Archive | February, 2023

United We Aren’t…

26 Feb

United We Stand, Divided We Fall?

We are a severely divided country for sure, maybe irreparably divided, but secession isn’t the answer as Mx MT Green, one our many extraordinary stupid members of Congress, has recently suggested.

Aside from the lessons we should have learned from the Civil War, for the most part, “Republican” states are among the poorest and least educated in America. They’d have a tough time surviving without the support they receive from the United States Government and the rest of us.

Even in those “red states” there are many, many “blue” people who don’t deserve to suffer more than they already do.

Most of the right-wing ideologies absolutely aren’t the answer. They are currently promoting tax reform that would favor the wealthy and hurt the middle and lower classes, they’re dumbing down education and removing rights that all Americans should enjoy. Many also appear to be racist, anti LBGT, pro-gun crazy, religious nationalists or fascists.

Our only option is to vote the stupid people out of office and to support progressives in any way we can. We have to challenge any and all roadblocks, gerrymandering, voter restrictions and intimidation they throw at us.

We can be as satirical and crude among ourselves as we want, we can legally protest, boycott and post all we want, but we have to communicate our concerns to government and judicial officials in a reasonable, coherent manner. We can’t be as crazy as the crazies, or we won’t be taken seriously.

What The Hell Is McCarthy Thinking…

21 Feb

Why it matters that Kevin McCarthy gave Jan. 6 tapes to Fox News

Kevin McCarthy gave 41,000 hours of sensitive Jan. 6 footage to a controversial television personality. What could possibly go wrong?

MSNBC recently reported…

“Just so we’re all clear about the nature of the process, the video tapes in question are official government materials. They don’t belong to one member, one party, or one cable channel; they belong to all of us. And yet, there’s the new House speaker, who apparently made a unilateral decision to give one controversial Fox News host exclusive access to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage.

To give such a media personality exclusive access, presumably to allow him to create a counter-narrative that will challenge the reality of the insurrectionist violence, is ridiculous.

Another part of the problem is the extraordinary timing: It was just days ago when a new court filing presented evidence of Fox News hosts, including Carlson, deliberately promoting bogus election claims they knew to be false in order to pander to their audience and make more money.

To give such a media personality exclusive access, presumably to allow him to create a counter-narrative that will challenge the reality of the insurrectionist violence, is ridiculous.

All of which leads to an obvious and inescapable conclusion: After the McCarthy/Carlson partnership leads to new on-air segments, many Americans won’t be able to trust the results.”

I Wish I Could Make Everything Right…

18 Feb

We Have To All Call For Change…
I have a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, two daughters-in-law, two sons, a grandson and two brothers. While we may disagree on some issues, I believe each of my family members and most of my friends would agree with the following:

With all the restrictions on, and discrimination against women today, I can only imagine how my female love ones feel about their current situation while living in America. It has to hurt and anger each of them. I’m sure my daughter and granddaughter are justifiably concerned about their life and future in the USA.

If I could change the direction of discriminatory right wing politics, I would. If I could erase the harm caused by laws that affect a woman’s right to body autonomy, I would. If I could show evangelicals and christian nationalists how Jesus loved, accepted, blessed and welcomed everyone, I would. If I could convince men that patriarchy and machismo we morally wrong, I would.

Unfortunately I can’t correct all the wrongs women are facing. All I can do is to enthusiastically support their cause and speak out against the oppression they face every opportunity I get, and ask likeminded others to do the same.

It May Come To This…

18 Feb

I’m not a fan of NiKKKi, I think she’s more or less a female Trump/DeSantis type and would be a disaster for the country, but, unfortunately secession may be the ultimate answer for such a divided nation. It’s not something that I support, it didn’t work for the Southern States in the 1860’s and I would be surprised if it worked today.

We’ve Got To Take The Hard Hits When They’re Deserved…

15 Feb

Scientists and government oversight watchdogs are expressing alarm over new language in the White House’s “scientific integrity” framework, which one group said amounts to a “gag rule” that would harm federal researchers’ ability to study issues including the climate emergency and public health threats.

“This restriction on discussing the implications of research has no place in a scientific integrity policy,” said Rich in a statement late last month. “Typically, it is only scientific research that has policy implications that is at risk of suppression or political manipulation.”

“Government scientists should not need to cast a profile in courage to openly discuss the implications of their research,” Ruch added.

We’ve Got To Stop Poisoning The Earth..,

15 Feb

This may be one of the largest ecological disasters in US history.

There were roughly 100,000 gallons or 1,000,000 pounds of Vinyl Chloride leaked, spilled and burned

Vinyl chloride is not only flammable, but it’s also a brain, lung, blood, and liver carcinogen. Authorities decided to burn hundreds of thousands of gallons of this chemical after a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

Who Are We…

11 Feb

In Christian denominations, God is often rendered with masculine pronouns in religious texts and prayers.

I don’t believe that “God created man in his own image” means the creator is an old bearded man with a human body and mind. The Bible is full of patriarchy and misogyny; it just a clear sign of those times and the writer’s limited capacity to comprehend the complexity of the earth and the greater universe as a whole.

Even with all the scientific advances “mankind” has made over time, we still have no idea of what we are and how we came into being. For a lot of people it just much easier to believe a supreme being, much like us, just kinda said, “make it so.”

Recently, The Church of England has said that God was neither male nor female and has asked a commission to explore how that is reflected in its services.

While the (Anglican) Episcopal Church, Church of England and Unitarian Universalist Church have made much progress in addressing a woman’s role in the church along with acceptance of homosexuality and varied sexuality identities, many individual churches remain deeply divided on the issue of who is acceptable in their eyes.

Of course, a great number of other religious denominations seem to hold to an extremely old fashioned view of those groups of people and actually discriminate against them.

I’m hopeful that we’re making progress, but I don’t believe (in the greater scheme) we’ll ever find the actual answers to, “Who Are We.” In the meantime, l’m encouraged that many religious leaders and politicians are finally willing to accept the fact that we are all simply human beings and equal.

What I do know is, “I yam what I yam and that’s all what I yam…
(As an old seafaring philosopher once said)

A Long Story, Short…

10 Feb

Seems like conservatives in the US are following suit…

Drug sellers in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif have confirmed to Rukhshana Media that their Taliban officials have ordered them not to sell any pills, ampoules, or medicines used as a contraceptive. They say it’s “haram” or forbidden under Sharia law.

Image

A Long Story, Short…

9 Feb

Republicans have used their marketing machine to brand themselves as the party of “freedom”, “liberty” and “individual rights.” This is objectively not true. Today’s Republican Party and “conservative” movement are fascists and authoritarians who in total hate real democracy and freedom. Their ultimate goal is to take away the civil and human rights and freedoms of those people they deem to be the enemy and therefore not “real Americans.” 

-salon.com

The Christian Rights’ Fox News Approach…

8 Feb
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., waits to deliver the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Little Rock, Ark. (Al Drago/Bloomberg, Pool)

The Christian Right’s Response…

I keep up with the Christian Right by reading the Christian Post online and I’m rarely surprised by their articles. Today’s posts were pretty typical of their approach to informing and indoctrinating their followers.

Today they covered the President’s State of The Union address and of course focused on the parts that dealt with abortion and the Respect for Marriage Act and the proposed Equality Act which would add gender identity and sexual orientation to federal civil rights protections. 

Nothing about any of the positive economic advances we’ve seen, our support of Ukraine, our infrastructure improvements, the outstanding jobs report or his threat to veto any bill that cut Social Security and Medicare… Nothing.

But, they followed up that pathetic summary with full coverage of Sarah Sanders’ horrible response propaganda by including the following:

“Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasted no time responding to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Sanders, 40, who was inaugurated last month as the youngest governor in the nation, claimed that Biden has “surrender[ed] his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.” 

Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, declared, “Whether Joe Biden believes this madness or is simply too weak to resist it, his administration has been completely hijacked by the radical Left. The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.” 

She also asserted that the Biden administration seems “more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day.” She further argued that the president “inherited the fastest economic recovery on record,” “the most secure border in history,” “cheap, abundant, home-grown energy,” “fast-rising wages” and “a rebuilt military,” but Democrats “destroyed it all” over the last two years.”

We’ll, what should I expect from this type of organization… They just can’t seem to get the concept of Coexistence.

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