I’m trying to climb back into the saddle today, as with the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade under my window, I won’t get any rest anyway. I am feeling better, but not fully well.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:40 (average 5:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): What To Expect From President Trump’s High-Stakes Summit With North Korea
구부리다. That’s Bend Over in Korean. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Huffington Post: Maine will be the first place to use the system, called ranked-choice voting, in statewide races this June (it’s already used in some local elections). The system kicks in for contests that have three or more candidates. Here’s how it works:
- Voters rank the candidates in their party’s primary in order of preference.
- If no candidate gets an outright majority, the candidate who got the fewest first-place votes is eliminated.
- The second-place votes of those who supported the eliminated candidate then get distributed to the remaining candidates.
- The process continues until one candidate gets more than 50 percent of the first-place votes and is declared the winner.
The same system could easily be applied to national elections allowing supporters of outliers an opportunity to vote their conscience without screwing the rest of us. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From NY Times: After failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act with a Republican-controlled Congress, the Trump administration is seizing on a different strategy for dismantling the law, one fraught with political risk. It is asking a court to throw out major elements, including hugely popular provisions that protect sick people from being denied health insurance or charged higher rates.
Democrats swiftly portrayed the surprise move by the Justice Department, outlined Thursday in a brief supporting a court case filed by Texas and 19 other states, as a harsh blow to Americans with fragile health and their families. Already, Democratic candidates in the midterm elections had been playing up their party’s role in blocking last year’s repeal efforts and their recent success in pushing for the expansion of Medicaid in two more states. Now they have a new talking point, and they lost no time testing it.
Republicans are divided between conservatives who had vowed to eliminate the law and moderates, some in tough races, who want to preserve the popular protections for people who are sick.
The only Republicans who appear to be supporting their constituents are lying. They just fear of losing their jobs. Republicans want people with pre-existing conditions to get the RepubliCare Death Benefit. Can’t pay? Die! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
Cartoon:
Vintage 2011 and still valid.
13 Responses to “Open Thread – 6/9/2018”
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6:11 Maybe there’ll be someone around with alms for the hungry kitty.
Brian – Look to see whether there is a second day. If so, look for detail. And … SOME Generals know a hawk from a handsaw. I know some progressives don’t have a lot of faith in anyone military, but actually, if one listens (or reads) WHAT they have to say, it mostly isn’t that difficult to tell whether brain cells are present.
HuffPo – So true. It could be a great protector. It does, of course, still require most voters to be sane.
NYT – Death panels. You can always tell exactly what Republicans are doing or are just about to do by looking at what they accuse Democrats of doing.
Cartoon – The Confederate Flag of the North. Or it used to be. Some wingnuts are still flying it, but many have adopted the “actual” Confederate Flag (the “” are because historically it was never actually used in any battle.)
MSNBC: Good gawd! Quite frankly, I have no confidence in this ‘poutus’, while I hope it goes well. We’ll see.
Case in point:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-first-minute-north-korea-summit-touch-feel_us_5b1beffae4b0adfb8269b1db
HP: This sounds great !!
NYT: This is horrible, if it gets passed. gop: Bloodsucking basturds!
Cartoon: Yep, for sure. Sad.
Don’t overdo, just rest and relax. Stay hydrated, take good care, and Thanks, Tom.
HP: Ranked-choice voting sounds wonderful. Not only would the “alternate” voters not screw the rest of us, they would not screw themselves. I’m quite sure that the fool who voted for Ralph Nader were not trying to help G.W.Bushit! Not to mention 2016…but I do not want to mention it!
MSNBC: I expect nothing but imbecility, so I can’t be too disappointed!
NYT: Oh, are you referring to those Pro-Life Republicans?
‘Toon: You may have noted the snake picture in some of my posts, on C2, over the last year!
I was the fool that voted for Nader. Fortunately, Gore won Oregon anyway. Why do ypou think I’m so adamant about third parties? I learned the hard way.
Don’t feel bad. I only learned not to vote for Nader by voting for Anderson.
To my shame I voted for Ronnie Ray Gun in 1980.
MSNBC: I expect nothing but imbecility from Dumpy, so I can’t be too disappointed!
HP: Ranked-choice voting sounds good. I’m sure that the fools who vote for Ralph Nader were not trying to help G.W. Bushthing! Not to mention the 2016 election…which I’m not going to mention.
NYT: Oh, are they talking about the Pro-Life Republicans?
‘Toon: You might have noticed the snake in the pictures of some of my C2 postings, over the past year.
MSNBC: I expect nothing but imbecility from Dumpy, so I can’t be too disappointed, can I?
HP: Ranked-choice voting sounds good to me. I’m sure that the fools who voted for Ralph Nader were not trying to help G.W. Bushting! Not to mention the 2016 election…which I will not mention.
NYT: Oh, are they referring to the Pro-Life Republicans?
‘Toon: You may have noticed the snake in some of my C2 postings over the last year.
HP: I like Maine’s ranked-choice voting system. It sounds a lot like the Australian ballot. This way, every vote truly counts, even if one’s first choice is the least popular candidate. Maybe more complex, but if it’s effective, hell, go for it!
NYT: How could anybody with even a grain of sense and a grain of compassion possibly support Rethuglicanazis now? Only those who are butt-ignorant or purblind.
Cartoon: All too true!
MSNBC: The media should stop giving him all this attention and stop speculating. He made a bloody mess of the G7 with his “get Russia back in” and his tariff war, leaving early to “not prepare for the summit” thereby avoiding the hot topics as Iran and Global Warming. I’ll hear what he has and hasn’t done in Singapore after the 12th. Until then I’ll block him out.
HP: This is the Aussie system, and works well for primaries unless there are more than a few candidates. Then it takes an awful lot of time and is error-prone. It took more than a month before it was finally unravelled who was our new mayor out of the seven or eight candidates for our rural county. And most voters said they could only rank the one they really liked and the one they “hated” in good conscience. The rest were arbitrary. So, for a system like this to work in a national election, it is vital that not too may outliers participate.
NYT: Again, it pays off to look at what Republicans and Drumpf do an not to what the say. The silent, behind the screens, renewed attempt to dismantle the ACA is one of those things. It’s hopeful that not only the Resistance but media like The New York Times remain extremely watchful and alert Democrats to new fronts of attack in the half term election. Keep up the fight!
I’m not going to scold you for getting back in the saddle so soon, TomCat. You’re a big boy who can take responsibility for himself. Besides, with all that racket outside you wouldn’t feel happy in your bed anyway. But I wondered why you didn’t go outside to watch the parade. ??
How about a top 4 cutoff?
Puzzle — 4:26 Beautifully coloured stain glass window and it would appear that it is all mine!
MSNBC — “What To Expect From President Trump’s High-Stakes Summit With North Korea” is a never ending load of bullshit! He’s been preparing for this his entire life??? And he brings up Clinton yet again??? At best, Drumpf is an incompetent twit. I think he will leave early from Singapore just so he can get home to his own bed now that it has been fixed since the British torched it in 1814.
Huff Post — This makes total sense to me. BC is planning a referendum on electoral reform in the next few months — Q1: do we want reform? Q2: which of the offered formats? It will be interesting to see how it pans out. Whether in the US or here, reform of 1st past the post must be made to maintain a better democracy. I agree with you Puddy Tat that this system is viable throughout the federal election system. One other change that is needed there is the ousting of political parties from election administration including, but not limited to the drawing of congressional districts.
NY Times — What a load of bullshit! Republicans garnered less than 50% of the popular vote in 2016. According to the last figure I saw, about 64% of Americans support the ACA, and only about 20% support outright repeal. So how is taking this to the courts seen as doing the People’s business? It is NOT!!! It is simply undoing, yet again, anything Obama. Republicans could not get it done in Congress so they are side-stepping Congress and the People. So now, are Republicans asking the courts to be legislators? . . . against the constitutionally mandated separation of powers? This is, in my choice of words, an act of murder towards everyone who does not or will not have health insurance.
Cartoon — Totally Republican!!!
Thanks all. Tired hugs!