Political and religious commentary from a liberal, secular, humanistic perspective.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Jeb Bush looted Florida pension funds to fund his brother's presidential campaign
When word got out that creepy Jeb might be running for prez, the crap started hitting the fan. The crap being that he was more moderate and more intelligent than his brother. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is a true member of the Bush clan. They've never found a rich man they didn't like or think deserved special handling by the government. Never turn your back on a member of the Bush clan!
There were many things he did wrong while governor of Florida, but this may be one of the most egregious and we're just learning about it now. What does that say about our MSM?
While Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, state pension officials committed at least $1.7 billion to financial firms whose executives were “Pioneer” fundraisers for his brother’s presidential campaigns. To achieve Pioneer status, the fundraisers had to amass at least $100,000 worth of bundled contributions to one of George W. Bush’s campaigns.
An International Business Times analysis of Florida government documents and a list of George W. Bush’s bundlers compiled by Public Citizen found that 11 firms that received new Florida pension investments under Jeb Bush were Pioneers. IBTimes also analyzed data from the Florida Division of Elections and Political Moneyline to determine how much money executives from those firms donated directly to Jeb Bush’s campaigns, George W. Bush’s campaigns, the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida between 1998 and 2006.
The crooks really have been in charge!
This story from Daily Kos. Read the entire piece HERE.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Religion's a Killer!
- 63% of people polled say they are religious
- China is the least religious country with twice the amount of convinced atheists than any other nation (61%) followed by Hong Kong (34%), Japan (31%), Czech Republic (30%), and Spain (20%).
- Thailand is the most religious country globally (94%), followed by Armenia (93%), Bangladesh (93%), Georgia (93%), and Morocco (93%).
New research this Easter shows that worldwide six out of ten (63%) citizens say they are religious, while one in five (22%) say they are not and one in ten (11%) consider themselves convinced atheists. In Africa and the Middle East more than 8 out of 10 people (86% and 82% respectively) portray themselves as religious while 7 out of 10 say so in Eastern Europe and America (71% and 66% respectively) and 6 out of 10 (62%) in Asia, say they are.
The above is a poll from WIN/Gallup, International.
I'm not going to claim there is a causal relationship between war/violence and religion because we know that war can have multiple causes, but there is enough anecdotal evidence in hand garnered over a period of several thousand years to at conclude, at the very least, religion does not for peace make!
That's history speaking.
Now to the moment. At this moment, 63% of the world's people claim to be "religious," whatever that means. The most religious people can be found in Africa and the Middle East where a whopping 80% consider themselves religious. The U.S. of A 66%) comes in line with Eastern Europe (71%).
Tom Cotton will love that. We're not only very religious here in the US of A, but we're war-mongers. So maybe he's right when he argued today that Americans don't dislike war, they just don't like losing wars. What a guy! Jesus loves him. But for any sane person, he's an ignorant and very dangerous son-of-a-bitch!
Sorry about that Cotton bit, I got carried away. Actually, I'm not sorry, but back to the moment.
Obviously, religion per se, today, still does not make for peace. In some areas, it is painfully obvious that religion is indeed the cause of violence. Rather than cast stones, however, we need to look at this country: We still have troops in Afghanistan and some in Iraq. We are now providing military resources (and probably troops - consultants, ya know) to help fight ISIS. We are supporting Saudi Arabia's fight in Yemen. We have military bases and troops and ships and missiles everywhere! War is one of our largest American-made products and exports!
Now, while not all Americans are Christians, a large part of the population does claim to worship the "Prince of Peace." It's fascinating to me to see that so many of these so-called Christians really like war. They'd hang their Prince of Peace in a heartbeat! They hate with a passion - just about anybody who is not "one of them," who is different, who believes in other mythologies, or who believes in none.
Evangelical Christianity, after successfully taking over much of Congress, the U.S. Supremes, the state legislatures, city councils, county commissions and school boards across the land, is licking its collective chops at the prospect of taking over the White House for Jesus so they can take this country "back" (whatever that means!) and start more wars! Maybe even bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
A final note: If I hear one more time some moron tell me you can't be good, have ethics or morals, without religion or believing in some deity, I'm gonna do some bomb, bomb, bombing of my own. Nah. Just kidding. I really don't believe in that violent stuff.
You can read the full article and all about religious belief around the world HERE.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Fukushima and You - What Else Aren't They Telling Us?
[Note: Photo is of the deserted town of Namie in the Fukushima nuclear zone. From the Telegraph.co.uk]
According to government experts, “‘Astounding’” levels of radiation [have been] measured in [the] U.S. from Fukushima — Around 500,000 times our normal levels….’We have never seen anything even close to that …’"
“Scientists detect Fukushima radiation on North American shores…”
National Geographic reports: “Newly discovered mass mortality in sea creatures along California coast - Body parts falling off, animals ‘wasting away’ - Researchers fear sea star epidemic has spread.”
“‘Such a bizarre thing’ off California coast - ‘We’re seeing multiple aborted fetuses every day’ - 100,000s of seabirds that nest in area now missing…’ ‘Huge, unprecedented die-off like we’ve never seen’ - many baby seals dying after mothers led them to a cliff edge.
Read all about it here.
I have some questions: Why are we not hearing about this in the MSM? What exactly is the danger to human life along the Pacific Coast? Is the United States Congress working on the problem to determine what can be done to protect our people or is it too busy worrying about allowing kids to bring weapons to school, taking away the right to an abortion, taking away the right to vote, putting the Christian Bible in public schools, giving the rich even more tax breaks, cutting the safety nets for our older citizens, bringing down Obama, going to war somewhere, anywhere, in the Middle East, banning gay marriage, etc., etc.
h/t to Firedoglake
According to government experts, “‘Astounding’” levels of radiation [have been] measured in [the] U.S. from Fukushima — Around 500,000 times our normal levels….’We have never seen anything even close to that …’"
“Scientists detect Fukushima radiation on North American shores…”
National Geographic reports: “Newly discovered mass mortality in sea creatures along California coast - Body parts falling off, animals ‘wasting away’ - Researchers fear sea star epidemic has spread.”
“‘Such a bizarre thing’ off California coast - ‘We’re seeing multiple aborted fetuses every day’ - 100,000s of seabirds that nest in area now missing…’ ‘Huge, unprecedented die-off like we’ve never seen’ - many baby seals dying after mothers led them to a cliff edge.
Read all about it here.
I have some questions: Why are we not hearing about this in the MSM? What exactly is the danger to human life along the Pacific Coast? Is the United States Congress working on the problem to determine what can be done to protect our people or is it too busy worrying about allowing kids to bring weapons to school, taking away the right to an abortion, taking away the right to vote, putting the Christian Bible in public schools, giving the rich even more tax breaks, cutting the safety nets for our older citizens, bringing down Obama, going to war somewhere, anywhere, in the Middle East, banning gay marriage, etc., etc.
h/t to Firedoglake
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)