Politics Plus

I’m thoroughly swamped with tasks to complete, and needed to sleep late, after yesterday.  Pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:35 (average 4:36).  To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Last Thursday (May 7) here at Daily Kos, I published the first public disclosure of a shocking collapse of the state’s voter registration system here in North Carolina under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. Our analysis of State Board of Elections data revealed that, beginning on or about the time of McCrory’s inauguration in January 2013, new voter registrations originating via the state’s public assistance (welfare) offices had suddenly and inexplicably collapsed by 66%.

Federal law – specifically the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 – requires states to actively encourage and enable every patron of state offices, including public assistance and motor vehicles offices, to register to vote on the spot. The sudden meltdown in North Carolina’s effort to do so, and its continuing failure for more than two years, right up to today, has been responsible for the possible disenfranchisement of up to 40,000 poverty-level citizens (and still counting).

Republicans will do anything to keep minorities and poor people from voting.

From NY Times: It may take a while to learn exactly why an Amtrak train speeding out of Philadelphia Tuesday night suddenly derailed on a sharp curve. Whether the train was going too fast or the equipment failed or it was something else entirely, the horrifying accident left at least seven people dead and more than 200 injured on one of the busiest train routes in the country.

Yet, Wednesday morning, while the wreckage lay on the tracks, the Republican majority on the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut Amtrak’s budget by about $260 million. That would reduce Amtrak’s already inadequate appropriations from $1.4 billion to about $1.1 billion.

As a result of meager financing, railroad experts estimated last month that it would take a $21.1 billion just to repair and replace existing assets in the Northeast Corridor that have outlived their “design life” — tracks, ties, electric wires, communications networks, major bridges and tunnels. That does not include new stations, bullet trains or expanding the system. That’s only fixing what’s already in use.

Among the system’s greatest needs is updated safety equipment, including new systems such as positive train control that can slow a train automatically as it comes to a dangerous curve like the one in Philadelphia. The tracks, especially those along severe curves, also need to be adjusted and repaired so that trains can go at higher speeds.

Republicans claim that it’s wrong to blame them when we don’t know exactly what caused the accident. The head of the NTSB has verified that a positive train control system would have prevented this accident. Although required by law to do so, Amtrak is unable to implement positive control, because Republicans keep slashing Amtrak’s budget, So Republicans can provide more welfare to billionaires and corporate criminals.  Republicans consider dead Americans a small price to pay for 0.1% welfare.

From Alternet: Jon Stewart took aim at the easy pickings of Republican presidential candidates on Tuesday night.

He nailed Upchuck Huck, Bagger Ben, The Cruzin’ Canadian, and Rabid Rubio, and Strike three. He also got Hillary, but he had far less ammo to work with, because she tells the truth more often than not.

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On a scale of one to ten, I’m swamped!!!!  The O₂ people just left and I’m waiting for Store to Door to arrive with my groceries.  Then I have to put them away, of course.  Yesterday’s community meeting was interesting.  Our building energy efficiency program is doing well.  Although marijuana will be legal here on 7/1, it may not be brought into the building, because it receives federal funding,  For me, that doesn’t matter, and the smell has been in the hallway since the day I moved in, almost seventeen months ago, anyway.  My friend with cancer is dealing with it very well and has a positive prognosis.  My MRI is now scheduled for Monday. 

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:23 (average 5:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: 10 Ideas to Save the Economy: Help Working Families

No one should have to choose between providing for their family and being a good parent.

This is the second in the series. Click through to MoveOn to share it from there.

From The New Yorker: Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.

“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”

More worryingly, Logsdon said, “As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.”

While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain. “The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified,” Logsdon said….

Andy is close. There are actually two strains. For Republicitis, take Dulcolax. For Republicosis, take Immodium.

From NY Times: Jeb Bush on Tuesday sought to arrest a chorus of criticism from Democrats and some conservatives after he told an interviewer that, knowing what history has since shown about intelligence failures, he still would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Calling in to Sean Hannity’s syndicated radio show, Mr. Bush said he had misunderstood a question that one of Mr. Hannity’s Fox News colleagues, Megyn Kelly, had asked him in an interview shown on Sunday and Monday nights.

If Strike Three is so stupid that he can’t understand THAT question, it proves two things. First, he really is Crawford Caligula’s brother. Second, he’s too stupid to be President!

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