In yesterday’s Open Thread, I forgot to tell you that I have a medical appointment. I think I’ve mentioned that I decided to fire my primary care physician, the one about whom I’ve told you all the horror stories. My appointment this morning is my initial visit with the woman I chose to replace her. I need to leave before 9:00 and will not return until after noon, so this is today’s only article.
Jig Zone:
Today’s took me 4:40 (average 5:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
I was up to see my mother today, not arriving home until 22:15. She is doing as well as can be expected, and ate all of her dinner with gusto which is nice to see. It is good that she eats well when fed, but it is also a sign that her mental condition is deteriorating . . . she doesn't "fight" for her dignity anymore. This week will be very busy with physio, teaching, getting my mother to a doctor's appointment, and meeting with the other members of the Family Council for mother's nursing home. So I may be short, or I may have to skip a day. We'll see.
Short Takes
Mother Jones — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has a plan to make America great again: Add nine new amendments to the Constitution. On Friday, fed up with Supreme Court rulings that have gone against conservatives as well as the regulatory actions of the Obama administration, the first-term Republican issued a 92-page report outlining his proposed tweaks to the founding document and calling for a national constitutional convention to make it happen.
Click through for Abbott's suggestions contained in the report, and the report itself. These are nine more reasons why progressives must get out the vote for state and federal elections. As I understand, any changes to the constitution require a 75% vote in favour — that's 38 states. How many states are now controlled by Republicans? I don't expect all Republican states to buy in, but . . .
Think Progress — Mark Zuckerberg, new dad, … shared an image of his daughter with a note that it was time for the six-week-old baby girl to get vaccinated.
Doctor's visit — time for vaccines!
3,103,434 Likes · 81,576 Comments · 29,938 Shares
Now normally, I'd be inclined to say "who cares what Zuckerberg writes" but this is different. As a new parent, he has studied the literature and made an educated decision to vaccinate his daughter. Thank you Mr Zuckerberg for making the decision to vaccinate your daughter very public. My maternal grandfather was afflicted with polio at the age of three, about 1910, and never walked again. His body was twisted so that his hips and legs faced sideways and his head and arms, forward. There was no vaccine then. He wished there had been.
Huffington Post — Canada plans to kick-start a long-stalled international effort aimed at ridding the world of the key ingredients needed for nuclear weapons, The Canadian Press has learned.
The renewed push this week by Canada's United Nations ambassador to Geneva to spearhead the creation of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty or FMCT, comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to attend U.S. President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit.
Trudeau's presence at the Obama summit, March 31 and April 1, would come just three weeks after his scheduled March 10 gala state dinner at the White House.
Canada's renewed focus on nuclear non-proliferation efforts has been in the works for months, but the effort has new urgency because of North Korea's recent claim to have conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb.
During the now infamous Harper years, Canada's role as a peaceful nation took a hit. Harper scorned the United Nations at every turn. He was trying to show that he was wearing his big boy pants and was able to go it alone. Unfortunately, he was the class clown. Now Trudeau is trying to draw people together to discuss where this world wants to be . . . a place of peace and growth, or a nuclear cesspool of death and destruction. I support Trudeau's efforts and all those countries which stand with us. With the state of affairs today, I doubt he'll have the success necessary, but I choose to live with hope. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
My Universe — h/t Christeen A, Care2
Some will do anything for a meal!
In politics it is said, that when not fueled by hope there is a vacuum for fear to fill. Since artists turn to the muses, Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope we are exploring what they can offer us for inspiration to have the hope fueling politics.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” 
― Plato
Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Let us first turn to Terpsichore’s dance with Calliope’s justice perhaps:
http://www.upworthy.com/a-ballet-companys-response-to-one-football-fans-sexist-insult-on-facebook-was-epic?c=pop
Does it inspire faith and hope when stereotypes get broken?
Continuing with Ourania who might claim this as celestial :
http://www.upworthy.com/15-scientific-breakthroughs-from-2015-that-made-our-world-a-little-better?c=reccon3
Does this inspire you?
Clio (history) reminds us of history in the shape of Calliope’s rhetorical art:
http://www.thenation.com/article/visualizing-the-four-freedoms-fdrs-fighting-artist-arthur-szyk/
Is this history we need to remember?
Let’s Move to one of Euterpe’s instruments (with both text and video):
http://www.upworthy.com/ellen-dared-kerry-washington-to-play-the-tuba-she-had-an-inspiring-reason-to-happily-accept?c=reccon3
Does such desire to help generate hope?
And then with Thalia (comedy video clips)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru_H1FSwxRM
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/viewvideo/80115
Is this last one on a subject it is better for us to laugh about than cry about?
Sometimes hope is found in goals met and surpassed—especially when those goals are for serving and helping vulnerable others…I think Calliope would claim this one as her justice (hat tip Joanne)…this group set a goal about a decade ago of ending hunger and engaged churches and other groups around the world to commit to it. They not only provide direct aid, but also political advocacy with considerable success…one email last month:
“Subject: Thanks a Lot. You Gave Me My Christmas Present…and It Cost Me $218,000!
“Dear Traveler,
Three weeks ago I issued a challenge, and got a great response. Thanks so much to the 1,659 travelers who responded to my Christmas fundraiser for Bread for the World.
Together, you contributed $218,000. And with my match, collectively, we raised over $430,000 to help power BFTW's work in explaining to Congress the needs of our nation's poor, homeless, and hungry people. We all want to get our fiscal house in order. And BFTW has been very effective in its advocacy work encouraging our government not to balance the budget by cutting vital services to our nation's most needy.
In addition to my personal challenge, I promised to thank those contributing $100 or more with a special Christmas gift of my European Christmas book, DVD, and CD (or my Complete Collection DVD box set). We've mailed out thank you packages to over 1600 of you.
While this beat last year's campaign by $50,000, we're still about $30,000 short of our 2015 goal of $250,000. But there's good news: There's still time to join us. If you'd like to help, donate by noon on December 18. I'll pop your gifts into the mail within 24 hours. With a little luck, you'll get it before Christmas. To learn more and make a donation, visit our website.
Thanks so much for making this a very expensive Christmas for me. Giving like this, in partnership with caring travelers like you, makes my work even more gratifying than it already is. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all.
Rick Steves
P.S. My friends at Bread for the World are thrilled! They send their thanks and share their determination to honor your gifts by working hard and smart to transform this contribution into effective action. To learn more about their impressive work, visit www.bread.org. That's the spirit of this season in action.”
Note that the target group was people traveling who may not have even heard of Bread before…does that life your spirits and engender hope?
And for those who need music to soothe their soul, a lengthy video offering from Terpsichore to watch as much or as little as you choose…
Thank you dear reader for joining me on this journey of discovery and quest for hope!
Almost every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, they push the envelope on just how obnoxious InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it, when I tell you that last week was no exception.
Rick Santorum makes another super-creative analogy for gay marriage
.Santorum may not have achieved anything resembling relevance in the presidential campaign, but he’s still out there swinging. In a radio interview in Iowa, Santorum came up with yet another creative way to express his distaste for gay marriage. He told Iowa radio host Simon Conway that allowing states to expand marriage to same-sex couples is like saying, “the states have the right to redefine the chemical equation for water, it can be H3O instead of H2O,” according to Right Wing Watch.
Ooh, good one.
Santorum made it a point to stake out a position that is even to the right of Ted Cruz, the presumptive frontrunner in Iowa, and that is no easy feat. Here’s Santorum’s bid:
“Look, I’m very proud of the conservative record I’ve put together,” he said. “There’s no one who’s fought more on moral and cultural issues. I’m not a libertarian. There are people in this race that want the states to decide whether there should be same-sex marriage or polygamy or marijuana use. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that the states have the right to redefine something that’s not capable of redefining.
“For me, when you say the states have the right to define marriage, it’s like saying, well, the states have the right to redefine the chemical equation for water, it can be H3O instead of H2O. Well, the states can’t do that. Why? Because nature dictates what water is, nature dictates what marriage is, and the states don’t have the right to violate what nature has dictated.”
Inserted from <Alternet>
“Google me” needs a Saguaro suppository. This is only the fifth of five obnoxious Republican moments from last week. Click through for the other four.
Yesterday turned out to be pretty busy. I did some paperwork. My helper friend came and we took a trip to the instant teller machine three blocks away, did laundry and cooked six meals, I now have 12 suppers that need only be thawed and reheated. Then i meditated on the Orb! May the holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team on this high holy day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:54). To do it, click here, How did you do?
Pat A: I forwarded your responses to her. Here is her reply:
Oh TC – this made me cry – you are all so wonderful! Thank you so much – may God bless you for your kindness!!!
I hope to be back to PP in the next few weeks some time. I hope my sister will come to help me here for a while now that she has retired – she offered nearly a year ago to come for two weeks, and actually came last Autumn for three days (but very welcome for all that) – she has never suffered from long term ill health, so has loads of energy. She promised to be back in the New Year to do the remaining days she had promised … which would have been before now, so I hope still, but am not holding my breath! Her offers of help have, looking back over the years, about a one in twenty chance of being fulfilled… still, onwards and upwards, and I must do what I can when I can, and she set me some tasks before she left and I am still plodding away at them!
I also discovered ancient Victorian mould the day before yesterday under wallpaper in my living room, so I must (having allergic asthma) get rid of it ASAP – it will take me at least all week to do this as I can only do a small amount every couple of days, but I am very determined. I had wondered for years where the slight smell of mould came from as none was visible – now I know (plaster put on the wall cutting through the Victorian plaster [with mould] when I had the damp course done many years ago has not a trace of mould on it, so the mould on the Victorian plaster is truly ancient). Vinegar, tea tree oil, a multifibre cloth and/or a sharp scraper, a very good face mask, Futuro splints for my osteoporitic wrists, and a LOT of elbow grease are doing wonders – but it is a long job and will take one week or perhaps (please not!) even two weeks. Prayers for my safety would be most appreciated as I do fall a bit! (Nicky M would know if I had an accident – we speak/email daily).
Hugs and prayers and blessings
Pat
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (classic: 2/2015): Walmarts are everywhere. They take up tons of space. Superbowl space. They sell everything, they succeed where mom-and-pop businesses fail—and sometimes, they shut down. What happens when a huge edifice, parking lot, highway exit closes in a place? Well, in McAllen, Texas:
They transformed it into the largest single-floor public library in America.
It’s not often that I have an opportunity to post about Texans doing something right.
From The New Yorker: Last month, reporters at the Las Vegas Review-Journal undertook a remarkable investigation into the secret identity of the buyer of their own newspaper. The paper had changed hands in early December for the wildly inflated price of a hundred and forty million dollars; New Media Investment Group (formerly GateHouse Media), which had purchased the paper only months earlier, reported flipping it for an estimated sixty-nine-per-cent profit. Six days after the sale was announced, on December 16th, Review-Journal reporters revealed that the acquiring company, News + Media Capital Group, which had been represented in the sale by an executive named Michael Schroeder, was in fact controlled by members of Sheldon Adelson’s family—and that, as many had suspected, the money had originated with the casino magnate himself. “My money that the children have with which to buy the newspaper is their inheritance,” Adelson told the Macau Daily Times. He said that he wasn’t directly involved with the purchase, and wasn’t interested in owning a newspaper.
Adelson is a keen participant in the U.S. political process and a mega-donor to Republican candidates, having spent, at minimum, ninety-eight million dollars in political contributions in the 2012 cycle, not counting dark-money contributions. He also owns an Israeli tabloid, Israel Hayom (Israel Today), which is brazen in its support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line positions on Palestinian rights and other issues. To many observers, Adelson’s background, combined with the initial attempt to keep his family’s ownership interest in the Review-Journal secret, does not augur well for the future editorial independence of the paper, which was founded in 1909 and has a circulation of about a hundred and sixty-five thousand, the largest in Nevada. But the response from inside the paper demonstrated that, even for a determined billionaire and his family, it may not be so easy to gain control of a newspaper.
This is tragic for Nevada residents. The change will be gradual, but within a year or two the paper will be positioned far to the right of the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.
From NY Times: Hillary Clinton has released an aggressive new attack ad, fanning fears about the main Republican presidential candidates to make the point that she, and no other Democrat, “can stop them.”
I disagree with Hillary, in part. She correctly describes the Republican threat, and she could defeat a Republican candidate. However, she is not the only Democrat who could. Bernie can too, and he is a better choice for the poor and middle classes.
Cartoon:
How many times each day do we go to the water tap, run cold water, fill a glass, and then quench our thirst? I drink about 4 litres of water every day, about 16 cups. Do I even think about whether the water is fit to drink? Not usually. But what happens when the water becomes unfit to drink , , , like in Flint, Michigan?
Democracy Now — In Flint, Michigan, a growing number of residents are demanding the arrest of Governor Rick Snyder over the ongoing water contamination crisis. Snyder declared a state of emergency for Flint Wednesday, after learning federal prosecutors had opened an investigation into lead contamination in the drinking water. The poisoning began after an unelected emergency manager appointed by Governor Snyder switched the city’s water source to the long-polluted Flint River in a bid to save money. Lead can cause permanent health impacts including memory loss and developmental impairment. Researchers at Virginia Tech who have been testing Flint water say the city could have corrected the problem by better treating the water at a cost of as little as $100 a day. On Thursday, the mayor of Flint revealed it could now cost as much as $1.5 billion to fix the city’s water infrastructure. We speak to Curt Guyette, investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan, who has closely covered the story.
YouTube
Common Dreams — The Republican governor appointed Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley who enforced the April 2014 decision to switch from the Detroit system to the Flint River to source water. In an angry letter to Snyder, filmmaker and Flint native Michael Moore wrote:
Your staff and others knew that the water in the Flint River was poison — but you decided that taking over the city and "cutting costs" to "balance the budget" was more important than the people's health (not to mention their democratic rights to elect their own leaders.) So you cut off the clean, fresh glacial lake water of Lake Huron that the citizens of Flint (including myself) had been drinking for decades and, instead, made them drink water from the industrial cesspool we call the Flint River — a body of "water" where toxins from a dozen General Motors and DuPont factories have been dumped for over a hundred years. And then you decided to put a chemical in this water to "clean" it — which only ended up stripping the lead off of Flint's aging water pipes, placing that lead in the water and sending it straight into people's taps.
Moore, in fact, is circulating a petition calling on U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to arrest Snyder for "corruption and assault."
Michael Moore's Arrest Governor Snyder Petition
Al Jazeera — This emergency goes beyond simply a public health problem. (Lead is a potent neurotoxin, which can cause irreversible brain damage in children.) It is something much worse: a human rights abuse in an American city. In 2010, the United Nations declared that “ … clean drinking water … [is] essential to the realization of all human rights.” Flint’s contaminated water will prevent children from realizing their human right to health, enumerated in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Public reaction is understandably very heated. This crisis is totally man made — Republican man made — and the result of Republican ineptitude, greed, and bigotry. In Flint, 40% of the people live in poverty. Many of the people are African American. The old lead city water distribution pipes were corroded by the Flint River toxic water, so much so that a return to getting water from Lake Huron through Detroit is not working. The pipes were corroded and continue to leach lead into the water. The only solution is the replacement of the city water pipes at a cost of $1.5 – $2 BILLION. On top of that, I would expect a class action lawsuit against the state, Snyder and a whole spate of other administrative persons who failed in their fiduciary responsibility to the people.
Yesterday was busy. By the time I arrived home, I couldn't seem to stir myself to prepare an Open Thread in time for publishing. The one short take I had morphed into today's lead article. So I threw up my hands, watched a video, and did some major cat cuddling. My little girl, Annie, was asleep under my desk earlier, but now my big ginger, Winnie, is there, his paw and head resting on my foot.
Short Takes
Think Progress — On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson released his tax plan, the center of which is a flat tax of 14.9 percent.
Rather than different tax brackets for different income levels and categories, the flat tax levies the same rate on all personal and business income, although Carson’s 14.9 percent rate would only apply to people who have incomes above 150 percent of the poverty level, or $36,375 for a family of four. Those who make less would have to make a small tax payment: “Even those who earn little income will pay taxes, no matter how small their contribution might be,” Carson says in his plan. Currently, 46 percent of Americans don’t have to pay federal income taxes because their incomes are too low.
Shades of Mr 999! Republicans have been in a sweaty dither about the national deficit during Obama's presidency, and now Carson wants to significantly reduce revenues? He probably thinks it will help him at the polls. What a jackass!
Politico — Charles Koch is “disappointed” with the line-up of Republican candidates in the 2016 cycle, and is surprised by the lack of influence he and his brother have wielded so far. …
Koch, his brother David, and their network had pledged to spend $889 million on policy and political battles headed into November 2016. But Charles Koch said in October that the political network of donors revised its estimate and instead planned on spending $750 million on politics over two years.
So Charles isn't feeling the love? Poor baby. I can hear him now as the campaign finance laws are reformed and Citizens United is overturned! The reduction is still a drop inthe bucket!
Mediaite — Cruz defiantly scoffed off recent criticism by Republican opponent Donald Trump regarding his citizenship by proclaiming that the question is “settled law.” Here is the thing. It is not. In fact, the meaning of natural born is just simply not defined in the U.S. Constitution.
There are three basic requirements for presidency. First, the President must be 35 years old or older. Second, he or she must be a “Resident” of the Unites States for fourteen years. But the third one is vague and is the heart of the controversy. The President must be a “natural born Citizen.” Mr. Cruz – a Harvard Law grad, an attorney and former state solicitor general – should know that.
Certainly, Trump is test driving his "birther" screed on Cruz, but so far, not as vehemently as he did with Obama . . . yet! And then there is the notion put forth in Talking Points Memo that Cruz's mother may have become a Canadian. Personally, I doubt it. And of course, the Coultergeist, a Trump supporter, weighed in on the issue in her usual flip-flop style in Mediaite.
My Universe — h/t JL
I could not get the video embeded so click here to watch. When the picture appears, click in the middle of it and the fun begins.
I'm ready for the video! Who's got the popcorn?
Yes, we have no Erinyes, we have no Erinyes today.
I tried. I really did. I thought they would be interested in treason and sedition. Dante would have. He put traitors in the lowest circle of hell.
But when I started reading them this story, they started laughing. I mean they were rolling on the floor. And they wouldn't stop. And I realized they were just not going to be willing to follow up on this one.
Here's how it starts (you'll need to click through for the whole thing because I don't want to violate Leonard Pitts Jr.'s copyright, but trust me, it's worth it.) You be the judge. Was I being unreasonable?
He brought his rifle up at the sound of footsteps crunching the Oregon snow. "Who goes there? Stop and be recognized."
A weary voice answered out of the darkness. "It's me, Sam. It's Bud."
"Give me the password."
"Come on, Sam. Stop foolin' around."
"The password," Sam insisted.
Bud sighed. "'Patriots act.' Are you happy now?
Sam lowered the weapon as Bud stepped out of the trees into the meager circle of moonlight.
"Can't be too careful," he said. He cupped his hands and blew into them. It was cols out here. "So where you been?" he asked.
"Down to the front gate."
Sam grinned. "Bet you it's a zoo. Bunch of satellite trucks and media elites standing around. Who all's down there? CNN? NBC? CBS Sure hope Fox sends that Megyn Kelly. That babe can interview me any time…." (Click through for the rest.)
Well, right or wrong, the Furies are not interested. And it's probably just as well. There's a new wrinkle now, and really, this was all the story needed:
(Don't feel guilty about laughing – the humour is not at the expense of anyone but the haters, I promise. Read the comments if you don't believe me. Heck, read the comments anyway.)
Oops, this just in – trouble in paradise! See TomCat's Open Thread also!
So, The long and the short of it is that I have nothing today for the Furies to do.
I guess even they are influenced by the media, ya think?
But there is material out there.
We will be back.
