Open Thread – 7/20/2017

 Posted by at 1:10 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 202017
 

It amazes me how clumsy improved vision is making me.  I have lots of muscle memory predicated on what I used to see.  Now that I see something different, I’ve become a bona-fide klutz.  I had a busy morning.  I set up all the appointments for my second eye, which is now scheduled for surgery on 8/28.  I also put in calls to my computer tech to help with some networking issues and to Providence Elder at Home to pick up my Advanced Directive.  I’m awaiting return calls.  I have nothing else scheduled this week, so, God willing, and if the creek don’t rise, I should stay in the saddle.  Finally, here is a pic of me in the Surgery Center.  Ladies, you might want to cover your eyes.  Stumpy is nekkid. Surprised smile

0720Hosp

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:12 (average 5:23).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Kobach’s Commission

 

Don’t let Trump, Kobitch, or the Republican Reich take YOUR right to vote away! RESIST!!

From NY Times: Phillip Jones, whose job it is to court visitors to this city, spent months warning anyone who would listen: Economic pain will follow if Texas lawmakers pass laws seen as hostile to gay and transgender people.

But after Texas approved a law that critics said might keep people, on the basis of sexual orientation, from adopting children or serving as foster parents, even Mr. Jones was surprised at part of the fallout: a ban by California on taxpayer-funded travel to Texas.

Kudos! Californicate Texas! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: The Senate Judiciary Committee notified Trump’s legal team today to:

“immediately take steps to preserve all relevant documents in the possession, custody, or control of the Trump Campaign related to Russian interference in the 2016 election, including documents related to the Trump campaign’s contacts with: Russian government officials, associates, or representatives; any individuals who purported to act or whom were believed to be acting on behalf of Russian government officials, associates, or representatives; anyone who might have been involved in or in receipt of information obtained as a result of Russia’s influence campaign.”

The letter is posted at the Committee’s website.

The Committee also requested "all communications to, from, or copied to the Trump campaign relating to” the following list of 41 individuals and entities, which includes one unexpected name, Jill Stein.

It was not unexpected to me. I’ve been documenting Traitor Jill’s collusion with Russia, since before the election.

0720Stein

RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0720Cartoon

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Open Thread – 7/19/2017

 Posted by at 12:22 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 192017
 

I was awake most of Monday night, because I had cotton mouth, as I was allowed no liquids.  The Surgery Center was efficient.  During the surgery, Christine told me that the cancer surgery had made the cataract more difficult to extract and the pain drops were wearing off.  When she applied more drops, I had a brief moment of intense burning, but otherwise there was no pain during the procedure.  I got to look through the eye this morning, and the effect is phenomenal. The vision is clear and colors are brilliant.  The computer screen is still blurry, because I have to wear my glasses, which are intended for distance, to protect the eye.  I can’t wait to get the other eye done.  This is today’s only article, because I have a follow-up appointment this afternoon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:35 (average 4:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): A Timeline of Treason | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

 

It is what Keith says it is: a timeline of treason. RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump, Putin had second, undisclosed, hour-long encounter at G20

Ian Bremmer, political scientist and president of The Eurasia Group, talks with Rachel Maddow about the revelation of an undisclosed second encounter between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that left US allies concerned and no official record.

 

Consider this in the context that Jared Kushner tried to establish a backchannel of communications with the Russian government, so that nobody in the US government would be aware of what is said. Why does the Trump Reich want to hide dealings with Russia from America? It seems clear that the second meeting between Trump and Putin included only a Russian translator was also a safe way to discuss quid pro quo in secret. That’s conspiracy. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was rushed to the hospital late Monday night with what doctors diagnosed as a low white-vote count.

Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center said that when McConnell arrived at the facility his white-vote count had fallen below fifty and he had gone into shock.

Dr. Harland Dorrinson, a physician at Walter Reed who is monitoring McConnell’s condition, called his low white-vote count “very serious.”

“Mitch McConnell needs a white-vote count of at least fifty in order to function,” he said. “If it falls below fifty and stays there for an extended period of time, he cannot survive.”

Dang Andy! So that explains it. This might give Bought Bitch Mitch a chance to socialize with his pal, Antonin Scalia. Winking smile RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0719Cartoon

…for now.

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As Seen From Afar 7/19/2017

 Posted by at 9:10 am  Personal, Politics
Jul 192017
 

THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED HERE

Last Saturday, Australian Justine Damond (40) called 911 to alert the Minneapolis police to a possible (sexual) assault in an alley near her home. When she approached the squad car of the two attending police officers in her pajamas, she was shot in the abdomen and killed by one of the officers.

Many questions remain around the fatal shooting as neither officer had turned on his body cameras until after the shooting, nor had the squad car camera been activated, and the officer responsible for the fatal shot(s?) has not spoken with investigators of the incident yet. His partner told investigators that Ms. Damond approached the driver’s side window of the squad car immediately after he, the driver, had been startled by a loud sound near their squad car. His partner next to him in the passenger seat fired his weapon, hitting Ms. Damond through the open driver’s side window, according to his statement.

I’ve left out the names and any further background information on the two police officers, because this particular article isn’t about pointing the finger at individual officers, but to delve a little deeper into police killings in America from an Australia and Dutch point of view.

Her stepson Zach Damond, 22 understandably has an emotional point of view on what happened:

“I’m so done with all this violence, it’s so much bullshit.

“America sucks, these cops need to be trained differently and I need to move out of here.”

It is a view shared by many Australians, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who gave an interview Wednesday to Australia’s “Today” show, shortly before the release of details from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s preliminary investigation and who voiced the outrage of many Australians:

“How can a woman out in the street in her pajamas seeking assistance from police be shot like that? It is a shocking killing.”

The Australian outrage is driven by the extremeness of the police response to a 911 call, and most of by all how common it is. As the NYT points out in a cover story Ms. Damond was one of more than 500 people shot and killed by the police in the United States this year; in fact she was one of the 547 killed to this day. Of course Australia and The Netherlands have much smaller populations than the US ( about 23 million, 17 million and 326 million respectively), but even so the difference in numbers of people killed by police is shocking.

In Australia 105 people were recorded killed by police action from 1989 – 2011, an average of a little less than 5 people per year over 22 year period. And these figures are to be trusted because reporting all incidents is obligatory, unlike the US where even fatal incidents need not be reported to a central authority.

Dutch police officers had to use their firearm 158 times last year. These included 70 warning shots and 61 cases of ‘serious fire’, including shots that struck. Those that struck weren’t necessarily on people, some were for instance fired to keep an aggressive dog from charging or put a hurt runaway cow out of its misery. In all, only 33 shooting incidents in which police officers were involved were investigated, a standard procedure into the use of service weapons when injuries or deaths are reported. Over the last 10 years Dutch police officers were responsible for an average of 3 deaths every year.

Australian media may be right when they headline “This wouldn’t have happened here”, a departure from their usual coverage of America’s frequent mass shootings which is often framed in cynicism and where “another day, another shooting in America” is a common refrain on newscasts.

Like their American colleagues Australian police officers have been given pepper spray and Tasers to help them resolve possible dangerous situations; the Dutch officers have started using Tazers in a trial this year. But the main difference between the approaches of the police forces in the different countries lies in the training polices officers get. Most American officers now receive training in assessing threats and de-escalate potentially violent situations, but the focus still lies on expecting the worst, on self-preservation and on staying “on top” or “ahead”, and that most often means using force, a lot of force. In a country where there are more guns than people, and where admittedly officers’ deepest fear is being shot, that usually also means responding with guns.

In Australia – and in the EU, I believe – police forces have a different approach:

“Here in Australia, we wouldn’t do as much officer survival training. We would have an equal amount of focus on sociology, psychology and awareness of human behavior.” (Vince Hurley, criminologist at Macquarie University in Sydney)

Given the very low number of people killed there, this is an approach that seems to work in both Australia and Holland. But to be fair, neither of these countries has its police officers working every day in fear of their lives because of the great love of guns deeply embedded within America’s culture. Holding “the right to bear arms” so dear to their hearts, American police officers and citizens are both caught up in a suffocating embrace, spiraling down to the bottom together. No matter how much psychological awareness training these officers get, if they’re scared out of their wits going to a call, they’ll shoot first and assess later, as Justine Damond had to learn in such a terrible way.

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Open Thread – 7/17/2017

 Posted by at 1:17 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 172017
 

Except for a grocery delivery from Safeway.com in the next seventy minutes, I finally have everything ready for tomorrow’s cataract surgery.  I have to report at 7:15 AM for 8:30 surgery.  I should be able to leave by 10:30.  When I return, either I will post a Personal Update, or Wendy, who is taking me both ways, will do so on my behalf.  On Wednesday, I plan to post a Personal Update in the morning.  I have to go to Christine’s office for a day one follow-up appointment in the afternoon, and Wendy will pick me up from there on the way to my normal shower evening.  Then I’m done with medical mayhem for eight days, god willing.  The groceries came and I have put them away.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:33 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Tree Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – (Internet) Freedom Isn’t Free

 

If I wanted crying dwarf porn, I’d watch Republicans in Congress. Demand Net Neutrality! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump announced his candidacy back in June of 2015, and though he got some mention in other articles, I went all the way to November before I did my first piece entirely donated to Donald.

Sixty million people died in World War II, but fascism won. It didn’t win on the battlefield. It didn’t win right away. It won because the same fears, the same greed, the same hatred that fueled its growth in the first part of the twentieth century never went away.

The symbols of fascism became anathema, but the causes … went deep. And gradually, slowly, one step at a time, all those vices became first tolerated, then treated as virtues, and then as the only acceptable view.

That was my view of Trump then — the manifestation of how America had grown not just to accept, but celebrate, all the hatred, prejudice, fear, and repression that marks the worst authoritarian dystopias. And the most horrible thing about what’s probably the most horrible article I ever wrote, is that all of it fell utterly short of being horrible enough.

Like too many people, I thought “no, we’re past that, Americans will never accept this level of racism.” I was wrong. I thought “Americans will never tolerate such blatant sexism.” Wrong again. I thought “Christians will never hand their banner to a man who openly, proudly, daily shapes his life around vengeance, a man who thinks forgiveness itself is contemptable.” I was very, very, wrong.

The author, Mark Sumner, and I seem to have an awful lot of thought in common here. Click through for the rest. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Sometime in the next few days the Congressional Budget Office will release its analysis of the latest version of the Republican health care plan. Senator Mitch McConnell is doing all he can to prevent a full assessment, for example by trying to keep the C.B.O. from scoring the Cruz provision, which would let insurers discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Nonetheless, everyone expects a grim prognosis.

As a result, White House aides are already attacking the C.B.O.’s credibility, announcing in advance that whatever it says will be “fake news.” So why should we believe the budget office, not the Trump administration? Let me count the ways.

First, this White House already has a record of constant, blatant lying about health care that is, as far as I can tell, without precedent in modern history. Just a few days ago, for example, Vice President Mike Pence made the completely false assertion that Ohio’s expansion of Medicaid led to a cutback in aid for the disabled — a lie that the state’s government had already refuted. On Sunday, Tom Price, the secretary of Health and Human Services, claimed that the Senate bill would cover more people than current law — another blatant lie. (You can’t cut hundreds of billions from Medicaid and insurance subsidies and expect coverage to grow!)

The point is that on this issue (and others, of course), the Trump administration and its allies have negative credibility: If they say something, the default assumption should be that they’re lying.

Click through for the rest of this fine Paul Krugman editorial. The only time Republicans stop lying is after someone nails the lid on. Our choice is simple. RepubliCare dies, or we do. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0717Cartoon

Even though I made this cartoon in 2011, InsaniTEA still comes in the same flavors.

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Open Thread – 7/16/2017

 Posted by at 12:57 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 162017
 

Before I get very far with this, Wendy will be here to help with assorted tasks and fumigate the TomCat.  It’s just in time too, because the authorities were about to evacuate the Squatch north of the Arctic Circle for her own defense, if the wind had shifted.  Tomorrow will be my last day in the saddle, before my cataract surgery.  I hope to be back in the saddle on Thursday, but we’ll see how I see.  Later: Wendy has left and we have everything ready for Tuesday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:41 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The former chief G W Bush speechwriter has a column in today’s Washington Post that shows the spreading impact of people processing the events since Saturday when the story of Trump Jr. , Kushner, and Manafort met with the Russian lawyer broke into the public consciousness.  Titled In Trump’s world, innocence is proved by guilt, it is very much shaped by the release of the email chain earlier this week.

Yes, it is true the Gerson was never a fan or supporter of Donald J. Trump, but this piece is very pointed, and given who reads Gerson likely to have an impact on a some of the “more reasonable” Republican officers.

Click through to read his take down. I’m sure I disagree with him on many other issues, but seeing a Republican express an ethical position is so rare, I have to applaud it, when I do. As for the rest of the Republican Reich… RESIST!!

From NY Times: A powerful rule finalized last week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will allow consumers to join together in class-action lawsuits against banks, credit card companies and other lenders over price gouging, predatory lending, abusive loan terms and other mistreatment.

Some congressional Republicans have vowed to use special legislative procedures to repeal the rule, which could take effect next year. A quick kill would be of a piece with other efforts to weaken financial regulation and allow firms to operate without accountability to customers or judges.

It’s unclear whether a congressional majority will vote to overturn a rule of such obvious benefit to consumers. What is certain is that killing the rule would be an injustice.

Liz Warren’s CFPB may be the only thing Republicans hate as much as ObamaCare and voting rights. I suspect they will overturn the rules in short order. RESIST!!

From Commonwealth Fund:

 

AUS

CAN

FRA

GER

NETH

NZ

NOR

SWE

SWIZ

UK

US

OVERALL RANKING

2

9

10

8

3

4

4

6

6

1

11

Care Process+

2

6

9

8

4

3

10

11

7

1

5

Access+

4

10

9

2

1

7

5

6

8

3

11

Administrative Efficiency+

1

6

11

6

9

2

4

5

8

3

10

Equity+

7

9

10

6

2

8

5

3

4

1

11

Health Care Outcomes+

1

9

5

8

6

7

3

2

4

10

11

Click through to read the entire report. What better case could there be for Medicare for all? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0716Cartoon

Republicans in Congress refuse to allow the residents any power to govern themselves.

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Open Thread – 7/15/2017

 Posted by at 1:01 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Jul 152017
 

The last couple days have been extremely hectic.  On Thursday I went to my Prosthetist, Amanda and got new shoes.  They were a little loose, but I figured they were workable, as I broke them in.  I lay down to rest for a couple hours after I returned home and published.  I found out that, when my foot is up and not in a shoe, it gets smaller.  When I put the shoe on to get up for supper, and transferred from my bed to my wheelchair, hopping with my walker, my foot came out of my shoe, and I almost fell.  The new shoes have to go back.  ARGH!  My appointment with Megan was interrupted by a fire drill at Providence Professional Plaza, and they evacuated a large six floor medical building, myself included.  Megan cleared me for surgery, and I returned home at around 4:30.  I’m very, very tired, but surviving medical mahem.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:00 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Trump Wants To Repeal Johnson Amendment So RR Pastors Can Praise Him

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

Any pastor has always been able to speak out and say that he or she supports a particular candidate. The Johnson Amendment never prevented that, nor was it intended to. What it did prevent is a pastor ordering his church to support a candidate or using the church’s tax exempt facilities for the benefit of a candidate. That should remain a violation of 501(c)(3).  I don’t mind paying a little more in taxes so churches’ tax exemption helps pay for the charitable work some churches do.  I do mind helping them fund political activities, especially ones I oppose.  RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: The House Republicans tried to exempt themselves from Trumpcare and the reaction was so angry and so bad that they had to abandon the effort. But that example wasn’t enough to deter Mitch McConnell.

Senate Republicans included a provision that exempts members of Congress and their staff from part of their latest health care plan.

This exemption could have the effect of ensuring that members of Congress have coverage for a wider array of benefits than other Americans who purchase their own coverage.

If RepubliCare becomes law, which I doubt, the Republicans that pass it should be the first to experience the RepubliCare Death Benefit: if you can’t pay, you get to die! RESIST!!

From Washington Post: The White House on Thursday made public a trove of emails it received from voters offering comment on its Election Integrity Commission. The commission drew widespread criticism when it emerged into public view by asking for personal information, including addresses, partial social security numbers and party affiliation, on every voter in the country.

It further outraged voters by planning to post that information publicly.

Voters directed that outrage toward the Trump White House and the voter commission, often using profanity-laced language in the 112 pages of emails released this week.

Just as Trump and his Republican Rectum Reich released these emails from voters, you can be sure that the Republican so-called Election Integrity Commission will either publish voters’ personal information, or forward it to Putin’s FSB (formerly KGB). RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0715Cartoon

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Personal Update – 7/14/2017

 Posted by at 6:59 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 142017
 

I’m in a big rush.  I need to catch a morning nap, because I’ll be gone all afternoon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:33 (4:51 average).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Take:

From YouTube (GQ Network): The True Evil of Russia’s Cyber War on America | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

 

I read Robert Hamner’s short story and have seen the Star Trek episode many times. I could not agree more.  It’s not just Trump. Almost the entire Republican Party refused to admit it’s happening, let alone do anything to stop it. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0714Cartoon

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