Tag Archives: Thomas Jefferson

Just another rant…

In 2015, I posted an article by George Heymont “You can’t Fix Stupid” from 2012, and sadly it is still relevant. We have those leaning right in several industries, some voted into office on the local and state level, others have seats in Congress who continue carpetbagging, voting against their own constituents, clearly acting out, doing the best they can to make sure certain types of people never get close to the highest office lest we talk about how our first opportunity for a Woman at the helm in 2016 if folks had turned out.

It’s now 2021 and the stupid continues to spread.

The thing that keeps coming to my mind is what the character of “Forrest Gump,” says, “stupid is as stupid does.” The fact is, voters, have gotten a box of chocolates like the character “Forrest Gump,” says, “We never know what we are going to get” which is not the way a POTUS or a democratic republic should reign. When Republicans are in charge of Congress they get on the airwaves and say whatever their base wants to hear, and then get on the floor of Congress to pass legislation with nasty riders that ultimately hurt our fellow Americans.

My question continues; when will voters decide that while there is nothing wrong with disagreeing, debating, and setting up a schedule for voting last-minute bills; trying to pass legislation knowing it will hurt your constituents is unacceptable. When Congress is led by republicans, the extreme right in both Chambers seems to believe that most if not all legislation should be designed for the rich and not for the good of all Americans who also vote. I find it offensive to think Congress cannot seem to find a fair conclusion that allows Americans an opportunity to prosper instead of pushing and voting for that trickle-down financial system, which no longer works (never worked). We cannot forget what happened during the Bush years and why! That the folks in Congress at the time failed American voters while Banks, folks like AIG, hedge funders decided that best business practices or acting in a good faith effort.

If you’re listening honestly, voters who sat on the sidelines helped guarantee that the old republican attitude or southern strategy is not only close at hand, alive and well but still very active with the new governmental trifecta in charge … this is stupid!

~ Nativegrl77

… just another rant

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Who’s Your Boss? Maybe Not Who You Think ~~ repost and in memory of NRBG

09/19/2020 Nativegrl77

The Supreme Court has gotten it wrong again, and it’s up to us to get Congress to fix their mistake.

In fact, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has specifically asked us to!

In a 5-4 ruling last year, the court created an artificial distinction between types of workplace “supervisors.” This decision creates an extra hurdle for workers suing their employers for workplace harassment, unequal pay, and other forms of discrimination.

Here’s the problem: The court’s ruling doesn’t mesh with the realities of the modern workplace!

Millions of workers are overseen by other employees who don’t have the authority to hire or fire them, yet still shape their day-to-day work experience through actions such as making their schedule, giving them time off, or assigning them projects and tasks. This wrong-headed decision virtually gives a green light to sexual harassment as long as it doesn’t come from “the boss.” Under the 2013 ruling, known as Vance v. Ball State University, this “overseeing” type of employee is now classified as a co-worker, meaning that any harassment from them is subject to a lesser standard – despite the obvious fact that they have power over other workers. This problematic decision is of particular concern to women – a national poll found that 25 percent of women have experienced workplace sexual harassment, as have one in 10 men.

Tell Congress: We need laws that reflect what it’s like to work in the real world.

We need the Fair Employment Protection Act, which would restore longstanding workplace protections the Vance ruling took away. We must return to a reasonable definition that reflects the modern workplace.

Think about your own experiences at work. You knew who set your schedule and gave you assignments, but did you know who could make the decision to fire you? Was it your direct boss? Was it the HR manager? Was it the company president that you met only once? Under the court’s standard, if your boss doesn’t have the power to fire you, he/she isn’t considered your “supervisor.” And that’s just silly. The Fair Employment Protection Act was just introduced today, so it’s time to make your voice heard:

Tell Congress to support the Fair Employment Protection Act to protect all workers from harassment.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Not On Our Watch – In Memory of NRBG

09/19/2020 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

The Best Responses To The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby Decision

It has been a week since five men sitting on the Supreme Court decided that bosses should have the right to be able to interfere with a woman’s access to affordable birth control. In the Hobby Lobby case, the majority ruled 5-4 that owners of for-profit, secular businesses who have religious objections to birth control may defy federal rules requiring that they include contraceptive care in their employees’ health plans because it violates the employer’s religious liberty rights.

The time since has seen reactions of all kinds from across the country. We’ve rounded up some of our favorites:

Federal Judge Blasts Hobby Lobby Decision: Supreme Court Should ‘STFU.’ Judge Richard George Kopf, a George H.W. Bush appointee to the federal bench who maintains his own personal blog, has some harsh words for the Supreme Court in the wake of their birth control decision in the closely watched Hobby Lobby case: “the Court is now causing more harm (division) to our democracy than good by deciding hot button cases that the Court has the power to avoid. As the kids says, it is time for the Court to stfu.”
Clergy Protest Supreme Court By Handing Out Condoms At Hobby Lobby. “I’m just hoping that [people who see the demonstration] realize that this opinion [of Hobby Lobby’s owners] is not the opinion of religious people as a broad spectrum, but that religious people have many different opinions,” said Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher, a Unitarian Universalist minister who was at the protest. Rev. Mark Winters, a United Church of Christ minister, added, “Jesus had a lot of issue with powerful people using power over the powerless.”
The Birth Control That Hobby Lobby Won’t Cover Is Leading To A Drop In Teen Births. Teen births in Colorado have dropped by 40 percent over the past five years, thanks largely in part to a state program that provides affordable contraception to low-income women, the state’s governor announced late last week. The long-lasting birth control that’s being partially credited for the dramatic decline is the same contraceptive method at the center of Hobby Lobby’s recent Supreme Court case.
Two Reasons It’s Too Soon To Panic Over The Supreme Court’s Latest Birth Control Order. An odd Supreme Court order, handed down just four days after the Court’s bombshell opinion in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby raises serious concerns that Hobby Lobby could be even worse for women seeking birth control that was originally apparent. Yet, while these concerns are very real — real enough that all three of the Court’s women joined a blistering dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticizing the Court’s order — it is too soon to conclude with certainty that the Court will follow Thursday’s order in a case known as Wheaton College v. Burwell with the expansion of Hobby Lobby Sotomayor warns about in her dissent. The Wheaton College order should unnerve anyone who believes that a woman’s reproductive health is none of her boss’s business. But it is also far from the Court’s final word on this matter.
Ginsburg Got It Right: Poor Women Are Getting Screwed By Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby objects to covering two types of emergency contraception and two forms of intrauterine devices (IUDs), incorrectly asserting that those birth control methods can cause abortions. And even though Hobby Lobby supporters argue that women can just pay for their own birth control, footing the full cost of these particular contraceptives is no small feat for women who are struggling to make ends meet. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out in her scathing dissent to the 5-4 decision, “the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month’s full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage.”

BOTTOM LINE: Religious liberty is the right to practice religion as you wish and the freedom to not have religion imposed on you by others, especially corporations. Despite the unfortunate ruling last week, supporters of women’s rights are already starting to fight back in creative ways.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

consumer.ftc.gov ~~~ summer

08/03/2020 Nativegrl77

Crooks use clever schemes to defraud millions of people every year. They often combine sophisticated technology with age-old tricks to get people to send money or give out personal information. They add new twists to old schemes and pressure people to make important decisions on the spot. One thing that never changes: they follow the headlines — and the money.

Stay a step ahead with the latest info and practical tips from the nation’s consumer protection agency. Browse FTC scam alerts by topic or by most recent.

Most Recent Scam Alerts

Is that work-at-home job going to pay?

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Memorial day … in memory of

05/25/2020 Nativegrl77

Most if not all memorial days are full of wonderful events and more often than not they all provide unforgettable programs!

In memory of …

my Brother, who served as a US Marine

And … an amazing repeat of a show done in 2006; about Pearl Fryar; a self- made man and Topiary Garden Artist in Bishop, SC;

his amazing gift for making shrubs into magnificent pieces of art was very moving and yes I cried; if you see the show on cable … it tells his story, the son of a share-cropper who listened to his dad and made something of himself… as Pearl says and while his neighbors, friends and some relatives wondered what was going on with this man so obsessed, so determined who truly loved but wanted to perfect his art, it became obvious that his gift…self-taught, was definitely centered from something deep and beyond. The viewer hears the history and witnesses the progress of his story …his idea of love, peace, and goodwill in a town with racial tension he not only brought people into a town that was suffering economically but some folks from the area who normally avoided each other crossed paths just to see his artistry.

pearlfryar.com

The Garden

Since the early 1980s, Pearl Fryar has created fantastic topiary at his garden in Bishopville, South Carolina. Living sculptures, Pearl’s topiary are astounding feats of artistry and horticulture. Many of the plants in Pearl’s garden were rescued from the compost pile at local nurseries. With Pearl’s patience and skilled hands, these “throwaways” have thrived and have been transformed into wonderful abstract shapes. Pearl Fryar and his garden are now internationally recognized and have been the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, television shows, and even a documentary, A Man Named Pearl. Today, the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden draws visitors from around the globe.

Visitors to the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden experience a place that is alternately beautiful, whimsical, educational, and inspiring. Pearl’s garden contains over 300 individual plants and few are spared from his skilled trimming. His extraordinary topiary is complemented by his “junk art” sculptures placed throughout the garden. Pearl’s garden is a living testament to one man’s firm belief in the results of positive thinking, hard work, and perseverance, and his dedication to spreading a message of “love, peace and goodwill.”

In 2006, the Garden Conservancy and the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, Inc. formed a partnership with Pearl Fryar. Through this partnership, they hope to preserve and maintain the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden and to further Pearl’s message of inspiration and hope.

Please consider donating to the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, Inc. to help ensure that Pearl’s garden is cared for and kept open to inspire future generations.

For more information about the Garden Conservancy and its mission to protect exceptional American gardens, please visit the Garden Conservancy website.

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The last one is a c-span(video 2010) story that we cannot continue to ignore, deny or shove under the rug, c-span interviews the author of a book about Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot; 2010

An update needs to be included as the Lacks family, after years of litigation did gain an agreement

NIH makes privacy agreement with Henrietta Lacks’ family http://usat.ly/1esA2JK via @usatoday ~ 2013

Henrietta’s story starts in 1920 her birth and ends sometime in the early fifties, this story seems only to be coming into the light of day and while i cried again while watching this, it is sad, might be unacceptable by some, even after several children, after years of reports, publicity and whatnot the Lacks family seems to be the only one who didn’t benefit from the story of this woman whose cells were used to create a cell line for medical research but got nothing in return. I first heard about the Lacks story in 2010 while in a coffee shop, then we all heard Oprah and some associates decided to make a movie…hopefully some of the revenue will be given to the family. It is a story that makes you gasp, gets you upset, mad and it will make you cry and wonder how the science community got away with not paying Henrietta Lacks and or her family for her contribution. If I understood the interviewer the Lacks family has recently gotten more PR about their Mother’s story but it’s unclear if anyone paid money for all the stories and or tv programs about her. It is a story that appears on the surface a story of unintentional theft of her cells then used by a scientist who did not tell her or her family even after it was evident that the cells were unusual, that they were used and what effect they would eventually have on science today.I understand that back then technology may not have been as advanced but it did advance and still if the reports are correct, the science community gave Henrietta nothing or her family. It happened in a time when minorities were treated very poorly and even if the reports state that standard procedure was this that and the other .. .the 70″s gave way to new ways to handle science technologies; it’s time to pay Henrietta Lacks and her family back.

Just some things to remember

… Happy Memorial Day

~ Nativegrl77