Senator Al Franken issued a Thanksgiving apology in the wake of new allegations.

All Franken and Leann Tweeden.

Courtesy of EW: 

Sen. Al Franken issued a new statement this week in the wake of several sexual misconduct allegations against the former Saturday Night Live star. Though Franken’s statement did not explicitly confess to groping or other inappropriate behavior, he acknowledged that some women felt disrespected by him, and apologized for that. 

“I’ve met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations,” Franken said in the statement, per the Associated Press. “I’m a warm person; I hug people. I’ve learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women — and I know that any number is too many. Some women have found my greetings or embraces for a hug or photo inappropriate, and I respect their feelings about that … I’ve thought a lot in recent days about how that could happen, and recognize that I need to be much more careful and sensitive in these situations. I feel terribly that I’ve made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again. And let me say again to Minnesotans that I’m sorry for putting them through this and I’m committed to regaining their trust.”

This was in response to two more women coming forward and claiming that Franken was inappropriate with them.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Two more women have told HuffPost that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) touched their butts in separate incidents. These are the third and fourth such allegations against Franken in the past week. Leeann Tweeden, a radio host, wrote last week that Franken had kissed and groped her without her consent during a 2006 USO tour. On Monday, Lindsay Menz accused Franken of groping her at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. 

The two additional women, who said they were not familiar with each others’ stories, both spoke on condition of anonymity. But their stories, which describe events during Franken’s first campaign for the Senate, are remarkably similar — and both women have been telling them privately for years. 

In a statement to HuffPost, Franken said, “It’s difficult to respond to anonymous accusers, and I don’t remember those campaign events.” 

The first woman, who spoke to HuffPost on condition of anonymity because she’s worried she’ll be harassed online for making the allegation, said Franken groped her when they posed for a photo after a June 25, 2007, event hosted by the Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus in Minneapolis. 

“My story is eerily similar to Lindsay Menz’s story,” the first woman said. “He grabbed my buttocks during a photo op.” 

The second woman told HuffPost that Franken cupped her butt with his hand at a 2008 Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis, then suggested the two visit the bathroom together. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear that the allegation could affect her position at work.

One thing to be noted is that unlike Donald Trump or Roy Moore's accusers, these two women have decided to remain anonymous.

THAT does not mean that their stories are not valid, anonymous sources are often the backbone of journalism, however if does mean that they can say whatever they want with no real cost to them personally.

That second women's story, if true, seems to be the most damning of the four in my opinion.

If Franken actually groped her buttocks and then invited her into a bathroom that seems the more egregious charge.

However if there is an ethics investigation I would imagine that these women would be compelled to testify and I am interested to see how their stories hold up to scrutiny.

At least one former White House ethics attorney for the Bush Administration has some doubts.

We need more facts but much of this fits an old GOP playbook

Franken: The Obvious Setup and Liberals Took the Bait https://t.co/vduJtIcGr0

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) November 23, 2017

As progressives we are expected to take allegations like this seriously.

However if we start overreacting to every anonymous accusation, without first vetting it thoroughly, by demanding that the accused leave government or quit their job, we could literally see our biggest champions sidelined while the conservatives cover for their predators and maintain the upper hand.

All of this leaves us in a very precarious situation, and unfortunately the conservatives know that all too well.

Exhaustive new report finds that, despite what the conservatives would have you believe, the IRS targeted both liberal and right wing groups seeking a tax exempt status.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

A federal watchdog investigating whether the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeted conservative political groups seeking tax-exempt status said that the agency also scrutinized organizations associated with liberal causes from 2004 to 2013. 

The findings by the Treasury Department’s inspector general mark the end of a political firestorm that embroiled the I.R.S. in controversy, led to the ouster of its commissioner and prompted accusations the tax collection agency was being used as a political weapon by the Obama administration. 

The exhaustive report, which examined nine years worth of applications for tax-exempt status, comes after a similar audit in 2013 found that groups with conservative names like “Tea Party,” “patriot” or “9/12” were unfairly targeted for further review. 

The new report found that the I.R.S. was also inappropriately targeting progressive-leaning groups. While the investigation does not specify the political affiliations of the groups, names that were flagged included the words “Progressive,” “Occupy,” “Green Energy,” and Acorn — the acronym for the now defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. 

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration noted that the report makes no characterization of the political leanings of any of the groups.

To be honest, while I appreciate that this report has come out, we ALREADY knew all of this years ago.

Almost from the second that the conservatives were pissing themselves with outrage that the IRS was "targeting" them, many news sites were publishing information which completely refuted their faux outrage.

And the fact is that the Right Wing media undoubtedly knew that it was all bullshit, but they also knew their audience was made up of drooling slack jawed morons who were never going to look for alternative information sources and would prove easy to manipulate into a frenzy.

What's more is that this report will not change a single mind because the idea that the government was out to quash the conservative movement fees into their confirmation bias, and nothing will rattle that cage.

Sarah Palin pretends to be standing up for children, while using her own to hawk crappy merchandise on the internet.

Courtesy of Buy One Get One Free Barbie's Facebook page:  

The left seems to have a "War on Decency". We used to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. The left has turned this into an all out war. A perfect example of this is people like Kathy Griffin attacking innocent children. Who does that?!?!  (Perhaps the same people who use their own children to grift for cash online. Just a thought.)


www.merchful.com/sarahpalin is speaking up to those snowflakes who cry for equality and tolerance but can't even handle the actions of their own consequences.... SUCK IT UP CUPCAKE!!! 

There's only 3 days left to support Operation Heal Our Patriots by purchasing through this campaign.

According to the website a "portion" of the proceeds will go toward Samaritan's Purse.

I would imagine that is a small portion indeed.

After all Palin does not do these things out of the goodness of her heart. (What's in it for us?)

One has to wonder at the decision to attack liberals while supposedly raising money for an organization that claims to be working to "Heal our Patriots," as if only conservatives ever serve in the military, demonstrate patriotism, or come home wounded from the battlefield.

In an earlier post on her rarely visited website the Queen of Hypocrisy made this statement: 

Do you often give someone a piece of your mind? I confess to it – and most of us probably have pieces of our minds all over creation! As we grow in grace, however, we’re to exercise freedom of speech more responsibly – in a manner that uplifts, rather than destroys. Even when we have to correct, even when we disagree, we can speak truth in love.

Not sure how much love is contained in the phrase "Suck it up Cupcake."

And Palin's Facebook page and website are chock full of attacks on progressives, the media, and politicians with whom she disagrees.

Many of those posts are full of inaccuracies, exaggerations, and "fake news."

Is THAT her example of speaking "truth in love?"

Remember it is not simply Palin's opinions that are so disgusting, it's the hypocrisy.

Elizabeth Warren discussing how motivated the Democrats are to fight back against Donald Trump and how she is energized by the protesters is exactly the shot in the arm we need today.

There is just something very therapeutic about listening to Elizabeth Warren talk about the state of liberal politics in this America today, and her hopes for the future.

And yes Sarah Palin she did once again tell that anecdote about the little female protester with the sign that said "I fight like a girl," and unlike when you screeched it out at a conservative rally it was in fact inspiring.

For my money Elizabeth Warren is the face of liberal politics right now and whether she runs for President or not, I am positive she will continue to bravely stand up to the policies of Donald Trump and continue to be a strong voice for progress.

First they marched and now thousands and thousands of women are preparing to run for public office.

Courtesy of New York Magazine: 

On Inauguration Weekend, an estimated 3.2 million people in hundreds of cities across the country took to the streets to protest the incoming president. More than 400,000 people marched in Washington, D.C., similar numbers turned out in New York and Los Angeles, and even in Houston, Phoenix, New Orleans, Santa Fe, and Reno, marchers numbered in the tens of thousands. It was, as organizers promised it would be, the most massive coordinated demonstration an incoming president has ever faced. But its real power will be measured not in crowd size but in the lasting impact it has on the political process. And one of the clearest results of the march — and of the election as a whole — is the wave of political participation among women at local, state, and national levels that’s emerging in its wake. 

The day after Women’s Marches swept the country, 500 women gathered in an auditorium in Washington, D.C.’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. Each one had registered to complete EMILY’s List’s candidate training program, which would better equip them to run for public office. According to EMILY’s List, a week before the training was scheduled to take place it had already sold out, and 500 more women were on the waiting list. EMILY’s List president Stephanie Schriock said the organization holds these types of trainings often, but the “incredible energy” around this one is unique. “We spend a lot of time recruiting,” she said. “[Now] we’re seeing women calling us.” 

Like-minded organizations have reported similar spikes in interest. VoteRunLead reported that in the past two months, more than 2,300 women have signed up to take its online course, and the organization’s January 7 seminar registered 1,200 women in less than 48 hours. Since Election Day, EMILY’s List has had more than 4,000 people reach out to say they’re interested in running — 1,660 since Inauguration Day. And according to a She Should Run spokesperson, in a normal month the organization sees “at best, and with significant effort, anywhere between a few dozen to a few hundred women” sign up. But in the three months since the election, co-founder and CEO Erin Loos Cutraro said 8,100 women have indicated their interest in running for office by registering for She Should Run’s online incubator program, which teaches them how. What’s more, Cutraro said things show no sign of slowing. “We had a staff meeting, and we were going over numbers,” Cutraro said. “Our community manager said, ‘But hold on — we got 100 more last night.’”

I recently mentioned Elizabeth Warren as being our most likely candidate in 2020 and received quite a bit of blowback.

However if that wasn't from misogynist assholes terrified of a strong woman leading this country, and actually from progressives who simply don't see it, I would suggest to them that the face of the Democratic party moving forward is decidedly female, and that there is more than a fifty fifty chance that we are going to nominate a woman.

Sure it MIGHT not be Warren, but it then it will likely be someone like Kirsten Gillibrand, Claire McCaskill, or Kamala Harris.

Bottom line is that the women are taking over, and as a privileged white man I am totally cool with that. 

Prominent liberal groups demand that Senate Democrats block every one of Trump's nominees.

Courtesy of Vox: 

Several prominent progressive organizations are demanding that the Democratic Party’s senators do whatever they can to block Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court. On Tuesday night, Trump picked Neil Gorsuch, 49, to fill the seat. 

“As long as the president is in flagrant disregard for the basic underpinnings of our republic, it is no time to consider a Supreme Court nominee,” said Ben Wikler, the Washington director of MoveOn.org, in an interview. “The next election is a while away, but what Senate Democrats do here and over the next few months will be seared into the memory of every Democratic voter.” 

The core of the progressive groups’ argument is that Senate Democrats have dramatically underestimated the scale and depth of their voters’ anger toward Trump’s administration. (Only one Senate Democrat, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, has announced that he’ll filibuster Trump’s nominee.)

“We want to see our leaders in Congress standing up as strongly to the Trump administration as we are in the streets and in airports across the country,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America. “Anything less than a complete and utter rejection of Trump’s Cabinet appointees and of their Supreme Court appointees is absolutely unacceptable.”

I would typically be against tactics like this because I think being oppositional for the sake of opposition hurts the country.

However Donald Trump is a special case and he NEEDS to be stopped, or at the very least slowed down, every step of the way.

I would argue that these same tactics should have been used to stop the appointment of Rex Tillerson and Ben Carson, but they most certainly need to be used to stop Secretary of Education nominee Betsy Devos (Who they are now getting help with by the way.), Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch (Who is much worse than we have been led to believe.), DHHS nominee Tom Price, Secretary of Energy nominee Rick Perry, and well essentially the whole kit and kaboodle.

And I would also support threatening those that don't recognize the outrage of the American people over having Putin's puppet running our country with primary challenges in the upcoming elections.

We are at war people, and it is high time that the progressives demonstrated that they can kick butt with the best of them.

Actor Michael Sheen abandons his profession, and his life, to fight fascism full time. And in doing so shames us all.

Courtesy of the Independent:  

Michael Sheen is so disturbed by the rise of far-right populism he is quitting acting to become an activist, and says he does not know if his relationship with Sarah Silverman will survive. 

Sheen will leave Silverman, his partner of two years, and family in Los Angeles and move to Port Talbot in south Wales to combat the wave of “demagogic, fascistic” politics he believes has engulfed the West in the past decade. 

He told The Times: “In the same way as the Nazis had to be stopped in Germany in the Thirties, this thing that is on the rise has to be stopped. 

 “It’s not going to look like this in 10 years’ time. Everything has shifted. The dice are being rolled again.” 

His steel-making hometown, population 37,000, voted for Brexit and the Welsh actor says his frustration at this has formed, in part, the impetus for his decision to begin his activism back where he began. His fears were exacerbated by the ascension of Donald Trump and the tensions stoked by his divisive rhetoric. 

You know I would like to think that the hours that I put in on this blog have some meaning, and that I am doing my part to fight the good fight and push back on the fascism that we see invading our country. (And let's not bother lying to ourselves to say that fascism is not coming, because we are already seeing it in North Carolina.)

But truth be told I am not sacrificing nearly as much as I should, and neither are most of us.

Make no mistake, despite interference by James Comey, and hacking by the Russians, American voters are ultimately responsible for casting the votes that helped Trump win the electoral college.

Even if we assume that some voting machines were hacked the election still has to be close enough for that to matter.

So We the People are ultimately responsible for helping to usher in fascism and for defying the will of the Founding Fathers.

To rectify that, to save what is left of our republic, we need to rise up and fight.

No, I am not suggesting that we start shooting each other in the streets, or plan assaults against Washington, I am suggesting that we fight back with the same tools used to cripple us in the first place.

If fake news and Right Wing propaganda got us here in 2016 then real information and Left Wing fact checkers can steer us back to where we need to be in 2017.

For starters if you are a Facebook fan of this blog then promote it to all of your friends and family every single day. Or if you are more comfortable with Twitter than by all means use that.

And no not just this blog, but every blog and news site that is working to get information out to the masses.

If we want to make real change, if we want to rescue this nation that we love so much, we must be ready to irritate, frustrate, and ultimately educate the people we love until they see the reality of what is happening in the world.

We should present a deafening roar of facts and figures, a cacophony containing compilations of vital statistics, a constant drumbeat that shatters any illusion that this is business as usual and awakens people to the danger we face as a nation.

I know we cannot all just up and quit our jobs to make activism a full time occupation, but I also know we can always do more.

And truly what ultimately is more important than our future, the future of our families, and the future of this great country?

Bill Maher's New Rules was pretty great last night.

There was a lot of very interesting debate last night (He even had the Liberal Redneck on!), but for me the best part might have been Maher's final remarks:

"You can unfriend somebody whose politics you don't like, but you can't unfriend 47% 0f America. Roommates can move out, patriots can't. America needs you, more than ever. Right here. With me. And the rest of the resistance. Until we can figure out how to REALLY make America great again. And don't ever let them forget, we're still here." 

Yes, yes we are. And we will definitely some back in larger numbers and with more focus than ever before.

Remember progress IS coming.

Ever once in a while it just temporarily loses its way.

Elizabeth Warren attacks Donald Trump, Jill Stein gets hit in the crossfire.

Courtesy of the Boston Herald: 

Bay State Sen. Elizabeth Warren stepped up her attack on Donald Trump last night, calling him a “racist bully” — and saying that a vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein is effectively one for the Republican nominee. 

“Donald Trump is a thin-skinned, racist bully and he has proven that day after day, week after week, month after month for more than a year,” Warren said last night after a speech at Roxbury Community College, adding later: “He has made hate part of his campaign, and I think there comes a time when you just have to call him out on it. We have to say we are a better country than that.” 

When asked what she would say to far-left voters who would consider voting for Stein over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Warren sought to warn them off. 

“Anything you do that helps Donald Trump get one inch closer to the White House is a danger to all of us,” Warren said, adding that a vote for Stein “moves Donald Trump closer to the White House.”

Well she's not wrong, in fact I have been saying that for some time now, however I can only imagine how that will be received by Stein and the Green Party.

Oops never mind, don't have to imagine it.

Sad to see @elizabethforma attacking real progressives on behalf of a Wall Street-financed campaign. #WalkTheWalk https://t.co/7ZwVL69nHA

— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) August 26, 2016

Did Stein really suggest that Senator Warren was being controlled by Wall Street? Oh hell no!

Crazy anti-vaxxer lady you do NOT want to start a flame war with Elizabeth Warren. She will break you into tiny bite size pieces and feed you to her dogs.

P.S. I STILL think that Warren would have made a better VP pick. 

With the Bernie Sanders campaign now defined by anger, frustration, and defiance many feel it is doing more harm than good to Democratic hopes in 2016.

First CNN would like to clear something up about the aggression shown by Sanders' supporters in Nevada. It was planned: 

Sanders officials say that the Democratic Party should embrace the senator's supporters, not repel them. While they say they don't condone the behavior of some of their supporters at the Nevada convention, they blame leaders of the Nevada Democratic Party for shutting out Sanders' backers, prompting the chaos. 

But new audio obtained by CNN shows a senior Sanders aide -- on the eve of the Nevada convention -- encouraging the senator's supporters try to "take over" the convention, change party rules and continue the "revolution" that Sanders has long campaigned on. 

"You should not leave," Joan Kato, the national delegates director, told Sanders supporters in a meeting last week at the Rumor Boutique Hotel. "I'm going to repeat that, unless you are told by someone from the campaign ... that you can leave, you should not leave."

I am not sure what the Sanders' campaign thought would happen when they instruct their supporters to "take over" and refuse to leave, but clearly they should have expected anger, disruption, and death threats directed at the party chair. Because that is what happened.

Josh Marshall over at TPM now realizes that the problem with the Sanders campaign come from the top:

For months I'd thought and written that Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver was the key driver of toxicity in the the Democratic primary race. Weaver has been highly visible on television, far more than campaign managers tend to be. He's also been the one constantly upping the tension, pressing the acrimony and unrealism of the campaign as Sanders actual chances of winning dwindled. 

But now I realize I had that wrong. 

This should have been obvious to me. The tone and tenor of a campaign always come from the top. It wasn't obvious to me until now.

If you think that losing a staunch liberal like Josh Marshall is bad get a load of what Markos Moulitsas wrote over on the Daily Kos yesterday: 

Bernie Sanders lost the delegate battle at the Nevada State Democratic convention this past weekend, which only makes sense since he lost the state when voters voted. However, that didn’t stop one of the biggest explosions of outright crazy in Democratic politics in … forever.

Moulitsas then goes on to list all of the harassment directed at   State Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange by Sanders supporters and sums the whole thing up thusly: 

This is no longer a presidential campaign. I don’t know what it is, but that moment has passed. 

They say when, as a liberal, you lose Kos. You have pretty much lost your progressive credibility.

But not to worry Bernie has at least somebody on his side.

Bernie Sanders is being treated very badly by the Democrats - the system is rigged against him. Many of his disenfranchised fans are for me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2016

Oh yeah Donald Trump is LOVING this constant talk of the Democratic party being unfair and claims of corruption coming from the Sanders supporters. He could not have asked for a better scenario going into the general.

I think it is now obvious to just about everybody who is not a rabid Sanders supporter that the campaign is over and whatever Bernie hoped to accomplish has now been tainted.

In fact the campaign itself seems to have recognized the writing on the wall as well, they just don't want to the people who are still blindly following them and sending them their beer money.

Courtesy of Politico:

A handful of high-level staffers have left Bernie Sanders’ campaign in recent days, including his director of technology and three of the four members of his original senior leadership team in California — a state his team has said is critical to his bid for the Democratic nomination. 

The moves come at a time of contraction for the campaign, which let go of hundreds of field staffers earlier this month amid slowed fundraising. 

There are ways to end a political campaign with some dignity, but it really seems at this point that moment has passed for Bernie Sanders.

Which is too bad because I really feel that many of the issues that Sanders brought up were very important to have been included in this campaign season. However they have now been discussed, the Democratic party has taken note, and Hillary has included some of them in her platform.

So for Bernie Sanders to drag this out until the July convention, where his supporters will undoubtedly disrupt the proceedings and cause mayhem, seems completely unnecessary and even potentially harmful.

No the Clinton campaign will NOT call for Sanders to end his campaign, they can't since it would scandalize his supporters and likely anger them into skipping the November elections entirely.

But he needs to.

And do you know what? On some level I think he knows that.

Well, at least he should.

California passes automatic voter registration. You're eighteen years old, you have a driver's license, and are not a Kardashian, congratulations you are a registered voter. (Okay I made up that Kardashian part, but I think we can all agree it's a good idea.)

California Governor Jerry Brown.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:

Gov. Jerry Brown has approved legislation to make California the second state in the nation to begin automatically registering eligible voters when they obtain or renew their driver's licenses. 

AB1461 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, aims to boost California's voter rolls by registering visitors to the Department of Motor Vehicles and was among dozens of bills that Brown announced Saturday he had signed. 

It follows Oregon's move earlier this year to adopt the nation's first automatic voter registration law. 

The legislation backed by Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla calls for data collected by the DMV to be provided to the secretary of state's office, which would verify a resident's legal eligibility to vote before registering them. Drivers would have the option to opt out or cancel their voter registration at any time. 

Padilla praised the signing of the automatic registration bill. 

"Citizens should not be required to opt-in to their fundamental right to vote," he said in a statement. "We do not have to opt-in to other rights, such as free speech or due process. The right to vote should be no different." 

You know that makes so much sense that it pisses me off that this is not the law in EVERY state.

In fact I would like to see it expanded so that you get per-registered on the day you are born, and on the day you turn eighteen you receive your voter ID in the mail.

And if THAT makes you respect California just a little more get a load of this courtesy of The Sacramento Bee: 

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed legislation to ban the concealed carry of handguns at colleges and schools, further tightening California firearms restrictions that are already among the strictest in the nation. 

Current California law makes it illegal to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school or on a college campus without permission from administrators, but it exempts those with concealed carry permits. 

Senate Bill 707, by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, expands the prohibition on school and college grounds to include concealed weapons, while keeping the same rules in place for the 1,000-foot zone surrounding schools. Active and retire law enforcement officers are not covered by the law. 

I swear sometimes California does something that really sets it apart from the rest of the country in a good way.

If they were not always on the brink of bankruptcy, constantly on fire, and home to some of the most vacuous people on the planet, it might even be nice place to live.

Recent Gallup poll shows that Liberals are now as numerous as Conservatives in America. And that my friends is only the beginning.

Courtesy of Washington Post:  

You may not have realized it, but a large cohort of Americans did something brave this month. For years — in some cases, decades — these lonely, marginalized souls had repressed their shameful feelings, hiding them from the world. 

Then May came along, and they finally decided to come out of the closet. 

As liberals. 

That’s right: A large chunk of Americans recently decided to come out as “liberal” — socially liberal, to be specific. As a result, for the first time on record, self-proclaimed social liberals are no longer outnumbered by their conservative counterparts. 

That’s according to a new Gallup poll that finds the shares of American adults considering themselves “socially liberal” and “socially conservative” each total 31 percent. (The remaining respondents either called their views “moderate” or had no opinion.) Gallup has been tracking these categories since 1999, and the latest numbers simultaneously signify the highest share ever recorded for liberals and the lowest recorded for conservatives.

Okay now we're talking. 

I have been waiting for this day most of my life. Finally, liberals are finding their voice and standing up to be counted.

I remember when Ronald Reagan and "Moral Majority" turned the word "liberal" into a pejorative used to insult people who failed to recognize that America was the apple pie craving, Jesus Christ loving, red, white, and blue enshrouded, country that they believe God had made just for them.

And in our cowardice we failed to stand our ground. Instead we decided to call ourselves "progressives" as if that were going to distract the Right Wing from their constant attacks on everything we hold dear.

But it looks like finally liberals are going to their windows, flinging them open, and shouting "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

After all folks it is not the conservatives who move this country forward, with their death grip on the past and fear of change, it is the liberals, who are always looking forward and wondering what is just over the next hill, or waiting for us in the decades to come.

Does anybody really believe that the Founding Fathers were conservatives? I mean come on, what is more progressive than starting your own country?

No my friends, if you are a liberal, now is the time to stand up tall and straight and have the courage of your convictions.

And if you need further inspiration just look to the young people all around us, who overwhelmingly self identify as liberal, and who seem unaffected by the self doubts that plagued their parents and grandparents.

These millenials know that the future is theirs to shape, and they are already preparing to do so.

And if my own daughter serves as an indication as to where they are taking us, trust me they have ideas so progressive that it will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand straight up.

Personally I am more than ready for what is to come. But then again, I NEVER stopped wearing my liberal badge with pride.

Bernie Sanders is talking that sexy talk again.

I swear this is like political porn for liberals.

The guy should start a 1-800 number where for the low, low cost of five dollars a minute you can hear Bernie Sanders whispering progressive policy ideas into your ear.

He could probably finance his entire campaign this way.

President Obama VS Senator Elizabeth Warren on TPP.

Courtesy of Politico:  

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Elizabeth Warren is “wrong” in her criticisms of the Asia-Pacific trade agreement he’s trying to reach — an unusually direct criticism of the senator whose support he has courted on other issues that are increasingly shaping his party’s economic agenda. 

“I love Elizabeth. We’re allies on a whole host of issues. But she’s wrong on this,” Obama said in an interview with Chris Matthews to air Tuesday night on “Hardball.” 

Obama bristled at the suggestion that his trade agenda would hurt the middle class, a criticism he has faced from key union allies as well as Warren. 

“Think about it. I’ve spent the last six and half years yanking this economy out of the worst recession since the great depression. Every single thing I’ve done from the Affordable Care Act to pushing to raise the minimum wage to making sure that young people are able to go to college and get good job training to what we’re pushing now in terms of sick pay leave,” Obama said. “Everything I do has been focused on how do we make sure the middle class is getting a fair deal.” 

“Now I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class. And when you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts they are wrong,” Obama said. 

Here is video of the President's Hardball appearance yesterday:

Now I have a confession folks, your Uncle Gryphen is by no means an expert on trade deals, so I feel this whole thing is above my pay grade.

Not only that but we don't have enough information to even assess if this is a good deal or not. Which of course seems to be Warren's major concern. (Though it appears that she herself HAS seen the deal.)

And since I have nothing but respect for both President Obama and Senator Warren, I am quite torn over all of this.

Yes it is inconceivable to me that Obama would do anything to hurt the middle class. However it is equally inconceivable that Warren would have her facts wrong.

To be honest I kind of feel like a little kid who just wants his parents to stop fighting.

I think President Obama should simply invite Warren to the White House for a beer and pick her brain. After all if you want a good deal it can't hurt to have a former Harvard law professor take a look at it and give her recommendations, now can it?

The conservative attack on intellectualism is both deeply ingrained and purposeful.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Deep on page 546 of his 1,839-page budget, Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker tucked in a crucial idea. He proposed to strip a principle from the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin, a school that attracts students from all over the nation and from 131 foreign countries. From the core philosophy that has driven the university since the turn of the last century Walker wanted to hack out the words: “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth.” Rather than serving the people of the state by developing intellectual, cultural and humane sensitivities, expertise, and “a sense of purpose,” Walker prefers that the state university simply “meet the state’s workforce needs.” In the face of scathing criticism, the governor backtracked and, despite a trail of emails that led to his office, tried to claim the new language was a “drafting error.” 

But Walker’s attempt to replace the search for truth with workforce training was no error. Since the earliest days of Movement Conservatism in the 1950s, its leaders have understood that the movement’s success depends on destroying Americans’ faith in the academic search for truth. For two generations, Movement Conservatives have subverted American politics, with increasing success, by explicitly rejecting the principle of open debate based in reasoned argument. They have refused to engage with facts and instead simply demonized anyone who disagrees with their ideology. This is an astonishing position. It is an attack on the Enlightenment principles that gave rise to Western civilization. 

Make no mistake: the attack is deliberate.

The article goes on to lay out exactly how the conservatives of the 1950's bought into the ideas of William F, Buckley who wanted to replace the progressive thinking of our founding fathers, with a kind of blind obedience to the concepts of capitalism wrapped in Christianity to keep the people malleable.

For liberals it reads like an incredibly frightening Stephen King novel focused on a terrifying creature that attacks the brain and renders people unable to differentiate between facts and faith, and yet all it takes is the memory of the last few decades to recognize the truth.

Here is how the article sums up:

By the time of the George W. Bush administration, Movement Conservatives had constructed a post-modern political world where reality mattered far less than the popular story of Conservatives standing firm against the “Liberal agenda” of godlessness and communism. As a member of the Bush administration famously noted to journalist Ron Suskind, “the reality-based” view of the world was obsolete. It was no longer viable to believe that people could find solutions to societal problems by studying reality. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” this senior advisor to the president told Suskind. “We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors… and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” 

Buckley’s intellectual stand had won. Facts and argument had given way to an ideology premised on Christianity and the idea of economic individualism. As Movement Conservatives took over the Republican Party, that ideology worked its way deep into our political system. It has given us, for example, a senator claiming words he spoke on the Senate floor were “not intended to be a factual statement.” It has given us “dynamic scoring,” a rule changing the way the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the economic impact of tax cuts, to reinforce the idea that cuts fuel economic growth despite the visibly disastrous effects of recent tax cuts on states such as Kansas. And it has given us attempts in Oklahoma, Texas, North Carolina and Colorado to discard the A.P. U.S. History framework and dictate that students learn instead the Movement Conservatives’ skewed version of the nation’s history. Politicians have always spun information to advance their own policies. The practice infuriates partisans but it reflects the Enlightenment idea of progress through reasoned argument. Movement Conservatives’ insistence on their own version of reality, in defiance of facts, is something different altogether. 

When Governor Walker replaced “the search for truth” with “meet the state’s workforce needs” in the charge to the University of Wisconsin, he did not make an error. He was articulating the principle that has driven Movement Conservatives since their earliest days: Facts and arguments can only lead Americans toward a government that regulates business and supports working Americans, and they must be squelched. The search for truth must be replaced by an ideology that preserves Christianity and big-business individualism. Religion and freedom for mega-business, Movement Conservatives insist, is what America is all about.

It is not hyperbole in my opinion to firmly state that the Republicans in this country are engaged in a form of not so subtle treason, in which they attack truth for refusing to bend to their will and systematically try to keep the population ignorant enough to convince to support policies that damaging to our economy, to our environment, and to our future.

They must be stopped and they must be stopped now.

Robert Reich gives us all hope for 2015.

You know when you really think about it, despite attempts by the Right to obstruct progress at every turn, we are really moving forward at a fairly impressive pace.

Senator Orrin Hatch, "My gosh, they're just straight old dumbass liberals anyway." Hey!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) came out swinging against Democrats Friday, telling a room of conservative lawyers that Republicans were ready to give the other party "a taste of their own medicine." 

"Frankly, I intend to win with our candidate for the presidency in 2016, and we will give them a taste of their own medicine," said Hatch. "And we're going to win. We're going to win. These next two years are extremely important. Maybe the most important two years in our history." 

Hatch also drew laughs from the crowd when he made fun of the left for using the term "progressive." 

"I get a big kick out of them using the word 'progressive,'" he said. "My gosh, they're just straight old dumbass liberals anyway."

Well he seems nice.

By the way Orrin Hatch is the guy who once said, "Capital punishment is our society's recognition of the sanctity of human life."

A quote which I must be too much of a dumbass to understand.

I am not sure which "taste of our own medicine" Hatch is planning to give Democrats, but if it means Republicans are going to lay down and allow the Democrats to roll over them, like our people have done for the last six years, well then that seems fair.

As for being progressives, I think I'll take it. After all it sure beats being a warmongering, anti-science, anti-women's rights, old dried up fossil any fucking day of the week.

But what do I know? After all I'm just a liberal, and all we have are logic and facts on our side.

Elizabeth Warren's 11 Commandments for Progressives. Oh yeah!

Courtesy of Vox:

1.  "We believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement, and we're willing to fight for it." 
2. "We believe in science, and that means that we have a responsibility to protect this Earth." 
3. "We believe that the Internet shouldn't be rigged to benefit big corporations, and that means real net neutrality." 
4. "We believe that no one should work full-time and still live in poverty, and that means raising the minimum wage." 
5. "We believe that fast-food workers deserve a livable wage, and that means that when they take to the picket line, we are proud to fight alongside them." 
6. "We believe that students are entitled to get an education without being crushed by debt." 
7. "We believe that after a lifetime of work, people are entitled to retire with dignity, and that means protecting Social Security, Medicare, and pensions." 
8. "We believe—I can't believe I have to say this in 2014—we believe in equal pay for equal work." 
9. "We believe that equal means equal, and that's true in marriage, it's true in the workplace, it's true in all of America." 
10. "We believe that immigration has made this country strong and vibrant, and that means reform." 
11. "And we believe that corporations are not people, that women have a right to their bodies. We will overturn Hobby Lobby and we will fight for it. We will fight for it!"

You know after reading that I want Warren to be Hillary's running mate in 2016 do badly I can taste it.

Damn that's good stuff!

New documents prove that Charles Koch, just like his father, was an active member of the John Birch society and the Tea Party is essentially an offshoot of that organization.

The folks over at Progressive Inc. and the Center for Media and Democracy are publishing new information from uncovered documents that prove Charles Koch was an active member of the Kansas John Birch society even up through the civil rights era.

Here is just a little of what The Progressive writes about the findings: 

Charles Koch was not simply a rank and file member of the John Birch Society in name only who paid nominal dues. He purchased and held a "lifetime membership" until he resigned in 1968. He also lent his name and his wealth to the operations of the John Birch Society in Wichita, aiding its "American Opinion" bookstore -- which was stocked with attacks on the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, and Earl Warren as elements of the communist conspiracy. He funded the John Birch Society's promotional campaigns, bought advertising in its magazine, and supported its distribution of right-wing radio shows.

The reactionary ideas learned from his father and stoked by his ideological ally in Wichita, Bob Love of the Love Box Company, were not simply passing fancies of the young scion of an oil fortune. The tools of the trade he absorbed in his late twenties and early thirties appear to continue to animate some of his actions decades later, as with his 2014 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal claiming those who criticize him are "collectivists." The echoes of his past role reverberate along with the millions he and his brother David Koch have spent fueling a John Birch Society-like "Tea Party" peopled with right-wingers like Birchers of decades past who contend against all reasoning that the president is a communist. David Koch himself has claimed President Obama is a scary "socialist." These roots run deep in the Kochs. 

In many ways, the playbook deployed by the Kochs today through myriad organizations resembles a more sophisticated (and expensive) playbook of the John Birch Society back then. Even the recent announcement of the Kochs to give a $25 million gift to the United Negro College Fund (with strings attached requiring the recruitment of free market African American college students) echoes that past. In 1964, in the face of criticism for its assault on the civil rights movement, the John Birch Society also funded a scholarship program to give college funds to African Americans who were not active in the civil rights movement, according to documents the Progressive.org/Center for Media and Democracy has obtained. 

It has been pointed out repeatedly that the modern Tea Party is simply a reboot of the same organization famous for its numerous communistic conspiracy theories, anti-civil rights stance, and homophobic mindset.

This organization almost doomed the Republican party in the 1960's and it looks like the modern day reincarnation is ready to do the same in 2014.

It is time for liberals to proudly reclaim their identities.

Courtesy of Salon:  

“Liberal” became a dirty word in American politics for two reasons. First, a combination of Democratic leaders perceived as ineffectual — George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis — helped tarnish the term. However, these individuals alone did not cause liberalism’s disappearance; after all, one does not see a similar aversion to conservatism because of Nixon, Bush and other Republican failures. The second and more important reason was that conservatives successfully conducted a campaign against the term, transfiguring it from a philosophy of freedom and social mobility into a bureaucracy-loving, freedom-depriving, taxation-and-entitlement ideology of largesse. Conservatives linked liberalism with the turmoil of the ’60s and stagflation of the ’70s, as well as the various foreign policy crises of that decade, and liberals themselves disowned the term. In vulgarizing the word liberal and polluting its definition, Republicans put Democrats on the permanent defensive. It was an act of staggering political genius. 

The lesson Democrats took from George McGovern’s disastrous 1972 showing, Reagan’s overwhelming 1984 victory (where he won 525 electoral votes and won every state but Minnesota, Walter Mondale’s home state) and Bill Clinton’s successive victories was that conservatives were right. Liberalism had to be abandoned as a term and as an ideology. Democrats could compete with Republicans only by adopting conservative language and logic. After all, wasn’t Mr. “New Democrat” and “the era of big government is over” the first Democrat since FDR to win reelection? As George Orwell wrote in his famous essay, “Politics and the English Language,” “language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.” Democrats had let the opposing party define their politics, vernacular and even policies. In effect, the GOP was given a monopoly over language in the 1990s and 2000s, and thus a monopoly over the very contours of political debate. Democrats should have known better. 

So muddied had the term become that even 25 years after Ronald Reagan’s victory, ostensible liberals like Barack Obama ran away from the label. To preempt criticism of his liberalism — unsuccessfully, as the more nefarious and implausible charge of socialism awaited him — candidate Obama spoke of Ronald Reagan as a transformational president. When Hillary Clinton was asked during a primary debate in 2007 whether she identified as a liberal, Clinton answered in the negative, preferring the term “progressive.” Top Obama advisers berated liberals from the White House, with Robert Gibbs dismissing “the professional left” and Rahm Emanuel calling liberals “fucking retarded.” It was as if the intellectual richness of the liberal tradition — ranging from Adam Smith to John Rawls — and its manifold policy accomplishments had all been expurgated. 

As both the label and the philosophy of liberalism return to the fore, Democrats should self-confidently reclaim the term. They should be protective of the term’s meaning and use it unabashedly, the way Republicans do of conservatism. They should remind the electorate of liberalism’s inextricable connection to the American experiment. In a sentence, they should become liberals again.

I could not have said it better myself.

Liberal numbers are growing stronger everyday, and soon it will be conservatives who dare not identify themselves as such.

Well except for the deep south of course, those guys are going take quite a little while to finally join the rest of the country.