ADDENDUM::Christian Activists To Debate Executing Homosexuals - Joe.My.God.

As I was putting together the previous post, three items (two articles by Right Wing Watch and one video segment by Rachel Maddow) came to fruition - make that four items now.

As RRW notes in regards to Maddow's very scary video piece, 

But, as Maddow pointed out on Friday night, while the Cruz campaign would not bother to dignify her inquiries with a response, it did quietly distance itself from Swanson and his event in mid-December, telling USA Today that "it was a mistake" for Cruz to have attended the conference:

A tipping point, [Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s Barry] Lynn said, came at last month’s National Religious Liberties Conference in Iowa, where Cruz said, “any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be a commander-in-chief of this country.” Cruz was also introduced onstage by Pastor Kevin Swanson, who, earlier in the conference, quoted a passage of the Bible that he claimed justified the execution of homosexuals.

“This is over-the-top rhetoric, even for a conservative presidential candidate,” Lynn said. “There is a lot of religious fervor going on in [Cruz's] campaign.”

Tyler, the Cruz spokesman, called Swanson’s comments “reprehensible” and said Cruz has spoken out repeatedly against anyone who calls for hatred or violence against homosexuals.

“Senator Cruz is passionate about religious liberties” Tyler said in an email. “Many respected organizations were sponsoring [the conference], but, given these offensive comments, it was a mistake for Senator Cruz to appear at the event.”

In regards to the cat-fight between Brown and the Shoebat's:

The fighting has only escalated in the wake of Shoebat's recent assertion that Jesus would have personally beaten gays to death, which was denounced by LaBarbera, as well as by fellow anti-gay activist Michael Brown.

This did not sit well with Shoebat's father, Walid, a supposed "ex-terrorist" who posted a furious screed on his website attacking LaBarbera, Brown, Matt Barber and anyone else who has dared to criticize his son's extremist views, accusing them of worshiping gay blogger Joe Jervis of Joe.My.God instead of the one true God,,,

And the last item, which is very peculiar, Cruz Spokesman Ousted After Suggesting Rubio Renounced The Bible:

In another strange development in the Republican presidential primary, Ted Cruz’s top campaign spokesman is out of his post after circulating a news article suggesting that Marco Rubio mocked the Bible.

Cruz, whose campaign has been dogged by allegations of perpetrating dirty tricks, said that his spokesman Rick Tyler committed “a grave error of judgment.”

Cruz asks senior spox who spread false Rubio story to resign. Says he committed a "grave error of judgement"

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 22, 2016

Now keep in mind what Maddow said at the end of her clip concerning disavowing someone like Swanson when one considers all that came before (ie Mike Bickle and, for shits and giggles, Phil Robertson) and now, this: Cruz, Carson To Attend Right-Wing Media Convention Featuring Anti-LGBT, Anti-Muslim Extremists. 

Remember, Michael Brown endorses Rafael Edward Cruz.  Don't mind me as I get my popcorn ready!! 

The Rachel Maddow Show on msnbc

Rachel Maddow spent an enormous amount of time listing every moment in history when a passenger plane was shot down by a missile. Then she identifies the one thing we should know for sure about what to expect next: whoever really did it, will say they didn't. It really is a sobering look at history,,,




The Rachel Maddow Show on msnbc

Pseudo-religious hate-cult leader fails, dies | MSNBC

It is no secret that I am a fan of Rachel Maddow. It is not because she is a sister-in-arms, or that she is a "bleeding heart" liberal. No, it's because she is super smart and if you listen closely (not just to this clip) she can convey her point so succinctly and brilliantly.

I may not go as far as she in the "who cares" vane of thought due to the fact the current leadership of WBC under Steve Drain is just beginning. But I do agree, "there is something important, I think, and worth noting I think now that it's founder has died."


What Maddow pointed to, in trying desperately to pressure religionists into hating LGBT people, the backlash that WBC sparked was a unifying element against their beliefs.


Pseudo-religious hate-cult leader fails, dies | MSNBC

To laugh or to cry, the science of "fake snow"

For starters, I grew up in Western New York in a suburb of Buffalo.  Ya know, home of the infamous Blizzard of '77.  Right now I am staring out my window at 9" of the white stuff.  So when this headline, "‘Massive chemtrail’ operations found to be dumping ‘fake snow’ over Atlanta and parts of West Virginia, may signify a false flag attack on the populace" came screaming across my news feed, I had to chuckle. (Bare in mind this is one of many.)

Stop the press! A recent snowstorm that blanked Atlanta and parts of Virginia sending thousands of residents into turmoil, causing nearly the entire city to come to a standstill, may have been a false flag operation or beta test carried out by diabolic factions of the U.S. government.

While the motive is not yet fully known, one thing is for sure, havoc has ensued and something is just not sitting right with people in the region.

[,,,]
I mean, anyone that has handled snow knows that it melts as it is simply made of water.

Shockingly, after “massive chemtrail” sightings over the state of Georgia and parts of West Virginia over the last few days, residents are becoming wiser–nonetheless the government and mainstream media remains silent.

Response by Atlanta city officials including the mayor have been limited, blaming the storm on a “faulty weather forecast”.

Concerned citizens and experts alike have been left to wonder how such a big city can be caught off guard by a snowstorm.

It is also important to point out that mainstream media rhetoric has become extremely unusual regarding the weather in Atlanta over the past 24 hours.  [Emphasis mine]

Now originally I was going to just ignore this garbage but a few things occurred that changed my mind. The con nutters, came out in full force, 40+ articles and still counting. Second, it came up in conversation at work (that was scarey). And third, Rachel Maddow did a piece about it.  Think about it people, a political commentator with a PhD in politics (and a Rhodes scholar to boot) is talking about "fake snow."

Not only did Maddow lampoon the "conspiracy" theory behind the "fake snow" she pointed to a scientific explanation behind it.  Enter Phil Plait:

To summarize, two things happen: One is that as the snow melts, the remaining snow absorbs the water. That’s why it doesn’t appear to drip; the snowball becomes a slushball.

Lots of people made videos showing the snowball not dripping so it looks like it’s not actually melting, but this is a classic case of confirmation bias. They only tested this part way; they didn’t finish the test by letting the snowball actually melt! I do that in my video, and you can even see the water getting absorbed into the snowballs I made.

[,,,]
The black scorch marks are actually from the lighters themselves. Butane is a hydrocarbon, a molecule made up of carbon and hydrogen. When you burn it, the molecule reacts with oxygen in the air, breaking the bonds between atoms, and reforming new molecules. If the burning were perfect, all you’d have left is carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H20).

But the burning is never completely perfect, and you get other stuff too. One thing that happens is that some of the carbon molecules reform into long chains, creating what we call soot. It’s that stuff that’s collecting on the snowball, not material from the snow itself!

So yet again we see the importance of teaching science, not a religious ideology!!

Just for shits and giggles, here are some more science based articles:

Why 'Fake' Snow 'Doesn't Melt'--Because It's Real

Curiosities: How does snow sublimation work? According to Steve Ackerman, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin, this is actually a process that the US Geologic Survey calls “sublimation”.

Rachel Maddow: Earthquake-rattled Texas town begs state to shut down fracking wells | The Raw Story

The article doesn't do Maddows's attached clip justice, fails to note that the earthquakes in Azle have been increasing in number and magnitude: 12 earthquakes in November, 30 in the span of 2 months; no mention of sinkholes on private property or the laissez faire attitude of state officials.

Out of curiousity, I took a gander as to how far Azle was from the New Madrid fault line, as it has been in the news again.  From what I can gather, activity at New Madrid would not influence Texas. That aside, I can't understand the flippant attitude of state officials, reminds me of the 1997 movie Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones.  My point being you start messing with shit that you don't understand, issues are going to arise.  Just because we can doesn't mean we should.
__________


Azle, Texas, located west of Ft. Worth, has recently begun to experience earthquakes for the first time in the town’s history. They started in November, with a small 2.6 magnitude temblor. It was a small quake, but for a town with no history of earthquakes, it was alarming to inhabitants.

Another quake followed the next day. Then, two more that night. Something was clearly amiss in the earth underneath Azle and it has only gotten worse since then.

The quakes have been centered around two fracking injection wells, which residents and experts now believe may be responsible for the quakes. Citizens of Azle traveled to the state capital in Austin to see what they could find out from the state government.

Maddow welcomed Azle Mayor Alan Brundrett, who said that even though the state has been “noncommittal” as to the cause of the quakes, “We definitely need to get the wells shut down. Any common sense person that looks at the research dating back to the 1960s can see that injection wells can cause earthquakes.”

Rachel Maddow: Earthquake-rattled Texas town begs state to shut down fracking wells | The Raw Story

Rachel Maddow's Epic Koch Brothers Smackdown | Crooks and Liars

This right here (the video,,,a must watch) is why I love Rachel Maddow. I truly hope that one of the Koch brothers takes her up on her offer, as she WILL dissect either of them point by point. They will then cease to be, and you can kiss ALEC goodbye. One could only hope!

So David and Charles Koch want Rachel Maddow to read their prepared script on the air admitting her "error" and apologizing for it?

Excuse me while I clean the spewed coffee off my screen.

Here's how this whole thing started. In late December, Rachel did a segment on how the Kochs buy their economic studies reinforcing conservative ideas. They do this by donating huge sums to universities and demanding the right to hire faculty who think like they do. That report is here.

Apparently the Kochs didn't appreciate her reporting, because for some bizarre reason they don't mind throwing billions around the political universe but shy away from receiving credit for it. So they had their lawyers send Rachel a letter, and boy was it a doozy, as you'll see in the segment. It included a demand that she read a prepared script by the lawyers retracting her report and apologizing for it.

She did not apologize. I believe her exact words were "I will not renounce or retract reporting that is true, even if the subjects of that reporting don't like it." As for the script, she let them know she does "not read scripts provided to me by anyone else. I don't do requests."

Rachel Maddow's Epic Koch Brothers Smackdown | Crooks and Liars

Forward Progressives — Not The Onion: Rand Paul’s Appallingly Ridiculous Claim about Science and Abortion

One slight problem with the following article, which Rachel Maddow aptly points out, it fails to mention that Paul lifted his Gattaca spiel from Wikipedia

When it comes to Republican politicians I absolutely can’t stand, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is right near the top of that list. And let’s be honest here, the only reason he’s even a senator is because of who his dad is. Rand tries to piggy back off the “Paul-bot” cult-like following his dad built, while still trying to pander enough to the other radicals in the Republican party in hopes that all of it will someday culminate in a successful presidential bid.

Well, while speaking at a “Christian” school founded by the late Jerry Falwell, Rand “tea party darling” Paul took his pandering to the far right fanatics to a whole new level.

Paul spoke out and suggested that scientific advances in technology and medicine, combined with abortion, may one day lead to the return of eugenics.

What’s eugenics, you ask? It’s the process by which the human race might try to “perfect” itself by eliminating less than desirable traits.

Forward Progressives — Not The Onion: Rand Paul’s Appallingly Ridiculous Claim about Science and Abortion

Obamacare stopped being a 'bill' several years ago - The Maddow Blog

An interesting point I missed in this whole debacle,,,

But that's not the important thing. Rather, note that Enzi refers to the law as a "bill." So does Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who said last week that "this bill," referring to the health care law, is going to hurt people. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said there are "a host of problems [with] this bill." Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said "this bill" isn't working. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) chastised Democrats for supporting "this dog of a bill."

[,,,]
If you listened to the House floor debate on Saturday night or watched the Sunday shows, you know the GOP desperately hopes to characterize the current crisis as a "both sides" problem so it won't receive the bulk of the blame. To hear Republicans tell it, they demand that "Obamacare" be gutted, while Democrats demand that "Obamacare" be implemented. "See?" conservatives say, "both sides are making demands."

The problem, of course, is that this is almost unimaginably dumb. What Democrats are arguing is that the law is already the law; it's met constitutional muster according to the U.S. Supreme Court; and it's up to the president to faithfully execute current laws. If Republicans want to change the law, they can introduce legislation and give it their best shot.

Obamacare stopped being a 'bill' several years ago - The Maddow Blog

How Congress reached this point - The Maddow Blog

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) appeared on "Face the Nation" yesterday and made clear that he's confused about the federal budget process. Noting that the House and Senate have passed competing spending measures intended to keep the government's lights on, the Republican senator asked, "Why don't we have a conference committee on this?"

It fell to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to patiently try to explain the details Rand Paul must have missed: "We've been trying for more than six months to get Republicans to approve a conference committee on the budget."

How Congress reached this point - The Maddow Blog

Obama, Rouhani have direct talks - The Maddow Blog

I learned something new, I was unaware that it has been since 1979 that a U.S. president and an Iranian president had direct communications

I hope the political world can appreciate just how remarkable this turn of events really is. A decade ago, U.S. foreign policy declared Iran part of an "axis of evil" and tensions between the nations escalated to dangerous levels. Now we're seeing diplomatic breakthroughs and there's a credible possibility of resolving the Iranian nuclear dispute.

Obama, Rouhani have direct talks - The Maddow Blog

Can a president be a radical socialist and a Wall Street shill? - The Maddow Blog

Quite right. This has come up before, and it's never made any sense -- Republicans can tell Americans that President Obama is a radical socialist who hates free-enterprise capitalism, or they can tell us he's a Wall Street shill, but when they make both arguments at the same time, it's awfully difficult to take them seriously. Indeed, it reinforces the thesis that, even now, the right still doesn't know how it wants to criticize the president.

But I also believe there's another angle to this to keep in mind.

For good or ill, Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to reach compromises with congressional Republicans, frequently offering to accept GOP policy goals that congressional Democrats find abhorrent.

But because so many congressional Republicans have become post-policy nihilists, GOP officials not only reject attempts at compromise, they often announce their opposition to whatever it was they urged Obama to do in the first place.

Can a president be a radical socialist and a Wall Street shill? - The Maddow Blog

'The American people should be outraged' - The Maddow Blog

About a month ago, after the Senate approved a bipartisan farm bill rather easily, the House pushed its own right-wing version, which was almost laughably extreme. House Republicans pushed for $20 billion in food-stamp cuts, along with drug tests for recipients -- because if you're struggling to buy groceries in the wake of an economic crisis, conservative lawmakers believe you deserve to be treated as a suspected drug addict.

Much to the surprise of the GOP's own leadership, that bill failed, not because it was too ridiculous, but because House Republican members concluded it just wasn't punitive enough.

And so, instead of adopting a more moderate bill, making a compromise with the Senate easier, House Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make their version much more right-wing -- doubling the cuts to food aid for the poor, while imposing work requirements and drug tests.

If Ayn Rand were alive today, this is the sort of bill that would lead her to say, "Aren't you guys overdoing it a bit?"

'The American people should be outraged' - The Maddow Blog

Rachel Maddow 'Pissed' About Treatment of Veterans: Talks of 'Special Place in Hell' | Liberals Unite

 Emotional squee!!  Got to love Rachael, she is not afraid to let her passion show,,,

Rachel Maddow 'Pissed' About Treatment of Veterans: Talks of 'Special Place in Hell' | Liberals Unite

Maddow: GOP forced to cease voter registration efforts in five of the swingiest swing states | The Raw Story

A good analysis of the ceasing of the RNC voter registration mess in Florida,,,

Strategic Allied Consulting was the only firm hired by the Republican National Convention (RNC) to run voter registration drives in those states. With many voter registration deadlines quickly approaching, Republicans have little chance to restart the registration drives.

Maddow: GOP forced to cease voter registration efforts in five of the swingiest swing states | The Raw Story