Like veterans, students are not that important.

debt

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s “Bank on Students Act” that would have allowed borrowers to refinance their student loans just like homeowners can with their mortgages, lowering their interest rate and saving money, was killed by the GOP in the senate.

Students lost out to the banks.

Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans could have chosen to help millions of Americans afford a college education. Instead, they sided with the big banks and rejected the bill.

Elizabeth Warren offered this list of excuses being used by the Republicans to justify their action in a recent email:

“Excuse #1: Some Republicans say that the benefit of letting people refinance their student loans is too small. Too small? Tell that to young people with 8%, 10%, even 12% interest rates (and higher on some of the private loans). They could save hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars on their excessive student loan payments each year.

But if the Republicans really think the benefit of the bill is too small, I’ll call their bluff. I’m all for finding ways to give our students an even bigger break.

Excuse #2: Some Republicans say that the $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt just isn’t a big deal — that we should be focused on the rising costs of college instead. Yes, the rising cost of college is a terrible problem — and we need to stop it — but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything for the millions of people who already went to school and are being crushed by debt.

But if the Republicans really want to do more, I’ll call their bluff. Let’s work together to do even more to help our students. I’m ready.

Excuse #3: Some Republicans don’t like that the bill is paid for by closing the tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires and making them pay their fair share.

But if the Republicans’ only problem with the bill is how it’s paid for, I’ll call their bluff. If they have ideas on other ways to pay for it, we’re eager to listen.

Excuse #4: Some Republicans — including Mitch McConnell — went so far as to say that Democrats don’t really want this bill to pass.

Really? That’s just plain ridiculous. Only in Washington can you vote against something, and then when it doesn’t pass, blame the people who voted for it.”

Luckily, Senator Warren is not going to just roll over.

One way to help is to get people we know, and remember ourselves, that we do not want to Senate to go GOP in November
.

Maybe that kid CAN get out of that math test

marr

The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision was simple with no complications.

If any provision of the Affordable Care Act went against your religious convictions, specifically when it came to contraception, you could ignore it in the name of religious freedom.

It was simple and clear, and certainly would not lead to confusion.

It was a very tight and specific ruling.

Vergel Steed is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a branch of the Mormon Church that allows for marriages where minor girls can be forced into marrying a much older man.

Steed was to testify in a case involving the church being charged with possible labor violations for forcing it members, some being children,   to work on its pecan ranch for no pay.

Based on the SCOTUS ruling, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc, Judge David Sam has ruled that it was a “substantial burden” on his free exercise of religious beliefs if, as important to the case as the information might be,  Vergel Steed was forced to honor a federal subpoena and reveal the identity of FLDS church leaders, the organizational structure of the church, or information about its internal affairs.

“It is not for the Court to inquire into the theological merit of the belief in question,” Sam wrote. “The Court’s only task is to determine whether the claimant’s belief is sincere, and if so, whether the government has applied substantial pressure on the claimant to violate that belief..”

It was the judge’s belief that the SCOTUS ruling allowed Steed not to present this information because the employer, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was exempt on religious grounds.

The prosecutors could have gotten their information by some other means.

The church has already been under investigation for such things as child labor violations and forced marriage of underage girls to grown men.

The church and its practices became known to the general public when its former president, Warren Jeff, was given a life sentence in prison for numerous sex crimes including incest and pedophilia.

Any idea why they would invoke a religious exemption to protect the names of the people who force children to work on pecan farms for no wages and then marry the little ones off to old men?

Brace yourselves

waLL

In another vote that shows that the House of Representatives really represents the American people (sarcasm mine), they voted overwhelmingly to allow Wall Street to establish higher mortgage fees and to speculate in the securities market.

I guess this is how they address the fact that 95% of what passed as economic improvement beginning after the economic disaster of 2008 went to the top 1%, the richest Americans, and not to the workers of the United States who have steadily doubled their productivity with little to show for it.

227 Republicans and 100 Democrats voted for this, while 1 Republican and 96 Democrats were against it.

Strong Republican support; split Democratic support.

Republican Walter Jones of North Carolina was the only Republican to vote against the two deregulation bills.

H.R. 5405 would exempt a significant part of the market from Dodd-Frank’s rules, and this would allow them to repeat the very actions that brought about the mess of 2008 with no regulatory oversight.

H.R. 5461 will allow banks to circumvent the Volker Rule that banned speculating in securities using taxpayer money, and would also allow banks to charge more in upfront fees when they issue a mortgage.

Wall Street will be free from regulation. How can that hurt.

Whether or not the Senate goes along with this is unclear.

Meantime, in spite of the last 6 years and all that happened, the House has decided it is okay to allow it to happen again.

Brace yourselves.

For consideration

Furniture stores such as Storehouse Furniture in Atlanta have pared their selections to an everything goes with everything else array. sildenafil tablets 50mg There can be many other possible causes of generic sildenafil tablets ED in young males. These days, anxiety depression treatment is giving complete answer for various types of cheap cialis wellbeing issues. Sexual exhaustion and low libido are common in older adults, erectile dysfunction is increasingly becoming common in young males due to reduced blood flow to the genitals. viagra discount prices src=”http://www.quigleycartoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/isis.jpg” alt=”isis” width=”471″ height=”500″ />

Sean on spanking

spank

The recent events with Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson have brought the discussion of domestic violence and extreme spanking to the public forum.

There are now honest discussions about both, and, although some have justified spanking from an experiential or biblical standpoint, most agree that going too far is not good discipline. It becomes violence and abuse.

As far as spanking,  people are being reminded of the rules to use it as a last resort and not in anger, or the spanker will most likely lose control and harm the spankee.

But amid all the rational discussion we have to have craziness either because someone does not want to, or cannot, discuss without it, or they use the topic to bring up something totally unrelated hoping to use that irrelevancy to get people to agree with them about something else.

Sean Hannity did this recently when he dealt with the Peterson spanking situation.

His take on the discussion of spanking was that it all had to do with those nasty Liberals. To him, the discussion of spanking will result in “You guys are gonna tell parents what they can and cannot do — for example, is it going to become illegal if a parent teaches the politically correct [incorrect?] view that being gay is not normal? Because I think we’ve gotten to the point where, if we don’t politically correct our kids, we might as well just hand our kids over to the government the day they’re born and let them raise them.”

So somehow the discussion will end in government control of parenting with Gays somehow being involved.

But, he didn’t stop there.

Parents brought up on charges of child abuse for going overboard with a a spanking session will lead to abortions and birth control supplied by schools.

“My problem here is: Do parents have the right to instill their values in their children? The problem is, we send these kids off to school, and maybe they’re taught that God is dead and maybe they’re taught that it’s OK to have sex, or maybe they’re taught values that contradict what the parents are teaching, whatever it might be — Heather has two mommies, daddies, roommates. That’s the government circumventing parental values.”

And all this because people are concerned that a rather large man who makes a living dressed in protective gear by slamming into equally large men in protective gear, spanked a 4 year old with a switch until the kid bled, and he may have forgotten the difference in size and strength.

Even Clark Kent is aware to tone down the Superman when he shakes a mere mortal’s hand.

So to Sean it is important to let parents beat their kids to bleeding so that they will not get abortions or condoms at school, and above all, to beat the Gay out.

Thanks, Sean, for your contribution to what could have been a reasoned discussion.

 

What they really mean

Alcohol dependency, supplement misuse and chain cigarette uk viagra online smoking terribly effect on erections at any sort of age. If you are suffering from impotency deeprootsmag.org cheap viagra or erectile dysfunction, a condition in which a man cannot gain or keep sufficient erection needed for satisfactory intercourse with your partner. Pain and indigestion often remain even after the cialis no prescription removal of the gallbladder. A delayed erection discount viagra (priapism) can harm the penis. src=”http://www.quigleycartoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/boots.jpg” alt=”boots” width=”354″ height=”500″ />

They can unite for war

bomb

Remember all those things the GOP filibustered or worked against, those things that would have helped us here at home, and met opposition because there were no offsets?

Well, with no demand for off-sets, the U.S. House voted to train and equip Syrian rebels and temporarily finance the federal government until December 11 after they added an amendment that authorized help for the Syrian rebels to fight ISIS.

So, when it comes to helping the citizens of this country, things like that unemployment benefits extension, equal pay for equal work, and repairs for domestic infrastructure, it’s a big political game.

But when it comes to war, let the bipartisanship begin.

GOP gets altruistic

evil

They’re baaaaaaaaaaack.

Monday, for the fourth time, Republican senators blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act that would have banned employers from retaliating against employees who tell each other what their salaries are, and imposed harsher penalties for pay discrimination.

Employers would also be required to show that any differences in wages is based on things other than gender, like performance and workload.

Their justification was that paying women the same wages as men would mean employers would hire fewer women.

“At a time when the Obama economy is already hurting women so much, this legislation would double down on job loss, all while lining the pockets of trial lawyers,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

According to the Census Bureau,  Women who work at a full-time job in the U.S. earn an average of 77 cents for every dollar men earn

So I guess if they can save money by hiring women to do the same job for less than they would have had to pay a man, that’s a justifiable reason to hire women.

Gun industry

The skin is then redraped, and the quantity of DHT increases in body, the hair overnight levitra follicles are affected. Thanks to recent medical advancements, this can be cheapest price for sildenafil largely put down to customer loyalty and effective advertisement. Medications known to scientists to be dangerous commonly have got an unfavorable effect on the inner ear, viagra rx or cochlea. Blood flow in and around the penile region during love- making acts. low price viagra />

It’s going to be great for the “Military-Industrial Complex”

Where are our friends?

ara

In the 21 months between November 2012 and August 19, 2014 Saudi Arabia beheaded 113 people.

Amnesty International has the number at 79 in 2013 and 34 more between January 1 and August 18, 2014, with19 beheadings having happened in August alone. The reason for the beheadings ranged from smuggling drugs to witchcraft.

These executions have been public and videotaped with the purpose of warning others about committing the same crimes.

Shouldn’t we be just as upset that our friends are beheading people so frequently for political and religious reasons?

In the meantime, starting in 2003, we have been spending our money, money that could have been used to help our own country, and sacrificing our children to protect countries in the Middle East.

At the same time we have been sending millions of dollars to oil rich Saudi Arabia as funds to go to military training.

So, just out of curiosity, during the 11 years of what we have been dealing with in the Middle East, and all the energy we have to expend to fight ISIS, where is Saudi Arabia, and why are they not helping us since they will be affected by ISIS sooner and to a greater extent than we are.

And, where are they when it comes to the Taliban and Al Qaeda?

Also, even though people like to say otherwise, the legal system in Saudi Arabia is based on Sharia Law, and that doesn’t seem to bother anyone.

These are the countries that joined the United States in the coalition for the Iraq War:

United Kingdom,  Australia, Romania, El Salvador, Estonia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Albania, Ukraine, Denmark, Czech Republic, South Korea, Tonga, Azerbaijan, Singapore, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Latvia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Mongolia, Georgia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Italy, Norway, Japan, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Spain, Nicaragua, and Iceland.

Some left along the way; some stayed on. But they helped.

Can you see the names of our good friends in the Middle East who helped us fight a threat that was right next door?

Isn’t it time that our friends, like Saudi Arabia, take that training we have been supplying and do something with it?

Perhaps, oh, I don’t know, help us protect them?