Have I told you how much I hate these people? - Mike Malloy. It is every thinking person’s responsibility not to side with his or her executioners. - Albert Camus. Popular democracy anywhere threatens fascism everywhere. - The Scallion. A fascist junta of neocons using George W. Bush as its shill has taken over America by bloodless coup. What will it take for us to stage a revolution and take our country back? - Dot Calm. Drive a hybrid. Leave a lighter footprint on the planet. - Dot Calm.
Like Granny D, I have watched my own beloved country change, and I am angry beyond words about what I see. I grew up seeing America as the equivalent of the movie good guy, the hero in the white hat who came to the rescue of those in need around the world. I have watched in silent horror as the corporations, the captains and the kings of industry, used a comparatively small outlay of cash to buy the Republicans to use as their shills. George W. Bush is the puppet cowboy-king of shills, the proverbial emperor with no clothes. Every day, I watch these evil men legalize, legitimize, and institutionalize robbing the poor to pay the rich. They are carving up America like a giant carcass and doling out choice chunks of its meat to themselves and their cronies. Since the Democrats have been sipping at the same corporate teat where the Republicans have been gorging for the past generation, the fascists are free to do their worst; there is no longer any opposition. There is no one left to stand up for the rights of the American people, the Constitution, or the democracy, which I fear will be replaced by a fascist dictatorship in my lifetime. Wake up, America: we need a REVOLUTION NOW!
I've put in so much overtime at work these past two weeks that I am going cross-eyed. I've worked until after midnight Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, which was a 14-hour day; I worked 11 hours today after spending the morning continuing to put out my parent's ransomware fire. This was the first time since Saturday that I got more than just lunch--yep, today I actually had lunch AND dinner! Luxury! Sadly, for me, the luxury was time...for too many Americans, the luxury is having the money to afford food. I am also extremely grateful to have my parent living with me--we help each other. So I am counting my blessings.
As for work, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and am hoping it-snot the usual oncoming train...I think I'll be out of the woods if I put in one more herculean-ly long day tomorrow. That gives me Friday as a buffer--to mop up all the whiskey-tango comments about my work on the project so far.
Today's ransomware update is that we are still not sure whether our mail has been diverted. Since I called the local post office, we have been seeing mail trickle in. That tells me that it has not been diverted. If a few key pieces of mail show up here on time, as expected, then I'll conclude that we in fact dodged that bullet.
In our uncertainty, we have told our banks to freeze our accounts and set up new ones for us. My bank was able to do most of this by phone--they know me--until I can stop by and sign the paperwork. So I am limping along and am able to pay my bills as I usually do--although I had to pay them "twice" because the bank very cleverly stopped payment on the first set (better safe than sorry). My parent, on the other hand...! My parent moved into my house in December, so we are still establishing all those business relationships. That meant a personal trip to the bank, which took over an hour, and then to Social Security to set up the new direct deposit, which took...maybe half an hour between a 15-minute wait and very prompt completion of the task by a very pleasant and capable Latina--that trip could not have been more painless. So I was back in my home office (if you want to call it that...i.e., sitting on the bed surrounded by laptops and binders from work) by about noon.
So, maybe I've succeeded in squashing most of the rampant ants...?
I dare not hope just yet!
For one thing, I have only had time and mental bandwidth to do my job and to handle the fall-out to my parent's financial affairs. Mine aren't in nearly such good shape. I also still have to call in my favorite computer technician to ensure that my parent's computer is completely untainted by the scammers.
But the good news for you (if you want to call it that) is that I'M HERE...even if it's just long enough to say "hey" to y'all and give you the headlines.
So here I am.
For Friday's post (assuming I don't keel over from exhaustion), I am planning to blog about the wealthy (Republican) elite's deliberate dumbing down of the American public, designed to keep us too ignorant and stupid to stage uprisings like we did in the 1960s (I wonder how Occupy is working out for those dorks). That there is some seriously scary shit.
For now, let me slog on with the blog...I'm not even going to proofread it. As Dot Calm used to sign her e-mails:
Disclaimer: Not responsible for keys getting in the way when headed to the right ones. Not responsible for misspellings. Too lazy to look up the right spelling. Not responsible for initial caps. You know where they belong...put them in. Not responsible for punctuation or grammar; consider poetic license being in effect.
Drive a HYBRID. Leave a lighter footprint on the planet.
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Thanks for reading, thanks for being you, and go pour yourself a Fireball whiskey! I know I will as soon as I click "Publish." - Dot Calm's shadow
********************************************
ATTENTION, REPUBLICANS!
The Kenyan Muslim
liberal fascist
weak dictator Obama is coming for your guns 'n' Bibles November 8, 2016. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE THAT DAY FOR ANY REASON! The rights you save may be your own!
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From the Mailbag
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law violates the Civil Rights Act.
From
the moment this law passed, Ralph sounded off against North Carolina’s
attempts to discriminate against the LGBT community. He knows that
divisiveness never leads to progress.
That’s why as a strong Democratic leader, he’s calling on North
Carolina’s governor to do the right thing and protect civil rights for
everyone.
That is just one of the many challenges Kasich should be addressing
now that he has pulled the plug on his quixotic campaign -- let's help
him reset his priorities.
In today's clips, stakeholders express
their support for a New Jersey bill that would allow pharmacists to
dispense oral contraception to a woman without a doctor's prescription.
Elsewhere, an abortion-rights advocate talks
about the potential repercussions of an abortion ban under
consideration in Oklahoma and Advancing New Standards in Reproductive
Health explores abortion access around the globe. More »
A Washington, D.C.-based OB-GYN on Monday filed a civil rights complaint
alleging that the hospital at which she works violated federal law by
barring her from drawing attention to the importance of abortion as a
health care service, the New York Times reports. More »
Conversations about abortion rights and economic security "are mostly
happening separately, overlooking the ways in which access to
reproductive healthcare is inextricably tied up in a woman's ability to
support herself and her family financially," columnist Zoë Carpenter
writes for The Nation. More »
Conservative House lawmakers last week blocked an effort to eliminate a
ban on military health care facilities offering abortion care to service
members on site, Rewire reports. More »
Several physicians are voicing concerns about a Utah law (SB 234) that
requires anesthesia or painkillers be administered to a woman who seeks
abortion care at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the New York Times reports. More »
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) on Tuesday signed into law a state
budget bill (HB 1405) that includes $2.5 million in funding for an
initiative that offers long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) to
women who are lower-income or uninsured, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. More »
Planned Parenthood on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging Kansas' decision to cut the organization from the state's Medicaid program, Reuters reports. More »
The California Medical Association (CMA) last week filed a motion in
state court seeking to join a lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) has filed against Dignity Health for refusing to provide a
tubal ligation for a woman following her C-section, Modern Healthcare
reports. More »
Please note: If you forward or distribute, the links will open a page with your information filled in.
Hi -
Alabama politicians are at it again in their relentless attack on
women’s access to abortion. They just passed two bills that would block
access to abortion.
I operate the only abortion clinic in Huntsville. I talked with my
mother, father, and sister back in 2001 when I was considering opening a
clinic. I prayed. I knew that women desperately needed safe options and access to providers.
That’s why I went out on a limb when my state passed a law imposing
medically unnecessary requirements on my clinic that had nothing to do
with patient safety and required me to close my clinic or move – so I cashed in my retirement savings and bought a new building. But that hasn’t been enough.
I know what happens when clinics close. Last year
when another Alabama clinic temporarily closed, we received
gut-wrenching calls from an alarming number of women asking: how can I
take matters into my own hands?
No matter how you feel about the decision to have an abortion, it is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. As a father and a brother, I do this work because I know that without access, that constitutional right means nothing.
It’s crystal clear that the politicians behind these bills have one goal: to close clinics and make a woman’s right to abortion so inaccessible that it is nonexistent. These bills would only harm women by eliminating abortion access – closing clinics and banning abortion procedures puts women at risk.
SB 205, which would force clinics within 2,000 feet of a school to
close, would shutter my clinic and the only clinic in Tuscaloosa. This
would devastate abortion access in Alabama by closing two clinics that
provide well over half the abortion services in the state.
SB 363 would ban a medically proven abortion procedure. Medical
experts like the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
oppose bills like SB 363 because they interfere with patient care – but
these politicians insist they know better.
Warning:
this may make your blood boil. Carlos Beruff, my Republican Senate
opponent, just thanked Patrick Murphy, my “Democratic” Senate opponent,
for standing with the GOP, in this tweet:
“Thank you @PatrickMurphyFL for standing with the GOP on Benghazi.”
So
it has come to this: The Republicans are explicitly thanking a
so-called “Democrat” for aiding their taxpayer-funded witch-hunt called
the Benghazi Committee.
Two
years ago last Sunday, the Benghazi Committee came into being. There
are only three Democrats in the House today who voted for it. One of
them is my primary opponent, Patrick Murphy.
Of
course, Patrick isn’t really a Democrat. He’s a lifelong Republican,
masquerading as a Democrat. So he didn’t hesitate to join the GOP in
their Benghazi Committee charade. And he has never apologized for it,
either.
In
fact, Trey Gowdy, the odious Chairman of the Benghazi Committee, talked
to Patrick Murphy about the Benghazi Committee a few months ago. But
neither one of them will tell anyone what Gowdy sent to Murphy.
Give
GOP Senate candidate Carlos Beruff extra credit for honesty: he’s
willing to thank Patrick Murphy for “standing with the GOP” – just where
Patrick wants to be.
Howard
Dean said it best: “Give the voters a choice between a real Republican
and a fake Republican, and they’ll choose the real one every time.”
Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. We cannot allow him to become the President of the United States.
We must commit to doing all we can do to elect a Democratic president in
November—which means making phone calls, knocking on doors, registering
voters, contacting friends and more to help drive a huge voter turnout.
Trump's toxic mix of racism, sexism and vulgarity is dangerous—even right-wing pundits are
renouncing the GOP, declaring that Trump would be a disaster for the country and the world.
Simply put, Trump is tearing the Republican Party apart. He could sink
the entire Republican ticket this fall, putting on the table Senate
seats, governors offices, and state legislatures that otherwise wouldn't
be competitive—maybe even putting the GOP's extremely-gerrymandered
House majority in jeopardy.
We can win this fall—and win big. But only if we start mobilizing our base of supporters right now.
Everything is at stake, from state houses all the way to the White House – and with Donald Trump
as the presumptive Republican nominee, those stakes couldn’t be higher.
But at a time when a handful of votes could change the course of our
country, millions of Americans are barred from the ballot box – and not
by accident.
Right now, Republicans are pushing
extreme, deliberate voter suppression laws through legislatures and
courthouses across the country. Their goal? Silence votes they don’t
like by slashing early voting and requiring unnecessary identification.
DFLers know that protecting
every American’s right to vote is not optional – it’s essential. We need
to act now to defend voting rights ahead of the critical 2016 election:
Republicans count on low turnout so
much that they’re manufacturing it. They know that when Democrats show
up, we win big – and 2016 will be no different.
Free and fair elections are not a
suggestion, no matter how much Republicans act like they are. DFLers
need to live our values and speak up before it’s too late. Victory in
November depends on it.
Hardy
is leading the fight with his ‘good friend’ Cliven Bundy to sell our
public lands to the highest bidder for development. In return, oil and
gas lobbyists are cutting big checks so he can keep his seat in Congress
and vote to sell our national parks and public lands.
Petition to CNN: "Stop the climate negligence. Inform viewers with comprehensive
coverage on the urgent issue of climate change, and stop airing ads from
organizations that deny science and obstruct climate action."
Polls
have opened in West Virginia, where Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and
Hillary Clinton are vying for the 29 delegates up for grabs. Eight years
ago, Clinton won West ... Read More →
Polls
show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are on pace to be the least
popular major-party presidential nominees in decades. Will some voters
look to cast votes with third- ... Read More →
Brazil's
Senate has forged ahead with impeachment proceedings against President
Dilma Rousseff, despite an earlier move by the interim house speaker to
derail the ... Read More →
We
speak with consumer advocate and former third-party presidential
candidate Ralph Nader about presumptive Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump's rhetoric ... Read More →
President
Obama will become the first serving U.S. president to visit Hiroshima,
Japan, later this month. The White House said Obama will not apologize
for dropping an ... Read More →
Donald
Trump's campaign is facing criticism after it named a prominent white
supremacist leader to its list of delegates in California. William
Johnson is the head of the American ... Read More →
A shocking new exposé in The New Yorker
magazine documents how prison guards at the Dade Correctional
Institution in Florida have subjected mentally ill prisoners to ... Read More →
Following
Trump's Indiana primary victory, Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed him
on Twitter, and the GOP nominee has since dismissed her as a joke. READ MORE»
These
Black farmers don’t stop at healthy food. They’re healing trauma,
instilling collective values, and changing the way their communities
think about the land. READ MORE»
It
is impossible to understand the perseverance and passion of right-wing
populist politics in America without coming to grips with this
metaphor. READ MORE»
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