Animals to Humans: All we want is to live

When you look at a kitten or a puppy and its cuteness just makes you melt, it can also make your day. But what about their day...and future. There are 3,400,000 cats in shelters throughout the United States and 4,200,000 dogs join them. But the sad fact is 1,300,000 dogs are euthanized each year, along with 1,400,000 cats. Some of these euthanizations are due to health reasons but the rest, well, they went over the rainbow bridge when they could have had forever homes.

As an example, Moana came to the A Bigger Purpose Kitten Rescue in Hellertown, Pennsylvania from a hoarding situation, and in this new positive environment had her kitten. Yes, Just one. Mom was "unsocialized and very fearful of people. To help her decompress, they provided a quiet place for the duo and plenty of food for the mom." Pua, her kitten, was well taken care of but mom developed medical problems so the little one had to be bottle fed. Read more...

Here's a great story for those who have lost family members, but first a warning. Most domestic pets are not meant to be outside animals. Where I live in Arizona, I have seen hawks carry off cats, even small dogs and you don't want to hear what coyotes can do. Cats must definitely be kept inside and dogs should be let out, watched, and brought back inside. That said, Brandy disappeared after she went to the backyard one afternoon, her owner, Charles, reported. Fifteen years passed...

She "was in rough condition when the pair reunited, having been malnourished with harmfully long nails.

The story a lesson for the wandering Brandy and Charles to keep tabs on all his animals in the future.

A horse form in Scottsdale, AZ, is adding dogs to its list residents...

"Part of the farm will be transformed into a hotel for dogs who belong to members of the Valley's homeless population. The dog hotel will provide a safe space for homeless pet owners to leave their furry friends while they seek treatment and get back on their feet."

Talking about filling a need. The homeless population continues to grow in this country but not many consider that many in this group also have pets, mostly dogs for protection. When it becomes impossible to care for them, they now have a place in Arizona to help. This is an idea that should be shared nationwide, with the purpose of at least establishing one of these facilities in each metropolitan area.

Love Meow tells this story best...

A pregnant cat found herself in a difficult situation when her family no longer wanted her. A 12-year-old girl saw what happened and offered to take the cat, so she wouldn't end up on the streets in the middle of winter.

This is such a tragic story when a family decides they don't want their pet, then makes the decision to abandon the animal to live on its own, pregnant in this case. This is inhumane treatment and maybe someday there will be justice when lawmakers see fit to protect animals with laws. A Montreal rescue took the mom in and Sylvia, a volunteer, took it from there. "Gisel quickly warmed up to her Foster Mom Stef when she realized that she was safe." Her baby, Pruno, was born.

You find them everywhere, this little guy under the porch who was so hungary that he temporarily forgot to be scared of the people rescuing him in Dorset, Ontario, Canada. Scruffy, with help from the rescue, was on the road to socialization but desperately needed a hand from another cat. Just a month prior Maple had come to Dorset Rescue Kittens from a large feral cat colony in Haliburton.

Maple was also shy and because of this missed several adoption opportunities, lacking the understanding that humans could be her friend. When Scruffy arrived, she Rescue decided to introduce the two and "When Maple came out of her carrier, the two tabbies instantly connected -- it was love at first sight." This included Scruffy following Maple behind the toilet when she was scared. And that's all it took, the two being together, trusting each other. Read more...

And here's the tough one, a kitten with special needs; Swan's (also named Panda) mom was too young for kittens so the little one developed slowly as the runt of the litter. The rest of the kittens were fine and soon became very active but "Swan couldn't keep up with them. The sweet ball of fur spent most of his time napping and snuggling with his people." This is how LoveMeow describes him...

"At eight weeks old, he was the size of a 4-week-old kitten. His ears were still folded and his legs were short and stout."

With concern the caretakers from The Mad Catters took him to the vet and tests revealed Swan had hypothyroidism, which had slowed his growth leading to traits of dwarfism. Then came the right medication resulting in significant improvement. LoveMeow describes Swan's development...

"With an official diagnosis and the right medication, things quickly

improved, and the little panda kitty began to put on weight. He had a voracious appetite and was getting more adventurous each day."

To make a long story short, Swan progressed so that he could keep his own with the other kittens and now he is "ruling the roost." Read more...

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL RESCUES AND HUMANE SOCIETY
 

What if you found out you couldn't vote in the next election?

 

Would you be pissed? Or would you be relieved that you don't have to fulfill your voting responsibility? The latter is what Republicans want you to feel, and they are again working hard on their ideological voter suppression, targeting Democratic strongholds. A good example of this comes from the Atlanta Constitution citing new laws passed in the state House...

"A bill to restrict ballot drop boxes, require more ID for absentee voting and limit weekend early voting days passed the Georgia House on Monday amid protests that the proposals would make it harder for voters to participate in democracy."

The key words here are "make it harder for voters to participate in democracy," words you should not expect from a free country with a mentally stable voting population. But we haven't had either since Donald Trump walked into the White House just over four years ago. Although Joe Biden's administration is trying to rectify what Trump put into motion, we still have an anarchy working in this country and a gang of double-digits who still worship their emperor. Read more...

But you remember Georgia, the state where Donald Trump made his last stand

screaming voter fraud in the 2020 election. Also the state that lost 2 Senators to the Democrats, giving them a bare majority. If you don't keep your eyes on every move Republicans make, you can bet your life the left will lose something. They skirted a nation of state legislators right under our nose and during the DNC tenure of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Now Moscow Mitch is after judgeships.  

However the biggie is the 253 bills in 43 states on the heels of a "rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities," according to AlterNet. Here's why Republicans are doing this according to "Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic attorney and founder of the voting rights advocacy group Democracy Docket...

"Republicans are doing this because they think they can gain an electoral advantage from making it harder for Black, brown and young voters to participate in the process. This is the reaction of a party that knows it can't compete for a majority of the votes."

Eventually you have to take off the gloves and give back to the right the same thing they are spewing at the left. 

 

 

3 scary Republicans worth watching

 

Liz Cheney has bucked the Republican Party by voting to impeach Donald Trump and, although she has taken flack for it in Wyoming, she stands by her vote. But can you believe this?...

"More Americans questioned in a new survey said that they think Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is representative of the Republican Party than Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), underscoring the rightward drift of the GOP."

The Hill reports...

"According to the Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday, 28 percent of Americans said Greene represents the GOP, while 25 percent said the same of Cheney. Forty-seven percent did not offer an opinion."

Although Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) once approved of calls for the execution of Democrats, Republicans still love her and that's why she bears watching. Greene did lose all of her House Committee Assignments, but Rep. Liz Cheney retains her position as No. 3 leader. Kevin McCarthy's take...

"But as Wednesday's internal showdowns concluded, McCarthy and the House GOP decided against punishing two of their most high-profile women, whose views enrage opposite ends of the party's spectrum. The moves were typical of McCarthy's preference to avoid ruffling feathers as he charts his path to someday becoming House speaker."

God forbid the latter happens. 

Steve Bannon has been scary since the first day he walked into Donald Trump's

White House. I have done a number of blog posts on Bannon, most of which on the dark side. Donald Trump accepting Bannon's political cynicism is one thing; the whole Republican Party just illustrates how deeply troubled the GOP has become. Greg Sargent in the Washington Post describes Bannon' comeback...

"Trump’s former adviser is now elevating his profile as spokesman for the pro-Trump wing in a way that usefully illuminates the ugly depths of the GOP’s ongoing radicalization."

Steve Bannon was pardoned by Trump, but the New York Atty. Gen. has just asked for his financial records and plans to compare them with Donald Trump's, which they just received. The two are talking again as Trump becomes desperate for any hand in the storm. Sargent makes it clear, and most on the left agree, Democrats must demand "a full accounting into Trump’s most recent crime against the country, the effort to incite the violent overthrow of U.S. democracy."

And, in Stephen Miller, one of the scariest of Donald Trump's recent aides; always in the background, always proposing the doomsday. Miller was the nucleus of Trump's immigration program exclaiming re. Biden's moves on the issue, "This is madness!" Here are Miller's words...

"This is a policy choice disguised falsely to the court and to the country as a resource issue!" Miller shouted. "That is a lie and it's a lie that threatens public safety."

Stephen Miller has been branded an "Extremist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, where you can find the best documentation of hate groups in the United States. Here is SPLC's take on Miller...

"Stephen Miller is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Miller has also “purged” government agencies of civil servants who are not entirely loyal to his extremist agenda."

Stephen Miller is an ardent follower of Jared Taylor, a mouthpiece for white supremacist ideology, said, "The races are not identical and equivalent." Miller queries: who will pay for these immigrants, but it is clearly his views on white supremacy that guide his ideology. The Guardian said "Stephen Miller: the white nationalist at the heart of Trump's White House." Trump is no longer in the White House, but the heart of the current Trump movement is still white supremacy.

Donald Trump freak effigy in gold trolls CPAC

 

When first seeing this, my wife asked me, "Have these Trump adoring Republicans always been this insane?" It's a reasonable question when witnessing the parading of a cheap, gaudy gold statue of Donald Trump through the halls of the CPAC convention. It's even too ridiculous to be considered a false idol as Exodus 20:4-6 in the Bible depicts it...

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God..."

This pretty much covers what Trump thinks of himself, and of course his endearing followers. But is this pathetic adoration as far as it goes, or does this behavior signal the final breach with reality in the Donald Trump chump following?  There were probably hundreds of hugging worshippers, and you have to wonder if these double-digits knew how absurd they looked, or has the passage from the Bible, above, become reality with Trump as the Messiah? And this includes evangelicals.

And, was the statue even displayed during Trump's speech? In the short amount of time I could stomach watching it, no. Tommy Zegan, the artist behind the gold monstrosity says he tried to present it to Trump at Mar-a-Lago with no success. Is it possible that Donald Trump is distancing himself from a likeness that looks fat and bloated and which is carrying a gold star? Zegan says he could probably get $100,000 for it. Probably tome to cut his losses and hope history is kind.

Is this the end to the NRA? One can only hope

 

The NRA's head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, is never at a loss for words, but that look on LaPierre's face (left) stems from the fact that the organization is definitely at a loss for money. As ABC News expressed it, "NRA is 'out of ammo.'" The first salvo came from New York...

"Prosecutors in New York sued the NRA last summer in a bid to dissolve the gun lobbying juggernaut, accusing it of being 'fraught with fraud and abuse' -- a claim the NRA has repeatedly and vehemently denied."

This resulted in the NRA filing for bankruptcy protection and announcing plans to reincorporate in Texas. If the snowstorm isn't bad enough, now this deplorable group wants to come to Texas. But...

"Legal experts interviewed by ABC News posit that the chances of a dismissal are strong, particularly given the NRA's insistence that the organization remains financially viable -- a position that undermines the traditional purpose of a Chapter 11 claim."

Canada to ban handguns after banning assault weapons... 

 Spelling doom for the NRA in the U.S. will give gun control advocates optimism, especially with this headline, "Canada expected to pass sweeping gun legislation that includes banning handguns." And yes to American gun nuts, with Biden administration already working on new gun laws, we may soon be coming for your weapons. The way I see it, if you must invoke the 2nd Amendment, a rifle or a shotgun should suffice the need to protect your home.

Canada banned assault rifles in May of 2020, and the new handgun law will make the country a much safer place to live. Giffords Law Center confirms "that openly carrying firearms endangers public safety," so the confiscation of handguns would serve to eliminate that problem as well. In addition, a Gallup Poll has found that "A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with gun laws and policies in the U.S., 56% want stronger gun laws, 42% don't.

And without the NRA's fraudulent propaganda, there is every possibility that Joe

Biden's administration will be able to push through reasonable gun control legislation. In the move to Texas, LaPierre may have opened another can of worms. If the Texas bankruptcy does move forward, Judge Harlin Hale of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas could...

"choose to appoint a trustee to investigate allegations of fraud -- or even assume control of the organization."

If the above proceeds...

"The first thing a trustee would do would be to, in effect, take over control of the organization, all of the assets, and all of the records," said Jay Westbrook, a bankruptcy scholar at the University of Texas-Austin. "That would be a very undesirable development from the point of view of the people now controlling the NRA."

Pamela Foohey, a bankruptcy law professor at the University of Indiana, feels that would be a bad move for the NRA because...

"The most likely scenario in bankruptcy when a trustee is appointed is a plan of liquidation, then dissolution."

Head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, has been accused of using the NRA as a "personal piggy bank" by the New York Attorney General. And now Phillip Journey, a Kansas state judge who was recently elected to the NRA board of directors, asked the court...

"to appoint an "independent examiner" to determine 'the veracity of the alleged fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, and gross mismanagement that has plagued the NRA's reputation.'"

Judge Journey also "suggested that NRA leadership failed to properly inform board members of its plan to file bankruptcy -- a possible violation of the organization's bylaws." Denials are flying all over the place, but when you consider the history of the NRA, particularly its leader, Wayne LaPierre, almost anyone who has followed this gang of thugs will tell you there is probably something illegal going on. And those same people, at least most of them, will hope the NRA goes down this time.

America in Conflict

 

Starting a series of random posts illustrating the struggle the United States is going through today, emphasizing the moral drought of our political system.

A president impeached twice with absolutely no remorse for what he did to the United States during four catastrophic years in the White House. Read more...

As one columnist put it, "The United States is visibly in an early stage of disintegration," like Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," only the giant insect is the country we live in.

Evangelicals courted Donald Trump throughout his four years in office despite his despicable behavior, particularly his abuse of women. Read more...

Republican lawmakers proposing laws to prevent liberals from voting, targeting blacks and Hispanics. Read more...

And this is one of those 'can you really believe this?' pieces. The Washington Times suggests replacing Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski with Sarah Palin. Read more...

Here's a whopper, "Conspiracy nuts think Bill Gates helped Biden generate 'synthetic snow' to make Texas look bad." Don't know for sure but do believe we can assume this group supports Donald Trump.

With 390 million guns on U.S. streets in a country of 329 million people, one would expect gun violence. And we got it with a 50% increase in mass shootings in 2020, plus in the first seven weeks of 2021, there have been 63 mass shootings. Read more... 

President Biden appointed more Postal Service Board members, but nothing is done about the arrogant and incompetent Postmaster Louis DeJoy. Why is Biden dragging his feet on this? Read more...

Stephen Miller is the sneaky behind the scenes Donald Trump work master for white supremacy in what the Washington Post's Greg Sargent calls a "shadow war" against Joe Biden. This administration shouldn't let Miller out of its sights. 
Read more... 

SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, obviously an ardent Donald Trump follower, seems to be overstepping his bounds by becoming a supporter of the "fixed 2020 election," movement. Read more...

Joe Biden mirrors Donald Trump if he lets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman get away with the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We keep warning China's Xi Jinping about human rights in his country. But, then, he doesn't have any oil. Read more...

As you may know the CPAC convention got under way last Thursday, and one of its speakers, Ted Cruz, mocked the wearing of masks when the COVID-19 pandemic has now claimed 524,480 deaths. Maybe he should just go back to Cancun and stay. Read more...

Speaking of CPAC, have you heard of the life size gold metal statue of Donald Trump served up to the emperor during the convention? By the way, it was made in Mexico, probably by the kind of people he described as drug dealers, criminals, rapists. Read more...

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the U.S. Representative who was stripped of all of her key House posts due to radical views, is attending CPSC with the rest of the Republican lowlife to praise the recently dethroned dictator. Not sure if she brought her baseless QAnon conspiracy theories with her. Read more...

You can thank Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for being one of the first-rate idiots in the attempt to overturn Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election. He the epitome of untruth with his ongoing claims of rampant voter fraud rampant voter fraud with absolutely no evidence. Read more...

Matt Gaetz, the moron congressman from Florida, pushes Donald Trump for 2024, by comparing Trump's book, "The Art of the Deal," with Gaetz's new version, 'The Art of the Comeback.' Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said it best, "That guy [Gaetz] is

not an adult". Read more...

Conservative talk radio is the talk of the misguided

 

There is no question that conservative talk radio has been and still is in the forefront of that genre. It is so well developed and constantly honed that the folks on the left are literally following in their dust. Why is this true? There is an answer, but you right-handers won't like it. 

Think Pied Piper of Hamelin. Someone who offers strong but delusive enticement; or, a leader who makes irresponsible promises; or, a charismatic person who attracts followers. I told you, but you might take solace in the fact that these characterizations came from a quick Internet search. However, that does not dampen their validity or authentication in this case. And the fact that Rush Limbaugh had 15 million of these poor souls simply proves my point.

If you cretins are now surfing the airwaves like a bunch of nomads lost in the desert, searching for another bogus icon to look up to do yourself a favor, read a comic book, or watch reality TV shows or go to McDonalds and order a Whopper. Fox News seems to have lost its glow since Donald Trump reluctantly left the White House, and those of you on Twitter no longer have your idol to tweet with because he is banned. Take my advice, above, and, if you must, mourn Limbaugh.