The 21-year-old coward who went to a predominately black church in Charleston South Carolina on Wednesday and murdered 9 people as they prayed in what was supposed to be a peaceful sanctuary, was captured toady in North Carolina and has since been extradited back to South Carolina. Below is President Obama’s statement on these senseless killings.
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Donald Trump is running for president. Have you heard? He made a “speech” about it yesterday. It’s the kind of speech that would make Sarah Palin proud. This “speech” has been described by Jon Stewart as “the most beautifully ridiculous jibber-jabber ever to pour from the mouth of a batshit billionaire.”
Stewart goes on…
“America’s id is running for president! This speech was so fucked up that in the middle of it, all the liquid in his body tried to escape from the corner of his mouth.”
Watch.
Now, when Mitt Romney ran for president the first time and got defeated, then ran the second time and got defeated, defeat was not the only thing that stuck to Mr. Romney, his uncanny ability to flip flop and be untrustworthy also stuck. So with that uncanny ability to be fake, Romney is calling out Hillary Clinton as being fake, just just like he is.
“When you see her on a stage or when she comes into a room full of people, she’s smiling with her mouth but her eyes say, ‘Where’s my latte?'” Romney said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“It just doesn’t suggest she believes everything she’s saying,” he continued, calling her performance “jarring.”
Romney faced similar criticism during his own runs for President for flip-flopping on multiple hot-button issues, struggling to connect with working-class voters, and saying things like he enjoys hunting “small varmints, if you will.”
“At this stage, what does she really believe?” he said on Monday. “I think people wonder, can they really trust Hillary Clinton?”
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Ready for the summer? Well hold on because the next 15 days will be key to determining the shape of the presidential race.
First up is Jeb Bush. The smart one. The able one. The one who thinks through his actions before taking them. The one with the long-term policy proposals that are not exactly aligned with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. The one who is daddy’s favorite.
The one whose brother absolutely ruined the Bush name. Dang.
Jeb is not a bad candidate and he’s making an effort to separate himself from George W. The extent to which he can do that will determine whether he successfully fends off more base-friendly candidates like Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Right now, it looks like many Republicans are wary and might be looking elsewhere. If Jeb can raise enough money and scare off some other candidates, he can win, but he’ll have to convince many right wing voters of his commitment to their cause.
Governor Chris Christie is also getting ready to announce his run fresh off a victory courtesy of a New Jersey State Supreme Court ruling in his favor on the landmark state worker’s pension and benefits bill he negotiated with the Democratic legislature in 2011. He’s running on his ability to work with the opposite party, but the problem is that he’s repudiated his own law and the court ruled it to be unconstitutional. Now the Democrats have sworn not to negotiate further with him. Will he mention any of this?
Of course not. Christie will shamelessly repeat that he can work with Democrats, but that train has left the station. Plus, he has the Bridgegate scandal to answer to and a problem making himself stand out from the rest of what will probably be a 15 candidate field. His first job is to make sure that he’s polling high enough to be included in the first GOP debate in August. He’s good in debates and in front of crowds, so I wouldn’t count him out yet. But he’s got a tough race ahead of him.
Hillary Clinton also began her push for the presidency yesterday. She gave a good speech and is clearly focusing on the middle class and income inequality. She’s a bit farther to the left than her husband, but the Democratic Party is also more liberal these days. Her problem is similar to Jeb’s in that we know a great deal about her and her past. She has a clearer road to the nomination, but she does need to be mindful about giving too much to the Sanders-Warren wing of the party.
And don’t forget that we have two big Supreme Court decisions yet to be announced between now and June 30 on marriage equality and ACA subsidies. By July 1 we’ll have a good idea of how the candidates will need to adjust their messages in light of whatever the court decides.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
And you thought you had heard it all.
While speaking at the California ProLife Legislative Banquet last week, California Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R) suggested a theory that the state’s worst drought in 1,200 years may be divine retribution for California providing women with access to abortions, RH Reality Check reported.
“Texas was in a long period of drought until Governor Perry signed the fetal pain bill,” she told the audience. “It rained that night. Now God has his hold on California.”
Grove was likely referring to House Bill 2, RH Reality Check noted, a Texas abortion bill banning abortions 20 weeks after fertilization, four weeks earlier than the standard set by Roe v. Wade.
Grove did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation that she made the statement at the event, but she elaborated on her theory in a Facebook comment.
“I believe –and most Americans believe –that God’s hand is in the affairs of man, and certainly was in the formation of this country,” she wrote. “Is this drought caused by God? Nobody knows. But biblical history shows a consequence to man’s actions.”
In the audio recording below, a famous Republican voice explained her position on women voters – they shouldn’t be allowed to vote at all.
“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat [sic] president,” the Republican said. She then goes on to explain that taking away women’s right to vote is a “personal fantasy” of hers.
Listen.
Her name is Johanna and since this video was uploaded less than a week ago, Johanna’s moves have made it viral!
And the police Chief is standing by the decision to shut down the stand, telling the local news that his officers must enforce the rules.
The two girls, 7 year old Zoey Green and her 8 year old sister Andria, ventured outside with their pitcher of lemonade on Monday, when they were approached by the Overton cop eager to protect and serve the community from these ruthless thugs.
The cop is heard on a recording telling the mother of the two lawbreakers that they needed a permit to operate the stand.
Apparently realizing the ridiculousness of the cop’s action, the town waived the $125 permit fee when a friend went to inquire about a permit. The girls ended up giving away their lemonade for free.
Way to protect and serve Texas!
In this case the video existed, and it showed the final moments of Walter Scott’s life as he ran away from the officer who ended up shooting him in the back. Earlier this week, the grand jury in South Carolina indicted officer Michael Slager on a murder charge.
Mr. Scott was originally pulled over on April 4th for a busted break light, but is later seen on dash cam running away from the officer with the officer giving chase. A passerby later saw the final confrontation between the officer and the man and began recording the events on his cell phone. Moments later, Mr Scott is seen on cell phone video breaking away from the officer and attempted to run, but this time, he did not get too far. The unarmed man was shot in the back by the police officer and died.
Michael Slager was immediately fired from his job as a South Carolina police officer and later arrested.
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A man was being sought in connection with the sexual assault of a homeless woman early Saturday morning in Pasadena, KTLA reports.
The victim and her boyfriend had been asleep in their encampment about 2:50 a.m. when the woman woke up, “startled to find herself partially unclothed and the suspect sleeping behind her,” the Pasadena Police Department said in a news release.
The intruder stood up and fled the scene on foot as the victim’s boyfriend ran after him, the statement said. The suspect, a homeless man, managed to escape and remained at large on Monday.
He was identified as 47-year-old Emilio Buch.
Investigators released a photo of Buch and asked anyone with information to call Lt. Terysa Rojas of the Pasadena Police Department at 626-744-4522 during business hours, or the non-emergency dispatch center at 626-744-4241. Tips can be submitted anonymously at LACrimeStoppers.com or wetip.com.
Politicians can talk all they want about how changes to the American education system such as the Common Core, new testing rubrics and teacher evaluation systems will vault us into the top tiers of learned nations over the next few years, but, really, that’s not going to happen if what’s happening in Arizona and other states doesn’t get fixed.
Consider:
At least 30 states spent less per student this school year than in the year before the economic downturn began, and 14 states, including Arizona, have cut per-pupil funding by more than 10 percent over that period.The drop is not simply a reflection of state economies still struggling to recover. Experts say politics and policy have also played a role.Of the seven states with the deepest cuts in education from kindergarten to 12th grade, six — Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin — also cut income tax rates, leading to a series of vigorous protests and public disputes between lawmakers and educators that are still playing out.
The Great Recession was terrible, but that part about cutting taxes and school funding is reprehensible. There is simply no excuse to give money back to taxpayers when the schools have a library that nobody can use or that run out of supplies before the end of the school year.
But that’s not the only problem. Here in New Jersey, Governor Christie recently did an about-face and said that he no longer supports the Common Core Curriculum Standards but does support the PARCC tests that are based on…the Common Core. This neat bit of contradiction, endemic to Republican politicians, not only makes no sense; it invites testing students on skills and content that they will not learn in their classrooms. Couple this with the Governor’s previous bashing of teachers and their association, and his severe education budget cuts and you have the scary proposition of someone sitting in the Oval Office who supports testing, but not the people who will be delivering a curriculum that is yet to be determined.
Christie has good company in another soon-to-be Republican presidential candidate, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Not only did he and the GOP-led legislature end collective bargaining for public employees, now he’s proposing a bill that would significantly affect tenure in public colleges and universities. That law would repeal the idea of shared governance when it comes to tenure and is best explained this way:
Shared governance gives powers to faculty, staff and students over such matters as instruction, personnel matters and student services. The shared power is not the adversarial relationship many think of, Fair said. “It’s a conversation across the different bodies to reach consensus on what is best for the institution,” she said.
And while the employment protections conveyed by tenure can seem self-serving, Compas said, that is not what it is about.
“Tenure doesn’t protect anyone who breaks university rules or doesn’t do their job. Instead, it is a cornerstone of academic freedom,” he said. “It provides protection for faculty to challenge conventional notions and present ideas that often are unpopular,” said Compas, who has tenure.
What Walker wants to do is to take tenure decisions away from the shared model and transfer authority to a state body that is–surprise!–appointed by the governor. I’m guessing that the makeup of the body will be sharply different than the people making tenure decisions now. And I can see great mischief in how it will be applied should this bill pass. Which it most likely will.
These are but three examples of how terribly education policy is made and implemented in the United States. After 2016, it could get even worse.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Well, in his sick demented mind, posting a picture of a beheaded woman on his Facebook page was a splendid idea, and a great way to get his point across. What was his point? To bring back the death penalty to Nebraska.
Senator Bill Kintner (R) took down the offensive post after his comment section grew out of control from constituents who thought it was insensitive of the lawmaker to use the offensive picture in order to make the point that he wants to bring the death penalty back
The Nebraska legislature recently banned the death penalty in the state, with enough votes to override the governor’s veto.
Kintner, a death penalty supporter, re-posted the photo after discovering it on his timeline, explaining, “I saw it and I said, ‘Well, that makes the point.’”
According to Kintner he had no idea where the picture was taken or who beheaded the woman.
“But if it happened in our state, we couldn’t do anything,” he explained. “We’d just put him in jail for 50 years and feed him nice meals. That doesn’t sound right to most Nebraskans.”
Faced with a public outcry, he pulled the picture Wednesday night, writing, “The amount of comments this FB page has gotten in the last week are off the charts and my staff and I do not have the time to police the comments. The longer a thread gets the harder it is to police. I know I am partly to blame by by posting content that pokes folks on the other side of the issues mentioned.”
