Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 79.  I’m hurrying, because I have to leave soon for volunteer work in prison.  I’ll be meeting with around 100 guys.  This is the only article.  I’ll probably be scarce for a couple days.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:29 (average 4:15).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes: (All Andy)

From The New Yorker: A new Oxfam report indicating that the wealthiest one per cent possesses about half of the world’s wealth has left the richest people in the world “reeling with disappointment,” a leading billionaire said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, the hedge-fund owner Harland Dorrinson said, “I think I speak for a lot of my fellow billionaires when I say I thought we were doing a good deal better than that.”

Calling the Oxfam findings “sobering,” he said that he hoped they would serve “as a wake-up call to billionaires everywhere that it’s time to up our game.”

“Quite frankly, a lot of us thought that by buying politicians, rewriting tax laws, and hiding money overseas, we were getting it done,” said Dorrinson, who owns the hedge fund Garrote Capital. “If, at the end of the day, all we control is a measly half of the world’s wealth, clearly we need to do more—much more.”

Andy has them pegged, and they have the Republican Party working hard to increase their share to 100%.

From The New Yorker: In a poll taken on Tuesday night, a wide majority of Americans said that they now believe that they could be elected to the United States Senate.

The results reflected a renewed sense of the inclusiveness of the American political system, as those surveyed said that they believed that anyone could serve in the Senate regardless of intelligence, the ability to speak, or any other qualifications whatsoever.

While those responses indicated that, as of Tuesday night, at least, Americans were energized about the possibility of their future careers in Washington, other results were not so encouraging.

Andy knows that a pig’s nuts would be a better Senator than Pig Nuts.

From The New Yorker: Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) shared more folksy stories of her childhood on Wednesday, telling reporters that she used to wear a bucket on her head for no apparent reason.

“I’d be walking outside our house and see a bucket lying there, and I’d say to myself, ‘That’s a perfectly good bucket, I think I’ll put it on my head,’ ” she said. “It wasn’t because I needed a hat or anything. I must have had, oh gosh, a half-dozen hats or so. I just wanted to wear a bucket.”

Ernst said that during her youth, she was known for poking a hole in a large piece of corrugated cardboard and wearing it as a poncho.

“I can’t for the life of me tell you why I did that,” she said. “I just liked the look of it, I guess. Nobody paid much attention to it. People sure don’t notice your cardboard poncho when you’re wearing a bucket on your head.”

Andy, I think people liked it, because the bucket muffled what she was saying.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 78.  I’m waiting for Store to Door to deliver my groceries and listening to Republicans bluster and whine about yesterday’s SOTU address.  Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day.  I will write before I leave to upload after I return, if there is time.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: President Obama is courting controversy with his decision to address a group that has become dominated in recent years by extremists.

Some have questioned the appropriateness of the President speaking to such an extremist group, especially because in the past it has issued threats against the United States government.

As recently as 2013, for example, the extremists threatened to shut down the entire federal government if their demands were not met.

Andy does raise a valid point. Should Obama be criticized for negotiating with these terrorists?

From Daily Kos: Recently, I was sitting at my computer, typing away, when I heard the door opening and closing in the next room. It was around lunchtime, so I figured it was my brother (he came home for lunch, once in awhile). I turned toward the doorway, and was stunned to see a uniformed Pennsylvania state trooper striding into the room.

He began peppering me with questions, asking if I lived there, for example, and for me to identify myself. Of course I did (because I did not really want to die or anything like that, the guy was packing a gun, you know?) I was brought up to fear the police; I was taught at an early age that the state police force was originally formed to break the unions, by any means necessary. Also, I knew a lot of people who had been hassled by the cops. My parents had the talk with me (no, not that one, the one about how to survive an encounter with the police). Yeah, poor white boys get that talk too. Yes, I know that racism is a much bigger factor than classism, but that does not matter when a cop is in your house.

After I answered every question he had, I did venture a very polite question, basically, why are you here and why didn’t you knock? The police officer then informed me that he had probable cause to enter my house, because I had posted a "No Trespassing" sign.

In a Republican Reich, scenes like this become daily events.

From NY Times: …Perhaps no organization commands more deference in Republican politics nowadays than the sprawling operation established by the Koch brothers. And this week, the intense competition among Republicans for their embrace and attention will break out into the open. An invitation-only group of 2016 hopefuls will travel to a resort near Palm Springs, Calif., for the Koch brothers’ annual winter seminar, kicking off the so-called Koch primary.

Its that time again. Will Scalia and Thomas be in attendance again? And which Republican will prove best at sucking … nevermind.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 77.  Tonight is Obama’s SOTU address.  I’ll write an article on that tomorrow to publish shortly after midnight Thursday.  Tomorrow is also a grocery delivery day, and if I wasn’t already busy enough, Thursday is a Prison volunteer day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 5:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The first thing to know about the lawsuit brought by two dozen states to block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration is that it is a meritless screed wrapped in flimsy legal cloth and deposited on the doorstep of a federal district judge in Brownsville, Tex.

The second thing to know is that the judge, Andrew Hanen, may well look kindly on the suit. He made news in 2013 with a politically charged ruling accusing the Obama administration of criminally conspiring with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle children over the border (he really [propaganda delinked] said that), which is surely why the plaintiffs like their chances.

The judge held the first hearing in the case on Thursday and could rule as early as next month. If he blocks Mr. Obama’s actions — which seek to protect millions of immigrants from deportation and to grant them permission to work — this would complicate things for the administration, which is planning to start signing people up for the programs in February.

ARGH! Scarier still, the Fascist Five may just back Hanen up!

From Daily Kos: In a laughable display of desperation, the American Family Association is demanding that Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg recuse themselves from the four marriage equality cases it recently agreed to hear. Their unhinged press release [pseudo-Christians delinked] titled Kagan and Ginsburg: Recuse Yourselves! is a study in head-up-ones-ass reasoning.

Both of these justices’ personal and private actions that actively endorse gay marriage clearly indicate how they would vote on same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon. “Congress has directed that federal judicial officers must disqualify themselves from hearing cases in specified circumstances. Both Kagan and Ginsburg have not only been partial to same-sex marriage but they have also proven themselves to be activists in favor of it. In order to ensure the Court’s integrity and impartiality, both should recuse themselves from same-sex marriage cases. Congress has an obligation to Americans to see that members of the Supreme Court are held to the highest standards of integrity. The law demands it, and the people deserve it.

You can be sure that the hate twins’, Standartenfuhrer Scalia and TEAbag Thomas, personal and private actions even more clearly indicate how they would vote on same sex marriage cases, but you don’t hear these Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians whining about them. Click through to see how the author debunks their lies.

From Think Progress: Nebraska landowners have launched two separate lawsuits that, if successful, could serve to delay or even stop the construction of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

The lawsuits, filed last week, represent Nebraska property owners’ second attempt to challenge the constitutionality of a law that gave the Keystone XL pipeline a legal route through the state and, by extension, their property. The landowners claim that TransCanada — the Canadian company that wants to build Keystone XL — made direct threats to use eminent domain and seize their land if they did not consent to having the pipeline run though it.

“We stand with landowners to protect property rights and a constitutional pipeline routing process,” said Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, a group that has been at the center of the state’s Keystone XL opposition movement. “While we fight to ensure TransCanada and the state of Nebraska do not run roughshod over farmers and ranchers, we also call upon President Obama to reject Keystone XL now.”

I don’t care how Keystone XL is stopped, as long as it is stopped.

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