Yesterday I could not sleep. I have no idea why. My COPD was no more severe than normal. Sleep just would not come. The upshot is that I feel exhausted, so I’m posting just this to avoid overtaxing myself. I’m current with replies and should return to normal tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:25 (average 7:23). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Salem News: America has moved backward over the last half century. There is now representation without taxation, which is the opposite of the founding philosophy. What America has now is a culture where a few thousand people control the political and corporate worlds and are not taxed. Because they control the political process, they have almost entirely freed themselves of a tax burden.
The reality of inequity has become skewed beyond recognition, and preventing more equity is the mission of the Republican Party.
From NY Times: What’s really needed is a new act that makes access to the polls a universal American right. The Voting Rights Act remains necessary to prevent continuing racial discrimination, but bringing lawsuits under Section 2 of the act (which applies to the entire country and is not being challenged) is enormously difficult and costly. Preliminary injunctions to stop discriminatory election practices outside covered areas are rarely granted.
Racial prejudice was the principal target of the 1965 act, but the partisans who control so many state election systems have often gone beyond race in their attempts to rig voting to their advantage. Voter ID laws that impose a burden on students, the elderly or the poor, for example, should become as presumptively illegal as racial burdens are now. So should registration systems that make it harder for immigrants or non-English speakers to get on the rolls, or districts gerrymandered for political gain.
A country that takes pride in its democratic system should provide all voters with basic voting standards. Though Ms. Miller and other Republicans seem to think that federal mandates “would disrupt our already well-run system of elections” in the states, millions of voters have experienced something very different. Solving that problem is as urgent now as it was 50 years ago.
I could not agree more.
From MSNBC: Ed Schultz covered the same Republican hate that I did Sunday.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
In the Republican War on Women violence and threats of violence are too extreme a tactic to allow.
Cartoon:
This was the first move in the “banana wars” to maker Latin America safe for United Fruit.
15 Responses to “Open Thread–3/12/2013”
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5:07 I was as slow as that old typewriter this AM.
5:24 The computer has ruined my typing skills. I am old enough to remember typing classes in high school. Kids today don't even know what a typewriter is. They probably think it is some kind of manual printer. Well, actually, it kind of is.
Two minutes under the average is not slow!
4:39 Tippity-tap! Tippity-tap! I wonder if that is a Remington? My mother told me that I should take typing in high school. I didn't listen and instead took Latin. Latin was and is very helpful, but typing would have been useful, especially now that we use computer keyboards.
I'm last, and we all got Big-Footed!
Salem News ~ I thought that chart was a real eye-openeer and shocking to say the least. what people think is not even close to the inequality in wealth in this country. These rich men and women like the RMoneys think they are entitled like the sheiks in the Mid-East. Think of how much worse off we would be had he been elected. I think we are not going to see any differences for a very long time.
NY Times ~ Let's face it. We have turned into a third world country which needs its voting supervised to prevent voter suppression.
MSNBC ~ Another truth was stated very well by Katrina Vanden Heuvel : The Republican Party is male, pale and stale. They refuse to let women in on the discussion about themselves. What makes the Right Wing-nuts think they can speak for us?
Catrtoon ~ The start of our misadventures there???
It took a long time to get this bad. It will take a long time to fix it.
UN monitors?
Well said!
Yes it was.
Thanks TC—like you–no sleep last night—felt like saying 'hear hear' to your column today–I am not afraid–will go down with the rest of the poor people —but I wonder if people aren't going to take to the streets if and when the situation gets worse and it looks as if it is going to—. I hate to even write this or think this–I am a life long Democrat and an avid Liberal—-but why doesn't Obama get on his high horse and instead of having dinner with these bastards–call them out and put the heat on them–the trying to get along is long gone past–there is not compromise with these finks–throw the bastards out of office–clean house—they haven't done anything for many years–so turn the damned lights out and send them home with no pay—–that would save a bunch of money—–
Gypsy, he has been calling them out, but talking to them demonstrates that that they are the obstructionists.
I am worried about you, Tom. I hope your health improves soon!
Yesterday wasn't about health Angie, except that by not pushing when overly tires, I was trying to safeguard it.
Well, I am glad to hear that.
Thanks Angie!
Puzzle — 4:39 Tippity-tap! Tippity-tap! I wonder if that is a Remington? My mother told me that I should take typing in high school. I didn't listen and instead took Latin. Latin was and is very helpful, but typing would have been useful, especially now that we use computer keyboards.
Salem News — This is the same one I posted on 07/03/13 Open Thread. It is absolutely excellent, and at the same time scary! This simple to understand presentation should be mandatory viewing for all Americans, but it won't be because too many watch Faux Noise and this would never appear on Faux Noise.
NY Times — I go back to what I have been saying all along — a federal elections committee that runs the federal elections, with the same regulations across the board. No partisan involvement in re-establishing districts; no partisan involvement in voter registration; no partisan involvement in counting the vote; no partisan involvement in maintaining voting machines, if they are to continue to be used. To me, this is a MUST. What the states do in their own elections is their business, but I suspect that once there is a demonstrated fairness in the federal process, states might slowly follow.
MSNBC — Of course the right twists and turns, re-contexting everything to their liking. This was one segment that I think had really good input and discussion. All of Ed's shows are good but this one seemed special.
Cartoon — I wondered what this might be about and the best I could come up with is this from Wikipedia.
A proposed canal = money and natural resources = money. Seems the capitalist US was interested in the sovereign Nicaragua for its own interest — money.
In reading about this, and having just viewed the movie 'Argo', I looked up the history of Iran. There are such similarities. The big thing was the interest in oil. Britain and the US had oil interests in Iran but the democratically elected Prime Minister set about nationalising oil. The Brits, with the help of the US, engineered a coup d'état resulting in the assassination of the Prime Minister and put the last Shah in sole control. The current US-Iranian frosty relationship is a result of this and earlier matters.
Natural resources and the money and power derived from them will be the bain (no pun intended) of humanity.
Tippity-tap? That was the klunkity-klunk of Big Foot! 😉
I know. Finding an acticle that included it was a perfect opportinity to bring it back.
I fully agree.
Always! Were it not for our intervention, Iran would not be in the clutches of the assaholas today. Excellent pun!