Politics – Page 891 – Politics Plus

Open Thread – 8/27/2016

Posted by TomCat at 2:29 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 272016

The excessive heat warning in Portland has been lifted, and we have three days in the 80°s before dropping into the 70°s. However, it will take a few days for the building to bleed off the heat. At 6:00 AM the temperature in the hallway right outside my door was 92°, and my A/C has not stopped running full blast trying to get the room temperature down to 76°. I have completed most of the optimizing here at the site. This morning, I took a Lona nap, and am ready for several more. I can’t wait for my shower tomorrow morning. I exchanged texts with Julie. She and Killer Dawg send greetings.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:25 (average 4:19). To do it, click here. (Yum?) How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Earlier this month Daily Kos endorsed Christina Hartman for Pennsylvania’s open 16th Congressional District, part of our effort to identify strong Democratic candidates targeting GOP-held seats this year who could benefit from your support.

Hartman’s Republican opponent Lloyd Smucker has noticed, and in a new fundraising email his campaign is sounding the alarm bells to supporters. Oh noes! The radical ultra progressives are on the move!

Recently, the Daily Kos, a liberal, left wing but influential website endorsed our opponent. They only support candidates who believe the same ultra progressive agenda that they do. Their agenda is bad for America and bad for the residents of the 16th district.This endorsement will open the floodgates of financial support for her.

And may Christina Hartman boot that Republican mother-Smucker right into the unemployment line!

From The New Yorker: Calling it a “scary moment” and a “close call,” Donald Trump’s campaign officials confirmed that they had recaptured Mike Pence after the Indiana governor attempted to flee the campaign bus in the early hours of Friday morning.

According to the campaign, Pence had asked to stop at a McDonald’s in rural Virginia so that he could use the bathroom, but aides grew concerned when the governor failed to reappear after twenty minutes.

After determining that Pence had given them the slip, Trump staffers fanned out across the Virginia backcountry, where the governor was believed to have fled.

News that Pence had vanished touched off a panic in Indiana, where residents feared that he might return to resume his political career.

LOL Andy! As I see it, Pence crucified himself the minute he became Rump Dump’s running mate.

From NY Times: He led his government to a crushing defeat at the polls last October, then ceded his office to Justin Trudeau and largely vanished from public view. Now, 10 months later, Stephen Harper, the former Conservative prime minister of Canada, says he is giving up his seat in Parliament and quitting politics.

I wish I had a video clip of the Squatch doing her happy dance!!

Cartoon:

Everyday Erinyes #40

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:05 am Politics

Aug 272016

I have three items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them. In honor of the 40th post, I am going to start numbering them. 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."

Normally I shy away from calling the Furies' attention to a corporation or group. There were no corporations in ancient Greece, not as we understand the term; and while there were some groups, they just weren't of the sizes and in the quantities we have today. I want them to be comfortable doing work they know how to do.

But, in this case, a corporation has acted so much like a particularly despicable individual, that I simply have to address it. Also, I have a name. Also, I have a signed letter.

You may have read that Aetna (originally Aetna Insurance Company, later Aetna Life Insurance Company, still later Aetna U.S. Healthcare, now apparently just Aetna) is pulling out of Obamacare in 11 of the 15 states it has been serving. You may have read this pullout has been attributed to financial loses in those states. You may have read that Republicans are delighted by this turn of events.

You may even have read that the pullout is not really due to financial losses, but is retaliation against the administration (and, incidentally, every citizen previously covered by them under Obamacare) because their request to but Humana was denied.

You may or may not have read that Huffington Post has obtained, through the FOIA, a copy of a letter sent to the Justice Department by Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini which in essence said (my reconstruction) "Nice Affordable Care Act you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it. Give us our merger and we won't pull out."

So now, because Bertolini didn't get his merger, Obamacare and ordinary Americans who need health insurance will suffer the consequences. Obamacare is already facing an uphill battle with regard to critics of the law's suatainability. By leaving a system which relies on subsidized public-private health insurance plans, Aetna's move will only further tip the scales in favor of Obamacare's criticn [sic] and drive up costs.

Incidentally, Aetna is officially claiming that the letter and the pullout are unrelated. Right. I call it extortion. What do you say, Megaera? (And what can you expect from a company named after a volcano?)

Meanwhile, back in Tulsa, OK, a family named Jabara has since 2013 or earlier been living next door to a terrorist named Vernon Majors. I don't know how much earlier, but it was in 2013 that Haifa Jabara, the materfamilias of the Jabara family, filed a protective order against Majors. He had been sexually harassing her, knocking on windows late at night, stalking her, and subjecting the entire family to racist remarks. (The Jabaras' family background is Lebanese, but the racist remarks included "dirty Arabs," "filthy Lebanese," "AY-rabs," "MOOS-lems," and he had a whole vocabulary beyond that for use with Mexicans and black people.)

In 2015 Haifa's son, Khalid, also filed a protective order against Majors. Majors had been harassing Khalid, stalking him and following him around, leaving notes on the door, and vandalizing the inside of the house. Wait – what? Vandalizing the inside of the house? This creep had been actually getting inside their home to do damage? Eeeeeeww!!

And then in September of 2015, Haifa was jogging in the neighborhood when Majors drove by, aimed his car at her, clearly attempting to run right over her, which he didn't quite do, but he did put her in the hospital. A broken shoulder, collapsed lung, broken ankle, broken nose, head trauma, and fractured ribs were only some of the injuries she sustained.

Well, he did get locked up then, charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon (which he admitted, providing the motive "filthy Lebanese"), and was awaiting trial, but in May he posted bond. It was originally set at $30,000. The prosecutor asked the judge to, first choice, hold him without bond, second choice, set bond at $300.000. Instead the judge made it $60,000, and he bonded out immediately. He was released wih no additional conditions – no ankle monitor, no drug/alcohol testing, nothing.

Now, despite having been arrested for a felony, and having been previously convicted of a felony in California, and thus ineligible under Federal law to own a gun , somehow he had one.

The day Khalid was murdered, he called the police to tell them this terrorist had a gun. The police came and said there was nothing they could do. Thirty minutes after the phone call, Khalid was dead.

This next thing has nothing to do with the case, it just struck me, so I have used both pictures. A blind person on a fast horse riding by could see that Khalid is better looking than Majors (much, MUCH better looking.) Is it my imagination? Or is he also whiter than the so-called white guy? A thing like that should not matter to any sane person, of course. But then Majors apparently isn't. Sane. Tisiphone, if you will follow the case and guide at strategic points to make sure the community in general and the Jabara family in particular are never in danger from him again, maybe even instigate the DOJ to investigate as a hate crime – two hate crimes – it will be most appreciated.

Next, from the "You don't have to be black to get killed by police" files, comes the story of Daniel Patrick Harris, 28, of Charlotte, NC. Harris is – excuse me, was -profoundly deaf, and he communicated using American Sign Language (ASL). He was able to drive, and was pulled over, or at least an attempt was made to do so, this month. The best guess of those who have been covering the story is that he may have been speeding, but that is unconfirmed.

Also unconfirmed is whether Mr. Harris simply did not hear any sirens, or whether he trying to get home, where family were present who would be able to interpret for him, or some combination. He was a few within feet of his home, when the two cars collided. Mr. Harris then got out of his car and started signing to the officer, who, according to neighbors, shot him as soon as he got out, killing him.

The officer, trooper Jermaine Saunders, is on administrative leave while the investigation goes on, and is not giving interviews. Mr. Harris is dead, so we can't ask him. The most we can do is speculate. Did Trooper Saunders think Harris was flashing gang signs? Did he think Mr. Harris was making threatening gestures? We don't know. We only know that Mr. Harris is dead.. Oh, yes, and that he liked turtles.

Alecto, I didn't have anything specifically for you last week. But I would say that this is in a category of things that happen All. The. Time. Let us know what you find out.

Finally – I seldom do humor here, for obvious reasons, but I guess if Shakespeare can use comic relief, I can try. So here is a little trivia question. Based on the news from this week, one can conclude that that

a. Not all gun nuts live in the United States.

b. Having had a taste of entertainment from the filming of "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit," New Zealand parents have started training their children to star in some future remake of "Game of Thrones."

c. Both of the above.

Click through for the answer ( spoiler: "c" is correct).

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4007417

Open Thread – 8/26/2016

Posted by TomCat at 2:09 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 262016

Last night, I stayed up late to optimize our site. First, I analyzed the load times for plugins and found that we had a huge resource hog. Our Top Commentators plugin used more than three times the resources of all our other plugins combined and was adding 33% to the time it took to load every page. I really liked it, but dang!! I took it out. Next, I optimized the database. Most important, I have begun optimizing images. We have over 25,000. One I have the old ones done, I’ve set up a service to automatically optimize new ones for about $10 per month. Now I get to venture into the heat for abuse. I’ll finish when I return.

PT went very well. Courtney was merciless, but I managed all her tasks. I stopped at the bank on the way home, but when I got here the elevator was out of service AGAIN. I had to wait in the heat for an hour, before the repair tech could run the assembled cripples upstairs. In the interim, I’ve wilted. This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Warren Hinckle, the flamboyant editor who made Ramparts magazine a powerful national voice for the radical left in the 1960s and later by championing the work of Hunter S. Thompson and helping introduce the no-holds-barred reporting style known as gonzo journalism, died on Thursday. He was 77.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, his daughter Pia Hinckle said.

Ramparts was a small-circulation quarterly for liberal Roman Catholics when Mr. Hinckle began writing for and promoting it in the early 1960s. A born provocateur with a keen sense of public relations, he took over as the executive editor in 1964 and immediately set about transforming Ramparts from a sleepy intellectual journal to a slickly produced, crusading political magazine that galvanized the American left.

RIP Warren. Back in the day, I used to read every issue of Ramparts.

From Alternet:

Here are 12 examples [of Rump Dump Racism] cited by Clinton.

1. Deeply Insulting African Americans: Trump’s remarks show he has no appreciation for black culture or achievement, Clinton said, but instead utters one ugly cliche after another. “In just the past week, under the guise of ‘outreach’ to African Americans, Trump has stood up in front of largely white audiences and described black communities in such insulting and ignorant terms. ‘Poverty. Rejection. Horrible education. No housing. No homes. No ownership. Crime at levels nobody has seen.’ ‘Right now,’ he said, ‘you walk down the street and get shot.’ Those are his words.”

2. Racist then, racist now: Trump has a decades-old history of mistreating and stereotyping blacks, Clinton said, starting with his refusal to rent New York City apartments to them. “When he was getting his start in business, he was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to black and Latino tenants,” she said. “Their applications would be marked with a C—C for ‘colored’—and then rejected. Three years later, the Justice Department took Trump back to court because he hadn’t changed… And the pattern continued through the decades. State regulators fined one of Trump’s casinos for repeatedly removing black dealers from the floor. No wonder the turnover rate for his minority employees was way above average.”

3. His racist lies don’t stop: Before the 2016 presidential election, Trump was at the forefront of the right-wing effort to discredit President Obama’s legitimacy by questioning his national origin. “Let’s not forget that Trump first gained political prominence leading the charge for the so-called birthers,” she said. “He promoted the racist lie that President Obama is not really an American citizen; part of a sustained effort to delegitimize America’s first black president. In 2015, Trump launched his own campaign for president with another racist lie. He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. And he accused the Mexican government of actively sending them across the border. None of that is true.”

I shared three. Click through for the other nine.

From Crooks and Liars: This is unreal. Kellyanne Conway graced the set of The Rachel Maddow Show last night. Among other things, Rachel asked about the "pivot" away from a total ban on Muslims to an "extreme vetting" of those entering the United States.

As usual, Rachel had clearly done her homework. The "extreme vetting" that the Trump campaign correctly identifies as originating during the Cold War, was vetoed by Harry Truman, passed as an override by Congress anyway, and then found unconstitutional. By all modern legal measures, the similar Trump proposal would also be found unconstitutional.

No matter how many times Rachel said it’s unconstitutional, Conway ignored her and circled back to her talking points. Like other Republicans, Trump’s Rectumites don’t care about the Constitution.

Cartoon:

Friday Fun: Can One Solution Be As Simple As a Washing Machine?

Posted by SoINeedAName at 8:52 am Politics

Aug 262016

Providing something as basic as dignity that comes with the ability to wear clean clothes was accomplished through something as mundane as a washing machine.

The Cascade

It’s an unfortunate fact that one in five children in America do not have clean clothes to put on for school in the morning. Studies have documented that the even more unfortunate solution to that problem is that they simply skip school. The unfortunate consequence of that is chronic absenteeism, which is directly related to a high dropout rate.

It’s absolutely staggering that MORE than 4,000 students drop out of school every day. And when our kids drop out of school they then have a 40% higher rate of being unemployed and will have a 70% higher rate of going on government assistance. And sadly, they are eight times more likely to end up in our prisons.

Identifying the Problem

It was Dr. Melody Gunn, a former principal at Gibson Elementary in St. Louis, who noticed that despite the fact that the school was providing all its students a free or reduced-priced lunch program along with transportation to and from school, attendance rates were plummeting.

Dr. Gunn took the time to talk with the parents of her students and learned that too often her students didn't have clean clothes to wear as result of the lack of reliable access to laundry. Either they weren’t able to afford the cost of the laundromat or squeeze in the time to get there while holding down their jobs. And while some families did have washing machines, too often their electricity had been shut off – or their families couldn’t afford detergent while dealing with the more urgent needs of food, medicines and rent.

The Solution

Dr. Gunn took it upon herself to approach Whirlpool and asked if they would donate a washer and dryer to her school. Whirlpool got interested in the issue she detailed, decided to do its own research, and they were the ones who found that one in five students in the United States did not have clean clothes to wear to school.

So the good people at Whirlpool created the Whirlpool Care Counts Program and began by donating seventeen pairs of washers and dryers to low-income school districts in St. Louis and in Fairfield, California. The participating schools then invited kids they had identified with attendance problems to bring in their laundry to be cleaned while they were in class.

The Impact

And the results were not only stunning, but they were immediate! Dr. Gunn reported that, “After just one month, we saw an impact.” And the long-term results of the program have been remarkable. In just the first year they observed over 90 percent of tracked-students had increased their attendance, with those most in need of the service averaging an increase of almost 2 weeks.

Additionally, teachers surveyed reported that 95 percent of participants showed a higher degree of motivation in their classes combined with an increase in participation in extra-curricular activities.

This data supports research documenting that chronic absenteeism isn’t because of kids’ lack of smarts or motivation, but is largely due to coming from a low-income household with all its attendant obstacles and drawbacks.

Wisely, Whirlpool leaves it up to each district to decide how to manage the laundry programs. For St. Louis’ Gibson Elementary, Gunn says that parent volunteers managed and maintained the laundry program.

For this school year, Whirlpool has expanded the program to five new school districts across the country. And Whirlpool says it will expand the program next year to at least 20 additional schools, including one in Baltimore and one in Nashville. Not surprisingly, given the positive impact, over 300 schools have asked to be included in the program!

Sometimes a problem so pressing (no pun intended) can be solved by something so simple as clean clothes.

(And given TomCat’s repeated sharing of his absolute LOVE of this chore, I’m sure he’ll be looking to volunteer when the program comes to Portland.)

RESOURCES

You may well ask why am I putting the Fox Business link as the very first one on the list below.

Well, for two very good reasons. First it was a solid piece of reporting that was well-written.

Second, you really need to read the Comments!

If there was ever any doubt that Fox attracts a bunch of [bad word] idiots to watch their [very bad word]-up programs, the Comments by these Mother-[very bad word] [bad word] will remove all doubts.

They can all go stick a [bad word] up their [very bad word] [bad word] as far as I’m concerned.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/08/02/whirlpool-tackles-laundry-epidemic-hitting-families.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/8/25/1563807/-St-Louis-school-sees-90-of-their-students-attendance-increase-because-of-washing-machines

http://www.alternet.org/education/whirlpool-care-counts-program-proves-one-small-incentive-can-keep-kids-school

http://bients.com/whirlpool-put-laundry-machines-schools-increased-attendance-90/

http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/chronicabsenteeism/index.html

https://carecounts.whirlpool.com/

A Day You Probably Didn’t Know About

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:05 am Politics

Aug 262016

Actually, I'll mention two days you probably didn't know about – with a tip of the hat to Lona the Napster.

First – August 26 was designated by Congress as Women's Equality Day by Congress in 1971 at the behest of Bella Abzug (remember her?) The date was chosen because it was the day in 1920 that Congress certified the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote (and incidentally to hold public office).

Second – August 26 is also National Dog Day. National Dog Day was founded in 2004 by Animal Advocate Colleen Paige, who chose August 26 because it was the date that her family adopted her first dog "Sheltie" when she was ten. Colleen is also the founder of National Puppy Day, National Mutt Day, National Cat Day, and other national days to bring attention to, and encourage adoption of, animals. I hadn't planned to include this, but when I learned that more Americans are aware of National Dog Day than are aware of Women's Equality Day, I thought I had better mention it, before someone else did, and get it out of the way.

Back to Women's Equality Day, which is what the column is really about, it was, as I said, created in 1971, by a joint resolution of Congress:

Joint Resolution of Congress, 1971
Designating August 26 of each year as Women’s Equality Day

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the certification of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.

The responsibility for keeping it going seems to have (appropriately) fallen to/been adopted by the National Women's History Project, a non-profit educational organization, which, among other achievements, got March designated as National Women's History month. They produce and provide resources for educators, speakers for groups, guides for historic site tours, and – well, you name it. They offer an on-line trifold brochure in color about the Day and detailed instructions on how to print it.

Mrs. Abzug spearheaded the Day as a celebration of women getting the right to vote, but it has become more general in focus, and, while you may notice the brochure has a voting quiz, they also pick a different theme each year to highlight, connected to women's history in general rather than just voting. This year the theme is "Working To Form A More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Servide and Government." A very appropriate theme for 2016. Last year, Time magazine developed and published the graphic on the right for National Women's Day, which is, alas, still pretty accurate.

But I also want to mention two other organizations who work every day to make it easier for women to vote.

We probably know each major party has a GOTV effort in place this very important year. But the American Association of University Women, along with their other projects, is providing non-partisan GOTV skill training free through webinars, specifically aimed at registering women in the milliennial generation, through their "It's My Vote: I Will Be Heard" initiative. This program also includes providing voter guides, and goes beyond that to training participants how to create their own voter guides if none are available which are specific to their area. Yes, they have "University" in their name, but they are far from an elitist group. They are envisioning holding these drives on campuses, but that's because they are timing this set of webinars with back-to-school. I can't imagine them being upset if someone wanted to hold a drive in, say, a mall, nor if someone signed up a male or two while registering women.

Then of course, probably the grandmamma of all organizations which pair women and votes – it was founded, by Carrie Chapman Catt, six months before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified – is the League of Women Voters.

The League began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.

To this day the League concentrates on educating voters on issues rather than on candidates. It is committed to being grassroots and non-partisan. And it does register voters. Last spring, League volunteers registered nearly 15,000 high school and community college students throough 350 registration drives. They are looking to repeat or expand on this on National Voter Registration Day, which will be Tuesday, September 27.

However, the league does not stop at educating and registering. It does get involved in fighting on issues. Money in politics and defending the environment are the biggest, but there are some others as well. You might be surprised how many others. Click thrugh to the site and scroll down for a look.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4007182

Bernie’s Revolution

Posted by TomCat at 10:26 am Politics

Aug 252016

0825sandersthoughtful

Here is the complete video for the kickoff of Our Revolution, as proposed, promised and delivered by Bernie Sanders, if you missed it, or if you want to watch it again. Bernie was in his normal superb form and said nothing with which I disagree.

I strongly encourage you to sign up to help, and help him however you can. Also, let's not forget that Bernie said nothing is more important than electing Hillary Clinton to keep Trump out of the White House.

Open Thread – 8/25/2016

Posted by TomCat at 10:26 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 252016

Yesterday the heat returned, groceries were delivered, and Wendy came for kitty-primping. When I got out of the shower and dried, by the time I got back to my apartment, I had to dry off the sweat. Finally, the site turned to mud, so I spent the first couple hours after breakfast on the phone with tech support. The problem was that PP was chocking the cache system designed to speed up page load, because we have thousands of graphics that are poorly optimized. She turned off the cache system and that fixed the problem. However, cobbling the site together by someone who isn’t an IT pro (me) has taken its toll over the years. The tech sent me detailed instructions on how to optimize all aspects of the site. It looks like I have many hours of work to do in the coming months. Tomorrow, I need to venture into the heat to submit to torture from Courtney, my Physical Terrorist. Therefore I will probably have no more then a Personal Update for you tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:22 (average 4:56). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Another Earth could be circling the star right next door to us.

Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they had detected a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest neighbor to our solar system. Intriguingly, the planet is in the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” where it may be neither too hot nor too cold. That means liquid water could exist at the surface, raising the possibility for life.

Although observations in recent years, particularly by NASA’s Kepler planet-finding mission, have uncovered a bounty of Earth-size worlds throughout the galaxy, this one holds particular promise because it might someday, decades from now, be possible to reach. It’s 4.2 light-years, or 25 trillion miles, away from Earth, which is extremely close in cosmic terms.

When I first heard this, I thought it might be a good place to put Republicans, but on further consideration, a mere 4.2 light years is just too damn close!!

From Daily Kos: Many people who are prone to allergic attacks are also prone to having their throat air passages close from the internal swelling and inflammation. Without immediate treatment this can cause many children and adults to suffocate and die. They die a terrifying death of asphyxiation.

In 1977, the life-saving Epi-Pen was created. The self-injecting shot of adrenaline can sometimes halt the air passages from closing further, for a brief period, which gives the victim more time to seek emergency care.

A pharmaceutical company called Mylan [capitalist pig delinked] acquired the EpiPen in 2007, and immediately began hiking up the prices to a whopping 600%. That’s wonderful for the multi-billion dollar company, and it’s been awesome for Mylan CEO Heather Bresch who gave herself a big fat pay raise. Reports show that from 2007 to 2015, Bresch’s total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068 [capitalist pig delinked] — yet she can’t afford to offer her “generic” drug at a fair price in order to save the lives of those who are in need and don’t know how to obtain the life-saving medication any other way.

As a former volunteer firefighter, I have used an EpiPen to save a life. I have seen what it does and now necessary it is for someone suffering a life-threatening allergic reaction. Heather Bresch’s Republican greed is obscene!

From The New Yorker: Calling it “the best use of our resources at this time,” the Republican National Committee has decided to pull money originally earmarked for Trump campaign ads and spend it on alcohol instead.

According to the R.N.C. chairman Reince Priebus, the decision to reallocate the funds from television advertising to alcoholic beverages came after careful review of the polling in crucial battleground states.

“With about seventy days to go until the election, we had to consider what was the optimal way for us to get through those seventy days,” he added. “We are confident that we have found that way.”

“The decision was unanimous,” he added.

Dang Andy!! If you’re right, that’s the most intelligent idea for Republicans I’ve heard.

Cartoon:

0825Cartoon

Are Some Berners Burning Bernie?

Posted by TomCat at 1:49 pm Politics

Aug 242016

I’ve looked forward to the kickoff to Our Revolution for some time and will watch what I can of it tonight, but I’ll be tied up with home care. I was very disappointed to learn that several of his aides abandoned him at the last moment and hope he can proceed with it. I’ll reserve judgment until more info comes out, but fear that some Berners are burning Bernie.

A week before its launch, a liberal advocacy group started by former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign staffers as the next stage in the "political revolution" is facing a liberal civil war.

One-third of the 15-person team Sanders put together to run a nonprofit advocacy group focusing on issues of election reform and economic inequality have quit amid a heated internal debate about how the organization should be structured, who should run it and whether its existence as a nonprofit violated campaign finance laws prohibiting electioneering by such groups.

ABC News reported last week that former Sanders campaign manager and longtime adviser Jeff Weaver was tapped by Sanders’ wife, Jane, to lead the new group "Our Revolution." Weaver’s presence reignited an internal rift between old guard Sanders advisers like Weaver and the younger generation of political operatives who helped make Sanders a political sensation in the age of digital campaigning…

From <UPI>

It seems like a power play, as Rachel Maddow pointed out.

Unless I hear reasons to change my mind, I would tend to support Weaver, because Jane would not have brought in Weaver, if he wasn’t who Bernie wanted. Also the younger operatives have been unable to raise money the way they could with Bernie in the race.

Also, as I’ve been researching this story, I’ve noticed many comments to the effect that if "Our Revolution" includes Hillary voters, then they need to move ahead without Bernie. I can guarantee them that "Our Revolution" includes Hillary voters. Bernie is one. Bernie Sanders has done more for progressive politics that anyone else in this century. Abandoning him over hatred for Hillary, if that’s what’s behind this issue, is the most shameful thing they could do. Time will tell.

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