I actually feel a little chilly. I LOVE it!! Unfortunately two days of 90°s weather starts tomorrow. I have a pants-load of things to get done today, while I can.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:19 (average 5:03). To do it, click here. How did you do? I already know that getting out the horseradish sauce is pointless.
Short Takes:
From Media Matters: Iowa radio host and influential conservative kingmaker Jan Mickelson unveiled an immigration plan that would make undocumented immigrants who don’t leave the country after an allotted time "property of the state," asking, "What’s wrong with slavery?" when a caller criticized his plan.
On the August 17 edition of his radio show, Mickelson announced that he had a plan to drive undocumented immigrants out of Iowa that involved making those who don’t leave "property of the state" who are forced into "compelled labor," like building a wall on the US-Mexican border. Listen (emphasis added in transcript [click through]):
Audio Barf Bag Alert!
This racist Republican idiot seems not to have heard of the Thirteenth Amendment.
From Daily Kos: The above [below] is roughly what 8.5 Trillion dollars would look like… and those are $100 bills. Take another look and let that sink in for a bit… I find it absolutely astonishing that the pentagon could lose track of this much money and for there to be no MSM coverage of this scandalous amount of mismanagement and fraud. Where is the demand for accountability? Why is the first question to ANY candidate for president not "What would you do about the massive fraud and waste at the Pentagon?" Where are the hearings, nay indictments, that are warranted when a sum equal to 1/2 of our national debt can be sent to the pentagon to never be accounted for. More below.
We progressives need to work this scandal into every political conversation we engage in, especially when we talk to conservatives. Cutting government spending and accountability are supposed to be core GOP values.
Combine "Known" Pentagon waste (like the 1.5 Trillion dollar F35) with missing pentagon money and you have a good chunk of our entire national debt represented….
The author is spot-on. I might even support new prison construction to house the thousands of military personnel, civilian contractors, lobbyists, and politicians (mostly Republicans, but not all) responsible for it.
From YouTube: Published on Aug 20, 2015
Former President Jimmy Carter spoke Thursday about his cancer diagnosis, saying that melanoma had been spotted not only on his liver but also in four small spots on his brain. Carter said that he was seeking treatment.
This 38 minute clip is well worth the time to watch, since Jimmy Carter is such a class act. It still bothers me immensely that the Republican Party has refused to condemn the Republican politicians and pundits, who have used Jimmy’s illness as an occasion for gleeful comments.
Cartoon:
22 Responses to “Open Thread–8/21/2015”
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Not only did Pres. Carter look good, but he sure hasn't lost his sense of humor. From the interview:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/jimmy-carter-ill-prepared-anything-comes/
According to the Carter Center when it began its Guinea worm eradication program in 1986 there were an estimated 3.5 million cases annually in Africa and Asia.
In 2014, there were 126 cases. Pres. Carter thinks that’s still too many.
On my way out the dorr to Volunteer job. Articles nioted and will read later.
Media Matters: Not into barfing today. lol.
Daily Kos: Want to help cut the funding of the military budget??
Here is a list of petitions to do just that. Take your pick and sign those you feel comfortable in signing them.
Personally, I feel that the military budget should be cut by at least 50%.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=petition+to+cut+military+budget&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
YouTube: Jimmy Carter is such a class act that no current GOP/TP/Koch Party. right-winger person could ever come close nor match to his humanitarian efforts.
Cartoon: Yep, they continue to flame the fires with their rhetoric.
Thanks, Jim. I signed the MoveOn petition, the Change.org was closed.
I know a couple of the groups where the links said paper petitions to use also did on-line signature gathering and letter writing last fall and hopefully will again. The Move-On one is pretty new so I signed it as I didn't recognize the name. Thanks Jim
I'm welcoming cooler temperatures, too. Today there was actually a bit of marine layer that had reached us mixed with the smoke (my smell determination).
Wish I could think of a crime for JM to be arrested for out of this one.
I've spent years telling my TP rep who used to claim to be a fiscal conservative that he needed to tackle Pentagon waste/unaccountability to keep that claim and before cutting anything else. Yes, I was talking to a brick wall.
Ever since Carter didn't run for re-election to be able to focus on getting the hostages released, I knew we would continue to see signs of greatness; this situation is yet another sign.
The cartoon is very fitting for the GOP approach to the Mideast.
A video related to a GOP candidate worth watching:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/20/1413578/-This-spoken-word-open-letter-to-Scott-Walker-says-it-all?detail=email
that was a powerful video.
4:21 I stopped to feed the horses.
I hope they weren't too hungry
3:29 Neigh!
3:04 The horseradish is pointless as is the catnip sauce!
Poor starving kitten!
5:05 (5:03) I know I'm not that hungry; are you?
Media Matters – They can't say "Constitution;" no point in asking..
It just really torques me how they claim they are for fiscal responsibility, and people believe them, when they are responsible for this. And, yes, there likely are a few Democrats in there – but look at the votes.
YouTube – I am actually more worried about the pancreatic cancer. Melanomas are a lot easier to treat. Doesn't appear there's much if anything wrong with his mind, regardless what's on his brain.
Yes, goes along with their Newspeak.
Yes
People in Portland sure had their share of erratic weather these past months, haven't they. Good to hear you're feeling a bit chilly now, it'll help get you through that mountain of left chores before yoy have to hunker down again, TomCat.
Media Matters: The most troubling thing about Jan Mickelson and the racist views he spews on his show, is that he isn't a radio host on some little outback station that nobody listens to, but a rather influential man that has a following in Idaho. Many share his ideas, even the caller who was critical of his servitude plan, didn't oppose it as such, but thought it was just going a bit too far and didn't like it to be linked to slavery. He didn't give a damn about the illegal immigrants being turned into slaves, but only about the bad name it would give the GOP if it was called by it's true name.
The gap between the GOP's rabid, racist, hate-driven base and other Americans is growing day by day and people like Jan Mickelson do everything to increase the gap by openly venting their fascist ideas and giving others a platform to vent theirs.
Daily Kos: An unimaginable mountain of money gone missing from the Pentagon through fraud and mismanagement and no one is asking questions, trying to recover some of it, let alone point a finger at those responsible for it's "disappearance". The unimaginable amount gone missing is a surprise, however the fact that no one is investigating it, doesn't surprise me at all. It only disgusts me.
You Tube: Still unable to view videos, I'll rely on the short clip from this conference that was shown here on the national news yesterday evening. This marvelous 90-year old mentioned that he has to take time of from his work schedule to have his cancer treated now and again, but not too much he hoped. And yes, when he heard about the cancer having spread to his brain, he thought he'd only have weeks left and was a little upset…but not as much as his wife was. But now he's going full speed again, his work only interrupted by treatment sessions. What an absolutely wonderful outlook on life this man has. I think he's grown into greatness after he left the oval office and was able to do so much more for humanity as a former president than as a president. I hope the treatment will give him many more years to continue in this vein.
Cartoon: Of course Republicans, as fossil fuel lovers, would prefer petrol above a pair of bellows.
Must be a browser conflict WRT not being able to view the Carter video.
Curious, if there's JUST a link to the YouTube video [see below] – are you able to view by clicking the Link?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfOzWiJWg2o
Sorry for the misunderstanding, NoName, but I can't view videos as long as I'm Australia and using a rickety old laptop and a deadly slow connection to the internet with a little antenna which can barely maintain a connection. Downloading a video for viewing is just too much of an overload for this system. I'll be fine after I return to Holland in a little over a week, but thank you for taking the trouble of finding me the link.
Enjoy the cool down while you have it! We had a nice day here, too, and another is predicted for tomorrow, then the heat and humidity return. Yuck.
Media Matters: As my grandmother would say, Lordy, that man is an idiot! They are coming out of the wood work, aren't they?
Daily Kos: What a disgraceful, shameful thing for our so called journalists and press that this is not being covered. Of course, they are now owned by corporations and are only allowed to print what the home office approves. We get very little real news. In that respect, Freedom of the Press is a joke. The military machine owns us, and I am sure we will be at war with another country soon, for that reason alone.
You Tube: Jimmy Carter is, and has always been a class act. He was given a bad time by the press even while he was in office, mainly for being honest. Shame, shame, shame on those Republicans and press who seem happy that such a good man has cancer. They show what their hearts and souls really are when they are gleeful for this.
Cartoon: Amen to that one!
Puzzle — 3:04 The horseradish is pointless as is the catnip sauce!
Media Matters — I saw this a day or two back and hurled then! I wonder how he would take to the same 'property of the state' had he been among the first Europeans in North America and the First Nations instituted such a policy? The sad thing is that he will be regarded as right by the wilfully uneducated and the haters.
Daily Kos — Scandalous does not even begin to describe the 'theft' of $8.5 trillion by the Pentagon. Checks and balances are needed now. Accountability is needed now, starting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rhetorical question: Why aren't the socalled fiscal conservatives on this fraud like fleas on a dog's back? Time for the laundry to be done.
YouTube — Jimmy Carter is quite a man . . . intelligent, humourous, a man of compassion and integrity. I remember the pundits and political cartoonists always referring to Carter as the peanut farmer and using that idea profusely. His humour certainly shows through like the following:
And this line from a bit earlier:
Cartoon — Fanning the flames . . .
TY TC
Thanks all. Hugs!