1/ Paul Krugman with a powerful and frightening column - one of our major political parties has become sadistic in it's attitude to the poor. As you may remember I saw this first hand, at the Senator Alan Hays town hall where he and the audience of mostly Tea Party zealots has the same contempt, the same hatred of anyone unluckier than them.....
Krugman's piece, one of his best, rings true.......
Something terrible has happened to the soul of the Republican Party. We’ve gone beyond bad economic doctrine. We’ve even gone beyond selfishness and special interests. At this point we’re talking about a state of mind that takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering on the already miserable.
The occasion for these observations is, as you may have guessed, the monstrous farm billthe House passed last week.
For decades, farm bills have had two major pieces. One piece offers subsidies to farmers; the other offers nutritional aid to Americans in distress, mainly in the form of food stamps (these days officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP).
Long ago, when subsidies helped many poor farmers, you could defend the whole package as a form of support for those in need. Over the years, however, the two pieces diverged. Farm subsidies became a fraud-ridden program that mainly benefits corporations and wealthy individuals. Meanwhile food stamps became a crucial part of the social safety net.
So House Republicans voted to maintain farm subsidies — at a higher level than either the Senate or the White House proposed — while completely eliminating food stamps from the bill.
To fully appreciate what just went down, listen to the rhetoric conservatives often use to justify eliminating safety-net programs. It goes something like this: “You’re personally free to help the poor. But the government has no right to take people’s money” — frequently, at this point, they add the words “at the point of a gun” — “and force them to give it to the poor.”
It is, however, apparently perfectly O.K. to take people’s money at the point of a gun and force them to give it to agribusinesses and the wealthy.
Now, some enemies of food stamps don’t quote libertarian philosophy; they quote the Bible instead. Representative Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, for example, cited the New Testament: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” Sure enough, it turns out that Mr. Fincher has personally received millions in farm subsidies.
Given this awesome double standard — I don’t think the word “hypocrisy” does it justice — it seems almost anti-climactic to talk about facts and figures. But I guess we must.
2/ Wow - reality shows on PBS? Check out these ads for some new series coming up.......three 30 second spots......
OK - raise your hand if you have ever watched a reality show to do with Pawn Shops, Storage Units, Hoarding or Hunting Ducks......naughty naughty......
3/ So Zimmerman got off......hmmmm.....all white jury, trial in Central Florida, white guy shoots a black kid, claims self-defence......
Was there really any doubt in Rick Scott's Florida? Look at THIS travesty......
Marissa Alexander Gets 20 Years For Firing Warning Shot (VIDEO)
FOLLOW:
Marissa Alexander
TAMPA, Fla. -- Marissa Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening her. Nobody got hurt, but this month a northeast Florida judge was bound by state law to sentence her to 20 years in prison.
Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of a toddler and 11-year-old twins, knew it was coming. She had claimed self-defense, tried to invoke Florida's "stand your ground" law and rejected plea deals that could have gotten her a much shorter sentence. A jury found her guilty as charged: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Because she fired a gun while committing a felony, Florida's mandatory-minimum gun law dictated the 20-year sentence.
Her case in Jacksonville has drawn a fresh round of criticism aimed at mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. The local NAACP chapter and the district's African-American congresswoman say blacks more often are incarcerated for long periods because of overzealous prosecutors and judges bound by the wrong-headed statute. Alexander is black.
It also has added fuel to the controversy over Florida's "stand your ground" law, which the judge would not allow Alexander to invoke. State Attorney Angela Corey, who also is overseeing the prosecution of shooter George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case, stands by the handling of Alexander's case. Corey says she believes Alexander aimed the gun at the man and his two sons, and the bullet she fired could have ricocheted and hit any of them.
At the May 11 sentencing, Alexander's relatives begged Circuit Judge James Daniel for leniency but he said the decision was "out of my hands."
"The Legislature has not given me the discretion.....
4/ There are two justice systems........and a cartoon says it all....from the Times......
5/ I watched this six minute clip from the Daily Show's John Oliver on his reaction to the Zimmerman verdict, and laughed at the many clever jokes because he is very funny.....but when it was over, Mary and I looked at each other and just shrugged.....
Florida is becoming the laughing stock of the nation, as Oliver says "The Worst State" with the stupidest politicians.....
We live here, and so do you, so what are you going to do to make a change folks?
6/ I have had some feedback saying that I am too pessimistic about the effects of climate change, and that we will fix the problem technically when it becomes serious.......
That's worth thinking about, but then comes a story like this, where Australia [which is probably the most vulnerable continent to climate change] has scrapped it's carbon tax system due to heavy advertising and lobbying by the energy industry. This is a major setback to environmentalists, and for informed people just another confirmation that we, the inhabitants of this planet, are screwed......
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia announced a plan Tuesday to replace a deeply unpopular tax on carbon emissions with a market-based trading system a full year ahead of schedule.
The decision to scrap the politically toxic tax, which narrowly passed into law with the support of the minority Greens Party, is the most significant policy change unveiled by Mr. Rudd since he regained the leadership of the nation from Julia Gillard in a party coup last month. The announcement comes as a raft of new polls show his Labor Party running neck and neck with the opposition for elections scheduled for Sept. 14.
“The government has decided to terminate the carbon tax, to help cost-of-living pressures for families and to reduce costs for small business,” Mr. Rudd said at a news conference.
Mr. Rudd, who signed onto the Kyoto Protocol as his first official act as leader in 2007 and once famously called combating climate change “the greatest moral challenge of our time,” framed Tuesday’s announcement in terms more economic than environmental. That prompted politicians with the Greens Party to express fears that his new plan would be financed at least partially through cuts to environmental and clean-energy programs.
Christine Milne, the leader of the Greens Party, was quick to criticize Mr. Rudd for what she said was a shortsighted decision to sacrifice the environment to score political points with the electorate. Her party’s support was key in allowing Labor to form a minority government after a poor showing by Ms. Gillard in elections held in 2010, and it could be crucial to Mr. Rudd’s chances in case of a similar outcome later this year.
“What he is now doing in order to make it cheaper for the big polluters to pollute, in order to try and make a political point, he’s actually slashing a billion dollars out of environmental protection in Australia,” she told reporters. “You don’t protect the environment by cutting environment programs.”
Under the current system, Australia’s worst polluters pay a high fixed price on their carbon emissions. Since it went into effect last year after squeaking through the lower house of Parliament by just two votes in late 2011, the tax has proved wildly unpopular with big business and voters, due in part to a relentlessly negative campaign by the opposition.
7/ The title of this compilation is "You only live once, make sure it's fun"........10 minutes of stunts, feats, impossible sports moves and just plain awesome stuff......
This is pretty good.......
8/ Insightful story on our dysfunctional Congress......how neither party can get anyone reasonable to run for office any more.......what can you achieve when you get elected? So we end up that the only ones willing to take the pain and idiocy of the political process are the crazies, and the crooked......
This isn't just Congress - it's all of the State positions too. Look at who we have elected locally....
OP-ED COLUMNIST
D.C.’s Pit of Despair
By FRANK BRUNI
Published: July 15, 2013 205 Comments
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There are countless oddities in the way Washington works, but few as mystifying as lawmakers’ definition of the word “friend.”
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As Senators Head for Exit, Few Step Up to Run for Seats(May 4, 2013)
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In other, saner walks of life, it means someone you yearn to see. In the Senate, it can also mean someone you yearn to see under the wheels of your sport utility vehicle, writhing in agony and wheezing surrender.
I assume this was the usage that Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, had in mind when he called Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, “my friend” during a closely watched speech on Monday. After all, everything else about Reid’s remarks and the furious days leading up to them reflected a state of play between the two parties, and the two men, that no conventional dictionary would ever describe as amicable.
Right now, “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” as the Senate has been called, looks a whole lot more like the set of “The Jerry Springer Show.” Is it any wonder that so many prominent pols are taking a pass on membership in the club? The one who most recently did so was Brian Schweitzer, the former governor of Montana, who announced his decision not to run for the Senate over the weekend.
“I kicked the tires,” Schweitzer, a Democrat, told The Associated Press, meaning he had mulled the idea. “I walked to the edge and looked over.” And saw what? A pit of bottomless despair? Ted Cruz ranting into the wee hours? Rand Paul filibustering like there’s no tomorrow?
Schweitzer had previously commented, “I am not goofy enough to be in the House, and I’m not senile enough to be in the Senate.” In years past, he might have been referring to the advanced age of many senators. In our grim present, he seemed to be saying that a person must be of bedraggled mind to court an assignment so acrimonious.
As potential newcomers say no, old-timers say goodbye, in numbers greater than before. Olympia Snowe, Ben Nelson, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Kent Conrad, among other senators, retired at the end of 2012. Carl Levin, Max Baucus, Tom Harkin, Tim Johnson, Mike Johanns and Saxby Chambliss have all announced that they won’t seek re-election in 2014. The reasons vary, but the take-away is clear. The Senate doesn’t exert the pull it once did.
It’s an arena of petty gamesmanship and pointless gridlock, which are engines of Reid’s understandable ire and reasons he’s pushing a reconsideration of filibuster rules this week. The current Republican minority has been an epically obstructionist one.
On top of which, the gerrymandering of House districts means that when the Senate indeed manages to get something accomplished, the legislation is frequently “torn apart, ignored completely or dead on arrival” on the other side of the Capitol, said Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 2010 and used words like “frustrating” and “disheartening” to describe his experience since. In the Senate these days, the blush fades quickly from the rose.
9/ Rerun, but I love this video.........
French DJ David Guetta is one of the worlds top musicians, and he has made this mysterious video about a she-wolf, called "Falling To Pieces".....visually spectacular, shot in Iceland and quite different.....
The video starts off with a shot of a naked woman, then it moves on to a wounded wolf running from a handful of human hunters. It is shown that the wolf is supernatural, as it is able to make the hunters "explode" on every breakdown of the song. The "explosions" depict the hunters and the landscape as composed by tiny polygons, as if everything were part of a computer simulated reality. At the end of the music video, the canine then transforms back into the naked woman at the end, indicating that she is a werewolf, referring to the song title. Meanwhile, the blood on the snow uncovers beats from the song. This is the second time that neither Guetta nor Sia make an appearance in the video.
10/ Wow - five charts on the "War On Pot", showing the waste of time and money, plus the racial agenda.......put more blacks in prison.......
July 10, 2013 12:55 PM ET
Thanks to the citizens of Colorado and Washington, the tide is turning in the War on Pot. But the true toll of marijuana prohibition has been little studied – and poorly understood. A blockbuster report from the ACLU lays out the scope, the costs and the targets of this war in stunning detail. Here are five unforgettable charts from "The War on Marijuana in Black and White":
1) Over the last two decades, marijuana possession arrests have soared by 193 percent to 784,021 in 2010. They now account for nearly half of all drug arrests in the country.
Percentage of All Drug Arrests That Were for Marijuana Posession
Courtesy ACLU
11/ The viral 37 second clip of the Fox affiliate in San Francisco listing the Asiana plane crew.......
On Friday, Bay Area Fox affiliate KTVU told viewers the purported names of the pilots on Asiana Flight 214.
The problem was that the names — "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Bang Ding Ow" — were obviously fake. The news anchor read the names off the teleprompter and didn't bat an eye, adding that the information had been confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Now the airline is suing the Fox Station for racism.....their spokesman Mi Soo Angli and their lawyers Wi Soo Yu are on the case.......
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Asiana announced Monday that it will sue a San Francisco TV station that it said damaged the airline's reputation by using bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on a plane that crashed earlier this month in San Francisco.
An anchor for KTVU-TV read the names on the air Friday and then apologized after a break. The report was accompanied by a graphic with the phony names listed alongside a photo of the burned-out plane that had crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three and injuring dozens.
Video of the report has spread widely across the Internet since it was broadcast.
12/ Kurt Eichenwald with a personal essay about his wife's bout with breast cancer, and the fact that the Republicans have denied millions of women the same luck as his wife had......
Quite moving, and a compelling story about the cruelty of Republican policies......
My Family, Our Cancer, and the Murderous Cruelty of Conservatives
© BO ZAUNDERS/CORBIS (TEXAS STATE CAPITAL).
My wife has breast cancer.
I write this, with her permission, while sitting in the hospital waiting room as she undergoes surgery. Afterward, there will be another surgery, radiation, and probably chemo, but what else might be in the offing is guesswork at this point. I’ll know more this afternoon, when the operation is over.
Theresa discovered the lump four weeks ago while we were watching television. Fortunately, as a doctor with excellent health insurance, she was able to take quick action. The next day, she had a mammogram and sonogram. Soon after, a radiologist biopsied the growth; we were notified that it was malignant in a call from her doctor seconds before a flight attendant told us to shut off our phones in preparation for takeoff. We quickly met with the surgeon and scheduled today’s operation. Before Theresa left the office, she had a blood test for genetic markers. The next day, an M.R.I.
The whirlwind of activity sometimes allowed us to sidestep our feelings; at the beginning, the diagnosis seemed more like a list of things to do rather than a potentially life-threatening condition. There was, of course, denial. When we informed our sons of what was happening, Theresa wasn’t able to use the words “breast cancer.” I did, and she later told me that, when I said the term, she felt like I was talking about someone else.
Of course, there was fear: she worried about the possibility of a mastectomy, I only worried that she would die. And finally, in that very short time frame of a few weeks, we reached some level of acceptance.
But there were other feelings that struck us hard: fury, dismay, contempt. Not at our situation, but at the realization that untold thousands of women would not be as lucky as Theresa. Instead, they will die because of conservatives’ endless efforts to block poor women from having access to mammograms, breast exams and treatment. Theresa detected her cancer early enough that we feel confident she will survive. But we’re both aware that, right now, there are other women who don’t know they have this vicious invader growing inside them and will not find out until it is too late. Their husbands and loved ones will not have the chance, as I do, to sit in the waiting room of the hospital, and instead will stand at the entryway of the funeral home.
Many Republicans, either out of self-delusion or deceit, deny they are causing any such thing. But there is no question that, in their obsession with zygotes, embryos, and non-viable fetuses as part of their supposed pro-life stance, they are effectively murdering real, walking, talking women—mothers and daughters, grandmothers and sisters, all sacrificed on an altar of Pecksniffian hypocrisy and contemptible disregard by people who have the insurance, connections, and available health care to feel certain their politics won’t kill their loved ones. Perhaps Theresa and I are re-directing our anger from the cancer, but so be it; our rage has focused on the financially comfortable, morally blind, and arrogantly self-righteous who tyrannically conspire to rob poor women of years of life they might otherwise have. It is for this reason that Theresa is willing to disclose her condition, in hopes that, in doing so, we will help
13/ Good TV #1
"Earthflight", a documentary series from the BBC is apparently a revelation, and examines the lives of birds........for technical reasons [French broadband] I haven't watched the whole of first episode below, but the beginning is amazing. They somehow strap cameras to the birds in flight......
Here is the the review from the Daily Telegraph [UK] , and I have included the link to the show below......
The BBC’s latest natural history series, Earthflight, has been the cause of considerable excitement, not least because it comes quickly on the heels of the stunning and controversial Frozen Planet.
Earthflight is a five-part voyage of discovery, narrated by actor David Tennant, that captures some of the world’s most extraordinary natural wonders through the eyes of birds. It is, to put it simply, breathtaking.
From 9,000 metres above the ground, viewers of the series are given a new perspective on five continents through the latest tricks of cinematography. 'Spy-cams' expose the personal habits of wildlife, while slow-motion filming techniques reveal every millimetre of detail about birds both in-flight and in their interaction with other creatures.
The opening episode, which focused on North America, was a lesson in intelligence, brotherhood and survival. The opening lines captured the mood: “It is a universal dream to fly like a bird, to soar on wings to the heavens.”
After that rousing opening, the Earthflight team followed the birds on an epic journey of migration, revealing their extraordinary skill in adapting to the various opportunities nature offers them - from brown pelicans, who keep a keen eye on dolphins following schools of anchovies, to cowbirds steering clear of bison locking horns, and bald eagles who let grizzly bears do the hard work in catching sock-eyed salmon before swooping down to steal them.
Footage of bear cubs torn between feasting and continuing to hunt, the carnage of upturned horseshoe crabs on Delaware Bay, and of dolphins, flushing pink with excitement on the marshlands of South California stayed with me long after I'd turned off my television.
Comic relief was provided by the Californian seagulls, who, having left the glittery sights of the San Francisco Bay, flailed manically around calcium carbonate seas hunting billions of brine flies that can turn whole beaches black. Watching one of the seagulls in his chase - as Tennant observed, “His technique is anything but sophisticated; he just opens his mouth and runs" - I couldn't help but chuckle.
The energetic musical score added the finishing touches. A subtle yet dramatic violin backing followed a bald eagle on a hunt. And when, towards the end of its journey, one young snow goose was weakened by the long flight and fell prey to a young eagle, a heavy drumbeat soundtracked the ensuing high-speed chase. Remarkably and against all odds, the snow goose fought back to survive, at one point even attempting to grab the eagle’s tail. Like all birds, Tennant's narration concluded, these youngsters will never stop learning.
Like Frozen Planet, the opening episode of Earthflight showed the BBC’s natural history unit doing what it does best: demonstrating how life on Earth can be a magical thing.
Here is Episode 1.....59 minutes.........open it and see if you like it........
14/ Good TV #2
"Newsroom" is starting it's second season, and as this review says it has more of a storyline, but with the same flashes of brilliance.......
Sundays on HBO......
"The Newsroom" caught a lot of flack during its first season. Critics called it sexist,unrealistic and found fault in every corner of Aaron Sorkin's fantasy of behind-the-scenes life at a TV cable news channel.
But the lights will be back on at Newsnight this Sunday, and before audiences or critics open fire on Sorkin's latest work, I'd like to take the time to point out what was actually great about Season 1.
It's funny.
In the pilot episode of "The Newsroom," Will McCavoy (Jeff Daniels) unleashed an insane tirade on an unassuming 20-year-old college student about America's faults, and it was great. And how about that time he ate a couple pot cookies on what turned out to be the day the U.S. Navy SEALs killed Bin Laden?
In the pilot episode of "The Newsroom," Will McCavoy (Jeff Daniels) unleashed an insane tirade on an unassuming 20-year-old college student about America's faults, and it was great. And how about that time he ate a couple pot cookies on what turned out to be the day the U.S. Navy SEALs killed Bin Laden?
Every time Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) and MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) interact, it's delightful, and Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) and Maggie (Allison Pill) have a bunch of awkward conversations full of physical comedy, like when Maggie almost gave Jim a concussion with a glass door. And I'm only citing a few incidents here!
The characters are lovable.
Say what you will about how quickly Sorkin launched us into a series of love triangles, but we can't help rooting for the characters and their love lives. Of course we want MacKenzie and Will to find a happy ending to their tragic love story, and Jim and Maggie are so naive, cute and unassuming.
Say what you will about how quickly Sorkin launched us into a series of love triangles, but we can't help rooting for the characters and their love lives. Of course we want MacKenzie and Will to find a happy ending to their tragic love story, and Jim and Maggie are so naive, cute and unassuming.
Then there's Sloan. She's got the looks and the brains, just not the social skills. Though she's stubborn to a fault, she's also strangely likable and has this unexpectedly adorable will-they-won't-they thing going on with Don (Thomas Sadoski).
And for all his not-so-nice moments, how touching was it when we learned Will's backstory during a tough love therapy session? His father was abusive, and he had to defend his entire family against him starting in fifth grade. And for God's sake, MacKenzie was cheating on him for four months while he was getting ready to propose. Move over Don Draper and Walter White -- Will McAvoy has all the ingredients for the next big antihero.
It's addictive.
"The Newsroom" is a lot things, but boring isn't one of them. It's fast-paced and jam-packed with news events and a whole lot of drama. For all you binge-watchers out there, I dare you to only watch one episode at a time.
"The Newsroom" is a lot things, but boring isn't one of them. It's fast-paced and jam-packed with news events and a whole lot of drama. For all you binge-watchers out there, I dare you to only watch one episode at a time.
Todays video - an encore, from "Newsroom" - "America Is Not The Greatest Country In The World"
Todays short joke
A three-year-old boy was examining his testicles
while taking a bath.
while taking a bath.
"Mom" he asked, "are these my brains?"
"Not yet," she replied.
Todays heavenly joke
Two friends chatting in heaven .....
SYLVIA: Hi! Wanda.
WANDA: Hi! Sylvia. How'd you die?
SYLVIA: I froze to death.
WANDA: How horrible!
SYLVIA: It wasn't so bad. After I quit shaking from the cold, I began to get warm & sleepy, and finally died a peaceful death. What about you?
WANDA: I died of a massive heart attack. I suspected that my husband was cheating, so I came home early to catch him in the act. But instead, I found him all by himself in the den watching TV.
SYLVIA: So, what happened?
WANDA: I was so sure there was another woman there somewhere that I started running all over the house looking.
I ran up into the attic and searched, and down into the basement. Then I went through every closet and checked under all the beds.
I kept this up until I had looked everywhere, and finally I became so exhausted that I just keeled over with a heart attack and died.
I ran up into the attic and searched, and down into the basement. Then I went through every closet and checked under all the beds.
I kept this up until I had looked everywhere, and finally I became so exhausted that I just keeled over with a heart attack and died.
SYLVIA: Too bad you didn't look in the freezer -- we'd both still be alive.
Todays Croc joke
Two crocodiles were sitting at the side of the swamp near the lake.
The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, 'I
can't understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We're the same
can't understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We're the same
age; we were the same size as kids. I just don't get it.'
'Well,' said the big Croc, 'what have you been eating?'
'Politicians, same as you,' replied the small Croc.
'Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?'
'Down the other side of the swamp near the parking lot by the Capitol.'
'Same here. Hmm. How do you catch them?'
'Well, I crawl up under one of their Lexus cars and
wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out,
'Well,' said the big Croc, 'what have you been eating?'
'Politicians, same as you,' replied the small Croc.
'Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?'
'Down the other side of the swamp near the parking lot by the Capitol.'
'Same here. Hmm. How do you catch them?'
'Well, I crawl up under one of their Lexus cars and
wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out,
grab them by the leg, shake the shit out of them and eat 'em!'
'Ah!' says the big Crocodile, 'I think I see your problem.
'Ah!' says the big Crocodile, 'I think I see your problem.
You're not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a Politician, there's
nothing left but an asshole and a briefcase.
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