Damn

Paul Ryan has removed the repeal of the AUMF from the defense appropriations bill:

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee said on Tuesday that Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan stripped her amendment, which would have repealed authorization for the use of military force against ISIS, from a defense-spending bill.

"Ryan stripped my 01 AUMF repeal amdt from DOD Approps in the dead of night. This is underhanded & undemocratic. The people deserve a debate!" she tweeted Tuesday night.

Lee's amendment, which received bipartisan support, would have repealed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force and made Congress pass another one to continue the campaign against ISIS.

You knew that this was going to happen.

If the Republicans weren't willing to repeal the AUMF under Obama, who they loathed,  they won't do it now.

It is cowardice.

Because of the 2001 AUMF, they don't have to vote to authorize the next war, and the members of Congress do not want to own that decision.

What a Delicate Snowflake

Donald Trump is refusing to make a state visit to the UK until he gets promises that he won't see protestors.

If he cannot handle some protestors carrying signs, how can he be expected to fight terrorists?

Donald Trump reportedly told Theresa May he will not make a state visit to the UK until he is guaranteed a "better reception".

The US President asked the Prime Minister to prepare a "warm welcome" before he agrees to set a date, it has been claimed.

The pair spoke on the phone to discuss the planned state visit, which has now been postponed until next year.

"I haven’t had great coverage out there lately, Theresa," Mr Trump told Ms May, according to a transcript of the conversation seen by The Sun.

Ms May replied: "Well, you know what the British press are like."

But Mr Trump added: "I still want to come, but I’m in no rush.

"So, if you can fix it for me, it would make things a lot easier.

"When I know I’m going to get a better reception, I’ll come and not before."

Narcissistic cowardice is no way to run a foreign policy.

We Don't Need More Democrats, We Need Better Ones

In response to strategies to deal with Donald Trump and his nefarious agenda, Blue Dog/New Dem type Democratic members of the Senate are capitulating in advance:

While congressional Democrats were certainly slow to come to grips with Donald Trump’s election and therefore appeared hesitant to back the calls for resistance that flooded the streets in major American cities in the immediate aftermath, they’ve since embraced their role as the loyal opposition. But even as most Senate Democrats gear up for confirmation battles with a whole host of questionable Trump Cabinet picks, some of their Democratic colleagues are already willing to kowtow to the president-elect’s most fundamental decisions.

………

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown argued for a strategy of Democratic obstruction to a Trump agenda by pointing to Republicans’ past intransigence. “We’re going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified? It’s not obstruction, it’s not partisan, it’s just a duty to find out what they’d do in these jobs,” he said. Brown pointed out that Republicans have “been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice,” referring to the nearly yearlong delay of hearings on President Obama’s nominee to succeed deceased Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia.

Still, nearly all the five Democratic senators facing re-election in 2018 in states that strongly supported Trump — by 19 percentage points or more — apparently disagree with their more progressive colleagues and have rushed to signal their willingness to cooperate with the new regime.

“That’s just bullsh%$,” West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, [Whose daughter was (until it became public0 given a phoney degree and also runs Mylan which gouges people on EpiPens] whose state supported Trump by 42 percent, said of his fellow Democrats’ strategy of opposition. “I’m going to help [Trump] when I can. But I’m going to be holding him accountable when I need to,” he added.

 "When I need to," means "I will never hold him accountable."

North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was quick to suggest that she is ready to work with Republicans on legislation to invest in “clean coal” technologies, as she praised a decision to boot oil pipeline protesters from Standing Rock. Heitkamp was one of the first Democrats to meet with the president-elect and his transition team at Trump Tower last week. Trump won North Dakota by more than 36 points and there’s speculation he is considering Heitkamp for secretary of agriculture or energy.

Supporting police brutality against Indian protestors forever. Gotta love it.

Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, who is also up for re-election in 2018 and who represents a state that went for Trump by 19.3 percentage points, has already said he is ready to work with the incoming Trump administration on military mental health care issues, curbing the exodus of U.S. jobs to foreign countries and combating the opioid epidemic.

“We can’t just say ‘no’ because the idea comes from the other side of the aisle,” argued Montana Sen. Jon Tester last week. Tesler has long signaled a willingness to work with Trump. He chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that failed to orchestrate his party’s wresting control of the upper chamber from the GOP.

In May, Tesler said about Trump that “he’s got some pretty goofy opinions, but hopefully we’ve got some stuff we can work on,” Tesler is now up for re-election in a state that preferred Trump by 20 points.

I have identified the differences between conservative Democrats and liberal (moderate)  Republicans:

A liberal (moderate) Republican will:

• Talk about the need to work across the aisle.
• Plead for moderation.
• Chastise his party for extremism.
• Sometimes vote against his party.
• When the vote is close, and it is important, he will vote with the Republicans.

A conservative Democrat will:

• Talk about the need to work across the aisle.
• Plead for moderation.
• Chastise his party for extremism.
• Sometimes vote against his party.
• When the vote is close, and it is important, he will vote with the Republicans.

So-called experts are puzzled as to why voters, "Vote against their own interests," for Republicans.

It's simple: With people like this in our party leadership, they know that we'll never deliver on promises to make their lives better.

Hell, Hillary Clinton's whole f%$#ing campaign was a promise not to make ordinary folks' lives better, and we saw how well THAT worked out.

Reality Has a Well-Known Liberal Bias

It appears that Facebook has given up on trying to prevent fake news from showing up on its users feeds because said fake news overwhelmingly comes from right wing sources, and they are too terrified of the flying monkey crowd to tweak their algorithm:

It’s no secret that Facebook has a fake news problem. Critics have accused the social network of allowing false and hoax news stories to run rampant, with some suggesting that Facebook contributed to Donald Trump’s election by letting hyper-partisan websites spread false and misleading information. Mark Zuckerberg has addressed the issue twice since Election Day, most notably in a carefully worded statement that reads: “Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics.”

Still, it’s hard to visit Facebook without seeing phony headlines like “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide” or “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement” promoted by no-name news sites like the Denver Guardian and Ending The Fed.

………

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the company’s decision-making, Facebook executives conducted a wide-ranging review of products and policies earlier this year, with the goal of eliminating any appearance of political bias. One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned News Feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but disproportionately impacted right-wing news sites by downgrading or removing that content from people’s feeds. According to the source, the update was shelved and never released to the public. It’s unclear if the update had other deficiencies that caused it to be scrubbed.

“They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous citing fear of retribution from the company. The source added, “there was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after Trending Topics,” and that “a lot of product decisions got caught up in that.”

………

In a Facebook post published after the election, former Facebook product designer Bobby Goodlatte blamed the social network for boosting the visibility of “highly partisan, fact-light media,” and for not taking bigger steps to combat the spread of fake news in the lead-up to the election. “A bias towards truth isn’t an impossible goal for News Feed,” he wrote. “But it’s now clear that democracy suffers if our news feeds incentivize bullshit.”

Yeah ……… That whole free market saving the world thing? ……… Not so much.

Peter Thiel Has Officially Become Too Cartoonishly Evil to Be a Bond Villain

I don't mean for his support of Donald Trump, or for his literal exploration of Vampirism to extend his own life, or for his gay baiting in college.

That's evil, but I think that this is not excessive by the standards of Bond villains.

Give him a white Persian cat, and he would fit in just fine.

But he gave a speech at the National Press Club, he complained that, "If you’re a single-digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to our legal system."

PayPal co-founder and tech billionaire Peter Thiel on Monday offered a jaw-dropping defense of his decision to bankroll wrestling icon Hulk Hogan’s invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker for publishing a sex tape featuring him.

“If you’re a single-digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to our legal system,” he said. “It costs too much. This was the modus operandi of Gawker in large part it was to go after people who had no chance of fighting back.”

The declaration came as Thiel was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to tout the presidential bid of GOP candidate Donald Trump.

Thiel spent at least $10 million supporting Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker. Thiel had been engaged in a personal feud with the website for years. As a result of the lawsuit, Gawker was driven out of business.

Fordham Law School professor and criminal justice expert John Pfaff was quick to note that in 2007, many states’ entire budgets for indigent defense — money allotted to provide legal counsel to those who cannot afford it — is in the single-digit millions.

I hope that his fellow PayPal founder Elon Musk sends him into space, and leaves him there.

Another Right Wing Meme Slain by Facts

It appears that everyone involved with the Paris attacks are European nationals, not refugees:

All of the attackers from Friday’s massacre in Paris so far have been identified as European Union nationals, according to a top EU official. The announcement further casts doubt on the validity of a Syrian passport found near the bodies of a slain attacker.

“Let me underline, the profile of the terrorists so far identified tells us this is an internal threat,” Federica Mogherini, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, said after a meeting with EU foreign ministers. “It is all EU citizens so far. This can change with the hours, but so far it is quite clear it is an issue of internal domestic security.”

Needless to say, the right wing pants wetting fear will continue unimpeded by the facts.

Why Republicans will take the Senate in November

CBC Coverage:  No white Ford Bronco moment here

Because when the populace is in a state of abject pants soiling terror, people are more likely to vote conservative, and between Isis, Ebola, and the shootings in Ottawa, when juxtaposed with the hysterical coverage of our national press, leaves me unable to reach any other conclusion.

So, I expect Democrats to lose the Senate, and I expect Obama to use it as an excuse to try and privatize Social Security, which he has been itching to do since his election in 2008.

I hope that it fails because the Republicans are unwilling to give him a win.

Jon Stewart Owns Lindsay Graham

This Man is the Biggest Scardy Cat in the Senate

Jon Stewart cut Lindsey Graham a new one for his constant, and constantly hysterical, fear mongering over, basically everything.

He describes Graham's, "Panic for 13 years," and said that, "The poor man lives his entire life trapped in 'The Blair Witch Project," and that he's, "Seen chihuahuas in handbags who are less fretful and shaking."

Of course, craven abject fear has been a dominant theme of movement conservatism for decades, as I observed when involuntarily forced to watch Fox News.

Republican politics thrive on fear and panic, so it's not surprising that they advocate for it, but I also think that they are really that scared of well, everything.