Sunday, June 14, 2015
IKEA to Invest Billion Dollars in the Environment
The Scandanavians are in the news for investing big in cleaning up the environment. IKEA, based in Sweden, announced it will spend one billion euros (1.13 billion dollars) over the next five years to address climate change. While in the U.S. a Think Progress analysis found that "over 58 percent" of congressional Republicans refuse to accept the science of climate change. Go figure. IKEA's decision was partially the result of a survey taken last year with the finding that 41% of the store's customers think the company “takes social and environmental responsibility.” Now that's a refreshing change to some American companies that simply concentrate on polluting the environment.
Forbes magazine has published an article with 11 U.S. companies that are considered best for the environment. Among them are Seventh Generation and Go Lite, but there is also the other side...our country's big polluters. Just recently Environment America released "Polluting Politics" a report that analyzes spending on federal lobbying and campaign contributions by companies releasing the most toxic chemicals into U.S. waterways. Guess who tops the list of water polluters who spend the most politically to prevent environmental policies? KOCH Industries. But they are just one; others include Tyson Foods, Dept. Of Defense, Cargill, U.S. Steel and Phillips 66. And these are only water polluters.
The environment has taken a series of hits that many climate scientists have said we cannot recover from if we don't do something now. With a GOP Congress that won't pass any laws opposed by big business, there is little hope we will ever clean up this mess.
Colin Powell Talks Republican Racism...Again
Former Sec. of State Colin Powell accused the Republicans in Jan. 2013, of having "... a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party." It was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who used the term to say that the president is "shuckin" and "jivin," referring to Barack Obama. I grew up in the South and that's about as racist as it gets. But coming from a double-digit IQ like Sarah Palin, well, what do you expect? Powell doesn't mention it by name but during that period of time the far right conservatives responsible for racial attacks were the Tea Party.
Move ahead to March of 2015 and Colin Powell again speaks out against the GOP and its continuing racist views. It was in a "This Week" interview when he said “I still see it. I still see it in the Republican Party and I still see it in other parts of our country. You don’t have to be a Republican to be touched by this dark vein. America is still going through this transformation from where we were just 50 or 60 years ago.” I lived in the South in the 50s and 60s when the phrase "shuckin" and "jivin" was only one of the offenders to black folks. They had to live with the "N" word every day, and not just behind their backs, but face to face in a confrontation they knew they could not win.
Racist have cleaned up their act slightly, mostly due to a somewhat less tolerant public, but the seething hatred is still there with little hope it will go away.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
More Tea Party Lunacy
We know those in the Tea Party live in their own fantasyland of an ideology that if satisfied would close down America. Thank God they have been herded into their own corral and as long as we keep them there, all should be fine. What we can't prevent is their incessant blather carping about everything from Barack Obama to gun rights. Here are some examples:
- In a recent post from their site, former Congressman Frank Wolf implies that Christians could be going to prison in the future for their beliefs.
- Next, the end of this month the TP newsletter exclaimed that the government was preparing to seize 401 (k) pensions setting the stage for “economic totalitarianism.”
- TP newsletter headline: "What Obama Hates About Jesus."
- The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, said he believes that if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in June that homosexual marriage is a Constitutional right, it “will destroy our country,” and added that “there are people who would like to see this country destroyed.”
- And finally, back to 2014, fired former Gilberton, PA, police chief Mark Kessler said, that he is a DHS/FBI plant. He was deemed psychotic for his 2nd Amendment lunacy.
The tea Party never lets up but it does provide us with a wealth of laughter in an otherwise sometimes dismal world.
The NRA Doesn't Want Public to Know Where Gun Violence Weapons Come From
The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) has pushed the limits of the Second Amendment to the extent that there is daily gun violence all over America, unabated because a gutless Congress won't enact laws to control guns in this country. The 2nd Amendment is an antique that should either be drastically modified or repealed. There is no hope for reasonable gun control until the NRA, along with its leader, Wayne LaPierre, are backed into a corner and told to shut up.
Just yesterday I posted on my blog about the death of an innocent 19-year-old girl and asked the question I have been asking for a couple of years: Where did he get the gun? There is no answer to that because the NRA has refused to allow a gun registry that would assist law enforcement in tracing back every gun used in violent shootings. One of the reasons the gun lobby doesn't want that registry is that then many of the weapons used in gun violence might be connected to NRA members.
Friday, June 12, 2015
Overturning Citizens Unlimited Must Come From Grass Roots Level
If there is one thing this country can do to balance the political scales in favor of the people it is to overturn the Citizens United ruling made by SCOTUS in 2010. John Roberts and his activist conservative renegades literally put the wealthy and corporations in charge of elections. The flow of dark money has been unlimited and forced some to rethink their candidacy. New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall proposed a Constitutional Amendment in 2014 that was backed by 54 Senators but was stymied by a Republican filibuster that stopped any action.
Enter Bernie Sanders, who had been an advocate for repeal since it was passed into law, who said, “I am extremely disappointed that not one Republican voted today to stop billionaires from buying elections and undermining American democracy." So now it goes back to the grass roots level to gain momentum for the proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment. John Bonifaz, president of Free Speech for People said, “We have amended the US Constitution before in our nation’s history. Twenty-seven times before. Seven of those times to overturn egregious Supreme Court rulings. For the promise of American democracy, we can and we will do it again.”
Argument Over Beer Ping Pong-Where Did he Get the Gun?
There was a party for Texas A&M graduate Landon Duke in College Station, and now 19-year-old Lacie LaRose is dead, killed by 39-year-old party-crasher Ronald McNeil. The whole problem erupted over a disagreement about the rules of Beer Ping Pong. McNeil said it was an accident but he fired off 14 shots to get the job done which might indicate a fit of rage since he had been thrown out of the party. McNeil lived across the street from Duke and was a convicted felon. I know we're talking about Texas but where did he get the .40-caliber Glock gun?
Thursday, June 11, 2015
"Dirty Harry" Hasn't Learned to Keep His Mouth Shut
Clint Eastwood, the “Dirty Harry” star, pretended to hold a
conversation with a seated, imaginary President Obama, at the 2012 Republican
National Convention in Tampa, Florida. It bombed just like his recent attempt
at humor at Spike TV’s Guys Choice Awards:
"Eastwood was introducing 'San Andreas' star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and referenced athletes who had transitioned into acting, and then he listed “Jim Brown and Caitlyn Somebody…”
Adam Howard on MSNBC reported, "...the 'joke' drew groans instead of laughs from the audience." And Spike TV let it be known they didn't like Eastwood's comment and said the remark would be cut from the show. You have to appreciate the talent of this man based on his huge collection of work, but there comes a time when Hollywood just needs to shut up with the political remarks.
This is definitely one of them.
This is definitely one of them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday
THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...
-
This week marks a change of format in Nasty Jack posts featuring parody to illustrate just how hilarious and absurd the political scene ca...
-
Two cities, Des Moines and Iowa City defy Iowa's idiot Gov. Kim Reynolds and keep their COVID-10 precautionary measures in place. Idio...
-
This blog has repeatedly attacked anti-vaxxers with the position that these idiots--yes, they are the lower rungs of grey matter--are cau...