I’m writing for tomorrow, day 117. It’s been a busy day with lots of chores, plus I made a chicken, rice and green bean casserole from scratch. My sleep schedule is running later than normal today. Tomorrow (Saturday) morning is our fantasy football draft.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:55 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos:
MSNBC resident blowhard Joe Scarborough just couldn’t resist bloviating about the arrests of Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery and the Huffington Post’s Ryan Reilly. Scarborough’s idiot opinion? They must have gotten arrested because they just "want to get on TV."
Lowery had a thing or two to say about that, when CNN interviewed him about his experience, and Scarborough’s comments.
"Well, I would invite Joe Scarborough to come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock where he’s sitting and sipping his Starbucks smugly," Lowery said during a Thursday morning appearance on CNN. "I invite him to come and talk to the residents of Ferguson, where I’ve been since Monday afternoon having tear gas shot at me, having rubber bullets shot at me … I would invite Joe Scarborough down here to do some reporting on the ground, then maybe we can have an educated conversation about what’s happening here."
Those who claim that MSNBC is the "liberal" should remember that this guy has as much air time as Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell combined.
From NY Times: Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said Thursday night that he had agreed to relinquish power, a move that came after days of crisis in which his deployment of extra security forces around the capital had raised worries of a military coup.
Mr. Maliki’s decision held out the prospect of a peaceful transition of power, based on democratic elections and without the guiding hand of American military forces, which would be a first in modern Iraq’s troubled history of kings, coups and dictatorships.
A few days ago, I said that I doubted this would happen. OOPS! When I’m, wrong I say so. I had good reasons for thinking otherwise, but good reasons do not always guarantee accuracy.
From Upworthy: Utah Drug-Tested Almost 5,000 People On Welfare, And The Results Almost Made Me Throw Something
I wonder what Utah thought they’d find when they implemented mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients? I doubt this is it. The moral of the story? I’d say the "sketchy drug addict" narrative that continues to be assigned to people on government assistance isn’t really that accurate … or fair.
Those are results that Republicans do NOT want you to know, because it trashes their dishonest stereotype.
Cartoon:
17 Responses to “Open Thread–8/16/2014”
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6:06 average up to 5:22 I think those dogs were squirming, I had so much resistance to getting the pieces to snap.
If I read everything correctly, within an hour those who are taking part should be having their draft. Good luck to all and have a wonderful time!
Daily Kos – I don't have cable so I only see snippets of cable shows when they are posted. However, my impression is that MSNBC IS flaming liberal compared to other news outlets. The fact that the flaming liberal station also has a Morning Joe who, if coffee was actuclly like him, I'd give it up – that's the scary part. I know that by and large MSNBC is dedicated to facts, not to a position – but facts have a liberal bias – wnd when everyone else is peddling lies, it looks so good by comparison.
NY Times – Making predictions is a pretty iffy business. You are gracious to correct this one but I'm not sure "wrong" is mild enough I've been saying since my wedding day "My name is Joanne Dixon, not Jeane Dixon, and I make NO claim to be psychic." (Anyone remember her? Yeah, my age is showing.) It's still open whether he will flee, also. Now, if he doesn't flee, and continues living, that would be an even bigger jawdropper than the handover of power.
Upworthy – Sure too bad Republicans don't care about facts. If they did, they coould save a lot of money by basing policies on reality. Good move, though, using a pie chart. It's the presentation that stands the best chance of getting through to Republicans, I read recently.
Cartoon – ugh.
You proobably get that impression from me, because I post so much Hayes, Schultz, Maddow and O'donnell. Sharpton is also left, and Matthews is kind of corporate Democrat They have a few conservatives too, but most of their newa people are straight nows.
Joanne , what an optimist you are. Show repugs a pie chart!!!. Surely you jest!. Most of them would not undersatnd it and for the other haters you could write it on the surface of the moon and they still would not believe the facts. (hint, FACTS?
Who listens to facts. (boring and might prove them wrong.)
re. Maliki, Whenever I hear that once again Iraq is in total chaos and lives are being lost I say Thank you Mr Bush and the liars club.
AS for Mr Scarborough he likes to play in the middle of the road. ,and we know how that ends!.?!
Show Republicans a pie chart and Bubba Bagger will try to eat the pie.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/07/97-percent-climate-consensus-pie-charts
~~
How to Convince a Republican: Use a Pie Chart! by Chris Mooney
A new study finds that pie charts are an effective way to communicate the scientific consensus on climate change. Especially to Republicans.
Just came across an interesting tibdit of info:
In 2011, German police officers fired a TOTAL of 85 bullets – and 49 of those were Warning Shots
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/11/11662345-german-police-fired-just-85-bullets-total-in-2011
Perhaps the 2nd amendment should re retitled to "Freedom to kill whomever, whenever, and wherever you please!" Just thinking out loud, but is it possible that part (definitely not all) of the reason the police fire so often is that they know there are too many guns out there, and therefore their survival might count on it?
When Gdermany's Republican Party ran the country, they shot more than 85 bullets. It was called WWII.
3:45 Looks like puppy and parent.
3:12 I agree Critter! Puppy on the left and parent on the right.
BigFooted!
Daily Kos: Good for Lowery for calling out Joe on his ourtrageous comments. MSNBC is more liberal than the other news channels, don't understand why they keep Joe, maybe they are trying to lure somef Faux News viewers.
NY Times: TC, I didn't believe Maliki would step down either. I am glad he did, hopefully this will help the Iraqi's get their country back together.
Upworthy: Ah yes, the welfare queen apparently is not a drug addict after all. So glad this is being publicized. I worked with people on Food Stamps and Unemployment benefits and I KNOW the stereotypes are wrong, but cannot convince most people, who haven't been on either, that they are wrong.
Cartoon: Probably so.
Republicans need the stereotypes to drum up opposition to a good thing.
Puzzle — 3:12 I agree Critter! Puppy on the left and parent on the right.
Daily Kos — Amen!
"Nice idea, but fat chance that Scarborough puts his fat ass in harm's way. Because Scarborough isn't a journalist, he's a hot-air machine."
NY Times — I believe that I said whether a coup d'état or he steps down, he still has to make it out alive. So that is still up in the air. However, if some Iraqi idiot tries assassination, that will blow Iraq up with factional fighting and right into ISIL's hands.
Personally, given the allegations of corruption etc, I would hope that he would not be vice president. That would be asking for trouble.
Nice touch from Iran. Iran is Shiite and it behooves them to have a stable Shiite government in Bagdad especially with ISIL on the march throughout the region.
Upworthy — Just love it! Seems that Florida had similar results a while back, although I can't remember the figures. Stereotypes just don't work. Ask Ferguson, Mo about stereotypes.
Cartoon — Another "come to Jeezuzzz" moment sponsored by the racists of supply-side pseudo Christians.
Hot air machine? LMAO!
Thought you all would get a kick out of this Left Action petition.
http://leftaction.com/action/tell-rush-obamacare-won-move-costa-rica
I signed one like it months ago. Costa Rica has begun a nuclear weapons program and proclaimg that they will consider exporting Limbarf an act of war.