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Mira
Mira's Journal
Mira's Journal
March 2, 2017
It has just been announced that former President Barack Obama will be the recipient of the Centennial John F. Kennedy Profile of Courage Award. The award was established by the Kennedy family in 1989, but this year’s award is especially significant because it coincides with what would be JFK’s one-hundredth birthday.
The award is named after Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize winner Profiles of Courage. The book documents eight senators in American history who prioritized principle over politics. The Profile of Courage award is presented annually to a lawmaker who embodies the spirit of those legendary eight senators.
This year a bipartisan committee of fourteen jurors unanimously agreed that Obama is the most worthy candidate. In the past, each recipient has been awarded on the basis of a particular decision that they made. For the centennial, the board decided to do something different. Obama is not honored for any one action. Instead, his entire career is recognized as having defied political interests and prioritized America and its people over all else.
On May 7, JFK’s daughter and former ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, will present the prize to Obama in Boston. Obama will deliver a speech at the ceremony which is sure to be a beautiful tribute to the life and death of President Kennedy.
We agree with the committee that no one other than President Obama could fulfill the important role of accepting the centennial award in honor of the fallen President. Congratulations, President Obama. We supported your presidency from day one and we will continue to support your legacy.
http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/03/02/president-obama-just-received-incredible-award-trump-will-never-get/
President Obama Just Received This Incredible Award That Trump Will NEVER Get
It has just been announced that former President Barack Obama will be the recipient of the Centennial John F. Kennedy Profile of Courage Award. The award was established by the Kennedy family in 1989, but this year’s award is especially significant because it coincides with what would be JFK’s one-hundredth birthday.
The award is named after Kennedy’s 1957 Pulitzer Prize winner Profiles of Courage. The book documents eight senators in American history who prioritized principle over politics. The Profile of Courage award is presented annually to a lawmaker who embodies the spirit of those legendary eight senators.
This year a bipartisan committee of fourteen jurors unanimously agreed that Obama is the most worthy candidate. In the past, each recipient has been awarded on the basis of a particular decision that they made. For the centennial, the board decided to do something different. Obama is not honored for any one action. Instead, his entire career is recognized as having defied political interests and prioritized America and its people over all else.
On May 7, JFK’s daughter and former ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and her son, Jack Schlossberg, will present the prize to Obama in Boston. Obama will deliver a speech at the ceremony which is sure to be a beautiful tribute to the life and death of President Kennedy.
We agree with the committee that no one other than President Obama could fulfill the important role of accepting the centennial award in honor of the fallen President. Congratulations, President Obama. We supported your presidency from day one and we will continue to support your legacy.
http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/03/02/president-obama-just-received-incredible-award-trump-will-never-get/
March 2, 2017
How to remove a madman from the White House?
By HAL CROWTHER
It’s time to face this central fact, while facts still matter. The president of the United States is mentally ill, and not mildly ill either. He’s a hollow shell of diseased self-regard who’s been stuffed with alt-right ideology by some of the most loathsome opportunists in the political ecosystem — if you don’t recognize Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway as the kind of bottom-feeding creatures who breed in solid-waste lagoons, you really aren’t paying attention.
Some of us have been saying since 2015 that Donald Trump was better qualified for the madhouse than the White House. Post-inaugural events have advanced this argument beyond debate or objective denial. Thomas L. Friedman, the least excitable of anti-Trump columnists, warns us in this morning’s Times, “His lack of respect for institutions and truth pours out so fast, you start to forget how crazy this behavior is for any adult, let alone a president …” Note the word “crazy.” Carl Bernstein, whose reporting on Watergate helped to rid us of the last president whose mental health was precarious, can be heard on CNN declaring this a far worse case than Nixon’s paranoia, a genuine psychiatric crisis that has some of Bernstein’s best sources in the Republican Party sharing dark fears of chaos and breakdown. According to one of my best sources in Washington, the psychiatric department at Georgetown’s medical school is unanimous in its verdict that the president is not and has never been playing with a full deck.
Glenn Beck, of all people, calls him “dangerously unhinged.” Historians will argue about similar displays of instability by previous presidents. But Trump is our curse and our burden at this critical moment, as he and his eerie team of belligerent generals, reactionary billionaires and white nationalists dismantle a federal government that reflected, at times, the values and aspirations of progressive Americans. In order to replace it, apparently, with a banana-republic plutocracy that brings words like “oligarchy” and “junta” to mind, and wire-service photos of beribboned dictators with pencil-thin mustaches. This is not fanciful, or alarmist in the least. The overwhelming question facing us, of course, is “What the hell can we do?”
If I could tell you, in so many words, what to do with a legally elected mad president, I’d be the logical nominee for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Anyone who has attempted to commit a seriously deranged family member knows just how legally exhausting and emotionally wrenching it can be. A delicate business at best. Even Uncle Leo, who streaks high-school football games in a Speedo, has his rights, and his feelings. And Trump, an orange-crested lunatic who sits up there in the Lincoln Bedroom in his bathrobe tweeting hate mail at journalists and imaginary antagonists, is currently commander-in-chief of the most powerful military machine in the history of this sweet planet.
for the rest of this I send you to:
top of page: Inoperabe tumor
http://www.populist.com/23.05.crowther.html
Hal Crowther ----- I stop everything and start reading when he chimes in
An Inoperable TumorHow to remove a madman from the White House?
By HAL CROWTHER
It’s time to face this central fact, while facts still matter. The president of the United States is mentally ill, and not mildly ill either. He’s a hollow shell of diseased self-regard who’s been stuffed with alt-right ideology by some of the most loathsome opportunists in the political ecosystem — if you don’t recognize Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway as the kind of bottom-feeding creatures who breed in solid-waste lagoons, you really aren’t paying attention.
Some of us have been saying since 2015 that Donald Trump was better qualified for the madhouse than the White House. Post-inaugural events have advanced this argument beyond debate or objective denial. Thomas L. Friedman, the least excitable of anti-Trump columnists, warns us in this morning’s Times, “His lack of respect for institutions and truth pours out so fast, you start to forget how crazy this behavior is for any adult, let alone a president …” Note the word “crazy.” Carl Bernstein, whose reporting on Watergate helped to rid us of the last president whose mental health was precarious, can be heard on CNN declaring this a far worse case than Nixon’s paranoia, a genuine psychiatric crisis that has some of Bernstein’s best sources in the Republican Party sharing dark fears of chaos and breakdown. According to one of my best sources in Washington, the psychiatric department at Georgetown’s medical school is unanimous in its verdict that the president is not and has never been playing with a full deck.
Glenn Beck, of all people, calls him “dangerously unhinged.” Historians will argue about similar displays of instability by previous presidents. But Trump is our curse and our burden at this critical moment, as he and his eerie team of belligerent generals, reactionary billionaires and white nationalists dismantle a federal government that reflected, at times, the values and aspirations of progressive Americans. In order to replace it, apparently, with a banana-republic plutocracy that brings words like “oligarchy” and “junta” to mind, and wire-service photos of beribboned dictators with pencil-thin mustaches. This is not fanciful, or alarmist in the least. The overwhelming question facing us, of course, is “What the hell can we do?”
If I could tell you, in so many words, what to do with a legally elected mad president, I’d be the logical nominee for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Anyone who has attempted to commit a seriously deranged family member knows just how legally exhausting and emotionally wrenching it can be. A delicate business at best. Even Uncle Leo, who streaks high-school football games in a Speedo, has his rights, and his feelings. And Trump, an orange-crested lunatic who sits up there in the Lincoln Bedroom in his bathrobe tweeting hate mail at journalists and imaginary antagonists, is currently commander-in-chief of the most powerful military machine in the history of this sweet planet.
for the rest of this I send you to:
top of page: Inoperabe tumor
http://www.populist.com/23.05.crowther.html
February 28, 2017
I want to recommend a change in the pre-amble to the contest, where the host adds more clearly what the responsibilities of the winner are and have folks commit to them before they enter a submission.
Naturally family obligation or unforeseen happenings will intervene, but one can still find their own substitute, or ask someone to do the search for them.
On another note, while we maybe talk, how did you feel about folks having a chance to submit more than one photograph to help us have a contest when submissions are low?
I did not notice any resistance, or a change in the flow of the contest. Maybe we can keep the possibility open to continue it as the host may decide.
We are all in this wonderful group together. Can we talk?
I just finished running the February contest, and the winner cannot step up and do the March contest.
I want to talk about the fact that important reasons and problems aside, and understood, we have the rule that:
The winner of a contest solicits and asks for a substitute him or herself
and here is a list of folks willing to help compiled a long time ago, pinned at the top of our photo forum.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/103652806
What seems to be happening is that folks who run into problems with the "obligation" a win brings are then throwing the need for a solution into the midst of the group and bow out.
What then seems to be happening is that the same small handful of folks step up and solve their problem by volunteering. They do that in order to keep the contests going and for life in the photogroup to remain nice and smooth even thought the timing in their own lives may not be a lot better
What then seems to be happening is that the same small handful of folks step up and solve their problem by volunteering. They do that in order to keep the contests going and for life in the photogroup to remain nice and smooth even thought the timing in their own lives may not be a lot better
I want to recommend a change in the pre-amble to the contest, where the host adds more clearly what the responsibilities of the winner are and have folks commit to them before they enter a submission.
Naturally family obligation or unforeseen happenings will intervene, but one can still find their own substitute, or ask someone to do the search for them.
On another note, while we maybe talk, how did you feel about folks having a chance to submit more than one photograph to help us have a contest when submissions are low?
I did not notice any resistance, or a change in the flow of the contest. Maybe we can keep the possibility open to continue it as the host may decide.
February 25, 2017
*****Winners for February are posted*****
Congratulations to every single one of the entrants and the top three
Zoonart
Mz Pip
Mnhtnbb
take it away for March Zoonart.
This was fun, and a challenging theme.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028706074
February 25, 2017
for the beautifully haunting photo of
February Fog
Zooonart
THE SECOND PLACE IS WON BY Mz Pip
for the jaw dropping photo
Snowbound
THE THIRD PLACE IS OCCUPIED BY mnhtnbb
for the beauty and hilarity of
Trump Scrabble
THEY ARE FOLLOWED BY
White Out
hermetic
Fixer Upper
Atman
hibernating
Bayard
all of the finalists are my host's choices, because in their own ways I love every one of them. I thought the theme CABIN FEVER to be challenging, and was happy to see the diversity of the photographs.
Thanks to everyone for entering, and now let's toss the baton for the March contest to Zoonart.
CONGRATULATIONS all around.
*****Congratulations to the Winners***** February Photo Contest: CABIN FEVER
THE FIRST PLACE GOES TO ZOONARTfor the beautifully haunting photo of
February Fog
Zooonart
THE SECOND PLACE IS WON BY Mz Pip
for the jaw dropping photo
Snowbound
THE THIRD PLACE IS OCCUPIED BY mnhtnbb
for the beauty and hilarity of
Trump Scrabble
THEY ARE FOLLOWED BY
White Out
hermetic
Fixer Upper
Atman
hibernating
Bayard
all of the finalists are my host's choices, because in their own ways I love every one of them. I thought the theme CABIN FEVER to be challenging, and was happy to see the diversity of the photographs.
Thanks to everyone for entering, and now let's toss the baton for the March contest to Zoonart.
CONGRATULATIONS all around.
February 25, 2017
Explaining the pink hats to my Republican friend.
I have one Republican friend. For many reasons, and lots of good shared history, I love her so much it hurts, but honest to God any kind of talk about politics is an exercise in frustration with a low information, deep in the heart of Virginia raised woman who is no longer young.
We went to the movies this afternoon, and I have this sign in my yard.
She read it and said: Did you make it? I said yes, I had 50 of them made for the women’s march in Washington and they sold out in no time.
Quiet.
“What are those pink hats called?”
"They are called PUSSY HATS.”
“Oh yes, I heard that. Why are they called that?”
“Well, we have a President now who bragged about being able to just grab a woman’s pussy because he can get away with it. Being famous and all.”
"But what is it about the weird points on the left and right?”
“Oh, that’s to indicate the labia, the shape of the pussy.”
Quiet.
At our good byes I said: “See if you can straighten out Trump” and her answer was: “So much good could be happening, but first he has to stop lying.”
To me - that is progress.
February 25, 2017
as far as I'm concerned there are pearls in there to be found.
Real Time / Bill Maher's guests tonight
10 pm EST - HBORep. Darrel Issa, Sen. Angus King, Seth MacFarlane, Asra Nomani and Fran Lebowitz
as far as I'm concerned there are pearls in there to be found.
February 22, 2017
Good luck to the six finalists. We had a tie, so I added both photos instead of a run off vote.
February is short, and all the photos are great!
Please vote, and kick the thread. Thanks!
***** February Contest finals are up in GD*****
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028690238Good luck to the six finalists. We had a tie, so I added both photos instead of a run off vote.
February is short, and all the photos are great!
Please vote, and kick the thread. Thanks!
February 22, 2017
Instead of 5 as planned I’m running 6 photos, because we had a tie for one spot, so I’m putting both in the finals.
This will run in the GD section of DU - as allowed by Skinner - for 3 days
White Out
Trump Scrabble
February Fog
Hibernating
Fixer Upper
Snowbound
*****February Photography Contest*****Final Poll for CABIN FEVER Photographs
The subject of the photographs is “CABIN FEVER” and here are the final six photographs.Instead of 5 as planned I’m running 6 photos, because we had a tie for one spot, so I’m putting both in the finals.
Please vote for your favorite, and please kick and recommend the threads.
If you leave comments the photographers always enjoy them.
This will run in the GD section of DU - as allowed by Skinner - for 3 days
White Out
Trump Scrabble
February Fog
Hibernating
Fixer Upper
Snowbound
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Number of posts: 22,380
