One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. - Plato
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position. - Mark Twain American Claimant (1892).
On Sunday, my Daughter and I are throwing a Writing-a-letter-to-Senators festival. Will not take long. We have stamps and envelopes and paper. Do your job, Senators. SCOTUS needs a new Justice. Lots of work to do.
“A Bloomberg poll found that 78 percent of voters would like to see Citizens United overturned, and this view held across a range of partisan loyalties: Republicans at 80 percent; Democrats at 83; and independents at 71.”
I would vote for Trump tomorrow, the shitweasel, if he said "When I am POTUS, we are going to try the architects of the Iraq War, which has impoverished all of us, for treason." Trump said that the Suits lied us into the Iraq war and that took big giant balls. Or a lot of cocaine. That is how Donald Trump the Vulgar could become King. Think about it.
I will believe that a corporation is a person, and its money is speech, and a corporation has spiritual life when a corporation goes to jail for depraved indifference. A big corporation has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and its entire food chain. Who is going to jail for that? Anybody? Hello?
A big Corporation, Religious Authoritarians and the Supreme Court are practicing medicine and making social policy. They just picked my pocket. A meat person who picks pockets goes to jail. And they did it to me because ... wait for it ... they did it because I am a woman and they can. They did it to me for Jesus.
I am so angry and stunned it has taken me days to write or do a thing but garden. I am getting upset just writing about this right now. Do not expect this rant to be coherent.
Brendan Boyle
I was pulling weeds and muttering "I do not know what to do." And then the light dawned. The Democratic Party 170th district candidate for PA State Senator is a "staunchly pro life" forced birth cultist. I am going to do a Mississippi-McDaniel on Brendan Boyle.
I swear that I will never vote for an anti choice Democrat. Never. I am going to vote for his Republican opponent. I am going to ask every pro choice woman I know to do the same.
Except he has no Republican opponent it seems. I googled. Okay. I am going to write Margaret Sanger's name on the ballot.
I know Boyle is popular. I also know I am not alone. Women talk and we do not have to whisper about abortion and contraception in the kitchen anymore.
If I cannot control my own body and sexual and family life, what difference does it make who holds the whip? Maybe the Democrats will get the message. Do not mess with the Roe v. Wade the Republicans gave us. Oh the irony.
Our State of PA, which cannot find money for schools to educate children, has found more tax money to fund "crisis pregnancy centers" like Real Alternatives in order to manage PA women's reproductive decisions. I think PA women can manage their own sexual and family lives and should be left alone to do so.
It is state politics that we must concentrate on now, Folks. Bigtime.
Just this summer, the Pennsylvania legislature doled out $5.8 million to Real Alternatives, which is not a penny less than last year, giving the organization a special distinction indeed. In a year that saw huge slashes to the state budget — including cuts in AIDS pharmaceutical services, an 18 percent loss in the operating budget of the Department of Environmental Protection, and $1 billion eliminated from schools, among many other cuts — Real Alternatives' budget was left untouched. - Holly Otterbein, City Paper
I am going out into the garden and pull some more weeds. And continue to ask myself "What can I do about this?" Can you impeach a Supreme Court Justice?
Update: Texas - it is the new Bangladesh. Unless you vote and vote intelligently, this atrocity will be coming to a town near you. Owners of the building in Bangladesh are being held criminally liable -- how about the owners of the Texas fertilizer plant? Rick Perry said this cartoon is "disgusting." I think it is right on time. Hit the link in the photo caption to go to the Bee.
Okay, the event I expected has come. A corporation has committed depraved indifference homicide. Corporations are people says SCOTUS. Who is going to jail for years? The CEO, the Board, the owners/shareholders? Who is going to pay for this crime? The taxpayers? Only the victims? Somebody better go to jail. Or We the People might just as well rob our local bank, because being law abiding will not be and cannot be a sane strategy in the USA anymore. Form yourself into a corporation or business entity and you can commit any crime with impunity evidently. Go to the link for stunning coverage of this event. Texas is asking for aid from the Feds, even though they voted against Sandy aid, of course. Somebody needs to piss on their cowboy boots.
Did you think I was never coming back? It would take more than two blown knees to keep me from You, ma Cher. I danced for a living for years. And my knees have finally cried "Enough."
On August 10, I will receive two new knees. I have been taking a lot of pills for pain. I find they interfere with my ability and desire to write.
Nevertheless, I am delighted to have found the energy and clarity of mind to write today. Who am I trying to kid? It is more like the energy to rant, whine, kvetch, and stamp my feet.
Stay tuned. Some rants coming up anon.
Rant:
For those concerned about the SCOTUS' Citizens United decision ( that a Corporation is a legal person with all the right of free speech attached to that status ) and the effects of the decision on the body politic, I point you to a diary at dKos.
The Michigan Liquor Control Commission refused to grant a license to sell Raging Bitch beer in Michigan because Flying Dog brewers are rude. In March of this year, Flying Dog filed suit, citing a violation of their 1st Amendment rights.
It seems that the State cannot now protect us from an artisan beer maker's raunchy sense of humor and deprive of us of an excellent new beer. A good thing, eh? Go get yourself a Raging Bitch beer and settle in your favorite chair. This may amuse you as much as it amuses me.
"This week, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission reversed their position. They did so based on the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week that said the state of Vermont could not prevent pharmaceutical companies from harvesting data about doctor's prescribing patterns and habits as a way to market to them more effectively. This restriction on the rights of states to regulate "speech" by corporations is beginning to have far-reaching impacts." - from the diary at the link above.
When you get done laughing, think about this whole debacle. What will this decision do to the labeling regulations, for example? You know, those laws that have kept the Corpos from poisoning, maiming, and bamboozling us since 1920.
I think the Suits and Robes and Corpos have overreached. Bigtime. Get thee some popcorn and a couple more Bitches, sit back, and enjoy the ride. It is going to be a Hoot. And it will only get funnier and more absurd (if that is possible) as the months go by. And laughing at the Azzoles sure beats crying over the whole sickening mess.
