Tag: News

Sinda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

PINA Trump hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet, and the crazy is already at a third-year frenzy. He’s grabbing headlines this weekend by bellowing about the Panama Canal.

“The Panama Canal is considered a vital national asset for the United States, due to its critical role to America’s economy and national security,” Trump said Saturday on his Truth Social platform. “A secure Panama Canal is crucial for U.S. Commerce, and rapid deployment of the Navy.”

Inspired by Trump’s demands, Putin put out statement that maybe Russia should demand Alaska back. “Alaska is considered a vital national asset for the Russian Federation due to its location and wealth of natural resources. A secure Alaska is crucial for Russian commerce, and a rapid deployment of our military forces.”

Not to be outdone, France issued a statement suggesting that they might demand the Louisiana Purchase be returned to France. “We were tricked into making that sale,” the statement said. “America’s ambassadors supplied champagne, whiskey, and wine to the meeting, and took advantage of France’s representatives.”

Representatives of King Charles III’s government put out a statement that they are re-thinking the history of the original thirteen colonies, and might demand that they be returned as well. Spain has suggested it might demand that Florida be returned to them, “Because it’s a really warm place and is important for our ability to relax, enjoy the sun, and visit Disney.”

Several Indian tribes in the United States have given notice that they intend to demand their territories back, noting that the United States failed to live up to treaties or killed the people inhabiting it and stole the land.

In another official statement, the President of the United Mexican States said that although Texas was once part of Mexico, they were willing to let the United States keep it.

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Sa’day’s Wandering Political Thoughts

UnitedHealth Cuts Coverage for Autistic Children

So you know, just as a reminder…

The new United Healthcare Group CEO, Andrew Witty, has said that the United States’s healthcare system is ‘flawed’.

“No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades. Our mission is to help make it work better,” Witty said in a New York Times op-ed published Friday morning, titled “The Health Care System Is Flawed. Let’s Fix It.”

Sure, no one would design a system whereby greedy execs would bow to shareholders and increase profits, stock prices, dividends, and executive bonuses keep increasing their wealth at the cost to the health of the customers who depend on it. That’s why such a system is a rarity in the United States among industries. Yes, that was enriched snark.

Here comes more snark. And, gosh, it must be really hard to fix it. Witty’s predecessor, the late Brian Thompson, had ‘only been with’ United Healthcare for twenty years. As part of his efforts to fixed that flawed system, the company saw profits increase from $12,000,000,000 in 2021 to $16,000,000,000 in 2023, which covers Thompson’s time as CEO.

Naturally, Witty praised Thompson’s efforts to improve healthcare for everyone:

“As Brian Thompson’s family, friends and colleagues mourn his killing, we are bearing a grief and sadness we will carry for the rest of our lives. Grief for the family he leaves behind. And grief for a brilliant, kind man who was working to make healthcare better for everyone,” Witty wrote.

Undoubtably, Thompson’s work work to fixed that flawed service was making progress, judging from the story shared on Diane Ravitch’s blog about the women being denied benefits by the healthcare giant.

I am sure that Witty will carry on Thompson’s ‘good work’. I expect a slow rollout of those improvements, a very, very, very slow rollout.

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Sa’day’s Theme Music

Mood: Drowsaday

I slept in today. Three aspects drove it. One, my foot was cranky for rest, two, the night’s weather, and three, my bed was seductively warm and comfortable.

Foot/ankle continues getting better but I press to improve. That sometimes backfires. It’s a two-step, you know, step forward, step back, step forward, step back.

The night weather, though, holy stormy, Batman. Wind was busy when we went to bed. Rain was dumping. Few hours later, I awoke to distinctive moaning and a freight train sound. My youthful tornado experiences mumbled to my sleepy mind, “That sounds like tornado.” I checked the time – 5:05 – and rumbled out of bed and to the outside doors. Looking for tornado funnels, of course. In the dark. Hello.

Papi was out. That dumbfounded me. I checked his back patio condo. His usual refuge, it was disconcertinhly empty. Rain was spraying through the covered patio, because the wind was shoving it sideways. So it wasn’t the safe harbor that it normally was. Given that, I pelted back to the front door. See if Papi was cowering around there. Nope. I did some calling and whistling. No Papi. Repeated that in the back. Watched, waited, wondered.

Back to bed. The wind dropped the moan and its freigh train imitation. Serenity settled over the darkness. Whap, whap, whap. Papi’s familiar rap carried from the front door. I hustled out there to bring him in.

His fur was dry.

To end the tale, I fed Papi and returned to be ’bout 6:25. Settling in, I elevated my foot. Tucker found my hand and rested his head on it. Sleep hit me over the head. When my awareness next resurfaced, the timepiece’s digit were showing 9:45.

Pretty out there today, Saturday, December 21, 2024. Everything is wet but drying. Nothing in my vision’s field is wind-disturbed. Sunshine and a cloud-marbled blue sky rocks the valley. Temp of 46 with a few degrees left until we touch the high. That might be deceptive; I just watched an elderly-appearing guy making his way up the hill past my house. Wearing a light jacket with bare hands, he yanked the zipper up as far it would go and pulled his hands up into his jacket sleeves.

Today’s morning mental music stream (Trademark snoozing) occupant is Willie Williams with “Armagedeon Time”. Came ’bout from mind mutterings while listening to the wind and hoping the homeless and animals were all safe. But with lyrics like, “Lot of people won’t get no justice tonight” and “lots of people won’t get no supper tonight”, the song is a fitting tune to herald the coming year and concerns about GOP willingness cut up the nation’s social safety net.

BTW, this is it, shortest day of the year in the northern hemy. Take a few days but the days will cease their early sunsets and begin curving toward more hours of sunshine. Feels really needed as we end the tumultuous 2024.

Got coffee, had brekkie, and ready to boogie. Here’s the music. Merry solstice, ya’ll. Cheers

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Friday’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Billionaire Musk has launched a new era of misinformation under cover of the Trump administration. Barrelling through the truth with loads of misinformation and lies, Musk has already overtaken PINO Trump as the liar in chief.

MPS offers the deets on Musk’s lies as he torpedoed the federal spending bill, forcing the Federal government to the edge of shutdown. Yes, that’s the growing power of this unelected billionare over the GOP, who worship money and greed over everything else in heaven and hell. MPS acknowledges they’re sharing their information from Axios. One big warning that should be heeded:

“The problem Congress faces,” a Trump transition source says, “is that Elon now has an army of people reviewing every word of every bill — and he’s gonna amplify the crazy sh*t in there.“

Yes, that’s Musk, amplifying the crazy. Let’s all build him a rocket and shoot him off this rock before he destroys it.

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Thursday’s Wandering Political Thoughts

I checked out the Borowitz Report. Andy has created his own Project 2025. Quoting him,

The Heritage Foundation has inspired me to create my very own Project 2025—and, unlike their 900-page dystopian fever dream, mine can be summarized in one sentence:

I’m breaking up with the oligarchs.

The following billionaires have cynically chosen to throw in with Trump. Consequently, they all deserve a boycott in 2025. (Note: I’m aware that there are many other oligarchs worthy of being shunned. Consider this a starter kit.)

Andy lists Elon Musk (a natural number one in this exercise), Mark Benioff, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. It’s a worthy starter kit. I laud all of his choices.

I gagged over Andy’s comments about Benioff, though. Benioff, as Time Magazine’s owner, wrote in support of Trump as the Person of the Year: “This marks a time of great promise for our nation. We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone.”

What a tone-deaf idiot. The divisive Trump and his merry band of billionaires are going to advance ‘success and prosperity for everyone.’

Sure. Go sell that garbage on Mars. I know many unthinking Americans bought that cheap brand of recycled cheerleading but some of us have been paying attention. In true Orwellian fashion, Benioff has redefined ‘everyone’ as wealthy, white, and male.

People, you shoulda voted blue. You’re gonna reap what you sowed. Let me tell you, it ain’t gonna be ‘success and prosperity’ for everyone.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: Nostalgic

Today is Thursday, December 19, 2024. A temptation to change Thursday to Throughsday almost conquered my fingers. ‘Throughsday’ because the week is almost finished. I didn’t change it, as I’m disinclined toward misinformation and confusing people.

In other morning news, a crowd of zombies went through our town. Ha, ha, just kidding. It wasn’t a crowd. Just a couple.

Our weather today looks as if someone delivered elements of fog, clouds, sunshine, and rain. All were tossed together in a big blue bowl. Now they’re up there, waiting to be mixed and blended.

Just after observing and writing all of that, Papi the ginger blade floof, returned with a scouting report. He didn’t need to say anything. Fog had shut down the sunshine, clouds, and blue skies. 46 F out there, it ‘feels like 38’, with a high of 57 dangling over us.

I met with my beer buddies last night. Two new members joined us. She is a retired teacher and physician’s assistant. He is a retired electrical engineer. They have a daughter who works for NASA, and he was a big science fiction fan when he was a kid. Others told him that I sometimes write science fiction. He shifted over to sit by me later in the night and discuss the genre. Lot of fun remembering the novels we had in common which influenced us.

Today’s theme music arrives on the shoulders of a conversation I had with several women last night. They expressed deep disappointment and frustration that more women didn’t turn out to vote in the 2024 election. I didn’t have any insights into that and they couldn’t cite any stats. Young me from several different groups were the dissappointing difference to me. I read interviews with and stories about young black men, for example, who thought Trump would be better for the economy. That still makes me shake my head.

Anyway, after returning home with that conversation in mind, “American Woman” by the Guess Who from 1970 rose into the morning mental music stream (Trademark peeling) today. I always thought the song was about the United States, represented by a woman, seducing countries to be like the United States. The singer was resisting because the United States was a war machine filled with ghettos. The ‘colored lights’ referred to in the song was Hollywood glamor. Remember, the Vietnam War was underway and protests were taking place in the U.S. In light of that backdrop, my interpretation made sense to me. But different interviews with the Guess Who band members painted a different story. The songwriter and vocalist, Burton Cummings, said it was just a comparison of women from the U.S. and Canada.

“What was on my mind was that girls in the States seemed to get older quicker than our girls and that made them, well, dangerous. When I said ‘American woman, stay away from me,’ I really meant ‘Canadian woman, I prefer you.’ It was all a happy accident.”

h/t to Wikipedia.

I became fourteen around the time of the song’s release. It’s uptempo beat, rich bass, unique riffs, lead guitar, lyrics, and vocals all worked for me. Cummings sang it with an angry, contemptuous sneer in my opinion. That spoke to my own burgeoning contempt for how our world and society works. Ah, to be young and idealistic.

Coffee and I have negotiated arrangements and I’m taking advantage of that to warm my throat. Time to light the candle on another day. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Wandering Political Thoughts

I should just stay away from the news because it’s just pissing me off.

AOC set out to be the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Gerry Connolly, 74, with cancer, won. Because one obvious takeaway from the 2024 elections is ‘old is good’. Seriously, Connolly won because money talks and he brought in more, another lesson gleaned from the 2024 elections: yes, stay the same old, same old. That’s what the voters signalled they wanted, isn’t it?

There’s a load of extra-spicy morning snark in that paragraph. But it’s this kind of shit that torpedoes my faith in the Democratic Party and their future. They continue making the same tone-deaf decisions that led to the Blue Wave in 2024. Yes, that was more snark. All they’ve done is cemented the impression that they haven’t changed and won’t change.

Turning to Crooks & Liars, they provided a happy spark by pointing out what a fucking idiot Trump is by citing what he says about groceries. First, they quoted him from an interview about his promise to lower prices.

“Look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard,” Trump told Time, admitting to what many of us knew months ago.

Then they offered this:

On Thursday, Trump offered up a perplexing story about “an old woman” buying three apples at a grocery store and taking “one of the apples back to the refrigerator” because the price was too high. (Apples are not usually stocked in refrigerators.)

snip

This past Sunday, during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said, “I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost—you know, who uses the word? I started using the word—the groceries. … I won an election based on that.”

My gag reflex kicked in. “I started using the word — the groceries.” Like, oh my cat, this is what stirred people to vote for Trump? Such a wise people they are, following such a wise man. They should have voted for me. I’ve been using the word groceries since like the 1960s.

I’m trying to be a more positive person and look forward. Get through this winter and reach a new spring for democracy in the U.S. But I’m used to reading the news, trying to make sense of the world. It ain’t working for me.

Think I’ll just shut down and go read a book and drink coffee.

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Tuesday’s Wandering Political Thoughts

David Prosser read my brief comments about the Wisconsin school shooting from earlier this week (three dead) and my bitter comment about ‘thoughts and prayers’. He doesn’t reside in our nation so he’s not fully indoctrinated to our cycles of mass shootings and thoughts and prayers. He asked me to expand a little.

Here it is, David. A short summary of some high and low lights in our national conversation about gun violence in the United States. Direct quotes from articles are italicized. Links are provided so you can read the quotes in its full context.

Sickening routines have become normal in the United States. Gun violence breaks out; people are killed. Thoughts and prayers are offered for the victims and the family members of those victims. Investigations are conducted and speeches are made. Little changes.

“Thoughts and prayers” have become an unironically overused expression. Substantial action to reduce gun violence is usually shunted aside as meaningless. The ones shunting it aside are normally Republican ‘leaders’ like United States Senators such as Mitch McConnell, or President-elect Donald Trump, and his right hand man, JD Vance.

2019, via Austin American-Statesman [9]: Back-to-back massacres in El Paso and Dayton kill 31. Cue the thoughts and prayers!

“Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers,” tweeted President Trump, who vows to veto gun control.

“Elaine’s and my prayers go out to the victims,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocks votes on gun control.

Vice-President-elect JD Vance says that our gun violence a fact of life and we gotta live with it [1]. “If these psychos are going to go after our kids we’ve got to be prepared for it,” Vance said at a rally in Phoenix. “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it.”

Vance was addressing the subject after a 2024 school shooting in which four people were killed in Georgia.

The subject of ‘thoughts and prayers’ as a useless response has been around for a while.

2017, via Newsweek [2]: In the hours after Stephen Paddock killed nearly 60 and injured more than 500 early from a Mandalay Bay hotel room, surrounded by a cache of 10 legal weapons, reactions from politicians stuck to piety, not policy.

Donald Trump tweeted his “warmest condolences.” Later, while addressing the nation, the president called the shooting an act of “evil,” quoted Scripture and announced the flag would fly at half-mast. “As we grieve, we pray that God may provide comfort and relief to all those suffering,” he said.

The article enumerated more Republican politicians tweeting about their thoughts and prayers in response to the killings. The article noted:

The similar speeches and social media postings after shootings in Orlando, Florida; San Bernardino, California; and Newtown, Connecticut have been frequently criticized by gun control advocates, including the New York Daily News, which ran “God Isn’t Fixing This” on its front page to condemn the “coward” politicians who only talk.

2018, via CNN [3]: Semantic satiation is the phenomenon in which a word or phrase is repeated so often it loses its meaning. But it also becomes something ridiculous, a jumble of letters that feels alien on the tongue and reads like gibberish on paper.

“Thoughts and prayers” has reached that full semantic satiation.

For the last few years, after every mass shooting, the term immediately trends on social platforms. It’s not a good kind of trending: Among the earnest pleas for social and legislative action, the aftermath of each successive shooting inspires more and more memes and cynical jokes.

The article went on to note,

There has been no major gun-control legislation in the nearly six years since Sandy Hook, the tragedy that was supposed to change everything. In fact, in the years following Sandy Hook, more states loosened gun buying restrictions than tightened them.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School murders took place on December 14, 2012 [4]. 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. 20 were children.

2017, via Time Magazine [5]: After the horrific shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, a rhetorical tennis match ensued. Some politicians offered up their “thoughts and prayers,” as many have following other mass shootings. Others responded by criticizing “thoughts and prayers” as a pathetic substitute for taking concrete action. On Wednesday night’s episode of Full Frontal, Samantha Bee even organized a gospel choir to parody the phrase. Those critics, often liberals, were then taken to task for their unholy dismissal of “thoughts and prayers,” which in turn led to criticisms that those criticisms were just a deflection guarding another deflection.

Devin Kelley shot and killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas in November, 2017.

Some laws have been passed. But Republicans do not want to touch anything related to gun rights in the United States, including background checks or gun restrictions, so those measures remain weak and ineffective [6].

As the Biden administration reiterates calls for tougher gun measures in response to the mass shooting in Maine last week, House Republicans updated a fiscal 2024 spending bill with provisions that take the opposite track.

House Republicans are looking to use the appropriations process to block a proposed rule to implement a provision included in the first bipartisan anti-gun violence package passed in years.

Between the actions taken by the GOP in Congress, the obstacles they throw up against curbing gun violence, and Republicans like JD Vance, we see that the GOP is basically okay with gun violence. Action is louder than words — or thoughts and prayers. Republicans would rather take no action than to risk alienating their base [10]. Secret tapes of the NRA discussng this were aired by National Public Radio (NPR):

In addition to mapping out their national strategy, NRA leaders can also be heard describing the organization’s more activist members in surprisingly harsh terms, deriding them as “hillbillies” and “fruitcakes” who might go off script after Columbine and embarrass them.

And they dismiss conservative politicians and gun industry representatives as largely inconsequential players, saying they will do whatever the NRA proposes. Members of Congress, one participant says, have asked the NRA to “secretly provide them with talking points.”

When Republicans do take action, it’s been to try to build schools into fortresses, providing them with armed guards, and even advocating, arm teachers. That’s Senator Cruz’s master plan. Ted Cruz believes that’s the best solution [7].

“We know from past experiences that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus,” Cruz said in Washington on May 24, just hours after the shooting, before many details were known.

“Inevitably when there’s a murder of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.”

The first problem is that according to actual research, no, armed guards don’t solve the problem of gun violence and gun killings in school. The second and larger problem is that besides schools, there is gun violence and murders at businesses, post offices, movie theaters, churches, synagogues, and homes. Police officers have been ambushed, shot, and killed. Besides them as victims, the police have also been quick to draw and shoot to kill. Senator Cruz doesn’t have suggestions about curbing shootings in all those locations outside of schools.

Next, we can talk about the defend your ground shootings and murders. Trayvon Martin. Ajike “AJ” Owens. Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis. Ziad Abu Naim. Joshua Switalski.

What the GOP does often talk about is that the gun violence isn’t about the guns; it’s about mental health. Experts believe that while mental health issues contribute to gun violence, it only accounts for about 4%, leaving us to deal with another 96% of gun violence incidents [8]. The GOP bans research on gun violence, probably because they know that the facts are against them [9].

I do believe we have a mental health issue when it comes to gun violence in the United States, and that is an unwillingness to face that we have a big gun violence problem. Until we do, kneejerk responses like “thoughts and prayers” are doing nothing but letting the problem fester and grow. It’s like knowing you have a disease but refusing to face it.

And that is a problem.

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