Sep 112017
 

Portland is back to 90° today.  Please let it be last time!  I’m in a bit of a rush, because I slept poorly last night, and I need a nap.  I’ll be up past my bedtime tonight meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb.  May it shed its holy light on my Broncos.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:55 (average 6:01).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Media Matters: Fox News and other right-wing media outlets overhyped the threat of looting during their coverage of Hurricane Harvey last week. Some conservative blogs ran stories warning about looting that featured tweets from fake accounts, which have since been deleted. This coverage often had a racist element, either subtly or overtly accusing African-Americans of rampant criminal behavior.

In fact, looting has not been a widespread problem, according to law enforcement officials. Experts say the threat of looting is often exaggerated during disasters, and that appears to be the case with Harvey. "The Houston Police Department says very little looting occurred during the first week of flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey," Snopes reported on September 1. A spokesperson for the department told Snopes, "Looting is almost non existent in Houston. People have been cooperative not just with each other, but also with Houston PD. The weather is at its worst but Houstonians are at their best." Los Angeles Times correspondent Matt Pearce, who drove around Houston to report on Harvey, called claims of widespread looting "bullshit."

I have to wonder how many people, if any, were murdered by racist Republican vigilantes, their hatred piqued by the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: As part of its Nuclear Posture Review—the first since the 2010 review was completed—the Trump regime is said to be considering the building of a “mini-nuke,” a nuclear bomb with a low explosive yield. Advocates have long claimed this would improve U.S. deterrence. Approval of such a development would overturn the Obama administration’s policy of limiting reliance on nuclear arms and continuing to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Bryan Bender at Politico reports:

"The [nuclear review] has to credibly ask the military what they need to deter enemies," added another official who supports such a proposal, particularly to confront Russia, which has raised the prominence of tactical nuclear weapons in its battle plans in recent years, including as a first-strike weapon. "Are [current weapons] going to be useful in all the scenarios we see?" […]

"If the U.S. moves now to develop a new nuclear weapon, it will send exactly the wrong signal at a time when international efforts to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons are under severe challenge," said Steven Andreasen, a State Department official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who served as the director of arms control on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. "If the world’s greatest conventional and nuclear military power decides it cannot defend itself without new nuclear weapons, we will undermine our ability to prevent other nations from developing or enhancing their own nuclear capabilities and we will further deepen the divisions between the U.S. and other responsible countries.

The button loving Fuhrer is a Republican Ammosexual on steroids. RESIST!!

From Alternet: Bannon was concerned that Trump’s delay on DACA will result in a Republican “civil war” that could cost them the 2018 midterm elections.

While many pundits anticipate that Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant policies could hurt the party’s long-term prospects by further alienating Hispanic voters, Bannon had a different concern.

“My fear is that with this six months down range, if we have another huge– if this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013,” Bannon told Rose. “And to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise.”

This is only the fourth of eight lowlights from Steve "Trump’s Breitfart Nazi Barf" Bannon’s interview on 60 Minutes last night. Click through for the other seven. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0911Cartoon

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  20 Responses to “Open Thread – 9/11/2017”

  1. 5:39  Paradoxically, the phone ringing may have helped.  It only took me a couple of seconds to look at the caller ID, and when I went back to the puzzle I was better focused.

    MM – Surprise, surprise.  Unfortunately, cretins believe that crap.

    DKos – Actual national security problems:  1) Climate change (that’s not me putting it at #1, it’s the Dod).  2) Proliferation of nuclear weapons  3) Domestic terrorism.  Dolt.45 – no, wait this is better: “The orange spill in aisle 1600” – is making all three worse instead of better.

    AlterNet – I certainly never expected to say anything even close to this, but – “in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013” – from Bannon’s mouth to God’s ear.

    Cartoon – Mm-hmm.

  2. MM: Most people come together to help and support their neighbor(s), and looting is the last thing on their minds, where in the ‘sam hill’ would these folks who did this kind of activity, put their looted stuff? Everything’s flooded !!

    DK: I support JD’s well written comment. Ditto!

    AN: He’s a bottom feed eater. ugh!

    Cartoon: Sad.

    Best to you watching your game, hope it goes well. Get some rest, take care, and Thanks, Tom.

  3. Love Vicente Fox’s videos. New one above in Joanne’s comment. Maybe Vicente Fox should run for President of USA. lol.

  4. MM: Faux News, and its ilk, are not interested in reporting what happens, but in spreading hate, period.
    DK: This is a scary reminder of Rumpy’s statement of last year, “If we have nuclear weapons, why can’t we use them?”  Sadly, GOPigs never see the long picture of anything, they have live and breathed the quarterly report cycle, and how it impacts their bonuses.
    Alternet: Sadly, our would-be Pharaoh provided this POS with some hint of celebrity.  

  5. Puzzle — 4:46 I was locked out and could not find the correct key!

    Media Matters — Some people will believe anything if it fits in with their own racist beliefs.  “I have to wonder how many people, if any, were murdered by racist Republican vigilantes, their hatred piqued by the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.” — If anyone was killed, Faux Noise and any other right wing noise rag should be tried for murder as an accessory, IMO.

    Daiy Kos — I could not agree more with Steven Andreasen and the Politico author.

    “”If the U.S. moves now to develop a new nuclear weapon, it will send exactly the wrong signal at a time when international efforts to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons are under severe challenge,”…”If the world’s greatest conventional and nuclear military power decides it cannot defend itself without new nuclear weapons, we will undermine our ability to prevent other nations from developing or enhancing their own nuclear capabilities and we will further deepen the divisions between the U.S. and other responsible countries.”

    Drumpf is trigger happy and nucking futs!!!

    AlterNet — So Bannon thinks there will be a “civil war” within the Republican party come early 2018 when primaries are on the calendar.  Republicans are already a fractured bunch!  It seems to me that riding herd on that bunch is like trying to lasso a greased pig.  And if he thinks that Republicans are in danger of losing the 2018 midterms, I couldn’t be happier.  Oh please let it be so!

    Cartoon — Really!  Perhaps the US government should take the lead from President Teddy Roosevelt who (from Wikipedia) described his style of foreign policy as “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.”  However leave the imperialism at home.

    So it was hot there today, eh.  Here was a bit hot this afternoon but otherwise very pleasant and no rain.  We have a 30-40% chance of rain on Tuesday.  This week is busy so I might be a bit scarce, especially from Wednesday on.  Take care.

  6. MM: Strange how natural disasters like hurricanes Harvey and Irma bring out the best in most people but the worst in right-wing media outlets, who have to resort to fake news and their usual made-up racist drivel in order to hold their bigotry afloat.

    DK: From Wikipedia:

    The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament

    America has ratified this treaty which came into force in 1970 and which was extended indefinitely in 1995. Only four UN member states have never accepted the NPT, three of which are thought to possess nuclear weapons: India, Israel, and Pakistan. In addition, South Sudan, founded in 2011, has not joined.
    North Korea originally acceded to the NPT in 1985, but withdrew in 2003. Will America now withdraw in 2017, or does the Drumpf administration think that because they’re only talking about “mini-nukes” that they can get away with it? America has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons; it can’t make the argument it can’t defend itself, it can do so a thousand time over, by which time it doesn’t matter because the whole planet will be destroyed. Drumpf is about to start a whole new nuclear arms race, and may beat Global Warming to the destruction of this orb we all live on. Anything to get into the history books, right?

    Alternet: For once I hope Steve Bannon is right: let’s all hope civil war has broken out within the GOP by January-February 2018, in time for the 2018 election. But after Drumpf’s impeachment, I dare say.

    I hope you got to nap before meditating and you thoroughly enjoyed both, TomCat.

  7. I read in another place that police were shooting looters. Granted, the looters were breaking the law – but since when does theft merit the death penalty? Were the cops just lazy, or racist, or both?
    Sometimes I get the impression that the Rethuglican Party is digging its own grave. Fine by me – except the Democreeps are no prize, either. The USA cannot thrive under a one-party system. Come to think of it, that is what we have now. Democreeps and Rethuglicans are not separate species, but subspecies of the same foul beastie. Another problem: The Goofy Oligarchical Plutocrats are digging this country’s grave next to their own.

    • Freya, while many Democrats are far from perfect, the notion of equivalence pure garbage.  Even if Joe Manchin [DINO-WV] were President, he would still be way better than the best Republican that ran  in 2016. 06

  8. The reports of looting are so horrible! They do that so white Nazi- lovers have a free reign to shoot anyone that has darker skin than they do! DISGUSTING! And life threatening! ANYONE that put that kinda crap out should be charged with conspiracy to commit murder if ANYONE is harmed by “protecting the property of others” fake alibi!
    If the Drumpf ad, (nope, can’t say it). If Drumpfenfarten tries to do ANYTHING with nuclear weapons, the WHOLE WORLD will start enhancing theirs! That is NOT good for the planet! Drumpfenfarten is gonna get us in a nuclear war yet!!! Doesn’t he know that changing ANYTHING with our nukes is an out and out prep for WAR!!!
    I can’t, just CAN’T, read Bannon’s lies!!!
    Don’t know what happened to the game last night. Went to sleep before it was over.
    Take care, TC! ❤

  9. Thanks all.  Hugs! 20

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