Saturday, July 09, 2016

Saturday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

“Secular Talk” tells us of Bernie Sanders’s recent Op-Ed in the New York Times (NSFW…don’t quite despair in HRC as Kyle does…don’t know how you can consider HRC to be the same as Trump when it comes to the corporate nonsense, though I admit that he makes good points…”ya’ gotta go left” – damn correct on that)…



…and with that in mind, I give you the following recent great words from Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the TPP…



…and oh yeah – anybody out there beside me remember Zika? Fortunately, Harry Reid did here



…and I hope you’re in the mood for some great live (more or less) music, because here it comes (not sure what's up with the letterbox formatting in Chrome and IE on the laptop, but it sounds fine and all is OK on the smartphone, so there you are).

Friday, July 08, 2016

Friday Stuff

It’s getting to the point where the shootings are going on in this country faster than I can comment on them, though I’ll admit that I don’t have anything particularly brilliant to say on any of them.

I’m sure Dem Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton is right to say that race played a role in the shooting death of Philando Castile, a resident of that state, particularly when, as noted here, Castile had a license to carry and notified the police officer about it, but was shot anyway when apparently reaching for identification to present to the officer (noted here – and yes, the sound of crickets from the NRA over this speaks volumes about that organization as far as I’m concerned). However, I’m not sure that Dayton should have been so quick to point that out before all of the facts were in.

(And yes, this video is graphic, particularly up to about 1:48 – NSFW of course)...



Update 8/11/17: ZOMG, the NRA FINALLY has something to say on this from their shrieking harpie Dana Loesch here (and of course, they're wrong, since they can never be right on this anyway).

And as for Alton Sterling, it apparently remains an open question whether or not he struggled with police after he was told to lie on the ground before the police shot him, though, to me, it’s telling that the cops removed the surveillance video of the encounter even though they had no warrant and the owner of the store where the shooting occurred, Abdullah Muflahi, did not consent to them removing it (here)...



Of course, none of this is justification for the shooting of the Dallas police officers at the protests over the Castile and Sterling shootings (here)...



And with all of this in mind, maybe it isn’t too bad of an idea to think about this (clip ends kind of suddenly)…



I’m sorry I don’t have anything better to say about any of this. I just wish we were better in this country at building bridges instead of walls (yeah, I know – corny, dopey liberal sentiment, but it’s all I got). And oh yeah, as far as I’m concerned, the NRA has blood on its hands for this, among other gun-related atrocities in this country too numerous to mention.

Maybe this isn’t too bad of a time for those so inclined to pray for tolerance and understanding on all sides (and by the way, I’m not trying to imply any equivalency here, since we overwhelmingly have an issue with African Americans shot by police as opposed to whites). And yes, I know this is coming from someone fortunate enough to be white and living in an area where the cops leave us alone and, when they do interact with us, they treat us with respect and we try our best to reciprocate.

But trying to talk to one another is preferable to trying to shoot each other. Right?

Thursday, July 07, 2016

Thursday Stuff

Even for Archbishop Chucky, this is utterly ridiculous (you can consider the following video as a response - meanwhile, the spaces in those pews on Sunday will only get bigger)...



…oh, and let’s not forget that Pat “No Corporate Tax” Toomey is still defending the Senate seat that he paid for won in 2010 – to help him fail at that task, click here



…and this is almost too appalling for mere words from yours truly (NSFW)…



…and I give you today’s regional weather forecast.

Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Wednesday Stuff

It looks like “Bush’s poodle” will skate on Dubya’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq after all, at least for now (more here, here and here)…



...and while the apology stuff from Pope Frank is nice, it would be even better to see it followed up with substantive policy changes in Church doctrine...



…and Thom Hartmann tells us that Sen. Elizabeth Warren has kept up the proverbial drum beat, as it were, against Comcast and other corporate miscreants ("If you want less government regulation, reduce the need for it" indeed)…



…and I’m glad to see this guy finally enjoying the fruits of newfound stardom after a lot of long, hard years.

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Tuesday Stuff

(Hello, test, test – is this thing still on?...)

OK, I’m going to try and rev this up again, though I may end up doing so in fits and starts – to begin, It looks like, while I was off, the Supremes struck down Texas’s ridiculous anti-abortion law, which can only be positive and hopefully will be replicated across other states (explained by David Pakman)…



…and I could do without the Holy Spirit crack, but otherwise, kudos to Bill Maher for this “laboratories of democracy” segment of “New Rules”…



…and speaking of California, Joy Reid tells us that they, and their Dem governor, remain progressive on guns…



…and while I was out, former Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore left us – RIP (and on a related note, I’m currently reading this great book).