Open Thread–5/7/2016

 Posted by at 3:44 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 072016
 

George is furious at TriMet.  We saw the lift bus pass the door three times yesterday, but we often see Lift buses that aren’t mine go by.  I called, and dispatch told me that the driver had come here at 12:35, and I was not here.  I told her that was untrue.  I’m guessing that the driver went to the wrong building, because I had been waiting in the lobby since 12:20.  I talked to customer service and filed a complaint.  I had to cancel my appointment with Sarah, and George did not get his new ankle.  I’ll have to reschedule, after I know what’s going on with my eye.  I’m getting a late start today, because Julie was here from 7:30 – 11:30,  She helped me shower.  I’m a pampered puddy tat.  Then we worked together to do the dreaded task, cooked a half a dozen chicken breasts, and did some light cleaning.  After she left, I had lunch and did my research.  I’m getting tired already.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley outlines the ‘Stopping Abuse and Fraud in Electronic (SAFE) Lending Act,’ legislation to crack down on some of the worst abuses of the payday lending industry and protect consumers from deceptive and predatory practices that strip wealth from working families.

 

Oregon and Senator Jeff Merkley still lead the way!!

From Daily Kos: Cassandra McWade got into a car accident on a stretch of highway in North Carolina. The 25-year-old McWade was fine, but her car wasn’t in any shape to drive and she needed a tow. Enter self-described “conservative Christian” Kenneth Shupe. He’s the tow truck driver that was called in to help McWade out.

When he saw “a bunch of Bernie Sanders stuff” he said he told the woman, “very politely,” that he could’t tow her car because she was “obviously a socialist” and advised her to “call the government” for a tow.

"Every business dealing in recent history with a socialist minded person I have not gotten paid," Shupe said. "Every time I deal with these people I get ‘Berned’ with an ‘e’ not a ‘u’."

Holy. Shit. There are too many things wrong here. First, should McWade call the government that employs tons of tow truck operators and pays for their services with citizens’ money? Second, I’m not calling Kenneth Shupe a liar when he says that “socialist minded” people have not paid him but let me put it this way—Kenneth Shupe is a liar.

Shupe, who runs Shupee Max Towing in Travelers Rest, said he is a conservative Christian who supports Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Shupe said he has drawn a line in the sand not to do business with Bernie Sanders’ supporters.

Trump supporters reflect the love passed down from their Fuhrer, Rump Dump Trump.

From NY Times: In a Europe struggling with a rise in Islamophobia, riven by debates about the flood of Syrian migrants and on edge over religious, ethnic and cultural disputes, London has elected its first Muslim mayor.

Sadiq Khan — a Labour Party leader, a former human rights lawyer and a son of a bus driver from Pakistan — was declared the winner after a protracted count that extended into Saturday. He will be the first Muslim to lead Britain’s capital.

The victory also makes him one of the most prominent Muslim politicians in the West.

If Rump Dump is elected, he would make the Mayor of London ineligible to visit the US.

Cartoon:

0507Cartoon

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Everyday Erinyes

 Posted by at 8:47 pm  Politics
May 062016
 

I only have two articles this week which really call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them – and one that announces a way that people with talent (different kinds of talent, so don't disqualify yourself without reading further) can help them out. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

The first story is happening in my home state of Colorado.  Michael Bennet's term as a Democratic US Senator is expiring, he is running for reelection, and the Republicans want him out, naturally.  Though he's kind of a DINO, he is infinitely better than any Republican.  The Daily Kos Election Digest has the race listed as "safe Democrat," so it is unlikely that whoever gets the Republican nod will win.  But apparently, whether it matters or not, they just can't seem to help cheating.

One of them, Jon Keyser, was told he didn't have enough signatures to get on that ballot, since numerous signatures were disqualified because the petition circulator's address on the petitions did not match his (I think it was a he) address of registration.  Turned out he had moved and forgotten to change his address  with the election department.  OK, technically that's illegal.  But a technicality is exactly what it is.  I have no problem with the Secretary of State deciding to go ahead and put him on the ballot after all.  Two other Republicans were told the same thing – one is not now on the ballot, the other managed to get onto the ballot but is suing the (Republican) Secretary of State anyway.  That's typical Republican circus, and not the issue.

Here's the thing: after Jon Keyser was put onto the ballot, someone looked a little harder, and discovered possible fraud – so now he's off again.  Here's the deal.  One Republican in Littleton has her name on both Keyser's petition and also that for Jack Graham.  That's kind of illegal too – you're only supposed to be supporting one candidate.  After all, you can't vote twice (legally).  But the potential for actual, tangible, provable fraud comes in when you look at both petitions and see that the same name is in totally different handwritings, with totally different signatures.

You can see this is PROBABLY not a case of two voters with the same name (who also just happen to live at the same address.)  In any case one now wonders whether ANY Republican will now make it onto the Colorado Senate ballot.  Under one of probably the ten most Republican Secretaries of State in the nation.  I'm sure this is boring for you ladies – but maybe you can crack the whip a little to encourage the people sorting through these documents to get it right.  They don't have a lot of time.

The other story comes from California, but is national in scope.  I heard it through In The Public Interest, a group which I learned about through their work on exposing private prisons and the private contractors who supply them substandard food, poor medical care, expensive prisoner-to-family communications, etc.  Now ITPI is looking at for profit schools in direct competition with public schools in kindergarten through high school.

Despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s taxpayers, California Virtual Academies (CAVA), the state’s largest provider of online public education, is failing key tests used to measure educational success. According to an investigation by The San Jose Mercury News, fewer than half of the thousands of students who enroll in CAVA schools graduate, and almost none of them are qualified to attend the state's public universities.
 All the while, the publicly traded corporation that owns the network, K12 Inc., continues to rake in massive profits.

Just like a brick-and-mortar charter school, an on-line charter school receives taxpayer funding which would (IMO should) have gone to the local public school.  And, since those funds are based on attendance, just how does an online school take attendance?  Simple – if you log in, you are "present."  When you log out is no one's business.  And this also irks me: "(W)hile records show that the company’s employees launched each of K12 Inc.’s 17 online schools in California, the applications they filed to open the schools described the founders as a “group of parents,” none of whom were named."

Probably not that surprising for an enterprise launched by a former Goldman Sachs bankster.  Tisiphone, I usually ask for you when some vile human is being vengefully destructive.  But if you decided to vengefully destroy these corporations, I wouldn't shed a tear.

Finally, the call for entries – "Calling all painters, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, graffiti artists, fine art students, animators, sculptors, designers, actors, advertisers, poets, writers, illustrators, tech specialists, crafters and anyone with a passion for creating, we’d love to hear from you."  The topic is "Where's wetiko?"

I personally am more familiar with the Ojibway form of the word, "windingo," than the Algonquin form they chose, but I suspect they chose it because it moves faster in the mouth, like the "Waldo" they are probably alluding to in the topic title.  But, you may be asking, WHAT is it?  Well …

All over the world, there is a feeling that something is deeply wrong. It is often felt more than seen, an unnamed darkness that keeps millions (even billions) of people disconnected from the reality of authentic life-affirming experience….

Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit that is driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption (in Ojibwa it is windingo, wintiko in Powhatan). It deludes its host into believing that cannibalizing the life-force of others (others in the broad sense, including animals and other forms of Gaian life) is a logical and morally upright way to live.
•Every time someone is seen justifying the destruction of life for profit – it is wetiko.
•Every time compassion is vitally missing during a time of suffering – it is wetiko.
•Every time a privileged person uses another as a “throw away” toy – it is wetiko.
•Every time, in every way a community or country is impoverished so that others can be rich – it is wetiko.

So the answer to "Where's wetiko?" is "EVERYWHERE – but it needs to be SEEN."

The call for entries I have linked to has itself further links for anyone who wants to go deeper – but it's a good introduction, it's short and to the point, and repays reading through even if you think you do not have a creative nerve in your body.  And maybe we can help out the furies by raising awareness of injustice and consequent opposition to it.

The Furies and I will be back.

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Pat B Has a BIG Mouth ;-)

 Posted by at 8:25 am  Blog News, Politics
May 062016
 

78-PatB

Although Pat has been following Politics Plus and commenting for quite some time on Care2, where she has been active for years, she only started commenting here at the site a few months ago, so this is her very first Big Mouth Award.  Consequently, I don’t know that much about her.  She is a progressive activist, an authentic Christian, and a Michael Moore Fan.  If you tell her to go to hell, she’s likely to answer, “I already live there.”  The poor girl is a Texan.  Her comments are bright and witty.  And one think I personally appreciate is that she invariably expresses empathy over the trials I face.

She is a most welcome asset to our community here.  Please pile on the kudos,  She deserves them.

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Open Thread–5/6/2016

 Posted by at 8:24 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 062016
 

Yesterday I celebrated Cinco de Mayo by having a couple Burritos delivered.  Today I’m rushing to finish in time to go get George a new ankle.  It’s a hot humid day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: How do Republican women feel about Donald Trump as the likely presidential nominee for the Republican party?

 

On the other hand, some Republican women are so brainwashed, that they want to be kept the way Rump Dump wants them:

0506TrumpGal

From, NY Times: In an extraordinary rebuke of his party’s presumed nominee, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the nation’s highest-ranking elected Republican, said Thursday that he was “not ready” to endorse Donald J. Trump for president.

Mr. Ryan’s announcement represented a split among Republicans not seen in at least a half century, and it came only two days after Mr. Trump said he would unify the party after essentially clinching the nomination with his victory in the Indiana primary.

A rejection, albeit temporary, from Lyin’ Ryan is a failure to top a VERY low bar!!

From Media Matters:News networks frequently use the word “controversial” to describe Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim and anti-Mexican comments, and it’s setting a dangerous precedent for the way the media talks about bigotry in American politics..

 

There’s nothing controversial about Rump Dump! Hid fascist hate mongering is just plain anti-American!!

Cartoon:

0506Cartoon

Originally posted on this date in 2012.

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Friday Fun – Mic Drop Edition

 Posted by at 5:46 am  Politics
May 062016
 

Obama_Mic-Drop

I’m going to let the politicians do all the heavy-lifting for this week’s “Friday Fun” since I’m a bit busy getting ready to head up to Illinois to celebrate Mother’s Day with my Mom.

So let’s start things off with Carly Fiorina doing her best Three Stooges imitation with her recent plunge off a stage (she wasn’t injured) while the Cruz family pays no attention.  Well, to be fair, Heidi seems a tad concerned – but just for a second, before she gets back to the more serious task of waving to the crowd:

Given Boehner’s recent disavowal of Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh”, some cheeky wags claimed it was the Devil pulling Snarly down to Hades.  I disagree and I don’t mean to get all “Wizardly” on you – but after studying that clip, I wonder if any of you can see some little girl in ruby-red slippers who might have thrown a bucket of water on her?

Carly-Fiorina_Falls-Off-Stage_w_Cruz

Next we’ll move to the Master – Pres. Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner.  Fortunately someone has kindly preserved his best one-liners for us – so without further ado:

1). Next year at this time, someone else will be standing here in this very spot, and it’s anyone’s guess who she will be.

2). In just six short months, I will be officially a lame duck, which means Congress now will flat-out reject my authority. And Republican leaders won’t take my phone calls. And this is going to take some getting used to, it’s really going to — it’s a curve ball. I don’t know what to do with it.

3). And yet, somehow, despite all this, despite the churn, in my final year, my approval ratings keep going up. The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major. And here’s the thing: I haven’t really done anything differently. So it’s odd. Even my aides can’t explain the rising poll numbers — what has changed, nobody can figure it out. [Slide of Cruz and Trump Shown] Puzzling …

4). A lot of folks have been surprised by the Bernie phenomenon, especially his appeal to young people. But not me, I get it. Just recently, a young person came up to me and said she was sick of politicians standing in the way of her dreams. As if we were actually going to let Malia go to Burning Man this year. That was not going to happen. Bernie might have let her go. Not us. I am hurt, though, Bernie, that you’ve distancing yourself a little from me. I mean, that’s just not something that you do to your comrade.

5). Look, I’ve said how much I admire Hillary’s toughness, her smarts, her policy chops, her experience. You’ve got to admit it, though, Hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little bit like your relative just signed up for Facebook. “Dear America, did you get my poke?” “Is it appearing on your wall?” “I’m not sure I am using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary.” It’s not entirely persuasive.

6). Meanwhile, on the Republican side, things are a little more — how should we say this — a little “more loose.” Just look at the confusion over the invitations to tonight’s dinner. Guests were asked to check whether they wanted steak or fish, but instead, a whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan. That’s not an option, people. Steak or fish. You may not like steak or fish –but that’s your choice.

7). Although I am a little hurt that he’s not here tonight. We had so much fun the last time. And it is surprising. You’ve got a room full of reporters, celebrities, cameras, and he says no? Is this dinner too tacky for The Donald? What could he possibly be doing instead? Is he at home, eating a Trump Steak tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel? What’s he doing?

8). Of course, in fact, for months now congressional Republicans have been saying there are things I cannot do in my final year. Unfortunately, this dinner was not one of them. But on everything else, it’s another story. And you know who you are, Republicans. In fact, I think we’ve got Republican Senators Tim Scott and Cory Gardner, they’re in the house, which reminds me, security, bar the doors! Judge Merrick Garland, come on out, we’re going to do this right here, right now. It’s like “The Red Wedding.”

9). But the prospect of leaving the White House is a mixed bag. You might have heard that someone jumped the White House fence last week, but I have to give Secret Service credit — they found Michelle, brought her back, she’s safe back at home now. It’s only nine more months, baby. Settle down.

10). And then there’s Ted Cruz. Ted had a tough week. He went to Indiana –- Hoosier country –- stood on a basketball court, and called the hoop a “basketball ring.” What else is in his lexicon? Baseball sticks? Football hats? But sure … I’m the foreign one.

And who will ever be able to forget his now iconic closing of “Obama out” with the mic drop.

Obama_Mic-Drop_Slow-Mo_2

But let’s not leave out the presumptive nominees of both parties.  I’ve heard Herr Drumpf claim that he will win the general election because he’ll get Democrats to abandon their party and crossover to vote for him as the Rethuglican nominee.

If that happens, the average IQ of BOTH parties would be greatly enhanced.

In hopes of unifying the party, Herr Drumpf has said he’s going to put Ben Carson in charge of his VP Search Committee.  Yeah, right – that should work out REALLY well ..

Donald-Trump_Ben-Carson_Dancing

Lord knows your party needs LOTS of unifying.  After all, it’s been reported that not a single GOP presidential candidate since 1988 is going to show up at the convention. 

(Marco Rubio is also not going to attend.  But, hell – he doesn’t show up for anything anyway!)

Oh, and before I forget, Herr Drumpf – whether you have big hands or little hands – here’s a warning to you just in case you really, REALLY believe that Hillary Clinton is, in your words, “not tough enough” to handle the job …

Hillary_Nutcracker

Consider yourself warned!

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As seen from afar 05/05/2016

 Posted by at 6:12 pm  Politics
May 052016
 

hedgehog-looks-binocularsIf you’re a regular reader of TomCat’s blog and articles, I’m sure you’re quite aware of the fact that both Ted Cruz and John Kasich have suspended their campaign in the Republican primaries and Donald Trump seems to have secured the GOP’s nomination. Or as the BBC analyst said last night on the 10 o’clock news: ”Donald Trump has now completed his hostile takeover of the Republican party.”

This rather negative take on Trump’s victory in Indiana and the subsequent departure of his last two opponents is one that has been in the make not only in America, as TomCat’s blog has been witness to for quite some time now, but also across many countries across the globe. Chief foreign correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald, Paul MCGeough, headed his article with: Donald Trump’s victory over Ted Cruz is more about Republican failure than candidate’s success. ABC news also quickly focused on Trump’s most likely Democratic opponent for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, and on the fact that presumptive nominee Trump will have a hard time trying to unite a fractured party around his bid for the White House.  Others think Trump’s going to have a difficult time ahead of him in getting the GOP to support him (His biggest challenge yet: Anti-Trump Republicans consider the ultimate betrayal)

My own the Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, sketched the situation yesterday (May 4, 2016) with just a hint of amusement: “What started as a comedy number less than a year ago, became a revolt in the party and ended Wednesday night with a Republican seizure of power by Trump. He demanded instantly victory on. ‘We’re going after Hillary Clinton now,’”  but the paper doesn’t fail to note that while “The Republican party goes to do battle with (probably) the Democrat Hillary Clinton with an uncontrollable, polarizing presidential candidate,” this probable Democratic candidate is equally unpopular. Both the BBC news and the Dutch media came up with numbers quoted on fivethirtyeight.com: American’s distaste for both Trump and Clinton is record breaking, where Trump is disliked by 10% more Americans than Hillary is, or as the headline in my newspaper read: "The Contest Is Between Who Has The Least Hated Candidate."

You might wonder why people abroad are so negative about the possibility of Donald Trump sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office in November. We’re only looking at it from afar and as Ben Carson said “we’re only looking at four years” if Trump’s a bust, right? That negativity may have something to do with his foreign policy which he read from teleprompter only last week. I’ll give you the translation of almost the full article my newspaper carried on its front page (NRC Handelsblad, Thursday, April 28, 2016) to show how it was received here in The Netherlands.

“ Trump Promises An America That Thinks Predominantly Of Itself

'America first ', will be the foundation of his foreign policy, Donald Trump said Wednesday in a speech about his probable foreign policy, after he increased his lead in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday.

In the speech, clearly intended to provide the almost-candidate with a presidential allure, he unfolded a predominantly isolationist views on America's role in the world. The political and economic motivation came at the end: “We will no longer surrender this country to the false tune of globalization. The US are the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical about international treaties that bind our hands.”

America will no longer get the chestnuts out of the fire when other countries, as for example NATO partners, spend insufficiently on defense, said Trump.

Details on Trump’s many notorious loose statements such as building a wall along the border with Mexico were missing from the speech. Trump tried to present an overall vision by contrasting America's role at the end of the second world war and the cold war with what he called the 'complete disaster' of the foreign policy of the Presidents Clinton and Obama.

He assured the relationship with Russia and China will improve. He promised 'a deal' with Russia, China will start to respect America's power. To combat IS the US should develop both a 'coherent plan' as well as become ‘unpredictable'. Trump wants to strengthen the army with 'the best equipment in the world' but also said that the US want peace.”

Trump’s maiden policy speech wasn’t all that well received in other countries either. Pundit for The National Interest in Australia, Mark Beeson, professor of International Politics, think president Trump, following his own course on foreign policy, would be devastating to Australia: “The point to emphasize is that any country that relies too heavily on another for its security is potentially hostage to its protector’s policies—no matter how ill-conceived, dangerous or inappropriate they may be. That possibility was realized in entirely predictable and disastrous fashion when Bush was president. A Trump administration threatens to be even more catastrophic on a number of levels.”

Even Peter Foster in UK’s conservative The Telegraph comes to the same negative conclusion in his analysis for the United Kingdom and Europe: “No US president makes good on all their campaign-trail promises, but from ripping up America’s security alliances in Europe and the Asia-Pacific to threatening a trade-war with China, Donald Trump has promised to put “America first” by instituting an ultra-isolationist US foreign policy.”

Some Brits, like the Independent, didn’t beat about the bush, not even in their headlines: Donald Trump’s incoherent speech on foreign policy shows why he’s unfit to be president, while a very serious Aussie in Financial Review slowly build up his  case to end with a Trump quote which really says it all: ‘Responding to recent criticisms that Mr Trump's current informal foreign policy advisers were not well known, he said "we have to look to new people because many of the old people frankly don't know what they're doing".’ Trump will be 70 by the time he expects to be in the White House.

TrumpWorldx2

I think most other nations have a problem with Donald Trump’s vision on the world and the role America plays in it, because it is inconsistent and varies from day to day. In other words, Trump is inconsistent, untrustworthy and unpredictable, the latter to which he actually aspires in his foreign policy. America shouldn’t be so predictable, he maintains. The day after the NRC Handelsblad published the front page article cited above, it carried an article on the advisors Trump has let himself be influenced by and the inconsistencies that followed, titled Candidate without ideology with the subtitle “Trump is advised by people who want to make him ' presidential '. They give him conflicting ideas.” Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and son in law Jared Kushner should make Trump 'presidential'. But they also feed him with ideas. Those ideas are often contradictory, and that was noticeable in Trump’s speech:

“Trump wants to build a wall on the Mexican border, and Mexico has to pay for it. In the speech he did not come back to these famous statements.

Trump said that 'promoting Western civilization will contribute more to positive reforms in the world than military interventions'. But he also turned against the 'dangerous idea' that Western values can be impose on non-Western countries.

Trump promised to turn 'old enemies'  into fiends, even allies by making good deals. But, he also said, a country like Iran 'will always remain our enemy'. Obama should never have negotiated with Iran.

Trump received a lot of criticism on other statements he made about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton last Wednesday: 'If Hillary Clinton were a man, she would get less than 5 percent of the votes,' said Trump, who believes that Clinton is campaigning on women issues. He then immediately contradicted himself: 'the great thing is that women don’t like her.'

Perhaps Trump should have stuck with his first advisor:

http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/trump-my-primary-consultant-is-myself-645588035836

Of course these are only a few of the inconsistencies as seen from afar. But Australian media were quick to point out that closer to home some people also had problems with Trump’s take on foreign affairs as in Madeleine Albright unleashes on Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech, who by takies to Twitter to poke holes in Trump’s first attempt at a foreign policy speech, “something I have experience with,” and tackles his doctrine’s flaws head on a la Trump himself.

If the political future of America looks a little bleak after reading this, cheer up, because I’ve saved the best for last. In an excellent analysis of the current political climate, history, polling data and demographics, independent pundit Anthony J. Gaughan, maintains in his article President Trump? Not likely that “The evidence suggests that Trump will likely suffer a crushing defeat in the general election” to conclude with “The bottom line is Republican leaders with an eye on the future don’t want anything to do with Trump. They know the name “Trump” will likely join Goldwater, McGovern and Mondale as names forever associated with crushing presidential election defeats.”

Let's hope Mr Gaughan's analysis is correct.

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