It’s a tired day here in the CatBox. It has been so muggy that I have slept poorly. The powdered pills in apple sauce is working well, as long as I add a Splenda packet. Thank God it’s Friday!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: As former Vice President Joe Biden won state after state on Tuesday night, the accusations flew: The Establishment stole the election from Sen. Bernie Sanders. Former rival and current campaign surrogate Marianne Williamson called it “a coup,” in a now-deleted tweet. Another prominent Sanders booster said the “party brass” “wants to foist Biden on the party.” This disrespect for voters needs to stop.
It’s pretty clear that large chunks of the Democratic establishment, however you define it, didn’t want to see Bernie win. But whatever those chunks of that establishment did to block him wasn’t done in some back room conspiracy. It was done out in the open by the most basic, routine of means: in the wake of a big win in South Carolina that suggested Biden was the strongest non-Bernie candidate, two of his competitors dropped out and endorsed him. Some other prominent people endorsed him. And then the voters in 14 states had their say, and it wasn’t good for Sanders—and the fact that that’s all it took to give Biden a surge of this magnitude is something that all of us who were supporting other candidates have to reckon with, seriously.
The real engine for Biden’s comeback was built from voters. That started with the overwhelmingly black voters of South Carolina—people too many Sanders supporters have been eager to dismiss and denigrate, now as in 2016, but certainly not billionaires buying an election or shadowy operatives rigging, well, anything—but it didn’t stop there. While Sanders had built admirable strength among Latino voters and younger voters, he didn’t expand his support enough.
I have to agree with this author with one caveat. What drove voters on Super Tuesday to what they considered a “safe” choice is fear of a Trump second term far too intense to take a chance the more beneficial, but more radical policies of Bernie and Liz. Furthermore, Bernie has done little to broaden his base beyond the coalition that he lost with in 2016, so even though I support him, now that Liz has withdrawn, I do not consider him the likely nominee. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: A resident of Washington, D.C., has been identified as the source of the community spread of coronavirus misinformation throughout the United States.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that the man had ignored the advice of public-health experts and spewed a toxic strain of ignorance, potentially infecting millions.
The man, believed to be a fact-resistant organism, travelled last week to South Carolina, where he came in contact with thousands of people who, as a result of community spread, now believe that coronavirus is a hoax.
The epidemic of cluelessness expanded last night, when the man called in to a Fox News television program to encourage people with coronavirus to go to work rather than stay at home, as scientists have urged.
Andy is reporting straight news again. Would anyone like to guess the identity of this idiot? RESIST!!
From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Shirelles Will you still love me tomorrow (Top Quality + Lyrics)
Ah… the memories! RESIST!!
Vote Blue!!
