Posts
Dr. Who Back For Christmas
1 hour ago
Friday, October 31, 2014
Entertainment overnight -- Hallowe'en edition
I always loved this group and song.
Happy Hallowe'en, y'all.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Republicans want SMALL GOVERNMENT, dammit!!!!
They want small government.
Well, unless it's about abortion.
And unless it's about women's reproductive rights.
And unless it's about 2 people of the same sex loving one another.
And unless it's about a new, upcoming car company, challenging the status quo.
And unless it's about tax cuts for "Big Oil."
And unless it's about creating a wholly unnecessary, new agency called "Homeland Security" that happens to make lots of money for the sitting Vice President's multi-million (billion?) dollar company.
And unless it's about gerrymandering district borders for votes for themselves.
And unless it's about tax cuts to offshore manufacturing.
And unless it's about tax breaks for fossil fuels.
Other than that, yeah, they want "small government."
I'm glad we could clear this up.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Entertainment Overnight -- Budweiser hits it out of the ballpark
I don't think I'm the only one that thinks Budweiser made a rare, terrific commercial here.
"I'm back. I'm back."
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Is America turning into a Third World "banana republic"?
Since the 2008 financial near-collapse in America and for the last 30 years, there's been an attack on the middle class in this country:
The Attack on America's Middle Class
7 Things the Middle Class Can’t Afford Anymore
Then, more recently, the UN says Detroit is violating human rights there by cutting off water to the poor:
UN Reps ‘Deeply Disturbed’ That Detroit Is Shutting Off Water To People Who Don’t Pay Their Bills
Now Amnesty International weighs in on the Ferguson, Missouri debacle:
Amnesty International: Ferguson Cops Committed Human Rights Abuses
Take this into consideration:
America Has The Worst Wealth Inequality Of All Developed Nations
What's become of us, America?
What's becoming of us?
And maybe most importantly:
What are we going to do about it?
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Sam Brownback takes another deserved and very fair beating
A very fair indictment of Republican Governor Sam Brownback, Republican and Right Wing "trickle down" economic theories, American media in general, the American voting public and Meet the Press, in specific (note--expletives ahead):
The truly frightening state of Americans, media and our sources for news
I saw the scariest study of Americans and how we get our news now. Check this little beauty out:
Survey: More Americans get news from Internet than newspapers and radio
The headline alone was enough to frighten a person. Unfortunately, if not surprisingly, it went on to get only worse:
(CNN) -- More Americans get their news from the Internet than from newspapers or radio, and three-fourths say they hear of news via e-mail or updates on social media sites, according to a new report.
Sixty-one percent of Americans said they get at least some of their news online, according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
That's compared with 54 percent who said they listen to a radio news program and 50 percent who said they read a national or local print newspaper.
There was one little glimmer of hope in all this:
Almost all respondents, 92 percent, said they get their news from more than one platform.
Thank goodness for that last little tidbit, anyway. At least people arent' completely "single-sourcing" their news. At least as far as they admit, anyway.
Thinking of the situation, that online, we all merely tune in to those sources that tilt or lean to our preconceived, already decided upon views, that's disheartening.
In the past, the news was the newspaper in the morning (and evening, if you're that old). It was a better, more overall look at our society and the news. Yes, newspapers still might lean "Left" or "Right", more or less Conservative or Liberal but they were a broader, more encompassing view of what was occurring in the nation and world. We didn't have control. We couldn't turn it off.
Sure, you could ignore different editorials and columnists but by and large, one was given a better view of what was going on in the world.
Turn to today, with the internet and media, especially since the Republicans had us throw out the more balancing "Fairness Doctrine" in our laws which forced media sources to give two sides to each issue, and now we're far more tuning in to what we merely already agree with and what we want to hear.
It's truly scary.
Naturally, it's extremely polarizing. It makes us far more Republicans vs. Democrats or Liberals vs. Conservatives or--probably worst of all---"Left Wing" vs. "Right Wing."
With that same study, recently, though, yet more information came out:
This is one more big, rather new though not fully surprising development.
News? People getting their "news"? From Facebook?
I can't think of any more shallow or slanted source to get your "news" from than Facebook since most people, especially there, just "like" what they agree with and only follow such. Heaven knows I'm guilty of that. I don't even keep old friends from high school as Facebook friends after I've found they've turned into Right Wing and/or Republican shills.
We're bad and getting worse, clearly.
And the thing is, for all the great things coming from the Millenials and "X" and "Y" generations---like watching less and less television, needing, wanting and buying less automobiles, their turning away from the hates and prejudices of their parents and society and wanting to pollute our world less, etc.--this whole trend will no doubt get worse and worse with the oncoming of yet more and more technology on their part and that of our society.
It doesn't give me hope. At least it doesn't on this one topic.
With all that sour news, due to that study, comes this news, today, to prove the point:
Thursday Cable Ratings: Fox News #1 During NYC Ebola Breaking News
Here we have a serious situation in the country, responding to a possibly, even likely deadly disease and what "media" outlet is the number one source for people for news on it?
Fox? Fox "News"? Faux News?
Go ahead. Shoot me now.
Fox? Fox "News"? Faux News?
Go ahead. Shoot me now.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Why we so desperately need a jobs/infrastructure bill from this Congress
"The global economy is more precarious right now than it's been since 2008. China's growth is slowing precipitously, Europe is on the very of recession or deflation, Japan is barely growing, and the United States cannot maintain sufficient aggregate demand without a larger and more buoyant middle class. Interest rates are rock-bottom. Under these circumstances, you might expect governments to borrow more to stimulate their economies. But Germany in the eurozone, and Republicans in the U.S., are still insisting on austerity."
--Robert Reich
Instead, there is the desire on the part of one political party, quite frankly, the Republicans, to put their own party and their success ahead of that of the nation, people and economy be damned.
We all know that.
Why else would they totally avoid an infrastructure/jobs bill from this or the last Congress when the American people need the jobs? the infrastructure needs the updating and improving and the economy needs the boost? They don't want this president or his political party to gain any "points" or to be perceived as having any success so screw you, America.
Abraham Lincoln: On Corporations
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
-President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Saturday, October 18, 2014
How Bad Our Politicians, Politics and Elections Have Gotten
This past week, there were two excellent examples of how small our politicians, our politics and our elections have gotten.
Here's the first one:
Charlie Crist Cannot Have His Small Fan at Our Debate
This was a real stunner.
It seems Florida Governor Rick Scott was to debate challenger Charlie Crist. No problem, right? But according to the article, Governor Crist wouldn't come out to debate for 7 minutes. It seems he didn't think Mr. Crist had a fan to keep him cool. The Governor thought it disallowed by the rules. The rules read like this:
This is how far down, how low our political discourse and elections have gotten. We need to be better than this. We need to rise above this level of discourse and concentrate on what's best for the people and nation, not these small, petty issues.
Missourians, your courts are being bought
I've been writing, nearly screaming, about our government representatives being bought, especially by the Right Wing and wealthy and Republicans and corporations, all, for some time. This story, now, today, from Crooks & Liars comes to us straight out of our own state, Missouri and it's shameful:
Who Is That Mystery Megadonor Trying To Buy A Judge's Election In Missouri?
The leading candidate for the six-figure donation to the failing candidate's kitty is Rex Sinquefield, but no one knows for sure.
Who would want to drop six figures into the campaign of a guy who had less than $100 just a month ago? Why, someone who wants all the judges in the state capital to be Republicans, of course!
TPM:
A month ago, Missouri GOP prosecutor Brian Stumpe had less than $100 on hand in his campaign to unseat Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Now, just a few weeks later, he has received $100,000 -- all of it funneled into his campaign by a national group, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has spent a total of $200,000 so far in this race for a single state judgeship.So just what the heck is going on? Democrats and liberals on the ground in Missouri would tell you that somebody is trying to purchase the judgeship, and they have some suspicions about some Koch-esque Missouri multi-millionaires who might be behind the RSLC's interest in the race.Why would they do that? Because Cole County, home to 75,000 people, contains Jefferson City, the Missouri state capital. So in most cases where somebody is suing the state government, those cases are heard in the Cole County Circuit Court. It is similar to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals at the federal level, in that case an appellate court with an outsized influence."If you sue the state of Missouri, if there's a lawsuit in which you're bringing a constitutional question or challenging ballot language or a fiscal note by a state auditor, those cases are directed to the Cole County Circuit Court," Roy Temple, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, told TPM. "It is a judgeship that has statewide importance."Joyce is the only Democratic judge at the Cole County Circuit Court; her two colleagues are Republican. So ousting her would, in theory, be a significant win for Republicans looking to influence the outcome of the kind of cases Temple described. That helps explain why the Republican State Leadership Committee, which is currently chaired by former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and formerly chaired by Virginia GOP Senate candidate Ed Gillespie, would take an interest.
It's disgusting. It's immoral. Sure. Unfortunately it's legal because, hey, the Republicans made it legal, so long ago.
It's why we have to fight. We have to fight to end campaign contributions, period. It has to come from us.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Quote of the day -- on the Judeo-Christian tradition
"As a historian, I confess to a certain amusement when I hear the Judeo-Christian tradition praised as the source of our concern for human rights. In fact, the great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights in the contemporary sense. They were notorious not only for acquiescence in poverty, inequality, exploitation and oppression but for enthusiastic justifications of slavery, persecution, abandonment of small children, torture, genocide."
—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author, "The Opening of the American Mind," The New York Times, 1989.
See more at: http://ffrf.org/news/day#sthash.vvxGNPNl.dpuf
Big, fun crazy times with and for the Royals and Kansas City
Kansas City and our Royals, going to the World Series. Meantime, Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis on site, Eric Stonestreet on set of Modern Family.
KC, hitting the big time in a few ways.
From the Star:
Then there was this very cool story:
and this from 2 years ago::
Eric Stonestreet, Paul Rudd, Jon Hamm, Jason Sudeikis and Rob Riggle. The four actors sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during an interleague game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 22, 2012.
So congratulations, Kansas City, many congratulations. Enjoy. These are the good old days, for sure.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Monday, October 13, 2014
How we spend too much on "Defense" and what we should do about it
From Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's ice cream:
Our defense budget is huge, bloated, grossly over-funded, wasteful, unaccounted for, wildly immoral, unsustatinable and ends up weakening the nation, ultimately, in very real terms.
Let's get started.
The problem is also that there are far too many Michael Browns in this country
It's one thing that one young person, a young man, Michael Brown, was unarmed and shot and killed in St. Louis recently, sure. That's bad enough.
But the problem is, there are far, far too many Michael Browns in this nation. It's horrific enough a shooting, let alone a killing takes place once but it happens repeatedly here. As examples, here are just a few recent headlines from around our nation:
North Carolina officer shot unarmed man 10 times
Officer Randall Kerrick faces manslaughter charges on Tuesday for allegedly shooting dead a car crash victim in Charlotte
Teenager's mysterious death evokes painful imagery in North Carolina
Police say they have no evidence of foul play in the hanging death of black teenager Lennon Lacy. But in a case with disturbing racial overtones, his family are left with haunting questions
Gym mat death of Ga. teen still being questioned
Gym mat death of Ga. teen still being questioned
White Dallas man shoots 8-year-old black boy in the face while playing 'tag'
And then there's Trayvon Martin and all the others we've already forgotten.
How is this possible?
How are all these things and all these incidents and all these horrors possible?
And yes, how are they possible even once, let along repeatedly?
Who are we that we're capable of these things, time and again, too, especially after all this time?
Some statistics: The Racial Disparity in Fatal Police Shootings
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Quote of the day -- on Republicans, their work and goals
From a Facebook friend:
They shoot down young men in the streets, some handcuffed and shot, some surrendering and shot, some running for their lives and shot, and we sit there.
They pay our workers less than a living wage and we watch, but action is missing. They try and curtail our votes or liberties and we watch TV and sigh
They insult our intelligence with saying public education does not work, but we were once the envy of the globe through public education.
They buy up our duly elected officials through a system of graft and payoffs and call it, lobbies.
They Gerrymander districts to disenfranchise our votes and elections and we sleep in apathy.
They poison our rivers and fresh water supplies, through fracking and no one seems to give a frack.
They overcharge for medical help, and put us in debt to keep healthy and we allow this. They pass anti democratic voting laws to curtail votes from elders, students and minorities. They want white voters only then they can pass laws for holding down the rest.
They rewrite US history to make us more docile, by covering up the fact that dissidence formed our union, and social progress occurred and justice served, through our civil disobedience, as we watch football and allow it.
They disrespect women, and pay them less, and treat them as chattel or call them sluts for wanting birth control covered by insurance, and we nod off.
They disrespect our leaders that have a populous agenda and we watch and shrug.
They cry foul when wages are raised, and work hard at convincing us 7.25 an hour is a living wage.
They push us for more weapons in the hands of whites, but beware if a minority is caught with one.
They send more people to prison over less, than any country in the history of mankind and we scratch our heads.
They are called the Republicans and Tea baggers, and if they have their way democracy will die, and we will become an oligarchy, with these sick ass greedy monsters like the Koch's in control... Is this America? Or is it time to hit the streets make them see what our powers are, the Powers of the People..
Rise up and let them hear us, or watch them smash us into John Birch, KKK, and ALEC loving fools..
The Very Embarrassing, Stupid, If Not Crazy Republicans and Right Wing in the Nation in general and Missouri, specifically
Fresh evidence:
JeffCo Recorder Asks Why Military Hasn't Ousted Obama Yet
These people would be unbelievable if we hadn't already seen so much of this nonsense in the last few decades:
Jefferson County Recorder of Deeds Debbie Dunnegan took to her Facebook page this week to ask her military friends why no one has taken action against "our domestic enemy... supposedly the commander in chief." That's right, she asked why President Obama hasn't been taken care of (or something) by the military yet. Apparently, in Dunnegan's Constitution the military has "the authority" to oust the President for unspecified misdeeds.
And at this point, it's not as though Ms. Waters can deny it, either. Of course, she can do what other people have done of late and say someone took over her Facebook page which I don't think any reasonable person would believe or accept.
Of course, what she's speaking of here is a coup d'eta, an overthrowing of our elected government and representatives.
How very Third World, "Banana Republic" of her.
Apparently, what Ms. Waters here isn't aware of, what she's "missing" is the US Constitution.
I wonder what her stances were when that last occupant of the White House lied to us to get us to attack another foreign, sovereign nation which is illegal both by our own, internal, national laws as well as against external, international laws.
No. Wait. I don't wonder. I'm pretty sure I know.
Link to original story here: http://www.progressmissouri.org/content/jeffco-recorder-asks-why-military-hasnt-ousted-obama-yet
Friday, October 10, 2014
A Smart Way Forward
This candidate, Dave Peiser, is running for Congress in the 49th District in California. He put out this advertisement on YouTube and it's extremely hopeful, by my way of thinking. As usual, California is ahead of the rest of the nation when it comes to nature and this shows just how much, at this point:
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Black/White Relations in the US for the last 400 Years
Calling it as it was and is (click on picture or link for easier viewing):
One chart, all the religions
Fascinating stuff (click on picture to enlarge):
The history of all religions explained in one fascinating graphic
Makes you feel special, doesn't it?
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