It’s a scorcher here in the shiny new CatBox, with 94° forecast. With the big A/C it’s hard to finds a balance, because the big windows conduct a lot of heat when the PM sun hits. I have to cover half the vents to keep it blowing on me at the computer (see pic). I should be in the saddle until Wed. OGIM!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:29 (average 6:44). To do it, click here). How did you do?
Where I spend most of my time:
Short Takes:
From YouTube (CNN Channel): Castro: NRA’s answer is more guns, but think about this
Before they became a front for the gun Industry, I was as NRA Sharpshooter with Nine Bars. I left, but I’m not against guns. I am against Republican Ammosexuals, who commit mass shootings, and the Republican politicians that help them! Support gun licensing! RESIST!!
From CNBC:
U.S. cybersecurity company Cloudflare said on Monday it was terminating services to online message board 8chan after the suspected gunman in the weekend’s El Paso shooting appeared to have used the website before he went on a rampage.
“We just sent notice that we are terminating 8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time,” Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, wrote in a blog post.
On Saturday, a suspected shooter was said to have posted an anti-immigrant and anti-government screed on the forum before opening fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, which left at least 20 people dead and another 26 wounded.
His post was deleted from one of 8chan’s forums after the shooting started, but forum users archived the document, which contained a link to a PDF version, NBC News reported.
The suspect, identified as 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius, cited in his note that the gunman who killed 51 people at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March was an inspiration, according to NBC News.
That begs this question: why in hell didn’t Cloudflare refuse to do business with 8chan Republican Nazi terrorists to begin with? RESIST!!
From Alternet: 5. Trump’s 2019 budget cut funds to state background check systems.
Trump has said that he wanted to help improve background checks, but it seems he doesn’t want it bad enough to pay for the cost. In Feb. 2018, the White House released its budget proposal, which called for a $12 million cut to funds given to states to update their background check database. Just two days later, a gunman opened fire on the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people.
The gun lobby spent more than $55 million to elect Donald Trump and NRA allies in Congress in 2016, Everytown for Gun Safety reported prior to the mid-term election in 2018.
This is the fifth of five things Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten has done to make gun violence worse. Click through for the other four. RESIST!!
Cartoon
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 8/5/2019”
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6:25 Apparently the flowers are bell-like.
Well, that looks cozy. Yeah, A/C can be complicated … especially if you are right next to it. I think it’s easier to get a balance if you are well away from the airflow myself. But I’m sure you’ll find the balance you need.
Castro – Yes, the NRA used to be useful. But even as long ago as the seventies, I was of the mind that the NRA, because of its knowledge, was uniquely placed to propose model bills on gun control which would enhance the safety of all of us while still accommodating gun owner. And they weren’t doing it. And they would not even hear the words “gun control” without becoming apoplectic. And now we have what we have.
CNBC – It’s definitely going to make them angry. Angri-ER. But it certainly had to be done. However, the Internet being the Internet, I really don’t see a way to prevent white supremacists from using it.
AlterNet – Well, yes. Don’t pay attention to what they say, but to what they do. And what they are doing is setting the nation up for a huge bloodbath.
Cartoon – GHW sometimes seems to have been more moderate than other Republican presidents from Nixon forward. He wasn’t. He was just quieter, and all the more dangerous for it.
Opposing the NRA is not opposing the right to keep and bear arms – in fact, many people who regard themselves as Liberals pack heat. I have never been against the right to own a gun, just the lack of responsibility for taking reasonable measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands. We take drivers’ licenses away from people who commit certain crimes, but you don’t hear AAA howling and screaming. Gun control is not black and white, it is a spectrum because different people support different levels of gun restrictions.
Orangeass’s response to the massacres was formulaic and jejune. Any dip can promise “thoughts and prayers.” No amount of thoughts or prayers is going to prevent even one gun death.
How many people must die, how many bloodbaths must happen, how many tears must be shed before we raise enough hell to drown out the jingle-jingle of the NRA’s filthy lucre and get our Congress-critters to listen to US and pass reasonable gun laws?
Good for Cloudfare! 8chan was asking for it, and they got it. I support free speech, but it does have limits.
CNN: Like you, I have family members that support gun ownership responsibly, and obey the laws re: gun ownership. Personally, I haven’t touched a gun since I left the military.
CNBC: I’ve never been on that hateful site, nor do I ever. I’m sure it’s all about the $$ though.
AN: I’m sure that he is very proud of his accomplishments re: this. Sick!!!
Cartoon: Many lives were lost, and the US involvement and commencement of Desert Storm.
Nice picture, Tom. Any way that you could put window film on the bottom portion of your big window there re: the afternoon sun? Just an idea.
This just in: “Is it ok to make a MM joke about him finally bringing something to the floor?” ~ Christina A. ~
2. Another Texas R retiring! Mr. Marchant of Dallas. He’s the fifth Texas GOP congressman to say he is leaving. We may turn blue!! (hopefully). YAY!
I had already asked. CCC does not allow it, because some kinds are hard to remove. Thanks!
CNN: I did not watch the whole thing, but expect that a serious answer to”What can we do?” needs to include getting the Orange Racist OUT! Beto spoke this to a reporter who asked a similar question, and added that it was, in good part, the mass media’s failure to link Dumpy’s BS to the spread of this newest American bred sickness!
CNBC: DAMN GOOD QUESTION, TC!!!!!!
Alternet: Is it possible that Dumpy is counting on an armed, sick, citizenry to prevent the Army from removing him from office when he looses in 2020? Looses in an embarrassing manner…garnering no votes but those of the Evangelical fairy tale tribe?
‘Toon: Any Bush in office, anywhere, is one too many. The family legacy is of manipulation and stupidity!
CNN: Agree with Freya on this one.
CNBC: Glad to hear that they are closing down these websites where the creep posted. Truly a shame that these type of sites ever exist in the first place.
Alternet: Does it surprise us that he’d do something so retarded?? He’s a disgrace to our country. He’s out to destroy.
Good luck with the window issue. Pat mentioned what I was going to suggest.
4:40 As most agaves are: prickly.
CNN: There are enough guns going around in the US to have every man, woman and child packing. Gun regulation/licence is one thing, but doesn’t work for the current owners of the idiotic amount of guns already out there. America needs to start with a clean slate one way or another, and while it worked in Australia, it’s an absolute taboo option in the US.
CNBC: When the calf has drowned, the well is filled up (Another Dutch proverb), i.e. closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Though I think the drowned calf is more apt in this case.
Alternet:
The cartoon can now read:
I am sure that Trump does not want to go to El Paso but he is doing it because he thinks it will make him look good. Joke is on him. We already know the kind of narcissistic bigot he is and that he does not care one wit! They blame him and so they should!
” I have to cover half the vents to keep it blowing on me at the computer (see pic).”
I take it you probably mean “I have to cover half the vents to keep it FROM blowing on me at the computer (see pic).”
It’s worth looking to see if a simple vent diverter or deflector might be useful. I have them on my floor vets and they work fine. I’m assuming your AC unit is metal, because most deflectors use magnets to hold them in place. And most are expandable.
That way you could hopefully divert the flow of air toward the ceiling – which would help circulation.
I got mine at Lowes – but I know Walmart also carries them, and they’re relatively cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/slp/air-conditioning-vent-deflector/y2wcd3jzvqfh8yn?language=en_US
Great idea! Checking it out!
Thanks and Hugs to all.