Today has been a rather mellow day, much of it spent on-line reading with a few home chores on the side. Of course I spent time playing with my "kids" which is always fun. But the best part, since I did not have to go out, I stayed in my pajamas. How snuggly is that?
Fantasy Football
| Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | Stk | Waiver | For | Against |
| 1+1 | 2-0-0 | 1.000 | W2 | 10 | 214.92 | 149.74 | |
| 2+2 | 2-0-0 | 1.000 | W2 | 9 | 191.48 | 167.76 | |
| 3+7 | 1-1-0 | .500 | W1 | 8 | 192.34 | 207.46 | |
| 4+5 | 1-1-0 | .500 | W1 | 7 | 172.00 | 164.46 | |
| 5 | 1-1-0 | .500 | L1 | 6 | 162.78 | 193.00 | |
| 6-5 | 1-1-0 | .500 | L1 | 5 | 222.84 | 238.24 | |
| 7-4 | 1-1-0 | .500 | L1 | 4 | 173.54 | 182.06 | |
| 8 | 1-1-0 | .500 | W1 | 3 | 156.90 | 151.44 | |
| 9-3 | 0-2-0 | .000 | L2 | 2 | 204.30 | 220.68 | |
| 10-3 | 0-2-0 | .000 | L2 | 1 | 157.82 | 174.08 | |
* Rank change shown is from week 1 – 2
At least the next time I talk to TC, I'll be able to give him the good news that he is in 3rd place!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:21). To do it, click here. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.
Short Takes
The Nation — h/t JL — The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and National Voter Registration Act of 1993 enfranchised millions of new voters. After passage of the VRA, for example, the number of black registered voters in the South increased from 31 percent to 73 percent. Despite these landmark laws, 51 million Americans—1 in 4 eligible voters—are still not registered to vote. “Among eligible voters, some 30 percent of African Americans, 40 percent of Hispanics, 45 percent of Asian Americans, and 41 percent of young adults (age 18-24), were not registered to vote in the historic 2008 election,” according to Demos.
During the 2012 election, the United States ranked 31st of 34 developed countries in voter turnout. Yet 84 percent of registered voters cast ballots. The US doesn’t have a voter turnout problem; we have a voter registration problem. Our turnout is abysmal because so many eligible voters are not even registered to vote.
But why is the registration rate so low? As I understand, the registration process is controlled by the political parties. I remember reading about voter registrations ending up in dumpsters . . . registrations for people likely to vote Democratic, or voters that were registering as Democrats. The parties should not be involved in registrations. But that is only one part. I suspect that there are people that figure their vote does not count, so why go to the trouble. I also think the differences state to state in early voting, voting hours, long line-ups to vote etc all contribute to less than ideal participation rates. Until this function is taken over by a federal agency, I see no chance of reform. Look at the administration of Canada's federal election. It isn't perfect, but there isn't the corruption of the system as there is in the US.
Rachel Maddow — Rachel recently interviewed Bernie Sanders. Here is video of this 16 minute interview.
When I was doing some research, I came across this Rachel video "Punch in the face starts the day's 2016 news" and was very amused when she reported that among Republican voters in Vermont, Bernie leads the way tied with Trump and Jebya at 12% of the vote. I could not imbed the video but connect to it from the link. It is in the first 5 minutes and is quite amusing. To say that Bernie has a broad appeal is an understatement. Or is this an indication that Republicans, at least in Vermont, are not too swift?
Go Bernie! I don't even get to vote and I can "Feel the Bern". I know many Canadians would be happy with Bernie as Prime Minister, but our election is 3 weeks away . . . not enough time for Bernie to get in.
Huffington Post — "I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone pipeline as what I believe it is: a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change, and, unfortunately from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward," Clinton said.
"Therefore, I oppose it," she said. "I don't think it's in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change."
Well finally! A clear statement of where Hillary stands on the Keystone XL and a statement about climate change. I rather liked her suggestion of a "plan for a North American approach to fighting climate change and clean energy" . Let's hope, God forbid, that Stephen Harper is not the Prime Minister after the 19/10/15 Canadian election. He did not work well with Obama when it came to the Keystone XL.
My Universe — Amen!
10 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 23/09/2015”
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Great combination of stories Lynn and I love your ending inspiration! I'll return later for content comments.
I am off the bottom of the standings! Yeah!
4:40. No chicken for me. It isn't a Seachicken, is it?
The Nation – In my state, registration is done through the County Clerk's office (including on lne), the DMV as an option, and registration drives, which could certainly be partisan. The DMV isn't partisan. The County Clerk is selected by a partisan election, but, unlike some counties, we have election laws that essentially require anything to do with elections to be done by a minimum of one Democrat and one Republican, which helps (although it can be annoying if one is an election judge and has to go to the bathroom). When I did work as an election judge, the attitude that was communicated to us was, "We want to make it easy or at least possible for anyone who wants to vote to do so." So we had to be prepared to check maps to help a voter find the correct precinct if ours wasn't it and give directions if necessary, and we had to help some voters use provisional ballots, and explain in detail how those worked. That was all prior to 2010, and in any case, today we have all-mail balloting, which has numerous advantages, the most important probably being a paper trail.
When each state has its own election laws, of course, there are going to be inconsistencies. I can see arguments for allowin each state to have its own, but I suspect that if there were strong Federal laws to require ocnsistency there would be more fairness nationwide.
Rachel – Well, of course wou want him, but you can't have him. And I know you wouldn't take Ted Cruz as a replacement. Best leave them where they are.
HuffPo Finally indeed! Long in coming but on the right side of history. Of course there are other tar sands and other pipelines. Let's hope she stays consistent.
Universe – Amen indeed!
3:00 That's one mean looking chicken! I bet it is a tough old bird.
3:05 I agree, Jerry.
Thanks, Lynn (and others) who are doing an awesome job while TC is away.
Appreciate y'all, Thank you.
Prayers for TC, and hope he is doing better with each passing day. Hugs!!! TC.
Yes, a great ending quote!
Harper be gone!!!
You seem to be getting the hang of it, Lynn. Let's hope there are a lot more mellow/pajama days following. Thanks for keeping TomCat's blog in the air and thanks for not demanding too much of yourself to do that.
The Nation: I'm not sure how the federal elections in Canada work, but I know that I'm happy with ours, where everyone who's registered at an address (and is a citizen) get's his voting papers sent at that address. Of course that's not perfect, the homeless and the transient are left out of the voting loop, but it leaves little room for fraud. Parties are left completely out of the process, so what you vote is completely anonymous. You can become a party member of course, but the administration of party members and voters never come together. Voting is uniform across the country, whether it is for national, provincial or county elections. But then we're only 17 million voters, so it's easy, isn't it.
But it's unlikely the American system is ever going to change, so the most important thing in the next months is to organize huge voter-registration rallies, to really spend money on getting people all they need to be able to enter a polling booth and cast a legitimate vote. If they're registered, they'll vote, it's as simple as that.
Rachel Maddow: Great interview, Rachel really knows how to let her guests get their own message across, without sucking up to them and going all "we're big palls"on them. And because Bernie hasn't got his own media fanclub (aka known as Faux News) behind him, each interview like this Bernie gets will help him to gain a wider audience and a wider appeal. Go Bernie!
Huffington Post: Hillary's new stance on Keystone XL and Climate change is further proof of what I call the Bernie effect. She has to move further to the left and further away from het corporate friends if she wants to keep the Democratic nomination out of Bernie's hands. The timing of Pope Francis' speech in which he also mentioned Climate Change as one of the greatest threats to our planet may also have something to do with her statements, don't you think? 😉
Wonderful quote!
Thanks for this Lynn – very good articles, but my dratted kidney stones are sounding off again so I can't stay to comment – except that I utterly LOVE today's My Universe – may God bless us all with that love to support us!
You had the kind of day I am looking forward to some day!
The Nation: Kentucky is, at present, implementing on line voter registration. I hope that will increase the number registered. That said, too many of our young people have no idea of the importance of voting. When I was in school a Civics class was required in every high school, that no longer exists so far as I know. Since "No Child Left Behind" the kids are taught how to pass a test. Nothing more.
Rachel Maddow: Those stats show how popular Bernie is, and show that he has a real chance of being nominated! As for the punch in the face, I would love to have been listening to the buzz in both Rand Paul and Marco Rubio's offices the next day.
Huffington Post: I am glad Hillary Clinton finally came out against the XL Pipeline, I was afraid she wouldn't. If she gets the nomination, I will vote for her.
My Universe: Beautiful.