Read About The Tarbaby Story under the Category: About the Tarbaby Blog
July 16, 2018
***NEW VIDEO***
A stable genius of his magnitude deserves an anthem.
*Do not try this at home.
A VERY STABLE GENIUS – Randy Rainbow Song Parody
***NEW VIDEO***A stable genius of his magnitude deserves an anthem. *Do not try this at home. đ€Ș
Posted by Randy Rainbow on Monday, July 16, 2018
President Trump has told 6.5 lies per day since taking office
Trump Has Told Over 3,000 Lies Since Taking Office
President Trump has told 6.5 lies per day since taking office
Posted by NowThis Politics on Tuesday, May 1, 2018
By Ryan Sit     March 16, 2018
The number of children killed by gunfire in the U.S. since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, surpasses the total of American soldiers killed in overseas combat since 9/11, according to a Department of Defense report.
The report accounts for total deaths in the five military operations since the war on terror began following the September 11, 2001 attacks through 10 a.m. EST Thursday, March 15. Over 17 years of combat, the U.S. has lost 6,929 soldiers. Including Department of Defense civilians killed overseas, that number grows to 6,950.
In the five years and three months since the December 14, 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 first graders and six adults with an AR-15-style rifle, about 7,000 children have died by gunfire. Though the exact figure is unclear, it rivals the tally of U.S. military deaths overseasâin 11 fewer years.
An analysis of gun-related deaths among children and a new report by the Department of Defense shows that more kids have been killed by gunfire since the Sandy Hook massacre than the number of U.S. soldiers killed overseas since 9/11.DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES
On Tuesday, a global activist group placed 7,000 pairs of empty shoes outside the Capitol buildingâone pair for each child killed by a gun since Sandy Hook. The group, Avaaz, arrived at that figure based of an American Academy of Pediatrics report, which said about 1,300 children are killed by guns every year.
Related:Â Kids and guns: Hereâs how easy it is for children to get their hands on a firearm
At that rate, the number of children killed by guns since Newtown would be about 6,825. But an analysis by the fact-checking site Snopes of the the Center for Disease Control and Prevention dataâwhich the American Academy Pediatrics cited in its reportâfound that this figure may be low.
According to Snopes, a review of deaths for children 17 or younger for years 2013 to 2016 (2017 was not yet available), found 5,683 firearms-related deaths, or an average of 1,421 per year. Extrapolated over the five-year and three-month period, the tally is about 7,460, Snopes found.
March 14, 2018
This girl is a shining star!
Girl With Muscular Dystrophy Makes Amazing Paintings
This girl is a shining star!
Posted by Power of Positivity on Wednesday, March 14, 2018
By Mark Sumner    January 10, 2018
The transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee released to the public by Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is both the entire congressional investigation in brief, and a revealing insight into why Republicans have been so anxious to keep this information under lock and key.
Every question asked by Republicans in the meetingâevery single questionâfocused on trying to find information they could use to demean and defame the witness. They wanted to paint Fusion GPS as a âDemocratic operation.â They were determined to turn Christopher Steeleâs visit to the FBI into a partisan act. They used every moment of their time to find something Fusion had done wrong, or that Steele had done wrong âŠÂ some way that both the company and the information they had gathered could be dismissed. In a day-long interview that was supposed to further the investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, no Republican expressed the slightest interest in that topic.
Instead, surfacing any information related to Trumpâs activities in Russia was left to Democrats. Not that Democrats didnât spend a good portion of their time tying to illuminate the motives behind Fusionâs actions. They did. Democrats also walked carefully through the information that made Christopher Steele feel that he had to go to the FBI. But they also spent time on the topic that was supposed to be the point of the hearing.
By the end of the transcript, a few things were clear: Even before they hired Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS was well aware of Trumpâs numerous connections to crime bosses in Russia and in former Soviet states. Steele was hired, not to generate information, but to fill in the gaps around relationships that were already obvious from the public record and Trumpâs own statements.
And almost from the moment he began investigating, Steele came across a flood of confirmationâinformation that included deliberate efforts on the part of the Russian government to influence the United States election. Information so disturbing that Steele felt it was requisite on him, as a professional with decades of experience in intelligence, to take what he had learned to American authorities and inform them of a grave and growing danger. When he did, Steele was relieved to find that the FBI was already on the topic and taking it seriously, thanks to information that originated inside Trumpâs campaign.
Most of all, the transcript revealed just why Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was so determined to keep it hidden. Because the clear words on the page made it obvious that the criminal charges leveled at Steele by Grassley and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went beyond political showboating and into the realm of egregious obstruction. The transcript makes it dead clear that Republicans have no interest in finding the truth, or in protecting the nation.
The transcripts revealed the reasons that Republicans have been so determined to dismiss the âSteele dossierâ and the other information put together by Fusion GPS. They did so because the information collected by Fusion confirmed what investigations at the Financial Times made public months agoâDonald Trump was deeply involved with Russian mobsters, who were largely responsible for his finances. In fact, much of Trumpâs claimed wealth was simply inexplicable, apparently unmoored from any legitimate source. Donald Trump, successful real estate tycoon, was a fiction.
Steeleâs network of contacts and years of relationship-building, along with his entry into Russia at a point where the connection between Trump and this international criminal underground had not yet become a topic of general discussion, allowed him to gather a great deal of information quickly. That information made it clear that the Russian government was determined to assist Trump, if for no other reason than to harm Hillary Clinton. It also became clear from the outset that Trumpâs activities in Russia had opened him to potential blackmail, putting an American presidential candidate under the thumb of Russian operatives both fiscally and personally.
Christopher Steele and the partners at Fusion GPS werenât cackling together over vague, salacious rumors and spinning out tales of Trumpâs wild nights in Moscow. They were confronted by a mountain of evidence that showed Trump was both financially dependent on, and personally compromised by, Russian oligarchs with connections both to criminal familiesâand to the corrupt Russian government.
What we learned from the release of the transcripts only confirmed what weâve seen in public hearings: Republicans are doing everything they can to protect Trump, even if that means attacking people who only did their best to uncover the truth. Republicans are even willing to press criminal charges against a man who put himself at personal risk and brought what he had learned to the attention of the FBI because what he found was such a threat to America, and possibly to the world.
What the transcripts reveal is that, in investigating connections between Donald Trump and corrupt governments overseas, Fusion GPS demonstrated that the government right here in the United States is equally corrupt. Equally willing to trade truth for power. Equally ready to condemn those whose only crime is uncovering information which those in charge want thoroughly buried.
The information collected by Fusion GPS is an indictment of Donald Trump as a front man for mobsters and corrupt governments whose crooked dealing and personal excesses left him open to easy manipulation.
But the Fusion GPS transcripts are an indictment of the Republican Party, as an entity that has lost any concern for the nation, fairness, or the factsâan entity addicted to power by any means, and willing to use that power to close the mouths of those they view as threats.
Trump Lied HOW MANY Times in His First Year as President?
President Trump lied almost TWO THOUSAND times in his first year as president
Posted by NowThis Politics on Tuesday, January 2, 2018
GOP senator says tax cuts must be followed by ‘structural changes to Social Security and Medicare’
Peter Weber   November 30, 2017
Senate Republicans started the clock for a final vote on their tax plan Wednesday evening, but among the unresolved demands from GOP waverers is a provision to prevent the bill from adding up to $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years. No serious analysis has suggested the growth from slashing taxes for corporations and other businesses would make up that shortfall, and Republicans haven’t offered any evidence. At a Politico Playbook forum on Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said that cutting taxes needs to be followed by cutting spending on popular federal programs.
“I analyze this very differently than most,” Rubio said. “Many argue that you can’t cut taxes because it will drive up the deficit. But we have to do two things. We have to generate economic growth which generates revenue, while reducing spending. That will mean instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future.” He suggested reducing benefits and raising the retirement age for future retirees, so people can prepare for the changes. “Tax reform is the economic component of this equation,” Rubio said. “When more people are working, there are more taxpayers and more revenue, but that alone won’t be enough. You are still going to have a debt problem in the absence of spending cuts.”
The broadly unpopular tax bill â rushed through with almost no debate or expert testimony and zero Democratic input â would have wide-ranging and uncertain effects on all Americans. As AARP noted, the legislation already includes $25 billion in automatic Medicare cuts for next year alone, along with $111 billion in other cuts to federal programs, and it would either raise taxes or keep them the same for 6.3 million Americans 65 or older in 2019 and 10.8 million by 2027. President Trump, who is pushing the legislation hard, promised during the campaign he would not change Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. You can watch Rubio’s interview at Politico. Peter Weber
Dan Charles, Heard on Morning Addition    August 3, 2017
 
The teal blue area along the Louisiana coastline represents a “dead zone” of oxygen-depleted water. Resulting from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Mississippi River, it can potentially hurt fisheries. NASA/Getty Images
It has become a rite of summer. Every year, a “dead zone” appears in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s an area where water doesn’t have enough oxygen for fish to survive. And every year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration commissions scientists to venture out into the Gulf to measure it.
This week, NOAA announced that this year’s dead zone is the biggest one ever measured. It covers 8,776 square miles â an area the size of New Jersey. And it’s adding fuel to a debate over whether state and federal governments are doing enough to cut pollution that comes from farms.
The debate actually goes back many years, at least to 1985, when Don Scavia was a scientist at the NOAA. He and his colleagues asked some scientists, for the first time, to go look for a dead zone in the Gulf.
“We expected it to be there,” Scavia recalls. They expected to find it because they knew that the Mississippi River delivers a heavy load of nutrient pollution, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, into the Gulf.
Every year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tasks scientists with measuring the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. This year’s map, based on that data, shows a zone the collective size of New Jersey. Courtesy of NOAA
“Most of the nitrogen and phosphorus that drives this problem comes from the Upper Midwest,” Scavia says. “It’s coming from agriculture.”
Farmers use those nutrients on fields as fertilizer. Rain washes them into nearby streams and rivers. And when they reach the Gulf of Mexico, those nutrients unleash blooms of algae, which then die and decompose. That is what uses up the oxygen in a thick layer of water at the bottom of the Gulf, in a band that follows the coastline.
“Fish that can swim will move out of the way. Organisms that are living on the bottom, that the fish feed on, can’t move, and they often die,” says Scavia, who now is a professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan.
The record-breaking dead zone this year is the result of unusually heavy rains in the Midwest, which flushed a lot of nutrients into the Gulf.
The dead zone is invisible from the surface of the ocean. Scientists lower instruments into the water to measure oxygen levels near the bottom. But Scavia describes it as a kind of hidden environmental disaster. “You know, it’s 8,000 square miles of no oxygen. That can’t be good!” he says. Potentially, it could have huge economic costs as well, because it imperils Louisiana’s shrimp industry.
Federal and state agencies have promised to take action against the dead zone. As part of their “action plan” to shrink it, they’re encouraging Midwestern farmers to try to keep nutrients from washing away by doing such things as planting wide grassy strips along streams to trap fertilizer runoff.
Scavia, however, recently published a blog post calling these voluntary measures inadequate. In a separate scientific paper, he also calculated that meeting the government’s goal for a smaller dead zone will require dramatic cuts in nutrient pollution from farms.
Scavia argues that the Gulf should get the same kind of protection as the Chesapeake Bay, on the East Coast. The Chesapeake has had a similar dead zone problem. In 2010, though, despite fierce objections from farmers, the federal government set mandatory limits on nutrient pollution entering the bay. State governments spent billions of dollars to meet those targets. Now pollution in the bay is down, and some wildlife in the Chesapeake is starting to recover.
Prior to the 2016 election, Eddie Lee Holloway Jr., a 58-year-old African-American man, moved from Illinois to Wisconsin, which implemented a strict voter-ID law for the first time in 2016. He brought his expired Illinois photo ID, birth certificate, and Social Security card to get a photo ID for voting in Wisconsin, but the DMV in Milwaukee rejected his application because the name on his birth certificate read âEddie Junior Holloway,â the result of a clerical error when it was issued. Holloway ended up making seven trips to different public agencies in two states and spent over $200 in an attempt to correct his birth certificate, but he was never able to obtain a voter ID in Wisconsin. Before the election, his lawyer for the ACLU told me Holloway was so disgusted he left Wisconsin for Illinois.
By Ari Berman
Hollowayâs story was sadly familiar in 2016. According to federal court records, 300,000 registered voters, 9 percent of the electorate, lacked strict forms of voter ID in Wisconsin. A new study by Priorities USA, shared exclusively with The Nation, shows that strict voter-ID laws, in Wisconsin and other states, led to a significant reduction in voter turnout in 2016, with a disproportionate impact on African-American and Democratic-leaning voters. Wisconsinâs voter-ID law reduced turnout by 200,000 votes, according to the new analysis. Donald Trump won the state by only 22,748 votes.
The study compared turnout in states that adopted strict voter-ID laws between 2012 and 2016, like Wisconsin, to states that did not.
While states with no change to voter identification laws witnessed an average increased turnout of +1.3% from 2012 to 2016, Wisconsinâs turnout (where voter ID laws changed to strict) dropped by -3.3%. If turnout had instead increased by the national no-change average, we estimate that over 200,000 more voters would have voted in Wisconsin in 2016.
This reduction in turnout particularly hurt Hillary Clintonâs campaign.
The lost voters skewed more African-American and more Democrat. For example, Wisconsinâs 2016 electorate was 6.1% more Republican, and 5.7% less Democrat, than the group of âlost votersâ. Furthermore, the WI electorate was 3.7% more White and 3.8% less African American than the group of âlost voters.â This analysis suggests that the 200,000 lost voters would have both been more racially diverse and have voted more Democratic.
(Priorities USA is a progressive advocacy group and Super PAC that supported Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2012. The study was conducted by Civis Analytics, a data science firm founded by the chief analytics officer for Obamaâs reelection campaign in 2012.)
Though Wisconsin saw the most dramatic reduction in turnout among voter-ID states, it was reflective of a worrisome broader national trend.
In states where the voter identification laws did not change between â12 and â16, turnout was up +1.3%. In states where ID laws changed to non-strict (AL, NH, RI) turnout increased less, and was only up by +0.7%. In states where ID laws changed to strict (MS, VA, WI) turnout actually decreased by â 1.7%.
The drop in turnout in these six states led to 400,000 fewer votes relative to turnout in states where ID laws did not change. In Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, strict voter-ID laws had an especially pronounced negative impact on African-American voters.
In counties where African Americans make up less than 10% of the population AND there were no changes to voter ID laws, 2016 turnout was up +1.9% from 2012, but in similar <10% African American counties where ID laws changed to be strict, total turnout decreased by -0.7%. In counties where African Americans make up more than 40% of the population, however, 2016 turnout was down -2.2% from 2012 in states where ID laws did not change, but down -5 points in states where ID laws changed to be strict.
The study also compared turnout in Wisconsin to Minnesota, which has very similar demographics but no voter-ID law, and found âturnout in African-American counties dropped off at significantly higher levels than in their Minnesota-counterparts.â
Itâs important to note that this study was conducted by a Democratic Partyâaffiliated group and has not been peer-reviewed or gone through the typical academic vetting process. While some studies have shown big reductions in turnout among minority voters because of voter-ID laws, others have not. But the Priorities USA study is consistent with a 2014 study by the Government Accountability Office, which found that strict voter-ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee reduced turnout by 2 percent, enough to swing a close election, with the largest drop-off among newly registered voters, young voters, and voters of color.
This study provides more evidence for the claim that voter-ID laws are designed not to stop voter impersonation fraud, which is virtually nonexistent, but to make it harder for certain communities to vote. This matters greatly today, because 87 bills to restrict access to the ballot have been introduced in 29 states this year, including voter-ID laws in 19 states. Arkansas and Iowa have already passed strict voter-ID laws in 2017.
âAmericansâ fundamental right to vote is under attack by Republican governors and state legislatures around the country,â said Guy Cecil, Chairman of Priorities USA. âUnder the false pretense of combating voter fraud, Republicans are passing laws that make it more difficult and time-consuming for average citizens to participate in the democratic process.â
A Maryland-based electrical contractor claims they worked ânonstopâ to get Trumpâs new Washington hotel ready for September’s campaign event.
By Ari Melber and Corky Siemaszko – January 25, 2017
Vehicles participating in an inaugural parade rehearsal pass by the Trump International Hotel, January 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson / Getty Images
A Maryland-based electrical contractor claims they worked ânonstopâ to get President Trumpâs new Washington hotel ready in time for a televised campaign stop in September â and then got stiffed on the bill.
AES Electrical, which is also known as Freestate Electrical, has filed suit in Washington D.C.’s Superior Court to recoup the $2,075,731.61 it claims it is still owed for helping turn the Old Post Office into the luxury Trump International Hotel.
In addition to the Trump Organization, it names Trumpâs contractor, Lend Lease of New York, in the suit.
Freestate states in court papers that it began working on the project on Sept. 29, 2014 and was ordered to âaccelerate workâ last fall.
The reason? âTo permit Mr. Trumpâs nationally televised campaign event from the Hotel on September 16, 2016, which was to honor U.S. veterans,â the papers state.
Also, the Trump hotel had already started booking âpaid eventsâ and rooms for a âsoft openingâ on Sept. 12.
To get the work done on time, the company claims, ârequired Freestateâs crews to work nonstop, seven days per week, 10 to 14 hours per day, for nearly 50 consecutive days, prior to the âsoft opening,â at significant additional cost and expense for which Freestate expected payment.â
Freestate claims it continued to work at the same pace to ensure the hotel was ready for its âgrand openingâ on Oct. 26.
âThe âgrand openingâ of the Trump Hotel by this day, was also a nationally covered event, which was planned just prior to the U.S. presidential election,â the suit states. âAlthough Mr. Trumpâs Hotel has now been opened and has operated for business since September 2016, and despite the fact that Mr. Trump was successfully elected as the next U.S. President, Trump refuses to pay the sums due for the account of work of subcontractors, like Freestate.â
Freestate, which states in the suit that it has thus far been paid $15,130,267.39, said that when it submitted the bill for the extra costs, the Trump organization offered to pay just a third of the bill.
A spokesman for Freestate, which employs union electricians, did not immediately return a phone call from NBC to elaborate on the lawsuit, which was filed last Thursday â a day before Trumpâs inauguration.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization responded to the lawsuit with the following statement:
âIn developments of this scale and complexity the filing of nominal liens at the conclusion of construction is not uncommon as part of the close out process. In the case of Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C., the Trump Organization has invested over $200 million dollars into the redevelopment of the historic Old Post Office and is incredibly proud of what is now considered to be one the most iconic hotels anywhere in the country.â
The White House insists that Trump himself has divested himself from his companies and has turned over management of his empire to his sons.
This is not the first time the Trump organization has been accused of pressuring contractors to accept reduced payments on projects â or flat out failing to pay workers what they are owed.
USA Today and other news organizations have reported that Trump and his companies have been hit with more than 3,500 lawsuits for non-payment of bills or wages over the past three decades. Also, Trump companies have been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005, the paper reported.
Perhaps the most infamous example were the undocumented Polish workers who were hired to build Trumpâs glitzy home, Trump Tower in Manhattan. They went on strike when they werenât paid, triggering a multi-year legal battle that ended with a settlement.
Trump denied doing anything wrong, and the Polish workers never got a nickel from the settlement.