-Great Cultural Revolution |
Boston Talk Host Howie Carr Describes How Journalism Used to be Blue Collar But is Now Ruled by Liberal Elites (AUDIO) |
2023-08-29 |
[Gateway] Conservative Boston talk radio host Howie Carr recently spoke to Breitbart News during their podcast. Part of their conversation was about how the media landscape has changed over the years. Carr pointed out that years ago, journalism was filled with working class people, some of whom would eventually work their way up to greater positions. Now it is dominated by politically connected liberal elites. Carr uses specific examples like Jake Tapper and Chuck Todd as people who are directly connected to Democrat politics. Exclusive — Howie Carr Chronicles Journalism’s Shift from Blue-Collar to Elitist Trade: ’They’re Writing for the Powers That Be’ Syndicated Boston radio host Howie Carr appeared on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday, where he offered his perspective on how the news industry has moved from a working-class trade, in which reporters worked their way up from local outlets to larger platforms, to one that is now dominated by elites who serve as lapdogs to those in power. "I mean, the, you know, newspapers in the old days, it was a sort of a working-class, blue-collar trade," Carr explained. "And after Watergate, it just the sort of the upper classes, the elites, the legacy started moving into it, and it’s totally different now... "Jake Tapper, you know, he worked for Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law, and she was married to a corrupt congressman, and she was a congresswoman," Carr said of Marjorie Margolies. "Or you have been Chuck Todd, who worked for stolen valor, Tom Harkin, a senator, or Stephanopoulos, who ran the bimbo eruptions unit for the Clinton campaign in ’92. I mean, that’s the farm system now... It’s not just the internet that’s destroyed newspapers. I think that there’s just nobody, there’s nobody left who — forget going to church or being in the military, these people don’t even know anyone who goes to church or is in the military." You can listen to the whole thing below: |
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Home Front: Politix | ||||||
Clinton Insiders Fuming Over Pending Biden Presidential Bid | ||||||
2015-08-28 | ||||||
The now-growing Biden camp is said to have received no fewer than nine phone calls from different politically-connected and Clinton supporting individuals in the span of just 24 hours -- each one demanding to know why the Vice President appeared ready to declare his intent to run for president in 2016. Each phone call centered on the same question to Mr. Biden -- "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Team Clinton fears that if Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett begin to direct campaign dollars toward Biden, the Clinton war chest will be greatly diminished.
So says a trusted D.C. Whispers source with considerable knowledge of the day-to-day operations within the White House. The Clinton heartburn is certain to continue following a Quinnipiac University poll released today indicating Mr. Biden is more competitive against the top GOP candidates than Hillary Clinton and presently 83% of Democrats polled view Joe Biden favorably vs 76% for Hillary Clinton.
"He has served the country so well and been a good friend of mine -- I love Joe. I just don't think this would be a wise move...With Hillary as president, I can see him being secretary of state or ambassador to the United Nations. There are a lot of things he can do down the road that would be of valuable service to the country or the world." What Harkin is offering is a promise from the Clintons that Joe Biden will be financially taken care of should he agree to "play ball" and back off from what now appears to be an imminent presidential campaign announcement. Harkin's comments also included a barely veiled hint at the above mentioned Clinton dossier file on the Vice President -- "I just don't think this would be a wise move." The proverbial ball is now in Mr. Biden's court as the Clintons await a response to what is both an offered deal and/or a threat.
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Home Front: Politix |
Michelle Obama To Students: 'Bring The Folks You Met At The Party Last Weekend' To Vote |
2014-10-23 |
[WASHINGTON.CBSLOCAL] First lady Michelle Obama stumped for Democrats in Iowa and Minnesota Tuesday, calling on the young and minority voters who powered her husband's rise to the presidency to help the party avoid a potentially bruising midterm election. Mrs. Obama first urged college students and supporters at the University of Iowa to vote early and volunteer for Bruce Braley, who is in a tight Senate race against Republican Joni Ernst. She delivered a similar rallying cry to a mostly black crowd later Tuesday at a high school in Minneapolis, where Sen. Al Franken and fellow Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton are counting on turnout from those groups. Tuesday's stop in Iowa City was Mrs. Obama's second trip to this month to shore up support for Braley, whose win may be crucial to Democrats' maintaining control of the Senate. Braley, a four-term congressman, had once been a favorite to win the seat held for 30 years by retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, one of his mentors. Now he's running even with Ernst, a first-term state senator and commander in the Iowa National Guard. Mrs. Obama said it would be up to younger voters to "step up" and help deliver the state for Braley, as they did for her husband, Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... , during his presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012. "For just three hours of your time, you will get six years of an outstanding senator who will carry on Tom Harkin's legacy," Mrs. Obama said. "If we all keep stepping up and bringing others along with us, I know we can elect Bruce Braley as the next senator from Iowa." She said students should take anyone they know to the polls with them, joking, "Bring the folks you met at the party last weekend!" In Minnesota, Franken and Dayton have leads in public polling over their GOP challengers. The first lady's visit was just the most recent in a parade of Democratic stars -- including former President Bill Clinton ...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of is... and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- who have stumped for the two candidates, all stressing the importance of voting in the midterm election. Republicans in both states used Mrs. Obama's visits to tie Democratic candidates to the president and his waning approval ratings. The campaign of Mike McFadden, Franken's Republican challenger, called Tuesday "a reminder that President B.O.'s policies are on Minnesota ballots this fall in the form of Al Franken." |
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Home Front: Politix | |
Republicans Have Edge 5 Weeks From U.S. Mid-Terms | |
2014-09-30 | |
If you like your coverage you can keep it... 's Democrats rejoiced when early September polls gave them a fighting chance to hold the U.S. Senate in November's mid-term elections, but new data Monday suggests they are slipping. With just five weeks before Americans decide who will represent them in Congress, election modelers at The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... , FiveThirtyEight.com, The Washington Post and Huffington Post show Republicans making important gains in their bid to retake the upper chamber of Congress. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win back the Senate. The Times forecast boosted those chances from 55 percent last week to 67 percent Monday, while the Washington Post Election Lab's prediction went from 65 percent to 76 percent Republican. And the model operated by FiveThirtyEight.com statistician guru Nate Silver, the most respected election prognosticator in the business, bumped its Republican takeover odds from 55 percent to 60 percent. "This election is ours to win," the Republican National Committee's chief operating officer Sara Armstrong wrote in a weekend fundraising email, one in a mounting pile of pitches by both parties to their supporters. With Democrat-held seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia essentially being conceded to Republicans this cycle, the GOP needs to grab just three more seats -- and hold their own -- to win control of the 100-member Senate. That puts the focus on a handful of tossup states like Alaska, Arkansas and Colorado, all of which feature embattled Democrats who polls show have recently lost ground to their Republican challengers. And in the breadbasket state of Iowa, Democrats risk losing a seat that retiring Senator Tom Harkin has held for 30 years. The race was seen as a dead heat recently, but a weekend poll by the Des Moines Register showed conservative Joni Ernst leading Democratic congressman Bruce Braley by six percentage points. Democrats are finding themselves in a tough political spot; Obama is unpopular, especially in swing states, meaning candidates there are not expected to hit the campaign trail with him. Complicating a Republican path to majority, Democrats are eyeing a possible flip in Republican stronghold Kansas, where veteran Senator Pat Roberts faces an unexpectedly strong independent candidate. Republicans already control the House of Representatives and are expected to keep it. Lawmakers elected in November take their seats in January and serve through the final two years of Obama's term. | |
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-Lurid Crime Tales- | |
Knowing Vets Were Coming Obama Shut Down the WWII Memorial | |
2014-03-12 | |
Yeah, he's a POS, but he is their POS Newly released public records show that the Department of the Interior knew in advance that two groups of aging veterans would be visiting the World War II Memorial on October 1, 2013, but they decided to barricade the premises anyway.
The Obama administration tried to make political hay out of the government shutdown by closing the National Mall and denying access to monuments, but the decision backfired when the veterans defied the signs and fences and entered the WWII Memorial. The vets were taking part in the Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight, established in 2011 to help fly the state's WWII veterans to Washington, D.C. and to provide tours to monuments dedicated in their honor. These guys in wheel chairs deserve another medal or ribbon or something. Obama told the American people that it was necessary to shut down the Mall and blamed Republicans for creating the hardships. However, the emails reveal that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service did not have to shut down the monuments but did so to make a point. On September 30, Tom Buttry, a legislative correspondent in Senator Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) office, stated that it would actually be easier and less costly to keep the mall open than to shut it down: "While I understand that these memorials have remained accessible to the public during past shutdowns (I'd imagine with the mall being so open, it'd probably [be] more manpower intensive to try to completely close them), I wanted to do my due diligence and make 100 percent sure that people could visit the outdoor memorials on the National Mall in the event of a shutdown." | |
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Home Front: Politix | |
Harkin calls for more rule changes | |
2013-11-23 | |
[THEHILL] After the Senate voted to change filibuster rules Thursday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) called for more reforms. "This has been escalating for a long period of time and it was time to stop it and that's what we did this morning," Harkin said. "Now we need to take it a step farther and change the filibuster rules on legislation."
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Home Front: Politix |
Democrats considering bill to lift minimum wage by 40 percent |
2013-11-09 |
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Senate Democrats, hoping to move beyond the disastrous rollout of the new health care law, plan to pivot to legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage by nearly $3, to over $10 an hour. Democratic politicians met privately Thursday to discuss proposals, including one by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, a nearly 40 percent increase. It would also would tie wage levels to inflation. Democratic senators weighed the plan after being deluged with letters and calls from constituents complaining that Obamacare has cost them their chosen health care plans and required hefty premium and deductible increases, in some cases doubling, tripling or quadrupling health insurance costs. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin ...Senator-for-Life from Illinois and Democratic Party Whip. In April 2006, Time magazine identified Durbin as one of America's 10 Best Senators,so what's that tell you? He was the first United States Senator to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois.... , D-Ill., called the proposed minimum wage increase "long overdue, an important economic issue and a message to working families struggling paycheck to paycheck that we can help." |
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Home Front: Politix |
Not Actually A Shutdown |
2013-10-01 |
[Nat'lReview] The hysterical fears about the effects of a government "shutdown" being voiced by many in Washington, such as Senator Tom Harkin (D., Iowa), who claims it is "as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War," are almost comical. The truth from the experience of prior shutdowns, applicable federal laws, Justice Department legal opinions, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directives, is that crucial government services and benefits would continue without interruption even if Congress fails to agree on a continuing resolution (CR) or President Obama vetoes it. That includes all services essential for national security and public safety -- such as the military and law enforcement -- as well as mandatory government payments such as Social Security and veterans' benefits. A 1981 memorandum by David Stockman during the Reagan administration that is still relied on by the OMB laid out the services that continue without interruption during any government "shutdown": o National security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property; So planes, trains, and automobiles will keep running and TSA will keep patting you down. The president can continue to go on overseas trips to conduct foreign relations. Social Security and Medicaid benefits will keep going out. The Border Patrol will keep patrolling our borders to prevent illegal crossings (at least as much as this administration will let it do that). The Federal Bureau of Prisons will keep convicted criminals in prison and the FBI will continue making arrests and investigating violations of the law. The FDA and the Department of Agriculture will continue their safety testing and inspection of food and drugs, and medical care of inpatients and emergency outpatient care will keep right on going. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department will keep printing and borrowing money and protecting the banking system. Unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service will continue collecting taxes. It is certainly true that "nonessential" federal employees will be furloughed. But so many federal employees are considered "essential" that when President Bill Clinton vetoed a CR in November 1995 in a dispute with Newt Gingrich over a balanced budget and welfare reform, only about 800,000 out of a total of almost 4.5 million federal employees were furloughed. In a second funding gap from December 1995 to January 1996, only about 300,000 employees were furloughed. So the vast majority of federal workers will keep right on working. |
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Economy |
Liberals call for $10.10 minimum wage - more than Obama requested |
2013-03-02 |
[THEHILL] The White House is coming under pressure from liberal Democrats in the House and Senate to press for a minimum wage hike as high as $10.10. Pikers! Go ahead and make it $20! Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) argues President Obama "missed the mark" in calling to raise the minimum wage to $9 in his State of the Union address, and his staff met with White House staff last week to argue for a higher number. Wotta cheapskate. The veteran senator, who will retire at the end of this Congress, is working with Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) on legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 over three years and then index future increases to inflation. That'd be the snake of cause and effect gnawing at its own tail. "Well, we're going to introduce our own bill on it," Harkin told The Hill on Tuesday. "I'm going to be in discussions with them because I think they missed the mark, but people make mistakes." "What's a few bucks here and there? It's only money!" Besides Harkin and Miller -- a confidant of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -- Democrats backing a higher minimum wage hike include Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.). |
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Home Front: Culture Wars | ||
Most Americans Will Retire Worse Off then their Parents | ||
2013-02-17 | ||
For the first time since the New Deal, a majority of Americans are headed toward a retirement in which they will be financially worse off than their parents, jeopardizing a long era of improved living standards for the nation's elderly, according to a growing consensus of new research. Any of this 'research' note the growing number retiring compared to the smaller number working? The Great Recession and the weak recovery darkened the retirement picture for significant numbers of Americans. And the full extent of the damage is only now being grasped by experts and policymakers. Obviously, none of these wizards read Rantburg. There was already mounting concern for the long-term security of the country's rapidly graying population. Then the downturn destroyed 40 percent of Americans' personal wealth, while creating a long period of high unemployment and an environment in which savings accounts pay almost no interest. Although the surging stock market is approaching record highs, most of these gains are flowing to well-off Americans who already are in relatively good shape for retirement. I have a little money in the stock market, but I am 40% less well-off than I was before the great let-down. Liberal and conservative economists worry that the decline in retirement prospects marks a historic shift in a country that previously has fostered generations of improvement in the lives of the elderly. It is likely to have far-reaching implications, as an increasing number of retirees may be forced to double up with younger relatives or turn to social-service programs for support. Moving back in with the children? Shades of the 1930's! Advocates for older Americans are calling on the federal government to bolster Social Security benefits or to create a new layer of retirement help for future retirees. Maybe Obama can re-invent Bush's 401k plan. Others want employers and the government to do more to encourage retirement savings and to discourage workers from using the money for non-retirement purposes. But those calls have been overwhelmed by concern about the nation's fast-growing long-term debt, which has left many policymakers focused on ways to trim Social Security and other retirement benefits rather than increase them. By the 1960s, retirees also benefited from universal health insurance through Medicare and Medicaid, sharp increases in Social Security benefits and new protections enacted by the federal government for workers who received traditional pensions, which for decades were a standard employee benefit. Benefits which now have overwhelmed the 'system'. So let's get more benefits! What could possibly go wrong? The changes rescued millions of retirees from poverty, while lifting millions of others to prosperous retirements symbolized by vacation cruises, recreational vehicles and second homes.
Which is where, I suppose, we need The Lightbringer to step in. Recent policy changes aimed at bolstering Americans' retirement prospects have only contributed to the growing inequality. Divided into the savvy and the stoopid. But now the bottom line of this front-page WaPo "news" - The government grants at least $80 billion a year in tax breaks to encourage retirement savings in 401(k)-type accounts. But the biggest benefits go to upper-income people who can afford to put aside the most for retirement, allowing them to reap the biggest tax breaks. Someone making $200,000 a year and contributing 15 percent of pay to a retirement account would receive about a $7,000 subsidy from the federal government in the form of a tax break, whereas workers earning $20,000 making the same 15 percent contribution would get nothing because they don't earn enough to qualify for a deduction. Someone making $50,000 and making the 15 percent contribution would receive only about a $2,100 tax deduction. Gee, that's not 'fair'. We need to redistribute that! Some lawmakers and other advocates say the best way to cope with the growing gap would be to further expand Social Security and Medicare benefits, or to add another layer of taxpayer-subsidized savings that workers could use only for retirement. More government to help those too stoopid to think for themselves! "We need to do more to help American families cope with this looming retirement crisis," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said at a hearing late last month. "Hardworking Let's build up the middle class, while we're at it!
Another poor choice made by the 'average' worker. Retire now with less, or later with more? Adults will wait. Health-care costs continue to outpace inflation, meaning more out-of-pocket expenses for future seniors. Retirees are also slated to pay more for their health care with Medicare premiums, which are deducted from the Social Security checks of senior citizens, set to rise from 12.2 percent to 14.9 percent by 2030. Huh? I thought ObumbleCare was going to fix that? The article concludes with the sad tale of a guy who lost his high-paying job ten years ago and can't afford to retire. | ||
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Home Front: Politix | |
Harkin: 'Is It a Spending Problem? No ... It's a Misallocation of Wealth' | |
2013-02-16 | |
[CNSNEWS] Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said on Thursday that U.S. government does not have a spending problem, but America suffers from "a misallocation of wealth." "I look at it this way," Harkin said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Budget Control Act of 2011 (the law that includes the automatic spending cuts referred to as "sequestration"). "We're the richest nation in the history of the world. That kind of begs the question doesn't it? If we're so rich, why are we so broke?" "Is it a spending problem? Harkin said. "No, it's because we have a misallocation of capital, a misallocation of wealth." "All of this wealth that's been built up by hard-working Americans has been accumulated into fewer and fewer and fewer hands all the time," Harkin said.
"I tell you we've got to get back to a better, rationale system of revenues and spending in this country and back to our obligations," Harkin said. "I just feel very strongly, that it's not just appropriations that's causing this problem. "It's the lack of the revenue that we should be taking in to meet our obligations as a country," Harkin said. | |
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Home Front: Politix |
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to retire |
2013-01-27 |
[Washington Post] Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will not seek reelection in 2014, he announced Saturday. He's the senator-for-life from Iowa. He'll be 75 next election, which would make him 81 when his next term expired. He ran his first, unsuccessful, race in 1972, and he worked as an aide to a Democrat congressman before that. He was elected to Congress in 1975, which means he'll have been warming his seat for forty solid years. "It's just time to step aside," Harkin, 73, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, noting that he would be 81 by the end of another term. I just said that. Multiple Democratic aides have confirmed the decision, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has issued a statement. "We neither confirm nor deny..." Harkin's decision makes him the third senator up for reelection this cycle to announce his retirement. Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) have both announced they will not seek another term. |
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