Reminder to Ask Lynn Kahn if She's a Vegan

Since Matt wouldn't tell me.

I do not believe that any of these "environmentalists" is a vegan and that is pretty relevant given that livestock agriculture is either 38% or 51% responsible for climate change (depending on whether you believe the EPA or the UN). So, seems like some reading may be in order for all of these candidates. Was plant-based agriculture at least brought up as a topic at the forum? The story does not indicate that it was. Very sad.

As for "Kevin the baker" and his continuing attacks on Greens and Green candidates, the corporate Dems running his war party will take money from anyone who offers it. I am sure that Doctor Kahn, who is NOT from Kevin's corporate party, will take small individual donations from any voter of any party who wishes to support her. What an absurd thing to suggest that she should refuse Republican support ... how could anyone win our solidly GOP district without support from at least some Republicans??? It's patently ridiculous. It sure doesn't look like the Democrats are going to win by running Don Boyajian and hating on Donald Trump but I guess that's really all they've got. I would estimate that 25% of NY21 GOP voters would need to peel off and vote for someone other than Elise to see the district switch hands. So, Kevin, try to slow down your DNC rhetoric for just a minute and actually think about the mean-spirited things you say. You sound an awful lot like John Kerry in 2004 whining about how Ralph Nader had taken about $200,000 in inividual donations when Kerry, himself, had already taken $7,000,000 in individual GOP donations. It's called being a "hypocrite", Kevin. Try not to be one.

I like how he's doing the Trump very sad thing. 

I will vote for Kahn because I have spoken with her at length and believe her to be sincere and goodhearted. FAR more important to me, she is carrying the Green standard into battle with her and my vote always goes to support the building of our principled non-corporate political party. 

That still doesn't tell me if she's a vegan or not. He wouldn't tell me if Jill Stein was either. Should've asked if he'd vote for a Dem vegan over a Green meat eater. Next time. 

Sense and Nonsense on Guns

You can't get much more nonsensical on the issue than Matt Funiciello.

Funiciello said both bills are an overreach of federal authority.

He said local gun boards should be elected in each municipality to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether residents should be allowed to buy guns.

“We elect responsible people who we feel are good with their guns,” said Funiciello, a bread company owner and political activist from Hudson Falls. 

OK, first fuck that federal authority bullshit. I'm pretty sure I heard the nuts at Malheur and the Bundy Ranch spouting the same argument. Sometimes I think one of Matt's primary  news sources is Alex Jones. Fuck it, I'll just put up my comment. Why mess with perfection?

“We elect responsible people who we feel are good with their guns,”

What does that mean? All I can think of is Annie Oakley (or Sarah Palin) shooting a silver dollar out of the air. It sounds as tho non-gunowners need not apply. Illegal to be sure. That brings up that many boards wold likely skew to everyone or no one gets a gun, tho. How many blacks in the South (or Boston, to be fair) would have gotten a gun 50 or 60 years ago? Good thing there's no prejudice anymore.

Then there's, do you want to be on a board turning down a psychopath's gun application? And betting he doesn't get one anyway? Being sued might be the least of your worries.

If the board is going to make a sound decision, they're going to have to have access to criminal and mental health records, presumably. Is that a problem?

These are questions off the top of my head. I trust there are brighter people in the Derrick and Stefanik campaigns who can come up with better inquiries. Maybe even the local media can before they make an endorsement this time around.

Yes,“We elect responsible people who we feel are good with their guns.” He really said that. I know Maury Thompson and he wouldn't lie. Anyway. Matt responded in the comments. And just let me say, he's not into that whole paragraph thing. 

Reformed (and Kevin), the actual conversation I have around gun control is this ... I am a huge supporter of the 2nd amendment. Period. It's about deer hunting, yes, but it's also about King George and protecting ourselves from tyranny and fascism. And, in my book, both reasons are entirely valid and I defend them both. That said, the FBI and other federal agencies regularly give clearance for gun licenses and permits to people who should not ever have them granted (bear in mind that the majority of them are white American males - this is not really about "terrorism" at all). This is because these agencies do not KNOW the people in question. My brother, who owns many handguns, rifles and bows, had a great idea about issuing permits (and that is what Maury and I were speaking about). His idea is that we have Citizen Advisory Boards elected from the actual communities the permits will be issued in (made up of people who actually know or have access to those who know the people looking to obtain the permits). If the FBI had questioned Omar Matteen's co-workers at G4S or even just spoken with his abused wife, I'm pretty sure he would not have so easily procured the weaponry he used to kill all the people he did. In the bigger picture, we need to stop being a culture of violence and empire. The Republican and Democratic Party bills being offered are reactionary and unconstitutional. They just add many more layers to an already bloated and entirely inappropriate surveillance state and place more people on "watch lists". What they also do is absolutely nothing to decrease our gun dealing as a nation (we are responsible for 80% of the world's weaponry). These illegal bills just allow more people to be discriminated against by officially labeling them as "terrorists" ... right along with the 4 year old children and Ted Kennedy and animal rights activists who are traditionally placed on our insipid and Orwellian "watch lists" today. 

Or actually addressing the questions I had about the loony tune "local gun board" thing in the first place. So what the fuck. Double down and ask another question, I always say. 

Thank you for the response, Matt. I was looking for more details about the local gun boards because I didn't think it sounded really practical. A web search showed they had it somewhere in Michigan and ended it. It didn't use elected officials or at least ones elected for that sole purpose.

I do believe one can support the second amendment and not be an absolutist. I have talked to gun owners in the threads who are open to reasonable controls. No one wants to deprive hunters of their guns. Why discuss it? It's a big leap between having a gun for hunting and defending against tyranny and fascism. That's not a gun policy I want to hear from my representative. If it was, I'd move to Texas. I asked someone here in the threads this question and got no response. But, I'm dogged. Who gets to decide that we are being ruled by a tyrant? I remember people saying Obama was a tyrant because of Obamacare. Was that tyranny worthy of sedition? Apparently not. Were the Bundys in the right at their ranch or at Malheur Preserve?

You speak a lot about the evil that corporations do. You seem to give the NRA/Gun Industry a pass. They control gun policy in this country. That's not conspiracy theory. It's reality. Does it not concern you?

Technically, I guess I asked two more questions there. He didn't come back and answer either of them. I believe I'm going to make a special request to Mike Derrick to ask them. My final comment.

Someday I may get an answer to that question. Charges of tyranny and fascism fly too freely for my tastes. My concern is that the shooter or shooters in Dallas may have felt justified for these reasons.

This guy is the Green Party, Progressive, Fuckin' candidate for Congress in my district. Please pardon the f-bombs, but it has been an annoyingly deadly week that calls for a few. Just to bring things down a little, here's Sharay Santora:

Videos of the attack show officers running toward the gunfire to help citizens.

Sharay Santora, who was there with her children, told CNN she overheard marchers say, “They were here for us, I’m going to be there for them.”

“My children and I are going to be there for their funerals because they lost their lives protecting me and my children,” she said. 

Bless you and thank you for that, Ms. Santora. 

First Vegan Pope?

I wish Arthur Poletti for his effort to convince Pope Francis to become the first vegan pope.

Being the Pope will not be easy. Hopefully, with God’s guidance you will be inspired and motivated, like no other Pope before you, to go against the status quo, and take a firm stand against all odds, criticisms, and adversaries. Especially when you are certain that God and you are right about a controversial subject.

Your Holiness, surely you will agree that God is the supreme symbol of compassion, kindness, life, and love for all creatures with a soul, and the best reason why none of God's precious animals should ever have to suffer and die so people can eat them, and or their dairy products.

Therefore, since there are no factory farms or slaughterhouses in Heaven, as it should be on Earth, now would be a great time for hundreds of millions of people to begin changing their eating habits.

Your Holiness, for these obvious reasons please seriously consider the significance of personally supporting and promoting God’s will.

Your timely announcement revealing that you have stopped eating meat and dairy products will promote — VEGANISM — like never before, and it will convince millions of people that you are personally supporting your love and God's love for all animals, setting the example and the precedent for religious leaders, government officials,and hundreds of millions of people throughout the world to appreciate and emulate.

Holy Father, your brave and bold historic action of becoming the FIRST VEGAN POPE would send a powerful message throughout the world, like a “lightning bolt from heaven,” that God and “Your Holiness” want to stop the hideous, completely unnecessary, seemingly never ending holocaust of God's precious animals.

Soon after your historic and courageous announcement happens, many urgently-needed benefits for animals, humans, the earth, and the earth’s atmosphere will begin to certainly occur, with the excellent prospects of a multitude of endless residual benefits.

It's not a major action, but there is a Credo petition to urge the pope to become Vegan. 

I went back and listened the the Funiciello show where he had Kate Austin-Avon and Don Donofrio as guests. Just wanted to double check to see if he had at least some principles that call for ending or reducing meat consumption to help save the planet, not to mention any moral principles. I had forgotten this bit. He tells Austin-Avon, a Vegan, that one of the most amusing things he's heard is from Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain calls Vegans a Hamas-like splinter group of vegetarians. See, it's funny because you're comparing a group that out of moral compassion for animals doesn't eat them and is also concerned about the future of our planet to a terrorist group. How fuckin' droll! Now, hummus-like splinter group might have been funny. And there's bonus patronization when he tells us that he has earned the right to eat meat because he's killed animals before. So, if you've killed animals that gives you the right to have others slaughter them to feed you food that you don't need to survive and to support an industry that is the top polluter in the world. Yes, he's the Green Party candidate for Congress in our district.