Republican Party 2012 Strip Convention

Source:Russia Today- 100 Monopoly bucks to the 1st person who can name this beautiful, baby face, working in President Vladimir Putin's Russia Today studio.

"GOP ready for National Strip Conference" 

From Russia Today 

"RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya) (Russian: Россия Сегодня)[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international news television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast "materially misleading" content.[72]

In 2012, RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was "waging an information war, and with the entire Western world".[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union as well as Canada announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81][82] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT's website and restricting access to RT's content.[83][84] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[85][86] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia." 

From Wikipedia 

"What happened to hallowed ground? A new survey from Public Policy Polling shows that Republicans would prefer that a strip club be built near ground zero rather than a mosque. Twenty-one percent of Republicans said they’d be OK with a strip club near the site of the 9/11 attacks, but only 4 percent would accept a mosque. Preferences were flipped on the other side of the aisle, with 49 percent of Democrats supporting a mosque and 33 percent for the strip club. “This shows the extent and impact of the recent rise in anti-Islam rhetoric,” said Ibrahim Hopper, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations." 

From The Daily Beast 

Whatever happened to the Party of Family Values? It's almost like it's invisible today and damn near to have never have even existed. 20 years ago, then Vice President Dan Quayle publicly attacked Candice Bergen's character on the hit sitcom Murphy Brown, because Murphy was going to have a baby by herself. Meaning she wasn't married, didn't have a boyfriend, and the father of her baby wasn't going to be involved in her child's development once the baby was born.

Go up 20 years today and the Republican Party is now holding their national convention in America's capital of strip clubs and porn, also known as Tampa, Florida (at least to outsiders) and are going to nominate a Mormon, who comes from a religion that says bigamy is not just OK, but it should be encouraged, who really doesn't have any real issues with same-sex-marriage, Massachusetts legalized it when he was Governor, and who was pro-choice on abortion, until he decided that he wanted to run for President at some point, when he was running for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. 

What's the Republican Party's campaign theme going to be in Tampa: we get off on Mitt Romney? No one would believe that because they don't even like the man. We're talking about the father of ObamaCare, for crying out loud. 

Maybe the Tampa Republican theme will be: we strip for Mitt Romney. But again that's not believable. I mean the only Republicans who do any stripping whatsoever are their Baptist ministers and they just do that in front of boys. 

You have to say (or at least I do) that the Republican Party holding their national party convention, in the strip/porn capital of America, gives new meaning to the word irony. Sort of like Gamblers Anonymous holding their national convention in Las Vegas. It presents a challenge to just be taken seriously.

Sam Seder: 'Mitt Romney: Universal Healthcare is Great For Everyone But America!'

Source:Sam Seder- Governor Mitt Romney (Republican, Massachusetts) campaigning for President of the United States, in the Jewish State of Israel. I hope he didn't get lost oversees.

"From the Majority Report, live M-F 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at:The Majority Report. When visiting Israel, Mitt Romney went on and on about what a great (government run) healthcare system they have... 

From Sam Seder

First of all: just to sort of the correct the record here and I think Sam Seder already knows this, but Mitt Romney never said: "Universal Healthcare is Great For Everyone But America!" And I think the host of the so-called Majority Report already says that. He said Israel's health care costs are a lot lower than America's. And then Seder correctly pointed out some of the aspects of the Israeli health care system. 

What Sam Seder didn't say is that Israel has a free health care system provided for by the government, because he knows better. They have a private health care and insurance system, that's tightly regulated by the national government there. Which isn't much different from what America has now, because of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) that was based on the RomneyCare plan in Massachusetts, a law that then Governor Mitt Romney signed into law and supported in Massachusetts.

The Ring of Fire: Mike Papantonio & Jonathan Haidt: 'The Psychology of Republican Voters'

Source:The Ring of Fire- talking to Professor Jonathan Haidt.

"If the Republican Party is good at only one thing, it's getting middle class people to vote against their own best interest. For years the GOP has convinced average voters that their party really cares about them, and that their policies that only benefit the wealthy are still best for the country. And the voters continue to keep buying this worn out line. Mike Papantonio seeks to find out why voters keep voting against their own interests with Dr. Jonathan Haidt, professor of psychology at New York University's Stern School of Business." 

From The Ring of Fire

I think there a couple major factors for why the blue-collar voters are moving to the Republican Party and away from the Democratic Party and Mike Papantonio and Jon Haidt covered one of then having to do with the civil rights laws of the 1960s. 

Pre-civil rights movement, the Democratic Party was the home of blue-collar voters, even though it's always had a northern, urban, well-educated, wealthy, yuppie, and hipster wing in it, like it has today. But if you were a blue-collar voter in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and even 1970s, you were probably a Democrat if you voted, because Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and even Jimmy Carter, bothered to speak to those voters and even offered programs and solutions to the problems that these voters were dealing with. 

The reason why the Republican Party was such a minority party in America, even when they did have The White House, because their coalition was so small. Up until the 1960s, the Republican Party was mostly country club, northern, midwestern, and western party, of rich people, including African-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and Asian and Latino-Americans. While the rest of the country of all classes, race, and ethnicities, were Democrats. 

Richard Nixon in the mid and late 1960s, even though he was a highly educated and successful, as well as wealthy Republican, saw a major numbers problem for the Republican Party, as he was planning his next presidential campaign, which would've been 1968. He discovered that Republicans were losing almost everywhere, because they didn't have enough voters. Their coalition was simply too small to compete with the Democratic Party. 

Richard Nixon doesn't win the presidency in the 1968, without his campaigning for Congressional Republicans and the successes that they had both in the House and Senate, but also governor's races in 1966, but also with the voters of blue-collar voters, including Independents, but Democrats as well. And Ronald Reagan picks up on this in the late 1970s and even into his failed presidential run in the Republican Party in 1976 and takes that campaign strategy into 1980. 

If you are well-educated, highly successful, wealthy, and even believe in individual freedom, (even if you a so-called leftist who doesn't publicize your belief in individual freedom) you are probably a Democrat. If you are a blue-collar voter, who perhaps just has a high school diploma, who is very fundamentalist when it comes to religion and believes America has been going to hell since the 1960s, you are probably a Republican today. That's how much the two major political parties have changed.

The Nation: Laura Flanders & Robert Pollin: 'Full Employment Is Possible'

Source:The Nation- talking to left-wing economist Robert Pollin. Good job, Bob!

"The latest book from Robert Pollin, economics professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst and director of the Political Economy Research Institute, is Back to Full Employment. If the title seems bold, the roadmap Pollin lays out behind it is hardly outlandish. In this conversation with Laura Flanders, Pollin explains how the Federal Reserve can grow employment tremendously, without the need for any legislation. "When you have unusued resources in the economy, you can pump money into the economy, and you'll create jobs right away," Pollin says. 

Visit The Nation for more videos. Watch the full interview with Robert Pollin at:GritTV." 

From The Nation

What Robert Pollin is talking about here, instead of reversing not just the middle class tax cuts, but all the tax cuts that have been passed, at least since 2001, (some leftists would go even further than that) he's talking about using the money that's already in the economy, that's simply not being spent right now. 

Every business in America is supposed to have reserve requirements. Mr. Pollin would just take that money and put into the economy directly on things like infrastructure, to put millions of Americans back to work. Interesting idea because it wouldn't even add anything to the deficit and debt upfront. But good luck getting it passed.

The Ring of Fire: Mike Papantonio- 'Progressives Need To Unite: The Calvary's Not Coming'

Source:The Ring of Fire- with Mike Papantonio.

"Mike Papantonio talks about the need for every sector of the progressive movement to unite together -- No single group can operate on its own, and together we can help take down the Tea Party GOP's disastrous plans for America."

Source:The Ring of Fire

Mike Papantonio is correct that the so-called Progressives (Democratic Socialists, in actuality) need to come together and unite, for the short-term to prevent a Mitt Romney Presidency and a Tea Party Congress next year. Which is exactly what will happen if so-called Progressive (Socialists, in actuality) Democrats don't show up and vote Democratic in 2012. Which is exactly what they didn't do in 2010. 

The reason why we have a Republican House right now, because Tea Party Republicans showed up and voted Republican in 2010, while Socialists sat at home (staring at their I-phones and laptops, drinking too much coffee) or vote for socialist third-party candidates. . Because President Obama turned out not to be a Socialist that they were expecting in 2008 and that the Democratic Congress wasn't socialist enough for them either.

See, elections do have consequences, which is something that right-wingers figured out a long time ago. That a lot of left-wingers (whether they're democratic or not) haven't figured out yet, that if you don't like who comes to power and one of those reasons why they did come to power, is because you didn't bother to vote, that instead of sitting out and complaining about it, that if you don't do your part to prevent the people who came to power from getting into power, that you don't really have much reason to complain. Because if you just bothered to vote, maybe the people you want in power are still there

Sam Seder: 'Mitt Romney Foreign Policy: An Anglo-Saxon Must Lead America!'

Source:Sam Seder- Governor Mitt Romney (Republican, Massachusetts) 2012 Republican nominee for President.

"From the Majority Report, live M-F 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at:The Majority Report. A Mitt Romney foreign policy adviser said that Obama could not understand the depth of the relationship between the United States and England because Obama could not fully appreciate the shared "Anglo-Saxon heritage"... 

From The Majority Report

Just for the record: Barack Obama is part English on his mother's side, to go along with Irish and Welch. I mean the man actually celebrates Saint Patrick's Day every year. He has the entire native-British ethnic pool in his DNA, because of his mother. His father is Luo-Kenyan-African. This can happen when someone is of mixed race, they get the DNA not just of two races, but of multiple ethnic groups from different parts of the world. So when Mitt Romney says we need an Anglo-Saxon President, I have a newsflash for him: we already have one. 

I would like to think Mitt Romney is a better man than to try to win a presidential that he knows he's trailing both in the popular vote and Electoral College, by trying to scare the hell out of Independent voters and perhaps blue-collar Democrats who lean right, and say that they have to vote for him, because Barack Obama is not a real American. But I've been wrong before.

Senator Bernie Sanders: 'Where is President Obama On Social Security?'

Source:U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) I personally respect any Socialist in America who lives and operates out of the political closet and says: "Damn right, I'm a Socialist and this is why." Which is what you get from Senator Sanders.

"Sen. Bernie Sanders questioned why President Barack Obama has not defended Social Security against Republican calls for deep cuts in the program that benefits some 55 million retired and disabled Americans, widows and orphans. "I do not believe that we should cut Social Security," Sanders said in a Senate floor speech. "I would like to know, and I think the American people would like to know, if President Obama feels the same way. It is past time that the president told the American people in no uncertain terms that he will not cut Social Security on his watch." Read more:Senator Bernie Sanders." 

From Senator Bernie Sanders

"Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today questioned why President Barack Obama has not defended Social Security against Republican calls for deep cuts in the program that benefits some 55 million retired and disabled Americans, widows and orphans.

“I do not believe that we should cut Social Security,” Sanders said in a major Senate floor speech. “I would like to know, and I think the American people would like to know, if President Obama feels the same way. It is past time that the president told the American people in no uncertain terms that he will not cut Social Security on his watch.”

Before Obama was elected in 2008, he was a strong defender of Social Security. “I agreed with him,” Sanders said. “I suspect that millions of Americans voted for President Obama because of the strong stands he took in defending Social Security.”  Sanders introduced legislation, modeled on a 2008 Obama proposal, to lift a cap on Social Security payroll taxes so people with earnings of $250,000 and more would pay the same share of that income as all workers.  The payroll tax is now assessed only on incomes up to $110,100 a year. 

During the past four years, President Obama has been largely silent on Social Security. The White House even failed to rebut alarming reports last year that Obama was considering Social Security cuts as part of a “grand bargain” with Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Unlike Obama, his Republican challenger’s stance on Social Security is much clearer. Mitt Romney wants to begin the process of privatizing Social Security. He wants to gradually increase the retirement age to 68 or 69. Romney also favors slowing the growth of benefits for persons with “higher incomes.” Under a plan floated by Romney’s allies on Capitol Hill, someone making about $45,000 a year today who retires in 2050 would receive 32 percent less in annual Social Security benefits than under the current formula. By that definition, the top 60 percent of all wage earners would be considered “higher income.”

“It should come as no surprise that Republicans in Washington and Gov.  Romney want to slash Social Security.  The truth is Republicans have never liked Social Security and they have been attacking Social Security since its inception,” Sanders said.

“The question, however, that millions of Americans are asking themselves today is where President Obama stands on Social Security.  Unfortunately, he has been largely silent on this issue since he has been in the White House and during this 2012 campaign.”

Social Security has not contributed to the deficit or national debt.  It has a $2.7 trillion surplus and will be able to pay 100 percent of promised benefits to every eligible recipient for the next 21 years.  Even with no changes, there will still be enough funding to pay more than 75 percent of promised benefits after that. 

Sanders is chairman of the Defending Social Security Caucus in the Senate." 

From Senator Bernie Sanders

Apparently someone has been dumping alcohol down my throat while I'm asleep or sticking marijuana into me (perhaps also in my sleep) because I just heard Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders endorse a tax cut. He said so himself on the Senate floor today and said that he supports tax cuts for 98% of Americans. A Socialist endorsing tax cuts, is like a vegan endorsing all you can eat meat lovers buffets, an Arab endorsing the Jewish State of Israel, it almost never happens. 

Socialists are primarily in the business to grow government, especially the national government, so big government can take care of as many people as possible, with the people's own money. They're not in the business to give the people more of their money back to spend as they please. So any Socialist supporting any tax cut, is at least borderline shocking.

As as Senator Sanders on Social Security: this is generally get from the left-wing, generally left-wing Democrats or just Democrats who very partisan but perhaps not left-wing, especially during a presidential election, they accuse Republicans, especially the Republican presidential nominee, of wanting to cut and end Social Security and Medicare, regardless of what Republicans are actually offering. There's nothing new here. And if the Democrat isn't 100% with on Social Security, they'll accuse the Democrat of not being strong enough on Social Security. Which is what Senator Sanders did to President Obama today.