Sep 052014
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 137.  I’m running way late, because I slept earlier.  The Church of the Ellipsoid Orb starts in ten minutes.  So I will be meditating and composing at the same time, as the Ellipsoid Orb shines its holy light fully for the first time since the Super Bowl.  I have to be up early in the morning for physical therapy, and because of that, I will probably have an Open Thread at most on Saturday morning.  I hear that in Virginia, it was a bad day for slime.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 2:58 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In the last twenty years, there have been three occasions when the Republicans have won national elections, but received less votes than the Democrats.

The direction of the nation would be vastly different, and the progressive legacy so much more profound, if, in each instance, power had simply been granted to the side that won the most votes.

In the 1996 Congressional elections, the House Democrats received 60,000 more votes than the Republicans, but the Republicans remained in the majority, and in control of the legislative agenda.

The Congressional term produced the Balanced budget act and tax relief act of 1997, but beyond that, it was a period of extreme volatility and confrontational politics, personified by Speaker Gingrich, whose management style was so disorganized and unpredictable that within three years, his own lieutenants tried to depose him in a chaotic coup. By the time he was forced out in 1998, many former members say they were terrified to open up the newspaper in the morning, fearful he had said or done that could cause them political heartburn.

If the Democrats had taken back the House – because they got the most votes – the nation would have been spared the dysfunction, and there would have been far less of a sense of the country remaining fundamentally conservative. Although the Republicans would still have retained the Senate, the Democratic House, under Dick Gephardt, would have controlled the legislative agenda, which would have been decidedly more progressive.

Click through for analysis of the other two times Republicans won by losing and how much America has suffered because of it. Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!

From The New Yorker: Arguing that his motto “Don’t do stupid stuff” is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) led the attack on Thursday, blasting Obama for failing to craft a stupid response to crises in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine.

“Instead of reacting to these events with the haste and recklessness they deserve, the President has chosen to waste valuable time thinking,” McCain said. “This goes against the most fundamental principles of American foreign policy.”

But Andy, If Obama did something stupid enough to completely satisfy McConJob and Lindsey Poo, he’d be deporting himself to Kenya.

From Upworthy: Well-meaning people sometimes make off-handed remarks to each other and to people of color that are hurtful and offensive. Calling out friends and acquaintances on remarks like those in this clip is beyond frustrating because no one ever wants to admit that racism is nuanced. Thank the heavens for comedians.

 

That would be a more of a Republican problem, if Republicans went on a low-hate diet.

Cartoon:

0905Cartoon

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  13 Responses to “Open Thread–9/5/2014”

  1. 6:28  Daisy "type" – is that like callng a cat, for instance, a Siamese "type"?  "He may look just like a Siamese, but he's really a mutt."  Or moggy, as they say across the pond.

    Daily Kos – When this happens in Congress, it's usually gerrymandering.  Some states, like Iowa (srsly) have strict standards for redistricting and and the results reasonably reflect the popitation distrbution (even though I for one may not like it – oh, what the heck, it's not just me, everyone with a heart and a brain dislikes Steve King.  Other states will never apply strict standards on their own.  It would pay big time down the line if Federal legislation could be passed on redistricting, and enforced.  Part of the key is having a non-partisan group be in charge of drawing the maps.  Obviousky something this Congress will not touch.

    The New Yorker – This is almost not funny, because that's exactly what they're doing, albeit in their own inimitable words.  (Fancy McConJob being that honest and open!) 

    I'll have to come back for the rest.

    • OK, sorry, I know I was gone forever.  Loved the video.  If it is the official beverage of the Washington Redskins, perhaps it would be possible to waterboard Dan Snyder with it.  Or would that be too subtle?

      Cartoon – Without Pat B (Care2)'s post, I would have assumed he had been shot six times including twice in the head.

  2. 3:49 It looked like a sunflower to me.

    • 3:50  I thought it was a sunflower too. 

      • It looked like one to me also.  But sometimes the JigZone short titles are so much like the "Picture is Unrelated" category on I Can Has Cheezburger that I can't resist poking fun at them.

    • 3:19  It technically could be either daisie or sunflower.

      "[Daisies] belong to the daisy family of Compositae. They come under the flower plant family of Asteraceae. … There are many daisy flower types;…"  and come in many colours.

       

      Sunflowers are "Any of several plants of the genus Helianthus [(family Asteraceae)], especially H. annuus, having tall coarse stems and large, yellow-rayed flower heads that produce edible seeds rich in oil."

      Both sunflowers and daisies are Asteraceae (Compositae) and are often bisexual.

      Republicanus/Teabaggers would not like these flowers.  I wonder how many have them in their garden?

  3. Indeed, it was a very bad day for slime in Virginia, thank goodness.

    Daily Kos: Doesn't that make your blood boil just by reading it?  Just think of how much better off our country would be today had the debacle elections not happened.  How the heck do we stop this?  If I knew I would be sharing it with everyone, even my misguided Republican friends.

    The New Yorker:  If the Prez did what Andy suggests in this post he would thrill all Republicans. I have nearly quit watching the Sunday morning news shows because I DON'T want to hear either McCain or Graham expound their crazy ideas.  

    Upworthy:  Sometimes "Diet Racism" is more insidious than out right open racism.  Since Pres. Obama was elected I have made some startling discoveries about many that I considered friends, people I never dreamed were racists.  I have mentioned before that I grew up in a multi raced, multi cultural coal camp.  I had my mother singing that song from Sunday school, red and yellow black and white, all are precious in his sight, at an early age, and I am grateful to her for this.  I really though my friends felt the same way. Facebook has cleared me of that misconception.  i really don't understand it.

    Cartoon: Yes he was murdered, and his descendants are continuing to be murdered, raped, and deprived of liberties by treaties signed years ago.  The treatment of Native Americans was and is a disgrace to our country.

     

  4. Puzzle — 3:19  It technically could be either daisie or sunflower.  I could not resist reading up on them.

    "[Daisies] belong to the daisy family of Compositae. They come under the flower plant family of Asteraceae. … There are many daisy flower types;…"  and come in many colours.

     

    Sunflowers are "Any of several plants of the genus Helianthus [(family Asteraceae)], especially H. annuus, having tall coarse stems and large, yellow-rayed flower heads that produce edible seeds rich in oil."

    Both sunflowers and daisies are Asteraceae (Compositae) and are often bisexual.

    Republicanus/Teabaggers would not like these flowers.  I wonder how many have them in their garden?

    Daily Kos — An excellent article that clearly lays out what might have been had the Republicanus and Teabaggers not hijacked the electoral process for their own agrandisement.

    "The party [Republicanus] that abhors the mindset of getting a medal just for participating, has three times come first, not by winning, but just by participating.

    And the party [Republicanus] that says you shouldn’t just expect the system to take care of you has three times been taken care of by the system.

    The Republicans: Freeloading off the more deserving for twenty years."

    The New Yorker — In a different view, "If Obama did something stupid enough to completely satisfy McConJob and Lindsey Poo, " he'd be a Republicanus/Teabagger!  Oh perish the thought!

    Upworthy — I have called out other people, including my mother and her father, for racist remarks.  But I have to admit that I have said things that I shouldn't have.  For example. there is a nut, the Brazil nut, that was called a n****r toe when I was young.  I did not know the origin of the name but clearly it is inappropriate.

    Cartoon — Gone much too young as were many First Nations people.  A victim of the white "tame the wild Indian" philosophy and the white Manifest Destiny.

    John L O'Sullivan, American journalist, "…wrote an article in 1839, which, while not using the term "manifest destiny", did predict a "divine destiny" for the United States based upon values such as equality, rights of conscience, and personal enfranchisement "to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man". This destiny was not explicitly territorial, but O'Sullivan predicted that the United States would be one of a "Union of many Republics" sharing those values."

    Crazy Horse and the rest of the First Nations peoples never were able to participate in equality etc, and in my opinion, don't get to participate today.

  5. Thanks all.  Pit stop.  Color me PT pooped!

  6. Love the video – so funny – and so painful!  I keep challenging people when they say things like that, but the video gets the point across so much better!  I saw (I think in the Huff Post – ah yes, here it is  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/jose-joe-job-discrimination_n_5753880.html ) that a man sent out 50 – 100 job applications per DAY – and got nothing – then he omitted a letter from his name and got lots of replies – he changed Jose to Joe….. what an indictment on our society.

    Daily Kos – how can Americans let this injustice continue – are the vast majority apathetic – how do they let this happen and carry on as normal?

     

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