Rancher grows healthy, nutrient packed soil while running a profitable ranch/farm without chemicals

By JohnyCanuck

What a "Luddite" this guy is. He runs a profitable operation without spraying his fields with chemical poisons and artificial fertilizers and without buying patented GM seeds.

Doesn't he know he is rejecting the "scientific" approach to modern agriculture? How dare he have the gall to succeed by simply mimicking the processes of nature on his farm, and then have the nerve to tell other farmers they too can use the same methods to get themselves off the chemical agriculture treadmill, improve their own soils and still have a profitable farm.

Why, if his methods work, it would mean Monsanto and its big-ag partners are mostly full of bovine excrement. Hard to believe, I know.

 

Republicans Only Care About Children Before They're Born

By Thom Hartmann



Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita wants to limit access to free lunch for poor children.

When it comes to children, Republicans are hypocrites.

They go on and on about how "pro-life" they are, but they really only care about "humans" before they're born. After that, they couldn't care less.

Case in point: the so-called "Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016," the brainchild of Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita that would decimate a key part of the federal free lunch program.

This bill is about as mean-spirited as it gets, and to understand why, you first need to understand something about how the federal free lunch program works.

Thanks to something called "community eligibility," students at certain schools automatically qualify to get a free lunch if 40 percent of their classmates live in poverty.

Although it may not sound like much, this is a really big deal.

Under community eligibility, high poverty schools no longer have to fill out the mountains of paperwork they'd normally have to fill out to get individual students enrolled in the free lunch program.

Everyone is enrolled, and as a result, these high poverty school are now free to focus on other problems like, you know, educating their students.

Sounds like pretty good idea, right? Not only are you keeping kids healthy, you're also cutting a lot of red tape.

That's something everyone can get behind.

Everyone that is, except for Representative Rokita.

Rokita's "Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016" would raise the poverty threshold necessary to participate in community eligibility to 60 percent.

Again this might not sound like much, but in the context of how the free lunch program actually functions, it's a really, really, big deal.

If Representative Rokita's bill becomes law, more than 7,000 schools serving almost 3.5 million students would be affected.

Those schools would no longer get to use community eligibility to automatically enroll all students in the free lunch program and would instead have to go back to the old application system, student by student, with its mountains and mountains of paperwork.

This isn't quite a death sentence, but for high poverty schools that are already struggling to deal with things like violence, drugs and broken homes, it's just another thing to deal with, and an unnecessary one at that.

Obviously, there's a certain amount of irony in the fact that Representative Rokita, a Republican, is pushing a bill that would create even more red tape.

But then again, Republicans have always been fine with "big government" if it means demonizing poor people.

So that's not that shocking.

No, the really shocking thing here is the fact that this is the same Representative Rokita who is 100 percent on board with House Republicans' kangaroo court investigation of Planned Parenthood.

That investigation, of course, is based on a total lie, and it's cost taxpayers' so much money that House Republicans have had to dip into Congress' reserve fund to help pay for it.

You really couldn't ask for a better example of the screwed-up priorities of so-called "pro-life" Republicans like Representative Rokita.

They'll go out of their way to protect a mass of cells that is only philosophically a child, but once it comes to real, live, breathing children, suddenly there's no money, suddenly cost is an issue, suddenly we need to talk about cutting spending.

And here's the thing: Republicans don't even really care about "unborn children" - the whole "pro-life" thing just a front.

Sure, some of them probably believe that abortion is the next Holocaust, but in the grand scheme of things, most of them know that all the outrage about Roe v. Wadeis just a way to keep the suckers in line.

How do you know? Well, if Republicans really cared about kids they'd stop their blockade of Medicaid expansion.

They'd also stop supporting the war on drugs that creates the school-to-prison pipeline. They'd stop turning our schools into profit-making engines for the billionaire class; and they'd stop trying to cut
Head Start, food stamps and welfare for single moms.

They'd also pass federal funding for Flint, Michigan.

The list goes on.

When it comes down to it, most Republicans don't give a rat's ass about US children.

Look at this goverment spy truck disguised as a Google Streetview car

By Mark Frauenfelder



Security researcher Matt Blaze noticed this vehicle in Philadelphia. It had a large Google Streetview sticker on the window, but Matt noticed a Philadelphia Office of Fleet Management placard on the windshield. He took a photo of the vehicle and tweeted it, along with the comment, "WTF? Pennsylvania State Police license plate reader SUV camouflaged as Google Street View vehicle."

The PA State Police read Matt's tweet and replied via Twitter, "Matt, this is not a PSP vehicle. If this is LPR [license plate reader] technology, other agencies and companies might make use of it."

The placard showing the vehicle is owned by the City of Philadelphia. Image: Dustin Slaughter

So, who is driving around in a vehicle disguised as both a Google Streetview car and is equipped with a license plate reader? Motherboard asked the office of Fleet Management, and got some more information:

A placard on the dashboard indicates that the SUV is registered with the Philadelphia Office of Fleet Management, which maintains city government’s 6,316 vehicles, indicating that the vehicle is being used by a local agency.

Christopher Cocci, who serves as the city’s fleet manager, and whose signature is on the document, says that the vehicle does not belong to the Pennsylvania State Police, which is known to use automated license plate recognition (ALPR), or the Philadelphia Parking Authority, a local agency that also utilizes ALPR.

So whose surveillance truck is it?

“All city vehicles such as police, fire, streets etc.…are registered to the city. Quasi [public] agencies like PPA, Housing Authority, PGW and School District are registered to their respective agencies,” fleet manager Christopher Cocci wrote in an email to Motherboard after reviewing photos of the vehicle. He also believes it to be connected to law enforcement activity.

Motherboard concludes that it is probably the city’s police department, not the state's. They've reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department but have not heard back from them.

Next Stop, The Twilight Zone: Romney Says Trump Disqualified For Not Releasing Tax Returns

By Jason Easley

Mitt Romney, of all people, is claiming that Donald Trump has disqualified himself from the presidency by refusing to release his tax returns.

After Trump announced that he won’t be releasing any of his tax returns until after the election, Romney wrote on Facebook:

It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service. Tax returns provide the public with its sole confirmation of the veracity of a candidate’s representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, tax conformance, and conflicts of interest. Further, while not a likely circumstance, the potential for hidden inappropriate associations with foreign entities, criminal organizations, or other unsavory groups is simply too great a risk to ignore for someone who is seeking to become commander-in-chief.

Mr. Trump says he is being audited. So? There is nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited. Further, he could release returns for the years immediately prior to the years under audit. There is only one logical explanation for Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his returns: there is a bombshell in them. Given Mr. Trump’s equanimity with other flaws in his history, we can only assume it’s a bombshell of unusual size.

(Anticipating inquiries regarding my own tax release history, I released my 2010 tax returns in January of 2012 and I released my 2011 tax returns as soon as they were completed, in September of 2012.)

Mitt Romney, who stalled, made up excuses, and refused to release a full disclosure of his tax returns is running around claiming that Trump can’t be president because he won’t release his tax returns.

Birthers, like Donald Trump, attempted to demand Obama’s college transcripts in exchange for Romney’s tax returns.  As the presumptive Republican nominee, Romney blamed Obama for his refusal to release his tax returns. Romney refused to release even five years of tax returns.

Mitt Romney is not the person to be making the argument that Donald Trump is disqualified from the presidency because he won’t release his tax returns. In fact, Romney is one of the last people in the world who should be discussing releasing tax returns.

The Republicans have dragged the American people into some kind of bizarre Twilight Zone where Mitt Romney is the moral compass of the GOP. The last thing that Republicans needed was their former tax dodging nominee telling their current tax dodging nominee that he has disqualified himself by not releasing his tax returns.

Every single day, the Republican Party manages to find a new way to make things worse for themselves.

We really have entered a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man, and it is called The Republican Zone.

Trump's White Nationalist Delegate: 'Whites Are So Afraid To Be Proud Of Their Heritage'

By John Amato

Donald Trump took a lot of heat when Mother Jones broke the news that a white nationalist named William Johnson was selected as a California delegate.

Even though Trump's campaign is blaming a data base error, it's probably too late for him to be removed.

Johnson went on CNN with Jake Tapper and discussed how it all happened.



Tapper then asked why he liked Trump, “Mr. Trump is the real deal. He will not govern by public opinion poll. He says what’s on his mind.”

"Right now in today's society, they're passing around the word racist, more and more. Everybody is being called a racist nowadays."

Usually, only racists are called racists, like skin heads, the KKK, Pat Buchanan and of course, white nationalists.

Tapper asked Johnson if he believed "the white race, or the European white race, is the superior race - is that your view?"

William Johnson continued, "“I believe that Western civilization is declining and dying out in every country around the world that has traditionally been white. Europe is being replaced by immigrants from Africa. America, the same thing’s happening here, and so I believe that we need to be aware of this precipitous decline in the white race. And it's good for people to be proud of your heritage, whatever heritage that might be, but particularly for white people because the whites now are so afraid to be proud of their heritage because they're called bad name.”

Damn, he sounds just like the character Tom Willis, in Law and Order episode called "Hate."

These are the types of people Donald Trump's campaign is really energizing.

George Zimmerman Proudly Auctioning The Gun He Used To Kill Trayvon Martin

By Karoli Kuns

If anyone could be more of a slime than George Zimmerman, I'm not sure who (besides Donald Trump, possibly).

In a stellar example of wingnut free enterprise, Zimmerman is auctioning off the gun he used to murder stand his ground against an unarmed Trayvon Martin as a "piece of history."

From GunBroker.com:

Prospective bidders, I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon. The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012. The gun is a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm. It has recently been returned to me by the Department of Justice. The pistol currently has the case number written on it in silver permanent marker. Many have expressed interest in owning and displaying the firearm including The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. This is a piece of American History. It has been featured in several publications and in current University text books. Offers to purchase the Firearm have been received; however, the offers were to use the gun in a fashion I did not feel comfortable with. The firearm is fully functional as the attempts by the Department of Justice on behalf of B. Hussein Obama to render the firearm inoperable were thwarted by my phenomenal Defense Attorney. I recognize the purchaser's ownership and right to do with the firearm as they wish. The purchaser is guaranteed validity and authenticity of the firearm. On this day, 5/11/2016 exactly one year after the shooting attempt to end my life by BLM sympathizer Matthew Apperson I am proud to announce that a portion of the proceeds will be used to: fight BLM violence against Law Enforcement officers, ensure the demise of Angela Correy's persecution career and Hillary Clinton's anti-firearm rhetoric. Now is your opportunity to own a piece of American History. Good Luck. Your friend, George M. Zimmerman ~Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum~

I wonder if he went out and stomped on Trayvon's grave, too.

Monsanto's Cancer Linked Pesticide Is Being Sprayed In New York City Parks

By Reynard Loki

 

Over 2,000 locations across NYC have been sprayed.

 

New Yorkers who visit their local parks have likely been exposed to glyphosate, the controversial, cancer-linked main ingredient in Monsanto's popular herbicide Roundup. But the data about herbicide and pesticide spraying projects across the city isn’t adding up.

In May 2015, in response to the concerns of community activists and public health advocates, the city government released a report, “Pesticide Use by New York City Agencies in 2014,” detailing the use of pesticides by city agencies in 2014. According to that report, the city applied glyphosate 2,748 times.

However, according to data procured by a Freedom of Information Law request, the city has revealed only 2,000 locations of glyphosate use in 2014. Pesticide information related to Central Park and other areas that are managed not by the city government, but by nonprofit conservancies has not been made public.

Several environmental and community activist groups, including Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, Stop the Spray, and members of the Coalition Against Poison Parks, are pursuing legal action to “force the City to reveal all locations where it has been used."

According to the parks report, the city applied pesticides 162,584 times in 2014. Various city agencies used nearly 8,000 gallons ans more than 100,000 pounds of pesticides. Compared to 2013 levels, there was a 21 percent increase in insecticides by volume in 2014. What is of particular concern is the fact that, as the report states, "there was a 16 percent increase in herbicide use by volume, reversing a declining trend. Much of the change was due to a 9 percent increase in glyphosate products used.”

In March 2015, the World Health Organization, the U.N.'s public health agency, said glyphosate, which is widely used on genetically modified crops such as corn and soybeans, likely causes cancer. 

In its report, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, WHO’s cancer arm, classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans." IARC scientists found that the chemical "induced DNA and chromosomal damage in mammals, and in human and animal cells in vitro."

They concluded that there was "sufficient evidence" that the herbicide causes cancer in non-human animals and "limited evidence" that it also causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma in humans. They said that the primary exposure to glyphosate comes through diet, home use—Roundup is a popular consumer gardening spray for people who are not informed about effective nontoxic methods—and living near sprayed areas.

A study published in February in the journal Environmental Health found that glyphosate persists in soil and water longer than previously thought, and that human exposure to the chemical is rising. The chemical also has harmful effects on birds, fish, and other wildlife.

While there was an increase in glyphosate use in New York City in 2014 as compared to 2013, the amount is much lower than it was in 2009, when, according to the Parks Department, it was used "to control invasive species in remote, often wooded, parkland.” The increase in glyphosate spraying in 2014 may have been due to “forest restoration work [which] was again done by Parks and their contractors, accounting for a substantial proportion of the city’s glyphosate use."

(Above: graphic from “Pesticide Use by New York City Agencies in 2014,” report by New York City Parks Department.)

To help residents steer clear of the toxic areas, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, a performance-based activist group based in New York City, created a map charting the parks and public areas across the city that have been sprayed with glyphosate. The map was created using data provided by the New York City Parks Department.

New York isn't the only major U.S. city that sprays glyphosate. San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Philadelphia also use the controversial herbicide. Some big cities, like Chicago and Boulder, as well as smaller cities like Richmond, California, and Takoma Park, Maryland, have instituted glyphosate bans.

The NYC Parks Department notes in its report that the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene “encourages the pursuit of alternative weed control methods that would reduce the need for these herbicides.” The city should follow its own advice and protect its citizens from this cancer-linked chemical.

Related Stories

• Glyphosate, Monsanto's Widespread 'Probable Carcinogen' Weedkiller Is in More Food Than You'd Care to Know
• Monsanto's Highly Controversial Herbicide Is Currently Being Sprayed in Five of America's Largest Urban Areas
• Monsanto's Controversial Glyphosate Herbicide Is Being Sprayed in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland

‘Your mic is hot!’: Sean Hannity screams for Geraldo to stop insulting Bernie during victory speech

By David Edwards

Fox News host Sean Hannity had to warn Geraldo Rivera on Tuesday that his microphone was still live and that the public was hearing insults he was uttering during Bernie Sanders’ victory speech.

After Sanders won the West Virginia Democratic primary on Tuesday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity announced that he would briefly air some of the candidate’s victory speech live.

“He’s so annoying,” Rivera complained as the broadcast cut to Sanders. “This guy is so annoying.”

“Your mic is hot!” Hannity exclaimed. “What are you saying?”

“That he’s so annoying,” Rivera repeated. “And people that think that his supporters go to Donald Trump are smoking dope.”

Watch the video below from Fox News.

Trump less popular than lice, still backed by GOP voters

Rachel Maddow presents the results of a new PPP poll which finds, among other things that Donald Trump is less popular than lice, and yet, contrary to media narratives about a party split, Republican voters are shown as likely to vote for him and even Republican politicians who said terrible things about him are eating their words and supporting him.



 

I would like to extend to Ed Rendell my most cordial invitation to go fuck himself

Democratic party insider Ed Rendell has some advice for Bernie Sanders supporters who show up to the upcoming convention. He wants them to “behave and not cause trouble." Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.

Senoras y Senores, Candidato Republicano Donald Trump

Posted by Rude One

Hey, Republicans, that buffoon up there is your candidate for president. Your voters want him. That fake motherfucker fake eatin' a bowl of fake Mexican food and claiming it's awesome represents the party of Ulysses S. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt. Shit, Donald Trump makes fuckin' Warren G. Harding look like a goddamn golden hero.

How does that feel, John McCain? Lindsey Graham? Kelly Ayotte? All you supposedly once-rational Republicans? How do you feel seeing your party's standard bearer acting like he's gonna stuff thousands of calories and a tub of lard into his fat fucking cheddar-colored face?

"I love Hispanics!" his tweet screams, which is an improvement on his Archie Bunker-esque "I love the Hispanics" that he's been saying in every stream of consciousness speech, like in Pennsylvania recently: "I love the Hispanics, and I’m going to get so many jobs for the Hispanics, for the African Americans, for people that can’t get jobs now."

Meanwhile, Trump has doubled down on his vision of a deportation force rounding up undocumented immigrants, no doubt going into the homes of immigrants here legally, to drag away parents and break up families. It's an effort that one center-right think tank has estimated would kick the American economy right in the nuts. It would "reduce real private sector output by 2.9 percent to 4.7 percent or $381.5 billion to $623.2 billion." Or, you know, cause a shitload of unemployment.

But, hey, jump on board the hateful white-supremacist train, Nikki Haley (who, in a mighty stand, said she'll support Trump but won't be his vice president), Mitch McConnell, and Senator Richard Burr. One thing is for sure: After Trump finishes that taco salad, he'll be ready to shit all over anyone who is near him. And then he'll get Chris Christie to wipe his ass.

Man, Republicans, you have fucked yourself hard.

Rob Reiner Has Serious Words For Donald Trump | Morning Blow | MSNBC

Filmmaker Rob Reiner joins Morning Blow to discuss his thoughts on Donald Trump, who he says is only taken seriously as a political candidate because Trump is a celebrity.

Suspect in KOP Kidnapping is Daughter of Pa. Republican Power Broker

Police say Cherie Amoore chatted up a mother at the mall, then walked off with her infant.

 
By David Gambacorta 

8 Comments

Cheri Amoore (left) is charged with kidnapping Ahsir Simmons (right).

The sprawling King of Prussia Mall played host Thursday night to the kind of paralyzing terror that a parent of a small child hopes to never experience: getting momentarily distracted, and then finding an empty space where their child had just been.

7 week old Ahsir Simmons was taken from right under his mother’s nose inside the mall’s food court shortly before 5:30 p.m., authorities said. In this case, the culprit wasn’t a menacing figure who swooped in quietly from the shadows.

Cherie Amoore, 32, allegedly abducted the baby boy after bumping into his mother apparently at random, and then chatting her up pleasantly for a while, said Upper Merion Police Chief Tom Nolan.

Renee Amoore

Amoore is the daughter of Renee Amoore, the deputy chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.

“She did befriend the mother. She walked around with them and then followed them into the food court,” he said. “At one point, when the baby started to fuss, [Amoore] picked up the baby and tried to calm him down. The mom got distracted with a phone call, and [Amoore] quickly left.”

It didn’t take long for panic to set in. Local police and the FBI responded immediately to the reported abduction, Nolan said, and photos of baby Ahsir were shared across social media and through local news outlets.

A blurry image of Amoore leaving the mall with the infant also made the rounds. She had apparently walked around the mall with him for at least a half hour, Nolan said.

Minutes turned into hours, each one filled with a growing sense of dread. Investigators ultimately tracked Amoore to her house in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, at 10:18 p.m., according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele.

Baby Ahsir was unharmed. Amoore was apparently home alone with him.

“She freely admitted to taking the baby in the statement she gave to investigators,” Nolan said.

Steele described the incident as “every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Amoore was officially charged Friday with felony counts of kidnapping of a minor, unlawful restraint and related offenses. She was led handcuffed to an arraignment, wearing a purple hooded sweatshirt and purple sweat pants.

She remained quiet as a small crowd of reporters surrounded her, asking why she kidnapped the baby or if she felt any remorse.

Nolan said Amoore told investigators that in early February, she gave birth to a baby boy who soon passed away, and the loss fueled her impulsive decision to run off with Ashir.

Investigators haven’t been able to verify that claim, he said.

Renee Amoore is the founder and president of the Amoore Group, an organization that includes three companies: Amoore Health Systems Inc., 521 Management Group Inc., and the Ramsey Educational and Development Institute, according to her biography on the Pennsylvania GOP’s website.

A woman who answered the phone at Renee Amoore’s house this afternoon identified herself as a relative, and said Amoore didn’t want to comment.

“Just pray for [Cherie],” she said. “And pray for the baby’s family.”

Nolan said child abductions — especially in crowded environments like a mall — are rare.

“You do hear of cases where a child wanders off, but in this one, the mom was right there,” he said.

Follow @dgambacorta on Twitter.

Let this sink in: The Republican Party has chosen a birther as its presidential candidate

By Sean Illing

This is happening, people. This is really happening. Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president of these United States. Let that sink in.

The hot takes will abound in the days and weeks ahead. Pundits will conduct the autopsy on Ted Cruz’s campaign. We’ll ask why John Kasich quit. We’ll question if there’s still any hope of a contested convention. We’ll express wonderment at how quickly and awkwardly the Republican establishment surrenders to Trump.

Pay particular attention to this storyline: Now that Trump has won, he’ll continue to shift the tone and approach of his campaign. It was announced a few weeks ago, for instance, that Trump was “shaking up” his campaign. He hired some veteran operatives and was preparing to “professionalize” his operation.

The plan, we now know, was to quietly change the way Trump comports himself in public. What we got, as The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza put it, was Trump 2.0. Trump 2.0 is kinder, more disciplined, less bigoted. He’s a candidate who, as Cillizza writes, “will show unbound delegates as well as party leaders and influencers that he can be magnanimous, that he can be a uniting force within the party.”

Although Trump has wavered in his execution, the pivot has been obvious. And now that he’s running virtually uncontested, you can expect more of this. During his speech last night, for example, there was no talk of Muslims and luxurious walls on the Southern border; instead, he focused on trade and a kind of half-baked economic nationalism. The rhetoric, though, was far less divisive. This is Trump transitioning to general election mode.

But here’s what everyone should never forget: No matter what Trump now says, he owes his entire political existence to bigotry. The inimitable James Carville recently wrote a piece making what will, increasingly, be a critical point:

“I’m a Catholic. I’ve seen enough baptismal water spilled to fill William Taft’s bathtub ten times over. But it doesn’t take a Catholic like me to understand the original sin of the Trump candidacy. His first act on the political stage was to declare himself the head of the birther movement. For Trump, the year 2011 began with the BIG NEWS that he had rejected Lindsey Lohan for Celebrity Apprentice, but by April, his one-man show to paint Barack Obama as a secret Kenyan had become the talk of the country. Five years later, Trump is nearing the Republican nomination.”

Birtherism is how Trump lunged into presidential politics. It was his first – and loudest – dog whistle.

And the thing about birtherism, in addition to being patently untrue, is that there’s no reason to believe it apart from bigotry. To support the theory is to announce, in the clearest possible terms, one’s own prejudices.

Again, Carville explains:

“Look, I understand that there’s plenty of craziness to investigate in our politics. Cruz believes that global warming is a hoax. Ben Carson claimed that the Biblical Joseph built the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Heck, once upon a time, George W. Bush famously thought the jury was out on evolution. But Trump’s birtherism is far, far more important – for two reasons. First, in my experience, when a politician says he doesn’t talk about an issue, that’s precisely what you should ask him about. Second, there’s another difference between being a birther and a flat-earther. It’s possible to believe the Earth is flat and not be a bigot, but it’s impossible to be a birther and not be one.”

Trump doesn’t want to talk about birtherism anymore – for obvious reasons. It’s bad public relations. The few times reporters have brought it up, Trump dodges or bullies his way out of it. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore,” he told Chris Matthews. But make no mistake: Trump knew exactly what he was doing when he embraced the birther movement. “I don’t think I went overboard,” Trump said in 2013. “Actually, I think it made me very popular….I do think I know what I’m doing.”

I can’t say whether Trump is a bigot or not, but I can say that he deliberately endeared himself to bigots. If you want to understand why Trump is the overwhelming favorite of racists, look no further than his birtherism. If you want to understand why 80 percent of Trump supporters believe the “government has gone too far in assisting minority groups,” look no further than his birtherism. If you want to understand why exit polls in Pennsylvania and New York and Wisconsin and Florida and Georgia and New Hampshire and Ohio show that the majority of Trump voters support his proposed ban on all Muslims, look no further than his birtherism.

Trump’s success springs from this “original sin,” as Carville put it. Many of his supporters received the signal he sent in 2011 and have internalized it; they know – or think they know – that Trump is one of them. Not all Trump supporters are racists, of course, but a terrifying percentage are. And that’s no accident.

That Trump has catapulted to the top of the Republican Party, that he’s now the presumptive nominee, says a lot about the GOP and our country. He’ll very likely lose in an electoral landslide to Hillary Clinton, but that’s beside the point. His campaign has already done incalculable damage. He’s tapped into an undercurrent of bigotry and exploited it for political gain. The results of that will, unfortunately, survive his self-serving campaign. And no one, especially in the media, should let Trump forget that.

This article was written by Sean Illing from Salon and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

If you're an elected Democrat who is open to cutting Social Security, or Medicare or S.N.A.P., Fuck you.

By cali

It doesn't matter if you call yourself a Democrat. It's not excusable because you support marriage equality. It's not enough that you support reproductive rights. Being a social liberal isn't enough.

Period.

If you're an elected Democrat who leaves the door open to cuts in Social Security and the safety net, it won't go unnoticed.

And yeah, Fuck you.

Psychologists explain Trump: He's literally a narcissistic psychopath

By M. David
Counter Current News

The horrifying Donald Trump © Wonkette

 

As his presidential campaign marches on, with seemingly no scandal or gaff harming him in the least, millions of sane Americans have been asking, in the words of Henry Alford of Vanity Fair: "What exactly is wrong with this strange individual?"

Now, science has finally answered that question...

While there is no official clinical diagnosis of psychopathy, the textbook traits of it and related Anti Social Personality disorders like Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathy, are somewhat easy to spot once you know the signs.

The failure for there to be an official way to diagnose these disorders is due more to the fact that the individuals who have these traits are adept at masking them, or giving the answers to questions that psychologists "want" to hear.

Donald Trump is "remarkably narcissistic," according developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

"Textbook narcissistic personality disorder," clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis explained.

The Mayo Clinic explains "Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism." They add that "a narcissistic personality disorder causes problems in many areas of life." The sufferer "may be generally unhappy and disappointed when you're not given the special favors or admiration you believe you deserve."

Clinical psychologist George Simon said that Trump is "so classic that I'm archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there's no better example of his characteristics." He conducts lectures and seminars on manipulative behavior exhibited by narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths - all related Anti Social Personality Disorders. "Otherwise, I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He's like a dream come true."

The Raw Story makes the following poignant observations:

Trump's shortage of empathy can be seen clearly by his stances on topics like immigration. Instead of recognizing that the data shows that most Mexican immigrants are not violent, but instead people simply looking for a place where actual opportunity exists, with a broad brush he claims that they are "criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc." 

In a similar vein, Trump has vowed to ban all Muslims from entering the country should he be elected. It appears that his lack of empathy has distorted his mind's ability to grasp the fact that the refugees he speaks of are actually seeking safety from the same murderous maniacs that he wants to keep out. Perhaps if Trump had relatives in countries like Syria and Iraq, he might understand the constant fear that most live under, and in turn become more willing to welcome them with open arms rather than leaving them to be slaughtered.

But a lack of empathy is just one part of narcissistic personality disorder. Just beneath the surface layer of overwhelming arrogance lies a delicate self-esteem that is easily injured by any form of criticism. We have all seen Trump unjustifiably lash out at a number of people with harsh and often extremely odd personal attacks. When he thought he had been treated unfairly by Fox News host and Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly, he responded by calling her a "bimbo" and later saying that she had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." In response to the strange, misogynistic comments Kelly said that she "may have overestimated his anger management skills." If the news host would have pegged him as a bona fide narcissist from the beginning she might have expected such shamelessly flagrant behavior.

Narcissism, Psychopath and Sociopathy used to be lumped together synonymously, under the banner of Anti Social Personality Disorder. But today the disorders are divided in subtle, nuanced, but very similar ways. There is a lot of overlap - in fact more overlap than not.

Carol Caldwell notes, in D.J. Trump, Psychopath, that "it's been attested to by psychologists and neurobiologists who study psycho- and sociopaths that the deadly syndrome can be seen in their eyes."

She observes that "the eyes are described as affect-less, what we would call cold, or eerily blank in one-on-one or televised exchanges. The sociopath is described as charming, out-going, intelligent, cunning, winning without warmth, but adaptable to whatever human kindness you telegraph to them. 

 

As we well know, many of them ascend to top positions in major industries, I might mention Wall Street and banking, heads of Hollywood studios, and members of Congress. On the street levels of everyday life, they work their wiles into all kinds of jobs, by falsifying resumes to fit the careers they are after. One area of human endeavor they seem less adaptable to is refined senses of humor."

Dr. Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry and the director of the master's of bioethics program at Columbia University notes that the American Psychiatric Association says that it is unethical for psychiatrists to comment on an someone's mental state without having examining them personally. But as Alford notes, "you don't need to have met Donald Trump to feel like you know him; even the smallest exposure can make you feel like you've just crossed a large body of water in a small boat with him." "He's very easy to diagnose," psychotherapist Charlotte Prozan explained. "In the first debate, he talked over people and was domineering. "He'll do anything to demean others, like tell Carly Fiorina he doesn't like her looks," Alford explains.

Trump's characteristic "You're fired!" catchphrase highlights his brutal lack of empathy, as does his hyper-willingness to deport immigrants, even though two of his wives have been immigrants.

Mr. Trump's bullying nature—taunting Senator John McCain for being captured in Vietnam, or saying Jeb Bush has "low energy"—is in keeping with the narcissistic profile. "In the field we use clusters of personality disorders," Michaelis said. 

"Narcissism is in cluster B, which means it has similarities with histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. There are similarities between them. Regardless of how you feel about John McCain, the man served—and suffered. Narcissism is an extreme defense against one's own feelings of worthlessness. To degrade people is really part of a cluster-B personality disorder: it's antisocial and shows a lack of remorse for other people. The way to make it O.K. to attack someone verbally, psychologically, or physically is to lower them. That's what he's doing."

Wendy Terrie Behary, the author of Disarming the Narcissist: Surviving and Thriving with the Self-Absorbed, says that, "Narcissists are not necessarily liars, but they are notoriously uncomfortable with the truth. The truth means the potential to feel ashamed. If all they have to show the world as a source of feeling acceptable is their success and performance, be it in business or sports or celebrity, then the risk of people seeing them fail or squander their success is so difficult to their self-esteem that they feel ashamed. We call it the narcissistic injury. They're uncomfortable with their own limitations. It's not that they're cut out to lie, it's just that they can't handle what's real."

Comment: Narcissists are not capable of feeling shame. Their sense of grandiosity is always present. Read "A Structural Theory of Narcissism and Psychopathy" to get an idea of the physiological framework behind narcissism and psychopathy.

Michaelis explains that Trump is "applying for the greatest job in the land, the greatest task of which is to serve, but there's nothing about the man that is service-oriented. He's only serving himself."

Prozan notes that Trump "keeps saying he could negotiate with Putin because he's good at deals. But diplomacy involves a back and forth between equals."

Dr. Klitzman added, "I have never met Donald Trump and so cannot comment on his psychological state. However, I think that, in general, many candidates who run for president are driven in large part by ego. I hope that does not preclude their motivation to govern with the best interests of the public as a whole in mind. Yet for some candidates, that may, alas, be a threat."

Could Trump be helped by clinical treatment?

"I'd be shocked if he walked in my door," Behary said. "Most narcissists don't seek treatment unless there's someone threatening to take something away from them. There'd have to be some kind of meaningful consequence for him to come in."

Gardner added that "for me, the compelling question is the psychological state of his supporters. They are unable or unwilling to make a connection between the challenges faced by any president and the knowledge and behavior of Donald Trump. In a democracy, that is disastrous."

With someone who is so clearly a Narcissistic Psychopath holding the reigns of power, there are numerous issues of concern for the American people. Just this week, Trump said that he would make it illegal for the media to harshly criticize him. He has similarly advocated for illegal and unconstitutional "ID badges" for Muslim Americans, as well as banning Muslims from immigrating to the United States.

Having a man like this seize control of the nation's policies, police, and military is something that endangers us all. Help SPREAD THE WORD because our future, freedom and maybe even lives depend on making sure Donald Trump doesn't get into office and carry out the fascist policies he has promised to!

The entire world needs to hear this

A Lesson to the World by Woody Harrelson.

A Democrat Wants To Cut Social Security?

By Colonel Rainsborough  

Just today, I read a story about a clueless California Republican who declared that Social Security was a bad idea.  After laughing about how hopeless the Republicans have become, I read this:

theintercept.com/...
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called on an audience of business and political elites earlier this week to respond to populist anger by lobbying harder for a deficit-reduction package that would reduce corporate tax rates and cut public retirement programs such as Social Security.

As the children would say, “DaFuq?”

Although a dominant populist sentiment is that the system is already rigged in favor of the rich, Warner suggested that the “business community” needs to get more involved in politics or face unpleasant repercussions.

“If you don’t think the frustration of Americans with our overall system, — not just our political system, but our business system, our tax code — is at the boiling point, then Katy bar the door!,” he said. “The walls that are gonna have to be built, may not be at borders, they may be around neighborhoods the way they are in many Third World countries around the world,” Warner warned.

The cure for corrupting corporate power is MORE corporate influence?  I am not making this up.  While the panelists acknowledged that the public is angry about inequality, the proposed cure is more inequality.

I especially like the idea that Warner anticipates that rich people will have to live in walled communities to protect themselves from angry, unwashed peasants.  Oh, wait…Most of them already do…

Wait, I think I misinterpreted his idea.  He wants to build the walls around OUR neighborhoods.  Palestine, after all, is such a successful community planning experiment.

Warner was speaking on Monday at the Milken Institute’s 2016 Global Conference. 

Yeah, that Milken — the guy who was convicted in 1990 of securities fraud and tax evasion.  Perhaps in the near future, there will be a conference named after Bernie Madoff.

Apparently, Sen. Warner was unhappy that the awful Simpson-Bowles “Grand Bargain”plan was not accepted.

The commission put together a plan that called for corporate tax reform focused on cutting the corporate tax rate and entitlement reform based on policies such as raising the Social Security retirement age. Obama never embraced the plan, but a group of lawmakers, including Warner, known as the “Gang of Six” put forth legislation that mirrored its recommendations.

“We’d have gotten 70 votes if the establishments on both sides had not shot down our effort,” Warner complained on Monday.

We would have gotten away with it if it had not been for those lousy…

Christians Can't Wait For God To Punish 'Wicked' America With Trump — And Usher In The Apocalypse

By Lorraine Berry

For some, Donald Trump's ascendancy heralds the beginning of the end times.

 

Christians who claimed months ago that Donald Trump was foretold in Biblical prophecy must be feeling prescient today. Worrying in 2015 that Trump would be a major party nominee was treated as being about as likely as the 5000-1 odds that bookies gave Leicester City at the beginning of the 2015-16 season.

But this week, as both unlikely predictions came to pass, it seems prudent to take a look at just what it is that those eschatologists claim to see.

Historical lists of those who have predicted either that God would destroy the world as punishment for collective sins or those who have used formulae to predict that people should circle specific days on their calendar is far too long to list here. (Wikipedia has one such list.)

Specific individuals who were seen as catalysts for the end have included Ronald Reagan, various popes, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Barack Obama–although even Richard the Lionheart was implicated back in the 13th century by Joachim of Fiore.

Joachim is often credited as being the first eschatologist to cause major upset in Christendom with his predictions. Joachim used a complex formula that counted the number of generations in the Bible before and after the birth of Christ, combined them with the detailing of three ages of history until the end of the world, and came up with the period 1200 to 1260 CE as containing the fateful year.

And while counting generations is just one of the methods of predicting the end of the world, other “prophets” have observed the chaos of the world around them and declared that God must be coming: what else could explain the horror and sin surrounding them?

Friedrich Engels, co-author with Karl Marx on some of the source texts for Marxism, profiled the remarkable story of Thomas Muntzer, the common man who led thousands of German peasants to rebel in what is known as The Peasants War of 1525 by historians. Muntzer was among the estimated 75,000-100,000 peasants who were killed by German princes, who were not happy at being defied on the basis of someone reading the Bible.

Muntzer warned the princes in published pamphlets that they were about to incur the wrath of God unless they changed the way they governed. Luckily for the princes, Martin Luther threw his considerable weight around to discredit Muntzer, but not before the two had engaged in a war of words that took no prisoners.

The idea that Donald Trump may herald the beginning of the end times can be seen as contained within a long and storied tradition of this type of thing. But, the writings implicating Trump are remarkable in their own right. Last year, one such Biblical interpreter claimed that God told him:

“So have I raised up Trump to fulfill my purposes and plans prior to the 2016 election. You must listen to the trumpet very closely for he will sound the alarm and many will be blessed because of his compassion and mercy. Though many see the outward pride and arrogance, I have given him the tender heart of a father that wants to lend a helping hand to the poor and the needy, to the foreigner and the stranger.”

After a “firestorm” blew up  among conservative Christians, the owner of the vision defended himself on Facebook, saying that he would he would publicly repent if he was proven to be wrong.

Another article drew parallels between Trump and events, which pointed toward an apocalyptic future. The article cites article after article about Trump, and verses of the Bible that he finds relevant. After a long, protracted presenting of both sides of the argument, eleven reasons are presented as to why Donald Trump is “apocalyptic.” As one of these eleven reasons, Trump’s statements against Apple are cited, which “suggest an environment of loss of privacy and favoring unlimited government control. This type of thing will be exploited by 666 of Revelation 13:16-18.”

Perhaps the most virulent of the “Trump = End Times” predictions is contained at a website called “Now the End Begins.” There a mean-faced Trump stares out at the reader while text, in bold, all caps, and italics–depending on the point being made–hammers home that

“DONALD TRUMP IS THE ANSWER OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO THE REPUBLICAN POLITICAL MACHINE, AND GOD’S ANSWER TO A WICKED NATION”

Christian conservatives have agitated for decades for the election of a “Godly” man who will help to reform America and bring it in line with Christian values. No one sees Donald Trump as that man.

But, Trump’s “immorality” is not why Christians should vote for Trump. They should vote for Trump because he’s going to bring Christ back to earth a lot faster than he is currently on track to get here.

Just as God brought Hitler to do the “good work” of creating Israel, so too has he brought forth Trump to take Christians to higher ground.

God raised up the ungodly King Nebuchadnezzar to shake and enslave Israel for 70 years, and He used the ungodly King Cyrus to allow construction of a new Jewish Temple. He allowed the ungodly Pharaoh to enslave His people the Hebrews for over 400 years, and He allowed the Roman emperor Titus to burn Israel to the ground in 70 AD. Furthermore, God allowed the demonic Adolf Hitler to create the Holocaust in order that Israel might be regathered in 1948 according to prophecy in the last days.

Seth Meyers Definitively Proves Trump Is 'No Fluke' Given Recent GOP History

By Kali Holloway

If you've been watching, none of this has been a surprise.

Seth Meyers, in an attempt to make sense of the fact that Trump is the GOP presidential nominee, took a closer look at the events leading to where we are now to get a sense of how we ended up here.

Through hilarious clips from the campaign trail, Meyers reviewed Cruz’s various recent flubs, from getting heckled by a 12 year old (who summed up his disdain in two words: “You suck!”) to being oblivious when running mate Carly Fiorina “fell flat, literally,” to a failed street-side heart-to-heart with sign-holding Trump supporters (let’s just say it really didn’t go well).

Then of course there were Trump’s contributions, including his wacky insistence that Rafael Cruz—Ted’s dad—was in on the Kennedy assassination. 

“This should be a serious moment of introspection for Republicans. How did they get to the point where they’re handing their nomination to a race-bating, xenophobic, serial liar, who peddles conspiracy theories and thinks the National Enquirer is a real newspaper. The answer? This is no accident. It is not a fluke. The Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump and has been for years.”

From there, Meyers does a look back at the GOP over the near-decade, looking at how the fostered and embraced xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia, particularly when it was hurled at our current president. It’s a great remembrance of who the Republican Party is and has long been.