Somewhere in this benighted land a home is for sale — for $195 million and change. Honest. It’s owned, of course, by a one-percenter, an oligarch. But despite its 5,000 square foot master bedroom suite (more than twice the size of my house), the owner never uses it. He prefers his somewhat smaller ocean-front mansions. He rents out the big place — for roughly half a million dollars per weekend. Honest. The place has its own vineyard, but what you can do with a vineyard during a weekend rental I couldn’t say.
The United States has more than 16 million children — nearly a quarter of all the children in the country — living in poverty. They don’t get enough to eat. The electorate has just sent to its national legislature a slew of verifiable psychopaths dedicated to cutting off federal assistance to these kids.
$195 million+ for a single house. With a vineyard.
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Joni Ernst recently said she believes “there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." A reporter asked what evidence she had. "My husband served in Saudi Arabia as the Army Central Command sergeant major for a year,” Ernst said.
Ernst was just elected to represent Iowa in the U.S. senate.
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Oklahoma has been represented for a long time in the Senate by James Inhofe. He has said, “Much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science.” He is about to become chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. Be afraid.
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A fifth death has recently been registered as the result of a school shooting outside of Seattle. Voters in the State of Washington last Tuesday approved stricter background checks on would-be gun purchasers. Republican politicians are outraged at this violation of their rights.
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I am not a scientist. I want to chair the committee that approves the biology curriculum in my state’s high schools.
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My representative in Congress, who made his fortune in the oil and gas industry, opposes wind power. Why? “Those windmills are ugly.” He was just re-elected.
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A guy who served in Reagan’s cabinet says Nixon was actually a liberal. I’m actually a conservative. I say, keep all that oil and gas in the ground, where it's safe from terrorists.
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“I don't think it's government's job to find health care for people. I think it's the individual's job to find health care.”— Sen. Ted Cruz. “Frank” got down-sized out of a decent job just before his wife was diagnosed with an incurable terminal ailment. Now he’s pounding on doors asking for work — any kind of labor — to earn money for her treatments. “Go out and find health care,” I told him.
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No other country imposes the kind of costs on college and university students that the U.S. does, and nowhere else do loans cover so much of those costs. The $1.2 trillion in outstanding education debt in the U.S. is more than that of the rest of the world combined.
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My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty . . .”
