Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 167.  I must have been pretty tired, because I slept a couple hours later than normal.  Then, after doing my research, I basked in the sun for a half hour again.  Tomorrow is a Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will be worshiping with the Brewer Birds, and the service will be televised locally, so you know I’ll be meditating tomorrow afternoon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:03 (average 5:13).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Demos.org (Hat-Tip: JL A from Care2): On Tuesday, Montgomery County [MD] Council unanimously enacted a public financing bill that will both encourage participation from small donors in the county and allow civic-minded individuals to run for county office without needing big contributions. Starting in 2015, the county will match small donations from in-county donors for candidates who opt in to the program, demonstrate local public support, and agree to accept only individual donations between $5 and $150.

The matching funds are stepped to encourage contributions from the greatest number of donors. For example, as the County explains:

Matching public dollars for County Executive candidates would be $6 for each dollar of the first $50 of a qualifying contribution received from a County resident, $4 for each dollar for the second $50 and $2 for each remaining dollar received up to the maximum contribution.

So, if an in-county donor contributed $150 to a participating candidate for the county executive office, the candidate would receive $600 in matching funds. But, if four donors each gave only $25, the candidate would still receive an additional $600.

I support 100% public financing for all elections. Money is NOT Speech!!

From Daily Kos: …I guess the thing that the family of the confirmed Ebola patient can be grateful about is that our modern health "experts" didn’t nail their door shut and position a wagon outside for body removal.

Please read then discuss:

Move Family From Ebola Patient’s Apartment, Says Judge

Okay, a quick summary – the domestic partner of the Dallas Ebola patient has been confined to her apartment, where the patient took ill, with one child and 2 nephews in their twenties. All right, seems reasonable, right?

Until you read the entire article and discover that health officials shut them all inside with contaminated linens and no provisions for them to have sustenance – like FOOD!…

Click through for more. The federal response to the Ebola virus is thoroughly efficient, because it is being managed by Democrats. On the other hand, Texas’ response exemplifies Republicans’ fitness to govern.

From Upworthy: We need to get big money out of politics. If you don’t know about the Citizens United case and why it should be overturned through a constitutional amendment, it’s time to become educated. The danger of giving so few people so much power can no longer be ignored. How few, you may ask? Hear the shocking figure in this speech by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Our system is teetering, poisoned by corporate lobbyists armed with checkbooks from multimillionaires. We can either let it topple, or we can save it by acting.

While I concur with Elizabeth in supporting this Amendment, I say so with the caveat that that the chances of obtaining the required 67% supermajorities in the Senate and the House, and subsequent ratification by 3/4 of the state legislatures asymptotically approach zero. The only viable solution is to replace the fascist five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD).

Cartoon:

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are – perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."  – History Place  An American Tragedy

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 166.  I’m pretty tired, because I had to be up early for an O₂ delivery.  After it came, I took an hour break and sat outside in the sun.  Before long the webbing between my toes will grow back for the Oregon winter, and I’ll forget what the sun is.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:55 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: …Dear white racists and your fragile fee-fees:

Relax, I’m white, too. Look, I can do the secret handshake and nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Lemme whitesplain something to you, fellow white men: no one buys your bullshit.

That’s because your bullshit runs like this: For historically- and presently-oppressed black people to be treated decently, they must carefully avoid doing anything that could be remotely twisted into behaving like a white racist, even if you’re squinting and looking at it from five hundred meters away in a thick fog. Because that would be racist, and therefore hypocritical, and if that’s the case, they deserve to continue to be oppressed.

Here’s the thing you thick-headed assholes totally fail to get: NO ONE DESERVES TO BE OPPRESSED, PERIOD. You can talk all you want about how it’s okay for black people to be mistreated if— but get this, there is no "if". It’s not okay, ever. That’s why we call it mistreatment. Your error is to think that it’s ever justified, and your active misdeed is to constantly search for a justification. Black people, collectively, are not guilty of anything. In fact, a basic principle of civil society is that we reject the notion of collective guilt.

Some individual black people, like individual white people, have done bad things, and in those cases, may deserve judicial punishments. But even those people don’t deserve mistreatment from some random white guy on the street. And black people in general don’t owe anyone anything as a prerequisite for being treated decently. No one does…

Click Through for the rest of this excellent piece, which should begin, "Dear Republicans."

From NY Times: The Supreme Court on Thursday added 11 cases to its docket, including ones on redistricting, judicial elections and discrimination in housing and employment.

The court, which will return to the bench on Monday, took no action on seven petitions urging it to hear cases on same-sex marriage. The cases it did agree to hear will be argued this winter and are likely to be decided by the end of June.

The court will continue to add cases in coming weeks and remains likely to accept one or more same-sex marriage cases.

Click through for more info on the cases that SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) have decided to here. They will have ample opportunities to further undermine the Constitution, democracy and human rights.

From Bill Moyers: We’re still posting a new chart on the current state of income inequality every day over the next week. Yesterday’s looked at how the top 1 percent of Americans have captured half of all income.

Today, let’s talk taxes. In the past few years, we’ve heard a lot about overtaxed “job creators” and freeloading “takers.” But consider this: As the income rates for the wealthiest have plunged, their incomes have shot up.

You can’t argue with those numbers. We need all three branches of government to BEGIN to undo the damage, and 2016 has all the earmarks of being a banner year. But first, we need to survive 2014. Get out the VOTE!!

Cartoon:

I was nine at the time, but I knew to be afraid from the way my family and neighbors reacted to the news.