We’re having a one day heat wave, so the CatBox is buttoned up with A/C blasting. Yesterday’s trip was interesting. The unit even had a private bath, although a small door and a pipe left too small an opening to get my chair into it. I could have put my hospital bed in the unit, but to do so, I would haveto give up computing, internet, tv, and eating. Anne (my program Manager) was very encouraging and understands my needs better than before. I hope the next is larger. Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, so I hope to get the poll switched and the Monthly Report done early next week.
I just exchanged texts with Nameless. His brother’s condition is still very bleak, but they aren’t giving up. Please keep the prayers coming.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:26 (average 5:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (NY Times Channel): Watch: U.S. Allies Denounce President Trump’s Tariffs Decision
With friends like US Republicans, our allies have no need for enemies. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From NY Times: Senator Heidi Heitkamp, the centrist Democrat from North Dakota who is fighting a pitched battle to save her seat, has gotten a lift from an unlikely source: the conservative billionaire Koch brothers.
Americans for Prosperity, the political advocacy group backed by Charles G. and David H. Koch, unveiled a digital ad campaign on Friday thanking Ms. Heitkamp for her support of recently passed legislation that loosened regulations on small and medium-size banks that were swept up in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The ad is the latest evidence that the brothers, often at odds with President Trump, may be moving away from strictly partisan work on behalf of Republicans in favor of initiatives that will advance their libertarian-leaning legislative priorities, including free trade, immigration legislation and access to medicines, regardless of party affiliation.
I would support even this horrid, Koch sucking DINO over a Republican, but we really need to challenge her in the primary. There is apparently nobody running and the primary is 6/12. ARGH!! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Alternet: To hear the Religious Right tell it, men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were 18th-century versions of Jerry Falwell in powdered wigs and stockings. Nothing could be further from the truth…
…Here are five founding fathers whose views on religion would most likely doom them to defeat today:
1. George Washington. The father of our country was nominally an Anglican but seemed more at home with Deism. The language of the Deists sounds odd to today’s ears because it’s a theological system of thought that has fallen out of favor. Deists believed in God but didn’t necessarily see him as active in human affairs. The god of the Deists was a god of first cause. He set things in motion and then stepped back.
Washington often employed Deistic terms. His god was a “supreme architect” of the universe. Washington saw religion as necessary for good moral behavior but didn’t necessarily accept all Christian dogma. He seemed to have a special gripe against communion and would usually leave services before it was offered.
Washington was widely tolerant of other beliefs. He is the author of one of the great classics of religious liberty – the letter to Touro Synagogue (1790). In this letter, Washington assured America’s Jews that they would enjoy complete religious liberty in America; not mere toleration in an officially “Christian” nation. He outlines a vision of a multi-faith society where all are free.
“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation,” wrote Washington. “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens.”
Stories of Washington’s deep religiosity, such as tales of him praying in the snow at Valley Forge, can be ignored. They are pious legends invented after his death.
Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the exact opposite of real authentic Christians, would befoul their pants and accuse Washington of being a damn librul. I shared one of five. Click through for the other four. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
Cartoon:
20 Responses to “Open Thread – 6/2/2018”
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5:09 Be careful with the claws – it could blow up in your kitteh face.
Tariffs – I am not a big fan of NAFTA myself … but what I hate about it is exactly what the Orange Emperor loves about it, and vice versa. And NAFTA is not so bad that it can’t be made worse.
NY Times – With Republicans, especially with the Koch brothers, it can be hard to tell. Are they trying to help her? Or to sabotage her? I do agree even she is better than any Republican.
AlterNet – Oh, Lord, yes. Parson Weems really did a number on GW. I might just add that the “supreme architect” ohrase is Deistic certainly, but also quite likely Masonic. It was very popular with prominent public men in the late 1700’s, here and in Europe. Mozart is just one who leaps to mind. Incidentally, Washington WAS a liberal. Most if not all of the founding fathers were. The Conservatives were in favor of remaining a colony. D’oh!
Incidentally, I can tell you pretty closely what a moral atheist would say to Newt Gingrich if Newt said to him, “[N]on-believers lack the proper moral grounding to guide the American ship of state.” The response: “If you are moral only because you believe that God is constantly looking over your shoulder and for no other reason, then I don’t care to know you.” Heck, I’m a Christian, and I can see the point.
Cartoon – Yes, well, any group can have some horrible examples. And most, if not all, do.
An authentic Christian is moral, because he knows that is what’s best for him and others. He has the certainty that God set it up that way.
That of course is true. But my hypothetical atheist wasn’t responding to an authentic Christian. He was responding the Newt Gingrich (and all the others like him, who are, alas, legion.)
A shame!
The Newt is one of the last people to have a serious claim to morality, jackass that he is!
You want heat? Come to Atlanta and I’ll show you HEAT!
YT: The Orange Ogre has done an excellent job of alienating our country’s traditional allies. I’m sure they are all open to a regime change in 2020 – if not before then–
NYT: Centrist Democrat is an oxymoron. REAL Democrats are progressive. I suspect that Heitkamp is an elephant in donkey’s clothing.
Alt: The Religious Reich plays fast and loose with history to promote their effed-up agenda. If they get ahold of this country – and they still could – get ready for a new civil war.
Cartoon: NEVER, NEVER think for even a jiffy that we couldn’t have a Reign of Terror here.
NYTC: Very regrettable and unfortunate on dt’s part to do this, and the effect it will have, for our allies to be treated this way.
NYT: Not much time to see how this plays out….go Blue!
AN: Good and interesting article.
Cartoon: Yes indeed. ‘Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris’. *wiki
Glad to hear that your visit went well with Annie. With her help, maybe you can get a bigger unit to fill your needs. Hope you have a relaxing day/evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
My prayers to Nameless and to his family also, for comfort and peace through this difficult time. Keep me posted, wouldja? thx.
i want to know what Oz PM Turnbull promised trump to be exempt from the tariffs!!!
TY ? TC
They claim that Oz and the US have a fair trade relationship without it.
NYT: As I said yesterday, the EU is furious about Drumpf’s tariffs and they have taken it to the G7.
Mnuchin can try all he can, the exit after the photo shoot said it all: Americans off to the right, the other six off to the left, it already was G6+1 after Paris, now the crack has turned into a gorge.
NYT2: Centrist Democrat? Republican, you mean. Even DINO is to weak. Get a (more) progressive, i.e. real Democrat to oppose Heidi Heitkamp in the primaries, please. Heitkamp is an affront to the party and her keeping her seat while sponsored by the Kochs would damage any trust left in the Democrats of North Dakota.
Alternet: Thanks for posting this, TomCat.
Excellent vid Lona. Apparently Mnuchin decided to hold a separate press conference. Not G6 + 1??? Mnuchin needs to be schooled in the realities of 2018 politics and trade!
Give Steve a tooth pick. He’s Mnuchin on horse shit!
Puzzle — 5:01 As JD said, be careful with those “kitteh” claws. You might end up getting a ‘blow job’ that you really don’t want!
NY Times — My response to yesterday’s article:
What a freaking mess this all is. “Canada is slapping tariffs on $12.8 billion of US goods.“
I have read in several articles that say according to Wilbur Ross, the US Commerce Secretary, as far as Canada and Mexico are concerned, the tariff imposition is to put pressure on the two countries to conclude the NAFTA negotiations with the US. This from CNBC:
This has absolutely nothing to do with “national security”. It is nothing more than a move from a petty tin-pot tyrant (Drumpf) to dictate his terms, or should I say, impose his terms on other countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was set to visit Washington this past week for NAFTA negotiations after he spoke with Pence about the tariffs, but that trip was cancelled. The US communicated with Canada that it (read as Drumpf)wanted to add a 5 year sunset clause, which would mean the deal gets renegotiated every 5 years, that had not been there before. Trudeau announced that Canada is lodging a complaint with the WTO. I do not know at this point if any other countries ie the EU are joining in on that complaint.
As Krugman states, the US did not learn its lesson from Baby Bush’s time in office.
IMO, Krugman is spot on.
To add further, thanks to Lona for the G6 + 1 video above where Steve Mnuchin from the US says:
fair and balanced????? should be read as ‘our way or the highway’ by the Drumpf administration . . . or rather régime. The Department of Finance Canada has posted:
Business Insider has noted that the retaliatory tariffs are closer to US $15 billion or CDN $19 billion and will hit Ohio, NY, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois the hardest. Wasn’t Pennsylvania the state that voted for Drumpf over Clinton by only 17,000 votes in the popular vote!
I think it is fair to say that if Drumpf wanted war, he got one. This is the ‘art of the deal’? I was not a fan of NAFTA as I felt at the time that it was skewed. But Drumpf’s actions are pure, unadulterated bull shit!!! I am sure we will be talking about this for some time.
Oh, and if Mnuchin thinks that the US is not “abandoning its leadership in the global economy”, recent statistics have shown that may already have happened, our at least is happening, with regards to China. I would not say ‘abandoning’ but rather China is wresting the leadership from the US.
NY Times #2 — A DINO is infinitely preferable to a Republican, but Heitkamp needs to be seriously primaried by a genuine progressive. Are there any in N Dakota?
AlterNet — Oh Republicans would be absolutely horrified by George Washington.
With John Adams, I am surprised that today’s Republicans have not tried to repeal the Treaty of Tripoli.
As to Jefferson, “His assertion that the First Amendment erects a “wall of separation between church and state”” is right on and the current right wing religious nut jobs should heed it.
Madison took “stands that make the ACLU look like a bunch of pikers. He opposed government-paid chaplains in Congress and in the military.” — AMEN!!!
If Thomas Paine were alive today, I have no doubt that today’s evangelicals and Republicans would burn him at the stake!
Cartoon — Today’s Republicans would absolutely hate him and likely would burn him at the stake with Thomas Paine. From Wikipedia:
Finally, we have a few sprinkles of rain, but not enough sprinkles to decorate a cupcake. Sigh . . . I am sorry that your foray yesterday was not more fruitful, but at least, as you say “Anne (my program Manager) was very encouraging and understands my needs better than before.” Here’s hoping that something more accommodating comes along soon.
Thoughts and prayers for you Nameless and your brother. Nameless, make sure you take care of you! If you are not well, you cannot assist your brother.
Robespierre was also a devout atheist who believed that all clergy needed to be a head shorter.
Indeed he was, arguing against the basic tenets of Christianity, not unlike Paine. Personally, I believe that one must not be a Christian, or for that matter religious, to be a moral and compassionate person. I am Christian (authentic, NOT Republican supply-side Christian) and choose that for myself, but I will not force that upon others. Let my life be the example.
Amen!
Thanks all. Hugs!
On the cartoon, by the third bounce, I thought I was in a tornado! ?️
You are referring to the puzzle and not the cartoon, right?
Indeed. By then, I had lost the ability to focus.
U-Tube/NYT: More idiocy from the odious one!
NYT: The Koch boys are never to be trusted. They have only one agenda, to create a racist, elitist country, here.
Alternet: The day will come when the religious right will claim that Billy Graham was a secret Muslim! They are living in an utterly alternate reality, reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone!” I will remind you that the creation museum was founded when Minister Hamm found that “…the evidence for evolution was becoming overwhelming.” There is no value given to to any kind of empirical truth, or findings, in the religious right’s universe of fairy tales.