July 30, 2018

Kavanaugh's record of dishonesty should be ENOUGH to disqualify him for ANY court.

In a sane world, where judges are expected to be honorable, Kavanaugh's record of dishonesty should be enough to disqualify him from any court in the land, particularly from any federal court and especially from the Supreme Court. That he is still even being considered is an outrage that speaks to the decline of our judicial system.

Kavanaugh caught lying under oath: http://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/lying-oath-brett-kavanaugh-supreme/11320/

Senators believe they were misled by Kavanaugh: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-kavanaughs-last-confirmation-hearing-could-haunt-him/565304/

July 26, 2018

House Republicans introduce articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein

Duplicate post. Go here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142118949

May 31, 2018

I finally got high!

I watched, somewhat jealously, as my friends got high in high school, but I always passed. I don't mean as in puff-puff-pass, I mean as in thanks but no thanks. And I laughed along with them as they recounted their many tales of getting high: like the time they were smoking then went for a walk and got lost then later realized that they had been in the neighbor's yard the whole time. Yes, the neighbor's yard right next to the house one of them had grown up in; the yard they could SEE from the neighbor's yard.

Anyway. I finally tried pot in grad school. I took a couple of puffs then waited for hilarity to ensue. Nothing. Like, nothing. I'm a big guy, so maybe I needed to truly INHALE before the mojo would kick in. Oh well, I thought.

Then a few months ago I tried chocolate edibles with low THC and high CBD. Made me sleepy. Meh.

Then I went to a festival last week and decided, what the hell, I'm here surrounded by friends and kind-hearted hippies, so . . . I tried a high THC ginger chew. About 10 minutes later my heart started racing. Fuck, I thought. Ok, I'm done. This clearly isn't for me. 20 more minutes later and there was definitely a stumble in my walk. Then we started playing a card game and . . . and then I got high. FINALLY! I got muthafuckin' high!

The best way I can describe my first high with three friends who were also high, is that it was sort of like a series of shared, micro-blackouts. Like, when we played a game and the same person goes three times when you're only supposed to go one turn before moving on to the next player but none of us - NONE OF US! - realizes the person has taken too many turns until the third round and . . . an hour or so of laughter so deep you think you're gonna suffocate 'cause you can't breathe.

Fun times.

Now, a week later, my full brain hasn't quite fully kicked back in. It could be my imagination, but I don't think I've been as sharp with work stuff. Spell-check, hear my cry!

I'm really glad I finally got high. No regrets whatsoever. Would I try it again? Sure. Maybe. Probably.

I'm told that the high from smoking is different from the high of edibles, but for now, I think I'm good with my experience.

Holy hell. I just remember that a couple of years ago I was dating a woman and we tried some kind of liquid THC together. Totally forgot about that. I think I took too much because I just got nauseous then she got sexually frustrated because my little feller lost any interest whatsoever in partying. Now I remember why I chose to forget that experience.

Did I tell you that I finally got high?

May 13, 2018

Ta-Nehisi Coates on words that don't belong to everyone.

One of my favorite authors. Ta-Nehisi Coates answers an audience question about the power and ownership of words at the Family Action Network event with Evanston Township High School

May 11, 2018

McConnell & McCain's famous thumbs-down on the ACA repeal.

I think it was a ruse. A fake. A con.
I think republicans needed cover for years of promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they knew it was be costly to abruptly yank healthcare away from people who were finally getting the help they needed.
I don't think McConnell would have called the vote without securing the votes first, and he sure as hell wouldn't have stood in the galley as its poster boy unless he knew he had the votes. No, I don't think Mitch was standing there as some sort of bully to keep his folks in line. I think McCain's thumbs-down and McConnell's dramatic facial expression was all theater. And by all appearances, it worked.

April 13, 2018

The Rise of the Crisis Actor Conspiracy Movement

In 'The Rise of the Crisis Actor Conspiracy Movement,’ Vice talks to crisis actor conspiracy theorists and the victims they attack. At 19:04 is one of the more disturbing, infuriating scenes.

Not long after the shooting, bloggers and conspiracy theorists baselessly accused survivors of the shooting of being paid actors who were working on behalf of the government and gun control groups to create a fictional event that would allow the government to take guns from the American people.

These crisis actor theories, once reserved to radical fringes of the internet, spread rapidly.
. . .
Just a week after the Parkland shooting, a video accusing one of the survivors of being a paid actor was the #1 trending video on Youtube.

More at Vice: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxxew/rise-of-the-crisis-actor-conspiracy-theory

April 7, 2018

Sinclair boycott begins!

I would LOVE for this boycott to catch fire and spread!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sinclair-backlash-political-candidates-amy-schumer_us_5ac78395e4b09d0a1192ffcd

Amy Schumer has apparently canceled a scheduled interview on a local news station owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group after critics decried the company for forcing its anchors to read a script casting doubt on media integrity, BuzzFeed reported Thursday.
...
She is joined by a handful of Democratic candidates who have so far pledged not to advertise on Sinclair-owned networks: Maryland gubernatorial candidate Krish Vignarajah, Kentucky congressional candidate Amy McGrath, Maryland congressional candidate David Trone, North Carolina congressional candidate Ken Romley and New York congressional candidate Gareth Rhodes.

“We’ve decided not to support a corporate media giant that bullies its employees into reading propaganda,” Romley said in a statement. McGrath said she felt that Sinclair’s script “eerily mimics the propaganda efforts” of “authoritarian regimes.”
...

April 6, 2018

Russian spy reluctantly and belatedly imposes sanctions against Russian oligarch.

After giving them time to protect their assets and financially insulate themselves from US sanctions, Trump imposes sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-imposes-sweeping-new-sanctions-on-russian-elite/2018/04/06/97df2782-398e-11e8-b57c-9445cc4dfa5e_story.html