Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Canadian Doctor: 1. GOP Senator: 0. (NowThisPolitics)
Ron Dicker: Democrat-Backing Taylor Swift Stays Political At American Music Awards (Huffington Post)
"I just wanted to make a mention of the fact that this award and every single award given out tonight were voted on by the people," the pop star said. "And you know what else is voted on by the people is the midterm elections on Nov. 6. Get out and vote."
Jonathan Chait: While Mueller Stays Quiet, Suspicious Trump-Russia Clues Keep Popping Up (NY Mag)
Trump is and always has been a bad businessman who relies on regular, large cash infusions from his father to stay afloat. Washington Post reporters David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell, piggybacking on the Times revelations, have raised another curiosity: it was about the time that Fred Trump's payment stream dried up that Trump's way of financing his operations took a sharp and sudden turn. Whereas before he financed his purchases with debt - he had called himself the "king of debt" - he began buying properties with cash.
Greg Sargent: Is the Midwest really Trump country? (Washington Post)
… some polls have shown Trump's tariffs are unpopular in Midwestern states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And now Republicans are set to sustain big losses in them.
Paul Waldman: The real purpose of the 'paid protester' lie (Washington Post)
Yet if Democrats protest, and if, heaven forbid, they raise their voices? Then they're an "angry mob" on the verge of violence. They're not people exercising their rights to protest; they're a dire threat to democracy itself. Protesters, you see, have complaints that might need to be taken seriously. An angry mob, on the other hand, has no claims that require attention. It simply needs to be shut down for the sake of public safety. That's different from a paid mob, but in both cases the purpose of the accusation is to shift focus away from the specific grievances that gave rise to the protest and on to the methods and character of the protest itself.
Greg Sargent: Think Trump and GOP minority rule is bad now? Here's how it could get much worse. (Washington Post)
The ultimate irony to all this is that the public backlash to Kavanaugh is, no doubt, partly rooted in anger over this ongoing display of minority rule - a minority-supported president picks justices confirmed by senators representing a minority of Americans - and in widespread feelings of deep helplessness over it. In choosing to continue feeding this polarization, Trump is rubbing the faces of millions of those angry Americans in that helplessness - he's rubbing their faces in his and the GOP's minority-rule triumphs. And he may only be getting started.
Jonathan Chait: Trump Says Brett Kavanaugh Was 'Proven Innocent.' He Wasn't. (NY Mag)
This will ultimately be the position conservatives land on with regard to Kavanaugh, especially as he rewards them with favorable rulings in the coming decades. They will forget all their doubts and nuanced arguments about the burden of proof and remember their justice as a wholly innocent man smeared by partisan operatives and a confused, lying, or perhaps mentally ill woman. That is what Collins and every Republican senator voted for. In the end, Kavanaugh got the last laugh on Christine Blasey Ford.
Alex Hanton: 5 Dark Secrets America's Small Towns Don't Want You To Know (Cracked)
5. Big Companies Use Tiny Cities To Skirt Regulations And Rule With An Iron Fist
Laura Snapes: Spike in voter registrations after Taylor Swift pro-Democrat Instagram post (The Guardian)
Musician says Marsha Blackburn's Congress voting record 'appalls and terrifies me.'
Garrison Keillor: Standing around, watching people suffer
The annual marathon ran by our house in St. Paul Sunday morning, a phalanx of flashing lights of police motorcycles, followed by Elisha Barno of Kenya and other African runners, and later the women's winner, Sinke Biyadgilgn, and a stream of thousands of others, runners, joggers, walkers, limpers. For the sedentary writer standing on the curb, it's a vision of hard work I am very grateful not to have undertaken. In the time I'd spend training to run 26 miles and 385 yards, I could write a book. When you finish a marathon, all you have to show for it is a pile of damp smelly clothes.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Caffeine
David
Thanks, Dave!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• As a young man, L. Frank Baum, who later wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, almost fought a duel because of a typographical error. For his newspaper, the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, Mr. Baum wrote that a bride had a "roguish smile," but the typesetter accidentally changed it to "roughish smile." The angry bridegroom quarreled with Mr. Baum, and bystanders suggested that they fight a duel. They met outside the newspaper office and were supposed to walk around the block - each man in a different direction - until they met again behind the newspaper office, and then they would start firing at each other. Mr. Baum, however, rounded the first corner, then started running for his life. He must have been a slow runner because a friend caught up with him and told him that the bridegroom was also running away. Hearing that, Mr. Baum returned to the scene of the duel and shouted, "Where is that coward? Lead me to him!"
• Early in her career, Martha Graham was a dancer for Denishawn. Both she and Denishawn co-founder Ted Shawn had tempers. One day, while on tour, Mr. Graham called Mr. Shawn to say that she wanted to add a new dance to the tour. Mr. Shawn refused to give her permission to add the dance, so Ms. Graham angrily ripped the telephone out of the wall. On another occasion, they grew angry as they talked over lunch in a New York restaurant. Ms. Graham stood up, grabbed the tablecloth, and pulled it, the dishes, and all the food onto the floor, and then she stalked out of the restaurant and into a taxi. Mr. Shawn followed her and screamed at her, "I don't ever want to see you again in my life! And I mean it!" On both occasions, they quickly made up their differences.
• Martial artists are loathe to fight real combats, believing that the very best way to win a fight is to avoid fighting at all. Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan schoolteacher who revived the art of karate in modern times, once said, "To win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill." Sometimes, people would challenge Mr. Funakoshi to fight in an attempt to prove how tough they were., but he always walked away from these fights. Once, he explained why: "When two tigers fight, one is always injured. The other is dead."
• As a 16-year-old slave, Frederick Douglass was handed over to a man named Edward Covey, whose job was to break the spirits of slaves and take away their desire for freedom. For a while, things went Covey's way, but Mr. Douglass rose up, fought him, and threw him into a pile of cow manure. Normally, such actions would get a slave savagely beaten or killed. However, if Covey had told anyone what had happened, he would have lost his reputation as a slavebreaker, so he kept quiet. This victory increased Mr. Douglass' desire for freedom.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Brett Lemonade continued
I felt that my previous comments needed to be expanded, so I wrote the following. I could probably continue on this tirade forever, but I will try to stop now.
PREAMBLE TO BRETT LEMONADE:
Whether you agree or disagree with my comments below, you do not need to contact me. Your voice would be better directed to your audience, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors, your congregation, your elected representatives at all levels and your co-workers. They are the ones who know you and therefore the best ones to listen to your message and decide if they agree or disagree with you.
BRETT LEMONADE
If you like the old-fashioned things such as misogyny, racism, white privilege, stealing from the poor to increase your own wealth, hatred of all that is not like you, christian values not espoused by Jesus himself, republican values, republican lies, republican hate, utter contempt for the United States Constitution and the rule of law, etc, etc, etc, then I have a recipe for you. You can make your own BRETT LEMONADE and sell it to the ones you "love and/or hate" and get richer in the process.
1. Since you do not want to spend your hard stolen money on lemons, take one (1) cup of sour organic grape juice (but the cheapest vinegar will be okay if spoiled organic grapes are not readily available), then add enough rat poison to kill all who drink it.
2. To dilute the mixture and make a larger punch bowl of joy, add as many crocodile tears as you can cry or gather from your republican friends and neighbors and mix with ingredient #1. NOTE: Crocodile tears, rather than plain tap water, help to disguise the taste of the rat poison.
3. Be sure that you do NOT add any sugar, since it costs money and the suckers will add all they want to sweeten their "cool-ade" before they toast your wealth/health and their death.
4. Advertise in the op-ed of the local newspaper and use free TV coverage with testimonials from your friends, i.e. fellow republicans. The republican politicians will ALL give you their FREE endorsements for being a shining beacon of American values.
5. Promise that you will give the first glass of BRETT LEMONADE for free, but the second one will only cost a wooden nickel. I am sure your "loved" ones have been looking for a place to spend all those nickels that they have collected and saved for the day when those nickels would be worth their weight in gold. If they have no wooden nickels, offer to give them some worthless promises to use instead, for I am sure you have an unlimited supply of those and they do not cost you anything.
6. Soon, there will be no one left to buy your lemonade and you can brag to the remaining republicans that you are a great entrepreneur who made his billions the hard way. Then, you can begin to search for a way to steal your friend's money, property, wives, children, etc, etc, etc, because the only thing that matters is how much money you can steal.
BRETT LEMONADE ANTIDOTE
If you are a person who does not care for BRETT LEMONADE, here are some things you can do and continue doing until that deadly product is removed from our great nation and the world.
1. Vote the sellers of that lemonade out of office . They are easy to recognize today, because most of them have (R) after their name. But, when they can no longer use that to identify their tribe and hatred, they will find new ways to brand themselves. Be aware that their hatred and greed will always be their trademarks. Remember, the preamble to United States Constitution, which defines our goals for government, begins with the words "We the people …". It does not say, corporations, dollars/money, lobbyists, PACs, dark money, etc. People are the United States of America; all the people, all the time and they are to be treated as equal citizens under the law.
2. Speak up . You can fight for your rights in other ways as well. When the "old white man"* in the booth next to you is lecturing his daughter and grandchild (or anyone else) about poor mistreated Brett and asks how could the demon democrats ever think of trying to impeach lily white Brett from his god given seat on the SCOTUS, simply reply with a single word: "lying" or "perjury". The one I spoke to stopped ranting immediately. But, be careful, many of them carry guns and would love to use them to stop our right to free speech...
3. NULIFY BRETT : Since former republican Justice Stevens declared that Bret is not suited for and does not deserve to serve on the SCOTUS (or any other public office for that matter), call on every lawyer before the SCOTUS to demand that Brett recuse himself from the cases they are presenting. He is a biased and hateful man who can never deliver an impartial vote.
4. Show your feelings to others, respectfully and with candor . Find your own way to fight tyranny and stop it from destroying our great nation. Put a sign in your yard, place a bumper sticker on your car, tell a friend, speak with a neighbor, i.e. make sure that your voice, opinions and feelings are heard by others and you will find that you are not alone.
5. Tell your children, your family, your neighbors and everyone you care about that it is "a very scary time for (everyone)
in America." GUNS : It does not matter where you are, who you are, how old you are, what sex you are, etc. Although, being anyone other than a lily white republican male, increases you risk immensely. You should be scared of all people with guns in schools, theatres, rallies, on the street, in the grocery store, concerts, night clubs, cars, buses, trains and particularly your own homes, because that danger is REAL and DEADLY . Fight for laws and enforcement of those laws to curb the deadly cancer of guns in every part of our society. Check the facts: Guns are for killing; many, many more innocent people in our nation are killed by personal guns than are protected by them. They are the deadly mushrooms of our society; you never know when or where they will pop up and kill you. Most civilized countries have those controls and are far safer than the U.S.A.
ALCOHOL : America is also scary because there are untold numbers of drunks in our lives and driving on our streets every day, killing and maiming regardless of who you are, including white, rich republicans. Excessive drinking of alcohol, including beer, does not make you a man; it makes you drunk immediately and eventually an alcoholic , who does not remember anything he/she does when drunk. Every year in this UNSAFE country, thousands of people are killed and maimed by drunks who are then released to commit the same crime again and again. Most other civilized countries have stronger laws, better enforcement and hence are safer than the U.S.A. HEALTHCARE : In our great nation, it is so easy to die from treatable injuries or diseases, because we do not have universal government supplied free health care to all. Most other civilized nations have that for their citizens and even visitors to their countries. Much or our population has little food, no secure shelter, no money to buy anything, nothing to feed their children. Other modern, wealthy nations are able to provide those things to their citizens. Thus, they are much safer than the U.S.A.
P.S. I am an old white man. I have no control over that, but I can stand AGAINST tyranny, lies, hate and undeserved privilege, AND stand up FOR our Constitutional rights AGAINST ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. When a republican representative came to my door on Sunday afternoon, I told him respectfully, strongly, simply: "I would not vote for a republican if my life depended on it.", because a life lived under republican control/corruption/greed/lies/fear-mongering/etc is truly hell on earth.
Billy in Cypress
Thanks, Billy!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"PUTTING ON MY GAME FACE."
THE FASCIST IN CHIEF ATTACKS!
REPUBLICANS ARE SICK FUCKS!
VAMPIRE SCOTT STRIKES!
WE WILL STUPID OURSELVES INTO OBLIVION.
"HELLFIRE"
THE LIAR!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late, short page.
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