Overlooking a Lotta Muslims

Since they feel they've not been given enough notice, I am putting up a post to call attention to them. Fortunately, CSM did a piece or I wouldn't have known. Christmas being on the horizon and all.

Millions of Shiite Muslim worshippers converged on Iraq’s holy city of Karbala last week as part of the annual pilgrimage of Arbaeen, culminating a 40-day mourning period for the killing in AD 680 of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammed. 

I admire their courage and faith in making this journey.

Many choose to make the journey on foot, despite travelling near Isis-controlled areas in the country and the extremist group having made frequent deadly attacks on the pilgrimage. 

The march comes as nearly 80 people, many of them pilgrims returning from commemorating Arbaeen in Karbala, were killed in the latest Isis attack in the area.

Isis has declared Shia Muslims apostates and targeted them in its bloody campaign to establish a hardline caliphate across Iraq and Syria. 

We don't seem to take a lot of notice of the one and a half billion Muslims who aren't blowing shit up.

Sheryl Olitzky has noticed. 

When Sheryl Olitzky first broached the subject of a Jewish-Muslim women’s group, Atiya Aftab didn’t buy it.

The two women launched the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom – then just a casual gathering of local Muslim and Jewish women talking about faith and family, and sharing their experiences as religious minorities in America. Today, the group has chapters in more than 50 cities.

Pinku Sensei pointed out a link awhile back indicating improved relations between the Semitic faiths because of Donald Trump. Maybe some good will come from his election after all. And may it outweigh the sheer horror. 

Eugene Robinson and Will Bunch

Robinson on the Carrier deal:

The company still gets to lay off most of the targeted Indiana workers and replace them with much cheaper Mexican labor. It gets partial compensation from the state government. And instead of worrying about a potential tariff, United Technologies can anticipate a major reduction in the federal corporate tax rate. That's something Trump promised on the campaign trail -- and also, reportedly, in a recent phone call with United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes.

That'll show 'em. What a fantastic deal-maker Trump is. Those coal miners in West Virginia should be back at work any day now. 

Few places in America loved Donald Trump on Nov. 8 as much as Upshur County, West Virginia, in the heart of Coal County. Just under 76 percent of Upshur County residents voted for the GOP candidate -- and why wouldn't they, after Trump promised "to put our miners back to work" while Hillary Clinton and other liberals were looking instead to a future after coal?

Less than a month after his election, Trump rewarded that vote of confidence by naming as his commerce secretary the billionaire former owner of Upshur County's Sago Mine, which collapsed in 2006 -- killing 12 miners -- after a mounting list of safety violations was ignored at what union leaders say was a dangerous, exploitative "doghole mine."

The billionaire, Wilbur Ross, did ultimately pay out $2 million to the families of the 12 men and a 13th survivor, but relatives say it was too little, too late. "It's easy to throw a couple million afterward instead of spending a few million ahead of time to save men's lives in the first place," Kevin Sharp, one of those family members, told ABC News.

Draining the swamp and putting what he finds in his cabinet. 

Trump You!

Charles Pierce and Voting Against Self-Interest

The Stupid! It Burns!

It's the red counties in our state that have flocked to Obamacare, using its subsidies and Medicaid expansion the most, according to data from the state insurance commissioner's office. Nine of the top 10 counties where the Affordable Care Act reduced the ranks of the uninsured the most also voted for Trump. Number one is deep-red Adams County, in Eastern Washington, home of rolling wheat farms and I-90 truck stops. Its uninsured rate plunged from 23 percent to 10 percent, almost all because Obamacare bought Medicaid coverage for about one in five Adams County adults between 18 and 65. Adams County voted for Trump by 38 percentage points.

I just threw up there a little.

The idea is to satisfy conservative critics who want President Barack Obama's signature initiative gone now, but reassure Americans that Republicans won't upend the entire health care system without a viable alternative that preserves the law's popular provisions.

The art of the scam. 

Most Republicans, particularly in the House, want to repeal as soon as possible and deal with the replacement later. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), a staunch conservative, said the party must "take no chances; do it now."

Those above clips are from Danny Westneat in the Seattle Times. This is Pierce:

This is quite a variation on the old game of Chicken. Two cars are driving right towards each other, head on, but, in this version, the folks from Adams County are standing in between them. Who will turn away first? Will anybody? What's worse, those folks likely don't even know they're standing in the middle of the road.

It's no better knowing that you are in the middle of the road.

Buyer's remorse already.

A Simple Request

Thank you, Cynthia Tucker, for making the request I've had for some time now.

One simple vow that ought to be standard in every newsroom: the term “alt-right” is banned. From now on, news organizations should identify Steve Bannon, chief strategist in the nascent Trump administration, and his merry band of haters as what they are: racists.

There is no "alt-right." There are racists, as she points out. There are right wing extremists. A little wordy, but it gets the job done. Or go old school and call them fascists, nihilists or what have you. But, there is no "alt-right." 

Words matter.

A Cabinet to Serve the Common Man

Run! It's a cookbook!

Trump is putting together what will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history. His announced nominees for top positions include several multimillionaires, an heir to a family mega-fortune and two Forbes-certified billionaires. Rumored candidates for other positions suggest that Trump could add more ultra-rich appointees soon.

Don't worry, despite their riches, I'm sure they've got our backs. 

It's a Good Thing Trump Has a Plan

I'm happy to see that Donald Trump is enjoying the celebrity of his transitional period. Does he have a notion of what is ahead? Mostly just linking to this piece by Andrew Bacevich who should be on the short list for any administration, but never will be.

All signs indicate that, in one fashion or another, our combative next president will perpetuate the wars he’s inheriting. Trump may fancy that, as a veteran of Celebrity Apprentice (but not of military service), he possesses a special knack for spotting the next Grant or Sherman. But acting on that impulse will merely replenish the swamp in the Greater Middle East along with the one in Washington. And soon enough, those who elected him with expectations of seeing the much-despised establishment dismantled will realize that they’ve been had.