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Category: This is the Republican Party
This is Who the Republicans Are
My Republican friends have to explain to me why they aren't outraged by the hundreds of voter suppression laws being passed by Republican legislatures in 43 states across the country. They must convince me that their silence about this isn't a sign of their own complicity in this "Jim Crow in new clothes", to quote Senator Raphael Warnock (D, Ga).
Over the short history of this country, it has been understood that political parties attract voters by virtue of their platforms, which were usually designed to show how much the party plans to do to help their voters when they are elected to office. When a political party loses an election, those in charge of said party have historically reviewed their platform and met with their voters to ascertain what changes could be made to attract more people to vote for them in the next election. Until now.
In 2021, Republicans have concluded that they cannot maintain their minority hold on government if all those eligible to vote are permitted to do so. They instead believe that making it as hard as possible for those they believe will be voting against them to cast a ballot is their only means of remaining in power, and have wasted no time in putting every roadblock they can in front of their own citizens, particularly those with Black and Brown skin.
Those in the Senate who purport to be liberals have to stand up for what is right, and that means immediately doing whatever is necessary to bring SR1 to the floor for a vote. Because Republicans have chosen voter suppression to platform modification, they will do what has worked for them since 2008 – invoke the word 'filibuster' followed by a demand for a 60-vote majority to pass any legislation. There is really no other way to go – the filibuster must be not simply changed,, but eliminated. Claims that the filibuster permits the minority to obstruct legislation they do not like and therefore "be careful what you wish for" is proof that the filibuster is designed as a means of obstruction.
A functioning democracy is always at risk of having a reversal of the party in power; that's pretty much the point, right? In the United States, the minority has been given way too much power to stand in the way of majority rule, which is supposed to be the way our democracy works. While it is reasonable to allow those in the minority to express their opinion about legislation they disagree with, it is ridiculous to allow the party that lost all three branches of government in the last election to decide which legislation is going to pass and which is going to die because they don't like it.
In fact, Republicans have used this ability to prevent Democratic administrations from enacting anything that the Democrats were elected into to office to initiate. Why is the losing party able to hold the winning team hostage by denying them the mandate they won in an election simply by stamping their feet and plugging their ears while repeating "La, la, la, la, la, I can't hear you…."? The Senate, formerly considered 'the world's most deliberative body' has been transformed into a two-headed monster; the one on the left has the only functioning brain, while the one on the right is a whiny little bitch.
The citizens of this country spoke loud and clear last November. We voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to lead us out of the mess that Trump and decades of Republican obstructionism brought us to. The Republicans need to get over the fact that they lost and deal with the mandate the American People gave to the Biden Administration. If they cannot do that, they should be drummed out of existence as a political force for decades to come, if not forever.
Joe Manchin (D, WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ) need to put on their grown-up pants and stop acting as though the Republicans have a shit left to give about anything other than their donors and their stock portfolios. If Senators Manchin and Sinema give a damn about the American people, they'll stop pretending that the filibuster is anything other than a holdover from Reconstruction used to stymie any attempt at civil rights. Why do they and most on the right find it unacceptable to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour? Have any of them tried today to live on $290 per week (at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr for a 40 hour work week)? That income may allow a high school student to put some funds aside towards college, but there is no independently living adult who can survive on under $1,200 per month in total income. Of course, those who are only making $7.25 per hour have the opportunity to apply for government subsidies for food, rent, heat (in the Northeast) and cash assistance, but why are the taxpayers forced to lift these folks out of poverty instead of requiring their employer to pay them a living wage?
The social safety net programs have been in the sights of Republicans for as long as I can remember, and it's particularly galling since many of the working poor who need these programs to survive would be lifted out of poverty if they were simply paid a wage that met their cost of living. Why do so many in the Senate refuse to acknowledge that the below-poverty-level federal minimum wage is directly responsible for every dollar of social safety net funds needed to bring those families to a livable income?
No one working a full forty hour week should need government assistance to survive. Allowing businesses to pay so little to their employees benefits the business owners at the expense of their workers. Requiring all businesses to pay their employees a real, living wage lifts everyone up, freeing up trillions of tax dollars to fund infrastructure, climate remediation, green energy, healthcare and so much more. We all do better when we all do better.
Of course, many smaller businesses working with a smaller profit margin may be required to raise prices, and those who are the least profitable may end up closing, but we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Not all businesses are destined for success, and holding down workers' pay for the exclusive benefit of the business owners perpetuates disparities that have effectively transferred massive wealth from the many to the few. The fact is, none of the people currently taking up seats in the Senate have any relevant experience within their own lives that compares with trying to survive on too little income week after week, month after month, year after year, without any reasonable expectation of a change until you die or retire, often on too little Social Security income. Apparently, Republican Senators (along with the two Democrats noted above) no longer have any capacity to empathize with those less fortunate than themselves. They lack any real ability to fathom what it's like to live in a world that doesn't include a huge inheritance or the good fortune of having your way paved by your predecessors without any input or talent on your part. These character flaws make them the wrong people to represent the vast majority of their own electorate. Their ivory towers have blinded them to what it's like for the rest of us down her on the ground.
In order to lift the folks at the bottom of the income ladder up, those at the other end of the scale have to pay their fair share in taxes. Trillions of dollars in tax revenue are lost to loopholes, tax shelters and both legal and illegal tax avoidance by the top 0.1%. It is no longer tenable that the majority of IRS tax audits focuses on those claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Why not focus all that energy on those filers most likely to bring in the most in taxes, fees and penalties? Surely auditing one fraudulently filed 1040 by someone with billions in income would be more financially beneficial to the IRS than auditing thousands of low-income filers who did their own taxes and made an honest mistake?
Republicans have used their obstructionism in the Senate as proof that the Democrats can't do anything when they're in charge, convincing the slimmest of 'majorities' with the help of the tilted electoral college and Senate to put them back in charge. Once there, they prove again that they lack the intellectual and moral authority to actually govern, preferring instead to use rhetoric to keep their base engaged while doing nothing to benefit the citizens of the country. Power for the sake of power, as a means of maintaining power without regard for the will of the people, or majority rule. Republicans have gone all in on the Big Lie, and they're using it to do everything possible to prevent anyone they deem undeserving from casting a ballot, especially people of color. They have to obstruct because they know that the people will keep Democrats in charge because Democrats get things done.
This is who the Republicans are. Racist to the core. Interested only in themselves. Those who chose to remain within their ranks need to acknowledge that this is their underlying reason for being there; taxes, abortion and guns notwithstanding.
lorettarn1958	Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party	Leave a comment March 26, 2021 March 27, 2021 6 Minutes
Lies Are NOT "Unsubstantiated Claims"
I have been a Kindle subscriber to The Washington Post since 2016, and I read it nearly every day, often checking back later, to keep up with the dumpster fire that has been the last 4 years. Over that time, the media has tried to call Trump's lies what they are, but it's still not happening consistently. Today, I started to read Jose A. Del Real's article The turbocharged battle over truth is just beginning and was struck immediately by:
"President Trumps stands as a singular figure in American history for his willingness to entertain conspiracy theories from the Oval Office, and none has been more damaging or far reaching than his unsubstantiated claim (boldness added) that the 2020 election was rigged against him."
Jose, please call a spade a damn shovel. What Trump is doing is not an "unsubstantiated claim", it's an outright lie told to gin up support among his base supporters. It's how he keeps all of us tuning in again tomorrow to see what happens next. His psycopathy is the best combination of all the worst traits whose reality TV exposure and experience provided a deadly combination that has led to where we are now.
Please, mainstream media – words really do matter. Couching Trump's lies euphemistically as anything other than a falsehood gives them cover. Do not legitimize an illegitimate act; call a spade a damn shovel already.
Remember as well – Trumpism and the Republican Party are one and the same.
lorettarn1958	Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party	Leave a comment January 19, 2021 1 Minute
My Outrage Hiatus Has Ended
My blood pressure began rising during the 2015-2016 Presidential primaries, and I was put on my first antihypertensive medication in 2016. I was confident when it first started to go up that it was related to Trump and the election, and nothing that has happened between then and now has changed my opinion. This has been made more worrisome as my doctor first increased that first medication dose and frequency, then added two additional blood pressure meds before convincing me last month that I also needed to add a diuretic to my daily regimen.
Doc had tried on two prior occasions to add the diuretic, and I balked at the idea because, well, I'm 62 and gave vaginal birth twice, with the bigger baby weighing 8 lbs, 11.5 oz., and women who have carried pregnancies and birthed babies have much greater likelihood of developing some type of urinary incontinence when they are older, particularly if they no longer have a partner (because it really is true if you don't use it, you lose it!). I have been dealing with what is euphemistically referred to as "stress incontinence" (sneezing, laughing, coughing can all cause some urine leakage) or "urge incontinence" (you lose the ability to hold your urine once you're aware of the urge to urinate), and I wasn't at all willing to make it even harder to deal with, however, at the urging of my PCP I finally agreed to start a low-dose diuretic in help lower by my blood pressure.
So now that Biden and Harris won the election, has my blood pressure dropped? Sure, a bit, but I don't think it's due to the election. After all, Trump and the Republicans continue to spew their conspiracy theories to the right-wing media bubble, and it all becomes this big circle jerk. It's hard to believe that Ben Sasse, (R), Nebraska, is one of the reality-based Republican Senators, but his open letter to his constituents tells the stark truth – that all these Republicans know that Trump lost the election to Biden, but in order to attract Trump's cult base to their future campaigns, they're willing to destroy the democracy. For their own political benefit, they are all in on the undermining of our electoral process.
I know that what we think we all want more than anything is a return to what we had before Covid-19 spread, but certainly all of us know that what we had before was decades past what we think of as "normal". The wealth inequity has grown exponentially worse since the 1960's, racism has not gone away, and right-wing extremism has been normalized. With these as the new normal, how can we possibly want to go back to that?
We got to where we are because of multiple Republican administrations that legislated the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in our lifetimes while simultaneously shredding the social safety net to disproportionately harm minorities and people of color. They have specifically legislated to ban more than half of the population from deciding for themselves what they want to do with their bodies, denying reproductive and gender equity whenever and where ever they could. In 2020, they supported and lied for the most corrupt president and administration in the history of the country, refusing to respond to a worldwide pandemic on behalf of the public health and public good, spreading baldfaced lies and denying the science on mitigation efforts while many of them watched their own stock portfolios increase in value. They refused for months to consider additional financial stimulus for the millions of our fellow Americans who, through no fault of their own (largely due to Trump's callous indifference and inability to perform any of the essential duties of the presidency) lost their jobs in industries that cannot come back until enough of us are vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. The Republicans under McConnell instead tied their possible vote for another stimulus to a blanket corporate liability waiver for not just covid-related problems, but actually any kind of lawsuit from employees or customers, which of course hurts all of us while protecting the rich and corporations from the consequences of their own behavior.
While we wait for the results of the Georgia Senate runoff elections, I have to keep hoping that we will win both seats. I hope that everyone who has internet access has listened to the tape that the Washington Post obtained of Trump spending an hour of his time on Saturday trying to extort the Georgia Secretary of State to commit election fraud in order to give Trump a fraudulent win of the state's electoral votes. There is only one explanation for that entire call if Trump wants to avoid being criminally charged, and that is to have himself declared mentally incompetent and removed from office using the 25th Amendment. If he refuses to acquiesce to this, insisting that he doesn't lack capacity and knew that what he was doing was wrong, then his intention cannot be denied and he therefore meets the legal threshold for, at the minimum, grand jury indictment.
Every one of Trump's enablers, including Senators, Representatives and all of those who have participated in his administration without telling the truth about what was going on until their books were published, must be held to account. These people are right-wing extremists and as such should have no place in a democratic government. Their obvious refusal to stand up against all the things that this administration has done over these longest four years of our lives deems them one and all ineligible to hold any elected office anywhere. Period, full stop. These are the elected officials whose loyalty to Trump plainly matters so much more than any oath they took to uphold the Constitution.
Senators vowing to attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters, including some of their own:
Tommy Tuberville (AL), Kelly Loeffler (GA), Mike Braun (IN), Roger Marshall (KS), John Neely Kennedy (LA), Josh Hawley (MO), Steve Daines (MT), James Lankford (OK), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Bill Haggerty (TN), Ted Cruz (TX), Ron Johnson (WI) and Cynthia Lummis (WY)
House Representatives (by state)
Alabama – Mo Brooks, Jerry Carl, Mike Rogers, Barry Moore, Robert Aderholt
Arizona – Andy Biggs, Paul Gosa
California – Mike Garcia, Kevin McCarthy
Colorado – Lauren Boebert, Doug Lamborn
Florida – Matt Gaetz, Byron Donalds, John Rutherford, Bill Posey, Brian Mast, Scott Franklin
Georgia – Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jody Hice, Andrew Clyde, Barry Loudermilk
Idaho – Russ Fulcher
Indiana – Mike Braun, Jim Banks, Jackie Walorski
Kansas – Roger Marshall, Ron Estes, Tracey Mann, Lake LaTurner
Louisiana – Clay HIggins
Maryland – Andy Harris
Michigan – Lisa McClain, Jack Bergman, Tim Walberg
Mississippi – Steven Palazzo
Missouri – Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler, Billy Long, Jason Smith
Montana – Steve Daines
Nebraska – Adrian Smith
New Jersey – Jeff Van Drew
New Mexico – Yvette Herrell
New York – Elise Stefanik ***Note that this idiot is the only Democrat to sign on to this coup attempt.
North Carolina – Madison Cawthorn, Ted Budd, David Rouzer, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy
Ohio – Jim Jordan, Bob Gibbs, Warren Davidson, Bill Johnson
Oklahoma – Markwayne Mullin
Oregon – Cliff Bentz
Pennsylvania – John Joyce, Dan Meuser, Glenn "GT" Thompson, Mike Kelly, Lloyd Smucker, Guy Reschenthaler, Fred Keller, Scott Perry
South Carolina – Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, Joe Wilson, William Timmons
Tennessee – Bill Hagerty, Chuck Fleishmann, Mark Green, Diana Harshbarger, Scott DesJarlais
Texas – Lance Gooden, Ronny Jackson, Louie Gohmert, Brian Babin, Randy Weber, Pete Sessions, August Pfluger, Jodey Arrington
Utah – Burgess Owens, Chris Steward
Virginia – Bob Good, Rob Wittman
All of them should be shunned for the remainder of their public lives, removed from office and denied any ability to seek office forever.
Remember their names.
lorettarn1958	Everyday Living, Humor, Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party	Leave a comment January 6, 2021 5 Minutes
Only Two More Days
I've always been the person who walks into the room and then forgets why I went there in the first place, sometimes requiring a trip back to where I came from to jog my memory. Recently, it has gotten so much worse that I was actually starting to worry that I might have early-onset dementia. I was getting myself set to bring up my concerns during my next visit with my PCP when I read an article in The Washington Post about election stress disorder, something that wasn't even a thing until Trump.
A therapist based in Washington, DC coined the term during the 2016 election, describing those with the disorder as having "continual worry and obsession with the election that spills over into all areas of your life." Based on that, I suspect that there are millions of us in the US who have been suffering from the disorder continuously since Trump won the 2016 election.
Two days before the end of voting, record numbers of votes have already been cast all over the country, and it is reasonable to believe that many of these early votes are for Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket. The Republicans, who have based their electoral strategy since the Nixon administration on voter suppression and disenfranchisement, continue to file lawsuits in battleground states in order to stop the counting of legitimately cast ballots because they believe those votes will be for their opponent. Within those states with Republican legislatures and governors, it is not inconceivable that they could fraudulently interfere with the counting of ballots and appoint electors based on their own personal preference rather than on the will of the people of their states.
What is wrong with the Republicans as fellow Americans? How is it acceptable to them that the leader of their party has been using the bully pulpit of the presidency to spread disinformation about the security of our elections with his claims about vote rigging if he loses? The answer to that question, as has been the case for most such questions over the last four years, is that they don't care how much damage they do to the foundations of our democracy if the end result is their continued hold on the reins of power. Not only have they placed their party over the country, they have placed themselves as a minority over us all as sole arbiter of how our country should run for decades to come, regardless of the will of the majority.
The Republicans have taken core principles of our democracy and twisted them into a means of oppressing those with whom they disagree. Freedom of religion does not mean you can use your religious belief to discriminate against someone who doesn't follow those beliefs, it means we are each free to choose whether or not to have a religious belief at all. Your freedom of religion ends where it begins to infringe on my freedom to not follow any religion.
Religion, specificially christianity, has gotten entirely too enmeshed within our government, and we have under Trump (likely the most godless hypocrite to hold the office) watched helplessly as his appointees have boldly admitted that their faith is a huge factor in their policy and decision making. Mike Pompeo and William Barr proudly profess their catholic faith as if the bible doesn't instruct them to 'love thy neighbor as thyself' and to be a good samaritan and help those in need. They, like many who profess to be devout are actually using their supposed 'faith' as a way of diverting the attention from their naked desire for power, not the most 'christian' way to lead.
Not in my lifetime had I ever been forced to worry every day about what awful thing the president and his administration was going to do, until this incompetent, malignant narcissist was inaugurated in January, 2017. I don't want to have to waste any more of my life freaked out over something over which I have absolutely no control on my own, because all it does is create a constant level of anxiety 24/7 which gets elevated every time Trump does something no other president would have ever considered doing.
When is the last time a president used his the power of the presidency to spread lies about mail in ballots? What president in modern history has promoted conspiracy theories that have led some to take up weapons in defense of fabricated children? What other president has refused to denounce white supremacists? Which of the previous 44 claimed that all media is 'fake news'? How many others have used their presidency to line the pockets of their personal company with millions of dollars in taxpayer funds? Who are the others who tried to extort an ally in need for disinformation against his political opponent by withholding military assistance? Which of the former White House residents have used the pardon power to reward their friends and to keep them silent? And find me another president who did done nothing while more than a quarter million Americans died over eight months from any cause.
Donald Trump is the absolute worst person ever to hold the office of the president in the history of our country, period. While some of the ones early on were just terrible, they had much less power and were therefore able to hurt a smaller number of humans overall. Trump has had much more of an opportunity to spread his awfulness all over the world. Millions fleeing wars, famines, climate degradation and despots have been further tortured by this administration's clamping shut the gates to the country. Not only is this in and of itself unamerican (given that we non-indigenous Americans are the result of our ancestors coming from somewhere else), it is cruel, short-sighted and xenophobic. Now with this pandemic, instead of the United States working with the world to find a vaccine and treatment, he's decided to go it alone out of his selfish world-view that it's all about him. His inability to understand that the United States isn't the same as a sole proprietorship company and therefore cannot be treated as if it is his personal fiefdom.
I've mailed postcards and letters to voters in Florida, hoping to encourage them to vote, only to find out that my daughter's boyfriend hasn't even bothered to register to vote in Florida! I'm tired of hearing young people complain about the government they have while they refuse to participate and vote in order to change things. Don't leave the voting to old people and then complain about what the old people voted for. The only way for us to get a more progressive government is to vote more progressive people into office, and you cannot count on old people to do that (full disclosure – I am 62 and have voted Democratic my entire life). Young people, who have more to lose, need to quit complaining and start doing something – find others who feel like you and get them to run for something. It's past time for you to act like adults and do the hard work – get us old folks out of office and show us what we should have done years ago.
I know Joe Biden isn't the one you wanted to vote for in 2020, but you have only two choices this election. You can vote for democracy and choose the Democratic ticket, or you can choose authoritarianism and vote for Trump. The two-party system sucks, but it is what it is; wasting your vote on a third-party candidate only benefits Trump. There is no excuse for anyone who truly believes that we can do better as a society and as a country to do anything other than vote for Joe Biden for President.
lorettarn1958	Covid-19, Political Commentary, reproductive healthcare, The Democratic Party Is The Peoples' Party, This is the Republican Party, Vote Because Your Life Depends On It	Leave a comment November 1, 2020 5 Minutes
My Abortion Story
I had the unfortunate pleasure of developing my secondary sexual characteristics (breasts, wider hips, etc.) at a very early age. By 11 years old, I had already had my first period, which in an of itself was a traumatic experience. My mother knew what was coming, because she took me to the pediatrician to have him examine the 'lumps' that had developed on my chest that I can still hear him explain to her…
"They're breasts, Mother," Dr. Brogan (Dr. Louie to us kids) pronounced.
I can't remember what they spoke about after that, but surely she knew that menarche came next, right? After all, she too was a woman, and clearly had gone through puberty to have successfully had me, so what did she expect would happen next?
In any event, I found myself bleeding while on the toilet (as most girls do), and tried to get a better look at things by sitting on the edge of the tub with my legs spread so I could look at myself while simultaneously opening the door and screaming for my mom "Mon! I'm bleeding!!!!"
My grandmother came up the stairs first, and she turned to look at me in the bathroom as her head cleared the level of the floor. When she saw me, she started laughing, which only made me angry, since I was convinced I was dying.
"I'm bleeding to death, and you're laughing at me!"
With that as my introduction into my sexual maturity, it's no wonder I was completely unprepared to deal with Barry Weiner, a guy I knew from seeing him on The Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Barry was friends with Fred Richman (who had substituted for my freshman biology teacher for the last week before summer vacation) on whom I had a huge crush. Fred of course saw a high school freshman when he looked at me, while Barry saw a young woman, and that is how I lost my virginity.
Like every other teenager everywhere, I thought I knew things I had no clue about, and that became a real problem when sex entered the mix. I thought it was cool to hang out with guys who were at the very least 5 or 6 years older than I was, which at that time was 14. I had NO IDEA what the hell I was getting myself into and simultaneously lacked the wherewithal to extricate myself from the situation gracefully.
So there I was, in this seedy hotel room on Pennsylvania Avenue where many of the people who worked on Steel Pier spent the summer, lying in Barry Weiner's bed, naked, trying to talk my way out of having sex with him.
"I'm a virgin." This had to be a turn-off, right?
"I'm 14 years old." Jail-bate, so this will make him back off, right?
I know! "I have my period." How gross! That'll work, for sure!
So instead just telling him no, I don't want to do this, or just getting up, putting my clothes on and leaving like an adult, I thought I had to let him do what he wanted to do (another example of how girls were raised to do what they were told, not what they wanted). And there, on that bed where who knows what else happened before me, I lost my virginity to Barry Weiner, diver from Steel Pier and friend of Fred Richman.
Afterwards, I wondered what all the fuss was about over sex. I don't think I even knew about orgasms, and for sure didn't learn about them that day! I felt dirty and used, but decided that I had no one to blame for the entire experience but myself for getting into the situation in the first place, so I said nothing to my parents. I was so underwhelmed by the entire encounter that I decided then and there not to do it again until I was much older. By the time I started to date Donald, I had learned that telling boys I was a virgin was the best way to keep their hands out of my pants, so I told him that, too. For reasons I still don't understand, my 'friend' Rick told him that I wasn't a virgin, and Donald used that to wear me down. That, along with my awakening libido, was all that it took, and I was off to the races.
Donald and I had sex every chance we got, all of it unprotected and without any consideration of things like ovulation. Like most teenage girls, I refused to contemplate the possibility that my active sex life could result in a baby, certain that it wouldn't happen to me. A few months later my period was late, and I'll always be glad that my mother was paying attention and figured out that I was pretending to have my period.
My mom, who had more balls than most men of her age, didn't let me maintain the charade. She had me make an appointment at Planned Parenthood, where I went on my way home from school for my first gynecological exam and pregnancy test. Although I knew I was pregnant that visit, I lied to my Mom, telling her the test was negative and I'd have to go back if I didn't get my period in the next two weeks if I still didn't get my period. I wanted a little time to think about things before my parents started to pressure me about it.
During those two weeks, I dreamed about how Donald and I would have the baby and live happily ever after. It didn't take long before the reality of what was on the line became much clearer, as Donald made it very clear that he wasn't going to take any responsibility for a fetus I literally could not have made without his input. I hadn't yet made a decision the day my mom pointed out that I wouldn't be able to be a teenager anymore, missing out on dances, my friends and hanging out on Steel Pier over the summer pregnant. Having it pointed out so starkly made my decision easy, so I walked to the phone and scheduled the procedure to terminate the pregnancy.
My mom tried to get Donald's family to pitch in on the cost of the abortion, but his mother also felt he had no responsibility for the unwanted pregnancy his sperm had been crucial in creating.
My mom accompanied me to my appointment, sitting in the waiting room until I was released to go back home. I wasn't traumatized by the procedure, which was over in just a few minutes, believing then as I do now that the products of conception prior to extra-uterine viability are not a separate living being and therefore have no 'right' to life as such. This is of course my personal opinion, one that I cannot force on anyone else.
I didn't choose abortion because I wanted to kill my baby; I chose abortion because I didn't want to have a baby at all at that time. The fetus that was removed from my uterus was not a baby; it was a clump of cells with a bit of electrical activity in the area that may have developed into a heart had the pregnancy continued. At 15 years old, the future for myself and that potential baby was statistically poor, and the life that I've led since that 1974 decision, including the children I have now, would likely have been very different, indeed.
I went on birth control after that abortion because I try to learn from my mistakes. I stopped oral contraceptives only twice, both times to have planned pregnancies. Eventually, I chose to have my tubes tied in order to avoid the possibility of getting pregnant again. In the year 2020, it is unacceptable that either elective abortions or birth control should be either controversial or something that the government has any business regulating or legislating. Reproductive healthcare is women's healthcare, and no one other than each individual woman and her physician should be involved in any decision or choice.
The Republican's hypocritical insistence on ramming through another right-wing ideologue preselected by Leonard Leo and The Federalist Society to maintain their minority hold on our courts and our rights for decades to come is unacceptable. This is their last, desperate attempt to ensure they can continue to force their religious beliefs onto those of us who do not believe what they do. It is made more reprehensible because they know that they have no reason to be worried that the rights they want to deny to the majority will be unavailable to their own wives/daughters/girlfriends because those with the cash can have whatever they want, while those with the most to lose and the least ability to pay are literally screwed.
Vote. Vote. Vote.
Vote as if your life depends on it.
lorettarn1958	Everyday Living, Political Commentary, reproductive healthcare, This is the Republican Party, Vote Because Your Life Depends On It	1 Comment October 14, 2020 6 Minutes
lorettarn1958	Covid-19, Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party	1 Comment October 3, 2020 6 Minutes
The Media Has to Call a Spade a Damn Shovel!
Owner of Rode's Camera Shop for the last 8 years, Tom Gram refused to participate in the maskless Trump-staged photo-op, accusing Trump of exploiting his destroyed store for political gain…
So instead they got the former owner (holding sign, above) who supports Trump to pretend he still owns the place.
About twenty years ago, my best friend convinced me to go with her to a nude beach in northern New Jersey (the only legal one in the state). Since it was actually "Clothing Optional", I knew that I wasn't required to get naked and agreed to go but that my clothing wasn't optional. I was in my 40's and the mother of two children, and my modesty had left the building long before that first trip to Sandy Hook and I was at least game to see what she was so excited about. Besides, I was a nurse, and body parts are body parts.
We had a long ride and crowds to deal with, so we got there early enough to be able to park close to the beach access. Gunnison Beach is one of several located in The Gateway National Recreation Area, a piece of federal property with the only nude recreation area along the coast in New Jersey. It was very popular among the nudist community and was always crowded most weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
We schlepped our gear to a place near the high-tide mark to spread out our blankets and stake in our umbrellas, and I realized that I had made a mistake when I'd decided to remain in my bathing suit. What was that mistake? I'd made it all about me.
I was worried about what these people I had never seen before and likely never would again thought about my imperfect body – as if it could affect my life. It took only a few minutes to realize I had no reason to worry, because no one else was thinking about me at all. With thousands of other naked bodies everywhere, the only ones attracting attention were those at the extremes – either being extraordinarily beautiful/stacked/hung or the not – rather than being one of mostly imperfect but basically average folks all over the beach. That realization allowed me to join my friend for my first nude beach experience without feeling self-conscious, leading to my first 'everything that never saw the sun before severe sunburn" that was equally memorable.
Clearly, Donald Trump has never had an experience like that – one in which he realizes that he's the only one paying attention to him, that the world and it's people don't revolve around "The Donald". In fact, Trump insists on forcing those who have dared to point out his lack of importance in their lives to focus directly on him by forcing himself into their cities, as he did in Kenosha despite requests from the mayor and Wisconsin's governor to say away. Trump didn't go to Kenosha to spread peace, love and butterflies; he went specifically to encourage further right-wing violence against protestors and continue his ridiculous denial of the systemic racism built into every aspect of American life.
Trump's incompetence and incoherence for anything that doesn't affect himself has now cost the lives of more than 180,000 American lost to Covid-19. His bias against the WHO has now led to the US refusing to participate with 170 countries around the world to develop and distribute a world-wide vaccine for Covid-19! Sure, it makes so much more sense for the US to work all alone while almost the entire rest of the planet works together towards a viable, effective vaccine. How can the people around him support such an irrational decision?
Why is it okay that Fox News pundits are making many of the decisions that Trump then issues as dictates ten minutes later? Fox, the 'news' outlet least likely to verify a wingnut's story before broadcasting it to their viewers, has more control over our national security policy right now than all our intelligence agencies combined? Seriously? How can the idiots on Fox & Friends have more influence on the way we're (not) dealing with Covid-19 than the experts from the CDC?
Why is some crackpot radiologist from Fox now advising Trump on how to 'manage' Covid-19? Because Trump only keeps people around him who tell him what he wants to hear, and he's been waiting for some incompetent physician without any interest in "first, do no harm" to support his fantasy that the virus will just go away and to push back on Dr. Fauci's science and facts. Of course Trump would bring in this idiot who believes that everyone should just be exposed to gain 'herd immunity' no matter that some 2 millions people will die as a result while Dr. Fauci is on medical leave. Trump and those around him get to use rapid testing to clear anyone coming into contact with them and therefore have no fear that they will be infected by an asymptomatic infected person, so why give a damn about the rest of us, right?
Herd immunity is supposed to refer to the percentage of a given population that are successfully vaccinated and gain immunity in order to prevent the disease from spreading throughout the population. It is not meant to indicate the free-spread of a disease vector throughout the entire populace, killing millions and leaving (maybe) the rest immune for life. We don't know enough about Covid-19 and future immunity to even know if we can get to a vaccine, so going down this path is not only stupid, it's outright dangerous. Of course, Trump's disregard for the value of those citizens unlikely to vote for him, especially those of color, makes this decision that much easier for him to make. Having a physician without a clue whispering in his ear is not a good idea under the best circumstances – under the current ones, it's criminally negligent.
How is it acceptable to the Republican Party that the CDC, FDA and NIH are now being forced to heel by Trump, making statements in defiance of facts and science? Trump's insistence "over the last six months that "it will go away like a miracle" or that it's "no worse than catching the flu" fits neatly into his plan towards attaining 'herd immunity' by forcing the citizens of the United States to catch Covid-19, spread it to everyone they come into contact with before getting sick and possibly dying or having long-term negative health issues as a result of the virus is further proof of his malicious indifference to the lives of everyone outside of himself.
Here's the thing, though… listening to Joe Biden's speeches over the past few months has reminded the country as a whole what a President is supposed to sound and act like. Trump now realizes that everything he's been trying to throw up to see if it sticks on Joe has been for naught, because we know who Joe Biden is, just like we know who Donald Trump is, and most of us don't want Donald Trump in charge of anything, ever again. Trump brazenly and in full public view does only those things that offer a clear, personal benefit to himself, his cronies or his reelection; if there is anything that somehow benefits the country or its citizens, that is more coincidental than intentional. Trump's continued conflation of positive tests with infected people defies logic and reveals that he clearly lacks the mental capacity to continue as president. No matter how many people are tested, those who are passing this virus around are still going to do so, we just won't know where they are or who they're spreading it to, helpful in attempts to slow the spread but useless if you want to claim fewer people have been exposed on your watch. What is most disconcerting is that the people most at risk from his calculations are his cult followers, because they believe what he's telling them.
Trump spreads conspiracy theories, using his Twitter account to push all sorts of crazy stuff to his cult followers, and the far-right gangs showing up at BLM protests proves how effective they are at firing up the most extreme of his base. Trump won't do the 'presidential' thing and denounce these gangs and their long guns because he knows he will be offending his own base, again placing his hopes for reelection above the need to deescalate the situation and call off his minions. He's emboldening these people to arm themselves and show up at mostly peaceful protests where they initiate violence that has resulted in more than a few people being injured or killed. Who in any position of real authority would foment such insurrection? Since when does the president offer bogus excuses for a vigilante killing peaceful protestors?
We have to do everything we can to ensure that in January, 2021, President Biden is sworn into office and Trump's misdeeds and crimes are brought into the light. Everything we can.
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Volunteer to help
Write and mail postcards to voters https://postcardstovoters.org/volunteer/
Write and mail letters (requires a printer) https://swingleft.org/
Call voters https://swingleft.org/
Donate if you can, as much as you can comfortably afford.
Act Blue
Talk to your friends and family to make sure that they are registered to vote, have requested a vote-by-mail ballot or plan to vote early, and intend to vote for the Democratic ticket.
I have found the last one to be both the one I have the most chance of making a difference with AND the most frustrating to do successfully. My son, who turned 40 this past May, seems to be getting a good bit of his 'information' from people just like me – bloggers with opinions versus actual news media with facts to share, and I have been hard pressed to disabuse him of the things he's been hearing. He and his wife kindly agreed to let a couple and their 5 year old daughter move in when they were at risk of being homeless, and it seems that the male of this couple also believes the things my son and I have been arguing over recently, judging by his loud and uninvited interjections into my phone conversations with my son.
On my last conversation with Christopher about the upcoming Presidential election, I felt as if I'd made just a little bit of headway, after he agreed that making the perfect the enemy of the good does not benefit anyone except the Republicans. I also told him that it's up to him and his cohorts to do something if they want things to change in big ways, including by running for office, or supporting progressive candidates who support their interests in elections locally and nationally. Bitching about what came before or what is happening now without putting in some work to get to where you want things to be is just whining and blame-shifting.
Get off your ass and DO SOMETHING!
lorettarn1958	Covid-19, Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party, Vote Because Your Life Depends On It	Leave a comment September 2, 2020 8 Minutes
Make America Great Again…Again?
Do you think he considered how stupid this sounds>?
The dichotomy between the US that we are living in and the one that the Republicans claim they are living in was more than striking – it was schizophrenic. Over the course of four nights, various members of the Trump family and assorted hangers-on and Republican sycophants painted a dystopian picture of the country as great now, but ready to dissolve in anarchy and revolt should Joe Biden win in November. Where do these people live that the Covid-19 pandemic is over, or that the crisis itself was handled perfectly by Trump?
The in-your-face violations of the Hatch Act throughout the entire reality-show 'production' – which is what it was, given that the nomination was completed early Monday – using The White House, Fort McHenry, and other federally-owned properties and government employees and political appointees as backdrops for their partisan politics,further reveals the rank hypocrisy of the party as a whole. The Republicans who have claimed that they are the party of 'law and order' since the 1960's are fully complicit with using taxpayer-funded federal properties to get their president re-elected, with an abundance of violations of the Hatch Act on national television. I have to go there – if Obama had done this… Of course, they also decided it was in their own best interest that Trump should remain in office despite abusing the power of the office of the president to force an ally to announce a bogus investigation into his political rival. They are the same people we saw spreading lies and conspiracy theories during the RNC and within the Senate itself, often using Russian talking points for those conspiracies, again in order to maintain their minority hold on power. They are the same people willing to destroy the Postal Service in order to disenfranchise and suppress the votes of those of us not likely to vote for them.
The Fox 'New's bubble is so much more dangerous than we thought, because most of us don't watch them in the first place. Fox 'New's shows present Trump with stories, often unsupported by any real facts, that he then posts on his Twitter account, where there starts a dangerous echo back and forth from Trump and Fox to the base and back again. Trump ignores experts and does whatever the talking heads on Fox 'News' tell him to do. The Trump cult, unmasked and packed in like sardines, was on full display in the political events that we paid for, and it was unbelievable in its flouting of the law and in its absurdity.
I've said over and over that the lives of his followers are of absolutely no value to Trump, and his insistence on having these events with his adoring followers shouting his name at a super-spreader event is just proof of his total lack of basic human kindness and empathy. Trump has always only cared about what is in it for him, without regard to anyone else involved. When he built those casinos in Atlantic City, scores of local small businesses provided him with products and labor that Trump then screwed over by refusing to honor his contract to pay. As a candidate, he swore he would release his taxes right up until he got elected, when he admitted that no, he never intended to release his taxes.
No one should be surprised by his willingness to just throw his followers into huge petri dishes for his own edification – in fact, I'd go further and say that we should in fact expect this and worse in the coming weeks, as he tries desperately to hold on to power and the temporary immunity that the presidency affords him. Trump felt no compunction in staging the pardon of a Black man (the irony!), a naturalization ceremony (without telling the immigrants it would be used for the RNC beforehand) or using a formerly pardoned woman as a prop because nothing outside of Trump matters to Trump at all, except insofar as those things can benefit him right now.
Listening to one speaker after another would have driven me mad, and honestly, this is the kind of event that the DVR was made for. While I watched most of the DNC at normal speed with the sound turned on, I utilized fast-forward through the speakers, only listening when MSNBC interrupted to provide fact checks for the lies just aired to keep my blood pressure from rising. Altogether, it made for a much more enjoyable experience than it would otherwise have been, given the toxicity the entire thing contained.
Is it possible that somewhere out in the country there are people who agree these fever dreams are real, or do they believe the things that their eyes see and their ears hear? Of course it is! Again, Fox 'News' and its policy of 'all things Trump' provides the base with the propaganda that keeps them fired up while making it almost impossible for friends and family to disabuse those Fox-ites of their manipulated view of the country and Covid-19. These are the same cult members who refuse to wear masks or remain socially distant because of 'personal freedom' while refusing to accept that their personal freedom ends where your personal freedom to not get sick starts. The problem with elevating 'personal freedom' above the public good is that any attempt to require those freedom warriors to do their civic duty and wear a mask leads to some kind of confrontation, often with someone with a firearm.
Trump's diatribe at the end of night four was something, alright. It's so obvious whenever he reads from a teleprompter that he refuses to really familiarize himself with the speech before he goes live, between his reading like a young child (almost singing) to his mother for the first time and saying that he "profoundly" accepted the nomination. Either he was supposed to say "proudly" or his speech writer is an idiot. Or perhaps both can be true simultaneously.
Elections have consequences.
lorettarn1958	Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party, Uncategorized	Leave a comment August 29, 2020 4 Minutes
His Hubris is Stunning
How can it be acceptable that the President says out loud on camera that he is intent on preventing the US Postal Service from delivering mail-in ballots in time for them to be counted in the upcoming election and receives no rebuke from anyone in the Republican Party? Polls show that 60% of Democrats intend to vote by mail, with an equal number of Republicans expecting to vote in person. This is in no small part because we on the left receive our information from reputable sources that provide actual facts, while Trump's cult believes the bullshit they're being fed by Fox and others. A recent study revealed that people whose source of pandemic information included Sean Hannity took significantly more time to follow recommendations about mask wearing, social distancing and the like. Culling the herd, I suppose. This voter suppression effort does not seem to consider that the pandemic Trump refuses to responsibly address or even honestly discuss will be so much worse in the fall, when the flu makes its annual visit across the country. Closer to the election, when more Republicans watch their friends get sick and die because they of their denial of the facts, it will be too late for them to obtain a mail-in ballot because of Trump's interference. Sad.
What more does the 38% cult need to see before they recognize that they are complicit in an authoritarian takeover of the country? To revise the well known Martin Niemöller quotation for the present…
First they came for the undocumented, and I did not speak out – for I am not undocumented. Then they came for refugees, and I did not speak out – for I am not a refugee. Then they came for the mail-in voters, and I did not speak out – for I am not a mail-in voter. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.
The US Postal Service is older than the country and enshrined in our Constitution; it provides millions of us, especially our veterans, with life-saving medications, and Trump's callous disregard for anyone other than himself is on full display as he's doing everything he can to break the Post Office by cutting funds, removing sorting equipment, firing workers, and letting mail just sit without being delivered. He's so certain that he cannot be stopped from doing whatever he wants to remain in office that he no longer feels it necessary to keep his thoughts to himself.
How does the 'leadership' of the Republican Party sleep at night? Do they not realize that the majority of their base includes the elderly, who are far and away the demographic most at risk of dying if they contract Covid-19? Do they think that somehow their own voters' mail-in ballots will make it through the sabotaged postal service by magic? Do they so lack in foresight that the can't envision the massive protests throughout the country if their inability to react and stop Donald Trump's interference with the postal service and mail-in ballots prevents millions of legitimate votes from being counted, conceivably allowing him a second undeserved term in the White House?
Trump keeps pretending that there will be a 'civil war' if he loses in November. What he seems incapable of understanding is that the protests for Black Lives Matter will pale in comparison to the uprising that will occur if he succeeds in stealing a second election using the awesome power of the office he illegitimately occupies to do so. People are willing to risk their lives in demonstrations in order to ensure that everyone is able to have their votes counted.
Trump forgets that he isn't just keeping Democrats from having their voices heard. Almost all of those serving in the military around the world have to use mail-in ballots (many of whom vote Republican), while veterans receive all their life-saving medications exclusively from the post office. Here's the ad.
This is the only time in modern history when former members of the military have openly campaigned against the incumbent President.
Republicans seem to think that this is all going to be fine, that we will all just roll over and acquiesce to this fascist turn Trump has displayed to the world. Not only are they mistaken – they are forgetting that elections have consequences. It is not beyond the imagination that Joe Biden's Attorney General will open investigations into all the corruption that this administration has had it's hand in, and those investigations will no doubt reach into the party elites who have refused to stand up for the Constitution as Trump has run roughshod over it. They would do well to keep this distinct possibility in mind.
We will vote in numbers too big to manipulate, forcing these authoritarian dictatorial wannabes out, because our democracy cannot withstand the assault of a second Trump term. It is unthinkable and must be prevented at all costs. Anyone who cannot see that should consider packing up and moving to Puten's Russia for a closer look at what could be our future. Or maybe they should just gather together, unmasked and without social distancing, in a large arena somewhere to share their views (and their respiratory secretions). After all, if the virus is a hoax, what's the harm?
lorettarn1958	Covid-19, Political Commentary, This is the Republican Party	1 Comment August 14, 2020 4 Minutes
It's a Feature, Not a Bug
In The Washington Post today, Max Boot's opinion article "Republicans are becoming the QAnon Party" attempts what so many like him have been trying since Trump took office – to place the blame on Trump for the party being full of white nationalists and conspiracy-mongers. This is a fallacy – Republicans have been the party of white nationalists since the Civil Rights Amendment was passed by Lyndon Johnson. Nixon and Reagan, using policies purportedly enacted to control illegal drugs, set in motion the incarceration of Black and Hispanic men for 'offenses' that White citizens engaged in with impunity, particularly cannabis use. Statistically, White and Black people use pot in generally the same numbers, yet those arrested and put in jails/prisons falls almost entirely on those of color. The Reagan administration's sentencing decisions of cocaine versus crack cocaine (White versus Black use) further illustrates this point.
So white nationalists have been members of the Republican Party for decades. Conspiracy theories have also been more likely to take hold and flourish on the right as well. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that, while those at either extreme (left and right) are more likely to espouse and believe conspiracy theories overall, the tendency for those on the conservative side to believe them is significantly higher. While liberals can be led out of their conspiratorial holes by providing them with information that both debunks and increases their trust in institutions (scientists, academics, politicians), conservatives maintain their low level of trust even with increased knowledge, making it much harder to disconnect them from their conspiracy.
Right wing media outlets and social media have made things so much worse, given the speed of dissemination and repetition from platform to platform – Fox, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Sinclair Broadcasting, OAN –
boosts the suspicion and paranoia that is inherent in those most susceptible to believing in conspiracy theories. Those who limit their information only to right-wing media sources and social media reinforce their paranoid fantasies and are eventually unable to consider that their beliefs are based on bullshit, incapable of admitting that they've been wrong.
The Republicans have learned that this right-wing media bubble's repetition of these conspiracies fires up their base, and an enraged base is a loyal one, more likely to vote because they're convinced that the other side is out to get them, whether to take away their guns, force them to provide reproductive healthcare to women, prevent them from discriminating against those different from them, or to allow the LGBTQ to marry the person of their choice. They know that to deny the conspiracy theories their base spreads on social media will cost them votes; since remaining in power is the primary focus of Republicans; it is therefore beneficial for their futures and their bank accounts to spread the conspiracies instead of disproving them.
It is no surprise, therefore, that we are now living with a person in the White House who believes in any number of wild conspiracy theories – Birtherism, QAnon, Joe Scarborough as a murderer, Ted Cruz's father killed JFK, etc. – and has a fervent and devoted base willing to believe pretty much anything that spews from his word hole. We have been brought to this precipice of disaster by a Republican Party more focused on 'othering' than on governing, on enriching themselves than on what's best for the country, and on preventing everyone from voting than on changing to meet the country as it is now rather than as it was in the 1950's.
Max Boot's columns clearly reveal that he recognizes that the presidency of Donald Trump is a feature, not a bug, of the Republican Party and its policies, and I believe that he is sincere in stating that they all have to go. I just wish he wouldn't give them any chance at using Trump as an excuse to remain as they are in any way, shape or form.
While it seems necessary for there to be two parties, one liberal and the other conservative, in order to have a functioning democracy, the inability of the Republicans to actually function within a democracy puts that premise to rest. Eventually, a conservative party may reconfigure itself in a way that does not automatically disenfranchise those outside itself, focusing the policies it espouses on making life better for everyone, spreading the wealth more equally to all without using divisive rhetoric and criminalization to hold down the 'others', but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Until then, there should be no escape hatch for any of them.
The Republican Party must be crushed under the boot of democracy, and all those who have benefitted from their minority monopolization on the levers of power kept out of public life and media – no more 'both sides' crap. The Democrats want equality and equity, with safe, widespread access to the vote for everyone, since they know that encouraging the electorate to participate is the best way to ensure that they feel like their voices have been heard. Trump ran as a Republican because of their white nationalism and paranoia. He knew that he'd never convince Democrats to support him.
lorettarn1958	Political Commentary, The Democratic Party Is The Peoples' Party, This is the Republican Party	Leave a comment August 13, 2020 3 Minutes


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Steam Autumn Sale is live with some sweeter than sugar deals
By:Semir Omerovic - Ghost
Published: 09:29, 22 November 2018
Steam Autumn Sale
Another week of big discounts on Steam is ahead of us. The Steam Autumn Sale is live and it will go through Black Friday and Cyber Monday before ending on 27 November 2018. Here are some of our personal budget crushing recommendations.
Just when we thought that this week's game deals couldn't get any crazier due to Black Friday discounts, Steam have started their own Autumn Sale which will last for a whole week. Some great deals can be found already on the first day of sale, so if you're looking to spend that hard earned money on some games this is the period of the year you've been waiting for.
With so many deals flying around at the moment, we picked our personal favourites and to be honest, we would recommend some of them even at higher price points. We included games from different genres so hopefully, everyone finds something that suits them.
We'll start with Square Enix's action-adventure Nier: Automata which was one of the best games of 2017 and it's currently 50 per cent off from the regular price. You get to explore the machine-driven dystopia for just £19.99.
If you're a dinosaur fan or even better a Jurassic Park franchise fan and for some reason didn't try Frontier Developments' building simulation Jurassic World Evolution now is the time to give it a go. Manage dinos and build your Jurassic World for £17.99 which is 60% off from the initial price.
Let's give some love to Indies and support the smaller studios. Enter the Gungeon from Dodge Roll is a dungeon crawler with pixel graphics with more than 90 per cent positive reviews on Steam. You can guide your band of misfits to Gungeon's ultimate treasure for just £5.49. Another little gem is Motion Twin's action-platformer Dead Cells which features procedurally generated dungeons and you get to experience them for £17.59.
Some other, standard discounts include deals for Cities Skylines, Fallout Franchise which include Fallout 4 for £9.99, Capcom's Monster Hunter at £32.99 and for sports fans, NBA 2K19 is 50 per cent off and is sitting at £19.99.
Motion Twin Dead Cells
More games will be discounted during the sale so if your pick is not on the list at the moment check back again before the sale ends.
"Brilliant" Cyberpunk 2077 made many PC gamers happy, Gabe Newell says
Valve head honcho, his excellency Gabe Newell, has shared his thoughts on Cyberpunk 2077, claiming some of its elements are "brilliant" and that it made many a PC gamer happy.
Valve: Pleading guilty to crime we did not commit is not what cooperation means
In response to the European Commission's (EC) antitrust fine and their scathing report of Valve's conduct, the studio issued their own statement and outright denied some of the claims that had been made.
Valve, Capcom, Bethesda and others fined €7.8m in EU over geo-block exploit
Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and Bethesda's parent company Zenimax all got fined by the European Commission for violating relevant antitrust laws.
Steam getting extended support for Xbox controllers
Steam's Client Beta has been updated with extended support for four Xbox controllers, which includes rumble and key binding on Xbox Elite and Xbox Series X gamepads.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is Valve's Game of the Year
Valve's latest Steam Awards have found their respective owners. Steam's Game of the Year award went to Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2, while the Labor of Love award was given to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Valve officially launch the Steam News Hub
Valve have officially launched the Steam News Hub, a centralised place for players to browse news, updates and events related to their favourite games.
Steam breaks concurrent user record twice after Cyberpunk 2077 launch
If you needed any more proof of Cyberpunk 2077's popularity, look no further than Steam's stats, which absolutely soared in the wake of CD Projekt Red's launch.
Skul: The Hero Slayer moves 100k copies in four days
Skul: The Hero Slayer is smashing records and taking names. The indie game got its full release on Steam recently, went on to sell 100k copies and accumulate 40k concurrent viewers on Twitch.
Echoes of the Atlas has been Path of Exile's most successful expansion to date
Grinding Gear Games have announced that Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas has already become their most successful expansion to date, with more than 265k simultaneous players at launch.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I am Nancy Magill, and I am here to answer any questions you may have about Pop Haydn's products and to fix any problems that need fixing.
Just make a comment, and I will answer. Anyone can leave a comment, ask a question or review one of our products. You don't have to be a registered user of this site.
However, if you take the time to sign up, you will be considered one of our Best Customers and we will keep you informed of special offers and upcoming releases. You will be among the first to know about upcoming sales, giveaways or special coupons. You will have access to our Best Customers page where you can find coupons and special offers just for you right before you shop.
If you have a question, or want to leave a public comment, you can do so right below.
Does Pop Haydn sell the time machine?
I don't have a time machine. I was blasted into the 21st Century along with the whole town of Whitehorse Ranch, Ca in 1910, all by accident--not entirely my fault--to be stranded here with a bunch of other maroons from a very different time and place.
I've purchased the 3 Card Monte video download through Paypal today, but had to shut my cpu down before I downloaded all the files.
I wasn't registered at that moment, and I can't find a way to go back to the download links.
Could you please let me know how to download the rest of the files?
Hi Nancy. I'm trying to use Paypal to pay for a couple of downloads. I enter the code word for the 15% off before September 7th but I'm not receiving the discount. Any clues how to make this work? Thanks.
Steve: Most people with this problem either include the " marks around the code School, or fail to use the capital "S"
It is also important to click on "Apply"
If this doesn't help, let me know.
I placed an order on May 21th for the Multiple Peek DVD and a download of the Sucker Silk to Egg. (Order #760056565). Obviously I received the download immediately, but I have not received the DVD through today. I was wondering if there was a glitch or if I need to be more patient? Thanks for your help.
How do i do I download a video that I purchased? I just bought the sucker egg trick and saw the video. How do I get it back?
Is the 2014 SFS class video available for attendees?
Also, may I have access to the forum?
Do you have actual DVDs you could ship of the three shell game instruction products you offer as downloads? I have a limited data plan so downloading anything is difficult. I would prefer an actual DVD of the routines if possible. I have no problem paying extra for the DVD.
Here is a link to the DVD. Cheers!
I purchased the 4 ring routine and teleportation device downloads. I got the ring routine, but lost the link to get the teleportation downloads.I also missed out on the Thanksgiving coupon code because I didn't find it until I was searching for a way to get the other downloads - I guess that's my bad. Can you help me get to the other downloads? Thanks in advance for your kind assistance.
Please disregard the previous comment, as I received the email with the links shortly thereafter. I have also recently purchased the gold fast and loose set as well as the shell set, and have had great enjoyment working with these routines. This material has been a huge inspiration to my magic. It is unfortunate that I was negligent in registering and searching deeper to be able to access your coupons. Should you find it acceptable to make a discount available to me after the fact (being the humble and poor magician that I am) I would be most grateful. :-) If not, please know that I consider your teaching and material to be among the best in the business, and worth every dime - without the discounts. Thank you for your contributions to the field.
I was wondering when Pop's Hydrostatic Glass is expected to be back in stock. Thank you kindly for your time.
I purchased several downloads from your website. I got a new computer and I am now having trouble finding the downloads. would I be able to download them again from your website?
Does Pop sell a copy of the magnetic water display as a prop?
I just ordered a download of The Exibition Shell Game on my IPad just to have. Copy handy. However, when I try to bring it up I get a black screen with the arrow in the middle but there's a line through it which I've never seen before and it won't play. Any ideas? Have any other IPad users had this problem?
I purchased a download of 5e silk and egg routine but do not know how to,download it.
Hi Nancy I purchased Pop's download of color changing silk, order number534038873 last Thursday. When I went back to the link today I was unable to access it. Can you help me please?


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PREVIEW | 'Mysterious and spooky': The New Addams Family Trailer
in Preview
A new trailer for MGM's upcoming animated movie directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan
by Rebecca Wang 8th August 2019
Get ready to snap your fingers! The Addams Family is back on the big screen in the first animated comedy about this creepy and kooky clan. You may think your family is weird but the outlandish, bizarre, and completely iconic Addams Family, will have you thinking again. The Addams Family is directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan. Voices cast include Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll With Bette Midler and Allison Janney. The Addams Family will be released in UK cinemas 25 october 2019.
The First Look at Mary Poppins Returns is Quite Perfect
We Watched It So You Don't Have To: Leatherface
My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne and the legacy of George Bernard Shaw
First Look at Anthony Hopkins As King Lear
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Date: Tuesday, 7 December 2010, at 6:58 p.m.
I'm seeing a couple of extra lines in the output of 'onstat -l', which I can't find documented in the 11.50 administrators guide and references.
The exact lines varies (L-1 through to L-4 I think), and sometimes the entire block simply isn't there.
My naive assumption is that this probably represents a problem, and if something is waiting on buffers long enough for it to show in onstat -l for several seconds at a time?
Is anyone familiar with what this actually means?
Tristan Ball -- Tuesday, 7 December 2010, at 6:58 p.m.
Art Kagel -- Tuesday, 7 December 2010, at 8:59 p.m.
Tristan Ball -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 4:41 p.m.
Art Kagel -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 6:05 p.m.
Tristan Ball -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 8:25 p.m.
Art Kagel -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 9:01 p.m.
Fernando Nunes -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 6:19 p.m.
Tristan Ball -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 9:07 p.m.
Fernando Nunes -- Wednesday, 8 December 2010, at 9:44 p.m.


text:
Tag: Dallas public schools
Dallas Public Schools: Now, About That 13 cents
Dallas ISD will likely ask voters to approve a 13-cent property tax increase in November, its first in almost a decade. (Photo by Flickr/Stuart Pilbrow)
Hooboy. I've gotten some heated emails about the Dallas Independent School District's announcement that it would be asking voters for a 13-cent increase in property taxes come November.
And I get it. But I also think that many of the folks that emailed me, or that I've seen railing against it on social media, have only read the headline. Why do I think this?
Because frankly, all they know is that it's going up. They can't tell you how much. They can't tell me how the measure will be structured. They can't even tell me if the current rate is too high, or too low.
So it's clear we need to unpack this. If you want some excellent reasons and information, Eric Celeste and Corbett Smith have already outlined quite a bit. And let me say upfront that as a homeowner, I'm not too jazzed about my bill going up. But as I've said elsewhere while hiding in my car from my family while recording a podcast, education is infrastructure. And we have to start treating it like infrastructure.
I know we just passed a bond. But if you do or don't recall, many felt that bond election should've included a small tax increase then, to expand pre-K. It didn't, because people felt that if a tax was attached, people would vote no on the whole thing.
But if you read no other paragraph than this, read this one: You do not have to vote yes for the entire 13-cent increase. Yes, everyone that knows what's going on in Dallas ISD would like and hope you do vote for it. But three proposals will go to the voters: a 5-cent increase to fund pre-K expansion, a 4-cent increase to increase the college prep program that will ensure that more district graduates graduate with two years of free college under their belts, and a 4-cent increase to fund teacher pay increases and incentives for some of the district's best educators that agree to go some of the district's lowest-performing schools. Again, that totals 13 cents. But you don't have to vote yes for all of it (but seriously, you should). (more…)
ACE, Azle, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Frisco ISD, Godley, Highland Park, Property Taxes, recapture, Texas public school finance
Dallas Public Schools: As Trustee Elections Near, Endorsements Roll In
Voters across the Dallas area will go to the polls on May 7 to elect trustees for districts 2, 4, 5, and 7. (Photo by iStock)
Now that the date to file to run for a trustee seat in Dallas Independent Schools Board of Trustees has passed, I thought we could talk a bit about who is running, and how and when endorsements will begin to shake out.
First, the candidates. Districts 4, 5, and 7 are part of the general election. District 2 is a special election to fill the seat vacated by Mike Morath, who has been appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to helm the Texas Education Commission. Election day for the school board will be May 7, with early voting from April 25 to May 3.
In District 2, Suzanne Smith, Mita Havlick and Dustin Marshall will vie for the vacant seat. In District 3, where current trustee Nancy Bingham announced she would not be running again, three people have filed to run – Omar Jimenez, Jaime Resendez and Camile White. Marquis Hawkins and Linda Wilkerson-Wynn will join incumbent Lew Blackburn in running for the District 5 seat, while Audrey Pinkerton and Isaac Faz are running for the District 7 seat currently held by board president Eric Cowan, who announced he would not seek another term. (more…)
Audrey Pinkerton, Camile White, Dallas ISD, Dallas ISD District 2, Dallas ISD District 3, Dallas ISD District 5, Dallas ISD District 7, Dallas public schools, Dallas School Board, Dallas trustee elections, DISD school board, Dustin Marshall, Eric Cowan, Isaac Faz, Jaime Resendez, Lew Blackburn, Linda Wilkerson-Wynn, Marquis Hawkins, Mike Morath, Mita Havlick, Nancy Bingham, Omar Jimenez, Suzanne Smith
Hit the Playground: Dallas ISD Board Votes for Mandatory Recess, Expanded Pre-K
Photo: Bethany Erickson
"I get 15 minutes of recess, now I want 100 minutes," an adorable student told Dallas Independent Schools trustees last night as several of her peers also stood up to talk about how recess would help their school day.
Dallas ISD Trustee Dan Micciche took up the cause last month, and while students didn't get 100 minutes last night, trustees did vote (7 for, 1 abstaining) to require 20 minutes of recess for the rest of this year, and 30 minutes beginning in the next school year. (more…)
Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Dan Micciche, Miguel Solis, Pre-K, recess
Dallas Public Schools: Making the Case for Recess
Photo: USDA/Flickr
Any adult of a certain age (cough) can tell you about recess at school. I remember having three recesses – two quick 15 minute excursions outside in the morning and afternoon, and about 30 minutes or so at lunch.
Occasionally you'd get in trouble and have to sit on a square – but you were still outside. At the time, it seemed obvious that sending kids outside for breaks helped them learn. There was no science needed to discuss it – it was just universally accepted that recess was important.
But then, something happened. I'm not sure when (although some attribute it to increased high-stakes testing), but when I asked kids about recess recently, I got a lot of blank looks. When I first started asking about it, I thought maybe they used a different word now – after all, we don't call pipe cleaners pipe cleaners anymore, and sitting Indian style has become "criss cross applesauce" or something. I'm elderly, so maybe there's another name for recess, right? Maybe they call it "outdoor learning," or "physical matriculation" or "a hard reset" or some other newfangled phrase that means "send the kids outside and let them have a learning break." (more…)
American Academy of Pediatrics, bullying, Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Dan Micciche, Disd, DISD board of trustees, recess, Stanford University
Dallas Public Schools: It's Official – Hinojosa's at the Helm
Michael Hinojosa, courtesy Dallas ISD
To nobody's surprise, the Dallas school board voted 6-1 to approve the hiring of former Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa to his old post permanently. He had been serving as interim superintendent of Dallas public schools since June.
The lone dissenting vote was Joyce Foreman.
Hinojosa will be paid $350,000 a year, and will still collect his $200,000 per year pension. He did choose to eschew some perks, such as cell phone allowance, health insurance and car allowance, board president Eric Cowan told the Dallas Morning News Monday, prior to tonight's called meeting.
Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Dallas superintendent search, Eric Cowan, Joyce Foreman, Michael Hinojosa
Dallas Public Schools: How Will I Vote on the Bond?
Dallas Growth
Photo courtesy DISD
For $1.6 billion, Dallas ISD says it will build nine new and replacement schools, add almost 300 more classrooms, expand space for pre-K, as well as new science and technology labs. But before that can happen, the district has to sell everyone on a bond election to raise the money.
I'm not going to tell you how to vote, but I'll tell you how I'm going to vote in the November 3 bond election for Dallas public schools. And furthermore, I'll tell you why.
A few months ago, I literally drove from one end of the district to the other. I stopped at schools in every single feeder pattern and noticed a common thing – portable buildings. Have you ever been inside one? They're often nearly windowless, they're completely devoid of charm, and we also subject our elementary students to walking to them in all the elements.
Almost every single campus has 'em. One campus has almost 20. And no, this bond election won't end the scourge of portable buildings, but it will give some feeder patterns and schools some much-needed breathing room through re-opening and building new schools and renovating and adding on to existing schools. It will make sure that students have the opportunity to learn STEM skills in cutting-edge labs. It will make sure that we have enough space to address the ever-growing need for pre-K space.
And the latter, I promise, is something we need to invest in especially. Want to see test scores go up? Improve early education. You'll have to pack your patience, but when the reading and knowledge gaps are addressed early and kids are reading at grade level by third grade, organically test scores can improve. It's not rocket science, it's simply putting the cart and the horse in the appropriate places. (more…)
bond ratings, Dallas ISD, Dallas ISD bond election, Dallas public schools, Election Day, Fitch, new Dallas schools, Parsons, portable buildings, preK, STEM, Texas Comptroller Leadership Circle
Dallas Political Scene
Dallas Public Schools: How to Keep an Eye on School Board Meetings (and Still Eat Dinner)
So, you probably feel like you should be keeping an eye on the school board meetings. But those meetings, you hear, can be marathon sessions of wrangling and hyperbole and you have a four-year-old to put to bed. You have sleeping to do. You have a life to live.
This is probably why I got so excited this weekend when I met with Melissa Higginbotham of Dallas Kids First, and she showed me the group's latest endeavor – a school board vote tracker. The last school board meeting is already up and ready to go, complete with how your trustee voted on each item on the agenda, which items got moved from the consent agenda for more discussion, and whether the item passed. They've also taken the time to note certain measures they feel are important – usually ones that impact students and teachers.
3700 Ross, Bernadette Nutall, Dallas Education, Dallas ISD, Dallas ISD School Board, Dallas Kids First, Dallas public schools, Dallas real estate news, Dallas School Board, Dan Micciche, Edwin Flores, Eric Cowan
Dallas Public Schools: Gearing Up for a Bond Election
Last March, the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the bridge fund – a stop-gap measure aimed at taking funds out of the very healthy district surplus to address immediate needs on several campuses. During the debate, more than a couple of trustees said their vote came with a healthy amount of trust – trust that voters would remember their schools when the time came for a bond election.
Well, that time just may be coming. Dallas public schools have upwards of $1.8 billion in needed repairs, upgrades and deferred maintenance that must be addressed. Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at a detailed report of the district's needs offered in this 2013 report by Parsons Environment & Infrastructure Group Inc. In the meantime, the district is also conducting a series of town hall meetings to allow voters to educate themselves about the possible bond program, as well as what exactly it will address. You can also poke around on this site to see the various reports the Future Facilities Task Force has made to the board.
The next meeting will be Wednesday, August 19, at 6 p.m. at the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, 10707 Preston Road, Dallas. Trustees Edwin Flores and Mike Morath will be on hand to answer questions and explain the potential program.
Board of Trustees, bond election, bridge plan, Dallas ISD, Dallas public schools, Edwin Flores, Future Facilities Task Force, Mike Morath


You can make this cute little burlap bunny in less than 30 minutes. Add him to your Easter Tablescape, tuck him in a planter or stuff him into a basket. Super easy to make weekend craft.
Burlap bunny is made in less than 30 mins. He's perfect for sticking into a basket or tucking into an Easter Display. Try putting him in an Easter Wreath too?
Just cut out 2 burlap pieces using a stencil. Fusible panels can be attached to prevent shedding. Once these are ironed on, you can stitch and stuff.
Add buttons for eyes and a ribbon bow.
To find out more details and where I got the stencil, visit the link below.
The yellow flowers in the photo above are Primson and the only color of Primrose that is fragrant .
There are 2 shades of yellow. Smell one next time you see them. The fragrance is very similar to the Freesia.
This is so cute. I am definitely making some. Thanks.
How do I remove a water stain off a side table?
Burlap Burlap! How Do I Count The Ways!


The European Academy of Optometry and Optics has adopted a new Code of Conduct.
This code is in line with the Academy's Objects and it is expected that all Academy members will subscribe to it.
This Professional Code of Conduct was developed by the European Council of Optometry and Optics over a period of several years, with a focus on determining broad principles which can be applied to any country.
The Code lays down ethical principles relating to the conduct of professionals in the profession of optometry and optics, and sets out obligations and behavioural duties for those professionals.
The Code does not assume that optometry and optics are regulated but requires that in countries where the optical profession is regulated, professionals will comply with the requirements of the regulatory body.
The Code complies with Community law and in particular internal market and competition law. It also complies with basic freedoms to establish and provide services as guaranteed by Articles 43 and 49 of the EC Treaty and by the related statutory instruments.