Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

“woke” is the new caravan.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Let there be snark.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

This blog will pay for itself.

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On The Road – Captain C goes to Japan: Kyoto & Osaka

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Captain C

We continue at the Kyoto Railway Museum, to start.  The next day, I traveled to Osaka by commuter train (the station was closer than the Shinkansen station, it was a short trip, and my Japan Rail Pass meant I could take any train I liked.)  I had two nights–one full day–in Osaka.  The full day was mostly spent at the Osaka Aquarium and will be the subject of the following two sets, highlights from the rest of my stay are here.

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Kyoto Railway Museum, KyotoMarch 30, 2019

One of the many cool things at the Railway Museum was the old school working roundhouse, which had a couple dozen steam locomotives of various vintage, including a few working ones that they used for rides.

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, Nov. 16-17

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Genuinely good news:

show full post on front page

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On The Road – Mike in Oly – Fall Foliage – Tieton River, WA

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Mike in Oly

In 2018 my husband and I took a trip over to the east side of the Cascades, across White Pass and down to the Tieton Riverto do some day hiking. We’d heard the fall colors were lovely there and wanted to check it out. We were not disappointed. I did an On The Road for the hike in the past, so this submission will be just about the foliage. And it was glorious.

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Tieton River, WA

The area along the Tieton River is on the dry side of the mountains and is mostly oak forest, with alder and willow, and a few other things thrown in. But the oak predominates here. It is enclosed by tall cliffs of volcanic rock, layer over layer. The geology is a real treat for us, as on the rainy side where we live it is all hidden under forest. The sun was bright and all the trees were just glowing. A perfect day for photography.

Trump Wanted To Bomb Iran

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Donald Trump and his toadies are trying to wreck as much as they can on the way out.

President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks. The meeting occurred a day after international inspectors reported a significant increase in the country’s stockpile of nuclear material, four current and former U.S. officials said on Monday. (New York Times)

This is, of course, what a number of people have been driving for in pressing Trump to break out of the nuclear agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA) and keep adding sanctions in their “maximum pressure”. They have hoped that Iran would behave in a way that would give them an excuse to bomb.

Iran, however, seems to be fine with the JCPOA and would prefer to have the US back in the agreement. What they have been doing is taking reversible steps to indicate that they have a say in this matter too. That increase in the stockpile of nuclear material can easily be given up or diluted down.

So the brilliant plans for a war haven’t been working. But hey, why not on the way out?

At the same time, Trump’s new Acting Alternative Maybe Secretary of Defense is saying words about withdrawing from Afghanistan.

What these people don’t understand is that war isn’t as action comix portray it. You need to move planes and ships and land vehicles and people to do these operations. You can’t bomb Iran tomorrow.

You could send a few missiles in, but they aren’t enough to damage Iran’s underground facilities, which most of them are now. And Iran has air defense, which might shoot down those missiles. So you might want to take out that air defense first. And that takes more planes and crews.

Likewise, you don’t just say “Withdraw the troops.” Controlled withdrawal is one of the most difficult of maneuvers. There are only a few routes for US troops in and out of Afghanistan, with many unfriendly people around. And is it really cool that there’s a good chance that a full civil war will break out if the Americans and Europeans leave? Oh yes – we might just let the Europeans know we’re leaving so they can plan.

In short, more ignorance and potentially death from the Trump clown squad. They can’t withdraw from the White House fast enough for me.

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As Bad As We Thought

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These fucking guys:

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state.

In a wide-ranging interview about the election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the count.

The atmosphere has grown so contentious, Raffensperger said, that both he and his wife, Tricia, have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read: “You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.”

“Other than getting you angry, it’s also very disillusioning,” Raffensperger said of the threats, “particularly when it comes from people on my side of the aisle. Everyone that is working on this needs to elevate their speech. We need to be thoughtful and careful about what we say.” He said he reported the threats to state authorities.

I’m actually kind of surprised by Lyndsey Graham at this point. I didn’t expect him toe be any good during the Trump years, but I didn’t expect him to be the absolute worst, either. I thought that would be Cruz, or Cornyn, or someone else. I was wrong.

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Making Georgia a Referendum on McConnell

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Here’s a clip from a Biden press conference today:

Biden talks about Trump’s lazy pouting as captured in the text above, but he also mentions the Senate, where allegedly 20 Republicans have said they won’t vote for any stimulus bill. Biden says there may be some who will. I don’t know about that! But I’m encouraged that he’s throwing it back on the Senate because they’re the cause of inaction now, and McConnell is poised to reprise the Dr. No role he played when Obama was president, starting the second Biden is sworn in.

I know the two Dems in Georgia are running against their Republican opponents as crooks, which is good because Loeffler and Perdue really are a pair of repulsive grifters. I hope and trust the candidates are also framing the race as a referendum on a shitty Republican Senate that is hanging people out to dry during the worst public health crisis in a century. Want another stimulus check? Want PPP funds for your Georgia business? Vote for Ossoff and Warnock. Seems like a solid messaging strategy to me.

Open thread!

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