Jul 212017
 

I’m feeling pretty tired because the humidity here is si high, I feel sticky, even when I’m cool.  I have a very hot weekend coming up.  For those of you, who worked all week, TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:12 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Media Must Fight Back | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

 

Keith could not be more correct. When the conspirators lie, their lies should not be covered, unless they are covered as lies. There can be no balanced position between truth and lies. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: This overt hostility and flagrant assault on transparency has had an impact on a certain sector of the electorate. Trump voters have evolved into a breed of ill-informed, willfully ignorant yokels whose devotion to their Orange Julius Caesar borders on cult worship. This alarming descent into madness is frightfully illustrated in the results of a new survey by Public Policy Polling (PPP). The depth of the delirium of these lost souls is unimaginable. And yet, the data from the PPP pollsters is clear. Here are some examples from the study:

  • Only 45% of Trump voters believe Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with Russians about information that might be harmful to Hillary Clinton…even though Trump Jr. admitted it. 32% say the meeting didn’t happen and 24% say they’re not sure.
  • 72% of Trump voters consider the Russia story overall to be ‘fake news,’ only 14% disagree.
  • Only 24% of Trump voters even want an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, 64% are opposed to an investigation.
  • Only 26% of Trump voters admit that Russia wanted Trump to win the election, 44% claim Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win, and 31% say they’re not sure one way or the other.
  • Even if there was an investigation, and it found that the Trump campaign did collude with Russia to aid his campaign, 77% of his supporters think he should still stay in office to just 16% who believe he should resign.

What manner of sickness is this? Less than half of the Trump disciples believe that Don, Jr. met with Russians despite his having confirmed it. Do they think he’s lying? More troubling though, is that more than three quarters of the StormTrumpers are comfortable with him serving as president even if he conspired with a foreign hostile enemy to steal the election.

The sad thing is that these morons vote. Sadder still, they reproduce. ARGH!! RESIST!!

From Exposed by CMD: Now that GOP state legislators have control over 32 state legislatures (both chambers), thanks in large part to partisan gerrymandering, some extremists are preparing to use their clout to gerrymander the U.S. Senate.

This week in Denver, July 19-21, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will welcome Republican state legislators and its corporate funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, K12 Inc., Peabody Energy, and PhRMA, to vote on corporate legislative priorities and create cookie cutter “model” bills in task force meetings that are still closed to the press.

ALEC will welcome U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke [ALEC Koch Suckers delinked], Newt Gingrich and other Trump loyalists to the meeting.

On the agenda for debate and discussion? A model bill to repeal the 17th Amendment, which established the popular election of United States Senators in 1913.

Previously, U.S. Senators were selected by state legislatures and political party bosses beholden to powerful industries. The corruption scandals erupting from the wheeling and dealing fueled some of the great muckraking investigative journalism of the early 20th Century. In 1912, progressive Republican U.S. Senator Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette campaigned for the popular election of U.S. Senators as a means of cracking down on political corruption and corporate control of the democracy. Reformers introduced direct primary elections, ballot initiatives, and recall votes, in the same time period.

Now right-wing extremists want to roll back the clock to enable Republican state houses and Republican governors to hijack at least 10 U.S. Senate Seats held by Democrats in Republican trifecta states, and force an ever more extreme agenda through Congress.

We must protect the 17th Amendment from Republican Koch suckers at all costs! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0721Cartoon

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  10 Responses to “Open Thread – 7/21/2017”

  1. KO: Scary video, spot on, Keith. FIGHT BACK!!! now!!

    DK: How pitiful. I have neighbors that ring true w/the article. It’s a shame actually, that most of them think dt’s doing a GREAT job…wth???? Really??? I can feel my BP rising, and it’s not good. For me, nor for them.

    Cartoon: Yea, they’d love that, with no sense of dignity either. I support VETS, through and through.

    We are in the midst of a drought, temps in the 90’s. I worry about fires, controlled or otherwise. No rain in sight either. Your humidity is just as bad, imho. Makes one miserable. Hope that you get some rest, enjoy your evening, and take good care. Thanks, Tom.

  2. 5:20  Hard to move fast in such a restful place.

    Keith #98 – Of course “fair and balanced” is reasonable when it comes to OPINION.  But “fair and balanced” has nothing to do with TRUTH.  Or even FACTS. 

    And neither Trump nor anyone else in the GOP cares about truth.  Or facts.  They care about their hierarchy.    And anything that conflicts with that hierarchy – the Constitution, all the laws of the land, common decency – let alone journalism and journalists – are the enemy.

    So I guess this does go with that (old though it may be).

    Daily Kos – Yup, that hierarchy again.  He’s ensconced in their hierarchy, so they think he should stay.  It’s the only explanation I have ever come across that actually EXPLAINS them.

    CMD – I, too, read this and shuddered.  It is, of course, obvious WHY they want it.  But it was wrong in (and before) 1912, and it’s wrong now.

    Cartoon – I’m a veteran!  Nothing for me? 05

  3. Keith: I really like that T.R. quote: “To be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.”If Keith is right about the media courting the Trump followers, it i , again, a matter of greed that will spell our end.
    DK: I saw that on e-mail, what a frigging shame that these imbeciles have allowed themselves to be led down the rabbit hole!
    Exposed by CMD: Now right-wing extremists want to roll back the clock to enable Republican state houses and Republican governors to hijack at least 10 U.S. Senate Seats held by Democrats in Republican trifecta states, and force an ever more extreme agenda through Congress.  Of course they do!!  They know that the only way for them to maintain control is to cheat!
    Randy Rainbow is a national treasure!

  4. Puzzle — 4:01  Enjoy your espresso at quay side!

    YouTube — Two very powerful statements:

    “War has been declared against the values of this country by the man who is in charge of this country.”

    Pres Teddy Roosevelt: “To be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.”

    When I think about it, why should the main stream media be fair and balanced with Drumpf when he is not fair and balanced with them or the people, when he does not engage in the truth preferring the lies and deceptions of his fevered mind?  Faux Noise will never present the truth, but someone MUST.  Keith is correct, the MSM must not serve Drumpf but the people with truth.

    Daily Kos — Sad that so many people can’t smell the outhouse.  There certainly is enough shit abound — Drumpf and the Republicans are wallowing in it!

    “Humpfy Drumpfy sat on his throne.

    Humpfy Drumpfy had to be prone. 

    All the King’s sycophants, and all the King’s fans,

    Could not help Humpfy with all of his plans.

    Exposed by CMD — My mother used to tell me as a kid that cheaters never prosper, and I believed her.  I hope she was correct and that this mumism also applies to Republican lawmakers who are stacking the decks in states to bring a permanent Republican Reich to the fore.  This cannot be allowed to happen.  If this Republican Reich of plutocrats and oligarchs is successful in stacking the decks, there will be a people’s revolution, and it won’t be pretty.

     Cartoon — Like every other service Republicans want to cut.

    Resist and Persist!!!

    Lock him up!!!

  5. Twitler’s Alt-Right supporters, who love Kellyanne Conway’s “Alternative Facts”, live in a Alternative Universe divorced from reality.

    But I do think we should observe a moment of silence for …

  6. Keith Olbermann #9: Spot-on with Theodore Roosevelt quote: “To be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.” And most of the American press is serving the Drumpf regime by staying neutral in a alternate reality full of alternate facts, accept that they are never the less called “fake news” when they try to report on White House “press conferences” where they are not allowed to put on their cameras and record what is being brought as “news”. And nobody questions this paranoid-schizophrenic situation. Well, if the media doesn’t question it, it should at least boycott it and leave the alternate reality to Faux New. They have moved the press conferences away from the WH anyway, afraid reporters might meet with “leakers”. They still get their information, so they might as well boycott these sessions instead of handing themselves over as hostages forced to report the BS they’re served.

    On another note: when our national Dutch T.V. news broke with Spicer resigning, they didn’t show any picture of him or footage of one of his press conferences. Instead they only showed a video clip of Saturday Night Live’s Melissa McCarthy as Spicer, driving her/his lectern into the assembled reporters. Both my husband and I were rolling on the floor laughing with the, obviously intended, irony of it.

    DK: First characteristic of a Drumpf-voter: denial. Second characteristic of a Drumpf-voter: projection. Third characteristic of a Drumpf-voter, in Dutch terms: as stupid as the back-end of a pig. Yes, the Dutch realize that the front end of a pig is rather smart.

    CMD: You and many other progressives have been warning Americans this this was afoot. Short of a revolution as some here predict, what are Democrats going to do about it and how, with all eyes on the WH these days? Remember when the Koch brothers and their imps announced that they were taking their money away from Washington to the states? ALEC got really busy for them and this is the result while no one was paying attention. Welcome to the Fifth Reich.

    Cartoon: The VA’s, the poor’s…well, really anybody’s money not in that 1%.

    Try to keep cool and dry, TomCat, which must be very hard when researching GOP & Drumpf.

  7. In the Public Policy Polling (PPP), I found the questions asked were interesting but fair. There is a section on who were asked those questions, the demographics told the story. They told the story about the people asked and found them to be a decent cross-section of the population. It did not break down into what states those questions were asked. I cannot imagine answering those questions over the phone. I often wonder how and by what method, criteria do the people in PPP use to select to ask in the population of USA. I still maintain that polls give an indication of what is what, I have found that they are skewered in one way or another and thus, I do not put much faith in them (polls).

    I found myself asking the question: The percentage of the population are democrats (42%) and the republicans are at (31%), why is it that a minority party controls the politics of USA? Hmmm…

    July 14-17, 2017
    Survey of 836 registered

    Q57 If you are a woman, press 1. If a man, press 2.
    Woman ………………………………………………….. 53%
    Man……………………………………………………….. 47%

    Q58 If you are a Democrat, press 1. If a Republican, press 2. If you are an independent or identify with another party, press 3.
    Democrat ……………………………………………….. 42%
    Republican ……………………………………………… 31%
    Independent /Other …………………………………. 27%

    Q59 If you are Hispanic, press 1. If white, press 2. If
    African American, press 3. If other, press 4.
    Hispanic…………………………………………………. 9%
    White …………………………………………………….. 73%
    African-American …………………………………….. 12%
    Other……………………………………………………… 6%

    Q60 If you are 18 to 29 years old, press 1. If 30 to 45, press 2. If 46 to 65, press 3. If you are older than 65, press 4.
    18 to 29………………………………………………….. 10%
    30 to 45………………………………………………….. 22%
    46 to 65………………………………………………….. 42%
    Older than 65 ………………………………………….. 26%

    Q61 Mode
    Phone ……………………………………………………. 80% Internet ………………………………………………….. 20%

    http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2017/PPP_Release_National_71817.pdf
    .

  8. Thanks all!  Pooped heat hugs! 35

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