Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here.
The temperatures are steaming throughout most country. It’s Fourth of July on Wednesday. What better excuse do we have to grill and keep meals simple and cool.
All the best components of a classic summer clambake—potatoes, shrimp, corn on the cob—get an extra layer of flavor when grilled and brushed with gingery miso butter in this festive, large-format feast.
This summer-season chicken salad is a dance between sweet, creamy, and acidic flavors and tender, crunchy, and juicy ingredients. Make it in early summer when apricots are peaking and choose a fairly nonassertive blue cheese that won’t overwhelm the mix.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Adolf Hitler purges rivals in Nazi Germany; America’s food and drug safety take a big step forward; ‘Gone With the Wind’ published; Tonya Harding banned from figure skating; Singer Lena Horne born.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
The U.S. Supreme Court effectively voids state death penalty laws; Jerusalem reunified under Israeli control after the Six-Day War; Singer Rosemary Clooney and actress Katharine Hepburn die.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.
Rep. Joseph Crowley did not hide his ambition to be House speaker some day. Now, after his stunning primary loss Tuesday, the next generation of Democratic leaders is a blank slate.
The congressman from Queens set out on a mission over the past year to put himself in place to one day, whenever Democrats won back the majority, grab the gavel and run the House.
“I find myself possibly in the position of — where what I’ve attained so far in terms of leadership — that may happen in the future. It may not,” Crowley told The Washington Post last fall while campaigning for several Democrats around Las Vegas.
On Tuesday, that dream came crashing down, with Crowley becoming the latest in an entire generation of Democratic emerging leaders to fail in their quest to seize the mantle from the 70-something trio of liberals atop the House caucus for more than a decade.
Crowley’s crushing defeat came at the hands of an underfunded challenger on his ideological flank in a party primary. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, is a former Bernie Sanders campaign organizer who called for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency amid the public outcry over President Trump’s migrant separation policy.
…
Crowley, 56, despite being in his 20th year in office, was considered a relative newcomer to Democratic leadership circles because the other three have been at the top since early last decade, longer than most House Democrats have even served in Congress.
There’s Nancy Pelosi, 78, the California Democrat who has served four years as speaker and is in her 12th year as minority leader; Steny H. Hoyer, 79, the Maryland Democrat who is in his 16th year serving as Pelosi’s top deputy; and James E. Clyburn, 77, the South Carolina Democrat who has been the No. 3 leader for a dozen years.
With a pivotal midterm election just months away, a growing number of Democratic candidates had been trying to escape the question of whether they support Pelosi as the next House speaker — by instead calling for an entire generational housecleaning of top leaders.
…
The loss signals the rise of a restive liberal base willing to knock off establishment Democrats, but it also leaves a void in terms of who is next in line for whenever the top three finally move aside.
One younger Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal caucus politics, noted that upon his arrival several years ago, he was told to watch four players: then-Reps. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), Xavier Becerra (Calif.) and Crowley.
“Now all are gone,” the Democrat said Tuesday night.
Van Hollen is a senator, Israel retired, Becerra returned to California to serve as attorney general, and Crowley lost Tuesday. Other members of past House leadership included Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is now a senator, and Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who went on to become White House chief of staff and is in his second term as mayor of Chicago.
Those other Democrats were Crowley’s peers, essentially elected in the late 1990s and early last decade, but they got on the leadership train at an earlier station than Crowley. One by one, the others decided that it wasn’t worth trying to wait out Pelosi or Hoyer, who have been rivals for decades within the caucus.
In recent years, Crowley rose to the No. 4 leadership post, chairman of the Democratic caucus, in charge of shaping the message and running caucus meetings. He had more visibility and, by dint of being more than 20 years younger this his leadership counterparts, seemed like a fresh face to House Democrats.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
An assassination in Europe sparks World War I; Elian Gonzalez and his father leave for Cuba; Boxer Mike Tyson disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear; Richard Rodgers and Mel Brooks born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Sometimes the greatest meals on vacations are the ones you find when Plan A falls through.
It’s actually much simpler than you would think, China being very thinned skinned about criticism of its leaders and policies. The host of HBO’s “Last week Tonight” John Oliver did it in twenty minutes. How exactly did he achieve that, you ask? Simple, he compared China’s President Xi Jinping to that honey loving cartoon bear Winnie the Pooh. Actually, it was little more complicated that that. From Karl Bode at Techdirt:
The cause of China’s efforts to remove Oliver from the internet? This recent twenty minute segment took a semi-deep dive into China’s political leadership, noting their abolition of term limits, ongoing censorhip, the routine murder and/or imprisonment of political dissidents, the country’s rather terrifying implementation of “citizen scores,” and oh — the fact that some people think that Chinese President Xi has a semi-decent resemblance to a rotund, honey-adoring cartoon. [..]
Of course the censorship only proves Oliver’s point: that the country remains entirely intolerant to free speech, Xi has arguably thin skin, and the Chinese leader does, in fact, strike a fleeting resemblance to a certain pantless bear with self-esteem issues and an eating disorder
A long, long time ago back during the early years of the George W. Bush administration just before the invasion of Iraq, the lead vocalist, Natalie Maines, of a female country/rock group from Texas, Dixie Chicks, made a statement opposing the invasion. Ms Maines told an audience in London, England, “We don’t want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States (George W. Bush) is from Texas.” The backlash in the US resulted in the group being blacklisted for the remainder of the Bush regime. As popularity of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq waned, they began a come back in 2007 with the Grammy winning song “Not Ready To Make Nice.” There was a growing number of us on the left who were madder than hell and, definitely, not ready to make nice.
Flash forward to November of 2016 and the election of Donald Trump, the racist, xenophobic, sex abuser, alleged billionaire real estate magnate from New York City and his gang of grifter, criminals who are occupying the executive branch of the US government. Since Trump announce candidacy, he has become the nation’s chief bully and bigot. he has called for his minions to physically attack his dissenters, praised despot dictators, white nationalist and religious bigots, insulted war heroes, veterans, the disabled, Mexicans, Muslims, survivors of mass shootings in schools, the free press, immigrants fleeing terror, Muslims, snatched infants and children from their parents who are seeking asylum here in the US. Not to mention his assault on the rule of law and the facts. The man is a malignant narcissistic liar who would have been impeached of he were a Democrat.
His minions get in the face of brown people in public places and shout all manner of vile insults. They call the police on blacks walking with their kids and barbecuing in the park, entering their homes or just waiting for friends in a coffee shop. The heads of departments and the press secretary lie to the press and the public daily. The press secretary, Sarah Sanders regularly insults the press and makes snide, nasty remarks about individual reporters all while spewing the latest litany of lies and gets really nasty when called out on her prevaricating.
When the left strikes back, we get told by the Democratic leadership to be civil. Why? They aren’t. It’s divisive and they will use it against us in the November mid-terms, we are told. Seriously? Divisive?? This country is already divided. It has been for a long time. Now, it’s just more obvious than ever and the left “going high, when they go low” has been as effective as spitting on a forest fire. It is long past time that the right wing extremists where taken to woodshed and shamed for their behavior.
I give credit to the people who jeered Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi out of a movie theater a day after she announced her plan to end protections for health care consumers with pre-existing conditions. I praise the owner and staff of the Virginia Red Hen for telling Sarah Sanders and her entourage that they were not welcome and to please leave. I stand with the protesters who chanted Department of Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen out of a DC Mexican restaurant after defending the Trump policy of “zero tolerance” for migrants seeking asylum and snatching and then losing their children. They did the same to Trump white nationalist adviser Stephen Miller a couple of days before. My hat is off to the folks gathering outside his apartment house and Nielsen’s home with wanted posters and blasting the audio of terrified migrant children crying for their parents. I stand and salute Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) calling on citizens to publicly shame Trump staffers telling them they are not welcome in civil society.
As Betty Cracker at Balloon Juiceso rightly said to the “Tone Police”:
(T)he “Fuck Your Feelings” crew — who support a racist, sexist, xenophobic demagogue because they’re tired of “political correctness” — melt like extra-dainty snowflakes the minute they get a taste of their own medicine.
But non-wingnuts are aghast at the incivility of denying Sarah Huckabee Sanders a pan-seared pork chop too. [..]
These smoking hot takes fail to take into account a few relevant factors. First, when our country is caging babies and toddlers, we’ve moved beyond the realm of political discussion. I’ve had this argument with my Trumpster relatives, who profess to be stunned by my refusal to “agree to disagree.” This isn’t Democrat vs. Republican anymore; it’s good vs. evil.
Second, what recourse do we have? An erratic, lying demagogue is remaking the country in his vile image, and the institutions that exist to check presidential behavior like rampant thievery, failure to protect democracy and open subversion of the rule of law have instead rolled over and piddled on their own bellies. So what the fuck else are we supposed to do?
And that brings me to the third thing the Tone Police are missing here: They’d best hope the reaction to Trump and his minions’ outrageous behavior remains as tame as denial of entrees and feature films. That’s actually a fairly mild response to an administration declaring itself above the law, crapping on the US Constitution and interning children.
Anyone who’s ever been a clinic escort, public gun control advocate, canvasser for Democratic candidates, identifiable as a liberal woman or minority online, etc., already knows what it’s like when wingnuts “find their own special moment.” I’ve lived in their “special moment” for all of my adult life and have been admonished to “respect their feelings” for decades.
Fuck their feelings, and fuck the tone police. If we don’t stand up to oppose an administration this destructive, we don’t deserve a democracy.
As for all those folks who are calling for the left to remain civil, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, et al, do they remember 2009 when the Tea Party boisterously disrupted Democratic town halls and rallies, when they followed Democratic candidates with bull horns to their homes and children’s schools? Some of us have better memories.
In a twitter thread, Liberal commentator Amanda Marcotte said that the civility debate reminded her of the dynamics of abuse:
The reason scolds attack liberals for things like asking SHS to leave a restaurant, while sliding the far more egregious daily civility fouls committed by Trumpies is they assume liberals are amenable to these arguments, whereas Trumpies will sneer “snowflake” and keep at it. [..]
This is very much parallel to the way that abusive couples are treated by friends, family, and society at large: The abuser is treated like a force of nature, not a choice-making person, and the victim’s behavior is the only one that gets examined and policed. [..]
But the effect of this, of course, is that the abuser realizes he is, for all intents and purposes, allowed to beat a woman and he will not be blamed. She will. So that creates permission for his abuse, whereas she is scolded for every move she makes, even in self-defense. [..]
Same thing with Trumpies vs. liberals in this civility debate. Trump, SHS, etc. realize that functionally, they can do whatever they want, treat people however they want, and they will not be held accountable. But any self-defense moves from liberals will be policed and scolded. [..]
Anyone who actually cares about civility, like anyone who actually cares about abuse, needs to stop victim-blaming and instead start treating abusers like choice-making people who are far more in need of being held accountable than their victims are.
We are tired of being abused and we are striking back. We are even madder than we were during the Bush crime regime and we are certainly not ready to make nice with these abusers of our democracy. Now get thee to the voting booths and throw this scum out. We’ve already paid the price.
The court order specifically requires federal officials to stop detaining parents apart from their minor children, absent a determination the parent is unfit or the parent declines reunification; reunify all parents with their minor children who are under the age of 5 within 14 days and reunify all parents with their minor children age 5 and older within 30 days.
The order also mandates that officials provide parents contact with their children by phone within 10 days, if the parent is not already in contact with his or her child.
“Plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits, irreparable harm, and that the balance of equities and the public interest weigh in their favor, thus warranting issuance of a preliminary injunction,” US District Court Judge Dana Sabraw wrote Tuesday. [..]
“This Order does not implicate the Government’s discretionary authority to enforce immigration or other criminal laws, including its decisions to release or detain class members. Rather, the Order addresses only the circumstances under which the Government may separate class members from their children, as well as the reunification of class members who are returned to immigration custody upon completion of any criminal proceedings,” Sabraw explained. [..]
Sabraw’s order also referred to the family separations at the border — brought on by a Trump administration decision to refer all people caught crossing the border illegally for criminal prosecution — as reaching “a crisis level.”
“The news media is saturated with stories of immigrant families being separated at the border. People are protesting. Elected officials are weighing in. Congress is threatening action. Seventeen states have now filed a complaint against the Federal Government challenging the family separation practice,” Sabraw wrote. [..]
“The practice of separating these families was implemented without any effective system or procedure for (1) tracking the children after they were separated from their parents, (2) enabling communication between the parents and their children after separation, and (3) reuniting the parents and children after the parents are returned to immigration custody following completion of their criminal sentence. This is a startling reality,” the judge wrote.
“The government readily keeps track of personal property of detainees in criminal and immigration proceedings. Money, important documents, and automobiles, to name a few, are routinely catalogued, stored, tracked and produced upon a detainees’ release, at all levels—state and federal, citizen and alien. Yet, the government has no system in place to keep track of, provide effective communication with, and promptly produce alien children. The unfortunate reality is that under the present system migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property. Certainly, that cannot satisfy the requirements of due process.”
“The facts set forth before the Court portray reactive governance — responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making. They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution,” Sabraw added.
In a filing with the U.S. District Court in San Diego, the Department of Justice said a preliminary injunction sought by the American Civil Liberties Union would be improper because it would require releasing parents subject to mandatory detention, and illegally releasing some children from custody.
It also said imposing the “arbitrary” deadlines sought by the ACLU would likely “cause confusion” rather than speed up family reunifications.
The Trump crime regime has done enough damage to these children and they should just stop digging themselves an even deeper hole that they’ve already dug. Hopefully, the left will fill the hole in November with them still in it.
Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
