CIVILITY IS DEAD - RUDE LAW

Bill Maher last night called this election a "referendum on decency" and argues for a return to the days when politicians could disagree respectfully - or at least without resorting to the name-calling and slurs that are slung around in today's climate

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO



With Fuckface Von Clownstick asking for Clinton's armed guards to be disarmed to "see what happens to her"....Maher's civility is far from a reality.

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

KHIZAR KHAN EXCORIATES CHEETO JESUS

In by far one of the best speeches to come out of the 2016 DNC conventions - was the one from a father of a US soldier, who just happens to be Muslim.

From the Muslim ban to his open embrace of racial profiling, fear-mongering about Muslims has been a centerpiece of Fuckface Von Clownstick’s campaign. It’s his mantra. But during the last night of the Democratic National Convention, the father of a Muslim U.S. Army Captain who died in Iraq while trying to protect his men during an attack reminded Cheeto Jesus about some relevant passages from the Constitution.

VIDEO COURTESY OF CNN

“We are honored to stand here as the parents of Captain Humayun Khan and as patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country,” Khizr Khan, father of Humayun, said.

Onstage with his wife, Khan asked whether Trump has “even read the United States Constitution.”

“I will gladly lend you my copy,” Khan said, pulling a pocket-size constitution from his jacket. “In the document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law.'”

Khan also said that Orange Hitler has “sacrificed nothing and no one” and suggested he take a trip to Arlington Cemetery to see how people of “all faiths, genders and ethnicities” have “died defending the United States of America.”

“We cannot solve our problems by building walls, sowing division. We are stronger together,” Khan said.

Meanwhile, in Iowa, Trump lamented that the United States government no longer waterboards people and talked about how he wants to “hit” speakers who were critical of him at the DNC convention.

Many verbally destroyed Clownstick, but Khan slayed him like no other this week, hitting the idiot fast and furious with a barrage of facts, even offering Clownstick his own copy of the US constitution.

Apparently with Cheeto Jesus wanting to hit those whom verbally blasted him, its self evident that the carnival barker can dish it out but can’t take his own dose of medicine of not being so politically correct when it comes to speaking about others.

Fact is, Trump is way out of his element, not that he was ever in it, but the fact that so many have pointed to the sheer ignorance of this asshat, which exists on so many levels – proves that this con man is not only an embarrassment to his country, but to the human race as well.

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

CLOWNSTICK NUTTERS COME UNGLUED AS CRUZ FAILS TO ENDORSE DON THE CON

In a highly-anticipated speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz congratulated Donald Trump for securing the GOP nomination for president, but stopped short of endorsing him.

As his speech drew to a close, the thousands of delegates who had sat in respectful silence and cheered for Cruz minutes earlier began booing, screaming, giving thumbs down, and chanting “endorse Trump” and “say his name.” Cruz jokingly acknowledged the angry noises coming from the front-row New York delegation, but never offered the Trump endorsement they sought.

South Carolina delegate Cindy Costa maintained a tense smile on her face as her husband leaped onto his chair and screamed at Cruz.

VIDEO COURTESY OF PBS

“We were hoping [Cruz] would do the right thing, but he didn’t. That’s his bad,” she told ThinkProgress. “At the very first debate, when he was asked if he’d support the nominee, he said he would. This shows he is not true to his word. He’s not a truth-teller.”

As he made the rounds at the RNC this week, Cruz indicated he’s open to another presidential runi n 2020. But Costa predicted the non-endorsement of Trump during a time of uncertainty for the Republican Party will “absolutely” hurt Cruz’s political future.

“He had a grand opportunity to help us coalesce, and he didn’t take it,” she lamented.

Yet other delegates said they were proud of Cruz for refusing to back Trump.

Texas delegate Nicholas Allman, a leader of the state’s College Republicans, said that the decision was “perhaps a rejection of demagoguery as a campaign tactic and an endorsement of values and rules and classical liberal ideology.”

Allman, who hovered on the edge of the convention floor wearing the cowboy hat required of all Texas delegates, said while he voted for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in the Republican primary, Cruz had impressed him by withholding his endorsement.

“That took some serious serious guts,” he said. “A huge percentage of the crowd was booing. And if Donald Trump does become president, he’s going to be a powerful man, and he’s not going to forgive Cruz for doing this to him.”

As Allman and other delegates observed, Cruz’s speech itself had a decidedly un-Trumpian flavor. He called on delegates to “cast aside anger for love” and “vote your conscience.”

As the crowd railed against Cruz, some also directed their anger at his wife Heidi.

And while many of the delegates vented their anger spontaneously, Time reported that the Trump campaign also had a hand in whipping up the crowd’s reaction.

Things got ugly between Trump and Cruz in the final months of the Republican primary, and Wednesday night suggests the two have not yet reconciled. At the nadir of their feud, Trump retweeted a meme suggesting that Cruz’s wife Heidi is unattractive. He later suggested Cruz’s dad might’ve been responsible for assassinating JFK. But through it all, Cruz vowed to abide by a promise he and all the other non-Trump candidates made in the summer of 2015 to support whomever ended up winning the Republican nomination.


[Cross-Posted from thinkprogress]

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

YET ANOTHER TRUMP MOUTH PEICE - KAYLEIGH MCENANY IS A SPECIAL KIND OF STUPID

Fuckface Von Clownstick nutter Kayleigh McEnany suggested on Thursday that the recent terrorist attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino could have been prevent if the Obama administration had been willing to use waterboarding and put “someone in a bit of discomfort to extract information.”

On CNN’s New Day, McEnany was asked to explain Trump’s call to “bring back waterboarding” and “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”

“I think that’s all consistent,” McEnany replied. “He’s talking about expanding the law the same way the Bush administration did to use this only when needed in very limited circumstances to get information from detainees.”

CNN host Alisyn Camerota and guest Ali Velshi both pointed out that waterboarding had been proven to produce unreliable information.

“I mean this is the point is that it’s actually not, what the FBI director has said, Robert Mueller, is that it actually has not been effective,” Camerota recalled. “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times and gave erroneous information.”

“I think the point is that what Donald Trump is talking about is punitive. He’s talking about it as punishment,” the CNN host added. “They behead us, we should waterboard them, but not talking about whether it’s effective for actual intelligence.”

McEnany disagreed: “But I’m not sure that it’s punitive so much as saying that we need to be strong.”

“The fact that in this country we’re not willing to put someone in some form of discomfort, be it sleep deprivation, which many argue is what broke KSM,” she said. “We are trying to thwart terrorist attacks. We don’t want 49 to die in Orlando. We don’t want 14 to die in San Bernardino.”

“If it means putting someone in a bit of discomfort to extract information, I think most of the nation would say that’s OK within the bounds of the law,” McEnany concluded.

To those who either think waterboarding doesn't hurt or is not torture, let me try it on you and then let's see if your moronic opinion changes.

Congratulations Kayleigh McEnany, you are today's dumbass ass and asshat of the week. Enjoy your accolades Einstein!

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

THE BEGHAZI HOAX, THE GOP BULLSHIT CONSPIRACY THEORY GOES DOWN IN FLAMES

To the surprise of no one, the Republicans’ four-year partisan inquisition surrounding the terrorist attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya - the conspiracy theory has ended in a crash and burn catastrophe . With the House Select Committee on Benghazi finally releasing its findings, and the report representing the eighth and (likely) final government investigation into the deadly event, the Benghazi hoax, as sponsored by Fox News for four years, finally comes to an impotent and ignominious end.

This latest report has provided nothing, a total of 15 million dollars of tax payers dollars wasted on a witch-hunt - which was to derail a Clinton bid for presidency.

BENGHAZI, THE SCANDAL THAT WASN'T




So if Benghazi wasn't used as an election year theatrics against the Democrats, what has been the point of committee chairman Trey Gowdy’s lame assed extended inquiry?

Anybody with an IQ above -500 realized that the final GOP Benghazi report, with its 2016 summertime release, was designed to disrupt Clinton’s White House run. Why else would the committee’s work be extended for two-plus years when it likely could have been completed in six or seven months?

RELATED LINK:

http://benghazihoax.com/

I find this witch hunt both putrid and disgusting! It is what we have become to know of the Republcian; a shit stain in your underwear that never goes away.

The whole fiasco, partisan in nature, shines a light on what’s completely fucked-up with the Republican Party and the right-wing media. It’s about how shallow, endlessly debunked conspiracies and money-sucking investigations have replaced any attempt to to be honest Americans who's job is to govern and legislate.

Rapscallions, each and every one of them! Nothing is beyond the pale of a conservative, nothing.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

BEE SAYS TRUMP MUST LOSE - BY A LANDSLIDE

Britain showed us what happens when you never think that the right wing nutters vote for something will actually win. Samantha Bee’s “Full Frontal” began with clips of interviews of people saying that they wish that hadn’t voted to leave and that they never thought it would happen. Now they are being forced with the harsh reality of an election.

“Look, your vote has consequences,” Bee explained. “You want to send a message? Use the Royal Mail, it still works! For now.”

Hopefully, however, America was looking at Great Britain and saying, “Oh God, what are we about to do?” Bee said, showing Trump at his golf course in Scotland. Clips of Trump telling the media that the European Union vote was great were only barely drown out by the bagpipes behind him. So much so that Bee couldn't decide which of the loud windbags was more painful to listen to.

The reality is, Brexit was solidified because pasty white uneducated bitter troglodytes went out and voted, leaving those who though that Brexit referendum would never come to fruition - left them holding the shit bag wanting a do-over.

BEE VIDEO ONE COURTESY OF TBS




BEE VIDEO TWO COURTESY OF TBS




Bee reminded the audience that we could still screw everything up if we forget to vote. But there is hope. “Trump’s brand of right-wing, racist, anti-immigrant demagoguery isn't American. It’s a European import. And if we’re smart, we’ll stop it at the border and send it back where it came from,” she closed.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

CAUTION AMERICA, LEARN FROM BREXIT, " THERE IS NO FUCKING DO-OVER

After using last week’s episode of Last Week Tonight to urge British voters to reject Brexit, — which will lead the U.K. to abandon the European Union — host John Oliver looked at the disastrous passage and aftermath in an effort to school Americans about the consequences of a Trump presidency.

Noting the massive disruption to the British economy, Oliver took a step back to the evening of the referendum to show that many U.K. voters had no idea what they were voting on — and had buyer’s remorse the following day.

“Basically, it seems like whoever the next U.K. prime minister is going to be, whether it’s [former London mayor] Boris Johnson or a racist tea kettle, they are going to be in for a rough few years, because once they invoke what’s known as Article 50, they’ll have just two years to negotiate their withdrawal and future relationship with the EU,” explained Oliver. “On top of which, they’ll have to settle outstanding bills with the EU, hammer out new trade bills with dozens of countries, sift through thousands of EU regulations and decide which ones to keep, and figure out how migration will work—and all the while, lives hang in the balance.”

Oliver hammered UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, and Johnson (“a shaved orangutan with Owen Wilson’s hair”), both of whom promoted the passage of the referendum with both also declaring its passage, “Independence day.”

“First, Britain was already independent. In fact, it’s what many other countries celebrate their independence from,” Oliver said. “And second, the sequel to the movie they’re quoting [Independence Day: Resurgence] actually opened this week and features the wholesale destruction of London – which is beginning to feel pretty fucking appropriate now.

He then compared both British leaders to Donald Trump, noting their similarities for lying, bombast and nativism.

Pointing out that Trump lauded the Brexit vote by tweeting, “Many people are equating BREXIT, and what is going on in Great Britain, with what is happening in the U.S. People want their country back!” Oliver provided a more apt comparison.

“He found a way to make this whole thing about himself,” Oliver exclaimed. “You might think, ‘Well that is not going to happen to us in America. We’re not going to listen to some ridiculously haired buffoon, peddling lies and nativism in the hopes of riding a protest vote into power.’ Well let Britain tell you, it can happen, and when it does, there are no fucking do-overs.”

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

THE NESCIENCE OF A TRUMP VOTER

Jimmy Kimmel presented Trump followers in all there glory:

“It seems like Donald Trump could say anything and they would stick with him, and to test this hypothesis, we went out on the street and asked people who said they’re on team Trump, what would Donald Trump have to do to lose your vote?” explained Jimmy Kimmel.

VIDEO COURTESY OF ABC




Trump supporters, Darwin award winners....there not!

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

"IT'S RARE THAT YOU SEE SOMEONE GET STUPIDER BEFORE YOUR EYES"

Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban was once friends with GOP candidate Donald Trump. But that relationship seems to have gone south in the course of Trump’s bid for president.

Recently, Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” star Cuban was asked by Extra to weigh in on Trump — and his response was not flattering.

“You know what? It’s rare that you see someone get stupider before your eyes, but he’s really working at it,'” Cuban said. “You have to give him credit. It’s a difficult thing to do, but he’s accomplished it.”

Cuban also revealed he hasn’t talked to Trump in weeks.

“He sent me an email when I started picking on him,” Cuban said. “What happened was I really didn’t like Ted Cruz, so I started helping Donald, tried to encourage him, ’cause I thought he’d be, and to this day thought he’d be a better candidate than Ted Cruz… But at some point, you’ve got to start learning and understanding the issues, you know? Donald has been at this a year but you don’t look at him and say, ‘Wow, he’s gotten so much smarter on this topic or that topic.’ In fact, you look at him and say, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ That’s not good for America.”

Cuban challenged Extra host Renee Bargh to name one good deal Trump has done.

“I can’t,” she said.

“Neither can he,” Cuban shot back, adding, “He’d get kicked out of ‘Shark Tank’ so fast, it would make your head spin.”

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

WHITE ISIS TYRANT RYAN BUNDY, NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED

WHITE ISIS TYRANT RYAN BUNDY

White ISIS, Y’all Qaeada, the “special” patriots who have taken over an Oregon nature preserve have bristled at suggestions that their armed demonstration is an act of domestic terror — but they apparently don’t understand the legal definition of the term.

One of the militants, Ryan Bundy, spoke Tuesday to blogger Shepard Ambellas of Intellihub about the ongoing occupation of the Malheur National Nature Preserve by self-described militia members.

Bundy, the son of scofflaw Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, complained that the mainstream media had portrayed the militants and his family — who took part in an armed confrontation with federal agents over their unpaid grazing fees on public lands — as terrorists.

“They labeled us terrorists several years ago, so that’s not new,” Bundy said. “You got to look at the definition of terror.”

Bundy asked the blogger to define terror, and Ambellas said he guessed it meant “something that scares someone.”

“Would you say that terror is extreme fear?” Bundy asked.

“I would say the word has a heightened sense of fear,” Ambellas said.

“All right, so extra fear,” Bundy said. “All right, so a terrorist is one that uses extreme fear to control a situation, to control a political situation or any particular situation — so that would define terrorism.”

Bundy, who was arrested last year following a courthouse brawl in Nevada, said terrorists used bombs and bomb threats to create “extreme terror to try to control or gain position or something,” citing the Boston Marathon bombing as an example.

“Terrorism is extreme fear to control the situation,” he said.

The militants have so far not been charged with any crimes, but the United States Code does include a legal definition of terrorism that is much more specific than the one outlined by Bundy and his interviewer.

The U.S. Code defines domestic terrorism as “activities that … appear to be intended … to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion and … occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”

The sheriff of Harney County, where the nature preserve is located, said the militants had come from out of state to protest the sentencing of ranchers Dwight and Stephen Hammond on arson charges but then took over the government building in hopes of taking over the county government and sparking a nationwide revolution.

Sheriff David Ward said the FBI, which is overseeing the situation, has assured him the militants will face charges.

The sheriff didn’t specify which charges those might be, but the U.S. Code outlines a charge for seditious conspiracy whose elements strongly resemble the plot to take over and occupy the nature preserve.

“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both,” the statute reads.

Bundy and his group, which calls itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, told reporters they want the Hammonds to be released from custody and they want the federal government to hand over land near their ranch to local control.

“The best possible outcome is that the ranchers that have been kicked out of the area … will come back and reclaim their land, and the wildlife refuge will be shut down forever and the federal government will relinquish such control,” Ryan Bundy said in another interview. “What we’re doing is not rebellious. What we’re doing is in accordance with the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.”

Bundy told Intellihub that Hammond was a victim of government terrorism because the rancher feared that federal authorities would “put a bullet in (his) head.”

“He reported to prison not out of duty, not out of respect for the government, not out of guilt for crime that they say he committed — it was simply out of fear of the oppressive government,” Bundy said.

“He was in fear of being shot in the head — he was fearful for his life, his family’s life,” Bundy said. “He was fearful of others around him. So who has been using those tactics against him? The government has. So who are the terrorists?”

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

BULLETS, BOMBS, CHEATER, AGENDA 21, OH MY!

KATRINA PIERSON LUNATIC FRINGE POSER

It all makes sense now

Extreme Nutter Katrina Pierson, Clownstick's mouth piece - facts are emerging that Pierson is a unemployment cheat and agenda 21 conspiracy theorist.

While much of the recent attention surrounding Katrina Pierson has focused on her bullet necklace, the national spokesperson for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has also come under scrutiny for both improperly claiming unemployment benefits and pushing the “Agenda 21” conspiracy theory.

According to the National Journal, Pierson received $11,440 in benefits between 2012 and 2013, when she did volunteer work for Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) run for office. However, state rules say that anyone receiving unemployment should be actively looking for a paid position while doing so.

The Texas Observer reported last year that in 2011, Pierson led classes for Waco Tea Party members warning them about “Agenda 21,” a popular conservative conspiracy theory claiming that a nonbinding plan approved by United Nations officials in 1992 was really a vehicle for the organization to seize control of the US.

Pierson told the Observer that she led similar discussions in Arizona, Washington D.C., Kansas and several other states and considered it her full-time job, arguing that “[when] you realize that you’ve been lied to your whole life, it’s an eye-opening experience.”

The Journal also noted that Pierson turned against Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) for supporting Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) bid for the GOP nomination, just two months after publicly praising him to fellow Tea Party supporters.

Pierson complained on Twitter that Gowdy “lost all cred­ib­il­ity when he nom­in­ated John Boehner for Speak­er so he’s per­fect for Marco Ru­bio.” But on Oct. 26, an email in Pierson’s name went out seeking help “drafting” Gowdy to become House Speaker, despite the fact that Gowdy stated he was not interested in the position.

“These outside groups use members’ names, not just his, without their knowledge and mislead people to think they support or are connected to a group when they are not,” a spokesperson for Gowdy said after reading the email.

Pierson joined Trump’s campaign two weeks after that email was sent.

[h/t addicting info]




NFTO
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

CLOWNSTICK NUTTER DOES IT AGAIN

Fuckface Von Clownstick Nutter Katrina Pierson Wearing Bullet Necklace

Fuckface Von Clownstick Nutter Katrina Pierson responded to criticism over her fashion decision to wear a necklace featuring bullets during a CNN interview, the spokesperson for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign sarcastically suggested that she might wear a fetus around her neck during her next TV appearance.

Katrina Pierson, whose appearances on TV representing the billionaire businessman only seem to add more controversy to his campaign, stopped by CNN”s “The Lead” to discuss Trump’s decision to go after former President Bill Clinton while wearing the necklace made up of interlinked bullet cartridges.

While little attention was paid to her message, her choice of jewelry became a topic of discussion on social media with some wondering if she was pandering to the NRA for her boss.



Writing on Twitter, Shannon Watts, the Founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, asked: “Surely @KatrinaPierson wore bullet necklace on #CNN to bring attention to 90 Americans fatally shot daily #gunsense.”


Pierson responded almost immediately, writing, “Maybe I’ll wear a fetus next time& bring awareness to 50 million aborted people that will never get to be on Twitter.”

Via Twitter, Shannon Watts, the Founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, asked: “Surely @KatrinaPierson wore bullet necklace on #CNN to bring attention to 90 Americans fatally shot daily #gunsense.”

Pierson responded almost immediately, writing, “Maybe I’ll wear a fetus next time & bring awareness to 50 million aborted people that will never get to be on Twitter.”

To date, every time this asshat has had an appearance on CNN she has brought the lunatic fringe from the insane asylum - the type of lunacy that brings outrage to those with an IQ above negative 500 -  which can be attributed and associate with every political tactical move the Trump campaign makes.

Pierson recently criticized the other GOP presidential candidates over their reluctance to commit to using nuclear weapons on America’s enemies, glibly stating, “What good does it do to have a good nuclear triad if you’re afraid to use it?”

In another appearance she dismissed criticism of Trump’s since retracted proposal to ban Muslims — including American citizens — from the U.S., saying: “So what? They’re Muslim.”

Pierson’s douchbaggery is matched by none, as nothing is beyond the pale of this nutter. For this effort, Katrina has earned today’s worst person in the world award. Enjoy nutter!




NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

MADDOW’S “STAGE FRIGHT”

Rachel Maddow went from amused to alarmed on Wednesday as she highlighted several false claims by Republican presidential candidates during their debate a night earlier.

“It was that kind of night,” Maddow repeated, with growing frustration.

For example, Maddow noted, Carly Fiorina insisted she would bring back what she called the “warrior class” — former generals she said retired because they told President Barack Obama “things that he didn’t want to hear.”

After explaining that David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal both resigned because each became embroiled in a controversy, Maddow played a clip of ex-Army vice chief of staff Jack Keane confirming to Fox News that Obama couldn’t have forced him to retire, because he served in George W. Bush’s administration and retired in 2003.

“This is freaking amazing,” Maddow said as she introduced Keane’s rebuttal.

The host also pointed out that, despite what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie claimed, Obama did not “invite Russia into Syria” during his administration — Russia has actually had an outpost there for more than 40 years.

“Gosh darn you, Barack Obama, for traveling back in time and inviting Russia into Syria when you were 10 years old in 1971,” Maddow quipped. “That was so reckless.”

But she was less enthused after playing footage of Republican front-runner Donald Trump stumble through an answer regarding the country’s “nuclear triad.” For the country’s national security policy to advance, she said, both major political parties need to be skilled in the issue.

“Can the Republican Party hold up its end of the debate?” she asked. “What would the Republican Party become on national security after the disaster of Bush and Dick Cheney? Huge question. Huge, important question. Please, God, let this not be their final answer.”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooter Is A ‘Transgendered Leftist Activist’…

….Says Republican wing-nut and presidential candidate Ted Cruz - who is just another GOP presidential candidate trying to downplay the role anti-abortion rhetoric may have played in motivating the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs Friday afternoon.

When a reporter asked him at an Iowa campaign stop Sunday evening about suspect Robert Lewis Dear saying he was motivated by “no more baby parts,” Cruz countered that he’s also been reported to be a “transgendered sic leftist activist.”

Cruz explained, “We know that he was a man registered to vote as a woman.” This discrepancy on Dear’s voter registration was first reported by The Gateway Pundit, a self-described “right-of-center news website,” under the claim that he “identifies as a woman.” Conservatives have since run with the claim that Dear is transgender.

There is actually no evidence to suggest that he is transgender, nor a “leftist,” nor any kind of activist. In fact, all of the available information suggests he was none of those things.

As the New York Times explained, Dear was very much a recluse, the type “that preferred to be left alone,” living in various single-wide trailers and cabins since his divorce in 2000. Neighbors did not know him well, and if they did, it’s because he would lash out at them when they tried to interfere with his business, like reporting him for mistreating his dogs.

The Times’ profile also identifies him as “generally conservative,” having been raised as a Baptist, but as someone who did not discuss politics much. According to his ex-wife, “he believed wholeheartedly in the Bible” and believed that abortion was wrong. He also distributed pamphlets criticizing President Obama to his neighbors in Colorado. On the voter registration form with the gender discrepancy, his party is listed as “UAF,” meaning unaffiliated.

None of the people interviewed about Dear had anything to say about his gender identity.

Nothing about his appearance nor any past reports of his identity suggests that he identifies as a woman. The voter registration form identifying him as female is the only discrepancy, making it most likely a typo and nothing more.

But since before the shooting was even resolved on Friday, conservatives have been clinging to such discrepancies in an attempt to suggest that it had little to do with the issue of abortion. When a witness called MSNBC Friday afternoon and indicated that the shooting had come from the direction of the Chase bank, a building that was between her location and the Planned Parenthood, conservatives invented an entirely new narrative claiming that the incident was a bank robbery gone wrong and that the shooter had simply hidden in the Planned Parenthood when he was unable to get away. Colorado Springs police debunked this story before the situation was over, clarifying that he had not entered any other buildings at any point.

Dear’s reference to “baby parts” clearly refers to deceptively edited videos suggesting that Planned Parenthood was selling parts of aborted fetuses for a profit. The claims were quickly debunked; in fact, the cut footage from one of the surreptitiously recorded videos even shows the targeted doctor saying, “Nobody should be ‘selling’ tissue. That’s just not the goal here.” The myth, nevertheless, has persisted.

Other Republican presidential candidates have similarly tried to distance the shooting from anti-abortion rhetoric. Both Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump downplayed the connection Sunday, with Huckabee calling it “disingenuous” to suggest that people who are anti-choice would “retaliate by sending some mad man into a clinic to kill people.” Carly Fiorina went further, suggesting that it was a “typical left-wing tactic” to attempt to “immediately demonize the messenger because they don’t agree with the message.”

Cruz’s claim that Dear is transgender mirrors other attempts by conservatives to demonize transgender people. As was most recently seen in the successful effort to defeat Houston’s LGBT nondiscrimination protections, conservatives eagerly spread the myth that transgender people are somehow “dangerous” to women and children. Cruz’s implication that being transgender motivated Dear’s attack relies on the same myth. Transgender people have done nothing to earn such labels — indeed, transgender protections have taken effect across the country with zero impact on the safety of women and children.


[cross-posted from thinkprogress]





NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

TRUMP AND MUSLIM DATABASES....TROUBLING TIMES

DID TRUMP JUST SUGGEST THAT MUSLIM DATABASES ARE NEEDED?

Last night Rachel Maddow throttled Donald Trump and his campaign on Friday for refusing to debunk his apparent support for special “databases” and identification for US Muslims.

“Donald Trump is deep now into blaming the media for this whole scandal. Blaming the media for us reporting that he’s campaigning on the idea of watchlists and databases to register American Muslims,” she said. “And I know it’s fashionable and politically smart to blame the media, but this is important. And somebody’s gotta report this out. Somebody’s gotta do something other than standing there, agog, disbelieving that this is really the top tier of the Republican contest to try to be the next president of the United States of America.”

The real estate mogul said on Twitter that Yahoo News’ Hunter Walker introduced the notion of a Muslim database during their interview on Friday, while also endorsing the idea of a “watch list.”

VIDEO COURTESY OF MSNBC



But Maddow noted that Trump has never said that he would refuse to implement such a policy if elected. As NBC reported last night, he said exactly the opposite and called it “good management.”

That lack of a definitive stand has opened Trump up to criticism from not only Democrats, but fellow Republican candidates, as well as both Muslim and Jewish groups.

On Friday, the Republican front-runner called into Fox News and complained that he was actually trying to respond to another reporter, while calling for a database for Syrian refugees. Maddow also pointed out that Trump made reference to an unidentified “thing we should start thinking about.”

“What exactly is the thing we should start thinking about?” she asked. “Could you please be clear about that? In the immortal words of Justin Bieber, ‘What do you mean?'”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

TO STAB OR NOT TO STAB?

Attempting to dismiss questions about a reported incident in his youth when he claimed he attempted to stab a friend, aspiring GOP presidential contender Ben Carson blamed reporters for getting the story wrong, reports the Washington Post.

After Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast pointed out that Carson’s story of attempting to stab a friend when he was 14 has evolved over the years, Carson said the story changed because reporters “record it in different ways.”

According to Carson, the retelling of the story is a like a game of “telephone.”

“For one thing, it happened 50 years ago — half a century ago,” Carson explained. “For another thing, when people record what I’ve said, they record it in different ways. When you’ve got something from 50 years ago that’s told by many different people, it’s sort of like the party game where you whisper to people sitting in a circle. When it gets to the original person, it’s very different.”

The problem for Carson is that the accounts of his story have varied depending upon which of the books he personally authored someone is reading.

As Resnick noted, Carson wrote in “Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence,”: “One afternoon when I was fourteen, I argued with a friend named Bob. Pulling out a camping knife, I lunged at my friend. The steel blade struck his metal belt buckle and snapped.”

Depending upon which book of Carson’s you are reading, Carson ran away afterward in shame, his best friend ran away in fear, it happened in two different homes or at school, and either a pocketknife or a camping knife was used. In yet another version, the knifing victim is identified only as a classmate instead of his good friend “Bob.”

Each recounting does lead to Carson finding God afterwards.





NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

HILLARY DEBUNKS BENGHAZI IN ONE LONE AD

If the GOP planned on making Beghazi one of the centerpieces of their eventual nominee’s campaign, they might want to shred those attack ad storyboards and think again after Hillary Clinton struck first with a devastating ad featuring House Speaker front runner Kevin McCarthy shooting his mouth off.

In a brilliant preemptive strike, Clinton released the ad, called “Admit,” excerpting comments by McCarthy owning up to the latest GOP-led Benghazi investigative committee was designed to harm her presidential chances.

Using a clip recorded last week on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News, McCarthy is seen explaining that Hillary looked unbeatable Republicans and the GOP had to do something about it.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy explains. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee. What are her numbers today?”

Clinton Ad

It should be noted that the most recent in a long line of Benghazi committees has been “investigating” Clinton for sixteen months — at a cost of over $4.5 million dollars.

Hopefully the Republican National Committee can expect a bill from the U.S. Government for services rendered.

McCarthy should probably stop thinking about moving into John Boehner’s warm spot.

NFTOS
Blogger-In-chief

Roger West

TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS PROVE THAT TROGLODYTES STILL ROAM THE EARTH

For several months, Donald Trump has campaigned for president by largely ignoring traditional notions of decency. Thursday night, however, Trump and his ignorant followers attained a new low.

At a Trump campaign rally in Rochester, New Hampshire a man in a “Trump” shirt took the microphone and said, “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims.”

“We know our current President is one,” he added. “You know he’s not even an American.” 

“We need this question,” Trump replied, smiling.

Then things turned even darker, as the man discussed his beliefs that Muslims were in training camps plotting to kill.

“That’s my question. When can we get rid of ‘em?” the man said.

Trump was unfazed at the casual suggestion of cultural genocide. “We are going to be looking at a lot of different things. A lot of people saying that,” Trump said.





Notably, Trump did not correct or object to the man’s false characterization of Obama as a Muslim.

Trump also did not dispute the man’s contention that Obama was not an American. Trump has been one of the most prominent “birthers,” insisting that Obama’s birth certificate from Hawaii was faked.

In 2008, a woman at a John McCain event insisted that Obama was “an Arab.” “No ma’am,” McCain replied. “He’s a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”

Trump currently leads the GOP field by 10 points.

The man directing the question to Trump, congrats asshat, you are today’s most stupid person of the week. Enjoy numbnutz!

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

WHEN IT COMES TO CONSREVATIVES - CHERRY PICKING MAN’S LAW AND GOD’S LAW - ITS THE RULE AND NOT THE EXCEPTION

Wing-Nut Mike Huckabee argued on Wednesday that the 1857 Supreme Court ruling which declared that blacks did not have a right to be citizens was “still the law of the land” even though the 14th Amendment overturned it.

During an interview with radio host Michael Medved that was obtained by BuzzFeed, the former Arkansas governor complained that he had been “drilled by TV hosts” after claiming that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis did not have an obligation to issue same-sex marriage licenses because the Supreme Court’s recent decision on marriage equality was not “the law of the land” until lawmakers codified it with legislation.

“Because that’s their phrase, ‘it’s the law of the land,'” Huckabee explained.

“Michael, the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land which says that black people aren’t fully human. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”

Medved reminded the candidate that the 13th Amendment had overturned slavery. And as BuzzFeed’s Christopher Massie noted, the 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision by establishing birthright citizenship.



Huckabee insisted that a constitutional amendment would not be required to overturn the same-sex marriage ruling because it was not valid in the first place.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” the former governor opined. “Because, in the case of this decision, it goes back to what Jefferson said that if a decision is rendered that is not borne out by the will of the people either through their elected people and gone through the process, if you just say, it’s the law of the land because the court decided, then Jefferson said, ‘You now have surrendered to judicial tyranny.’”

“The Supreme Court in the same-sex marriage decision made a law and they made it up out of thin air,” he added. “Therefore, until Congress decides to codify that and give it a statute it’s really not an operative law and that’s why what Kim Davis did was operate under not only the Kentucky Constitution which was the law under which she was elected but she’s operating under the fact that there’s no statute in her state nor at the federal level that authorizes her.”

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

FOREIGN POLICY GOP STYLE

Foreign policy has taken an important role in the 2016 Republican Presidential primaries. One of the most prominent issues is how to deal with nefarious Islamist movement ISIS, also referred to as ISIL and the Islamic State.

ISIS’ meteoric rise over the summer of 2014 has pushed presidential front runners to take the group as a serious threat – both domestically and internationally. The latest attack — a truck bombing — killed at least 67 people in a Shia neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday. Republicans have also focused heavily on the ISIS issue because the current administration’s policy has not gone according to plan. The United States’ program to train Syrian rebels has faced numerous setbacks while the bombing campaign that started a year ago has only experienced limited success.

So what alternative plan have the contenders proposed?

Marco Rubio

The Florida senator suggested forming an army of regional powers to fight ISIS.

“The United States should use it position of leadership to pull together a Sunni army, a Sunni ground force made up of Egyptians and Jordanians and Saudis and other kingdoms to go in on the ground [Syria and Iraq] and confront Sunni terrorists,” Rubio told Fox News in March. He said the key was to hit ISIS at its core in Syria and Iraq.

This approach has been touted by various politicians in recent months. In fact, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi called for that exact thing in February only with one distinction. Rather than fight in Syria and Iraq, Sisi called for forming an Arab coalition to help protect Egypt from the ISIS threat in Libya. Egypt is currently facing serious internal security issues, particularly in Sinai, in addition to the ISIS threat in Libya.

That’s not the only pitfall, though. Back in April, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition to fight the Houthis in Yemen. It quickly went about seeking partners to contribute ground troop. Egypt said no, leaving the relatively small military capacity of the United Arab Emirates to partner with Saudi ground troops and aerial support in Yemen. But an important caveat with the Yemen case is that the Houthis are Zaidi Shia. The people of Gulf Arab powers (all ruled by Sunni monarchs) may have a harder time throwing support behind a campaign that fights fellow Sunnis, even if it is ISIS that they’re fighting. It also doesn’t help that wealthy individuals in some of these Gulf states — mainly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait — have funneled money to groups like ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Mike Huckabee

The former Arkansas governor’s plan is pretty simple. “When we have a threat, whether it is ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranians, whatever it is, we make it very clear that we plan to push back and destroy that threat to us,” Huckabee said in an interview with American Heartland with Dr. Grace. “And we won’t take 10 years doing it, we hopefully won’t even take 10 months, it will be like a 10 day exercise, because the fierceness of our forces would mean that we can absolutely guarantee the outcome of this film. That’s how America needs to operate in the world of foreign affairs, and foreign policy.”

The quick war trope has been trotted out before. Huckabee’s plan entails strong posturing toward America’s enemies followed by decisive military action. However, the United States already has what is widely considered the most formidable conventional army in the history of the world, and still wasn’t able to destroy oppositions firmly entrenched in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, wiping out groups entrenched among civilian populations around the world in 10 days would rack up millions of civilian deaths, or collateral damage, if you want to take the rose-tinted view.

Chris Christie

In an interview with Sean Hannity in July, Christie focused on empowering regional allies to fight ISIS so that the U.S. wasn’t seen as an occupying force.

“We’ve got the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Saudis, the Emirates, who all see ISIS as an existential threat to their existence. They don’t want to live under a theocracy,” the New Jersey governor said, even though Saudi Arabia is a theocracy. “We need to be training them down to the battalion level. We need more human intelligence on the ground to let them know where to target ISIS. And we need to stand with them, supply them with the arms they need, the sophistication they need, let them fight the fight there.”

Apart from the idea of forming an army of Arabs to fight ISIS, Christie argues for sending more arms to regional allies. President Obama ended a freeze on military aid to Egypt in March that provides them more than $1 billion. He’s also offered additional military aid to Saudi Arabia. But that doesn’t seem to have had any significant impact against ISIS’ continued reign of terror in Syria or Iraq.

Donald Trump

The real estate mogul also has a seemingly simple solution to defeating ISIS. “I would knock out the source of their wealth, the primary sources of their wealth, which is oil,” he told MSNBC. “And in order to do that, you would have to put boots on the ground. I would knock the hell out of them, but I’d put a ring around it and I’d take the oil for our country.”

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said Wednesday that he disagreed with the current Republican frontrunner. “The problem we’ve had is we’ve had outcomes, but they’ve been only short-term outcomes because we haven’t properly looked at the political and economic side of it,” he said at a press briefing. “It has got to be three that come together. And if you don’t do that, it will not solve the problem, and that is what I continue to look at.”

Scott Walker

The Wisconsin governor hasn’t laid out much of a plan to date. He did say, however, “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the globe.”

As Jim Geraghty writes in the National Review: “That is a terrible response. First, taking on a bunch of protesters is not comparably difficult to taking on a Caliphate with sympathizers and terrorists around the globe, and saying so suggests Walker doesn’t quite understand the complexity of the challenge from ISIS and its allied groups.”

Jeb Bush

After struggling with the question of whether or not he would have invaded Iraq in 2003, the former Florida governor has put together a plan more comprehensive than his competitors’. In a foreign policy speech Tuesday, Bush said the key to beating ISIS was to first remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and then unite the various rebel forces to fight ISIS.

This strategy has actually been expressed by a journalist who has done some of the best reporting on ISIS. In an interview this past July, Der Spiegel’s Christoph Reuter told a reporter, “There is no fast victory in Syria. The core problem is as long as Assad is there you will have no united front against Daesh [ISIS]. Once Assad is gone, everyone will be brought together to fight Daesh.”

He added: “Take out the [Assad] family first, which would help reunite the country, as well. In Iraq it’s much more complicated because you cannot change the mood of the Shiites.”

Of course, this is all easier said than done. To date, Assad has received military backing from Russia, Iran, and various Iranian proxies and, despite the recent nuclear deal, that isn’t likely to change.

Clearly none of these men are capable of running a home of four, let alone this country. Foreign policy has never been a forte of The American Taliban, and form these answers - they are not ready from prime time yet.

[Cross-posted from thinkprogress]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West