TomCat

Open Thread–5/15/2014

 Posted by at 12:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
May 152014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, waiting for a grocery delivery to arrive from Store to Door (highly recommended), and enjoying the breezes it takes to be a real cool cat. :-)  Wooo Hooo!  Day 24.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:47).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: What happens when eight million people sign up for private insurance under Obamacare and millions more get coverage under the law’s Medicaid expansion? This:

House Republicans have no scheduled votes or hearings on ObamaCare, signaling a shift in the party’s strategy as the White House rides a wave of good news on the law.  

Not a single House committee has announced plans to attack the healthcare law in the coming weeks, and only one panel of jurisdiction commented to The Hill despite repeated inquiries.

GOP campaign committees also declined to say whether they will launch any new efforts on the law.

But according to Senate Republicans, the notion that Republicans are running from their attacks on Obamacare is a load of bunk:

“There is absolutely zero evidence that any Republican is talking about ObamaCare less,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen in a statement.

Oh yeah? Well, then what do you call this?

0515benghaziobamacare

Whatever you call it, I call it Republicans using their BS in Bullshitology!

From Dallas Morning News: The Wendy Davis campaign is focusing on opponent Greg Abbott’s role as an overseer of the scandal-marred Texas cancer-research agency in a new, strongly worded line of attack. Millions of dollars earmarked for cancer research went to Abbott’s political donors.

 

Texas suffers from Republican Reich Rule. Wendy Davis for Governor!

From Think Progress: “[O]ur right to the free exercise of religion is co-equal to our right to life, [pseudo-Christian delinked]” according to the campaign website of Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who won his party’s nomination to the United States Senate on Tuesday. Nebraska is a solid red state that preferred Romney to Obama by a massive 21 point margin in 2012, so Sasse is now all but certain to succeed retiring Sen. Mike Johanns (R) this November. If he does, Sasse promises to promote an almost anarchistic vision of religious liberty as a member of the Senate. According to Sasse’s website, “[g]overnment cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances. [pseudo-Christian delinked]”

This Republican is claiming at any Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian has the right to break any law at any time. He is wrong. The right to freedom of exercise of Religion does NOT extend to the violation of the Constitutional rights of another. If obeying the law runs counter to his beliefs, and he disobeys, that is civil disobedience, a practice I have engaged in myself. However, part of civil disobedience is facing whatever legal consequences that arise from that act. This extremist is not only a wing-nut. He is also, in all probability, the next US Senator from Nebraska.

Cartoon:

0515Cartoon

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Personal Update–5/14/2014

 Posted by at 12:49 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 142014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow.  I had to rearrange furniture to give the maintenance man a clear path to the window.  That blocked my access to my computer.  I figured I’d be able to get to it by midday.  I skipped my morning sleep to let the maintenance man in.  Unfortunately, his previous stop took longer than expected, and he did not get here until mid afternoon.  He installed the air conditioner.  The trim that came with it would not work with the platforms they use to make sure an A/C doesn’t fall on a downtown pedestrian’s head.  He had to jury rig the enclosure, so the installation looks tacky, but is very efficient.  I rearranged my furniture and went to bed, so there was no time to do research for articles for tomorrow.  Day 23.  Back to today’s serious activity (see graphic).

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:20 (average 4:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

0514TCAC

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How to Fight Inequality

 Posted by at 12:41 am  Politics
May 132014
 

Inequality is the stock in trade for the Reich on the right, that is, the Republican Reich.  They represent billionaires, high end millionaires, and corporate criminals.  They want to create even more inequality.  Conversely, fighting inequality is the stock in trade of the Reich on the left, that is, Robert Reich.

0513Wall-Street-Bull

…There is no single solution for reversing widening inequality. Thomas Piketty’s monumental book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” paints a troubling picture of societies dominated by a comparative few, whose cumulative wealth and unearned income overshadow the majority who rely on jobs and earned income. But our future is not set in stone, and Piketty’s description of past and current trends need not determine our path in the future. Here are ten initiatives that could reverse the trends described above:

1) Make work pay. The fastest-growing categories of work are retail, restaurant (including fast food), hospital (especially orderlies and staff), hotel, childcare and eldercare. But these jobs tend to pay very little. A first step toward making work pay is to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, pegging it to inflation; abolish the tipped minimum wage; and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. No American who works full time should be in poverty.

2) Unionize low-wage workers. The rise and fall of the American middle class correlates almost exactly with the rise and fall of private-sector unions, because unions gave the middle class the bargaining power it needed to secure a fair share of the gains from economic growth. We need to reinvigorate unions, beginning with low-wage service occupations that are sheltered from global competition and from labor-replacing technologies. Lower-wage Americans deserve more bargaining power.

3) Invest in education. This investment should extend from early childhood through world-class primary and secondary schools, affordable public higher education, good technical education and lifelong learning. Education should not be thought of as a private investment; it is a public good that helps both individuals and the economy. Yet for too many Americans, high-quality education is unaffordable and unattainable. Every American should have an equal opportunity to make the most of herself or himself. High-quality education should be freely available to all, starting at the age of 3 and extending through four years of university or technical education… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Robert Reich>

This is only three of ten steps in how to combat inequality from Republican warfare against 99% of Americans. His ten steps are only a small part of an extensive article on inequality that breaks the problem down so precisely that even Tea Baggers could understand it, if the were willing to think for themselves. Information you can’t afford to miss. Please click through.  Once again the Reich on the left is right.

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Open Thread–5/13/2014

 Posted by at 12:41 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 132014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, and once again, tomorrow is almost here.  The heat wave arrived a day early, and although 80° is not suffering weather, it’s just warm enough to interfere with sleep.  The rest of the week will be worse with temperatures 90°s, but fortunately, maintenance will be installing my A/C by 11:00 AM.  Then I can be one cool cat and catch up on sleep.  Day 22.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Everywhere you look these days, you see Marxism on the rise. Well, O.K., maybe you don’t — but conservatives do. If you so much as mention income inequality, you’ll be denounced as the second coming of Joseph Stalin; Rick Santorum has declared that any use of the word “class” is “Marxism talk.” In the right’s eyes, sinister motives lurk everywhere — for example, George Will says the only reason progressives favor trains is their goal of “diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.”

So it goes without saying that Obamacare, based on ideas originally developed at the Heritage Foundation, is a Marxist scheme — why, requiring that people purchase insurance is practically the same as sending them to gulags.

And just wait until the Environmental Protection Agency announces rules intended to slow the pace of climate change.

Until now, the right’s climate craziness has mainly been focused on attacking the science. And it has been quite a spectacle: At this point almost all card-carrying conservatives endorse the view that climate change is a gigantic hoax, that thousands of research papers showing a warming planet — 97 percent of the literature — are the product of a vast international conspiracy. But as the Obama administration moves toward actually doing something based on that science, crazy climate economics will come into its own.

Paul Krugman has nailed InsaniTEA again. Click through for a great editorial.

From Upworthy: Unless You’re Ridiculously Wealthy, I Have A Feeling This Graph Might Make You Pretty Angry

Have your wages gone up in the past few years? Unless you’re really loaded, chances are they have not. So let’s take a look at how exactly they have been changing.

Click through for data and an interactive graph that demonstrates the effects of the Republican War on the Poor and Middle classes.

From The New Yorker: After claiming on Sunday that human activity does not cause climate change, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) suddenly found his ignorance credentials under attack by potential rivals for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.

“Now that Marco’s thinking of running for President, he doesn’t believe in climate change,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry. “To those of us with long track records of ignorance on this issue, he seems a little late to the rodeo.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) echoed Gov. Perry’s criticism, calling Rubio a “dummy-come-lately” on climate change.

“At the end of the day, I have faith that Republican voters can tell the difference between someone who’s truly uninformed and someone who’s just faking it,” he said.

Republicans always demand more than maximum ignorance.

Cartoon:

0513Cartoon

Texas was still fighting the Civil War a month after everyone else had stopped.

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Rachel on Witch Hunts

 Posted by at 12:02 am  Politics
May 122014
 

Republicans get very strange, when it comes to witches.  They seem to think that devil is hard at work through broomstick riding crones.  They are so over the top on the subject that the only thing anyone will ever remember about the candidacy of Christine O’Dingbat was her claim not to be one.  Rachel Maddow had some fun with the Great Benghazi Witch Hunt, before getting serious.

0511OdingbatRep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) said the following on the House floor yesterday, “[Democrats] would blame our insistence upon getting the truth as a political ‘witch hunt.’ Well, Mr. Speaker, that must mean that there’s a witch somewhere.”

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has a bit of fun with the inanity that is otherwise known as Pete Sessions. Critics have charged the announced Select Committee on Benghazi will amount to nothing more than a partisan ‘ witch hunt’. With some background on the Salem witch hunts from the 17th century, before going back even further with a sketch from Monty Python’s "Holy Grail" where villagers accuse a woman of witchcraft. Sessions isn’t just some rank-and-file knucklehead either, but was once the chairman of the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee)… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

This video is the same content as the clip embedded in the article, but it’s in a format that can be viewed internationally.

I think Nancy Pelosi was wrong to boycott the Republican Katrina Cover-up Committee in 2005. The problem with that tactic is that the mainstream media tends to parrot Republican lies, without challenge, so the truth is never heard. I think that attending the committee is a better solution, as the media tends to cover the conflict, when Democrats challenge Republican lies, and it gives us access to subpoenaed materials that support the truth, which Republicans would otherwise bury. However appointing just one or two strong progressive Democrats (no DINOs) to that committee gives us the needed "in your face" presence, and document access. It also serves as protest and minimizes time wasted by having five in a powerless role.

Finally, when Rachel said “there is no witch”, I trust that she meant the Satanist broom-riding set and intended no disrespect to people of the Wiccan faith.  Nor do I.

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Open Thread–5/12/2014

 Posted by at 12:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
May 122014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, and I’m rushing.  Tomorrow is almost here.  I have been busy with housework and could not sleep.  Fortunately I did my research early this morning.  Day 21.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The huge Kelvin wave that formed in the Pacific a while back, and may bring us a big El Nino, is now reaching the surface.  It’s huge, and it’s one of the warmest ever recorded.  Here’s the latest from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center

0512Wave

The vertical scale is the depth of this pool of water, while the horizontal scale is the longitudinal location of the pool.  A back of the envelope calculation shows that the pool is roughly 5500 miles wide!  It seems reasonable to assume that water this warm and this amount of it, is going to dump a lot of heat into the atmosphere, and the resulting weather may not be very pretty for some people.

This may well be the source of the unseasonably hot weather I’m getting this Spring. Such events used to be less common and less intense.

From NY Times: Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has had a tough month.

Two of his fellow commissioners this week said he should delay introducing a new set of net neutrality rules, which he had scheduled for May 15.

A group of 11 United States Senators told him Friday that rules allowing companies to pay an Internet service provider for express-lane access to consumers, as the rules are widely expected to do, would violate the principle of an open Internet.

And last week, a finger-wagging, tough-talking speech he gave to cable television executives received a lukewarm response and engendered questions about what some listeners perceived as a “father knows best” tone.

Mr. Wheeler has vowed to forge ahead.

Late Friday, the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation released a letter from Mr. Wheeler, in which he said that he would ask for public input on whether to classify broadband Internet service as a sort of public utility, a route that many consumer advocacy groups have pushed…

Could it be that Wheeler designed a plan in compliance with a Republican court order to allow a corporate "fast lane" with the intent of stimulating opposition to that plan to use as a rationale for reclassification under Title II? Consider that Wheeler has supported Net Neutrality in the past. When the new rules are released, we must respond forcefully and often.

From Alternet: Charles Krauthammer continues the assault on science, calling it superstition.

Hey, Fox News managed to find another crazy, irresponsible idiot disguised as a sentient being to debunk facts and science: good old Charles Krauthammer. He said on Tuesday that the belief in global climate change is mere “superstition” akin to the “rain dance of Native Americans.”

Why would he say such a thing? Such a provably wrong thing? We have no idea. It could be wishful thinking. Sure, we wish this whole climate change catastrophe would go away, and that we could wake up from it like a bad dream. We wish all these meanie scientists conducting real research based on actual facts would just stop discovering that the news is so very, very bad, and bullying us about it.

Krauthammer took his point a little farther, about science actually being superstition. Yah, and the other way around, too. Up is down Charles. Black is white. No is yes. “It’s always a result of what is ultimately what we’re talking about here, human sin with pollution of carbon. It’s the oldest superstition around. It was in the Old Testament, it’s in the rain dance of Native Americans — if you sin, the skies will not cooperate.”

Still more crazy talk from Chuckie Kraut:

“Ninety-nine percent of physicists were convinced that space and time are fixed, until Einstein working in a patent office wrote a paper in which he showed that they are not,” Krauthammer said. “I’m not impressed by numbers, I’m not impressed by consensus.”

What does impress you Charles? On second thought, maybe don’t answer that.

This is just one of eight most wacko Republicans in their War on Science from last week alone. Click through for the other seven. Note that Krauthammer was not satisfied just to attack science. To the delight of the Republican Reichsministry of propaganda, Faux Noise, he also included a racist attack against Native American spiritual tradition. In sharp contrast, authentic Christian respect others’ beliefs.

Cartoon:

0512Cartoon

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Open Thread–5/11/2014

 Posted by at 12:19 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
May 112014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow.  My Air conditioner arrived last night.  I spent this morning cleaning and preparing the area where it will be installed, so I got a late start on research.  They will install it on Monday or Tuesday, and that’s just in time, because Wednesday is forecast to be a another unseasonal scorcher.  Day 20.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:39 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Right Wing Watch: Family Research Council President Tony Perkins implied today that Christians who support gay rights don’t have the same religious rights as conservative Christians because “true religious freedom” only applies to “orthodox religious viewpoints.”

Last month, a group of North Carolina ministers and same-sex couples, along with the United Church of Christ denomination, filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The clergy argue that because of a law that makes it a misdemeanor for a member of the clergy to perform a marriage ceremony without a state license, the same-sex marriage ban violates the religious rights of clergy who wish to perform such ceremonies.

When a caller on Monday’s edition of “Washington Watch” [pseudo-Christians delinked] asked Perkins about his views on the case, Perkins replied that the ministers don’t have the same religious rights as others because they aren’t real Christians and therefore aren’t protected by the “true religious freedoms” given to Christians. [emphasis added]

There you have it straight from the horse’s ass’s mouth. Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians hold that the freedom of religion guaranteed in the First Amendment is for them only.

From Daily Kos: Of course there was going to be opposition to creating the first national women’s history museum. Now close your eyes and ask yourself this question—who do you suppose had the dumbest opposition to such a thing?

"I rise today in opposition to this bill, because I believe ultimately this museum that will be built on the National Mall, on federal land, will enshrine the radical feminist movement that stands against the pro-life movement, the pro-family movement, and pro-traditional marriage movement," [Rep. Michele Bachmann] said on the House floor Wednesday ahead of a vote on the bill.

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. That’s why we’re gonna miss Michele Bachmann when she’s gone.

When Batshit B is gone, we shall have lost a wondrous source of material for humor. But I can live with the loss. 😉

From The New Yorker: Millions of unemployed Americans who have fruitlessly been looking for work for months are determined that Congress get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi, a new poll indicates.

According to the survey, job-seeking Americans hope that Congress will eventually do something about job creation, but they are adamant that it hold new hearings about Benghazi first.

By a wide majority, respondents to the poll “strongly agreed” with the statement “I would really like to find a job, but not if it in any way distracts Congress from my No. 1 concern: finding out what really happened in Benghazi.”

The problem here is that Republicans will think Andy is serious.

Cartoon:

0511Cartoon

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