Open Thread–4/26/2015

 Posted by at 11:22 am  Open Thread, Politics
Apr 262015
 

Tomorrow I have my semi-annual appointment with my primary care doctor.  She is the one that moved to the far side of town.  I have to take the lift bus, so my half hour appointment will probably take me 5 – 7 hours.  Today I need to prepare for that, and do tomorrow’s chores in addition to today’s.  Expect only a Personal Update tomorrow, please.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:15 (average 4:04).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: No, I don’t want to take my clothes off to board the plane, and no, I really don’t want to surrender my civil liberties in the name of what they call security.

I’d heard about the TSA’s S.P.O.T. (Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques) program before and was aware that they were using it, but I had no idea how much it costs (over $1 billion) or that, scientifically, it’s bunk.

Next time you go to the airport, stand in line and just TRY to not be nervous as you see TSA agents look at you to decide if you’re sweating too much, or if you’re just a wee bit too jumpy. Or have the wrong skin color.

 

I can spot a terrorist. Here’s one.

BonerOrange

From Daily Kos: So mere hours after the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Texas wasted no more time and re-instituted the same redistricting plan the courts had already ruled as unconstitutional.  The same with their new voter suppression bill.

Attorney General Holder was having none of it, however.  Texas was the first lawsuit to be filed by the Justice Department under Section 2 of the Voting Right Act. 

And now Texas is presenting its defense. It is using two main arguments.

And boy, are they doozies….

…1st, says Attorney General Greg Abbott, the redistricting is not about race.  Oh no.  It’s about not allowing DEMOCRATS to vote.  White Democrats too.

From their brief:

DOJ’s accusations of racial discrimination are baseless. In 2011, both houses of the Texas Legislature were controlled by large Republican majorities, and their redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party’s electoral prospects at the expense of the Democrats….The redistricting decisions of which DOJ complains were motivated by partisan rather than racial considerations, and the plaintiffs and DOJ have zero evidence to prove the contrary. It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make partisan districting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority voters who support Democratic candidates.

Translation:

"So, basically, we just want to fuck over all Democrats, and if the Black and Brown people are also hurt, well, they shouldn’t vote for Democrats, should they?  It’s only collateral damage"

This is a classic from 8/13/2013. Nothing had changed.

From NY Times: Nine declared or likely Republican candidates descended on a large church in Iowa on Saturday to court evangelical Christians, the voters who played the starring role in the state’s two most recent caucuses.

They included the winners of those two contests (Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee), newcomers whose biographies lend themselves to evangelical support (Ted Cruz and Scott Walker), and candidates who would like to win some support from the Christian right but are eyeing broad coalitions (Rand Paul and Marco Rubio).

The nine-candidate lineup in the worship hall of Point of Grace Church [pseudo-Christians delinked] in Waukee, a Des Moines suburb, was proof of evangelical power in Iowa, but also a warning that the script may be rewritten in 2016, with so many candidates competing for social conservatives that their votes splinter.

We need to take note of the promises Republicans make to throe pseudo-Christian base, pandering to their greed, bigotry and intolerance. Then we get to impale them on the quotes they make in Iowa all the nay to election day.

Cartoon:

0426Cartoon

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  17 Responses to “Open Thread–4/26/2015”

  1. 3:37 average 4:04.  One of the "all boats" that a rising tide is supposed to lift?  Or, since that only works for the wealthy, maybe not.  It looks like a working vessel to me.

    Upworthy – A few jobs ago, my supervisor (one of the best I've ever worked for. shortly after 9/11, flew home and back.  This man was a disabled Navy veteran.  He had worked in the Navy as a chaplain's assistant (a REAL chaplain, not a Klingenschmitt, and he – my supervisor acted like a real Christian) and had lost a foot and part of a leg for which he wore a prosthesis.  He never told me exactly what he went through with TSA, but from his demeanor, and the statement that he would never fly again, you could tell they had humiliated him.  A decent man who gave his leg for his country.  I have never recovered from my anger at that.

    Daily Kos – Yeah, you can tell it's not brand new.  Abbott is now the Governor.  I know there are many wonderful people in Texas, but for God's sake, decent Texans, take care of yourselves  To have elected him Governor over Wendy Davis took more than gerrymandering.  It took a lot of voters with brain damage from breathing in all the oil fumes and other miscellaneous pollution in the air and probably the water too.

    NY Times – You are so right that we need to keep track and keep calling them on it.

    Cartoon – I don't want a three-legged chicken, I'm a grownup.  But even if you got one with three breasts I don't want one from Chernobyl.

    • I am so sorry that such an intensely good man as your old supervisor was treated so appallingly badly by the TSA – no-one should be treated like that, and all of the security services should remember that founding principle of our law – that we are innocent until proven guilty (yes, I know it is being eroded everywhere).  But they should always treat people with courtesy, especially considering that 99/100 of those they question are innocent (and probably more!).

  2. 3:26  TomCat went by me like he was on a jet ski.

  3. My mother got horrid treatment from TSA (hip replacement metal) until they created the special treatment for older seniors, as have other friends with metal pins to fix fractures.

    I'm so glad the courts upheld our independent commission establishing districts for CA.

    I'm not ready for them, but IA may be since State Fair isn't for awhile.  Hope they attack each other enough for all to be more vulnerable.

    Our area wouldn't touch the cattle/milk from near Rancho Seco without such a major event.

  4. I’m so hoping that there will be a 9-way split in Iowa! That would be so funny! But then again, the one that gets one or two votes will have a hard row to how!
    You know when you have to strip to get on a plane, its time to find another mode of transportation! Whoopie Goldberg has a point about not getting on a friggen plane!

  5. Good luck with your doctor's visit.

    Upworthy:  Cut funds to the SNAP program but give a billion dollars for junk science? Really?   And people keep voting for idiots who think this is good government?  I am nervous flying period, the TSA makes me more nervous.  My 70 year old cousin was stopped and detained in the Phoenix, Az airport a few years ago because she was carrying her husband's ashes back home Ohio to bury them and she looked suspicious with the urn. Give me a break.  This needs to be stopped.

    Daily Kos:  What are those Texas legislators drinking?

    NY Times:  I bet there are plenty of quotes to use against them as they will all show their ignorance of what Christ really taught.

    Cartoon:  I can't believe it has been that long since Chernobyl.  That is one of the main reasons that I am against using nuclear energy. 

  6. Puzzle — 2:31  I'm riding lower in the water so I am a little slower than TC!

    Upworthy — If I were flying in the US, this senior white chick would never get to her destination because I am a white knuckle flyer whose nervousness is observable, and who is always feeling harried as I try to meet all the time deadlines etc in a busy airport.  And I'm no terrorist!  I'd likely get pulled aside for my size 9's!  I wonder if Timothy McVeigh would get pulled aside?  Now there is a convicted terrorist (and dead). Seems to me that all Republicanus/Teabaggerum should be pulled aside for being terrorists too!

    Daily Kos — What a bunch of horse puky!  No matter how one slices and dices this issue, it still is tied to racial discrimination.  The Republicanus/Teabaggerum are the worst sort of weasles imaginable.  My apologies to the furry weasles.

    NY Times — I wonder how much vote splitting will happen in the Republicanus/Teabaggerum primary for the presidenial nomination?  Also, will the final nominee stict to all promises made . . . afterall, they all are Republicanus/Teabaggerum?  I agree, their feet must be held to the fire over promises and statements made!

    Cartoon — And the elephantine politicos just love to deny climate change and the notion that some is human caused!  So what do they think the Chernobyl disaster was? . . . an act of God angry at the "Godless" communist Russians?

     

  7. Upworthy – I am not surprised that this doesn't work, though I would think that experienced customs officers could catch many criminals, but terrorists are a different kettle of fish entirely.  I would also think that most suicide bombers don't look nervous, but either calm or elated as they have been brainwashed into thinking that killing loads of people and themselves will get them into heaven.  (It won't).  I was STAGGERED to learn that this junk science program had cost a billion dollars – but I can guess who benefitted.

    Daily Kos – oh what a load of fertiliser they do talk, don't they?

    NY Times – if there were real Christians in those churches they would show those candidates the door!

     

  8. Exhausted,  Hugs!

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