Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 188.  Yesterday I reached into my drawer for a pair of undershorts and came up empty, so despite sleeping most of the day, I did the dreaded task last night.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, but my meditations will be limited.  I’m already religiously ecstatic.  I afraid I have another hectic week on tap.  Tuesday is a prison volunteer day, Wednesday is a grocery delivery day, and Thursday I have the appointment with my Pulmonologist, for which I recently had the CT Scan done.  So I’ll be intermittent with my posting.  I did complete my most important task of the year.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: An organization of University of North Carolina athletic boosters expressed shock and outrage today over a report that a few members of U.N.C. sports teams may have taken real classes, despite the widespread availability of fake ones.

The report, which alleges that several players may have fulfilled the curriculum requirements of actual classes, sent shock waves through the U.N.C. booster community.

“These players apparently attended classes, wrote papers, and took exams,” Hal Cowlington, the president of a prominent U.N.C. booster club, said. “The impact of these distractions on their athletic performance is, to put it mildly, incalculable.”

Andy is on top of it. The last thing the boys on the Bubba Bagger Booster Bus ever intended is for college athletes, especially black ones, to actually get an education.

From Upworthy: Attacks on Canada are rare. But what’s special is how they handle times of crisis. Instead of getting engulfed with fear and sensationalism, they remain who they are. They won’t allow such an attack to shake them up or change them.

Kudos to Canadians. Statements like these are the polar opposite of what we are hearing from Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians.

From Blue Oregon: Of all the sound bites gushing forth from the No on 92’s PR spin machine opposing GMO labeling, one stands out as a masterpiece of deception.

From their website:“Would Measure 92 end up costing taxpayers?

Yes. Measure 92 would create two new state bureaucracies to enforce and implement its costly regulations. The Oregon Department of Administrative Services staff estimated that inspection programs to enforce Measure 92 would cost taxpayers more than $14 million every budget cycle.”

The $14 million figure is everywhere – in their ads, in the Voters’ Pamphlet and on the lips of the PR professionals their campaign has hired to do their debating for them.

Yet the actual, official cost estimate from the Secretary of State’s office is that Measure 92 is “expected to result in direct expenditures by State agencies for initial one-time start-up costs estimated at between $550,000 and $600,000.”

This comes to a one-time cost of 15 cents per Oregonian for work performed by current staff… [emphasis original]

Click through for more. I’ve been inundated by No on 92 ads from phony farmers, ersatz environmentalists and scam scientists. Vote YES on Oregon 92.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 186.  I’m rushing to get this finished before I leave for my volunteer work in prison.

The Victims Impact meeting went very well, and my presentation was well received.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

As penance for missing it, I must say 513 Hail Peytons. 🙂

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Republican Gov. John Kasich got a lot of attention on Monday for acknowledging reality when he said that Obamacare repeal is "not gonna happen." Then he went even deeper, saying that the "political or ideological" opposition to Obamacare—and, in particular, Medicaid expansion—doesn’t "hold water against real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people’s lives." Two thoughts spring to mind reading that. Either John Kasich has given up any presidential aspirations or Kasich is seeing a shift in his party away from Obamacare insanity.

As it turns out, it’s neither of those things, because Kasich immediately "clarified" his position.

"I don’t back Obamacare. I never have. I want it to be repealed," he told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. "If the House and the Senate [are Republican-controlled] and we have a Republican president, Obamacare will be repealed flat out. Flat out. And it will be replaced."

So much for "real improvements in people’s lives." But that’s not the best part. He goes full McConnell in his backtracking talk with Politico.

Even when one acknowledges the need to feign sanity, the need to suck … nevermind … for money requires that they goosestep first.

From NY Times: Four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards were convicted and immediately jailed Wednesday for their roles in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad’s Nisour Square that marked a bloody nadir in America’s war in Iraq.

A jury in Federal District Court found that the deaths of 17 Iraqis in the shooting, which began when a convoy of the guards suddenly began firing in a crowded intersection, was not a battlefield tragedy, but the result of a criminal act.

The justice here, although commendable, is incomplete, as long as the company exists in any form. Because it became known as the Republican Gestapo, it changed it’s name to Xe and then to Academi. as it remains as part of Constellis Holdings.

From Upworthy:

She’s already America’s sweetheart, and now she’s won an award for her anti-bullying work. As someone who was bullied herself, Julia Roberts can really relate to the teens she works with.

Kudos to Julia. And she’s right. It’s wrong to stand by and do nothing. But even worse, the Republican Party demands that bullying LGBT people is part of their right to religious expression.  How hateful!

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 184.  It’s already evening, and I finally have time to write.  ARGH!  Tomorrow is a grocery delivery day, and Thursday is a major prison volunteer day.  Color me rushed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 3:53).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

Standings:

I could shoot Foster!

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: \Why any ostensibly rational person living in Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana who saw this map, and still would think their states’ Republican leaders’ policies were delivering the economic growth their region so sorely needs is beyond comprehension.

Bubba Bagger should be hanging his head in shame!

From NY Times: Giving this city a measure of calm for the first time in weeks, 43 people who had direct or indirect contact with the Liberian man who died here of Ebola were declared Ebola-free on Monday.

The 43 people who were released from monitoring had all had potential contact with the Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, before he was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on Sept. 28. Ultimately in the coming days, a total of 48 people are expected to be cleared of any risk of contracting Ebola and will start rebuilding their lives, after a 21-day isolation that amounted to a self-imposed quarantine for some of them and a more serious state-ordered quarantine for others.

Republicans had better hurry. This issue is running out of steam as a way for them to fear monger. On the other hand, Faux Noise viewers may lot learn of this.

From Upworthy: Space is vast and mysterious and kind of generally mind-freakingly amazing. And yet, we’re not really trying to get there anymore. Neil deGrasse Tyson isn’t too pleased about that.

How true! It seems that Republicans would prefer to keep the known universe from expanding into the vast empty spaces between the ears of idiots who elect them, especially those idiots that choose not to vote!

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