Brainstormy
Brainstormy's Journalcake for thought
So I’ve just made a spectacular birthday cake for my sister and I’m smiling as I take my bowl of leftover buttercream frosting to my lovely stainless steel sink and begin to use tons of dishwashing soup and gallons of water to run the stuff down my state-of-the-art garbage disposal to go somewhere I never think about, and then suddenly I AM thinking.
I’m thinking about all the women in the world who can’t bake a fancy cake. About those who struggle to even feed their families. About all the women in the world who don’t even have clean water. And I’m not smiling anymore. And I realize, again, why I can’t believe in anybody’s God.
How to Write a Holy Text
is one of the chapters in my forthcoming book. Brain picking here from my peeps. What would YOU think that essential elements should be? Please. Make me laugh.
This, THIS is what we should be worrying about
Everything is a distraction from something much, much worse
The administration is repealing consumer and environmental protections left and right. The Education Department is making it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students. The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed an air pollution rule that the agency had determined would likely prevent the poisoning of children.
The Trump deregulatory team is rife with former lobbyists and others who have conflicts of interest. President Trump and his family members likewise appear to be financially benefiting from his role in the White House.
Yet fussing over regulatory decisions and vaguely sleazy behavior is itself a distraction from an even more important issue: the fact that Republicans are trying to remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy, largely in secret, while ripping health insurance away from 22 million Americans.
They’re laying out changes opposed by insurers, providers and patient advocacy groups. They are doing so with no hearings and no expert input, and reportedly with a scheme to sideline the one neutral referee of the law’s potential impact, the Congressional Budget Office. Attention must be paid!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/everything-is-a-distraction-from-something-much-much-worse/2017/07/13/a42384e0-6809-11e7-a1d7-9a32c91c6f40_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.7684711fea1b
If you haven't had your cup of stupid today
Here's good ole Jim Bakker (remember him?) sounding dumber than ever.
Jim Bakker: Making Fun Of Trump Is The ‘Spirit Of The Antichrist’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jim-bakker-antichrist_us_59195cfbe4b0031e737ebff7
MSNBC's Identity crisis
This article from Huffington Post about MSNBC's strong ratings for its most liberal commentators (Maddow, Hayes, and Lawrence) in the face of management's determination to move the network to the right is very interesting
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andy-lack-msnbc-donald-trump_us_5907422de4b0bb2d086fb7a8?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
I spend my day turning MSNBC on and off. I can't stand Chuck Todd, and I'm gratified to know that others are having a hard time with Greta Van Susteren, too. Her ratings, apparently are miserable. What in the WORLD is wrong with Andy Lack?
The Dakota Pipeline. And me.
I'm not a native American. Not particularly a good student of American history. But this crisis, from its beginning, has captured and wounded me, spurring some legitimate research on my part, and hitting home especially at this holiday season, already unusual for some of us, by being saturated with so much disappointment.
During our family Thanksgiving preparations I began talking to my teen, and pre-teen grands about how upset I'd been over this travesty. I gave them a little background on the treaties that have been broken with these native people, the United Nation speech on the rights of indigenous people that I had recently listened to, and the global embarrassment of the US votes on this issue, and other snippets. I was very emotional and weepy also coming off a bad cold or bout of flu and then there was the added factor that they think their Grammar is always a little nuts. She is. But I'm very happy, and weepy again, tonight. Chalk one up for US. For all of "us."
I really need to feel good, to feel hopeful, about something. I trust there are others of you out there who understand.
Mother Theresa's sainthood
Saddened this morning that the whole world is celebrating the life of this selfish fraud.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2003/10/mommie_dearest.html
"What used to be the lunatic fringe is now called the House of Representatives."
Great article on the toll that the right wing has already taken on America.
"Taking heart at Donald Trump’s plummeting favorability numbers? You think he maybe finally jumped the shark by taking a victory lap over the Orlando massacre? You think the Republic is now safe?
It isn’t. The Republic is already sick. It’s like we had a bad clam — a steady diet of bad clams - and the convulsions aren’t likely to stop soon."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-garfield/donald-trump-2016_b_10523982.html
Iowa governor attempting to impose Christianity as state government’s religion, say rights groups
What next?
Advocates for the separation of church and state are acting swiftly to scuttle a plan by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) to flood the state’s 99 courthouses with praying, Bible-reading Christians activists for four days.
The Des Moines Register reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and the group Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers have roundly condemned the action as a high-handed attempt to establish Christianity as the official religion of the state government. The plan, they say, is a direct violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/iowa-governor-attempting-to-impose-christianity-as-state-governments-religion-say-rights-groups/
Franklin Graham boycotting Girl Scout Cookies.
My hips don't need them, but I'm ordering a case of thin mints for the freezer. Honestly, I can't even THINK about the Graham family without gritting my teeth. Maybe the cookies will help.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/03/03/franklin-graham-boycotts-girl-scout-cookies/?ref_widget=trending&ref_blog=lovejoyfeminism&ref_post=raised-evangelical-adult-children-reflect
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Member since: Tue Jun 1, 2010, 11:14 AMNumber of posts: 2,381