Daily cartoon / meme roundup: For many their wallets run dry long before the needs do

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Scottie’s world today

reason for the naughty list

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The roundup is short and late today because my blood sugar went uncontrolled and I was in bed in bad shape most of the day. Ron started talking at 2:30 PM of either calling my doctor or taking me to the E.R. I nixed both options for having something to eat. Story below.

I have been having trouble with my blood sugar coming down in the morning when I get up. It has been around 190 to 225 when I get up this last week. No idea why, my diet has not changed. It has been climbing for a month from my normal morning reading of 120 to 130 to the 160’s and 180’s. This morning it was 244. All week I would take my medications and every hour check my blood sugar again. Until this morning with in two hours it would be back to normal. This morning it did not come down but instead went up.

One hour after getting up it was 258. The next hour it started to come down. It went to 181 and then at 8 AM it hit 133. I figured everything was fine and back to normal. I was wrong. I had breakfast while Ron was shopping at Walmart because I don’t go there. He was going to come home and I was going out with him to the local two grocery stores. Only when he got home I was in trouble. I was diaphoretic, dizzy, confused, tired. Ron did a blood sugar and I was near 300. He gave me some medications, as much water as I would take and I went to bed. He kept checking me. I woke up around noon, checked the blood sugar and it was still in the low 200’s. It was coming down but too slowly. I went back to bed.

At 2:30 it was back to about 150. Ron still wanted to call my doctor but I said let me eat first and then I will. He fixed me a salad and steak, no carbs to speak of, and none of the ones I wanted. After I ate I again got diaphoretic, shaking, dizzy, nausea. We checked my blood sugar and I was down to 80. I was crashing, my blood sugar was going down too fast too far. Ron was looking for the glucose tablets when I grabbed a MT Dew in the fridge and downed it. Then I followed it up with a few cookies. Not smart. Yes it brought my sugar back up and I started to feel great, then my sugar went to high and I got real tired. So I went back to bed. I just got up at 5:30 PM and I am still tried. I wanted to post what I had gotten done on the roundup, then I am going back to bed I think.

Don’t worry Ron will be perched over my shoulder for the next three days watching everything I put in my mouth. He will want blood sugars if I even look slightly wrong. He has already read me the riot act and told me repeatedly everything I did wrong, repeatedly. And then did it again to make one of us feel better. So that was my day, how was yours? Hugs

almost to the finish line

Where at least three people are known / charged with voting multiple times for tRump. Hugs

long arm of the law meadows

PA's party of individual freedom is trying to use our drivers licenses and partial SSecurity numbers to continue their idiotic efforts to overturn election results. Thanks for strengthening the surveillance state, guys. https://t.co/WLkI9EzJ5u

— Signe Wilkinson (@SigneWilk) December 14, 2021

taxpayers not paying for schooling

Andy Marlette for Dec 15, 2021

““Very frankly,” Ronald Reagan said of Roots, “I thought the bias of all the good people being one color and all the bad people being another was rather destructive.””

— Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 by @rickperlstein https://t.co/LbFl44qIPH

— Seth Cotlar also at sethcotlar@mastodon.social (@SethCotlar) December 14, 2021

bann crt prayers for guns

I am a medic

This enraging and horrific – and exactly the world that many anti-trans activists have been working to create.

These people rip children from mothers and give them to abusive fathers, all the while whining that being asked to use they/them pronouns is creeping totalitarianism. https://t.co/22x3QXWYZ0

— Barry makes comics (@barrydeutsch) December 16, 2021

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

Oh dear me, the cartoonist giggling so hard at Biden’s approval numbers, claiming they are so bad fail to remember their cult leaders approval numbers on the same day in his presidency were worse than Biden’s. The approval numbers for tRump were 36.4 and for Biden were 43.8 on day 330 of their terms. In case you can not count, that means Biden is more popular than tRump was. So if it is bad for Biden then it was worse for tRump. Hugs https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/

When is some other country going to come over here and solve our problems? I didn’t see anyone stepping in to stop trump or the republican terrorist attacks. Where is the UN? Where has the idea of the US as the world police gotten us? A huge bloated military budget and our own problems at home not addressed. It is time to realize the rest of the world are entitled to make their own choices and they don’t have to do what we tell them nor follow our doctrines. The US is the busybody of the world. Time for us to stop and mind our own business. Hugs

The Build Back Better bill was paid for and the original CBO score based on the bill showed that. No debt. Manchin had said he wouldn’t vote for it if it added to the debt. The Republicans couldn’t use this real score to sink the bill as it was showing the bill paid for. So they demanded the CBO do another score, one that they set the parameters, the rules for. For the new score they added a bunch of things not in the bill to what they wanted scored. That added a bunch of debt. So dishonest. It is like you going to the store with a budget and staying to the budget but at the check out I add a bunch more stuff in your cart you did not plan to buy and then I use that to claim you were over budget. I busted your budget and then use that to claim you shouldn’t get any of the stuff you planned for in the first place. Hugs

A trillion dollar millstone around the necks of young adults. Civilized nations make it possible for everyone to access affordable higher education, because it is considered a right and beneficial to society as a whole, not an opportunity to make big bucks on the backs of struggling students. Hugs

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And now some for fun

DeSantis introduces Stop W.O.K.E. Act in new stand against critical race theory in schools

https://www.wesh.com/article/gov-desantis-to-speak-from-sumter-county-wednesday/38524313#

Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke Wednesday fr0m Wildwood in Sumter County.

DeSantis said he is “taking a stand against critical race theory in our schools and in the workplace by calling for the enactment of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.”

He said he was introducing a new piece of legislation: “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act.”

“With the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions,” said DeSantis. “I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism.”

The Governor said his goal is to block activism like critical race theory from classrooms and workplaces. The Florida Department of Education already banned CRT from K-12 public schools last summer at the Governor’s direction. This new proposal would codify that that ban into state law.

What exactly is critical race theory?

“The easiest way to understand it is that it teaches you to understand your state institutions: the Department of Education, the Department of Corrections, from the perspective of race,” said Dr. Eric Smaw.

Smaw is a philosophy professor at Rollins College and teaches CRT.

“The best analogy is to think about it in terms of gender studies,” he said.

According to the Associated Press, critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.

When CRT was banned in classrooms this summer, all Central Florida school districts told WESH 2 News that they don’t teach critical race theory anyway.

Regardless, the governor has continued to wage a war against the teaching of critical race theory.

“Our legislation will defend any money for K-12 going to CRT consultants,” the governor said. “No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country or hate each other.”

DeSantis said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act will give parents “private right of action” to sue if they think their kids are being taught critical race theory. It will also allow parents to collect attorneys fees if they are successful in their suit.

The governor said the rise of “woke ideology” is an attempt to erase the country’s history, referencing the removal of statues in recent years.

“They want to tear at the fabric of our society and our culture,” he said. “They want to delegitimize the founding of the country and the constitution.”

The governor said critical race theory violates Florida standards. He also claimed that people are making a fortune on teaching CRT to schools and businesses.

He said the term “equity” is used to mask CRT and is used by people to “smuggle in their ideology.”

But Aston Mack, a Black Lives Matter activist and founder of Orlando Freedom Fighters, said the Governor’s new proposal poses dire consequences.

“Quite frankly, it’s going to grow up with a lot of black and brown kids disenfranchised for not knowing their history, not having a connection with the past and allowing these repeated patterns and cycles of racism to disproportionately affect them,” Mack said.

The Governor said the legislation would also protect employees from any CRT training at work, though it is unclear how the state will block it from the office.

Mack said this stop sign to CRT is a green light for others.

“It makes those that are already predisposed to racism, so the white nationalists, the KKK members, all of the Neo Nazis, all of them see this as, ‘OK, Florida the place to go.’ That’s where we’re going to be, ” he said. “And that makes our fight tougher because I know I’m going to see them on the street more often.”

Wes Hodge, the chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party said DeSantis’ platform on schools is all politics.

“It’s 100% about getting the Governor into the White House,” Hodge said.

Hodge said that the Governor is staking his claim in the nation’s new political battleground: the classroom.

“This is 100% trying to rally that far right base to get behind him for not only 2022 reelection, but nationwide for a 2024 presidential run,” he said.

While the Governor said he is protecting parents’ rights and workers, Hodge said the anti-CRT proposal is a scare tactic.

“We need to make sure that people realize that they’re being played emotionally to get them to come out to the polls and vote,” he said.

Governor DeSantis said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act will be introduced when the legislature reconvenes next month.

DeSantis introduced the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” during a rally-style event in Central Florida. DeSantis said the legislation would put into law the Florida Department of Education’s prohibition on “critical race theory” in K through 12 schools.
https://t.co/jdgGm6qPcZ
— News4JAX (@wjxt4) December 15, 2021

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: It is not free stuff, it is using government to serve the people, help the public. The people today have a lower standard of living since the New Deal.

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Scottie’s world today

vaccine for stupid

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Listen up

Time has not been a healer

#PeopleOverProfits

https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/1470882713888788480?s=20

Republican prayer

https://truth-has-a-liberal-bias.tumblr.com/post/670587423673237504

But, but, but …it was antifa. The entire operation was Trump, the Republican Party, and FOX. They all knew. They all lied afterwards.

Andy Marlette for Dec 14, 2021

Republicans want a Civil War, based on lies and conspiracies, based on promises they will never deliver, just to retain power and destroy elections/democracy. Their violence is premeditated. Their base is incapable of independent thought. The losers have united. Instead of owning their growing defeats, they invent excuses. They blame others.

you got nothing on me medows

“He’s is a good man, and he is my friend. In fact, you should see the things that I was texting him on January 6th!! …uh oh did I say that out loud” https://t.co/LWXBqMcWgE

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 14, 2021

Maybe this will make more sense to any Repubs not condemning the events of Jan. 6 pic.twitter.com/u859WACt9H

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 14, 2021

Fox News is Republican state run media. The texts prove it. #FoxNews #MarkMeadows #LockThemAllUp #January6th #GOPTraitors #MeadowsTexts #LauraIngraham pic.twitter.com/VTPEQp3XtI

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 15, 2021

They knew they were guilty. Then they invented an enemy to blame it on. Republican/FOX fascism, writ large.

They knew. They lied. The Right want their ‘lone wolves’ to attack progressives using FOX propaganda.

mark tRump tell people go home

Hannity, Ingraham, and Kilmeade think their viewers are worthless. They lie to their faces.

please turn off the lights

fox news polticize disaster

PA's party of individual freedom is trying to use our drivers licenses and partial SSecurity numbers to continue their idiotic efforts to overturn election results. Thanks for strengthening the surveillance state, guys. https://t.co/WLkI9EzJ5u

— Signe Wilkinson (@SigneWilk) December 14, 2021

In opinion after opinion some of the Justices say it is horribly offensive to accuse someone of being motivated by racially discriminatory intent, but the same Justices frequently hurl accusations of religious bigotry with incredible ease. https://t.co/mLCGe0rs6g

— Josh Block (@JoshABlock) December 13, 2021

Walt Handelsman Comic Strip for December 14, 2021

https://twitter.com/GBBranstetter/status/1470377979175968768?s=20

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

The funny thing about the right attack Biden on crime is that the left attacks Biden for being to strict on crime and punishment. Have all the right forgotten the 1994 crime bill sponsored by Biden that led to a jump in mass incarceration. Biden is historically pro-police, pro-prison, pro-hammer down law and order. However turning the US into a police state wont solve the crime problem. Crime may be rising now but is still less than it has been even in the last decade. Crime has been falling steadily. But there are some who stand to gain by turning the US into a police state. Resist their fear mongering. We can do better, again look at other countries, they solve crime problems with out locking up large segments of the population in prisons designed to be punitive and in inhumane. Hugs

The right likes to call any coverage of the Coronavirus hysterical because they work for the profit of big money. A virus that has killed over 800,000 people in less than 2 years and 1% of people over 65 in the country. Think of that. Why would anyone want to ignore that, because it cuts into profit. If you have take precautions it costs profits. So the right wing makes it seem the virus is no problem at all and any one who wants to fight the virus is wrong. Hugs

Maybe if police were not busy oppressing minorities with the Republicans endless war on drugs they would have time to focus on petty theft. Crime rates in GOP cities are the same as those in Democrat led cities. Crime rates in cities that increased police funding showed increases in crime. By pushing this false Fox News inspired narrative, you ignore the true roots and causes of crime. Typical GOP-posturing. Hugs

I’m not sure of the point. Kentucky officials and citizens have been highly complimentary about the federal response to the disaster. And the Biden admin has been begging people to get booster shots. What is Mr. Lester’s beef? Sen. McConnell went as far to praise the speed and effort the President has made in response to the disaster. No mention was made or Covid-19 vaccinations. Hugs

Again the right wing projects. Blame Biden they shout for taking away something Biden worked hard to give you and the Republicans fought every attempt to keep you having. It is extended in the build back better plan that Manchin, Sinema, and the Republicans are fighting to keep from ever becoming law. This is misdirection in hopes of making the people angry at someone trying to help them by the person trying to hurt them. Hugs

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And now some for fun

No Zuckerberg is the ET. This reminds me of the twilight zone episode where everyone on a bus stopped at a diner in a snow storm. They were scared a escaped prisoner was mixed in with them. After they all got back on the bus and the bus crashed killing everyone one guy returned to the diner where he announced he was from Mars and they were going to invade, but the cook in the diner laughed and told him too late as he was from Venus and they were already to invade. Hugs

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Corporations taking advantage of the situation to price gouge, jack up prices while trying to blame workers for rising costs.

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Scottie’s world today

Fat too many people

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Could pay more after saying no

Kellogg must be run by a group of sociopaths

vbartilucci:
“THE CANDLES MUST FLOW
”

Demolish Big Pharma

and they still are poor

Gift for poor women

house cat libertarians

Whoa. “Arizona students stage hunger strike to urge Sinema to support voting reform” cc: ⁦@SenatorSinema⁩ 😥 1/ https://t.co/wmVuRDRHqx

— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) December 12, 2021

On DAY SIX of not eating, hunger striker Georgia is really feeling the effects – she’s feeling weak, and our doctors are monitoring her vital signs as she approaches a week without food. pic.twitter.com/Q2xkMA2oML

— Arizona Youth Hunger Strike for Democracy (@AZ4Democracy) December 12, 2021

Sorry but the above hunger strike is stupid and makes hunger strikes look bad. The fact is Sinema doesn’t care and wont care if these protestors die. She has made that clear. She cares only about herself, her future. and her money. Her money! She cares about what her donors pay her to care about. She is shamelessly bought and legally bribed.

And yet Bernie fully backed up Biden’s run for president. Clyburn stopped Bernie by convincing more people to vote for Joe. That’s part of democracy. What about putting up candidates with a bit of personality and bite instead of the bland non-entities who raise the most money? Hugs

trump privilege not a thing

As a reminder: pretrial release conditions — which, after all, are imposed on people who are presumed innocent — are designed to protect the public and prevent flight, not to be punitive. https://t.co/AqTn1feVcB

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) December 12, 2021

Guns and children at Christmas is sick. You are appealing to abusers, white supremacists, and the cult of toxic enablers. The opposite of Jesus.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1470170846136348677?s=20

I can't find anything that sampled data from the past decade (unless you count Media Matters which doesn't peer review). But everything before that, yes. This collects links to studies that came up in searches but several went back to MM studyhttps://t.co/52CU7LWYL7

— John Shannonhouse (@JLShannonhouse) December 12, 2021

covid holiday dinners

Virus santa and virus sled pullers

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

This is the danger I mentioned before. Disbelieving the person being discriminated against being the default position of authorities. The idea that it is best to assume everyone who claims to have been discriminated against or assaulted due to racism / bigotry is lying or making it up. That is a scary place to be in for the disadvantaged. Hugs

Have right wing cartoonist seen the job numbers? Biden adds 943k jobs — more jobs in a single month than Trump netted during his ENTIRE TERM. Are you glad Biden is President?” Nearly a million jobs added for the month. Then the wall street Journal published: “Biden went on to say, “We have now created over 3 million jobs since I took office, more jobs than have ever been created in the first five months of any presidency in modern history, thanks to the incredible work of the entire team.”” 3 million jobs added. Even coming out of Covid slow down and with a continuing Covid presence that is great. Hugs

I seen a slew of these misleading right wing media cartoons that said Santa was anti-vaccine and Santa wouldn’t visit any where there was a vaccine requirement. What a crock. These people do not speak for the mythical character, the spirit of Christmas is not deterred by virus or vaccine for virus. This is a mind control scare job attempt. It is disgusting. Hugs

Same old mislabeled trope. Time to give it a rest. The only ones voting to defund the police have been Republicans. The people that really just wanted reform did not think through the defund slogan. If you need a long explanation for what you really mean about something, it’s best to reword it. I some places if you’re not white, police will search your car during a traffic stop and take your money for “evidence” of suspected drug activity. No receipt given even when requested. Going to the station doesn’t help with the sudden amnesia of what happened to your cash or drug charges, at least until the next “random* traffic stop. Yeah, the police fund themselves just fine. it is helpful to understand the frustration that spawned that unhelpful slogan. In many if not most black neighborhoods, they actually would be safer with no police at all. Why? The police do not stop gang violence or even try in many cases. Rather, they harass, arrest, shake down, and kill black people who are doing nothing wrong. In a daily basis. For them, this cartoon is laughable. They truly feel that if the police went away, they would be safer. Whatever happened to making police more liable for murder. Guess nothing will change and more black/People of colour will continue to die or be bullied.

For the rest of us, we believe that police forces around the country have forgotten they are our employees. They are supposed to be here to protect and serve, yet too often they protect and serve only the richest and best connected. They throw their power around far too much, they protect their own even when they are bad apples. The entire policing system in this country needs a complete overhaul. Funds need to be directed toward mental health, and trained mental health professionals need to be the first responders in mental health crises. The whole system of using cops as revenue collectors (ie., speeding tickets) is also abhorrent to cops and citizens alike. Policing CAN be a positive for ALL Americans, but today it is being used as a wedge issue to divide Americans and keep far too many innocent people living in fear while not stopping the guilty from committing crimes — or even bringing them to justice. Hugs

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And now some for fun

Authorities: Teens charged in trespassing case were in ‘planning stage of school shooting’

https://wjactv.com/news/local/two-teens-charged-with-conspiracy-to-commit-terrorism-in-westmont-trespassing-incident

5

VIEW ALL PHOTOS

Westmont school shooting plot suspects: Logan Pringle, 17 (left) & Preston Hinebaugh, 16 (right)

Authorities have provided new details about the investigation into the Westmont Hilltop High School trespassing incident, which they are now calling an alleged school shooting plot.

Investigators say as a result of subsequent search warrants, a total of five AR-15 style firearms, a rifle, a shotgun and additional ammunition were seized from the home of 16-year-old Preston Hinebaugh.

Police also confirmed that they can prove that Hinebaugh had “access and control to at least two of the weapons at different points in time.”

Upper Yoder police chief Don Hess stressed to 6 News that the other teenager being charged, 17-year-old Logan Pringle, was not allowed to be on Westmont school property due to a prior threat in which he “threatened to shoot up the school,” and was expelled from the district.

A criminal affidavit states that Pringle had a past history of threats and “dangerous actions” towards the school district, including lighting a carpet on fire and bringing fireworks to the school in January of 2018, as well as the prior shooting threat.

According to the criminal complaint, Pringle gained access to Westmont Hilltop High School on Tuesday after Hinebaugh let him through the front door of the building, without any staff noticing.

Authorities say surveillance video shows the pair wandering the halls of the school and observing camera locations throughout the building.

Chief Hess noted that all investigating agencies believe that the two teens were in the “planning phase of a school shooting.”

Pringle reportedly told police in an interview that he “didn’t think it would be that easy to get back into the school,” but said that he left the building through a side door near the gymnasium because he thought he would be caught.

Hinebaugh also told police in an interview that Pringle was “obsessed” with guns and had previously made firearm parts while attending a local vocational school.

During the course of the investigation, police also noted that just days prior to the “security breach,” Pringle used a computer at his school to research information on guns, specifically AR-15 style weapons.

Both teens are being held at Cambria County Prison and have preliminary hearings scheduled for Dec. 20.

Pringle’s bail was set at $250,000 while Hinebaugh’s was set at $400,000.

Preston Hinebaugh Complaint by Ryan Graffius on Scribd

Logan Pringle Complaint by Ryan Graffius on Scribd

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ORIGINAL:

Two teenagers have been charged as adults with multiple felonies, including Conspiracy to Commit Terrorism, related to an investigation of an unauthorized person gaining access to Westmont Hilltop High School on Tuesday.

Logan J. Pringle, 17, of Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, has been charged with Conspiracy to Commit Terrorism, Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Assault, and Attempt to Commit Aggravated Assault, according to a release from Cambria County District Attorney Greg Neugebauer released to Westmont Hilltop parents Saturday morning.

Also, Preston R. Hinebaugh, 16, of Upper Yoder Township has been charged with Conspiracy to Commit Terrorism, Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Assault, Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Trespass, and Possession of Firearm by a Minor, according to Neugebauer’s release.

Both defendants were taken into custody without incident and are currently in the Cambria County Prison awaiting preliminary arraignment, according to the release.

ORIGINAL STORY | Warrant: Police seize AR-15 during investigation into Westmont trespassing incident

Neugebauer said “an alarmed parent” alerted the school to the security breach.

“Recent events, including this one, must serve as a reminder that we all should remain alert to protect ourselves and those around us,” Neugebauer said. “All threats to the safety of our schools and institutions will be thoroughly and swiftly investigated, and all incidents will be taken seriously.”

Police said in a search warrant obtained by 6 News from the office of Magisterial District Judge Susan M. Gindlesperger on Friday that an AR-15 style firearm was found in Hinebaugh’s home. Authorities say the boy admitted to possessing the weapon, without his parents’ knowledge, during a police interview.

Police said they found the weapon in Hinebaugh’s bedroom, along with ammunition and other firearm-related accessories.

Westmont Hilltop Superintendent Thomas Mitchell said Thursday that students and employees were not in danger. “Each time we are confronted with student behavior that requires police intervention, it is an opportunity for the school administration to refine its approach and quicken its response to improve the safety of all students and employees,” he said in a statement.

Neugebauer said the FBI has joined the investigation along with the Department of Homeland Security, ATF, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Greg Neugebauer also added that, ” I do believe tragedy was prevented.”

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Whee did all the money go, who has it, and why are the rest struggling to live the American dream

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Scottie’s world today

Choose to ignore it

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Avoid these corporate bastards. Let your wallet do the talking.

Boycott Kellogg’s.

Just a reminder to intelligent liberals: for-profit political “media” doesn’t help elect democrats nor influence policy. For 20 years they don’t want you to understand they are #owned #monopolies, & pawns of billionaire media. Look it up. #talknowalk...

Student loans are the only unforgivable debt via bankruptcy.

what happens if kill fillibuster

tin foil hat gop

be the most christian

things not over

I don't need glasses to see your

no one hit you with a shovel

killing florida with stupidity

https://reagan-was-a-horrible-president.tumblr.com/post/670320059844083712

““Even if you convince me that the god of the Bible actually exists…
your real battle will be convincing me to worship an immoral, genocidal dictator that demands my love.”
– JT Richardson
”
Humans are better than the gods they create… overall.

Could not agree more. OR, make the sperm donor pay for HiS child until 18 years old. https://t.co/ZqnTsj0edH

— Signe Wilkinson (@SigneWilk) December 11, 2021

World Human Rights Day, Dec. 10 2021

Zack Hill for Dec 12, 2021

Weird how the folks saying that #JussieSmollett proves progressives are just salivating to find evidence of racism in America sound just like the folks saying that #MeToo is a bunch of lying women making false accusations of sexual assault/harassment.

— Gretchen Koch (@GretchenKoch) December 11, 2021

Law enforcement deserves no less skepticism and no more deference than any other entity or source. In fact, because of their powers over life and death, they deserve more skepticism and less deference. We have to do better. https://t.co/Q16Qh2b4d7

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) December 11, 2021

Why are journalists still, after all the evidence that law enforcement lies, that crime stats are trending down, that law enforcement has a vested interest in stories about rising crime, still allow law enforcement to drive so much coverage? https://t.co/nSW7DWMtWt

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) December 11, 2021

if they are having a good day

I think this is more likely to get SCOTUS’s attention as an argument against upholding the Texas law than it is to become law itself.

But either way, it’s a great response. https://t.co/wR7FGta89N

— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) December 12, 2021

fuck around and find out

if it is not gay its tsa

I made this cat tree with an animal cracker box at the center of it months ago. No cat entered, until finally Ollie broke the Cat Code of Ignoring Cat Trees in Proportion to How Much They Cost and/or How Much Labor Went Into Putting Them Up, and took a nap in it this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/Ma7tiXfS1E

— Gretchen Koch (@GretchenKoch) December 11, 2021

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

I was surprised at the commenters who not only agreed with this cartoon but cheered it on. The misinformation in the US is overwhelming and dangerous. Let’s address each panel starting with the top left. Rittenhouse posed with white supremacist where he was flashing the white power finger sign while grinning seemingly real happy. Rittenhouse was declared not guilty of murder but he did kill two people after taking an assault style rifle to a place he did not belong because he knew that possible violence could happen and then antagonized others there to the point they attacked him causing him to fire his weapon to defend himself. I think he shouldn’t have been able to use the self defense argument but the court allowed it.

Second panel. If you watched the videos carefully Nick Sandmann did what he is accused of, he stepped down into the path of Phillips while his buddies cheered him on. Phillips couldn’t back up nor move sideways but Sandmann could. He knew that and what he was doing. A large teen blocking the path of a smaller older man with a cheering crowd at his side, you tell me if that is not deliberate intimidation.

Third panel. There is documented evidence of the cooperation between the tRump campaign and the Russians. There was obstruction documented in the Mueller report. the fact is no one investigated collusion as Mueller had already been told he couldn’t indict tRump and the term collusion has no specific legal meaning in criminal law; there’s no such criminal charge. But again there is no doubt of the tight way the tRump campaign worked with the Russians.

Fourth panel. And what boss would not fire an employee that lied to them? Hugs

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And now some for fun

The Supreme Court Is Ready to Make Taxpayers Fund Religious Schools

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/supreme-court-ready-to-make-taxpayers-fund-religious-schools.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw

Photo: Patrick Ouellette/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a case involving just 4,800 students in rural Maine. But because of the way the Court seems certain to rule, the case will affect everyone in America. The reason is a single word: discrimination.

On its face, the case, Carson v. Makin is an outlier. Maine has a unique system for students in far-flung rural areas: If there’s no public school available, then the state will pay around $11,000 to families toward private-school tuition, so long as the private school is not religious in nature. A consortium of right-wing organizations sued the state on behalf of two families who wanted to send their children to religious schools on the public dime. They argued that Maine’s policy amounts to anti-religious discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. And based on today’s oral arguments, they will win.

This result would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Until quite recently, state funding of religious schools was understood to be unconstitutional. Then, over time, it became permissible in the context of school-choice programs. Then, in 2020, in the case of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, it became mandatory in such programs, since, the Court held, if the program included secular private schools, it had to include religious ones.

And now it looks as though it will be mandatory even for public-school-replacement programs like Maine’s, even if the schools in question require students to attend chapel, discriminate against LGBTQ students (or bar them from attending), teach religious dogma, and present all subjects (such as evolution) from a religious point of view — as the schools in the Maine case do.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett made it clear in their comments that not only is it constitutional for taxpayers to subsidize this religious education, but it is unconstitutional not to do so if a similar benefit is available to students at secular private schools. (True to his newly irrelevant status on the Court, Chief Justice John Roberts seemed eager to find a compromise, but the five justices to his right did not.)

The hinge of the case is “discrimination.” At one point, Justice Kavanaugh said that “discrimination against all religions, as opposed to secular, is a kind of discrimination that this Court has said is odious to the Constitution.” But wait, Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart replied for the Biden administration, “the question is whether to decline to fund religious instruction is discrimination.”

Nearly every conservative justice said that it is. At a later point in the argument, for example, Justice Kavanaugh said the religious parents “are seeking equal treatment, not special treatment; ‘Treat me the same as the secular parent next door.’”

“You’re saying equal,” Stewart replied, “but they’re seeking a benefit different from the one Maine is willing to provide. Maine is willing to provide a rough analog to a public-school education. It’s not willing to provide inculcation in religion.”

In fact, Carson is the latest in a long series of cases that have reversed the previous understanding of discrimination.

In the 2014 Hobby Lobby case, for example, a family-owned corporation sought to discriminate against women by excluding contraception from their health-insurance plans on religious grounds. But the Court found that, in fact, it was Hobby Lobby that was being discriminated against — by not being allowed to discriminate. Similar cases followed. In Masterpiece Cakeshop (2018), the Court held that Colorado discriminated against a religious baker by not letting him discriminate against LGBTQ people, or at least not taking his religious claims seriously enough. And in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021), the Court held that Philadelphia discriminated against a Catholic foster-care agency by not letting it discriminate against gay parents. Notice a pattern?

Now, in Carson, the Court is poised to say that Maine is discriminating against religious parents (or schools) by not directing taxpayer money to schools, which, themselves, may discriminate against others — including LGBTQ people, who are barred from admission or employment by the two schools at issue, and members of other religions. At one of the schools in question, a listed objective of a social-studies class is to “refute the teachings of the Islamic religion with the truth of God’s word.” But, say the Court’s religious conservatives, it would be discrimination for taxpayers not to pay for that.

For this Court, nothing — not a woman’s right to access health insurance, not a queer person’s right to be admitted to school, and not Maine’s right to not fund sectarian indoctrination — is more important than the right of self-professed religious people to practice their religion as they see fit and, if necessary, get paid by the government to do so.

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Why in the US do people have to work and struggle for survival when the people in other advanced countries do not have too?

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Scottie’s world today

bless the internet

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odinsblog:
“ January 20th, 1981 at 12:01pm
”

gehayi:
“accras:
“Bingo
”
Also, they’ve been stealing from it since the 1980s. Ronald Reagan and his cronies treated Social Security–which was then operating at a SURPLUS–as their own personal slush fund.
”

Bezos feels no shame.

https://reagan-was-a-horrible-president.tumblr.com/post/670227296912867328

Political Cartoon.

tRump shows his feelings for committee

inserrecetion powerpoint lots of pictures

Thanks vlad my buddy

Where are their guns? pic.twitter.com/gXrFvAzIZy

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) December 9, 2021

decorate with guns

Remember Republicans screeching about ‘activist judges’.

riding shotgun in forced birth

How would our Supreme Court rule on this? In need of a baby boom, China clamps down on vasectomies https://t.co/33RaKEhmYE

— Signe Wilkinson (@SigneWilk) December 10, 2021

Fox is more upset that the flames revealed their tree to be nothing more than chicken wire and an elaborate garland wrapped around it https://t.co/cnc6oKpxAO

— Benjamin Slyngstad (@SlyngCartoons) December 10, 2021

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

Unemployment is 4.2 % Wages are rising. Please tell me again how the Media is promoting something that isn’t true! The wages for the lowest earners are rising faster than the highest earners for the first time in decades! How is that a media smoke screen? Just read an article about US jobless claims at 52-year low. All lies, I guess. The media reports the SAME employment numbers as “bad” under Biden that they said were “good” under Trump. Incessant screaming about inflation when it is a natural part of supply and demand. When people are polled about the issues without saying which stance is from Dems or Repubs result in HUGE numbers in favor of liberal and even PROGRESSIVE ideas being highly favored, especially taxing the wealthy and large corporations, but the media keeps saying that Dems need to move even further towards Repub ideals to appeal to the voters. The media is corporate, it definitely doesn’t favor Dems.

Of course it depends on which media you look at. Fox, OANN, Newsmax, Breitbart and similar will tell you that anything a Democrat does is wrong, even if a republican does it first. Hugs

Another example of Mike Lester’s incompetence with statistics. There has been no statistically significant difference in the increase in homicide rates for cities with Democratic and Republican mayors. US cities with Trump hotels have higher homicide rates than the US as a whole. That’s just about as meaningful a statistic as the one M. Lester is relying on. More big cities have Democrat (or non-partisan) mayors than GQP or even GOP. That has been true all along. And it’s also true that bigger cities have more criminals who are committing more murders than last year or the year before. But if you look at the top 5 or 10 cities with GOP mayors and the most murderous cities of similar size with Democrat mayors, you will see that the rates have no correlation w/ the party in charge. None. Interesting. The top ten states in terms of murder rates are: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, S. Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Maryland and Georgia. Most of these are deep red states. Maybe they need Democratic governors. Hugs

There are elections in those cities.

Portland ran all “nonpartisan” candidates. I don’t see an R candidate in Tucson. Albuquerque ran all “nonpartisan” candidates. Austin ran all “nonpartisan” candidates. I don’t see an R candidate in St. Paul. Baton Rouge was a 56/43 result. Indianapolis was a 72/27 result. Louisville was a 61/27 result. Toledo ran all “nonpartisan” candidates. Columbus -the nonpartisan incumbent ran unopposed as far as I can tell. In Rochester it looks like the D candidate ran unopposed In Philly it looks like an 80/19 result. This doesn’t look like the Rs are trying Mike. 5 of those races were all “nonpartisan”. While I agree that those kids would want the murder rate to go down I don’t see any of them looking to Rs to save them. Results pulled from Ballotpedia or Wikipedia (depending on which came up first).

I see pictures of Republican families armed to the teeth with guns. Some of which are the kind that are designed just to kill humans. Meanwhile they support an attack on the nation’s Capital, refuse to impeach a criminal in office and still try to claim that they are the party of Law and Order. This is gaslighting at the Olympic level.

These are local elections and they allow people living in the community a voice in what the elected officials do. That is democracy. The people have to be here in the country legally to vote, they just don’t have to be a citizen like in federal elections. So stop the fear mongering about a simple issue of fairness. Hugs

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And now some for fun

every street corner attack

Daily cartoon / meme roundup: there is the science and data, but a lot of people just want the myths, magic, and misdirection

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Scottie’s world today

going to need bail money with it

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https://t.co/owAmX0d7jW #kelloggstrike

— Labor411 (@Labor411) December 8, 2021

media bias in full view

take the gloves off

next district

hee come the clowns

weaker sicker poorer not great

What tRump really does

who is tRump laundering with

who directed the attack

lost a lot of money

Marjorie Taylor Greene says January 6 defendants are getting pumped full of "critical race theory training" in jail 😆 pic.twitter.com/m3lRLZBnIb

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2021

beware the radical moose lambs

dangerously toxic

Kids need full armor to survive in school these days. Hugs

would change it self

future terrorist co branch

teacher shoot me first

Some 15 year olds are more mature than others, but no 15 year old is an adult. There is a long history of charging minors as adults since the 1970’s as part of the war on crime. It presumably helps deal with the fact that an age is not the same as a degree of maturity. It’s also a technique for dealing with a particularly depraved crime, such as murdering several people where the DA thinks the maximum punishment for a juvenile isn’t sufficient.

I would prefer a magical system where each person is tried as they actually are, and then upon conviction, sent to rehab where they would stay until (magically) we knew they were better, including time in a half-way house to prove they were better. Puritan USA can’t cope with that though. PUNISHMENT is the primary goal.

don't fear the virus

no mask mania

visons in despots heads

Biden has announced that sending in troops to defend Ukraine is off the table, so he is basically telling Putin to go ahead and invade. I know Biden doesn’t like war, but damn we just approved 780 billion dollars for the military for one year. One year. Why if we can not use them to stop the invasions of a friendly democracy from an authoritarian dictatorship. China is watching this and feeling that they can invade Taiwan at any time and the US wont interfere. Hugs

At least Biden is standing up to Putin unlike tRump who was desperate to have Putin’s approval for some tRump project in Moscow, which tRump never got. Hugs

Telling kids that Hell exists and they will go there if they don't do X, or do Y, is child abuse https://t.co/pHN1JMWg00

— Gretchen Koch (@GretchenKoch) December 7, 2021

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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes

And this shows what the right wing is now, trolls and insult performance artists. Lets not bother to be role models for the kids nor a democracy other countries look up to. Hugs

Progressives or corporate Democrats. The issues the progressives are talking about and promoting are the same ones the entire party was trying to promote and implement way back in the 1970’s. Back then people like Nancy Pelosi were all for the progressive things like universal healthcare, free education, food assistance, and so much more. Then Nancy got addicted to the corporate money and she couldn’t get enough. She was one of the ones who pulled the Democrats to the right year after year decade after decade. When she was asked why she should be Speaker of the House she replied because she brought in the most donation money. But while the Democrats moved right to be part of the wealthy corporations the people of the US have not. In fact the country has moved more left supporting the LGBTQ+ community, legalizing cannabis, voting rights for people who finished their prison sentences, universal single payer healthcare, help for food insecurity, help for the homeless, help with childcare, and so much more. It really has become a civil war in the US between the wealthy and the public. Hugs

Only because the misleading right wing media keeps lying about vaccines, masks, and the personal responsibility people have to stop the spread of the virus. Hugs

Scottiesplaytime a day ago

The unity problem is more the result of unrelenting nonsense attacks by right wing media, often simply made up stuff they know their base will not check. Law and order is actually better as the tRump admin used unidentified illegal squads to kidnap people off the streets who were using their constitutional right to protest. These people were taken to hidden locations, illegally questioned, detained, their items searched with out permission, never charged with a crime and then released often with out their phones or other property. Reporters protected by law and the 1st amendment were attacked and their equipment destroyed all to please the wannabe strongman dictator, tRump. The US has far more world respect now with Biden president than when tRump (also known as TFG, the former guy) was in office. TFG destroyed long running friendships with democracies and tried to start friendships with only authoritarian governments. The world reacted badly to that. The laws and people enforcing the borders have not changed despite Biden and the people want them too. The US is still violating the rights of those seeking refuge status as they did before. We still have freedom and some of us are still sane. Talk about nonsense phrases meaning nothing and everything. And before someone shouts Covid as a loss of freedom fact is the SCOTUS found a century ago the government had a right to enforce health laws / requirements. And lastly fuel prices. Fuel prices started coming down right after TFG approved selling the Saudi’s weaponry that every other US president refused, for good reason. But the Saudi’s put lots of money in both tRump’s and his son-in-law’s pockets so who cares about indiscriminate killing, right. Then came the pandemic with Covid ended a lot of need for fuel, travel mostly stopped, office buildings were empty, prices of fuel fell from lack of demand and over supply. Now that demand is rising and the OPEC nations throttling the supply to make up the profits they lost prices of fuel were rising. That is no more. For the last three weeks fuel prices, the cost per barrel of oil has fallen. If you are not seeing it at the pump it is because of price gouging and profit taking. Facts matter. These are the facts. Scottie

Anon Y. Mousse Scottiesplaytime a day ago

Those are not the facts. Where’s your proof that people were kidnapped off the streets and had their phones stolen from them? Which even if that were true would be far less than what happens to those that our current pretender in chief doesn’t like. At least those people, again if even true, would still have their lives. As for the bovine excrement relating to reporters, they relentlessly attacked Trump and he refused to take their questions. No squelching of first amendment rights. Also, if by media you mean news reporters, there is no media anymore, let alone right-wing. They all spew opinion and propaganda these days, even Fox is left-wing, and no three pundits who are slightly right of center are not right-wing nor do they make Fox right-wing. Though, if it somehow magically did, they’d be one outlet amongst dozens.

Scottiesplaytime Anon Y. Mousse 5 hours ago

Hey Anon, ever hear of google? Easy to find the facts. But I did the work for you. Here are three links proving that yes tRump illegally had people kidnapped off the streets.

Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least Tuesday. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation about why they are being arrested, and driving off.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07…

And, officials offended by charged terms such as kidnapping would like us to instead use the term “lawful detainments”. But under federal and state law, kidnapping is commonly defined as the unlawful transportation and confinement of a person against their will.
By that definition, John Parks was kidnapped by police and armed federal forces on 29 July in Portland, Oregon. “I was surrounded by men in camo, and black,” he told me, with tense inflection, “They put me in the back of an unmarked vehicle and refused to tell me why I was being detained.”

https://www.theguardian.com… And one more in case you miss the point that this was an illegal detention of people exercising their constitutional right to protest read this https://www.washingtonpost….

tRump bragged about having the US Marshal service track down and kill a left wing antifa supporter who shot a maga man in self defense. According to witnesses the police never attempted to arrest the suspect they just ran up and opened fire on him.

President Donald Trump on Thursday gloated over the September killing of Portland, Oregon, murder suspect Michael Reinoehl by law enforcement officers who had been deputized as US Marshals. “We sent in the US Marshals,” Trump said during a campaign rally in North Carolina, adding that it “took 15 minutes (and) it was over.”
The President immediately followed that statement by appearing to indicate that authorities had no intention of ever taking Reinoehl alive.
“They knew who he was; they didn’t want to arrest him, and in 15 minutes that ended,” Trump said.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10…

I think it funny you think tRump did not want to talk to reporters. Did you see no media coverage during the four years tRump was president? He took every opportunity he could to push himself in front of the media cameras. He craves attention and wanted as much TV time as he could get. Again these are facts, sorry if they disrupt your alternative reality. Scottie

Anon Y. Mousse Scottiesplaytime 4 hours ago

Oh, okay, so you’re one of those people that considers a riot to be a peaceful protest. Got it.

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