In yesterday’s Open Thread, I forgot to tell you that I have a medical appointment. I think I’ve mentioned that I decided to fire my primary care physician, the one about whom I’ve told you all the horror stories. My appointment this morning is my initial visit with the woman I chose to replace her. I need to leave before 9:00 and will not return until after noon, so this is today’s only article.
Jig Zone:
Today’s took me 4:40 (average 5:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Almost every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, they push the envelope on just how obnoxious InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it, when I tell you that last week was no exception.
Rick Santorum makes another super-creative analogy for gay marriage
.Santorum may not have achieved anything resembling relevance in the presidential campaign, but he’s still out there swinging. In a radio interview in Iowa, Santorum came up with yet another creative way to express his distaste for gay marriage. He told Iowa radio host Simon Conway that allowing states to expand marriage to same-sex couples is like saying, “the states have the right to redefine the chemical equation for water, it can be H3O instead of H2O,” according to Right Wing Watch.
Ooh, good one.
Santorum made it a point to stake out a position that is even to the right of Ted Cruz, the presumptive frontrunner in Iowa, and that is no easy feat. Here’s Santorum’s bid:
“Look, I’m very proud of the conservative record I’ve put together,” he said. “There’s no one who’s fought more on moral and cultural issues. I’m not a libertarian. There are people in this race that want the states to decide whether there should be same-sex marriage or polygamy or marijuana use. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that the states have the right to redefine something that’s not capable of redefining.
“For me, when you say the states have the right to define marriage, it’s like saying, well, the states have the right to redefine the chemical equation for water, it can be H3O instead of H2O. Well, the states can’t do that. Why? Because nature dictates what water is, nature dictates what marriage is, and the states don’t have the right to violate what nature has dictated.”
Inserted from <Alternet>
“Google me” needs a Saguaro suppository. This is only the fifth of five obnoxious Republican moments from last week. Click through for the other four.
Yesterday turned out to be pretty busy. I did some paperwork. My helper friend came and we took a trip to the instant teller machine three blocks away, did laundry and cooked six meals, I now have 12 suppers that need only be thawed and reheated. Then i meditated on the Orb! May the holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team on this high holy day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:54). To do it, click here, How did you do?
Pat A: I forwarded your responses to her. Here is her reply:
Oh TC – this made me cry – you are all so wonderful! Thank you so much – may God bless you for your kindness!!!
I hope to be back to PP in the next few weeks some time. I hope my sister will come to help me here for a while now that she has retired – she offered nearly a year ago to come for two weeks, and actually came last Autumn for three days (but very welcome for all that) – she has never suffered from long term ill health, so has loads of energy. She promised to be back in the New Year to do the remaining days she had promised … which would have been before now, so I hope still, but am not holding my breath! Her offers of help have, looking back over the years, about a one in twenty chance of being fulfilled… still, onwards and upwards, and I must do what I can when I can, and she set me some tasks before she left and I am still plodding away at them!
I also discovered ancient Victorian mould the day before yesterday under wallpaper in my living room, so I must (having allergic asthma) get rid of it ASAP – it will take me at least all week to do this as I can only do a small amount every couple of days, but I am very determined. I had wondered for years where the slight smell of mould came from as none was visible – now I know (plaster put on the wall cutting through the Victorian plaster [with mould] when I had the damp course done many years ago has not a trace of mould on it, so the mould on the Victorian plaster is truly ancient). Vinegar, tea tree oil, a multifibre cloth and/or a sharp scraper, a very good face mask, Futuro splints for my osteoporitic wrists, and a LOT of elbow grease are doing wonders – but it is a long job and will take one week or perhaps (please not!) even two weeks. Prayers for my safety would be most appreciated as I do fall a bit! (Nicky M would know if I had an accident – we speak/email daily).
Hugs and prayers and blessings
Pat
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (classic: 2/2015): Walmarts are everywhere. They take up tons of space. Superbowl space. They sell everything, they succeed where mom-and-pop businesses fail—and sometimes, they shut down. What happens when a huge edifice, parking lot, highway exit closes in a place? Well, in McAllen, Texas:
They transformed it into the largest single-floor public library in America.
It’s not often that I have an opportunity to post about Texans doing something right.
From The New Yorker: Last month, reporters at the Las Vegas Review-Journal undertook a remarkable investigation into the secret identity of the buyer of their own newspaper. The paper had changed hands in early December for the wildly inflated price of a hundred and forty million dollars; New Media Investment Group (formerly GateHouse Media), which had purchased the paper only months earlier, reported flipping it for an estimated sixty-nine-per-cent profit. Six days after the sale was announced, on December 16th, Review-Journal reporters revealed that the acquiring company, News + Media Capital Group, which had been represented in the sale by an executive named Michael Schroeder, was in fact controlled by members of Sheldon Adelson’s family—and that, as many had suspected, the money had originated with the casino magnate himself. “My money that the children have with which to buy the newspaper is their inheritance,” Adelson told the Macau Daily Times. He said that he wasn’t directly involved with the purchase, and wasn’t interested in owning a newspaper.
Adelson is a keen participant in the U.S. political process and a mega-donor to Republican candidates, having spent, at minimum, ninety-eight million dollars in political contributions in the 2012 cycle, not counting dark-money contributions. He also owns an Israeli tabloid, Israel Hayom (Israel Today), which is brazen in its support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line positions on Palestinian rights and other issues. To many observers, Adelson’s background, combined with the initial attempt to keep his family’s ownership interest in the Review-Journal secret, does not augur well for the future editorial independence of the paper, which was founded in 1909 and has a circulation of about a hundred and sixty-five thousand, the largest in Nevada. But the response from inside the paper demonstrated that, even for a determined billionaire and his family, it may not be so easy to gain control of a newspaper.
This is tragic for Nevada residents. The change will be gradual, but within a year or two the paper will be positioned far to the right of the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.
From NY Times: Hillary Clinton has released an aggressive new attack ad, fanning fears about the main Republican presidential candidates to make the point that she, and no other Democrat, “can stop them.”
I disagree with Hillary, in part. She correctly describes the Republican threat, and she could defeat a Republican candidate. However, she is not the only Democrat who could. Bernie can too, and he is a better choice for the poor and middle classes.
Cartoon:
Perhaps the most critical reason Democrats must win the White House in November is that the next President will likely appoint two or three Supreme Court Justices. At 82, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is likely to retire first. She us the most liberal Justice. If a Republican replaces her The Fascist Five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) will become the Swastika Six, and we can kiss America goodbye. In the meantime, will SCROTUS gut Public Unions.
Harlan Elrich is a high school teacher in California, and that means he must pay about $970 a year to a labor union. He teaches math, and he said the system did not add up.“I get to choose what movie I want to go see,” Mr. Elrich said. “I get to choose what church I want to go to. I get to choose what gym I want to join.”
He should have the same choice, he said, about whether to support a union.
Mr. Elrich and nine other California teachers have sued the union, saying that they are being forced to pay to support positions with which they disagree, in violation of the First Amendment. Their lawsuit, if it is successful, will be the culmination of a decades-long legal campaign to undermine public unions.
And there is good reason to think they will win. The Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in the case on Monday, has twice suggested that the First Amendment bars forcing government workers to make payments to unions…
Inserted from <NY Times>
Looking at this the arguments made by Elrich, a Republican Party front, the presence of a union does not leave him without choices. He can work for a private school or in another field. The decision to unionize has been made by the majority of teachers, state by state. Teachers unionized long before Elrich began the specialized education to become a teacher, knowing there was a union. He made his choice then.
If being forced to support positions with which we disagree violates the First Amendment, most of us should have a big tax refund coming, since paying to support positions with which we disagree is a regular feature of any Republic, even a nominal one like ours.
I started paying taxes in 1962, so each of my tax dollars spent for the Vietnam War, The Iraq War, financing Israel’s repression of the Palestinian people, capital punishment, LGBT repression, mandatory minimums, private prisons, and many more items has been forced payment to support positions with which I disagree. Should I expect a refund check next week?
Yesterday my Prosthetist adjusted George, so he no longer leans me to the left, putting excessive pressure on the outside of my knee. My friend that had a mastectomy called last night. She had let worrying compound into the beginnings of panic. I was able to help her restore calm. Then I had trouble getting back to sleep, so I feel a bit pooped today. My helper-friend may be coming to do laundry. May the holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:58 (average 4:37). To do it, click here. Hoe did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: A day after President Obama held a nationally televised town hall about guns in America, a new poll shows that a majority of Republicans would rather actually be shot by a firearm than agree with him.
In an indication of the challenges facing the President in persuading Republicans, those surveyed named a wide variety of specific guns that they would choose to be personally shot by rather than seeing eye to eye with Obama.
When asked to state their preference, forty-three per cent stated “handgun,” twenty-seven per cent replied “shotgun,” twenty-one per cent responded “assault rifle,” while only two per cent named “agreeing with Obama.”
Andy, with tongue deeply embedded in cheek, I think these Republicans should be accommodated.
From Daily Kos: There is new divide in the Oregon Y’all Qaeda militants who’ve taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. RawStory.com has the details:
Joe Oshaugnessy, an Arizona militiaman, has been actively seeking volunteers through social media to join the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
But his friends tearfully announced that Oshaugnessy, who is known as “Capt. O,” had left the refuge Wednesday and was instead staying at a motel nearby — as some others associated with the militants have apparently been doing, according to sources.
Some of the militants have reportedly been spotted eating at area restaurants during the standoff, as well.
A Y’all Qaeda spokesperson said he drank away the donations:
Peltier said Ritzheimer had confirmed that Oshaugnessy had kept the money he had raised through social media for himself and had spent at least some of it on a drinking binge.
Y’all Qaeda supporter Cai Irvin posted a tearful video (which has since been removed) saying Oshaugnessy’s betrayal “is like finding out there is no such thing as Santa.”
From NY Times: A combative Gov. Paul R. LePage of Maine, who has a history of making blunt, sometimes racially tinged remarks, found himself in a familiar position on Friday as he sought to walk back a comment that had drawn widespread condemnation for its racial overtones.
On Wednesday, he said out-of-state drug dealers come to Maine and “impregnate a young white girl” before leaving.
“These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty — these types of guys,” he said while discussing the state’s heroin crisis at a town-hall-style meeting in Bridgton, Me. “They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue that we’ve got to deal with down the road.”
On Friday, Mr. LePage, a Republican, characterized the statement as a slip of the tongue.
Rachel Maddow covered this well.
Rachel has him dead to rights. The rest of my comment is today's cartoon.
Cartoon:
I’m hurrying to leave in two hours to see my Prosthetist. Tomorrow and Sunday are high holy days in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. I will be worshiping, but my Broncos have a first round bye.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:07 (average 4:18). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Me: The following is an email conversation with Pat A.
Hi Pat,
We’re all worried about you, because we have not heard frim you in so long. Are you OK?
Hugs!!
TCDear TC
I’m still here, though not at all well (surprise!) – just lots and lots of things draining the energy out of me for decades. I have spent years online typing cheerful encouraging things and so often it is with tears of pain and exhaustion running down my face, and I have quite run out of puff, and just don’t seem able to do it for the time being. I do hope you are better – mind you with the support network you have, and all the prayers sent up for you by those who love and care for you, I should hope you are positively levitating with buoyant health!
Please give everyone my love, and if it is possible could you ask for some prayers for me –
Many thanks
Hugs
PatHi Pat,
Just so you know, we who love you do not require you to say cheerful and encouraging things. As much as you love to support others, we would consider it a privilege to support you. So please stop in, even if only to say you’re alive and bitch a bit. I’ll relay your message to the group.
As for me, I am gradually learning how to live as an amputee. My brush with death was so close, that I’m just grateful to be alive.
Hugs, prayers, and love,
TC
I trust that you will all pray or however you connect with the infinite) for her.
From Media Matters: MSNBC’s Maddow Highlights WND’s Profitable Relationship With Trump And His Attacks Against Obama’s Citizenship
Rachel Maddow: "WorldNetDaily Has Proclaimed That Its Man Of The Year For 2015 Was Donald J. Trump"
Hairball’s World Nut Daily endorsement defines him as insane. Rachel, as always, is spot-on.
From Think Progress: Young undocumented immigrants, beware: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz will unabashedly tell you to your face that if he’s president, he would deport people like you.
At a campaign event in Iowa on Wednesday, Ofelia Valdez — an undocumented immigrant brought to the country as a teenager from Mexico — explained to Cruz that she was covered under President Barack Obama’s executive action known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary deportation reprieve and work authorization to some undocumented individuals. Almost 700,000 undocumented immigrants have been approved by the DACA program since its inception in 2012.
But Cruz has previously stated that he would strip the DACA program using any means necessary, including leading a government shutdown. Valdez told the GOP candidate that she’s worried about the 2016 election’s potential consequences for her future.
“As a DACA holder myself, I worried about whoever comes next to the presidency and what’s going to happen to people like us,” Valdez said in the video uploaded by the Democratic Party. “I think of myself as a part of this community and you know, first day of presidency, you decide to deport, you know, people like myself, you know, it’s just very difficult to process it.”
With Rep. Steve King (R-IA) standing in the background, Cruz nodded through her explanation, then told her that there were consequences for breaking the law — like deportation.
Barf Bag Alert!!
Coming from a fellow immigrant, that’s heartless.
Cartoon:
The US is currently under attack, not by the Canadian Army, or the Mounties, or even a band of marauding Sasquatches, nut by a bevy of loon-paid lawyers the employ of TransCanada, the company, whose domestic operations Canadians are blocking.
TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, announced Wednesday it is filing a claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying that the project’s permit denial was “arbitrary and unjustified.” TransCanada is seeking $15 billion in costs and damages due to the denial, and has also filed a separate lawsuit against the U.S. in federal court.
Under NAFTA, companies can sue governments that put investments at risk through regulation. If it proceeds, the case will go in front of an international tribunal. (A U.S. company sued Montreal in 2013 over a fracking ban, using the same rationale). The tribunal cannot overturn the permit denial, but it can force payment of damages.
A NAFTA challenge had been previously identified as a potential legal recourse for the company.
In the notice to submit a claim for arbitration, TransCanada notes that two previous pipelines, carrying oil from the same tar sands region across the U.S. border, were both approved. This, TransCanada claims, suggests that the denial was political in nature, which is prohibited under NAFTA.
“Environmental activists … turned opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline into a litmus test for politicians—including U.S. President Barack Obama — to prove their environmental credentials. The activists’ strategy succeeded,” TransCanada states in its filings. “Stated simply, the delay and the ultimate decision to deny the permit were politically-driven, directly contrary to the findings of the Administration’s own studies, and not based on the merits of Keystone’s application. The Administration’s actions violated U.S. obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”).”
The company even headed the notice with a quote from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: “I would venture to say that there’s probably no infrastructure project in the history of the United States that’s been as politicized as this one.” …
Inserted from <Alternet>
I sincerely hope that TransCanada’s suit fails. However, this is the best thing that could have happened. It shows us how these trade agreements compromise our national sovereignty. It demonstrates the need to stop the TPP.
I have another busy day today. PT and OT are both coming this morning. Then I’m going to cook dinners for several days and put them in compartmentalized trays for freezing. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my Prosthetist, because George probably needs some adjustments. So expect no more than a Personal Update or Open Thread tomorrow.
Later: B9ith have come and gone. Arvilla (PT) worked me hard. Then Tracy (OT) agreed that supervising my cooking would be a good project for today, so I have four meals od Salisbury steak with gravy, cheese whipped potatoes. and mixed veggies.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:12 (average 5:35), To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Tales:
From The New Yorker: \Republican Presidential candidates ripped President Obama on Tuesday for what they called his stubborn insistence on linking gun violence with guns.
In campaign stops across Iowa and New Hampshire, the G.O.P. hopefuls pounded the President for irrationally concluding that guns have played a role in the nation’s epidemic of mass shootings.
“How any reasonable person could look at gun violence and say that guns are involved is beyond me,” said Texas Senator Ted Cruz. “And yet, somehow, President Obama always finds a way.”
“I would very much like to have a conversation about gun violence, as President Obama has said he wants to have,” said Florida Senator Marco Rubio. “But as long as he keeps falling back on this tired, unproven connection between gun violence and guns, there’s just no point.”
The former Hewlett-Packard C.E.O. Carly Fiorina said that Obama’s persistent linking of gun violence with guns was “sad but not surprising, from a man who believes that people’s health can be improved by access to health care.”
“He isn’t thinking straight,” she said.
But Andy, there is no link between gun violence and guns… in a pig’s eye!!!
From Daily Kos: It appears that Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien, the NH GOP lawmaker [Republican delinked] screaming and flailing her arms in the video, has been stalking Hillary for several years now.
She tried the same stunt in 2007, during a Clinton campaign appearance.
She tried it again today and Hillary shut her down to the roar of the crowd.
Reading through many of the comments on her Facebook [Republican delinked] , her appearance failed spectacularly.
Sorry about the self promotion by the person that prepared the video. The one in the article had no embed code. The lying Republican legislator was accusing Bill of having multiple rape victims, and Hillary, of covering it up.
From NY Times: In the days after the Paris terrorist attacks last November, world leaders denounced the shooting massacres. On Wall Street, the money manager Louis Navellier saw a buying opportunity.
Shares of the two leading gun manufacturers, Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Company, popped onto Mr. Navellier’s computer screen. Their stock prices were rising as a result of strong sales. He began accumulating positions in both companies.
Two months later, those bets have paid off. The stocks of Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger spiked again after the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings last month. They also moved sharply in advance of President Obama’s announcement on Tuesday of measures to curb gun violence.
How about that. Banksters are not content to let gum manufacturers profit from the panic they help cause by arming criminals. The Bankster want to cash in on it too!
Cartoon:
