Thursday, January 28, 2016

January 26-27, 2016::End of the day round-up (pg 2)

David Barton and Wallbuilders Double Down on The Jefferson Lies Accusations
I don’t know if Barton, Wallbuilders or WND will ever admit it, but it is undeniable that numerous conservative Christians have come forward with major academic critiques of the claims presented by Wallbuilders.
This is just so wrong on so many levels, but think this comment sums it up well:  A single mother of 10? Has she read the Bible? "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.  (Deut. 23:2)

 Mom accused of child abuse hauls seven kids to Oregon for surreal performance before armed militants
“We’re here to sing for the Lord,” Sharp told the appreciative Oregon militants. “This is a very worthwhile cause, and we just hope to make a difference and we hope to just be able to bless the hearts of the people through the songs.”
Republican rift widens over whether to bother with an Obamacare replacement plan
That's as good an excuse as any. The reality is that they have no plan and can create no plan that does what Obamacare has done in terms of getting people covered and not completely blowing up the deficit in doing it. They want to keep the stuff that's popular—no more pre-existing conditions, people remaining on their family plans until age 26, etc.—but do it without the actual stuff that makes it work, like the individual mandate that puts enough healthy people into the pool to make it affordable for the sick people.

Instead, they're still messing around with the same old ideas: selling insurance across state lines (so that all insurers could flock to the states that have the worst regulation and consumer protections); giving people tax credits for health insurance that will cost more and cover less once insurers can get away with it; and setting up high risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions, the system for trying to get coverage to these folks we had before Obamacare and which failed. None of these ideas, even combined, create a comprehensive structure that can begin to replace Obamacare and retain private health insurance. There really isn't another way to do that.

Which McConnell very well knows, and he knows once all of that bullshit stuff is put into a "plan," Democrats will have something very concrete to attack. It's his members that will be most vulnerable to those attacks. It's his leadership that's on the line. Ultimately, even if the House comes up with something, he likely won't actually bring it to a vote. Which provides the perfect excuse for House Republicans to do what they've been doing for the past six years on replacement—nothing.
One of two pre-viability cases before  SCOTUS,,,

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Arkansas Case Challenging ‘Roe’
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a request by anti-choice lawmakers to review an Arkansas law that bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy with narrow exceptions, letting stand an appellate court ruling striking the measure as unconstitutional.

Arkansas’ SB 134, known as the “Arkansas Heartbeat Protection Act,” outlaws abortion when a fetal heartbeat has been detected—which can be as early as six weeks’ gestation—and at 12 weeks, with narrow exceptions for the life of the pregnant person, cases of rape or incest, and those that involve a “lethal fetal disorder.”

The law, considered to be among the most radically restrictive in the nation, has been blocked by a federal judge since March 2014. Attorneys for the state urged the Roberts Court to take the case anyway, arguing the time was right for the Court to review the “rigid” viability framework put in place by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that prevents states from banning abortions prior to fetal viability.
Court rules German man 'fit' to face trial for 3,681 Nazi deaths—Anne Frank may have been victim
After a previous court ruling which stated 95-year-old Nazi war criminal “Herbert Z” was unfit to face trial for the his alleged part in the mass murders of thousands, a German appeals court has turned the tables. The former SS member will face trial in late February for helping to facilitate the “cruel and insidious killings of at least 3,681” people.
Rafael Cruz: Public Education Is A Communist Plot
While he did correctly identify Dewey as a secular humanist, Cruz alleged that “John Dewey was a member of the American Communist Party,” when, in fact, Dewey was “an avowed anti-Communist” who even believed that “known Communists should not be permitted to teach children.” He co-founded the anti-Communist Committee for Cultural Freedom and was widely denounced by supporters of the Communist Party.

Cruz said that Dewey’s influence in the school system instilled anti-American values in children and, as a result, created “chaos in society.” This prompted Cruz to discuss Common Core, which he claimed “is about redefining education, redefining history and attempting to brainwash kids with a secularist view of history which denies the fundamental principles that have made America great.”

Gives the low-down on the repeal of COOL (country of origin labeling) and the politics behind it. From the perspective of a farmer most affected by this legislative action.

How Do I Know Where My Meat Comes From?
No, there are no conspiracy theories. No, the provision was not secretly put into the bill. No, congress isn’t try to pull the wool over consumer’s eyes. No, this is not about Monsanto. It comes down to retaliation. Retaliation from two of our most important trading partners.
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Personally, I am not the least bit concerned about the COOL repeal as far as quality and safety because it was never about food safety. The U.S. has some of the highest food safety requirements in the world.
The repeal of COOL will help pig farmers significantly by not reducing and/or eliminating our markets. Markets are extremely important to farmers. Other non-ag markets would have been affected also by the tariffs. Tariffs would have been placed on furniture, mattress makers, jewelry, baked goods and maple syrup processors.

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