.
.
If one must revive the 1970s — and I swear I remember almost identical & similarly on-point cartoons from my distant adolescence — draining foreign wars and anti-planetary-survival Republicans are entirely the wrong bits.
This, per Buzzfeed, on the other hand…
… Several Muslim groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations are now doubling down on their efforts to register and mobilize Muslim-Americans to vote, especially in places like Florida, Virginia, and Ohio — swing-states with large Muslim populations. The comments may ultimately serve as inspiration for turnout efforts and new advocacy — that would likely benefit Democrats. Pew Research estimates there are about 2.75 million Muslims in the country, and 70% of them are Democrats or lean Democratic. Most of the groups are 501c(3) nonprofits and haven’t been engaged in electoral politics, but given the comments in recent weeks, there’s now some discussion in the community of how to best use their resources to push back against the attacks.
“Now more than ever American Muslims realize the importance of civic engagement and having a voice in these conversations,” said Rabiah Ahmed of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group that works on civil rights and national security issues on behalf of Muslim-Americans. It’s another one of the groups — along with the American Muslim Alliance, Emerge USA, MPOWER Change, Universal Muslim Association of America and a dozen more — registering Muslim-Americans…
In September — around the time Carson said Muslims could not be president — dozens of groups partnered with mostly progressive civil rights, minority, and Christian organizations in sending a letter to the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee, urging the party committees to “categorically reject this type of bigotry and state on the record that it is incompatible with this country’s founding principles.” The groups that signed on to the letter include the American Civil Liberties Union, American Baptist Churches USA, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Human Rights Campaign, NAACP, Islamic Networks Group, Muslim Advocates, The Sikh Coalition and United Church of Christ.
A week later, the groups received a response from DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, ensuring them that Democrats were “deeply committed to the values of diversity and inclusion.” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has yet to respond, even as the comments from presidential candidates from his own party have become more frequent.
The RNC also did not respond to requests for comment on why Priebus had not written back to the groups…
***********
Apart from the never-ending struggle, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Marc
After I finish some laundry, I’m going to bed – second shift living is…different.
J R in WV
I hope that we can make progress out of the anti-Islamic hate the Republicant’s have been spreading. If it creates a Democratic voting block, that’s a good thing. We might not be perfect hosts, as it were, but we won’t try to hold them in secret camps, or similar things which I would expect the Rs to do for two votes.
Good morning, All, I’m going back to bed in just a minute, this is too early for me.
I worked second shift too long to enjoy getting up at 5 something am. I can do it but I am not gonna volunteer for no good reason! Sleeping in is one way I enjoy retirement. Then I’ll get busy later on.
Steeplejack (phone)
Stayed up late to finish watching River on Netflix, so I can discuss with my friend at dinner tonight. Highly recommended. Stellan Skarsgård and Nicola Walker (from Last Tango in Halifax). London police detective sees “manifests” of dead people, including his recently murdered partner.
OzarkHillbilly
More shop work on a table top I said I’d do for a friend, quick and easy I said, just gluing up a slab of pine, edging it, staining it, and putting on a finish. I have glued it up and cut it apart 4 times. The wood just does not want to behave, the wood was too dry to begin with, add too much moisture in the air, some weak spots in the wood, etc etc. Maybe today I can finally get to the edging and staining. Maybe.
Also more work on the porch finish (should be close to being done today). I need to get this project done so I can start on the greenhouse.
Randy P
Did somebody say that Morning Joe acknowledged the existence of climate change a couple of days ago? If so, what might have brought about the conversion?
(It feels so ridiculous writing a sentence like that. Like saying that somebody has recognized the existence of the Pacific Ocean, or the Moon)
Baud
@Randy P:
So you bought into the whole “Moon” thing?
Satby
Good morning! Everyone needs to hammer the concept in the Danzinger cartoon to every loudmouth who wants to engage in war everywhere. I do, and when I do it shuts them up because the biggest advocates for aggression never have family members who might actually be at risk of going.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: How hard would it be to make a frame for a glass display case for the 36″ model ship I have? I keep looking and they are really expensive.
Baud
@Satby:
Why do you believe those in the military still heavily vote Republican (if that’s still true)? I’m not military so I can’t understand, but it seems like we have a “Kansas voter” problem there?
Mustang Bobby
Good morning everyone. My back pain is basically 75% less than it was yesterday, and I predict that by the end of the day I’ll be back (ha ha) to normal (for me). Aspirin and a hot shower did wonders.
Satby
On the agenda for today: packing and sending out the last of my open orders from my store (still have free shipping for Juicers, use coupon code NOSHIP).
Then more job hunting.
And the Thanksgiving holiday weekend uncovered the evidence that my mother’s increasing dementia will require me to relocate to Florida sometime in the next year. I’m the only offspring who has the ability, my youngest sister works and my middle sister has severe MS. My constant struggle to find a job with a living wage here in MI has made it obvious that I have to go somewhere: either drive back to Chicago daily, or, to move closer to jobs. If I have to move anyway, I’m going to go care for my mother as much as I can while she’s still around. Just contemplating all that’s going to be involved make me want to go back to bed.
Satby
@Baud: Not all of them do, and I assume tribal identity like the rest of the Republican voters.
David Koch
I nervous as fuck.
I’m biting my fingernails hoping the clock quickly runs out before the establishment gop and their media tools can deny Trump the nomination.
As a young Democrat and someone fascinated with history, I always wondered what it would be like to run against a Goldwater and win 40 to 45 states.
Please Trump, don’t go off script — keep to the boiler plate hate for 60 more days and my dream will come true.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Officers lean conservative, the enlisted and nco’s are about 50-50 from the polls I’ve seen. From my experience with the kid, 6 1/2 years in the Air Force, she did become more conservative during her service think that Republicans are more dedicated to National Security and Defense issues. Then again, this year’s Klown Kar will probably make her a loyal Dem.
BTW, OT: If you want to view 3-D images, you need to get anaglyph glasses(the red/blue) kind. There are apps for mobile(Stereoscope on Android) and PC.
Patricia Kayden
I’m a bit nervous about President Obama sending 50 or so boots on the ground to Syria as “special forces”. We really don’t need to be sending any Americans into harm’s way in the Middle East. Hoping that they stay safe and are able to accomplish specific goals given how messed up the situation in Syria is right now.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: It all depends, what type of wood, what kind of joinery, what kind of finish, etc.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yea, I’m looking at various plans.
David Koch
Compaign Commercial Spending thur 2015 (NBC)
$28.9 Million — ¿Jeb ?◄
$10.6 Million — Rubio
$_9.7 Million — Clinton
$_7.0 Million — Kasich
$_6.4 Million — Christie
$_4.9 Million — Sanders
$_2.0 Million — Carson
$_0.7 Million — Cruz
$_0.2 Million — Trump
¿Jeb ? keeps shoveling the dog food at them but the dogs won’t eat it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: I’m nervous as well, but I don’t see much of an alternative. I think what the President is trying to do, is to contain Daesh until there is some political solution in the region(redrawing national boundaries, etc).
RSA
@BillinGlendaleCA:
My answer is data-free, but I’ve always thought it also has something to do with military culture: the emphasis on tradition, respect for authority, well-established roles for people (most of them men), and so forth.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby:
Sorry to hear that. It’s not easy losing some one piece by piece, but there are moments when you can’t help laughing. When my old man was dying from it, I was always able to see that spark of personality that made him who he was. Up until the end anyway, by then he was gone and his final passing was a relief.
Betty Cracker
@David Koch: Vox has an interesting piece about how Trump has upended the Beltway media’s gentlemen’s agreement regarding political lies.
Baud
@Satby:
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Thanks.
opiejeanne
It’s nearly 4 am and I’m awake, wondering if the aches in both shoulders are new muscle aches or not, and if they’re being caused by a new med, a statin I’m taking that has some nasty side effects signaled by muscle pain and soreness.
Both shoulders were sore before this because of a fall in October when I wrenched the right one and banged up my right knee really badly; I’ve been over-compensating when I have to get down on my knees to do normal things like clean the cat’s litter box or fish her toys out from under various pieces of furniture.
Ugh. The things my brain nags at me about in the wee hours.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Also depending on the graphics controller on your new PC you may have some 3D capability built-in(many Nvidia adapters have3D).
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: The biggest expense I suspect is the glass. 36″ ain’t cheap. If you’re going to make it yourself, some basic skills will be required (like how to properly use a back saw, not as easy as just pulling and pushing), and some power tools can help you cheat. The biggest thing is measuring and marking, good engineer squares and rulers can go a long way to saving one a lot of frustration.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
How do I check?
BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Might want to check with your doc, he/she might need to alter your meds.
I, the mrs and the kid are headed to Koreatown this evening for the services for my BIL.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Good article.
Another Holocene Human
@Marc: Tell me about it.
It would have been tolerable but for all the people who felt entitled to call me up when I was sleeping, or complain when I had the ringer off and didn’t answer right away.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: There should be some programs associated with the display adapter(Nvidia, Intel, or AMD). The computer’s specs should also say what type of adapter is being used.
Baud
In real news, there’s a deal on highway spending. I hope it helps boost the economy.
patrick II
@Baud:
I don’t know, but I was wondering the same thing after a conversation with my cousin. Her and her husband have become rabid conservatives after their son, who had joined the army for what was meant to be a couple of years in the middle of college (kind of a what am I going to do next pause) instead found himself caught up in stop-loss, was sent to Iraq 5 times and Afghanistan 3 more times, and now, fourteen years later after several battlefield wounds and various close calls, he will stay in 20 for a retirement. If Bush had lied my son into a war,nearly got him killed numerous times, and kept him past his original discharge date with stop-loss, I would hate Bush more than I already do. Instead they became fervid right wing “patriots”. I don’t get it.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Ok, I’ll look. I like the HD screen.
Baud
@patrick II:
That’s sad to hear.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Heh, you should see what UHD(4K) looks like.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I was tempted to buy a 4KK laptop, but I’m price sensitive.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I don’t think it’s too uncommon for families to mix “Support Our Troops” with support for the political decisions that create their missions.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: The 4KKK laptops are cheap but the screen only displays white.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Not uncommon at all. I just think it makes it harder to get people to fully appreciate the human cost of war when so many who directly bear that cost don’t agree with us.
The Thin Black Duke
@patrick II: I guess some people can’t wrap their minds around the idea that all the death and pain and suffering and ridiculous expense was for nothing. There has to be a reason, even if it doesn’t make much sense.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
That must be what the commenters on media news sites use.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: When the kid first joined the Air Force, we were driving though our “LA’s Mayberry” where we lived at the time and I pointed out where the Peace Vigil that I’d attend on Friday evenings was. She said, “Dad I’m in the military”, her mom said, “That’s why he goes to the Peace Vigil”.
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: Bingo.
opiejeanne
@David Koch: Our next door neighbor, the one who is deep into the “woo” about vaccines and other health issues, stopped to talk to us when we were picking up the mail yesterday and at the end of the conversation announced that she wasn’t going to vote because she likes Bernie but he doesn’t stand a chance, and she hates Hilary because Monsanto. She’s a Democrat. I reminded her about the other side and Trump, and she kind of mumbled that she’d probably vote because we can’t let them win.
I like her a lot but I really can’t handle people telling me they won’t vote, especially when they are Democrats.
I’ve tried to research the Hillary-Monsanto business but am having trouble due to so much stuff originating with some of Bernie’s supporters. Some of it seems to be either mistaken or blown out of proportion, and tinged with hysteria. She kind of leans that way, towards hysteria about vaccines for her dogs, holistic veterinarians treating her dog’s kidney infection with herbs, going gluten-free to lose weight; we give her some of our excess veggies every summer and last year she asked if our corn was GMO. I had to explain that what is sold to home gardeners is not, and that we buy our corn seed from a company that doesn’t carry GMO.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, thinking of talking to her about the sore shoulders anyway so I will give her a call this morning.
scav
@BillinGlendaleCA: Many no doubt would prefer the easy affirmation that they are necessarily heroic than maintain a personally generated opinion that wrestles with reconciling doing the job well in far from reasonable circumstances. When in doubt, they’ll opt for the leading role in a bog-standard cheesy movie — it’s an easy template and everyone easily plays along.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, I think I need to just watch craigslist and such.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: No it’s not uncommon at all. I once had a friend with a sis in Iraq tell me I HAD to support the war effort to support her sis. Needless to say, we did not come to an agreement on that point of difference. I also had a vet tell me I should shut up about the Iraq war because I had never served. I damn near served him his head on a platter as I explained to him I had every bit as much right to speak as he did (taxes, children). He ended up agreeing.
Another Holocene Human
@patrick II: It’s a psychological thing where they feel there had to be a valid reason for their child to suffer like that so they support hawkish pols who will backstop the gains or what have you, so, think of it like committing to keep invading Iraq and Afghanistan lest they fall into chaos and their child’s sacrifice was for “nothing”.
They fell into this trap without even realizing it. And it’s not uncommon.
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne: That’s feed corn. Fuck! Wish the Monsanto wankers would get an education but that’s impossible. I went to an anti-Monsanto march because my family does grow feed corn (and soy) and fuck those asshats and their stranglehold on our system but easily 80% of the people there thought consuming GMO food would taint the purity of their essence.
If all you’re concerned about is your soul being mixed with the soul of a frog YOU ARE NOT AN ALLY for farmers who are having a rent extracted out of them by an unscrupulous company that doesn’t care about the environment, doesn’t care about US exports and the US economy, doesn’t care about breaking the law to get what they want (oh, you caught us? “oops”), but does have the best lawyers and lobbyists money can buy to get their way over and over again. GO PURIFY YOUR CHAKRA IN HELL.
OzarkHillbilly
@opiejeanne:
It is getting harder and harder to say that, according to the fine folks at Baker Creek Seeds. (due to wind pollination)
Baud
@opiejeanne:
Someone in another thread said 28% of self-identified liberals don’t vote. If that’s accurate, that’s the most shocking instance of the crazification factor I’ve seen.
Tommy
@opiejeanne: I might be close to ground zero for the Monsanto shit. Or at least most of the law suits against them and their seed crops. I hate to admit I know more about this topic than I care to admit. I am no raving fan of Hillary but she isn’t in Monsanto’s pocket more than just about anybody else in Congress.
At one level it is a complex topic. At another it isn’t. There are a lot of things you can hang around Hillary’s neck, IMHO this isn’t one of them.
OzarkHillbilly
The officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Ohio has delivered his first public account of the killing, over a year after the incident occurred, arguing his actions were justified as he was engaged in an “active shooter situation” and believed Tamir was 18 years old.
Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann told grand jurors he shot because Tamir pulled a gun – which turned out to be a pellet gun – from his waistband. “The suspect had a gun, had been threatening others with the weapon and had not obeyed our command to show us his hands,” he said.
Tamir Rice family lawyers call reports into fatal shooting ‘preposterous’
Read more
Loehmann fatally shot Tamir, who was black, within two seconds of arriving at a local park on 22 November last year, after a 911 caller reported that there was a juvenile in the area with a weapon that was “probably fake”. The full details of the call were not passed on to the officers, according to other accounts released by Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty.
I couldn’t read anymore, just don’t have the stomach for it. When the accused testifies to the grand jury, the fix is in.
Tommy
@Baud: Please allow me to mini-rant a little. I had not seen/heard that 28% number but doesn’t surprise me in the least. My mom runs elections in her district. After each election she calls me to check in. She is often near if not in tears that nobody votes. Often in off elections dozens of people vote. Let me say that again, dozens, not hundreds nor thousands in a town of 12,750.
She often says to me “Tommy, why are not more people voting?”
I tell her I don’t know.
I like to joke where I live and where my mom lives we got voting down to something of an art form. I can vote faster than I can order a Big Mac through the drive-thru. I see in places, throughout our nation, where it can take hours of waiting in line to vote and think to myself, my gosh we got it good.
So why are people not voting?
Botsplainer
@OzarkHillbilly:
By the time raven buys all the stuff to do it, he’d have been better off just having it made for him. Plus, there’s the angry cursing and aggravation factor.
At least, that’s been my experience on those kinds of projects.
satby
@patrick II: My adopted son, who had no GED and a non-violent record,was recruited by the Marines, who were able to fix it ignore everything that would normally have made the kid ineligible for the Corps. His years of service were similar to your cousin’s son: 5 combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, multiple injuries, PTSD and hearing loss from his gun. The kid will be 30 this year, and he’s an old man now. He came out a rabid conservative too, but I think that’s falling away a bit. We don’t talk politics, he’s only really in contact with my oldest son. He should never have been recruited, but they needed people to fill those boots.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah right with you …..
Tamir Rice was murdered. Period. End of conversation. If our legal system can’t see this then we need to change our laws and how they are enforced.
You are around the same age as me and from the same part of the nation but I bet we both can recall as kids having a pellet gun or a toy gun. Playing with them in a public park. We played “army” or “cops and robbers.” I never thought for a second a cop might pull up and put a few “real” bullets in me.
It is so FUBAR I don’t have words for it …..
debbie
@Baud:
I’m not sure it can be called a deal yet. Lots of ways and groups who could sabotage it.
http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20151201/NEWS03/151209940
Poopyman
@Botsplainer:
Some of us find that a positive. And don’t forget about the bleeding. That’s always fun too.
Baud
@satby:
You’re a tough lady. I can barely read about what you have to deal with.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, she’s an avid smoker with a heart condition too, so originally when the memory loss started it was the least of our worries, the doctors thought she’d be gone by now. She’s still mostly lucid, but the confusion and personality changes are becoming more pronounced and she adamantly refuses assisted living or moving closer to Orlando, where my sister works for Disney. My sister’s job involves travel up to 80% of the time, so I need to just get on the stick and plan to get down there at the end of the school year here. Summer in Florida is my version of hell, but I want to be with my mom.
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: When I was canvassing in 2012 a woman angrily told me she was not voting for Barack Obama because Monsanto and all but slammed the door in my face. I say, good day!
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: That stuff sounds like firewood to me. Seems like there’s a lot of stress in those pieces that you’re not going to overcome. I think pine is particularly prone to this these days because the bulk of it is mass produced for the construction industry, and the producers don’t seem to distinguish between stud wood and cabinet wood.
satby
@opiejeanne: hope it’s nothing serious!
@BillinGlendaleCA: condolences again.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
From that article:
Maybe I’m just a slow talker, but I wouldn’t be able to repeatedly state, “Put your hands up” in the 2 seconds it took the cop to murder the kid.
Tommy
@satby: Sorry to hear that. Five tours. My gosh. That should be some kind of crime. My only close family member had three, but a pilot. He often wrote to us not to worry about him, he was in the United Arab Emirates. Kind of a plush deployment!
But the experience changed him. Ended his marriage. He is not what you’d call a liberal but his son now wants to fly drones. Dad not so cool with that. Says if you want to fly a plane fine, but drones are not “cool.”
We will see what happens next year when he is out of high school.
On other military notes, another family member in three weeks will finish training as a Marine. Kid from the family my brother married into. He was nationally ranked with a rifle in high school and he felt joining the military would give him the chance to, best I can tell, shot people for a living as a sniper.
The big positive here is talking to his parents for an extended time over Thanksgiving, seems the Marines have told him to pick a trade, helicopter maintenance, and not sniper.
Cermet
@opiejeanne: watch this closely; muscle soreness IF caused by a stain implies that these muscle tissues are suffering and if continued, kidney damage and eventual failure can occur. That said, soreness is often a morning occurrence so don’t be too alarmed – you did injure those areas. If in doubt after a few more days, demand a blood test to check for the proteins indicating an issue.
Matt McIrvin
@David Koch: I’m not at all convinced that Trump’s behavior guarantees a general-election Democratic win. I think the rules might have changed and US politics might be sliding into a new, far darker phase.
I’m also not convinced Goldwater would lose today. The modern party is more extreme than he was, and much of what LBJ was riding on was public goodwill after the murder of Kennedy.
satby
@Baud: It is what it is. I know of 2 29 year olds that passed away in the last two weeks, one two months after his wedding.
I’m 60, and hopefully have many more years to go. I got to do and see so much more than so many others ever have the chance to do, but running into trouble occasionally is part of that gift. You get to take the whole package ;)
Tommy
@Another Holocene Human: Oh I bet. The Monsanto thing/issue is complex. I could write for hours about it, but for those of you in larger metro and not rural areas just know it is a HUGE issue. And just to confuse you if you don’t follow the issue it isn’t so much about GMO or this or that. It is about ownership of your seeds. Your crop.
opiejeanne
@Tommy: Laziness in some cases. In other cases it may be difficulty of access, intentional or otherwise. People may need a ride to get to the polls or the polls aren’t open enough hours, there aren’t enough polls, etc.
In Washington we vote by mail so all you need is a postage stamp and a pen. You still have to find a working pen that’s either black or dark blue, mark the ballot, find a stamp, walk it out to the mailbox, and that’s just too much work for a lot of people.
Bobby Thomson
@Baud: I thought that was a myth, unless you include retired and inactive.
Another Holocene Human
@debbie: There’s no loophole where somehow shooting Tamir Rice was okay, which is what this whole song and dance is about. They took the Aurora, CO shooter alive. But he was white. There’s no justification for mowing down a 12 yo kid with a fake gun. If a street criminal had done that, we wouldn’t entertain an excuse that he feared for his safety.
It’s an indictment on the region and the whole state (and the whole country) that they couldn’t obtain justice for Tamir and his family.
scav
@debbie: Different script, but equally heroic and even more often grabbed, trotted out before juries, judges and the public, and showing its age and tattered shopworn character.
Cermet
@Baud: Ouch!
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne: They keep saying a third of Americans suffer from mood disorders. That encompasses a number of different disorders but that’s still millions of people with major depression. People with major depression have difficulty completing basic tasks. Sometimes they have too much anxiety to leave the house at all. And they tend to be really bad with deadlines.
The reason Dems do contact after contact is that a lot of our voters forget when voting day is!!! They need to be nudged multiple times. Door knocks on voting day itself work (we won a local election that way). Not everybody is a political junkie like on this blog. People forget!!
Matt McIrvin
@Another Holocene Human: Most of my relatives who repost memes on Facebook all the time are conservatives or just full-time Jesus fans, but the one who is actually a raving liberal, I am sorry to say, spends much of her time just preoccupied with the menace of GMOs. Getting GMOs out of her food is the most important thing to her.
I think the threat of food contamination is one of those visceral things that can just galvanize people, whether there’s anything to it or not. Upton Sinclair was dismayed that The Jungle did little to incline people toward socialism or caring about the plight of poor industrial workers, but instead just socked them in the gut with its gross stories of rats and dead people parts in their sausage and lard, and led to pure-food laws.
opiejeanne
@satby: You’re nice. Thanks. It’s probably just something I’ve done to myself but now that I’ve read the side effects I’m able to imagine all sorts of things wrong, plus at 65 there are lots of little aches that are somewhat normal.
My husband read the accompanying paperwork for this med and kind of freaked out yesterday and was fussing at me about what hurt and did it hurt before and is it in your joints or is it muscle pain.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m sorry for your loss of your BIL.
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: Indeed.
GMO’s in various crops could be a wonderful thing–like the green revolution all over again. (We have always bred for crop characteristics such as: yield, vitamin content, but GMO allows you to do a surgical strike.)
But Monsanto is in it for the money. Roundup Ready wouldn’t get nearly the negative reaction it gets if it hadn’t been for suing farmers over innocent cross pollination (and winning, the fuckers) and inserting self-destruction genes, and basically being John Rockefeller the II.
eta: although one side of my family actually curses all herbicides because their (over) use has rendered once lushly fertile river plain land a moonscape every year it floods.
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: Yes, I know about farmers’ financial slavery to Monsanto, which is the nicest way of putting it.
gvg
@Satby: Where in Florida? What type of job skills do you have? How close to mom does it look like you need to be? Just the same state, same city or practically next door?
When my aunt and her husband first got married, they were poor and stayed living with grandma. they bought their first house after first baby and it was on the next street over back yards touching so they had a gate and got free child care. When they saved up for their dream house on 9 acres and moved a few miles away, Grandma had her first stroke that year and ended up in a wheel chair for the next 20 years so they moved her in with them. My tough vet Uncle cried at her funeral and said she had mothered him more than his mom. It’s always been in my mind how well the back to back house thing worked. the sharing the house was somewhat harder actually but probably nessesary towards the end with the mysterious fainting spells. When you are looking after someone and have a job, TIME and convenience become big factors. My sister and I have been looking for over a year and are still looking because mainly we haven’t found what we like near enough to our parents yet. They are in their 70’s and having a few issues. Ironically in the last few years she and I have had the serious health issues and they helped us out because we live too far out in the boonies and both work so when we had problems they nurse us in their house. I had cancer surgery and chemo and sis has had 2 operations…well mom has been in the hospital too but as I said, we have needed more nursing. So your specific judgement on what you need to look for are something to make a list.
If you didn’t already know, I live in Florida. I am not completely clued in on the whole state but I know some things.
We have found that it’s a high rent market even if buying is cheaper. People are evidently still nervous. What this means is fewer pet friendly houses and apartments. When apartments/houses are not overfull, the policies become more inclusive. Buying is picking up overall, so that may be changing. Florida traditionally has boom bust cycles from too few houses apartments too too many as all the builders rush to fill it and ignore how many others are started so you can get good deals by finding ways to not need to do the same as the herd at that time. supposedly their are good deals to be found through buying foreclosures but frankly I don’t have the youthful energy anymore to enjoy doing a renovation. My cousin finds deals through being friends with bankers and other people but I am not that social. I guess a specialist realtor or just a good bank could find those.
Germy
“One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” George Orwell
Tommy
@opiejeanne: I vote in my primary school.
I always walk into the place at the main entrance and not the gym, so I get to walk the halls and see all the finger paintings of our youth up on the walls. See them in class rooms for a brief second, our children (I don’t have any).
Our gym is set-up election day to handle hundreds if not thousands of people voting. They never arrive.
In 2008 a happy thing happened when I went to vote.
I was voting and saw a teacher with her entire class on the stage in said gym overlooking me voting. Heard her say people are voting ….. she brought her class to watch us vote!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Another Holocene Human
@Matt McIrvin: Yes. It’s the disgust reflex. It’s been found to be turned up in wingnuts. I find that lefties who are anti-GMO or similarly disgust-up-to-11 are impossible to have a conversation with about anything.
I think there’s a vague sense that something is wrong. I mean, a lot of things are wrong. We are exposed to lots of sketchy new chemicals all the time which probably include a lot of hormone disruptors, and it’s all legal. We don’t have much control over what lands in the supermarket–over-produced packaged goods that the USDA has helpfully declared weevil-free (as if eating weevils ever hurt anybody) or fruit that’s been bred for appearance and yield but tastes terrible. Our American lifestyle of never walking and driving everywhere is making us sick and in pain.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the one answer to everything? Some factor you can control, yet which is a little tricky to pin down so you can always blame it for everything even when you supposedly reformed your diet and life? Something that proves you are smarter than the average bear. You’re not a helpless, overpowered Jane Consumer, you’re an activist, a crusader, an environmental warrior.
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: @The Thin Black Duke: And I think you’re both correct there.
Sherparick
@David Koch: I hope it would be Goldwater in 1964. I fear Reagan v. Carter in 1980. There is a real hysteria taking place in the country right now and certain plutocrats hope that they may be able to take advantage of it to implement their agenda disestablishing the New Deal and 100 years of progressive legislation. VOX has article about Muslim hatred, but of course that is not the only kind (see the hatred directed at PPP and pro-choice people). The MSM media itself is has been caught up in this hysteria, and certainly not trying to call out politicians and media figures that indulge in it. This has been left to the hippie bloggers on the fringe. http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9822452/muslim-islamophobia-trump
Matt McIrvin
@Tommy: In Massachusetts, election day is a school holiday, though nobody else gets it off. That makes it easier to hold elections in school buildings, and is also a pretext for a teacher-training day. It means that the kids don’t get to watch people coming in to vote, but it also does make the date a bit more salient to parents because they have to scramble for alternate child-care arrangements. I wonder if it affects turnout.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes, and I find it troubling that it may be difficult to avoid for the people who want to grow corn that is not GMO, but am also aware that all corn is the result of some manipulation of genetic material.
I grow a hybrid variety that is tolerant of cooler soil and will produce in the shorter damp summers we usually have in Western Washington. As long as it doesn’t start sprouting frog’s eyes where the kernels should be, I’m pretty ok with it, but I’d rather avoid the Roundup Ready strain.
Robert Sneddon
@Tommy: The problem is that “saved” seed is not a high-cropping hybrid variety, it will produce a lot less grain per hectare when it is planted. Farmers get special USDA insurance for their crops in case of damage, pests etc. and they aren’t covered if they don’t plant an approved hybrid seed. One unlucky year and they’re bankrupt.
Tommy
@Another Holocene Human: People are figthing back.
The lady that lives behind me has started to take back around 1/5 of her yard to grow food. The guy she lives with, his dad, has taken his entire yard to grow food. The front, side, all his yard. I need to post pics, it is kind of stunning what he does.
She is doing the same and I’ve said I will follow.
opiejeanne
@Baud: 28% is way too high. When I was a kid we thought that Democrats failed to vote by close to 50%, but that number was just speculation by Republicans in the family.
rikyrah
How many lives did they destroy?
Jamelle BouieVerified account
@jbouie
Neo-Confederate police officers in Alabama planted drugs and weapons on black suspects for years. http://henrycountyreport.com/blog/2015/12/01/leaked-documents-reveal-dothan-police-department-planted-drugs-on-young-black-men-for-years-district-attorney-doug-valeska-complicit/ …
Bobby Thomson
@RSA:a lot of POC in the military, though.
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne: You know, I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. At least for white people like my family, the Feds have mostly been supportive. A lot of people won’t buy crop insurance, but it’s there for a reason. The whole reason Monsanto can extract rents is because the Feds are backstopping the farmers [who are left].
Are Monsanto’s actions sick and disgusting and coercive? Of course. Has my family still not benefited from generations of Homestead Act, farm bills, crop insurance, extension offices, food aid, and other myriad, mostly white supremacist forms of assistance direct from the Federal Gov’t? Yes.
I feel very uncomfortable likening that to slavery.
Parasitical. I like that term.
Matt McIrvin
@Sherparick:
Remember, the thing that instantly catapulted Trump into the big leagues was that he started ranting about how Mexican immigrants were drug dealers and rapists.
prob50
@Germy: Yup.
debbie
GOP jackals are bringing back Right to Work legislation, this time for private workers:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/12/ohio_house_republicans_to_proc.html
The analogy I just heard on a local news broadcast is that having to pay union dues is like having to pay for lousy towel service at the YWCA. I cannot imagine what’s being implied here and probably don’t want to.
Would this be the personal liberty to get something without having to pay for it? Happily, the public unions have come out and said they’ll actively oppose this new legislation, if only because they know they’d be next.
Gimlet
From the NYTs on Robt Dear
“He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but does not follow the Bible in his actions,” Ms. Micheau (during divorce) said in the court document. “He says that as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end.”
satby
@Tommy: Like most things, it was a double-edged sword. My adopted son was helped by the Corps to develop self-discipline and focus, he has life-long friendships with the guys in his squad, he grew up dramatically. I wish those could have been obtained at less cost though.
But his psych problems are greater now, he gets no vet benefits because he got a general discharge for very petty rebellions that got him busted down in rank, and his marriage is over (though I always thought his wife was a nut, so that’s not necessarily an outcome of his service).
I hope your friend’s kid gets training that serves him in his future. I asked my son once what skill they were training him for and he told me “mom, I’m infantry, they’re teaching me to kill people”. A lot of those guys come out and go into law enforcement…
Another Holocene Human
@Tommy: Raised bed gardens (a lot of soil here is contaminated, or has pests) got very popular here during the recession.
Seeing a lot of flower gardens on my walks.
Another Holocene Human
@Gimlet: I saw that. Isn’t that what we’ve been saying about these assholes for years?
Though, it’s a free country, and this guy is a piece of work, so I have no doubt if cheap grace wasn’t for sale in the marketplace of ideas he would invent it.
Robert Sneddon
@Another Holocene Human: Actually Monsanto has only ever sued one farmer for “cross pollination”. What happened is quite clear-cut but it doesn’t make a good Big Company BAD story…
The farmer’s fields were next to another farm where Roundup Ready seeds were being used. His non-Monsanto crop was cross-pollinated with RR. He realised this, went out and bought a lot of Roundup herbicide and killed off his existing non-RR crop leaving only the RR-resistant seeds to germinate and grow. He got sued since he had ended up using RR seeds without paying for them. Monsanto won the case but the farmer paid nothing, only having to agree not to do it again. The joke is that he paid Monsanto for the Roundup herbicide he used…
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman: Pine is more prone to that stuff because it is a soft wood. When a piece splits like the one did it is best just to cut it out. Pine is all kiln dried which they tend to over dry it (as low as 10 %), especially for the Ozarks. If I’d had my choice, I wouldn’t have picked pine, but I didn’t have my choice.
I do most of my cabinet and furniture work with wood from the local sawmills, which means red, black, or white oak, hickory, and walnut. We get some maple and cherry too but the best of those 2 come from further north. Anyway, coming from the sawmill it is plenty green and needs at least 6 months to air dry on my rack. It is slow, but the end result is far stabler.
rikyrah
THAT’S OBAMACARE, FOLKS!
ACA may have saved up to 87,000 lives (and I’m not even talking about through Medicaid expansion)
Posted on Tue, 12/01/2015 – 9:02pm
Right on top of yesterday’s study by the American Cancer Society linking the Affordable Care Act to a substantial improvement in early detection of cervical cancer, the Huffington Post’s Jonathan Cohn reports that the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality has released a different study claiming that 87,000 lives have been saved since 2010 from a reduction in medical errors, and guess what’s getting the credit?
http://acasignups.net/15/12/01/aca-may-have-saved-87000-lives-and-im-not-even-talking-about-through-medicaid-expansion
Bobby Thomson
@Betty Cracker: I question how much is new. I’m reminded of the Tucker Carlson article about Karen Hughes telling a lie that they both knew was a lie, and she knew he knew she knew he knew it was a lie.
Gimlet
@Another Holocene Human:
Some irony that the professional pundits were unable to articulate this observation on the GOP religious leaders spouting hate.
prob50
On the voting issue, one of the main problems is too many folks pay close attention to what’s going on fall for the “Both parties are all the same” crap. I have a good friend who talking that crap and I began telling him about all the the harmful stuff the GOPer’s have done or are attemping to push thru at both Fed and State levels and he stopped and seemed to get it (I think). Can’t let that stuff slide.
Bobby Thomson
@opiejeanne: all plant food is GMO. It’s a question of degree.
Matt McIrvin
@Sherparick: The other thing I wonder about Trump’s candidacy is the further potential for associated violence. My hope is that nominating him would bring out minority voters to come take him down. But my fear is that he’ll start organizing militia and open-carry groups to march around in their neighborhoods with AR-15s and intimidate them on Election Day. At this point, I would not put it past him.
opiejeanne
@Tommy: That’s nice. When we lived in California our polls were everywhere from elementary schools to churches to garages. The last place we lived it was in the library of an elementary school which was in supervised use by the kids during poll hours. I really enjoyed that venue.
Another Holocene Human
@debbie: It’s absolutely freeloading. In the private sector the union is REQUIRED to defend anybody who gets in trouble, union or no. So if they don’t pay anything (not even the fee required in some states), they are forcing the dues payers to fund their legal defense. Total bullshit.
PLUS, they get the same negotiated contract as the union members without paying the cost of getting that contract, which could be low end just paying hourly wages for negotiators or on the high end could be hiring an economist ($$$) and a lawyer and paying arbitrator’s fees and transcripts during a protracted wage arbitration. Oh, and if there’s a strike there is strike insurance and other costs associated with that. The members get assessed, the non members pay–bupkis!
We have two choices as a society: either we decided that people who work for a living deserve a basic floor of wages, benefits, and on the job treatment, something we can’t seem to manage,
OR
We have unions to guarantee those rights. Since they’re doing the job of a government, the dues are like a tax, and those that won’t pay are basically tax evaders. Like when Exxon gets off $$$billions scott-free, guess who ends up paying all of that?
That’s it. Corporations won’t spontaneously pay good en masse (government won’t even do that). They certainly won’t treat people right.
Worried about racism? Guess who gets hired last, fired (wrongly) first?
Worried about sexism? Guess who would pay less to mother/potential mother or would fire over taking maternity leave–if they could?
Worried about income inequality? Guess who finishes the job that shitty tax policy starts?
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: Aspartame!
Just kidding, but have you ever talked to the people who are not just avoiding it but are totally around the bend on the subject? Good times.
Tommy
@satby: I wish I had something “smart” to say but I don’t.
rikyrah
A Black Woman Walks Into A Gun Show
The gun show loophole allows shoppers to buy guns from private dealers without a background check. I stared down a sea of Confederate flags to find out what that’s like.
posted on Nov. 30, 2015, at 12:00 p.m.
Kashana Cauley
BuzzFeed Contributor
On the first Saturday morning in August, I stepped out of my car in a suburban Indiana parking lot and watched three middle-aged white men aim squinty-eyed suspicion at me from two spaces away. As a Wisconsin native, I’m used to squinty-eyed white Midwestern suspicion. But since we stood several hundred feet from a lot of guns and I figured the guys were probably armed, my feet froze. I had to drag myself to the entrance of the Kokomo Gun Show, where a brown-haired stocky white guy in his twenties talked to his friends while resting his elbow on a rifle butt as if leaning on a gun was the most natural posture imaginable.
I passed hundreds of parked cars on my way to the front door. This was a couple months after Dylann Roof was accused of killing nine people in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a week after John Russell Hauser was accused of killing two and wounding nine in a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. Gun purchases in America tend to spike after mass shootings and terrorist attacks, because such events heat up the gun control debate.
On this Black Friday — less than a month after the terrorist mass shooting in Paris — gun sales were projected to spike again. There were 50 gun shows listed across the country, and the FBI predicted that gun sellers would run a record 190,000 background checks in a 24-hour period — not that prospective buyers need to undergo a background check to buy guns from private vendors at the Kokomo Gun Show or those in dozens of other states including Florida, Texas, and Ohio.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kashanacauley/what-its-like-to-be-a-black-woman-at-a-gun-show?utm_term=.dkmBoMqrbw#.xgO0OBbv7L
satby
@gvg: Sorry to hear of all your troubles!
I’ll be looking somewhere cheap in the area around Clearwater – Tampa – St. Pete; my mother has a condo on Isla Del Sol but that will be too expensive. And I don’t know how many animals I will still have, though I’m going to start looking to rehome some (a couple more are pretty old and in ill health, so could be gone in 6 months). Rehoming will be a challenge, I only have the ones I do because they were considered unadoptable. The rents for the condos I’ve seen near my mom are unaffordable to me (my credit is pure crap at this point too). I want to rent because I’ll stay there only as long as my mom is alive. The joke could be on me, she’s 85 and her mom lived to 97. But Grandma never had the health problems or dementia.
If you feel comfortable with it, send me a message on Etsy (link in my name above) and some pointers. I have a couple of connections but they’re all over the state. I’ll need some sort of job for about a year, then SS eligibility will kick in. But taking it early will also reduce it, so I’ll still need cheap.
Peale
@Matt McIrvin: at first it was illegal immigrants. Then the legal h1b holders. Now it’s the refugees. How long before the students and tourists get the hate?
Another Holocene Human
@Bobby Thomson: I love how gregarious bacteria are that way. Try to untangle that family tree.
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: the slavery I see, and your mileage may vary, is that it’s not good enough to order last year’s corn seeds which are cheaper than the newest iteration of the Monsanto corn, that you will fall behind produciont-wise if you do, but you will also fall behind monetarily if you buy the more expensive seed. That locked-in captive market that costs more each year or so is disturbingly like owing your soul to the company store.
currants
@Another Holocene Human: Preach it!
Tommy
@satby: Let me expand ….
This time last year there was a huge open debate if Paul should be a Marine.
Why he is about to become a Marine makes me happy …
A wide-ranging conversation. Paul was next to us and I noted his parents are ass-hats. He wanted away from them. Marine does that ……
rikyrah
And I’m supposed to feel bad because?
This is the reality for the rest of the world.
Cue my tiny violin.
………………………..
Young white people are losing their faith in the American Dream
December 1 at 12:00 PM
It’s about as hard for a 20-something worker to find a job today as it was in 1986. The economy is growing at a slightly slower pace, but not by much. And yet young workers today are significantly more pessimistic about the possibility of success in America than their counterparts were in 1986, according to a new Fusion 2016 Issues poll reported in conjunction with the Washington Post — a shift that appears to reflect lingering damage from the Great Recession and more than a decade of wage stagnation for typical workers.
That rise in pessimism among millennials is concentrated among white people. It is most pronounced among whites who did not earn a college degree.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/01/young-white-people-are-losing-their-faith-in-the-american-dream/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_wb-americandream-323pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: We put in a lot of raised beds for our gardens because the water table is so high in a normal year, and we are at the top of a big hill. We need to raise more of the garden beds that were already here, but we have added a lot of drains in the worst areas so it is a lot better.
OzarkHillbilly
@opiejeanne: I’m not afraid of eating the GMO stuff, I’m afraid it will enable us to poison the planet willy-nilly. The recent decline in monarchs has been directly connected to GMO’s (how strong is that connection, I am unsure of) and all bats in North America are in decline (white nose syndrome affects only a few species) due to what is suspected to be the build up of pesticides in bugs that have developed resistance to them (studies are in progress).
We all know the song and dance, not sure what the answer is.
satby
@Tommy: Going away to college would do that too, though given our gun culture, it may not be any safer.
cmorenc
@patrick II:
Some people become “invested” in the meaningful value their family member’s service in the country’s military adventures abroad, and become resentful of civilian leaders whose actions they perceive are undermining that value and success, instead of resentful of civilian leaders whose fecklessly macho political moves put their family member wastefully and counterproductively in harm’s way. People don’t like the notion that their family was put at risk for needlessly failed military missions, but the notion that the military mission was misled by civilians is easier for many people to reconcile with affirmation of value in their family member’s service than is the notion that the decision to undertake the military mission itself was an inherently foolish choice.
rikyrah
GOP starts to panic as Trump’s odds improve
12/02/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
For much of the political world, it was simply assumed that Republican voters’ love affair with Donald Trump was a summer fling that would inevitably fade away. GOP insiders were annoyed with the New York developer’s rise, but they also had every confidence that Trump would never seriously compete for their party’s nomination.
That confidence is beginning to evaporate. The New York Times reported overnight that Republicans’ “irritation is giving way to panic” as Trump’s nomination begins to appear “plausible.”
Many leading Republican officials, strategists and donors now say they fear that Mr. Trump’s nomination would lead to an electoral wipeout, a sweeping defeat that could undo some of the gains Republicans have made in recent congressional, state and local elections. But in a party that lacks a true leader or anything in the way of consensus – and with the combative Mr. Trump certain to scorch anyone who takes him on – a fierce dispute has arisen about what can be done to stop his candidacy and whether anyone should even try.
Some of the highest-ranking Republicans in Congress and some of the party’s wealthiest and most generous donors have balked at trying to take down Mr. Trump because they fear a public feud with the insult-spewing media figure. Others warn that doing so might backfire at a time of soaring anger toward political insiders.
That has led to a standoff of sorts: Almost everyone in the party’s upper echelons agrees something must be done, and almost no one is willing to do it.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-starts-panic-trumps-odds-improve
currants
@Matt McIrvin: I think that depends on the district–I taught in one MA district where we had to work around the voting (park in different locations, etc)–and the MA district I live in now doesn’t cancel school either.
Sherparick
@OzarkHillbilly: You know, this “reach into his waistband” language must part of some national police training plan. I mean every cop reaches for the same language every time in one of these shooting incidents. And yes, the fix is in when the cop allowed to come in and give an unsworn statement to the Grand Jury.
Scapegoat
@Betty Cracker:
Very insightful article.
Confirmation bias has never been more easily fostered than in today’s new media (both traditional and social media) landscape. This is likely to get even worse before it has any chance of getting better. Fortunately, and worst case, tombstones may eventually cull the phenomenon of ‘elderly white rage’.
Just One More Canuck
@Botsplainer: agreed – or looking for something in an antique market – my wife was looking for something similar for her dad and found something really nice surprisingly cheap
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m confused about your bat claim. Roundup is a herbicide with pretty low toxicity (especially for a farm chemical).
We used to kill bugs with arsenic and heavy metals.
ETA: Is this what you mean? It’s bug-O-cide and they don’t GMO for that (yet) AFAIK, just old fashioned spray.
WereBear
People who are deeply in denial (support their son? fit in with their own culture? accept the loss of the future they thought their son would have had?) are going to not do the sensible thing. If thinking sensibly about it would be an even greater burden.
WereBear
@opiejeanne: Muscle pain with statins is a BIG warning sign that needs immediate attention.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m also alerted by the “mysterious” bee deaths, which has been connected to pesticides, and also the astonishing numbers and variety of food allergies that seem to be increasing over the past few decades.
A Democrat who is complacent about what giant multi-nationals might be doing to the food supply for money… has no excuse for assuming the best of them.
Sherparick
@David Koch: You should check out these polls. Clinton loses massively among white men (I wish they would break out educationally and regionally as I expect that she would lose overwhelmingly among southern white men and among men with 2 years of college or less). There are also a significant amount of minority men who find it hard to vote for a woman. Finally, she has to deal with the image created about her by 25 years of ceaseless right wing propaganda and MSM “both siderism” about her “untrustworthy,” sinister, and “cold.” http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2015/12/if-old-white-men-vote-trump-topping.html#links
And it is not just Quinnipac. Look at all the polls. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human:
I did not say Round up had anything to do with bats. What I said is bat numbers across the spectrum are dropping radically. I also said that it is unknown why, but it is speculated to be from a build up of resistance to pesticides** and studies are now under way. We have been down this road before with DDT. I fully expect we are going down that road again.
I am only saying that humanity has a unique ability to screw up the world.
** there have been a few crops that have been GMOed for pests, IIRC cabbage for cabbage worms is one, I do not know where these crops are in development or the possible risks from their use and misuse.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: @BillinGlendaleCA: People said it explicitly in Bush’s first term: “you can’t support the troops without supporting the war.” Which, taken to its logical conclusion, means that any war whatsoever must be supported.
Marc McKenzie
“…draining foreign wars and anti-planetary-survival Republicans are entirely the wrong bits.”
Well, like DUH! Of course that’s the case (and it’s true). At least the Muslim groups have the right (and honestly, the only sane) solution–organize and get the hell out there and vote. Petulantly folding your arms and pouting and whining that “both parties are the same” or waiting for some rainbow-farting unicorn-promising candidate who will fix everything with the wave of a finger are things that have never worked.
It’s not that the GOP has had the numbers–they’ve just had people who will get the hell out there and vote at every level. Meanwhile, our side keeps making excuses.
The Other Chuck
@Matt McIrvin: I believe the proper response to a line like that is “Sieg heil”.
Ghost of Joe Liebling's Dog
@Bobby Thomson:
Not sure how you’re defining “GMO.”
It’s true, for example, that if you planted seeds from a lime you might get a variety of other fruit trees (according to John McPhee, at least, the sex life of citrus fruit is strange & wonderful).
But GMO usually means someone spliced in a genetic sequence from some far remove — adding goldfish genes, let’s say, to Meyer Lemons, so that they turn round & round on the stem and go bottoms-up if they die. Or some other possibly-beneficial trait.
opiejeanne
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Laughing at the image of Meyer Lemons doing that.