Aug 242015
 

I spoke with the prison’s head of Volunteer Services this morning and learned that the demand to pull my volunteer card dis not come from them.  It came from Security.  The problem is this.  Because of my COPD, I am more likely to suffer a medical emergency while climbing the stairs to the Activities floor than other people.  Were that to happen, they would have to call an ambulance and lock down the entire prison for my extraction.  Lockdowns are costly.  So there’s no way I could have gotten her to budge, as she was being overruled.  However, I did get one concession from her.  I will be able to enter the prison as a guest, not a volunteer (who can go to any venue), when my group’s events are boing held in the Visiting Room instead of the Activities Floor, as it is on the main level.  It’s still a huge loss.  I’ll be going from 2 to 3 times a month to 3 to 4 times a year and will have little opportunity for working on issues with them in depth.  But at least I got the most I could have gotten.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:14).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker:

Short TakesA rally featuring a racist speaker Friday night in Mobile attracted a crowd of just twenty thousand people, widely considered a disappointing turnout for a racist event in Alabama.

According to racist event planners in the state, a crowd of twenty thousand would rank the event as one of the smaller racist rallies in Alabama this year.

Organizers of the rally were quick to defend the size of the turnout. “There is always a lot of competition for the racist audience in Alabama,” an aide to the speaker said. “There were other racists speaking at other venues in the state Friday night. Plus, a lot of racists now prefer to stay at home and stream racist content on the Internet. Given all the options available to racists, I think twenty thousand is a solid number.”

Andy knows that Hairball picked AL for his rally because AL Republicans passed a Latino-hate law even worse than the infamous "papers please" law in AZ.

From Daily Kos (classic 2/2012): It is now the common wisdom of millions of interested parties that ALEC does not work for the vast majority of citizens, that it is a vicious corporate lobby and that it is thee main force behind the deterioration of personal liberties and workers’ rights in the United States.

Arguing against ALEC’s influence over state legislation has become more difficult thanks to efforts such as ALEC Exposed which display how similar bills advancing in GOP-controlled states are and from whence they originate.  Now, Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin (R-56), a 29 year old former legislative aide and graduate of Moody Bible Institute, has made the task of indicting ALEC for undue influence in state politics that much easier by forgetting to remove ALEC’s mission statement from a bill (PDF) she suddenly "decided” to propose.  This bill calls on the federal government to reduce taxes for corporations (HM 685).

Burgin discovered her error, but not before Common Blog spotted it:

Let us not forget where the bills Republicans introduce and pass, especially at the state level, are written.

From NY Times: …Whatever the precise mix of causes, what’s important now is that policy makers take seriously the possibility, I’d say probability, that excess savings and persistent global weakness is the new normal.

My sense is that there’s a deep-seated unwillingness, even among sophisticated officials, to accept this reality. Partly this is about special interests: Wall Street doesn’t want to hear that an unstable world requires strong financial regulation, and politicians who want to kill the welfare state don’t want to hear that government spending and debt aren’t problems in the current environment.

But there’s also, I believe, a sort of emotional prejudice against the very notion of global glut. Politicians and technocrats alike want to view themselves as serious people making hard choices — choices like cutting popular programs and raising interest rates. They don’t like being told that we’re in a world where seemingly tough-minded policies will actually make things worse. But we are, and they will.

This is the conclusion of an excellent Paul Krugman editorial. Click through to see how he got there.

Cartoon:

0824Cartoon

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  37 Responses to “Open Thread–8/24/2015”

  1. Love that cartoon!

    Krugman covers it all–so many on the right hate it that their favorite sound bites can only be good in very, very limited circumstances and not now.

    Love Burgin's carelessness–hope it helps a legal challenge to their nonprofit status.

    AB has it straight and farmers and businesses in AL have been telling the legislature off ever since because it killed their abilities to make a living.

    Glad the Volunteer's person got back to you so quick. 

  2. 3:25 I got lost in the jelly bean bin.

  3. I'm glad you found out what happened. I'm sure you realize the dilemma faced by the prison officials if a medical emergency involving you arose. You wouldn't want your guys to be put in lock-down because of you. At least you will still be able to be involved in their lives in a small way. That is probably very imposrtant to them.

    New Yorker ~ Good one!

    Daily Kos ~ Oopsy! Burgin got caught with ALEC on her face.

    NY Timees ~ Wall STreet must be reined in no mattr how you look at it. Now they're in rough shape because of China. What next?

    Cartoon ~ So like them with their overkill.

  4. 6:26.  I wouldn't be surprised if that is longer than the first time it was puzzle-of-the-day, since my mouse was acting so spastic.  No offense intended to anyone who experiences actual spasms, who have my highest respect and admiration in their very trying circumstances.

    Sorry the prison situation didn't work out better for you, TC, but glad it worked as well as it did.  There is nothing like knowing your audience to get the best cooperation possible.  It must have been a small consolation to know that volunteer services was on your side, even if they lost also.

    I found a small chunk of my lost mind in Santa Fe at the Opera House, where it must have flown ahead in impatient anticipation.  Another small chunk I found with Carrie B, ditto.  Having driven home today I am now too tired to reassemble them, but I'll work on getting some rest.

    New Yorker – Andy is straight reporting again, except that they wouldn't actuallu SAY what they ar thinking – he is mindreading.

    Daily Kos – If this happened in 2012 and ALEC is still tax-exempt, I would say it was futile.  Did anyone even mention it to the IRS?  I may be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge it's only groups calling themselves churches that they have no authority to investigate.  If we have a smoking gun, and don't hand it to them right away, who exactly is not doing their job?  After all this time, is the gun still smoking?

    NY Times – Paul Samuelson has a sense of humor?  Who knew?  But seriously, his last paragraph, or maybe the last two paragraphs, are so clear, and will cause so much screaming from Republicans, should any be exposed to them – well, what can I say?  Unless we elect a Democratic president in 2016, and unless that President is willing to put Ktugman (and Reich) into the most powerful positions in which they will be effective, we – at least tose of us my age and older – will likely not live to see an economic recovery, and those who do will have had to live through revolution and anarchy to get there.

    Cartoon – It may be even worse than it looks.  I suspect that tool of being their "hammer" which causes everything to look like a "nail."

    • I saw Sanat Fe Opera House in 1971 and loved it.

      • The middle section has a roof now, but still open sides.  It may be the only place in the world I can safely see live opera, because people tend to dress up for opera including perfumes and colognes, and in an enclosed space that makes me very, very ill.  I saw an early Mozart opera, and a world premiere, "Cold Mountain," which is exactly what you think it is, and splendid.

  5. You're right, TomCat, you and your guys lost a lot in the process, but at least you can meet with them 3-4 years as a group. In time things may improve even more because nobody has caused a ruckus and that is undoubtedly important to authorities. It's strange the building has no elevator, but even if it has one or two, they're probably located in a part of the building you're not authorized to access. Anyway, it turned out to be about money, as usual, which means you have little space to maneuver and only suggestions which neither cost money nor compromise security in any way will be taken seriously. But most important: not all is lost and you can try to rebuild from this, so the very best of luck to you!

    Cartoon: And yet they still miss. Probably because most flies seem by Republicans see are imaginary while they're completely blind for the swarms circling their own heads.

    The New Yorker: Andy has left "funny" behind him with this one; it might just as well have been factual, nobody in Alabama would have known the difference. And neither would we; there's so much racism coming out of these states we'd automatically assume it was all true.

    Daily Kos: Isn't it immensely hypocritical for Republicans to demand a smaller government with much less influence in state affairs and then have ALEC force identical bills written by order of their corporate masters to be passed across as many states as possible? OK then, not "immensely" but only hypocritical to is usual level.

    NY Times: Another strong article by Krugman. He's absolutely right, of course, but sadly his influence on Wall street or right wing politics is so small they can easily ignore him as just another annoying "librul"

    • The only elevator in the priisonare the elevator to medical.  Guards let prisonetrs in and out.  Prisoners sued a few years back that the lack of elevators to Activities, Chapel, and Education discriminated against disabled prisoners.  The federal court ruled that the prison can violate prisoners' rights as long a cost and security are the reasons for the violation, rather than an intent to discriminate.

  6. Your comprise is certainly better than nothing, and at least their position isn't totally unreasonable. But a couple of random thoughts:

    Any chance of you participating via Skype?  Even if you were only an observer, it'd at least keep you abreast of what Your Guys are doing.

    If not Skype (and I realize there may be some computer security issues), what about just a speaker phone setup so you could at least listen in.  Even if they put you on "Mute" at least you'd have some idea of what's going on.

    Given my hearing deficit, there are no doubt other connection options out there that others would be more familiar with than I am- but it's a start.

    And just a consideration – and you certainly have a better handle on the dynamics than we do – but it may not be a bad idea to wait a session or two before broaching these possibilities.  Let things cool down a bit.

    • Good ideas!  These days it is quite common in business and government for one or more to attend remotely–could even be via another volunteer's cell phone if the room(s) used have no outside line phones.

      • They don't allow cell phones in prisons here – not even if you put them in a locker before entering the prison itself.  I don't think they like elevators in prisons because of fires and power failures, and the possibilities of inducing same.  I've never seen one here.  I have seen a county jail with two floors which required visitors to reach the visiting area by climbing up one flight then going down one flight.  Unless you were disabled.  Then you had to be escorted every step by a guard on the main level.  And they weren't always just the most prompt at coming to escort you out.  I'm using the past tense because they have changed to all-video visitation so that visitors never come in at all but go to another building.

    • Joanne is right.  To get a DVD, just the disk, not the player, through security to the guys recently took us five weeks. 

  7. Wow. They need to have your group in the visiting room! You could have it in days that there is no visiting. They will let you visit, so that would be a good place to have it!
    Andy was spot on, again.
    I’m in a rush, I gotta go!

    • TC, I seem to recall you speaking about some of your group's events being crowded.  Would everyone fit in the visiting room?

    • The visiting room is big enough, but it requires extra security staff.  They moved mous of our meetings to activities floor to save money a few years back.

  8. TC, don't they have any elevators?  I can see that a lockdown would be expensive, but how about letting you meet your guys in the Visiting room?  Of course, I know you have to take what the offer, but maybe later you could suggest this.

    Daily Kos:  I shared this on FAcebook as I am sure there are many who know nothing about ALEC.  They have entirely too much influence on our government.  I hope this big Whoops causes some people to pay attention.   When we are all serfs, it will be too late.

    NY Times.  Krugman always makes sense to me.  Do we have any governments, anywhere, that don't operate on greed?  Seems to me that is what gets us into so much trouble.  Austerity programs always follow after greed causes the downfall, and they don't work either.

    Cartoon:  Exactly! .

     

  9. Update on Cousin Phillip:  He has been off the ventilator since Friday, using oxygen only.  He has passed all the tests they do for alertness and signs of stroke.  He is trying to talk, even though he still has the tube down his throat.  They will do the "swallow" test tomorrow.  If he passes, he will be out if ICU in a couple of days.  Thanks for all your good thoughts and prayers.  He still has a long road ahead, but we see hope.

  10. Puzzle — 3:41 Too much sugar for me!  That Puddy Tat looks like he'll feast on jelly beans but I should remind him of the amount of sugar.  And if he chooses sugar free, watch that you don't eat more than 6 or you will suffer greatly with republicosis!

    The New Yorker — As I read the first short para, I knew it was about Trump.  Andy should stop straight reporting and go back to humour.  We need all of the humour we can get given 2 election races here in North America!

    Daily Kos — Wouldn't it be great if Burgin's Oops precipitated an investigation by the IRS and subsequent charges?  The only problem . . . didn't the Republicanus/Teabaggerum manage to slash the IRS budget, effectively managing to clip their investigative wings?

    NY Times — Krugman is correct (as usual).  Austerity measures world wide have been destablising, while a lack of adequate regulation (think Glass Steagal) has helped advance economic inequality.

    "…Wall Street doesn’t want to hear that an unstable world requires strong financial regulation, and politicians who want to kill the welfare state don’t want to hear that government spending and debt aren’t problems in the current environment."

    Cartoon — A Howitzer to shoot the apple on William Tell's head.  The shooter can't lose, but Tell sure did!

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