Yesterday was relatively easy. PT (Becky) had me see Wow many times I can stand from a sitting position, with no rest in between. She stopped me at eight, but I could have continued. She also had me practice stand-pivot transfers, rotating toward George, the more difficult direction. I did not see OT (Courtney).
Short Takes:
From Media Matters: Right-wing radio host Alex Jones is suggesting that a mass shooting that claimed at least 14 lives in San Bernardino, California “appears to be geared to elicit widespread public outrage.” Jones pushed the conspiracy theory only a few hours after an interview with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, where the candidate praised Jones’ “amazing” reputation.
Jones and his website frequently promote far right-wing conspiracy theories arguing that high-profile mass shootings and other tragic events are staged by the government. He has claimed that both the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting and Aurora, Colorado, movie theater mass shooting were “staged.”
The Hairball and Jones are a perfect diabolical match.
From NY Times: While the nation suffered through the shock of another bloody massacre, on Thursday every Senate Republican except Mark Kirk of Illinois voted against legislation to prevent people on the F.B.I.’s consolidated terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns or explosives.
The measure has been introduced repeatedly since 2007. The Government Accountability Office has documented that over years of congressional blockage, hundreds of suspected terrorists on the watchlist bought guns.
Republicans are fighting to preserve gun manufacturers’ profits derived from sales to terrorists.
Cartoon:
A day of wailing and gnashing of teeth for today’s Republicans.
Another day, another dollar they say. TGIF!!! I have another teaching session and I may have another student, this time a paying student. I went into my local Persian market and greeted the clerk in Persian (Farsi). That started a short conversation. One thing lead to another. It may not pan out, but I guess my English accent isn't too bad for the few words and phrases I know.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:40 (average 6:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
CBC — Geoff Regan has been elected House of Commons Speaker at the opening of a new Parliament following the general election on Oct. 19 that saw the Liberals win a majority government.
Members of Parliament each cast a secret ballot on Thursday ranking the candidates by order of preference in their first act of the new Parliament.
This my friends is how the Speaker of the House of Commons is elected in Canada versus the rancorous process in the US which we witnessed not long ago. Watch the video to see some good natured fun from Geoff Regan, Rona Ambrose (interim leader of the Conservative Party) and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In the video as part of the story, Trudeau actually leads Regan for a moment by his tie. You can see more about the candidates and the Speaker's role in this CBC article.
NY Times — Donald L. Blankenship, a titan of the nation’s coal industry whose approach to business was scrutinized and scorned after 29 workers were killed at the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010, was convicted Thursday of a federal charge of conspiring to violate mine safety standards, part of a case that emerged after the accident, the deadliest in mining in the United States in decades.
The verdict reached by a federal jury here made Mr. Blankenship, 65, the most prominent American coal executive ever to be convicted of a charge connected to the deaths of miners. He had been accused of conspiring to violate mine safety regulations, as well as of deceiving investors and regulators; prosecutors secured a conviction on only one of the three charges. Mr. Blankenship was acquitted of making false statements and securities fraud. He faces a maximum of one year in prison on the misdemeanor conspiracy charge.
On 05/10/2015, I posted the article The Fall of King Coalwhich documented the abuses of Don Blankenship, a coal industry executive of Massey Energy. Blankenship went on trial 01/10/2015 and today was acquitted of 2 of 3 charges. Those charges could have meant 30 years in prison. Instead, he was convicted of the misdemeanor conspiracy charge and could get a 1 year prison term. His lawyer will appeal the decision against this well connected Republican. Were I a member of the family of anyone of the miners killed at the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in 2010, I would be very angry. Was justice done? I don't think so, but you decide.
Huffington Post — The Republican-controlled Senate voted on Thursday to demolish President Barack Obama's signature health care law and block Planned Parenthood's federal money, spurring a veto fight the GOP knows it will lose but believes will delight conservative voters in next year's elections.
Congress has voted dozens of times to repeal all or parts of the 2010 statute. If the House as expected sends the Senate bill to Obama, the measure will become the first of its kind to reach the White House and be vetoed, an act Republicans say will highlight GOP priorities for voters.
"It's defined by failure," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of the law, blaming it for rising medical costs and citing problems encountered by Kentuckians. "It's punctuated with hopelessness. And the scale of its many broken promises is matched only by the scale of its defenders' rigid and unfeeling responses to them."
You really have to "love" those Republican legislators. I certainly hope their working class and middle class base recognise the disservice that the party is doing to them.
Ah, today that dreaded task . . . laundry! Yesterday, I came downstairs to a mess made through the night by my 3 furballs. I wonder what today will be like? Their shenanigans blocked access to the laundry. We'll see as soon as I am finished here.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:08 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
The Nation — In common with the other big rightward swerves by the Roberts Court, the 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller was an aggressive exercise in mendacity. By upending the well-established meaning of the Second Amendment, the Court made the country less safe and less free. It did this under the guise of a neutral and principled “originalism” that looks to the text as it was first understood back in 1791 by the amendment’s drafters and their contemporaries. …
In the process, the conservative justices engaged in an unsubtle brand of outcome-oriented judicial activism and “living constitutionalism” that they claim to abhor—an irony noted by a host of devoted Supreme Court watchers across the ideological spectrum. Richard Posner, the prominent Reagan-appointed federal appellate judge and prolific commentator on legal and economic issues, derided Scalia’s flawed approach as “faux originalism” and a “snow job.”
A "snow job" is certainly an understatement especially in light of the two mass shootings of 02/12/2015. So according to SCROTUS, the original intent of the 2nd amendment was to give the individual the "right to bear arms" and has nothing to do with a militia (army). If that is the case, then what can the US do to curb the rampant gun violence that exists today? As of today, there have been 355 mass shootings, a mass shooting being defined as an incident with four or more deaths or woundings. That is more than one per day. A very sad commentary on a nation that is supposed to be enlightened.
Alternet — The richest Americans increasingly are taking over the levers of power and shaping the political debate, despite opposing views held by a majority of Americans, a new and unprecedented academic study of the top 1 percent has confirmed.
The super-rich are more politically active than average Americans, financing and contacting elected officials and knowing many on a first-name basis. Their agenda, which is often cited by public officials across the country, emphasizes private profit-making and is skeptical of almost every public program to address economic inequality, thestudy by Chicago-based university researchers found. The top 1 percent's social agenda, while “more liberal than others on religious and moral issues, including abortion, gay rights, and prayer in school,” is still “much more conservative than the non-affluent on issues of taxes, economic regulation, and social welfare,” the researchers found.
Put another way, today’s top 1 percent generally do not believe the longtime conservative line that a rising economic tide will lift all Americans, but have a darker view in which one’s fate is tied to the survival of the fittest. They consider climate change a non-issue and most would cut federal and state safety nets and anti-poverty programs, shift taxpayer dollars into privatized education and do little to ensure access to higher education.
Click through to see the eight points gleaned from the report "Democracy and The Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans". I doubt all of this is a surprise. But doing something about it will take a lot of hard work. As it is, I think the US is a democracy in name only. With the wealthy having so much political power, the US is a plutocracy.
Washington Post — The new argument, which Piketty spelled out recently in the French newspaper Le Monde, is this: Inequality is a major driver of Middle Eastern terrorism, including the Islamic State attacks on Paris earlier this month — and Western nations have themselves largely to blame for that inequality.
Piketty writes that the Middle East's political and social system has been made fragile by the high concentration of oil wealth into a few countries with relatively little population. If you look at the region between Egypt and Iran — which includes Syria — you find several oil monarchies controlling between 60 and 70 percent of wealth, while housing just a bit more than 10 percent of the 300 million people living in that area. (Piketty does not specify which countries he's talking about, but judging from a study he co-authored last year on Middle East inequality, it appears he means Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Bahrain and Oman. By his numbers, they accounted for 16 percent of the region's population in 2012 and almost 60 percent of its gross domestic product.)
Click through for the rest of this interesting article. Piketty definitely has a point, especially if his figures can be fully substantiated.
Yesterday I had a difficult day. PT was working me on fall recovery techniques. I was able to get back up to stationary objects, but when I tried a one person assist from ground to wheelchair, I found that I lack the physical strength to lift myself without being able to support more weight with my arms. I tried so hard that I strained the knee on my good leg in the process, but it’s almost better today.
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: According to his 2nd ex-wife Robert Luis Dear, the accused Colorado Planned Parenthood murderer, was a violently abusive extreme right-wing neo-Christian anti-abortion zealot end-timer who after committing an act of rape believed every thing vile he did would ultimately be “forgiven” by God.
Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian politicians and pundits, the blood is on your hands!
From NY Times: …Democrats, including President Obama, emphasize the need to address America’s problems with guns. Republicans talk about the need to address mental health. Both are right.
First, guns, the central issue: We need a new public health approach based not on eliminating guns (that simply won’t happen in a land awash with 300 million guns) but on reducing the carnage they cause.
We routinely construct policies that reduce the toll of deadly products around us. That’s what we do with cars (driver’s licenses, seatbelts, guardrails). It’s what we do with swimming pools (fences, childproof gates, pool covers). It’s what we do with toy guns (orange tips).
It’s what we should do with real guns.
I reference this Republican hack only to demonstrate how biased he is.. Kristof is twisting some crucial facts in his article. First, while Republicans SAY we need to address mental health needs, they keep slashing the spending on mental health. Only Democrats are actually trying to address those needs. Second Republicans are blocking all attempts by Democrats to treat guns as a public health problem.
From Upworthy: Ironically, the rate of Arctic melting has essentially snowballed — the factors add up exponentially, and the effects get bigger and bigger and bigger (even as the snow itself disappears). So while yes, there are still winters and it still gets cold, the ecosystem is disastrously out of balance, and it’s only getting worse.
The need us deadly serious. Please join me in signing the NDRC petition, supporting green initiatives, and reducing your own carbon footprint as much as possible.
Physio is over until Monday! However, between my knee and my back . . . sitting at the computer is difficult and painful. It is times like this that I wish I had a lap top so I might be able to work longer. Oh well, maybe some day. The stats are . . . (fill in the blank).
Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:57 (average 5:31). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Alternet— The Republican Party has put down the dogwhistle and picked up a megaphone.
After two Bostonians allegedly beat up a homeless Hispanic man in August, one told police he was inspired by Donald Trump’s message that “all these illegals need to be deported.” In response, Trump explained “that people who are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.” Later, he clarified that in no way, of course, does he condone violence. In June, Trump kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug-trafficking criminals. “Some, I assume, are good people,” he added.
Last Monday, five people were shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis. Three white men have been arrested in connection with the incident. It is important to emphasize that the investigation is in its very early stages, and it has not been confirmed who did this, or why.
It is, however, clear that leading Republicans have engaged in extraordinarily racist and xenophobic rhetoric that incites and legitimates vigilante violence. On Saturday, Trump fans allegedly attacked a Black Lives Matter protester at a Birmingham rally. “Maybe he should have been roughed up,” Trump said.
Click through for the rest. I wonder how long it will be before the Southern Poverty Law Centre lists the Republican Party on their list of hate groups?
The Nation — I have come to believe the fears of white Americans are really just reflections of the things that white supremacy and empire have done to others. White America has not been terrorized by people of color; we have terrorized people of color. Black wealth is not based on stealing from white people; white wealth is based on stealing from black people. Instead of confronting the reality of our history and what our country has become for most people, too many Americans would rather kill those mourning their dead and send orphans and widows to a hellscape we created — all in order to preserve the myths of whiteness, masculinity, and empire.
I have to imagine the white men who commit these egregious acts of terror do so out of a silent, personal fear that the myths of whiteness and masculinity engender in themselves. The dehumanization white supremacists perpetrate on others has to be, in part, a projection of the dehumanization they feel themselves. The sad men that hang out on 4chan plotting the destruction of innocent others don’t believe they can be the strong, virile, white male dominators they are prescribed to be. No one who feels good about themselves talks as much as Donald Trump does about how he is a “winner” and other people are “losers.” No one who is confident of their humanity would deny acceptance to a 5-year-old orphan refugee.
Click through for the rest of this interesting article. I remember back in a high school history class discussing the concept of humans always looking for another to hold in contempt, whether for economic, racial, religious or other reasons. It was a fear of being at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak. As the author has said, there is a lot of projection. I hate myself so I am going to make you seem to be less than me, and then I'll feel better. It is a transitory "fix" that solves nothing in the long run.
Daily Beast — “The drought exacerbated existing water and agricultural insecurity and caused massive agricultural failures and livestock mortality,” write Kelley et al. “The most significant consequence was the migration of as many as 1.5 million people from rural farming areas to the peripheries of urban centers.”
It is precisely from those populations, uprooted and uncared for, that the group now known as ISIS drew its local recruits and cannon fodder as it rebuilt its ranks and spread its control over territory in the last three years. The core slogan of the Islamic State, “Remain and Expand,” speaks powerfully to people forced off their land and struggling just to survive.
Ironically, among the politicians in the West who deny the impact of climate change and at the same time refuse to accept refugees from war and “economic migrants” from these benighted, blighted lands, the answer to “Remain and Expand” is “stay there and die.”
Bernie Sanders has said that climate change is the greatest national security threat.
This short Democracy Now video makes further points about anthropogenic climate change.
And another short video on climate change as a national security threat.
In my mind, there is no doubt that climate change IS a threat to national security for every country.
My Universe —
. . . and it does! I can attest. My 3 groom my hair regularly!
Yesterday I worked on recovering from a fall, both with and without George. Other than a mat-skinned knee, I was no worse for the wear, but I did learn that, when it happens in real life, I will have an easier time, if I remove George before trying to recover. Today, I think I’ll be working on how to instruct a bystander to help me, if I have been pitched out of a wheelchair.
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: We often get upset at Fox News viewers for the alternate state of reality they generally live in. We shouldn’t be. It is our civic duty to first understand how it is possible for them to see the world so differently than those who accept information from various sources.
The video below is a classic example of how Fox News encourages one to allow themselves to be willfully ignorant. This is not restricted to conservative right-wing people, but to us all. To be clear, many Americans do very little reading of consequence and get most of their information from the mainstream broadcast media or the right-wing broadcast media like Fox News.
From The New Yorker: Now that the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference is under way in Paris, two main issues arise: Will an agreement to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere be reached? And, if so, will it do any good? The answer to the first question is: almost certainly. The answer to the second question is: some, but not enough.
The good news is that, after more than twenty years of trying, the nations of the world are finally closing in on a deal that has the backing of all the major polluters. This much was clear from Monday’s opening ceremony, which attracted a host of global leaders. If politicians like President Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t think a positive outcome was likely, they wouldn’t have made the trip.
Of course, it is always possible that the negotiations, which are scheduled to last for nearly two weeks, will break down, as they did in 2009, when a similar meeting was held in Copenhagen. For at least two reasons, though, that seems unlikely.
Click through for an extensive explanation. I hope that the agreement is something upon which we can build, before it is too late.
From NY Times: Hours after President Obama pledged Tuesday in Paris that the United States would be in the vanguard of nations seeking a global response to climate change, Congress approved two measures aimed at undercutting him.
In a provocative message to more than 100 leaders that the American president does not have the full support of his government on climate policy, the House passed resolutions, already approved by the Senate, to scuttle Environmental Protection Agency rules that would significantly cut heat-trapping carbon emissions from existing and future coal-fired power plants.
The House votes — by 242 to 180 and 235 to 188, mostly along party lines — expanded to a global level the already profound gulf between Mr. Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress on domestic issues, demonstrating that the United States was hardly unified on the issue of climate change even as the president and other leaders sought to project solidarity.
The measures will be sent to the White House, where Mr. Obama has said he will veto them.
Republicans, by trying to sabotage Obama’s rightful authority, are committing sedition, not just against the US, but against the entire world.
Cartoon:
Compared to today’s Republicans, McCarthy was almost liberal.
I have been out much of the day and felt compelled to get my knee elevated, which turned into a cat nap. That explains the lateness of this post. Part of the stats work is proving a challenge as the graphics don't want to transfer properly. Tomorrow is physio too which should be fun.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:19 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Alternet—For decades, we’ve recruited, trained and armed tribal groups to fight against governments we don’t like. We’ve overtly or covertly appointed hundreds of dictators, war criminals, drug lords and terrorists. In the past, it was all about the Cold War. Now it’s all business. We’re picking dictators to suppress their people so we can rape their natural resources.
In the 1980s, we helped Pakistan and Saudi Arabia overthrow Afghanistan’s socialist government. In 1976, it was Argentina. In 1964, it was Brazil and General Castelo Branco who reigned over that country for a brutal 20 years. … And the list goes on, El Salvador, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, and still counting.
We created terrorism.
We’re feeding the terrorist ideology with every panic-driven bonehead move we make.
Click through for the rest of the article. On 24/11/2015, I posted a Truth in Media video about the origins of Daesh, an origin that was largely brought about by the US and its actions in the Middle East. And those types of actions were common in various areas around the globe over many decades. It is well past time for the US to stop its own form of terrorism.
Daily Beast — Here are two local lawmakers who embody the "hate machine" that has become the Republican Party. Click on the links that are their names for their stories.
An Iowa GOP lawmaker running for Congress is one-upping Donald Trump, proposing that the U.S. execute undocumented immigrants who repeatedly cross the border after committing crimes.
An Iowa Republican running for Congress has finally figured out how to deal with undocumented immigrants who commit crimes: Execute them.
Like leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, state Sen. Mark Chelgren says he would build a fence to control who enters and leaves the United States. But when immigrants cross the border illegally, commit a felony stateside, and then get deported, Chelgren proposes that those individuals should be executed if they enter again illegally.
The lawmaker’s plan, which he shared with the Knoxville Journal-Express for a profile on his fledgling congressional campaign, may seem like the loony fantasy of a local politician. But Chelgren’s rhetoric fits right in with bile-spewing elements of the right that now appear to have been mainstreamed with the rise of Trump, who famously claimed that many undocumented immigrants are “rapists” and “criminals.”
[Alan] Harper, a Republican legislator in Alabama’s state house (representing Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties), shared an important announcement with his 2,551 Facebook friends on Monday: beware any local business not owned by white, religious people like himself, because they are funding terrorism in the Middle East.
“As you travel during the holidays or any other time, please try to shop and purchase gas and other items at American owned stores,” he advised, agreeably enough.
From there, his tone changed somewhat.
“The [convenience] stores/tobacco outlets, etc. with the lights around the windows and doors are not owned by God fearing Christians. In large part, these stores are owned by folk that send their profits back to their homeland and then in turn use these funds against our country to create turmoil, fear and in some cases death and destruction.”
Is this what it means to be a part of the land of the free and the brave? What I see are two frightened men that take their white privilege past the point of no return. What I see are two xenophobes inciting others to xenophobia. Sad and maddening.
Another month has arrived, and I’m enjoying the thought that the next time I begin a month, I will do so from home. Yesterday George and walked the furthest we have to date. Today, the plan is learning to get back up after a fall. I received a care package from Judi today. Somehow I get the feeling my blood sugar might become a bit elevated!!
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Calling criticism of her misrepresentations about Planned Parenthood “typical left-wing tactics,” the Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said, on Sunday, “I will not be bullied into telling the truth.”
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” the former Hewlett-Packard C.E.O. denied that spreading misinformation about Planned Parenthood was “in any way incendiary,” but added, “What is truly incendiary is demanding that someone who is seeking the highest office in the land stop lying.”
Fiorina noted that many of her rivals for the Republican nomination—including Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz—had successfully used lying as a key element of their campaign strategies. “All I am trying to do is level the playing field,” she said.
Andy is spot-on about Crazy Carly!!
From Daily Kos: Once again, the people who watch Fox News are demonstrating their appalling lack of decency and, ironically in this case, respect for human life. News reports about an active shooter situation at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs are still somewhat vague as to the shooter’s motives and the status of victims. There are confirmed reports of police officers wounded by gunfire, and citizens are virtually trapped in nearby shops as they await a conclusion.
In the heat of this live crisis the Fox News website is hosting some of the most nauseating responses imaginable. [Faux Noise delinked]. They run the gamut of hateful rhetoric from anti-choice extremism (“Too bad the abortion doctor and the nursing staff weren’t all killed.”) to overt racism (“I know this isn’t PC….but n***gers are just plain bad news.”). Never mind that there is little information about the shooter or his motives (he has been identified in one report as a white male), the Fox News audience is focused entirely on their inbred hostilities toward minorities, women, and President Obama, whom some are accusing of setting this up.
This typifies today’s Republican Party!
From Alternet: Muslim Cab Driver Shot by Passenger Ranting About ISIS Terrorists
A bizarre conversation in a cab leads to tragic violence.
Click through for the whole story. Here we have another example of Republican terrorism.
