1) "Watching the Republican debates pretty much requires alcohol." - Thom Hartmann
2) The World Bank has announced that oil will stay below $40 per barrel for the entire year.
3) Both Republican and Democratic candidates are flirting with going rogue this week. Donald Trump says that he will not participate in Thursday night's debate on FOX, because he "doesn't like" Megyn Kelly.
Just think, if Megyn Kelly is capable of spooking The Donald that much, then who knows what might happen if he were to become President, and had to meet with foreign leaders who he "didn't like".
Meanwhile, the Democrats are considering participating in an unsanctioned debate next week, right before the New Hampshire Primary. All three candidates have expressed a desire to have more debates.
This week, the New Hampshire Union Leader asked Rachel Maddow and Chuck Todd to moderate a debate that they wanted to host, in the New Hampshire tradition of having the final debate just days before the election.
At first, all three candidates agreed, and Bernie Sanders said that his campaign would be “working with the DNC to schedule more debates.”
Then the DNC announced that they would not sanction any debates before New Hampshire.
Then Bernie Sanders announced that he will not be participating in any unsanctioned debates.
At this point it is anybody's guess whether there will, in fact, be an unsanctioned debate in New Hampshire next week, with all three candidates participating.
There are currently four different petitions circulating, demanding the resignation of DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for her purposely scheduling very few debates at very questionable times (on the night of a big playoff game, on the Sunday night of a three day weekend, and on the Saturday before Christmas).
Most pundits assume that this was done in order to protect Schultz' personal friend, Hillary Clinton, from too much scrutiny, as well as to keep the voters from learning more about the other candidates (I.e. Bernie Sanders). Either that or Schultz is a Republican in disguise, just trying to keep the public from hearing the Democratic message at all.
4) Remember that rally that Martin O'Malley held in Iowa recently, and only one person showed up? At the time, the voter was asked (after a one hour, one-on-one session with O'Malley), who he was going to vote for. He admitted that he was still undecided.
That was then, and this is now. That voter has just announced that he's made up his mind, and he is, in fact, going to support O'Malley.
5) Michael Moore's new film, "Where To Invade Next", reports on how European countries treat their prisoners. In Norway, each prisoner has their own little cubicle, with their own separate bathroom, and a small flatscreen TV. One man who Moore interviewed, was taking painting classes, and had some canvases in his room.
The reason for treating prisoners humanely is that they get better results. They are training their prisoners to be able to succeed on the outside, because the longest sentence they give is 21 years, and today's criminal might be tomorrow's neighbor.
It seems to be working quite well. Norway's recidivism rate is 20%, while here in the United States, 80% of prisoners are back in the clink, within five years.
6) Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, visited Pope Francis yesterday. The two spoke for 40 minutes about Middle Eastern affairs.
7) Actress, Gaby Hoffman has studied to be a Doula. Her 14 month old daughter was delivered at home, with the help of a TEAM of Doulas, as the baby weighed almost 10 pounds!
Hoffman and her husband and daughter are headed off to Iowa to campaign for Bernie Sanders. She believes that nothing will change, no action on Climate Change, no Immigration Reform, nothing, until we have Campaign Finance Reform.
8) Iowa Governor, Terry Branstad is the longest serving Governor in the history of the United States. He is serving his sixth four year term.
9) Steven Tyler has come out with a new solo country album. The first single from the album is a country song (Tyler said he "cut his teeth on The Everly Brothers”), and is titled "Red, White and You".
When Stephen Colbert asked Tyler if there was ever anyone he wanted to be when he was younger, Tyler quickly replied, "Yeah, Janis Joplin!" He covers "Piece of My Heart" on the new album.
Tyler has started a new charity for abused girls, called Janie's Fund, after the Aerosmith song, "Janie's Got a Gun."
10) The Boston Herald has endorsed New Jersey Governor, and current New Hampshire resident, Chris Christie.
Rick Perry has endorsed Ted Cruz. One has to wonder if Cruz did a happy dance or made a sad face when he heard the news.
John Kasich has picked up the endorsements of both the Boston Globe and the Concord Monitor, and has risen to second and third place in NH in various polls.
11) Rand Paul has once again been invited to return to the main stage for Thursday night's Republican debate. And Jim Gilmore has been invited to return to the kiddy table to participate in the Junior Varsity pre-debate debate.
12) Joy Behar has come out with a list of possible song choices for candidates to play at their rallies:
Bernie Sanders - Taxman
Chris Christie - Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Ted Cruz - Oh! Canada
Donald Trump- Big Shot
Martin O'Malley - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Hillary - It Takes Two, Baby
Jeb! - I'm Not Going
Ben Carson - Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Plea for HELP! I apologize for the “unusual” formatting of my posts. I can’t figure out how to create paragraphs with a return between them. I have tried to find some guidance in the HELP documents, but I guess I haven’t used the right keywords. I’ve tried “Line Spacing”; “Leading”; “Paragraph Spacing”; “Hard Return”. I’ve also tried holding down different function keys while hitting Return (Opt + Return; Control + Return, etc); and I also tried the same combos with the Enter Key. Obviously, none of these worked. What am I missing? HELP!!
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*NOTE* - Please understand that I do not claim to be a “journalist”. I am only passing on bits of information, which others have researched, that drift through my awareness, on any given day. I watch, read and listen to any number of different news and entertainment sources, and it’s more than anyone could possibly intake and retain in a day, so I created this little daily “cheat sheet” for myself, so that I could remember all these oddball facts. Then I decided to share these tidbits, and thus was born the Daily TILT. I do this for fun. I hope you enjoy it.
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***My Daily Sources are usually one of the following: Democracy Now, The Daily Kos, Thom Hartmann, care2, Mother Jones, David Pakman, Ring of Fire, Jim Hightower, Alternet, Bill Press, Wired UK, John Fugelsang, Lee Camp, The Huffington Post, The Daily Show, TYT Network, Truthout, DIGG, Think Progress, Politico, Salon, Friends of the Earth, Talk Media News, NRDC, Pirate Television, The Upworthiest, The Chase, Soul Pancake, The Petition Site, Bioneers, TechKnow, The Daily Beast, PPP, YouTube and occasionally, MSNBC.
As Thom Hartmann says, "Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. TAG, you're it!”