Brainwrap

About Brainwrap

Charles Gaba ("Brainwrap") is the Eclectablog web hosting provider and an occasional contributor
Author Archive | Brainwrap

Tsarnaev “9/11 Citizen” Anti-Immigrant Angle Debunked

By on April 22, 2013 in Uncategorized

Yup, regular as clockwork, there are already FB memes going around about Boston Marathon massacre bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev becoming a U.S. citizen on 9/11 last year, as if this somehow “proves” a damned thing about immigration policy. Plus, of course, “Muslim” blah blah blah.

Of course, the reality is that there are plenty of home-grown pieces of crap of all (or no) religions as well as foreign-born pieces of crap of all (or no) religions, just as there are plenty of home-grown good people and foreign-born good people, too.

With that in mind, I’ve whipped up a simple graphic; feel free to share/repost/re-tumbl/retweet/re-pin/re-whatever (Note: The original post on Facebook has received over 17,000 “Likes” and has been Shared over 13,000 times already).…


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Do YOU understand how tax brackets work???

By on November 20, 2012 in Taxes

Note: This is a repost of a Daily Kos diary I published about a year and a half ago. I was inspired to repost it by the current story about a business owner who’s afraid to earn more than $250,000 because she thinks she’ll lose money by doing so.

When I reposted it last night over at Daily Kos, it hit the Rec list and the poll received over 500 responses. According to those results, 23% of Daily Kos readers didn’t understand how tax brackets worked before reading the diary.

Think about that — this is a pretty highly-educated, policy-savvy, math-and-science-aware, reality-based community overall, and almost a quarter of them weren’t/aren’t aware of one of the most basic tenets of the tax code.

The Full Monty after the jump.


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GREAT Election News from Michigan!! (with videos)

By on November 7, 2012 in Uncategorized

Oh, what a difference 2 years makes

In addition to Michigan delivering its 16 electoral votes to Pres. Obama by 54 to 45% and re-electing Debbie Stabenow to the Senate by a whopping 20 point margin, there’s a lot of additional great news for Democrats & progressives here in Mitt Romney’s (original) home state:

(For some backstory on the EFM, here’s Rachel Maddow giving a breakdown):

(You may remember her from this amazing “West Wing Reunion” video posted which went viral on YouTube recently):


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By Popular Demand: GOP Rape Advisory Chart (Vol. IV)

By on November 1, 2012 in GOP, Lies, Mitt Romney, Planned Parenthood, Republicans, War on Women

Recently I said I was finally done with these things, but with yet ANOTHER idiotic, offensive statement by a Republican about rape victims the other day, I’ve been turned into Al Pacino in Godfather III*

I therefore present the Republican Rape Advisory Chart…Volume IV.

I’ve also included links to the complete 4-volume set; feel free to use/repost as appropriate, but please upload the image to your own server to keep the bandwidth hit low on mine. I also ask that you keep the “compiled by Brainwrap” text at the bottom.

*(“Just when I thought I was out…they pulled me back in.”)

…

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The GOP Rape Advisory Chart: Volume III

By on October 26, 2012 in GOP, GOPocrisy, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Planned Parenthood, Republican-Fail, Republicans, Rick Santorum

Yes, that’s right. Just like Peter Jackson’s production of The Hobbit, I’ve found so much raw material to work with that I decided to break what was originally a single story into two, and now three sections.

As I reported yesterday, in addition to being front-paged here at Eclectablog and at dKos, the first chart went utterly viral, hitting everything from Alternet and Balloon Juice to the New Civil Rights Movement, Dan Savage and even (and it doesn’t get more surreal than this) Neil Gaiman by way of Wil Wheaton.

dKos even did an email alert blast thingie with it.…


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GOP Rape Advisory Chart: Vol. 2

By on October 25, 2012 in GOPocrisy, War on Women

UPDATE: Volume III of the GOP Rape Advisory Chart can be found HERE

Wow. Yesterday, in light of the latest misogynistic idiocy by the Republican moron of the moment, Richard Mourdock, I decided to whip up a compilation of some of the more revolting statements on the subject of rape (often tied in with reproductive rights, but not always).

The response was, to put it mildly, overwhelming. In addition to being front-paged at DailyKos, I was invited to repost it here at Eclectablog, and the chart has been reposted, reblogged, retweeted, retumblred and re-whatevered thousands of times already, including the Democratic Underground, Alternet and even by Richard Dawkins and many, many more.…


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The GOP Rape Advisory Chart

By on October 24, 2012 in Fundraiser, GOP, Republicans, Rick Santorum, War on Women

UPDATE: Volume II of the GOP Rape Advisory Chart can be found HERE and Volume III is HERE.

A week or so ago, someone posted her version of the GOP Rape Advisory Chart to help sort out all of the confusion about the wide variety of rape “flavors” that today’s Republican Party seems so hell-bent on bringing to light.

I thought she did a fantastic job, but, given the latest entries into the “rainbow of rape flavors” yesterday and today by Richard Mourdock and John Cornyn, I decided to create a revised version that plays it straight–I’m just including the actual quotes themselves.…


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The MI-11 Clownshow Continues: Cassis refuses to endorse Bentivolio; McCotter’s staffers charged

By on August 16, 2012 in Michigan Democrats, Michigan Republicans

Thanks, Thad. Allow us to clean up this huge mess you left behind for you.

When last we left the Thad McCotter MI-11 Trainwreck, Republican Kerry “Reindeer Farmer/9-11 Truther” Bentivolio had $300,000 dumped into his pocket by a Ron Paul SuperPAC, while the Michigan GOP desperately tried to save face (and the House seat) by scrambling to run former state Senator Nancy Cassis as a write-in candidate.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Dr. Syed Taj, Canton Township Trustee, former head of medicine at Oakwood hospital and all around good egg, could nary believe his good fortune by seeing his campaign–which was already solidly run and raising some decent money ($200K in the spring quarter)–suddenly go from a longshot against 5-term incumbent McCotter to reasonable odds (if still an underdog) in an unexpectedly open, and very confusing seat.

Well, there have been three major developments since then.

You’ll find them and more after the jump.


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