I Stand with Planned Parenthood

Our bloody free press is culpable in the escalation of violence against medical clinics that provide reproductive care.  PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS NOT AN ABORTION CLINIC.  Their facilities are fully functional clinics providing, but not limited to, the following.:

anemia testing, cholesterol screening, diabetes screening, physical exams, including for employment and sports, flu vaccines, help with quitting smoking, high blood pressure screening, tetanus vaccines, thyroid screening

Cervical Cancer\Breast Cancer Screenings

Endometriosis
Pap Tests & HPV Tests
Procedures to Prevent Cervical Cancer
Female Infertility
Menopause
Menstruation
Ovarian Cancer
Pelvic Exam
Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
Yeast Infection & Vaginitis

Considering Pregnancy
Pre-Pregnancy Health
How Pregnancy Happens
Pregnancy Week by Week
Pregnancy Test
Pregnancy Options
Prenatal Care
Miscarriage
Ectopic Pregnancy
Infertility

For men

checkups for reproductive or sexual health problems, colon, prostate, and testicular cancer screenings, condoms and vasectomy, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation services, including education, exams, treatment, and referral general health care and routine physical exams, jock itch exam and treatment, male infertility screening and referral, STD testing and treatment urinary tract infections testing and treatment.

Yellow Journalism and the Rightwing Win from Human Tragedy

When I was a young girl I used to listen to my father and his siblings talk about how they and their immigrant parents were treated in the early part of the 20^th Century.  It was a misbegotten belief among many Americans at the time that all Italians, particularly poor and/or unemployed immigrants, were Anarchists.  Loosely linked with the fledgling labor movement – along with Communists, Socialists and anyone else who could be used to discredit the working men trying to organize, Anarchists were some of the most feared terrorists of the day. The Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago and the conviction and subsequent execution of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927 for the alleged murder of a paymaster in Boston served to cement the idea of swarthy skinned, wild eyed Anarchists with bombs and guns running the streets of America.  Just about any immigrant fit the bill, but Italians were very often type cast in the role of radical terrorist.  Let me say that after studying both cases I remain unconvinced that the eight men convicted in the Chicago riot and Sacco and Vanzetti were in anyway guilty.  They certainly did not receive justice or fair trials.  Let me also say that my family members were never Anarchist, or gangsters come to that.  They were simply hardworking people who fought their way through poverty and bigotry to create a solid middle class life for us all.  Those facts notwithstanding, my grandparents and their offspring were, like so many other Italians, often tarred with the Anarchist brush – a situation which the yellow journalist faction of the Free Press and the Rightwing establishment gloried in and promoted for wealth and power.

The press never talks about its yellow journalistic history, maybe because most of them are yellow journalists today.  The Rightwing, Republicans mostly, never takes responsibility for having mistreated anyone in the past – or present for that matter.  For instance, not too long ago I had a Republican trying to convince me that the attack on the Bonus Army of July 1932 was actually carried out under Franklin Roosevelt’s orders.  FDR wasn’t inaugurated for his first term until March of 1933.  No that was the handiwork of one Herbert Hoover, the Wall Street snuggling, business worshiping, money grubbing, labor hating, 31^st President who gave us the Great Depression.

It is often the worst elements in journalism, which today is the largest element in journalism, and the self aggrandizing, self promoting, power hungry political hacks of both parties who turn the human tragedies of riots, murders and assaults to their advantage. Today, the Italians are mainstream citizens. No one calls us Anarchists anymore.  Nobody accuses us of being gangsters either.  Hell, the FBI claims that the mob is dead.  Between you and me, if they believe that, they probably aren’t smart to catch the terrorists.  The scapegoats of choice for talking heads, news commentators, reporters, politicians and political pundits frothing at the mouth with excitement at another international catastrophe are the Muslims, members of the Islamic faith.  That’s right; all Muslims are terrorists either directly or through enabling.  All Muslims support terrorism either financially or through prayer.  Chris Christie, arguably the biggest clown in the Republican presidential clown car, has even linked the plot to three year-old children, Muslim refugees from war ravaged Syria.  How do you like that?

In politics there is a concept known as the Overton Window.  The developer of this theory, Joseph Overton, contended that in any area of public policy a somewhat narrow range of ideas are considered politically viable.  This is not about truth, it is about electability.  The window doesn’t change because of the ideas of politicians, but because of the ideas of the people who elect them. 

I submit that the manipulation of the electorate – here is where our duplicitous, loathsome and corrupt media comes into play – through fear, rage, misinformation and outright deceit can substantially reconfigure, even disfigure, the range of public policies that will be acceptable and render their proponents electable.  Consider: most of the people involved in the Paris assault were French and Belgian Nationals.  Somehow, through media exploitation and political manipulation this fact seems to be lost in the haze of hysteria that is being pumped up hour to hour.  Suddenly, the issue is the Syrian refugees, not homegrown terrorists.  The assertion, although lacking much proof, is that terrorists are hidden among the refugees in overwhelming numbers and are threatening to swamp Europe and America with growing waves of terror.  Yesterday, Cruz and Bush managed to maneuver themselves into position to insert religious bigotry into the Overton Window by insisting that only Christian Syrians be allowed to immigrate to the U.S.  This kind of religious litmus test is absolutely anathema to the principles of our constitutional and secular Republic; and yet it is now within the realm of reasonable public policy on the far Right, Cruz, and in the establishment middle, Bush.

We are in very dangerous times.  Much of our government and most of our media is not to be trusted.  All Muslims are not terrorists.  All Italians are not Anarchists with part-time jobs in the Mafia.  The greatest threats to our freedom today are the death of thought and the murder of truth.  We have a choice.  Will we be complicit either through deliberate action or abdication of our responsibility; or will we stand up and fight back on behalf of our Muslim brothers and sisters – on behalf of all people?

Selective Reporting, Lazy Voters and Flim Flam

Corporate media apparatchiks like Chris Matthews have been warning that the Republican win in Kentucky may well be an indication of what we can expect in '16. They fail to tell us that only about 31% of the electorate turn-outed to vote.  Further, they fail to tell us about the three major anti-corruption victories in Maine, Seattle and San Francisco.  

Let us be clear.  Tea soaked nutjobs hiding their bigotry, homophobia and cruelty behind the Cross of Jesus Christ only win when turnout is low.  Big money and corruption in elections doesn't hurt their chances either.  

The election of Matt Bevins, Kentucky's wackjob du joir and other down ticket Republicans, is squarely on the Bluegrass State's electorate, nonetheless.  Neither Mr. Obama, Mr Conway or the Democrats can be blamed.  Anyone who stayed home yesterday and who subsequently loses access to health care as a result deserves what they get.  The children won't, however.  We can't expect the pro-life for the unborn cabal to give a shit about the born that may not be able to see doctors if Bevins materially damages Kentucky's Medicaid expansion.  Still, we might have expected their parents to care.

Anti-Corruptions Victories from Maine to San Franisco

I am for Bernie

Donald Trump is now afraid of Bernie Sanders. Well, I don't care what anybody says the Republican front runner and chief loud mouth isn't really stupid. He knows who can clean his clock right enough. He just called Bernie a maniac and a socialist/communist. Trump questioning Bernie's sanity is something like George W. Bush questioning Einstein's science in the Theory of Relativity. Only those invested in hyperbole for the sake of diversion or out of fear confuse Communism and Socialism. Unless, of course, the person engaging in this foolishness is sub-literate. I think Trump can read; yes, I saw him do it once.

Democratic Socialism is as far removed from Communism as the predatory Capitalism that made Trump rich is from John Maynard Keynes' idea of Guided Markets where government puts checks on Capitalism's overreach. As Keynes once said,"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

Bernie Sanders may not win the Democratic Nomination. However, as I said to a friend, he has pulled the field Left - much farther Left then it would have gone on its own. He has reintroduced the Democrats to the Great Liberal Cause of FDR, JFK, LBJ, RFK and Jimmy Carter. He has told the Party Establishment, to the chagrin of Wall Street and corporate media, to pull their head out of their ass and stand tall as Liberals - oh yes and for the people afraid of that word Progressives, if you must. In doing this he has already won and so have the American people.

Deeply Confused

The same media rat-bastards who filled their mouths with blood and helped Bush/Cheney promote their war of lies in Iraqi are calling Mr. Obama weak.  The same vile whores in the House and Senate, who have lived off the largess of the military-industrial complex, when they aren’t living off of someone else’s largess, are calling Mr. Obama weak.   All the while the corporate masters of these people sit in boardrooms and run the numbers, measuring the profit to be made from another war in the Middle East.  Our men and women in uniform who will perish in such a nightmare and our lost treasure are just the cost of doing business.  Mind you, the cost falls to the American people’s share; profits go to the corporate stock holders.

Is it possible that we live in a society that can only feel strong when at war?  Is it possible that our entire sense of geopolitical and economic power rests in the amount of killing our nation achieves every year?  What kind of philosophical and spiritual existence are we bequeathing our children when being a Christian is a litmus test for holding office, and following the teachings of the Prince of Peace is grounds for being called a weakling and a coward?  You decide.

Fight for the Future

Irreconcilable differences used to be grounds for divorce. Perhaps they still are - I don't know. Papa and I have been married since before the Goddess invented dirt. In the sterile language of the law irreconcilable differences simply means that two people can't agree on a basis for being married and never will agree. According to the corporate owned, fee for service, truth is money and money is truth media, this kind of intractable disagreement would seem to divide our body politic pretty much equally. I have never believed in the reality of an equally divided nation.

Still and all, the fact remains that we are saddled with a situation, real or manufactured, that is grating our society up like hard cheese and scattering the bits to the wind. For my part, I believe that there is a small, vocal and overly well publicized group who insist that principles - and they seem to think they have a monopoly - depend upon loving America and hating the United States; loving the Constitution and hating the government that was formed by the men who wrote it; loving the Almighty and hating all "he" created; loving freedom and hating equality; loving Christianity and hating mercy; loving life and hating the living.  

I submit that it is time to bring this charade to an end. As in the House of Representatives where 30 to 40 fanatics are holding this country's legislative body for ransom, awaiting their orders from Rightwing media's purveyors of social purification - Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to name but a few - it is time for people of good will to stand up in defiance and shout "enough is enough". We can start by questioning the expertise and every poll offered to us by some grinning media magpie as proof that this organized schizophrenia has irreparably placed our nation in the hands of the greedy, the self promoting and the worst elements in our political Gestalt. It is worth as much as our survival to do so. We have to fight the apathy that stems in part from the distortion, misinformation and lying through omission that characterizes much of the circus that was once known as the Free Press.

Don't Presume, Never Presume

I am fascinated by the media's handling, or perhaps mishandling, of the Democratic presidential field this election season.  They talk a great deal about Secretary Clinton.  They talk a great deal about Vice President Biden.  Clinton is in the race.  Biden isn't.  For all intents and purposes they ignore Bernie Sanders, save to use the dread word SOCIALIST, no matter how many people appear at his venues. Well I am a Socialist, and I am here to tell you that there are many worse things you can be - most of which are attached to our government by the tentacles of Wall Street and corporate America and on both sides of the aisle; but let that go.

Since twenty-two seconds after President Obama won his re-election in 2012, corporate media and the Democratic Party have proclaimed Secretary Clinton the nominee presumptive. Perhaps that is why she is a little cavalier, a little tone deaf when she speaks to the thousands of us who support Bernie. Thus, while acknowledging with one breath that she understands why we are sick to death with the political parasites of both parties that infest our Capitol like mosquitoes swarming a stagnate pool, she touts the number of them supporting her with the next breath. Apparently, she hasn't given Bernie enough thought to understand that it is exactly his isolation from the sort-a-kind-a-Left-leaning, career politicians like McCaskill and Wassermann-Schultz that has rallied so many of us to his cause.

Now I am old, certainly. I am cranky, definitely. I am not as sharp as I was 20 years ago, indubitably. Nonetheless, I still have the wit and perspicacity to know when I am being pimped; or taken for granted because of my gender and supposed political leanings; or worse yet ignored by people who have bought into the idiocy of an American royalty and think that they have some kind of divine right to govern. In other words, I can still tell the manure from the roses. I don't like it when someone presumes that I can't - I don't like it at all.

The Pope and the Pretenders

David Brooks, Conservative columnist for the New York Times, informed Chuckles Todd, the clown-like ring master of Meet the Press, that the important thing about Francis' visit isn't his comments on Climate Change but his elevation of spirits. Apparently Brooks thinks the pope elevated those spirits with a tire-pump. If it isn't what he said about Climate Change, poverty, greed, the death penalty and other things, what the fuck is it? Brooks, Cruz, Rubo and the rest of the Rightwing squirrel cage are furious with this priest.  It appears that he has offended them because he persists in explaining that Christ was not a hedge fund manager, an overpaid CEO, a white guy with a gun or the third Koch brother.

This Pagan lady has found it all very amusing.

The Dream

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams.  Who looks inside, awakes.  

… Carl Jung

Last night I had a dream.  I was sitting in the Big Top of a huge and very populated circus.  I have never been a fan of the circus, detesting as I do the way the animals are treated.  Fortunately, in my dream circus there were no elephants, tigers, lions or other beautiful creatures being exploited.  Only human animals occupied the center ring. 

When the performers starting parading past I was surprised to see that they were all members of the Republican Party’s 2016 Presidential pack. Almost all of the candidates – Cruz, Walker, Rubio, Paul, Huckabee, Kasich, Jindal, Christie, Santorum and Graham appeared dressed as clowns wearing various painted facial facsimiles of Reagan, Bush I, Cheney, North and other Rightwing heroes.  Next I saw Fiorina, trying to swagger like her fellow performers and wearing a beard.  She was followed by Jeb Bush, costumed as a tight rope walker – no doubt to tread above the abyss of his brother’s foreign policy, not to mention the one he is opening with every stupid remark he will have to distance himself from in the general election.  Carson followed as the juggler.  He was fighting to keep the balls marked physician, researcher, Christian, pro–life, proud African American, Obama hater, non politician, Rightwing politician and humanitarian in mid air.  Finally and most popular was Donald Trump, concessionaire supreme, peddling pink cotton candy full of sugar and air. 

A man sitting directly in front me turned and said, “It isn’t any different in England, you know. Politicians are the same everywhere.”  The gentleman was Edward Woodward.  For those of you who don’t know of Mr. Woodward, he was the beautifully turned out, impeccably well spoken star of one of the few American television programs that I have ever been able to stomach – The Equalizer.  

Yackity Yack

This morning, while trying to find out what the BBC was on about with regard to the video of the latest gun outrage being shown all over our media, I caught the gorgeous, but not remarkable for her brainpower, Tamron Hall. She had two guests disguising themselves as experts and talking about - what else - gun control in the wake of a journalist being killed by a gunman. We all know that according to the media - the arrogant, self adsorbed, holier-than-thou media - the death of one of theirs will require more intense scrutiny then say the death of 21 children, but let that go. These guests were tepid on the subject of gun control, while agreeing that only crazy people ever engage in gun violence. Ms. Hall was beautiful, but silent. One of the guests, a toxic looking lump of moldy white bread known to advocate for the Right, made it clear that the NRA has never - never I say - opposed background checks. That particular bit of murderous insensitivity is down to the courts. Ms. Hall was gorgeous but silent and ineffective in the face of this naked lie. This is your MSNBC. Anyone who wishes to can stick it in whatever orifice it fits.

Internet Users Beware

This morning I went into a historical site to lookup something that I needed to make a Facebook comment intelligently.  I am big on researching my facts.  When I entered the site a box popped up and a woman's voice began to instruct me about the message the box contained.  She said that I had just downloaded some dangerous malware and would need to call the number in the box to get it removed.  She further admonished me not to do any online shopping.

Accordingly, I called the number.  A man answered and said hello.  I asked him to whom I was speaking.  He told me that he was a Microsoft tech.  Further he said that for a nominal fee I could have the malware removed.  When I asked if he was a salesman, he became indignant and belligerent. At that point he refused to help  me. I hung up on him.  It is interesting to note that my screen was frozen by this event, and I had to shut it off and reboot.

I then put in a call to Microsoft (still waiting to hear back from them) and called my virus protection company to ask  them if they knew anything about my risk for malware.  They told me that these popup windows are something known as phishing, and that they have been hearing about this particular gag for a while now.  I finished by reporting the number to the FCC.

Here is the number should you need to know it:  1-888-603-4618

This is the FCC's complaint website:  https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

My last words on the subject were to the FCC when I suggested that they would serve the public that funds them far better by concentrating on shutting down parasites like the people at 1-888-603-4618 rather then helping greedy bastards like Comcast limit access to the Internet through speed peddling.

THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

FCC Consumer Complaint Site

Finally an Informed and Educated Voice of Sanity in the Abortion Debate

It is about damned time. I have asked over and over again, "Why hasn't the medical community stood up to these fools in Congress and told them to sit down, shut up and stop practicing medicine without a licence?" Well no less then the "New England Journal of Medicine" has done just that.

New England Journal Of Medicine Exposes

Undeniable Truths About Planned Parenthood & The GOP

Some Forty-Years Ago

Some forty years ago when abortion first became legal, I obtained one. I had no choice. I was unmarried, poor, from an abusive home, highly dysfunction - an undiagnosed manic depressive in fact - and terrified. There isn't a day goes by that I don't think about that child. I have carried this personal sorrow in my heart all these years, and speak from experience when I say that no woman has an abortion lightly. Accordingly, I will be goddamned if some Bible-thumping, influence-peddling political parasite or corrupt government agency will tell me what it means to have an abortion now.

My Pagan belief system teaches me that souls select their path and parents before incarnation. They enter the body at the time of birth. This is my faith.

One of the central planks of pro-life's objections to abortion is that life, soul residence, begins at conception and exists even in the smallest cell. I say, what the bloody difference does it make? You can't have it both ways. Either the soul is immortal or it is not. If immortal then abortion can't change or destroy the soul.

As I said, not a day goes by that I don't think about that child. I wonder about the soul that chose me. I wonder if I have known them in this life; if I will meet them before I die; or if I shall see them in the next.

Bombs and Blowhards

It is my understanding that President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu will speak this week regarding the deal with Iran.  They are on opposite sides of the debate.  Apparently, Mr. Netanyahu will be speaking not to his own people but directly to the American Jewish Community.  I am fascinated by the idea that the leader of another country feels he can interject himself between a president and his countrymen and women; but then this particular leader attempted to influence our elections in 2012 and has made it clear, at least in my estimation, that the needs of his nation supersede the needs of ours.  Further, he has taken for granted that our elected officials in the brothel that was once Congress will put his demands ahead of any demands or considerations of the electorate that put them in office.  I submit that this would not be the case if two things weren’t true.  First, Obama’s face is BLACK.  To my way of thinking, this is plain, old-fashioned, garden variety racism thinly veiled behind the presumption of Antisemitism.  Second, the disrespect, cruelty and outright hatred that has been offered to this president from every quarter of the Republic – inside the Beltway and out, north, south, east and west, from the political class to the media, from Cable to the internet – has given Netanyahu permission to treat the sitting 44^th President of the United States like a ceremonial figurehead.  Well done America.

What I find most interesting in all of this bomb business is that one major fact has been overlooked, swept under the carpet and shoved aside.  If either Netanyahu of Israeli or Rouhani of Iran decided to play “Whose Dick is Bigger” and start exchanging nukes like valentines, it would devastate the entire Middle East.  Much of the world would be affected.  We aren’t talking about localized bombing raids, like Dresden or London during the Blitz.  We are talking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and what would have happened to the world if Japan had been able to return the strike. 

It is bad enough that one paranoid xenophobe already has the bomb.  If the Iranian deal goes down Rouhani and his lot can proceed to make their nuclear nightmare a reality right now.  There is some question that the rest of the world, well past our bullying by the by, would continue to engage in sanctions.  Could we expect Iran not to spend her increased revenue on a nuclear arsenal? Israel has one after all.

Einstein said, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”  My Constitutionally protected advice to all those who lust after nuclear weapons or the opportunity to use them is, “Put your dicks back in your pants boys and understand the nature of your toys.”

So Long to the Ed Schultz Show on MSNBC

A man, one Phil Griffin, who runs MSNBC has decided to cancel Ed Schultz's show.  He believes that this country is moving center-right and that the Liberal tone of the network's programming is outdated.  Clearly, he has never heard of Bernie Sanders who is drawing record crowds on the campaign trail - media indifference notwithstanding.  He must be unaware that a majority of Americans support same sex marriage, Obamacare, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, wage and gender equality, raising the minimum wage, ending the grotesque income inequality in this country and a woman's right to choose.  Well, it is difficult for some people to see through the wall of their colon to the world outside their own self-interest or the interests of the corporation they serve. 

Ed has his own podcast and website.  See the link below.

The Ed Schultz Show

Back to the O.K. Corral

Between the whores in government making the laws and the whores on the bench handing down shit like this, the American people haven't got a chance. If you read some of the articles written about this travesty many of the attached comments are saying that we need more guns, and that the theater is responsible for what happened because they created a gun free zone. Einstein was right, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

We are going to need to have a blood bath in this country with a shooter and a gun carrying hot dog or two engaged in an O.K. Corral type shootout. There will need to be a number of innocent victims caught in the ensuing crossfire before this idiotic myth that more guns on the streets will make us safer is dispelled. When that occurs - not if, but when I say - three things need to happen. First, all shooters who off the innocent need to be treated the same under the law - death penalty or life in prison all around. All shooters should be considered culpable in the massacre and serve appropriate sentences. Second, the family of any hot dog who is killed by S.W.A.T. because they can't tell one gun toting squirrel from another will have absolutely no standing to sue. Third, any attempt by said family to sue must be dismissed with all court costs - hopefully in the hundreds of thousands - falling to the plaintiff's share. That is to say the family.

Maddow Blasts Law Requiring Aurora Shooting Victim's Parents To Pay Gun Dealers

A Crone's Face

Yesterday I went to the mall. Never a particularly enjoyable thing for me – but yesterday was more grotesque than usual for a number of reasons. One that sticks out is the young man who walked up to me, handed me a packet of cream which he admonished me not to drink because it was called Merlot cream, and said, “Let me put this on your face and erase those wrinkles.”

My face is a portrait of my life, man. My wrinkles are part of my life. I earned every single one. Erase my life? Why in hell would I let him do that?

The Right and the Left

Former President George W. Bush spends his time painting pictures of himself in the shower. Former President Jimmy Carter spends his time building houses for the homeless and the poor. That is as good an explanation of the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal as I can imagine.