Open Thread – 6/13/2016

Posted by TomCat at 3:03 pm Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics, Religion

Jun 132016

I’m getting another late start, because I’m so tired I needed a Lona nap this morning. Then I needed to arrange a medical cab for all three trips to and from Casey Eye Institute next week. Then I needed to massage the parade pictures into shape. Finally I ordered a new pad for my wheelchair, as the old one is worn out.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade:

The Rose Queen and her Court. (a better Court than SCROTUS).

After every horse act came a contingent of poop-scoopers. Republicans lack the intellectual capacity to do this job, Winking smile

Short Takes:

From NY Times: …Mr. Sanders said that he and Mrs. Clinton planned to meet on Tuesday and that he would ask her “whether she will be vigorous in standing up for working families in the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, health care for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free.”

“And after we have that kind of discussion and after we can determine whether or not we are going to have a strong and progressive platform,” he said, “I will be able to make other decisions.”

There have been signs that he was winding down his run. While Mrs. Clinton has been hiring campaign workers, Mr. Sanders started laying off at least half of his campaign staff members last week. He has let go of a number of advance staff members who help with campaign logistics, as well as field workers who have been canvassing for votes.

According to a person who attended the meeting at Mr. Sanders’s home Sunday, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private gathering, there was no talk from Mr. Sanders about trying to win the nomination. The group was keenly interested in how the senator’s meeting with Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday will turn out, and whether he would get assurances that she would fight for his ideas, this person said…

By continuing to run, Bernie increases the likelihood that his dream will live-on because it gives him a stronger negotiating position for the platform. As their stance clings to more and more desperate delusions, those who say they follow Bernie, but ignore his overtures toward unity work to increase the likelihood that Bernie’s dream will die in a totalitarian Rump Dump Trump Reich.

From Alternet: …The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, which works to support and empower LGBTQ Muslims, declared in a statement released on Sunday, "This tragedy cannot be neatly categorized as a fight between the LGBTQ community and the Muslim community. As LGBTQ Muslims, we know that there are many of us who are living at the intersections of LGBTQ identities and Islam. At moments like this, we are doubly affected."

"We reject attempts to perpetuate hatred against our LGBTQ communities as well as our Muslim communities," the organization continued. "We ask all Americans to resist the forces of division and hatred, and to stand against homophobia as well as against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry."…

The violence stems from neither Islam, nor Christianity, but from right wing pseudo-Muslims and right-wing pseudo-Christians, who abuse their respective religions to pursue the right-wing hatred and homophobia that they share.

From Think Progress: This morning on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump not so subtly returned to the subject that launched his political career — outrageous conspiracy theories about Barack Obama.

Trump said there were two possible reasons the gun massacre took place in Orlando. The first possibility was that Obama is “not tough” and “not smart” and therefore incapable of stopping terrorist attacks.

The other scenario, according to Trump, is that Obama is fully capable of stopping terrorist attacks but “has something else in mind.” In other words, Obama is purposefully allowing terrorists to kill people in the United States to pursue a hidden agenda.

Barf Bag Alert!!

Perhaps we could use his hair as a filtration mesh for sewerage. I can’t imagine any other productive use for him, at the moment.

Cartoon:

0613Cartoon

Before SCOTUS became SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD)

Last Week’s Most Insane Republican Moments

Posted by TomCat at 4:10 pm Politics, Religion

Jun 122016

Almost every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, they push the envelope on just how insane InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it, when I tell you that last week was no exception.

Good Christian Republican senator just has a teeny tiny request for God.

Boy, those evangelicals sure do know how to have a good yuck-fest, with biblical jokes and everything! But we’re pretty sure Jesus Christ would not have been amused by the prayer offered by Republican Senator Frank Perdue, who made a hilarious joke about Obama at this week’s Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference.

“I think we are called to pray,” the junior senator from Georgia told those who were gathered. “I think we are called to pray for our country, our leaders, and yes, even Barack Obama."

Specifically, he suggested, “we should pray like Psalms 108:9 [sic] says. It says ‘May his days be few.’"

Oh, titter, titter, chuckle, chuckle went the crowd.

Yes, it is the Christian thing, to pray for the death of a president whose politics you don’t like.

The cited psalm goes:

Let his days be few; Let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless And his wife a widow.
Let his children wander about and beg; And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.
Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

Yes, Republicans have plunder in mind.

From <Alternet>

The author made a typo in the verse. It’s actually 109:8

Barf Bag Alert!!

This pseudo-Christian purveyor of hatred is only the second of five listed insane Republican moments from last week alone. Click through for the other four.

Open Thread – 6/12/2016

Posted by TomCat at 4:09 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 122016

I’m running way late today because Julie was here. I’m a very pampered puddy tat. We finalized the details for my surgeries next week. We did a whole gamut of housekeeping tasks, including the dreaded task. Killer Dawg helped.

0612KillerDawgDreaded

I fed her lunch, a plate of Tony Roma’s Baby Back Ribs. The down-side is that Killer Dawg has hidden three rib bones in my apartment, and I have no idea where they are. We also took a pic of Killer Dawg in his official duds, in compliance with a European request for it.

The parade was cold and it rained on and off. I took a few pics, but as the bands passed us, none were playing and almost none of the girls were baton tossing, pompom shaking, or flag waving. Everyone was just walking past, so about mid-way through, I gave up and had lunch. I still have to resize the pictures and plan to post them tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:51 (average 4:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (classic 2/2015): The U.S. Geological Survey has backed-up what scientists have been suggesting for years–that deep injection of wastewater is the primary cause of the dramatic rise in detected earthquakes:

Keep it in the ground!!

Also from Daily Kos (classic 3/2015): DW-NOMINATE is a method for analyzing data on preferences, such as voting data, developed by political scientists Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. Unlike the scoring done by interest groups, DW-NOMINATE doesn’t rely on subjective determinations of what constitutes a liberal vote or a conservative vote–it sorts members of a population according to how similar each member’s choices are to those of other members of the population. Two senators who vote the same way 90 percent of the time will be much closer to each other than two senators who only vote the same way 10 percent of the time. Poole and Rosenthal have used this method to discover some interesting statistics and trends going back to the First Congress in 1787-89.

Using House and Senate roll call votes as inputs, DW-NOMINATE has been used to chart every member of every Congress in a two-dimensional space. The primary dimension corresponds strongly to conventional notions of the liberal-conservative axis in modern politics, while the significance of the secondary axis tends to change over time (traditionally it tended to highlight the distance between Dixiecrats and the rest of the Democratic party; today it’s kind of a more nebulous indicator of social and cultural differences and is, in my opinion, not particularly interesting). The point is that we can sort the members of a particular Congress by their scores on the primary dimension to easily rank them from most liberal to most conservative based entirely on their own voting data.

And when we do this for the period in which Hillary Clinton was in the Senate, here’s what we get:

As it turns out, with a first-dimension score of -0.391 based upon her entire service in Congress, Hillary Clinton was the 11th most liberal member of the Senate in each of the 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. That places her slightly to the left of Pat Leahy (-0.386), Barbara Mikulski (-0.385) and Dick Durbin (-0.385); clearly to the left of Joe Biden (-0.331) and Harry Reid (-0.289)

This surprised me, but I can’t argue with authentic voting stats. I was not surprised that Bernie is number one!

From LA Times: A heavily armed gunman who had reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State stormed into a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday, and began rapidly firing into the crowd, killing at least 50 people and wounding 53 in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

The gunman was killed by a SWAT team after taking hostages at Pulse, a popular gay club, investigators said at an early morning news conference. He has been preliminarily identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Fla., a U.S. law enforcement official said.

Mateen called 911 moments before the attack, pledging allegiance to the Islamic state, a federal law enforcement official said, confirming earlier reports. Federal investigators said they also were looking into reports that he recited prayers to Allah during the attack. The investigators stressed that they have just begun digging into his background and don’t want to jump to conclusions about any links to Islamic State.

May their loved ones be comforted. Barack, Bernie and Hillary all tried to comfort their suffering and condemned the pseudo-Muslim from the Daesh. Rump Dump Trump wants congratulations. Some other Republicans are even condemning the victims.

Cartoon:

0612Cartoon

TRUMPLIES.COM

Posted by TomCat at 10:32 am Politics

Jun 112016

For the record, I remain opposed to Super PACs and favor overturning Citizens United, but I recognize the need for general election candidates to use them, to level the playing field until the Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) can be replaced by Justices of SCOTUS by Democratic Presidents. Here's an example of a Super PAC at it's best.

The campaign officially begins tomorrow, but the site is live:

trumplies.com

From The Washington Post:

Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton, is launching a “Trump Lies” campaign on Thursday that catalogs the business mogul’s lies and inaccuracies, dating from the start of his real estate career in the 1970s to his current campaign for president.

Thursday’s launch includes an interactive website, TrumpLies.com, which contains a searchable database of Trump’s misstatements, as well as a 40-minute video highlighting his struggles with the truth since announcing his candidacy a year ago.

From <Daily Kos>

Major Barf Bag Alert!! (dumpster size)

Now is this a wonderful idea or what? I have bookmarked the site for FREQUENT future reference.

Everyday Erinyes

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 10:32 am Politics

Jun 112016

I have just one news item today (although it includes a fair number of different incidents) which really calls for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with it. 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."

I am trying to stay away from the election right now since everything else seems to be about it. I went and looked at Right Wing Watch, some of which is pretty awful, but it all belongs in the Right Wing Doozies of the week rather than here (and if James Dobson doesn't show up there I will have to add him.) But then I came upon this story, and I knew I had to share it with the Furies.

We have all heard of lynching, right? It used to be really, really bad, and it wasn't just in the Southern United States (although the Southerners seem to have taken more pictures for souvenirs than most in other areas). California in fact felt the need to put an anti-lynching law on the books in 1933, to prevent mobs from forcibly taking people out of police custody for vigilante justice.

So how absurd is it that this law is now being (and has been for too long) used to persecute black activists organizing group political action and peaceful protests?

I'll start with the newest incident, because there are petitions on this one, and then go into some history. In Pasadena, on June second (last Thursday week), Jasmine (Abdullah) Richards, was convicted of felony lynching. The offense allegedly occurred on August 29, 2015, at a local park. BLM had held a peaceful protest earlier in the day in memory of Kendrec McDade, who had been killed by police in 2012, unarmed and nineteen years old. Some of the protesters were still at the park when the owner of a nearby restaurant apparently called 911 to state that a young black woman had not paid for her meal.

The law defines lynching thus: “The taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer is a lynching.” Video of the incident shows confusion and raised voices, but not a riot, by any definition. The concern of the non-LEOs appears to be that the police are large and the arrestee is petite, and that the LEO's roughness is hurting her. With the record that police in the United States have (and Pasadena has a record of its own) of harming people in custody, I would think that any honest person would understand the concern of activists.

Jasmine's attorney states, and based on the video I would agree, that the charge was not established. "It … includes an element of inciting a riot." There is no incitement to anything in the video.

On June 7, Jasmine was sentenced to 90 days in jail, "with 18 days served, three years on probation, and one year of anger management." To me, the three years of probation and one year of anger management are powerful attempts to neutralize Jasmine, to turn her into a "good little girl." Well, well-behaved women seldom make history. And history needs to be made for black people in America.

Two of the petitions for Jasmine are on Color of Change and Care2.

While Jasmine is the first to be actually charged in court and convicted of felony lynching, there is a fair history of the charge being cited at the time of arrest. Here are some:

1999, San Francisco, anti-fur protestors. Prosecutors declined to take the case to court.
2011, Oakland, Occupy movement, Tiffany Tran and Alex Brown. Charges were dropped.
2012, Los Angeles, Occupy movement, Sergio Ballesteros. The charge was dropped.
2014, Murrieta, protest in support of migrant detainees, Janet Mathieson, bargained to a misdemeanor
2015, Sacramento, rally againse law enforcement brutality, Maile Hampton. All charges were dropped. Maile actually did try to pull her half brother away from an officer (can you blame her for being worried?)

After Maile's arrest, Governor Brown changed the language of the law so that it no longer uses the terms "lynch" and "lynching." Aside from that, the law remains unchanged, and many people are still saying "lynching." My take on that is that changing the language helps no one, fools no one, and probably serves to target the law even more towards people of color, without even honesty about its motives.

Dear Furies, please put on your Eumenides hats to help Jasmine here – and then go after that law. If it's going to be targeting peaceful protest it should say so. Thank you all.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/3992040

Update 6/20/16 Update: Per an email from the Center for Media Justice, Jasmine is home – only on bail at this point – but home.

Open Thread – 6/11/2016

Posted by TomCat at 10:32 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 112016

I was hoping to sleep-in, but Grand Floral Parade goers started staking out their spots and blowing their air horns at about 5:00 AM. I’d guess that the parade will get here between 11:00 AM and 12:00 N. Julie and I rescheduled shower day to tomorrow, so I’m a stinky puddy tat!! I’ll scoot down and take a few pictures, if it isn’t raining. Rain is bad for my chair.

My first surgery is a week from Monday. The radioactive plaque they will be inserting behind my right eye is about the size of an old pop bottle cap.

0611melanoma_plaque

Mine will have a notch in one side to fit around the optic nerve. The second surgery, a week from Friday, will be to remove it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:49 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Politico has an excellent piece of reporting from within the Sanders campaign on their future efforts. A great read and very encouraging for those of us who are anticipating unity within the party. It appears that staff within the Sanders group are already starting to shift their focus toward assisting Clinton in the general.

Sanders’ tech team is already expressing interest in working on Clinton’s behalf to drum up enthusiasm among young voters — a critical demographic for Democrats that Sanders dominated and Clinton struggled with during the primaries.

“Getting a bunch of kids stoked on the process is very important to ensure a Trump presidency is not possible,” said Arun Chaudhary, the Sanders videographer who joined the senator’s team at the White House on Thursday to take pictures surrounding his meeting with Obama.

As I said, the problem is not and never was Bernie. It’s the bots, who say they support him, but act at cross-purposes to what he is doing.

From Think Progress: Texas, so fond of seeing the environmental regulators in court that it has sued the Environmental Protection Agency dozens of times, wants to take the EPA to court for a brand new reason.

The Texas Railroad Commission recommended that the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, file another lawsuit targeting new EPA regulations seeking to limit methane emissions. Texas would be the first state to do so.

I don’t know why the Railroad Commission is doing this, when the Texas Republican Party is the biggest source of methane in the Southwest US.

From Alternet: A potentially massive fine levied against three telemarketing companies could finally force others in the industry to comply with federal rules—and stop nuisance calls.

Local news station KSL.com reports that the three companies—Feature Films for Families, Corporations for Character and Family Films of Utah—made more than 117 million illegal calls to consumers who had signed up with the “Do Not Call” registry. If the court assigns the regular fine amount for all of the 117 million illegal calls, the firms could end up paying over $1 trillion.

It goes without saying that the companies would not be able to afford such high fines and would be financially ground into dust by such a verdict, although the companies are still waiting for the judge’s decision on whether the full fines will be enforced. Eric Allen, an attorney for the law firm that is representing the companies, said a $1 trillion fine could have a chilling effect on other telemarketers.

Frankly, I hope the judge puts them out of business. Companies with such a Republican lack of respect don’t deserve to operate, and it would put other telemarketers on notice to respect the Do Not Call list, OR ELSE!! Enough don’t that it’s a rare day that I don’t get at least one scam robocall, usually for timeshare scams or loans

Cartoon:

0611Cartoon

Open Thread – 6/10/2016

Posted by TomCat at 2:16 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 102016

I’m getting ready to leave for PT with Courtney. This is today’s only article, and I’ll finish it when I return. Last night I stayed up late, because I needed to do some scanning, and the scanner in my all-in-one color laser printer wouldn’t work. It turned out that my old printer software was incompatible with Windows 10, so I had to upgrade the software and completely reinstall the printer. It works fine now, but I’m very tired.

I’m back. I worked hard. I’m totally pooped!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Oklahoma Highway Patrol began using a new device they have begun using called ERAD—Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine. The device allows a law enforcement officer to scan any credit or ATM cards and seize any money connected with that card.

"We’re gonna look for different factors in the way that you’re acting,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent said. “We’re gonna look for if there’s a difference in your story. If there’s someway that we can prove that you’re falsifying information to us about your business."

Troopers insist this isn’t just about seizing cash.

"I know that a lot of people are just going to focus on the seizing money. That’s a very small thing that’ s happening now. The largest part that we have found … the biggest benefit has been the identity theft," Vincent said.

How do you spell B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T?

From YouTube: Bernie Sanders Speech following White House Meeting with Obama Sanders slams Trump 6/9/16

To me that speech strongly indicates Bernie’s intent to work with Hillary. Will those that have made Bernie a cult follow Bernie? I hope so!

From MSNBC: Warren: I’m ready to get in this fight for Hillary Clinton

Senator Elizabeth Warren offers her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president of the United States, and talks with Rachel Maddow about the Democratic primary and her objections to Donald Trump.

"The Republicans underestimated Donald Trump, and look where it got them." That’s what Liz to the people who think they can vote their conscience without changing anything. They are wrong. Liz is right.

Vote Blue No Matter Who!!

Cartoon:

0610Cartoon

Friday Fun – Unity Is Fun, Funny & Good for the Soul

Posted by SoINeedAName at 7:52 am Politics

Jun 102016

Yesterday TomCat showed us with that great “A House Divided” video that Democratic Party unity can not only be fun, but it can be funny. Turns out that it can also be very heart-warming …

President Obama endorsed Hillary today! #history #HillaryClinton #POTUS pic.twitter.com/p5lEWOlnq1

— lizadonnelly (@lizadonnelly) June 9, 2016

And boy, that was just yesterday’s fun!

It began when Sen. Sanders got together with Pres. Obama in the Oval Office at the White House. That meeting went exceedingly well in beginning to unite our Democratic Party (with one wag joking the only problem Pres. Obama had was that Bernie didn’t want to leave).

And then the endorsements for Sec. Clinton started coming – one right after the other … Pres. Obama (Boom!) … VP Biden (BOOM!) … Sen. Warren (BOOM!).

And they all are taking a page right out of Hillary’s playbook on how to deal with the bully known as Herr Drumpf. When she was asked how she plans to handle his upcoming, incoming attacks that had utterly decimated sixteen of his fellow Rethuglicans leading to his “presumptive nominee” status, Hillary tenderly recalled her Mother’s sage advice: “She told me to never back down from a bully, which it turns out was pretty good advice.”

So we can all expect to see a lot more of this in the next five months …

As per usual, Obama did it with his kid glove, low-key sense of humor. When he was asked by Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon if he thinks that the “Republicans are happy with their choice of Trump”, he quickly replied, “Well, we are!”

And it helps that the turning point came when “Don the Con” actually opened the can of worms for himself by attacking Indiana-born Judge Curiel (who is overseeing his Trump University fraud lawsuit) as a “Mexican”.

It was at that point the press started smelling blood in the water, and hopefully will begin doing their jobs in earnest. Just yesterday USA Today published a hard-hitting, honest-to-god investigative report documenting that Trump has stiffed hundreds of small business owners out of hundreds of thousands of hard-earned dollars over the years.

With that much blood in the water, and with any luck that the MSM will finally start to vet him, Trump’s press conferences may end up looking like this: