At long last we have a cool day. It might even rain, whatever rain is. I was obviously still exhausted yesterday, because I had forgotten my helper friend was coming over to do heavy cleaning. On the down side, I worked my butt off for most of the afternoon. On the up side, the dreaded task is past, and I didn’t have to do it!! Not that’s a “Wooo Hooo!” event. For another “Wooo Hooo!” event, I have to admit I was wrong about the Ellipsoid Orb. In preseason Wee1 1, there were only six services last night. The holy Orb blessed the Packers, Lions, Ravens, Bears, Foreskins, and Chargers, but not the Patriots, Jets, Saints, Dolphins, Browns, and Cowboys. The rest of the services are tonight and my Broncos service with the evil Seachickens is televised. After yesterday, I’m still quite pooped.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is gaining legions of new admirers by shamelessly pandering to voters who want to hear the truth, critics of the Vermont senator say.
According to those critics, Sanders has cynically targeted so-called “truth-based voters” to build support for his Presidential bid.
“People come to Sanders’s rallies expecting to hear the truth, and he serves it up to them on a silver platter,” the political strategist Harland Dorrinson said. “It’s a very calculated gimmick.”
But while Sanders’s practice of relentlessly telling the truth might play well in states that are rich in truth-based voters, like the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, critics say that his campaign could stall in states where the truth has historically been less important, like Florida.
“At some point in this campaign, voters are going to get truth fatigue,” Dorrinson said. “Right now, the novelty of a politician who doesn’t constantly spew lies is grabbing headlines. But after months of Bernie Sanders telling the truth, voters are going to start wondering, Is that all he’s got?”
Dang! It’s a good thing Andy tipped us off! Otherwise Bernie might have gotten away with all that damn truthfulness!!
From The Daily Mail: California will be hit by the biggest El Niño on record this winter, according to the latest forecast.
Dubbed the ‘Godzilla El Niño’ or ‘Bruce Lee El Niño’, the weather event looks set to bring more rain and tropical cyclones to the Pacific Southwest since records began in 1950.
But analysts warn it still won’t be enough to atone for four years of record-breaking droughts.
In fact, the dry and cracked land will be hard-pushed to withstand the three-month storm, meaning there will likely be an onslaught of mudslides and floods.
Here’s some related video.
Here in Oregon this is likely to mean a winter much warmer and dryer than normal, with inte3nse storms, when and if we do have them. It will be followed by severe summer drought. We’ll have it bad enough, but it looks like our neighbors to the south are about to get Californicated.
From Media Matters: A RedState post claimed that Hillary Clinton proves "even a homely woman can sleep her way into power." RedState’s editor-in-chief Erick Erickson recently disinvited Donald Trump from the RedState Gathering event for Trump’s sexist attacks on Fox’s Megyn Kelly.
The attack on Clinton comes in a RedState post [GOP Hate Site delinked] from one of its front page contributors, who goes by "streiff," who wrote:
If Hillary Clinton possesses any unique selling propostion [sic] beyond proving even a homely woman can sleep her way into power, it is her tenure as Barack Obama’s secretary of state. That seems to be a slender enough reed when polls show the electorate could give a flying rat’s patootie about experience and favor a change agent above all.
The post is featured at the top of the RedState home page.
As long as misogynist hatred is directed at a Democrat and not at a blonde, notorious for décolletage, from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, Republican hypocrites just love it.
Cartoon:
43 Responses to “Open Thread–8/14/2015”
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4:35 Kind of rocky for lunch. If it's tall enough I guess a bird or two (or a bat or two) might fly through (or be asleep there).
Card for Jimmy Carter here: http://act.alaskawild.org/letter/get-well-president-carter I expect there will be others, and this is one I won't worry about signing multiple times. Already a thank-you card here: http://www.care2.com/news/member/904222254/3902157
New Yorker – I think part of the satire here is describing Iowa as a state with truth-based voters. Steve King? Joni Ernst? Oh, come now.
Daily Mail – Poor little California. So far from heaven and so close to – Arizona?!!?! But Seriously, my sympathies all up and down the left coast. It could be very rough indeed.
Media Matters – Surely he's confusing her with Ann Coulter somehow.
Cartoon – Shhhhh! You know Republicans are trying to disavow that one, in so many ways!
Thanks for promoting the petition Joanne–I already signed
I agree about IA voters.
Thanks, JOanne, I have signed several of these.
Signed – God bless him and protect him – a highly intelligent man with compassion and ethics and so many good qualities. Signed – thanks Joanne.
Thanks JD!
3:21 Nothing to eat today, so TomCat took his time and let me go by.
3:21 So nice to have someone with whom to walk!
I'll ley you two fight over the rocks. 🙂
No fighting. We share.
I hope you're not too pooped to thoroughly enjoy Broncos service with the evil Seachickens tonight, TomCat. Best get one of my fragrant Eucalyptus naps beforehand, but make sure you don't oversleep and miss the game.
The New Yorker: Bernie is doing so well because he's "shamelessly pandering to voters who want to hear the truth" LOL Brilliant, Andy, I knew the truth was refreshing, but never thought it could be so funny!
Daily Mail: Climate change, anyone? California is in for some really bad weather, so to speak. The scenario is all too familiar to us Down Under. The parched land can't hold the torrential rains and flash floods will see to it that the excess water is drained away to the coast at huge speed, leaving only destruction in its wake and little build-up of reserves.
Media Matters: This misogynist load of crock makes you wonder who Hillary has needed to sleep with (besides her husband/president Bill, that is) to get her tenure as Barack Obama’s secretary of state. It's such a rediculous concept that I won't spend any more time on it.
The "Godzilla El Nino" forecast for California certainly has a good news/bad news (rain/floods) component, my concern is that all the maps I've seen so far for its path is for Southern California. The problem being drought-wise is that the great majority of CA's reservoirs are in Northern California:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/California_water_system.jpg
Sad but true–El Nino storms always split for southern and northern hits, but we do get some extra rain out of the edges of some of the storms.
I see a real opportunity here for someone who can come up with rain collectors that are strong enough to withstand the storms, small enough to put on private residential property, affordable, made from recycled material, big enough to do some good, and so easy to make than enough can be produced by October to meet the demand. And no, I am not smoking anything. I realize that may be an insurmountable challenge, but there are young people who are coming up with things that actually sound more difficult.
and gotta make sure none of the target areas have laws against rain water collection
Oh, yeah, darn it. Of course government is too slow and too dumb to even think about a moratorium when the earth is so parched that collectors would save lives.
Mother Jones just did a story on this – I'm late posting but maybe someone will want to look it up.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/07/rainwater-harvesting-drought-california
On a couple of lighter notes. Someone over at Politico (BOO HISS) did some research using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade-level score on speeches and found that Donald Trump generally speaks at the third- to fourth-grade level, including the Debate a week ago.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/donald-trump-talks-like-a-third-grader-121340.html#ixzz3ikui6a1F
While that's below what other Rethuglicans were at (and WAY BELOW Pres. Obama), I give Trump credit for knowing his audience!
And if you're a newshound like me, you've noticed that "The Donald" ONLY does phone interviews – whether it's GMA or Today or one of the Sunday morning talking heads shows.
Well, all except for Chris Wallace over at "Faux Spews" who refuses to do phone interviews. Wallace gives a detailed reasoning on why he won't chat with "The Donald" on the phone here (which actually are pretty sound):
http://www.mediaite.com/online/chris-wallace-explains-why-he-wont-let-trump-call-in-to-fox-news-sunday/
But I think the REAL reason Wallace refuses is that Trump always reverses the charges!
Thanks for the amusement!
He appeals the third to fourth grade level? That explains is popularity then. They are not idiots, as I previousl thought, just ignorant.
Isn'tputting Hairball on a 3rd oe 4th grade level a little insulting to 3rd and 4th graders?
Am adding more bushes to help keep my hillside in place…I got an invite to a Bernie in Reno event coming soon–someone realized that made more sense for where I am than Los Angeles.
I should add that No. CA does not get direct impact from El Nino–El Nino creates a split storm system going to the north and south of us, yet our rainfall may increase from the edges of storms systems. Most of the reservoirs are in No. CA so most of the major rain will not be captured for easing the drought.
Some promising news:
DOJ Affirms the Legal Right to Sleep (even if homeless)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/14/1411916/-DOJ-Affirms-the-Legal-Right-to-Sleep-even-if-homeless?detail=email
That is good news. Homelessness should not be a crime. So many in this country are one pay check away from having no home.
or one Social Security check…
Screw adding Bushes. Add low woody perrenial plants instead.
New Yorker: Andy has told the truth! And so is Bernie! Just wonder if all the people that are listening to the truth will be out at the POLLS! I hope so!
Good luck to the CA. friends here. Sounds like El Niño is gonna be a bald-headed b!£©# this year!
An article related to that truth, albeit inconvenient to some:
It is not about the election anymore: News media will not cover revolution.
"The situation is more than obvious: ( Concentration of media ownership) and has been for a long long time. Bernie Sanders is saying things that are resonating among growing numbers of people. The things Bernie is saying are revolutionary in their very nature. He is pointing out the nature of a totally corrupt system that uses the media and the electoral process to deflect people's attention from the system they need to change."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/13/1411843/-It-is-not-about-the-election-anymore-News-media-will-not-cover-revolution?detail=email
I fully agree, but Rachel is the exception.
I hope you are cooled off and got some rest.
The New Yorker: Truth? How amazing! That is what I like about Bernie, but what will be used against him by the media and the GOP. He probably won't do well in Kentucky because we don't have truth telling politicains here.
The Daily Mail: I saw this earlier today, and it is frightening. Weather is upside down all over the country. My nephew was in Las Vegas yesterday on business, the airport was shut down due to torrential rains and they were expecting flooding. Las Vegas, in August?
Media Matters: That is down right disgusting. What else can you expect from a group of misogynists?
Actually our sw deserts do get torrential rains year-round at times–just fewer in August
Puzzle — 3:21 So nice to have someone with whom to walk!\
The New Yorker — Go Bernie, truth and all!
Daily Mail — Personally, I think everyone is in for one type of wacky weather or another. Climate change is a hoax? Yeh! Right!
Media Matters — Such duplicity! . . . but then what else can be expected from an ultra right wing, Republicanus/Teabaggerum platform?
Cartoon — You have to love John Adams for having the prescience to include a clause stating
That really throws a spanner in the works for future pseudo christianists!
For the record to categorically document that the United States of America was NOT founded as a "Christian nation" as repeatedly and mendaciously claimed by wingnuts – Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli:
[Emphasis added]
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/may/11/keith-olbermann/countdown-host-says-founding-father-reached-out-mu/
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Tripoli.htm
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=125
And it was ratified unanimously in the Senate, were several of our "founding fathers" were in office.
TY TC – I love Andy and for once I could laugh wholeheartedly – God bless both Andy and dear Bernie!
The Daily Wail – sorry TC, didn't click through on principle as they are so right wing and anti everything – it would utterly amaze me if they have realised that global warming is happening as they are strongly controlled by their right wing owners.
This is well worth seeing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzbxwxWUz0 – Russell Howard's song about the Daily Wail panicking people about everything that they say can cause cancer – and I do mean everything! Short song and very funny.
Hilarious, but perhaps dawgs do!
An Open Letter to Bernie Sanders’ Supporters
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/08/15/an-open-letter-to-bernie-sanders-supporters/
Food for Thought: In the Civil Rights Movement, we joined MLK and the others in the forms of protest they had chosen in solidarity and did not complain that it wasn't the method we preferred.
A petition related to Fox News worth signing:
http://www.care2.com/news/member/100648029/3902493
Bernie never called them thugs.
No–but some in his audience did and showed the Black Lives Matter voices that a sizable number of Bernie white supporters are choosing to be racist instead of standing in solidarity with blacks for needed social change.
A petition of likely interest to PP folks re: Fox:
https://www.change.org/p/the-federal-communications-commision-removal-of-the-broadcasting-license-issued-by-the-fcc?recruiter=10693393&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
Thanks JL. Signed. I'm certain that Faux will have a way out of this. They're just that slimy!
Thanks Lynn