Open Thread–9/29/2013

 Posted by at 1:07 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 292013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 107.  Yesterday’s meeting was a good one, and I have enough Chinese food leftovers to feed me all day.  We have a heavy wind and rain alert for today and tomorrow.  I may just go out and bask in it.  It’s a slow news day, as the stories dominating the news are ones I’ve already been hitting hard.  How do you like today’s cartoon?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:22 (average 6:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: The Simplest Explanation Of Obamacare. Ever.

 

Overall, this is a good explanation that covers both ObamaCare’s strengths and weaknesses, which the strengths outweigh by a huge margin. I’m glad they are taxing tanning services. Not only does their UV radiation increase the risk of cancer, but also, at last Speaker John "Agent Orange" Boehner (R-OH) will finally pay a few pennies for his health care.

From The New Yorker: In a blockbuster documentary to be broadcast tonight, the Fox News Channel alleges that Obamacare is “little more than a thinly veiled scheme to force Americans to live longer.”

The documentary, called “The Ugly Truth About Obamacare,” claims that President Obama “is cynically using the health-care law to achieve his true objective: raising the life expectancy of Americans without their consent.”

“In America, how long you live has always been your own business,” says the documentary’s narrator, Sean Hannity. “Under Obamacare, though, it’s the government’s business—a government that wants you to live as long as humanly possible.”

The documentary lays out a nightmare scenario of Americans being saddled with sky-high life expectancies for years to come…

I bet it’s a dirty Socialist Kenyan Muslim conspiracy to delay our angelic Banksters from getting eternal dividends from Republican Supply-side Jesus!! EEK!!!! 😉 (Republican Supply-side Jesus is the polar opposite of the real one.)

From NY Times: The Senate on Friday approved stopgap spending legislation to keep the federal government open without gutting President Obama’s health care law, putting new pressure on Speaker John A. Boehner to find a way out of an impasse that had the government on a steady course to a shutdown at midnight Monday.

This is proceeding exactly as I said it would. I think Boehner will puff-up, posture, threaten, bluster, maybe even allow a very short shutdown, spelunk, and go have a another drink. He knows a longer shutdown will hurt his party, and he still has the Debt Ceiling Limit as a fallback position for Republican terrorism and sedition.

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–9/28/2012

 Posted by at 12:29 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 282013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 106, and I’m about to leave to meet with a volunteer co-worker.  That will take sufficient time from my day, that this will be tomorrow’s only article.  Fantasy football players, make sure your line-ups are ready for Sunday’s games.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Teaching Children In This Awful Way Is Like Helping A Person Who Is On Fire By Drowning Them

 

What GW Bush and the Republican Party did not tell us, when they touted BCLB, using Texas as an example, is that the success was rigged by pushing children who tested poorly, often Latino ESL kids, out of school.

From Daily Kos: A sign of the times: Popular Science, the 141-year-old publication that’s one of my favorites to pick up at airports for in-flight reading, shut off comments on its website today. An important part of the decision was trolls and spambots, just like we struggle to keep in check through community moderation here at Daily Kos.

But there’s something else, too, about how people yelling nonsense skews the discussion away from science. Away from fact. Away from their mission, which is to promote science. Away from reality.

28Science-Skience

Republicans love skience and hate science.

From MSNBC and MSNBC: A Pair from Rachel Maddow

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Republicans sure aren’t listening to Saint Ronnie Ray Gun today!! See? Yesterday I was telling you the truth about the absurd Republican wish list! I think that kid should never be allowed any control of anything again and thrown out of the House… and the Senate!!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Steve is right about the difference between past posturing and today’s Republican terrorism. Two years ago, I supported the idea of a 14th Amendment solution. I understand Steve’s objections, and agree with them, so Obama should resist that alternative, unless Republicans actually cross the line. In Saint Ronnie’s day, the Republican leaders still had moral authority. Today they have only moral deficit, and that, so great that it makes our fiscal deficit seem like small change in comparison. That should bring you up to date on the Republican debt ceiling crisis.

Cartoon:

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Republicans have suggested bringing this back as civilian punishment.

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Open Thread–9/27/2013

 Posted by at 2:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics
Sep 272013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 105.  My gut has fully recovered, and the only ill effects from the bug that I still have is from the missed sleep.  I’m fortunate.  With those, I usually have Republicitis and need to spend hours on the throne.  Tomorrow I’m meeting one of my friends, with whom I do volunteer work, for lunch, so on Saturday, I may have just an Open Thread, or nothing at all.

Jig Zone:

Today’s took me 3:24 (average 4:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Who would have thought that such a simple action can have such a profound effect on the level of happiness in our lives? Catch the setup in the first 30 seconds, the beauty of the experiment unfolding, the perfect moment at 4:25 that had me a bit choked up, and the best takeaway from it all at 6:25…

 

No wonder Republican politicians are such unhappy people that they feel the need to share their misery with us.  They just have no gratitude for the people stupid enough to vote for them!

From The New Yorker: In what is being hailed as a rare example of bipartisan coöperation [sic], Senate Democrats and Republicans came together today on a near-unanimous vote to defund Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

The measure, which shuts down all nonessential functions of Sen. Cruz, passed by a margin of ninety-nine to one.

As the final vote was announced this morning, Sen. Cruz’s microphone was unplugged and the Senate exploded with cheers on both sides of the aisle…

If only!!!!

From Daily Kos: Republicans haven’t officially unveiled their list of demands for raising the debt limit, but they are previewing them through leaks, and they are every bit as loopy as you’d expect:

House Republicans plan to demand major perks for coal companies and Wall Street banks, alongside healthcare and social service cuts and a one-year delay in the implementation of Obamacare, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling until the end of 2014, according to a source close to the House GOP leadership.

Among the other items on the GOP’s list [Propagandists delinked]: Tax reform on their terms, effectively eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Medicare means testing, blocking net neutrality, forcing approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, expanding offshore oil drilling, and, in the words of a GOP list of talking points: "Pretty much every jobs bill we have passed this year and last Congress."

Dang!! They expect THAT?!!? LOL!! That’s what smoking InsaniTEA will do!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–9/26/2013

 Posted by at 2:35 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 262013
 

I’m writing for Thursday, day 104, and while not yet well, I am somewhat better.  There has been a stomach flu going around here, and I evidently have it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:11 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Imagine using the biggest speech of your life to talk about your deepest inner struggles. That’s exactly what the soldier here does as he’s given the Medal of Honor.

 

The Republican Party is thanking this hero and other victims of PTSD by threatening to shut down their benefits with a shutdown or debt default. This is how the Republican Party supports the troops, this and to offer them as cannon fodder.

From The New Yorker: Republican leaders warned the newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that they would frown on his shaking hands with President Obama at the United Nations today, saying that any embrace of Obama would signal that Iran was not serious about abandoning extremism.

“We welcome President Rouhani’s moderate rhetoric,” said Senator Rand Paul (R-Ken.). “But those words are rendered hollow if he is willing to shake the hand of a notorious extremist.”

“This is a man who has enslaved his people, saddling them with a health-care law not of their choosing,” said Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). “The President of Iran should think twice before shaking hands with a man like that.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sounded a warning of his own: “If the President of Iran wants to give the world the impression that he cares about human rights, he should be careful about cozying up to a despot who has continually tried to take away his people’s assault rifles.”…

Sometimes Andy worries me over giving Republicans new ideas to adopt.

From MSNBC: A "Rand" by any other name…

 

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Dang! That is so rich that you could fertilize your veggies with it!!. Rachel should have entitled the segment, "BS by any other name." The PAC should change their name to: "Stand with Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot"!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–9/25/2015

 Posted by at 1:24 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 252013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 103, and I’m tired, because guitar man went on a binge yesterday, making sleep impossible.  I was so pooped that I fell asleep at the keyboard answering comments here, between Yvonne and Edie in the Open Thread for the 23rd.  Nevertheless, I have articles for tomorrow.

Update: Last night I had bad stomach cramps, and still do.  I’ll just post this for now, and catch up on comments tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:54 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report: Here’s the latest from our fantasy football league. 🙁

Scores:

3Scores

It wasn’t over ‘till the fat TomCat purrred, but TC choked on a fur ball!!

Standings:

3Standings

Don’t forget to set your line-ups by Thursday night if you want to start any players fro the 49ers or the Rams.  Also, it’s the bye week for the Packers and the Panthers, so those players can’t be started this week.

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Everyone has to earn a living, but some people do it in sleazier ways than others. That’s the story of American farmers and patent lawyers. Monsanto works so hard at owning the food supply, and these farmers just keep getting in the way. [Upworthy’s video was not working, so I got the original clip.]

They do a great job of illustrating how these corporate criminals are trying to corner the food market so they can stick it to YOU!

From NY Times: The nomination of a gay black Miami judge to the federal bench will not move forward after Senator Marco Rubio announced he was withdrawing his support over concerns about the judge’s actions in two criminal cases.

Judge William Thomas was nominated to the Federal District Court in Miami.

Without Mr. Rubio’s approval, Judge William Thomas’s nomination to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in Miami, is effectively blocked. Judge Thomas, who serves on the Miami-Dade Circuit, was nominated by President Obama, with Mr. Rubio’s backing, more than 10 months ago.

Rubio is running too scared of his rabid base to keep up his pretense to be inclusive. The crime that matters to Rubin in the first case is that the judge is black, and in the second case, that the judge is gay.

From MSNBC: Inequality for All Targets Income Disparity

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This conversation is great follow up for my earlier Short Take on Inequality for All. I’m glad Lawrence is bringing us the background.

Cartoon:

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And Republicans work overtime contradicting, misinterpreting, and lying about it!!

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Open Thread–9/23/2013

 Posted by at 3:01 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 232013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 101, and getting my arse kicked un fantasy football, but it’s still early.  It ain’t over ‘till the fat TomCat purrrs!!  Update: Not even Garfield can save me on this one. 🙁

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:13 (average 5:14).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Last Friday MSNBC Ed Schultz had a town hall in Alabama. He wanted to go to the deep South and talk directly to the people. He complained about the right-wing talking heads using a narrative of dependency as well as race bating to create a level of angst within the white community. One wonders if he expected to have two women in the audience with prescient stories that put it all in a microcosm.

 

Not all Republicans are racist, but most racists are Republican, because the party has opened its doors and put out the welcome mat for hate mongers.

From Alternet: He’s back. Steve “cantaloupe calves” King opines some more on undocumented immigrants.

Saying irresponsible, racist things about immigrants is Iowa Tea Party Rep. Steve King’s brand, and he continues to hone and promote it. At a recent anti-immigration rally in Omaha, he out and out called “illegal immigrants” a murderous mob. King recounted to the already-converted-to-hate audience a conversation he had recently with INS agent Mike Cutler at a congressional hearing. “How many Americans have died at the hands of illegal immigrants? What’s the price Americans are paying for an open door policy?” King asked Cutler.

To which, King claims Cutler helpfully replied: “‘I don’t know the answer to that, but I can tell you it will be in multiples of the victims of September 11th."

Good at math King, randomly multiplied 9/11’s death toll of about 3,000 by four and told the hate rally that 12,000 murders were likely committed by these out-of-control immigrants, who would be crashing planes into our buildings if they could, but sometimes just have to settle for raping and murdering us.

This is just one of seven vile statements made by prominent Republicans in the last week alone. Click through for the other six. I must admit surprise, however, that King was actually able to multiply 3,000 by 4.

From NRDC,org: It’s less costly to get electricity from wind turbines and solar panels than coal-fired power plants when climate change costs and other health impacts are factored in, according to a new study published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

In fact—using the official U.S. government estimates of health and environmental costs from burning fossil fuels—the study shows it’s cheaper to replace a typical existing coal-fired power plant with a wind turbine than to keep the old plant running. And new electricity generation from wind could be more economically efficient than natural gas.

The study confirms what I recently posted about the effects of allowing the fossil fuel industry to externalize the costs of their harm to people and the environment. This subsidy of suffering must end!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–9/22/2013

 Posted by at 12:51 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 222013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 100, and I’m sad to say the cravings have not diminished one iota.  I haven’t been Peter Perfect, but my doctor says that she has no problem with my ultra-low cheating level (< 1/week or two).  On the downside, my sense of smell has returned, and that can be a major inconvenience on public transit.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will not be worshiping,  They have been blessed with worship on Monday night this week.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: The new NALT Christians Project is currently blowing my mind. It’s a place where Christians can publicly proclaim that they are “not all like that.” And it’s about time.

 

These are authentic Christians. The haters are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians. The difference is clear.  (Thanks to Pat, you’ll be seeing more of these, as I’ve put myself on their list.)

From The New Yorker: In a sharply critical op-ed piece for the Russian Web site Pravda, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a brutal, freedom-hating tyrant” and challenged Mr. Putin to tear down the Berlin Wall.

“The Wall stands as a symbol of your failed, repressive system,” Sen. McCain said. “Until you tear it down, the world will see you and your Soviet goons for what you are: relics destined for the dustbin of history.”

“Mr. Putin, tear down that wall,” Sen. McCain’s editorial pointedly concluded.

Dang!! Andy really HAS switched from satirizing to reporting!!  😉

From NY Times: The Obama administration on Friday announced that it was not backing down from a confrontation with the coal industry and that it would press ahead with enacting the first federal carbon limits on the nation’s power companies.
The proposed regulations, announced at the National Press Club by Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, are an aggressive move by Mr. Obama to bypass Congress on climate change with executive actions he promised in his inaugural address this year. The regulations are certain to be denounced by House Republicans and the industry as part of what they call the president’s “war on coal.”

In her speech, Ms. McCarthy unveiled the agency’s proposal to limit new gas-fired power plants to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt-hour and new coal plants to 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide. Industry officials say the average advanced coal plant currently emits about 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour.

I hear a lot of whining that it isn’t enough, and I fully agree. It isn’t enough. However, without Congress, it’s what he CAN do.

Cartoon:

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Republican Supply-side Jesus talks about SNAP (food stamps).

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Open Thread–9/21/2013

 Posted by at 12:47 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 212013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 99, and hoping for some rest today as stuck on stupid neighbor and guitar man tag teamed my sleep yesterday.  The honcho from the company that owns the building and the agent from the county are meeting today, so hopefully I should know next week and may be able to move as soon as next month.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:22 (average 4:56).  It reminded me of Congress  :-(  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Saying he was “sorry it had to come to this,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said today that he was forming an “independent search committee” to select a new Pope.

The visibly upset jurist appeared at a press conference with the sole other member of the newly formed search committee, Justice Clarence Thomas.

Justice Scalia said he had “no other alternative” but to pick a new Pope himself after reading what he called a “disturbing” interview with Pope Francis today: “The Pope said he doesn’t want to speak out against abortion and gay marriage. Well, sorry, my friend, but that’s the entire job description. You should have thought of that before you let them blow that white smoke in Rome.”

Dang! Has Andy stopped satirizing and started reporting?

From Daily Kos: MSNBC host Chuck Todd said Wednesday that when it comes to misinformation about the new federal health care law, don’t expect members of the media to correct the record.

During a segment on "Morning Joe," former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) speculated that most opponents of the Affordable Care Act have been fed erroneous information about the law. Todd said that Republicans "have successfully messaged against it" but he disagrees with those who argue that the media should educate the public on the law. According to Todd, that’s President Barack Obama’s job.

This is a host on the channel Republicans say is 100% librul. Since when is informing the public, as to what is true and what isn’t, not the job of the fourth estate?  Hat-Tip to Patty for Credo’s petition to NBC about Todd.

From MSNBC: Ed Schultz reveals the Republican heart.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I’m pleased to report that not one single Democrat goose-stepped with the Republican Party’s War on the Poor. Every penny Democrats spend on hungry children is a penny Republicans can’t give to a billionaire. As for the Republican heart, there is none. In effect they are saying that to take away poor people’s subsistence will lead them to economic success, in the same way they seem to think that taking away their health care will lead them to good health. The bill passed the House.

Cartoon:

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