{"id":45499,"date":"2021-10-16T07:15:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T14:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=45499"},"modified":"2021-10-15T11:28:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T18:28:01","slug":"open-thread-for-october-16-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/10\/16\/open-thread-for-october-16-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread for October 16, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I put everything in place to quickly get out the door this morning. Of course that isn’t all I did … but it’s what mattered.\u00a0 \u00a0When this posts, I will be on the road.\u00a0 ALSO, in case anyone did not receive the email from Malala Yousafzai, here is the petition she is asking as many as pissible to sign.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cartoon –<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Short Takes –<\/p>\n

AP News – Social Security checks getting big boost as inflation rises<\/a>
\nQuote – The COLA, as it\u2019s commonly called, amounts to an added $92 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates Wednesday from the Social Security Administration. It\u2019s an abrupt break from a long lull in inflation that saw cost-of-living adjustments averaging just 1.65% a year over the past 10 years. With the increase, the estimated average Social Security payment for a retired worker will be $1,657 a month next year. A typical couple\u2019s benefits would rise by $154 to $2,753 per month. But that\u2019s just to help make up for rising costs that recipients are already paying for food, gasoline and other goods and services.
\nClick through for full story and human examples<\/a>. Just on a ball park quote, I’m about at the average, maybe a trifle more. But I am comfortable because my needs are comparatively few. The truly average person needs more.<\/p>\n

The Conversation – More \u2018disease\u2019 than \u2018Dracula\u2019 \u2013 how the vampire myth was born<\/a>
\nQuote – The first known reference to vampires appeared in written form in Old Russian in A.D. 1047, soon after Orthodox Christianity moved into Eastern Europe. The term for vampire was \u201cupir,\u201d which has uncertain origins, but its possible literal meaning was \u201cthe thing at the feast or sacrifice,\u201d referring to a potentially dangerous spiritual entity that people believed could appear at rituals for the dead…. The vampire served a function similar to that of many other demonic creatures in folklore around the world: They were blamed for a variety of problems, but particularly disease, at a time when knowledge of bacteria and viruses did not exist.
\nClick through for history.<\/a> Yes, this is a fluff piece (HAppy Hallowe’en.) But interesting. Knowing how things get started is seldom wasted.<\/p>\n

Mother Jones – Who Keeps Us Safe?<\/a>
\nQuote – What happens next\u2014a series of events involving a filming bystander, a burgeoning anti-police organization, court-ordered police reform, and Jones\u2019 own mother\u2014has everything to do with the questions many started asking after the murder of George Floyd. Are police the best way to keep us safe? Can they be reformed? Are they necessary\u2014or even equipped\u2014to respond to the mental and behavioral health issues that underpin many emergencies? And if not police, who? Jones\u2019 experience might just point toward some answers.
\nClick through for details.<\/a> These two incidents had some differences, but were very similar in key points. Both happened in the same city. The issues of policing may not be in the foreground at the moment, but IMO should not be forgotten.<\/p>\n

Food for Thought –
\n\"\"
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I put everything in place to quickly get out the door this morning. Of course that isn’t all I did … but it’s what mattered.\u00a0 \u00a0When this posts, I will be on the road.\u00a0 ALSO, in case anyone did not receive the email from Malala Yousafzai, here is the petition she is asking as […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[3704,3918,3725,4115,4334],"class_list":["post-45499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","tag-cartoon","tag-economy","tag-holiday","tag-justice","tag-policing","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}