Real people, and definitely not orange.

WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 16: U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden share a laugh as the US Senior Men’s National Team and Brazil play during a pre-Olympic exhibition basketball game at the Verizon Center on July 16, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

What does Joe Biden’s platform actually aim to do?

from Joe Biden’s site, joebiden.com)

Legal reforms:

• Decriminalization, rescheduling, and expungement of existing federal marijuana convictions.
• End the federal crack and powder cocaine disparity.
• End all incarceration for drug use alone and instead divert individuals to drug courts and treatment.

Environmental reforms:

• Invest $400 billion in clean energy research and innovation.
• Establish an enforcement mechanism to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
• Require aggressive methane pollution limits for new and existing gas operations.
• Require public companies to disclose climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Invest in carbon capture sequestration technology.
• Support research into new nuclear technology.
• Empower communities to develop transportation solutions.
• Invest in electric rail roads and mass transit.
• Embrace the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
• Demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies.
• Name and shame global climate outlaws.
• Pursue a global moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic.
• Hold polluters accountable.
• Ensure access to safe drinking water for all communities.
• Ensure that communities harmed by climate change and pollution are the first to benefit from the Clean Economy Revolution.
• Invest in communities impacted by the climate transformation.
• Double offshore wind energy by 2030.

Economic reforms:

• $15/hr minimum wage.
• Bankruptcy reform.
• Paid family leave.
• Paid sick leave.
• Protect and expand union rights.
• Repeal the $2.1tn Trump tax cuts.
• Increase taxes by $1.4tn on top earners.
• Hold corporations and executives responsible for interfering with unionization.
• Aggressively pursue employers who violate labor laws.
• Ensure federal dollars do not support employers who engage in union-busting.
• Penalize companies that bargain in bad faith.
• Make it easier for workers who choose to unionize to do so.
• Ban state “right to work” laws.
• Create a cabinet-level working group that will solely focus on promoting union organizing.
• Ensure that workers can exercise their right to strike without fear of reprisal.
• Empower the NLRB to fulfill its intended purpose of protecting workers.
• Eliminate non-compete clauses and no-poaching agreements.
• Put an end to unnecessary occupational licensing requirements.
• Expand protections for undocumented immigrants who report labor violations.

Health care:

• Medicare-like public option.
• Allow Medicare to bargain for prescription drug prices.
• Increase the value of tax credits to lower premiums and extend coverage.
• Limiting launch prices for drugs that face no competition.
• Limiting price increases for all brand, biotech, and abusively priced generic drugs.
• Allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from other countries.
• End pharmaceutical corporations’ tax break for advertisement spending.
• Expanding access to contraception.
• Protect and defend a woman’s right to choose.
• Restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
• Doubling America’s investment in community health centers.
• Expand access to mental health care.

Infrastructure:

• Invest in historically marginalized communities.
• Encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.
• Invest $10 billion into transit projects that serve high-poverty areas.
• Increase funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by $2.5 billion per year.
• Invest $20 billion in rural broadband infrastructure.
• Invest $100 billion to modernize schools.
• Invest $10 billion in a new Cities Revitalization Fund.
• Quadruple funding to provide small manufacturers with the technical expertise needed to compete in a global economy.

Electoral reform:

• Introduce a constitutional amendment to eliminate private dollars from our federal elections.
• Enact legislation to provide voluntary matching public funds for federal candidates recieving small donations.
• Propose a law to strengthen our prohibitions on foreign nationals trying to influence federal, state, or local elections.
• Work to enact legislation ensuring that SuperPACs are wholly independent of campaigns and political parties.
• Increase transparency of election spending.
• End dark money groups.
• Ban corporate PAC contributions to candidates.
• Prohibit lobbyist contributions to those who they lobby.
• Reform funding for national party conventions.
• Require that all candidates for federal office release tax returns dating back 10 years.
• Prohibiting foreign governments’s use of lobbyists.

Ethics reforms:

• Prevent the president or White House from improperly interfering in federal investigations and prosecutions.
• Increase transparency in DOJ decision-making.
• Empower agency watchdogs (Inspectors General) to combat unethical behavior.
• Establish the Commission on Federal Ethics to more effectively enforce federal ethics law.
• Prevent the president, other senior Executive Branch members, and Congresspersons from being influenced by personal financial holdings.

Policing reform:

• Ending private prisons.
• Investing $300 billion in community policing training.
• Investing in public health and education.
• Create a new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention.
• Expand federal funding for mental health and substance use disorder services and research.
• Expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.
• Invest in public defenders’ offices.
• Eliminate mandatory minimums.
• Eliminate the death penalty.
• End cash bail.
• Stop jailing people for being too poor to pay fines and fees.
• Ensure humane prison conditions.
• Invest $1 billion per year in juvenile justice reform.
• Incentivize states to stop incarcerating kids.
• Expand funding for after-school programs, community centers, and summer jobs.

Education:

• Two years paid public universities and college or job training for those making less than $125k/yr.
• Create new a federal grant program.
• Double the maximum value of Pell grants for low-income and middle-class individuals.
• Make a $50 billion investment in workforce training.
• More than halve payments on undergraduate federal student loans.
• Stop for-profit education programs from profiteering off of students.
• Crack down on private lenders profiteering off of students.
• Allow individuals holding private loans to discharge them in bankruptcy.
• $10,000 across the board federal student loan forgiveness.
• Forgive all undergraduate federal student loan debt for borrowers who attended public colleges and universities, as well as historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and private minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Immigration:

• Repeal Trump era restrictions on immigration
• Prioritize deporting threats over deporting hard working, upstanding members of the community.
• End child separation and prolonged detention.
• Reform the asylum system.
• End public funding for the border wall.
• Protect DACA recipients.
• Hold ICE and CBP agents accountable for inhumane treatment.

From Antique Sugar in Phoenix, Arizona.  They have a sign which says:

“If you choose not to wear a mask, we respectfully ask that you postpone your visit. We will be happy to debate the efficacy of masks with you when this is all over and you come in to sell your dead grandmother’s clothes.”

Something not as good:  My great days are over for now.  Yesterday was take a day off from everything, because up all night and slept through midday, today am in a fog.  Better tomorrow?  (Sigh)

We have a Republican governor.  A Republican.  Every day I am amazed by him.  Not perfect, but who is, and yet he has done a great job for us.  I am impressed.

Doing Great in Mass So Far

It is hot, and it is sticky, and I am baking bread.  Because I can.  After so long of being pretty incapacitated, something has gone right for a change and I am able to Get Things Done.  Cleaned the frig, reorganized it and the freezer, cleaned the counters, vacuumed the entire house including the couch, did some hand laundry, and it’s only Thursday.  Started on Monday.  Whatever is happening, I plan to take advantage of and enjoy it while it lasts, because all of us with this fibro thingy know things can change in an instant with absolutely no warning.  So yay me for right this minute.

The New York Times, which I gave in and subscribed to, because they are doing great coverage, asks ‘Why Does Trump Put Russia First?’, and I think I know the answer.  I can imagine Putin telling Trump what a great guy he is, a great leader, and great human being, and Trump lives for praise and validation.  It’s all he has, anyway.  The massive ego, masking an even more massive insecurity.  You could almost feel sorry for him, if he wasn’t such a horrible excuse for a human being.  No decency here, folks, no ethics, no integrity, no character, just self-aggrandizement and hate for anyone who doesn’t think he is the second coming.  Well done, America.  You have let your hate send us on the road to losing our democracy and our freedom, because being free to hate openly is just so satisfying, isn’t it?  See the vids of the Karens, if you need proof.

But it is a beautiful day, in spite of hot and sticky, and I am getting things done, and I have hot dogs for dinner.  I like hot dogs.  New England style buns, buttered and toasted in the iron skillet while the hot dogs cooks in that same skillet.  Green relish, French’s mustard, and celery salt. It’s the New England way.  🙂  Happy Jean is happy today.  It’s my second DD’s birthday, too, so a red letter day over all.  Wish I could visit with her, but virus.  You all remember the virus, right?  Judging by the behaviour of people I see from my windows, I have my doubts.  I read today that there is a group of teenagers having a contest to see who can get sick first.  Parents, please, what are you doing to your children that makes them this reckless and stupid and uncaring and I have run out of words.  Bad parenting.  Bad, bad parenting.

Contest

Still happy.  Not going to let morons ruin my day.  Me and Miss G are just being chill.  Well, not chill exactly, but hot and sticky in an okay way.  She is just on the rocking chair.  Didn’t even want to play that much.  It will get better.  Autumn comes eventually.  🙂

Up early, quarter to eight.  Slept well, cause I took an Aleve last night.  Was having a lot of pain.  Flare?  Okay so far, but Aleve is twelve hours and that’s not up yet.  We’ll see how it goes later.  Hoping to vacuum, which was on yesterday’s list but back was hurting too much.  Did get some other things done, though.  The hand-off with the homemaker took seconds, and I put away frig/freezer items and just left the rest on the counter.  Will move them in a couple of days.  Lots of hand-washing.  Caution, caution caution.

My little kindle is dying.  The battery is virtually dead and goes from a full charge to empty in seconds.  Works while plugged in, but reboots itself often.  It’s the one after the keyboard one.  Still has the side page turners. Why did they ditch those for that horrid touch screen?  Why, Amazon, why?  My keyboard Kindle, which is my oldest, is losing ground fast, too.  I am not using it now.  It’s my most favorite one.  I have a second one, but it is not in great shape either.  I think I bought it used, just because I was desperate for a backup keyboard Kindle.  They are easy to hold and use.  Oh, well, nobody cares what works for me, just what is the newest, shiniest thing they can come up with, regardless of how much a pain it is to use.  Complaining already, Jean.  For shame.  It’s too early for this.  This is my first Kindle.  I love it to bits. I bought it September 23, 2011, and it has had many, many, many hours of use.
I accidentally discovered yesterday that my new laptop IS backlit, you just have to hit F5 to turn it on.  It’s cheery, having a backlit keyboard. Cheery is good.  Speaking of which, here is something I posted as a comment a while back, and I think it applies to right now.

“I’ve found that the older I get, the more I realize how little all the crap really matters. Things come, things go, political situations included. I’ve lived through times of war, threats of nuclear annihilation, riots, progress, regression of progress, my country turning into idiots (still in the midst of that one, actually.) I’ve figured out, for myself at least, that the purpose of life is to live. To get as much enjoyment out of every moment that you can. Look at the sky, notice the clouds, the color in the trees as the sap rises, the new leaves, feel the breeze, enjoy the comfortable sofa, savor that cup of tea. In other words, be aware, every moment. Don’t live in the past, don’t live in the future. Now is all there is. Do as much good as you can, in however small a way that is available to you. Stick a dollar in that can on the counter, smile at people, be polite. These things matter. Let go of the things you have no control over and focus on those that you do. Make someone else’s life better by being kind, listening, helping when possible. These things help me, especially when it looks like the world is just going to hell. I believe every generation has thought that the world was going to hell, and we’re still here. Enjoy your life. It has a tendency to end at some point, and you don’t want to miss any of the good stuff along the way.”

What do you think, dear readers? (You are out there, right?)  How are you coping with the mess this planet is in?  We humans have done/are doing a really poor job of keeping it habitable for ourselves and the other species, who are no less important than we are, in spite of what your religion might teach you.  It is home to ALL of us, and none of us have the right to ruin it for the rest of us.  But we do. We are.  We have let greed become our only reason for being.  So many people trying to do the right thing, but so many more not caring at all if it’s right or not, so long as it’s profitable.  We are such a disappointment. If there IS a god, I wonder if he’s doing a serious rethink about us.

I used to think that there would come a point when enough of us would get a clue, you know, what they call a ‘tipping point’ and things would change.  Not looking good for that, is it?  The cretins have crawled out from under their rocks and are doing their best the screw things up for everybody.  Objectively speaking, the planet would be so much better off if we just wiped ourselves out of existence, but then we wouldn’t be here to see how great it could be. Technically, we are parasites.  Did you know that?  The earth is an interconnected ecosystem.   This depends upon that depends upon something else.  But nothing in the ecosystem is dependent upon us for survival, we just take and take and use the resources up and destroy the environment, and kill off other species willfully, but we contribute nothing to the survival or well-being of the other species or the planet as a whole.  Or even to the survival of ourselves.  You think I’m wrong?  Just look around you.  See what we are doing/have done.  Virtually everything is destructive, not constructive.  Not helping, but destroying.  It can be very depressing, but you have to hang on to hope, I think, or what’s the point of it all?  Better life in some afterlife?  Seriously?  This is where we are, when we are, and if we do not behave responsibly and do the right thing in every instance, if there is an afterlife, we will not be going to the good place.  Not.

“Recognizing that someone may have had it harder than you doesn’t mean you haven’t had it hard.”

Found here:  https://spacefem.livejournal.com/

Please.

I know, I know, it’s only morning and I should not be watching youtube. But while looking for a particular song, I came across this,  and watching it got me thinking. I have not been outside since March 11th. Yeah. I know. Watching this, my first thought, after ‘It’s not funny, but if you don’t laugh, how can you cope?’, was, I don’t want to go outside. I don’t want to be in a world where white people are like this. I am a white people, and I am disgusted, ashamed, horrified, you name it. I can never look at cops the same, and I can definitely never look at my neighbors in the same way, because how can I know any one of them might be like these people, a hotbed of hate and racism and just plain evilness. The worst part of the orange man’s reign has been realizing how little things have changed in this country. These people weren’t enlightened, they were hiding under their rocks with the slime and the bugs until the orange man came along and said, ‘Hate is good, indulge yourselves, please’. This is the man that made fun of disabled people, encouraged his supporters to beat up people who didn’t agree with them/him, and gave a Nazi salute that people just seemed to be okay with. During the campaign. What he’s done since has been so much worse. And many, many people just love it.  Disillusioned does not begin to describe how I feel about my fellow citizens. Great way to start the day, Jean. Really great. Here’s the video:

White People Calling the Cops

This was on YouTube.

Are they deliberately trying to kill off their own supporters? I know they have badly lost the plot, but this seems a bit much, even for Republicans.

This site asks for a donation, but just get past that.

Asking the United Nations to Investigate

If you read this blog, you may already know how much I love rainy days.  Earlier, I could smell the rain, too, which doesn’t happen a lot anymore.

Having a pretty good day, still messing about with my new HP laptop.  I wasn’t really always sure if the problem was my router, Firefox, or my laptop.  It was the laptop.  The refurbished Dell they sent me instead of the brand new one I had sent in for repair, because it had a problem.  Customer service was horrid, and they did not care at all that I was a very unhappy customer. I will never buy another Dell.  The damn refurbished one never worked right, was so unbelievably slow most of the time, and just took all the fun out of being online, or trying to do anything productive on it.  The new one is lightning fast, it’s more comfortable to type on, and over all I am so very pleased with it.  Of course, I’ve only had it two days, so time will tell, but right now, it’s all good.  The only thing I miss is the backlit keyboard. Completely unnecessary, but pretty and always cheered me up.  Yes, I am strange.  Get over it.  LOL

Did I mention it’s a rainy day?  Woo Hoo.  Soft, soft rain, gently falling from the sky.  A couple of days ago we had a sudden, and I mean sudden downpour that lasted awhile and then the sun came out.  It was glorious.

I have no idea what this is, but it’s funny. 

To me, anyway.  I often think I have come to terms with dying.  If I have a heart attack, or something else probably fatal, I’m okay with not calling the ambulance and having someone attempt to save me.  I seriously think I’d rather just go than have to deal with all the horrors of healthcare, and there are some serious horrors there.

So I’m thinking, my friend suggested maybe it’s safe enough to go for a ride in the car with her, if we’re careful.  Are you crazy?  I think to myself.  Today, it is yet another gloriously beautiful summer day, so I’m thinking what the hey, why not?  Whoa, Jean.  Are YOU crazy?  Fear of contagion is real.

You know why?  I was sick in December, I may have mentioned this ten zillion times.  I was almost totally incapacitated, could barely breathe for  weeks.  I tried everything. Allergy pills, my asthma inhaler, which I rarely need, Mucinex that my homemaker bought for me, steam, everything I could think of.  I extremely slowly started to get better, and when I was well enough at the end of December, saw my doctor, who had me x-rayed for pneumonia.  Nope. Also gave me a very strong antibiotic in case it was pneumonia.  Then I started to get better.  It was a full three months later, around the end of March or sometime in April, that I finally felt like I had regained most of the strength I had lost.  I was extremely weak for a couple of months, and only gradually regained that strength. So I am really not willing to risk going through that again.  It was a really awful experience, and I am not one who had to be put on a respirator and had horrific after effects.  Not saying I had the virus, but whatever it was, I think I was lucky I came out of it intact.  Relatively speaking.

So maybe not as okay with dying as I thought.  It’s probably a good thing.

Not just the virus deaths, but the suicides.  That many people in despair.  How sad is this world?

Virus Vizualization

Image from urbannight.wordpress.com

“Created from one essence, people are members of a single body. Should one member suffer pain, the rest shall, too. You who feel no sorrow for the distress of others cannot be called a human being.” Sa’di, 13th-Century Persian poet.

Two days ago.  I said this.  Good grief.  The first one is from today.  How can you not get that this man is utterly and completely incompetent?  How can you not get that?

A post not motivated by anger.  It is kind of windy, a bit breezier than breezy.  So far, now that midsummer has past, it seems like most of the first half of summer has been incredibly great weather.  I have not had the a/c on at all, only felt actually hot and sticky a brief time this morning, and then that went away, and that was the only time this entire summer.  I have had the a/c on in May some years.  I have had it on for days and days in a row some years.  Yesterday was gray, but beautiful and comfortable, and most days have been sunny and clear or with white puffy clouds.  Mother Nature is favoring my area, and I am so pleased with her. My friend Tess says I am having a great summer because I live in the highlands (second floor).  Her house is all first floor, or ground floor if you are British.  🙂

And another thing.  I made a strawberry pie and strawberries in balsamic vinegar, a bit of sugar, and a lot of black pepper. Because it’s JUNE.  Strawberry month.  Woo Hoo!!!!!!

So much nice to be happy instead of angry.  And so far today I have avoided Verizon hell, but will have to step back in tomorrow and call them before they shut me down for non-payment of a bill I have paid four, count them, four times and they have not accepted one of them.  Not angry today.  Not angry today. Not angry today.  But tomorrow…….

While looking for something to illustrate this post, I came across this.

Verizon Sponsors Hell

Are we?
Lives Being Threatened

What does this say about us as a people? Threatening the lives of people who are doing their job of trying to keep us safe? It tells me that our minds have atrophied and are clearly not working. We worship the orange man, whose grasp on reality seems fragile, at best, and those that are in his inner circle are benefiting from this at our expense, and we just seem to love it. We let ourselves be brainwashed by Fox News, and if you think that is not what is happening, you need to do your research. We have lost any shred of common sense we may have had, and have chosen instead to live in a fake reality. It’s not the news that’s fake (excepting always Fox News, who just make things up as they go along), it’s the reality people seem to think we are living in. The one where Trump is the second coming, and there is no virus, and everything is happy happy joy joy all day in every way. We are a disgrace.

Celebrate freedom.  Info about it here:

What’s It About?

Yeah, like, you slaves were freed two years ago, and we kind of forgot to tell you about it. Sorry about that.

Today’s Friday Five is about State or Country Fairs.
1. When was the last time you went to a state or county fair?
Probably more than 25 years, before I was divorced.
2. Did you try your hand at the midway games?
Did not.
3. Which of the rides were your favorite, either now or as a kid?
I loved the whirl-a-gig, where you sat in a cup and the cup spun and the whole shemogle spun as well. I could ride that all day. And the Bumper Cars. I loved the Bumper Cars. Crashing is fun.
4. Did you ever enter anything into the exhibits? How did you do?
Nope. Just a visitor.
5. What is your best memory that you take from a fair?
Lots of memories. At the Colorado State Fair, my favorite was the cow barn, mainly because it contained a dairy with ice cream made right there. Hey, I was a little kid. LOL And the rodeo. The rodeo was spectacular, with clowns and bucking horses and roping contests and it was fantastic. If I couldn’t be Chuck Yeager, I wanted to be a cowboy. In New Hampshire, my husband and I used to go the the Hopkinton Fair every year. Great fun. Gorgeous, gorgeous chickens, and horse pulls. I was insanely addicted to the horse pull. Pill a zillion pounds of something on a sledge and get your horse/horses to pull it a certain distance. Much more exciting than it sounds. Much more. I miss those days sometimes. It was a great fair, not too big or crowded and lots of fun things to see.

So that’s the Friday Five, and Juneteenth. Not so angry lately, so that’s a good thing, but still not happy with my country and a good portion of the people in it. We are meant to be better than this, America.

Look at these beautiful, beautiful horses.

Miss G, that is.  Second Gertrude.  Dumpling.  One year old.  Here she is last September, soon after she moved in.And here she is today, her first birthday.  Cat has grown!  Woo Hoo!

She has really made my life better, and I would not be doing as well in isolation without her.  Too bad she wouldn’t stretch out to get a picture like the first one, but mind of her own has this cat.  🙂