Friday, May 06, 2016

Choices, choices

Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders!

Well, what a week I've survived! Between three deadlines from hell at work and my parent's ransomware incident, I'm amazed I'm still standing. But here I am.

I woke up this morning thinking, "What on earth am I going to blog about today for Dot Calm?" I thought about Wednesday's post, and my mind started wandering through the star banners. I decided to rework and reuse the "ted"-word star banner simply because I like it and want to see it again. And then my mind landed on the star banner about choices. Hm, I thought--there's definitely enough for a post introduction in that.

In case you weren't tuned in, the star banner I have in mind lists a few human traits that are not choices: sexual orientation, gender identity, height, handedness, intellect, and skin color. It concludes, "You know what IS a choice? IGNORANCE."

It really bothers me that the Christo-fascists think that the first two human traits are conscious decisions but the rest are not (not to mention how spectacularly unaware they are of their own ignorance).

Landover Baptist Church's forum pages burrow all the way down to the rawest absurdity of Christo-fascists' choice to believe that humans can consciously, deliberately choose to be homo- or heterosexual by illustrating quite clearly that, by the exact same reasoning, the other traits I list are indeed conscious, deliberate "choices," too. Here are some examples that straddle hilarious and frustrating because there really are people who think this way:

...How can a person be a Christian and a midget at the same time?
...STOP being left-handed!!!
...ASPERGER’S SYNDROME – Another word for ‘EVIL’ ??!
...Confessions of an Ex Negro

If you're brave enough to read beyond the original posts, you'll see additional supporting arguments from the forum's True Christians(TM). And you'll learn a lot about the Bible.

The reader's digest condensed version of the general argument is that all "deviations" from "perfection" are caused by sin--your own in the womb or your ancestors'--and you can be "freed" from the resulting infestation of (rectal) demons by giving your life over to Jesus, begging His forgiveness for being who you are, and asking Him to "heal" you and make you Biblically perfect. Yep, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, Jesus can make you a tall, white, right-handed, heterosexual, intelligent True Christian(TM) incapable of sin (by definition because even your worst atrocities are commanded by God).

And, yes, the Bible really does say all that. All the Landover True Christians(TM) do is point that out and connect the dots (la la la la la).

Now let's talk about the choice to be ignorant.

Ken Ham and his ilk choose ignorance over knowledge and truth when they teach and accept creationism. They ignore the reality under their noses in favor of twisting carefully cherry-picked "evidence" to conform to their pre-determined conclusion that the Bible is literally true morally, historically, and scientifically--a conclusion that is so not-even-wrong that it makes my blood boil to think that they are abusing children by forcing them to learn it. There's so much more to this that I could discuss...but I digress.

Ken Ham teaches the "were you there?" "theory" of history. It really makes me wonder: does the man watch crime dramas? Has he ever seen the old-school Hawaii Five-O (my favorite)? What does he think when he sees these shows--does he yell at the TV set? "Oh, no--forensics is not a science! The only way to solve a crime is to ask an eye witness. If there is no eye witness, then you can't prove that there was ever a crime!"

See how ridiculous that is?

If you don't, or if the absurdity strikes you so strongly that it tickles your funny bone enough that you want more, then check out DarkMatter2525's hilarious video, which I post here from time to time.

I wrote and posted a script for a satirical creationist crime show not too long ago on the related theme that, if Christianity were true, science were useless, and the Bible contained all knowledge, there would be no need for forensics because the Steve McGarrett character would instantly know whodunit as soon as he learned of the crime. (Do go read it...at least, I still think it's funny.)

What strikes me is that even the most loudmouthed creationists who claim to be devout Biblical literalists refuse to believe the whole Bible literally. Even Ken Ham refuses to believe that the earth is flat, as the Bible clearly says. Even Ken Ham doesn't teach the hard-as-a-"terrible crystal" firmament that the Bible clearly describes. Even Ken Ham "believes" in DNA, which is arguably the most un-Biblical chemical compound on the planet because it disproves Genesis (If DNA exists, then God did make Adam and Steve), Noah's flood (biodiversity, as this video on Noah and the cheetah demonstrates), and the story of Jacob breeding spotted, speckled, and striped goats by having solid goats look at striped scenery while mating (according to God, it's the scenery, not heritable parental traits, that determine the offspring's traits). Arguably, DNA also disproves the virgin birth because, without sperm, Jesus would have been haploid female if he existed (i.e., survived to birth) at all.

Whom do these people think they're fooling?
Do they really think they're fooling God?!

philhellenes makes a powerful case that the Ken Hams of the world really do understand enough of the science to know that it works. Unfortunately, though, Ken Ham's followers are not in on that little secret--and they are too ignorant to know and too brainwashed to care.

It really bothers me that these people choose ignorance and that they let that choice drive their votes, which drive this nation's policies. I never thought I'd live to see such a firestorm of Christo-fascist backlash against recent decades of progress in civil and human rights. These people demand to discriminate against others who are no less than they are for reasons that are obviously false. They demand to destroy the planet by actively bringing on apocalyptic wars and global warming.

Instead of learning how to be scientists themselves, solving the word's problems for a not-so-extravagant average salary of $80k a year, they let their choice to be ignorant harm other, innocent people.

Objective reality is a thing, folks, and all the evidence you need is right out there on teh Intert00bs if you'd just care enough to look it up for yourselves.

But you know what?

They won't look it up because they won't risk giving up the comfort they cherish of seeing all those they hate frying in hell for all eternity while they themselves stroll the streets of gold with Jesus.

How they could wish that on anyone--or worship a being that demands it--is beyond me.

It kills me that we are stuck with these people who want nothing but death and destruction while we have lost someone amazing and wonderful like Dot Calm, with all her intellect, compassion, and desire only to heal the world.

Grrr...

Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:

Daily Kos
AlterNet
Democracy Now!
Conservatives are Destroying our Future
Conservative Clown Car
Americans Against the Republican Party
Americans Against the Tea Party

...And, whatever you do,
VOTE BERNIE!!!!!

Please send him a buck o' five--California is coming!

Thanks for reading, thanks for being you, and have a great weekend!

- Dot Calm's shadow

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ATTENTION, REPUBLICANS!
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

Bernie Sanders for President


In the United States today, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, 47 million Americans are living in poverty.
Almost 22 percent of American children are poor and we have the highest child poverty rate of almost any major country on earth.
Let’s be clear. Living in poverty doesn’t just mean you don’t have enough money to buy a big screen TV, a fancy laptop, or the latest iPhone. It goes much deeper than that.
Living in poverty means you are less likely to have a good grocery store in your community selling healthy food. Far too often it means you don’t know where your next meal is going to come from. Living in poverty means you are less likely to have access to a doctor, dentist or mental health care provider. It means you have less access to public transportation, which makes it harder to find a job. It means you are less likely to have access to child care.
In the United States of America, poverty is often a death sentence.
Yesterday, I spoke about poverty in McDowell County, West Virginia — one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states in America. In 2014, over 35 percent of the residents in McDowell lived in poverty, including nearly half of the children. The roads are crumbling and only 6 percent of adults have a college education. Less than two-thirds have graduated high school. It has the lowest life expectancy for men in the entire nation. I hope you’ll watch part of my speech on poverty and share it with friends and family on social media.
Poverty is an issue we must address. In 2011, the American Journal of Public Health found that 130,000 people died in just one year alone as a result of poverty.
This is not an issue we can just sweep under the rug and hope it will go away. Because it won’t.
And when I talk about it being too late for establishment politics and economics, this is what I mean. When I talk about thinking big and outside the box, about rejecting incremental change, I am talking about the millions of Americans who live in poverty who have been tossed out, left behind, and abandoned by the rich and powerful. We need to create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.
Here’s what we need to do:
  1. Rebuild our country’s crumbling infrastructure. A $1 trillion investment in our infrastructure will create at least 13 million jobs all over America - jobs that cannot be outsourced.
  2. We must rewrite our disastrous trade policies that enable corporate America to shut down plans in places like West Virginia and move them to Mexico, China, and other low-wage countries.
  3. We can create 1 million jobs for disadvantaged youths through legislation I introduced with Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.
  4. We need to increase the wages of at least 53 million American workers by raising the minimum wage from a starvation wage of $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour.
  5. At a time when women workers earn 79 cents for every dollar a man earns, we need to sign the Paycheck Fairness Act into law. Equal pay for equal work.
  6. We need to make health care a right for every man, woman, and child through a Medicare for All single-payer system.
  7. We need to treat drug addiction like a mental health issue, not a criminal issue.
  8. We need to ensure every worker in this country has at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, two weeks of paid vacation, and one week of paid sick days.
  9. We need to impose a tax on Wall Street to make public colleges and universities tuition free while substantially reducing student debt.
  10. At a time when half of older workers have no retirement savings, we’re not going to cut Social Security, we’re going to expand it so people can retire with dignity and respect.
No president can do all of these things alone. We need millions of Americans to begin to stand up and fight back and demand a government that represents all of us. That is the political revolution.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders

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From Rep. Diane Russell--NO MORE Super-delegates!

Tomorrow, at my state's Democratic Convention, I will offer an amendment to finally do what should have been done years ago: End super delegates.

Will you stand with me in the fight to end super delegates by making a donation today?

Let's be clear: Whether you're for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, we should all agree that voters, not party insiders, should decide who wins.

But this year, in state after state, we've seen super delegates override the will of the voters so that the candidate who got the most votes ended up with fewer delegates.

In my state of Maine, Bernie crushed Hillary by a 2-to-1 margin. But because of super delegates, she could end up with nearly as many delegates as he gets.

As I've said before, this is NOT what democracy looks like.

Click here stand with me in the fight to end super delegates by making a donation today.

After winning Indiana, Bernie Sanders now trails Hillary Clinton by just 321 elected delegates with 1,159 delegates still up for grabs.

And yet super delegates are on the verge of shutting down the election before millions of Americans even get a chance to vote.

For the last several months, I've been networking with progressive activists and elected officials from around the country to craft state party convention resolutions demanding an end of super delegates.

And if we win at tomorrow's state convention, we will unite in at the national convention Philadelphia this summer to push to end the super delegate system once and for all.

Will you stand with me in the fight to end super delegates by making a donation?

Thank you,


Rep. Diane Russell
"2011 Most Valuable Legislator," The Nation magazine


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From David Cicilline for Congress

SIGN THE PETITION: Tell North Carolina’s Governor to reverse their anti-LGBT law >> >>

Last month, North Carolina passed a hateful, discriminatory law aimed at LGBT individuals.

But now, the Department of Justice has declared this violates civil rights laws, and have ordered North Carolina to repeal this harmful bill.

Will you join him in calling on North Carolina Governor, Pat McCrory, to reverse its anti-LGBT law >>

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From ColorOfChange--did you know that Black people's bail is set far higher than white people's bail? Did you know that Blacks and others too poor to pay get punished for their poverty by being left to rot in jail?

Know who just joined the fight to defend money bail? Dog the Bounty Hunter, and his wife, Beth Chapman.1 That's right Dog is the reality TV star who got caught calling his son's girlfriend a "nigger" and talking about how often his family uses the word.2

Making people pay to get out of jail before they've ever been convicted of a crime destroys lives and saps wealth from poor communities, but there's a new bill that would end the practice. But people like Beth and Dog Chapman; bail bondsmen and bounty hunters who make money from this unjust system are doing everything they can to maintain the status quo.

The Professional Bail Agents of the United States just elected Beth Chapman as their new president and hired a lobbyist for the first time in more than ten years. And Chapman is making some outrageous statements, calling bail reform 'criminal welfare' and saying that people don't make bail because 'their families are sick of them.'3

The bail industry has reality TV stars on its side, and lots of money to hire lobbyists. But it's revealing that they've chosen spokespeople who disrespect Black people when they think we're not listening. They know we can win this fight, and they're desperate.


You can read our original email about the effort to end money bail below.

Thanks,

Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Enchanta and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.

References

1. "'Dog the Bounty Hunter' Goes to Washington" Politico, 4.08.2016 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/6238?t=5&akid=5740.765771.xRaaHl

2. "Dog the Bounty Hunter His Five Minute Racist Rant Phone Call" Rummy Productions, 1.11.07 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/6239?t=7&akid=5740.765771.xRaaHl [Caution: Extreme use of racial slurs]

3. See reference 1.

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We have until May 10 to urge BLM to reject this project.
CREDO action
Protect Joshua Tree National Park from the Eagle Mountain hydropower plant
Comment to the Department of Interior:
The Eagle Mountain hydropower plant is a threat to Joshua Tree National Park. Don’t approve the infrastructure for this plant. The Eagle Mountain site should be given back to Joshua Tree National Park and protected, not allowed to threaten precious park ecosystems.
Take action now ►

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From CPD Action--boycott Verizon

Verizon workers taking on corporate greed have pledged to strike for as long as it takes. So far, it's been over three weeks.

From Massachusetts to Virginia, nearly 40,000 strikers are standing up against Verizon. The corporate goliath has refused to negotiate a fair and mutually beneficial agreement with workers and is eager to move jobs overseas and undo decades of collective bargaining progress.

CPD Action is standing with workers, but we need your help. Sign our pledge to boycott Verizon stores until they meet and settle a fair contract with workers!

Last August, Verizon workers began renegotiating a contract with the corporation that would protect their right to a union, push back on the outsourcing of jobs, and prevent the company from relocating workers away from home. The negotiations have lasted over ten months, with Verizon refusing to budge on some parts of the contract that would benefit and protect workers.

Nearly 40,000 employees finally went on a strike last month. Up and down the eastern seaboard, workers have left their posts to stand up for their colleagues, families, and friends. According to the Communication Workers of America, one of the unions representing workers, Verizon insists that layoff protections for employees hired after 2003 be removed from the contract. Verizon also wants to force technicians to work for up to two months away from home.

This fight is more than just about Verizon and the strikers. Across the country, corporations continue to grow at the expense of working families, and the rich continue to accumulate wealth without paying their fair share. Last year, Verizon pulled in over 13.5 billion dollars — CEO Lowell McAdams got to take home $18 million of it.

These injustices are happening everywhere. Workers aren’t demanding million dollar paychecks. Workers are on strike for fair salaries, collective bargaining, and to keep their jobs in their neighborhoods, close to their families.

Show your support for Verizon workers: sign the pledge and don’t shop at Verizon until the strike is over!

Today, CPD Action and our partners will join the Verizon strikers at events that will be taking place all over the country. You can help by attending an event, or refusing to go into a store until Verizon settles with workers.

Three weeks is too long to go without a paycheck, and Verizon needs to make a move now.

But for now, it’s your turn to make a move. Take the pledge to boycott Verizon.

In solidarity,

Brian Kettenring
Co-Executive Director

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From Change.org--these women's babies DIED at day care

Under ordinary circumstances, two mothers as different as we are would never have met. One of us is married from Oklahoma and is a registered Republican. The other is an unmarried liberal who lives in Brooklyn. But last year we both lost our babies, infant sons who died at daycare, and we are now coming together for a cause.
Neither of us wanted to leave our babies when we did, but neither of us had the luxury of choice. Our respective employers would not grant us any more time for parental leave, and we couldn’t afford to quit our jobs. The U.S. is one of only 2 nations in the world that does not guarantee paid parental leave, and our families relied on the money we earned at work. So we made the same hard choice that so many other parents in our country do.

Reluctantly, on an April morning in Oklahoma, baby Shepard was left at daycare. A childcare worker swaddled him for a nap, placed him in a car seat, and didn’t check on him. He slipped down and suffocated, still too little to lift up his own head. Just as reluctantly, in July, baby Karl was dropped off for his first day at daycare near his mother’s Manhattan office. When she came back to feed him at noon, Karl’s lips were blue and a childcare worker was performing CPR. A medical examiner could not determine why this healthy baby died.

The pain we have experienced is unimaginable, and we do not want any other parents in the United States to go through it. That is why we are calling on each candidate running for president to commit to addressing paid family leave in their first 100 days in office. Will you join us?

1 in 4 American moms have no choice but to return to work just two weeks after the birth of a child. 87% of parents have no access to paid leave through their employers. Most babies don’t die in daycare, of course, but America currently has the highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation in the world. No parent should have to choose between leaving their baby too soon and making ends meet.

An important study released last week found that for each additional month that a woman has paid parental leave, infant mortality goes down 13 percent. Every American baby would be safer, healthier, and have a better start in life if given time with their mother or father during the first months of life.

If our political leaders claim to be pro-family, they need to put families first by supporting paid family leave.

Given that 73% of Republicans, 87% of independents and 96% of Democrats agree it is important for Congress and the president to consider a family leave insurance system, we are jointly calling on the candidates for president, Republican and Democrat, to publicly commit that, if elected, they will take action for national paid family leave policy in their first 100 days in office.

Thank you,

Amber & Ali
PL+US

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From Change.org--oil pipeline could poison Sioux tribal water

Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline

Petition by Anna Lee Rain YellowHammer and the Standing Rock Youth
Fort Yates, North Dakota
10,074
Supporters
I’m 13 years-old and as an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I’ve lived my whole life by the Missouri River. It runs by my home in Fort Yates North Dakota and my great grandparents original home was along the Missouri River in Cannon Ball. The river is a crucial part of our lives here on the Standing Rock Reservation.
But now a private oil company wants to build a pipeline that would cross the Missouri River less than a mile away from the Standing Rock Reservation and if we don’t stop it, it will poison our river and threaten the health of my community when it leaks.
My friends and I have played in the river since we were little; my great grandparents raised chickens and horses along it. When the pipeline leaks, it will wipe out plants and animals, ruin our drinking water, and poison the center of community life for the Standing Rock Sioux.
In Dakota/Lakota we say “mni Wiconi.” Water is life. Native American people know that water is the first medicine not just for us, but for all human beings living on this earth.
The proposed Dakota Access Pipeline would transport 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day, across four states. Oil companies keep telling us that this is perfectly safe, but we’ve learned that that’s a lie: from 2012-2013 alone, there were 300 oil pipeline breaks in the state of North Dakota.
With such a high chance that this pipeline will leak, I can only guess that the oil industry keeps pushing for it because they don’t care about our health and safety. It’s like they think our lives are more expendable than others’.
So we, the Standing Rock Youth, are taking a stand to be the voice for our community, for our great grandparents, and for Mother Earth. Join us, and sign to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Learn more about our campaign at rezpectourwater.com.



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President Obama recently introduced a new rule that would protect families saving for retirement by requiring investment advisors to put their clients' interests first.

Middle-class families and seniors saving for retirement should be able to receive sound investment advice they can trust -- rather than being steered into expensive funds that only line brokers' pockets.


Without the Fiduciary rule, financial advisors can continue overcharging families saving for retirement by nearly $17 billion dollars per year -- that's unacceptable.

Last week, Tammy, along with Senator Elizabeth Warren, met with seniors in Chicago who saved for retirement but are struggling to get by. She’s committed to helping those seniors, and all working Americans, retire safely and with dignity. 

Meanwhile, Mark Kirk is siding with his Wall Street allies -- the same ones funding his super PAC -- at the expense of working families. 

Join Tammy: Tell Congress to put retirement savings ahead of Wall Street profits: 


Thanks for adding your voice, 

Matt
Matt McGrath
Deputy Campaign Manager


CONTRIBUTE

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CREDO action
Stop the Republican assault on healthy meals for kids
The petition to the U.S. House reads:
"Recent changes to child nutrition standards have been a huge success. They are providing vulnerable and low-income school children with healthy nutritious food and have reduced obesity and chronic disease. Reject the House version of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization that seeks to roll back this progress."
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►

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From David Franke, my favorite true conservative--Trumpism and the future of the GOP and...everything!

The Crisis in the Republican Party is even worse than it looks             http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nomination-gop-crisis-2016-5

I didn’t know anything about Josh Barro, the author of this article in Business Insider, so I looked him up.  He seems to be a product of the establishment (Harvard, New York Times) with an establishmentarian outlook that pretends to be objective:  http://www.businessinsider.com/author/josh-barro.  I.e., a typical writer today.

First, I think he is right about his first point: that Trumpism marks the end of conservatism as a major movement with discernible intellectual and political clout.  Actually, I think it marks the formal end of the conservative movement.  Conservatism as a philosophical movement had already committed suicide by choosing loyalty to the GOP over loyalty to conservative principles during the George W. Bush administration.  And that was a double suicide, in that the Republican Party was marching to permanent minority status as a result of the demographic and electoral changes taking place. 

(Of course conservatism as a minor footnote will continue as long as the countless donor mailing lists exist.  But those mailing lists keep getting older and its members inevitably die.  Last I looked, even the Prohibition Party had a mailing list, but nobody pays any attention to it.  The conservative movement will not reach that lowly a status during our lifetimes, but….)

Second, there’s the matter of the status of the Republican Party after Trump.  I for one would not weep over the destruction of the GOP, just as I wouldn’t weep over the destruction of the Democratic Party.  Both are evil and have outlasted any usefulness.  But they have survived this long as a duopoly (one party pretending to be two) because of the institutional processes they have locked into the system, and I think the odds favor their continuation—especially in the case of the Democratic Party and its elitist/welfarist power base.

However, the emergence of Trump and Bernie opens at least the possibility of their breakup.  I think it would be exciting, and perhaps beneficial, to have a six-party system—Establishment (Clinton) Democrats, Progressive (Bernie) Democrats, a Viking Party (Trump), Conservatives (Cruz), Establishment Republicans (Ryan?), and an Independent Party (which no doubt would be my party).  Unfortunately I see no electoral possibilities for libertarians, but they would have some clout in the Independent Party.  Then let the wheeling and dealing, the deal-making, begin in earnest! 

Third, there’s the future of the Establishment: Wall Street, the Fed, the Surveillance State (NSA, FBI, IRS, Homeland Security), the Pentagon and the Merchants of Death, the global corporations, the corporate media—have I left anyone out?).  Alas, I am much too much of a realist (probably the last word you associate with me!) to think that Trump can make a serious dent against this zillion-dollar empire.  They will do their best to co-opt him, but if he proves to be un-cooptable and has a chance to become President, let us not forget that assassination is an established protocol of the American Empire.  And if that results in a widespread uprising, all the procedures for martial law are already on the books.

No, the only hope for destruction of the Establishment—the American Empire—is implosion resulting from the collapse of the debt bubble, the greatest bubble by far in world history.  And the only hope against martial law lies with the great equalizer, the millions and millions of guns in the hands of private American citizens.  (April marked the twelfth straight month of record gun sales.) 

Unfortunately, collapse of the establishment and the empire would be no fun for mere peasants like me.  And most unfortunately, collapsing governments and empires always find a foreign enemy to blame everything on, and that way lies nuclear winter.  America is the only nation that has used nuclear weapons for political purposes during wartime, and we seem to relish using them on Orientals.  Can you connect the dots?

But, hey, this is getting much too dark.  This is bread-and-circus time, so let’s have a Bud and enjoy the show.  Pretend that your vote counts, and let the games commence between the Viking and the Wicked Witch of Oz!

 

Addendum:

Here’s the best explanation I’ve seen of politics today and what a sane non-addictive response could be:

http://www.internationalman.com/articles/doug-caseys-top-five-reasons-not-to-vote

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Headlines →


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God wasn't serious
when He told Rafael "DEFEATed" Cruz,
Ben Carson,
John Kasich,
Jeb!,
and the rest of  the Christo-fascists
to run for President...
He was just dicking with them.
Just like when He told Abraham
to slice and dice Isaac and burn him.
********************************************
 


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Daily Kos

  • Watch Joe Scarborough freak out when Rob Reiner said a lot of racists are voting for Trump
  • Cartoon: Nina Simone
  • I'm starting to hate pickup trucks
  • Join us and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility to tell Congress: hold the gun industry accountable. sponsored
  • Woman with disability left on highway by tow truck driver because she's a Bernie supporter—yup
  • Ohio Republicans want you to pay to vote, introduce a bill saying as much
  • Black Americans can never be the 'smart ones'
  • Sit back and watch Republican women react to the idea of a Donald Trump nomination (video)
  • How one woman stood up to 300 Swedish neo-Nazis
  • Republicans introduce 'improving child nutrition' bill that would take food away from 3.4 mil kids
  • Sign if you agree with Everytown: McConnell and Ryan should support efforts to repeal PLCAA - the law passed in 2005 that gives gun and ammunition manufactuers blanket immunity. sponsored
  • NBC broadcasts Nightly News from Trump Tower and shows why Trump doesn't need to buy ads
  • John McCain: Trump is making this 'a tough campaign for me'
  • WATCH: Why is Google sponsoring Trump’s hate?
  • You soon may be able to sue your bank. Watch Wall Street heads explode
  • Donald Trump: Happy Cinco De Mayo! Try my taco bowl!
  • North Carolina governor calls Justice Department determination that HB2 violates federal law ‘Washington overreach’
  • Speaker Paul Ryan says he can't support Donald Trump 'at this time'
           
  • Jehovah's Witnesses release cringe-worthy cartoon to show children why homosexuals are going to hell
  • The Rolling Stones just put the kibosh on Donald Trump's campaign
  • Hillary pivots to the general, and it's a beaut
  • Stand with Hillary if you agree: Companies who walk out on America should pay a price. sponsored
  • Gov. Pat McCrory unplugged and unhinged: ‘I might be in trouble’
  • Sit back and watch Republican women react to the idea of a Donald Trump nomination (video)
  • Fort McMurray, Alberta, is on fire. Why? You know why.
  • Cartoon: Playing the woman card
  • El Trumpo Effect is starting: Right-wing pundits shout 'Confirm Garland now!'
  • Republicans really do hate Trump. Good luck walking all this back
  • A.J., do you agree voting should be easier? If so, stand with the Democratic Governors Association and call for moving Election Day to a weekend. sponsored
  • Interactive Cartoon: Can you pick the right bathroom?
  • Hillary tweets: The Republican Party is now the party of Trump. Here's what it stands for
  • The Republican Party's brain is self-deporting, and conservatism is dead
  • Trump spokeswoman: 'Hillary Clinton has never been truly vetted'
  • Octogenarian exonerated more than 50 years after being wrongfully convicted of murder
  • Donald Trump has pathetic single-digit favorability and a record deficit among Latino voters
  • Elizabeth Warren on Donald Trump's Republican win: 'Here's what else is real...'
  • Koch brothers turn their attack machine on Feingold

  • ********************************************
    6 days:
    a new record for Carly Fiorina
    to destroy an organization
     
    You'd think Republicans
    would put her in charge
    of Planned Parenthood
    ********************************************

    AlterNet
    By Alexandra Rosenmann, AlterNet
    In the early 1990s, Trump said an early episode of the sci-fi series inspired his relentless desire to win. READ MORE»

    By Bob Cesca, Salon
    A Clinton/Sanders ticket would be tough to beat.  READ MORE»

    By Judy Wicks, AlterNet
    Local businesses are the heart and soul of our communities (and our economy).  READ MORE»

    By Robin Scher, AlterNet
    Today's episode was almost brought to you by the letters S, T and D. READ MORE»

    By Simon Maloy, Salon
    Donald Trump is making some rapid, careful policy shifts and trusting that his core group of supporters won't care. READ MORE»

    By Emily Rothman, The Conversation
    Determining what’s dangerous or healthful for the public is not always simple.  READ MORE»

    By Alexandra Rosenmann, AlterNet
    In his new CNN show, "United Shades of America," W. Kamau Bell spends some time with America's most notorious hate group. READ MORE»

    By Isiah J. Poole, Campaign for America's Future
    A new regulation will "sharply limit" banks' use of binding arbitration to keep consumers' disputes out of the courts. READ MORE»

    By Matt Bors, AlterNet
    Please don't ask if you're on fleek READ MORE»

    By Liz Magee, The Frisky
    “During the slow dance I brought him out to dance with him and everyone started laughing…then my friends made him crowd surf.” READ MORE»

    By May Wilkerson, The Influence
    Post-recovery, learning to sleep without the assistance of alcohol. READ MORE»

    By Lorraine Berry, Raw Story
    For some, Donald Trump's ascendancy heralds the beginning of the end times. READ MORE»


    By Kali Holloway, AlterNet
    As America's white underclass copes with the problems that have long burdened black America, the conversation around poverty is changing.  READ MORE»

    By Hannah Gais, The Washington Spectator
    Inside the effort to “make white nationalism great again.” READ MORE»

    By Phillip Smith, AlterNet
    How I got around one of the most obscene examples of Big Pharma overreach.  READ MORE»

    By Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect
    Even against Trump, attracting both moderate Republicans and Sanders supporters will not be easy for Clinton.  READ MORE»

    By Paul Campos, Salon
    Movement conservatives can protest that he is not one of them, but it's their movement that celebrated ignorance. READ MORE»

    By Jim Sleeper, AlterNet
    Whether out of cupidity or cowardice, the Democratic Party establishment has done as much as Republicans to saddle Americans with arrangements that have produced Trumpism. READ MORE»

    By Carrie Weisman, AlterNet
    A man's perceived expectations for penis size don’t often match what he's really packing.  READ MORE»

    By Michael Stein, OtherWords
    Tiny nanoparticles are entering our food supply unregulated, unlabeled and untested. READ MORE»

    By Sam Sacks, The District Sentinel
    The diplomatic crisis on these infamous 28 pages regarding the terrorist attacks keeps growing. READ MORE»

    By William Stolzenburg, Bloomsbury USA
    A powerful excerpt from Stolzenburg's new book "Heart of a Lion." READ MORE»

    By David Sheen, AlterNet
    As calls for the ethnic cleansing of non-Jews become commonplace, so do the Nazi comparisons, both at home and abroad. READ MORE»

    By Bethania Palma Markus, Raw Story
    Toddlers should not be anywhere near guns.  READ MORE»

    By Liz Dwyer, TakePart
    An affinity for low prices seems to beat out any other consideration. READ MORE»

    By Alexandra Rosenmann, AlterNet
    "Hamsa" powerfully explores the life of a successfully resettled refugee family. READ MORE»
    By Valerie Tarico, AlterNet
    South Carolina Christian re-enacts Good Samaritan story, plays role of Pharisee. READ MORE»

    By Gary Legum, Salon
    Now that Trump has vanquished the last of his rivals, it's time to pick a vice president. No losers allowed! READ MORE»

    By Elizabeth Preza, AlterNet
    These popular recording artists are definitely not grooving out to Trump's use of their tunes. READ MORE»

    By Kali Holloway, AlterNet
    If you've been watching, none of this has been a surprise. READ MORE»

    By Alexandra Rosenmann, AlterNet
    It's possible that Trump's version of acting “presidential” is even scarier than his normal self.  READ MORE»

    By Elizabeth Preza, AlterNet
    The epic story behind the riots that transformed the modern gay rights movement. READ MORE»

    By Kali Holloway, AlterNet
    As parodies go, this one's pretty good. READ MORE»

    By Mark Sumner, DailyKos
    The mainstream media gives it to him for free.  READ MORE»

    By Adriana Maestas , TeleSur
    They could at least learn what Cinco de Mayo is, for starters.  READ MORE»

    By Travis Gettys, Raw Story
    He's been a scammer for 15 years, starting with wiping out his parents' retirement savings.  READ MORE»

    By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
    Trump’s political successes come from throwing out the rules, and saying what he pleases -- now it's going to reflect on the party itself. READ MORE»

    By Vijay Prashad, AlterNet
    A major report is forcing Saudi Arabia to consider a future without its lifeblood: oil.  READ MORE»

    By Kali Holloway, AlterNet
    And it is pretty fantastic. READ MORE»

    By Robert Hennelly, Salon
    The populist groundswell that gave Trump the nomination follows decades of policies that devastated Main Street. READ MORE»

    By Phillip Smith, AlterNet
    The Justice Department's war on medical marijuana in California seems to be ending not with a bang, but a whimper in its collapsed case against Harborside. READ MORE»

    By Valerie Tarico, AlterNet
    What do whales, caribou and humans have in common? Abortion as an adaptive response to resource scarcity. READ MORE»

    By Adam Johnson, FAIR
    The media seems to have confused itself with the police.  READ MORE»

    By Heather Francis, The Conversation
    Eating a typical Western diet high in fat and sugar is bad for our memory, including remembering whether or not we’re full. READ MORE»

    By Michael Arria, AlterNet
    The strike is the biggest American work stoppage since 2011. READ MORE»

    By Jill Richardson, OtherWords
    A cultural divide in farming communities squelches conversation about hot-button issues like pesticides. READ MORE»

    By Natalie Slaughter, She Said
    It's time to embrace sexual fluidity. READ MORE»

    By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
    Investigative journalist Tom Robbins discusses Trump’s history of close relationships with organized crime figures in the United States. READ MORE»

    By Arturo Garcia, Raw Story
    Be nice to your roommates—you never know what they'll spill when you run for president.  READ MORE»

    ********************************************
    Dot Calm's shadow's
    new slogans for Rafael Eduardo Cruz, Jr.
     
    ADULTERATed
    BIGOTed
    BUSTed
    BULLSHITTed
    COLDHEARTed
    CAPITULATed
    CONSTIPATed
    Constricted
    DISCREDITed 
    OVERRATed
    SUPPLANTed
    MASTURBATed

     DEFEATed
    ********************************************

    He and Carly should be punished
    under the full extent of the law 
    for not carrying to term
    as dictated by some random
    women they don't even know

    ********************************************

    Movie time!

    Ah, I just love Bernie. Pieces like this remind me why.

    TYT and the hypocritical millennial who trashes her fellow millennials to get attention

    The language of lying

    Look at your body--you'll see signs of evolution!

    In case you missed it last time, philhellenes's the lie too big for creationists and DarkMatter2525's "Were you there?"


    A bit of pure silliness from Jimmy Kimmel and some scientists on climate change

    To know Rafael "DEFEATed" Cruz is to wish you didn't
    --did you know that Cruz's chances in Indiana dropped the more he campaigned there? Oi....

    Lastly, God's top 10 life hacks for a giggle from DarkMatter2525