More Amazement: BOREF and Tennessee February 6, 2015February 5, 2015 RANDI Tom: “I’d never heard of the Amazing Randi before Tuesday’s post but found this free 54-minute documentary.” ☞ Psychics! Faith-healers! Spoon-benders! All exposed. Is there anything more fun than this? Yes, there would be one thing: Backing a fully loaded commercial jet out from the gate without a tug and inching it along the conga line without having to light the main engines. BOREF A friend attended Tuesday’s session of IATA’s “Aircraft Taxiing Systems Conference” — the fact that the International Air Transport Association would even have such a conference I find encouraging — and I attended Wednesday afternoon’s session and met the CEO and some of his key colleagues. The saga continues. Own shares of WheelTug grandparent Borealis only with money you can truly afford to lose. (And be sure to place “limit” orders; the stock is very thinly traded.) It remains the best lottery ticket I’ve ever seen. But [understatement ON] lottery tickets are not sure things [understatementOFF]. I plan to write a bit more about this tomorrow or over the weekend. TENNESSEE Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini: Yesterday was a truly a low point in our state’s history. With one vote in a senate committee, seven Republican senators made a decision to shut the door to critical healthcare for over a quarter of a million hard working Tennesseans. [. . .] But those seven Republican senators didn’t act in a vacuum. The end of Insure Tennessee is a direct result in the failure of leadership by Republican leaders Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and Speaker Beth Harwell. It was their failure to lead, their failure to have the courage to stand up to right wing extremists, and their failure to serve 6.5 million Tennesseans that lead to 7 Republican senators making the terrible decision that will devastate the lives of 250,000 Tennesseans for years to come. Those seven Republican senators showed that they have absolutely no compassion for the 800 Tennesseans who have already died waiting for healthcare expansion. Those seven Republican senators showed that they have absolutely no fiscal sense by rejecting the one billion dollars in federal funds that Tennessee would have already received with healthcare expansion. Those seven Republican senator showed that Governor Haslam was wrong when he told our President that Republicans could be trusted to care for “the least of these”. Tennessee’s Republican legislators have shown they are unwilling to put people first and that they are incapable of running our state. Democratic Senator Jeff Yarbro, who stood up for Tennesseans by voting for Insure Tennessee in the committee, pointed out the simple fact that Republicans who deny hardworking Tennesseans the healthcare they need are themselves on government funded healthcare. House Leader Craig Fitzhugh said, “It does matter who governs.” Congressman Steve Cohen said the vote was “Foolish, foolish, foolish. Sad, sad, sad. Sick, sick, sick,” and Congressman Jim Cooper said, “Tennesseans will die and hospitals will close as a result of a cruel state legislature. Rarely in state history have we seen such a devastating lack of leadership.” As Democrats, we will keep fighting for all Tennesseans, even when tea party extremists celebrate Insure Tennessee’s defeat. Tell me again what the Republican Party stands for? Allowing our infrastucture to crumble, quadrupling the National Debt under Reagan/Bush, denying a hike in the minimum wage, sending the National Debt soaring again under Bush 43 after Clinton handed him a surplus, handing Obama a $1.5 trillion deficit plus two wars and a global depression it would cost a fortune to avert, repealing Row v Wade, repealing health care, privatizing Social Security, denying women the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions and gays the right to serve in the military or marry, cutting the tax on billionheirs to zero, fighting consumer protections and environmental regulation, and opposing anything Obama favors, even if it’s something they ardently supported until he did. A Grand Old Party indeed. I hate being so partisan. If this were the party of Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt or Eisenhower — or the moderate Republicans who used to serve in the Senate and House but who’ve been primaried out by defiantly uncompromising right-wingers (“shut it down!”) or else forced back into the moderate closet for fear of being challenged in a well-funded primary and losing their jobs — if this were that party, I’d still vote Democrat most of the time but my life would be entirely different, writing books instead of screeds and seeking people’s help. Have a great weekend!