Politics – Page 825 – Politics Plus

Easter Sunday

Posted by TomCat at 7:39 am Holiday, Politics, Religion

Apr 162017

Easter

In the time I have available, I don’t think I can improve on last year’s Easter message, so here it is again, with one small addition.

Whether or not you are a Christian, I respectfully invite you to join me in the celebration of the my faith’s most central holiday, even though many of its traditions are borrowed.

Jesus was a fascinating man. He associated most closely with the social rejects of his day. He respected people with faiths different from his. He did not burn their religious writings or try to prevent them from practicing their own forms of worship. Sometimes he used them as an example of what is right, like the Good Samaritan. He had a heart for meeting the needs of the poor, and admonished us to care for them. His concern for the rich was that their own greed would blind them. He had no trouble getting along with sinners. He met people at the point of their need, and accepted all, except for the religious hypocrites who used their position to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and to force their own piety codes, which they often ignored themselves, onto others. Those were only people Jesus condemned. Sadly, they are still among us.

If we are followers of Jesus, our faith will help us to follow the example of what he did. Of course, none of us is perfect in that way. God knows that I fall short every day. It is important to know that those who preach the things Jesus was against, but condemn those who contend for the things Jesus supported, are not followers of Jesus. They are pseudo-Christians. Authentic Christians try to follow Jesus’ example. Pseudo-Christians helped install a serial pussy-grabber in the White House.

And now, for your listening pleasure:

Open Thread – 4/16/2017

Posted by TomCat at 7:37 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 162017

It’s a holiday and a Wendy day. I’m in a BIG hurry!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 4:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: \Kim Jong Un is reported to have ordered the evacuation of over 600,000 people from North Korea’s capital city, Pyongyang.

Experts note that the evacuation will most likely be conducted due to extremely strained tensions in relations with the US.

North Korea has an extensive system of shelters, but it’s not clear where the evacuated people are being sent.

Even though the Korean missile was a dud, I still do not like the sound of this at all. RESIST!!

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Easter Message from Sean Spicer

I can’t believe that really isn’t Shitty Spice. RESIST!!

From NY Times: n a Tax Day groundswell of calls for President Trump to release his tax returns, hundreds of protesters marched to Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago getaway on Saturday in Florida, and thousands more gathered in Washington and other cities across the country.

On a waterfront patch facing Mr. Trump’s resort, where he is spending the weekend, demonstrators chanted “Pay! Your! Taxes!” and held signs calling him “Chicken in Chief” — the chicken being a symbol at the rallies of how Mr. Trump was “scared” to follow decades of presidential practice in releasing the returns.

Here the march was about four blocks long and orderly when it passed under my window. Kudos! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0416Cartoon

The Easter Kitty KNOWS!!

Squatch’s Open Thread 15 April 2017

Posted by Lynn Squance at 12:12 am Open Thread, Politics

Apr 162017

Well tomorrow is the 9th birthday of my two boys — Primo and Winnie. We will have fresh roast chicken breast — their favourite —for dinner. Of course they'll share the chicken with their sister and me, but only because I am the one who controls the chicken. Here in Metro Vancouver, spring has really sprung — the fruit trees are all blooming, the daffodils, narcissus and forsythia are all out along with the tulip trees. Tulip flowers are not quite out in bloom yet. This year our spring is very late as our winter was colder, longer and much snowier than usual.

Short Takes

Evening Standard — Donald Trump has demanded he is transported in the Queen’s gold carriage on his state visit to the UK – leaving security chiefs with a ‘monster’ operation to plan.

The White House has made it clear that the President expects the traditional state welcome of a carriage procession down the Mall with Her Majesty.

But security officials in London have warned that it would prove difficult to secure the area and will require an operation far greater than any other recent state visit.

According to a report in The Times, President Trump is adamant that he want the procession to be a part of his State visit – due to take place in October – despite his predecessor opting for a less traditional vehicle. …

Thousands protested against the President’s state visit when it was announced in January and 1.8 million people signed a petition calling for the invitation to be retracted.

I have to admit that I was really piqued at Drumpf's audacity to "demand" the gold carriage and a parade down the Mall in London during his visit to Great Britain next October. I am not a monarchist as such, but Drumpf on a state visit to Britain is, in my mind, out of the question. If he wants to visit Theresa May and the government, that's up to them. But The Narciccist-in-Chief has no business visiting the Queen. If he does visit her, there will be some sort of gaff . . . after all, look what happened with Shinzo Abe during his vrecent isit to the US.

CBC — It took them long enough to get cracking.

Now the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will likely pull off one of the smallest White House Easter Egg Rolls in decades as it continues to be beset with staffing shortages, reports of infighting and general tumult.

The free event drew 37,000 Egg Roll lottery winners last year and regularly attracts at least 30,000 to the South Lawn of the presidential home in Washington, D.C.

This year, an aspirational turnout of 20,000 is projected to attend Monday, according to the New York Times. …

"If the Egg Roll is not organized, if it's not welcoming, that will send a message about the White House itself." …

Cecilia Glembocki, executive director of the Virginia Egg Council, poses between two egg ladies at a White House Easter Egg Roll. (Courtesy Cecilia Glembocki)

"People are always especially fascinated by the first one of a new administration because it reflects the style, interests, tastes, the vision of the first lady," Bates says. "Will Mrs. Trump have a big, gaudy, circus-like event?"

White House press secretary Sean Spicer played the part in 2008 during the last Easter Egg Roll for then-president George W. Bush.

Yet another SNAFU for the Drumpf administration. If Sean Spicer plays the Easter Bunny, it will be a promotion for him — from blithering, incompetent idiot to Easter Bunny! Easter at the White House — another great mess from the Drumpf administration.

RobertReich.org — What’s the “Trump Doctrine” of foreign policy? At first glance, foreign policy under Trump seems inconsistent, arbitrary, and devoid of principle.

A few weeks ago, even before the airstrike on Syria, Trump communications director Mike Dubke told Trump’s assembled aides that international affairs presented a messaging challenge because the Trump administration lacks a coherent foreign policy. “There is no Trump doctrine,” Dubke declared.

I think Dubke is being grossly unfair. Of course there’s a Trump Doctrine. You just have to know where to look for it.

The Trump Doctrine began to emerge when Trump issued his travel bans (both the first and second) on predominantly Muslim countries.

But he notably excluded predominately Muslim countries where Trump has business interests.

So under what might be called the First Principle of the Trump Doctrine, people living in a predominantly Muslim country have a chance of entering the United States only if their country contains an edifice with Trump’s name on it.

Click through for the other 3 principles that Robert Reich lays out. From my armchair, it is clear that Drumpf has no idea what he is doing in foreign policy . . . nowhere else either. I remember during the 2012 election, Romney campaigned on being a successful businessman and he knew how to run the government like a business. But government is NOT business and demands a lot of skills that don't necessarily get a work out in business, especially not business as practised by the likes of Romney and Drumpf. Planning and organisation seems to be anathema to the Drumpf administration, and Drumpf's flip-flops rival Romney's in numbers. Drumpf's only guiding principle seems to be GREED.

My Universe

Müzik sevdalısı, dünya tatlısı evladım benim ???♩

Posted by Sarper Duman on Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Open Thread – 4/15/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:13 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 152017

This is my only article today. I’m still quite congested, and I suspect that a lot of it is seasonal allergy and I need to control it without an upper respiratory relapse. The rest of today’s free time must be spent preparing my Easter articles in advance to get them up early tomorrow, before Wendy arrives.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:54 (average 4:32). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump skimps on Syria, Afghanistan policy while blowing stuff up

Rachel Maddow reports on the continued confused messages from the Donald Trump administration about U.S. military policy in Syria and Afghanistan even as Trump enjoys positive media feedback for missiles and bombs directed at those countries.

Rachel told us what to look for this weekend. I pray that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten lets the weekend pass without blowing shit up so he can watch it go boom! RESIST!!

From NY Times: Little more than a week before France’s presidential election, Marine Le Pen remains a front-runner after working hard to sanitize the image of her party, the National Front, and to distance it from the uglier associations of Europe’s far right.

But descriptions of the inner workings of her party by present and former close Le Pen associates, as well as court documents, raise fresh doubts about the success and sincerity of those efforts.

Even before Ms. Le Pen’s remarks this week denying France’s culpability in a notorious wartime roundup of Jews, recent revelations in the French news media, including a well-documented new book, revived nagging concerns about the sympathies of the woman who would be France’s next president.

I certainly does not hope that the French do not hand over their nation to Nazis in thrall to Putin [R-RU]. Only a nation of idiots would do that. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump is threatening to withhold Obamacare payments for 7 million of the most vulnerable people in this country as a way to bring Democrats to the negotiating table. Instead of working with them to strengthen and improve the Affordable Care Act, he’s threatening to inflict real, life-endangering harm, playing with people’s lives.

That setup leads to this CNN segment with commentators Jeffrey Lord and Symone Sanders on “New Day with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.” As the two were discussing Trump’s cruel threat, Jeffrey Lord inexplicably tries to compare Donald Trump to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. And whelp, Symone Sanders goes there in response, saying “Let’s not equate Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. to the vagina-grabbing president of the United States”

Right on Simone Sanders!! MLK is to Trump as Jesus is to Satan. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Everyday Erinyes #70

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:29 am Politics

Apr 152017

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. Even though there are many more which I can't include. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

This week I have one story, and I hope how it posted works for Alternet, because I followed instructions and got one paragraph, so had to fill in.

The Trump White House Even Managed to Screw Up the Annual Easter Party @alternet

The ineptitude of this administration stretches from top to bottom. After almost 100 days of scandals, leaks and chaos, the Trump administration has become notorious for its sui generis mix of arrogance, ineptitude and inexperience. These defining character traits are on display again in the runup to Easter Sunday.

The New York Times reports that for the first time in nearly 140 years, the White House Easter Egg Roll almost didn’t happen because the president’s team could barely get it together in time to pull it off. This year’s event will apparently take place on a far smaller scale than in the past, and that’s only because Trump staffers got some help with the basics.

According to the Times, the White House had to be reminded to order eggs, which are fairly crucial for an event with “Egg Roll” in the title. Wells Wood Turning, the Maine-based manufacturer of the commemorative eggs that decorate the White House lawn every year, noticed in February that the Trump team had failed to place the order. Fearing the deadline would pass, the company took to Twitter to blare a word of warning to Trump, his wife Melania, and first lady Ivanka.

A rush order on the eggs was ultimately placed. But this year’s event will lack the star-power of past celebrations, which have drawn up to 35,000 attendees and featured performers including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. Just as the Trump inauguration had a conspicuous lack of big names, the Times suggests A-Listers will be absent from next Monday’s party. The lack of preparedness also means fewer children, families and staff will be involved in what’s normally the White House’s biggest and most popular public affair.

“It’s the single most high-profile event that takes place at the White House each year, and the White House and the first lady are judged on how well they put it on,” Melinda Bates, former director of the White House Visitors Office under President Clinton, told the Times. “I’m really concerned for the Trump people, because they have failed to fill some really vital posts, and this thing is all hands on deck.”

The lack of organization that hampered planning efforts also extends to invitations, the Times reports:

Washington-area public schools that normally receive blocks of tickets for as many as 4,000 children have yet to hear from the White House, according to representatives for school systems in the District of Columbia; Arlington, Va.; and Alexandria, Va. Several groups representing military families, who have accounted for as many as 3,000 guests in recent years, also said they had yet to be contacted.

Among those who haven’t received the tickets they normally expect each year is the American Military Partner Association, an advocacy organization for families of LGBT service members.

PBS Kids and the Children’s Television Workshop were asked, at the last minute, if they could send characters from beloved children’s shows such as Sesame Street. Normally, several muppets and actors from PBS shows are on hand, but this year, characters will be scarcer. That’s fitting since Trump has proposed scrapping the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and pretty much all public arts funding. That way, the U.S. can stop wasting money educating children and pour those funds into Trump’s already massive vacation kitty.

Members of Congress are normally provided tickets to the annual event to give to constituents, but the Times reports the Trump White House still hasn’t gotten around to that. An aide to a Republican legislator noted that Trump’s party planners “seem to be a bit behind schedule.”

One consistent attendee of the Easter Egg Roll who’s skipping the event this year is Natalie Rebetsky, a Maryland high school educator who’s become a staple at the annual party. The Washington Post reports Rebetsky has attended nearly two-dozen Egg Rolls, regardess of which party was in the White House.

“I didn’t care who was president when I went on the White House lawn. You just always knew the person in the White House is looking out for us and our children,” Rebetsky told the Post. “I just don’t feel that with this administration. Donald Trump has broken that trust with families and children.”

Instead, she bought 1,000 eggs from Wells Wood Turning (she got her order in before the White House) decorated with the message “Protect Our Children’s Future 2017,” meant to push back against Trump’s anti-family agenda. Rebetsky is selling the wooden “alt-eggs” for $15 via her GoFundMe page. One hundred percent of the profits will go to PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.

“It’s really hard for all of us to jump out of our armchairs and be activists,” Rebetsky told the Post. “I can’t stand to imagine a world where there is no federal support of the arts. It’s a first for me to put myself out on this issue.”

Kali Holloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.

Source: The Trump White House Even Managed to Screw Up the Annual Easter Party @alternet

This is mighty short notice, ladies, but – whatever you can do.

Actually, the article I really wanted to use was this one – but I couldn't afford it (I did price it). Posting the link, however, is free. (Update to make the URL visible as the one generated by the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/04/12/crucified-man-had-prior-run-in-with-authorities/?utm_term=.090f24e4cae3)

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4047528

Vivian Birdwell Has a BIG Mouth!! ;-)

Posted by TomCat at 1:03 pm Blog News, Politics

Apr 142017

88-VivianB

This is Vivian’s second award. She earned her first on 4/23/2015 for the 63,000th comment. Vivian is a denizen of Care2. A resident of Oklahoma, she must face horrible frustration politically, but she has great humor in spite of it. She has a huge heart. She supports Native American rights, the environment, animal causes, peace, LBGT marriage rights, prison reform, and much more. She describes herself as a “hillbilly hippie”. She’s also a hard charger in our fantasy football league. She an almost daily regular, and this site is far better due to her presence here.

Please join me in piling on the kudos and hugs. She’s still a keeper.

Open Thread 4/14/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:01 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 142017

Today is the best I’ve felt in weeks, and I napped this morning, so I’m publishing and sharing links, expending the minimum effort to do so. I doubt that I can tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today;’s took me 3:06 (average 4:33). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Oregonian: Portland and Multnomah County’s top elected leaders committed Monday to transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy sources by 2050.

Mayor Ted Wheeler and County Chair Deborah Kafoury made the announcement at the June Key Delta Community Center in North Portland, a one-time gas station that’s been converted into a green building.

Wheeler, just a few months into his mayoral term, says he has no illusions the energy goal will come easily. "They will be difficult to achieve," he said of the push to meet all electricity needs from renewable sources by 2035, and to transition away from all remaining dirty energy sources, primarily fossil fuels in the transportation sector, by 2050.

"We’re actually going to have to make deliberate steps, and deliberate investments, and deliberate policy changes in order for this to become a reality," he said, "and I’m committed to that."

Good news is just so very rare. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): ELIZABETH WARREN: The Cover-Up In Trump’s Taxes

I fully endorse the marches and marchers tomorrow. Find a march near you. RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: British intel agency reported Trump campaign Russia ties: Report

Rachel Maddow reports on the latest developments in the investigation into connections between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia, including a report by The Guardian that British intelligence agency GCHQ first raised concerns as far back as late 2015.

Did I see this coming? You all know. Where there’s smoke… and the room keeps filling with more and more smoke. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0414Cartoon

Friday Fun – For Beauty, Just Add Water

Posted by SoINeedAName at 9:11 am Politics

Apr 142017

Texas annually anticipates its springtime carpet of bluebonnets producing a Floral Photo Fantabula …

But this year California is taking over the top floral spot with a Super Bloom rarely seen.

[NOTE: I created free-standing GIFs, so you can't stop it to view individual photos. If you do click on it at a certain photo, it'll open in a new window that takes a while to load – but then reverts to slideshow mode.]

Thanks to the record-breaking, drought-ending drenching California experienced this past winter, its parched desert hills and valleys are awash in a technicolor Super Bloom – a phantasmagorical palette that has not been seen for years and years.

According to research ecologist, Cameron Barrows, seeds that have been dormant in the desert sands for 5, 10, or even 30 years are responding to the rains of winter, creating carpets of red, orange, yellow, and purple flowers that have drawn record crowds – and it’s easy to see why!

The U.S. Department of the Interior, which posted photos to their Facebook page, wrote:

"The Valley floor has endless expanses of yellows and purples from coreopsis, tidy tips and phacelia, with smaller patches of dozens of other species. Not to be outdone, the Temblor Range is painted with swaths of wildflowers in oranges yellow and purple like something out of a storybook."

And amazingly the Super Bloom fields are so vast, they’re visible from space!

Senior environmental specialist Wendy Picht, notes that the poppy fields draw the largest crowds because they last the longest and are brighter than other area species, such as baby blue eyes, arroyo lupine, caterpillar phacelia, Canterbury bells, goldfields, cream cups, delphinium and blue dicks (I’m NOT kidding, that’s what their name is – you can Google it – the fact that it’s edible … Oh, never mind)

Let's take a closer look at some of these beauties …

But she pleads with all visitors to respect the environment and STAY ON THE TRAILS.

Granted, it may be hard to not wander afield – but for those that follow, please do Stay On The Trails. What do you think – did this gal stay on a trail for her selfie?

A woman uses a selfie stick to photograph herself in a massive spring wildflower bloom caused by a wet winter in Lake Elsinore, California, U.S., March 14, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The Super Bloom show started in the deserts close to the Mexican border, and has worked its way north. If you’re in the LA Metro – or want to travel – this site has a map of the best locations. But better hurry – the show is coming to a close soon:

http://laist.com/2017/03/31/super_bloom_3_best.php

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