The CatBox is cooling for two more hours. Then it’s back to the 90°s and 100°s for at least ten days. WWWendy is due in half an hour. After my shower, I’m taking her to Subway. Tomorrow I have routine fasting labs and a follow up with Megan, my PCP. Please expect no more than a Personal Update, and I will not be distributing links messages on Care2.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:34 (average 4:37). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious Agony:
Thank the Orb it’s only pre-season!
Short Takes:
From YouTube (a Blast from Long Ago): Voting machine (Bush vs. Kerry)
If you think that Republicans won’t do the same thing in 2018, you need to derectumize your head. Demand paper! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Axios: Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) has announced [tweeting twit delinked] he is suspending his re-election campaign after being charged with insider trading stemming from the sale of shares in a company called Innate Immunotherapeutics.
Collins explains the suspension is in the "best interests of his constituents" and will fill out the remaining months of his term.
Good riddance to the first Republican Congressional criminal to openly support his Fuhrer. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Mother Jones: A year ago this weekend, Charlottesville was overrun with Confederate flags, swastikas, and torch-carrying white supremacists.
While much of the anniversary has been overrun with news about Unite the Right’s planned protest on Sunday in Washington, DC, many are using the weekend to honor Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old anti-racist counter-protester who was killed last year in Charlottesville when a suspected white nationalist drove a car into the crowd.
God bless those who knew and loved Heather and all murdered by the Republican Reich! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
Cartoon:
This cartoon is from 8/12/2013. The Republican sellout to Russia began long before Trump took over the Republican Reich.
17 Responses to “Open Thread – 8/12/2018”
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5:38 – More toothbreakers.
New from VoteVets
Florida – Very funny, but some of it was even more insidious – votes were changed so that the voter couldn’t see the changes. Paper trail! Vote on paper if at all possible! (Absentee usually accomplishes that.) And exit polls. Lots of exit polls.
Axios – He will still be on the ballot, because it is too late to change them, and I believe Republicans are searching for a write-in, but that situation usually doesn’t work well for the cheaters. We’ll hope that holds.
MoJo – Amen! You don’t mention it, but I’m sure you know they have had to keep the location of her grave secret to prevent vandalism. Disgusting. I have the greatest admiration for Heather’s mother, who has to cope with this sort of thing and is not backing down a millimeter.
Cartoon – I would say, in hindsight, that the Republican love affair with Russia started with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when they ceased to use the word “Communism” to describe their government ad started using words like “free market.” Republicans are easily manipulated with sords they don’t understand.
Amen Si!
Sorry about the horsies, but it is just the pre-season.
Resist, persist, insist! Make sure you are registered to vote – you may have gotten caught up in voter purges. Granted, it makes sense to strip out the names of people who have moved or died; however, names can be removed for other reasons, such as not voting for a while.
Make sure all your kith and kin 18 and up are registered. If you have any kids/nieces/nephews/cousins/etc. who are approaching 18, remind them and their under-18 friends of the necessity to vote, and tell them to put a reminder on birthday #18 to register for voting.
Volunteer at a voter registration drive, especially in a traditionally marginalized community. Volunteer to drive people to the polls.
Do your homework so you can cast an informed ballot – and cast that ballot!
We’re all relieved that Chris “I-Got-Some-Inside-Dope-for-You” Collins has removed himself from the election, and while it does put his 27th District in play, it’ll be an uphill battle..
New York law allows “last minute” substitution for a candidate removed from the ballot because of death, disqualification or if they run for another office.
The 27th is a solid red district and there’s already talk of having Collins run for some obscure County office as a third party candidate, thus allowing the republicans to fill his candidacy with someone else.
But that doesn’t mean that Democratic candidate Nate McMurray doesn’t have a shot at it now:
https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/politics/campaigns-elections/chris-collins-arrest-creates-opening-democrat-nate-mcmurray.html
He posted an introduction on Daily Kos (which I realize you saw and recommended, but it may well be new to many here). And I don’t know how deep you went in the comments, or whether you saw this one from “weck” (who is a NY27 constituent and a campaign worker):
I did read that diary/post.
It’s certainly doable – but it’ll take some hard work to GOTV!
YT: We are paper here, thank gawd….always has been. Thankfully. I pick up gal pals along the way, we vote, and then go have lunch. It’s a given. 😉
At the DEFCON convention, “In a room set aside for kid hackers, an 11-year-old girl hacked a replica of the Florida secretary of state’s website within 10 minutes — and changed the results.”
Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2018/08/girl-11-hacks-website-changes-election-results/#tuir9uAQ9pZ2rUvi.99
Axios: Good riddance!! imho.
MJ: “No place for Hate”, “Don’t respond to the violence.” Continued prayers to Heather’s memory, and to her family.
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/09/charlottesville-heather-heyer/944631002/
Cartoon: Yep!
Hi, WWWendy! Have a good lunch. Hope that you have a great evening, relax, and take good care. Thanks, Tom. *Score: Yikes!!! yea, preseason…whew!
*Joanne: Very touching vid. TY!
Also WRT Heather, I saw a counter-protest sign (in a photo) from the “Unite the Right” fiasco which included the line “We have a Heyer power.” More power to that guy!
I wish we would go back to paper ballots. We won’t though.
Thanks for the heads up, Tom, be well.
Voting Machine; I remember it from that long, long, long, ago.
Axios: Good damned riddance!
MoJo: I was not aware of the secrecy behind the location of her grave site. Perhaps they ought to publish it, and have a sniper sit around waiting for someone to try to vandalize it.
‘Toon: The GOPIGS have long waxed rhapsodic about their admiration for Putin’s wonderful leadership qualities!
You probably noticed this comment went into pending. It wasn’t the sniper proposition that did it, though – it transposed a couple of letters in your name and thought you were new. If the same transposition happens again, it’ll post now, because now it knows you under that name too.
Yer welcome Mithc.
I had anticipated that you would post about the Empty Orange’s new move in favor of Russian asbestos. I was wanting to say that this is nothing but another way to pay off his Russian masters, but, darn, you did not put it in here.
Puzzle — 4:16 Definitely non edible!
YouTube — I remember this and think it very funny! What I do not find funny are the real life hacks and voting systems irregularities. This was online today 670 ballots in a precinct with 276 voters, and other tales from Georgia’s primary. The seeming lack of concern by the state’s Republican administration is disgusting.
Axios — May Collins only be the first to exit! There are 6 other Republicans who Collins recruited to invest and had insider info from Collins to dump their stock. If an investigation of their dealings pans out, may they also find themselves out of a job and in prison.
Mother Jones — This is Diaper Don’s tweet from yesterday as noted in AlterNet:
That’s rich! Diaper Don condemns all racism and violence??? He was the one promoting it during his campaign and ever since he was elected!
IMO, a fitting tribute to Heather Heyer would be to have Diaper Don removed from office and have all white nationalist etc organisations declared domestic terrorists. After all, their raison d’être is to subjugate and terrorise non whites.
Cartoon — Republicans have been and still are playing Russian Roulette!
It is much cooler but the humidity is unreal! I sat in church and could feel the humidity pressing in such that I just wanted to get outside. It is going to warm up again although hopefully it won’t be in the mid 30sC. Yesterday was my anniversary — I started my career 11 August 1971 which makes for a 45 year banking career. I predate computers and even calculators in banking here. Good luck on the A1c.
“I condemn all types of racism” means he speaks against white supremacy publicly because he has to, but what he REALLY condemns are those ungrateful n-words. It’s the 2018 equivalent of 2017’s “very fine people on both sides.”
YouTube: Sad, isn’t it, having to go back to paper to keep democracy afloat – and then hope that a paper vote doesn’t disappear, is counted correctly, isn’t “diluted” with prepared votes added to the box… as we saw in Russia recently. It can’t be helped now, but as soon as Democrats are back in power, Americans should demand that they clean up the hole voting process.
Axios: Good riddance to bad rubbish. A pity Collins feels the need to fill out the remaining months of his term, which means he’ll do just as little for his constituents as he did before, so no one will really notice.
MJ: Thank you for honoring Heather Heyer, TomCat and leave those white supremacists to protest ignored and unnoticed. They’re not worth paying attention to, Heather certainly was. Drumpf as usual couldn’t be bothered to mention her name and, also as usual, tried to make himself the good guy in it all.
Thanks and Hot Hugs!