Another month has arrived and it promises to be a very busy one. I’ve decided not to do a Monthly Report for May. Activity was a little down, which was not surprising between volunteer work and medical mayhem. I’m still feeling very tired out.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:15 (average 4:19). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: A mere 240 people live in the rural northeast Iowa town of Kensett, so when more than 300 crowded into the community center on Saturday night to hear Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, many driving 50 miles, the cellphones of Democratic leaders statewide began to buzz…
…The first evidence that Mrs. Clinton could face a credible challenge in the Iowa presidential caucuses appeared late last week in the form of overflow crowds at Mr. Sanders’s first swing through that state since declaring his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. He drew 700 people to an event on Thursday night in Davenport, for instance — the largest rally in the state for any single candidate this campaign season, and far more than the 50 people who attended a rally there on Saturday with former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland.
Considering Iowa’s record of picking losers, I’m not sure whether this is a good sign for Bernie or not.
From The New Yorker: The National Security Agency is compensating for the expiration of its power to collect the American people’s personal information by logging on to Facebook, the agency confirmed on Monday.
The director of the N.S.A., Admiral Michael S. Rogers, said that when parts of the Patriot Act expired at midnight on Sunday, intelligence analysts immediately stopped collecting mountains of phone metadata and started reading billions of Facebook updates instead.
“From a surveillance point of view, the transition has been seamless,” Rogers said.
While the N.S.A. has monitored Facebook in the past, it is now spending twenty-four hours a day sifting through billions of baby pictures, pet videos, and photographs of recently enjoyed food to detect possible threats to the United States.
“Those status updates contain everything we want to know,” Rogers said. “In many cases, a good deal more than we want to know.”
Dang! Andy has documented the death of privacy!!
From Right Wing Watch: Former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said yesterday at a campaign stop in Iowa that he worries “about anti-government rhetoric,” according to a local paper and to Washington Post reporter James Hohmann, who tweeted about the remark:
Really? The Santorum we know has spent the entire Obama presidency stoking mistrust of the federal government. Here are just fifteen examples, in no particular order, of Santorum’s anti-government rhetoric in the past few years.
Barf Bag Alert!! Santorum Bag Alert!
This article has a bunch of video and audio clips of Rich "Google my name" Santorum spewing anti-government froth. Click through, if you can stomach it.
Cartoon:
25 Responses to “Open Thread–6/1/2015”
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3:41 average (still) 4:19. This reminds me of pictures of my tuxedo cats in the past. They say that cats are partially color blind – yet they can always find backgrounds to pose against that harmonize with their own color(s) and flatter them. I wonder how butterflies see? They can't be color blind since they favor certain colored blooms for nutrition. Yet it's hard to imagine they "see" the way we do.
NY Times – Iowa has a record of picking losers because losers have a record of running. This may be the first time in living memory they have seen a real winner. At least we can hope so.
New Yorker – Nyaa, nyaa, nyaa – I'm not on Facebook – so there too.
Right Wing Watch – Thanks but no thanks on the Rick. But without looking I can tell you he doesn't think anything he says is anti government because he doesn't recognize a black man as being government.
Cartoon – And isn't that the truth!
2:47 Someone save the pretty Flutterby!
3:23 TomCat scared the butterfly away and it took me some time to find it before I could finish the puzzle.
Glad to see you back, Jerry. You were missed.
2:30 To paraphrase Whoopi Goldberg in Jumpin' Jack Flash, this Idea leuconoe aka Large Tree Nymph is a huge junkie mutant tree nymph, and it specialises in eating Puddy Tat fur. Put away the catnip sauce!
Imagieg that Sasquatch trying to fool me into not eating my snack!! 🙁
Rest, Tom. You must need it.
NY Times ~ Go Bernie! You have my support.
New Yorker ~ You wouldn't believe some of the personal info some people post on FB.
Right Wing Watch ~ BARF!!!
Cartoon ~ Yes, they probably did.
Stay in bed, TC!
So, Mr. Hastert, who else but Rethuglicans can get the Judge hearing your arraignment on Federal indictments to actually have been a contributor to your own campaign? How convennnnnnient!
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-dennis-hastert-case-donated-least-twice-his-campaigns-n368096
If Hastert's judge doesn't recuse himself … well, I can't say I won't be surprised.
I agree with you, he won't recuse himself, none of them have any integrity.
Do you remember federal Judge Mark Fuller from Alabama who assaulted his wife? He finally resigned but still may face impeachment. http://www.salon.com/2015/06/01/americas_most_heinous_judge_resigns_wife_beater_mark_fuller_leaves_the_bench_finally_but_not_easily/
These Republicanus/Teabaggerum think that they are beyond reproach. Is that sizzling Republicanus/Teabaggerum fat I hear in Hell's kitchen?
I have always called him Hastert the Bastert!
I have often windered why it doesn't seem to occur to people who discide to run for public office that there is a possibility they will be politically destroyed by their own name. It is a miracle to me that Jeff Flake has gotten as far as he has. And Klingenschmitt? That one is both too obvious and too ribald to post. "Hastert the Bastert" – exactly.
Get some rest. You deserve it.
NY Times: I really wish Bernie had a chance of being elected but fear the Repubs would use Socialism as their weapon and too many people still shudder at the word, not knowing its real meaning. Hopefully, the competition will force the other candidates to be a bit more progressive.
The New Yorker: Andy is probably right. I read too many posts with TMI every night on Facebook.
Right Wing Watch: We always need a barf bag alert if Santorum is speaking.
Cartoon: And they keep on finding new ways to rig it.
I am going to brag a little. My sister and son arranged a surprise 59th wedding anniversary for my husband and me on May 30. Our actual anniversary is June 19. I have dared him to do anything dangerous to his health before that date. We had a wonderful day with family and friends. Plus, I got to spend a whole week with my granddaughter Sarah Rose, who lives in Mississippi.
Congratulations Edie (and your husband of course!).
Congrats!
Congratulations to you and your husband of 50 years, Edie!
And brag you should! (Where did that Yoda-speak come from?) That's quite a milestone, and one to be very proud of!
And congrats to your sister & son for putting it together!
I put Congrats in the wrong place, so congrats again!!
50th, not 59th. yikes.
Thanks TC – I do love Andy – but am slightly concerned about this phrase " and photographs of recently enjoyed food" – I do hope that is before it was enjoyed, but these days anything could happen!
Puzzle — 2:30 To paraphrase Whoopi Goldberg in Jumpin' Jack Flash, this Idea leuconoe aka Large Tree Nymph is a huge junkie mutant tree nymph, and it specialises in eating Puddy Tat fur. Put away the catnip sauce!
NY Times — Go Bernie! And if you Yanks don't want Bernie as POTUS, he'd fit it nicely here as part of the NDP (social democrats).
The New Yorker — Blast! Where there's a will to know all, there's a way to do it, especially when it comes to government security agencies!
Right Wing Watch — "13. When he told Bryan Fischer that business owners who refuse service to gay customers have been sent to “reeducation camps” and pastors will soon be jailed or martyred." This particular example really demonstrates how unhinged Sanctimonious Santorum is! Re-education camps? Martyred? Give me a break!
Cartoon — Hijacked!
Don't wory about your May report,TomCat, it'll be there in the graphics with June next month, won't it. Try to get as much rest as you possibly can with such a busy month ahead.
NY Times: I still don't think Bernie has a chance for the nomination, but he sure is giving Hillary and others a run for their money and pushing them more to the lefft each day. Obviously Bernie is bringing a message that the people want to hear, not just promisses but real solutions and the other Democratic candidates better shape up and do the same or Bernie might astound us all and get the nomination.
The New Yorker: Too funny if it weren't for the possibility that the NSA started to follow people on Facebook long ago. Snowden could tell us more about it. There is so much more information on FB than a few call data could possibly give, and even I know that privacy on FB is a joke. What privacy?
Right Wing Watch: No, I couldn't stomach 15 examples of Santorum’s anti-government rhetoric, not even one, but I'd like to thank Right Wing Watch for doing the job all media should be doing: as soon as a Politician starts backtracking, lying to his teeth or blaming others for something he or she has been guilty of, slapping them around their ears with their own words. All liberal media should be doing this, not just Jon Stewart or Right Wing Watch, and next time Santorum speaks, journalists should confront him with his own statements.
Thanks all. I blane none of you for fasiling tp frpth yourselves with Santorum!