February 16-18, 2016::End of the day round-up

Trump and Hitler

While I have great difficulty in making such a comparison, it has been done by many. Myself included. Muholland makes an interesting point, "I realized why globalism is such a good thing. A world connected economically and electronically is a much safer place. I’m glad to live in a world where the death of fourteen in San Bernardino is a national tragedy and the words of Trump are scandalous. Perhaps Trump’s biggest mistake is to point us backwards. As long as we can still see the smoke rising from Auschwitz and Dresden, there is little attraction to the past or to people like Donald Trump."

When one asks me whom I will vote for, I can confidently state it won't be for a GOT/P party member or Donald Trump. But it does not mean that I will automatically vote for Hilliary. It does not mean I will automatically vote for Sanders. I really am undecided.

You see this election is mega important for ideological reasons. We have the status quo versus the theocrats. (And there is some argument as to what camp Clinton actually stands in.) We have the one percent versus 99 percenters.
All other issues aside, it boils down to this, a point Morton makes well.

When you ask me to vote for Hillary

If this doesn’t make sense to you — if you think it is reasonable to fear the opposition more than to hope for having a better life — then I’m guessing you live a fairly comfortable life and don’t feel strong motivation to change it. Perhaps it’s been a long time since you had to decide not to take your spouse to the emergency room because you were worried it would wipe out what little savings you have. Maybe you don’t have full-blown anxiety attacks every time you see that your medical insurance company has sent you something in the mail. Do you remember the last time you cried thinking about how you can’t afford to get a job, because it will knock you off of the meager insurance assistance you have and put you even further behind than you started? Would your place of employment and the welfare of hundreds of employees be ensured if only we could sort out the insanity that is private insurance? Has there been a time in your life when nearly all of the stress you experience in life comes, one way or another, from trying to navigate the private medical-industrial complex?

As sad as it may sound, the morass I have had to navigate since my stroke has become the biggest deciding factor in choosing a possible candidate. How either candidate handles this will be a major factor. Right now, the advantage is Sanders, though it is still early and I have a month to decide in regards to primaries.

One point not touched on but still important, insurance issues aside, what about recovery,,,hmmm? You see, I went back to work way sooner than I should. I had to rely on the generosity of others to survive the three months (and then some) I couldn't work. Insurance is nice, but there are other issues not being looked at. 

A financial update for those that have asked,,,

I never was in the best shape financially prior to my stroke, I'll be honest. I lived very simply and as frugally as possible. My job choice due to pre-existing issues forced that decision upon me. I can live with that.

My stroke, on the other hand, has caused major issues. Thanks to the generosity of many I was able to battle through those issues (primarily rent) and seven months out, I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My tax refund has helped immensely and if things continue, I will be able to put a wee bit away for a rainy day.

I don't know if I am out of the woods, at minimum wage one never is, but my bills are paid. Right now my focus is off the financial and back on to where it should be - my physical recovery.

I am back to working my "normal" 6 days/week, though reduced hours and responsibility, but still struggle. I have some decisions to make in that regard but from what many have told me, "it's still early". Thursday's eye appt (and possible follow-up) will go a long way in deciding the future; as will my neuro appt in March. [My surgeries have finally  been scheduled - 4/27 and 5/11]

That, in a nut shell, is where I am at!! BTW, post-stroke depression suks donkey dick,,, but that too is lifting!

 
I am well aware that numerous laws and legislation have come forth concerning the Syrian refugee debacle. The constitutionality of which is questionable at best. Florida's 1095 is just another example.

FL Bill Would Give Rick Scott The Right To Use Military Force On ‘Invaders’

Florida Republicans voted to pass HB 1095, the “Prevention of Acts of War,” through a committee on Wednesday and the bill is so outrageous it looks like Donald Trump wrote it. It would allow Governor Rick Scott to use military action on all immigrants or refugees who attempt to seek safe haven in the state:

[People who] are organized or affiliated with armies presently holding and administering territories outside the United States and insurgencies engaged in capturing such territories… the State Constitution and Florida law fully empower the Governor, as commander-in-chief of all military forces in Florida not in active service of the United States Armed Forces, including the general militia, to defend the state against the entry and actions of such persons.

The bill even goes as far as to call refugees “invaders”:

“Restricted person” means a foreign refugee or immigrant for whom there is reasonable cause to believe that he or she originates from, or has been in close proximity to, any location in which invaders or prospective invaders are known to originate or organize or train for violent acts of war.

The bill also states that any person or group helping the “invaders” must turn their infomation [sic] over to the state government so that authorities can monitor them. It also gives Rick Scott the right to sue the federal government if they try to place the refugees in the state. This part is especially interesting because states do not have the right to pass this law and FLORIDA KNOWS IT.

H/T:: Danielle Muscato for this article, well said.

Hillary Clinton Gets $13 Million From Health Industry, Now Says Single-Payer Will “Never, Ever Come To Pass­”

The crux of the matter for me is this point,,,

Only Bernie Sanders supports single-payer, universal health care (and has for a LONG TIME). Hillary used to support it—she even wrote a letter to Bernie Sanders in 1993 praising his efforts fighting for it—but she changed her mind after receiving $13,200,000 in donations from health insurance companies and related organizations. Further, a December '15 scientific poll found that 58 percent of Americans support expanding Medicare to cover everyone. So why aren't we already doing this?

Not the money mind you, it's politics what do you expect, but the fact that Clinton has change her mind. I remember the 1993 battle, the ACA as we have it today is a direct result,,,but, she changed her mind.

Creationists say theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss is like Hitler: ‘Very, very terrifying’

I find it quite interesting when religionists attempt to cite history, as they usually get it wrong. Very wrong: “Hitler said some similar things,” Comfort interjected. “Hitler’s Youth.”

First off, it was Lenin who said, "Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world." In reference to Emeal Zwayne's statement, "But the way he said that, ‘In a generation — that’s what we should do, plant those seeds of doubt, it’s our responsibility.’”

Second, the sole purpose of the Hitlerjugend (male youth aged 14 to 18), the Deutsches Jungvolk (German Youth for younger boys), and the Bund Deutscher Mädel ( League of German Girls) was indoctrination, to fight faithfully for the Third Reich. To not question authority and accept instruction like good little soldiers (of God).

Science is not indoctrination; it is a methodology

Science is not a religion; it is knowledge, organized systematically.

Science has no god nor prophets; just many very smart people.

Whether I agree with Krauss's statement or whether his statememnt is a correct observation is moot for the moment. What I find ironic with both Comfort's and Zwayne's implied trope, they need to re-examine their own statements, dogma and doctrines. They are so concerned by the ability of science to de-legitimitize their ideology, they fail to see the harm and fear they themselves cause.

"When one provokes in a child a fear of the dark, one awakens in him a feeling of atavistic dread. Thus this child will be ruled all his life by this dread, whereas another child, who has been intelligently brought up, will be free of it." (Adolf Hitler, "Table Talk" discussions on the night of July 11-12, 1941, p. 12)

When one is injected with the god virus at an age before the ability to think critically for one's self you will remain that way for life unless you are exposed and taught to question dogmatic authority.  Religion has no rightful place, it preaches intolerance against anything deemed as sinful in the minds of those most afflicted with this virus.  Playing Godwin’s Law, as Comfort and Zwayne did, is a sign of a flawed argument. When you are backed against a wall and see no logical way out, playing the Hitler card is an attempt to demonize your opponent.

"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration-courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."

H.L. Mencken"

Creationists say theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss is like Hitler: ‘Very, very terrifying’

America’s worst new congressman: Why Georgia’s Jody Hice is so frightening - Salon.com

It’s official: in January, Jody Hice will be sworn in as the next Congressman from Georgia’s 10th District. This is a man who has called Islam, the second-largest religion in the world, “a totalitarian way of life with a religious component” that “does not deserve First Amendment protection.” In his book he calls legal abortion “worse than Hitler’s six million Jews or Mussolini’s three hundred thousand,” adding that “the genocide in America is inexcusable!” In 2004, he told the Athens Banner-Herald that he doesn’t “see a problem” with women running for office “if the woman’s within the authority of her husband.” On his radio show he blamed Sandy Hook and other school shootings on “kicking God out of the schools, and… kicking God out of the public square.” He once misquoted a satirical essay by a gay writer as evidence that homosexuals preying on children was “part of the ‘gay manifesto’” and part of the “radical agenda that is currently threatening our nation.”

As Matthew Pulver of the Flagpole writes, Jody Hice believes a lot of things that make him sound insane. Last night, he won a seat in Congress.

A Baptist minister and former talk radio host, Hice is filling the hole left after Paul Broun’s failed run for Senate. You might remember Paul Broun as the Congressman and medical doctor who stood in a room festooned with deer heads and told a gathering of Baptists and hunters that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang were “lies straight from the pit of Hell.” Broun set an incredibly high bar for mindboggling insanity, but Hice just might be able to clear it.

America’s worst new congressman: Why Georgia’s Jody Hice is so frightening - Salon.com

Brian Brown Gets Defensive About His Russia Activism: 'Absolute Lies And Slurs' | Right Wing Watch

So earlier today I was involved in a two-pronged conversation concerning WW2 and the role and responsibilities of the railroads (and by proxy the workers) had in the Holocaust.  The question was asked were any of those "workers" ever held accountable?

Things were going along great till this, ",,,do you think that there will be a modern day holocaust with Christians being forced out of their homes and thrown in FEMA camps? That's what I'm concerned about these days."

Frustrated by this conversation stopper (faux Christian Persecution Complex), I posed the above to a group of like minded thinkers, we bandied about some of the myth-conceptions surrounding Hitler and the Third Reich. One comment touched on one of Hitler's alleged proclivities and the "most of the Nazis were homosexuals" canard that some like to pull out of a hat and teach.

The ensuing discussion centered around where this thought may have originated and why, ",,, found myself reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,,,At any rate in book one which was about Hitler's early life and his efforts to start the political party; this book says that he went anyplace he could to gain support and that some of his early supporters were thugs and homosexuals. This may have been the reference your teacher had,,,But this was before he had any power and it would be a stretch to make that idiotic statement." (Ed. for grammar, spelling and punctuation)

To which I responded (minus the citations),,,
The Right's misinformation concerning Hitler and gays could be coming from Scott Lively's book the Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, it is his favorite canard and he uses it very well.

Lively's ideas have proven too radical for the mainstream family values movement, but they've gotten some traction on the far right. Bryan Fischer, director of issues analysis for the influential American Family Association, regularly parrots his arguments linking gays to Nazis. ("Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler," he opined in a 2010 post on the organization's website, "and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.") Lively's theories have also gained currency in foreign countries, including former Soviet republics, where he has helped advance anti-gay legislation. But nowhere has his influence been more keenly felt than in Uganda

Lively is one of many western evangelicals responsible for Uganda's kill the gays bill as well as the anti-gay sentiment in Russia.

What's less well known is that three American evangelical preachers, Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge and Don Schmierer, visited the country a month before the bill was introduced, giving talks about how "the gay movement is an evil institution" which seeks to prey on children, destroy "the moral fiber of the people," and abolish marriage and the family and replace it with "a culture of sexual promiscuity." Lively boasted that their campaign was "a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda," and later admitted to meeting with Ugandan lawmakers to help draft the bill, although he professed ignorance of the death penalty provision. Other American evangelicals, including Kevin Swanson and Lou Engle, have also expressed their support for the so-called Kill the Gays bill.

It's not just LGBT people in Uganda who've been harmed by the spread of aggressive evangelicalism. American megachurch pastor Rick Warren has a Ugandan protege, a pastor named Martin Ssempa, who has preached aggressively against contraception (in one bizarre public stunt, he burned condoms in the name of Jesus). Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni had formerly been a staunch advocate of the so-called ABC program (consisting of abstinence, monogamy and condom use) which successfully reduced HIV infection rates in Uganda; but thanks in part to Ssempa's influence and access, the government was persuaded to stop free condom distribution, and as a result, new HIV infections spiked again. (Ssempa, too, has called for the imprisonment of gay people. President Museveni also has ties to the Washington, D.C.-based fundamentalist group "the Family," which has called him their " key man" in Africa.)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer though a landmark book has a few "problems" from a strict academic standpoint although one has to remember it was written in 1960s. So you could be correct as well (name removed) I do remember back in the mid 90s Shirer's attitude towards homosexuality (it being a perversion) was taken to task.

So the attached article, which mysteriously appeared on my news feed tonight, and the accusation comes as no big surprise, although I didn't realize that NOM's influence ranged beyond domestic interests. I should have known better.

Joe Jervis points us to a debate on C-SPAN this weekend between the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown and Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson, where things got a little contentious when Wolfson confronted Brown about his anti-gay activism in Russia.

Brown has never explicitly advocated for repressive Russian anti-gay policies, including the infamous “gay propaganda” ban, but he has acted as an outside validator for Russian politicians imposing the harsh new policies.

Last year, for instance, he spoke to a Russian parliament committee about the supposed dangers of gay adoption just a few days before the legislature voted to tighten its prohibition on the adoption of Russian orphans by same-sex couples or by couples in countries where same-sex marriage is legal.

And this year, Brown was a member of the planning committee for a World Congress of Families event in Moscow that was to take place at the Kremlin and was financed by members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Although the World Congress of Families dropped its official sponsorship of the event under pressure from some of its member groups, the event went ahead as planned, with Brown as a featured speaker. That conference ended with delegates issuing a resolution calling for more countries around the world to pass “gay propaganda” bans like Russia’s.

Brian Brown Gets Defensive About His Russia Activism: 'Absolute Lies And Slurs' | Right Wing Watch

Lawmaker Compares Labor Unions To Hitler | ThinkProgress

If I didn't know any better I would say that the Reich is living up to its name sake. What is it with GOP/TP wing-nuts, besides being offensive and stupid, that everything they don't like is compared to Hitler or the Nazis; called fascist, Marxist, socialist or communist (or in some instances a combination of 3 or more). And if I remember correctly, didn't Hitler outlaw unions? (I will have to look that up and get back to you on that point.)
__
“The unions are about power and control,” state Sen. Scott Wagner (R) said. “And there are two things that I continue to remember about power and control. There was a gentleman by the name of Hitler, he was about power and control. There’s a gentleman by the name of Putin, who’s across the ocean, that’s about power and control.”

In an interview with the Associated Press, Wagner later clarified that he wasn’t comparing unions to the strongmen, but merely “talking about the concept of power and control.” “I didn’t say the unions are out killing people,” he added.

But that explanation didn’t sit will with Pennsylvania State Education Association president Mike Crossey, who criticized the comments. “This kind of language is shocking, offensive and has no place in public discourse,” Crossey said. “It is so disappointing to see a powerful elected official making such an awful comparison. What a terrible example this sets for our children.”

Lawmaker Compares Labor Unions To Hitler | ThinkProgress

Alabama Bible school puts Hitler quote on billboard to encourage youth indoctrination

“We are pulling the billboard and certainly never intended to cause confusion. … Herbert Hoover would have been a far better one to quote when he said, ‘Children are our most valuable resource,’” Anderegg said. “We are a children’s organization and had honorable intentions and nothing less.”

I ain't buying this load of crap for a second!! Why? Here's why, create a controversy - any controversy, good or bad - you get "free" publicity. The billboard may be gone, but the articles condemning the billboard will still be here. Maybe if the Reich would quit revising history they might learn something!!

Alabama Bible school puts Hitler quote on billboard to encourage youth indoctrination

Hitler escaped Berlin bunker and died in South America, new book claims | Mail Online

Will it ever end!! The article lost me completely when stated, "She points out in her book Leipzig was the birthplace of Hitler's favourite composer Bach." No, Hitler favorite composer was Wagner, who actually was born in Leipzig. So not sure who is incorrect the article or the book author.

Not sure if I'll be adding this to my collection of books or not,,,

He is believed to have died after shooting himself in a Berlin bunker in 1945 when he realised Germany had lost World War II.

But a startling new book claims Adolf Hitler actually escaped his hideout and died incognito in 1984 in a small town near Brazil's border with Bolivia - and it can be proved by a picture.

Not only that, but the author believes the Fuhrer fled to Argentina and then Paraguay before settling in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to hunt for buried treasure - with a map given to him by Vatican allies, according to its author.

[,,,]
The book, titled 'Hitler in Brazil - His Life and His Death', challenges the accepted view that the dictator shot himself in his Berlin bunker on April 30 1945.

She claims he may have lived as Adolf Leipzig in the small town of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, 30 miles from the state capital Cuiaba.

[,,,]
She says her suspicions about Adolf Leipzig increased after she photoshopped a moustache on to the grainy picture she obtained of him and compared it to photos of the Nazi leader.

According to Simoni, an unidentified Polish nun recognised an elderly man due to have an op at a hospital in Cuiaba in the early eighties as Hitler and demanded he leave - but was reprimanded by a superior who claimed he was there on Vatican orders.


Hitler escaped Berlin bunker and died in South America, new book claims | Mail Online

Vatican to throw open Holocaust archives - The Hindu

Pope Francis appears to have taken another bold decision in favour of inter-religious harmony and transparency in the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been reported that he has decided to throw open the Vatican’s archives on the Holocaust and the role played by Pope Pius XII during Hitler’s Third Reich when an estimated six million Jews were exterminated. Pope Pius has often been accused of not doing enough to save Jewish lives and it has been alleged that the Church helped Nazis like the Frenchman Paul Thouvier by sheltering him in cloistered monasteries.

However, the Vatican has still to confirm that Pope Francis has in fact decided to open the archives.

Vatican to throw open Holocaust archives - The Hindu