Open Thread – 8/6/2016

Posted by TomCat at 12:19 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 062016

I’m feeling a bit groggy, because after sleeping yesterday afternoon, I had a light supper and slept all evening and night. That must have come from down under. I hope Lona catches up to her nap soon. I have the Olympics on in the background. Fiji just beat the US in Women’s Rugby. I may actually get to watch them a bit later this afternoon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 5:06). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Fantasy Football Update:

Players, don’t forget that our draft is two weeks from today: 8/20 at 4:00 PM EDT(3:00 CDT, 2:00 MDT, 1:00 PDT).

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): As Trump Disrespects Troops And Their Families, Where’s Fox?

Barf Bag Alert!!

The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, is solidly behind Rump Dump.

From YouTube (Real Time with Bill Maher Channel): New Rule – Priority Fail (HBO)

Not only is he funny as hell, he’s also spit on. Sadly for the lefties that put their hatred for Clinton above all but else, boutique issues are everything, and Armageddon is off the table.

From Daily Kos: Bernie Sanders wrote an OpEd [sic] for the Los Angeles Times, published today. He lays out why he strongly supports Hillary and asks anyone who voted for him to join him in supporting Hillary.

Click through to read Bernie’s own words. Thanks’ again, Bernie.

Cartoon:

0806Cartoon

Everyday Erinyes

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 11:22 am Politics

Aug 062016

I have a few items today which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

I try not to feature occurrences that are too new (like, say, yesterday) or which have received a lot of publicity – there are plenty out there under the radar more in need of the Furies' attention. In this first item, the fact of it being under the radar actually IS the story.

On Friday, July 22, Germany was rocked by news of a terrible event – a young man shot multiple people outside a shopping center in Munich. It became clear that the shooter, Ali David Sonboly, had Iranian ancestry; no one in the media hesitated to link him with Islam. He was styled as "German-Iranian," and rumors spread that he had shouted "Allahu Akbat" before shooting (spoiler: he didn't.) Right-wing politicians did their best to use the shooting to spread hatred and fear against Muslims, migrants, and refugees.

But once the dust cleared, the inident changed into a "classic shooting rampage" instead of an "act of terror," and quietly disappeared from news feeds. Why? He was not a Muslim, but a right wing extremist. It wasn't the West he hated, but Turks and Arabs. His hero was Anders Breivik who, five years to the day earlier, had killed 77 people in Norway. His other hero was Hitler, with whom he considered it "an honor" to share a birthday. Seven of his nine victims were Muslims or of Muslim background.

Sonboly's racist ideology was spawned in Central Asia, all right, but it was anything but Muslim. Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan all consider themselves to be the cradle of the Aryan people (who lived 3,000-4,000 years ago and scientifically have little to do with the historical, or maybe I should say pre-historical Aryans.) "Iran" actually means "land of the Aryans," and when Iran changed its name from Persia in 1935, both Afghanstan and Tajikistan responded with variations on "Who do you think you are?!!?"

German authorities mostly do not hesitate to link every rampage with Islam, but when right-wing terrorism takes place, they do their best to obscure the roots of the crime. This week, Bavaria's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, insisted that Sonboly “probably had no links with right-wing networks.” And shortly after the massacre, Bavarian government and police officials claimed that there was no political motivation behind the massacre, claiming Sonboly had chosen his victims at random. According to this logic, a mass killer must shout “Allahu Akbar” in the midst of his murder spree for his political motives to be acknowledged. Everything else, no matter how clearly influenced by rightist ideology, is just a classic shooting rampage.

As long as right wing terrorism continues to be trivialized as isolated "rampages," and not treated as terrorism from the right, we in the west will make no progress toward suppressing terrorism at all. Germany is by no means alone in this; it happens in the United States constantly. Another case of decisions made on "facts" insteat of on facts are mostly very poor decisions. Well, Bavaria is quite beautiful, Tisiphone. Stop in to look at Neuschwanstein while you are educating Bavarian government officials.

I also have a couple of incidents related to rape culture, possibly appropriate in a week when a Presidential candidate and his number one son have said or implied that "strong women" do not get sexually harassed. Yeah, right.

The situation in this story from Utah (but which could have happened anywhere) seems to me to illustrate just how extensively complaints of rape are routinely dismissed. "In the most recent account, four women who reported that they had been raped by the same man were ignored by the Utah State University’s Title IX office, and by the police detectives investigating the complaints in Logan, Utah."

Had not reporter Alex Stuckey of the Salt Lake Tribune dug into this, no one but the victims (and the rapist) would even know the rapes had occurred.

Reporter Alex Stuckey of the Salt Lake Tribune conducted an in-depth investigation of a pattern of alleged rapes committed by an unnamed assailant. The first assault was reported in January of 2015; the fourth in December. The male student continued remained on campus until spring of 2016, when he graduated.

The four women did not know one another, and they all filed separate reports. Three of the women were Utah State students and reported the assaults to their school. Title IX, the federal statute passed in 1972 that mandates equal treatment of the sexes in education, requires that “schools must take action if there is a potential continuing threat to students.”

In stories that echo the disturbing details recounted in Jon Krakauer’s book, Missoula, which documented a spate of rapes in the Montana college town, police seemed more interested in helping preserve the reputation of the alleged rapist than in helping the women prosecute the man who had hurt them.

Click through for additional details of the attacks and the sham "investigations" conducted, if you haven't been nauseated enough by the brief summary I quote. The prosecutor claims to be looking at the case more closely. Alecto, maybe you can hold her feet to the fire.

Just in case anyone thinks the above story doesn't address sexual crime against strong women, this third story should lay all doubt to rest on that point. It's had more exposure than the other two, as far as I can find (and I'm already late), so I'll be brief.

A prominent feminist writer and columnist said she is being forced to abandon social media after receiving rape and death threats against her 5-year-old daughter.

On Twitter, Jessica Valenti wrote: “This morning I woke up to a rape and death threat directed at my 5 year old daughter. That this is part of my work life is unacceptable.”

You know, after you've said that, what do you say? Jessica goes on with several more tweets elaborating on the facts of this situation, and what an impossible position it puts her in. I expect anyone here could have come up with every point. Unacceptable? Yes. Of course. But Facebook, Twitter, and law enforcement all seem to accept it just fine. Megaera, everyone else already has an assignment. But you are going to need reinforcements.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4003531

Open Thread – 8/5/2016

Posted by TomCat at 2:04 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 052016

Pardon my brevity, but I have to go see my Physical Terrorist, Courtney the Inquisitor. I’ve been doing her exercises, but one set of them gives me cramps in stumpy, which abate in a couple minutes but are quite painful. This is today’s only article, but I am squeezing in an extra Short Take.

I’m back. I went on the big bus and negotiated the same crosswalk at which I injured myself two weeks ago due to poor vision. Knowing that the problem is there makes all the difference and I’m developing a strategy to assume such dangers wherever I go, so I’m prepared when one actually exists.

When I saw JD’s Mug Shot (to be posted soon) I mentioned how my back would appreciate her claws. In today’s mail, I received back scratchers from JD!! Thanks Joanne!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:46 (average 6:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From KP Daily Funnies: Funny or Die: Donald Trump: POW

Barf Bag Alert!!

Donald Trump: POW from Funny Or Die

Since his election would not be funny, he would give is the other alternative: die.

From Exposed by CMD: CMD has launched a petition, calling on AARP to stop funding ALEC. You can sign the petition here.

AARP, the non-profit seniors organization that exists to promote the financial security, pensions and healthcare of those over 50, is secretly funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization whose bills have acted against the interests of ordinary Americans, including retirees and their families.

The Center for Media and Democracy has learned that AARP has recently joined ALEC, and that it is a named sponsor of the ALEC annual meeting taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana from July 27-29, 2016.

AARP isn’t exactly hiding its new financial relationship with ALEC, at least to ALEC legislators. Its logo appears in the conference brochure (see below) and attendees at the conference were each provided with an AARP branded portable USB power pack as they registered for the event.

ALEC exists to help its corporate funders advance their lobbying agenda through pushing bills that ALEC peddles as national “model” legislation. As CMD has documented in numerous ways, ALEC is a pay-to-play operation.

Since CMD launched ALECexposed in 2011, more than 100 corporations have quit the group, with many echoing Eric Schmidt of Google who told NPR as his company quit ALEC: “I think the consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake and so we’re trying to not do that in the future.”

I quit AARP years ago, because I soon realized that the only service they were providing me was giving me the privilege to be SPAMMED relentlessly using email, phone and snail mail by their many "partners". In my opinion AARP is a fraud. (After I wrote this, I received an email that AARP had stropped funding ALEC. I trust it was only because they were embarrassed at getting caught red handed.) My opinion is unchanged.

From Daily Kos: If there was any evidence Donald Trump was capable of thinking beyond the next moment, it would be easy to suspect that 90 percent of what’s bubbled from his lips over the last three days is a diversion. Attacking the Khans. Hints that he won’t accept the results of the election. Complaints that the polls are fishy. Saying that women should run away from sexual harassment. Even kicking a baby out of a rally. All of it.

Because as bad as all this is, if it serves to fend off media attention from the thing Trump’s campaign has suddenly gone quiet about, it could be worth it. Because the thing they’re not talking about is Russia.

While Donald Trump may now claim that his request for Russia to interfere in the election was just an example of sarcasm, it certainly didn’t seem that way to those listening on that day. And even if you wave that away—including the calls for a Senate hearing on the topic—other aspects of this story simply can’t be passed off as a joke.

In particular this is one place where both Donald Trump and campaign manager Paul Manafort are deliberately, publicly, and obviously lying. And that should be setting off major alarms.

That’s why this is the this is the third time I’ve covered it. Rump Dump and Manafart would deliver our security to Putin (R-RU).

From The New Yorker: A humanitarian crisis has been unfolding over the past week as Republican refugees seeking asylum have overrun the Democratic National Committee headquarters, in Washington, D.C.

D.N.C. staffers have confirmed that they were woefully unprepared for the masses of desperate Republicans who have shown up at the D.N.C.’s door, looking for safe harbor.

“These people have been brutalized for months and have decided to risk everything to save themselves and their families,” D.N.C. staffer Tracy Klugian said. “When they tell you their stories, they are absolutely heartbreaking.”

Andy, you blew it this time. The place for former Republicans seeking freedom is with rank-and-file Democrats, not the DNC DINOs.

Cartoon:

Friday Fun – Behind the Scenes Tour of DNC Convention

Posted by SoINeedAName at 8:04 am Politics

Aug 052016

WARNING: It’s “Yuuuge!”

This one is for us hardcore political junkies who enjoy the nuts and bolts on getting things done at Conventions. And fortunately two of the Owners/Administrators – David Allen (Skinner) and David Allsopp (EarlG) at the blog DemocraticUnderground.com scored Press Passes to the DNC Convention! What a thrill!

They posted a daily gallery of their adventure, and what it’s actually like being in Philadelphia documented with LOTS of photos. [Links will be provided at the end for a more complete viewing, because I left a LOT out]. And while this will NOT be “National Geographic Photo Contest Winners” quality – I found them quite compelling. I’ve tried to narrow it down to the ones that were both representative and interesting.

But first, a bit of news. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a good guffaw yesterday when Ben Carson announced that Trump is simply “too humble” for “self-praise”. (Yeah, he actually said that – and with a straight face!)

NOTE: Since there are quite a few photos, to save at least a little real estate I’ve made the rest smaller than full-size. To view them full-size either right-click and choose “Open in New Tab/Window” or scroll-click if your mouse has that feature.

If you just click on them they’ll also open in full-size – but it’ll be as a new window, so then you have to do the return feature to get back to the article. Sorry, but you can't format them to open separely like hyperlinks.

Let’s meet David Allen and David Allsopp as they head out. (Allen said he dug around and found a souvenir t-shirt from the 2008 campaign.)

They made it!

Of course not everything got a “Thumbs Up” from them

Here are their Press Passes

Like a lot of convention goers, their motel was quite a ways out in the ‘burbs. And so like a lot of convention goers they commuted in every day on buses … lots, and LOTS of buses.

They were surprised how smoothly and quickly the security checkpoints were run

Of course they ran into quite a few celebrities – like Dan Rather

And I did a double-take thinking that our own TomCat actually made it Philly

I thought they’d be assigned a designated seat for the entire time – but they only are given a general section to occupy … and it changes based on how crowded the arena would be.

If you got there early enough, you had the place pretty much to yourself

So before the crowds showed up they grabbed a couple of orienting photos

And of course the first night featured Sen. Bernie Sanders!

And Michelle Obama – who brought the house down!

With the Keynote Address by Sen. Elizabeth Warren

The signs that we all enjoyed seeing the crowd wave are actually handed out at appropriate times, so the crowd can more easily “stay on message” (something that’s very foreign to Herr Drumpf)

The second day they took in some tourist attractions and enjoyed some fun stuff

This is the NBC Today show set/stage – and it’s about as crowded here as it was during their morning broadcasts when I watched (Disclaimer: I loathe Matt Lauer)

The small "Today" show crowds were odd because it’s right across the Green from Independence Hall

So of course they had to stop to see the crack in the Liberty Bell

Then headed back to the Convention – with all those crazy hats. What is it with those hats?

And they even ran into Jill Stein of the Green Party

But things improved when they actually got to meet Civil Rights Icon Rep. John Lewis

They got good seats to enjoy Pres. Bill Clinton regale the crowd with his “In the springs of 1971, I met a girl” story introducing us to Hillary.

And they had a chance to chat w/ Sen. Ron Wyden (eat your heart out, TC)

As things kept picking up and ticket holders actually showed up, they got moved further and further into the rafters. But one of them snuck out just as Pres. Obama was winding up his speech, so they grabbed this shot

Things did not begin auspiciously on their fourth and final day: They had the terrible misfortune to run into (wish it had been literally) Andrea (nee Mitchell) Greenspan

I missed the "Card Stunt" on TV while visiting my Mom in Illinois because I had stayed up the night before (Wednesday) to watch Pres. Obama’s entire speech (probably a good call). So I went to bed before Hillary spoke. But prior to the finale with Hillary, the crowd was involved in a Card Stunt. Did anyone see it? How did it turn out?

They were given instructions on their handouts, so this is a series of how it was done

You can see they were in the rafter for the main event. That's Chelsea on their screen in the lower right introducing her Mom.

And the tension builds …

Before the Grand Entry …

And of course ending with the balloon drop

So we bid “Adieu” to two very lucky Davids. What a treat that would have been, to see history being made first-hand!

LINKS – with ALL the phots (and believe me, there were a LOT MORE!)

Background

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512289134

Day 1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512302902

Day 2

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512311193

Day 3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512317490

Day 4

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512323910

Poll Results – 8/4/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:31 pm Blog News, Politics

Aug 042016

Here are the results of our “How Superdelegates Should Vote” poll. Politics Plus Polls are not scientific, because those who respond are not balanced according to demographic categories. Therefore, we do not accurately reflect the makeup of the US population. Nevertheless, our polls are usually factually accurate, and more often than not, they reflect thinking or will of the national majority.

0804Poll

Since our polling site no longer enables us to copy and paste your poll comments, you may read them here.

I voted with the majority, of course. However, the one thing that struck me as a non sequitur is that most of the people that talked about wanting the Superdelegates to override the voters’ will also discussed wanting to remove them altogether. I have said they should be removed for many years, because they should never be allowed to override the primary and caucus results.

A new poll is up.

Open Thread – 8/4/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:30 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 042016

Wendy has been here, and she fluffed, buffed, polished and shined the TomCat. I think I’ve got the site back in reasonably good repair. I’m very tired, as I have not had a Lona Nap since Sunday. Tomorrow, please expect no more that a Personal Update, as I have PT with Courtney the Inquisitor.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:38 (average 7:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes: From The New Yorker: …Even if the Russian government is not responsible for the hack on the D.N.C., Putin’s affinity for Trump is clear. Some part of it may be a matter of kindred temperament. Just as Trump talks ominously about Mexican “rapists” and tens of thousands of “illegal immigrants … roaming free” in the land, Putin won early popularity by vowing to dispense with terrorists from the Caucasus: “We will ice them in their shithouses.” Trump is, after all, a kind of parody of Putin: the bluster, the palaces. As the historian Timothy Snyder puts it, “Putin is the real-world version of the person Trump pretends to be on television.”

The fellow-feeling between the two is complex, but it is not hard to see who gets the better of whom. Trump sees strength and cynicism in Putin and hopes to emulate him. Putin sees in Trump a grand opportunity. He sees in Trump weakness and ignorance, a confused mind. He has every hope of exploiting him… [emphasis added]

Is it any wonder that RT News has aired continual attacks against Clinton from a so-called progressive perspective? That’s a fire Putin [R-RU] and Trump [R-Hades] will just keep on fueling, but when you see the RT logo, know that Putin controls the content.

From NY Times: Republican voters in Kansas rebelled against the policies of Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday, ousting his fellow conservatives in at least 11 state legislative primary races amid widespread angst about Kansas’s financial situation.

With some races still undetermined on Wednesday, but also leaning toward moderates, the primary was a tangible sign of the grumblings that have been going on under the surface in heavily Republican Kansas, as deep cuts to taxes, a centerpiece of the Brownback agenda, have left the state short on revenue and led to cuts to government services.

Republi-speak Dictionary
Moderate Republican: a Republican that dresses in hoods and sheets, but rarely attends a lynching anymore.

From Crooks and Liars: The ugliness of ignorant racial prejudice and hate in 2016 America is deeply unsettling, yet far too familiar in the age of Trump. White people saying slurs like ‘wetback’ to American citizens (who have the right to speak any damned language they choose) is exactly the type of climate a hateful Republican nominee has fostered.

The Flores family was forced to record an incident when a racist woman made horrible assumptions. The cell phone video has gone viral after someone from Univision viewed the ranting racist family attacking the Mexican-Americans.

Barf Bag Alert!!

Pienso que las racistas estan completo de mierda.

Cartoon:

Monthly Report for July 2016

Posted by TomCat at 3:12 pm Blog News, Monthly Report, Politics

Aug 032016

I’m back to doing these, but let’s start with a big hand for the Squatch for doing such a great job with June’s report. Last month, hits and bandwidth were up from June, but the more important stats were down.

Here is our latest summary:

Stats07-2016

Reported period	Month Jul 2016
First visit	01 Jul 2016 – 00:00
Last visit	31 Jul 2016 – 23:58
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	8,435	34,090 (4.04 visits/visitor)	100,081 (2.93 Pages/Visit)	256,798 (7.53 Hits/Visit)	8.50 GB (261.59 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			432,260	498,054	10.24 GB

Reported period	Month Jul 2015
First visit	01 Jul 2015 – 00:00
Last visit	31 Jul 2015 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	9,760	30,626 (3.13 visits/visitor)	89,850 (2.93 Pages/Visit)	235,370 (7.68 Hits/Visit)	3.17 GB (108.58 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			349,301	394,093	5.84 GB

Year over year, 2016 stats are marginally lower than those from 2015.

Here is our latest demographic data from Quantcast:

QUS07-2016

They miss a ton of raw data, but among those they can identify they are a valuable source of information. We are still mostly older, well educated, poor, Democrats, and politically active. We are still about 43% male and 57% female. I wonder if they are basing that on Squatch’s feet.

Here is our archived ClustrMap for July only.

ClustrMap07-2016

ClustrMap misses a lot of visits, because many visits can’t be easily traced to a location. They have changed their format. When you click the map in the left column, it shows the current month only, no longer the year to date..

Here are our top five articles:

Jane Smiley: Capitalist Pigs 1/17/2010 2,373
Brussels Unprepared 3/23/2016 304
5 Looniest Right-Wing Moments This Week 1/20/2016 278 (by the Squatch!)
Republicans Move to Legalize Hate 7/11/2016 231
Open Thread – 7/6/2016 7/6/2016 211

The count represents only the people who followed an external link to that specific article. With the exception of Jane Smiley: Capitalist Pigs, all of the top articles are new to the list, with four from 2016, and two from July. Congratulations to Lynn, the Sasquatch, for cracking the top five!

Here are our top non-blog/news referrers (100 referral minimum):

Care2 2,333
Google 1,457
Stumbleupon 136
Google (Images) 103

Google is up by almost 100, and Google (images) is back over 100. Stumbleupon is up 8 while Care2 is down 15.

Here are our top blog/news referrers:

http://infidel753.blogspot.com/
http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/
http://oakcreekforum.blogspot.com/
http://hamsandwich66.blogspot.com/
http://noisyroom.net/blog/category/authors/terresa-monroe-hamilton/
http://jewishvoiceny.com/index.php
http://alterx.blogspot.ca/
http://progressiveerupts.blogspot.com/
http://author.addictinginfo.org/
http://disaffectedanditfeelssogood.blogspot.com/
http://mauigirlsmeanderings.blogspot.com/
http://theprogressivewing.com/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
http://buckdogpolitics.blogspot.com/

Once upon a time I included fifteen here with two or more referrals. This month, there are 14, up from 8 in June, but this time, I included 6 with only one referral. This is the one stat that still disappoints me most, because it means that we are no longer a go-to site for bloggers. However, we seem to have become a go-to site for activists!. Putting blogs’ links here increases the ratings of their sites, so this “linkey love” is our thank you for their support.

Here are our top commentators for July. Those who leave their URLs in their comment headers, also get “linkey-love” here, unless I forget to copy the data before it resets. We had a tie for fifteenth place.

Joanne Dixon (162)
Lynn Squance (130)
Edie (112)
Lona Goudswaard (105)
jla (84)
Pat B (80)
SoINeedAName (80)
Mitch D. (71)
Jim Phillips (58)
Vivian Birdwell (16)
Jerry Critter (12)
Arielle (8)
Avril Lomas (5)
Carrie Burton (4)
d bishop (3)
Phil Hanson (3)

People who submit articles to Care2 can use their submitted news link from there..

We have 172,106 links on other websites, down considerably from June. This reflects that fact that thousands of these links are over five years old, dating back to a time, when we consistently averaged over a million hits a month. I used to have the time and energy for 7-8 articles per day. Major sites (like Care2), where I used to post links are no longer available, and I’ve stopped at other major sites, and I no longer visit 20 – 30 blogs per day, because I just can’t do everything I used to do. However, as quantity has gone down, quality has gone up.

As of Midnight on August 1, we have 6,722 articles and 81,059 comments.

Kudos to Joanne and Lona for posting the 80,000th and 81,000th comments.

I recommend using your own avatar. Go to Gravatar. Sign up using the email address you use to post comments here and upload the image you want to use as your avatar. Whenever you comment under that email address here or on any WordPress blog (several others too), that image will become your avatar.

Your Administrators are Lynn Squance, aka Sasquatch or Squatch, SoINeedAName, aka Nameless, and I, aka TomCat, the Founder. Your Authors are Joanne Dixon, aka JD the Erynator and Lona Goudswaard, aka Lona the Napster.

This is our policy on links. We do not embed links to extreme Republican websites, like Faux Noise, Breitfart or World Nut Daily. However I leave notes in square brackets when I delete such links, (example: [faux noise delinked]) so readers, who wish to follow them can click through to the source article. I also remove topical links. Finally, I blank the target on all links, so they open in a new tab or window. Please do so, or if you commonly leave links and don’t know how to blank the target, please say so.

Given our expanded talent, I expect to continue our overall upward trend, although my cancer surgeries and resulting problems probably occasioned this temporary drop. One way you can help is to share our articles, not only with your family and friends, but also, on other sites, linking back to the article here. The more exposure we get, the better we shall do at fulfilling our stated purpose, “Overcoming Right Wing Insanity One Day at a Time!”

Thank you for all that you do, here and elsewhere. You are why we are here! You are the reason we are a success!!

Now lets keep kicking Baaa Baaa Bagger butt!! Black Sheep Winking smile

Don’t forget . . .

Vote Blue to Dump Trump

or he’ll get you in the rump!!

Open Thread – 8/3/2016

Posted by TomCat at 3:11 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 032016

Please see yesterday’s Open Thread to see how hectic it was. I worked nonstop, except to eat and use the facilities from 5:30 in the mourning until 8:00 in the evening. Today will be as bad or worse. Yesterday it was time to renew our HSP service, the servers that contain PP. I was able to negotiate an excellent deal by buying three years of service. If I do not survive for three years, the Squatch and Nameless will own the site. I upgraded to a service on redundant servers so that, if one server goes down, the site stays up. Performance will also improve. The migration was last night, and I woke up to learn that my email settings had changes, so I had to find the new settings and reconfigure Outlook. Then I learned that the migration had trashed our theme. WordPress has completely changed the way themes are configured, since the last time I had to to it, and with my poor vision, I was lost in no time flat. I tried a couple other themes, but could not get them to work, so I went back to Suffusion, and finally figured it out. It should look better than it did before. The morning was gone. Now I get to write. Today is grocery delivery day, so I’ll have to put those away. Once I’m done I have paperwork to do. ARGH! Now, if Lona were not Ozifying herself, I’d be napping restfully right now. Tomorrow, I just might be too pooped to pop and Wendy will be here, so don’t worry if I post little and late.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Yesterdays took me 4:01 (average 5:49). To so it, click here. Today’s took me 4:56 (average 5:43). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Donald J. Trump’s unabashed and continuing hostility toward the parents of a slain Muslim American soldier, and his attacks on Republican leaders who have rebuked him for it, threaten to shatter his uneasy alliance with the Republican Party at the outset of the general election campaign.

Ignoring the pleas of his advisers and entreaties from party leaders in Washington, Mr. Trump only dug in further on Tuesday. He told a Virginia television station that he had no regrets about his clash with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq. And in an extraordinarily provocative interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Trump declined to endorse for re-election several Republicans who had criticized him, including the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, who both face primaries this month.

That’s horrible!! Rump Dump’s refusal to endorse them just might help get McConJob and Lyin’ Ryan reelected.

From Alternet: National Committee after an embarrassing breach of its email system continued Tuesday with the departure of three senior officials.

But purging the DNC of top officials won’t remedy the DNC’s problems. Those problems aren’t attributable to individuals who didn’t do their jobs. To the contrary, those individuals probably fulfilled their responsibilities exactly as those jobs were intended to be done.

The DNC’s problems are structural.

The Democratic National Committee—like the Republican National Committee—has become little more than a giant machine designed to suck up big money from wealthy individuals, lobbyists bundlers, and corporate and Wall Street PACs.

As long as this is its de facto mission, the DNC won’t ever be kindly disposed to a campaign financed by small donations—Bernie’s, or any others. Nor will it support campaign finance reform. Nor will it be an institutional voice for average working people and the poor. It won’t want to eliminate superdelegates or support open primaries because these reforms would make Democratic candidates vulnerable to non-corporate interests.

What’s needed is structural reform. The DNC has to turn itself—and the Democratic Party—into a grass-roots membership organization, with local and state chapters that play a meaningful role in selecting and supporting candidates.

And it has to take a lead in seeking public financing of campaigns, full disclosure of all donations, and ending the revolving door between government and the lobbying-industrial-financial complex.

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, and I could not agree more.

From Crooks and Liars: Scarborough: Trump Asked Three Times ‘Why Can’t We Use Nuclear Weapons?’

If Morning Joe, a routine goose-stepper for years, is willing to repeat this, a President Trump would use nuclear weapons. At this point I have to question the wisdom of worrying about Hillary’s foreign policy.

Cartoon:

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