Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling tired, because it’s been a busy day.  My stovetop percolator arrived, and I must say, even though it’s not yet “broken in”, brewed coffee is far better than dripped.  I’ll need to get more tubing, though, because running an IV from the stovetop is further than from the countertop.  Store to Door delivered groceries, so I had to clean first.  It’s a beautiful 62° day, so I took an hour to go out and cat-bask in the sunshine.  I should probably go lazy, but the tomorrow’s lead article just needs doing too much.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:40).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: FL-13: After an intensely hard-fought special election where total spending likely topped $13 million, Republican David Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink by a margin of 48.4 percent to 46.6 percent in Florida’s 13th Congressional District on Tuesday night, holding the seat for the GOP. Libertarian Lucas Overby ended up with 4.8 percent of the vote. Even though Barack Obama narrowly carried the district in 2012 by about 1.5 points, it appears Sink couldn’t overcome the troubling tendency for key chunks of the Democratic electorate to stay home during non-presidential elections.

Republicans will crow that unhappiness with Obamacare, which was the focus of much of their advertising, led to Sink’s undoing, and it’s possible those attacks provided Jolly’s winning margin—but of course, with such a tight outcome, anything could have been responsible, such as Sink’s personal flaws as a candidate. And importantly, the November electorate will likely be less Republican, on a relative basis, than you’d find in a March special election, so Democrats should likewise exercise caution before panicking that the Affordable Care Act spells doom.

Of course, a win is still a win, but there’s a constant Beltway temptation to read far too much into a single special election. Close races also make for poor object lessons, as luck tends to play an outsize role, much like in a baseball game decided by a single run. But at the same time, even if this election augurs nothing for November, this was still very much the sort of district that Democrats need to capture in order to have a shot at some day taking back the House.

Voters, if you vote for the Democrat, you’re voting for the Democrat. If you vote for the Republican, you’re voting for the Republican. If you vote for a third party, you’re voting for the Republican. If you do not vote, you’re voting for the Republican. All the people of FL – 13 will now be punished for the stupidity, apathy, and laziness of their district. The ones who stayed home deserve it most of all.

From The New Yorker: In a preview of what promises to be a heated race for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2016, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) head-butted his rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on the floor of the United States Senate this morning.

The melee “came without warning,” one observer said, as Sen. Paul took to the well of the Senate to give a speech recommending a strong but measured response to the crisis in Ukraine.

Almost immediately, a furious and beet-red Sen. Cruz began heckling Sen. Paul, calling him a “Kentucky-fried Communist” and demanding that he “apologize to Ronald Reagan this very instant.”

Sen. Paul seemed to ignore the heckling at first, but as Sen. Cruz’s taunts descended into a stream of profane name-calling, the Kentuckian leapt from the well of the Senate and began throttling Sen. Cruz before administering the decisive head-butt.

Andy has reminded me of Mad Magazine’s scenes we’d love to see.

From Think Progress: The largest American multinational companies parked an additional $206 billion of profits in offshore accounts last year, according to Bloomberg, bringing the total amount of profits stashed where U.S. tax officials can’t touch them up to about two trillion dollars.

The 307 companies that Bloomberg examined now hold a combined $1.95 trillion offshore, allowing them to avoid paying U.S. taxes on those earnings. The majority of the total is concentrated in just a few corporate hands. The largest 22 of those companies hold more offshore than the other 285 combined.

General Electric leads the pack, with $110 billion held offshore. Tech companies like Microsoft ($76.4 billion), Apple ($54.4 billion), IBM ($52.3 billion), and Google ($38.9 billion) also dominate, along with drug companies like Pfizer ($69 billion) and Merck ($57.1). The tech giants have drastically accelerated their offshore holdings in recent years, with Microsoft and Google more than doubling and Apple more than quadrupling offshore profit holdings from 2010 to 2013.

I’d say it’s time for an offshore profits penalty of 90%. That would move those funds onshore in VERY short order!!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, and I’m feeling most unhappy, because my bad leg acted up, and I could not go for my volunteer meeting in prison, because I cannot handle the stairs today.  The one plus is that I’m here to write for you.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:02 (average 7:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: We all know the rainforest is being destroyed. Heck, the entire planet’s in distress! But is there really anything we can do about it? Actually, yes.

I can’t speak for or against the credibility of "rainforest certified", so I leave that to those of you who are in the know, but I love this ad for them.

From Daily Kos: The extent to which Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s office worked with legislators to tweak the language of "religious liberty" bill SB 1062 shows, according to Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s office, nothing at all. To the rest of us it’s another reminder of just how close Arizona’s newest legislative fiasco came to becoming a state reality.

Documents obtained by Capitol Media Services show gubernatorial counsel Joe Sciarrotta and adviser Michael Hunter met with staffers from the Center for Arizona Policy as early as January about the legislation. The documents, mainly e-mail exchanges before and after meetings, show the alterations made in the legislation at the behest of the Brewer advisers. […]

“But the intent of the meetings, the purpose of the meetings, was to thoroughly vet the language, address their concerns, and make changes in the language pursuant to their concerns,” [CAP President Cathi Herrod] said. She said her organization addressed every concern raised by Hunter and Sciarrotta with the idea that this year’s version would not meet the same fate as a similar bill Brewer vetoed last year.

There it is. The Brewerstan Death Angel, vetoed this bill only because the Republican Party could not get away with it. Her claim to object to the content was a lie, because it was content that she had helped to formulate.

From NY Times: Democrats have for too long been passive in the face of the vast amounts of corporate money, most of it secret, that are being spent to evict them from office and dismantle their policies. By far the largest voice in many of this year’s political races, for example, has been that of the Koch brothers, who have spent tens of millions of dollars peddling phony stories about the impact of health care reform, all in order to put Republicans in control of the Senate after the November elections.

Now Democrats are starting to fight back, deciding they should at least try to counter the tycoons with some low-cost speech of their own. Democrats may never have the same resources at their disposal — no party should — but they can use their political pulpits to stand up for a few basic principles, including the importance of widespread health-insurance coverage, environmental protection and safety-net programs.

Corporations are NOT people!! Money is NOT speech!! Therefore, we must use people to trump corporations and speech to trump money!!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling angry, because my fourth automatic drip coffee maker in under a year died last night.  I’ve had it.  I’m going back to an old fashioned manual percolator, but until it arrives on Tuesday, I have to hand-drip water through the maker’s filtration system.  NOT fun!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:14 (average 6:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: A majority of small business owners want to see the minimum wage raised to $10.10 an hour and then tied to inflation, according to a new poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Small Business Majority. Not only did 57 percent of small business owners say they think the minimum wage should be raised, but 61 percent of those in the typically low-wage retail and restaurant industries agreed.

Aside from basic morality, these business owners have good reasons for supporting a minimum wage increase:

More than half of small business owners (52%) agree with this statement: “Increasing the minimum wage would be good for small businesses. It means people will have a higher percentage of their income to spend on goods and services and it is proven that low-wage earners tend to spend money at local businesses who will be able to grow and hire new workers.” What’s more, more than one-third (35%) say raising the minimum wage would help make their business more competitive because business competitors won’t be able to undercut them on labor costs.

Since 82 percent of those surveyed said they pay all of their employees more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the concerns about being undercut by competitors could be significant.

The Republicans falsely claim that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs are based solely on their desire to subsidize 0.1% billionaires with YOUR tax dollars.

From Alternet: Megyn Kelly scoffs at atheist’s claim that the cross is a religious symbol.

Somebody was not paying proper attention in Sunday school, and has been very, very naughty. We’re talking to you, Megyn.

There is a steel beam cross in the center of the World Trade Center memorial. It was found in the wreckage and seen as a miracle by some Christians. The activist group American Atheists are suing to have the cross removed, claiming that as an inherently religious symbol, it has no place in a publicly funded monument. They point out that people of multiple faiths, and even those without faith at all, died in the disaster.

“The cross is Christian," said David Silverman of the American Atheists during his appearance on the Kelly Files. "It was installed in a religious service on consecrated ground, which makes it a working shrine on public land in the World Trade Center, and we think the atheists who also died on 9/11, and the Muslims and the Jews, should all have their equal presence,”

Nope, Megyn Kelly said. The cross is not religious. It’s just a historical artifact. Nothing Christian about it. Tough luck, atheists, Jews and Muslims.

Got it, the cross is not Christian. Next week: the Bible, not a book.

Watch the entire interview posted online by Cruciefiction.

This is one of eight statements made by Republican colossal jackasses in just the last week alone. Click through for the other seven.

From Bill Moyers: As the tea party celebrates its fifth birthday this month, Ian Haney López, author of Dog Whistle Politics, talks to Bill about how the movement has used strategic racism to get voters to the polls.

I have to agree to a great extent, with the caveat that sheeple, who commit TEAbuggery, do so because they are too lazy and/or fearful to do their own thinking.

Cartoon:

He had more to say, but the operator cut in and demanded $2.65 for the next three minutes. 😉