Politics Plus

Day 89.  Woe is me!  The Holy Orb has gone dark and will shed no more light on the world until Autumn. :-(  The Seachickens demonstrated, once again, why I have not become a fan.  The game was theirs to win, but bwaaaack-buk-buk… They did the Seachicken Choke.  Nevertheless, it was an excellent game.  I have  a pants-load of work to do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:12 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (Hat-Tip Lynn Squance): Fox News has been proven repeatedly to be a purveyor of disinformation and outright lies presented as facts. Knowledgeable observers long ago ceased to take their reporting seriously. However, it’s one thing to be called out for shoddy journalism by experienced media analysts and news professionals. But when a high school class can demolish the highest rated cable "news" network with ease, the folks responsible should reconsider their career choices.

Last July O’Reilly sent his stalker/producer Jesse Watters to Bennington, Vermont in order to malign the residents of the city and the state as liberal, pot smoking, ski bums. It was a purely vicious exercise in childish insults that had no news value of any kind. But it is the sort of mean-spirited filler that Watters has made his specialty. Watters is also the founder and editor of Fox’s community website, Fox Nation, mangling the truth is the primary objective. [Note: don’t miss this epic and hilarious take down of Watters by Stephen Colbert]

The students at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington happened to be studying journalism when they came upon this piece. So they used it as a case study to conduct a "professional integrity audit" based on the ethics codes of the Society of Professional Journalists. What they discovered was that O’Reilly’s program violated the ethics codes so many times they lost count.

Kudos to these kids, but were they right to hold O’Lielly and Faux Noise to ethical standards for journalists? The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda are not journalists. They are Republican propagandists.

From NY Times: Alma Ramos, a soft-spoken prep cook at a Tex-Mex restaurant, was eager to sign up for health insurance through the new HealthCare.gov marketplace last year. But Ms. Ramos, a single mother of three, quickly hit a baffling hurdle.

Because of a wrinkle in the Affordable Care Act, Ms. Ramos made too little money to receive federal aid for buying private insurance — and too much to qualify for Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor. But she found a solution…

…All told, four million adults in nearly two dozen states fall into the gap, and Texas has the most, nearly one million.

Republicans blame Obama for this, as do even some Democrats, but such blaming is incorrect, not just unfair. The ACA required states expand Medicaid to remain eligible for Medicaid funds, because the federal government would pay for it. However, Republicans filed suit and the Fascist Five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) sided with them. This left Republican governors free to inflict this harm on their own citizens, trying to make Obama look bad. The fault here lies entirely with the Republican Party.

From Washington Post: HOW FAR will Republicans in Congress take their reckless flirtation with undermining government this time?

Will they, as seems increasingly likely, fail to pass a bill that the president can sign ensuring adequate funding for the Department of Homeland Security and its 280,000 employees before the agency’s support expires Feb. 27? Are they ready to let funding lapse, secure in the knowledge that Border Patrol officers, Secret Service agents, airport security personnel and other so-called essential employees would still have to report to work — even though they would not be drawing paychecks?

A number of prominent Republican lawmakers clearly believe that denying funding to the nation’s premier organ of domestic security is no big deal, as long as the move expresses the GOP’s anger about President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

As Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) put it to Politico: Letting the department’s funding lapse would not be “the end of the world.”

The Republican Party care nothing for our nation’s security. Everything the do is intended to do one of two things. One is the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to billionaires. The other is the establish a permanent, totalitarian, Republican Reich, in which elections exist for show only. In this case, every penny spent keeping America safe is a penny Republicans can’t give to a billionaire. Also, they hope that blaming Obama for their sedition will help them win the presidency.

Cartoon:

It’s day 87, and I’m still hard at work effecting the changes needed from my ISP switch.  I need to change my login info at literally hundreds of websites.  Plus I haven’t even begin to start reconfiguring the notebook computer yet.  Tomorrow is the highest holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, an unholy perversion of blessed orb light between the Cheats and the Chickens. I’ll be meditating, but I’m bound to be disappointed, because I’m cheering for both teams to lose.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:51 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Guess who owns JebBushforPresident.com and won’t give it back?

The answer is CJ Phillips and Charlie Rainwater! They are a self-described "bear couple."

The Oregon techies bought the domain name in 2008, when Jeb Bush was rumored to be seeking the Republican presidential nomination, reports Business Insider. Phillips and Rainwater are no supporters of Bush, though — in fact, they wanted to use the website to blog about LGBT rights and draw attention to the former Florida governor’s dismal equality record.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Oregon leads the way!!

From The New Yorker:

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney told supporters on Friday that he was “incredibly relieved” to be able to keep the approximately five to ten residences he owns across the country.

“Having to talk about how much I care about ordinary Americans and so forth—I was game for that,” he said. “But having to sell all of those houses? That was going to be brutal.”

The 2012 Republican nominee said that he was especially glad he did not have to part with the car elevator in his eleven-thousand-square-foot mansion in La Jolla.

Andy’s doing news again. Little Lord Willard already had that house. In addition, he drowned his sorrows over the whipping he took in 2008 by going on a $multi-million mansion buying spree.

From MSNBC: A couple of weeks ago, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) raised a few eyebrows by complaining about Americans receiving disability benefits. “Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club,” the senator said at a New Hampshire event. “Who doesn’t get up a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everybody over 40 has a little back pain.”

Since I took note of Paul’s comments, it’s only fair to also mention that the senator’s office has since elaborated on the same point. Whether or not he’s made things better or worse is a matter of perspective.

Paul spokesman Brian Darling pointed to two data points – 27.7 percent of disabled beneficiaries are diagnosed as having ailments related to “Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue” and that 14 percent have “mood disorders.” That adds up to 42 percent, he noted. (There’s also nearly 4 percent who cite injuries, which presumably could cover back injuries.)

Steve Benin, the author, probably thinks he made it worse. Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot may belittle mood disorders,but most of the time they are severe mental illnesses, that kind that might even drive people to vote for him.

Cartoon:

It’s day 85, and it’s turning into a very busy day.  I am not a fan or supporter of Comcast, but for my building, I have two choices for broadband, that or my current provider Clear.  Clear has been purchased by Sprint, and they just raised their prices.  In addition, their service has dropped off.  I used to get 7 Megabits consistently, and now I’m getting 5 on a good day.  As much as I hate to do it, I can actually save money with Comcast and get 120 Megabit service.  I’m waiting for the installer to come.  That means that two of my five main email addresses will change, and I’ll have to inform a lot of suppliers.

It’s in.  Damn it’s fast!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:09 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The "Anti-Commandeering" Rule: In 1997, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court, created an "anti-commandeering" rule, which bans Congress from ordering state officials to carry out federal duties. The case was brought by two county sheriffs, who did not want to do background checks for firearm sales as ordered by the Brady Act. The new rule led to holes in the database that would allow persons prone to violence, like the killer in the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting, to get firearms. Stevens notes that the "anti-commandeering" rule could also cripple other Congressional acts, from routine administration of federal programs to emergency responses to national catastrophes or acts of terror. His fix adds four words (in bold below) to the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges and other public officials in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

This is just one of six proposed Constitutional Amendments written by retired Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, to help fix the damage done to America by the Fascist Five Republican Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD). Click through for the other five.

From The New Yorker: In a historic Oval Office ceremony on Thursday morning, President Barack Obama signed an executive order closing Congress, effective immediately.

The President said that the move would dramatically increase the efficiency of the federal government, noting how much he had accomplished since he stopped working with Congress in November.

Additionally, he said, the elimination of Congress would result in annual savings of more than five billion dollars, which Obama said would be refunded to American taxpayers.

Acknowledging that “some sticklers” would argue that the Constitution calls for three branches of government, the President said, “All this order does is reduce that number by one.”

The initial public reaction to the President’s decision appeared to be overwhelmingly positive, as news of the executive order sent his approval rating soaring to seventy-nine percent.

Bad, Andy!! Bad!! How dare you tease us with such a beautiful idea?!!?

From NBC: U.S. regulators on Thursday raised the standard for high-speed Internet, voting that only connections with download speeds of 25 megabits per second or faster will qualify as broadband. The Federal Communications Commission’s previous definition of broadband was a download speed of at least 4 Mbps. The change, opposed by Internet service providers and Republican FCC commissioners, means nearly a fifth of Americans and more than half of those living in rural areas now lack access to high-speed Internet. The change is not expected to immediately influence how competitive the FCC formally views the broadband market. But it could give the agency more of a bully pulpit to push Internet service providers to increase connection speeds and support competitors formed by municipalities.

Excellent idea.  This article is what set me off.

Cartoon:

It’s day 83.  The second day of the new schedule did not do so well.  I was awakened at 2:30 AM by the person in the apartment above me.  He got off the elevator on the wrong floor and kept trying to open my door with his key. I did not get back to sleep until after 6:00 AM and slept later than intended.  I could still write, but the news is all snow, so this is today’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 5:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.

The spending goal, revealed Monday at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Is it any wonder that so many Republicans are whoring themselves to suck nevermind?

From Daily Kos: Interesting article in Politico today on how Elizabeth Warren ended Obama’s nomination of rich Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss to be Under Secretary for Domestic Finance.  Warren led the effort to totally shut the deal down – she wouldn’t even meet with Weiss. Some choice bits:

The game in Washington had changed.

Elizabeth Warren, sometimes disregarded by the White House as a largely irrelevant nuisance, could no longer be ignored. Bolstered by grass roots groups eager for any anti-Wall Street crusade and a vibrant progressive media that hung on her every word, Warren succeeded in knocking out Weiss’ nomination

    …

It was not a total victory. Weiss will still join Treasury as an unconfirmed counselor to Secretary Jack Lew. But in terms of symbolism, the Washington power game and the ideological direction of the Democratic Party, Warren won big. And the moderate, Wall Street- and business-friendly wing of the party — in past years happily occupied by Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting Hillary Clinton — got punched in the mouth.

Isn’t it wonderful to have a Democrat with the will and the ability to hold Hillary’s feet to the fire. Go Liz!!

From Alternet: Severe winter storm events often prompt naysayers to mock, “Where’s that global warming?” But while the concept may seem to conflict with rising global temperatures, these storms are actually obvious evidence of man-made climate change.

Climate change, say scientists, fuels the increasing intensities of winter storms. Warmer temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture and create heavier than normal precipitation. Climatologists agree that global warming will continue to make these storms worse over time.

Weather is different from climate, scientists point out. Weather is what we experience on a day-to-day basis; climate — especially in regards to climate change — is more about long-term trends.

What’s more important is that this storm is deadlier than RepubliCare in a retirement community, even if it isn’t as severe as forecast. Please stay in a safe place.

Cartoon: