Author: hearseeno

the-cimmerians:

So this
very nice lady who is a donor to the organization where I work sent us a ‘non-attending’
contribution in support of our upcoming event and since she’s in her 70s and
she’s been attending this event for the last 30 years I called her to check in,
and she can’t come this year because she participated in an anti-Trump Thriller
flash mob where all the zombies were carrying protest signs and she tripped
over her sign and broke her pelvis. I am so proud and so inspired and also will
heed this cautionary tale and try to gird my pelvis when i’m 76 and sticking it to
the man.

a few things to be aware of tomorrow

pocochina:

Alright, my babies. Shit is going to get real in the next….10 hours, and that’s just based on what we can project. News coming off of Capitol Hill tomorrow:

SCOTUS

The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its hearing of Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Gorsuch is a first-order right wing ideologue. Now, nobody who wasn’t a craven partisan hack would be in front of the Judiciary Committee tomorrow, because this is not a legitimately open seat. Even if Orange Julius were a legitimate president – he’s not – this seat was President Obama’s to fill when Justice Scalia died last spring. There was absolutely no constitutional justification for Senate Republicans’ refusal to consider Obama nominee Merrick Garland, and no judge with a good faith commitment to the constitution would agree to take it.

Even among craven partisan hacks, though, Gorsuch stands out. He is rapaciously hostile to the constitutional protection of LGBTQ equality and reproductive rights. He has supported proponents of unconstitutional voter disenfranchisement. He’s a Mike Pence pick: a stone-cold sadist with table manners.

A preemptive note of caution on what you’re probably going to hear from the purity trolls who would rather kneecap the opposition than oppose the regime themselves: Senate Democrats are in a really tricky position here because the courts generally are the only formal civic institution besides the Democratic party who have actually been doing what they’re supposed to do in the face of the Trump threat. Democrats can’t stop Gorsuch from being confirmed, but whatever grandstanding they do runs the risk of damaging the potency and independence of the judicial branch. Likely, the best thing they can do is participate in the formalities, while using every minute to drag Trump. Expect to hear a lot about emoluments, religious freedom, and perjury.

RUSSIA

The House Intelligence Committee will begin its first public hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election tomorrow.

There are about a half dozen people who will be testifying tomorrow, though the headliner is FBI Director James Comey. Yes, that would be the same James Comey who threw the election to Trump,, who now has to be dragged out in front of cameras to admit that he did so while investigating the Trump inner circle and possibly Trump himself – for, you know, actual crimes, not Emailing While Female. While unlikely to lie under oath, Comey can mostly be depended on to feed his gluttonous ego, probably by some combination of grandstanding about Trump’s nonsensical “wiretapp” allegations from a couple weeks ago and relishing his ability to withhold information whether he needs to or not.

It’s vital to understand as much of the background as you can, which starts with understanding that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is an ongoing investigation into a sensitive issue, which generally implies that there is some information that nobody knows. Because that investigation is ongoing, there’s a lot that some people doing the talking tomorrow know but will not be able to say. All members of Congress have gotten some classified briefings; the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have gotten more in-depth briefings; the party leaders from each house and high-ranking members of relevant committees have gotten even more comprehensive intelligence.

While it’s maddening to know that there’s so much we’re not being told, this extended process is a tacit confirmation that something very serious is being discussed. It is not normal for senators to be summoned to the basement two at a time to be briefed behind what’s basically a real-life Muffliato spell and come out looking spooked, and yet, here are the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

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That’s Democrat Dianne Feinstein speaking for herself and the committee chair. He appears to be more shaken up than she is – and here’s how rattled she seemed to the constituents who have been watching her for decades:

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Point being: this is real. We don’t know what “this” is, and we’re not going to know much by this time tomorrow, but there’s very good reason to believe that you need to brace yourself for something.

COMING SOON:

The House of Representatives plans to vote on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, and the cartoonishly sociopathic budget remains a pressing issue. None of this is a distraction. All of it is for real.

WHAT CAN I DO?

  • Call your senators and tell them not to confirm Gorusch. Call your representative and remind them that their constituents don’t want the ACA repealed, and that the Trump-Ryan budget is shockingly immoral.
  • Be proactively cautious about passing on misinformation. If you’re going to share something, great, but check it out first.

Note that this is the stuff that we know about which is planned for tomorrow. There’s going to be a lot going on, some of which is in areas where context is even more important than usual. I would strongly recommend that you resist the urge to try and follow everything by sneaking peeks at your Twitter feed throughout the day. If you, like most people, aren’t going to have the time to immerse yourself in the various stories, it’s probably better that you pick one or two people to help you follow along an issue, and then catch Maddow tomorrow night to fill you in on everything else. I’d recommend @imillhiser for the Gorsuch hearing and @andreachalupa, @russian_starr, or @sarahkendzior for Trump/Russia. I don’t know which thing @JoyAnnReid is going to be on throughout the day, but she’s usually pretty active and is unlikely to steer you wrong.

As usual, I’ll pass on a helpful summary if I find one. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

jadelyn:

berniesrevolution:

These guys are literally asking what “benefits” (to the rich) Meals on Wheels provides and since it doesn’t give any benefits (to the rich) they should be dismantled.

This is the problem with the hypercapitalist mindset that good businessmen make good politicians, than government should run on business principles.

Because if you’re running a business, it’s entirely reasonable to ask “what’s the ROI for this program?” and to scale it back or abandon it if you’re not seeing good ROI.

But that’s because the aim of business is to make money. The aim of government is not about making money, it’s about responsible stewardship of shared resources and doing the best we can to take care of our people.

And yet here we are, living the plutocratic dream under the control of a bunch of businessmen who ask “are we making enough money off of this?” about programs to care for the poor.

Tldr eat the rich. It’s the only viable solution at this point. We’re too far gone for anything else.

Source: berniesrevolution

i dont care what anyone says, knitting is a combat-applicable skill, and if you disagree i will fight you. with my knitting needles

leupagus:

reena-jenkins:

I said it once, and I’ll say it again: circular needles are an excellent impromptu garrote

Under what circumstances did you need to say it the first time???

The Telegraph – By Molly Oldfield and John Mitchinson

During the Second World War the Office of Censorship banned people from posting knitting patterns abroad in case they contained coded messages. There was one occasion when knitting was used for code. The Belgian resistance recruited old women whose windows overlooked railway yards to note the trains in their knitting. Basic stuff: purl one for this type of train, drop one for another type.

EPA awards $100 million to upgrade Flint water system

3/17/17

By Valerie Volcovici | WASHINGTON

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it had awarded $100 million to upgrade Flint, Michigan’s drinking water infrastructure to address a crisis that exposed thousands of children to lead poisoning.

The grant to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will enable the city to “accelerate and expand” its work to replace lead pipes and make other improvements, according to the EPA. Estimates of the upgrade’s cost range from $200 million to $400 million.

Friday’s announcement made the disbursement official. Last year, Congress passed and former president Barack Obama signed the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to allocate $100 million to aid Flint.

…

In January, 1,700 Flint residents filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Michigan, saying the EPA failed to warn them of the dangers of the toxic water or take steps to ensure that state and local authorities were addressing the crisis. The plaintiffs seek $722 million in damages.

EPA awards $100 million to upgrade Flint water system