Yesterday really was a lazy day, because neither PT nor OT came to work me. While I welcome every chance I have to work, I suppose one day off won’t hurt me. Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos, minus Peyton, are meditating with the Patriots in the Sunday night game, so I will get to see it. May the blessed Orb shine its holy light on your team, unless that team is notorious for wayward snow plows and depressurizing orbs.
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos (Classic 4/2014): We like to assert that Daily Kos is a reality-based community. At the very least we surely do not deny science. A new study appearing at Princeton’s website may test these assumptions for some of us here. For others, it will be grim vindication of what we already know: the United States of America is no longer a democracy, but rather an oligarchy.
The anecdotes are plentiful, from modest gun control proposals that saw 90% public support, to unemployment compensation, to infrastructure spending, to women’s rights; where a plurality exists even across party lines, the median public interest seems to hold no sway in policy making. Now science has proven this to be correct:
The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence. Our results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.
I’d say that in the last year and a half, we’ve regressed to fascist plutocracy.
From Roots Action: Rahm Emanuel Should Resign Now
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel oversaw the withholding from public view — for more than a year — of a video of a police murder of a teenager.
The police officer who shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times, continuing to shoot his motionless body on the ground, has now been indicted for first-degree murder.
The video was kept secret for 13 months, during which time Emanuel never corrected the blatant lies by the Chicago Police Department that maintained the victim had lunged at the police with a knife just before he was shot. The video shows this to have been a complete fabrication.
A mayor willing to cover for the murder of his constituent is no mayor at all. Add your name:
Chicago residents and people across the country demand Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s immediate resignation.
Rahmbo must go! He is a disgrace to the Democratic Party. Click through to sign the petition, please.
From NY Times: With Colorado Springs residents telling chilling tales of hours spent hiding in stores near the shootout on Friday, the authorities shed no light publicly on whether they believed Mr. Dear, 57, had deliberately targeted Planned Parenthood. But one senior law enforcement official, who would speak only anonymously about an ongoing investigation, said that after Mr. Dear was arrested, he had said “no more baby parts” in a rambling interview with the authorities.
It appears that this Republican terrorism is a direct response to the fraudulent Republican videos attacking Planned Parenthood.
Cartoon:
Has that map changed, or what?
9 Responses to “On the Edge–11/29/2015”
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I sent a letter to the editor of the NY Times, this morning, saying that given the most memorable words out of the mouth of the Colorado Springs shooter, "No more baby parts," I put some of the blame for this shooting onto the psudo-Christian, propagandizing scum who patched together that bogus PP video; not in quite those words.
Yeah, I guess that this is exactly what Christ would have done, go kill people for the sake of making a point/!
Rham petiton signed, asap!
Princeton study: It is nice to have scientific support for what has been self-evident for some years, and i do not mean that sarcastically.
Petition signed (thanks TC).
When potential candidates were required to sign Grover Norquist's pledge before getting party support to campaign and held to that pledge even when it ran counter to their oaths of office, it was deeply disturbing and a sign of even worse to follow. We don't hear of Grover these days, but he may hold more responsibility for many of the events the TP want to blame Obama for, and many other ghastlies emerging, than any other one person not financing the TP and the like deserve to be held accountable for…along with those who act in Congress in exchange for or in anticipation of campaign donations, including independent TV ads.
Thanks for reminding folks of the partition and what it was supposed to do for all the parties involved TC.
Roots Action: The video is horrifying, so sad. Signed petition!
NYTimes: Right on! to what Arielle said.
Enjoy your game, I am sure that the higher powers that be, will look favorably on your team. Speaking of which, my team won soundly vs. the Saints. Have a relaxing evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
I hope the shooting doesn't throw the Broncos off their game. Best of luck.
Daily Kos – Which is why so many people are not voting because they are in a state of learned helplessness. It's diabolical, really.
Roots Action – signed from email, of course.
NY Times – Well, Nameless and I both had the first reaction "Carly Fiorina has blood on her hands." It appears we were right.
Cartoon – Well, if you leave children to their own devices, they will do what children do. (Meow)
Daily Kos — "I’d say that in the last year and a half, we’ve regressed to fascist plutocracy." — Funny that you should say that. At church today, the minister's wife and I were counting the collection. As we counted, we discussing various things and suddenly from her mouth came the word fascist. Her youngest daughter is studying in the US and had an opportunity to see Bernie recently. She is definitely pulling for him. with that, we were onto Republicans and Harper and the word fascist came up several times.
Roots Action — Signed. To serve and protect?
NY Times — "It appears that this Republican terrorism is a direct response to the fraudulent Republican videos attacking Planned Parenthood." . . . and I wonder how Carly Fiorini feels about all the blood that is most assuredly on her hands? After all, she is the one who kept pushing this falsehood publically.
Cartoon — And it has been downhill ever since for Palestinians as Israel continues to steal Palestinian land.
You need a day to rest so you can go at it tomorrow. The Ky. Wildcat football team ended with a losing season, as usual.
Daily Kos: I believe they were correct in their assssment. Until Citizens United is overturned, nothing will change, and maybe not then, since so many of our governent representatives are largely owned by corporations.
Roots Action: I signed the petition. If he knew this and took no action, he is as guilty as the perpetrators. I also read today that the video take at the local fast food restaurant near by had been partially deleted by the police.
NY Times: From the little I have heard and read, it appears the man has mental problems, no doubt aggravated by all the rhetoric that has been on right wing networks and current Republican candidates. They should take part of the blame for inciting these actions.
Cartoon: And look how well that worked!
No, a lazzy day won't hurt you, TomCat, but I think you would rather spend a day like that at home and at a time you choose. If you were in a Dutch hospital you wouldn't see a PT or OT during the weekend ever, only during the week. We haven't got a 24/7 economy yet, so most people have the weekend off unless they work in shifts, and PT and OT never do.
Daily Kos: So in 2014 America's oligarchy was already fact and no longer theory. Makes you wonder how long it'll take Princeton's finest to scientifically prove it has gone beyond that and is now fascist plutocracy, as yoy say, TomCat. The problem with that of course is that a fascist plutocracy will never allow Princeton to publish the results of that research on it's website. So you may have reached that state already, but you'll never officially know.
Roots Action: We're nearing the end of 2015 and the summary for the year is going to be just morbid. How many police shootings of black people, how many cover-ups of race related incidents, how many hate crimes… This year may sadly break all records. So let's start breaking some new records too and bring people responsible for these incidents and cover-ups to justice. Mayor Rahm Emanuel should resign or be made to resign immediately.
NY Times: As I've said yesterday, it's very hard to believe Mr. Dear's actions weren't triggered by the constant battering of PP by the GOP with lies, false accusations, mock hearings and hate speeches by Republican hopefuls. Dear's of course a very disturbed and deluded individual, but I don't believe for a moment that he's attack and kill people in a PP building without so many directions given to him by the GOP, directions he's followed because he was disturbed and deluded.
Cartoon: Some fractions in Israel seem to have forgotten that there ever was a partition or a map, others simply deny it.
Thanks all! Hugs!!
Of course it is. And I don't see why the "Librul MSM" is so loathe or afraid to draw such a reasonable conclusion.
If some nut-job marched into a synagogue, shot the place up, killed three people in the mayhem and then screamed when he surrendered, “NO MORE JEWS!” that they’d have any problem reporting THAT guy as an anti-Semite terrorist?
I don’t think so either.