Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow.  It’s been a busy day.  Housework was floors, dusting and the refrigerator.  I’m waiting for Store to Door to deliver groceries.  They help me put them away, and that makes me keep the fridge cleaned out to avoid embarrassment.  Earlier I watched Olympic coverage, and was most pleased to See Finland eliminate the team of Vladimir Putin (R-RU) in the quarter finals.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:40 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The wingnut welfare must have run out for the man who became famous as "Joe the Plumber." Samuel Wurzelbacher, his real name, has had to get a job that involves something other than performing the role of the regular blue-collar white guy on the Republican speaking and media circuits—and it’s a union job at Chrysler. Wurzelbacher took to Facebook sounding a wee bit defensive:

“In order to work for Chrysler, you are required to join the Union, in this case UAW. There’s no choice – it’s a union shop – the employees voted to have it that way and in America that’s the way it is,” he wrote.

Of course the Republican is lying. He may opt to pay a fee for their representation, so he does not have to join. This is one member UAW is better off without!!

From Bill Moyers: Last week, The Wire creator David Simon told Bill Moyers that the legal doctrine that spending money on political campaigns is an act of political speech protected by the First Amendment poses the greatest threat to American democracy. “That to me was the nail in the coffin,” he said. “If the combination of the monetization of our elections and gerrymandering create a bicameral legislature that doesn’t in any way reflect the will of the American people, you’ve reached the end game for democracy.”

He’s right. Not only does money as speech allow those with the fattest wallets to drown out the voices of average citizens, as John Light points out, it also gives wealthy donors an effective veto over policies that enjoy majority support. But it’s important to understand the other ways that the expansion of civil rights for corporations can conflict with the public interest.

David Simon is spot-on. You owe it to your brain to click through for the rest of this outstanding piece.

Corporations are NOT people!! Money is NOT speech!!

From Crooks and Liars: Here’s what we get to look forward to from now until Hillary Clinton either announces that she’s not going to run for president, or finishes up her second term in office if she ends up being the Democratic nominee and is elected and reelected.

Media Matters nailed this one before it even aired: Fox Scrapes The Bottom Of The Clinton Conspiracy Barrel:

Barf Bag Alert!!

In the interest of clarity, I have to say that, if there was a more progressive alternative to Hillary, who is willing to challenge her for the Democratic nomination, I would be a supporter of ABH, not because she is a woman, but because she is not progressive enough to suit me. That said, I will support her strongly in the general election, because even Hillary stands head and shoulders over anyone that the Republican Party will offer. The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, aka Faux Noise, cannot attack Hillary on policy, because across the board, theirs are worse for America, so this is the garbage they offer instead.

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222 years later, Republicans have almost succeeded in killing it.  I guess they think Washington was a damn librul.

I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling very tired.  My helper friend has not shown in over a month, and today, I had to take on a lot of the housework I’ve had her doing, including the worst task known to mankind, laundry.  That took it out of me, so this article is all there is.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:06 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: So it was that on  Sunday February 16, 2014, Meet The Press featured a segment where Bill Nye the Science Guy ‘debated’ Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) over the recent string of severe weather events and Climate Change. There was a lot of pre-emptive disparagement here at Daily Kos and elsewhere, but watching the actual segment, it turned out to be better than I expected. (If you watch it several times, you get a better appreciation of the job Nye did – and how disingenuous Blackburn’s arguments really are.)

I fully agree with the author. Kudos to Bill Nye.

From Upworthy: Economist Ben Powell makes short work of the three standby anti-immigration arguments, leaving me with a ringing in my ears that sounds distinctly like the immortal "They took our jobs" chant from "South Park." They didn’t though. They really, really didn’t.

Republicans don’t want you to know these facts, because it debunks their lies.

From NY Times: Last week’s big business news was the announcement that Comcast, a gigantic provider of cable TV and high-speed Internet service, has reached a deal to acquire Time Warner, which is merely huge. If regulators approve the deal, Comcast will be an overwhelmingly dominant player in the business, with around 30 million subscribers.

So let me ask two questions about the proposed deal. First, why would we even think about letting it go through? Second, when and why did we stop worrying about monopoly power?

Click through for the rest of this excellent Paul Krugman editorial. I trust you will agree that this monopolistic deal must be stopped.

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I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling quite tired.  I normally sleep in two segments, one in the late afternoon and evening, and the other in the early morning, after I get the blog up, distribute links and eat.  At my new digs, the second coincides with high street noise from commercial activities below me.  I’m going to have to change my schedule.  I’m not sure how, but instead of forcing myself to get the blog up right after midnight, I’m going to make sleep the priority and get it up when I get it up.  I’m guessing that I’ll be doing more of my blogging during that high noise interval.  It will take some time for my body to discover the schedule that works here and adjust to it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:28 (average 5:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In the wake of the Citizens United case, critics of the ruling, which lifted prohibitions on direct campaign spending by corporations, raised the prospect of this allowing foreign nationals to influence US elections. Very serious people dismissed this trusting the our "robust" election laws would be up to the task of keeping foreign influence out of US elections. They were dead wrong.

In a first of its kind case, federal prosecutors say a Mexican businessman funnelled more than $500,000 into U.S. political races through Super PACs and various shell companies. The alleged financial scheme is the first known instance of a foreign national exploiting the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in order to influence U.S. elections. If proven, the campaign finance scandal could reshape the public debate over the high court’s landmark decision.

Until now, allegations surrounding Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, the owner of multiple construction companies in Mexico, have not spread beyond local news outlets in San Diego, where he’s accused of bankrolling a handful of southern California candidates. But the scandal is beginning to attract national interest as it ensnares a U.S. congressman, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign firm and the legacy of one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in a generation.

Matsura was able to evade US law by using a shell corporation in order to funnel the donations to US candidates.

At the time SCROTUS trashed the Constitution for their Republican corporate criminal masters, I said this was going to happen. Republicans seem to think that even foreign corporations are people with more rights than US citizens.

From NY Times: President Obama’s ambitious trade agenda appeared to fall further victim to election-year politics on Capitol Hill on Friday when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in a closed-door retreat with House Democrats, said he understood why they would not grant Mr. Obama the crucial authority he needs to conclude large trade deals with Asia and Europe.

This is one of those rare instances in which I fully oppose Obama’s policy, so I see this as good news.

From Think Progress: The dead of winter is a hard time for climate journalists. As snow falls from the sky, like it does and will continue to do every winter, climate deniers are given more fodder to make baseless claims. “It’s freezing outside and you’re whining about warming,” they say [propaganda delinked], as if a localized weather event were reflective of a long-term global climate shift.

Frustrating as it is, the inevitable increase in climate change trolling during cold season is at the very least beneficial because it forces us to remind ourselves of the long-term nature of climate change. Climate change does not manifest itself as one hot day, nor does it disprove itself with one freezing night. In fact, it is characterized by swaths of peer-reviewed data that have shown clear warming trends at every corner of the globe — not just outside our windows — over the last 125 years.

Nowhere does this fact manifest itself more than in a newly updated interactive map from the weekly science and technology magazine New Scientist. Titled “Our Warming World,” the map — published a year ago and updated last week with 2013 data — shows yellow, orange, and red splotches to illustrate just how much different areas have warmed up over the years, in some cases since 1881. The colors are relative to the average temperature between 1951 and 1980, a period New Scientist says is “the earliest period for which there was sufficiently good coverage for comparison” worldwide. It uses Surface Temperature Analysis data from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The map makes it crystal clear. Try it out.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, and although my COPD is severe, it’s not as bad as it was for the last couple days.  I’m in a bit of a rush, as I hope to get out to run errands.  I wonder id I shall be successful at giving myself away this year. 😉

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:36).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Responding to the news that Washington Governor Jay Inslee had suspended the death penalty in his state, Texas Governor Rick Perry seized on the opportunity to urge Washington residents to “vote with your feet and move to Texas, where the death penalty is thriving.”

At a hastily called press conference this afternoon, the Texas Governor made an emotional appeal to Washingtonians who might be disappointed by the sudden suspension of executions in their state: “Come to Texas. The death penalty is alive and well here.”

Andy, are you sure this is satire?  Seriously, I do volunteer work with a coupled prisoners, who used to be on death row.  They will never breathe free air, but they have found meaning in their lives in prison by helping others learn how to avoid the mistakes they made in their downward spiral.  I believe they have helped save the lives of people who never became victims, because of the efforts of these men.  Had the state strapped them down and murdered them for revenge, the potential victims they saved would be dead.

From Upworthy: Dear Advertisers: Please Stop Portraying Women Like This In Adverts. Regards, Women

This is a fake advert. I repeat, it is satire, and fortunately for us, Swiffle isn’t a real product. But it may as well be because it rings so true to what we see depicted so often on our screens. These two women are ripping into those annoying cleaning supply commercials for their lazy stereotyping of women.

Sad as it it, I am convinced of two things. First, although this is satire, women just this really exist. Second, they are Republicans.

From Daily Kos: Winter Storm Gidget (or whatever that channel is calling it these days) is about to get underway across the southern and eastern United States, bringing with it the promise for a historic crippling ice storm and possibly the most snow some areas have seen in half a decade or more.

Click through for a bunch of detailed maps and data. I sure feel sorry for you folks, because I just lived through what you are now getting. Please take care for your safety.  No doubt Republicans will say that this extreme weather is not related to global climate change, and that it is Republican Supply-side Jesus (not the real Jesus) punishing gay America for committing the sin of ObamaCare.

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