Report: Childhood Obesity a Threat to Armed Forces Readiness

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Monday October 16, 2017 · 4:39 AM PDT

2017/10/16 · 04:39

Not that Dear Leader really cares about armed forces readiness or capabilities, or the health and fitness of our children, or how dangerous to world peace is his constant saber rattling is, but this headline could upset his dark worldview if it somehow made it into his daily cartoon scribble:

Too fat to fight: Colorado nonprofit says military threatened by childhood obesity

Even the kids in America's fittest state (who knew?-ed.) are too fat to fight their nation's wars, a pro-military nonprofit argues in a new study.

The military has long bemoaned America's tubby youth, and the Council for a Strong America says Colorado is part of the problem, with more than 27 percent of the state's children categorized as overweight.

"Low levels of physical activity and the obesity epidemic are contributing to an unprecedented readiness problem for our armed forces," the nonprofit said.

I won’t vouch for the non-profit in question. They surely do profit from the stoopid amounts of Air Force bases, Armed Forts, the NORAD installation, defense contractor drone, satellite and other work, and the new cybersecurity center planned for our area.

But they might just want to have a fit armed force if we ever do go to war, which is looking more likely every day Republican National Leaders sit on their hands as Trumps throws grenades into our diplomacy.

If he knew our future soldiers are looking to be too fat to fight, would it change his tone?

Want to get rid of the Electoral College? Keep your eyes on this Colorado lawsuit

Zappatero

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Monday October 09, 2017 · 9:53 AM PDT

2017/10/09 · 09:53

The Anachronism that is the Electoral College

It’s conventional wisdom that the U.S. Constitution has a few significant flaws. Those flaws aren’t fatal, one hopes, but they are congenital and chronic:

Neither Congress nor the president has the capacity to govern alone, but either can refuse to compromise, and prevent the other from governing. If the system is thought to be indestructible, the temptation to take stands becomes overwhelming. Filibusters, shutdowns, and executive orders multiply. The veneration of the Constitution becomes its undoing.

As we all know ‘round here, one of those congenital flaws that was intended to appease America’s Slave-owning class and to dilute the voting power of individuals in “Free” states is the existence of the Electoral College. In our last election, and one or 2 fairly recent ones before that, it turned the popular vote winner (by close to 3 Million votes) into an impotent witness to the transfer of power on Inauguration Day.

The quite logical urge to rid ourselves of this constitutional quirk was sparked once again, and in a state that has gone Democratic the last several years, it’s a pair of Republican hard-liners in Colorado who have taken a legal axe to that knotty quirk:

Last November, from his downtown Colorado Springs home, local math educator Bob Nemanich, one of the 538 members of the Electoral College, helped launch a movement to try to change the way the United States chooses its president.

Nearly a year later, he is still fighting.

Nemanich is named as a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed by national election law expert, Harvard Law School professor and attorney Lawrence Lessig, who briefly ran for president in 2016 before dropping out ahead of the Democratic primary. The suit claims Colorado’s Republican secretary of state, Wayne Williams, intimidated Nemanich and two other electors into voting for Hillary Clinton during the official Electoral College vote on Dec. 19 at the state Capitol in Denver. The suit seeks $1 in damages, plus legal fees.

But the lawsuit is bigger than that.

The legal action, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, aims to answer a major question once and for all, before the 2020 presidential election: Do members of the Electoral College have a constitutional ability to vote for whomever they want?

The vote of Colorado’s Electors was clouded by a rabid Republican from El Paso County (home of many rabid R’s including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, and the Meth-ingesting homophobe Ted Haggard whose mega-church was rocked by his actions).

Could this suit end the EC as we know it?

That day at the Capitol in Denver, the scene was dramatic.

Williams presented the state’s nine electors with a new oath requiring them to pledge they would cast their ballots for the winner of Colorado’s popular vote and making it easier to charge them with a crime if they didn’t. But when it came time to vote, Micheal Baca wrote in the name of Ohio Gov. John Kasich instead, and Williams immediately stripped him of his duties and replaced him with someone else.

Afterwards, Williams asked the state’s Republican attorney general, Cynthia Coffman, to investigate Micheal Baca for a potential crime, calling him a “faithless elector” who violated an oath.

The case is messy, but the end result could force the issue enough so that the EC would end up in the dust bin of history.

If the U.S. Supreme Court eventually hears this case and decides that members of the Electoral College can vote their consciences, imagine what might happen. Following a presidential election there would essentially be another election waged for the votes of the 538 national electors. Williams, commenting on the lawsuit, made the same point.

“If electors are free agents, then voters would want to screen who those [electors] are in a very different way,” he said. Campaigns to become a national elector would be enormous.

Maybe then, Nemanich says, people would be outraged, and move to obliterate the Electoral College.

"Heckuva Job" Brownie back to inflict more Pain and Incompetence on Harvey victims

Zappatero

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Monday August 28, 2017 · 1:21 PM PDT

2017/08/28 · 13:21

Michael "Heckuva Job Brownie" Brown - President Bush's failed FEMA Director and National Disgrace

What with the massive impact of Hurricane Harvey, the undeniable parallels to the current situation with Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, and how another incompetent President and his corrupt Administration handled its climate related twin, it was only inevitable that our half-competent media would ask history’s most famous and failed FEMA director his opinion on how to respond to Harvey.

And in the process, inevitably, the urgency of the situation and the superficiality of the press have given Brownie a pass on his failed tenure and his typically Republican, anti-government and anti-democratic views that are in plain sight.

The clueless Chuck Todd seems to have started the ball rolling, with a segment on MTP Daily:

TODD: Nice to see you. Look for better or for worse you became, a phase became -- I guess lives in infamy with you with President [George W.] Bush. You wrote an op-ed today I think a lot of people should read. Basically urging President Trump, I guess you're trying to have him not make the same mistakes President Bush did.

Brownie seems at least to acknowledge how badly they handled Katrina and its aftermath. But he doesn’t make the point to Chuck that he eagerly made before on his 850KPOA radio show in Denver a few years ago. And on that show Michael “Heckuva Job” Brownie said this about Americans working together, about true shared sacrifice and the role of government:

“We're not all in it together."

"They did it without you. And they did it without the Stupid Government."

That’s how Brownie really feels. He wants government to stand by as disasters happen, and he wants to outsource any good function of government to someone who can make a dollar from it, and he’ll answer any interview request from a clueless media who can’t be bothered to find out whether the deadly failures of someone like Michael Brown disqualify him as an expert on anything.

Pence promises Focus to "Defund Planned Parenthood Once and For All"

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Friday June 23, 2017 · 8:57 PM PDT

2017/06/23 · 20:57

Another subterfuge of the Trump Administration, and a huge warning for those who think Vice Pres. Pence would do less harm.

"You are the hands and feet and voice of the truth found in Scripture," Vice President Mike Pence told 1,600 employees, supporters, and friends of Focus on the Family Friday in a half-hour speech celebrating the ministry's 40th anniversary.

Amid references to biblical passages, praise for President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, and anecdotes about how Focus broadcasts and books had impacted his own family, Pence repeatedly made clear this was personal.

"You are a force for good over the last 40 years," he said, "and Focus [on the Family], you have an unwavering ally in president Donald Trump."

And the guy who is not James Dobson is still a religious fanatic whose highest goal is to eliminate women’s right to choose. That man’s name is Jim Daly.

Focus, which has cultivated relationships with sympathetic political leaders for most of its 40 years, is now reaping the rewards and finding growing numbers of friends in high places. Last week the ministry broadcast Daly's interview with former President George W. Bush.

Pence’s speech had more. The applause for Obamacare’s death rang through the crowd:

"The President and I will not rest, will not relent, until we repeal and replace Obamacare, and give Americans the kind of world-class health care they need," he said. "The President and I are counting on your support, energy, and enthusiasm to get this bill across the finish line."

The distractions are enormous, but Establishment Republicans haven’t abandoned their long-time goals. And doing it in God’s name is how they put the shine on all this destruction.

TRUMP: "Russia, if you're listening,I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails"

Zappatero

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Sunday December 11, 2016 · 1:03 PM PST

2016/12/11 · 13:03

Trump is now denying the very thing he asked for, and doing it by throwing the CIA under the bus.

It can’t be any clearer that Trump asked for Russian help to get elected, they obliged, McConnell obfuscated and that Trump and Team are all traitors.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference here in an apparent reference to Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Video at the NY Times site. Traitors preparing to take office in just over a month.

Oh, and btw, there are several other clear Trump lies in the short video including “I have nothing to do with Russia.”

Denver Post endorses Hillary Clinton for President

Zappatero

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Sunday October 09, 2016 · 8:57 AM PDT

2016/10/09 · 08:57

The Denver Post published their endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President:

It’s an easy call: Hillary Clinton for president

By THE DENVER POST EDITORIAL BOARD

PUBLISHED: October 7, 2016 at 12:01 pm

The hard truth is that our country’s history is a flawed one, as human nature has dinged the halos of many of its transformative leaders. And with our nation facing potentially crippling pressures at home and hostilities from a dizzying array of bad actors abroad, now is no time for sophistry. For the highest office in the land we need reliable, tried-and-tested leadership, and thankfully we have a clear choice.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to win a major-party nomination, is without question the most qualified candidate in the race for president and an easy call to make when considering the challenges confronting the nation. Her nearly 40 years in public life have instilled in her the temperament she needs to face the many challenges that await.

There’s a lot of meat on this one, so go read the whole thing!

Broken tail light stop? Show me the "evidence"

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Tuesday August 16, 2016 · 11:27 AM PDT

2016/08/16 · 11:27

This is the tactic of police from South Africa to the south side of Chicago to South Central: they want to pull you over for driving while black/brown, just don’t like the way you act, or are quite sure you are in the wrong neighborhood. When one of these conditions is met, then the old “broken tail light” ruse is the safest way to go.

We’ve seen it way too many times.

We know how the story ends far too often.

But that dirty trick of police the world over should be obsolete. Right. Now.

Because, with the technology advancing faster than you can say “4th Amendment violation”, there is a failsafe, or fool proof, way to make sure the stops are legit and the cops have to quit this deceptive practice: make them take a picture, using the police body cam, the cruiser cam, their own smart phone camera, or, if you’ve survived this trick, take your own pic.

We should all make sure police truly document the evidence of this “crime” for which they have pulled over a “suspect”.

Do it now.

End the age old story of a broken tail light turning into a dead citizen.

.mic.drop.

Eat it, Luntz: "Billionaire Class" takes major hit from Bernie

Zappatero

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Tuesday February 02, 2016 · 1:39 AM PST

2016/02/02 · 01:39

Americans, via Iowa Caucus participants, with the hippest Democratic Socialist Jew around, Mr. Bernie Sanders, have delivered a serious and unmistakable (well, unless you’re a you-know-what, mostly found in Washington, DC and Op-Ed rooms around the nation) message to the nation, and I dare say, the world with last night’s credible caucus outcome.

The NY Times headline is a misdirected attempt at misdirection:

Little Separates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in Tight Race in Iowa

The true headline should be the message those dedicated Americans in Iowa sent to the Billionaire Class so clearly identified by Bernie:

“So you guys ready for a radical idea?”

Cheers!

”Well, so is America. And that radical idea is we are going to create an economy that works for Working Families, not just the Billionaire Class.”

I don’t know if it’s cool to post a C&L video here at DKOS, so just go watch it, or find it wherever you may, and know that America’s Billionaire Class has been put on notice by a little ol’ presidential candidate from Vermont.

UPDATE: Gun Battle between White Biker Gangs in Denver

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Sunday January 31, 2016 · 8:45 AM PST

2016/01/31 · 08:45

UPDATE: One of the biker gangs involved in Denver’s deadly gang dispute is comprised of mostly police and military persons:

Many of those in the Iron Order are police officers, military members and other law enforcement officers.

MORE BELOW.

Everyone here knows the desired perception that Fox News, Hate Radio (of which there is more than enough in Denver and environs) and nearly all the Republican candidates for president regarding crime, immigration, and the related social disruptions wants Americans to have.

They want blame to go to Mexicans, Muslims, Refugees, and, they hope that blame pushes voters to Republicans as America’s Great White Saviors.

The chink in this electoral armor is that White Guys, many who call themselves Christian, perpetrate violence against the government, their neighbors, and their enemies far more often and with far more danger to our democracy than people of color.

Another case in point happened yesterday in Denver when two biker gangs decided to figure out who has toughest:

One person was shot dead and three others were in critical condition after a gun battle at a motorcycle show Saturday afternoon that may have started with a feud between rival biker clubs.

Four more people were wounded and in stable condition. Police said Saturday evening that they were questioning one person but no arrests had been made.

The shooting happened inside Denver's National Western Complex, where thousands of people gathered for the 38th annual Colorado Motorcycle Expo. Multiple gunshots were fired during the melee, and four of the victims were shot, Denver police said. At least one person was stabbed, and it is unclear how the other victims were injured.

Denver Police Chief Robert White said detectives believe more than one shooter was likely involved.

A witness who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation said the incident was a fight between rival biker gangs.

...

"There was blood everywhere," Shaw said. "They were all wasted and brawling."

After the shooting, police officers quickly flooded the complex, and ambulances raced at least seven of the victims to Denver Health Medical Center, where one person was pronounced dead.

And Fox News and all the Republican presidential candiates will condemn this White Male Terrorism conducted in broad daylight on the streets of a major American city…..not.

From a later Denver Post report:

Stephen Stubbs, an attorney for the Mongols Motorcycle Club, says members of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club taunted Mongols into an argument and then escalated the violence that led to the fatal shooting of a Mongols member.

Many of those in the Iron Order are police officers, military members and other law enforcement officers.

"The Iron Order are cowards," Stubbs said Sunday. "The Iron Order started an argument. An Iron Order member threw the first punch. And when they were handily losing the fight they pulled out a gun and shot a Mongol. The only person who died here was shot by a member of the cop club."

But John C. Whitfield, a lawyer for the Iron Order Motorcycle Club, said Sunday the shootout may have started when three members were jumped by members of one or more biker gangs.

Whole Foods, profiting from CO inmate labor, says it will quit by 2016

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Thursday October 01, 2015 · 9:32 AM PDT

2015/10/01 · 09:32

We expect this kind of thing in China, and yet somehow, one of the nation's best known brands with quite a good image, has been profiting from the labor of Colorado's prison inmates since 2011:

Whole Foods will stop selling products made using a prison labor program after a protest at one of its stores in Texas.
The company said the products should be out of its stores by April 2016, if not sooner. Whole Foods said it has sold tilapia, trout and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at some stores since at least 2011.

They have princinples, but none that can trump profit. (Did you have to do that? -ed.) Read More

Elite Financial Reporter shows Ignorance of Tax Laws and History

Zappatero

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Wednesday May 27, 2015 · 12:07 PM PDT

2015/05/27 · 12:07

Really?

Our nation's most elite journalists at press organs that specialize in the economy and finance are unable to comprehend what Bernie Sanders is saying about tax rates?

Really?!?!?

First off we have John Harwood, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, currently with CNBC, showing he either does not understand tax law or is just a friggin' idiot. First he lets the "Hitler" reference into the discussion, because, well, it's "out there". Then he questions taxing the wealthy at 90% Marginal tax rates, but implies it's 90% of everything you made:

Zappatero

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Thursday November 20, 2014 · 7:23 AM PST

2014/11/20 · 07:23

One of the few issues that Mark Udall was proud of during his one-term as a Blue Dog, Fiscal Conservative Senator was his principled stand against the CIA's use of torture and the NSA's vast spy network that was used against innocent Americans as much as any guilty terrorist.

For this I cheered him.

Now that his political fate has been determined, it is time for Udall to determine the fate of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on torture by releasing it:

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