The Pope Unmasks Political Leaders

By Jeff Simpson 

We all know the Pope was in Washington DC yesterday.  

The start of a very interesting visit from a Great Man.   It even got started as cool as possible, when the Pope, who left his Popemobile at home and arrived in a Fiat.

Quite possibly though, the coolest thing the Pope did yesterday was snub a bipartisan coalition of politicians.

We now know why the United States Congress absolutely did not want Pope Francis to come to America. He makes them look like the complete as*holes they are. Obviously, Congress thought Pope Francis would be honored to dine with them, and all their pomp and prestige. They were wrong.

Pope Francis says he didn’t have the time because he already had a date eating with the homeless. In fact, he is not only going to be eating with them, but serving them. The meal will take place at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C.

Rather than try to write some great prose about this situation, Ring of Fire will simply quote Eric March from the website Upworthy, because he nailed it:

Unlike some of his predecessors, Francis has reminded journalists and world leaders time and time again that the church is for the poor, blasted the global financial system which causes so much poverty in the first place, and called on Catholics across the globe to take action and start lifting up the most vulnerable among them.

He’s also spoken out forcefully against economic inequality.

Including some of the worst, most exploitative labor practices in the world, which create conditions that allow hardship and desperation to thrive.

Blowing off John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi to serve the homeless is pretty much the kind of badassery we’ve come to expect from this pope when it comes to speaking up for the world’s most hard-up.

One noticeable thing that seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle is that none of the politicians offered to join Pope Francis and help serve the homeless.   Apparently helping them become homeless is all our politicians can handle.  

Luckily, we at CogDis were able to check the calendars and realize why the leaders in Congress were too busy to join the Pope yesterday for lunch.

*  Nancy Pelosi was to busy trying to get the Trans Pacific Partnership fast tracked.  
*  Harry Reid had to work on making sure we do not raise the minimum wage.
*  John Boehner was going to spend the day trying to figure out how to end the peace treaty with Iran.
*  Mitch McConnell was too embarrassed since he has blocked to many jobs bills and helped add to our homeless veteran problem throughout his career.  

* Bonus Calendar Check:  Wisconsin's own Super Catholic, Paul Ryan would have been there to help but he is not running for Vice President anymore and he is way too busy planning his anti poverty conference to worry about the homeless.  

I imagine the conversation going like this:

McConell;  Your Holiness would you like us to take you to lunch?  We have an expense account. 
Boehner:  As long as you don'd mind if I smoke.
Pope Francis:   Sorry I have plans to head to the church and feed the homeless. We could use some help.  
Pelosi:  Yea, ummm, well, ummm, I have to wash my hair.
Reid;  O sorry I have to take this call(exits left). 
Boehner/McConell:  Dont look at us.  

The Wisconsin Republican Party Fan Club

By Jeff Simpson


We all remember that recently, the Wisconsin republican party held their annual convention and one of the big topics was a vote on secession.  

Delegates at the state Republican convention are set to vote Saturday on a proposed resolution that directs lawmakers to push through legislation nullifying Obamacare, Common Core educational standards and "drone usage in the state of Wisconsin."
"Be it further resolved," the proposal concludes, "that we strongly insist our state representatives work to uphold Wisconsin's 10th Amendment rights, and our right to, under extreme circumstances, secede, passing legislation affirming this to the U.S. Federal Government."

Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald and Scott Walker are starting to gain a following!

In Georgia, a former Government worker decided to show his unhappiness with the Federal Government in a different way:

 Dennis Marx, a former TSA employee and member of the 100,000-plus “sovereign citizen” movement, planned to lay siege to a Forsyth County, Ga., courthouse and take hostages before he was killed by a sheriff’s deputy on Friday.


Throwing smoke bombs and tire spikes, Marx attacked the Forsyth County Courthouse on Friday morning, striking a sheriff’s deputy in the leg with a bullet. The deputy, 25-year veteran James Rush, returned fire, and Mr. Marx was killed after a brief gun battle on the street, which was joined by a local SWAT team.

According to Forsyth County Sheriff Duane Piper, Marx had in his possession buckets of homemade explosives, ammunition, smoke grenades, as well as food and water – clues that “he came here with the purpose of occupying the courthouse.” Sheriff Piper added that Marx’s “intention was to get in that front door and take hostages.”

He  is just a crazy with a gun right?  What does that have to do with WI? Overlooking of course the secession thing. 

Sovereign citizens believe that most of the US government is illegitimate and cannot act with force of law, and Marx had made specific complaints about what he thought were illegal searches of his home that led to several drug and gun charges. He was scheduled to plead guilty to those charges on Friday, but instead he assaulted the courthouse.

Hmmmm, that seems vaguely familiar to me!   

But Wait, there's more!!   In Las Vegas two people proudly displayed their Gadsden flag, while shouting about the revolution.  Unfortunately they did so after they ambushed and shot two police officers in the back. 

The two were heard shouting "this is a revolution", as they entered a pizza parlour and opened fire on officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, who were having lunch.

The shooters took badges and weapons off the policemen and covered their bodies with a cloth sporting the Gadsden flag, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Named after its designer, the US revolutionary general Christopher Gadsden, the yellow flag depicts a coiled rattlesnake above the words "Dont tread on me". It has become a symbol of US patriotism recently adopted by the ultra-conservative Tea Party.

 As we learn more and more about the details of these incidents, do not let anyone say we had no warnings! 




Looks like Harry Reid was right all along!  

The Unemployment Blues

By Jeff Simpson

Recently the Senate failed to pass unemployment insurance for our friends and neighbors who are out of work.  

Fifty-nine senators, including four Republicans, voted to advance the legislation, falling one vote short of the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster effort.

Republicans and Democrats, many from the nation’s most economically depressed states, had been trying to reach a solution that would allow people who have exhausted their unemployment insurance to continue receiving benefits as long as the government offset the $6 billion cost.

Ultimately, how to pay for the program proved too big a hurdle for senators to overcome.

“We’ve given them everything they wanted. Paid for,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, flashing his irritation at Republicans who blocked the bill.

Republicans holding our recovery hostage......Who knew?  Will someone tell Russ Holton that his buddy Ron Johnson let him down. Again:

"Imagine that, a 44-year-old man crying while watching TV," he said. He had watched the vote on C-SPAN 2. A day later, his cable provider cut him off because he hadn't paid the bill.
Holton is one of the 1.7 million long-term unemployed people missing out on federal benefits because Congress stopped providing them in December. Six years ago, he was making $85,000 per year at his job in tech sales. Today, the seams of his life are fraying.
He applied for food stamps and broke his contract with Verizon to get a cheaper, pay-as-you-go phone. His electrical company nearly cut him off before a friend helped him make the minimum payment. His Internet remains connected, but that's the next to go. Filling up his gas tank would be impossible if not for the gift certificates he's gotten from friends. He's borrowed money from his parents to stay afloat, but he shudders at how dire his financial situation may eventually get.
"It is probably an inevitability that I will have to file for bankruptcy just to get out of it all," he said.

 Wisconsin's own Ron Johnson is THE vote that is keeping extending unemployment to 1.7 million Americans!

Notably, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson did not join other Republican senators such as Indiana's Dan Coats and Ohio's Rob Portman in voting to open up a debate about addressing an issue that shouldn't even be an issue.
Instead of listening to the calls from Wisconsinites of all political backgrounds for action on the jobless issue, Johnson was busy promoting a gimmicky lawsuit objecting to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
There are at least some Republicans who recognize what is at stake for working Americans — and for those who are out of work.

Heck even our very own Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.) joined in the act:

 "hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives." That's what Paul Ryan says, at least, and as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, he's supposed to know these things, right?

Not that they care what you think, but I highly recommend contacting Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson and tell them to extend unemployment benefits immediately:

Janesville office - Paul Ryan
20 South Main Street, Suite 10
Janesville, WI 53545
Toll-Free: 1-888-909-RYAN (7926)
Phone: (608) 752-4050
Fax: (608) 752-4711
@reppaulryan

• Milwaukee Office - Ron Johnson
  517 East Wisconsin Avenue
  Suite 408
  Milwaukee, WI 53202
  Phone: (414) 276-7282
  Fax: (414) 276-7284 
  @Senronjohnson
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Luckily for the American People, we have Senator Elizabeth Warren on our side!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  

Senator Mitch McConnell (R - Dumb Ass)

H/T Raw Story:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) introduced legislation to raise the debt ceiling on Thursday, apparently with the intent of showing that even Democrats would not support such a bill.

However, McConnell’s plan backfired after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called for a vote on the legislation, which would have given the president the authority to raise the federal debt ceiling on his own.

The top Senate Republican was forced to filibuster his own bill.

“What we have here is a case of Republicans here in the Senate once again not taking ‘yes’ for an answer,” Reid said, after McConnell announced his filibuster. “This morning the Republican leader asked consent to have a vote on this proposal, just now I told everyone we were willing to have that vote — up or down vote. Now the Republican leader objects to his own idea. So I guess we have a filibuster of his own bill, so I object.”

Apparently aware the incident would bring media attention, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) expressed astonishment at McConnell’s legislative antics.

“What just transpired deserves a word,” he remarked. “Sen. McConnell came to the floor this morning and offered a change in law that would help us avoid the kind of obstruction and the kind of show downs we’ve had in the past over the debt ceiling.”

Durbin explained “to those who don’t follow the Senate” that by calling for the legislation to be passed by a 60-vote majority, McConnell had filibustered the bill. He said this was probably the first time in history that a senator had filibuster his own proposal.

Reid and other Democrats have called for the Senate’s filibuster rules to be reformed, claiming that Republicans have abused the parliamentary procedure and obstructed lawmaking.