This article is bogus. Daily Kos is usually an impeccable source, but not this time. The author depended on a report from Alliance for Justice, which I have now read. It contains only unattributed claims. Barrett clerked for and sings the praises of Antonin “Sizzling” Scalia, so she should not be confirmed, but if she made the statements below, I can’t find evidence. I apologize to you all for posting fake news. When I’m wrong, I say so.
Here is the ninety-fourth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Amy Coney Barrett. She is so honored for saying that the US Constitution must be ignored to mandate the antichristian dogma demanded, but never obeyed, by Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians.
Anyone serving in the U.S. Government has to abide by the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land, but that is not the ardent belief of Trump’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
The idea that the Constitution is secondary to a judge’s religious belief has been a growing threat for a decade or so, but now that threat is becoming reality as America lurches toward an evangelical theocracy. For far too long politicians have looked the other way as theocracy-minded evangelicals have infected the government hoping to spread their bastardized version of Christianity like a virulent plague.
At least now some members of the Senate realize the danger of a religious fanatic serving as an appeals court judge, but it is likely far too late to stop a serious threat to the rule of law by a Trump nominee who said judges have a duty to put their faith above the Constitution.
Amy Coney Barrett is a practicing conservative Catholic, and is an extraordinarily enthusiastic opponent of a woman’s right to choose. She has written extensively on the Catholic Church’s need to dismantle an American long-standing legal medical procedure adjudicated as constitutional in Roe v. Wade.
Barrett also does not subscribe to the idea of adhering to long-established legal precedents if they conflict with her religious belief that laws, or High Court rulings “were gross mistakes” because they are not founded on her Christian religion…
Barrett claims, falsely, to be a Christian. A Catholic, she opposes Pope Francis, like her more liberal judicial example, Sizzling Antonin Scalia. She is a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian, and that makes her an antichristian. But none of these things disqualify her for a seat on the 5th Circuit. What does is her belief in Theocracy, because she is directly and openly opposed to the establishment clause in the First Amendment to our Constitution. That is also what qualifies her for a parade.
I slept poorly again last night, because of the heat and extreme humidity. In fact, I overslept this morning, so I missed my nap. Today, I was able to turn off the AC for the first time in weeks. I may be able to leave it off, as long as the sun does not hit the wall. I expect Store to Door to deliver groceries within an hour, so there’s no point in trying to nap until this afternoon. It may be October, before I’m caught up on my sleep deficit.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:56 (average 4:57). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (GQ Channel): Robert Mueller is Zeroing in on Trump’s Cover Up
How wonderful! Trump’s blood is in the water, and Mueller is a shark. RESIST!!
The Republican position is that this is not an appropriate change to discuss climate change. What more appropriate time could there be? RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: The pornography industry has likely suffered permanent damage as a result of its unfortunate association with the Texas senator Ted Cruz, industry sources said on Tuesday.
Porn, which takes in annual profits of fifteen billion dollars, could see those revenues decimated if, as some industry experts fear, users begin to have intrusive thoughts involving Senator Cruz.
“For porn producers, this is a crisis with no simple solution,” Harland Dorrinson, an industry insider, said. “If you warn viewers not to think about Ted Cruz, there’s a real danger that that’s all they’ll think about.”
In the hours since porn first became associated with the Texas senator, traffic to porn sites has plummeted in what industry sources are ruefully calling “the Cruz effect.”
Dang Andy! I’m no connoisseur of porn, but seeing Cruz cavorting with his TRUS would cause my kitty dingles to retreat and not come out again for months!! RESIST!!
Today is truly a pot pourri of topics and for once there is no mention of Donald J Trump except in my comments. I tried to find interesting stuff, mostly science, to help us think and dream more.
Short Takes
Newsweek — The “cradle of humanity” has long been thought to lie in Africa, with most researchers suggesting that Ethiopia was where the human lineage originated. The earliest known body fossils that are accepted as hominins (members of the human lineage) by most researchers are Sahelanthropus tchadensis from Chad (about seven million years old), Orrorin tugenensis from Kenya (about six million years old) and Ardipithecus kadabba from Ethiopia (about 5.8-5.2 million years old).
The oldest known footprints, however, were found at Laetoli in Tanzania and come from the next geological time interval, the Pliocene. These are some 3.66 million years old and even more human-like than those of Trachilos. The second oldest tracks are those at Ileret made by Homo erectus (1.5 million years old), and are little different from the tracks that we ourselves might make today.
If—and for many it is a big if—the tracks of Trachilos were indeed made by an early human ancestor, then the biogeographical range of our early ancestors would increase to encompass the eastern Mediterranean. Crete was not an island at this time but attached to the Greek mainland, and the environment of the Mediterranean region was very different from now.
The discovery comes just months after another study reported the discovery of seven million-year-old Greek and Bulgarian fossil teeth from a hominin ape dubbed “El Graeco.” This is the oldest fossil of a human-like ape, which has led some to suggest that humans started to evolve in Europe hundreds of thousands of years before they started to evolve in Africa. But many scientists have remained sceptical about this claim—as are we. The presence of Miocene hominids in Europe and Africa simply shows that both continents are possible “homelands” for the group. In theory, El Graeco could be responsible for the Trachilos footprints but without any limb or foot bones it is impossible to tell.
Won’t this set Republicans an right wing evangelicals back on their heels! I can hear the arguments about the earth only being 6,000 years old etc. While the origins of the species is still open to debate, these new possibilities certainly help to broaden our understanding of our roots.
CBC— Researchers studying fish from the Niagara River have found that human antidepressants and remnants of these drugs are building up in the fishes’ brains.
The concentration of human drugs was discovered by scientists from University at Buffalo, Buffalo State and two Thai universities, Ramkhamhaeng University and Khon Kaen University.
Active ingredients and metabolized remnants of Zoloft, Celexa, Prozac and Sarafem — drugs that have seen a sharp spike in prescriptions in North America — were found in 10 fish species.
Diana Aga, professor of chemistry at University at Buffalo, says these drugs are found in human urine and are not stripped out by wastewater treatment.
“These drugs could affect fish behaviour. We didn’t look at behaviour in our study, but other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behaviour of fish or their survival instincts. Some fish won’t acknowledge the presence of predators as much.”
The research, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, found levels of antidepressants in fish brains that were several times higher than levels in the river itself, indicating that the chemicals are accumulating over time.
Arghhh! We need to catch up our systems to protect the environment from our inventions. I am not saying anti-depressants are bad and that we should ban them . . . I have to use them or go “stark raving mad”. But we need to address their effects on the environment and other life, and then make a concerted effort to remove them from the waste water etc before they hurt the environment.
The Telegraph— Astronomers hunting for signs of intelligent alien life in the universe have recorded 15 mysterious radio signals coming from a dwarf galaxy three billion light years away.
The team is part of the Breakthrough Listen project, set up by Professor Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, to discover whether we’re alone in the universe.
Although the latest fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are unlikely to have come from an alien civilisation, the researchers say it proves their equipment is working well, and ready to pick up signs of life if they exist.
FRBs are radio signals from somewhere in deep space that last for just milliseconds. The new bursts came from an unknown source, dubbed ‘FRB 121102’, which was discovered in 2012.
At first scientists thought the signals were the fallout from a catastrophic event in space, like a supernova, but then they repeated again in 2015 and 2016 suggesting the whatever object produced them was still there.
In the new experiment, scientists from University of California, Berkeley, scanned the same galaxy at a higher frequency than which had been used to see the original bursts, and found 15 more.
Explanations for the signals range from rotating neutron stars with extremely magnetic fields, to energy sources used by extraterrestrial civilisations to power spacecraft. Whatever they are they left their galaxy when our Solar System was just two billion years old, and life was just getting going on Earth.
A readout of the signal showing a 300 microsecond pulse spikeCredit: UC Berkeley
Dr Vishal Gajjar at UC Berkeley Research Centre said: “We really have no idea about where they come from. We currently know 30 to exist in the universe and only one is known to repeat which means we can look at it again and again. We looked at this one at a higher frequency.
“If some form of life would like to produce a signal that is detectable to another civilisation this could be a way to do it, but I don’t think they are coming from intelligent civilisations.
“There are more theories than the number of sources. We have opened more questions than answers. As we do more study we find more weird things.”
Researchers originally thought the bursts could be the remnants of a giant supernova Credit: Chris Heapy
Breakthrough Listen is a $100 million global astronomical initiative launched in 2015 by Hawking and Milner which has teams around the world using their telescopes to look for evidence of life.
I remember being very interested in space travel when John Glenn first launched. Of course that was the beginning of space exploration as we know it. But I am convinced there is more in space that we just don’t know about . . . yet. If indeed these radio signals are coming from another planet with “intelligent” life (based on our planetary definition), I am sure that Trump will deny it all unless he can find away to fleece someone of their cash to build a “Trump Tower” there. Just what the universe needs . . . another Trump Tower.
CBC— Hundreds of people in Alberta and B.C. took to social media to report seeing a giant fireball illuminate the night sky late Monday, and the RCMP told media it received dozens of calls about what seemed to be the same event.
Posting to Twitter from locations as far apart as Calgary and Hornby Island, B.C., the amazed stargazers described seeing a flaming object turn the sky an eerie green before fading into a dark orange as it approached the horizon.
CBC News received multiple emails describing the flash that took place at around 10:14 pm PT. Some described a loud bang that shook homes and high rise buildings.
Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer for B.C., tweeted that he was on a patio in Nelson when “the entire sky lit up.
CBC videos do not embed well. Click on the black box at centre bottom then go to the lower right and click for full screen. You will get the full size video.
Skrepnek later said he initially thought it was a power surge.
“Then, to the east, I saw a reddish fireball streak and break up,” he said in a brief statement posted on Twitter.
“Nothing happened afterward, then within 60 seconds there was a massive sound (like a long, rolling thunderclap) for about five seconds.”
Skrepnek added that the wildfire smoke still sitting over large swaths of Alberta and B.C. likely intensified the flash of light.
WOW!!! More science to wonder at!
NY Times — They were members of an uncontacted tribe gathering eggs along the river in a remote part of the Amazon. Then, it appears, they had the bad luck of running into gold miners.
Now, federal prosecutors in Brazil have opened an investigation into the reported massacre of about 10 members of the tribe, the latest evidence that threats to endangered indigenous groups are on the rise in the country.
The Brazilian agency on indigenous affairs, Funai, said it had lodged a complaint with the prosecutor’s office in the state of Amazonas after the gold miners went to a bar in a near the border with Colombia, and bragged about the killings. They brandished a hand-carved paddle that they said had come from the tribe, the agency said.
“It was crude bar talk,” said Leila Silvia Burger Sotto-Maior, Funai’s coordinator for uncontacted and recently contacted tribes. “They even bragged about cutting up the bodies and throwing them in the river.”
The miners, she said, claimed that “they had to kill them or be killed.”
It hurts me to know that these indigenous persons were killed, and for what? Greed! The yellow metal in the ground that is seemingly so important to the outside world, but has little value to these people. With the settlement of the Americas by Europeans over the centuries, and I am one, we have decimated the indigenous peoples with disease, genocide and our avarice for the yellow metal and other resources. When do we stop? Someone told me that European settlers improved the lives of indigenous peoples by bringing new ways and inventions. I don’t believe it. We have forced our culture on them and visited upon indigenous peoples diseases that they did not known and which destroyed their numbers.
Huffington Post — NDP leadership contender Jagmeet Singh has opened up about what was going through his mind when a heckler spewed ugly remarks at him during a campaign event this week.
On Wednesday, a woman interrupted Singh’s event in Brampton, Ont. to accuse him of backing Shariah, a system of laws based on Islam, and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The Ontario MPP is Sikh.
Video recordings of Singh deftly defusing the situation by urging his supporters to respond with “love and courage” — and telling the woman he loved and welcomed her — have since gone viral in Canada and the United States.
Video courtesy of TheStar.com
But some have wondered why Singh didn’t tell the woman that he is Sikh, not Muslim. The MPP addressed that issue directly in a statement released Saturday night.
“Many people have commented that I could have just said I’m not Muslim. In fact, many have clarified that I’m actually Sikh,” he said. “While I’m proud of who I am, I purposely didn’t go down that road because it suggests their hate would be ok if I was Muslim. We all know it’s not.
“I didn’t answer the question because my response to Islamophobia has never been ‘I’m not Muslim.’ It has always been and will be that ‘hate is wrong.'”
IMO, Jagmeet Singh handled the heckler beautifully. All she saw was a brown skinned, bearded man wearing a turban and assumed he was a Muslim when in fact he is a Sikh. There is a very large Indo-Canadian community in Brampton, Ont so it is hard for me to fathom this woman’s lack of knowledge. There is no place for hate!
My Universe — This is soooooooooooooo true in my household only worse. I have 3 cats!
Any clear thinker that has followed the 2016 election debacle and the many disclosures that have come out since, cannot help but be convinced that Donald Trump [R-RU], the Tangerine Traitor, is Putin’s Puppet. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Russian officials are even bragging about it.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, a top Russian lawmaker and leading member of the United Russia Party led by President Vladimir Putin, made a startling boast in a television broadcast seen nationwide in Russia on Sunday night — admitting outright that Russia “stole” the 2016 United States presidential election for Donald Trump.
Nikonov, 61, a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) since 2011 and grandson of legendary Soviet Union-era political figure Vyacheslav Molotov — who gave his name to the “Molotov cocktail” improvised explosive device — also mocked U.S. intelligence services for, he said, sleeping on the job as the Russians stole the election right in front of them, the political news site Axios reported.
Nikonov’s brazen admission marks the second time in a week that a Russian politician has openly bragged about Russian interference in the U.S. political process on live, national television. Last Monday Nikita Isayev, director of Russia’s Institute of Contemporary Economics and head of the “New Russia Movement,” stated that his country’s intelligence agencies possess compromising information on Trump, and called for the Russian government to “hit” Trump with the “kompromat” material as payback for recently increased U.S. sanctions on Russia… [emphasis added]
As part of her intro, Rachel Maddow also covered this item.
As I see it, everyone who participated in this activity or its cover-up in any way, including but not limited to Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten, pseudo-Pence, Lyin’ Ryan, Bought Bitch Mitch, and many more, must be removed from office.
I didn’t get the sleep I had hoped I would. It was just to hot and sticky. Today is the last hot one, before several days of more temperate weather. Please pardon my brevity.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:50 (average 4:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious Ecstasy:
Phew! They came so close to screwing the pooch that I damn near had a heart attack! They blocked a field goal with 1 second on the clock.
Congrats to Pam and Seth for being in first and second. Condolences to our beloved Sasquatch, who has nobody under her big feet. Don’t forget to set your lineup by Thursday night.
It’s obvious enough. His handlers frog-marched him to the microphone to make his canned statement, but without power, profit, or pussy for him to grab, he had no real interest. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: CBS ignited a firestorm of controversy on Sunday night after it broadcast a shockingly graphic horror program [Bannon] without any viewer advisory.
Millions of viewers who unwittingly tuned in to the highly upsetting program recoiled in revulsion and took to social media to rip CBS.
“It’s appalling to think that you would even consider broadcasting such a thing at seven o’clock, when children could be watching,” one viewer wrote. “Shame on CBS.”
Another irate viewer complained that he was “in total disbelief” that CBS would air such disturbing content with no warning preceding it. “I may never get those nightmarish images out of my head,” he wrote.
Dang Andy! They should have included a Barf Bag Alert!!RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: As Hurricane Irma sweeps up the western Florida coast, the Trump "administration" will be wasting no time in demanding … "dramatic tax cuts."
“We will discussing our plan for dramatic tax cuts and tax reform. And I think now with what’s happened with the hurricane, I’m going to ask for a speed-up,” Trump said at the opening of a cabinet meeting at Camp David. “I wanted a speed-up anyway but now we need it even more so.”
If billionaires were injuring their backs carrying excess money to the bank, Republicans would still propose tax cuts that rip wealth from the poor, the middle class, hurricane victims, and especially YOU to provide even more welfare for the 0.1%. RESIST!!
As sorrowful as this day was in 2011, and as sorrowful as the memories still are, I want to share with you a story about a small Canadian town, population 11,688 (2016), who rose to the occasion in 2011 with little notice. I say ‘who’ in referencing the town because this is about the people of Gander, Newfoundland and their response to the tragedy unfolding in New York 16 years ago.
From USA Today— They still don’t know what all the fuss is about.
Sixteen years ago, this small Canadian town on an island in the North Atlantic Ocean took in nearly 6,700 people – almost doubling its population – when the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington forced 38 planes to land here.
Their simple hospitality to the unexpected house guests drew worldwide accolades and even inspired a Broadway musical.
“Everyone looks at us and says that’s an amazing thing that you did, and the bottom line is I don’t think it was an amazing thing, I think it was the right thing you do,” says Diane Davis, 53, a now-retired teacher who helped 750 people housed at the town’s elementary school.
In a world today seemingly fraught with division, terrorism and hate, they’d do it all over again. Kindness is woven into the very fabric of their nature — they don’t know any other way to live.
“What we consider the most simple thing in life is to help people,” says Mayor Claude Elliott, who retires this month after serving as the town’s leader for 21 years. “You’re not supposed to look at people’s color, their religion, their sexual orientation — you look at them as people.”
An aerial view of the town of Gander. (Photo: Jasper Colt, USA Today)
Read the rest of the story. Now you might wonder what can a little Canadian town seemingly on the edge of nowhere do? First you should know that Newfoundland is one place where hospitality reigns. Although Newfoundlanders have been the butt of a number of jokes over the years, they are a very warm and giving people. Gander, as small as it is, has an international airport because of its proximity to Europe. Wikipedia explains:
Gander was chosen for the construction of an airport in 1935 because of its location close to the northeast tip of the North American continent. In 1936, construction of the base began, and the town started to develop. On January 11, 1938, Captain Douglas Fraser made the first landing at “Newfoundland Airport”, now known as Gander International Airport, or “CYQX”, in a single-engine biplane, Fox Moth VO-ADE.
I am a proud Canadian, and even prouder to know that Newfoundland joined Canada on 31 March 1949 becoming Canada’s 10th province bringing their caring and generosity with them. Newfoundland’s name was official changed to Newfoundland and Labrador by constitutional amendment in December 2001. Wikipedia gives some background to the name.
The name “Newfoundland” is a translation of the PortugueseTerra Nova, that is also reflected in the French name for the Province’s island part (Terre-Neuve). The influence of early Portuguese exploration is also reflected in the name of Labrador, which derives from the surname of the Portuguese navigatorJoão Fernandes Lavrador.[9]
Labrador’s name in the Inuttitut language (spoken in Nunatsiavut) is Nunatsuak, meaning “the big land” (a common English nickname for Labrador). Newfoundland’s Inuttitut name is Ikkarumikluak meaning “place of many shoals”.
This is a repetition of the editorials I published in both 2011 and 2014, with minor alterations to bring it up to date.
Sixteen years ago this morning, the first airliner hit the tower, as I was about to leave for work. When I arrived, I learned about the second hit. My duties that day were to contact top executives of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in New York on behalf of our client, a major developer of computer operating systems, to arrange site visits and one-on-one executive interviews for our client’s research team. What timing! I felt uncomfortable calling, but the account exec’s assistant, an airhead and a Republican, ordered me to go to work. Many of my executive contacts were in the Twin Towers. I got on the telephone. Nobody was answering, and many of the lines were out of order. I did get through and spoke to a man in one of the towers above the fire, who knew he would not survive. He said he couldn’t dial out and gave me his home number. He asked me to call his wife and tell her he loved her. I did. She was pretty hysterical. Who could blame her. That shook me up so much that I went to the account executive’s office, and told him I was done calling New York for the day. He asked me what idiot had told me to call into New York under these circumstances. Because of that experience, I cannot think of 9/11 without my heart going out to the people who lost loved ones that tragic day, and I consider it imperative to do whatever we can, within reason, to prevent a reoccurrence. One failing, in that regard, is that we often ask who and how, but all too seldom, ask why. So as we remember the events of 9/11/2001, perhaps it may help if we consider the other 9/11, 9/11/1973.Twenty eight years earlier, the roles were reversed. Instead of being attacked, the US had arranged and was assisting an attack to overthrow the democratically elected government of Chile, and the installation of one of the most infamous dictators of the twentieth century, Augusto Pinochet. An article by Peter Kornblug from August 2003 describes and explains those events.
On September 14, 1970, a deputy to then-National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger wrote him a memo, classified SECRET/SENSITIVE, arguing against covert operations to block the duly elected Chilean socialist Salvador Allende from assuming the presidency. "What we propose is patently a violation of our own principles and policy tenets," noted Viron Vaky. "If these principles have any meaning, we normally depart from them only to meet the gravest threat to us., e.g. to our survival. Is Allende a mortal threat to the U.S.?" Vaky asked. "It is hard to argue this." Kissinger ignored this advice. The next day he participated in a now-famous meeting where President Nixon instructed CIA Director Richard Helms to "save Chile" by secretly fomenting a coup to prevent Allende’s inauguration. When those covert operations failed, Kissinger goaded Nixon into instructing the entire national security bureaucracy "on opposing Allende" and destabilizing his government. "Election of Allende as president of Chile poses one of [the] most serious challenges ever faced in this hemisphere," says a newly declassified briefing paper Kissinger gave to Nixon two days after Allende’s inauguration. "Your decision as to what to do may be most historic and difficult foreign affairs decision you will have to make this year…. If all concerned do not understand that you want Allende opposed as strongly as we can, result will be steady draft toward modus vivendi approach." Had Washington adopted a "modus vivendi approach," it is possible that Chileans, indeed citizens around the world, would not be solemnly commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power. In the United States, the meaning of this anniversary is, understandably, overshadowed by the shock and tragedy of our own 9/11. But Chile reminds us that the topics of debate on US foreign policy today–pre-emptive strikes, regime change, the arrogance of unilateral intervention, unchecked covert action and secrecy and dishonesty in government–are not new. From the thousands of formerly classified US documents released over the past several years, the picture that emerges strikes some haunting parallels with the news of the day. Chile, it must be recalled, constitutes a classic example of a pre-emptive strike–a set of operations launched well before Salvador Allende set foot in office. Nixon ordered the CIA on September 15, 1970, to "make the economy scream" and to foment a military move to block Allende from being inaugurated six weeks later, in November; the Chilean leader had yet to formulate or authorize a single policy detrimental to US interests. "What happens over [the] next 6-10 months will have ramifications far beyond US-Ch[ilean] relations," Kissinger predicted in a dire warning to Nixon only forty-eight hours after Allende actually took office. "Will have effect on what happens in rest of LA and developing world; our future position in hemisphere; on larger world picture…even effect our own conception of what our role in the world is." As in the distorted threat assessment on Iraq, this was sheer speculation–unsupported, indeed contradicted, by US intelligence. In August 1970 CIA, State and Defense Department analysts had determined that "the US has no vital national interests within Chile," and that the world "military balance of power would not be significantly altered" if Allende came to power… [emphasis added]
For many years, the United States has treated the rest of the world, particularly third world nations, as the private reserve of an American economic empire, repeatedly using force, usually covertly, any time a nation had the audacity to suggest that their resources should benefit their own people, not US corporations. Neither party is blameless, but the vast majority and most heinous of such actions occurred during Republican administrations. In the twentieth century, the United States overthrew more democratically elected governments and installed more dictators than any other nation ever has. No nation can stand toe-to-toe against the US on the battlefield, so guerilla tactics are the only option available to nations who would oppose us.We should also remember that there would be no such thing as Al Qaeda, had not Republicans under Reagan financed it’s formation to perform terrorist attacks against the USSR.I do not hate this country. I love the USA enough to insist that we actually practice the principles we claim to profess. These are the lessons we need to learn to prevent future terrorists attacks against the US. If we practice oppression, we guarantee resistance. If we practice partnership, we will get cooperation. We need to stop trying to control other countries by force, To forestall terrorism, we must stop participating in and supporting terrorism ourselves. We will be seen as hypocrites if we oppose ethnic cleansing by ISIL, but continue to support ethnic cleansing by Zionists.For the last lesson, let’s return to the story with which I began. Shortly after the account executive agreed that I was done for the day, the company shut down for the rest of the day too. Several of us gathered around the TV in the lunch room. Knowing that I am politically involved, coworkers asked me what I thought was going to happen. I told them that I thought Bush would use the attack as an excuse to do two things: to invade Iraq and to curtail civil liberates guaranteed under our Constitution. The last lesson is this. If we adopt the tactics of evil to oppose evil, we become no different than the evil we oppose.Even if we do all that, we must still be vigilant. Sadly there are forces in pseudo-Islam that pursue hatred against America, just as there are forces in pseudo-Christianity that pursue hatred against all who fail to obey their dogma, both for their own respective right-wing political agendas. The latter are the more dangerous, both at home and abroad. Now they have Trump adding force to their violations of our rights.
Portland is back to 90° today. Please let it be last time! I’m in a bit of a rush, because I slept poorly last night, and I need a nap. I’ll be up past my bedtime tonight meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb. May it shed its holy light on my Broncos.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:55 (average 6:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Media Matters: Fox News and other right-wing media outlets overhyped the threat of looting during their coverage of Hurricane Harvey last week. Some conservative blogs ran stories warning about looting that featured tweets from fake accounts, which have since been deleted. This coverage often had a racist element, either subtly or overtly accusing African-Americans of rampant criminal behavior.
In fact, looting has not been a widespread problem, according to law enforcement officials. Experts say the threat of looting is often exaggerated during disasters, and that appears to be the case with Harvey. "The Houston Police Department says very little looting occurred during the first week of flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey," Snopes reported on September 1. A spokesperson for the department told Snopes, "Looting is almost non existent in Houston. People have been cooperative not just with each other, but also with Houston PD. The weather is at its worst but Houstonians are at their best." Los Angeles Times correspondent Matt Pearce, who drove around Houston to report on Harvey, called claims of widespread looting "bullshit."
I have to wonder how many people, if any, were murdered by racist Republican vigilantes, their hatred piqued by the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: As part of its Nuclear Posture Review—the first since the 2010 review was completed—the Trump regime is said to be considering the building of a “mini-nuke,” a nuclear bomb with a low explosive yield. Advocates have long claimed this would improve U.S. deterrence. Approval of such a development would overturn the Obama administration’s policy of limiting reliance on nuclear arms and continuing to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
"The [nuclear review] has to credibly ask the military what they need to deter enemies," added another official who supports such a proposal, particularly to confront Russia, which has raised the prominence of tactical nuclear weapons in its battle plans in recent years, including as a first-strike weapon. "Are [current weapons] going to be useful in all the scenarios we see?" […]
"If the U.S. moves now to develop a new nuclear weapon, it will send exactly the wrong signal at a time when international efforts to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons are under severe challenge," said Steven Andreasen, a State Department official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who served as the director of arms control on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. "If the world’s greatest conventional and nuclear military power decides it cannot defend itself without new nuclear weapons, we will undermine our ability to prevent other nations from developing or enhancing their own nuclear capabilities and we will further deepen the divisions between the U.S. and other responsible countries.
The button loving Fuhrer is a Republican Ammosexual on steroids. RESIST!!
From Alternet: Bannon was concerned that Trump’s delay on DACA will result in a Republican “civil war” that could cost them the 2018 midterm elections.
While many pundits anticipate that Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant policies could hurt the party’s long-term prospects by further alienating Hispanic voters, Bannon had a different concern.
“My fear is that with this six months down range, if we have another huge– if this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013,” Bannon told Rose. “And to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise.”
This is only the fourth of eight lowlights from Steve "Trump’s Breitfart Nazi Barf" Bannon’s interview on 60 Minutes last night. Click through for the other seven. RESIST!!
Anyone serving in the U.S. Government has to abide by the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land, but that is not the ardent belief of Trump’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Had Washington adopted a "modus vivendi approach," it is possible that Chileans, indeed citizens around the world, would not be solemnly commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power. In the United States, the meaning of this anniversary is, understandably, overshadowed by the shock and tragedy of our own 9/11. But Chile reminds us that the topics of debate on US foreign policy today–pre-emptive strikes, regime change, the arrogance of unilateral intervention, unchecked covert action and secrecy and dishonesty in government–are not new. From the thousands of formerly classified US documents released over the past several years, the picture that emerges strikes some haunting parallels with the news of the day. Chile, it must be recalled, constitutes a classic example of a pre-emptive strike–a set of operations launched well before Salvador Allende set foot in office. Nixon ordered the CIA on September 15, 1970, to "make the economy scream" and to foment a military move to block Allende from being inaugurated six weeks later, in November; the Chilean leader had yet to formulate or authorize a single policy detrimental to US interests. "What happens over [the] next 6-10 months will have ramifications far beyond US-Ch[ilean] relations," Kissinger predicted in a dire warning to Nixon only forty-eight hours after Allende actually took office. "Will have effect on what happens in rest of LA and developing world; our future position in hemisphere; on larger world picture…even effect our own conception of what our role in the world is." As in the distorted threat assessment on Iraq, this was sheer speculation–unsupported, indeed contradicted, by US intelligence. In August 1970 CIA, State and Defense Department analysts had determined that "the US has no vital national interests within Chile," and that the world "military balance of power would not be significantly altered" if Allende came to power… [emphasis added]