither_the_real_history_of_how_decades_of_radical_violent_rhetoric_led_to_the_planned_parenthood_shooting/

The religious right is neither: The real history of how decades of radical, violent rhetoric led to the Planned Parenthood shooting

The rise of violence aimed at abortion providers matches the rise of the religious right's heated abortion activism

DAVID NIOSE

Which Presidential Candidate would be best for Construction? (Hint: NOT REPUBLICANS)

http://pdafund.com/component/k2/item/247-presidential-candidate-survey-results-and-the-winner-is

One week after we published our survey asking which presidential candidate would be best for the construction industry, the results are in. The leading candidate so far, by a large margin, is Bernie Sanders. Second to Sanders (54% of votes) was Donald Trump (16%), followed closely by Hillary Clinton (13%). Then after a steep dip was Marco Rubio (4%); Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz (2.5% each); Ben Carson, Chris Christie and John Kasich (2% each); and Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker (0.6% each). The remaining candidates received no votes.

8 Ways the wealthiest are trying to dismantle the Social Safety Net.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/8-ways-super-wealthy-show-their-cruel-values-and-desire-destroy-publics-safety-net?akid=13724.294211.Qf5Kfw&rd=1&src=newsletter1046576&t=2

The richest Americans increasingly are taking over the levers of power and shaping the political debate, despite opposing views held by a majority of Americans, a new and unprecedented academic study of the top 1 percent has confirmed.

The super-rich are more politically active than average Americans, financing and contacting elected officials and knowing many on a first-name basis. Their agenda, which is often cited by public officials across the country, emphasizes private profit-making and is skeptical of almost every public program to address economic inequality, the study by Chicago-based university researchers found. The top 1 percent's social agenda, while “more liberal than others on religious and moral issues, including abortion, gay rights, and prayer in school,” is still “much more conservative than the non-affluent on issues of taxes, economic regulation, and social welfare,” the researchers found.

Bush/Cheney released ISIS leader because he was harmless

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/bombshell-bush-cheney-freed-isis-leader-because-he-was-harmless/

While the Republican presidential candidates use every bit of ideological gymnastics to somehow pin the rise of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) on President Obama, the former commander of U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lt. General Michael Flynn dropped an incredible bombshell in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel: that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was in a United States military prison in 2004 – and released because he was deemed “harmless.”

Nothing more perfectly illustrates what a colossal failure the George W. Bush Administration was. While Bush was busy torturing Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards in a desperate and barbaric attempt to rectify his intelligence failures, the mastermind who would found the Islamic State was in their clutches the entire time. Flynn went on to describe how the Bush Administration’s knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 and their catastrophic invasion of Iraq went on to create the colossal quagmire that is the Islamic State.

“We were too dumb. We didn’t understand who we had there at that moment. When 9/11 occurred, all the emotions took over, and our response was, ‘Where did those bastards come from? Let’s go kill them. Let’s go get them.’ Instead of asking why they attacked us, we asked where they came from. Then we strategically marched in the wrong direction.”

Right Wing Gun Nuts were the shooters at Black Lives Matter event

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/11/30/cops-confirm-blm-shooters-were-walking-right-wing-stereotypes-racist-anti-government-gun-nuts/

One of the shooters, Allen Scarsella, had the bright idea to film himself heading to an earlier Black Lives Matter protest donning a mask and spewing racist hate speech while he and his friends waved around their guns. The group seemed eager to initiate violence against the protesters – echoing the agenda of Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed 9 innocent African Americans in their church in an effort to start a “race war.” Scarsella and his friend Nathan Gustavsson allegedly texted each other on the night of the shooting that they “[knew] how to make big news or get them to disperse.” Later, Gustavsson added, “I have an idea to really stir shit up.”

Once caught and right on cue, however, the group of white supremacists claimed they had no intention of actually starting a fight with the protesters. Instead, they claimed they got scared after a few African Americans confronted them over shouting racial slurs. Their legal defense appears to be that they were shouting racial slurs until they provoked a reaction then got so scared that they started shooting. It’s unclear if their defense attorneys can find even a single potential jury member who would be dumb enough to buy that.

And while racism was clearly the catalyst to their shooting spree, the group was able to cause such chaos because of their other obsession: Guns. According to Gawker, Scarsella and his friends were well-known members of 4chan’s /k/ message board, which is devoted to talking about guns. One fellow poster got the rest of the users up to speed:

4chan in the news again. A bunch of /pol/lacks+/k/ommandos in Guy Fawkes masks just shot up a Black Lives Matter protest. Apparently the BLM protestors tried to assault them, the Anon’s ran off and when the BLM protestors chased after them the /k/ommandos shot them.

5 BLM supporters confirmed in the hospital.

Media hasn’t mentioned 4chan by name yet but these guys were on /pol/ a few days ago telling everyone how they were trolling BLM by attending their protests and open carrying.

Conservatives: Stop Feeding Terrorists ideologies

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/dear-conservatives-stop-feeding-terrorist-ideology?akid=13724.294211.Qf5Kfw&rd=1&src=newsletter1046576&t=12

NEWS & POLITICS

Dear Conservatives: Stop Feeding Terrorist Ideology

Invading a country and 'killing the head of terrorism' will not solve the problem.