Any time I get an opportunity to share a Bill Maher clip with you, I do, hoping that it is not gone before you get to see it.
Last night, Bill Maher tore into the "ammosexuals" who want to open carry everywhere…
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
There is nothing I can add to mage that funnier or more accurate!
I’m writing for tomorrow and resting up for what is sure to be a boring, frustrating day. Because of being away from home almost the entire day tomorrow getting a useless test, it is probable that I shall have an Open Thread at most to post on Tuesday. They say that confession is good for the soul, and especially since Lynn is blackmailing me with a pic from the motel’s hidden spy cam (She wants all my catnip for her cats!), I suppose I’d better share that pic of how I got in trouble on my trip. Day 49.
What can I say? That was some excellent catnip!!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:39). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Upworthy: It’s easy to assume that when you’re super successful, it’s because you earned it. There have been many times in my life when I thought that, too. But here’s one successful man who knows otherwise. He wrote a book that got turned into a Brad Pitt movie, guys — he KNOWS about success.
I agree with him, as far as he goes. Fortune does indeed play a role in success, and the fortunate are morally obligated to help those who are not. What he does not cover so well is the degree to which we all contribute to the success of those who are fortunate by providing the environment in which success is possible.
From TPM: President Barack Obama is prepping new executive steps to help Americans struggling to pay off their student debt, and throwing his support behind Senate Democratic legislation with a similar goal but potentially a much more profound impact.
Obama on Monday will announce he’s expanding his "Pay As You Earn" program that lets borrowers pay no more than 10 percent of their monthly income in loan payments, the White House said. Currently, the program is only available to those who started borrowing after October 2007 and kept borrowing after October 2011. Obama plans to start allowing those who borrowed earlier to participate, potentially extending the benefit to millions more borrowers.
This is clearly a good step, but what we really need is education-for-service plans. Graduates spend X years after graduation teaching, nursing, doctoring, etc. in an underserved poor community, and the feds (we all) pay off their student debt.
From Raw Story: Thousands of bicyclists, many of them stark naked, poured into the streets of Portland, Oregon on Saturday night for the 11th annual World Naked Bike Ride, a protest that promotes bike riding as an alternative to driving cars.
Nude cyclists with lights flashing in their tire spokes rang bells as they barreled down avenues lined with cheering spectators, while a naked, apparently pregnant woman rode in a bike trailer.
“This is a party, but it’s also a protest,” said Carl Larson, a ride spokesman. “It is about oil dependence, cycling vulnerability and body” image.
Cyclists showed up in Normandale Park an hour before the ride, shedding garments according to the ride theme “as bare as you dare”.
The rides are held in more than 75 U.S. cities and in more than 20 other countries, but Portland’s is believed to be the largest, with more than 8,000 participants last year.
But unlike events in other cities, the Portland ride works with local police, being considered as a protest. Officers direct traffic during what is generally a trouble-free event.
This is one parade that did not pass under my window.
Cartoon:
The more I learn about Bergdahlghazi, the more I become convinced that Republicans have been breathing their own self-produced methane for too long. Bill Maher had a fascinating panel discussion about the five Taliban prisoners released from the GOP Gulag at Gitmo in the exchange. His final conclusion is so obvious that most journalists could have failed to discuss it only by intent to withhold the most pertinent fact.
It’s been a very long week watching the right-wing freakout over the the prisoner swap for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, with everyone from John Bolton, to Ted Cruz, to the hairpiece Donald Trump, to you name it sticking their two cents in on whether we should have negotiated to get Bergdahl released and on whether the trade for the prisoners at Gitmo was worth it.
During a panel discussion on this Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on the topic, Maher finally said out loud what’s been missing from the discussions we’ve been hearing in our corporate media, and that’s why we could not have just tried these "terrorists" being held at Guantanamo Bay in a court of law — we tortured them.
You can debate all you want to, as the group did here, over whether these are bad people or not, and whether they might pose a threat to the United States at some time in the future or not, and who we should and should not be classifying as terrorists.
None of that matters much if, as Maher pointed out at the end of the clip above, we can’t try them because the Bush administration decided it was a good idea to torture them, and we can’t hold them any more because we can’t call them enemy combatants if we’re going to draw down and get out of Afghanistan. Maybe one of these days the so-called "journalists" we’ve got out there who are following Fox’s lead and drumming up their latest fake controversy could bother to point that out to their viewers as well…
Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>
What else can I say? Maher is spot-on!
Since the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade just passed under my window, I’ll share the view with you.
Nice as this parade was, I would rather see a parade of Republicans to the unemployment office on November 5.
I’m writing for tomorrow and still feeling quite tired. The Grand Floral Parade is about to start, and if I can get a few good snapshots through the window, I’ll make an article from them. I’ve been so busy that it will take a couple days of research, before I’m fully up to date on happenings. Day 48.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:20 (average 5:14). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Me:
This pic was taken during my prison volunteer trip.
Short Takes:
From Upworthy: This is a fascinating video, I have to admit. Pay special attention to how people react to the speaker.
This also explains how the 1% markets Republican candidates to sheeple.
From Daily Kos: The name is Gavin McInnes, and Fox gets credit for continuing to know under which rocks such people can be found.
Barf Bag Alert!!
I only hope that an advanced alien culture is not learning about humanity by watching the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. If they are, we are soooo screwed.
From Common Dreams: Independent scientists who have reviewed a water analysis conducted by state authorities of a Texas resident’s drinking well say the chemical signatures found in the water may provide "the nation’s first conclusive link" between fracking operations and aquifer contamination.
Though a state investigation—conducted by the Texas Railroad Commission in response to an official complaint filed by landowner and Parker County resident Steve Lipsky—said it found the chemical analysis of the water inconclusive, experts shown the results say the commission was simply wrong. "And not just by a little," reports local ABC-affiliate WFAA News who shared the results with several scientists, "but by a lot."
The Texas Railroad Commission, which is responsible for oversight in such matters, found the results inconclusive, because they represent the polluters. This is what they call "inconclusive".
Cartoon:
I’m back, alive and writing for tomorrow. I decided not to push myself, because I need rest. Tomorrow the grand Floral Parade will be under me. My Insurance company wants my O2 levels checked and won’t wait until my routine appointment next month, so I’ll need to spend 5-6 transit/waiting hours on Monday to get 15 minutes of testing done. ARGH!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me3:50 (average 5:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Me:
I’m writing for tomorrow, which is almost here. I had another long full day. The training was repetitive and boring. Worst of all, after assuring me weeks ago it would be held on the first floor, they held it on the third. My friend and I had to carry my walker up two flights of stairs. I would rather have been working with my guys. My legs are cramping severely. At least it’s done. Day 46.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:51 (average 6:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Upworthy: Walmart Workers Capture What It’s Like Being In Their Shoes. It’s Heartbreaking.
Shameful!
From NY Times: The National Rifle Association [Republicans delinked] is distancing itself from an article on its website that called demonstrations by gun rights advocates who brandished weapons in public “scary” and “weird,” and that said such advocates had “crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness.”
The article [Republicans delinked] and the subsequent denunciations in the past week are an unusual public disagreement inside the N.R.A. about the tactics of protesters, particularly in Texas, who have shown up with shotguns and rifles in parking lots and inside stores and restaurants to assert their right to openly carry firearms.
The gun industry fears their best retail customers, deranged Republican criminals, but fears losing the blood money they spend even more.
From Huffington Post: It would be a mistake to think that the New York Working Families Party’s endorsement of a Wall Street, austerity Democrat — Andrew Cuomo — is a defeat for the surging progressive wing of the Democratic Party. In fact, just the opposite is true. The endorsement was a demonstration of how to build power to do what progressive politics is ultimately about: delivering real improvements in people’s lives.
This article is 100% unadulterated BS! Calling Cuomo a win for progressive power is like calling Bought Bitch Mitch anti-coal. Working Families Party might as well call themselves Working Banksters Party!
Cartoon:
This is just a quick note to tell you I arrived safely in Salem. After the bus trip and long meetings, I’m quite tired. But the Motel (see below) is comfortable, and I’ve gotten some sleep. Tomorrow will be a 12+ hour day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:28 (average 4:24). To do it, click here. How did you do?
