I’m writing for tomorrow, and once again, tomorrow is almost here. The heat wave arrived a day early, and although 80° is not suffering weather, it’s just warm enough to interfere with sleep. The rest of the week will be worse with temperatures 90°s, but fortunately, maintenance will be installing my A/C by 11:00 AM. Then I can be one cool cat and catch up on sleep. Day 22.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Everywhere you look these days, you see Marxism on the rise. Well, O.K., maybe you don’t — but conservatives do. If you so much as mention income inequality, you’ll be denounced as the second coming of Joseph Stalin; Rick Santorum has declared that any use of the word “class” is “Marxism talk.” In the right’s eyes, sinister motives lurk everywhere — for example, George Will says the only reason progressives favor trains is their goal of “diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.”
So it goes without saying that Obamacare, based on ideas originally developed at the Heritage Foundation, is a Marxist scheme — why, requiring that people purchase insurance is practically the same as sending them to gulags.
And just wait until the Environmental Protection Agency announces rules intended to slow the pace of climate change.
Until now, the right’s climate craziness has mainly been focused on attacking the science. And it has been quite a spectacle: At this point almost all card-carrying conservatives endorse the view that climate change is a gigantic hoax, that thousands of research papers showing a warming planet — 97 percent of the literature — are the product of a vast international conspiracy. But as the Obama administration moves toward actually doing something based on that science, crazy climate economics will come into its own.
Paul Krugman has nailed InsaniTEA again. Click through for a great editorial.
From Upworthy: Unless You’re Ridiculously Wealthy, I Have A Feeling This Graph Might Make You Pretty Angry
Have your wages gone up in the past few years? Unless you’re really loaded, chances are they have not. So let’s take a look at how exactly they have been changing.
Click through for data and an interactive graph that demonstrates the effects of the Republican War on the Poor and Middle classes.
From The New Yorker: After claiming on Sunday that human activity does not cause climate change, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) suddenly found his ignorance credentials under attack by potential rivals for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.
“Now that Marco’s thinking of running for President, he doesn’t believe in climate change,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry. “To those of us with long track records of ignorance on this issue, he seems a little late to the rodeo.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) echoed Gov. Perry’s criticism, calling Rubio a “dummy-come-lately” on climate change.
“At the end of the day, I have faith that Republican voters can tell the difference between someone who’s truly uninformed and someone who’s just faking it,” he said.
Republicans always demand more than maximum ignorance.
Cartoon:
Texas was still fighting the Civil War a month after everyone else had stopped.
13 Responses to “Open Thread–5/13/2014”
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Time 3:20
I know it's fun for columnists and republicans to talk about Marx or Marxism, but we have no idea how that would look in life. The USSR was a totalitarian regime, not Marxist. In the modern world his [Marx] Utopian ideas would probably not work, but he was writing at a time when population numbers were much lower, and information was not within reach by typing in a question to your computer. The truth will not slow the nonsense comparisons of whatever the right does not like, must be Marxist. Bringing forward issues like inequality, slow increases in pay check equality, working all day and still the money does not stretch to pay the bills, nope those who pay for the election process do not want that discussed openly.
What if the people called "Bull Turds" on that? Whoa, the Fat Cats might find the plebiscite demands immediate and meaningful change. These are again the halcyon days of the rich and bloated. The US has been here before and the little people the Every (Wo)Man workers finally had enough and took hold of their future in the only way that works, unionize.
Love Andy, who always seem to grab that roar of insane talk and turn it around for a taste of humor. If we do not laugh these days, we might just all go nuts.
So the use of trains is a loss of Independence? I do wonder if George Will has a leak. Going to and from work and not having to sit for an hour or more in traffic, paying for gasoline, the many taxes that abound around ownership of cars is a lack of independence? Someone please throw a dictionary at this man.
Climate change is not up for debate. How we address the problems is only slightly open to debate, how those problems are paid for, that should be a huge tax on the worst offenders. That too should not be open for debate. It must at least cause a twinge on the conscious, when those who are paying for your election are also those killing your grandchildren. Maybe not.
Sorry TC, but the whole south is STILL fighting the Civil War.
New Yorker: Andy's article may be satire but it isn't very far from the truth. lol.
4:10 Still not fast enough. What beautiful creatures!
3:03 I am howling over this time!
3:55 You must have a little jack rabbit in you, Lynn. You left this old hound dog in the dust.
NY Times ~ God forbid we tell the truth! I wish they were right but they're not. Climate change is real and it's happening now. Yes we can slow it down if we follow the suggestions of the real scientists instead of the fake ones the Reich seems to put their trust in. EPA, do your stuff!
Upworthy ~ I guess Y2K really was the beginning of something disastrous – increased income inequality.
New Yorker ~ Spot on, Andy!
Cartoon ~ I agree with Miss Kitty. The entire South is still fighting the Civil War.
Thanks TC – I agree with you all!
(No pretty picture of a kitty snoozing on a keyboard in the heat? Hope the AC helps now!).
6:02 Was the crossing intentional (I mean intended by humans)? I would have mixed feelings about that.
NY Times – I ran into a cartoon (someone posted it in a comment on the Daily Kos) which of course I can't post, but here's the text: "Everything we feared about communism – that we would lose our houses and savings and be forced to labor eternally for meager wages with no voice in the system – has come true under capitalism." – Jeff Sparrow (via Anticapitalist – Blogging as Praxis) [Gee- does this mean Republicans would rather be Jack than Jeff?] But anyway, if one realizes this, what's to fear about socialism? I don't get it.
Upworthy – I am not ridiculously wealthy and I have been angry for years.
The New Yorker – The only satire about that is to imagine them admitting it.
Cartoon – Like every other commenter, I read the caption and thought, "After everyone else had stopped? You mean everyone else stopped? News to me!"
TC, you are a cool cat even when you are hot. I get a chuckle that you say 80F is not that hot but enough to interfere with sleep. Then Winn on Care2 says anything over about 72F is too hot for her. While I am freezing until it gets up to at least 78F, and even then I'm not warm, just comfortable.
Wolf-dog hybrids are fairly common, and while dogs evolved from wolves, the mix is still quite unpredictable and somewhat dangerous.
I hope all the Mother's had a wonderful "Mother's Day" on Sunday. But I just came across a depressing map of the world showing which countries, by law, provide for paid leave to mothers. So much for wingnuts' claim to "American Exceptionalism" … WE SUCK:
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/12/5708362/how-america-makes-the-worldshardestjob-even-harder
Second, since I haven't seen it mentioned, I thought we should honor the 150th Anniversary of our Arlingonton National Cemetery. It's got quite an amazing history! And today, 150 years ago, Union Army Pvt. William Henry Christman became the first to be buried there.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/11/arlington-cemetery-150th-anniversary-things-didnt-know/8410721/
TRIVIA QUIZ: What are the only TWO gravesites out of over 400,000 that are marked by a simple white, wooden cross?
Puzzle — 3:03 I am howling over this time!
NY Times — If we let the Republicanus/Teabaggers and other similar climate change deniers in other countries have their way, they will use all the resources, poison the planet and its people and then there will be no market left for their enterprise. Short term greed has blinded them from the truth.
And when it comes to socialism and Marxism and communism, these brain dead morons have no idea what they are talking about. Joe McCarthy would be pleased that his hysteria is alive and well in the 21st century.
Upworthy — The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. As things are now, never the twain shall meet.
The New Yorker — Andy nailed it . . . AGAIN! Dazzle them (electorate) with bullshit!
Cartoon — The South may have won the battle, but they lost the war! Get over it!
The heat . . . by me yesterday in the temperate northwest, it was 29 C (84 F) and hot. I start to wilt at 21 C (70 F). At least today we have a fairly strong breeze . . . well at least right now.
Love Krugman. The Right will always deny climate change, because their masters are causing it.
Upworthy: I shared the graph on Facebook. Astonishing, isn't it.
The New Yorker: Rubio, Perry, and Paul are at the top if the ignorance chain.
Cartoon: Aren't they still fighting it today?
Thanks all! Pooped pot stop.
The civil war did stop.10 minutesw later, it started again. 😉