Politics Plus

I have a lot of volunteer paperwork to do today, and tomorrow is a grocery delivery day, so there’s cleaning to do in preparation for that.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Yesterday, Denmark’s wind farms were able to produce 116% of the nation’s electricity needs.

By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.

Major kudos to the Danes!

From TPM: The family of a black man who died after being placed in a white police officer’s chokehold reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city on Monday, days before the anniversary of his death.

Since part of the deal is that the city admitted no liability, I see this is blood money, paying off a family to duck responsibility for a crime against the entire city.

From Think Progress: The Oklahoma Republican Party is making the case [GOP delinked] against food stamps by comparing poor people to animals, reviving a stereotype that’s often deployed against Americans who rely on government benefits to feed their families.

In a Facebook post [GOP delinked] published Monday night, the Oklahoma GOP suggested that the millions of Americans receiving food stamps this year should not be enrolled in the program because “the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”

If you have ever needed, or might ever need, temporary help, this is what the Republican Party thinks of YOU.

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I did manage to get some sleep last night, and I also want to rest today, before things get busy again.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In a blistering interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit, Piketty blasts Germany and it’s history of repayment of debt over the years, and it’s attitudes toward its fellow EU neighbor, Greece…

…In brief, Piketty tells the interviewer in no uncertain terms that Germany never repaid their loans; yet hold others to a higher standard of responsibility.

ZEIT: But shouldn’t they repay their debts?

Piketty: My book recounts the history of income and wealth, including that of nations. What struck me while I was writing is that Germany is really the single best example of a country that, throughout its history, has never repaid its external debt. Neither after the First nor the Second World War. However, it has frequently made other nations pay up, such as after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, when it demanded massive reparations from France and indeed received them. The French state suffered for decades under this debt. The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.

Please Mr. Piketty, tell us all how you really feel….  And don’t hold back!  Piketty goes on to give examples of moral clarity about just how Germany is hypocritical in its position of having been the perfect financial responsible citizen throughout history…  But not so fast says Piketty:

Piketty: When I hear the Germans say that they maintain a very moral stance about debt and strongly believe that debts must be repaid, then I think: what a huge joke! Germany is the country that has never repaid its debts. It has no standing to lecture other nations.

Ouch.

This is what I brought up before regarding Germany’s hypocrisy.

From The New Yorker: Serving notice that he intends to go toe-to-toe with the controversial real-estate mogul, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker used the official announcement of his Presidential candidacy to assure Republican voters that he is as horrible as Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump has grabbed a lot of headlines over the past few weeks by spewing bigotry and venom,” Walker told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters. “I want to make it clear that when it comes to those things, I take a back seat to no one.”

Concluding his speech with a line that triggered a standing ovation, Walker said, “To those who thought Donald Trump was the only sociopath in the race, let me say this: not anymore.”

Prior to his announcement, aides to the Wisconsin governor had privately fretted that by establishing his identity as an arrogant and ill-informed merchant of hatred, Trump had appropriated Walker’s brand…

It’s been so long that Andy really had me worried. He’s back in prime form, pegging the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan perfectly!

From NY Times: …But on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican presidential candidate, sharply attacked Mr. Trump and his message and called on his party’s chairman and other candidates to speak out against him.

Mr. Trump is a “wrecking ball” for the GOP as it tries to appeal to Hispanic voters, Mr. Graham said.

“To all the candidates who think that Donald Trump is telling the truth, I think you have lost your way. As to the Republican Party, if we do not reject this way of thinking clearly, without any ambiguity, we will have lost our way,” he said. “We will have lost the moral authority, in my view, to govern this great nation.”…

Lindsey Poo fears what already is. The Republican Party lost their moral authority to govern this nation the day they adopted the Southern Strategy and Republican Tinkle Down economics.

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I’m feeling especially tired today, having slept poorly.  Last night a group of black men kept me awake for over four hours, by walking up and down the street, screaming at the top of their lungs, and calling each other the N word.  I’m ashamed to admit that even I had more than one stereotypical thought about them.  It truly saddens me that thugs like these could trigger even a man like me, a man with a history of civil rights activism going back to the early 1960s.  I am very sorry.  I hope such behavior by very few does not counter the major positive influence exerted by the black community following the Republican attack on the church.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Recruiting:

Recruiting is now complete for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league.  Pam and her End the GOP are now onboard. Welcome  Pam!! For more information, click here.  I will be publishing an article of tips shortly.  The live online draft is on 7/25 at 11:00 AM PDT.

Short Takes:

From NY Times: If the scramble to hold together Europe’s single currency has highlighted one thing, it is that national mind-sets can be more stubborn than the 60-year-old mantra of the Continent’s “ever closer union” once supposed. And no national psyche is more important to the outcome at this moment than Germany’s.

In insisting that Greece can stay in the euro only if everyone sticks to the rules, Germany has acted almost classically to stereotype. Its fondness for orderly procedure — the foundation of its post-1945 democracy — has prevailed even over its desire to lead 21st century Europe.

If Germany is serious about following the rules, perhaps they should repay the loans they forced Greece to make when Germany’s version of the Republican Party was in power during WWII.

From TPM: Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to make boosting middle class income and wages the focus of her economic agenda. The Democratic presidential candidate will point to stagnant paychecks as the central challenge facing the U.S. economy.

Clinton will lay out the themes of her economic plan in a speech Monday in New York. Clinton’s campaign says in a preview on Saturday that the speech will emphasize the need for the real incomes of everyday Americans to rise steadily along with corporate profits and executive compensation.

While Republican candidate Jeb Bush has called for an annual growth rate of 4 percent, Clinton will say that the nation’s economy should not be judged by a specific growth figure but rather by how much income rises for middle-class households.

At least she will drown out the campaign opening announcement by the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan.  I want to know how Hillary plans to recover some of the wealth that Republicans took from poor and middle class citizens and gave to the super-rich.

From Think Progress: People who “want to kill babies” don’t want women to see their ultrasounds.

Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson spoke in length to the NRLC about his experiences as a physician administering ultrasounds. He talked about the advanced technology of ultrasounds that exists today, saying fewer people have had abortions since the technology has improved and women can see their fetus in detail on a computer screen. “How can anybody think that’s just a mass of cells?” he said. “That’s one of the reasons that the people who want to kill babies don’t want you to see that.”

A recent study found that looking at an ultrasound doesn’t change a women’s decision to have an abortion because the vast majority of women who seek out abortion services have already made up their mind. Nevertheless, 13 states have laws on the book requiring doctors to perform an ultrasound before proceeding with an abortion.

This is one of the five most absurd arguments made at a Republican Barefoot and Pregnant convention sponsored by NRLPAC. Click through for the other four.

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I’m getting a late start today, because I’ve been busy talking to my friend with cancer, proofreading and editing a manual that another organization is preparing for prisoners on how to prepare for a parole board review, and planning an upcoming three day prison volunteer trip in September. I’m not fully well, but am still mending.  I hope you are having a fine weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 6:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Recruiting:

We may still need one new player for Lefty Blog Friends, our fantasy football league.  Viv and her Hillbilly Lefties are now onboard. We may have found our last player. For more information, click here.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: From Business Insider:

The national Democratic Party released a new video Thursday that connects the entire Republican presidential field to the immigration remarks made by real-estate magnate Donald Trump.

The Democratic National Committee’s video is titled, "Retrumplican Party."

Barf Bag Alert!!

I say again, the reason Hairball is leading in the polls is that that he represents the actual values of the Republican Party. The others are freaking out over him, because he says directly the things that they disguise with dog-whistle rhetoric.

From NY Times: The first detailed accounts of the brutal interrogation program the Central Intelligence Agency established after the Sept. 11 attacks noted that psychologists and other medical professionals played key roles in abetting the torture of terrorism suspects. However, much about their role and their degree of responsibility in one of the most macabre and shameful chapters of American history has remained shrouded in secrecy.

A new report by a former federal prosecutor, first disclosed by James Risen in The Times, contains astonishing, disturbing details. It found that top members of the American Psychological Association, the largest professional organization of psychologists, colluded with officials at the Pentagon and the C.I.A. to keep the group’s ethics policies in line with tactics that interrogators working for the agency and the military were employing.

At a time when intelligence and Department of Defense officials were desperate for intelligence that would help them foil new terror plots, they were willing to pay handsomely for experts who could give the torture program a veneer of legitimacy. Prominent psychologists were apparently happy to indulge them. “A.P.A. chose its ethics policy based on its goals of helping D.O.D., managing its P.R., and maximizing the growth of the profession,” the report said.

Every psychologist and medical professional of any kind that participated in the Republican Torture program should charged with war crimes. Those who merely abetted the Republican torture program should be stripped of their licenses to practice ever again for violating their professional ethics.

From Alternet: After suffering through weeks of white men complaining how political correctness is "ruining comedy" (read: "people have stopped laughing at my jokes"), the Key and Peele Show’s latest viral bit involving pirates singing a catchy feminist shanty offered a much-needed respite, showing that comedy can be both funny and inclusive.

HAR!!

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