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A Comment Storm 2:11 to 4:06 pm, Thursday June 29, 2017 Another Tom Toles masterpiece in the Washington Post ("Guardian of Amazon's tax practices:" DJT)....                               Sing a song o’ sick, Pence ... inspired me to write a "comment." I took the opportunity to plug single payer! (Predictable, you say.) duffworx   [That's my handle on the Washington Post.] 2:11 PM MDT SINGLE PAYER! Single Payer! Say it again. Finally the moment is here for the U.S. to join the rest of advanced civilizations in pulling the plug (teat?) out of the rapacious for-profit health insurance companies. A healthy workforce is a more effective workforce. People without the fear of medical bankruptcy and inadequate care are more productive, less angry people. The costs of Medicare for All will be less and far more predictable. IT'S TIME! Right, VP Pence? Hello? 6like Jerry B.     [Jerry B. reflected the widespread misunderstan

Professor Henry A. Giroux Knocks It Out of the Park in Salon.com * SATURDAY, JUN 24, 2017 07:00 AM MDT Manufactured illiteracy and miseducation: A long process of decline led to President Donald Trump  A deep-rooted crisis in education, and a long cultural and political decline, is what got us here. There's hope!  HENRY A. GIROUX I am wholeheartedly recommending you read this article. It's a straight-up super piece of reality, a facing of facts, and a powerful call to action. Just what Doomsayers are supposed to do, get us off our duffs. Go read it at  Salon ! A FEW HIGHLIGHTS. (Kind of like the briefing before the battle.) Cliffs notes of Prof Giroux's diagnostics on where the U.S. of A. is slipping off the tracks: -a plague of deep-seated civic illiteracy, a corrupt political system and a contempt for reason -the withering of civic attachments, the undoing of civic culture, the decline of public life and the erosion of any sense of shared ci

These are my guys Well, the YL in the middle is only a guest, but the rest of this motley crew meets monthly to solve the world's problems. For any improvement anywhere in the world, you can credit us. *                   We only wear the noses during the formal period of our meetings.                                           (That's me in the best looking suit.) *Pix courtesy the crazed PhotoShopper in the white poncho stole.

I know... LET'S HAVE A CIVIL WAR!! With, you know, guns and stuff. * Pamela Geller, Right Wing Howler Monkey In Breitbart, that ongoing tribute to the Trumpster Hard Core, Pamella Geller declares: The Coming Civil War She plays every card in the right wing meme machine. Typical of the hate-filled rant: "The left is evil, and they mean to destroy our way of life, our freedom and us. It took decades to norm their anti-Americanism, their hatred of freedom and individual rights, but they have reached their tipping point. And the long beaten and battered among us have had it." She wraps up with a clear call to action: "The deck is stacked against us. We must get off the defense."   Like, get out your guns? DOES THIS KIND OF RABBLE ROUSING ACTUALLY RAISE THE RABBLE? Yep.   For sure. Absolutely. Right wing ground is pre-plowed for hate seeds: Hate has, "I nfused right-wing politics beyond the gun lobby. 'Watering the t

OK, More Hypersonic Scare Stuff Raytheon (America's top missile maker) says it could develop missiles capable of shooting down hypersonic weapons....       If   we get busy providing "sustained funding and a national sense of urgency." First: did you know Raytheon was Mr. Big in the missile business? (Aviation Week says they are.)        My image of Raytheon goes way back. Waaay back.          Vacuum tubes. That far back. Raytheon, high in the ham radio* pantheon of tubes.      ** Sort of looks like a missile Second: Can you image how hard it is to shoot down a hypersonic craft going Mach 6? By the time you get your pistol out of the holster, this guy has run you through (saber talk). Hot. IMPORTANT?   Tom Bussing, vice president of  Raytheon ’s Advanced Missile Systems thinks so (me too), saying, " The relatively sudden rise of hypersonic strike capability in China and Russia is a remarkable thing that has occurred, and it has fundamental

A Millenial Hit Olde Folks Don't Know About Are you over 50? Have you ever heard about "Rick and Morty?" I thought not. There is a "cell" of younger people who love the show and say extravagant things about its wonderfulness. In these times when prior punditry had it we would be unified by some mysterious power in the Internet, there are more and more cells of people, unified within their cells, but isolated from most of the other cells of special interests*, tastes and proclivities.  The U.S. looks more like a pomegranate than a cantaloupe - to push the fruit/melon analogy to its extreme. I will dream up a graphic one of these days. USA, USA! society in fruit form. ANYHOO... I watched Rick and Morty at my millennial son's suggestion, and I LOVE IT. Eccentric old genius and non-genius grandson as the lead characters (faintly Back to the Future -esque) + sci-fi + Simpsons sensibilities +  intelligent satire + over-the-top imaginative creators

Look Up, Jefferson Beauregard * ** That kid in Peru is being saved from 8 seizures per day with cannabis oil. Over there, see the American veterans being treated for major PTSD with legal weed? Now, amidst genuine crises - like the opioid epidemic, voter suppression, out-of-control ICE agents, massive tax cheating by your contributors, a nut case President with a campaign that (seemingly) colluded with the Russians, banksters regaining their power to destroy lives, the elimination of Inspectors General... you know, real problems, you are going after medical marijuana ? With all due (?) respect, sir, are you aware that opioid overdose deaths are way down in the states with legal marijuana? (P.S... that reference link is to an ultra-right site, DailyCaller.com) Lordy, I hope there is justice somewhere in your department. * pix credit ** pix credit