17 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Aug. 11)”

1. Both sides DON'T do this:

   The situation started when Republicans took over the House in 2011, but it has picked up rapidly since they took control of the Senate earlier this year. The conclusion is unavoidable: Republican control of Congress means constant crisis.

   In the seven months that Republicans have controlled the Senate, we’ve suffered from the expiration of critical national security tools, come within hours of partially shutting down the Department of Homeland Security and witnessed a complete shutdown of the Export-Import Bank, a previously uncontroversial agency that supports hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Routine business like confirming nominees is ignored.

   While Republicans have kept virtually none of their promises about how they would run Congress, one promise they have kept is their vow to use essential appropriations bills to manufacture even more crises. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican Senate leader, laid out this strategy last year, saying that President Obama “needs to be challenged, and the best way to do that is through the funding process.”

   Negotiating with terrorists is wrong. It only encourages them, and Democratic Senators should just say "no".

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2. Because it worked so well the first time:

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/08/11/jeb-bush-wants-to-bring-back-the-bush-doctrine/

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   1. What could possibly go wrong?!?

      

       

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      1.  The cartoon is ridiculous : Americans are fatter, and wear flip flops.

         America…fuck yeah!

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   2. JEB! even has the audacity to blame Obama for the troop withdrawal from Iraq.  There are apparently a lot of blank pages in the GOP history books between Jan 20 2001 and Jan 20 2009, so they just fill in the blanks with "Blame Obama!":

      2008 U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement[edit]

      In 2008 the American and Iraqi governments signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, after being sought by the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government. It included a specific date, 30 June 2009, by which American forces should withdraw from Iraqi cities, and a complete withdrawal date from Iraqi territory by 31 December 2011.[13] On 14 December 2008 then-President George W. Bush signed the security agreement with Iraq. In his fourth and final trip to Iraq, President Bush appeared in a televised news conference with Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to celebrate the agreement and applauded security gains in Iraq saying that just two years ago "such an agreement seemed impossible".[27]

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      1. The joke's on the black squatter in their White House…and just one decade ago Dubya was holding hands with a Saudi prince. (Gordon, close your eyes).

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   3. I could hear W now: "we're turning another corner in Iraq."

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3. If Republicans want Obama to find $600 million somewhere in the $3 trillion federal budget, rather than their preferred source of taking from starving or sick women and children (they probably don't vote, and they certainly don't donate to GOP campaigns! so no one would miss them if something unfortunate happened to them), might I suggest a simple alternative:

   Cancel a couple orders for a F35 jet instead:

   Analyst: F-35C to Cost $337 Million Apiece in FY15

    

   http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/07/30/analyst-f-35c-to-cost-337-million-apiece-2/

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   1. Saw a note in the past couple days that the new super-carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, has a $1.5 billion cost overrun. Take it out of that, especially since our carriers now seem to be sitting ducks for Chinese missiles. 

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      1. Hah! that's just a measely 22% cost overrun — a paragon of military budgeting efficiency!  Besides, that $13 billion ship will have $25 billion in F35C's (75 planes) to defend it against that cheap Mach 5 Chinese missile!

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4. What's wrong with these pictures?

   State of emergency, gunfire on the streets in Ferguson, Missouri, after another 18 year old black kid is shot by police. Left on the ground bleeding, again.

   

    

    

   Meanwhile….

   F*cking Oathkeepers …. white, right wing constitutionalists are patrolling the streets of Ferguson,to protect property.
   These yahoos are walking around armed to the teeth, and police are doing NOTHING to stop them. They did tell them that they couldn't take up sniper positions on the roofs, but are still allowing them to roam the streets, heavily armed. White privilege, anyone??/

   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/11/1410920/-Guess-what-happened-when-heavily-armed-white-men-decided-to-roam-the-streets-of-Ferguson?showAll=yes

    

   I have job interviews the next two days, and I can't even focus on what I have to do.

   Can’t even….

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   1. Are oath keepers anything like promise keepers in the 1990's?

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      1. They're the same political beliefs, but armed and ready to secede.

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   2. Can you imagine what would happen to a group of armed black men showing up in Ferguson to protect people?

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      1. Yes , I can…and it isn't pretty…..

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         1. Police and Protesters are being arrested in Ferguson, but white armed Oathkeepers walk freely.

            Yamiche Alcindor is a courageous USAtoday reporter in Ferguson. On the video below, she interviews an Oathkeeper, and he talks in circles. He claims that he is protecting the right wing fake news site "Infowars". To make it even more surreal, Infowars denies that they hired the Oathkeepers, and they promote Alcindor's video as showing "meaningful dialogue about how to get past racial divisions". You can check out the video below, but I'm not seeing any meaningful dialogue there.

            They try to ask him what if black residents of Ferguson did what he was doing, and all he says is "It would draw attention." When asked about black lives in Ferguson, he goes on a tangent about Planned Parenthood, and mindlessly repeats,"All lives matter."

            Here's Alcindor's stunning video: The creators are asking that if it is re-posted, to keep it in original format with credits.

            It looks like it didn’t embed, so here’s the link:
            https://youtu.be/H0fuGqpIbmU

             

             

             

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5. Is KOA losing money on Rush? Is Clear Channel such a presence is CO that they can take the hit? Do concentrated con markets like CO Springs buffer their losses elsewhere?

   The guy killed the golden goose that he himself created and may be responsible for ruining talk radio in general:

   California's KOWL has dropped Rush Limbaugh's radio show from its lineup. Describing the station as "one of the original Rush Limbaugh affiliates," the announcement release emphasized that the decision was based exclusively on "economic reasons," citing Limbaugh's "toxic brand."

   The release elaborated on the economic reasons: "And now the free market has spoken. Rush has repelled local, regional, and national advertisers from KOWL costing the stations [sic] thousands of dollars in advertisers." It went on to state that "advertisers would rather just avoid the whole station then [sic] take the risk of being associated with Rush's increasingly toxic brand."

   KOWL's explanation for dropping Limbaugh's show is very similar to reasons offered by Boston's WRKO and Indianapolis' WIBC, which both recently dropped Limbaugh from their lineups.

   The commercial viability of Limbaugh's show has suffered since 2012 following Limbaugh's prolonged attack on then-law student Sandra Fluke. That attack and resulting firestorm led advertisers to recognize that Limbaugh's volatility and brand were bad for business. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported on the industry-wide damage Limbaugh is causing. Limbaugh's toxicity is so severe that it has cost radio stations millions of dollars in lost ad revenue and contributed to dramatic reductions in advertising rates for talk radio as a whole.

   There's your free market speakin', ppl. 

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