For the first morning since last Sunday I feel almost normal. I have been sick for a week, Ron thinks we had a version of Covid. I don’t care what the name of the thing is all I know is it put me in my bed. I like my bed but not anywhere that much. But the roundup still got done. Ron said I was crazy and I told him it is an addiction to editorial cartoons. Scottie
After a blockbuster year, the 5 biggest Wall Street banks just paid out $142 billion in bonuses and compensation for 2021 — $18 billion more than in 2020.
Why do banks do so well when people are suffering? Let's go back to the 1980s.https://t.co/IebqruygTd
Republicans can’t defend their policies. Killing the political conversation is their mission.
Republican religion, nor their pro-life gaslight, will ever look to help the poor/vulnerable.
Helping the richest is their zero sum game.
Also, people like Putin create refugees through their military/foreign policy, [see Syria], yet conservatives love Putin.
By creating refugees, conservatives always have a boogeyman to frighten their base.
Conservative policies are about isolation and lonerism. Inclusion is a threat.
We are a society of different people, and that scares people who only value whiteness.
Empathy evolves in stages. Some people will always be stunted at the lower levels. Unfortunately, those at the lower levels can’t experience/see/feel what the people at the higher levels experience. That discrepancy between levels is what defines our current politics.
Under funding schools and education is criminal.
Teachers are long a target of conservative cuts. Teachers are 75% women.
We will never have strong communities until we invest in schools and teachers as core infrastructure. This is the foundation.
Unfortunately, there are Not two sides of the same. The GOP Big Lie is a Fact… and So is their attempt at voter-suppression. The Dem side is a Big Truth, and should be noted as such. At least he has confessed the “Big Lie” to be a lie. That’s progress. His lame attempt to both-sides the dishonesty is no more blameworthy than the snarls of a cornered beast. With apologies to Upton Sinclair, It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his standing within his tribe depends upon his not understanding it. Scottie
Is that not the job of the press secretary? It has been done in every administration I can remember. Often it is a deliberate attempt to get a conversation going in the media or to change the Overton window. I would point out the prior administration went through a lot of press secretaries because they were required by their boss to flat out lie to back up his many lies. Scottie
Other than a small minority of cult like followers no one likes tRump nor wants him to run in 2024. More and more Republicans are openly saying it as tRump’s influence over the base is shrinking. The 2020 presidential election was not about Biden and his polices, but a referendum on tRump. tRump was rejected. He will be rejected by an even larger margin if he runs again. Scottie
The right wing media is desperate to bring Biden down. Think on it, what have the Republicans done they can brag about? They are reduced to lying about supporting bills they voted against. So they hammer on Biden’s poll numbers. It is partly the Biden’s peoples fault, they don’t brag enough on what they have accomplished, unlike the former guy who had to make most things up. Scottie
The distinction is extremely clear to me. If you don’t get it, try being a pregnant female. BEFORE birth, there’s a woman who has bodily autonomy or she’s less than a full human. AFTER birth there are two humans.
This is BS propaganda. Abortions after gestational age of 21 weeks are extremely rare (<1%). They are fundamentally illegal unless medically necessary. The vast majority of those abortions are when the fetus is no longer viable. Overturning RvW most likely will not even ban these types of abortions more than they are now.
That fetus abandoned in the trash was most likely a baby that the mother had to conceal because she didn’t know what else to do. This is often caused by the stigma created by families about pregnancy outside of marriage by young women incapable of taking care of the child. It speaks to the fact that American society does less to encourage a mother to keep her child by supporting both the mother and child (the infamous “welfare mother” stigma). It’s so much easier for conservatives to punish the mother for getting an abortion and forcing her to carry the baby’s to terms and then abandon both mother and child. Scottie
Florida State Capitol building (Photo Credit: State of Florida)
TALLAHASSEE – A Republican majority Florida House Education & Employment Committee passed HB 1557, the Parental Rights in Education bill, colloquially referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill advancing the measure to the full House.
HB 1557 and its companion Senate bill SB 1834, would ban classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, erasing LGBTQ identity, history, and culture — as well as LGBTQ students themselves.
The bill also has provisions that appear to undermine LGBTQ support in schools and include vague parental notification requirements which could effectively “out” LGBTQ-identifying students to their parents without their consent.
“The Trevor Project’s research has found that LGBTQ youth who learned about LGBTQ issues or people in classes at school had 23% lower odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the past year. This bill will erase young LGBTQ students across Florida, forcing many back into the closet by policing their identity and silencing important discussions about the issues they face,” said Sam Ames, Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project. “LGBTQ students deserve their history and experiences to be reflected in their education, just like their peers.”
In an email to the Blade, Brandon J. Wolf, the Press Secretary for Equality Florida noted; “Governor DeSantis’ march toward his own personal surveillance state continues. Today, the Don’t Say Gay bill, a piece of legislation to erase discussion of LGBTQ people from schools in Florida, passed its first committee and became another component of an agenda designed to police us in our classrooms, doctor’s offices, and workplaces. Make no mistake — LGBTQ people are your neighbors, family members, and friends. We are a normal, healthy part of society and we will not be erased.”
This will kill kids, @RonDeSantisFL. You are purposefully making your state a harder place for LGBTQ kids to survive in. In a national survey (@TrevorProject), 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide last year. Now they can't talk to their teachers? https://t.co/VtfFLPlsn3
The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that more than 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.
According to a recent poll conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of The Trevor Project, 85% of transgender and nonbinary youth — and two-thirds of all LGBTQ youth (66%) — say recent debates about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health.
When asked about proposed legislation that would require schools to tell a student’s parent or guardian if they request to use a different name/pronoun or if they identify as LGBTQ at school, 56% of transgender and nonbinary youth said it made them feel angry, 47% felt nervous and/or scared, 45% felt stressed, and more than 1 in 3 felt sad.
The Florida House is moving to ban LGBTQ history and inclusive conversations in the classroom. They’re targeting the identities of CHILDREN.
We need to show students that they belong and that there is power in loving yourself.
I had chemo in 2020 which means I sat alone (b/c, the pandemic) with my hands/feet immersed in ice and have been nauseous/ constipated and lost my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes.
This has been worse. I’d rather get chemo all over again than get back on the phone w/@EmblemHealth 9/
People deserve to have the right of free healthcare. It should be one of the main functions of the government to care for the well being of the people. Oh wait it is but that part is ignore in favor of profit. We need universal expanded Medicare for all
9 day, 8000 worker strike and the New York Times hadn’t covered it once, they did however publish 26 separate articles about a rich tennis player being inconvenienced by Australia’s vaccine rules https://t.co/6quN1Iq0Y1
Biden acknowledges he didn't anticipate how much opposition he would face from Rs.
Which is something bc much of the 2020 primary was everyone yelling at him that he was failing to anticipate how much opposition he would face from Rs after he promised they'd have an "epiphany."
Justice Roberts, this shame is on you. Your legacy is that of vengeful racism. You destroyed voting rights for millions. You are the architect of undermining election integrity and global disenfranchisement of non-white voters.
Yeah, Lisa! Nothing worse than preventing the country from crumbling into the rubble of a third world nation! Good thing the Obstructionist party is hard at work preventing progress and making sure needless defense contracts keep getting filled! Scottie
Hillary has not even hinted at running. The right loves that they have made her such a boogieman after 30 years of attacks and they can not wait to trot her out to scare their base. It is that simple. No one in the Democratic party has wanted her to run again, it is just the left hoping to gin up outrage in the cult. Republicans had an opportunity to prevent this twice by voting to convict Trump. Republicans can also prevent Trump from running by taking him to task for his lies about voter fraud. They can also stop rigging the system in order to make it harder for people to vote and creating a situation where Republicans can overturn any election results they don’t like. Meanwhile, it is unlikely Hillary will be running since there is a Democrat in the White House. Besides what is the big deal? The Republican Party failed to lock her up, so it looks like she did nothing wrong. Scottie
I am seeing versions of this everywhere. It is very misleading. Democrats do not mind ID, but we are against the Republican ID requirements that make ID’s nearly impossible for some people to get and they accept only certain ID’s they think their voters might have no matter how obscure while denying popular forms of ID’s that Democratic voters might have. Scottie
A hateful antisemite spat on an 8-year-old Jewish boy outside a Brooklyn synagogue, cruelly telling the youngster and his friends that “Hitler should have killed you all,” cops said Wednesday.
The woman, dressed in an orange hoodie, black leggings and black Uggs, can be seen on surveillance video storming up to the boy and two other children on Avenue P near Coleman St. in Marine Park just after 12:30 p.m. Friday.
NYPD are looking for a woman wanted for an aggravated harassment incident in front of 4017 Avenue P on Jan. 14. (DCPI)
The children were standing in front of the Kehal Tiferet Avrohom Ziditshov Orthodox synagogue, according to cops.
The woman stood in front of them and shouted, “Hitler should have killed you all. I’ll kill you and know where you live,” cops said. She then spat, turned around and walked off, they said.
Police describe her as a woman in her 20s with a light complexion, about 5-foot-3 and 140 pounds, with long black hair.
Cops ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
There is a clear video of the woman going out of her way to walk up to the boy and doing what she did, then turning around and walking away at the link above. Scottie
Catch up note. I have been sick since Sunday. I thought it was from entertaining on Saturday and staying up far too late. But it is far more than that. Ron had not felt well for more than a week. His symptoms were not as severe as mine are but they were mostly the same. He had gotten over it so we did not worry. I was not feeling well for a few days after Sunday but Wednesday was bad and yesterday was really bad and today is like yesterday. Head full, slight headache, hot sweats, cold periods, fever, extreme nausea, vertigo, really tired, intermittent running nose that we thought that was allergies. Yes we both now think I have Omicron or some version of Covid and that he did also. Wednesday and yesterday spent most of the day in bed. This morning got up early thinking I could do some news stories I had missed, but this is not working. I am going to get as much done before I am forced back to bed. The thing is in Florida it is really hard to get a Covid test and before I would get any result I would be over it. So I will just quarantine at home just in case. ** Took all day with many rest periods, I am now going back to bed. I will try to get to comments tomorrow. ** Scottie
Since the pandemic began, a new billionaire has been created every 26 hours. Meanwhile, 160 million people have been pushed into poverty across the globe.
We solved the mysterious heretofore inscrutable riddle for reducing poverty which is give people money and food but now it’s time to Go Back To Normal so that means it’s time to gut, sunset and means test everything good out of existence lest the plebs not want to work sick
1) Donors give huge sums to elect corporate politicians 2) Corporate politicians block hugely popular legislation 3) Donors make a huge profit 4) Repeat
It all ties back to one thing: The flood of corporate money unleashed by Citizens United.
– the American Rescue Plan – bipartisan infrastructure deal – record low unemployment – Jan 6 Committee – 41 federal judges – most ever in a year – student loan forgiveness reform w/ more coming – nearing 70% vax rate
"Pff. We don't need to define CRT and demands to the contrary are pure bad faith."
Oklahoma legislature: "Anyone who teaches Critical Race Theory will lose their job and must pay $10k per incident. No, we will not be defining the term at this time."https://t.co/MkYm48fBHCpic.twitter.com/z8iXL5hzBz
“We seem to be headed back to the society Michael Schwerner, James Cheney, and Andrew Goodman fought against with their lives.” Mickey, by @RBReichhttps://t.co/MyfVFom1tF
The old white guy cartoonist pretended in the article that went with this cartoon that Biden should do this to protect black people and to increase the wages of black people. Right. Immigration has fallen for the last decade and it has not increased the wages of black people. The real issue is that the brown people coming here do have more children right now than the white people already here. So again the idea of a white majority or white ethnostate is what drives these racist on immigration at the southern border. Scottie
Wright and one other right wing media cartoonist keep trying to push Hillary into the limelight, to force the idea of Hillary running again to rile up their base. They know that for 30 years the right wing media villainize Hillary and the right wing base is in a constant rage about her while the independents are sure she must have done something wrong even though she has never been found guilty of any Republican charge. Hillary has not even suggested she is running nor that she thinks Joe should be replace. Scottie
I think this must be a regional thing. Yes we have a few things that are short like cat food. But mostly it is just one brand name missing with plenty of that item by by a different supplier. Our problem is the costs of stuff. The price of meat is out of this world along with milk which is $5.48 a gallon here. There are other things Ron comes home just all upset over the price of, but we are not yet scrounging for food as Tony Perkins claims due to Biden.
Bullshit! What about the money for the defense department? Tax cuts for the wealthy never get cost checked. But anything helping the people or taking care of the decaying nation needs is called tax and spend liberalism. The people are not buying the misleading talking point anymore. Scottie
While Biden was not articulate in how he put it, he was right. We know Putin has special operations people in Ukraine. He has troops out of uniform helping the separatist. Biden did not want to get in to a war over those handfuls of Russian troops. However he has made it clear that if Putin tries to take any more of Ukrainian territory they will pay a huge price in retaliation. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
This is BS propaganda. Abortions after gestational age of 21 weeks are extremely rare (<1%). They are fundamentally illegal unless medically necessary. The vast majority of those abortions are when the fetus is no longer viable. Overturning RvW most likely will not even ban these types of abortions more than they are now.
That fetus abandoned in the trash was most likely a baby that the mother had to conceal because she didn’t know what else to do. This is often caused by the stigma created by families about pregnancy outside of marriage by young women incapable of taking care of the child. It speaks to the fact that American society does less to encourage a mother to keep her child by supporting both the mother and child (the infamous “welfare mother” stigma). It’s so much easier for conservatives to punish the mother for getting an abortion and forcing her to carry the baby’s to terms and then abandon both mother and child. Scottie