Hmmmmmmmmmmm . . . it was an ordinary day with nothing untoward happening. Something must be wrong! Even the weather was great and no sibling rivalries from the feline side of the family! I'll celebrate while I can!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:42 (average 4:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes
Daily Kos — While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society."
This is one example of the distorted thinking leading to the demise of a once-vibrant American society. There are other signs of decay:
1. A House Bill Would View Corporate Crimes as 'Honest Mistakes'
Wealthy conservatives are pushing a bill that would excuse corporate leaders from financial fraud, environmental pollution, and other crimes that America's greatest criminals deem simply reckless or negligent. The Heritage Foundation attempts to rationalize, saying "someone who simply has an accident by being slightly careless can hardly be said to have acted with a 'guilty mind.'"
One must wonder, then, what extremes of evil, in the minds of conservatives, led to criminal charges against people apparently aware of their actions: the Ohio woman who took coins from a fountain to buy food; the California man who broke into a church kitchen to find something to eat; and the 90-year-old Florida activist who boldly tried to feed the homeless.
Of course, even without the explicit protection of Congress, CEOs are rarely charged for their crimes. Not a single Wall Street executive faced prosecution for the fraud-ridden 2008 financial crisis.
Click through for 4 more signs of a decaying society. These bring to mind scenes in Detroit where water and sanitation was cut off to thousands because they couldn't pay for water etc, bills usually being a couple hundred dollars. But some golf courses etc owned and used by the wealthy, with arrears in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, had no water cut offs. It isn't hard to see who has their priorities screwed up.
Politicususa — Now, it appears that Fox News, the religious right, and conservative pundits have another “war on Christmas” enemy to add to their growing list of atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Wiccans, Heathens, and Muslims who they say hate Christmas. The newest combatant joining the fake war on Christmas went beyond opposing saying Merry Christmas or protesting against Christian Christmas displays on government property and actually assailed the holiday celebration as a farce; likely because he is the supreme leader of the Catholic Church and not involved in conservative America’s silly Christmas outrage.
During a Mass at Casa Santa Maria, Pope Francis quietly committed one of the most heinous sins to American conservatives and religious right fanatics. There have been a world of things this “progressive” Pope has said to incite Republicans, conservatives, and evangelicals to abject anger and outrage, and each and every time it is because he talks like the Christian bible’s humanitarian Jesus. This latest incident is no different and is another signal that on a couple of important issues, Francis is a progressive pope; and an honest-to-dog humanitarian.
Click through for the rest. I can hear Bill O'Reilly now, totally apoplectic, screaming that the Pope has no idea what he's talking about! I am not a catholic, but I can definitely get behind him on some issues, and this is one. I have felt for years that Christmas is about excessive and conspicuous consumption. The real Christmas comes every day wrapped in plain, unadorned paper. It is the extended hand to refugees, a kind word, volunteering in a soup kitchen or a food bank so others might have food, holding the hand of someone who is afraid, and many more.
Talking Points Memo — Writing for the 7th Circuit majority, Judge Richard Posner called the contention that the law would protect women's health "nonexistent." He said the law would put more women in danger by increasing the waiting times for abortions, which could push some procedures into the second trimester.
"What makes no sense is to abridge the constitutional right to abortion on the basis of spurious contentions regarding women's health — and the abridgement challenged in this case would actually endanger women's health," he wrote.
He also said that a woman who experiences complications from an abortion will go to the nearest hospital, which will treat her regardless of whether her abortion doctor has admitting privileges there.
Click through to read the rest. Of course the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a Texas case come spring which will affect all states.
My Universe — h/t John Gray, Care2
At least this young lady got the kitten's bumb and not claws as was my misfortune when I was the trampoline 7 yearrs ago!
6 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 25/11/2015”
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DK: My dad told me many years ago, and many times, 'The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer'. It still applies now. 2Trillion is a lot of money and can be utilized for so many programs. Corporate greed at it's worst. I knew a man who died of cancer, as he couldn't afford the meds he needed. That was in the early 70's, and we're still hearing of these personal tragedies today.
Politicususa: Gee, I sure do love this Pope. The picture says it all.
My Universe: Pity the person who walks at night here, as my cat loves to play hide and seek. Thanks, John G., for the adorable clip. Company coming in, so preparations are underway. It's supposed to rain here for the next 5 days too. ugh. Enjoy your day, and Thanks, Lynn.
DK- Paulson is scum, it's that simple. NYU is probably after some big bucks from their infamous alumnus. The prioriies are all messed up, in no small part due to encouragement,in that direction, from St. Reagan, and his infamous claim to the nation that "You can have it all!"
I'd rather have many more Snowdens!
Oh, speaking of the 90% cut in mental health funding, and risking sounding like the proverbial "broken record," it was St. Reagan, as Gov. of Calfornia, who purposely destroyed what had been one of the country's best M.H. systems.
This Pope is one marvelous dude!
TPM- Reason has not left us completely, not yet, at least.
So good to see you can still enjoy some peaceful days too, Lynn.
Daily Kos: I know enough of history to realize that all societies will crumble and fall, given enough time. American society has been sick with the disease that has been endemic in Western societies far too long: greed. But this disease has found newer and fresher pastures in the form of an exuberant capitalism in America and left Europe, ravaged by wars and imperialism, but sheltered by a little socialism, in its wake. Now America's society is indeed dying as Daily Kos' dkmitch has it, but I hope it doesn't take as long as the Roman empire to finally succumb, and I hope it's before it has infected even more of the world with its unique strain of this eons old disease.
Politicususa: You'd think the religious right would start to notice by now that they've declared so many groups an enemy of Christmas that there's hardly anyone who celebrates it (their way) soon. Maybe real Christians should come out of hiding and indeed declare war on the pseudo Christian Christmas of commercialism and intolerance and declare the Christmas of Jesus the one and only and all start doing exactly as you've summed up so beautifully, Lynn: [r]eal Christmas comes every day wrapped in plain, unadorned paper [and] is the extended hand to refugees, a kind word, volunteering in a soup kitchen or a food bank so others might have food, holding the hand of someone who is afraid, and many more.
Talking Points Memo: There seems to be some sanity left among judges. Both U.S. District Judge William Conley and the majority of 7th Circuit , given voice by Judge Richard Posner have the guts to state what has been glaringly obvious in all new Republican abortion related laws are "a method of preventing abortions that women have a constitutional right to obtain." Ain't that the truth! let's hope SCOTUS will take this to heart and rule in the same vein.
My Universe: What a fearless kitten! Let's hope it'll stop doing that as it grows both in size and in claw.
4:41 Third time a charm. That must be my karma for saying I couldn't do it again if I tried.
DKos – One wonders to what degree they "really don't get it" and to what degree they do "get it" but are pushing it to see how far they can go. Not all curiosity is positive. This particular bill appears to be an attempt to resurrect the concept of "benefit of clergy" but making it instead a "benefit of wealthy." (It's also probably a response to Exxon's having been caught lying when they knew the truth.) Benefit of clergy existed in the Colonies but was made illegal by Congress in 1790. It is, of course, abviously incompatible with separation of church and state – even if the church in question worships Mammon.
Politicususa – Probably no one thinks of C.S. Lewis as particularly liberal, although (like Eisenhower and many others) he would be if he were alive today instead of having died with Kennedy. But he wrote more than one essay in the 30's, 40's, and 50's about Christmas. His take (though not his words) was that the best and possibly only way to keep one's sanity through the season was to recognize that Christmas (the religious observance) and, as he called it, Xmas (the commercial "observance") were separate and completely unrelated holidays. One wonders what he would have said today. Heck, one wonders what he would have said about the depiction of Santa Claus kneeling at the manger.
TPM – Nice to know there is at least one Federal judge who has the brains God gave lettuce. I certainly do not trust the SCROTUS on this issue. Well, on hardly any issue.
Universe – Goodness – what was that – revenge for having turned on the vacuum cleaner while kitty was sleeping? My husband did that once; but our kitty was kinder and didn't exact revenge.
3:52
Great minds fall in thd same ditch.
The Republicasn greeting should be, "War on earth. Good will to white fascists only!"
Republicand do NOT care about women's health.
Go Cat Go!!
Daily Kos: Since the Koch brothers are behind this bill, we all need to beware.
PoliticsUSA: Since this Pope is espousing actual Christian values, he is suspect. He might actually cause Faux news to stop their lies and the Republicans to reform from pseudo-Christianity.
Talking Points: I hope we get more rulings similar to this but I fear we won't. Our health is not important to them but appealing to their right wing base is.
My Universe: Cute.