I’m writing for tomorrow and am still quite pooped. Last night it was Stuck on Stupid’s turn. He’s hard of hearing so he yells. Instead of yelling into the phone at home, he took it into the hall outside my door. When confronted he was apologized, but the damage was done. In a few days he’ll forget all about it and do it again. Argh! Fantasy football players, check your lineups. I’m making today a light day with just one other article to try to get some rest as I have prison volunteer days on both Tuesday and Thursday.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:11 (average 5:31). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From CREW: Congressional PAC dollars used to employ family members
Kudos to CREW! This should not be happening!
From The New Yorker: Now that the government shutdown is over, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) plans to read the Affordable Care Act, he told reporters today.
“It’s definitely been on my must-read list for a while now,” Sen. Cruz said of the law often referred to as Obamacare. “Things have just been so hectic around here lately, I couldn’t get to it.”
The Texas Senator said that he started reading the law this morning and observed, “So far, it’s pretty dry.”
The real irony here is that, if he actually did read the ACA, he would likely be the first US Senator or Representative to have done so.
From Upworthy: The Dirty Little Secret That Fast-Food Companies Don’t Want You To Know
This is just one more example of welfare for the rich. We’re feeding rich people’s employees, so they don’t have to pay them enough to eat.
Cartoon:
19 Responses to “Open Thread–10/20/2013”
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Congress members spent money raised on paying their families for this that and the other – well colour me surprised! NEPOTISM openly and blatently – but that is merely the tip fo the iceberg. How about when $$arah Palin was given money by McCain to improve her appearance and she and her family got through I think $180,000 in about a day – there was a link to it at the Huff Post but though the link is there still my computer won't go there.
I knew that fast food sellers were underpaying their employees who worked hard in bad conditions for less than a living wage – but I didn't know it cost American taxpayers SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR! All so the multimillionaire owners can put that money they didn't pay their employees into their pockets. Vote against the GOP and reduce your taxes!
Ah yes! The infamous shopping spree!
Exactly!
Republicans scream about only half of Americans paying federal taxes, so many Americans being on welfare roles, they are lazy shiftless ……Then they do everything in their power to suppress wages and destroy a healthy economy.
When you put 15 million out of work, food stamp applications are bound to go up. When you back slave wages, it's no wonder half of Americans don't even qualify to pay federal taxes, but they want to cut taxes on the only ones who can afford to pay taxes.
No surprise the "Boomers" started voting Republican. Boomers have always been out for their own good time, reguardleess of the consequences. No new taxes, was a winner for these selfish Americans. They don't care that they have screwed America for the next couple of generations.
Exactly Steve, Republicans plan to raise taxes for the poor and middle classes to give even more tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.
3:31 These buds are for someone other than me.
4:07 My buds sure did not bloom with this puzzle. I am not getting pollinated today.
4:11 No rose hip tea for me today.
Wooo Hooo for a change!!
~ 5:13
Nepotism.... Have Ethics???
Not bad, Richard.
No.
7:08 I think I was waiting for them to bloom so instead of four rosebuds they would be Four Roses and drinkable.
Steve, I am five months too old to be a Boomer but I went through school with them, and I don't remember them being "out for their own good time regardless of the consequences." I remember them being passionate and activist. Hippies, in fact. And some gave their lives for their activism. Certainly many have changed and your description is perhaps not far off where many are now. But not then.
Joanne, I too just missed being a boomer, but I don't remember any of the people I went to school with being "out for themselves" either. I remember people volunteering, participating in sit'ins, protesting war, trying to make the world a better place by joining the Peace Corps, and so on and on. I also remember most of us starting to support ourselves as soon as we got out of high school instead of living off Mom and Dad.
LOL!
Very well said. Sixteen hour work days at activism were very common.
Crew: I watched 60 Minutes tonight. Apparently this nepotism is not illegal due to a little law Congress inserted in 1989 so they can use this money for whatever they wish. Just as they regularly give themselves raises and exempt themselves from laws we have to follow.
The New Yorker: Sadly so few have read the Affordable Care Act. I read the bill sent to the HOuse before it was passed. Took me five nights, two hrs a night. Little old ladies have more time that Congress.
Fast food companies and Wal Mart receive more government assistance than any other entity because of the low wages they pay their employees.
Love the cartoon. HUAC would surely go after Cruz.
Right! Perfectly legal. Just wrong!
I read in in it's entirety. It took aroung 29 hours, but I'm a speed reader.
Exactly!
Wrong! Were Cruz in the House, he'd he the head of it.
Puzzle — 4:11 No rose hip tea for me today.
Crew — Nepotism at the best of times is a fool's errand. In politics, it should be illegal. Were I a donor, I would be very annoyed and then some if my money were used so. Let family volunteer their time.
The New Yorker — I remember making a comment about a year ago regarding representatives and senators reading the bills they debate and being told that at best, it is trusted assistant(s) that read the bills. Question: So who really is my representative — the one who was elected or the assistant? How can anyone effectively debate the contents of a bill if they have not read it? At best a representative who has not read a bill is getting predigestive bites, not the real deal.
Upworthy — A living wage with benefits. That is all anybody asks for. It should not be too much to ask. With wages at the current low levels and employees forced to seek assistance, perhaps what should happen is a "special tax" levied against McDonald's, Walfart etc etc which is calculated based on the difference between the average wage for hourly non management employees and a living wage. That money could then be put directly into the SNAP programme etc. One way or the other, companies should be paying a living wage and not soaking the taxpayer. This is another face of corporate welfare.
Cartoon — Isn't HUAC alive and well living in the Republicanus/Teabagger ranks and showing up in some of Issa's hearings? I'll bet Republicanus/Teabaggers would love to have "Low-blow Joe" McCarthy back with his Red Scare and Lavender Scare rhetoric! He was before his time.
Slow for you.
Agree.
Most often, they are explained to Republicans by the lobbyists that wrote them.
Exactly!
There are similarities.
The spirit of HUAC is definitely alive and well amongst the baggers, and Issa would certainly have felt right at home there. McCarthy wasn't directly involved with HUAC, he was a Senator and had his own witch hunt going in that chamber. My introduction to politics began during the height of the McCarthy hearings, listening to my parents discuss discuss it at dinner. They were both Eisenhower Republicans and appalled at the damage both HUAC and the McCarthy hearings were doing to innocent people. When he was talking about McCarthy was one of only two times in my life I ever heard my father swear. The second time was when Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court.
My father was a big fan of McCarthy.
Those are two excelolent occasions for swearing.