The George Stephanopoulos Song

Friday Afternoon Word Slinging: 05.15.15

George Stephanoplous, Gay Engineers, Iraq Hypothetically.

 The ABC News spokesperson who rebuffed the Free Beacon’s request for comment on George Stephanopoulos’ undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation also worked in the Clinton administration. Heather Riley, spokeswoman for ABC News programs Good Morning America and This Week, worked in the White House press office from 1997 to 2000, according to her LinkedIn profile, and is a member of the Facebook group “(Bill) Clinton Administration Alumni.” White House records show that Riley’s duties included serving as a press contact for then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.  --Andrew Kirell @AndrewKirell

Amateur train derailment investigator and Fox News contributor Sandy Rios told radio show audience today that the engineer of the fatal Amtrak crash was a supporter of gay rights and may be gay himself, saying it was likely “a factor” the crash. “Now I am not saying, I am not inferring to those of you that are gay rights activists and like to monitor this show, I’m not inferring that this accident happened because he was gay, but I do think it’s an interesting part of the story and you can bet it would be edited out,” Rios said. --Daryle L Jenkins @DLamontJenkins

Scott Walker shared a fake Thomas Jefferson quote: http://t.co/qDWwZNwkqx pic.twitter.com/PfVew1bJlh

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) May 15, 2015

Tip for the Day: Never get your Viagra from New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. #tcot #DeflateGate #deflatedballs

— Peter Roff (@PeterRoff) May 15, 2015

On Thursday, in Tempe, Ariz., Bush found the right answer. “If we’re all supposed to answer hypothetical questions: Knowing what we now know, what would you have done? I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.” Good! That only took four days and four different answers. --Chris Cilliza @TheFix

Bernie Sanders is all about the income and wealth equality.

On ABC's "This Week," host George Stephanopoulos asked Bernie Sanders if  it would even be possible form someone like him to get the nomination. Sanders identifies himself as a socialist Democrat. Sanders replied:

"Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is. And if we know that in countries, in Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries, obviously. The voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health care is the right of all people. And in those countries, college education, graduate school is free."

Stephanopoulos suggested that Republicans would likely jump all over him for saying the US should be like Scandinavia. Sanders replied:

 "That's right. And what's wrong with that? What's wrong when you have more income and wealth equality? What's wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, higher minimum wage than we do, and they are stronger on the environment than we do?"

The problem, however, that many of the so-called "content" Swedish are not so content as many dislike the extremely high taxation which would be a foundational reality for any country who purposely establishes itself as a welfare state, (ie, sharing the wealth and income equality).  And, if there ever was a thing called "income equality" it's existence was for a very short time. There's always someone or some group who finds a way to increase their own spending budget.