{"id":40631,"date":"2020-08-04T07:54:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T14:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=40631"},"modified":"2020-08-04T10:40:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T17:40:57","slug":"open-thread-8-4-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2020\/08\/04\/open-thread-8-4-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 8\/4\/2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox.\u00a0 It’s a good thing it’s a WWWendy day, as the TomCat is more than ripe.\u00a0 This is my only article today.\u00a0 Diana, my palliative care nurse rescheduled to a week from tomorrow, so I’ll be fully in the saddle tomorrow.\u00a0 Because WWWendy is my caregiver, everyone else should be jealous!<\/span><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s took me 4:47 (average 6:44).\u00a0 To do it, click here<\/a>.\u00a0 How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Trump* Virus Update<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"0804TeumpVirusMap\"<\/span><\/p>\n

US Cases: 4,864,282
\nUS Deaths: 159,000<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

From John Pavlovitz<\/a>: <\/span><\/p>\n

…People ask me every day how they can go on, where they can find hope, what the secret is to staying positive is in these days that seem to provide no respite from enmity\u2014and I only have one answer:<\/p>\n

There is no other choice.<\/p>\n

For all but a select few of us, this is the place we\u2019re going to be for the duration, and this is the place we\u2019re going to need to defend and this is the place we\u2019re going to need to renovate with the capital of our lives.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the place we\u2019re going to shout down the bigots,<\/p>\n

the place we\u2019re going to outnumber the close-minded,<\/p>\n

the place we\u2019re going to demand equity,<\/p>\n

the place we\u2019re going to tear down the flags and the statues and mindsets that perpetuate white supremacy,<\/p>\n

the place we\u2019re going to expand so that every hungry, exhausted, hurting soul finds rest,<\/p>\n

and the place we\u2019re going to lock arms and dig in our heels and push back the terrified bullies trying to drag us backward.<\/p>\n

This is my home, it\u2019s the place I\u2019ve lived for half a century and poured my life and my gifts and my heart into, and I\u2019d really rather not uproot my family and leave my friends and flee to places that feel less violent and less cruel and more welcoming\u2014because that\u2019s what we\u2019re supposed to be.<\/p>\n

America has never been all that the songs declare we are, never approaching the kind of whitewashed, mythical greatness so many dream of returning to\u2014but it\u2019s been a place where tired, poor, huddled masses yearned to reach and breathe in, because it was aspiring to be safe harbor for liberty in a tempest of inhumanity.<\/p>\n

And dammit, I\u2019m going to spend myself to make sure it can become that.<\/p>\n

The racists are growing desperate. I think their violence is going to get worse. I think they feel the head winds of History blowing fiercely against them and they are going to make one more frantic, brutal, ugly assault on diversity and decency\u2014and we\u2019ll have to be here to be the line that will not be moved.<\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m done.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m done with this America\u2014and I\u2019m ready to fight for a better one.<\/p>\n

Lock arms with me, friends.<\/p>\n

We have a stand to make.<\/p>\n

Please click through for the rest!\u00a0 AMEN!!\u00a0 RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/span><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/span>Black lives do not matter nearly as much as white ones when it comes to the death penalty, a new study<\/a> has found. Building on data at the heart of a landmark 1987 Supreme Court decision, the study concluded that defendants convicted of killing white victims were executed at a rate 17 times greater than those convicted of killing Black victims.<\/p>\n

There is little chance that the new findings would alter the current Supreme Court\u2019s support for the death penalty. Its conservative majority has expressed impatience with efforts to block executions, and last month it issued a pair<\/a> of 5-to-4 rulings<\/a> in the middle of the night that allowed federal executions to resume<\/a> after a 17-year hiatus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The extreme systemic racism evident in the administration of the death penalty makes two truths self-evident. First those 5-4 rulings demonstrate the need to fix SCROTUS (Republican anti-Constitutional VD). Second, the state-murder of helpless convicts, no matter what they did, is the wrong way to convince people that killing is wrong.\u00a0 RESIST<\/strong>!!<\/span><\/p>\n

From YouTube<\/a> (a blast of protest): <\/span>Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Ohio 1970 Kent State University<\/p>\n