Politics Plus

I’m rushing today, because my Broncos are on Monday Night Meditation in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  I need to do some schedule juggling for that, and it’s more difficult today, because I’m suffering a mild case of Republicosis.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:58 (average 5:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Politico: President Barack Obama will make a late splash into races for state senate and assembly over the next week, endorsing roughly 150 candidates across 20 states.

He’ll also back a candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The endorsements — which will come along with a variety of robocalls, social media posts, mailers, photos of Obama with the candidates taken as he’s been traveling to campaign in recent weeks, and even a few radio ads — are Obama’s biggest investment in state races ever by far, and come as he gears up to make redistricting reform at the state level the political priority of his post-presidency.

This is the beginning of that effort, an unprecedented engagement all the way down-ballot for any president.

Kudos to Obama. Wherever there is so much as a Republican dog catcher, even dawgs should lift their legs in opposition!

From LA Times: Tom Hayden, a 1960s radical who was in the vanguard of the movement to stop the Vietnam War and became one of the nation’s best-known champions of liberal causes, has died in Santa Monica after a lengthy illness. He was 76.

Hayden vaulted into national politics in 1962 as lead author of a student manifesto that became the ideological foundation for demonstrations against the war.

President Nixon’s Justice Department prosecuted Hayden in the raucous “Chicago 7” trial following the violent clashes with police at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

I knew Tom, and although I often disagreed with him over whether to respond to police brutality passively or violently, he was a great leader in a troubled time, who stayed the course. Thoughts and prayers for all who loved him.

From Daily Kos: …In 2015, Daily Kos Elections published a series of articles where we attempted to draw entirely nonpartisan congressional maps for every state—the sort of maps you’d expect a court or a non-political redistricting commission to produce. These hypothetical maps take into account traditional nonpartisan redistricting criteria, such as respect for the Voting Rights Act, city and county integrity, communities of interest like shared culture or demographics, and geographic compactness, and they ignore things like partisanship or where incumbents live.

We then calculated the 2012 election results for president and other races for these hypothetical districts on the map shown at the top of this post (you can find a larger version here). From there, we estimated how the 2012 House elections might have turned out under these nonpartisan districts to try to measure the impact of gerrymandering.

Our conclusion was both astounding and infuriating: Gerrymandering likely cost Democrats a net of 25 seats in 2012, more than the 17 they needed to claim a majority that year, and far more than the eight they actually did gain.

With only some small exceptions, the same maps will be used again this year, and Daily Kos Elections and other analysts currently project Democratic gains of only around 10 to 20 seats, well short of the 30 the party now needs for a majority, following heavy losses in 2014. As a result, gerrymandering could once again cost Democrats a majority in 2016 even if they win more votes cast in House races nationwide than Republicans do—as they did in 2012.

It is critical that Democrats gain control of State governments in time for the redistricting that follows the 2020 census. Far more Americans will vote for a Democratic Representative than for a Republican next month. Nevertheless, I expect Republicans to hold the House Majority.

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Thanks labor!

It’s another busy day.  After doing my morning research, I took a brief nap, refilled my pill caddy for the week, and got a haircut.  I needed it, as I plan a prison volunteer day on Thursday.  With Wendy coming tomorrow, I’ll be itching for less than 24 hours.  After my blogging, I have to plan my menu for the week and start to compose next week’s shopping list.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, so may the holy Orb shine its blessed light on your team.  My Broncos don’t play until Monday.  Pat, I luv ya anyway.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:30 (average 6:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: I know it was unprofessional of me. But I wept when I read Stephanie Woodard’s investigative piece on the killings of American Indians by cops published Monday in the democratic socialist magazine In These Times. It’s no stretch to say it broke my heart.

The reasons for those tears, which continue to spring forth days after my first reading, are many.

Even though none were of my tribe, they were still my people, like me, descendants of the first humans to set foot on this continent 400 generations ago. Like the slayings of so many African Americans killed by police, the deaths of many of them could have easily been avoided by smarter, more compassionate and less trigger-happy cops. And, as is so often the case in matters relating to living indigenous Americans, these dead men and women were invisible. Most didn’t show up in the media or the statistics. Woodard’s story should have been on the front page of The New York Times, the centerpiece of a report on NBC, the subject of speeches on the Senate floor.

Red lives matter.

From NY Times: Major websites were inaccessible to people across wide swaths of the United States on Friday after a company that manages crucial parts of the internet’s infrastructure said it was under attack.

Users reported sporadic problems reaching several websites, including Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times.

The company, Dyn, whose servers monitor and reroute internet traffic, said it began experiencing what security experts called a distributed denial-of-service attack just after 7 a.m. Reports that many sites were inaccessible started on the East Coast, but spread westward in three waves as the day wore on and into the evening.

And in a troubling development, the attack appears to have relied on hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices like cameras, baby monitors and home routers that have been infected — without their owners’ knowledge — with software that allows hackers to command them to flood a target with overwhelming traffic.

A spokeswoman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security were looking into the incident and all potential causes, including criminal activity and a nation-state attack.

Yesterday Lona commented that the attack was perpetrated by Russia and intended to knock Politics Plus offline to keep me from criticizing Rump Dump Trump. If that is the case, I certainly apologize to Twitter, Netflix, the NY Times, and other comparatively minor sites for the inconvenience that the Republican response to my activism has caused.

From YouTube (PBS Channel): What the latest polls mean for the presidency — and Congress

This shows how important it is for YOU to vote, along with everyone you know. Failure to vote is the most unpatriotic thing an American can do!

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I’m trying to catch up on a bit of rest today, because tomorrow, I go for my appointment with Courtney, my Physical Terrorist.  As a result, please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:15 (average 6:40).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube: How Democrats Take Back the Senate

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right about the absolute need to wrest control of the Senate from the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich. I’m particularly proud that he listed Jeff Merkley third in his list of progressive Senators, behind only Liz and Bernie.

From The New Yorker: After learning that Donald J. Trump was still stinging from having lost an Emmy for “The Celebrity Apprentice,” the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences offered to give the former reality-show host a belated Emmy if he will drop out of the 2016 race.

“We never imagined that if we had simply given you an Emmy back in the day our current national nightmare might have been avoided,” a Television Academy spokesman said in an online video.

Displaying an Emmy statuette, the spokesman said, “Here’s your Emmy, Mr. Trump, all gold and shiny, just the way you like things to be.”

Andy, what a wonderful idea!

From Think Progress: Chris Wallace, a veteran Fox News journalist, was already a controversial choice to host Wednesday night’s final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Wallace is noted for his close relationship with Roger Ailes, who is currently advising Trump on the debates, prompting media experts to raise ethical questions about his involvement.

Ultimately, Wallace did win praise for holding Trump accountable on several issues and keeping both candidates on task throughout the debate. Yet as much as he tried to play things equally, several of his questions showed a clear bias towards conservative ideals, policy positions, and talking points.

Here are a few.

Abortion
Wallace frames his question using the term “partial-birth.”
“I’m going to give you a chance respond but I want to ask you Secretary Clinton I want to explore how far you believe the right to abortion goes. You have been quoted as saying that the fetus has no constitutional rights. You also voted against a ban on late-term partial-birth abortions. Why?”

“Open borders”
This quote mentioned below, often cited in conservative media, has been taken out of context.
“Mr. Trump you want to build a wall. Secretary Clinton you have offered no specific plan or how you want to secure our southern border. … We’ve learned from the Wikileaks that you said this, and I want to quote ‘My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders,’ so that is the question…Is that your dream, open borders?”

I shared two of five examples of Wallace’s clear Republican bias. Click through for the other three.

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It’s another busy day with lots of chores, including preparing my grocery list for the week, paying bills and getting prescriptions refilled.  Are you going to watch the show tomorrow night?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

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

Scores:

Patty Monster monster-mashed my poor kitty dingles!

Standings:

Congrats to Vivian and Rob, who are leading the league.

Short Takes:

From Multnomah Democrats: Last Day to Register to Vote (Oregon)

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 (All day)

Event Sponsor:

Oregon Secretary of State

October 18th is the last day register to vote for the November 8th election. Registration cards postmarked by this date or online registrations submitted no later than 11:59 PM on this date are valid. Register or check your registration status here: http://sos.oregon.gov/voting-elections/Pages/my-vote.aspx

If you are an Oregonian and not yet registered click the link NOW. If you have committed a crime, Oregon still allows you to vote.

From YouTube (Real Time Channel): Ann Coulter: In Trump We Trust

Barf Bag Alert!!

Two things about the Coultergeist have not changed. It is still full of shit. It still has its Adam’s apple.

From The New Yorker: Trump’s suggestion that both Presidential candidates submit to a drug test has sparked fears that such a test would reveal that he is not on drugs.

In interviews conducted across the country, voters said that they would be “alarmed” and “distressed” to learn that the billionaire’s statements and actions were the product of a mind unaltered in any way by a controlled substance.

“It never occurred to me that Donald Trump might not be on drugs,” Carol Foyler, an accountant from Toledo, Ohio, said. “That would be terrifying.”

Harland Dorrinson, a mechanic from St. Petersburg, Florida, said that the chilling possibility of Trump not being on drugs was a strong argument against submitting the candidates to drug testing. “If it turns out that he isn’t on anything, this is something that the American people shouldn’t have to find out,” he said. “We’ve suffered enough this election.”

Andy has a great point. We’ve speculated what drug he might be on, but the possibility that he is the way he is, without benefit of addiction, is even more appalling!

From NY Times: Russia’s main English-language satellite network complained on Monday that its British bank was abruptly closing its accounts. The network, which reported on the decision, called it a British-government-sanctioned attempt to interfere with freedom of speech.

It was the latest controversy for the network, RT, originally and still commonly known as Russia Today. [Republicans delinked] The broadcaster presents itself as an alternative to the Western media, but critics call it a Kremlin-financed mouthpiece that seeks to create an alternative to reality.

Kudos to the Bank!  Putin’s propaganda network helped convince Bridiots that it was safe to cast a protest vote for Brexit.  Now they are telling Americans to cast a protest vote for Stein, because Putin wants to elect Trump.  Sadly, Jill Stein has colluded with their scheme in exchange for the majority of her TV coverage.

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