Donald Trump bragged in a speech to fundraisers about lying right to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's face.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was the case. 

“Trudeau came to see me. He’s a good guy, Justin. He said, ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,’ ” Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio of the private event in Missouri obtained by The Washington Post. “Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald, we have no trade deficit.’ He’s very proud because everybody else, you know, we’re getting killed. 

“ ... So, he’s proud. I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. … And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong, Justin.’ He said, ‘Nope, we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well, in that case, I feel differently,’ I said, ‘but I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, ‘Check, because I can’t believe it.’ 

‘Well, sir, you’re actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesn’t include energy and timber. … And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year.’ It’s incredible.” 

That last part is of course pure bullshit, we have a trade surplus with Canada, not a deficit.

First off Canada is an American ally, not enemy.

Secondly obviously Trudeau knew Trump was full of shit, so what was the point of lying?

And thirdly if this buttmunch cannot even handle diplomacy with our allies, how can we trust him to deal with North Korea?

Fourthly this idiot is still pushing this lie on Twitter.

We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn’t like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that’s how I know!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2018

You know I have no idea how much more damage Donald Trump is going to be able to inflict on America's image, but I know that we have not seen the bottom yet.

Just a reminder as to who to blame for the skyrocketing healthcare costs that are about to hit the American people.

per CBO: Trump ending subsidies increases premiums 20% by 2018 and 25% by 2020. Deficit goes up $6b by 2018 and $21b by 2020,

— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 13, 2017

Courtesy of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:  

Stopping cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as President Trump has repeatedly threatened, would drive up federal marketplace subsidy costs, raise premiums, cause more insurers to withdraw from the marketplaces, and increase the number of uninsured next year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found today. Key findings include: 

Stopping CSR payments would raise federal budget deficits by $6 billion in 2018 and $194 billion over the next ten years, relative to current law, due to increased costs for the ACA’s premium tax credits for low- and moderate-income people to offset their rising premiums (see below). 

Marketplace premiums for “silver-level” plans would rise by 20 percent, on average, in 2018. Premiums for such plans would be 25 percent higher in 2020 and thereafter, relative to current law. 

Marketplace insurers in some states would withdraw from or not enter the marketplaces in 2018. As a result, the share of the nation’s population living in areas with no marketplace insurers would rise to 5 percent in 2018, up from less than 0.5 percent under current law. 

The number of uninsured would rise by 1 million in 2018, relative to current law.

Trumpcare is about to crap all over the idiots that were moronic enough to vote for the tangerine flavored toddler.

I wonder if even THAT will finally wake them up to what they have helped to create? 

Exactly!

And the same holds true for jobs numbers, criminal activity within the administration, and demonstrating patriotism.

He's white, and he's a Republican, so it just doesn't matter.

Alaska Senate passes bill to cap Permanent Fund at $1,000.

Courtesy of KTUU: 

A steady stream of state government revenue instead of relying exclusively on volatile oil markets, and $1,000 dividends for Alaskans: that's what a bill approved Wednesday by the Alaska Senate would guarantee. 

Senate Bill 26 passed the GOP-controlled Senate 12 to 8 and strongly resembles the Permanent Fund restructure bill that cleared the Senate last year with the endorsement of Gov. Bill Walker but failed to pass the House. 

Under the new plan, 5.25 percent of the $57.2 billion fund -- as calculated over a five-year period of time -- would be drawn annually from the earnings reserve account. 

Three quarters of the money drawn out would be funneled to government, putting a significantly bigger dent in the $3 billion budget deficit than the proposals to implement an income tax and cut government spending for a third year in a row. 

The remainder of the draw would go to pay dividends, which would be locked at $1,000 for three years and are expected to grow slightly thereafter.

I can't even get upset about this.

I have known this day was coming since 1982 when I received my first PFD check. Which by the way was ALSO for $1,000.

However I am in the minority in my lack of anger over this, and I well realize that the majority of my fellow Alaskans are going to want blood and that the politicians who proposed this bill, and voted on it, have seriously endangered their prospects for reelection.

On a positive note perhaps it will convince some of the parasites up here to move on to greener pastures and leave the state to the REAL Alaskans.

Government has a fifty five billion dollar surplus. Gee, thanks Obama!

You're welcome America.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The U.S. government posted a $55 billion budget surplus in January, up from an $18 billion deficit in the same month a year ago, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. 

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a $45 billion surplus for last month. Treasury officials said the surplus was boosted by the highest receipts on record for the month of January.

You know it's just too bad President Obama's not a white guy, or else he would be getting all kinds of credit for saving out economy.

Oh, and there's this too.

The current fiscal year-to-date deficit stood at $160 billion, compared to a deficit of $194 billion at the same point last year.

Don't forget however that these are just facts, and conservatives refuse to believe in their existence.

Conservatives keep lying about the deficit under the Obama administration. Here's the truth.

Courtesy of MSNBC:

Keep in mind, in the Obama era, the deficit has shrunk by $1 trillion. That’s “trillion,” with a “t.” As a percentage of the economy, the deficit is now down to just 2.5%, which is below the average of the past half-century, and down from 9.8% when the president took office.

Those are the facts, however thanks to the constant barrage of Right Wing propaganda hardly anybody knows it:  

The vast majority of Americans are absolutely certain – thanks to deceptive Republican rhetoric and unfortunate news coverage – that the deficit has soared in the Obama era. Late last year, a Bloomberg Politics Poll found that 73% of the public believes the deficit has gotten bigger over the last six years.

Just the other day I heard some conservative claim that under Obama the deficit had grown another trillion dollars. I knew that was wrong, so when I saw this article on The Maddow Blog I felt is really needed to be shared with as many people as possible. 

 I feel it is my job as a liberal to filter through the conservative BS,  find the nuggets of actual truth, and then make sure that people see and understand them.

Sometimes I really hate my job.

CBO predicts deficit will shrink to lowest level since President Obama took office.

Courtesy of AP: 

Solid economic growth will help the federal budget deficit shrink this year to its lowest level since President Barack Obama took office, according to congressional estimates released Monday. 

The Congressional Budget Office also projects a 14 percent drop in the number of U.S. residents without health insurance, largely because of Obama's health law. 

In a report released Monday, CBO says the deficit will be $468 billion for the budget year that ends in September. That's slightly less than last year's $483 billion deficit. 

The official scorekeeper of Congress projects solid economic growth for the next few years, with unemployment dropping slightly. 

"In CBO's estimation, increases in consumer spending, business investment and residential investment will drive the economic expansion this year and over the next few years," the report said. 

CBO also cited wage increases, rising wealth and the recent decline in oil prices.

Gee thanks Obama.

No seriously, thanks Mr. President. 

Newly elected Oklahoma Senator says that he will utilize a "Biblical worldview" to bring down national debt. Because when dealing with modern day problems why not rely on a book written over three thousand years ago?

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Oklahoma Senator-elect James Lankford says his “biblical worldview” will guide his actions in the upper chamber. “Budget, for me, is still a huge area. The people have started to step back and say, ‘Well, our deficit is only $480 billion now so we are doing much better in deficit.’ We still have $480 billion. That’s a big deal,” the Republican congressman and Baptist minister told Family Research Council president Tony Perkins on Wednesday. 

“I come from a biblical worldview in the way I address issues,” Lankford said. “I look at Nehemiah and how he handled things when he stepped into Jerusalem. It was that the people were in disgrace and the wall was broken down, but the two things that he focused in on was the constructive side of things and the debt. Half of the Book of Nehemiah is just getting the people out of debt, so they could actually take on the other things.”

Lankford also suggested that it would help if more people prayed.  

“We are all pretty frustrated with what is happening in government, let’s lean in, let’s pray through, and let’s do this.”

It might be worth pointing out that President Obama has managed to cut the deficit in half without relying on the "wisdom" from Nehemia. So one can only wonder what Lankford's channeling of the spirit of Nehemia will instruct him to do differently.

I continue to be stunned that public officials are still attempting to perceive direction from a book written by primitive people who believed that the stars were stuck in a watery firmament, diseases were caused by demons, and that weather patterns could be changed through animal sacrifice.

I thought this might be a little good news start to our Labor Day.

Actually by the end of 2014 it is projected that the deficit will only represent 2.9% pf the GDP.

Gee imagine how much better it would be if the Republicans would lift a finger to help the President repair the economy.

If everyone in the U.S. was on Medicare, the savings would move the federal budget from deficit to surplus.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

We don't have a free market for health-care services. If we did, we would see a narrow range of prices for the same service. After all, a Ford F-150 pickup with the same options costs about the same in Washington, West Virginia, or Wyoming. Not so hospital and medical costs, a fact brought home in the 2012 Pricing Report of the International Federation of Health Plans, a trade association for health insurance companies. 

While the average U.S. hospital stay is just under $4,300 per day, one in four patients are charged $1,514 or less and one in 20 pay $12,537 or more. 

The total cost for an appendectomy ranges from $8,156 for a fourth of these procedures to more than $29,426 for the most expensive 5 percent. The average cost is $13,851. 

Economists learn before they get their undergraduate degrees that such huge variations are signs of inefficient markets or even faux markets. Such wide price variations may even indicate collusion among some providers to jack up prices, which is generally illegal. 

But even if we ignore these huge price variations, the trade industry report illustrates another problem: American health-care costs are completely out of line with the rest of the modern world. 

In France the average daily cost of a hospital stay is $853; in the U.S., it's $4,287. 

An MRI costs on average $335 in Britain and $363 in France, but $1,121 in the U.S. 

Routine and normal childbirth costs, on average: $2,641 in Britain and $3,541 in France but in the U.S. averages $9,775. Caesarean section delivery runs $4,435 in Britain, $6,441 in France; $15,041 in the U.S. 

This pattern holds for all 21 procedures examined in the report. 

Excessive health-care costs drain both the public purse and private purses, make manufacturing uncompetitive and force employers to divert attention from running their firms to dealing with health insurers. 

Our universal single-payer health-care plan for older Americans, Medicare, has lower costs and lower overhead than the system serving those under age 65. If everyone in the U.S. was on Medicare, the savings would move the federal budget from deficit to surplus.

Of course this is common sense for many of us, but the Republicans have fought against this idea with tooth and nail every time the suggestion is made.

Why? Well that would have much to do with lobbyists and campaign donations. 

One of the reasons that the Right Wing has pushed back so hard against the Affordable Care Act, in fact Sarah Palin said this outright, is that they see it as the first step toward universal care.

There are very few times that I hope Sarah Palin is right about something, but this is one of those times.

CBO issues list of provisions for lowering the deficit. A big one is to offer a public option for health care.

Courtesy of FDL:  

The CBO found that a public option based on Medicare would reduce the deficit by $158 billion through reduced spending and increased revenue. 

The reason a public option would be so effective at reducing the deficit is that it would significantly lower premiums for millions of regular Americans and businesses. This would, in turn, reduce the amount of subsidies the government would need to spend to make insurance “affordable.” From the CBO: 

"In the Congressional Budget Office’s estimation, premiums for the public plan would be between 7 percent and 8 percent lower, on average, during the 2016–2023 period than premiums for private plans offered in the exchanges—mainly because the public plan’s payment rates for providers would generally be lower than those of private plans. In addition, the public plan would be likely to have lower administrative costs than private plans. However, CBO expects that the public plan would be less inclined than private plans to use benefit management techniques (such as narrow provider networks, utilization review, and prior-approval requirements) to control spending. [...] 

One rationale for adding a public plan to the exchanges is that it would help reduce premiums for some individuals, families, and employers who would buy insurance through the exchanges but would not qualify for subsidies. Premiums would be reduced both because the public plan would be one of the lowest-cost plans available in many areas and because adding a low-cost option would increase the competitive pressure on private plans,leading them to decrease their premiums." 

A public option would inherently make insurance cheaper for people, and the government could use the deficit reductions to pay for increased exchange subsidies which would bring down what regular people need to pay even further.

I think with the recent debacle demonstrated by the problems with the website and the fact that the insurance companies clearly stabbed the President in the back, indicates that the government needs to take some drastic measures to draw a line in the sand and offer an affordable health care plan that would force the insurance companies to stop playing games and start competing on a more level playing field.

Of course this is EXACTLY what the Right Wing has feared all along. Which of course only makes it that much better of an idea.

Besides aren't THEY the ones always complaining about the deficit?

As Republicans continue to claim that Obama policies are driving up the deficit, new report shows it has fallen to half of what it was when he took office.

"You're welcome America."

Courtesy of Politico:  

Administration officials reported on Wednesday that the deficit has fallen to half of what it was when President Barack Obama took office — touting the numbers as congressional budget negotiations begin amid Republican criticism of Democrats’ stewardship of the government’s finances. 

The administration said the fiscal 2013 deficit is $680 billion, which is $409 billion less than the fiscal 2012 deficit and $293 billion less than forecast in Obama’s April budget. The fiscal year ended on Sept. 30. 

As a percent of Gross Domestic Product, the preferred measurement by economists, the deficit fell to 4.1 percent, a drop of more than half from the deficit when Obama took office. 

You know sometimes it must feel to Republicans as if the very planets are aligning against them, and that they have to spend all of their time trying to distract from facts, which have a liberal bias, and  instead create distractions to keep the low information voters from realizing that everything they say is a steaming pile of shit.

Not that I for an instant feel sorry for them, by the way, because if they WEREN'T working so hard to argue against reality they could be working with the Democrats to make this country a better place for all of us.

I cannot even begin to imagine how low the deficit might be by now if the Republicans and Democrats, could put aside their partisan bickering, and were working together to bring it down.

Bernie Sanders is talking tough and taking no goddamn prisoners these days!

This is from the website of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders:  

How did we go from healthy surpluses to terrible deficits? It's not that complicated. In 2001, President Clinton left office with a $236-billion surplus. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office foresaw a 10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion, enough to erase the national debt by 2011. It didn't work out that way. 

Instead, under President George W. Bush, wars were launched in Afghanistan and Iraq without paying for them. The cost of those wars, estimated at up to $6 trillion, was tacked onto our national credit card. Then Congress passed and Bush signed an expensive prescription drug program. It also was not paid for. Then Bush and Congress handed out big tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations. That drove down revenue. So did the recession in 2008, which was caused by a deregulated Wall Street. All that turned big surpluses into big deficits. 

Interestingly, today's "deficit hawks" in Congress — Rep.Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and other conservative Republicans — voted for those measures that drove up deficits. Now that they're worried about deficits again, they want to dismantle virtually every social program designed to protect working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor. 

In other words, it's OK to spend trillions on a war we should never have waged in Iraq and to provide huge tax breaks for billionaires and multinational corporations. But in the midst of very difficult economic times, we just can't afford to protect the most vulnerable people in our country. That's their view. I disagree. 

So where do we go from here? How do we draft a federal budget that creates jobs, makes our country more productive, protects working families and lowers the deficit? 

For a start, we cannot impose more austerity on people who are already suffering. When 95% of all new income between 2009 and 2012 went to the top 1%, and while tens of millions of working Americans saw a decline in their income, we cannot cut programs that working families depend on. 

Instead of talking about cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, we must end the absurdity of corporations not paying a nickel in federal income taxes. A 2008 report from the Government Accountability Office found that was the case with 1 in 4 large U.S. corporations. At a time when multinational corporations and the wealthy are avoiding an estimated $100 billion a year in taxes by stashing money in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, we need to make them pay taxes just as middle-class Americans do.

You know the thing that never stops irritating the crap out of me is that we always allow the Republicans to define the debate. Even when we stand up to them we are always  in a position where we have already acquiesced to most of their demands. (See Sequestration.)

I think we need to stop playing defense and start taking the fight to them. In fact I think we have to!

I do realize that Bernie Sanders is in a VERY safe district in Vermont and therefore is allowed to speak his mind with impunity, but I also know that if we were able to effectively explain to the American people what is REALLY going on these days we would start to gain ground politically and over time hopefully change the discussion to make it more factually based.

I say that after Hillary gets elected she drafts  her husband, Bill Clinton to a newly formed Cabinet position, the "Czar of explaining stuff to the American people."

"Put me in Hil, I got this."

Sound good?

Top ten infuriating things you may or may not know about this government shutdown.

Cartoon courtesy of the LA Times.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

1. Democrats have already agreed to fund the government at Republican levels. 

2. Despite what you might have heard, there have only been two serious government shutdowns in recent history, and both were the result of Republican ultimatums. 

3. Democrats in the Senate have been begging the House to negotiate over the budget for the past six months, but Republicans have refused. 

4. That's because Republicans wanted to wait until they had either a government shutdown or a debt ceiling breach as leverage, something they've been very clear about all along. 

5. Republicans keep talking about compromise, but they've offered nothing in return for agreeing to their demands—except to keep the government intact if they get their way. 

6. The public is very strongly opposed to using a government shutdown to stop Obamacare. 

7. Contrary to Republican claims, the deficit is not increasing—it peaked in 2009 and has been dropping ever since, declining by $200 billion last year with another $450 billion drop projected this year. 

8. A long government shutdown is likely to seriously hurt economic growth, with a monthlong shutdown projected to slash GDP in the fourth quarter by 1 percentage point and reduce employment by over a million jobs. 

9. No, Democrats have not used debt ceiling hostage taking in the past to force presidents to accept their political agenda. 

10. This whole dispute is about the Republican Party fighting to make sure the working poor don't have access to affordable health care. 

You know I have to wonder is there ANYBODY left who does not realize what the Republican party is trying to do? Or who are ignorant enough to blame what is happening on the President and Democratic party?

I mean at this point even Fox News is having a hard time covering for these duplicitous assholes.

I think I agree with a commenter from the other day. The GOP is no longer engaging in politics, they are essentially traitors to their own country and should be treated as such.

I ma not one to call for a civil war, but I am afraid that we may already be in the middle of one.

P.S. By the way just in case you doubt any of the points made by this article, if you click the link at the top you can see all of the citations that were used to back them up.

Conservative logic.

Imagine how the Republicans would react if Obama's first term was anything like Bush's first term. I doubt they would have stopped with simple impeachment.

Courtesy of Forward Progressives:

Just imagine if during President Obama’s first term: 

• His very first election, he’s “elected” President when the United States Supreme Court overrules Florida’s Supreme Court call for a statewide recount, thus becoming President of the United States—even though he lost the popular vote. 
• 8 months after he took office we experienced the worst terrorist attack in United States history, and there was solid evidence presented that he had intelligence saying that a terrorist group was planning on attack on United States soil—but did nothing. 
• Video was shown of his reaction to being told that the United States was under attack, and he sat there for a few minutes with a blank look on his face—doing nothing. 
• Our economy went from a balanced budget, and a budget surplus, back to deficits—every year he had been President. 
• The longest period of economic growth in American history—came to an end. 
• We started a war with Iraq. About 2 months after the start of the war he then decided to land on an aircraft carrier (in a flight suit) to declare “Mission Accomplished.” Yet 2 years later, over 2,000 American soldiers had died and not a single weapon of mass destruction had been found. 
• 4 years after the 9/11 attack, Osama bin Ladin had still not been captured. 
• Reports, and photos, of abuse by the U.S. Army against Iraqi prisoners surfaces at the Abu Ghraib prison. 
• We saw 5 different attacks on American embassies. Attorney General John Ashcroft appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the first leaked pieces coming to light of communication within the intelligence community about the authorization of torture on prisoners of war to extract information (Bush later admitted he authorized torture and would do it again). 
• Told Iraqi insurgents to “Bring it on.”

Now go ahead Republicans, try to find ANYTHING comparable with THIS administration.

Fucking hypocrites!

In the category of more information the GOP is trying to distract you from, the deficit is falling faster than at any time since World War ll.

 Courtesy of USA Today:

A continued decline in the federal budget deficit this year is resulting in a better than expected fiscal forecast for 2013 from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. 

The CBO projects a $642 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2013, down more than $200 billion from its February estimate and the smallest annual shortfall since 2008. It is the lowest level of deficit spending to date under President Obama, who faced $1 trillion or more in annual deficits during his first term. 

According to CBO, about half of the increase in revenues over the next two years are from new tax rules, such as higher rates and expiration of certain deductions. Revenue is also up due to "factors related mainly to the strengthening economy" including increases in "some components of taxable income" such as wages and capital gains. 

According to Investors.com:


Believe it or not, the federal deficit has fallen faster over the past three years than it has in any such stretch since demobilization from World War II. 

In fact, outside of that post-WWII era, the only time the deficit has fallen faster was when the economy relapsed in 1937, turning the Great Depression into a decade-long affair. 

Gee, just imagine how much faster it would fall if the Republicans would allow President Obama to do his damn job!

Of course the Right Wing categorizes this under, "Just another attempt by the President to distract us from Benghazi."

(H/T to Politicususa.)

New study finds that "The legacy of decisions taken during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will dominate future federal budgets for decades to come."

George W. Bush: President, murderer, and traitor to his country.

Courtesy of the Harvard Kennedy School:

The Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, taken together, will be the most expensive wars in US history – totaling somewhere between $4 to $6 trillion. This includes long-term medical care and disability compensation for service members, veterans and families, military replenishment and social and economic costs. The largest portion of that bill is yet to be paid. Since 2001, the US has expanded the quality, quantity, availability and eligibility of benefits for military personnel and veterans. This has led to unprecedented growth in the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense budgets. These benefits will increase further over the next 40 years. Additional funds are committed to replacing large quantities of basic equipment used in the wars and to support ongoing diplomatic presence and military assistance in the Iraq and Afghanistan region. The large sums borrowed to finance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will also impose substantial long-term debt servicing costs. As a consequence of these wartime spending choices, the United States will face constraints in funding investments in personnel and diplomacy, research and development and new military initiatives. The legacy of decisions taken during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will dominate future federal budgets for decades to come.

You know I have for all of my life had a pretty bad temper.  Actually a VERY bad temper.

I have much more control over it now than I did in years past, but this is the kind of thing that strips away those controls and throws me into an absolute rage.

As the Republicans bitch at our President for not balancing the budget, or not addressing the national debt, or not bringing down the deficit, they do so acting as if those were EVER their concerns when George Bush was spending billions of our dollars, murdering the Iraqi and Afghan people, while simultaneously sending American servicemen, and women, into the meat grinders of two unnecessary wars.

Did even ONE of them mention spending in those days? (Yes, I know about Ron Paul, but he is really dealing with a whole different set of delusions.)

These soldiers, the ones that survived, will for decades to come need the support of a United States government that betrayed their trust and forced them to do, and suffer, unspeakable atrocities in the name of "freedom."

And we will also continue to spend, for generations to come, billions of dollars to repair the damage that our bombs and bullets did to countries that, through no fault of their own, were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yet the Republicans who gleefully and wholeheartedly voted to support these conflicts, and the money spent to conduct them, now have the audacity to demand that President Obama clean up their giant, expensive mess more quickly, and with virtually no support from them.

Like I said, I have a bad temper. Let's just say that there are members of the Republican party that do not want to meet me in a dark alley anytime soon. And that goes for the people who voted them into office as well.

(P.S. Before anybody gets their panties in a twist, you should know that I am not planning to hurt anybody physically. I have too much to lose, and nothing concrete to gain by doing so. But that does not mean that a face to face meeting with me would be something that one of these lawmakers should look forward to. I also possess a rather impressive and colorful vocabulary. And THAT I'm not afraid to use.)

Sean Hannity gets spanked on his show by Rep. Keith Ellison and finally ends the interview early in frustration. Gotta love it!

Courtesy of Mediaite:

 Right at the top of the interview, Ellison told Hannity, “You are the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen.” He scolded Hannity for trying to blame the president instead of providing accurate information on the sequester fight, and called Hannity a “shill for the Republican party.” Hannity invited Ellison to “keep ranting.” 

After Ellison spoke for a bit, Hannity cut him off to ask another question, but Ellison fired back, “No, wait a minute, you said I could rant, and I am.” Hannity said he’s had plenty of time to rant, but before he could get onto the next question, Ellison kept loudly talking. Hannity asked, “Why are you so angry?” 

Hannity told Ellison he was acting “comical,” and in response to Ellison’s bewilderment and light mocking, he said he gave him enough time to rant without getting another question. Hannity said that in the spirit of bipartisanship they should have a dialogue. Ellison shot back, “I thought you weren’t a Republican.” 

Hannity clarified he’s a registered conservative. Hannity then moved on to his question. He claimed the sequester was the Democrats’ fault, to which Ellison immediately insisted it was the Republican-led House’s fault. Hannity tried to call out President Obama for the massive debt, and Ellison fought back with a few suggestions for how Democrats want to lessen the debt, which Hannity practically laughed at. 

As Hannity attempted to ask Ellison another question about the “immoral” debt, Ellison called Hannity immoral and accused him of telling lies. He insisted that the massive debt is not Obama’s fault, which led to a brief shouting match between the two men. Hannity cut Ellison off by telling him the interview was a “total waste of time.”

I have to tell you that it was beyond satisfying watching Hannity get called out on his partisan bullshit.  And I damn near busted a gut when he claimed he was not a Republican.

The whole network is one giant propagnada arm for the Republican party and the more that people like Rep. Ellison call them out over it the better.

You know perhaps next he should invite Florida Congressman Alan Grayson on his program. I am sure he will let Hannity get a word in edgewise. Yeah probably not.

Rachel Maddow offers you the perfect rejoinder in response to that annoying conservative relative this Thanksgiving day.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 Here are the charts that Rachel mentions in this segment.

P.S. Rachel also listed a number of things she was thankful for yesterday. Go ahead and take a look. I have a feeling you are probably thankful for many of the same things.

P.P.S. By the way if the above is not enough help for you this Thanksgiving, say you have a BUNCH of Right Wingers in your family, you can also visit this site for reference in helping you to explain just WHY we should all be thankful that President Obama was reelected.