I’m hurrying to get today’s articles up as early as I can, as later I’m going to prison to do volunteer work. Tomorrow is a grocery delivery day. Portland us under a heat advisory.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:20 (average 4:56). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From PRWatch: At the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 2015 annual meeting in San Diego, California, dirty energy companies and their supporters–including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Duke Energy–continue to dominate the funding of activities, according to a list of conference sponsors obtained jointly by the Center for Media and Democracy and Greenpeace. At the top of the agenda, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker spoke to ALEC delegates over breakfast on Thursday. Walker is now campaigning on a promise to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if elected President in 2016, a plan which was earlier debated by ALEC at its December 2014 conference and is in line with ALEC’s long-term legislative agenda. At ALEC conferences and meetings, rhetoric against the EPA–and in particular the Obama administration’s proposed Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution–is frequently extreme.
Click through for more, including a list of sponsors to boycott.
From Daily Kos: Spot the difference
Last year, a Nevada rancher who boasts that he doesn’t “recognize the United States government as even existing” become a hero of Fox News pundits and other conservative commentators for refusing to pay grazing fees he owes the government.
But when a black woman named Sandra Bland was forced out of her car and to the ground by a Texas police officer after she reportedly failed to signal during a lane switch and declined to put out a cigarette, Fox News thinks this is a time to lecture viewers on how to be respectful to law enforcement. Bland later died in police custody in what investigators ruled was a suicide. –
White men defending a criminal, facing down gubbmint agencies with many, many guns, good.
African American Woman armed with a cigarette, bad. The policeman was being exposed to second hand smoke for crissakes!
The contrast is absurd, intolerable, and Republican.
From NY Times: His family called him unstable and violent, so John R. Houser was ordered by a judge to be taken against his will to a mental hospital in 2008. Despite that sign that Mr. Houser was mentally troubled, he passed a background check and was able to legally purchase the gun he used last week to kill two people in a Louisiana movie theater, because that hospital stay was not defined by officials as an involuntary commitment.
Dylann Roof, who is charged with shooting nine people to death in a Charleston, S.C., church last month, was also able to buy the gun he used in the massacre. He should have failed a background check, federal officials said, because he had previously admitted to illegal drug possession. Yet because of a clerical error in South Carolina and the confusion that caused the federal authorities who examined his record, he was not stopped from his making his purchase.
As these two cases show, the one system that gun rights and gun control advocates both agree on, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is supposed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, is riddled with problems. While the system, in operation since 1998, has prevented more than 2.4 million sales, it still has major gaps, with spotty cooperation from the states and a narrow definition of who is considered too mentally ill to own a gun.
Republicans work overtime to keep the system ridden with loopholes, because enabling criminal gun purchases maximizes gun industry profits.
Cartoon:
20 Responses to “Open Thread–7/28/2015”
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4:42 (average 4:56) Have a splendid day with your guys. Too bad the meeting can't be in the puzzle scene.
PRWatch – I already boycott most of these. I've taken my personal finances out of big banks and gone to a credit union. I boycott all tobacco and all cable. I boycott Exxon/Mobil and Chevron, and also Shell. I'm sure Conoco/Phillips is contributing too, if not a the high levels shown, but if you only own a 2000 model minivan and can't afford anything new and need it to transport your wheelchair (I am not wheelchair bound but there are places I need to use it), how are you going to get away without fossil fuels? I've been combining trips for years, I consistently drive to keep my average mpg at 20, but there are places I need to be that I simply cannot get to without driving.
DKos – No system is perfect and there will always be screwups, but we are having WAY too many, and way too consistently. I think what bothers me more than anything is the number of people who WILL NOT see it and think everything is perfect. I always look at the open thread first myself, but I gather from its title that your lead article is on the same page I am here.
NY Times – I have said so much about guns in the past couple of days that I need to shut up and listen. I do agree wholeheardedly, though, with Deb C, who commented on the site. If "responsible gun owners" would rise up and get behind reasonable gun control, instead of silently letting the NRA speak for them, we would not have these issues. Of course, I have been saying this for forty years.
Cartoon – Frankly, I am sorry for those with grandchildren. I know they are a joy but protecting them from Republicans is more than a full time job, and I for one, do not have the energy.
Very pressed for time myself, so I just popped in to wish you a good and effectual day, TomCat. I'm sure your guys will be delighted to see you again.
3:30 That water must hold lots of fishies for a hungry kitty.
4:10 I was beached! The fishing has been cancelled at this beach due to reduced stock and warm waters. That's just like here!
Wooo Hooo!! Kitty fishin time!!
PR Watch ~ Thanks. I already boycott these companies but I shared this on FB for others' edification.
Daily Kos ~ The double standard is sickening.
NY Times ~ At least Houser spare the good citizens his court costs. Roof didn't.
Cartoon ~ I will never understand how good people can be so buffaloed by FAUX and teh Rethugs.
Given how much oil money funds ALEC, no surprise Walker would cater to that theme his Koch Bros. campaign funds bought. And polls say 70+% of the public want the EPA to do more, not less–let us hope they vote with that belief and our grandchildren may see more than just the cartoon. Glad demonstrations are happening to help the media and people learn more about ALEC.
Schumer has a petition asking the company Roof bought his gun through to never again sell without completing the background check.
Using data to reduce risks via various policy options is pretty common for government. The tighter the rule, the fewer who should be stopped get through but the more who would be OK do not–the arguments historically were finding the balance and not that all should get through even if not OK. Sign of a sick society?
Bundy vs. Bland is indeed a stark contrast.
Oh, I hope your weather improves soon!
PR Watch: Alec pretty much controls our government all ready, along with the Koch brothers. I am not surprised at all the energy companies on their list of contrbutors.
Daily Kos: We all ready know that faux news has black and white issues. Blacks are always guilty when they report an incident.
NY Times: The Background check depends entirely on what state does it. Please don't kick me off of here when I admit this. My husband does not hunt or shoot, but he has wanted a Henry rifle for as long as I can remember. They are collection pieces. So, I decided to buy him one for our 50th anniversary present. I was really nervous about going into a gun shop, and I know I looked guilty, because that is how I felt. It took five minutes for a background check. Admittedly, I am officially a senior citizen, and look like a Sunday school teacher, but REALLY? Five minutes? I was stunned. The people in the gun shop were very amused by me. That gun will probably never be shot, but it was what he wanted. Still, it should have taken more than five minutes to run a check.
Cartoon: I totally agree. Our beautiful mountains and streams here have been destroyed by the mining industry, and now frackers are moving in to finish them.
UPdate on my cousin Phillip: They are sewing up his chest tomorrow but don't plan to awaken him until Friday. All his vital signs are good. Thanks for all your prayers. You are wonderful friends.
This is very good to hear Edie! Blessings to Philip and all who stand watch and love him. Prayers and thoughts continue from me and my babes. I lit a candle at church fir you all.
Thanks, Lynn.
Wonderful news Edie! Lots of prayers have been and will be going up for you all and for Phillip's complete recovery.
Thanks,Pat
That is the most encouraging word we've had in a long time. Some of my guys are also praying for Phillip.
Thanks, TC. I appreciate your guys, too.
Best news of the week. Thanks. Thanks for involving your guys, TC. Some prisoners are great prayer warriors, and I'm betting your guys fit.
Thanks, JOanne.
Puzzle — 4:10 I was beached! The fishing has been cancelled at this beach due to reduced stock and warm waters. That's just like here!
PR Watch — "…engage in “guerrilla warfare” against the EPA and at another session instructed to bring about a “political tsunami” to block pollution controls."
I wonder if it ever occurred to these idiots that once the US has done away with all pollution controls and has not engaged in renewable energy, it will be seen as a pariah state. Some European countries, in particular Denmark and the Netherlands, are making great progress in reducing emissions and converting to renewable energy. Just as the US has not embraced metric measures etc, it will be seen as behind the times and a dinosaur globally.
Texas sure does like that Trustees level.
Daily Kos — Double standard indeed!
So, an old white man armed to the teeth does not have to obey the rules, but an unarmed black woman is severely and publically chastised for not extinguishing a cigarette. The comparison is startling! Talk about white privledge run amock.
NY Times — "Republicans work overtime to keep the system ridden with loopholes, because enabling criminal gun purchases maximizes gun industry profits." One sure way to fight back is to get rid of ALL Republicanus/Teabaggerum politicians. Cut off the head of the snake and the body will follow.
Cartoon — Yet another reason to get rid of all Republicanus/Teabaggerum politicians.
As I was driving on the Lougheed Hwy near my house in Metro Vancouver, a magnificent sight presented itself to me . . . Washington state's Mt Baker in all its splendor. Tall, snow covered, and clear! We often see Mt Baker.
Good luck with the weather and the prison visiting TC – I hope all goes well.
PR Watch – I do hope that all the pressure groups that manage to get companies and corporations to leave ALEC realise that they won't have had a 'Damascus Road moment' but will merely join another allied group with a different name – the leopard won't change his spots quite so quickly as we would like him to!
Daily Kos – no surprise there, the Repugs are all rampant hypocrites and couldn't change now if they were paid to …. hang on a minute …. maybe they might if paid enough! Seriously though it really makes anyone with intelligence, a conscience and a soul sick to their stomach.
NY Times – according to our political satirists he couldn't afford a home or a meal, but he could afford a gun. That is so often what America looks like from here.
Cartoon – but the Repugs have rights -' rights' to pollute and never clean up,' rights' to take and never give,' rights' to lie and never tell the truth… Those 'rights' are all wrongs.
Thanks and hugs to all. I'm pretty pooped today.