Politics Plus

I have a lot of volunteer paperwork to do today, and tomorrow is a grocery delivery day, so there’s cleaning to do in preparation for that.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Yesterday, Denmark’s wind farms were able to produce 116% of the nation’s electricity needs.

By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.

Major kudos to the Danes!

From TPM: The family of a black man who died after being placed in a white police officer’s chokehold reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city on Monday, days before the anniversary of his death.

Since part of the deal is that the city admitted no liability, I see this is blood money, paying off a family to duck responsibility for a crime against the entire city.

From Think Progress: The Oklahoma Republican Party is making the case [GOP delinked] against food stamps by comparing poor people to animals, reviving a stereotype that’s often deployed against Americans who rely on government benefits to feed their families.

In a Facebook post [GOP delinked] published Monday night, the Oklahoma GOP suggested that the millions of Americans receiving food stamps this year should not be enrolled in the program because “the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”

If you have ever needed, or might ever need, temporary help, this is what the Republican Party thinks of YOU.

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I’m feeling especially tired today, having slept poorly.  Last night a group of black men kept me awake for over four hours, by walking up and down the street, screaming at the top of their lungs, and calling each other the N word.  I’m ashamed to admit that even I had more than one stereotypical thought about them.  It truly saddens me that thugs like these could trigger even a man like me, a man with a history of civil rights activism going back to the early 1960s.  I am very sorry.  I hope such behavior by very few does not counter the major positive influence exerted by the black community following the Republican attack on the church.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Recruiting:

Recruiting is now complete for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league.  Pam and her End the GOP are now onboard. Welcome  Pam!! For more information, click here.  I will be publishing an article of tips shortly.  The live online draft is on 7/25 at 11:00 AM PDT.

Short Takes:

From NY Times: If the scramble to hold together Europe’s single currency has highlighted one thing, it is that national mind-sets can be more stubborn than the 60-year-old mantra of the Continent’s “ever closer union” once supposed. And no national psyche is more important to the outcome at this moment than Germany’s.

In insisting that Greece can stay in the euro only if everyone sticks to the rules, Germany has acted almost classically to stereotype. Its fondness for orderly procedure — the foundation of its post-1945 democracy — has prevailed even over its desire to lead 21st century Europe.

If Germany is serious about following the rules, perhaps they should repay the loans they forced Greece to make when Germany’s version of the Republican Party was in power during WWII.

From TPM: Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to make boosting middle class income and wages the focus of her economic agenda. The Democratic presidential candidate will point to stagnant paychecks as the central challenge facing the U.S. economy.

Clinton will lay out the themes of her economic plan in a speech Monday in New York. Clinton’s campaign says in a preview on Saturday that the speech will emphasize the need for the real incomes of everyday Americans to rise steadily along with corporate profits and executive compensation.

While Republican candidate Jeb Bush has called for an annual growth rate of 4 percent, Clinton will say that the nation’s economy should not be judged by a specific growth figure but rather by how much income rises for middle-class households.

At least she will drown out the campaign opening announcement by the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan.  I want to know how Hillary plans to recover some of the wealth that Republicans took from poor and middle class citizens and gave to the super-rich.

From Think Progress: People who “want to kill babies” don’t want women to see their ultrasounds.

Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson spoke in length to the NRLC about his experiences as a physician administering ultrasounds. He talked about the advanced technology of ultrasounds that exists today, saying fewer people have had abortions since the technology has improved and women can see their fetus in detail on a computer screen. “How can anybody think that’s just a mass of cells?” he said. “That’s one of the reasons that the people who want to kill babies don’t want you to see that.”

A recent study found that looking at an ultrasound doesn’t change a women’s decision to have an abortion because the vast majority of women who seek out abortion services have already made up their mind. Nevertheless, 13 states have laws on the book requiring doctors to perform an ultrasound before proceeding with an abortion.

This is one of the five most absurd arguments made at a Republican Barefoot and Pregnant convention sponsored by NRLPAC. Click through for the other four.

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I can’t express how happy I am to have a wide open window and my A/C set on fan.  It will take a couple days for the building to bleed off the heat.  Old masonry structures are like that.  TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:39 (average 4:22).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Recruiting:

We may still need one new player for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league.  Viv and her Hillbilly Lefties are now onboard. We may have found our last player. For more information, click here.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Yep, that’s what Jeb Bush said in a press interview with New Hampshire’s Union Leader. Unbelievable. People already WORK LONG HOURS, and we’re actually one of the most productive countries in that we work longer than any other industrialized nation in the entire world. Here’s the context in which Jeb Bush said his damning quote:

“My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this rut that we’re in.”

Call me crazy, but when we’re working up to 50 hours a week, and in many cases, more hours than that, and we’re not getting paid well in doing the work we do. Many people work long hours at the minimum wage level, and Americans work longer hours just to make the ends meet these days. The part-timers want to work full hours, but they can’t find other work, so they don’t often make ends meet without the assistance of government programs.

These are the facts, Jeb Bush, we already work damn hard, and we’re entitled to the right wages for our work. We should NOT be underpaid, we should NOT have our hours cut, we should NOT have our benefits cut so we work longer, and we should NOT be spending so much damn time at the office just to make ends meet.

Strike Three backtracked and said he was only referring to underemployed part time workers. However, the context in which he made the statement was as the means by which he intended to achieve economic growth of 4%/year. Increasing work for the underemployed could not possibly achieve even 1% growth, so either he’s lying about making YOU work more for less, and/or his entire economic plan is a lie. In my opinion, he’s lying about BOTH. Why? He a Republican, and he’s a Bush.

From Daily Kos:

Former President George W. Bush charged $100,000 to speak at a charity fundraiser for U.S. military veterans severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and former First Lady Laura Bush collected $50,000 to appear a year earlier, officials of the Texas-based Helping a Hero charity confirmed to ABC News.

And…

The former President was also provided with a private jet to travel to Houston at a cost of $20,000, the officials said.

It’s obscene that GW ChickenHawk is not donating his time to help the heroes that he maimed by using them as cannon fodder in his criminal war.

From Raw Story: [T]he anti-LGBT owners of an Oregon bakery were not fined for refusing to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple – they were ordered to pay $135,000 in damages for intentionally causing their would-be customers emotional distress.

The case has attracted widespread media attention since the couple first filed their complaint in January 2013, and that is largely through the efforts of Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa.

After the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries handed down the order last week, Aaron Klein claimed the ruling was an example of the “persecution of Christians” in the U.S.

However, the ruling shows the bakery owners had made Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer the victims of persecution and makes clear the payment was compensation for damages and not a fine or civil penalty.

I could agree that $135,000 would be a bit excessive as a fine, but the "Sweet Cakes" pseudo-Christian Republicans went beyond mere refusal of service. They published the lesbian couple’s address to make them a target for other gay-hating Republicans. I was targeted at home by peace-hating Republicans in 2003, so I know that $135,000 is not enough!

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On Monday afternoon, I started to experience severe congestion.  I think I may have continued to treat myself with Ipratropium Bromide/Albuterol Sulfate longer than I needed to and dried myself out.  For over 24 hours, I was unable to cough up the junk that collects in my chest, and I could not lie down without severe coughing, so I could not sleep.  I called my helper friend.  She came, did the most hated task, helped me get to the shower, fed me and applied hot compresses to my chest and back.  I thought about going to the emergency room, but decided not to, because I was not actually running a fever and my pulse oximeter read 95%, so I knew my lungs were not seriously compromised, as they would be if I had pneumonia.  I was finally able to cough up the gunk at around 3 PM yesterday, and I slept ten out of the next twelve hours.  I’m still feeling week and tired.  Pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Yesterday’s took me 3:44 (average 5:19).  To do it, click here.  Today’s took me 3:19 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Recruiting:

We still need one or two new player for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league.  Viv and her Hillbilly Lefties are now onboard. How about you?  For more information, click here.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: John Oliver was off for the weekend of Fourth of July, or the “annual American tradition of reminding the sky who runs shit,” as the “Last Week Tonight” host more aptly called it. But that didn’t stop him from uploading a brief — emphasis on brief, because we’ll come back to that — web exclusive in the show’s absence.

It’s not uncommon for HBO to upload web exclusives to tide viewers over until the following week. What is uncommon: Oliver decided to cover 15 topics (“15 shallow dives”) in one minute instead of his usual 15-minute deep-dive.

Pure entertainment and a welcome break.

From Daily Kos: At the Washington Post, Prof. James Loewen writes that the reason so many people believe false things about the Civil War and the Confederacy is because many of our textbooks teach those wrong things to this day.

Teaching or implying that the Confederate states seceded for states’ rights is not accurate history. It is white, Confederate-apologist history. It bends — even breaks — the facts of what happened. Like other U.S. history textbooks, “Journey” needs to be de-Confederatized. So does the history test we give to immigrants who want to become U.S. citizens. Item 74 asks, “Name one problem that led to the Civil War.” It then gives three acceptable answers: “slavery, economic reasons, and states’ rights.” If by “economic reasons” it means issues about tariffs and taxes, which most people infer, then two of its three “correct answers” are wrong! No other question on this 100-item test has more than one “right” answer. The reason is not because the history is unclear, but because neo-Confederates still wielded considerable influence in our culture and our Congress until quite recently, when a mass of politicians rushed to declare the Confederate flag unsuitable for display on government grounds.

Loewen also reiterates a point that cannot be made often enough: Modern notions that the Civil War was fought over ephemeral notions of "states’ rights" or other high-minded considerations, as opposed to an unapologetic battle for the right to keep human slaves, is a product of segregationist forces in the civil rights era. It’s hardly a coincidence that so many memorials of the war date conspicuously to the days of George Wallace, rather than Jefferson Davis.

We study history to learn from the past and avoid making the same mistakes. Republicans distort history, because they know they are making the same mistakes, don’t care, and want to keep others from knowing.

From NY Times: From environmental and work force regulations to health care and contraception, congressional Republicans are using spending bills to try to dismantle President Obama’s policies, setting up a fiscal feud this fall that could lead to a government shutdown…

…The House and Senate appropriations committees are churning out annual spending bills, dropping the bipartisanship that has long characterized the committees. The bills adhere to strict overall spending limits imposed in 2011 that Mr. Obama has already said he will not accept.

Here we go again. Am I the only one reminded of a broken record?

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