Open Thread - Friday, May 8, 2015

Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 7:00am

Life's treadmill is wearing me out.

Lately, the focus has been the task at hand. I have not really kept up with the news.

The horse race political campaign reporting is does not add value to the political discourse. The shallowness of the debate and binary treatment of the issues is a disservice to the public. We might as well have the candidates fill out questionnaires for match.com to see who gets to fuck us.

I have been developing an awareness of the challenges facing the disabled. I am sorry to say that I was not aware of the severe functional limitations imposed upon the handicapped until I had to consider wheelchair accessibility and toileting before going anywhere or doing anything.

CELEBRATING ACCESS TODAY: 25TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

Twenty-five years ago, our nation committed itself to the elimination of discrimination against people with disabilities—through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is proud to play a critical role in enforcing the ADA, working towards a future in which all the doors are open to equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, integration and economic self-sufficiency for persons with disabilities.

The education process started in our own home. Our home was not wheelchair accessible. We needed a ramp, several doors were too narrow and the bathroom transfers were impossible.

The ADA at 25: Unfinished business

Improvements wrought by the Americans with Disabilities Act are all around us — sidewalk ramps on street corners, buses with wheelchair lifts, Braille on elevator keypads and transit signage, audible traffic signals, accessible building entrances.

But 25 years after the ADA was signed into law, significant obstacles remain for people with disabilities — in employment, housing and everyday mobility.

I have always thought Rand Paul has a low wattage bulb in his lamp. At first I thought his ADA quote was simply idiotic. But that was unfair. Besides being a dullard, Rand Paul is also a sociopath.

Rand Paul Wants To Abolish The Americans With Disabilities Act, Citing Fairness ‘To The Business Owner’

U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul (R-KY), a darling of the tea party movement, has gained notoriety for his extreme views and close relationships with fringe leaders like Alex Jones. Part of Paul’s appeal has been his supposed support of individuals over large interests, like the government. But Paul appeared to reveal his true priorities during an interview with the candidate in Lexington over the weekend.

Handicapped accommodations have been added to my Civil Rights portfolio.

How's everybody doing? I have some appointments today, but will check in and try to catch up.

What's on you mind? Feel free to bitch and moan, I understand.

Tags: 
ADA
complain
handicapped
Rand Paul
idiot
wheelchair
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Submitted by dkmich on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 7:34am

I'm off. Late for a meeting. Have a great day. Sunny and 80+ in the D today.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 7:49am
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Go ahead and knock off early. You can tell them I said it is OK.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Submitted by OLinda on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 8:05am
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Rand Paul. Typical Republican non-empathy. Someday someone he likes will be in a wheel chair and he'll suddenly change his mind.

PS Tim, it is too early for that language. I think you are supposed to wait until after noon, like alcohol.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 8:32am

Glad you finally made it here, make yourself at home. Any questions just ask.

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Submitted by OLinda on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 8:50am
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Sorry it took me so long to arrive. Been looking around, reading some old threads. Nice place you have here.

And Happy Friday!

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Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 11:41am
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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 2:54pm
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here--don't be a stranger!

Wink

(Music City) Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by Big Al on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 8:54am
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Submitted by OLinda on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:23am
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Well, I tipped that but I don't know why. I can't decide if it's horrible or funny. It's one or the other I'm sure. It is not in the middle.

Good morning, Big Al. Wink

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Submitted by Big Al on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:30am
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It's horribly funny. But the message is good.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:15am

Top NSA Official Who Created the Global Digital Surveillance System: Fire the U.S. Intelligence Agencies … Hire Anonymous to Protect Us, Instead

William Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and supervised thousands of NSA employees.

Binney sent Washington’s Blog an article from Monday showing that a member of the cyber collective Anonymous tipped off Texas police to the imminent shootings by Muslim extremists.

Binney comments:

This is the objective of intelligence agencies that I worked in – predict intentions and capabilities in advance. I agree with my VIPS [i.e. Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity] associates, hire Anonymous and fire the bums we got including the intelligence committees and the FISC [U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court].

After all, when was the last time our “intelligence community” predicted anything like this in advance????

Binney and other top NSA whistleblowers have previously explained that the intelligence agencies should have stopped 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Paris shootings and other terrorist attacks.  But corruption prevented them from  stopping the attacks.

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity – a group composed of former high-level military and intelligence officials – recently called for independent intelligence analysis to keep our country safe.

And a related article, linked to in the piece above:

Texas police were warned about ISIS attack TWO DAYS days before deadly shootout by Anonymous activist

  • Woman living outside US found references to looming attack in Texas on Twitter and sent message to Garland Police Department 
  • No one noticed the tweet, and two days later Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi opened fire outside Muhammad art contest 
  • Simpson and Soofi were both killed by police, but not before they wounded unarmed guard

    • An activist linked to the international hackers' collective Anonymous tipped off police in Garland, Texas, about an eminent attack on an anti-Islam event two days before it happened - but the red flag went unnoticed.

    Police and the FBI say Elton Simpson, 30, and his roommate, 34-year-old Nadir Soofi, from Phoenix, Arizona, opened fire Sunday evening on an unarmed security guard outside a contest featuring cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

    The deliberately provocative contest had been expected to draw outrage from the Muslim community. According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad — even a respectful one — is considered blasphemous, and drawings similar to those featured at the Texas event have sparked violence around the world.

    Simpson and Soofi were wearing body armor, and one shot the guard in the leg. A police officer returned fire and struck both men, who eventually died as SWAT team members also started firing at them.

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    Submitted by Big Al on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:34am
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    About a report from the Council on Foreign Relations concerning China. They're advocating taking down China.
    The CFR. This is bad news for the people on this planet. It's something that must be stopped but it won't because it's
    between Bernie and HIllary now. I've drafted a diary about this, people should know about this report. It's like the PNAC
    report relative to what the ruling class wants to do.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/council-on-foreign-relations-grand-strategy...

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    Submitted by shaharazade on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 2:05pm
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    and military world domination. What is with the American powers that be's obsession with domination? China will kick their oligarchical butts. These people are mad. I hope Pluto's right and the rest of the world stops figures out how to reign these mad fuckers in. Why do so many American's think this is 'exceptional' and root for the demise of human's common good, democratic principles and the planet that sustains life? I just can't figure out how they rationalize consenting to let alone cheering on this fascistic, totalitarian, criminal insanity. The support of this shit by ordinatry people is way more scary then these want to rule the world assholes that throughout history proclaim they are inevitable.

    I wanna to rule the world, i wanna be the biggest boss that ever bossed the world around..... has been going though my head a lot lately. got to post it again. It should be Hillary's campaign music.

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    Submitted by lotlizard on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 4:26pm
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    They think that with "Full Spectrum Dominance" they can succeed where every other would-be ruler of the world failed.

    They've caught the "1000-year empire" bug and now the parasite is eating their hearts and brains from within.

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    Submitted by Big Al on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:37am
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    Is that what the mass media is saying and thus everyone believes? I am so far removed from day to day news that
    I haven't even read a single story about this incident, don't even hardly know what it was about nor do I want to know.
    I don't believe anything anymore anyway. (that's a mouthful - anything anymore anyway).
    So it's been confirmed that it was CIA ISIS?

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    Submitted by JtC on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:55am

    that struck me too. According the first article from washingtonsblog, William Binney sent the article to them from dailymail, so it's not just the MSM running with that line. Read the dailymail article, it does point the finger at ISIS, and washingtonsblog published this too, so there's that. But who really knows what's real today.

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    Submitted by Big Al on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:45am
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    This is hilarious. This diarist is calling Marcos a liberal. And Hillary supporters. That's just fucking stupid.
    The sheeple/lemmings have something to talk about to keep them from what really matters.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/08/1383281/-The-Liberal-Attacks-on...

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    Submitted by shaharazade on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 1:43pm
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    the diarist is saying Marco's and Hillary's crown me campaign are undermining the democratic wing of the party and alienating anybody who actually does support the populism? democracy? that Bernie is advocating. It is hilarious however to read the thread wherein the supporters of the party machine status quo are attacking the Bernie supporter's who are so deluded they think Bernie can actually change the direction and push the totally owned and corrupt D party left. What a waste of energy. I do feel sorry for those party loyalists who still believe in the possibility of hopey change. Too bad that we can't have a real challenger primary the inevitable one instead of a symbolic left flank useless push. I used to think it was possible for people to change politics from within the two party/one party system. After the last 8 years I realize that it is so rigged by both sides that all democratic means of representation have been blocked and all we're left with is a big kabuki show of electoral politics followed by the the ongoing bi-partisan destruction of democratic system and rule of law.

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    Submitted by mimi on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 9:46am
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    I started searching for uplifting quotes for you. Read a whole bunch and got sadder. What a bag of smart people. Always having some wise words for any moment that never fit.

    Hang in there. And Rand Paul is an asshole. Why those people always end up swimming on top and get the limelight is a phenomenon I can't understand.

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    Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 11:46am
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    The big pieces float to the top

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    The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

    Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 11:49am
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    Posting from a phone. Works just fine.

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    The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

    Submitted by joe shikspack on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 1:59pm
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    i realize now after reading your comments above that i did not include a plank in the nobodies platform to set a marker for helping folks who have disabilities of various sorts and need assistance to physically and otherwise engage a society that is designed to enable people of mainstream abilities.

    so, given that you're discovering things that need to change, if you had the opportunity to extend the ada or make some other sorts of governmental changes to enable folks, what would it look like?

    oh, and:

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    Submitted by shaharazade on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 2:15pm
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    that's the spirit. Don't let the bastards get you down is the only 'way forward' at this point.

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    Submitted by NCTim on Sat, 05/09/2015 - 9:03am
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    It seems to be more of a cultural problem.

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    The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

    Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 10:11pm
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    Toileting is high on the list. I have to accompany my wife. Even hospitals and doctors are marginally equipped. Handicapped toilets should have rails of both sides. The rails are hinged @ the wall to facilitate swinging them up/out of the way.

    Wider parking spaces.

    Transfers, seat to seat, seat to bed, in/out of car, etc... are the biggest challenge.

    Building code that requires wide enough doors and wheelchair turning radius.

    I live in a newer (2000) and comfortable middle class house. Only one bedroom door opened far enough to get a wheelchair through without interference. The problem is doors that open against a wall and do not clear a door frame. Offset hinges are a brilliant.

    I think a lot more residential construction should use zero threshold showers.

    I should outline my thoughts for a more complete answer.

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    The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

    Submitted by mimi on Sat, 05/09/2015 - 9:23am
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    in writing.

    I remember my niece (who died of cancer after battling with it for a goog thirty years) who needed a wheelchair in her last weeks or month. She lived in NY in one of the older buildings (like 13 or so stories). None of the restroom doors and most of the bedroom doors and the hallway itself as well, were wide enough to squeeze through or turn with the wheelchair. Transfers from seat to bed, seat to shower or bathtub, seat to car etc. are a real challenge. My niece was very thin in her last years and she was very lucky to have a strong partner to be her loving caretaker. They managed, but the restroom was a constant annoyance.

    I remember, when young, I worked as a hospital nurse aide in the cancer department of a huge hospital in Germany at night. One of the most difficult things to do is dealing with overweight patients in pain and transferring them from bed to stretcher, back and forth. Often we were four nurses and aides to handle that. One time we were so overworked and weak and a patient fell through our arms and glided to the floor. It was tremendously difficult to get her back up. I myself actually collapsed minutes later.

    So, one of the horror visions I have is taking care of heavy, obese patients, of which there are so many these days.

    Hang in there.

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