Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 111.  It’s late, and I’ve had a hard time getting untracked today.  I don’t know why.  I just feel a bit lethargic.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:04 (average 5:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

Players, the live draft of our fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends, is Saturday at Noon Eastern, 11 AM Central, 10 AM Mountain, and 9 AM Pacific Daylight Savings Time.  You each get to keep up to two players from last year’s team.  If you do, they are your first and second round draft picks.  If you do not, you get the draft picks instead.  It’s a good idea to participate in a couple mock drafts now to get familiar with the procedure.  Pay attention to bye weeks so you don’t have multiple players at the same positions with a week off at the same time.  Enjoy!!

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Julion Evans passed away on July 26, 2014, after a battle with a rare disease called Amyloidosis. He had a large family and an even larger group of friends who wanted to come together to remember his life. His family booked a large church in Tampa, Florida. One day before the service, they were shocked to receive a call from the pastor, telling them the church was canceling after finding out Julion was gay and married to Kendall Caper, his partner of 17 years:

Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian hatred of the LGBT community extends to the grave. Shame!

From PRWatch: The American Legislative Exchange Council, or "ALEC," met in Dallas on July 30 for its annual meeting. ALEC brings together state legislators and corporate lobbyists to vote on "model" legislation behind closed doors, before those bills are introduced in state houses across the country, stripped of their ALEC origins. As the Kansas City Star has noted, what happens at ALEC meetings "provides a preview for the next state sessions" in legislatures around the country.

What was on tap at ALEC this year? New bad bills, dirty energy, a new lobby shop, and the launch of a spin-off group targeting local governments. Here’s a roundup of last week’s ALEC coverage.

Click through to see what Republican legislators will be parroting nationwide. ALEC bills have one thing in common. When they pass, you get screwed.

From Huffington Post: Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "stimulus" just made things worse.

Solution: Here are three "reality-based" charts to send to him. These charts show what actually happened.

Dang! These are good enough to get you unfriended by Republican relatives!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 109.  Oversleeping last night has thrown off my sleep schedule.  I feel like I need to sleep, but have been unable to do so, so I’m not as fresh as I’d like to be.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:15 (average 5:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

At the ends of the first quarter, the other gods hurled down thunder and lightning from Olympus in homage to the Holy Ellipsoid Orb.  Worshipers had to flee.  The service was what last year’s Super Bowl should have been.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: …Colt Thriemer and Thomas J Brown got into a fist fight at a Walmart Parking Lot.  There were several witnesses who say that the victim, Thomas Brown, was walking away afterwards to his car when Colt Thriemer shot Thomas Brown after retrieving a handgun.  Mr. Brown was shot 10 times at fairly close range both in the back while he was walking away and then when he turned towards Mr. Thriemer after being shot, apparently pleading him to stop.  Mr. Thriemer then fled the scene.

When he was apprehended, he did what all murderers do now in Florida: claim he was in "fear for his life".  The prosecutor agreed.

The prosecutor’s statement summed up all that is fucking wrong with Stand Your Ground:

"The Stand Your Ground Statue makes no exception to the immunity because Brown may have been walking away from Thriemer when deadly force was used."

That’s because the f_ing law was made by f_ing  imbeciles.  [emphasis original]

Of course the law was made by imbeciles. Republicans are.

From AlterNet: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday slapped a one-year ban and restrictions on food and agricultural product imports from nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia over its defiant stance on Ukraine.

The decision marks yet another escalation in a furious diplomatic standoff that has seen Russia slip into growing international isolation and the onset of what some US media are calling a "new Cold War".

It also threatens to send the price of Russian food soaring and feed public discontent with an economic slowdown that analysts indirectly attribute to Putin’s perceived backing of pro-Kremlin insurgents fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.

If any nation sanctioning Vladimir Putin (R-RU), aka GOP Pootie, has a shortage of foods, the US can help meet the need, especially if we stop paying farmers not to grow it.

From Crook and Liars: The hosts of Fox & Friends on Wednesday politicized the death of an Army general as a "touchdown for the Taliban" so they could score some points against President Barack Obama.

Barf Bag Alert!!

Yesterday I said they were doing this. This is how they are doing it. How disgusting they are!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 107.  I don’t know why, but I just could not get comfortable last night, and I could not sleep.  I had a short nap this morning, but it was nowhere near enough.  I’m hoping I can catch some serious Zs, when I finish writing. 

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:02 (average 6:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren cares a lot about making student loans affordable—and she happens to be a bankruptcy expert. This week, she turned that passion and that wealth of knowledge on Richard Hunt, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association.

You would think bankers would learn not to try to get sneaky in response to Warren’s pointed questioning. But this one had not learned that.

Was Lizzie munching on Bankster Butt or what? Bankruptcy relief should include student loans, and the death of the borrower should terminate any student loan.

From YouTube: Another Journey into the Parallel World of ALEC

Kudos to Chris Taylor and Ed Schultz. When Republican politicians introduce ALEC boilerplate, they must be exposed and dumped.

From AlterNet: What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society. 

Does anyone seriously believe hedge-fund mogul Steven A. Cohen is worth the  $2.3 billion he raked in last year, despite being slapped with a $1.8 billion fine after his firm pleaded guilty to insider trading?

On the other hand, what’s the worth to society of social workers who put in long and difficult hours dealing with patients suffering from mental illness or substance abuse? Probably higher than their average pay of  $18.14 an hour, which translates into less than $38,000 a year.

How much does society gain from personal-care aides who assist the elderly, convalescents, and persons with disabilities? Likely more than their average pay of  $9.67 an hour, or just over $20,000 a year.

As always the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, while the Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich, is wrong. Click through for in depth coverage of this subject.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 105.  I got a very late start on the day.  As I was cooking up a batch of my infamous chili, I broke my only can opener.  I has to dress and go out, because tomato sauce is a key ingredient.  Of course the corner store was closed, so I walked to another almost a half mile away.  I made it back and finishes cooking.  Although I am very tired, I have the power to produce a green cloud that sets off smoke detectors in my wake.

Late/Early Update:  I overslept big time.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Neil deGrasse Tyson is more than just an excellent tour guide through the cosmos — he’s a true voice for our endangered space program. In this piece, he reminds us how our passion for space missions began and makes a compelling case that we must not abandon our quests and dreams.

Let us renew our commitment to lead the world in space exploration and let us resolve to reach to the heavens once again so that our species may one day truly go where no one has gone before.

I fully agree with George Takei’s introduction and Neil deGrasse’s presentation. We need to invest in the future, not the 1%’s Republican greed.

From Daily Kos: Since Rep. Steve King says that Central American families have been lured by U.S. policies to "give their daughters birth control pills and send them down a rape path all the way through Mexico, and it’s a death path on the death train" to get to the United States, a more observant person than Steve King might wonder what is going on in some parts of Central America that would cause anyone to contemplate taking the "death train" that Steve King warns about.

According to fellow Congressional Three Stooges member Louie Gohmert, the answer is nothing. Those children aren’t fleeing from anything, they’re all are just filthy liars.

“Texas and the United States is [sic] being invaded and we’re in danger,” Gohmert said, before alleging that most of the unaccompanied minors are lying when they tell border patrol agents that they are escaping gang violence in Central America and have been coached to make such claims. Gohmert said minors end up telling officers that “we were told to say that we were fleeing gang violence.”

The author calls Go-Go Goosestep the dumbest Congressman in America. There is too much competition for that title for certainty, but Loony Louie is certainly in the running.

From TPM: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) refused to utter the word "impeachment" on Sunday, but warned that if President Obama used executive action to defer more deportations of undocumented immigrants, it might be the only option left for Congress.

"None of us want to do the thing that’s left for us as an alternative," King said on "Fox News Sunday" when host Chris Wallace asked if Obama delayed more deportations could lead to impeachment.

"I think Congress has to sit down, have a serious look at the rest of this constitution, and that includes that ‘i’ word that we don’t want to say," King continued, explaining that executive actions would trigger impeachment talk. "And I only say that now on this program because I want to encourage the president, ‘Please don’t put don’t put America into a constitutional crisis.’"

When Wallace pressed King on whether impeachment was "on the table," King echoed his concerns on immigration.

At the same time they Republicans claim that Democrats’ concern about impeachment is an Obama conspiracy.

Cartoon: