Dec 122024
 

Yesterday was pretty quiet.  I put in a couple of medical claims for Thyroid, which has to come from a pharmacy which for some reason cannot accept HSA cards. (But the claims a paid promptly.) And that’s really all .

Like y’all, I was disappointed in Alvin Bragg when he first took office. But, oh boy, has he ever found some (courage, guts, balls, spine – pick your metaphor.) Now I am wondering whether this is newfound, or whether we underestimated him all along. Not that it really matters when an entire nation can best survive by simply taking one day at a time. Joyce Vance elaborates.

Yes, I am late with this Heather Cox Richardson essay. But I am always going to be late with hers and Vance’s, and Reich’s, and Hubbell’s, because they all send late enough that I generally don’t see them until the following day. At best, I ever see them untl after I have posted. But I fon’t consider that a reason not to share them when they are profound. This one is about the history of December 10 being international Human Rights Day. And all that that history implies.

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Aug 042022
 

Yesterday, it was pretty quiet. I did need to get another grocery delivery, as the last one sorted me on green salad. I have plenty of frozen vegetables stocked, but I enjoy sommer meals more and feel better if I have a green salad daily while it’s warm. This time I got everything I asked for, so I’m set for a while. Otherwise, a quiet day. My shoulder is still being annoying, but I have a shoulder brace coming, and I used some arnica gel on it today, which helped..

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Ted Lieu Introduces Act Naming Russia As Terrorist State
Quote – Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) is leading a bipartisan group of House members in sponsoring the Russia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act in response to their invasion of Ukraine. Those members include Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Jared Golden (D-ME), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Tom Malinowski (D-NJ).
Click through for story. Ted Lieu may not be Jamie Raskin (but then, who but Jamie is?) or even Eric Swalwell (ditto), but he does have a history of presenting truth forcefully. I appreciate him.

Letters from an American – August 2, 2022
Quote – But this moment increasingly feels like it’s about more than abortion rights, crucial though they are. The loss of our constitutional rights at the hands of a radical extremist minority has pushed the majority to demonstrate that we care about the rights and freedoms that were articulated—however imperfectly they were carried out—in the Declaration of Independence. We care about a lot of things that have been thin on the ground for a while.
Click through for everything. This was the day of the primaries in many states and there is significant news from more than one of them. There is also more new information abut Trump** information sedition. Any of these news items could be found elsewhere, but Richardson wraps it all up nicely and ties a bow on it.

Food For Thought

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Jan 052022
 

Glenn Kirschner – From Trump DOJ Official Pleading the 5th to Congress on Cusp of Subpoenaing its Own: December Recap

Meidas Touch – Michael Cohen thinks Jan 6 text leaks are not what they appear (and he has some good points)

The Lincoln Project – In Their Words

NBC News – Remembering Those We Lost in 2021 – I said I was dreading this, but it’s worth knowing (Yes, Betty White died on December 31, but they made this on the 31st before the news got out.)

Really American – Trump To Deliver DANGEROUS Speech On January 6 (he has wimped out, though)

Woman Adopts Grandparents’ Grumpy Cat

Beau – Let’s talk about human rights or constitutional rights….

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Jun 182021
 

My settled routine is more or less back, which is a blessing. It enables me to stop and knit a little, or bead a little, or eve play a computer game a little. And those little breaks keep me going. There’s pretty much good news today. It’s all in the nature of clawing one more step forward from having been pushed two steps back … but it’s all good nonetheless. Happy Juneteenth (observed) to all.

Cartoon

Short Takes

The Hill – Supreme Court upholds ObamaCare in 7-2 ruling
Quote: “We do not reach these questions of the Act’s validity, however, for Texas and the other plaintiffs in this suit lack the standing necessary to raise them,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority.
Click through to see which Trump**-appointed Justice(s) voted the right way. You know at least one did, just by the numbers.

Sojourners – JUNETEENTH: ‘HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS’
Juneteenth is, of course, tomorrow. But it has been announced that the Federal Government will celebrate it today. So here is a very personal yet also historical article about the first one.
Quote: The next day, Friday, June 19, when Granger arrived, the more than 1,000 enslaved people working in Galveston’s ports, houses, hotels, cotton fields, and barber and smithing shops would have witnessed thousands of Black men in blue uniforms as far as the eye could see as their liberators…. It was the beautiful presence of authoritative Black bodies that made these words real.
Click through for the full story.

Crooks and Liars – Teachers Push Back On GOP ‘Critical Race Theory’ Nonsense
Quote: Teachers across the country have spoken out against bills like [Texas] S.B. 2202, with thousands gathering in more than 20 cities last weekend for a National Day of Action organized by the Zinn Education Project, which publishes educational materials based on Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and other writings. Several thousand educators have also signed a pledge stating, “We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events—regardless of the law.”
Click through for more detail. Howard Zinn rocks, so if you haven’t read his “people’s histry” you may want to look it up.

Food for Thought

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Jan 172021
 

It’s a groggy day here in the CatBox.  I slept very well last night, but one good night after several bad is not enough for recovery.  My pain level is gradually starting to improve.  This afternoon, I’m going to watch my confiscated Portland Chiefs Play the Browns.  I’ll be in the saddle for MLK Day tomorrow.  Expect evil actions from the Republican Reich.  To stay safe, avoid them.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From NY Times: President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., inheriting a collection of crises unlike any in generations, plans to open his administration with dozens of executive directives on top of expansive legislative proposals in a 10-day blitz meant to signal a turning point for a nation reeling from disease, economic turmoil, racial strife and now the aftermath of the assault on the Capitol.

Mr. Biden’s team has developed a raft of decrees that he can issue on his own authority after the inauguration on Wednesday to begin reversing some of President Trump’s most hotly disputed policies. Advisers hope the flurry of action, without waiting for Congress, will establish a sense of momentum for the new president even as the Senate puts his predecessor on trial.

On his first day in office alone, Mr. Biden intends a flurry of executive orders that will be partly substantive and partly symbolic. They include rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate change accord, extending pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments, issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel and ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from families after crossing the border, according to a memo circulated on Saturday by Ron Klain, his incoming White House chief of staff, and obtained by The New York Times.

The blueprint of executive action comes after Mr. Biden announced that he will push Congress to pass a $1.9 trillion package of economic stimulus and pandemic relief, signaling a willingness to be aggressive on policy issues and confronting Republicans from the start to take their lead from him.

He also plans to send sweeping immigration legislation on his first day in office providing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million people in the country illegally. Along with his promise to vaccinate 100 million Americans for the coronavirus in his first 100 days, it is an expansive set of priorities for a new president that could be a defining test of his deal-making abilities and command of the federal government.

Isn’t it wonderful to look forward to government actions we can support?  RESIST and REMOVE the Republican Reich!!

From Daily Kos: A few weeks ago, it was still possible to compare the daily deaths from COVID-19 to some past events. 9/11. Or Pearl Harbor. Or D-Day. But all of that went by the wayside as the number of those falling to the virus each day passed 3,000. Then 4,000. 2020 likely saw an unprecedented use of “unprecedented,” and when it comes to the pandemic, that bit of justified awfulness is far from over.

Even in the middle of a pandemic that is killing Americans faster than any war in history, there are still some situations that stand out for the extra awfulness that people can show to each other. That’s certainly true of the Republicans in Congress who refused to wear a mask even as they were huddling together under threat of death from a rampaging mob. As a result, at least four members of Congress have since tested positive.

But there may be no better example of just how terrible people can be, than a tiny group called “Citizens Against Tyranny” in the mid-sized city of Roseburg, Oregon.

As the La Grande Observer reports, this group formed for a specific purpose — to punish anyone who complains about violations of safety regulations connected to COVID-19. That includes publishing the names of anyone who reports safety violations to Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration on “The LIST.”

Two women, both senior citizens and Douglas County residents, were recently fingered by this organization. Their names were published on a website called citizensagainsttyranny.net as part of “The LIST,” and they were labeled “Filthy Traitors.” The words were spattered in red, as if to indicate blood.

This group, which labeled two elderly women “filthy traitors” for upholding a law that’s meant to save not just their lives, but also the lives of their fellow citizens, is supported by Republican state lawmaker Dallas Heard. Which might not be surprising, since in a December session of the Oregon legislature, Heard declared that attempts to halt the pandemic were “campaign against the people and the children of God.” At that point he ripped off his mask and stormed out of the senate. Heard doesn’t just support the Citizens Against Tyranny, he has encouraged it in a plan to ban all those who the organization has doxxed from being served by any local business. “Their faces and their names and what they did must be known,” said Heard.

I ashamed to admit that Oregon has a senator as evil as Missouri’s infamous Jerk-off Josh Hawley, but ours is just a state senator. The “Children of God” worship Republican-supply-side Jesus, the deity with horns, cloven hooves, a pointed tail, and a pitch fork.  RESIST and REMOVE the Republican Reich!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): THE YOUNGBLOODS Let´s get together 1967 Chet Powers´s song

 

Ah… the memories. I have understood for about twenty five years that fear, not hate, is the opposite of love. Hate is a symptom of fear. Understanding that makes it easier to understand the Republican Party.  RESIST and REMOVE the Republican Reich!!

Wednesday, Dump Trump** Hump Day,

Is the Big FLUSH!!

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A BIG Win for LGBTQ

 Posted by at 10:55 am  Politics
Jun 152020
 

When I learned that the Supreme Court, dominated by the five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican  anti-Constitutional VD) would be deciding the legality of discriminating against LGBTQ citizens in the workplace, I was sure of the outcome.  Much to my surprise, the decision was a big win for LGBTQ!

0615SCOTUSLGBTQ

Gay and transgender employees cannot be fired from their jobs solely because of their LGBT status, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The court found for the first time that federal civil rights law prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sex also protects employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“An employer who discriminates against homosexual or transgender employees necessarily and intentionally applies sex-based rules,” the court found.

The 6-to-3 ruling, led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, largely turned on the meaning of the word “sex” within Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it unlawful for an employer to “discriminate against any individual” because of their sex.

There was little dispute that Congress did not intend to protect LGBT employees when it passed that landmark civil rights-era legislation. But over 50 years later, lawyers at the hight [sic] court tussled over whether sex-based protections must include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity by consequence.

The Trump administration intervened in the case with a brief arguing that terminating gay or lesbian employees wouldn’t constitute discrimination under Title VII because affected workers of both genders “would be similarly situated—and they would be treated the same.”…

Inserted from <Newsweek>

Please click through.  The article is well worth the read.

Supreme Court says federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination

Although I used to be straight, before I forgot how and became a never-sexual, I could not be more pleased for the LGBTQ community. I’m surprised that Injustice Whoresuch wrote the decision. Of course, Injustices Thomas, Scalito, and KavaNazi opposed.  Nevertheless, it is imperative to take back both the White House and the Senate and keep them long term.  As it it, it will take decades to transform SCROTUS (Republican ant-Constitutional VD) back to SCOTUS.

RESIST!!

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