CNN's Brian Stetler points out the damage done by Donald Trump's "Addiction to Fox News."

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

CNN’s Brian Stelter today opened by talking about how President Trump‘s “addiction to Fox” is having a lot of real-world consequences. 

He brought up the past week of big news on immigration and troops being sent to the border, following the President’s tweet after watching a segment on Fox News. 

“The line where Fox News ends and where Trump begins,” Stelter said, “is getting blurrier by the day.” 

He brought up the initial Fox News coverage, followed by the primetime coverage, of the migrant “caravan” as indicative of how Trump’s “addiction to Fox and to other pro-Trump commentators leads to impulsive actions.” 

Stelter said deploying the National Guard to the border is a “PR stunt” for a President who “wants to give his Fox friends something to celebrate.”

Very well said.

Donald Trump is addicted to fake news and conspiracy theories, and what better place to find them than Fox News?  (Well, besides Info Wars of course.)

If Trump were just an every day citizen this might be a pain in the ass to his family, but probably nothing more.

But as America's Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump can take the bullshit from Fox News and weaponize it to cause real harm to our country, and our country's allies.

Twitter to suspend 1,062 accounts linked to Russian troll farm.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Twitter said Friday that it has suspended 1,062 new accounts it has found to be linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian "troll farm" which disseminated content intended to interfere in the U.S. political process. 

In total, the company has found 3,814 Internet Research Agency-linked accounts, which posted 175,993 tweets during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Twitter said it also found 13,512 new Kremlin-linked bot accounts, bringing the total number of bots it has found in connection to Russia's election influence efforts to 50,258. 

The company also said in a post on Friday that it will notify 677,775 people to let them know that they either liked, retweeted or followed Russian-linked accounts, following a request from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to do so. 

Twitter noted, however, that it won’t show users the content they saw, saying that because it has “already suspended these accounts, the relevant content on Twitter is no longer publicly available.”

"The relevant content on Twitter is no longer publicly available."

What they don't mention is that it is being replaced by new data, from new Russian troll accounts, that are yet to be identified. 

The misinformation campaign continues to this day, and still people are ignorantly retweeting  or liking tweets that originate in Russia and are designed to manipulate public opinion or sow the seeds of divisiveness.

Both Twitter and Facebook played a huge part in helping to hijack our Democracy. And they need to be held accountable.

NRA spokesperson very angry that the media describes guns as "weapons." I'm sorry, what?

Courtesy of Media Matters:  

GRANT STINCHFIELD (HOST): When it comes to media bias, it is often the little things that matter most. Seemingly innocuous phrases designed to sway your opinion. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently wrote an article about campus carry taking effect in Georgia and the controversy surrounding it. But it's their use of the word weapon that has me bewildered. The reporter uses “weapons” in place of firearms or guns so many times, it just becomes bizarre. Here, "Fears of gun owners getting drunk and firing their weapons." I firmly believe she uses the phrase weapons over firearms in an effort to scare the uninformed. But then I realized Georgia calls their concealed carry permits a “weapons carry license.” I don’t like that name at all. To me, the military carries weapons, guns carried for offensive purposes. I carry a firearm, a tool used for self-defense. To me, it is actually a very important distinction. By Georgia, a state rich in firearms history, using the term weapons in an official capacity, it hurts the perception of law-abiding gun ownership. The media already has it out for us, why give them more ammunition? 

Okay it is one thing to claim that guns are perfectly safe in the hands of the average American, a claim which I continue to dispute, however to claim that they are not a weapon completely defies logic.

The NRA has for decades now attempted to convince people that guns are simply tools similar to a crowbar or a knife, meaning that though they COULD take a life, they're actual purpose is to do something else entirely.

In the case of a crowbar it would be to pry something apart, and a knife is used to cut food or perhaps rope, but there really is NO other purpose that a gun serves than to take a life.

When these folks claim that a gun is a tool for self protection they avoid the fact that it only protects if an assailant believes they are in danger of being injured or killed by the WEAPON, or are in fact injured or killed by the WEAPON.

It is the very fact that they own a weapon capable of injuring or killing which is supposed to keep the owner safe.

Of course statistics do not actually support that assertion, but that is an entirely different conversation.

But before we can have that conversation at the very least we should agree on what we are talking about, and that is that guns are in fact weapons. Weapons which are designed to kill, and that is all they are designed to do.

Donald Trump has historical marker on his golf course commemorating a Civil War battle which never happened.

You can't make this stuff up: Trump commemorated at his Virginia golf course a Civil War battle that never happened https://t.co/Wzfz7REjK8 pic.twitter.com/KelWs1Q71t

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) May 2, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

“Many great American soldiers, both of the North and South, died at this spot,” reads the inscription a faux historical marker on the course of the Trump National Golf Club, according to the New York Times. “The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as ‘The River of Blood.’ ”

The battle never happened. “No. Uh-uh. No way,” Richard Gillespie, the executive director of the Mosby Heritage Area Association told the New York Times. “Nothing like that ever happened there.” 

When Trump was informed by the New York Times that three different local historians had said as much, Trump replied, “How would they know that? Were they there?

Well, I think this helps to explain why Donald Trump believed that a slave owning ex-president who had been dead for sixteen years could have stopped the Civil War. 

So much stupid.

Facebook admits that it was used to spread propaganda. Gee, no shit.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

Facebook has publicly acknowledged that its platform has been exploited by governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries – including during the presidential elections in the US and France – and pledged to clamp down on such “information operations”.

In a white paper authored by the company’s security team and published on Thursday, the company detailed well-funded and subtle techniques used by nations and other organizations to spread misleading information and falsehoods for geopolitical goals. These efforts go well beyond “fake news”, the company said, and include content seeding, targeted data collection and fake accounts that are used to amplify one particular view, sow distrust in political institutions and spread confusion. 

“We have had to expand our security focus from traditional abusive behavior, such as account hacking, malware, spam and financial scams, to include more subtle and insidious forms of misuse, including attempts to manipulate civic discourse and deceive people,” said the company. 

In its effort to clamp down on information operations, Facebook suspended 30,000 accounts in France before the presidential election. The company said it was a priority to remove suspect accounts with high volumes of posting activity and the biggest audiences. 

The company also explained how it monitored “several situations” that fit the pattern of information operations during the US presidential election. The company detected “malicious actors” using social media to share information stolen from other sources such as email accounts “with the intent of harming the reputation of specific political targets”. This technique involved creating dedicated websites to host the stolen data and then creating social media accounts and pages to direct people to it.

Look I see this as a positive step.

And working alongside Google who is now also working hard to suppress fake news, this might make it a lot easier moving forward to avoid the kind of fake news and purposeful propaganda which helped get Donald Trump elected and disenfranchised so many potential voters.

Having said that I should also reiterate that the very best filter for fake news is to stay informed as much as possible and to use your critical thinking skills to fact check information which seems odd or too good to be true.

Former Trump adviser Carter Page claims “I have been the victim of one of the most horrendous civil rights violations in recent U.S. election history.” Yeah, that's what happened.

Carter Page to @CNN's @ChrisCuomo: "I've been the victim of one of the most horrendous civil rights violations..." https://t.co/3FeN6FEzWh

— New Day (@NewDay) April 27, 2017

Courtesy of The Hill:

A former campaign adviser to Donald Trump said Thursday he was “the victim of one of the most horrendous civil rights violations” during the 2016 presidential election. 

“I have been the victim of one of the most horrendous civil rights violations in recent U.S. election history,” Carter Page told co-host Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day.” 

Page’s comments came after Cuomo pushed him to disclose how he became involved in Trump’s campaign, first claiming that it is confidential and then saying he doesn’t want to create issues for other people. 

Page denied the allegations against him, saying they have caused “a complete firestorm based on this completely false narrative.”

Later Cuomo offered Page the opportunity to clear up any misunderstandings, this was his response.  

.@ChrisCuomo to fmr Trump aid Carter Page "Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder why you're doing" these interviews https://t.co/pBm6kNqPve

— New Day (@NewDay) April 27, 2017

Yeah any problems that Carter page is now facing are the direct result of his own actions and his own statements to the press.

And I have a feeling that those problems are really just beginning. 

Former FBI agent informs us that the Russians continue to manipulate our politics, by continuing to manipulate Donald Trump.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

Russian hackers didn’t stop when the presidential election ended ― they’re still working to spread fake news and conspiracy theories across the U.S., an intelligence expert warns. And they’re building on President Donald Trump’s wiretapping tweets, former FBI agent Clint Watts told National Public Radio. 

“If you went online today, you could see these accounts — either bots or actual personas somewhere — that are trying to connect with the administration,” Watts said in the NPR interview Monday. “They might broadcast stories and then follow up with another tweet that tries to gain the president’s attention — or they’ll try and answer the tweets that the president puts out.” 

Watts, a cyber security expert who has been tracking Russian activity for three years, called it a “circular system.” Sometimes the “propaganda outlets themselves will put out false or manipulated stories. Other times, the president will go with a conspiracy,” he told NPR. 

An example is Trump’s claim that he was wiretapped at Trump Tower, Watts said. Hackers and bots “respond to the wiretapping claim with further conspiracy theories about that claim, and that just amplifies the message in the [internet] ecosystem.” 

“Every time a conspiracy is floated from the administration, it provides every outlet around the world an opportunity to amplify that conspiracy and to add more manipulated truths or falsehoods onto it,” he added. 

It’s a loop, said Watts, of spiraling misinformation.

This is what the mainstream media is up against.

These sophisticated tools for disinformation can drown out legitimate news stories causing the poorly educated American to believe just about anything that shows up on their Facebook feed over and over again.

And the fact that they are targeting the president is perhaps the most frightening prospect of all.

We have already witnessed how easy it is to manipulate Orange Hitler, and now that we know that there is an ongoing campaign to convince him to buy into conspiracy theories and fake news it means we can literally not trust a single thing that comes out of his mouth.

New technology will now allow anti-abortion groups to target women's phones. Gee thanks science!

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

A new investigation by Rewire, a reproductive health news service, shows that anti-abortion groups are moving beyond their time-honored approaches of picketing clinics and shouting at women: Now they're going digital, thanks to a technology known as mobile geofencing that can be used to target women through smartphones. 

The technology is typically used by advertisers who want to hone in on a target audience in a specific location. Have you ever gotten an ad for Lyft or Uber right after landing at an airport in a new city? That's an example of mobile geofencing in action. 

 A Boston advertising executive named John Flynn realized the technology could be used to target women seeking an abortion, and to send information on crisis pregnancy centers and adoption agencies straight to their smartphones. Rewire reports that Flynn began marketing his presentations on the technology to anti-abortion groups such as RealOptions, a Northern California crisis pregnancy center network, and Bethany Christian Services, an evangelical adoption agency, and they quickly saw the potential. 

Flynn's technology allows a geofence to be built around Planned Parenthood clinics and other abortion facilities, so anti-abortion messages may be sent to smartphones in clinic waiting rooms.

So if this technology targets women (How do they know it's women?) that are approaching these Planned Parenthood clinics that obviously means that a number of women who are going there for birth control or a cancer screening are going to receive this spam on their phones, telling them not to abort their non-existent fetuses.

This seems incredibly intrusive especially since these "crisis pregnancy" centers are notoriously full of misinformation about abortion, birth control, and even sex itself.

I think there should be a law against this.

Maybe when Hillary Clinton is President she will pass one. (Sorry couldn't resist.)

Not only is the guy who rushed the Trump rally stage not a linked to ISIS a former CIA analyst says that ISIS would support Trump's candidacy.

Personally I just love any excuse to play this video.

Courtesy of CNN: 

When Thomas DiMassimo tried to rush Donald Trump's stage in Ohio over the weekend, he had a clear goal in mind. 

He wanted to send a message. 

"I was thinking that I could get up on stage and take his podium away from him and take his mic away from him and send a message to all people out in the country who wouldn't consider themselves racist, who wouldn't consider themselves approving of what type of violence Donald Trump is allowing in his rallies, and send them a message that we can be strong, that we can find our strength and we can stand up against Donald Trump and against this new wave he's ushering in of truly just violent white supremacist ideas," DiMassimo told CNN. 

DiMassimo was asked if he had planed to harm Donald Trump:  

"No, not at all. There would have been no point. Donald Trump is 6 foot 3. I'm 5 foot 9, maybe. He's a giant man surrounded by thousands of followers, 12 Secret Service and a former Ohio State offensive lineman. That would have accomplished nothing."

DiMassimo also denies that he has any ties to ISIS, and says the allegations have resulted in threats of harm to him and his family:

DiMassimo said he's received thousands of death threats since the Trump rally and that his parents have also been threatened.

When confronted about all of this Trump replied with:

"What do I know about it? All I know is what's on the Internet," he said. "And I don't like to see a man dragging the American flag along the ground in a mocking fashion."

Yep he doesn't know anything about it, but that did not stop him from sending this tweet.

USSS did an excellent job stopping the maniac running to the stage. He has ties to ISIS. Should be in jail! https://t.co/tkzbHg7wyD?ssr=true

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2016

A former CIA analyst had this to say about ISIS possibly attacking Trump.

Bakos said ISIS wants to make Muslims in America feel unwanted and "Trump is playing perfectly into that strategy."

"I think they [ISIS] would be the last people that want to hurt him at this point,” she added.

Trump is a liar and a coward.

And it is clear that he has no fear of smearing opponents, critics, and protesters with falsehoods in order to further his agenda because he knows that the simple minded morons who support him lack the intellectual capacity to see through his bullshit. 

Donald Trump under fire for claiming that he saw "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the 9-11 attacks. Spoiler alert: He didn't!

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Donald Trump claims that "thousands" of people in New Jersey were "cheering" amid the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on US soil. 

In an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his assertion that he saw people in New Jersey — where the real-estate mogul claims there are "large Arab populations" — cheering as the World Trade Center came down. 

"There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down," Trump said on Sunday. "I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well-covered at the time."

Well if you watched cable news yesterday you saw this "fact" refuted multiple times, by multiple sources:

Despite Trump's insistence that he saw such celebrations, political fact-checkers across the board have found little to no evidence of any public celebrations after the attacks. 

PolitiFact noted that there were several media reports of police inquiries into individuals who were suspected of celebrating the attacks in Jersey City and nearby Paterson, but there is no evidence that these investigations revealed any actual celebrations or resulted in any convictions. 

"This defies basic logic," PolitiFact's Lauren Carroll wrote in a "Pants on Fire" ruling.

When I first heard the story I immediately went to Snopes where conspiracy theories and bullshit lies are usually laid to rest.

Snopes did a deep dive, and really tried to get to the source of Trump's misinformation, which seemed to stem from early rumors after the towers fell, that turned out to be false. 

However not only does Trump seem impervious to facts, he is also demanded in apology from those calling him out on his BS.

Via @washingtonpost 9/18/01. I want an apology! Many people have tweeted that I am right! https://t.co/CpsMxs54qv pic.twitter.com/wrDEhXJlvR

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2015

You might notice that the portion which is quoted in the tweet above says the words "allegedly." That is because their was nothing to the allegations.

At this point I think we have to take notice of the fact that according to polling the three top contenders for the GOP nomination, Trump, Carson, and Cruz, are all habitual liars who seem to have a specific allergy to facts.

Not exactly good news for the Republican party.

No Track Palin did not cut brake lines on school buses, and other misinformation about the Palins.

So several people sent me this link  

yesterday: just ask me I am happy to repeat that yes they are. I will gladly tell how Sara's son and also his Best friend who was Bristols Boyfriend at the time and their gang vandalized our bus barn in our community that had just been refurbished and given a beautiful facelift. They broke several windows, broke in stole stuff and broke windows in some of the buses as well and busted water pipes etc. They caused thousands of dollars of damage just to be asshats that was years ago but I am still angry about it. 

I will glady say how Sarah is a racist piggy oink and how Bristol was a brat when she was younger and is still a brat. 

Oh I can confirm it all and more.

So yes this is in fact one of the things that Track got into trouble over, and which his mother had swept under the rug.

However this is all he did. He did NOT cut brake lines on the buses. Despite what you might read on the internet.

And while we are at it let's clear up a few other bits of misinformation swirling around the web as well.

Track's daughter, Kyla Grace Palin, that he had with Britta, IS in fact his kid and not one of Bristol's from a previous unannounced pregnancy.

In fact one of the reasons that I first suspected she was pregnant, after that quicky wedding up at Hatcher Pass, was because Dennis Zaki happened to see her in either a Wal-Mart or Carrs in Wasilla and she was clearly pregnant. (This was well before those baby shower pictures showed up online.)

Let's see what else?

Oh.

No Bristol NEVER had mono. This was confirmed by Mercede quite a few years ago, and reconfirmed by several sources since.

It was featured in the original Daily Kos story as the reason that Bristol missed so much school in Anchorage, but so far I have been unable to determine if even that part was completely accurate.

Speaking of Bristol she did NOT name Tripp after Shailey Tripp.

He was named after the character Trip Carlyle, in one of Levi's favorite movies, Supercross.

It is just another one of those crazy coincidences that seem to occur around the Palins with alarming frequency.

And finally no Bristol has not already given birth to her newest baby bump. And yes she is indeed pregnant.

As far as I have been told the blessed event is not until some time in December.

And no I don't secretly know who the father is, and I have heard that Bristol is not telling anybody anything.

And one more thing, I NEVER said that "the truth about Trig's birth is too terrible or shocking to tell." That was attributed to some other person several years ago and for some reason I have been saddled with it despite several corrections.

Oh, and I don't have any evidence that it is accurate either.

Just a final thought for all of you to keep in mind.

People say all kinds of things on the internet, and often they are total bullshit.

Just because somebody says something with authority, and I don't bother to correct it, does not make it a factual statement.

Christian sex education course tells high school girls that too much sex will break their "chemical bond."

Courtesy of The Age:  

Year 7 girls have been warned not to have multiple sex partners or risk becoming like overused sticky tape, in a Christian sex education program at a public Victorian high school. 

The students at Fairhills High School, in Knoxfield in Melbourne's outer east, were also told that a chemical released in females' brains made them more needy than boys. 

A booklet titled 'Science & Facts', that was given to the students, said that "girls are needier than guys in a relationship and always want to be close".  (Wait, the booklet is called "Science & Facts?"  Is that like calling Fox News "Fair & Balanced?")


It said that a chemical called oxytocin, is released when "two people touch", and was produced by women more than men, making them needier. (By  the way Oxytocin is a hormone released by the pituitary gland to help regulate breastfeeding and childbirth. It is not released when girls simply touch a boy.)

"If a woman becomes physically close and hugs a guy for 20 seconds it will trigger the bonding process, creating a greater desire to be near him. Then if the guy wants to take the relationship further it will become harder for her to say no," the booklet said. (Why is it always the female's job to say no?)

It warned that having too many relationships could break "this special chemical bond" and harm a woman's capacity to form future relationships. 

"Having multiple sex partners is almost like tape that loses its stickiness after being applied and removed multiple times. So the more you have the harder it is to bond to the next," it said.

Yes too much sex will make it much harder to use women to hold things together. Makes perfect sense.

This particular school is in Knoxfield, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, but you know this same type of garbage is being introduced in public schools here in America as well. And in many private schools it is undoubtedly the ONLY curriculum available.

Since this article was first published the church was forced to apologize, but I think we all know they  will continue distributing this false information until all of the schools car them from their campuses.

Once again this kind of misinformation and shaming of girls is just another type of child abuse, and simply should not be tolerated in ANY educational setting.

Wisconsin man arrested for threatening to kill President Obama.

Courtesy of CNN:  

A criminal complaint and arrest warrant were issued Thursday against a 55-year-old Tomah, Wisconsin man accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama. 

Brian D. Dutcher, 55, allegedly told a security guard at a La Crosse library, "the usurper is here and if I get a chance I'll take him out and I'll take the shot," referring to Obama, who was in Wisconsin promoting his proposal for overtime pay reform. 

According to the warrant, Dutcher confirmed in an interview with the Secret Service that he made the remarks to the security guard. 

The warrant also says Dutcher posted on Facebook on June 30 "that's it! Thursday I will be in La Crosse. Hopefully I will get a clear shot at the pretend president. Killing him is our CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY!" 

Dutcher also told a La Crosse detective that his threat was serious and that "he would not have said what he said if he didn't intend to carry it out."

He thinks killing the President is his "constitutional duty?"

I think that tells us all we need to know to understand where this guy gets his information.

Here's my prediction. If anything happens to our President, and there is ANY evidence to suggest that the killer received his inspiration from Fox News, conservative talk radio, or Right Wing internet sites, the lives of the people responsible for that misinformation will not be worth a plugged nickel.

I am not in the habit of making threats, but in my opinion the anger that would result from the death of this great man would burn across this country like a white hot flame. And woe to anyone who found themselves in its path.

This is why I tend to stay off of Facebook.

(Read here for more on the dehydrogen monoxide hoax.)

I see this kind of thing all of the time on Facebook.

I have a few family members and followers who are easily sucked into the newest internet outrage and it is exhausting trying to straighten them out all of the time, so I tend to just ignore Facebook altogether these days.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many parody stories about Sarah Palin I have shot down over the years.

As seen in Ken Ham's Creation Museum in Kentucky.

I have read the Bible one and a half times.

Don't remember the section on transitional fossils or the dietary needs of the Diplodocus.

P.S. Yes I am aware that they are likely talking about the behemoth, leviathon, and dragons that ARE mentioned in the Bible, but to even call that a stretch in logic is to be much too kind to these anti-science idiots.

I have said it once, and I will say it again, parents taking their children to this "museum" should be charged with child abuse.

Texas is now heavily funding anti-Abortion clinics with tax dollars, while slashing the funding of actual health clinics that offer access to abortions, or even counseling which includes that option.

Courtesy of The Austin Chronicle:  

Persuading women to "choose life" is the core mission of Austin LifeCare; in fact, under the terms of their state funding as well as their stated mission, the center cannot refer clients for an abortion, no matter if their clients need or request the service. Despite the religious overtones, overt anti-choice agenda, and documented claims of dispersing medical inaccuracies, LifeCare and 24 other "crisis pregnancy centers" – from Dallas to Houston – are generously subsidized by the state of Texas. And even as the women's health network drastically erodes at the hands of conservative lawmakers, taxpayer dollars to CPCs stand to receive an unprecedented increase in funding this legislative session. 

Texas crisis pregnancy centers – pseudo-clinics designed to discourage abortion – have seen an infusion of taxpayer funding over the years, beginning with a 2005 effort by Republican legislators who succeeded in diverting funding intended to assist low-income households into the "Alternatives to Abortion" program. Former state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-Woodlands, initiated a new program redirecting $5 million of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding to instead offer "pregnancy support services that promote childbirth," underwriting organizations that do not refer clients to any group that provides abortions. In following sessions, lawmakers redirected funding dedicated to family planning into the Alternatives program. 

In each subsequent session, lawmakers have maintained or increased funding for the Alternatives to Abortion program – starting with $2.5 million in 2008, steadily rising to $5.15 million allocated for 2015 – while deeply slashing family planning funds and otherwise blocking women's access to health care. For example, in 2011: As conservatives cut the family planning budget by $74 million (two-thirds of the previous allotment) and blocked state dollars to Planned Parenthood, they simultaneously raised funding for the unregulated, unlicensed CPCs. By the Department of State Health Services' own estimation, some 180,000 women lost access to basic care each year following the cuts as 82 state-funded family planning clinics eventually closed their doors or stopped offering services.

Not only has reduced funding put some low income women in a desperate situation, the anti-abortion clinics are spreading dangerous misinformation.

One oft-perpetuated falsehood espoused by CPC counselors is a purported link between breast cancer and abortion (long discredited by the National Cancer Institute, and other medical authorities) found in the state-funded "Woman's Right to Know" pamphlet, which also propagates the notion that abortion causes psychological trauma to women or "post-abortion stress syndrome" (a condition not recognized by the American Psychological Association). Some CPCs even linked abortion, incorrectly, to a higher death rate, all to dissuade women from undergoing the procedure. "CPCs frequently use lies, deception, and intimidation to achieve their end goal," said Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL-Texas. 

One investigator was falsely informed she would be four times more likely to die in months following an abortion, while another was told she would be eight times more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. "Those are crazy, false statistics. That's not true by any stretch of the imagination, and they don't even have a fake study to support it," said Busby. Instances of victim blaming (in sexual assault scenarios) and refraining from discussing contraception altogether – or claiming contraceptives are ineffective at preventing pregnancy – also made the list of CPC strategies. 

One CPC tactic, in particular, has the potential to place pregnant clients' health at risk; delaying doctors' visits and ultrasound appointments are integral to the CPC strategy. Counselors assure clients they have ample time to decide whether they want an abortion, while pushing visits further into the future – making pregnancy increasingly irreversible. As costs associated with abortion increase after the first trimester, and the procedure itself has been made illegal after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the delay can add substantial barriers to access.

 Just a reminder that Texas conservatives see women as nothing more than baby factories, and idolize the fetus. Yet of course after the fetus is born and becomes a child suddenly Texas has more important things to do rather than provide access to necessary medical or child care.

In the "not news to anybody" category Fox News is not only lying more than any other cable news outlet, they are lying more than ever.

Courtesy of Politifact:  

MSNBC and CNN have improved ever so slightly on our TV network scorecards, while Fox News has moved a touch in the opposite direction. 

At Fox and Fox News, 10 percent of the claims we’ve rated have been True, 11 percent Mostly True, 18 percent Half True, 21 percent Mostly False, 31 percent False and nine percent Pants on Fire. 

That means about 60 percent of the claims we’ve checked have been rated Mostly False or worse. Here’s how it breaks down (as of Jan. 27, 2015):

Politifact goes on to suggest that about 44% of MSNBC Reports are rated false or mostly false as well, however I have a problem with that as they have been called out before, by no less than Rachel Maddow herself, for labeling MSNBC stories false when actually they were well researched and factual.

And besides there is scientific evidence to back up Fox's penchant for misinformation as well as the reasons they do so.

Actually I think we all realize that Fox News is forced to lie becasue their audience simply cannot handle the truth, and if they heard it they would turn off their cable boxes and go back to talk radio where they will only hear what they want to hear.

Sign seen in pediatrician's office.

This is becoming the new norm.

And this is not the only place that anti-vaxxers are unwelcome, they are also being asked to stay the hell away from the happiest place on earth:

It may be the happiest place on Earth, but California health officials are warning people to stay away from Disneyland unless they're vaccinated.

I myself am somebody who has avoided the flu vaccination for the last twelve years, relying on my own good health and strong natural resistance to see me through the season. And so far so good.

However as somebody who caught both measles and chicken pox as a kid I made sure my daughter got all of her shots and booster shots right on time. Because I love her.

As Americans we are famous for our independent spirit, but when our personal choices put others at terrible risk we have an obligation to put our stubbornness on hold for the good of everybody.

Simply put there is simply NO real scientifically proven connection between vaccinations and autism, despite what disgraced British doctor named Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy might have you believe.

We put chlorine in our pool water to fight bacteria, pasteurize our milk, and vaccinate our children. And we have never been healthier or safer.

And those are the facts.

Christian women's group opposes building of women's history museum. Wait, what?

"Christian women's group opposes building of women's history museum." Yep you read that right.

Here is the story: 

The Christian group Concerned Women for America (CWA) has been trying to stop the construction of the National Women’s History Museum in Washington D.C. 

The House approved the museum in a 383-33 vote earlier this year, but a similar bill has been blocked in the Senate by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), noted the New York Daily News. 

“Whose view of history is this going to be?” Penny Nance, CEO of CWA, told The Daily Caller earlier this year. 
 

Concerned Women of America CEO Penny Nance.

Nance claimed that the museum would espouse pro-choice, anti-marriage and anti-family positions.

Incredibly enough the museum sponsors even offered Nance a chance to participate in the museum's direction. Guess how that went:  

However, conservative Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), who sponsored the museum bill in the House, denied Nance's claims were true and even offered Nance a seat on the museum commission. 

Nance called the offer an "exercise in futility and frustration" because it wasn't the chairman position. 

“I am happy to either serve or find someone else to serve as chairman,” stated Nance.

Yes why wouldn't you put a person, who clearly has no concept of the struggles that women have undertaken to provide her the opportunity to participate in the the founding of a museum in their honor, the chairmanship?

Now you might find the idea of a women's group, ANY women's group, opposed to the building of a museum honoring women to be almost impossible to rationalize.

But that is because you do not yet realize that Concerned Women for America is not REALLY so much a women's group as it is a conservative group promoting Christianity, carefully hidden behind women's skirts. 

In fact on their list of top issues are :

Sanctity of Life
Defense of Family
Religious Liberty
National Soveregnty
And of course Defense of Israel.

Somehow I do not think that these issues were among the top priorities for the women who fought for the right to vote, or own property, or hold elected office in this country.

Here is CWA's Mission Statement:  

The mission of CWA is to protect and promote Biblical values among all citizens — first through prayer, then education, and finally by influencing our society — thereby reversing the decline in moral values in our nation.

Oh yeah, SO pro-women don't you think?

In fact it seems to me that this is really just the same anti-women, Christian misogynistic group, railing against the feminists, that we have seen for years now.

Only this one wears lipstick and nail polish. 

Sarah Palin loves her some graphics! Especially graphics that spread lies and attack the President.

Courtesy of the Facebook page of Arizona's newest political gadfly:

A friend sent me this graphic today. It says it all. "If there's a government shut down, who will spy on me, waste my money and have contempt for me?" 

We could add so much more to this list, friends. For example, if the government shuts down, who will: 
*block responsible resource development 
*borrow more money from foreign countries to give to foreign countries 
*mortgage my kids' future to bail out their friends on Wall Street & finance their big government crony capitalism 
*"misplace" IRS receipts and ledgers to the tune of tens of millions 
*stockpile ammo at DHS 
*commandeer pro athletes to testify in front of Congress while watching bureaucrats plead the Fifth 

Please feel free to add to the list with your own comments below. I so appreciate your great comments and "likes" and "shares" on these Facebook posts! 

- Sarah Palin

A "friend" sent her this graphic? Does she mean a friend on her payroll who undoubtedly found or created the graphic and then wrote the post for her, which she only found out about after reading her email or logging on to Facebook? Does she mean that "friend?"

And by the way WHAT a disingenuous post!

As US News has pointed out the negative impact of a government shutdown is far more devastating than Palin apparently realizes, or wants to admit.

They include Social Security checks not going out on time.
National parks and museums potentially closing.
Tax refunds could be delayed.
And the pay for U.S. troops would be delayed, while some civilian Defense Department employees would also be furloughed.

None of this may be important to a person living off of SarahPAC donations and dirty Fox News money, but it IS important to millions of  Americans, including our soldiers who are in harm's way, and our elderly who are living on a fixed income and really need their Social Security checks to arrive on time.

Finally I would like to point out that Palin's desperation to continue appearing to be popular is truly evident in her plea for more "likes" and "shares" on Facebook.

Of course it should also be pointed out, and I will do so more thoroughly in an upcoming post, that Palin's Facebook followers and Twitter followers are largely phony, as are the number of likes and shares she receives.

It's all mooseshit my friends, one big steaming pile of mooseshit.