Support for this President from a most unlikely source

And for good reasons:

Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Entertainment overnight

The types of people the voter ID laws effect

Let's see, female, check; handicapped, check; elderly, check; possibly even Hispanic--that way they'd get a four-way win.

The Republican strategy:  If you can't get 'em to follow and vote for you, take away their vote.

Sure, you know WHERE your food comes from...

You just don't know HOW.



Is that not revolting?

Quote of the day--on the national deficit

So, why, exactly, can't we have a jobs bill for Americans, especially so we can repair our infrastructure?

Seriously.

Link to original article--get it all here:  What People (Don't) Know About The Deficit

Entertainment overnight

Because a great, old 60's hit and "Gilligan's Island" just shouldn't be wasted:



Who knew?

Amazon has revenge on and tries to punish Missouri

I just got this email this evening, from Amazon.  Seems they're upset. They don't like what's come out of our statehouse:


Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program.

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account will be closed and your Amazon Services LLC Associates Program Operating Agreement will be terminated effective August 27, 2013. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional Missouri state tax collection legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Nixon on July 5, 2013, with an effective date of August 28, 2013. As a result, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for customers referred to an Amazon Site after August 27 nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Missouri residents.

Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to August 28, 2013 will be processed and paid in full in accordance with your regular advertising fee schedule. Based on your account closure date of August 27, 2013, any final payments will be paid by October 31, 2013.

While we oppose this unconstitutional state legislation, we strongly support the federal Marketplace Fairness Act now pending before Congress. Congressional legislation is the only way to create a simplified, constitutional framework to resolve interstate sales tax issues and it would allow us to re-open our Associates program to Missouri residents.

We thank you for being part of the Amazon Associates Program, and look forward to re-opening our program when Congress passes the Marketplace Fairness Act.


Sincerely,

The Amazon Associates Team
_________________________________

To which I respond:

Dear Amazon:

FO.

Just because you don't like it doesn't make it "unconstitutional."  Just ask retailers.


Sincerely,

Mo Rage

Six Questions About "Obamacare"----and why we need it

From an article, earlier today:

Six Questions About Obamacare Answered

And yes, it's good, yes, it's important and yes, people should read it.

But they won't.

Even then, however, here's why we need this legislation and so badly:

5. Why is this happening (and will it really make a difference)?



The average cost of a three-day hospital stay is $30,000. Fixing a broken leg costs $7,500. Essentially, the government stepped in to protect consumers from debt and bankruptcy due to unmanageable health insurance costs. 

You’ll get a lot of free preventive care (a wide range of health services, including HIV screenings, flu shots, herpes screenings, diet counseling for high risk folks, mammograms, well-woman visits, contraception and depression screenings). 

It holds insurance companies accountable for rate increases, and if they don’t abide, you may get a rebate in the mail. If you made a honest mistake on your application, your insurance company is now prohibited from arbitrarily canceling your coverage. 



 

It’s estimated that 19 million young adults between 18 and 34 don’t have health coverage, largely due to cost. Under Obamacare, a whopping 17 million of 19 million uninsured young people are likely eligible for subsidies or Medicaid under Obamacare.

 Note: Know that if you’ve been covered with health insurance since March 23, 2010, you may have a grandfathered plan, in which case you must carefully read the fine print, as some of these provisions will not apply. For instance, grandfathered plans don’t necessarily need to cover preventive care for free (more on this below).

We have the most expensive health care system in the world, too.

And we have the worst health outcomes of the top 17 industrialized nations.

The top cause of bankruptcy in America is one health care "event."

I'll stop there.

And people don't think this needs fixing?

What most white people in America don't understand---and, likely, may never get

There was a terrific article in The New York Times this past Sunday, by one Jesmyn Ward about the subtle and anything-but-subtle racism in America, through the last century.

It wasn't a history lesson, per se.  It just spoke of her and her family's life in this country, over that time:

A Cold Current

A bit from the article:

DeLisle, Miss.

There are moments from childhood that attract heat in our memories, some for their sublime brilliance, some for their malignancy. The first time that I was treated differently because of my race is one such memory.

As a child of the ’80s, my realization of what it meant to be black in Mississippi was nothing like my grandmother’s in the ’30s. For her it was deadly; it meant that her grandfather was shot to death in the woods near his house, by a gang of white patrollers looking for illegal liquor stills. None of the men who killed her grandfather were ever held accountable for the crime. Being black in Mississippi meant that, when she and her siblings drove through a Klan area, they had to hide in the back of the car, blankets thrown over them to cover their dark skin, their dark hair, while their father, who looked white, drove.

Of course, my introduction to racism wasn’t nearly as difficult as my mother’s, either. She found that being black in Mississippi in the late ’50s meant that she was one of a few who integrated her local elementary school, where the teachers, administrators and bus drivers, she said, either ignored the new black students or spoke to them like dogs. 

Face it, until you've been treated like this--like any of these situations, above--you likely can't imagine how it would make you feel, how you would live your life and the effects it would have on you.

The reason this is important, I think, is because this is why so many white people today think blacks and African-Americans in this country should just be "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" and that we live in a fair and equal society and that, finally, there's nothing keeping them from being middle-class or higher if only they'd just apply themselves, work hard, study in school, then they'd be successful.

What these white people don't consider, never consider is the ownership and abuse and torture and beatings and killings and overt and covert racism in our nation, the last 500 years.

Suddenly, it's all just supposed to be equal and okay and good and fair and true.

It isn't, folks. It isn't.

Our country isn't all those good things and neither are we.

The truth Ms. Ward speaks came out strongly at the end of the article. It's why we need to call  out racism today, whether in our lives or on Fox News or wherever:

"There is power in naming racism for what it is, in shining a bright light on it, brighter than any torch or flashlight. A thing as simple as naming it allows us to root it out of the darkness and hushed conversation where it likes to breed like roaches. It makes us acknowledge it. Confront it. And in confronting it, we rob it of some of its dark pull. Its senseless, cold drag. When we speak, we assert our human dignity. That is the worth of a word."

Entertainment overnight

Dan Fogelberg, born this day 1951 (died December 16, 2007):



For what it's worth, my favorite album of his.


Link:  Dan Fogelberg Official Website

Dan Fogelberg - Wikipedia

Dan Fogelberg discography

The problem with America, in just over one minute

Want to fix it?

End campaign contributions.

Kill the money in our system.

It's the only way.

And it has to come from us.

Why don't Republicans propose and help pass a jobs bill for Americans?

Here's your answer:

They--our representatives--are bought and paid for by corporations and the wealthy.

They're doing their bidding.

We're an afterthought, if even that.



Links: Robert Reich

Robert Reich - Wikipedia

Further Proof: What We Need to Change in Our Political System and Government

I've said it here before and I will continue to write on this and push for change until it's changed or I'm no longer here.

That is, getting the big, ugly, corrupting money of the wealthy and corporations out of our election system and government.

I think most all Americans can and do agree we need to do that. That is, unless they're one of the few benefiting from it.

This article, yesterday, from The New York Times highlights the problem:

For Freshmen in the House, Seats of Plenty

It's this, from the column:

WASHINGTON — Representative Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky with little experience in the intricacies of Wall Street, was among the lucky House freshmen to secure a seat on the powerful Financial Services Committee.

Now, half a year into his first term, he has emerged as a telling example of why the panel is sometimes called “the cash committee” — a place, critics say, where there are big incentives for freshmen to do special favors for the industry.

Mr. Barr, 40, a first-time elected official, has raised nearly as much money this year from political action committees run by major banks, credit unions and insurance companies as longtime lawmakers like Speaker John A. Boehner and other party leaders.

The flood of financial industry cash — $150,000 in political action committee donations to Mr. Barr in just six months — is hardly an accident.

One afternoon in April, Mr. Barr hosted credit union lobbyists and executives in his House office just before a committee hearing, promising that he would help protect a federal tax break worth $500 million a year, the executives said. Last month, he introduced legislation to eliminate a new federal rule intended to prevent banks from issuing mortgages to customers who could not afford to repay the debt — a measure pushed by bank lobbyists who had visited his office.

“People support him because they agree with him,” Catherine Gatewood, Mr. Barr’s spokeswoman, said after he declined requests for an interview. 

Yeah, sure they do.

This, ladies and gentlemen, points out, yet again, just what, exactly is wrong, ultimately, with our government.

Our legislators and representatives in government aren't out own. They legislate for the wealthy and corporations, first, for those "campaign contributions." Then, after that, if we're lucky, they legislate for the people.

If even then.

We have to work--fight, even, if necessary--to end campaign contributions, once and for all. We have to end the money flow from the "haves" to our legislators.

As it is now, they own our representatives, their legislation and so, our laws and ultimately, our government.

Let's work to get our government--America, really--back for all Americans.

Quote of the day--True then, true again today

From almost precisely 100 years ago:

 

 

It explains why we have to end campaign contributions now and get the big, ugly, corrupting money of the wealthy and corporations out of our election system and government.

 

And it will have to come from us.

America, the world's warmonger

Yessirree, Bob.

Good ol' America, the beautiful.

Right?

Isn't that who we are?

 Former leader of the Free World, for peace. Now the world's warmonger, as we have been and have become, in the last few decades. We outspend everyone, every other nation on the planet, many times over, on spending for war.

Think we're not?  Want proof?

Well, then, here you go, as posted by none other than the Iraq Veterans Against the War :

Iraq Gets $2 Billion Weapons Package from the Pentagon

Does that make sense to anyone out there?

And the only way it will change, folks, is if we, the people, stand up, organize, and demand an end to it.

All of it.



America, our economy, Republicans, leadership and the Right Wing (guest post)

Not enough Americans will read this.

Phony Fear Factor

By PAUL KRUGMAN

We live in a golden age of economic debunkery; fallacious doctrines have been dropping like flies. No, monetary expansion needn’t cause hyperinflation. No, budget deficits in a depressed economy don’t cause soaring interest rates. No, slashing spending doesn’t create jobs. No, economic growth doesn’t collapse when debt exceeds 90 percent of G.D.P.      
 

And now the latest myth bites the dust: No, “economic policy uncertainty” — created, it goes without saying, by That Man in the White House — isn’t holding back the recovery.

      

I’ll get to the doctrine and its refutation in a minute. First, however, I want to recommend a very old essay that explains a great deal about the times we live in.

      

The Polish economist Michal Kalecki published “Political Aspects of Full Employment” 70 years ago. Keynesian ideas were riding high; a “solid majority” of economists believed that full employment could be secured by government spending. Yet Kalecki predicted that such spending would, nonetheless, face fierce opposition from business and the wealthy, even in times of depression. Why?

      

The answer, he suggested, was the role of “confidence” as a tool of intimidation. If the government can’t boost employment directly, it must promote private spending instead — and anything that might hurt the privileged, such as higher tax rates or financial regulation, can be denounced as job-killing because it undermines confidence, and hence investment. But if the government can create jobs, confidence becomes less important — and vested interests lose their veto power.

      

Kalecki argued that “captains of industry” understand this point, and that they oppose job-creating policies precisely because such policies would undermine their political influence. “Hence budget deficits necessary to carry out government intervention must be regarded as perilous.”

      

When I first read this essay, I thought it was over the top. Kalecki was, after all, a declared Marxist (although I don’t see much of Marx in his writings). But, if you haven’t been radicalized by recent events, you haven’t been paying attention; and policy discourse since 2008 has run exactly along the lines Kalecki predicted.

      

First came the “pivot” — the sudden switch to the view that budget deficits, not mass unemployment, were the crucial policy issue. Then came the Great Whine — the declaration by one leading business figure after another that President Obama was undermining confidence by saying mean things about businesspeople and doing outrageous things like helping the uninsured. Finally, just as happened with the claims that slashing spending is actually expansionary and terrible things happen if government debt rises, the usual suspects found an academic research paper to adopt as mascot: in this case, a paper by economists at Stanford and Chicago purportedly showing that rising levels of “economic policy uncertainty” were holding the economy back.

      

But, as I said, we live in a golden age of economic debunkery. The doctrine of expansionary austerity collapsed as evidence on the actual effects of austerity came in, with officials at the International Monetary Fund even admitting that they had severely underestimated the harm austerity does. The debt-scare doctrine collapsed once independent economists reviewed the data. And now the policy-uncertainty claim has gone the same way.

      

Actually, this happened in two stages. Soon after it became famous, the proposed measure of uncertainty was shown to be almost comically flawed; for example, it relied in part on press mentions of “economic policy uncertainty,” which meant that the index automatically surged once that phrase became a Republican talking point. Then the index itself plunged, back to levels not seen since 2008, but the economy didn’t take off. It turns out that uncertainty wasn’t the problem.

      

The truth is that we understand perfectly well why recovery has been slow, and confidence has nothing to do with it. What we’re looking at, instead, is the normal aftermath of a debt-fueled asset bubble; the sluggish U.S. recovery since 2009 is more or less in line with many historical examples, running all the way back to the Panic of 1893. Furthermore, the recovery has been hobbled by spending cuts — cuts that were motivated by what we now know was completely wrongheaded deficit panic.

      

And the policy moral is clear: We need to stop talking about spending cuts and start talking about job-creating spending increases instead. Yes, I know that the politics of doing the right thing will be very hard. But, as far as the economics goes, the only thing we have to fear is fear-mongering itself.

       

•      

Correction: In my column on Monday, I somehow misstated the Republican plan on food stamps, which was for a doubling of planned cuts — a significant cut but not, as I said, a halving of benefits.

Entertainment overnight

Quite a voice.  And I mean that in two different ways:



Thanks to Donna Allen Wood for introducing me to Floyd Red Crow Westerman

Links:  Floyd Red Crow Westerman - Wikipedia

Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman - IMDb

On the American National Deficit

...and responsible politicians, office holders, government representatives and political parties:

More?   Here you go:

Link: 

Federal Deficit Falls A Shocking 32% Under Obama

On Native Americans

And how they live and what we've done to them:



More Americans need to know.

More Americans need to know how Native Americans live.

Because we put them there.

Literally.

We took away their land. We took away their religion. We took away their clothing. We took away their language. We took away their culture.

Then, to fill things in---actually, to make great, big, ugly profits---we gave them alcohol and weapons.

And this, above, is the result, all these hundreds of years later.

The white man screws over Native Americans yet one more time

If you listened to NPR last evening, you may have heard this story:

EPA Wants To Allow Continued Wastewater Dumping In Wyoming

Dirty water from the oil wells flows through oil-caked pipes into a settling pit where trucks vacuum off the oil. A net covers the pit to keep out birds and other wildlife. Streams of this wastewater flow through the reservation and join natural creeks and rivers.
_________________________________________________________

It's a real beauty.

It's not like the European settlers didn't cheat, lie, hurt, maim, torture and kill Native Americans enough since we arrive here about 500 years ago. We have to, apparently, keep on doing all we can to hurt these people.

A little from the story:

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to let oil companies continue to dump polluted wastewater on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. This includes chemicals that companies add to the wells during hydraulic fracturing, an engineering practice that makes wells produce more oil.

An NPR investigation last year discovered that the EPA was allowing oil companies to send so much of this contaminated water onto dry land that it was creating raging streams. At the time, there was a controversy within the agency over whether to keep allowing this practice, according to documents NPR obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

On Friday, the EPA will close the public comment period on proposed permits for several oil fields on the reservations. The proposed permits include some additional restrictions, but would allow companies to continue releasing the water.

So the EPA may let the oil companies keep draining their wastewater onto what is the Native American's land. Isn't that great?

And check out a short list of just some of the things that may be in the water:

"The biggest concern is still what's in the water," says Duke University's Jackson. "It has salts, metals, radioactive elements like radium, and chemicals such as benzene, and sometimes at levels 150 times what's allowed in drinking water. Who wants to eat a cow that drinks water laced in benzene?" (Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental science at Duke University.)

Let's see, we came here, 500 years ago, took their land, killed many of them, shot, hurt, tortured, maimed and killed others, took away their language, their dress, their religion, their culture, gave them alcohol and guns, shoved them off to obscure lands we call, hypocritically enough, "Reservations"--because hey, we're reserving them a space in our country, right?--and now, on top of all that, we're going to heavily pollute their land and water and poison their and our own animals, water and soil and someone thinks this is okay and that it should continue?

Oh, hell, no.  We need to put an end to this ugliness, this gross injustice.

It's no way to treat the water, the soil and especially no way to treat a group people.

For the man-made climate change deniers

Three important pieces of information.

First, this, from China:

'It's Too Hot': Shanghai Wilts In Record-Setting Heat Wave

Temperatures Wednesday in Shanghai hit an all-time high: 105.4 degrees, according to officials here. It was the hottest day in 140 years, since the government began keeping records.

The Chinese megacity is in the midst of its hottest summer ever.

Usually bustling streets are near empty at noon and thousands have gone to hospitals for relief.

Second, there's this from Russia, burning, once again this year:

Russia Experiences Great Burning

I don’t know what’s more troubling — the vast size and extent of smoke and wildfires blanketing Siberia and Russia, or the almost complete silence from Russia and the mainstream media on what appears to be a massive, ongoing climate disaster (Note: NASA did provide an excellent press release via the Earth Observatory link here and below).

In 2010, Russia experienced a deadly heatwave that set off terrible wildfires that belched smoke over many of its more populous cities. These fires spread over a region closer to Europe and so they had great impacts on both property and lives. In 2012, Russia experienced a second spate of massive fires, but these raged over more remote sections of Siberia. At first, Russia was slow to respond. Then, it mobilized an army of firefighters — thousands and thousands — to fight scores of blazes raging across its large, remote Arctic regions. The smoke cloud from these fires was so large it eventually covered a section of the Northern Hemisphere from Siberia to the west coast of North America. Valleys in British Columbia filled with the stench of burning from fires thousands of miles away spurring phone calls from concerned Canadian locals to fire departments there.

Then comes 2013. From spring to summer, central Siberia sweltered under a near constant drought and intermittent heatwaves as a very high amplitude ridge in the Jet Stream enabled a powerful heat dome to form during June and then re-form during late July and early August. The late July heat surge appeared to be the final insult setting off an enormous rash of fires throughout central Siberia and Russia. By early August the number of fires raging out of control swelled to 170. Today, the number is probably closer to three hundred. Human-caused climate change is, yet again, scarring Russia with a terrible set of burn marks.

(That link on this article, above, has a few different, great photos on it, showing the vast areas of smoke over Russia.  I mean the planet.)

Then there's this from our own Western mountain states:

Climate Change Could Spell Final 'Chuckle' For Alpine Frog

The most important part of that article is this:

Across the Western U.S., yearly areas of snowpack are decreasing, and researchers are trying to figure out what that means for everything that relies on the snowmelt...

The Pacific Northwest has lost about 50 percent of its snowpack over the last 50 years.

When you put these three on top of the fact that the glaciers and ice caps are melting and that, last Summer, the US burned from the Southern, Mexican border all the way to the Northern, Canadian one, in all those states--and all the other indicators--I can't imagine how anyone could still deny this.

Well, unless you're an oil or coal company or some such.

Or they watch Fox "News."

Entertainment overnight

Another flashback:

Quote of the day

"A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."  

--William James

Link:  William James - Wikipedia

Great question: on the modern day Republican Party (guest post)

I ask you:

What Exactly Do Republicans Stand For?

Trying to figure out exactly what the Republican Party stands for has been something I’ve pondered for quite a while.

If you listen to their rhetoric, the answer is easy.  However, looking at reality, it completely contradicts nearly everything they say they support.

They don’t stand for freedom, as they continue to support legislation that denies basic freedoms for homosexuals, women and people who follow religions other than Christianity.

They don’t stand for small government, as they’ve recently supported constitutional amendments that define marriage and redefine what constitutes being an American citizen.  Not to mention they were the party which orchestrated one of the most intrusive piece of legislation our nation has ever seen—the Patriot Act.

They don’t stand for a fiscally conservative government, especially considering there has yet to be a single Republican president since Eisenhower, who served from 1953-1961, who has balanced the budget.  In fact, every Republican president since Eisenhower didn’t just increase our deficits— they set records for growth in our national debt.

They don’t stand for Christian values, because Jesus Christ stood for love, hope, compassion, acceptance, helping those less fortunate than ourselves, not judging others and forgiveness—traits which the Republican Party seems to strongly oppose.

They don’t support...our military, as Republican Presidents have frequently sent our military into pointless wars where hundreds of thousands have been killed, or severely wounded to the point where they will suffer from these disabilities for the rest of their lives.

They don’t stand for constitutional values, as they frequently support violating those constitutionally-upheld laws which they disagree with.

It’s really easy to come up with a nice slogan, some rhetoric or a tagline that sounds good—hell anyone can do it. But I was always taught that actions speak louder than words.

In one breath conservatives say they’re for a fiscally conservative small government which protects our freedoms, yet their actions completely contradict that.

So looking at those actions, I really don’t have a clue what it is these people believe in.

_________________________________________________________

Except the wealthy. Supporting the wealthy and corporations.  They certainly have that down pat.

Celebrating all Americans

And why, again, we need a Black History Month:

Bessie Coleman was an American civil aviator, the first female pilot of African American descent, and the first person of African American descent to have an international pilot license. She was born in 1892 in Texas, the tenth of thirteen children, and in school showed herself to be a lover of reading and mathematics. She enrolled in what is now Langston College in Oklahoma but was forced to return home due to lack of funds.

At 23, she moved to Chicago, where she heard stories from returning World War I pilots about flying during the war. Due to her race and gender, however, despite her interest in aviation, no American flight school or aviator would train her. Determined to become an aviator, Bessie went to France in 1920 and, a year later, earned her aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, becoming the first American of any gender to receive a license from that organization. She trained as a “barnstorming" stunt flier in order to make a living.

Known as “Queen Bess," she was well-known for her daredevil maneuvers, though her flamboyant style was often criticized by the press. Though offered a role in a film, when she learned that her first scene would show her in tattered clothes with a walking stick and pack, she walked off set rather than perpetuate the derogatory image of African Americans. In 1926, in preparation for an air show, her plane failed to pull out of a dive and began to spin, causing Bessie to be thrown from the plane, 2,000 ft. above the ground, killing her instantly. She was 34 years old. 

Very cool thing coming out of Cape Girardeau this weekend

An electric car convention? In Cape Girardeau, Missouri?

Believe it:

Convention on electric cars set in Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — A convention designed to help people convert cars to run on electricity is scheduled this week in Cape Girardeau.

About 150 people are expected to attend the Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention, which runs Tuesday through Sunday. Organizers say educational sessions and hands-on work will be held at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. The Southeast Missourian reports (http://bit.ly/1en6Kwc ) nearly 45 electric vehicles will be on display for the public.

Co-organizer Jack Rickard says the convention is drawing people from across the country, as well as countries such as Canada and Australia. He says many attendees are coordinating electric car projects with people on other continents, and the convention gives them a chance to meet.

It gets even more unpredictable, too:

The convention also will offer electric-vehicle drag races and autocross Friday afternoon.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/05/4390759/convention-on-electric-cars-set.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/05/4390759/convention-on-electric-cars-set.html#storylink=cpy

Entertainment overnight

A magnificent celebration of the human voice:

Dear White People

Could You Please Do Something About Your Scarier White People?

Link:  Dear White People: Could You Please Do Something 

On Edward Snowden

Let me get this straight.

You want to fight against your nation's secretive ways that you insist are against the nation and your fellow countrymen and the people of your nation and to do it, you go to Russia?


Seriously?

Three quarters of one trillion dollars, at least, for weapons and killing and attacking other nations--far beyond what any other nation spends, in fact, far beyond what virtually all other nations spend--but we don't take care of the people.

How does anyone think this is sustainable for the nation?