Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, and it’s a busy day of cleaning, grocery planning, and appointment scheduling. I also need to rest, because Thursday is a prison volunteer day.  Day 29.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 5:03).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: By any normal standard, economic policy since the onset of the financial crisis has been a dismal failure. It’s true that we avoided a full replay of the Great Depression. But employment has taken more than six years to claw its way back to pre-crisis levels — years when we should have been adding millions of jobs just to keep up with a rising population. Long-term unemployment is still almost three times as high as it was in 2007; young people, often burdened by college debt, face a highly uncertain future.

Now Timothy Geithner, who was Treasury secretary for four of those six years, has published a book, “Stress Test,” about his experiences. And basically, he thinks he did a heckuva job.

Click through to see the way Paul Krugman trashes Timmy the Tool, just like Robert Reich did.

From The New Yorker: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is an evil genius capable of masterminding the most elaborate cover-up in U.S. history and is also a frail old woman with brain damage, leading Republicans charged on Sunday.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus led the attack while appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he said that the American people should be wary of electing a woman who is capable of orchestrating the complex conspiracy to whitewash Benghazi while, at the same time, being too old, feeble, and brain damaged to serve in the Oval Office.

“These two aspects of Secretary Clinton would have me very concerned,” he said.

Did Andy nail the hypocrisy of these mutually contradicting Republican lies, or what?

From Alternet: The Poor Don’t Cheat As Much

An analysis of seven different psychological studies found that "upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals." A series of experiments showed that upper-class individuals were more likely to break traffic laws, take valued goods from others, lie in a negotiation, and cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize.

And this doesn’t even begin to examine the many, many significant  cases of fraudulent behavior in the banking industry. Or private equity firms that cheat their investors over  50 percent of the time. Or the many unscrupulous corporate  tax avoidance strategies.

This is just one of five ways in which the poor are demonstrably more ethical than the rich, who Republicans represent. Click through for the other four.

Late Update: The Judge ruled Oregon’s Republican ban on gay marriage unconstitutional today, and same-sex couples have already married in Oregon.

Cartoon:

If you think politics is dirty now, you wouldn’t believe the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians’ politics there!

I’m writing for tomorrow, late on what has been largely a lazy day.  I figured I’d better rest now, since I have a busy week coming up, so I shall be brief.  Day 27.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s tool me 3:35 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Writer Kendra Eash wrote an amazing bit of satire mocking how the ad industry likes to use vague, inspirational nonsense to capture people’s attention. So Dissolve, a stock video distributor, took her words and visualized them in an amazingly vague, faux-inspirational video that tells you absolutely nothing at all. It’s kind of hilarious. 2:19 is my favorite moment.

If you run an ad agency, please use this as a clarion call to say actual things in your clients’ commercials. Things that actually add something to the discourse. PLEASE?!

Dang!! You mean I don’t need Jenny Craig for what sticks out and Viagra for what doesn’t?

From Daily Kos: Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) will be giving Duck Dynasty actor Phil Robertson a fist time ever "Governor’s Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence.” However as reported by Reason.com the show has been getting far more that awards from the state of Louisiana.

"The state subsidizes up to 30 percent of local production spending, offering tax credits redeemable for cash."

A industrial insider estimates that the show gets as much as $70,000 dollars from Louisiana taxpayers per show the ‘ Dynasty ‘ family makes $200,000 per show.

So we can assume that being the ‘Tea Party Dynasty Poster child pays handsomely on the taxpayers  Dime

Republicans always want tax payers to pay for TEAbuggery, while millionaires reap reap the gain.

From Politico: Oregon GOP Senate candidate Monica Wehby was accused by her ex-boyfriend last year of “stalking” him, entering his home without his permission and “harassing” his employees, according to a Portland, Oregon police report.

Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon, is the leading Republican candidate to challenge Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

Wehby was questioned by a police officer on April 3, 2013, after being seen leaving the area near the home of Andrew Miller. Miller, the wealthy owner of a timber company, had been romantically involved with Wehby but their relationship was ending at that time, they both say now.

Wehby, who is vying for the Oregon GOP Senate nomination, was not arrested in the incident.

But the Portland police report detailing the incident said Miller, owner of Stimson Lumber in Portland, was worried that Wehby had come to his home uninvited, and had even entered the residence without his permission. Miller said he was considering getting a protective order against Wehby, the report states.

A pediatric neurosurgeon running to deny health care to children.  Scheeesch!! If she were anything better than devious and deranged, she would not be the Republican frontrunner.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow on what turned out to be a pretty busy day, because it turns out I have more paperwork to do do for the OSP specific part of my prison volunteer certification.  Nevertheless, there was still time to research and write.  Day 25.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:43 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: These fine folks had the brilliant idea to quantify peace and rank all the countries in the world. Unfortunately, the United States isn’t doing so hot right now. We’re — you guessed it — 99th out of the 162 countries on the list. How do we fix that? Take a look, and make sure to stick around until 2:01, when they explain why this list isn’t just an exercise but could really change the way we think about minimizing conflict and achieving real world peace.

I’m surprised we’re that high on the list. Note that all the factors the video makers say are needed for peace are high on the list of things Republicans oppose.

From Daily Kos: Noted Ohio politics and Iraq WMD expert Karl Rove has a new smear: That Hillary Clinton spent 30 days in the hospital at the end of 2012 and upon her release in January, 2013, she was "wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury."

First of all, she didn’t spend 30 days in the hospital. It was four.

Second of all, if those glasses she was wearing are sign of brain damage, then the truth is even worse than Dr. Rove could possibly have imagined.

The article goes on to show many pictures of Hillary in the same glasses going back years. On the other hand, what does this pic of Karl Rove (R-Hell) say about him?

From The New Yorker: A delegation of conservative members of Congress paid a visit to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melt today to witness firsthand what one of them called “the most beautiful expression of the free market I’ve ever seen.”

The author of that remark, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), said that he was awestruck after watching gigantic chunks of glacier disintegrate and crash to the sea.

“Every schoolchild in America needs to see this,” he said. “This is the free market at work in the way that God and Ayn Rand intended.”

Rep. Ryan said that watching the now-unstoppable Ice Sheet melt in action reaffirmed his belief in “the glory and might of free-market forces.”

Andy’s satire may well be prophetic. If Republicans ever do admit that global climate change is real, this is the form it will take.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow.  I had to rearrange furniture to give the maintenance man a clear path to the window.  That blocked my access to my computer.  I figured I’d be able to get to it by midday.  I skipped my morning sleep to let the maintenance man in.  Unfortunately, his previous stop took longer than expected, and he did not get here until mid afternoon.  He installed the air conditioner.  The trim that came with it would not work with the platforms they use to make sure an A/C doesn’t fall on a downtown pedestrian’s head.  He had to jury rig the enclosure, so the installation looks tacky, but is very efficient.  I rearranged my furniture and went to bed, so there was no time to do research for articles for tomorrow.  Day 23.  Back to today’s serious activity (see graphic).

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:20 (average 4:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

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