Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos are bye, so may the Orb shine its blessed light on your team, except for the players that start on the Squatch’s fantasy team. Wendy is due in half an hour to destink the smelly TomCat and help with housework. When she arrives, I’ll break from writing and finish when she leaves.
I feel much cleaner now!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:34 (average 5:29). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Sacramento Bee: Amid debate among California campaign officials over whether it would hinder their accountability work, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a measure aimed at providing voters with more information about deep-pocketed groups that pay for political advertisements.
The California Clean Money Campaign sponsored Assembly Bill 249, calling it one of the most important disclosure bills in the nation. The measure, a multiyear effort supported by government transparency advocates throughout the state, will require political advertisements to include a list of the top three financial contributors to the committee paying for the ad.
“No more fine print,” Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, the South San Francisco Democrat who authored the bill, said in a statement. “California voters will now be able to make informed decisions, based on honest information about who the true funders are of campaign ads. This transparency is critical to our democracy and I am proud that California has taken this historic first step to shine the light on ‘dark money.’ Hopefully this will encourage others to follow suit.”
I fully agree with this. Kudos to California Democrats, and thanks to JL A for the tip. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Knowing what we know about Trump and what psychiatrists know about aggression, impulse control, and predictive behavior, we are all in mortal danger. He is the man with his finger on the nuclear button. Contributors to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” ask whether this creates a “duty to warn.” But the real question is, Should democracy allow a plurality of citizens to place the lives of an entire country in the hands of a madman? Crazy as this idea is, it’s not a question psychiatrists can answer. [emphasis added]
Click through to see how a group of 27 leading psychiatrists and mental health experts reached this conclusion. RESIST!!
From NY Times: FOR years, Republicans have effectively outsourced their thought leadership to the loudmouths at the end of the bar. But perhaps the most extreme example of that trend has been the issue of guns, where the party has ceded control to a gun lobby that has built its brand on absolutism.
And now, again, we are about to see the consequences of that abdication. Congress did nothing in the wake of the mass murder of children at Sandy Hook, and except for a largely symbolic ban on bump stocks, it’s likely that nothing meaningful will happen in the aftermath of the shootings in Las Vegas. Instead, Republicans will round up all the usual clichés and excuses for inaction.
We’ve seen this before, and it is a script written by the National Rifle Association. The N.R.A.’s blessing of restrictions on bump stocks — devices that make semiautomatic weapons fire faster — is designed to pre-empt anything more serious by giving the illusion of action. It substitutes accessory control for actual gun control.
I agree. Furthermore, most bump stocks are manufactured by a small company in Texas. The gun manufacturers that the NRA represents do not profit from their sale, so they are quick to agree to the ban. When it comes before the Senate, Democrats should propose many amendments. Republicans will defeat them all, but it’s important that they be forced to do so, as America grieves. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
13 Responses to “Open Thread – 10/8/2017”
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5:06 Must have been one of those things that were named after home, since all the species are African and Brunswick isn’t.
SacBee – Amen!
TNY – Masha Gessen is wonderful. I’m so glad I deprived myself ot New Yorker articles long enough to be able to read this one. It’s an interesting thought – not expressed out lud in the article, but it comes to mind – is it necessary to be crazy to want to be President?
NYT – Even supporting restrictions on bump stocks is a surprise. Viewed as a distraction, it is understandable, but still a surprise. And, as you say, not enough. This will become clear, but it will require more tragedies (or should I say travesties?)
Cartoon – One of those pussies needs to be a very close relation to Cecil. Or, even better (because bigger), a Siberian tiger.
Love the cartoon. My lap lions will gladly join in – and I am totally opposed to declawing, even if Aida did rip me up while playing “Kentucky Derby” with her sister in the wee hours of the morning.
For grabbing Trump, declawing is off the table.
SB: Wished I lived there! How awesome!!
NYer: Excellent article, and on point with his state of mind and mentality. I think that dt should have taken at least…..! been given a civics test or an immigration exam before he was handed the keys to the WH, and the nuclear codes for his whiny whims.
Cartoon: Finally!!!
GameDay for my guys. Hope that you have a relaxing evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
SB: Wonderful!!!
New Yorker: I have posted, and/or commented on this issue previously, may have eve posted the Bill Moyers interview with Dr. Lifton! The “Duty to warn” issue connects with the old Goldwater Rule of the APA, and the Yale group that met earlier this year believes it has such a duty. Setting up a screening system, to psychiatrically vet candidates is asking for huge trouble, down the road. “Should democracy allow a plurality …?” I’d sure prefer a plurality to a minority, but I’d rather prefer no madman to be in power, one way, or another. Malignant narcissism appears to this psychotherapist to be the most appropriate diagnosis for this Emptiness. I do not think he is “crazy like a fox,’ just crazy, but, as anyone making his/her living as a major league manipulator, he can tend to arrange things to work towards his benefit. Put that together with the knee jerk, greed motivated, behavior of the major TV networks and he got a huge stage on which to prance around on, starting with the primary season, right up to the election. As Rachel’s piece, seen here yesterday, showed, even the news that the Russians were screwing with our election, got overshadowed by Rumpy’s imbecilic, infantile comments about grabbing pussy!
NYT: Yes, the NRA runs congress, and yes, this bump stock issue seems like an easy give-away for the NRA. The damned GOP is thoroughly co-opted by them, has not got the balls the Emperor did not have, to take a reasonable stand. As i have read, Australia, passed a law outlawing automatic weapons after a single episode of mayhem, and has benefitted immensely for it!
‘Toon: The pussies, or men, in the white suits need to grab him…Pence, the Rapture freak, needs to go, too.
Sacramento Bee: I would like to see this transparency everywhere. We could get rid of some of the floss if the voters knew the whole truth.
The New Yorker: I didn’t need this study to know that we are all in danger while he is in office. He seems bent on starting a war.
NY Times: There doesn’t seem to be a time, EVER, to discuss gun control. Of course, this may be due to the heavy financial assistance the NRA gives our Congress.
Puzzle — 4:51 Don’t know if this is edible!
Sacramento Bee — Excellent news! Question: Is it Republican proof? Republicans seem to have a knack for finding devilish ways for going over, under or through things to get their way!
The New Yorker — An interesting article and conundrum which would seem to be the rights of one, Drumpf, stacked against the rights of many, all the peoples of the world for if the nuclear button were pushed. the many would die. The last time that such a situation similar in many ways occurred, 6 million Jews, Roma and those deemed unfit died at the behest of a madman named Hitler. Have we learned nothing?
NY Times — “When it comes before the Senate, Democrats should propose many amendments. Republicans will defeat them all, but it’s important that they be forced to do so, as America grieves.” — Amen! It seems that every time there is a mass murder like Las Vegas, Republican leadership claims this is not the time to discuss gun control. Bull!!! If not now, when? They say later but later never comes. Each of the murdered had lives, have stories that cannot be forgotten like the Canadian single mother of four who died at Las Vegas.
Cartoon — There’s nothing to grab if the statues in New York erected clandestinely are accurate!
Sorry I didn’t make it in yesterday. I was housecleaning and then had Telus come in to upgrade my internet speed. Mine was so old, they don’t even offer it any more. The old speed was like a bumpy back dirt road road compared to the new 4 lane highway. What a difference in loading pages etc. After that, I was so cold which is extremely unlike me, that I lay down under a blanket at about 1800 hours. I never woke up until 1000 hours this morning. I had not eaten, the babes did not get fed . . . I did not even get up in the middle of the night as usual. To say the least, the babes were starving! Today I went out for Thanksgiving turkey at my student’s house, only the 2nd time she has cooked one. It was scrumptious, and she even made yams using my recipe! I had a math session in French with Sareena (almost 9 years old) and then a game of Trouble. It was a delightful evening. Tomorrow I will be at another friend’s house for another turkey dinner. I love turkey.
Congrats on eating bird and flying high!
SB: Kudos to California’s legislators for getting this ‘Clean Money’ bill passed and signed. Finally some transparency in politics and an invitation to the public to get involved again and make some informed decisions. Excellent.
TNY: There are two very scary assertions in this article. The first is:
This is followed by a long list of presidents suffering from one or more of the mental impairments mentioned here, suggesting that for some the main motivation for wanting to become President of the USA and the success in getting there lies hidden in mental illness, not in a “calling” and wanting to do what’s best for a country.
The second is the one TomCat has already highlighted above. It was the motivation for these 27 psychiatrists to leave their professional ethics for what they are and felt compelled to speak up and warn the public for what Drumpf is capable, or rather incapable, of. With that they have answered Masha Gessen’s rather redundant end-question:
These 27 psychiatrists obviously think democracy should not allow that, and as an inhabitant of this planet which is also strongly affected my Drumpf’s madness I couldn’t agree more.
NYT: The NRA “substitutes accessory control for actual gun control” and Republicans are its sock-puppets.
Cartoon: Fake news, pussies wouldn’t touch him with a 10 ft pole.
Also, the plurality of those who voted, chose Hillary.
Sad to say, but SNL’s Kate McKinnon, as a spot-on Hillary, had it exactly right …
Amen Kate!
Thanks all. Tired Republicosis hugs!