Well it has taken me several days to get this OT finished because I am in the midst of a bout of sinusitis, which among other things, has played havoc with my eyes and my ability to concentrate (headaches). So now, with too much rest and some anti-biotics, I am starting to feel better. I must say though, the sun has been too bright for the eyes, and the temperatures too hot — 27C (80F). I have been binge watching Games of Thrones videos and NCIS:Los Angeles videos, which while enjoyable programmes, are too much for 3 days straight. My sweet Primo, who I affectionately call Primolicious, has been close at hand the entire time. He's not a lap cat but likes to be close.
Short Takes
CBC — The blackened landscape around Fort McMurray is far from a dead zone, despite a wildfire that has reduced more than 229,000 of hectares of boreal forest to cinders and ashes.
Amid the charred skeletons of spruce and still smouldering muskeg, Alberta's fire-loving insects are on the move.
"Its really spooky if you ever go to a burn after it's gone out," said Peter Heule, an insect expert with Edmonton's Royal Alberta Museum.
These long-antennaed creatures move quickly into areas torched by wildfire to find a nicely charred spot to lay their eggs. (Royal Alberta Museum )
"Every step you take, there is just ash and soot, and you see these little beetles shimmering like little jewels on these black-burned trees, laying their eggs and doing their thing."
Out of the ashes of destruction springs new hope.
Politico — Nine House committee chairmen are formally uniting behind Donald Trump’s campaign, announcing their endorsement of the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Friday as the only pathway to winning the White House in November.
Trump’s camp announced the endorsements of chairs Steve Chabot (Small Business), Michael Conaway (Agriculture), Jeb Hensarling (Financial Services), Candice Miller (House Administration), Jeff Miller (Veterans’ Affairs), Tom Price (Budget), Pete Sessions (Rules), Bill Shuster (Transportation and Infrastructure) and Lamar Smith (Science, Space and Technology). Though publicized in a statement encompassing the support of the range of chairs, some of the individuals named Friday had already voiced their support of the real estate mogul as recently as this week.
How the general election shakes out will largely be dependant on how Democrats respond to the Drumpf challenge. There is no room for complacency. No room for Bernie/Hillary supporter divisivness. VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!!!
NY Times — After meeting with Donald J. Trump this week, SpeakerPaul D. Ryan uttered the words many in his party longed to hear: “I do believe that we are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified.”
It is hard to win without party unity, as both Democrats and Republicans have learned. But neither party has confronted the prospect of a candidate denounced by some of its leading lights as a pathological liar unfit to be commander in chief and in need of therapy.
Here are four reasons congressional Republicans are desperate for unity this year, and for Mr. Ryan to endorse Mr. Trump.
1. Do the math
Congressional districts are far more gerrymandered than they were even 20 years ago; Republican members of Congress, by and large, come from very Republican districts. In the relatively few swing districts, Republicans cannot afford to alienate their base voters, many of whom may have voted for Mr. Trump in the primary (or other Republican presidential candidates) but could stay home in November if they are put off by party infighting.
And in Senate elections, no-show voters are a threat to incumbency. “Parties want to win, and if they have sharp divisions it makes it that much more difficult” down the ballot, said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian.
Click through for the other three reasons. Are Republicans really starting to unify behind Drumpf or is this all smoke and mirrors trying to present a unified face to voters?
Huffington Post — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday his state would give up all federal education funding in order to avoid complying with the gender equity law Title IX in how trans students are treated.
The result of forfeiting the $10 billion currently flowing from the U.S. government to schools and public universities in Texas could leave thousands of college students without a way to pay tuition, grind to a halt a majority of research taking place on the campuses, and leave low-income children without support for meals.
“[President Barack Obama] says he’s going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy,” Patrick said Friday at a press conference. “Well, in Texas, he can keep his 30 pieces of silver. We will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States.”
The bluebonnet state is at it again, or should that be still! It would endanger the lives of all Texas students by denying them a proper education rather than complying with a gender equality law. They sure do grow them bigger in Texas . . . right wing nutjobs that is!
NY Times — The casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson told Donald J. Trump in a private meeting last week that he was willing to contribute more to help elect him than he has to any previous campaign, a sum that could exceed $100 million, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge of Mr. Adelson’s commitment.
As significant, Mr. Adelson, a billionaire based in Las Vegas, has decided that he will significantly scale back his giving to congressional Republicans and direct most of his contributions to groups dedicated to Mr. Trump’s campaign. The two Republicans familiar with Mr. Adelson’s plans spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
A while ago, I seem to recall that Adelson (and the Kochs among others) said he was stepping out of campaign financing finding the then crop of Republican presidential misfits lacking. Fast forward to today and the dye is cast with the drumpfing of all other candidates but he who must not be POTUS. Should we maybe say that Adelson is holding his nose as he writes the cheques? VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!!!
My Universe —
9 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 14/05/2016”
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CBC: Prayers for all, you have no rain predicted for a few days? Hope it abates soon.
Hope!!!! Ahhh…new life among the ashes. What a lovely picture.
Politico: Nine House committee chairmen backing Dump?? Uh oh. Vote Blue!!!!
NYT: I think 3 and 4 are on the table…and that Ryan will be swayed into endorsing Drumpf. imo. Ugh!
NYT2: Shame Adelson can't donate/contribute to a poor neighborhood or community, instead of backing up his campaign. $100 Million could go a long way. 'Mr. Adelson wrote, adding that Mr. Trump “has created a movement in this country that cannot be denied." Sure wish we could deny it!! Vote Blue!!
My Universe: I love his one, Simon is having so much fun! I have it on my Profile page too!
Glad that you are resting, btw, the bugs here are awful this time of year. I am a GOT fan too, so glad to see that Jon returned? and seems like good health, and his bon voyage from the North Wall. I'm also a fan of TWD, and 'Once Upon a Time', and 'Grace & Frankie'. Love those shows.
Missed this sentence, sorry!
Rest up and relax, and take care. Thanks, Lynn for post.
I hope and pray you continue to improve. Yesterday's high here was 89° (31.677°). Today's id 61° (16.11°) Such rapid changes play hell with sinuses.
I've seen that happen even in the area around Mt. St. Helens.
Amen, only 12 Republican members of Congress have opposed Rump Dump.
Amen again!
They grow bigger sphincters too!
Vote Blue No Matter Who!!
I would have eaten whatever that was.
My cat LOVES eating those little creepy, crawly critters he catches.
They are tasty!
Boy, do I know sinusitis. So sorry. Never seen wither of those shows myself. Glad you have kitty support; it's the best.
CBC – Interesting. The new life certainly, but also, when you think about it, how may insects have iridescence. That probably explains a good bit of why the ancient Egyptians were so hung up on scarabs, and why the Art Nouveau movement was so hung up on all insects.
Politico – You and I can say (and believe) there is no room for Bernie/Hillary supporter divisiveness until we are blue in the face (well, at least that's a good color to be). But it ain't gonna go away. I am afraid one of the reasons is that, although it is a very good, wonderful thing that Bernie's campaign has energized so many people who have never even considered politics before, it is also a problem because they do not understand how politics works, and think they are too good to compromise. Sounds like Republicans, doesn't it? I find it terribly disappointing how the left wing can act so much like the right wing when what we stand for is so different. Here's a cartoon that maybe some of us can use, either as a cartoon, or just the content, when talking with them – if you talk with them. And good luck.
NY Times – I don't know. We shall see. Just in passing, #3 is exactly how Hitler got elected.
HuffPo – “[President Barack Obama] says he’s going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy.” I don't think that is something Obama is saying. I think that is Federal law. It is typical of a Republican to twist Federal law in order to portray the President as authoritarian. The truth is nothing of the sort. (And when it comes to growing them bigger, they do have some competition from Alaska in this area.)
NY Times – Fascinating. Yes. I have been wondering if Charles Koch going public with the comment that it's possible Hillary might be a better President than Trump was intended to be the kiss of death.
Universe – Oh, poor kitty! Here in the Rockies we have crops of new grasshopper nymphs in the spring, and every year, usually in June, miller moths come through on the way to their spawning grounds at the higher elevations. When I had cats they would go crazy for both, and then come in the house and barf. I used to say it was the feline boilermakers – grasshoppers with a Miller's chaser.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest had the perfect rejoinder to the homophobic blatherings of Texax Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick:
Glad to hear you're feeling just a tad better, Lynn, but it also sounds like you're not there yet. Please take care and make sure you've got your strength back before you take on the myriad of tasks you've set yourself recently.
CBC: It must be a wondrous sight to see these beetles shimmering in the black dust left from the fire. Nature's clean-up crew has arrived.
Politico: Another setback for the GOP establishment, although I doubt that the voters in the street care very much about these endorsements. They probably neither know who these chairmen are, nor what the do, but their endorsement must have inflated Drumpf's ego even further. News like this always makes me wonder how much he had to pay or what he offered them for it.
NYT: It's hard to believe that Drumpf could really unify the GOP as Republican's have done nothing in these past 8 years but show they go for one thing only and that is their own seat. If putting up a smokescreen of unity is what it takes to keep them in their current seat they'll go along with that, but it'll fall apart as soon as elections are over. Any Republican who stood for anything akin integrity or principles has left the building a long time ago and what is left is curious assortment of nuts. But it doesn't really matter if the unity is real or a smoke screen as long as their base accepts it and votes for them. And let's be absolutely honest here, isn't that true for the Democrats almost as much?
HP: The Texan oil barons will send their kids to expensive private schools and university or to other states to study, and the rest be damned, right? Just wondering when the great trek from Texas to the blue states and Canada will start.
NYT: One of Drumpf's three advisers is his son in law, real estate mogul Jared Kushner, raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey who has been helping Drumpf as a speech writer. Krushner pushed Drumpf towards a very pro-Israel position and wrote Drumpf's speech for the Israel lobby group AIPAC last month almost single handedly. I'm quite certain that this change in view has clinched the deal for Adelson who must believe that by buying Drumpf the presidency Israel is assured of even more financial and military support no matter what.
My Universe: Simon's got his (and my) cats down to a T, with one exception: the little wagging with their butt before jumping their victim.
CBC: Nature lets nothing go to waste!
Huff Post: Texas politicos will gladly let anything go to waste, including its children, just to show how proudly dumb they are! What, the Lt. Gov. was a raio host???!! Someone, please let the fools seceede!
NYT: Adelson and Rumpy? Hey, if we can have radio hosts, and actors running the show…what the hell!