I’m writing for tomorrow early in the morning, before leaving for volunteer work in prison. I shall return late tonight and will be thoroughly pooped, so when I get home I’ll catch a few ZZZs, do the puzzle, and post this, Friday’s only article. Day 31.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Upworthy: Meet Some Of The Most Beautiful Creatures We’re Killing
It’s enough to make you cry. International readers where Vimeo is blocked can see this clip on YouTube.
From NY Times: When America sends men and women to fight, it owes them an enduring debt, starting with competent and timely health care and disability benefits when they leave active duty. President Obama expressed outrage on Wednesday at recent charges of wrongdoing in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care system. He also dispatched his deputy chief of staff to Phoenix to assess explosive allegations that government workers falsified data to hide long wait times for veterans needing to see doctors.
But expressing outrage is hardly enough for a president who, as a candidate in 2008, criticized the agency and vowed to improve care and address backlogs. It is past time for a more visible personal commitment to right these wrongs as well as strong White House support for legislation that would make it possible for top agency officials to fire those responsible for wrongdoing.
The Times really missed the most important point here. They just don’t get it. On the other hand, Chris Hayes and Bernie Sanders do.
Republicans have refused to allow the funds that the VA needs to grow to handle the capacity. Funding may be up 38% now, built that is after years of Republican cuts to funding while the need for VA services grew exponentially. They need an increase in infrastructure.
From TPM:
Fifty senators are teaming up to call on the National Football League to change the team name of the Washington Redskins, declaring that "racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports."
The senators wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and co-signed by 47 others — invoking the racist comments by NBA Clippers owner Donald Sterling as an opportunity for the NFL to follow suit and take action.
"The despicable comments made by Mr. Sterling have opened up a national conversation about race relations," the senators wrote. "We believe this conversation is an opportunity for the NFL to take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of its marquee franchises."
The Cantwell-Reid letter, dated May 21, was cosigned by Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Walsh (D-MT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Carl Levin (D-MI), Mark Begich (D-AK), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tom Udall (D-CO), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Angus King (I-ME), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Amy Klobuchar, (D-MN), Al Franken (D-MN), Edward Markey (D-MA), Mark Udall (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
Note that zero Republicans were willing to sign this letter. I wonder if we’ll see a Republican letter urging the commissioner of the NFL to include racial slurs in other team names.
Cartoon:
25 Responses to “Open Thread–5/23/2014”
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4:49 The title to me suggests something other than the picture (a green olive with a flamingo eating it?) Gotta go, BRB in about 12 hours.
4:29 I was dazzled by the colors this AM. Shouldn't the flamingo at least have been eating an olive instead of that whacky background?
4:24 I think TomCat did a different puzzle.
6:11 – Puzzle
3:20 Standing on 1 leg in water is not my forté.
CAT is where it's AT! 🙂
Upworthy ~ People have no idea of how much on this beautiful earth is being destroyed daily.
NY Times ~ It all boill down to a whole lot of should haves and shouldn't haves. A war shouldn't have been waged in Iraq. Our military personnel should have been properly equipped to prevent massive injuries. We should have pulled out of Irraq when "victory" was proclaimed. Afghanistan's war should have ended long ago. The TeapublicanTs should not have blocked neccessary funding for our military and our Vets when needed with their never-ending filibusters.
TPM ~ Why didn't all the Democratic Senators sign the letter? Just wondering.
Cartoon ~ Our Nazis should all follow suit.
Why? Buk-buk-buk!
Friday May 23, 2014, 6:55 am
Lona has said what I wanted to say – and much better than I could – thanks Lona!
( BTW I voted for The Great Barrier Reef earlier and sent it to friends as I had had an email – and it has increased by 100 votes in the last hour – hooray!)
Vote for the Great Barrier Reef (and for people to stop dumping waste on it etc) as Lona suggested –
http://younesco.org/?source=FFTR_eDM
Thanks for the link, Pat. I voted for the reef.
Thanks for the link Pat. I voted for the reef and the teaming life within. Thanks
Done!
No doubt you already know – but just in case (since we need you hail and hearty) …
BOIL YOUR WATER!!!
Portland's water supply has been contaminated w/ E. coli – so
BOIL
YOUR
WATER
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/e-coli-contaminates-portland-ore-tap-water-n113321
See today's Open Thread (if I ever get it up!)
I hope you had a good day at the prison.
UPworthy: The video would not play , I got to watch 52 seconds before it froze, and it has been removed from You Tube. However, the 52 seconds I saw were amazingly beautiful. We are killing the whole earth.
The Republicans cut funding for the VA, but were and still are able to find money to send troops to war. They are not interested in helping the veterans who served their country. While all this is true, surely some of the top brass at the VA could have seen the probems at some of the centers and been proactive.
Bernie always has it right in my opinion.
TPM: The Republicans do not believe in racism or poverty. They would never sign anything that admitted either was real.
Cartoon: Too bad he didn't do it a lifetime sooner.
In case people have not seen this, Chris C at Care2 posted the link to a 1 hour documentary entitled "Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014Edition put out by Brave New Films. Here is the link: http://www.bravenewfilms.org/kochfilm_stream
In addition, there is a petition to Overturn Citizens United at http://www.bravenewfilms.org/koch_petition
Having watched and then signed, I highly recommend them.
Puzzle — 3:20 Standing on 1 leg in water is not my forté.
Upworthy — The vimeo version stopped at 3 seconds. I was lucky that I watched the YouTube version before it was pulled. It is stunning, almost like a water ballet performed by various sea creatures.
NY Times — As Bernie said, the initial responsibility for the problems at the VA are 2 wars . . . Iraq 2003-2011 and Afghanistan 2001 to the present. And who was responsible for starting the US participation in these wars? REPUBLICANUS/TEABAGGERS lead by Baby Bush et al. Add on to that the historical stance to healthcare in general by the Republicanus/Teabaggers, and the fact that they have voted to cut funding for the VA. It seems that the Republicanus/Teabaggers are all too willing to use people like fodder and then throw them away when they are "damaged" and seemingly of little value.
TPM — Good on those senators, Democrats all. I heard in the news today that Sterling has turned over his ownership rights to his ex-wife who is now trying to sell the team.
Cartoon — When I was watching the Koch Brothers documentary earlier, I kept thinking of some of the actions of the Nazis in Germany and how some of the Koch actions were reminiscent. I wonder if at some point they might take Himmler`s way out. I doubt it.
Thanks all! That I should have made it a 4 catnap day!
I finally got back to the puter, wrote a long comment, was just starting to save, when boom! power failure. So now I'll just say Vimeo freezes on me too, but if I click on stop and then on start it takes up where it left off – and hope Edie and Lynn see it.
Testing Smilies.
Mine disappeared too. Aparantly one of the security updates to wordpress screwed it up for non-administrators. Argh!
I put a smilie in one of my comments on "Convert or Else" and it actually worked and it is still there.
My goodness, how Beautiful… 🙄