Ted's Excellent Bromance With The Donald

Ted "I never miss an opportunity to make myself look foolish" Cruz fell all over himself praising The Donald for speaking the truth about those Messicans -- y'know being criminals and rapists and all that. (To be fair, The Donald did say he loves Messicans after he maligned the entire country and everyone living in it. That made his slander HO-kay.  Plus he didn't  mean just Mexico, he included all  Latin Americans who come over our borders.  And China!  So there's that.)  And isn't Donald's brazen audacity of dopiness exactly the quality certain people on the right (Hello New Hampshire Republicans!)  think is what we Americans want in the person who will represent us -- all of us-- on the world's stage. Donald tells it like it is:   He's cocky, he's bold in his relentless vilification of cultural groups, his hair is stylish, if dead animals on one's skull is your thing; he's been married three times and in bankruptcy four.  What a treasure trove for the TeaPublicans!  Lucky duckies!




Cruz:  "I like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific, I think he’s brash, I think he speaks the truth,  And I think NBC is engaging in political correctness that is silly and that is wrong.  He has a way of speaking that gets attention. And I credit him for focusing on an issue that needs to be focused on.”


You tell 'em Ted!


Donald's way of speaking certainly does get attention, but in this case it's not the sort of attention that a candidate for the presidency wants that will put him in "the zone."



From Addicting Information:


Trump seemed to be touched by Cruz’s defense, taking time of calling people “haters” and “losers” on Twitter to thank the senator. It was almost as if just a few months ago, Trump wasn’t trying to drum up support for the idea that Cruz himself is an ineligible alien. 

 “He’s got a hurdle that nobody else seems to have at this moment. It’s a hurdle and somebody could certainly look at it very seriously. He was born in Canada,” Trump said in an interview with myfoxny.com, adding that “you’re supposed to be born in this country.” 



So that's the news for today.  

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump:  A weasel defending a jackass.

How many times can a political party and its propaganda arm, Fox News, be so wrong...

and still be taken seriously by Americans?






 

Sunday Night Piñata Blogging

"Unos no hablan lo que piensan, y otros no piensan lo que hablan."

WEEK IN REVIEW

It is so ordered.

Excerpt from Justice Kennedy's ruling on marriage equality:


"This analysis compels the conclusion that same-sexcouples may exercise the right to marry. ...the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty. 

An individual can invoke a right to constitutional protection when he or she is harmed, even if the broader public disagrees and even if the legislature refuses to act. The idea of the Constitution “was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts.” West Virginia Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624, 638 (1943). This is why “fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.” 

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. 

The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered."

SCOTUS Decision: IT'S LEGAL NATIONWIDE!!!!!!

SAVED BY THE SCOTUS!

UPDATE BELOW


Supreme Court Rejects Obamacare Lawsuit, Preserving Insurance For Millions





 Supreme Court upholds Obamacare subsidies

Washington (CNN)

Obamacare has survived -- again. 

 In a major win for the Obama administration, the Supreme Court held in a 6-3 decision that the Affordable Care Act authorized federal tax credits for eligible Americans living not only in states with their own exchanges but also in the 34 states with federal exchanges. 

 Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for himself, Justice Anthony Kennedy and the four liberal justices. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the dissent, joined by Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.


From Politicususa: 


 "In a decision that crushed Republican hopes of using the judicial system to gut Obamacare, the Supreme Court ruled by a 6-3 margin that the subsidies are constitutional under the ACA. 

 This defeat means that the Republican efforts to gut Obamacare have come to a grinding halt. The King v. Burwell case was the GOP’s last chance to get a court ruling that would effectively gut the ACA. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy sided with the majority and wrote the opinion."

A huge victory! 

UPDATE:
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin:

What do the ruling and the reaction to it tell us about the Court -- particularly Chief Justice Roberts? 

Toobin: The case put Roberts on the spot with the Republicans who were his most ardent supporters and who opposed Obamacare. But I think it shows that Roberts was (a) a down-the-middle judge and (b) the case was a pretty easy one at the end of the day. Not a single member of Congress supported the plaintiff's interpretation of the law during the congressional debate over Obamacare; it's hard to imagine the court would have imposed that view after the fact.

 Why does a court with a conservative majority wind up disappointing conservatives as often as it has? 


Toobin: This remains a conservative court. Just recall the rulings undermining the Voting Rights Act and on Citizens United and all the other decisions deregulating American politics. But Roberts is an establishment conservative who is not interested in throwing millions of people off health care until the law genuinely compels it. 

As for same-sex rights, it's really just Anthony Kennedy's court -- he has joined with the liberals on gay rights issues for years, and he's responsible for that entire area of the law. Kennedy was also part of the majority that upheld subsidies--and he is also an establishment conservative.


 "This is President Barack Obama's major achievement and it is now here to stay. It's the biggest moment of his second term." --Jeffrey Toobin 


 And don't miss Capt. Fogg's "Do The Hokey Pokey" over at The Swash Zone.

So. Carolina Governor Nikki Haley: "It's time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds."

To loud cheers and whoops.

She did the right thing.

A Confederacy of Denial by Tom Tomorrow

Dylann Roof's Racist Manifesto

The Huffington Post reported today that Gawker credited twitter users @HenryKrinkle and @EMQuangel with uncovering the website, "The Last Rhodesian," allegedly created by Roof and which includes a passage about why the writer, identified as Roof, chose Charleston.

"Photos of Roof hosted on the website were taken this spring, according to metadata. The writer of the text says he was “not raised in a racist environment,” and that the shooting of Trayvon Martin led him to investigate what he called “black on white crime” through the webpage of local hate group Council of Conservative Citizens. “I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country,” the author writes. “We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”


The manifesto is HERE.



What you will read in this rambling, confused, paranoid pile of racist rot against African-Americans and Jews and others is not unlike a lot of what can be read daily on certain right wing blogs where anti-semitism and racial hatred is celebrated in images and words, encouraged by cowardly people who, by their silence and complicity, contribute to the hatred and discord that drives monsters like Roof to act out their demented ideas.



"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it." --MLK

The Confederate Flag

The Confederate flag still flies over the South Carolina state house, and, by law, cannot be lowered to half staff as all other flags have been after the massacre in Charleston.

The link below documents the explicit meaning of the flag of the Confederacy:   White Supremacy. 



The designer of the second national flag of the #Confederacy, explaining what it stood for.







TA-NEHISI COATES, The Atlantic:


"The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An entire people are poorer for his action. 

The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it: 

 Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth... This moral truth—“that the negro is not equal to the white man”—

is exactly what animated Dylann Roof. More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demanded—with human sacrifice."



 More thoughts and analyses on the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina: 


 HERE 

 and 

 HERE

Domestic Terrorism

UPDATE:

Suspect ID'd as Dylann Storm Roof

A survivor told police the killer said:  "You rape our women and you're taking over our country - and you have to go." 

Just the other day, didn't we hear Donald Trump, now a candidate for the U.S. presidency, say the same thing about Mexicans?  

"They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists." --Donald Trump



Interesting that this deranged murderer and a GOP presidential candidate use the same racist language to dehumanize a group of people. 

The paranoid claim that African-Americans are "taking over 'our' country" can be read on a certain Daddy blog.  Roof believed that claim enough to commit an unspeakable atrocity.  The Daddy blog supports the claim by leaving it, in all its supperating filth, for malignant minds to believe and approve.  

Trump and Roof:  What do they have in common?  Slandering entire groups of people.  Roof acted on his deranged thinking.  Trump wants to be POTUS.




Charleston Church Shooting: White Gunman Kills 9 At Historic Black Church






"6 women and 3 men were killed. None of the victims has yet been named by police, but State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told the Associated Press that the church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among the dead."


The killer who murdered 9 people is still at large.


"Police described the gunman as a white male, 21 to 25 years old, 5 foot 9 inches tall and a slender build. He's clean shaven with sandy blond hair that is shaped in a bowl cut, and was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland boots."






A scan of the usual extremist TeaPublican blogs shows no coverage of this massacre.  

Had the killer been identified as a Middle Eastern man, their howler monkeys would be hooting about jihadist Islam!  Muslims!  Sharia Law! on every one of their blogs.  

Today?  *crickets*

Oh the hypocrisy!  Oh the humanity!  Domestic terrorist kills worshipers in Bible study class?

Move along; nothing to see here.   

Donald Trump: Clown, Satirist, or Just Plain Yooge Loon?

UPDATE BELOW




Do you feel a little embarrassed when you watch Donald Trump? 
By Elspeth Reeve 


A little ashamed? I do. And I think that’s why so many critics, mostly haters and losers, argue that Donald Trump should be ignored, that he is a fake presidential candidate who cares about nothing but his own vanity, that there are fringe candidates with better credentials who can add more to our political discourse. That’s probably all true, but Trump still deserves to be showered with the attention he craves. Because Donald Trump is an artist. And his masterpiece is the way he brilliantly skewers the American political system and exposes just how easy it is to make your way through a presidential campaign on bullshit alone.

THIS IS YOOGE!

UPDATE 

 Great piece by Dana Milbank of the WaPo:


 Donald Trump’s festival of narcissism



HuffPost:

 Donald Trump Wins Title Of Most Disliked Republican Candidate


 Donald Trump Hired Paid Actors To Attend Presidential Launch Event[BIG Update 6/17/15, 7:30pm: 

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed my story and obtained documentation to that effect. 

 “I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again,” proclaimed Donald Trump in the lobby of Trump Tower. And with that, Trump ended his decades long flirtation with running for president by, according to him, officially entering the race to become the Republican party’s 2016 nominee. 

 Twitter widely mocked the meandering speech. Some conservatives heralded Trump’s announcement with great fanfare, others received the news with skepticism and derision. Pundits, prognosticators and journalists were mixed. In one analysis, Halperin noted Trump’s ability to draw crowds as an asset.



Trumps "ability to draw crowds" as long as he pays them to show up?  LOL!  What a dupe Halperin is.  Trump is as phony as the dead animal he wears on his head that passes as a toupee!  We LOVE THE DONALD!  He has turned the GOP field of candidates into comedy gold!  And here I thought John Bush! would be the funniest candidate!

David Lane: Christian Extremist

Who is David Lane?  And why does he matter?



In pursuit of conservative evangelical voters, GOP candidates embrace far-right political operative who is raising an ‘army’ to fulfill his ‘Christian nation’ vision 

 On Saturday, June 13, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will host a day-long, Christians-only prayer rally organized by political operative David Lane. Lane, who organized similar events for Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, is trying to recruit 1,000 conservative evangelical pastors to run for office, which he believes would mobilize hundreds of thousands of election volunteers and lead to conservative election victories in 2016.




David Lane promotes a vision of America as a nation founded by and for Christians; denounces court rulings upholding church-state separation; calls for Christianity to be established as America’s official religion with the Bible as a primary textbook in public schools; vehemently opposes legal equality for LGBT people; and demands the impeachment of judges who rule in favor of allowing same-sex couples to be legally married. Lane matters because these are not just the opinions of a far-right fringe figure. They are the explicit agenda of a political operative who is working closely with the highest leaders of the Republican Party. 

The explicit goal of Lane’s political organizing is to advance his particularly narrow and divisive vision of America. Republican politicians who embrace Lane in the hope of winging votes are playing with fire, giving credibility to his divisive worldview and troubling political agenda. 



 David Lane’s Worldview 

In Lane’s worldview, there are essentially no gray areas: America will either be a Christian nation or a pagan nation and there will be no peace until we decide which. Judges who uphold the right of same-sex couples to marry must be impeached. The Supreme Court’s rulings upholding the separation of church and state have imposed a destructive secularism on America and must be reversed. Secularism and homosexuality are twin evils from which America must be rescued. 

This quote gives a pretty good summary of Lane’s worldview: 

 Who will wage war for the Soul of America and trust the living God to deliver the pagan gods into our hands and restore America to her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a Christian culture?... As to the future of America – and the collapse of this once-Christian nation – Christians must not only be allowed to have opinions, but politically, Christians must be retrained to war for the Soul of America and quit believing the fabricated whopper of the ‘Separation of Church and State,” the lie repeated ad nauseum by the left and liberals to keep Christian America – the moral majority – from imposing moral government on pagan public schools, pagan higher learning, and pagan media…. Christian America is in ruins… 

 You ask, “What is our goal?” To wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage with all of our might and strength that God will give us. 

You ask, “what is our aim?” One word only: victory, in spite of all intimidation and terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory, America will ultimately collapse. 


Republican Party Loves Lane 

 While Lane often expresses his contempt for “establishment” Republicans who don’t embrace his radical vision for a Christian America in which the Bible is a primary textbook in public schools, GOP officials like party head Reince Priebus attend and promote his events. Priebus was scheduled to participate in Lane’s trip to Israel in January before controversy flared; he ended up not making the trip, saying he needed to attend a funeral. Indeed, Republican Party officials seem unconcerned with Lane’s extremism and are eager to make use of his network of conservative pastors. 

The invitation letter for the Israel junket came from Priebus himself; although he said it was not an RNC trip, committee members interested in participating were told to RSVP to the RNC’s Member Services department. Priebus praised David Lane by name in October during a television interview in which he reiterated the Party’s support for a federal constitutional ban on same-sex couples marrying, which would overturn marriage equality in every state that now recognizes it.



What sort of war does Lane want to wage?  A war with bullets and bombs to establish a state-imposed Christian religion?  This guy is embraced by the GOP and Republican politicians -- even those who are running for president.

What's the difference between Lane's rhetoric and that of a Islamic jihadist?  IMO, their goals are the same:  Impose their religion on everyone through war. 

GOP politicians and other Christians appear to be MIA on this maniac's vision for America?  

Their silence implies approval.

Sunday Science Blog

A Day Late...

but still important to remember:

Here's some Stupid for Friday

The civilized world laughs at us:

Two young sisters with an "entrepreneurial spirit" set up a lemonade stand in Overton, Texas, to raise money for their dad's Father's day gift, their mom said. But Andria and Zoey Green's business closed abruptly Monday after police came by to tell them their stand was illegal without a city Peddler's Permit, according to Overton Police Department Chief Clyde Carter. "It's illegal to sell lemonade without a permit," Carter told ABC News today. 

"But we didn't tell them to shut down, we just asked them to get a permit." 

The girls' mother, Sandi Evans, said they went to try to get a Peddler's Permit at City Hall, but found out they'd have to get licensed by the Rusk County Health Department before being allowed a Peddler's Permit. 

 The Rusk County Health Department did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for additional information including specific details about the process for getting a permit to sell lemonade. 

 "Once we found out everything we would have to go through, we just decided to stop technically selling the lemonade," Evans told ABC News today. "The girls are still going to have the stand, but they're just going to ask for donations instead."


Texas:

Walking around with a loaded long gun?  No permit necessary.

Two little girls selling lemonade?  Permit necessary.

Your Modern TeaPublican Party

Here's how TGOPers think they'll attract minorities to their cramped little tent:

Ann Coulter:

"Reagan got, I think it was 54 percent of the white vote, Romney got 59 percent of the white vote; the country in 1980 was about 90 percent white, now it’s about 62 percent white though still only 72 who can vote. If something drastic isn’t done right away, it is going to be George McGovern’s America, it is going to be La Raza’s America, it is going to be Uganda, basically."

 "And get used to having segregated buses and subways, as they have in India and Mexico, because of the way women are treated and sexually abused there; get used to your little girls being raped and being pregnant; get used to not being able to go to your national parks because they are being burnt down, pot farms are being grown there, pesticides dumped all over."

The Coulter:  Still barking out stupid crap for all the dollars she can get.







Then there's this dumb guy:

And from the "Department of Why We're Not Surprised" comes this tidbit on the holier-than-thou Mike Huckabee:


Mike Huckabee has a brand new child molester problem — the co-author of his books


 Co-Author Of Mike Huckabee Books Was Accused Of Child Molestation In Two Legal Cases

h/t Jobsanger blog

Here's a great idea from Jeb!,:   Let's regress to the 17th century!


 Jeb Bush: Unwed Mothers Should Be Publicly Shamed To Teach Them A Lesson

The Dallas Morning News Editorial

The Dallas Morning News:



Once again, the nation is fixated on frightening video of a police officer’s over-reaction. This time it happened in North Texas. This time no one was hurt. This time we got lucky. 

 McKinney police Cpl. Eric Casebolt, in a shockingly wrong-headed decision, determined that a group of unwelcome teenagers at a neighborhood pool was a threat so great that it was necessary to throw a 15-year-old girl to the ground and pin her with both knees — then brandish his gun at two young men who appeared to be trying to help the teen. 

Casebolt is shown running around yelling and screaming before putting a full body slam on bikini-clad Dajerria Becton as she sobs, “Call my momma.” It’s a miracle he didn’t wind up bouncing her head off the nearby concrete path. 

At least the Police Department had the good sense to respond by placing Casebolt on administrative leave while the city sorts out this scary scenario, captured on a profanity-laced seven-minute video that has been already been viewed millions of times. The incident took place at McKinney’s Craig Ranch, where the homeowners association limits pool use to subdivision residents and two guests per household. 

Officers responded after residents and a private security officer called police to complain that several teens were at the pool without permission. The questions are many: Did the kids come in uninvited? Did they refuse to leave? When police arrived, did they they mouth off? Even if the answer to every one of those questions is “yes,” Casebolt’s response was still disturbing. There was no need for that level of force. There was no need for him to draw his weapon. 

 The bigger question: Would this scene have played out differently had the teens been white instead of black? In contrast to other officers on the video, who can be heard calmly speaking to several teens, Casebolt is agitated from the beginning. Before he grabbed Dajerria, as she walked away from the scene, he’d pulled another teen off his feet then barked at others to “get your asses on the ground.” Rather than seeking to control the situation appropriately, Casebolt let the situation control him, resulting in failure to match the response to the actual threat. 

It’s a giant understatement to note that these unarmed minors, many of them in their bare feet and bathing suits, could have been effectively corralled with far less force. Instead, a petite teenage girl ended up face down on the ground, and McKinney joins the list of cities suffering a national embarrassment thanks to the action of an over-the-top cop. 

It’s doubly disturbing that any officer would respond this way, seemingly blind to the race-related violence that has ravaged other parts of the country. Unless there’s a lot more to this story that we don’t yet know, Casebolt deserves — at least — suspension. 

And this video belongs in a police training manual as a prime example of what not to do. Still, as horrific as that video is to watch, perhaps more horrifying is considering the tragic turn it could have taken. 

 This time we got lucky.

Words Fail Me

A fight between a mom and a girl broke out and when the cops showed up everyone ran, including the people who didn't do anything. 

So the cops just started putting everyone on the ground and in handcuffs for no reason. This kind of force is uncalled for especially on children and innocent bystanders. -

EDIT- To some people saying that the cop pulled out his taser on the kid, it was not a taser it was a gun.


The cop threw the 14 year old girl (who probably weighed no more than 100 lbs). to the ground and kneed her in the back while wearing 30 pounds of gear, plus his own weight.


The teens who organized the McKinney, Texas pool party that ended with a police officer pulling a gun on unarmed teens said the officer "was just aggressive for no reason." That officer is now suspended and under investigation.



 Longtime McKinney Officer Blasts Police Conduct At Pool Party, Says Department Has A Race Problem

Sunday Science Blog

Justice Scalia gives dog whistle to creationists in commencement speech


"Supreme Court Justice Nino Scalia just gave the commencement address for the graduating class of one of his 36 grandchildren, delivering some comic stylings by skewering weighty maxims like "to thine own self be true" and "never compromise your principles." (Hard-hitting stuff!) 

The best part, though, was when he threw a triceratops femur to the young Earth creationist set: "Class of 2015, you should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented," he said. "Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so, and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were." At least 5,000 years—he's not wrong! 

And McDonald's posts those signs, you know, that say, "Over 5,000 served." Of course, he's also hedging by a factor of 40, since good ol' homo sap. emerged 200,000 years ago. 

So why that specific number, 5,000? It just so happens to be right around what those who take a literal view of the creation story in Genesis believe the age of the earth to be. (Current year in the Hebrew calendar: a nicely palindromic 5775.) Surely a coincidence, yes? Well, Scalia's right: We're still facing the same old challenges as we always have—in this case, rank ignorance."  --daily kos

The loonies on the far right have been whining for 6 years about how President Obama has made the U.S.A. an embarrassment on the world's stage. But that's wrong, since the U.S.A. is very much respected around the world.  Oh, and Russia?  Remember the TGOP's love-fest with Pootie, the bare-chested totalitarian the TeaPublicans swooned over and said was what a REAL leader is?  Russia is the LEAST admired country

It is ignorant statements about how old the Earth is that make us look like flat-earth idiots to the rest of the technologically advanced world.  And religionists like Scalia advance that view of the U.S. when they make what they think are humorous statements that enforce the myth of creationism as scientific fact.

GOP: "Support Our Veterans -- Except the Gay Married Ones!"

For a party that fetishizes the military and its heroes, this is disgusting news, but not unexpected.  They support our veterans, as long as they're not gay. Another reason the modern GOP is losing support by young people.  This is a disgrace.




Senate Rejects Extending Veterans Benefits To Married Gay Couples And Their Kids



WASHINGTON -- The Senate quietly rejected legislation Thursday that would have extended certain veterans' benefits to married same-sex couples and their children who live in states where their marriage isn't recognized. 

 During debate on the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) proposed amending the federal statute that prevents the Department of Veterans Affairs from granting comprehensive benefits to same-sex couples in states that don't recognize a same-sex marriage that was legally performed in a different state. Her amendment failed 53-42, seven votes shy of the 60 votes needed to pass. 

None of the Senate Republicans running for president voted for it. Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) opposed it, while Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) did not vote. 

Shaheen called it "tremendously disappointing" that the Senate would deny benefits to people who put their lives on the line for their country. "Veterans served their country bravely, and yet some are deprived of the very rights they risked their lives to protect," she said in an email. "The impact of this discrimination is real. Monthly benefits are less; spouses and children are not eligible for medical care at the VA; and families are not eligible for the same death benefits."



The GOP priorities?   Support the Duggars; Bash the Gay Married Veterans and their families!

Boston Has More Global City Engagement Potential Than New York

Still busy with visitors and other activities.  This caught my eye last week and I'm happy to pass it along.







Boston Has More Global City Engagement Potential Than New York





A recent report that measures worldwide city engagement finds that Boston is poised to overtake New York City as one of the top global metropolises in the world. 

 A.T. Kearney's Global Cities 2015 study takes into account five characteristics for its Global Cities Index to determine a city's clout – business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience and political engagement. Boston is listed as no. 23 on the index, the top five being New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. But the latest facet to A.T. Kearney's data is the Global Cities Outlook which determines a city's global engagement potential based on four similar traits – 

Personal well-being, economics, innovation and governance. Chicago and Washington D.C. were ranked no. 7 and no. 23, respectively. When accounting for the Outlook, Boston jumps to no. three behind just San Francisco and London, overtaking New York, Zurich, Houston, Munich, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Seoul. Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles also joined Boston on the outlook list at numbers 16, 17 and 21, respectively. 

 "We have identified 16 cities that are ranked in the top 25 of the GCI, indicating superior current performance, and in the top 25 of the GCO, indicating future potential," said Mike Hales, A.T. Kearney partner and study co-leader. "We call these cities the ‘Global Elite.’ Beyond New York and London the Global Elite includes Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Boston, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Melbourne.” 

 According to the study, Boston's high Outlook score is due significantly to the number of "patents per capita, solid leading economic indicators, and quality of its universities ” which indicates that perhaps global engagement is driven by technology and innovation. That would also account for San Francisco's meteoric rise. It's no secret that Boston's university's are among the most prestigious in the world, and most of them these days are turning out next-generation technologies as well as entrepreneurs to help bring them to market. 

 Mayor Marty Walsh has made it his administration's mission to turn Boston into the tech capital of the world by providing regional inclusion, streamlined licensing for small businesses, startup support at the city government level, and, soon, a master plan to help navigate Boston's future socioeconomic waters.