The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
The Commentariat -- Feb. 9, 2014
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The federal government will soon treat married same-sex couples the same as heterosexual couples when they file for bankruptcy, testify in court or visit family in prison. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was preparing to issue policies aimed at eliminating the distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex married couples in the federal criminal justice system, according to excerpts from a speech prepared for a Saturday event organized by a prominent gay-rights group."
David Sanger & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Intelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to roughly 1.7 million of the country's most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to 'scrape' the National Security Agency's networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials. Using 'web crawler' software designed to search, index and back up a website, Mr. Snowden 'scraped data out of our systems' while he went about his day job, according to a senior intelligence official.... Mr. Snowden's 'insider attack' ... was hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected, investigators found." CW: Fascinating. I liked the part about the NSA "granting anonymity" to the Times' sources.
Dana Milbank on "immoral" conservatism.
CW: This Washington Post story, by Sandhya Somashekhar, features two people who quit their jobs & are now getting subsidized health insurance. Somashekhar presents them as nice people who quit because of (1) a change of job duties & (2) a family illness. I'm just waiting for the Fox "News" stories about deadbeats & layabouts.
Sharon Begley & Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters: "Hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS in Louisiana trying to obtain coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform are in danger of being thrown out of the insurance plan they selected in a dispute over federal subsidies and the interpretation of federal rules about preventing Obamacare fraud. Some healthcare advocates see discrimination in the move, but Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana says it is not trying to keep people with HIV/AIDS from enrolling in one of its policies under the Affordable Care Act...." ...
... CW: This seems like one of those inevitable glitches -- though obviously it doesn't feel like a mere glitch to the people affected -- that the bureaucrats & insurance companies should be able to work out. The question is, is there a mechanism for dealing with these kinds of problems? If so, it hasn't worked here yet.
Follow-up. Ha! Jia Lynn Yang of the Washington Post: "AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong told employees in an e-mail Saturday evening that he was reversing the company's 401(k) policy and apologized for his controversial comments last week.... The policy change would have switched 401(k) matching contributions to an annual lump sum, rather than being distributed throughout the year with every paycheck.... Armstrong tried to explain the changes Thursday but instead stirred up more bad publicity when he blamed the new federal health-care law and medical expenses associated with two 'distressed babies.'"
Slate has a world map showing Obama's 2nd-term nominees for ambassadorships which indicates how much many of the nominees contributed to Obama's campaign coffers.
Here's a reminder from George Will that George Will is creepier than David Brooks.
CW: This New York Times story, by Adam Nossiter, about the harsh treatment of gays in Nigeria, is hardly news (though a new, horrible anti-gay law just went into effect last month). I wonder why the U.N. & countries like, say, the U.S., don't sanction Nigeria in the same way we did South Africa during apartheid days. After all, the apartheid government didn't imprison or stone people for being black. According to the Nossiter story, a Pew Research survey found that 98 percent of Nigerians say homosexuality is "unacceptable." (Yeah, I guess they would say that or fear being "suspect.") You don't have to "accept" someone else's sexuality to treat him humanely. ...
... BTW, this story provides a good example of what happens when a country allows religious beliefs to trump human rights. Those self-righteous Little Sisters who won't even sign a form saying they object to contraception should give a little thought to the consequences of their fervor.
... Steve Benen argues that Republicans aren't necessary ignorant & loony; they just tell pollsters they hold ignorant & loony views because of "political tribalism in a period of stark polarization."
Kaitlynn Riely of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "A nun who worked for five years as a registered nurse at the Allegheny County[, Pennsylvania] Jail infirmary was fired last week for spearheading unionization efforts, an organizer for the United Steelworkers union said Monday. Sister Barbara Finch, a Sister of St. Joseph of Baden, had her security clearances revoked and was dismissed from her job Thursday after she expressed concerns about staffing, safety issues and patient care during meetings at the jail, said Randa Ruge, the union organizer.... The Steelworkers union on Friday filed an unfair labor practice charge against Corizon Health Inc., the Tennessee-based firm that manages county jail health services. The charge, sent to the National Labor Relation Board, is that Corizon dismissed her in retaliation for participating in union activities." Via Steve Benen. CW: Also, Finch appears to be another victim of privatization. This is not to suggest that Allegheny County loves public unions, but they have one. And another one.
Reuters: "A Tennessee judge who ordered a baby's name changed from Messiah to Martin, saying the former was reserved for Jesus Christ, has been fired, court officials said on Tuesday.... O. Duane Slone, presiding judge of the state's fourth judicial district..., did not give a reason in his order, but [Lu Ann] Ballew had previously been cited by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct for an inappropriate religious bias. A hearing is scheduled for March 3.... The parents appealed [Ballew's order], and another judge held that Ballew's ruling was unconstitutional." Also via Benen.
News Lede
CNN: "Two [Brooklyn] men behind bars for more than half their lives over a triple murder walked free this week after DNA evidence tore holes in their convictions. Antonio Yarbough and Sharrif Wilson were teenagers when prison doors clanked shut behind them."
Reader Comments (7)
Merkel is outraged because a US diplomat said "Fuck the EU." Greece smiles.
@Re: George Will. I guess there's point in that column, but I can't seem to find it. So is he saying it won't end in Syria until someone wins? Duh!
Like most Will columns, it's random facts and opinions loosely strung together.
In the Will piece he also has a historical paragraph which only seeks to tie the name Cromwell to anything Obama. If he could have found a way to tie Shoeless Joe Jackson to Barry O he would have. There is always Chicago....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/new-law-offers-a-sliver-of-protection-to-abused-native-american-women/2014/02/08/0466d1ae-8f73-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html?hpid=z4. God is this depressing. The ineptitude of the legal system is truly amazing. Where are the masters of the universe who are smarter than everyone when money is involved? Lawyers have done well to create the myth of their superiority and here in America, and especially in Alaska, you can rape and beat women and children and get away with it. Maybe the legal paragons can get off their asses and fix this shit once and for all.
This is exactly why the disfunction in Indian Country never ends: boozing rapists and abusers come back again and again and again and continuously fuck up their own families and communities. And the only time there are consequences is when the assholes mess with a white woman or white people.
Your Sunday report from regions hitherto known as Lie-a-stan (now known as Fox News).
I caught a brief glimpse of the first minute of Fox News Sunday this morning (had to switch it off before I turned to stone) during which Fox Robo-dick Chris Wallace breathlessly (is there any other mode on Fox?) teased an upcoming report on how Barack Obama's plan to defraud and murder Americans (the ACA) was going to cost the country 2.5 million jobs!!!! Five days after that canard was shot dead and left bleeding just outside Wingnut city limits, rejected, dejectedly, even by such opportunistic lying pieces of rotting dung like Paul Ryan.
These are the guys who, five days after the events at Appomattox Courthouse, would have been reporting a glorious victory by the forces in support of enslaving other human beings and calling it states' rights. The guys who, a week after Joseph Welch had beaten Charlie McCarthy (or was it "Joe"?) to a bloody, lying pulp, would be breathlessly reporting that the country was feverishly supporting continued GOP witch hunts, and the guys who reported that Peyton Manning had performed flawlessly during the most recent Super Bowl and should be inducted, immediately into the Hall of Fame.
Yeah, yeah, I read that Frank Rich article about how we ought to just ignore these rusty douche clamps but there are still millions of people who listen intently and memorize everything that drools out of a Foxbot's piehole.
So yesterday I attended a rodeo in my blood red state. Holeeeee shit.
You want to know how people in these places see the world, see America, see US, on a daily basis? Up close and personal?
The rodeo announcer, not 15 seconds into the opening, began screaming--screaming--about "those people" in Washington who won't allow "real Americans" to enjoy FREEEEEDOM, who work day and night to make sure that our children caint PRAY in PUBLIC SCHOOLS!!!!!!!!! (HUUUGGGE applause).
And so, in order to show those unAmerican, satan worshipping, Kenyan bastards in Washington what Real Americans Think About their Commie Ways....we're all going to bow our heads now and for the next five minutes, pray to Jesus, and recite the Cowboys' Prayer, just to show those assholes what Real Americans think of them. I was not one of them, but I'm pretty sure that out of thousands, I was the only one.
I kid you not, boys and girls.
And I'm guessing that if this happens in a rinky-dink red state rodeo, it must happen thousands of times a day in other hate-filled venues.
What I wanted to stand up and scream, but didn't, because I need my job, was that it's not anyone in Washington who is preventing their kids from saying "Praise Jesus" in school, it's Jefferson, and Jay, and Madison, and Washington, and Franklin, and Adams, and....
Several other routine incidents gave this entire show a sickeningly reddish patina. For one thing, the rodeo clown's schtick was composed--almost exclusively--of snickering misogyny. Plenty of jokes about fat, ugly, stupid, untalented, unreliable, bitchy women (even more sickening were the women who laughed uncontrollably at these displays, as if these macho-mook retarded jokes reflected normalcy).
Then there were the lovely displays of shooting people which were presented as commonplace and funny, something that sends shivers up the spine when one considers that, very likely, a huge percentage of the families in attendance have loaded, accessible weapons in their homes. Ho-ho. Soooo fucking funny you Wyatt Earp motherfuckers. Let's just fucking shoot people for the hell of it.
This is the America you don't see, even on Fox. But it's the America that Fox (and the GOP) supports and craves. A country where anyone different from who they conceive to be Real Americans is not welcome. An America where women are punch lines. Where minorities don't exist, where the most basic tenets of the Constitution are ignored in favor of Christian Hegemony, and where, despite the fact that they control vast spaces of America, Christians see themselves as a combination of rulers and victims.
Ride 'em cowboy, motherfuckers.
I’d like to say that I’ve been to a rodeo or three. I bought/owned a sheep ranch once. It was in an area where most of the inhabitants were yokels, that is folks who had been there, and only there, for any number of years, maybe generations.
One of the local entertainments was a rodeo. A local cattle and horse rancher built bleacher seats on two sides of his corral. He invited neighborhood kids to come and break his newborn horses. He invited neighborhood adults to come and watch. We did; it was a show far more humane than any super bowl. It was a show about kids learning about animals.
During the years that I raised sheep for slaughter, I often went to the Red Bluff Roundup, one of the signature (say what?) professional rodeos. Most of the contestants were Mexican churros, cowboys. There was no overt discontent.
yay, Red Bluff!! loved the rodeo!!
at the Redding rodeo, I had a primal experience when I realized that the bull riders only had to stay on those bulls for 8 seconds. That meant the bull always won! I was having images of the bull jumpers in Crete, etc. It was beautiful! At the end of the event, one of those tabaccy chewing cow pokes looked at me and said, "Well, I thought you wuz one of them PETA people the way you wuz staring at them bulls there."
Ak, sometimes it's really simple.
At the rodeos I went to, it was all about how long the guys could hold on. An them purty little gals in the barrel races.
I think the bigoted changes are recent.