New Zealand acts decisively to save citizens’ lives. Is that CRAZY?

Cartoonist Toles at the Washington Post is usually brilliant, but this panel is outstanding.

I see a Pulitzer nomination for this one.

This is why we must support print media, especially daily newspapers like the Washington Post.

(c) Toles WashPost

Subscribe to a newspaper and help keep journalism alive!

Paying the Trump Tax Hike

OK, I am not rich, I make under 90K a year… and I used to get a tax rebate, every year.

I have just calculated my taxes, and I now owe almost $3,000 to the IRS.

I was going to use my rebate to buy a new car, but now it is leaving me without a good down payment.

OK, so I’ve been through bad economic times before (Reagan and Bush), so I’ll swallow the loss and buy a new car anyway… right?

cropped-911dollar.jpg

Wrong!  The price of a new car is now 20 percent higher than last year.

So I asked several car and truck dealers why.  They all said the same thing:  Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices for things made of metal.

Things like air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers and most of all, cars.

So, Trump gave his rich buddies all millions of dollars in tax rebates, and took three thousand from me (and probably you too).  Then, because of ignorant trade policy, I now have to pay a quarter more for a new car.

I guess the old car will do for a few more years.  If millions of consumers all make the same decision, will that make Trump’s supporters happy?

I guess its good to be in the top one percent of elite billionaires.

money finance bills bank notes

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

But it sucks to be a taxpayer who actually pays taxes!

No wonder American car industry is headed for a slump.

Trump Orphans: A Humanitarian Crisis

We hear this week of the latest victim of the cold-hearted anti-refugee policies of the Republican administration.  A seven-year-old child, found thirsty and hungry, was put in a truck and left there for almost eight hours.  She died of dehydration.

Migrant children die of thirst because of Trump’s edict for ICE agents to destroy humanitarian supplies.

American Christian humanitarian churches have been leaving survival supplies, like water, along the paths frequented by lost refugees.  The Republicans decided that life-saving water supplies should be found and destroyed, leaving the asylum-seeking refuges without water.

 

ICE agents destroy water survival supplies so migrants die of thirst

We can only wonder how our Border Control Agents and ICE patrols can destroy survival caches of water with such enthusiasm.  Can they sleep at night?  Do they dream of the children and other victims who will die of thirst because of this dastardly policy?

 

Someone needs to remind the Republicans that Jesus said
“Suffer the little children”, not “make the children suffer”.

 

ICE agent destroys water survival supplies so migrants die of thirst

I wonder if they will get water in their hour of need?

 

What’s the opposite of a “Good Samaritan”?

 

 

Trump Orphans: What will Republicans do?

Now that ICE is holding several thousand separated children with no clue who or where their parents are, the Republicans are beginning to panic about the Trump Orphans.

Long after Donald Trump is gone, the legacy of these children will live on.  This is a Republican problem, which means it will be ignored until it festers then Republicans will feign surprise that the world is holding them accountable for this crime against humanity.

Several thousand parentless children are now wards of the United States, and the Republicans have no clue what to do about it.

detainee_cage

We must note that imprisoning them in concentration camps can only lead to disaster.  Eventually, some will die and some will be assaulted by their captors.

Horror stories will ensue.  This stinky mess will be around for years to come.

Register. Vote. Win. Tell a Friend!

Your opinion only counts on Election Day

Mousie.com: LIBERTY

“To The Polls, Ye Guardians of Liberty!” 2004 Mousie New Orleans Poster Artist at  Mousie.com

 

Does YOUR opinion count? Only when you vote!

First, to business.  Now, more than ever, each and every vote counts. Get your friends and family to register and vote.  When sane people don’t vote, the worst of us can end up running the most important machinery in the nation.

When the government owes YOU something, you expect the government to do its job and serve you.  Well, now its YOUR TURN.  Your part of living in a constitutional government is your DUTY to vote.

Failure to vote is voting for failure!

 

Second, I am in love with the Art Nouveau styles of famed New Orleans poster artist, Mousie.  Colorful, yet understated, women symbolizing the holidays in New Orelans’ exotic calendar.  If you are in New Orleans, you might find Mousie at the Jackson Square fence painting for your pleasure.  Her web site is at www.mousie.com.

 

Tell a Friend!

 

Earth Temperature Timeline

From xkcd.com

A Timeline of the Earth’s Average Temperature Since the Last Ice Age Glaciation

When people say “the climate has changed before,” these are the kinds of changes they’re talking about.

Thank you, Randall Munroe!!!

From: https://xkcd.com/1732/

Its the facts, Jack!

OK, I am sick of all the greedy fossil fuel companies passing off fiction as fact.  The Earth is dying, and we are killing it.  Fossil fuels are releasing CO2 that was sequestered deep in the Earth for millions of years.  This slight change (and yes, compared to frigid space and near star temperature extremes, it is slight) is enough to upset the delicate balance of our natural world.  Ten degrees Celsius is all it takes to destroy the planetary weather systems upon which life depends.
Global_Prediction

 

Heat from the sun is the driving force behind Earth’s weather. There are several hard facts of physics to be considered.

More “greenhouse” gas means the planet is blanketed and holds more heat.
Water vapor, CO2 and Methane are all greenhouse gases.

The Earth reached an equilibrium over millions of years, giving us the weather the planet has up until a few thousand years ago, when men began changing the Earth. This was not much of a factor at first, as people were few and the Earth was big.

But, modern industry and global population have “turned up the heat” on greenhouse gases, we emit a lot of these today. OK, so far no “studies”, just cold hard facts which you can verify yourself.

The Earth is dying, and we are killing it

Now, as the Earth gets warmer, the ocean temperature slowly goes up. Warmer water is larger than colder water (with a notable exception of the crystallization effect of ice forming) and so a warmer ocean is higher.
Global_Different

Also, air is greatly affected by our Earth warming. Warmer air is more fluid. It resists movement much less than cold air. A warmer planet therefore will have faster winds.

So, add it all up: Warmer water, warmer air, more evaporation, more wind, more clouds and larger storms.

Poisioning our water…

Compounding on that mess, we are also choking the waters with micro-plastic particles. These things break down into pseudo-hormones that cause profound changes in how gender works in animals.

Poisioning our Land…

We are digging up rare earth metals and shipping them to every house with any modern technology.  We are dumping pesticides and industrial waste into our own water supply.

So, yes, when bees and frogs start showing actual evidence of the coming wave of ecological imbalances, its a warning sign.  A canary in the coal mine, if you will.

The Earth is dying, and we are killing it

Be conservative, believe in men from the sky, or ghosts, or little green men… BUT stop poisoning our earth, air and waters!  Our grandchildren will appreciate it.  If we can still have any after all the pseudo-estrogen feminizing hormones turn all males infertile.

So, how to help?  Quit ignoring climate deniers.

The price of their denial is death for billions..

Stranger in a strange land: Jesus asks, “Are ye goats or are ye lambs?

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

 

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was hungry, and you gave me no food: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you hungry, or thirsty or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto you?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Since you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.
Strangers

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

(Matthew 25:31-46)

The NRA Speaks For The New Merchants of Death

Average Americans have been patient, trying to not complain about the ongoing corruption in our “pay to play” government, hopeful that somehow justice will come to the guilty.

We have watched as the gun industry has paid off the NRA to bribe legislators to reduce controls over gun sales in the name of “freedom”.

As any sane person could predict, we have witnessed the stupid brutality enabled by letting the gun industry line its pockets from the sale of weapons of war; pseudo-assault rifles that skirt rational limits to deliver about one lethal round per second.

Not with a stable bullet like a hunter would want, but a bullet designed to tumble as it hits, doing far greater damage than a simple hunting round.

AR-15 One Death per second

May there be a special place in Hell for those take the NRA Blood Money.

I hope that the people who make, market, permit and excuse selling a one round per second death machine to teenagers have a front row seat in hell.

Follow the money.

Its all bribes and payoffs to keep the money train delivering those nice NRA checks to our legislators.

Republicans accept blood money from the NRA.  They are taking bribes to protect the gun industry.  It’s enough to make us want to run these fools out of office.

The End of the World (As We Know It)

Bozo the Moron has answered dictator Kim Jong Il’s paranoia with threats of war.

end_times_Trump

The United States has been trying to constrain North Korea’s efforts to build weapons for decades.  Despite being shamed, shunned and sanctioned, the North Koreans have attained nuclear weapons and nearly perfected ballistic missile systems that might carry an atomic payload to the heart of America.

Past administrations recognized that North Korea is motivated by fear of invasion by us, as their war with us has never officially ended.  The current Kim despot was born into a culture of paranoia and he has never know a day without American and South Korean forces massed on his southern border.  This ongoing fear is the impetus that drives their desire to acquire better weapons.

The wisdom of the Clinton-Bush-Obama diplomatic efforts was to reduce that paranoia and allow the North Koreans to imagine a world without risk of imminent invasion.  Promising a better life, we traded food and medical supplies for their slowing their march towards nuclear weapons.

Now, we have a leader who lacks such wisdom, who ignorantly pours gasoline on the fire of Kim’s fears.  This could easily escalate to a war that no one needs, no one wants and no one will benefit from.

Bozo with the button needs to be restrained.  I pray our military has the guts to refuse an illegal order and the wisdom to recognize such a situation.

God help America.

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