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The Watering Hole, Monday, November 17th, 2014: Mixed Bag

Just a few articles from last week that I found interesting, and in case you missed them:

From Daily Kos, a very succinct [but limited] summary of some of President Obama’s accomplishments, in the form of a “letter to the editor” from a frustrated Canadian, who wraps up with: “When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?” The blogger who posted the LTE at Daily Kos, Leslie Salzillo, ends (in part) with:

“…half of America was blinded by the half-truths FOX ‘News’ and Conservative talking heads fed them, because you know, if you tell just enough truth mixed in with a bucket of lies, it causes confusion. And that can lead to a bad case of the FuckIts.”

[Hmm, is a “bad case of the FuckIts” related to “someone’s got a case of the Mondays” from Office Space?]

Ms. Salzillo then posted a line by Robin Williams (sigh), speaking to Canada:

“You are a big country. You are the kindest country in the world. You are like a really nice apartment over a meth lab.”

Raw Story had a couple of items, including this story about how former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [spit] feels about possible executive action by President Obama on immigration. The President may “…defer the deportations of up to 5 million undocumented immigrants who have children who are in the U.S. legally”, according to the article by David Edwards. Gonzales, appearing on CNN,

“…argued that the president should be focused on securing the border because of a “nightmare scenario” where terrorists infiltrate into the country through Mexico…

“Now, 99 percent of the people that come across the border are not terrorists,” he admitted. “They are coming over primarily to seek a better life. But I do think that it is legitimate in today’s world to do what we can as a government to secure the border.”

Apparently Gonzales has not read up on President Obama’s work to secure the southern border. According to The White House:

“Today, the Border Patrol is better staffed than ever before, having doubled the number of agents from approximately 10,000 in 2004 to more than 21,000 in 2011. More than 2,200 Border Patrol agents man the Northern border, a 700 percent increase since 9/11. More than 21,000 Customs and Border Protection Officers, including 3,800 along Northern Border, manage the flow of people and goods at our ports of entry and crossings.”

If I were Alberto Gonzales, and therefore needed something to fear, I’d be a whole lot more concerned about our porous northern border [no offense, dycker!]: twice the length of our border with Mexico, the U.S.-Canadian border only gets 2,200 Border Patrol Agents out of 21,000? And that piddly number is a 700% INCREASE since 9/11? Oy!

Sorta-kinda related – well, it reminded me of the Dubya days, appointing buddies whose former careers were in direct opposition to the purpose of the departments or Cabinets they were asked to head – but I digress:

Also from Raw Story, losing Oregon Republican Senate candidate Dr. Monica Wehby must have some set of “Thatchers” (Stephen Colbert’s name for ‘lady balls’) on her. After campaigning on the ‘repeal Obamacare’ platform, she allegedly called Oregon’s Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber to offer “…her expertise and interest in health care reform…”, according to the article by Tom Boggioni.

“According to multiple sources, Wehby asked about the job opening as director of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) which administers the ACA…”

I liked this part:

“Prior to the election, Wehby’s campaign was rocked by allegations that many of the policy prescriptions posted on her campaign website were plagiarized, including one for reforming healthcare.Wehby removed the alleged plagiarized portions, leaving the web pages blank.”

Heh, smooth move, “Doc.”

This story gets curiouser and curiouser, as the ‘fine hand’ of Karl Rove is in the background. Dr. Wehby “…was accused of taking wording from a survey conducted for Crossroads, a group run by Karl Rove, for her health care plan.”

I haven’t had time to read the Crossroads survey, but I think that it could be worth taking a look at, even just to see what Karl’s millions and minions have been up to.

I’ve wondered for most of my adult life what it takes to overcome the dilemma a country faces when an electorally-significant portion of its people willingly accept a political movement deliberately trained in the art of using bold-faced lies as a means to gain positions of power.

I first noticed it in 1964 — LBJ and Vietnam. Then came Nixon. Later pinnacle #1, Reagan. Finally, George W. Bush with the able assistance of his notorious sidekicks — Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Fox News, et al. — a tale of national intellectual collapse that would make Herr Dr. Goebbels proud.

I was briefly encouraged in 2006 when a Dem majority took over Congress, then in 2008 with Obama’s election. But in 2010 the dirt of the dark side recovered, and now here we are, teetering on the brink of everything bad the conscious mind can imagine, even in spite of the recovery from the brink of collapse brought about by common sense politics not based completely on GREED and its inviolate consequences.

U.S. “end times” are on fast approach. For confirmation, see Fox News.

Jane, I agree with the frustrated Canadian letter writer, Obama can come up here and when he is done being trashed in the US. And no offense taken, we do our duty an take off our shoes and belts at the airport 🙂

As Emily Dickinson noted 150 years ago, “The Bible is an antique volume, written by faded men.” She nailed it. So how come so many still claim it’s the authentic word of god? What evidence do they have that such is true? For that matter, is there one single shred of irrefutable evidence anywhere that a god of any kind has ever existed other than the crap found in those ‘antique volumes written by faded men’? Of course there isn’t.

If there was, I’m sure my cat would have found a way to tell me all about it. So far, nothing.

I think it is our concept of “god” that needs redefining. The closest I’ve seen that matches my experiences is the description of the Tao. Maybe your cat is trying to tell you all about it, and you just haven’t found a way to listen.

I’ve gone from being a cynic and skeptic, to being called a Reiki Master – being able to use the energy that is all around us to help healing.

And I had an incident once, while working on the roof – I gouged my finger. I was quite distracted, and what normally stopped the bleeding wasn’t working. I paused, cleared my thoughts and thought just one word, “help.” Withing seconds, a humming bird hovered quite near me, and instead of their usual clicking sound, it whistled at me – quite out of the ordinary. It then flew off, I looked down, and the bleeding had stopped.

When I finished on the roof, I looked up the hummingbird as an Animal Spirit Guide – they are known by native Americans as healers. It is ‘coincidences’ like this and many, many others, that leads me to believe there are connections that we as yet do not fully understand.

I agree absolutely. At least a decade ago we found a lonely patch of desert and “built” there a medicine wheel in the best of native tradition we could manage. And it was at that point that I finally began to genuinely recover from the severe after-effects caused by 18 hours of cranial surgery plus a week in ICU. And ever since, the wolf has been my, if you will, “spiritual guide.” Not sure how it all works, but it does.

I guess that Gov. Nixon is a Boy Scout who wants to be prepared. In this case; he’s making sure that all the troops are mobilized before announcing that the grand jury never had any intention of indicting the killer of Michael Brown.

…Buddy reportedly hopped on the side of the ambulance and rode for about 20 miles before another driver flagged the ambulance crew down…

Nicholson, 85, said he adopted Buddy from a shelter four months ago and was “impressed” by his pooch’s determination to stay by his side.
“He didn’t have to go to the hospital with me, but he did,” Nicholson said.