Well today is my momma's birthday — 87 years old. I will going up to her care centre for a visit in the afternoon and take some brightly coloured balloons to bobble about and catch her attention. I remember thinking as a child that my parents were really old at the age of about 40, and that I would never make it that far. I knew my grandparents, even great grandparents, but that their ages were greater than my parents didn't seem to register the same way. Now I am in my mid 60s, a mother to three cats, an honourary grandmother to 7 little humans (one named after me), and my mind still says I can do anything, but the body sometimes protests.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:29 (average 4:35). To do it, click here. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.
Short Takes
Daily Kos — By now we all know GOP Presidential wannabee Carly Fiorina has been telling everyone that she saw a video of an aborted fetus "with arms and legs kicking while Planned Parenthood people dissected the baby looking for its brain."
Her story is bullshit of the highest order — HOWEVER — there is a tiny element of truth in the story.
Click on Here is the mom who gave birth to the premature baby. to see what the truth is . . . and it is not what Fiorina is spreading! See the Lexi Oliver Fretz story here in Crooks and Liars.
And now the House wants to set up an investigation of Planned Parenthood after 3 states and the FBI have finished investigations and found no wrong doing. Those fiscal conservatives really do like to throw good money after bad!
Raw Story — Global financial regulators pledged to draft rules by November that will prevent taxpayers from having to bail out struggling financial institutions, according to reports. The announcement of the upcoming rules, which seek to combat banks and other institutions being “too big to fail,” followed a Friday meeting of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a group of global financial regulators, in London.
Welcome news indeed. My career was spent in banking management doing, among other things, Operational Risk Management and auditing. Of course, the largest banks like JP Morgan Chase and Citibank are opposing the move. They would be required to carry higher capital requirements to offset risks. For banks, that is considered to be "dead" money . . . money not making money so to speak. Check out the rest of the story at Raw Story and additional info at Meeting of the Financial Stability Board. There will be a lot of lobbying going on in Washington.
Alternet — Earlier this week, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said that he didn’t want “stupid” people — i.e. people who won’t vote for him — to vote at all. Then a Republican state representative in Florida was caught suggesting that the party beat Rep. Corrine Brown by redrawing her African-American-majority district to include a large population of prisoners, who are not allowed to vote in Florida.
These are just two of the instances of Republican lawmakers admitting that their electoral strategy hinges not just on winning votes, but on suppressing the votes of people who they think will oppose them.
Read about the others. It could not get much more blatant than that! I often wonder when the DOJ, or another government agency, is going to put the screws to the GOP for its flagrant voter suppression!
My Universe — Just sticking my head in to say hello!
22 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 29/09/2015”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Congratulations on your mother's 87th birthday, Lynn. I hope she enjoys your visit and her balloons.
I'm only a few years younger than you are and I remember the same feeling when my parents were in their forties, but even their generation "aged better" than my grandparents' generation. The parents of my father were worn out in their forties through hard work and less medical care even though they both lived into their eighties. They were as old, both physically and mentally, in their forties as they I'm now at nearly sixty. Each new generation grows older but also stays healthier longer it seems. Alas this is also a reason for the Republicans to raise the retirement age up to the point where we work until we drop dead.
Daily Kos: No many how many people prove that the PP is a hoax and that the video Fiorina so vividly describes doesn't exist (they used a photo of a naturally born premature baby instead), it doesn't matter. It has gotten all the media attention it needs for the rabid base to believe it and that's enough. Of course the Republican House wants to do its own investigation by a commission of equally bigoted Republicans, the investigations in three states and a separate investigation by the FBI didn't find anythingng so now they have to go looking until they do! Republican Benghazi reasoning all over again.
Raw Story: Took them long enough, didn't it? I doubt whether it'll work; we have something comparable in place, forcing banks to have this extra buffer, but all it has led to is them trying to make even more profit to compensate it with the same and new dirty tricks.
Alternet: You're doing a terrific job holding the fort for TomCat, Lynn,I think I'v reached my barf-bag level for today, We've all known that gerrymandering, tossing voter registrations of the opposition in the dump, allowing right-to-carry fanatics to bring their gun into the polling booth etc. etc. etc. were the ways that Republicans got their candidates elected, but to be so blatant about it really gets my stomach heaving: "As a matter of fact our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” But what's more upsetting is that so little seems to be done about it.
I've always been envious of the universe of that family who had a large number of Rothschild's giraffes on their grounds, some of them calling in around breakfast time for some fruit.
Daily Kos: I like the name FAILorina (in the comments), describes her to a tee. Oh, how sick of her to lie about this. How distorted can you get on stating the 'real facts'?
Raw Story: Good news, I hope it works!
My Universe: Wouldn't it wonderful to just open up your window and have a giraffe pop her head in for a little snack? I'd love to walk with these gentle giants, that would be a good way to start my day.
AlterNet: Snap!!! What Lona said so eloquently.
Happy Birthday to your mom! I agree, I think the same as when I was younger, but my body resists in physical activities, like speed walking or strenuous exercises. I do regret that. Enjoy, and hope you have a good day. Thanks, Lynn!
Congratulations to your mother on her birthday Lynn, I do hope she enjoys it – does she still enjoy visits by your three?
Daily Kos – well there's a surprise – the Right Wing taking part of a story and distorting it out of almost all recognition – oh no, my bad, they are ALWAYS doing so!
Raw Story – and about time too (it still horrifies me that President Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act – the Democrats seem only slightly better sometimes than the Repugs!).
As we learned some four or five years ago, when I joined PP, the Repugs take over the school boards first, then work their way rapidly up from committee to committee so that they can (and do) redraw voting districts to their own benefit -and they have done so all over the country.
The atmosphere in the care centre is so different from the assisted living centre where my 3 regularly visited her. Only Winnie, my big ginger, has been to her current place which is more like a hospital. She enjoyed seeing him, but anymore, she frequently doesn't register. I had to really point out the shiny bright balloons yesterday and then she smiled.
2:40 The dragon flies are all over the place in my neck of the woods right now.
4:10 Was was really draggin' on this fly.
The fix was in! Jerry, we'll have to settle for "also rans"!
A very Happy Birthday to your Mother!
Daily Kos ~ Even FAUX NOISE tried to get her to back down from her statements about the video. Carly says "NO". Facts? Who needs steenking facts?
Raw Story ~ Sorry Wall St. I believe the American people may have won this round.
Alternet ~ I agree with the Huckster on this. Stupid people should not vote. Studies have proven that FAUX viewers have lower IQs, ergo, they should not vote. That way the Rethugs would get no votes.
Love the giraffe!
4:56 Another link in the food chain.
Happy Birthday, Lynn's Mommy!
DKos – It just beggars belief, doesn't it? I would think the FBI clean bill would be influential even to Republicans, because the FBI has it in for liberals so extravagantly. They have been surveilling the staff of The Nation magazine since 1921. Nineteen twenty one! And they still aren't embarrassed.
Raw Story – Why do I suspect that money is considered to be dead if the money it's making is under a certain nn-zero rate of return? P&C insurance companies are already required to hold huge amonts of capital which they are alloed to invest safely (I was going to say conservatively, but the way they are allowed to invest is not at all like conservatives.) The company is considered solvent if the investment income sufficiently brings them from the minus to the plus side; in fact, that's what it's for. No reason banks can't accomplish this.
Alternet – The problem with putting the screws to them is that you get the screws nicely in place, they squeal to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court says "There, there, nice pols, be good boys and girls and don't get caught again." Talk about throwing good money after bad. Not something liberals like to do so much. If we can get a Supreme Court whose brains are in its heads putting the screws will be something to go for.
Universe – Well, high there! (pun intended)
Dragonfly green puzzle time; 4:49.
I feel sorry for people who want to control their family size. The republicans are out of control.
Carly Fiorina: Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina Endorses Use of Waterboarding
In more news from the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has endorsed the use of waterboarding in order to "get information that was necessary." A 2014 Senate report said waterboarding is tantamount to torture and that it has produced little useful intelligence. In her interview with Yahoo News, Fiorina attempted to discredit the report, calling it "disingenuous" and saying that it "undermined the morale of a whole lot of people who dedicated their lives to keeping the country safe."
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/29/headlines#9295
Maybe we should waterboard her!
After reading all of the links on the Carly-LIES, I am stumped as to why this mother will go along with it!! She knows that the pictures and video are flat out LIES! If she is so God-fearing and wants to see her baby in heaven, why is she lying? Isn't that a NO-NO? I think it was in that tablet that Moses brought down from the mountain, wasn't it? "Do not hear false witness" was one of them 10 things that faithful shouldn't do If they want to see the "Kingdom of Heaven"!
Big Banks are always going to be " too big to fail" as long as we don't do some REAL change in how they are run and how they are legislated!
Congrats Carly. BANG UP JOB THAT YOU DID FOR H.P.!. Just what we need. !!. ( MY ASS).
Keep them lies going girl!
Happy Birthday to Lynn's Momma!
Wish Carly would fade into yesteryear's news to never reappear in the media.
Hope the global effort creates a viable model for the US to emulate.
Restoring the voting act becomes more important every day.
No leaves missing in that Universe despite the giraff's presence, tastier houseplants?
An (almost belated) "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" to your Mom!
And as a Bonus, you and your friends can sing as often as you like … for FREE! It's no longer under Copyright!
http://m.snopes.com/2015/09/22/happy-birthday-public-domain/
LOL!
Happy Birthday to You… Lynn's Mom.
Lynn: By the way, the kid named after you, was that name Lynn or Squatch…?
Forgot to mention that the pic in My Universe — Just sticking my head in to say hello! is cute! lol… Wouldn't mind it at all.
"Lynn". TC gave me the nickname of Sasquatch which he shortened to Squatch. This honourary grandchild would be in her teens now.
Lynn, tell your Momma Happy Birthday for me. Mine will be 86 on Oct. 7.
Daily Kos: Fiorino is refusing to back down from her lie, too.
Raw Story: About time! The banks were bailed out, then made it harder for people to get a loan, and increased the salaries of their top executives. Our local, home town owned bank was sold to a huge corporation and everything has been a mess since. No one in the local bank has any authority and if there is a screw up, you have to call a 1-800 number and listen to music for thirty minutes before you talk to a person. I hate it.
Alternet: Shared this on FAcebook.
Thanks for all your hard work.
Isn't she exemplifying the Republican motto . . . never, never ever back down from a lie!
Thanks all. I passed on you birthday wishes to my mother.