I just came back from visiting my mother, and all is fine. When I awoke this morning, it was a bloody miracle that I had not literally rolled out of bed onto the floor. My three furbabes were lying across the bed and had pushed me towards the precipice of the bed. Tomorrow is physio and a day that perhaps I can catch up on some chores. My student has an appointment elsewhere so I won't be teaching.
Short Takes
CBC — In her solipsistic return to the campaign trail last week, Sarah Palin blamed President Barack Obama for the fact that her military reservist son punched his girlfriend in the face, then drunkenly threatened to kill himself with an assault rifle before winding up under arrest, facing criminal charges.
Track Palin had been "fighting for you-all, America," shouted his mother in Oklahoma, suggesting that her son's time in Iraq eight years ago left him with PTSD.
"It is now or never, for the sake of America's finest, that we have that commander-in-chief that will respect them and honour them!"
The audience roared.
Ah geeeee buttercup!
Palin then explained that the better commander-in-chief would be Donald Trump, her pick for the Republican presidential nomination.
Veterans, you see, would never punch their girlfriends or need to be handcuffed by police if Trump was president. They'd feel his deep respect, and calm down and be more nurturing.
I know, we're all getting tired of Sarah Palin. But CBC senior correspondent, Neil Macdonald, has a way of getting to the truth in a succinct way, laying waste to her BS. Too bad the Republican base, intoxicated by fear, won't hear the truth.
Alternet — The Republican Party’s “serious people” wing has issued an anti-Donald Trump manifesto in the vaunted conservative journal, National Review. The piece is filled with irony, humor and blunt assessments of how the GOP is crumbling from within. But it’s all there, confirming everything that’s been said about what Trump represents and how he has exacerbated the Republican Party’s identity crisis. …
A dictator who will make Obama’s executive orders seem quaint.
“Equally troubling is his idea of the presidency — his promise that he’s the guy, the man on a white horse, who can ride into Washington, fire the stupid people, hire the best people and fix everything. He doesn’t talk about policy or working with Congress. He’s effectively vowing to be an American Mussolini, concentrating power in the Trump White House and governing by fiat.”
— David Boaz, Cato Institute executive vice president
To paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways." This is the 2nd of "18 Reasons Why Donald Trump Is a Vulgar, Two-Bit Caesar, According to America's Conservatives". To make things worse (or maybe not) from a conservative point of view, the RNC has folded its tent dealing with Trump. The party would appear to be imploding on itself so I read earlier this week. Click through for the rest. If nothing else, it gives progressives a chuckle. But don't be lured into complacency, he's dragging a lot of low information, disaffected conservative voters along with him.
Mother Jones — In the summer of 2010, she [Jane Mayer] published a pathbreaking, in-depth piece, headlined "Covert Operations," which chronicled the rise of the Kochs' ideological network—dubbed the "Kochtopus"—and the efforts of the publicity-shy libertarian brothers to guide the burgeoning tea party toward policies that favor Koch Industries. The article depicted the Kochs as secretive bankrollers waging a war against President Barack Obama and opposing environmental safety measures. The Kochs were enraged by the story. A lawyer for their company complained; David Koch called the story "ludicrous." But the New Yorker saw no reason to correct anything. And the kerfuffle seemed to die down. Or so Mayer thought.
The Kochtopus
Click through for the rest of Mayer's fight against the Kochtopus. The article she wrote in 2010 that angered the Kochs, "Covert Operations" is a long but interesting piece.
My Universe —
We had to know what Friday’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” would be like once Sarah Palin came out 
