Stephan: Early Warning: The House Republicans really just don't understand what democratic governance is about. I assume that at the 11th hour and 59th minute this will sort itself out. If not we may have the first default in our history.
Floor of the House of Representatives
Credit: www.house.gov
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans say they are short of the necessary votes for raising the debt limit and avoiding a first-ever government default. With barely a week before deadline, there’s no plan on what to do.
It’s a huge problem for House Speaker John Boehner and a potential nightmare for his successor-in-waiting, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
GOP leaders promised Friday that the House will act next week — just days from a Nov. 3 deadline. Increasing the government’s $18.1 trillion borrowing cap so that it can continue to pay its bills in full and on time would prevent a potential meltdown in the financial markets and save the Republican Party from presiding over a default on U.S. obligations.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has warned lawmakers that the government’s ability to use accounting steps to pay its bills for veterans, Social Security recipients, federal employees and others will run out early next month.
“The debt limit will have to be raised, but […]
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Saturday, October 24th, 2015
Rebecca Leber, - The New Republic
Stephan: The 97 Per Cent Truthers illustrate just how completely detached from facts the Republican Party has become. I have been thinking all day about whether there is a precedent in U.S. history for one of the two major political parties living in a world of fantasy.
The 19th century "No Nothings" of course immediately suggest themselves, but they never controlled the House and Senate. The truth is that as the country faces a spectrum of trends each leading to some kind of catastrophe we have never been in a weaker position to deal with them.
Fact based social progressives simply must vote in record numbers if we are to get through what is coming and still retain the semblance and substance of democracy. What are you doing about getting out the vote?
Senator Ted Cruz
Two years ago, a group of international researchers led by University of Queensland’s John Cook surveyed 12,000 abstracts of peer-reviewed papers on climate change since the 1990s. Out of the 4,000 papers that took a position one way or another on the causes of global warming, 97 percent of them were in agreement: Humans are the primary cause. By putting a number on the scientific consensus, the study provided everyone from President Barack Obama to comedian John Oliver with a tidy talking point.
That talking point put climate deniers in a bind. They have successfully delayed political action for years by making it seem like there’s still a scientific debate over anthropogenic warming. But when confronted with a statistic like this one, they have been forced to take a different tack: dispute the statistic itself.
They’re the 97 percent truthers, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz is leading the recent charge. At a hearing in early October, the GOP presidential candidate peppered Sierra Club President Aaron Mair with questions for ten minutes about the […]
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Saturday, October 24th, 2015
Susan Berry, MD, - Breitbart News
Stephan: I don't know what its like where you live, but where we are television has essentially become a mechanism for selling pharmaceuticals and cars. There are a hundred of so ads for drugs every day on MSNBC, CNN, FOX. Is it any wonder that millions of people, particularly women, are over, or incorrectly medicated? This report gives you some sense of the reality. Note particularly that "Caucasian ethnicity" is now a symptom justifying these drugs.
A new study shows that more than two-thirds — some 69 percent – of patients using anti-depressants do not actually meet the criteria for depressive disorder.
The study, which appears in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, finds that many individuals who are prescribed and take antidepressant medications may not actually have a depressive disorder, and that such drugs are often used by patients who do not meet the diagnostic criteria of depression.
According to the research, among the users of antidepressant medications, 69 percent never met the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD), and 38 percent also never met those for obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder – for which the antidepressant medications are sometimes prescribed.
Other factors, however, unrelated to depression, were found to be associated with the use of antidepressants.
“Caucasian ethnicity, recent or current physical problems (eg, loss of bladder control, hypertension, and back pain), and recent mental health facility visits were associated with antidepressant use in addition to mental disorders,” say the researchers. (emphasis added)
As Breitbart News previously reported, psychiatrist Dr. Julie Holland penned an op-ed in the New York Times earlier this year in which she cited that […]
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