Jul 042016
 

It’s a good thing I slept well on Saturday and Sunday nights, because I know I won’t tonight.  The main fireworks display is only seven blocks from me.  I hope you are all having a happy and safe weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:10 (average 6:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (classic 7/2014): 1. Conservatives opposed the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution and a lot of other righteous stuff as well.

By definition a conservative is one who wishes to preserve and/or restore traditional values and institutions, i.e. to “conserve” the established order. No surprise then that 18th century American conservatives wanted no part of breaking away from the British Empire and the comforting bonds of monarchical government. Those anti-revolutionary conservatives were called Tories, the name still used for the conservative party in England. The Founding Fathers? As radically left-wing as they came in the 1770s. The Boston Tea Party? The "Occupy Wall Street" of its day.

Some of the other "traditional" values supported by conservatives over the course of American history have included slavery (remember that the Republican Party was on the liberal fringe in 1860), religious persecution, the subjugation of women and minorities, obstacles to immigration, voter suppression, prohibition and segregation.  Conservatives started off on the wrong side of American history, and that’s where they’ve been ever since.

2. The United States is not a Christian nation, and the Bible is not the cornerstone of our law.

Don’t take my word for it. Let these Founding Fathers speak for themselves:

John Adams: “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797)

Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.” (Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814)

James Madison: “The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.” (Writings, 8:432, 1819)

George Washington: “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” (Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789)

You can find a multitude of similar quotes from these men and most others who signed the Declaration of Independence and/or formulated the United States Constitution. These are hardly the words of men who believed that America should be a Christian nation governed by the Bible, as a disturbing fundamentalist trend today would have it be.

These are just the first two of thirteen listed facts about America that Republicans wish you would forget. Click Through for the other eleven.

From Crooks and Liars: In this web exclusive, John Oliver lets us know just what we’re missing by declaring independence from Britain.

 

LOL! God save the Queen!!

From TPM: If elected president. Hillary Clinton plans to appoint enough women to the top levels of her administration that females would make up half of the cabinet positions, the New York Times reported. The report is based on interviews with friends and advisors close to Clinton — some on the record, some unnamed — and they told the Times that she also plans to look at talent from Silicon Valley to assemble a diverse cabinet.

Only about a quarter or a third of the president’s cabinet has been female in recent years, according to the Times.

I consider this move as progress in the right direction, but why stop mat half? Also, we’d better have a supermajority in the Senate, or many will not be confirmed.

Cartoon:

0704Cartoon

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  18 Responses to “Open Thread – 7/4/2016”

  1. 6:16  A thorny problem.  Get some rest BTW.

    DKos – WONDERFUL collection of FACTS to make right wing heads explode.  Now that's the kind of fireworks I like!

    C&L – Right.  On the other hand, here are some quotes from an email by Alan Grayson:

    The Declaration of Independence is not a Poly Sci paper, or a speech. It’s a list of grievances. Specifically, a list of serious gripes regarding the policy decisions by the Executive Branch of that time, a/k/a King George III.

    Some of the complaints are strangely familiar. For instance, he refused to appoint judges. Note to Senate Republicans – King George III refused to appoint judges.

    But the most telling complaint is the first one, i.e., “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance. . . .”

    Does that sound familiar?

    An impermeable determination to get nothing useful done. That’s what gave us the American Revolution.

    The more things change …

    TPM – Affirmative Action – before we can become color blind, we must have quotas.  Before we can become gender blind, we must have quotas.  Unfortunately experience shows it can take a long, LONG time to get to the point where quotas are no longer needed.  But, as you say, this is a start.

    Cartoon – Wonderful!

    • I had a thought on Queen Elizabeth and John Oliver's remark that she makes her living by frowning.  I don't think it is a frown.  She is 90 years old, and has anyone – ANYONE – ever seen her wearing sunglasses?  In all her public appearances, I think she and her advisors would think it impolitic and improper for anything to conceal the monarch's eyes from the people.  And from personal experience, I can tell you, the sun (or other things affecting one's vision) can make one squint, and a squint can look a lot like a frown.  I think the expression is just an occupational hazard and not a true frown.

      • Just Google "image Queen Elizabeth sunglasses" and you'll see she doesn't only wear them in her  leisure time but also during official outdoor does, Joanne.

  2. The people that first came here did so to get away from the Church of England. They didn't want to have to submit to Church because they were tyrannical idiots! And when they got sick of the taxation without representation, we had the Boston Tea Party! The Tories were just chickenshits that were too scared to go up against the King! At least the Founders had some gumption! The Tories hid in their homes hoping no one would knock on their doors for their stores and stock!

    Thanks again for the history lesson, TC! I love this stuff! I watch "TURN, Washington's Spys" ALL the time! It glamorizes it a lot, but I enjoy watching the intrigue and schemes that they devise to get around the Redcoats!

  3. We must learn from history indeed.

    Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman fit the descriptors for Clinton hires and there are many men I'd much prefer–it really depends on which women, although my analysis of her character says she'll only listen to them on things where she doesn't already have an opinion.

  4. DK: "Conservatives started off on the wrong side of American history, and that's where they've been ever since." So true. Good article about the history of the United States. Bookmarked this one.

    C&L: Thanks, John Oliver. Awesome!

    TPM: Positive thinking & direction on her part.

    Cartoon: Absolutely!!!

    Our town's fireworks were on the 2nd (??), very nice viewing it from the Old Bridge. Last night's neighborhood's fireworks kept us all up, as I'm sure it will be that way this evening. Enjoy your fireworks, Tom, and take good care. Thanks!

    • Ummmm …fireworks on the second, so the citizens would know whom to pray for in church on the third since they would know who got burned?  Far fetched I am sure.

      • Should've prayed for everyone since we're all getting burned (or at least 99% of us)….

  5. 3:53  A bit of a thorny issue today but the purple bougainvilleaspurred me on!

  6. Puzzle — 3:53  A bit of a thorny issue today but the purple bougainvilleaspurred me on!

    Daily Kos — Enough to makes Republicans into Beetle Juice!  Great list.

    Crooks and Liars — I always find John Oliver very funny.  I wonder if he would find enough material to cover Canada on an on-going basis?  After all, we are on the boring side . . . at least so say some.

    TPM — More women, absolutely!  But the correct ones like Jennifer Granholm for example.  As JL has noted, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman — absolutely not!  However, gender should not be the sole determining factor.  Qualified men should be included too.  Afterall, women are about 51% of the population and I think that the cabinet etc should be representative if possible.

    Cartoon — So correct they are!

     

     

    Happy 4th Everyone!!!!!

  7. I hope you did get some sleep despite your premonitions of the fireworks, TomCat. If not, have a catnap on me to make up for any loss.

    DK: " to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” My, my, we've come a long way only to come back to where we started from, haven't we ("we" as in humanity).

    C&L: LOL John Oliver forgot to mention that you also missed out on their Brexit, although America's stock markets were not as independent as they'd like to think.

    TPM: It sounds progressive, and is to a certain extend, but for me true progressiveness is going for the BEST PEOPLE for the job, irrespective of gender, color, creed, sexual orientation, ethnic background… People who share a progressive worldview and will pursue the same goal to make the world a better place where everyone is valued for who they are, not what they are.

    Cartoon: Let's do that for the older Republic too.

    • Lona, the way I figure it, conside3ring the glass ceiling, a progressive eoman has to be three times as qualified as her male counterparts to reachy the level from wjic h she can aspire to promotion to a cabinet level appointment.

       

    • Yeah, unfortunately, TC is correct.  As long as the perception exists that women are less qualified by virtue of being a woman (and it does), it will take aggressive measures to overcome it.  Of course this is true of every other way of not being an old straight white man as well.  Too many people actually feel threatened by the concept that women (POC, Asians, LGBT, millennials) can be as competent as, more competent than, old straight white men  – and not all of those who feel threatened are old straight white men either.  Sometimes it feels like walking a tightrope.  But I imagine that the selection process will start with qualifications.  It's after those are established that the affirmative action part will begin.

  8. Thanks friends!  Hugs!!

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