I’ll be as brief as I can, as I have a meeting this evening and need to rest today.
Jug Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:59 (average 5:14). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Florida’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, and legislature have happily joined in on the War on Women and the war on Planned Parenthood, attempting to state funding to reproductive health clinics and diverting resources away from clinics that provide abortion. What does that mean when it comes to fighting a disease that kills and deforms unborn babies? A looming disaster.
"We haven’t heard about any kits," says Laura Goodhue, a vice president at Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida. Planned Parenthood hasn’t received any Zika kits from the Florida Department of Health, nor has it received any guidance from the department about how to serve pregnant women during a possible outbreak. […]
A big part of the defense against infection for women in Florida appears to be the Zika prevention kits and OB-GYN outreach, but the Scott administration’s strategy is unclear. The Planned Parenthood affiliate operates three clinics in Miami-Dade County, which has the fourth-highest uninsured rate in the country, and another just over the border in Broward County. The women’s health care organization serves tens of thousands of people per year, many of whom are low-income and without insurance—and more likely to get pregnant by accident. As Laura Goodhue notes, they have not received a single kit.
This Republican is intentionally withholding life-saving services to the women who need them most. When his victims start dying, he will undoubtedly blame Planned Parenthood for the blood on his own hands.
From NY Times: Taking advantage of almost a decade of political victories in state legislatures across the country, conservative advocacy groups are quietly marshaling support for an event unprecedented in the nation’s history: a convention of the 50 states, summoned to consider amending the Constitution.
The groups are an amalgam of free-market, low-tax and small-government proponents,
I urge you to click through to read this entire article to better understand how critically important it is to win down-ballot races. Then vote blue.
From Alternet: Donald Trump is trailing Hillary Clinton badly in Colorado, which despite being a "swing state" went for President Obama twice. And despite boasting that he’ll change the electoral map, Trump is running a ground game in the Centennial State that can only be described as embarrassing, even for him.
According to St. Louis-based news station KMOV 4, Weston Imer runs the GOP nominee’s campaign office in Jefferson County, Colorado, which is "part of the Denver metro area" and "one of the most populous counties in Colorado," KMOV notes. But Weston is just 12 years old.
I consider it horrid that one so young is so corrupted. On the plus side, it appears that Rump Dump has all but given up in CO.
Cartoon: (Yesterday at the Podiatrist’s office, I heard a "trigger"word!)
8 Responses to “Open Thread – 8/23/2016”
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4:44 (after subtracting the 15 seconds the computer froze) An oldie but a goodie.
DKos – Well, sabotaging people and then blaming their deaths on others is an old tried-and-false Republican technique. Benghazi comes to mind. But there are many more examples.
NYT – Yes. This is scary. I don't know what to say other than what you have already said.
AlterNet – I saw the headline, but didn't realize this was in Colorado. What can his parents possibly be thinking? Oh, wait, his mother is the OFFICIAL coordinator. He's just the office manager. I've known cats (and dogs) who have been office managers. AAAAAARGGGH!!!
Cartoon – A narrow escape. 😉
NYT: To turn loose the rethuglicans in a convention like that would be suicide for the country! I don't know what kind of country we would have after they got through rewriting all the amendments!!! There's no telling what they would do to make themselves king! And, OMG! What they would do to Women's Rights! We would be cast back to the 1800's in that regard!!! Lord, help us if they ever get enough states to go along with this farce!!!
AlterNet: A 12 year old kid is running Rump Dump Drumpf's campaign in Jefferson County in Colorado??? Is that RIGHT??? Such child abuse should be reported to DHS and have the child removed!!!
Love the cartoon, TC!! Have a good one! Hope the heat lets up in ya!!!
DK: This is downright sad and pathetic, for those women and unborn babies. What a jerk!
AN: That's scary! He's so young too. After watching this, and his plans for 2040, I'm worried.
Cartoon: Such a sweet kitty!
Have a good evening, and take care, Thanks, Tom.
It may sound contradictory, but I'm glad you're brief today because you want to rest after your appointment to have the energy to face the next heat wave, TomCat. I'll send you some naps to help with the regeneration process.
DK: Your analysis of Florida's Scott and his ilk is spot-in, TomCat. The Zika virus has reached Florida but they do not provide women's health clinics like Planned Parenthood and Today's Women Medical Centers the Zika prevention kits and OB-GYN outreach to ward off the virus in those who need it most, broadening their War on Women to a War on Women AND Children. Because when a fetus is infected with the Zika virus early in the pregnancy, these Talibangelists will also deny the woman the chance to abort the microcephalic fetus. If it survives birth of course there will no help from the state for mother and child, but the women's health clinics will get blamed for not providing adequate Zika prevention to the mothers and expect the federal government to pick up the tab.
NYT: I'm at a loss here. Aren't those very Republican states who are advocating the amendment to require a balanced federal budget and prohibiting deficits the hardest not the same states who by the "grace" of their own free-market, low-tax (for companies) and small-government policies have run their states into the ground with enormous deficits?
One thing is clear to me, though: with these states wanting to do things their way and their own way at the same time, any amendment to the Constitution should also include striking out the "United" from "United States of America". So, although I never thought I'd have to say this, a patriotic American should vote Blue all the way down the line.
Alternet: A Drumpf campaign office of a county in swing state Colorado run by a 12-year-old? I'd laugh if it wasn't the most pathetic thing about Drumpf's campaign I heard in the past few weeks.
Cartoon: I guess the Podiatrist wasn't satisfied with doing just one foot then?
Puzzle — 4:07 That is a heap of sugar in one puzzle. My teeth are already standing on edge and saluting!
Daily Kos — "…their governor is more concerned with shutting down the clinics that provide what health care they do get than preventing this looming crisis." — Sure sounds like Scott and his Republican hacks! Sounds like Republicare! What an asshat!
NY Times — This is scary! And I disagree with Lessig — Republicans are such ideologues, so misdirected and brain dead, that they would go through with this disaster.
Alternet — A 12 year old? Obviously Republicans don't believe in child labour laws! That should be classified as child abuse!
Cartoon — You've heard that word several times now it seems.
Thanks all. Heated hugs!
DK: Scott is a true pig. He would not blink at any misfortune his actions might cause.It is too bad no one offered his mother a way out of that pregnancy. He's like Brownback, in that phenomenal "RED" state that is collapsing because economic fact won't go along with his wishes/fantasies.
NYT: That is scary!
Alternet: I like Vivian's solution.
I do wish you wouldn't be so insulting to pigs, Many of them are MUCH nicer than Rick "Lord Voldemort" Scott. And, if you saw today's jigsaw, you also know that by and large insects are much better looking. (BTW Beownback is another who should have considered what could be done with or to his name before he entered politics. I'm sure he has a lot of people wondering why he was never taught to WIPE properly.)