Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow and meditating lightly to the game in the background.  Of course, I’m really waiting for the Broncos worship, may the holy light of the Ellipsoid Orb bless them.  When this posts, the results will be posted below.  The natives were quiet late last night, and I actually got some sleep.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:06 (average 5:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

The so-called ‘best defense in the league’ never knocked Manning down!

Short Takes:

From NY Times: …Economists see it the same way, concerned that joblessness lasting more than six months is a major factor preventing people from getting rehired, with potentially grave consequences for tens of millions of Americans.

The long-term jobless, after all, tend to be in poorer health, and to have higher rates of suicide and strained family relations. Even the children of the long-term unemployed see lower earnings down the road.

The consequences are grave for the country, too: lost production, increased social spending, decreased tax revenue and slower growth. Policy makers and academics are now asking whether an improving economy might absorb those workers in time to prevent long-term economic damage.

This underlines why we need government to do what business can’t or won’t. A big public works project, like FDR’s CCC, would not only rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, so desperately in need of repair, but also, put people back to work in a way that removes the stigma of long term unemployment.

From Alternet: “Historian” David Barton: True Christian soldiers wouldn’t have PTSD.

Atheism is apparently a problem in the military, too. Because if soldiers were true Christians, they would not feel bad about killing enemies and sometimes non-combatants. They would not come home traumatized and have all these psychological problems.

Christian “historian” David Barton, the one who blamed Typhoon Haiyan on women having legal abortions, celebrated Veteran’s Day by criticizing veterans who feel at all guilty for what they do on the battlefield. If they read their Bible, he and televangelist Kenneth Copeland agreed on Believer’s Voice of Victory, they’d read in Numbers 32 that soldiers “shall return and be guiltless before the Lord” and that means that they wouldn’t have PTSD.

“You don’t take drugs to get rid of it, it doesn’t take psychology; that promise right there will get rid of it,” Copeland said.

When you go to war God’s way, Barton chimed in, “not only are you guiltless for having done that, you’re esteemed.”

So, get it together veterans!

Aside from being typical of how Republicans support veterans, this InsaniTEA From Fartin’ Barton is just one of ten deranged dispatches by the Republican wackosphere, from just last week. Click through for the other nine.

From Crooks and Liars: CNN on Saturday filled nearly ten minutes of airtime by discussing how President Barack Obama was like crack-smoking Toronto Rob Ford.

"The Most Trusted Name in News" began the segment with a split-screen image of Obama and Ford. The network then likened Obama’s recent admission that he was "not a perfect man" because of the health care reform roll-out to Ford’s insistence that he did not have oral sex with a staffer.

Republicans will spread that ridiculous screenshot far and wide. Comparing Obama to Ford (R-Canada) is patently absurd. I say again, CNN needs to be renamed Faux Noise, Jr.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, and attempting to get back to normal blogging.  I’m feeling well enough, as long as I don’t push to hard.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:17 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Three weeks ago, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said that if America had socialized medicine he would probably be dead instead of recovering from heart surgery:

The 79-year-old suggested that if he had been in a part of the world with “socialized medicine like Obama is trying to impose upon America,” the operation never would have happened. […] “And so the message there is, you know I say this to all of your American listeners, let’s hold onto what we’ve got here. You are talking to someone right now who probably wouldn’t be here if we had socialized medicine in America.”

And now, this weekend, we learned that Medicare—which Inhofe’s personal hero Ronald Reagan once described as "socialized medicine"—provides insurance coverage for Inhofe’s medical bills

Were it not for that socialized medicine, Inhofe would probably still be alive, but only because, as a member of the 1%, he could have opted "pay" to avoid the RepubliCare Death Benefit.

From The New Yorker: Moments after President Obama said he would allow insurers to continue health plans that were to be cancelled under the Affordable Care Act, leading Republicans blasted the President for agreeing with an idea that they had supported.

“It’s true that we’ve been strongly in favor of Americans being allowed to keep their existing plans,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “But now that the President is for it, we’re convinced that it’s a horrible idea.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) went further in ripping the President, calling Mr. Obama’s tactic of adopting ideas proposed by him and fellow Republicans “beneath contempt.”…

Once again, Andy’s satire has the hypocrisy of Republican sedition pegged.

From Alternet: Chris Christie (R-N.J.) has been billed as a new kind of Republican. Is it a fair characterization? Yes and no.

Yes, this likely presidential candidate has done a few things other GOP politicians don’t usually do. Yes, he has won re-election in a traditionally Democratic state. And yes, for a few weeks he was actually cordial to President Obama. Even considering the context — he only won against anunderfunded opponent and he was only nice to the president when asking for hurricane relief funds — these are, indeed, rare accomplishments for a Republican.

        That said, these atypical parts of Christie’s record have little to do with the concrete policies that he has touted and that he would probably champion if he were elected president. On that score, Christie isn’t new at all. He is the opposite — a Bush/Cheney-esque neoconservative promoting the old politics of division and ignorance.

Click through for an excellent article with the details on how Christie is nothing more than a Republican in sheeples’ clothing. He’s BA-A-A-A-AD!!

Cartoon:

Republicans are still looking for revenge against Democrats for that, even though it was the Republican Party that approved Sherman’s tactics, not the Democrats.

I’m running way late today, because my interview wiped me out.  Actually it wasn’t the interview, but the 1 1/4 mile walk home from it.  It’s one of those weird downtown transit situations where the trip there is almost door to door direct, but the trip back would take two busses, save only 1/4 mile walking, and take twice as long.  Mostly it was a ton of paperwork, and it looks like it won’t be long now.  I need to catch sleep Thursday to get up early Friday, so a computer tech in Sweden can crawl around inside my computer to find out why Ad-aware 11 Pro did not install quite right.  Fantasy football players, make sure your lineups are set for Thursday night’s game.  I’m still improving slowly.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 4:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Update: The original blogger has pulled Hir post out of concern for legal issues.

Apparently the University of Nebraska Medical Center only provides care to straight white Cis Republicans.

Because sie* [transgender personal pronoun] told them sie was gender queer a transplant patient with a live kidney donor was denied care.

Up to that time Mika had yet to discuss sie’s trans status probably thinking it inconsequential. But after Mika revealed sie’s trans status the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s staff became more difficult.

Mika wrote on sie’s blog

"However, this is when I told them that I identify as Mika and prefer female pronouns. Everything seemed to be okay, except for a little confusion. Until they asked me what I do in my free time and I told them that I volunteer with non-profits to work towards equality for the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) community and I volunteer on political campaigns and plan to help out on the Obama campaign. That is when the Transplant Coordinator Nurse told me that they are Republicans. Everything changed."

That’s when the staff began having trouble addressing Mika with the proper pronouns.

and despite having a live donor waiting Mika was told Sie and the donor would have to submit to extended psychoanalysis before the transplant.

…

How very Republican it is to blatantly put the life of a human being at risk by denying hir care because of their own hatred of LGBT people.

From MSNBC: Chris Hayes covered Elizabeth Warren’s populism.

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

I have little to add, except that I number myself in the Warren, Brown, Merkley, Grayson, Sanders (sort of) Democrats.

From Think Progress: Eighty-one percent of research universities say budget sequestration cuts are directly hampering their scientific research activities, according to a new survey released Monday…

…Specifically, the study found that 70 percent of the surveyed institutions had delayed research projects and were dealing with fewer federal grants for new research. Twenty-eight percent reported an inability to purchase research equipment and instrumentation, 19 percent had cancelled field and experimental work, and 38 percent had delayed it.

This is the legacy of the Republican Sequester: less research means less well educated students, fewer discoveries, and fewer jobs exploiting them.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow and am still improving slowly.  I’m feeling down, because I need to cancel my volunteer work in prison tomorrow.  I’m just not well enough to handle the exertion yet.  This will be today’s only article, but I hope to be back to full time later this week.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Nation (via surveymonkey): The Nation’s Fox or Fox [Typo: should read Fox or Fiction] Quiz is not authorized, sponsored or associated with Fox News Channel or Fox Entertainment Group.

I got them all. How did you do?

From Crooks and Liars: Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott is one of a growing number of wealthy residents who are drilling wells to get around water restrictions during one of the worst droughts in history — a practice that environmentalists are warning could leave less water for everyone else.

The Texas Tribune reported on Sunday that Abbott had installed the well just months before the city of Austin began cracking down on lawn-watering restrictions.

According to the Tribune, some of the resident’s in Abbott’s luxury Pemberton Heights neighborhood had marked their lawns with signs that noted "Watering by Private Well” to avoid being hassled by the city… [emphasis added]

The video explains the need for conservation and personal responsibility. However, what we see here is a preview of how the 1% and their Republican lap dogs intend to treat the severe shortages that climate change is bringing our way. They will hog the recourses we so desperately need and use them wastefully, just as they are now.

From Upworthy: The Eerie Thought About God That The Inventor Of The Nuclear Bomb Had When It Went Off

Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, considered to be the father of the atomic bomb, was anything but callous about the bomb’s destructive ability. He was one of the most knowledgable [sic] people on the subject of atomic weaponry, but he tirelessly campaigned against nuclear prolifieration [sic]. As we travel into the future, let’s not forget his words and sentiment.

Sadly, it is no surprise that the pro-death party are the ones who object to further nuclear reductions and insist on upgrading our nuclear arsenal.

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