Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 19.  It’s early in the morning, and I plan to finish in time for some intense meditation on the Holy Ellipsoid Orb.  I may be scarce next week as I have a very busy schedule.  Store to Door is closed for Thanksgiving week, so I have a grocery delivery coming from Safeway tomorrow, and I’ll have to stow and put them away.  Tuesday is a prison volunteer day.  Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be cooking up a storm, so I’m not sure how much content I’ll be able to deliver.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 5:01).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

Was that a nail-biter or what!  Wooo Hooo! 😀

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: These guys went across the world because there's a natural wonder that needs saving.

Kudos to Upworthy, but nothing is as clickable and shareable as a cat video. Nevertheless, I'd be honored to bring you more #reefreels.

From Right Wing Watch: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a leader in the anti-immigrant movement, said during his Sunday radio program [fascist delinked] that it’s possible that a Hispanic majority in the U.S. could conduct an “ethnic cleansing.”

Kobach made his remarks in response to a caller who asked, “What happens, if you know your history, when one culture or one race or one religion overwhelms another culture or race?”

Claiming that immigrant rights groups are “calling for the return of the Spanish territory, which could be almost half of the United States,” the caller warned, “When one race or culture overwhelms another culture, they run them out or they kill them. And it’s a bigger issue than just being Democrats. And they know in numbers, once the numbers are so bad, they can pretty much do whatever they want to do.”

Here's the Audio. Barf Bag Alert!!

Kobitch is employing projection. If what he were saying about ethnic cleansing were true, there would be no Anglo communities in Mexico or other Latin American countries when Latino people took over. On the other hand, Republicans are the ones who love to threaten and employ violence when they don't get their way.

From NY Times: GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. — What will they call this place once the glaciers are gone?

A century ago, this sweep of mountains on the Canadian border boasted some 150 ice sheets, many of them scores of feet thick, plastered across summits and tucked into rocky fissures high above parabolic valleys. Today, perhaps 25 survive.

In 30 years, there may be none.

A warming climate is melting Glacier’s glaciers, an icy retreat that promises to change not just tourists’ vistas, but also the mountains and everything around them.

I found some appropriate video.

I visited Glacier National Park in 1961. I remember my amazement at walking on glaciers in August and my awe at their number and immensity. It's a personal sorrow that most of the places, were I walked on glaciers, are now completely ice free.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 18.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will be worshiping at home with the Dolphins, and It will be televised here, so I’ll be in deep religious meditation tomorrow afternoon.  While writing I’m watching the Oregon vs. Colorado game.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:50 (average 4:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Mother Jones (Hat-Tip Joanne Dixon): …But when the economy stagnates and life gets harder, people get meaner. That’s just human nature. And the economy has been stagnating for the working class for well over a decade—and then practically collapsing ever since 2008.

So who does the WWC take out its anger on? Largely, the answer is the poor. In particular, the undeserving poor. Liberals may hate this distinction, but it doesn’t matter if we hate it. Lots of ordinary people make this distinction as a matter of simple common sense, and the WWC makes it more than any. That’s because they’re closer to it. For them, the poor aren’t merely a set of statistics or a cause to be championed. They’re the folks next door who don’t do a lick of work but somehow keep getting government checks paid for by their tax dollars. For a lot of members of the WWC, this is personal in a way it just isn’t for the kind of people who read this blog.

And who is it that’s responsible for this infuriating flow of government money to the shiftless? Democrats. We fight to save food stamps. We fight for WIC. We fight for Medicaid expansion. We fight for Obamacare. We fight to move poor families into nearby housing…

This guy makes a lot of sense, but to really get where he’s coming from, you’ll need to read the while thing. Click through please.  We need a way to convince working class whites that the poor are not the ones keeping them from thriving.  It’s the super rich.

From Daily Kos:

Stories like this make you look at the calendar to check the year. Yep, still 2014. And it is utterly embarrassing and shocking that anyone who holds these racist views are operating in any leadership role. Meet Kentucky’s Southeast Bullitt Fire Chief Julius Hatfield. After stopping to help accident victims, one white family and one black family, he was caught on video having a friendly good ol’ boy chat:

Video from a Bullitt County Sheriff’s deputy’s body camera shows Hatfield’s department responding to a car accident on I-65, south of the Clermont exit in September.

"Well, I’ve got a family of four from Cincinnati, I got to do something with," the Bullitt County deputy said in the video. 

Hatfield replied, "We ain’t taking no n—— here." Then he laughs.

This Republican is a true representative of the "love" of Republican Supply-side Jesus (the polar opposite of the real Jesus).

From NY Times: House Republicans filed a long-threatened lawsuit Friday against the Obama administration over unilateral actions on the health care law that they say are abuses of the president’s executive authority.

The lawsuit — filed against the secretaries of Health and Human Services and the Treasury — focuses on two crucial aspects of the way the administration has put the Affordable Care Act into effect.

The suit accuses the Obama administration of unlawfully postponing a requirement that larger employers offer health coverage to their full-time employees or pay penalties. (Larger companies are defined as those with 50 or more employees.)

And just a couple days ago, I said they wouldn’t file this. Color me OOPS! 🙁 This is truly an act of desperation, as this pure theatre to pacify the rabid racists to whom the Republican Party have sold out. They are doing it, because there is nothing they can do about Obama’s executive action on immigration.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 17.I’m feeling quite tired, because I was up late last night and early this morning.  In addition, another storm is setting off my COPD.  Fantasy football players, the Jets – Bills service in worship of the Holy Ellipsoid Orb has been moved to Detroit and will be played on Monday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:01 (average 5:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a sharp Republican rebuke to President Obama’s proposed actions on immigration, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the President, on Thursday night, of “flagrantly treating immigrants like human beings, in clear defiance of the wishes of Congress.”

McConnell was brutal in his assessment of the President’s speech on immigration, blasting him for “eliminating the fear of deportation, which is the great engine of the American economy.”

“Fear is what keeps immigrants working so hard and so fast and so cheap,” McConnell said. “Remove the fear of deportation, and what will immigrants become? Lazy Americans.”

Dang Andy! Next he might treat them like white folks!!  EEK!!

From NY Times: Former Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has announced a presidential exploratory committee, becoming the first candidate in either party to take such an overt step toward a White House bid. He called for economic justice and a restrained foreign policy, and vowed to “re-establish a transparent, functioning governmental system in our country.”

Previously I have called myself an ABH Democrat (anybody but Hillary). I stand corrected.

From Think Progress: About one in four American workers will have to go to work this year on a holiday, be it Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Day. Given that no American worker gets the guarantee that they can take a paid holiday off, their options are limited. Employees at Kmart and Target even tell ThinkProgress that they aren’t allowed to ask for holidays off and face being fired if they don’t come in.

This may help you decide where not to and where to do your holiday shopping.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 16.  I’m waiting for the President’s speech to begin.  It’s been a busy day.  I planned Thanksgiving dinner and put in my Thanksgiving grocery order at Safeway, as Store to Door is closed next week.  The cat is having bird.  I went to Care2 and uploaded the articles that wouldn’t upload last night.  I check my fantasy football lineup.  What a mess!  I did some housework.  I still have to squeeze in a cat nap.  I’m past due.

Jig Zone Puzzles: 

Yesterday’s took me 3:47 (average 6:42).  To do it click here.  Today’s took me 3:14 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: How the sausage is made.

[New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie], who traditionally backs off from declaring how he’ll act on pending legislation when asked by reporters, made his intentions clear on a pig gestation crate bill when asked last month about it during a visit to Northwest Iowa, according to a pork producer.

“He indicated to us that he was going to veto the bill,” said Bill Tentinger, an Iowa pork producer and former president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association. […]

The bill would direct the state Department of Agriculture to prohibit “the confinement, in an enclosure, of any sow during gestation in a manner that prevents the sow from turning around freely, lying down, standing up, or fully extending the limbs of the animal.”

Christie is now in trouble with many in New Jersey, the state he currently governs, for two reasons. First, the bill is popular in the state, which is why it’s currently sitting on his desk waiting for a signature. Second, advocates of that bill are furious that Christie hasn’t been telling them squat about whether he was going to veto the bill but can travel to Iowa as a maybe-possibly presidential contender and tell the folks there what he was going to do. Especially since it looks like pre-presidential pork producer pandering of the penultimate persuasion.

Frankly, I don’t think this blatant cruelty will help PIGnocchio in his obvious Iowa Caucus pandering. Furthermore, it t wont make him safe in Washington DC. As soon as Iowa’s new Senator, Joni Pig Nuts, gets a look at him, she’ll … snip snip … make PIGnocchio squeal!

From Upworthy: I support the end of corruption in government and pay-to-play politics. Mayday.US is a nonpartisan group using the people’s money to challenge big donors — perhaps the last chance we have to stop the madness. Actor Jason Alexander makes a strong point in this 30-second video: All citizens should keep this in mind every time they hear a political ad paid for by a special interest PAC.

I honestly don’t know if mayday.us can help, but we have to do something to counter all those billionaire bucks!

From The New Yorker: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled his party’s long-awaited plan on immigration on Wednesday, telling reporters, “We must make America somewhere no one wants to live.”

Appearing with House Speaker John Boehner, McConnell said that, in contrast to President Obama’s “Band-Aid fixes,” the Republican plan would address “the root cause of immigration, which is that the United States is, for the most part, habitable.”

“For years, immigrants have looked to America as a place where their standard of living was bound to improve,” McConnell said. “We’re going to change that.”

Boehner said that the Republicans’ plan would reduce or eliminate “immigration magnets,” such as the social safety net, public education, clean air, and drinkable water.

The Speaker added that the plan would also include the repeal of Obamacare, calling healthcare “catnip for immigrants.”

Andy is back to straight news again, but I have to admit, Republicans have been quite successful at crafting policies to implement this plan.

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