Today’s forecast high is 97°, and tomorrow’s, 101°. ARGH! Wendy is due momentarily, so I will break when she arrives, and finish later. Political humor aside, please keep all Texas residents in your thoughts, prayers, or however you address the infinite. Tomorrow is my second cataract surgery. I will put up Personal Updates tomorrow and Tuesday. Barring the unforeseen, I’ll back in the saddle on Wednesday. Later: I’m a perfumed Puddy, and ready to get this done!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:31 (average 4:19). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious Ecstasy:
I did not get to see it, but it was 10-10 at halftime, the Packers are a fine team, and even if it is preseason, my Broncos are 3-0.
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Haniza, MoveOn Mobilizer
Kudos to Haniza. RESIST!!
From NY Times: Hurricane Harvey bombarded a stretch of the Gulf Coast in Texas on Saturday with home-ripping winds and epic rains. As emergency officials scrambled to assess the extent of the damage, hundreds of thousands of people were without power after utility poles were knocked to the ground as if they were twigs.
The storm made landfall here in the coastal city of Rockport, ripping away roofs, leveling palm trees and road signs, and turning ranch land into lakes. Mayor Charles J. Wax said Saturday that conditions were too dangerous to send out emergency officials but that an initial review, as the storm’s eye passed overnight, had found “widespread damage.”
The Fuhrer plans to travel to Texas. Cartoon I hope he does not interfere with the efforts of rescue workers, when he sees Black and Latino faces on some of the storm victims. RESIST!!
From Alternet: One of the more curious trends of the 2016 election campaign was the tendency among many young libertarians to jump onto the Donald Trump bandwagon. As Salon’s Heather Digby Parton recently discussed, some more conscientious libertarians have begun to confront this problem directly.
At first glance, Donald Trump hardly seemed like a candidate that committed libertarians would even consider voting for, let alone support enthusiastically. On paper, the best Republican candidate for libertarian voters was no doubt Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of libertarian icon Ron Paul. Like his father, he advocated a free-market fundamentalist worldview that was sharply critical of big government and American interventionism. By contrast, Trump built his campaign on xenophobic rhetoric, authoritarian posturing and anti-free-trade diatribes. If there was one candidate who seemed sure to be rejected by libertarians, it was Donald Trump.
Yet, the opposite happened. While certain libertarians did support Rand Paul’s unsuccessful candidacy, countless others became diehard Trump supporters and went on to shape what is today known as the “alt-right.”
I don’t find this at all hard to understand, because that malignant troll, Ron Paul, was an overt Bircher, a hateful racist. His progeny, Rand Paul, aka Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after idiot, has hidden his Bircher beliefs to get elected and stay in office. So most of Ron’s supporters, who are false Libertarians anyway, naturally flocked to the Fuhrer. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
The purpose of this satirical cartoon is solely to point out that Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians frequently call on God to kill liberals with storms, but most killer storms in the US strike places where Republican’s dominate. I doubt that is God’s judgment, but if it is, she has a sense of humor.
17 Responses to “Open Thread – 8/27/2017”
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4:03 Aw – what a cutie.
I think I’m better tody – the late summer allergy season is weed season, and yesterday I had a crew over to cut all of mine. So of course that raised the pollen, and yesterday was just awful. But, whether ther was a breeze that carried it all off, or whether it just settled, I do feel better this morning, so far anyway.
Will be praying for you tomorrow that the second time is just as good as the first time, or better.
MoveOn – Thank God for young people like Haniza, and fot MoveOn being able to give her a scope.
NYT – And then there’s the Scatter Creek fire in Washington – which on Wednesday was supposed to be contained, but someone on Daily Kos says is still hot (and distracting enough to influence a multiple-vehicle-pileup on I-5). YEs, people of colorare generally the hardest hit, especially if also poor and get the least assistance.
AlterNet – Libertarians are far right by nature. The less government, the less regulation, the more fertile fields for privateers. A group definitely not to be trusted.
Cartoon – Well, if she hears the pleas to strike down evildoers, she’s likely to heed the word in truth rather than in the intentions of the pleaders. Sense of humor … or just poetic justice … works for me (except that Pat B is there and she’s not an evildoer, nor anyone else in her family.)
MO: Wonderful video!!NYT: ugh! Don’t come here, donny, my town, (ME!) I don’t want you here!!!
UPDATE: Just got back on the internet, it was down since yesterday early a.m. We are now waiting for more of Harvey, as he went to Waco, didn’t like it, so he’s coming back here, and to near by communities, Smithville, LaGrange. My son’s roof, (he lives down the road), his shingles leaked into the house, and he was putting tarps on the roof in the pouring rain last night, (it didn’t work), so his house has wet walls, etc. It’s horrible devastation, trees down, roads blocked with run off, the Colorado has breached the banks at 30 feet, and erosion is going on. We lost power, internet, tv, water, and landline. No schools are open tomorrow, in those communities, Most major roads are closed, as they’re flooded. It’s a mess. A crying mess, for me, actually. Fires last week, and hurricane/tropical storm now. I’ve filled the bathtub just in case, we don’t get water, and put new batteries in the flashlights, so we’ll see. 11 inches here, btw.
**Joanne, I love you for your sweet, thoughtful, heartfelt comment re: me, and family. I needed that.xo
**Mitchell: Austin got hit bad too, all the surrounding areas are flooded. Houston, San Antonio, and seashore areas are pretty bad too. Thank you, for your concern. Prayers for your family too.
Hope that you have a good evening, rest & relax, and Thanks, Tom.
You can pull this link up, and keep ‘afloat’ with what’s going on. smile.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/update-wind-advisory-effect-for-bastrop-fayette-counties/HQZBXpuxmrzJv75MnYAN3N/
This above all else:
STAY SAFE!
So terribly sorry to hear about your family’s predicament. Please stay safe, all of you, dear Pat.
I am so sorry you are facing such danger and turmoil; Stay safe.
I doubt she has a sense of humor. She is sending a message…but republicans are too stupid to understand it!
Got a high temp warning early this AM forecasting the temp to be 105 degrees F and for residents to drink plenty of fluids and stay cool. I just looked up the Temp and it is 108.2 F. Yesterday was 98 F. Tomorrow is expected to be 100 F. Records, once again, are being broken. Today’s temp beat the old record by 2.2 degrees F.
MoveOn: Very nice ad with Haniza. We need more people like her in our country. (CC)
NY Times: FEMA does have someone heading it and his name is Brock Long. He is currently facing his first real test in the matter of Hurricane Harvey.
The oil companies are worried about their investments in light of the hurricane. Gasoline prices may jump higher to the consumers to help defray the costs of repairs, rebuilds.
Trump’s Leader for FEMA Wins Praise, but Proposed Budget Cuts Don’t https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/us/politics/trumps-leader-for-fema-wins-praise-but-proposed-budget-cuts-dont.html?mcubz=1
Trump’s FEMA Director Faces His First Test https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-24/hurricane-harvey-trump-s-fema-director-faces-his-first-test
Maybe I can encourage the SUN to move to Texas to help dry out the state a bit.
Alternet: Looks the the Libertarians didn’t like pro-pot Gary Johnson much and decided to flock over to the Drumpf campaign because of his rhetoric and “promises”. They were easily seduced and fooled by Drumpf.
Cartoon: Yup, it is the GOPs turn now to feel God’s wrath for what they have done in Teaxass with the exceptions of the good people living there. sigh…
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Stuff happens! My best wishes for Pat, my Austin family, devastation victims of all stripes, colors, parties. Well, maybe not… where do Abbott and Perry live?
“Rolling Stone” had an article about how the U.S. media help dumb down (still more) americans, leading to the Rump’s electoral victory.
P.S.: GOOD LUCK tomorrow, TC!!!
Best wishes for a successful surgery!
MO: Kudos to Haniza and all those young people just like her. There’s a saying that if you’re not progressive when you’re young, you have no heart and if you’re not conservative when you’re old, you have no brain. Well, I guess us brainless at PP and Care2 would like to see many more Hanizas mobilizing the young with a heart and the old without brains!
NYT: I really feel for the Texans struck by Harvey’s wind force as cyclone and now by its torrential rains as a tropical storm and the terrible floods it is already causing. We’ve seen the same dramatic aftermath of hurricane Debbie when it hit Queensland and flooded towns in just a few hours in it’s wake, when everyone thought the worst was over. I was glad to hear that meteorologists made the right predictions (up to a meter of rain after the storm) even before Harvey hit Texas and kept up the predictions of 2-3 ft of rain in its aftermath. It was sad to see, though, how people rescued from floods had bee surprised by it and said that this hadn’t been expected.
It seemed like they hadn’t listened to the news or that their news didn’t give them the same warnings we heard here given for Texas on the other side of the world. I sure hope others heed the warnings and get out of the (to be) affected areas while the still can. The people of Huston will have to tough it out now all major exit roads have been flooded; I hope Drumpf will quickly see the need of federal help for the people there.
Alternet: I know far too little about the American brand of Libertarianism to comment, but if it is anything like European libertarianism, flocking to Drumpf is indeed strange. So your conclusion that those who went from supporting Ron/Rand Paul to supporting Drumpf are false libertarians may hit the nail right on the head, TomCat.
Cartoon: Any irony here is lost on many Texans, TomCat.
Good luck with your operation tomorrow, TomCat. I’m sure it’ll go as well as the first one and you’ll be back to normal in no time if the heat doesn’t wear you out too much on your way there and back. Keep cool in all possible ways, my feline friend.
Astounding 3-day time-lapse satellite view of Hurricane Harvey pummeling Texas:
Thanks all. Hugs. Leaving in 10 minutes.
I’m still waiting for the invisible rabbit jokes.
Puzzle — 3:18 Another birdie saved from the rapacious jaws of the Puddy Tat! No fricassée tonight!
MoveOn — تجلیل (Persian or Farsi pronounced afarine), roem (Dutch), Gloire (French), Kudos (German), почет (Russian pronounced pochet), 荣誉 (simplified Chinese and I am assuming it to be Mandarin pronounced Róngyù), and of course English, Kudos to Haniza for following her heart to mobilise for civil and human rights. It does not matter the language, the sentiments are the same.
NY Times — Everywhere that Drumpf goes, it becomes a bloody circus! I hope he does not go to Texas right now. Texans do not need him there . . . only Republicans want him there, and then only the well off ones I am sure. Harvey has brought his own circus! I think of Pat B who lives south east of San Antonio I believe and is on the receiving end of Harvey’s rain, Care2 alum Terrie W who lives just north of the Gulf near the Louisiana border, and Ted W who lives in north Texas and has been sending out emergency contact info through Care2. Please stay well all!
AlterNet — An excellent article.
“For these bigots, historical figures like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis represent a better time, when white men recognized their true supremacy and dominated society.
Within the libertarian movement, there exists a similar nostalgia for the Gilded Age, when capital dominated over labor and the “free market” unleashed the Übermensch spirit. It goes without saying that only white men — and very few of them, one might add — did particularly well during this period. … The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins … once stated in an interview that he is a “passionate anti-Darwinist when it involves the kind of society in which we want to live.” “A Darwinian state,” observed Dawkins, “would be a Fascist state.””
This rather puts it in perspective.
Cartoon — She does indeed have a great sense of humour, however there are more than Republicans in Texas.
I am very glad to see that the surgery went well! It will take a few days more but the clarity of your sight will be breathtaking! I am so excited for you!
Sorry I am so late commenting on yesterday’s articles. I kept falling asleep until I finally said enough and went to bed at 21:30. This is the 3rd time doing my comments, the first two evaporating into the ozone or wherever. The second time, my hands were nowhere near the keyboard. My entire internet went down for an unknown reason. Shit!!! I finally got it back! It also affected my MS Word — it was like my entire keyboard was frozen. All good now though.
My error — Pat B is south west of Austin, not San Antonio as stated earlier.