Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

He really is that stupid.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Not all heroes wear capes.

How stupid are these people?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

You cannot shame the shameless.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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Getting Over the Finish Line – 6x for Four Directions NV Donations – We Did It!

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Update at 4:15 pm:

We did it!  We hit the goal for both states!  As soon as the $1,500 angel adds his match, we be at just over $19k for each, but we have TWO Angel checks for $1,000 – one for each state, and that takes us to $20,000 for each one!  (Even though the checks won’t show in the thermometer!)

*****

Happy Sunday!  We got a win for Ukraine in the House yesterday.  Let’s take that win and get back to work, hopefully raising enough moolah to meet the external Angel match that Four Directions found us.

The external donor wants to make her match by April 25, and I don’t want to let them down.

So we’re sweetening the deal for donations to our underdog state – NEVADA!

Republicans are coming hard for Jacky Rosen’s SENATE SEAT, and you guys know we need every single senate seat because of the bad senate map this year.

We have a new double Angel match for NV up to $1,500 – that means 6x your NV donation amount up to $50.

In 2022, Four Directions filed suit in Elko County, and won!

On September 16, 2022, with litigation resources provided by Four Directions, the Shoshone-Paiute filed a lawsuit against Elko County, its County Commissioners, County Clerk, Deputy County Clerks, and Chief Deputy County Clerk.

A major hurdle to the Shoshone-Paiute’s access to voting was the fact that its tribal IDs lacked a physical address, a requirement of Nevada voting laws. Four Directions reached an agreement with the Nevada Secretary of State and Elko County officials, which stipulated the tribal government would create an affidavit certifying where residents lived. This would be in lieu of a physical address on their tribal IDs.

Four Directions’ creative thinking allowed the county and tribe to reach a settlement on October 26, 2022. As a result, the Duck Valley Reservation would be granted the following:

  • An early polling location on five days before the general election day
  • A ballot box on Election Day
  • 12 days of early in-person voting
  • In-person voting on Election Day for the 2023 election

“We were given citizenship in 1924, and it took us until 2022 to acquire equal access in the Electoral Process,” said Chairman Mason.

This historic settlement that Four Directions worked out helped the Shoshone-Paiute achieve equal access to voting opportunities for not only 2023, but also 2024 and beyond.

Four Directions won the lawsuit, now let’s make that new access a reality and help Four Directions get their people out to vote.

NEVADA

For those who prefer to donate to Four Directions Arizona, the thermometer is still in the sidebar!  AZ is a 4x match.

Out-raise them.  Out-organize them.  Out-strategize them.  Out vote them.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: There Is Power in A Union

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The United Auto Workers’ overwhelming election victory at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee is giving the union hope that it can make broader inroads in the South, the least unionized part of the country.

The UAW won a stunning 73% of the vote at VW after losing elections in 2014 and 2019. It was the union’s first win in a Southern assembly plant owned by a foreign automaker…

However, the UAW is likely to face a tougher test as it tries to represent workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A five-day election is scheduled to start May 13, where the union’s campaign has already become heated.

The UAW has accused the German carmaker of violating U.S. and German labor laws with aggressive anti-union tactics, which the company denies.

“They are going to have a much harder road in work sites where they are going to face aggressive management resistance and even community resistance than they faced in Chattanooga,” said Harry Katz, a labor-relations professor at Cornell University. “VW management did not aggressively seek to avoid unionization. Mercedes is going to be a good test. It’s the deeper South.”

Late last year, the UAW announced a drive to represent nearly 150,000 workers at non-union factories largely in the South. The union is targeting U.S. plants run by Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, along with factories operated by electric-vehicle makers Tesla, Rivian and Lucid…

The White House issued a statement from President Joe Biden congratulating the UAW. Biden — who joined a UAW picket line in Michigan during the union’s strike against Ford, GM and Stellantis plants last year — praised the success of unions representing autoworkers, Hollywood actors and writers, health care workers and others in gaining better contracts.

“Together, these union wins have helped raise wages and demonstrate once again that the middle-class built America and that unions are still building and expanding the middle class for all workers,” Biden said.

Biden criticized six Southern Republican governors, including Bill Lee of Tennessee, who told autoworkers this week that voting for union representation would jeopardize jobs.

Sharon Block, a law professor at Harvard University who worked for the Biden administration on labor and other issues, said the governors’ warning rang hollow after nonunion Tesla revealed that it plans to lay off 10% of its workers after disappointing sales results. She said VW workers saw the governors’ open letter as “an empty threat and a cynical ploy,” and they ignored it.

“Workers for a long time have been told that you can’t organize in the South. And many workers, even not in the South, may work in industries where they’ve been told for a long time you can’t organize,” Block said. “What the UAW showed last night is that we need to go and rethink all those negative statements.”

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring, Unfolding

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring, Unfolding 3
 
Faithful garden correspondent Jeffg166:

4.10.2024
The hardy tribolt camellia I planted a few years ago. It was a three year old plant when I got it. Last spring I stepped on the main shoot breaking it. The side shoots developed buds in the autumn. It’s supposed to flower from December to March. It’s been in the process of opening for the last month. This morning it is finally open. I hope I does better at flowering this coming winter.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring, Unfolding 2
 
4.14.2024
Dog tooth violets.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring, Unfolding 1
 
4.20.2024
The Star of Bethlehem flower is very pretty for a week but it is so invasive.
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Spring, Unfolding

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Unfolding — well, exploding — here north of Boston: Forsythia! I’m not a fan of crayon-yellow flowers in general, but after a New England winter, especially a mostly snow-free one like this year, the exuberant fountains of blooms are a very welcome change in a grey/brown/grey landscape. Suddenly there’s little pockets of forsythia waving their branches everywhere, in the drabbest most unlikely spaces, because they’re hardy enough to survive being crammed between rocks, blasted with street exhaust and rock salt. There’s always a few stubborn householders who try to topiary their forsythia like boxwood, but all that achieves is a week of ridiculous Dr. Seuss flower-objects followed by a long season of sad sparse green bushlets looking embarrassed. Better to let them sprawl as they like, because: Spring!

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

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Saturday Late Night Open Thread

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Looks like we could use an open thread.

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Anybody still up?

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War for Ukraine Day 788: Kharkiv Is Attacked Again

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

The three foreign and military aid supplementals and the GOP sort of wishlist bill have now passed the House. The House then immediately went into recess. The Senate will not take them up till Tuesday at the earliest. By not simply bringing the Senate supplemental to a vote, Johnson has instead wasted over four months and given Trump’s supporters in the Senate GOP minority the chance to kill the bill that passed the House this morning. Everyone who is taking victory laps right now should cool it. They are all the same people who took victory laps back in February when the Senate brought up what McConnell and his caucus demanded they had to have: a supplemental aid bill that included significant funding for border security and changes in immigration law. The need to negotiate the border and immigration language had delayed the Senate for three to four months. Ultimately that bill went nowhere because Trump demanded it be killed. So the Senate Democrats stripped the immigration and border provisions out and passed a Ukraine, Israeli, Taiwan/INDOPACOM AOR, and humanitarian aid bill only. Johnson then killed it in the House because it didn’t include anything dealing with the border and immigration.

What the House passed today may pass the Senate this week. It may not pass the Senate this week. We won’t know until Tuesday at the earliest. What we do know is that Putin and Russia will continue to bombard Ukraine. US aid to Ukraine is not a done deal. Hope is not a strategy.

Russia attacked Kharkiv again today. Twice!

Here’s what Russia thinks it is doing to Kharkiv.

Watch the video and read the subtitles.

One of the most famous Russian propagandists Olga Skabeeva, who has been broadcasting hatred of Ukraine and the West on TV screens for a decade, gave a master class on propaganda for young students in Kaluga.

She openly stated that Russian strikes on Ukraine are just a matter of interpretation and that the strike itself does not matter, only our attitude towards it.

Thus, Skabeeva paints a picture of Russian propaganda – all statements, regardless of the events described, must favor state interests.

And there is nothing particularly secret about this. However, for the first time, we hear such a frank confession from the main mouthpiece of propaganda of the so-called Russian Federation.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Saturday Night Open Thread

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One of the things that has stuck with me since moving back from my stay in Arizona is that by 9 pm, I am done. Just a total potato. I don’t recall being able to stay up past ten pm, and I am up at 6-7 am, and I have basically stopped taking naps. Also, I am freezing when it goes under 60, which it did again today. I am ready for some warmth.

Spent the day working on the plants, planting herbs, and just basically getting ready for spring. I just can’t afford to buy flowers this year so I planted a bunch of seeds in pots, and hopefully they will do their magic and produce some flowers for me. I have tons of perennials in the back, but I just can’t and won’t spend money on annuals beyond seeds, and really, why should I? They’ll grow. You have to work to kill things in West Virginia, you really do.

Very happy that the aid bill passed the house, and now all that needs to be done is to get it past the man John McCain accurately described as the Senator from Moscow, Rand Paul. Maybe his neighbor will kick his ass again.

I was thinking about who the biggest asshole in the Senate is right now, and I am kind of stuck. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Bob Menendez are all up there, but there’s also Mike Lee, Tom Cotton, and Hawley, Tuberville, and the execrable JD Vance. McConnel is not on the list because he’s not gonna make it long enough to get stuck on a desert island- he’s on someone else’s list for a permanent trip.

It’s just so hard to narrow it down to just one, they have such a deep bench of scumbags. I tried to narrow it down with a mental game that asked “Who would you least like to be stuck with on a desert island?” My first instinct was Ted Cruz, but I decided he may not be the worst. My thinking is that Ted Cruz is a total and almost completely irredeemable piece of shit in every regard, but there is one thing about Ted Cruz- he so desperately wants to be liked. So maybe with just me and him stuck together, there would be no one else for him so he would turn into an obsequious suck up, which would be borderline intolerable, but better than say, JD Vance and Rand Paul. It’s really hard to pick a worst out of this lot!

On the other hand, it’s also kind of hard to pick the Democratic Senator I would like to be stuck on an island with. Fetterman was my obvious first choice, but after thinking about it, maybe at least one of us should not have anxiety or depression. So that leaves Ossoff, Schatz, Duckworth, and Warnock. I really like Sherrod Brown a lot, but he’s older than me, so I cut him. Same with Angus King. If you look at it from who you would most likely survive were they with you, and two stand out- Tammy Duckworth and Jon Tester. Duckworth is tough as nails and Tester is a farmer, and if you don’t understand the implications of that, ask any friend who has ever worked in an ICU about why they get a crash cart the moment someone walks into the Emergency room and tells you they are a farmer. Duckworth also is pretty damned cool and funny, so maybe the obvious choice is obvious, as she has made both my mini lists.

At any rate, I’m on episode four of Fallout, and really enjoying it. Gonna watch that and facetime Joelle for a bit. What are you all up to tonight?

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Saturday Evening Open Thread: Alternate Timelines, Alternative Realities

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Some light debate / derision topics, to test my Blogmaster bigfooting talents:

Hands across the horseshoe…

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