(Stone Soup via GoComics.com)
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Some days everything seems political, dunnit?
Posting this to see how long it takes Cole to bigfoot. Place your bets in the comments.
Anne Laurie has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2009.
This post is in: Open Threads, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement
(Stone Soup via GoComics.com)
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Some days everything seems political, dunnit?
Posting this to see how long it takes Cole to bigfoot. Place your bets in the comments.
This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
Thing is, we’re not Republicans, and most of the authoritarians on the (D) side of the aisle are at least trying to keep one foot in the Reality-Based Community. We can’t just scream NIXON DID IT FIRST AND BESIDES REAGAN WAS WORSE AND ALSO DUBYA? WAR CRIMINAL! (which would at least have the advantage of being true statements) and then pretend the made-up scandal-of-the-moment never happened. Events must be discussed, and even mistakes. Consequences will be explored. But unlike the Authoritarians (like any religion, it’s a mindset and a lifestyle) “we” Democratic voters, DFHs, progressives (pick your label) don’t have a fixed template for discussing missteps by “our guys” that don’t do more harm than good. What can be said that can’t be misinterpreted, especially when the other side is expert in misinterpretation, and our (presumed) allies are hypersensitive in a thousand different ways?
Which leads to weird portmanteau articles, like Michael Tomasky in the Daily Beast on “The Coming Attempt to Impeach Obama“:
… I think the notion of impeachment is industrial-strength insane. There is utterly no proof that the President Obama even knew anything directly about the shifting Benghazi responses, let alone did something about them (yes, folks; under the Constitution, the President must do something). And as for the Internal Revenue Service story, from what we now know, those transgressions were committed by IRS staffers in Cincinnati who have never been closer to Obama than their television sets… Impeachment is crazy… and the idea that Obama has any direct culpability in either of these matters is, given what we know today, utter madness. Okay?
But this is my point: utter madness is what today’s Republicans do. You can present to me every logical argument you desire. Benghazi at the end of the day was a terrible tragedy in which mistakes, bad mistakes, were certainly made, and in which confusion and the CYA reflex led to some bad information going out to the public initially, but none of this remotely rises to the level of high crime. The IRS cock-up was just that, a mistake by a regional office. I get all this, and I agree with you.
But what we think doesn’t matter. I can assure you that already in the Pavlovian swamps of the nutso right, the glands are swelling. Theirs is a different planet from the one you and I inhabit….
… They do their base’s bidding, not America’s. How many times do you need to see them do this before you accept that it is the reality? And now there’s an added element. They want to gin up turnout among their base for next year’s elections. And if they gin it up enough, and the Democratic base stays home, they could end up holding the House and taking the Senate. And if they have both houses, meaning that the vote in the House would not be certain to hit a Senate dead-end, well, look out.
I hope the White House knows this. I hope they understand, I hope the President himself understands, that the fever has not broken and will not break. It might crescendo right up to his very last day in office. And yes, a lot of this Benghazi stuff is about Hillary Clinton. But not all of it. And the IRS thing, which Drudge led with for two days in a row and may yet be bigger than Benghazi, isn’t about her at all. If my worst fears are never realized—well, good, obviously. But it will only be because they couldn’t identify even a flimsy pretext on which to proceed. Never put the most extreme behavior past them. It is who they are, and it is what they do.
Late Night Open Thread: Helpful? Honest? Both? Neither?Post + Comments (98)
This post is in: Austerity Bombing, C.R.E.A.M., World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)
David Stuckler, Oxford sociologist, and Sanjay Basu, Stanford epidemiologist, have a book to sell. They had a most interesting op-ed in Sunday’s NYTimes concerning that book, “The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills”:
… The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century. People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs.
In the United States, the suicide rate, which had slowly risen since 2000, jumped during and after the 2007-9 recession. In a new book, we estimate that 4,750 “excess” suicides — that is, deaths above what pre-existing trends would predict — occurred from 2007 to 2010. Rates of such suicides were significantly greater in the states that experienced the greatest job losses. Deaths from suicide overtook deaths from car crashes in 2009.
If suicides were an unavoidable consequence of economic downturns, this would just be another story about the human toll of the Great Recession. But it isn’t so. Countries that slashed health and social protection budgets, like Greece, Italy and Spain, have seen starkly worse health outcomes than nations like Germany, Iceland and Sweden, which maintained their social safety nets and opted for stimulus over austerity. (Germany preaches the virtues of austerity — for others.)
As scholars of public health and political economy, we have watched aghast as politicians endlessly debate debts and deficits with little regard for the human costs of their decisions. Over the past decade, we mined huge data sets from across the globe to understand how economic shocks — from the Great Depression to the end of the Soviet Union to the Asian financial crisis to the Great Recession — affect our health. What we’ve found is that people do not inevitably get sick or die because the economy has faltered. Fiscal policy, it turns out, can be a matter of life or death….
One need not be an economic ideologue — we certainly aren’t — to recognize that the price of austerity can be calculated in human lives. We are not exonerating poor policy decisions of the past or calling for universal debt forgiveness. It’s up to policy makers in America and Europe to figure out the right mix of fiscal and monetary policy. What we have found is that austerity — severe, immediate, indiscriminate cuts to social and health spending — is not only self-defeating, but fatal.
This post is in: Women's Rights Are Human Rights
Dave Weigel:
The conservative campaign to shame the media into covering Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial was a success. It was only the Boston Marathon bombing, which happened the day media arrived for the abortionist’s trial in Philadelphia, that kept it from A1. But the verdict finally came in today—three counts of murder—and the first response I got was from NARAL President Ilyse Hogue.
Justice was served to Kermit Gosnell today and he will pay the price for the atrocities he committed. We hope that the lessons of the trial do not fade with the verdict. Anti-choice politicians, and their unrelenting efforts to deny women access to safe and legal abortion care, will only drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell.
From the lack of funding available for low-income women to access abortion services, to the sharp decline of reputable providers in Pennsylvania, to the gross negligence of authorities to enforce the law after complaints were filed against Gosnell, each aspect of this case must be a teachable moment for lawmakers: until we reject the politicization of women’s medical care and leave these decisions where they belong — between a woman and her family and her doctor — women will never be safe. The horrifying story of Kermit Gosnell is a peek into the world before Roe v. Wade made legal a woman’s right to make her own choices.
We come full circle; it was the pro-choice movement that first wrote and talked about Gosnell, to pre-empt any sensationalism about the case. It was the pro-life movement, last month, that nudged the press into covering it again…
My emphasis. The anti-choice coalition wanted to use Gosnell as a weapon against women; I’m glad NARAL has been out there fighting the lies and misinterpretations.
This post is in: Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
(via Ryan Cooper at Washington Monthly)
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PSA: It’s not too late to call your mom, assuming your mom is not late.
What’s on the agenda for the wrapup of the weekend?
Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Songs of My PeoplePost + Comments (61)
This post is in: Garden Chats
From faithful commentor Marvel:
I hope all’s well with you and yours, and that you’re finding time to sit and stare off at the far distance in your garden (WARNING: Do Not Attempt To Focus On ANYTHING In Your Garden. Yes, Yes, It ALL Needs Work, But Give Yourself A BREAK Every Now & Then – ‘K?).
A truthful representation of what’s up in my garden would convey simply a sweaty, groaning blur comprised of an uncountable repetitions of the age-old Bend And LIFT And Bend and STRETCH routine. Why does everything happen all at once in the Spring? Weeding unto death; rebuilding soil; transplanting seedlings; weeding the seedlings; weeding the weeds…it’s endless.
But there ARE wonderful moments. Here’s a snapshot of one such moment — a poppy that’d do Georgia O’Keefe proud.
We’re all slipping into Giddy here in the Willamette Valley (OR) — a toasty heat wave (low 90s) is on the way, JUST in time for the annual Master Gardeners’ plant sale. All our clear beds are prepped and waiting for the few veggies we start with, um, starts. The little veggies already in the ground are doing well, including (1) young lettuce enjoying a day in the shade whilst their pea-buddies laze in the sun; and (2) garlic & shallots planted last year (above) and this year’s onions. (If I could have planted olive oil and a small saute pan next to them, I would’ve.)
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Wonderful MomentsPost + Comments (50)
This post is in: Music, Open Threads, Rare Sincerity
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If I remember correctly, it’s May 12 in Just Some Fuckhead’s timezone now, and he mentioned the natal anniversary last evening.
Okay, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use this particular clip, but seriously: Best wishes and many happy returns to an internet mensch.
Early Morning Open Thread: Happy Birthday, JSF!Post + Comments (28)