Apr 182014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow and feel somewhat tired, as it’s late in the afternoon on a busy day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:04 (average 6:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: This video sure has a good point about humanity’s baser instincts. Why can’t we overcome them?

 

The reason for this search phenomena is the proliferation of websites in the Republican echo chamber. They mindlessly parrot the memes in the Republican War on Women.

From Daily Kos: Brian Beutler catches the latest Obamacare fauxrage from Fox News: millions of people won’t be able to sign up for health insurance until November. So all those young people who Republicans, and Fox News, told that they shouldn’t be signing up because [of?] freedom are now deprived of freedom by having to wait until the next open enrollment period. Here’s Fox News [Faux Noise delinked]:

There is yet another ObamaCare surprise waiting for consumers: from now until the next open enrollment at the end of this year, most people will simply not be able to buy any health insurance at all, even outside the exchanges.

That’s not really news. The practice of enrollment periods, embraced by the law, was designed specifically to address those "free-riders" Fox News would in any other circumstance hate—the people who would wait until they needed health insurance to get it. The difference now, though, is that if those people get sick while they’re uninsured, they don’t have to worry about that preventing them from getting insurance once open enrollment kicks in again.

What hypocrites! If sheeple need insurance and have to wait for it now, only because they did not buy it, because they obeyed Faux Noise, the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, they only have one complaint to make: BA-A-A-A-A-A!!

From Huffington Post: As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires and large corporations can now spend an unlimited amount of money to influence the political process. The results of that decision are clear. In the coming months and years the Koch brothers and other extraordinarily wealthy families will spend billions of dollars to elect right-wing candidates to the Senate, the House, governors’ mansions and the presidency of the United States. These billionaires already own much of our economy. That, apparently, is not enough. Now, they want to own the United States government as well.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the 5-4 ruling in Citizens United vs the Federal Election Commission. A few weeks ago, they announced another horrendous campaign finance decision in McCutcheon vs. FEC giving even more political power to the rich. Now, many Republicans want to push this Supreme Court to go even further. In the name of "free speech," they want the Court to eliminate all restrictions on campaign spending – a position that Justice Thomas supported in McCutcheon – and a view supported by the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Importantly, as a means of being able to exercise unprecedented power over the political process, this has been the position of the Koch brothers for at least the last 34 years.

The Koch brothers are the second wealthiest family in America, making most of their money in the fossil fuel industry. According to Forbes Magazine, they saw their wealth increase last year from $68 billion to $80 billion. In other words, under the "anti-business", "socialist" and "oppressive" Obama administration, their wealth went up by $12 billion in one year.

Click through for the rest of this excellent Bernie Sanders piece on the Kochs that Republicans so love to suck.

Cartoon:

0418Cartoon

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  20 Responses to “Open Thread–4/18/2014”

  1. 4:16 I guess I got tangled up again.

  2. Upworthy ~ I don't use Google search so I tried Bing. "silent in church" took up 2 spaces, #1 and 3. "Shoulder tattoos" was second and I don't know where that came from.. "Shouldn't have rights" was #4. And, fifth on the Bing list of suggestions was "Women should get paid as much as men". At least that made the list.

    Daily Kos ~ Of course they will cry about it. It's their own faults for listenting to a false news station.

    HuffPo ~ The Kochs and their ilk will not be happy until they own our country outright. Although they will never really be happy about anything.

    Cartoon ~ Words of wisdom.

  3. Isn't it amazing that such a smart country would have so many dumb people in it?  Now it's Obama's fault that people didn't sign up for insurance when they had the chance?  Those folks don't have the sense God gave a corn muffin so not a lot of sympathy from here.  

    As for Faux Noise and the Koch brothers – that's the only time I would ever consider using RoundUp…

  4. Thanks for the Bernie Sanders/Huff Post link, TC – an excellent article – here's a bit more that really spoke to me –

    "Here is what every American should be deeply concerned about. The Koch brothers, through the expenditure of billions of dollars and the creation and support of dozens of extreme right organizations, have taken fringe extremist ideas and made them mainstream within the Republican Party. And now with Citizens United (which is allowing them to pour unlimited sums of money into the political process) their power is greater than ever.

    "And let's be very clear. Their goal is not only to defund Obamacare, cut Social Security, oppose an increase in the minimum wage or cut federal funding for education. Their world view and eventual goal is much greater than all of that. They want to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick and the most vulnerable in this country. Every piece of legislation!

    "The truth is that the agenda of the Koch brothers is to move this country from a democratic society with a strong middle class to an oligarchic form of society in which the economic and political life of the nation are controlled by a handful of billionaire families.

    "Our great nation must not be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.

    "For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we must fight back."

    God send every person reading the article shows it to a few more and so on – and that we all heed and are inspired by his words!

     

  5. Two questions:

    [1] Why did Portland dump 38 MILLION gallons of perfectly safe drinking water just because some idiot teen pees a cup or two into it? 

    [2] Why does Portland have an OPEN-AIR reservoir for its public water supply – with no filtering between it and your faucet?  Surely you must realize that birds $hit in that thing on a daily basis (and probably in greater amounts than one teen taking a leak).

    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/urine-tainted-water-flushed-down-the-drain

     

    • I find it hard to believe that there is not some sort of treatment between the reservoir and the faucet. 

    • [1] He shouldn't have done it from the high diving board. 😉

      Seriously, I think it was done for PR.

      [2] Humans have been consuming bird shit in drinking watter for millennia.

    • I couldn't understand why they dumped it either. How many people swim in "reservoirs" and pee in them all the time?

  6. 2:48

    A right to vote gained at the expense of those brave women that endured prison, chained to their cells, gavage, rape and torture.  Women today owe these our fore women a debt, vote. Do we have to do this again to get the right for equal pay?  Other countries mock us and for good reason.  

    We are now at 8 million and soon the republicans will talk about the ACA, not Obama care.  Why because it is working.  If we add to that the number of people now covered by parents insurance and Medicaid, the number climb to 14 million.

    "This law is working," Obama said. "This law won't solve all the problems in our health care system. We know we've got more work to do, but we now know for a fact that repealing the Affordable Care Act would increase the deficit, raise premiums for millions of Americans, and take insurance away from millions more." said President Obama (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/obamacare-sign-ups_n_5167080.html)

    Citizens United is a misnomer and should be Citizens Divided because this is what is has accomplished, a division among those who want free and open elections and those who want our elections to be purchased by the highest number of dollars.  

    Koch Brothers Net Worth Soars Past $100 Billion – more than the GDP of 48 countries.  Now they are working to own this country.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/koch-brothers-net-worth_n_5163010.html

    I support Bernie Sanders for president, if does not run then at least his messages to all of us should have some strong influence on coming elections. (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/270/747/882/draft-senator-bernie-sanders-for-president-in-2016/)
     
    If my first comment should show up; I apologize for taking up the extra space.

    Thanks TC

  7. 5:00 Quite happy to have beaten the average, thank you very much.

    Upworthy – Well, yes, but this video was put up by the UN.  I don't think it's the local GOP alone.  I think it's the worldwide "GOP."  As misstexaskitty says we are a laughingstock to some – but in other coutries it's even worse than it is here.

    Daily Kos – Oh, well, that's the GOP – damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Since the signups are up to eight million now (with GOP silence),  I'm not going to lose too much sleep.  (Also, I would think it would have been difficult to miss the fact there was a deadline.)  Has any of them ever heard of a "qualifying event," by the way?

    HuffPo – I received this from Bernie in an email (which I saved).  Glad to know it's in HuffPo, that may save me some cutting and pasting.

    Cartoon – Well, that was certainly a loss.

    I must run now but will come back later.

  8. P.S. to Lynn – check your Care2 email for a card.

  9. "“The ads are shocking because they show just how far we still have to go to achieve gender equality. They are a wake up call, and we hope that the message will travel far,” adds Kareem Shuhaibar, copy writer." "For UN Women, the searches confirm the urgent need to continue making the case for women’s rights, empowerment and equality, a cause the organization is pursuing around the world. UN Women is heartened by the initial strong reaction to the ads and hopes they will spark constructive dialogue globally." http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/10/women-should-ads My own search using Google and the words "women should" revealed, today, April 18, 2014, came up with these top six autofills using "women should": 1. shouldn't: 2. should; 3. shouldn't vote; 4. should stay at home; 5. should not work; 6. should be seen and not heard. Have a look at the UN LINK above for a graphic presentation of these phrases using A. women should; B. women shouldn't; C. women cannot; D. women need to.  It is rather depressing that women still cannot be treated as equals the world over including here in USA. Remembering I once said, in C2, that half of the world's human population has a vagina and the other half has a penis. In my opinion, women do much more than men.

  10. Upworthy:  Women should be and do anything they choose, sad that we are still having to fight for basic rights in this country.  Yet the Republicans keep insisting there is no War on Women.

    Daily Kos:  Hypocrites is right.  They are only "against" something until they are "for" it, and then only if the Democrats haven't done it to their satisfaction.

    Huffington Post:  I wish every citizen in this country would read Bernie Sanders' posts. He makes more sense than all the rest of our senate and congress combined.   I wonder, when the Koch's have complete control, will they turn the country into a slave nation? 

  11. Thanks everyone!

  12. Women should be more involved in Politics, example my favorite Senator Elizabeth Warren… 💡

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