Fred Klonsky has a Chicago Tribune cartoon depicting retirees as dogs that need to be muzzled.
Kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
Klonsky also has a blog up on Moral Mondays. Update here.
This from Diane Ravitch on how to starve people so they’ll accept whatever crumbs you feel like giving them…
And in my corner of the world, Glenda Ritz continues to fight for her publicly elected position that received more votes than Pence.
Charter Schools: it’s all in the family.
Only a heartless person would want to ruin this by fracking….
Patrick Walsh has a report up on Reign of Error, by Diane Ravitch.
Oh, and have you heard? It’s open season on teachers. The climate that No Child Left a Mind and Race to the Bottom have created—to punish students for not being perfect students and their teachers, who are under tremendous pressures to not have any stupid kids (said facetiously)–has now come to fruition. I’m sure Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Michelle Rhee, et al, are laughing themselves silly.
Jan Ressenger put up a link to this report from the Guardian on just how far the Kochs and their comrades are willing to go….not only to destroy public education, but continue attacks on working folks and unions…
SPN’s president, Tracie Sharp, told the Guardian that “as a pro-freedom network of thinktanks, we focus on issues like workplace freedom, education reform, and individual choice in healthcare: backbone issues of a free people and a free society.”
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I wonder if she could get the word “free” in there any more…was she wrapped in a flag, too?? Because that would *definitely* mean that this program was patriotic and would strengthen democracy…
...by destroying it…
“it’s for your own good” has to be the biggest lie ever told!
Side note~ someone in the comments section linked to the Yes Men video. Enjoy. (Be sure to click on Part 2–with Surviva-balls. Hilarious.)
Someone also kindly posted a link to a list of Kraft foods. Again…where are the antitrust laws? Why is one food manufacturer able to control so much of the market share? Not that junk food, which is the majority of crap that Kraft makes, is something healthy..what if folks were able to afford healthy made-from-scratch food…? We could do some serious damage to Kraft’s bottom line if we refused to buy their junk food and bought only fresh….and we’d be healthier, too.
Center for Media and Democracy has the scoop on SPN. (As a side note~ I haven’t been getting regular emails of the CMD for a few months now–it’s been spotty at best…interesting. I’ll have to make a note to keep checking their website for updates.)
True to nature, they hide their lobbying disguised to avoid paying taxes. Good Grief, these people know how to play the game of getting someone else to pay while they reap the benefits.
The mention of the Goldwater Institute raises huge red flags–Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater Girl. An excellent blog here on her history…er, her trying to re-write her history…and Bill’s.
The Clintons LOVE poor black people on welfare
• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) that was dreamt up by past Republican administrations, was actually passed by Congress and signed by Clinton. This act was filled with vindictive measures aimed at the poor. Among other things, it set a five-year lifetime limit for cash assistance and gave the states power to adopt stringent restrictions in several other areas. Another key part of the Act, was the imposition for the first time of lifetime limits on welfare. Once a welfare mother uses up this lifetime limit, set at five years by the federal government, she and her children can never again receive federal cash benefits, no matter how desperate their condition and no matter what happens to the overall economy.
Bill Clinton has certainly laid his Mack game down heavy in the black community. Maybe that’s why the African-American community has been so thoroughly duped by lip service, prominent public appearances and appointments, and an office on Harlem’s 125th (although Clinton certainly hasn’t used it much).~~~~~~~~
Ahem. There are white people on food stamps, as well. The Clintons, along with the Kochs, et al, don’t like POOR people. Period.
We can’t talk about Bill Clinton’s love for his “black race” without mentioning Rwanda. You remember what happened in Rwanda? If you don’t, then I suggest you rent the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and be prepared to be thoroughly disgusted. Bill Clinton not only refused to intervene to save over one million people from being hacked to death, but he even declined to convene his Cabinet to discuss the crisis.
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I highly recommend Hotel Rwanda. Just don’t watch it and Schindler’s List on the same weekend. I actually had to call my son after watching them both one weekend….I needed to talk to a sane human being…
And let’s not forget this piece on the secretive group Hillary Clinton belongs to. As I’ve said on many occasions…it never ceases to amaze me how people who call themselves Christian act nothing like Christ. Who would Jesus bomb, Hillary?
I’ve read this piece before, but this sentence just packed a punch:
It emerged, he [Reverend Don Jones] says, as a third way, a reaction against both separatist fundamentalism and the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism.
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…a reaction against….the New Deal’s labor-based liberalism. In other words: unions….working folks….public education…social security…medicaid…..livable wages…(and the environment, too, but that would come later).
…and if you listen carefully to conservative media, you’ll hear subtle and outwardly snide attacks on Roosevelt’s New Deal. Get it, now?
And this:
Niebuhr and Tillich’s combination of aggressiveness in foreign affairs and limited domestic ambition naturally led Clinton toward the gop. She was a Goldwater Girl who, under the tutelage of her high school history teacher Paul Carlson (whom Jones describes as “to the right of the John Birchers”), attended biweekly anticommunist meetings and later served as president of Wellesley’s Young Republicans chapter.
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…she attended biweekly anticommunist meetings. Wellesley…if the movie “Mona Lisa Smile” is any indication, is a conservative’s utopia…so Young Republicans chapter there? Pretty hard to swallow that this was a fluke -a flash in the pan….especially when one turns a critical eye to Hillary’s record. I mean, if they call themselves Democrats, but act as Republicans…
“Mind conservative but a heart liberal” tells me that she is like so many guys who say they’re “socially liberal, but fiscally conservative”. What this means is: I’m selfish and self-absorbed. And I don’t follow my heart. I let my purse strings do the thinking for me. In other words, I choose money over God. (Jesus said that we could only serve one Master–money or God. Not both.)
Okay, there is more to write, but I’m really tired from the day and need to call it quits.
(I really wanted to take some time off, but there is just too much stuff going on…)
Natives protesting fracking on their land have been run over. I’m unclear about the first paragraph and whether the persons were run over by SWN vehicles. In the posted tweets, note the upside down Canadian flag (on the mylar balloon)–I have to wonder if that were purposeful, as they have flown the U.S. flag upside down as a signal of distress. And support is growing around the world, with Ireland expressing their solidarity with the Elsipogtog. Bless the Irish 🙂
In this link, the journalists have rallied around Miles Howe, the journalist arrested three times so far:
The Canadian Association of Journalists issued a press release Monday calling on “the RCMP to either lay charges or stop harassing a journalist working in New Brunswick arrested for the third time on Nov. 28,” referring to Media Co-op’s Miles Howe.
“RCMP behaviour suggests they are unfamiliar with the charter rights of a free press and the allowances those rights permit journalists while covering controversial and volatile situations,” CAJ president Hugo Rodrigues said.
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More here.
This just in: RCMP arrests Santa. For shame.
Caption: “Well, that about sums it up.” Yep….except the politician needs to be wearing a blazer with all the corporate logos that sponsor him/her on it…..and their pockets full of cash they bribe with…
On a hot summer day, nothing sounds better than a cool drink of water….
(sorry for the visual, but you get the point…contaminated water is unappealing to look at as harmful to the body.)
Ways to help the Elsipogtog. You can click on the picture to enlarge. More here.
The Warriors send their greetings and Thanks.
Blessings to the defenders of the water and land…
Haitians are protesting...but you wouldn’t know that listening to the nightly nooz…which has a morbid fixation on Obamacare and Obama’s popularity…because, you know, that is waaay more important than what is going on around the world, such as the First Nations protests or Haitian protests…or pretty much any protests around the world.
I found this piece on the deceptive PR by Enbridge. Sadly, the article doesn’t go far enough and mention the pipeline coming through northern Indiana….just a stone’s throw away from Lake Michigan.
Three years? Three freaking years to clean up an oil spill? This alone should be reason enough not to trust Enbridge. They don’t have the first clue on how to clean up after their many messes. And they really don’t care….it costs money to clean up and they really don’t care about the environment, much to their protestations.
“We clearly can not accomplish all of that in the remaining weeks of 2013,” says Jason Manshum, an Enbridge spokesman. He blames the company’s difficulty in getting a local permit for a dredge pad near the Morrow Lake delta. The company wanted to dump sludge from the river on the pad site. People and businesses near the site fought against it.
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I don’t blame the folks fighting against having the sludge placed nearby. See…Enbridge doesn’t have a plan in place for what to do when a leak happens. I say dump the sludge on the properties of the Enbridge execs and let them deal with it. I have a feeling that if this was the law, Enbridge and all the other energy companies would suddenly change their myopic views.
Last night, the Kalamazoo Board of Commissioners agreed to let Enbridge use part of a county park as part of the company’s plan to dredge a section of the river near Morrow Lake.
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<sigh>
Yeah…let’s contaminate a park…./snark
Note in the comments that pipelines are not subject to aggressive inspections or inspectors….
Petula Dvorak has this up on the Native Americans and this holiday we celebrate.
The Native Americans I talked to said they’ve all heard of someone who doesn’t celebrate the holiday the way it’s presented in food magazines and Hallmark television specials. But all the people I talked to said they hold on to the original message that the Wampanoag had that day — a harvest feast to give thanks.
“Thanksgiving is like every day for us. Giving thanks is a big part of the native cultures. So the basic message of the holiday, that’s still part of who we are,” said Ben Norman, 32, a member of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia.
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And that’s what it means to me, too—being thankful for every day and every meal and all that is provided for us.
The Native Americans recognize that all is connected. What we do over *here* affects something over *there*. We cannot take and take and take without there being repercussions. The traditional Native Americans humbly acknowledge that with taking only what they need.
The Europeans described America as a wilderness. The Native Americans knew better and carefully managed the great ecosystem–you could drink from any river or stream….the fish were plentiful because they weren’t overfished and they didn’t contain mercury and other toxins…you could breathe…
They were portrayed as heathens that needed “saving” by missionaries. Instead of trying to understand their spirituality, the Europeans sought to force their religion upon them. Native Americans don’t have Churches where one goes to pray once a week and then forget everything that is taught…rather, they see spirituality in everything they do—everything is connected to the Creator.
I just wanted to acknowledge their culture and all that was lost.
My other posts on Native Americans here, here and here.
So…there weren’t any gluten free pie crusts at the grocery, and I was going to go without pumpkin pie, my favorite at Thanksgiving. But I just couldn’t imagine a Thanksgiving without it…
I saw rice flour was available, with a pie crust recipe, and decided to attempt it. So, I’m following the recipe, and I get to the end, where you roll it out. Then it says to cut the crust in slices, and put the slice into the pie pan. I kid you not. Normally, one just rolls out the crust and put it as a whole piece into the pie pan. I thought, “well, this will be interesting…” Some slices were put in place neatly, and others….well…let’s just say the crust looks like a patchwork quilt. Heh. Oh well, I’m sure it will taste okay. (she says with fingers crossed).
Oh, and to Joe Donnelly–yeah, I will have a Happy Thanksgiving, thanks to my family.
While I’m working in the kitchen, I have the TV station tuned to the 70s music station. I hear some familiar notes…but it’s the middle of one of my favorite songs, Dialogue, Parts 1 and 2, by Chicago (Robert Lamm). In perhaps the last ten years or so, I’ve only heard Dialogue on the radio once….even on the 70s stations. I have to wonder at the reasons for it after this station cut off the first part of the song, which asks people to examine their consciences. The song is as relevant today as it was when it was written:
Don’t it make you angry the way war is dragging on?
Well, I hope the President knows what he’s into, I don’t knowDon’t you ever see the starvation in the city where you live
All the needless hunger all the needless pain?Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind
I was troubled by the shapes of things to comeWell, if you had my outlook your feelings would be numb
You’d always think that everything was fine
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On to lighter subjects–we got about 3-4 inches of snow last night. I love it. I think I’m the only person in Indiana who loves snow. Pookie likes it, too–she’ll put her nose deep into the snow, and come up with a snow “beard”…looks so comical it makes me laugh. They’ve got warnings for northern Indiana, however, with 7-10 inches expected in the northwest corner (lake effect from Lake Michigan).
Hope everyone has the comfort of food and those you love around you this holiday.
Many Blessings to you…
Assailed Teacher has a great blog up on a student “Tammy” who does okay in school….but is struggling to pass a global test. She must pass this one test in order to graduate. Again, the “good enough” mothers analogy of Phyllis Chesler passed into my head…and I thought that “Tammy” is a “good enough” student. Not perfect, but okay. What really bothers me about all of this is that they are labeling kids as stupid who are quite all right. They’re fine. They understand concepts appropriate for their ages. And yet, they are being put in categories that are not a true definition of their abilities.
Also, beneath this piece is an “interview” with Arne Duncan that’s pretty funny. Too bad that it gets a little too close to the truth.
Continuing the saga of the Food Stamp *cough* savings….
Here’s another article on it.
The comments are interesting, and someone links to this page on Stephen Fincher, whose family farm received…wait for it…$8.9 million in farm subsidies…
…they must be the farmers Joe Donnelly consulted with for the farm bill. /snark
Oh, and Jesus gave loaves and fishes to the hungry. It’s interesting what portions of the Bible the so-called religious choose to quote to justify their meanness and cruelty.
Eagle 
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