Politics Plus

Writing early for tomorrow day 46, it’s 84° at my desk, but it should not be quite as hot in the old days.  Yesterday our favorite Canadian taught us that it is possible to manage a fantasy football draft as effectively as GW Bush managed Katrina.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Yesterday it took me 5:27 (average 6:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Nation: Starting today, workers in seven cities will begin the largest fast food worker mobilization in US history. Staff at chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and Wendy’s will reportedly walk out in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Flint, Michigan.

While the workers are striking, even though I is not in my city, I shall eat not food from those restaurants.

From NY Times: As Detroit enters the federal bankruptcy process, the city is proposing a controversial plan for paring some of the $5.7 billion it owes in retiree health costs: pushing many of those too young to qualify for Medicare out of city-run coverage and into the new insurance markets that will soon be operating under the Obama health care law.

On the one hand, Republicans hate ObamaCare almost as much as they love stealing the right to vote from black people. On the other hand, they are happy to stick the nation’s taxpayers with the city’s obligations, while the 1% gobble up the city’s spoils.

From Alternet: Conservative talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are getting the boot from a major broadcaster. Politico’s Dylan Byers reports that Cumulus Media, the second biggest broadcaster in the country, is dropping Limbaugh and Hannity from its stations by the end of the year.

Wooo Hooo!!! Next, get them kicked off Clear Channel. Yes they have a right to free speech. But we have a right not to pay for their microphones by patronizing the advertisers who support them.

Cartoon:

But they sure blew it with Bush!

Writing early for day 44, I’m still quite tired from my busy week and battling the intense heat.  At 8:20 AM it has cooled to 80° at my desk, but today may be the start of a few less horrid days.  Here’s hoping.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:45 (average 5:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Reminder:

The live online draft for our fantasy football league is today at 11 AM Pacific, 12 Noon central, 1 PM Mountain and 2 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time.  My mama had a special word for players who do not attend: Lunch! 😉

Short Takes:

From NY Times: More than two years after Congress passed a landmark law meant to prevent the importation of contaminated food that sickens Americans, the Food and Drug Administration proposed rules on Friday that for the first time put the main onus on companies to police the food they import.

Major food importers and consumer advocates generally praised the new rules, but the advocates also said they worried the rules might give the companies too much discretion about whether to conduct on-site inspections of the places where the food is grown and processed. They said such inspections must be mandated.

I’m OK with this as long as there is sufficient oversight to ensure strict accountability. Left completely to Wal-fart, a 1% per year customer death rate would fall within their acceptable parameters.

From Common Dreams: The pristine Arctic ice of the North Pole has now melted into a lake.

A time-lapse video, produced by Jake Bialer with images captured by a webcam erected near the North Pole Environmental Observatory—shows the state of Arctic sea ice since 2000 and documents the dramatically altered landscape as global warming takes its toll.

A picnic by a lake is always fun, but the North Pole is NOT the place for a lake, especially a man-made one.

From Crooks and Liars: Consumer Watchdog, a nationally recognized nonprofit consumer group, has reviewed corporate, industry and government data and found that pipeline developers and the Canadian government intend to use the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to raise the price of Canadian tar sands oil on the global market by shipping oil directly to the Gulf. This would raise U.S. gas prices in the Midwest by up to 40 cents a gallon.

“Keystone XL is not an economic benefit to Americans who will see higher gas prices and bear all the risks of the pipeline,” said report author Judy Dugan. “The pipeline is being built through America, but not for Americans.”

The plan is for Americans is put our environment at risk and pay more for gas, so that Big Oil can suck up more profit, and increase the size of that North Pole lake. I say NO! Here’s the petition!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for day 42, before leaving for my volunteer day in prison.  This will be today’s only article, as I don’t have time for more.  The big down side is that my apartment will be closed up with me gone, so I’ll return to a tinder box, but I’m very excited about seeing my guys.

Later… the volunteer day was great, but the prison was hot, and I’m exhausted.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:25 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Facebook (H/T Daily Kos): Can you believe a republican said this? This is the most viral meme on Facebook this week.

Back then, some things some Republicans said made sense. No more.

From Media Matters: Fox News is floating the idea that Detroit’s filing for bankruptcy could lead to other cities following suit, a claim that economist Jared Bernstein calls "analytically incorrect."

On July 18, the city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, officially becoming the largest city in the United States to do so. According to USA Today, "The bankruptcy petition would seek protection from creditors and unions who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and other liabilities."

On the July 19 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox Business host Stuart Varney warned that Detroit’s actions could cause a string of cities throughout the U.S. to also seek bankruptcy protection.

Just like I said, this is the Republican plan for YOUR community, wherever you are, and the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, is issuing their clarion call!

From NY Times: …If positions on foreign policy and specifically the Iraq war marked the dividing line in the Democrats’ last fierce internal debate, issues related to banks, entitlements and the rights of consumers broadly could shape the party’s next search for an identity.

Liberals, pointing to a bankrupt Detroit and new reports of diminished class mobility, believe the plight of lower-income and young Americans is so severe that the party must shift away from the center-left consensus that has shaped its fiscal politics since Bill Clinton’s 1992 election and push more aggressively to reduce income disparity.

“The sooner we get back to a good, progressive, populist message, the better off we’re going to be as Democrats,” said Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.

The author claims that some Democrats are trying to move the party away from the center in this fashion. I disagree. Before the party can move away from the center, as it should, it must first move far enough left to reach the center, and then continue left.

Cartoon:

Writing for day 40, I feel like Jesus in the wilderness.  The 👿 has sure tempted me over and over again.  The temperature remains cool enough that I can function, albeit barely, but still too hot for anything resembling comfort.  For the next couple days my blogging schedule will be uncertain, because Thursday is a prison volunteer day.  It will be my first day back to see my guys since April, and I can’t wait!  I’ll just have to see how much it takes out of me.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:25 (average 4:29).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus appearing Sunday on CBN, answering a question about whether right-wing Christian Evangelicals should be worried that Priebus has called on Republicans to be more tolerant.

There’s a reason Renice does not care for that word. Republican and Tolerant are mutually exclusive terms.

From Alternet: Jack Hunter, the Rand Paul social media staffer who wrote columns attacking Abraham Lincoln and defending Southern secession under the name “Southern Avenger,” tells the Daily Caller that he’s leaving the senator’s staff and returning to punditry to clear his name and avoid dimming Paul’s rising star. Even though Paul defended Hunter when the Washington Free Beacon broke the news of his long career of neo-Confederate race-baiting, Hunter says he must leave the senator’s payroll “to avenge his own honor,”  the right-wing site reports [Reich-wing delinked]…

…Lucky Rand Paul gets to have it both ways: He stood up to those Northern aggressors and refused to fire Hunter, but he will carry less of Hunter’s baggage into the 2016 GOP presidential primary than if his neo-Confederate staffer fought on.

Still, he will carry some. Hunter’s editor at the Charleston City Paper, Chris Haire, revealed Thursday that his former columnist recently asked him to take down “dozens” of the controversial posts he’d written over the years, after he’d gotten wind of the Washington Free Beacon’s efforts to expose his pro-secession writings. Haire refused, but offered to publish “a column detailing how he’d changed his mind,” an offer Hunter declined.

Rand (Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot) will find an equally racist replacement for the Southern Avenger. Racism is a Paul family tradition.

From PR Watch: …ALEC has been a historic force in suppressing wages and workers’ rights and continues to exert its influence in states across the country in 2013. Where is the bottom in ALEC’s race to the bottom for America’s workers?

Charles Koch made the agenda of the Koch’s, ALEC and their allies very clear in a recent interview with the Wichita Eagle. He laid out his vision of "economic freedom" for America. Key to this freedom for the Koch’s is the repeal of the "avalanche of regulations" that creates a "culture of dependency" in the United States.

Top of the list of burdensome regulations needing repeal? "The minimum wage,"opines Koch.

Koch’s "economic freedom" and ALEC’s legislative agenda may not leave much of an economy for the rest of us.

Harold Schaitberger, General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, put it best when he told CMD, "The sole purpose of ALEC has been to develop the most anti-middle class, pro-corporation policies, legislation, and agenda in history. They’ve been waiting for just the right moment to reverse the progress of the American middle class and drive everyone to the bottom, to the lowest wages, the weakest benefits, no job security, and no retirement to speak of. We may not have the billions of dollars of the Koch brothers. But we have each other and we must stick together and fight ALEC’s cynical and un-American agenda."

Click through for an extensive article on ALEC’s reprehensible activities and a complete list of the anti-worker legislation their Republican cronies are pushing for the 1%. Barf Bag Alert!

Cartoon:

It was a freshwater lake then, but Brigham Young’s wives salted it, so he couldn’t spend all his time fishing. 😉