Julie is coming this morning, and so is Wendy, my new Shower/Home Health Aide, for the changing of the guard. I trust that I’ll like Wendy just fine, as she has Julie’s highest recommendation. Tomorrow I have a two hour appointment with my Ocular Oncologist, so please expect no more than a Personal Update.
Later: They are gone. I miss Julie already. However, Wendy is very nice and quite competent.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:50 (average 6:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: The Supreme Court term had barely gotten underway in early November when Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued her first dissent. A police officer’s “rogue conduct,” she wrote, had left a man dead thanks to a “‘shoot first, think later’ approach to policing.”
Justice Sotomayor went on to write eight dissents before the term ended last week. Read together, they are a remarkable body of work from an increasingly skeptical student of the criminal justice system, one who has concluded that it is clouded by arrogance and machismo and warped by bad faith and racism.
Only Justice Clarence Thomas wrote more dissents last term, but his agenda was different. Laconic on the bench, prolific on the page and varied in his interests, Justice Thomas is committed to understanding the Constitution as did the men who drafted and adopted it centuries ago.
Justice Sotomayor’s concerns are more contemporary and more focused. Her dissents this term came mostly in criminal cases, informed as much by events in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 as by those in Philadelphia in 1787.
We need to replace Roberts, Scalia (now descended), Scalito, Thomas and Kennedy with more like and left of her.
From Daily Kos: Private prisons are a multi-billion dollar industry where states and the federal government contract with corporations who then employ prisoners to work inside at slave wages.
Many of these contracts even require the prisons to remain at least 90% full, regardless of whether crime rises or falls so that corporations running them can maintain a profit.
It’s obscene, it’s disgraceful and it should be illegal. Sign the petition urging Congress to prohibit for-profit prisons.
Prisons are a government service, not corporate America’s sweatshop. It is time to find a sensible solution to our criminal justice system, which starts by banning for-profit prisons.
Please click through to sign the petition. I did.
From Raw Story: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa on Monday, feeding speculation she could be on the short list for consideration as his vice presidential running mate, Fox News reported.
Ernst told the network that she and the New York real estate mogul had a “good conversation.”
What a ticket that would be!! Donald Rump Dump Rectum, and Joni Pig Nuts!!
Cartoon:
12 Responses to “Open Thread – 7/5/2016”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
5:13 Fricassee of sprocket doesn't sound very tasty, although fun to say, with all the fricatives.
All our best to Wendy. May she prove as wonderful as possible! Have I mentioned lately how much we all appreciate knowing in advance when you are likely to be scarce? How much energy it saves on neeedless panic? 🙂
NY Times – "Justice Thomas is committed to understanding the Constitution as did the men who drafted and adopted it centuries ago." Hmmph. I doubt it. I don't suppose it's intended as a compliment, but I still doubt it. I see Thomas as being more committed to understanding the Constitution the way George III would have wanted to understand it.
DKos – You are singing my song (as is Daily Kos). I probably have signed it before, but I clicked through and signed today anyway.
Raw Story – Considering who, or rather WHAT, the Drumpf is, I would think he would be afraid to have her on his ticket (I am assuming he still has his nuts – and I don't mean his suppoerters, either – we know he still has those.)
Cartoon – Happy Birthday, Pam, and many more!
NYT: Really like Justice Sonia Sotomayor, our First Latina, she is for the people. 'During her tenure on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor has been identified with concern for the rights of defendants, calls for reform of the criminal justice system, and making impassioned dissents on issues of race, gender and ethnic identity.' *wiki.Yes, most definitely…we need more like her in the courts.
DK: I think I've signed this, (I have crs)…but yes, absolutely signed again. Private prisons are obscene, disgraceful and it should be illegal. Most other ones are too, and need to be rid of too. imho.
RS: It's getting worse, and worse with each passing day with Donny & co. ugh!!
Happy Birthday, Pam. Hope that you have a fantastic day!!
Happy 80th Birthday to HHDL also!
Aww….I wish Julie nothing but the best with her transition, and a 'Welcome Aboard' to Wendy. Good vibes for you tomorrow in seeing your Oncologist, tomorrow too. Will have you in my thoughts and prayers too. In the meantime, take good care, rest, and rest when you get back too. Take care, Tom. Thanks.
HB Pam!
Newt is the other the media speaks about.
Bernie proposed legislation to ban private prisons.
Sotomayor rocks!
Glad you felt OK about Wendy.
Daily Kid: Signed and looked for a way to share to FB and C2, but couldn't find a way to share it. Let me know what I missed. I think that "for profit prison" are nothing more than SLAVERY!
Justice Sotomayor has been a great Justice so far! Just need to fill that open seat! Repugs disgust me! Lazy a&&holes!
Joni Pig Nuts Ernst is just Rump Drumpf's way to get a woman on his ticket! I bet he thinks THAT will make WOMEN vote for him! HA! NEVER!!!
I hope that your appt goes well. I never found out. Has this damaged your sight in that eye? O hope you are feeling better!!! And I really hope Wendy is every bit as good as Julie and Killer Dawg!!! Good luck, buddy!
Happy Birthday, Pam!
May you have a good, quiet day, evening with Family & Friends celebrating.
Hugzzz…
Wendy, recommended by Julie & Killer Dawg, should turn out just fine.
NY Times: Thomas should never have been placed on the Supreme Court. As for the other three justices, they, Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, for the most part, are playing partisan politics for the extreme right-wing.
Sotomayer is doing just fine. I believe she will have a fine career as a member of the Supreme Court.
KOS: Private prisons need to be shut down permanently. They are medical hellholes for anyone imprisoned in them. Petition signed.
Raw Story: Drumpf is a misogynist. He is most likely, pressured by some GOP/TP people at the RNC to put a woman on the ticket to gain support from women voters. Joni Ernst is hardly fit to be a VP. It is said that they had a "good conversation". Ha!
.
I hope Wendy works out as well as Julie. Good luck tomorrow!
NY Times: We do need more like Sotomayor on SCOTUS. This is another excellent reason to vote BLUE!
Daily Kos: I gladly signed the petition. Private prisons are a disgrace to our country.
Raw Story: He has really sunk to new lows now, considering that all she has been know for before is her love of castrating pigs.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAM!
Puzzle — 3:58 Going around and around . . . I've slipped a cog!
NY Times — "We need to Hreplace Roberts, Scalia (now descended), Scalito, Thomas and Kennedy with more like and left of her." — AMEN!! Here, the Supreme Court of Canada is rarely heard from save for when former PM Stephen Harper tried to bully the Chief Justice. She won! So it is interesting (sometimes almost humourous) when SCOTUS makes the news with their political/judicial antics perpetrated by SCROTUS.
Daily Kos — Such profit at the expense of others is morally reprehensible. Petition signed.
Raw Story — Pig Nuts, Pence, Pignocchio, Newt, Sessions, Corker, Fallin — a virtual Who's Who of racists, bigots and idiots in the Republican Party. Coupled with Drumpf — exceptionally bad news!
Cartoon — Happy Birthday Pam! May you have many more!
With such high recommendations from Julie, I'm sure you'll get along great with Wendy and she'll do a great job as well. It must have been hard to say goodbye to Julie and Killer Dawg, though. I hope you thanked them for us too for all the good they've done you.
NYT: It's no coincidence that The New Yort Times added a photo to the article in which Justice Sonia Sotomayor is seated next to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bader Ginsburg undoubtedly has had some contribution to the way Sotomayor thinks and acts as a justice in SCOTUS. Not by influencing her – Sotomayor is an independent thinker, as all SCOTUS justices should be – but by showing how to write a dissent that is as impartial as possible, interprets the law fairly in today's context and dares to look ahead to what the consequences of a ruling will be. Sadly, in a Republican dominated SCOTUS, she has had ample opportunity to polish up her dissent-writing skills and she's become more skeptical because of it. Let's hope Scalia's successor will tip the balance in SCOTUS her way again and she can take a break from dissenting and help give back America what it's in dire need of: fair justice for ALL, not just for the 1% and their Republican sock puppets.
DK: Our Erynator has set the furies on private prisons, how they made their huge profits and how state and federal governments encourage incarcerating people to keep them as full as possible, last Friday and I'm very happy to sign this DK petition to help put an end to this.
RS: Sarah Palin or Joni Ernst, same difference. Drumpf being clueless about anything but in dire need of some female voters, it's highly unlikely he's aware of Joni's favorite pastime: castrating pigs. Not the thing women usually find appealing, and moose hunting neither. And Drumpf better watch the way he behaves around Joni too…
Happy Birthday Pam, many returns and enjoy your day!
Happy B-Day, Pam!
Good to hear that you and Wendy are starting out in a good way. She'll never be "Julie" – but I bet she'll bring some special things that will be unique to her. At least that's the way it was for my Mom when she was still at home and having a Home Health Aide come in 3 days a week. There was always an adjustment period.
Thanks all! Hugs!! Hurrying!!
Finally some of the word is out that the Iraqi "war" was wrong,and that Sadam was NOT the problem. The truth regarding the "Liars Club"is coming out. Of course many were already aware of this. ! Too bad ,that let ISIS in and the killings go on. How sad all those wasted lives,the population and of course Hundreds of Service men and women,Dead and disabled.How do the perpetraters sleep at night. . Must be without a conscience.
Crimes agaist humanity anyone!
I understand that the families of the Service men and women who were killed in Iraq are now looking into the possibility of draging Tony Blair into court for war crimes on the basis of this report. Too bad the Iraqi people aren't in any position to that.