How can I describe an MRI. Though painless, few painless experiences are more unpleasant. It’s like being shut in a coffin that is being assaulted with 1,000 jackhammers. For 30 minutes I had to be absolutely still, while every fiber of my being told me to squirm. It felt like hours. I’m waiting for Store to Door to call for my grocery order. Tomorrow is a grocery delivery day. Thursday is an all day excursion to get the MRI results. ARGH!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:41 (average 5:20). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: 10 Ideas to Save the Economy: Tame Wall Street
The best way to stop Wall Street malfeasance from costing you your job or life savings is to finally break up the too-big-to-fail banks.
How many times have you seen me say, over the years, "Too big to fail = Too big to exist”? This is the fourth video in this Robert Reich series. Please click through to MoveOn, and forward it from there.
From Daily Kos: As the Amtrak derailment showed (again), the refusal to spend on infrastructure literally kills. Also, infrastructure spending: (i) is necessary and unavoidable (failure to timely spend on infrastructure increases the deficit in real terms), (ii) improves the gross domestic product and competitiveness, and (iii) is an obvious source for increased employment, particularly in currently hard hit segments. Moreover, infrastructure spending remains unambiguously popular. Indeed, infrastructure spending historically has had bipartisan support.
So, why are modern Republicans ideologically opposed to infrastructure spending today?
John Oliver’s 21 minute video clip is hilarious, but he doesn’t really answer the question. Click through for answers. I have an answer of my own. Every penny Democrats sent making repairs needed to save people’s lives is a penny Republicans cannot give to a billionaire.
From NY Times: Surprise! It turns out that there’s something to be said for having the brother of a failed president make his own run for the White House. Thanks to Jeb Bush, we may finally have the frank discussion of the Iraq invasion we should have had a decade ago.
But many influential people — not just Mr. Bush — would prefer that we not have that discussion. There’s a palpable sense right now of the political and media elite trying to draw a line under the subject. Yes, the narrative goes, we now know that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake, and it’s about time that everyone admits it. Now let’s move on.
Well, let’s not — because that’s a false narrative, and everyone who was involved in the debate over the war knows that it’s false. The Iraq war wasn’t an innocent mistake, a venture undertaken on the basis of intelligence that turned out to be wrong. America invaded Iraq because the Bush administration wanted a war. The public justifications for the invasion were nothing but pretexts, and falsified pretexts at that. We were, in a fundamental sense, lied into war.
Click through for the rest of this fine Paul Krugman editorial. As obvious as the facts seem to us, Republicans will rewrite this history, until their lies become accepted as common knowledge, unless we keep reviewing and broadcasting the truth.
Cartoon:
Any more their salaries are tiny, compared to their corruption benefits.
26 Responses to “Open Thread–5/19/2015”
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5:20 average now 5:22. Being a repeat doesn't seem to make it any easier. Hyacinths are toxic to cats, and apparently this is the same family, so I'd be cautious.
MoveOn – Agreed, and have been signing petitions. I assume everyone here has to – I assume everyone here gets emails from Bernie and he has a petition on this.
Daily Kos – You are right that they want to give the money to billionaires instead – and privatization is the most effective way to do that – which is why pricatization is the ultimate goal. Another proof, if one were needed, that the Republican party is no longer the party of Lincoln, who said "The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves – in their separate, and individual capacities."
NY Times – How right he is, and how right you are. A lot of the world does know this, so it is likely to make it into history books, just not ours. Which could make for some "interesting" diplomacy down the road. Sometimes it's good to be old.
Cartoon – Yeah, they could pass this, and they couldn't pass the ERA (the states, I mean). The world is upside down and the inmates are still running the asylum.
yup–I got an already signed Joanne
The world might bet better if the inmates WERE running the asylum.
I had a prof in college (that was so long ago there were still asylums) who had a nervous breakdown and spent about a week in one. For the rest of his life, he told everyone who would listen that inmates are much nicer, kinder, less selfcentered, and less greedy than people on the outside, and he vowed never to waste a second of time unnecessarily with anyone who wasn't crazy.
Claustrophobia does tend to raise its head in MRIs. Hope the answers illuminate a good treatment option.
Glad Bernie and Reich and a few others continue to educate on economic realities and viable policies.
Glad Krugman continues to be willing to fell giant myths.
Sad we are with few statesmen and public servants in Congress these days compared to Lincoln's.
did try the puzzle again…still ain't sayin'
Thanks. I'll kmow tomorrow.
2:56 Pretty flowers! The taller one is very close in colour to the purple in my hair.
4:41 I din't stand a chance. Must be the purple drew you to the correct pieces like a magnet.
3:41 TomCat and I stayed to admire the flowers while Lynn rushed by.
She needsed them for pedi-perfume.
MoveOn ~ Yes. They are too big to exist. I, like everyone here have signed countless petitions to break them up. Maybe we will be effective someday.
Daily Kos ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower is turning over in his grave. As a Republican, he created our great interstate highway system. To see the state it is in because his party refuses to spend money on it is sickening. Privatization is their solution for everything because their puppet-masters want it that way.
NY Times ~ Send them all to the Hague to be tried for Gross Crimes Againsy Humanity.
Cartoon ~ It doesn't matter that increases don't take place until the start of the next term because most of them are lifers anyway.
I love those flowers! But, 6:23 is not that fast. I’m gettin better at them tho! LOL!
Keep trying!
I don't have to do what you do tomorrow, but I will be gone all day, taking care of my Mom's business and medications. I hope you get there and back w/o too much trouble.
Move ON: I am sharing this on Facebook. Wonder if we could get Reich interested in running for Prez? No, he is too smart. I wish they would bring back the EPA, it would generate jobs and repair our infrastructure just as it did after the Great Depression.
Daily Kos: I signed the Move on petition and asked Rep. Rogers if he remembered what NAFTA did to our local economy. We had an American Standard plant that employed 300 workers. After NAFTA passed those jobs were sent to Mexico. I am really disappointed in Pres. Obama over his insistance on passing this bill. It is not good for the USA.
NY Times; I am sure it is not a surprise that living in a red state, many of my friends are Republicans. I argued with them when Dubya was trying to get us into the war with Iraq, and I still argue with them that we were sent there on false premises. Krugman makes so much sense, I fail to understand how any sensible person could read this and not go AHAH! All of us need to keep reminding these misguided souls that they were duped and will be again if they follow the rhetoric of Cheney, Graham, and Fox news.
Cartoon: We need term limits for Senators and Representatives, as well as SCOTUS!
Good luch with mour mom's stuff.
Thanks, TC.
Puzzle — 2:56 Pretty flowers! The taller one is very close in colour to the purple in my hair.
MoveOn — Reich on the left is so right! As he says, the big oil trust was broken up as was 'Ma Bell'. So why shouldn't Wall Street be subject to break up for everybody's benefit? Wall Street is too big to NOT break up! Bring bacl Glass-Steagall! It worked for decades!
Daily Kos — John Oliver is funny, but I agree, he didn't answer the question. But he did outline the effects of the problem. Republicanus/Teabaggerum oppose infrastructure spending because it doesn't make money for their cronies! Capitalism may well be a big part of what brings the US to its knees.
NY Times — Krugman, as usual, makes a good case for the politics of fear — the fear of telling the truth for the media; to the citizenry. To me, Iraq was all about self agrandissement, power, control and greed. Those at the top, Baby Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz etc ad nauseam need to be sent to the ICC at The Hague before a true healing of the nation can actually happen.
Cartoon — "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." — I read an article on HuffPost http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/01/house-pay-hike_n_5247844.html about some representatives wanting to increase Congressional salaries and I was taken aback knowing that the standard is $174K/year. But then I thought about it and Alcee Hastings (D-Fl) has a point: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/242567-house-votes-to-keep-lawmaker-pay-freeze
Given all the obstruction from and lack of work of the Republicanus/Teabaggerum, perhaps an old fashioned redistribution is a way of solving this in the short term
I just have to share this with all of you because I am still giggling, sadly! Nothing much has changed since I was in high school — when my grade 11 art class went to the Albright Knox Art Museum in Buffalo, we said we were from Brantford, Ontario, and some had no idea that Ontario was part of Canada. I won't tell you some of the other comments but not knowing Ontario was part of Canada was the least offensive.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/05/19/canada-dictatorship-united-states-teens-survey_n_7330444.html
It may take decades for Canada to be forgiven for expotying Cruz to us.
How could you expect US citizens to know anything about Canada when they don't even know anything about the Unired States?
http://www.nmmagazine.com/one-of-our-50-is-missing/
"After more than two decades, thousands have shared their experiences of lost New Mexico in the 'One of Our 50 Is Missing' column."
Sorry I'm late TC – visits to doctors, Xrays and blood tests this week – sorry. I do agree with you on the reason why the Right Wing won't repair anything, and also with Paul Krugman (God bless him!), and also with Robert Reich (ditto).
PS – VERY sorry to hear the MRI was so ghastly – 30 minutes never moving in a noisy tube of electrics – yikes!
FReel better!
I also like Krugman's recent pithy – and apt – phrase to describe the Bush boys: "Fraternity of Failure"
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/opinion/paul-krugman-fraternity-of-failure.html?_r=0
Thanks all. Buried and rushing, again.