The littlest nope ever. pic.twitter.com/mJHclYBzVw
— Cats (@SpaceCatPics) March 25, 2015
Yesterday, eastern Massachusetts got its (unusually late) first plowable snow of the year — just under an inch in Boston. Twice that north and west of the Hub, in towns like Andover, where the first official Snow Rage incident of the season took place, per local news WCVB:
Police say Michael McCullon had been attempting turn onto North Main Street on Tuesday morning and nearly crashed into a snowplow. The 51-year-old Andover resident then followed the plow into a parking lot where the two drivers had an argument that turned physical.
McCullon pulled out an unloaded firearm and was arrested at the scene after a bystander called police.
He was arraigned on assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon charges.
The unidentified snowplow driver also faces charges including assault and battery…
Yeah, we’re still a little weather-shy, after last year’s record snow totals.
As for the blizzard of campaign bullshit striking especially hard in the early-voting areas, here’s some happy talk from numbercruncher Nate Cohn at the NYTimes — “This Is Where the Fun Begins”:
…[E]ven with that little time left until Iowa, the first contest of the 2016 race, there’s more than enough time for candidates with little or no support to surge to victory, for forgotten former front-runners to mount a comeback, or for strong and consistent poll leaders to collapse abruptly.
This phase of the race — the final stretch before Iowa and New Hampshire — can be the most volatile of the entire campaign, as early-state voters make up their minds, politicians and newspapers make endorsements, and candidates make strategic decisions to invest time and money in particular states.
In recent primary campaigns, going back to the 2004 Democratic primary, those candidates who have led in Iowa or New Hampshire polls with just one month to go have lost as often as they have won. On average, candidates’ share of the vote at this stage differed from their final share of the vote by around seven percentage points. With many candidates running, it was not at all uncommon for a candidate to move by more…
Perhaps the most striking thing about these huge, last-minute swings is that they often happen without anything huge triggering them. There were no epic debate performances or nationally televised implosions. Two of the candidates who entered the final month with the largest and most consistent leads over the previous few months — Howard Dean in 2004 and Mitt Romney in New Hampshire in 2008 — saw their leads evaporate without doing anything to get them in the history books. (The “Dean Scream” actually was emitted after he lost Iowa — by 20 points.) Instead, many of these huge swings occur in the course of a seemingly normal month of campaigning.
How can a race change so much? The answer is that most voters have still not made up their minds by this stage. After all, this isn’t a general election, when most voters invariably choose the candidate of their party. Most voters like most or even all of the top candidates.
Because of that, it doesn’t take much for voters to switch quickly from one candidate to another. It can start with something small — an outlying poll result, a newspaper endorsement or a particularly bad news cycle for a front-running candidate. The process tends to reinforce itself, because a show of strength — or weakness — results in a new wave of media coverage about the surging candidate, which helps the surging candidate yet again. Voters, not wanting their votes to go to waste, can even make tactical decisions to support a candidate who looks likelier to win…
So be prepared for another long, hard-fought six weeks. And props to Martin O’Malley for slogging on, polls and bad weather be damned [warning: Politico]:
Amid a vicious winter storm on Monday that forced some presidential campaigns to cancel their scheduled stops in Iowa, only Martin O’Malley decided to press on.
And one man at his last event, the only person to show up, in fact, “was glad to see me,” the former Maryland governor said. But he still would not commit to caucus for O’Malley.
“The very last event of the night, we actually had a whopping total of one person show up, but by God, he was glad to see me. So we spent the time with him,” the Democratic presidential candidate told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, speaking from Des Moines.
A tweet shared by a reporter who was present showed a bearded man, identified only as Kenneth, sitting at a table with O’Malley, who told MSNBC that he was “working on him” but also said people in Iowa “want to see the whole campaign play out” before deciding on a candidate…
***********
Apart from all that slogging, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Groucho48
A long article trying to gin up some kind of excitement because, you know, it couldbe a time when significant things happen. I mean Pataki dropped out!!! Doesn’t that make shivers run all up and down your spine?!
There should be a rule that blogs can’t post more than one thread a week about the election until a month before the Iowa primary.
geg6
Saw SW in 3D last night with my 23 yo niece and my BIL (we’re the only SW freaks in the family). It was great fun! I don’t know what all the kvetching is about. Finn and Rey (sp?) are awesome new heroes. We went full throttle and bought our own 3D glasses. We looked like goofs but had a blast!
In PA news, we still have no budget since Governor Wolf vetoed all the poison pills the GOP House had in their budget but he did okay emergency funding for education, so at least the schools can open for the new year.
David Koch
6 weeks from today we’ll be laughing and laughing and laughing at Trump’s victory in NH.
I may even watch morning blow just to see the agony of defeat on their faces
OzarkHillbilly
Glub glub glub… Had to cancel my Doctor’s appt this morning because we aren’t sure how we would get there. No matter which way we go we have to cross a river that is seeing major flooding with road closures. On the way home yesterday -the wife got off early because rumors had it that 44 was going under at the Bourbeuse River- when she crossed it, it was 6 inches below the bridge and a 4 man highway crew was there inspecting it. This is a bridge which is normally a good 30′ above the river and 25′ above the flood plain. I looked at the river levels at USGS and they had it cresting in Union which is some miles above (what a complete mess that town is). Don’t know yet if the hwy went under or not last night, but all the alternate routes are even dicier, so better part of not wasting time and money on an easily rescheduled Doc appt.
What’s he gonna tell me anyway, “It’s healing.”? Yeah, no shit, I already knew that.
debbie
Speaking of politics, while driving home from work last night, some woman subbing for Sean Hannity insisted that Bill Clinton’s starting to campaign openly for Hillary is proof that her campaign is flailing.
Baud
Matt Yglesius gives a big pep talk to the GOP in Vox this morning. Cuz they were feeling down, I guess.
Mustang Bobby
Back home yesterday afternoon after my extended stay in Southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky. The vanda went full-tilt bloom while I was gone and I’m hoping that those of you hit by the harsh weather make it through unharmed. (No, I don’t do the Florida gloat; Betty and the rest of the denizens of the Limp Dick State will tell you we have our own weather woes here.)
BillinGlendaleCA
I remember alot of anti-Dean commercials being run before the Iowa caucus in 2004, mostly about his supporters being out of the mainstream(Hollywood people with tats and piercings).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Wouldn’t you?
Baud
@debbie: I’ve noticed the mainstream news has starting talking about the implications if Hillary loses New Hampshire. Sanders is strong there and is expected to win, but I think the media is planning to portray his win as a big upset for the sake of drama.
My money is in Sanders winning Vermont also.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby:
Don’t think that’s gonna save you. I’m gonna gloat every chance I get, cause that’s just the way I roll. ;-)
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Who ran that? That’s a plus in a Democratic primary.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It’s a Club for Growth Ad; I know I’m a Dem and have tats and body piercings, I was even born in Hollywood!!!
ETA: I like sushi as well, but no Volvo(I drive a 30 yo VW).
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Ok, a GOP ad makes more sense. Although I didn’t think they got involved in the Democratic primaries.
debbie
@Baud:
Yeah, I remember seeing that ad. It’s a continuation of the slamming of arugula-eating Grey Poupon voters. With very non-Vermont accents.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Just clicked the ad. Why would Biden appear in such an ad?
pseudonymous in nc
There are so many reasons to say “fuck Iowa and New Hampshire” (not the states in general, just their role in politics) but the fucking entitlement on display compared to states where people actually live is something to behold. You could argue that “regular folk” are just demanding the kind of VIP bottle service that rich donors in NY or Florida or Texas or California get, and that it’s good for politicians to do some bowing and scraping in diners and libraries, but you could do that in states that aren’t disproportionately rural and white.
Baud
@pseudonymous in nc:
It still works for the GOP, but I think we’ll see reforms on the Dem side at some point for this reason.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Elizabelle
Good morning all. Love that one little cat print. Smart kitty.
Saw Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight in 70mm roadshow yesterday. Enjoyed it, but muy violent. No appetite for dinner after — straight to cocktails and wine.
Movie has some flaws, but it is audacious, the casting and score are topflight, the blizzard is its own character and soundtrack. And I love deep snow scenery — this makes two in a row (Django had the Tetons).
Worth seeing, and the extra money for 70 mm is well spent. (Catch it soon in big format; here’s list of roadshow theatres; it’s leaving many theatres and going to digital after tomorrow.) In DC, looks like only the AFI in Silver Spring will keep it a second week in 70mm.
Maybe we could do a Hateful Eight blogthread (behind a pic — with blood or snow or both — but no spoilers) after it’s been out in wide release for a while.
Here’s the official movie site re the 70mm roadshow.
Botsplainer
Regarding the phenomenon of snow rage, here in the People’s Democratic Socialist Kenyan Sharia Republic of Louisville, we don’t do rage, but instead sink into a sullen depression and decline to interact with anyone, as that takes energy.
Elizabelle
Geez, what is with the DNC emailing tactics? Email from Hillary Clinton today: I won’t lose again, [Elizabelle]
Got that? Start out with mental image: I am getting an email from a loser.
Text:
One local candidate last year kept sending out these pathetic emails, with every kind of gimmick and pathos — he did lose that race, narrowly, but the tenor of the emails kept me from donating $ or shoe leather time. And he is a good guy.
Democrats want strong and principled winners. We can adopt pets in tragic situations; don’t need to see it in our candidates, please.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Yeah, that’s a bad email. I didn’t get that one.
Goblue72
@Baud: Sadly, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with his analysis. It’s the Democratic Party that’s broken. Just look at this blog – pointless post day after day about whatever random thing Trump or some other GOP Presidential candidate said at some random trivial event. And crickets about taking back Congress or the states.
Elizabelle
@Goblue72: Thank you. Applause.
Phylllis
Waiting on an oil change; local shop has wifi and a Keurig for coffee.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Goblue72: How about this; if you have some ideas why don’t you write a post and send it to Cole. He might put it up as a guest post. Then again, complaining and not doing anything is the Democratic way.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
That is just absurd. One of the GOP’s many complaints about Hillary is her sense of victimhood. This only confirms that.
Amir Khalid
@geg6:
Do you wear glasses? If so, you might want to do what I’ve done: improvise a pair of 3D clip-ons. Remove the temple pieces from your 3D glasses, remove the shades from a pair of clip-on shades, and Superglue the remaining bits together. Once the Superglue sets, you’ll never have to wear two pairs of glasses to watch a 3D movie again.
I just got back from seeing The Force Awakens in 3D myself. Digital 3D has gotten so much better, I think, now that movie makers have largely outgrown the temptation to poke viewers in the eye.
Episodes I-III and IV-VI each had one key romantic relationship. It seems to me that this time around it will be Rey and Finn. I also have a strong suspicion that Rey is a Skywalker. Daisy Ridley’s last, wordless scene with Carrie Fisher suggests there’s some kind of familial bond between Rey and Leia. Which fits in with the movies’ general theme of the Skywalker family and The Force.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Morning. I wanted to thank you for that Langston Hughes poem yesterday. There’s not enough poetry here.
Baud
@Goblue72:
If we wanted to have a lengthy discussion and blog fight, I would argue that it’s really liberalism that’s broken. We’re now strong enough within the party to act as a veto point against certain heresies, but not interested or capable enough in the mundane (and messy) aspects of actually managing a major political party. As a result, the Democratic Party is currently in an “in between” state from which we’ll either schism or improve.
ETA: But it’s too early for that and I have to work today.
debbie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Double applause!
dogwood
@Elizabelle:
That is a weird email indeed. Doesn’t she already have the PUMA vote pretty-well locked up? I don’t think reminding people of her loss in ’08 is necessary. We all remember it, and it was democrats who were responsible for it. Who knows what sparked that.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I’ve learned to wait to see Tarantino’s movies on DVD. As much as I’d like to see a 70mm movie, the violence is easier to deal with on a smaller screen.
Germy
A pitch-perfect parody of every heartwarming animal story I’ve ever seen on youtube:
Cat Nurses Abandoned Pit Bull
The comments, the “suggested” videos…
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: On the other hand, at least we’re not the Republicans.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: According to Yglesius, that’s a bad thing. But we’ll get into heaven at least.
Germy
The tRump spokeswoman who wore the bullet necklace now jokes she’ll wear a fetus necklace, just in case we didn’t understand how hard she’s trolling us
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Well, as a counterpoint there’s Eugene Robinson’s WP column from yesterday.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m sorry you couldn’t get to your doctor but I’m glad you didn’t tey and drive near flooding.
.We got some snow yesterday after more of an icy mix overnight and in the early morning. I had to go out early and saw a bunch of trucks fishtail. They were just trying to go too fast. The first snow of the year is always a bit of a reminder snow. Everyone should be back to propersnow driving next time.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Germy: Don’t think the fetus necklace will age well.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Yes. The blood flowed in this one. And congealed.
But you felt you were on that mountain, in that stagecoach. It was worth it.
What happened after the stagecoach stopped …
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s a battle of the pundits! Only one can survive.
The other gets worn as a necklace.
MattF
@geg6: Also saw 3D SW yesterday, and I also like the new generation. Yeah, there was some stupidity in the plot– particularly with regard to the carry-over characters– but I’m managing to overlook that.
magurakurin
@Goblue72: It’s an open forum. Make a suggestion. Start a conversation. I mean something other than calling us assholes in dog whistle.
gogol's wife
Emergency question for the Juiceatariat: I somehow messed up and didn’t note in my calendar that the Kennedy Center Honors were on last night. Is it going to be repeated? Does anyone know?
Uncle Cosmo
I’m surprised the top story here–not the gaggingly cutesy pawprint in the snow that was probably faked for the sake of cutesiness, but the one with a car & a plow & a 2nd Amendment “showpiece”–wasn’t titled
But I guess it’s early…
raven
@Goblue72: How bout this, fuck you.
gogol's wife
@gogol’s wife:
I see it’s on the CBS website. Never mind (E. Latella) I’ll watch it later.
dogwood
On a lighter note, yesterday I ran across a Trump parody musical video, “Make America Great Again”. Wish I could remember where I saw it. It was well done and pretty hysterical. What was interesting about it was that it was produced by an Arizona conservative government watchdog non profit. First time I’ve ever seen conservatives do satire right. The group says the video has sparked some positive responses from Trump voters, further proving the point that these voters are morons.
James E Powell
@BillinGlendaleCA:
From Robinson’s column that you linked
What has been subtle about Republican appeals to white voters’ resentments and fears?
BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: They used dog whistles in the past, tRump swallowed his.
Germy
@gogol’s wife: It was incredibly moving. Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson, Aretha Franklin, Carole King… my first reaction was “what is this doing on network television? They don’t care about anything older than a couple of years…” I was surprised it wasn’t on PBS.
catclub
@debbie: I thought that if Trump is going to bring up Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Hillary should ask whether an affair between the President and a 24 year old intern is more likely if she is President or Trump is.
Matt McIrvin
Yglesias also endorses Philip Klinkner’s thesis that the Democrats need to lose the presidency to fix their down-ballot losses, which is dangerously reminiscent of the torrent of Salon articles from Bernie fans who won’t vote for Hillary Clinton because they somehow think that without Sanders, losing in 2016 will be better down the line.
Klinkner also thinks gerrymandering is a minor effect, which I think Sam Wang has pretty definitely refuted: the effectiveness of gerrymandering vastly increased after 2010, probably because of new software for district design.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin:
Shades of Naderites, circa Y2K.
Elizabelle
@James E Powell: Yeah, they’re dog klaxons at this point.
Because, you know, politically correct.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Well, the metaphor was that ‘dog whistles’ are signals that only dogs can hear… but nowadays, everyone hears them, including cats and chickens. And, as far as the R base is concerned, that’s a good thing– they want the ‘others’ to feel threatened.
Shell
@dogwood: If you hie on over to Crooks and Liars, they’ve got it there .
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/12/video-mocking-trump-hit-trump-supporters
MattF
@Matt McIrvin: “New Applications for Simulated Annealing.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Germy:
Intuitively, it does seem that it belongs on PBS, but in fact I’m pretty sure it’s been on CBS since the very beginning, back in the 1970s. I certainly remember Walter Cronkite as the MC for years and years — well, I guess until he died.
bemused
@gogol’s wife:
I realized I missed that too when I saw a clip of Aretha Franklin singing A Natural Woman this morning at Vanity Fair. Aretha blows me away..73 and that voice is still incredible.
Shell
I LOVE that tiny footprint in the snow. For a second (and probably channeling last winter) didn’t realize the angle and I thought we were looking at a wall of snow!
oldgold
I do not see much movement in Iowa over the next few weeks.
Given the way this has played out over the late summer and fall, people are publicly down and dirty with their particular candidate. They are not going to the caucus and publicly declare in front of their neighbors and friends that their earlier declared opinion was incorrect.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Bill Cosby to be arraigned on felony rape charges (from incident 12 years ago) today.
(It’s on the BBC now.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Shell
Don’t know if my posting a link put my comment in moderation. So Ill just say that the Trump parody video is over a t the crooks and liars blog
bemused
A friend sent me a story about the ragin’ teaparty lunatics so angry with Paul Ryan they are even focusing on his beard, looks too Muslim. I thought it was an Onion at first.
SiubhanDuinne
@Germy:
Yes, CBS turns out to have been an active partner in the formation of the entire concept of Kennedy Center Honors. The history is pretty interesting.
I was wrong about Cronkite, though. He didn’t host the first few years. Instead, Eric Severeid, Leonard Bernstein, and Beverly Sills were the earliest emcees.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: While the movie clearly implied that Finn was attracted to Rey (though maybe not as strongly as Poe Dameron was attracted to Finn), I kind of liked that it held off on an actual romantic subplot with the new characters for the time being.
Paul in KY
@Groucho48: Would be nice for Doug to update/score our dead pool we all got in a few months back.
Satby
Well, how’s the last day of the year treating everyone? My New Year’s resolution is to find another new job. You know those disabled people cleaning fast food joints? That’s my new job, coaching them. But because they don’t normally move fast enough for rushes, that means I clean the tables at fast food places too.
Because in this country it’s so important to save money on sheltered employment for the disabled and that we mainstream them into the “competitive job market”. We pay essentially double for someone to work with the disabled person so that they can keep their job because we now make them compete with the able-bodied for that job. And subject them to the public, who we all know to be kind and caring individuals anxious to improve the lives of others.
Why yes, I am disillusioned.
Amir Khalid
@Matt McIrvin:
Well, there was no hint of a romance between Han and Leia until well into Episode V.
ETA: Unlike Episode I-III, when we knew all along — and dreaded — that Anakin and Padme were going to wind up knocking boots.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
I don’t see it listed on my schedule in the next week, but you can stream it here. And clips are already starting to show up on YouTube.
Steeplejack
In the last day or two the hyperlinks at Balloon Juice (desktop site, Win10, Firefox) are not showing up in a different color from regular text. Anybody else getting this?
Gin & Tonic
@Satby: Well, how’s the last day of the year treating everyone?
Ask me tomorrow.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: I’ve found that links I’ve clicked on are a shade of purple almost indistinguishable from the default grayish-black body text. Links I haven’t clicked on are still blue. Is that what you’re seeing?
MomSense
@gogol’s wife:
I’m watching now. Tears.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Matt McIrvin: Oscar Isaac deliberately played that up, BTW. There’s speculation that chemistry may have been what changed Abrams’ mind about a certain plot point.
Poopyman
@bemused:
His beard’s pretty bad, but I don’t see how you’d confuse it with an onion.
MomSense
@Satby:
Ugh. I’m looking for a job,too. Out of state. I don’t see a future for myself or kids in this state anymore.
debbie
@bemused:
Bet they’re the same people who were slamming Michelle Obama for displaying her arms.
Paul in KY
@Poopyman: You missed having a snare drum roll with that one!
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
After eyeballing my screen from a few inches away, I see that both clicked and unclicked links are that “shade of purple
almostindistinguishable from the default grayish-black body text.”And it’s not the MBBJ script doing it. I turned that off and it still did it. (I’m not running EBBJ.)
The only other thing I’m running that could remotely be in play is Classic Theme Restorer (for Firefox), but I can’t see where that does anything to hyperlinks.
debbie
@Satby:
Sorry it’s not working out, but that set-up sounds just like the bureaucratic ridiculousness that goes on in Ohio.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
For me (Mac Chrome), the unclicked links are still bright blue, but the clicked links are that indiscernible shade you describe.
I’m not at all tech-oriented, just thought I’d let you know what I am seeing in case it might help something.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Thanks for the feedback. I just switched to the desktop version of the site on my Android phone (default Chrome browser), and the hyperlinks are clearly visible before clicking and then almost indistinguishable afterwards.
But I have been using the mobile version of the site on my cell phone, mainly because the “back button” navigation works again. But tiny type, only one (inconvenient) place to get to previous or next posts . . . sigh.
ETA: I tried to leave a note about this in the most recent site maintenance thread, but comments are now closed. Has anyone seen Alain lately? (Holiday break?)
srv
Kenneth knows the frequency
Felonius Monk
@Steeplejack:
On Chrome, it’s actually showing up today. Hasn’t for a long time.
Also, still an awful lot of strike-through and type-size change in the posts and comments. Very, very annoying.
Bill
@catclub: I don’t get why Trump thinks talking about affairs is a good idea. Growing up in NY in the 80s I remember one Post headline after another about his affair with Marla Maples. This is fertile ground for Hillary to hit back on if she wants to.
Amir Khalid
@bemused:
I’ve seen all kinds of beards on Muslim men — and on non-Muslim men too, for that matter. Beards hardly more than stubble, big bushy Santa Claus/Karl Marx beards, long ZZ Top beards, and every style and shape in between. There’s no such thing as a “Muslim” style of beard.
bemused
@Poopyman:
Ha! You remind me of a friend that comes up with similar quips.
PurpleGirl
@debbie: That kind of bureaucratic ridiculousness goes on everywhere. It’s the trend in the field — call people differently abled and mainstream everyone. Unfortunately, having one disability does not impart a different ability automatically.
I’ve stuttered since early childhood. None of my other senses are better. In fact, as I’ve gotten older I’ve seen where I have a bunch of neurological quirks. I also found at certain times that a number of disability groups didn’t stuttering to be a disability and had no idea of how to advise me as to getting work. Several examples that I told them about didn’t register as a problem to them. I’m quite cynical about the whole field.
bemused
@debbie:
Yes. What caricature creatures they are and not intentional. So pathetic I’d almost feel sorry for them if they were harmless idiots.
rikyrah
If you are an elected politician…the very least you can do professionally – is to pass the petition challenge. That’s the least you can do. If you are too damn lazy to get enough signatures, your azz should be thrown off the ballot – looking at you, John Conyers.
……………………………..
December 29, 2015
Bobby Rush repels challenge to his nominating petitions
Comments Email Print
GREG HINZ ON POLITICS
Veteran Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush has survived a challenge to his nominating petitions and now is the favorite to win his 12th term in the U.S. House in the new year.
The other Democratic candidate in the race, Ald. Howard Brookins Jr., 21st, had loudly and legally protested that Rush’s petitions were filled with improper signatures and that the congressman lacked the number needed to get on the ballot. But the Illinois State Board of Elections disagreed and Brookins’ campaign today ran up the white flag.
“The campaign has concluded that it is in the voters’ best interest that the challenge against Congressman Rush be ended at this time,” Brookins said in a statement, suggesting that Rush still could have been knocked off if further legal sparring had continued. “After years of not showing up for this community Congressman Bobby Rush couldn’t marshal the community to help him get on the ballot without the fortune of a technicality.”
Rush’s spokesman was not available for comment. But you can bet the Brookins forces would have continued the legal fight had they been reasonably sure of victory.
bemused
@Amir Khalid:
Well, we can hardly expect them to be logical or make any sense at all. They probably all watch Duck Dynasty religiously.
rikyrah
I will eventually see this movie
…………..
Bennet Omalu, doctor who raised alarm bells about NFL head injuries, on racism in U.S. science
Bennet Omalu, the brilliant and somewhat quirky forensic pathologist who is credited with bringing the issue of head injuries in pro football players into the public spotlight, blames racism for efforts by the National Football League and fellow doctors to discredit him.
In a wide-ranging interview, the Nigerian-born Omalu addressed the criticism of his scientific contributions that preceded Friday’s release of the Columbia Pictures movie “Concussion.” Though other researchers have recognized Omalu’s work as essential to directing attention to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes, some have claimed that he did not actually discover the disorder or name it as he has said.
“An African American called me to say that effort is pretty much code,” Omalu said. “Like calling me the ‘N’ word.”
He believes the controversy regarding the naming of the disease is a matter of semantics that has been used to hurt his reputation. While the characteristics of CTE were mentioned in medical literature years prior to his discovery, he said no one had named it as a disorder until he discovered it in the brains of deceased football players. The degenerative condition is caused by repetitive hits to the head and is seen over time through changes in mood and behavior and deterioration in cognition.
Omalu, who now is chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, Calif., said he endured similar attacks during the many years he spent fighting to be heard while NFL officials denied any issue existed. He received emails with racist undertones. “It was ugly and un-American,” he said.
henqiguai
@Steeplejack (#73):
Nope, everything seems to be working for me, but, umm, “desktop site,
Win10Vista, Firefox”. Hey, it’s still serving my needs and I don’t currently have the spare cash so…ETA: I’m running Firefox v43.0.2.
satby
@MomSense: Consider the Tampa St. Pete area of Florida. We could be roomies, because I’ll live near, but not with my mom. The aggravation would kill us both, much as we love each other.
Yeah, it kills me because I put a lot into this house to set it up for rescue, but I don’t have a future here either: the state is going Tea-bagger, there’s no real jobs for most people, yada yada. If I didn’t have to go to Florida for my mom, I’d head out of the country for a few years and teach English in Asia.
I normally do this site only on my Kindle anymore, this is the first time back on the desktop since Christmas, and the font is so tiny even with my computer specs I can barely read it. WTF, that had been fixed.
YES, thank you, I know I can zoom it, and then I have to unzoom it on all the other websites I visit, because I’m a multiple tabs open person. Is a readable font just a bridge too fucking far? I’m looking at the 6 point font size I use on my lip balm labels. WHAT THE HELL?
Steeplejack
@henqiguai:
Thanks for the feedback.
I just upgraded to Firefox 43.0.3 a day or two ago. Seems to be working fine.
Goblue72
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m a Democratic Party volunteer, and that includes odd-year municipal elections. I don’t volunteer for Presidential campaigns at this point and focus my energy on state and local elections.
I’ll be working on a state bill this upcoming legislative session to pump $100 million in additional social welfare safety net benefits related to housing, as well as a bill to squeeze some added efficiency out of an existing state tax credit program focused on lower income households. And there’s a county housing bond I’ll be working on in the upcoming year.
What do you do?
WereBear
@BillinGlendaleCA: Jiminy H Christmas! I’m afraid to ask what the end of that particular trifecta would be…
Goblue72
@raven: oh look – the dry drunk with PTSD woke up. Miss your anger management class this week?
MomSense
@satby:
It’s so sad. I walk out my door and into the most gorgeous woods and from there I can walk to the bay. We have become a service economy for wealthy retirees, vacationers, and summer people.
J R in WV
Well, now that Ms Cat has found her Prius, I will announce that I’ve found my farm PU Truck. Many miles on it, but a decent price, probably because the current owner has been using it for his construction business and the seats are stained.
We’re going to meet at a local garage so I can get them to take a look at the ball joints and tie rod ends and such, I told him I’ll bring the money and he should bring the title. I’ll take pictures of everyone and everything, keep the paperwork from the garage, etc.
I don’t need a truck to carry the MIL around, I need a truck to haul crap to the dump, recycling center, get gravel for the road, etc. So an F-150 with 112K miles on it is nearly perfect. Trucks are hard to buy, most people keep one until it is nearly dead, or have a $4k lift kit, which is worth -$8k to me. So I’ve been looking for months, and finally hit one yesterday. Even one of my preferred colors (Silver) so dirt won’t show. And a sprayed-in bed liner, probably because he hauled stuff and the bed got rusty, which is OK too.
Sorry we didn’t watch the KC honors show, we enjoy seeing those shows, sometimes very emotional. Major bonus to see Pres. Obama cry with emotion evoked by superstar Aretha. She can shout it – still! Amazing talent.
satby
OK, let me edit that to say the worst size font in in the comment composition box. Win 10, Chrome. The regular comments look to be in 10 pt, which is at least (barely) readable. In contrast, a site like Al-Jazeera has it’s news story font at least two sizes bigger.
It’s not like there isn’t enough landscape, since two thirds of the screen is wasted space.
PurpleGirl
@satby: From my experience in publishing, the font size appears to be 12 pt with 14 or 16 pt spacing between lines. I just open the blog and don’t have any special applications to modify it. I’m running FF on Win XP on an Asus netbook. When they first put up the changes, the font was too small but then they changed the size and made it larger and it seems fine to me. (I do wear glasses for reading and close work like crocheting or bead work.)
satby
@MomSense:
You just summed up all of Western MI too.
lol
@Elizabelle:
Because it raises money. Email messages get tested over and over on the Dem side, Clinton included. There’s a reason Sanders is constantly playing up his persecution complex.
Bloggers also laughed at the “sky is falling” tenor of the DCCC’s emails last cycle but people donated lots of money in response.
WereBear
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Hot freakin’ damn!
satby
@PurpleGirl: I amended that to specify the comment composition box, but why so frugal with the size in the first place? There’s room for a better sized font, and the glasses I’m wearing are specifically for working on my laptop.Read(ability) is fundamental.
Bobby Thomson
@David Koch: I can’t laugh given the poor recruitment of congressional and state candidates.
Betty Cracker
@satby: What browser / OS are you using? [ETA: Nevermind — you specified in a subsequent comment.] Haven’t seen the tiny font quirk in any of the systems I use (Windows 7 / Chrome – iPhone – iPad). Must be annoying AF.
RE: the Tampa – St. Pete area — the job market is decent, and it’s not a bad place to live, really. The weather sucks in the summer, but the storms make it interesting. The rest of the year is nice, but I guess you know that from visiting your mom.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Congratulations on scoring the pickup truck! Always nice to find a car that you really like after going through the ordeal of shopping.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: While nothing much happens, Episode IV is pretty clearly building up an implied romantic conflict between Luke and Han over Leia. Luke has a crush on Leia from the moment he sees the hologram; Han starts musing about the possibilities once he meets her in person, and they do the typical hostile sniping at each other that indicates sexual tension in American movies of this era.
Of course, at this point George Lucas had no concept of Leia being Luke’s sister; the revelation feels like a bit of a cop-out when it comes in Return of the Jedi, though Han has that wonderful comic take when he finds out.
Bobby Thomson
@pseudonymous in nc: or, you know, maybe people just want as much information as possible before making a decision. Maybe not Republicans.
MomSense
@satby:
My son’s girlfriend actually found a teaching job in MI so they are long distancing it right now. She thinks there are more jobs in MI than ME.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@satby: It’s weird that the site looks so different to so many different posters.
I’m using the desktop version on the Chrome browser on Winders. I’m using The Other Chuck’s “More Better Balloon Juice” and “Even Better Balloon Juice” with TamperMonkey. Everything seems fine (except refreshing the page seems to change the font spacing or something). In Chrome, the text zoom is per tab, so that might be something worth considering even if you don’t want to run TamperMonkey for custom CSS like MBBJ and EBBJ.
I’m sorry that work is continuing to be so annoying and soul-crushing. Here’s hoping that the move to Florida ends up being a change for the better. Pick a place on high ground though!. :-/
Hang in there!
Cheers,
Scott.
Goblue72
@Elizabelle: Don’t worry – I’ll be jumped on for pointing out the obvious instead of toeing the line and snickering at Trump.
satby
@PurpleGirl: Until recently my direct experience with the disabled has been mostly with two neighbor children (now adults) with Down’s Syndrome; though my sister’s MS and my mother’s dementia are giving me all sorts of personal insight. I thought mainstreaming employment was a good thing for many people with milder disabilities, but never saw how that would work for the severely disabled.
But having them compete in the open job market? When people without disabilities have a hard time getting jobs? And expecting them to work with “reasonable accommodation” like a job coach hat actually does part of the job because it’s unreasonable/ impossible for the client to do it alone? And expecting the public (most of them are ery kind, but the ones that aren’t are HORRIBLE).
Cynical barely covers how I feel about it. And like all schemes to “save taxes” this one probably ends up costing double.
PurpleGirl
@satby: I don’t know why they like to work with small type. I bought a book about knitting and yarn and should have opened it to more pages in the store — it was designed with the first page or two of each chapter in 10/12 (pretty standard) and then the type went to 8/10. It is very difficult to read. I should have complained right away to the publisher about it. But now I check out all pages in a book. In some of the magazines I buy, they also went to 8 pt and GRAY type — for a crochet pattern. Come on, it’s unreadable. must assume that the designers all have perfect eyesight and can’t conceive of any other condition.
Steeplejack
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
I was going to suggest MBBJ to Satby, but I feel like things are still in flux with the blog renovation, and I got tired of tweaking on a daily basis. Anyway, I think MBBJ does increase the font size. I’m not absolutely sure, because I added a snippet of code to it to give me a serif font (Georgia), and that might also have changed the size. (Too lazy to look right now.)
satby
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I do have Chucks EBBJ and MBBJ enabled, they made a huge difference in readability. I’m normally on my Kindle because the site just is more readable to me there. Alain has done a lot to improve some very poor design flaws, but it’s just bizarre (to me) how the links/fonts/ etc issues are still a erratic problem. And the massive mostly dead space.
I haven’t said anything in weeks because in the long run I’ll just go back to reading on my kindle and android phone, but the tiny comment box font was the capper I didn’t need for what’s shaping up to be a cruddy day.
I appreciate the good wishes, thanks. This too shall pass.
I wait for so much to pass that I feel like I should have gone into gastroenterology.
PurpleGirl
@satby: I agree. I was often told to find a job where “you don’t need to talk.” Don’t need to talk? Can you give me an example? It’s a really screwed up aspect of life/society.
Brachiator
@PurpleGirl:
Some relatives own a funeral home/mortuary. When she was in college, my mother worked there and did typing.
The dearly departed are very poor at small talk. They do, however, sit up now and again in an open casket.
chopper
@magurakurin:
better yet, start your own blog. be the change you want to see in the world.
PurpleGirl
Brachiator @ 124
Ha. I think I could handle people sitting up.
my mother worked there and did typing.
The jobs I’ve had I were usually gotten because I’ve known someone who could and did recommend me to the organization. But I’ve never broken faster than 40 wpm. To type faster you can’t look at the keyboard and you have to keep your eyes on the text you’re typing. When I’ve tried that, I’ve often fixed on the text and blanked out for a few seconds. I did that once on a typing test and lost 17 words. When I came back from the “fugue” state, I was a sentence down. I failed the test, those 17 words were 85 points lost. So I go for accuracy but employers want speed and accuracy.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Happening to me, too, on my mac.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@satby: I think the underlying problem is that B-J is built on top of WordPress and it uses a zillion plugins. They interact in weird ways, and customizing the appearance is not easy, especially given all the quirks in the eleventy zillion browsers and platforms out there. I feel for Alain and Tommy (and Cole) in trying to make the house of cards work reasonably well. It has to be horribly frustrating for them.
Things are a little annoying here for us users, but take a gander at CEPR’s recently-upgraded blog. Just getting it to display more than about 10 comments in busy threads is an exercise in frustration. ;-)
Hitting “ctrl+” a couple of times when you’re composing a reply bumps up the font size in the composition box. Then hitting “ctrl-” a couple of times gets you back after you’ve Posted it. :-)
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
Browser is Chrome, I presume?
J R in WV
@MomSense:
So what state are you in?
And where are you thinking of looking for a new job? Will you travel there for interviews until you get hired before you actually move?
Nothing easy about job hunting. I have always thought it was far easier to get a job when you already have a reasonable job. I have worked my way up from a crummy job to a great job over 4 or 5 years, long ago when starting out. Relatively, anyways.
Best of luck!!
MomSense
@J R in WV:
I’m in Maine and looking in Massachusetts. I have a place to stay with friends while looking. Then it is going to get really interesting as I may commute creatively for awhile.
Satby
@Betty Cracker: dead thread but wanted to reply: I will still have to work so hoping for a decent job, a good job market will help. I think the area is beautiful but I dread the heat, and “heat” to me is anything over 82, or 72 if it’s humid, which Florida almost always is. But I have to look on the bright side, heat also makes me too nauseous to eat and I do need to drop a lot of weight ?