...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* I suppose he doesn't remember dodging the draft either.
* How about we stop reporting on Trump until he says something TRUE ~!~ NOW THAT would be news !!!!!
* OH MAN... Liberals are going to be so sorry when those tapes show up! They're probably being uploaded to the internet right this minute. Any second now... Those tapes will show up and Liberals will be destroyed. All we have to do is find those tapes. Any time now. It's going to be so great. All we need are those tapes. Here they come... Are they here yet?
* ... why don't the Republicans go to Fox News and try to find the tapes remember Fox news is "Fair and Balance"
* Hold on ... I think I found something oh nevermind its just Trumps hair in the wind cheering and clapping, false alarm, sorry!!!!
* Trump does fit the mold. In another remarkably consistent performance, TRUMP proves that. like most republicans, he never met a lie that he couldn't adhere to like glue.
* There are times that (T)rump isn't lying to us.....he occasionally stops to inhale
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Another Hole in a Trump Story Uncovered
By Rob Garver, November 30, 2015
Either Donald Trump has one of the world’s greatest memories, as he himself has claimed multiple times, or he really doesn’t remember Serge Kovaleski, the New York Times reporter whose disability the Republican presidential frontrunner has been accused of mocking. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that both of those things can’t be true.
Trump came under fire last week when he appeared to imitate Kovaleski at a campaign appearance. Kovaleski had written an article for the Washington Post where he worked years ago that Trump claims supports his story that Muslim Americans in Jersey City celebrated the 9/11 attacks by the thousands.
Kovaleski, in an interview about the piece, said that the information about unspecified people having tailgate-like celebrations after the attacks was unconfirmed. He added that there had never been any suggestion that there were thousands, or even hundreds of people celebrating the attacks.
Trump, as he does, immediately went on the attack, and in the controversial campaign speech, waved his hands in a way that appeared to imitate Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a disease that severely limits the movement of his arms.
Trump immediately fired back, saying that not only would he never mock a disabled person, but adding that he couldn’t possibly have been mocking Kovaleski, because he doesn’t know him.
However, as Kovaleski pointed out, he had covered Trump closely for the New York Daily News in the 1980s, interviewed him personally, and was “on a first-name basis” with the billionaire.
On Monday, Washington Post reporter Greg Sargent contacted former Daily News columnist Andrew Gluck who co-wrote multiple stories about Trump with Kovaleski. Now the CEO of a financial marketing and technology company, Gluck said Trump’s claim not to know Kovaleski was not credible. He recalled sitting in Trump’s office for two hours with Kovaleski during an extended interview, and said his former colleague’s coverage of Trump continued well after that.
“Serge sat at the desk across from me,” Gluck told Sargent. “I remember him being on the phone with Trump….They would talk about the coverage. They would talk about the story.”
Current odds on Trump backtracking in the face of additional evidence against his claims are running at about one billion-to-one against.
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Monday, November 30, 2015
"If Republicans ... want to send a message that they oppose this type of terrorism, they could start by cutting ties with anyone who has supported such violence in the past."
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COMMENTS:
* Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. -- Pearl Strachan Hurd.
* If the candidates were going to decry the people in the party that support this kind of violence, the would have to shed most of the base. Then who would be left?
* the good people?
* None of the GOP candidates have a moral conscious---especially Cruz. And because they are too busy vote getting from the fringes of humanity, they don't have time to bother searching for what they don't have. Expect nothing.
* Yup. The power of their words and the impact of those same words on THEIR little army of zealots has been shown, time and time again. And they know this, they know it as soon as the words leave their maws with hatred and loathing for PP, gun control, etc. Name anything that makes sense, they are against it. None of the candidates in their field should be hall monitors, let alone president.
* GOP= Generators of Pandemonium!
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If The Anti-Abortion Movement Doesn't Condone Violence, How Do Republicans Explain These Remarks?
After Robert Lewis Dear was arrested for opening fire inside a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic on Friday, he reportedly made a remark about "no more baby parts," according to a law enforcement official. The revelation prompted a heated debate about what motivated Dear to allegedly target a reproductive health provider that has been under near-constant assault from Republicans in recent months.
Some GOP presidential candidates rushed to argue that the killings have nothing to do with the anti-abortion movement or with the political campaign against Planned Parenthood, which has hinged upon a series of heavily edited sting videos that purport to show staff members discussing the donation of fetal tissue.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claimed that the rampage was carried out by a "deranged individual," not a "pro-life" activist. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the attacks were not something that the anti-abortion movement would condone, though he went on to say it was too early to jump to conclusions about the attacker's motive and called the shooting an act of terrorism. (Other presidential hopefuls, of course, have yet to say anything about the incident.)
But if Cruz and Huckabee want to argue that the anti-abortion movement rejects violence against abortion providers, they'll have to re-examine their ties to well-known activists who have made inflammatory comments in support of exactly that sort of extremism.
Just eight days before the Planned Parenthood shooting, Cruz touted an endorsement from Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. Newman has previously called for the mass execution of abortion providers and people who had sought their services, according to Right Wing Watch. Here's an excerpt from his book Their Blood Cries Out:
After Friday's shooting, Operation Rescue was careful to strike a different tone, saying in a statement that it "unequivocally deplores and denounces all violence at abortion clinics."
Earlier this month, both Cruz and Huckabee -- as well as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has since dropped out of the presidential race -- attended a conference hosted by pastor Kevin Swanson. At the time, Swanson attracted criticism for his vehemently anti-gay views. But as Right Wing Watch pointed out earlier this month, in 2009, Swanson also hailed the actions of Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion extremist who was later found guilty of murdering Kansas abortion provider George Tiller.
“If anybody’s keeping count ... Let’s see, Tiller killed 60,000 babies, so that’s 60,000 dead babies and one dead abortionist," Swanson said on his radio show. "So, let’s just say, the abortionists are still ahead on this one."
"It is interesting that if you live by the sword, you die by the sword," the pastor continued. "Wasn’t that what Jesus said? And this is really, pretty much, what happens. People tend to get their upcommance, and that’s precisely what happened to Tiller the Killer."
Both Cruz and Huckabee have since sought to downplay the significance of Swanson's anti-gay beliefs, and neither campaign responded to HuffPost's requests for comment on the pastor's anti-abortion views.
While Cruz and Huckabee are quick to say they don't support anti-abortion violence themselves, it's harder for them to deny the troubling rhetoric and behavior of activists claiming to represent the candidates' values.
In the past few months, Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have used the sting videos to portray Planned Parenthood as a "barbaric" organization that harvests the organs of aborted fetuses for profit. Multiple investigations have concluded that the footage showed no evidence of wrongdoing, but many conservatives have continued to rail against the health care provider.
And it's not just words. The intensifying crusade against Planned Parenthood has been accompanied by a series of physical and virtual attacks on abortion clinics. If Republicans like Cruz and Huckabee want to send a message that they oppose this type of terrorism, they could start by cutting ties with anyone who has supported such violence in the past.
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. -- Pearl Strachan Hurd.
* If the candidates were going to decry the people in the party that support this kind of violence, the would have to shed most of the base. Then who would be left?
* the good people?
* None of the GOP candidates have a moral conscious---especially Cruz. And because they are too busy vote getting from the fringes of humanity, they don't have time to bother searching for what they don't have. Expect nothing.
* Yup. The power of their words and the impact of those same words on THEIR little army of zealots has been shown, time and time again. And they know this, they know it as soon as the words leave their maws with hatred and loathing for PP, gun control, etc. Name anything that makes sense, they are against it. None of the candidates in their field should be hall monitors, let alone president.
* GOP= Generators of Pandemonium!
...................................................................................................................................................................
If The Anti-Abortion Movement Doesn't Condone Violence, How Do Republicans Explain These Remarks?
Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee recently appeared with a pastor who once said a murdered abortion doctor got what he deserved.
By Nick Wing, November 30, 2015After Robert Lewis Dear was arrested for opening fire inside a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic on Friday, he reportedly made a remark about "no more baby parts," according to a law enforcement official. The revelation prompted a heated debate about what motivated Dear to allegedly target a reproductive health provider that has been under near-constant assault from Republicans in recent months.
Some GOP presidential candidates rushed to argue that the killings have nothing to do with the anti-abortion movement or with the political campaign against Planned Parenthood, which has hinged upon a series of heavily edited sting videos that purport to show staff members discussing the donation of fetal tissue.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claimed that the rampage was carried out by a "deranged individual," not a "pro-life" activist. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the attacks were not something that the anti-abortion movement would condone, though he went on to say it was too early to jump to conclusions about the attacker's motive and called the shooting an act of terrorism. (Other presidential hopefuls, of course, have yet to say anything about the incident.)
But if Cruz and Huckabee want to argue that the anti-abortion movement rejects violence against abortion providers, they'll have to re-examine their ties to well-known activists who have made inflammatory comments in support of exactly that sort of extremism.
Just eight days before the Planned Parenthood shooting, Cruz touted an endorsement from Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. Newman has previously called for the mass execution of abortion providers and people who had sought their services, according to Right Wing Watch. Here's an excerpt from his book Their Blood Cries Out:
"When moms, dads, abortionists are added together, well over 100,000,000 people bear personal bloodguilt for at least one abortion. The doctrine of community bloodguilt found in Scripture further implicates the entire nation. The perpetrators are far too numerous and the bloodguilt has spread too far. We deserve God’s judgment.Newman's group has sought to craft a mainstream image as "the most visible voice of the pro-life activist movement in America," but its leadership tells a more complicated story. In 1988, Cheryl Sullenger, now Operation Rescue's vice president, was convicted along with her husband for their part in a failed plot to blow up an abortion clinic. (Sullenger says she now regrets her actions.)
In addition to our personal guilt in abortion, the United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people.
After Friday's shooting, Operation Rescue was careful to strike a different tone, saying in a statement that it "unequivocally deplores and denounces all violence at abortion clinics."
Earlier this month, both Cruz and Huckabee -- as well as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has since dropped out of the presidential race -- attended a conference hosted by pastor Kevin Swanson. At the time, Swanson attracted criticism for his vehemently anti-gay views. But as Right Wing Watch pointed out earlier this month, in 2009, Swanson also hailed the actions of Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion extremist who was later found guilty of murdering Kansas abortion provider George Tiller.
“If anybody’s keeping count ... Let’s see, Tiller killed 60,000 babies, so that’s 60,000 dead babies and one dead abortionist," Swanson said on his radio show. "So, let’s just say, the abortionists are still ahead on this one."
"It is interesting that if you live by the sword, you die by the sword," the pastor continued. "Wasn’t that what Jesus said? And this is really, pretty much, what happens. People tend to get their upcommance, and that’s precisely what happened to Tiller the Killer."
Both Cruz and Huckabee have since sought to downplay the significance of Swanson's anti-gay beliefs, and neither campaign responded to HuffPost's requests for comment on the pastor's anti-abortion views.
While Cruz and Huckabee are quick to say they don't support anti-abortion violence themselves, it's harder for them to deny the troubling rhetoric and behavior of activists claiming to represent the candidates' values.
In the past few months, Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail have used the sting videos to portray Planned Parenthood as a "barbaric" organization that harvests the organs of aborted fetuses for profit. Multiple investigations have concluded that the footage showed no evidence of wrongdoing, but many conservatives have continued to rail against the health care provider.
And it's not just words. The intensifying crusade against Planned Parenthood has been accompanied by a series of physical and virtual attacks on abortion clinics. If Republicans like Cruz and Huckabee want to send a message that they oppose this type of terrorism, they could start by cutting ties with anyone who has supported such violence in the past.
...................................................................................................................................................................
"This is stupid. This is cruel. You rig your state's economy so that jobs flee by the thousands and then you tie food stamps to employment ..." Tied to NONEXISTENT employment! Isn't that great? Thanks, Walker!
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COMMENTS:
* What a guy, plus think of the photo ops of the Governor handing out food baskets at Christmas! No, wait...
* And just think: he could have done for America what he's doing for Wisconsin. Instead of thousands of hungry, angry humiliated people, we could have had millions. We're so shortsighted sometimes in this country.
* To be fair, Walker shares credit with the reprehensible WI Repub leadership, who are all fully behind the effort to stop The Poors from their eating con. Hope they are all visited by their own personal Marley's over the holidays.
* Once again they demonstrate their utter terror of Somebody Somewhere Getting Away With Something. They are more than willing to tear down what is left of the safety net to keep it from happening.
* Wanker is an inept moron, doing the dirty work for the Koch Bros.
* Nothing suprises me when it comes to Scotty Walkers greed and stupidity. When he wrote that budget, he was convinced he would be nominated as the GOP candidate. But when Trump intimidated, Mr Un-intinidatable, he quit and ran home to Wisconsin. Now he has to deal with the mess he was hoping to leave to the vice govorner and state chief of staff.
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Scott Walker Bankrupts Wisconsin Food Banks—Just in Time for Christmas!
Thanks,
By Charles E. Pierce, November 30, 2015
It is becoming increasingly likely that, come Christmas Eve, Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, will be visited by three very angry spirits—the Ghosts of Christmas Past, the Ghost Of Christmas Present, and the Ghost Of Let Me Hit You With This Croquet Mallet.
The 2013-15 state budget created a rule for some recipients of the state's food stamp program known as FoodShare: If you're an able-bodied adult without children living at home, you must work at least 80 hours a month or look for work to stay in the program. That rule went into effect in April, and between July and September, about 25 percent of the 60,000 recipients eligible to work were dropped from the program when the penalty took effect, according to DHS data. Meanwhile, about 4,500 recipients found work through a new job training program for FoodShare recipients. Participants can get three months of FoodShare benefits before being kicked out of the program if they decline to look for work.
It is an article of rightwing faith that churches and other private institutions do a better job of charity work than does the government, which encourages "dependency" or some such. Of course, when the state throws up its hands, it causes chaos in the soup kitchens and food pantries as well.
"They will bankrupt our food banks," said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force, a supplier of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters with emergency food. In Wisconsin, about 770,000 people receive FoodShare benefits as of September, according to DHS. The law automatically enrolls eligible recipients in a program designed to help them find employment called the FoodShare Employment and Training program. Since the new law took effect, just 7 percent of recipients in Milwaukee County—where about half of the able-bodied childless adult recipients live—that were referred to the program were placed in jobs, state data show.
This is stupid. This is cruel. You rig your state's economy so that jobs flee by the thousands and then you tie food stamps to employment and—presto!—you've "cut government spending." Merry Christmas, all ye poor people of Wisconsin. You are nothing but a line item now.
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* What a guy, plus think of the photo ops of the Governor handing out food baskets at Christmas! No, wait...
* And just think: he could have done for America what he's doing for Wisconsin. Instead of thousands of hungry, angry humiliated people, we could have had millions. We're so shortsighted sometimes in this country.
* To be fair, Walker shares credit with the reprehensible WI Repub leadership, who are all fully behind the effort to stop The Poors from their eating con. Hope they are all visited by their own personal Marley's over the holidays.
* Once again they demonstrate their utter terror of Somebody Somewhere Getting Away With Something. They are more than willing to tear down what is left of the safety net to keep it from happening.
* Wanker is an inept moron, doing the dirty work for the Koch Bros.
* Nothing suprises me when it comes to Scotty Walkers greed and stupidity. When he wrote that budget, he was convinced he would be nominated as the GOP candidate. But when Trump intimidated, Mr Un-intinidatable, he quit and ran home to Wisconsin. Now he has to deal with the mess he was hoping to leave to the vice govorner and state chief of staff.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Scott Walker Bankrupts Wisconsin Food Banks—Just in Time for Christmas!
Thanks,
By Charles E. Pierce, November 30, 2015
It is becoming increasingly likely that, come Christmas Eve, Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, will be visited by three very angry spirits—the Ghosts of Christmas Past, the Ghost Of Christmas Present, and the Ghost Of Let Me Hit You With This Croquet Mallet.
The 2013-15 state budget created a rule for some recipients of the state's food stamp program known as FoodShare: If you're an able-bodied adult without children living at home, you must work at least 80 hours a month or look for work to stay in the program. That rule went into effect in April, and between July and September, about 25 percent of the 60,000 recipients eligible to work were dropped from the program when the penalty took effect, according to DHS data. Meanwhile, about 4,500 recipients found work through a new job training program for FoodShare recipients. Participants can get three months of FoodShare benefits before being kicked out of the program if they decline to look for work.
It is an article of rightwing faith that churches and other private institutions do a better job of charity work than does the government, which encourages "dependency" or some such. Of course, when the state throws up its hands, it causes chaos in the soup kitchens and food pantries as well.
"They will bankrupt our food banks," said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Milwaukee-based Hunger Task Force, a supplier of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters with emergency food. In Wisconsin, about 770,000 people receive FoodShare benefits as of September, according to DHS. The law automatically enrolls eligible recipients in a program designed to help them find employment called the FoodShare Employment and Training program. Since the new law took effect, just 7 percent of recipients in Milwaukee County—where about half of the able-bodied childless adult recipients live—that were referred to the program were placed in jobs, state data show.
This is stupid. This is cruel. You rig your state's economy so that jobs flee by the thousands and then you tie food stamps to employment and—presto!—you've "cut government spending." Merry Christmas, all ye poor people of Wisconsin. You are nothing but a line item now.
...................................................................................................................................................................
"'You’re running for president of the United States,' Todd argued. 'Your words matter. Truthfulness matters.'" Not to Trump, it doesn't.
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Donald Trump on Islam: ‘There’s something nasty coming out of there’
By Dylan Stableford, November 30, 2014
Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his controversial comments about Muslims, saying he isn’t sure Islam is an inherently peaceful religion or an inherently violent one.
“You know, there’s something definitely going on,” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “I don’t know that that question can be answered. It could be answered two ways. It could be answered both ways. But there’s something going on there. There’s something that there’s a lot of hatred coming out of, at least a big part of it. You see the hatred. I mean, we see it every day.”
The Republican frontrunner cited what he described as “Muslim chants” that interrupted a moment of silence in Turkey following the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris as an example of that hatred.
“You see it whether it’s in Paris or whether it’s the World Trade Center or whether it’s even one minute of silence at a soccer game out of respect for the people that died, and there was no respect by a pretty good group of people in that stadium,” Trump said. “There’s something nasty coming out of there.”
Video
Trump also refused to take back his refuted claim that he saw on television “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
“I’m not saying everybody,” the billionaire said. “But there’s a large percentage of people that … went wild and were celebrating all over the world. I think people have to recognize it. And if you don’t recognize it, then we’re never going to solve the problem. But there were a large number of people who celebrated the downing of the World Trade Center.”
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Trump sparred with NBC’s Chuck Todd, who pressed the GOP candidate on his controversial claim.
“This didn’t happen in New Jersey,” Todd said.
“Chuck, it did happen in New Jersey,” Trump replied. “I have hundreds of people that agree with me.”
The real estate mogul again offered a 2001 Washington Post article that reported the FBI was looking into reports of people celebrating as proof of his claim. (Officials could not find evidence such celebrations ever occurred.)
“We’re looking for other articles,” Trump said. “And we’re looking for other clips. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we found them, Chuck. But for some reason, they’re not that easy to come by. I saw it. So many people saw it, Chuck. And so, why would I take it back? I’m not going to take it back.”
“You’re running for president of the United States,” Todd argued. “Your words matter. Truthfulness matters.”
“Take it easy, Chuck. Just play cool,” Trump responded. “Many, many people have seen it. I have a very good memory, I’ll tell you. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago. And I never forgot it.”
Video
Meanwhile, Trump had been scheduled to hold a news conference Monday afternoon at Trump Tower to announce the endorsements of as many as 100 black pastors. But late Sunday, Trump’s campaign said the event would be a “private, informational meet and greet” with a group of African-American religious leaders.
The abrupt change of plans came as some of the black pastors invited to the event said they would not endorse Trump.
“I am not officially endorsing ANY candidate,” Clarence McClendon, a minister in Los Angeles, wrote on Facebook. “And when I do, you will NOT need to hear it from pulpitting court jesters who suffer from intellectual and spiritual myopia.”
...................................................................................................................................................................
Donald Trump on Islam: ‘There’s something nasty coming out of there’
By Dylan Stableford, November 30, 2014
Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his controversial comments about Muslims, saying he isn’t sure Islam is an inherently peaceful religion or an inherently violent one.
“You know, there’s something definitely going on,” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “I don’t know that that question can be answered. It could be answered two ways. It could be answered both ways. But there’s something going on there. There’s something that there’s a lot of hatred coming out of, at least a big part of it. You see the hatred. I mean, we see it every day.”
The Republican frontrunner cited what he described as “Muslim chants” that interrupted a moment of silence in Turkey following the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris as an example of that hatred.
“You see it whether it’s in Paris or whether it’s the World Trade Center or whether it’s even one minute of silence at a soccer game out of respect for the people that died, and there was no respect by a pretty good group of people in that stadium,” Trump said. “There’s something nasty coming out of there.”
Video
Trump also refused to take back his refuted claim that he saw on television “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
“I’m not saying everybody,” the billionaire said. “But there’s a large percentage of people that … went wild and were celebrating all over the world. I think people have to recognize it. And if you don’t recognize it, then we’re never going to solve the problem. But there were a large number of people who celebrated the downing of the World Trade Center.”
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Trump sparred with NBC’s Chuck Todd, who pressed the GOP candidate on his controversial claim.
“This didn’t happen in New Jersey,” Todd said.
“Chuck, it did happen in New Jersey,” Trump replied. “I have hundreds of people that agree with me.”
The real estate mogul again offered a 2001 Washington Post article that reported the FBI was looking into reports of people celebrating as proof of his claim. (Officials could not find evidence such celebrations ever occurred.)
“We’re looking for other articles,” Trump said. “And we’re looking for other clips. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we found them, Chuck. But for some reason, they’re not that easy to come by. I saw it. So many people saw it, Chuck. And so, why would I take it back? I’m not going to take it back.”
“You’re running for president of the United States,” Todd argued. “Your words matter. Truthfulness matters.”
“Take it easy, Chuck. Just play cool,” Trump responded. “Many, many people have seen it. I have a very good memory, I’ll tell you. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago. And I never forgot it.”
Video
Meanwhile, Trump had been scheduled to hold a news conference Monday afternoon at Trump Tower to announce the endorsements of as many as 100 black pastors. But late Sunday, Trump’s campaign said the event would be a “private, informational meet and greet” with a group of African-American religious leaders.
The abrupt change of plans came as some of the black pastors invited to the event said they would not endorse Trump.
“I am not officially endorsing ANY candidate,” Clarence McClendon, a minister in Los Angeles, wrote on Facebook. “And when I do, you will NOT need to hear it from pulpitting court jesters who suffer from intellectual and spiritual myopia.”
...................................................................................................................................................................
"Among the electorate as a whole, Trump’s favorability numbers are so far underwater you’d need a bathyscaph to find them."
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COMMENTS:
* Another number.......Trump supporters with no education......100%.
* The danger and evil of Trump is illustrated by a quote last week from a military officer, retired Col. Tom Moe, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Vietnam POW (paraphrasing the famous words of late German pastor and concentration camp survivor Martin Niemoller), who is frightened by the supporters of Trump. “You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with their government because you’re not one. And you might not care that Donald Trump says he's going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants because you're not one. And you might not care that Donald Trump says it’s OK to rough up black protesters because you're not one,” he said. “And you might not care if Donald Trump wants to suppress journalists because you’re not one. But think about this: If he keeps going and he actually becomes president, he might just get around to you, and you better hope that there’s someone left to help you.” And you can add 'making fun of those with physical disabilities' to this list. Who is Trump's next target?
* The number is 0... as in his support comes from a bunch of zeros.
* "The Donald" is a huckster, a carnival barker who will say anything to draw a crowd.
* Don't hate Trump and his supporters, pitty them. Mental illness is a disease! Trump Quadrupled down on the thousands of muslims he saw in New Jersey, his yes man lawyer was just on CNN defending Trump, saying if Trump saw it, it was true. Trump said he was getting 100 black leader endorsements, walked out with three, the guy has serious mental issues, he needs to seek help, not the presidency, of this or any other country!
* Trump's supporters don't really care too much what he says. They care that he is really, really rich (because they think that means he's really, really smart). They care that he's really, really angry, because they are, too. So, he seems like a better version of themselves.
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This one number explains Donald Trump's support
There’s never been a US presidential candidate like Donald Trump. Just how unusual has his candidacy been? In poring over some poll data Monday morning, we noticed one number that to us symbolizes the surprising nature of his rise to front-runner status.
That number reflects the percentage of Republican voters who have a favorable opinion of him, as a political person. Right now it’s 69, according to the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll.
The size of the number itself isn’t what makes it surprising. Sixty-nine percent is pretty good for a favorability rating, but Mr. Trump isn’t the leader in this particular numerical category, according to ABC/Post data. That would be Ben Carson, who’s viewed favorably by 71 percent of Republican voters.
Its singularity lies in the fact that it used to be much lower. In July, Trump was viewed favorably by 57 percent of GOP voters in this same poll series. In May, prior to his announcement that he was going to actually run for president, the corresponding number was ... 23.
That’s right: Trump has tripled his favorability in his party since he started campaigning for the Oval Office. That’s while he’s been insulting rivals and past GOP nominees alike while battling with various news figures and blasting out many statements labeled questionable (at best) by fact-checkers.
By itself, such a rise isn’t completely startling. It happens all the time in presidential politics: An underdog candidate starts out with low favorability, since few people are aware of his or her strengths and faults. The candidate rises in favorability as he or she becomes better known.
But Trump was already famous, due to him being an celebrity over decades. His name recognition was probably close to 100 percent when he jumped in the race.
That means he’s actually changed people’s minds about his political prospects, at least in some parts of the GOP. That doesn’t happen often. As Jonathan Last notes recently in The Weekly Standard, this is one of the ways Trump’s run has “defied the laws of electioneering.”
How did he do this? Most likely, it has to do with the anti-immigration hard line he’s taken from the moment he entered the race. (It was during his announcement speech that he called Mexicans sneaking over the border “rapists,” after all.) As has been widely noted, Trump seems to have tapped into a wellspring of anti-immigrant feeling that's resentful of the GOP elite.
His favorable numbers built quickly after that. Since then, they’ve leveled off and bounced around.
But this is not – repeat, not – necessarily an indication of future electoral performance. Trump also has moderately high negative ratings in the GOP. Among Republicans, 29 percent hold an unfavorable view of The Donald, according to ABC/Post numbers. That means he has a hard core of supporters, but a hard core of opponents as well.
Among the electorate as a whole, Trump’s favorability numbers are so far underwater you’d need a bathyscaph to find them. Democrats (and to a lesser extent self-described independents) so dislike him that he has a 55 percent unfavorable, 37 percent favorable rating, according to HuffPost Pollster.
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COMMENTS:
* Another number.......Trump supporters with no education......100%.
* The danger and evil of Trump is illustrated by a quote last week from a military officer, retired Col. Tom Moe, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Vietnam POW (paraphrasing the famous words of late German pastor and concentration camp survivor Martin Niemoller), who is frightened by the supporters of Trump. “You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with their government because you’re not one. And you might not care that Donald Trump says he's going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants because you're not one. And you might not care that Donald Trump says it’s OK to rough up black protesters because you're not one,” he said. “And you might not care if Donald Trump wants to suppress journalists because you’re not one. But think about this: If he keeps going and he actually becomes president, he might just get around to you, and you better hope that there’s someone left to help you.” And you can add 'making fun of those with physical disabilities' to this list. Who is Trump's next target?
* The number is 0... as in his support comes from a bunch of zeros.
* "The Donald" is a huckster, a carnival barker who will say anything to draw a crowd.
* Don't hate Trump and his supporters, pitty them. Mental illness is a disease! Trump Quadrupled down on the thousands of muslims he saw in New Jersey, his yes man lawyer was just on CNN defending Trump, saying if Trump saw it, it was true. Trump said he was getting 100 black leader endorsements, walked out with three, the guy has serious mental issues, he needs to seek help, not the presidency, of this or any other country!
* Trump's supporters don't really care too much what he says. They care that he is really, really rich (because they think that means he's really, really smart). They care that he's really, really angry, because they are, too. So, he seems like a better version of themselves.
...................................................................................................................................................................
This one number explains Donald Trump's support
The number symbolizes the surprising nature of Donald Trump's rise to front-runner status.
By Peter Grier, November 30, 2015There’s never been a US presidential candidate like Donald Trump. Just how unusual has his candidacy been? In poring over some poll data Monday morning, we noticed one number that to us symbolizes the surprising nature of his rise to front-runner status.
That number reflects the percentage of Republican voters who have a favorable opinion of him, as a political person. Right now it’s 69, according to the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll.
The size of the number itself isn’t what makes it surprising. Sixty-nine percent is pretty good for a favorability rating, but Mr. Trump isn’t the leader in this particular numerical category, according to ABC/Post data. That would be Ben Carson, who’s viewed favorably by 71 percent of Republican voters.
Its singularity lies in the fact that it used to be much lower. In July, Trump was viewed favorably by 57 percent of GOP voters in this same poll series. In May, prior to his announcement that he was going to actually run for president, the corresponding number was ... 23.
That’s right: Trump has tripled his favorability in his party since he started campaigning for the Oval Office. That’s while he’s been insulting rivals and past GOP nominees alike while battling with various news figures and blasting out many statements labeled questionable (at best) by fact-checkers.
By itself, such a rise isn’t completely startling. It happens all the time in presidential politics: An underdog candidate starts out with low favorability, since few people are aware of his or her strengths and faults. The candidate rises in favorability as he or she becomes better known.
But Trump was already famous, due to him being an celebrity over decades. His name recognition was probably close to 100 percent when he jumped in the race.
That means he’s actually changed people’s minds about his political prospects, at least in some parts of the GOP. That doesn’t happen often. As Jonathan Last notes recently in The Weekly Standard, this is one of the ways Trump’s run has “defied the laws of electioneering.”
How did he do this? Most likely, it has to do with the anti-immigration hard line he’s taken from the moment he entered the race. (It was during his announcement speech that he called Mexicans sneaking over the border “rapists,” after all.) As has been widely noted, Trump seems to have tapped into a wellspring of anti-immigrant feeling that's resentful of the GOP elite.
His favorable numbers built quickly after that. Since then, they’ve leveled off and bounced around.
But this is not – repeat, not – necessarily an indication of future electoral performance. Trump also has moderately high negative ratings in the GOP. Among Republicans, 29 percent hold an unfavorable view of The Donald, according to ABC/Post numbers. That means he has a hard core of supporters, but a hard core of opponents as well.
Among the electorate as a whole, Trump’s favorability numbers are so far underwater you’d need a bathyscaph to find them. Democrats (and to a lesser extent self-described independents) so dislike him that he has a 55 percent unfavorable, 37 percent favorable rating, according to HuffPost Pollster.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Sunday, November 29, 2015
"'The language you choose matters ... You are not free from the judgement of the consequences of your hate-filled rhetoric.'"
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* The birds have come to roost.
* ... Planned Parenthood does not murder anyone. That would be illegal. One has to be born before one can be murdered.
* ... Ted Cruz isn't just a presidential candidate, he's not just some Joe Schmoe. Ted Cruz is a sitting US Senator. Think about that. A sitting US Senator, touting the endorsement of a person that thinks certain murders should be justifiable because it fits their personal religious beliefs.
* Did you sleep well, Carly? How about the rest of you GOP candidates? Does it matter at all to you that the video you keep praising is basically fake and has now led someone to act on your hateful rhetoric? C'mon, talk to us. Tell us that you're sorry you played a role in this.
* Another attack by right wing jihadi terrorists. They are the real threat to America, not Syrian refugees.
* lets call it what it is white christian terrorism.
* Carly Fiorina has blood on her hands.
* It's a sad state of affairs for the GOP when rallying its base sounds a lot like inciting acts of violence. It's time to tone down the rhetoric.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Abortion Rights Leader Nails Hypocrisy Of Anti-Abortion Activists
An abortion rights leader is calling out anti-abortion activists who spread lies about -- or incite violence against -- abortion providers, then act appalled when violence actually transpires.
Ilyse Hogue, president of advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America, derided two anti-abortionists in the wake of Friday's shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that left three people dead and nine injured.
She specifically mentioned David Daleiden and Troy Newman. Daleiden is the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, the anti-abortion group responsible for heavily manipulated videos that purport to show Planned Parenthood doctors talking about selling fetal parts for profit, and altering their abortion methods so as to leave fetuses intact. Newman, the president of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, advocated for doctors who provide abortions to be “executed” in his book Their Blood Cries Out, published in 2000.
Both Daleiden and Newman condemned Friday’s attack, but Hogue wrote that their responses ring hollow in light of their previous words and actions.
Though police have not officially disclosed a motive for the Friday attack, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that gunman Robert Dear uttered “no more baby parts” after his arrest.
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* The birds have come to roost.
* ... Planned Parenthood does not murder anyone. That would be illegal. One has to be born before one can be murdered.
* ... Ted Cruz isn't just a presidential candidate, he's not just some Joe Schmoe. Ted Cruz is a sitting US Senator. Think about that. A sitting US Senator, touting the endorsement of a person that thinks certain murders should be justifiable because it fits their personal religious beliefs.
* Did you sleep well, Carly? How about the rest of you GOP candidates? Does it matter at all to you that the video you keep praising is basically fake and has now led someone to act on your hateful rhetoric? C'mon, talk to us. Tell us that you're sorry you played a role in this.
* Another attack by right wing jihadi terrorists. They are the real threat to America, not Syrian refugees.
* lets call it what it is white christian terrorism.
* Carly Fiorina has blood on her hands.
* It's a sad state of affairs for the GOP when rallying its base sounds a lot like inciting acts of violence. It's time to tone down the rhetoric.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Abortion Rights Leader Nails Hypocrisy Of Anti-Abortion Activists
You can't promote violence and then act surprised when it really happens.
By Hilary Hanson, November 29, 2015An abortion rights leader is calling out anti-abortion activists who spread lies about -- or incite violence against -- abortion providers, then act appalled when violence actually transpires.
Ilyse Hogue, president of advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America, derided two anti-abortionists in the wake of Friday's shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that left three people dead and nine injured.
Ilyse Hogue“The language you choose matters,” she wrote in a Saturday night Facebook post. “You are not free from the judgement of the consequences of your hate-filled rhetoric.”
Washington, District of Columbia · 2,260 followers · Yesterday at 7:37pm · Edited ·
Sorry, David Daleiden. You don't get to create fake videos and accuse abortion providers of "barbaric atrocities against humanity" one day and act shocked when someone shoots to kill in those same facilities the next.
And you, Troy Newman -- using Operation Rescue to call for state-sanctioned execution of doctors who serve women -- and then crying crocodile tears when someone takes that vision into their own hands.
It's America. You are free to have your speech. The language you choose matters. You are not free from the judgement of the consequences of your hate-filled rhetoric. # ColoradoSpringsShootings # DomesticTerrorism
She specifically mentioned David Daleiden and Troy Newman. Daleiden is the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, the anti-abortion group responsible for heavily manipulated videos that purport to show Planned Parenthood doctors talking about selling fetal parts for profit, and altering their abortion methods so as to leave fetuses intact. Newman, the president of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, advocated for doctors who provide abortions to be “executed” in his book Their Blood Cries Out, published in 2000.
Both Daleiden and Newman condemned Friday’s attack, but Hogue wrote that their responses ring hollow in light of their previous words and actions.
centerformedprogress @CtrMedProgress
The Center for Medical Progress condemns the barbaric killing spree in Colorado Springs by a violent madman. http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2015/11/cmp-statement-on-violence-in-colorado-springs/ …
11:49 AM - 28 Nov 2015
CMP Statement on Violence in Colorado Springs“You don't get to create fake videos and accuse abortion providers of 'barbaric atrocities against humanity' one day and act shocked when someone shoots to kill in those same facilities,” she wrote. She also accused Newman of crying “crocodile tears” now that someone has taken his “vision into his own hands.”
The Center for Medical Progress condemns the barbaric killing spree in Colorado Springs by a violent madman. We applaud the heroic efforts of law enforcement to stop the violence quickly and rescue...
View on web
Though police have not officially disclosed a motive for the Friday attack, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that gunman Robert Dear uttered “no more baby parts” after his arrest.
...................................................................................................................................................................
"'... the facts are very clear that Donald Trump is saying things that are wrong, and have been proven to be wrong, and he continues saying them anyway. That’s a lie.'"
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COMMENTS:
* He is doing what every politician does, say anything and everything what ever it take to get elected
* Donald Trump`s incessant pandering to every extremist group and their requisite views has basically confirmed what the Democrats have been saying and portraying about the Republican party for years. That they are a bunch of racist, homophobic, right-wing, gun-toting, tea-party simple minded extremists.
* Fox news made alot of money on all lies!!!!!
* Trump is a proven liar many times over and over. Still his followers try to blame the "liberal media" for his lies. This is a lie in itself and proves these people do not care if he is telling the truth. This is a common tactic in politics today and even on news programs. Perhaps trump learned his speaking ability from O Really? After all, pox said he didn't have to tell the truth and could lie all he wants because he is not the news. Even with this admission, people still believe people like he or Limburger are actually telling them the straight truth. I guess many have turned off their BS meters! Just blame anything or anyone else and it is OK!
* Donald Trump is adept at telling the lies White Conservatives want to hear. The fact that they are lies makes no difference to them.
* Conservatives will believe any lie, no matter how outrageous, if they think it might possibly support their prejudices.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Here’s Why Donald Trump’s Lies May Be Good for U.S. Politics
By Rob Garver, November 29, 2015
Finding an upside to Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy is a struggle. The billionaire former reality television star has coarsened the national dialogue about race and immigration, made personal attacks on his opponents commonplace, and spewed so many falsehoods and exaggerations into the national conversation that truth – always a casualty in presidential campaigns – seems to matter even less than it usually does.
It’s in that last area though, that maybe, just maybe, we can find a silver lining: Having used up his allowable limit of candidate innuendo and exaggeration early on, Trump decided to simply make stuff up. Perhaps now, finally, the mainstream media will call a lie a lie.
“Watching the arc of this campaign, I see a lot of complaints about the media not calling him out as a liar and not being strong enough, and that’s something that I hadn’t really seen before,” said Jane Elizabeth, a senior research project manager who leads the Fact-Checking Project at the American Press Institute.
“You’re seeing people telling the media that they aren’t being strident enough or forceful enough, complaining that they are waiting until the seventh paragraph of a story to say ‘this is outright false,” she said.
And it’s starting to have an effect, Elizabeth added. “Really it’s in the last week or so that I’ve begun seeing a more forceful description of his statements as being lies, or very untruthful, and calling him out on these things right away.”
National Journal columnist Ron Fournier said, “It’s something the media has been wrestling with a lot in the last 10 or 20 years, since the Iraq War, when a lot of people – and I don’t include President Bush in this – but many people around him were saying things that they knew, or should have known, were wrong.”
Fournier, when he served as Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, was responsible for an effort at the revered wire service to identify falsehoods in political discourse as just that.
“We decided that when the truth is that someone is telling a falsehood, you should scrub your copy of weasel words, like ‘experts say’ and just write, ‘the governor is wrong,’” Fournier said.
“If it’s a lie, why not call it that? And in [Trump’s] case, even if I was a straight news reporter, the facts are very clear that Donald Trump is saying things that are wrong, and have been proven to be wrong, and he continues saying them anyway. That’s a lie.”
Editorial and op-ed pages are, of course, an exception. Editorial boards and columnists, like Fournier, have long felt much more freedom to call a lie a lie. The New York Times did it last week with Trump, and The Washington Post did it on Friday. And – it seems like ages ago – Times columnist, William Safire rocked the political world in 1996 when he branded Hillary Clinton “a congenital liar.”
Of course, some newspapers have independent fact-checkers, like The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, who has awarded Trump “four Pinocchios” on several occasions. There are also independent fact-checking organizations, such as Politifact, which has bestowed its “Pants on Fire” rating on Trump 15 different times.
Some in the industry, like longtime media critic and fact-checker Jack Shafer, now at Politico, feel that the rise of fact-checking sites have, for years, freed journalists to call out falsehoods.
In an emailed reply to a question for this article, Shafer wrote, “Since the fact-checker genre arrived, the press has become more comfortable in grading the truth value of the statements of politicians and other public figures. I don't think Trump has made it easier or harder for the press to call out blatant misstatements of fact.” Shafer himself provides a helpful taxonomy of lies in the current presidential primary campaigns.
(Note though, that even many of those in the business of calling out falsehoods dance around the subject of “lying.” Pinocchio’s nose grew when he lied, but in Kessler’s explanation of his system, even a four-Pinocchio statement is called just “a whopper.” At Politifact, the editors leave it to the reader’s imagination to add the “Liar, liar” to a “Pants on Fire” ruling, which they bestow when a statement “is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.”)
Still, in straight news reporting, calling someone a liar is no small thing, because it goes beyond the facts in dispute to the question of intentionality. A person can say something wildly untrue without it technically being a lie, so long as they actually believe what they are saying. And in his wonderful essay On Bullshit, Princeton University philosopher Harry Frankfurt points out that a vast number of the statements that come out of the mouths of our public figures are neither true nor false, nor are they meant to be either.
As Philip Bump recently pointed out in The Washington Post, there’s not a lot of benefit to a straight news reporter to calling out a public figure for lying, and there’s plenty of downside.
However, faced with his relentless – I’ll say it: lying – more and more reporters are pointing out that Donald Trump is willfully and repeatedly saying things that are untrue, even after the facts have been very publicly corrected.
As he explains the media’s reluctance to label Trump a liar, the headline of Bump’s piece, “Why the Media Won’t Say Donald Trump Is Lying,” suggests that the reluctance may be fading by implying that The Donald is, well, a liar.
At Fortune, Matthew Ingram takes the fact that Trump is a liar as given in his recent piece asking how the media ought to handle him.
In an appearance on Meet the Press last week, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, a straight news man if there ever was one, called out Trump and other candidates over “flat out lies” in their campaign rhetoric.
So is the tide turning? National Journal’s Fournier thinks it may be, though whether it’s a good thing or a bad one is unclear. The proliferation of online news sites and the velocity with which information – true and false – spreads through social media means that there is a need for outlets that are willing to call out liars.
“What bullies and cynical leaders – like Donald Trump – are able to do is use the new media against the public. It’s so much easier for people to fool themselves,” said Fournier. “We have case after case after case in this cycle of candidates saying things that are flat out false…. This election is just full of falsehoods. If you want to have a role in this game you have to be able to say, ‘This is bullshit.’”
However, he adds, if mainstream media organizations don’t scrupulously work to fact-check both sides, they run the risk of further atomizing a media landscape that already makes it very simple for readers to limit their consumption to stories that fit their worldview while dismissing stories that don’t as biased and false.
The sad reality is that, even if the press is slowly waking up to its responsibility to call a lie a lie, it may be coming too late.
“We’re starting to do what we always should have done,” said Fournier. “The irony is that now there are fewer people who trust us. They either don’t hear us, or they don’t believe us.”
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* He is doing what every politician does, say anything and everything what ever it take to get elected
* Donald Trump`s incessant pandering to every extremist group and their requisite views has basically confirmed what the Democrats have been saying and portraying about the Republican party for years. That they are a bunch of racist, homophobic, right-wing, gun-toting, tea-party simple minded extremists.
* Fox news made alot of money on all lies!!!!!
* Trump is a proven liar many times over and over. Still his followers try to blame the "liberal media" for his lies. This is a lie in itself and proves these people do not care if he is telling the truth. This is a common tactic in politics today and even on news programs. Perhaps trump learned his speaking ability from O Really? After all, pox said he didn't have to tell the truth and could lie all he wants because he is not the news. Even with this admission, people still believe people like he or Limburger are actually telling them the straight truth. I guess many have turned off their BS meters! Just blame anything or anyone else and it is OK!
* Donald Trump is adept at telling the lies White Conservatives want to hear. The fact that they are lies makes no difference to them.
* Conservatives will believe any lie, no matter how outrageous, if they think it might possibly support their prejudices.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Here’s Why Donald Trump’s Lies May Be Good for U.S. Politics
By Rob Garver, November 29, 2015
Finding an upside to Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy is a struggle. The billionaire former reality television star has coarsened the national dialogue about race and immigration, made personal attacks on his opponents commonplace, and spewed so many falsehoods and exaggerations into the national conversation that truth – always a casualty in presidential campaigns – seems to matter even less than it usually does.
It’s in that last area though, that maybe, just maybe, we can find a silver lining: Having used up his allowable limit of candidate innuendo and exaggeration early on, Trump decided to simply make stuff up. Perhaps now, finally, the mainstream media will call a lie a lie.
“Watching the arc of this campaign, I see a lot of complaints about the media not calling him out as a liar and not being strong enough, and that’s something that I hadn’t really seen before,” said Jane Elizabeth, a senior research project manager who leads the Fact-Checking Project at the American Press Institute.
“You’re seeing people telling the media that they aren’t being strident enough or forceful enough, complaining that they are waiting until the seventh paragraph of a story to say ‘this is outright false,” she said.
And it’s starting to have an effect, Elizabeth added. “Really it’s in the last week or so that I’ve begun seeing a more forceful description of his statements as being lies, or very untruthful, and calling him out on these things right away.”
National Journal columnist Ron Fournier said, “It’s something the media has been wrestling with a lot in the last 10 or 20 years, since the Iraq War, when a lot of people – and I don’t include President Bush in this – but many people around him were saying things that they knew, or should have known, were wrong.”
Fournier, when he served as Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, was responsible for an effort at the revered wire service to identify falsehoods in political discourse as just that.
“We decided that when the truth is that someone is telling a falsehood, you should scrub your copy of weasel words, like ‘experts say’ and just write, ‘the governor is wrong,’” Fournier said.
“If it’s a lie, why not call it that? And in [Trump’s] case, even if I was a straight news reporter, the facts are very clear that Donald Trump is saying things that are wrong, and have been proven to be wrong, and he continues saying them anyway. That’s a lie.”
Editorial and op-ed pages are, of course, an exception. Editorial boards and columnists, like Fournier, have long felt much more freedom to call a lie a lie. The New York Times did it last week with Trump, and The Washington Post did it on Friday. And – it seems like ages ago – Times columnist, William Safire rocked the political world in 1996 when he branded Hillary Clinton “a congenital liar.”
Of course, some newspapers have independent fact-checkers, like The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, who has awarded Trump “four Pinocchios” on several occasions. There are also independent fact-checking organizations, such as Politifact, which has bestowed its “Pants on Fire” rating on Trump 15 different times.
Some in the industry, like longtime media critic and fact-checker Jack Shafer, now at Politico, feel that the rise of fact-checking sites have, for years, freed journalists to call out falsehoods.
In an emailed reply to a question for this article, Shafer wrote, “Since the fact-checker genre arrived, the press has become more comfortable in grading the truth value of the statements of politicians and other public figures. I don't think Trump has made it easier or harder for the press to call out blatant misstatements of fact.” Shafer himself provides a helpful taxonomy of lies in the current presidential primary campaigns.
(Note though, that even many of those in the business of calling out falsehoods dance around the subject of “lying.” Pinocchio’s nose grew when he lied, but in Kessler’s explanation of his system, even a four-Pinocchio statement is called just “a whopper.” At Politifact, the editors leave it to the reader’s imagination to add the “Liar, liar” to a “Pants on Fire” ruling, which they bestow when a statement “is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.”)
Still, in straight news reporting, calling someone a liar is no small thing, because it goes beyond the facts in dispute to the question of intentionality. A person can say something wildly untrue without it technically being a lie, so long as they actually believe what they are saying. And in his wonderful essay On Bullshit, Princeton University philosopher Harry Frankfurt points out that a vast number of the statements that come out of the mouths of our public figures are neither true nor false, nor are they meant to be either.
As Philip Bump recently pointed out in The Washington Post, there’s not a lot of benefit to a straight news reporter to calling out a public figure for lying, and there’s plenty of downside.
However, faced with his relentless – I’ll say it: lying – more and more reporters are pointing out that Donald Trump is willfully and repeatedly saying things that are untrue, even after the facts have been very publicly corrected.
As he explains the media’s reluctance to label Trump a liar, the headline of Bump’s piece, “Why the Media Won’t Say Donald Trump Is Lying,” suggests that the reluctance may be fading by implying that The Donald is, well, a liar.
At Fortune, Matthew Ingram takes the fact that Trump is a liar as given in his recent piece asking how the media ought to handle him.
In an appearance on Meet the Press last week, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, a straight news man if there ever was one, called out Trump and other candidates over “flat out lies” in their campaign rhetoric.
So is the tide turning? National Journal’s Fournier thinks it may be, though whether it’s a good thing or a bad one is unclear. The proliferation of online news sites and the velocity with which information – true and false – spreads through social media means that there is a need for outlets that are willing to call out liars.
“What bullies and cynical leaders – like Donald Trump – are able to do is use the new media against the public. It’s so much easier for people to fool themselves,” said Fournier. “We have case after case after case in this cycle of candidates saying things that are flat out false…. This election is just full of falsehoods. If you want to have a role in this game you have to be able to say, ‘This is bullshit.’”
However, he adds, if mainstream media organizations don’t scrupulously work to fact-check both sides, they run the risk of further atomizing a media landscape that already makes it very simple for readers to limit their consumption to stories that fit their worldview while dismissing stories that don’t as biased and false.
The sad reality is that, even if the press is slowly waking up to its responsibility to call a lie a lie, it may be coming too late.
“We’re starting to do what we always should have done,” said Fournier. “The irony is that now there are fewer people who trust us. They either don’t hear us, or they don’t believe us.”
...................................................................................................................................................................
Trump: "I have a very good memory. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago and I never forgot it." If your memory is so good, why can't you recall the exact situation?
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* Go Chuck Todd, Trump and other GOP should held accountable of their fact free rants.
* Trump is counting on stupidity to mix up the well known videos of Muslims celebrating the tragedy in.their own countries with his false statement that he saw thousands IN NJ doing that. Unbelievable
* Donald Trump says things that his followers want to believe is true. He feeds the fish the line and they swallow it, with glee. They will not believe the truth because it doesn't fit into their world view.
* He obviously did forget it, or else he would know exactly what channel, the exact location. What most likely happened is this idiot saw the Live Feeds of the Middle East celebrations and just got confused.
* Mr. Trump's megs ego will never allow him to admit to a mistake. By now, it should be obvious to everyone, but the most rabid Trump supporters, that Trump as president will be a disaster.
* BTW, I am from Northern NJ and there was never, I repeat never a report that comes close to what Donald says he saw from his luxury apartment with people jumping. He should join the Air Force, because with this vision capabilities, I am sure we could use that skill set.
...................................................................................................................................................................
'This didn't happen': NBC's Chuck Todd grills Donald Trump on his 9/11 claim
By Colin Campbell, November 29, 2015
"Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd repeatedly grilled Donald Trump on Sunday about the real-estate mogul's disputed claim that he saw "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey, celebrating the World Trade Center attack.
More than half of the interview was dominated by Todd questioning and even flatly rejecting Trump's claim about the September 11, 2001, attack.
"You demand and you've demanded of me pinpoint accuracy when I report on things about you, including, for instance, your net worth," Todd noted in his first question. "Why shouldn't we demand the same pinpoint accuracy in the claims that you make?"
After Todd told Trump that "nobody can find evidence" of the widespread celebration, and that reports indicated "that it was a false rumor," the Republican presidential front-runner held his ground.
"Chuck, I saw it on television. So did many other people," Trump said as he and Todd talked over one another.
Trump did offer that it could have been Paterson, New Jersey, where he saw the celebrations.
"Excuse me," he said. "I've heard Jersey City. I've heard Paterson. It was 14 years ago. But I saw it on television. I saw clips. And so did many other people."
After some additional back-and-forth, Todd directly told Trump: "Mr. Trump, this didn't happen in New Jersey. There were plenty of reports. And you're feeding that stereotype."
"Chuck, it did happen in New Jersey," he shot back. "I have hundreds of people that agree with me."
Trump has been battling media fact-checkers since the previous weekend, when he first claimed he saw "thousands and thousands of people" cheering across the river as the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. Trump said this while making the case for surveilling certain mosques. Northern New Jersey is home to a large Muslim community.
Trump aggressively pushed back against his critics, and he frequently cites as evidence a disputed September 18, 2001, report in The Washington Post.
During his Sunday-morning interview, Trump argued that supposed worldwide Muslim celebrations on September 11, 2001, suggest that similar rallies would have occurred in northern New Jersey. According to The New York Times, some Palestinians were filmed dancing in East Jerusalem after the attack.
"Chuck, you have a huge Muslim population over there. And that's fine. But you have a huge Muslim population. ... Why wouldn't it have taken place?" Trump asked. "I've had hundreds of people call in and tweet in on Twitter, saying that they saw it, and I was 100% right."
Todd and Trump then talked over one another again as the "Meet the Press" host questioned whether Trump should really cite tweets as evidence.
"You wouldn't make a business deal based on retweets and based on hearsay. You're running for president of the United States," Todd said. "Your words matter. Truthfulness matters. Fact-based stuff matters. No?"
"Take it easy, Chuck. Just play cool," Trump replied. "This is people in this country that love our country that saw this, by the hundreds they're calling, and they're tweeting. And there's a lot of people."
Trump later added: "I have a very good memory. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago and I never forgot it."
Watch below:
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COMMENTS:
* Go Chuck Todd, Trump and other GOP should held accountable of their fact free rants.
* Trump is counting on stupidity to mix up the well known videos of Muslims celebrating the tragedy in.their own countries with his false statement that he saw thousands IN NJ doing that. Unbelievable
* Donald Trump says things that his followers want to believe is true. He feeds the fish the line and they swallow it, with glee. They will not believe the truth because it doesn't fit into their world view.
* He obviously did forget it, or else he would know exactly what channel, the exact location. What most likely happened is this idiot saw the Live Feeds of the Middle East celebrations and just got confused.
* Mr. Trump's megs ego will never allow him to admit to a mistake. By now, it should be obvious to everyone, but the most rabid Trump supporters, that Trump as president will be a disaster.
* BTW, I am from Northern NJ and there was never, I repeat never a report that comes close to what Donald says he saw from his luxury apartment with people jumping. He should join the Air Force, because with this vision capabilities, I am sure we could use that skill set.
...................................................................................................................................................................
'This didn't happen': NBC's Chuck Todd grills Donald Trump on his 9/11 claim
By Colin Campbell, November 29, 2015
"Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd repeatedly grilled Donald Trump on Sunday about the real-estate mogul's disputed claim that he saw "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey, celebrating the World Trade Center attack.
More than half of the interview was dominated by Todd questioning and even flatly rejecting Trump's claim about the September 11, 2001, attack.
"You demand and you've demanded of me pinpoint accuracy when I report on things about you, including, for instance, your net worth," Todd noted in his first question. "Why shouldn't we demand the same pinpoint accuracy in the claims that you make?"
After Todd told Trump that "nobody can find evidence" of the widespread celebration, and that reports indicated "that it was a false rumor," the Republican presidential front-runner held his ground.
"Chuck, I saw it on television. So did many other people," Trump said as he and Todd talked over one another.
Trump did offer that it could have been Paterson, New Jersey, where he saw the celebrations.
"Excuse me," he said. "I've heard Jersey City. I've heard Paterson. It was 14 years ago. But I saw it on television. I saw clips. And so did many other people."
After some additional back-and-forth, Todd directly told Trump: "Mr. Trump, this didn't happen in New Jersey. There were plenty of reports. And you're feeding that stereotype."
"Chuck, it did happen in New Jersey," he shot back. "I have hundreds of people that agree with me."
Trump has been battling media fact-checkers since the previous weekend, when he first claimed he saw "thousands and thousands of people" cheering across the river as the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. Trump said this while making the case for surveilling certain mosques. Northern New Jersey is home to a large Muslim community.
Trump aggressively pushed back against his critics, and he frequently cites as evidence a disputed September 18, 2001, report in The Washington Post.
During his Sunday-morning interview, Trump argued that supposed worldwide Muslim celebrations on September 11, 2001, suggest that similar rallies would have occurred in northern New Jersey. According to The New York Times, some Palestinians were filmed dancing in East Jerusalem after the attack.
"Chuck, you have a huge Muslim population over there. And that's fine. But you have a huge Muslim population. ... Why wouldn't it have taken place?" Trump asked. "I've had hundreds of people call in and tweet in on Twitter, saying that they saw it, and I was 100% right."
Todd and Trump then talked over one another again as the "Meet the Press" host questioned whether Trump should really cite tweets as evidence.
"You wouldn't make a business deal based on retweets and based on hearsay. You're running for president of the United States," Todd said. "Your words matter. Truthfulness matters. Fact-based stuff matters. No?"
"Take it easy, Chuck. Just play cool," Trump replied. "This is people in this country that love our country that saw this, by the hundreds they're calling, and they're tweeting. And there's a lot of people."
Trump later added: "I have a very good memory. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago and I never forgot it."
Watch below:
...................................................................................................................................................................
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Heavens forbid that we ask them to tell the truth!
...................................................................................
"Trump is a whack-a-mole of the asinine and the repugnant."
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* I'm going to try really hard to feel sorry for the GOP..... after I stop laughing........
* TRUMP:....The Great White Hoax...
* This says a lot about the Trump supporters and the GOP in general. If you are OK with the F-n idiotic things the Donald says, then you are NOT an American, and you don't care about anything in the constitution (save the 2nd ammndment) I think he is trying to make his campaign fail, as he doesn't really want the job. It started out as a way to get free T.V. time to feed his narcissism. Then to his dismay, he found a following. Now he is scared to death that he will win the GOP nomination, and have to go to the general election saying these things. His ego would never handle the crushing defeat that he would take in a general election. Robme would look like a close race by comparison.
...................................................................................................................................................................
GOP brought this plague on itself
By Leonard Pitts, Jr., November 28, 2015
“You got to give the people what they want”
O’JAYS
Even by his standards, it was an astounding performance.
Over the course of just two days last weekend, Donald Trump spewed bigotry, venom and absurdity like a sewer pipe, spewed it with such utter disregard for decency and factuality that it was difficult to know what to criticize first.
Shall we condemn him for retweeting a racist graphic on Sunday filled with wildly inaccurate statistics from a non-existent source (“Whites killed by blacks — 81 percent”)?
Or shall we hammer him for tacitly encouraging violence when an African-American protester was beaten up at a Trump rally in Birmingham on Saturday? “Maybe he should have been roughed up,” Trump told Fox “News.”
Shall we blast him for telling ABC on Sunday that he would bring back the thoroughly discredited practice of waterboarding — i.e., torturing — suspected terrorists?
Or shall we lambaste him for claiming — falsely — at the Birmingham rally that “thousands and thousands” of people in Jersey City, N.J. applauded the Sept. 11 attacks and reiterating it the next day, telling ABC that “a heavy Arab population . . . were cheering.”
Trump is a whack-a-mole of the asinine and the repugnant. Or, as a person dubbed “snarkin pie” noted on Twitter: “Basically, Trump is what would happen if the comments section became a human and ran for president.”
Not that that hurts his bid for the GOP nomination. A Washington Post/CNN poll finds Trump with a double-digit lead (32 percent to 22 percent) on his nearest rival, Ben Carson, who is his equal in nonsense, though not in volume. Meantime, establishment candidate Jeb Bush is on life support, mired in single digits.
And the party is panicking. In September, Bobby Jindal called Trump “a madman.” Two weeks ago came reports of an attempt to lure Mitt Romney into the race. Candidate Jim Gilmore and advisers to candidates Bush and Marco Rubio have dubbed Trump a fascist. Trump, complains the dwindling coven of grownups on the right, is doing serious damage to the Republican “brand.”
Which he is. But it is difficult to feel sorry for the GOP. After all, it has brought this upon itself.
Keeping the customer satisfied, giving the people what they want, is the fundament of sound business. More effectively than anyone in recent memory, Trump has transferred that principle to politics. Problem is, it turns out that what a large portion of the Republican faithful wants is racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, the validation of unrealistic fears and the promise of quick fixes to complex problems.
That’s hardly shocking. This is what the party establishment has trained them to want, what it has fed them for years. But it has done so in measured tones and coded language that preserved the fiction of deniability. Trump’s innovation is his increasingly-apparent lack of interest in deniability. Like other great demagogues — George Wallace, Joe McCarthy, Huey Long, Charles Coughlin — his appeal has been in the fact that he is blunt, unfiltered, anti-intellectual, full-throated and unapologetic. And one in three Republicans are eating it up like candy.
Mind you, this is after the so-called 2013 “autopsy” wherein the GOP cautioned itself to turn from its angry, monoracial appeal. Two years later, it doubles down on that appeal instead.
And though candidate Trump would be a disaster for the Republicans, he would also be one for the nation, effectively rendering ours a one-party system. But maybe that’s the wake-up call some of us require to end this dangerous flirtation with extremism.
“You got to give the people what they want,” says an old song. Truth is, sometimes it’s better if you don’t.
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* I'm going to try really hard to feel sorry for the GOP..... after I stop laughing........
* TRUMP:....The Great White Hoax...
* This says a lot about the Trump supporters and the GOP in general. If you are OK with the F-n idiotic things the Donald says, then you are NOT an American, and you don't care about anything in the constitution (save the 2nd ammndment) I think he is trying to make his campaign fail, as he doesn't really want the job. It started out as a way to get free T.V. time to feed his narcissism. Then to his dismay, he found a following. Now he is scared to death that he will win the GOP nomination, and have to go to the general election saying these things. His ego would never handle the crushing defeat that he would take in a general election. Robme would look like a close race by comparison.
...................................................................................................................................................................
GOP brought this plague on itself
By Leonard Pitts, Jr., November 28, 2015
“You got to give the people what they want”
O’JAYS
Even by his standards, it was an astounding performance.
Over the course of just two days last weekend, Donald Trump spewed bigotry, venom and absurdity like a sewer pipe, spewed it with such utter disregard for decency and factuality that it was difficult to know what to criticize first.
Shall we condemn him for retweeting a racist graphic on Sunday filled with wildly inaccurate statistics from a non-existent source (“Whites killed by blacks — 81 percent”)?
Or shall we hammer him for tacitly encouraging violence when an African-American protester was beaten up at a Trump rally in Birmingham on Saturday? “Maybe he should have been roughed up,” Trump told Fox “News.”
Shall we blast him for telling ABC on Sunday that he would bring back the thoroughly discredited practice of waterboarding — i.e., torturing — suspected terrorists?
Or shall we lambaste him for claiming — falsely — at the Birmingham rally that “thousands and thousands” of people in Jersey City, N.J. applauded the Sept. 11 attacks and reiterating it the next day, telling ABC that “a heavy Arab population . . . were cheering.”
Trump is a whack-a-mole of the asinine and the repugnant. Or, as a person dubbed “snarkin pie” noted on Twitter: “Basically, Trump is what would happen if the comments section became a human and ran for president.”
Not that that hurts his bid for the GOP nomination. A Washington Post/CNN poll finds Trump with a double-digit lead (32 percent to 22 percent) on his nearest rival, Ben Carson, who is his equal in nonsense, though not in volume. Meantime, establishment candidate Jeb Bush is on life support, mired in single digits.
And the party is panicking. In September, Bobby Jindal called Trump “a madman.” Two weeks ago came reports of an attempt to lure Mitt Romney into the race. Candidate Jim Gilmore and advisers to candidates Bush and Marco Rubio have dubbed Trump a fascist. Trump, complains the dwindling coven of grownups on the right, is doing serious damage to the Republican “brand.”
Which he is. But it is difficult to feel sorry for the GOP. After all, it has brought this upon itself.
Keeping the customer satisfied, giving the people what they want, is the fundament of sound business. More effectively than anyone in recent memory, Trump has transferred that principle to politics. Problem is, it turns out that what a large portion of the Republican faithful wants is racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, the validation of unrealistic fears and the promise of quick fixes to complex problems.
That’s hardly shocking. This is what the party establishment has trained them to want, what it has fed them for years. But it has done so in measured tones and coded language that preserved the fiction of deniability. Trump’s innovation is his increasingly-apparent lack of interest in deniability. Like other great demagogues — George Wallace, Joe McCarthy, Huey Long, Charles Coughlin — his appeal has been in the fact that he is blunt, unfiltered, anti-intellectual, full-throated and unapologetic. And one in three Republicans are eating it up like candy.
Mind you, this is after the so-called 2013 “autopsy” wherein the GOP cautioned itself to turn from its angry, monoracial appeal. Two years later, it doubles down on that appeal instead.
And though candidate Trump would be a disaster for the Republicans, he would also be one for the nation, effectively rendering ours a one-party system. But maybe that’s the wake-up call some of us require to end this dangerous flirtation with extremism.
“You got to give the people what they want,” says an old song. Truth is, sometimes it’s better if you don’t.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Seems the GOP just doesn't know how to respond to the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs.
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* They are quiet cause they cant spread hate using this incident.
* Why isn't Donald Trump talking about all the Christians cheering when they found out a Planned Parenthood clinic was under seige?
* I would not expect republicans to admonish Christian terrorists. These are the kind of people that they support.
* That's because it's the "Compassionate Christian Evangelical" crowd that votes for them.....a ready made nationalized fascist movement in waiting.
* But what is the GOP going to do now that the Radical Christian Terrorists are shooting down police officers? Last I heard they were really really really against groups of people targeting police. What are they going to do now that the enemy is themselves? So far it seems as if the right-wing media outlets are going to ignore the one slain and five injured officers because of the building it happened in, doesn't fit their chosen story line.
* Republican candidates don't care about domestic terrorism. At most, they issue the usual platitudes about their thoughts and prayers going out to the victims and victims' families.
...................................................................................................................................................................
#1:
2016 Republican Contenders Silent On Planned Parenthood Shooting
Republican presidential hopefuls were noticeably silent about a fatal shooting that took place at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.
All three of their Democratic counterparts tweeted in support of the organization during and after Friday's attack, which left three people dead and nine others injured.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was the only one of the major GOP candidates to comment:
Ted Cruz ✔ @tedcruz
Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs
7:13 AM - 28 Nov 2015
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul instead tweeted about his own Black Friday sales:
Dr. Rand Paul ✔ @RandPaul
Visit the Rand Paul Store for the best #BlackFriday deals! Shop now and support the campaign! https://cards.twitter.com/cards/3l4ipl/17m0l …
1:00 PM - 27 Nov 2015
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush published an opinion piece about Obama's foreign policy:
Jeb Bush ✔ @JebBush
I’ll reverse the failed Obama/Clinton foreign policy. Read my new op-ed in New Hampshire’s @ConMonitorNews: http://jeb.cm/1jpsYa6
6:39 AM - 28 Nov 2015
Concord Monitor News
My Turn: A clear choice on national security - Political Monitor
By Concord Monitor News @ConMonitorNews
The first and most important responsibility of the U.S. president is to protect our national security interests around the world and defend the homeland. After years of reckless defense cuts and a...
View on web
Donald Trump spent the evening (and Saturday morning) touting upcoming campaign events and complaining about a New York Times reporter.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The reporter who pulled-back from his 14 year old never retracted story is having fun. I don't know what he looks like and don't know him!
6:32 AM - 28 Nov 2015
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted about his campaign's new cold-weather gear:
Marco Rubio ✔ @marcorubio
Stay warm this winter with our new cold-weather bundle. Shop now and save! https://cards.twitter.com/cards/9dh7c/185vb …
5:00 PM - 27 Nov 2015
Ben Carson was off Twitter and in Jordan visiting a refugee camp.
All of the major 2016 Republican hopefuls describe themselves as anti-abortion. Some, like Paul, Rubio and Cruz, have attempted to strip federal funding for Planned Parenthood, citing heavily edited videos that emerged earlier this year claiming to show the nonprofit's employees selling fetal tissue for profit. A congressional inquiry into the videos did not find any evidence of wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, Rubio wondered why more Americans don't get "fired up" about Planned Parenthood's "dead babies."
Police said Friday that they did not yet know the shooter's motive, or whether he was specifically targeting Planned Parenthood.
...................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* Of course the Republican candidates are silent. They, as Trump the Rump would say, probably cheered when the PP clinic was attacked by one of their own flock. But it would be in poor taste to decry against the victims of a radical right wing nutjob, or to take that nutjobs right to a gun away. THAT would be a slippery slope to gun bans and fearful white people just hate that because no guns would take their power away to discriminate and be racists.
* If christians and pro life groups would stop condemning the use of artificial birth control, then there would be no needs for abortions. Birth control is an alternative to abortions and also being responsible. Originally, Planned Parenthood was never intended for providing abortion, as it was originally called the American Birth Control League, by founder Margaret Sanger in 1921. She wanted to educated poor women on birth control, and family planning. She has always felt that abortion was not safe.
* Well of course they didn't have much to say. They never seem to get what's really important
* It was murder, it should be denounced without exception by all.
* If the GOP does not speak up and condemn this crime then they are no different then all those Muslim Clerics who do not speak out against terrorism in the name of Islam.
* Hello everybody, I am reading that some people are saying "we don't know what has happened " well we do. A guy with a gun attacked a building, took hostages and when the police came, gun fire happened and people have died. This is not hard to figure out. Are you for or against attacks?
...................................................................................................................................................................
#2:
The shooting at Planned Parenthood put GOP 2016 hopefuls in a ‘politically uncomfortable’ position
By Hunter Walker, November 28, 2015
The motive for a shooting that took place outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday still isn’t clear, but all three of the top Democratic presidential candidates quickly rushed to express their support for the organization.
Meanwhile, the leading Republicans, all of whom have spoken out against Planned Parenthood, have largely remained silent about the shooting.
Operatives from both parties suggested to Yahoo News that the incident puts the GOP field in a tough spot because of its opposition to Planned Parenthood. The organization is the country’s largest provider of abortions.
Three people were killed in the shooting. One of the victims was a police officer who responded to a call for help. The suspect has been identified as Robert Lewis Dear, who was reportedly captured on the scene in Colorado Springs after surrendering to law enforcement.
According to the Associated Press, Dear had spent part of his time living in a North Carolina shack, and his neighbors described him as an incoherent loner with no known political or religious leanings. However, John Suthers, the Republican mayor of Colorado Springs, suggested people could draw conclusions about a motive for the attack by drawing “inferences from where it took place.”
President Obama issued a statement on the shooting Saturday that did not address the question of opposition to abortion as a potential motive. Instead, the president suggested that the incident is further proof of the need for stronger gun control.
“We don’t yet know what this particular gunman’s so-called motive was for shooting 12 people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect,” Obama said, adding, “This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal.”
The three top Democrats vying to be Obama’s successor all addressed the shooting on Twitter. Both frontrunner Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley issued expressions of support for Planned Parenthood. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took things a step further and suggested antiabortion rhetoric could have encouraged the attack.
“I strongly support Planned Parenthood and the work it’s doing. I hope people realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences,” Sanders wrote.
Indeed, all of the leading Republican candidates have expressed opposition to Planned Parenthood. And almost none of them have made any public comment on the shooting.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the only major Republican presidential hopeful who has tweeted about the incident.
“Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs,” Cruz wrote.
Yahoo News reached out to the campaigns of all of the other leading Republicans to see if they had any comment on the shootings. As of this writing, Anna Epstein, a spokeswoman for businesswoman Carly Fiorina was the only one to respond.
“Carly will be on Fox News Sunday tomorrow, and she’ll likely react then,” Epstein said.
There was no comment on the shooting from representatives for real estate mogul Donald Trump, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
All nine of these Republicans have spoken out against Planned Parenthood and expressed support for taking federal funding from the organization. Cruz has led a congressional push to defund Planned Parenthood by threatening a government shutdown.
A Democratic operative who works in Colorado told Yahoo News they believe the shooting will hurt the GOP field because it “reminds voters of the relentless Republican campaign against women’s health and the right to choose.” They also suggested the shooting would highlight Republican opposition to gun control.
In messages to Yahoo News, Amanda Carpenter, a Republican strategist and former top aide to Cruz, acknowledged that the shooting could be “politically uncomfortable” for GOP candidates because they oppose Planned Parenthood and also abhor the violent shooting. Carpenter suggested that the candidates should have followed Cruz’s example and commented on the shooting regardless of their stance on abortion.
“Candidates can choose to avoid commenting on crisis, but a president cannot,” Carpenter said. “While it’s prudent to wait for all information, GOP candidates should easily be able to express sorrow, whether this situation is politically uncomfortable or not.”
Carpenter went on to describe the silence in the Republican field as “sad.”
“This event happened 24 hours ago, and lives were lost. It’s sad more candidates can’t show their support for those in mourning. Republicans can disagree with what PP does and grieve for those injured and killed,” she said. “Being pro-life means opposing murder, period. Law enforcement lives are at risk each day, as shown in Colorado yesterday. They need our support more than ever, and the GOP should not hesitate to give it.”
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* They are quiet cause they cant spread hate using this incident.
* Why isn't Donald Trump talking about all the Christians cheering when they found out a Planned Parenthood clinic was under seige?
* I would not expect republicans to admonish Christian terrorists. These are the kind of people that they support.
* That's because it's the "Compassionate Christian Evangelical" crowd that votes for them.....a ready made nationalized fascist movement in waiting.
* But what is the GOP going to do now that the Radical Christian Terrorists are shooting down police officers? Last I heard they were really really really against groups of people targeting police. What are they going to do now that the enemy is themselves? So far it seems as if the right-wing media outlets are going to ignore the one slain and five injured officers because of the building it happened in, doesn't fit their chosen story line.
* Republican candidates don't care about domestic terrorism. At most, they issue the usual platitudes about their thoughts and prayers going out to the victims and victims' families.
...................................................................................................................................................................
#1:
2016 Republican Contenders Silent On Planned Parenthood Shooting
But they did have something to say about Black Friday gear and Obama's foreign policy.
By Alana Horowitz Satlin, November 28, 2015Republican presidential hopefuls were noticeably silent about a fatal shooting that took place at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.
All three of their Democratic counterparts tweeted in support of the organization during and after Friday's attack, which left three people dead and nine others injured.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was the only one of the major GOP candidates to comment:
Ted Cruz ✔ @tedcruz
Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs
7:13 AM - 28 Nov 2015
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul instead tweeted about his own Black Friday sales:
Dr. Rand Paul ✔ @RandPaul
Visit the Rand Paul Store for the best #BlackFriday deals! Shop now and support the campaign! https://cards.twitter.com/cards/3l4ipl/17m0l …
1:00 PM - 27 Nov 2015
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush published an opinion piece about Obama's foreign policy:
Jeb Bush ✔ @JebBush
I’ll reverse the failed Obama/Clinton foreign policy. Read my new op-ed in New Hampshire’s @ConMonitorNews: http://jeb.cm/1jpsYa6
6:39 AM - 28 Nov 2015
Concord Monitor News
My Turn: A clear choice on national security - Political Monitor
By Concord Monitor News @ConMonitorNews
The first and most important responsibility of the U.S. president is to protect our national security interests around the world and defend the homeland. After years of reckless defense cuts and a...
View on web
Donald Trump spent the evening (and Saturday morning) touting upcoming campaign events and complaining about a New York Times reporter.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The reporter who pulled-back from his 14 year old never retracted story is having fun. I don't know what he looks like and don't know him!
6:32 AM - 28 Nov 2015
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted about his campaign's new cold-weather gear:
Marco Rubio ✔ @marcorubio
Stay warm this winter with our new cold-weather bundle. Shop now and save! https://cards.twitter.com/cards/9dh7c/185vb …
5:00 PM - 27 Nov 2015
Ben Carson was off Twitter and in Jordan visiting a refugee camp.
All of the major 2016 Republican hopefuls describe themselves as anti-abortion. Some, like Paul, Rubio and Cruz, have attempted to strip federal funding for Planned Parenthood, citing heavily edited videos that emerged earlier this year claiming to show the nonprofit's employees selling fetal tissue for profit. A congressional inquiry into the videos did not find any evidence of wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, Rubio wondered why more Americans don't get "fired up" about Planned Parenthood's "dead babies."
Police said Friday that they did not yet know the shooter's motive, or whether he was specifically targeting Planned Parenthood.
...................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* Of course the Republican candidates are silent. They, as Trump the Rump would say, probably cheered when the PP clinic was attacked by one of their own flock. But it would be in poor taste to decry against the victims of a radical right wing nutjob, or to take that nutjobs right to a gun away. THAT would be a slippery slope to gun bans and fearful white people just hate that because no guns would take their power away to discriminate and be racists.
* If christians and pro life groups would stop condemning the use of artificial birth control, then there would be no needs for abortions. Birth control is an alternative to abortions and also being responsible. Originally, Planned Parenthood was never intended for providing abortion, as it was originally called the American Birth Control League, by founder Margaret Sanger in 1921. She wanted to educated poor women on birth control, and family planning. She has always felt that abortion was not safe.
* Well of course they didn't have much to say. They never seem to get what's really important
* It was murder, it should be denounced without exception by all.
* If the GOP does not speak up and condemn this crime then they are no different then all those Muslim Clerics who do not speak out against terrorism in the name of Islam.
* Hello everybody, I am reading that some people are saying "we don't know what has happened " well we do. A guy with a gun attacked a building, took hostages and when the police came, gun fire happened and people have died. This is not hard to figure out. Are you for or against attacks?
...................................................................................................................................................................
#2:
The shooting at Planned Parenthood put GOP 2016 hopefuls in a ‘politically uncomfortable’ position
By Hunter Walker, November 28, 2015
The motive for a shooting that took place outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday still isn’t clear, but all three of the top Democratic presidential candidates quickly rushed to express their support for the organization.
Meanwhile, the leading Republicans, all of whom have spoken out against Planned Parenthood, have largely remained silent about the shooting.
Operatives from both parties suggested to Yahoo News that the incident puts the GOP field in a tough spot because of its opposition to Planned Parenthood. The organization is the country’s largest provider of abortions.
Three people were killed in the shooting. One of the victims was a police officer who responded to a call for help. The suspect has been identified as Robert Lewis Dear, who was reportedly captured on the scene in Colorado Springs after surrendering to law enforcement.
According to the Associated Press, Dear had spent part of his time living in a North Carolina shack, and his neighbors described him as an incoherent loner with no known political or religious leanings. However, John Suthers, the Republican mayor of Colorado Springs, suggested people could draw conclusions about a motive for the attack by drawing “inferences from where it took place.”
President Obama issued a statement on the shooting Saturday that did not address the question of opposition to abortion as a potential motive. Instead, the president suggested that the incident is further proof of the need for stronger gun control.
“We don’t yet know what this particular gunman’s so-called motive was for shooting 12 people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect,” Obama said, adding, “This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal.”
The three top Democrats vying to be Obama’s successor all addressed the shooting on Twitter. Both frontrunner Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley issued expressions of support for Planned Parenthood. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took things a step further and suggested antiabortion rhetoric could have encouraged the attack.
“I strongly support Planned Parenthood and the work it’s doing. I hope people realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences,” Sanders wrote.
Indeed, all of the leading Republican candidates have expressed opposition to Planned Parenthood. And almost none of them have made any public comment on the shooting.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the only major Republican presidential hopeful who has tweeted about the incident.
“Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs,” Cruz wrote.
Yahoo News reached out to the campaigns of all of the other leading Republicans to see if they had any comment on the shootings. As of this writing, Anna Epstein, a spokeswoman for businesswoman Carly Fiorina was the only one to respond.
“Carly will be on Fox News Sunday tomorrow, and she’ll likely react then,” Epstein said.
There was no comment on the shooting from representatives for real estate mogul Donald Trump, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
All nine of these Republicans have spoken out against Planned Parenthood and expressed support for taking federal funding from the organization. Cruz has led a congressional push to defund Planned Parenthood by threatening a government shutdown.
A Democratic operative who works in Colorado told Yahoo News they believe the shooting will hurt the GOP field because it “reminds voters of the relentless Republican campaign against women’s health and the right to choose.” They also suggested the shooting would highlight Republican opposition to gun control.
In messages to Yahoo News, Amanda Carpenter, a Republican strategist and former top aide to Cruz, acknowledged that the shooting could be “politically uncomfortable” for GOP candidates because they oppose Planned Parenthood and also abhor the violent shooting. Carpenter suggested that the candidates should have followed Cruz’s example and commented on the shooting regardless of their stance on abortion.
“Candidates can choose to avoid commenting on crisis, but a president cannot,” Carpenter said. “While it’s prudent to wait for all information, GOP candidates should easily be able to express sorrow, whether this situation is politically uncomfortable or not.”
Carpenter went on to describe the silence in the Republican field as “sad.”
“This event happened 24 hours ago, and lives were lost. It’s sad more candidates can’t show their support for those in mourning. Republicans can disagree with what PP does and grieve for those injured and killed,” she said. “Being pro-life means opposing murder, period. Law enforcement lives are at risk each day, as shown in Colorado yesterday. They need our support more than ever, and the GOP should not hesitate to give it.”
...................................................................................................................................................................
Friday, November 27, 2015
A good one to end the day with! :-)
...............................................................................
Yeah, I rethought it a long time ago.
....................................................................................
"... nothing says happy holidays quite like a little homophobia."
...................................................................................................................................................................
COMMENTS:
* How did this person have the interview with huffingtonpost? She cant use skype or google hangouts as they are both LGBT friendly companies. Almost all major phone manufatures are LGBT friendly as well as most phone companies, If she drove or took public transit most auto makers are also LGBT freindly
* Pickin' and choosin', just like shopping from the bible.
* Simple business decision: Do I cater my store and merchandise to the full variety of money bearing customers or do I pander to the ever-shrinking collection of shrews. Done.
* There's always Hobby Lobby. Maybe they could expand to include all of life's necessities for the anti-LGBT crowd.
* Yes, but the owners of Hobby Lobby also pick and choose which biblical prohibition applies to them. Afterall, they have just been caught stealing, buying and transporting ancient artifacts. Typical!
* Help, I'm a Christian and I'm being oppressed!
* If you are living in the United States, you live in the least oppressive religious environment in human history. Get this through your head---No one is oppressing Christians in the US.
* Ms. Harvey says that homosexuals are doing grave harm to society, schools, churches etc. How? We don't recruit, we are not pedophiles and we have not asked anyone to give up their religious rights. Ms. Harvey is making the choice to boycott businesses, no one is forcing her. If she wants to be a true, diehard boycotter she needs to take a look at the list of the approx. 380 companies that came out in support of same sex marriage. That list includes many pharmacuticals, so she will have to stop using many prescribed and OTC medications. Between that and everything else she is boycotting, her life expectency has shortened.
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The Ridiculous Reason This Anti-Gay Bigot Is Freaking Out On Black Friday
Black Friday is upon us, but one right-wing pundit isn't feeling the holiday spirit this year.
In a Nov. 24 article for WND, Mission: America's Linda Harvey, whose opposition to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is well-established, argued that the number of "family-friendly, Christian-affirming" shops and restaurants she'll allow herself to frequent during the holiday shopping season is "growing shorter all the time."
She didn't mince words when it came to Target, General Mills, Mattel and JCPenney, which she deemed "reliable supporters of sexual depravity" for their recent pro-LGBT efforts. In Harvey's view, online retailers aren't much better: Amazon, Google and Facebook should be avoided for their support of the LGBT community, too.
"No one is born homosexual; the Bible is clear about this sin, and God hasn’t changed His mind. Think about the grave harm homosexuality is doing to American culture, to our schools, to our freedoms, to our churches," she wrote. "Let’s do what we can to honor the standards of Christ during the celebration of His birthday."
Harvey also took an inverse look at the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which ranks businesses on whether they offer domestic partner benefits and include a code of conduct "that specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity." She suggested that conservative shoppers avoid American Eagle Outfitters, Barnes & Noble and Macy's -- all of which earned high marks from HRC -- and instead opt for outlets that nabbed lower scores, like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Dillard’s because "they do little to promote homosexuality and gender confusion and would be more deserving of our business."
Yikes.
Still, the remarks aren't particularly surprising given Harvey's history. Earlier this year, she slammed Katy Perry after the pop star's rousing Super Bowl halftime performance. In a Feb. 5 column for BarbWire, she argued that Perry offered an "invitation to demonic possession" and promoted the "homosexual agenda" with her smash tune, "I Kissed A Girl."
"Well, Katy did us a favor, actually, by illustrating that yes, indeed, people who don’t claim to be 'born that way' will be experimenting and some will stick with the new preferences they develop," she wrote. Because nothing says happy holidays quite like a little homophobia.
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COMMENTS:
* How did this person have the interview with huffingtonpost? She cant use skype or google hangouts as they are both LGBT friendly companies. Almost all major phone manufatures are LGBT friendly as well as most phone companies, If she drove or took public transit most auto makers are also LGBT freindly
* Pickin' and choosin', just like shopping from the bible.
* Simple business decision: Do I cater my store and merchandise to the full variety of money bearing customers or do I pander to the ever-shrinking collection of shrews. Done.
* There's always Hobby Lobby. Maybe they could expand to include all of life's necessities for the anti-LGBT crowd.
* Yes, but the owners of Hobby Lobby also pick and choose which biblical prohibition applies to them. Afterall, they have just been caught stealing, buying and transporting ancient artifacts. Typical!
* Help, I'm a Christian and I'm being oppressed!
* If you are living in the United States, you live in the least oppressive religious environment in human history. Get this through your head---No one is oppressing Christians in the US.
* Ms. Harvey says that homosexuals are doing grave harm to society, schools, churches etc. How? We don't recruit, we are not pedophiles and we have not asked anyone to give up their religious rights. Ms. Harvey is making the choice to boycott businesses, no one is forcing her. If she wants to be a true, diehard boycotter she needs to take a look at the list of the approx. 380 companies that came out in support of same sex marriage. That list includes many pharmacuticals, so she will have to stop using many prescribed and OTC medications. Between that and everything else she is boycotting, her life expectency has shortened.
...................................................................................................................................................................
The Ridiculous Reason This Anti-Gay Bigot Is Freaking Out On Black Friday
You're a mean one, Linda Harvey.
By Curtis M. Wong, November 27, 2015Black Friday is upon us, but one right-wing pundit isn't feeling the holiday spirit this year.
In a Nov. 24 article for WND, Mission: America's Linda Harvey, whose opposition to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is well-established, argued that the number of "family-friendly, Christian-affirming" shops and restaurants she'll allow herself to frequent during the holiday shopping season is "growing shorter all the time."
She didn't mince words when it came to Target, General Mills, Mattel and JCPenney, which she deemed "reliable supporters of sexual depravity" for their recent pro-LGBT efforts. In Harvey's view, online retailers aren't much better: Amazon, Google and Facebook should be avoided for their support of the LGBT community, too.
"No one is born homosexual; the Bible is clear about this sin, and God hasn’t changed His mind. Think about the grave harm homosexuality is doing to American culture, to our schools, to our freedoms, to our churches," she wrote. "Let’s do what we can to honor the standards of Christ during the celebration of His birthday."
Harvey also took an inverse look at the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which ranks businesses on whether they offer domestic partner benefits and include a code of conduct "that specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity." She suggested that conservative shoppers avoid American Eagle Outfitters, Barnes & Noble and Macy's -- all of which earned high marks from HRC -- and instead opt for outlets that nabbed lower scores, like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Dillard’s because "they do little to promote homosexuality and gender confusion and would be more deserving of our business."
Yikes.
Still, the remarks aren't particularly surprising given Harvey's history. Earlier this year, she slammed Katy Perry after the pop star's rousing Super Bowl halftime performance. In a Feb. 5 column for BarbWire, she argued that Perry offered an "invitation to demonic possession" and promoted the "homosexual agenda" with her smash tune, "I Kissed A Girl."
"Well, Katy did us a favor, actually, by illustrating that yes, indeed, people who don’t claim to be 'born that way' will be experimenting and some will stick with the new preferences they develop," she wrote. Because nothing says happy holidays quite like a little homophobia.
...................................................................................................................................................................
"The only explanation — the only explanation — is he doesn't believe it; he's just saying it."
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BLOOMBERG: Ted Cruz 'says some of the stupidest things I've ever heard'
By Colin Campbell, November 27, 2015
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York trashed two top-tier Republican presidential candidates in a CNN interview airing Friday.
After dismissing "right-wing crazies" who reject mainstream climate science, Bloomberg was asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour what he made of the GOP field.
The billionaire media mogul, who has championed the issue of climate change, first criticized retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
"There's one of them who was a surgeon, unfortunately at Johns Hopkins, who doesn't believe in science," Bloomberg said. "Somebody said that's like a business executive that doesn't believe in profits."
Bloomberg then said that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had said some of the "stupidest" things about climate change despite his intellect. He noted that Cruz's intelligence had been praised by Alan Dershowitz, a prominent attorney who was once Cruz's Harvard professor.
"You've got a guy like Ted Cruz — who I think Dershowitz said was the smartest law student he ever had — and he says some of the stupidest things I've ever heard," Bloomberg said. "The only explanation — the only explanation — is he doesn't believe it; he's just saying it."
He added: "Ted Cruz is a smart guy, and you can't say what he says in an intelligent way."
Cruz, who has surged in recent primary polls, has not shied away from criticizing mainstream climate science.
"If you look at satellite data for the last 18 years, there's been zero recorded warming," Cruz said in August, according to Time magazine. "The satellite says it ain't happening ... I'm saying that data and facts don't support it."
Reached for comment on Bloomberg's criticism, Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler dismissed the former mayor as a "myopic" elitist.
"The myopic Mr. Bloomberg should look past his armed guards and beyond his cloistered circumstances and take in a big gulp of reality," Tyler told Business Insider. "Most of what Ted Cruz says is simple common sense. Most of what Mr. Bloomberg says defies logic."
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BLOOMBERG: Ted Cruz 'says some of the stupidest things I've ever heard'
By Colin Campbell, November 27, 2015
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York trashed two top-tier Republican presidential candidates in a CNN interview airing Friday.
After dismissing "right-wing crazies" who reject mainstream climate science, Bloomberg was asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour what he made of the GOP field.
The billionaire media mogul, who has championed the issue of climate change, first criticized retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
"There's one of them who was a surgeon, unfortunately at Johns Hopkins, who doesn't believe in science," Bloomberg said. "Somebody said that's like a business executive that doesn't believe in profits."
Bloomberg then said that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had said some of the "stupidest" things about climate change despite his intellect. He noted that Cruz's intelligence had been praised by Alan Dershowitz, a prominent attorney who was once Cruz's Harvard professor.
"You've got a guy like Ted Cruz — who I think Dershowitz said was the smartest law student he ever had — and he says some of the stupidest things I've ever heard," Bloomberg said. "The only explanation — the only explanation — is he doesn't believe it; he's just saying it."
He added: "Ted Cruz is a smart guy, and you can't say what he says in an intelligent way."
Cruz, who has surged in recent primary polls, has not shied away from criticizing mainstream climate science.
"If you look at satellite data for the last 18 years, there's been zero recorded warming," Cruz said in August, according to Time magazine. "The satellite says it ain't happening ... I'm saying that data and facts don't support it."
Reached for comment on Bloomberg's criticism, Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler dismissed the former mayor as a "myopic" elitist.
"The myopic Mr. Bloomberg should look past his armed guards and beyond his cloistered circumstances and take in a big gulp of reality," Tyler told Business Insider. "Most of what Ted Cruz says is simple common sense. Most of what Mr. Bloomberg says defies logic."
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