Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, and doing so very early, because I doubt there will be enough left of me to do so, when I return from the new place.  I’m in moving mayhem minimal mode, but I do have one Short Take.  Hugs to all.

Update:  This is so late, because last night I came down with the galloping grunge that has been making the rounds here.  I feel like crap… literally.  I may disappear for a day or two.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:39 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Take:

From The New Yorker: Republican critics of Obamacare rose up in anger today, claiming that, after two months of fixes, the healthcare.gov Web site is now “unacceptably fast.”

Leading the howls of protest was the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who accused President Obama of designing a Web site that operates at a “blistering, breakneck speed.”

“With pages loading in milliseconds, this Web site is insuring people before they know what hit them,” Rep. Issa charged. “Clearly, this is what the President and his team had in mind.”

Additionally, Rep. Issa said, at such high speeds “it is questionable whether this Web site is even safe for consumers to use, particularly the elderly.”

LOL Andy! I wouldn't put it past them!

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Note how Republicans strive to block regulations to protect the health and safety of both workers and communities.

I’m writing for tomorrow and waiting for the game to start.  Guitar man major crashed, so I slept almost around the clock.  There may be nothing at all for Tuesday, because I will be at the new place tomorrow working to prepare it.  Hugs to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:33 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

Short Takes:

From TPM: Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that the Iran deal throws nuclear agreements the U.S. has made with other countries "into disarray."

"Their ability to enrich really throws into disarray … all the other agreements that we’re negotiating around the world — with Vietnam, with South Korea …" Corker said on CBS’s "Face the Nation." "I think it throws the proliferation issue into disarray also."

Corker said that by allowing Iran to continue to enrich uranium while a final deal is reached, the U.S. is violating non-proliferation standards set by the UN Security Council.

Corker is misrepresenting the deal.  Anyway, how could these standards be in any more disarray than they already are from nukes in the possession of India, Israel, and Pakistan, not to mention North Korea.

From Think Progress: The White House announced on Sunday morning that it has met its “goal” of ensuring that HealthCare.gov “will work smoothly for the vast majority of users,” noting that the beleaguered site can now accommodate 50,000 concurrent users and 800,000 consumers throughout the day. As a result, close to 80 percent of users can now enroll online, which is up from 30 percent in October.

You can be sure the media will focus on the few, who the site was never designed to help, beyond referring them to humans.

From Alternet: Birther preacher Manning: Obama had mother of his lovechild killed.

Despite the Pope’s apparent sanity, there was still plenty of lunacy in the right-wing pulpit this week. Take birther preacher (yes, that’s a category) Rev. James David Manning, pastor of Atlah World Missionary Church, who leveled this bizarre accusation: Remember the apparently mentally ill woman who was shot and killed after she tried to ram her car into a barrier outside the White House in October? Her name was Miriam Carey, and that was no random, tragic incident. According to Manning, that woman was the mother of Barack Obama’s illegitimate child.

The proof, says the good reverend—who also believes Michelle Obama was born a man and that the president was born in Kenya—will come when Miriam Carey’s young child is given a paternity test. Just to make extra sure.

While the incident is being investigated, neither the family nor their attorney has suggested this conspiracy. Their denial of the conspiracy, says Manning, is just more proof that Obama had his secret baby mama killed.

That’s the wonderful thing about conspiracy theories. Everything proves them right.

This is just one of ten outrageous and crazy statements by Republicans in the last week alone. Click through for the other nine.

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43 years later Republicans are still trying to stop it to enable criminal corporate polluters.

I’m writing for tomorrow and feel a little less exhausted than I did yesterday.  Guitar man crashed for a few hours, and even though they blasted the heat again, I slept through it.  I woke up drenched in sweat, but at least I got almost four uninterrupted hours.  I’m still in highly abbreviated mode, and who knows what tomorrow will bring, but today I can include some Short Takes.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:05 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In Eric Cantor’s February 2013 speech, he said he wanted to propose Federal Law that would end overtime pay for hourly workers.  Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, mandates that certain workers get paid "time + 1/2" for overtime work.  Eric Cantor wants to eliminate that law.  Because — ya know — workers not getting paid for overtime hours worked out so good for workers before FDR enacted that Law.

     Eric Cantor’s "end of overtime pay for workers" that he talked about in his February speech was overshadowed, in part, by the public whining Cantor did bitching that ‘Obama gave his speech at the same time as me … wah, wah, wah.’

     In this week’s New Yorker Magazine, Ryan Lizza wrote an excellent article titled: "Can Eric Cantor, the Republican Majority Leader, redeem his party and himself?" in which Lizza reminded readers that Eric Cantor wants to end the Federal law that mandates certain workers get paid overtime for the extra hours they labor.

This assault in Republican class warfare would mean nothing less than the end to the 40 hour work week, allowing vulture capitalists to overwork more people, until they are used up, and discard them.

From NY Times: The law establishing Obamacare was officially titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And the “affordable” bit wasn’t just about subsidizing premiums. It was also supposed to be about “bending the curve” — slowing the seemingly inexorable rise in health costs.

Much of the Beltway establishment scoffed at the promise of cost savings. The prevalent attitude in Washington is that reform isn’t real unless the little people suffer; serious savings are supposed to come from things like raising the Medicare age (which the Congressional Budget Office recently concluded would, in fact, hardly save any money) and throwing millions of Americans off Medicaid. True, a 2011 letter signed by hundreds of health and labor economists pointed out that “the Affordable Care Act contains essentially every cost-containment provision policy analysts have considered effective in reducing the rate of medical spending.” But such expert views were largely ignored.

So, how’s it going? The health exchanges are off to a famously rocky start, but many, though by no means all, of the cost-control measures have already kicked in. Has the curve been bent?

The answer, amazingly, is yes. In fact, the slowdown in health costs has been dramatic.

Click through for the rest of this excellent Paul Krugman editorial that explains this truth, which most broadcast media opts to ignore.

From Think Progress: Giant retailers kicked off the Black Friday sales early this year, with many stores staying open on Thanksgiving Day. Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations, told CNN that the stores attracted more than 22 million shoppers on Thursday and reported few violent altercations. “By and large there were a few small incidents but we were really really pleased with how the event went last night,” he said on CNN’s New Day.

But across the country, shoppers confronted each other with knives and guns, fighting for merchandise both inside and outside the stores. Here is a sampling of the worst of Black Friday

This article contains several videos of sheeple committing TEAbuggery, squabbling over the stuff for which they seem to have sold their souls. Click through. Next year, I bet Republicans promote Open Carry holiday shopping, so nobody can come between them and 2nd Amendment right to their stuff. I’m proud that, despite my legitimate need to shop for the necessities of moving, I’m saying NO to this Republican circus of greed.

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