Yesterday I posted two articles, after saying I would not, because Earth Day was too important to pass by. I had a hard workout at PT, even though I missed 1/3 of my time, because the TriMet Lift Bus was way late. Mostly, they’re pretty good, but when they blow it, they really screw the pooch. Julie is coming to preen my kitty feathers this morning. I need it.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:50). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Recent diaries and comments have ridiculed discussion of the lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday regarding voter purges, claiming that it’s just a bunch of whiny Independents who couldn’t be bothered to re-register as Democrats in time. Although that is an issue — if you decided in December you wanted to vote for Clinton or Sanders, it was too late for Independents to make the change in order to be eligible — and one of the remedies requested by the lawsuit was an open primary, that was not the main cause.
Thousands of properly registered voters were purged from the voter roles, or had their registration changed from Democrat to unaffiliated, or were new voters and their registrations weren’t processed in time or again they showed up as unaffiliated instead of DEMOCRAT, and thus were unable to vote through no fault of their own.
And now Diane Haslett-Rudiano, the Board of Elections Chief Clerk in Brooklyn has been suspended and will likely be forced out because she made an error that caused more than 100,000 people to be improperly purged from the voter roles in Brooklyn.
She was trying to clean up the books — which must be periodically purged to eliminate people who die, move or are ineligible for other reasons — and skipped one of the steps that was built in to stop the system from purging eligible voters, the sources said.
Brooklyn lost 102,717 — or 8% — of its active voters from Nov. 1 2015 through April 1, 2016, according to state stats.
It’s the only county in the state that lost voters in that time period.
The high number of dropped voters — combined with other issues like long lines, late starts and inadequate equipment — prompted both the City Controller and the state Attorney General to launch investigations into the widespread irregularities.
There is no reason to believe that the Brooklyn voter purge was done intentionally to target Bernie supporters, as some have claimed. And I still consider open primaries contrary to the purpose of primaries: to allow the members of a political party to chose which candidates will represent that party in the general election. However, every state needs to have means to allow people to register as a member of their party of choice within a reasonable amount of time (hours or days, not weeks or months) and correct an accidental purge instantly. Contrarily, New York’s laws are the most archaic in the nation and need a complete overhaul.
From The New Yorker: After rattling many of his supporters by expressing tolerance toward transgender people, the Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump clarified on Friday that he still opposes women who were born women.
“The media has, per usual, tried to blow my words out of proportion,” Trump said on the Fox News Channel. “Just because I happen to think transgender people deserve our understanding in no way means that I feel that way about women who were born women.”
Trump said that any attempt to twist his words to apply to “women in general” was deeply offensive to him. “I have made my views about women very clear and to suggest that I have somehow changed those views is really, really hurtful,” he said.
Across the nation, Trump supporters who had been alarmed that the candidate had seemingly strayed into something resembling empathy were greatly relieved by his clarification.
Dang Andy!! I was starting to worry that Fecal Dump Trump might actually come out in support of allowing women pee in the women’s room!!
From The Boston Globe: Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage is vetoing a bill that would allow people to buy a lifesaving drug overdose antidote without a prescription.
Rachel Maddow covers this travesty in detail.
LePage made it clear that he wants people who overdose to die. Since he associates, Black people and heroin use, it doesn’t take rocket science to recognize the Republican Racism in his decision. As a former volunteer firefighter, I have administered Narcan and seen it take someone from delirious and seizing to stable in seconds. As for LePage, only one word us vile enough to describe him. Paul LePage is a Republican.
Cartoon:
18 Responses to “Open Thread–4/23/2016”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
6:14 Not surprised it was hard, with that average.
DKos – I am for closed primaries, for the same reason you are, but also because I have seen too many jungle primaries favor extremists – and that just in the last couple of years, following the Daily Kos Daily Election Digest – but that is WAY too far in advance to insist that affiliations be made in order to vote in one. I admit that all mail balloting has probably changed things and I don't know exactly how, but when we had live precincts in Colorado, an unaffiliated voter could walk in to the polling place and affiliate and vote. (Someone changing affiliation from one party to another had to do it earlier, but I'm pretty sure it was only 30 days before the primary.) I also agree with you that it was probably not intentional, but it was unfortunate.
New Yorker – Good grief – more straight news!
Boston Globe – Language fails me. (Though probably not him. He probably calls it "culling the herd.") It's too bad the laws as written do not allow him to be charged with second degree murder, because that's what this is (morally first degree, but that is much harder to prove.)
Cartoon – And I'll bet it wasn't Skakespeare, although he was born on this date.
SHakespeare. And he also dies on this date, though of course not the same year. (The birthdate is approximate but I believe it. They didn't have birth certificates, so they are going on baptismal records and known customs as to how long from birth to baptism.)
I have Big Bill listed as born on this date, too, in1564; Prokfiev, too, in 1821.
NYer: Glad that Andy got that cleared up for me with the clarification. Whew!! LOL, Andy
BGlobe: Boy, this is a shame. He's a cold blooded B, imho. What an A- – !!
Cartoon: Has it been that long ago? Happy Birthday, YouTube!
Sorry reading about the bus, but for even a little PT, that's good. Beautiful day here, even mowed the back 40 yesterday, but more rain due tomorrow. Saw my first snake too, it was a beautiful rat snake. They are welcome here. Enjoy the rest of your day, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
4:16 I got messed up in rocks.
Sounding more and more like Prince might have benefited from a dose of naloxone.
3:13 That's MY catnip growing in the window box Puddy Tat!
Andy was so good, I thought it was repeating the REAL (fake stuff, anyway) NEWS! SO FUNNY!!!
"JAMA Psychiatry
Bottom Line: Heroin users nowadays are predominantly white men and women in their late 20s living outside large urban areas who were first introduced to opioids through prescription drugs compared to the 1960s when heroin users tended to be young urban men whose opioid abuse started with heroin."
http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/demographic-of-heroin-users-change-in-past-50-years/
Research has never found blacks to use heroin at as high a rate as whites BTW…
Andy: I wonder why Trump has not found his way to the once floated ide that women and men are of differing species. It seems to me that after he looses the election bid, he ought to put some of his billions into research in this area.
Brooklyn voting rolls:What a damned shame, and to think I used to live there.
Boston Globe: Does this fool think he needs to compete with Florida, Texas, and the like?
Glad you got in some of your Pt. Every bit helps.
DK: It does not appear to be intentional, but so many "errors" are these days it makes people suspicious.
The New Yorker: Andy gets closer and closer to fact, not satire.
The Boston Globe: That makes no sense at all. Why would he veto a bill that might save a life?
Cartoon: And the world changed immediately.
"preen my kitty feathers"? Kitties don't have feathers unless they are burping them up from a poor birdie that was murdered at the claws of said kitty! See my Care2 message to you.
Puzzle — 3:13 That's MY catnip growing in the window box Puddy Tat!
Daily Kos — As with most errors that affect many people negatively, one should expect dismissal. However, being an outsider to the US political system, I have a question.
Could a person be a registered Republican, vote in the Republican primary, and then, assuming the Democratic primary were not the same day, change affiliation to the Democrats and vote in the Democratic primary? (or vice versa) In the general election there is one vote and severe penalties if a person tries to vote twice, but what about primaries?
The New Yorker — Almost thought Andy was doing straight news reporting again!
Boston Globe — This is so in keeping with LePage — he is an asshole's asshole in addition to being a racist, bigoted, woman hating Republican. Good piece from Rachel showing :ePage to be apparently out of step even with some Republicans.
Cartoon — That was about the time that I first had internet on my PC.
The fur feelsa soft as down. What Care2 message?
I resent it just now under "the message"
This got lost in the ether somewhere yesterday:
Courtney must be a good PT, because she managed to give you your full therapy hours in 2/3 of the time, TomCat. 😉 No wonder you're knackered and in need of a shower. You've earned your rest this weekend and will enjoy it all the more when you're all fluffy and mildly perfumed.
DK: Human error can and will occur, it's just the way it is. It's rather sad that people have lost all trust in the way elections are handled that every error is immediately seen as deliberate and fraudulent. I wonder how that happened? (Don't answer, it is a rhetorical question). New York's voting laws may be in need of an update urgently, but taking this to court and amending it with a request for an open primary? Sounds a bit Republican to me. The only thing that really matters is that errors like these are rectified promptly and not brushed under the carpet in the hope nobody will have noticed.
TNY: Only woman completely besotted with Drumpf would think he's now seeing women as an equal to other man, but certainly not to himself, Andy. No one els could possibly have thought he included womanhood in his gesture of tolerance. But yes, you're right. Drumpf skin is stretched so thin over his inflated ego that he would complain and moan about the way he's treated by the press anyway.
TBG: Le Page is indeed as vile as the come, there are examples of that in abundance. But does this veto stem from a deep seated racism or does Le Page simply sees heroine overdoses as an easy way to get rid of the poor and downtrodden? A quick Google told me that Portland's African-American population only comes to 2%, its even less for any other big city, so how many black people is he going to get rid of with this veto? The truth is that he'll kill far more white than black addicts. His racism is disgustingly overflowing into XXL bigotry. He should be impeached immediately, he's a danger to all of his constituents.
Very well said!
Yhanks all!! Hugs!!