Ten Bears posted this yesterday, and it’s great. Earlier yesterday, I saw the video linked below, also great. Morning cheer!
(Saturday’s post on Sunday. Saturday was National Lazy Day. I actually got my Inbox clean and organized, along with other areas in my actual house. But slowly and peacefully! Some might say lazily? Anyway, maybe that’s why news was slow. Or, could it be, Satan? I mean, the US news media?)
“This clip is the Harris/Walz crowd in Arizona yesterday. It’s big, and these people are turned up to eleven.
“Now, I understand the news media like to cover Donald Trump–if it bleeds, it leads, and there’s probably money riding on his having a big old red-faced aneurism on stage one day or of course, he just spews his usual ‘American carnage’-flavored rant–it’s a lurid carnival where both the observers and the observed are the freak show.
“But what if there was a thirst for something different and better? Maybe instead of hearing for the hundredth time about low water pressure and whales being driven mad by windmills, insults against journalists, other politicians, immigrants, wide swaths of the American people, and of course, lying about every little thing under the sun and a few beyond it, we could have a conversation about something more constructive than that.
“I think this is the podium to train the cameras on–not the empty one that stays empty even when a late, sweaty, angry old man finally lumbers behind it. Take a look at this crowd, and what had happened to those poll numbers over the last two-three weeks, and ask yourself ‘What are these people seeing now that they weren’t before?’
“This looks like news to me. What if we just want some good news for a change? What if people are tired of being mad and just want nice things for a change? What if they want some truth? For a change?
“You know, I could go with that. I think a lot of people could.”
https://vixenstrangelymakesuncommonsense.blogspot.com/2024/08/this-looks-like-news.html
Pardon me, but I am tired. I’ve been tired for years, and this just seems to get worse and worse as time goes by, and it has made me feel truly disheartened and dispirited about posting things I think on, and frankly of even thinking.
Truthfully, it makes it difficult to speak on serious issues, difficult to think on serious things, difficult to converse with neighbors and friends and family about the hopes and hurts of our day. I don’t know how to speak on seriousness with someone who has given up on respect and seriousness. I don’t know how to speak on reality with someone who doesn’t share a common reality! For instance…
Did you know that if you believe someone has the right to be gay, to be trans even, to be genuine!, to be able to read books about others who have struggled with similar things, that you are “a pedophile and want to maim children”? That’s what we are being told.
Did you know that if you believe in constitutional rights, individual rights, health care rights, and feeding children, you “hate America“? That’s what we are being told.
Did you know that if you think Israel has gone too far and has moved past defending its citizens and interests and is moving down a road of genocide, you “hate Jewish people and are a terrorist“? That too is what we are being told.
Did you know that if you believe that regulations are needed to ensure that people are safe, that industries don’t pollute our waterways and ground, that air pollution is toxic to the continuity of humanity, that you are “a burden on future generations and that you want America to fail“? Haven’t you heard this? I am told this all the time.
Did you know that finding a direct correlation between the prevalence of guns, the romanticization of of guns, and the unwillingness to be responsible for healthy training and use of guns to the number of children and other innocent people being victimized by guns means that you “want criminals to ruin our country“? Aren’t you watching the news? This is what we are supposed to believe.
And, I’m tired. I’m tired of trying to argue against utter nonsense and innuendo masqueraded as political wit and the solution to what ails the country is slinging batshit crazy names at someone who thinks there must be a better way. Is it too much to hope that we can get a government interested in tackling the problems and opportunities we face in America, interested in debating the pro’s and con’s and finding good solutions, or must we continue to be part of this Jr. High bullshit?
Hugs. Randy
by: Spencer Humphrey/KFOR Posted: Aug 8, 2024 / 10:00 PM CDT, Updated: Aug 9, 2024 / 06:06 PM CDT
(I sent this to me to post a couple of days ago; I lost it in the Inbox. But it’s been updated, anyway, so here it is. I suppose this is another thing, like the taxpayer-funded trips, that Walters, et al. were doing while everyone was looking at the Bibles in the classroom thing. In addition, most of the links included here go to yet more stories about Walters and his crew.)
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — The Oklahoma State Department of Education is attempting to take away certain funds the state legislature allotted school districts to make security enhancements after the Uvalde shooting, even though OSDE’s website said districts would be able to keep the money—until lawmakers began asking questions.
Now, numerous Republican lawmakers are calling for State Superintendent Ryan Walters to be held accountable, with at least one of them calling for Walters to be impeached for the first time.
OSDE no longer has lawyers on staff according to department’s website
In 2023, Oklahoma legislators overwhelmingly passed House Bill 2904. The bill provided Oklahoma schools with $150 million to make security enhancements to campuses and hire school resource officers in the wake of the 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which left 21 people dead.
HB2904 created a three year revolving fund, in which every school district in the state would receive approximately $96,000 per year for three years to make the improvements.
Several superintendents from mostly rural districts across Oklahoma told News 4 it was their understanding that they would be allowed to roll over any unused funds from one year to the next.
They told News 4 they planned to let their ‘Year One’ funds roll over to the following years until they saved enough to pay for improvements that would cost more than $96,000.
OSDE paying Texas-based company $50k+ to make social media videos
But now, those superintendents—who spoke to News 4 anonymously—say the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) denied them access to leftover ‘Year One’ funds they had not yet spent.
The superintendents say, without the leftover Year One funds available, they will have to cut the security improvements they planned to make, including additional school resource officers, secure entry vestibules, bulletproof windows, and more.
OSDE’s lawyers are now telling lawmakers they believe HB2904 did not allow for funds to rollover each year.
This bill’s authors say that is not, and never was the case.
Several republican lawmakers spoke out to News 4 about the issue, and how they feel about Walters’ role in it all.
“It gets me upset,” State Rep. Eddy Dempsey (R-Valliant) said.
“It just seems like it’s getting untenable at this point,” State Sen. Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) said.
“[Walters] answers to the legislature,” State Representative Mark McBride (R-Moore) said. “And it’s time to stop.”
Russia fighting intense battles against major Ukrainian incursion – https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-imposes-security-regime-three-border-regions-after-major-ukrainian-attack-2024-08-10/
Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august10
| August 10, 1883 Adrian “Cap” Anson refused to field his visiting Chicago White Stockings team in an exhibition baseball game if the Toledo Mud Hens included star catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker in their lineup. Chicago’s Captain Anson, who grew up in slaveholding Iowa, said he wouldn’t share the diamond with a non-white player. After more than an hour’s delay, Charlie Morton, the Toledo manager, insisted that if Chicago forfeited the game, it would also lose its share of the gate receipts; Anson relented.  Moses Fleetwood WalkerMorton had not planned to have Walker catch due to injury, but insisted on putting him in at centerfield, despite Cap Anson’s objections. |
August 10, 1948  Gay rights activist Harry Hay organized what later became the Mattachine Society (originally ~ Foundation), a groundbreaking 1950s gay rights organization. The group was named after the Mattachines, a medieval troupe of men who went village-to-village advocating social justice. Mattachine: Radical Roots of Gay Liberation: https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mattachine:_Radical_Roots_of_the_Gay_Movement |
August 10, 1984 Two Plowshares activists, Barb Katt and John LaForge, damaged a guidance system for a Trident submarine with hammers at a Sperry plant in Minnesota. In sentencing them to six months’ probation, U.S. District Judge Miles W. Lord commented, “Why do we condemn and hang individual killers, while extolling the virtues of warmongers?“ “  Barb KattMore plowshares actions: https://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/issue42/articles/a_history_of_direct_disarmament.htm |
August 10, 1988 President George H.W. Bush signed legislation apologizing and compensating for the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. President Franklin Roosevelt had authorized the round-up of hundreds of thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry, some of whom were American citizens, as security risks. Most lost all their property and were moved to relocation camps for the duration of the war (though not in Hawaii, then not yet a state, where public opposition would not allow it).  |
August 10, 1993 Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second woman and 107th Justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. |
August 10, 2005 Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on two charges of “insubordination before command” and “insubordination before command for trying to escape from military service” because he refused to serve in the Turkish Army. He would not sign any paper, put on a uniform, nor allow his hair and beard to be cut. He went on two extended hunger strikes to protest his arrest and abuse while in Sivas Military Prison. War Resisters International has supported his efforts throughout his ordeal. He was released unexpectedly from prison after one year.  Read more: https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2005/turkey-conscientious-objector-mehmet-tarhan-hunger-strike-more-32-days |
Scottie's Playtime 