I’m writing for tomorrow, day 92. It’s also a prison volunteer day and I will be facilitating a CoDA meeting for a small group of my guys. I will;return home late having missed a sleep cycle. In addition, I’ll be going back on Thursday to meet with around 100 of my guys. So please don’t expect anything for the rest of the week, except personal updates, and if I can do more. I will.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:06 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Vice President Joe Biden visited Netroots Nation yesterday. The room was full of excitement as he was introduced. The vice president thanked the Netroots Nation community for demanding and coaxing politicians to effect a progressive agenda. He stated the fact that it would not be possible without Netroots.
In the middle of the speech Vice President Biden was heckled. It first started softly and progressively got louder. A group of attendees stood up in the front side of the room and started yelling "stop deporting our families." The vice president did not get frazzled or perturbed.
I appreciate both sides of this issue. The Obama administration is bound to enforce the law we have. It has pushed for extensive immigration reform, but their efforts have been sabotaged by the Republican Party. On the other hand, that matters little, if the ass on the deportation bloc is yours.
From NY Times: For much of the past five years readers of the political and economic news were left in little doubt that budget deficits and rising debt were the most important issue facing America. Serious people constantly issued dire warnings that the United States risked turning into another Greece any day now. President Obama appointed a special, bipartisan commission to propose solutions to the alleged fiscal crisis, and spent much of his first term trying to negotiate a Grand Bargain on the budget with Republicans.
That bargain never happened, because Republicans refused to consider any deal that raised taxes. Nonetheless, debt and deficits have faded from the news. And there’s a good reason for that disappearing act: The whole thing turns out to have been a false alarm.
I’m not sure whether most readers realize just how thoroughly the great fiscal panic has fizzled — and the deficit scolds are, of course, still scolding. They’re even trying to spin the latest long-term projections from the Congressional Budget Office — which are distinctly non-alarming — as somehow a confirmation of their earlier scare tactics. So this seems like a good time to offer an update on the debt disaster that wasn’t.
As usual, Paul Krugman is spot-on. Click through for an excellent analysis ods why to ignore Republican economic InsaniTEA.
From The New Yorker: Historians studying archival photographs from four decades ago have come to the conclusion that the U.S. must have believed in science at some point.
According to the historian Davis Logsdon, who has been sifting through mounds of photographic evidence at the University of Minnesota, the nation apparently once held the view that investing in science and even math could yield accomplishments that would be a source of national pride.
I’m sure Andy must realize that science and truth are for too closely related to be tolerated by Republicans.
Cartoon:
We still need one for Republicans.
13 Responses to “Open Thread–7/22/2014”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
God bless you and all like you who volunteer to help prisoners not re-offend, TC! Sorry – migraine……
3:44 Lovely vista!
3:40 Let's go for a boat ride.
3:34 Although this is Italy, it reminds me of the small villages along the Côte d'Azur of France.
Get some rest. Have a good couple sessions with your guys. Enjoy yourself a little.
Daily Kos ~ You've to to hand it to Joe. Coolness prevails for him. I really liked him telling the audience to applaud for those who were protesting.
NY Times ~ As usual, Paul Krugmann has told the truth. The sky isn't falling?
Nw Yorker ~ Now they consider it to be science fiction instead of fact.
Cartoon ~ I wish he were here now to lead out of DC and into the ocean. Iknow, If wishes were horses we all would ride.
5:10 Just what I needed to see this morning, another playground of the 1%. (Average is down to 4:58.)
Daily Kos – Yeah, there's only so much you can do by executive order, and I know some, if not many, deportations have been carried out in violation of what Obama has ordered anyway. That sucks. But I thought, especially for a guy who has a reputation for foot-in-mouth disease, Joe handled himself very well indeed. Sometimes his compassion really shines.
NY Times – I've always said the debt was a non-issue. Debt for a nation isn't like debt for a family. and Krugman's sentence "Maybe the United States, which among other things borrows in its own currency and therefore can’t run out of cash, isn’t much like Greece after all." kind of shows why. I am not enough of an economist to figure all that out, but numbers on what the debt and debt ratio were at different points in history during my lifetime convinced me.
New Yorker – Be sure to click through for the punchline. Spoofs involving archeology usually focus on how badly wrong archeologists get the uses of items, or misinterpret what the people were thinking. I thought this one was going to be different. Now I'm not sure.
Cartoon – Too bad he brought them here to be Republicans.
Do enjoy your prison work, TC. Try to get enough sleep, and be safe.
What's the story in your hometown WRT madras in Portland playgrounds run by Talibangelical christianists?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/child-evangelism-fellowship-portland
Dunno!
Puzzles — 3:34 Although this is Italy, it reminds me of the small villages along the Côte d'Azur of France.
Daily Kos — I wonder sometimes if those coming to the US knew how xenophobic some in the US could be? Or were they sold a lie based on percieved opportunity. Certainly, for the snakeheads, the more they bring, the more they make. But above all, as you said, it is about upholding the laws, and the administration can't just write its own laws, especially when the political xenophobes are the ones with the balance of power. And of course, there is the desparate conditions of violence that many wanted to escape. Could it be any worse?
NY Times — This rather sums things up nicely.
And those people? . . . the Republicanus/Teabaggers and their puppet masters like the Kochs, the Adelsons etc ad nauseam.
The New Yorker — Science? You mean there was such a thing in the US at one time?
Cartoon — Too bad the Pied Piper didn't take the Republicanus/Teabaggers and lead them into the Weser River to drown instead of the children (onehypothesis).
Enjoy your time with the guys but also be good to yourself!
Just take care of yourself and your guys. We will be here when you get back.
Daily Kos: Poor Biden, he gets flack wherever he goes. I understand their frustration, but something has to be done about our immigration problems, and Congress is not going to do it. They would rather keep blaming the President.
NY Times: Krugman is always spot on. The debt crisis was one more ploy by the Republicans to get rid of any Social program that did not benefit the 1 percent.
The New Yorker: Those were the days! When I was in school we were encouraged to learn all we could about how things worked and new scientific developments. The Creationists have worked long and hard to end all that.
Cartoon: We need the Pied Piper in the USA/
Thanks all. Meeting was great. Pit stop. Hugs!
5:38 – Puzzle 🙄
I like Joe Biden, he's cool… 😆