Octopus Overlords

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas sustained “extensive second- and third-degree burns” on both legs below the knees and both feet — and may miss next week’s Republican National Convention as a result, his office said Sunday.

Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Abbott was with his family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday when he was scalded in an accident involving hot water. He declined to provide further details.

gilraen wrote:

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas sustained “extensive second- and third-degree burns” on both legs below the knees and both feet — and may miss next week’s Republican National Convention as a result, his office said Sunday.

Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Abbott was with his family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday when he was scalded in an accident involving hot water. He declined to provide further details.

Jeez, what did he do, roll into a geyser?

Grifman wrote:

gilraen wrote:

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas sustained “extensive second- and third-degree burns” on both legs below the knees and both feet — and may miss next week’s Republican National Convention as a result, his office said Sunday.

Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Abbott was with his family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Thursday when he was scalded in an accident involving hot water. He declined to provide further details.

Jeez, what did he do, roll into a geyser?

So the Texas governor got into hot water again?

Holman wrote:There are 52 Republican senators. 16 have announced that they won't attend Trump's convention and 6 more haven't said either way. Two-thirds of the GOP senators up for re-election are skipping.

And, no, this is nowhere near normal.

The first black Miss Alabama has been placed on administrative leave from her job at a Miami television station after she called the man accused in the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers a "martyr" on social media.

Kalyn Chapman James posted an emotional video from her vehicle Sunday explaining that she doesn't condone violence but she feels guilty for not feeling sad for the officers who lost their lives.

"I know it's not the right way to feel because nobody deserves to lose their lives and I know those police officers have families and people who love them and that they didn't deserve to die," James said. "But I'm so torn up in my heart about seeing these men -- these black men -- being gunned down in our communities that I can't help feel like ... I wasn't surprised by what the shooter did to those cops."

The local television station James worked for, WPBT2, issued a statement on its Twitter account Monday afternoon stating that "WPBT2 South Florida PBS does not condone the personal statements made by one of its independent contractors regarding the events in Dallas." The station did not name James directly.

"It placed the contractor on administrative leave while it actively and carefully looks further into the matter and will determine additional course of actions based on its thorough review of the matter," according to the station's post.
...
James hosts a weekly art program on WPFT2 called Art Loft. The show highlights local performances, artists and exhibitions.

James told WPMI 15 that since posting the video, the wife a Dallas police officer has contacted her.

"She said that she watched my video and she wasn't mad, she understood what I was saying and that she forgave me," James told the TV station.

Zarathud wrote:First they came for our dirty mags, next they come for our internet!

Enough wrote:The GOP platform is really shaping up as quite the populist and nanny state mess. Today they've added an amendment demanding the federal government turn over public lands to the states immediately. This follows their earlier action to put in an anti-porn provision, another opposing gay adoption among other anti-LGBTQ measures they are considering. The final vote on the platform they come up with will be at the convention. Every time someone goes off on PC politics and the left I just point at this stuff and laugh.

Dale Jackson, a heating and air-conditioning man and father of an 8-year-old autistic son, flew up to the site of the Republican National Convention on Monday, to ask his party’s platform committee to endorse the use of medicinal marijuana where appropriate.
...
Jackson found a delegate who would pitch the idea, but his luck ended there. The 112-member committee that is currently drafting policy positions for the 2016 presidential contest rejected it out of hand, by a voice vote of two-thirds or more.
...
The platform committee beat back an effort to kill language that encourages state legislatures to make the Bible a part of school literature studies in their state. They challenged federal efforts to protect grey wolves and prairie chickens.

Republicans killed an effort to permit states to bar welfare recipients from purchasing junk food – a position that brought a Georgia delegate into the debate. Scott Johnson of Marietta said such restrictions, attempted in some states, expose retailers to uncertain and often hair-splitting regulation.
...
A delegate from California drew a line between pot and gun violence. “If you look at the debate about guns, all of the mass killings that have taken place, they’re young boys from divorced families, and they’re all smoking pot,” she said.
...
“It’s the opiates that they’re on, is what’s causing all the shooters, and the addictions and the overdoses,” Jackson erupted after the vote. “Not cannabis. But that’s FDA appoved, so they’re okay with that.”

George W. Bush wrote:Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions

Many people searched the internet to see if Mr Bush had plagiarized it from another source.

The record of performance of the Republican Administration on behalf of our working men and women goes still further. The Federal minimum wage has been raised for more than 2 million workers. Social Security has been extended to an additional 10 million workers and the benefits raised for 6 1/2 million. The protection of unemployment insurance has been brought to 4 million additional workers. There have been increased workmen's compensation benefits for longshoremen and harbor workers, increased retirement benefits for railroad employees, and wage increases and improved welfare and pension plans for federal employees.

In that concept, this Republican Administration sponsored the Refugee Relief Act to provide asylum for thousands of refugees, expellees and displaced persons, and undertook in the face of Democrat opposition to correct the inequities in existing law and to bring our immigration policies in line with the dynamic needs of the country and principles of equity and justice.

We believe also that the Congress should consider the extension of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 in resolving this difficult refugee problem which resulted from world conflict. To all this we give our wholehearted support.

Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;

Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;

Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;

Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;

Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;

Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration. In 1954, 1955 and again in 1956, President Eisenhower recommended constructive amendments to this Act. The Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked these needed changes by parliamentary maneuvers. The Republican Party pledges itself to overhaul and improve the Taft-Hartley Act along the lines of these recommendations.

gilraen wrote:It's a bit of common knowledge (but no less ironic) that after the Civil Rights Act era, the Democrat and Republican agendas essentially switched places.

There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too.

Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.

Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.

This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either. Heck, it’s not even Donald Trump’s! When given a chance to follow the lead of our presumptive presidential nominee and reach out to the LGBT community in the wake of the awful terrorist massacre in Orlando on the gay nightclub Pulse, the Platform Committee said NO.

BUT…now is not the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Log Cabin Republicans has been officially credentialed for the Republican National Convention, and when it convenes in Cleveland in a mere 6 days’ time I want to be able to take a stand, but we’re going to need your support to do it.

Enough wrote:The Log Cabin Republicans are just shocked that the presumptive platform is so virulently anti-gay,

There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too.

Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.

Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.

This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either. Heck, it’s not even Donald Trump’s! When given a chance to follow the lead of our presumptive presidential nominee and reach out to the LGBT community in the wake of the awful terrorist massacre in Orlando on the gay nightclub Pulse, the Platform Committee said NO.

BUT…now is not the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Log Cabin Republicans has been officially credentialed for the Republican National Convention, and when it convenes in Cleveland in a mere 6 days’ time I want to be able to take a stand, but we’re going to need your support to do it.

Moliere wrote:

Enough wrote:The Log Cabin Republicans are just shocked that the presumptive platform is so virulently anti-gay,

There’s no way to sugar-coat this: I’m mad as hell — and I know you are, too.

Moments ago, the Republican Party passed the most anti-LGBT Platform in the Party’s 162-year history.

Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there.

This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either. Heck, it’s not even Donald Trump’s! When given a chance to follow the lead of our presumptive presidential nominee and reach out to the LGBT community in the wake of the awful terrorist massacre in Orlando on the gay nightclub Pulse, the Platform Committee said NO.

BUT…now is not the time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Log Cabin Republicans has been officially credentialed for the Republican National Convention, and when it convenes in Cleveland in a mere 6 days’ time I want to be able to take a stand, but we’re going to need your support to do it.

Why not just join the Libertarian Party?

Enough wrote:Well, with Ron Paul as a longtime hero it's sort of hard to get behind. I got a chance to meet with him in 1988 and came away completely unimpressed.

That said, Johnson is infinitely better than Paul in terms of aligning to my views thanks to his truly liberal social policy views and his strong support of civil liberty. His budget I find less desirable.

LordMortis wrote:I see no reason to believe the Johnson would be what is IMO reasonable about essential government and how to pay for it. And that's sad because after that I'm very much in alignment with his views.

Moliere wrote:Has he said otherwise? He told Bill Maher that the military would only be cut by 20% which is in line with the Pentagon's own recommendations. Which essential government services are you losing under Johnson?

I have proposed cutting the federal budget by 43 percent to bring it into balance. It can be done. It requires the will and ability to ignore and even fight the special interests that have a vested interest in more and more government spending. Our system is corrupted by special-interest campaign contributions. Crony capitalism permeates our government. The result is that, as the Congressional Budget Office reported this week, the deficit for 2012 will once again exceed $1 trillion.

Balance budget by cutting entitlements AND Defense
Gary Johnson said on ABC's "Top Line" that Republicans should be more aggressive than they've been in cutting federal spending. They should take on entitlement programs, too; Medicare and Medicaid could be slashed by 43% and turned into grant programs for the states to distribute.

"I think we should balance the federal budget tomorrow," Johnson said. "I'm optimistic. I think Americans are optimistic. We went to the moon, we can balance the federal budget. We can fix this. We're not addressing the problems that we face, and that starts with Medicaid, Medicare, reforming Social Security and Defense. And I mean cutting those areas

Isgrimnur wrote:I trust the federal government to be more "fair" about administration of funds to support marginalized groups in need than my state government. Given that some states decided not to expand medical support programs, I don't support the states to always do the thing that is best for their citizens. And the fewer people watching an organization, the more apt there is to be shady dealing and corruption. Or does he expect that the states' leaders will be more resistant to special interests and crony capitalism?

Racial and cultural resentment have replaced the party’s small government ethos.
...
The results of a FiveThirtyEight and SurveyMonkey poll conducted in June1 found that one of the most indicative variables in determining Republican identification this year was agreement with the statement that the “number of immigrants who come to the United States each year” should “decrease.”
...
Trump’s strategy, while winning him the GOP nomination in the short term, has likely only served to compound the long-term demographic and ideological problems the Republican Party has long known it faces. Over the past few decades, the GOP has remained largely white, less educated and older while the numbers of minorities in the country soared, college attainment rose and the millennial generation came of age politically. Alienating the country’s growing ranks of minorities is unwise on the sheer face of the numbers, and bad reputations can stick around for years; like sports teams and baldness, our political beliefs are passed down through generations and familial connections.

What’s more, the idea of an electorate motivated more by issues of cultural grievance than by the grand ideas of conservatism is a dispiriting notion to Republicans already frustrated by the party’s particular pattern of positioning itself as ever beholden to the past. To those Republicans, Reagan hagiography has stunted the GOP: “No one under the age of 51 today was old enough to vote for Reagan when he first ran for president,” the authors of the party’s 2012 election post-mortem, a reviled document in some corners of the party, wrote. “We sound increasingly out of touch.”
...
Somewhere in recent years, the GOP’s engagement with modern America and how to best project those values into a nation of 320 million people became dysfunctional. As the country has diversified, the party has remained monochromatic, has grayed, and rather than allowing some birch-like give on shifting cultural norms, has become an unbending oak of ideological purity. The GOP now finds itself lacking an intimate’s ability to criticize productively, given its demographic and cultural divergence from the majority of the country.

When looking at the change in the county-by-county vote from 2000 to 2012, one of the most predictive variable for a place becoming more Republican has been the number of people ethnically identifying as “American,” not whether or not a person believes in smaller government or lower taxes. States such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, where a plurality of people identified in the 2000 Census as “American,” are among those that have trended the most Republican since 2000.

CLAPPING has been banned at a Sydney primary school which has introduced “silent cheering”, “pulling excited faces” and “punching the air” to respect students who are “sensitive to noise”.

The school now only allows its pupils “to conduct a silent cheer” when prompted by teachers and says the practice “reduces fidgeting”.

Moliere wrote:Good job Australia being ahead of the curve on banning students from clapping.

CLAPPING has been banned at a Sydney primary school which has introduced “silent cheering”, “pulling excited faces” and “punching the air” to respect students who are “sensitive to noise”.

The school now only allows its pupils “to conduct a silent cheer” when prompted by teachers and says the practice “reduces fidgeting”.

Rip wrote:

Moliere wrote:Good job Australia being ahead of the curve on banning students from clapping.

CLAPPING has been banned at a Sydney primary school which has introduced “silent cheering”, “pulling excited faces” and “punching the air” to respect students who are “sensitive to noise”.

The school now only allows its pupils “to conduct a silent cheer” when prompted by teachers and says the practice “reduces fidgeting”.

What about respecting those sensitive to silence?

The Illinois Republican Party on Wednesday revoked the convention credentials of a Donald Trump delegate from Chicago “for publicly-made racist comments and threats of violence” on a Facebook posting.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider told the Sun-Times the party, “has zero tolerance for racism of any kind and threats of violence against anyone.”

The Republican National Convention welcome party was thrown Sunday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Gayne wrote, over a photo of law enforcement officials on the roof on the iconic building on the Lake Erie shore:

“Our brave snipers just waiting for some “N—- to try something. Love them.”

Gayne offered her “deepest apologies” in a statement, saying, “I strongly regret the offensive statements I recently made on social media. While I in no way intended to make racist or threatening statements, I now realize that they could be interpreted that way.

Pyperkub wrote:Kudos to the Illinois Republicans:

The Illinois Republican Party on Wednesday revoked the convention credentials of a Donald Trump delegate from Chicago “for publicly-made racist comments and threats of violence” on a Facebook posting.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider told the Sun-Times the party, “has zero tolerance for racism of any kind and threats of violence against anyone.”

The tweet:

The Republican National Convention welcome party was thrown Sunday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Gayne wrote, over a photo of law enforcement officials on the roof on the iconic building on the Lake Erie shore:

“Our brave snipers just waiting for some “N—- to try something. Love them.”

Her explanation:

Gayne offered her “deepest apologies” in a statement, saying, “I strongly regret the offensive statements I recently made on social media. While I in no way intended to make racist or threatening statements, I now realize that they could be interpreted that way.

Uh, ok, what did you intend? Let's say hypothetically that you didn't intend to be racist, I'm still pretty sure that you are racist.

Well done to the Illiinois delegates for kicking her straight to the curb!

One of these days, hopefully other GOP organizations will do the same...